The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-23 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1846.

The House of Commons met at Twelve.
The order of the day for the further consideration of
the report on the Friendly Societies Bill was read. A
long discussion ensued, and eventually clauses up to 16
were agreed to, with amendments, and the further con-
sideraticn of the report was postponed to Friday.
A new writ was ordered for Falkirk, in the room of
Mr. BAIRD, who has accepted the Chiltern Hundreds.
Mr. ELPHINSTONE Me vW! the second reading of the
County Eletions Bill, which limit the time of polling in
elections for counties to one day.
Colonel WOOD moved as an amendment, that the Bill
be read a second time that day six months.
The Bill was supported by Lord WOUSLEY, Mr.
BRIGHT, and Mr. Brc'mot Escorr, and opposed by
Mr. NEWDIOATE, Mr. BECKETT DENISON, Sir JAMES
GRAHAM, Colonel SIBTHORP, and Lord G. BENTTNCK,
and on a division it was rejected by a majority of 23 ;
there being for the second reading, 32, against it, 55.
The Railway Deposits Bill, and the Commons En-
closure Bill were respectively read a third time and
passed, and the House adjourned.

The Earl of ABERDEEN, some weeks ago, made some
brief remarks in the Lords, expressing, with more
warmth than he usually displays, his disapprobation of
the conduct pursued by the Greek Government towards
England in regard to the interest of the loan, and an-
nounced that it was the determination of the British
Government, as well as the Emperor of Russia, to take
some strong measures to enforce payment, in
case the present Minister, COLETTI, should per-
sist in refusing redress. The subject was ad-
verted to in the French Chamber of Deputies, when
M. Gurnee took part with CoLETTI, blamed the lan-
guage of Lord ABERDEEN, the Members approving of
GUIZOT'S remarks, and a few days afterwards the
amount required to meet the interest was voted unani-
mously. A wide difference has thus sprung up between
England and France about this small bankrupt state,
though it may be regarded rather as a personal than a
national feeling, the two Foreign Secretaries having
their respective favouritea at Athens ; and
the Greek :Minister seems resolved to make
it still wider by setting the British Go►ern-
ment at defiance. After a great many shuffling
promises of payment, either by setting apart a portion of
the revenue, or including the interest in the budget, or
some other equally improbable step for meeting the debt,
the budget, according to the last accounts, had just been
presented to the Chamber, without any provision what-
ever for meeting the demands of Lord ABERDEEN.
The foreign loan is not even alluded to in it,
and care is taken, in exhibiting the income and
expenditure, to show that payment at present
is utterly hopeless, as the revenue falls short of the
amount absolutely necessary to carry on the affairs of
Government. What step, then, will Lord ABERDEEN
adopt to enforce payment ? Will he seize upon some of
the more thriving seaports and collect the customs'
duty, or lay an embargo on the shipping, or threaten
to put: an execution into the royal exchequer at
Athens ? We fear he would be opposed, in every
efficient attempt to enforce British rights, by the
French Minister, backed by the Chamber, for Greece,
insolvent and ungrateful Greece, is a great favourite
there at present. COLETTI is devoted to French inte-
rests, and he will make his devotion more conspicuous
by insulting both England and Russia under the wing of
France. It is, however, at best a contemptible quarrel,
and the interests at least of two of the powers require
that it should be settled without delay. Greece is not
worth contending for ; she could render no assistance
whatever to either of the two countries, should
they unfortunately be brought into collision. She
is bankrupt, her KING remains what he was when
he was first placed on the throne, there is no Minister
that really takes an interest iu the welfare of the state ;
COLETTI, and MAVROCORDATO, and .METAxAs, are en•
gaged respectively, when out of office, in devising
schemes for supplanting a rival, and Greece, whose
emancipation from Turkish dominion was so ardently
desired by the enthusiastic admirers of her former
deeds, and, which has now existed as an inde-
pendent kingdom for eighteen years, is, per-
haps, next to Spain, the worst governed country
in the world. Does it become the dignity
of England and France to embroil themselves with her
affairs, and to rouse old national antipathies in their re-
spective Houses of Parliament for a people so lost to
all sense of gratitude and honour ? Looking at the case
impartially, we can make excuse for Lord ABERDEEN'S
irritation. Greece owes her independence to England.
Englishmen left their country and devoted themselves
and their property to her service. Loans were raised
and battles fought to release her from the yoke
of Turkey ; and all these services aro repaid
by refusing to acknowledgo her just claims, and
by treating England with contempt. Them, are
just causes of annoyance to the British Minister, but
they furnish no sufficient reason for quarrelling with
France, or adopting any strong measures that might
call forth a national display. Two men so little pugna-
cious as ABERDEEN and GUIZOT, and generally so much
guided by sound discretion, might settle the differences
by official negotiations without at all involving the sus-
ceptibilities of two rival nations.

We have read in one of the essayists of the last cen-
tury, that where two politicians of opposite views have
been for some time discussing the character and stabi-
lity of a Government, if the disputant, who is unfavour-
able to its continuance, should feel that his different
views and arguments have been well challenged and re-
futed, his dernier resort is, not unfrequently, to take a
familiar hold of one of the buttons of his adversary's
coat, and sinking his voice into a confidential whisper, to
assure him that he has good information of the Pre-
mier's health being in a most unsatisfactory state.
If such a conversation should happen whilst Parliament
is not sitting, a few clays suffice to set aside the gratuitous
assumption ; if it should occur during the session, a few
hours establish the same thing. In the mean while the
discontented politician has beaten his retreat, rejoicing
that whilst his own mind is rankling with his failure in
not having combined another's with his own prejudices,
he hai, at least, started a presumption, calcu-
lated to disturb for tke moment the triumphant
composure of his antagonist. Much in the same
way
has a morning Contemporary been driven to
xnecpv
ieeedruiyte natnd conceivableeAfter
db, ewdaetai the air for
n prejudices,dra na f tfer ta
usingseveralti
e
am
armouryon miserableh s woirt with
up every species of invective, and hurlingmissiles
. in
every direction against the Government, to stamp it with
the degrading marks of incompetency, treachery,
national suicide, it confidently announces that and
there is
to be an esrly, if not an immediate, dissolution of Par-
' liament. In cases of galloping consumption there is
generally what is known to be a " lightening before
death''—the surest sign of the patient being near his end,
is the sudden impression he is under, that his health is
1 fast returning to him. The same delusion has over
• taken our Contemporary.He takes it into his head that
a state physician can be found to uphold a worn-out
constitution by the power of the corn-laws ; that the
House of Lords will still find means to prolong life by
the continuance of the same stimulating regimen in
which it has so long indulged, and without which
it is fancied existence must immediately close. Such
is the tenacity with which he clings to his own
opinion, that he astonishes everybody by the strength
of his hopes when they can only recognise
the elements of despair. The dying monopolist builds
his chance of recovery first upon his belief that a:ter
July the Whigs will be strong enough to check the
further progress of Sir R. PEEL as Prime Minister, and
next upon the assurance he gives us that the Peers will
reject the Corn-law Bill. We look in vain for any suffi-
cient grounds for the latter opinion, and, without some
specific
reasons, we cannot c ;ncede the likelihood that
speedy dissolution comes from
the prophecy of a sp
a quarter better enabled than others to judge
of such a contingency. On the contrary,
we confess that the vaticinations upon which he ven-
tured during the past year
do not inspire us with suffi-
cient confidence to receive implicitly the augury pro-
mulgated for the future. These are nut the times when
the Rouse of Lords would willingly repudiate any great
measure passed by a powerful majority in the Commons.
They tried such a course under Lord GREY'S Govern-
ment, and were obliged to recoil from the shock
that emanated from their inconsiderate policy. Sub.;
sequently they refused their consent tp several

measures sent up by the Commons ; but
then these were measures not of the first magnitude
(with the exception of that which provided for the ap-
propriation of ecclesiastical revenues to secular pur-
poses), and one and all had only been passed by ma-
jorities far below the number of placemea having seats
in the popular branch of the Legislature. The corn-
law is a measure second to none in its importance. Its
necessity is felt to be so great, that it has
effected a revolution in the sentiments of the
Premier—a man whose mind is of the highest
order, and whose individual interests are bound
up with the proprietors of the soil. A similar
change has been wrought upon the minds of many other
senators. And the conviction is the nsore valuable
from having been arrived at free from the excitement of
candidates upon the hustings. The Duke of WEL-
LINGTON is a similar convert. His Grace stands aloof
from any other influence save that of a patri. tic desire
to act for the good of his country. Other Peers, like
Lord ESSEX, &c., are daily swelling the ranks of the
disciples of free trade. The country at large, as
stated by the Minister, has within the last twelve mouths
raised its voice in the same cause. That vast associa-
tion—the League—already confident in the speedy
triumph of the great principle it embodied, seems con-
tent to remain passive. On the other hand, their oppo-
nents have tried every means, and tried them in vain,
to turn the scales of public, opinion by any counter-de-
monstration. These are matters the House of
Peers will not heedlessly reflect upon, and are
to us assurances that their judgment will
unite with that of the House of Commons.
What the Whigs will do in the month of July, and after
the Corn-law Bill shall be enrolled on the statute-book,
it is not perhaps so easy to predict, though this also
has been trade subject of speculation. Considering,
however, the honourable support they are now giving
the Ministry, in opposition to the banded supporters of
monopoly, it argues the improbability of their hereafter
taking a line of policy tending politically to strengthen
those whose discomfiture is as marked as their
views are selfish and narrow. If these and
such hairbrained speculations are the only vouchers for a
dissolution, its rumour is a ricketty abortion indeed.
Such Members, also, of the House of Peers, as might
desire a continuance of the corn-laws, must feel uneasy
under the weight of the cumbersome and spurious ar-
guments by which their cause is thus wantonly upheld.
If ever they have felt themselves coaxed, flattered, and
praised by their auxiliary of the press, and, in turn,
have lent their approving smiles, they must already be-
gin to be sensible that zeal may degenerate into indis-
cretion, and recognise the full force of the adage—
" Pessimum genus ininsleoram laudantes.",

It has been said, as a proof of the keen, plodding,
and wary habits of the Scotch, that a Jew is a very rare
sight north of the Tweed, and that the huckstering
Hebrew, if he chances to cross the river, hurries back
with the most inconceivable speed, in order to escape
death from starvation. On the cause of this singular
phenomenon we will not venture any suppositions, but
about the paucity of the Jews in the north there can be
no doubt—the very small numbers of that industrious
race found in Scotland forming only exceptions to the
general rule. There is another point, however, in
which a similarity of manners and customs are infinitely
more striking, and which has excited the wonder of an-
tiquarians as well as learned philosophers. In their ob-
servance of one day of the week as a day of rest a
considerable portion of the Scotch follow the example
set by the Jews, and consider it a heinous crime to do
any work on that day. They forget altogether the
new dispensation, they disregard the precepts of the
great FOUNDER of our Religion, who was persecuted to
death by Sabbath-worshippers, and perversely consider
it one of the great objects of Christianity to render the
first day of the week, which ought to be observed with
joy and gladness, a day of sorrow and punishment. Our
readers will remember the heaps of petitions that were
poured into Parliament during the days of Sir ANDREW
AGNEW, praying for the better observance of the
Sabbath in Scotland, a country where all foreigners,
even the Jews themselves, consider it would be im-
possible to make the observance more strict. Some of
them will also remember that when the first important
line of railroad, that between Edinburgh and Glasgow,
was opened, the most strenuous and unfair means were
adopted by the Agnewites to influence the directors and
shareholders, and compel them to stop the trains on
Sunday. We look back with satisfaction to that period,
because The Sun took an active part in defeating a
scheme which, if established in that instance, might have
been made applicable to all the lines throughout that
kingdom. We showed from the best of all authority,
the New Testament, that the Jewish observance of the
first day of the week was at direct variance with its pre-
cepts, as well as the example of the Apostles, and the
more rational portion of the directors, we are glad to
say an overwhelming majority, took the same view of
the question. A Glasgow clergyman, after a silence of
three months, attempted to refute our arguments, but he
could not refute matters of fact, nor language plain to
the commonest understanding, nor the direct injunctions
laid down by divine authority. But still this party
interferes with the more liberal habits of the great body
of the people, and have fallen upon a new scheme to effect
their purpose. They now pour petitions into Parliament
praying that the license granted to toll. bar houses to
furnish refreshment for travellers may all be withdrawn
by an Act of the Legislature ; and one of their most
weighty arguments for this harsh step is, that the
Sabbath is desecrated at these places by drinking
spirituous liquors. We find, however, from a number
of petitions presented to the House of Lords on Tuesday
evening, by Lord CAMPBELL, that this step will not sa-
tisfy them, and that all houses licensed for the sale of
spirituous liquors on Sunday must be forthwith closed.
We cannot say that it is an electioneering scheme, but cer-
tainly it has all the appearance of a trick of that description
The Earl of MINTO was the determined supporter of a
Bill to abolish licenses fur toll-houses, which the Com-
mons manfully rejected. It was brought forward by
Mr. Fox MAULE, and mainly supported by Mr. P. M.
STEWART, two pillars of the Free Church ; and the
parties who are bent on a still further encroachment on
the liberty of the subject entrust their petitions to such
W hig Lords as BREADALBANE, MINTO, and CasteneLL.
The Tory peers seemed to take little interest in the
matter, and the Bill was allowed quietly to pass. But
in the other House that party acted a more noble part.
The Scotch Tory Members, though few in propor-
tion to their opponents, mustered strongly, and threw
out the Bill. Sir JAMES GRAHAM and the Lord Advo-
cate, who ought to know something about the intent'
Government of the country, voted against it, and could
see no reason for believing that there was any truth in
the arguments urged by Mr. Fox MAULE, or that the
Sabbath could be desecrated more at occasional toll-bar
houses on the high road than at the thousands of places
open for the same purpose in large towns. To meet
this difficulty, these meddlers w ith the rights of private
conscience—those men who are eternally seeing motes in
their brother's eye, but consider not the beam in their own
eyes, have adopted a more comprehensive scheme, and
are determined to forbid refreshments on Sundays to all
parties except those who have well-stocked cellars at
home, or can afford to pay the highs charges of a hotel.
This is an abominable attempt to tyrannise over the
lower classes ; it is one of the most glaring instances of
class legislation, and we consider it therefore our
bounden duty to the unrepresented classes to do all iu
our power to protect their rights, and put down bare•
faced schemes of oppression, which never would have
been broached by Whig Lords or Whig Commoners,
under a more extended system of representation.

Constantinople papers to the Gth, and Athens papers to the
9th, have been received. Everything was tranquil at Con-
stantinople. The Ministry had paid up a considerable por-
tion of the arrears due to the troops, and were progr•2ssing in
their measures of reform.
At Athens the Minister, Cor.rryt, had obtained from the
Chamber a vote for a provisional credit for four months, by
a majority of 69 to 33. A motion fur an address, praying
the KIX° to dismiss his Ministers, was lost by a similar ma-
jority. On the 6th the anniversary of Greek independence
was observed with all the usual solemnities and rejoicings.
On the 7th a curious scene took place in the Chamber. The
Deputy for Syra, M. DARAS, informed the President that he
had just been assaulted in the Chamber itself, by General
Giumorri. M. GRIMM{ said that the General intended only
to inflict a little corporal discipline upon M. DarrAs, but
that he had interfered and prevented any blows being given.
M. Dartas wished to make a speech on the occasion, but the
President informed him that he could not allow him to do
so until the affair should have been regularly inquired into.
Several of the Deputies complained of this conduct of the
President as partial, and demanded that M. DARAS should
be heard. Great confusion ensued, said eventually the sitting
broke up in most admired disorder.

A latter from St. Petersburgh, of March 25, states that a
deputation of the nobility of Livonia has been summoned to
that city to draw up a new set of regulations between the
nobles and peasants of Livonia. Some high functionaries
have been joined to them to direct their labours.

The disturbances in Austrian Galicia still continue.

The Universal German Gazette say s that the cholera had
entered Russia from Persia, and had broken out at Casan and
Orenburgh. ,

Madrid papers to the 15th—inst. have arrived. The He-
raldo, the organ of NARVAEZ, says that it is not improbable
that another change of Ministry may take place, inasmuch
as differences have arisen in the CaWild on the subject of