The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-19 00:00:00

FRANCE.
CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.—Sarrso OF Jax. 16.
The Order of the Day was the adjourned discussion on the
addre*,
After a brief speech from M. de Beaumont,
The President here intimated that as no ether party seemed desi-
rous of speaking, the general discussion was closed.
M. Ducos said that he wished to explain the motive which had
actuated the two members forming the minority of the Committee in
their votes. He should, however, give way, as he perceived that
an Hon. Deputy near him had expressed an intention to speak.
M. Thiers said he must explain to the Chamber the motives which
induced him to aderess them. For two years he had taken no part
in its discussions, and if on a late melancholy event he had spoken,
it was because, on the occasion of the death of the Duke of Or.
leans, he considered it became the Chamber to show a strong ac-
cord and a sympathetic unity of feeling, Deeply devoted to the
Government, he nevertheless since felt it his duty to ally himself
with the Opposition, because he considered that the interests of
France abroad were not properly defended ; he, therefore, de.
• -

manded permission of the Chamber to make known his own opinion,
and that of his friends on that point. He begged their indulgence
while he did so, for he should be obliged to speak very frankly. He
eid not mean to deny the prosperity of the country, and the calm
which it enjoyed—a calm which certain events in London had not

been able Co disturb ; but he would remark that in 1830 the pros.
perity of the country was also great ; there was then perfect calm
under the Ministry of the 15th of April, and yet they had attacked
the Ministry, and, if he remembered rightly, overthrown it.—
(Laughter.) He merely meant now to show what they then de-
manded, and what they had since had. They wished for a firm
Government, which, would by well-applied concessions, and a well.
defined line of conduct, create for itself great strength in the
Chamber, which should screen Royalty from attack, and possess
liberty of spirit necessary to carry out either trifling or extensive
affairs. It was under that impression he had accepted a seat in the
new Cabinet, and he declared that he would rather have submitted
to remain a stranger for ever to political affairs, than accept it on
other conditions. He had r o taste for innovations, and M. Pisca.
tory, the Minister in Greece, said that he hated progress. This
was not exact : he certainly distrusted progress, and, if he urged
the necessity of subscribing to reforms and reasonable concessions,
his sincerity was not questionable. Now, he thought that by an
Administration anxious to govern long, firmly, and in a pro.
Stable manner for the country, reasonable concessions should be
made, even at the risk of displeasing the Court. M. Thiers, after
recapitulating a number of facts to prove that the Ministry was not
sure of a majority, contended that it had compromised the powers
of the State in the question of the right of search. The Chamber
had formally required its abolition, the Ministry had promised to
negotiate, and since the opening of the sesssion M. Guizot had an.
flounced in another Chamber that negotiations were pending. M,
Thiers did not believe it. The public voice in England was a cer.
tain indication to him that no concession was to be expected, and
if the Chamber did not wish completely to forfeit all consideration,
it was bound to insert an article in the address demanding that the
French navy be replaced under the protection of the national flag.
51. Thiers then undertook to :demonstrate that the Ministry, not
only did not cover the Crown, but actually compromised it in a
more flagrant manner than the Ministers of the 15th of April.
The dotation of the Duke de Nemours, which Ministers acknow.

ledged— by their silence to have been imposed upon them by an
irresponsible power, was, however, the only argument he adduced
to substantiate his assertion.
111. Duchatel, the Minister of the Interior, in replying to M.
Thiers, showed the injustice of his attacks, and reminded him that
when he was himself at the head of affairs, he had followed pre-
cisely the same system, although he had not had to contend with
the Parliamentary difficulties which the present Administration
had experienced. M. Duchatel maintained that the latter had
been invariably supported by the majority in all political questions
on which it had staked its existence, and only sustained defeats in
the discussion of Bills of minor importance, which did not impose
upon the Cabinet the obligation to resign. He then vindicated it
against the charge of leaving the Crown uncovered. He consi-
dered, he said, the dotation of the Duke de Nemours a good and
useful measure, and when he should advise the King to present
such a law, he would bring it forward and defend it at his own risk
and peril, without mixing up the Crown in the question.
Thiers said he had but a few more observations to make,
for he considered that a discussion which might appear purely
personal would be unworthy the dignity of the Chamber. He had
drawn a comparison between the situation of the country in 1839
and 1844, but the terms of that comparison had been denied. The
country bad been troubled in 1840 ; and why ? Because a grand
question of foreign policy had been raised; one party thinking that
the Eastern question was one on which France ought to declare
war, and the other party being of a contrary opinion. For his own
part, he defended the cause of Egypt with more strength than those
who then sat on the Ministerial benches; he replaced the French
Ambassador at London by one who was considered to be more fa.
vourable to the cause of Egypt; but he no more deserved to be ac-
cused of wishing to bring about a foreign war than the present Ca-
binet merited to be accused of wishing to produce a civil war by the
census.—(Murmurs).
The Chamber adjurned at half-past five.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 17. _ .

The Chamber having closed on Tuesday the general discussion
on the Address, commenced to-day the discussion of the para-
graphs. The Presidnet read the first paragraph.
Ducos, the first speaker, contested the truth of the eulo.
giums bestowed upon the Government in the paragraph, and said,
for his part, he felt little disposed to ratify them, the Ministry not
enjoying either his sympathy or confidence, nor that of the
Chamber, whose loyal concurrence' was anything but secured to
them. The Ministry, he admitted, had devoted friends, but the
majority, on whom they relied for support, was hostile, and their
main force consisted of what he would term a foreign legion. Its
stability only rested en the difficulties which the construction of a
new Cabinet presented. After enumerating several points of minor
importance, on which the Ministry was abandoned by the majo.
rity, M. Ducos reminded them of the signal defeat they had suffered
in the discussion on the right of search, when the Chamber tore
the Convention of 1641, already signed by the Minister for Fo-
reign Affairs, and commanded him to demand the abrogation of
the treaties of 1831 and 1833. M. Ducos said, that the country
certainly enjoyed a considerable share of prosperity; but that
welfare was the result of the Revolution, of the intelligence,
activity, and good sense of the people. So far from the progress
keeping pace with the past, he would tell Ministers that there
was actually a marked falling off in the public fortune, and he
then mentioned numerous facts to prove that the maritime trade
of France had never been in a more suffering condition than at
present.
Cunin Gridaine, the Minister of Commerce, contested the
reality of the gloomy picture drawu by M. Ducos, and proceeded to
substantiate, by quoting official returns, the truth of th e favourable
accounts of the trade of the country exposed in the Royal discourse.
In 1842, he confessed there had been a decrease of 105,000,000 f.
in the sum total of the commerce of France, but he would remind
the Chamber that the preceding years had been years of extraordi.
nary prosperity, the amount of the commercial transactions of
France having exceeded 2,187,000,000 f. In 1637, a much
greater reduction had taken place; the general returns were in
that year 300,000,000 f. less than in 1836, which did not prevent
the commerce of France making a new stride, and rising from
1,500,000,000 f. in 1837, to 2,187,000,000 in 1842. To prove
the progress of commerce, M. Cunine Gridaine compared the aver.
age results obtained from 1827 to 1636 with those of 1837 to
1841, and stated the augmentation to have been 717,000,000 in
1842. In 1843, the documents already forwarded to his depart-
ment showed that the improvement still maintained itself, that
there was an increase of 20,000,000 in the imports, and a still
greater in the exports.
Lestiboadois, who succeeded the Minister, produced official
returns to show that the decrease in the trade had not been
partial, but had endured for several years—that is, ever since the
accession to power of the present Ministry, and which he ascribed
to the fatal concessions they had made to foreign nations. He
cited, amongst others, the ruinous effects of the conventions con-
cluded with England and Belgium, in respect of the thread and
linen trades.
M. Fulchiron, was obliged, notwithstanding his devotion to the
Ministry, to confess that agriculture was, in many departments, in a
suffering condition, and required to be encouraged by the esta-
blishment of strong protective duties.
M. de Tocqueville reproved in strong terms the conduct of the
Minister of Justice throughout the deplorable quarrel which had
arisen between the clergy and the patrons of the University, and
expressed fears that the culpable indifference at first manifested by
the Government, and the impolitic war which it had afterwards
waged against the former, would in the end be detrimental to re-
ligion, and terminate in the tranformation of the ministers of the
gospel into a class of public functionaries, and Catholicism into a
political religion—a transformation which would ultimately lead
to its extinction in France.
Villemain, the Minister of Public Instruction, vindicated
the glorious Uuiversity of France against the imputations cast of
late upon its professors by the enemies of the existing order of
thirq s, and which, he said, were entirely inspired by party spirit,
for nobody in France, no more than O'Connell in Ireland, believed
that the institutions of the University were schools of impiety.
M. de Tocqueville afterwards rose to explain, and was followed
by N. de Chambolle.

A FATHER SETTING FIRE TO
HIS OWN CHILD.
An inquest was concluded on Tuesday night, which had
been adjourned twice, at the King's Arms, in William-street,
Bishopsgate-street, Birmingham, on the body of Eliza An-
drews, four years old, which disclosed the following revolting
details :
On Tuesday morning, the 9th inst., an alarm of fire was
given in No. 10 Court, Vale-street, and it was discovered, a
little before eight, that a room in the court was on fire, and
the deceased, who was alone in the house, was so dreadfully
burnt as to cause her death in the Queen's Hospital the next
morning. On the jury meeting on Thursday, circumstances
of so much suspicion against Richard Andrews were elicited,
that he was ordered by the Coroner to be forthwith placed in
the custody of Sergeant Hall.
Among the evidence taken en that occasion was that of
Joseph Pearce, who said,—l live in No. 10 Court, Vale-street.
I know the prisoner, who lives in the same court. I knew the
deceased, his daughter • her mother has parted from her father
about three weeks. The father and the child were the only
inmates. On Tuesday morning, a little before eight, I beard
screams in Andrews' bed-room. I ran up into my attic, where
I could see into his room. I there saw the child in flames
amongst a parcel of shavings, on which she slept. She ap-
peared as if fighting with the flames. I ran down, and found
the door locked. I burst it open, and brought the child out,
and tore her clothes off as well as I could. No one was in the
house but the child ; there was no fire in the grate upstairs,
but there was a fire down stairs. The child was taken imme-
diately to the Queen's Hospital. It was burnt snore in the
upper part of the body, and the clothes as well were mostly
burnt at the top.
Elizabeth Chambers, after describing the state of the fire,
and the burning of the child, said, that after it was taken to the
hospital, the father came up the court with a key on his finger.
I said "Do you know that your child is burnt to death ?" He
said "Is it?" He took no further notice whatever. He did
not display any feeling. I never saw him ill use the child ;he
seemed very fond of it.
Betsy Woodhall, of 53, Vale-street, heard Andrews slap the
child about six o'clock on the morning of the accident, and de-
clare that if it did not go to sleep he would dash its brains out.
Sophia Griffiths, of 10 Court, Vale-street, Mr. Bull, the
agent of the landlord, Lucy Ridding, who resided with Sarah
Griffiths, and Caroline Pearce, of the same court, all swore
positively that a cinder was found among the remains of the
bag of shavings on which the child lay.
Mary Whittaker, a patient in the hospital, said that about
eight o'clock on Tuesday the deceased said she was cold and
had gone down stairs to warm herself. She afterwards fell
asleep, and on awaking about eleven o'clock, when I was giving
her some drink, I said, " My dear, you will not set yourself
on tire again ?" She said, " I did not set myself on fire, it was
any father set me on fire, and he gave me a slap, and covered
me with a rug, and called me a little naked frog. I consider
the child was in her senses when she said this to me. She re-
peated the same thing many times, and said, " Oh 1 naughty
father 1" The father came to see her in the hospital, and she
clasped him round the neck.
The Cots ONER pointed out the various bearings of the evi-
dence upon the ease, and the jury having retired for about
ten minutes, gave in a verdict of Wilful Murder against Ri-
chard Andrews.

DESTRUCTION OF PORTAVO-lIOUSE 1W FIRE.—
Portavo-house, the seat of Mr. David S. Kcr, M.P., has been burnt
to the ground. The destructive element, it is supposed, had been
secretly progressing for some days, but on Sunday morning last, at
two o'clock, it burst forth with irresistible fury in Lady Selina's Ker's
bedchamber. Such was the rapidity with which the flames extended,
that scarcely any thing was saved, and had the family been in bed,
the consequences must have been truly deplorable. We are happy
to learn that no live, have been lost, or bodily injury sustained by
any person.
A lake of ninety acres, on Sir C. Burrell's Essex
estate, was drawn off the other day, and the take of fish was—carp,
2,917, weighing 49 cwt. 2 qrs. ; pike, 466, weighing 5 cwt. 2 qrs. 231b5.;
eCh; tl cwt, 1 qr.; 0014. 178 perch awl 100 W1101:10 rifighect,