The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-31 00:00:00

cebuen of the disappearance of Father Thomaso, the
Superior of the Spanish convent in that city. They con-
tain no new facts of importance to the case beyond what
we have already stated, but they convey a most lamentable
and heart-rending account of the abominable tortures and
pet secutions to which the superstition of the inhabitants,
tolerated, if not encouraged, by the authorities, has
caused the unoffending Jewish population to be sub-
j. eted. The principal persons of that persuasion, men
of the greatest respectability, and rabbins, have been
incarcerated ; sixty-four children of Jewish families
have been thrown into dungeons, in the hope of ex-
torting confessions ; and numerous people of the lower
classes, especially a barber, have been subjected to the
torture, with cruelty that reminds one of the worst days of
the middle ages. Notwithstanding all this, no clue what-
ever to the disappearance of Father Thomaso has been ob-
tained, and the parties imprisoned persist, one and all, in
earnestly declaring their innocence in, or ignorance of, the
matter. The only: accusations have been made by the
barber, under the most excruciating extremities of corporal
suffering, which may be judged from this single specimen
—that on a compressing instrument being applied to his
head and temples, his eye-balls started from their sockets,
and his beard turned white, from the agony he endured.
All, however, that he could say was, that he had seen
Father Thomaso walking in one of the streets of the Jew's
quarter with ten of the principal inhabitants.

By the Iberia steamer, which arrived at Falmouth on
Sunday, we have received Lisbon papers of the 23d of
March inclusive. Instead of making any generous ex-
ertion to satisfy the long-neglected claims of British
creditors, the Portuguese Government has started new
objections to a speedy settlement—resuscitated old fic-
titious counter claims—and even seeks to shelter itself
under the opinions of Don MIGUEL'S law officers. Of
the ingratitude of the Portuguese Government some
notion may be formed from the fact of its being now
urged against the claims of the gallant British soldiers
who placed Queen DONNA MARIA on the Throne, that
England has not yet satisfied Portugal for damages
done in that country by the British army fighting fur
the existence of Portugal, as an independent State,
under the Duke of WELLINGTON! We expect that
the next claim set up will be for damages sustained, in
consequence of the gallant achievements of Captain
NAPIER, Lieutenant-General Sir J. M. DOYLE, Col.
SHAW, and their brave companions in arms, when fight-
ing by the side of Don PEDRO to enforce the claims
of the reigning Sovereign. But such a system of frau-
dulent prevarication as the Portuguese Government has
for many years carried on, with regard to these claims,
will not be endured by England much longer. If the
just claims of British subjects are not speedily adjusted,
we believe it is the intention of the British Govern-
ment to compel their effectual settlement. The blockade
of the Tagus for a few weeks would work a wonderful
revolution in the opinion of the brawlers who now de-
light in nothing but foaming about a war with
England to protect the Slave Trade. And it is
' very clear that to some such a measure our Government
must resort at last. Negotiation with such a people
seems to us out of the question. Some of their pre-
tended claims prove that they are dead not only to a
sense of gratitude but of shame. Were they put forth
by the Bonapartist party in France they would be at
least intelligible; but, in the case of Portugal, they
are, we believe, without precedent in the annals of na-
tional ingratitude. . . .

The reported Portuguese vessels fired into by the
Columbine, on the coast of Africa, regarding which
such an outcry was raised in the Portuguese Journals,
have turned out to be Brazilian slavers, bearing the
Portuguese flag. Before a gun was levelled at them
they forcibly resisted the right of search, fired upon the
Columbine's boats, and, in running ashore to get rid of
their human cargo, landed some of their guns, with
which the crews fired upon the Columbine from the
beach. Under such circumstances the conduct of the
commander of the Columbine was what we would have
expected from a British naval officer.
The general election was proceeding without the
slightest symptom of public disorder. It was the pre-
vailing opinion that the Government would have a ma-
jority in the ensuing Cortes.

We published yesterday an excellent letter from Mr.
Simpson, on the rapid progress of the Temperance
movement in Ireland. The frequent intercourse which
that gentleman has with the people of Ireland, from
his professional avocations in that country, and the
attention which he has evidently paid to the subject,
entitle his observations to the serious attention of the
public. This movement forms a new era in the history
of Ireland, and not the least remarkable feature of the
character of the peasantry. It cannot fail to increase
the security of property and to encourage the introduc-
tion of manufactures, ana on these accounts the infor-
mation contained in the letter is highly valuable.
VACCINATION.—The Bill brought from the Lords
to the Commons on this subject enacts, that it shall be
lawful for Poor-law Guardians to contract with their
medical officers for the vaccination of all persons who
may come to them for that purpose ; that they shall give
due notice of. the days on which the medical officers will
attend ; and toot the medical men shall make stated
reports to the Guardians of the number of persons vac-
cinated, to be transmitted to the Poor-law Commis-
sioners. In case any medical men who have entered
into contrac-s with Guardians should not be willing to
make a further contract on the terms mentioned, the
Guardians may contract with others. The law to ap-
ply to Ireland. Clause 10 enacts. that %ny person, not
qualified by law to practice as physician, apothecary, or
surgeon, who shall inoculate, shall be liable to be impri-
soned for every such offence for a term not exceeding one
calendar month, with or without hard labour. Qualified
persons are to make a quarterly report of the persons
inoculated by them, to be transmitted to the Poor-law
Commissioners.

CORN-LAW PETITIONS.--The number of petitions
for a repeal of the Corn-laws up to March 20, was
377, with 279,907 signatures, average number of sig-
natures to each petition 742. The number of petitions
for preserving the Corn-laws to the same date was
448, with 27,269 signatures; average number of signa-
tures to each petition 60. According to this propor-
tion, the pro-Corn-law men must get up twelve times
as many petirions, as the anti-Corn-law men, to equal
them in the number of signatures. When it is re-
collected that the pro-Corn-law petitions are promoted
and signed by the landlords and clergymen, whose in-
fluence in each agricultural parish is about equal to
the sinister interest they have in preserving the Corn-
laws ; that the bulk of the tenants who sign such peti-
tions are very dependent on the landowners and tithe-
owners, that they take their opinions of public affairs
from them, and give their suffrages at the hustings as
their lords require ; and when it is recollected that
the majority of workmen, shopkeepers, and masters
who sign the anti-Corn-law petitions, are in political
matter, much more independent that the farmers, and
much better informed, it may be affirmed that the anti-
Corn-law petitions are as much superior to the pro-
Corn-law petitions, that is twelve times, for the motives
and intelligence as they are for the number of the sub-
scribers. The pro-Corn-law petitions can only be con-
sidered as petitions of land and tithe-owners to land and
tithe-owners. In other words, though got up to make
a show, they are no more like valid petitions than a
bundle of rags tied on a stick in a pea field, is like a
living man.