The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-05 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY. OCTOBER 5, 1847.

Every reasonable effort is being made by Senor
SALAMANCA to extricate Spain from her financial and
commercial involvements. "Whether or not the course
adventured upon by that intelligent statesman tallies
with our own opinions as to what is most advisable,
we are compelled to acknowledge that he evinces
both integrity of purpose and the earnestness of prac-
tical patriotism. Not satisfied with the popularity
acquired by his Administration in consequence of the
generous amnesty granted immediately upon its esta
blishment, and in consequence likewise of various
other acts of clemency—among which the restoration
of the illustrious Duke of VICTORY to wealth and
influence was not the leastcommendable—thenew Go-
vernment of Madrid, under the guidance of SALA-
MANCA, is striving to restore to that division of
the Peninsula the prosperity so long denied to
its inhabitants by commotion and maladministration.
Naturally, Spain was capable of becoming one of the
wealthiest kingdoms in Christendom. Its geogra-
phical position was, if possible, more inestimable and
more calculated to pour riches into its coffers, than
its vast and magnificent possession in the western
hemisphere—or rather its geographical position ena-
bled it to turn those territorial acquisitions to the
best advantage. To appreciate the excellence of its
geographical situation, be it remembered that the coun-
try of the CID is placed immediately between the most
civilised and enterprising nations of Europe and the
most populous portions of the northern coast of Africa ;
that it has ports advantageously commanding the
waters of the Mediterannean sea and the Atlantic
ocean ; that its western shores form the most natural
point towards which the current of American trade
should run ; that, being at the very entrance of the
Mediterranean, it has the capacity, with a properly
organized maritime force, to become the medium
through which the traffic of Europe, of Asia, of
Africa, and America
might
ebb and flow—arousing
the constitutional sluggishness of the Spanish popula..
tion into a health-giving
That is but a miserable and wealth-giving activity.
which teaches one count? short-sighted policy
itspQnattb own affluence is in
any manner dependent upon the manu-
factures or neglected agriculture
ned enter-
pdrincipalities.
prise or forgotten industry of adjaca„rdo.
demonstrate,
The true principles of political economy
in a beautiful and conclusive manner,
country should (even from motives of 'self-iantt each
yearn for the extension of the commercial undertak-
ings ings of its neighbours. Free trade teaches us that
the greater the prosperity of the different kingdoms
of the earth the greater will be their reciprocal be-
nefit, and that the larger their exportations the larger
will their importations necessarily become, and that
the productions of Nature and the contrivances of
human ingenuity must be thereby rendered the more
plentiful. It is upon this enlarged and ennobling
principle that we should, with all the earnestness of a
national unanimity, strive to promote the efforts Of
SALAMANCA and his colleagues for the re-adjustment
of Spanish finance and the re-animation of Spanish
commerce:. This sympathy has induced our Ambas-
ssador at the Court of ISABELLA 11. to concede to the
wishes of Senor SALA3LANCA, and, although the
Ministerial project is in a great measure discounte-
nanced in Downing-street, to unite his voice with that
of the chief statesman of Madrid in recommend-
ing to the Government of Lord JOHN RUSSELL
the scheme of a commercial treaty between Spain
and Great Britain. SALAzuzicA'S project in thi3 ,
artb.:ll,lar has at keg cue excellence, namely, the

excellence of simplicity. It chiefly aims at the equa-
lization of the per centage upon the official value
of articles of commerce, either agricultural or
manufacturing products, carried from Spain to
England, or vice versa from England to Spain.
It is intended through its operation that there
should in effect be a perfect reciprocity in regard
to the duties of their several importations—that
except upon the products of the wine or spirit vats
of the Peninsula and upon the cotton goods of Eng-
land, the average duty levied should be from 25 to
'3B per cent. on all articles—that the latter descrip-
tion of exports should be severally received at a reci-
procal impost of from 28 to 32 per cent.—and
that commissioners should be delegated by each
country to settle all the minor points in
the proposed arrangement. Such is the skeleton
of the new commercial treaty as imagined
and propounded by Senor SALAMANCA. As a legis-
lative movement it is admirable, for it is a movement
in the right direction ; but it is far from being suffi-
ciently in advance, and would tend in no manner to
ensure to Spain those commercial advantages which
the Minister is manifestly solicitous to ensure to his
fellow- countrymen. As a preventive against smug-
gling it will prove altogether ineffectual, for the
cupidity of contraband traders will still be excited by
the continued costliness and the abbreviated petti-
coats of the dark•eyed damsels of the Peninsula.
English cottons have long become a positive essential
to the toilets of Castile and Estramadura, and so long
as the Catalan continues to minister to the wants of
the Spanish ladies, so long will the national revenues
be defrauded, and the intended benefits of the com-
pact between Spain and Great Britain escape from
the possession of the former. So notorious, indeed, is
the system of smuggling as conducted along the fron-
tiers of Spain, that it is estimated that the Government
loses annually a portion of its revenues amounting
to between 4000,0001. and 5,000,0001. sterling ; and
it is, therefore, against the contraband traders that
the Administration should first of all direct its inge-
nuity. What so instantaneous in the d9struction of
the system of smuggling as the 'recognition and
establishment of Free Trade ? In comparison with
that most rational measure of amelioration, the Pre-
ventive Force is as a wicker hurdle in comparison with
a petard. The one is to the fraudulent system an in-
effectual and insecure obstruction, while the other
is a plan which annihilates and scatters it
to the winds of heaven. However much
we may and do deprecate the commercial project of
SALAMANCA as insufficient when contrasted with
the exigencies of his position, we are still ready to
award to him that commendation to which he is justly
entitled ; we are still compelled to acknowledge that
SALAMANCA has avoided the retrogressive policy of
his predecessors—that he has, in fact, advanced and
advances in the right direction.

The day for the execution of the unfortunate
woman, MARY ANISE lIUST, convicted at the August
sessions of the Central Criminal Court for the murder
of MARY STOWELL, has been appointed. If no fur-
ther interference should take place, unless her MA-
JESTY should exercise her prerogative in favour of the
wretched criminal, on Monday next her grievous
offence will be expiated by an ignominious death
upon the scaffold. We do not, in any degree, at-
tempt to impugn the verdict returned by the jury,
nor the punishment assigned to an offence so grievous
as that of which she was undoubtedly guilty. Neither
shall we at present enter into the evidence brought
forward on the trial for the purpose of showing
that at the time of the murder she was not
in such a state of mind as to be legally responsible
for her actions, nor to the explanation which she
afterwards gave as to the causes which led to the
unfortunate transaction, and the manner in which
the unhappy victim was deprived of life, which cer-
tainly bore every appearance of truth. Many per-
sons, even of those who conscientiously believe that
capital punishment is absolutely necessary, and that
the wilful shedding of human blood can only be
adequately atoned for by the public execution of the
delinquent, still conceive that in consequence of the
weakened state of her mind from the fits by which
she was frequently affected, and which left her for
half or three-quarters of an hour after her recovery
in a state of delirium, and also from the apparent ab-
o ----- ,•• •• alp would be
a fitting object for the royal clemency, and tnat tne
extreme sentence of the law might, in her case, be
very properly commuted to perpetual banishment.
There are other peculiar circumstances, howevi r, that
would, in our opinion, render it most inexpedient and
unwarrantable—indeed little better than a judicial
murder—to permit the original sentence of death
to be inflicted.

In another part of our columns we publish a letter
from an esteemed correspondent, on the absolute
inefficiency, the utter futility of the present mode of
testing the truth of a prisoner's assertion, or rather
plea of pregnancy, in bar of immediate execution.
In that letter the subject is most fully and ably
treated. It is the just, the humane policy of the
law, that the innocent are not to be punished for
or with the guilty, that the hapless child whose rights
are protected from the earliest moment of its existence,
who may succeed to honours and property, who is
defended from any violence (an attempt to procure
abortion in any manner being punishable with trans-
portation for life), cannot legally be cut off, by the
execution of a justly merited judgment on its mother.
The law declares that if the prisoner be pregnant
with a living child—or, to use its own quaint
phraseology, be quick with child—her execution
must be postponed until the birth of that child, or
until the lapse of •time has sufficiently proved that
she could not possibly have been in such a state. This
question, which has been shown to be one of extreme
difficulty, frequently baffling the closest investigation,
of competent and skilful practitioners, who have
particularly devoted themselves to feminine diseases,
is left to the decision of a jury of twelve matrons,
who are not even bound to call in the assistance of a
qualified medical man ; who do not understand the
use of the stethoscope, or other instruments by which
the accoucheurs can detect the presence of the child,
even when the mother herself is ignorant of its exist-
ence; who may possibly be imbued with prejudices,
and ignorant of the real meaning of the words " quick
with child." These persons return a hasty verdict,
without having adopted any of the means necessary
to insure its accuracy, and an innocent and helpless
being may, in consequence, be sacrificed as a vic-
tim to the law, by which it should have been
protected. If the woman is at all pregnant, who can
Aare to say at what period the child was not a
living creature ? It is the policy of the law that the
benefit of any reasonable doubt should be given to
those charged with the most atrocious crimes : why
should it not also be extended to one incapable of
crime ?

The inadequacy, the worthlessness of the mode of
trial, is proved beyond any manner of doubt
by the number of instances in which juries of
matrons have returned erroneous verdicts. Indeed,
we believe their opinions were positively proved to
have been erroneous in the great majority of doubtful
cases which have of late years been submitted to their
judgment, and, strange to say, the error has never
been on the side of mercy. In addition to the compa-
ratively recent and well-known cases of MARY `RIGHT
and CATHERINE BYRNE, cited by our correspondent,
we shall add that of a woman named BRIDGET Bin.-
tnaL-r, who was convicted of murder at Dublin in
the year 1823. She pleaded pregnancy ; the jury of
matrons were duly empanelled, and, as usual,
sreedily returned a verdict that the convict was not
qmuidk . vkclith child. In her case, unfortunately, no
man interposedwretehd v
0:1 at An e en
was, the i lawn
accordance
oarndda
nictes
victim, the
eightw iththhoeutrhse,nansdtatoenodfistsheectli:,itexweeasutefdouwnidatbsitnhaftorttyha
matrons had been mistaken, and that she -
four and five months pregnant of a male child.w between
We hope and trust that a similar legal rrizeede
not be suffered to take place in the present case. may
O
gentleman whose enfi:l
the trial of the miserable offender jsir. ADmult,
the surgeon of Newgate,
ciency and zealous attention to the duties of his
station have merited the highest approbation, and
whose opinion is entitled to the greatest respect, de-
clared on oath that he believed the woman to be
enciente, and to have been in that condition for more
than three months. We confess that such evidence ap-
pears to us of much greater weight than that of the
matrons who flippantly, ani without consulting a

medical practitioner, returned a verdict that was to
consign a human being to the scaffold.
We are about to return our hearty thanks to
the ALMIGHTY for his great mercies manifested
to us in the bountiful harvest he has been
pleased to send. It would be a fitting period
to show our sense of those mercies by extending
mercy to our erring and suffering fellow-creatures.
Prisons have frequently been thrown open, the sword
of justice has been blunted at periods of national
thanksgiving and national rejoicings, and as there are
some mitigating circumstances in the present
case, we would gladly see the example followed,
and that mercy should at once be extended to MART
ANNE HUNT, so that she should not be exposed to the
protracted agony of awaiting her punishment for many
months, and finding that the deliverance, which is so
anxiously looked forward to by other women, is only
to be the signal for the shameful termination of her
miserable existence.

The Emperor of Russia and the Imperial Family
have fled from Petersburgh to Moscow, to avoid the
cholera The EMPEROR. has ordered a new levy of
80,000 conscripts, partly with a view to exterminate
the lower order of the nobility of Poland, whD are
compelled to furnish one man for every ten inha-
bitants, and partly to make up for the ravages which
cholera has committed in the army.

Letters from Berne of the 29th ult. state that an
affray took place on the 18th instant in consequence
of the outrageous conduct of the national militia of
Friburg. These partizans of the Jesuits, who were
returning in a large body from the capital of the
canton, crossed the frontier and fired a volley of ball
cartridge against the village cf Abligen, in Berne.
This brutal and unprovoked act has created an im-
mense sensation throughout the country, and the
Vorort had in consequence written to the authorities
of Friburg that if a prompt satisfaction was not
afforded, measures would be adopted to enforce it.

Letters from Rome of the 25th ult. contradict the
report of the resignation of Cardinal FERRETTI. Rome
and the Legations continued tranquil. The follow-
ing is the latest intelligence from the duchies of
Modena and Parma :

" The occupation of Brescelle by Austria is not
yet effected, but it appears to be only postponed.
Every day the troops expect orders to march. The
Austrian General Radetski is consulted by the autho-
rities every two days. The strictest watch is kept
on Fanano, and two hundred men are preparing to
march to the frontiers of Lucca. There are at this
moment at Cologno, eight miles from Placentia, on
the left bank of the Po, a great number of troops."

Madrid journals of the 8h ult. have arrived.
ESPARTERO has refused the offer of the post of
Spanish Minister in London.
The Government having called upon NARVAEZ
either to return to his post in Paris, or to permit them
to appoint a Minister Plenipotentiary to act during
his absence, had tendered his resignation, and the
Ministry, instead of accepting it at once, commenced
negotiating with him to induce him to withdraw it.
This temporising on the part of the Ministry is worse
than a fault, it is a mistake.
The Carlist chieftain, MARTIAL, has been defeated
in the neighbourhood of Saragossa. He himself was
taken prisoner, and his band dispersed.
It is announced in Madrid that a company is to be
established to work the copper mines of Cuba.
Several persons of distinction were, it is said, ar-
rested on the night of the 27th ult.
MADRID BOLSA, SEPT. 28.—The Three per Cents.
were at 25i cash. 26 paper ; the Five per Cents., 171 ;
Passives, 58 ; Coupons, 14.
Exchange on London, 48d. 80c.

We have received the Paris papers of Sunday.

The Constitutionnel, in announcing the arrival of
Count INALEwsKi at Toulon, states, that after Lord
HOWDEN had raised the blockade of the Rio de la
Plata by the English squadron, the French Plenipo-
tentiary, who all along refused to acknowledge the
authority of ORME, considering the Monte Videans
justified in refusing to accept the armistice proposed,
had ordered the blockade by the French to be conti-
nued. Previous to his departure he had obtained
from ORins the liberation of M. BALLESTEE and M.
RouisaN, French merchants of Monte Video, who
had been taken prisoners at Colonia and Mercedes.
The French naval forces in the Plata consist of two
frigates, a corvette, six brigs, tour steamers, aLiu I,INU
ketches. The armistice was broken on the 2d of
August, and °RIDE commenced firing on the city.
It is said that Rows is preparing to invade the pro-
vince of' Corrientes.
The Courrier Francais says—

" M. Guizot on Friday handed to the Marquis of
Normanby a note in reply to that in which Lord
Palmerston demanded explanations relative to the
nomination of the Duke d'Aunaale. If the rumours
which are in circulation relative to the contents of
the note are to be believed, the Minister has therein
declared, in substance, that the appointment of the
Prince did not imply any change of principle in the
state of things adopted since 1830 by the French Go-
vernment relative to England. This reply allows the
famous question of secret engagements to subsist in
all its plenitude."
We find in the same journal the following intelli-
gence from the Black Sea :

" The Emperor of Russia has lately published a
ukase which involves one of the gravest questions of
international law. This ukase has for its object to
suspend the exercise of the right of fishing along the
coasts of the Black Sea,from Anapa as far as Batourni,
in order to prevent assistance from being afforded to
the populations of the Caucasus. This interdiction,
according to the circular addressed to the foreign
consuls and agents, is to apply to all nations. The
Czar, by this measure, appears to arrogate to himself
the exclusive property of the Black Sea; for other-
wise he would have the right of surveillance only
over the coasts of ➢iingrelia, Abasia, and the other
provinces of that part of his states, but he would not
possess any right to interdict all nations from an in-
dustry which they have exercised from time imme-
morial. The ukase in question, therefore, moots a
point that demands to be seriously examined."

'The Journal des Debats, in the course of a long
article on the commercial crisis in England, which it
attributes to the deficient harvest of 1846 and the
failure of the potato crop, takes occasion to recom-
mend the establishment of free trade in France as
the most effectual method of preventing the occur-
rence of a similar crisis in that country, as the stock
of old corn at present on hand is very small, and
there is a failure in the crops of beans and potatoes,
while the wheat harvest is not above the average.
The following is the conclusion of this well-argued
article :

" When the Chamber of Deputies voted the law
which extended the provisional permission to import
corn until the month of January next nobody could
foresee the result of the last harvest ; but the persons
who are systematically opposed to every measure
which appears to be an encouragement to free trade,
combined so effectively that the extension of time
was limited to the month of January, 1848. We
shall have time, said they, to procure supplies during
the summer and autumn, as if it were prudent to
haggle about a period Cif time when the question
regarded the food of a nation. We now see that
those persons were mistaken. A commercial acci-
dent has caused a suspension in the arrival of grain.
Nobody is now purchasing corn either at Odessa,
New York, or New Orleans. How should we act
were the present fall in the price of grain in France,
which must be partly ascribed to the commercial
crisis in England, to be followed by a considerable
rise in two or three months ? Does one imagine
that it would he sufficient to extend the period for
importing corn free of duty to ianuary or February?
The example of last year has demonstrated the danger
of waiting for those tardy laws. The year through
which Western Europe has passed has demonstrated
how chimerical were the assertions that Russia and
America were capable of inundating Europe with
wheat. It was asserted that it was only necessary
to strike one's foot on the earth to see millions upon
millions of sacks of corn produced at a low price.
With regard to the low price, the returns of the prices
in the different markets have shown us the truth of
the assertion. If after a consideration of those facts
any party should coolly maintain that agriculture
would be endangered should the restrictive laws of
olsFafBrllteah9ntecaoevn;urdillhiBicis:3obc2noimbyt eramatrctoetrnli
siabesaudeetndebs:yet:, we should begin to despair
Fr:lneessi" 8
rtlayn tit)
anxiousg c o
The Constitutionnel has also an article on the crisiq in
,pilaiscepsa,ratnicdul Gth:v
.soehfr
raii nn
railroads.d
makingTo lhee-
ee
to,:hsoawys
itfbethCeonsmtiintuistiteonrneo/f,
-n.
te negotiating the loan at
financial world in
Finances will decide upon
isoncsea,morthifathemw.ilblupxiosotNpoinseini
the
another period. It
opinion to aengrotehaeter,st perplexity,
and that the
that he flies from one op
resolution which he takes one day is ne longer VI
molutionoiatbe day after. It is certain that his
.1201-itio:

is very embarrassing, that on the one hand the loan
in present circumstances would be contracted on
.
deplorable condits, and that on the other hand it
appears difficult and even dangerous to postpone it.
But whose fault is this ? Have the Ministry any
one to blame but themselves ? They commenced by
increasing beyond measure the salaries of all public
functionaries, and creating forty thousand new places.
This retail traffic in consciences did not appear suffi-
cient when the elections arrived. The wish was to
purchase the country wholesale by means of the
railways. The budget of public works was over-
charged to an enormous extent, the savings of the
country were expended without heeding the reaction
which was inevitable. Hardly had the last session
commenced when the financial crisis showed itself.
The rise in the price of food came afterwards to
double its intensity. It was in vain that a hope was
entertained that the evil might be stopped by aban-
doning a portion of the works voted with such an ab-
sence of foresight. Private industry renounced the
execution of the railways from Bordeaux to Cette,
and from Lyons to Avignon ; the railways from Dijon
to Mulhausen, and from Gray to St. Dizier remain
without adjudication, and the Chambers reduced from
ninety-three millions the extraordinary budget of
public works. It was too late, and besides the mass
of the works voted was such, that even after some of
them had been abandoned, there still remained more
than the strength of the country could bear."
The Constitutionnel thus sums up the financial con•
dition of France at the present moment :
" The total amount of the advances and debts
of the Treasury, at the end of 1847, will amount to
700,000,000, without reckoning the sixty or seventy
millions required for current expenses. It was esti-
mated at the end of last session that the ordinary
budget for 1848 would show a deficiency of forty
millions, and that the extraordinary works would ex-
ceed the reserves of the sinking fund by sixty millions.
This, then, is 100 millions to be added to the previous
deficiency of 800 millions. How is this to be met ?
Will a new issue of bons de tresor be tried ? This
was formerly the economical mode of borrowing, but
it is so no longer, for the interest is now 4i per
cent., and must be raised to 5 per cent. Let us add,
that the floating debt has limits which cannot be
exceeded without danger to the public credit. There
is a moment when the most vulgar prudence coun-
sels the wisdom of consolidating it. It is impos-
sible not to be frightened at the situation of
France if any grave event happened in Europe,
with a floating debt to so exaggerated an amount as
it is at the present. But if recourse be not had to
an augmentation of the floating debt, it wiil be
necessary to have recourse to the negotiation of a
loan in the midst of a crisis. At what rate must it
be contracted ? Probably at 72 or 74, and it will be
recollected that M. Laca;e Laplagne, that insufficient
Minister, concluded this loan at 841 Let M. Dumon
, choose ; but whatever be the resolution at which he
may arrive after so many tergiversations, it is neces-
sary that he should make a public declaration of it.
Affairs must not be left any longer in a position that
paralyzes commerce and industry."

We copy the following on the progress of the in-
surrection in Naples from the Presse, and on this
subject the Presse may be considered a high autho-
rity :
"It is positively stated that grave intelligence has
arrived from Naples. The insurrection which hail
declared itself in Sicily has, it is said, gained the
continental part of the kingdom, and even the capital
itself. The situation of the Government is said to be
seriously menaced, to such a point, indeed, that its
friends manifest very lively apprehensions as to its
existence. The pitiless character of the repression,
far from having put down the movement, appears to
have only aggravated it."
The Three per Cents. were done on the Passage
de l'Opera on Sunday at 75f.
MARSEILLES, SEPT. 21—Marseilles and Avignon,
535 f.; Northern, 525 f.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, OCTOBER 4.
Boulogne and Amiens, 134—Central of France (Orleans
and Vierzon), 142—Dutch Rhenish, 24—Northern of
France, 10—Orleans and Bordeaux, 31h—Paris and Orleans,
44 Sambre and Meuse, 6—Tours and Nantes, 214—West
Flanders, 214.