The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-07 00:00:00

Madrid journals of the 30th have been received. The
capital was tranquil, and all the accounts from the pro-
vinces were favourable. It would appear that the
country is resolved to wait patiently for the result of the
late extraordinary Cabinet measures. The Council of
State having drawn up a report on the new law relative
to time bargains on the Bourse, had submitted it to the
Cabinet, who are said to be divided on the subject.
On the 30th the Three per Cents, closed at 32 for cash,
and 321-16th for the 19th of April. The Fives were no
quoted.

'n the French Chamber of Deputies, on Saturday, an
animated discussion took place on the presentation of se-
veral petitions from Protestants, complaining of the religi •
ous grievances to which they are subjected by the Govern-
ment and the Catholic Church. They complained that
a Protestant congregation cannot assemble for religious
purposes without a license from the minister or prefect,
which to a certain extent placed them at the mercy of
one of these functionaries ; that Protestant pastors are
not allowed to visit military hospitals regularly, and in-
deed cannot enter them unless at the special request of
the sick soldiers ; and, lastly, of the improper means
used by the Catholic clergy to convert children of tender
age, and even shut them up in convents. M. GASPARIN
supported the prayer of the petitioners, and several
leading Members spoke on the occasion—among others,
M. ODILON BARROT, M. DUPIN, and M. MARTIN (du
Nord) ; but a general feeling seemed to prevail that these
religious discussions in the Chamber could lead to no
satisfactory result, and the petitions were therefore re-
ferred to the Ministers of the Interior and of Justice.
The Committee on the proposed establishment of trans-
atlantic packets had drawn up their report, in which
they propose the following plan:—That th• Government
be authorised to treat with one or more commercial
companies, for the establishment of either sailing or
steam-packets on four principal lines, namely, to New
York, to the West Indies, to Rio Janeiro, and to the
Havannah. The departures are to take place from
Havre and Marseilles, and the packets to be adapted for
sailing, or for steam on the principle of the screw. The
rate of sailing to be at least nine miles an hour, and the
vessels are not to be allowed to carry more than 200 tons
of goods. The distance from Havre to the West Indies
to be done in 20 days, and to Rio Janeiro and the
Havannah in 27 days.
The accounts from Algiers are more favourable than
they have been for some time. The Moniteur Algerein
states that the province of Constantine was perfectly
quiet, that General Jusur displayed great activity in
pursuing ABD-EL-KADER, and, after a march of three
days, had reached the town of Zamina, only about a day
after the departure of the EMIR, who had taken to the

mountains, accompanied by 400 or 500 horsemen. On
the 26th of March the Duke D'AIIMALE, accompanied by
the Prince of SAXE-COBURG and a brilliant staff, entered
Blidah towards five in the afternoon. A detachment of
cavalry, with a body of spahis, commanded by General
COMMAN, went to meet the Prince at the village of Beni
Mered. On the following day they left for Milianab,
where the Duke D'AUMALE takes the command of the
district. According to a letter in the Presse, fever pre-
vailed in some of the hospitals to a great extent. In the
hospitals in the province of Oran alone 1,000 persons had
died during the last three months.

The Journal des Debats contains the following details
relative to the Western Railroad—that from Paris to
Brittany
" The two companies candidates for the Western Railway,
the one represented by Messrs. Laffitte and Blount, the
other by Messrs. Emile, Pereire, Thurneyssen, and Tarbe de
Sablons, have, according to the desire of the Government
and of the Committee of the Chamber, come to an under-
standing. The Committee, it is said, proposes to the Cham-
ber the concession of the Western Railway to these two com-
panies, united with branches to both of the Versailles lines,
and the concession of the line from Bounieres to Caen to the
Company. De Bretenil joined with the companies Laffitte
and Athalin. The Western Companies and that of Caen
remain, like the railways which they work, completely in.
dependent of each other. Of the social capital of the Wes-
tern Railway, 148,000 shares will be assigned to the share-
holders of both the Versailles lines ; the proportion to be
settled by an arrangement between the directors of the com-
panies if the concession be voted by the Chambers. Each
share of the right bank Versailles will be received into the
Western line for 550 E, and exchanged against four Western
shares 0f125f. each, with 50f. returned, representing the value
of the shares of the Company. In the same way, each share
of the left bank Versailles will be received for 375 E, and ex.
changed for three shares of the west line of 125 f. each. Ac-
cording to this arrangement, both Versailles lines may be
immediately incorporated with the Western Company.
Questions of detail will be settled by the Minister, and the
report presented on Monday or Tuesday."
-The French Three per Cents. were done at TORTONI'S
on Sunday at 83f. 50c.
ITSINESS DONE IN FOREIIIIN RAILWAYS AT VIE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, Aram 6.
Bonlogne and Amiens, 12 —Dutch Rhenish, 11%—East Indian,
%—Great Northers of France Constituted, 14%—Great Western
Canada, 4—Louvaix and Jernappe, I%—Laxernbourg, I%—Namnr
and Liege, s—Orleans and Bordeaux, 11%—gads and litrasbourg
(Constituted), sN—Sambre and Meuse, 3%.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert has subscribed
251. to the City of Westminster Literary S,lentitic and Mechanics'
Institution as one of 30 donors to liquidate the balance of its building
debt, the list of wham already includes tile names of the Earl of
Radnor, Lord Robert Grosvenor, the Lorri Mayor, Charles Hindley,
Esq., M.P. (who originated this subscript'ion), and 12 othergentleinen.
CHAPEL ROYAL, WHITEHALL..--Thursday next being
" Maunday Thursday," the annual and, instant ceremony connected
with the distribution of her Majesty's. bounty will take place in her
Majesty's chapel at Whitehall, where, It has been the custom for
many centuries to distribute money, clothes, &c., to as many poor
men and women as accords with ti,te age of the Seversign. This in
teresting ceremony commences at three o'clock by a processien from
the Queen's Almonry-office in Bootland-yard, to the Royal Chapel,
where Divine service is perform, NI, during which the distribution
takes plate. _ _

GREAT FOOT RACE FOR 20L—Yesterday the long-
pending e
kez
icrssiucettotrwoeuenni3fcrjntjoy 'and E. Smith was decided at the
-Walwortla. The men were matched to run
over one mile of grr-
equal distances • And, and le:w one hundred hurdles, placed at
large number , The men are first-rate pedestrians, and drew a
joy di, p. ..pf persons to the race. smith took the lead. Mount-
homic ineffectual struggle to Como up, but tell at the twelfth
And !Smith ran in an Cao7

famine and disease, by the lamentable squalor and pri-
vations of their fellow-creatures, cast out into the
hedges and ditches, houseless, hopeless, foodless, penny -
less, would naturally be regarded with detesta-
tion. Some may imagine that no such individuals
can be in existence—that the supposition of
such tacit atrocity is but the exaggeration of
a morbid fancy. Gladly would we think so ourselves.
Hard facts, however, stare us in the face ; and we are
reluctantly forced into the knowledge that there are such
men amongst us, that they blush not to avow their own
heartlessness, and that their cruel indifference to the woes
of the human family spring from the basest of all motives
—self-interest ! What are these facts ? Alas ! they
are simple enough, and GOD knows they are painful and
degrading enough to our common nature. It actually
appears, from our Irish intelligence, that many of the
farmers of that unhappy country, far from endeavouring
to allay the woes consequent among their neighbours
from the scarcity of provisions, have been rendering
those woes more grievous and intolerable by keeping back
their stores of potatoes and other food in order to extort
from their starving countrymen famine prices! Surely
there is much atrocity in this ! Surely these men de-
serve the abhorrence of mankind ! At a time when
whole parishes are raging with fever, or stricken with
other diseases, from the consumption of decayed vege-
tables, or from an absolute destitution, these persons
could look on unmoved, with their premises stocked with
provisions, rejoicing within themselves at the prospect of
an extortionate payment. They could act thus with the
spectacle of extreme want immediately before their eyes,
while the Ministry are striving to afford sustenanct
where it is required, and conjuring the more fortunate
among the Irish to co-operate with them in their
charitable and generous labours, or the official
efforts to make up the deficiency would be utterly
inefficient. To contrast the matter yet more strongly :
while the gallant regiments of Irish, who are hazarding
their lives upon the banks of the Sutlej, are subscribing
somewhere about eight hundred pounds fur the poor of
their native land, a woman in Blackrock, who is in pos.
session of a large quantity of potatoes, announces her
resolution not to sell until she can obtain a farthing
a-piece for them! When such a villainous want of
sympathy is evidenced by people situated in the midst of
the calamity—people allied by ties of kindred and country
to the victims of starvation—it becomes indeed a most
difficult task to assuage the pangs of Ireland. Far from
any gratitude being expressed towards the Ministers for
endeavouring to diminish the scarcity by the importation
of foreign provisions, no sooner is a cargo of Indian corn-
meal landed at Cork, than a panic seizes the holders of
potatoes, and a cry is raised at a public meeting in
that city, " that Sir ROBERT PEEL be hanged for
bringing fresh food into the market." To say that this is
ungenerous and ungrateful to the last degree, would be
an inadequate expression of that thorough and heartfelt
abhorrence with which we regard these ignoble Irish
malcontents. Such conduct is repugnant to us as mem-
bers of a civilised community, as Christians, nay, as men.
It is a most miserable exhibition of turpitude on the part
of those Irish farmers, and will cause every right-think-
ing mind to rejoice at the disappointment of their avari-
cious intentions by the arrival of that food which
the precautionary policy of the Premier has conveyed
across the ocean. In the town of Ballyjamesduff, its
wretched inhabitants are so completely without a crumb
of nourishment, and so entirely without the means of
obtaining any, that, according to a letter received from
that neighbourhood, "they had shut themselves up in
their dwellings for two days, with the apparent determi-
nation to conceal their state of want, and abide their
dreadful fate !" Yet this is the very time a certain
proportion of the farmers were reserving their stock
until they could safely require a famine price. Like the
gravediggers mentioned by DEFOE during the great
plague of London, their trade was to thrive most at the
height of the visitation.