The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-21 00:00:00

wards are very likely to be the result of the present
pursuits of our Contemporary. Through a great
number of sentences the Ministers are censured for
their conduct in relation to a clause which they
introduced last Session into the Bill for amending
the Irish Poor-law. They are accused by implica-
tion of wilful deceit, the gist of which is that the clause
substitutes "liability to poor-rates in place of actual
payment of them, as the qualification to vote for
Poor-law Guardianship," and the Duke of WEL-
LINGTON was not informed of this important
change. But the Times has forgotten to explain
to its readers, and the Duke forgot to explain in
Parliament, how the actual payment of rates could,
by any possibility, be the qualification of voting
for Poor-law Guardians before any rates were made.
Has our Contemporary forgotten that there are Bo
Poor-rates yet in Ireland? There can be none, we
apprehend, till Guardians are elected ; and the
liability to payment as the qualification to rote for
Guardians was substituted for actual payment,
simply because there could be no actual
payment till the Guardians were elected.
That the Marquis of WESTMEATH should have
blundered on such a mare's nest would have sur-
prised nobody, but that he, of all men, should have
led the Times to shout out with delight " I have
found it," will long be considered a memorable ex-
ample of the ease by which clever men are made by
their own evil passions the dupes of men who are
not clever.

It is with great reluctance that we make any ani-
madversions on the conduct of the Commissioners
of Police, or of the men under their command,
because in many respects the police arrangements
and the order and regularity with which they are
carried into effect, are entitled to commendation.
It cannot be denied, however, that within the last
twelve months these Commissioners have been mak-
ing attempts to establish a system which is known
only under despotic Governments, and which, they
may rest assured, will not be submitted to in this
free country. Almost every Act that has any re-
ference to the police of the metropolis has been
strained to the utmost. They have attempted for
some time to clear all public- houses on Satu-
day nights at twelve, in direct opposition
to the opinions of some of the most re-
spectable Magistrates of the metropolis;
they have by their own authority closed up
Temple Bar during church hours ; they have shut
up places of refreshment in the afternoon of Sun-
day, at Highgate, Hampstead, and other places
under their dominion ; and within these few days
they have issued an order that the amusements
which from time immemorial have been permitted
at Greenwich on Easter week, shall cease at the
hour they prescribe. This is an interference with
the amusements of the working classes, with the
profits which the publicans and shopkeepers of
that place have long enjoyed, and with the old-
established customs of the country, which we
are confident will not be endured, and which
will lead to results that the public authorities ap-
pear not to anticipate. The police are sufficiently,
strong to suppress any violent breach of the peace
without making regulations which are abhorrent to
the feelings of the people, and which are more
adapted to Russia or China, where there are only
two classes, tyrants and slaves, than to the inde-
pendent and moral community of England. The
Police Commissioners, we regret to say, are confirm-
ing the worst suspicions of those who attacked them
on the establishment of the force ; they are making
the men spies and informers, establishing a system
of military dictation hitherto unknown in the coun-
try, and rendering the whole body hateful in the
eyes of the public. Should any disturbance take
place on the enforcement of their coercive system
on them must rest the responsibility.

The Commerce of Sunday publishes a long
letter from Naples, dated the 9th inst., on the
question of the dispute between King FERDINA
and the British Government. According to the
writer, troops to the number of 40,000 had em-
barked for Sicily, with equipments rather for op-
posing a military than a naval armament. The
King's great dread is a revolution in Sicily, in
favour of his brother the Prince of CAPUA, who
is already talked of as the future Sovereign of
that island, under the protection of Great Britain.
To maintain his power in Sicily the King has
stripped Naples of every means of defence, so
that a single ship of war might lay waste his
Capital. France is represented as not indifferent
to the danger by which the infatuated King of
Naples is threatened. M. TRIERS has written
a note to the French Ambassador, charging him
to recommend to the King the immediate abolition
of the Surpliur Monopoly, subject, of course, to
a demand for full compensation on the part of
the French Contractors. This is the part of the
business that the King cannot stomach. His ava-
rice is so insatiable, that it is as painful to him to
think of refunding the immense sums himself and
his Ministers received in bribes from the French
merchants, as to reflect upon the probable los of his
kingdom. His ruling passion is a love of money, and
though the most capricious and tyrannical person in
his dominions, all his faults are subservient
to the acquisition of gold. The expense at which
the Sulphur Monopoly was purchased was enor-
mous. General FILANGIERI, now at the head
of the army in Sicily, pocketed 15,000 ducats, ST.
ANGELO, Minister of the Interior, 40,000, and all
the other creatures of the Court in proportion.
This proves that the monopolists were not at first
fully acquainted with the character of the Neapoli-
tan Sovereign. So much delicacy in tendering a
bribe was useless. They might have dispensed
with purchasing the good-will of the courtiers by
advancing, in the first instance, with their bags of
ducats, to the foot of the Throne. Now if the resto-
ration of the gold which has found its way into the
Royal coffers were obligingly dispensed with by M.
TRIERS, no doubt King FERDINA ND could not
have the least objection to abolish a monopoly by
which he already loses to the enormous amount of
70 per cent. But he does not like the refunding
principle ; and mayhap he has sense of shame
enough left to feel that the disclosures, to which the
abolition of the monopoly must give rise, cannot
but reflect indelible disgrace upon himself and his
Court.

The Paris Journals of Sunday are a good deal
taken up with the sulphur monopoly contract.
Contrary to a statement in the Semaphore of Mar-
seilles, that " all hopes of a direct arrangement be-
tween the English Government and the Govern-
ment of Naples seemed to have vanished," the
bestinformed of our Parisian Contemporaries ex-
press their conviction that no hostilities will take
place. The KING, who is no Falstaff, has none
of the fat knight's horror of compulsion. In the
meantime the appearance of three English ships of
war and two steamers was momentarily expected
on the 9th on the coast of Sicily.
The Journal des Debats publishes the following
correction of an article which recently appeared in
its columns, reflecting on the political conduct of
the English Consul at Monte Video. The frank
spirit in which this correction of an unintentional
error is conceived, is creditable to our Gallic Con-

temporary :
" In an article published some months since, on the
affairs of Buenos Ayres, we ascribed the visit of M. Man-
deville, the English Consul to Monte Video, to motives
unfriendly to France. We now receive letters from Bue-
nos Ayres, of I he 24th of December, with more exact in-
formation, which allows us to rectify what we then asserted
with reluctance. It now appears certain that the journey
of M. Mandeville to Monte Video took place to the
:he Argentine
Ni Vne e
subjectr.an-
noyance of the Buenos Ayres G
Reovernment, and had for its
object merely the conclusion of a treaty with Ribera on
the
are happy to be able
to add, that the intervention of the British Consul in the
affairs
ais of
of
France the
andslal,e trade
Republic has always
been of the nature to be expected from the representative
of a friendly nation."
The removal of the remains of NAPOLEON from
St. Helena to Paris is said to be the subject of a
a negotiation between AL TILLERS and Lord PAL-
MERSTON. We frankly admit that we have long
felt suprise that such a negotiation was not termi-