The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-13 00:00:00

~~~ ~c~;>

LONDON:
MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1841.

One of the errors, perhaps the great error, of
the 'Whigs was, that they always justified their
conduct by that of the Tories. They did not, as
the rule, say that such a course of policy is right
—such an act just—such a proceeding disin-
terested and noble—or such a reform precisely
what the circumstances of the community re-
quire ; but they said the Tories did so and
so, or would do so and so, or, they entertain such
and such opinions, and we shall deserve the
public approbation and support if we do or pro•
pose something- better than the Tories would do
or propose. So, continually squaring their con-
duct by no higher standard than the opinions
and actions of the Tories, the public came to'
fora). a mean opinion of them. They were said
to be little or no better than the Tories. The
nation was ripe, when they first took office, to
embrace large and just views. Its moral
enthusiasm was kindled ; and, had they
acted on the principles of right and justice, they'
would have been followed, and for ever honoured
by the people. They could have carried forward
the national enthusiasm to the establishment of
a higher standard of political morality, and both
rulers and subjects would have been ennobled.
They preferred shaping their policy on that of
the Tories, and the result is that they have sunk
in public esteem to the level of their rivals.
The Tories, in addition to their other and more
are aping the Whigs in
reprehensible follies,jus-
tifying their present conduct by what their rivals
did while in office. I t is, for example, held to be an
all-sufficient justification, by the Tory organs, of
the refusal to amend the Sugar or Corn-laws by
the Tories, that the Whigs for ten years took no
step to accomplish that object. Not only did
• they take no such step, it is said, but in 1840
they voted against a reduction of the sugar
duties, and their chief declared, more than once,
in emphatic language, that it would be madness
to repeal the Corn-laws. If such, therefore,
o- • arue the Tories, were the conduct of the Whigs,
we are quite justified in refusing to grant the de-
' mands of the free-traders. So the Tories are con-
tent to justify their conduct by the mal-practices
or previous errors of the 'Whigs, and so the
nation is never to have a higher standard for its
policy and its laws than the faults or crimes of
these rival factions.
If there were no reasons in the continued com-
parative prosperity of the country to 1837, and
in its subsequent declension—if there were no
deficiency in the revenue and no increase of ex-
penditure to justify the Whigs in proposing in
1841 what they had neglected to propose, or had
Opposed, in 1840—if there were no circumstances
whatever to make the repeal of the restrictions
on trade now more urgent than formerly, we
should still have to tell the Tories that the peo-
ple have gained some political knowledge and
political wisdom since 1840, and that it is neither
safe nor wise to seek for the rule of their conduct in
the conduct of their opponents. The public de-
mand a different justification. They will say
that it is of no consequence to us what the Whigs
did ; is what you propose right ? Is it just ?
Is it honest? Is it consistent with the precepts
of that religion, which you insist that the nation
shall pay a large army of priests to teach ? If
the Tory measures be not right—not just—not
honest—not consistent with religion, to tell the ,

public that the Whigs could have done the same or
some similar things will only make the Tory
policy lie received with the same contempt and
scordas was the quasi Tory policy of the Whigs.
We must inform the leaders and writers of both
parties, that the public will no longer endure the
practice of defending or justifying the follies or
crimes of one party by the supposed greater follies
or crimes of the other. If politicians cannot
justify their conduct by the principles of honesty
and justice, they will not be able to justify it to
the public by proving, from the pages of HAN-
SARD, that their rivals have, at some time or
other, been as dishonest or as unjust as they are.
As the people have gained political knowledge,
the standard of political morality has risen higher
and higher ; and it would be as absurd to
expect their judgment to be guided by the con-
duct of factious politicians, a few years ago, as to
expect that the people of Manchester should de-
stroy their self-acting mules, and take to spin-
ning cotton-thread by the hand-wheel.

The Madrid Journals of the 4th inst. an-
nounce that the Government had made another
remittance of 15,0001. sterlinc, to London, to l,
de-
fray the outstanding claims of the British Auxi-
liary Legion.
The Castellano publishes the following despatch of the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, dated Dec. 2d:—
"His Highness the Regent of the kingdom has been in-
formed that divers Portuguese intend coming to Spain for
the execution of perfidious plans combined in certain crimi-
nal clubs. His Highness orders the Ministers of Foreign Al-
fairs and of the Home Department to instruct the authori-
ties on the Portuguese frontier, and those of Cadiz and of
Vigo, where the steamers from Lisbon arrive, to pay the
greatest attention in taking down the names, description
of persons, and circumstances of all Portuguese subjects
entering Spain, and to keep a watchful eye on their
movements and conduct, and to report the same to Go-
vernment without delay or omission."
Madrid Bourse, Dec. 4.-32 for cash, 324 sellers at
60 days.

The French Journals of Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday have been received this morning. On
Saturday the Advocates of QUENISSET and his
accomplices addressed the Court on behalf of
their respective clients. M. PAILLET, who de-
fended QUENISSET, contended that he was but
the dupe of others, and that his repent-
ance and revelations entitled him to the
merciful consideration of the Court. We
are quite of a contrary opinion. We have
watched the proceedings carefully, and are war-
ranted from the evidence in denouncing QUE-
NISSET as one of the greatest villains before the
Court. The intelligence displayed by him
during the trial; the tact with which he
assisted the Procureur-General in examining
the witnesses; the facility with which he
adopted that judicial hack, Baron PASQUIEIeS
infamous method of brow-beating the accused,
show that QUENISSET is a person incapable of
being made the dupe of any party. If there was
a conspiracy, there cannot be the shadow of a
doubt that QUENISSET was at the bottom of it.

A Telegraphic despatch from Bayonne states
that M. DR SALVANDY, the French Minister
t ► the Court of Spain, entered the Spanisb
territory on Wednesday. The REGENT had
given orders that he should he treated
with marked respect in all the towns through
which he passed. To all external appearances
Louis PRIiIPPE and ESPARTERO are excellent
friends. This, however, is merely superficial.
M. Faramond, late French Consul at Campeachy, is
now at Havre, waiting to embark for Sydney, where he
is to fill the same office.

The Phare des Pyrenees states that Dona Carlota, the
wife of Don Francis de Paula, passed the French fron-
tier on the sth instant, and was received on the Spanish
territory by General Iturbe and an escort of lancers, who
were to accompany her Royal Highness to Tolosa.
A letter from Geneva, 7th instant, in the Debats,
says—" With the exception of a few transitory alarms,
our town has been quiet ever since the evening of the
22d ult. Several strangers of obscure character, pointed
out to the authorities by the neighbouring States, have
been expelled. A strict watch is kept upon an associa-
tion of Mutualists, most of them foreigners, who have
formed themselves here. Whence the funds for paying
them, and for meeting other expenses are drawn, is the
subject of various conjectures."
" A few weeks since, (says the Courrier du Bs.
Rhin), a farmer of the arrondissement of Altkirch, in
the Bas Rhin, agreed to sell his daughter to another
farmer of a neighbouring village for I,ooof. and received
51. to bind the bargain. The seller, however, repented
next day, and went to reclaim his child, whom he had
delivered over to the purchaser. The buyer, on the con-
trary, was content with his bargain, and has refused to
give her up. The farmer has commenced an action for
the recovery of his child."
Last week the neighbours of Mainbert, a quarryman,
at Cambronne, in the Oise, having observed that his
house remained closed for ten days, without the appear-
ance of either himself or his wife, or their son, gave in-
formation to the authorities, who came and opened the
doors. The whole place was in disorder, and an odour
of putrefaction filled the house. The boy was found dead
on his bed, the wife in the same state on her own bed,
and her husband by her side, with half his skull carried
away by the discharge of a pistol, which lay near him.
On investigation it was evident that Mainbert, who had
previously shown symptoms of mental alienation, had
first strangled his wife and child, and then shot himself.

•
Count kok, observes the Courtier Francais, was born
in 1780, so that he is now 61. M. Thiers was born in
1797, and is therefore 44.

The Semaphore of Marseilles has the following :—" As
several Paris Journals have stated that the Bill for the
railroad between Marseilles and the Rhone could not be
presented during the ensuing Session, the Chamber of
Commerce of Marseilles requested the Prefect to ascer-
tain the degree of confidence which ought to be placed in
this report. The Prefect hastened to comply, and has
received in answer a telegraphic dispatch, announcing
that the Bill for this railroad will be presented during
the Session, as well as that for the railroad between
Paris and the Belgian frontier."
The town of Nancy has offered 500,000 f. towards the
formation of the Paris and Strasburg Railroad ; and
Chalons-sur-Marne has voted 200,000 f. for the same pur-
pose, provided the road is carried along the Valley of
the Marne. '

A Toulon letter states that the French frigate Uranie,
on coming back from Bourbon, saved the crew of an
English vessel, the name of which is given as the Vibelia,
wrecked on the island of Magotta. The crew consisted
of 20 men.

An English sloop, Industry, of Barmouth, 48 tons,
was found, on the 19th ult., abandoned off Torbay, by a
French fishing-vessel of Fecamp, and has since been towed
into Boulogne by three fishing-boats.
The Levrette, Government schooner, has returned to
l'Orient for repairs. Whilst on her voyage to Marti-
nique she was caught in a storm, and broke her main-
mast, and was therefore compelled to return to port,
which, in her disabled state, she accomplished with great
difficulty, but without losing a man of her crew.
General Negrier, Governor of Constantina, has ad-
dressed a letter, dated 22d ult., to the Minister of War,
givind an account of the manner in which the festival of
El Aid Seguir, or the Lesser Festival, had been cele-
brated there. The General conceived it to be a good
occasion for giving the Arabs an opportunity of dis-
playing their attachment to France, and accordingly he
went in solemn procession, attended by a great number of
officers and troops, and nearly the whole population, on
the morning of the 15th, to the heights of Coudiat Aty,
above the town. Salvos of cannon announced the march
of the cortege. A tent had been raised for himself and
the superior officers at a spot called Remsalla, or the
Prayetirie s
; and detachments of the garrison kept a square
Open space of about 1,000 feet on every side. Here the
Arabs commenced their usual equestrian evolutions, and
all
brillia Spectators declared that the festival was more
nt than in the days of the Turks. The Caid Ali,
chief of the Haractas, opened the evolutions, and among
Abd-el-`our, the Arabs
.s
oPurresetnh Telegmas, the Seraouya, and some
t were the Ammers-Cheragas, the Ouled
from near Phili
says that PtPheeville
e
, all under their chiefs. The Ge-
neralwhite, with the Arabs
of the Coudiat Aty was quite
After the evolutions, the
on it in their burnous,
Arab horsemen all filed off be-
fore the Governor, ' and ?,
t was evident that they took a
showingal is theiropinionfunderstand hdand sympathise
that this method of
reTihne
Gener
attachment to the French
cause.pleas u
showing that the French
with the national sentiments of
the Arabs will be pro-
ductive of great good.
A correspondent of the Toulounais at Algiers
that an English Colonel is with Abd.e states
aiding him with his advice. -Kader, and is
We give the following extract of a letter from Bey-
rout, which we find in the Semaphore of Marseille
testing, at the same time, against the absurdities ins the
first We, who are on the spot,
first paragraph : have the
most convincing proofs of all the British intrigue, ; let
France be perfectly assured that it is the English who
have excited the Druses to arm, and have been the
cause of all the evils with which Syria has been afflicted
for nearly twelve
months. Encouraged by the victory
of their brethren at Zahle, and indignant at the cruelties
in-
of the Druses and the hypocrisy of the
English, the
habitants of Castravan, Fetou, Geobeil, Batroun, and
Bacharre, have risen en masse. A corps of 16,000 men
has encamped on the borders of the Dog river, ready to
cross it, and at the same time a reinforcement of 10,000
men has entered Zahle. The evils already incurred are
immense, but those about to be created will be still more
disastrous, for this sanguinary conflict, according to
those who are acquainted with the feelings of the oppo-
nent parties, is only at its commencement."
Lord Burghersh has arrived at Berlin.
La Presse publishes a notice explaining M. de Lamar-
tine's motives for allowing himself to be proposed as a
candidate for the President's chair of the Chamber of
Deputies in these words :
" The following is the truth relative to the personal
situation of M. de Lamartine with respect to the Presi-

dency of the Chamber of Deputies. AL de Lamartine
did not aspire to the honours of the Chamber. The just
sentiment of his inexperience, the fear of serving'
as an excuse for creating the slightest dissension
amongst the majority, of which he forms part, his
affl3ctionate esteem for M. Sauzet, would have pre-
vented him from thinking of it. M. de Lamartine
received, fifteen days since, letters from some of
his political friends, who proposed to him to place him -
self as a candidate at the opening of the Session, and who
informed him of the favourable disposition of many
of his colleagues towards him. He replied by return
of post, that he did not wish to solicit the Presidency,
which he considered an elevation, and not an ac-
cession of strength, that in his Parliamentary career
he sought influence and not personal dignity, and,
thought no more about it. A few days afterwards his
political friends, without being influenced by his re-
serve, assembled, put his name forward, and engaged
in his favour a polemic full of talent and kindness,
which he would not perhaps have encouraged, but
which he could not but acknowledge with thanks. Some
Conservative journals declared themselves in honourable
but significant terms, opposed to M. de Lamartine's ap-
pointment. The controversy became more animated.
In this state M. de Lamartine found the question on his
arrival in Paris. There were then but three courses for
him to pursue. To disavow his personal arid political friends
who were engaged in this matter, which they made their
own. To accept the position of candidate, which they made
for him, and to solicit, an office for which he had no am-
bition, or in fine to submit in silence to the judgment
of the Chamber, and to execute its commands. To dis-
avow his friends who compromised themselves for him,
and to deprive them of the ground on which they stood
by an anticipated refusal, would be worse than cowardice
—it would amount to ingratitude. He was incapable of
it. To solicit the Presidency would be to repudiate his
own declaration that he did not desire it, and would be,
perhaps, to take upon himself the responsibility of a par-
tial and momentary breaking up of the majority. There
only remained, therefore, a third course, and that is
what M. de Lamartine has adopted. To remain silent,
to wait the will of the Chamber, and to obey it."
The King went to Versailles yesterday at two o'clock.
The Council of Ministers sat yesterday at Marshal
Soult's.

We have announced that the Mayor of Pouille (in La
Vendee) has been suspended from his office for having
published the announcement of the marriage of a Roman
Catholic priest. The fact is confirmed by the documents
before us, but this priest has ceased to exercise the func-
tions of the priesthood ever since 1829; since 1830 he has
publicly professed a form of worship in which the law-
fulness of a marriage by its ministers is allowed as in the
Protestant churches. The Bishop of Lucon, by an act of
1832, published and posted up in all the churches of his
diocese, cut himself off from the Roman Catholic com-
munion. It is certain that it is not, by an abuse of con-
fession, or of the sacerdotal functions that he has obtained
the hand of the young woman whom he desires to marry;
there remains, therefore, only the question of the per-
petuity of religious vows which the Constitutional Assem-
bly abolished by a law of 10th February, 1790, in the
following terms.—Art. 1. " The constitutional law of
the kingdom will no longer recognise solemn monastic
vows of persons of either sex, in consequence of which
the regular orders and congregations in which such vows
are made, are and shall continue to be suppressed in
France, nor shall any such be established in future."—
No law has since abolished this solemn declaration ;
on the contrary, the ordinance approving the statutes of
religious communities, contain the following clause :
" Seeing that the said statutes contain no perpetual vows,
nor any clauses contrary to the laws of the kingdom,
yet the Keeper of the Seal has ordered the King's At-
torney at Fontenay formally to oppose the intended
marriage, which he did, in a letter to the Mayor, in
which he says that all the precedents and the jurispru-
dence of the Court of Cassation lays it down that the
engagements in holy orders are an obstacle to marriage,
and that it is most important, for the sake of public
morality, that this rule should be rigorously observed."—
The Prefect on his side has been suspended from the ex-
ercise of his functions.—Constitutionnet
BOURSE—PARIS, SAI4I: RDAY, DEC. 11.

first Highest Lowest Last
Prise ' Price. Price Price.
rrench 5 per Cent 5........... lid 50 ... 116 55 ... 116 :0 116 50
4 per Cents lOO 85 ... 100 85 ... 100 85 ... 100 85
3 per Contr. ex div 7B 30 78 30 ... ;8 25 ... 78 30
Loan .......«.« 79 ... 79 ... 79 ..•
79
SAnk of France
Laffitte Bank 1.0001. Shares 1040 ...1640 ...104C ...1040
5,0001. Shares 5065 ...5065 ...5063 ..,5065
Belgian Bank
1811
Belgian S per Cents., 1840 10:31.; ... 10314 ... 1013 ... 103%
3 per Cents .....« 7l 75 ... 71 75 ... 71 75 71 75
Sdanish Active 24% ... 24% ... 24% 24%
. .
Neapolitan, ex div.
Rowan ..... 103 ... 103 ... 103 ... 103
Portuguese 3 per Cent&

RAILWAY SHARES.
St. Germain 750 ... 755 ... 750 ... 755
Versailles.L.B...",... ...... " 193 75 ... 197 50 ... 193 75 ... 197 50
Rouen •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 455 ... 455 ... 455 ... 455
Orleans . ............
Montpellier to Cette....
Strasnurgtoßale.shares red 217 50 ... 217 50 ... 217 50 ... 217 50

MUNIFICENT GIFT.— We did Mr. Fisk, Bap-
tist minister at Norwich, injustice in attributing
the liberal donation of 2001. to a clergyman of
the Established Church. It certainly did not
occur to us as possible that one of the Dissenting
clergy, considering the small incomes they ge-
nerally possess, could afford to give such a sum
for the relief of the poor in only one district; and
we, therefore, put it down to the account of some
rosy-gilled pluralist, resolved to set an example
to his brethren, and give the whole of one year's
income to relieve the distresses of a starving
population.
RENT OF ENGLAND AND WALES.—We stated
in The Sun, on Monday last, that the rental of
England and Wales is now estimated, by Mr.
M'Culloch, at the sum of 30,000,0001., which, we
added, we believed to be an under-estimate. We
had neither time nor inclination to enter into an
examination of Mr. M'Calloch's data, nor motives
for making a long explanation on the subject.
We must now, however, copy from the Man-
chester Guardian the following remarks :
" Now, as rents have been more than doubled
since they were estimated by Arthur Young at
22,000,000/.2 and as that estimate included neither
Scotland and Wales, nor the (probably) 6,000,000
acres of waste land which have been brought
under cultivation since 1770, we shall not be far
wrong if we estimate the present annual rental
of Great Britain at 50,000,0001. to 60,000,0001.,
being an increase of four or five hundred per
cent. within a century and a half." Supposing
we deduct one-sixth of that, or, as rents are
higher in Scotland than in England, one-fifth, as
the amount of the rental in Scotland, from the
smaller sum, we shall have at least 40,000,000/.
as the present rental of England and Wales.
That supposition would materially strengthen
the case we brought before the reader, and make
it apparent that the rental of England had in-
creased in a much greater ratio than the
population since the beginning of the eighteenth
century. We must take this opportunity
of observing that neither Mr. G. King's
estimate of the rent of England in 1696,
nor that of Mr. M'Culloch, includes the rent
of mines, collieries, quarries, &c. &c. ; and if we
include the rent of them, in which, probably, a
far greater increase than in the rent of arable
land has taken place since the beginning of the
eighteenth century, we shall at once pronounce
that the rental of England has probably in-
creased two-fold more than the population,
largely as that has increased since that period.

DISTRESS IN SPITALFIELDS.The Committee
for relieving the distress in the populous but
poverty-stricken locality of Spitalfields, are daily
receiving contributions from the charitable, and
large donations from the wealthy and humane.
In addition to the already highly respectable
members on the Committee, we are glad to learn
that Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart has cheerfully
allowed his name to be added to the list, as have
also those influential gentlemen Mr. Hanbury,
Sir Thomas Fawell Buxton, Bart., and Mr. Jo-
nathan Hopkinson, the great West India mer-
chant. Lord Dudley Stuart, who has always
proved himself the warm friend of the distressed,
has written a very kind letter to the Committee,
and forwarded at the same time a handsome do-
nation. We trust that those who can afford it
will speedily follow so praiseworthy an example.
The Sixth Number of the Journal of the Work-
ing Classes keeps up the hypocritical and lying
character which the former numbers of that
publication established for it. One of the par-
ties in the State, it says, or factions, " tell us
that the sole cause of the present extra distress
is the existence of a duty on foreign corn." No
party in the State, we are sure—no individual, we
believe—says that. A large and, we are happy
to say, an increasing party, asserts that the Corn-
laws, as now existing, inflict great evils on the
people, and that they are one of the most promi-
nent and most wicked specimens of that
great system of class and corrupt legislation
which causes all the evils of the community. He
must be a madman who asserts that the Corn
and Provision-laws, which are one bad cluster of
laws out of a whole Statute Book of wicked
laws too voluminous to be read or compre-
hended, are the sole cause of the extra distress
now suffered by the people. A journal which
states the question in this tbrm is a false journal,
and its arguments are unworthy of any further
notice.

A CHANCE" JURY.—On Saturday, in the
Palace Court, in consequence of there not being a suf-
ficient number of persons summoned present to form a
Jury, the Judge directed the absentees to be called in
the usual manner, and fined them 40s. each. He then
directed the officer to go out and " find" a Jury ; and he
accordingly did so—the individuals he casually met with
being persons who gave their addresses from widely dif-
ferent parts of the town.
MARTHAM IN NORFOLK.—In this parish,
the population of which, in 1831, did not exceed 900,
there have died between the years 1831 and 1840, 21
persons, whose ages average 85 years each, many of
whom were born in Martham, and the greater part had
lived more than three-quarters of their lives in that
village. There are now living in the same parish 10
persons, in good health, whose ages average more than
80 years.—Norfolk Chronicle.