The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1846.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the Woolsack at
Five o'clock.

Various petitions on the subject of the corn-laws were

presented.

In answer to the Marquis of LONDONDERRY on the sub-
,}eat of the alleged persecution of the nuns of Minsk,
The Earl of ABERDEEN said he had received an official
communication from Russia denying the truth of the
rumours in circulation on the subject, and stating that the
depositions alleged to have been taken at Rome were gross
fabrications.

Lord DENMAN then rose to draw their Lordships' attention
to the amendments which he proposed in the Irish Pacifica-
tion Act. He objected to giving the Lord Lieutenant the
pov
and r
thought
proclaiming a county for the commission of one crime,
it would be better to require a requisition from
three magistrates preparatory to proclaiming a county.
He also objected to punishing a person found out of his house
after nightfall with transportation for seven years, which in
many cases must be transportation for life. He thought
imprisonment a
He quite grave enough for H such an offence. e wished to see a power given to change
the venue, but this ought topliae4o
made the subject of a general
law, applicable to everythe United Kingdom.
Then with regard to the 20th clause, providing punishment
for persons intimidating witnesses, thought that that
also should be made the subject of a general law, applic-
able to the whole kingdom.
Lord BROUGIIAM denied that transportation vr
punish-
ment to be inflicted for a night offence. It wasla a necessary
that the person should be found to be out under auspicious
alarY
circumstances, and not upon his lawful occasions, and even
if so convicted, the punishment was left to the discretion of
the Judge, besides, the being out must take place in a
proclaimed district, which gave to every one going
out warning that he was to provide evidence that he was out
upon his lawful occasions. He thought there was no great
anomaly in this enactment, and that unless they held out
the tenor of transportation the Act would fail in effect.
The Bill was for three years, but if it did not produce tran-
quility then, it would be their duty to have recourse to more
stringent measures.
Earl GREY argued against the clause punishing absence
from home at night by transportation, as one subjecting every
Irish peasant who might desire not to be confined to his mi-
serable cabin for 16 hours to the punishment of transportation.
It was contrary to natural justice, and it would be better to
make the possession of weapons, the being disguised, or the
being assembled in multitudes, a distinct offence.
The case held by the Noble and Learned Lord (Brougham)
who had undertaken the advocacy of this clause, required a
great deal of bolstering up, and he could not congratulate
the Noble and Learned Lord on the success of his advocacy.
Lord BROUGHAM explained.
The Earl of St. Gsmirass felt obliged to the Lord Chief
Justice for stating Lie objections. With regard
to the proclamation of a district he thought the
proposed measure requiring that the Lord Lieutenant
shoulda not have the power of proclaiming a district
unless a crime had been committed there, was
rathern a check on the power of the Lord Lieutenant.
With regard to the change of venue, he agreed with the
Noble and Learned Ia rd, as also with regard to
the 20th claus which he would leave out if
be were certain of some general measure passing on the
subject. Then with regard to the punishment of transporta-

Non for absence from home, that had been so ably argued
by the Noble and Learned Lord that he would not allude
to it further. The misdemeanour itself was one characterised
by such different degrees of guilt that he thought the pun-
ishment ought to be left, as proposed by the Bill, to the
discretion of the Judge.
The Earl of STRADBROKE thought that persons out at
night, not armed, should not be subject to a greater punish-
ment than imprisonment, and that those found out armed
should be subject to transportation.
Lord CAXPBELL complained that several of the amend-
ments introduced on Friday did not appear in the Bill
printed, as amended in Committee. He hoped that the sug-
gestions of the Noble Earl (STRADBROKE) would be
adopted.
The LORD CHANCELLOR explained that it was understood
that the amendments alluded to by his Noble and Learned
Friend were intended to be proposed in the report. With
regard to the Bill of the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE, he would give
it his hearty support. With regard to the punishment for
being out after dark, it was admitted that the punishment
ought to be discretionary, and the only question was as to the
limit of the discretion.
Earl ST. GERMANS explained.
After a few words from the Duke of RICHMOND,
The Marquis of CLANRICAADE declared that he thought
some such measure was necessary for the protection of the
lives and properties of her Majesty's subjects in Ireland.
The Earl of Wic-xLow hoped that, as the Bill was to be
postponed to Monday, the interim would be devoted to the
reconsideration of the clause inflicting the punishment of
transportation on persons found out after sunset.
After a few words from Lord Monteagle, and explana-
tions from the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of St. Germain,
Lord Brougham, and Lord Denman, the House adjourned.

The SPEAK= took the Chair at Four o'clock.
On the motion of Mr. Youwo, a new writ was ordered for
Windsor in the room of RALPH NEVILLE, Esq., who has ac-
cepted the office of one of the Lords of the Treasury.
Mr. T. DUNCONLBE presented a petition complaining of
the mismanagement of the Post-office.

Mr. CARDWELL in answer to a question from Dr. Bow-
RING, observed that he could not state whether any mea-
sures had been taken in order to give to the Australian
Colonies the benefit of steam navigation.
Sir R. PEEL gave notice of his intention to-morrow to
move for the production of various returns illustrative of the
commercial policy pursued of late years.
Sir G. CLERK, in answer to a question from Sir C. NAPIER,
stated that he was unable to say when he should be able to
bring forward the Merchant Seamen's Bill.
Sir R. PEEL, in answer to a question from Mr. O'CoYNELL,
said that everything had and would be done by
the Government to obviate the impending famine
and disease in Ireland, and he believed that in
the course the Government had adopted they would
be assisted by the proprietors of land and the moneyed gentry
of Ireland. If the resolutions that went through Committee
on Friday were adopted on the report to-night, Indian corn,
buck wheat, and rice would be admitted duty free, and he
trusted that that would considerably relieve the wants of
the people of Ireland. He trusted that the Hon. and
Learned Gentleman would not call upon him to enter
into the details of the course that was proposed to
be adopted by the Government.
Sir R. PEEL, in answer to a question from Mr. M. GinsoN,
said that it was proposed by the Government with respect to
all articles in the tariff, immediately upon the passing of the
resolutions, to issue a Treasury order that they should be ad-
mitted immediately upon the lower rate of duty.
Mr. GREENE brought up the report on the resolutions
agreed to on Friday night, relative to the duties on corn,
grain, meal, flour, &c.
After a short discussion, in the course of which. Mr. LID-
DELL stated that it was not his intention to trouble the
House any further with respect to the timber duties,
Sir R. PEEL stated that the existence of the order of the
Treasury, which he proposed to issue with respect to the
articles in the tariff on which the duty was to be reduced,
would depend upon the Bill on the subject being
adopted or rejected by the House. As to maize, buck wheat,
and rice, he proposed to issue a Treasury order immediately
to admit them at a nominal duty, but that order would be
dependent on the fate of the Bill he proposed to introduce
founded on the resolutions.

Mr. W. MILES would not divide the House upon the reso-
lution with respect to Indian corn, buck-wheat, and rice,
as the Right Hon. Baronet had stated that the order of the
Treasury would be dependent upon the fate of the Bill to be
introduced upon the subject.
Mr. CARDWELL said that there was no ground for sup-
Dosing that the introduction of Indian corn would interfere
with the interests of the British agriculturists.
Mr. NEWDEGATE denied that Indian corn would ever be-
come a staple article of food in this country.
Mr. S. CRAWFORD would like to see even the shilling duty
that was to be retained on Indian corn removed.
Mr. HuME hoped to see Indian wheat made an article of
food where wheat could not be obtained.
After some discussion, the ether r esolutions and reports were
agreed to, and Bills founded upon them were ordered to be
brought in.
The House then went into Committee on Customs (the
tariff), in the course of which it was arranged that the unop-
posed resolutions should be taken first, and that the discus •
sions on the reeolutions that were opposed, especially those
with respect to silk and brandy, should be taken upon the
bringing. up of the report on Friday.
Mr. Ewaux then moved that modern foreign books should
be admitted duty free, upon which a short discussion took
place, after which the motion was withdrawn.
The other resolutions of the tariff having been gone
through,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL said that there were many
articles of manufacture on which it was proposed to put
a duty of 10 per cent ; that was all well enough as long
as the corn-law lasted, but when it terminated in 1849
he could not see the policy or the justice of continuing
that duty.
Sir R. PEEL thought the proposal he had made was
a fair one, and at the end of three years it was perfectly
open to reconsider the question as to the remission of
the duty.
Mr. T. BARING did not think that by the remission
of the duty of 10 per cent. the consumer would obtain
the article one farthing cheaper. If these duties were
to be removed, resort must bo had to direct taxation
upon increase.
Air. HU3IE trusted that the Right Hon. Baronet
would look to direct taxation as the principal means of
raising the revenue.
Sir R. PEEL said that the reductions that had been made
last year with respect to the duty on glass and auctions
had saved no less than 50,0001. in salaries to officers. It
was his intention to move to-morrow for returns with re-
spect to wool, flax, and several other articles, in order to
illustrate the commercial policy of the country.
Mr. HUDSON said, if they adopted a principle it must be
carried out to its full extent, and with respect to every in-
terest.
The remaining resolutions were then agreed to, and
ordered to be reported on Friday.
The House then went into Committee of Supply, and
certain votes were taken on account of the army and navy,
agreeably to the arrangements made in the early part of
the evening.
The Metropolitan Buildings (Salaries to Officers) Bill was
reported.
The Metropolitan Buildings (No. 2.) Bill went through
Committee, and was ordered to be reported to-morrow.
The Crwicatton. of the EXCHEQUER brought in the Corn
Importation Bill, which was read a first time, and ordered to
be read a second time on Monday next.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of and the
House adjourned.

The American President, and those who concur in his opi-
nions, have the best reasons in the world for interdicting all
interference on the part of European powers in the affairs of
North America. When thieves lay plots for breaking into a
house, or committing highway robberies or any other nefa-
rious acts injurious to their neighbours, they would willingly
forbid the interference of the police if they had the
power and the impudence of Mr. POLK ; but, fortunately, the
law is too strong for them, and they are compelled therefore
to confine themselves to stratagems, and plots, and bribes.
Robbers on a grand scale have thus a great advantage over
them. Power in the eyes of these gentlemen gives right;
they lay claim to privileges and immunities which
paltry robbers dare not •put forward in their de-
fence, they define the laws of nations as suits their
purpose, and when the VarrEis, and PUFFENDORBS,
and Sams decide against them, they make a new code of
their own, and with the most barefaced contempt of justice,
morality, and religion, they assert that these laws were made
for slaves, for men who meanly submitted to the authority
of a king or an emperor, and who therefore never had any
correct notions of the great principles of liberty. It was for
the free-born sons of the American Republic to dispel these vain
delusions, and place international laws as well as internal
laws on an entirely new footing. These, in fact, are the very
theories inculcated by the new morality at Washington, and
the reasons why thy are inculcated, and the objects in
view are not one whit better founded, or more honest than
the most illegal and widsed schemes of a band of thieves
on a small scale. At the preonat moment, more, perhaps, than
at any former period, has the American Executive reasons
for declaiming against those laws 'which England and France,
and every European power, have long held sacred, and re-
garded as the firmest bond of peace end good order. A grand
deeign has been for some time in operation against Mexico.
Many of the states belonging to that republic are very
conveniently situated for the squatters of North America ;
Mexico can make no use of them—she cannot cultivate
them nor half people them ; and what is more, she cannot
defend them. If America does not occupy them, some other
nation will; and as their contiguity fits them so admirably
for the Great Republic, and besides her scheme of liberty is
so grand, so b eneficent, and so universal in its application,
it would be a -wilful rejection of proffered blessings to hesitate
one moment, when the proper time arrives, in an-
nexing the Irbole of the Mexican States to the Northern
Union. Fortune has absolutely thrown the whole territory
into the lap of America, and the very dissensions, mis-
management, and wAnt of patriotism, on the part of the
Mexicans, only furnish additional arguments to justify the
plots now in operation at the capital. The American agents
there are not idle, nor L'ave their labours been without
fruits. Bribery has been cafried on to a considerable
has ex-
tent,he threats have not been wA
inconsistent,rting, and the quarrelsome,
and toolped to throw' oftenr
unpatriotic character of the
Spanish race, ,that country into a state
neighbours.
of anarchy approaching to dissolutilOn• The new President,
P ts
its
caret
AARDES, justly paincoandlaittieonpraonedlantihae
nefarious conduct of its-
tion, he says, "It was impossible for the country
to have remained longer is its late discreditable state. Dis-

solution threatened the Republietco:;;:r.:)nnetiigehbours, by force,
iwon as the
seized on the territory of Texas;
neg-
lectedere
by the Government, openly
seprovires,
only possible remedy ; the rich lands of j CaliforniaparE
without an Administration, or a mints ry force sufficient to
protect them, to the mercy of Ameri In adventurers, who,
in imitation of those in Texas, are prep:tr ing a new usurpation.
The quarrels and exigencies of the ditf xtent factions alone re-
ceived attention from Government. . year passed since the
revolution overthrew a ruinous dictatorship, and nothing has
been done to place the institutions on ; a respectable footing.
Time has been consumed in useless dis cessions ; indecision and
weakness have been the sole characterit lice of the Government.
Thus have the United States been er Lcouraged to commit in
the face of the world the scandalous r iobery of Texas. Thus
have all the resources of the nation b lett wasted, and money
for public purposes raised at an exo rbi.tant interest. Thus
have factions been encouraged and su t)divrided ; on every side

were symptoms of dissolution, and the tuition, in the midst
of anarchy and confusion, was daily progressing to its ruin."
This is all matter of fact, but it would be impossible to say
at present what part the American agents have acted in the
scene. They work underground. Can England and Franca
look on with apathy in the midst of such scenes?

Eighteen hundred and forty-six has dawned upon the Go-
vernment of Great Britain with a series of phenomena more
startling and portentous than have accompanied the WM-
mencement of many antecedent years. Abroad our position
is embarrassed in various directions and by various contin-
gencies. Among the Asiatic tribes the germs of warfare
have been fructified, and, beyond a spectacle of present blood-
shed, spreads forth * prospect of protracted campaigns and
continuous carnage. America, in the opposite direction—
whether excited by an unholy lust for aggrandisement or a
still more unholy aspiration to cross swords and measure
strength with her mother country—intimates both by in-
sinuation and by overt act her longing to embroil herself
with England. In addition to these impending war-blasts,
we are afflicted at home with the grim and unmistakeable
prognostications of famine, and.the mtdadies which invariably
supervene upon that direful visitation. The fetch of starva-
tion has been recognised among the bleak fens and mountain
paths of Ireland : the fever-cloud is settling down above the
homesteads of that afflicted country. Simultaneously almost
with these occurrences the Spanish Ministry was changed,
and by our latest information it appears that Poland has
again raised her chained hands to smite the oppressors of
her past and present generation ; the dykes of tyranny have
been overflowed once more ; the shade of Kosciusxo has
gloomed upon the walls of Cracow. Stirred, however, as the
public mind is by necessity in consequence of these political
convulsions without, and occupied as the Legislature must be
from a similar cause ;—a greater revolution than all these,
one more vast in its application and more durable in its very
essence has been evoked within—an agitation by which the
laws of man shall henceforth be made more accordant
with the laws of GOD and Nature—an agitation by which
the rational portion of creation shall have as ready access
to its nourishment as that enjoyed by the irrational—an
agitation by which an universal good shall supersede an
individual advantage. That agitation has been accom-
panied, and stirred on, and developed by a combination
of occurrences more unforeseen and more memorable
than almost any on the Parliamentary records—
occurrences which we ourselves, however, have so fully
and repeatedlyparticularised, as each transpired in succession,
as to require no more at this moment than a casual men-
tion. Engrossed by topics thus momentous, with reference
both to foreign, home, and colonial legislaticn, it is not pos-
sibly surprising to observe the scanty benefits of a practical cha-
racter produced by Government during the last few months.
And in employing the term Government, we do not mean the
Ministry alone, or the Houses of Parliament alone, or the
Cabinet Council alone, but Government in its most compre-
hensive and concrete signification. Its attention, diverted
now to the Sutlej, by dispatches penned amidst the
smoke of blood and gunpowder ; now to the
hovels of Galway, by the catalogue of blighted
potato-crops; now to the Oregon, by the testy squabblings and
irate announcements of the representatives of the United
States ; now to Madrid, by the failing voice of NARVAEZ ;
now to dismembered Poland, by the cries of slaves for
freedom ; and now again to every section of our
English community, by the petitions for free trade, and
the petitions for protection (the latter being at a
moderate computation the units, and the former the thou-
sands) :—distracted by these conflicting movements, it is
not, we repeat, surprising that Government should be baffled
at first into something like dilatoriness or procrastination.
There are ample excuses for a first delay—such a delay as
may afford full opportunity for reflection. But, beyond
a certain limit of time, there is no available palliative for a
continuance of that torpor in the Executive department. An
over-protracted hesitation on the part of a Government is the
most heinous political crime of which it can well be guilty—
it is the arch-sin of legislation—it is more pernicious (if pos-
sible) than over-rashness. It is the key-stone to misgovernment.
In the present instance that limitation of time to which we
have alluded is fast approaching. Words will not suffice ;
when that moment of demarcation arrives, action will be re-
quisite. Indian warfare and arbitration for Oregon are
subjects no more capable of being trifled with by any minc-
ing measures than is the question of free trade, to the
inhabitants of the British Isles themselves, one admitting
of a pottering policy. Parliament must neither dream fur
a single instant that their discussions upon this clause
and upon that clause can continue on their present
glib progression, than that the Seikhs and Americans are
the most conceding and patient of mortals. Our legis-
lators must acquire fresh capacity for Parliamentary and
practical proceedings; they must be au fait in the march of
soldiers as well as in the march of opinion; they must keep
pace with the accumulation of exigencies—remembering the
vast and petty grievances which have to be rectified both at
home and abroad. Sir ROBERT PEEL has a thorough appre-
ciation of this necessity: he perceives the duty most incum-
bent upon himself, upon his colleagues, upon the Imperial
Parliament itself: the duty of doing instead of talking. His
whole bearing throughout this session proves such to be his
conviction ; his abrupt and copious explanations upon the
first meeting of that august House; his rapid introduction
of the policy proposed for adoption by Government; his
observations night after night from the Ministerial benches;
nay, his declaration yesterday evening was alone sufficient
evidence of the deep root which that opinion has taken in
his judgment. The glee displayed upon the latter occasion
by the protectionists is, indeed, to ourselves a matter
of the most supreme astonishment. These eccen-
tric gentlemen appeared to have detected some
astoundingly invisible cause for exultation in the
miniature debate which ensued upon Mr. EWART'S amend-
ment : they crowed—absolutely crowed with delight at that
little interlude to the discussion—that mere episode in the
great epic of commercial freedom. What really could excite
such manifestations of rejoicing among a party so
miserably and irreparably crest-fallen as the agrieulta-
rists, we cannot in all sober earnestness divine ; for to
us, the remarks uttered by the Government officials upon the
introduction of that amendment appeared only like another
conquest over the monster monopoly. It was a triumph is
this respect, that the Ministerial measures will admit of no
unnecessary opposition whatever, while, at the same moment,
an important announcement with reference to international
copyright arose out of the present rejection of Mr. EWART'S
suggestion. On this latter account we feel assured that Mr.
Sergeant TALFOURD will entertain feelings of thankfulness
to the Hon. Member for Dumfries as the unwitting means of
eliciting a very pleasant piece of intelligence. That intelli-
gence came forth as an announcement from Sir GEORGE
CLERK, who, while he acknowledged the excellence of some
speedy reduction in the tax upon foreign books (as specified
in the amendment), objected to the adoption of Mr. EWART'S
suggestion, for the following reason :—" At the present mo-
ment," said the Hon. Member for Stamford, "negotiations
are pending on the subject of international copyright between
Prussia, France, and this country. Those negotiations have
made great progress, and I hope will be soon brought to a
satisfactory conclusion; but, by the Hon. Member pressing
his motion, the probability of effecting such arrangements
will be materially diminished." Mainly, almost exclusively
en this score, the amendment of Mr. EWART was pushed to
withdrawal; and, nevertheless, the protectionists indulged in
acclamations of rapture, as though Government were reced-
ing from their free-trade policy. Surely these sagacious
corn-dealers have regarded the Ministerial opposition with
singular obliquity, or they would recognise, instead of any
secession from their principles of abolition, an additional
expression of their determination to persevere in that
glorious labour. Prospects, in fact, are held out by
a distinguished member of the Cabinet of a reciprocation,
literary as well as commercial, between the principal Euro-
pean countries—a reciprocation of mental as well as bodily
nutriment—a reciprocation of untaxed thoughts as well as of
untaxed cattle. And it is for the purpose of ensuring the
speedy and permanent settlement of this reciprocation
that the amendment in question was rejected.
Nevertheless, these CYMONS, the protectionists, rejoiced !
As if, however, to amend any misconception of the inten-
tion of the Ministry, the Premier made the unequivocal de-
claration that " neither this nor any other minor difficulty
would induce him to relax in his exertions to bring the
great question of our commercial policy to a satisfactory con-
clusion. It was the main object for which at present he
should strive." Yet with these syllables ringing in their
ears, the pleasantry of the protectionist Members still re•
mained undiminished—they had indeed " a par-
lous pertinacity of fun." Nay, so confirmed was
this feeling, that one of the cheifest ornaments of
the party actually indulged himself in touches of
exultant sarcasm ! The language, however, of Sir ROBERT
PEEL is decisive : it proves four great facts in one little sen-
tence : first, the necessity of immediate action ; secondly, the
unconquerable strength of his position as the representative
of the popular will ; thirdly, the ultimate victory of free trade
for mind as well as for body; and fourthly, the imminence of
the present juncture.

Madrid papers of the 2d have been received. It appears
from these that doubts were entertained whether the QUEEN
would give her assent to the new electoral law, which had
passed both Chambers by large majorities. Private letters,
however, state that everything in respect to this Bill had
been satisfactorily arranged, and that her MAJESTY would
pass it in the usual form. The Chamber of Deputies had
adopted several additional clauses of the Tithe-owners' Bill,
which also was considered secure.

The Three per Cents. closed at 30% at 59 days, and the
Five per Cents. at 2114 for the 30th of April.

The insurrection in Poland still forms the principal feature
in the Paris papers. Many of the refugee Poles now residing
at Paris, to the number, it is said, of three hundred, assem-
bled at the house of Prince CZARTORYSKI, on Saturday last,
and presented to the Prince an address in the name of more
than one thousand Poles, in which they offered to that chief
the warmest co-operation, and a rigorous obedience to his
commands, convinced that this c.,-operation is, above all
things, necessary, in order that the emigration may, by its
representatives, the more efficaciously associate itself with
the heroic struggle which has re-commenced in Poland.
The address terminates with a declaration that " the hour
for sacrifices having arrived, they offer to their companions
in emigration, who do not partake of the opinions propa-
gated by the society of The Third of May' for several years
past, the temporary abandonment of their doctrines and
their theories, in order that all the emigrants may be united
2no bond of union, directed by the Prince, and i•iving