The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-18 00:00:00

Oriallt(

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1844.

The union which happily exists between England
and France ought to be a subject of no ordinary con-
gratulation to all the friends of liberal institutions.
Never was such a union more desirable than at the
present remarkable epoch of constitutional govern-
ment. With the exception of two kingdoms that
should be allied, both from their proximity and the
nature of their institutions, there is scarcely a spot
on the face of the earth where men can call them-
selves free, and it is an ennobling sight to witness
the lead which these civilised States take in the
affairs of Europe, in overawing by their attitude
the despotic rulers of the, Continent, and, above all,
in checking the progress of Russia in her inroads
upon Turkey. This union saved the little kingdom
of Greece from the grasp of the AUTOCRAT, and it is
destined, we trust, to save the Turkish empire from
a fate which has long been the darling ob-
ject of the Russian Sovereigns. Disappointed
in his scheme of bringing MEHEMET ALI to Constan-
tinople, and in his designs upon Greece, the Emperor
NICIIOLAS is now engaged in a new scheme, and by
his emissaries is inciting the blind and stolid Divan to
resist the friendly advice of England and France, and
offend the only Powers that can save this miserable
remnant of a great empire from utter destruction.
He knows well that they are determined at all hazards
to protect the Christian race—that they are aware of
his designs—that he has no chance of success but in
sowing divisions, and he therefore loses no opportu-
nity in urging on the obstinate Musselmans to main-
tain what he calls their independence, and allow no
interference on the part of foreign States with their
internal Government. He had the same object in
view when, in a fit of passion, he shipped off his
Minister from Athens, like a convicted felon. The
disorganised state of Greece, and the universal in-
surrection which broke out against King OTHO and
his German satellites, roused the hopes of Turkey—

never reconciled, and not to be reconciled while she
has any strength left—to the loss of an important
country in the very heart of her dominions. Russia
then appeared her only friend, and Russian agents
took care to impress the fact on this worn out and
helpless race. Not content, however, with these
deep designs for her own aggrandisement, she has,
ever since the triumphant result of the Syrian ex-
pedition, been working on the fears of Austria
and Prussia, and has magnified the dangers with
which despotic Governments are threatened by the
friendly interview between two Sovereigns placed at
the head of free monarchical and representative
States, and above all has pointed out to the former
Power the madness of allowing a kingdom, like that
of Greece, to be established almost within sight of
the shores of Italy. So far the EMPEROR has been
successful. The King of PRUSSIA has suddenly
changed his policy. Old METTERNICH has become
alarmed, and though Russia has seized the mouths of
the Danube, and has shown no unequivocal de-
signs upon Servia, the fear of liberal institutions has
worked more upon his perverted mind than the fear
of conquest. But let them unite. They cannot stop
the progress of civilization. They cannot even keep
down the Poles, much less rule Turkey, if France
and England are true to their own interests, and
every clay furnishes some fresh proof that,
though there are certain parties in both coun-
tries-that retain all their old prejudices, the great
body of the people take a just and national view of
the question. Even the Opposition journals of
Paris, so jealous of the " entente cordiale,"
call
upon England and
,France to join in pro-
tecting the Christians of Syria, and in resisting
the aggrandizing schemes of Russia. A de-
monstration like this is sufficient. Austria has not
courage to go to war, and Russia, with her usual
deceitful policy, when danger approaches, will disown
the arts of her agents, and profess the most anxious
desire to preserve psaceful relations with all States.
Should the result, however, be otherwise, these rulers
would soon be brought to reason. Russia, Austria,
and Prussia, even with the help of King ERNEST, could
not resist France and England for twelve months
Their combined fleets, with the assistance of a small
army, would pass the Dardanelles, sweep the Black
Sea of every Russian vessel, take possession of the
Months of the Danube, and every fortress from Tre-
bisonde to Odessa. Such an expedition may be
nearer than the Oppressor of the Poles and the Per-
secutor of the Jews imagines. It is a fact which can-
not be denied, that Russia is only waiting for a
favourable opportunity to pounce upon Constantino-
ple. It is the duty, therefore, of these free States, to
guard against such a calamity, and convince NICHOLAS
that Russian armies shall never again cross the
Balkan.

Our intelligence from America, and especially the
Philadelphia correspondence of a Morning Contem-
porary, continue to present the Oregon question as
the engrossing subject of political speculation in the
United States. It had formed the prominent topic of
discussion in Congress, during some days past, on the
28th ultimo, and the shape in which it was then in-
troduced before that body, was a resolution, moved
by a Mr. SEUPLE, " to give notice to Great Britain

to abrogate that portion of the treaty of 1818 which
Iprovides for a joint occupation of the Oregon." This
resolution, if correctly reported, is very strangely
worded; but grammatical precision is, probably, un-
worthy of statesmen who are committed to the " go-
a-head " policy, so popular in the States at this mo-
ment. It may be presumed, however, that Congress
is not meant to be called upon to desire us to abrogate
the stipulations of a treaty (as Mr. SEMPLE'S words
might lead one to infer), but that it is to instruct
their Government to intimate to our's their own in-
tention of adopting that course. The account w e
quote from presents an amusing picture of that cre-
dulous excitability, and that big talking, which to
subjects of old-established Powers of the first rank
and power, sound so oddly, that the momentary dis-
position to feel indignant is merged in enjoyment
at the absurdity of the language. The original mover
of the resolutions was also the leader in a career of
extravagant vaunting, and of garbled statements of
facts,—wherever these would have told, if fairly stated,
against the territorial claim of the States, through which
career it seems impossible to prevent our western
" brother" from running, when anybody has pre-
viously entered upon it. This political temperament
renders him in many respects like his own high-
pressure engines. He cannot be content with the
legitimate working of his own energy and powers.
These can do so much, that, without any more substantial
reason or necessity—he will compel them to do more.
He increases the pressure, and steams along at "an
awful rate" to the well-beloved music of his own
incessant paddling. He puts on a further pressure
still. From a just and manly confidence in the re-
sources of his country and his own personal powers,
he expands into vain-glorious boasting ; from ear-
nestness he rises into arrogance ; from arrogance into
insolence ; and when he finds he makes " strange way"
by exalting the pretensions of the Republic and its
citizens, he betakes himself to disparaging those of
every other nation and its subjects. At length, he is
apt to overdo the thing, and an explosion takes place,
which is likely to be more harmful to his own craft
than to those of his neighbours.
A Mr. ATCIIESON, in supporting the resolution in

question, declared that " the whole of the Western
States were unanimous in not relinquishing one inch
of Oregon." It will be time enough to prove this de-
termination when they have got the territory. He said
" the question was one of national honour." For
that very reason, we have already shown, the States
should feel themselves precluded from claiming what
is not their own ; and what, being our's, upon the same
principle, we never can concede. He complained,
first, "that in the Oregon, subjects of the United States
were dragged before British tribunals, and second, that;
"British laws now extend over the whole region."
A man of calmer judgment could scarcely have sug-
vsted so strong a case of presumption against any
possessory or paramount rights on the part of the
States,—so much in favour both of the one and
the other, on the part of Great Britain,—as these
two facts to which he has helped us. This gentleman
felt the weakness of his case, and therefore changed
the ground on which he supported the resolution into
this plan for a war with England : " The West has
no more reason to desire war than the East or the
South. But if ever war do come, it had better be vr•ith
England than any other country, as a remembrance of
former wrongs would only make us strike the harder.'
This is artless in an orator, who should better conceal
the animus of his tirade ; but here comes the high pres-
sure, and the explosion of his accumulated folly :
" He thought a war would result to England in the
loss of Canada and the West Indies. Let but one
drop of American blood be spilt in Oregon, and you
will have have war to the knife, and the knife
to the handle." " The two steam-frigates, and
the one building, and the two small steamers," (we
quote from the Norfolk Beacon (U.S.), of the same
date as this discussion), comprise the stock in trade—
so far as the " steam arm " is concerned—with which
this Bobadil would venture a collision with the " one
hundred and eleven war steamers," which the same
paper, in commenting on the inconsistency and folly
of the war party in Congress, reminds him that we
possess. The emancipated negroes in our West
India Islands, we calculate, would like nothing better
than to settle accounts for their less fortunate brethren
in the Southern States of the Union, with their re-
publican, freedom-prating, humanity-outraging op-
pressors.

The resolution seems to have boasted the sufport,
also, of Mr. HANNEGAN and Mr. BENTON. And to
be sure, they must have ent ;red into a copartnership
of intrepid allegations, which none but " whippers of
nine-times-their-own-length-in-wild-cats," would
have ventured on, in a Legislative Assembly. Mr.
FIANNEGAN who " was not to be terrified by 1,000 I
Hudson's Bay Trappers,"—" then alluded to the

murder of 400 or 500 Americans." (A mere
casualty, we suppose, in Jonathan's estimate
of the value of human life ; just worth
" an allusion," but not grave enough to make him
particular whether the number murdered was
four OR five hundred. Then we have an off-
hand interlocutory, thus :—) " Mr. BENTON.—
Yes : many of them my own friends." Mr.

HANNEGAN, unwilling to be behind hand with
Mr. BENTON, after this handsome intervention, pro
ceeds :—" Yes ; 400,—0r 500 Americans " (he would
not for the world be more precise than Mr. B.)--
'' who have emigrated to that country have disap-
peared :—No one knows how, no one knows where.
The Hudson's Bay Company alone could tell." (!!)
Were it not that in a subsequent period of the de-
bate, the good sense and moderation which were dis

played in either speeches were such as should redeem

the character of Congress from the disgrace of this
balderdash—very ridiculous, truly, but not the less
unprincipled—we should blush, indeed, for the legis-
lative body which could tolerate, or dismiss, without
indignant repudiation, such gratuitous and scandalous
falsehoods as these. How it might very well happen that

400 or 500 American emigrants rnight not be again
seen by their countrymen after emigrating to Oregon,
—without this atrocious imputation on the Hudson's
Bay Company, of their wholesale murder—may be
collected from a remark in the speech of Mr.
DAYTON, of Ohio, against the resolution :—" The dis-

tance of Oregon was 18,000 miles by sea, and 5,000
by travelling route 3 by land ;"—the land journey, be it

observed, lying across the desolate and wide-spread
valleys interposed between the Mexican frontier in the
parallel of 42 deg. N., and the Rocky Moun-
tains ; or across the howling wastes of their
bleak and barren range, over which our en-

terprising MACKENZIEwho, of all Europeans,
had first trodden their lofty solitudes,—forced his

way from the North-Eastern regions of the same con-
tinent to the Pacific. The truth it, the Americans are
nettled at the inimitable management, the steady ef-
forts, the sagacious feeling, the undaunted enterprise,
and the brilliant success of our Hudson's Bay Com-
pany, in exploring the great peltry country within
and beyond the Oregon ; and in not merely following
up the animals, like back woodsmen, for indiscrimi-
nate and instant destruction, as they retreat before
them, but, in securing--by all proper means, such

as "preserving," the best hunting. grounds, &c.—fu-
ture annual supplies of the furs in which they trade.
The question of priority, or preference of right to
the disputed territory, we shall be better able to illus-
trate, in the course of a day or two, by a review of
Mr. Tuom's clever and interesting pamphlet, en-
titled " The Claims on the Oregon," &e. In the
meanwhile, our readers will not be displeased to
peruse an extract or two from the debate to which
we have been alluding. They are from the speeches
of Mr. CHOATE, of Massachusetts, and Mr. DAYTON,
of Ohio ; and are exceedingly illustrative both of
the character and relations of the contested region,
and of the feelings with which the war-cry, so openly
excited by the partisans of " appropriation," is re-
rded by the sound sense, and sober
judgment, of

. -
other Members of Congress.
Mr. CHOATE, of Massachusetts, said—
" The resolution of notice which Mr. Atcheson wished to
give Great Britain is, in effect, that twelve months from
this notice, we shall take forcible possession of the Oregon
territory. The claims of both countries will then come in
collision—bloody collision—upon the desert plains of Oregon.'
England had no more idea of an agricultural colonisation of
Oregon than she had of colonising the top of St. Paul's
church ; but she only wished to protect the Hudson's Bay
and other English hunters ; and these, as animals were be-
coming scarce in Oregon, were fast moving northwards to-
wards the Russian territory."
With regard to the ultimate settlement of the
Oregon question, Mr. CIIOATE thinks that it will be
determined by the preponderance of numbers among
citizens of the United States, over every other class
of emigrants. What is stated of the Hudson's Bay
Company in the following passage, is also curious :
" The colonisation achemes of England were directed to-

' wards Australia, Nova Scotia, Canada, &c.; but not to
Oregon. But from the United States, emigrants would pour
over the Rocky Mountains by thousands and tens of thousands ;
and even with the present joint occupation, now that emi-
gration from this country to Oregon rape,
had become the rae,
the Hudson's Bay hunters and the few English settlers wouldt
soon melt into an American population, under the influence,
the infallible influence, of the United States emigration. The
Hudson's Bay Company had recently bought out the Russian
Hunting Company ; they were, therefore, rapidly disappearing
frifin Oregon."

Mr. DAYTON, of Ohio, we are glad to perceive,
spoke under a deep sense of the moral responsibility
of the Federal Government, its functionaries and
citizens, for their past dealings with the aboriginal
-" red men" of the New Continent, which does him
honour. It is an awful page—a blotted record—in
the annals of civilised mankind, to which he lightly
but impressively alludes. We know but little, in
Europe, of the wholesale process of extermination
which has been carried on by the citizens of a State
professing its at'zachment to the inviolable rights of
human freedorn against the native denizens of the wil-
derness.

" He (Mr. Dayton) doubted whether the Oregon territory
was the terrestrial paradise it had been described; and he
thought that the sentiment in favour of emigration to Oregon
was not so universal as had been stated. Gentlemen seemed
to have forgotten that there were 340,000 Indian warriors in
that territorry. They, too, had their rights—rights that
ought to be respected ; but between an Anglo-Saxon irrup-
tion from the sea, and another from the Rocky Mountains,
they were in danger of being crushed. They would defend
their hunting grounds—we must not forget that—we must
treat them with justice and humanity—their fate, and the
fate of all the Indian races, would lie heavily on our souls at
the last great day."

The case of the Reverend Mr. MARSH was again
incidentally referred to in the House of Lords on
Friday night by Lord CAMPBELL, on which occasion
the Bishop of PETERBOROUGH " frankly admitted that
he had felt something like an unwillingness to pro-
ceed against a clergyman, when he was accused by a
person of ill-fame of an act committed four years
ago. The fact of the accusation was all he knew of
the case at first, and when further inquiries were
made, he was told that Mr. MARSH had paid a visit
to this unhappy female at Paris four years ago.
Under these circumstances, while there was living in
the parsonage an aged and excellent mother, in a very
precarious state of health, to whom any agitation
might have been fatal, he had felt thankful, and he
' was sure their Lordships would enter into his feel-
ings—he had felt thankful that there was an oppor-
tunity given him to be backward in this case, until
something more came to light which would justify
him in proceeding." We cannot at all sympathise
with the Rev. Prelate's expression of thankfulness for
having been furnished with an excuse for being
" backward" in investigating such an aggravated case
as that of the Rev. Mr. MAusx, in consequence of
his aged mother's delicate state of health. He should

hare borne in mind—to the exclusion of all inferior

considerations—that he was a high and responsible
dignitary of the Established Church, and as such,
that it was his bounden, his sacred duty to probe
the matter to the quick, the instant the crying scandal
was first made known to him. " Fiat justitia verat in
ccelum" should have been the stern and wholesome
principle he should have taken as his rule of action.
In criminal cases, the law makes no attempt to shield

the delinquent or let him off easily, out of a tender
compassion for the feelings of those members of his

family who may be heart-broken by his exposure and
and his punishment, but adopts a lofty, uncompro-
mising course of proceeding without favour or affec-
tion. If such be the stern, moral course pursued by
the law, surely it is still more incumbent on the
Church to take an unfaltering, impartial view of such
cases of clerical delinquency as may chance to fall
under its cognizance ; for the law derives its autho-
rity merely from man, but the Church derives it—or
professes to derive its—direct from the DEITY, and
nowhere do we find it ordained in Holy Writ that
the sinner shall have the shield of protection thrown
over his offences ! We can readily believe that the
knowledge of the delicate state of health of the Rev.
Mr. MARSH'S mother produced a most painful struggle
in the Bishop's mind, and that, for her sake—and
her's only—he acted as he has done; but he should have
resisted the amiable weakness, and remembered that his
first duty as a Christian Bishop was to protect the spi-
ritual interests of the flock committed to his care, by
providing them with moral, decorous, and trust-
worthy pastors, by whose sincere advocacy of reli-
gious truths they might profit, and to whom they
might look up with confidence as examples worthy to
be followed in all the social relations of life. Instead
of this, how stands the case? Why, thus—the Rev.
Mr. MAasn's parishioners have for years been subject
to the ministrations of a man who has set all the de-
cencies of society at defiance ; who preached pub-
licly "from the pulpit observances which he disre-
garded in private ; and whose hypocrisy, conse-
quently, is an outrage on the feelings of his own im-
mediate flock, and a scandal and an injury to the
Church generally. And this man, forsooth, is to be
visited leniently for his turpitude, because he has an
aged invalid mother, whose feelings may be shocked
by his punishment. Admitting that this plea is not
without its force, is it to be suffered to overrule
graver, higher, more comprehensive considerations—
the serious blow inflicted on the character of the
Church—by an attempt to hush up so flagrant a scandal?
As for the Bishop's second excuse for his " back ward-
ness," namely, that the offence was an old one, having
been committed four years ago, it is absolutely without
a leg to stand upon. What ! don crime cease to be
crime when it is of long standing ? Is it, like debt,
to have a " Statute of Limitations" accorded to it ?
Are we to punish only the criminal of yesterday, and
permit him to escape who can plead antiquity as an
offender ? Really, this is a new code in ethics, for
which we little thought we should be indebted to a
Bishop of the Established Church ! We have read—
and that not long since—of a man having been con-
victed of a theft perpetrated upwards of twelve years
since ; but if this episcopal doctrine is to hold good
in law, as well as in clerical matters, such ancient
offending will henceforth escape with comparative
impunity ! Where was the righteous Bishop of LON-
DON—he whose pious eyes are so shocked by the
passing and repassing of the pleasure boats on the
Thames on Sundays—where was this mirror of
orthodoxy and Evangelism, when the monstrous
doctrine was propounded that that clergyman may
justly be treated with forbearance who can satisfac

torily prove that the crime of which he is accused to
his Bishop, was committed " four years ago ?" Where,
we ask, was LONDON, when this doctrine was gravely
broached in Parliament ? "Echo answers, Where ?"

There is no section of London society more help-
less, and yet more worthy of sympathy—more desti-
tute, and yet more deserving of attention—than the
dress-makers and milliners of this great metropolis.
The speech of Mr. BRIGHT, on Friday evening last,
disclosed some startling facts. Can it be believed,
that in the very centre of civilization, females shall
be compelled to work for more than 20 hours out of the
24, and this for weeks together ?—That on any Satur-
day morning, at 2 o'clock, girls shall be called up, and
kept at labour until Sunday morning at 8 o'clock, a
period of 30 hourslN,ithout intermission? And can it be
believed, that this has occurred in a Christian coun-
try, in a country which prides itself upon its legisla-
tion to prevent cruelty and unreasonable labour ?
We shall be delighted to give our best efforts in the
cause of the oppressed dress-makers and milliners of
London, knowing that we shall thereby aid a helpless
and a deserving class of females, whose birth and
whose education, in many instances, have fitted them
for better things than to sing the " Song of the Shirt,"
and to work themselves into disease and decline.

As it is probable that, by this time, the remarkable
speech of Mr. COBDEN of Tuesday evening last, on
moving " for a Select Committee to inquire into the
effects produced upon the interests of tenant-farmers
and farm-labourers by protective duties upon im-
ports," will have been largely read and deliberated
upon by the public at large, and the agricultural in-
terest in particular; we are induced to address our-
selfto some of the more prominent among
h
eicsstimwahte of the
ichitemvberaryced embraced.
able Istpeiech
is outes
delivered on the same occasion by those who fol-
lowed the Honourable Member for Stockport, that we
shall limit these observations to his address. The
points to which we would now direct the attention of
our readers, were so ably and succinctly put, and so
cleverly argued by the Hon. Mover, that,aftertouch-
ing upon these, our limits would leave us no oppor-
tunity for enlarging upon the skill and intelligence
with which his motion was seconded and enforced.
To Mr. COBDEN every candid mind must concede the
praise of having irresistibly demonstrated the propo-
sition involved in the terms of his motion, To have

I shown, then, (and despite the majority of 91 against
the appointment of the Select Committee, we will
venture to add) to the conviction of the House of
Commons, that these protective duties upon imports,
with reference more especially to corn, wool, and
other agricultural produce, are at once illusory and
prejudicial to the very interests they purport to protect
—is successfully to have broken ground before the
stronghold of monopoly and vicious legislation, from
which it is indispensable to the welfare of the
country to dislodge, forthwith, the powerful influ-
ences which have so long occupied it, to the detriment
of our national prosperity.
We are glad to observe that the Minister, upon
whom the official duty devolved of opposing Mr.
COBDEN (Mr. GLADSTONE himself would not term
his own speech an answer), did all justice to its tone
and spirit. These were, however, not more praise-
worthy than the matter which the Member for Stock-
port had concentrated in the illustrative facts and
statistics on which he rested his motion. The speech,
in any House of Commons differently constituted,--
with any Administration of sounder political prin-
ciple and more enlarged judgment, than those to w hich
it was delivered,—must have bespoken for it the con-
currence of all parties with whom mere party consi-
derations were still subsidiary and subordinate to
the consideration of their country's good. A brief
retrospect of the topics which this speech urged with
most force, may suffice to prove that we are not
claiming too much for it.
Mr. COBDEN set out by honestly avowing that he
meant to speak as the advocate of the agricultural
interest especially. In that character, if the House
would grant him the Committee for which he would
move, he would show the utter fallacy of that pro-
tection, embodied in the duties he referred to, which,
instead of being, as it purported to be, a benefit and
an advantage to, was, in itself, a fallacy, and operated
to the serious injury of, the tenant-farmer. Far from
admitting that this so-called " protection" to our do-
mestic agriculture had ever worked properly or bene-
ficially to it, it had turned out, he maintained, from
the first, a rank delusion. He then referred to the
" first Corn-law" Committee of1815;—(a sort of con-
ventional error, this, which creeps, we perceive, into
late corn-law discussions ; seeing that the " corn"-
law on which the subsequent corn-trade-regulating
statutes of the reigns Of GEORGE 111. and GEORGE
IV., were passed, was the 22d of CHARLES 11., passed
in 1670). He showed that in the deliberations and
report of that Committee of 1815, it was held that the
British farmer could not obtain adequate protection,
unless he got 80s. a quarter for his wheat. But
in addition to the adoption of this principle into the
legislation that ensued, he asked Aix. BENETT, of Wilt-
shire, whether it was not at that period a favourite
theory with the landed interest, that wheat could not
be profitably grown in this country until the farmer
got 965. a quarter, or Bs. a bushel for it ? Her MA-
JESTY'S Government in 1844, however, were not will-
ing to concede a higher rate than 565. the quarter ;
but before such a Committee as he called for, he
would undertake to bring many old farmers who
would state, that, after 1815, tenant farms had been
valued after this assumed rate of 80s. for the quarter ;
whereas it was declared and established in 1821, in
the resolutions publicly agreed to by one of the sub-
sequently formed agricultural societies, that wheat
was then realising no' more than 435. Now
the effect of the alterations made since the
last corn-law of all, under the Government of
Sir ROBERT PEEL, had been this : on the ground
assumed that the price of wheat must be 565. under
the new protection, rents were fixed in reference to
that rate. Let the Committee be appointed, and he

would produce before it an individual occupying his

' own land, who was rated in reference to this price—
the selling actual price of wheat in the market being,
at the same moment, only 475. the quarter. When
this party complained of the wrong he suffered from
being thus over-rated, he had the singular satisfaction
of learning that the principle on which the rate had
been laid was "probably" the Right Hon. Baronet's
erroneous assumption of the price of corn under this
" protecting" law.
Thus far we have been much struck with the
coincidence of Mr. COBDEN'S conclusions on
the utter inefficiency of corn-law attempted pro-
tection, with those we had found in a little
tract put forth by the Society for the Emancipa-
tion of Industry, entitled " An Appeal to Farmers
and Landowners." The conclusions in both instances
are alike; theliistics arid the process of induction
from them, though dissimilar and various, are not
conflicting : and thus we may note a very remark-
able and important coincidence between the advo-
cates of a revision of our monetary system and the ad-
vocates for the repeal of our corn-law system.
Indeed, when we came to Mr. COBDEN'S very powerful
allusion to the apologetic plea of the Premier for in-
ability to control the profits of trade cr the wages
of labour, we are free to own that we indulged, at
first, in the hope that the Hon. Member for Stock-
port was about to visit, upon the same head, the more
palpable delinquency of his inability to arrest the
paralysing operation, on all the industrial
of
ustriallBeln9e.rgyFoorf
the kingdom, of the Currency B
the results of that disastrous measure, the Right
Honourable Baronet can plead, " in arrest of
judgment," no present inability. His own per-
versity, his want of personal knowledge and ex-
perience, on the subject of that monetary system and
all its relations—and his dogged refusal to let in the
light of practical information and admitted sagacity
upon the one-sided labours of his famous Committee—
(although remonstrated with on these points by his
own father, and others among the highest fiscal,
financial, and mercantile authorities in Great Britain) ;
precipitated all the mi .
schiefs, the stagnations of
trade, the panics of the money-market, and the con-
vulsions of commercial credit and confidence, which
have since followed upon one another, at unequal, but
at certainly-recurring intervals.
" The Right Hon. Gentleman told me," said Mr
COBDEN, " he could not regulate the wages of the
labourer, or the profits of the manufacturer or
trader ;" and then the Hon. Member acutely asked " if
y fig
the price of agricultural
couldcom-
modities?" be more forcible than the
he could not guarantee any fixed profits, how could
theflous
Nothingpossibl
manner in which he applied this answer to rebuke the
overweening notion which the House is apt to enter
taro of its power to perform this impossible achieve.
ment. On a future occasion, we shall avail our.

selves of the same train of reasoning to prove how
incontestibly the establishment of a gold standard
of value, which left the manufacturers equally
with the farmers, without.the power of adding to the
gold or natural price of commodities, the additional
element of cost which would have represented the
taxation charge of proclucing those commodities was

the primary and fatal cause of the subsequent—all
but hopeless—derangement of the market of labour,

and the fearful diminution of wages to an almost

destitution-minimum.

Madrid Journals of the Bth have been received, but
they bring no news. Senor SALAMANCA, it was said,
was about to set out for London, for the ostensible pur-
pose of paying off the arrears due to the Spanish Le-
gion, but in reality, to try his band at " raising the
wind" on the Stock Exchange. To the monied men,
therefore we address a very useful piece of advice--
"Faites attention a vos poches."
The Three pfr Cents. were done at 30 for cash, and
30} at 60 days, and the Fires at 221 * for cash, and 221
at 60 days.

We regret to learn by accounts from Paris of Thurs •
day that the Spanish General RONCALI, by orders no
doubt from NARVAEZ, had signalised the capture of
Alicant by butchering many of the unhappy victims.
It appears that BONET, the leader of the insurgents, had
made a sortie from the town, but was unsuccessful, and
was made prisoner with a number of his followers. BONET
and twenty-five officers were immediately shot. This
mode of celebrating the return of Queen CHRISTINA to
Spain is quite in keeping with the character of the nation•
This, however, is not the way to settle the affairs of
that distracted country ; and, judging from rumours on
the Paris Bourse, which are generally believed, a re-
action had already taken place at Madrid, and during
the absence of the QUEEN and her Captain-General an
insurrection had broken out against the Government.
The French Three per Cents. fell fully one per cent.
On Wednesday they closed at 83f. 15c. The principal
topic in the Paris papers is the policy pursued at Con-
stantinople by the British and French Ambassadors, in
reference to the execution of Mussulmans for changing
their creed. Both Sir STRATFORD CANNING and Baron
DE BOURQUENEY have remonstrated in vain against this
barbarous practice. They have siace absented themselves
from Court, and are probably waiting for fresh instruo-

tions to take some more decided step to bring the
SULTAN, or rather his Ministers, to reason. The Liberal
press generally praise the conduct of France and Eng-
land, and urge on M. GUIZOT and Lord ABERDEEN
some decisive steps to defeat a new machination of
Russia to embroil the affairs of Turkey, and thereby form
a plea for military interference.
" The news from Constantinople," says the Courrier
Francais, "proves that amoral intervention is absolutely
required on the part of every Government which has not
taken up the determination of favouring the encroach-
ments of Russia. RIZA Paella is compromising the em-
pire and the young SULTAN, to the great joy of Russia,
which is playing the part of conservative, in order to ruin
everything. As to Austria, we have already characterised
the ?thtternichian diplomacy at Constantinople. It is a
shame for Austria to league herself with prevaricating
and sanguinary Ministers, when a queStion of humanity
is treated of. We desire that the two Ambassadors of
France and England may be successful ; but nothing
will be obtained but by a direct interview with the
SULTAN, and the interest of civilisation authorises its re-
presentatives to use an energetic language—the only one
which the Porte can at present comprehend." The lan-
guage of the National is equally energetic. We can
easily understand the policy of Russia in this affair, but
that of Austria is totally incomprehensible. The follow-
ing particulars, which appear in that journal, will be
read with interest :

" The intercourse of Christian Europe with Turkey is be-
coming strangely complicated. On one aide, France and
England, who proceed together this time, for the benefit of
civilisation, persist in demanding the abolition of this old
law of the kingdom, by which two or three Mussulmans,
converted to Christianity, have been put to death. On their
side, the chiefs of the Mussulman reaction, now at the head
of affairs, persist in upholding this law, and causing it to be
• executed. If the news, which have conic to hand from Con.
stantinople, through the German papers, be true, the Ambas-
sadors of France and England display in this conjuncture a
rare and laudable energy. The Grand Vizier having re-
cently invited them, with the rest of the diplomatic body, to
a grand dinner, M. de Bourqueney and Sir S. Canning, re-
fused to attend. The Ambassadors of Prussia, Sardinia, and
Holland, acted with the same firmness; they stayed away
on account of mourning. Th© Russian • Ambassador got
himself represented by the chief Secretary of the Embassy,
• and the Austrian Inter-nuncio thought fit to attend in person.
This exception does little honour to Russia and Austria.
But whatever may be the weakness of Austria, and the in-
trigues of Russia, we indulge in the hope that the Divan will
be restrained by the perseverance of France and England in
the cause of humanity, and that the two Powers, who boast
of marching at the head of Christian civilisation, will not
hesitate to reduce to compliance, even by force, a degraded
Government."

The Committee appointed to examine the elections of
the fivo Legitimatist Members had reported, that four of
them had been duly returned; but, as a protest had been
made against the return of M. DE LARCY for Montpelier,
further investigation was necessary.
THE BOURSE—THunspAr, MARC!! 14.

First Highest Lowest Last
Price. Price. Price. Price.
French Five perCents.exdiv 122 .. 122 15 •• 121 85 .. 122
Four perCents.ex div 104 75 .. 104 75 .. 104 75 • • 104 75
Three per Cents.... • 83 15 83 20 .. 83 .. 83 10
Bank of France.. ....... —3250 .•3250 ..3250 ..3250
Lailitte Bank, I,ooof. Shared 107 50 .. 1107 50 • • 1105 ..1105
5,000 f. SharessoBs —5085 —5085 —5085
Belgian Bank . 662 50 .. 662 50 .• 662 50 • • 662 50
1841
Belgian Fives lO5l 1051 1051 .. 1051
1840
1842 ...• •• • • 1091 .. 1091 • • 1091 • • 1091
Threes •• ..... •• • • 77 25 77 25 .. 77 25 .. 77 25
Dutch Two-and-a-Half.— • • 581 • . 581 • • 581 • • 581
Spanish Active 34 .. 34 • • 34 .. 34
Passive •• • • 61 .. 61 • • 61 • • 61
New Deferred • 141 141 .. 141 • • 144
Threes .• - 351
Portuguese Five per Cents.. 474 • • 48 • • • 47/ • • 471
Neapolitan lO2 25 .. 102 35 • • 102 25 •• 102 30
Roman

RAILWAY SHARES.
St. Germain 832 50 • • 832 50 .• 832 50 . 832 50
Versailles, R.B. 380 .. 3SO .. 377 50 378 75
175 • • 175 • • 175 .. 175
Rouen •• ••••••• • • • • • • •
Rouen to Havre.. .•• • •
Orleans: BB5 .. 885 .. 880 • • 880
Mufhausen to Thann .... •• • 380 .. 380 .. 380 .. 380
Strasburg to Bale •••• • • • • 245 • • 245 • • 245 • • 246
RAILWAY SHARES, FOR THE ACCOUNT.
St. Germain ••• • • .
Versailles, MB.— •• • ...... 380 • • 380 .. 378 75 • • 378 75
L. 8.• •• • • • •• • • • • 176 25 .. 176 25 .. 173 75 • • 173 75
Rouen •• • • ••••• • • • • • 890 . 890 .. 885

Rouen tolHavre•
682 .• 50 GB2 50 •• 678. Y 5 .• 678 75
Orleans .
Strasburg to:Rale •• •• • . 246 25 .. 246 25 .. 245 .. 245
Avignon to Marseilles.... • • 765 766 25 • • 763 75 • • 763 75

MEETING of PRIVATE COUNTRY

BANKERS.

The Deputation of Private Country Bankers were
very courteously received, on Saturday, by Sir
Robert Peel, who expressed his willingness to attend
to any suggestions which the Private Country Bankers
were prepared to make. He added, that he consi-
dered it inconsistent with his duty to disclose the in-
tention of her Majesty's Government, having declined
to make any communication in answer to similar
applications. Sir Robert Peel also stated that no
measure would be proposed until after the Easter
recess, and that ample time would intervene for the
consideration of the details of the-measure after it
should be proposed.

We understand that the enlistment for the super-
numeraries, which the exigencies of the service induced the
Government to propose adding to our cavalry regiments, has
been ordered to be discontinued.—Observer. -
There is a report in military •circles that it is in-
tended to dispatch a reinforcement of 3,500 men to our army
in India. We do not, however, guarantee its accuracy:—
Observer.
We have much pleasure in learning-that the long
expected report of Lord Granville Somerset and his associate
Commissioners, respecting the London Customs, is in the
press, and will speedily be presented in the proper quarter.—
Observer.
NEW INVENTION.--Mr. Patiling, of Manchester,
well known as an extensive and successful contractor for
railway works, is erecting machinery, on a very- extensive
scale, for the purpose of executing almost every description
of joiner's work ; the special object being to effect the most
difficult parts, such as morticing and the making of sash
frames, &c. Report says that this enterprising gentleman
has succeeded, and that the work thus finished is incom-
parable ;in other terms, that it is not possible for-mere han-
dicraft labour to vie with the work finished by the invention.
The works are on a very extensiue scale, and, if fully em-
ployed, will, of necessity, revolutionise this- branch of the
building business.—Scotsman.
Mr. Cobden'S motion for a Select Committee to in-
quire into the peculiar burdens borne by-land—so important
to the mart-farmers and farm labourers of this 'country—
was brought before the House of Commons on Tuesday even-
ing. We unite with Mr Cobden in expression of his surprise
that the bringing forward a motion for the appointment of
such a committee should be left to him. - 'Wherefore was it
not brought forward by the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of
Harewood, Lord Worsley, or some other Member of the Coun-
cil of the Anti-League Association ? Was there no noble or
honourable farmer's friend to anticipate the motion of the Hon.
Free-trade Member for Stockport ? Was his fat-
headed Grace of Buckingham asleep ? 'Where was Mr.
Christopher, the Lincolnshire "Peel pilot balloon?" One
would have supposed that every pretended "farmer's friend "
in Parliament would have appeared armed with such a mo-
tion the instant it was known that a single voice was raised
in the country in favour of the abolition of the-corn-laws.
But the landlords are a peculiarly coy race. s They are deli-
cately sensitive upon the subject of those peculiar burdens
of theirs. They shrink from exposing them as much as a
young beauty would from indicating a high shoulder, or the
necessity of a pair of padded stays. Like the sweep in
" Hood's Comic Almanac," perusing the Act of Parliament
which forbids him to proclaim his calling from the house-
tops, and who indulges in the plaintiff ditty, " I have a silent
sorrow here," the landlords, with a modesty. as peculiar as
their burdens, have hitherto confined the details of their dis-
tresses to the somewhat vacant sanctuary of their own bo-
soms.—Hull Advertiser.

SUPPOSED MURDER OF THE STEWARD CiN BOARD
THE CHIEFTAIN, OF SUNDERLAND, CAPT. R. REAL.—On the
2d instant, two letters were received here, written on board
the above ship, and dated Spalatro, Feb. 113. John Med-
forth, second mate, the writer of one addressed to his mo-
ther, says :—" I am Sorry I have bad news to tell you ; on
the 21st of January, being Sunday, about half-past eleven,
or a quarter to twelve o'clock at night,- the carpenter came
down into the cabin, and called up the-master, who dressed
himself ; and then I saw him (for I was not asleep) put a
pistol in his pocket, and go upon deck. He had only been gone
a short time when I heard the report of a, pistol ; I went im-
mediately upon deck, and saw the steward shut, and the car-
penter holding his head." The other letter is from William
. Smith, seaman before the mast, in the same-ship., and bears
the same date. Smith writes :—"I suppose you have learnt
the sad account of poor John Harrison ; he was shot by the
captain on the 2lst of January ; the ball entered the brain,
and he died on the 22d. I had been on shore with him in
the evening, and wanted him to return on -board with me,
but he did not; he came, however, in about an hour after, and
I helped him on board; I knew nothing inorenntil I heard a
pistol fired, when I came on deck and found the steward
shot." Such are the statements of the letters_with regard to
the death of poor Harrison, who has left a widow and child
to lament his hard fate. Harrison served his time with Mr.
Bunney, of Hull, and always bore the character of an upright
seaman, and an honest man. His widow- has received a cer-
tificate of his death from the captain, stating that he met his
death by accident. The ship is understood to be now on its
passage to Southampton.—Hull Advertiser. -
The first conviction for a breach of the regulations
of the new Fishery Convention betweeri France and Eng-
land took place on Wednesday at Lewes. Two French fish-
ing boats having entered Newhaven harbour, Lieut. Brown,
of the Coast Guard, observing that the vane at the mast-head
required by the regulations affecting French vessels coming
within three miles of the coast was not of the prescribed
colour (blue), and also that the numbers and initial letters
of the port to which the boats belonged were painted on
only one side of the bows, conceived - it to be his duty
to take the captains before a magistrate. -They were ac-
cordingly conveyed to Lewes, and examined before H.
Blackman, Esq.. Mr. P. Black, the French Consul, was pre-
sent, and in defence stated that no copies of the regulations
had been placed in the hands of the defendants, and therefore
requested the magistrate to mitigate the penalty to the low-
est possible amount. The Consul observed, that even among
our own fishermen, who could not plead such ignorance of
the regulatiens, they were, as yet, only partially carried out.
The defendants were then fined Bs. each, including costs ; and
the French Consul promised to write to the. French autho-
rities, suggesting that copies of the rules should be furnished
to every boat, in order that the masters might not suffer
from ignorance of a complicated law.—Brighton Paper.
WHAT'S IN A NAME ?—One of the Naturalisation
Bills brought into the House of Lords, on Thursday evening, pre.
sented and read a first time, was for naturalising the "Dame
Susan Victoria Regina Nugent, widow of Sir Jantes Nugent,
Baronet, deceased." This lady, who owns such a regal and truly
loyal British name, is the only daughter of the late Baron D'Ara.
bet, of the Holy Roman Empire.
A lad near Preston applied for work in a factory,
and was refused, being thought under the -age prescribed by law.
To obviate the difficulty, as he thought, he got wed to a girl, and
then claimed admission al a wawa man