The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-04 00:00:00

lected in the midst of a commercial population.
We see no use in it. It is not convenient to

supply thelroops about the Palace at the West-
end, for it must pass through a crowded city to
be conveyed to them. They could be as readily
supplied from Woolwich. The same place is in-
finitely more convenient for embarking and
landing all kinds of arms, as well as ammunition,
to be sent away by sea. As a depot, the Tower
is no longer adapted; it is not safe from fire; aLd
to contirme to use it as a magazine is extremely
dangerous to the inhabitants of the eastern part
of te metropolis, and to the vessels in the
Thames.

As a place of defence against invading
foreigners, the Tower is completely useless. In
the present condition of London, and we pre-
sume the landlords do not contemplate reducing
it to its narrow boundaries in the twelfth century,
the Tower, as a means of defence for the City, is
wholly useless. Tilbury Fort, which has more
pretensions, is no longer relied on. If it be re-
quired to have a military fort in the eastern part
of the metropolis to overawe the populace, a bet-
ter site could be chosen than the Tower of Lon-
don. We are inclined to recommend the citizens,
therefore, to take up the subject, and procure
some alteration in the future destination of that
ancient fortress.

If it is to be preserved on account of its anti-
quity and traditionary associations, let all that is
really ancient, and which has not been touched
by the fire, be retained ; and let it be exclusively
appropriated to the preservation of the jewels
of the Crown and the public records, under the
charge of a few troops capable of holding it
against a mob ; but let it not be henceforward
considered a depot of arms and ammunition, and,
above all, let us no longer have a powder maga-
zine in the heart of a populous city. The two
characters of a place for the preservation of
the regalia and the public records, and of a place
for storing up guns, muskets, and powder, are
wholly incompatible, at all times and places, and,
particularly so in the spot where they have
hitherto been united.
We apprehend that all which is valuable in the
Tower,-on account of its antiquity and associa-
tions, occupies a small space, and the huddled
buildings about the walls, instead of being pre-
served as either ornamental or useful, ought to
be pulled down as a disgrace. They remind us
of the stalls and sheds we have sometimes seen
built up on the outer walls of a Cathedral. The
present destruction of the ordnance part of the
establishment seems to us a favourable time for
pressing such considerations on the citizens and
on the Government. To both we venture to sug-
est, that the Tower ought no longer to be used
s a fortress, pr ati' ordnance depot, and that
•th should, wilt their respective stations, take
easures to alter its destination. The Govern-
ment should provide accommodation for the arms
at Woolwich—the citizens should memoralise
the Government to remove from the midst of the
City a powder magazine which is there only dan-
gerous and no longer useful.

The French Journals are naturally occu-
pied with the recent caricature of a rebel-
lious conspiracy at Brussels. Were it not that
it involves the fate of a few reckless adventurers,
and the happiness of their families, we should
hardly deem it worth writing about. Whether
the rebels belonged to the Orangist faction or
not, is of little consequence, as there is really no
party in Belgium so hostile to King LEOPOLD as
to threaten the stability of his Government.
The citizens of Paris are again crying out lbr
some diminution of the imposts on the importa-
tion of beef. Their obtuseness of intellect is
such, that they cannot yet be made to under-
stand how France is more prosperous by com-
pelling them to dine on broth made of the flesh
of dogs, cats, donkeys, and worn-out horses, than
on young fat German oxen at a still cheaper rate.
They, in their ignorance of the Conservative be-
nefits of home production, blindly overlook the
interests of the cat-rearers and dog-fanciers.
Were their revolutionary prayers attended to,
what would become of all the old ladies who now
rear tabbies for the Parisian market? What dog_
fancier could live by stealing and skinning
poodles, were the restaurateurs supplied with
young fat beef at an equally cheap rate? Still
the Parisians will not be convinced, and the
Monopolists protest that they shall starve in
their ignorance.
The Presse has a clever article, dissuading
the Government from the adoption of a retalia-
tory commercial policy towards the Ujiited States.

General O'DONNELL has arrived in Paris to re
port to Madam MuNoz the bad success of till

revolutionary movement in Spain. What ex-
planation she will deign to give her dupe respect-
ing her disavowal of himself and his partizans,
we pretend not to know; but the interview will

be rather awkward, the more especially as
O'DONNELL has expended what little fortune
he posseOsed in this mad attempt. But fron
the strong i;rce which Louis PHILIPPE is
Spanish frontier, it would
concentrating on
appear that General O'DONNELL is not long
destined to remain withoul; employment. The
CITIZEN-KING is said to be disst:!isfied with the
trifling number of throats cut in the COPinsula•
On the question of naval disarmament, we find
the following in the Toulonnais :
The disarmament of our naval forces, against which
we have so often protested. is now probably going to take
place. Nevertheless, all France being against this un-
timely dislocation, a different method has been taken to
accomplish it than was at first intended. The sailors who
have served for four years, three and a half, and even three
years, have been ordered to be dismissed from service.
We hear that even the sailors who have scarcely been
forty-two months on board the Government ships will
also be dismissed. The sailors are not to be all sent
away together ; cnre has been taken- that they should
leave only in small detachments, that their number
may not make them be remarked on their way
home. They have received permits authorising
them to serve in the commercial navy. Men
from the northern provinces aro to be embarked
on board the Jena, destined for Brest, that they may
not have to cross all France. These sailors will be re-
placed by conscripts, and soon after, under pretext of
insufficiency, the vessels which the fresh equipages will
no longer be able to manage, will first be put on the
roads and afterwards disarmed. These precautions
show the intentions of the Government, which, at all
events, were foreseen. A fact also worthy of remark is
the neglect of filling up the number of young officers.

From Madrid there is no news of a later date
than the 25th ult. The address of the National
Guards of the capital to the young QUEEN, with
her MAJESTt'S answer, will be found in another
part of The Sun. In the same column will be
found some interesting gossip from the Spanish
frontier, to which we direct attention.
The Annual Session of the Council-General of the
Seine was closed on Friday. During the discussion on
the door and window-tax and the patent-tax, the ques-
tion of the census was brought on the tapis. The Council
recognised the legality of the measure, but at the same
time recommended that the census should be taken ac-
cording to the ancient mode and the last instructions
given by the Minister of Finance. The following is an
extract from the recommendation addressed by the mem-
bers to the Prefect:—" The Council-General persists in
its repeated desire that lean cattle should be ad-
mitted into France duty free—that the duties levied
at the frontiers on all other cattle should be regulated
by weight, and not by number—and that an uniform
duty should be fixed whereby the burthen of such
imposts would be greatly lessened. The Council also
expresses a wish that the Government should seriously
inquire whether there cannot be adopted an uniform
and moderate rate of postage for all letters throughout
the continental territories of the kingdom—that there
should be a reduction of the charge of all letters beween
soldiers in actual service and their families, and particu-
larly for those who are in Africa—that the delay of
twelve hours, so injurious to commerce, for all depart-
mental and forei,rn letters passing through Paris, should
be abridged ; and lastly that the charge on all money-
letters, or at least those containing small sums, should

be reduced. -
We have received the following from Amsterdam, of
28th ult.:—" Yesterday the definitive refusal of the King,
as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, to ratify the treaty be-
tween Luxembourg and the German Customs Union, was
officially communicated to the Prussian Minister at this
Court. This event has created a great sensation in the
diplomatic corps, as it was known that the King had re-
ceived from Berlin an energetic note on the subject of
his refusal to ratify the treaty, and that Austria and
England had also expressed apprehensions as to the con-
sequences likely to result from it. The Belgian and
Dutch Commissioners who are now at Antwerp to settle
that part of the treaty of peace between the two countries
which regards the use and navigation of the Scheldt,
have agreed on a very important point, which has been
the subject of negotiations for two years, viz., the