The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-30 00:00:00

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SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
I .FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
• CIIRONICLE.—The sentences, with which a
French King opens his Chambers require much more
and circumspection on the part of his Ministers,
Man those, in which our English Queen addresses her
IT'Aiiiament, demand from the wisdom of Downing-
`street. French parties have been rendered so imps-
rtient by a recess, that they are no sooner marshalled
in each others presence, than they rush to action, not
merely in masses, but in separate squads. And
amidst the diversity and multitude of ambitions, in-
terests, opinions, susceptibilities, during a struggle
which lasts three weeks, there is no knowing what
result an ill-chosen term, an intemperate expression,
or an insidious amendment may lead to. A debate on
the French address has, thus, much dramatic interest.
For, however well enabled one may be to count and
calculate the respective strength of Ministry and
Opposition, there remains still a large space to be
occupied by the chapter of accidents; and the
strongest champion often receives a wound in such
a melie, which sends him maimed and powerless
from the contest. Last year M. Guizot, dangerously
and fiercely menaced, met his enemies boldly, and
with sotnething of defiance. The outcry against him
being his friendship with England, he, instead of de-
nying it, valiantly boasted of an entente cordiale be-
tween the Governments. Although these strong
expressi ms were replaced in the address by weaker
ones, the Ministerialists carried it by only 220 votes
against 190, a majority little calculated to excite
confidence in Ministerial strength. This year the
speech of the King of the French is more circumspect
and cautious, both in the announcement of, and in
the choice of terms announcing, the happy accord
between the two countries. But, independent of the
cavils of opposition, M. Guizot could not this year have
repeated the phrase uttered twelve months back. In
Dec., 18-13, M. Guizot made his Sovereign declare his
hopes and expectations, that the entente cordiale
between France and England would lead to an issue
of events favourable to Spain and to Greece, in both
of which countries monarchy was to strengthen itself
by a respect for the public liberties. Now, really
had his Majesty Louis Philippe been endowed with
the clairvoyance of Alexis, or of the best of the Mes-
meric tribe, he could scarcely have, in 1843, hit upon
expressions so fully and exactly, yet so ironically pro-
phetic of the results, in 1844, of the entente cordiale in
Greece and in Spain. All Europe is by this time
pretty well aware that the triumph of the exclusively
French party, both in Madrid and in Athens, has led
to a suspension of all liberty and all constitution, and
to the substitution of a purely military, despotic,
and sanguinary rule. We blushed for our Govern-
ment at the time, seeing that it allowed itself to be
bound up with French policy in Spain, against
which it should have protested, or from which it
should have at least held aloof. We feared, yet
could scarcely contemplate, the degree of infamy and
disgrace into which those Governments, set up by
French intrigue and guided by French councils, were
likely to fall. But now that this system has attained
its full development of horror and misrule, working
more harm to the cause of constitutional govern-
ment than ever was yet achieved by despot or demo-
crat, we do hope that the English Government will
shake off from itself the odium of being a sharer in
the policy of the French Government. It is too bad,
if, after having been deprived of influence in these
countries, and cheated, politically and commercially,
of lei per, we should at the same time be made to
share in the odium of having joined in or even
silently sanctioned the liberticide and selfish
trickery of the French Government and its agents.
In 1843 M. Guizot boasted loudly of all that he
had achieved in Spain, and contrasted the state of
that country in 1840, when French influence was
null, to its situation in 1844, when French influence was
completely predominant. Most justly did M. Thiers
even then reply to the Minister, that, as far as Spain
was concerned, he saw no room whatever for
congratulation. We must, however, do M. Guizot
the justice to admit, that he seems somewhat stricken
with remorse and shame for what he has done in
Spain. The royal speech, for the first time, makes
no mention of that country, nor of Greece. And the
good understanding between France and England,
which was to have insured the welfare of these young
constitutional countries, is declared to be limited to
their not quarrelling about Morocco or Otaheite. The
French Government, having got up those two causes
of strife for its own glorification, congratulates the
country, that England has not quarrelled with it on
those accounts. The King of the French and M.
Guizot must be allowed, indeed, to have sufficient
skill to push provocation and hostility towards this
country only to that certain point beyond which
they know it will not be borne. And Lord
Aberdeen is the most useful of Ministers to them,
because he stretches this point to the uttermost.
The four first and chief paragraphs of the speech
having been devoted to Morocco and to the relations
with England, it proceeds to dwell on the national
prosperity and the increase of the royal family. In-
deed, with a change of proper names, Sir Robert
Peel or Prosperity Robinson might have written the
last half of the King's speech, to put into our own
Queen's mouth. There is not a word of the right of
search, nor even of the law of public instruction, an-
nounced last year from the throne, though strangled
by faction. It is remarkable how accurately the
purport of the speech was known in the political
circles of Paris several days previous to its being
pronounced. In general the wording of the French
King's speech causes much discussion and difference
in the Cabinet, and excites prolonged debates even
to the very morning of the royal sitting. This
time all was quietly and definitively pre-arranged,
M. Guizot being, as he deserves, uncontrolled leader.
Our correspondent sent us, two days back, a most
correct report of the chief paragraphs of the
speech. The Taininde,s,lnwihtsicphetitiyad
jneositouasny:inakceliun
sge so f
ourit,
saying what he did not say, and of
rcgeoeprtrsreeusseppnoatnidcneagnvitl'of Louis Philippe as having interpolated the
word fletri into the royal speech of last year. Our
correspondent made no such assertion. The word
iletri was introduced into the address, it is well
known, at the royal injunction, which is all our cor-
respondent meant to convey. The said fletrissure of
the Belgrave-square levee gave a spirit and life to the
commencement of the last French session, which is
apparently wanting in this. The war cry is evidently
on the wane. The Right of Search will probably
give rise to more length than vigour of speeches. Mo-
rocco
; and Otaheite is a question so
howes to stir, that we do not see well
taar tte . TIM. Guizot is to beaccused of
s , itis inglorious
can a
ta
boit
e alla g accompli
pi
having sacrificed the influence and diminished the power
of France, then certainly it will not require any great
effort of his oratory to show the contrary most tri-
umphantly. So that against the mere war party, the
mere anti-English cry, M. Guizot is invulnerable.
But if orators, unmaddened by Anglophobia, should
come forward to ask M. Guizot what use he has made
of the power and resources of the great country en-
trusted to him, and should point out the results of M.
Guizot's policy in Spain, and in Greece, and in the
Pacific, we fear it would be but too apparent that the
French Minister, though he has succeeded in pre-
serving peace between great States, has at the same
time been most merciless to the small. No adminis-
tration has been more destructive of liberty in other
countries under French influence than M. Guizot's.
None have spilt more innocent blood, or caused it to
spilt. None have set on foot more intrigues, or prac-
tised more rivalry, or sent forth more petty expedi-
tions—all attended with more disgrace than profit, all
equally narrow in their ends as in their aims. We
doubt if free discussion could ever endow M. Guizot
with Sir R. Peel's sole political virtue—that of being
a safe man. Certainly no effort of political rhetoric
could prove M. Guizot to be a great man.
TIMES.—It is not to a speech from the throne
that the world looks, except in times of great doubt
and difficulty, for an announcement of political novel-
ties, or for the signals of party warfare. A consti-
tutional Sovereign, like the King of a tournament in
older times, rides unarmed, except with his white
truncheon, across the lists, and takes his state apart,
whilst the real combatants in steel and mail are pre-
paring for the encounter ; but, though he take no
part in the fray, he presides over the issues of the
struggle, and at the most critical moment his wand
may turn the fate of the day. It will require all the
habitual ingenuity of our French neighbours to weave
all the usual topics, which may raise a party division
or justify a party speech, into the reply to the neat
and appropriate expression of the sentiments
of the Crown with which King Louis Phi-
lippe opened his Parliament on Thursday last. A
French address has many of the properties of an
Irish echo; and it is inure apt to soar into a
counter-harangue than to subside into the modesty
of a reply. But, in this instance, with the excep-
tion of the treaty with Morocco, which is very happily
disposed of by the words " Peace has been as prompt
as victory," the speech appears to contain no allusion
to the great questions of the session—the Education
Bill, the much-desired grant to the Duke de Nemours,
the state of Spain, or any present negotiations, or

future acts of legislative importance. We should be
ungrateful, however, if we did not acknowledge with
the greatest satisfaction the terms in which the King
speaks, not only of the marks of reciprocal friendship
which he has received from the Queen of England,
but of the manifestations in favour of the long dura-
tion of the general peace, which met his Majesty at
every turn in this country. The visits of a Queen of
England to France and of a King of France to
England, at a time when the malignity and intem-
perance of party warfare had fastened upon our in-
ternational relations, are memorable triumphs of the
personal dignity and good feeling of the two Sovereigns
over all petty causes of jealousy and strife ; and they
will not be without their just effect on the approaching
debate. We have often had occasion to point out the
vices of the system of political discussion practised
in the French assemblies, where the debate is alto-
gether artificial, and got up for the occasion, not
growing out of the importance of the subjects or the
pressure of events. The French Opposition have got
so much in the habit of speaking without any prac-
tical question at all before the Chambers, that their
annual parade of patriotic sentiments has lost all the
spirit and the power of a real political demonstration.
Nobody doubts the sincerity of their zeal to turn out
the Government ; but it is unfortunate that they have
not hit upon a single specific measure of improve-
ment, or even of a popular character, to which they
can attach their efforts, and for which they may
claim the efficient support of the interests and opinions
of the country. Such an Opposition as this is has
all along been treated by the Government with far
more respect than it deserved. It has always proved
powerless, often insecure. If it had come into office,
it would have copied M. Guizot, except in those par-
ticulars in which M. Guizot has so demeaned himself
as to copy the Opposition. Every concession he has
made to them, every modification of his own palicy and
genuine intentions which he has attempted to justify
by his inability to do better, has turned out ill. For
acts of this kind were acts which the Opposition itself,
if in power, would not have attempted. Their grand
object appears to have been to mislead him, like a tra-
veller in a fog, by false cries ; and, not infrequently,
he has thought it safer to trust to the good feeling of
his allies than to the good sense of France. But
these deviations from the wonted severity of his course
have always led to inconvenience, even more at home
than abroad ; and we are convinced that if he had
always shown a firmer determination to fulfil his
whole policy, especially towards this country, be
would have stood considerably higher than he does at
present; and he would not have left it to others, his
opponents, to boast that in their hands the alliance
with England would become more secure and more
productive than in his own. As far as the party com-
binations of the Chamber of Deputies are concerned,
the French Cabinet runs no risk. The old questions of
right of search and the like will be dressed up for the de-
bate ; but, like the painted forts and dragon-banners of
the Chinese, they were always unreal, and they are now
tattered and threadbare. Great questions gain by
successive discussions; false ones expire. The
soundest part of the Liberal party which acts with
M. de Tocqueville and M. Odillon Barrot have
severed themselves from M. Thiers, and they will be
joined in their campaign by the knight-errantry of
M. de Lamartine, whose ardour to attack the nominal
head of the Opposition exceeds even his desire to
overturn the head of the Administration. But, as
affecting the great practical questions of the distribu-
tion of power and the government of the country, all
these are outward feints, flourishes, and pretences.
The duration of the Administration turns, in reality,
on a much smaller point—a point so small, indeed,
that we know not in what corner of the reign
of George 111. or George 11. we can find an analo-
gous case. Wbilst the political horseriders and
scaramouches artskinnishing round the ring, their
master has his pi pee in the centre. The royal will
is fixed upon a sin gig object, with the tenacity and
with far more thj the ingenuity of George 111.
It is a peculiarity of-the mind and character of the
King of the French to make great questions ancillary
to small ones. The peace of Europe and the pros-
perity of France are no doubt the honour of his
reign ; but one might imagine that the chief object
of that reign was to obtain a paltry grant for the
Duke de Nemours. Whoever can engage to carry
that grant may be Prime Minister of France to-mor-
row. Already, on the question of the choice of a
President for the Chamber of Deputies, the King and
the Journal des Debuts support M. Dupin, whilst the
Ministry adheres, more from private regard than
public gratitude, to M. Sauzet. What can be the
reason ? A very slender one. M. Dupin is said to
have dropped his resistance to the dotation project ;
and, if that be true, his assistance will be invaluable
in carrying it through the Chamber. Louis Philippe
may say with Bishop Phillpotts on a recent occasion
—"Paradoxical as it may sound, I rejoice that the
battle is to be fought for these trifles." The more
contemptible is the object in view, the more absolute
is that power, the more crafty is the skill, which can
accomplish it in the teeth of the whole nation.
At such times as these, with an attempt on
the one hand to exasperate and delude the public
mind against the best foreign ally of France, and a
preconceived resolution on the part of the Crown to
risk so much in order to gain so little, the path of a
French statesman is neither straight nor smooth.
But the more necessary it is for the man who stands
at the head of affairs in that country to defy calumny,
and to crush intrigue by the whole weight of his per-
sonal dignity, and a firm adherence to his political
principles. His antagonists may hope to clamber
into office by promising what he could not do but
they would remain there only by completing what he
has left undone. For the real interests of our own
country and of our relations with France, it is now
of comparatively small importance who may hold
office there ; for almost all parties seem agreed that
our good will is more desirable than our enmity, and
the politicians who have talked loudest of war in
Opposition, would be equally strenuous partisans of
peace when in power. But a Government brought
in by such means would inspire no confidence at
home or respect abroad. It would owe its hybrid
existence to a popular delusion crossed by a royal
intrigue, and we confidently anticipate that the des-
tinies of France will not be transferred from the hands
of those who have now governed them for more than
four years.
POST.—The political " understanding" between
Great Britain and the Court of Rome, for ecclesiasti-
cal and general purposes, to which we alluded yester-
day, has already become a topic of no small alarm
among the fiercely radical body of the Mayaooth
priesthood in Ireland. Hints are already muttered
of throwing off allegiance to the Pope, and to this
extremity we doubt not the Irish priests might come.
They could soon make a Pope of their own. Nay,
the mitred brawler of Tuam is almost ready-made
to their hand, and very much suited, in all reflects,
to their taste. The organ of the Romish priests in
the metropolis of the south of Ireland, exclaims, in
alarm :—" It is more than a rumour that Rome and
England are now forming an alliance, by which the
former is to give into the hands of the latter power
over the Irish Church. On this subject we shall not
dwell. It is startling as painful, and reflects no
honour either on the policy of the Court of Rome, or
on the Government of England. It would be s base
betrayal of a faithful fold on the one hand ; and a
mean, underhand, poi fidious, but characteristic scnetne
on the other. To be sure, the question—one full of
imminent peril to our beleaguered Church, and our
endangered liberties—would arise, whether the clergy
and people of Ireland would obey the delegated autho-
rity, or acknowledge the right of Rome to makeover
the spiritual obedience of the Catholic clergy and laity
of Ireland to the temporal power of a Protestant Go-
vernment. Should such a crisis a. ise, this question must
come on for future discussion, and is only adverted to
now to give the reader some notion of the many meshes
which the hostile Anti-Catholic and Anti-Irish spirit
of our hereditary and still-envenomed oppressor
is preparing to enfold our Church and enslave our
own people." There is nothing new in the doubt ex-
pressed in the above extract, whether the Romish
Church in Ireland would obey the see of Rome, if
that see should withdraw its countenance from the
dominating policy which the Maynooth clergy have
ever aimed at. That threat of separation has been
said to have operated more than once upon the policy
of the Vatican, and unless some new agent be at
work, of which Lord Aberdeen and the Pope know
more than we do, it may very possibly operate again.
Rome would not willingly lose such a province as
Ireland, and how she is to retain it, except by giving
way to the will of her Hibernian subjects, does not
very clearly appear. To yield, for the sake of go-
verning, has been her policy for the last twenty years
in respect to Ireland. The Charitable Bequests Act,
and the arrangements made with certain members of
the Irish Romanist hierarchy, to act under Govern-
ment appointment in carrying its provisions into effect,
is the cause of the present clamour. The Church of
England has quietly enough submitted to place
some of its most important interests in the
hands of Commissioners to be appointed by
the Civil Government, but the Romish Church in

Ireland cannot so easily brook such interference :
"In the first place, it places the nomination of com-
missioners entirely in the hands of the existing Go-
vernment, whether they be Whigs or Tories, pre-
tended favourers of Catholic claims, or open and
avowed antagonists of a Church which is pronounced
by law, as by their favoured organs, idolatrous in its
tenets and in its practices. If it he their will, at any
moment, they can turn the three present Bishops
adrift, and appoint in their place three pliant tools
fitted for the worst purposes of corruption or tyranny.
Suppose the Act good—that it did not revive the
penal spirit of the Relief (!) Bill—that it did not out-
law an exemplary, useful body of men and citizens—
that, in fine, it was unexceptionable in all its remain-
, ing clauses—still, it is dangerous in the power of
nomination by the Government, and the facility of
removal at will. The second section does provide
that five, and not more than five, shall at all times
be persons professing the Roman Catholic religion.'
Why not say that three of the five shall at all times
be Archbishops or Bishops of the Catholic Church ?
Oh, no! professing Catholics, who have a religion to
sell, are far more valuable to an English, Protestant
Government than Bishops who have a Church to
guard, and a people to defend." Such sentiments
from the organ of the Romish priests in the south of
Ireland show very clearly how much has been done
by " concession" to reconcile these persons to the
sway of an "English Protestant Government." The
storm, however, is but in its beginning. Unless the
discipline belonging to the Romish system shall pre-
vent it, we must have, ere long, a hurricane of agita-
tion in the Hiberno-Romish Church.
GLOBE.—In the United States, as in England,
there is more uncertainty than usual, as to what the
new year will bring forth. Great changes seem to
be impending in the commercial policy of both coun-
tries, but their indications are yet extremely vague.
This is especially apparent in America. Every paper
in the Union presents us with a different opinion,
not only of what the President elect means to
do, but of his ability to do it. His position is,
in some respects, not unlike that of Sir Robert
Peel in 1841. It is pretty clear that a few
months will put him and his party in power. He is
about to take office upon the understanding that his
policy will differ materially from that of his prede-
cessor. Yot what is to follow, no man ventures to
predict, with even the appearance of confidence,
and no two men predict alike. Polk and Peel
are alike inscrutable. No art could reach the
designs of Sir Robert—no cunning in a strategy,
no bitterness of taunt, availed to obtain a glance
at the prescription, till the physician was regu-
larly installed, and the fee paid. He could not
be either driven or wheeled into depriving his mea-
sures of what power they might derive from their
novelty when brought forward for application. Mr.
Polk has taken a similar course ; and there is a real
resemblance in the two cases which seems to justify
the imitation, if it be one. When the elevation of
a man to responsible office is already determined,
any particular declaration of his policy is often un-
necessary ; it always operates as a tie, and, under
ordinary circumstances, can purchase nothing.
Even in the present positions of these two statesmen
there is enough to continue the resemblance. A dis-
cussion of the expediency of continuing the income-
tax, with its inevitable pendant, a discussion of our
tariff, is looked forward to as certain in the approach-
ing session. And everybody expects that a modifica-
tion of the United States tariff will be one of the first
measures of their new Government. There is now no
room to doubt, that if either tariff be touched, it must
be for the purpose of making a further application of
the principles of free trade. So far, all is as clear as
political anticipations well can be. We see the chart,
and our probable course upon it, but (in both cases)
the man at the helm persists in keeping his mouth
shut ! Shrewd politicians, desirous of trimming
their sails to the coming breeze, congregate around
Mr. Polk, but can gather no indication of the quarter
it is to blow from. He meets and wards off' their
well-meant thrusts at his internal man with a cool,
unvarying, and impenetrable " politeness" in the ex-
ternal ; and they retire to spread, not reports of what
Mr. Polk says and intends, but rumours that he is
turning out a much cleverer fellow than anybody ex •
pected. In the heat of the recent contest he was called
a " Repudiator." Now few seem inclined to say
more on this point than that he is not disposed to ha-
zard the existence of the Union in a desperate attempt
by the federal Government to coerce the delinquent
States. Even the slavery question is admitted to stand
upon very similar ground. A secession from the
Union, of the States implicated in slavery, would
undoubtedly ensue, were the question now raised
and pushed to extremities. The particular evil would
not be lessened, but another, of incalculable import-
ance to America, would be created—the substitution,
as to two great sections of the Union, of division and
weakness for union and strength, would be unavoid-
able. On the tariff, but one course seems open.
Yet, there are grave obstacles to that. Mr. Cal-
houn's opinions cannot fail to have considerable
weight, and it is well known that liberal prin-
ciples of commercial intercourse between nations
never had a stauncher or more consistent
advocate : but even in the United States there
is an anti-free-trade party, and that of no contempti-
ble strength. In this country, public opinion already
shows a tendency to favour the retention of
the income-tax, provided it can be made the
basis of corresponding relief from taxation in other
and still more oppressive forms. The Customs'
duty on raw cotton, the Excise on paper, and
the Assessed Tax on windows, are already
put prominently forward for reduction or repeal ;
and as the time for action draws near, we may
expect that other taxes will find their especial foes—
and that " proviacial Chancellors of the Exchequer"
will again incuraber the facile Premier with their aid,
and draw down the mild thunders of the Treasury
Bench. All this, however, while the oracle is silent,
will only thicken the fog in the political world.
England and America, then, are now in the hands
of men who have at least the ability to keep their
own counsel ; and to both it does a double service : it
makes what power they possess more effective, and
leads people to think them much wiser than they are.
It is not impossible that the coincidence marks the
commencement of a new era of statesmanship—in
which taciturnity and mediocrity is to do the work of
eloquence and wit. Were there a fair prospect of the
work being better done, we should have nothing to
object to the change. But this, as yet, is sadly wanting.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS JF SATURDAY.

CITY, FRIDAY EVENING.

lIERALD.—Money continues in great abundance in
proportion to the demand, and first, and even a good
deal of what is usually considered second-class paper,
is discounted daily below the Bank of England rate.
The consequence is, that all descriptions of solid secu-
rities are buoyant, and, as customary in such a state
of things, speculators take the advantage, and extend
the stimulus to many that have no solid foundation
whatever.

TIMES.—We have received a communication from
Messrs. Rogers, Olding, Co., stating that the night fol-
lowing the robbery committed on their premises, Mr.
nobler dispatched his principal clerk to the Continent,
to stop the circulation of the stolen notes, and that that
gentleman has just returned, after having visited the
chief commerciaT cities of France, Belgium, Holland, and
Germany, in all of which the various bankers, money-
changers, tavern-keepers, and traders have been served
with notices, le gaily authenticated, so as to render any
one of them " who,, as it is said, "might unfortunately
change a note " personally liable for the loss of the
amount. Thecommunication
concludes
a s
tb
theeen British bryead adding—
" readily
Con-
sulates
dyi n
ag 1—
" Independent
and
assistanceto wn o
d
extensively givQ,n in furtherance of the object." The
gentleman who undertook this task must have had a
police
of
c e thin,
of the
each
very arduous dirty to perform, and the only wonder is,
how, in the course of so short a time, he was able to
surmount all difficulties, and get the entire communities
of the places he visited so securely within the grasp of
the law as the statement above alluded to would lead us
to suppose. It; therefore appears that no clue to the
robbery or the disposal of the proceeds has at present
been traced. One thing is commonly noticed in respect
to this matter, which has afforded much room for com-
ment, and that iv, that little or nothing is heard of the
activity of the Forresters in the business.
Annexed are same remarks made by a correspondent
on the new Royal Exchange, which, as they refer t.) an
inconvenience capable of a very simple and easy remedy,
will no doubt h aye attention paid to them :
" On a visit .to the Royal Exchange I was astonished
to find the entrances were without doors, and that a
sharp current of air must be produced even on a calm
day.

" It is true the. old building had four entrances in the
saint) position, but they were protected by doors, which
were occasionally shut, and Sweeting's-alley and Castle-
court have vanished into open space.
" Pray call the attention of the authorities and the
public to this evil, and I am sure its cure will save the
lives of many."
. . .

The returns of the circulation of the private and joint-
stock banks in England and Wales for the four weeks
ending N0v.16, 23, and 30, and Dec. 7, -as published in the
Gazettes, when added together, form th© aggregate cir-

Total below the fixed issue .£1.132,736
A few banks have made arrangements for issuing
Bank of England notes since the publication of their
fixed issue in the Gazettes, and this causes the fixed
amount as quoted monthly in the Bankers' Magazine to
be somewhat under the limit above stated.
CHRONICLE.—An opinion is entertained amongst
those interested in the preposed lines of railway, that the
Government intends te issue a Crown commission, for
the purpose of instituting en investigation, by commis
sioners possessed of "adequate practical knowledge of rail-
way science, into the merits of each line, including the
probable cost of construction, taking into view the loca-
lities through which they would pass, the public advan-
tages which would result from their formation, the in-
fluence which they would produce on capital invested In
the competing lines, the reduction in fares, and all rela-
tive contingencies. The adoption of such a step would be
tantamount to a supersedence of the functions of the Rail-
way Department of the Board of Trade, and would be
attended:with an inconvenient delay and suspension of
railway business in Parliament, as the various Commit-
tees, to whom the immense mass of applications for new
lines must be ref. rred, could not usefully proceed
with their labours until such time as the report of
the supposed commissien was placed before them.
The appointment of such a commission has,
probably, been sue gested by the apprehensions
entertained respecting the fitness and qualifications
of the gentlemen forming the railway department of the
Board of Trade, to discharge with efficiency the im-
portant duties confided to them. The reasons which
have caused so much anxiety in the public mind on this
subject are now familiar to those interested. As they
do nut take due evidence, nor can be supposed to have
examined personally the districts through which the new
lines are to be made, it is to be feared that a report
emanating from such sources cannot be the groundwork
fur solid and impartial legislation. These objections are
not without weight. A report from the Board of Trade
hostile to any of the numerous competing lines, either
as respects the sufficiency of the estimates, the engineering
difficulties or other points, adopted without personal exa-
mination, and based upon no other evidence than the plans
and sections, or other voluntary information given by its
promoters, may be attended with much injustice. A fa-
vourable report upon any particular line, grounded upon
such incomplete materials, may be also equally unjust,
and it is net enough to know that such injustice or de-
fects in the report of the Board of Trade may be reme-
died before a Committee of the House of Commons. The
parties concerned have that tribunal open to them, it
is true, but they would appear before it in a disabled
state, and would incur much labour and expense in re •
covering their position. But the railway department of
the Board of Trade are, no doubt, perfectly aware of all
this, and will make it their study to avoid any statement
in their report which is not based upon corroborative
facts. They must set forth in the preamble of their
report, or in an appendix, a succinct account of the data
on which it is drawn up, and should it appear that their
conclusions are net warranted by the premises, full oppor-
tunity will be afforded to those who may have reason to
complain, to take steps in order to get the obnoxious
passages expunged.
It would be premature to condemn the powers granted
to the Board of Trade with respect to railways,
before we have seen how they perform their work.
That they are entrusted with extraordinary powers,
and that immense interests are involved in the stakes
which they have in their hands, is a truth well known,
and must have impressed those who hold the scales with
ad e
office.
e p s eTahs
ee
rof the
e judgingtsi
sei • es e
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hea
sei reson ponsibility
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stain
fully
ext cute the duties entrusted to their keeping. If no such
tribunal had been established, had no preliminary forms,
at least in the shape of provisional registration and de-
posits on shares, been enforced by Parliament, it is very
plain that, during the prevailing thirst for speculation
which has existed for seme time past, multitudes of vi-
sionary schemes and bubble companies would have been
set on foot, and a monetary crisis, accompanied by the
usual disastrousrevulsions, would have been experienced,
which has been prevented • and for this escape from
panic the public is much indebted to the stringent action
of the Legislature, through the authority assigned to the
Board of Trade in the last session of Parliament.
OBSERVER.—The commencement of the year 1845
will be marked by a state of things which, in all proba-
bility, will tend to advance the best interests of Great
Britain. Among the commercial, as well as the mone-
tary and other trading classes, not only of the metropolis,
but also of Liverpool, Bristol, and other principal dis-
tricts of the country, a degree of confidence exists wholly
unprecedented for, at least, a quarter of a century. The
National Securities are advancing, though within the
last ten years very nearly a hundred millions of capital
has been invested in home and foreign railways. Mer-
cantile pursuits are now followed with an avidity quite
refreshing to those interested, when compared with the
lassitude and indecision which, to a greater or lesser
extent, has existed since the " monster" panic of 1824-5.
As stated on many previous occasions of late, the brokers
find it difficult to obtain Stock that they have been in-
structed to buy for their clients. The almost daily in-
vestments by the Commissioners for the savings-banks,
and on other accounts nearly drain the market of sup-
plies. They take now principally the New Three-and-
a-Quarter per Cents., and the consequence is that a value
equal to 31 per cent, above par has been paid for this
new security. A most important fact is this in strength-
ening the opinion that the Finance Minister will make
another and successful move towards further reducing
the interest of a portion of the Public Debt. Since the
commencement of the year, the improvement in the
Three per Cents. has been about 4f per cent., and in the
Three-and-a-Half per Cents. (now Three-and-a-Quarter
per Cents.) 3 per cent., while Bank Stock has risen full
25 per cent.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.
PORTSMOUTH, Duc. 27.—The Lily, 16, was commis-
sioned on Monday by Commander C. J. F. Newton.
The Locust steam-vessel was commissioned by Lieute-
nant Henry Eden (1837) on Tuesday.
The Siren, 16, was dismasted on Tuesday, having been
paid off._

The Comet steam-vessel, Lieut.-Commander Pretty-
man, returned on Wednesday from Chatham.
The Lightning steam-vessel, Master-Commander Ro-
berts, arrived from Sheerness on Wednesday, with ma-
rines from the Queen and Hornet, belonging to the Ports •
mouth division.

The Aron Royal Mail (West India) steamer, docked
on Monday for repair, was found to require none, and
consequently she left the dock on Tuesday, and pro-
ceeded to Southampton on Thursday.
The Emerald tender, which proceeded to Devonport
on Saturday, with supernumeraries for the vessels fitting
out there, returned on Wednesday.
The Mercury tender returned from the relief of the
wind-bound vessels in the Channel on Thursday.
The Lightning steam-vessel, Master-Commander W.
Roberts, left last evening for Devonport, with upwards
of seventy supernumeraries for the ships fitting out at
Chatham and Sheerness. They were chiefly newly-
entered hands.

The royal yacht Victoria and Albert is ordered to be
paid off immediately. When re-commissioned she will
only have one lieutenant. The Nautilus, tender to the
yacht, is also to be paid off.
The Vindictive, 50, is ordered to be fitted for sea ser-
vice immediately. The orders arrived yesterday. She
will be fitted for a flag.
In Harbour—The Victory, Excellent, Victorieuse (flag
hulk), Nautilus (tender), Sparrow (ketch), the Comet,
Echo, Dwarf, and Fearless (steam-vessels), Lily and
Diligence (naval transports).
In Dock—The St. Vincent, Prince Regent,
Victoria
and Albert, Vengeance, and Athol.
In the Basin—The Neptune, Alagicienne, and Locust.
CHATHAM, DEC. 27.—The Rolla, 10 guns, is ordered
to be immediately fitted for commissioning.
The Pearl, 18 guns, was put out of dock on Thursday,
the 26th inst.; and till! Fantome, 16 guns, Commander
Sir Frederick Nicholson, taken in to clean her bottom.
She will go out again in a day or two, when the Comus,
20 guns, Commander Thomas Spark Thompson, will be
taken into dock for the same purpose.
The Retribution steam-frigate, ordered to arrive at
Chatham to be fitted for service on Saturday next, the
28th inst., will not arrive, on account of the contractor
not having completed her engines.
The Eagle, 50 guns, Csptain G. B. Martin, is still in
dock fitting, and fast progressing in her equipment.
The Janus steam-vess,-1 is still in dock fitting. Ship-
wrights, engineers, and boiler-makers, are all actively
employed in completing this extraordinary vessel for.
el vice.

Accounts have been received of the death of Mr
Scales, postmaster of Hong-Kong.

SCILLY.—On TliurmiLly, the 19th instant, the
schooner Amy, Johnson, cf Ipswich, from Liverpool,
with a cargo of salt, in riitering the harbour of New
Grimsby, struck on a :,unkun rock, and before she could
be got into the harbour, was obliged td run ashore on
the rocks where she filled with water, and the salt in a
few tides was entirely dissolved. The vessel, which has
since been got off and brought in, has received consider •
able damage, particulyrs of which are not yet precisely
known. We have now nearly a hundred sail of vessels,
in the different harbours, the masters of which, particu-.
larly those from foreign parts, loudly complain of oar
want of a regular post communication with the mainland,
being anxious to advise" their owners, consignees, and
friends, of their arrival thus far on their passage home.
Webt Briton.