The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1346.

'Thtir Lordships met at Five o'clock, and almost imme
diately afterwards adjJurned, having transacted no bn3iness
of immediate public importance.
The SPEALn took the chair ahortly before Four o'clock.
Several 'notions Were made with respect to railway groups,
and,

The SrEAKER was summoned to the House of Lords to
hear the Royal assent given to the Metropolitan Building
Improvement Bill, and the Fever (Ireland) Bill.
-Mr. LAWSON then moved, according to the notice he had
given, "That the East and West Yorkshire Junction (York
and Knaresborough), the Great North of England (Bedel
Branch), and the Great North of England (Borrou h.
bridge Branch) should be taken out of Group No. 43, Ld
referred to Mr. GREENE, and the Members introducing such
Bills on the 31st, unless petitions against any of those Bill:
be presented before Monday next.
A short discussion took place upon the motion, which was
lost upon a division by a majority of 16, there being for
the motion 23 and against it 39.
Several railway Bills were read a second time, and ordered
to be e:anmitted.
Mr. WYSE gave notice of his intention, on the 7th of
April, to bring forward a motion relative to the state of edu-
cation in Ireland.
Mr. BANKES gave notice of his intention, on Thursday
next, to move that the Bill for the poor removals should be
referred to a Select Committee.
Mr. O'CONNELL postponed his motion, for leave to bring in
a Bill to enable the county of Cork to send two additional
Members to the House of Commons, to replace those formerly
returned for Sudbury, till after Easter.
Viscount INCESTRE then moved the consideration of the
petition of THoatas WOOD, the proprietor of the Wolver-
hampton Chronicle, relative to Lichfield school.
Alter a short discussion, the debate on the question was
adjourned to Wednesday week.
Mr. WISE obtained leave to bring in a Bill to legalise Art-
Un'o-

31r. Y. ScnopE obtained leave to bring in a Bill for the
better protection of life hi Ireland, by means of better relief to
the destitute poor.
Sir J. GRALIAM gave notice that it was his intention to-
morrow to postpone the Friendly Societies Bill till after
Easter. He had also been informed, by the lion. Member
for Oldham, that it was intention to postpone till after the
hulitis% s the Factories Bill.
Sir E. PF.Ei, in answer to a qtkeatimt . front Col. RAWLoN
as to whether, in the measures contemplated by the Gover-
nment with respect to the registration of voters in Ireland,
any provision was to be made for shortening the duration of
as borough elections, said that it wasizitouded to limit them to
day.

The adjourned debate on the second reading of the Corn
Importation Bill was then resumed by
Lord PoLLntaToN, who opposed the second reading of this
Bill. _

Mr. PLIIMPTRE also opposed the Government measure.
Sir J. Trollope, Mr. Rashleigh, Mr. Shaw, and the Earl of
March opposed the second reading of the Bill ; an i Sir J.
Harmer, Viscount Ebrington, Mr. F. Baring, and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer supported it.
On the motion of Mr. Fisen, the debate was adjourned
till Thursday.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of, and the
House adjourned.

We thought that the fate tif the POLIONAC Ministry,
and a change of dynasty, would have furnished a useful
lesson to the statesmen of other constitutional Govern-
ments, and deterred them from risking their own lives
and the throne of their Sovereign, by destroying at
one blow the most valuable rights and privileges of
their countrymen. But the statesmen of Spain
are too proud and too desperate to take warning
from the past, and NARVAEZ and his reckless and dan-
gerous accomplices having once already tried a coup
d'etat, without exciting rebellion, think that the
Spanish nation will now submit patiently to any outrage,
and that any experiments may be made with a people
so lost to all sense of consistency and constitutional order.
Yet he may carry his experiments too far, and though
he calculates upon the devotion of the army, may find
that he reckons without his host, and that a brave people,
when a Sovereign, or the Consort of a Sovereign is forced
upon them, will set every consideration of safety at deli
ante, and rise up as one man against what they consider
a national disgrace. In the mysterious crisis which now
exists at Madrid, it is difficult to find any appa-
rent facts which can guide inquiry or lead to
a solution of the plot evidently formed by NARVAEZ
and Queen CHRISTINA.. Every measure in that Court
is concocted in the dark: the Camarillo, which environs
the QUEEN, with the Captain-General at its head, works
secretly, and by a strange perversity generally adopts
measures which suit their own views and selfish inte-
rests without the slightest regard to the good of the
community._ We believe this is the case at the
present moment. The QUEEN-MOTHER is bent upon
marrying her daughter to a Prince against whom the
nation generally, and even the Cortes and the press, have
evinced the greatest repugnance. Hence the suspension
of the representative body, preparatory to its dissolution
and perhaps ultimate extinction, and the POLIGNAC
ordonnance for annihilating the liberty of the press.
While they were allowed to perform their usual
and legitimate parts in the Government of the
country, the public would be informed of everything, the
timid might be roused to action, and the firm supporters
of the constitution be only the more encouraged to per
severe in their duty. 'lt was necessary, therefore,
to get rid of such trouble some agents when a
settlement, almost universally opposed, was resolved
upon in the secret recesses of the Court. With a vier%
to the accomplishment of this dark plot, the
Cabinet of MARTINEZ DE LA ROSA was purposely broken
up, NARVAEZ was appointed Captain-General, his mo-
deration and ostensible wish for retirement into private
life were extolled in the Ministerial journals, and a new
set of puppets, called Cabinet Ministers, were set up, to
be knocked down when the moment for action ar-
rived. Then the NARVAEZ Ministry was installed,
consisting of men generally without ability or character
and ready to obey the Captain-General with as much

alacrity a's an ensign or a corporal looking for promo•

Lion. The new Minister of Finance, ORLANDO, the
second successor to a Minister who had done so muck
to raise public credit, is totally unknown as a states
man, and, we believe, never had any pretensior.s to fa
the most difficult department in Spain. The Ministei
of Marine is a Carlist, and was one of that daring ham,
of conspirators who made the attack on the QUEEN':
palace. The new Minister of the Intnior had sum.
years since been denounced by General ALA.v.i as a may,
convicted of frauds on the public in the negotiation o:
Foreign loans, and we believe was expelled on thost
e;rounds from the Chamber of Peers. The rest of the
members are scarcely known for anything.
an .l hail evidently been selected as blind tool:
for carrying out the obnoxious .scheme.
the affair will end it is impossible to an
ticipate. The Spaniards are like no other people. We
cannot reason, therefore, from experience, except only
iu respect to one quality, their obstinacy ; and when
their patience is exhausted, and they are fairly put to
the trial, NARVAEZ and CHRISTINA may find that even
the army, on which they entirely rely, may be only a
" broken reed."

In the additional intelligence from the army on the
Sutlej, published in another part of The Sun, will be
.ound a general order by the Commander in-Chief,
which will afford universal satisfaction. It rtlates to
the 62d Regiment, so unjustly stigmatised by Sir JoHN
LITTLER, in one of his dispatches describing the battle
of Moodkee. This officer evidently bad not been aware
of the circumstances under which this brave regiment
retired, but that is no justification for the remarks which
he bad thought proper to
-make on its conduct. The fol-
lowing extract from the general order places the affair
in its proper light, and shows that the troops, even amidst
the awful fire to 94 hick they were exposed, did not retire
on'il ordered by the Brigadier, ccmmanding that part
of the division:—
"The Commander-in-Chief finds that seventeen officers
and 185 men fell on this occasion, and that the regiment dh,
not desist from its noble efforts to carry the position until
ordered by the Brigadier commanding to fall back, as stated
in the following extract from the Brigadier's report, only
now received :

" Under these circumstances, seeing her ➢fajesty's 62d
was exposed to a most destructive fire without any object,
as they could not move forward, I conceived it my duty to
direct them to retire, which they did in almost as good order,
making allowance for the heavy loss they had sustained, as
that in which they had advanced.'"

Lord J. RUSSELL confessedly resigned the task of
forming an adininistration when he learned that he
would not have the advantage of the Ministerial ser-
vices of Earl GREY. He felt that, deprived of so power-
ful a colleague—one who, with respect both to free
dom of trade and the political evils of Ireland, had
evinced a prophetic sagacity commensurate with the
boldness and soundness of his views—he could not
-uccessfully cope with the difficulties which would ,
nave enviraned his position as First Minister o!
.he Crown. Lord Josue took occasion to state 1
in Parliament, during the debate upon moving an ad.
Ire.ss aril answer to the Royal Speech, that his chief
regret in not having succeeded in forming a Govern
went arose from his belief that he could have brought
-orward measures productive of great benefit to Ireland.
ft is the recollection of these circumstances that impart
peculiar interest to Lord GREY'S speech on Monday
night on the state of Ireland. The mutual political
esteem known to exist between Lord J 01IN and Earl G itEv
leads us to feel deeply interested in anyobservations of the
latter touching the momentous subject he introduced to
the Lords. Every one is aware that the Upper House
is not the most genial sphere for favourably discussing
the grievances, or eliciting a sympathy for the millions
of our humblest fellow-countrymen, who are smartir,
under wrongs without a parallel in any other state,
heir poverty, wretchedness, and political degradation
being unequalled throughout the civilised world. Earl
GREY considered that rot a moment should be lost in
conveying to the Irish nation, pari passu with the Co-
e:cion Bill, that a difrerent spirit would animate the Le-
gislature in dealing with the interests of that country.
Lord JOHN is unquestionably identical in his opinions,
hut, out of consideration to the Ministry, anxious to re-
lieve the immediate wants of Ireland, and embarrassed
by the dilatory and selfish maineuvres of the monopo •
lising protectionists, has felt himself constrained to put
off his motion until after the Easter recess. Notwith-
standing his consciousness that the matter would have
been much more felicitiously broached in the
Commons under the auspices of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, even though it should be simultaneously
deliberated on in the Lords', Earl GREY unflinchingly
presented himself in the chilling atmosphere of the
hereditary branch of the Legislature, and in a well-
tempered, luminous, and skilful speech, invited them
to present an address to the Throne calculated to con-
sole Ireland under the new and stringent provisions
about to be imposed on them by the measure for insuring
increased protection to life in Ireland. Upon the simple
fiat of the Duke of WELLINGTON, and solely be-
cause Earl GREY pressed upon their attention (amongst
other matter s) the necessity of effecting a salutary change,
by a better distribution of the revenues of the Esta-
blished Church in Ireland (a topic, which be it recol-
lected, was not even specified in the terms of the
address), the Peers, by a large majority, refused their
assent to the patriotic step which
mayichEabrel GtßheEYeaffOecfetrtv,fentitili):
o
urged them
to sudro
sensitive
pt. What
and oppressed neighbours,
will, on o
wil!, we fear, too speedily be exhibited. There are in
that country those who -will not fail, and with success,
to depict in the strongest and most stimulating language,
that, because Earl GREY recommended a better provi-
sion for the religious wants of the Roman Catholics, and
that the vast majority of the people should he placed
on a footing of perfect equality with their more favoured
brethren, his compeers declined to approach the Throne
and express their willingness to improve the laws affect--
ing their country and the mode in which they are ad-.
ministered. We feel convinced that these and similar
'atatern.:nts; tending -ta kindle and inflame the- htrongest
feelings of the human mind, will be sedulously
propagated, and that their conaequeucee will rezalli

checked, at any rate, until the result of Lord JoEN's j
motion in the House of Commons becomes known. Sup•
posing that Lord JOHN should have it in his power tf
originate an auspicious line of policy towards Ireland.
we cannot disguise from oursPlves, that before he car
do so the session will be too far advanced to admit of it
being effectuated by adequate laws; and in this view th
protectionists will have added to the responsibility whicl
they are now incurring, and should recollect that the effeci
of their blustering on in a friendless and hopeless strug
gle, which has already brought down upon them th,
merited reproaches of our principal seats of commerce,
may be to deprive Ireland of the wholesome and timer;
fruits of improved legislation.
It is idle for the Dicke of WELLINGTON to furbisl
up the old doctrine of finality. It is wholly unsuited t,
the progressive enlightenment of our age. It ha-
been long since expended. The Duke cannr,
forget his celebrated dictum on Reform in 1830,
which led to•the fall of the Cabinet of that day, and n.
Ministry can at this period turn upon the doctrine o
finality without meeting a similar fate. Lord FITz
WILLIAM aptly informed his Grace that "this genera
tion had no right to disinherit their posterity of du ti

full legislative functions, and ventured to doubt whether
a past generation had a right to disinherit this." It h
a mockery, too, for the Duke to generalist
upon the improvement effected in Ireland sine(
.the Union. So long as Ireland . continue:
in her present prostrate condition, so long will it bt
clear to the most superficial observer, that our legisla
tion for her has been deplorably ineffective; neither cat
you deprive the repealers of the colourable argument,
that with a domestic Parliament Ireland would not have
been in the degraded position she now is, alternate!)
requiring British loans and British coercion.

Occasionally this great sluggish discussion about tht
Customs is enlivened by intense gleams of the Judi
crous. Disgusted, probably, with the dry details of a
matter which has been drawn out to the most miserable
tenuity, Honourable Members come forward as though
for the express purpose of making themselves ridiculous :
in this attempt they succeed to the heart's content o!
everybody. These gentlemen in their particular walls
are heroes ; their conduct should excite the grati-
tude of the House, as no doubt it does
The witticisms of Colonel SIBTTIORP have been
diluted through a hundred repetitions to an absurdity or
the stalest description : even the arch-comedian of the
Commons, Mr. FERRAND, has become a trifle mon
sparing in the display of his great genius as a burlesque
actor. Hence, any one who will undertake to immolate
himself in the cause of the vis comica, and, at the sa
orifice of his personal sobriety, will take upon himsel
the office of Parliamentary droll, surely merits the con
,ideration of his brother representatives. Never did
.irr..Ersus call forth such hilarity from the jovial gods o'
Olympus as that elicited yesterday evening in the Lower
House, by a certain inimitable Mr. RASTILEIGH, After
hearing the loud and protracted mirth with which our
Legislators greeted each point of that Hon. Member'
address, we could not but entertain a shrewd suspicion
that the Roman RadiculLEdicula, or Chapel of Laugh
ter, which occupied, in ancient times, such a conspi
ruous position by the Gate Capena, was in reality no-
thing more than a kind of Latin Parliament, with some
such an officiating priest as the Hon. Member for East
Cornwall. He planted himself boldly on the floor of tht
Clouse, and produced with that triumphant coolnes,
which a man generally exhibit; on broaching some
novel and unanswerable species of logic, the identical
scarecrow of opposition, which has been worn so terribl3
threadbare by the protectionists. He taunted the
Prime Minister, in short, with his " tergiversation," and
gratified the Commons by reading long passages from a
speech delivered by that Right Hen. Baronet on a pre-
vious occasion. lie recalled, in the most pensive terms;
,hose days when the motions of the Member for

Wolverhampton were treated with "silent contempt," and
negatived by "large majorities." He vonjured the prelates,
with all the solemnity of the last of the Tribunes, to vindi-
cate the interests "of their order, of the throne, and of the
cottage," beholding them, as he imagined, crumbling away
beneath-the OppreS:sion of che'ap beef and accessible biscuits
But it was the indignation of Mr. RASHLEIGH, when he re-
proved the Honourable Gentlemen around him for smiling,
which we regard as the greatest triumph of his performance.
In a paroxysm of scorn he accused Sir JAMES GRAHAM of
smiling; his feelings were outraged; the Right Hon. Baronet
"had no right to smile." As might be conceived, the risibility
of the Home Secretary became remarkably infectious—a cir-
cumstance which only served, however, to heighten the
amazement and indignation of Mr. RASHLEIGH. He in-
veighed in the bitterest terms upon the smiles of Mr. Con-
Ulm, the smiles of Mr. VILLIEES, the smiles of Mr. M. Gin-
sox, and the smiles of "all the crew behind them." And
after a very artistic amplification of his drollery, con-
cluded with the choice peroration, that" he could not allow
himself to be drawn through the muck and mire of expedi-
ency to adopt the new notions of the Right Hon. Gentleman.'
After this, the Member for Knaresborough may retire from
the boards; his powers are eclipsed; as the theatrical critic:
would say, "the success of the new comedian is most grati-
fying and triumphant." But, regarding the matter in a common-
sense light, with an eye to public business, and the good of
the community, what possible benefit to themselves or
any one else do the agriculturists imagine for one moment
can result from such silly specimens of irasciblity as that of
the Hon. Member for East Cornwall? Ought not the feel-
ing of very shame at their own incapacity to prompt them to

submit calmly and silently to the decrees of the popular will ?
The reproof of such folly, uttered by Mr. F. BARING, was
pointed and well-timed. "However able," said he, "or in-
dependent might be those who formed a Government for the
purpose of carrying out the principles of protection, I have
no doubt whatever as to the result,—they would soon find
themselves compelled to follow the principles of their prede-

cessors. Agitation was not the true cause of the defeat
of those who advocated the principle of protection ; it wab
reason, justice, truth, by which they were betrayed. They
were silently undermined by the stream of time, because their
castle was built upon the sand."
If the protectionists would only accede to the broad facts
that stare them ever in the face, we might be spared the in-
fliction of much nonsense in the shape of their own advocacy,
though at the same time we should be mulcted of no little
laughter. When the entire commercial system of Great
Britain is thrown into a state of indecision or stagnation it
is nut the time, however, for such supernumera-ies as Mr.
RASHLEIGH to be tampering with the time of the House.

We have received Madrid papers of the 17th ins.,
the day after the remarkable scene which occurred
the Chamber of Deputies, and which evidently forebodes
some desperate plot on the part of NARVAEZ and the
QUEEN-MOTHER. The coup d'ciat which was carried
int•, effect on the 18th, was not then precisely foreseer
but from what occurr( d at the Palace on the evening of
the 16th, the schemes of NARVAEZ were placed beyond
a doubt. According to the Espanol, the QUEEN, after
the meeting of the Camber of Deputies, sent for MIRA..
FI,ORES and his colleagues, and desired them to dissolve
the Cortes. The Ministers represented to her MAJESTY
that, not having experienced any opposition from the
Cortes in the exercise of their official power, and the
Cortes having given them marks of their s) mpathy and
confidence, it was impossible for them to put in force a
measure which they could not conscientiously recom-
mend to her MAJESTY. They added, however, that
they would respectfully lay at her MAJESTY'S feet their
resignation, that her MAJESTY might, at her pleasure,
nominate Ministers who might believe that they ought
to carry this desire into executien. The QUEEN accepted
their resignation, and the Ministers withdrew. This
was exactly what NARVAEZ wanted. He then appointed
the members of his Cabinet, all tools fit for his purpose,
and by suspending the Cortes and the liberty of the
press assumed dictatorial power. In order that the
army may be more at his command, he has dismissed
General CONCHA, and several superior officers opposed
to his violent measures, and supplied their places with
men suited to his desperate purposes. It is a curious
fact, that the funds during this crisis have rather im-
proved. The following are the quotations on the Ma-
drid Bourse for the 17th :—Three per Cents., 29 15-16
at 30 days; Five per Cents. not quoted; Bank of St.
Ferdinand, 255; Bank of Isabella, 168; Canal of Castile,
112; Company of Iris, 130; Exchanges on London, 37-i;
Paris, 16 6.

In the French Chamber of Deputies the motion rela-
tive to the dissolution of the National Guard of certain
large towns came on for discussion. M. DUCIIATEL, the
Minister of the Interior, was the first speaker, and said
"he addressed the Chamber at the very commencement of
the discussion in order that the real state of the question
might be understood. Ministers, he said, had dissolved
the National Guard of two large towns, Toulouse and
Carcassonne, in consequence of disturbances having
broken forth in the body itself. At Toulouse the disso-
lution was pronounced at the period of the census, in
consequence of the disturbances that took place in that
city. It might be said that calm was now re established.
Yes, but the Government was responsible for the main.
tenance of order, and from what it knew of the
state of the public feeling there, it deemed it
prudent to LA the National Guard remain as it was, dis-
solved. At Carcassonne, a most violent spirit of disorder
had reigned in the National Guard. Notwithstanding all
the representations made to tie contrary, the members
of that body had persisted in naming as their colonel,
BARBEE, who had been condemned by the Chamber of
Peers, and who was undergoing his punishment at Mont
St. Michel. Such were the facts, and he conceived that
the Government was fully justified in acting as it had
done. He therefore called upon the Chamber to vote
apiLiat the aptign.° After soma xtraluks float