The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, FEERITART 16, 1846.

The intelligence brought by di,- Ilibernia from the United
States possesses no new feature Unmeaning debates were
going on in Congress; acrimonious attacks were made day
after day by the more violent si eakers upon England ; no
quesiim has yet been decided. an duo journal or cone-
strident can tell • when there is a chance . of
numerous motions respeeting Oregon, the ba-
lance
of power, and the el her - topics set forth
in Mr. POLK'S MessaMr. PAKEN AM ge being broth lit to a close. Whether
d Mr. Buo:t 1v to have again entered
into negotiations we have no in,orinotion to show, but
,it is
extremely likely that the
in-
structions from England, audone nlaYbe waiting for in-
Stethat tli u-other will not be in-
clined to take any new
aspttsi.
ttaite..the opinions of Con-
gress have been more fully
Indped we cannot
see how the two negotiators can I._newdth
PRESIDENT declares that Amerie. a'rnfterence. The •
territory, and that any part of it cabmotbe
out
sacrificing the honour and interePtlA f the repUbli.L. gash
ggrkventouthwe
iwthhole
Houses. appear to have taken their tore from this, docutnent,
and, what is more, they have assuire:. the settlement of , the
affair, and almost deprived the Lee, ut.veof any power toast,
Till they come to some decision, theie•ore, the people of both
.countries must remain in suspense ; but, as we have all
along said, the Oregon question is a very small affair.
Mexico, and TCxas, and Califon! ta :roved into the scene
much sooner than was anticipated, Slid judging from the most
correct accounts that can be gathers ti from the papers, we
may anticipate some serious events in a very brief 'period
both in Mexico and Texas. The iiihabitants, .and more
especially the military, are but little satisfied with the pro-
ceeduigs of the ex-President IlEttt; tr. ; they naturally be-
lieve that the honour, the rights, mid the security of the
.country have been sacrificed, that rAirery has been prac-
tised in high quarters, and that Tex is had been sold to
the Americans, merely to put money into the pockets
of a few debased Mexicans. nether it was lost
by
bribery or imbecility, no one can eny that the whole
transaction is the most disgraceful o-.•. :eoord, and that every
man in Mexico of an independent spirit, and possessing any
spark of patrotism, must feel humble ovy the cession of such
a valuable territory and the
near
hproeancth
Tohfi thef feeling
Americans to the seat ofgov::m
has g.:1,1).! rise to the sudden revolution enected by Paseemi;sg,

TUE

and the flame, it appears, burst forth as soon as the arrival of •
the American Envoy was made known. On an instant,
meetings of the people, as well as the officers of the army,
were held, and resolutions were adopted denouncing the late
Government for refusing to defend Texas, for setting at defi-
ance the will of the army and people, and for actually treating
with the Minister of the United States for the sale of Cali-
fornia as well as Texas. So unanimous and decided was the
movement, that PAREDES had only to dec'are himself as a
defender of the nation's rights and honour to be installed as
ruler. The American Envoy upon this retreated, and most
probably has furnished & flaming account to his Governmeat of
the violence displayed, and the warlike movements directed,
against the newly adopted state ; for it appears that the
naval forces in the Gulf of Mexico have been increased, and
the army on the Rio Grande is fully prepared to
act either on the defensive er offensive. Per-
sons who know the intriguing disposition of certain
American agents anticipated some such result. The
incessp.nt negotiations carried on at Mexico gave rise to
just suspicions that an amicable settlement was not the
point aimed at, but that demands were to be made and in-
sisted upon which the Mexicans could not submit to,
in order that they might be excited to violence,
and commit some acts which would justify the
United States in fighting, not for Texas, but
for Mexico itself. They have gained their object as far as
this point i s considered, but we confidently believe that they
have overshot the mark. England and France with the
greatest reluctance yielded to the resolution of the
Texan Congress by which they united the country
to America. They had no other resource, because they
• had acknowledged the independence of Texas ; but
affairs now assume a different shape. A war between the
United States and Mexico is a matter of no ordinary occur-
rence for them, and Mr. Posit and General CASS will pro-
; bably soon find that their favourite and selfish doctrine of
" non-in terterence" will be practically as well as virtually set
at nought.

A sense of abstract benevolence, no doubt, first originated
the enctien of such establishments as gaols and houses of
correction ; but experience has long proved the fallacy of
such endeavours to retard the extension of crime. The
scheme ;and its proposed influence upon national morality)
is essan tially theoretical. Time has displayed this with the
most pain luldistinctness. By punishing the perpetrator of cri-
minal vflences, the Legislature has began amelioration at the
wrong end : hydra-like, the vicious among the population
have started up in succession, as each individual case was
dispOsed off: the branches were lopped off, but the vegeta-
tion .was far from being retarded ; each excretion of crime in
the land was but another bough to be submitted like its pre-
decevcrs to the pruning-knife of the judicial courts. The
source ofsocial vice should have been abruncated—the roots
should have been themselves tom away : the cause should have
been eradicated—and the effects would then, both necessarily
and spontaneously have disappeared. Thank GOD how-
ever. the malady is now too generally acknowledged to be
much longer screened (by prejudices) against some vigorous
etlort at its destruction : thank GoD ! the age of theoretic
Liliiranthrophy has departed, and the present generation
is too practical to content itself with an experimental
ale viation : thank GOD ! the very revenues of the
einpire are interested in decreasing the extravagant ex-
penses annually incurred by the prevalence of crime. It
must, indeed, be a matter of the most earnest self-congratu-
lation to every individual—and who would not wish to be
classed amongst the number ?—desirous of seeing the disse-
mination of happiness among the poorer classes of the
community in active and permanent operation; it must)
we repeat, be a matter of earnest self-congratulation
to those individuals that parties influential in the further-
ance of these objects are no longer lying dormant, but are, on
the contrary, using the boldest and manliest exertions to ef-
fect, and that immediately, the regeneration of a debased and
neglected multitude. On Saturday several of these
personages assembled at the Mansion-house, for the
purpose of listening to a proposition which ,it
was understood would be submitted to their consi-
deration by Mr. CHARLES PEARSON, the City Solicitor; and
although there are a few subordinate points which, in our es-
timation, are scarcely tenable, the conception of that gentle-
man's plan is so excellent, and the details of the statement
are so conclusive, that we trust it may not be tee precipi
,tately abandoned. The primary object of the proposed ar-
rangement is the reduction of the number of criminals, and
the medium through which this object should be most effec-
tually attained—the reformation of "Juvenile Offenders." The
sagacity and truth of this deduction must be ostensible : it
is not, in fact, so much the diminution of misery as the
diffusion of blessings : it is not so much the medicine to
heal as the aliment to nourish : it is not so much
a correction if evil as it is an incentive to good. Mr.
PEARSON gronnds his arguments as to the necessity that
exists for some measure of this description upon vary sub-
stantial bases : he draws his inferences from Parliamentary
returns and documents of a like nature. From the
manner in which he has anatomised these statistical papers
we obtain some most startling and terrible facts as to
the degenerate condition into which the children of the
humbler classes are lapsed : thus we learn ignorance and
penury are more dire and horrible among these luckless crea-
tures than the wildest pictures of fancy could realise ; w e learn
that vice has had a greater ratio of increase than the popu-
lation itself—that one has outstripped the other in
its grim progress—a fact most hideous in its
consequences—a fact sufficient in itself to impel the question
of some change in our moral code to a settlement, and that
forthwith. When, however, Mr. PEARSON ascribes this ex-
tension of crime among the juvenile portion of the populace
to the "transition from war to peace, or to the substitution of the
new police in lieu of our former Dogberries," or to the "payment
of the prosecutors' expenses out of county rates," rather than
to the torpor into which the intellects of these unhappy
children are permitted to subside through the absence of all
education, or again to the goadings-on of destitution, we must
be permitted, to a certain limit, to differ from him in his con-
clusions. But in ascribing the increase in a great measure to those
summary convictions by which the magistracy are now em-
powered to imprison a youthful culprit,--(and a culprit, be it
remembered, for some paltry pecadillo)—we fully and em-
phatically coincide with the City Solicitor : we acknowledge
the correctness of his observation that by this baneful practice
"a child becomes acclimated to the atmosphere of a geol.',
The plan by which Mr. PEARSON maintains these social
gangrenes might be thoroughly extracted is simple and
feasible enough : he proposes that national asylums be
established, in which children of both sexes shall be clothed,
and fed, and eucatcd, forming a kind of "reformatory
establishment, surrounded with appliances for mental, moral,
religious, and industrial training," He proposes that these
places should be constructed "on the line of the great trunk
railroads, by which children should be transmitted safely to
and from any part of the kingdom." He proposes that
" out- door labour should be united with instruction in me-
chanical employment," so as to invigorate the bodies of the pu-
pils until they are capacitated" for apprenticeship in this coun-
try or the colonies." For one-third of the price entailed upon
the nation by the existing laws for prosecutions, imprison-
ments, and transportations, all these noble achievements could,
according to Mr. PeartsoN's calculation, be effected; the
charge, as now upon criminal expenses, falling directly on
the parents, and in default of these upon the parish. This
daring hint at innovation received on Saturday the sanction
of the Bishop of LoesDos, Lord GRA:swim-on, Mr. HILL, the
Recorder of BuLmDtorram, with other influential and ex-
perienced personages. May we find this a foretaste of some
great practical movement in the cause of destitute child-
hood, and discover in the end national asylums where
formerly stood the dens of punishment !

We have accounts from Lisbon to the 9th instant, brought
by the Peninsular mail. A strong opposition to the CABRAL
Ministry has been formed, at the head of which is the Duke
DE PALMELLA, who will be supported by the Counts of
TAIPA and LUMIARES, and it is said by nearly the whole of
the ancient nobility. It'is stated that, owing to the thriving
state of home manufactures, the importation of English plods
was falling off to a great extent. The Exchange on London
was 541/ to 54%, at ninety days.

We have received Madrid papers of the 7th and Bth inst.
On the 7th Senor MoN, the Finance Minister, in the Chamber
of Deputies, brought forward the budget for 1846, in which
the expenditure is stated to be 1,225,499,920 reels
(12,250,4991.), and the receipts calculated at 1,227,000,000
reels (12,270,000/.) In making his statements the Minister
said he had not availed himself of the authority granted by
the Cortes to regulate the public:debt. That must be a work
of time ; but he had no doubt that a satisfactory arrange-
ment could be made under the influence of a wise ad-
ministration, a due regard to public credit, and the main-
tenance of internal order and tranquillity. The remarks
of the speaker, as published in the Gazette, display both
,honesty and good sense :
." None are more interested than the Government he the
imiprovement and consolidation of public credit ; none can be
more desirous ,to do justice to the several creditors, both
Sparrish and foreign, who claim payment of the interests due
to them. It, was for This reason that the Government had
obtained of the Cortes permission to regulate the States' debt.
The various vicissitudes which the debt has undergone has
placed it in a situation such that it is better to leave it in its
presentcondition than to make promises, and adopt improve-
ments which cannot be realised at a given period, and con•
stantly and perpetually, With this view it was indispen-
sable to maintain public order at home, and to obtain a good
result from the public Treasury's receipts; as, in this
11 the impulse
oatia et
re-
spect, there is a daily improvement, and public order is se-
cured,a the Government is engaged in giving to this question
necessaryto religiouslyforbringing to:an
ashi-
therto c ' itself interestendit payableh paying the
' according to law, and
80,000,000 reels. ,In wnch last year amounted to above
setingthus the Government has not been
actuated by any preference for h
has been inspiredby the
deep
eentz;.4oebt Kielding interest; it
all hesitation and distrust are in the hilgVst at
in such questions
and that frequent and reiterated acts are thos degreea•
detrimental,
a confidence by no means to be suddenlyy'. ich provoked
The Ministers, Deputies, and Senators, all ardently commands),
to
effect savings in the State's expenses. None whit]." ;lan
ardently. than the Government, which, at every moment,menre-
counters difficulties in the collection of the taxes, and, at
every moment, also, receives remonstrances from those whose
interests are injured. And vet, it is a sad thing to say all
the services paid for by the Mate are necessary, and there is
nothing exorbitant in their remumeration. We have in-
herited the consequences of serious reforms and the debts
of our forefathers. Nevertheless, our zeal leads us far, if it
does not make us wander too far. Not content with having
prohibited, for the future, the granting of pensions, we are,
this year, effecting a reduction of 16,000,000 reels on present
and retired pensions. The question of the Treasury's ar-
rears, arising from the non-accomplishment of engagements
since the year 1828, is a serious and arduous one. The Go-
vernment does not think that the time has come to settle
anything in this respect. Punctuality in payments, with the