The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-19 00:00:00

THB WEATIIgn.-SUN OFFICE, JCNE 18.,

FHERMOIKETER, Lowest, 56 ; Highest, 72; Noon, 64.
BAROMETER, S.E.
NOTIL—The number 32 on the Thermometer denotes the
reezing point, and 55 temperate. In Barometers fair is
usually placed opposite 30, and rain at 29.

lIIGH WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE TWA DAY.
Morning 52 minutes after 3 I Evening ... 9 minutes after 4

the two divisions, or for further commentary, on them.
Mr. WILLIAM BAGGE, Sir HOWARD DOUGLAS, Mr.
CHARLES GORING, and Mr. C. TURNOUR, we
observe among those whom new lights, illu-
minated between midnight on Friday and midnight
on Monday, had induced to become opponents of the
amendment they had previously supported. It has
been, altogether, after allowing for the fact that
twenty-four more Members voted last night than on
Friday—one of the most extraordinary " crosses " (in
sporting parlance) ever got up on the Parliamentary
course !

An important public meeting was held on Mon-
day in the Town-hall of Birmingham, on the.subject
of Ireland, when the warmest sympathy was express-
ed for that aggrieved country, and a solemn protest
was recorded against the prosecution, trial, sentence,
and imprisonment of Mr. O'Coroism. and his co-de-
fendants. A few, among many of the reasons, which
induced the meeting to record this protest, are con-
tained in the following significant passage :—" Be-
cause the prosecution has been characterised by cir-
cumstances exhibiting an unfair influence over the
right administration of justice; the suspicious disap-
pearance from the jury-list of the names of a number
of Roman Catholics, whereby the jury, instead
of being composed of twelve creditable men
who-were neighbours to the fact, and unexceptionable
to the parties concerned, was constituted exclusively
of the religious and political opponents of the ac-
cused ; the marked bias against the defendants of one
of the judges who presided; the conflicting opinions
of the Court on several points of law during the
trial ; the vague and undefined nature of the imputed
offence ; and the refusal of a new trial, notwithstand-
ing the judicial decision of Judge PERRIN that the
traversers were entitled to it." These are weighty
reasons, which will be sure to make an impression on
the minds of all intelligent and impartial English-
men. The language in which they are conveyed, is
calm but forcible and decided, and proves that
the men of Birmingham entertain the strongest
feelings of sympathy for the Irish State pri-
soners—feelings which we may observe, by the
way, are fast spreading among , English reformers of
all grades, and will tend seriously to increase Sir
ROBERT PEEL'S already numerous catalogue of Minis-
terial difficulties. It is high time, indeed, that Eng-
land's voice should be heard on the subject of Ire-
land's wrongs, and the Premier be told that, if he
cannot make up his mind to adopt a more enlightened
and conciliatory system of policy towards the sister-
country, he must make way for those who can and
will. He has had quite a sufficient trial ; the utmost
forbearance has been manifested towards him; and
there is no longer the slightest excuse for his delay
in acting justly towards Ireland. It is now ,four
years and upwards since he took the reins of power,
armed with an authority which no Minister has
wielded since the clap of the second PITT. He had
but to command, to be obeyed. The sister-country—
generously forgetful of the past misgovernment of
Toryism—was willing to hope for the best, and accept
an instalment of the heavy debt so long owing to her, if
she-could.not obtain the whole. Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
smooth constant professions of good-will encouraged
these hopes; and the diminished strength of the
.Orange party, which was besides distracted by in-
ternal feuds, gave him the finest possible opportunity
of realiiing a portion, at least, if not all, of his pro-
fessions. But session after session came and went,
and still found nothing, but empty professions
bestowed on , Ireland: Not one of her admitted
grievances was removed—not even an attempt was
made to remove them—the . old inveterate spirit of
Tory distrust was still exhibited towards her ; the
Catholics as usual were kept as much as possible
in the back-ground, and their enemies premoted
to offices
,Of honour and emolument ; and the
Conservative Cabinet showed, throughout their Irish
policy, .that they had changed their name only, and
not their nature. At length, towards the close of
last year, the question of the state of Ireland was
formally brought formiard in the House of Commons.
But was the long discussion that ensued of a cheer-
ing, of a pacific character.? Far otherwise. It was
neither more nor less than a proposition, supported by
the entire weight of Government, and insisted on by
them ua u isimaeneami innst grinding Deo esitYs
for increasing the severity of the existing Arms
Bill And this is about the sum total of the
benefits that the Premier, after four years' un-
controlled authority, has conferred on Ireland ! But
no, we do him injustice. He has, in addition
to his insulting Arms Bill, contrived to
place under the secure lock and key of a Peni-
tentiary, the man of all others most dear to the hearts
of Irishmen—the man who may be said, without
exaggeration, to hold his country's destinies in his
hand—the man who, if we mistake not, will yet be
found too strong
_for the Ministry who have incar-
cerated him., Truly, Ireland has every reason to be
grateful to her Tory rulers—every reason to sink
back into that state of quiescence which she ex-
perienced during the conciliatory Administration of
'Lord NORMARBY ! But the end is not yet come.
True, the monster-meetings are .put a stop to, and
Mr. O'CortziaLL is confined within the four walls of fe.
prison; taut it is his body only that is in durance ;
his spirit still walks abroad ; the seed which he sowed
—be it for good or for evil—still flourishes; and,
perhaps, he was- never so powerful as he is at the
present moment ; for to admiration of his talents and
confidence in his patriotism, are now added the in-
tensest sympathy. in his fate, and the conviction that
his trial has been an unjust one. Sir RoniaT PEEL
has already shown that he cannot govern. Ireland.
yet to show—and the proof, will be forth-
coming ere long—that he cannot govern England..

We recur to the very important subject brought
under: the notice of the House of Commons, on. Mon-
day night last, by Mr. THOMAS DUNCOMBE. The
Hon. Gentlemen, it will be remembered, stated, on
the authority of a petition, which he presented, that
certain letters, written and posted by the petitioners,
Messrs. LINTON, LOVETT, MAZZINI, and others, had ,
been opened, read, and unduly detained at the General
Post-office. Petitioners, who were prepared to prove
the truth of these allegations, declared that the letters
in question, which had been written at No. 47, De-
vonshire-street, Queen-square, Bloomsbury, were not
written with any political purpose, and contained no
treasonable matter. They now prayed the House to
grant a Committee of Inquiry into a proceeding which
they could only identify with the system of espionage
established in the departments of some foreign States,
but which was a system alike repugnant to the spirit
of the British Constitution, and dangerous to the prin-
ciples of British liberty.
All this, and more, is perfectly true of such a system.
It is one calculated, moreover, to excite all the indignant
jealousy of Englishmen on the score of that national
honour and good faith which they appeal to with a
just and noble confidence in protesting against, or re-
senting, the crooked policy observed by other States
in tampering with the private business and affairs of
foreigners who may happen to be within their juris-
diction. The sacredness of sealed letters is (not
to speak disparagingly of so sound a principle),
a moral prejudice, a received axiom, an inalienable
association in the scheme of English society. It is
assumed to be as unviolated in practice as it is unim-
peachable in theory; and the scorn and contempt vi-
sited on its infraction, in private life, are of the most
intense and implacable character which can attach to
the vengeance of opinion. We speak of that opinion
which is the unwritten judgment of the community
(on crimes against social confidante and private inte-
grity)—beyond and independent of all legal penalty.
No wonder, then, that Mr. DUNCOMBE'S address ex-
cited so profound a sentiment within and beyond the
walls of Parliament ; and we trust, for the character
of the country, that the matter it involved is not to
be allowed to sink out of notice, or to escape a most
searching inquiry, out of any consideration for the
shuffling statement offered by the Home Secretary,
Sir JAMES GRAHAM—a statement halting between
habitual arrogance, and awakened timidity ; between
an affectation of the speaker's confidence ini: niasodfficial
impunity, under the latent powers of an unsuspected
clause in a consolidating Post-office statute
ner-
vous indications of his alarm at the succession of un-
welcome questions provoked from various quarters by
the tone and temper of his refusal to supply the infor-
mation demanded of him. Sir JAMES is, after all,
but a clumsy dabbler in the art of managing spies;
he will .find these servilest of public hacks as liable to
break down 'in St. Martin's-le-Grand as at Clontarf
or Donnybrook.
Now let us look a little at the detail of the debate)

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDA

in its actual order. Mr. DUNCOMBE, we repeat, after
the petitioners, stated that the letters were written for
no political purpose, and contained no treasonable
matter. Sir JAMES GRAHAM, in no subsequent pas-
sage, attempts to aver that they did. This should be
borne in mind, because it is a fact which deprives the
Right Hon. Secretary of any ex post facto justification
for breaking their seals to get at their contents. Mr.
DUNCOMBE asked whether the Right Hon. Baronet
was aware that the letters of these individuals had
been so opened, read, and examined at the General
Post-office ; and, if such things had been done, whe-
ther they were done by authority of any of the prin-
cipal Secretaries of State ? Sir JAMES evaded this
question, by assuming that the House was aware that,
from so early a period as the reign of ANNE, power
had been invested in the principal Secretaries, "by
warrant, to detain letters, and to empower the Post-
office authorities to open them." Why, these powers
were granted under so different a state of things from
that which at present exists—internal convul-
sions, a fgreign war, and jacobinical intrigues
for the restoration of the STUARTS..—that it was
then a question of confiding them to the con-
stitutional and clean hands of a GODOLPHIN,
instead of those of a GRAHAM. The same power,
however, Sir JAMES asserts, came under the review of
Parliament in 1837, and, by the Ist VICTORIA, was
continued in her MAJESTY'S principal Secretaries of
State. But, in the first place, even if this were so, it
would only show that, in the scandalous hurry with
which the House of Commons gallops through official
Bills, at the more advanced periods of a session, the
most important and most iniquitous provisions and
powers may escape all observation and discussion ;
and, in the second, the fact remarked by Mr. HUME,
and afterwards cleverly illustrated by Mr. WATSON,
in the debate on Friday, is not exactly, as it suited
Sir JAMES thus to state it. Sir JAMES (who can
never "pull up" in time), carried away by this felici-
tous invocation of ANNE and VICTORIA, wont on to

this very tender ground :—" That the power com-
plained of he had, as Home Secretary, by the law of
the land ; that he had exercised it, as one entrusted to
Ministers for the public safety; that the Parliament.
of the country placed confidence in those who exer-
cised it"—among those, of course, is himself. As if
Parliament had forgotten his unexampled apostacy
from his party;, his inconceivable desertion of his
principles ! As if Parliament could be tutored to for-
get the quondam Radical Whiggery of the present
Tory Secretary, by the humiliating exhibition of
his tacit acquiescence in, and patient endurance
under, the jibes, and taunts, and sneers, of the Pre-
mier whom he now serves, at the " Corn and Cur-
rency" doctrines of " Sir JAMES GRAHAM, of Ne-
therby," in 1827, when appealed to, and vindicated
by, the Birmingham " Gemini" of 1844 ! As if
the House of Commons, with the recollection
fresh in its mind of Education Bills ejected, and
Factory legislation failures, and secret missions,
and private instructions to ostensible reporters
for public :papers, and this last acknowledged
exercise of a power disgraceful to all concerned in its
proposition, its grant, or its use, were reasons for
" confidence," truly ! But then, it seems, with respect

to the letters of three of the petitioners, no warrant
had ever been issued. " With respect to the fourth,
he bad on his own responsibility issued
a warrant which was not' now in force.
So then, in three of these cases, if Sir JAMES will
obstinately withhold further information, we are to
assume no warrants were issued. How came the

letters of these parties, then, to be opened, examined,
read, detained ? Who is to plead to this illegality ?
Does Sir JAMES gravely expect that the Parliament,
or the people of England, sill tamely submit, like
whipped schoolboys, to be assured that for the power
" to have thus been exercised is for the public good."
Mr. DUNCOMBE complained—and with reason, too
—that such proceedings were worthy of foreign
despotisms, only—not of an enlightened monarchy
like this :—that not one man in 20,000 was aware
of the " power" thus smuggled into the Act,
1 VICTORIA ;—that in times of peace especially, there
could be neither excuse nor reason for its being put
in action. He affirmed (and Mr. WALLACE con-
firmed his statement by some remarkable facts) that
within these two years the practice of opening and
detaining letters at the Post-office had largely in-
creased. We cannot concur in Mr. LABOUCHERE'S
defence of his own conduct in 1836-37, in incorpo-
rating such a power as that complained of in his Bill,
on the mere principle that it already existed in pre-
vious statutes, and his was but a Bill of consolida-

tion. No Englishman ought to consent to vest such
a power in any hands, except under much more strin-
gent restraints and control. If necessary in time of
war, or under strong cases of suspected treasonable
correspondence, let the detention and opening be
made matters previous specific communication to,
and authority from, Parliament. Dr. BOWRING, we
suspect, was not far froi the truth in his suspicion

that the letters of the petitioners had been opened,
"not for an honest English purpose, but for a discre-
ditable foreign one." With Mr. HUME'S spirited re-
probation of the practice, and its assumed authority,
we cordially concur. But Mr. 'WATSON brought the
affair to its true constitutional, and Sir JAMES him-
self may find its true responsible, bearing. From the
Right Hon. Baronet's having given no answer to Mr.
'WARBURTON'S inquiry " whether he had issued a se-
parate warrant in each case in which a letter had been
opened," Mr. WATsoN read the words of the 9th
ANN, C. 10, S. 40, which were—" Except by express
warrant in writing under the hand of one of her MA-
JESTY'S principal Secretaries of State for every such
opening, detention, or delay." Now these terms
could never be satisfied by "A" warrant, to be kept
in force till revoked, to open all letters coming in a
particular handwriting to a particular individual.
But in Mr. LABOUCHERE'S Act—of " simple conso-
lidation"—the words gave a power "to open, detain,
or delay letters in obedience to an express warrant,"
&c. These are certainly strangely altered in the pro-
cess of consolidation. But, as Mr. WATSON ob-
served, "In all matters we must look back to sta-
tutes which existed before, and, in doing so, it would
be found they made an express warrant necessary for
each opening." The production of the warrant, or the
warrants, one and all, we trust, will be sternly insisted
upon. Parliament can then form their own construc-
tion of the Home Secretary's construction of an Act
of Parliament. In the meanwhile, her MAJESTY'S
Government must have discovered that in taking Sir
JONAH GRAHAM on board, they have shipped a de-
serter who is sure to sink every vessel that may carry
his unlucky person !

We have received Madrid journals of the 10th, but
they are barren of intelligence. The Funds had im-
proved a little. The Three per Cents. closed at 271
to for cash, and 27} at 60 days ; and the Five per
Cents. at 201 at 60 days.

The Journal des Debats, of Monday, contains an-
other singular article on the affairs of the East, and
especially the relations of China with the East India
Company. We are surprised to find the able and
cautious editor of this paper duped by some unscru-
pulous correspondent at Bombay or Calcutta, who
mistakes the visions of his own imagination for facts,
and transmits them to Paris as the latest news of the
day. " The news brought from China by the last
mail," says that journal, " possess much interest.
Political as well as commercial affairs are assuming a
different aspect, and we can already foresee coming
changes of sufficiently grave importance." It then
relates a story, dressed up by its veracious corre-
spondent in these words :—" The first event of im-
portance is the arrival at Calcutta of Sir WILLIAM
PARKER, the Governor of Hong-Kong, charged with
a proposition from the Emperor ofCHINA to the East In-
dia Company. The Ruler of the Celestial Empire
being desirous to save his subjects from the de-
moralising effects produced by opium, offers to pay
the Company an annual tribute of a million and a
half sterling, on condition that they give up the cul-
ture of opium throughout the whole extent of the
British possessions." This is a lesson of philanthropy,
the writer adds, which would do honour to the
country of WILBERFORCE and Lord ASHLEY. It is
a noble spectacle to see this poor Monarch (pauvre
ntonarque) conquered and scoffed at, exclaim, with
the money in his hand—" Here is the gold which ye
seek—the gold which ye must have for your luxury
and comfort. Well, take it. I give it you, but do not
Poison my subjects." , The bargain, however, it
would appear, was not struck, as the English in India
could make more by the.trade. .This is all very im-
portant, and fresh news to the English public.
The only domestic news in the Paris papers is a

•

general strike among the barristers practising hi the
Cour Royale. It appears that a leading member of
the bar wished an important suit, in which he wl5
engaged, to be postponed on account of the death of
his child, as he was unable to do justice to his client..
M. &GUM, the President, however, refused to ac-
cede to the proposition, stating that private feeling
had nothing to do with public duty, and that the
business of the Court could not be interfered with by
the absence of any of the counsel. This decision
created a sensation unfavourable to the President,
which was still further increased by his declaring in
another instance, where an advocate threw up his
brief in an unworthy cause, "that the advocate in
question had done wrong ; that barristers in general
were bound to plead whether the case were good or
bad; and that, if they did not do so, they acted con-
trary to conscience and to their oath." A meeting
was held in consequence, when they unanimously re-
' solved to refuse to plead in the • Court without an
ample apology from the President. That determina-
tion was to be announced to the Learned Judge on
Monday.

DEATH OF THE AUTHOR OF THE " PLEASURES or
HOPE."—It is with feelings of poignant regret that
we record the death of Thomas Campbell, the poet,
who died a day or two since at Boulogne, in the sixty-
fifth year of his age. With the sole exception of Rogers
—who still lives and flourishes at a most patriarchal
age—Campbell was the only remaining disciple of the
polished but artificial school of Pope. The first work
by which he made himself conspicuous in literature
was the " gjgaiures of Hope"—a poem which was
written, we believe, before he had completed his 22d
year, and which still maintains its place among
our English classics. This brilliant production was
followed by " Gertrude of Wyoming "—a more chaste
and elegant, but scarcely so animated a composition
as its predecessor —" Theodric," the " Pilgrim of
Glencoe," and those immortal lyrics, " Hohenlinden,"
" Lochiers Warning," " Ye Mariners of England,"
the " Exile of Erin," and the " Battle of the Baltic,"
which have rendered his fame as enduring as the lan-
guage in which they were written. But Mr.
Campbell was not only a poet, he was a
prose-writer also of considerable merit; and
published successively lives of Mrs. Siddons and
Petrarch, together with " Letters from Algiers,"
which abound in descriptions of exquisite beauty.
For a long series of years he edited the " New
Monthly Magazine," to which he contributed many
little poetical gems of the purest water; and on his
secession from this periodical, started the "Metropo-
litan," of which, however, he soon wearied. From
an early period of his public career, he enjoyed a
pension of three hundred pounds a-year ; was
one of the founders of the London University ;
and in the year 1836, had the high honour
of being elected Lord Rector of the University of
Glasgow. In politics he was of the Liberal school ;
took a warm interest in the affairs of -Poland ; and
was on habits of familiar acquaintance with all the
most illustrious literary spirits of his country. As a
poet he would have achieved the highest possible rank
—for his genius was of the first order—had he had
more faith in his own impulses, and obeyed with
more boldness the promptings of his fervid ima-
gination. But he was fastidious to a degree in
his poetical tastes, and would, at any time, sacrifice a
fine thought to a correct line. His " Gertrude of
Wyoming" possesses all the fine polish of Parian
marble ; and the description of the death of the
heroine, and her last address to her agonised husband,
is, of its kind, the tenderest and most touching episode
to be found in the whole wide range of modern
English poetry. Mr. CaMpbell was born in Scotland,
and received his education in Edinburgh. He was
social in his habits, was a kind friend, and a truly
catholic politician.
THE WEATHER.—There has been a delightful
change in the weather since Monday. The ba-
rometer has fallen fully half an inch, and we have
had several genial showers of rain in the course .of
the night and this forenoon. As the change has taken
place about the time of new moon, and the sky is
much overcast, we may hope that the long and de-
structive drought is at last come to an end.

FLANDERS MAIL.
BRUSSELS, JUNE 14.—Several persons of distinction
have arrived here within these two days. Among them
are Lord Ashburton, Lord Elcho, General Sir G. Ha-
milton, and Vice-Admiral Sir J. Sykes. The celebrated
Fanny Elssler has arrived from Vienna, on her way to
London.
The magistrates and commercial council of Walheim
have just addressed a petition to the Chamber, soliciting
the imposition of a duty of at least 10f. per 1,000 killo-
grammes on hay imported into Belgium over the Dutch
frontiers. The. cultivation of the meadows and the trade
in hay are the only. resource of that commune since the
completion of the iron railway ; it has, therefore, been
carrried on with great spirit to arrest the distress which
threatened the inhabitants. For some time they sent
very large quantities to Brussels every week, but foreign
competition threatens to deprive them of this last re-
source. The Chamber of Representatives is still dis-
cussing the project of law relative to labour. It is not
ea to perceive what may be the result.
TURKISH FRONTIERS, JUNE I.—The Montemgrins
have again committed great excesses against their
Turkish, neighbours, attacking a caravan of Turkish
merchants from the Herzowina, returning from Rajura ;
they murdered part of the merchants, and carried off all
their goods. They sent the heads of the murdered per-
sons as trophies to the Vladika, who, however, immedi-
ately sent back the heads, and,ordered the goods to be
restored. The plunder was, indeed, dispersed in all di-
rections, but search was making for it, and the Vladika
sent to the Turkish Pasha assurances that satisfaction
should be given.

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