The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-25 00:00:00

BAROMETER-30.07.

WIND, North Easterly ; moderate, with dull weather.

OCT. 25.
56—highest since noon yesterday.
52—lowest this m•rning and during the night.
56—this day at noon.
BxuomETEn-30-27.

WIND, North Easterly; fresh, with dull weather.

THE SUN.

MONDAY. OCTOBER 25, 1858.

The difficulty, ,between the French and Portu-
guese has been-arranged ! This would be a satis-
factory announcement if the matter stopped there,
but, unfortunately, we are compelled to go a little
further—to inquire into the nature of the original
difficulty, and of the arrangement thereof, and
whether the latter has been freely and voluntarily
entered into, or under such pressure that no option
was allowed to the weaker party.
It will be in the remembrance of our readers that
Lord BROUGHAM long since denounced the French
" emigration" scheme as neither more nor less than
a slave-trade under a different #signation. The
intending emigrants were purchased at a sti-
pulated price ; they were not free to ignore
the bargain ; they were compelled to fulfil
the terms of the contract, however onerous or in-
tolerable. They had then to incur all the horrors
of the sea voyage—crowded to excess—without any
regulations to abate the annoyance or to maintain
the health of the cheerrul emigrants!
The Portuguese Government, which, since the
accession of the young King, has shown an earnest
desire to participate with Great Britain in pro-
curing the annihilation of this atrocious traffic,
had made sundry wholesome regulations fqr that
purpose. Amongst others, one published in the
Official Gazette at Lisbon, on the 2d August, 1850,
" prohibiting the embarkation of negroes from
Mozambique under any pretence of free-labour
engagements, such being held to be a virtual con-
tinuation of the slave trade, and consequent evasion
of the decree ,Of December 10,1836, and December
14, 18.54,"

The French authorities were fully cognizant of
these decrees : they could not plead ignorance, and
therefore it signified little whether it were a vessel
sailing under the French flag, or one under the
control of a government agent that had been
arre.;teil for the violation of a notorious and binding
I:tw. •

The Charles and. George had been arrested for a
breach of these regulations, as wzll as for having
been a regular slaver. She had been captured at
anchor in a port which foreign vessels were pro-
hibited frcm entering, had on board 110 negroes,
and was fitted with false decks and other acces-
sories held to constitute prima facie evidence of her
being engaged in the slave trade.
The question was subsequently tried before a
court of competent jurisdiction at Mozambique, and
the captain was eventually sentenced to two
years' imprisonment, with hard labour, to the
costs of the prosecution, and fines amounting in
the aggregate to about £llO sterling; while the
Government agent and the crew were acquitted
on the ground- that they were not proved to have
had any participation in the purchase of the slaves,
for which-MC ..7,tpt4in and hi 3 interpreter were
condemned.

Nothing eould apparently be fairer than all
this. But the French Government bitterly com-
plained, and rightly demanded redress. The Por-
tuguese immediately offered to abide by the
arbitration of any neutral Power selected by France
itself. But even that was not sufficient. Its
honour was concerned, and instant satisfaction
was indispensable.

It certainly seems strange that France should be
the first nation to disclaim, the proposition put
forwrall, and, we believe, unanimously adapted at
the Parisian Conferences ; or, at least, so far fritter
it away as to render it of no practical utility.
Henceforth it must be, to all intents and purposes,
a mere dead letter. We should have thought that
questions of what have been termed " honour"
would have been those most urgently re-
quiring such mediation. Mere material differ-
ences are easily disposed of, but the most
sanguinary wars have invariably been occasioned
by the most trivial points of etiquette. It was the
most convenient matter on which any man or
nation could pick a quarrel, and therefore the whole
clause introduced iu to the Parisian Treaty must
fall to the 'ground. We must say that it is not
creditable to a great nation to resci t to such subter-
fuges, more especially against one of inferior power,
and that for the apparent purpose of establishing a
Out trade, albeit under a different designation.
It my appears, according to the telegram, that

" the Portuguese Government delivers the Clulrles
et George to France, declaring it cedes only to the
threatened employment of force." This . a dig-
nified protest, and one that ought to hav weight
with the Emperor. His authority, or ather his
strength, has been respected. That era ng honour
that induced him to carry matters with the high
hand has been satisfied. He may now listen
to the dictates of truth 'and justice —may
yield to the promptings of his better judg-
ment, and consider whether any portion of
the proceedings can be justified, and whether
it is not he who really owes an indemnity
to Portugal, not Portugal to him. At all events,
that troublesome element in a French calculation,
"'honour," has been eliminated from the equation—
that can. no longer disturb the result. One solu-
tion will therefore be rejected, and the other will, we
trust, be that which truth and justice would dictate.
Let the investigation be of the most searching class.
But let its character be such that implicit reliance
can be placed on the accuracy of the result. The hon-
our of France having been satisfied, the Government
of Paris should be the most anxious to show that
,it was justified in all its proceedings, and that
'rom the beginning it had no real reason to shirk
the inquiry. If it should appear that its regula-
t:ons have been abused or perverted, it will then
fet .1 it its duty to adopt others not so easily
evaded.

veal other speeches delivered in the provinces
have again to be recorded. Speeches upon the
increase of Ragged Schools, upon the improvement
of the la .bouring classes, upon the spread of the
knowledge of Christianity. Lord JonN RUSSELL
is again the orator in the first of these instances—
the Noble _Lord advocating on Friday the interests
of the ragged and industrial schools of Ardwick-
green, do-pr.a at Manchester. The speaker in the
second instance—that referring to the amelioration
of the social and domestic:condition of the labourer—
being Mr_ WILLIAM LONGMAN, the eminent
publisher, that gentleman (in the absence of Lord
EmmtY) addreesing himself in very earnest words
on Friday (as Chairman of the evening) to
the members of the Chorleywoood Asso-
ciation, down in the parish of Rickmans-
worth. The individual referred to in the third
and last instance—that relating to the dis-
semination of religious knowledge—being no less a
personage than the Lord Bishop of OXFORD, who
descanted also on Friday upon the subject particu-
larised at considerable length, down at Bradford,
addressing himself, there and then, to a somewhat
excited, not to say occasionally even uproarious

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