The Sun.
London, England, 1846-11-16 00:00:00

The repeated mishaps which have befallen that
building have ultimately elicited this determi-
nation to improve the neighbourhood. It would
be frivolous, if not absolutely impertinent, to
enlarge upon the advisability of such a proceeding
as far, at least, as the destruction of the present bridge
is concerned. Anything more unwieldy, more
precarious, more perilous, more awkwardly situated,
or productive of more exorbitant and unnecessary
outlay, was certainly never erected in the capital of
a prosperous empire in civilised times. Since the
period of its first unfortunate erection Westminster-
bridge has interfered with the navigation of the river,
it has placed the lives and limbs of the lieges in in-
cessant and peculiar jeopardy, it has injured the
symmetry of the neighbourhood, and, beyond all, has
been a continual and unremunerative drain upon the
public purse to an extent almost incredible. From
the ill-omened Act, passed in the ninth year of his
Majesty King GEORGE 11., intituled "An Act
for building a bridge across the River Thames,
from the new Palace-yard in the city of
Westminster to the opposite shore in the county
of Surrey," enormous sums have been perio-
dically expended, or, as we may say, literally sunk,
first in the construction, and subsequently in the re-
pair of this ill-starred structure. Alternately the
patience and forbearance of the community have been
severely tested by the alternate settlement of the
starlings an inch or so deeper in the bottom of the
Thames, and the consequent settlement of so many
additional thousands sterling. .

What was intrir .dcally intolerable has been since
rendered more so, relatively and comparatively.
Since the commencement of the New Palace at
Westminster it has been painfully manifest that
the cumbersome bridge which there connects the
shires of Surrey and Middlesex will constitute not
merely a detestable eyesore, but a most indisputable
obstruction. The heavy and apparently massive
character of its architecture already contrasts vilely
with the florid and graceful Gothic of the new Par-
liament Houses. This, indeed, wouldbe more apparent
on the completion of those beautiful and magnificent
edifices, and especially on the erection of the Victoria
Tower. The ornamental elaboration which imparts
so much of elegance and splendour to these recent
structures, would inevitably and in truth have already
rendered the bridge a most undesirable foil, beyond
which the latter accumulation of stone materially
interferes with the view of one of the must costly
public buildings of recent production.
A notification, dated Nov. 10, 1846, and issued
from Whitehall, by order of the Commissioners of her
MAJESTY'S Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works,
and Buildings, contains the gratifying announcement
of the intention of those Commissioners to take this
long-vexed question into their own hands, and, with
the assistance of Imperial Parliament, to make
the desired alterations. It is proposed, in this notifi-
cation, that the existing bridge be pulled down and
removed, and that the materials, properties, effects,
funds, securities, stocks, and estates thereunto apper-
taining, be sold. Any arrangement that would
effectually conduce to the annihilation of this execrable
fabric, anything that would remove from the surface
and bed of the river such an atrocious and continual
remembrancer of so profligate an expenditure of the
national moneys ; anything that would so relieve the
Palace at 'Westminster of such an unseemly and in-
commodious neighbour, will, we are confident, be wel-
comed with exultation by the population of this me-
tropolis. The site proposed for the new bridge is as
follows :—Across the River Thames from, or from
near the eastern end of Whitehall• place to the south
bank or shore in the parish of St. Mary, Lam-
beth, in the county of Surrey. By this
excellent suggestion, a more suitable angle of the
River will be spanned, the Parliament Houses will be
relieved from an intolerable associate, the capital will
be wonderfully improved and beautified, and the
general convenience be more particularly consulted.
New streets will severally connect the proposed bridge
with the south-east side of Charing-cross, and with
the north side of the York-road, thereby opening a
direct line of communication between Pall-mall and
the Waterloo-road.

With reference to the expense thereby entailed
upon the Exchequer, it will be a matter of secondary
consideration, inasmuch as any alteration of the
kind, however immediately costly, would ultimately
prove economical. However much the change of si-
tuation in the bridge connecting Westminster with
Lambeth, may augur calamities to trade
among the Surrey shopkeepers, it cannot be
forgotten that ample time is afforded them for any
suitable arrangement. We are rejoiced at this de-
termination on the part of the Commissioners of
Woods and Forests ; it will destroy an abortive effort
in the architecture of bridges, and materially benefit
the appearance and convenience of London.

The English are a peculiarly jealous people of their
rights and privileges. Their devotion to the Throne,
innate sense of loyalty, love of order, respect for the
law, and profound admiration for their Constitution,
are not only axiomatic truths in the mind of every
native of our own land, but are likewise political
data, the first and most easily observed and recognised
by every foreigner who has ever visited our shores, or
written upon our history and character. So deeply
seated, indeed, is the patriotic attachment
of the Englishman to the institutions of his
country,' and their several incidents—such his
enthusiastic ardour for the vast political fabric
under which his ancestors, time out of mind, have
realised social blessings and immunities, and handed
down, unimpaired, to be cumulatively developed by
the enlightened wisdom of every succeeding age—that
the intensity of his enthusiasm has frequently ope-
rated as a serious hindrance to the progress of human
improvement. Time-honoured prejudices were suf-
fered to invest the mind long after we had, as a
nation, outlived the public necessities by which they
were first created. However obvious became the
desirableness of various suggestive reforms, they
were oftentimes provokingly retarded, not on account
of special abuses not being admittedly flagrant,
but solely from an almost instinctive reverence
for the Constitution, coupled with the apprehension
that, in the bare attempt to purify it from unwhole-
some incrustations, an unexpected shock, to some ma-
terial part of its framework, might be, either unde-
signedly or insidiously imparted. On the other
hand, the existence of this sentiment, whilst civilisa-
tion was slowly progressing, has, doubtless, at times,
saved us from many an infliction, attendant upon
hasty and ill-devised schemes of public policy, and
presented a successful barrier against their accom-
plishment. But now, when the national intellect is
taking such gigantic strides, antipathies, however en-
titled to respect, are fast subsiding, and an en-
lightened people will no longer suffer needless
procrastination to defer legislation when it is urgently
required for the protection of their rights, highly
prized and justly cherished.
The bold and moral attitude assumed by the
unrepresented masses of this community when
they claimed the Reform Bill from the Legis-
lature, will never be forgotten. Their sagacity
taught them that such a measure once obtained,
great moral results would speedily attest the wis-
dom of the concession. Their foresight has not mis-
carried. The firmness with which the demand
was made for a liberal and extended fran-
chise sprang from the petitioners' innate
consciousness that, though the desired boon
was large, it would be righteously exercised by them
to the promotion of the general weal. The sequel
has shown that this was no hazy or egotistical vision.
It is, however, becoming daily apparent that
the high-minded spirit that ordinarily excites
the electors at large to an honourable fulfil-
ment of their duties, is receiving an indirect
bat grievous check, owing to the expensive
and cumbrous machinery of registration which must
at present be worked, before a great portion of the
electoral body can stabilitate their votes for returning
Members to the House of Commons. The consequence
has been that, in some intances, both counties and
boroughs, scared by the expense, have been brought
under the corrupting 'influence of the aristocrat's
purse, and constituencies have been bought and sold
with as much sang-froid and nonchalance as though
they were so many heads of cattle, or other marketable
commodity. The most recent and remarkable proof
of this growing evil 1,,,en furnished by tht eele
brated Berkeleian correspondence. The exposure
herein afforded has startled and disgusted every well-
regulated mind. The registration forms must be

speedily and thoroughly remodelled that we may be
spared the repetition of such shameful electoral
abuse as has been actually systematised in West
Gloucestershire. The unconstitutional traffic that
has been perpetrated in this county has effected this
double wrong :—First, it has involved a large consti-
tuency—most discreditably to themselves, beyond all
doubt—in the meshes of a large landed proprietor ;
and, next, it has raised the commoner (who lorded
it over the fawning parasites), by two gradations, to
the dignity of an Earl in the British Peerage. Thus
has an evil example been set, in a political sense, of a
most revolting character, calculated to be pernicious
in every way. Nevertheless, our hope is, that
out of evil good will come, and that Parliament will
address itself to the task of providing an adequate
remedy against the continuance of this audacious
prostitution of sacred rights.
Mr. GRANTLEY BERKELEY, M.P., published a long
letter, on the 9th instant, to his "independent" electors.
It entirely confirms the views we embraced of the
meeting that was held at Gloucester , on the 3d inst.,
and shortly afterwards submitted to our readers. The
meeting was neither more nor less than a piece of
preconcerted affectation. They wished to make them-
selves out independent, whereas the exclusion of the
press generally, their own private reporters excepted,
and every other step which they took, sufficiently
stamped their proceedings, and has since revealed
their ill-concealed and unpatriotic designs. Lord
FITZHARDINGE is fairly thrown on his haunches by
the reply he has provoked from his brother as to the
pecuniary assistance he vaunted of having given him.
We cannot comment further upon this letter of three
columns length. We remain of the same opinion as
we were before, that if West Gloucestershire wishes
to right itself with the public, they must receive no
more money from Earl FITZHARDINGE, nor return
any member of his family to represent them in
future.

We yesterday alluded to the meeting of the Royal
Agricultural Society of Ireland, and the important
change that has been effected in the fundamental
rules of that body, by permitting the discussion of
any matter brought forward or pending in either
House of Parliament, so far as it related to the em-
ployment of the people on the drainage, subsoiling,
and clearing of the land, and the production of food.
These are subjects, as we have already said, peculiarly
within the province of an association founded for the
express purpose of promoting in every manner the
agricultural interests, and the agricultural improve-
ments of the country. It might with some show of
reason have been urged, that so long as the Legisla-
ture abstained from dealing in any manner with
land, that its cultivation and management were
left wholly in the hands of the owners, and
occupiers, and that they were left free from any kind
of interference, that such a restriction was correct
and proper. But the instant that Parliament pro-
posed to legislate in respect of land, to effect altera-
tions in the laws relating to the occupation thereof,
and to enact measures which might be calculated to
encourage the cultivation of the soil, to extend a
better system of agriculture, and to improve the re-
lation between landlord and tenant, it became the
duty of the society to emancipate itself from the
trammels by which it had heretofore been fettered, to
give, the benefit :of: its experience and the weight of
its authority to measures likely to effectuate these
objects, and to stamp with their disapprobation any
project by which injury might be inflicted on
a class without a more than proportionate
advantage to the nation in general. Such discussions,
so long as they were confined to points affecting the
landed interests of the country, and avoided all
questions which by a possibility could lead to
differences of a political or religious character, would
be most beneficial and valuable. The society, how.
ever, abstained therefrom, as many excellent and
efficient members feared that any relaxation of the
stringency of the rule would be abused, and that
political questions would be intruded that might lead
to bickerings and dissensions, and seriously impair
the general efficiency of the body. Perhaps it may
be as well for the country that the change was not
effected until the present time, when the pressing
difficulties by which the kingdom is encompassed,
and the evidences already afforded by Mr. O'CONNELL
and his followers of the perfect good faith with
which they would observe the pledges into which they
might enter, have enforced the necessity of a cordial
co- operation of all classes, and have removed, or con-
siderably mitigated, the prejudices and distrust that
existed on every side.

The other resolutions to which we briefly adverted
are essential to the due and efficient carrying out of
the objects of the society, and naturally followed the
abolition of the restrictive rule. By the first, the
" society is formed into a committee, who are to seek
information respecting the extent of the benefit
derived from the present mode of providing employ-
ment, and the deficiencies of the same, to report upon
such amendments as were desirable, and submit to
the consideration of the proper authorities, from time
to time, such representations as those inquiries
might supply—thus embodying the collective expe-
rience and observation of the society at large?'
Here, then, is a realisation of the project for a national
committee, which, if duly followed up, would prove
so beneficial to the nation, and the speedy formation
and valuable results of which we have so warmly
advocated in The Sun. We could scarcely have antici-
pated that the body would have been so speedily con-
stituted, and be at the very moment of its creation so
efficient, and command such weight and influence.
The adoption of the resolution makes the society in
everything but name the National Committee of Ire-
land, and gladly do we hail its existence, and tender
it our best wishes for its favourable progress in the
path in which it has started.
We have long felt the equity and justice of re-
lieving the landowner who discharges conscientiously
and honourably the duties imposed upon him by the
possession of his property, who gives to his dependents
and neighbours the amount of employment fairly pro-
portioned to the quantity of land in his hands, from the
burdens rendered necessary by the apathy of his
brother proprietors. Their neglect of the labouring
population in their respective localities enforced the
legislative interference ; a labour-rate was required
because they would not afford employment on their
own estates to the people belonging thereto. It was
therefore palpably unjust that the man who per-
formed everything that could be expected or desired
at his hands should be doubly taxed, and the calling
on such a person to pay his proportion of the labour-
rate, without making any allowance for the expendi-
ture already undertaken by him, was not merely
inequitable,' but most injurious in its operation. It
too often compelled him to discontinue the useful
works he had commenced, to discharge his work-
men, and to cast them upon the public
works, to the expense of which he was
forced to contribute. With this impres-
sion we long since urged the propriety of exempting
the person who 'distributed in wages to his own
labourers, selected from amongst the persons for whom
it was necessary to provide employment in the district
in which his lands were situated, from the amount
for which his lands would be liable to the labour-rate.
We have pointed out the good effects of such a regu-
lation, and we are happy to say many influential
persons have adopted our sentiments in that particular.
We may now number amongst the supporters of the
principle " The Agricultural Society of Ireland."
The last resolution adopted at the meeting
on Wednesday goes the full length of the
views we have advocated. They have re-
solved that the townlands should be made the
units of subdivisions as to assessment in place of
electoral divisions, and that any proprietor undertak-
ing the amount of cess to be levied off each townland
should be exonerated from the assessment of the
baronies.

We cannot doubt that a proposition so just and
reasonable in itself, and now so influentially supported,
will speedily be sanctioned and adopted : in such a
case, there is little doubt that the great majority
would give the required undertakings, and that they
would direct to works of a useful and reproductive
character that labour for which they must pay, how-
ever it may be occupied; and thus that vast quantity
of labour will be made a source of national wealth
and prosperity, in place of being, as heretofore, a
burden on the resources of the country.

Intelligence from Lisboa to the Bth instant hai
been received. The QUEEN'S army, amounting to
4,000 men, and commanded by SALDANIIAI who had

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY MORNING,

been created a Duke and Viceroy of the northern
provinces, had marched from Lisbon to attack the
Conde Des ANTAS, who had his head-quarters at
Leira. The KING remained at Lisbon, and did not
accompany the army, as had been announced. The
disaffected were in possession of Santarem.

The Diario publishes a decree suspending the
guarantees for another month ; also a second
decree, ordering all peasants caught in arms to be
shot. It also publishes a letter, which states that
there are 200,000 stand of arms among the
people—every man is armed. The resistance will
be obstinate. A large array of titled persons have
joined and lead the people. Juntas were formed in
almost every town of the kingdom. The QUEEN'S
troops are to bombard Evora on the 7th. Private
letters state that the whole kingdom is in arms to
support DAS ANTAS ; that the Government troops
have suffered frequent repulses; and that the cause
of the QUEEN is at the last extremity.

Madrid papers to the 7th inst. have arrived. They
are filled with accounts of a squabble between
Count BRESSON and the Tiernpo, which would be
simply absurd, did it not show the wanton and arro-
gant manner in which the French Proconsul sets all
the laws of Spain at defiance, and glories in forcing
the members of the Spanish Government to minister
to the degradation of their country. The Tiempo, it
appears, had published an article accusing Count
BRESSON of having used his interest with Government
to screen a contrabandista from punishment. If
Count BRESSON felt himself aggrieved, the ordinary
tribunals were open to him, but the ordinary tribunals
would not suit the purpose of Count BRESSON, Dr of
his employers, who seek on every occasion to insult,
and, if possible, extinguish the sentiment of Spanish
nationality, and accordingly he demands of the Go-
vernment that they shall give him satisfaction within 24
hours ; and the Spanish Afrancesado Government, of
course, at once obeyed its master, and ordered the
Fiscal of Madrid to proceed against the article, and
this notwithstanding the protest of Senor Calawa,
the Minister of Justice, who declared that no law in
the Spanish legislation authorised such proceedings,
and in direct violation of the law, which says " that
injuries or calumnies against individuals or corpora-
tions by the press, or other means of publication, are
to be submitted to the ordinary tribunals at the re-
clamation of the offended parties."
Rumours of approaching Ministerial changes were
still rife in Madrid.

MADRID BOLSA, Nov. 7.—The Three per Cents. were
done at 338 to for cash. The other securities conti-
nued the same.

We have received the Paris papers of Thursday.

The Presse continues the polemic on the Mont-
pensier marriage. It has long since, however, ceased
to argue on the matter, and now confines itself to
violent abuse of Lord PALMERSTON.

The Sii;cle has a powerfully-written article on the
position and prospects of M. GUIZOT. The following
extracts from it would seem to announce the tactics
that will be pursued by the Opposition in the Cham-
bers during the approaching Parliamentary campaign.
After speaking of the English alliance, the writer
proceeds—
" Now, behold the alliance broken, and why ? for
what interest ? For one purely dynastic, for a marriage,
which, it is said, is not to cause any change in what
exists. It was not therefore true, as was so often re-
peated, and with such ridiculous emphasis, that peace,
that precious peace, to which all the nations of Europe
cling so sincerely, was imperatively connected with the
presence in power of such or such a statesman ; it was
not then true that with one it must necessarily be agitated
and uneasy, and with another always certain and tran-
quil. Is it not agitated and uneasy at present ? And
yet M. Guizot still governs—that same M. Guizot whose
word was a guarantee, whose moderation allowed him to
undertake much without peril ; who, by an insulting
allusion to the character of his predecessor, declared in
the tribune, in order to justify himself for the mystifica-
lions which he had met with at London, I spoke in your
name ; I repeated your declarations ; I affirmed ; I in-
sisted ; and they would not believe me !' And he, who
was always to inspire so great a confidence, now speaks,
affirms, protests in his own name, and yet he is
not believed ! What a chastisement for the un-
worthy conduct which this Minister adopted in 1840, and
for the shameful weakness with which he has since then
protected his responsibility ? What would this great
Minister think it' all persons in France to-day joined
their voices to those of the English, in cursing him ?
if his own agents bore witness against him ? if those
who had enjoyed his confidence, or at least followed him
in his policy, turned against him with anger, and cried
out all of a sudden in concert—Peace, what have you
done with peace ? What is become of our security ?
Why have you broken the entente cordiale ? And if, at
his side, a man should happen to be found, who, finding
the occasion good to seize en power, should make of him
a sort of scape-goat, and accusing him in the face of
Europe of having by his intrigues compromised the repose
of nations, should undertake to repair his faults, that is,
to immolate him to the self-love or resentment of the
English Ministers, whatjudgment would he form of such
a man ? Who knows but that we shall perhaps beheld
this expiation; then it will be curious to know what may
pass in M. Guizot's mind."

The Constitutionnel has the following on the war
between the United States and Mexico :
" The news from the United States confirm what was
known before relative to the critical position of the
American Government. Its financial situation becomes
daily more complicated, and the victories which its
troops gain in no way alleviate its embarrassment. After
the gain of three battles and the conquest of several
provinces, the United States are infinitely more in want
of peace than Mexico herself. In fact, they cannot
supply for any much longer time the enormous expenses
which the war necessitates, and all their successes are
found to be useless, since Mexico persists in not demand.
ing peace. It will, therefore, be necessary to go and
forcibly obtain it in Mexico. But will they cause
the little army, which has purchased at such heavy
cost the possession of Monterey, to pass over seven
hundred to eight hundred miles ? The country, laid
waste by the enemy, cannot suffice to feed them,
and when the system of military contributions shall
be in vigour, when the peasants will have an interest in
carrying away their cattle and provisions, it will become
an impossibility. to subsist. In consequence, General
Taylor has received orders to break the truce and attack
Saltillo. When he shall have taken that place he will
divide his troops amongst Monterey and two or three
other places, in order to escape as much as possible from
famine and winter. In that position, full of perils, he
will wait for reinforcements or for a cessation of hos-
tilities. Here, then, is an army reduced to inactivity,
and out of a state to do anything to contribute to the
conclusion of peace. A second one, therefore, will be
requisite, to go and attack Mexico. It appears, in fact,
that the American Government is resolved to form an
expeditionary corps, which is to seize on Tampico or
Vera Cruz, and toproceed from the coast towards Mexico.
This way is, in fact, the shortest, and presents neither de-
serts nor mountains, like that leading from Monterey to
Mexico. It appears that the Americans recoiled from the
idea of attacking St. Juan d'Ulloa, and that Gen. Patter-
son has received orders to assume the command of a
body of troops to attack Tampico, and to march from
that port on Mexico. The fleet is to make at the same
time a demonstration en Vera Cruz. Although the
Americans have failed already once before at Tampico,
there is no doubt that they will succeed in obtaining
possession of it. But the necessity of keeping up this
second army will double their expenses, to which already
neither the revenues nor the credit of the Government
suffice, and against which a powerful party is rising up
each day. The reaction against the war is already com-
mencing in the United States, and after the winter will
probably be in the ascendant. The Mexicans, therefore,
at present are in every way interested in prolonging the
struggle; they can incur no serious dangers until after
the winter, and a few months may effect a complete
change in the opinion of their adversaries. Therefore it
is not astonishing to see Santa Anna rejecting every
idea of an arrangement, and writing to General Almonte,
in a letter already published, that Mexico ought to get
out of the present war victoriously or cease to exist as a
nation."

It is evident that the Carlists are meditating an
outbreak in Spain. The following, which appears in
the Presse, would go to show that they have now
arms and money; of soldiers they can always com-
mand more than a sufficiency.
" A letter which arrived yesterday, and has been
communicated to us, announces that an armed band of
Carlists has made its appearance near Berga, in Upper
Catalonia. This guerilla party, which is said to be
numerous, is commanded by Colonel Cabellaria, better
known by the name of Muchacho. We are also in-
formed that the agents of the Count de Montemolin
have succeeded in procuring for him, but at a most ex-
travagant rate, a sum of not less than 3,000,000 f. A
portion of this money has been employed in purchasing
arms, and it is said that, a few days ago, 8,000 muskets
were sent off from Liverpool to Gibraltar. Among the
persons who accompany them is a priest, the well-known
friend and confidant of Cabrera. These facts, the cor-
rectness of which is warranted to us, must fix the atten-
tion of the Government, particularly if it be true, as is
a serted, that not a Carlist has appeared at the embassy
to take the benefit of the amnesty. On the other hand,.
about a hundred Progressists yesterday received
their
passports, and most of them are preparing for their im-
mediate return into Spain."

According to the Courrier Prancais,!Queen CHRIS-
TINA, yielding to force majeure, is about to come and
pass some time in France. The ex-Regent has become
so imperious and exacting, that there is no dealing
with her. There have been several very wfirm alter-
cations between her and the three principal Ministers,
who have at last declared that they would retire from
office rather than submit to such deiiotisin. Other
manifestations even more siffnificative have been
made by a great number of personages placed in the