The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-14 00:00:00

Tor

LONDON,
TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 14, 1832.

The rumours respecting an intended alteration
in the currency, by the issue of one pound notes,
were last night put to rest by the declaration of
Lord .A LTHORP that Government had no inten-
tion whatever on the subject. This announce-
ment was received with loud cheers. Though
it may eventually be found necessary to have re-
course to some such remedy for the relief of the
commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural
interests, we think Government act wisely in ab-
staining for the present from any measure that
may distract their attention from the Reform
Bill. Reform once carried will ensure the re-
dress of all other grievances. In the present
state of the country Reform is the one thing
needful.

The cholera last night was the subject of a
conversation in both Houses of Parliament. In
the Lords, the Marquis of LANSDOWNE moved
for a series of papers (which were granted) il-
lustrative of the character and progress of the
cholera, in order that the country might be put
into full and speedy possession of all the facts
connected with this extraordinary pestilence,
observing at the same time, that a Bill would
be brought in to enable Government to compel
the different parishes to make increased ex-
ertions ; and in the Commons, Mr. POULETT
THOMSON, in reply to one or two questions
put by Mr. CROKER on the same subject, ob-
served that it was undoubtedly a fact that cho-
lera had reached London, but that the strictest
medical inquiries were on foot, and that, as the
best means of preventing any unnecessary ap-
prehension, Government had come to the reso-
lution of giving the earliest, the fullest, the cor-
rectest information on the subject through the me-
dium of the Public Journals. The Right Ho-
nourable Gentleman confirmed the statement of
the Marquis of LANSDOWNE on the subject of
the introduction of a new Bill, to furnish the
most efficient means for correcting the spread of
the pestilence.

lhe House afterwards went into a Com-
mittee of Supply on the Navy Estimates, when
Sir J. GRAHAM proposed resolutions for the
service of three months. It was proposed
that, for the future, the year's estimates should
be from April to April. Sir H. PARNELL,
who rose from the Opposition benches, spoke
in favour of this new arrangement. Messrs.
PEEL and GOULBURN also expressed their
approbation of it. The Reform Bill was not
proceeded with, consequently another night has
been lost.

It will be seen by reference to a letter from
the Secretary of the Custom-house, that no
vessels are to leave London with clean bills
of health. This must be a serious blow to our
commercial intercourse with other countries,
but it cannot be helped ; vessels which have left
for the last two days ought to have had foul
bills, and they will consider their escape fortunate.

We have received the Journal des Debuts o
Tuesday, from which we copy the following :

" ROME, JAN. 21.—The Civic Guard has announced
to Cardinal Bernetti that they will consent to adopt the
Pontifical cockade, and will give assistance to the Govern-
ment ; and they only demnad some new modifications in
the civil and common laws. All this will be arranged
without the assistance of the Austrians. The regular
troops are to remain in the provinces, and it is expected
that the Austrian troops will soon take their departure.

" MADRID, FEB. 2.

" The despatches our Government have received re-
lative to the expedition of Don Pedro, have been the cause
of sending secret despatches to all the authorities in the
provinces, inviting them to take the strictest meaoures in
regard to those persons in favour of Don Pedro."

German Papers of the 7th inst. have been re,
ceived, but they contain little or no news.

In reply to the questions put to him in the
Chamber of Deputies, in respect to the ratifica-
tion of the protocols, M. DE MUELENAERE,
Minister for Foreign Affairs to the King of the
BELGIANS, appears to have said " that the refusal
to ratify cannot be founded otherwise than on an
allegation, and even a proof, that the Plenipo-
tentiaries have exceeded their powers." There
must be some plausible pretext assigned for the
non-ratification by either of the Great Powers
of so solemn a treaty as the last of London, and
inasmuch as it does not seem that any one of the
Powers in question has suggested the excess of
authority by its Ambassador, we must wait
for a solution of the mystery in which their
present conduct is involved. There are various
considerations which we have before urged, as
reasons for the disinclination of the Northern
Powers to a continental war. Nevertheless, he
would be a bold man who shuuld attempt to
predict with certainty what the policy of the
Holy Alliance will really lead to. Lord PAL-
MERSTON has already stated distinctly, in his
place in the House of Commons, that which is
a familiar axiom with every diplomatist, viz.

that the ratification of a treaty by one or
more of the contracting parties is equally binding
upon them, though the other parties should
never come in and ratify. Great Britain and
France cannot, now, under any circumstances,
depart from their solemn engagements to main-
tain inviolate the integrity and independence of
the Belgian kingdom. We are at this moment
solemnly bound to expel the Dutch from the
citadel of Antwerp, if the Belgians call upon us
to do so, and, in like manner, to fulfil every other
stipulation that we have deliberately entered
into, without reference to any course that the
Emperor of RUSSIA may think fit to adopt in
respect of the contracts which he has made in
common with us. Let us only hope that the
fulfilment of those stipulations may not involve
us in dangers and difficulties, which would, at
the present crisis, come upon us, to say the least,
not very opportunely.

The conduct of the Dutch KING, of whose
new loans and new levies we hear daily, has
for its object the same end for which the SULTAN
stood out for so long a period against Great Bri-
tain, France, and Russia, viz. delay. Never
were refusals more positive, or professions
of hostility more decided, than those with
which the Porte for a season successfully
opposed the parties to the Greek Treaty,
and yet the result was, that the Porte was
obliged to yield to inevitable necessity. When
we consider that the Spanish Government has
not to this day recognized the independence of
her South American Colonies, which have been
de facto free for so many years—that there is a
very large party in France who will never stoop
to the recognition of the Citizen KlNG—and
that a century elapsed before the claims of the
STUARTS to the British Crown altogether
vanished ;—when, in short, we reflect a little on
the natural reluctance of men to yield their
assent to being deprived of what they have
once enjoyed and believed to be an inde-
feasible right, whether it be a Crown, or
other enjoyable property—the obstinacy of
the Dutch KING will appear to be sup-
ported by not a few precedents, all of which,
however, lead to the conclusion, that it is
unavailing to resist what is brought about by
powers far superior to our own. The King of
HOLLAND clings vainly to the hope that the
Great Powers will, for his sake, inflict a war
upon Europe. Whether, with such a war,
Europe is, or is not, destined to be visited, the
policy and duty of England and France is to
throw their shields over Belgium, and so, with
good faith and firmness, to await its approach.