The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-19 00:00:00

Malting 5A1114

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 19, 1847.

Mr. ROEBUCK lives in the atmosphere of political
tumult, and likes it. Such was the humorous but
plain
."1"11 avowal of the Hon. and Learned Gen-
tleman the Member for Bath, when addressing the
Literal electors of London, on Friday, on the pro-
priety of accepting the four popular candidates—
LARPENT, PATTISON, ROTHSCHILD, and RUSSELL.
A politician who undertakes to represent the opinions
of any given constituency in Parliament, with any
latent disrelish for the toils and agitations of legis-
lation, is not the sort of man to select among the
different candidates. Indifference, even, is a charac-
teristic which should be considered sufficient to dis-
qualify any person from receiving the suffrages of the
ionfranchised million. There must be a rnanisfesta-
lion of something more than a tacit willingness to
partake in the rather onerous duties of the House of
Commons before a candidate; can look with confidence
or the approval of the electors of the United King-
dom. This, at least, should be the common agree-
ment of the householders and frbeeehhoollddearspofartlhiaemeemni
?ire, if they are solicitous to
fruitful in measures, and improvements, and inno-
vations for the advantage of themselves and their
pcisterity. Exactly this kind of politician in ardour,
in enthusiasm, in consistency, in perseverance, and in
.
a natural and positive liking for the atmosphere of
peatical tumult, is Mr. ROEBUCK. The motto of his
IP•arliamentary life, moreover, has been from first to
Va3t,;" Civil and Religious Liberty." Those, therefore,
4 the Bath constituency who are not pre-poisoned
tey the virus of bigotry and intolerance will not
I tightly abandon the advocate who has so long and
t earnestly laboured at St. Stephen's in the cause of
1 progress and civilization.

Satisfied as we are that the opinions of such a man
gi a Mr. ROEBUCK must be listened to with respect by
tisl own personal electors, «e are no less convinced
t hat his opinions will weigh considerably with those
c aliens of the metropolis who are possessed of the
jective franchise, and who are at the same time

determined to give their votes to none other than the
real friends and champions of the people.
The speech in which the Honourable and Learned
Gentleman the Member for Bath reviewed the merits
of the four Liberal candidates for the representation
of London was candid, bold, and logical in its very
abruptness. If there might be supposed to be any
bias in the mind of Mr. ROEBUCK with reference to
Lord J. RUSSELL as a political leader, one would
expect it to be rather a bias averse than favourable
to that eminent statesman. So, at least, the super-
ficial observer would calculate from the frequency
with which Mr. ROEBUCK'S name has appeared in
opposition to the measures of the Prime Minister.
Differing, however, as the Member for Bath does
upon many points with the Premier, what is the
opinion expressed by him of the character of that
Noble Lord P " A more high-minded, straightfor-
ward, and honest man than Lord J. RUSSELL I do not
know." That is surely a splendid panegyric. To how
many Prime Ministers bygone would those three adjec-
tives apply besides Lord J . RUSSELL? To how many
politicians ? To how many public characters ? And
the Premier has not only earned such eulogiums for
straightforwardness, highmindedness, and honesty by
a long, active, and enterprising career as a reforming
statesman ; he has done immeasurably more, he has
preserved undiminished that ardour for the general
good, that love of liberality, that passion for legisla-
tion, and that inflexible resolution to toil, and even to
drudge, unceasingly in public business, which are the
only true qualifications of the leader of a Government.
If the electors of London, therefore, are desirous
to be represented by a man who is capable of inhaling
the atmosphere of political tumult, and who has ac-
tually a relish for it, they can have no hesitation
whatever as to the acceptance or the rejection of Lord
JOHN RUSSELL. His political creed, moreover, is pre-
cisely the same as when he last appeared before them on
the hustings in Guildhall. He was there received with
the enthusiasm due, not so much to the fact of his
being the descendant of a patriotic race, as to that
great fact of his Parliamentary life—his ardour in
the cause of liberality. Let him and his colleagues be
received with not one jot less of enthusiasm, for the
same reason exists to-day as existed yesterday. Be-
sides, what can be expected from the opponents of
Lord Jowl RUSSELL and his brother candidates ?
What can be expected from men, the beatings of
whose hearts are for the reverse of the sublime prin-
ciples of civil and religious liberty ; of men who, in an
age of " progression," are for a moral " stoppage"
that would prove disastrous and destructive ; of men
whose animosity to such practical measures as that of
sanatory improvement damn them to everlasting fame
as THE DIRTY POLITICIANS ?

The long-expected proposition on behalf of the
Spanish Government has at length been submitted to
its duped and deluded creditors. The bantling pro-
duced after Mr. HENDERSON'S nine months' labour in
Madrid, after his interviews with Spanish Ministers
and diplomatists of various nations, as at length made
its appearance, and truly a more striking illustration
of the old fable has seldom been witnessed.

" Montes parturiunt, nascitur ridiculus mus,"

may well be applied to the project extracted with so
much difficulty from Senor SALAMANCA, and
ushered in by his extravagant protestations as to his
anxiety to restore Spanish credit, and to do all that
is befitting, or can be looked for, from Spanish
honour. Truly that honour must be of a very
evanescent character if nothing better or more tan-
gible can be looked for at the hands of the
nation. " Base is the slave that pays," said
ancient PISTOL in the olden time, and that
Shakesperian worthy appears to have been the pro-
totype of modern Ministers of Finance in Spain, the
model they aspire to imitate. Perhaps there is not
an equally unblushing refusal. Something ap•
proaching to an apology may be made to the un-
happy creditors. The Speech from the Throne may
announce the royal desire that something may be
done, which will be duly heard, applauded, and
responded to verbally in the Cortes ; but something
invariably occurs to lead to further procrastination,
and to induce the representatives, in tender consider-
ation for the financial difficulties of the Ministry, to
adjourn to a future convocation the question in
which, matters of such trivial import as the national
honour and the national honesty only are at stake.
Far better for its members to intrigue for new
changes in the Ministry, to give each successive
member of the various Cabinets which are set up and
pulled down with such edifying regularity,
after an official existence of a few brief months, a
full opportunity of accumulating a large private for-
tune by the vilest system of corruption and pecula-
tion, while the honest creditors, who advanced their
fortunes on the national faith, are involved in destitu-
tion and ruin. Far better that they should prate of
" protection to their national industry," and with
wilful blindness continue those exclusions and pro-
hibitions that lead to an organized and extensive
system of smuggling, that make wealthy capitalists
invest their money in the contraband trade as readily,
and with as few scruples of conscience, as if it were
an ordinary and legitimate commercial speculation—
that converts their hardy border peasants, qualified
for much higher pursuits, into lawless and de-
moralised banditti, contemners and despisers of the
law (within whose meshes only small game are en-
tangled), and ready for any enterprise or act of any de-
gree of daring or atrocity, from the sale of a contraband
cigar to plundering and holding to ransom the way-
faring traveller, or plunging their stilettos into the
hearts of the victims who may' have excited their
anger, or for whose removal a sufficient sum is
offered, than comply with the vulgar prejudice in favour
of payment of debts. By a judicious change and
alteration in their laws they would be enabled easily
to obtain funds amply sufficient for all the exigencies
and wants of the country, and the punctual discharge
of their national liabilities and obligations, were they
really anxious to redeem the national character; but
so long as England will patiently see her subjects
swindled out of their property, and they them-
selves can be amused and satisfied with frivolous and
evasive pretexts or apologies, so long will the discredit-
able system so long resorted to, be continued and
perpetrated. We have too long been amused with
fair words--a more energetic course must be adopted.
The present offer is altogether " a mockery, a de-
lusion, and a snare." It opens with a modest propo-
sition, that the bondholders should voluntarily give
up a certain portion of the principal money due to
them ; that they should relinquish twelve per cent. of
their claims, this sum amounting to more than
8,000,0001. sterling on the full amount of the bonds,
and to 4,520,0001. on the 46,000,0001. sterling due to
British subjects, is at once and irrevocably to be sa-
crificed ; nay, far worse, it is not merely its sacrifice,
that is the chief objection. It is to be handed over to
the Spanish Ministry, for the purpose of being sold in
the market, and the proceeds handed over to the
Spanish Exchequer; if dolts sufficiently stolid, if
dupes with more money than wit, sufficiently credu-
lous, can be found to invest their money in such a lot-
tery,pr.ze s t
haeremalolstextracted,
praiseworthy and
theblfarnoinks whencedistributedthe
with
impartiality. This is the pivot
.or turning point of
the whole proposition. Spain again wishes to become
a borrower, but her disgraced and dishonoured secu-
rities will not now attract the veriest idiot. The
Proposed loan of 1,000,000/. on Treasury bonds is
going begging. No contractor or capitalist of any
character will meddle with instruments of so
bmg de-
gradeddefiled a character. " Who can touch pitch without
It would indeed be a high and un-
blemished reputation that could sustain without
damage the general indignation that would be
aroused by the transaction.
must be devised New schemes,there-
fore,to replenish the exhausted
treasury; and what more brilliant than to extract
from the pockets of those already
aimpoverished cre-
ditors a further contribution, on
promisehence-
forward to act mare fairly than has eretofore been
the case.

But this free gift to the Spanish Government
not all that is demanded. The Bonclhoiders aeal- is
o
Ito consent to a reduction of the future rate of rote_
rest on their debts of no less than 2 out of the 5 per
cent. at present promised, or at least to which they
are legally and equitably entitled. A rather modest
request this, that the parties should immediately re-
linquish 50 per cent of their just demands, should
accept a compromise of lOs. in the pound from their
debtor. This sacrifice, heavy as it is, might be sub-
mitted to, if the amount of the composition were to
be paid in cash, or even sufficiently guaranteed by
other and more solvent sureties. But let u* see what

is offered in return. Nothing, literally nothing—or,
rather worse thaa nothing ; the payment of
the residue is, forsooth, henceforward to be secured
on the Customs exclusively, and the creditor is to
give up his demand, for the payment of which the
entire of the revenues of the State are pledged, for
half the amount secu"ed in one branch only of that
revenue, and that the branch h;ch, from their in-
sane commercial policy is rendered comparatively
worthless ! As well might a bankrupt or insolvent
debtor offer to his creditors that, in case they should
consent to relinquish a moiety of their claims, and
to strike off the name of every endorser from their
bills who may be liable as a security, that he will
promise to pay them at his perfect convenience the
remaining balance, they being contented with his own
security for the performance of that promise.
There is little reciprocity in this ; it would savour
strongly of what is termed by lawyers nuclum pactum,
where all the advantages would be on one side, and
no corresponding benefit of any sort to the other.
Persons do not generally make large sacrifices,
abandon considerable portions of their principal
money, and release and exonerate any portion of the
securities they hold, without some sort of considera-
tion; therefore a proposition such as we have above
described would be scouted with well-merited in-
dignation if put forward by an individual, and such
will, no doubt, be the fate of that which has just been
submitted to the Spanish Bondholders.

Madrid papers of the 20th have arrived.
The QUEEN was to leave Madrid for La Granja on
that day. The Moderadoes and Progresisstas are
busily engaged in holding electoral meetings, as a
dissolution of the Cortes is considered by no means
improbable. Money still continues very scarce, and
it is said there is no cash in the Treasury to pay the
troops what became due to them on the 10th. A
band of Carlists in Catalonia stopped the mail from
Madrid to Barcelona, burnt the coach, and took the
driver and courier prisoners.
MADRID BOLSA, JULY 10.—The Three per Cents. 26
money; Five per Cents. 164 money, 17 paper ; Debt
without interest simoney, q paper; Coupons 15 money.