The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-17 00:00:00

THE PENINSULAR MAIL.

---
SOUTHAMPTON, THURSDAY MORNING.—The Penin-
sular and Oriental Company's steam-ship Queen, Capt.
Russell, arrived this morning at half-past ten o'clock,
from the Peninsular, bringing all the usual mails.
Her dates of departure are as follow:—Gibraltar,
April 6th; Cadiz, 7th; Lisbon, 10th; Corunna, 13th.
Specie, cargo, &c., on board—Six packages of specie,
a full cargo of oranges, dates, potatoes, &c.
Ships of war lying at Gibraltar—Her Majesty's brig
Fantome. At Cadiz—Two French war steamers. At
Lisbon—The usual Portuguese fleet. At Corunna—
War steamer Isabella 11.

The Queen steam-ship brings confirmatory intelli-
gence of the disturbed state of Spain, although up to the
moment when she left no actual collision had taken
place, and consequently no blood has been shed. The
worst, however, is anticipated.
A pronunciamiento had been declared at Vigo, on the
10th, by the whole of the officers and soldiers, in favour
of Prince Don Enrique. It was generally responded to.
,The Governor of Vigo and Military Commandant
were furnished with passports for Cadiz, and were to
leave by the next packet. No blood had been shed.
Her Britannic Majesty's Consul had been officially in-
formed by the Political Chief of Corunna, by order of
his Excellency the Captain-General of Galicia, that in
consequence of martial law having been pronounced, the
British mail steamers would not be allowed to land the
mails and passengers at Corunna except during the day
time. They would not be allowed either to touch at Vigo.

Martial law had been declared at Corunna. The Go-
vernor is determined to fire on the town, in the event of
a movement in favour of the young Prince.
Other parts of Galicia were in a very distracted state.
Nearly all the troops had marched from Corunna to Vigo
to suppress the revolt, if possible.
LisnoN, APRIL 10.—The Bill conferring the Regency
upon the King Consort, in the event of the Queen's
death during the infancy of the heir apparent, has passed
the Chamber of Peers by a very large majority, there
having been only 10 dissentient voices. The Duke of
Paltnella, after arguing against it, voted for it. As the
Revolucao remarks, his motives must be respected, but
they cannot be misunderstood. No other business of
any interest is going on in the Cortes at present.
The session, however, has been prolonged to the
30th instant, and will probably be still further extended
in order to give time for the discussion of the badget,
which has yet to commence, as well as of the report of the
Commissioners recently appointed to revise the tariff of
import duties. The Commissioners, it is expected, will
be enabled to lay their report before the Chambers in a
fortnight or three weeks. Meanwhile their proceedings to
a certain extent are no secret ; and it is already pub-
licly known that, except as regards some few articles of
trifling importation and consumption, the duties are to
be raised instead of being lowered, and that on the ground
that Sir Robert Peel's free-trade measure will enable
England to manufacture cheaper, it behoves Portugal to
afford additional protection to her own native industry.
I learn from a sure source that it is proposed to raise the
duty on calicoes from 60 to 90 reis per pound weight, and
on most other cotton goods in the same proportion, and
that the duty on fine woollens is to be raised consider-
ably ; as for coarse woollens they are completely shut
out as it is. The articles the duties on which it is pro-
posed to reduce are malt liquor, some kinds of hardware,
and a few other odds and ends, the total importation of
which would not amount to 5,0002 a year, were they
even admitted free. It is evidently not to this country
that Sir Robert Peel must look for anything like free-
trade reciprocity. The Portuguese are determined to
take whatever advantage they can get, and give as little
in return for it as they can; or according to one of their
own proverbs, " to eat the bait, and upon the
hook."

There is a gentleman at present in this city commis-
missioned by the house of Laffitte, of Paris, to make
proposals to this Government for lighting the streets
with gas, and conveying water into the houses by means
of pipes. The latter of these improvements is certainly
a great desideratum, but the former is, I fear, imprac-
ticable with any prospect of success, owing to a variety
of local circumstances, amongst which are to be reckoned
the earthquakes which now and then take place, and
the first of which would probably snap all the gaspipes,
and cause explosions in every direction.
Several highway robberies have recently been com-
mitted on the road between this city and St. Übes, a
town only 24 miles distant. Amongst others an Eng-
lish gentleman, of the name of Trevelyan, was plundered
about six weeks ago. Three of the robbers hare since
been captured.—Herald.

BUSINESS OF THE SESSION.
(From the Times.)
We have now arrived at that period of the session
from which custom and opinion have hitherto dated the
commencement of real business. Up to this time of the
year it was formerly usual to indulge Hon. Members
with the prescriptive license of legislative idleness.
After Easter came the tussle and contest of the session.
Before this the light skirmishings of awkward questions,
and the showy feints of threatened motions, amused the
public and animated the House ; but the real conflict
did not begin till after the holidays. This practice has
been modified within the last few years. Last year, in-
deed, the principal measures of Government were as
good as settled before Easter. This year the most im-
portant commercial scheme of modern times has been
already twice fully and stoutly contested in the Lower
House; and another proposition of great moment has
received the sanction of the Lords. But here we stick.
Parliament re-assembles, and finds itself in the predi-
cament of the family coach in the Journey to London.
It is just passing the corner of Cut-throat-lane,
which typifies the Assassination Bill ; the more
generous steeds, emblematical of the Whigs, who
have been yoked with the heavier cattle, begin to turn
restiff ; the insides feel an unusual oscillation ; the par-
rot screams, the monkey scratches, and the flunkieM
faint. How to get out and how to get on become ques-
tions of equal gravity. The leaders will shy at that
lane ; the wheelers can't drag the carriage without them.
If the coachman lashes the Flemish horses, the thorough-
breds rear ; if he coaxes the thoroughbreds, the heavy
cattle stand still. Meanwhile, night is coming on, and
the footman tells the coachman in confidence that there
is a fatality about that place, that the last man that got
fast there was stripped and turned loose, and that unless
they can get off before nightfal, they will be lost men.
Lash goes the whip, up rear the horses, down tumbles
the coach, and out fly monkey, parrot, and maid,
all jabbering, scratching, and screaming together. We
do not wish to institute a comparison between the
fate of the coach and that of the Ministry. At
the same time it will be within the recollection of
the world that less formidable matters than an Irish
Bill hare upset a Cabinet before this. But unquestion-
ably there is a fatality about all Irish Bills, especially
those savouring of coercion. Our wonder is that any
Ministry has the courage to meddle with them. Where
a Government cannot import food without the imputa-
tion of importing poison, it seems unaccountable how it
should venture on the introduction of martial law ; but
perhaps it originally presumed upon the illogical cha-
racter of the people with whom it had to deal. But
whatever its designs or its notions may have been, the
consequences of them are serious enough. We are in for
a long debate on a Coercion Bill. Any body who re-
members the debate on the Arms Bill knows what this
means. It means that, if it so please Messrs. O'Connell
and O'Brien, nothing whatever shall be done, spoken, or
thought of, from this time to the end of the session, ex-
cept the Coercioti Bill—that corn, tariffs, church, edu-
cation, law, Oregon, India, shall all be in abeyance till
the end of August, if the Irish Bill is pressed by Minis-
ters. Now this is no joke. It is a serious calamity.
It affects every class, every interest, every trade,
every business. It condemns the life of the country
to a temporary paralysis. It disjoints and dis-
organises the whole mechanism of commerce ; it
blights speculation, cramps industry, destroys the hopes
and occupation of thousands. And all for what ? Who
are to blame for a threatened delay which, to our sor-
row and disgust, may be realised to-morrow ? The
Minister has, it is said, acted only according to prece-
dent in introducing the obnoxious measure. Whether
according to precedent or not, there are many who
affirm that the condition of Ireland left him no option
but that of taking the sense of the House on this ques-
tion. He could not, it is argued in justice to his own
character and the feelings of the country, have refused
or delayed to consult the House of Commons. If this
ho so, the blame does not rest with the Cabinet or its
chief. But, if not there, where then ? There is but one

other party to the question—that is the Repeal party
in the House. Are its members answerable for the
perplexity and dismay which the postponement of the
commercial questions has produced and is producing ?
Clearly they are, if their opposition is irregular, un-
usual, and unnecessary. We do not of course call in
question the constitutional right to resist to the utter-
most any Bill on its first reading. But the exercise of a
constitutional privilege may degenerate into a most un-
constitutional tyranny. And the fact of its doing so
must be determined by the custom and law of Parlia-
mentary discussion. Now, we believe that it has always
been the admitted and undoubted rule to allow every
Bill of importance to pass through its first reading. This
stage is considered merely a formal introduction to the
debate on the merits, which is reserved for the second
and third readings. This has been .the case with, we
believe, every Bill of any consequence which has been
brought forward within the last ten years. Occaiion-
ally, indeed, individual Members have carried their ad-
hesion to a principle so far as to oppose a first reading ;
but there has not been an example of a party—except,
indeed, an Irish party—carrying their resistance so far.
And when we recollect how long debates on second and
third readings have been, and how obstinately clauses
are generally and with perfect propriety contested inCom-
mittee, it seems but reasonable that no time should be
urnecessarily wasted on proceedings purely preliminary.
Moreover, every inducement to prompt and vigorous
action is now ten times increased by events, which one
would think can hardly be lost on the minds of the most
pertinacious in the minority. Already the distress be-
gins to be more severely felt, and the crimes which we
prophesied would accompany distress are committed.
Every day which is now frittered on the mere stubborn-
.'ess of discontent is not only retarding the settlement of
this Irish question, but that still more momentous ques-
tion which affects the future supply of food to both
countries. As long as trade remains in an uneasy state,
and the admission of grain is only proportioned to a
temporary emergency, so long will the towns and dis-
tricts of Ireland be disgraced by the scenes which have
occurred in Tipperary and Clonrnel. Whatever
good and solid objections Irish Members may bring
6irward against the Coercion Bill, they may rest
assured of this, that they will not carry the
sympathy of this country with them, if their
opposition assume a character of factious fretfulness.
The English people and the English Legislature will be
alike disposed to give their most serious and attentive
reflection to any proposal which so intimately affects
the interests of their Irish fellow-subjects.. A Coercion
Bill eirnenthfoorirsi
milaxcoduisnAleisTooliTl3.7, asu tohies
jametiepnidesedwt ?lithe, 1