The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE MORNDI6 PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES.--The Washington Union of the 31st of
October publishes a declaration on the subject of the
Oregon territory, which is regarded in the United States
as a precursor of the President's message, and a distinct
intimation of the course which the American Cabinet
are prepared to follow. We shall not, however, deal
with the; reckless and injurious production as if it were a
state paper. The pen from which it emanates is evi-
dently alike unconscious of the restraint of public duty
and the decorum of political life, and Mr. Polk will soon
answer for himself, without being made to share the
disgrace of such anonymous incendiaries as these. We
perceive, however, with satisfaction, that the language
of the most influential journals of New Yock, Boston,
andh
and Philadelphia continues to be quite as temperate,
quite as averse to war for so miserable an object, al. the
sincerest friends of peace can desire. In spite of the
efforts which have been made in the United States t d
o le-
seminate and accredit an exaggerated and one-sided view
of the American claims beyond the Rocky Mountains,
the pretensions of the Government are not unanimously
upheld by the convictions of the most enlightened
classes, eepbcially of the Whig party; and the politicians
of New York are not so infatuated as to overlook the
disastrous consequences of a war with Great Britain, for
theepurpose of making acquisitions upon the coasts of the
Pacific which must at least be indifferent or injurious to
themselves. They argue that the value of the whole
Oregon territory is infinitesimally small compared with
the interests that would be sacrificed by a war, and that
a question which has admitted of half a century of dis-
cussion cannot be of vital interest to the honour of the
United States. In these views, it is needless to say, we
cordially concur, and we only wish they were as general
as they are sound and sensible. It cannot be too often
repeated that the question has been brought into its pre-
sent embarrassing and threatening condition by the
United States' Government, and not by Great Britain.
It would have been easy for the negotiators and Minis-
ters of this country at former periods to have put forward
a case for the establishment of the exclusive sovereignty
of England over the whole country, founded on
discovery and occupation, and at least equal to any
claim which American statesman could maintain.
But nothing of the kind has been done by us. Throwing
aside all the superior and earlier grounds of sovereignty
which we might have urged, and disclaiming that very
sovereignty which we might have asserted, we have
taken our stand upon the treaty of 1790, and from first
to last we have demanded and exercised no more than
the right of joint occupancy which that treaty secured
to ourselves in common with the Spaniards. The Ame-
ricans, who have now succeeded by the treaty of 1819
to this right of Spain, endeavour to make more out of it
than Spain herself could ever have made. They seek,
by dint of introducing fresh, irrelevant, and contestable
evidence, to weld an original claim of their own to
exclusive sovereignty over the country upon this
acknowledged right of joint occupancy between Eng-
land and Spain; and the first use they make of this
juggle of rights is to contend for our absolute expulsion
from a country we have held, with one exception, for fifty
years, and which we only seek to continue to hold on the
same terms. Such attempts, especially when they are
encouraged by vehement declarations on the part of the
President of the Republic, amount to a positive inva-
sion of our existing territorial right. Their object is
to deprive us of something we actually possess and have
long possessed ,_• and thus far the whole character of the
transaction is offensive on the part of the United States,
and defensive on that of England. We can scarcely
regret the extreme moderation of the conduct of forirer
British Governments in this negotiation (though wehold
it to have been below what the facts of the case would
have justified), when we see the strength it must give
our position in the eyes of the world. If we are driven
to war itself, the world will comprehend and acknow-
ledge that we are not sacrificing the peace of the globe to
the acquisition of a sterile territory—that we are not
even denying the right of the Americans to form settle-
ments in that territory, since we admit their joint occu-
pancy,—but that we are defending the great and funda-
mental right of occupation by British subjects under the
faith of a treaty and the protection of the Crown ; and
that such a right is in every part of the globe equally
inviolable. The American case is in every. respect the
opposite of our own ; it is a pure aggression ; it ac-
knowledges no concurrent right in its rival ; it seeks
only to drive out the men who have held the country
for half a century •, and, as if an arrogant presumption
could supply the place of real confidence, it refuses to
submit these claims to the test of arbitration. We are
not much surprised at the pertinacity with which this
last proposal has been rejected, for a slight degree of
investigation would satisfy any impartial judge that in
the course of the last thirty years the whole question
has been shifted, until it has assumed a shape never
dreamed of in 1814. At Ghent, in that year, and in
the subsequent negotiations of 1818, 1824, and 1826,
the northern boundary of the United States was
considered by the American plenipotentiaries to run
along the 49th degree parallel of latitude. The ques-
tion then pending between Great Britain and the
United States, as is repeatedly stated on both
aides in the course or those transactions, re-
lated to the territory south of that parallel,' thati is,
between latitude 49 deg. and latitude 42 deg.; the Ame-
ricans claimed the whole of it, the English proposed to
eivide it. But as to the northern tract of the same re-
gion, extending from lat. 49 deg. to latitude 50 deg. 40
min., no discussion whatever took place; and until very
recently no one called in question the exclusive right of
Great Britain to that :region, to which certainly no
Spanish settlers or navigators laid any claim whatever.
' This claim, therefore, extending from the frontier of
Mexico to that of Russia, and excluding us from the
coast of the Pacific altogether and from the Straits of
Fuca, is a novelty. It was probably originally put for-
ward to facilitate the acquisition of the portion which
the Cabinet of Washington did claim ; but recent pub-
lications have confounded the whole tract together, and
we aro now gravely told by the organ of the Ame•
rican government that Mr. Polk is prepared to declare
in the most unequivocal terms the absolute right of the
United States to the whole Oregon territory down to the
Russian line. It is natural that these exorbitant pretensions
should meet with little encouragement in New England
and New York ; but the moderate party which utterly
failed in preventing the annexation of Texas, will have
still less chance of success in arresting the policy of the
President on this occasion. On the contrary, Texas
herself will immediately send representatives to the
Lower House and to the Senate, who will promote the
cause of the party by which they have been them-
selves absorbed. The rapid and enormous increase
of population to the South and West must warn
any American statesman ambitious of democratic
support that the real elements of power in such
a community are in growth there, and are cora-
parati vely stationary in the older parts of the coun-
try. The New England states will ere long be to
the Union i.o more than the Welsh counties are
to Great Britain. They are already quite outnum-
bered in the House of Representatives ; and the party
of which they are the nucleus will now be outvoted in
the S-nate. To form therefore a correct estimate of
the pad cy of such a politician as Mr. Polk we must look
net to .the reason and experience of her eastern states,
but to the turbulence and numerical strength of the
West. There the country runs no risk of invasion. The
telrenterons habits of a new people are ever disposed to
warfare. Even the burden of taxation would fall on
the mercantile class; and in the west there is a vague
prnesetetiment that another generation will cross the
a•lcyM cuntains, anti launch its fleets on the Pacific.
Steele motives and tendencies as these a wise and firm
Gov-an:tient would seek only to correct and restrain.
But we qasstion whether Mr. Polk has the intention or
the power to do either one or the other; and we are fully
prepared to learn that he is exciting what he dares not
attempt to control. Meanwhile, it must be assumed from
the Lan yiae,.e of the American official papers, that the nego-
tietton is virtually at an end—that is to say, not that it
hes be en violently broken off, but that the proposals
matte en both sides have been respectively rejected and
that no further proposals are now pending between the
tn.. Governments, unless the plan of arbitration be re-
turned. Such we believe to be the true state of the case.
The assertion of some of our Contemporaries, that Mr.
P.tkeriliain had proposed that the question should remain
in abeyance for twenty years, and that the inhabitants of
Orrgoir should then determine their own political rela-
tioee to Great Britain or to the union, is, we are con-
vinced, wholly unfounded, for it would amount to a
disguise.] surrender of all the rights of the Hudson's
lit), Company. The probability is, that Congress will
glee! notice that the provisional treaty now in force shall
expire in twelve months ; and we shall then discover
whether the American Government is prepared to act
upon the views it professes to entertain. As for our-
selves, the dfactual defence of our own positions in the
ceueto and on the Columbia is all we have at present
to prori,le fer ; but if the provisional treaty be termi-
nated by either party, the principle of joint occupation
will cease, and our original rights to the country will
be revived to their full extent.
CHRONICLE.—The most serious and important war
that can rage in the United States, is now that between
Angle-American at .d Spaniard, or between Anglo-
Atoerican and English, although these two make all the
noise, and attract all attention. the real strife is that
Nwle'ch is carriedon them UnitedStatea itself, between in-
telligence and humanity on the one hand, physical force
and slavery on the other. It is the struggle between the
velem Teial, and manufacturing. and religious north, and
the race of planters which lord it over the south. The
bat: le was long fought, and is still in some degree main-
tained, between two aristocracies—the aristocracy of
manufactures, money, and trade, and the landed aristo-
cracy in the south. Between these two parties there
existed,'and does exist in the United States, a third,
attic :i ought arid might have held the balance between the
two aristocracies, and corrected the arrogance of both.
Mei.; thin] party is the genuine democracy of the
cointry—tho people, the earners, the mo lerately rich,
thou: intsrested in individual independence and popular
freedom. It would have been much more natural for
this, the real democratic party of the Union, to have
allied with the Whig, as the American Conservatives
are called, than with the slave-holding, aristocracy of the
south. But in .America, even more than elsewhere, the
aristocracy of moneyed wealth and intelligence has ex-
cited the jealousy. and thereby. the hatred, of the people.
From this cause there has arisen, in the north-eastern
states, a democratic party, opposed to the
_Whigs, and
allied with what we should call the ruffianly politicians
of the south-west. We are sorry to use so hard a word
as " ruffianly;" but really there is no other so true or so
expressive of the Jacksonian school, as exemplified in
its treatment of Florida and Texas, and of the moneyed
iclrkfin 'gni& at home. The political dissenters of
e democrats of New York may be
hP 441 • with the Jacksonians from the
cOmmott 'SOW\ ich both bear to the monied
aristioOteV.e " is is merely social hatred on the
fa, rittirr"alh, , s, for in interest they cannot help
• Din u(Airtani tit that rotective or prohibitive sys-
steurez protective or prohibitive 5Y5
the democrats of this region have
dres/ which lepends the prosperity of the
-.7ncirthem_itaiet --But the democrats of this region have
3

sacrificed their interest to their feelings, at least so they
find. Notwithstanding the care they took in the con-
ventions, which preceded the last presidential election,
to stipulate for the interests of the north, still they con-
sented to elect a personal friend of Jackson, and one of
his school, however moderate and obscure. Mr. Polk
promised at first to act impartially. and fairly to the two
democratic sections which united in elevating him. He
even leaned at first towards the northern democrats, got
rid of Calhoun, and appointed Buchanan. But success
has rendered him arrogant ; for he now boldly avows his
determination to follow the pure Jacksonian policy, to run
the risk, in his defiance of Great Britain, even of annexing
regions from which slave states may be made, to lower the
tariff, and deny the New England states their present rate
of protection. The Van Burenites are furious, and ory
treason, whilst the Whigs point at the dupes and mock
them. This would be a serious matter for Polk, were
he to be re-elected. But he has three years of rule be-
tore him, and he seems resolved to pursue his policy,
and signalize his reign by triumphs in his own sphere
of views. In these he may persist, in these succeed; but
the result inevitably must be a falling off of the northern
democrats from the men of Tennessee, and a better un-
derstanding with the Whigs. This will unite the north
against the south, and thus resuscitate that serious strife,
within the bowels of the Union, from which the Ameri-
cans have more to fear, and to which they had much
better look, than to English hostility, or European in-
terference. It is a startling fact, and not a welcome one,
to find that as the United States advance in power and
population, the Government, and political influence in
general, seem more and more to desert its intellectual re-
gions, and to centre in States where the energy of unclad-
lised passions reigns uncontrolled. The ruling party of the
Union is no longer to be found in New York or Philadel-
phia, but in Tennessee. The qualities of an orator or a
statesman at once and forever exclude an American from
becoming the president of his republic. In these days, to
be a successful candidate, one must be a rude planter of
the west, a slave dealer, a wielder of the bowie-knife, a
denizen of the back woods. Some Americans proposed
to stipulate that the President of Texas should become
President of the United States, provided he would carry
annexation. The choice was not unnatural. The wilder
the candidate, the nearer to the extreme verge of civi-
lisation, in character as well as in abode, the fitter does
a man seem to win the admiration and respect and at-
tachment of parties in the United States. They seem
unwittingly to adopt the old paradox of Rosseau, that
a man in the savage state only is virtuous and wise
It will be a deplorable and singular effect of this
ascendancy of the backwoodsmen over the men of
knowledge and the men of wealth, if the former
should provoke a war with England, of which the
latter must necessarily bear all the blows. The
men of the west are invulnerable end untaxable.
They may go forth to joie in, and enjoy, the sport
of war which they have set on foot. But they can en-
dure neither the disasters nor expenses of it. Having
worked a most groundless jealousy and fear of British
power and ambition, through the thick-headed stupidity
of the northern democratic party, who swallowed such
nonsense and re-bellowed it forth, the cunning south-
westers have made use of it to annex Texas, and lay
thereon the foundation of an electoral majority' which it
is beyond the power of the northerns ever effectually to
resist. Having made use of the northern cat's-paw to
get the nut out of the fire, they, would now thrust the
same paw to grope in hot cinders for the Oregon,
that blindest of nuts even if acquired. To hear er
read New York journalists spurring and befooling
their ignorant townspeople, by dinning into their ears
that England wants California, and is about to pur-
chase it ; that she was in the market for Texas the
other day; and that her whole efforts are strained, in
order to do some little spite to the United states of
America—that, therefore, it is just and wise te defy
England, and that America can with impunity
defy England, because Liverpool and Manchester could
not exist without American cotton—to hear people, pre-
tending to reason and knowledge, uttering such non-
sense as this, which would not impose upon an ape, and
getting men even worse than apes, to believe them, does
really present such an example of self-complacent yet
. malignant idiotism, that we are led to doubt altogether
the once proverbial keenness of the Yankee, and to be-
lieve, that in seeing high political influence transferred
from New York to Tennessee, and from the Northern to
Southern races, and purely to serve Southern purposes
—that this is merely the natural transfer of power from
the stupid to the crafty, and from ignorant and self-
sacrificing spite te sharp-witted and calculating cunning.
As to the Whigs—the John Adaanses, the Henry
Clays, the Daniel Websters they seem des-
tined to disappear like the other lost species of Ame-
rican life, to have their skeletons turned up at some
futtire day by some historic antiquary. In the provincial
elections even of the north, the Whig influence has
dwindled to nothing. At a Whig meeting the other day,
more than one-half were for marching to the Oregon,
which does not surprise us. If they could discover a
new hemisphere they should emigrate to it, for the poli-
tical deluge has overwhelmed them iu America. But
those who remain—by divesting themselves of the name
of Whig, by disavowing talent, concealing wealth, ab-
juring oratory and statesmanship, and thus permitting
themselves to be absorbed by the more vulgar Demo-
crats—may survive as a part of them, and may in this
manner resuscitate that struggle of North against South,
of intellect against barbarism, and of freedom against
slavery, in which once lived and reposed the hopes and
wospects of the New World.

FREE PARDON FOR SAMUEL
CHAMBERS. _

We have great pleasure in giving insertion to the fol-
lowing letters, and do not doubt that equal pleasure will
be felt by our readers in perusing them : _
" 30, Cadogan-place, Nov. 18, 1845.
"Dear Sir,—l have the satisfaction to send a copy of
the reply to the application made to the Secretary of
State in the case of Samuel Chambers, by which you
will see that the opinion given in 1844 by the Attor-
ney-General is confirmed; that a pardon is, of course, to
be granted; and that steps are to be taken to ensure to
Chambers a free passage home from Van Dieman's
Land.—l am, dear Sir, your faithful servant,
" J. Thompson, Esq.', " WYNN' ELLIS.
(Copy.)
" Whitehall, Nov. 13, 1845.

" Sir,—With reference to your letter of the 30th 0
June last, transmitting a petition in behalf of Samue
Chambers, who was convicted at Leicester in 1844, and
under his sentence, transported to Van Dieman's Land,
I am directed by Secretary Sir James Graham to ac
quaint you that further inquiry has been made relative
to the case, from which it appears that the conviction
was bad. Sir James Graham has therefore recommended
a free pardon, which will be immediately prepared and
dispatched to the colony, together with orders for the
free passage of Samuel Chambers to this country, if ho
should de:Are it.—l am, Sir, your most obedient, humble
servant,
(Signed)
" Wynn Ellis, Esq., M.P., &c."
A gentleman in this town has taken great interest n
the case, started off immediately upon receipt of the good
news to convey the intelligence to poor Chambers's wife
and family. They, as our readers may perhaps remem-
ber, are living at Awsworth, a village about eight miles
beyond Nottingham. Our informant states that he called
upon the Rev. Mr. Lund, who accompanied him to the
cottage where the poor man's wife resided, and gra-
dually broke the news to her. We leave our readers to
imagine the effect of the tidings ; it was worth while
being the messenger to witness it.—Leice.ter Chronicle.

"S. M. PHILLIPS.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
HUNTING APPOINTMENTS.
Seventh (Queen's Own) Hussars stag hds., Sat, Stratford
—ll4l
South Berkshire hds., Tues., Thatcham ; Fri., Brad-
field-10i.
Sir John Cope's hds., Wed.; Rye-common; Fri., The Mole
(Arbortield)-10
Crairen lids., Wed., Redwin Brick-kiln ; Fri., Ashdown
Park; Sat., Welford Woods-10i.
Lord Elcho's hds., Tues., Preston-by-Dense ; Wed.,
Marchmont ; Fri., Belchester ; Sat., Newbiggin=lol.
Goggerddan hds., Thurs., Wynllan •, Sat., Kennel-10.
Hambledon hds., W ed., Hogg's Lodge ; Fri., Corhampton-
down.
Hursley hds., Fri., Pitt-house (Brashfield)-101.
H. Tues., our-lanes (Beauworth) ; Thurs., Preston
Candover ; Sat., Hollybourne-down-14
Mr. Morrell's hds., Wed., Chilton-common.
N. P. H., Tues., Marchwood ; Thurs., EtTord Mill; Sat.,
Vinney Ridge.
Vine hds., Wed., Poleswood • Sat., West Sherbourne-11.
Colonel Wyadham's Ms.; Wed.,e astdean Woodgate ; Fri.,
Alversfoot-hill-11i.

IPSWICH INCOME-TAX COMMISSIONERS.—Accounts
have reached us from various parties that the affairs of the
Income-tax Commissioners in this town, are neither con-
ducted with courtesy, good feeling, and, we were about adding,
common good faith towards those who seek for justice at
their hands. Whether this is occasioned by the Commis-
sioners themselves, or through their functionary, we are not
informed. We are told that surcharges on grounds the most
frivolous have been made, and a wide feeling prevails that
this cannot be done either through inadvertence or a fairly
grounded presumption that such surcharge approaches
nearer the income tban the return made. At any rate,
where an official addition has been made to the presumed
taxable income of a person, the Commissioners should at
least perform so much of their duty as requires them to
hear the appeal of the party, particularly when they have
themselves fixed the day of appeal. Wednesday last was a
day of appeal„the time of hearing eleven o'clock. Though
appealing parties were present, not a Commissioner made his
appearance until two o'clock, then only one, and it is said the
proceedings dragged their slow length along until half-past
three, when an adjournment took place until Thursday, in
order, says a correspondent, that " Mr. Gross might go home
to dinner." On Thursday, a few Commissioners attended, it
is true, but only, we suppose, after they had been told, that
if parties who hal attended punctually on the previous day
were called by their business and professions many miles on
the next, that the Commissioners must take the con-
sequence. The tax itself is surely odious enough, without
being rendered more so by those whose duty it is to render
it less disagreeable.—Suffolk Chronicle.
BIRKENHEAD.—TURN• OUT OF WORKMEN AT THE
NEW Doers.—On Wednesday last a portion of the labourers
employed on the works connected with the new decks struck
for an advance of wages. In the morning about 300 of them
assembled in Cannon-street, and marched in a body from
thence to Chester-street, where they dispersed shortly after-
wards. During the afternoon some stones were thrown at
several of the men who had refused to leave off work, and
there was a second meeting in Chester-street, when the
police were called out. The men who had assembled were,
however, very peaceable, with the exception of one or two of
the leaders, who used some violent and threatening language
to the police, which led to their being taken into custody.
The parties who have struck are termed the day men, and
we understand they seek an advance from 2s. gd., and in
some cases 2s. 10d. to 3s. per day. Yesterday numbers of
them were loitering about the streets.—Liverpool Mercury.
Tr4E TOME OF THE MARTYR DR. TAYLOIL.—We
lament to learn that the tomb of Dr. Taylor, in the field
near Hadleigh, which was the scene of his martyrdom, has,
within the last week, been very much injured, either by
wanton mischief or by malignant feeling against the memory
of him who sealed with his Wood his confession of the Pro-
testant faith.—Norfolk News.