The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-12 00:00:00

SUMMARY OF NEWS

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tittbitt Optutost.

" Who runs may read."

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Accounts from Stockholm, four days later than those pub-
lished in The Sun of Tuesday, state that no hopes are enter-
tained of the King's recovery. The disease under which he
labours is said to be apoplexy.
On Tuesday, the King of the French, accompanied by Ge-
nerals Gourgaud, Friant, and two orderly officers, proceeded
to St. Cloud at two o'clock, and returned to the Tuileries for
dinner.

The Bureaux of the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday
continued their examination of the budget_ M. Allard read
to the Petition Committee his report on the petitions relating
to the Fortifications, in which he speaks in favour of con-
tinuing the works.
A Commission has just been appointed by the French Go-
vernment to draw up the Bill which is to be presented this
session to the Chambers, for carrying into effect the general
regulations now acted on relative to the fisheries between the
coasts of France and Great Britain. The members of the
Commission are M. Lange, the Commissary-General of
Marine, who has been employed at London in negotiating
these regulations ; M. de Lavergne, Master of Requests ; M.
Meillerat, Director of Criminal Proceedings in the Ministry
of Justice, and M. Paravey, Master of Requests.
The eighth Chamber of Correctional Police, on Wednesday,
was occupied with a case cf libel, in which M. Jules Janin,
the well-known critic, was plaintiff, and MM. Pyat and
Grandmenil defendants. The article complained of was
written by M. Pyat, in the Reforme, of which M. Grandmenil
is the responsible editor, in answer to a severe critique from
the pen of the plaintiff, on the character and writings of
Chenier, the poet. The Court, after having heard counsel on
-both sides, declared the complaint to be well founded against
both the defendants, and sentenced Pyat to six months' im-
prisonment and 1,060 f. fine, and Grandmenil to one month's
imprisonment and 3,000 f. fine. It condemned the defendants,
in addition, to pay the costs.
The mortal remains of Marshal Drouet d'Erlon, which
were temporarily placed in the church of the Invalides, have
been removed to Rheims, where they are to be interred.
The Belgian Chamber of Representatives have passed,
almost without a dissentient voice, a Bill for calling in the
old silver coin of Belgium.
A letter from St. Petersburgh, 27th ult., in the Augsburgh
Gazette, confirms the intelligence of a victory being gained
by the Russian troops, under General Fregtag, in the Cau-
casus, and states that 6,000 Circassians were either killed or
taken prisoners.

A leiter from Constantinople, 16th ult., states that for the
two previous days the weather had been most tempestuous,
and that rain, sleet, and snow fell, almost without intermis-
sion. A coasting vessel laden with flour had gone down near
Arnaouthkeny, and out of thirty persons on board, twenty-
four had perished, the other six being picked up by the boat
of a trading vessel.

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Advertiser of Saturday observes :—" The modera-
tion in language and sentiment adopted at the great meeting
of English Catholics on Wednesday, may be justified by
policy, but is unquestionably unequal to the insult which
the whole body of their faith have received from Govern-
ment at the hands of the Crown prosecutors in Ireland. As
'a gross violation of the principle of the Emancipation Act,
which no circumstance in their conduct warrants, could a
violation of a legislative engagement be sanctioned at all,
the circumstances under which the traversers are tried, de-
manded something more than a cool expression of disapproba-
tion. It is not merely the rights of a section of the people that
are now invaded, their integrity as Christians denied, and their
honour as men and citizens outraged ; but an entire people are
emphatically pronounced incapable of discharging an ordinary
trust, when it involves a political opinion. By imputation the
Irish Protestant is as grossly maligned as the Catholic; for,
by packing the jury in the manner which has been wit-
nessed, it is declared that no reliance can be placed upon the
oaths of either; and that if the Catholic would perjure him-
self to defeat the prosecution, the Protestant is equally ready
to gratify it at the expense of his religion and conscience.
No explanation can be offered of. the rejection of the jury
list, which is not founded on one or other of these • atrocious
calumnies, unless it be derived from a motive that reflects
immeasurable disgrace on the Irish Government."
The following is from the Chronicle :—" We published on
Thursday a report of a meeting of English Roman Catholics,
summoned by requisition to protest against the insult offered
to their body by the Irish law officers of the Government in
striking the jury for the State trials. This manifestation of
opinion gives a distinct and emphatic negative to the asser-
tion, that the indignation so loudly and generally expressed
in Ireland at the exclusion of the Roman Catholics is a mere
artifice of the Repeal party to discredit the jury. Sir Robert
Peel would, we have very little doubt, be heartily glad to be-
lieve that this assertion was well-founded ; but we are equally
certain that he knows it to be a fiction devised by his sup-
porters to cover what is now felt to be a real and most mis-
chievous blunder, and one which will seriously embarrass
him in the House of Commons. The speakers at the meet-
ing to which we have referred appeared to be animated by
one common feeling of indignation at a proceeding which
virtually declared them, as Roman Catholics, unfit to be
trusted on their oaths to adjudicate between the subject and
the Crown."

The Times remarks, in reference to the state of affairs in
Sinde :—" It cannot be denied that up to the present moment
Sir Charles Napier has been almost as successful as Sir John
Keene ; but the future is not wholly couleur de rose. Scarcely
ever, perhaps, *ince the days of Senacherib, if the late ac-
counts are to be trusted, has an army lying in peace in its tents
experienced the sweeping losses of our Sindian detachments.
In the utterly helpless state to which some of them are said
to be reduced, it rests with our relentless enemies and double-
dealing friends to cut them in pieces or pot, as they please.
Disease appears to have done already the greater part of the
work; let us hope the Beloochee swordsmen will not take in
hand the rest. Meanwhile, we have to ask how is the country
to be kept in order for the future ? Is the same tremendous loss
to be hazarded every year in this confessedly pestilential
country ? And if so, where are the lives to come from which
are thus to be thrown away? It will be difficult, and not
without danger, to procure a constant supply of Sepoys for
the purpose. Our Indian army is faithful and enduring;
but it has sometimes shown that there are limits to its
fidelity and endurance, which it is more than hazardous to
pass. Or, Spartan-like, are we to keep the country in order
by annual invasions during the cold season to punish the ex •
cesses which have been committed in the hot? Or must
.our troops, after all, retire from the country ? No course
appears wholly without its difficulty. We are glad that it
does not fall upon us to choose between them.

The Herald' thus refers to the recent debate on Sinde in the
Commons :—" The friends and supporters of Lord Ellen-
borough have every reason to be satisfied with the result of
the debate on Sinde, for not even the leaders of the Opposi-
tion would join in the vote of censure on his policy involved
in Lord Ashley's resolution ; and the only sound uttered by
them against his Lordship was a sneering" hear, hear," from
Lord Palmerston. This abstinence is the more remarkable
and conclusive when we recollect the torrents of misrepre-
sentation, reproach, and censure, let loose through the
Opposition press on Lord Ellenborough—how he
was charged with ensnaring the late Aineers of
Sinde to their ruin—how he was accused of a
premeditated design not to be satisfied with any concession
they might make—how he was impeached of more than
Oriental duplicity, treachery, and tyranny. And now that
the opportUnity has iren given the Whig chiefs of reite-
rating calumnies and absurdities such as these, of en-
dorsing the case of the organs supposed to reflect their
opinions, they are silent as to them—not a single man in
the House of Commons has the hardihood even to hint at
them. Sir John Hobhouse protests against Parliament in-
terfering with the government of India; and Lord John
Russell only saves himself from the necessity of applauding
Lord Ellenborough, by pleading that he had not yet made
himself master of the papers laid before Parliament."