The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-13 00:00:00

INUNDATIONS IN FRANCE.

We extract the following from the Courrier de Lyon
of the 7th instant, which had been forced to suspend its
publication from the 3d, and now appears on uostamped
paper, the Stamp-office in Lyons being closed
Tee spectacle from the heights of the Croix Rousse
commands the suburbs of Vaise is frightful.
Teat town has already had upwards of sixty of its build-
ings crushed by the flood, and additional houses are
every hour suffering the same fate announcing their fall
by sendrug up clouds of dust. All the buildings which
have stone foundations withstand the pressure, but those
constructed el weaker materials gradually give way.
Tne cause of the fire at the Fabrique d'Orseille, was
the water reaching some unslacked lime. The accounts
from the country ore deplorable. The ravages by the
S lone at Lyons have extended all the way to Chalons,
Belleville is said to be completely annihilated. Ville-
frenetic, although three quarters of a league from
the river, has been reached by the water, and suf-
fered great damage. Most of the beautiful country
hoses in the banks of the Saone, and which are not
elevated on the hills which rise above it, have been
washed away. The height of the Saone is three me-
tres (nearly ten feet) above any floods to be found in
the records of Lyons. At one o'clock on the sth
the increase of the Saone ceased, and an almost im-
perceptible diminution commenced. We have had no
further disasters to deplore. The weather having been
fi e for some time the inhabitants have been able to
teas erse all such parts of the town as are not abso-
lutely inaccessible. We have been able to mount the
hill of Fouvicres and reach the Observatory, whence a
most frightful spectacle was spread before our eyes. •
Nothing was to be seen but streets formed into canals
of water, with here and there some few insulated points,
the three bridges submerged, with crowds of people
viewing them with mixed feelings of curiosity and dis- •
quietude—the disturbed and muddy waters of the
6.10ne enveloping the houses, and rolling with turbid
violence along the whole course of the town, and cover-
ing the peninsular of Perrache.-6th inst. The river has
gone down six inches, but, our condition remains nearly
the same. Tiie news received from the country is,
hovs ever, good, as it announces a subsiding of the
war. re, and that the inhabitants are beginning to recover
corifideace: The Rhone has already retired within its
own channel. The Archbishop of Lyons has issued a
pastoral letter to his clergy to continue their prayers
for the abatement of the flood until the 13th instant,
and to make arrangements with the Mayor for collect-
ing alms and for affording asylums to those who have
been rendered houseless. He also announces that his
palace is open for the reception of the goods and pro•
perty cf those who have nowhere else to place them.
Our advises front up the river state that the suspen-
sion-bridge at Chateauvieu, over the Surest, has been
carried away. The Saone above Lyons forms one im-
mense lake, and, with its tributary streams, inundates
the whole country. At Sablons, opposite Serricres,
fifty houses have been washed down, and the village is,
as it were, swept away. The bridge at Vienne was car-
riM away in the evening of the 3d."
The Ifelvelie of Porentruy says—" The small moun-
tainous cantons have been visited with fresh inunda-
datious. Almost every bridge has been carried away,
or rendered impassable by the water, and the roads have
been so encumbered or destroyed that it will be a long
time before they can be cleared and restored. We
learn from Coire that an immense quantity of timber
and wood has been brought down by the Rhine, and it
is said eight persons have been drowned. The Tessin
has also suffered severely."
The Messager says—" A mail-courier, who left Mar-
seilles on the 4th, arrived in Paris at four yesterday
afternoon. He reports that he was stopped by the
waters at about two leagues the other side of Avignon,
which place he could not reach by any other means than
in e boat irons Sorgues. The gates of the town were oh-
s' reel ed by the water, and he got into it through a win-
dow looking on to the ramparts. On the 2d a violent
storm burst over Marseilles. The rain fell in torrents,
real, in ices than an hour, the Rue de la Carrebiere
nod the Plaec Royale were four feet under water. 'On
the 3,1 the rain again fell."
A Correspondent of, Nismes writes on the 2d inst. :
on Sunday last the Rhone broke over its bout-
deries, and submerged the plain of Beaucaire, and
floe ing into the lower quarters of the town, spread ter-
ror•a'usong the inhabitants. The tocsin sounded. The
rives forced the wall of the Grand Jardin into the mea-
dow, a:al overthrew several houses. The alarm-bell
called out a company of the Bth of the line, who suc-
eeelled in stopping a fissure made in the bank below
the)clinal. We learn from St. Gilles that the wooden
bride over the Rhone was carried away on Saturday.
At Beauceir.s the chanting of public prayers is mingled
with cries of distress and the solemn sound of the tocsin.
Tito daughters of the congregation, bearing the statue
of •the Virgin, have passed a whole evening on their
kneca by the side of the labourers, and up to their gir-
dles in water."

The Semaphore of Marseilles says—" A storm,
greater than any known in the
memory
man,
occurred here and in the neighbourhoodonthe inst.,
at four in the afternoon. The clouds, which burst in
rain, were occasionally so thick and so near the earth
that ever‘thing ap eareuto be enveloped in a thick fog,
wThhieehquwaaysfarras to titt.n
streets leading
v ersed by the lightning.
to the port were
deeply covered with water. all the '
The Coors,
Cours, the Canebiere,
ano the Rue Paradis, had the appearancei of a vast hike."
ot. t
Extract of a lettar e 6th inst. from Lons-le-
Soulnier :—`cln the village of L the waters rose.
4) centimetres (between 15 and 16n'gvY
inches)o higher than
hase hundrediieeathe dw
vio-
lence in. September, 1831. Upwards
n
hogs have been overflowed, andsuchof
of the flood that twenty of them have been washed
down. At Petit-Noir the Doubs has
l its
emb Inkments at several points, destroyed
several
houses, and washed the seeds out of a great portion of
e
the new-sown grounds."
The Swiss papers mention that the Nola, and sev
other rivers in the Grisons, have recently caused con-
siderable inundations, particularly in the valley of Don_
letschg ; and that the bridge of Tardis, on the frontier
of the canton of St. Gall, has been carried away.
A correspondent of the Memorial Bordelais at Nismes
estimates the damage occa-zoned by the floods along the
lower course of the Rhone. to crops and buildings, at
thirty millions of francs. The extent of the country
flooded is calculated at sixty leagues in length by thirty-
six in breadth, or 2,160 square leagues.
The Minister of Commerce has granted 50,000 f. to
Macon on account of the damage done by the floods.

HIGHWAY ROBBERY.—Yesterday, John Con-
nell, who has been in custody since Sunday on a charge of
having been concerned in the robbery committed on the
previous night between Staines and Egham, on the person
of James Higgins, was brought before Ward, Esq., a ;
magistrate for Surrey, at Egham, for first examination on 1
the charge. Evidence having been adduced, the Magis-
trates said it was quite sufficient to warrant his committal
CD the capital charge of wounding with intent to murder,
and he was accordingly committed to take his trial at the
assizes. It was reported that the other ruffian, John
karnes, had been captured near Kingston.

ROYAL SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
Under her Majesty's Immediate Patronage.
This highly popular and interesting resort, is OPEN DAILY
from Ten till Dusk
The Menagerie, which is unequalled in the number, variety,
sod beauty of the specimens it contains, occupies several spa-
ous and elegant buildings comfortably heated, and arranged
vith the nearest possible assiraile4tion to the natural habits of
ne animals. The most important additions recently received
re the rare and beautiful blatc. Leopard, le Mignon Elephant,
a pair of the scarce Curassows, called Cushew Birds, the Sacred
Ibis, the Bush Cow (the only specimen in Europe), a pair of
'2-ossowaries, the Monster Boa (the largest ever seen in confine-
nent), Sze,
ft:ll,e splendid col) ection of Carstivora are fed at Four o'Clock,
Hhich time the ferocious attributes and amazing muscular
ow r
AO.mission, One Shilling.
of tiles,, forest monarchs are displayed to the utmost

QU'EN,„ Cu
rißt el nS tTi oinN Ao
r—Q
uTe eh ne
that the original i Christina
was Commerce t
osagyos
to Florence, then to R
that Austria interferedeme. and ultimately to Naples, but
and Sicilian Governmen,
taantd • caused the Tuscan, Papal,
her presence in Italy was, for
intimate to her Majesty that
adds, that certain notabiliiiesratfhepresent, not desired. It
rado party, in concert with some thef
Queen's or the Mode-
fited by this state of things to tr of the Carlists, have pro-
alliance between the eldest try and
effect: a matrimonial.
Carlos and
the young Queen Isabella. It was desi°rnd
adds, that Queen Christina should establish herself
first, it
erself in
France, near the frontiers. of the Basque p •
rovinces, but
her Majesty preferred coming to. Paris.
The widowed Lady Munkaster and the infant
Lord have arrived at the mansi,m of their late relative, Sir
John Ramsden, Bart., in PScead illy, from Muncaster Castle.
Her Ladyship has conic up for medical advice.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE.—We have never seen, or have I
overlooked, and cannot now recover, the report of the
meeting to which Mr. Ballantyne has called our atten-
tion. Where is it to be found ?
In reply to the question of " Ciericus," " A Calculating
Reader" calculates with certainty that the loan alluded
to cannot be obtained, except at an exorbitant rate, if
indeed at all. The value of the policy is determinable
by the length of time that bas elapsed since the in-
surance was effected, and that value is ascertainable in a
minute at the office in which " Clericus" is insured,
whose Directors will give what the policy is worth ; or
he may send it into the market, where it will fetch its
price. But most likely the policy is worth little or no-
thing as a marketable commodity, either in the way of
sale or deposit.
The publication of the letter of "J. R." to a Noble
Lord, we are inclined to think, would not be of any
service.
We would willingly oblige, if we could, the Rev. Gen-
tleman who has sent an account of the proceedings in-
stituted against him in 1828, but his complaints impli-
cate others, and we cannot be expected to g►ve currency
to injurious reports on an ex parte statement.

dividual perversity or caprice." So again our
Contemporary s, would have an Act of Parliament
for regulating the qualifications of engine men and
the test by which those qualifications are to be ascer-
tained." We are as sensible as our Contemporary of
the necessity of having properly qualified persons for
engine-drivers, and, in common with the Times—if
not, as it says so early, an assertion which we be-
lieve to be unfounded, though we care not to dis-
puteit—have insisted on the propriety of Railway
Dir ectorsppointing persons of high qualifications
and paying them well; but we never sup-
posed that the House of Lords and Com-
mons, thoroughly ignorant of the qualities
of engine-drivers, should lay down rules
for determining their fitness. In fact, those rules
could not be rules laid down by Parliament, but by
some Commissioner like Sir FREDERICK SMITH,
and would be exclusively his rules. It would be
no better than folly, in our estimation, to tie down
the Railway Directors by law to any rules, whe-
ther concerning drivers or breaks, which Sir FRE-
DERICK, or any other person can suggest. How
can he or any man tell what new inventions may be
made in locomotive engines within the next six
months, which may make very different qualifica-
tions necessary to the drivers ? We are as zealous
for the success of railways as our Contemporary,
and as anxious to make them perfectly safe ; but
we repudiate the minute kind of legislation which
he recommends, because it would deprive one class
of all occasion for the exercise of discretion, and
another of every opportunity for the exercise of
prudence.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE TO-MORROW.
M0rning......25 minutes after 5. I Evening 50 minutes after 5.

The Publication of t e F.vening Edition of Tits Sum com-
menced at 20 =mites after Three.

4
A.
Vitt, 'w±r
• (16, ilk • '
••• e 01 4=o
ICS" q•`%l P.4-pr
s:-.5t77-4';`*'"2_l:so2lltP2-11a1'..6 •

7c):"T),

LONDON:
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1840.

Again, as to Joint-Stock Banks, a pamphlet
has just fallen under our notice, by Mr. LOWNDES,
which contains many judicious observations, parti-
cularly some against the silly proposition of com-
pelling Joint-Stock Banks to have a guarantee
fund vested in the public securities ; and these on
the equally silly scheme of making the Board of
Trade the judge of all schemes for forming Joint-
Stock Companies :
What then is it the duty of the Government of the
first mercantile and manufacturing country in the world
to do as to Joint-Stock Companies ? Surely, to legi-
timate every company, without reference to the purpose
for which, or the persons by whom, it was established ;
and instead of the President of the Board of Trade
wasting his own or the pUblic time in conjectures whether
such and such a scheme would be beneficial to the pub-
lic, to allow the pubic, who would be, after all, the best
arbiters, an opportunity of judging for themselves. If
the purpose be an absurd one, or unfit for a Joint-Stock
Company, or if the affairs of the company be improvi-
dently administered, no powers with which such com-
pany may be invested for the conduct of its own affairs
can sustain it : it must. fall by its own weight. The
experience we have had as to Joint-Stock Banking
Companies abundantly proves this. If, on the other
hand, a company thus formed can sustain itself, it can
only be by satisfying the public of its utility, and so ac-
quiring public support.
But, notwithstanding this, Mr. LOWNDES is an t
advocate for the Legislature interfering to insist
that Joint-Stock Banks be established by deed—
that they be made to keep accounts—that the pro-
prietors should not do as they like in electing
Directors—that there should be a registration
of Joint-Stock Companies—that the names of
all the Shareholders should be registered, the
banks be compelled to publish certain an-
nual accounts, &c. &c. What would Mt.
LowitDEs think if every solicitor's office should be
obliged by law, to publish the names of all those
who derive benefit from the business, with an annual
statement of profits and loss? He would repudiate
such an interference with the old business of a soli-
citor, but because Joint-Stock Banks happen to be
comparatively a new concern, like the discovery of
the 'Western 'World, there is not a schemer in legis-
lation, however profoundly ignorant he may be of
the subject,' who does not think it behoves him to
suggest a plan for making Joint-Stock Banks per-
fect by law. Mr. LowNDES is well aware that the
issue of bank-notes, on which the interference was
originally grounded, is the smallest part of the busi-
ness of Joint-Stock Banks, anti that bank-notes
constitute the smallest part of the currency. He
must be well aware that all the arguments in favour
of interfering with Joint Stock Banks apply with
equal force to every firm in the country which draws
and negotiates bills, and he ought to know that if
this diseased desire to interfere with business by
legislation be not checked, there is not a
branch of human enterprise which will not come to
law, and the number of the go.
be regulated by
verned will soon be equalled or surpassed by the
number of the governors.
This unceasing interference is an alarming
social disease, which calls for powerful remedies.
The most ignorant are the most prompt and anxious
to signalize themselves by suggesting new and
stringent iegulations ; and law-making, which can
only be successfully accomplished, if successful at
all, by the longest study and the highest human
abilities, is now undertaken by such rash and
vacillating empirics as the writers in the Times.
What is still worse, if their recommendations are
not immediately attended to, they feel insulted, and
leave no efforts untried to break up a Government.
Either way the nation is to be injured because the
heaven-born wisdom of the empirics is not incor-
porated into a .law, and ratified by the seal of
Parliament.

Within a few years after COLUMBUS discovered
the Western Continent, the people from every part
of Europe bordering on the ocean, but more parti-
cularly the inhabitants of England, embarked in
considerable numbers, and in crazy, ill conditioned
vessels, to seek fame and wealth in the new world.
The enthusiasm was not quite so great as that
which had previously hurried them from Europe
into Asia to recover the Holy City from the hands
of the Infidels, but it was something of the same
character. They cheerfully braved all sorts of hard-
ships, their vessels were wrecked, they were starved
after they reached land, and before they could get
fresh supplies, or could raise food for themselves,
they were sometimes mercilessly cut off by the sa-
vages, and sometimes perished by pestilence. No-
thing daunted, however, by continual failure the
people nobly persevered, and, in the end, founded
the United States, now become one of the proudest
and grandest empires of the world.
The Government of that day did not interfere
to check their enterprise, to prescribe the sort of
ships they should venture to sea in, to appoint their
captains and pilots, to examine their equipment and
their force, but it sometimes gave them assistance,
and sometimes, in common with its subjects, sent out
expeditions of its own. If it had interfered, and
had undertaken to regulate all the enterprises of
the people, if none could have been begun without
its sanction, if it had a►ranged all the establish-
ments, and every minute thing connected with the
local governments, trusting little or nothing to the
discretion of the people, it may be safely averred
that the United States at this day would have been
more backward than Mexico, if the people could
have been able to surmount the combined difficul-
ties of a new country and an all-regulating Govern-
ment. _

The contest for the office of Chief Magistrate
of Edinburgh has terminated in favour of Sir
JAMES FORREST, after the longest and keenest
contest ever remembered in that city. We wish
we could also say it was the most honourable, in
place of being compelled to denounce it as the
most disgraceful exhibition, that ever took place in
Edinburgh. The Tories, detesting Non-Intrusion,
united with Non-Intrusionists, and certain Liberals
joined their ranks, to reject the most consis-
tent and upright Reformer of the present
day, because he was a Dissenter.

We do not remind the reader of this trait in the
history of mankind, without having in immediate
view its practical application. What are the ob-
jects, similar, though not equal to the peopling of
the western world by Europeans, which our enter-
prising people at present pursue ? Railroads and
Joint-Stock Banks very much engage their attention.
They throw themselves, as it were, on these two
great branches of human ingenuity: one economises
time, or shortens space—and the other money.
Both, like the half-disc3vercd continent of Ame-
rica, are very partially known to the Legislature :
in fact, their properties, because they are new dis-
coveries, like it, or new inventions, are only half de-
veloped. Stringent regulations seem as little re-
quired for them, in order to prevent the people from
harming themselves by them, as they were to pre-
vent our enterprising ancestors from venturing
again and again across the ocean to establish colo-
nies in America. Yet there is a pitiable disposi-
tion in many meddling individuals to subject these
branches of industry to many noxious regulations,
as if they were of themselves, and by their own na-
ture, liable to no laws, which will gradually correct
their imperfections, or cause them to be abandoned.
For example, the Times yesterday, in an article
which we transferred to The Sun, asserts that on
the matter of "breaks also, and on every point
where the necessity of a given regulation (precau-
tion), not already in general use, is placed beyond
controversy, it will be infinitely the wisest, the
safest, and the most satisfactory course for Parlia-
ment to settle the question (which is already settled
beyond controversy), and leave no latitude for in-

At the election the LORD PROVOST, and some
of his friends, seemed actually ashamed of their
position, and used every means to prevent Mr.
BLACK from
speaking the truth. He was not,
however, to be disconcerted, and made a powerful
and manly speech, which will not be without
effect, even on those renegades from the ranks of
Reformers. He concluded in these words, no less
' descriptive of the baseness of his opponents, than
of his own integrity of principle :
In regard to
myself, I can say
fearlessly that I have
stated plainly and dlstinetly my own views. I have
stood on the principles which I have ever professed. I
have formed no unprincipled coalition. I have encou-
raged no unworthy intrigue. I have stated, and my
friends with me have stated, that if you are pleased to
elect me to that Chair, it ust be dor.e without the
smallest sacrifice of principle or honour. For. myself,
I am not anxious for the distinction, and it I am un-
successful, I and my supporters have at least the satis-
faction of feeling that we have nothing to regret or be
ashamed of. We have fought a battle for puhlic prin-
ciple ; and we have the high gratification. of feeling
that if we have not advanced the cause of liberty and
justice, at least it has not suffered in our hands.

Though we earnestly des ____.
ire that the Govern-
ment„
preserve peace,
of Louis PHILIPPE should be strong to
strong to oppress any part of his people, or put
we by no means wish to see hiin
down the opinions of any class. The opinions of
the National may
appear dangerous to those who
have heretofore overturned a throne by their opi-
nions, but amongst a nation of free and equal men,
one class, or one individual, has just as good a
right to express his opinions as another. Equa-
lity is the basis of society in France, and that is
violated when for opinions one man is elevated to
power and another consigned to a gaol)
and his pro-
perty confiscated. Pursuing a kilid of brutal NA-

TH MINI LONDO?riI FR .lAA►', NOVEMBER. l4, 189.

PoLEoN:nurse hitherto, has now brought the
throne of Louis PHILIPPE into jeopardy ; and we
are to be numbered amongst his best friends when
we warn his Government that to persecute men for
matters of opinion, though they may relate to the
subordination of the army, will only increase his
danger. Both the Tory and Whig Journals will
probably cheer on his Govern.trent in prosecuting the
Press, but it will best, show its strength, and be most
sure to increase in power, by disregarding the paper
pellets of journalism. It might be necessary, per-
haps, for a Government, which, according to the
satirical phrase of the Debals, was only a journal,
to war against journals ; but a Government, which
is more than a journal, will only degrade itself be-
low the level of the National, by entertaining a
dread of its opinions. We wish to see the Go-
vernment of Louts PHILIPPE strong in the affec-
tions of his people, but the recent history both of
France and England demonstrates that strength is
not to be obtained by political persecution.

We have received the whole of the French
Papers of Wednesday, and have copied from them
a summary of the discussions in the nine standing
Committees of the Chamber of Deputies, on the
election of the nine Members to serve as a Com-
mittee to draw up the Address in answer to the
Speech from the Throne. This report of the first
business proceedings of the Chamber will be read
with lively interest. MM. THIERS and Gui-
ZOT addressed their respective Committees, and
though not without reluctance, threw consider-
able light on the policy of France with respect
to the Eastern question. M. THIERS states
explicitly enough that his intention was to settle
the Eastern Question by an armed intervention in
the Spring, at which time France would have been
ready to take the field against Europe. In all his
negotiations he only sought to gain time. Never,
in fact, was there a better defence of the policy of
Lord PALMERSTON than is supplied by the speech
of the ex-President of the Council. It is true, he
says, that any concession to France in arms would
have satisfied her honour, and averted the cala-
mity of a general war. But who is there so
silly as to believe that M. THIERS could have
thus controlled the will of a whole nation
in arms, and that nation France ? Who is there
that does not know that the Four Powers would
make no concession to France in such an
attitude of defiance ? 'War then must have
resulted from the policy of M. THIERs,
however pacific were his intentions. Not that
we believe that M, THIERS, whatever he may
now say to the contrary, really intended to make
war. What he intended was to terrify the Great
Powers into any concessions which he might pro-
pose, and thus, without fighting, earn for himself
from the journalists and contemporary anna-
lists, the laurels of a statesman and a con-
queror. He cannot avow this, but he can proclaim
with a certainty of obtainiwg popularity among the
war party, that he was bent upon measures which
must have ended in war. Had, then, the shaft quo
been preserved much longer in the Government, as
at first recommended by Russia, and afterwards by
M. Tx lERS, France would have settled the Eastern
question after her own fashion, at the cannon's
mouth. Such, at least, is the purport of the speech
of the ex-President of the Council. Lord PAL-
MERSTON'S dogged determination to settle the
question at once, spoiled the sport of the ex-Ca-
binet. His Lordship took the field a year too
early. Can we, after M. THIERS' admission, value
too highly the services of the combined British
and Austrian squadrons on the coast of Syria ?
Had they been beat off for the winter, we should
have had war to the knife in the Mediterranean.
MEIIEMET ALI would have placed the Turkish
and Egyptian fleets at the disposal of France, who
would have manned and armed them against the
Allies, and at once have out-numbered the
navy of England under the command of Admiral
STOPFOR D.
The few observations made by M. GurzoT will
be found to contrast curiously with the speech of
his predecessor in office. The new Minister by no
means participates in the opinion that France was
taken by surprise by the Treaty of July. He
stated fair warning was given to France, and that
t7erybody must have anticipated the conclusion of
a treaty by the Four Powers. M. G urzoT directly,
and M. Tel ERS, by implication admit the soundness
and humanity of Lord PALMERSTON'S oriental
policy. For what can be sounder or more humane
policy than the prevenijon of a general war in Eu-
rope ? _

Deplorable accounts of inundations in the so ut
of France fill the columns of the journals of Wed
nesday.
In the Moniteur of Wednesday we find the fob
lowing official intelligence from Africa :