The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-20 00:00:00

410/Milt

LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1846.

Two days more will bring us to the beginning
of a session of Parliament which promises to be of
an unusually eventful character, and to which, with
various emotions of hope, fear, distrust, the whole
nation looks forward with almost unexampled inte-
rest. Not certainly since the carrying of Catholic
Emancipation has the first day of the session been
the object of so universal or intense an anxiety.
What is to be done with the corn-laws is yet a
mystery, and will probably remain so for some
days after the first day of the session. It is al-
most a part of the prerogative of the QUEEN'S speeehes
to tell nothing, and stifle meaning in generalities;
and the Government will probably claim the right to
reserve all explanation that could give any clue to
the character of their intended measure till the day
of its formal proposal. Sir ROBERT PEEL will keep
his supporters in ignorance till the last possible
moment, and then try to carry them by a coup de
main. He can depend upon his Opposition at any
time, and on the shortest notice, if he is about to pro-
pose total, immediate, and unconditional repeal.
And, notwithstanding some ugly signs of a
contrary character, which, however, admit more
or less of explanation, we retain our be-
lief that he will prepare a measure calculated
to obtain the support of the whole of the Opposition.
If Mr. B. DENISON, after seconding the Address,
should oppose the measure, his West Riding con-
stituents will before then have :emphatically declared
their approval of it by giving him Lord MORPETH for
his colleague. The selection of the Members for
South Lancashire and the West Riding, to move
and second the Address, has all the appearance of a
direct appeal to the free-trade hosts. Then, again,
why the delay and difficulty in finding a mover and
seconder for the Address in the House of Lords ?
No seconder, it appears, has yet been found,
though we are within two days of the
opening of Parliament ; and the selection which
has been made of a mover (Lord HosiE) itsel.
indicates that there has been a difficulty
in obtaining any Peer of standing and influence.
The Duke of WELLINGTON, too, has adopted the
unusual plan of summoning the Conservative Peers to
their duties. All this looks as if there was nut an,
entente cordiale between the Government and their
supporters in the Upper House, and that is where the
shoe will pinch if free trade is to be Sir R. PEEL'S
watchword.

The political arithmeticians calculate that for
a free-trade measure Sir ROBERT PEEL may calcu-
late on a majority of about twenty in the House
of Commons. He can depend, it is said, on ninety
Members on his own side, but no more, to follow him
whithersoever he may lead. Reckon 250 supporters
from the Opposition, to be added to the ninety, and
that will give a majority of twenty-four in a House
of 658 Members. Sir ROBERT PEEL may, and pro-
bably will, carry a thorough free trade measure
through the House of Commons. He has no chance
of carrying a half-measure. With the Lords he must
take his chance in either case : and he has as much
chance of winning Conservative Peers to free trade
as to any minor tampering with protection. Indeed,
they will probably be of the same mind with the Ox-
fordshire farmer, that "it is better to be drowned at
once than ducked to death."

But, apart from, and above all questions of carrying
measures and retaining power, if Sir ROBERT PEEL
looks to his own permanent reputation as a statesman,
there can be no doubt as to the course which he will
adopt. Half-measures have been his system hitherto,
There have been enough of them, and he has now
bold power long enough to be able to judge of their
success. The new sliding-scale of 1842, the tariff of
1842, the Sugar Bill of 1844, the tariff
of 1845—have these satisfied either friends or
opponents? Nave they gone far enough in the
application pf right prinpiples to win for him the
confidence of the people ? Have they pot gvie top
far to preserve for him the confidence of those who
brought him into powftr? His ly.te Tesignation has
placed him in a new position, in which he is free and
disengaged frpm all his former party shackles. He
po been born again i tot IP her that 4 new Fnliey

will be the first fruit of his regeneration: What if
he fail in his attempt to give free trade to the people
of England : his defeat in such a cause will be more
glorious than all the party victories which his skill
as a tactacian has ever achieved for him; and to have
endeavoured to carry free trade in accordance with
his own convictions, will, even if he fails, be hereafter
infinitely more pleasing to look back upon, and infi-
nitely more conducive to posthumous fame, than to
have preserved power .by skilfulness of tactics, and
fora few years longer kept together, in seeming
union, the discordant elements of his party.

In animadverting on the strange maxima put forth
by the American PRESIDENT in his Message to Con-
gress, M• GulzoT said, "We admire what is great
and noble in the American institutions. The United
States will exercise an immense influence on the des-
tinies of the human race, and no one can be asto-
nished that we watch their progress with a vigilant
eye." The vast and rapid increase of this republic
is a matter of common observation, but, in fact, it is
only commencing its career, and the effects of its
future progress in regard to France, as well as every
European state, could not fail to excite the apprehen-
sions and vigilance of such a sagacious Minister as
M. GUIZOT. This progress is calculated to excite
still stronger apprehensions when combined with the
intimation made formerly by MUNROE, and repeated
by PoLa, that America will suffer the inter-
ference of no European power—in other words,
that she will continue to extend her frontier
by encroaching on her neighbours, that she will add
new states to her Union, by foul or fair means, sub-
mit to no arbiter in any disputes that may arise, and
exemplify to the fullest extent the law of the impe-
rious conqueror—" Sic volo, sic jubeo." Hitherto,
all the conquests made by this rising power have
been made peaceably : we mean without having re-
course to force of arms, if we except the wars
against the helpless Indians of Florida and the West,
but they have generally been accomplished by taking
advantage of the weakness or necessities of some
European power, or by the most deceitful policy.
The mode in which Texas was acquired is certainly
the most reprehensible of all. France, by a strange
oversight, recognised the independence of that country
in 1833, and in 1840 England followed the mischievous
example. They induced Mexico to accede to their
views, and no sooner were these points carried than
the Texians, so intimately allied with the United
Statqs, and who so completely deceived both England
and France, threw off the mask and carried into effect
the secret contract made with the rulers in America.
On this score, therefore, Mexico has a great claim on
the sympathy and protection of these tw•o great
powers. She has been robbed through their means
of an important district, which formed a barrier
against the south-west States of the Union, and
Mexico Proper is now laid open for inroads from any
quarter. The comprehensive scheme is in active pro-
gress ; California is the next conquest, and unless
speedy and effective measures are adopted, that de-
fenceless and divided country will be completely
hemmed in by numerous tribes ofAnglo-Saxons, owing
allegiance to the United States, and sure of protection
from them in every lawless adventure. In the whole
history of the world there is no instance of a young
state rising to such gigantic power in the same period
and by similar means. But the progress is going on
with fearful rapidity. An extension of territory is
at present the rage of the whole nation ; one
party has its eyes fixed on Canada and Oregon ;
another on California and Mexico ; and a
third on Cuba, St. Domingo, and Jamaica;
and unless European powers show more spirit and
energy, and more regard to self-preservation, the re-
sults may be of the most fearful importance. The
mercantile shipping of the United States, with only
one side of the American continent open to it, stands
next after that of England, and is every
year increasing. What, therefore, will it be when
not only the Atlantic, on the east, but
the whole Gulf of Mexico, on the south, and the
vast expanse of the Pacific, on the west, furnish the
most certain means for extending it to every quarter
of the globe ? When California and Oregon are
sufficiently peopled, and the astonishing and rapid
increase of settlers in the Mississippi, the Ohio, and
other western States, shows that the period is not
far distant, they will have for the field of their
commercial operations all the islands in the Chinese
and Japan seas, and even the numerous possessions
of England in the Southern Archipelago, including
Australia, Van Diemen's Land, and New Zealand.
Oregon of itself is comparatively nothing, but, as a
means to an end, is of the very first importance,
and England cannot give up one inch of her
territory in that quarter without sacrificing
her best interests, and exposing her commerce
in the east to manifest danger. Humane persons
are constantly crying out for peace with America,
and exclaiming against wicked rulers, who would go
to war for a barren strip of uncultivated territory,
without for a moment looking to the consequences,
and forgetting altogether the awful calamities
which will be inflicted on the human race by
the annexation of Texas, and the further pro-
gress of American encroachments in the south. At
present the slave population of the United States
amounts to three millions ; in a short time it will
probably be doubled, and independent of the corporeal
sufferings of this enslaved race, we shall thus behold
some six millions of human beings in one country,
who are by the acts of the Legislature debarred
from the light of truth, and absolutely prohibited even
from learning to read the Bible. By one of these Acts,
it was declared felony to teach a slave to read and
write, England has generously contributed to the
emancipation of her own slaves ; but, is she
guilty of no crime in standing by, apparently
unconcerned, while the horrible system is daily in-
creased, and slavery is approaching, by rapid strides,
towards her West India possessions ? England and
France now incur a fearful responsibility, and their
conduct at this crisis will be severely scrutinised by
future generations.

Madrid journals of the 11th inst. announce that
the two sons of Don FRANCISCO DE PAULA, Don
HENRIQUE, and Don FRANCISCO D'Assis, hal left
Madrid agreeably to the orders of the Government—
the former for Ferrol and the latter for Pampeluna.
On the previous day an explanation took place in the
Chamber of Deputiestrelative to the affair between
Senor ORENSE and General NARVAEZ. After some
discussion the result was, that Senor ORENSE, acting
under the advice of the President, withdrew the
offensive expression, and General NARYAEZ, being
appealed to by Senor CASTRO Y ()Bosco, declared
himself satisfied therewith in the name of the Go-
vernment; and a vote of thanks was subsequently
carried unanimously to the President and the Go-
vernment, on the motion of Senor PocA DE TOGORES,
an Opposition Deputy, for the part they had taken in
bringing about the amicable settlement of the matter.

The Funds continue to decline. On the 10th the
Three per Cents. closed at 331 for cash, and 331,1 at
60 days; the Five per Cents. at 23 11-16 at 60 days.

The debate on the Address in the French Chamber
of Peers was brought to a close on Friday evening,
when the Chamber divided, and Ministers had the
large majority of 97. The numbers were—
For the Address
Against it.. 23

, Majority
The papers contain brief comments on this result,
but, they are without interest. Government can
always reckon upon a large majority in the Peers.
In the Chamber of Deputies the discussion on the
Address was fixed for Monday. The Journal des
Debate, in replying to the charges made
against the Government, relative to the operations
in the River Plate, makes the following defence ;
"The Government," it says, "is reproached with
having suddenly abandoned the policy of neutrality
which it had followed since the, year 1840, on the
banks of the Plate, to unite with England in an armed
intervention. But this change of policy is not a pure
caprice, or, as it has been asserted, an act of complai-
sance to England, or a further sacrifice made to the
cordial understanding. This change of policy is ex-
plained by the change which has taken place within
the last two years in the state of affairs. It is ex-
plained by the prolongation of the contest be4reen
Op two American States, and by the disorders occa-
sloped by the civil war. It is, moreover, explained
by the reiterated and pressing
complaints of our
fellow7citi.wr4 established on the banks of the
Pate. Besides? i$ was mit Enilanc!t hut the Qp.