The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-06 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1844.

In the House of Lords, the Criminal Justice
(Middlesex) 13111 was read a third time, and passed.
Lord WUARNCLIFFE moved a clause in the Rail-
ways Bill, the effect of which was to compel com-
panies having any trains running on Sunday, to run
third-class trains likewise.

After some conversation, or what Lord CAMPBELL
called a " burly burly debate," the clause was un-
derstood to be agreed to.
The Earl.of after adverting to the small
naval force kept up by this country, and to
the occur~:ences at Otaheite caused by the small-
ness o'c our fleets, moved for a return of
her 'MAJESTY'S ships of war (other than those re-
:T rued for harbour duty) in commission on the 31st of
july, 1844 ; and also a return of her MAJESTY'S
ships of war present at Otaheite from the Ist of Sep-
tember, 1842, to the latest period to which advices
have been received, specifying the date of the arrival
there and departure from thence of each ship. The
Earl of HADDINGTON replied in general terms to the
topics in Lord MINTO'S speech, for which we refer to
the report. The motion was negatived without a
division.

The Common Law Courts (Ireland) Bill was
passed.
Lord WILARNCLIFFB moved the committal of the
Poor-law Amendment Bill, and gave their Lordships
a summary of its principal clauses. After some dis-
cussion, the Bill was committed pro forma, and
ordered to be recommitted this day.

Their Lordships adjourned at a Quarter-past One.
The Commons met at Twelve o'lcock, when after
some routine business, Sir R. PEEL moved the second
reading of the Roman Catholic Penal Acts Repeal
Bill. He stated that the object of the Bill was to re-
p!al certain old statutes which were a disgrace to the
country—adapted to other times, but calculated in
these days to throw ridicule on the Established
Church. The Bill was read a second time, and
ordered to be committee'.
The Charitable Donations and Bequests Bill for
Ireland was read a third time and passed.

The Ihsolveilt Debtors Bill went through Com-
mittee and the House adjourned.
The House sat again at Five o'clock, when Mr.
GLADSTONE obtained leave to bring in a Bill to apply
to private Bills the same principles which had been
applied to Railway Bills. The object of it was to re-
duce the costs of private Bills. The Bill stood for
next session.

On the motion of Mr. GLADSTONE leave was given
to bring in a Bill to amend the laws relating to the
relief and support in certain cases of merchant sea-
men, their widows, and children, and the House ad-
journed at a Quarter past Seven.

We doubt whether a more important debate has
been raised in the House of Lords, since the com-
mencement of the session, than that which ensued
last evening on the motion of the Earl of MINTO for
the production of certain returns connected with the
present condition of her MAJESTY'S navy, and with
the amount of our naval force from September,
1842, to the latest period to which such accounts
could be made out, at Otaheite. The object of the
Noble Earl, in moving for the former of these classes,
of papers was to demonstrate the dangerous extent to
which the reduction of our efficient strength had been
carried in the peace establishment of this service,
settled by the present Government. The latter class
would have illustrated the weakness of the armament
which has at any time, since the departure of the
" Vindictive" from that station, represented the naval
strength of Great Britain, and upheld our national
dignity in the Society Islands. It is almost needless
to premise that both these motions were negatived.
But Lord MINTO is entitled to the best thanks of
the country for the powerful address which he de-
livered, and the important facts it had accumulated.
It was temperate and statesmanlike in its tone, to
the utmost verge of sustained abstinence from
inflammatory declamation, in dealing with topics
eminently calculated to provoke it. Whilst
he deprecated all unnecessary agitation of any hypo-
thesis which must assume a rupture of those friendly
relations at present subsisting between this country
and France, he soberly and gravely argued the duty
of looking such a contingency fully in the face,
though it might be (as we believe it is) rather to be
viewed as a possible than a probable one. But for
our own parts, we see in our foreign intelligence of
every succeeding day, only additional reasons for
betaking ourselves calmly to the consideration
of the best means of consolidating, improv-
ing, and fortifying our own position and re-
sources in the event of such a calamity.
We believe, as the Marquis of CLANRICARDE
happily phrased it, last night, " that we have
not sufficient naval force afloat to have the effect of
maintaining peace by presenting that ready front for
war, which on many occasions had prevented the
having recourse to war itself." And we cannot
understand that refinement of political delicacy
which should withold statesmen or journalists from
examining, with a prudent and anxious forecast,
the relations which the attitudes, offensive and defen-
sive, of this great country would present to certain
• conditions of circumstances that we do not suggest
or invoke, but which are perpetually paraded before
our eyes, and suggested for our contemplation, by
the significant, not to say offensive, proceedings of
our neighbours and—allies. The enthusiastic re-
sponse to an anti-English appeal in an histo-
rical opera at Paris, on Friday last, we
are much disposed to think would have been as cor-
dially given in the Chamber of Deputies, in a barrack
on the Marquesas Islands, at head-quarters in any
part of Algeria, at the new " Government-house" in
Otaheite, or in the ward-room of any of the ships
forming part of the Prince DE JoiNvILLE's expedi-
tion against the coast of Morocco. It seems to us
high time—especially after the overt acts of the French
authorities, to which we thus lightly allude—to
look about us. And in this feeling we rather
marvel—not at the assurance of the Prince DE
JOINVILLE, but at the facility of the British Go-
vernor of Gibraltar, in reference to the modest
request of the former, that the latter would not
allow any English fleet entering the Mediterranean,
to appear off Tangiers, whilst he, the Prince, is
attacking that town and fortress. In the
name of British seamanship, and British in-
dependence, why should not our fleet sail to any desti-
nation that its Commander-in-Chief may deem it pro-
per to make for ? Have there been, of late years, any
such high principles of public honour—any such nice
regard for national rights—any such respect for the
usages and observances of civilised nations manifested
by officers in the French service, or by their Govern-
ment at home, that we should trust anything to their
generosity, their sense of justice, or their forbearance?
Have we forgotten the profligate falsehood
and duplicity—worthy of the worst days of the exe-
crable Directory—under which Algeria was " occu-
pied," and finally, in the teeth of their own solemn
promises and declarations, retained and annexed to
the French Crown ? Is it in their conduct towards
our Consul, Mr. PRITCHARD, or their chivalrous
bearing to the defenceless POMARE, that we have
guarantees for the respect to the rights of nationality,
which they will show towards Europeans or other neu-
trals who may be established in public or private capa-
cities, at Tangiers? Or, in the petulance and arrogance
of the young commander—whose temerity in taking
away a Mexican pilot out of an English steamer, not
properly punished at the time, has intoxicated him
with a silly vanity ever since ; are we to hope fur a
dignified vindication of an asserted insult upon his
own country, without trespassing on the rights and
authorities of others ? The statement of Lord MINTO
has astonished us. It would appear, for the Earl of
HADDINGTON did not attempt to deny his facts, that
we have but nine sail of the line in commission
—two of these in the East Indies, two in
the 'West, one about to sail for the Pacific (the flag-
ship of the Admiral commanding at Cork), two others
in our home ports, and one more, forming the whole
unit of our fleet in the Mediterranean ! Well might
the Noble Earl ask whether this, in reference to the
aspect of affairs on the coast of Morocco, or Algiers,
was a safe, a fitting, or even a respectable strength for
our Mediterranean fleet, especially seeing that, though
one other, a first-rate, was on the point of being sent
out to join it, it was impossible to provide reinforce-
ments for that station without taking our guard-ships,
and so leaving our coasts and harbours defenceless.
The " Queen," on her recent arrival from the Medi-
terranean, had been immediately paid off. He re-
minded the House that when the late Government
retired, we had a fleet of twenty-six sail-of-the-line,
seventeen of which were stationed in the Mediter
ranean. This was a force on which retrench

ment, if such was the object of the pre-
sent Board of Admiralty, might have been
largely practised, without dismantling and dis-
organising the entire fleet, and then commission-
ing a few other ships. "It was much more easy to
keep up a fleet when once formed, than suddenly to
raise up one, when required." Adverting to the
Otaheite case, Lord MINTO said the native Govern-

ment had been deposed by an usurpation not recog-
nised " by France, and certainly not by us, by the
Captain of a French ship, who deposed the QUEEN,
and seized the island in the name of France." But here
we beg the reader to observe, that Otaheite remains in
the possession of France : that whilst the disavowal of
that officer's act is feebly and jesuitically made by
M. GUIZOT, the Chambers—Baron DUPIN, of the
foremost among their members, especially—uphold
and applaud it; and the Parisian public sanctions
and rewards it by the gift of a magnificent sword.
What we wish to know is—where is this principle
of territorial seizure and occupation on the part of
France to stop ? When are we, or other States,
to interpose effectually to restrain it ? Or
is it to be left to a subordinate (secretly

instructed probably, beforehand) to take forcible
possession of whatever lands he can get in what-
ever hemisphere; to a French Cabinet to can-
:Jess the feelings of the Chambers on the proceeding
and the acquisition; and to a French Minister, in the
event of finding that favourable, to go through the
formalities of a disavowal on paper, unscrupulously
false in intention---a fraudulent correspondence with
our Government, based on its asserted concurrence

in our reprobation of the measure—and in clue
time, after a change or two of Ministry,
a diplomatic note, announcing the fact of the territory
so purloined being, by an irrevocable decree of the

KING and the Chambers, annexed to France. By the
time our honest friends have established themselves in
some of the finest countries of the ancient Numedia,
the Earl of HADDINGTON, the Duke of WELLINGTON,
and even the Earl of ABEADurt, who impounds sealed