The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-28 00:00:00

2"na‘

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1846.

The proceedings before the Court-martial assem-
bled at Portsmouth, for the trial of the Hon. Captain
GoRDeN, will be perused with the deepest interest
by every one interested in the British navy.
The charge was a serious one, imputing to the
prisoner a disobedience of the orders of his
commanding officer in sailing from Valparaiso,
in Chili, for England, with her MAJESTY'S ship
America, of which he was then in com-
mand. The Court found the charge fully proved, but
added their opinion, that the prisoner was not actu-
ated by his private pecuniary advantages, thus practi-
cally acquitting him of any improper motive, and pro-
nounced a sentence the most lenient possible, viz.,
that the prisoner should be severely reprimanded.
It will be in the recollection of our readers, that the
sentence of a naval court-martial is perfect the mo-
ment it is pronounced, and may be forthwith car-
ried into execution, and that, unlike that of the
similar military tribunal, it is not submitted to any
person or persons whatever for approval or revision.
We are, therefore, already acquainted with the final
result of the trial, although it only took place
on Wednesday.

Although the letter of the law was against the
Gallant Officer, the decision of the Court was
tantamount to a full and honourable ac-
quittal. A certain degree of discretion must
be vested in an officer commanding any of her MA.
3ZEITY'S vessels when absent from his superior officer.
It would be utterly impossible for any man, or body
of men, to foresee all the circumstances that might
possibly arise at a future period, when ,p literal 1

obedience of the orders given might prove in the
highest degree injurious to the British interests,
which it should be the first and paramount duty of a
British officer to maintain and support. Had Lord
NELSON at all times acted in obedience to orders, some
of his most brilliant exploits would never have been
performed, and the nation might have remained in
ignorance of the brilliant qualities of the hero in her
service. His axiom was that an officer should dare
all in order to benefit his country; that he should
encounter not only the bullets and missiles of his an-
tagonists, but that he should also risk the displeasure
of his superiors; nay, the possibility of meeting death
as a criminal by the hands of his English brethren,
in furtherance of that great object. We have never
heard the memory of that illustrious officer stigma-
tised for these opinions ; on the contrary, every one
has admired the devotion, the deep resolution that
prompted such a determination. We admit that the
first duty of an officer is obedience to his
superiors ; that he must act on the orders
delivered to him, without questioning or hesitating;
nay, although he himself may be satisfied of their im-
policy, to the best of his power he must carry them
into execution. But if a new state of circumstances
should arise during the absence of the person by
whom the orders were given, which he might fairly
presume would have induced the command-
ing officer to countermand the orders he had
given, and if he acts, to the best of his judg-
ment, on the advice of such prudent and com-
petent persons as he may be enabled to consult,
if he is uninfluenced by improper or sinister
motives in the course he finally resolves
on—we say, that so far from being brought to a
trial, exposed to the annoyance and expense of pre-
paring a defence, and to the mental uneasiness and
trouble which must be felt by a highminded and
chivalrous officer placed in such a situation, and,
finally, severely or at all reprimanded, he ought to
receive the approbation and thanks of those to whose
hands the administration of the naval affairs of the
country is entrusted. We have stated that the sentence
of the Court-martial was the most lenient that could
be pronounced on conviction, but let it not be sup-
posed that it is by any means a trivial one to an
officer who has devoted his life to the service of his
country, who has for many years borne an un-
blemished reputation, and sustained the honour of the
service to which he belongs, it must occasion the
most bitter regret, the most painful emotions, to
think that any act of his, although admitted to be
honest and well-meaning, should have exposed
him to the censure of a tribunal composed
of his brother officers. The sentence, which
might appear insignificant to an ordinary person
might be of the weightiest import to such a
man ; and it is because we feel deeply that Captain
GORDON was justified in the course he adopted, that
he exercised a wise and proper discretion, which was
accorded to him, not only by the imperative neces-
sity that must ever exist therefore, but also by the
very orders of his commanding officer—feeling
assured that the Gallant Admiral himself would ap-
prove of the conduct of his subordinate in every
particular, and believing that such a court-
martial was premature until a complaint
was preferred by the person whose orders were
alleged to be violated, and that, as a precedent, it
may be productive of the most injurious con-
sequences, deterring other officers from acting
on their honest convictions—we have thought it our
duty to vindicate the character of a British officer,
the descendant of our ancient nobility, the
worthy bearer of a time-honoured name. We
may not agree with Captain GORDON in the
political principles he has no doubt conscientiously
entertained ; but GOD forbid that we should be influ-
enced by any such motive in witholding the expres-
sion of our feeling as to the manner in which he has
been treated. Our want of space forbids us from '
examining the entire evidence, but any person calmly
reading the orders of Sir GEORGE SEYMOUR, must be
satisfied that the discretion was given to Captain
GORDON. He is told to afford every assistance to the
merchants in embarking treasure, either in the America
or in one of the sloops under his orders ; that he is to be
guided by his own discretion, founded on the informa-
tion he shall have received relative to Mexico,
whether and when he shall proceed there ; he finds a
freight much larger than was anticipated by the
Admiral ; he receives a document, signed by the
British merchants, urging on him, in the strongest
manner, the injurious, the ruinous consequences which
might ensue should he tranship the specie from
the America, and not proceed with it to England;
he is fortified in his decision by the advice of the
British Consul and of the officer next in command
to himself ; and, having arrived at the only correct
conclusion under the circumstances, he sacrifices
his wn pecuniary interests, to a certain extent (for
he was the officer whose duty it would have been
in a few months, according to the routine of the
service, to have taken a freight home to England),
L to what he considered to be his duty, and for the
benefit of the interests committed to his charge, and
having so acted, it is hard, indeed, that he should be
subjected therefore to what we conceive to be most
undeserved censure. The manner in which he acted
respecting the moneys to which he became entitled is
also most creditable to Captain GORDON. Before he
left Mexico he distributed over 1,0001. amongst his
ship's crew, and expended the remainder in the deco-
ration of the vessel placed under his command ; and,
immediately on his arrival in England, he took mea-
sures for reserving the amount to which he became
entitled for the conveyance of this specie to England,
in order that the same might be transferred to the
agent of Captain ONSLOW, or any other officer who
might have suffered pecuniary loss by any supposed
error in judgment on his part. Such conduct speaks
fur itself, and renders it impossible to be supposed that
the honourable and highminded officer could have
been influenced by base or mercenary motives.

Knowing the just and generous sentiments now
entertained by the Legislature towards Ireland, and
observing the salutary measures in her regard which
have already received the patronage of the Ministry
and the acquiescence of the Imperial Parliament, we
turn with remarkable interest to the proceedings of
that great Association in which the opinions of the
Irish people are embodied. After all that has been accom-
plished, and considering all that is intended to be realised
respect to the prosperity and happiness of that popu-
lation, the views of that population as to the deeds and
the promises of the new Administration cannot hut
be matter of intense curiosity to every individual at all
interested in the welfare of this magnificent empire.
The expressions, Whether of satisfaction or of discon-
tent, uttered by that community form the true gauge
of the prospects of Ireland ; and those expres-
sions can most readily be collected and collated by
referring to the sentiments expressed in the periodical
meetings at Conciliation Ltall. That the disaffection
of the Irish people has long :found vent and still con-
tinues to find vent through the orators of the Repeal
Association, is a fact requirin,g no logical exposition—
it is one of the truths already • recorded in the history
of Great Britain. It is for tl reason, therefore, that
we turn with the utmost inqu itiveness to the comments
upon Lord JOHN RUESELL a ni d his colleagues, uttered
in the Corn Exchange, Dalai:in.
On Monday last the w eekly meeting of the
Repeal Association was char is eterised by many grati-
fying declarations from the :lips of Mr. O'CONNELL,
and by the most satisfactory- moderation amongst the
individuals there assembled_ together. Everything
evinced the cordiality with which the repealers wel-
come the propositions, and • the pleasure with which
they witness the enactinens, , recently made by Go-
vernment. Everything ass ui 'es us that there is at
present a most propitious c )p: portunity for assuaging
all the miseries of Ireland, i 7o: obliterating the odious
memory of our injustice to? rards her, and for fulfill-
ing the project which vat so beautifully and
chivalrously advocated b 3 • the late Premier
on his -memorable withar awal from office—the
elevation of Ireland to a p es feet equality with Eng-
land both socially and pc Ali tically. The quashing
of the Coercion Bill, the :suppression of the Arms
Bill, the restoration of th repeal magistrates, the
avowed sent invents of Par lie .went, and the policy • of
the Russell Administratic as —all assure us that the
disposition of our Legislate ea is well' calculated for the
seizure of this opportunity. , Nor is the population of
Ireland blind to this met sian,orphosis in their rulers.
During his address to the meeting, on Monday last,
Mr. O'CONNELL avowed his satisfaction with the
course already adopted b 3 -the Ministry, and in doing

so he particularised two of the latest efforts made
by Government in behalf of his fellow-coun-
trymen—namely, the modification of the law of
ejectment and the improvement of the old system in
distraining for rent. For both these endeavours to
ameliorate the condition of the peasantry the llon.
and Learned Gentleman expressed himself grateful,
and he emphatically designated the former as "the
first instalment of justice to Ireland !"—that justice,
for the acquisition of which DANIEL O'CONNELL has
been striving so long, so nobly, and so perseveringly
The temperament of the Liberator is any-
thing but of an accommodating character ;
he has always evinced a most excessive
repugnance to concession ; his patriotism is essen-
tially an obstinate patriotism. The history of the
Repeal Association is alone an emphatic testimony of
this fact—O'CoNWELL having persisted in advocating
the re-formation of an Irish Parliament, notwith-
standing the most incessant derision, and in spite even
of State prosecutions. From this very pertinacity,
therefore, in the disposition of the Liberator, his ac-
ceptance of " the first instalment of justice to Ire-
land" is a circumstance of peculiar significance. It
is, we take it, an augury of better days for his native
country. It is an important •encouragement to the
members of the present Administration.
Our readers are, we presume, familiar with our
views of Mr. O'CoNNELL's agitation for repeal ;
we need scarcely repeat that, to our thinking, it is a
struggle after an impossibility, a pursuit of a mirage,
—that it is, in short, altogether chimerical. We are
thoroughly impressed with this conviction, and yet
we are likewise thoroughly impressed with the con-
viction that this agitation for repeal, when conducted
on the principles of moral force, may be productive,
and has been productive, of eminent good to the
people of Ireland. As a powerful means of obtaining
political and social justice to the community, the
Repeal Association may prove, and has proved, sin-
gularly useful. Having repudiated the doc-
trines of revolutionary fanaticism, it must show
itself peculiarly serviceable. Conducted in that
manner, we cannot but regard repeal as a beneficent
delusion.

We admire the explicit language in which Mr.
O'CONNELL has confessed his abhorrence of physical
force. He cannot be a loser by the expul-
sion of the Young Irelanders from the Associa-
tion. At the last meeting in Conciliation Hall
a remarkable testimony was given that, in spurning
the assistance of. these spurious patriots, the Liberator
is exciting the admiration and eliciting the acquies-
cence of the more sensible among his countrymen.
On that occasion no less then one hundred and thirty
Roman Catholic clergymen were present, osten-
sibly for the purpose of sanctioning the course
recently pursued by the Association. Mr. O'CormEm.'s
scornful allusion to the physical force advocates—
" Faugh ! Vindication by the sword talked of by men
who would be afraid to look at a poker r —must have
been peculiarly grateful to his hearers. The very
quietude of the Repeal Association just now is infi-
nitely more impressive than its recent bluster.

The German papers announce the arrival of the
QUEEN-DOWAGER of England at Frankfort, on the
22d.

M. FLOTTWELL, who has resigned the office of
Minister of Finance in Prussia, has been appointed
President-in-Chief of the province of Westphalia, and
M. DUESBERG, a Privy Councillor, and the head of
the Department of Justice at Berlin, has been ap-
pointed the new Minister of Finance.

Madrid papers of the 20th have arrived.
The Gazette contains a decree commanding the
Political Chief of the Belearic Isles to cashier the
members of the municipality of Palmas, who, "under
an apparent respect for the constitution, had neg-
lected their duty and exceeded their authority, by
having refused to authorise the payment of the taxes,
for the second half of the present year."
According to the Espanol the French Ambassador
has formally communicated to the Spanish Govern-
ment that the French Cabinet has abandoned the
choice of Count TRAPANI as candidate for the hand
of the QUEEN of SPAIN, and would support the
claims of the Duke of CADIZ (Don FRANCISCO
n'Assis). The Heraldo asserts that the British
Government will support no candidate but Prince
LEOPOLD of Saxe Coburg.
These papers contain news from Lisbon of the 14th
confirming the intelligence already received of the
discovery and suppression, by the Count DAS
ANTAS, of a. Cabralist conspiracy to excite a
revolt among the troops of the garrison of Lisbon,
and of the arrival of the British Squadron of Evolu-
tion in the waters of the Tagus. The arrival of the
British fleet, it is said, greatly excited the choler of
the worthy GONZALES BRAVO, nominally the repre-
sentative of the Queen of SPAIN, at the Court of her
most faithful Majesty, but in reality the secret agent
of COSTA CABRAL, the Conde DI THOMAR.

MADRID BOLSA,.AUG. 20.—The Three per Cents.
closed on the Madrid Stock-Exchange on the 20th
inst. at_344 cash'; the Five per Cents., 22i cash; the
Four per Cents., 214 cash; Passives, 6i- ; and the
Coupons, 201 cash.

We have received the Paris papers of Tuesday.
They are almost exclusively occupied with com-
ments on the various contested returns now in the
course of trial by the Chamber of Deputies.
The Epoque gives the following resume of the
principal provisions of the commercial treaty recently
concluded between Holland and Belgium :
" The concessions which have been respectively made
by Belgium and Holland differ in their character; those
of the former are principally maritime and commercial,
whilst those of the latter are manufacturing. Holland,
however, whilst stipulating for advantages for her flag,
for her colonial produce, and for hor fisheries, has not
been forgetful of certain articles of her manufactures
and her soil. Her carpets, coarse woollen goods,
cattle, and corn, have obtained exceptional con-
ditions. Belgium, on the other hand, while she
has secured a privileged market for the varied produce
of her manufactories, has not lost sight of the interests
of her mercantile marine, and her shipping may export
from Java 8,000 tons of rnerchandiFe, on nearly the same
conditions as Dutch subjects. This concession would
have been, the more profitable to her could sho have
recovered in the Dutch Indies the national position which
she enjoyed at the time of her union with the low coun-
tries; but at least she will procure back-freights for such
of her vessels as visit the Chinese seas—a new field just
opened to the commerce of Europe. The produce of
Belgium comprised in the treaty is iron of all descrip-
tions, mercury, cutlery, furniture, cotton, worsted, and
linen tissues, glass, and coal—in a word, nearly all the
articles produced at Charleroi, Liege, Brussels, Ghent,
Verviers, and Mons. For some of them Belgium obtains
the terms granted to the most favoured nations, and for
the greater part special advantages. The relative libe-
rality of the customs-laws of Ifollland appears to lessen
the value of these exceptions ; but the short distance
between the countries will enable Belgian commerce to
derive great advantages from them, and they guarantee
her during the continuance of the convention against
certain protectionist tendencies which were contained in
the Dutch tariff of 1843. The commercial and maritime
concessions made to Holland are of several kinds. The
Dutch flag is assimilated to that of Belgium in the most
extended sense; various changes are made in the Belgian
law of differential navigation dues in favour of the
colonies and entrepOts of Holland; the produce of the
Dutch fisheries is favoured in Belgium ; some of it, such
as fresh fish and cod, to the limit of a certain quantity,
and others without any limitation. It will be seen that
this treaty embraces a very great number of objects,
and is of a nature to create a close commercial intimacy
between the two countries. In Belgium the treaty has
been favourably received, except by the fishermen of
Ostend, by the rearers of cattle, and by the manufac-
turers of coarse woollen goods."
The Count DE PARIS, the eldest son of the late
Duke of ORLEANS, and the grandson and heir of his
Majesty the KING of the FRENCH, entered his ninth
year on Monday last. His Royal Highness, who
will, according to the laws of France, attain his
majority in 1856, is described as enjoying excellent
health, although he is of a delicate constitution. He
is tall for his age, and his features strongly resemble
those of his father. He has made much progress in
his studies, and he expresses himself with facility ill
the German, Italian, and French languages."
The Chamber of Peers met and proceeded to the
trial of lIENRY. The report of the proceedings will
be found in another column.

The Chamber of Deputies was still occupied with
the verification of the powers of its members.
Accounts have been received from Algiers of the
20th. ABD-EL-KADER was represented as being at
Kasbah Kroum, near the mole of Fez to Ouchda.
He has been joined by some of the Arabs dispersed
among the Beni-Snazzem, and is still endeavouring
to gain over the emigrant tribes to his cause.
The sums lodged in the Paris savings'-banks on
Sunday, the 23d, and Monday, the 24th of August,
amounted to 171,569 f., whilst the sums withdrawn,
during the same period, amounted to 636,513 f.

Thy Three per Cults. closed on the Paris Bourse on