The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-14 00:00:00

Maritint

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1845.

Here we are, in the middle of 111ay, and the busi-
ness before Parliament which presses most for dis-
patoh, is about to undergo the usual destiny of being
crushed out of existence by the overwhelming
multitude of that which presses least. It is two
months ago since we ventured to express our ap-
prehensions on this score, and to urge upon the
Legislature the paramount importance of its adopting
the requisite means to prevent such accumulations
and arrears as we now see fast gathering around and
upon the table of the House. The Home Secretary
himself, we find, has already given notice, for a day
towards the end of June, of a motion and other
business to be brought forward by him, in addition
to the numerous important questions and Bills that
are already in progress, and taking a discussion in
every successive stage that they attain. Thus there
is the interminable array of Railroad Bills and pro-
jects, the entertainment of which is sufEcient to ab-
sorb the whole remainder of the time of Parliament,
even should the session prove an unusually protracted
one. Of these Railroad Bills it may be permitted us
to remark, in passing, that the experience of every
day only the more confirms us in the conviction we
had formed, from a very early period of its labours, of
the New Railway Commission. In spite of the
interested pleading of Lord DALucrusrE in the
Upper House, and the off-hand vindications of Lord
GRANVILLE SOMERSET in the Lower, the practical
action of the anomalous Board has been as ob-
jectionable as the anomalous principles of its
constitution. It has failed to accomplish the
main object of its creation. The system
pursued in its investigations has proved far less satis-
factory than that which it has superseded, and its
decisions have been almost as much challenged as the
mode of its investigations. The commission was de -
vised with a view to remove obstructions in the con-
duct of this branch of the "private business," as it
is called; and the "private business" has been mar-
vellously obstructed ever since it was organized. The
pity is, that with such a parade of preparation and di-
gestion, and a nice balancing of conflicting recommenda-
tions attaching to the competing projects reported upon
by the Commissioners, there should be such a defi-
ciency of power and perspicuity in stating the grounds
of their decisions, accompanied by such an extraordi-
nary affectation of arrangement. For the first time,
we will venture to say, in the annals of official classi-
fication, we are introduced to " Groups" A. B. C. D.
E.—groups of railroad schemes, sections, gradients,
and proprietary lists, maps, plans, and working
drawings. How picturesque ! How appropriate !
Let us have a little patience, and in the next Factory
Regulation Bill we shall have the clauses, provided
for the education of factory children, referred to in
schedule annexed as the "Infantry" clauses. And if
the Marquis of LONDONDERRY should ever feel
prompted to move a clause of amendment in any Bill
introduced into the House of the Lords by Field-
Marshal his Grace the Duke, " by way of rider,"
we suppose they will be known as the " Cavalry"
clauses. But this obstruction is but an inconveni-
ence, though a grave one. This affectation is not
less productive of inconvenience, though of a lighter
character. The evils of the accumulation of busi-
ness at the beginning and the middle, and its whole-
sale burking at the end of a session, are of a far more
serious and alarming kind.
What, amidst this mass of private Bills, and cri-
minatory and recriminatory interlocutives exchanged
between the advocates and the opponents of the Board
of Trades' Committee of Railroads—and the stick-
lers for the letter of the " Standing Orders," and the
latitudinarian pleaders for further extension of the
time allotted for compliance with them—what, we
ask, has become of the very important national
business devised by Ministers on the discussions of
the estimates, at the termination of the last, and at
the beginning of the present se-sion Are that
jealous impartiality, that uncompromising super-
vision, that repudiation of favouritism in all matters
connected with the building, arming, and manning of
our sailing men of war, and the models and ma-
chinery securing improvements of our steam navy—
really and fully installed in the Councils of that
Board of Admiralty, which has pledged itself to be
entirely guided by these principles in the admi-
nistration of its important trusts ? Have the
warnings, so frequently addressed to the Government
on these points, by some among the ranks of their own

supporters, as well as by the highest authorities among
their adversaries, been attended to ? Have the defects
in the build of our war-steamers more especially
been remedied as to those already built? Will they
be obviated in those now about to be brought for-
ward, or hereafter to be laid down ? Are the mis-
chievous prejudices which have hitherto, in defiance
of the most triumphant results of experiment, op-
posed the more general introduction of the Archime
dean screw as the motive agent in our steam-ship
working, and FOHLASTER'S ship-propeller into all
our ships of war, appeased and silenced by a distinct
expressions of the Government's sanction under the
advice of its ablest officers ? Is the Government
patronage of superic.r proficiency in naval architecture
to be thrown open, so that the country may always
have the advantage of the best talent in one of the
most important of all the branches of its service—naval
architecture ; and are the best and ablest architects
to realise their legitimate reward in the patronage
and employment of the Government ; or is the in-
fluence of the Surveyor of the Navy still paramount
at Whitehall, despite all failures and miscalculations ?
The aspect of our present relations with the United
States has surely not diminished the importance to
be attributed to the exposition made in the House of
Commons of the capital and organic defects in the
construction and sailing qualities and armament of
such great ships of the first and second rates as the
Queen and the Albion. Is the one, after all
her extensive and expensive transformations,
become what she ought to have been before she was
launched from the building-yard ; or can the other, a
two-decker of vast dimensions, venture yet to keep the
sea in heavy weather, with her lower-deck ports
open ? Have the few large ships now in commission,
and on actual service, their full complement of men
on board ? On our coasts, have any steps yet been
taken for the construction of harbours of refuge, in
conformity with the recommendations of Parliamen-
tary and other Commissions of Inquiry, and the
reports of civil and military engineers ? At the mouth
of the Thames, and other of our great rivers, are the
fortifications at the proper points put in that effective
condition of offence and defence, the necessity of
which has been so strongly urged upon the attention
of the Legislature from similar quarters ? Has the
Colonial Department been instructed, by the highest
authorities of the Governinent, to repair the enor-
mous malfeasances of their widely diffused adminis-
tration, by redressing the wrongs inflicted by the
incapacity or obstinacy of the Colonial Governors
placed under its control ? Is it intended to do any-
thing, in the present session, towards such a " settle-
ment" of the law of pauper settlement, as that which
has been opened by Sir JAMES GRAHAM ? Is the
'medical profession to be dealt with by . Sir
JAMES GRAHAM'S Bill before next year? Does
Lord LINCOLN mean to carry through his
Bill to facilitate the inclosure of waste lands ;
or is that, with Lord WORSLEY'S, to bide over
to next year? We pass by, for the present, all the
important Irish and Scotch business before Parlia-
ment ; and on this rapid recapitulation alone of busi-
ness to be done, or in course of transaction, we are
anxious to know how, together with a battalion of
more than 80 Railway Bills, it is to be disposed of in
any other than the pitch-forking fashion which, year
after year, is productive of so much miscarriage and
confusion in House of Commons' law-making, and,
year after year, has to be repaired and compensated
for by renewed processes of legislation at an incon-
ceivable expenditure of the public time. When will
this bad habit of " packing" business at one time, and
cushioning it at another, be abandoned? It is fraught
with the most dangerous tendencies to the public
welfare.

We have intelligence from Madrid to the sth inst
In the discussion on the budget of receipts, which
commenced that day in the Chamber of Deputies, a
proposition was brought forward by Senor AGUAYO,
for raising an annual revenue of 150,000,000 reals
(1,500,0001.), by an income-tax and tolls at the gates
of the principal towns in Spain. The motion, which
led to some discussion, was adjourned. According to
accounts from Barcelona great preparations were in
progress for the reception of the Court.
The Three per Cents. closed at 341 for cash, and
341 at 60 days ; the Five per Cents. at 25 11-16 at
60 days; the Provisional Debt at 81 ; and the Debt
without interest at 8i at 60 days.

There is no intelligence in the Paris papers of
much interest. The last accounts from Africa are
considered unsatisfactory. ABD.EL-KADER, as we
stated yesterday, is making preparations for another
outbreak, and as the French Government seemed in-
clined to believe that the Emperor of Moaocco had
failed in using proper exertions to expel him from the
country, General DELARUE is to be sent as Commis-
sioner Plenipotentiary to the Court of ABDERRAUMAN
to :remind him of his engagements. According
to a letter from Oran, ABD-EL-KADER is in the
south at the head of ten thousand men, and the late
attack upon a party of French at Tenez is considered
only a part of the plan for a new rising against the
invaders. Several columns of French troops are in conse-
quence moving towards the south of Algeria. The grants
just voted by the Chamber for improving the har-
bours of Toulon and Port Vendres, meet with the
general approbation of the French press, as the object
of the Government in proposing these estimates is to
facilitate the communication between France and the
coast of Africa. Port Vendres especially is Kell
adapted for that purpose. The Presse thus points
out the advantages of this harbour :—At Port Ven -
dres it is intended to construct for the present a pier
at the entrance of the harbour and to deepen the outer
port. The expense is estimated at 2,500,0001., which
will complete the amount demanded by the Minister of
Marine. Port Vendres is so well situated that the
genius of VAUBAN, nearly two centuries since,
foresaw the advantage to be derived from it. It
is close to the frontier of Spain, at the extremity
of the Gulf of Lyons, and at a period of maritime
war would afford our steam-boats a secure refuge.
Moreover, it is even more than Toulon the centre of
our communications with Algeria. The high lands
surrounding Port Vendres protect the ships in the
harbour against the effects of the north-west wind
which sometimes blows so violently in the Gulf of
Lyons. The distance from the port to Algiers is
twenty leagues shorter than from Toulon to that
point. Every consideration, therefore, combines to
recommend this part of the coast to the attention of
the Government, as it is possible to establish there at
a trifling expense another harbour of refuge."
It appears from a report made by the Committee
on the Paris fortifications that the total sum ex.•
pended since their commencement in 1841 is
108,000,000 f., about 4,000,0001., and that thirty-two
millions voted in addition to that sum by the
Chamber remain in the hands of the Government.
The following is a brief outline of the report. It
may be necessary to state that the metre is equal to
rather more than thirty-nine inches, and that the
continuous wall extends to fully twenty-three miles :
"The whole of the continuous wall is laid down, and
amounts in length to 38,625 metres. The r.carp has
been commenced to the extent of 38,141 metres, and of
this number 35,358 are completely finished. It will,
therefore, be seen that the masonry of the circle is
nearly complete. The fifteen advanced forts are all in
course of construction. All of them have their escarpei
finished and covered with their coping, with the single
exception of the fort of Aubervilliers, which was not
commenced ti 111843, but which is also in a state of great
forwardness. The counterscarps in masonry have been
commenced in the forts of Romanville, Noisy, Rosery,
Nogent, Charenton, Ivry, Issy, and Mount Valerien, to
the extent, in all, of 6,334 metres, of which 5,716 metres
are completed. Ail the casemates of the forts are made,
with the sole exception of that of Aubervilliers, which
will be executed at the commencement of the approach-
ing season. As regards the buildings with which
the forts will be provided, twenty-two powder
magazines have already been built and covered in,
and two mere are ready to be roofed. The interior of
these magazines will not be completed till the last mo -
ment, in order that every precaution possible may be taken
against damp. Four ball-proof barracks at Charenton
and Mount Valerien are covered in. The one is already
occupied, and the other can be so at any time. Thirteen
other buildings, not proof, and intended as barracks for
soldiers andlofficers, have also been finished in the d,f-
ferent forts. Of these five are already occupied by the
troops. Five other barracks have been commenced, and
are in a forward state. The military roads on the right
bßmaine
thoseou
nekt
rwtehe,
yarmvede
completed
osbnrieteeru to
g emade
s, ury last
seevahv
eeeiyear,which
il
aennbaeduda on
iy:t.finished,
thee
Tfloeh
rf
ett s bar
o andoank fd f oro
will
Ivry,m

be in use in the course of the approaching season. The
greatest number of workmen employed at any one time
during the year 1844 on the fortifications was 11,518, of
when 5,076 were military."
Accounts from Lucerne of the 7th inst. state that
the Catholic cantons which aided in defeating the
volunteer corps, lay claim to a share of the ransom-
money, but Lucerne is not at all inclined to accede
to the proposition. Much interest is excited in Paris
respecting the fate of Dr. STEIGER. Strong repre-
sentations have been made in his favour. Delegates
have been sent for that purpose to the Lucerne
Government by several of the other cantons, and the
representatives of the Foreign Powers have thrown
their influence into the balance on the side of mercy.
These means, it is thought, will be ultimately suc-
cessful, so far as that the life of Dr. STEIGER will he
saved. The Paris Globe says it' is enabled to state
that his life will be spared, and we cordially hope
that the Government of Lucerne will not render itself
infamous by carrying the sentence into execution.
At TORTONI'S, on Sunday, the Three per Cents•
were done at 86f. 20c.

Cu,,,
"P k s'is.
stp
au, .A. 4 k
r '4-, • ,-.-. ~,
40: wry'
,F • - ASV ..411kc,
ili: T 0.1. 04,2' 'M 0 4 sy‘oc. iwg..; zi, oi T , tlN fif,Tes:, ~
...._