The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-25 00:00:00

HE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE of the

1_ NATIONAL ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE, and
such of the DEPUTIES as are now in London, will assemble
To-stonnow, May 26th, at Twelve o'clock, at Brown's Hotel,
Palace-yard.

Impudence seems the quality now most relied
on to conduct public affairs to a happy issue. Are
the people destitute of religious instruction while
the clergy live like princes, the priests: demand
more wealth to cure the disorder. Do the people
complain of a restricted franchise which separates
political power fram physical power, subjects the
many to be taxed without an appeal for the advan-
tage of the few, and continually exposes the State
to discontent and convulsion, the remedy proposed
by the impudent Tories is to increase the injustice,
and still more to limit the franchise. Is there a
great corporate body which exists only on the suf-
krance of the people, which has nearly six times as
many promises to pay on demand in circulation as
it could by any possibility redeem, which has been
on the verge of declared bankruptcy half a dozen
times within these fourteen years, and which is chiefly
supported by the law, not allowing any other
bank to circulate those credit notes which are in-
dispersible in the present state of society, what
can the advocates of such a fraudulent body do
but demand more power for it, and boast of its
public services ? It is said that this public body,
which is now winding up the concerns of several
American houses, much to the dissatisfaction of
their guarantees and creditors, and which Ame-
rican houses this deceiving Corporation compelled
to stop par ment by its manoeuvres, did a great public
service by supporting those houses. Impudence
cannot well go further. The Bank equals the
Church. What can the Bank possibly do in such
a case, or what can it ever do, but lend its own
promises to pay ? that is, it puts more notes into
circulation, and borrows from the public to the amount
of those notes, paying no interest whatever for the
loan, and it lends that sum to merchants and others
at a high rate of interest, which species of humbug
its advocates describe as conferring an obligation on
society. This is astounding impudence, but unfor-
tunately similar impudence pervades all our public
affairs, and wherever most mischief is perpetrated
by our pretended guides and governors, there more
power is most vehemently demanded.

IWe received last night papers by the Flanders
ard Dutch Mail, which contain some interesting
details of the disturbances in Servia. It will be
seen that the population there were in a state of
the highest excitement, and that every attempt was
made by the local 1 authorities to reconcile them to
the changes which, at the instigation of Russia,
have been made in that country. There must be
some insufferable grievance, or some dee;)-laid plot
for effecting, furtller changes, to account for the re.
bellion of a people so isolated and helpless.

13Y the Royal Adelaide steamer, which arrived
at Falmouth on Saturday, we have received Lisbon
papers of the Bth instant. The opening of the new

the working classes at the present moment. They were, • Cortes was fixed for the 25th (this day), after
he doubted not, inclined to venerate and uphold our which it was expected that a modification of the
civil and religious institutions, if they can only
C enjoy under their shelter and predominance aabinet would take place. According to these
Journals the Marquis of SALDANHA did not moderate and reasonable degree of comfort and
re-
independence; and no class of the community is ceive his instructions till the moment that he was
more susceptible of gratitude
that the re for any act of
ed kindness ; setting out for London ; and that the probabilit) is
them, to a greater extent b was not less persuaded
than the House prevail amongst that he will find himself so embarrassed by the re-
pared for, a growing distrust and alienation as regarded strictions placed upon him, that he will not be able
that House—equiralent in many instances to a feeling of to effect any final settlement of the claims made by
contemptuous aversion. They thought the House of Corn- the British Government. It is moreover asserted
mons, admirable representatives of the opulent and pros- thatiis .mission h the
.Portuguese Ministry in sending him upon
. ad no higher object in view than to
porous, but sorry legislators for the industrious and the
distressed—eager to make ample provisions for the luxury t 1
and extravagance of a Court—unwilling to take the get rid of a dangerous rival before the opening of
slightest notice of the interests or necessities of the people. the Cortes.
They saw that there was, perhaps, no other country in The Portuguese Junta of Public Credit has
which wealth was worshipped with such slavish idolatry,
and poverty so universally regarded a portentous and un-
given notice of its readiness to pay the dividends
pardonable crime.— (Hear, hear.) We find this distinc-
on the home debt due in December last ; but not
tion frequently exemplified, not only in the distribution of a syllable is said by the Junta about the claims of
recompense, but in the infliction of punishment. Whcre the Foreign creditors.
offences are nearly similar in nature and degree, The Nacional continues to rail with the most
rigour
the most relentless is meted out to the obscure, whilst for .
bearance the most indulgent is exercised towards the rich, inveterate malice against England. Every number
Without following Sir GEORGE through his ex- of that journal contains a prophecy of the downfal
planation of the causes of the distress and discontent of our dominion, and the utter extinction of our
which prevail, we shall quote a passage which power and civilization. Whenever we fall, if Por-
would have been regarded almost as treason had it tugal survive, we shall leave behind us one proof,
been spoken by a Chartist : at least, of nations preserved by our generosity. It
flow many honest and respectable fathers of families are will be remembered that, in the hour of our might,
at issue with those who maintain that the present system is we snatched Portugal from destruction ; and that,
working well ? It does so, undoubtedly, as far as the
Court and the persons who subsist on the taxes are con-
when repaid by ingratitude, we disdained to
cerned. It is more adapted to further the interests of resent that national baseness which shrinks
those who have realised or inherited large incomes, or who from the dignified and dignifying acknow-
ean secure preferment for their brothers, promotion for lodgment of obligation. The Nacional talks
their uncles, legations for their children, and jointures or about securing the Portuguese Colonies by
pensions for their widows, or power and patronage and
place for themselves. putting them under American protection. Let the
When Tory Members have thus found out that ATaeional beware of seeking such a protection
the system is partial and unjust, a curse to the against English ambition. Brother Jonathan
poor, and not a blessing, though it be so intended, is a sturdy fellow, but as a colonial guardian he is
to the rich, the Chartists and the unrepresented not a jot more to be trusted than ourselves. If this
classes may be tolerated when they denounce it as be the only scheme by which the assumed ambition
iniquitous. Listen again to this Tory Baronet of England is to be guarded against, the people of
Portugal must be curious to know upon what data
describing another contrast between the rich and
the poor :
the Nacional has become so assured of the downfal
We (the Members of the House of Commons) all ex- of a Monarchy so powerful.
pect that we shall this evening return to comfortable places Badly, however, as we are treated by the Portu-
of abode, where those whom we love are surrounded by
''(mese Ultras, we are still the principal consumers
all the conveniences and most of the luxuries of life. f the staple t e
Rut the hand-loom weaver returns to his forlorn and cheer- -
less home, in a state of positive exhaustion and mental appears from a Return made to the Go-
despondency, with nothing to leave his children but misc.. vernment that the exportation of wine front the
ries like his own. Is it consistent with reason or common port of Oporto
February, March, and of the present year
- during
Aprilthe months of January,
sense that he should feel attachment to the institutions
under which he lives, or rather which have doomed •
him to pine, or that a feeling of desperation, or was 9,596 pipes, of which 7,897 were shipped to
England alone—leaving less than 2,000 to supply
thirst for vengeance, may sometimes drive him to acts of
violence? Should he address this House, his demands all the other markets in the world ! But this is not
are committed in silence to the Lethean sepulchre of obli- all. The Porto Government charges a duty
vion, if that indeed can be said to be forgotten, which g
attracted not the notice of a single moment. equal to 3/, per pipe on wine shipped for England,
. . .
And what is it that the working classes, when thus re- while the duty on wine shipped for time United
duced, have presumed to require at our hands ? Do they States and Brazil is only 10s. a pipe. We con-
evernets or coaches and six? By no means. The sum and all the other nations of the world put( call for ribbons or regiments ? Do they ask for coro-
sutne nearly five times as much PortoPortuguese wine as
together, and
substance of their remonstrances amount to this—" You
are the representatives of the people—a people of which to mark her appreciation of such an encourage-
we constitute no inconsiderable a proportion. We desire ment of her staple product, Portugal only demands
not to eat the bread of sloth ; we are perfectly willing to from us six times time_ amount of duty paid by other
work, but are either altogether unemployed, or cannot, nations !
without such an amount of drudgery as renders life a bur-
den, secure an adequate subsistence; we, therefore, as Prince ERNEST, of Saxe Cobourg-Gotha, is at
a last resource, appeal to your humanity, or rather to present on a visit with their Majesties the King
your justice, and pray that you will devise such mea- and Queen of PORTUGAL.
sures as may enable us either to emigrate to foreign
crams or to earn (which we would infinitely prefer) within
the precincts of our country, for our wives and children,
a decent maintenance commensurate with our sphere in
life." Is there anything unfair—anything unjust—any-
thing unreasonable in such a prayer as this ? The unhappy
and patient victims ask no more. I see not in conscience
how human nature can put up with less. For himself,
he believed, that unless they improved the physical condi-
tion of the poor, the day of danger was nearer than the
most sagacious politician would believe. Conspiracies
never existed amongst the people but with discontent as
their foundation. It was absurd to talk to a man earning
seven sbillings a- week of his enjoying the benefits of
trial by jury. What he stood in need of was the allevia-
tion of his physical sufferings, and when they expended so
much zeal in %catching over the condition of the Hindoos
and the Hill Coolies, it would become them to show
some proportionate regard for the welfare and happiness
of their own country.
We have omitted Sir GEORGE SINCLAIR'S
comparison of the Legislature to the Priest and
the Levite, who passed by on the other side, and
neglected to relieve the man who fell amongst
thieves ; to have made such a co:nparison strictly
correct, Sir GEORGE should have compared the
Legislature to the thieves among whom the man
fell, and who wounded and plundered him, for the
Legislature causes the misery of which Sir G. SIN-
CLAIR complains. In its conduct towards the patient
and long-suffering people, it much more resembles
the robbers amongst whom the traveller fell than the
Samaritan who bound up his wounds, and set him
on his ass, and carried hint to a place of safety.
But its character will not appear in all its proper
blackness by this comparison unless it be also sup-
posed that the robbers who fell on the man were
his appointed guardians and protectors.
The hand-loom weavers, whom Sir GEORGE
pities, and the men whose hearts arc filled with
poverty and discontent, who, as Sir GEORGE
says, are alienated from our institutions, corn-
plain of nothing so much nor so justly as the
Corn-laws, and Sir GEORGE SINCLAIR, in 1839,
voted to maintain those laws. Till we see how
he votes on Mr. VILLIERS' forthcoming mo-
tion, we will not say that his opinions may
not, as we know he is capable of changing
them, have undergone a complete change ; but
should he, on Mr. VILLIERS next motion, vote
to maintain those unjust and iniquitous laws
he will forgive us, we are sure, after his able
commentary on the conduct of the House of Com-
mons, if we say that Sir GEORGE is not only one
of the trusted. guardians who robbed and wounded
the man, and left him to perish on the highway,
but that he has also sought hypocritically to hide
his guilt by pretending to feel g:eat compassion for
the sufferer, and.great indignation at his oppressors.
We like Sir GEORGE SINCLAIR'S sentiments
directed against oppression, but we should also like
that his vote should be given in accordance with
his words. If he vote for the Corn-laws after the
speech he made on Friday, let him look to hear
from us and the indignant people.

There arc several interesting, though not politi-
cally important, questions mooted in the French
Journals of Friday and Saturday. On Friday the
Committee of the Chamber of Deputies appointed
to examine the project of law for the removal of the
remains of NAPOLEON to France, concluded its
report, and on Saturday it was presented to the
Chamber by Marshal CLAUSEL. It recommends
the ashes of the EMPEROR to be deposited under
the Cupola of the Inva'ales, and that a monument
be especially raised to his memory, surmounted by
an equestrian statue. It further recommends that
the grant of one million of francs be increased to
two—as less would be insufficient for the erection
of such a work. Before all is done we fear that it
will be a very pasteboard and tinsel affair.
The following telegraphic despatches from
French Africa confirm the intelligence to the same
effect published in the Sun of Saturday
TOULON, MAY 20.-- THE MARITIME PREFECT TO THE
MINISTER OF MARINE. —The Tartare, which left Algiers
on the 17th, has just srrivcd. The army on the 12th forced
the Col de Teniab, defended by 6,000 infantry, of whom
2 500 were regulars, and carried a great number of re-
doubts and entrenchments, which were taken by assault
with the most remarkable energy. The army of Abd-el-
Kader was put to the rout. On the 14th the army was
till on the Tcniah.
TOULON, MAY 20, 9 A. M. —THE MARITIME PREFECT
TO THE MINISTER OF TILE MARINE.--I have derived the
following details from a private letter from Algiers:--It
was hoped that the Medeah would be taken on the 18th.
It is said to have been the division of the Duke of Orieans
which attacked the Col de Teniab in front. The 24th,
the 2d Light Infantry, the Zouaves, and the African tirail-
leurs at first met with great resistance, but a charge made
by the Prince Royal at the head of the 23d and 48th of the
Line decided the affair by putting the enemy to flight, leav-
ing two cannon behind. The Duke d'Aumale charged
sword in hand in advance of the Grenadiers. We have had 50 men killed and 150 wounded. •
The following additional intelligence is from the
i private correspondence of the Constitutionnel :
! ARZEW, MAY 12.—We learn that Milianah has been
completela evacuated. The Commandant of the town was
ordered to defend the approaches to it against the expedi-
tionary army. The province of Oran, although more
and more stripped of French troops, continued perfectly
quiet. We remain entirely on the defensive. Numerous
gatherings of Arabs are making on the plain of the Mina.
The intentions of the Emir to bar the road to Mostaganem
against the Marshal becomes more and more evident. We
are not yet able to reason on the effects of our new campaign,
but those who have been long in Africa remark that the
Emir is displaying an extraordinary energy in all his ope-
rations. The weather is fine and settled ; but all the crops
which were spared by the contending armies have been burnt
up by the sun. The health of the troops remains good.
The Commerce of Friday has a long article con-
demnatory of certain articles which are said to form
the basis of a treaty between Admiral DUPOTET
and General Ros As, adopted at the instance of
Mr.MANDEVILLE, the British Minister at Buenos
Ayres. The Commerce insists that the proposed
treaty places France in the same position now that
she was at the commencement of hostilities two
year; ago, and contends that the nation cannot
with honour abandon General LAVALLE, after
having openly taken part in his revolt. Upon such
a question we are not prepared to offer a decided
opinion. The following are the articles cited by
the Commerce:—
" 1. The Argentine Confederation shall send a Minister
Plenipotentiary to the King of the French to arrange the
differences which exist between the two countries.
" The blockade shall be immediately raised, and the
Island of Martin Garcia be restored with all its war mate-
riel, artillery, &c.
"3. In the meantime the French shall be treated at
Buenos Ayres as foreigners are in France.
"4. The indemnities claimed by French subjects shall
be regulated in France by the Argentine Minister.
"5. The arms, munitions of war, &c., which the Ad-
miral, or the agents of France, have supplied to the rebels
who disturb public peace, and attack the legal Govern-
ment of Rosas, shall be taken back within a delay of
forty days."
Two coal mines have beet: discovered in the
Island of Candia.
The Belle Pottle frigate and the Favorite cor-
vette, with three other vessels in company, forming
a small squadron, are to sail for St. Helena, for the
remains of the EMPEROR, about the 20th of June.
Shekib Effendi leaves Paris to-day for London, where,
as he is going to take the place of Neuri Effendi, who,
like Talat Effendi, has fallen into disgrace. Now if, as a
journal of this morning affirms, the party of the Sultana
Valide triumphs, and if Chosrew Paella retires to make
way for the men who are thought to be indispensable to
an agreement with Mehemet Ali, will not Shekib Effendi
be in his term, dismissed?
It is reported that a Commission will be appointed to
examine the question of the emancipation of the negroes,
that the Duke de Broglie will be the President, and that
Messieurs. Slounier, Peer of France, Sade, Deputy, and De
St. Hilaire, Counsellor of State, Director of the Colonies,
will be among the Members. It seems that M. Passy, as
Vice-President of the Abolitionist Society, will be a mem-
ber of the Commission to which Messrs. Charles Dupi•A
and Laurence are said to have hopes of being added.-4;e
Commerce.

BRUSSELS, MAY 23.—The sections have terminabzd
their examination of the project of law for a loan of
millions, and have all named their reports to the Central
Section,