The Sun.
London, England, 1834-04-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

We have opposed the sudden application of
free-trade principles, and particularly a free trade
in corn, simply because we maintain that, finan-
cially, this country and its numerous interests
are not prepared to enter into that sweeping
competition with foreign states which would
be the result of suddenly adopting such a policy;
and politically, because, as we have before
stated, that, considering our insular position, it
would be the height of madness to render this
country in the slightest degree dependent upon
foreign states for the supply of food. We ad-
mit that it is the bounden duty of a good Go-
vernment to secure to the community a perma-
nent supply of the chief necessaries of life at
the lowest possible rate ; at the sane time, it is
idle to expect that a permanency of supply and
a fixed rate of price in the article of corn can be
assured by depending on foreign states, more
particularly if we take into consideration the
comparative nature of 4 the currency upon
the Continent and the currency of this
country—coupled also with the great difference
in the amount and mode of taxation—facts
entirely overlooked by those of our contem-'
poraries who weekly inform us that wheat
is from fifty to eighty per cent. cheaper in
the different Continental. States than it is in
Great Britain ; but it does not follow that the
continental peasant, who assists in the cultiva,
"lion of this *heat, so clieal by comparison;
ever partakes of bread prepared from it ; yet in
this country, with very little exception, notwith-
standing the extreme distress that prevails,
wheaten bread is the staple food of the pea-
santry, though their poverty prevents them from
attaining scarcely any thing more. Yet it may
be said that if corn food was cheaper, the la-
bourer could spare something for other neces-
saries. How corn food can be rendered
cheaper than at present, when rents and the
public burdens are already paid out of the capi-
tals of land occupiers, we know not ; unless
modern political economists have discovered a
panacea for all our ills, by turning our arable
lands into one vast sheep-walk, and deporting
6,300,000 souls of the agricultural population
at one fell swoop, like convicts, to the colonies,
simply because of their distress and their phy-
sical inability to become manufacturers. Let us, in
few words, attempt to show the causes which ope-
rate so differently upon the English and the foreign-
corn-grower, and then we will proceed to give.
reasons for encouraging the growth of corn in
our own colonies, in preference to taking it from
foreign States, although we protest against a
forced system of emigration as totally unneces-
sary, since the sacred writings and the profane
histories of the progress of the world afford
abundant evidence of the migratoryinclination
of mankind whenever the increase of population
or other circumstances pressed upon their natu-
ral wants or local habits. The corn-grower of
the Continent has an advantage over the Bri-
tish corn-grower, first, in the comparative light-
ness of taxation and its more equal pressure on
all classes ; he has another of equal importance,
that is, a stability of the general circulating,
medium, arising out of the fact that the cur-
rency of the Continental States is based upon
a metallic standard in silver, whilst that of Great
Britain is based upon a fixed standard in gold,
at 31. 17s. 104-,d. per ounce. , The mischiefs
arising from the inequality of the monetary
systems of the Continent and this country *ere
entirely overlooked by Mr. Peel when he intro-
duced his memorable bill of 1819. Then he
pleaded that we were bound to restore the na-
tional standard as in use previous to the year
1773, at whatever sacrifice. But the ancient stand-
ard, winch was silver, has not been restored, and
the omission of silver has augmented unneces-
sarily and unjustly the sacrifice that has been
forced upon us by the operation of that mea-
sure. In principle it is directly opposed to
sound theory. In practice it has been produc-
tive of the most disastrous effects to the agri-
culture, commerce, and industry of the nation,
without even reference to a partial adoption of
one-sided free-trade principles, and the pressure
upon all interests arising from the necessity of
raising 28 millions annually only to keep faith
with the public creditor. But it is not only the
pressure of a bad monetary system, and of the
public debt, which renders it imperative to keep
up the protective system- until these evils are
abolished or greatly ameliorated ; but our
local taxation has materially tended, with
all the above circumstances, to cripple our
agricultural interests ; and as we have ex-c,r
deemed them the foster parents of our
commercial welfare, we would dre:w the at-
tention of the government to these facts, espe-
cially as it is in contemplation to introduce mea-
sures for the amelioration of the pressure of the
poor laws. It appears from a parliamentary docu-
ment that the total sum levied as poor rate and
county rate in England and Wales, in the year
ending the 25th of March, 1826, was
6,966,1571., of which there was levied from
land alone 4,795,482/. ; from manorial profits,
which may be considered as landed property,
96,8821., which, taken together, forms a sum
of 702 parts of 1,000 upon the whole levy of
that year. From dwelling-houses the sum
raised was 1,814,228/., or 261 parts of 1,000
upon the whole. From mills, factories, &e.,
249,9651., or 37 parts of 1,000 upon the
whole. The highway and church rates being
levied on the same assessment must be supposed
to press in the same unequal proportions on
these different classes of productive investments.
The highway rates of 1825-6 amounted
to £1,121,834
The church rates of the same year t 0... 564,388
Which, added to the poor and county
rates as above, viz ... 6,966,157

Makes a total of local taxation of £8,6.52,379

' Since that year these burdens have greatly in-
creased ; but then it appears that the agricultu-
rists paid of this enormous sum more than
seven-tenths, the owners of dwelling-houses
more than five-twentieths, the owners of m;2;ts
and factories only one twenty-seventh
and
part ;
whilst the proprietors of capital vested, in stocks
placing
;n trade, the funds, mortgages, annuities,
personal wealth of all descriptions,
nothing whatever. That the-paid actually
seven-
tenths of a local tax,
beneficial its o*et
cannot be denied, and hewever necessary and
may be, upon the producers
to the
of the first necessaries of life •
vet they are all in addi-
tionif abolished
pressure of -the tithes, which, even
• ) is yet doubtful whether it would
produce 'any relief, since its amount would, in
most instances, be added to the rent. We now
presume that we have shown, with regard to
a bad monetary system, and the peculiar cha-
racter and pressure of taxation, that the dif-
ferent interests, especially. the agricultural,
have no chance in competing with those of
the Continent or the United States of Ame-
rica. Therefore, to abolish protective mea,

sures, until we are prepared for the change,
would inflict a guat injustice upon_ the
energies of the people. Let the Government,
by a sound system of finance, gradually reduce
the national debt, and, by the application of
equitable economy in every department of the
state, lighten the public burdens ; let them turn
their attention to the necessity of improving our
monetary system ; let the working of our poor
laws be improved, and their tremendous cost
reduced—our labouring population restored to
their moral character and industrious habits ; let
the curse of absenteeism be removed from Ireland
by the determined nullification of agitation,and her
great agricultural resources be developed by a
just application of the poor laws to that king-
dom, so that her able-bodied labourers may be
fully employed,—let capital be encouraged to
promote the growth of corn in our colonial soils,
and by degrees we shall be able to compete with
the foreigner, and to adopt a system of true free
trade—a consummation we then shall hail as
heartily as, under existing circumstances, we
now oppose it. When the circumstances of the
country render cheap bread necessary (though
cheapness is no evidence of the happiness of the
people), such measures should be adopted as
may cause it to be raised cheaply 1 y British
soils, in 'preference to depending upon foreign
countries for a supply, and to the great advan-1
tage of this domestic-like policy in supporting
our colonies we shall turn our attention in a fu-
ture number.—Morning Herald.
The latest accounts from the Spanish fron-
tier in the French papers of Tuesday contain
few facts which have not already appeared in
our own private correspondence from Madrid,
or in the official and demi-official documents
from the Madrid journals with which it was
accompanied. From all these statements it
seems evident that the Spanish Government
has at last been roused from its apathy, and
has seen the necessity of acting with more
energy and decision than it has hitherto dis-
played since the death of Ferdinand. Hence
it has abandoned for the present the pursuit of
mere speculative improvements of uncertain
issue, and appears resolved to attend to those
pressing wants or those necessary guarantees
which the situation of the country or the state
of public opinion so loudly demand. Hence it
has taken prudent and promising steps to re-
plenish its empty treasury with a loan on the
best terms which its own subjects or foreign
capitalists are disposed to offer. Hence it has
launched rigorous, though not unjust decrees,
against the members of such religious esta-
blishments or the inmates of such monastic
institutions as shall be found to join the
standard of rebellion, or who are now encourag-
ing disorders, of which they have been the pri-
mary cause. And hence, at last, we have a cer-
tainty that Spain is to possess a legislative re-
presentation, to unite its energies under the
direction of a common will—to give confidence
to the nation, by allowing it a voice in the
management of its own affairs, and to secure
those who support the public interests against
the arbitrary injustice or capricious oppression
of absolute ministers, or a despotic court. The
great difficulty to be explained is involved in the
question, why these measures have not been
taken earlier ? And the great doubt to be
solved is, whether their tardy adoption will now
be effectual in extinguishing the flames of civil
war, or arresting the progress of the conflagra-
tion, which has already reached too many points
of the kingdom. It is now nearly six months
since the death of King Ferdinand, and nothing
of importance has hitherto been done to satisfy
that portion of the nation which has remained
faithful to his daughter, or to overthrow the fac-
tion of the Pretender. Yet no disputed reign,
where a struggle for the Crown appeared
inevitable, ever began under better auspices,
or with more contingent elements of success
in its favour. The Queen Regent and her
council, now administering the government in
the name of her infant daugher, had a full year
(between the first and the last apoplectic attack
of her husband) to prepare for rendering the
succession secure in her family. Don Carlos,
in spite of the formal abrogation of the salic law
by Ferdinand in 1830, was prepared to assert
his rights to the throne on the reported death of
his brother in September, 1832; and it was only
by the unexpected resurrection of the Monarch
that his claims were postponed. These claims,
however, he pertinaciously refused to abandon
or to compromise, and his obstinacy on this
became the cause of his-banishment from the
kingdom. During his stay in Portugal (from
the spring of 1833 to the death of his brother)
he continued in the same disposition of mind ;
a,7cl in the correspondence between him and his
brother', which has since been published, he
not only declined to abandon his claim to
the succession, and refused to swear alle-
giance to the infant Queen on the convocation
of the Cortes to confirm her title, but entered
his solemn protest against the whole proceed-
ing. That protest was not only sent to Ferdi-
nand, but was transmitted to every Court in
Europe. Here at least there was no hypocrisy,
no duplicity or perfidy, no attempt to hoodwink
or deceive the friends of the young Queen till
the death of her father should throw the crown
into the arena as a prize to be contended for on
equal terms. The Queen-Regent and her
councillors had thus fair warning of their dan-
ger during several months of the lingering death
of Ferdinand, and ought not only to have exer-
cised the necessary precaution of placing secure
friends in every office of trust, but to have ma-
tured an eventful system of political measures
calculated at once to attach the nation to the
interests of the infant Sovereign, and to paralyze
the faction of the Pretender. In such circum-
stances they ought to have estimated the strength
of parties—to have ascertained the sentiments
aza spirit of each—to have gradually disarmed
the Hoy.alist volunteers—to have reinforced the
ranks of the regular army—to have taken vi-
Pro measures 0 precaution against the ma-
us (
,chinations of the convents, and to have been
prepared with some great plan or system of
constitutional amelioration, which would have
&theta all the Active and intelligent spirits pf
the nation in the cause of the young Queen, as
idftntifieti with that of national improvement.
Though all this was not done by the time of
erdinand's death (which could not be said to
he unexpexted), yet such was still the excellent
position of the Queen Regent, that the succes-
sion of her daughter appeared exposed to little
danger, and that danger (to whatever extent it
now exists) is to be ascribed to subsequent
mismanagement or folly. Her Majesty, on the
demise of her husband, found that every cap-
join-general of a province—every municipal or
judk.nal functionary—every regiment M the
"service, were ready to offer their allegiance to
Ater danghter. The general administration—
the great councils ,of the state—the public
treasury of the nation, such as it was—the
public force, both civil And ,ilitary, were

entirely at her disposal ; and had the corps of j
Royalist Volunteers been dissolved, there would
not have been a single organized body ready to
participate in the hazards or to court the reward
of rebellion. On the other hand, Don Carlos
was proscribed and in exile, without resources
and without troops, cut off from the treasures and
services of his friends the monks, and unable to
communicate with his deluded partisans or sup-
porters, except across the joint ramparts formed
by bayonets in the hands of the armies of Morillo,
Sarsfield, and Rodil, appointed to watch his
movements on the frontiers of Gallicia and
Estremadura. Even then the Queen Regent
Was not left in the dark as to the designs and
pretensions of Don Carlos, and therefore had
a second warning to separate her daughter's
cause from his, by the barrier of popular insti-
tutions and constitutional guarantees. Actu-
ated as much by a blind fanaticism as by an
obstinate ambition in asserting his claims, this
Prince again declared his right to the throne,
styled himself " Charles V." to the Queen
Regent's Minister who waited upon him to
announce his brother's death,—condescendingly
offered her Majesty at Madrid his gracious pro-
tection, if she conducted herself with propriety,
—went through the vain ceremony of writing
letters to all the Spanish ministers at foreign
Courts, and to all European Sovereigns, an-
nouncing his accession, —appointed ministers
ad interim to conduct his correspondence,
and sent notice to his partisans (as far as he
could) to rally round his standard. The die
was then cast—the Pretender was found to be
incorrigible, his property was confiscated, and
a price was set upon his head, should he pass
the Spanish frontier. No hope could hence-
forward be placed in anything but his weak-
ness ; and as the Minister Zea had uttered the
threat against his life, should he be found in
Spain, it is surprising that he did not see the
immediate necessity of taking some decided
step to overpower, by popular changes, that
absolutist faction which constitutes his only
strength. We need scarcely say what a miser-
able use that minister made of the immense
advantages placed at his disposal, having not
only all the authorities and resources of the
kingdom in favour of the young Queen, but
the immediate recognition of her title by France
and England. We need scarcely point out
the blunders, anomalies, and inconsistencies
of his administration—we need scarcely allude
to his unwise manifesto against constitutional
improvements, which displeased one party, with-
out gaining the confidence of another—to his
partial amnesties, equally annoying to those in-
cluded as to those excepted—to his delay in
disbanding the rebel Royalist Volunteers—to
his aversion to employment of Constitutional-
ists, where they alone could be effective in
the Queen's service—or, finally, to his obstinate
resistance to the convocation of the Cortes. All
these proofs of imprudence or incapacity are
fresh in public recollection. It is of more im-
portance to reflect on what have been the con-
sequences of such acts of weakness or folly.
Two or three of the northern provinces are in
consequence overrun with Carlists. A war of
extermination has been proclaimed, and the
greatest atrocities are daily committed on both
sides. The emissaries of Don Carlos, as we
have seen by the capture of the " English
Packet" off Vigo, are procuring for him abroad
money and arms. The old guerilla chiefs are
again brought from their retreats into the field,
not to defend the soil of their country, but to
resist its improvement. Juntas of government
are formed, to which they address their military
despatches. These juntas levy custom-house
duties at home, and are understood to have
contracted loans abroad, to maintain the con-
test ; and though they have no chance of ulti-
mate success, the tenacious ambition of the Pre-
tender, and the obduracy of the Spanish cha-
racter, forbid the hope that the contest will be
soon terminated, or tranquillity soon restored.
It is only a national assembly, like the Cortes,
about to be convoked, which can give the Go-
vernment the means, and inspire into it the
energy, necessary for terminating:such a con-
flict.— Times.
It was an observation of the late Mr. Ni-
cholson, the well-known author of many
esteemed scientific works, that after the middle
of life, rigidity of body was accompanied by a
corresponding rigidity of mind, which indis-
posed it to the reception of new views, how-
ever just, on any subject ; but that the young,
who have nothing to unlearn, and no recollec-
tions to intimidate them, are ready to adopt
other new opinions, and that thus every generation
may be said to have its own opinions. It has
been observed, in like manner, that one of the
disadvantages of advancing years is, that men
become too wary, and do not make sufficient
allowance for the mass of ignorance and stu-
pidity in the world. Hence, young Generals
are often successful, because they do not know
the danger they have to encounter. A stupid
man often succeeds in the world, where a clever
man would fail, because the stupid man pro-
ceeds with confidence, from not knowing the
difficulty, while a discerning man hesitates, be-
cause he knows the difficulty, and dreads it. A
man who has lived through one revolutionary
period, will not easily be induced to take an
active part in another, and he is equally little
disposed to anticipate any very favourable re-
sult. The great impediment in the way of
decided measures against Charles Dix, in
France, was the recollection left in those who
had lived through the revolutionary pe-
riod. As the old revolutionists dropt off, a set
of young men, who knew nothing of terrorism,
were ready to act over another revolutionary
drama, and then came the three days. We re-
member hearing some of our English Statesmen,
who were in France during the movements of
the allied army, state in Parliament that, with
a few exceptions in the East of France, the
people in that country were quite indifferent as
to all movements, and cared only for case. But
fifteen years had allowed the nation to regain
a large portion of its old exciteability, and in
1830 the allies would have found a very dif-
ferent reception from what they found in
1815. We suspect Spain has not yet got rid
of a sufficient number of the men of 1821, and
obtained a sufficient supply from a pew gene-
ration, to be altogether fit for such liberal mea-
sures as sanguine people in this country conceive
practicable. The impression left by the drama,
which began with the defection of Riego's
troops, and ended in the occupation of Cadiz,
can hardly be yet effaced. We urge these ob-
geryations as a sort of apology for the present
Governiiseut, which is occasionally criticised
with great severity---both in France . and
4ngland. It cannot be too often repeated
that it is not enough that a policy is in itself
abstractedly the best—it may at one time
be opposed by circumstances not to be sur-
mounted, while at another it may be pursued

with ease. It is remarked by historians, that
when the whole nation, as it were, seemed to
turn out to receive with rapture Charles 11.,
people seemed to ask themselves what had be-
come of all the enemies of his father ? At that
time the whole nation seemed, as it were, to
rush into disgraceful servility ; and it was not
till the nation had submitted many years to a
series of insults, that a return to a better spirit
began to manifest itself. Had Charles the
Second died fifteen years earlier, James might
probably have carried his object, through the
sycophancy of the clergy and the mad Toryism
of the parliament. In like manner the French
Revolution gave for a number of years nearly
absolute power to the government of that coun-
try.
Every editor of an ultra-radical journal
imagines himself a Brutus, because, in times of
no danger, he can call out lustily for the unre-
strained liberty of the press, abuse the Whigs,
and inveigh against the Edinburgh Review.
But at the time when the Edinburgh Review
first appeared, the hazard of appearing even to
countenance opinions that savoured of liberal-
ism, was hardly less than that which Car-
lile encountered when he re-publisced
Paine's Age of Reason. There was at
that time a downright proscription of
every man who, in matters of loyalty,
did not get the whole Hog. Any man
who had been concerned even in printing
pamphlets or newspapers, reputed Jacobinical,
could find no employment for many years after-
wards. The individual, for instance, who had
printed the Scots Chronicle, an Edinburgh
newspaper, of which a Captain Johnson was
editor, and with which Citizen Lord Lauder-
dale was supposed to be connected, could after-
wards obtain no employment in his trade of
printer ; and about 1806, when the per-
secution began to relax, a professional gentle-
man, seeing the poor man burdened with a large
family, ventured to hazard his own safety, by
giving him a little employment, and if he had
been rescued from a twenty years' captivity in
Algiers, he could not have showed more grati-
tude. When Sir Francis Burdett first advo-
cated radical reform in the House of Commons,
he was the object not of aversion, but of some-
thing like horror. When he proceeded through
the house to his seat, he received no token of
recognition from any one—he was a solitary
being in the house. The keeper of a tavern in
Edinburgh, in 1809, by putting up the sign of
Sir Francis, was threatened by the magistrates
with their vengeance. It is quite obvious that
he would have been a bad practical politician,
who at that time should have attempted, in the
teeth of all these difficulties, to carry Parliamen-
tary reform, even on the most limited scale.
Such was the dread of innovation of any kind,
that Sir Samuel Romilly was deemed a visionary
by every man in office for attempting the
slightest innovation in our system of penal law ;
and Lord Holland stood alone in the House of
Lords in advocating Sir Samuel's very limited
first alteration. The theoretical politician is
freed from all those warm considerations. Mr.
Bentham, during all this period, was writ-
ing, as if he were addressing himself to
sages instead of a moon-struck population.
The folly of the people did not disturb
him in his closet, and when the time admitted
of it, he gave his lucubrations to the world.
But the practical politician is not at liberty to
act as if he were in Utopia. He must consi-
der the times in which he acts, and make
allowances for the errors and prejudices of his
countrymen. The closet_ politician is generally
a child in this respect. Mr. Bentham, for in-
stance, wrote tracts for the Spaniards in 1821,
which would hardly have suited them if the
whole nation had been attending lectures in
Queen-square for a dozen of years. In the
same manner, when the Greeks first appeared
on the stage, the good man forgot that they
were some such savages as the Highlanders of
Scotland, who, if we may believe the . Edin-
burgh newspapers, have not a word in their
language to convey the meaning of revolution,
and in many districts had not heard of the
French revolution till long after the battle of
Waterloo, or like the Irish of Connaught,
whom poor Dick Martin used to bring to Galway
to support constitutional rights by the shi-
lelah. We remember when Colonel Torrens
had invented, or thought he had invented (for
we say nothing as to the invention itself), a new
kind of bayonet exercise. Mr. Bentham was all on
fire to communicate it to the Greeks, and was not
a little displeased to hear that the Greeks, like
all other savages, fight from behind rocks, or in an
ambuscade, and would never use bayonets. We
make these observations with a view to mode-
rate the ardour of those who judge of the con-
duct of the Spanish Government merely as
it falls short of what they may conceive the
proper standard of liberal opinions. They for-
get that six-tenths of the Spanish nation are
immersed in brutal ignorance ; that of the re-
mainder a very large portion are connected with
the church ; that the grandees are so many he-
reditary imbeciles ; and that, in short, the Go-
vernment, for a number of years, so far from
being what is called a union of church and
state, was a delegation of the church. The
church in Spain was what the borough oli-
garchy were in England—the English Ministry
were a committee of boroughmongers, and the
Spanish Ministry were a delegation of eccle-
siastics. The power of property—the influence
of long habits cannot be broken through in a
day, and therein the Cortes showed themselves
bad practical politicians ; and therein the news-
paper press of England (and ourselves at the
time among the rest) showed themselves equally
bad judges of what was fitting for Spam.—
Morning Chronicle.
We have extracted from the Moniteur Beige
the official version of the Government respecting
the scandalous outrages in Brussels. True to
its text it proves that revolution, the offspring
of anarchy and disorder, can only exist but by
riots and pillage. We certainly had not enter-
tained for a moment the thought that the na-
tional subscription to purchase the stud of the
Prince of Orange had included such distin-
guished names as we find recorded in the Mes-
sager de Gand ; but of everything that is no-
ble, virtuous, and elevated in moral character,
are the parties composed who wished to gratify
their ancient predilections, and display a token
of gratitude to the illustrious family of the
King of the Netherlands. Eighteen houses
have been ransacked, pillaged, and destroyed,
under the patronage of King Leopold, as the
recompense of a sentiment which, in any other
country, would have entitled the possessors to
the admiration and esteem of all individuals,
however opposed in political principles. The late
exhibition of brutal ferocity by the mob of Brus-
sels has been referred to, somewhat whimsically,
ns a proof that the Orange party in Belgium is
a nullity. It seems to us that to infer
from this occurrence the nullity, or worse, of
King Leopold's Government would be far more

rational. We know by the melancholy instance
of Bristol, and many other places in our own
country, that a very small proportion of the rab-
ble of a populous town may effect great mis-
chief, especially if they have imbibed the notion
that their exertions will be regarded by the Go-
vernment with a favourable or indulgent eye,
and that the public force will not be directed to
oppose them with promptitude and vigour.
Whether the Orangeists at Brussels could mus-
ter a rabble to pull down houses and destroy
furniture, in support of their cause, equal in
number and power to that whose late exploits
are considered to afford so satisfactory a demon-
stration of the stability of the Coburg throne, is
a question which we shall not take upon our-
selves to decide. What is certain is, that the
adherents of the brave and noble-minded
King William will never so far forget what
is due to his character and their own as
to try the experiment. The question, however,
is not, as some of our contemporaries seem to
suppose, answered in the negative by what has
yet taken place. A very insignificant mob
would suffice to destroy all the respectable
houses in any city in Europe, giving it the ad-
vantages, which the Brussels heroes enjoyed in
such abundant-measure, of a Sovereign parading
the streets accompanied by his staff, not to re-
buke, but to excite them, and of a strong mili-
tary array drawn forth evidently not for the pur-
pose of intimidating, controlling, or dispersing
them, but for that of affording them encourage-
ment, facilities, and protection. Whether we
regard the alleged origin of this riot, or the nar-
rative of its proceedings, every circumstance
conclusively indicates that it partook much more
largely of the character of a coup d'etat than of
a spontaneous ebullition of popular feeling.
What interest can the rabble of Brussels be
supposed to have felt in the destination of the
Prince of Orange's horses ? The project of
repurchasing them, for the purpose of resti-
tution to their rightful owner, was one which
bore the aspect at least of devotion and gene-
rosity ; qualities the appearance of which is
always pleasing rather than offensive, to the
unsophisticated portion of mankind, in every
country. It might be offensive and alarming
at Court ; it might excite jealousy and appre-
hension among the few Belgians who are gain-
ing, or who hope to gain, wealth and power
under the shelter of the Coburg throne ; but
that it could have given rise to any popular
feeling of indignation is perfectly incredible.
Why, besides, was not the riot suppressed when,
as the result abundantly shows, the Government
had the means of suppression at its command ?
Why was it positively encouraged by the au-
thorities, civil and military ? The single answer
to these questions is that the whole affair from
beginning to end was a coup d'etat. The
transaction, when distinctly traced, as we have
no doubt it will be, to the existing Government
of Belgium, will present a proof of anything
rather than of its strength, or of the nullity of
the Orange party.—Morning Post.
The Tory prints have, for some time past,
been all but gorged with ridicule of the attempts
of the Vice-President of the Board of Trade,
Dr. Bowring, Lord Durham, and Mr. E. El-
lice, to open anything like a fair and free com-
mercial intercourse with France ; but it is a
wise saying, " not to halloo before you are out
of the wood ;" for so far is it from either of the
parties having failed in the supposed object of
their mission, that we have every reason to be-
lieve that they have been even more successful
than there was previously to their attempts good
reason to imagine that they would. The visit
of Mr. Poulett Thomson was not without its
results—the opinions of the Ministry were
shaken—the strong holds of monopoly felt
the introduction of the wedge which is
ultimately to destroy it—and Dr. Bow-
ring—an enthusiast in the cause—has
since been so diligent, and so persevering,
that there is every . reason to anticipate
the best results from his mission. We
do not, of course, mean to state that any thing
approaching to a system of reciprocity will be
accomplished in the course of the present year ;
for the monopoly of every thing in which Eng-
land would desire a free and independent inter-
course with France, is so completely esta-
blished, and in so many hands, that its overthrow
at once is not for a moment to be thought of;—
but of the ultimate result there can be no doubt.
The wedge has been introduced—the ancient
edifice has been shaken to its foundation—and
if the final result be but hastened by a few
years, the labours of Dr. Bowring, and the
efforts of the government, will not have been in
vain. In conclusion we ought to mention, that
the Doctor is sanguine of success, and that
many points have been satisfactorily settled, to
which there was but little reason to hope for a
happy conclusion.—Morning Advertiser.

SHOCKING ACCIDENT AND Loss OF
LlFE.—Yesterday afternoon, at five o'clock, an acci-
dent, attended with the loss of one life, and serious in-
jury to several persons, occurred at the brewhouse of
Messrs. Combe and Delafield, in Castle-street, Long-
acre. A scaffolding had been erected across, from one
building to the other • and upon one end of that scaf-
folding a large mass of old bricks had been placed. At
the time above stated a fine little boy, eight years of
age, named David Hatwell, the only child of the pro-
prietor of the coffee and reading rooms in Mercer-
street, Long-acre, together with two other children,
and several grown persons, were passing under the
scaffolding, when it suddenly gave way under the im-
mense weight above, and they were crushed to the
earth. Assistance was promptly rendered, and
they were extricated in a short time, but the poor
boy, Hatwell, was found to be a corpse, and the
others were severely injured. They were con-
veyed to Mr. Hume's, the surgeon in Long-acre,
where the best aid was afforded them, and they were
sent to their respective homes. An inquest will be
held on the body of the boy Hatwell this day.
Some six or seven years ago, during my stay
in that part of his Majesty's dominions, an accident of
rather an extraordinary nature occurred to a soldier of
the 36th Regiment, then in the West Indies. He
was cleaning his accoutrements in the gallery or ve-
randa of the barracks, in the island of Barbadoes, upon
the first floor, when his ramrod accidentally fell over
the balcony, which he requested a person below to
throw up to him, leaning at the same time over the
balustrade for the purpose of receiving it. It was
thrown, and stuck fast in the corner of the poor fel-
low's right eye, close to the upper part of the nose,
where it had entered to the depth of an inch and a
half and required the Freatest efforts to extract. He
was taken to the hospital in great agony, and speech-
less, when it was discovered that a nerve had been
punctured which paralysed the tongue and the
whole of the left side. At the end of six weeks he
recovered his speech, but the perfect use of the left
arm and. leg has been denied him to the present hour.
This man was sent home, and discharged with a pen-
sion of 9d. a day : having only one serviceable arm, it
may be readily imagined such a person cannot be much
of a labourer ; he is, however, enabled to earn a few
pence, by occasionally turning a mangle. This un-
fortunate being, with whose misfortunes I had been so
well acquainted at the period of their occurrence, I
accidentally found in this place (Whitecross-street
prison), condemned to 30 days' imprisonment in total
idleness, for a debt of 20s. 9d. ! Some persons will
perhaps say he is rightly served for getting into debt ;
but I maintain not more rightly than is the creditor
who trusted him by losing his money. This man is
now a double burden upon the community—as a pen-
sioner and prisoner.—New Monthly Magazine.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.