The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-08 00:00:00

SIXOIN-1-)-EDIT4ON:

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LONDON; MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 1844.

At a great public, banquet lately given to Mr.
O'CoDINEt.t. in Ciontnel, that gentleman, undis-
mayed by the thought of the approaching. State
prosecutions, spoke on t ell the hackneyed and tire-
some question of Repeal with just as much fresh-
ness and enthusiam as if he were delivering hip
srst speech on the subject, observing, " Let every
=an be a Repealer; let him wear a button or
some token by which our enemies .may know us
and try to count us. Do these things, and. I
promise you the Parliament in College-green,
the abolition of the tithe-rent charge, or its ap-
propriation to purposes of education, the abo-
lition-of the poor-rates, and. the grand jury cess•
Ii will also- have fixity of tenure for the te-
maws, and prevent the landlords from turning
gieln -out to starve in the ditches. We
rill also have a searching corporate reform, and
every man will have a vote." It was well said
by 11ta. GLASSE, in that immortal cookery-book,
Wrhiolt is an oracle at Guildhall, and the %vender
and admiration of all gastronomists, ".first catch
your. hare, before you consider how it shall be
(iressed." Parodying the language of this cele-
brated authoress, we way say to Mr. O'ComvELL,

" first set your repeal, before you consider the
naeasuiTt that shall flow front it." It is all very
well. to .talk about " abolition of poor-rates,"
" searching corporate reform," &c., &c., but
iLese are things necessarily dependent on
Repeal, and every way impracticable until
the first great step is successfully accom-
plished; But this step Mr. O'CONNELL knows,
or should know, can never be accomplished; and
we can:only, therefore, repeat the expression ol
our regret that he should have placed himself in
such a false .position with his countrymen, as to
-find it absolutely necessary to his popularity to
keep.Up the delusion. As respects his assertion
that the time has at length arrived when there
must be some alteration in the mode of govern-
ing Ireland, " whether it be towards federal
instittitions or unconditional repeal," we cordially
agree with; that Ministers must, without
loss of time, devise some more effective plan for
tranquillising the sister-country than they have
yet discovered, or else make way for those who
can. The limitsofendurance are passed, andshould
the next session be'idloWed to slip away without
some enlightened remedial measures being '
brought forward, we shall begin to think that
there is more sense and justice in the fierce cla-
mour fur Repeal, titan we can at present admit to

be the case. Ireland has never been slow to fight
our constitutional battles with firmness and
alacrity; she was of infinite assistance to
us in our great struggle for Reform, and
in the minor Pailiamentary conflicts that en-
sued; and it is base ingratitude, as well
as injurious policy, to exhibit indifference
to her welfare, the instant we imagine that we
have no further urgent need of her services. But
though we concur with Mr. O'CONNELL that
some important changes must be made in the
present mode of administering the affairs of Ire-
land, we are by no means prepared to contend
that a " federal institution " must be one of these
changes. To our thinking, such an institution
would be nothing more than a Parliament de-
prived of its virility—a wretched, peddling,
chandler's-shop concern, which would be
constantly at loggerheads with the Im-
perial Senate, teazing and wasting its
time with all sorts of petty applications and
annoyances—a Parliament without power, with-
out dignity, without moral or political influence
—a sort of Court of Common Council affair,
which would make a prodigious fuss about small
matters, and achieve nothing of moment; —and
when this apology for a Legislature had been in
existence for some months, if it should endure
so long, so inefficient would it be found, that the
Irish themselves, with their quick appreciation
of the ridiculous, would be the first to laugh it to
scorn, and clamour for a Repeal of the Union
with more fierceness and determination of pur-
pose than ever. It is not, then, to " a federal
institution " that we look as one of the changes
necessary for the future welfare of Ireland, but.
to a vigorous reform in the Protestant Church
system, and to such wholesome measures as may
rescue the poor helpless tenant from the state
of thraldom in which he is too often kept by his
powerful and exacting landlord. We should not
omit to notice that at the Banquet to which we
have been alluding, the Chairman, in a sudden
transport of enthusiasm, excited by Mr. O'CoN-
NELL'S energetic references to Repeal, warmly ex-
pressed his conviction that the "Liberator's mission
was from Heaven, and that he was an angel ex-
pressly sent down to regenerate his native land."
The Tories, we believe, together with not a few
of the Whigs, are of opinion that the "Liberator's
mission" is from another quarter; without, how-
ever, offering any opinion on this head, we may
perhaps be permitted to observe that, to our
thinking, Mr. O'CortivELL has as little of an angelic
look about him, as any fat, middle-aged gentle-
man, in a wig, that ever lived. Even with the
utmost stretch of imagination, we cannot fancy
him doing duty as a Cherub with a pair of wings
at his shoulder-blades.

worthy Alderman ought to know that this sort of
bifrous identity his own wardmote charge upon Mini!
The rate-payers of Walbrook cannot, for their lives,
discover whether he is a trustee (they have absolutely
negatived the question whether he is trusty), or a
perpetual churchwarden ; and, if he be one, or the other,
or both, then—for whom ? Not for them assuredly,
whether as contributors to the parochial funds, or
disbursers of them ; for as to the one, " he makes no
sign ;" and as to the other, he gives no accounts.
That he is an unaccountable agent, he himself seems
to insist ; that he is an unaccountable alderman,
churchwarden, and trustee, no man disputes. Now, a
churchwarden who will give no satisfaction to his own
parishioners in the material questions of the receipts
of money, and the application of rates ; a trustee who
is obstinately recusant, and means to be so till the
advent of some undefined condition of things, as to the
mode in which he has administered his trusts; an
alderman who sets at defiance the applications and re-
monstrances of a large body of his own constituency,
must be, throughout all these unbecoming relations,
himself in very indecorous masquerade. Surely, he
does not mean to say that he is maintaining all
this time his " proper character ?" Why, then, so
hard upon this " lady-ploughboy" for so absurdly
disguising himself ?
But then the sturdy ploughboy, having doffed his
feminine character, and with it all predisposition to
loquacity, is dumb ! Here is the i.nmedicabile vulnus
which the Alderman has received, and which he so
roughly resents. What ! a sturdy ploughboy affect
to be dumb ? Not answer plain questions from the
Bench ? The insult was too palpable and personal.
It was playing Alderman GIBBS off upon Ginns,
Alderman ; and bringing into odium and suspicion
an art which must become contemptible if practised
by obscure pretenders to character. No. Well
enough if general open meetings of inhabitants will
put such irrelevant and trifling interrogatories,
to gowned trustees and treasurers and churchwardens,
as respects the disposal of moneys and the manage-
ment of parochial property and affairs, for the gens
togata to turn round, with more than aldermanic
dignity, and dumb-found all complainants by a lofty
reserve, a silence all but unbroken. Well enough
to meetings of select vestrymen, so accurately con-
vened and scrupulously admitted, that parish con-
stables stand by to see that none but the veritable imper-
sonifications of the select, who are thoroughly known
to them, pass into the vestry-room, where the per-
petual churchwarden must meet, and may pacify
them ; but for an unknown vagrant masquerader—
with half his character (the lady's) visibly deposited
in the basket of clothes found upon his arm, and the
other half yet to be accounted for—to dare to be dumb
in the presence of the most frank, open, and ingenuous
of Civic magistrates ! no wonder Alderman GIBBS
resented the indignity, and sent him to the Compter
till he should be in the humour once more to resume
his speech.
It is very strange that the ratepayers of Walbrook
are anxious to know—desiring precisely this sort of
consummation of the Alderman's taciturnity—whither
it is he proposes to go himself ?

If the contest now going on between the
friends of free trade on the one side, and the
friends of monopoly on the other, were really, as
has been stated, a contest between the parti-
sans of agriculture and those of commerce,
then, we must say, we think, the fa-
vourers of the plough would stand at an
immeasurable disadvantage in comparison
with those who uphold the loom and shuttle. By
their absurd tactics the friends of native agricul-
ture, as they call themselves, are doing their very
best to ruin the cause they espouse. For in-
stances of what we affirm we have not to look
far. Every day furnishes fresh proof of the truth
of what we assert, and the more we see the more
are we inclined to be of SOLOMON'S mind, when
he incredulously inquired " how shall they get
understanding whose talk is of bullocks ?"
At the Boston Agricultural Protection Society's
meeting, on Wednesday last, not a little of this
absurd bucolic humour was evinced. Among
other notable instances of the folly which man-
kind have displayed, may be reckoned the sage
manifesto put forth by this conclave of Lincoln-
shire wiseacres on the occasion referred to. But,
ridiculous as the petition is, there was one feature
of the proceedings even more laughable still, and
that was a repudiation on the part of a Mr.
GEE and a Mr. MILLINGTON, of the Royal Agri-
cultural Society's proceedings, by reason of
Lord SPENCER'S avowal of free trade sentiments.
Probably Messrs. GEE and MILLINGTON con-
sider that the Royal Agricultural Society will
be exceedingly afflicted at the withdrawal of
their distinguished patronage. Perhaps it has
occurred to these gentlemen that the pursuit of
agricultural science will have sustained an ir-
reparable blow by being deprived of their most
valuable support. A totally different inference
may—we do not say will—be derived by others
from this their proceeding.

The idle clergy of St. Paul's Cathedral, who are
well paid for writing sermons and performing reli-
gious duties, have lately fallen upon a new plan to
catch the public on Sundays. The whole of the body
of the church is railed off, so that no one can walk in
the magnificent area below the dome or along the
nave and aisles. All must move on like sheep to the
choir. If they attempt to pass they are stopped by
one of the menials, who says, "no thoroughfare." At
another place one of these money-takers, for they
seem to be the individuals appointed by the clergy
to take the twopences for admission on other days, is
seen holding an iron gate half open, ready to allow
the exit of a chorister, or a parson from the interior,
and to close it against any profane layman who may
venture to intrude. This Christian temple is penned
all round like Smithfield, and has more the appearance
of a cattle market than a place for the performance
of Divine worship. Thus, by a conclave
of indolent monks, the public, at whose expense
this splendid building was erected, are prevented
from seeing the monuments for which they have also
paid, and must either be imprisoned to witness the
monotonous ceremonies, or be forced out into the
street. If the clergy did their duty, as in Catholic
countries, the people would he anxious to listen to
their ministrations, and would show reverence to
them and the Church, but they will not be religious
by compulsion. It is a disgrace to the country, that
one of the finest temples in Christendom should be
used, not for religious purposes, or for cherishing pa-
triotism, but for putting money into the coffers of
the Dean and Chapter.

The Madrid Gazette of the 31st ult. publishes the
new municipal law, not passed by the Cortes or any
constitutional authority, but ordered by NARVAEZ and
the Camarilla. Against this law nearly the whole of
Spain protested in 1840. Vast numbers of petitions
were: addressed to Queen CHRISTINA, entreating her
not to sanction such a measure. She treated them
with contempt, and then finding such a general out-
cry against her she resigned the Regency and fled
into France. For this despotic measure BRAVO
and his party calculate on obtaining a bill of
indemnity. Time will show whether such
a change has taken place in the political views of the
people since 1840 as to make them accept in 1844 what
they declared three years before to be inadmissable.
The Government in fact have adopted a system of
legislature never before heard of. They pass a num-
ber of acts in a secret conclave, promulgate them to
the country, enforce them by the sword, and in order
to prevent endless talk they propose to call
upon the Cortes to sanction them in a
lump. The Phare des Pyrenees says the suspen-
sion of the Chambers was agreed to by
the Cabinet without any communication with
the heads of their party, and it was only on the night
previous to the prorogation that the resolution of the
Cabinet was communicated to the President of the
Chambers.

The attention which Earl SPENCER has uni-
formly devoted to the interests of British agri-
culture is too well known to need any lengthened
comment. His success in the science to which
he has applied his powers, has also been
sufficiently attested ;. and the position which he
occupies—that of President of the Agricultural
Society—is less a mark of deserved homage to
a distinguished farmer, than it is advantageous
to the Society over which his Lordship presides.
If the farmers of England are going to re-
pudiate such friends as Lord SPENCER, then we
say, much good may they derive from their new
acquaintances. Unfortunately there are not
sufficient of the class of intelligent and enter-
prising landowners to which Lord SPENCER be-
longs. If there were the country would be the
better off. But the farmers of England are
galled upon by some of their injudicious coun-
sellors to abandon Lord SPENCER, because his
Lordship advocates principles which would raise
them from their present depths of serfdom and
insolvency, to the independence and comfort
which they ought to enjoy.
There may be many noisy speakers at these
,w Protection to Agriculture meetings, whose
pretended devotion to the cause may attract the
attention which is due to other kind of efforts,
but the interests of British fanning will, it may
be relied on, be best promoted when energetic
and practical efforts supersede theoretic and
declamatory oratory.
We hope that the farmers of England will
be too wise to imitate generally the example of
Messrs. GEE and MILLINGTON, but if they
prefer to do as these gentlemen have done, they
fla.y rely upon it they themselves will be tilt;
chief sufferers. •

The Gazette contains the following decree :
" Considering the distinguished merit of M. MAR-
TINEZ DE LA ROSA, and the services which he has
rendered the country, I appoint him my Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Court of
his Majesty the King of the FRENCH." The Duke de
RIVAS had been named Ambassador to Naples, and
was to bring with him_ as Secretary M.
CU ETO. ....ourA "VITO DB

The Three per Cents. were done at 251 at 60 days ;
the Five per Cents., at 201 for cash; and the Float-
ing Debt, at 41-1 for the 17th inst.

In the police reports it will be seen that a stout
young man, " whose whim it is to be nameless for the
present," was brought up before Mr. Alderman Ginus,
on a charge of having exhibited himself in the pub-
lic streets in masquerade ;—that it is to say, in another
person's dress, and, perhaps, property ;—to wit, in a
woman's habiliments, of which he had disrobed him-
6elf on the stairs of Blackfriars-bridge, on being hard
pressed by the inquisitive pursuit and curiosity of a
police-constable. When thus dismantled of his-lady-
hood, he came out a sturdy ploughboy, and (a pheno-
menon which appeared to make a powerful impression
,n the werthy Alderman) affected to be deaf and
dumb. This mumchance exhibition he sustained
,with creditable fortitude and consistency, till weary of
zhe quarters which he had been invited to take up in the
Walbrook station-house, and pressed by the uneasy
,uggestions of hunger, he articulately demanded of
the turnkey, after a few hours' duresse, " when the
devil they meant to bring him his breakfast ?" The
policeman, struck by this near approach to a miracle,
concluded that no man could be so well calculated to
unravel the mystery as the sitting Alderman at
Guildhall. lie took his prisoner, therefore, to the
Justice-room; and lo ! the Magistrate on duty proved
to be no other than Alderman GIBBS. The Alderman,
having a quasi dumb delinquent before him, very
naturally asked him, in the first place, " what he had
to say for himself?" The lady-ploughboy main-
tained his taciturnity, whilst she looked reproachfully,
is if astonished by such a question from Alderman
Ginns ; and Alderman GIBBS incontinently remitted
him " to solitary confinement in the Compter until he
,hould be in the humour once more to resume his
speech."

Now really this seems to us to have been all in bad
taste and bad measure. It was in bail taste for Mr.
Alderman GIBBS to be so severe upon the offence of
the ploughboy's double character, and passing him-
self off for a lady. Why, the reporter himself treats
:he affair only as one of " masquerading," and the

We learn from the Paris papers that the Committee
of the Chamber of Deputies appointed to draw up the
address, continue to sit daily, and had put numerous
questions to Ministers relative to the main i4eitits in
the KING'S speech. The answers, in general, were
satisfactory. On Saturday the Ministers of Religion
and Public Instruction were to be bratq, and from
the steps taken by the G-overnment lately, we may
infer that their explanations will be in atiierdance
with the majority of the Chamber. M. Gnizor is not
at all inclined to support the Jesuits, or allow the
Church to ride over the University, and M. MARTIN
seems to be of his opinion. Having lately ascertained
that the Jesuits have been educating children in some
of tho convents of the order, he took immediate steps
to put an end to this breach of the charter. The
Minister of Trade will find some more difficulty in
performing his task, for, if certain accounts were to
be believed, commerce and domestic manufac-
tures are not at all flourishing. On this sub-
ject the Presse makes the following re-
marks :—" If there be some branches of manufac%
turing industry which produce a profit, there are,
much too many which are not as prosperous as
they were during former years. Had the Ministers
been well informed by their agents, they would have
known that in the eastern departments several mantis
facturers have been obliged to reduce their hands.
The machine makers are likewise complaining. The
iron masters labour under great difficulties in conse-
quence of the high price of fuel, of which the Finance
Minister is perfectly aware. It cannot be said that the
wine-growers are in-a pro'sperous condition, iil etiosigh
the late rise on wines may have for a moment re-
lieved their distress. The home-made sugar ma-
nufacturers have diminished their production, and
the foreign growers have not benefited. As to
our maritime commerce, it has suffered more than
almost any other species of industry. Our shipments
have been at the same time less important and less
productive. ^By a deplorable coincidence our ship-

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EIENING, JANUARY 8, 1844.

owners have had to encounter difficulties in many
countries where they formerly found an advantageous
commerce. At Mexico our produce has been sud-
denly loaded with an increased duty. At the Brazils
the Custom-house officers have adopted a new mode
of measurement, so arbitrary that it has become im-
possible to land merchandise there without ruin to
the shipowner. At St. Domingo the tonnage duties
have been raised 100 per cent. At the United States
the maintenance of the tariff of 1842 prevents the
extension of all mercantile speculation. In Europe
commercial affairs are not on a better footing. Coun-
tries with ',which we traded have decreased their pur-
chases without any reasonable motive, and the Ger-
man markets have been closed against much of our
produce. To characterise our foreign commerce in
one figure, it may be asserted that in the year 1842
our exports diminished to the amount of 126,000,000 f. !
The returns for the year 1843 are not yet published,
but we are confident our exports during that year
have not equalled those of theyear 1841."
The Journal des Debuts has a curious article on
the late doings of NARVAEZ and Co. It evidently
has no wish to blame them much for violating the
Constitution, provided only the plan could be made
to succeed. "Itis to be believed," says that Minis-
terial paper, " that the Progressist party would not
resign itself to such Platonic acts if it had any hope
of being able by any means of again throwing the
country into a state of agitation. But in the pro-
vinces, as well as in the capital, people are tired of
agitation. Catalonia, the permanent focus of insur-
rection, seems, by a strange anomaly, the part of the
kingdom the least disposed to incur the chances of civil
war. We certainly, at long intervals, hear reports of
the interminr.ble siege of a small castle at Figueras,
the sound of which is smothered by the more noisy
debates in the Congress; but Barcelona has evidently,
for the inonient at least, lost its taste for
bombardments. free battalions, and volunteers en
blouse, and seeks to raise its manufactures and its
commerce from the ruin into which they have
been thrown by so many disasters. This state of
tranquillity leaves to the Government the exercise of
its powers. Whilst the Opposition are making cate-
chisms,—the Ministers are making laws. Already
have the 3 promulgated the law which re-organises
the ayuntainientos, or municipalities. This law, with
the exception of one provision relating to the nomina-
tion of Alcaldes by the Crown, is the same as that
which was enacted by the Cortes in 1840, and in
favour of which the Progressist party voted. The
Government is also preparing a law on the provincial
deputations, another on the creation of a Council of
State, and again another on the electoral system. We
simply note the above facts, without speaking of them
with enthusiasm. We are not in any way disposed to
make light of constitutional regulations. We admit
and appreciate the good intentions of the Spanish
Ministry ; but to attempt to do well for a country
without the concurrence of its representatives must
ever appear to us to be playing a hazardous game
in a constitutional State. We do not wish
to discourage M. GONZALES BRAVO. We ac-
knowledge the weight of the reasons by which he
justifies the suspension of the Cortes. In the state
of excitation created by the debates on the conduct of
M. OLOZAGA, into which the public mind was thrown,
all serious discussions of affairs of State by the Con-
gress was almost impossible. The Opposition had
adopted a system calculated entirely to fetter the ac-
tion of the Administration, and sacrifice to the in-
terests of party the general interests of the country,
which imperiously demanded fundamental laws. The
constitutional Government is, truly, not on a bed of
roses—it is a Government of debate and contestation.
We are apprehensive the party—' Young Spain '—
which is in the actual possession of power, may prove
itself to be too young, and that to make experiments
of such a serious nature it would, perhaps, have been
more desirable that the Monarchy should have been
surrounded by men of riper years, and enjoying a
less disreputable authority. We are aware that
Spain is a country of exception. We wish, and are
willing to hope, that the policy of force majeure now
being followed by the Ministry, may have a happy
issue, and be absolved by a bill of indemnity. But
we cannot help regretting that these happy results
should have been obtained only by exceptional mea-
sures, having need of absolution."

SU .-4-MARY OF NEWS

AN D
nbitt eptutott.

" Who runs may rear!."

POR,IIIGN.

BOURSE—PARIS, SATURDAY, JAN. 6.
First Highest Lowest Last

Price. Price. Price. Price.
French Five per Cents. 124 40... 124 40... 124 15... 124 15
Four per Cents Job 2b 10.5 25... 105 25... 105 25
Threes. 70... 82 70... 82 50.. e 2 50
Bank of France., 3205 —.3210 —.3205 ...32Q7 50
Laffitte Bank 5,000f.._5075 —.5075 _5075
...5075
Belgian Fives, 1840 1084 ••• 1084 ... 108* 1084
1842 • 119 ••• 109 ... IC9 ... 109
Dutch 2i per Cents 55% —• 55% ... 55* ... 55*
Spanish Active
4249.;
4294:
4249:
4429:
Passive .....• Oi ••• 5% ... 5* ... 5*
Portuguese Fives ••
Neapolitan
Homan ...... ............ 104% ... 104% 104% ... 104%

On Thursday evening tlekingZd Queen of the French
received M. Guizot, General Count Baudrand, and M. Chasse-
loup-Labat.
The draft of the Address of the Chamber of Peers by the
Duke de Broglie, was read on Friday in the bureau of the
Chamber of Peers. This day it was to be read at the public
sitting. " Two phrases," says the Pattie," one in the first,
and the other in the last, paragraph, appear to refer to the
journey of the Legitimists to London. One was rather vague,
the other more explicit. The Address does not say a single
word in allusion to the right of search."
Maria Stella, Countess of Newburg, who assumed herself,
under the influence of delusion, to be the daughter of the Duke
of Orleans, father of his present Majesty, Louis Philippe, pre-
tending that at her birth she was exchanged for the King, died
a few days ago at her apartment in the Rue de Rivoli.
At his Majesty's reception, on Wednesday evening, Colonel
Dyce Sombre, late Deputv-Governer of Sirdhanah, in the East
Indies, in tOte territories of her late Highness the Begum
Sombre, had the honour of being presented to the King, and
was most graciously received.
The following Members of the House of Commons are now
in Paris—H. Baring, M.P., Marlborough; D. Darner, Port-
arlington ; C. R. Fox, Tower Hamle, s ; Q. Dick, Mallon ;
J. Bowes, Durham; Lord H. Vane, ditto; H. Broadwood,
Bridgewater; C. Cochrane, Bridport ; H. Smythe, Canter-
bury ; J. Duff, Banff; E. Stanley, Cumberland ; and J.
Matheson, Ashburton.
A letter from Hanover of the 27th ult., states, that the
Master of the Hounds had been murdered, whilst hunting in
one of the forests of the Crown. The crime is supposed to
have been committed by poachers.
The statue of Moliere is to be brought from the foundry
and placed on the 10th instant. The following inscription had
been placed over the niche, in letters of beonze—" To
Moliere I" but it has been changed into " To Moliere ! born
at Paris, Jan. 16, 1622 ; deceased Feb. 17, 1673. National
Subscription;" which is cut in the marble.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

CLER KENWELL-(T HIS DAY.)
Thomas Moore, a half-starved famished-looking lad, of 17,
whose rags scarcely concealed his nudity, was charged with
begging.
Police-constable E 41 saw the prisoner begging near Sir
Frederick Pollock's house, Great Guildford street, Russell-
square, and took him into custody.
The prisoner, on being interrogated, replied that he was a
native of Bristol, and had been at Chatham, Woolwich, and
Portsmouth, endeavouring to get naval employment, but failing
in his object came to London. Ile had been in London a month,
during which thee he wandered about the streets, sometimes
getting lodgings in the straw-yard of a workhouse and some-
times travelling about all night. lie had had some food at
the T%lendicity, and did not deny the fact of begging. The un-
fortunate boy had neither shoes nor cap on, and a mote
wretched-looking object could hardly be met anywhere.
111 r. GREENWOOD humanely directed the overseer of St.
Giles's to be sent for, that the poor lad might be provided for.