The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-20 00:00:00

On the 12th tho s.oanish Chamber of Deputies re-

newed the discussion on Lta Reform Bill, when

RO3A who had h.;.?'
I 11 AILTINEZ DE LA interrupted
on he previous day, replied to Senor TEJADA
t.de-
fence of an .?bsolute monarchy. After defending him-
self wad his colleagUes against the imputation of
wishing to make the throne independent of the
people, he said Constitutional government was the
only form to which the country would submit, main-
tained that Spain was ripe for a representative system,
and that it had hitherto failed solely from the ignor-
ance and weakness of the Executive. He added "that a
vast abyss separated the Liberals who defended the
constitutional throne and the partisans of the system
supported by M. TEJADA ; that behind absolutism
lurked revolution, and behind revolution absolutism ;
and that the banner of the present Government exhi-
bited but the words " ISABELLA 11. and the consti-
tution of the State." There is in Spain but one legi-
timate representative of absolute government—he
who disputed the throne with our QUEEN. M. Tx-
JADA, unwillingly no doubt, has placed himself on a
slippery declivity, on which is to be found despotism,
and at the bottom Don CARLOS."

Senor TEJADA replied, and several other Members
were anxious to make speeches, but the Chamber thought
they had heard quite enough, and declared the debate
on the general question closed. The Bill, to use an
English phrase, has thus been read a second time.
Intelligence to the 13th has been received, announcing
that the preamble of the Bill, as prepared by the Go-
vernment and sanctioned by the Committee, had been
adopted by the Chamber.
Accounts from Cadiz state that the disturbance
which had taken place there had been caused by the
journeymen tailors, who had struck for an advance
of wages, and were marching in procession through
the city when the authorities interfered. This simple
af.Tair was magnified into a great conspiracy, the re-
sult of which has been the following savage order by
the Commandant of the place
•' Art. I. Every military man who, having been 'ex-
cited to treason, shall denounce the person who endea-
voured to seduce him, shall at once receive the sum of
640 reels as the price of his fidelity.
" Art. 2. The officer who, in a similar case, will act
in the same manner, shall have well merited of their
eountry, and will obtain an honourable mention in their
favour to the Government, which will be taken into con-
sideration for their advancement.

" Art 3. The Council of War, the only tribunal con,
potent to take cognizance of sedition, conspiracy, and
revolt, will judge and condemn the criminals, whatever
may be their rank or condition ; and the punishment of
death, indicated in the most positive manner by article
26, part 8, title X., of the ordinances of the army, shall
be applied without remission and promptly, not only
with regard to the individuals who shall have tried to
gain over partisans to the revolt, but also to those who,
having had it in their power to denounce them, have
failed to do so."

On the 12th, the Three per Cents. were done at 271
for cash, and 27i at 60 days ; the Five per Cents. at
201 at 60 days; and the Floating Debt at 651 at 60
days.

The Journal des: Debuts of Monday contains the
following announcement respecting the loan :—" The
companies that are to present themselves at the ' ad-
judication' of the 9th December appear to be finally
formed. The firms of Paris have gathered, some
round M. M. ROTHSCHILD, with all the receivers-
general, and the others round MM. iforriNoutst and
DURAND. These two companies are thus composed
of Frenchmen. We know not what trust there is in
the report that a third company has been formed,
which is mostly composed of Englishmen. But the
two we have just mentioned suffice to give the Go-
vernment every desirable guarantee as to a serious
competition taking place."

Some of the papers have articles on the marriage
of the Queen of SPAIN with Count TRAPANI. The
Memorial Bordelais positively asserts that the mar-
riage between the QUEEN and the Count will take
place next month at Valencia, and that the recog-
nition of ISABELLA by the Courts of Vienna and
Rome will immediately follow.

" It is affirmed, also," says that journal, "that the
QUEEN'S sister is to marry the_ Duke DE MONTPEN-
SIER. In the event of the Count DE TRAPANI assum-
ing immediately the title of King, in pursuance of the
conventions entered into between the Spanish Court
and that of Naples, it is affirmed that he will take the
name of LEWIS the Second, and not that of
FRANCISCO DE PAULA."

On the subject of the QUEEN'S marriage the Ma-
drid correspondent of the Coustitutionnei makes the
following communication :—" The question of the
QUEEN'S marriage excites universal attention, and the
Count DE TRAPANI is much talked of. All the
efforts of the opposition will bear upon the article
relative to the marriage. A sort of coalition has been
formed between the Moderados of the Pacheco-
Concha party, which has been joined by a rather large
number of reforming members, and by the Absolutists
of various shades, who acknowledge VILUALA, BRAVO,
MvaiLto, and TEXADA, as their leaders. All concur
in demanding the revival of the article of the Con-
stitution which gives the Cortes the power of deciding
the question of the marriage of the QUEEN, and of her
immediate successor. Some, who are partisans of the
Infante Don FRANCISCO DE PAULA, hope to secure in
the Cortes more votes in his favour than the Count
DE TRAPANI would obtain ; the others have similar
hopes for the son of Don CARLOS, so great is the
strength the reaction has acquired, thanks to the
blunders or M. MARTINEZ DE LA ROSA and of his

• all its frightful penalties—its utter recklessness of
11 the suffering and privation they inflict—and its dis-
gusting appreciation of brute natures over human na-
ture. Every week seems really to surpass its prede-
cessor in the co, itributions which it brings with it
towards an appalling history of the oppressions per-
petrated under the authority of these game-lords'
enactments, and the stupidity with which game-lords'
magistrates, at county sessions, whenever there is a
discretion to be exercised between decreeing a nominal
or a severe fine, a brief or a longer term of imprison-
ment under them, doggedly enforce the heavier sen-
tence. In this way the Game-laws, and those who are
charged with their administration, fill the gaols with
exasperated prisoners, increase the county rates with
I the expenses 'of the innumerable prosecutions they
encourage by their wholesale commitments, and
allow themselves to be made the blind instruments of
fomenting that vindictive hatred for the owners of pro-
perty in general, of that which comprises game pre-
serves in particular, that is the deplorable but not un-
naturailesult of such treatment as offenders receive
at their magisterial hands, if they have trespassed
against the Game-laws.
We have, of late, had too frequent and too recent
occasion to advert to enormities perpetrated under
their sanction, of a far graver kind, to offer
any comment on a case which appeared in
our paper of yesterday, as extracted from
the Somerset County Gazette. Nevertheless, it is
too characteristic and consistent not to be noted as
an admirable illustration of the notions which Somer-
setshire MSDASES: gravely entertain of proportion, in
estimating the amount of crime and awarding punish-
ment. At the Keynsham Petty Sessions a young
ruffian was tried for hurling a stone at a female,
which had so severely injured her that she was still
under medical treatment, and not permitted to attend.
For this brutal and dangerous assault, the fellow was
fined ten whole shillings. For fear, we suppose, that
this penalty should be construed into too eager a vin-
dication of the law, or too great a homage to the gal-
lantry of our sex, the same amount, for costs, (! !) was
actually decreed against the proseeutrix ! It would
seem to follow, as a logical conclusion of magisterial
law at Keynsham, that a lady who is the victim of
'any savage vagabond's violence, is more guilty than
the perpetrator of the outrage; for, whereas he is
only fined ten shillings for the luxury of seriously
injuring her by hurling a stone at her, she is ad-
judged, having been thus grievously hurt, and as the
recipient, not the doer, of the wrong, to pay an equal
penalty in fact, though nominally for costs; the sum
of ten shillings being meant for the equation (we
suppose) of her suffering, and his crime.
At the same sessions, on the same day, another
young man, for shooting " al" a covey of partridges
(we should not have demurred to the sentence had it
been for missing them, because, it would seem, he di.l
not touch a feather of all the birds), was fined 101.
Here, again, it follows that the enormity of even the
endeavour—for it was not perfected—to assault a
partridge is reckoned, at a money price of twenty
times as much as, or 2,000 per cent. more than, an
actual completed cruel assault on a young woman !
How long, in the name of common sense, of common
spirit, and common justice, do the British public mean
to allow successive Parliaments to separate without
repealing these worse than Norman Forest Laws !