The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY MORNINS, SEPTEMBER 5, 1844

semi-barbarism of the party whom we had inter-
fered to rescue from an unmanly and disgraceful
aggression—these are elements that do not at all ne-
cessarily extend into the consideration of a subsequent
affront to our national honour. The Morning Herald
finds no more striking anology to illustrate
its notion of the absurdity of England and France
beink betrayed into a rupture about so worthless a
matter, than "two Patagonians, fighting for a sea-calf,
claiming each of them the belligerent support of
eitiserpower." Whether, in this lively figure, Queen
PaIIARN or Mr. Consul PRITCHARD is to be taken for
the type of a sea-calf, as many a profound writer is
every day for that of a land-calf, we do not under-
stand ; but it is a figure quite inapplicable, unless it
could be shown that the misunderstanding between
England and France are about the property or possess-
sion of Otaheite itself. Diplomatic functions and
relations might have been equally violated on the high
seas—in the Consular-office—at a public festival—
even in a public theatre. Is the Herald prepared to
say there has been no violation of them in Mr.
PRITCHARD'S case ? Sir ROB UT PENL has:declared
the conduct of the French authorities to have
amounted to a " gross outrage." Is the simple cen-
sure or suspension of D'AUDIGNY or BRUAT to be
taken as an acquittance in full for, first, the imprison-
ment, and secondly, the expulsion of Mr. PRITCHARD?
This facility on our part will vastly enhance the im-
portance and influence of our consular agents in times
to come !

But, perhaps France is disposed to make us amends
by signalizing her forbearance and respect in other
quarters. We have old-standing relations of amity
and good-will with the Emperor of MOROCCO. She
invades his territories from her Algerine frontier,
under the pretext of their having afforded an asylum
to a very gallant native chieftain, who had long suc-
cessfully resisted her occupation of Algeria, and se-
verely chastised the French forces which had pushed
far and wide their campaign of wanton desolation and
extirpation, by fire and sword, over an independent
country of Africa. That country France had so-
lemnly pledged herself, in the face of all Europe, not
to occupy. That pledge she subsequently falsified,
with a degree of political effrontery almost un-
matched in the history of her monarchy. Was the
_Emperor of Moaocco—still an independent SOVE.•
REIGN—to refuse the asylum of his dominions to the
valiant ADD-EL-KADER ? The French insist on
satisfaction for his harbouring that chieftain, com-
plain that he is in communication with him, and de-
mand his expulsion from the empire. In the course
of the events which rapidly ensue on the occupation
of Ouchda, they bombard Tangiers, and inflict the
same punishment on Mogadore. With both Tangiers
and Mogadore we had. commercial relations ; exten-
sive ones with the latter. The bombardment is
inflicted in the presence of a fractional representation
of the British navy, with circumstances of very sig-
nificant application ; and our fractional force, acting
under orders, looks idly on at these vain but destruc-
tive demonstrations of European artillery, on the
towns and fortresses of our African ally. Instantly
L','se press ofFrance—Monarchical, Republican, Move-
ment znarty, one and all—teems with insulting sarcasms
at our p •tie t passiveness; with fierce gasconades
about the co.7ling hour of French naval su-
premacy, and undisguised clamours for a
war with England, on the avowed ground of
our weakness and deficient,
7 in that naval arm which
was once the terror of the wo;.ld. The National, in
its overboiling zeal, commits, to faC sure, the ludi-
crous error of treating four of our ne;"est and most
formidable line-of-battle ships, which have not yet
been out of harbour,4 but are " advance ships and
ready for sea," as " old hulks, formidable only
in the names of Trafalgar, Waterloo, Le Foudroys
ant, Vengeance." But the animus of all this is plain
enough. Our neighbours draw their own moral from
the unaccustomed and undignified spectacle our
Mediterranean unity squadron has lately presented.
Let us not imitate them by seeking consolation in
vain words. Ridiculous as their vaunting may be
there is too much of truth in their depreciating esti-
mate of our naval force. Not the Mediterranean or
Levant squadron alone, whether cruising in that sea,
or running down the western or Atlantic coast of
the line, in com-- rns-ilass:fapmfk.ie_n_t
,force of ships. )f..
inexcusably reduced, and utterly disproportionate to
the exigencies of the present crisis. Ships of the
line (not hulks, as the National supposes, but
the best built and found in the world) we have
in abundance; but of such ships in commission,
of the higher classes we have but six or seven in all
the waters of Europe including the Formidable, 80,
(Mediterranean), and Albion, 90 (Coast of Morocco).
When the Whigs quitted office, and Tangiers was
not even threatened, nor Mogadore touched, we had in
the Mediteranean alone 17 sail of the line. How can
Sir R. PEEL justify to the country such a diminished
scale of force at such a moment as this ? Sir GEORGE
Cocxnuarr and Mr. S. 'harlots' are, no doubt, ac-
cording to custom, prepared to prose about the first-
fate stores, the unrivalled materiel we possess, and
the stock of which is always accumulating.
To what purpose, if they are not appropriated to the
equipment of an ample navy ? Why, to be sold
periodically, at a ruinous loss to the country, as old
stores—perhaps for re-sale, by private buyers, to
agents of the French Government. But what has
this stock of stores and material to do with the ques-
tion of manning the navy ? We have, as we have
said, ships enough ; but the seamen, wherewith to
man them, our puerile policy and Admiralty
mismanagement have paid off and scattered over
every quarter of the globe, or have not
retained, in sufficient numbers out of each paid-off
ship's company, to form a nucleus of able seamen for
the due preparation and forming of the new hands and
landsmen, supposing we could secure these, without
resort to impressment, in sufficient numbers, in any

resonable period. But the truth is, for the considera-
tions we have urged in tw•o or three former articles

on this all-important subject, we must, without a
day's unnecessary delay, increase our inducements to

new as well as to old hands to enter the service,

in proportion to the exigencies of that service.
Will any one deny the serious character of these

exigencies ? Are we to commit ourselves to an im

plicit reliance upon the declarations by France of her

intentions •' not to occupy" in this :war against
Morocco ? If you set no value on the paramount
influence you have possessed in the Mediterranean

during the last century—if it be no longer an object
to secure fresh supplies for your fortress at Gibraltar

from the nearest ports of Africa—if you would not
wish to let France establish a line of military pos.

session from Oran to the furthest point to which she
can advance her posts within the Mediterranean, so as

to bring her a little nearer to Malta :—continue to

slumber over the peril in which the inertness and old
womanish do-nothing fussiness of the present Go.

vernment has involved you, by permitting this
rapid decline in our naval strength. If, on

the other hand, we are still alive to the

indispensable duty of maintaining, in all its

force, respectability, and power of instant exten

sion, that establishment, by which alone we have been

raised to the supreme rank we occupy among the
nations—let us hope that her MAJESTY'S forth-

coming Speech may contain some indications of a
better state of things at hand. If the Government
will not so act from a sense of duty,- or a just under..

standing of its responsibilities, let public attention
compel it to abandon the vain and expensive folly

of maintaining an army of more than 100,000 men,
which we ought never to regard as a force, but in
the light of a subsidiary and auxiliary to our navy,

and appropriate to the expansion, improvement, and

efficiency of this latter, some of the million■ now an-
nually lavished on maintaining at a war standard, that
which (with all respect for its achievements) we shall

still regard as chiefly kept up to be a nursery and
school for aristocratic patronage, and the support

of it; scions.

We hare accounts from Madrid to the 27th of
August. NARVAEZ was concentrating large bodies
of troops around the capital, as if some great com-
motion was about to break forth, but solely, we be-
lieve, to overawe the friends of liberty. Many arrests
had taken place within a few days. According to
some of the journals, the Moors, on learning that the
French had occupied the island of Mogadore, had set
fire to the town. The following letter from Cadiz, of
the 22d August, appears in the Tiempo

"It is said that the Moors have set fire to Mogadore,
which place has been nearly destroyed. There is nothing
astonishing in this, seeing that the island which touches
lilogadore has beau occupied. A French steamer, which

came in to-day, has brought two hundred Moorish pri-
soners. The nuthoriti's are con3ulting on the point
whether they are to be shut up in one of the forts of this
place until they can be (onveyed elsewhere.:Yessterday a
French steamer left thi: port, towing five merchantmen,
laden with provisions fcr the squadron."
MARTINEZ DE LA ROSA. had complied with the
request of Queen CIIIIISTINA, and was expected to
leave Paris in a few Gays. The elections were going
on in favour of the Government. - •

The Three per Celts. were done at 27 5-16 at sixty
days ; the Five per Cents. at 19 for cash, and 20 at
fifty days.

We find nothing new in the Paris journals, but
abundance of articles on the state of affairs in
Morocco, and the probable intentions of France with
respect to a settlement of differences with that coun-
try. Warlike opemtions are suspended for the
season. The squadron under the Prince DE JOIN..
VILLE has been ordered back to Cadiz, and Marshal
BuGEALTD will retire with his forces to Oran. " The
scarcity of water," says a Toulon journal, " and great
heat, do not permit of operations being continued ;
the troops of the Oran division will alone remain on
the frontier of Morocco ; those come from the other
provinces will return to their respective divisions.
This brilliant affair has completely demoralised the
enemy. At the moment lam writing, the Moorish
army has dissolved; the Marshal has, therefore,
attained his object, for it must not be imagined that
he, for a single moment, thought of marching to
Fez with his nine or ten thousand men. The Govern-
ment orders were, besides, formal in that respect."
The Journal des Debuts is apparently pacific ; but,
somehow or other, there are occasional threats that
France will pursue the course which she has adopted
in Africa notwithstanding every opposition. Nothing
is said in that paper respecting the conditions to be
offered by the Duke DE GLITCSSDIII{GII to the EM-
PEROR, but the Presse asserts that, among others,
France will demand an indemnity for the war, and
pledges to assure its payment after peace. "It may
occur," says that Court paper, for we believe it has
pretensions to informntion from a high source, " it
may occur that either in the course of the war with
Morocco, if prolonged, or after peace, and to assure
the indemnity, France may find herself obliged to oc-
cupy temporarily some point of the empire. The law
of nations authorises her doing so; but this even-
tuality much disquiets the English press. It must,
however, resolve to resign itself to such a step.
France finds herself engaged in a most legitimate
war with an independent power ; she enjoys all the
privileges of the law of nations ; she cannot be called
on to deprive herself of the means of action which the
laws of war justify, and the use of which circum-
stances may, render necessary, to please the suscepti-
bilities, and still less to obey the orders of England.
When justice shall have been rendered' her, she will
evacuate Morocco, as she has engaged to do, and as
her interest will counsel her ; but until then she will
use the plenitude of her rights ; she will occupy the
enemy's towns, if that should appear to her necessary;
she will phvent, if requisite, the English froin carry •
ing on a smuggling trade in warlike stores whilst the
war lasts ; and, finally, she will demand an indem-
nity, and pledges to assure its payment, after the
peace. In acting so, France will not injure the just
rights of any one, and will remain faithful to all her
engagements. No one will, therefore, have a right to
find her conduct improper."
If such are the conditions to be demanded of Mo-
rocco, a long period may elapse, and many towns be
occupied, before peace is established. We are inclined,
however, to take a different view of Louis Puiurrs's
policy. He has in a great measure obtained his
objects—the chastisement of the Moors and glory for
his son ; and he will, therefore, be anxious to bring
affairs to an amicable conclusion with the least pos-
sible delay. The Journal des Debuts thus adverts to
the intentions of the Government :
" France, we maintain, is making only a defensive war
in Africa—a w!lr which she not only did not seek, but
which she endeavoured to avoid, and is desirous of
putting an end to as soon as it can be done with honour.
If this war has not spread beyond its natural limits—if
the echoes of the cannon of Mogadore have not disturbed
the general peace, it is because Europe—because England
knows, that the policy of France is not guided by hot-
headed bunglers. We know well that certain statesmen
consider it to be a claim to glory to send defiance to a
foreign power, and this is suited to a Government which
wishes to act the savage among civilised nations ; but
has no .smbition for such a character. Four
years ag, - • •• •_ w4"„.l:ranean without risking a _European war, but France now
victoriously marches with her banners displayed along
the coast of Africa, and by her own strength enforces
respect to her insulted dignity and her outraged ho-
nour, and, at the same time, preserves the peace of
the world and the confidence of her allies. The French
Government participates in the pride which has
been excited in the whole nation by the glory our arms
have won in Africa, but it knows not how to convert its
legitimate triumphs into insults towards a country which
is an ally of France. It is against the Emperor of Mo-
rocco, and not against England, that we make war. We
carry it on to maintain our national honour, to insure
the integrity of our possessions, and not to gratify a
passion for cOnquescand realise projects of aggrandise-
ment which all France repudiates. These are our sen-
timents ; we declare the intentions and resolutions of
France to be the same as those avowed by the Govern.
ment
,in the. two Chambers, and which were received
with unanimous approbation ; and this it is that excites
the spleen of the Opposition journals. Where then is
the evil ? Where is the humiliation ? Is it the truth, or
is it not ? Is it a great State secret that we reveal ? Are
the sittings of the Chambers held with closed doors ?
Let the organs of the partisans of war, in England as
well as in France, take advantage of these events to irri-
tate on both sides the national jealousies—it is their
trade ; but we, who sincerely desire the maintenance of
peace, and particularly a continuance of the friendly re-
lations between France and England, will persevere,
however much we may scandalise the great statesmen of
the Opposition, in using all our efforts to calm down the
alarms which the late occurrences on the coast of Africa
must naturally
i tiy x
and we shall do this the more freely, as the Government
ofFrance
noteertheaeetrelcisi
esisnndetermined to persevere to the
utmost)"
exercising its
rights."
The in England ;
j
The National, the organ of the war party, looks
upon the state of affairs in another light, and has little
hopes that the late successes will bring the Moors to
reason. " Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth
speaketh." Peace with Morocco would be a heavy
blow to the readers of the National, because it would
for a while prevent France from humbling, and pro

bably subduing England. One half of our ships are
rotten hulks, we have no sailors to man them, and
only a little energy on the part of Louis PHILIPPE is
necessary to strike a fatal blow against the islanders.
Our readers will be amused, not frightened we trust,
by the insane boasting of this mischievous journal :
" There is reason to conclude that if the English
Government does not wish to have war, it wishes at
least that it should be known that it is resolved and
ready. llowever, to look at matters in their just point
of view, we must not take literally this formidable enu-
meration of ships of the line and of cannons, which the
English journals each day publish for the greater glory
of Uld England, and for the terror of Young France.
Under these formidable names of Trafalgar, Waterloo,
Vengeance, Foudroyant, &c., are found old hulks but
little formidable. The English Admiralty knows it
well ; but like that audacious and clever robber, who
having taken it into his head to stop a diligence by him-
self, placed along the road a dozen of stuffed figures
armed with guns, it reckons up all the old ruins that
former wars have left behind. We must not mistake the
matter. Undoubtedly England is strong at sea, nay very
strong ; a naval war between her and us would be for us
a difficult and dangerous undertaking ; but her material
superiority is not so considerable that she has not to
foresee danger herself. Independently of the possibility
of a landing on her coasts, she is right in being
uneasy about the present state of our navy. If, in
a numerical point of view, it leaves much to be
desired, it must be borne in mind that England is
obliged to keep up stations in all quarters of the world.
For the reason that her line of occupation is immense,
her defence is immense also, and it thence follows that
we can select for our attack the point where she is most
vulnerable, and direct all our forces there. During the
first Italian'eampaign Bonaparte, with 25,000 or 30,000
men, was able by the rapidity of his movements to be
everywhere stronger than the enemy. But nothing
prevents our applying to naval war this system of con-
centrated attacks, which Bonaparte so gloriously inau-
gurated on land. He pointed out the plan, we have
only to follow it, remembering that it is precisely from
having scattered his naval forces that the conqueror of
Arcole lost his navy. But, in order to be able to sustain
this struggle, there is one condition most essential—it is,
not to allow the difference of forces which separates us
from England to become greater, and even to diminish
it as rapidly as
possible ; for if during the interval when
England is augmenting her forces we do not augment
ours all would be lost, and England would only have to
choose the moment when it would suit her to push us
down to the modest position to which the hopes of her
jealousy assign us."
We find the following just remarks on the want of
honesty in French journals in Galignane s Messenger:—
" We have looked carefully over the Opposition jour-
nals to see what remarks they would make on the .etter
communicated to the Constitutionnet by M. Blanqui, and
in which justice is done to Mr. Hay, the British Consul-
General in Morocco, and to his Government. We do
not, however; find one word in the way of comment; and,
what is more, only one of the Opposition journals has
published the letter from the Constitutionr el. The con-
fession of wilful or wanton misrepresentation is an effort
of magnanimity but rarely witnessed in party journals,
but we did not suppose that the spirit of party win so

strong as to exclude from the columns of so large a por-
tion of the press a piecs of news which from its import-
ance is entitled to a place, although it does give the lie to
the charges of deception and intrigue which have been
lavished on the British Consul."

The subjoined are miscellaneous extracts from the

papers :

The Siecle, alluding to a report that the KING has
abandoned the intention of going to England this
year, say! : . . .
"We knew that on Saturday a house in Paris, that
furnishes certain articles necess try for the King's equip-
ages, was desired to expedite as much as possible some
orders that have been given to it. His Majesty's journey
depends upon the issue of the negotiations now in pro-
gress on the Otaheite affair. If the propositions of M.
Guizot are accepted, the King will return the gracious
visit made to him last year by Queen Victoria, but should
they be refused, the journey will be postponed. Such is
the opinion of persons generally well informed, and it
appears to us to be too plausible not to be accepted as
official."

The Constitutionnel says:—
"It appears that the Cabinet cannot agree on the re-
compense to be conferred on Marshal Bugeaud for the
battle of Isly. Meanwhile it is announced that the
King has dispatched to Africa M. de Chetfontaines, one
of his orderly officers, with an autograph letter to the
Marshal."

A letter from an officer on board the French
squadron off Magodare, dated the 17th ult., says :
" We are to keep for a time possession of the island,
the garrison of which is already formed, and the troops
have begun to raise fortifications. We shall leave here
the brigs of war Argus and Cassard, and a steam sloop.
The other ships of the squadron are about to sail for
Cadiz, to repair their damages; we hope afterwards to
return to France. Our squadron, during the conflict,
threw 16,000 projectiles into Mogadore. The Jemappes
had her sides struck by more than thirty balls, and her
rigging was much cut np. A ball passed; through the
flag at the topmast head of the Triton."
A correspondent at Tunis writes, on the 18th ult.,
t• the Semaphore of Marseilles :
" We have now in the Goletta Admiral Parseval
Deschene's division, consisting of the Ocean, Inflexible,
Neptune, Marengo, and Alger, of the line. This force
has been sent to meet the possibility of the Turkish
squadron, which has left the Dardanelles, coming to
Tunis, and putting into execution the designs against
this Regency, which the Divan has not yet abandoned.
But we doubt whether it will this year, any more than
it did the last, make the attempt, and the French
Government will be let off with keeping its ships some
two or three months in this roadstead, until, in fact, it
hears that the Turkish fleet has returned into the
Dardanelles."

THE BOURSE-MOND/L.7, SEPT. 2.

• First Highest Lowest Last
• Price. Price. Price. Price.
French Five per Cuts.... .. 120 65 .. 120 70 .. 120 55 .. 120 65
Three per Cents..... 80 75 .. 80 90 .. SO 75 .. SO 85
Rank of France .......3050 ..3055 3050 .. 3055
Laftitte Bank, I,ooof ShareslC 80 ..1080 . • 1080 . • 1080
Belgian Fives, 1831.

-1840 1041 .. 104 f .. 1041 1044
1842 lll6l • • 1061 .. 1061 .. 106}
Spanish Active 3O .. 30 30 .. 30
Portuguese Five per Cents 441 .. 44} .. 44f .. 44}
Neapolitan 97 90 .. 98 .. 97 90 .. 9$
/101111.21

RAILWAY SHARES.

Versailles, 377 .. 377 50 377 50

L.B. ... 242 50 .. 345 .. 242 50 .. 24i -
Rouen • • • • . 25 .. 966 25 .. 966 25 .. 966 25
Rouen to Havro• ••
Orleans • •
Stiasburg to 8a1e......
Avignon to Marseilles 750 .. 750 • 750 .. 750
RAILWAY SHARES FOR SETTLING, 3n OF SEPTEMBER.
Versailles, L. 8.. ..... 243 75 .. 245 .. 243 75 .. 243
Rouen
Rouen to Havre. ....... 733 75 .. 735 .. 733 75 732 50
orieans 957 50 .. 963 75 .. 957 50 • • 963 is
Strasburg to Bale 23s 75 .. 233 75 . 237 50 .. 238 75
Avignon to Marseilles—. •
RAILWAY SHARES FOB THE ACCOUNT, SEPTEMBER 30.
Versailles, L. 8.. ....... 243 75 .. 243 75 .. 243 75 .. 243 75
Rouen

Rouen to Ilavre..••.•• ...•. 735 .. 736 25 .. 735 .. 736 21
Orleans ...•..

Strasburg to Bale . . 240 .. 240 .. 240 .. 240
♦vignon to Marseillei...... 751 25 .. 751 25 • • 751 25 751 25

We can state, upon an authority in which we have
implicit confidence, that the Ist battalion of her Ma-
jesty's 60th Regiment, and her Majesty's 61st Regi-
ment of Foot, which were at Cork, under orders for
immediate embarkation for India, are not to proceed
thither. The ships which were to have conveyed
them, sail immediately for their original destination
with the baggage of these troops (about 2,000 strong).
The regiments in India which they were intended to
relieve, it is now.pretty certain are not, at present, to
return to this country. We leave our readers to draw
their own inferences from these facts ; but it would
be idle to deny that they afford no prima facie en-
couragement to those mere pacific speculations in
which one of our Contemporaries, yesterday, so
emphatically indulged.