The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-23 00:00:00

vain.

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 23, 1835.

into maturity, by reason of piecemeal acts of legisla
tion done in their infancy.
We are not aware that any legislative provision has
yet been made for the erection of a standard, by which
every tram-road should be constructed as to specific and
well-defined width. The variation of one inch in this
respect might render impracticable the continuous
transit between neighbouring counties, and defeat the
utility of a junction of roads. Let us suppose a case.
Parliament permits a railway to be constructed in a
line bissecting the county of A ; the road is made, and
the distance between the parallel trams on which the
carriage wheels (conformably adjusted) are to tun, is
set at five feet six inches. Two or three years subse-
quently a similar grant is obtained for the adjoining
county of B ; the engineer, without reference to the
plans adopted for the former, lays down his trams at a
distance of five feet four inches. Now it is evident
that the carriages constructed for the wider way cannot
pass into the narrower, and no transit can consequently
be made between the two counties. Hence, then, in
order to extend the usefulness of the roads as a con-
secutive route—to -prevent loss of time and of pro-
perty in altering or reconstructing ways already made—
and to make the advantages general as well as local—
the Legislature should forthwith establish one uniform
standard width for every railway to be hereafter laid
down throughout England. WTe believe no such
standard yet exists, and as the propriety of the measure
must be manifest, we hope, without further dilating
upon it, that the hint will be taken.

We observe by the Parliamentary Printed Papers
that upwards of six thousand of the Operative Weavers
and other inhabitants of the town of Paisley, have
petitioned the Legislature for the establishments of
Boards of Trade, on the principle laid down by Mr.
FIELDEN, one of the Members for Oldham. This
petition, which is most respectfully and sensibly drawn
up, states that the establishment of such Boards is
absolutely necessary to preserve the industrious artizans
from utter ruin—the consequence of a system of un-
principled competition which universally prevails among
the manufacturers. We have doubts of the efficacy of
of legislative interference ; but we are bound to state
that we think it incumbent on the House of Commons
to take the proposition for the establishment of Boards
of Trade into its immediate consideration. The
operative weavers are a large, intelligent, and most
useful class ; remarkable for their sobriety and love of
order ; and nothing short of sheer necessity would in-
duce them to press their claims on the consideration
of Parliament. We have always opposed, a►►d shall
always oppose the unnecessary interference of the le-
gislature in the affairs of social life. We hold that
the less Government concerns itself between the em-
ployer and the employed, all the better for both parties.
The interference of Government, in such cases, bears
too close a resemblance to the empirical equity
of the ape in the fable, when deciding on the
rights of the cats to an equal division of the
stolen cheese, to obtain our approbation of its
frequent intermeddlings between masters and men. It
generally proceeds by enacting laws. Now we dislike
legal enactments on temporaly affairs, because it too
frequently happens that laws so enacted seldom cease
to operate at the precise point where their operation
begins to be injuriously felt. But the establishment of
local Boards for the regulation of trade prices, and
agreements between the employers and the employed,
is liable to no such objection. Such Boards, of course,
would consist of individuals selected from among mas-
ters and workmen on account of their general intelli-
gence, their acquaintance with the trade, and their high
moral character ; and these persons, being constantly
on the spot, would be able to meet all the various exi-
gencies that would arise out of increased demand,
fluctuation in prices, and varieties of texture. Should
the plan for the establishment of Boards of Trade be
embodied in a Bill, we shall consider it our duty to re-
commend it, as a most salutary measure, to, the two
Houses of Parliament.

The Paris Papers of Saturday have all been re-
ceived. They state that the French Cabinet has re-
solved to bring the prisoners of April to trial, between
the sth and 12th of May. It is, however, presumed,
that all other obstacles removed, the absence of the
necessary number of Peers will effectually prevent the
trials from being proceeded in. By the laws of
France, the Court of Peers can only exercise ju-
dicial functions, when a majority of the mem-
bers are present, and as this seldom hap-
pens, and as their attendance is entirely voluntary,
it is doubtful whether the trials can take place. Besides
according to the rules in criminal trials, any Peer who
shall be absent a single day from the Court, cannot
take part in the subsequent deliberations, and therefore
cannot vote. The Ministry are reported to be ex-
ceedingly ill at ease. Private bickerings and personal
piques among the Members have already commenced.
It is rumoured that M. TITTERS wishes to be sent out
as Ambassador, his health having suffered by his
Ministerial labours.

The intelligence from Bayonne is to the lith inst.
General MINA was then in the Bastan at the head of
the army, preparing to march to Narvate, to dislodge
ZUIIALACARREGUY and the main body of the Car-
lists. It is generally rumoured that the war in the
North will speedily be brought to a termination.

FRENCH FUN DS.—Parits, MARCH ta.
Five per Cents., 107 f. 73e. 60e.
Four per Cents., 971. 9.5 c.
Three per Cents., 801. 55c 60c. 8.5 c.
Bank Actions, 1,960 t. —c.
Rente do Naples, 971. 50c. 55c.
Roman Five pv Cents., 991 a.
Rente d'Espagne, Five per Cents., 4,1-y. 49.
Rente d'Espagne, Three per Cents., 301
Royai Spantsn Loan, 49.
Rente Perpet. d'E4fflagne, Five per Cent., 49 4814 49.
Belgian Loan, Fiveyer Cents., la
Portuguese Loan, live per Cents., 94.
Portuguese Loan, Six per Cents. 100.
Haytian Loan, 3,5 f. —c.
EXCHANGE ON LONDON.

0 -.0 month, paper, 25f. 45c. ; money, 25f. 42!4C.
1%-iree months, paper, 25t'. 30e.; money, 9.5 t. 3t)c.

Artthe;llig;le.

BOURSE, QUARTER TO FOUR.—Five per Cents., 197 f. 15. ;
3 per Cents., 601. 850. ; 5 per Cent. Spanish, 49 ; 3 per Cent.
ditto, 301 ; Cortes, 49,E ; Coupons, 429 ; Guebhard, 49 ; Dif-
feres, 18L ; New Loan, 69A ; Ducats, 97 75 ; Romans, 99.1 ;
Belgians, 105 ; Pedros, 94 ; Haytians, 3S7y, _

We have received a file of Jamaica and Leeward
Islands papers, to the 12th ult., by his MAJESTY'S
packet Camden, being the first vessel that sailed under
the new regulation, for the sailing of packets twice
monthly. The Camden sailed from St. Thomas's on
the 17th ult., and arrived at Falmouth on the 20th inst.
The following are extracts from the papers :
His Majesty's ship President, bearing the flag of Admiral
Sir George Cockburn, was appointed to sail for England via
Bermuda,_ on the 11th February.
His Majesty's steam-vessel Rhadamanthus was to sail the
same day for England.
The following is a list of King's ships at Port Royal on the
1 lth ult. :—President, Vestal, Thunderer, Rhadamanthus, Dee,
Serpent, Wasp, Magnificent, Flamer, and Jackdaw.
The cruiser had captured a slaver, having on board 367
slaves.

His Majesty's ship Forte sailed on the 2d of February for
the Havannah. His Majesty's schooner Fetcher sailed on the
Bth on a cruise ; and his Majesty's ship Fly sailed on the 9th
for Honduras.

Merchant Ships.—The Rapid, and the Susan, for Liver-
pool, to sail on the 13th ; the General Keane, for Chagres,
to sail on the 11th ; the Jamaica, for Liverpool, to sail on the
11th ; the Anfield, for Liverpool, sailed on the 7th.
The Jamaica Herald of the 9th of February, says :
" There is a report (which we sincerely hope is unfounded)
that his Majesty's schooner Skipjack has been sunk off the
westend by a slaver. It is affirmed that a heavy firing was
heard at Sa-la-Mar, in a south-westerly direction, about a
fortnight agog The report of single guns was heard, with now
and then a broadside.

The accounts from the different parts of the country are in
every respect favourable. Crop has commenced, and is pro-
ceeding well. Arrangements have been made upon several
estates between the labourers and their employers, for the
purpose of extending the weekly period for manufacturing

labour agreeable to the Order in Council of June 5. The
contract has been entered into on the plantations Perle,
Bellevue, Marquis, Grand-Anse, Choc, and Bois d'Orange,
by which the master obtains twelve extra hours manufacturing
labour in each week from his apprentice by an allowance of
from 1:1,- to 2lbs. of fish. We have no doubt the system will
be generally adopted, as we have heard that it has been found
to work well wherever the experiment has been made.—St.
Lucia Gazette, Jan. 7.
Many of the patriotic inhabitants of Westmoreland have re-
solved to embody themselves into a society for carrying into
effect the intention of the late Act of Assembly relative to
immigration, and for promoting the agriculture of the island.
—Jamaica Herald.

(Extract of a letter from St. James's, Feb. 4.)
"We have had glorious rains here for the last three days;
but are getting on very slowly with the crops, from the indo-
lence of the apprentices. Most of the estates that are about
are making excellent sugar."
Some further particulars, relative to the ashes and volcanic
scorhp that fell in St. Mary's, and other parts of the island,
htely :
" Extract of a letter from St. Ann's, dated the Ist instant.
—' As I do not observe any notice taken in the Courier of
last week, of an extraordinary circumstance which took place
on Saturday and Sunday, the 24th and 25th ult., perhaps it
did not extend to Trclawny. The first day the sun appeared
from two o'clock, P.M., until between three and four, deeply
eclipsed. On the morning of the latter day, all the houses
in this vicinity, as well as in St. Mary's, were covered with a
fine dust, resembling white lime mixed with ashes; and, although
swept and wiped, could not be kept clean. The plaintain and
cocoa leaves were covered with this strange mixture. lam
afraid we shall hesr of some serious convulsions in the Wind-
ward Islands.' "—Cornwall Courier.

A copy of a Letter and Statement from the late Com-
missioners of Revenue Enquiry into the Post-office
and Packet department, dated 28th May, 1834, in
reply to the observations of the Duke of RicHmoND,
when Postmaster-General, has at length been printed,
on the motion of Mr. WALLACE, the Member for
Greenock. We have attentively perused this extraor-
dinary document, and regret that we have not space to
give the whole of the Statement. It will he seen
from the following extract that the Duke of RICHMOND
was opposed to the recommendations of the Commis-
sioners :

" The reason given by his Majesty's Postmaster-General
for having, as he states, declined to take the schedules of the
Commissioners as his guide, in preparing the new establish-
ments, is because it was evident that the service could not be
performed with the means they have proposed, and because of
the great expense which their recommendation must have en-
tailed upon the public.'
" Here the Commissioners are at once charged with having
lapsed into opposite errors, in proposing insufficient official
means for executing the public service, and such an establish-
ment as would entail upon the public an excessive pecuniary
charge.

"`By what process it was made evident' to the Postmaster-
General that the service could not be performed by the means
proposed by the Commissioners, remains to be explained. It
is certain that those means have never yet been experimentally
brought into operation; it may therefore not be without use,
nor is it irrelevant, to explain the views which the Commis-
sioners entertained in measuring the expected efficiency of the
establishment proposed by them.
" The Commissioners had observed what they thought a
most objectionable anomaly in the administration of the Post-
office, in the delegation of power, influence and discretion, to
an extent inconsistent with appropriate responsibility and con-
trol, and without parallel in any other department of the State,
to officers whose sphere of duty should be limited exclusively
to ministerial functions : they considered that it was no longer
expedient that the originating, the adopting or the rejecting of
plans and opportunities for improving the circulation of the
correspondence of the Empire at home and abroad, the aug-
mentation or curtailment of expenditure, and the concurrent
effects upon the interests of the revenue, and the convenience
of the whole community, should be dependent upon the voluntary
exertions, the particular views, the judgment and discretion of any
single individual holding the office of Postmaster-General ; that
the application of more than half a million (exceeding a fourth of
the whole annual receipts) to charges of , management, not
subject to any real present restraint or ultimate control beyond
the precincts of the Post-office, called for a more guarded
sanction of the objects to which this large outlay was appro-
priated, and a stricter superintendence of the actual disburse-
ments ; that it was time to put an end to a miscalled Post-
office Board (described by a late Postmaster- General as ' any-
thing but a Board'), consisting of a Postmaster-General, the
Secretary or the Assistant- Secretary, and the Solicitor, occa-
sionally assembled, and to entrust the management of this most
important and increasing establishment to a regularly consti-
tuted Board of Commissioners authorized to act, and acting re-
sponsibly as such, who by properly assuming to themselves the
decision of all matters demanding deliberation, or of a confidens
tial character, and not belonging to the details of official routine,
and by exercising a constant superintendence, upon a regulated
system, over the respective branches of the establishment,
should relieve subordinate officers from services improperly
confided to them, and vigilantly maintain the activity requisite
by their habitual presence, and the opportunities of direct corn-
uni ca tio n with each department.
" With this exposition of the views of the Commissioners
with respect to the superior control, the general superintend-
ence, and the discharge of the more responsible duties of the
department, a better judgment may be formed how far it was
evident the service could not be performed by the means
they had proposed.'
" Upon such a system, and such principles of management,
the Commissioners neither did nor do entertain a doubt that
the establishment they recommended, aided by the subordinate
arrangements designed and suggested by them, would have
been found numerically ample at the time of their recommenda-
tion. This establishment has been subjected to a theoretical
comparison with a different system, different principles, dif-
ferent arrangements, and a different period.
" It is little to be feared that the Lords of the Treasury or
Parliament will draw a hasty conclusion from such premises;
nor is it requisite to dwell upon the necessary delusiveness of
such a comparison." . . _

-We have always been opposed, on principle, to the
office of Postmaster-General ; because the uncertainty
of its tenure, and the nature of its duties, must in
almost every case lead to the certain delegation of
those duties. Under the present system, the place of
Postmaster-General is so far conlidered a political ap-
pointment, that every change of Ministry is accompa-
nied by a change in that Office. The duties of Post-
master-General are not less important than difficult to
fulfil. They are full of intricate and practical details,
which it requires considerable time to understand. And
yet no sooner has a Postmaster-General acquired the
experience necessary to enable him to superintend that
department with advantage to the country, than pro-
bably comes a change of Ministry, and he has to give
up the appointment, to make room for a novice who
goes through the same ordeal. Every Postmaster-
General must, therefore, in most cases, be entirely
dependent upon his Secretary for a knowledge of the
duties of his Office.

The extract which we have quoted above will account
for the hostility of the Duke of RICHMOND, and of
the Post-office Secretary, to the valuable reports of the
Commissioners. The Postmaster-General must be a
Peer ; and, administered as the Office has long been; it
may be considered a good sinecure. Those are not
circumstances which are likely to lead to its abolition.
But the House of Commons will, at length, we confi-
dently trust, institute a rigorous inquiry into the admi-
nistration of a department which involves an annual
revenue of two millions, and of which the accounts are
utterly unintelligible, and the expenditure totally un
controlled, although amounting to upwards of half a
million annually. The Duke of Ric timoND must
either have been grossly imposed upon by those who
drew up the papers relating to the Post-office, to which
the Commissioners have given so signal a refutation,
or he must be incapable of preparing a Statement fit to
lay before Parliament. The description given by Mr.
WALLACE of the delusive nature of the papers fur-
nished concerning the Post-office is completely borne
out by the statement of the Commissioners, which has
at length, and apparently so reluctantly, been produced.
It has appeared, however, in sufficient time to support
any motion which may be made for a Committee of
Inquiry ; and that such a motion will be made we
cannot doubt, as the question relates to a department
with which the commercial pursuits of the whole com-
munity, nay the every-day concerns of every individual,
whether relating to business or amusement, are so inti-
mately connected. The Post-office requires a com-
plete revision ; every branch of that service should be
thoroughly inquired into ; and nothing less, we are con-
vinced, will satisfy the public. One single circumstance
mentioned by the Commissioners will prove the neces-
sity of such an enquiry. They state that " a loss of
300,000/. was estimated to have accrued upon an,
outlay of 609,0001. ;" which loss they are of opinion
was attributable to an improvident outlay, and a
defective system of management and control." For the
reasons already mentioned, we hope, at least, in the

mean time, that the suggestions of the Commissioners
for placing the Office of Postmaster-General in Com-
mission, will be acted upon. We cannot conclude
these observations more appropriately than by quoting
the last paragraph of the Commissioners.

" Without presuming to contend that every recommendation
contained in the Reports of the Commissioners of Revenue
Inquiry was deserving of adoption—without supposing that
other and better means of effecting the improvements they had
in view may not be discovered, or that other advantages than
those they have pointed out may not be attained, they claim
the credit due to an anxious and attentive performance of the
duty assigned to them, in the discharge of which they sug-
gested such improvements as the service seemed to them
practically to require, in the conviction, still unaltered, that
if adopted, they would lead to the removal of what appeared
to them the prominent defects in the administration of this
important department, give additional security to the revenue,
and contribute to increase the public accommodation and
ad vantage. "

Arrivals from Madrid to the 13th inst. have been
received. The new Minister of War has appointed
General Rodil Inspector General of the Army. This
appointment is most judicious. The Chambers are
prosecuting their labours with much diligence.

WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND

AMERICA.

We find the following paragraph in the Hampshire
Telegraph :

" PORTSMOUTH, SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 22.—The
Bristol mail brings us the intelligence that an American
packet had arrived at Cork, with the news that America has
declared war against France: the information comes through
Milford."

It is almost unnecessary to observe that we place
no confidence in the accuracy of the above report,
which we believe has been fabricated to answer stock-
jobbing and such like purposes. The rumour, or
whatever else it may be called, is said to have
been picked up at sea by a Post Office packet,
which happened to meet the American frigate Superb,
the Captain of which stated that a declaration of war
against France had been made by the Government of
the United States. We look upon the whole story as
a hoax ; and even supposing it to be true, as far as
regards the American Captain's story, might it not
have been uttered in the way of a joke ?

THE SPECTATOR'S LISTS.—We are glad to
observe that our contemporary the " Spectator's"
Complete Lists of the New. House of Commons, the
Number of Electors, &c., has reached a third edition.
Several useful additions have been made, including
Lists of the Divisions on the Speakershiv, and the
Address to the Throne. The " Black List 'is a very
useful hint, of which the Reformers will not fail to
avail themselves.