The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-18 00:00:00

eicintilt-I as

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LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1851.

The report of the defeat of GHOLAB SING by the
people of Cashmere, which was brought to us by the
Overland Mail, is calculated to excite some feelings of
anxiety for the preservation of peace in our Northern
Indian provinces, and at the same time forcibly illus-
trates the impolicy of maintaining the system of pro-
tected native Princes. We are bound by treaty to
afford these protected Princes aid and assistance in
their wars, and should GHOLAB fail to reduce the
Cashmerians we may be called upon to march an
army to his assistance. Now, seeing that
at this moment all our available force is
wanted on the Aifghan frontier, where, in
consequence of the death of YAR MAHOMED KHAN
of Herat, and the conflicting claims of DOST MA-
HOMED, of the Khan of Kandahar, and of the Em-
peror of PERSIA. to that city, war is imminent, it is
sufficiently annoyionto find that instead of having
the assistance o" "LAB SINGH in such a CM"'
juncture, to guard "for us the Cashmere frontier, sae
shall probably have to march to his assistance. What
renders the prospect of affairs on our northern iron-
tier still more serious is, the fact that under pretence
of chastising the Turkomans for a pretended insult to
the Russian flag, Russia bas stealthily advanced a
body of 5,000 troops from the south shores of the
Caspian into central Asia, and these troops were, ac-
cording to the last accounts, directing their march
towards Herat. If any additional proof were wanting
of the superiority of the policy of annexation over that
of protection, it is afforded us by a comparison of the
present state of Sinde with that of Cashmere.

We have always contended that it was impolitic, rash,
and dangerous to permit the deposed Ameers of Sinde
and the captive chieftains of the Seikhs to remain even
as prisoners upon the Indian territory. At the time the
RANEE effected her escape to Nepaul we strongly urged
the deportation of the Ameers and the Seikh chiefs to
either Singapore or Ceylon. We are more than ever
confirmed in cur opinion as to the policy of adopting
such a course, from the intelligence which has arrived
of the discovery of a plot for the escape of the Dewan
MOOLIIAJ. It appears that aprivate letter, written in
the Naggaree character, having been opened by the
authorities, was found to allude to a plan which had
been formed to deliver the Dewan from his imprison-
ment, and to convey him to Nepaul. A sum of
400,000 rupees had been subscribed by different
individuals for this purpose. The plot was a very
bold one, and well arranged in all its details. The
arsenal was to be set on fire, and in the confusion
which would necessarily ensue an attack was to be
made on MOOLRAJ'S guard, the sentries put to death,
and the liberated prisoner conveyed to the river side,
where a boat wat to be in waiting to take him
across to Hourah. Dewan MOOLUAJ has been
removed to Allahabad on account of ill health, and
it is supposed he cannot survive many days."
When we remember that the RANEE was reported to
be suffering from ill-health, and that her death was
hourly expected for some weeks before she effected
her escape, we must confess we are somewhat sceptical
as to the dangerous state of the health of the Dewan
MOOLRAJ, and as we have no wish to see the Indian Go-
vernment involved in another Moultan campaign, we
would again urge upon them the necessity of direct-
ing the removal of MOOLRAJ and his fellow-prisoners
to Singapore, or some other territory, which would
render a return to India, even in the event of an
escape being effected, difficult, if not impossible. The
NizAm, it appears, has found means to pay his debt,
and consequently to preserve his territory, a matter
which, perhaps, the Tartar Emperor of CHINA may
not find it so easy to accomplish, for the rebellion in
China is making daily progress.

Seventeen years have elapsed since the Liberals of
Portugal obtained the ascendancy, and during that
interval how far have they succeeded in popularizing
the cause of DONNA MARIA DA GLORIA ? The me-
lancholy condition to which her subjects generally
have been reduced has long since become a matter of
notoriety, insomuch that it would now-a-days be some-
what difficult to discover any really conscientious
panegyrist of her Government. A fairer opportu-
nity for the re-organization of a country was, per-
haps, never before frittered away in the squabbles of
faction than that which, in 1834, was afforded to the
statesmen at Lisbon by the contracting parties in the
Quadruple Alliance. At that memorable crisis the five
years' reign of' Dom AliGuer. was brought to a ter-
mination, and the interests of the Portuguese nation
were entrusted to his opponents as the champions of
the newly nominated Sovereign. Scarcely, however,
had the field been cleared before the Liberal party,
when their most advantageous position appears to have
been wilfully foregone for the luxuries of indiscrimi-
nate contention. With such rapidity were these
feelings of animosity germinated in the ranks of Li-
beralism that the masters of the situation in 1836 se-
parated into two strongly marked and bitterly anta-
gonistic factions, bight respectively the Carlists
and the Septembrists—the Carlists with no
less a personage than COSTA CABRAL as leader, advo-
cating principles somewhat similar to those proposed
by the Moderados of Spain and the Septembrists,
though with a stronger flavour of republicanism,
bearing a resemblance in their character to that other
great Peninsular party, the party of the Progre-
sistas. Weakened as the Liberals of Portugal were
most undoubtedly by this important division amongst
' themselves, their energies have been yet more remark-
ably deteriorated since 1836 by a multiplicity
of minor differences, until scarcely anything
whatever is left of that compact and vigorous
body, marshalled a few summers back under
the banners of the new Constitution. So entirely
shattered, indeed, is that once dominating party that
its state almost reaches the final stage of decompo-
sition. Aware of these things, the still faithful
adherents of the dethroned and exiled Prince of the
House of Braganza are beginning to revive their
hopes
of a restoration, and even amongst ourselves
these dreams of the Miguelites are regarded by some
as not altogether chimerical. In a brief but masterly
paper relating to the position of affairs at Lisbon, a
contributor to the current number of Blackwood's
Magazine, and evidently one peculiarly well in-
formed, the anticipation of the change above referred
to is acknowledged, and this, moreover, without any
derisive allusion to its indulgence. A circumstance
of such startling significance appears to us eminently
entitled to consideration, more especially when it is
remembered that the chief of all the monthly peri-
odicals, while enunciating the views already men-
tioned, seizes the opportunity to allude in extenu-
ating terms to the banished King of Portugal.
Speaking calmly and dispassionately upon this sub-
ject, at a distance of seventeen years from the down-
fall of Dom MIGUEL, Blackwood maintains that he,
the object of so much invective, was by no means so
black as he was painted, adding that " his character
suffered in England from the malicious calumnies of
Pedroite refugees, and from the exaggerated and
easily accepted statements of the Portuguese corre-
spondents of English newspapers." In all this we
are satisfied that there is a vast amount of truth, and
without adventuring upon a circum64.l.tial vindica-
tion of DOM MIGUEL, we oaut ,rs,emlvoesnsaterre
in
nerhsuuamdaend
that he neither is nor was that

' form" which he has been so long represented.
To be brief, we have no credence whatever in these
frequent discoveries of Royal Lucifers—in these
Princes of Darkness painted so repeatedly with the
blackening ink of prejudiced historians and partizan
pamphleteers. We don't acknowledge any verisimi-
litude, for instance, in that diabolical silhouette which
Mr. MACAULAY has been recently trying to palm off
upon us as a correct portrait of his late Majesty
King JAMES IL We have a vivid recollection,
again, of the slanders promulgated at the beginning
of the present century against the Emperor
NAroLEort—slanders issued from the press of Eng-
land by one of the most distinguished publishers in
London—slanders believed by most of the respectable
classes throughout the United Kingdom—slanders
according to which the Imperial family of France was
represented as a group of rogues and debauchees,
capable of indulging their evil passions alternately,
and in obedience to the caprices of the moment, by
adultery or by assassination. These atrocious ca-
lumnies, we repeat, were given to the world by one
of the first houses in the London book trade, and for
a considerable period consequently NAPOLEON himself
was looked upon as a species of bogie, more
hideous in aspect even than the little yellow-
faced man lately painted by the hand of the
eminent caricaturist, M. ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE,
a monster, in short, quite as horrible to en-
counter as a ghoul or a catamaran. Very nearly as
detestable, though of course on a smaller scale, has
been the popular notion of DoM MIGUEL. Now, in
the mere possibility of such apparitions, we say again,
we have no disposition to be credulous. Like Black-
wood, we believe, most unquestionably, that DoM
MIGUEL, during his five years' reign, namely, from
1828 to 1834, " acted in many respects neither
well nor wisely," but like Blackwood, also, we
find a difficulty in crediting the innumerable
atrocities attributed to him by his virulent
and anonymous calumniators. Those
.charges
against DoM MIGUEL are indeed disproved by the fact
of some of our most illustrious statesmen being
amongst the number of his defenders—such states-
men, we mean, as Sir ROBERT PEEL and the Duke of
WELLINGTON. It must not be forgotten, moreover,
if we would justly appreciate the probabilities of the
future, that seventeen years ago a Quadruple Alli-
ance was found necessary to bring about his de-
thronement, and that, notwithstanding the lapse of
those seventeen years, the exiled Prince can still
number up a host of earnest and even enthusiastic
adherents, amongst whom may be enumerated most of
the houses of the ancient nobility of Portugal—the
Vianntr, the Lapas, and the Abrantes, the
Albuquerques, Mellos, Traveiras, Pachecos, Alberga-
ries, Cunbas, Correa• de-Sas, Bednidos, San Martinhos•
Pereiras, and others, literally too many to be
enumerated. Can loyalty like this be the tribute
offered to a monster ? That, we opine, is scarcely
conceivable. Dont MIGUEL has consequently secured
to himself in the devotion of his followers a brilliant
and visible vindication. He bas preserved his forces
moreover in their undivided integrity, while DONNA
MARIA DA GLORIA has found her political
champions separated little by little into factions
so numerous as to be at length individually
insignificant. Such ere the relative situations of the
opposing parties at the present juncture, a juncture
not the less indicative of insecurity from the circum-
stance of Marshal SALDI.NHA holding the reins of
office in the midst of a countless variety of Ministe-
rial jealousies, while the Conde DE THOMAS is
making his obeisance to Dom MIGUEL in the Crystal
Palace, an interview not long since recorded in our
columns, and copied subsequently from the English
journals into most of the newspapers of Christendom.
Bearing these facts in recollection, it becomes a matter
of congratulation to the well-wishers of' Portugal that
out of her existing difficulties good alone can be ex-
tracted. Whether DONNA MARIA maintains her
ascendancy, or DoM MIGUEL becomes in.khis turn
triumphant, in either case they are alike pledged to a
Liberal policy, one in connexion with the new, and
the other with the ancient Constitution—DONNA
MARIA, by the terms of the Quadruple Al-
liance, and Dom MIGUEL, thrice in the most
explicit manner, first by his " Declaration"
of the 24th June, 1843 ; secondly, by his autograph
letter of instructions of the 15th of the following
August ; and lastly, by his royal letter of the 6th April,
1847—a document that would appear to indicate that
he has really learnt wisdom from adversity. It
matters not to England what may be the decision of
Portugal in this most important crisis, all our soli-
citude in its regard being restricted to the liberty
and prosperity of its population.

The period when the bucolic symposia generally
take place is rapidly approaching. Now that Mem-
bers of Parliament are relieved from their legislative
duties, that the crops are safely cut and garnered, the
" ruined agriculturists" assemble together to condole,
over mighty sirloins or capacious rounds, on their
miserable conditions, and to pour forth gloomy
vaticinations while " quaffing bumpers pottle deep"
to the health of the succesful competitors for the
prizes for fat stock or newly invented machines. If
we could yield credence to the tales that are poured
forth on every side, we should declare that British
farmers were sustaining a series of " alarming sacri-
fices" quite sufficient to have long since destroyed
any person of less tenacious vitality. The records of
the Bankruptcy and Insolvent Courts prove that
manufacturers or traders cannot long maintain their
position if encountering continued losses. The agri-
culturists have, however, solved the difficult problem.
They are enabled to endure incessant losses,
and yet to maintain jolly aspects enjoying
all reasonable comforts and social indulgences. It
would be difficult fora participator in their post-pran-
dial conviviality to suppose that the jovial spirits
around him were reduced to a state of despair, looking
forward with too painful anxiety to the moment
when the impending ruin will be consummated, and

the territorial interest involved in one common de
struction.

There is, however, one unequivocal benefit derived
from these agricultural meetings. The leaders of
parties in the respective districts meet their respec-
tive followers, moderate their too sanguine anticipa-
tions, and indicate the nature of the questions to be
debated during the forthcoming year. When the re-
suscitation of the corn monopoly was in contempla-
tion, when it was looked upon, if not practicable, as
at least a topic that might be brought forward to
annoy the Ministers for the time being, we heard of
nothing but the revival of the law and the enact-
ment of a full measure of protection for British in-
dustry. Nothing else would do. It was the only
medicine that would be accepted for the supposed
disease.

We find, however, from the meetings that have re-
cently taken place that there has been a considerable
change in the views and opinions of the chief orators
and of the assembled guests. For instance, at the
meeting of the North Lancashire Agricultural So-
ciety, the President, Lord DE TABLET, a staunch
Protectionist, a member of the Carlton Club, and
an influential follower of the Earl of DERBY,
tells the assembled farmers that they must
abandon all thoughts of protection, casting their lot
with the rest of their countrymen, looking to the
advantage of the community in general, and turning
that prosperity to their own advantage by means of
skill and industry. The Noble Lord also spoke in
sanguine terms of the general prospects of agricul-
ture, and exhorted his auditors " not to indulge in
any idle hopes or hypotheses as to what might arise in
future, but to look the present state of things boldly
in the face, and by their own energies and exertions to
meet the necessities of the times so far as they could."
His Lordship, however, went further. He uttered
words of hope and encouragement, showing that
" there was great and reasonable ground for consola-
tion and hope in the present state of the country
generally."
This is as it should be ; and if it stood alone, the
speech 'of Lord DE TABLET, and the cordial and rap-
turous applause with which it was received by the
audience, would be well worthy of notice, as exhi-
biting in the strongest light the sentiments of a large
body of agriculturists at the present moment. But a
still more important demonstration has taken place, a
voice has spoken in language of more peculiar signi-
ficance than could fall from any one of the territorial
aristocracy, however wide his domains or exalted his
rank. Mr. DISRAELI, the recognised leader and hope
cf the party, has spoken out plainly and distinctly at
the annual dinner of the Royal Bucks Agricultural

Association, which ook place yesterday at the George
Inn, Aylesbury, an, he was greeted with the hearty
and enthusiastic chers of his audience, who cordially
concurred in his reommendations. It is unnecessary
to follow the Banourable Gentleman through
the various details d his able and interesting speech.
With great oratoric& skill he made his hearers in good
humour with themslves, endeavouring to show that
what he denominatel " the pretexts upon which the
repeal of the corn-laws were carried were erroneous,"
that " the farmer wts not a man deficient in energy
and enterprise," ant that the change which had been
effected did press mist seriously upon the price of
provisions." But what was the deduction which
the Honourable Gentleman drew from these
premises ? What were the exhortations which
he addressed to his followers ? Were they
to seek the restoratnn of the bread-tax ? Far from
it. Having adminAered an agreeable dose of com-
pliments—we will not call it flattery—to his au-
ditors, he emphatbally cautions them against in-
dulging in unreascaable expectations. He tells them
that "to uphold a *stem that exists, and to bring back
a system that has teen abrogated, are very different
things," adding Oat he is himself convinced that
"the system generally known as the protective
system can neter be brought back, unless
it is the interest of all classes—at least of
all classes of importance—that this should
be the principle which should regulate the national
industry, and unless the nation speaks out upon the
question in an unmistakable manner." This would
be tolerably decisive; but the Honourable Gentleman
was determined to leave nothing in doubt; he was
resolved that there "could be no mistake and there
should be no mistake." He showed plainly and
unmistakably, that it was by fiscal reforms, by a
more judicious and equitable adjustment of the
financial burdens, that the necessary relief alone
could be afforded, adding—
" I believe that we have a case for the country; if
we can ask for relief on the principle which our anta-
gonists are promulgating; if we can show that we are
subject to an unequal taxation; if we can show that we
are subject to injurious restrictions; if we can show that
we are encountering this unequal taxation and unjust re•
striction, under the pressure of distress which no other
class of the community experiences, then it is for our
opponents to devise terms of arrangement. I think
it most unwise in tie landed interest—and when I say
the landed interest, I mean the farmer as much as the
proprietor, for I make no difference—they are partners
in the great agricultural firm—l say that it is a most
unwise thing for the agricultural interest to go to any
Government and say—" We are suffering; give us a
fixed duty; give ns a sliding scale, and cure our suf-
fering.' *Our business is to su—' We are suffering,
and you admit it. The cause of it: is, excess of taxa-
tion, which our energies cannot endure. We have
restrictions on our industry under which no industry
can prosper. We eall upon you to give us justice, and
to place us upon the same level as our fellow-citizens."'

Most heartily do we rejoice that the Honourable
Gentleman has at length become a convert to our
sentiments. It is not by "a fixed duty" or a " sliding-
scale" that assistance can be afforded. No, it is only
Jai a revision of taxation. The " restrictions on in-
dustry, under which no industry can prosper"—the
golden fetters must be struck off—the " excess
of taxation" in its most vicious form must be
removed. We may differ in details, but we are agreed
as to the point that a revision of the entire fiscal system
is essential, and when that revision is conceded we
shall then consider the nature of the alterations that
may be demanded by the country, and which will
afford prosperity to all classes in the community, and
give real protection to every description of British
industry—to the manufacturer and labourer as well
as to the agriculturist.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday
The Constitutionnel makes the following an-
nouncement :

"It is said that the French Government proposes to
make a communication to the Government of the United
States on the subject of the affairs of Cuba. The English
Cabinet, to whom ours is said to have communicated its
resolution, has, it is reported, replied that it was its in-
tention to make a similar communication to the Cabinet
of Washington."

M. DE LAMARTINE has published a long letter in
the Pays, declaring his dissatisfaction at the appear-
ance in that journal of M. DR LA GIIHNONIERE'S "Por-
trait of Louis Napoleon" as being calculated to "throw
Napoleoniau dust in the eyes of the people."
The Bourse was heavy, and public securities declined in
price.. The Fiyo per Cents. upeucd at 91f. 55 c., and closed
at 91f. 35c. ; the Three per Cents. closed at 55f. 85c.;
Orleans Rairoad Shares, 8671.; Rouen, 5801.; Havre,
2351.; Great Northern, 457 f. 50c.; Avignon, 2051.;
Vierzon, 427 f. 50c.; Basle, 1501.; Bordeaux, 385 f.;
Paris and Strasburg, 3551.; Tours and Nantes, 262 f. 50e.;
Amiens to Boulogne, 2581. 75c.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, SEPT. 17.
Boulogne and Amiens, 101 i East Indian, 20%—Paris
and Rouen, 22%.

SPAIN.

Madrid journals of the 12th have arrived.

It is said that DoNoso CORTES is about to resign
the French Embassy, and that he will be succeeded
by the Marquis of NIRAFLORES.
MADRID 130LSA, SEPT. 12.—Tbe following are the
prices of Stock; :—Three per Cents., 36 for cash ;
Five per Cents., 17 ; Coupons, 8i; Debt without
Interest, 61.