The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-16 00:00:00

(77,
1/4-4.1-1-)50

LONDON,
THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 16, I 535.

SUN OFFICE, Three o'clock.

Up to the above hour, we regret to hear that the
Ministerial arrangements are not yet in such state of
completion as to afford a hope that new writs will be
moved for this'evening in the House of Commons.

His Majesty has left town this day for Windsor : as
no Council has been held, it is not likely that any
will be before Tuesday or 'Wednesday next.
Before a new writ is moved for, it is necessary that
the Member accepting office shall have first received
the seals of his Department, and as that is always done
at a Council, it is clear that none having been held
to-clay, the new appointments are likely to stand over
till early next week.

In this event, the adjournment of Parliament wi
only be for a few days.

Probably some explanation of the delay will be given
:his evening in both Houses.

It is expected that the greater part, if not the whole,
of the writs to be issued in consequence of the official
arrangements now in progress, will be moved for this

day in the House of Commons. As a few hours will
put the public in possession of the actual stale of the
MELBOURNE Administration, it may perhaps be
better for our readers to be put to a little additional
exercise of their patience, than to be perplexed and
tantalized by the uncertain and contradictory rumours
of the moment.

There is no doubt that Lord MELBOURNE has
had considerable difficulties to contend with—when
was a Cabinet constructed without the occurrence
of such difficulties ?—but we believe the Noble Lord
has, by following a mild but determined course, sur-
mounted them, and that little now remains but to
settle such matters as may be said to relate rather to
detail than to principle.

In the meantime the factious portion of the press is
not idle. It is labouring lustily in its Vocation, con-
cocting and scattering all manner of falsehoods and
misrepresentations, with a view to embarrass Lord
MELBOURNE in the execution of the task he has

undertaken. These generous partizans of the late
usurpation have a good deal at stake. They have
one and all committed themselves as prophets. They
have, times without numher, predicted that no Liberal
Administration could be formed that would last a
week ; that O'CONNELL and litrAtE, and Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, must necessarily be members of any Go-
vernment that should be constructed on the ruins of

that of Sir ROBERT PEEL—and that such discordant
materials could never harmonize, however they might
coalesce—with a great deal more to the same tune.
Now the thing that is always uppermost in the
mind of a prophet is the desire of seeing his prophe.
cies fulfilled. It must, in the nature of things, or at
least in the nature of man, ever be so--and if he can
lend a helping hand to their fulfilment himself, why,
where is the harm? We find accordingly that the thing
now constantly and simultaneously harped upon by the
prophets is the necessity of " throwing overboard" the
Reformers—" the Radicals," as they are termed, of
England and Ireland, " and striving to bring together
the only sections of British party which acknowledge
a common interest in the maintenance of our institutions

—viz., the 150 Whigs and 270 Conservatives
to be found in the existing House of Com-
mons. It would be dreadful to believe that the minds
of men are too much imbittered by the animosity
of political conflict, that they are too deeply immersed
in selfishness or vengeance, to hear the wholesome
counsels of those 'who have no party but their country.
The Whigs, it is obvious, would, on purely selfish
grounds, be vast gainers by such a coalition, inasmuch
as they would gain five votes in exchange for three."
Who are meant by " those who have no party hut
their country" we cannot exactly tell, but we surmise
they do not live far from Printing-house Square ; and
such being the case, we are of opinion that any advice
coming from that quarter will be received by the Whigs

with caution ; particularly as advice of a directly
opposite tendency was administered from the same
quarter not very long ago (we refer our readers to our
extracts from the public journals) ; and more particu-
larly still as selfish motives are appealed to in
support of this unnatural amalgamation. Whe-
ther the benefit to the Whigs would be exactly
in the proportion of 270 to 150 we do not
know—we have, we must confess, some doubts upon
the point—but that is not the question with us—We
put entirely out of view all such mercenary considera-
tions, and declare our conviction, that were the coalition
thus recommended carried into effect, and such men as
Lord STANLEY and Sir JAMES GRAHAM admitted
into the MELBOURNE Administration, the prophecies
to which we have alluded would be fulfilled to the
letter—the Government could not hold together a week.

The whole of the Paris Papers of Tuesday have
been received. The debate on the Indemnity Bill in
the Chamber of Deputies, which engrossed the time
of the House during the four previous sittings, was re-
sumed on Tuesday, amid manifestations of an impa-
tience which promised an early division on the ques-
tion. It is reported that the leaders of the Opposition,
in expectation of being defeated, have prepared an
amendment, to the effect that no part of the twenty-
five millions of francs, granted as compensation to the
United States, be paid, until Congress shall make re-

paration to France for that part of the message which
reflected upon the honour of the French Government.
To meet this amendment, Ministers have prepared a
counter-resolution, by way of rider upon the amend-
ment, which shall only be submitted to the Chamber
in the event of the leaders of the Opposition carrying
their threat into execution. Such are the miserable
tactics of the two parties with respect to the settlement
of a question upon which depends the peace of France.
The extreme jealousy of the French Deputies on the

subject of the honour of their country is ill-timed on

this occasion. It betrays rather the consciousness of
dishonour than a dread of its contamination, did no
eye witness its leprous appearance. France is like the
profligate scion of a noble family, who answers all re-
monstrances against what he is, by long harangues about
what he was, and an offer to pistol whosoever dares to
question the purity of his honor as a gentleman, which be-
ing rightly understood, means the grandson of his grand-
father, who kept a preserve, and occasionally amused
himself by shooting a poacher. French honour con-
sists not in a strict adherence to truth, in faithfulness
to friends, in never doing an unprovoked injury to
others, and in regarding an engagement freely entered
into, as involving in itself the essence of the right which
seeks its fulfilment ; on the contrary, French honour
is regulated by the principle that whatever we do is
justifiable, if we are prepared to defend our actions
with our lives against whomsoever questions their pro-
priety. This is evident in the whole of the clamour
which has been raised about the honour of France in
the debates which took place respecting the final settle-
ment of the American claims. There was no insult
offered to France by the United States ; and all that
President JACKSON did was to make a clear state-
ment of a simple transaction, which no sophistry could
disguise. France entered into a solemn treaty with the
United States, by which she bound herself to pay a
certain amount of debt, at a certain time, on condition
that a market should be opened for her wines, on
terms highly advantageous to herself. The part
of this treaty which bound the Government of
the United States to open its ports to the wine-
growers of France was instantly complied with ; but
when the period arrived when France had promised to
perform her share of the agreement, she suffered Ame-
rican bills drawn on her treasury to be dishonoured,
and even had the meanness to endeavour to extricate
herself by diplomatic intrigue. Still the Government
of the United States was not impatient. A
whole year was suffered to elapse, nor was it
until France appeared to treat the claims of Ame-
rica with the most supercilious contempt, that
the President made known to Congress the real state
of the question, and proposed the vindication of the
dignity of the A merican Government, and the sacred-
ness of its claims. All the swaggering and bullying
in the universe cannot change the nature of a simple
fact. France promised to discharge a debt due to
America in a number of instalments, the first of
which was to be liquidated at a certain time. This pro-
mise she refused to keep, after reaping advantages
which she was aware would not have been granted her
had she not made such a promise. When pressed for
payment on the strength of the bond which she had
given, she first pleaded inability to pay, then attempted
to deny the debt altogether, and when taxed for the
breach of her own voluntary engagement, now talks
of withholding payment, until an apology is made
her for the imputation attempted to be cast on her
honour I This is pitiful conduct.
On Monday the Cour Royale annulled the reso-
lution of the Bar of Paris, protesting against the late
ordinance of the Chamber of Peers. The Bar has
appealed from the judgment of the Cour Royale to the
Cour de Cassation, before which the question will be
again tried in a day or two. The question to be decided
is whether the Court of Peers is a constitutional court,
in the same manner as the other courts of justice, and
not a court based upon the same principle as courts
martial ? and again whether it can or cannot coin
pel the attendance of the Advocates ?

Marshal MAISON has positively refused to join the
Cabinet. The War department is therefore again at
the disposal of Ministers.

Arrivals from the Hague to the sth inst. have been
received, which represent Holland as not quite satis-
fied with the condition of the Government. In the
Second Chamber of the States-General, Ministers
have met with strong opposition, but they succeeded
on the 13th in carrying a Bill for covering the annual
deficiencies of the Budget since the commencement of
the year 1830 to 1835 inclmive. They also obtained
alarge majority in favour of a motion for commencing the
payment of the interest of the national debt. But notwith-
standing these triumphs the country is by no means satis-
fied with the conduct of the KING'S Government. The
Deputies are growing inquisitive, and actually display
some degree of vexation at being considered mere tools
in the hands of Royalty. Before voting the sums re-
quired to make up the deficiencies in the Budget for
the five years just ended, they insisted upon knowing
the real state of the foreign relations of Holland, and
actually obliged the Foreign Minister to satisfy them
on the subject, which he did on the Chamber resolv-
ing itself into a Secret Committee. The nature of
this communication has not been made public.

Brussels Papers of Tuesday have been received.
The QUEEN continues to grew stronger every day,
and the infant PRINCE is declared to be a fine healthy
thriving child, for whom no fears need be entertained.

The Minister of War has signified to the Committee
of the Chamber of Representatives, that there will be
two camps this summer, each containing one division
of the army ; one will be placed beyond Berington, the
other beyond Ghee], in such a manner that the dis-
tance between shall not exceed one day's march. The
troops will remain in camp three months, from July to
October. The Governmen t will have tents made in-
stead of barracks ; the cons truction of the latter would
be difficult, from the great scarcity of straw.
The Chamber of Deputies has been wholly em-