The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-14 00:00:00

S l7 Ny FEBRUARY 14, 1850.

prevent a commander from acting entirely on his own
opinion. Captain Austin must be wholly guided by
.circumstances, and be left to act accordingly as him
own judgment may point out. Being furnished with
every particle of information respecting the various
north-Rest expeditions, and also everything relative
to Behring Straits, the arrangement of his proceedings
after his arrival in B iffin's Bay should he left entirely
and completely to bis own judgment; and we have
great faith that he will succes.fully carry out the
great object of his voyage by finding and rescuing
his lost countrymen.—Herald.

THE SICILIAN STEAMER BOMBAY AND
THE ICING OF NAPLES.
The following letter from M. Amari, late Minister
of Finance in Sicily, has been published in the
Democratie Pacifique :
Sir,—l beg to request that you will give me the ar-
sistance of your journal in making an appeal to the
public against an act of the Neapolit in‘Government di-
rectly affecting myself.
I will state in a few words the origin of the affair. The
Parliamentary Government. of Sicily, under which the
portfolio of finanees was confided to me from the 28th
of March to the 31st of August, 1848, recognised the
necessity of arming several steam-vessels of war. The
Commons Chamber approved of this project, and in
sitting of April 16, voted a credit for the acquirement
of four liar steamers. The new debt, created by a de-
cree of the 13th of April, was found insufficient fur this
expense, and the Chamber, accordingly voted other re-
sources and extraordinary imposts, which were made
law on the 19th ofMay.
The executive power, on its part, through the mediuni
of Prince Granatelli and M. Scalia, its commissioners*
the British Government, concluded the pirchase of two
steamers then building in England. ' In accordance
the conditions stipulated, Invade a first remittance of
between 126,000 and 127,000 ducats, :by means of bills
of exchange, indorsed to the two commissioners, MM.
Granatelli and Scalia. In order to provide for this ex-
pense, and of others in the war department, this Parlia-
ment in the month of December ordered a forced• loan to
be made, which was paid with astonishing celerity. With
this money the new Minister, M. Cordova, and MM.
Count Amari, Prince Butera, and Marquis Cerda, who
succeded him in the department of finance, successively
remitted to. London a sum of more than 700,000 ducats,
by means of bills of exchange endorsed to MM. Grins-
telli and Scalia. The price of the two vessels was paid
in this manner, and several pieces of artillery, with other
munitions of war, were also purchased. The latter,
together with one of the steamers, were, sent to Sicily.
Ott the arrival of the steamer at Palermo, in the month
of March, she received the name of the Indipendenza.
The other vessel, the Bombay, was arrested at the mo-
ment cf her departure by the Customs authorities of
London, on the demand of the Neapolitan Ambassador;
but she was afterwards released.
Towards the end of April and beginning of May,
Sicily, as it is known, fell into the power, of the King of
Naples. who hastened to possess himself of all the muni-
tions cf war, among which were those which had been
purchased in England. The French Government some
time afterwards made him a present of the Indipendenza,
which had been seized in the port, of Marseilles. But
the Neapolitan Government was not se lucky with re-
spect to the Bombay, the other armaments, and the
money, which remained at London in the possession of
the Sicilian commissioners. Two obstacles were thus
opposed to the wishes of the Neapolitan Government,
The commissioners, true to their duty and
their honour, refused to give up to the; enemy the
money and armaments which the Sicilian Government
had confided to them, and, by the laws of England, it
was impossible to compel them, as the King of Naples
is not recognised in England as the legitimate heir to
the Parliamentary Government of Sicily. The result
has been that the steam-vessel, the arms, and the money
have remained a sacred deposit.
In this state of things the Neapolitan Government has
adopted another mode of attack. It established, some
time ago, an exceptional tribunal in Sicily, for the trial
of 'revolutionary accounts. This court; which rivalled
the councils of war, has just condemned myself, and
MM. Cordova, Butera, Count Amari, Cerda, Granatelli,
and Scalia, to pay into the treasury of the King of Na-
ples, in Sicily, all the sums which the five Ministers
successively bad for Warded to the two London commis-
miesioners for the object in question.
This decree has motived my protest, Ido not know
before what tribunal it is intended to bring my colleagues,
but for myself I desire no other than the public, as I
believe the power in the name of which we have been
condemned to be illegal and founded on usurpation.
The King of Naples is neither mare nor less than a
usurper in Sicily. The revolution of 1848 restored to
Sicily its ancient and legitimate Parliamentary Goa ern-
went. - Erdinand of Bourbon recognised that Govern-
ment, and by a decree dated the 6th of March, 1848, he
acoepted the Act fir the convocation of the Parliament,
as it bad been fr framed at the revolution. Afterwards he
refused to agree to this legislation, because he was not
content with the limits assigned to the extcutlie power.
The Parliament found itself compelled to confide this
power to a President cf the Government and to six Mi-
nister,. By another well-known law the Parliament
decreed the downfall of the Bourbons. After the events
of the war in Sicily and the Peninsula, the Parliament
prorogued itself on the 14th April, 1849, without, how-
ever, dissolving itself. Tho same was thy, case with the
executive power, which only retired Ix fore a military
occur ation of the island. Not a soul in Sicily renounced
his political rights.
'The King of Nap'ee, who has never profited by the
lessons of adversity, seems to have preferred; after the
. occupation of Sicily, to remain there as an usurper,
rather than adopt a line of conduct by which a govern-
ment might succeed in legitimatising itself. So far from
respecting the fundamental condition of his dynasty, his
own decree of the 6th of March, 1848, or even that of
February, 1848, which was the result of French and
English mediation; so far from re-assembling the Sici-
lian Parliament, he has insulted Sicily, by instituting in
that country in the place of its old parliament, a consutta,
composed of seven salaried government officials, possess-
ing neither the initiative nor a deliberative voice.
So far from governing according to the laws, he
has only manifested his poster in Sicily, by sentences
of death, arrests en masse, decrees of exile, terror,
and insult. Without any Parliamentary decrees, he has
re-established the tax' upon the grinding of corn, the
stamp duties, and a duty on the exportation of sul-
phur. He has in the most arbitrary manner charged
Sicily with enormous war expenses; be has augmented
its publiC debt to the exclusive advantage of the Naples
treasury; but he has not blushed to ascribe the war debt
to the malappropriations and destructions of the revolu-
tion. I think that no casuist will venture to call a go-
vernment legitimate so vicious in its origin and so de-
testable in its conduct. No one will recognise in its orders
any other value than that of brute force, the right of
brigands and wild beasts.
It is very natural that I should decline a jurisdiction
proceeding from such a government. But however ille-
gitimate in its origin, and, perhaps, inefficacious in its
effect., a sentence which has tbr its pretext the restitu-
tion of public moneys, always conveys an.unplessaetidea
to the public mind. Most certainly lam not the person
to is main silent under such a decree, or to hesitate to
place it in is true light before the public.
The facts which I have mentioned at the beginning of
this letter are sufficient for the proper appreciation of
the decree of the exceptional magistrates in Sicily. It
is only necessary to add that that authority has con-
demned us without summoning us to appear before it—
without listening to a word in our defence, and in my
case, at least, without notifying its decree. I will sup-
pose for a moment that the government of Naples pot-.
sessed the right of undoing all that has been done by
the Parliamentary government of Sicily. Under this
supposition even, it is evident that the ministers of
finance could not be made responsible for an expendi-
diture so explicitly ordered by the Parliament, nor for
the acts cf the commissioners in London, who were not
of their choice, but who were appointed by the president
of the government, assisted by his council of ministers.
Among the causes of this decree there is one which says
that the forwarding of the money from Palermo to
London must be regarded as a commercial *operation,
because it was effected by the ministers of finance. by
means of bills of exchange, and not by sending
cargoes of gold and silver. It is not necessary that I
should exhibit all the odiousness and absurdity of this
reasoning. I may however Call attention to the
injustice of the demand fur the restitution of
all the sums of money sent to London, while
the Neapolitan Government has in its posses-
sion at least one-half of the amount, that is to say, the
steam corvette Indipendenza, with great portion of the
arms, and other munitions of war. But I shall leave to
those who will be compelled to justify themselves before
the judges of the King of Naples the full development of
these arguinents, in order that they may make a full and
complete defence of themselves, and so, perhaps, save
their property from heing impounded by the public
treasury.
For myself, I shall insist only on one argument.
The money which the different ministers of finance in
Sicily forwarded' to London, in order to arm their
country against an enemy who attacked it unjustly, that
money is, I say, the property of Sicily, and not of its
enemy. That money was the produce of extraordinary
resources, created, as I have stated, by the decrees of the
13th April and the 19th May, and by the- loan of De-
cember, 1848. Whatever may remain I f it, whether in
money, ships, or objects of war, neither ought nor can it
be given up to any one but the Sicilian people., or its sole
legitimate representative—the Parliament.
To give up their money or its representatives to any
other power than the Sicilian Parliament, would be aid-
ing or instrumental t') an act of robbery.
Profoundly convinced of this truth, I not only refuse
to submit to the decree, the illegality and injustice of
which I have just shown, but I shall do all in my power
to render it utterly inefficacious.
The Government of Naples wishes to add the steamer
Bombay to its squadron, to increase its magazines by a
few more pieces of artillery, and to add a little more
money to its treasury. Unable to effect any one of these
objects before the Engliah law courts in its own names
because it was not the party sending the money, the
Neapolitan Government has discovered a very simple
means of proceeding against some of the ex-ministers of
finance who possess property in Oicily. It wants 19 Rue

these ex-ministers to prescnt themselves before the
English courts of law as the indorsers of bills of ex-
change, and to demand in their own name the rertitu•
tion of the sums forwarded t0.A151. Gratatelli and
Scalia, and so to procure the money for the Neapolitan
Government in release of their property which is me-
naced with seizure. The Government of Naples would
gain by this mode the advantage of economy in the cost
• f the proceedings, and the astisfaction of scandalising
and disuniting the Sicilian refugees.
I am not aware whether any one of my former col-
leagues is disposed t.) permit himgelf t be led into so
dioastrous a course. I sin ignorant also whe'her in that
ease the English judges would recognise, in the parson
of the complainant., the right of re'densanding, in their
privet, capacity, sums of money belonging to the public
treasury, which, as public functionaries, they had ex.
pendcd for a specific object, and for the public interest;
but, in the one as in the other of these two cases, should
they ever occur, I shall oppose. to the utmost the deli-
very of the money or the articles, supported by the same
right on which my former colleagues would. require it.
I shall endeavour by all possible means to obtain the
!reservation cf these articles as an inviolable deposit at
the disposal of the Sicilrao Parliament, to which they
belong, and which is not 'dissolved. In acting thus I
believe I shall only fulfil my duty, and I hope that it
will not prove too late or uaeleas, for I have faith in the
destiny of Italy, and I see that it has struck with judi-
cial blindness a pore and a king, in order to chain
them to its chariot and carry them forward in its own
career.
Paris, Jan. 20, 1850.

M. AMARL

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.
LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN.
The statement of accounts for the six months ending
31st December last was completed yesterday.
After deducting 167,000/. charged against revenue
for interest, there remains a net profit of 533,000/. on
the traffic of the half-year.
A dividend, after the rate of 6 per cent. per an-
num, would amount to 534,0001., or 1,000/. more
than the entire net profit for the half-year. If a
dividend at the rate of 51 per cent. per annum be
declared, the balance to be carried forward to assit
the June half-year will nct exceed 45,000/. The
balance hitherto carried forward to the Jane account
has been about 70,0001. A dividend at the rate of 5
per cent. per annum would leave a balance of 69,0001.
for the June six mouths.

The balance carried forward by the London and
North-Western Company for the December half-year
has never been less than 70,000/. If, therefore, a
dividend at the rate of 5f per cent. per annum should
be asked for by the shareholders—for we believe the
directors are likely to recommend a 5 per cent. divi-
dend—the probability is, that the next June dividend
would be at the rate of 4i per cent. per annum, un-
less the large increase of traffic which has come upon
the railway since the commencement of the year
should be maintained through the current six months.
—Herald.

LENDS AND BRADFORD RAILWAY...--L BED! Ftn.
13.—T0-day the ordinary half-yearly general niteet-
ing of the above company (which is leased by the
Midland Company, at 10 per cent.) was held at the
White Horse Hotel. John Waddingham, Esq., for-
merly a Midland director, and chairman of the Leeds
and Bradford since Mr. Hudson', resignation, took
the chair. Mr. Best, the solicitor, read the adver-
tisement convening the meeting, and the seal of the
company was then pro forma affixed to the register of
shareholders. The statement of accounts was next
read. The disbursements during the past half-year
were 42,794/. 16s. 3d., which,' being added to the
previous expenditure, made a total of 1,419,607/. Ye. 9d.
The receipts during the half-year were 35,167/.19x. 6d.,
which, added to the previous receipts, made a total of
1,419,396/. 6s. Id. There 'was also a balance due to the
bankers of 211'. Is. Bd. The statement of accounts
having been approved and adopted, the chairman
submitted a proposition for the appointment of a
director in place of himself, as he retired by rotation ;
but if the shareholders thought he could be of any
further service to the company, he should be glad to
continue a member of the board. Mr. Murgatroyd
moved the chairman's re• election, which was seconded
by Mr. John Goodman, and unanimsusly adopted.
Mr. George, one of the retiring directors, was also
re-elected; and Mr. Miles Illingworth was appointed
auditor in the place of Mr. Robert Milligan, who had
declined to act. A dividend for the half-year ending
the 31st of December last, at the rate of a 10s.
(less the income-tax) per share was then declared
payable on the Ist day of March next. The Chair-
man then stated that Mr. John Rhodes bad been
elected a director in the place of Mr. George Hud-
son, M.P , and Mr. William Henry Ripley in place
of Mr. John Rand, who had retired. After a vote of
thanks to the Chairman, the meeting adjourned.
WOLVERNA MI•TON, CHESTER, AND BIR XENIEAD
R AILWA Y.—Yesterday the affairs of this company
came on for winding up before the Master in Chan-
cery Brougham, upon the petition of five of the
shareholders, which set forth that the undertaking
was fur a line between Birmingham and Birkenhead,
with a proposed capital of 1,000,000/., in sop()
shares of 201. each. All the shares were eagerly
taken up, but, owing to the general panic of the
period, only a small amount of money was paid. The
preliminary expenses amounted to 12,000/., and of
this a large amount is now outstanding and unpaid,
and to liquidate it the petitioners have been called
upon at law to pay between 400/. and 500/. each.
The Master proceeded with the first class of contri-
butories, censisting of 100 provisional committee-
men, whose names appeared on the prospectus, and
who were declared liable under the Act
RAILWAY BILLS ON STANDING Oannas.---Tbe
Select Committee of the House of Commons, at their
usual sitting, declared that the standing orders ought
to be dispensed with, and that the parties be per-
mitted to proceed with their respective measures in
the following cases :—Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow,
and Dublin Railway • North Staffordshire and Man.
chester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway ; Mid.
land Great Western Railway of Ireland ; and Dublin
Diindrum, and tathfarnham Railway.

He must have the courage also to remark upon
those errors which their rulurs have apparently corn
mined in former times,' so that the concentrated- Wis-
dom of the land may be the better enabled to avoid
similar mistakes when legislating for the present.and
the future. .
All thir,- it appears, has been well and nobly done
by the Prime Minister of her Most GraciOns Majesty.
On Friday last, in making a declaration to the
House of Commons of the general policy her Ida-
jesty's Government mean to pursue with regard to
the colonies, Lord John Russell called upon the
people of the British empire to regard with attention
the page of past events, and reminded them that
" wherever Englishmen have been sent, or have
chosen to settle, they hen carried with them the
freedom and the institutions of the mother country."
With this landmark as his guide, his Lordship pro-
ceeds to tell our,Legislators that, " whenever you say
political freedom cannot be introduced, you are bound
to show the. reasons for such exemption."
With these data as guide for the policy to be pur-
sued towards our colonies, his Lordship has not hesi-
tated to recal to our recollection Cromwell, " his
high :notion of British power and energy ;"
and here let us pause for a moment to consider, what
is not England'a power and energy now, compared
with what it was then ? Well, indeed, may his
Lordship remark that we ought not " now to be
considering whether we should part with those colo-
nies—whether we should make the connexion looser
—or whether even we should" leave them with lose
means of defence against foreign aggression." And
his Lordship has not dreaded, with this landmark as
his guide, to tell " those persons who have gone the
length of proposing that instead of remaining subject
to her Majesty, the province of Canada should be
annexed to the United States," that "to that pro-
posal the Crown could give nothing but a decided
negative." And his Lordship has firmli but mo-
debtly expressed his trust that "those persons, know-
ing the determined will of the Sovereign of this.
country and of her advisers, not to permit that project
to be carried into effect, will acquiesce in tlwdeci-
Ilion of the Crown."
This trust of his Lordship's will no doubt find an
echo in all true and loyal hearts, and will, there can-
not be a shadow of a doubt, sooner or later give uni-
versal satisfaction throughout her Majesty's North
American dominions. It is true, his Lordship
,has
laid, " I do anticipate with others, that some of the
colonies may so grow in population and wealth that-
they may say ' our strength is sufficient to enable ua
to be independent ( f England;' " but his Lordship
adds, " I do not think that that time is yet approach-
ing." So much for the political affairsof Canada. New
for what his Lordship has said regarding our other
colonies, and to that "question, which ha, been much
agitated, namely, that we should no longer think
it worth while to maintain our colonial empire, I
say," observes his Lordship, "that I consider it to be
our bounden duty to maintain the colonies which
have been placed under our charge. I think
we cannot get rid of the obligation and responsibilities
to govern those colonies for thlir benefit, and I trust
we may be the instruments of improving and civili-
zing those portions of the world in which they are
situated." Thus boldly and ably does his Lordship
meet this much agitated question, and who will gain-
say his Lordship's trust that we may be permitted to
fulfil our appointed destiny ? But to proceed : In the
early part of his Lordship's address a general sketeh
or outline is given of our early colonial policy--its
progress, and of how our present colonial empire stands;
thus we are shown our moral responsibility to retain
all those possessions, their importance in peace as
well as in war for the support of the imperial autho-
rity and the protection of our extended eom-
merce ; and the few following words of his
Lordship will bring this forcibly home to
the door of every Englishman, who " will
admit the value of that commerce which penetrates to
every place of the globe," and to which " many i f
those colonies give harbours and security most useful
in time of peace, and absolutely necessary in time of.
war." Having explained all these matters, his Lord-
ship has had the candour to conf,•ss that "discontent,
and in some places well-fuunded discontent, has
arisen," and has had the courage also to refer to
past
errors as beacons to warn us from those mistakes that
appear in former times to have been so disastrous to
the nation.
" On looking back," says his Lordship, " at the
origin of that unhappy contest, I cannot but think
that it was not a tingle error or a single blunder
which got us into that contest, but a series of repeated
errors and repeated blunders, of a policy asserted
and then retreated from—again asserted, and
then concessions made when they were too
late ; and of obstinacy when it was unrea-
sonable." " I believe," adds his Lordship, " that
it was by such a course we entered into the unhappy
contest with what were at the beginning of it the
loyal provinces of North America." 1 hus are we.
warned by his Lordship to shun a weak and vacillating
course of colonial history—may the nation profit by
the 'advice.
It was not to be supposed that the subject of free
trade, the great commercial novelty of the age, and
the eye of so much consequence to our colonial em-
pire, would be omitted in so important a declaration,
and accordingly we find his Lordship declaring, no
doubt under the impression that the nation has deter-
mined to give this modern system a full and fair trial,
that, " By the repeal, last year, of the navigation law',
I conceive we have entirely put an end to the whole
s 3 stem of commercial monopoly in our colonies.
It is not my purpose to go into the question whether
this new policy is a right or a wrong policy—it has
led at home to questions as to how the colonies are to
be in future managed ; the whole result of what I
have to say is, that whateier discontent has arisen
from a transition painful to the colonies, from a
system of monopoly as regards the colonies to a sys-
tem of free trade, we ought not to attempt to go back
in any respect from that decision."
To conclude, then, we gather from the declaration
put forth by her Majesty's Government—first, that the ,
integrity orthe empire is to 'be maintained ; secondly,
that the liberal commercial colonial policy is not to
he given up ; and, thirdly, that the freedom and the
institutions of Great Britain are to be ex-
tended to all her Majesty's subjecto, in
whatever quarter of the globe they may think pro-
per to reside. There appears to be the three cardinal
points upon which his Lordship has insisted in the
colonial policy to be carried out ; and let us hope
that, as observed by the Right Honourable the Pre-
sident of the Board of Trade, " the calm tone in
which this important question has been discussed is.
an augury of the manner in which colonial matters
will in future be debated." And let us hope that,
looking to the very favourable statistical results set
before the House of Commons by his Lordship,
the public will become every day more and
more aware of the great increase in pope,
lation and in wealth of a large class of colonies under
the dominion of the Crown—and that we shall all
feel more sensibly the . value of those relations altont .
which so- much discession hal taken place, and
ea t dealun*
fortunately, as his Lordship•'obseys,
am
much inves-
tigating into the subject." . .
talked aboutwbi
on to renew at some
" without
Meaning
comments on what is passing around
future periol my
he
colonies,
us regarding some of the .
Believe me to remain, Sir,
Ythsyomouer pep•ersrmonisssi .
Your most obedient humble servant, . .
ROBERT ' CARMICHAEL Sum.
15, Charles-street, Haymarket, Feb. 11.

FIRS IN SOUTHWARK.-Ye sterday afternoon,
shorty before two o'clock, a fire broke out in the pre-
mises belonging to Mr. Wilcoxon, pape--,tainee, situate
in Limt-stroot, Southwark. The flames commenced in
the first floor workshop, a spacious building extending
over three houses, and were caused ai follows;--The
workmen having gone to dinner, they I. ft, a greet quan-
tity of paper on the frames to dry. The draugt,t from
one of the open windows caused one of the lengths to
fall against a I went stove, and it instantly ignited. Tte
flumes then communicated with other pieces of paper,
and the consequence was, that in less than five mintres
the spacious floor presented one immense sheet of flame.
The engines c f the parish, London brigade, sod Wert
of England Company, quickly atteneed and the firemen
happily succeeded in getting the fire out,
but not until
the whole of the stock in trade was destroyed, and the
premises very seriously burned.
MONET INIAALEi.—The premium on gold at Paris is
13 per millet, which, at the English Mint price of 31. 17s.
100. per ounce for standard gold, gives an exchaegy Qf
25.47; and the exchange at Paris en London at short
being 25 47i it follows that gold is 0.02 per cent.
dearer in London than in Paris. By advises from Ham-
burgh the price of .gold is 434 per mark; whieh, at
the English Mint price of 31. 17s. 100. per mice for
standard gold, gives an exchange of 13.91; and the ex-
change at Hamburgh on London at short being 13.11 b
it follows that gold le 0.68 per cent. dearer is Loa.
dos Om