The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-26 00:00:00

glib
VIIT eningrnL

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 26, 1847.

Consolatory and flattering intelligence has arrived
from Spain, intelligence such as will render the Pa-
checo Administration more popular than heretofore
in this country. Arrangements appear to be in pro-
gress for the settlement of the long-standing liabilities
of the Spanish Government—a decree having been
issued in the Gazette on the 17th ult., whereby it is
proposed to form a Commission for hearing the repre-
sentations of the various classes of the creditors.
Happily, therefore, the dilatoriness of the preceding
Cabinets will in no manner be imitated by Senor
PACHECO and his Ministerial colleagues; and the
wrongs inflicted with such an obstinate pertinacity
and such an unyielding callousness, will be compen-
sated bya tardy but welcome payment. No promise could
so effectually ensure to an embryo and rather doubtful
Ministry, like the one recently nominated by Queen
ISABELLA, the sympathy of the public as this, affecting
as it does the pockets and the monetary prosperity of
so many individuals. The golden shower of Danae
is more welcome-now-a-days—to this commercial
and unsentimental generation—than the blooming
showers of herbs and blossoms dropped from the lap
of Proserpine. PACHECO is aware of this very
reasonable preference, his associate SALAMANCA is
aware of it, and hence the publication of this pro-
pitious decree, and the half assurance that the
Spanish race are resolved no longer to be a re-
pudiating and partially insolvent race. With all
the natural and artificial resources of that
kingdom, with its fruitful vineyards and its
inexhaustible gardens, with its enterprising citi-
zens and its army of merchants, it were preposterous
to imagine that, with a judicious application of the
science of finance, its debts could not be ultimately
liquidated. There is an elasticity, moreover, in
financial affairs, as conducted by the more experienced
economy of this country, that would enable a less
prolific soil than that of the Peninsula to produce
sufficient, not merely for the nutrition of its inhabi-
tants, and the settlement of a proportionate amount
of interest, but likewise for the release of the country
by instalments from a much heavier embarrassment.
It is very conceivable that Senor MON should regard
with a jealous animosity the measures undertaken by
the new Minister of Finance, seeing that they cast a
hue so flattering upon the successors of SOTOMAYOR.
Hence, therefore, the diatribes that are appearing in
such rapidity in the columns of the Madrid news-
paper El Faro, which is avowedly the organ of the
opinions of 301oN. If the present advisers of her
MAJESTY will, however, but take courage, they
may scorn the fantastic imputations cast upon
them by the morbid and suspicious imaginations of
their discomfited opponents. It requires, indeed, not
merely sagacitp, but courage, to extricate the Go-
vernment from the slough of despondency and the
depths of " imbecility" in which bas been so long
involved. fir

Besides the arrangements we have already indi-
cated, as in preparation by the Pacheco Cabinet,
ttlbUy lU Lae same stare et xorwara-
ness, and of almost equal importance. Foremost
among them is the project of law regarding the
press—divided into four sections and forty-nine
articles. Seven offences are therein enumerated as
punishable under the proposed enactment : offences
against the person or dignity of the SOTEREIGN,
against the safety of the State, against public order,
against society, against public morals, against foreign
Sovereigns, and against individuals. So that
the Executive will still retain a very consider-
able influence over that fourth estate, in whose
freedom alone the true spirit of civilisation can
be realised. A second project of law is in reference
to the disposal of property appertaining to poor-
houses, colleges, townships, nzaestrasgos, and other
descriptions of immovable property. Besides these
intended alterations there are more of a satisfactory
character for the conversion of outstanding credits
into three per cent. stock, and other matters much
desiderated, but hitherto neglected.

In all this there appears an activity of a very
encouraging kind, and such as will, if uninterrupted
by external intrigues, tend to insure the happiness
and competence of the entire nation. A satisfactory
programme, however, is not sufficient; a prac-
tical good must be actually effected, otherwise
no Cabinet (however plausible) can continue long in
existence. PACHECO must consequently follow up
these projects with energy and celerity if he is
solicitous to render his dominion permanent, or his
country flourishing. Let him take warning from
the fortunes of his predecessors ; let him remember
how, having "kept the word of promise to the ear,
and broken it to the hope," they have been succes-
sively ejected from authority, and sometimes igno-
miniously expelled beyond the frontier. Let him
bear these things in recollection, and act upon the
deductions derivable from that experience.

On Thursday last we pointed out that the probable
effect of the adoption of the clause proposed by Lord
G. BENTINCK in the Committee on the Irish Poor-
law Bill, for placing the entire rate on the occupying
tenant, would be to occasion a renewal of the scenes
of 1832 and the subsequent years, and practically to
render the law inoperative and inefficacious. That
opinion has received the strongest confirmation from
a resolution passed at a very numerous and respect-
able meeting of the guardians and ratepayers of the
Lisburn Union, held on Wednesday last—a meet-
ing, composed of all classes, as well proprietors as
occupiers of land. The resolution, too, was carried
on the motion of DEAN STANNUS, agent to the Mar-
quis of lIERTFORD, and thus the representative of one
of the largest estates in Ireland. It states the serious
apprehensions entertained with regard to the
clause, and directs that " A petition, signed by the
chairman, on behalf of the meeting, shall be pre-
sented to the House of Lords against a measure
which would be so glaringly unjust in principle, whilst
it would create bitter enmity between landlords and
tenants, produce passive resistance to the payment of
rates over the entire country, and might eventually
endanger the stability of property ;" and adds, " in-
stead of such a ruinous clause we unanimously and
earnestly implore the Legislature, not only to con-
tinue the proportion of the rates upon landlord and
tenant, as it is found in the existing law, but to sanc-
tion a provision which will free the tenant from the
loss and inconvenience of paying at any time more
than his own proportion of such assessment." The
fatal results of such an enactment are by no means
overstated. The farmers would indeed feel that they
were treated in the most inequitable and unjust man-
ner, if the entire burden of the impost was suffered
tions, in the improvementyh of their lands
to fall upon their shoulders, and if
of the impost mustchaer
whose united
thep
the soil—men b
_rothperiev,t,oerigs
weight
ose . and strenuous exec-
, were practically ex-
it must fall on the land, .a
and in
it is that eventually
empted from any
henoccinn this. country it would
signify little whether
anll
of the
payment,
or the owner was
made responsible for the
charges are here taken into the icalcuaulas:io
farmer before he enters into the occupation oof th
' tenement, and devotes his capital, skill, and industry
e
to its cultivation and improvement. Besides, such a
charge has existed in England for centuries;
its probable amount may be assumed and

I relied on with nearly as much certainty
as the rent itself. The Englishman, too,
does not set himself in opposition to the law because
its operation may be found oppressive and burden-
some, or seek by underhand means to evade a pay-
ment for which he is made responsible. He may
grumble and complain, he may petition and agitate
for an alteration of the law, but while it remains
on the statute-book he will obey it, and liquidate, so
long as be has the means in his possession, the sums
payable by him. But in Ireland things are essen-
tially different. It is comparatively a new burden.
It is but a few years since it was first introduced,
even in the stinted and abridged shape in which it at
present exists ; and hitherto the amount collected has
borne but a small proportion to the value of the land:
6d., or at the utmost 10d. in the pound per annum on
the poor-law valuation—which, it must be recollected,
is fully 20 per cent. below the real value—is the out-
side that has been levied in even the poorest districts,
on an average of the past years. This will
now most probably be considerably increased.
A far higher charge will become necessary, at
least in the districts where the landlords
continue the crassa negligentia for which so many
of the body have been remarkable; a new burden
would be entailed on those already oppressed by
rackrents, and barely able to obtain a livelihood little
better than that of the paupers they would be com-
pelled to relieve. A general conspiracy would
speedily be organized. An anti-poor-law confedera-
tion would start into existence. The landlords
would tacitly sanction the resistance ; they would
but feebly oppose any steps taken in opposition to
such a charge ; and, so long as they received their
rents, they would consider the non-payment of the
poor-rate a venial offence on the part of the tenant.
Even as the law now stands great difficulties at-
tend the collection. We are told by the Southern
Reporter that the greater part; if not the whole, of a
rate struck last November is still payable, and cannot
be enforced. The state of the Castlebar Union
has already attracted the attention of both Houses of
Parliament. It has been proclaimed to the country
that while numbers were dying on every side, while
famine was raging at the very threshold of the work-
house, young and old, strong and weak, able-bodied
labourers, as well as those suffering under the decre-
pitude of age or the helplessness of childhood, sinking
from inanition, not one-fourth of the number which
the house was intended to contain were admitted,
owing to the impossibility of procuring payment from
the farmers. The same impediments are found in
many other parts; and, unless some additional means
of enforcing the demand are conceded by the Legis-
lature, these difficulties will be greatly increased.
Surely, then, this is not a time to play the landlords'
game, or to permit them, by a side wind, to get rid
of that which they would not venture openly to
reject.

In all questions were the principle of protection is
concerned the dernier ressort of its advocates is to fish
for a Select Committee. The House of Lords seems
to be the favourite arena for this species of political
legerdemain. Nothing daunted by the failure of
the experiment recently made in regard to the navi-
gation-laws, under the auspices of Lord STANLEY, a
similar atttempt was made in the Upper House on
Friday last, when the second reading of the Customs
Duties Bill was brought under their Lordships' con-
sideration. Upon a division, the Government suc-
ceeded in relieving their measure from the impedi-
ment sought to be thrown in the way of its progress.
The discussion is not to be regretted. It has evinced,
first of all, that the principles of free trade are now
so well understood and established, that, even in the
branch of the Legislature where those of protection
are still pertinaciously clung to by many of its mem-
bers, they triumph over all opposition. In the
next place, it shows the public ingratitude of
the supporters of monopoly. Notwithstanding
that the Government had raised the differential duty
on colonial rum from 6d. to 9d. per gallon, for the
express purpose, as admitted by Earl GREY, of con-
ciliating the Opposition, and not, in any wise, be-
cause they doubted the equity of their original pro-
position, the concession failed to reconcile the Duke
of RICHMOND, Lord STANLEY, et hoc genus ovule,
to the wisdom of the fiscal regulations embodied in
LLIC ncu. .anu, itit.t.iy, we rejoice at tne aiscussion
because it served, in a prominent manner, to
elicit the evils of the Excise system. It was
declared that the entire number of dis-
tillers in London was not more than eight, who
alone paid 3,500,0001. out of the 6,000,0001., or there-
abouts, which constitute the whole amount of the
Excise duty paid on spirits in the United Kingdom.
The consequence of the heavy amount of duty
leviable upon the manufacture of spirits is that none
can embark in the trade without the command of an
enormous capital, and hence the most absolute mono-
poly prevails throughout this extensive branch of
traffic. It is needless now to point out that
the Customs Duties Bill will not operate unjustly
between our own countrymen and the foreign producers,
seeing that the Lords, by the vote to which they
came, have decided that this is an idle fear, and
believing, as we do, with Lord CAMPBELL in his
humorous assertion, that " the mountain dew will
never yield to the produce of the sugar cane !" But
of this we are satisfied, that the very facts brought
forward by Lord STANLEY afford the strongest vin-
dication of the Bill for the mutilation of which he
adduced them. An indefensible monopoly exists,
which the measure will tend to shake,
a measure which, whilst redeeming a pledge
given by two successive Governments to the
West Indian colonists, will be acceptable as an act of
justice to Great Britain and Ireland. In the latter
country, indeed, the monopoly has been more com-
plete than elsewhere, since the effect of the extraor-
dinary differential duty has been practically to limit
the importation of rum to a most insignificant quan-
tity, not more than 20,000 gallons having for some
years been the annual average of such importation.
The cost of collection, and the inquisitorial character
of the Excise duties, are daily rendering them more
and more objectionable to a people fond of enterprise
and freedom of action. Any measure, therefore,
which paves the way for facilitating the ultimate
abrogation of these vexatious laws presents an addi-
tional recommendation to the favour of an enlightened
public.

On the 17th the Papal troops succeeded in captur-
ing, in the Province of Ferrara, sixty brigands, who
have for some time past been ravaging Lower
Romagna, pillaging the corn stores. They were
natives of the Austrian provinces, and were, it is said,
organized by Austrian agents.

Madrid journals of the 18th have arrived.

It is said that some differences have taken place in
the Cabinet on the subject of the recal of EsrmrrEao,
a measure strongly advocated by Senor SALAMANCA,
but objected to by some of his colleagues. It was
rumoured that SALAMANCA would resign and be
succeeded by REYNOSO. The attempts made to pro-
duce a reconciliation between the KING and QUEEN
have been unsuccessful. The KING continues to
mope in his apartments, occasionally going to mass
by way of variety, while the QUEEN, accompanied
by her father-in-law, drives about Madrid, mixes
with her subjects, studiedly adopts the national cos-
tume, and is daily becoming more and more popular.
The KING, it is said, is lending himself to the in-
trigues of the French Court, and is a mere tool in
the hands of MON, PIDAL, and MARTINEZ DE LA
ROSA. General RONCALI has, it is said, refused the
government of Gallicia. The Carlist Chief, CARE-
CILLA Y BLANCH, called the Penitent
of Finestra, has been captured in Larnpurdan
and carried to Gerona for trial. Don Lo-
RENZO ARRAZOLA has been appointed Fiscal of
the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, and, it is said,
General Ros DE OLANO will be nominated Lieutenant-
Colonel of the corps of Halbardiers, and be succeeded
as Governor of Madrid by Don JUAN ORTEGA. The
18th being Sunday, the Bolsa was closed.
A new paper, entitled El Faro, has appeared at
Madrid. MON, PIDAL, and MARTINEZ DE LA ROSA,
are, it is said, contributors to its columns. It is in-
tended to be the especial organ of the Afrancesado
ex-Camarilla. The Clamor Publico publishes the
following intelligence from the frontiers of Portugal.
It is dated Ayamonte (province of Huelva, April 8):
" Yesterday, at about three r.m., twenty-nine boats en-
tered the Guadiana. They conveyed about 1,200 men, or-
ganised into two battalions, whose bands played as they
I passed Ayamont assembled and Bilbao siege hymns. An
immense crowd on the banks of the river to ad-

mire the flue spectacle of so many boats with the Portuguese
flag flying. To-morrow as many boats, carrying as many
men, are to enter the Guadiana. General Sada Bandeira
and his staff will arrive. He has been recently appointed
by the supreme Junta of Oporto Lieutenant in the Algarves
and Alemtejo. We have in the Guadiana a splendid Por-
tuguese steamer, which has brought Bandeira's division from
Oporto."
" Our letters from Faro of the Bth," says the Echo (another
ultra-Liberal print), " state that the day before Sada Ban-
deira's division moved towards Alemtejo, by Villareal,
Guadiana, and Lhertola. On the Bth, at noon, the General
and his staff left with some troops in the same direction,
after having a conference with General Maldonado de Eza,
who had arrived at the same hour at Gavia, with a column
of above 1,000 men. General Moldonado had previously
effected his junction with the Count de Mello. We believe
that all will soon be at an end in that part of the country, the
people being partisans of liberty."

We have received the Paris papers of Friday and
Saturday.
The journals of Friday all comment on the affairs
of Prussia, and the Debats, which has not yet re-
covered its placidity of temper, again complains of the
contemptuous manner in which the KING spoke of
the working of the Constitution of the Barricades.

The Republican papers see in the assembling of the
Diet of Prussia the counterpart to the assembling of
the States-General of France in 1789, and consider it
as the prelude to a revolution. " If," says the Berlin
correspondent of the National," the debates and the
vote on the Address have not yet enlightened the
KING, if he should obstinately persevere in the illu-
sions of his pride, or the follies of his system, he is
preparing, as is openly said here, a civil war, and
drawing on his throne clouds pregnant with storms."
A grand review took place in the Place Carrousel
on Thursday. The KING, who was present, was
loudly cheered by the troops.
The Courrier Francais revives the report that was
some time since in circulation, to the effect that the
Emperor NicuarAs was about to visit Paris shortly.
The Union Monarchique, however, which on such a
subject is likely to be well informed, declares that it
is extremely improbable that such a visit will take
place. " The Court- of the Tuileries," says that
journal—
" Has resolved to send an Envoy Extraordinary, with a
pressing autograph letter, to Stutgard, to endeavour to pre-
vail on the Emperor of Russia to pay Paris a short visit.
The choice of the Envoy is already made, and, if the Em-
peror resists, he is instructed to solicit at least the visit of
the Grand Duke Constantine to Strasburg or to Paris. The
writer even oilers to send a Prince of the family of Orleans,
the Duke d'Aumale or the Duke de Montpensier, to Stutgard,
to express to his Majesty the anxious desire of that Court to
establish a new entente cordiale. Our correspondent, how-
ever, assures us that the so-much-wished-for visit will not
take place this year."

According to the Presse, accounts have been re-
ceived from Otaheite of the 9th of January, announcing
that the natives had made their submission to the
French authorities, but that Queen POhIARE had not
returned to the island.

The afoniteur publishes the returns of the mer-
chandise imported into France during the month of
March, 1847, from which it appears that the duties
levied thereon amounted to 12,030,657 f. They had
produced, in the corresponding month of 1845,
11,470,219 f., and in 1846, 12,355,628 f. The receipts
of the Customs during the first quarter of 1847 were
32,969,595 f., being by 1,308,847 f. inferior to those of
1845, and by 3,251,442 f. to 1846.
The Univers of Saturday asserts that the Queen of
SPAIN is in a condition that promises an heir to the
throne. The Union Monarchi4ue, of the same date,
states that at the earnest solicitation of MoN, PIDAL,
MARTINEZ DE LA ROSA, and the other chiefs of the
Afrancesado party, General NARVAEZ had refused to
accept the embassy to Paris. Some coolness is said
to exist between Lours PHILIPPE and CHRISTINA, in
consequence of the refusal of the former to create
MuNoz Duke of Malmaison, or of St. Philip, or of
St. Arnelie (the patron saint of the Queen of the
FRENCH), instead of Duke of Montmorot.
The Chambers were occupied in the discussion of
measures of merely local interest.
The Presse says—
" The account current of the Treasury with the Bank of
France, which latterly had fallen to 4,000,000 f., has re-
mounted to 35,000,000 f. The raising of the rate of interest
upon the Treasury Bonds to 5 per cent. has contributed
towards supplying it with specie. The cash in hand at the
Bank has also risen in a large proportion ; a fact which is
remarkable, considering the extent to which money is ex-
ported from the other side of the Channel. In order to lessen
this, the Bank of England has not only raised its rate of
discount to 5 per cent., but has recommended refusing the
best paper, and limited considerably” the length of the time
which the bills it takes have to run.

The Three per Cents. closed on the Paris Bourse, on
the Z~rleans Railroad-Sin;res,—P.36(.; Rouen, 927 f. 50c. ;
Havre, 673 f. 75c. ; Great Northern, 625 f. ; Avignon, 7701. ;
Vierzon, 587 f. 50c. ; Bordeaux, 515 f. ; Troyes and Montereau,
2971. 50c. ; Basle, 190 f. ; Dieppe, 320 f. ; Paris and Strasburg,
4271. 50c. ; Tours and Nantes, 421 f. 25c. ; Paris and
Lyons, 431 f. 25c. ; Lyons and Avignon, 450 f. ; Belgian Two-
and-a-Half per Cents., 5314,
MARSEILLES, Arlin., 20.—Marseilles and Avignon, 768 f.
75c. ; Northern, 613 f. 75c,
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, APRIL 24.
Boulogne and Amiens, 1658—Central of France (Orleans
and Vierzon), 15 Demerara, 3—Dutch Rhenish, 3 —East
%—Narnur and Liege, 4%e—
Northern and Lyons, s—Paris and
Strasbourg 2—Rouen and Havre,
Rouen,
Indian,oour tehne r
n3%60-1,72f
—Paris
seb, oalun2rdt
2614—Sambre and Meuse,