The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 30. 1441

pr,,te.:tion for their persons, their property, and
their labour, and then they will be justified for
enforcing on them the most rigid obedience to
laws, which will then deserve to be obeyed. But
it is not right—nay, it is manifestly wrong—to
coerce and punish the people because they are
not models of patience under the greatest pri-
vations—we think wantonly inflicted—the want
of food, shelter, and warmth, which men are
ever liable to suffer. Before the middle classes
condemn so loudly the violence of the lower
classes, which, after all, has been little more
than violent speaking, they should compel the
lawmakers to be just and considerate. They
neglect this duty, and hence much of that
mutual mistrust and enmity which cannot con-
tinue without great mutual injury.

We refer with satisfaction to a report, which I
we have borrowed from the Leeds Times, of an
Anti-Corn-law meeting at Huddersfield, of
which one peculiar and most delightful feature
was the presence of a number of ladies. We are by
no means desirous of dragging the fair sex into
the arena of politics. Nothing is more hateful
than a man drunk with party rage, except a wo-
man similarly intoxicated. But the Cora-law is
neither a party nor a political question. It is a
question of right and wrong, of honesty and
theft, of health and disease, of smiling homes
and destitution, of life and death; and it calls
on all the mothers, wives, and sisters of the
empire to understand it, and to struggle for Corr-
law repeal. Mothers submit to numerous priva-
tions, and make prodigious exertions, to procure
bread for their children, and rear them up in ho-
nesty and virtue. But by one struggle they may
procure the repeal of the Bread-tax, ensure food
for their offspring on easy terms, and remove far
off the terrible temptations to which want exposes
them. We see no impropriety, then, but much
virtue, in women taking a part in this great ques-
tion.

We have witnessed ladies crowding the rooms
of Exeter Hall, cheering to his noble work the
missionary of African freedom ; we have seen
them less honourably, but still enthusiastically,
engaged in applauding some party clergyman,
whose labours were directed neither by charity
nor love ; and we trust we shall yet see them
crowding to public meetings to cheer and en-
courage the missionaries of free trade, who labour
to substitute the dominion of nature for that of
avaricious man, and to rescue the people of Eng-
land 'from poverty, disease, and famine. The
matrons of Rome were wont, in times of civil
contentions, to throw themselves between the
conflicting parties, and bid them in the name of
their country to be at peace ; and the matrons of
Britain, not less heroic than those of Rome, will
step between the bread-taxers and the starving
multitude, and command the sordid tyrants to
let the people work, and let them live. The
women of Huddersfield. and Darlaston have set
an excellent example, which, we hope, will be
followed by their sex in every part of the em-
pire. Age and infancy—men in the prime
of life., but pining for want of work, and
faint for want of food youth panting for
the means of exertion in some honourable
career—all classes and conditions feeling ham-
pered, uneasy, restrained, poverty-stricken, or
worse, struck with famine—all pathetically im-
plore the matrons of Britain to come to their
help, and soften by their supplications the hearts
of the most obdurate men that ever were suffered,
for some inscrutable purpose of Providence, to
torture and devastate a great nation.
Besides the presence of a numerous body
of ladies, the meeting was distinguished by
some bold and excellent speaking. We
have preserved the pith and marrow of it,
not in the hope, however, of shaming the
hocussed and paralysed people of London into
any corresponding exertions. They are con-
tented to remain the last and the least efficient in
this good work. They are like the dead, whom it
is impossible to awaken; but there are others in the
more distant parts of the empire who will kindle
at the eloquence at Huddersfield, and spread the
genial flame through the land. Let the people
everywhere do as was done at this meeting, unite
the graces with the duties, and all who would
appose the cause nfjo,tiee-the angry- Chartist,
the fearful and surly landowner, will be charmed
into submission and harmony. If the matrons
can be induced to take up the cause of the bread-
taxed poor, victory will be certain.

Though we do not agree with Lord MAnoN as
to the propriety of keeping up the system of
transportation, we are glad to see the question
of secondary punishments again engaging the
attention of Parliament. All other laws—the
laws as to property and person, and the whole of
the constitutional law, depend on the criminal law
to enforce obedience to them. Hence, though the
criminal law has been carelessly or foolishly
given up to the administration of unlearned
squires, and was sometimes framed on the repre-
sentations of " topping attorneys" or " great
brewers," more anxious to protect property than
acquainted with the principles of either law or
justice, for the sake of all other law it
is requisite that the criminal law be pre-
served in harmony with the feelings and convic-
tions of the people. To suffer it to fall behind
the humanity or knowledge of the age,
is to provoke contempt for all law, and expose
society to peat danger. It is incumbent, there-
fore, on the Legislature, not only to revive those
statutes which with complete indifference deal
out death, as if a decree of the Legislature could
alter the nature of crimes, but those secondary
punishments which affront and exasperate with-
out checking the offences they are appropriated
to punish.
We are aware of the immense difficulties by
which this subject is surrounded. Little or no
progress has been made since the days of PALEY,
notwithstanding the employment of much tor-
ture-devising talent, in finding out a secondary
punishment, from the effects of which the crimi-
nal does not again come into society more har-
dened and desperate. Medicine has made far
more progress than legislation. Many of the
physical diseases which baffled our ancestors
readily yield to modern skill ; but the moral
diseases, if they have not increased, remain, as in
the olden time, the opprobrium of legislative skill.
We look for much good from this (may
we not call it almost continual ?) failure
in criminal legislation. It ought to teach
—and we have no doubt it will teach—
both those who make, and those who sub-
mit to law, a wholesome distrust of the mighty
promises which have been made in the name of
legislation. When it is clearly ascertained that
the punishments hitherto employed have little or
no effect in preventing crimes, to which end they
seem admirably adapted, it may be expected that
less reliance than now will be placed on regula-
tions to obtain those more recondite and distant
objects, the increase of national wealth or the
prosperity of a society yet unborn.
To take the single secondary punishment of
transportation. More, we think, has been ex-
pected of it than of any other, and the result has
been a greater disappointment. It is not merely
that it has failed as a punishment, but its effects,
when carried out, have become so extremely
revolting, that they have shocked all human
feeling,
and compelled the authorities, how-
ever unwilling, partly to give it up and partly
to try new regulations.
To transpor
t a t i on
as
ss t ao
employing
punishment entertainllvaebonr
asa
the same objectionpunishment. Mannemainenotiexist without labour,
and there is much
custom of the Monarch holding
making them inthe
most Chinese
useful
toils,
it :
pal opuuglllii
sh_
t o
f e
r than
in
honour
o u r
custolyi of on the humblest and
ment for crime. In like manner, it has
been almost at all periods necessary for
con
men to emigrate. They are attached to their
d they leave it • •
country, an unwillingly ; but
emigration is one of the means by which, in
mankind havebeen spread
all ages, ma over the
, has always, therefore been globe, and i •t con-
sonant to the order of nature. At the present
time, crowded as our people are, it is essential
to the welfare of the whole that no inconsider..
able number should continually expatriate them_
sel.,•eF4. On this arcomit we hold it to be ex-
•,..41e ty intwi-.:fs: to InoLe c 'i'-'''''""it 'wire pain-
ful by degrading it into a punishment of crime.
I Transportation cannot serve as an example, for

the criminal is immediately removed from view,
unless_ the example is to be enforced at-Van
Diemen's Land or New_ Holland. Besides the
failure, then, of this and other secOndary punish-
ments, such as hard labour and solitary confine-
ment, which have rarely reformed criminals, and
have not prevented crimes, they have some
collateral evil effects, such as making expatriation
more painful, and labour disgraceful, which
seem to have escaped the notice of legiSlators,
and which ought nevertheless to be- carefully
avoided. We are convirti&d from these cursmy
observations, that there is yet much to be dis-
covered as to criminal legislation, and We shall
rejoice to see the young men of the House of
Commons turn their attention to investigate,
somewhat philosophically, this most important
branch of their art. Crime and punishment, fami
liar as are the terms, require, we think, much in
vestigation to be thoroughly understood.

The Levant mail, received yesterday, bring.
advices from Constantinople of the. Btii, from
Alexandria of the 7th, and from Malta of•tln
17th instant. The news from Turkey anc:
Egypt is by no means satisfactory. The SUL-
TAN had been so ill advised as to refuse modify-
ing the firman appointinc, Arx to the
Paellalic of Egypt, and tae Vienaoy, on hi.
part was at Cairo, engaged in warlike prepara-
tions. Among our extracts from the advices thth
received will be found the Report of a speech saie
to be delivered by Lord PONSONBY, at a meet-
ing. of Foreign Ministers at the Divtin, which
if correct, is a very extraorlinary produc-
tion. We certainly doubt its authenticity
but the form in which it. has reached m
fully warrants its publication. If it be eve'
circumstantially correct—if it at all ex-
press the policy of our Government, we hcsitat,
not to affirm that MEHEMET ALI has been moil
unhandsomely treated by England. Had In
not relied upon British good faith, he might be
now the recognised Sovereign of the Tnrkis!
empire. But we shall await the arrival of mor,
authentic and positive intelligence before at-
tempting to bring public opinion to bear up o.
the policy of our Government in Turkey and'
Egypt.

An amendment, the.most important of all, i
about to he proposed in the new Poor-law Bill—
important, because it will greatly conduce to th,
benefit of the destitute poor—important, bet-au&
it will be the first step toward that sound cony
mereial pacy which will do more than anythiu
else to prevent poverty altogether; and import.
ant because it will unmask those pretende(
humanity-mongers, who, after oppressing an:.
Impoverishing the people under PITT and CASTLE.
REAGII, during their long continuance in power
affect, forsooth, to be mightily indignant at tht
" cruel" operation of the new Poor-law sy::-
tem. This amendment is to the eftect that a
the corn required for the Poor-law Unio:
(about 800,000 quarters annually) shall be allo wet
to be imported free of duty. If this be carriei
there need be no complaint of insufficiency o 3
the " staff of life" at least, in our workhouses;
for nearly double the present quantity may b
had for about the same amount of money. The?,
are abundant precedents for such an enactment.
The rum required for the Navy is allowed a draw,-
back to the amount of the duty. The Balti(
timber for building churches is imported free o
duty. The LegiSlature in both these cases ha
recognised the principle, and surely, such c
principle being recognised, none have
greater right to its application than the
starving poor. What say you Mr. WILLIAII.
MILES? What say you, Mr. HODGSO:
HIN DE ? It is boasted that you and a hun-
dred other Tories vote against the Government
and against your own leaders, solely from you'
compassion for the poor—your indignation at tin
treatment to which they are subjected. Here is
a golden opportunity to prove your honesty
your consistency, your public and unfactim
motives ! You may never have such anothe.
opportunity during the whole of your politica.
lives. Be honest for once. Let no quibble 0:
quirk, or real or affected apprehension of lettin,,
in the wedge upon your darling Coru-law.svAte:y.
divert you from the zt-,-....„l„.4,airward path. Yo;
do not wish to " grind the faces" of the poor—
not you—and you will show it. You will let h
those 800,000 quarters of wheat per annum fo)
those destitute objects of your loudly expresses
sympathy. You will not subject yourselves ti
the otherwise well-founded charge of hypocrisy—
of political trading in spurious humanity—en-
trapping votes, and shouts, and cheers by false
pretences, which will assuredly be your fate ii
you refuse to vote for this motion. No, no, you
are honourable men, " all honourable men," and
you will prove it upon this occasion, or else upoi
Poor-law Bills, Poor-law Commissioners, Poor-
law severities, Poor-law cruelties, you must "fo:
ever after hold your peace."

The Madrid papers received are of the 21st
inst. At a meeting of the Deputies to deliberate
on the Regency question, sixty-one Member:
declared themselves in favour of appointing three
Regents. In fact, the dread of intrusting al.
the power of the State to the hands of ESPAR-
TERO was becoming general.
The condition of Spain is truly deplorable. A
country which, if properly governed, would teem
with wealth is declared too poor to defray the
ordinary expense of adimmstration. And yet
nothing is done or proposed to be don(
which is at all calculated permanently t(
improve the finances of the country. The civi.
war has not thrown up one really great man in
Spain. It has brought some clever men into
notoriety, but it has not produced a single states-
man capable of elevating Spain to her proper
rank among the European family of nations. In-
stead of introducing agricultural improvement:
of which. Spain is in cad want, and fostering into
profitable growth the little commerce that is left
to the Kingdom by the abolition of restric-
tions on imports and exports, Spanish patriots
employ themselves in devising wire-drawn theo-
ries about the first principles of Government.

It was rumoured on the 21st that the Spanish
Government intended establishing a line of tele-
graphs from Madrid to Cadiz, Badajoz, Barce-
lona, arid Bayonne.

Ct aJh
tnio
the Fortifications
er nrFaool
frs
tpoifife'
cSearutstiiodwnaasyshßoaievlclel:pailTel
dhreeoancohnselii.
tuusr.ad'ialTeylPilevair
speakers were MM. GAUTIER and DUPIN, whe
spoke against the Bill; and MM. LEBRUN and
BBEssoN, who supported it. The speech of the
latter, who is Ambassador at the Court of
Berlin, will have great weight with the Peere.
The Court calculates on having an absolute ma-
jority of twenty-five votes on the Bill.
The following account of the conspiracy al
Marseilles, which formed tha subject of the tele-
graphic deSpAtch which appeared in The Sun of
yesterday, is from the Sud, a Marseilles paper,
of the 25th inst.
. For several days past the coming and going of group of
men attached to secret societies attracted the notice of the au-
thorities. Several circumstances gave reason to expect an at-
tempt at insurruction. Anonymous letters, or half-confidential
communications, made it understood that the conspirators pro-
posed nothing less than setting fire to the shipping in the port,
' with the intention dining the agitation caused by such a ca-
, tastrophe of getting hold of the Bank, the Receivers General,
and other public and private places of deposit.
The conspirators were informed that assistance would be
given from Avignon, Nismes, Carpatras, Montpellier, and Car-
ea ssane.
The day chosen for this abominable project was the 23d
or 24th instant. The conspirators calculated on their receiv-
ing substantial aid from the workmen on the canal, who had
teen treated with.
The authorities took their measures in consequence.
ndarmes were placed on the roads leading to the canal, and
agents of the police in disguise watched the house known a;
the rendezvous of the leaders. This house is a tavern known
under the name of the Polonais. At 11 at night the leaders
commenced assembling in groups of five or six, and soon after
at least :300 were united in the garden in the
ur house.
din
The police proposed, by means ef a large sr.:ung force,
to catch the who'e of the conspirators as in a net, but in con-
sequence of a gen large being tired at point. blank by a group
of live or sx of the people, the order to act was obliged to be
given sooner than was intended.
As soon as the report of fire-arms was lixtrd, a general pa-
ct' ;ed e
seizedcel
eine up, a
th e co
generalpanicand
nt r opo Else
eo, f
atnl:de I
ti
hnee
greater part attempted to escape. The troops found the door
of the cabaret closed, and by the time that admission was ob-
tained, the conspirators had contrived to get off. The gen-
darmes and troops, however, did not relax their activity, and
they laid hold of fourteen of the band, all armed with pistols
and poniards, and provided with an abundant supply of am •
munition.
While this was going o- at La Vilictte, the police arrested
tl:recdadividuals torm I.:;,art of . „ .
adren- •
rn were armed in the same manner with those taken at the
Villette. Yesterday morning further arrests were made, and

in all 21 persons, belonging to the lowest classes of society,
have been taken up. The examination of the prisoners is now
going on. One of them is 54 years of age, the others are
under 30. One only is a native of Marseilles) the others have
lived here for some years.

A majority of the Commission of the Chamber
of Deputies appointed to examine the commer-
cial treaty with Holland have approved of it.
There is no political news of any interest in the
Journals of Sunday. Tne Chamber of Deputi, s
:ejected on S2turday a petition for restoring the
effigy of NAPOLEON on the Cross of the Legion
of Honour, and praying that his family might be
allowed to return to France.

CURIOUS ARREST OF A SOI-DISANT ASSASSIN OF THE DUKE
OF WELLINGTON.

The Courrier du Midi states that the police had arrested a'
Beziers an individual who according to his account was the
sub-officer Cantil'on, who was tried at Paris in 1815 for an
attempt to assassinate the Duke of Welling,ton, and was ac-
quitted.

The pretended Cantillon was the bearer of an extract, said
be taken from Napoleon's will, in which the Emperor ex-
pressed his opinion that Cantillon had as much right to assac-
i nate Willie ton as this o:igarque had to send him (Napo-
iron) to perish on the rock of St. Helena, or to shoot Marshal
Ney contrary to the capitulation of Paris, and for this reason
Napoleon bequeathed him 10,000 f.
The pretender Cantillon had forged General Pertrand's
name to this extract. This individual was likevsi•e in pus-
s3ssion of a decoration which he pretended to have received
from the Emperor in the hundre I days. The official seal be-
lunging to the Mayor of Chalons was found in his p,ssession,
vhieh ho had affixed to the other documents found in his pos-
session.

" Tr.is affair," continues the Couritr du Midi," promiies tc
,roduce interesting revelatiAls." _ _

'the Spanish Ciene who emigrated from Spa'n sub
quently to the abdication (.f Queen Christina, were presented
o King Louis Phil pre oa Friday evening. Their reception
vas unusually formal. 'they were attired in their grand uni-
"orms, and decorated with all their orcleis. Amongst the most
is inguisherl were Generals Count de Clonard. O'Donnell,
i;spel.ta, Baron de Meer, Francisco Nervaez, Ramon Nar-
aez, Cuz Pavia. &e. The presentation took place at the
express desire of the King.
According to official returns, published by the Minister of
olarine, the peop'e of colour em.-ancipated from 1830 to the
.atter end of 1840 in the four Finch colonies of Martinique,
3uadaloupe, Guiana, and Bourbon, amounted to 37,156—viz ,
it/,')75 in Martinique, 11,016 in Guadaloupe, 1,696 in Guiana,
tnd 3,869 in Bourb.m.
The Moniteur has spoken of a printed circular of the
Ainister of Finance, dated 25th February, 1841, which orders
general and immre.iiate re-assessment in all the communes of
he kingdom, of buildings, era; Ts, and windows, as well as a
nore complete state:nent of all persons liable to the personal
ax ; the tax on house rents, a those paying the tax in
icenees (patentee), which serve as the basis of the pro
iirtimal tax, and which mu t be taken out to enable a person
o exercise any profession or trade whatever. •
You hive seen from the statement which accompanies the
.roject of law for the budget of 1842, that the revenue is not
'qua] to the ordinary expenditure, and that it. is absolutely ne-
-essary to take measur. s to obtain from the existing taxes the
revenue which we have a right to expect from them-according
the laws by which they are regula!ed... With respect to Ole
iireat talus, it appears from the information received by the
linistry, that there is a considerable number of new building,
,hich escape the tax fur a large or shorter time.
It is also certain that the law on licenses is very unequally
and that the proportional lax is levied in some corn-
aunes on the real value in others on values more or less re •
iuceil, which tennis to disproportions equally contrary to equity
.n.l to the interest of the Treasury.
Another circular, doted 28th February, and signed by the
')ireetor-General of the admini:stra-ion of the direct taxes,
niesc ibes the mode of executing these measures, and impresses
al the collectors of takes that the state of the finances requires
'oat ;he existing taxes should be mad! as productive as by the
laws they ought to be.
This is what we are come to. —La Gazette de France.
(From the Courrier Francais of Sunday.)
Yesterday the King sent for M. Auber, the composer' and
save him an- order to prepare for the Ist of May, the day fixed
;or the christening of the Count of Paris, 400 musicians, to
ixecute a concert monstre in the great gallery of the Louvre.
Four thousand person: are to be invited to this fete, which will
eke place in the midst of the exhibition of paintings of our
aodein artists.
The rate of discount, at the Havre- Bank, upon the paper
covey of Pat is, having from 30 to 90 days to run, is tixe:l,
rem Monday, March 29, at 401. per annum.
It is announced shot the will of Madame de Feuclacres is
lefinitively declared invalid. Some time before her death she
vrote it and signed it, but forgot to put the date ; in come-
lu..nce of which the succession, which amountsto nine millions
4 francs, will be divided into three parts.
The Indicateur de la Correge of the 24th of . March fore-
ells a new incident in the trial of Madame Laffarge. It ar-
.tounaes that on account of cettaia words spoken by the witness
)enis, a complaint has been made to the procureur du roi, and
hat the first information taken by this Magistrate will bring
an searches. The Indicateur adds, that the inventory made
rt Gland.er has caused the discovery of incredible facts of sue
t nature, as to attract the attention of justice.
tsELLHAN sIUNDB-15aussaLd, MARCH 27.
actual Debt, 2 per Cent.
Rothschild's Lean, 5 per C,itt l,9j
Loan of Thirty Millions, 4 per Cent.
3 per Cent.

Thirty.saven

C9X,
.(1 41) 9HO!
Lean of City, 18.32, 4 per Cent B9
Society of Croam,,rec, 4 per Cent.....t WO
Bank of Belgium, 5 per Cent
National Swiety
Exchange on London (shot!)
..—Brussels Papers, March 27.
AUSTRIAN Ft] ICDS.—VIIPINA, MARCH 16
five per Coats. Illetalliques
Foar per Cents. 99
Three mr Cents.
Bank Sham 1625
.-Ailgemeine Zri/ong, March .7.4

_________-------- --...--”,...z •t•I A, r .... 1,- -.._
Dffirri tnr.,,--r
Austrian 5 per Cents.
Bank Shares l6lO
A n4o- Russian Loan 103% 1116 N,
Russian 5 per Cent. Ist semi, Certificate
Inscription, Ist Se:l-s
Russian 5 per Cent. Hope and Co. 3d and 4th
Se:ies 9636 .
Ditto in Certificates ' Rig
Dutch Actual Debt, 2% pe Cent .94 49
Ditto 5 per Cent .—
Polish Bondi . 142%
New ticket
Anglu.Danish Loan, 3 per Cent
N.,twegian loan, 1534, 4 per Cent..., —
Spanish, New 5 per Cents. 16%
EXCHANGES ON LONDON.
HAMBURG, MARC!! 2i.-13 A.—Two months, 13 4
PETERSBURGH, MARCII 16.-1 wo months, 383,, pence.
STocKnouw,• MARCH 16.---Seventy-five days, 11. 42.
Cti RpTIANIA, MA RCII !O —Three months, 4 CO.
VIENNA, MARCH 15.—Three months. 9, 46.