The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-17 00:00:00

especially the military, are but little satisfied with the pro- '
ceesbags eilthe ex-President listtuarts.; they naturally be-
lieve that the honour, the rights, and the security of the
country have been sacrificed, that Lril'ery has been prac•
used in high. quarters, and that .Tex as had been sold to
the Americans, merely to put money into the pockets
of a few debased Mexicans. • nether it was lost
by bribery or imbecility, no one can r eny that the whole
transaction is the most disgraceful 0.•.,-:e..ord, and that every
man in Mexico of an independent spirit. and possessing any
spark of patrotism, must feel humble; ,),y the cession of such
a valuable territory and the near 4' proach of the en
croaching Americans to the seat of government. This feeling
Las given rise to the sudden revolutioti a ected by PAREDES,
and the flame, it appears, burst forth as soon as the arrival of
the American Envoy was made known. On an instant,
meetings of the people, as well as. the officers of the army,
were held, and resolutions were adopted denouncing the late
Government for refusing to defend Texas, far setting at defi-
ance the will of the army and people, and for actually treating
with the Minister of the United States for the sale of Cali-
fornia as well as Texas. So unanimous and decided was the
movement, that PAUEDES had only to dec!are himself as a
defender of the nation's rights and honour to be installed as
ruler. The American Envoy upon this retreated, and most
probably has furnished a flaming account to his Governmeet of
the violence displayed, and the warlike movements directed,
against the newly adopted state ; for it appears that the
naval forces in the Gulf of Mexico have been increased, and
the army on the Rio Grande is fully prepared to
act either on the defensive or offensive. Per-
sons who know the intriguing disposition of certain
American agents anticipated some such result. The
incessant negotiations carried on at Mexico gave rise to
just suspicions that an amicable settlement was not the
paint aimed at, but that demands were to he made and in-
sisted upon which the Mexicans could not submit to,
in order that they might be excited to violence.
and commit some acts which would justify the
United • States in fighting, not for Texas, but
for Mexico itself. They have gained their object as far as
this pout is considered, but we confidently believe that they
have oval sbot the mark. England and France with the
greatest re;uctance yielded to the resolution of the
Texan t'ongress by which they united the country
to America. They had no other resource, because they
had ac cse wledged the independence of Texas ; but
affairs new assume a different shape. .A war between the
United .ales and Mexico is a matter of no ordinary occur-
rence fur t'rern, and Mr. POLK and General CASS will pro-
bably sok u find that their favourite and selfish doctrine of
"non-in4c'erence" will be practically as well as virtually set
at nought.

A sense of abstract benevolence, no doubt, first originated
the erictiee of such establishments as gaols and houses of
correcti n ; but experience has long proved the fallacy of
such endeavours to retard the extension of crime. The
scheme :and its proposed influence' upon national morality)
is eseen Bally theoretical. Time has displayed this with the
most pain tuldistinctness. By punishing the perpetrator of cri-
min d offences, the Legislature has begun amelioration at the
-wrong eed : hydra-like, the vicious among the population
have .tatted up in succession, as each individual case was
diaposee off: the branches were lopped off, but the vegeta-
tion wa for from being retarded ; each excretion of crime in
the laiel was but another bough to be submitted like its pre-
ileaeesa] sto the pruning-knife of the judicial courts. The
source ofsocial vice should have been abruncated—the roots
should have been themselves torn away : the cease should have
been e.adicated—and the effects would then, both necessarily
and epontaneously have disappeared. Thank GOD ! how-
ever, the malady is now too generally acknowledged to be
'meta longer screened (by prejudices) against some vigorous
&lola at its destruction : thank Gon ! the age of theoretic
pnitenthrophy has departed, and the present generation
Is too practical to content itself with an experimental
alleviation : thank Gon ! the very revenues of the
empire are interested in decreasing the extravagant ex-
l'ea:ses annually incurred by the prevalence of crime. It
awst, indeed, be a matter of the most earnest self-congratu-
letion to every individual—and who would not wish to be
eaassed amongst the number P—desirous of seeing the disse-
mination of happiness among the poorer classes of the
community in active and permanent operation ; it must.
we repeat, be a matter of earnest self-congratulation
to those individuals that parties influential in the further-
ance of these objects are no longer lying dormant, but are, on
the contrary, using the boldest and manliest exertions to ef-
fect, and that immediately, the regeneration of a debased and
neglected multitude. On Saturday several of these
personages assembled at the Mansion-house, for the
purpose of listening to a proposition which it
was understood would be submitted to their consi-
deration by Mr. CHARLES PEARSON, the City Solicitor; and
although there are a few subordinate points which, in our es-
timation, are scarcely tenable, the conception of that gentle-
man's plan is so excellent, and the details of the statement
are so conclusive, that we trust it may not be too precipi
tately abandoned. The primary object of the proposed ar-
rangement is the reduction of the-number of criminals, and
the medium through which this object should be most effec-
tually attained—the reformation of "Juvenile Offenders." The
sagacity and truth of this deduction must be ostensible : it
is not, in fact, so much the diminution of misery as the
diffusion of blessings : it is not so much the medicine to
heal as the aliment to nourish : it is not so much
a correction of evil as it is an incentive to good. Mr.
PEARSON grounds his arguments as to the necessity that
exists for some measure of this description upon very sub-
stantial bases: he, draws his inferences from Parliamentary
returns and . docinnentaie of a like nature. From the
manner in which'he has anatomised these statistical papers
we obtain some most startling and terrible lets as to
the degenerate condition into which the children of the
humbler classes are lapsed : thus we learn ignorance and
penury are more dire and horrible among these luckless crea-
tures than the -wildest pictures of fancy could realise ; we learn
that vice has had a greater ratio of increase than the popu-
lation itself—that one has outstripped the other in
its grim p!.ogress—a fact most hideous in its
consequences—s fact sufficient in itself to impel the question
of some change in our moral code to a settlement, and that
forthwith. When, however, Mr. PEARSON ascribes this ex-
tension of crime among the juvenile portion of the populace
to the "transition from war to peace, or to the substitution oft he
new police in lien of our former Dogberries," or to the "payment
of the prosecutors' expenses out of county rates," rather than
to the torpor into which the intellects of these unhappy
children are permitted to subside through the absence of all
education, or ai eein to the goadings-on of destitution, we must
be permitted, to a certain limit, to differ from him in his con-
clusions. But in ascribing the increase in a great measure to those
summary convictions by which the magistracy are now em-
powered to imprison a youthful culprit--(and a culprit, be it
remembered, for some paltry pecadillo)—we fully and em-
phatically coincide with the City Solicitor : we acknowledge
the correctness of his observation that by this baneful practice
"a child becories acclimated to the atmosphere of a geol.',
The plan by which Mr. PEARsON maintains these social
gangrenes might be thoroughly extracted is simple and
feasible enough. - he proposes that national asylums be
established, in which children of both sexes shall be clothed,
and fed, and et ucatcd, forming a kind of "reformatory
establishment, surrounded with appliances for mental, moral,
religious, and industrial training." He proposes that these
places should be constructed "on the line of the great trunk
railroads, by which children should be transmitted safely to
and from any ).art of the kingdom." He proposes that
" out- door labolar should be united with instruction in me-
chanical employ' nent," so as to invigorate the bodies of the pu-
pils until they are capacitated " for apprenticeship in this coun-
try or the colonies."' For one-third of the price entailed upon
the nation by the existing laws for prosecutions, imprison.
ments, and transportations, all these noble achievements could,
according to Mr.. PreensoN's calculation, be effected; the
charge, as now -upon criminal expenses, falling directly on
the parents, and in default of these upon the parish. 'This
daring hint at Inv ovation received on Saturday the sanction
of the Bishopif LONDON, Lord GRoSVENOR, Mr. Him, the
Recorder of ItiratiNGliam, with other influential and ex-
perienced
person ages. May we find this a foretaste of some
great practical movement in the cause of destitute child-
hood, and discover in the end national asylums
.where
formerly stood the dens of punishment !

We have account ; from Lisbon to the 9th instant, brought
by the Peninsular mail. A strong opposition to the CABRAL
Ministry has been -formed, at the head of which is the Duke
DE PALMELLA, who will be supported by the Counts of
TAIPA and LUMIARES, and it is said by nearly the whole of
the ancient tobilicy. It is stated that, owing to the thriving
state of home maumfactures, the importation of English goods
was falling off to a great extent. The Exchange on London
was 541% to 54%, at ninety days.

We have received Madrid papers of the 7th and Bth inst.
On the 7th Senor 3lox,tbe Finance Minister, in the Chamber
of Deputies, broullit forward the budget for 1846, in which
the expenditure is stated to be 1,225,499,920 reels
(12,260,49914, and the receipts calculated at 1,227,000,000
reels (12,270,0001.) In making his statements the Minister
said be had not availed himself of the authority granted by
the Cortes to regulate the public.„`Aebt. That must be a work
of time ; but he had no doubt that a satisfactory arrange-
ment could be made under the influence of a wise ad-
ministration, a due regard to public credit, and the main-
tenance 4tr: internal order and tranquillity. The remarks
of the s-peaker, as published in the Gazette, display both
honesty and good sense:—
" None are more interested than the Government in the
improvement and consolidation of public credit ; none can be
more desirous to do justice to the several creditors, both
Spanish and foreign, who claim payment of the interests due
to them. It was for this reason that the Government had
obtained of the Cortes permission to regulate the States' debt.
The various -vicissitudes which the debt has undergone has
placed it in a situation such that it is better to leave it in its
present oondition than to make promises, and adopt improve-
ments which cannot be realised at a given period, and con,
stanth- and perpetually. With this view it was indispen-
sable to maintain public order at home, and to obtain a good
result from the public Treasury's receipts; as, in this re-
spect, there is a daily improvement, and public order is se- '
cured,. the Government is engag4id in giving to this question
all theimpulse necessary for brio ging it to an end; it has hi-
therto confined itself to religiously paying the interest payable
according to law, and which last year amounted to above
80,000,000 reals. In acting thus tha, Government has not been
actuated by any preference for the debt yielding interest; it
has been inspires. by the deep convict ion that in such questions
all hesitation and distrust are in the highest degree detrimental,
and that frequent; and reiterated acts., are those which provoked
a confidence by- no means to be suddenly commanded.
The Ministers, I'leputies, and Senittors, all ardently wish to