The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-29 00:00:00

Malan ..Ezzilit

was to be done—at what powerful odds, with
established interests and powers—under what stern
discouragement from class legislation. But in the
actual conduct of that enterprise they had incessantly
to grapple with obstacles more formidable than
any they could have anticipated. False data
and incomplete statistics had perverted, instead
of guiding, the conclusions that highly gifted
minds had, in many instances, arrived at,
touching the laws of which it was the first, the
avowed effort of the League to procure the repeal.
And thus, not only were farmers and tenants found
amongst the most strenuous supporters of the unjust
monopoly which landlords had long exercised so un-
fairly, so injuriously to their interests ; but even the
poorer classes of consumers upon whom that mono-
poly supply of dear bread had operated, as it ever
must operate, so oppressively, were, at first, in not
unfrequent instances, vehemently opposed to its ex-
tinction.

But whatever the difficulties, the obstacles, the
prejudices, the forces, the influence, which lay clearly
in prospect before them when the active spirits of the
League commenced their arduous crusade—what-
ever the ignorance or fatuity with which, as their
labours were advanced, they had to contend—they
brought to their mighty task faculties of mind and
body which have proved more than equal to the de-
mands of each successive exigency. They have made
proselytes, by the force of argument and illustra
tion alone, in every rank of society. From the
highest order of our long-descended and opulent
nobility, to the humblest, and poorest, and the
hardest-working sections of our working population,
they have equally recruited the ranks of their adhe-
rents. In every portion of the empire they have
pushed their cause with the same indomitable
activity and spirit—with the same average success.
The popularity and influence of the League are in-
creased and consolidated, in place of being exhausted
or endangered by these constant appeals to public
opinion. It carries about it a self-maintaining
excitement. The crowded attendance of last evening
demonstrates that the sympathy it has aroused in
all classes, on behalf of its great cause, is inex-
haustible—

" Age cannot wither it,
Nor custom sate its infinite variety."

And, in truth, the merits of that cause are of a
magnitude and character, intrinsically, which out-
weigh all the splendour of the brilliant success that
has hitherto attended its advocacy, and are a more
eloquent testimony to the merits of its champions
than twenty such demonstrations as that, even,
of last night. For what is the constitu-
tional fight in which the League have en-
gaged ? It is a struggle on their part for
the abolition of a grinding monopoly, vested by an
improvident and iniquitous Legislature in one " class"
of the nation. On the part of that class it is a des-
perate struggle to retain what they fondly imagine a
privilege, which it must, now and permanently, be for
their signal benefit to retain. The poor feel that
from this contest one of two alternatives must inevita-
bly result to them. The success of the League will
secure for their working hands, and for their half-
starved children, an abundant and cheap supply of
the first necessary of life at all times, and under any
of those often recurring fluctuations of trade and de •
rangements of the currency to which they have been
made the first and most certain victims. The failure
of the League must hand them over to the tender
mercies of that Legislature, which, after cheering
them on through all the sufferings and burdens of a
wasting war of twelve years (reckoning from the
peace of Amiens) by their repeated pledges to relieve
them from their unnatural load of taxation on the
return of peace, profaned that auspicious event by
taxing more heavily than ever, from that moment,
the millions of bread consumers, for the palpable,
sordid, disgraceful, and fraudulent purpose of en-
hancing the rentals of themselves and some few
thousands of other bread growers. The in-
dustrious but ill remunerated mechanic and journey-
man—the struggling tradesman—the reduced or in-
digent pensioner—they who struggle " to maintain
appearances," or the class with which they are un-
fortunately connected by family or other relations, in
the hopeless effort to obtain an adequate measure of
monopoly-taxed subsistence out of their currency-
taxed pittances of income—these look forward
with intense solicitude to a consummation which may
enable them, at last, to participate in the bounties of
natural production from the enjoyment which the
iron hand of the monopolist has for nine-and-twenty
years rudely thrust them forth to pine in sickness or
perish in despair. The pro-corn-law landlords—
neither satisfied with the excessive rentals they have
long derived in virtue of the excessive prices which
the working of that law has obtained for the produce
of their acres, nor content to contribute their volun-
tary sacrifice to the mass of those compulsory ones
which the circumstances of the times and the " de-.
mands of Parliament" have so largely exacted from
every other class of the people—are mad enough to
protract that which would, even now, be accepted as
a concession by those who will, ere long, indignantly
extort it as a just, but contumaciously withheld,
debt to the nation at large. The:final triumph of the
League is certain. The ultimate consequences of
such impracticability in their opponents no man can
venture to predict.

duelling begin to decline. Ridicule effected what
the Royal Arbiter of Europe, in the plenitude of
his authority, was unable to effect, even with the
Bastile at his back ; and the duel was in a great de-
gree laughed out of fashion solely by reason of
its growing frequency among the untitled and un-
distinguished masses. And certainly it is a far
fitter theme for popular contempt and ridicule,
than for the interference of the Executive
power. To interpose formally by Act of Par-
liament is to invest the subject with too much
consequence—to raise it to an importance that
does not and ought not to belong to it ; for in
nine cases out of ten the duel is an act of sheer folly
and Absurdity, and we do not see why such a deli-
berate fool as he is, who has recourse to a pistol on
the slightest provocation, should not be left to the
consequences of his own infatuation, more espe-
cially as the law has still sufficient length of
arm to reach him. The good taste and good
feeling of modem society repudiates the duellist
who cannot show that he has been made one by the
most inexorable necessity; it thinks none the better
of him for having popped at his man at Chalk Farm
or Battersea; and it is to the gradual spread of this
wholesome social feeling among us, that we look with
confidence, at no distant day, to the utter abolition of
the practice of duelling.

The Liverpool Peninsular steamer has arrived at
Southampton, with favourable intelligence from Por-
tugal. The accounts are to the 21st inst., and an-
nounce that the foolish attempt at insurrection had
utterly failed. The few revolted troops in the neigh-
bourhood of Elvas had retreated across the Spanish
frontier,
.and been disarmed by the Spanish au-
thorities. At Abrantes, a great number of the dis-
contended soldiers had joined their regiments; the
number that still held out did not exceed 250, and
the population had not in any place given them the
slightest countenance. The Cortes, after con-
ferring extraordinary powers on the Government,
adjourned on the 21st till the end of March.

Madrid journals and letters of the 20th have been
received. The butchery of prisoners at Alicant and
other places was still going on. The Phare de
Bayonne says BONET, by way of reprisal for the ex-
ecution of the officers, has thrown General LAssALA
and the Political Chief CERATS into a dungeon, and
told them to prepare for death. It was hoped at
Madrid that he would reflect before executing the
two prisoners, and that he would not persevere in a
determination which could not but aggravate the pre-
carious situation in which he was placed. RONCALI,
on the other hand, announces to the Government that
he was about to decimate the prisoners taken at Alcoz.
The savage conduct of this ruthless people renders
them rather objects of horror than sympathy, and
blunts the feeling of other nations towards their me-
lancholy condition.
On the 20th the Three per Cents. were done at 30
for cash, and 30f at 60 days ; the Five per Cents. at
201 for cash, and 21 at 60 days.

The official statement which appeared in the Moni-
ker of Monday, announcing that the French Go-
vernment disowned the proceedings of Admiral
DUPETIT THOUARS, has caused much excitement at
Paris, and if we may judge from the scanty intelli-
gence yet received, the affair will be seized by the
Opposition, probably with M. Tnizus at their head,
as a means for ousting the GUIZOT Cabinet. On
Monday, in the Chamber of Deputies, after some
routine business had been transacted, M. CARNE
mounted the tribune, and said, " You must have seen
in this day's Moniteur a piece of news which must
have astonished you as much as me. In consequence
of Queen POMARE having failed to execute the treaty
entered into with France, Vice-Admiral M. DUPETIT
THOUARS haS deprived her of the government of
Otaheite. This act seemed a just ono. Yet what
does the Moniteur tell us ? Admiral DUPETIT
THOUARS' conduct is disavowed.—(Murmurs.) I
beg the Chamber to fix the day on which I may ques-
tion the Minister on the subject." M. GUIZOT
said he was ready to enter into any explanation the
Chamber might require. M. BILLAULT said, in order
to arrive at the true bearing of the question, the dispatch
of Admiral DUPETIT TIIOUARS should be laid before
them. To this M. GUIZOT had, no objection, and
Thursday was fixed for the attack on the Govern-
ment. The Pattie of Monday evening gives the fol-
lowing additional particulars relative to the course
adopted by the French Cabinet, but we cannot be-
lieve it likely that M. GUIZOT, or Lord COWLEY would
let the 'public know what private discussion took
place between them on such a grave subject :—" For
carrying into effect," says this journal, "the decision
of the Ministry in the affair of Tahiti, the Govern-
ment'has resolved to send a corvette to the South
Seas, with the special mission of recalling Admiral
DUPETIT THOUARS, and of establishing the authority
of Queen POMARE. This resolution of the French
Government was taken on Saturday, after a long con-
ference between Lord COWLEY and M. GUIZOT. The
Minister had brought forward the question in
several meetings of the Cabinet Council. It was
known, that he was much embarrassed about it;
that he hesitated between national susceptibilities on
the one hand, and the remonstrances of England on
the other. Lord CowLEY made very warm repre-
sentations to M. GUIZOT, and in consequence the
latter gave way. Lord COWLEY immediately dis-
patched a courier to his Government with notice of
the promises he had received from M. GuizoT. A
few hours after wards he received a copy of the official
notice about to appear in the Moniteur, which he also
forwarded to London by another courier. It was de-
manded of the British Government, and promised by
Lord COWLEY, that the missionary chief, PRITCHARD,
should be recalled.
,M. GUIZOT thinks of presenting
this to the Chambers as a concession forced from
England, and which will re-establish the balance of
concessions between the two countries."

The question of duelling was incidentally alluded
to on Tuesday in the House of Commons by Mr.
TURNER, who asked Sir R. PEEL whether he were
prepared to bring in a Bill for the more effectual'
prevention of that practice. In reply the Premier
remarked that Government had had an opportunity
during the recess, of which they had, availed'them-
selves, of showing their disposition to discourage
duelling, so far as it could be discouraged by the Ex-
ecutive power, and that therefore they were not
prepared to introduce any new legislative
enactment on the subject. He added that it
was impossible not to see that the practice
of duelling was on the decline ; that the influence of
civilisation was producing its necessary effect; and
that this was another reason why he should deprecate
any active and direct interference on the part of the
House. We think there is much good sense in these
remarks of Sir ROBERT PEEL. Civilisation is, in-
deed, producing "its necessary effects," as regards
the barbarous custom of duelling. The race of fire-
eaters is extinct ; and we no longer have CAMELFORDS
and FITZGERALDS among us, who are ready to re-
sort to the pistol on the slightest proy9cation. Were
impossible that men of their, stamp could .re-appear, they
would instantly be scouted from society, which has
for many a year past set its face against the practice
of appealing to the "laws of honour," except in cases
of the most aggravated character. Under these cir-
cumstances, seeing how rare duels are now, compared
with what they used to.be—bearing in mind also that
there are occasions, though happily of most , unfrequent
occurrence, when a recourse to the pistol becomes a
matter of cruel and stringent necessity, we do think
that the Premier has consulted the dictates of good
sense and discretion in leaving the abolition of the
practice to the progress of civilisation. No legislative
interference could put an immediate stop to the evil ;
tir a quick, jealous sense of honour, stung to madness
by some deadly insult or injury, would be pretty
sure to set at naught all the proprieties of Parlia-
ment ; and there is just a possibility that by public
attention being directed too Vigilantly to the subject,
the evil of duelling might be increased, instead of di-
minished. At least, history shows us that this
was the case in the days, of LOUIS THE
FOURTEENTIL. That Illustrious Monarch, it may
be remembered, was always strongly opposed
to the habit, so common in his time, among French
gentlemen of settling their private
.quarrels by the
sword—the favourite weapon ; and, by way of putting
a stop to such a barbarous practice, he established a
Court of Honour, which was presided over by military
men, chiefly Marshals of France, who were to decide
upon the right or the wrong of every dispute brought
' before them, and whose verdict was to be held as final.
But what was the consequence of this interference ?
Why just this, that so far from duels being dimi-
nished, they increased in frequency; and what was
worse, instead of being confined as before, for the
most part, to the military and aristocratic circles,
they spread among the plebeian classes of society ;
and as the Court of Honour, from the nature of its
constitution, could not, and would not, take notice of
the quarrels of the mere canailie—as all men below a
certain station were haughtily. styled in those etclu-
sive times—the Court fell gradually into desuetude,
and then, and not till then, did the practice of

The Funds fell considerably on Monday, owing to
various rumours on the Bourse. Among other re-
ports it was stated that thirty-six Members of the
Cliamber of Deputies had resigned their seats in that
assembly, disgusted with the acquiescence of Minis-
ters in the demand of England ; and that a meeting
of Opposition Deputies is to :be held to-night at the
residence of M. humus to discuss the expediency of
an impeachment of Ministers. We cannot see what
benefit the resignation of so many Members would do
to the party, but we can readily believe that TIIIBRS
would head any crusade against the KING and his
Ministers.

LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1844.

Another meeting of the Anti-Corn-law League
took place at Covent-garden last night; when the
same enthusiasm in the cause, and the same determi-
nation to fight the battle to the last, was displayed.
Sir R. PEEL'S announcement about " finality" was
treated with the same respect as Lord J. RUSSELL'S
" finality." The audience knewWe-1i that the words
of a Minister signify nothing unless they are in ac-
cordance with existing circumstances, and that,
though an announcement may come fToin Downing-
street that the corn-law is as unchangeable as the
law of the Medes and Persians, it`ninst break down
before public opinion. No Minister can resist the
public voice. Sir R. PEEL is goaded on to speak in
support of the corn-laws ; but no man who has care-
fully weighed his speeches on free trade—and. in that
we include the trade in corn—can fail to see that hcl s
waiting only for a fit opportunity to carry his wise
principles of trade into full effect. The Anti-Corn-law
League is his best supporter. Its onward course is
too rapid, and attended by events too impressive and
too startling, to leave room for deliberation on any
of the mere outlying circumstances • and proper-
ties which are incidental to the character of its con-
struction. It is a spell which has awakened the
slumberers of half a century throughout the
breadth and length of the land. Its most de-
termined opponents cannot deny that its ap-
peal has been magical. It has spoken, trumpet-
tongued, in the north ; it has re-echoed alike through
the waste and the cultivated districts of the east; it
has made head, and successfully too, against the
" sacred legion" of monopoly in the west ; and ere
long it will doubtless have brought the fertile
counties of the south under its allegiance. That
principle must be one of irresistible cogency which
can thus, in defiance of long transmitted opinions, of
hereditary prejudices, and the authority of practical
and experienced, but not the less ill-informed and ill-
judging agriculturists, assail the very fortresses of
monopoly, and tumble down the long consecrated
idols of "protective duties" levied nn the introduction
of foreign corn. In the enterprise upon which the
League embarked its leaders felt how much there

The following were the latest quotations on the
Bourse -Three per Cents., 82f. 15c. ; Five per Cents.,
125 f. 50c.; Orleans Shares, 837 f. 50c. ; Rouen, 825 f.;
Havre, 667 f. 50c. ; Spanish Actives, 32.1.

THE BOURSE-MONDAY, Fzu. 26.

First • Highest Lowest Last.

Price. Piice. Price. Price.
French Five per Cents. ...• 125 60 .. 126 55 . • 125 40 • • 125 55
Four per Cents. .• •• 106 25 .. 106 25 .. 106 25 .. 106 25
:Three per Cents.•. • . 82 30 .. 82 30 82 25 82 25
Bank of- France.• .. • • ...... 3260 ••3260 ••3260 ..3260
Latlitte Bank, I,ooof. Sharesllos ..1105 —llO5 —llO5
5,000 f. Sharesso77 50 .:5077 50 —5077 50 ..5077 50
Belgian sank
Belgian Fives .• ••• • • ....... 1071 .. 1071 • . 1061 • • 1061
1840 .• lO9l .. 1091 .• 1091 .; 1091
1842 •••••••• 1101 .. 1101 .. 1101 .. 11
Spanish Active ..• • . ... 321 • . 321 • . 321 .. 32
Passive 5l .. 51 .. 51 .. 5
Portuguese Five per Cents • • 46 .. 46 ••• 46 • • 46
Neapolitan . 103 75 .. 104 .. 103 75 .. 104
Roman ....

RAILWAY SHARES.
Versa Wes, R.B.
4250
L. 13
Rotten •.
Rquen to Havre 670 .. 670 .. 667 50 .. 667 50
Orleans . 835 .. 837 50 .. 835 .. 837 80
Strasburg to Bale•
Montpellier to Cette.. ••.. • • 460 • • 460 .• 457 50 .. 457 50

RAILWAY SHIRES. FOR THE ACCOUNT. •
L.R. ..... l6l 25 .. 161 25 .. 161 25 161,25
Rouen 625 .. 825 .. 825 .. 825
Rouen to:MaTre 667 50 ...670 .. 667 50 667 50
Orleans .

Strasburg to tale 242 5Q .. 243 75 .. 242 50 .. 242 50
liontpellter to Cette ; .

• MORTALITY IN THE METROPOLIS: In the week
ending February 27, there has been a decrease of 31
in the deaths, as compared with those of the previous
week ; but the excess over the average is still great,
amounting to 137. This arises chiefly from diseases
of the lungs. The average is 330, while last week
the number was 428. The deaths from bronchitis
were 63, average 19 ; from pneumonia 111, average
91 ; consumption 165, average 146; diseases of the
heart 41, average 21; dropsy 32, average 9. There
is a considerable decrease in violent deaths, the ave-
rage being 25, while last week the number was only
15, and of these 10 were from burns and scalds,
one was from drowning ; no case of suicide is stated.
Of the 19 persons who died of small•pox, 12 had not
been vaccinated. The thermometer, according to
oWervations made at the Greenwich Observatory,
was lowest on the night of the 23ct, marking 2.35
degrees,-(of!-Fahrenheit), ,and highest on the 24h;,
being 48.3 degrees. In a note it is stated that the
changes in the height of the barometer have been

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 29, 1844.

considerable. On Feb. 22d it stood at 29.1, on the
23d it had risen to 29.7, and on the 24th it had fallen
to 28.6, and at midnight rose to 29.5.

SCOTCH LAW REFORM.—(From a Correspondent.)—
Mr. Wallace's motion on Scotch Law Courts Reform
fel to the ground for want of a seconder, and it is no
wonder, for there did not appear to be more than four
or five Members on the same side of the House with the
Meer for Greenock. Dinner hour is a very dan-
gerous one for any but very popular or party questions,
and as so few in the House of Commons take any inte-
rest in Law Reform, and especially in Scotch Law
Reform, it would be no surprise that Mr. Wallace had
to address himself nearly to empty walls. The Hon.
Member's statement referred almost entirely to returns
and other documents which he used at the table, and as
these evidently contained a mass of figures and statistics,
it was impossible without being possessed of them te
give a full rep•rt. This may be best judged of by
stating that, the speech of the Hon. Member occupied
more than an hour, and was listened to without any
symptom whatever of impatience—an unusual occur-
rence during the discussion of so dry a subject.

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