The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-27 00:00:00

±eid

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1847.

PRIVY COUNCIL.
Her MAJESTY held a Privy Council, at three o'clock
.his afternoon, at Buckingham Palace.

CABINET COUNCIL.

Summonses have been issued to the Ministers to
attend a Cabinet Council this afternoon, at the Fo-
reign-office, Downing street. The Ministers will
assemble immediately after the Privy Council at
Buckingham Palace.

The Lords met at Five o'clock.
The Royal Assent was given by Commission to the
Destitute Persons (Ireland) Bill.
After a short conversation on the subject of the pro-
gress of public business, in the course of which Lord
BRoUGUAM paid a high compliment to the genius of
Mr. BARRY, the architect of the New Houses of Parlia-
ment, it was stated that that portion of it which was ap-
propriated to the accommodation of the House of Lords
would be ready by Easter.
In answer to Lord STANLEY,
Lord CAMPBELL explained the circumstances under
which the members of the Council of the Duchy of Lan-
caster had been appointed.
The Earl of EGLINTON moved for copies of certain
coresponduice between the Scotch bankers and the late
Government on the subject of a Bill for regulating
joint-stock banks in Scotland.
The Earl of CLARENDON said that the documents
moved fur were not in existence.

The Earl of CLANCARTY asked if it was the intention
of th 3 Government to introduce during the present ses-
sion any measure with respect to the medical relief of
the suffering poor in Ireland.

The Marquis of LANCDOWNE could not promise that
any Bill would be introduced, but the subject should
receive the best attention of the Government.
Their Lordships then adjourned.
The Commons met at Quarter before Four o'clock.
Mr. MONAGHAN, the Solicitor-General for Ireland,
took the oaths and his seat for Galway.:
Mr. LABOUCHERE, in answer to questions from Sir R.
INGLIS and Mr. P. SCROPE, said that no measure was In
contemplation to supply seed to the Irish tenants, taking
a lien for re-payment on the growing crop.
Mr. ROEBUCK, in putting a question as to the intended
introduction of the poor-law into Ireland, admitted that
the new poor-law in England had failed, not through the
defect of the law itself; but through the misconduct of
the _Commissioners. He thought some inquiry ought
to be instituted before the Poor-laws were transferred to
Ireland.

Sir G. GREY objected to any delay in the introduction
of the Irish Poor-laws.
Mr. HumE said that the report of the Andover Com-
mittee showed, that every act of the Poor-law Commis-
sioners, since 1841, had been illegal.
Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN would support any motion for
taking the English Poor law, clause by clause, and ap-
p!ying it to Ireland.
Lord J. BussELL said that when those reports had
been referred to the law officers of the Crown, they had
reported that the Poor-law Commissioners would be
called upon for further explanations. With regard to
the opinion of Mr. M. D. Mu., which he had published,
that opinion was founded upon an anonymous case which
was founded upon nothing. He should move the Com-
mittee of the Poor-law (Ireland) Bill on Monday, when
he would also propose a Bill for the loan for Ireland.
Mr. J. O'CONNELL complained of the supply of food
to the people of Ireland. Soup only was now supplied,
which would be productive of dysentery and typhus.
Solid food ought to be supplied.

Mr. LABOUCLIERE said that enormous quantities of

solid food had been sent over to Ireland ; but there was
a disposition there to over-rate the powers of the
Government, and there was a feeling, on the part of the
English and Scotch, that while they were helping the
people of Ireland, there ought to be a corresponding
exertion on the part of the Irish themselves.
Mr. SHA.RMAN CRAWFORD moved an address praying
that vessels in the navy, not otherwise employed, should
be used for the conveyance of provisions from foreign
countries into the ports of the United Kingdom.
Lord J. EUSSELL said that several of her Majesty's
vessels were so employed, but that he could not accede to
that motion, as it would take up much time to tit up all
the unemployed vessels in the navy for such a service.
Ile thought the quantity of grain they might expect
from abroad was very small indeed, and the instant it
became known that her Majesty's vessels were to be so
employed, merchant ships would go out of the trade.
The motion was then withdrawn.

Sir CHARLES NAPIER in a long and interesting speech,
replete with statistical details, drew the attention of the
House to the system pursued in her MAJESTY'S dock-
yards, with respect to the building of vessels in the navy
and to the abuses which prevailed as to the use of sl.ips
which had been built at an enormous cost to the country.
After a short conversation, the House resolved itself
into a Committee of Supply, in which Mr. WARD
moved the naval estimates.

Several votes were agrerd to, azAl the other orders
having been disposed of, the House adjourned.

Under favour to the honourable Gentleman the
Secretary to the Admiralty, we conceive that the in-
crease of the naval estimates for the ensuing year by
merely 62,284/. beyond the gross estimate for 1846,
scarcely required the apologetic explanations with
which he brought the matter before the consideration
of Parliament Not even the extraordinary embar-
rassments consequent upon Irish starvation and
Highland destitution, not even the existence of a

necessity requiring an advance of 10,000,0001. upon
the average expenditure of the empire, not even the
recurrence of an intermittent scarcity, which cripples
the resources of the population and necessitates a
more rigid economy in Government, can render our
naval estimates, as they at present stand, a matter for
either retrenchment or parsimony. In regard to our
maritime expenses, retrenchment would be suicidal
and parsimony ruinous ; for our navy is our
only defence and safeguard. Our marine power
is the main sinew by which our national
vigour is bound together : it is at once
the means by which our insular authority has
been extended throughout the habitable globe, from
the solitudes of the polar snows to the torrid zone of
the equator, and the instrument by which that au-
thority is maintained and confirmed. Stint our ex-
penditure in that particular, and you sensibly weaken
the whole framework of this gigantic empire. Di-
minish the strength of our sea service, and you
affect injuriously the very vitality of British in-
fluence. Deteriorate in any manner, however
trifling, the condition of our navy, and you
directly peril a correspondent portion of our
political energy. Nor is it alone requisite to prevent
the diminution of the maritime estimates of the United
Kingdom, something more is necessary to continue
undiminished that preponderance upon the ocean
which Great Britain has hitherto preserved—that
moral and physical preponderance which has raised
her from a subordinate archipelago to the predomi-
nant empire in this civilised generation To effect this
it is not merely incumbent upon the Legislature to
avoid any proceeding which might tend to the de-
crease of her naval power, but it is especially and ab-
solutely incumbent upon them to extend her naval
power in proportion to the extension of the naval
power of other maritime empires. In this respect it
is essential that there shall never be any disparity
between the relative naval forces of the earth in pre-
sent and bygone times. Otherwise we shall have
retrograded, instead of having advanced. It is a
fallacy, moreover, to believe that the existence of
peace necessitates the preservation of a balance in the
naval estimates. The supposition is an absurdity ;
and it is an absurdity, because it presupposes that
things terrestrial can remain for any length of time
stationary. Now, it is an immutable law in
mundane affairs, that nations, and principalities, and
separate communities, and distinct individuals must, by
an indomitable necessity of their nature, change.
They must either advance, or retreat—either progress
with the general progression of the age, or retrograde
in an inverse ratio. That has been the presiding
spirit from the primitive days of the patriarchs down-
wards ; it is peculiarly so now. Progress is so
largely characteristic of the present times that it has
become more than ever a necessity ; it is part-and-
parcel with the principle of self-preservation.
"Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let
us range,
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves
of change."
And progress is perceptible in every grade and de-
partment without exception. Among others, it is
especially perceptible in maritime affairs.

If we survey the naval expenditure of Prance,
we shall observe the extent to which this omni-
present principle of progression has developed itself.
We shall find that, notwithstanding the protracted
duration of European peace since 1815, the naval ex-
penses of France have been sensibly enlarged;—the
increased value of colonial possessions having influenced
this advance almost as much as the more extended
employment of steam power in navigation. So
considerable has been the enlargement of the
naval estimates of France, that the estimates of the
current year amount to no less than 5,639,0001. ; and
that, be it remembered, irrespective of her fort ifiecleities,
of her impregnable capital, and of her enormous Na-
tional Guard, amounting to upwards of a million
men. What meanwhile has been the proportionate
advance of the naval estimates of Great Britain,
bearing in mind that her maritime force is her only
defence, that fortified cities she has none, th at her
metropolis is not guarded by a single fosse, th at her
militia can in no manner be compared with the
National Guard of her Gallic neighbour? Why, it
is indisputable that the naval estimates of England
have been long characterised by an undue niggard-
liness. In 1816, for example, those estimates
amounted to no less an amount than 9,51(8,3254
though it must be remembered that in that year our
victories upon the ocean were consummated
by the heroic bombardment of Algiers. In 1822
they had diminished to 5,042,6421. In 1832 they had
decreased still further to 4,882,8351. Beginning
with 1840, they were 5,597,5111, and in 1844 they
merely amounted to 5,858,2191. The pars imony
evinced by the Legislature towards the only IA tlwark
of our national defence has been, indeed, of too long
continuance to be persisted in without entailing upon
the empire effects of the most injurious description.
In his perspicuous speech to the House of Commons,
Mr. WARD formally announces the intention of the
present Government to abandon this destructive
policy. We are heartily rejoiced at this, and we are
rejoiced that the Government has not been .deterred
from at once undertaking the good work of innova-
tion by the circumstance of the existing famine,
with its horrible concomitants. The additional
money vote upon the past year of 71,0001.
is not to be rejeeted as exorbitant, while 10,000,0001.
are being obtained and expended for the relief of a
temporary calamity. Those 77,000/. are for the per-
petual advantage of the empire ; it is for the
strengthening of its barriers, it is for the per-
manent benefit, and glory, and greatness of the
British Constitution. Considering, moreover, th e sum
to which it is proposed to extend our naval estimates
—a sum on the whole of merely 7,560,9481., of which
1,564,948/. will be applied to what the Honourable
Gentleman the Secretary to the Admiralty aptly' ermed
" non-nr.val services "—there is no substantial reason
for cavilling at the proposed advance. Peace .or war
—the naval estimates must not be grudged.

If not from the number of prospective measures
enumerated in the Royal Speech, certainly, from their
important, and, in some instances, novel character,
seldom has any session of Parliament, for a lc.ng pe-
riod past, been opened with greater probable demands
upon the time and grave attention of the seinators,
popular and hereditary, than the present. It is of
considerable benefit to the public that econamy of
time should, as far as is compatible with doe deli-
beration, be consulted to the utmost in the co nduct
of the proceedings in both Houses of the Legislature,
inasmuch as when not engaged within the precincts
of St. Stephen's, Peers and Commoners have impor-
tant
duties to attend to in their several localities
throughwhwhich
hoauvt h e tine a country,varvariety
0 ft h p
ways,
e r proper er d
di r
ec is ctt
tha g
,r
irdee of
n cy
to promote the social happiness and prosperity of the
people. This is always the case in the best of times.
Peers and Members of the House of Commons have
for the most part, by reason of the special commis-
sions with which they are personally entrusted, .to take
an active and leading part in the judicial, magi aerial,
and other ministerial systems established for the
good order and general welfare of the con.= tunity.
The, advantages, direct and indirect, of haelia.g the
nobility and influential gentry constantly residing on
their extensive properties, are inappreciable. 'Under
the auspices of their personal supervision, tanerni
improvement progresses most favourably. homes
of a desirable character, relating to important public
objects—whether they be for the spread of religion,promotion of education, maintenance of chi citable
institutions, preservation of the public healtb--over
and above the conservation of the public peace
and the suppression of crime, are felicstously
developed by the immediate presence of an :affluent
and intelligent proprietary. Therefore, etyen in
periods when the general condition of the co untry
bears a healthy appearance, the sittings of F arlia
ment should never be prolonged beyond wbal may
be abso!utely necessary. But, at a moment like the
present, when a large portion of the United ELay pire is
stricken with dire distress, the labours of the. B,?ssion
should be concluded with the utmost feasi4e dis-
patch.
Last evening, in the House of Lords,. Lord
STANLEY drew attention to the state of public busi-
ness in the Upper House, and regretted the. proba-
bility which presented itself of there being scarcely
anything for their Lordships to legislate 111 )on until
after Easter. The complaint is not a novel I me, and,
we regret to say, that neither is it an unr€ asonable
one. The Marquis of LANSDOWNE well repli red, first,
with the observation that, during the past sic F reeks,

there has been a greater amount of business trans-
acted, and of a mare important range, than could
easily be indicated in the commencement of
any other session ; and next, his Lordship
clearly and satisfactorily explained, by referring
to the past and future proceedings in the
House of Commons, that no blame can be attached to
the Government for the delay that has occurred with
respect to the progress of measures connected with
the permanent welfare of Ireland. It was indis-
pensable, in the first instance, for Parliament to de-
cide as to the adoption or rejection of Lord GEORGE
BENTINCK'S railway project. It is equally indis-
pensable, in the next, to obtain the sanction of the
Lower House as to the Ways and Means, since, till
the financial questions be settled, the Government
cannot reasonably proceed with the other measures
which they have in contemplation for Ireland.
But, whilst we admit all this to the full,
and concede that the comparison of prompt
legislation between the existing and preceding
Ministries, is decidedly in favour of the former, it is
an undoubted evil, for the reasons we have already
alleged, that the House of Lords should be kept in
a state of inactivity. This idle posture of the Upper
House is frequently produced by the known jealousy
which the Commons entertain against the Peers
taking the initiative in measures of a particular
character. We think this jealousy is pushed to a
prejudicial extreme. However, there are other
measures against which such an objection could
not and: which the Peers could
primarily
undertake with greater advantage than the
popular
of the Legislature. The
branch started,
mea-
sures we allude to are chiefly of a legal nature;
and, as a general rule, we hold that Governments, in
future, should take care that during the recess all
schemes of this character should be fully prepared, so
as to occupy the time and attention of the House of
Peers before the Ea* recess. It is, nevertheless,
due to the Government to notice, that the Marquis of
LANSDOWNE last evening communicated, that Bills
for enabling Irish proprietors to sell their estates to
pay off incumbrances, for the better administration of
the penal law, for the improvement of prisoners, and
the reformation of offenders, would be shortly laid
upon their Lordships' tab!e.

Madrid papers of the 20th have arrived.
The Espanol announces that a band of 200 Carhsts,
under the command of Cabecellas, Mosen, Bouet, Tris-
tany, Ros de Eroles, El Greser, Vilella, and others, had
entered the town of Cervera, in Catalonia, which, how-
ever, they did not attempt to hold. They levied contri-
butions on the inhabitants before taking their departure.
CABRERA was reported to be at Forcadella. It is said
that General BRETON will be recalled from Catalonia.
Carlist bands have also appeard in Galicia, Avila, and
Old Castile.
A letter from Bayonne says—

" The Count de Hernan Polaco, ex-commandant under
Espartero, and Don Celestino Paredes, his Intendant, or
Steward of the Household during the Regency, have arrived
here from London, and leave to-morrow for Madrid. They
are included in the amnesty ; and their journey, it is said, is
connected with certain negotiations going on for the return
of Espartero to Spain."
MADRID BOLSA, Fun. 20.—The Three pct. Cents. were
done at 311/ for cash ; the Five per Cents , at 20; Debt
without Interest, 61/s ; and the Coupons, at IN.

We have received the Paris papers of Thursday.
The state of parties in England is the subject of the
leadin4 article of the Journal des Debuts. It expresses
its belief that the result of the recent attempt of Lord
GEORGE BENTINCK to oust the Ministry has been
greatly to strengthen the Russell Cabinet, and to prove
to the Protectionists that they have no chance of becom-
ing influential unless they again place themselves under
the leadership of Sir ROBERT PEEL.
If we can place any reliance on the following article,
which appears in the Constitutionnel, the French Ministry
is falling to pieces from inherent weakness. It says—
" The Ministry appears on the road of complete decompo-
sition, either from disinclination on the part of the new ma-
jority to certain members of Cabinet, or from the following
h
Ctnlaatc ehhan:aniueidbnngtsdiihnkta
nesnihsetoreoretd:tosaf—ctitliesmMy:
filling
iiii!esu
fmiht;heifrcus(efsaotlaadephritlbutnthl
aeiiyhnlaNnitc.oeteheuotef.eianorn
itiwndrgrbbd:ewapiNersaforbids
cannotsm,ahu mriullnihis
considered
remisbncpdensel
doing
active,
inn:
dirdgnsteil
enaaneimit:id
i!:iterttiedseo
occurred
yrvobii:rorylrnitt
fs::dafdo(
b,a
re-
tire
the
di
tteoona:,,
in-
fluential Ministers. Unfortunately such men are wanting, and
the most able Deputies are not in the ranks of the majority.
Lacave-Laplagne has provided for his family; no person
has met with more Parliamentary checks; his old functions
can easily be restored to him; the retreat of a man so de-
voted to his relations might pass for a reform, and the Mi-
nistry, freed from such an orator, would deem itself delivered
from the most useless part of its unpopularity. M. Cunin-
Gridaine is very inoffensive, but he is in bad health, and the
famous programme of the coalition, which he formerly signed
with full devotedness, has been long enough consigned to
oblivion for the temporary importance which M. Cnnin-
Gridaine had obtained for his platonic adhesion to reform
principles to have entirely disappeared. He is not absolutely
in the way of the Ministry, but he occupies a place without
filling it ; and nothing prevents his being sacrificed to any
combination that may be adopted. M. de Salvandy is every
day inventing some new project embarrassing for his col-
leagues. N. Moline St. Yon invents nothing, but he has
ebg Thelast
deeanfl Ministerei
inconvenience..
acts too much, the Minister of War not enough ; the first is
anr ogd
h_epcadaurnidoit
right-about
synponisooet:dhaeieuntht duringsecondhotono rot itaeynn.tyaehr
favouryM 0.
fHthebeemrtiwniasstr)a.et,
be, several combinations, in which these members of the
Cabinet were by turns sacrificed, preserved, or displaced, have
first thought of for the Administration of Justice ; but M. He-
bert
and of a firm execution of the laws; he has been considered
for some time as necessarily rejected by
possible. M. Dunion, Minister of Public Works, desired •
s, esired to
become Minister of Justice. This matter was much spoken
of for some days. Had this combination been adopted the
Ministry intended seeking amongst the young members
most laborious and most practical of the Cons,t!he
party, for Ministers of Public Works, Commerce, and F -
nance •' the persons thought of were, it wa
M. de Morny, M. Muret de Bort, and m.sßl!aid, M. Vitet,
on. It was
even in the hope that M. Vitet was about to become Minis-
ter, that M. Lanyer showed so devoted a ministerial zeal and
so exclusive a Conservative ardour. Whether it was that
refusals were met with, or for other reasons, • it is no longer a
question at present of M. Damon for the department of
was
Justice, M. Hebert has been come back to. It first
determined to entrust to him the portfolio of Justice alone,
and to separate from it the department of Public Worship,
which WAS to be either united with that of Public In-
struction or formed into a special Ministry. But these two
expedients raised such objections in the Cabinet that they
were given up. It is even said that M. de Carne hopes
to
become Director of Public Worship, in order to give
satisfaction to the Catholic party. Meanwhile the suecceesysery
to M. Hebert in the Cour Royale is already an object of clnios-
pate. M. Delangle was on the list of candidates to become
Procureur General, but M. Hebert proposes M. Boucly We
do not think it necessary to enumerate all the candidates
whose names have been quoted in several journals for
the portfolios of finance, commerce, war, or public in-
struction. The Ministry must be much weakened to mo-
dify itself so profoundly. No complete combination has
moment a character at the present serious enough to be
reckoned on as worthy of notice. But what may be affirmed
is, that if there is any doubt about the composition
of the
Cabinet there is none about its decomposition. The weak-
ness, the incapacity, the despotism, the unpopularity, the
idle, or too inventive mind of the secondary Ministers will
carry away with them the head ones, and that before long."
The .3{loniteur contains royal ordonnances, sanctioning
the Bills recently passed by the two Chambers. The
same journal also contains a comparison between the
numbers of the population of France, as taken in the
census of 1841 and 1846. In the former year, the num-
bers were 34,230,178, and in the latter 35,400,486, being
an increase in the five years of 1,170,308.
During the month of January the general receipts of
the Customs duties upon importations amounted to
9,797,362 f. In 1846 the produce in the corresponding
and in 1845, 11,360,029 f.
month was 10,820,838 f. ;
The falling off this year, as compared with the receipts
of 1846, has arisen chiefly from the reduction of the
duty on corn. Although the consumption of foreign
corn has been much greater this year, the duty has
amounted to only 202,925 f. instead of 1,122, 8581., as in
ed with January, 1846, there
January, 1846. As compared
was in the last month a diminution in the consumption
of cotton, wool, linseed, tallow, coal, lead, copper, tin,
linen, and hempen cloth ; and there was an increase in
coffee, corn, cast-iron, bog's lard, olive oil, pepper, silks,
colonial sugars, and zinc.
Serious apprehensions are entertained of the conse-
quences of the falling off of the trade of France, and the
enormous financial deficit. The Committee on the
Budget have, it is said, been requested by the Ministry
to mitigate appearances and realities as much as pos-
sible in their report, so as to make the deficit not appear
more than 16,000,0001. sterling, the actual deficit being
double that amount. In the meantime bankruptcies are
hourly occurring, the small traders are nearly all ruined,
and the large firms are now beginning to experience
difficulties. The scarcity of provisions is frightful, and
the price is hourly rising. La Reforme deems it pos-
sible that within two months from this date the 41b. loaf
will cost 40 sons (20 pence). Great fears are in conse-
quence entertained of interruptions of the public tran-
quillity.
The Journal du Havre of Wednesday, after announc-
ing the arrival at that port of the Elizabeth, whale-ship,
from Otaheite, which she left on the 12th of November,

says:--
" Without being so alarming as. the first rumcurs stated,
the news from Otaheite, by the Elizabeth, is not without
gravity. It is far from confirming the hopes of pacification
which the last official note founded on the dispatches of
October 5. But if the state of things be not sensibly ame-
liorated, it visibly tended towards a compromise, which the
general lassitude of all parties made desirable. As the
official note indicated, open hostilities had not been resumed,
but in truth they had not ceased. The defensive works
raised in the insurgent values