The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-31 00:00:00

PROCLAMATION OF ESPARTERO.

The serious events which have lately occurred in this
capital have excited in the highest degree the attention
of authority. Convinced that malevolent persons per-
sons might, under false pretexts, renew those disturb-
ances, if preventive measures were not taken against
them, and if they were not punished according to the
utmost rigour of the law, in my quality of Captain-
General, and conformably to the ordinance which con-
fers on me the supreme command of the military forces,
as well as by the authorisation arising from a Royal or-

dinance dated this day, I have thought fit to issue the
following

1. The town of Barcelona is declared in a state of
siege.

2. All cheering and shouting, tending to insult coy
one or to injure property, are expressly prohibited.
3. Persons not belonging to the army are prohibited
the use and wearing of arms.
4. From the moment of the publication of the pre.
sent all groups are forbidden. All groups will be dis-
persed by the military after a summons to disperse.
Should no attention be paid to the third summons,
downright force will be employed.
5. Should any individuals belonging to a group insult
the military on being summoned to disperse, they will
be arrested and given over to the tribunals.
6. For the application for the penalties for non-ob-
servance of this decree, as well as for the misdemeanours
specified by the decrees of the Cortes in August, 1821,
and by the laws of la novissimn recapilacion on sedition,
shall be appointed at the publieation of the present a
court-martial, who shall judge the offenders, and apply
to them the penalties established, or those it may think
proper to apply, on submitting the sentence to my ap-
proval. In order to make this decree known to all, it
shall be published and posted.
DUKE OF VITTORIA.
Barcelona, July 22, 1840.
. _

At midnight order was perfectly restored. The
Queen is not aware of the extent of the disturbance.
The French Ambassador, M. Mathieu de la Redorte,
who arrived at four o'clock in a steamer, landed an hour
afterwards with M. de Mareuil, after a long conference
with the French Consul General. The disturbance
commenced after his arrival. During the whole of the
time the Ambassador remained in his hotel, and received
only French visitors.

SFIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
(From the Morning Chronicle.)
The distinguished correspondent of the Post seems de-
termined to distinguish himself by attacking the Govern-
ment upon a question of foreign policy, with respect to
which the Government is acting upon principles which
must obtain the approbation of every man who bas at
heart the interests of England, and the maintenance
of peace in Europe; and it is needless, therefore,
to say that, in our opinion, the policy recom-
mended by the distinguished correspondent, would be
injurious to our interests, and fatal to the general
peace. The principle upon which the Government
is acting is, that the independence and integrity of
the Turk sh empire, being a matter which concerns
all the powers of Europe, because it regards the
balancs of power in Europe, ought to be placed
under the guardianship of an European alliance ;
but the distinguished correspondent of the Post main-
tains the principle that Russia should be obliged to
act ;by herself, and to interfere alone in the affairs of
Turkey. For this—disguised as it may be under profes-
sions of attachment to the French alliance, and rhodomon-
tades about the invincible star of Mehemet Ali—is the real
result of the policy of the correspondent of the Post. It
is easy to talk of leaving Syria in the hands of Egypt, and
to indulge in idle generalities about rearing up a new
Mahometan power as a bulwark against Russian aggres-
sion ; but the specific practical question which presses for
immediate solution is this, whether it is more for the in-
terest of England that the Great Powers should interfere
jointly, in order to restore to the Sultan an important pro-
vince of his empire, to which his right is clear and un-
doubted, or that Russia should interfere single handed, and
send another army to encamp under the walls of Constan-
tinople, and to dictate another treaty of Unkiar Skelessi.
(From the Morning Advertiser. )
Some of our Gallic cotemporaries, to whose bellige-
rent lucubrations we yesterday alluded, in discussing the
Turko. Egyptian question, must be smitten by the influence
of the dog-star, or they could never have indulged in such
rabid propensities as they have recently manifested in re-
gard to the treaty alleged to have been made between
Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, without the
participation of France. The tone of these journalists, even
if there were just grounds and probability of quarrel, is ut-
terly inapposite to the prevalent feeling of the day, which
is altogether hostile to an appeal to physical appliance for
tee adjustment of differences which can be permanently and
satisfactorily settled only by moral agencies. The Camby-
ses or Bobadil style is now altogether out of place, exen
when an appeal to arms is inevitable ; but when, as in the
present case, there is no just or rational grounds of dispute,
the eagerness for the fray exhibited by the Constitutionnel,
Courrier Francais, and other French papers, can be com-
pared to nothing more appositely than to the ebullient
pugnacity of certain hot-headed Hibernians, who will fight
first, sit down to discuss the cause of quarrel afterwards,
and then discover, to mutual surprise, that they had fought
and broke each other's heads " without any manner of
rason at all at all." Such would be the exact illustration
of the position of Great Britain and France, if they ap-
pealed to arms on the adjustment of the differences between
the Pacha and the Sultan. France has been perfectly
cognizant of every step taken in the negotiation between
Great Britain and the other Powers, and therefore has no
right so far to consider herself treated with any slight or
disrespect.

_
(From the Times.)
At the Police-court, Lambeth-street, yesterday, Mr.
Norton imposed the highest penalty in his power on a ruf-
fian for an assault on a respectable woman. This penalty
was at, or two months' imprisonment; and as the ruffian
was poor, he could not pay the fine, and was consigned to
prison. This punishment was most properly awarded, and
we refer to the case for the sake of pointing out the different
modes of administering justice at Lambeth-street and at
Marlborough-street. Mr. Norton, justly indignant at a
gross outrage, inflicts the highest penalty in his power--
51. Mr. Henry, while professing extraordinary indignation
at a much more brutal outrage, perpetrated on a respectable
m..n and woman by two well-coated ruffians, imposes, not
the highest penalty, but merely 31.—a sum ridiculously
disproportionate to the offence and the means of the de-
linquentsll one of whose coats would probably have fetched
twice the sum. Mr. Henry should have known that a
trivial fine cannot operate for a moment to check the vio-
lence of wealthy ruffians. He should therefore have sent the
case to the Sessions, where the Magistrates have the
power of fining or imprisoning in proportion to the enor-
mity of the case, and of placing the offenders on the
treadmill. In the case of a poor complainant it would
sometimes operate as a considerable hardship to have to
incur the loss of time necessary to a second inquiry at the
sessions; but in the case of the persons who appealed to
the Marlborough-street Magistrate no such reason exists ;
and it was his duty to send the offenders for trial instead
of awarding a trumpery fine.
(From the Morning Herald.)
To whatever part of the subject connected with the
Irish Municipal Bill we turn, we meet with nothing but
what is calculated to puzzle or disgust. We have already
called attention to the monstrous job contemplated by Mr.
Recorder Shaw in his own favour. Our readers will re-
collect this gentleman's notable project to get a special ex-
cieption of himself from the regulation obliging recorders
to hold sessions as frequently sand regularly as the ends of
justice might require ; we had hoped the effect of our
exposure joined with the remonstrances of Lord Wicklow
and Lord Devon in the House of Peers, had been the
abandonment of the project. We little knew, how-
ever, the pertinacity of this Right Honourable Gentle-
man in a job. We are credibly informed that the mon-
strous attempt is to be renewed to-night. Lord Wicklow
is out of the way—Lord Devon has been, perhaps, in pri-
vate cajoled into silence—the House, too, is thin—and
a large number of honest and independent Pro-
testant Peers, who on a former occasion were ready to
oppose it, lruve left town. Under these circumstances,
Mr. Shaw has, if we arc rightly informed, resolv. d to
try his chance once more ; if he succeed, by any accident,
in passing the House of Lords, he will rely on his friend
and companion, Lord Morpeth, to carry it in the Com-
mons. We need not, we trust, repeat what we have said
on the indecency of creating the regulations of a judi-
cial office to suit the convenience of the political partisan
who may happen to fill it. We do not think we are in-
fluenced by a desire we do not conceal to see Mr. Shaw
out of Parliament. We certainly will rejoice in his ejec-
tion as a blessing, as we believe his presence there, from
1835, to have becii a curse to the Protestant interests of
Ireland ; and we have very little doubt that the next dis-
solution will accomplish this good by means more desirable,
because more salutary as an example. But we confess we
arc jealous for the honour of the House of Lords—it would
pain us to see that illustrious assembly reduced to a chamber
for managing jobs for Mr. Shaw I

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

(THURSDAY EVENING.)
CHRONICLE.—The English Funds were firm at the
opening of the market. This improvement, however, was
not maintained.

In the Foreign House prices were in a great measure
influenced by the state of things in the English House.
The proceedings of the meeting of Colombian bond-
holders yesterday arc important, in showing that her Ma-
jesty's Government are sensible of the gross injustice in-
flicted upon the bondholders—that they are determined
to see that they obtain redress—and that although the State
of Venezuela had recently professed its inability to pay a
farthing more than two per cent. on the principal of her
proportion of the Colombian debt, abandoning altogether
the rcmaining four per cout.,and arrears of interest; yet, by
firmness on the part of the bondholders, and by evincing a
determination to have what they knew that State could
well afford to pay them, Venezuela has at last discovered
that she is able ultimately to pay up the whole six per cent.
on the original debt, and to give bonds for the arrears.

TIMES.—The Money Market is again heavy to.day,
and the accounts received of the depressed state of the
Stocks in the continental markets, together with the vio-
lent tone of the Paris Papers, have kept the public in a
state of uneasiness.
The Spanish market is heavy, The last quotation for
the Actives is 29j- to 6. Dutch stock has been affected
by the quotations from Amsterdam, and the Two-and-a.
1-I per Cents. are quoted at 52 to
The determination of Mr. Labouchere, expressed last
night, not to press the Coffee Duties Bill this Session, has
of course given great satisfaction to the parties who
dreaded the anticipated partial reduction of duty. At the
same time many are at a loss to understand how the non-
conclusion of the treaty with France can be considered as
a cause for the abandonment of the measure. It is sup-
posed that Mr. Labouchere did not originally expect such
decided opposition as has been made by the representatives
of the trade, and that the petition from Fenchurch.street
of the 18th of July, 1840, and the memorial of the East
India and China Association, with similar demonstrations,
have chiefly caused the plan to be relinquished.

PO ST.—We have just learned that the Manchester and
Liverpool District Bank have held a meeting at Manches-
ter, for the purpose of declaring a dividend of ss. 6d. per
share for the half-year, being at the rate of four per coot