The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-27 00:00:00

lainnillff Mt

LONI lON, SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1844.

In the L iords the Illegal Processions (Ireland) Bill
went throe gh Committee.
'I he Ma, rquis of NORMANDY moved the order of
the day for an address to her MAJESTY on the health
of towns. :He went into lengthened statistical ietails
on the subyeot, which showed the vast suffering which
the lower cftasses endured, with a patience which did
them the Ii hest honour.
The DIAL( of livccr.rnien admitted the importance
of the surtijExt, but he did not consider the Govern-
wif,nt were• liable to blame ; and, after enumerating
various ph' um which had been adopted for remedying
the evils cm.? which the Noble Marquis complained,
moved the 7previous question. This, of course, was
agreed to, said the House adjourned at Nine o'clock.
The Co yl,rnons met at Twelve o'clock, when'

not treated with absolute indifference, for the two lase

sessions ; and the very least he can do is to
pay off an instalment of this debt by such a

scheme of practical education as shall have the besi

nttirests of the people, not of a mere party, for its ob-
ject. In the present case, we believe Sir ROBERT

PEEL to be really sincere in his desire to amelio

rate the condition of the sister-country ; and sure are
we that, if his determination and perseverance be on

a par with his sincerity, he will triumphantly carry
his point, for he will have a majority of the two

Houses of Parliament with him, and will be opposed
only by the incurably prejudiced and bigoted, who,
fortunately constitute a minority in both kingdoms.

There are some great public questions, the socia

'interests involved in which command the sympathies
of the most bigoted partisans, of all shades of politi-
:al opinions, in this party-stricken country. We
cannot imagine any homage to moral principles—any
recognition of their inherent, original influence upon
our common natum--more impressive or consolatory.
In • this fortunate, but limited class of questions, we
may assign a prominent position to that of the aboli-
tion of the slave trade. It will be remembered, no
doubt to the latest posterity, that the voice of party
hostility was hushed—that the enmities of political
antagonism were suspended—when a Liberal Go-
vernment appealed to the British public for the most
enormous money contribution ever tendered at one
time, and by one act, as a voluntary oblation on
the altar of human freedom. Yet even that costly
offering of 20,000,0001., so confidently proposed to
the English Legislature, and so promptly sanc-
tioned—and so freely and cordially conceded by the

English people in 1833 was little more than
we had already sacrificed in the same righteous
cause, from the period of the first generous labours of
GRANVILLE SHARPE, and CLARKSON, and WILBER•
FORCE, to the commencement of the reign of his late
Ma;esty King WILLIAM IV. The expenses of the
naval force we maintained and employed, and the
machinery we had to provide and set in motion for
carrying out the stipulations of our treaties with va-
rious Powers on this subject; the cost of our staff
upon the mixed commissions established in confor-
mity- with those treaties ; the cost of our Sierra
Leone establishment, &c. &c., have amounted to an
aggregate scarcely eonceivable by those who have not
looked into the history of these proceedings ;—more
especially from the date of the declaration of the Al-
lied Powers against the slave trade, at Vienna, in
February, 1815; and in reference to our several con-
ventions with Spain, in 1817 ; with the Netherlands,
in 1819 ; with Brazil, in 1828, &c. &c.

We have perused, with less surprise than pleasure,
the interesting statement submitted to the House of
Lords on Thursday evening last, by the Earl of
ABERDEEN, and the congratulations tendered to him
by Noble Peers from all sides of the House, relative
to the revised code of instructions which the Foreign
Se

!cretary has caused to be prepared for the instruc-

tion of naval officers commanding her MAJESTY'S
cruisers and vessels of war employed in the suppres-
sion of the slave-trade. Lord ABERDEEN, after com-
menting on the insufficiency of the existing "in-
structions" to officers on this arduous service—(it
having been customary to supply them merely with
literal copies of the various, original, and supplemen-
tary treaties relating to slave-trading, from time
to time contracted between this country and other
Powers, leaving to these commanders the responsible
and difficult task of forming their unaided judg-
ment on the construction of the text in many
difficult emergencies which, though varying by appa-
rently very slight differences of circumstances might be
determinable in very broadly differing principles of
national law).—pcpressod his unfeigned astonishment

report on the Controverted Elections Bill was 're- at the general discretion, sagacity, and good sense with
ceived. which our naval officers had acted in their reading of

these treaties. The number of these treaties, he re-
marked, was not less than thirty ; and the revision of
their various stipulations, powers, &c., and the draw-
ing up of the new code of instructions which it was
thought just and expedient to found upon them, with
a view to the better guidance of these naval officers,
had been confided to Dr. LBSHINOTON, Judge of the
Court of Admiralty, Dr. ROTHERY (a Civilian of
Doctors' Commons), Captain DENMAN, R.N., and
Mr. BARDINEL, of the Foreign-office, (so well and
hodourably known for his reports and official papers
in connexion with the slave trade). Their " instruc-
tions," after receiving the careful considera-
tion of Government, had been examined,
amended, and confirmed by the law officers of
the Crown, and were now brought forward for the
information and sanction of Parliament. The speech
of the Earl of ABERDEEN was remarkable for some
points of peculiar interest, independently of their con-
nection with this question of slavery. In alluding to
the satisfaction of her MAJESTY'S Government at the
opportunity thus afforded them of making public the
character and bearing of the instructions given to
our cruisers, the Noble Earl administered this digni-
fied and calm rebuke to the suspicious petulance of
our French defamers :—" Her MAJESTY'S Ministers,"
he said, "felt that, as they had nothing to conceal,
this general publicity was desirable, and they felt
that that would afford the best refutation of those
calumnious and false assertions and accusations which
had been made against the conduct of that country
in suppressing the slave-trade—that under the pre
text of humanity they really sought the extension of
their own commerce, while they crippled and impeded
that of other countries."
In the short account be gave of the statistics of
slave exportation from the coast of Africa, from 1768
(whence our first trustworthy accounts may be said
to date) to 1843, we find the appalling statement that
fur many years it averaged 100,000 annually ; and
from 1835 to 1840, the same number to Brazil and
Cuba alone. It had latterly much declined. In
1842, Cuba and Brazil included, it had fallen to
17,000, though in 1843 it had risen again to 36,000.
Whilst he showed that during the enlightened and
prosperous government of General VALDEZ for
Spain, in Cuba, the slave importations had prodigi-
ously declined, owing to that enlightened officer,
consistent discouragement of the traffic, he apprised
the House of a very contrary policy, which we blush
to record as having guided the councils of ESFARTERO
during his tenure of all but supreme power in Spain.
The whole passage is a remarkable one :
" He had stated, on a former occasion, and he believed
with truth, that had General Valdez remained in the
g•overnment of the island, and continued to receive the
support and confidence of the Government at home, the
slave trade would have been annihilated in that island.
He must observe that the Government of the Regent,
although well disposed to the abolition of the slave trade,
did not support General Valdez at the close of his ad-
ministration. On the contrary, he received very positive
orders to relax in his endeavours for the suppression of
that traffic."
Lord ABERDEEN, we are glad to perceive, renders
ample justice to the active co-operation of the naval
forces of the United States with our own, in watching
and repressing the trade on the coasts of Africa; and
to the good faith with which France, and Portugal,
in a remarkable manner, have lately been redeeming
their engagements to us on this head. Of the duplicity
of Spain, and the contumacy of Brazil, Lord ABER-
DEEN speaks in very intelligible terms of displeasure
and reprobation. He intimates, too, a tolerably dis-
tinct purpose of compelling them, if they show a dis-
position to persist in their shameless violation of the
faith of treaties, to yield to graver and more stringent
')owers than those of State papers, what they obsti-
nately deny,to the impulses of shame on their own
parts, and the weight of remonstrances upon ours.
Surely Spain forgets the precarious tenure of her
colonial sovereignty in Porto Rico, and the Govern-
ment of Brazil must have forgotten what was the
species of danger apprehended by that old Roman
who successfully opposed the insidious proposition
for registering, by a census, the numerical amount of
slave population which then existed within the pre-
cinct of the Eternal City ? Both Powers may yet do
well to note, deliberately, the opinions expressed by a
leading Member of the British Government :
" The change which had taken place in Cuba, and
the conduct of the local authorities in Brazil, were
topics on which ho was unwillinc, to express his
real sentiments; but these States should' recollect that
we had treaties with them on that sulAject; that they
had entered into engagements with us, and had thereby
placed themselves under obligations as binding, as strong,
as though they had ceded to us towns and provinces.
We had achieved a conquest of humanity, and were as
much entit!ed to enjoy the fruits of that conquest as of
any other. Those treaties they must be prepared to fulfil,
and he trusted that means would be found to see that
they should be executed honestly and faithfully at last.
He had no hesitation in saying that if the Governments
of Brazil and Spain would,' for two or three years,
execute faithfully, honestly, and zealously those treaties,
the trade would be absolutely at an end."

The Savings Banks Bill passed through Commit-
tee, and the report was ordered to be brought up on
Monday.
On the order of the day being read for the third
reading of the Poor-law Amendment Bill, Colonel
SIBTHORP gave notice that on Monday he would
move that the salaries of the Commissioners be 1.0001.

each, and the salaries of the Assistant-Commissioners
be 4001. each. Some speeches were made on the
motion for the third reading of the Bill, but they re-
quire no particular notice. The Bill was read a third
time and passed.
The Turnpike Trust Bill, the Joint-Stock Banks
Regulation Bill, and some other Bills of less impor •
tance, were read a third time and passed.

The Merchant Seamen's Bill is to be committed on
Monday.
The House adjourned at a Quarter-past Nine.

Just as we anticipated a few days since, when
writing on the subject, the speech of Sir ROBERT
PEEL, in reply to Mr. WYSE'S Education motion on
Friday night, in the House of Commons, has had the
effect of rousing the bigoted sensibilities of the Irish
Orange party, and filling them with the most sombre
speculations respecting the future course of policy
that may be adopted by the Premier. The Dublin
Evening Mail, which is the accredited organ of that
meek and enlightened party, is quite furious on the
subject, and discovers that the axe is already laid to
the root of Protestantism, which must ere long fall in
ruins to the earth. " The Protestant people of Ire-
land," says our Contemporary, "may for a moment
doubt the evidence of their own senses, and hesitate
to believe in the reality of their danger. But that
moment's pause will seal their destruction. The
power of Government will be brought to bear against
their opposition; the timid will be frightened; the
bold and conscientious frowned upon ; the vacillating
cogently reasoned with ; the corrupt purchased; and
finally the garrison, having been brought into public
contempt, the citadel of Protestantism will fall an
easy prey to its enemies." Here is a long catalogue
of horrors, not an item in which but is calculated to
set the hair bristling on the head of every Orange
bigot in the sister country ! But the Mail's griev-
ances are by no means novel in their character, for
our Contemporary has raised precisely the same cla-
mour, whenever any measure of more than ordinary
justice and liberality has been suggested for the be-
nefit of Ireland. On all occasions of this sort—
which, " like angel's visits," have invariably been
" few and far between "—he has never failed to get
up a cry of the "Church in Danger," and to assert
that the whole fabric of Irish Protestantism is me-
naced with irremediable destruction. Thus he
acted when Lord NORMABBY took the reins
of Government, and the same when Lord FORTESCUE
.was installed as Viceroy ; but despite his triste and
noisy predictions, Protestantism has contrived to stir-
ive both ad ministrations, and will continue to survive
ages after our Contemporary has ceased to write, and
his readers to peruse, his gloomy va'icinations. If,
however, for the term " Protestantism," the Mail will
allow us to substitute the term " bigotry," we will
grant that there is some ground for his apprehensions,
for it is scarcely possible to believe otherwise than
that a scheme of national education, such as Sir
ROBERT PEEL seems to have in his eye, will inflict a
" heavy blow and great discouragement" on the cause
of Irish intolerance. But surely it is high time
that this should be the case, and that an ulcer, which
fur a long series of years has been preying on the
national vitals, should be torn up by the roots ;
and a chance at least be given to the sister country
of gaining something like a healthy constitution !
There are no means by which this desirable result
can so succesfully be arrived at as by education.
Afford facilities of instruction to the middle and
lower classes of Irishmen ; let their instruction be
conducted on a liberal and enlarged system, without
reference to particular creeds and schisms ; and from
that auspicious moment, bigotry will cease
to be the chilly, withering blight it has
so long been to the energies of Ireland. Even as the
morning sun dispels the unwholesome vapours of the
night, so will the calm, steady, penetrating light of
intelligence disperse the darkness of bigotry, more
cheerless even than the gloom of the grave. That
the Orangemen anticipate such an inevitable result
from the system of education hinted at by Sir R.
PEEL, is evident from the clamour they are now get-
ting up on the subject—a clamour which will most
likely be chorussed by the high Protestant party in
England, who have many strong points in common
with their Irish brethren. But the Premier, we
trust, will not allow himself to be scared from the
path of obvious duty by the senseless ravings of
bigots, whether English or Irish, but press boldly
forward with his task, and not desist till he has
brought it to a successful issue. He owes a heavy
debt to Ireland, whose welfare he has neglected, i

Madrid papers of the 18th have been received.
One of these states that the QUEEN had signed a de-
cree for proclaiming martial law throughout Spain.
The Castellano, without attaching much credit to the
repoz t, says "we should prefer so an exceptional a
state of things (which is necessary in an exceptional
situation) to the singular and incomprehensible
state in which we are, provided such a measure had
an object beneficial to the country and were not
adopted for the sole purpose of oppressing quiet peo-
ple." Such an act is extremely probable. NARVAEZ
cannot halt between two opinions. He cannot at the
same time act the despot, and allow the Cortes to de-

liberate with freedom. During the ensuing elections,
under the pretext of preventing disturbances,
he may say it is necessary to give the mili-
tary full power. But the press also must
be gagged or put down, and that process is in
a fair way of being accomplished. Five prosecutions
had been instituted against a paper, called the
Monarquia, and the editor there announces that he
must suspend its publication. Proceedings had also
been instituted against other papers.
It was said that M. PASCUAL INOLADA, former
intendant of the province of Toledo, had been ar-
rested, and was to be tried as an accomplice in the
murder of General QUESADA.

The Three per Cents. were done at 261 at 60 days,
and the Five per Cents. at 191.

Marshal BUGEAUD has fought another battle with

the Moors near Ouchda, in- which they were com-
pletely defeated and driven into the interior of the
country. A telegraphic dispatch received by the
French Government on Wednesday, and dated from
the bivouac of Sidi-Zaer on the 16th, announces

hat the Marshal having been provoked by a fresh
attack on the part of the Moors, routed and pursued
them to the distance of three days' march beyond
Ouchda. He returned on the 15th to the camp of
Lala-Magrina. " All the tribes were offering to
submit, even those which are situated on the territory
of Morocco." These repeated collisions tend to
show either that the Emperor of Monocco is not
sincere in disowning the acts of the Moorish chiefs,
or that they set his authority at defiance. Some of
the French journals, indeed, state the latter is the fact,
and that the influence of ABD•EL..KADEE is almost
unbounded. It is to be feared, therefore, that the
fleet must be employed to subdue these tribes, as an
extensive barren tract, without water, lies between
the frontier and capital, which entirely precludes the
march of troops in that quarter. Nearly similar ac-
counts to those given in the telegraphic dispatch had
been received at Toulon on the 20th. They declare
that Marshal BUGEAUD was carrying on the war
with great spirit, that he had again entered the
Mooriih territory, and was driving everything before
him with fire and sword. The Paris Siecle, after
stating that the Marshal had no hopes of terminating
the differences peaceably, adds :
‘• It is said, that after the affair of the 3d July he wrote to
the Prince de Joinville to pray him to act immediately. The
Prince is said to have weighed anchor on the ith from the
roads of Mers-el-Keber, with the intention of commencing
hostilities. Reflection and the fear of engaging his responsi-
bility, which is in fact great, or perhaps the information he
received at Gibraltar, have modified the ardour of the young
Admiral, who has proceeded to the Bay of Algesiras to await
further orders. We have heard from authority, and we be-
lieve it, that a ship of war has been dispatched with instruc-
tions to the Prince modifying those brought with him from
Paris, and several regiments. quartered in the south have re-
ceived orders to embark at Toulon. It is not probable that
the Cabinet would incur such an expense if they thought it
possible
to avoid it. It is cavalry particularly that Marshal
Bugeaud demands. Two regiments have been sent him, but
our French horses are little suited to support the fatigues of
a war in Africa, and no doubt this cavalry will be employed
in the interior. In this manner the Marshal may dispose of
60 squadrons to enter Morocco, which will, no doubt, furnish
means of remounting the men. For this reason Marshal
(;)ILIt would pot sprint a substitute. go directs all the or-