The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-17 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1846.

The proceedings last night in both Houses of Par-
liament were highly interesting. In the House of
CZimmons the most important feature was the an-
nouncement made by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, that he
will on Monday next state the scheme of the Govern-
►nent with reference to the Sugar Duties. His
Lordship figured out his general arrangement of
public business, which necessarily led him to allude
to several measures which have been kept in a state
of suspension, as well in the Lords as in the Com-
mons, by the recent change of Ministry. But all of
these may be hastily dismissed from our minds, to be
only hereafter referred to if necessary, since it is now
quite manifest, from the course enunciated and de-
cided on by the Cabinet, that the remainder of the
session will be entirely devoted to the consideration of
the sugar duties. Neither can we be surprised that such
will be the case. Looking to the magnitude of the

question, the extent of the interests likely to be
affected, the eagerness with which the public at large
expect and covet an alteration that shall place within
their reach, cheaply and abundantly, an article,
one of the first necessaries of life—looking also to
the candid admission of Lord JOHN, that his intended
proposition is likely to be keenly opposed, and to the
present shattered and disorganised state of parties in
the Commons, it is clear from these premises, viewed
in connexion with the late period of the session, that
the subject which will be broached on Monday next
will monopolise the attention of Parliament, to the
practical exclusion of legislation, during the present
year, upon all other matters, how important soever
they may severally be, and undoubtedly are.
Still we highly commend the course which the Pre-
mier has determined on adopting. It is straightfor-
ward, honest, and consistent. He might have spe-
ciously pleaded his recent accession to power, the ad-
vanced state of the session, the great experiment
upon the revenue, about to be worked by the change
effected in the corn-laws, the desirableness of caution,
and such like, as so many grounds for postponing till
next year any measure in relation to sugar. But,
satisfied of the soundness of the principles he has for
years advocated in furtherance of freedom of trade,
Lord J. RussELL manfully repudiates any timorous
or shuffling policy, and resolutely confiding in the
good sense of the country, he will, undeterred by
the persuasion, perhaps, that he has not a majority
in the House of Commons, fearlessly follow
in the wake of Sir R. PEEL, and strike down
the powerful remaining barrier against the civilising
influences of unrestricted commerce. We are quite
certain that, in point of principle, Lord JOHN ought to
succeed. The arguments used in favour of a repeal
of the corn duties tell with equal, nay, greater
force, in favour of extinguishing the differential
duties on sugar. Should it, however, eventuate
that party intrigues, inveterate prejudices, and selfish
views, severally unite to defeat the Ministry, we are
confident that Lord J. RUCSELL is not the man who
would hesitate to appeal to the country, in order to
obtain the requisite support to enable him to carry
his measure. Sir R. PEEL told the Commons dis-
tinctly that, had he failed in passing his Corn Bill, he
would have recommended the Crown to dissolve the
Parliament. Sir R. Pam. would have been fully
justified had he been driven to advise such a course,
and Lord Jonx will not be less so, should cir-
cumstances dictate its necessity.
We hope that in the approaching discussion we shall
not be nauseated with any squeamish arguments upon
the " morality" of giving a preference to the produce
of free over slave-labour sugar. If the distinction be
a just ground for preference or prohibition, it should,
to be consistent, be carried out to the full, and the
result would be that the commerce of England
would be annihilated in a year. Cotton, tobacco,
coffee, Ste., would have to be placed in the same
schedule with sugar. The true way to abolish
slavery in other countries is by ,stimulating their in-
tercourse as much as possible, through the medium
of commerce, with civilised nations. The commerce
of goods cannot be maintained without a commerce of
the mind. This intellectual interchange, by virtue of
reason, and not by 'compulsion, will, in a natural
way, lead to the voluntary emancipation of millions
of slaves, and ultimately diffuse the blessings of
civilisation to the remotest regions of the earth.

Thanks to the laudable curiosity of Mr. TnomAs
Durircosinu and the agreeable candour of Lord Jouri
RUSSELL, all uncertainty as to the abstract principles
and the general intentions of the new Government
are thoroughly and, we hope, permanently dispelled
We employ the expression " uncertainty" advisedly,
because notwithstanding the present Prime Minister
had, by a protracted and consistent Parliamentary
career, associated his name very conspicuously with the
most comprehe naive of all legislative policies, it,
nevertheless, became a matter of no inconsiderable
dubiousness whether this member of the Cabinet or
that member of the Cabinet might not have become
infected by that contagion of political tergiversation
which has latterly been raging with so much violence.
Parties were amalgamated, trodden down, scattered,
and metamorphosed ; the whole arena of Parliament
had lapsed into the most astonishing confusion ;
the elements of Government had fallen into their
primitive chaos ; a system of legislation altogether
novel in its character and proportions had to be
created out of the debris of its predecessors—and
hence we conceive that uncertainty was justifiable in
the popular mind, and that inquisitiveness was even
laudable in the Hon. Member for Finsbury. Like
the phantom lady is Christabel, the scattered condi-
tion of our representatives (a condition consequent
upon the annihilation of all party distinctions), was
a-catastrophe that
" 0, 'twas frightful there to see 1"
Yet was it not likewise, considering the beneficent
results to the development of which it would inevit-
ably conduce—was it not like that ghostly heroine of
COLZEIDGE,

" Beautiful exceedingly ?"
For these reasons we cannot regard otherwise than
with sentiments of exultation, that naive, ex-
clamation of Mr. DUNCOMBE—" Just look at
the state of the House now ! Nobody knows
exactly where to sit." May that indecision
as to the existence or the locality of partizanship con-
tinue; may our Legislators lose all recollection of
theoretical partialities, and combine earnestly with
each other to work out practical good for the empire !
Dereliction of duties would then become a phrase to be
erased from the political dictionary ; the passion for
place-hunting would be forgotten in the passion fur
ensuring prosperity to the multitude, and the House
of Commons would in reality become the Assembly
of the Tribunes of the People. ~

We acknowledge, however, that it was salutary
the precise intentions of the new Government should
be disclosed ; it was salutary, on every account, that
the Cabinet should predicate somewhat of its
futurity. The precise groove along which the
RUSSELL Administration was destined to travel might
readily be conjectured, but it had never been expli-
citly indicated. Mr. DuNcomns sympathised with
the anxiety of the population, and demanded some
' definite explanation from the Premier. Lord JOUN
RUSSELL, though averse to the imperative tone of
this inquiry, as altogether unwarranted by precedent,
and also as a kind of imputation upon the con-
sistency and prominence of his personal
career during a continuance of more than thirty
years in Parliament, nevertheless comprehended the
urgency of the circumstances by which it was elicited,
and gratified the prevalent curiosity by a most ela-
borate reply. Altogether we ,confess ourselves
satisfied with the explanation of Lord Jonx
RUSSELL. We could undoubtedly have wished the
Noble Lord's Administration to have betokened a
more innovative spirit upon certain constitutional
grievances ; we could have wished the Noble Lord
himself to have spoken with a more explicit distinct-
ness, and a more resolute emphasis, upon individual
questions of improvement. But, taking his explana-
tion as a whole, we confess ourselves satisfied. That
address will be perused more- universally, and we
will undertake to say with more universal in-
terest, as the forerunner of a new era in
legislation, than perhaps any first address ever uttered
by a Prime Minister of Great Britain. While the
policy which it unfolds is of a singularly reformatory
and liberalised character, it is nevertheless modelled
upon caution. Forethought is the very skeleton of the
Ministerial principles, and beyond this admir-
able characteristic the RUSSELL Administration is
remarkable, as we have repeatedly insinuated, for a
total abnegation of party. Insomuch is this conspi-
cuous, that the First Lord of the Treasury acknow-
leges to having endeavoured to associate with himself
several members of the late Government, because in
them he recognised most efficient and patriotic states-
men, and because, between them and himself he
perceived a broad coincidence in principles. That,
we conceive, is a circumstance worthy of being chro-
nicled in the annals of legislation ; it is a proceeding
worthy of being commemorated in history.
With reference to the programme of the pre-
sent Ministry many items will be welcomed
course,with r elating
regard
with general satisfaction. Foremost among
the measures to be propounded is the one,
of
ttoo
whichthe duties,asuregaprostponeduntil
the
intentions
Monday evening next. Among a variety of those
measures likewise which remained uncompleted on
the retirement of Sir RoUERT PEEL and his col-
leagues, we are rejoiced to find that several are
destined to be supported by the new Cabinet. Upon

the Poor Removal Bill we are to await 1
the explications of the Home Secretary, and
earnestly do we trust that nothing precipitate may be
done in its rejection. The Drainage Bill—one so
intimately linked with the agricultural interests, and
so likely to promote the culture and reclamation of
land—will next come under consideration. And,
although the group of Bills recently introduced
by the late Secretary for Ireland will not
be proceeded with intact, we are rejoiced to perceive
that the one relating to ejectments will be continued
before the House ; and doubly rejoiced that, despite
the modifications by which it will then be accom-
panied, the clause preventing distrainment upon
growing crops will be preserved. The Leasing
Bill and the Tenants' Compensation Bill are
neither of them to be overlooked, while,
among divers Bills now lying in the Upper House,
the Small Debts Bill will receive every encourage-
ment. Previous to the interrogations of Mr. T.
DUNCOMBE the Premier abstained from revealing
the details of the measures which were to be intro-
duced either by himself or his Right Hon. Colleagues,
and contented himself with promising some prepara•
tory measure for the improvement of waste land in
Ireland. Immediately, however, the Hon. Member
for Finsbury had completed his jocose remonstrance
with the Noble Lord the Member for the city of
London upon the continuance of his taciturnity,
the latter unthreaded, as it were, inch by inch,
the maze of Ministerial intentions. Alluding
to the absence of party spirit in the
formation of his Ministry, and the manner in which
it was modelled, irrespective of class interests, he
said, " I hold, for my own part, that it is not for
the land, or for manufactures, or commerce, but for
the benefit of the whole people, that the Go-
vernment of the country ought to be conducted,"
he solemnly engaging to aid by every possible
concomitant of power the amelioration of the condi-
tion of Ireland ; to endeavour, by every possible
means, to endow her population with the same fran-
chises as those enjoyed by the population of Eng-
land, but to abstain, for the present at
least, from any sweeping measures of reform in the
endowment of the Roman Catholic priesthood. One
curious episode in the revelations uttered by L'Ord
JOHN RUSSELL was his explanation of the origin
of the phrase "finality," a phrase which he justly
regarded as obnoxious in its common acceptation, and
the origination of which he altogether and emphatically
repudiated. In speaking of the Factory Bill, the
Noble Lord, if we comprehend him rightly, left
the matter wholly in abeyance, because of a dis-
similarity of opinion on that subject existing in the
Cabinet : himself and Sir GEORGE GREY ap-
proving in the reduction to eleven hours, while
that alteration met with the strenuous opposition of
the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Mr. LABOUCHERE.
In conclusion, Lord JOHN RUSSELL condensed,
into a single sentence, the general principles of his
administration. "Those principles," said he, " are to
increase the commerce, to set free the industry of the
country, to promote the union, not the there
legislative Act of Union, but the union of hearts
and affections between this country and Ire-
land." And nobly and justly did the Prime
Minister characterise these principles as " calculated
to promote, maintain, and advance the principles of
religious liberty, which, together with civil
liberty, have made this country conspicuous
as one of the greatest nations in the
world." Those are sentiments worthy of Lord
J. RUSSELL, and not unworthy of this generation ;
and, inasmuch as his pertinacity tended to divulge
those sentiments, we are grateful to Mr. DUNCOMBE
2

The Venice Gazette, of the 3d instant, announces
that the POPE has published a general amnesty for
all political offenders since 1836 up to the present
time. The appointments of Cardinal AMAT and Car-
dinal Gizzi as Secretaries of State had given great
satisfaction to the people of the Roman States.

Madrid papers of the 10th have been received.
The Heraldo mentions a rumour that an intrigue
was on foot for the formation of a new Ministry,
with CASTRO T OROZIO at its head, and of which
GONZALES BRAVO, SEIJAS SALAMANCA, and CONCHA
should be members. The condition on which this
coalition Ministry would be permitted to take office
is understood to be the immediate conclusion of the
marriage of the QUEEN with a Prince of the family
of Coburg.

It would appear from the statements in this paper
that a conspiracy against the Government has been
discovered in Valencia.

The Herald() has the following on the affairs of
Portugal :
" The Portuguese Government has received a telegraphic
dispatch announcing the dissolution of the Miguelite band
near Chaves. The Revoluceo of Lisbon, of the 4th, states
that a conspiracy has been discovered at Vizea, and that a
Miguelite faction had risen at Condeixa, and rendered it ne-
cessary for the authorities of Coimbra to adopt energetic
measures to prevent new disturbances. At Palmeira and
Braga there have been collisions between the troops and the
populace, and blood has been shed on both sides."
MADRID BOLSA, JULY 10.—The Three per Cents. are
quoted at 33 cash ; the Five per Cents. are reported at 203/4
buyers ; and Passive Debt, 6 % buyers.

We have received the Paris papers of Wednesday.
The Massager of the preceding evening says, in
allusion to the assertion made by the Courrier Frun
cais, that the Minister of Public Works had autho-
rised the opening of the Northern Railroad in oppo-
sition to the opinion of M. DE BREVILLE, the Govern-
ment engineer of the road :
" Before the opening of the road was authorised, the Go-
vernment consulted MM. de Breville and Busche, the engi-
neers in chief of the two sections of this road, as to whether
it could be safely opened for passengers, and it was upon
their respective reply in the affirmative that the service was
authorised."

The Minister of Public Works arrived at Arras on
the 11th, and immediately afterwards proceeded with
the Mayor and other authorities of Arras to Fam-
poux, to visit the scene of the late railroad disaster.
It was reported, on the return of the Minister to
Arras, that he considered it necessary that the peat-
bog over which the embankment has been made
should be drained, and had given orders to that effect
The Tribunal of Arras has taken up the affair of
the 9th on the Northern Railroad, and has ordered
a rigid investigation, with the view of prosecuting
any persons to whose negligence the injury inflicted
upon the soldiers and workmen by the striking of the
crane may be attributed. Since this second accident,
says a correspondent, great precautions appear to be
taken by the Company. Among other things the
rate of speed has been so much reduced that the train
from Amiens to Paris is sometimes five hours and a
half on the road.

M. DUCHATEL the Minister of the Interior, has
authorised the legal constitution of the Association
pour /a liberte des Echanges of Paris. The ordon-
nance is dated the Bth instant.

Colonel MOUTON, a French officer in the Seikh
service, has arrived at INlarseilles from the Punjaub,
by way of Alexandria. lie took an active part in
the late campaign on the Sutlej, and was present in
all the battles. He has placed himself at the disposi-
tion of the Minister of War.
General MONTHOLON, who is now at liberty, is
waiting at Havre for his passport to proceed to Aix-
la-Chapelle.
The leading articles in these papers are more than
uninteresting they are wearying. They relate
•
solely to electioneering matters, and are mere repeti-
tions of what has been said twenty times before.
PARIS BOURSE, JULY 15.....-The Bourse has been again
inanimate, and prices have remained steady all day and
closed at about the same as yesterday. Three per Cents, for
cash, 83f. 15c. ; for Account, 83f. 25c.; Five per Cents. for
cash, 121 f. 40e. ; for Account, 121 f. 70c. ; Bank of France
Shares, 3,460 f.
Threes, 353/ -
/4 i New Loan not quoted.
Neapolitans, 103 ; Spanish Fives, 32 ; ditto,
RAILWAYB.—The Share Market has been rather de-
pressed to-day, and prices have slightly receded. A report
was current at the close of the Bourse that another acci•
dent had occurred this morning on the ill-starred Northern
Railroad, and that the Minister of Public Woiks had or-
dered it to be closed for a month. It is more than probable
that this report ha originated (r• ffinated in the accident reported
in the Courrier Fran u ie , for had there been much credit
given to it, the shares would have in all probability been
more seriously effected, whereas the fall in them has not
been more tlian about live francs. For cash—Paris and
N
Orleans left off at 1,270 f. ; Paris and Rouen, 990 f.; Stras-
burg and Bale, 217 E; Boulogne, 45f' ; orthern, 7131. 75c. ;
Bordeaux, 562 f. 60c* : hi"le reau, 375 f. ; Paris and Lyons,
523 f. 75c. '

Boulogne and Amiens, 12N—Deinerara'
6 Lux embour 2%—Dutch Rhenish,
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCILANGE, Jim' 16.
Constituted, 131i—Orleans and Bordeaux, 634—Paris and Lyons
g, 2—Namur and Liege, 3,—Northern of France
Constituted, 5%--Rouen and Havre, 28•

TUE CABlNET.—Summonses were issued by Lord
John Russell yesterday afternoon to the Ministers, to
attend a Cabinet Council this day at the Foreign Office,
Downing-street. All the Ministers, including Lord
Lansdowne (who is better) and Mr. Macaulay (who has
returned totown),were expected to attend. Tile meeting
was appointed for three o'clock.