The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-11 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1845.

If it was Sir ROBERT PEEL'S intention to wake❑
the Irish Catholic party by dividing and sowing dis•
sensions among them, it must be confessed that he
has succeeded to the fullest extent he could have an-

ticipated. The Charitable Bequests Act, like the
apple of discord which ATE flung down among the
assembled deities, has had the effect of producing a
decided 3plit among those who, till now, were united,
and separating them into two distinct sects, each of
which bears the same sort of goodwill towards the
other which a High Church Bishop bears towards a
Dissenter. But notwithstanding the untoward re-
sults that have attended the Act in question, it is in
truth a very judicious measure—yet, in fact, what
Doctor MURRAY described it to be, not devoid of
blemishes which require a speedy removal, but sound
m the main, and calculated to put Catholic charitable
bequests on a safer foundation than they have yet been.
Had it been projected and passed by a Government
in which Ireland had the slightest confidence—had it
emanated, for instance, from the Whigs during the
Viceroyalty of Lords NORMANDY or FORTESCUB, it
would not have been received by the more liberal
nembers of the Catholic party with the scorn and
indignation with which it has now been met, nor
would Mr. O'CONNELL have deemed it expedient to
denounce it in an elaborate epistle as long as that
hich TIBERIUS dispatched to the Roman Senate
t'rom Caprw. But it has, unfortunately, proceeded
;*rorn a wrong quarter. It is a " good " that has

come out of Nazareth "—a boon conceeded by the
Greeks—and on the principle of Timeo danaos et

dona ferentes," the great Agitator considers it
to be his bounden duty to oppose it by
every means at his command. His letter on the sub-
ject, which will be found in another part of The Sun
of this day, enters at considerable length and with a
world of circumstantial minuteness, into the one-
iided character of the Charitable Bequests Act; but
the " head and front of its offending" appears to be
that it is a measure passed by a Tory Government--
the enemies, from time immemorial, of Ireland—and
-herefore it is wholly impossible that a liberal spirit
can pervade it, or that it can be productive of the
lightest substantial benefit to the interests of the
sister country. " .1 object emphatically," says Mr,
O'CoNtitu., " to any connexion between the Catholic

Prelates and the present Government. Was not the
Duke of WELLINGTON bred up in the worst school of
No-Popery politics ? And when he yielded
Emancipation, did he not expressly retain alidi
his prejudices against Catholicity? Is not Sir
ROBERT PEEL the man who organised the
Orange system in Ireland ? and ought he not to hate
those who could not overcome the errors of his j udg-
ment, but forced him against his inclination to grant
them their political rights ? We have humiliated
PEEL, and it is utterly impossible he should ever for-
give us." It is here the shoe pinches. A Charitable
Bequests Act conceded by Whigs might have been
tolerated ; but conceded by Tories, it is—as honest
DOGBERRY would phrase it—" most tolerable, and
not to be endured." Now, we must beg to enter our
most earnest protest against this course of proceeding
adopted by Mr. O'CONNELL, and the more inflam-
mable portion of the Catholics, over whom he exer-
cises an all but sovereign ascendancy. If a measure,
despite a few acknowledged imperfections, be sound
in the main—and we contend that the Charitable Be-
quests Act is of this character—it should be received
with favour by those for whose benefit it is intended,
no matter whether its originator be Whig, Tory, or
Radical. If the man is always to be taken into consi-
deration and not the measure, there must be an eNd
to all chance of political improvement. The Irish
Catholics were glad enough to accept Emancipation at
the hands of the Orangeman, PEEL, why, then, cannot
they accept without a murmur the present Bequests
Act ? Having swallowed the camel, why do they now
strain at the gnat ? We foresee that this determined op•
position on the part of Mr. O'CONNELL and his myr-
midons to a measure which has already received the
sanction of three of the most eminent among: the
Catholic Prelates—to say nothing of a large portion
of the more moderate and enlightened among the Ca-
tholic laity—will occasion a world of jealousies and
heartburnings in Ireland; but assuredly no party
will suffer so much by these dissensions as that of the
morn ardent Repealers, who are unanimous in their
host•Aity to the Bequests Act, and who will disgust
mar. r, who might otherwise be not ill-disposed to-
wards them, by showing how perverse, unjust, and
ungenerous is the character of their opposition.

The " defunct" Anti-Corn-Law League—to quote
the often repeated phrase of the organs of Monopoly
—held a great free trade meeting on Thursday morn-
ing last at Manchester. An immense number of
ladies, who appeared to take a deep interest in the
proceedings, attended at this meeting—an auspicious
omen, for never do our fair and intelligent country-
women embrace a public cause with ardour, but they
are sure in the long run to carry it triumphantly
through all opposition, as in the memorable instance
of the great slave trade question, the success of which
was not a little owing to their strenuous and benignant
exertions on behalf of suffering humanity. That
vast numbers of ladies, more particularly in the
manufacturing districts, are now warm advocates of
free trade principles, is infinitely to the credit of their
judgment, their patriotism, and that quick, active
sensibility so characteristic of the sex ; for free trade
is not—whatever its opponents may choose to allege
to the contrary—a mere narrow question of pounds,
shillings, and pence, adapted only to the views
and interests of the counting-house;—no, it is a
question of far loftier character—of far more com-
prehensive application ; it is a question of increased
intercourse and good-fellowship of nation with nation
—a question of the civilisation of remotest humanity
—of the spread of intelligence, and concurrently with
it, of virtue and morality. Give free trade—that is
to say, liberate commerce from the ignominious
shackles with which the giant is now encumbered;
let her be free to rove wheresoever and whensoever she
wills—east, west, north, or south—do this, and you
do more in one year to promote the august interests
of humanity than the statesmen of combined Europe
could do in a dozen. To give free trade, is to give
guarantees for the rapid advance of intelligence
throughout the globe. It is to leave human nature
in a happier and wiser condition than that in which
you found it; to bind kingdoms together as families ;
to root out the ignorant, obstinate prejudices of cen-
turies, and sow in their stead the seeds of common
sense and good-fellowship. Free trade is the direct
antagonist principle to war. The one elevates, the
other degrades; the one benumbs, the other gives
increased action to the intellectual faculties ; the one
scatters abroad the seeds of pestilence, famine, and
squalid, hopeless destitution; the other, like Auaal-
thea, sheds from her horn of plenty blessings of
every description. What are the sanguinary coin-
quests of NAPOLEON compared to those benefice nt
and peaceful ones which Sir ROBERT PEEL might be
the mans of ensuring to his countrymen, were he at
once to abandon his halting expediency-system of
polio r, and boldly hoist the banners of free trade ?
The victories of the French Emperor are already but
a dead letter, existing only in the pages of history--
those of the Premier, could he but make up his mind
to the glorious task, would be an active, living prin-
ciple, whose moral influence would extend to remotest
generations. " The triumph of free trade," observed
Mr. COBDEN, at the meeting to which we have been
alluding, " was the triumph of pacific principles
between all the nations of the earth. It was a death-
blow to the old system of diplomatic intrigues ?be-
tween the Governments of countries. It was maid ng
them and the industrious fabricators of this district
the ambassadors and merchants of this country ; it
was giving to them the title-deeds by which the
would secure to themselves and all nations the bless -
ings of peace for all times. He saw in the distance .a
world's revolution involved in the triumphs of free
trade principles." This is now prophecy, but at no
distant period it will be fact, and Mr. COBDEN'S pre-
diction be realised to the letter. Free trade is, indeed,
the one great want of the age, as much so as the
Lutheran Reformation was the want of the sixteenth
century, and no matter how numerous and apparently
invincible may be the obstacles thrown by influential
and interested parties in the way of its success, its
eventual triumph is inevitable. Sir ROBERT PEEL is
fully aware of this " great fact ;" the Monopolists,
notwithstanding their swaggering demeanour, are
aware of it also ; hence the one is gradually paving
the way for the ultimate accomplishment of, what he
feels to be, a necessity, and the others are making
every possible effort to thwart him in his views
respecting free trade. Meantime, we wait with con-
fidence the advent of the wished-for hour. Le bon
temps eiendra.

The tone assumed in the pretensions put forth by
the Government of the United States in so mnch of the
diplomatic correspondence between their Secretary of
State, Mr. CALHOUN, and their accredited Ministers at
Paris and at Mexico, on the subject of the propo'ed
annexation of Texas to their territory and federation,
is too remarkable to be passed over in silence. The
Minister of the Goverment of Mexico, in replying to
it, has not exceeded, however strong the terms in
which he has expressed himself, the bounds of a just
and natural indignation. Senor REJON broadly com-
plains of the " falsehood" and " treachery" which are
apparent in the whole bearing of the American Go-
vernment in reference to this question, as they arc• to
be collected from the declarations and admissions of

its own agents. It is amusing, we must confess, to
consider the political ethics avowed and vindicated by
Mr. CALHOUN, by the instructions of his Government
to its •esident servants in Mexico and in France, and
by tht communications addressed by those servants to
the C• urts at which they are so resident. The noble
region of the Texas formed—and, as Mexico con-
tends, still forms—an integral member of the Mexican
dominions. The independence and authority of
Mexico, and of Mexico as thus comprehending the
Texas, were long ago recognised by the United
States. Some citizens of the latter, with some
refugees of other nations, settled on the thinly in-
habited prairies of Texas, formed, in process of time,
some political as well as commercial connexions there,
and following the example of all American societies
among which changes of Governments appear to
develop themselves with almost as much frequency,
and as little moral sensation, as changes of the
seasons, erected a sort of republic, which they de-
clared to be :independent, and on behalf of which
they exercised various acts of state authority, and
established with various foreign Powers state relations.
But Mexico was not one of those powers. She
could never be brought to acknowledge the inde-
pendence of Texas, however fruitless her efforts have
proved, from time to time, to bring back the revolted
territory under her de facto dominion and control.
Those efforts have been paralysed by her own internal
disorganisation, her civil broils, and the fierce struggles

of her impetuous factions. From whatever cause
(and it is not necessary here to inquire whether the
movement was suggested, or not, by intrigues fo-
mented under such extraordinary "secret instruc-
tions" as the President TYLER has shown the world
that American Chief Magistrates do sometimes issue
to the diplomatic representatives of the Federal Go-
vernment on their own responsibility), there has
grown up a cabal in Texas strong enough, with an
ex-functionary at its head, to defy the de facto Go-
vernment of the country, and to enter into secret but
formal negotiations with the United States' emissaries,
agents, and very estimable President (reknit), for the
annexation of Texas to that Federal Republic, and its
reception and recognition as a member of the general
Union. These negotiations, their result, and the
documents conveying, expounding, and affirming the
offer of annexation, were, during its last session, laid
before Congress, but the Senate never took them
into consideration. In what few preliminary steps
were hazarded by the annexation party, rather
as feelers than as substantive demonstrations or pro-
, positions, the Senate clearly expressed its repugnance
to entertain any such offer. It did not even recog-
nise it. Yet in the interval between the close of the
last and the opening of the present Congress under
the authority of the outgoing President, the same
negotiations have been extended and reinforced. The
incoming President, who will be inaugurated in
March next, has been returned upon a pledge to
carry into effect the " public opinion" of the Union,
which Mr. TYLER himself, and the new American
Secretary of State, choose to assume to be clearly
pronounced in favour of the annexation. Suppose
this to be the fact—ls Mexico, the primary party in
the affair—the one most distinctly and deeply inte-
rested, and liable to be the most seriously injured—
to have no voice in the matter ? " Not at all," ac-
cording to Mr. Secretary CALHOUN and his official
colleagues. Mexico may not have denuded herself
of her sovereign rights over the Texas. The law of
nations may recognise the validity of those rights.
The existing de facto Government of Texas (which,
being elective, must be as competently constituted as
its predecessor, whose ex-President has put himself
at the head of the annexation movement) may be, as
of course it is, strenuously opposed to the sur-
render of its own existence and its country's
independence ;—and, consequently, the aggression
which the United States contemplates committing
under the impudent pretext of the sanction of public
opinion in the Federal Union, and the wishes of the
Texian people may be, as it assuredly is, in violation
of the rights and the pretexts both of the Govern-
ment tie jure in Mexico, and the Government esta-
blished de facto in Texas. This may be all very
true. But then Air. CALHOUN has discovered that
the Federal Union is " destined" to incorporate and
possess Texas. As for Mexico, she really may do
what she likes in negotiating with Texas to re-
turn under her allegiance ; but then this can only
be " pending the progress of the State question" in
the United States' Legislature, for it is broadly ad-
mitted that some Members of it are disinclined to
the spoliation. But when once these scruples are re-
moved—and they, too, are destined in Mr. CAL..
HOUN'S prophetic ecstacies to be removed—any act of
Mexico to interrupt the harmonious amalgamation of
so magnificent a slice of the New World, with the
already enormously expanded territory of the Union,
will be regarded by the latter as a declaration of
war. We must say, that amidst all the balderdash
of these diplomatic papers about its being the destiny
of the United States to cover the country to be an-
nexed with railroads, and cities, towns, and villages,
and all the institutions of their religion, civilisation,
&c., we never detected such a rank exhibition of the
unblushing principle of might against right—such a
profession of that basest of political, as it is of moral
and religious doctrine, " that the means justify the
end." The vaunting and defying tone about the
mode in which the interference of any foreign
Power, on the part of Mexico, with the United
States in carrying into effect this notable plan of an-
nexation, is amusing enough, and characteristic
withal. But we are inclined to hope, still, that the
abundant good sense and right feeling of a large
portion of the American public will never permit the
recklessness or wickedness of their Government to
hazard such flagrant experiments on the weakness of 1
a neighbouring and friendly transatlantic State, with
the mere object of ascertaining to what extent the po-
litical
rapacity of one party, the slave-trading
cupidity of another, and the commercial specula-
tiveness of a third, among them, may accomplish
their several objects at the expense of the national
character, and of all political justice. It would be
painful—and we deem it, at present, unnecessary—
to pursue the consideration of the other alternative
which these proceedings may determine in ; or the
prompt and decisive measures of repression and re-
taliation which the success of se fraudulent a scheme
would inevitably provoke from other Powers, who
could never be brought to compromise the first prin-
ciples of social and political Government by acqui-
escence in such a monstrous violation of them. We
conclude, for the present, with the expression of our
unfeigned regret and astonishment at these frequent
manifestations of moral turpitude and State "treachery
and falsehoood," to use Senor REJon's words, on the
part of the Executive and other functionaries of a
great Republic, which established its just claims on
the sympathy, respect, and good wishes of free and
independent nations, by a profession of political
faith, and by political conduct so much more recon•
cilable with the ancient nations of the distinction
between rights and wrongs, than any indications we
can find throughout this affair of Texas.

Madrid Journals of the 3d inst. have been re-
ceived. The discussions in the Senate on the Reform
Bill were continued on that day, when an amend-
i nent was made to confer on Peers a hereditary right
to sit in the Upper Chamber. A division took place,
and the amendment was rejected by a majority of 45
against 24. Several other clauses were adopted,
among others, one conferring on the Senate the
power to try Ministers impeached by the Lower
Chamber, also its own Members, and persons
accused of offences against the dignity of the
Sovereign or State. The Gazette contains two
decrees—one ratifying the Convention concluded
between the Minister of Finance and the bank of
San Fernando for a loan of 150,000,000 reals, and
another sanctioning the engagement of the bank to
pay into the Sinking Fund 60,000,000 reals, to
meet the dividends of the Consolidated Three per
Cent. Debt, due in June and December of the pre-
sent year.
The Three per Cents. closed at 311 for cash, and
31 11-16 at 60 days ; the Five per Cents. at 22i for
cash, and 321 at 60 days ; the Floating Debt at 78
at 60 days; the Coupons at 261 at 60 days ; and the
Debt without Interest at 6 15-16 at 60 days.

The Paris papers, in the absence of all other topics of
. the slightest interest, continue their disquisitions on
the state of the Ministry. The great object of the
Opposition is the ejection of M. GUIZOT, for what
reason no one can tell, except the mere love of change.
The writers in these journals know well that M.
GUIZOT acts only a very secondary part, that he
follows out only the policy prescribed by a high
authority, and that if Count MOLE or M. TI tEas
were restored to office they must adopt the same
policy, or walk out as they have done before. The
KING, in fact, is everything, and though an adverse
vote of the Chamber may occasionally thwart his
views, he never:fails to return to the subject, and
he is generally successful. The coldness of the
Court to M. Guizor is therefore alarming
to a man anxious to retain office ; but his position,
however, is more envious than that of the men who
would displace him, and for the sake of power and
place renounce opinions on many vital points of fo-
reign policy which for years they have advocated in
opposition to this able and fearless Minister. These
opinions are well arranged by the Journal des Debats
—they are placed in full view before the Coalition,
and deny them they cannot. On almost every sub-
ject that interests the public mind in France they are
at variance with the policy of the man they would
oast from place. " There are at present," says that
journal, " we will not say a party, but men who pom-i
pously deck themselves out with the name of Conser-i
vatives, and who are the declared and open ene-i
mies of that policy. These men believe that the
policy inaugurated by CASIMIR PERIER, and sup-.
ported for fifteen years by Parliamentary majorities,•
is incompatible with the national honour and interest;
they proclaim on all occasions that the English,
alliance, the entente cordiale, is a gross deception, a