The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-21 00:00:00

We have accounts from Madrid to the 11th inst. The
Government papers announce that friendly relations have
been fully established between the Court of Madrid and
his HOLINESS, and that a disFatch had been received from
the Spanish Ambassador at Rome, conveying the grati-
fying intelligence that the concordat had been signed on
the 27th of April, by which the POPE acknowledges
Queen ISABELLA, and sanctions the sales of Church
property. The same journals state that the treaty of
commerce between Spain and Morocco had been ratified
by the EMPEROR. The Chamber of Deputies had passed
the budget of receipts and the Bill for raising a loan to
improve public roads. The Bourse was closed on Whit-
Monday.

The Paris papers bring no news of importance. A
letter from Switzerland, however, conveys intelligence
from Lucerne of a satisfactory nature. None of the
prisoners condemned for their share in the late unfortu-
nate transactions will suffer capital punishment, and a
decision to that effect has been intimated by the Council
to the Vorort. The Government of that canton
states that it is disposed to deal mercifully with
the prisoners and spare the life of Dr. STEIGER,
on condition that he be transported to America. The
Vorort had announced the fact to the French Govern-
ment, and at the same time proposed that France should
convey STEIGER and some others to such a destination.
The answer of the French Cabinet was, that France
could not undertake such an office, but there would be no
objection to give a free passage to America on board
a French ship of war to Dr. STEIGER and his com-
panions. Some of the Paris journals state that a deputa-
tion of workmen had waited upon M. DE LAMARTINE, to
congratulate him upon the speech which ho had made
against the fortifications of Paris, to which the eloquent
Deputy made a suitable reply. The following extract
from it displays both good sense and public spirit :

" Was the city of liberty walled up when the country, threatened
by the coalition of kill's at Pilnite, appealed, not to stones and ce-
ment as is now the case, but to the hearts and arms of the Parisians,
and when your fathers, quitting their workshops, went and de-
fended their capital, not at Montmartre or at Mont Valerien, but on
all the fields of battleand in all the capitals of the coalition ? Your
lag was not then stuck immoveable, and, as it were, rooted in the
ramparts of your city ; it floated free in the winds of glory over the
whole continent and on all seas ! Ido not say this to kindle in you
a brutal impatience for war. No, men of labour and intelligence, we
must be, in this age, men of peace, and if I have sometimes de-
fended and honoured this Government, whose errors and evil ten.
deocies I alone combat, it is because amidst many faults, it will
at least have in history the merit of having been a reign of peace.
If ever the fortifications should inspire those who shall
hereafter possess them with any evil intentions, there exists
an artillery which can struggle with these cannon. It is public
spirit, it is public opinion. There exists no physical power that
can stand the explosion of the soul of a great nation. Let us avoid, you
by your prudence, we by our honest warnings, these explosions and
revolutions which are lawful only when there remains no more good
sense in the councils of Governments, no more legality in their pro-
ceedings, and no more patience in the hearts of the people."
No transactions in the Funds of any importance took
place at TORTONI'S on Sunday.
The following are the prices of new shares quoted on
the Bourse of Lyons, May 15 :
Avignon and Marseilles, 1,040 f., end of May; Paris and
Orleans, 1,220 f. cash ; Paris and Rouen, 1,097 f. ; ditto Or-
leans and Vierzon, 818 f. end of May; Boulogne, 650 f.; ditto,
Montereau, 567 f. cash.

MADAME ANNA THILLON.—We have been re-
quested to give insertion to the following letter :
" Portland Hotel, May 20, 1845.
"MY DEAR SIR,—It is impossible to express the re-
gret I feel for the inconvenience to which I have un-
avoidably subjected you, as well as for any disappoint•
ment to the public, by whom .1 have been so generously
received. I am, how:l,-(T, happy to announce to you my
gradual recovery, and that I shall be quite prepared to
appear on Friday next.—l am, my dear sir, yours, very
truly, _ " ANNA THILLON."

"To Alfred Bunn, Esq., Drury-lane Theatre."
BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES FOR THE LABOURING
CLASSES.-A deputation, consisting of Mr. Cotton and
Mr. William Hawes, the Chairman and Deputy-Chair-
man, and others, including Mr. Baly, the civil engineer
to the Committee, had the honour of an interview at
Buckingham Palace, on Monday, with his Royal High-
ness Prince Albert, to submit to his examination the
model and drawings for the proposed first establishment,
which is intended to be erected in Whitechapel. His
Royal Highness took great interest in the subject, and
expressed an earnest wish for the success of the scheme,
of which, and of the plans, he expressed his approbation.
THE CANADA CORN BILL.—A letter from Upper
Canada, dated about the end of March, says—" The decline of
price in flour makes us very anxious here, and though we shall
send over some thousand barrels, nothing but a change in the
market will make it other than a tight match to make both ends
meet." The present English price of dour is evidently running
the Canadian exporters bard.

but she was dispatched to Lisbon with a complement
100 short of that number. Now, though Lisbon could
scarcely be considered a foreign station, Captain
LOCKYER had to " look at" the French squadron off the
coast of Africa. Had an actual collision unhappily
taken place, what plea of justification could have availed
those who would have placed Captain LOCRYER in such
a position, with a crew at least 100 men short of its com-
plement ?

But when these experimental squadrons are fitted out
how happens it that it is so exceedingly difficult to find
able seamen for them ? Because—and the fact was
broadly admitted by Sir GEORGE COCKBURN—there
being no provision adopted for securing the services of
able seamen at the time of their being paid off for any
future emergency, it is found a labour of the most
difficult and protracted character to get together again
any number of them. They have entered the merchant
service to escape from utter destitution ; or, for want of
employment and patronage at home, have taken service
at higt,er wages with foreign Powers. The few able
seamen that are entered on. hoard an experimental ship
know beforehand that all the hard work will fall upon
them,—excessive duty in proportion to their superior
capacity to discharge it ; but all this increased liability
and labour are unaccompanied with any increase of pay
or emolument ? Are these conditions likely to operate
in any other way with able seamen but to deter them
from engaging ? In further illustration of this crying
evil—the deficiency of able seamen—we may mention
what happened to Capt. BERKELEY himself. In 1836 he
was appointed to the command of the Hercules. The Asia,
and other ships, were being equipped at the same time,
and the utmost difficulty was experienced in obtaining,
men. At length the captains of ships in course of man-
ning were directed to receive men from the Coast Guard.
Capt. BERKELEY remonstrated against this order, re-
marking " that those men • were not worthy of their
rating." When the Hercules left Sheerness, although
she had ostensibly her full complement of men, there
were not more than twelve among them who could
steer the ship, nor above seven who could be trusted to
take soundings ! Is this a condition for the men-of-war
of Great Britain to be sailed under ? The vast exten
for which the modern application of steam and machinery
to navigation both superseded the practical seamanship
and experience of all weathers which the navy used to
meet with in its ready draughts from the Scotch smacks,
the Irish " wherries," the passenger-coasting vessels of
our own shores, and the body of the Thames' watermen,
is so obvious and so efficient a cause of this diminution
of the supply of able seamen, accustomed to work ship-
ping in all weathers, under every disadvantage of bad
seasons, and dangerous coasts, and therefore in a school
certain to form them to habits of smart and ready sea-
manship, that the evil complained of ought long ago to
have caused provision to be made for its own remedy.
Inducements in the shape of premiums ought
to have been already established to keep
our able seamen within available reach when
required. So lately as 1840, when Sir CHARLES
NAPIER commanded a squadron, and Captain BERKELEY
sailed under his orders, they were warned that they
might have a collision with the French fleet, and yet
sailed with "peace complements," as they were called!
Captain BERKELEY closed his exposition of the defects
most prominent in the Admiralty management by ad-
verting to one cause of the deficiency of seamen, of
which the Admiralty were, he considered, rather as the
unwilling ministerial agents, than the voluntary pro-
moters. It seems that when a ship is paid off the captain
is desired to recommend, out of his men, those of the
best character for the Coast Guard. Once entered into
that they are for ever lost to the navy ; for not only do
they remain on shore, and after the usual time become
entitled to pensions, but they lose all that they could ever
boast of able seamanship. We go all the lengths with
Captain BERKELEY in holding that this branch of ser-
vice, though appropriated to purposes of revel ie pro-
tection, should be under the control of the Admiralty ;
but, in supporting his further opinion, that these Coast
Guard men ought to be available for general service,
whenever called upon, we are inclined to go some-
what beyond his proposition, that on quitting the
general service again they should have the option
of re-entering the Coast Guard. But the view we have
to submit on this and other points in connexion with
the remedies applicable to the very serious evils brought
under the notice of the Legislature on Friday evening
last, we shall postpone till to-morrow, when we shall
take occasion to advert to the defence of the Admiralty
set up by Sir G. Cocxnunst, and the very just remarks
—and what is more, the very feasible propositions, as
we think them—briefly opened by Sir C. NAPIER, for
obviating the "short supply" of able seamen in future,
and ensuring at all times a ready levy of them. It does
nut strike us that topics of more vital importance to the
character and welfare of our navy, and therefore to the
safety and grandeur of this country, have been more
satisfactorily discussed for many sessions. We see in
the temperate and earnest tone of all parties a consoling
augury of intended and immediate improvement in the
administration of the interests confided to the Board of
Admiralty—at all times vast—now every day becoming
of paramount magnitude and influence.