The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8. 1810.

out the least appearance of buoyancy. The intelligence
from Paris of M. Thiers and his colleagues having
suddenly assumed a marked appearance of unanimity,
and the inference drawn from this circumstance being
unfavourable to the maintenance of peace, was the
main instrument in imparting this gloom to the
market, and the heavy condition of the Foreign Ex-
changes yesterday afternoon also contributed to it.
Consols, at the commencement of business, were
marked 87i to Q for immediate transfer, and 871 to
for the account. These prices were maintained with
some difficulty to within an hour of the close of the
market, when a sensible re-action began, chi( fly
in time bargains, sales being effected at a de-
cline of 1 per cent., and in some few cases even a
fraction more. The cause of this retrograde move-
ment is said to be a determination come to by the
Directors of the Bank of England to advance their rate
of discount on loans, or to adopt other stringent measures
for meeting the ominous appearances of the times, in
which case, unquestionably, speculators of every class
would be the first to find the shoe pinch them. This
we believe to be undoubtedly the real origin of the sud-
den fall, but it was reported in addition that a pigeon
express had brought over prices 2 per cent. lower from
the Paris Bourse. Money Stock dropped from 871 to
861, closing at 861 ; and Stock for the account from
87-- to 861, closing at 86,1. Exchequer Bills were at
Is. to 3s. premium in the early part of the day, and
India Bonds at 153. discount, but no sales were made
after the serious fall in Consols. The New Three.and-
a-Half per Cents. declined from 961 to 96 and 95i ;
and India Stock was heavy at 245.
The Foreign and Share Markets were affected by the
state of our own funds. Spanish Active Bonds for Account
fell from 221 to 21i and 22 ; Dutch Two-and-a-Half
per Cents. from 49 to 48 and .18a- ; the Five per Cents.
from 951 to 94 ; and French Three per Cents. from
71f. to 67f., the lowest price, however, being 69f. 50c.
Great Western Shares were done this afternoon at
15 to 16 ; New, at to 5 ; South Western at 13i- to
; and York and North Midland at 15i premium ;
Brighton were 11i dis.

to know that they were vital ; that a difference respect-
ing them in any Cabinet must have led to the retire-
ment of the dissidents, or, what was more probable, to
the break-up of the Administration, among the
members of which such dissensions were dis-

covered to exist concerning measures inseph•
rably bound up with its foreign and colonial po-
licy. This laboured attempt to conceal the unseemly
schisms in the long much-vaunted united Conservative
party, will not only fail of its design, but will, by its
having been attempted, show how fatal those schisms
are, in the estimation of the party, to the hopes of
office so long ardently cherished, the attainment of
which has been so perseveringly sought by all the
means which party ingenuity could devise ; and how
anxious they are to sew fig-leaves together, in the hope
of concealing " the shameful parts of their constitution"
(to borrow a phrase from Bishop Philpotts) from tl-e
public eye. Were Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of
Wellington in office, they must either propitiate the
ultra Churchmen, whose impracticable demands for ex-
clusion and extension are urged upon the House of
Commons by Sir R. Inglis, Mr. Sergeant Jackson, and
others of the party, by consenting to their demands ; or
they must oppose their measures. In the former case
they would destroy themselves by disgusting and alarm-
ing every moderate politician in the c)untry ; in the let-
ter they would be deprived of the support without which
their Administration could not hold together six weeks.
The " cross benches" would be occupied by Sir Robert
Inglis, and the party which follows him in his efforts
to extend the power of the Church by large forced con-
tributions from the State ; and " We are fifty," would
be a pretty significant hint as to what S r Robert Peel
; and his colleagues must expect if they declined the
r terms on which " the Holy Alliance" would lend its
support to the general measures of his Government.

- -
(From the Courier.)
For a long time the English nation has been re-
proached with exclusive attachment to the aristocra-
tic branches of its society, whenever it is requisite to
bring into operation any portion of its penal laws. If
a nobleman, having seen or felt too many black bottles
upon the table, sally out of his mansion and knock
down some half-dozen policemen, besides destroying
the knockers and bell-pulls of ie neighbourhood in
which he delights to exhibit his prowess, what does the
magistrate ? He inflicts the usual penalty for drunk-
enness, and if there be a charge for wilful damage.
orders it to be paid. Perhaps, too, the assault on con-
stables, unfortunate women wandering about the streets
at the time of his peregrinations, or poor tradesmen re-
turning to their homes, may be alleged against the
noble offender. One result invariably follows a charge
involving any of these disgraceful outrages—the gen-
tleman of whatever rank he may be is ordered to pay
the legal fine, and to defray the damage which he has
occasioned in a voluntarily incurred ungovernable mo-
ment. This is justice as prescribed by law, but it is
not such justice as is calculated for the good of the
peaceable part of society. The noble or gentle offender
does not care a rotten straw for the pecuniary loss which
his inglorious exploits have occasioned him. He pays
the police clerk, retires, and in a few days afterwards
is produced to answer much the same sort of charges.
Well, the law has it so ; but, why in the name of all
that we hold valuable should we deem the transgressions
of a man moving in the higher circles of life of a more
pardonable nature than those of the less affluent ? It
a gentleman, forgetful of the respect due to society,
publicly exhibit himself in that state which the law
has stamped as worthy of a pecuniary penalty, why
should inferior persons not be allowed to possess
the same indulgence, if it can be so called ? But
when we see a person erring in a less degree than the
very genteel and highly noble persons ribose adventures
have become items in police reports, allowed to escape
in the manner stated, we are forced to inquire what no-
tions of justice are possessed by the magistracy who re-
fuse to admit the pecuniary penalty as a compensation of
a moral injury. _

(From the Standard.)

The ferment into which the French Ministers and
their press have been thrown by the easy success of
the operations against Beyrout curiously illustrates the
hypocrisy of their late clamour. A few days ago they
reclaimed against the quintuple treaty as impossible to
be carried into effect, without bringing the Russians to
Constantinople ; and as, therefore, nothing more than
a preliminary to investing the Czar with the Euro-
pean dominions of the Porte. Now, however, that
they have before them proof that the treaty is
likely to be enforced without bringing the Russians
to Constantinople—according to all present appear-
ances, without the advance of a single Russian
solder, even into Asia Minor—their fury is still
more inflamed. It is surely plain from this, that the
alleged fear of Russia was altogether a fallacy from
the first, and that the professed desire to protect the
integrity of the Ottoman empire was no less a fallacy.
There is now every rational ground for supposing
that the people of Syria and the troops of the Sultan,
only aided by such naval co-operation as the Allies
afford, and such as in principle France has sanc-
tioned by the Spanish quadruple treaty, will be quite
sufficient to drive the rebel usurper beyond the Desert,
or, if the Porte choose to punish Isis crimes, to drive
him even from Egypt; and supposing this to be effected,
what reason will the Government which affects a care
for the integrity of the Ottoman empire as necessary
to the balance of Europe, have to complain ?
The Ottoman empire will not be less entire by the
recovery of the richest portion of its territory, or less
strong to resist Russia, if necessary, by vindicating justice
upon its rebel vassal. Nations are not made more formid-
able to their neighbours by partition—" a word to the
wise." M. Thiers, it is said, threatens to resign if his
Sovereign and his colleagues will not treat the re-
duction of Beyrout, or at the least of Acre, as a
cants belli. We hope that by this time the red cross
and the crescent are waving in union over the walls of
waved over these walls
" child and champion"
, M. Thiers would be
Acre,to
of
jt
ah
ceoabsmi fortyn oi
sr nit yearsifi,coaftiwo nh
os
mog
of that
a tfht eery a i
the successor, if his pigmy stature of mind allowed him.
But wise a prince as Louis
Philippe still w
will e u dotrebat whether
t such
a so n
event
as
plunging France in hostilities, and
self the Lafayette, the Custine, Dumourier, or Pi-
coannstiothectiansgionhilmor.
chegru, of a state of anarchy,
in which the least
reverse—and reverses would be early and fre-
quent on the side of France in the threatened
war—signs the warrant- of banishment or death for
the relit% authority. Louis Philippe is, we imagine,
too wise a man for such a desperate game. He
will much more probably use his opportunity for
the fortification of Paris, and thus, by securing peace at
home, provide the power of preserving peace abroad in-
stead of kindling a flame elsewhere, which must re-
turn to his own house. As to the threatened resigna-
tion
According o
of
M.
Th
to alilers accounts,
a good thing of it, according to the
sufficientlyThiers i
hasn tellig
made
a of
Change-alley ; has gained some millions on the Bourse,
'i
t i s
which he may wish to place beyond the hazards of the
commotion by which chic fly he has gained them. It
is wonderful how patriotically independent of office
men become when they hare taken all that they can
out of it, how soon, after they have reaped the harvest,
political adventurers become disgusted with public life.
de-

THE BREAD-TAX AND THE

ARISTOCRACY.

PRANCE AND ENGLAND COMPARED.
The experience and example of the French nation
,
before the Revolution of 1798, seems to be thrown
awayt, on the Parliament and on the aristocracy of
England,
In France, at that period, the noblesse
werei
the from payment of taxes, by law—and
0. fle Plebeian, or the labouring classes, paid the ivinile
its the taxes for the support of the Government in all I
extravagance. There then existed great profusion
and extravagance at the Court, and in the class of the
privileged noblesse ; but, amongst the millions, want,
misery,. and wretchedness. At that time the public
prints often described the state and condition of the
their daily
people of France and of England as it then was in each
country. The French were exhibited in pictures as
lean, half-starved creatures—almost sketetons, covered
(meanwith
soundwith
ann :sh of soup meagre before them
ing.. soup without meat, and some bread as
hlavingragfare, whilst the 1!,
the
Francedescriptionuglish John Bulls were
exhibited with full and rosy cheeks, round paunches ;
fat, sleek, and in ood ndition, with a beef-steok
or roast beef and gplent;°of beer before them, and
delineated.
: and, we believe,
.In the workingpretty classes were miserable oh-
j?cts, and looked upon with disdain by their.
titled countrymen. in England the working
classes had enough of lain food for themselves and
families,i and they were decently clothed,. and had the
bo.d and independent character then given of them.
Was good
correctci''tli'' clothing
d well .
England had really a bold and happy working-class
when compared to• the miserable and dependent people
of France. History affirms, anti no person will
.deny,
that the people, driven totxtreintties by
.misrule,
brought on the revolution in Franee—the privileges of
the heartless and tyrannicalisoblesse were abolished—the
laws were made equal and applied equally to the rich
After the revolu-
a.nd to the poor---to all classes alike.
tion the taxes were levied on the property of the. coli-
try, and the rights of man—equal la.vs and equal justice
—were established in France. Let us ask wnst. have
been the consequences of ual laws and equal justice
to all classes of men in' Frane:le? The misrule and extra-
vagance of the Aristocracy and Court wereput n end
to, and le. the working. asses contributing their fair
.pro-
portion of service and of taxes for the support of the
State, received a fair reward for their labour, and have
become really bold and independent ; they are fat and
plump, with plenty of food to satisfy their wants—
with a comfortable home and decent clothing—and
contentment, as compared with their condition before
the revolution, reigns in the land. Although the
French have not gained by the revolution all the be-
nefits they, in the hour of cange, expected, they have
exchanged their squalid misery for plenty and comfort
—they have exchanged their rags for good clothing—
their wretched hovels for comfortable. houses, and to
some millions of their dwellings small pieces of land and

gardens are attached, adding greatly to their comfort ;
and a state of high feeling and of pride in
their country exists. Let any stranger question
them on that point, and they will find that
the ancient pride of Old John Bull has taken full pos-
session of the people of the land of frogs. The " land
of frogs" was applied to France in derision, and in
comparison with the land of roast-beef and plum-pud-
ding, which England was represented to be. Every
Englishmen of feeling—of common humanity, must
mourn over the change that has taken place in this, his
own land. The bold and independent John Bull, with
his roast-beef and plum-pudding, is changed into a
miserable, discontented, half-fed, halt-clothed, and .
broken-hearted wretch, lingering out a miserable exist-
ence, and yielding to want and disease in hundreds and
thousands, under circumstances which make the really
Christian man shudder to contemplate. In 1789 France
was one garrison, -with large military establishments to
keep down the working classes ; and the demand for
reforms and the correction of abuses made by the people
to the Government in those days was answered by
leaden bullets and the point of the bayonet. Now, the
working classes in France are freemen—they are en-
rolled as national guards, and they on all occasions pro-
tect the Government and support order without pay or
allowance. England in 1789 had scarcely ten thousand
soldiers, and these were considered chiefly necessary to
supply her colonies with recruits and with reliefs : the
loyalty and attachment of the working classes were the
best protectors of the peace and the best guardians of
the throne. At this time, Englishmen are literally dis-
armed—England is now one garrison, with large mili-
tary establishments to keep down the working classes
(and, in some counties, the richer classes of the people
are armed to assist the military to keep the people
down), and the demand for reform in these our days is
answered by leaden bullets and by the point'ot the
bayonet ! Is not this a true account of the state of
England—if we add, with the prisons filled by hundreds
of men whose f wits were, to demand such reforms in
the institutions of the country as the Ministers formerly
stated were necessary to put an end to misrule, and to
afford equal justice to all classes in the country? It
is to be regretted that the violence of some of the
reformers, smarting perhaps under an acute sense of
the injustice heaped upon the people in this land, and
of the misery and crime which have resulted from that
injustice, should have given, by violent language, a co-
lour, and afforded some pretence for the use of military,
and for the extensive prosecutions and severe punish-
ments which have been carried out by the present Whig
Government. Will any man look at that picture at-
tentively, and say whether there is not real danger to the
peace of the country ? Will any man guarantee that
suffering so intense, and misery so extensive—that dis-
content so loud, and complaints so general, can con-
tinue long without producing, as all former history tells
us, the most lamentable consequences?
We ask, then, what has changed the discontented
and miserable France of 1789 into happy and contented
France of 1840 ? What has changed the happy and
contented England of 1789 into the miserable and dis-
contented England of 1840 ?• We answer that unjust
privileges to the few—to a privileged aristocracy, have
produced misgovernment, and hence the melancholy
change we have pointed out is the result.
We add that the barbarous bread-tax, by plundering
and impoverishing the millions of honest and industrious
classes, to enrich the already wealthy aristocracy, has
been mainly instrumental to produce this change ; and
we, therefore, appeal to the Crown and to its Ministers
to repeal these unjust laws which starve the millions
and reduce them to a condition more wretched than the
working classes in any kingdom in Europe. We say,
repeal the Corn-laws, and do equal justice to all men—
or take the consequences.—Manchester 7 inzes.

LA PRIMA DONA, OR MADAME

MERE.

" But how comes it that M. Thiers has committed so
many blunders in the Eastern question ?"
" Why," replied my informer jocosely, " he would
do without his bonne. All his blunders have been com-
mitted in the absence of his mother-in-law. He had
been too much reproached with doing nothing without
her advice."
" But whence comes the lady ?" said I. "In all
quarters I am questioned about her.'
"Oh I you don't know. La Prima Dona, for such
is the ludicrous nickname she has received, is the
daughter of a respectable clothier of Faubourg Mont-
martre. The lady, who thinks that the Foreign Mi-
nister's mansion in the Rue des Capucines, which the
Countess Mole and Marechal Duchess de Dalnsatie
considered a very suitable residence, is not sumptu-
ously enough furnished for her, sat, in her first
youth, behind the counter where her mother
kept a draper's books. When she was of
an age to be married, she was married to
a lad who had learnt Exchange and Bourse
operations in a banking-house. This husband, M.
Doane, obtained, by the favour of the Duchess d'An-
gouleme, an office of stockbroker. He received com-
pany, his wife did the honours of his house, chatted
about the novel of the day, and got invited by some
journalists to the political solemnities of the times. This
was under the Restoration. She wished to be admit-
ted to the Faubourg St. Germain, but was repulsed.
She became ferocious against the old Nobility, and
hoisted at home the standard of Liberalism. Whoever
wrote in the Liberal journals the slightest enthusiastic
tribute to Foy or Benjamin Constant was sure to be
well received at her house. It was towards that period
that the author of ' L'Histoire de la Revolution ' was
introduced to her. So much affection was entertained
for him that he was soon treated a ranti de la ntaison,
and at length considered as one of the family. The
Revolution of 1833 opened to the friend the career of
honours and fortune. He availed himself of his influ-
ence to have the Recette Generale of Lille bestowed
upon l'antie's husband, and that the Lord alone knows
by what rouerie ! Monsieur end Madame Dosne had two
daughters. As soon as the eldest was fifteen years of
age she was married to M. Thiers, then Minister of Com-
merce. Young Elise, who was as pretty and fresh as a
grisette, has -become pale and sickly, which had made a
witty woman remark, . On n'epouse pas impunentent M
niers.' Madame Dosne's influence went on increasing.
M. Tuiers's journalists, the frequenters of the little Au-
teuil Court, the favourite 3 of that majesty of the Bourse
and counter, have more ridiculously still nick-named her
Madame Mere. It is she who has forced him to take
up his residence at the Auteuil Tuilerie. Alas ! the
Queen of the Tuilerie is no longer admitted into the
Tuileries ! Oh, if the world knew what tribulations
M. Thiers had to undergo, what obstacles he had to
overcome, before he could ()Hain an invitation for Ma-
dame Mere ! W hat negotiations were required to
enable her to cross even the threshold of the mansion of
the Deputies' President ! M. Dupin long proved in-
exorable. In vain was he prayed, in vain told that his
obstinate refusals and disdainful denials irritated M.
Thiers, he would not give way. ' All that he pleases:
exclaimed he, ' but for that it is quite impossible.' At
length it was represented to him that he could well re-
ceive a woman who had once entered the Tuileries,
when he replied, ' Olt ! nazis vous oubliez gee le Roi a
le droit de faire grace !'"—Balzac's Revue Parisienne.