The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-19 00:00:00

THE COMMERCIAL MINISTERS

OF ENGLAND.

"It never yet ir.jurcd any branch of industry" (we
quote an American Report on Commerce and Navi-
gaion in 1830), "in any country, to lessen the cost of
supplying the wants of the people. The comfort and
happiness of no people were ever hostile to the wealth
and security of the aristocracy." These are fundamen-
tal rules—rules which, we trust, continue to be re-
respected in America, and which have been, in times
past, the foundation of the policy of some of the most
eminent of British statesmen.

The monarchy and the aristocracy can rest upon no
surer foundation than the broad basis of commercial
prosperity. But it has happened to every Minister who
has attempted to purify and enlarge the channels of
trade, and however slightly to change their direction,
that he has been assailed with the grossest obloquy.
The sweepings of all parties, and of all prejudices,
have been brought into active opposition to his mea-
sures. The unfounded reproach, the empty declama-
tion, which was launched at those members of the
Import Duties Committee who elicited, just now, its
very inconvenient evidence and report, was a mere
summer shower compared with the storm which has
been raised in former times against some of the distin-
guished pioneers of the progress of Free Trade. Party
has always hitherto done its best to thwart, obstruct,
or damage every large and beneficial measure of Com-
mercial Reform. _ _

Amongst the StAtosmen, whose views of commercial
policy have been the most liberal ; who Lave attached
the greatest importance to the encouragement of our
trade and manufacture?, to the extension of our foreign
commercial relations ; have been those, most renowned
for the wisdom of their administration, for their vigorous
maintenence of our institutions at home, and of our poli•

tical power abroad. But they have largely encountered
the factious and interested volence of their opponents.
Sir Robert Walpole's career furnishes an example. His
commercial policy was of the most comprehensive cha-
racter. The opposition he experienced was of the most
violent descripcon. Interested partisans in the House
of Commons, acting upon ignorance without, convulsed
the country against a treasure which was proposed to
commute or repeal taxes on raw rn,,terials, for an Excise
duty on wine and tobacco. The foreign trade of the
country was to be extended, the manufacturers to be re-
I eyed ;—but the scheme which comprehended this be-
neficial purpose was represented as one not only dange-
rous to the trade and prosperity of the country, but to
the liberty of the subject and the constitution itself !
On this occasion the University of Oxford and

" honest Shippen" coalesced, and rivalled each other
in the violence of their opposit-on to the measure and
the Minister, and succeeded in thwarting the principal
object Walpole had in view. The City illuminated the
Monument on the occasion, to celebrate his defeat.
Since that time, however, many of Walpole's ideas
have been realised, and our liberties have neither been
injured nor narrowed. Our trade has prospered, our
power increased, our aristocracy have been enriched,
and our Constitution placed on surer foundations. The
interests thus created, have identified the mass with the
prosperity of the country,
Walpole's main objects, indeed, were precisely those
which we have so often pressed upon the attention of
the public, but which such small and variable statesmen
as Lord Ashburton think wild and visionary.
He declared that he desired to incretve the foreign
trade of the country, by the adoption of the bonding
and warehousing system since adopted. He desired to
the revenue, and relief
give a fresh impetus to our manufactures by repealing
tHh
advocatedduties o
the
n saw since partially adopted.
e
increase
h
from taxation at the same time, by a revision of the
tariff of the kingdom '; the very policy since adopted and
I recommended by a recent Committee of the House of
Commons. And, finally, he drew up the following
King's Speech, in which he anticipated the Report of
the Import Duties Committee by a hundred and twenty
years only 1•
" In this situation of affairs we should he extremely
wanting to ourselves if we neglected to improve the
favourable opportunity which,this general tranquility
gives us of extending. our commerce, upon which the
riches and grandeur of this nation chiefly depend. It
i4:very obvious that nothing would more conduce to the
obtaining; so public a gond. than to make the exporta-
tion of our ovin manufactures, and the importation of
the commodities used in-the manufacturing of them, as
practicable and easy es may be : by this means the ba-
lance of trade may be Preserved in our favour, our na-
vigation increased, and greater numbers of our poor

employed. •
roust, therefore, recommend it to you, gentle-
men of the House of Commons, to consider how far the
duties upon these branchestnay be taken off, and re
without any vielittion' of- public faith, or laying
any new bur then upon my fieoPle'..-;•Antfl
Promise my-
self that, by a due consideration of tti-'matter,--the-pro-
duce of those duties, couvared with the infinite advan-

tages that will accree to the kingdom by their being
taken eff, will be found so inconsiderable, as to leaNe
little room fir difliculties or objections."
Tins speech was delivered on the 19th of October,
1721, and was followed by a permission to export 106
additional articles, whilst from 38 the import duty was
entirely taken off.

These were the earliest of Walpole's measures with
respect to trade, and which alone would entitle him to
be considered one of the first commercial Ministers of
England. But his object was to simplify taxation,
abolish numerous petty, complicated imposts, which
checked commerce and vexed the fair trader, aA to
substitute in their stead a more equal and simple sys-
tem. This noble scheme for the welfare and grandeur
of the nation was defeated by the Ultra Liberals and
Ultra Tories of the day, by the friends of " Protec-
tion," the " Farmer's friends," and the " friends of the
Church !"

The statute book, however, still retains ample memo-
rials of Walpole's labours in behalf of our commerce.
•‘ When he came into administration," says Dean
Tucker, " he found the English book of rates almost es
bad as any in Europe ; but he left it the very best.
And were you to compare what he did for promoting
general trade (and much snore would he have done, had
it not been for the madness of some and the wickedness
of others)—you would find that he shone as much above
all other Ministers as England bath exceeded the rest
of the world in her late enormous expences in —"
This boast of no hired panegyrist of Walpole, we
trust may yet be the proud distinction of this reign.
That our book of rates may not only be made the best
in Europe, but the wisest for the interests of trade and
humanity, which, under enlightened auspices, are inse-
parably united.
We may safely, therefore, rank Walpole, unques-
tionably one of the ablest of British statesmen, amongst
the friends of free trade. His principles and measures
have both been revived and adopted, and have proved
the foundations of our power.
We now pass on to the time of Mr. Pitt. His views
of commercial policy were as large and capacious as his
mind. And but for that wild Quixotism which involved
this country in every quarrel in Europe, and so fearfully
augmented our debt and impeded our prosperity, lie
would have added to the wealth and prosperity of his
country more than he added to the debt. Mr. Pitt,
not having the fear of Lot d Ashburton before him,
wowed himself a disciple of Adam Smith. In a speech
which Moore, in his lite of Sheridan, tells us was cor-
rected by himself, he describes the work of this great
writer as furnishing " the best solution of every ques-
tion connected with the history of commerce."
His treaty with France, his Irish commercial reso-
lutions, his Colonial Intercourse Bill, are all measures
like Walpole's, containing principles which are now
only being slowly adopted, because there are still pow-
erful parties whose interests still only coincide with our
various deviations from the clear path of a just, honest,
and wise notional policy.
In Sir Robert Walpole's time, and indeed in Mr.
Pitt's, the popular party, who raised an outcry against
a more liberal policy, relied upon the ignorance of the
public and the proportionate facility with which they
could evoke opposition. Mr. Pitt was not, however, a
Minister to ho intimidated, and he carried all his mea-
sures to the great advantage and security of the coun-
try, except his Colonial Intercourse Bill, which was
destroyed in Committee. Mr. Pitt also may hence be
considered publicly avowing, as he did, his reliance on
the principles of Adam Smith (which the Herries and
Goulburns of the present day would be slow to do), as
a liberal commercial Minister in the highest sense of
the term.

The commercial history of the last century may
almost be comprised in the able and courageous asser-
tion of free trade principles by these Ministers, and
the endeavours to obstruct their practical adoption,
either by the mean parasites of the popular party of the
day, or the sturdy upholders of monopoly and protec-
tion for the benefit of an individual or a class. Be-
tween Mr. Pitt, or rather between the liberal commer-
cial measures of Mr. Pitt, and the next advocate of sounder
views of trade, there is a long and dismal period, in
which there is little to be fouud but a waste of treasure
and of blood, and noble energies of mind and body, for
the fruitless purpose of restoring legitimacy to the
throne of France. Trade was forced into unnatural
channels ; and every species of production was over
stimulated. Upon the return of peace every effort was
made to maintain markets and prices, in the vain
hope of putting down the competition of rival nations
in a state of peace, and of which the Corn-laws are the
most prominent, as they arc the most evil, examcle.
At the close of the war, however, Mr., after-
wards Lord Wallace, a Member of the Board of
Trade, with great ability, introduced the ware-
housing and bonding system, which Sir R. Walpole
had in vain attempted to do, when he conceived the
magnificent idea of making " London a free port and
the market of the world." Lord Wallace was followed
by Mr. Huskisson, who grappled with the prohibitions
of our Tariff, and substituted a varying protective duty
in place of them ; and whose policy is best vindicated
by a reference to official tables, which show the vast
extension of our trade wherever the invigorating in-
fluence of competition was allowel, in place of protec-
tion against it.
Mr. Herries, in the last debate on the colonial reso-
lutions, who was then most anxious to identify himself
with Mr. Huskisson's policy, but who never opened his
officical lips in its favour, and of whose official co-opera-
tion with Mr. fluskisson the Annual Register contains
a sufficiently authentic account, asserted that Mr. Hus-
kisson's reform in our commercial system consisted only
in the substitution of protection for prohibition. Lord
J. Russell corrected the ardent friend of Mr. Huskis-
son's principles and policy, by stating that Mr. Huskis-
son never meant by protection to exclude foreign compe-
tition, and Lord John Russell was right.
M. Huskisson, in 1825, in an elaborate speech on
the foreign commercial policy of the country, gives an
account of an interview which he had had with depu-
tivions from the mining districts relative to his intended
reduction of the duties on meta's. He said he had
heard their representations, but had not been convinced
by them—
. All these speela; reasons," said Mr. Huskisson, " I
own, have only satisfied the, that the general rule of
free competition is the br st all trades, as it is cer-
tainly the best for the public."
And again, in the same speech, in allusion to the
effort then made to put down smuggling, he said—
" The list thing we ought to countenance is the con-
tinuance of high duties, not for the benefit of the Ex-
chequer, but for the supposed protection of certain
brandies of manufacture."
Indeed, all Mr. Iluskisson's reasoning .4.0 based
upon the principles of free trade. And we must: not,
forget that he had to advocate the introduction or
sound commercial principles in the face of a powerful
opposition, from friends as well as foes, and that he
therefore had to adapt his arguments to the ignorance,
the selfishness, the prejudices, of the day. His pro-
tective duties varied on different articles. lie never
even hinted that he considered the protection he then
gave as a permanent one. On the contrary, he always
pointed towards a time when protection would be no
longer necessary.

" Can enything," he said, " more forbibly illustrate
that general position to which I have already adverted,
and which cannot be too strongly impressed on those who
legislate for the interests of commerce and industry—that
the means which lead to increased consumption, and
which are the foundation, as that consumption is the
proof of our prosperity, will be most effectually pro-
moted by an unrestrained competition, not only between
capital and industry, of different classes in the same
country, but also by extending that competition as much
as possible to all other countries ?"
We repeat, then, that when the coPeegue and
friend of Mr. Huskisson described his policy as one
of protection to British interests, to which he, for-
sooth, gave his assert, that this description only had re-
ference to the measures which Mr. Huskisson then
thought expedient, and that it failed to describe the
principle upon which all Mr. Huskisson's propositions,
and most successful propositions, were founded.
The difference, then, between Lord John Russell and
Mr. Herries was, as usual, one of principle. Lord John
Russel avowed, guardedly and advisedly, no doubt, the
principles of free trade ; Mr. Herries, the principle of
protection. That protection, however, is only safe
and permanent which is based upon superior knowledge,
capital, and skill. Let industry and sagacity have free
play, following out, unchecked, their own paths of remu-
neration, and the universal Code of Commerce will be
found a very simple one,—Le monde alors via de
luinteme.
Thus, then, within the last century, England reckons
three distinguished Commercial Ministers ; each of
whom asserted great principles of Commercial Policy,
the principles in fact of Free 'Ernie, and each of whom
had to endure opposition and obloquy only happily the
1
1 more strikingly to demonstrate the soundness of their
1 views and the " madnets and wickedness" of many of
their adversaries.
Soon ;titer Mr. Huskisson's policy was sanctioned
by Parliament, it attracted notice in America, and
as any testimony, from our friends and rivals on
the other side of the Atlantic, to our success in
commercial enterprise -must be considered disinte-
rested, we shall extract. from the Report already
quoted, some remarks in review of Mr. Huskisson's
measures.
"The alarmed capitalists of that country were as•
tonished to see silk, wool, iron—all raw materials and
manufactures—British and fcreien indiscriminately—
exported and imported ; the consumption aed exporta-
tion of forei,g,n and British productions greater then
before ; new channels of trade opened ; old ones en-
larged and importations increased, and that all these
things shou!d exist without making them bankrupts. The
shipowners denounced the Ministry ; British naviga-
tion, according to their sage predictions, would he ruined
if the colonies were permitted to enjoy the liberty
of trading with foreign nations. The most calamitous
consequences would result from brushing away their
ancient colonial restrictions,
extinguished for ever. Mi-
. nisters were, however, ine:.orable ; the colonies were
etualeipated ; aud to their astoulshment British nevi-

gation increased in every branch which had been
liberated, notwithstanding the loud remonstrances and
melancholy predictions of the shipping interest."
Thus, then, we quote the authority of Walpole,
Pitt, and Huskisson, in favour of large and compre-
hensive measures of CorrunerciAl Itulorm. The present
Administration is ideof find with a like policy, and can
only be obstructed in its course, by selfishness, ignor-
ance, or mere party spirit. The choice, however,
which has to be made between a review of our Import
Duties, and thence ap improved revenue, or the direct
and immediate increase of taxation, will tend greatly
to still the rage of party, and enlighten ignorance, and
even selfishness itself.—Examitzer.

LOIt D CARDitAN'S,]FLOGGING

ON SUNDAY.

How the character of the man is marked in this pro-
ceeding. The approval of the sentence armed on
Sunday morning,, and so eager was the \oble Colonel
for the execution of it that he could not wait even till
Monday, but the Sabbath must be desecrated by a
punishment after prayers!
What a sequence to the voice of prayer the sound of
the lash'.—the scourge after devout supplication,—the
groans of the sufferer after the lessons of mercy.
The Bishop of London has coun.ed the boats that
have passed under Fulham-bridge on a Sunday. Did
they profane the holy day more than a hundred lashes ;
and what will the Right Rev. Prelate, who has borne
such loud testimony against the sins of Breen-grocers
and pastry-cooks, say of the desecration of the Sab-
b,,,th by the Noble Colonel of the Eleventh? Is keep•
ing open a stall a 1 ss scandal than flaying a human
back? Is plying the butcher's trade less allowable than
plying the cat-o'-nine-tails ? _ . .

. „
Lord Cardigan's defence will probably be that the
rich man is as much entitled to his pleasures on the
Sunday as din, poor man, and that he sees no more rea-
son why he should forego
,one ministration to his enjoy-
ment than another, and that the work of the hands
that wield the cat-o'•nine-tails must be as much at his
command as that of his French cook. One appetite,
however, can wait, though the other cannot ; and, for
the sake of public decency at least, Lord Cardigan must
learn to postpone his gratifications in the way of punish-
ments for forty-right hours, when the approval of the
sentence happens to arrive on Sunday morning.
We have hitherto opposed every Bid for the better
observance of the Sabbath ; but as we are far more
borstile to the introduction of bitterness in the violation
of the Sabbath, than to the introduction of bitterness in
the observance of it, we will promise to give our best
aid in support of a Bill to prohibit flogging in the army
on the Sabbath-day.
It may be remembered that we lately showed that
the severities of Lord Cardigan had first been exercised
on the privates of his regiment, and that, when checked
in that direction by Sir C. d'Albiae, they were trans-
ferred to the officers. From the present sign we infer
that. the officers hive a respite ; it would be too im-
prudent to open fresh quarrels with them just now, so
the men are to have their turn again, and to mark the
eagerness for the punishment, by suffitring or seeing the
infliction of it on the Sabbath.—Eiraminer.

It is with extreme regret that we find ourselves un-
able to contradict the statement in the Chronicle of a
soldier in the 11 th or Prince Albert's Own Hussars
having been flogged on Sunday last at Hounslow Bar-
racks, under the orders of Lord Cardigan. We feel
it due, however, to state, that the announcement in the
Chronicle, for the honour of British officers, met with
no credence at the Senior United Service Club. The
officers believed that the Chronicle must have been
imposed upon. Unfortunately it was not so, for
the punishment was, in fact, inflicted on the Sab-
bath. We own that at first we shared in the
general disbelief, but inquiries made in the proper quar-
ter compel us to say that this horrible outrage has been
committed. We know, however, that the subject has
already engaged official consideration, and we await
with confidence the result. Abstaining from Any re-
marks upon this shock to religion and humanity, can
we avoid noticing the disgusting insult which Lord Car-
digan is said to have offered to a detachment of the
14th Dragoons? They were ordered to witness the
punishment. How far different is the conduct in France
—a military country ! There, when in garrison punish-
ment is to be inflicted, detachments from each regiment
are ordered to attend, and these detachments comprise
only those men whose bad conduct renders it expe-
dient that they should witness it as a lesson to them•
selves. The well-conducted men are always exempted
from attending ; and this exemption is deemed a great
mark of honour.—Observcr.

ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF

RIVERS.

Mr. W. A. Brooks, M. Inst. C.E., of Stock-
ton-on-Tees, has just published a Treatise on a
very important suhject—" The Improvement of
the Navigation of Rivers, with a New Theory
on the Cause of the Existence of Bars." He
discusses at considerable length the causes of
these great obstructions to navigation, and the
best means of removing them, and gives some
useful directions for the protection of the banks
of rivers from erosions, and. also for removing
shoals in the beds of navigable rivers. The chap-
ter on shoals might be studied with advantage
by the conservators of the Thames. The follow-
ing extract gives an interesting description of that
remarkable phenomenon, the '' Bore," which
produces often great damage on the Severn, the
lloogly, and several other large rivers :
This subject has been treated at great length by Colonel
Emy, in his work " Du Movement des Ondes," in which
he tells us, that " in the Dordogne the phenomenon bears
the name of the Nlascaret,' and is a pecnliar undulation
which announces the arrival of high water." In the
Amazon it is called the Roller', the Indians naming it the
Pororoca. In the Hoogly it is named the Bore, by which
term it is also known in the Severn, and on the river
formed by the reunion cf the Tigris and the Euphrates. In
the Seine it is called the Bar.
The mascaret of the Dordogne consists of two, three,
and sometimes four lofty waves, which follow each other
rapidly, damming back the whole breadth of the river, and
ascending the channel for a great length, often breaking
at their crests and overthrowing every obstacle that they
meet. Their presence is also made known by a terrible
noise. Those of the Dordogne, which arc the most re.
mnkable in Europe, attain only an elevation cf from five
to six feet.
The mascaret of the Dordogne traverses about two
leagues of the channel of the river from St. Pi,rdon
Lihourne in 33 or 34 minutes.
This subject was also one which excited greatly the at-
tention of Condamine, while on his voyage down the Ama-
zon, in reference to which he gives the fallowing account
in his work, at page 193 Between Macapa and North
Cape, in the place where the pleat channel of the river is
contracted by the islands, and particularly opposite the
mouth of the Arawari, which enters the Amazon on its
nol....hern shore, the flux and reflux of the sea presents a
singuia,•tohenomenon.
" Durinls the three days nearest the full and change of
the moon,
the
,oeried of the highest tides, the sea, in place
of taking six lin,:s to arrive at its height, attains the lat-
ter in two or three nur,:ites•
We may conceive tha
this cannot come to pass s .
tran-
quilly ;we hear at a distance one or two leagues, a ter-
ithle noise which announces the amsroach of the pororoca.
This is the name which the Indians 'sf these parts give to
this impetuous wave. As it approaco:" the noisfef in-
creases,o and we then see a promontory watertwelve to fifteen feet in height, then another, then
from
third.
and sometimes a fourth, which, following each ot.."'
closely, occupy the whole breadth of the channel. This
wave advances with a prodigious rapidity, breaking up
and sweeping away every obstacle from before it. I have
seen in sonic situations a great mass of land borne before
it, majestic trees rooted up, destruction of all kinds.
i
Every win re that it has passed, the shore is clean as if .
had been swept with care."
The most recent notice of this interesting subject is in
the Report of the Committee on Waves, appointed by the
British Association in 1836, in which the Committee have
adopted the views of Brcmontier. I will, however, first
refer to the report by Sir John Robinson and John Scott
Russell, Esq., for their description of the bore
" 17. A tidal bore is formed when the water is so shal-
low at low water, that the first waves of flood tide move
with a velocity so much less than that due to the succeed-
ing part of the tidal wave, as to be overtaken by succeeding
waves, or whenever the tide rises so rapidly, and the water
on the shore or in the river is so shallow, that the height
of the first wave of the tide is greater than the depth of the
fluid at that place. Hence in deep water vessels are sate
from the waves of rivers which injure them on the shore."

There appears to be a general agreement, that the pre-
sence of the bore is most strongly evinced as it passes over
a portion of the channel which is encumbered with a sand-
bank.

Condamine and Bidone have partly arrived at the cause,
so far as their views are stated in the foregoing pages,
where they attribute the bore to the sudden influx of the
waters of the tide, after having attained sufficient head to
overcame thoae of the ebb.
If t,v the above we include the presence of an abrupt
contraction of the width of the channel, this latter circum-
stance, taken in conjunction with any obstacles in the bed,
such as the sand-banks noticed by Condamine, will, in my
humble opinion, be sufficient to account for the formation
of the bore.
The examples of the bore of the Severn, and the mac-
caret of the Derdogne, are precisely similar; in butt,
rivets we see the effeet of a gradually contracted channel
producing a great increased rise of tide ; and we tied di,
phenomenon alluded to occurs where the
passage of that
augmented tidal wave is checked by the presence of sand-
banks, and a sudden change in the configuration cf the
channel ; or by the latter becoming violently
contracted.
Thus the Severn experiences a rapid contraction at the
islands of Flotholme and Steedholate, and also at Beach-
Icy, near the mouth of the Wye.
Daring spring tides the rise at St. Ivor, in Cornwall, is
and at
entrance near t :
.e
eighteen feet, at Pads:ow twenty-fear, at Lundy Leland
thirty, at thirty-six feet, at
feet, Kiltidgsitto
entrance of the Avon, forty-eight
cf the Wyc fifty feet.
At this distance the tidal wave attains an elevwim of
thirty-two feet above that at the entrance of the Severn or
Bristol channel.
Higher tip the Severn, beyond the confluence of the
Wve, where the elevaion of the tidal wave is thirty-two
feet above its level at sea, the channel becomes much ob-
structed
thlyerraoteirkgs andbs(a,dn.d.
itivnhliielleis abc
havev
Wye, the- Severn tskcs an abrupt turn in its eciarLe,
t
forming an angle of degreeskixty.six ,gtee, with its pre.
et h teh e t ffmouthe c
of
rap
of

~~

EVENING EDITION.

vious direction. This and several other similar obstruc-
ti,lis to the passage of the tidal wave so affect that we
Ed :hat at Gloucester the rise of tide is only about eight
feet; the whole of which arrives at its full height in a few
minutes, coming up in a bore, having a crest.or faco of
from fcur to live feet.

Any sudden contraction of the width of the channel, or
aly elevation of the bed by the presence of a sand-bank„
must immediately have the effect of bringing into collision
these opposite moving masses of water, and the crested
nave or bore becomes apparent. Condamine tells us that
" the bore becomes visible in passing over a shoal, and that
it subsides again where the water becomes deep ;" and we
know also that the bore is at one time visible in the centre,
and at another en the sides of the river.
Thus, in the early portion of the flood tide, when the
waters of the river Etill run ebb in mid channel, the effect
of the presence cf a shoal, or high bank of sand, would be
to divert the current towards the shores of the river, and
thus still further elevate the lateral tidal currents, which,
on attaning this additional height, must spread from shore:
to shore, and form the breaking wave, or bore, visible
upon the sand-bank, over which it will range in the man-
ner described by Condamine, bearing before it in its
course the whole mass of the previous ebbing waters, with
whili it has now come into compl, to opposition.
The river Dordogne unites with the Gironde, about
forty miles from the embouchure of the latter, at which dis-
tance the Garonne is also received into the Gironde. The
masearct," as the bore is locally termed in the Dor-
dogne, is not apparent either in its sister stream the Ga.
'tonne, or in their majestic recipient the Gironde, by which
name the subsNuent c .urse of the Dordogne and Garonne
is known after their union.

The velocity of the mascaret of the Dordogne, when
measured by Bremontier between St. Pardon anSLibourac,
was found to be seventeen feet per second. Thii is, how-
ever, much less than the mean velocity of the tidal wave
from t h e mcuth of the Gironde to Bordeaux, which aVeritSei
nearly twenty-five feet per second.

MARYPORT AND CARLISLE
RAILWAY.

Monday last was the day appointed for opening
about two miles more of the Maryport and Carlis.le
Radway—connecting it with the populous town of As-
patria. Soon after ten heavy cannon were fired both in
the harbour and at the station—the bell rang, and off
went the train. At each station and villAge on the
line flags were flying, and spectators assembled on
the embankments, while the delighted passengers
wete whirled through the beautiful vale of the Ellen,
whose banks were covered with wild flowers, and
the woods on each side teeming with freshness
and life. The echo through the valleys of the
engine's shrill whistle formed a pleasing discord
to the mellow strains of the band, which were
faintly heard in the distance. The portion which
has now been opened between Arkleby and As-
patria is formed on a splendid embankment thirty fie:
in width, and averaging about twelve feet in height.
The bridge at Aspatria, which forms the present ter-
minus, was tastefully decorated with branches of ever-
gre:tus and flowers, from the parks:at Brayton, forming
a grand triumphal arch. Aspatria and its vicinity was
greatly enlivened by the influx of gay visitors. The
trains performed six trips each day, and would carry not
fewer than 4,000 persons—the distance of egliti miles.
The time required for each trip varied from fifteen to
twenty-five minutes. Sir ‘Vilfrid Lawson showed his
accustomed generosity on the occasion, by providing
an ox end suitable accompaniments for the workmen
on the railway, who were bountifully regaled to the
number of about 9.00, in the new school room at As-
p:aria. SL:ve..-al gentlemen also partook of a cold colla-
tion provided by the worthy Baronet. It is a grati-
fying circumstance, that notwithstanding the scram-
ble that sometimes took place previous to start-
ing, and the crowded state of the conveyances
and tenders'ill went oil without the slightest acci-
dent. The coal traffic has lately become very
heavy—frequently amounting to 100 and sometimes
1.20 waggons per day—each waggon containing 53 cwt.
Several new pits will shortly be opened, for it is found
that one continued vein of fine coal lie`s below the banks
of the Ellen, which will now be profitable working,
owing to facilities for shipment afforded by the railway.
The passenger traffic is also rapidly increasing, and in-
deed new sources of both goods and passenger traffic
• appear to be opened up daily as it progresses. The
Company will now commence operations at the:Carlisle
end ; and we understand the engineering is in a state
of great forwardness all along the line.—Currespowlent
of the Carlisle Journal.

RAILWAY CHARGES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—Knowing your columns are always open to
give publicity to any circumstances affecting the public
interest, there is none that calls louder for amendment
than the existing charges by the present Railway Com-
panies, and it is quite time the public had some protec-
tion or limit—to have a fixed sum for over-weight of
luggage, proportionate to weight and distance, and not
to be at the mercy of Directors. Having occasion to
come from Liverpool to Preston, a few days since, with
an over-weight of 1081 b., of no bulk, tko subjoined
statement will clearly show the charges far the
nrae 6. d.

Liverpool to Warrington, distance 19 miles, farci ; 4 6
Charge for luggage, the over-weight 10S1b., at d . 4 6
I then wanted to book for Preston, but could get a
ticket no further than Parkside, a distance of 6
miles, for which I paid, fare
Charged for luggage
The same train procect:ed on to Preston, a distance
of 22 miles, the fare for which is 5 6
My luggage was again ;alien off the train, and I
had to pay again

3 6

I expostulated at the Warrington station, on the ex-
tortionate demand of 4s. for the luggage for six miles,
but could get no redress ; and, on my asking the book-
keeper at Parkside for a ticket for the luggage-charge,
the civil reply was, " Did I think be wanted to pocket
the sum Y' and, on my observin7, from his remark, I
was ignorant of his intentions, he became exceedingly
boisterous. Is this the way the public should be
treated, and those who have frequently to make use of
the Railway transit ?
If you have space for these observations, it will
have a good tendency to serve the public, and
Your very obedient servant,
London, April 13, 1841. A TRAVELLER.

FLANDERS AND DUTCH MAIL.
BRUSSELS, Aram 15.—The average price of wheat
last week was 171. 80c., and that of rye 101. 63e.
All enlightened Belgians and friends to their coun-
try ought to welcome, with good will, the new men
whom the King has honoured with his confidence. We
must wait for what they will do, in order to judge of
them by their works.
CONsTANTINOPLE, MARCH 24.—The following are.
the energetic representations which Austria and Russia,
(filled with compassion for the melancholy situation of
the Christians in Syria and Palestine), have joined in
presenting to the Porte, in behalf of their Christian
brethren, the object of which is to maintain the privi-
lege formerly granted to them. In particular, the
Porte is most earnestly recommended to appoint
a Governor immediately dependent en the Porte
for Palestine and its chief towns of the Holy Land, who
should reside at Jerusalem, to which the port of Jaffa
should belong, in order to keep open a communication
with the Mediterranean ; likewise to take steps to put
an end to the abuses, and the oppressions to which tho
Christians arc exposed ; to treat all the inhabitants with,
equthi uppartiality, and to afford them the same pr °tee-,
friendly _ ion in :40 administration of justice ; equally to afford,
r ccer;
ion to all pilgrims who visit the Holy'.
Land. All the dith:rf.sices between the Clergy cf the.
Greek Roman Catholic Itt.d Armenian Churches shall
cease. The Patriarch of Jec2qalem, who generally re-
sides at Constantinople, shall ha's., facility, to visit his
diocese, which has hitherto been attended with much
trouble and expense. A commission shall be appointed
to regulate the affairs of the Church, consist
hici,sg
Vicar-
General, Governor, the P
the eider of the Lath? 0" Armstiv each shah
and a Pulite as Cornmissk".'"' •
he Chirrelies and
endeavour to fat ilitate the repairs oft
'-t disci line
Convents, Patriarch of Jerusalerne,loiran
damaged, and
measures to be taken to maintain env
which have been ruined or
u•rdP the
amen,* the Turkish soldiers who have to g
Holy Sepulchre, &c. Letters from llaiouseus say
,
the plague in that city.
that Count Szcchenyi has died of
naussEt.s,
I:DAMIAN ;. UN. -
Actual Lei Arsti. 15.
% SS per Cenit.
Hahschild'sl.o3ll, 5 per 'cat . 1001.1,
Loan of Thirty 1111 hons, er Cent,
Viper Lent.
.•
per Cent..
Loan of City, 1532,
Society of COIIIIII,CC, 4 y.,,per cent
5 per c ent
Bauk at Belgium, ••• (1!i
National Society.
Exchange ou London (short) .................. 11 95 -
—Brussels Payers, April 16,
111.1t11 11-711135.—A:utEr.ot4i, APRIL
Manes. 81118.
setual Dcbt, ;;i0 per Cent
auto, ditto 0 per cent.
. ... 516
ATtl,lt Svniiic, 4g, tier cent .... 31/. WNe •
.............. 1.,914 fifi%
Ditto, ditto, , per cent ^.3
commarciat Cfinvany,percent
11154 i.• • "'ft
Ditto (MIS and 1837) n per cca t
Loan It 337, 1, per cent • ..... :02
'O73C gni
Exchange on London, One month i1,4073
Two months
Dutch Papers, April 17.
AUSTRIAN FUNDS —Vt¢incii, Anttr.l.rfv:, ,trt
ftvcper Cent. Metarii ties • .................. IC"
Four per Cents..., ci
.....
""
...................
Three twr Cents ......... .......... ....................
dank !..11ats .. : ... . ................................ 16.)0
..-Altremeine Z;itu,9 . . ... I'2 Al!3t.f.
Th
PRUSSIAN FUNDS.—Bcat.tx, April. 13.
Mon
.`St.Setatid. heti., 4,0 per cent. ....... 1000 "
I'nusi .n Erignsh Loan, 1e.30, 4 per co-A.l(
I,otuhange vu Lmiion, three tritaitl...o 19',
State Gazelle. April 14.

'f ;;b

THE COP,N•LAWS.—A petition for the repeal
of the Corn-laws, agreed upon by the Anti-Corn-law As=
socintion of this city, was on Thursday last taken round
the town for signatures, and, in the course of the day
nearly 4,000 nerves were attached to it. We understand
great care was taken to confine it to persona resident
within the borough, and that no one under the ag© of
eighteen was allov.ed to sign it. This is pretty conclusive
that in consequence of the first
eviderca to the state of feelirg upon the subject in this
son an opera is announced for Thurs.
cnittiy\.;—ThegCrzaproelorismcke /a.
day next.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FEOII TIIP: EVENING PAPERS or SATURDAY.
(From the Globe.)
The impending Parliamentary contest' at Nottine-
ham exhibits the utter destitution of principle by which
Toryism is distinguished, in a light too powerful to be
mistaken ; it will not fail to bring to the recollection of
ur readers certain facts on which we nave rested impu •
tations upon the party, which their organs have repelled
as false and calumnious, hut which this and other recent
demonstrations have made too plain to be successfully de-
flied. To illustrate our meaning, it is only necessary to
allude to the fearful state of society which the moat-
s. icturing districts exhibited some eighteen months
since. The Chartists had covered the country with a
web-work of affiliated societies. Their national pe-
tition was collecting signatures from the hill-sides and
cottages of our rural counties, as well as from the
looms, forges, and manufactories, of hives of hu-
man beings at Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle,
Bolton, Wolverhampton, Oldham, and Ashton-un-
der-Lyne. Birmingham was the capital of Feargus
O'Connor, and was well nigh sacrificed by fire to
the desire for plunder which pervaded his adherents.
Newport, situated in the centre of extensive collieries,
was attacked by thousands of deluded men, many of
whom were armed, and was only preserved from
devastation, possibly from destruction, by the praise-
worthy promptitude of the Magistrates, supported
by the valour of a mere handful of troops, who re-
pelled the insurgents, and preserved the town and
its peaceful inhabitants from the brutality of an
infuriated mob. We stated at the time, and confirmed
the truth of our representations by appealing to facts
too notorious to be denied, and too unmistakeable to
he misconstrued, that the Tories were the originators
and abettors of the fearful agitation which led to these
results. The Chartists were employed by Tory agents
as instruments, eminently fitted by blind rage to ef-
fect their party objects. For this purpose the 'forks
turned the new Poor-law into a battery of assault
against Government, although Sir Robert Peel and
the Duke of Wellington, and indeed the principal
Tory members in both Houses of II irliament, lent
their aid to pass, defend, and administer that tnea-
sure. Wherever an outcry against the very measure
which was alike the production o the Tories and Whigs
in Parliament, could be employed to seat a Conservative
candidate, the Tories, with an inconsistency and hypo-
crisy truly disgusting, clapped their glowing palms,
eheered on to their task certain agents of sedition—who
svauld have been hanged had the Home Department
eeen conducted as it was in the golden days of esta-
blished espionage—and voted even a combination with
the most furious Radicals as a justifiable association
because an expedient policy. It is now ascertained be-
yond doubt that Frost was in the confidence of tile Tory
candidate's Committee, and acted as their agent to ob-
tain votes for him at Monmouth at the last election:;
while at Huddersfield the Tories voted for Oastler,
while the Times and other Tory journals, with a reci-
procity truly characteristic, first supplied him with the
material for his harangues, and then reported them, in
a complimentary style, in their columns.
(From the Standard.)
It is dangerous to follow words in an undefined in-
terpretation through a course of reasoning. Of this
we have an example in the censure, of which some
good men are the objects, with reference to the New
Poor-law ; and as we ourselves, perhaps, nee not with-
out blame in the particular injustice, it becomes us
to do our best to remedy it. Some persons of un-
questioned sense and benevolence have spoken of the
new law as " an experiment," which it is innocent and
politic to put in course of trial. Now, it has been
hastily concluded, by ourselves, among others, that
this .recommendation of the experiment was accom-
panied by a consciousness that the operation of the
law would be as cruel as it has proved, and as we
from the first anticipated, that it must prove; but this
ia unjust. It is more candid, and more consistent with
what we know of the character of the persons of whom
we speak, to suppose that they were mistaken in the ins.
mediate ectof of the law, than to believe that they contem-
plated the certainty of its cruelties, and have miscalcu-
lated merely the tlAct of cruelty. In other words, we
owe it to the parties to assume that the experiment
which they recommended regarded the harshness or
the mildness in operation of certain specified provisions
not the probable effect of a harsh treatment of the
poor, with respect to which they had no doubt.
It must always be a question of great delicacy
whether a measure of doubtful operation as regards
the happiness of even one of our innocent fellow-
creatures shall be put upon trial ; but that a measure
which shall with certainty injuriously affect even one
innocent person must not be tried, can be no question
at all to a Christian man. The Whig-Radical Arch-
bishop of Dublin has, we know, published a pamphlet
recommending the capital execution, in certain eases,
of unconscious infants and of insane persons, that is,
of morally irresponsible, and therefore innocent persons,
for the public good ; but this, besides its folly as a po-
litical doctrine, is not the doctrine of Christianity.
The religion of the Gospel, no less wise than benign,
directs itself to the hearts of men with a peremptory
command to "do justice and love mercy," teaching
that whatever may be the temporary, or rather tran-
sient, advantages purchased by even the lowest degree
of injustice or cruelty, they are sure to result in evil,
though we look merely to human effects.
(From the Courier.)
By all friends of the poor, and honest haters of the
new hiv framed for their oppression, if not extirpa-
don, the candidateship of Mr. Walter for the repre-
:entation of Nottingham, now vacant through the death
of Sir Ronald Ferguson, will be hailed with sincere
gratification, and his prospects watched over with the
deepest interest. We learn, indeed, with no common
teangs of satisfaction, that those prospects are as pro-
mising as his friends could wish, and that in due season
we may expect to see the honourable gentleman and
Christian philanthropist restored to that place in Par-
liament which he filled so honourably before, and
to that service in the cause of humanity and his coun-
try, the duties of which he formerly discharged with
a zeal and ability only exceeded by his honesty and dis-
interestedness. The people of Nottingham will not
forget that in that Commons' House, to which now they
will scarcely fail to return him, be ever stood almost
alone and unaided the most intrepid advocate of the
rights of the people, and emphatically and above all the
poor man's friend, and never more conspicuously was
'the steadfastness of principle and resolution unflinching
of a public man tried by so Severe a test on any great
qunstion, as in the ease of Mr. Waiter, then Member
for Berkshire, during the proceedings of that unfair
stn 1 on -sided Committee of Inquiry into the operation
s;f the new Poor-laws, of which that thoroughgoing
Tait; partisan, Mr. Fax ikerley, was Chairman.
With the history of that Committee, and the grossly
partial conduct of him who presided over as of those
who assisted at it, the public cannot fail to be familiar,
os well as with elsat coeraaeous pesseve-ance Mr. alter
io)',,wed cut and estal,lished his case of gross oppression
e, tee Peer ageicst. the despots of Somerset House,
adinhist aid nespi.e of inventive and calumny around
•nd about 6:in, the disgusting eevericetioes of Ass's.
ant- C;etnrni,siener, thebsliabby Ptr. iekery of t"he penny.-a--
liniaa new l'aer4w ‘1:1.•
bcut.;',7
oi.
t 4,
paw.
,ccise.tary,. the scandalous brow-
-et h.s witaeste.: in a style that
would have ilise-seed
sthe (lone of the ohl 13ailey,.
linaliv the disre'p.ti-talla one-sidelnc-- of the trlbue
honestly packed to receive and report' upon- •

...1 dis-

avi,a
eace.

FRENCH CARDINAT.S.--'r
Cardirals has varied at ditT— ...he number of French
v6itiii
)11 ac
vt.cre r neryv:ll.foPuorchit. Before the Re-
;cevrn ; and v etY 7.rerv, ten. I;(ret'hirnel five and
Some snoni.,6 ',,tier th • Cor;e ndst of ISO', elZpweelre.4l.'l.
mended pntplo for the Archbishops of Paria,ci..)%`;:-
nIu'AL :And Tt,,:rs, and 'wide them each a yearly a11„,„".a,,e;
e)f 3',-2.ooaer 45,000 fr. for expenses cf inEtallAtiae.
Under Y.spoleon. there were neve.. more Clan five C4rdi.
; though he cluirnel to hale one-third of the
Cli'ege composed of Frer.ch Pre7.atc.. At ail fl.evo-
lu'i,n of 1830 there rote: only four ; and ;n Oeto-
'.Jer of th.: sa-ne ysur the alliwanca made by Nano-
!e3ra was countermanded by a Royal Ordinance. The
election of his present Holiaess, which soon followei,
convinced t'e ouch Government of the importance of
maintaining a ceeta n number of Ca-dinals to represent
the iatereus et France in such an impertant matter. Ac-
crAingly,, since that time three FreEch prelat,,s have
beer, invested with the purple; v:z M. do Clievrrv,
Archbishop of Bourde tux, in 15:36 (111 died soon after) ;
M. de la Tour, d'Auvergne, of Arras, last year;
and now M. do Bonard, Arc...lb:Alp of Lycns. In the
two first of these caacs a sum was voted by the chambers
maintail the dignity of the function, and the same prin-
ciple Lois just been rece,mized in the ca.,c of M. de Bonard,
a sum of 45 000 francs baying !wen voted for the expenses
of his installation. There are now (we believe) three
Prone.' Cardinale, viz.. the Prine:., Croi, M. de la
Tour-d'Auvcrjne, and M. de Bonard. —Univers.
STATISTICS .OF THE GREEK CATHOLIC
CHURCH IN THE LEvaNT.--The pa,r :irch has four re4i-
&rice; : at Darnascua, as patriarch of Antioch ; at Cairo,
as patriarch of Alexandria; at Jaff,, as patriarch of Jeru-
salem; on Alouot .I.:banon, near the National
College
(dioct.se of Beyrout), as the cet,tral point of the te‘idences
of the other thshops. He is the actual Bishop of Cairo,
Alexandri I, Damietta, Ro.tetta, and Jafft ; and ndminis_
tors the other secs during a vacancy. The dioceses sub-
ject to him through the medium atilt it respective Bishops
ere:—Archbiskupries, Aleppo, Tyre, Boars, and Aouran,
—Se vdc, Bey runt, St. Jean
Dierbekir :—Bisltoprirs
D'Acre, Foto zoles, Balbeck, Tripoli in Syria, Horns. There
arc two suffragim bi,,hops and patriarchal grand vice s, one
at Cairo, the other at Jerusalem. There are three col.
gregation3 of monks, all of the order of St. Basil the
Great ; the Seinarite Aleipini, the Seinarite Paysani, and
thOte of tI, Sanetissmo Salvatlre. The nitional college
is St A.in-trez, diocese of Beyrout. The, patriarch is
electPd by the net iot.al biahopr, and confirmed in his autho-
rity by the Pup.', who transmits to him the sacro porno.
J title Patriarch
Tablet. of Antioch and of all the East.—

DEATH OF THE DOWAGER LADY STOUR-
TON.-We have to record the demise of this lady, who
died on Monday last at liarlemood Hal!, Yorkshire. She
was second daughter and co-heir of Alartmduke fifth Lord
Lar:gdarc, winch title became extinct on hisdeath in 1777,
ryas marrieJ, 15th of Jane, 1778, to Charles Philip the
late Lord Stouftou, by whom her Ladyship had issue a gamily of ten children, eight of whoan survive their mother.