The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-23 00:00:00

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LONDON:
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1841.

,RMIP''
The Peers met yesterday in their legislative
capacity, and received from the Commons the
Exchequer Court and Tithe Composition (Ire-
land) Bills.

Lord WHARNCLIFFE expressed a wish to have
what the LORD HIGH STEWARD said on the late
memorable trial put on record and published, as
it would put an end to much of the nonsense,the
Noble Lord said, that was talked on the subject.
We presume, therefore, that the speech deli-
vered by Lord DENMAN, during the exclusion of
strangers, has been very satisfactory to the
Peers, and means will be found, we hope, to
enable the public to share that satisfaction, and
come to as clear a conviction as their Lordships
possessed that they were perfectly justified in
pronouncing a verdict of acquittal on their ho-
nour, when the fact that the Earl of CARDIGAN
did designedly wound a person in a duel was
clearly proved. Lord WHARNCLIFFE also gave
notice that he would bring in a Bill to clear up
doubts as to a Peer pleading privilege, for the
credit of their Lordships.
Lord BROUGHAM, in presenting some petitions,
took the opportunity to ask whether the Govern-
ment of Ireland had refused to nominate Mr.
Rocu as Sheriff for Cork, because he was fa-
vourable to the Repeal of the Union, and to ex-
press his opinion, though he was opposed to
Repeal, that such a mode of proceeding was
not the right way to put it down.
The Marquis of NORMANDY had no official in-
formation on the subject, but he believed the
fact was so.

The Earl of RIPON brought the state of our
relations with Persia before their Lordships,
and blamed the silence which had been observed
concerning- them by the Government. He also
blamed the conduct of the Government and of
our Ambassador, and concluded by moving an
address for correspondence between our Govern-
ment and Persia.

Viscount MELBOURNE stated that all our dif-
ferences with Persia had been accommodated,
except one relating to the possessions of the for-
tress of Gourcal, belonging to Herat. An officer
had been sent to see that it was restored, and as
soon as that was done our Ambassador would re-
turn to Teheran. The motion was agreed to.
The Bishop of EXETER complained of an ordi-
nance relating to Canada, which was ordered to
be printed on the 29th of January, and was not
printed till the 26th of February, because the
Colonial-office had had it for revision. The irate

:.~

Prelate wished to have the printer called to the
bar, but contented himself with saying he would
ask an explanation to-day. Their Lordships then
adjourned.
In the Commons a considerable number of pe-
titions were presented, many of which were
against Lord STANLEY'S Bill, while Lord STAN-
LEY presented one from Liverpool, signed by
27,000 persons, for the Bill, and objecting to Lord
MORPETH'S franchise. We are afraid Mr.
O'CoNNELL is right. At least, wherever bigotry
obtains an ascendancy, as at Liverpool, there his
countrymen are hated and politically persecuted.
He and they cannot cannot expect justice as long
as the influence of our intolerant priesthood is in
the ascendant.

In reply to Mr. MILNE, Viscount PALMER-
STON stated that Colonel STODART, detained at
Bokhara, was not yet released, though he
might have been, had he not declined to profit
by the intervention of the Envoy of a foreign
Power, not knowing that it was sanctioned by
his own Government.

Mr. LABOUCHERE gave notice of a motion on
March 8, relative to the Customs' duties on the
produce of our North American and West India
Colonies, we presume to remove the improper
restrictions which now exist on the conveyance
of that produce from one colony to another.
In answer to Lord MAHON, Viscount PAL-
MERSTON stated that the negotiations about in-
ternational copyrights had not yet led to any
results.

In reply to Lord ELIOT, the Noble Viscount
said, he believed a note had passed from the Aus-
tzian Minister to the Swiss Diet, relative to the
suppression of Convents in Switzerland.
On Lord MORPETII moving the second reading
of the Irish Voters Bill, Lord STANLEY moved
that it be read a second time that day six
months. Lord STANLEY spoke for three hours
against the Bill, and in favour of his amendment.
His opposition was chiefly founded on the en-
franchising clause, which was tacked to the re-
gistration. Of course the Noble Lord was vitu-
perative of the Government, clamorous against
the Bill, and insulting as usual to the people who
would not patiently submit to his odious tyranny.
One passion was visible from the beginning to
the end of the Noble Lord's speech—hatred
to the Catholics of Ireland ; one object
was palpable throughout, that of replacing
them under the hateful domination which they
have since 182.9 been gradually throwing off.
Formerly the Irish were persecuted, and dnied
political rights, because they were Catholics.
Lord STANLEY would now take away their rights,
and deny them any reasonable franchise, because
they are poor, and, as he says, perjurers. The
details as to rates, the number of voters, &c. &c.,
into which the Noble Lord largely entered,
making: almost imperceptible mole hills into
mountains, to arrest the march of justice, are less
usefu', and not half so pleasant, to read as the fic-
tions of a novelist. The Noble Lord avowed
that the landlords of England were ready to
give votes to their tenants, because they can
command their votes, and they are the landlord's
slaves, while he objects to giving votes to the
tenants of Ireland, because they are not the serfs
or slaves of the Orange landlords. The soil
of Ireland, as has been said, is Protestant, the peo-
ple are Catholic ; and Lord STANLEY avows that
he denies justice to the living people for the sake
of the dead Protestant clods. In fact, the land-
owners claim the whole community, people and
all, as theirs, and ask, by the mouth of Lord
STANLEY, if they may not do what they like with
their own. The Tories are, of course, quite de-
lighted with Lord STANLEY, he spoke after their
own hearts, he bravely expounded their own
principles, and they cheered him vociferously.
Mr. C. WOOD having last year opposed the
Government, had great pleasure this year, as he
approved of remedying the greater evil of an un-
defined franchise, as well as the lesser evil of an '
imperfect registration, in supporting the Bill.
His candour served to reflect light on the per-
verse malignity of Lord STANLEY. He professed
himself not friendly to an indefinite extension of
the franchise, and intimated that lie only voted
for the principle of founding the franchise on
being rated to the poor, and left the amount at
which it should be fixed to be settled in the
Committee. He had no wish to disturb the ar-
rangement of power settled by the Reform Act ;
but lie was not to be pinned down to its four cor-
ners. He thought it most unwise to legislate
against the feelings of a people, and thought the
Noble Lord should allow the Bill to go into
Committee.

Mr. LITTON opposed, and Mr. FITZPATRICK
supported, the Bill.
Mr. LUCAS explained that he had never meant
to recommend a rating to the poor as the basis
of the franchise, though he had been so under-
stood. The Honourable Gentlemen also found
out a new principle in political science, namely,
that the best way to secure a perfect representa-
tion is to have a very small number of electors.
Lord MORPETH followed Mr. LUCAS, and
made a powerful and amusing speech in favour
of his own measure, and against that of Lord
STA NLEY. He very happily ridiculed the Noble
Lord sighing over lost Coercion Bills, and
hurrying to a fight, because he had no joy
in a civic sceptre. He justified the attempt
to settle the franchise by referring to existing
disputes, and noticed the recent speech of Judge
CRAMPTON in reply to the speech of some other
Judge, as a convincing proof that things could
not remain as at present. When the Noble Lord
brought his observations to a close, Mr. BRO -
THERTON moved the adjournment, and at a Quar-
ter past Twelve the- House adjourned.

The public at large will read with melancholy
regret the account of the loss of the outward-
bound American ship Governor Fenner, by a
collision with the steamer Nottingham, and the
loss of 122 human beings, hurried to an instant
grave. It appears by the accounts, that the
Governor Fenner was on the larboard tack, under
double-reefed topsails, the wind blowing fresh
from the S.S.W., when she saw the Nottingham
on her weather bow. The helm of the Gover-
nor yenner was immediately put to port, or to
windward, so as not only to turn her head from the
steamer, but also to bring the wind more aft, and
increase the velocity of the ship during whatever
small interval might elapse between the first
putting up the helm and the collision. Unfor-
tunately, however, the helm of the Notting-
ham was put to starboard, which had a similar
effect on her, and both ships came into contact
under an increased impulse. The dreadful con-
sequence is before the readers,
We are afraid that this accident may be in
part traced to the rules in existence. It is
one of them, that ships sailing with a fair
wind are to give way for those sailing on
a wind, that steam-ships are to be considered as
vessels sailing with a fair wind, and therefore to
give way to sailing vessels. Acting on this rule,
we presume the Nottingham put her helm to
starboard and bore away, meaning to make way
for the sailing ship.
But there is another rule, that vessels on the
starboard tack shall keep their wind, and vessels
on the larboard tack bear away; and in com-
pliance with this rule, the Captain of the Gover-
nor Fenner, not knowing, perhaps, that the
Nottingham was a steamer, or thinking only of
the rule for ships on the larboard tack to bear
away, put her helm a-port, and bore up. Each
vessel was guided according to a rule pre-
scribed, and the collision ensued. Far be it
from us to blame any parties under such dis-
astrous and terrible circumstances ; we would
only observe that the responsibility in such cases
rests in part with those who prescribe the rules.
One safe direction, which seems almost univer-
sally applicable, namely, that when collision is
apprehended, velocity should as speedily, and
as much as possible, be diminished,
was, we are
afraid, violated by both vessels, for both seem
to have paid off, bringing the wind more aft, and
so increasing their speed.
The people on board the Nottingham hailed
the Governor Fenner to starboard her helm,
which was not done. Now, one of the general
regulations of the Trinity-house is that steam-
vessels shall pass each other on the larboard side,
while the Nottingham meant to p.lss the Gover-
nor Fenner on the starboard side; and we recol-
lect that when those regulations were promul-
gated last year, a letter appeared in the papers,
stating that a different rule was already estab-
lishedamongst the vessels in St. George's Chan-
nel. By the people of the Nottingham calling
to the Governor Fenner to put her helm a-star-
board, they seem to have been acting on the old
rule, as well as on the rule of steamers making
tray for sailing vessels. We hope that no ambi-
guity of the rules, which ought to be simple, clear,
and few, contributed to the great disaster.
In
the darkness of night and thick weather it is
extremely difficult to act rightly with sufficient
promptness when two vessels approach each
other; and though some general rules are indis-
pensable, they never can be wholly substituted
for watchful, intelligent discretion. It is at the
same time clear that any rules which exist
should be prescribed by one authority, which
can cause them to be universally followed. We
may add, indeed, that the strongest of all motives
—that
of self-preservation—influences all ship-
masters readily to adopt and acqUiesce for the
common good in whatever rules may be ordained
or generally agreed on.
The Governor Fenner is said to have been
wretchedly crazy. It appears that she was thir-

teen years old, which is not a great age for a ship
originally well built of good British oak. What
it may be considered for a ship built of American
oak or Fine, we cannot say; but there is a reason,
in the destruction of the Governor :Fenner, to
believe that she was in a bad condition. She
struck the steamer a-midships, the weakest part
of the steamer, with her bow, the very strongest
part of the ship ; and yet the Governor Fenner,
not the steamer, instantly sunk. A carelessntss
or an utter disregard of human life, when put
into competition with making money, or gratify-
ing the hateful thirst for gold, is one of the cha-
racteristics of this age; and we hope that no ac-
cusation of the kind will lie against the owners
and captain of the Governor Fenner. It will be
impossible, however, to satisfy the relatives and
friends of the lost passengers, and impossible to
satisfy the public, that a great fault, not to say a
great crime, has not been committed, unless it
can be distinctly proved by LLOYD'S books, by
premiums of insurance, by the surveyors who
examine vessels, that the Governor Fenner was
a perfectly sea-worthy vessel.

The resolutions adopted by a meeting of Mem-
bers of the House of Commons on Saturday,
which are inserted in another part of The
Sun, will have an important influence on the
fate of the country. INow that they have
been adopted and circulated, it will be im-
possible for the Government, of which these
gentlemen are supporters, to succeed either in
carrying a loan or in levying new taxes. At the
same time the expenditure exceeds the revenue,
without the least probability, as the Examiner
observes, owing to the present state of Europe,
of lessening the expenditure. The Government
has no alternative therefore but to set about
lowering the Import Duties, and modifying, if
it do not abolish, the discriminating duties.
The Tories may fancy there is a third state pos-
sible—the advent of their friends to office. But
their friends consist mainly of bread-taxers, and
when they come into office it will be impossible
for them either to raise a loan or increase the
taxes, and they cannot diminish the expen-
diture. They have approved of our policy in re-
gard to Turkey, which has caused the increase
of expenditure, and the suspicions excited
abroad. of their intentions, will only add to the
necessity for increasing our forces. Moreover,
their advent to power would cause an additional
force to be employed in Ireland. Under such
circumstances we are safe in concluding that a
ory Government, supported by bread-taxers,
would be resisted by the bulk of the town popula-
tion in increasing the taxes, unless it first abolished
or modified the bread tax. A Tory Government,
then, would soon come to a still stand. In either
and every case the modification of all discrimi-
nating duties, or the abolition of them, including
the Corn-laws, is at hand. Courage, free traders !
The deficiency of the revenue will ensure you
success.

The whole of the Paris Journals of Friday and
Saturday have reached us. In the Chamber of
Deputies on Friday M. JOUFFROY read the Re-
port of the Commission upon the Secret Service
Bill, the adoption of which is always tantamount
to a vote of confidence in the Government. This
Report is too long for insertion in our columns,
but the interest which attaches to it induces us
to make room for some extracts from it. The
Report sets out with giving the SOULT-GUIZOT
Cabinet its entire and unqualified support. It
examines the cause of so many changes in the Ca-
binets of France during the last ten years, and
discovers it to be the abandonment of the great
principles of Government by the Deputies, which
has split the two great parties who were recog-
nized as the Government and the Opposition into
innumerable petty factions, acting without con-
cert and without confidence in themselves or
others. The Report next proceeds to examine
the causes of the present isolation of France, and
here we have an honest sentence of reprobation
pronounced upon the policy of M. TRIERS and
the war faction.

The Chamber had decided that Turkey should be placed
beyond the reach of any power desirous of aggrandising itself
at the expense of that empire, and that the balance of power in
Europe should be maintained. This was the policy of the
present Cabinet. The policy of the Cabinet of the Ist
March was very different. M. Thiers`would only listen to the
settlement of the Eastern question on the condition of the ag-
grandisement of the Pacha of Egypt, which was in truth a
very secondary object, as regarded the interests of France. If
the Cabinet of Ist March had succeeded in obtaining the con-
cession of Syria for the Pacha, the main object of the true
policy of France would not have been gained. There would have
been no European guarantee, and the Turkish empire would
simply have been replaced in the precarious situation in which it
was under the treaty of K utahia. The policy of the Cabinet of the
Ist of March obtained less than that of the present Cabinet would
have achieved. England, like ourselves, forgetting the
greater for the lesser policy, and losing sight of the future in
the present, concluded a treaty in which we should have figured
for the protection of the just interests of Egypt. You know the
result. instead of playing a great part in the arrangement,
after having demanded one, France has been idle, and instead of
obtaining better conditions for the Pacha, and preserving her
legitimate influence in the Levant, she has partly lost it.
Without assuming any part in the settlement of the Eastern
question, France has armed, and seriously burthened her
finances. She has all the expense of an active po•
licy without any of its advantages. She has been thrown
into, and remains in, a state of isolation in the midst of Europe."
Here the report, after repeating that this was a great fault,
observes " that it may be turned to good account, if France,
isolated, but great, will always hold herself ready to throw her
influence in the scale of nations for the protection of the prin-
ciples of justice and the preservation of their rights. In this
view her isolation will be not a source of weakness, but of
strength. As the present Cabinet appeared to be resolved
upon this just and wise policy, which had peace for its basis, so
the Committee felt that it owed to it confidence and support."
The day is not distant when every reflecting
man in France will readily subscribe to the opi-
nions of the Commission respecting the mischiev-
ous tendency of THIERS' Oriental policy. Already
is the decline of French influence in Turkey and
Egypt so marked as to attract very general at-
tention along the shores of the Levant. But we
cannot go along with the commission in supposing
that France can. remain isolated and at peace
with all the world. Were she a petty or a fourth-
rate Power, she might do so, but in the exalted
sphere in which she moves, political isolation be-
comes as impossible as the maintenance of a sys-
tem of commercial and social isolation. While
France remains isolated, Europe enjoys not peace
but a truce. But let us hear the Report :
The possibility of a war with Europe had revived the dis-
couraged hopes of the factions, and the cabinet of the Ist
March in the perspective of such a war, did not put down an
effervescence which it hoped to convert into a generous dis-
play of patriotism. Nothing injured that Cabinet so much as
those tumultuous manifestations which menaced order and the
laws. With the most honourable intentions the Cabinet of the
Ist March here committed a great error. We are not among
those who think that France was unequal to a contest; but we
do think that the rein ought not to have been given to tu-
multuous passions ; for order within is the indispensable condi-
tion of force without. A country calm and united is almost in-
vincible ' • but torn by factions, although it may triumph for a
moment by the energy of the passions which convulse it, its
chance of success has probability against it, and cannot be last-
ing. This crisis has much aggravated our internal situa-
tion, and has rendered more indispensable than ever the
moderate but firm application of the laws which protect order.
This is, again, a point on which the government of the 29th
October ought not to imitate the policy which particular cir-
cumstances and, in our opinion, an erroneous appreciation of
the true strength of the country in the event of war had caused
the late Cabinet to adopt. The Committee adhere entirely to
the principles professed on this subject by the present ministry.
The question as to whether the existing laws suffice for the
protection of society raised no doubt in the Committee. We
think them quite sufficient ; but we do not hesitate to say that
they must be enforced. We have a confident hope that the
progress of order and public reason will one day render the
application of these laws very rare ; but when the period has
arrived at which it would be necessary to pass such laws, if
they did not exist, the moment would be badly chosen for
abolishing or weakening them."
This is laying the lash on the back of M.
THIERS and his friends rather smartly. It tells
the ex-Premier, as plainly as words can do, that
he is a political humbug, who does the dirtiest
work with the dirtiest tools. Taken in conjunc-
tion with the preceding paragraph, these extracts
from the Report show that the Commission
rightly attribute the humiliation of France in the
East to M TIHERS, as well as the enormous ex-
pense to which France has been put to establish
useless armaments, which have already paralyzed
the national industry. We now come to the
paragraph in the Report which has reference to
the Liberty of the Press.
p applyr eWg s es
et t a
ghe t
ioe marei
nb
tt ei t
with id sfo arb
ufisfetseetnh
eyree r
ares tioa
laws
,tabiunt tthhee liberty
no fin tehoet
example,
d and
datoioan and
oseinfirmtheinress. Le
own
bodyt
thatthe Cham-
bers
societyto be respected which they represent, but let us not go be -
yond legal and constitutional repression. The press is a
power which weakens itself by its own excesses, and it has
never less authority, less influence on the public mind, than
when it forgets the dignity and grandeur of its mission. There
is no better curb on the press than a firm majority of this
Chamber, and a powerful Cabinet ; this remedy is in your own
hands. As to the Government, ask nothing from it on this
subject but the execution of the laws. The Government has a
natural support in the press. It is that of the journals which
approve of its principles, and support them without fee. The
Chamber itself may contribute to that education of society on
which depends its repose, and would render an eminent ser-
vice to the country by causing the electors to receive the tex-
tual report of those important deliberations which are so dis-
torted by the journals.
We are glad to find that the report advocates
the enactment of no new laws, either for the
suppression of libel or sedition. There are already
too many penal laws for the punishment of all
classes of offences in France. This is one of the
reasons why most of these offences are so rife.
When laws are too stringent the humanity of the
mfitel la intos if t
hde er
es uwe teurde e,
none.and
loeutinhlde tosa
always bear proportion to
tpphuunubsliistchheame rueenssetussl tstlhis
the extent to which the national voice is raised