The Sun.
London, England, 1833-10-23 00:00:00

(OFFICIAL.)

LISBON, OCT. 11.—The Beija-mano could not take
place on account of the military operations.
For some days the enemy bad remained quiet before our
lines, but there was great activity in their rear ; they
brought up a quantity of planks and square timber, which
indicated their intention to place heavy artillery in the
strong positions in which they were posted, and as they
had forgotten the lessons they had received before Oporto,
every thing announced that it was their intention to keep
up the dejected spirits of their soldiers by the prestige of
an artillery, which they were not capable of maintaining,
by redoubts which they did not dare to defend, and posi-
tions which they did not venture to prevent being turned.
However it may be, the Duke of Braganza easily saw
through the intentions of the enemy, and resolved to
attack them before they bad established themselves in
their lines, which, though ill defended, presented obstacles
of no small importance.

Having thus resolved, on the 10th inst., at nine in the
morning, leaving the fortifications round Lisbon sufficiently
guarded, he sallied out with the remainder of his troops
divided into four columns. That on the right took the
road of Portella, that of the right centre debouching by
the Val d'Arroios was to march up Mirante de Freire
the two on the left, taking the road of Rego, were
destined to march upon Tilbeiras. These two columns
were composed of the three armies; that of the right,
however, on account of the difficulty of the road, had no
artillery. The right column of the centre, being soon
embarrassed by the obstacles which impeded its march,
was obliged to join that on its left, with which it pro-
ceeded to Portella, but meeting there with a corps of
1,500 rebels, which kept the road of &leaven], and
which on our arrival retired by it, our left column
of the centre was obliged to observe this corps, while
the others proceeded to the eminences of Mirante da
Quiwa de Freire, for which it was destined. As soon

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4**otcolumn -appeared there the enemy was forced to
send to Tilbeira two pieces of cannon, with which
they annoyed us in the direction of Campo-Grande ; and
the column which retired by the road of S3cavem, not
daring to keep its artillery, ordered it to join a corps of
2,000 men, which was posted on the heights of Amexoeira.
When this column had moved forward in the direction of
Sacavem, ours, which observed it, advanced a little, and,
without losing sight of it, went and took a position between
Mirante and the said heights.

Meantime the two other columns met the rebels, who
appeared to the number of 7,000 men, and after having
performed prodigies of valour, and their attacks in front
being vigorously supported by the first two columns, which
threatened and beat the enemy in flank, they drove him
from all his positions. The firing continued all night :
the rebels, having reached the position of Aveiro, where
they had collected all their artillery under the protection of
that and of the night, halted, and the two armies
bivouacked in presence of each other.

At one o'clock the enemy hastened their retreat, and at
day break, when we were preparing to attack them, we
found all the spoils which they had left us—a hoipitai
with 75 sick, abandoned without attendants, and without
provisions, besides many wounded left neglected in the
houses; many arms, a large quantity of baggage, heavy
artillery, platforms, works finished or begin, a great
quantity of ammunition, and abundance of timber of
all kinds. In the morning of the 11th, our advanced
troops fell in with the columns of the enemy posted in a
mass on the heights of Lorires, and supported by the
artillery; ours was in the rear, but our troops would not
suffer this circumstance to delay the defeat of the enemy ;
but scarcely did o,il troops show themsel7es ready
attack them, when they completely disappeared, and went
cr..e. Antonio de Toil!.
as we bad made it impossible for them to follow that of

Sacavem. It is easy to understand why the enemy
attempted, though in vain, to concentrate themselves on
this last toad ; ror ac two in the afternoon the column
with their heavy baggage retreated by La Povoa and
Alhandra, and our gun boats, protecting the troops which
his imperial Majesty had detached for that purpose to the
river, followed its march.

At three in the afternoon the enemy attempted, with
three squadrons of cavalry, to attack our right, but our
artillery and cavalry coming up they desisted, and concen-
trated themselves on their field of battle ; but supposing
from our preceding movement that our left was ill sup-
ported, they attempted art attack upon it at five e'clock.
The result did not answer their expectations, for we,
having promptly sent our cavalry to that flank, and attack-
ing it with three squadrons of reserve, they were
completely repulsed, and lost a great part of the ground
which they occupied, and of which we took possession.
So far we are informed, and it is probable that the
11th and following day will decide the fate of the factions
and crown the glory of the victors.
We cannot sufficiently extol the courage and order of
our troops, the brilliant charges of the cavalry, and the
firmness with which the enemy was repulsed at the point
of the bayonet, nor the coolness with which they dislodged
the rebels from the positions which the vainly attempted
to defend.

In these two days the enemy lost in all much more
than 1,000 men. Our loss did not exceed 100 men, in-
cluding very few officers. The 12th will put an end to
this desperate combat, and that anniversary of the birth.
day of the General-in-Chief will be worthily crowned
with the laurels of a victory which will immortalize his
name, and seal once more with the noble blood of the,
illustrious victims of Portuguese liberty, the oath taken to
the Constitutional Charter, and to their young Queen.—
Lisbon Chronica, Oct. 12.

We have since ascertained that despatches
have been received at the Portuguese Embassy
from Lisbon, dated the 12th instant, at
which time the armies were still fighting,
and the loss on the Miguelite side was estimated
tr, amount to between two and three thousand
men, besides an immense number of priooe,b.
The i\liguelites abandoned some of their positions
with such haste, that all their sick fell into the
hands of the Constitutionalists. Don MIGUEL
had fled from the Palace of Lumiar, leaving
all the plunder which he had obtained from
the Ajuda, and even his own toilet apparatus,
which he had just been using. It was expected
when the accounts left, that BERNARDO DA
SA would come up in the course of the day, in
which case the Miguelite army would he totally
destroyed. The armies were between twenty
and thirty miles from Lisbon on the 12th inst.

The French Papers of Monday contain no
particulars of an authentic character respecting
the insurrection in Spain. It was reported, but
not credited, in Paris, that an insurrection had
broken out in La Vendee.

FRENCH FUNDS.—PARIs, OCT. 21.
Five per Cents., 10111 95c. SOc. 102 f.
Three per Cents., 73f. SOc. 90c. 74f.
Bank Actions, 1,7101.
Rente de Naples, 90f. 90f. 10c. sc.
Roman Five per Cents., 91 90%.
Rente d'Espagne, Five per Cents., 15.; 16 16. Z
Rente d'Espagne, Three per Cents., 37,:zt 38% 37%.
Royal Spanish Loan, 79 78V,
Rente Perpet. d'Espagne, Five per Cents, GO V, 60 62%.
Belgian Loan, 1831, Five per Cent., 9354.
EXCHANGE ON LONDON.
One month, paper, 25f. 25c.; money, 25f. 20c.
Three months, paper, 25f. 20c. ; money, 25f. 15c,
—fours Authentique.

We have more than once had occasion to
animadvert upon the law of libel, as it affected
ourselves and the public at large ; but we have
now to call attention to the manner in which it
has been made to affect another portion of the
community to whom that public is indebted for
much of the pleasure it derives from news-
papers. The grand desideratum with newspaper
readers at present is freshness of intelligence.
A matter which took place yesterday has not
so much interest for us as one that took place
this morning, and as the point of time at
which it has occurred recedes, so does the in-
terest in it continue to diminish. Could we
be made acquainted with what takes place in

India in a week, it cannot be doubted that
the mass of the public would look with much
greater anxiety to what takes place in that part
of the Empire. The distance of space would
be forgotten in the rapidity of the communi-
cation. Indeed, we have many proofs before
our eyes that events, which nearly concern us,
and which have even occurred not far from us,
lose much of their interest by slowness
in their communication. Let any one compare
the interest now taken by the inhabitants of the
capital in events passing in Scotland, Yorkshire,
or Ireland, with the interest, or rather no interest,
taken in anything short of a rebellion, occurring
at so great a distance, twenty or thirty years ago.
The change has arisen almost entirely from the
communications between the extreme points of
the United Kingdoms taking place nearly in as
many hours as they used to take days. Thirty
years ago a dozen packet boats might have been
wrecked on the coast of Norfolk,
attended with
all conceivable circumstances of calamity, without
exciting the interest which the loss of the Earl
of IVemyss, and the circumstances attending
it, have certainly created. Again, the only
reason of the difference is, that thirty years
since, the accounts would have reachal us two

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NA,\
or three days old at best, whereas, now, we
have them the next day. The success of the
system of expresses originated by The Sun,
may be cited as another proof of the public
desire for the most recent intelligence that can
be procured. Since, then, such is the public
desire—the beneficial effects of gratifying it are
too apparent to be insisted upon—the public is
especially concerned in the free action of all the
machinery that ministers to that desire. All
who receive the metropolitan papers, whether in
town or country, are indebted to the prompti-
tude and punctuality of their newsvenders, for
much of the zest with which they read them.
Let the weather be what it may, the news-
vender must at all seasons be up at four or
five o'clock in the morning, go to the
newspaper offices for his supply of papers,
hasten back home with such as he can get, and
then distribute them to many of his customers
by seven or eight o'clock. There is plenty to
do in the middle of the day, but by three
o'clock he must be again in motion, in order to
procure and distribute the evening supply of news
as rapidly as he did that of the morning. It is
clear that, to say the newsvender must read all
the contents of all the papers he buys, before
he begins to sell them, is to say that his trade
shsli not exist, and thst the nublic shall no longer
have the benefit .;.our. For any one to
propose the pa_ of a law to that effect
would now be impossible ; but, unfortunately,
the present law of libel, if enforced, has ,
precisely that operation. In justice, reason,
and common sense, the first publishers of a libel
in a newspaper ought to be the only parties
responsible in the first instance, and the law
would, perhaps, do well in causing the pub-
lishers of newspapers to find a definite security
for the payment of damages awarded against
them ; but it goes further, and makes every
copyist of a libel, every seller of it in any form,
equally responsible with the first promulgator.
It has been often suggested that it would be
sufficient for copyists to be compelled to print
the vindication of an attacked party, and not be
made the prey of scoundrels, to whom a libel
extensively copied is a kind of fortune, the law
now enabling them to put two hundred news-
paper proprietors to a hundred pounds expense
each, although a jury may award them no more
than 5/. damages. As to the case of news-
vendeis, it is still harder than that of copyists,
for they have no control whatever over the
printing of a libel, and as they would sell the
vindication of a party with just as much plea-
sure as the attack made upon him, it is difficult
to see why the law of libel should have been
made to affect them at all. It has so, however,
and a newsvender has been fined and imprisoned
for selling a newspaper which contained a libel.
The newsvenders have taken the matter up with
great spirit, and, as will be seen in another column,
resolved at a numerous meeting last night to
petition Parliament on thesubject ofthegrievances
to which they are subject. We would suggest to
them, in addition to their own petition, the get-
ting up of another, to be signed by the public at
large. There cannot be a doubt that if each news-
man was to tnro ioutia a cuej a.pptition
to his customers nine out of ten would sign it.
The several sheets of signatu%.; sewed togeciier
for presentation to the House of Commons,
would make a roll that would beat even the
largest of Mr. BUXTON'S anti-slavery petitions,

We have heard, but can scarcely credit the
report, that it is in the contemplation of Minis-
ters to send an illegitimate son of the Marquis
WELLESLEY to Lisbon, as Consul-General.
The person alluded to is a pensioner, and, it is
said, will be allowed to retain his pen-
sion. He may, for anything that we know to the
contrary, be a very respectable man in his way ;
but he appears to us to be an unfit successor for
a gentleman, whose recall took place at a mo-
ment when he was performing the duties of his
situation in a manner creditable to himself, and
honourable to his country, and who ought to be
immediately replaced by those who recalled him.
It will probably be urged that economy was the
motive of Mr. HOPPNER'S recall, that gentleman
having been in the receipt of a large salary as
Consul-General and Political Agent, which will
not be paid to a person merely acting as
Consul-General. But as no offer was made to
Mr. HOPPNER to continue him at Lisbon as
Consul-General, on the salary fixed for that
appointment, we do not see how economy can
be fairly urged as the motive of his recall. He
ought, at least, to have been allowed the option
of remaining or retiring. Coupling the period
of Mr. HOPPNER'S recall with that of the de-
parture of Lord WEL LESLEY for Ireland, we
shall, if the appointment alluded to be made, be
inclined to consider that it was part of the ar-
rangetnent with the Noble Marquis to provide
for another member of his family.

An accident of a severe nature occurred on
Monday evening to Lord William Lennox, who had his
shoulder dislocated and his arm severely bruised, by his
horse falling with him in Oxford-street. His Lordship
was instantly taken to the house of Mr. Harrison, surgeon,
of 4, Great Marlborough-street, who immediately set the
limb, and rendered his Lordship every attention.

BRIGHTON PIER.-it is with pleasure that
we record a good action, and especially the well-doing of
the great and noble. A few days after the accident a
meeting of the shareholders was convened to consider what
could be done. It was obvious to all that the Company
had no funds out of which the great damage the pier had
sustained could be repaired ; and it was generally acknow-
ledged that, unless the public should take an interest in
reinstating the structure, the pier must remain a wreck.
At this point of the affair, the venerable Earl of Egre-
mout, whose hospitable mansion is at Pvtworth, at no
great distance from Brighton, rose and addreised the
shareholders to the following effect :—" It is known to
you, gentlemen, that I take a great interest in the advan-
tage which the country derives from there being a pier
at Brighton, and I should be ready to subscribe towards
the reinstatement of it, but that I hold it to be improper
for any shareholder so to do. The matter is, I think with
you, clearly of a public nature, and to the public I am
di cidedly for committing it ; but, gentlemen, I see no
reason why
I shouldu d
enrustt becomeoati
that
tone
goi
give
thee all public,the
sh
aarneisi
desire it may be n
hold in the pier to the town of Brighton. And now that
I stand as free as any one else, I beg to become a sub-
scriber towards enabling the Company to reinstate this
ornamental and very useful appendage to Brighton."
Every one will feel the value of this discriminating and
disinterested conduct.