The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-13 00:00:00

(nin tth;

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1844.

No business of importance was done in the Lords.
In the Commons the Epsom and South-Western
Railway Bill, and the Croydon and Epsom Railway Bill,
were read a second time, and ordered to be committed.
In answer to several questions from Mr. GILL, Mem-
ber for Plymouth, relative to the arrest of two officers
of the 74th Regiment, now in Devonport, the arrest
having continued for eight months, Sir H. lIARDINGE
stated that ono of them had been placed under arrest,
being a junior officer, for carrying a challenge to a
superior officer, which the latter had accepted, both
having thus violated their duty. As a new measure
was in contemplation with regard to such challenges,
the Commander in Chief had allowed the arrest to con-
tinue for the time mentioned, but meant to release them
after a suitable admonition.

Mr. COBDEN moved for a Select Committee to inquire
into the effects of protective duties on imports upon the
interest of the tenant-farmers and farm labourers.

In introducing the subject he said such a Committee
as he called for was generally granted, and he had the
more confidence that it would be granted in this in-
stance because he intended, in case his motion should be
agreed to, only to call persons connected with agricul-
ture. His object was to prove that what was called
protection was delusive and injurious to the farmers.
He illustrated this simple fact by various arguments
and proofs, and left no doubt on the minds of impartial
hearers that what was called protection to tinant-
farmers and labourers, meant only monopoly to the
landowers. _

.....
Mr. GLADSTONE opposed the motion in a long speech,
Mr. VILLIERS, Mr. BRIGHT, and several other Members
followed, when the House divided, and the motion was
negatived by a majority of 91.
The other Orders of the Day having been disposed of,
the House adjourned at Half-past One o'Clock.

The demonstration made last night at Covent-garden
Theatre, is an event of no ordinary occurrence, and
cannot fail to be attended by important results. The
object of the meeting was ostensibly to do honour to lir.
O'CONNELL, for the great services he has rendered to his
country during a long and active life, and especially to
express public sympathy for his conviction, obtained by
means which neither English Judges nor English juries
would sanction. - These were the principal causes which
collected such a vast multitude of persons, both in the
middle and the higher ranks of life; but even these would
not account for the hearty enthusiasm and the boisterous
applause which %%doomed the long-tried friend of Ire-
land. It wai the wrongs of an oppressed, a gallant, and
a generous nation, that moved the sympathies of English-
men, and, we rejoice to add, Englishwomen too ; it was
the recollection that a country, which has produced some
of the greatest men of the age, which has lavishly shed
the blood of her people in avenging
English wrongs, and
maintaining the glory of Britain in every quarter of the

globe, was, notwithstanding all her great services in the
common cause, still treated as an outcast and an alien,
and prohibited by a dominant party from partaking in
all the rights anti privileges to which they have the same
indubitable claims with the rest of their countrymen.
This was the mainspring of the vast and glorious move-
ment which will spread joy throughout Ireland, make
a deep impression upon foreign States, and ulti-
mately lead to measures which neither religious bi-
gotry nor selfish class legislation can long gainsay.
Mr. O'CoNNELL justly said he did not accept the high
honour conferred on him for the humble services he had
performed, he accepted it in behalf of his afflicted coun•
tryman, who had long struggled for their liberty, and
who were determined, as one man, to obtain it, but with-
out shedding a drop of human blood; and they will ob-
tain it, when Englishmen and Scotchmen join them with
a resolution like that displayed last night. Let not Mr.
O'CoNNELL and his countrymen despair. They have
with them all the good and not a few of the great men
of this country. They have what is more, a just cause—
a sacred cause, and though their freedom by the in-
scrutable decrees of PROVIDENCE has been long delayed,
the dawn of liberty has at last burst forth, and ere long
will reach the meridian day. Let them persevere
in the same peaceable course, and before two years
elapse the cry of " Justice to Ireland" will be re-echoed
throughout every part of her MAJESTY'S dominions, and
our beloved SOVEREIGN will obtain the wish dearest to
her heart—the reconciliation of her loyal Irish subjects
—the cordial and complete union of two countries that
can be separated only by the destruction of both.

Mr. COBDEN brought forward his motion last night
in the House of Commons for a Select Committee to
inquire into the effects of protective duties on imports
on the interest of the tenant-farmers and farm-
labourers. His object, he said, in introducing this
motion, was to show that protection, as it is called,
instead of being beneficial, was in reality injurious to
those who imagined that they were gainers by it, and
this he was fully prepared to demonstrate on the evi-
dence of tenant-farmers themselves. The Member for
Stockport is a close and searching reasoner, who wastes
no time in superfluous declamation, or in conjuring up
phantoms—as Tom Thumb did giants—for the purpose of
battling with, and overthrowing, them ; and we
know not that he ever exhibited his superior
argumentative powers to greater advantage than
'he did last night. Fact after fact, each more
striking--each more pungent than its predecessor—
was poured forth with a profusion that seemed inex-
haustible ; and the inferences deduced from these stub-
born facts were such as could only have been gainsayed
by men whose inveterate prejudices blocked up all the
avenues to reason. Every prediction, observed Mr.
COBDEN, that was now uttered with regard to corn, had
been previously uttered by the Protectionists with re-
gard to wool. " But what was the result ?" asked the
Hon. Member. " Did they lose all their sheep walks ?
Had th ey no more mutton ? Were there no more sheep-
cots ? So far from this being the case, when wool was at
the highest price, the largest quantity had been
imported, and when it was at the lowest price, ths7'n the
smallest quantity had been imported." Mr. GLansToxE
made an attempt to ans'a er Mr. COBDEN'S nervous.
practical reasonings ; but acute, and skilful debater as
he is, the task was too much for him. In some portions
of his reply he gave us the idea of a man who was
placed in a false position, and was speaking against his
own internal convictions ; and this gave a certain vague-
nes and feebleness to his statements and hypotheses,
which are by no means of common occurrence in his
Parliamentary speeches. How puerile was his objection
to the appointment of a Committee, on the score that
it would unsettle the minds of the people, and
paralyse these departments of trade and revenue
to which its inquiries had reference : Precisely
the same obj ction might be urged to the Irish
Landlord-and-Tenant Commission, or any other great
public inquiry. Nothing can tend more thoroughly to
unsettle the minds of bsth landlords and tenants in Ire-
land than the inveAigation now in progress ; but who
denies that it is called for—who denies that it is one of
paramount necessity? There never yet was a Committee
appointed for a public object that the minds of some
classes were not unsettled by it ; yet Government has
never been in the habit of allowing this consideration to
stand in their way, when once they have decided on its
appointment. Now, however, when it happens to serve
their turn, it is brought in without the slightest hesita-
tion. In the course of the evening, by way of giving relief
to the debate, and infusing into it a little sprinkling of
Attic salt, Colonel SIBTIIOBP rose, and with that bril-
liant wit which is ever at his command, cracked not less
than three jokes consecutively, on the subject of Mr.
COBDEN and his white wand, as steward of the O'CoN-
NELL dinner. 'rhe House laughed, but whether with
the Gallant Colonel, or at him, we do not pretend to de-
termine ; enough to say it laughed, and that the Mem-
ber for Lincoln triumphantly succeeded in his ambitious
efforts to excite-the risible faculties of his audience. In
the midst ofmuch that captious critics might call irrelevant,
one fact of importance was elicited in the course of his
speech—aad that fact is, that he never reads the Anti-
Corn-law League Circular! He scorns even to give
house-room to such a revolutionary, atheistical docu-
ment ! This, we repeat, is a fact of moment ; and if i t
do not give an awful shock to the patriotic sensibilities
of the Member for Stockport, it will at least oc-
casion him some moments of uneasy meditation.
But we are not without a longing hope that the Gallant
Colonel—whom, after all, we respect for his frank and
manly plain-speaking, however, we may smile at his
political heresies—will relax in his present inveteracy of
purpose ; read the obnoxious Circular with avidity, and
like another NrcomEDus, sit reverently at the feet of
that instructive GAMALIEL, the Anti-Corn-law League.

The accounts from Madrid are to the 4th inst., but
they are as usual destitute of intelligence. Another
dispatch had been received from General RONCALI, in
which he attributes the small progress made in the siege
of Alicant to the boisterous weather.

The Three per Cents. were done at 30 3-16 for
cash, and 30-i at 60 days ; and the Five per Cents. at
22i at 60 days. -

Long debates took place in the French Chamber of
Deputies on two important questions—the rejection of
M. CHARLES LAFITTE, who had been returned a second
time for the town of Louviers, and the fortifications of
Paris. A third election, of course, must be made, and
from all accounts, the inhabitants will retui n the same
Member by a larger majority. This contest between
the Chamber and the electors, which is in many respects
similar to the WiLKEs' contest, has caused an excite-
ment both in the Chamber, and out of doors, difficult to
describe. M. C. LAFITTE belongs to the Ministerial
party. M. ARAGO began the discussion on the fortifica-
tions. He called them the palladium of Paris, but was
opposed to their being mounted in time of peace. M.
PAIXHANS and other Ministers addressed the Chamber,
when the question of discussing the law passed in 1841
was rejected by a large majority. The subscriptions for
a sword to be presented to Admiral DUPETIT Tuou.-tas
are still going on, and the slight punishment inflicted on
the boys of the Polytechnic School has only incited
other boys to imitate the example, and even double the
amount of subscription. According to accounts from
Brest,no doubt remains that Admiral DUPETIT THOUARS
is to be superseded forthwith. Admiral ILamELni is
mentioned as his successor.

The Three per Cents. were quoted at TORTONIS', on
Sunday, at 82f. 80c.

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM PARIS.
The following intelligence was received on Monday
by the French Government:—

TELEGRAPHIC DISPATCH.

" BAYONNE, MARCH 11.

" Alicant and its garrison have risen against the chief,
Bonet, who has taken to flight. The town and the fort
are in the hands of the Royal troops."
Accounts have been received in Paris announcing the
death of the Duke of Angouleme.

In the Committee on the Secret Service Money Bill,
the President of the Council, the Minister for Foreign
Affairs, and the Minister of the Interior, were heard ;
and their explanations were considered satisfactory by
eight of the Commissioners out of nine. M. Guizot
announced that Mr. Pritchard, the English Consul at
Otaheite, had been recalled.