The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-06 00:00:00

ittnia_!l tllll

LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 1848.

Foreign discussions in the British Parliament have I
atterly become subjects of profound and engrossing
interest to the population of England. We question
very much, however, whether there has ever been a
debate in the Houie of Commons exclusively devoted
to the consideration of the policy of the Foreign Se-
cretary which will have attracted an attention so
universal and paramount as that which took place
yesterday evening. It was a discussion, in several
particulars, without any parallel whatever. The
subject was important, involving, as it did, the con•
tinuance of an amicable disposition between this coun-
try and one of the principal powers of the European
continent. The interest was new, seeing that the copies
of the correspondence in which it had originated were
scarcely dry from the hands of the Parliamentary
printer. And—which was not the least impor-
tant of the different: circumstances characteristic
of last night's debate—those who participated in the
discussion on the relations between the Cabinets of
London and Madrid were among the most eminent
statesmen and the most renowned orators of an age
by no means undistinguished either in eloquence or
legislation .
After the manly vindication of his conduct pro-
nounced yesterday evening by Lord Joliet Itossnu,
who, we ask, will have tke temerity to condemn,
even to the length of one additional monosyllable,
the course pursued by Sir H. L. BULWER? What we
ourselves have pertinaceously maintained from first to
last received last night the most decisive and unanswer-
able corroboration—the responsibility of the conduct of
our late Ambassador at Madrid is eitioad by the
Government, because that conduct was merely the
result of Sir 11. BULWER'S obedience to the instruc-
tions received by him from Lord PALMERSTON.
Whatever blame, therefore, may be attached to the
fact of the advice transmitted to the Due DE SOTO-.
MAYOR is due to the entire Administration, and not
to a simple ageot of that Administration, like his
Excellency Sir H. BIILWER. Take in its plainest
form the explanation of the whole transaction, as
given by the First Lord of the Treasury. Europe
was convulsed by revolutions, when a remarkable
dispatch was written by her Britannic MassEsTr's
Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs. It was
dictated by a solicitude for the safety of the existing
(overnment of Spuin, a Government which appeared
to every rational mind to be marvellously imperilled
by the adoption of a despotic policy at the very mo.
Mint when the spirit of democracy was becoming
most inexorable and puissant ; and the right possessed
by Great Britain to testify its peculiar solicitude for
the stability of the throne of her Most Catholic
MAIRSTIr was beyond dispute, from the extraordinary

nature of the relations in which England and Spain
stood towards each other. This dispatch, therefore,
—the memorable dispatch in which every
incident of the quarrel has originated
was transmitted to the British Ambassador at
the Court of ISABELLA, and was written in a form
solely intended for the instruction of that Minister.
Hence, the letter was marked " Confidential," and I
such it was fully understood to be by his Excellency
Sir H. BULWER. Subsequently, however, occur-
rences transpired of so unprecedented a, cha-
racter as to fill the mind of our Ambassador with a
profound anxiety for the security of the diadem of
ISABELLA. Influenced by this solicitude, his Excel-
lency personally recommended the QUEEN to sur-
round herself by such councillors as might defend
her throne from the machinations of MONTEMOLIN and
his adherents—leaving entirely to her discretion to
select those councillors either from the Moderadoes
or the Progresistas. So far from this advice
being productive of any beneficial consequence,
it was immediately followed by the concentration of
an extraordinary tyrannical power in the grasp of the
Narvaez Cabinet. Then it was, that,
seeing his in-
dividual recommendations disregarded, knowing that
no record of the fact of those recommendations re-
mained in existence, and being perfectly conscious
that for the sake of the British Government such
record should be forthcoming in the right season,
Sir HENRY BULWER penned his note to the Due de
SOTOMAYOR, enclosing the confidential dispatch ad-
dressed to his Excellency by Lord PALMERSTON.
In so doing the British Ambassador acted no doubt
entirely upon his own discretion ; and for that reason
it devolved upon the, administrators at home to de-
clare whether or no (in their estimation), he
(Sir H. BULWER) had been guided by a discretion at
once sound and expedient. Lord PALMERSTON had
already in the House of Commons exonerated the
English Alinister at Madrid from all censure upon
the matter. Lord LANSDOWNE had also in the House
of Peers pronounced his acquittal from the charge of
rashness. What, we may inquire by way of con-
summation
been
othetshe opinion these actsaofn xss
Ministerial
byo
l approval—
what
j°ll s
E sT has
RUSSELL upon the diplomatic letoteormAwyhoicah?
aroused the indignation of the Duke p
Why, the Prime Minister declared last evening in the
presence of the assembled Parliament, that in
writing the note which enclosed the letter of Lord PAL •
MERSTON to the Foreign Minister of Queen IsaneLpa,
" Sir H. BULWER had acted properly, and had deserved
the approbation of the country." After that explicit de-
claration from the lips of the Premier, what further
exoneration is requisite ? If anything additional
were needed as a palliation to the conduct of the late
Ambassador at Madrid, it would be found in that
profound remark of Sir ROBERT PEEL, that suppos-
ing the Government had abandoned Sir H. BULWER,
after everything that had occurred, such an aban-
donment would in future deter every honest servant
of the Crown from acting upon his discretion in any
emergency. As fur, then, as the Ambassador is per-
sonally implicated in the transaction, his conduct has
received a full and satisfactory extenuation ; and not
only that, but his character has been successively
eulogised by Lord PALMERSTON, by Lord LANS-
DOWNE, by Lord Jous RUSSELL, and by Sir ROBERT
PEEL. 'Whatever demerit there may be on the part of
our British diplomatists is, therefore, attributable exclu-
sively to the Government in the aggregate ; and who
shall pronounce its members, or indeed any one of its
members to be culpable after the impotent retult of the
motion supported last night by the solemnity of Mr.
BANKES, the rancour of Mr. URVIHART, the ob.
stinacy of Sir ROBERT Ixous, and the glittering
sarcasms of Mr. DISRAELI, and opposod as it was by
the candour of Lord MAHON, the blunt avowals of Mr.
HUME, the poetical and enthusiastic eloquence of Mr.
SHELL, as well as by the statesmanlike orations suc-
cessively delivered by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, Sir
ROBERT PEEL and Lord PALMERSTON. It is a cir-
cumstance quite expressive of the opinion entertained
upon this quarrelsome correspondence throughout the
country, that the motion of the Hon. Member for
Dorsetshire was yesterday evening negatived without
a division.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.

The Minister of Justice has been placed in an ex-
traordinary position by his recent vote in favour of
Louis BLANc. The law officers of the Govern-
ment, M. PORTAL'S, the Procureur• General, and M.
LAUDIN, the Procureur of the Republic, have ten-
dered their resignations, and those resignations have
been accepted. M. JULES FAYRN, who acted as
reporter to the Committee which decided against M.
Louis BLANC, has also resigned his office of Under-
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The reason
alleged as the cause of these resignations is not so
much the fact of the Executive Government having
voted in opposition to the law officers, but the conduct
of M. CREMIEUX, the Minister of Justic e. It is asserted,
and in the most deliberate and emphatic manner said,
that M. CREMIEUX expressed his perfect concurrence
in the views of the law-officers, and declared that the
authorisation of the prosecution ought absolutely to
be demanded of the Chamber, and yet when the
matter was brought before the Chamber, the Minister
of Justice voted in direct opposition to his former
clearly-expressed opinion.

" I blushed when I saw the vote of the Minister of
Justice," exclaimed M, JULES FAVRE, for he added
he had read his report to the Minister,
who had listened to it in silence, without
aplpearing to dissent from the opinions it
contained. M. CREMIEUX endeavoured to explain
that his vote in favour of Louis BLANC had been oc-
mimed by his fear that the inviolability of the re-
presentative might be otherwise endangered. The
feeling of the Assembly was, however, evidently
against the Minister.
. M. DEBMAREET has been appointed Procureur of
the Republic, in the place of M. LAUDIN. The suc-
cessor of M. PORTALIS is not yet announced.
The monthly election of the President, Vice-
Presidents, and Secretaries of the Assembly took
place yesterday. M. BUCHEZ declined to offer him-
self again, and M. SENARD was elected in his place
without opposition.
It was feared that considerable disturbances might
have taken place yesterday, in consequence of a most
absurd demand on the part of the workmen on some
of the railways, that the directors should expel the
linglish mechanics and engine-drivers. The
directors, however, remained firm in their refusal
to submit to such an unjust request. The
trains on the Versailles and St. Germains'
lines were stopped in the morning, but
started in the course of the day. It is believed the
directors will continue firm. The Finance Com-
mittee had another sitting yesterday, in which M.
Ducmte, the Minister of Finance, advised the Go-
rnemt to re-purchase the railways, on the ground of
public utility. The Committee admitted the prin-
cipie, but held that in the present case .it did not
apply, as there were regular contracts between the
railways and the State.
The great banquet is to take place next Sunday.
It is thought that 200,000 persons will attend. The
Government are taking every precaution against dis-
turbances.
BOURSE—PARIS, MONDAY, JUNE 5.
THREE o'CLocx.—The news of the defeat of the
Austrians in Italy, and of the fall of Peschiera,.had a
favourable effect on the Bourse to-day, because it was
supposed that the consequence would be the speedy set-
htloewmgletr,of
notth the
extensive.affai r s of lrol);.theTAhecebouusninte, sst,hdeonEerewnacsh,
Three per Cents. have risen 25c.; Five per Cents. have
risen 75c. and the Five per Cents. 75c. also; Bons du
Tii_.or are at 22 discount; Bank of France Shares have
risen 15g., Belgian Bank Shares are at 550, Five per
Cents. the same as on Saturday, Spanish Active not
quoted. Roman has risen 2 per Cent., Rothschild's
Receipts have risen 2 per cent. Exchange on London
(30 'lays), 25 52k; ditto (90 days) 25 12k. Railway
Shares for the Account, nothing done. For Money the
varii.tions are not great. Havres have rises It. 25cs
Maraeilles, Vierzons, Strasbourgs, and Nantes have
fallen If. 2.5 c. Orleans, Versailles, Rouens, Bordeaux,
Northerns, and Lyons remain the same as on Saturday.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, Juzis 5.
Boulogne and Amiens, 6%—Northern of France, 4.4.
Paris and Lyons, 23i—Rouen and Havre, 75/8.

DEPARTURE OF THE COURT FOR THE ISLE OF
Wtoirr.—Her Majesty and suite are expected at Osborne
llouse on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. and Airs. Charles Dickens are on a visit at
Seaforth-hall, the hcspitable mansion of James Mat-
pratt, Esq.—Liverpool Courier.