The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-22 00:00:00

SUMMARY OF NEWS

AND
Public eptuton.

" TVlio runs may read."

FOREIGN.

_
The budget of the Portuguese Minister of Finance
has been adopted without opposition by the Deputies.
The expenditure is estimated at 10,984 contos of reis,
or about 2,526,3201. sterling, the ordinary income falling
short of that sum by about 652 contos of reis, or
149,960/. sterling. The most interesting item in the
budget to an English reader is the sum of 247,2501.
sterling for paying the dividend upon the foreign debt.
Spain has shamed Portugal into some regard for the
claims of the public creditor.
On Thursday the French Court of Peers declared
itself competent to try Quenisset and his accomplices.
The Peers declare " that it results from the examina-

tions whiclihaWbeenttiken that an attempt has been
made upon the lives of the Dukes of Orleans, Nemours,
and Aumale ; that a plot was formed either to destroy
or change the Government, or to excite civil war by
arming or inducing the citizens to arm themselves one
against another, or by exciting the citizens and inhabi-
tants to arm themselves against the Royal authority ;
that these crimes are connected, and that, by reason
either of the part taken therein by illicit associations, of
the nature of the means prepared for the attack, or, in
fine, from the publicly avowed object of changing the
Constitution of the State, and even the organization of
society, by violence and civil war, these acts present the
highest'degree of criminality, so as to determine the
Coart to take cognizance of them."—The Court of Peers
attaches an importance to the Report of its Committee,
which we are very far froth doing. The day for the
commencement of the trial is not yet fixed.
We find the following in the France of Friday—
" It is said that soon after the opening of the next Ses-
sion a proposition will be made for augmenting the
number of Deputies, which is now only 459, to 500.
The ground of this proposition is said to be, that in
the States-General of the 16th and 17th centuries,
when France was neither so extensive nor so
populous as it is now, the number of representatiVes
was comparatively much greater. In 1560, it
was 393; in 1576, 326 ; in 1588, 305 ; in 1614, 446."
France has already plenty of Deputies, and England has
too many. It is not more Deputies, but more electors
that are wanted. France wants an extension of the
electoral franchise, not an increase in the number of her
Representatives. The fault of modern Legislative As-
semblies is that they are too numerous for proper busi-
ness purposes, and that they do not represent the people.
Reports have been spread by several papers, within
the last few days, that a misunderstanding exists
between some of`-the members of the Administration,
and that several changes in the Ministry are likely to take
place in consequence. On this subject the National
states that a serious discussion has arisen in the Council
of Ministers between Marshal Soult and M. Humann.
" The latter," it adds, " demanded that a considerable
reduction should be made in the budget of the war
department, to which Marshal Soult replied by declaring
that he would not consent to it. Resignations, it is
said, were offered on both sides; and the rumour is cir-
, culated that the Cabinet is at the present moment com-
pletely dislocated." This is confirmed by the Constitu-
tionnel, which says that the discussion alluded to occurred
at a recent Council, and that M. Humann succeeded in
getting his views as to a reduction of the war budget
adopted by a majority of his colleagues.
The following extraordinary account of a murder and
the arrest of the murderers, is from a French provincial
paper. In a new edition of " God's Revenge against
Murder," it would be worthy of a particular place :
" A travelling dealer in porcelain and glass was
some days ago driving his cart towards a small
town near Lorient, when a little boy, going the
same way, asked him for a ride. Nogues, the dealer,
kindly put the boy into the basket swung under the
cart, as being warmer than the cart itself. They had
not gone far before two footpads stopped the cart, mur-
dered and robbed its owner, and then, to disguise the
act, drove the cart over the body, in order to induce a
belief that the death was accidental. During this ter-
rible scene the boy lay concealed in the basket ; but, as
soon as he conceived the robbers were at a sufficient dis-

tance, he contrived to set the horse off at full speed, re-
maining in his hiding-place, till the horse stopped at
the door of a country inn, frequented by its master. The
poor boy went into the house, and was telling his hor-
rible tale, when, among his auditors, he perceived and
denounced two robbers, who had disguised themselves
in the uniform of gendarmes, but were afterwards recog-
nised as convicts who had effected their escape. They
were immediately arrested."
General Van Halen entered Barcelona on the 15th
inst. On the 13th the Radical Junta had made their
escape through France to London.
The Journal de la Vendee states :—" On the sth inst.
a ball of fire, of dazzling brightness, passed through the
air with great swiftness in the environs of Bourbon
Vendee, and at the same moment an aerolite fell in a
field where some labourers were at work, making a consi-
derable indenture in the ground. The stone on being
taken up was found to weigh between 101 b. and 121b5.,
and to resemble a calcined stone, composed of iron, sul-
phur, and silex."

- The St. Peterpburg Gazette states, that 700 houses in
the town of Orel have been recently burnt down. The
local depot of archives was greatly injured. What the
injured archives of Orel consist of, we really have no
idea. Most likely the books of the collectors of customs.