The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-15 00:00:00

bleitins Atm

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1847.

The House of Commons last night rejected the
motion of Mr. WATSON for going into Committee
upon his Roman Catholic Rel'ef Bill. Sir R. INGLIS'S
amendment for throwir,g out the Bill altogether was
carried by a majority of 39 in a division comprising
277 Members. We very much regret this decision.
The arguments that were adduced in its favour are
very far from reconciling us to its propriety. They
were at once weak and bigoted. If they could he
considered tenable, then not only
was the
de-
servedly lost, but they furnish Bill
abundant reason for
repealing all that has been
Roman
cenacted by the Legislature
in favour of the
thelhics since 1829. But
does any one dream that wea
liberty
the steps
we have taken on behalf of
rtztof conscience ?
freedom from
Can it be now-a-days questioned
persecution on account of religious belief is the rule
utters,
abridged in their
which governs modern legislation in all
where it is alleged that men are
civil rights by reason of their having embraced
again,embrac ofa
particular creed ? Over and over
late years, has Parliament repudiated the
principle that a man's religious tenets should
subject him to civil disabilities. The Govern-
ment last night faithfully adhered to the cause of
religious liberty. Their opponents admitted that, in
accordance with the spirit of the concessions made
within the last eighteen years, the Roman Catholics
laboured under certain statutable grievances, but
urged there was no necessity for removing them, in-
asmuch as they were practically inoperative. This,
however, appears to us to be a good ground for their
abolition. In the first place, our cumbrous
statute-book should be purged of laws that have
fallen into desuetude; and, in the next, it is un4ra-
cions, so far as the letter of the law is con-
cerned, to subject a numerous class of religionists
to humiliating penalties. The desire to retain the
clutaatats complied of, after they have become

obsolete, can only be explained by a suspicion being
entertained that the emancipated will exert their
privileges to the subversion of the Established reli-
gion. Now, those who harbour this opinion, which,
however, Parliament in the aggregate, after solemn
argument, has more than once, in our times, and on
very momentous occasions, refused to sanction, take
up a position from which it might be inferred
they distrusted the excellence of their own faith.
But, assuming, as no doubt we may, that the
high Churchmen have an unbounded belief in the
truth of the Protestant religion, and admitting, for the
sake of argument, the suspicion above adverted to to be
well-founded, why should they dread that theological
discussion would increase the number of followers of
a different creed to their own ? and if they do not
lean to this fear, why debar others from the full en-
joyment of the civil privileges with which they are
themselves invested ? The political incidents which
marked the reign of CHARLES 11. bear no analogy to
those which distinguish that of our present SOVE-
REIGN. The age of the former does not admit of a
comparison with that of the latter in regard to re-
ligious toleration. We are far too enlightened to re-
quire the severe defences which our ancestors set up
nearly two centuries since for the maintenance of the
Protestant religion. 'We can safely dispense with
the rusty and useless armoury which Mr. WATSON
has discovered to be still hanging upon the walls of
the constitution. It consists only of weapons which
serve neither for use nor ornament ; on the contrary,
their retention is justly regarded as a gratuitous in-
sult to the religious communities whom we have ele-
vated to a participation in the highest honours and
dignities of the State. Whilst we lament the division
in the House of Commons, we feel certain that, in the
next Parliament, the Roman Catholics will have justice
done to their reasonable requirements. On the eve of
a dissolution it is not improbable that many Members
gave their votes more with the view of gaining favour
in the eyes of their constituencies, than of acting up
to their own enlightened impressions. Others there
were who are always kept in strait-waistcoats by
their electors upon religious questions. It is, there-
fore, easy enough to construe such speeches as were
last night delivered by the representatives of the
Universities.

Colonel WrLDE has been eclipsed by his Spanish
rival, Colonel BUENAGO. The former is no longer—
to employ the pet soubriquet of Tom STEELE—the
" Head Pacificator " in Portugal. We know no
language sufficiently contemptuous in which to cha-
racterise the civil war in Lusitania. Without system
even of the most shadowy description, without zeal
even of the most superficial kind, without consistency,
without courage, without aim, the Royalist leaders
have been dallying northwards of the capital, satisfy-
ing their professional habits with reconnoitering, their
vain-glory with bravado, and their stomachs with ra-
tions. The important and astounding intelligence
has just arrived by the latest Peninsular dispatches,
that Field-Marshal SALDANHA has plucked up suffi-
cient courage to edge a few inches nearer Oporto.
Enough good humour still survives this bellicose
movement, however, to enable the belligerent forces
to celebrate the anniversary of Queen MARIA'S
birthday by drinking health and prosperity to her
MAJESTY on the banks of the Douro and at Oliveira
de Azemais. Health and prosperity from insurgents
leagued against her authority ! Health and pros-
perity from men who are ruining her cause by their
dilatoriness or their absolute poltroonery. The
national farce is almost elevated by this sarcastic
conviviality into a satirical comedy. The lips of the
revellers, both in the camp of the Loyalist com-
mander and in the chambers of the Junta, must have
curled with derision while quaffing this most ironical
toast! Around the unfortunate SOVEREIGN of this
very restless and dissatisfied race, more troubles
are collecting than could have been for-
merly anticipated even by her most lugu•
brious and least sanguine supporters. Instead
of quelling her antagonists by a valorous and timely
employment of her military powers, instead of con-
ciliating them by magnanimous and really advisable
concessions, Queen MARIA DA GLORIA. has, by her
reliance upon SALDANHA and his associates, still fur-
ther estranged from her the affections of the Portu-
guese. Both those courses were open for her MA-
JESTY'S adoption, and she avoided them as though
they were not recommended by prudence. A graceful
concession might have been made, and yet her MA-
JESTY preferred to enhance the odium attached to the
present Administration by a pertinacious refusal.
A bold stroke for the annihilation of the
revolting party might have been made upon
the first outbreak, yet her MAJESTY'S Generalissimo
has allowed that invaluable moment to slip from
him without any preliminary struggle or any
subsequent compunction. The achLvements of SAL-
DANHA are little less paltry than those of Major
STURGEON, and unquestionably in regard to Torres
Vedras and Val do Passos, they are much less cre-
ditable. For bare honour, as a subject not totally
devoid of loyalty, and as a soldier not altogether
divested of bravery, we might have conjectured that
this redoubtable champion of the Portuguese Monarch
would have finished the present miseries of his native
land, either by some sagacious strategies or by a valiant
sword-blow. Rile could not unravel the knot, he had
it at least in his power to imitate the conduct
of ALEXANDER, in cutting the entangled harness on
the Phrygian chariot, by severing its involutions.
But SALDANHA had a greater relish for a picturesque
bivouac on the frontiers of Minho than for a charge
upon the bayonets of Des ANTAS. His digestion was
more fitted to the confections of the mess-table than
to the banquet of carrion promised by the armed
battlements of Oporto. He had no partiality for that
field of apothecary-work where
"Forty cannon throw up their emetic,
And thirty thousand muskets fling their pills!"
Meanwhile the beleaguered Junta has mustered
its strength behind the ramparts of the city,
and under' the shelter of SALDANUA'S tar-
diness. It has proceeded further. It has not
merely accumulated considerable numbers of
well-appointed and well-disciplined men in that
famous burgh for wine-exporting and for wine-
bibbing—it has dispatched a compact body of 900
soldiers to the southern shores of Algarve, with a
competent leader in the person of SA DA BANDEIRA.
By this extraordinary deportation to the other extre-
mity of the kingdom, the popular cause must neces-
sarily acquire wonderful stability, while an insurrec-
tionary movement may be readily organised in the
Alemtejo by the combined forces of SA DA BANDEIRA
and the Conde DE MELLO. It is probable that
before many days have elapsed we shall re-
ceive intelligence of the junction of their troops
at Evora. Then, unquestionably, the embaras.sments
of SALDANIIA. will be considerably more than doubled.
The throne is tottering as much from its tremulous
supporters as from its active and enterprising antago-
nists. The Loyalists are verbally striving to
prevent the royal garland from being torn
from the head of Dorista. MARIA, but the
pressure of their hands is driving the
thorns into her temples. Let her Lusitanian MAJESTY
beware, for the Junta have a terrible alternative.
They remember the lessons afforded by the Gallic
and British histories—they may take example by the
expulsion of
to be
of JAMES 11. and CHARLES X. Supposing
driven to the uttermost, may not
Dorn MIGUEL be the WILLIAM of Orange or the
the
Lours PHILIPPE of Portugal ?

The Madrid journals of the Bth have arrived.
The Gaceta contains the official account of the ap-
pointment of General NAEVAEZ to be Ambassador to
Ptoaris, and that of Senor LOPEZ DE LA TORRE AYLLON,
estates
against
the embassy at Lisbon. According to the Heraldo,
General SERRANO has obtained leave to retire to his
nadcathisia until the
An ampleA
in
nim shall have b accusations brought
tdrtzo;amnestyana has, on the suggestion
who havedisposed of.
beenEziunAnsa. been of CoRTINA,
pre-
pared. All those
are to be restored to their rank an
d eziled since 1843
The Committees of the Isabella "T.
Ferdi-
nand Banks are to meet on the 27th,
treffecStt.
in accordance with the royal decree of the 25th fusion
2,3 th of
February. Accounts from Catalonia represent th.
Carlist movement as on the wane.

MADRID BOLSA, APRIL B.—The Three per Cents.
were done at 321 for cash ; the Five per Cents. at
201; the Debt without interest at 61; and the Cou•
pous at 17.

We have received the Paris papers of Tuesday. The
Chamber of Deputies voted on Monday, by a majority,

of 215 to 27, the project of law, authorising the return,
under certain circumstances, of the caution money de-
posited by the railroad companies. By this 13111, so
soon as a sum equal to double the amount of the se-
curity money lodged with Government shall have
been expended upon the railway, in the manner re-
quired by law, then the Minister of Public Works is
empowered to return to the companies the caution
money deposited. The Journal des Debuts considers
this a very insignificant attempt at remedying a great
evil. It says—
" The Chamber of Deputies, in its sitting of yesterday,
discussed and adopted the Bill relative to the restitution
of the caution money of railway companies. A year
ago, when such questions were brought before the Cham-
ber, they caused perfect storms. Yesterday the EISicIII•
bly gave only, a distracted attention to the Bill under
discussion. It was because this Bill is only an insigni-
ficant palliative to a very grave situation, which every
one in the Chamber knows, and which no one would
resolutely touch upon. Yes, the situation of mrst of
our great railway enterprises is grave. That is unhap-
pily notorious to everybody ; there is no danger in
saying it; on the contrary, there would be in not avowing
it loudly. If a prompt remedy be not brought, the work
pursued by the country during numerous years, and
which has alt eady cost it so teeny efforts, this incessant
object of so many wishes frem one end of the kingdom to
the other, will find itself, if not compromised, at least, in-
definitely delayed in its most essential parts. There are
companies which have undertaken nothing, which have
not struck a single blow with the pickaxe, and w hieh
will certainly dissolve themselves, it au alteration be
not made in the conditions imposed upon them ; they
will prefer, with reason, a liquidation which will be less
onerous, even with the loss of their caution money, than
the enterprise itself. There are ethers who have, on
the contrary, pushed forward the first works with great
activity, and whose shares have undergone a notable
depreciation ; if those companies do not stop their
works, they will be under the necessity of conduct-
ing them with prudent slowness, because their share-
holders will be unable to pay up calls too close upon
each other. All, in short, or almost all, are soliciting
the revision of their contracts from the Government.
What will the Government do ? Such was the ques-
tion which preoccupied the minds of the Deputies of
the Chamber during the discussion, and which now oc-
cupies the attention of a great many persons out of the
Chamber. To do nothing, absolutely nothing, with-
out distinguishing between the most important lines,
and those which are less important, would be a
deplorable resolution. We hope that such is not
the intention of the Minister of Public Works.
A belief that it is not, is also, without doubt, enter.
tained in the Chamber, for two or three orators went
there to oppose the favourable dispositions which they
suppose the Government entertains with respect to the
companies. It is true that those orators are the eternal
enemies of railways ; they are those who maintained
that the Northern Railway ought not to be conceded for
more than eighteen years, that the Lyons Railway would
find a company to take it for twenty years, and that the
companies with such conditions would make immense
profits ; they are those profound statisticians who found
the estimates of the Government exaggerated in the
chapter of expenses, and understated in the chapter
of receipts. They may attribute to themselves the best
part of the errors of the country, with respect to the
railways, and by consequence the sad reaction of which
we are witnesses. That ought to render them somewhat
circumsp,ct. But circumspection has never been a virtue
of the Opposition, and it appears that it is now
a virtue exclusively reserved to the Govern-
ment. We will say very explicitly our opinion on this
important question: it seems to us impossible to do
nothing to ameliorate the situation of railway enterprises.
Solemn contracts would have to be changed, and we
know that that is a serious matter; but is it not also a
grave thing to see the most important line of our rail-
ways menaced with an indefinite adjournment? No one
would seriously give such advice, and still less would
any one consent to accept it. This is not assuredly to
say, that all demands must be admitted. Those recom-
mended by a great public interest must be received, and
nothing else thought of. Many other considerations, at
the time the laws on railways were under discusssion, influ-
ence the decisions of the Government and the Chambers;
they ought to disappear. The circumstances are grave
enough to cause a renunciation to to be made of the
weaknesses and complaisance of preceding days. It is
besides easy to say after whatprinciples the demands of
the companies otn4ht to be appreciated; it seems to us
that it should be first of all a.certained if the line for
which assistance is claimed be one of those which should
be made quickly, and afterwards if the changes demanded
are necessary to the prompt termination of the line.
Now, no one will deny that the execution of the great
line which goes from Paris to Marseilles, which
is to join the Mediterranean to the Channel, is not of
superior and urgent interest, is not an affair of State
of the first importance. This line must be made,
must be made promptly, must be made at every price.
A day lost is an irreparable fault. It is certain that if
the Government and the Chambers do nothing for this
great line, a notable fraction, that from L) ons to Avig-
non, will be made in the tireek Calends, and that the
first which goes from Paris to Lyons will be long delayed.
This result is not possible. It would be a disgrace to
our time, and a grave responsibility for the Chambers.
It is possible, besides, to conciliate the in:erests of Ihe
Treasury and that of the companies. But where would
be the harm if onerous embranchments were adjourned?
Would it not be he tter to postpone the execution of au
embranchment than to pus:Tone all?"

General MANUEL DE LA CONCHA arrived in Paris
on Monday, and immediately announced his arrival
to Queen CHRISTINA, through the Spanish Charge
d'Affaires. He signified to her that he came in a
private, not in a public character, and was received by
CHRISTINA at ten o'clock on Monday evening.
The letters patent naturalizing MUNOZ, Duke of
Rianzares, as a Frenchman, and conferring upon
him the title of Duc de Montmoro, were enrolled in
the Cour Royale on Monday. We congratulate the
nobility of France upon this honourable accession to
their ranks.
The Countess of BRESSON and her son arrived in
Paris on Monday.
It would appear from the following article, which
appears in the Presse, that CHRISTINA, finding threats
of no avail with the new Spanish Ministry, is about,
as a last resource► to try coaxing and flattery. It
says—

" We cannot know exactly what may bo true or ex-
agerated in all the symptoms which produce so great an
agitation. What is evident is, that the friends of order
are in consternation, the Progressists joyful, that the
journals of the Ministry appear greatly discouraged, and
that the Heralds, naturally not very timii, and which
does not cry for help wi hout grave motives, foresees
deplorable events. All the parties, each one taking its
own Font of view, fear, desire, doubt, and hope. What
is most remarkable is, that, in the midst of this agitation,
all eyes are turned towards the Ministry, and that, every
one hoping to make it serve the accomplishment of its
projects, no one thinks of openly opposing it. This
state is intolerable, and at the point at which things are,
everything may be conceived. The Ministry should take
some step, for, since the dismissal of the persons who
surrounded the Queen, the Progressists affect to tak. the
defence of the Government, and to applaud its tendencies.
These are mere tactics, but we must not allow it to he
believed that these congratulations are accepted in the
sense which is given to them. It is the more important
and urgent for the Ministry to explain itself on account
of some of its acts and certain rumours which would ren-
der a longer silence very significative."
The same journal again announces that it Li ex-
tremely probable that the Emperor of RUSSIA. will
visit Paris in th~ course of the summer.

The report of the resignation of the Greek Minister
is, it seems, at least premature. In the Chamber of
Deputies he had a majority of 20 on a question in-
volving the character of the Minister of Finance.
It was reported in Paris that France would furnish
Greece with the money to pay the debt due to England.
The Courrier Francais publishes the following letter
on the subject of the differences between Greece and
Turkey :

" The following details respecting the facts which may
have occasioned the report of the downfal of the
Colletti Ministry I guarantee to you to be authentic.
It appears that after the receipt 01 the di:patches from
Constantinople, containing the ultimatum of the Otto-
man Government, a Cabinet Council was cated, and
M. Colletti declared that he. could not accept such
conditions without dishonouring himself, and that
if any other person could devise m: ans to arrange
the difference suitably, he was ready to withdraw.
In this state of things Sir E. Lyons visited the King,
and after having depicted the situation as exceedingly
grave, recommended him to apply to M. Mavracordato.
The King sent for that gentleman, and inquired what
system he should propose to foilow in case he was placed
at the head of affairs. M. Mavrocordato replied that he
was of opinion that it would be well to yield, and that he
saw no inconvenience in the return of M. Mussurus to
Athens. The King observed that that diplomatist was
in continual hostiiity with his Majesty's Government,
against ;which he was constantly starting difficulties;
that in a short time another difficulty would arise; that
such a state of things was nut endurable, and that he
preferred putting an end to it at once. Mavrocordato
then withdrew, mid there the matter rested. It was
thought at Athens that the King, notwithstanding his
feeling towards M. Coletti and his administration, would.
in consequence of the demands of England relative to the
debt, be obliged to sacrifice him. At the date of the last
news there was only one French vessel of war at the
Pirmus, and M. Piscatory bad sent an express to the
commander of our station to request him to concentrate
his forces there."

The Si&le has the following on the differences be-
tween the Ministry and the Committee of the Cham-
ber appointed to examine the estimates for Algeria :

4
arisenW We have
extraordinary credits demanded for Africa. The Mi-
en
thneotihiceidnistrtyheanddifftehreennenemsmwithteieehnnhtahvee
Mi-
nister of Wor, having called upon the committee to take
into consideration the communication which he had re-
ceived on the proposed expedition into Kabylia, has sent
back to the committee the decision which M. Dufaure,
the President, had transmitted to him. He declares, in
the name of the Council, that this decision is illegal and
unconstitutional, and must be considered as null, the
King alone being invested with khesupreinp cp!umt! nd of
the army."

The report which we mentioned yesterdsy, of the