The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-14 00:00:00

BELGIUM.

BRUS3RLS, JAN. lo.—The Moniteur Beige promul-
gates the law which fixes the Budget of the Department
of Justice, for the year 1841, at the sum of 11,060,507 f.
Captain Eenem, of the Artillery, who was with the
. . .

troop; of Ibrahim Pacha, in the crripaign in Syria, has
returned to Brussels, having spent above a year in Egypt
and Syria.
OSTEND, JAN. 6.—Since the navigation of the Scheldt

bas been interrupted by the ice, we gave received in our
port the Soho and I'rincesa Victoria steamers, which
landed their cargoes. The greater part of the goods has
been sent to Antwerp by the railway. Of thirteen other
ships which have put in here, ten are landing their car-
goes; these goods will be forwarded to their destination by
the railway, on which 100 to 120,000 kilogrammes are
daily dispatched.
BRUSSELS, JAN. 12.—We are assured, that in conse.
quence of the discussion of the Commissioners for fixing
the frontier line, it is proposed to :detach the village of
Tintangc from Belgium, and to annex it to the German
portion of the province of Luxemburg. We hope that
the Government will not consent to this cession.

The inciting of the snow, caused-1:y a sudden thaw and
pretty copious rain, gives reason to fear that the Seine will
again °vet flow its banks; it has risen five feet since
yesterday.
A letter from the Hegue, addressed to the Orga»e,
states that the present King of Holland has ordered an act
of justice, which has been too long delayed. Before the
separation of the northern and southern provinces the Go-
vernment of the kingdom of the Netherlands was indebted
to several Belgian contractors for articles furnished to
towns in the northern part of the kingdom. After the re-
volution King Willarn 1. refused to pay them, and re-
ferred them to the Belgian Government, which would
not acknowledge itself indebted for articles supplied to
Holland.
The present Kind of Holland has just given orders that
all the accounts shall be settled as soon as possible; and
by a second decree fixes the manner is which the affair
shall be conducted. The contractors are to produce, be-
sides the proofs of their claims, a certificate from the
Minister of Finance of Belgium, that they have not re-
ceived anything on account of them from the Belgian
Government.

rtELGIA 2.! I. UNDS—Baussitu, JAN. 12.
Actual Delit, 2S per Cent.
Rothschild's Loan, 5 per C9nt 1,6%
Loan of Thirty Million:, 4 per Cent ,
9(i%
3 per Cent.
•• Gs%
Loan of City, 1832, 4 per Cent ...........
Socletyof Comma:re, 45siper Cent
Bank of Belgium, 5 per Cent... .......... 87%
National Society ................... ..........
Exchange on LondoA (shot t) ................ 11 85
—Brussels Papers, Jan. 1 2.
AUSTRIAN FUNl33.—VviNys, JAN 2.
•
f iveper 'Pt ............ 10(44,
pc. CLa... ....... ................. .......... ..... 103
Three p,r Cents.
Bank shams .................. •••••••••••••••••• ..... :610
Zeitusg, Jan. 7.

atoms.

LONDON:
THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, r 41.

We arc glad to see by the Walsall Letter-Bag
that spirited addresses are pouring in on the Wal-
sall electors from all parts of the kingdom. They
cannot be deaf to the prayers of
their suffering
countrymen. They must feel that they have a great
duty to perform, and so feeling we are persuaded
that they will perform it nobly. When did a body
of Englishmen fail to do their duty ? They
have conquered on the ocean, they have carried
their victorious arms to the very heart of
Asia, and their s6!l!ricre victor:4)ns arts, foundi'ig
new empires, to the very opposite extremities of
the globe. They will not conquer abroad to be

laves at home. Their avaricious, selfish tyrants,
who would remorselessly destroy the country's
greatness and the people's liberty for their own
purposes, are now divided amongst themselves,
and freedom will be won—the freedom of industry,
the freedom of eating untaxed bread—by success
at Walsall. The hardy race who have conquered
the elements, and made wind and fire their hand-
maids, will not quail before an iniquitous bread-
taxer. They will be victorious over him as they
are over the stubborn metal which they may be said
to fashion into bread.

On. the electors of Walsall the fate of the bread
tax now depends. They have it in their power to
c7ush it. Let them at once signify to the gentle-
man bread-taxer-who is a candidate, that they will
not have him ; let them drive Mr. GLADSTONE
from the field, hopeless of success ; let them at once
convince him that to go to the poll would only
add disgrace to his expense ; and they will, by the
Kama act, convince all the landlords of the emp'rc,
aiready wavering, that the bread-tax must be, and
then. it will be, abolished. Men of Walsall, lose:
not the opportunity of acquiring great renown

Yesterday the Times made a grand discovery, or
rather two discoveries, that this nation is Conserva-
!l've, and does not trouble itself about theories of
Go%termnent. As a consequence, it is proud to fol-
low its national leaders. Unfortunately for the
reputation of our Contemporary the great body of
the people have at this moment thrown off all res-
pect for their natural leaders ; they have framed
!or themselves a new Constitution, and they aim at
a levolution. The wonderful discovery of the
7iines comes half a century too late. It speaks
historically. What it now says might have been
tru t, fifty years ago ; but the subsequent long
domination of the Tories, pretending to rule
in .spite of the people, denying all Reform, and
su:; porting a mixed CASTLEREAGH despotism,
umr.lc up of military principles disguised in civil
fortl—an armed soldier without regimentals—has
t an end to real Conservatism and contentedness,
an,E: made the bulk of the people eagerly canvass
tlwories of government.
It is at the same time true, and the fact is
worthy of attention, that many of the middle
classes, satisfied with their recently-acquired share
of the representation, fearing that they will lose
in importance by the suffrage being more exten-
sively diffused, and not a little alarmed by the
progress, and still more by the demands, of the
bulk of the people, have become Tories. Even
n; tiny of those who still support the Whigs out of
gratitude, are in their hearts so much Tories, that
thcy would at once forsake the Whigs were they to
pi,opose further concessions to the democracy. Of
that we daily see proofs. If that be what the
:rimes means by the increase of Conservatism, we
admit it ; but we cannot believe that it is a circum-
stance favourable to the stability of the Con-

sGtution.

The Liberal Members of the middle classes
were the links which connected the aristocracy
with the working classes. As long as the latter
mild hope for the assistance of the middle classes,
they looked to them for aid. As the middle classes
deserted their Liberal principles and turned Tories,
the people separated from them, and the rupture
I>etween the upper and lower classes became com-
plete. Such a statement may he gratifying to the
Tories, but it threatens mischief to the community.
The Whigs are unable, even if they be willing,
to take any measures to satisfy the bulk of the
people ; the Tories would only put an extinguisher
on all hope, and could only take measures to exas-
perate and control the working classes. From neither
class of statesmen, while the electoral body continues
of its present opinion, can the community expect
measures calculated to heal our present divisions.
This forebodes no pleasant futurity, and is more a
matter of sorrow than exultation.
We hive before asked, and we should like to
have the question answered, if the people are not to
be contented, how are they to be governed ? The
utmost amount- of constraint and coercion which
can be conveniently is already employed. More
troops and more police would only more impoverish
and aggravate the evils. Ireland is speaking with a
voice of her own. If the Irish be not convinced that
the Imperial Legislature is disposed to do them justice
—if it go on countenancing Lord STANLEY'S
political bigotry—*ey will become almost unanimous
in demanding repeal, and some circumstance will
give them so much power that they must either be
put down by the sword or repeal must be granted,
The Chartists are increasing in order and organiza-
tion. We know nothing of their numbers, but we
believe that they are far from contemptible. To
keep the millions out of the pale of the Constitution
will be as impossible for any length of time as it was
perpetually to exclude the Catholics. The latter were
excluded on account of their religion ; the former
are now excluded on account of their poverty—a less
valid reason, for Christianity praises poverty and
denounces wealth. The millions, then, have greater
claims than had the Catholics, and nothing is re-
quired but organization and leaders to make them
irresistible. The middle gasses, to the satisfaction
of the Tories, have deserted them, but leaders of
then' own class they will easily find, and, thus cut
off from ail sympathy with the upper classes, the
quarrel will only be the more embittered if not the
more deadly.

The Times exults at the people being opposed
to perpetual change. If the fact were so, its
exultation would be misplaced. Compare Eng-
iand with Italy in the reign of CHARLES
the FIRST, and compare the two now, and it is
apparent that the English Constitution has under-
gone as great a change in spirit, if not in form, as
the community has made progress in arts and
knowledge. The monarch now holds only a nomi-
nal power—then he was almost despotic ; the no-
bility have equally sunk in the scale; they are out-
shone in wealth by the middle classes, with whom
they hare been obliged to share their power.
Dissent is almost as powerful as the prelacy,
which, in the days of the first CHARLES, was al-
most equal to the Sovereign. It is good that the
Constitution has so changed. If it had been sta-
tionary, as the Times represents it, while the society
had made such prodigious progress, it would have
become wholly unfit for our purposes, and some re-
volution would before now have shattered it to
Since the commencement of this ecn-
tury, society has made a more rapid progress
than ever before. It moves, like population, with an
accelerating ratio. Our numerous colonies and our
trade place it beyond the control of Government.
If our institutions, therefore, be not changed to cor-
respond with social progress, they will every day
become more and more onerous, more and more
hampering, till they be burst by a convulsion.
This is what the Tories, by measures of coercion,
seem anxious to bring about. They seem to court
a revolution, as a homage to their wisdom, because
they have predicted it. They may have the power
to realize their prophecy, but it will be ruin to
themselves.

Having pointed out the source of the conflict of
opinion now prevalent between the upper and
lower classes, in respect to their claims to make
laws for one another, we shall now, and occasionally
hereafter, notice aome of the consequences and in-
ft..t.ncTs to wilich that (Were/Ice of opinion Ica,li. i
efiw iowor ciasse fot. c;ampli:; ill c!li.lil-2 `'llli
share of representation, seem to have one great
advantage over property. They have not been tried

CV(-TV

and found wanting. Property has been entrusted
igN i h the power of legislation, and whatever it may
have done for itself, it is the universal opinion of
!abour that property has cheated and degraded it.
There is no chance, therefore, of ever again inducing
labour to submit to the exclusive claims of property,
while labour, never having been tried, can call
fancy to its aid, and make promises of bliss which
no experience can test. It has indeed broken loose
at times from the restraints imposed by property,
and has then worked terrible destruction, but it has
never been quietly and orderly installed into the
office of a law maker, and has, therefore, never
been tried. Perhaps the United States may be
considered an exception to the remark ; and if it be,
experience can have nothing to say against entrust-
ing industry with the power of making laws.
On one point it has, we think, a decided :supe-
riority over property. Property never yet has had
any respect for industry.. In fact it may be said of
property generally throughout Europe, that it ex-
ists by a violation of the rights of industry, and has
therefore a continual tendency to preserve and
maintain itself at the expense of industry. On the
contrary, industry has a great, a marked, and an
inherent respect for property. It aspires to pos-
sess property. There is in this circumstance a
strong reason to believe, were industry, equally
with property, entrusted with the power of making
laws, industry would inflict no injury on property,
but would protect and preserve its rights.
Industry and poverty have no special influence
over property. Wants and privations may some-
times rouse its sympathies, but, in general, pro-
perty looks on industry and poverty as encroachers, or
even as criminals, and makes laws for them accord-
ingly. Property, however, has a great influence
over industry and poverty, and that influence would
not be destroyed, we doubt even if it would be
much lessened, by separating from it the exclusive
po.ier to make laws. To speak in perfectly plain
terms, if universal suffrage were established to•mor-
row, and no property qualification were required
in the representative, the agricultural labourers,
the workers in factories, the men who go down
into the bowels of the earth to procure us coals and
metals, would remain much under the influence of
the landowners, the clergy, the factory owners, and
the mine owners. If the opulent classes chose to exert
themselves, as universal suffrage would compel
them, they would be able to control to a very con-
siderable extent the votes of the industrious classes.
No example has yet occurred of any person having
been elected for Scotland, though no property qua-
lification is required as a representative, destitute
of property below the average rank of the represen-
tatives who are required to have a property quali-
fication. Reason and experience, then, combine to
prove that it would be far safer and better for the
whole to share the power of making laws equally
amongst all classes than to monopolize it by pro-
perty, and that it would be better and safer for
property to allow numbers an equal share than it is
for numbers to vest the power exclusively in pro-
perty. The latter is certain to lead to the oppres-
sion of the many ; giving the many the power
to make laws does not, in like manner, even threaten
to be oppressive to the few.

We drew attention o❑ Friday to the fact that the
Morning Post bad become a free trader, and on
principle an advocate for the repeal of the Corn-
laws, without knowing it. Our Contemporary was
eloquent in favour of free competition, which it pro-
nounced to be the main principle of abundance and
steadiness of supply. We now learn from the
Dublin Evening Mail that the Standard is also a
convert to free trade. We should certainly have
recorded the fact before, had we noticed it, though
we scarcely regret that we did not, as the quotation
we are now about to submit from the former will
show that both these Pro-Corn-law Journals assent
to the grand doctrines of free trade. The capitals,
with the rest of the quotation, are from the Dublin
Evening Mail :
The third and last of our positions, which meets with
the aslant of the Standard, is one which, wherever it is
conceded, ought to put an end to all thoughts o f giving
more than a mere preference, ccutcris paribus, to any
article of home manufacture ; and we can only express
our astonishment that our Contemporary, with all his
faculties of mind, and with his eyes so fully open to the
great and universal truth which we are about to enun-
ciate in his own words, could, for a moment, contemplate
the irrational course of " submitting to the sacrifice of
using goods of inferior quality, or higher priced, than
the goods of established manufacturers," which be, al-
mast in the same breath, recommends :
" The young manufacturer cannot be blind to his
own interest, or to THE TRUTH THAT MEN
WILL NOT PERMANENTLY CONTENT
THEMSELVES WITH THE WORSE AND
DEARER ARTICLE, \V HEN THEY CAN
HAVE THE BETTER AND CHEAPER."

This great leading principle, not of national policy nor
of political oconomy alone, but of human nature in every
age and in every country, laughs to scorn all the inte-
rested nonsense of the Butts and the O'Connells, who
might as soon think to eradicate the seeds of vegetation
from the earth, as to make a community of men act sys-
tematically in a voluntary opposition to their own indi-
vidual interests.

Now, if ail this is true of Mr. O'CoNNELL's
scheme to foster and force manufactures in Ireland,
it is equally true of the landlords' scheme to foster
and force agriculture in the whole empire. In the
teeth of their united declaration, " that men will
not permanently content themselves with the worse
and dearer article," our Pro-Corn-law Contempo-
raries persist in endeavouring to make our manufac-
turers contented with worse and dearer corn grown
in England, when they could, except for the law
made by the landlords to enrich themselves, have
tine better and the cheaper corn grown in Poland
and Russia. These gentlemen are usefully engaged
in refuting their own arguments, and we willingly
and cheerfully leave them to their work, merely re-
minding them of the saying, invested with some
authority, that " a house divided against itself can-
not stand." Against Mr. O'CONNELL, they
strenuously espouse the doctrines of free trade ; •
against the Anti-Corn-law League, they as
strenuously espouse the system of restrictions, pro-
tections, and bounties.

The case of Mr. FROST is now before the pub-
lic by his own letter, and we cannot see in that
the least ground for the censure which the Tory
journals have heaped on the Ministers. -FROST
is sent to one of the worst penal settlements, the
place of punishment for those who are too wicked
to live with other convicts. There is no mercy in
that. But Mr. FROST is not chained with thieves
and murderers, and is not compelled, like them, to
work in irons. Now that is quite consistent with
general policy and general practice. It never has
been customary to treat those convicted of political
offences as if they were thieves or highwaymen.
Probably those who made the laws had an eye to
themselves in founding the distinction, for while
they could never
.dread being- punished as thieves,
they never could tell to what accusations, in the tur-
moils of party, they might be exposed. Certain it is,
however, a distinction between political offenders
and other offenders has always been observed, and
loud and just would be the remonstrances were men
like Mr. FROST to be ironed with thieves and
murderers. In Mr. FROST'S letter we see ❑o proof
of any mercy or kind treatment more than is usual
in cages like his ; and we repeat that if the Govern-
ment had shown either mercy or kindness with a
view to soothing the masses at home, we should
not have been disposed to blame them. Beyond
he neeessary constraint to keep Mr. FROST safe,
hardship ioilietcd upon hiw

pei,,unal Lsire ui vengeance,
which ought, for the common and general good,, to

be reprobated. To thirst for the man's blood is to
have the passions of a tiger ; -to desire that be
should be exposed to the terrible cruelties inflicter;
on the twice-convicted felons which lately excited
the sympathy of the Post and the Herald, indi-
cates a nature at least as depraved as that of Mr.
FROST.

A young gentleman, called the Hon. G. P. S.
SMYTHE, has started for Canterbury on the Tory
interest. We read his speech the day before yes-
terday, but it seemed to us so utterly contemptible
as to be unworthy of notice. Our surprise was
considerable, therefore, yesterday, on seeing that a
Liberal Morning Contemporary had bestowed a
long comment on the wretched production. One
merit, indeed, Mr. SmyTnE has—he is admirably'
adapted to the mental capacity of those he wooes.
Ile and the Tory electors who believed in - mod
THOM, and the Rev. Members of the Chapt,r,
among whose followers were found THOM'S °."
ciples, are worthy of each other. Canterbut is
the proper place for a gentleman of Mr. SMYT
principles and talents to offer himself on tic Tory
interest ; but the Liberals of that city will seve
we trust, from the disgrace of having such a ,-ellrc*
sentative.

We have little more than room to call the at •
tention of the public to the Report of the meeting
held at Manchester on Monday, to take into con-
sideration the propriety of dissolving " the Man-
chester and Birmingham Extension Railway Com-
pany," and forming another on a much more en-
larged and comprehensive scale. The line, "s
originally laid down, made no provision for the
transfer of traffic from the Great Junction ; a:4
consequently the town of Liverpool, and the vz:6t
floating population, whose route to and from Lon-
don traverses that place, would have been practicallY
excluded from the benefit of that line. The new plan'
therefore, is to obviate these defects, and to
afford an opening by the Trent Line for the
traffic between London and Liverpool, as well as a
vast proportion of that from Scotland and Ireland.
The Company was accordingly dissovled ; another
will be formed in a few days, and the most active
measures will be adopted for carrying a new Bill
through Parliament this Session. This is a mea-
sure of such national importance that we trust ne
personal interests on the part of landed proprie'
tors, or other Railway Companies, will be allowed
to throw obstructions in the way of its speedy com-
pletion.

The Madrid Journals, of the sth instant, have
arrived. By driving the POPE'S Nuncio from the
capital, the Regency has got itself into a very dan-
gerous dispute with the clergy, which, in the pre'
sent distracted state of Spain, it was the excess of
folly to have provoked. Queen CHRISTINA had
sent some elegant presents from Rome to the •
Duchess of VICTORIA, to whom she again rec%ll.
mended the care of her children. The agitatiog
about the Douro question was subsiding, nor was
longer doubted that an amicable arrangement woklk
be made through the mediation of Great Britarr,
The Fives were, on the sth, at 28i- on the Bout
for cash.

There is no political news worth recording in (ll*
French journals of Tuesday. In the circumstance
of the Frenca Government having prevented thei
representation at the Theatre de la Renaissanc,'
a libel upon her Majesty Queen VICTORIA ar'c.
Prince ALBERT, the French Opposition journals fl" 4
matter for a fresh attack upon the SouLT-Guizer:
Cabinet. We have elsewhere given a long account
of this projected base and cowardly attack upli
one of the most deservedly popular Sovereigns an'.
most virtuous and exemplary women in the
world,
nor do we believe that there is a man of honour
or a virtuous wife and mother in France, who Will'
not blush that so scoundrelly an attempt had
made to asperse the immaculate purity of the
mestic life of the'Queen of ENGLAND. We are 0011
surprised that alter the infamous celebrity Frail°,
has obtained for the cowardly atrocities committe
r.
less upon the persoa than the pure reputation of
the beautiful and unfortunate MARIE ANTOV
NETTE, there should be found a man of letters I,°.
Paris so utterly lost to all sense of shame-... 50 enti
tirely forgetful of every principle of honour an
.
virtue that dignifies manhood—as to court for ins
country any additional notoriety in this respect'
But much as it grieves us that such an author
should be found in Paris for the sake. of France'
herself, we are still more grieved that the suppre
si on of his mean and malignant &andel
should obtain for him the sympathy °
any portion of the French daily press. Most
certain we are, that were the British stage to be.
prostituted to any attack upon the domestic chase'
ter of the King and Queen of the FRENCH, the
indignation of a London audience would lndi!
suffer it to let the actors and actresses escape oil"
their lives. But, thank GOD, disaffected as are
our people, our very mobs know how to resPec!
domestic virtue in the highest as well as the lower'
rank of life.
The French Government received on Tuesday
telegraphic despatch from Brest, which stated 01
a treaty of peace had been concluded betw,ocs
France and Buenos Ayres. It was certainly ilighf
time for the settlement of a quarrel the origin °.
which was so trifling, and whose continuance l`as
so injurious to the commercial interests of France'
England, and the United States. The last ee'
counts from Buenos Ayres stated that the (peel°
would be settled through the mediation of i'4
MANDEVILLE, the British Minister, but no po- •
ticulars regarding the ultimate arrangement appear
in the French Journals.
The following telegraphic dispatch from French
Africa was likewise received by the Governroe°
on Tuesday afternoon :
" TOULON, JAN. 11, 1841— ALGIERS, JAN. 6;
" MARSHAL VALLEE TO THE MINISTER OF WAR- j
" The province of Algiers is perfectly tranquil. The
weather has interrupted cur communications with 111.;dea",
" A slight engagement lately took place at Mostagarie".4
in which the Arabs were defeated.
" The Constantine mail has not arrived."
The question of the fortification of Paris has lost
none of its interest for the French people. Thef
are as eager to see Paris surrounded by strong o'ol's
as if an allied army was again within a day's mare
of the banks of the Seine. The correspondent. of
a Contemporary, writing:upon this popular manta
for defensive walls on the part of a nation of heroes'

has the following just observations :
It is true that Paris is France, and that a person in 19°1:
session of the capital commands, by the system of cce"..
isation latterly adopted, the whole of the departmoot'
True, so far as Paris is in communication with the pro;
vinces; but no longer true when Paris is isolated, sI
cut off by a foreign army from its usual support in tbie
interior. In such a case, if ever it should occur, f ri
will be an agglutieation of human beings shut '
within walls, depending for their daily food on ouPPII,c •
from the outside, and having no means of being
licved front any other quarter. A beaten army--11: 9
we suppose the French army beaten, if the All'e
pierce so far as the capital would retreat fight;
ing on Paris, and take refuge in it. The
of :France is left at the mercy of the enemy; 5°
and Pars can. only hold out as long as it has progiv°l;
to maintain itself, The river, the great artery of sullr,l6,
both above and below the city, would be barred . t"i
enemy—the roads leading in all directions would be.cy
up. A blockade would be established within a distVicer
safe from sallies of the garrisen, and what is to become le ,11
Paris in the course of a few weeks? A million of Pclo •
will not willingly starve, and the gates will be opener.
the enemy the moment provision begins to fail. Be°
lest that the French is not Spanish nature. Part
will rot bear the same privations endured at Saragoss'
Gerona, or Astorga ; and even if they would a blockading ;1•,:a
force would take core to leeve them to their lastO re' ;
.1" '
suti, I,; (c ii 4 I:ctild ;JP,
„y re (
All this is well known to the French
ment, and would be been at a glance by the

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