The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-22 00:00:00

LONDON,

moment of panic be induced to withdraw their lodg-
ments, and very perplexing and expensive to the Ex-
chcquer. The great objt.cf, then, was to set the
public mind at rest, and to restore confidence in the
stability and solvency of those establishments. That
desideratum was attained when Mr. Ture:ELL de-
clared that a measure was actually prepared by the
G3vernment, which would be intro bleed by Sir
CHARLES WOOD on the following Tuesday. The ex-
citement passed rapidly away, the pledge, thus
deliberately and solemnly given, having appeased the
fears even of the most timid.

Unfortunately, however, the Right Hon. Baronet
was attacked before the appointed day with a severe
fit cf illness, which deprived the nation of his services
for more than five weeks, and he was unable to ap-
pear in his place in Parliament until the 15th of
March, when he introduced the '• Brick-dust Budget."
The people, however, remained satisfied with the
assurance that the subject would be brought forward
without any unnecessary delay. Netvvithstanding
the prolonged indisposition of Sir CHARLES WOOD,
and his consequent absence from his Parliamentary
labours, there was no desire that the matter should be
taken out of his hands. The duty properly devolved
upon him, awl all were satisfied that
he would discharge it with fidelity and zeal.
We regret, however, to be obliged to state that this
reasonable expectation has not been fulfilled. The
public apprehensions being assuaged, and the matter
thus quietly shelved fur a time, Sir CHARLES WOOD
was by no means anxious to revive the question.
There was ?kill the same necessity for its introduction
so far as the depositors were concerned ; but there
was no prospect of annoyance or inconvenience to
himself, or of loss to the Exchequer, by a large
withdrawal of funds from these establishments. Such
being the case, day after day and week after week
was suffered to elapse without the slightest allusion
being made to the topic, or any real effort
to redeem the Ministerial pledge. At length,
on Monday, the 15th instant,' the• Hen. Member
for Kerry oonsidered it to be his duty to revive the
subject. His constituents at Tralee and Killarney,
who bad previously suffered severely from the effects
of the potatoe failure and the general distress ia Ire-
land, perticularly in the south western districts, had
been plundered to the amount of 50,0001. by a series
of gross and systematic frauds and deceptions on the
part of the actuaries of the savings' bulks in those
towns—frauds which had almost been invited by the
culpable negligence of the trustees and mangers,
whose Ti e:1-knoen respeetability of character
induced the unfortunate people to place im-
plicit confidence in the security and eafety of
their humble savings. This unpleasant remi-
niscence was not very graciously received. The
answer of Sir CHARLES WOOD clearly showed how
very unwelcome wee the interrogatory, and that, but
for this interference, the session might have glided
away without the appointment of a Select Committee
to inquire into and report on Savings' Banks, or the
introduction of any meesure in relation thereto. He
said—" He was as anxious as the Honourable Gentle-
man, or any one, could be to introduce a Bill on the
subject of savings banks (!), but it was difficult for him
to command a day, and he could not put measures of
great importance aside to make way for that Bill.
The first day he could fairly take for the purpose he
would bring it forward." This is, however, rather
too vague a response to satisfy the country. The
tone, too, was petulant and unbecoming.
Oa the 30th of January the earliest day at the
disposal of the Gcvernment was set aside for the con-
sideration of the subject, which then, at least, was re-
garded as of the most vital consequence to the well-
being of the labouring population of the country.
But now, after a delay of ten weeks, during more
than four of which the Chancellor of the Exchequer
was in good health, perfectly competent to the dis-
patch of business, we are told that " it is difficult to
command a day," and that "he could not put measures
of great importance aside to make way for that Bill."
Is not this tantamount to saying that this is not a
pressing question ?—that its pcstponement can lead
to no evil consequences or disturbance in the public
mind? The Right Honourable Gentleman seems
to think lightly of the failure of a savings' bank, of the
ruin thereby inflicted upon hundreds, aye thousands,
of hard. working and provident men, whose all had
been deposited on what they fondly believed to be
Government security—the pittance that had been
scraped together as a provision for their declining
years, to retain which they had endured without re-
pining many privations—their entire hope and de-
pendence gone at r one fell swoop !" The heart
sickens at the contemplation of the misery and
wretchedness occasioned by such a catastrophe, which
is no less demoralising than it is injurious to the
people. Provident and saving habits receive a
serious check, " a heavy blow, and great discourage-
ment." The reckless spendthrift laughs at the suffer-
ings of his more prudent neighbour. He has spent
his earnings as fast as he received them; his " sav-
ings' bank" was the nearest public-house or beer shop,
but he has sustained no disappointment ; according
to his idea he enjoyed what he had. Hs money
was not swept away through the dishonesty of one
and the negligence of many—he triumphs over the
victim, who, in the bitterness and vexation of his
heart, says " I will do likewise—l will enjoy the pre-
sent moment and let the morrow take care of itself."
This may be detrimental to the interests cf the people
and national prosperity, but what is that to Sir
CHARLES WOOD ? How is he concerned if there be
no loss to the revenue ? and that would be rather
benefited as the consumption of exciseable liquids
would be promoted. Accordingly he finds it "difficult
to command a day," and " could not put measures of
importance aside to make way for such a Bill."

Letters received this morning from Paris announce

;he arrival in that capital of Mr. G. Heald with Lola Montes.

Ma. MILNE THE SCOTTISH VOCALIST.—We per-
ceive on referring to an advertisement that Mr. Milne in-
tends giving another of his popular entertainments in Store-
street this evening. Ju.lging from the crowds who attend
his concerts is Crosby-hall and elsewhere, we are very sure
that to-night he will be surrounded by a brilliant audience,
more especially whon under the immediate patronage of
several of the nobility. Mr. Milne is decidedly the legitimate
successor of Wilson, and, as sucb, we wish him success.

HER MAJESTY'S TITEATRE.—There were present
on Saturday evening at her Majesty's Theatre his Grace the
Duke of Wellington, the Marchioness of Douro and Lord
and Lady Charles Wellesley, the Prince Lucien Bonaparte,
the Duchess of Leeds and Miss Elizabeth Lane Fox, his
Serene Highness Charles Duke of Brunswick, the Duke of
Cleveland, the Duchess (Dowager) of Cleveland and Lady
Augusta Paulet, his Excellency the Russian Minister, the
Baroness Brunow, the Viscountess Dungannon and party,
M. de Berg, his Excellency the Swedish Minister, the Count
Walhmeister, his Chargé d'Affaires of Belgium, the Count
de Civry, the Count de Barka, the Marquis of Huntley,
the Countess of Jersey and Lady Clementine Villiers, the
Hon. E. Upton, Colonel the Hon. G. Fitzgibbon and Mrs.
Fitzgibbon, Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Union, Hon. 11,
Fitzroy, M.P., and Mrs. Fitzroy, Sir Henry Bishop, Sir H.
Maddocks, Sir George Armitage, Bart., Sir Henry Webb,
Bart., Hon. George Billies, Sir William de Bathe, Bart., Sir
John Burgoyne, Bart., and the Misses Burgoyne, Mr. Strutt,
M.P., and Miss Strutt, Sir William Fraser, Bart., Cap' sin
de Bathe, Hon. Theobold Dillon, Sir Jasper and Lady Atkin-
son, Mr. George Mitchell, Mr. W. Miles, M.P., and the
Misses Miles, Colonel Brownlow Knox, M.P., Colonel Blanc,
Mr. Knightley, M.P., Mr. Baring Wall, M.P., Mr. H. Gre-
ville, Hon. Major Needham, Mr. Henry Baring., M.P., Mr.
Raymond Barker, Mr. Francis Walpole and Bliss Walpole,
Lady Jodrell, Right Hon. Sir George Clerk, M.P., Lady
Clerk, and the Misses Clerk, 6c,

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.—Among the fashionable
company attending the performances at the Royal Italian
Opera on Saturday evening we remarked the Earl and
Countess of Kinnoull and Lady Frances Hay, the Countess
of Lichfield and Lady Harriet Anson, the Earl and Countess
of Beauchamp, the Earl of Falmouth, the Marchesa Branca-
leoni and Millie. Brancaleoni, Viscount Dupplin and Lady
Blanche Dupplin, Viscount Mandeville, Viscount Sydney,
Viscount Templetown, Vise-A-int Exmouth, Lord Arthur
Hay, Lord and Lady Wodehouse, Lady Elisabeth Bul-
teel and Miss Bulteel, Lady Wallscourt and party, Mr.
and Lady Harriett Merton, Honourable Mr. Chichester,
Colonel the Hon. A. Upton, M.P., and Mrs. Upton,
Earl of Cardigan, the Earl of Lonsdale the Countess of Car-
digan, the Earl and Countes St. Germans, the Viscount
Cantilupe, Viscount Anson, the Viscount Somerton, the
Viscount Clifden, the Viscount Dupplin. Her Majesty's box
was occupied by Lady Caroline Barrington, Lady Georgiana
Barrington and party, Lord and Lady Alfred Harvey, Lord
Adolphus Fitzclarenee, Lord George Paget, Lord Sondes,
Lord Gerard Fitzgerald, Lady Georgiana Grey, Lord Randle-
sham, Lord and Lady Templemore, Lord Foley, Lord Gar-
diner, Mr. B. Disraeli, M.P., and Mrs. Disraeli, the Hon. C.
R. Neville, the Hon. Mrs. Dudley Ward, the Hon, Claude
Lyon, the Hon. A. Chichester, .Lady Harcourt Vernon, Sir
Ralph Howard, Bart., M.P., and Lady Howard, Ile. tie.
CONSECRATION OF A NEW CIIIJRCII.—On Satur-
day forenoon the new church of St. Bartholomew, situated in
Meor-lane, Cripplegate, was consecrated by the Bishop of
Loudon, in the presence of a very numerous and respectable
congregation. The sacred edifice is erected out of and fitted
lu.s:opfwraoivtdheenitshieegnntmssiaamdt
adjoining
which formed the Church of St. Bar-
tholomew by the Exchange, which was taken down for the
olainritnogthteheoldßooynael,
font,
Reverendpulpit,
Prelate,an d co n
afterm un itehn; t aubs luea,
la rapEenrxtedhicihetmhasienanmgocerreg.i.easnTTN,Thhf 'erietthgo owtßighthneeer
through, preached a sermon from Matthew, cl,sp, v., verse
13. The boys from the choir at Westminster Abbey assisted
at the chants. The Rev. Mr. Denton, senior curate of
Shoreditch, is the incumbent.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of Saturday
and yesterday.

Tile PRESIDENT of the Republic returned on Fri-
day night from Angers, where he had asiisted at the
funeral service performed for the victims of the late
catastrophe. Ike visited the wounded in the hospitals
and personally distributed to them pecuniary relief.
The Journal de Maine et Loire, of the 180,, gives
the following account of the funeral.
" We have just been present at the interment of 180
of the victims of the frightful catastrophe of the 16th.
Never have we witnessed such a heartrending scene—
never have we experienced such poignant grief as in
seeing the twenty-three waggons laden with the dead
bodies which were being slowly conveyed to their last
home. Etch of them was accompanied by the officers
and soldiers who had escaped. Who is there that could
have been unmoved at the sight ef those unfortunate
men, the great majority of the wounded, some of them
scarcely able to walk, and all deeply affected, and
striving, hut en vain, to restrain their tears at the,
fate of their unfortunate comr,clos? Almost all the
shops are closed; the deepest gloom prevails iu our
town. In order to tranquiliz) the famillies and
friends of Colonel Thomas, commanding the 11. h
R-giment, wo hasten to say that the Colonel
was at Saumur at the time of the accident. Ile bad
been called to that place by General do Castellans, to
present to him his 2d battalion, which had given such a
proof of energy in the repression of the emeute which had
been got up on the occasion of the arrival of tla,, General.
As soon as Colonel Thomas heard of the misfortune
which had fallen on his 3d battalion, with which he
generally marched, ho immediately came to Augers, and
has commencel biking measures for the reorgan'zttion
of his troops. Ile has already had them placed in bar-
racks, and is always in the midst of his men, by whom
he is much belove'l."

The town of Angers has ordered a monument to be
erected to the memory of the victims, among whom
are five officers. The number of wounded in the
hospitals is fifty-seven ; the number missing when
the muster-roll of the regiment was called after the
accident vas 219; consequently there are still thirty-
eight bodies in the river, for which search continues'
to be made. The only civilians known to have
perished are two police-agents, who were on duty on
the bridge.
The Moniteur, in announcing the return of the
PB.ESIDENT to Paris, states that at " Angers be had
been perfectly well received, and that his presence had
prodttcrd the best effect."

The Moniteur also publishes the following sn
nouncement of the appointment of a Committee to in,
quire into the causes of the accident.

" The terrible catastrophe which has just thrown the
town of Angers and the whole of France into mourning,
and has so cruelly dif,,ated all the foresight of human
prurience, at the same time that it imposes on the Go-
vernment the duty of repairing as much as pnnible,
the misf,irtanes which have been the result of this
Table accident, renders it r,Lio imperative on it to exa-
mine into causes ai!ci ir.t the means of preventing
a recurrence of them. The Minister of Public Works
Las just formed a Commission, composed of M. li‘.-r-
-insingant, ex-Inspector of the Pouts et Cha,usees, as
president, and MM. Frissart, Drappier, and Mary,
divisional inspectors, and M. Belanger, engineer-in-
chief sf that establishment, charged to again study all
the questions connected with the mode of constructi in of
suspension-bridges, and the trials to which they are sub-
jested ; and to propose such improvements as they may
consider necessary in the precautionary measures now
adoptel"

The *viz the Peuple was seized on Saturday f
the publication of an article on the Angers catas-
trophe. This is the seventh prosecution hanging
over the head of M. PROUDHON, who is at present
under sentence of imprisonment for three years. Oa
Saturday morning he was hurried off by the authe-
rities from the Conciergerie to the fortress of Doul-
leuis, without being permitted to communicate with
his family. He has protested, in writing, against this
treatment, which is unprecedented. Never before
has any publics writer, condemned merely fur libel,
been removed to a fortress. His colloborateurs have
published a notice in the Voix du Peuple, an-
nouncing their determination to pursue the same
course that M. PROUDHON has pursued for the last
twenty-two months.
The discussion on the transportation 13111 was re-
sumed on Friday, and was rendered remarkable by the
refusal of the bigotted parti-pretre to listea to
M. DE LAMARTINE, who, in consequence of the " in-
articulate sounds" uttered by these who arc inca•
pable of using any other argument, was compelled
to quit the tribune, and in quitting it aimed with
Parthian dexterity at his interrupters a shaft which
struck home. " I wonder," said M. DE LAMARTINR,
" that the judges should have so little patience, when
the victims shall one day have need of so much." it
would appear that this retort produced its effect,
and caused the reactionaries to pause in their reckless
course, for we find that the next day, Saturday, the
Ministers were defeated on the vital point of the Bill,
viz., its retrospective operation. In proposing the
Bill, the Minister of the Interior declared, that his
great object was to obtain the power of send-
ing BARRES, BLANQUI, RASFAIL, and the condemned
of Bourges and Versailles at once out of the country,
but on the clause being put making the Bill applicable
to persons actually under sentence M. ODILON BARROT
proposed an amendment in the following terms :
" The present law is only applicable to crimes com-
mitted posterior to its promulgation." In supporting
this amendment, the ex-Keeper of the Seals said
that he had himself, before quitting office, prepared a
transportation Bill ; but in doing so i.e had taken care
to introduce a clause, expressly relieving from its ope-
ration those who were now suffering sentences
awarded by juries of their countrymen. In fact, he
stated, that nothing could be more repulsive to his
ideas of Justice than an interference with the measure of
punishment settled by the courts which had tried eases.
However the law may have stipulated for the provid-
ing of a place of transportation, yet the law had not
dune so at the time when juries could only have
had in view the means of punishment actually
in existence. Had a penal settlement 4,500 leagues
from France been established no one could tell what
influence a knowledge of the fact might have had in
causing sentences to be modified. It appeared that
his successors thought otherwise, and the present
Government had adhered to a proposal of the Com-
mittee on the Bill for erasing the exceptional article
which he (M. 0. BARROT) had left in it.
Notwithstanding the opposition of the Minister of
the Interior, the amendment of M. ODILON BARROT
was carried by a majority of 64, the numbers being—
For the emendment • • 365
Against it ... 301
Majority against Ministers ... --64
M. ODILON BARROT has thus succeeded at length
in giving the Ministry a coup de patte by way of re-
prisal for his own unceremonious dismissal from
office.

The National states that, in consequence of this
decision, the Ministers of the Interior and of Jastice
have tendered their resignations.
The Precurseur de l'Ouest end. the Deinocrate,
published at Angers, have been seizad f articles on
the late melancholy catastrophe at that place.
The candi lature of M. LECLERC is supported by
the Napoleon.
The majority of the Parliamentary re-union of the
Rue Richelieu have decided against applying to the
benefit of the families and survivors of the disaster at
Angers the 200,000 f. destined to celebrate the anni-
versary of the promulgation of the Republic.
The Archbishop of PARIS has addressed a circular
to the clergy of his diocese directing that a Te Deurn
be performed in the churches after the evening ser-
vice on Sunday, returning thanks for the happy re-
turn of the POPE to Rome. _

Two sergeants of the 63d Line have been arrested
at Wissenbourg, Alsace, for having, on the l sth inst
paraded the town with a red flag. and shouted " Vive
la Republique Democratique et Sociale."
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EICHANGE, Amu, 20.
East Indian, s%—Namur and Liege, s%—Orleans and
Bordeaux, DA—Sambre and Meuse, 2 1,6 .