The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-15 00:00:00

i'l3lel4ll I_l,l :74) AUL

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1846.

The American Congress, after a discussion of more than
four months, remarkable alike for the length and number of
the orations delivered by senators and representatives, have
at last adopted a moderate and indeed unobjectionable reso-
lution on the Oregon question. We can see little or no dif-
ference between the joint resolution and that adopted
by the Senate. They both contain the main points that
affect this country, and not only omit every offensive
term and insinuation, but, with commendable prudence,
recommend a speedy and an amicable settlement of
the pending differences. The resolution, as amended, is in
these words (we omit the expletive terms) :—" With a view
that steps be taken for the abrogation of the convention of
the 6th August, 1827, and that the attention of the Govern-
ments of both countries may be more earnestly directed to
the adoption of all proper measures for the speedy and
amicable adjustment of the difficulties and disputes in respect
to the Oregon territory, be it resolved, That the PRESI-
DENT of the United States be, and he is hereby authorised,
at his discretion, to give to the British Government the notice
required by its second article for the abrogation of the
convention of the 6th of August, 1827." The PRESIDENT,
who has been all along bent on giving the notice, will, of
course, use the authority thus conferred on him without de-
lay. By the month of May, 1847, therefore, the joint occu-
pancy will cease, and, unless a settlement is made previously,
a collision between the Hudson's Bay men, and the
Americans settled in that quarter, becomes in-
evitable. At present, we believe, the feeling be-
tween the parties is anything but good, and considering
the numbers and courage of the British settlers, with the
support they would receive from the natives, who hate the
Americans, there could be no doubt about the first onset.
The American Legislature, however, is evidently preparing
for such an occurrence, and is passing a Bill for encouraging
emigration to Oregon, and virtually for the occupation of the
whole territory. Such a mode of commencing a war,
we trust, will be avoided. It could decide nothing,
and only needlessly inflict sufferings on the in-
nocent, and add to the irritation of both nations
England will act a more noble part, and formally demand,
for the last time, a " speedy and amicable adjustment of the
difficulties and disputes." She has already given in her ul-
timatum. Mr. BUCHANAN, the agent of POLK, announced
in the last conferences, that he would never consent to sign a
treaty having less tha.; the 49th degree of latitude for its
basis, and, on that announcement, Mr. PAKENHAM de-
clined all further correspondence. The American PRE-
SIDENT knows well that the Government of England
cannot accede to this new and insolent demand ;
he may also know, if he reads English journals, that neither
the Government, nor the Legislature, nor the people, will ac-
cept any settlement which shall not include the free naviga-
tion (at least for a certain extent) of the river Columbia for
British vessels ; and that the surrender of the Columbia is,
to all intents and purposes, the surrender of the whole ter-
ritory. Mr. BUCHANAN is aware that England can neither
accept his terms nor the slightest modification of
them short of her last claims. Any proposition for
renewing the conferences must come from America, else
events must take their natural course. In fact, England has
yielded too much already; she has paid a deference to par-
ties in the United States to which they are not entitled ;
she has humoured and cajoled the mob orators, rather than
confronted them in that attitude which she was entitled to
assume, and the consequence is that, not only on the
Oregon question, but on others (and they are many) which are
yet to be settled, Pour and his party have risen, and will rise
in their demands, without the slightest regard to principle,
or to the most solemn admissions made by former negotia-
tors. England has just saved her honour by taking up a
position from which she never can recede, and which was
duly announced and accepted unanimously by both Houses
of Parliament. " She has rights in Oregon, and she is pre-
pared to maintain them." It becomes her turn
now, therefore, to act ; and, unless POLK offers
to give up his claims, which he so unequivocally
made to the " whole of Oregon," and to act like a reason-
able being, England must prepare to defend the territory to
which she has just claims—claims, too, admitted by every
journalist in France, and by nearly all the intelligent and
all the honest citizens throughout the Union. But, as we
have repeatedly said, the Oregon question is one of a very
secondary consideration. A storm is ready to burst forth in
the south which is pregnant with momentous events.
A war between Mexico and America may be regarded
as certain—they are alike inclined to hostilities. The one
impelled by shame and indignation, for having been duped
and robbed, and the other by an unquenchable thirst for
the conquest of her weak neighbour. The Americans them-
selves seem to anticipate such a conquest as immediate, and
we fear the Mexicans can do little or nothing to stop them.
One of the New York journals, rather distinguished too
for its moderation, thus adverts to a Mexican
war :—" A defeat of the American army on the
Rio Grande would almost cause an immediate
and voluntary invasion of Mexico; thousands of the western
riflemen would rush to the Rio Grande and probably to
Mexico." Nothing indeed is more probable except the fact
quarter,
interests
te
that peace would not be granted by the United States with-
outther:cornynession of California and Vera Cruz. The
nEk.st and LordE 1.81%110
oan: can suffer no more annexations in that
it would, therefore, be as well for Lord ABER-
IOUOR to be prepared for the worst. ,

let
tlleudte(,colnnsioduerr
tcolumnshei
toifonyses-0
terTdlatey,fur motion a tose Nlvechticch w
Committee
e was last
sTeo
relat7ry
eS:sntitThne,
case, t
at ht
state
ipna
ptherosse presented petitions
to
the
Hounight brought forward by Mr. SPOONER, and was nega-
tived by m • a majority of nine, there being for the motion 125,
and against it 134.
The principal safeguard of British liberty has ever been
found in the feelings of indignation excited in the
put li
c
mind whenever an unconstitutional or despotic
at-
tack has been made or attempted on one of
their
fellow-subjects. Each man makes the case his ow
imagines what his feelings and his conduct would be werehe
placed in similar circumstances; he sympathises with the
sufferer, and loudly demands redress for the injuries inflicted,
and that such laws may be enacted that for the future there
can be no possibility of the recurrence of a like outrage.
Many of our most valuable laws have had their origin in
private injuries, and we consider it a duty which every man
owes to society to bring prominently forward, and to spare
no labour, time, or expense, in obtaining the fullest
publicity fur his grievances, if they are in their nature such
as to affect the community at large. We do net think Mr.
SMITH could have patiently submitted to the indignity by
which he was assailed; he has acted as becomes a min of
spirit'and intelligence, and there is no part of the entire pro-
ceedings, or of the debate, which we deprecate more strongly
than the imputations which have been attempted against his
character and conduct in the transaction. Mast insult
be ever added to injustice, in order to make it complete?
Mr. SPOONER'S motion was brought forward avowedly for
the purpose of calling the attention of the House to the
state of the law respecting searches made by the Excise,
with a view to its amendment, and the Honourable
Member proceeded to instance, in the very facts which
had occurred in the case of Mr. SMITH, such anomalies be-
tween the existing state of the law and the boasted privi-
leges of the Constitution, as would seem sufficient, had they
even stood alone and without parallel, to indicate to the Le-
gislature the absolute necessity, if for consistency sake alone,
ofamendingth e law, so as to make it conformable to the con-
stitutional privileges of the subject, or of making known to
the community that, since the days of Br ACKSTOSE; theyluld
gone on in dreamy error in supposing that the sanctity and

privacy of their homes were sacred and inviolate from the
prying espionage of the magistrate, the police,
or the excise, though acting solely under the authority of,
mayhap, a malicious and lying informer, or, at least, as in
the present case, under no better sanction than that of a false
and anonymous intimation. We do not presume to impute
to the collective wisdom of the nation a want of due con-
sideration for those national privileges of which they ought to
prove themselves the jealous guardians; but we may fairly
presume to speculate upon the probable conclusion, in the
minds of the multitude, which the division upon this motion
is calculated to induce,namely, that the majority of those who
. took part in the debate were of opinion, that notwithstanding
the facts above referred to, which were not even denied,
that the law, as administered by the magistrate, and carried
out by the excise, aided by the police force, stands so imma-
culate and in harmony with those constitutional privileges to
which we have drawn attention, as to require no revision, no
amendment whatsoever.

The principal ground on which the opponents of the
inquiry rested their refusal was, that it was admitted
that the officer was in fault, and that it was not necessary
to the vindication of Ar. SMITH'S character. Now these
were by no means sufficient reasons for smothering the
inquiry ; it was but one, and by far the least important of
the motives which induced the motion. Of course Mr. SMITH
must feel very anxious of setti:lg his character right with
the House and the, public, but the great object of the in-
quiry was, what is the state of the law that allows so gross
an indignity to be inflicted on any British subject, with a
view to its alteration and amendment? Search-warrants
should ever be granted with the greatest caution and
reluctance. No vague suspicion, no rumour or surmise,
should be considered sufficient to enable nay magistrate to
sanction a proceeding so subversive of the liberty of the sub-
ject, so calculated to provoke resistance, to induce a breach
of the peace ; but, beyond all, an anonymous letter, the
whispered informati,,n of a coward, who is afraid to have his
face seen, his name known ; who gives vent to his pestilen-
tial slander from the concealment of a mask—generally for
the gratification of personal malignity—should not for a
moment be listened to, should meet with no sanction
or support. It is a proceeding wholly repulsive to
every English, to every manly feeling. What can be
thought of the conduct of the officer who, on such a founda-
tion, ventured to swear that he,had reason to suspect, and
did suspect, that an illicit still was actually concealed on the
premises of Mr. SMITH ; or of the magistrate, whose duty it
was to inquire into the sufficiency of the grounds for such
suspicion before he granted such a warrant? Surely the
parties who could commit so grievous an error must be
wholly unfit to discharge their relative duties; and surely,
likewise, the correction of errors such as these, if they be ad-
mitted to be errors, by making the law of sufficient force to
insure the subject against their repetition, is not one beneath
the grave consideration and corrective acts of the legislative
assembly.

After a protracted silence and an apparent apathy, the
Committee for promoting the establishment of Baths and
Washhouses for the Labouring Classes, gives some indication
that it has not altogether abandoned the object for which it
was constituted in 1844. Acceding, as we do, to that
honest old adage which inculcates the fact of cleanliness
being next to godliness, and convinced, as we are, that dirt
is the embryo of disease, and that in the habitual slovenliness
of the industrious poor is involved the consequence of their
demoralisation, we have looked with anxious attention for
some evidence that the Committee were really striving to
carry out their originally expressed intentions. Whatever
appearances might imply, we were still sanguine that this
crusade for the promotion of comfort to the population had
not been entered upon merely to be forsaken. We
are now fully impressed with the conviction that
we did not anticipate too muck, and the patient
silence which has been displayed in respect to the
operations of the Committee are at length compen-
sated by the ostensible revival of the subject. Upon mature
consideration of the difficulties which had to be surmounted,
and occasionally the prejudices which had to be removed,
we are induced, not only to forego any remonstrance to the
members of that Committee upon their procrastination in
the development of their plans, but to accord them, on the
contrary, the most decided approval for a delay which, if
not absolutely necessary, was certainly very advisable.
Bis dat quo cito dat is, without doubt, a truism in the ab-
stract, but so, likewise, is a homelier, though no less applic-
able saying—" More haste, worse speed." And if either
might be assumed as a motto to this explanation, the
Committee would unquestionably have selected the latter.
The scheme upon which they had entered is regarded by the
majority of social economists as an experiment ; and such, in
literal reality, it is as far as the metropolis is couceraed. The
success which has attended a similar undertaking at
Liverpool, though a most encouraging experiment, did not
sufficiently corroborate the opinions expressed by the Com-
mittee. .4 You may," said these sceptics in the improve-
ment of the mass, " brag about the surplus capital acquired
by such establishments in Lancashire; you may dilate upon
the satisfaction to the skin and morals of a mechanic by the
application of a clean shirt ; you may swear, if you like, that
soap is a panacea of health, dry towels the best preventives
of intoxication, and starch a most excellent substitute for
a sermon. You may assert all this until you are black in
the face, but we tell you that your benevolence will prove of
a very unprofitable character, and that wash-tub philan-
thropists will speedily- inundate the columns of the Gazette.
Clean linen and clean faces are very desirable things, no
doubt, among ourselves, but with the inhabitants of White-
chapel, and Brick-lane, and Saffron-hill, a dirty complexion
is a much better letter of recommendation. The classes for
whose convenience you will be laying down water-pipes and
constructing basins have a positive relish for the filth you
are anxious to eradicate; they will preserve that preference,
and lay out their pence after their old fashion." It is against
these discouraging notions that the Committee have to under-
take the construction of buildings and the opening of esta-
blishments of a most novel and economical character.
By precipitating their plans, or by rushing without forethought
into an expenditure, they would hazard the realisation of these
forebodings, and by their ill-success at the very outset
would bring an admirable system into disrepute. On these
accounts, we consider the interval of preparation is not time
squandered away, and the forward appearance of the model
baths and washhouses at Goulstone-square, is an
evidence that, besides maturing their scheme, the
Committee have mareialled their army of bricklayers and
hodmen. We trust, however, that the labour of dissemi-
nating a love for cleanliness among the poor, may not be
restricted to the crippled capacities of this single Committee,
but that the Legislature will come forward, and that
speedily, for the encouragement of similar associations.
When we see the Government endeavouring in other
respects to improve the condition of the populace—
giving them a Victoria Park for their recreation, a British
Museum for their instruction, and a National Gallery as a
means of opening their minds to tile appreciation of art—is
it not actually anomalous to observe no eftbrt on the part of
our legislators for the removal of the most grievous obstacle
to the bodily and mental health of the multitude? How can
a labouring man be expected to foster anything like an
appetite for intellectual improvement when he returns
to a comfortless home, with a proportionate feeling of per-
sonal discomfort ? His natural resource is the oblivion of the
beer-shop. Through the instrumentality of such institutions
as the one now rising in Goulstone-square, the very poor
would be enabled to wash themselves and their clothing at a
charge ridiculously small—a penny fur a cold, and twopence
for a hot, bath—and yet, with every human probability of
either an equivalent or an increased amount of return upon the
monies invested in such establishments. The success which
has followed the labours of the Corporation of Liverpool
would almost be a sufficient assurance in this regard. Dunng
the three years and nine months which their plans have
been in operation, no less than 44,115 have washed there
upwards of 1,000,000 articles, while, during the first
three quarters of their current year, their ex-
penses have been exceeded by thirty pounds. A si-
milar prosperity has attended a similar establishment in
Glasshouse-yard, near the London Docks, where, during the
eleven months of its existence, 25,123, persons have bathed
and 31,882 persons have washed there 235,814 articles. The
multiplication of such structures would promote the happi-
ness, the sobriety, the health, and the morality of the people
to such an extraordinary extent, that we consider their as-
sistance and patronage as the bounden duty of the Legisla-
ture. Whether in au economical, a sanatory, or a religious
point of view, the system advocated by the Committee de-
mends the accordance of Government.

The Universal German Gazette, on the authority of a letter
from Rome, dated April 27, contradicts the announcement
lately made in one of the German papers, that the POPE
S about to nominate eight Polish bishops. The relations
of the PontificialCourt with Russia are, on the contrary,to be
placed on the same footing as two years back.

A letter from Soleure, published in the Zurich Gazette,
states that all the elections for the Grand Council had, with
one exception, terminated in favour of the Liberal party.

The following news from the Caucasus appears in the St.
Petersburgh Journal. The letter is dated 29th March :
" It may be remembered that the powerful and warlike
tribe of the Abadsek, formerly so hostile to the Russians,
subsel)
tm3i,tetaerd. toA t
eep
uGtnavtie4rne m
ofe ntthiins Jr hi
bee
is beginningshortl y
toot'
atrhne. pe r
at
St. Petersburgli, to lay at the foot of the throne the expres-
sion of their devotedness. Lately several Abadseks arrived
at Tiflis, to present themselves to the General-in-
Chief. They were the elders lijabatourof and Den-
zouboyef, the Effendi Abdul-Gamid, and the re-
presentative of the young warriors of the tribe
tiadji-Zoukof. They were much feted, and ap-
peared greatly delighted with their visit, this being the first
time that they had entered a large city. The submission of
the Abadseks already exercises a marked influence on the
independent tribes of the neighbourhood. On March 10th,
the
ho et.,n iceewl
e,
berladteerds offor t hhei s Bacatcsh 101
fb e
robberyis, an d Ma-
violence, arrived at at Stavropol. They demanded leave to
submit themselves unconditionally, and to be received
amongst the subjects of Russia, with permission to transport
v 1
tncmse
roup, a locality which they
es to the neighbourhood
hadtormoefrlythienshoaubricteesd.oj the On-

Accounts from Piedmont and Lombardy represent the
position of affairs in the north of Italy as calculated to give
great uneasiness to the Austrian Government. The King of
Sardinia (CARLO ALBERTO), who, as Prince DE CARIGNAN,
was in 1820 one of the Liberal leaders of Italy, if not a pro-
fessed Carbonaro, but who subsequently betrayed the Liberal