The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-23 00:00:00

lnt

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 23, 1846.

The telegraphic dispatch from Marseilles, which ap-
pears in another part of The Sc,,, will afford great satis-
faction to the public. The intelligence from the Punjaub
and the British army on the banks of the Sutlej, has
ever since the arrival of the last mail been anxiously
expected, partly on account of the desperate resistance
anticipated on the part of the Seikhs, the dreadful loss
of life in the late battles, the report of the defeat of the
division under Sir HENRY SMITH, at Loodianah, and the
total uncertainty as to the plans of the Governor-Gene-
1. All this anxiety has been completely removed by
favourable news just received. According to the
statements in some of the Indian papers, Sir HEN"
SMITH, on the 21st, moved his brigade up the
Sutlej, driving the enemy before him, when he
came upon one of their fortified positions which fired
grape shot among the British troops. Some of the na-
tive regiments, it was said, threw down their arms,
while another account stated they had gone over to the
Seikhs, and left the battle to two European regiments,
and the commander of the division under such circum-
stances withdrew his - troops. The Agra Vhbar called
this retirement a (14401, and the rumour of the defeat in-
creased in strength on its way to Bombay. We at-
tached no credit whatever to the report, partly from the
manner in which it was given, and from a full conviction
of the loyalty of the Sepoys so remarkably displayed
on the 21st and 22d of December. We
were correct in the view taken of this af-
fair. Not the slightest allusion is made to it
in the French telegraphic dispatch, and had there been

any det,ikupfavotirable, we may take it for granted
Ndiaiih'iyiwbtilctzbt have been omitted. On the con-
' t!'aryrlViiiicirciitteaAhat a great victory has been ob-
tained-bY this trrY'ai.'sion, that the Seikhs, at a place
tailed 4ilivert (neii 1,11 bridge over the river at Philoor,
We Prestitae, thOuglo is not given in the best maps),
were driven act oss-tk Sutlej, leaving behind them all
their artillery,' and losing a great number of their
troops. Ws hare here only another proof that this law-

less horde of robbers, who are said to be disciplined,
cannot stand before regular troops, and that a few Bri-
tish regiments, supported by the brave Sepoys, can put
twice their number to flight whenever they come fairly
into contact. The result, as well as the dispatch altogether,
affords great ground of satisfaction with regard to future
operations. The battle took place on the 29th of
January, more than five weeks after the victories at
Moodkee and Ferozeshah, thereby showing that Sir
HENRY HARDINGE is resolved not to commence the in-
vasion of the Punjaub till he has his whole force con-
centrated, and till Sir CHARLES NAPIER has reached
the scene of warfare. He is evidently maturing his
plans, and making preparations for taking vengeance in
a manner that cannot be mistaken for this wanton,
cruel, and unexpected attack upon peaceable neigh-
bours. Looking, therefore, at the present position of
affairs, at the large force under his command, the strong
batteries forming, and the powerful Sinde division under
its gallant leader, we may, therefore, anticipate by the
next mail the most important and favourable intel-
ligence.

Our columns of Saturday contained the report of the
case of "WOULJI BR and others v. Tony," which illustrates
most forcibly the proverbial uncertainty of the law, and
premises a goodly crop of litigation ; so that, if the
numerous schemes which came before the public in the
course of the last autumn did not prove very profitable
to the_parties embarking therein, there is at least every
prospect of their doing so to the gentlemen of the long
robe. It has been the first attempt to recover, by legal
process, the deposit on shares allotted in pursuance of
a letter of application, and seems to be in direct oppo-
sition to the principle of the case of 110960 N v. SPOTTIS-
WOODE, some:few weeks since reported in our columns.
The present case was an action by the directors of the
Direct Exeter and Plymouth Railway Company against
a gentleman to whom forty shares had been allotted ;
it appeared that his application was made on the 13th of
October, and that the allotment was not made until the
15th of December, mor than two months afterwards,
and long subsequent to the occurrence of the panic,
which nipped so many promising schemes in the bud.
Shortly after the date of the letter of allotment a new
circular is issued, calling upon the allottees to pay a sum
of three shillings per share on the amount of their re-
spective shares, on which they would be indemnified from
all further liability thereon.
All the elements of the former case of HODG-
SON V. SPOTTISWOODE, in which the allottee was
held entitled to recover back from a member
of the committee of management the entire sum paid
by her as deposit, where the scheme was not carried into
execution, existed in the present one. There had been
a change in the committee of management, two gentle-
men having retired subsequent to the application, and
previous to the allotment the full number of the shares
had not been allotted, no scrip was ever issued, no share
was in existence, and yet the defendant has been held
liable to pay the full amount of the deposit claimed,
21. 12s. 6d. per share, when three shillings only was
demanded from him, and which sum he can of course on
the authority of HODGSON V. SPOTTISWOODE recover
back from the company (with costs) when paid.
We cannot believe it possible that this ver-
dict can be allowed to stand, that this litigation
in a circle can be continued. To what extent
can the doctrine be carried? If once it is at all recog-
nised, we shall have the projectors of the numerous
defunct schemes turning with new vigour upon the
various allottees ; persons, who had the shares come out
at a premium, orhad the undertaking proved a prosperous
one, would probably never have had an answer to their
applications, and whose request was complied with at
the twelfth hour, will now be compelled to share in the
amount of the expenses (in many instances most reck-
lessly) incurred. We did not at that time see allotments of
500 or 1,000 shares to the solicitor, or secretary, or others
of the earlier promoters. No, the public indeed get the full
benefit of the scheme such as it was, and we may, per-
haps, yet see promoters of bubble schemes realising a
considerable profit to themselves and their friends out
of lines which it was never contemplated should be
carried further than the allotment of the shares. We
sincerely trust that a satisfactory conclusion may be
come to, and that the decision of the full Court, de-
liberately arrived at after solemn argument, and not
with the hurry which inevitably attends all nisi prius
decisions, will settle the law on this interesting and
important question.

As we have so repeatedly taken occasion to comment
upon the general character which the great commercial
revolution of 1846 will obtain in history, and the con-
sequent blessings which it will entail upon posterity,
any additional observations may at first sight appear
somewhat superfluous. Scarcely anything indeed should
induce us to recapitulate our sentiments upon this extra-
ordinary epoch. Certainly, nothing of an ordinary
kind could persuade us to utter once more those
generalised views upon the free-trade victory
entertained by ourselves, and with which our readers
must be now tolerably well acquainted. Nevertheless,
it is impossible to avoid some allusion, however momen-
tary, to the expressions employed by a Contemporary,
when analysing the present " State of Parties." Those
expressions are so terse, so happily grouped, so discri-
minating, and so suggestive of thoughts to the peruser.
Our epithets bear reference to a paper published in the
recent number of the Westminster Review, and, if
merely in commemoration for the twentieth or
the hundredth time of men whose mea-
sures have rendered them for ever illustrious,
or, if simply as illustrative of much candour in a political
essayist, some especial mention of that disquisition ap-
peared to Is-as absolutely necessary. Never did a no-
bler theme for the philosopher present itself than the an-
nihilation of all restrictions upon commerce, viewing that
annihilation (the commencement of which will date from
the opening of the present session), as generative of a
principle, to quote the language used by Mr. COBDEN
on January 17, " which shall act on the moral world as
the law of gravitation in the universe; drawing men to-
-1 gether, thrusting aside the antagonism of race, and creed
and language, and uniting us in the bonds of eternal peace:,
Thisis the most correct, as it is the most stupendous,
aspect of free trade and its effects upon after genera-
tions,; and, considering the matter precisely in this
aspect, the time, the words, and the men leading to its
realisation, are surely not altogether unworthy of scru-
tiny and of a repetition of scrutiny. "We have
opened another page of human history," says the
Westminster Review ; " with the new year we see
the inauguration of a change in the policy of nations,
the greatest perhaps on record ; a change differing'
from all the occurrences of the past, and, as it will be
seen in the future, momentous in its results. At length,
and for the-first time, in a boric fide sense, we abandon
the principle of aggression and retaliation. A moral
revolution is accomplishing. In the present state of
parties we see signs of the progress of opinion, as incon-
testible and as marvellous as a direct revelation of the
Divine will. A great victory has been won ;
but when we look back upon the obstacles over-
come, old-world traditions, class-privileges, public
apathy, the impression made upon the mind is
one less of exultation than the thankfulness of devo-
tional feeling." The consequences to be deduced by
time from .the operation of the Ministerial measures
are not in this paragraph over estimated or exaggerated
to a single tittle—no, not one jot. Not only is the pre-
sent a great " moral revolution," but it is, without
the most shadowy question, the greatest moral revolu-
tion (strictly of human origin) which has hitherto
transpired in the records of the most remote or the
moat civilised nations. As the French revolution,
par excellence, was matured in a loathing for bodily sub •
jection, and matured from a sheer concupiscence of
cruelty and lust and power, so has this revolution against
a vile 'system of monopoly, by which incalculable evils
have been showered upon our forefathers and upon our-
selves, germinated in an instinctive reverence for the
laws of nature, and the precepts of OMNIPOTENCE ; and
been conducted to its present prosperous issue by a zealous
love of justice and brotherhood amongst mankind.
What MIRABEAU and FOUQUIER TINVILLE and
DsasTorr, were to the former half-glorious, but wholly
diabolical revolution, COBDEN, and BRIGHT, and
Veoiannttr. raas have been to a glorious, and a beneficent re-
volution.nenN,oabuldy
nobly
ye
wtihneytbdneysebreveeduloogfisetdheairs
worthytellow
instruments-
to a grand end, by after times. In the
panegyricevieu,,
sunpdonwh
RICHARDhi
our COl D
readersN,
mayat
remember,226 of a
the
Review',
transcribed a few days since in our columns, we
recognise one gleam of the honour which will be coupled
with his name in future ages. And this, because the
principles, towards the acknowledgment and acceptation
of which his energies have been in such a remarkable
degree conducive, are, in the strictest sense of the word,
cosmopolitan. Of Sir ROBERT PEEL, whosename, from
circumstances partially fortuitous and partially
.neces-
sary, will be mainly and illustriously identified well the
triumph of free-trade, our reviewer speaks, if possible,
with double emphasis and with double propriety. "
Sir ROBERT PEEL stands upon high ground. His
present measures are wholly free from the imputation of
party tactics. As a Minister he gains nothing and risks
everything, by his determination to carry out a prin-
ciple. He knows that, to attain that one object, he
alienates friends and creates enemies, who may at any
moment combine with his old opponents against him.
To see this without recognising ~honesty of inten•

Lion (now at least, if net before), and moral
courage sustaining that honesty of intention, would
be to convict ourselves of moral blindness." "Pos-
terity will not occupy itself with the vascillations and .
defects of the present generation of statesmen. It will
remember, as we remember of the past, great names
only as connected with great deeds ; and the greatest
achievement of this age is that which destroys the 'food
power' of a banded oligarchy, breaks up monopolies, and
proclaims the rights of peaceful industry. With this
the name of Sir ROBERT PEEL must now be inseparably
connected, and it is a great honour ; there can be no
higher reward for personal ambition."
In the utmost limit of these expressions the vast bulk
of Englishmen now living and yet unborn will ac-
quiesce ;—a thought pregnant with incitement to one
labouring for a great achievement amidst the debri.'s of
many gigantic factions, and fraught with coneolation to
one subjected to incessant vituperations! It ;.s in this utter
dismemberment and assimilation of PP.: ties that one of the
chief benefits of the movement consists. " There can be
no more exclusively Tory or exctasively Whig Cabinets,"
says the reviewer; this is, toa inference too manifestly
correct to require the authority of further argument;
and in its veeacity is centred the welfare of future
millions. It is in the consideration of the character of
Lord PALMERSTON that we cannot induce ourselves for
a single moment to coincide with the Westminster
Review, otherwise its strictures are dictated with much
discrimination and impartiality. The fact of the viq,
tory, however, will constitute its noblest history; 'the
enumeration of those statesmen who have shares). in its
achievement will form their truest, and surest, 'And most
imperishable eulogium.

Accounts from Madrid of the 16th 'announce the for-
mation of a new Ministry. NARVA.EZ, it is thus seen,
constructs a Cabinent with wonderful dispatch. On the
12th MIRAFLORES and his temporary colleagues were
told they were no longer wanted, and three days after
their places were supplied from a list most probably
drawn up before their dismissal. Of this new Cabinet
NARVAEZ is the chief and %It the same time acts as Mi-
nister for Foreign Affstirs. Senor ORLANDO, -a devoted
adherent of the Captain. General, is Minister of Finance,
BURGOS, who filled that department in the reign of FER-
DINAND, succeeds ISTURITZ as Minister of the Interior,
D'EGANA, formerly editor of the Correo Nacional, is ap-
pointed Minister of Grace and Justice, and General
PENZUELA, a Carlist, Minister of the Marine. All the
members of RosA's Cabinet are excluded, and NARVAEZ
has so far attained his object.

On the 14th the Three per Cents. closed at 29 for
cash, and 28 15-16 for the 30th of April ; the Five per
Cents. at 21 for cash, and 211 for the 30th of April ;
the shares of the Bank of San Fernando, 255 ; ditto of
Isabel, 168, &c.

In the French Chamber of Peers the discussion on the
Secret Service Money Bill was brought to a close on
Friday evening, and on a division the numbers were for
the Bill 106, against i t 22 ; majority for Ministers 84. The
speech of VICTOR Hiroo, on the Polish insurrection,
was listened to with great attention, and is much praised
for its noble sentiments, as well as moderation. " Two
nations," he said, " for the last four centuries, had
played a disinterested part in European civili:ation—
France and Poland. The former had shed light on all
sides; the latter had kept back the incursions of barbarism.
France bad been the missionary of civilisation, and
Poland its knight-errant. When a people had done
well to humanity, it resembled a man who has done
good service to his fellow-men. Gratitude was due to it ;
and if, in the course of time, it by chance fell away from
its lofty position, it still remained surrounded with that
halo of glory which memory shed around it Such was
the case with Poland ! She was still great and noble,
notwithstanding her:partition. And why was she so?
Because she bad been always most useful to European
civilisation—because she had bravely defended it when
threatened eighty years back; when she was struck from
the list of nations, a universal regret was manifested.
The remorse of FREDERICK was caused by his having
mutilated that kingdom, and the regret of NAPOLEON by
not having restored it to its former rank. He (M. V.
'lnce.) was not one of those who counselled an European
conflagration. Writers, thinkers, philosophers, were
men of peace. If he raised his voice at present in favour
of this unfortunate nation, it was not to urge ether na-
tions to war, but to protest against the late attack on
European civilisation. He could see nothing more odi-
ously inimical to peace and civilisation than the fact of the
Austrian Government having excited the lower classes in
Gallicia against the nobles. What, then, was it he asked
from the Chamber? Not to furnish fleets, or armies,
or wealth, but to nobly put forward their great moral
ascendancy. A protest ought to proceed from that as-
sembly—the tribune where he stood ought not to remain
mute ! What he demanded was a moral intervention—
that their voices should reach abroad, and that this truth
should be heard—that a nation could not be effaced with
impunity from the map of the world. In such a mani-
festation every party could join. The influence of
France was great. France had inherited the power of
Rome in the middle ages, and possessed at present the
same authority in civilisation as Rome had done in re-
ligious matters I Let, then, France speak, and much
would be done ! That was the intervention which he
demanded, and the Chamber rnig!it rest satisfied that it
would be of powerful effect." These sentiments were
loudly cheered. On Saturday, in the Chamber of Depu-
ties, General JAcQuEsimoT brought forward a
motion to increase the number of officers in
the National Guard of the Seine, when M. ODILON
BARROT took the opportunity of blaming the Government
for disbanding the National Guards in several of the
provincial towns. The motion of General JACQUEMINOT,
it was understood, would be carried. The following dis-
patch, received by the French Government, brings news
from Algiers up to the 16th instant. It will be seen
from it that Ann EL-KADER has again escaped from his
pursuers, probably to surprise them in some other
quarter:—
" PErtriGNAN, Mincit 18.—The Montezuma, which left
Algiers the day before yesterday, arrived to-day at Port
Vendre. General De Bar writes to me from Algiers on the
16th. On tie 7th Colonel Cgnon retook from Abd-el-
Kader, on the south of Boghar, the booty he had carried off
from our allies. General Jussef attacked the Emir on the
13, eighteen leagues to the south of Zahzz, and captured his
baggage and mules, which were on their way to 13oucada.
Abd-el-Kader saved himself with great difficulty. Lieutenant
Lacoste and the interpreter Levy were rescued, both severely
wounded. Marshal Bugeaud was expected at Algiers on the
17th or 18th."

We regret to find that on Saturday a fatal railway
accident occurred on the Paris and Rouen line. A
special train, which left Paris on Saturday morning,
with the Government Commissioners sent to inspect the
fortifications at Havre, ran against a diligence mounted
on a truck, which had been carelessly left on the rails.
The diligence, which contained twenty-two passengers,
was completely destroyed ; three persons in it were
killed and four wounded.

We have accounts from Berne to the 16th inst. The
Constituent Assembly was opened on that day by a
speech from the Avoyer M. DE TAVEL, which he con
eluded by a pray er to the ALMIGHTY to bless its labours.
The Assembly afterwards proceeded to instal its provi-
sional board, and Messrs. SCHNEIDER and FUNK, the
Radical candidates, were elected-the first President,
and the second, Vice-President. AL NENHAUS only
obtained eight votes, and M. BLOESCH three. The Com-
mittee chargscl with drawing up the project of regula-
tions for the Constituent censhted of Messrs. SCHNEIDER,
FUNK, STCEMPFLI, and KOHLER. " On the 18th,"
writes the correspondent of the Journal des Debuts,
" Divine service will be celebrated in the Catholic and
Protestant churches, previous to the opening of the set-
stun. A solemn sermon will afterwards be preached i❑
the cathedral by the Protestant minister WEYERMANN,
who has acquired a gnat reputation for sanctity in
Switzerland by heading a free corps in the expedition
against Lucerne."
On Saturday the Funds and Share-market was very
firm on the Paris Bourse. The following are the prices
of the Funds:-
Five per Cents., 120 f. 45c. 30c. ex. div. ; Four-and-a-Half per
Cents., 113 f. ; Four per Cents., 106 f. 50c. ; Three per Cents., 84f.
20c. 10c. ;;Bank Actions, 3,4101'. ; Bente de Naples (Rothschild's),
101 f. 25c. , Romans, 1111% ; Belgian Five percents., 1840, 102!.i ;
ditto, 1842, 105% ; Belgian Four-and-a-Halt per Cents., 101 ; ditto,
Two-and•a-half per Cents., 57; Spanish Passives, 3%; Belgian
Bank, 1835, 955 f. 950 f. ; ditto, 1841, I,loof. Exchange on London,
one month, 25f. 60c. ; three months, money, 25f. 45c.
Railway "9-tares for the Account-Settling of April 2-St. Germain
have risen 14f. 50c., Versailles (Lett Bank) and Rouen to Havre, 10f.
each ; Paris to Orleans, 7f. 50c. ; Orleans to Vierzon, f. ; Orleans to
Bordeaux, Avignon to Marseilles, and Northern, 2f. 50c. ; Paris to
Strasburg, lf. 25c. ; Nantes, Versailles (Right Bank), Dieppe, Rouen,
and Strasburg to Bale, are all unvaried. For money, Versailles (Left
Bank), have risen llf. 25c. ; Paris to Orleans, 7f. 50c. ; Boulogne,
sf. ; Northern, Paris to Strasburg, and Versailles (Right Bank), 2f.
50c. each, Nantes, if. 25c. ; ♦vignon to Marseilles and Orleans to
Vierzon not quoted.

Five per Cents., 120 f. 50c. 55c. ; Four per Cents., 126 f. 50c. ; Three
per Cents., 84f. ; Bank Actions, 3,400 f. ; Reate de Naples (Roths-
child, 101 f. 50c. ; Romans, 1011,E ; Belgian Bank, 9451 ; Belgian
Five per Cents., 1840, 102% ; ditto, 1842, 105% ; Spanish Passives.
; Spanish Three per Cents., 1845, 371,%. Exchange on Loridcn,
one month, money, 25f. 60c. ; three months, money, 231. 43c.; paper,
25f. 42%e.
141.7SINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EACIIANGE, Meilen 21.
Barbadoes, % —Boulogne and Amiens, 12%—Bordeaux, Tou-
louse, and Cette (Espeleta), 2%—Dutch Rhenish, 6—great Northern
of France Constituted' 15%—Great Western Canada, 3% Lyons
and Avignon, 2 —Luxembourg, 1% —Madrid and Valentia, A-Na-
mur and Liege, 2%—Orleans and lierdeaux, 123 a —Rouen and
Havre, 29%.

Sir Robert Peel had a dinner party on Saturday at
his residence in Whitehall. gardens.
The Low Moor Iron Company are busily engaged in
casting cannon of considerable calibre.
THE LATE JOHN LANGAN.—The mortal remains of
John Langan, celebrated in England fur his pugilistic en-
counters with Spring, the English champion, arrived in
Dublin on Friday night, mid were interred on liatarday in
GlgunneTia Cemetery,