The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-19 00:00:00

ILIE SUN, LONDO

has been made of a mover (Lord HoME) itsel.
indicates that there has been a difficulty
in obtaining any Peer of standing and influence.
The Duke of WELLINGTON, too, has adopted the
unusual plan of summoning the Conservative Peers to
their duties. All this looks as if there was nut an
entente cordiale between the Government and their
supporters in the U pper House, and that is where the
shoe will pinch if free trade is to be Sir R. PEEL'S
watchword.

The political arithmeticians calculate that for
a free-trade measure Sir ROBERT PEEL may calcu-
late on a majority of about twenty in the House
of Commons. He can depend, it is said, on ninety
Members on his own side, but no more, to follow him
whithersoever he may lead. Reckon 250 supporters
from the Opposition, to be added to the ninety, and
that will give a majority of twenty-four in a House
of 658 Members. Sir ROBERT PEEL may, arid pro-
bably will, carry a thorough free trade measure
through the House of Commons. He has no chance
of carrying a half-measure. With the Lords he must
take his chance in either case : and he has as much
chance of wincing Conservative Peers to free trade
as to any minor tampering with protection. Indeed,
they will probably be of the same mind with the Ox-
fordshire farmer, that "it is better to be drowned at
once than ducked to death."

But, apart from, and above all questions of carrying
measures and retaining power, if Sir ROBERT PISL
looks to his own permanent reputation as a statesman,
there can be no doubt as to the course which he will
adopt. Half-measures have been his system hitherto.
There have been enough of them, and he has now
held power long enough to be able to judge of their
success. The new sliding-scale of 1842, the tariff of
1842, the Sugar Bill of 1844, the tariff
of 1845—have these satisfied either friends or
opponents ? Have they gone far enough in the
application of right principles to win for him the
confidence of the people ? Have they not gone too
far to preserve for him the confidence of those who
brought him into power P Ills hue resignation has
placed him in a new position, in which he is free and
disengaged from all his former party shackles. He
has been born again ; let us hope that a new policy
will be the first fruit of his regeneration. What if
he fail in his attempt to give free trade to the people
of England : his defeat in such a cause will be more
glorious than all the party victories which his skill
as a tactacian has ever achieved for him ; and to have
endeavoured to carry free trade in accordance with
his own convictions, will, even if he fails, be here.after
infinitely more pleasing to look back upon, and infi-
nitely more conducive to posthumous fame, than to
have preserved power by skilfulness of tactics, and
for a few years longer kept together, in seeming
union, the discordant elements of his party.

In animadverting on the strange maxims put forth
by the American PRESIDENT in his Message to Con-
gress, M• GUIZOT said, "We admire what is great
and noble in the American institutions. The United
States will exercise an immense influence on the des-

tinies of the human race, and no ene can be asto.
niched that we watch their progress with a vigilan

eye." The vast and rapid increase of this republic
is a matter of common observation, but, in fact, it is
only commencing its career, and the effects of its
future progress in regard to France, as well as every
European state, could not fail to excite the apprehen-
sions and vigilance of such a sagacious Minister as
M. Guizor. This progress is calculated to excite
still stronger apprehensions when combined with the
intimation made formerly by MUNROE, and 'repeated
by POLK, that America will suffer the inter-
ference of 'no European power—in other, words,
that she will continue to extend her frontier
by encroaching on her neighbours, that she will add
new states to her Union, by foul or fair means, sub-
mit to no arbiter in any disputes that may arise, and
exemplify to the fullest extent the law of the impe-
rious conqueror—" Sic volo, sic jubeo." Hitherto,
!all the conquests made by this rising power have
been made peaceably : we mean without having re-
course to force of arms, if we except the wars
against the helpless Indians of Florida and the West,
but they have generally been accomplished by taking
suivantage of the weakness or necessities of some
E uropean power, or by the most deceitful policy.
The mode in which Texas was acquired is certainly
the most reprehensible of all. France, by a strange
oversight, recognised the independence of that country
in 1833, and in 1840 England followed the mischievous
er ample. They induced Mexico to accede to their
ews, and no sooner were these points carried than
the! Texians, so intimately allied with the United
St ates, and who so completely deceived both England
an d France, threw off the mask and carried into effect
th e secret contract made with the rulers in America.
On this score, therefore, Mexico has a great claim on
the sympathy and protection of these two great
p ovvers. She has been robbed through their means
of an important district, which formed a barrier
age inst the south-west States of the Union, and
Me xico Proper is now laid open for inroads from any
qua rter. The comprehensive scheme is in active pro-
gress; California is the next conquest, and unless
speedy and effective measures are adopted, that de-
fent eless and divided country will be completely
heui ned in by numerous tribes of Anglo-Saxons, owing
allegiance to the United States, and sure of protection
fro to them in every lawless adventure. In the whole
hislory of the world there is no instance of a young
sta to rising to such gigantic power in the same period
ancl by similar means. But the progress is going on
will, fearful rapidity. An extension of territory is
at present the rage of the whole nation; one
party has its eyes fixed on Canada and Oregon ;
ens her on California and Mexico; and a
thi c( I on Cuba, St. Domingo, and Jamaica;
and: ',unless European powers show more spirit and
energy, and more regard to self-preservation, the re-
sults may be of the most fearful importance. The
me rc antile shipping of the United States, with only
one 'side of the American continent open to it, stands
ne. a t after that of England, and is every
ye ate increasing. What, therefore, will it be when
n( ,t only the Atlantic, on the east, but
ae whole Gulf of Mexico, on the south, and the
v ast expanse of the Pacific, on the west, furnish the
nest certain means for extending it to every quarter
()f the globe ? When California and Oregon are
sufficiently peopled, and the astonishing and rapid
increase of settlers in the Mississippi, the Ohio, and
/other western States, shows that the period is not
far distant, they will have for the field of their
commercial operations all the islands in the Chinese
and Japan seas, and even the numerous possessions
.of England in the Southern Archipelago, including
.Australia, Van Diemen's Land, and New Zealand.
'Oregon of itself is comparatively nothing, but, as a
:means to an end, is of the very first importance,
e .nd England cannot give up one inch of her
t erritory in that quarter without sacrificing
her best interests, and exposing her commerce
in the east to manifest danger. Humane persons
fn re constantly crying out for peace with America,
and exclaiming against wicked rulers, who would go
to) war for a barren strip of uncultivated territory,
-without for a moment looking to the consequences,
tend forgetting altogether the awful calamities
which will be inflicted on the human race by
the annexation of Texas, and the further pro-
gress of American encroachments in the south. At
present the slave population of the United States
amounts to three millions ; in a short time it will
:probably be doubled, and independent of the corporeal
sufferings of this enslaved race, we shall thus behold
some six millions of human beings in one country,
.who are by the acts of the Legislature debarred
from the light of truth, and absolutely prohibited even
from learning to read the Bible. By one of these Acts,
it was declared felony to teach a slave to read and
write, England has generously contributed to the
emancipation of her own slaves ; but, is she
guilty of no crime in standing by, apparently
unconcerned, while the horrible system is daily in-
,
creased, and slavery is approaching, by rapid strides,
towards her West India possessions ? England and
France now incur a fearful responsibility, and their
conduct at this crisis will be severely scrutinised by
Suture generations.

Madrid journals of the 11th inst. announce that
the two sons of Don FRANCISCO DE PAULA, Don
HENRIQUE, and Don Faericisco D'ASSIS, had left
Madrid agreeably to the orders of the Government—
the former for Ferrol and the latter for Pampeluna.
On the previous day an explanation took place in the
chamber of Deputies relative to the affair between