The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-18 00:00:00

the most promising kind. In a short time, therefore
the country will have securely passed the goal of in
quietude.

Madrid papers of the 11th instant have arrived

It is said that in consequence of differences among
the Ministers, on the subject of the financial measures
of Senor SALAMANCA, the Ministry will be broken
up and a new Ministry formed, of which General
SERRANO and Senors OLOZAGA. and SALAMANCA
will be members. Other reports say that Senor
PAcnEco alone will retire, and be appointed
either Ambassador to Rome or President of the
Chamber of Deputies, and that General NARVAEZ
will be the new President of the Council. Senor
SALAMANCA has returned from Aranjuez to Madrid.
The KING left on the 11th for the Prado.

MADAM BOLSA, MAY 11.—The Three per Cents. were
done at 31 for cash; the Debt without Interest at ; and
the Five per Cents. at 19% for paper.

We have received the Paris papers of Sunday.
The Government of M. GUIZOT is, according to
;he general opinion, tottering to its fall. His ill
success at Madrid and at Athens, and his failure to
bring about an entente cordiale with Russia, have
shaken the confidence which the majority of the
Chambers have hitherto reposed in him, and the
discovery of the wholesale system of corruption
which he has used as his great instrument of
home government has tended so to damage his cha-
racter that he may now be considered almost as a
Minister on sufferance merely. An article which
appears in the Journal des Debats of Sunday, iii
which 'certain officials are vehemently attacked, is
a proof that. M. GUIZOT himself considers his Minis-
terial position insecure. The article in question
alludes to a letter addressed to the editor by several
merchants of Paris, in which the writers say—
" You will not believe that in our days the administration
of the Customs has had recourse to the most odious means
employed by the police in the worst of times. Our servants
are suborned, our clerks paid to denounce their masters;
persons sent by the agents of the Custom-house continually
present themselves in our houses to ask us to sell foreign
articles, or propose such articles for sale. Our houses, at
well as those of our friends, some of whom are not engaged
in business, are publicly invaded by a crowd of agents, ac-
crmpalied by a commissary of police, in quest of a booty,
which they divide among themselve:3; for you must know
that the objects seized and the fines imposed benefit ex
elusively the Custom•oflice agents and the informers,
and not a fraction enters the coffers of the State. Within
a few days the Customs officers have visited the establish-
ments of from 40 to 50 merchants in Paris. What did they
seize ? Goods which had been lying between five and fifteen
years in their stores! The whole value of the seizures does
not exceed 20,000 f. or 25,000 f. In that estimation we in-
clude French goods mistaken for English ; small pieces of
cloth, and even waistcoat patterns for tailors' shops, have been
likewise searched."

On this statement the Debats observes:—
" It is not possible that the principle of absolute prohibi-
tion which warrants those attempts against liberty, public
morality, and property, should remain any longer inscribed
in our codes. Let it be replaced by duties of 30, 40, or 50
per cent., if necessary, although Colbert, whose authority is
always invoked by,the Protectionists, never established a
duty higher than 10 per cent. It is time to put a period to
that barbarous institution, which is an insult to common
sense, and the present moment is the more favourable as the
Chambers are about to discuss a new Customs' Bill."

M. GUIZOT is evidently preparing to organize an
opposition party, on which to fall back when he quits
office. Free trade will no doubt be his cheval de
bataille.

The Committee of the Court of Peers appointed to
investigate the case of General CUBIERES sat during
four hours on Saturday, and was again to assemble on
Sunday. Another search had been made in the do-
micile of M. PARMENTIER.

There were rumours on Saturday that a politica
conspiracy had been discovered, and that M. Cowsi•

DERE, who has frequently been in custody as a poll.
tical offender, had been again arrested.

At Lille public tranquillity has been completely
restored.

The Three per Cents. were done in the Passage de
['Opera on Sunday at 77f. 95c.

LYONS, MAY 14.—Paris and Rouen, 932 f. 50c. ; Avignon
and Marseilles, 7531 75c. ; Vierzoa, 591 f. 25c. ; Northern,
606 f. 25c. ; Paris and Lyons, 433 f. 75c. ; Orleans, 1,232 f. 50c.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, MAY 17.
Luxembourg, VA —Namur and Liege, 33a—Northern of
France, 11%

The Right Ilon. Sir Robert Peel gives a Parlia-
mentary dinner on the 27th inst. to a very numerous circle.
The Right Hon. Baronet and Lady Peel and family left
Whitehall-gardens yesterday for 'Drayton Manor, Stafford-
shire, from whence they return to town on the 26th inst.
ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.--The annual meeting of
this society was held last evening at Finsbury Chapel. The
Right Hon. Dr. Lushington presided, and the Conde de
Montemolin was present at the proceedings. The report con-
. batulated the subscribers to the society on the progress
which anti-slavery principles were making, although in some
places they had been considerably retarded. The receipts for
the year had been 1,7151. 13s. 6d.; the expenditure 1,4261.
Gs. 41d. ; leaving a balance cf 289/. 7s. lid. to the credit of
the society. Sir George Strickland, in moving the adoption
of the report, severely denounced the conduct of the Ame-
ricans on account of their maintenance of slavery, but ex-
pressed his conviction that even in that country slavery
would, ere long, be extinct. The meeting was subsequently
addressed by Mr. Elihu Burritt, Mr. Sturge, Mr Hinton, and
others;_ and resolutions deprecatory of the system of slavery
were adopted. A vote of thanks to the chairman, which was
briefly acknowledged, closed the proceedings.
ROBBERY OF A COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER ON THE
HIGHWAY. —On Saturday night last 11r. James Gibson,
commercial traveller to the firm of Messrs. Thomas Gibson
and Co., hat-manufacturers, Castle.green, Bristol, while tra-
velling after dark, on the road between Cirencester and
Stroud, was attacked by three men, who rushed out suddenly
from the road side, seized the head of his horse, and then
dragged him from the gig, and used him with great violence.
One of them knocked him down, and then knelt on his chest
and gagged his mouth, to prevent his resisting or giving an
alarm, while a second plundered his person of his watch,
chain, and seals, and cash and notes to the value of between
1501. or 2001. Fortunately about 501. in sovereigns, which
was in the driving-box of the gig, escaped their notice. After
threatening him with further violence if he attempted to
pursue them, they decamped with their booty.

Baron of Besborough, in the Peerage of Ireland ;
and as Baron Ponsonby, of Sy onby and Duncannue,
in the Peerage of Great Britain. His Lordship was
closely allied to the most dist:nguished families of the
Liberal aristocracy, through his mother, Lady
HENRIETTA FRANCES, daughter of the first Earl
SPENCER, and his grandmother, Lady CAROLINE,
eldest daughter of WILLIAM, third Duke of DEVON-
sniRE. The loss of this eminent servant of the
Crown will very long be lamented, and his recent
labours in Ireland cannot speedily be forgotten.

We had hoped that, severe as have been, and
doubtless still are, the privations of the lower
classes, consequent upon the excessive prices to which
► the necessaries of life, more especially bread, have
been raised, we should have passed over the present
crisis without the exhibition of such painful and dis-
graceful scenes a 3 occurred in Exeter on Friday last.
We derived our hope, first, from the conviction that
the distressed condition of the humbler orders would
not be much longer protracted; next, from the feel-
ing of gratitude on the part of our poorer country-
men towards the affluent for the munificent benevo-
lence they have displayed in all directions, and in
every shape, ever since the evil of scarcity
has threatened the land, and, lastly, from the
known love of order and loyalty for which Englishmen
from the highest to the lowest are peculiarly charac-
terised beyond any other civilised race. We regret
that our hope has been partially dispelled, and the
more so because, since the law is sure to be promptly
and efficaciously vindicated, it frequently happens, in
the prosecution of rioters, that ignorant and mis-
guided persons are made to feel the severe penalties
of justice in common with the worst principled and
most infuriated of their illegal coadjutors. For up-
wards of three hours on Friday afternoon the city of
Exeter was exposed to the unbridled license of a nu-
merous and clamorous mob. The potato merchant,
the corn merchant, and the baker were severally at-
tacked in different parts of the town. Severe injuries
were inflicted both on their persons and properties.
Whilst some bakers saved their windows by pitching
out their loaves among the excited multitude, others,
who did the very same thing, could not succeed in
preserving their premises from injury. The most
lamentable feature throughout this flagrant breach
of the law is, that it commenced with some
frenzied women, who had determined upon adopt-
ing the most violent means for furnishing food to
their famishing children. Every one must sympa-
thise with the desperate condition of those unfortu-
nate creatures, at the same time that all must condemn
the insane folly of their proceedings. Withdrawing our
mind from this disgraceful outbreak, we turn to
the agreeable duty of informing our readers, that the
intelligence we are daily receiving confirms our pre-
vious impression that our social condition will soon
be improved. The bullion is increasing in the Bank ;
money matters are conducted with less stringency
than they were three weeks since ; every twenty-
four hours enhance the quantity of our imports in
grain ; from the Baltic, Egypt, and America, we
shall soon be receiving immense supplies alread:,
contracted for; and, what is still more important and
cheerful, the appearances of the coming harvest
throughout Europe at large, are represented as 01