The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-07 00:00:00

By the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer,
the Lady Mary Wood, we have received intelligence
from Gibraltar to September 28; Cadiz, 29; Lisbon,
October 1 ; and Oporto, 2. The Cortes assembled at
Lisbon on the 30th of September. In the Chamber of
Deputies the Minister of the Interior read a report of
the use the Government had made of its discretionary
powers. The Chamber appointed two Committees,
one of which to give its opinion upon the use made
thereof by the Government, and the other to take
into consideration the subject of a bill of indemnity.
The Duke of PALMELLA presided in the Chamber of
Peers, when nearly similar proceedings took place,
with some slight opposition on the part of Count
LAVRODIO. The session, it is believed, will be very
short. The tobacco, soap, and gunpowder contracts,
had been let for 1.521 contos, on the condition of a loan
to Government of one million sterling at 5 per cent.

Madrid papers of the 29th have been received, but
they bring no news. It is understood that the
speech of the QUEEN, at the opening of the Cortes,
will contain an outline of the changes in the Consti-
tution, which the Government have in view. The
preparatory meeting was fixed for the 2d inst.

MADRID BOURSE, SEPT. 28.—Five per Cents., 20
for cash ; Three per Cents., 28i for cash.

The Paris papers announce that the KING and
QUEEN, Madame ADELAIDE and the Duke of MONT-
PENSIER arrived at Eu on Thursday night, at eleven
o'clock. The visit of his MAJESTY to England is
strongly opposed by the Opposition journals, for no
other reason that can be imagined but pure hatred
of this country. Louis PHILIPPE wishes to live
at peace with all the European States, because he
believes it for the good of his people, as well as con-
ducive to the stability of his dynasty. The Repub •
'leans and Legitimatists wish for war, because they
vainly suppose that the darling object of each would
be the result. The Siecle, a journal hostile to Eng-
land, thus blames the KING for returning the com
piment of a visit, like a gallant Frenchman, to Queen
VICTORIA :—" It is on Monday next, that his Majesty
LOUIS PHILIPPE is to quit the French soil and sail
for England. It appears that this unpopular as well
as ill-timed journey has experienced even in the
bosom of the Royal Family a resistance before which
any Minister but M. GUIZOT would have hesitated.
It is even said that the KING'S physicians, whose
opinions had been asked, would not advise that
it should be undertaken. In fine, and as if the
Ministers wished to concur in demonstrating the gra-
vity of this determination, it is proposed to delegate
during the absence of the KING the exercise of the
Sovereign authority to the Duke DE NEMOURS, who is
to be appointed Lieutenant-General of the kingdom.
A journey which requires such precaution ceases to
be a party of pleasure, and becomes an affair of State.
The excursions of Queen VICTORIA are of no conse-
quence. She is a young woman who seeks amuse-
ment with a species of passion, and whose caprice
leads her wherever a new sight is promised her, either
at the Isle of 'Wight, the Chateau d'Eu, or even in
the fogs of the Highlands. But a KING of 70 years
of age should not run after adventures ; and when it
is seen that the Ministers who are conducting LOUIS
PHILIPPE to Windsor require of him a species of
political testament before he embarks on board the
steam-boat, it is naturally asked whether the trifling
satisfaction of receiving some bravoes in England can
compensate and justify the embarrassments to
which the Government has the appearance of expos-
ing him. The KING'S journey is giving serious
uneasiness to a number of the Conservative party. We
require no better proof than the silence observed by
the Journal des Debats. As to the Opposition, with-
out being insensible to the pre-occupation which ap-
pears to pervade the majority, it reserves its soli-
citude principally for the political side of the question.
If it do not approve of the journey, it is because it
considers the state of the relations between the
Governments of France and England, and the just
susceptibility which is produced in France by every
appearance of anxiety on the part of the French with
respect to the English Government."
The affair of Otaheite has been again revived in all
its bitterness by the letters of the Times corre-
spondent, describing the battle between the French
and the natives. Even the Constitutionnel, a journal
generally conducted with temper and discretion,
looses all self-command on the subject. "We are
reduced," it says, "to have recourse to the journals
of London for the details of the last events at Ota-
heite, and certainly it is not the truth which we find
in the correspondence of the Times, but lies and
abuse. We copy these odious letters, which make
their appearance most apropos, in the midst of
the visit of the KING of the FRENCH to Windsor.

But let it be well understood. the people who
have written to the Times have seen nothing,
and know nothing of what has taken place;
they are guided by such furious passions ; their
reason and judgment are so mastered by hatred to
France, that their view is necessarily troubled. They
do not narrate facts ; they outrage. These English,
these Christians, who, in a conflict between France

and a people of savages, feel sympathy only for the
Otaheiteans, and transform our soldiers into canni-

---
bats, give us, by their language, the measure of their

sentiments of humanity and religion. It is true tha

they owe this last testimony to these poor islanders,
who have been in all this affair but the docile instru-
ments of their fury. If we pause on the letters of
the Times, it is particulary to remind the Ministry of
the sad consequences of the inconceivable conduct
which it has adopted. The Minister of Marine must
have in his possession all the reports of Commandant
BRUAT on the late events at Otaheite. lie has pub-
lished nothing except a garbled note, which is con-
tradicted even in its short details by the few private
letters which have reached France. Why has this
incomplete information been given to the public ?
Why has not the report concerning the affair of
April 18 been inserted in the official journals ? Where
is the State reason which did not allow to be done for

Otaheite what is done every day for Algeria ? No-
thing excuses the silence that has been observed. If
the Ministry had not done itself this inexplicable in-
jury, the English journals would blush to publish the
insolent versions of the missionaries."

The National is equally violent :
" In default of news which the Minister does not give,

• moment about to move, and did proceed to move, in
language the defendant could not understand, that
defendant should be committed and criminally
punished. Next, the Registrar was about to take
down only part of Mr. WILSON'S protest, till that
gentleman enforced the addition of the omitted (and
concluding) words. On the motion of the same illus-
trious Attorney, he was then condemned "to pay a
fine of M. to her MAJESTY, and demand pardon of
the court." Mr. WILSON, much to his honour, flatly
refused to do either the one thing or the other, having
already protested against the whole proceeding,
under the authority of a statute. He was then,
amidst the insolent and indecent uproar of the native
audience, whose gestures and applauses were not even
rebuked by either Verges or Dogberry—M. Ls
BAILLI or his Lieutenant-Jurat---conducted to the
public gaol under the escort of some strange island
functionary called a "Deputy Viscount" (Heaven
defend us from such a Lilliput aristocracy !), and
after being exposed on his way to the yelling exul-
tation of sundry unwhipped boys and men, subjected
to the most rigorous and scandalous severity of treat-
ment, the most unmanly and oppressive vexations
which personal resentment seems to have been
capable of infusing into the most insolent exer-
cise of the most ill-administered authority.
Exhibitions like these—could we forget the personal
sufferings and annoyances of Mr. WILSON in the
meantime—might amuse all of us who are alive to
the exquisite absurdity of "grave fooling." It is very
certain that nothing is more supremely absurd than
the strutting dignity of official power, in some little-
out-of-the-way corners, where it fancies itself playing
GENGHIS•IiIIAN in an empire comprised within a few
square miles of territory parcelled out into freehold
estates of a few square yards. But the rights and
liberties of Englishmen must not be exposed to the
pranks of these pantomimic eccentricities. It is high
time that the British Legislature should sweep away
the inconvenient and unsightly barbarisms of a former
age, and a rude people, in its more minute possessions.
They are like old disused habiliments of former cen-
turies, whose strangeness may amuse the curious, but
whose fettering and iron bondage it would be an act
of insufferable tyranny to impose on the free limbs of
living men, accustomed to the unimpeded use of the
faculties they derive from nature, and exercise under
the guarantees of an enlightened civilisation.