The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-02 00:00:00

JUNE 2, 1846.

FRENCH QUARANTINE. The committee of the Academie de 1114decine have
closed their deliberations, and their conclusions tend to a
complete reform in the present French quarantine sys •
tem. The question is one of very great importance, and
a revision of the quarantine laws has long been wanted
both
rh ien f
oEI
wl
on
gd and
tFhrea nr
recommence
rthße
ErecpAorut
rorfut)hNescoTmomitbeEe: mmendations contained in
TAKEN ON THE DF-
P,, ALRTThUeRcEapOtaFio VorESeSveEry LSveFssßelolJelaving ACoOnUe
of the
the
DEEMED DANGEROUS, FOR FRANCE COUNTRY
DEEMEDports of Egypt, Syria, or Turkey, for France, must be
the bearer of a certificate given him by the French
Consul of the place on the day or on the eve of his de-
parture. To this certificate must be annexed a certifi
cate from the French medical man, especially appointed
for that purpose, stating the particulars regarding the
general health in the country, of the passengers and the
crew, as likewise the healthy state of the vessel at her
departure.
" 2. This bill of health is not to be regarded as clean
if, at the time of the departure of the vessel, a pestilence
existed or was imminent in the country.
" 3. The bill is likewise to be deemed unclean (crute)
if individual cases of plague (pestes sporadiques)are of a
nature, either from their number or their intensity, to en-
gender fears for the propagation of the disease.
"4. In every other case the bill of health is to be re-
garded as clean.
" 5. Provisionally, and until experience, which we deem
indispensable, as well as regards the public safetyas inter-
national relations, having been resolved in a satisfactory
manner evident to all, the question of conveyance, the
trunks containing the linen, the clothes and goods of the
passengers and the crew, are to undergo fumigation dur-
ing the transit, or are to be sealed at the place where
they are shipped, to be opened in a French lazaretto ;
the passengers and sailors are only to be allowed to
retain such clothes as may be actually necessary during
the voyage."
PRECAUTIONS TO BE TAKEN DURING THE VOYAGE AND
AT THE DIFFERENT PORTS STOPPED AT.
"6. Every vessel of the royal navy, each postal
steamer coming from the East must have a medical man
on board ; it were advisable that this medical man be
appointed by the French Board of Health.
" 7. The duty of these medical men on board would
be to see the necessary measures for the preservation of
health attended to, principally respecting the airing of
the vessels; they are to note down every evening the
state of the crew and passengers.
" 8. If duing the voyage the vessel puts in at any port, '
the certificates given at the port of departure are to be
viewed by the medical man attached to the board of health
of the place, who is to add his remarks on the state of
health of the place and of the neighbourhood. This
certificate, if deemed requisite, is to be countersigned by
the consul.
"9. The medical man on board is to keep an exact
memorandum of any communications he may hear on
tothe at
board,
state
swe of health.
well asofany important circumstance relative
" 10. As regards those vessels which have no medical
man on board, the Minister of Commerce will draw out
special instructions for the masters, indicating the
symptoms of the pestilence, the remedies to be applied,
the measures to be taken to prevent contagion, and the
spreading of the disease.
" 11. These masters are to note down any remarks or
communications they may receive during the passage, or
at the intermediate ports, as well as a statement of any
illness on board; these notes to be written day by day as
the occasion may require."
PRECAUTIONS TO BE TAKEN ON THE

IEXICO and the UNITED STATES.

1 The bombastic President Polk has at length had the
felicity of inditing a war message to Congress, craving
f6r " two regiments of volunteers, and other levies of an
equally forrnidAble kind, to resist the hostile purposes of
the Mexicans." The President, however, makes out but
a; poor case. - The Mexicans, it seems, refused to re-
ceive an American envoy. This is surely no casus belli.
The other grief is that the Mexicans keep up an army 1
on the banks of the Rio Bravo. Why, they have had
pbsts there for these number of years. And even sup-
Posing the Americans had a rightful title to Texas, it is
not apparent how this should render it a crime for the
Mexicans to garrison Matamoras. The territory
intervening between the Rio Bravo and the
Texas
Nueces has been long a disputed territory
between and he adjoining provinces.
notwithstanding this dispute,t
did not occupy this territory the
Mexican
commander
Hi
thebut kept on his own side
of the Rio del Norte.American commander
done the same, and kept at the Corpus Christi, on the
Nueces, contented with protecting
eivse. andßut G-e-
Linder seized
then territory from
iqvasion, no collision could have take place, for the
Mexicans remained strictly on the defensive.
nbral Taylor not only crossed the Nuec
the whole of the disputed territory, but,
idle plea, he proceeded also to blockadeNlatatriso°l-ne,
and cut it off from the sea. In this, General Ta3;la.:i s•
vkantonly commenced hostilities ; as, indeed, the Whi .s
apd the Senate are prepared to maintain, as they insist
tsat he should not have gone beyond Corpus Christi.
Qollisions having taken place, it was impossible to re-
ftltse the vote of levies and ofdAmoney, although the 1

Wading members of the Senate, Coltoun amongst others,
pl•otested that the country could not consider itself at war.
The united bodies of Congress could, indeed, alone de-
clare that. War, however, it is, if President Polk chooses
tct make it so. This he seems scarcely prepared to do upon
t e land frontier of the Rio del Norte. He way, h )w-
-ever, give orders to the fleet in the Gulf to operate on
te coast, or to whatever vessels are on the Pacific, to
seize Monterey or the forts of California. And, as
compensation for that unlimited store of grievance,
which has been amassed on the supposed
Wrongs done to American citizens by Mexico, Mr. Polk
play insist on retaining such provinces or possessions.
Federalist movements, too, may be got up at the same
time, under American influence, to paralyse the efforts
of the Mexican Government and facilitate the work of
spoliation. Is Europe prepared to see Mexico thus dis-
niembered, and the autopsy made before her eyes ? It
i 4 to be feared that such is the case. A serious means
of effective war would alone be likely to make the
Americans hesitate. And neither France nor England
is prepared to volunteer in such a struegle. We have
had little or no thanks from Spain for having fought
Tprhoefi tageorofgproaltiittiucdael,
afsrowmeltlh eas Spanish
joruasc,ecirnus3al
for and won its independence. We might risk still less
de xe
si c i°s.
past.—Eraminer.

CANADIAN NEWS.
(From the Toronto Herald of May 7.)
LOWER PROVINCES.—Our latest advices from the
Lower Provinces inform us that, in New Brunswick, a
most destructive freshet had accompanied the breaking
up of the ice above Fredericton, on the river St. John
and its tributaries ; almost erery bridge of any conse-
quence between that city and Woodstock has been de-
stroyed. The great crash is said to have commenced at
the French Village, twelve miles above Fredericton,
Where dwelling houses, barns, horses, cattle, sheep, &c.,
were swept away ; and at Sugar Island, two miles
lower, the destruction was still snore extnisive and ap-
piffling, elm trees, three feet in diameter, being snapt
asunder, or bent like reeds by the irresistible force of the
ice and water, while houses, barns, haystacks, cattle,
&c., were borne down the current, or crushed
to fragments and piled among the ice upon the shore.
Upwards of one hundred buildings are said to have been
destroyed ; and such was the feelings of alarm, even in
Fredericton, that a greal amonnt of property was removed
from the immediate vicinity of the river, and several
families took up their abode on Maryland Hill, which
oierlooks the city. No account of the amount of injury
sustained above Woodstock had been received, though it
Was known that two lives had been lost. From Fredric-
ton, downwards, the ice still continued strong for several
miles.
The House of Assembly of the Province has placed
12,0001. at the disposal of the Executive, to meet any
emergency that may arise out of the dispute between
Great Britain and the United States, concerning the
Oregon question.
The Assembly closed its session on the 14th instant,
and was form ally prorogued to the first Tuesday in June,
by the Lieutenant-Governor in person. The attention
of the Assembly throughout the session has been devoted,
almost exclusively, to the ordinary business of the
country. A general election is expected to take place
early in July.
It seems now settled that the Now Cathedral is to be
built at St. John, in perference to Fredericton.
Papers, from Sydney, Cape Breton, of toe Ist April,
state the ice in the harbour was then impassable, and
Tas expected to disappear altogether in two or three
-OVA, tAltocettlerix.reeie"tv Svmaszvskta,nn-l;".. • k ^ •1- ^
The accounts from Newfoundland represent the Seal
Fishery as hitherto not only unsuccessful but disastrous.
The St. John's Courier states, that upwards of eighty
vessels had been spoken which had caught no seals, nor
had they heard of one that had been fortunate enough
to take any ; and the Public Ledger gives the names of
seven vessels already known to have been lost in the ice.
I The Governor of Prince Edward's Island has involved
himself in a controversy with the Assembly, by dis-
missing the Speaker from the Executive Council, in con-
sequence of opinions expressed by him in the Assembly.
The following resolution was carried by a vote of 14
to 2 :
" Resolved, as the opinion of this Committee, that the
House of Assembly has no confidence in Sir Henry Vere
Huntly, Lieutenant-Governor of this Colony."
It was resolved by the Assembly on Friday last, on the
motion of Mr. Baldwin—That this House are of opinion
that such an alteration should be made in the regula-
tions in the crown lands office, as will enable parties
buying land from the original purchasers of any quantity
not less than fifty acres, to have their purchases recog-
nised, and on production of the proper assignments, and
tender of the sums due on such portions of land, that
transfers to the assignees be made in the books of the
Department, and that deeds in due course of time be
issued to them.

ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN 11ER MAJESTY'S
SLOOP FANTOME AND A BARBARY PIRATE.
Extract of a letter from Gibraltar, dated May 19 :
" In the greatest haste I write you a brief account of
a severe chastisement which has been inflicted by her
Majesty's ship Fantome, 16, Commander Sir F. W.
Nicholson, Bart., on the Moorish pirates, who have for
some time been committing depredations in these Straits;
but I am sorry to say not without casualties among the
ship's company of the Fantome, a midshipman having
been killed, and one of the lieutenants wounded, toge-
tber with a serjeant of marines and five seamen and
marines.
" You have already the intelligence communicated by
Lloyd's agent of the seizure of a small British merchant
brig, named the Ruth, by the pirates, off the coast of
Barbary, and the escape of the crew in the boats, and
that upon their representation the Fantome had left Gi-
braltar to endeavour to recover the vessel—a portion of
the crew proceeding in the sloop of war to point out
the locality of the miscreants.
" It appears that the Fantome had little difficulty in
finding the brig, and, seeing that they would have to
fight for her, Captain Nicholson made his dispositions
accordingly. He dispatched the master and one party
to get the vessel off, and, being fired upon by a large
force collected on the shore, he pushed off in the boats,
Under cover of the guns of the sloop, to occupy their
attention. A lengthened engagement then took place,
which lasted until the master and his party had got the
Ruth off, and had recovered some of her valuable cargo.
Captain Nicholson commanded in person, and he and
his small party were opposed by very considerable num-
bers of the Moors, who armed with pistols, guns, and
cutlasses, obstinately disputed his landing, and after-
wards his advance on the strand, some of them fighting
with great bravery. A great many were killed by the
crew of the Fantome, and a large number must have
suffered from the guns of the sloop covering the launch-
ing of the ship, for I hear from an eye-witness that
nothing could exceed the precision and exactness with
which the firing was conducted.
" From what I can learn the affair was a very gallant
ono indeed, and was admirably conducted. The
pirates had a great advantage over the Fantome's
crew in point of arms ; their muskets carried twice
as far as those of the seamen and marines. To
this circumstance is to be ascribed the loss of Mr.
Boys, the midshipman, who was a gallant and pro-
mising young officer, and lam informed isaeonnefa
the
captain in her Majesty's navy. He was ky
illed
accom-
plished
return of the boats to the sloop when th v
their task, and under the sameseieree had
eruemly wounded,
stances the
first lieutenant, Mr. Saunderson, w
together with the colour-sergeantok place on the 12th ofaansd four or five of the
ship's company. The actionto
May, at a point of the north coast of Barbary called Tre-
foreas, to the eastward of the Tetuan,
was one of the most daring
" The seizure of t
Ihieasb,begen committed in the Mediter-
acts of piracy that
ranean for several years, and when it is considered that
in the strait and narrow passage' of the Mediter-
irt was
nby which merchant vessels pass, the importance
of the severe chastisement inflicted by Sir F. Nicholson
and his gallant officers and crew will be
11duly estimated,
not only in official, but in mercantile qua rt ers.
_

THE MORNING MAILS.—In consequence of the many
changes recently made in the Post-office by the further open-
ing of the several railways and the branches in connexion
with them, the Postmaster-General yesterday caused to be
issued an amended list of towns, bags to and from which are
dispatched from and received at the General Post-office.
The following towns have been added to the list in
March last in this journal:—Newcastle-on-Tyne,
Queen-
borough, Sheerness, Tiverton, and Tunbridge. The sub-
joined towns have not now bags forwarded—Newcastle
(Staffordshire) and Accrington.
POTAT )ES FROM NORWAY.—A cargo of forty tons of
potatoes from Norway is announced for sale in the present
week, in Monument-yard, as applicable either for seed or for
consucaptio.