The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-03 00:00:00

infiriting tnt

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCEI 3, 1845.

The debate in the House of Commons, on Friday
night last, elicited by Mr. T. DIINCOMBE'S motion for
calling to the bar certain officers of her MAJESTY'S Post-
office department, with a view to their examination in
reference to the charge of opening letters addressed to
that Honourable Member,—terminated as we had anti-
cipated. A majority of 75, in a House of 301 Members,
negatived his motion. It results that, to-day—to-mor-
row—at any time between the present moment and that
at which the felony-indemnifying statute of Queen ANNa
shall be repealed,—the most private and confidential
correspondence of every man who was a constituent
element of that majority may have its seals broken,
after being forged by remodelling ;—its contents pe-
rused, transcribed, and communicated to third parties,
may be with impunity violated, surreptitiously resealed,
and fraudulently forwarded to its original destination,
without any intimation or evidence to the parties ad-
dressed of the fact of its having been so tampered with.
Entertaining the strong opinions we have never hesi-
tated to avow on the criminal nature of the delinquency
which her MAJESTY'S Government have, in effect,
pleaded guilty to, we cannot help saying that we should
be well pleased if every one of their supporters on this
memorable question should be placed in the position of
having his own letters experimented upon by the Home-
office and Post-office authorities, after the same fashion
by which Mr. DUNCOMBE has been a sufferer. The plea
relied upon by Sir RonEier PEEL, and other Members,
for refusing the very
reasonable application which Mr
DtimcoatnE's motion, if carried, would have enforced'
was, as on former occasions, of a kind the most unworthy
and even puerile, to which a public man could
be supposed, at this time of day, capable of
resorting. In fact, it amounted to little more than
the stale clap-trap of throwing himself upon his cha-
racter—the course of official precedents—the impos-
sibility of a Minister, in his position, being so guilty
of pandering to the appetite of foreign courts for con-
traband news. There was no indignant repudiation--
such as would have well become the Prime Minister of a
constitutional Government—of au odious and detestable

espionnage, such as should be tolerated only under the
most corrupt or the most unmitigated of despotisms.
There was no generous expression of confident reliance
on the cordial attachment to the institutions o their
country of the people which, in its recent cheerful
acquiescence in the imposition of extraordinary burdens
to meet extraordinary deficiencies of income at an ad-
vanced period of a protracted peace ; an attachment that
surely supplied the best argument against the necessity
of such atrocious inquisitorial powers as those embodied
in the Act of ANNE. We have not been slow to bear
our testimony to the merits of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S ad-
vances in the right direction of free-trade and fiscal
reform, as a finance Minister. But on all occasions,
where there is a great constitutional principle to be vin-
dicated—a large scheme of national policy with regard
to our foreign relations to be discussed—a claim of
equity or justice to be determined against suggestion* of
official convenience or Exchequer expediency—we must
own that he is too apt to fall beneath the level of even
subaltern mediocrity. His statesmanship is without
philosophy ; his philosophy without statesman-
ship. He argues like a functionary more or
less immediately interested in the issue to be
tried by the Legislature. He seldom or ' never
rises to the enlarged and comprehensive views of
a legislator, whose business it is to devise and prescribe
the rules which shall govern the conduct of public func-
tionaries in the various departments of the public ser-
vice. On Friday last the feebleness with which he met
the flagrant charge established against the Home De-
partment on a former evening, and evaded the just and
reasonable appeal of Mr. DUNCOMBE—Was almost piti-
able. A majority of 75, at the price of such an exhi-
bition, was dearly purchased. Toe failure of the Right
Honourable Baronet to gainsay the general axiom we
have so often contended for, and which we perceive was
powerfully enforced both by Mr. DUNCOMBE and by
Mr. DISRAELI, was still mure signal. That principle
was thus put by Mr. D'lsitaieu :
" You have a popular government, you have a strong local
system ; yon may, by not prying into the correspondence of
individuals, be subjected to great calamities. You may have
Bristol burnt, as Bristed,was burnt ; you may have Birming-
ham assailed, as you had' assailed—but the country strikes
the balance. It agrees to Suffer these great injuries for the
sake of a popular Government, instead of a Government of
police; and the country, after all, must decide it.—(Cheers.)
Now, Sir, I believe that is the impartial view as regards
the general question."
In short, the axiom that your Government- should
possess no such authority for violating the integrity of
this important department, was not even touched by the
opponents of Mr. DuszcostnE's motion. The moral im-
putation on the conduct of her Majesty's Ministers in
this affair, and of the Right Honourable the Home
Secretary in particular, remains not only unremoved,
but absolutely unnoticed by those whom it most concerns.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM, indeed, is brought at last to ac-
knowledge that a warrant was issued in every case
where letters have been opened, whilst he has been in
office, so that Mr. DUNCOMBE may conclude that his
letters were opened under warrant. But Sir JAMES
GRAHAM, on commencing his address, and in dealing with
the spirited protest of Mr. DISRAELI against the politi-
cal Mattinetism of Sir ROBERT with any of his sup
porters who presume, on large questions, to have an
opinion of their own, he spoke with the atrabilious
astonishment of an usher astounded at the demonstra-
tions of a rebellious boy on the upper forms against the
aristocratic majesty of the head-master. His reproof was
in the very spirit of an angry pedagogue. It was a melan-
choly specimen of the obsequiousness of political col-
leagueship, which an apostate from the politi-
cal creed and associations of the far larger por-
tion of his existence may be brought to mani-
fest under to exacting a master as the Premier.
The speech of Mr. D'IsRAELI was, certainly, the hsp-
piest and most successful effort he has yet made in
Parliament. It was well calculated to fortify the
strongest presumptions of serious divisions in the
Ministerial camp, or between the Ministerial staff and
the Tory rank and file. Spirited, caustic, and epigramatic,
it was received probably by every person in the House,
except the two Right Honourable Barovets, Sir ROBERT
himself, and Sir JAMES, with visible favour, being more
cheered than any other address delivered throughout
the evening. If Sir ROBERT can retain, under the
excitement of such a castigation, that self-possession to
which he is so often indebted fur learning prudence
from his dangers, and for deriving advantage from
his own errors, he will do well to profit by
the unpleasant lesson which the Member for Shrews-
bury has read to him. It does not follow that because
he has for some time past managed to lead the House, not
only without, but in despite, to some extent, of his party.
he will always ba able to employ the same tactics with
the same success. It may be prudent, therefore, fur him
to pause before he again strains the cord of leadership
too tightly, where its stress is to affect those who are
among the ablest and most intelligent of his champions
whilst they are in the ranks, but are among the most
formidable and harassing of his antagonists the moment
they have fallen out of them. Mr. D'ISRAELI was very
sparkling in touching upon the " sic ves non vobis" sort
of fortune that established the present Government in
power on the ruins of its predecessor, exactly because
(it should seem) the present men were (luckily fortunate)
Li do that, which the others for merely proposing to do
were expelled for. The figure of the spoliated bathers
was capital. The simile of PETRUCHIO scarcely less
striking:—
" The Right Hon. Gentleman has only exactly to remain
where he is. The Right Hon. Gentleman caught the Whigs
bathing, and walked away with their clothes.—(Much
cheering and great laughter.) He has left them in the full
enjoyment of their liberal position, and he is himself a strict
conservative of their garments.—(Continued cheers and
laughter.) I cannot conceive that the Right Hon. Gentle.
man will ever desert his party ; they seem nevert to desert
him. There never was a man yet who had less need to
find new friends. I, therefore, hope all these rumours will
cease. I look on the Right Hon. Gentleman as a man who
has tamed the shrew of Liberalism by her own tactics. He
is the political Petruchio, who has outbid you all.—(Cheers
and great laughter.) If we could only induce the Right Hon.
Gentleman, therefore, to take a larger and more liberal view of
his Parliamentary position than he seems to adopt in mo-
ments too testy for so great a man to indulge in, he would
spare us some imputations which, I assure him, are really
painful."
But there is a chapter in the past political life of Sir
ROBERT PEEL, to which we think it is well that the
public mind should be now and then referred, although
with the view of working some abatement of the prestige
which a long career of Parliamentary and of Ministerial
success has thrown around that Minister's reputation.
His deportment to Mr. CANNING in the ascendant—his
utter want of generosity and confidence towards his early
friend and political comrade,—bis ready and somewhat
overe-ager adhesion to the most bitter and unscrupulous
enemies of that great statesman,—the coincidence of
this remarkable estrangement from the companion and
fellow partisan of so many political campaigns, wiih that
illustrious individual's attainment to supreme rank in the
Councils of the SOVEREIGN ;—these are recollections
which we doubt not are not those that are dwelt upon
with the greatest degree of complacency by his successor
in that supreme position. 'With the very neat allusion
to this epoch in the public history of Sir ROBERT,
with which the Hon. Member for Shrewsbury concluded
his address, we shall conclude this article :

"lie never refers to any author who is not great, and
sometimes who is not loved—Canning fur example.—(Hear,
hear.) That is' a name never to be mentioned, lam sure,
in the House of Commons without emotion. We all admire
his genius. We all, at least most of us, deplore his untimely,
end ; and we all sympathise with him in his fierce struggle
with supreme prejudice and sublime mediocrity—(Cheers
and a laugh)—with inveterate foes and with candid friends.
—(Loud cheering.) The Right Hon. Gentleman may be
sure that a quotation from such an authority will always
tell. Some lines, for example, upon friendship, written by
Mr. Canning, and quoted by the Right Hon. Gentleman:
The theme, the poet, the speaker—what a felicitous combina-
tion ! Its effect in debate must be overwhelming; and lam
sure, if it was addressed to me, all that would remain would be
for me thus publicly to congratulate the Right Hon. Gentleman,
not only on his ready memtgy, but on his courageous con-
science."—(The Hain. Gontlioman, after secondingthe motion,
sat down amidst loud cheer g.)

Madrid papers of the 21st ult. have been received. A
military commission had been summoned to meet at
Vittoria for the trial of the thirty-one officers and non-
commissioned officers arrested for a plot against the Go-
vernment. No business was done in the Chambers on
the 21st.

The Three per Cents. closed at 33i at 60 days ; the
Five per Cents. at 24 for cash, and 244 at 60 days ; the
Debt without Interest, at if at 60 days, with i prem. ;
and the Vales at 943. at SO days.

The domestic intelligence in the Paris papers is with-
out interest. The accounts from Switzerland are on
the whole satisfactory. No disturbances or collisions
between the adverse cantons had taken place, and hopes
began to be entertained that the differences would be
settled by peaceful negotiations. The Extraordinary
Diet met at Zurich for the first time, on the 24th ult.,
but no business was done. The first question for dis-
cussion was the admission of the popular Deputies from
the Canton de Vaud, which would be brought on the
following day. The Paris paper, the Pcrtrie, publishes
the following extract of a letter, dated Zurich, Feb. 23:
" The envoys of the great Powers, and even those of the
small German States, near Switzerland, have had conferences,
in which all the eventualities that could arise in this country
were considered. The canton of Lucerne has already yielded
to the represeatations of one of the great powers (France),
by withdrawing the order which had been given to General
side.pre-
vent the
haet tack
eNwv
ti
et h f
rwo hmi c
Bh
eLrijueC e
andr n e
Sonnenberg to enter the territory of Argau in order to
was
u s amn enne a,
cwe dh
dos nt
tthh
ey
express serious fears as to the maintenance of order on the
hypothesis of the Vora not acting according to the 'instruc-
tions given to the Deputies of those cantons, say there is no
reason to hope that the free corps will be restrained from

action until after the decision of the Diet. Whatever may
happen, France, Austria, Sardinia, Baden, and Bavaria, are
firmly resolved to surround with a rigorous cordon of blockade
all the cantons which may take any part whatever in the
movements that menace the existence of the federal compact.
M. de Pontois displays great activity. He is on excellent
terms with the Catholic cantons. The new envoy of Prussia
is expected to-day."
The French Funds remained nearly stationary. The
Five per Cents. closed at 1221., the Threes at 85, and
the. New Loan at 85f. 90c. Orleans Railroad Shares,
1,2131. 75c.; Rouen, 1,1201.; Havre, 927 f. 50e.

MONEY and COMMERCIAL NEWS.
(From The Sun of Saturday Evening.)
The Cotton market at Liverpool, yesterday, continued
firm. Sales 8,000 bales, including 2,000 on speculation.—
Shares were better, especially Dover and Brighton. Birming-
ham and Gloucester, 13314 ; Eastern Counties, Perpetual. No.
2,1%; Glasgow and Greenock, 16 ; Grand Junction, 110%;
London and Birmingham, 229% 31; Ditto, 321. Shares, 421/4 ;
Ditto and Brighton, 60% %; Ditto and South-Western, 78.3% ;
Ditto and York, 7%; Cambridge and Lincoln, 3% y ;
Churnet Valley, 714 %; Manchester and Birmingham, 6614
7%; Midland Counties, 126 ; Ditto, Quarter Shares, 115/8
12% ; Newcastle and Carlisle, 1223/ ; Newcastle and Dar-
lington. New, 31%; North British, 1314 ; Sheffield and Man-
chester, 104 ; South-Eastern, 4214 ; Ditto, No. 2, 11%;
Orleans, Tours, and Bordeaux, 8 ; Boulogne and Amiens, 614 ;
Northern of France, 5%.
Accounts of the 24th December, from Buenos Ayres, give
no conclusive information upon the subject of the war. A
letter has just appeared, addressed by Mr. A. Mallalieu to
t he Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and urging the injustice of
an intervention in favour of Monte Video, to which our Go-
vernment is said to be inclined. The writer states that the
sway of Roses has been beneficial to his country, that the
charges brought against him are grossly exaggerated, and
that our trade with the Argentine Republic is becoming too
valuable to be risked by mixing ourselves up in a local contest.
The circulation of the Bank of England in the week to
Saturday last, was 142,2651. more than in the preceding
week ; the public deposits were 607,752/. more ; and the
bullion was 145,236!. ; while the rest was 49,8551. less,
and the seven day bills 46,8871. less.
There is scarcely any business doing in the Funds. Con-
sols are 99% % for Money, and par for Account. Exchequer
bills have alternated from 595. to 625. premium. New
Three-and- a-Quarter per Cents. have been 1034 to 104, and
the Three per Cents. 100% to 14. Nothing has been done in
Bank Stock.
An advance has occurred again in Spanish Actives, but
there is no alteration in the Threes. The former are 28 to %
and th . er 40%. Portuguese Converted bring 61 to %
bei6g.k ery firm. Mexican are 36% to % and Coluni-
el
biaia. 4 141%. Brazilian New Stock is worth 86% to
871/,. ''Dutch Two and-a-Half per Cents. are 63 to %.
Snares are buoyant, especially Brighton and South-Eastern.
Churnet Valley are fluctuating.
ONE CLOSING
PRICES OF BRITISH FUNDS. O'CLOCK. PRICES.
3 per Cent. Reduced ••• 1004 ',4 100 %
3 per Cent. Consols 99 yi 99%
New 314 per Cents lO3 104 103%
Long Annuities to expire Jan. 1860 12% 12%
Bank Stock for Account — 214
Consols for Account... ....... 100 10C
Exchequer Bills, 1,0001., 11/0.... 62 59 62 pm. 62
Ditto 500/. .
Ditto Small
Ditto Advertised 57 60 pin. 60
ONE CLOSING
PRICES OF FOREIGN FUNDS. O'CLOCK. PRICES.
Brazilian Bonds
' Ditto New, 1829 and 1839 B6l/2 87% 87%
Chilian Bonds 6 per Cent... • • lOO % 1011,4 1011,E
Columbian Bonds, ex Venezuela I3J/4 1414 1414
Mexican, 5 per Cent. 1837 36A, % 36%
Ditto, Account 363% 361/
it,
Ditto, Deferred
Portuguese Bonds, 5 per Cent
Ditto, Converted
Ditto, Account
Spanish 5 per Cent. 1840
Ditto, Account 28% 28%
Ditto 3 per Cent.
40:!!1. 40%
Venezuela Bonds, 2 per Cent 4414 4414
Ditto, Deferred . . 12 12
Dutch, 21/.1 per Cent .
Ditto. Account ........ .....
Ditto, 4 per Cent., Certitic 99%14 9914
PRICES OF CLOSING
SHARES PAID. AT ONE O'CLOCK. PRICES.
Aberdeen
Binning. and Gloucesterloo 134% 135 135
Ditto % Shares
Bristol and Exeter
Ditto New....
Bristol and Gloucester... 30 ...... 58 59
Caledonian
Chester and Holyhead... 5
__ ..

'lt
Cliurnet Valley
Cornwall
Direct Northern
EaStern Counties 141. 165....... 175/8% ..... ... 17%
Eastern Union lO .. ...
Ditto Extension
Edinburgh and Glasgow 50
Ditto, New Quarters.. 2% 5% ••• ••
Great South. and West.
A(lreland) ......... .
Ditto Extension
Great North of England..loo i--- ...... 188
Ditto New
Ditto New 2 —
Great 'Western ... 80 ......177
Ditto % Shares
Ditto Fifths
Guildford, Farn'm,Ports. 21/2. 'W 2
Bull and Gainsborough 136 2X3
_2l/..i
.. Kil . RRIZ. 520

Hull and Selby - 50 - BB% 88
Do. Half Shares
Lancaster and Carlis1e... 15
London and Birmingllin (Stock) — .. 231%
Ditto, Quarters

London and Brighton... 50 . .... 61i, 61 621/2% 63%
London and Croydon, 131. 15s. 9d. 181/2 19
London ;ird S. Western 4116 s 10d 791/2 781/2
Do. New consolidated Bths 6 ...... 24
Ditto New 2IA 12% 12
London and York ..)14 7
Lynn and Ely
Manchester and Leed5... 73
Manchester and Birmin. 40 ...67% 661/2 68 661,4 661/•
Ditto Quarters
Midland 100 127
Ditto New 2 ...... 814 A, B%
Newcastle and Darling-
ton Junction 473/4
Do. New Brandling
Neweas It and Berwick VA ...... 1412 15
North British
Ditto, New
3%
Norwich and Brandon... 10
Ditto New 1
Richmond and West End
Junction
Scottish Midland 1 %...... 1% 2 2pz
Shrews., Wolverhamp ,
Dudley, and Birm 2l/2 4l/ is... ..... . ...... 5
South Devon...
South Eastern & Dover 33/ 28 4d 42%- ...... ...... 42,1,
Ditto, No. 2.
Ditto, No. 3 2% B% 9 9
South Wales 2% 4% 4%
Trent. Valley 2 .... • 20% 20%
Waterford and Kilkenny 1 ......
West Cornwall ..... 14— 31A% 334
Yarmouth and Norwich. 20
York and North Midland 50 lO3
Ditto 1,4 Shares
Ditto Extension .. 114 13% 14% 14% 151 15 15
FRENCH RAILWAYS
Boulogne and Amiens... 2
Bordeaux ard Toulouse 2
Great North. of France.. 4
Lyons and Avignon
.23/4
1 - -

Orleans and Vierzon ... 2 ...... 1612 17
Orleans and Borde.-tax... 2
Paris and Orleans

Paris and Rouen ... 20
Tours and Nantes 1
JOINT STOCK BANKS.
Colonial
Union of Australia
Do. New
MANCHESTER STOCK EXCHANGE, FEB. 28.—Our market
continues steady, and prices generally are firm. Chester
and Holyhead, 8% ; Lancaster and Carlisle, 301; Man-
chester and Birmingham, 66% 67 ; Sheffield and Manchester
Quarter Shares, 13 ; South-Eastern. No. 3, 94 ; Barnsley
Junction, 6% • Ditto, Half Shares, 23/4 3 ; Birkenhead, Man-
chester, and Cheshire Junction, 8 1-16; Blackburn, Burnley,
and Accrington, 514 ; Bolton, Wigan, and Liverpool, 7%;
Cambridge and Lincoln, 314 ; Churnet Valley, 714 5-16;
Hudderstied and Manchester Railway and Canal, SX, ; Lon-
don and York, 7 ; Newark and Sheffield, 2%; Oxford, Wor-
cester, and Wolverhampton, 1%; Trent Valley, 20 1-16 14.