The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-08 00:00:00

MORNING EDITION

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
CHRONICLE.—In what we hitherto said of the financial
programme of the Ministry, we have naturally dwelt most on
that part of it which appeareel to us the most prominently
good; we mean the proposed alteration in the Corn-laws. ut
there are consideratiens bearing upon the whole plan
.which
might have more weight with others in its favour, and might
even be necessary, in their eyes, to remove objections to that
part of it which seemed so excellent in itself, which ought not
to be overlooked. To others, it may be useful to point out
more forcibly than we have yet done, that this attempt upon
the Corn-laws is part only of a more general scheme. It is not
that monopoly is struck at in one only of its strongholds—
it is not that the landlord has been singled out for a sacrifice
—or that the gauntlet has been wantonly thrown down
to the " predominant interest;" but the case was thus :
Upon a general view of our commercial and financial condi-
tion, it was seen that our finances required assistance no less
than our commerce needed relief ; and it came then to be con-
sidered whether the requisite aid should be sought for the one
in those ordinary measures of taxation which could not but add
something to the burdens and difficulties of the other, or whe-
ther some means could not be devised which would alike pro-
mote and vivify both. It was thought that by a wide depar-
ture from our restrictive system so great an end might be at-
tained ; and the question then arose whether that interest
should be privileged from the experiment which is best
able to bear the brunt of the transition, whether that class
alone should be exempted from contribution, which, amid
the general stagnation of the other sources of our wealth,
has continued, for some time at least, to flourish and increase,
which in the course of the last four years has added some V.O
per cent. to the value of its possessions, which is only now so
Indignant at the proposed scheme, because its prejud:ces have
been strengthened, its selfishness become more obdurate by a
course of unusual prosperity. Not, indeed, that we should see
in that prosperity, in itself, anything else but a reason to re-
joice, still less that we should see it in a ground of attack; but
the financial and commercial position of the country is such as
to require that sacrifice among others, and to that position we
have been brought, not by any reckless course of im-
providence or mismanagement, but by a certain tide or
current in the commerce of the world which we have no
power . to control, at least by opposing it, and
which is yearly setting in with increasing strength.
One result of this, and that which it is our
most immediate business to remedy, is the present state of our
finances. It is idle to suppose, as many do, that the defici
which it is necessary to supply is attributable to a rash aban-
donment of taxation. For if we look back to the last two yearst
of our financial prosperity, the years 1835 and 1836, the last
years, too, in which there was any reduction of taxation, we
find that ont of 1,175,0001., the whole estimated net produce
of the taxes repealed, or reduced, the sum of 520,0001. is put
down for coffees, flint glass, and paper duties. These, in
fact, were the leading articles on which the repeal or re-
duction then took place, and yet, in comparing the aggre-
gate net produce under these heads, in the two years
18.34 and 1839, we find an increase of about 3,oool.—the
two sums being 1,932,0001. and 1,985,0001. ; and under
the head of coffee alone there is an increase, in spite of the
reduction of duty, from 620,C00/. to 780,000/. If we look now
to the whole produce of the.two years 1836 and 1839, we find
a decrease from 48,591,0001. to 47.351,0001. The year 1836,
it is true, was one of siegular, nay, even of excessive pro-
sperity, or at least of excessive development of our resources ;
and the depre sion that has since prevailed has been in some
degree, lio doubt, the consequence of that excel'. But if
it were only the ordinary penalties of overproduction that we
had to suffer, the country has had ample time to recover from
the blow. There was, indeed, a temporary rally in 1833,
brought about by the disastrous losses of 1837 ; but in 1839
our commerce and trade again relapsed into that state from
which they have not yet recovered, and show as yet but
little signs of recovering. There is an obvious want of ex-
pansiveness and spring in the sources of our wealth, and though
we have DO time to go through the many facts which
show this to be a consequence of our restrictive system, we
will mention one which comprises a multitude of facts within
itself. We mean the great, the unprecedented difficulty which
the Bank has experienced in bringing back gold to its coffers.
This, as is well known, is effected partly by checking importa-
tion through the scarcity of money, partly by stimulating ex-
portation through the lowness of prices. And in other in-
stances these means have been found to answer the purpose
both promptly and effectually ; but in this instance, that is,
since the last drain in the spring of 1535, the bullion in the
Bank remained for many months between two and four
millions ; and has barely yet, as appears by the last
monthly publication, reached the amount of five millions;
and this is not only the immediate and temporary
consequence of the purchase of corn—though much
inconvsnience and danger may arise even from that—but an
evil more permanent and more deeply seated is indicated by the
fact, that though this drain for bullion to a large extent began
more Shan two years ago ; though it has been for the last half
year and more very much abated—if it have cot altogether
stopped—yet the whole power of the Bank steadily directed to
• this point has failed in producing, to any considerable degree,
a bal trice of imports in our favour. Doubtless other causes,
over which our legislation has no control, have tended
to heighten the difficulty ; but it is wilful blindness to
sumo se that our restrictive system, particularly the Corn-
law part of it, has not much to answer for in the mat-
ter ; and whatever allowance we make make for the ope-
ration of those causes of which the effect has passed,
er will soon pass away, we should recollect, on the other hand,
that other causes of a more permanent nature, and more di-
rectly incident to our restrictive system, are about to be called
into activity ; we mean the impending changes in our relations
with America and the Brazils. Surely there is something in
this peculiar and novel juncture of our commercial affairs vs
justify a greater change of opinion than any we have yet heard
of; amore sudden conversion to free trade than any we have
yet witnessed. The present, however, is but a slight advance
in that direction. Free trade is not the only, nor is it even !
the
ichiefprofessed object of the Ministerial plan ; it has further
fa. its object the restoration of our revenue ; it has ftuther for
its excuse, if it need one,-onr financial necessities. Whether
even that plea will avail in its favour against the combination
both of party and private interests which will be arrayed
against it, the division of to-night will show. For it is not the
question of the Sugar Duties alone that is at issue, it is not the
prospects of the colonist or the cause of the negro that is alone
or chiefly at stake upon the result ; but it is, indeed, the
whole question whether the combined monopolists of every
class shall prevail, at the cost of impending ruin to the !manu-
facturer, continued hardship to the consumer, and an imme-
diate increase of burden upon all. And if the opponents of a
more liberal policy should triumph in the conflict, and if that
success should transfer them for a time, at least, to the other
side of the House, the motto which they will have writ:en
upon their banner—the principle to which they will have
pledged themselves as a party—will be the maintenance of,
monopoly in all its branches, at the expense of increased
taxat ion.

TIMES. —There is something very perplexing to the mind
in the contemplation of a real-unreal thing—like Mr, Francis
Baric,g's " Budget." At one mo cent the thoughts begin to
follow it out in all its bearings and results, and become per-
plexed in all its perplexities ; but then, in an instant, the re-
collection breaks in—" Pooh ! the whole thing is a fiction !
There is nothing substantial about it !" But, assuredly, the
allowing the mind to rest for a short time upon this most ex-
traordinary scheme has a tendency to excite no ordi-
nary degree of wrath and of astonishment. Were it pos-
sible (which it is not) to imagine that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer ever really desired and intended to carry his three
most astounding propositions, it would certainly be time that
some measures were taken in Parliament to guard against any
further fi eaks of this description being played off against our most
important commercial interests. The whole scheme can be de-
scribed by no milder term than that of " monstrous." It is
monstrous, if its author really meant to carry it into execution;
it is still more monstrous if he did not so intend. Take the
first supposition ; and what is it ? In a time of difficulty,
doubt, and hesitation, the Chancellor of the Exchequer coolly
proposes to throw into confusion, at one and the same time,
three of the greatest interests in the country. The first and
foremost of all is the agricultural interest. A very low esti-
mate—Mr. M'Culloch's—represents this as the producer of
an annual amount of 197,455,3751. We are not now about
to enter upon the question of the Corn-laws ; but all will
admit that to interfere with this vast matter would have been,
of itself, quite sufficient occupation for an entire ses-ion of
Parliament. Not satisfied, however, with grappling with this, the
greatest and most difficult of all qu:stions, the Government must,
forsooth, agitate, at the same moment, the two great commer-
cial interests connected with the West Indies and with Ca-
nada. Now, these two great divisions of our colonial
empire may be reckoned to amount to about one-half of our
foreign possessions. Looking at the employment they give
to our commercial marine, they might make a still higher
claim. The North American colonies employ, we believe,
about 2,000 sail of merchantmen, having an aggregate of
500,000 tons. The West Indies give occupation to about
1,000 vessels, of 250,000 tons in the whole. The value of
British manufactures exported to these colonies in 18.37 was
5,597,7t01. And these are the affairs--these the interests,
which the Finance Minister thinks it wise to throw into con-
fusion; and not only so but to throw them all, into confusion
at one and the same time ! Surely common sense would have
dictated the obvious propriety of dealing with these great
/natters each by itself ; and of letting one such change suffice for
a single year For, let it be well observed, that these
are not mere speculative or theoretics! changes which
are contemplated, but real and extensively operative
ones. Each one of the three is to yield its quota of hundreds
of thousands to make up Mr. Baring's deficiency. It is as-
sumed to be a certainty that a large quantity of foreign corn
will be introduced, or else the revenue will be largely minus.
It is calculated that a great pro, ortien of the sugar to be im-
ported shall be Brazilian or Spanish, or else the expected
700,0001, will not be realised. It is taken to be certain that
the imports of Baltic timber will be greatly increased, or else
the 600,0001. from this quarter will be missing. Thus it is a
rat of the plan of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that the
English farmer, the Canadian colonist, and the West Indian
planter, shall all lose a large portion of their present custom-
ers, in order that our revenue may gain a new 1,700,0001.
a.'3ear. And this brings us to our second assertion—
that the Ministerial scheme is equally monstrous—
supposing (what
WC take to he the case), that the
Cabinet have no real intention, or desire, to carry their
ropositions through. For what right, let us ask, have any
Ministers to throw nearly all the great interests of the country
into confusion, merely in order to take the chance of getting
up a little temporary popularity, a miserable„ electioneering, cry
of " Cheap bread," and p"
Cheap sugar ? There is nothing
genuine about the plan. It results not from real conviction,
apart from a momentary exigency-
Every one can see that,
like the penny postage, it is but the offspring of a fit of despe-
ration. " Something
must be done" to avert- the necessity of
resignation. An from this mean and miserable motive all
kinds of distress are, in an instant, inflicted on crowds of inno-
cent persons, depending upon the prosperous state of these
three interests. Endless are the miseries arising from this
rash and wicked exp•dient. And then, how revolting is it in
the midst of all to fall back, as one is often forced to do, upon
that which all people feel to be the truth that the whole affair
is a cheat—a proposition not intended to be carried, but merely
put a
onwards to raise
utaon ! popular cry, and assist in the opera' ion
ofdissoli

HERALD.—The Ministerial project for encouraging the
atrocities of "the foreign slave trade, and for perpetuating the
miseries of foreign slavery, in the hope of replenishing a wast-
ing exchequer, excites the indignant surprive of a people, who,
when they advanced an enormous sum of money to get rid of
slavery in our own colonies, never expected to see any Govern-
ment in Great Britain desirous of entering into a partnership
with fun ign nations in the profits of the most infamous traffic
that ever disgraced civilisation. We are glair to see that
the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society has spoken
out on this important • subject in a prompt and ener-
getic appeal to the Christian feelings of the people of Eng_
land, worthy of the great cause of humanity in which
it is engaged. That cause is the extinction of per-
sonal slavery and the slave trade throughout the whole
World. If the Ministerial scheme should obtain the sanction
of Parliament, the supplies of foreign sugar will be almost
wholly furnished from Brazil and Cuba, in which countries,
as the Anti-slavery Society truly states, " the atroiious sys-
tem of slavery is maintained in all its rigour, and the revolt-
ing traffic in human beings is carried on to an enormous
extent. No less truly does the same society also assert, that
" the inevitable tendency of the proposed reduction in the
ditties, will be to stimulate the growth of sugar in those coun-
tries by materially increasing the demand for it in this, by
which-The extent of the slave trade will' he fearfully increased,
andits unutterable horrors aggravated and prolonged, while
the-eoncEtion of the wretched and degraded slaves alre.idy in
bondage will be rendered more grievous and intolerable

than ever." It is one of the few propositions of politi-
cal economy, which no one thinks of disputing, that in-
crease of .remand has an inevitable tendency to produce as in-
creased supply ; indeed the Government organ of last. evening
boas,s of the large supply of foreign sugar which the proposed
aleration of the duties will bring into the British market; it
alludes also to the great additional comforts and Insures which
an influx of foreign sugar will allow the public to enjoy, while
it will give an increased impulse to our commerce and in-
dustry. As to the revenue, the project is to work wonders
for that, add in order to convince the public that they ought to
hail the sugar " boon with gratitude, our Ministerial Contem-
porary quotes the work of some " most learned Theban,"
whose name we never heard of before, but who, next to the
Secretary of the Poor-law Commission, appears to be one of
its chief oracles.

POST. —We trust the Opposition this evening will press
home their resolution regarding slave-grown sugar at once, and
thus give the coup de grace to the present wretched Ministers.
The resolution of which Lord John Russell has given notice,
in favour of the general principle of alteration in the present
system of protective and differential duties, is manifestly but
another subterfuge—another convulsive throe arising from the
agony of anticipated defeat. The most that Ministers can
expect from it is a protraction of the debate—a little
more delay. But we hope that no such thing will be suf..
fered. The country anxiously desires a quick decision of
the House of Commons, whether we are to have wide-
spread agitation, and an experimental revolution in
commerce and finance, in order to keep the pre-
sent Ministers in offiee, or to get rid of these Ministers and
their desperate experiments by one and the same vote. If the
abstract matter of Lord John Russell's resolution is to be de-
bated, it ought to be debated before going into Committee,
because what does the Committee propose to do, but to carry
into effect one of the details which is dependent upon the ab-
stract matter contained in the proposed Ministerial resolution?
The Government proposes a Committee to make an alteration
of protective and cifferential duties in a particular case, and
the Minister says. if the House will not allow us to go into
Committee for that purpose, then we shall ask the House
to affiim a barren resolution that such alterations ought to
be made, not only in one case, but in all cases ! Is it
possible to conceive anything more preposterous or unstates-
manlike than this? Can any rational being suppose that ma-
ture consideration or sound discretion has led to such a propo-
sition? Must we not rather conclude that it is a rash and
stupid expedient for delay—a desperate notion suddenly acted
upon by incapable managers of public affairs, who are beside
themselves with abject fear of being turned out of office. Lord
John Russell's resolution is not to be proposed until after the
House of Commons has refused to go into Committee upon
the Sugar Duties. And yet, if that resolution means anything,
it means that the House ought to do what is proposed to be
done in the proposed Commit tee !

GLOBE.LTha anti-slavery argument against the
Ministerial plans of commercial policy—embodied, with
what sincerity we will not say, in Lord Sandon's motion—
admits, we think, of being very briefly disposed of. In
the first place, it seems surely rather Irish, on the part of
those who are really in earnest in putting forward this
ant-sldvery argument, and who were not themselves
slave-holders less than ten years ago—it seems surely
rather Irish, on the part of these well-intentioned advo-
cates to lay stress on such statements as the following—
which are indeed indisputable :
" At the period when Wilberforce and Clarkson began
their philanthropic exertions against the slave trade, and up
to the period of its abolition in 1807, the utmost extent of the
annual importation of slaves into all the colonies (English,
French, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese)
did not exceed 70,000—whereas, at the present moment, the
Spanish and Brazilian possessions alene, whose sugars are now
to be relieved from a part of the existing duties, import annu-
ally no fewer than 150,000 slaves."
All our direct measures hitherto Isave in no degree
checked the extent of the slave trade—because its ex-
pansion proceeds from causes which no such measures
can prevent from operating. What we have succeeded
in doing is—not in checking the transportation of
negroes—not in preventing the large increase of the
numbers transported—but in very greatly adding to the
horrors and mortality of the passage. That result is
clearly traceable to our African Quixotism. Let us not
be mistaken. We do not say that we have nut been right
in washing our hands of the traffic. We do not say that
we have not been right in completing " Abolition" by
" Emancipation." We think, in both cases, the coun-
try has done itsrlf honour though, in the latter
case, the measure is chargeable with all that pre-
cipitate absence of arraege.ment and caution, cha-
racteristic of measures enforced by popular zeal on
unwilling parties. The nation was resolved on the grand
experiment: it is well it has turned out no worse. How
much better it might have turned out, if it had been
directed even by such a wise Dictator of the negro race
as Toussaint L'Ouverture—who did not permit the
freedom of his countrymen to mean freedom from work
—how much better the thing might have been done; it
is now of no use inquiring. The people of Englind
insisted on unconditional freedom, and they have got it.
They have also paid for it, and had therefore a right to
what they de...nied value for their money. The ques-
tion now is, how much more than twenty millions
they mean to pay—not for abolishing slavery, for that
they have dime, as far as depended on tbem—but for
the satisfaction of se) ing that they will consume
no produce of slate labour. Even confining the clues.
tion to West India produce, they must pay the
price of serious privation to the great balk of
our fellow-subjects, and of certain prejudice to ihe habits
of temperance, which can only be ciiifirmed permanently
by the cheapness of agreeable substitutes for spirituous
quora. Tney must pay the price of compulsory abstinence
from cheap food as well as cheap drink, and the waste of
fruit for want of means of preserving or sweetening.
These are things which may be thought lightly of, but
can only be so by the unreflecting; and certainly not by
Chancellors of the Exchequer, wbetlur they be Whig or
Tory.

STANDARD.--We little care what may be the effect
of Lord 6andou's resolution, fixed for this night, upon the
fate of the Ministry. Our readers will do us the justice
to remember that we have never been impatient for the di..
missal of the Melbourne Cabinet ; and we can declare with
perfect sincerity our conviction that none, except their imL
mediate dependents, more anxiously desire than we do that
their political existence have a little further respite.
They have already eff.cted incalculable good in de-
veloping the character of Liberal politicians and the ten-
dencies of Liberalism ; and they may in the same way ef-
fect still more. No doubt their continuance in office will
disturb to some extent the elements of socitty ; but as it
has been said, liquors that do not thoroughly ferment
are never clear: " and we expect from tle present
disturbance such a complete defecation of the social
body, that there shall be no space for Liberal Whigs
or Liberal Tories; but that all shall be distributed
into the two classes of real Conservatives on one side, or
unequivocal revolutioeists on the other. • If, then, we look
with anxious hope for a decisive majority in support of
Lord Sandon's motion, a wish that such a manifestation
may displace Lord Melbourne and hi; colleav-,s
has no part in that hope;
.and we are not quite sure
that such a majority as we hope to against
Ministers will have the effect of causing them to
resign, or even cause them to adhere to their
intention of dissolving the Parliament. As to resigning,
we have proof that nothing but the last extremity will urge
them to that step ; indeed, their organs have been lately
calling for Sir Robert Peel to spare them the necessity by
improvisating a budget; and, as regards a dissolution, it is
quite clear that the greater the majority against them in
tnis their own House of Commons, the less their hope of
success upon an appeal to the people. The House,
we are persuaded—and our opinion we know to prevail
amcng the parties who ought to be best informed—has, to
a great degree, its own fate in its own hands. Let Lord
Sandon's majority be a decisive one, and Lord Melbourne
will not dare to dissolve, while Sir Robert Peel, even
should he ace that the proper time for taking office has
arrived, will have little motive for agitating the country
by a dissolution.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
CHRONICLE.—The notice given by Lord John Russell
last night, of his amendment to Lord sandon's resolution, in
the event of the House not going into Committee on the Sugar
Duties, has produced an improvement in the funds.
The astute and sensitive minds on the Stock Exchange in-
stantly perceived that the principle set forth in the amendment
of the Noble Secretary of State far the Colonies is strictly
sound, and that it is impossible for any one seriously to deny
the truths which it declares, or the skill with which it has
been used as a weapon in the struggle of Parliamentary war-
fare. It is precisely in accordance with the views entertained
by almost every impartial man of business in the City, and
brings the contest of party to issue on the proper grounds. The
Money Market has, in consequence, been rather brisk to-day,
and the fears of an immediate dissolution of Parliament
are rather less strong. No man can deny that by remodelling
the import duties the intere4a of trade may be promoted, and
the productive industry of the country greatly relieved. On
the othar hand, the fallacy of Lord Sandon's motion is pretty
well seen through and understood. The attempt to keep up
theitths e
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sugar imported into the United Kingdom
for each year, since 1837, are as follow :
Total.—Cwt. F°l"eign—wt.
1837 4,482,578 ............... 34.2,700
1838
1839 4,678,219 722,777
1840 4,035,835 805,1675
Under the head of total there is included in the above be
sides the foreign, also East India and the 111auritiusw'hich-
were as follow

East India.—Cwt. Mauritius.
1837 .294,679 .537,961
1838 .428,854 604.671
1839
1840
The average price of British Muscovado, and of Brazil
brown and yellow, for the above years, was as follows, by the
mercantile prices current :

Net Revenue
British Brazil. each year.
1837 . 34.7 .. 21.3 4,760,565
1838 33. ti 21.3 4,656,892
1839 39
1840.. ......49. .. 21.6... .......
Wi,at are the facts to be deduced from the above figures but
that, for each of the years enumerated, we have been importers
of foreign sugar, and that during the last year we were con-
sumers of it to the extent of nearly 116 tons? Yet there was
no addition to the revenue, but a decrease, in consequence of
the d:minutiou of the total consumption, which, in 1840, was
649,374 cwt. less than in 1839, and 994,529 cwt. short of the
imports in 1838. Yet the price paid in 1840 for the di-
minished quantity was griaitly beyond what the larger quanti-
ties cost the consumers in any of the previous years.
In each of these years the import of foreign sugar has
increased, in spite of the prohibitory duties and of
the great inferiority of Brazil sugar to the growth
of our British plantation. Sugar is a necessary of
life to our population, which is rapidly increasing,
thus enhancing the demand, while the supply has
fallen off from our own colonies, and rendering it
necessary to make up the deficiency from other sources, but
with alt the additional cheapness of forced labour, the Brazil
and Cuba sugars can•never compete with British plantation
under a diff,rential duty of 12s. per cwt. The produce of our
colonies will always command the market. The demand for
home consumption will take off all that our colonies can pro-
duce at a remunerating price, and the balance roust be taken
from the East Indies, the Mauritius, Cuba, or Brazil. If we
i-efusa to do Sc, we cannct expect that the Brazils or Spain
will take our articles of produce in exchange; if 7e re-
ject their sugar, they will refuse our manufactures,
and prnhibition• will be the ruling principle of com-
mercia; legislation .., a principle which, since the

year 1825, the leading men in the House of Com-
mons, of both sides, have condemned. Neither can the pro-
hibitory system be confined to our relations with Brazil, ir
with Spain; it must extend to the United States, and the
cotton and tobacco of that country must also be repudiated.
We cannot maintain things as they are. The duties now ex-
acted on the import of foreign sugar s, and of American cotton
and tobacco, must necessarily be raised. If Lord Sandon's
motion be carried, the import duties must be increased on
sugar, coffee, cotton, and tobacco, to render them more strin-
gent, and to increase the existing heavy burdens on the people,
so as to give effect to the principle of exclusion, and to carry it
out in practice. The success of Lord Sandon's motion would
necessarily be followed up by such results, otherwise it would be
of no utility to those who erroneously support the present
duties on foreign sugars, upon the ground that they keep
down the traffic in slaves. Instead of taking the lead and
showing an example of enlightened commercial policy to other
nations, Great Britain would, to follow out the Tory policy,
necessarily have recourse to rigorous measures of bigotted ex-
clusion. Instead of reducing the taxes that bear most heavily
upon the necessaries of life, these taxes would be increased, and
the depressed trade and industry of the people still more heavily
manacled and pressed down. Mr. Horsley Palmer and the
other leading merchants in the City who petitioned fur a revi-
sion of our tariff must give their best wishes for the success of
the amendment of Lord John Russell, and so must every man
who wishes to see the trade and commerce of the country in a
prosperous condition. The friends of free trade in the City
say with great, indeed invincible force, if the principle of pro-
hibition against foreign produce raised by slave-labour is to be
made the fighting point, let it be fairly fought. There should
be no straining at gnats while we swallow camels.
TIMES.—The English Stocks have fluctuated to-day to
the extent of a quarter per cent., and the Market bore an un-
settled appearance. It was not, however, produced by any
pressure of money, for that was as easy as yesterday, but more
probably by the uncertainty of what will be the result of the
discussions on the questions connected with the Budget and
the unsettled state of affairs in China and the East India
Presidencies.

POST.—The public securities were firmer again this morn-
ing, but without any great accession of business, the infor-
mation from China being deemed too vague and inconclusive
to warrant the dealers in being materially influenced by it in
their operations. The approaching debate on our own do-
mestic affairs is, for the moment, almost the only thing that
engages attention among men of business, the interests of all
classes being, to a greater or less extent, implicated in the
issue.

HERALD.—The greater easiness of money has considerably
relieved the Stock 3larket, and Consols improved.
From some unaccountable cause in the Foreign Market
Spanish Stocks are on the advance, and the Active with the
Coupons improved to ZIA to 11. It would seem that some ex-
pectations were entertained by the more ad.renturoua specula-
tors that in the event of Esietrtero being declared sole Regent
Mendizabil would be one of his Ministers, and as he is a sort
of patron saint of stock-jobbing, it is considered that before long
some scheme of his may appear for raising the price of Spanish
Bonds. '1 'he Lest taing of ,11enclizabal undoubtedly is that he
has been really earnest for a commercial treaty with this coun-
try, by which the march of the prohibitive system may be re-
laxed, whilst Spain would consent to receive the manufactures
of this country on moderate terms.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT OF CHANCERY, Mar 7.

DU BIEL V. THOMSON.

The arguments in this appeal, which was partly argued or,
Wednesday, were resumed this morning. The appeal was
from a decree of the Master of the Rolls, which confirmed the
validity of an agreement for a marriage contract, entered into
under the following circumstances :—ln 1826, the plaintiff, the
Baron Du Biel, married a daughter of Sir. John Poulett
Thomson, the father of Mr. Andrew Poulett 1 homson, and
the present Lord Sydenham. It appeared that some time pre-
vious to the marriage, the Baron had waited on Mr. Thomson to
obtain his consent, and arrange the marriage settlements. The
settlement was fixed at 5001. a-year, and Sir. Thomson referred
the Baron to his two sons, to whom he said he had given full au-
thority to settle the amount of his daughter's fortune. Ne-
gotiaions consequently took place between the plaintiff and the
two sons, and it was ultimately arranged, by an agreement in
writing, that the sum of 10,0001. should be paid to the Baron
at his marriage, and that he should receive a further sum of
10,0001. on the death of Mr. Thomson. The year after the
marriage the Baroness died, leaving one child, and in the year
1837 Mr. Thomson, her father, died, without making any
further provision for this child. A suit was subsequently
instituted by the Baron, to compel the executors to
fulfil the contract entered into by the sons of Mr.
Thomson for the payment of 10,0001. after his decease.
The Master of the Rolls h, Id that there had been such a re •
cognition of the agreement by Mr. Thomson as would satisfy
the Statute of Frauds, and therefore decreed for the plaintiff.
On the part of the appellants it was argued by Ur. Richards that
Mr. Thomson had not given his sons any power to bind him
to the extent of securing payment of this sum after his de-
cease, but admitting the authority and its recognition there
arose the important question of the nature of the obligation,
which the executors maintained was merely voluntary, and
could be recalled at will.

11r. ANDERTON addressed the Court this morning at length
on the same side.

Mr. WIG RAM replied at great length.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took time to consider his judg-
ment.

RAYNE V. BENEDICT.
This case, which was reported in our Paper last week, was
again brought before the Court this morning, by an applica-
tion for an injunction to restrain the defendant, who is Captain
of the brig Armadillo, bound for America, but now lying at
Cowes, for the purpose of refitting, from selling a portion of
the cargo, but leaving it open to him to prosecute his voyage.
His LORDSHIP said the present application was substan-
tively the same as the last, which he had refused, because it
did not appear that any proceedings had been taken by the
plaintiff to restrain defendant from prosecuting his voyage. It
as a hard case for the plaintiff, but at the same time he had
had ample opportunity of shmiing the Court whose property
the goods were, instead of which it was still uncertain that the
plaintiff was the owner of the cargo. Under these circum-
stances the application must be dismissed with costs, but he
might be disposed to interfere if it were shown that the
Captain was relieved from liability, and that the property was
that of the plaintiff.