The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-26 00:00:00

PAKEISHAM, our Minister at

been signified to Mr.
Washington."
This statement called forth from the Noble Se-
c!, for Foreign Affairs a defence of the late
Government alike honourable to the vindicator and
the %indicated, which fully established as well the
truth of the assertions made by Sir R. FLEL as the

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wisdom and policy of the course adopted. The ma-
terial portion of the defence would suffer by any
attempt at curtailment; we therefore give the follow-
ing words of the Noble Secretary himself:-
4. His Noble Friend doubted the accuracy of the state-
ment that an offer had been made by the late Goia-ra-
ment of mediation on the part of Great Britain between
the two parties. He (Lord Palmerston) was glad, in
justice to his predvessors, that his Noble Friend enabled
him to set that question right. The facts of the case
were shortly these :—lt was perfectly true, as had 6-en
asserted by the Right Bon. Baronet at the head of her
Majesty's late Government, that an offer was made to
the United States' Government, and also communica'ei,
to the Government of Mexico, which her Majesty's late
Government understood and meant to be an offer of
mediation ; that that offer was conveyed, and, as he
thought, properly conveyed, in terms which left a great
latitude of interpretation to the Government of the
United States. Our position with regard to the United
States just at that period was not that which was be-
coming the character of a mediator. Our disputes and
negotiations with reference to the Oregon question had
not come to a final settlement. It was possible, not-
withstanding the negotiations then going on between
the United States and ourselves, that the question might
assume a position which would have divested us alto-
gether of the character belonging to a medi-
ator, and then the mediation of which we
had made an offer would have been put out
of the question. Now the offer which was made
by her Majesty's late Government to the Govern-
ment of the United States was in effect this—that if the
Government of the United States were disposed to ask
the mediation of the Government of Great Britain. that
mediation would be formally offered and accorded. He
thought that was going as far as the British Government
could have gone in the position in which they were
placed. Well, then, the Government of the United
States, considering what he had stated with regard to
the position in which the Oregon question placed Great
Britain with rr.fPrence to the United States, did not
think it expedient to express any opinion in answer t"
the communication from the British Government. The
Government of the United States thought that it did not
require an answer to be made to it."
The Noble Lord also stated the course he himself
had pursued, consequent on the change of circum-
stances, and the more amicable relations that existed
between this country and the United States since
the accession of the present Ministry to office. We
are now in a position to offer our services as a
mediator, and accordingly instructions have been sent
out to Mr. PAKEN LIAM to renew the offer of mediation,
on the part of this country, to the Govern-
ment of the United States, in such a shape
as to require an answer, and corresponding
communications have been made to Mexico.
Until the answers to these overtures have been
received it would manifestly be impossible for
this country to take any other step ; her acting as the
partizan of either country would be quite inconsistent
with that impartiality that should be evinced by a
nation which has taken upon itself to make offers of
mediation between contending states. Any other
course would be more likely to involve Great
Britain in the horrors of war than to re-
store peace and, harmony between the oppo-
nents. If the counsel of the protectionist leader
were to be acted upon, and this country were forth-
with to take measures to prevent the annexation of
Mexico to the United States, and to insist upon an
end being put to the hostilities at present going on,
the result would he that we eurselves should speedily
be involved in the contest, and become one of the
belligerent parties. We have already seen the good
effect of peaceful and temperate language, in the
termination of the dispute respecting the Oregon
territory, and we may hope that a similar degree of
prudence will end in a like happy manner.

Before Parliament be actually prorogued it is to
be hoped the plans of Government for the ameliora-
tion of the people of Ireland will be thoroughly
digested, and all their subordinate operations judi •
ciously organised. Although the calamitous disease
in the potatoes has developed itself earlier than upon
the former occasion, there are now better prospects
of alleviation to the distresses which must result from

its appearance than there were simultaneously witl
its appearance in 1845. The Executive is not taker
by surprise as at that period ; before the prorogation
of the Commons our representatives are enabled to in-

trod uce precautionary measures; an extraordinary com
mission of relief has not to he constituted, that corn
mission having been evoked by the previous deficiency
in provisions ; the commissariat officers have not to bi
drilled into the requisite modes of superintending ON
distribution of food to the distressed civilians, their
practice a few months since having rendered them
familiar with those arrangements. Although our
anxieties are on those accounts diminished with refe-
rence to the prospects of inanition and contagion
among the unfortunate peasantry, we find it impos-
sible, nevertheless, to throw aside all feelings of tre-
pidation as to the threatening future of our fellow-
countrymen in Ireland.
Every additional intelligence respecting the ve-
getables in that country is intelligence of additional ca-
lamity. Not only are the potatoes diseased beyond
all the reparative powers of agricultural chemistry,
but the turnips, especially in the vicinity of Limerick,
appear to be eaten up by a similar malady. There
are circumstances in connexion with this disease
which already, to our thinking, require the interfer-
ence of the Government authorities. Somewhere
between one and two hundred loads of potatoes wer-
exposed for sale in the market of the above-mentioned
city on Saturday last, every individual tuber
of which was infected with the prevalent rotten-
ness ; and these pernicious roots were vended to the
poorer classes at prices varying from fourpence to
sixpence. Surely food in a partial state of putrefac-
tion cannot but prove a very deleterious article of
consumption, and would be more likely than any-
thing at this season to produce dysentery, and
cholera, and cholics sufficient to increase the morta•
lity of the districts in which they are devoured. It
is from parsimony in these preliminary cases that
many unnecessary and irksome expenses
(such as the establishment of fever hosiitals,
and other sanatory proceedings) have been
entailed upon the nation. It is another
exemplar of the fallacy of the "penny wise" system.
Nothing indeed can justify official lassitude in mo
meats of such emergency. We ask common sense il
such particulars as the following do not demonstrate
the necessity of preventing the Irish population from
satisfying their hunger with the decaying fibrine of
these infected potatoes; we ask honest feeling i
charity should not instigate the Government to
such a movement, after reading as follows?
The diseased potatoes while boiling reek with
disgusting odours ; they are altogether tasteless to
the palate, and are surcharged with a watery fluid !
Must not a vegetable of that description prove most
detrimental to its consumers? Is it not the breeding
of disease in a spurious effort to alleviate the pangs of
hunger ? Does it not stand to reason that a legu-
minous food, in a state of decomposition, cannot by
possibility afford wholesome nourishment ? There is
already a deficiency, and that deficiency is not merely
from a diseased imagination, but from diseased
potatoes. Unless these infected tubers are pre-
vented from being sold in the public markets—just
as putrid meat cannot be offered for sale under
penalty—much blame will necessarily be attached
either to the local authorities, the relief com-
mittees, or the Executive itself. " The offence
is rank,; it smells to heaven !" Some preventative
measures must be adopted forthwith.
Besides this suppression of unwholesome food, the
deficiency must be met by a proportionate importa-
tion of wholesome provisions. Already some Irish
merchants are making arrangements for the importa-
tation of Indian corn : let them profit by the example
of the late Administration, by importing it on a scale
compatible with the deficiency. They will, unhap-
pily, find it no unprofitable speculation.

Madrid journals of the 18th have arrived.
Don FRANCISCO D'Assts, who arrived in Madrid
on the day preceding, had been received in
the most gracious manner by the QUEEN and
the QUEEN-MOTHER. They had appeared together
in public, and the Herald() of the 18th has an article
in which the claim of Don FRANCISCO to the hand
of the QUEEN is most energetically supported. Ac-
cording to the Tiempo, Don ENRIQUE has been in-
vited return to Madrid. The return of NARVAEZ
is also spoken of as an event soon to be expected.
Mr. BULWER still continued very ill.
A fire, supposed to have been the work of incen-