The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-15 00:00:00

øhrrning a~~r.

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 15, ts 44,

Sir ROBERT, PEEL, who has now beeu three years
in office, has met with more defeats in the 110 se of
Commons than' any Prime Minister, during the same
time, that ever preceded him. Thougli.he hasoomi:
, Pally,. a 4-najority at his back, which fills up the full
complement of three'figures, considered if) the good old
Tory days absolutely necessary to carry' on. business i
though he has all the talent of the ronegadeWhigsand
ittialoals, and is supported by the landed interest, the
moneyed interest, and the West and East India interest ;
though he has all the Bishops and clergy, and -mono-
' •Polists of every shade—he is the most helpless Minister
that ever ruled the destinies of the country. His
1444 *try has been. called the. "strong "'Ministry-;
' but 'the: ' history of. his Cabinet • only
Ole' old
a' Proverb, That there is nothing
in • 4, It we except that beautiful measure,
the income-tax, and
not aware that hegis3,as the New Tariff Bill, we are
doneorit anything.for which either
. Tories, or Whi
can thank him.
Thee were his own meas adiCals,
; but how has he sue
_coded in Bills which he entrusted ustieid to his new col-
leagues, and especially to the Secretary, Sir.
JAMES GRAHAM ? There is a. ititri• Y about every-
- thing the once RadiCal Baronet un:ertait
is. only the result which might be expected from undertakes, and this
„just IaWS by whiCh all .tbe-,
atnau operations are

4,,verned. During his short cicn in office he has
broughl- fbrwarl three important Bills,which have all
m:Ferablv failed; and what is the most disgraceful ,
feoturu in these defeats. thy were so notoriously bad
that ven the " three figures" had not the courage to
support them. The amendment of the Poor-law Bill
he was obliged to shuffle off till some more
convenient period ; the Factories Education
Bill was damned by the Dissenters alone; and the
Twelve Factories Bill bids: fair to meet the
same fate, from, the supporters of the " strong Mi-
nistry." ASHLZY, and FERRAND, and OASTLE& are
up in arms against the. Government, and neither the
RICHMONDS nor the BUCKINGHAM come to their re-
lief. Another great measure has been introduced
this session, which far surpasses all the rest in im-
portance, and for that Sir ROBERT PEEL. has also to
thank his new Whig-Radical alliesi:; Lord STANLEY,
when out of office, introduced a. Disfranchisement
Bill for Ireland; but the Whig Government, though
weak, was still too powerful for him, and after some
vain attempts to carry the obnoxious and most unjust
restrictions on- the registrations in the sister country,
he was compelled to abandon it. The same measure
is now introduced in a new shape, and under
different auspices—under the auspices of a nobleman,
who should, above all others, have been saved from
such an odious task. Lord ELIOT went to Ireland
with the best prospects, for a Tory Secretary, of
success. He was believed to be a-Man of mild and
conciliatory disposition. He was' regarded by his
party as too liberal ; but, nevertheless, a display or a
deception was necessary, and a deception is the result.
He has been made the instrument of Lord STANLEY
or Sir JAMES.GRAHAM ; he has roused up an addi-
tional cry of indignation in Ireland _ against the
Government. Concession, said Sir. JAMES GRAHAM,
had reached its utmost limits ; but to oppression there
is to be no limits. Twenty-five thousand county
electors are to be struck at once off the roll, with as
little ceremony as the old forty-shilling voters, and,
according to the
_showing of Lord Emor,without any-
thing like a proportionate compensation. The Bill is
exceedingly complicated, and of course is totally incom-
prehensible to the great body of the Irish people ; but
this naturally makes them look upon it with the more
suspicion, and leads them to the conviction that
while renegade Whigs are in office there is no salva-
tion for their country but in determined resistance.
Neither Sir ROBERT PEEL nor Lord ELIOT is re-
garded as the author of this obnoxious scheme. It is
traced to a different member of the Cabinet, and
that member has ever shown the most bitter hostility
to the sister country. Can any man then wonder
that a new impulse is given to the repeal cry, and
that Mr. O'CONNELL .sets all the sufferings of im-
prisonment at defiance on the announcement of this
new outrage to his native land ? Sir R. PEEL solemnly
declared that the Reform Bill was not to be touched;
yet he allows a great inroad to be made upon it in a
quarter where there was the loudest complaints of its
defects. As a necessary consequence; the whole of
Ireland is against him. We are not aware that there
is one journal, or one party, or even the section of a
party, in that country that looks upon his administra-
tion with common forbearance. Catholics and Orange-
men and Presbyterians vie with each other in
denouncing the " strong Ministry." And does it
fare better in England? Of all the daily journals
published in the metropolis, only one solitary organ
raises its fee ble voice for PEEL. Never was there such
a shameful discomfiture; hut it is a just retribution.
Renegades rarely succeed. Sir ROBERT PEEL tools,
as his supporters Lord STANLEY and Sir JAMES
GRAHAM, and to his sorrow he finds that he trusted to
a broken reed.

The time is probably not distant, at which, owing
to the improved machinery adopted in the collection
and arrangement of statistical facts, we may arrive
at modes of determining many political problems
of extreme interest, with more celerity and certainty
than have yet been attained, under less perfect
facilities, for" arriving at authenticated economical
data. If the scheme and working of the New Poor
law have effected no other good, they have, at least,
lay degrees, organised a test of singular efficiency in
estimating the relative increase, from time to time;;
of the value of real property—and of its
in England and Wales. And, inasmuch as, of such'
liabilities, none is so extensive or so permanent as the
poor-rate itself, it is well that the fluctuations of the
amount of that charge can henceforth be measured by
an index,paripaBsu with the fluctuations of this value,
of which it is the common indicator. We can
scarcely form an adequate estimate of the enormous
importance of which such digested information must
•prove, in fUture times, to those who may have under-
taken to trace the domestic history of this nation in.
its social and civil progression, and of its agricultural
capital and rental more especially. They will not be
left to the task of deducing unsatisfactory theories
by labourious and protracted investigations, pursued'
through disconnected channels of very various and
uncertain authority, into the obscure effect of a few
darkling hints or accidental allusions (such as the
modern commentators on SUBTONIUS or TACITUS are
compelled to rely upon, in guessing at some meagre
particulars connected with the Imperial revenues, for
example, or the value and taxation of land under the
Empire--such as TACITUS and SUETONIUS them-
selves were under the necessity of 'resorting to in
touching upon the same topics, in their rela-
tion to the earlier ages of the Republic). The
art of :printing will probably perpetuate to the
remotest posterity distinct, intelligible records from
which the future annalist may cull with the certainty
of correctness and authentication, the elementary
principles :and the statistical details of our wealth—
its investments and its administration.

We have already hinted that the returns con-
nected with the Poor-law Amendment Act will,
not be among the least valuable of the contribu-
tions to history, which the practice of our
Legislature, in ordering all such documents
to be printed, will have secured to those who are to
come after us. We have just received a "Blue
Book" that will corroborate (we think) our an•
ticipation. It is entitled "A. Return, showing
the total value of property assessed to the. Poor-
rates, for the year ended Lady-day, 1840; with
the amount of money levied for Poor-rates for
the years ending Lady-day, 1839 to 1842, on each
parish in England and Wales." This exceedingly
important paper appears to have been supplied for the
information of Parliament, on the motion of Mr. Cr,
PALMSIt. That gentleman is entitled to the thanie
of the country for having so shaped • his. mo-
tion, because, the "summary " or 0 abstract" into
which its :explicit and we 11-considered terms have
permitted of the results collected being reduced, pre-
sents, at one glance, on a single page, in six columni,
the substance of the whole detailed reports com-
prised in the subsequent 230 folio pages,7,from all the
many thousands of parishes comprehended within
England and Wales.
We have felt it our imperative duty, in many arti-
cles devoted to that subject, to direct public attention
to the fearfully deteriorated condition and prospects
of our industrial classes. It has been the endeavour
of these articles to point out the cruel, the invidioui,
position in which our monetary system has placed that
vast and meritorious community to show that
the operation of such a system has been, and must
continue to be, to exclude from their fair share of the
distributive benefit which all classes ought to derive
from the multiplication of production and its commodi-
ties, and the reduced prices of • our manufactures,' the'
very body whose wonderful labour has mainly and
permanently kchieved those national advantages,
from the benefit 'of which they alone continue to 'be ex-
cluded: The Sun has repeatedly demonstrated that among
other effects of the Currency-Bill of 1819, this proiue-
ing body is made to bear, annually, the burden of some
thirty millions of taxation, which, on every principle
of common sense, justice, and policy, ought to be
—and in the original contemplation of the Legiala-
tureit was clearly intended they should be--borne
by the rich or competent consumers. Finally, we
have warned our readers not to infer, from the oc-
casional increased activity of trade in given localities,
and the consequent temporary action upon the
market for labour, that to that action any degree
be anticipated ;. or that
aonfypecromnsaindeenracbylemig safely ht
diminution of the grinding. distress
now weighing down our industrial community,, could
be safely calculated upon. We grieve to add that the
"Return.," fatally confirms these gloomy forebodings,
so far as the increase of poor-rates may be taken as a
eriterion of their truth. The total Annual Value of
the Real Property, assessed b.--the Poor-rate,*for

poor-rate of all England and Wales, in 1842, was
nearly one million upon the same charge for 1839.
This is a disgrace, that on many accounts more than
countervails the increased productiveness of the
property•tax, as will Ipe evident to all who consider
how large a displacement of labour, and what multitudi-
nous sacrilce of minute capitals must antecede the
addition of one million per annum to the poor-rates
of England and Wales alone; besides the elements of
this inauspicious increase appear in the detailed re-
turns for the very manufacturing districts in which
trade is said to be most active. Can any facts more
strongly affirm the soundness of the propositions we
have advanced as to the inadequate wages of industrial
labour, and that overruling cause—the vicious prin-
ciples of our monetary system—which,'whilst it exists,
will keep them still inadequate, and accelerate the
march of pauperism and misery.

The Morning Post and the. Morning Herald have
got up a " very pretty quarrel"—as Sir Lucius
O'Trigger would phrase it—on the subject of the
Agricultural Protection Society, which seems ;to be
as much disrelished by the former, as it is approved
by the latter, journal. The Post accuses the first
Tract of that Society, which has just issued from the
press, of coldness and insipidity, and of having a de-
cided tendency to send the farmers to sleep. The
Herald, on the other hand, avers that it is a dispas•
sionate appeal to the good sense of the great body of
the people, as to whether the agrioulturista are not
justified in the course which they have taken; and
adds, that " to have filled such an Address with
warm and spirit-stirring exhortations to energetic
action, as the Post would recommend, would have been
a practical bluader of the most palpable description."
It is amusing to see two journals, both professing
Toryism, both zealous in its cause, and earnest in
their denunciations of the antagonist principle of
Reform, thus going to loggerheads together on a sub-
ject of comparatively little moment, and the exact
merits of which none but themselves can understand.
The Herald, it appears, is too tame for the Post—the
Post too uncompromising for the Herald. This is all
that we can make out respecting the difference be.
tween them, except, indeed, that the Herald is of
opinion that the present Government is the best of all
possible Governments, while the Post insists—to quote
a homely adage .--that it is "no great shakes." Yet,
despite this discrepancy of sentiment, we frequently
find both journals fighting aide by side in the ranks of
Toryism, and bespattering their mutual opponents with
an equal amount of Billingsgate, and, in particular,
laying the lash On the unhappy backs of Messrs.
COBDEN and Bitetrr with all the energy they can
muster ; so that we are really not a little perplexed
to know what is the reason that they are just now so
inveterate with each ether. Perhaps they will
vouchsafe to enlighten us on this point ; and mean-
while we will proceed to make a fewtomments on the
following diverting passage which appears in the Herald
of this morning :—." The predicament of the agricultural
body, at present, is that of patties in possession ; and
who desire nothing more than to be let alone. They
want no sew legislation. They require no agitation.'
Their whole object is to maintain their present posi-
tion ; and this object will be more effectually achieved,
not by raising the country into a flame, but by calm-
ing, as far as may be, the agitation which has of late'
years existed." The naivete of this passage is inexpres-
sibly entertaining. Who does not know that the mo-•
nopolists " desire nothing more than to be let alone ?"
Who requires to be told that "they want no new
legislation ?" Who entertains a doubt that their
" whole object is to maintain their preeent position ?"
As a matter of course they are actuated by
these feelings, for however injurious mono-.
poly may be to the rest of the eommunityi
those who thrive by it—fatten on it—and turn it to
a most profitable account, are naturally anxious to
maintain the system just as it is, without the slightest'
alteration or improvement. But because the mono
polists entertain these views, is that a valid reason
why the country at large should entertain them ?
The boroughmongers were not less anxious to main-
tain possession of the rotten boroughs ; but Lord
GREY, with the people at his back, did not consider,
this a sufficient argument against Reform. • The
Herald adds, in reference to the Anti-Corn-law
League :—" We should be glad to see the Protection
Society endeavour to force from the League, by a
public demand, an explicit statement of its real
objects. It is almost - a 'unique example
of success in the trade of fraud and imposition that a
set of men, who will neither tell the public who they are;
nor what they are really aiming at, should yet have
succeeded in drawing from the public a contribution
of several thousands of pounds." The League, we
conceive, has already quite sufficiently explained it 4
"real objects," and surely there is no need that, for
the twentieth time at least, it should repeat its ex=
planation! Itstreal :object is to put down monopoly
—as our Contemporary knows right well, 'notwiths,
standing his affected ignorance-4o show favour to
none, but to see that fair play is given to the induss
try and enterprise of all. As for the Herald's comi
plaint that the League will not " tell the public who
they are," has not the leader of that great Con+
federacy already told the public that he is the son of a
Sussex farmer; and does not the whole country knoW
that he is an intelligent Manchester manufacturer, a
Member for Stockport, an able speaker, a judicious
man of business, an object of fear and abhorrence to
Mr, BANKES of Dorsetshire, and a thorn in the side of
Sir R. PEEL ? If the Herald, on the part of the
public, is anxious to gain more particulars respectiti
the great leader of the League, we dare say that, on
making due application to him, Mr. Connzw, who is
a courteous gentleman, will supply him with all ne-
cessary information respecting his age, his habits, his
studies, where he was christened, and when he was
married !

The Madrid journals of the sth are chiefly filled
with details of the religious ceremonies observed on
Good Friday. The Cabinet, it appears, has had it
meeting relative to the proposed alterations concerning
the 'press, and it was understood that an ordonnance
on the subject would be published forthwith, and
also for declaring martial law at an end. 'The Depu-
ties, who had been imprisoned now for three months,
had been allowed to receive the visits of their friends,
and great crowds took advantage of the 'circumstance
to leave their names at the prison.
The Bourse remained closed.

•
The affairs .of Otaheite again occupy the attention
of the Paris -journalists. The arrival of an officer
with dispatches from Admiral DUPETIT TUOVAIe 114. S
excited considerable. curiosity ; and, as the . Govern-
ment appear anxious . to conceal their contents', - some
of the Opposition papers infer:. that .tbe intelligenee
froM that quarter is not favourable.• The Siecte,
however, asserts the contrary, and states that the
delay in publishing the documents arises froit the
embarrassment into which the Government:isithroWn
by disowning so hastily the acts of a. public fimo-
tionary, who had merited well of his country. " The
officer arrived from Otaheite,":. says that journal,
" with dispatches from Admiral DUrITIT THOUARO,
and who is said to have brought a most favourable
account of the colony sines the establishment of our
sovereignty, must have been in no slight:degree as-
tounded at the reception he has met with. - He' ex-
pected congratnlatiOns, and perhapi an ovation; but
finds that. a sentence of disavowal has been pro-
nounced, even without that information as to cir-
cumstances which he, no doubt, was commissioned
to lay. before the Minister of Marine.
_The advent of
this officer, who was a member of the. Commission
for insuring respect to the protectorate of France, and
has since been Aiderle-Carnp to Adiniral Dvrarrr
Tumults, is a political event of inccintestible gravity.
The disavowal by the Government has not yet, been
discussed and decided upon by the 'Chamber, thanks •
to the humility of the Ministry, which has dis-
pensed with an approval, and contented itself
with a suspension of sentence of condemnation.
The Ministry owes to the Chamber, and the
country a full communication of all that' has
now pome, to its knowledge' . The : .I"tatiqnai
also calls for explanation on two grounds. " tither I

the dispatches," it says, "justify the conduct of the
Admiral towards Queen POMARE, or they justify the
Government which has censured the Conduct of the
Admiral. in the latter case; the Government owes
to the country and to itself to make known the docu-
ments ; in the contrary case, it owes to the country
and to itself to retract a disavowal which it made too
hastily." The affair it is expected will be brought
before the Chambers in a few days. From another
source we learn that Queen Po rsiti is not the only
person with whom the Admiral has quarrelled. Some
of his own countrymen had rebelled against his au-
thority, and the disputes became so serious that he
was obliged to expel them from the Wand. The fol-
lowing is the aceount given of the transactios taken
from the Journal du Havre
" Scarcely_ had the Governor-General been installed, when
he had to contend against difficulties which, this time, were
not got up by the English, but by our fellow-countrymen
themselves. It appears that several Frenchmen established
in the island have experienced some prejudice in their inte-
rests from our having taken possession of the country, and
have complained much of M. Moerenhout, who was the French
Consul, but who, since our occupation, has been promoted to
the post ofdiroctor of the interior of the new colony. The
charges brought against this functionary were laid before the
Governor-General, who did not consider them to be well
founded. The persons who complained of injury to their in-
terests, instead ofwaiting patiently for as more opportune mo-
ment to demand justice, persisted in their accusations, and in
such terms that the Governor-General thought it necessary to
expel them from the island. Among these wo may men-
tion M. Desalt* who received orders to quit, and who
eventually took his departure hi the Jonas, of Nantes. M.
Desentis intends to appeal to the Council of State, not
merely against M. Moerenhout, but also against Admiral
I Dapetit-Thonars. We shall not go farther now in our reve-
-1 lations of the details which have reached us, and which
are of a nature to give pain to all men who desire that the
name of France should be respected in those distant coun-
tries."

M. REINS, the officer who brought over the dis-
patches, had an interview with the Km; on Wednes-
day, in the presence of the Minister for Foreign
Affairs, the Minister of Marine, and Marshal Souza.
He afterwards proceeded to the British Embassy, and
had an interview with Lord COWLRY.

The Railway Committees for the two lines to
Bordeaux and Lyons were constituted on Thursday,
when M. DD LAMARTINE was choien President for the
latter line, and M. DDYAURE for that to Bordeaux.

A petition in three parts, calling for the immediate
abolition of slavery in the French colonies, signed by
workmen and workwomen of Paris, has been pre-
sented to the :Chamber by Messrs. lEAMBERT, LA•
MARTINE, and AGiNOR DE GASPARIN.
The French Funds continued to advance, the
Three per Cents. on Thursday closing at 83f. 40c..
and the Fives at 123 f. 30c.
THE BOURSE—TituesnAr, • APRIL 11.

First Highest Lowest Last I
Price. Price. Price. Price.
rveneh Five per Cents.-- 123 20 .. 123 30 • • 193 OS .. 123 10
Four per Cents...... 106 10 106 10 .. 106 10 .. 106 10
Three per Cents..... 83 30 ••8340.. 83 30 83 40
Latlitte Bank, 5,000 f. iiharesslss —5155 • • .5155 ..51.55
Bel-gloat .•..••• • • • • • 700 .. 702 50 • • 700 • • 702 50
Belgian Flvee,lB3l ..... 1021 • • 1021 . • • 102 f 1021
1840 106 •• 106 .. 106 .. 106
1842 ..... 1071 1071 • • 107- ..- 1071
Spanish Active 35 • • 35 .. 341 341
Threes
Passive
........61 • • 6 • • 6f • -
New Deferred ..... 151 • • 15} •• 14 •. 151
Portuguese Five per Ceuta.. 47 • • 47 • • • 47 47
Neapolitan.. • 102 30 • . 102 60 . • 102 30 .. 102 50
Boman
* RAILWAY SHARES. •
V
ersailles, 385 .. 385 • • 360 .. 380
...... 255 .. 255 • • 259 50 .. 253 75
Rouen '•
ltonen to Havre 697 50 .. 698 75 • • 697 50 .. 698 75
Orleans 927 50 .. 940 .. 927 30 .. 940
Strasburg to Bare ..
Avignon to Marseilles
Mulhausen to Thanu .• • •
RAILWAY SHARES, FOB THE ACCOUNT.
St Germain
Versailles,.
L. 8.• ••••• • • . • • 254 .. 255 • • 245 .. 252 50
Rouen ...• • •• • • .... 951 25 .• 962 50 . 951 20 • • 962 50
Rouen to Havre.
Orleans . . , • 927 50 .. 940 •• • 927 50 .. 940
Strisbnig to;ltaie •-•
Avignon to Siarsollies•-• 756 25 .. 754 25 .. 756 25 .. 756 25

lier Majesty has been-pleassd to approve the appoint.
meet of Sir Frederick Pollock to be Chief Baron of the
Exchequer, atid of Sir William Follett to be Attorney-
Genera:. VaCancies are Olio created for Huntingdon
and Exeter. We believe that Sir Frederick Pollock will
take his-seat- on. Monday, that being the first day of term,
unless prevented by the trials now, going on at the Old
Bailey.