The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-24 00:00:00

mint or irate commentaries. We do this solely becaus
we are desirous of presenting our readers with a speci-
men of the kind of moral (?) force with which a rotten
cause is attempted to be bolstered up, and because, more •
over, we conceive the facts themselves are the most bitter
reproof which can be pronounced against the culpable.
A brief but significant episode in the electioneer-
ing contest of South Nottinghamshire will possibly
be remembered by most parties ; it transpired upon the
declaration of the state of the poll at Newark, and bore
reference more particularly to the opposite candidates.
Lord LINCOLN taxed his antagonist with having accused
himself or his committee of bribery in canvassing ; he
stigmatised this accusation as "a deliberate falsehood,"
though he did not apply that expression of rebuttal to
Mr. HILDYARD personally, seeing that that gentleman
must "of course have stated it on the authority of
another ;" he required the announcement of that
authority from his opponent as a gentleman and
as a Member for the county ; or, at the least, he re-
minded him that the enactments against bribery were
still open, and inquired if he intended a prosecution ?
Mr. HILDYARD in reply, acknowledged having charged
(not his Lordship, but) the free-trade committee of
Nottingham with the grossest species of corruption; that
charge he wished again most distinctly to asse-
verate ; he was prepared, in fact, to prove by
the most incontestible evidence that those free-
traders had tendered a bribe of 23/. to two of his
own constituents, for the purpose of engaging their votes
for the opposite interest; at the same time, however, he
declined divulging his authority, while he cautiously ab-
stained from pledging himself to a prosecution of the
accused committee. This latter evidence of prudence on
the part of the newly-elected legislator, nevertheless
elicited from the mob of his supporters a valiant decla-
ration of their resolve to carry out the prosecution.
Since that period, up to the present moment, nothing
whatever has been heard of any proceedings, however
small, having been taken to substantiate so sweeping
and damning an accusation against a large body of re-
spectable gentlemen. Nothing whatever. Not a single
whisper of elucidation ; not one solitary indi:ation of
the proofs which had been so loudly and ostentatiously
I vaunted 1 The accusation, however, hxd been uttered !
A gross, a most heinous, and most despicable crime had
been imputed to the free-trade committee oF
Nottingham. They stood before their fellow-
men branded with a supposed guilt. Silence,
under these peculiar circumstances, was of course
impossible; the members of Lord LINCOLN'S committee
had characters individually to defend, and a character
collectively to maintain. These considerations im-
pelled their chairman, Mr. THOMAS HERBERT, Mayor
of Nottingham, to address a communication on the 12th
of March to Mr. HILDYARD, inquiring therein if the parti-
culars of the election proceedings at Newark, above enu-
merated, and published in the Nottingham Journal, were
accurately reported, and if so, requiring Mr. HILDYARD
either " to substantiate the same, or openly to ackowledge
that he had been misinformed on the matter," accompany-
ing this requisition with a most absolute repudiation of the
charge as false, both on his own part as chairman, and
his colleagues, as members of the free-trade committee.
To this letter the lion. Member fur Nottingham returns
a laconic answer on the 14th March, stating the " re-
port" in question to be " substantially correct," and
declaring that he can perceive no reason for altering his
opinions as therein expressed. Two other letters were
thereon forwarded by Mr. HERBERT at different tines
to Mr. HILDYARD, " once more emphatically denying
the truth of the charge," and requiring from him that
he " will at once either endeavour to substantiate that
charge, or have the manliness to retract it." To the
last of these very justly imperative epistles the Hon.
Member at length sends a tardy and unwilling reply, on
the Bth of the present month, simply referring the Mayor
of Nottingham to his former communication as " the
only explanation it was his intention to make," and
which amounts in fact to no explanation whatever. One
other letter terminates this epistolary squabble—a letter
from the chairman of the free-trade committee, ad-
dressed to Mr. T. B. T. HILDYARD, and couched in the
following langaage
"In bringing to a close this correspondence, and sub-
mitting it to the public, in vindication of myself and
those who acted with me during the late election,
it only remains for me to express my deep regret that you
should be so far mistaken in what is due to your recently
acquired elevation, to say nothing of your personal character,
az to commence your public career with a wretched libel on
a respectable portion of your constituents."
True to our original announcement, we shall not add
to this narrative the addenda of our disgust, or the ap-
pendix of our indignation. Such additions are super-
fluous ; the moral is already so pointed in itself, and
the tale so adorned with its divers characteristics, that
any exposition of the inferences which are alone to be
drawn from it would be in literal truth a matter of the
most complete supererogation.
The fair name of our fellow-men are surely not to be
trifled away with every idle or partizan whim ; even
Taco esteemed it as more precious than lucre or other
mundane riches ; and it is not surprising that the mem-
bers of the free-trade committee of Nottingham are
aroused at the ruthlessness of such an attempt They
may feel satisfied, however, that in the eyes of their
dispassionate countrymen they are fully exonerated from
the charge by the correspondence just published.

The Commissioners of the Woods and Forests have
at length, we are rejoiced to find, turned their attention
to the important subject of the embankment of the
Thames. Among the notices given last night in the
House of Commons, we find the following, by Mr. J.
YOUNG, the Secretary to the Treasury
A Bill to empower the Commissioners of her Majesty's IN oods
to form a royal park in Battersea-flelds, in the county of Surrey."
.4 A 11111 to enable the Commissioners of her Majesty's Woods to
construct an embankment and roadway on the north shore of the
river Thames, from Battersea-bridge to Vauxhall-bridge, and to
build a suspension-bridge over the said river, at or near Chelsea
Hospital, with suitable approaches thereto, including a street from
Lower Sloane-street to the northern extremity of the bridge."
This is excellent as far as it goes. As to the advan-
tages to be derived from the formation of a park in Bat-
tersea, we presume there can be but one opinion ; and
the embankment of the Thames from Battersea-bridge
to Vauxhall-bridge is a plan which, as the com-
mencement of a grand series of embanktnents,
is deserving of every support. But why do
the Commissioners stop at Vauxhall-bridge ? Surely,
if the public accommodation requires the em-
bankment of the Thames from Battersea to Vauxhall,
still more urgently does the public accommodation re-
quire the embankment of the Thames from Vauxhall
to Westminster ; and most of all is an embankment re-
quired from Westminster to London-bridge. Such an
embankment would act as an easement to the great tho-
roughfare from the \Vest-end to the City, via the Strand,
Fleet-street, and Cheapside; and let those who entertain
the least doubt as to the absolute necessity of some such
easement, attempt to pass through Fleet-street or
Cheapside, at any time of the day between the
hours of eleven in the morning and six in the even-
ing, and their doubts will have vanished before
they shall have persevered in their attempt halt
an hour. Some months since a scheme was propounded
for the formation of a company for making such an em-
bankment, which should at the same time afford rail-
way accommodation to the inhabitants of the metropolis.
It was stated at the time that the proposed plans
met with the approval of the Government, but the
November panic affected this, as it did several
other less worthy proposals. It was a plan, however,
which, if carried out, would have conduced largely
to the public accommodation, ani it ought not to be
abandoned.

Madrid papers and letters to the 16th instant have been
received, They state that the differences among the new
Ministers still continued unadjusted. In addition to the
other differences, it is said that the Ministry are disagreed
Santiago
as to the policy to be pursued with regard to the Court of
ocßome. It was rumoured that an intrigue was on foot to
set General SERRANO at the head of the new Ministry,
in which 31. SALAMANCA would have the portfolio of
finances. M. IsTunrrz had been sent for several times by the
QUEEN, on the 15th and 16th. The Esperanza announces
that General VILLALOSGA, the Captain-General of Galacia,
entered c
u pied th
on
placethe lhlaltis e,
fled
thato Vigo th eairtilds uprgeennttesN,evrti.l
as
r o
had,
both yr • inch places were in their possession. It is stated that
the Portuguese Government have adopted measures to pre-
vent them from receiving succours from that country.
El Tiempo publishes a letter from M. EGANA, in which
the worthy
nominee of Cmusysta denies that he is an Abso-
lutist, and takes credit to himself for having for the last
twenty years rendered essential service to the Liberal party.
The Eco (LI Comereio says, " It is reported that the whole
Ministry has resigned, and an old Minister of Queen Clams-
TiNa., sent for to form a new Cabinet refused that honour."
There was a-report of a Ministry under GONZALES BRAVO,
whilst others talk of PacisEco, and rumours are afloat that
the powers in the highest places were at a loss what course
to take.

NAnvalz haa left Bayonne for Paris, where he was ex-
pected to arrived on Wednesday. Dun ENRIQUE was still
at Bayonne.

MADRID BOLSA, Arno. 16.—Three per Cents., 301%, for
31°11eY ; Five per Cents., not quoted; Bank of St. Ferdinand,
280 ; Bank of Isabella, 170; Company of Probity, 185 ;
Company of Iris, 130 ; General Assurance, 85 ; Alliance, 160 ;
Anchor, lcs ; G C , 600. k:Achanges--London, 37% ;
Paris,l6 3. 94 "aPan,,

aid-e,--srapers of Wednesday
The Paris
Journ
ats publishes the 0
first ex • '
emulation of LECOMTE f
ilii
oawv ehibge been
particulars of
Thethe
" At 12 o'clock this day Lecomte was conveyed in a hack-
ney-coach from the Coneiergeri,?, to the prison of the Lux-
ellibourto Ti
; -..e has been interrogated by the ChancelloY and
the s`-" Daki3sioners appciuted by the Court. At 5 o'clock