The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-23 00:00:00

141 111 R.

By W. H. MAXWELL, ESQ.
Author of " Wild Sports of the West," " Stories of Waterloo," &c,

Richard Bentley, New Burlington street
(Publisher in Ordinary to her Majesty).

RAILWAY SHARES BY PUBLIC SALE.

AillES RS. LAMOND and Co., ItAILWAT
SHARE AUCTIONEERS, beg to thank their Friends
tnd ,be ?node ter their continued support and patronage, and
U. announce that their Public Sales of Railway Shares, &c.,
take place every TCSADAT and FRIDAY. at One o'clock, at the
flail of Ccrrunerce, Threadneedle-street, London, to which place,
favours, containtug Instructions (with a reference), are respectfully
equested to be addressed.

All "crip and share Certificates must be deposited, the day
orevious to their being offered ; and advices of results will be
~rwarded by the first post atter the *Ede, an.' the proceeds litne-
.liateiy disposed et according to Instrtzcti:nts.

Offices, Hall of Commerce, Threadneedle-street. London.

THE WEATIIER.—SUN OFFICE, MAI,CII 22.
T,W.RMOMETER, Lemont, 35 ; ilizhisnt. 57 ; Noon, 52.
BAROMETER, 29.83.—Wind N.E., fine.

91 •,. AT I.o‘llo/4-tittll')l4t rtto• LAI.
.. 2-, minutes after 6. I Evening .- 45 •ittnutias Aft;!* 6.

1....0
y
;1..
......y,,,,.....!, 7....., ,
4_?e, \,:- 4
.sc-5:::•;"•.4•At.
,
)."4- oattei..C.,
..-,1, 0V- \ '
_A4,
...-a„.. .
.......:4_,..„ _
-.,-c:-:-L,,;it..., - ' ' -.4.- ',...-
.4," OfEU
..L. ''' :'
-
1,... —.V -,_.3,- ''''s

branch is governed and controlled. We are. much
I mistaken if the British people will be contented that
such a stain should remain on their name, that such
a blot shcrald be found on their statute-hook.
No wonder that there should be a general
repugnance to enter into the navy, when persons would
thereby subject themselves to the operation of such
atrocious enactments. No wonder that the pleas-
gang must still be retained, that the voluntary
services of our sailors cannot be obtained, that kid-
napping must still be legalized, when a commanding
officer is authorized, without trial or investigation, to
inflict four dozen lashes of a „cat" on any of his crew,
and when an excited man is deemed worthy of death
for an assault which on shore would be sufficiently
punished by a trifling fine or a short imprisonment.
Surely, the maintenance of discipline is as neces-
sary in the army as in the navy, and personal violence
towards a superior officer is of as aggravated a
character in one as in the other, and yet we find that
the sentence of a military court-martial, held within
the last week, and promulgated on Saturday last,
on GEORGE Ilor s, a drummer of the Grenadier
Guards, fur an offence of a similar character, viz , for
having struck and offered violence to the drum-majer
in the execution of his duty, was twelve months'
imprisonment, with hard labour; and we venture to
say that there is n 4 person who will not acknowledge
that the penalty was amply sufficient to vindicate
the majesty of the law, to preserve the discipline of
the regiment, and to prevent the-repetition of a
similar outrage. The prisoner, too, is regarded as a
person subjected to just and well-merited punish-
went; there is no sympathy excited in his favour on
account of the inordinate cruelty of his sentence, or
of its being so wholly disproprtioned to his crime.
It will be carried into execution, and, therefore,
will have more effect on his companions, than if
it were originally so severe as to render it almost a
matter of certainty that it would be mitigated
and reduced in amount. During the past year
another marine was sentenced to death by a naval
court-martial at Cove, for violence towards his superior.
There was some irregularity in the proceedings, of
which the Lords of the Admiralty gladly availed
themselves, and we believe the man got off without any
punishment. Whether was such a proceeding, or the
infliction of a moderate and suitable penalty, more
calculated to afford a salutary example to the crew ?
On Thursday last it was our duty to speck of the
interference of the Admiralty in remitting a por-
tion of the sentence of a sailor, named
JOHN SAVAGE, who was sentenced by a court-
martial consisting of the very same members as
those who sat on the trial of BARTON; the observa-
tions we then offered will be found applicable to the
present case. We trust that means will be taken to
place the entire system of naval courts-martial on a
sounder and better footing; to abrogate the law
justifying such punishments ; to take away a power
so liable to abuse, and whenever the offence should
be :sommitted in harbour or on home service, to
declare that all the more serious crimes should be
tried before a judge of the land—and that a court-
martial should never again be competent to pro-
nounce a capital sentence, save in time of actual war.

The Rhine and Moselle Gazette, published at Co-
blentz, says--" We learn from a sure source that the
rescripts of the King of PRUSSIA relating to the ex-
tension of the Provincial Diets, were communicated
in extenso to the Emperor of liussn. and to Prince
METTERNICH, because his Majesty of PRUS,IA ad-
heres to his resolution to do nothing of importance
without first having the sanction of his two allies."
A letter from Munich says—" Literary and scien-
tific reviews arriving in Bavaria through the book-
sellers have !lithe:to been exempt from censure; but
the Minister of the Interior has just decided that they
shall be submitted to censure the same as those sent
by the post."

A letter from St. Petersburgh says that the EM-
PEROR had jut issued a ukase derdaring that Jews
in the army shall be allowed to be promoted to the-
rank of Lieutenant.

Accounts from Lisbon of the )sth have been re
ceived.

SALDANHA had not attacked Oporto, although he
had been joined by CABAL. Several inconsiderable
skirmishes had taken place. The financial difficulties
of the Government still continued.

The period for coming into the conversion of the
foreign live per Cent. into Four per Cent. Bonds is
prolonged to the Ist of July next.

In addition to the former decree admitting foreign
wheat, a second decree has appeared, authorising the
free admission of 8,000 moios (24,000 Eng!ish quar-
ters) maize, and 1,000 moios (3,000 quarters) barley.
Another decree authorises the free admission of these
grains over the Spanish frontier.

Madrid journals of the 14th and 15th have arrived.
There was again a crisis, and a crisis likely
o be attended with serious consequences. The
Ministers had drawn up a decree on the 13th, ap-
pointing General SERRANO C :ibtain-General of
Navarre. This decree the QUEEN had refused to
sign, whereupon the Ministers had appointed him to
inspect the troops stationed in Navarre and the
Basque Provinces, and to proceed forthwith- to his
destination. This order General SERRANO refused to
obey, and an extraordinary Council, which was
attended by all the members of the Cabinet, and by
General NARVAEZ and Senors MARTINEZ DE LA
ROSA, MON, PIDAL, DONOSO CORTES, CASTRO
Y OROZCO, GONZALES BRAVO, the Marquis DE
VILUMA, and other distinguished members of
the Moderado party, was summoned to delibe-
rate upon the affair. The Council resolved
unanimously to bring SERRANO to trial for disobe-
dience of orders. On the 15th the Ministers com-
municated to the Senate the decrees nominating
Generals SERRANO, ESPELETA, and FERNANDEZ, In-
spectors Of Troops in the Provinces. An appeal from
General SERRANO to the Senate, of which body he is
a member, was read, in which the General, after re-
lating the occurrences of the two previous days,
asked w hether it was their wish that he should remain
in Madrid, and continue to perform his duties as a
senatsr, or obey the orders of the Ministers and pro-
ceed to the northern provinces. The Duke of So-
TOMATOR, the Prime Minister, then declared, in the
name of himself and his colleagues, that they were deter-
mined to bring General SERRANO to trial for disobedi-
ence oforders. He was answered by Senor Luzuaar AGA,
who besought the Senate not to adopt any hasty de-
cision in an aff,,ir of such impoitance, but on a repre-
sentation by one of the Ministers that the case was
urgent, a Committee was appointed to consider the
affair, and report on it in the course of the day. It
was rumoured that the Ministry would be re-con-
structed, and that BRAVO Altntim.o, OLIVAN, NAB.
VAEZ, and Mort, would have seats in the Cabinet.
MADRID BOLSA, MARCH 15.—The Three per Cents.
were done at 30k for cash; the Five per Cents. at
19i; the Debt, without interest, at st; and the
Coupons at 17.

We have received the Paris Papers of Friday and
Saturday.
The convention between the Bank of France and
Russia is the subject of comment in all of them. The
Presse, the organ of the Russian alliance, considers
this convention as the revival of the compact entered
into between NAPOLEON and ALEXANDER at Tilsit.
It says._
" We confined ourselves yesterday to reproducing, without
any comment, the unexpected event announce.' in the Moni-
tear Pariseen, and which caused on the Bourse an increase of
It. on the closing prices of the preceding day. All reflections
would have been superfluous for the signification of this
fact, its political and financial importance having no need
to be demonstrated to make everybody understand them,
and on our part any praise, however jnst it might have
been, would have been suspected. It is known that the illu-
sion of the English alliance has never been shared by us,
and that, without deceiving ourselves with respect to the ob-
stacles
cf an alliance of France with Russia, we have always
refused to serve as an echo to impolitic recriminations, which
could have no other effect than to enfeeble us, to isolate us,
and to aggravate the prejudices which, though common to
the two Courts, vas not less injurious to the two countries.
Ten years of insults, of calumnies, and of suspicion have not
caused us to vary, to retract, or even to hesitate for a single
day. We have the most complete and unshaken faith in the
triumph of truth over error and falsehood. A little time ago
the Steele, in reply
alli-
ance of France with Russia as a ' pact of the devil.' We let
In the
it talk. to one of our articles, described the
absence of the good opinion of that journal
the:e is an authority which, wrongly, perhaps, we consider
equal to its own, that of the Emperor Napoleon, who on the
22dofJune (July 4), 1807, wrote to the Emperor Alexander
the following letter and note, which are not less curious than
decisive in the question :
" ' Sir and Brother,—l send to your Majesty a note on the
discussion which occupies us. Your Mejesty will see from•i
it my desire to remain in a position of friendship and alliance
with Russia, and to remove everything which can oppose, ,
directly or indirectly, this great and noble idea. On which •
I pray God to have you in his holy keeping.' "
The note annexed to the preceding letter was as fol-
lows

THE SUN, LONDON, TU_ESDAY MORNING, MARCH 23, 1847.