The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-16 00:00:00

limited this week, and prices are rather easier, and rule
at 34s to 393. Since our last we have had five cargoes
of New Valencia Raisins. The price opened at 455,
at which prices they still continue. The grocers buy
very sparingly, just sufficient to supply their immediate
wants. New Sultana Raisins are Selling slowly at 755.
Figs 84s to 90s.

TALLOW.—This afternoon the public sales of Tallow
went off briskly, and at stiffer rates; 133 casks Odessa
sold at 46s Gd to 46s 9d; 1,146 packages South Ameri-
can 45s to 46s 3d; 576 casks New South \Vales 43s 9d
to 47s 3d; 101. casks P. Y. Candlo 46s to 46s 3d, second
sort 45s 3d to 45s 9d; 41 casks of Soap 42s 3d to 44s
9d per cwt.
OILS —This afternoon, at auction, 191 casks Palm
Oil sold at 29s to 30s 6d for mid to good, and 131
packages Cocoa Nut 39s 6d to 40s 6d per cwt.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FLOM TIM MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TlMES.—There is really a great deal of interest to
be acquired iu the seizing of California, just taken by
the United States. We mean that there is something
very amusing in the spectacle of the most inquisitive and
tenacious people in the world turned loose into a huge,
mysterious, unexplored region. It is something beyond
Denon and his brother savants in Egypt, and is almost
equivalent to a meeting of the British Association in
Japan, with the free run of the islands. It is certain
that at this moment no human being of Caucasian ex-
traction has any conception of what may be discoverable
on the ten degrees of the globe's surface between the
Rio del Norte and the North Pacific Ocean, and it is
almost as certain that in two years' time there will be a
railroad right across the province, and boarding-houses
at every station. It is something in these dull times to
have a real true terra incognita in store, with Americans
for adventurers. The truth is, that the Colorado beats
the Oxus:hollow, for there was a time when Bactriana
was a civilized and accessible region enough, whereas
there is no certainty that the spot of ground indicated
by lat. 36, long. 112, was ever trodden by any foot but
that of an Indian horse-stealer. We say no certainty,
because there is mystery in the highest degree attached
to this country. A blue book, stamped with all the
authority of a Parliamentary warrant, positively states
that " independent nations, living in large to ens, and
known only by report," are presumed to exist within the
old domains of Mexico, and, as none such turned up the
other day during the forays between Santa F 6 and Vera
Cruz, we must conclude they lie somewhere hereabouts,
if anywhere. The mystery of the reports is quite charm-
ing. The existence of the cities in question is not exactly
so well ascertained as was that ofParadise by Sir J. Mande-
ville, who, " had not indeed reached the spot, but had
seen the walls thereof ;" it bears rather a stronger ana-
logy to that of El Dorado, of which some Indians told
Raleigh's sailors that they had once seen the reflection
in a lake. Seriously, though, there is actually an enor-
mous indefinite area to be explored, and fifty thousand
adventurers ready to rout and ransack every corner of
it, like the undertakers at the drawers and cupboards in
Hogarth's picture of the Dead Miser. Perhaps our
readers would like to learn something of the known
state of California, as a point de depart from which to
venture into those interesting details which will no doubt
reachlus by every American mail. Under the old Spa-
nish monarchy, Upper, or New California, was one of
three provinces composing the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
Its settlement, however, was limited to the establish-
ment of some 18 or 20 " missions" along the coast,
which were :dedicated to the various saints whose titles
still survive between Francisco and Diego, and which
were calculated, with a precision and certainty attain-
able by none but Spaniards, to render the coloniz stion of
the country altogether an impossibility. San Diego,
the southernmost of these, and the point where the new
American frontier will debouch upon the Pacific, was
founded in 1769, before which year there was no Euro •
peen settlement upon the coast. Between this period
and 1800 were founded the others, all on the same
model, and all running the same course. The aspect of
these presidios was not materially varied under the rule
of the emancipated Republic. When Captain Wilkes
landed at San Francisco. he found, at the chief ancho-
rage of this noble port, a " town," of which the consti-
tuent elements are thus enumerated :—" A large frame
house occupied by an agent of the Hudson's Bay
Company ; a store kept by an American ;
billiard-room and bar ; a poop-cabin of a ship,
occupied as a dwelling by an Anglo-American captain;
a blacksmith's shop, and some outbuildings." As
this is decidedly the most famous colony on the coast it
would be rather perverting the proverb to say "Expede
Herezdcm," but we may probably save ourselves the
trouble of describing San Carlos, or Santa Barbara, or
La Purissima Concepcion. In these delightful settle-.
ments resides the present white population of the pro-
vince, numbering perhaps about 3.000 souls, and some
9,000 or 10,000 Indians, as it is calculated, roam abroad
in the mysterious wilds of the interior. The whites are
true sons of Old Spain, with everything of a Castilian
but his bravery. But for the presence of certain English
and Americans, the Indians would infallibly drive them
into the sea. After calm observation and mature re-
flection, Captain Wilkes is compelled to pronounce that
" they may be termed cruel to their wives, in a greater
degree still to their slaves and cattle, and exceedingly
ignorant of everything but extortion, riding horses, and
catching bullocks." A true Yankee graft upon this
valuable stock must yield a wonderful result, and we
shall not be long before we see it. We describ. d lately
the precautions which have been so promptly taken to
bring the new territory safely under hand, and it ap-
pears that the work of discovery has already commenced.
At present the great attraction seems rather in the
bowels of the earth than on its surface, and hundreds of
independent citizens are at work with their pickaxes,
like treasure-seekers in the Hartz Mountains. Quick-
silver is the main object of search, and we are told,
in a semieofficial and perfectly serious report, of one
mine, about 13 miles from San Francisco, "so rich
that the gentleman who surveyed it under the directions
of the Government was so much affected by salivation,
that his mouth was sore fur a period of ten days after
he had concluded the survey." It is anticipated that
quicksilver will thus be an article of as regular exporta-
tion from the western, as breadstutfs from the eastern
coasts of the States; several mining companies are al-
ready established, and California is even now spoken of
by Transatlantic journalists in that phrase which so at-
tracted Mr. Martin Chuzzlewit, as "one of the most re-
markable provinces of our country, sir." We should
rather conceive doubts from the configuration of this
part of the continent, whether the mineral wealth so
characteristic of the great spinal plateau of Anahuac did
in reality extend so far beyond its termination as to be
met with in North California. But, like the young
farmers in the fable, who dug for a treasure and dis-
covered it in the enrichment of their farm, which had
followed upon the labour bestowed, the Americans will
no doubt find their account in the improvement and
civilization of this hitherto unproductive country. With
a territory, at least in places, highly fruitful, a climate
free from the noxiousness of the opposite coast, and a
temperature not otherwise than equable, they can hardly
fail of a return for their labour, and, if they do not dis-
cover any new Peru, or any fresh variety of the human
race, they will at least make a vast tract of the earth's
surface subservient to the increasing wants of man.
CHRONICLE.—The debate on the "Right to Work"
pursues its dreary course in the French National As-
sembly—" a social, political, philosophic, metaphysical
question," as M. Thiers justly termed it—" dragging at
each remove a lengthened chain," the fetters of panic
and misery, absence of demand, and indigence of employ-
ment, which, concurrently with this waste of words, are
gnawing at the vitals, and festering in the life-blood of
the people. " The saddest sight under the sun," said
poor Burns, who spoke from experience, "is a man wil-
ling to work, but unable to find work." The problem,
which in its solution shall find the remedy of this, we
believe inevitable, evil in the courses of civilization, is as
old as the world ; and it will scarcely, we fear, be deter-
mined in our time by the different schools of Commu-
nism among our neighbours. " Supposing that we affirm
this right," said M. Duvergier de Hauraune, " and in a
time of crisis one million, or, if you pre-
fer it, five hundred thousand workmen come
with this article of the constitution in their hands to
exact of you their dues of work and wages, when the
coffers of the State be empty, increased taxes shall bring
no return, and credit shall be dead, what will you do?"
The answer has not yet been given by the Communists,
nor will it ever be so, because it is impossible. It can,
however, be evaded and ignored, and the Reforms' be
very funny in calling M. Duvergier de Uauranne a
" seedy Quaker with a perpetual catarrh." The chief
incidents of the debate, hitherto, have been the failure of
M. Ledru Rollin, and the success of M. Thiers. Triumph
and discomfiture were, however, the conditions of their
relative positions. M. Ledru Rollin was called upon, in
virtue of his advanced opinions, to propose something,
and he proposed nothing; how should he? M. Thiers
was at liberty to criticise, analyse, expose, dissect, scarify,
mangle the crotchets of his unequal oppouents,
and he acquitted himself to the delight of
spectators unaccustomed to skill so dexterous and
assurance so inveterate. If, however, this is M. Thiers's
speech for the Presidency (he has made many a discours-
Ministre far better), we must confess our disappoint-
pointment. lie said nothing in particulars, which had
not previously been said by MM. de Tocqueville and
Duvergier de Huranne ; and nothing in generals, which
is not ABCto us in England. Nor was he so felicitous
in his hits as usual ; he made no point half so good as
his lieutenant's, M. Duvergier de Hauranne, who, in re-
flection on M. do Lamartine's magnificent flight "that
he adored property," remarked demurely, " that it was
quite possible not to respect where one adored. "M.
Thiers's position, that the right to work necessarily in-
volves, and in its development leads to, slavery, is taken
mediately from the Abbi Lammennais, and immedi-
ately from M. de Tocqueville. It is the plain
tteachinge od srt
reiabsuotni
0. n
olff
lathe
ah
be
uSr aitte
bi
es o
mt oe tak
ieounpeoen,
and ipso facto, arbitrary and absolute. It regulates at
will, or at caprice, the fitness, the capacity, the condi-
tion, the fortune, the remuneration of its citizens. The
State is master, and its component parts are slaves; it is
a Mahoniet Ali, in a nation of fellahs. With what ani-
mation, hope, impulse, incentive, can you expect men
under such circumstances to work? " Tell a person,"
says M. Thiers finely, "to die for his counitrly,
cooeuei
undterriet,
will understand you; but tell him to weave cotton
yarn
andh
for hisyou cuoiullntrayee,
worhatfohregewiilrlonansfworer.,h,s
of this illustration is its suggestiveness ,it carries
one, by no remote transition, to that . objection to
Communism which is instinctive ilnuubsisaldl
upon
theindividualityman.t
t three de-
jeosi---ogPyrwopoeurltdyit
aliveibdeorntyeajdustEas well, in opposition
Competition. Any
optrhineeriptri
to the " Liberty, Fraternity,
Elope, and
of the new
older ones, whom M. Thiers hatesope, and Charity," of
much. But the observations. and despises quite as
which h
text, if tritee,o hangs upon each
are not without their voice. In rererence
to his first principle of property (on which his new bopk
is the press, this speech serving at Quo as its puff and