The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1844.

Lord CLARENDON announced in the House of
Lords last evening, that, in consequence of the ill-
ness of Lord ABERDEEN, he would postpone his
motion on the affairs of Spain till Monday next.
The Bill entitled " Actions for Penalties on Gaming
Discontinuance Bill," was, on the motion of Lord
BROUGHAM, read a third time and passed.
On the motion of the same Noble, Lord, a re-
turn of the number of appeals heard, and remaining
to be heard, before the Committee of the Judicial
Privy Council was ordered. This led to a little
amicable conversation between Lord CAMPBELL and
Lord BROUGHAM.

In answer to a- question from the LORD CHAN-
CELLOR, Lord NORMAN BY said, it was his intention to
bring on his motion relative to the state of Ireland on
Tuesday. _ _

Lord CAMPBELL brought in a Bill, which was read
a first time, to enact thatwhen a prosecution was in-
stituted for seditious libel, and falsehood was charged
in the indictment,-it should be lawful to give evidence
of the truth of the alleged libel. The object of the
Bill -is to supply the deficiency in the Act of last
session, relative to Government prosecutions.
The Commons did not make a House, there being
only thirty-five Members present at four o'clock.

It is quite clear that public men are entitled to
claim a liberal construction not only for their mo•
tines, but for their conduct, and that no harsh rule of
construction should-be applied to them ; but that, on
the contrary, every latitude should be allowed to
persons situated as they are; and placed under per-
petual observation as to their every action. But if

public men are entitled to claim this indulgence, it is
I equally evident that they are bound, by the strictest
ties, not 'to abuse the privileges they enjoy, and that
their conduct, when it departs from the line of pro-
priety, is neither shielded from censure, nor en-
titled to any protection on account of station or
position.
The conduct of the Irish law officers is to be
judged entirely by this rule. So long as their
official capacity demanded from them the performance
of certain duties, they were perfectly justified in
using their ability and energy to make the utmost of
their position, and if possible to secure for themselves
and their principals a successful result. But they
were not justified in using the powers of the law to
the abuse and perversion of justice—to the denial of
a fair tribunal, before which the guilt or innocence
of the accused should be tested—or to the refusal of
every privilege which persons similarly situated hare
a right to demand, as the means of preparing for their
defence. The suppression of nearly one-tenth of the
jury list—the exclusion of all men of the Roman Ca-
tholic religion—and the denial of the names of the
witnesses to support the charge against the accused
cannot be justified by any principle of law or equity,
and will always remain a stigma upon the officers en-
gaged in the now pending trial.
It is greatly to be regretted that common sense
forms so small a portion of the attainments of legal
functionaries. ,Common sense would have told the_,
Irish Attorney-General that an indictment such as
he had prepared was absurd and ridiculous—that the
evidence by which he sought to support it was farci-
cal,
and altogether unworthy of the attention of a
jury—and that the powers of the law were not to be
sustained by the monstrous appeal to arms of an Irish
Attorney-General. Common sense now points to
the verdict
.the jury ought to pronounce—will the
jury follow the dictates of common sense or of the
Attorney-General?

In the absence of the Duke of IticamoNn, Lord
BROUGHAM on Thursday moved the second reading
of the Actions- for-Penalties-on-Gaming-Discontinu-
ance Bill—the longest-tailed Bill we ever remember to
have seen, and which might put even a Bond-street
tailor to the blush. In bringing forward his mo-
tion, his Lordship observed that the Legislature had
at various times passed laws for the suppression of
gambling, and among them was one which imposed
a penalty on parties who should lose more than ten
pounds at a sitting at any game. In consequence of
this stringent law—which, by the bye, had fallen into
desuetude—not having been acted on for fifty years,
many-Noble and Hon. Gentleman had had qui tam
actions brought against them to recover penalties to
an immense amount on account of their having betted
at horse-races. They had done so in perfect igno-
rance of the law on the subject, and when they lost
they had paid honourably ; but certain individuals
with whom they had betted had acted in a
far different spirit, and resolutely refused to
pay their bets. Steps had, in consequence, been
taken to drive these scamps from the turf ; upon which,
from motives of sheer spite, they had raked up the
penal clauses of the obsolete enactment in question,
and brought qui tam actions for the recovery of penal-
ties against many of the most honourable and distin-
guished patrons of the turf. His Lordship having
briefly stated these particulars, concluded by moving
the second reading of his long-tailed Bill, and added,
that what it proposed was, " not that any prospective
law should be passed, but only that the bad parts of
the old law should be repealed, and some good and
sound provisions be substituted in their stead." To
this moderate proposition we do not see that the
slightest objection can be offered; indeed we could
have wished that it had been more comprehensive in
its character; though it must be confessed, at the
same time, that a law for the suppression of gambling
would be one which would be very difficult, if not
impossible, to carry into effect. The vice, if put
down in one shape, would be pretty sure to start up
in another, and contrive, by some ingenious means or
other, to elude the most stringent enactments. Still
the experiment, impracticable as it may appear, is
worth making, for there is no social evil so utterly
demoralising in its character as that of gambling—
none which inflicts such an immense amount of grief,
remorse, and humiliation on the upper and middle
classes of' society, among whom it is chiefly prevalent.
The Bishop of LONDON, while professing his intention
not to oppose the second reading of the Bill, took the
opportunity of stating that he " could not approve of
any, measure that tended to encourage betting; espe-
cially among the poor. They might leave the rich
to do what they chose with their property, but they
ought to interfere to protect the poor." The logic
of this is exceedingly curious, and deserves 'a word or
two in.comment, if not for its force, at least for its
singularity. Why should the rich be allowed to
ruin themselves ad libitum ; and the property of the
poor only—which in far too many cases amounts to
the exact sum of nothing—be vigilantly looked after
by the law, in order that it may be turned to the
best account, and not be wasted in gambling ? has
his Lordship no consideration—no bowels for the
wealthy and aristocratic victims of CROCKFORD'S
and TATTERSALL'S ? Can he allow these peo-
ple to loose thousands upon thousands at
hazard, or in the betting-room, without making the
slightest attempt at interference ; while at the same
time he puts a stern interdict upon the poor man's
harmless bet of a few pence on a game of skittles in
the bowling-green, or on a game of cribbage in the
sanded parlour of the village alehouse ? Is gambling
correct and orthodox when practised by the rich, and
criminal only when practised by the poor? With
great deference to his Lordship's better judgment,
we must frankly confess that we do not understand
these nice distinctions; but are old-fashioned enough
to believe that vice is vice, whether indulged in by
rich or poor. In the present instance, however, the
Rev. Prelate's anxious solicitude to protect the poor
from the evil consequences of betting, is altogether
superfluous, for gambling is certainly not the beset-
ting vice of poverty. If you desire to see it flourish-
ing, like some poisonous weed, in rank perfection, you
must go to the halls of the wealthy and the affluent,
and not the mechanic's or the labourer's cottage. In tak-
ingleave of this subject, we cannot refrain from noticing
the extraordinary way in which his Lordship is
C
usually in the habit of exhibiting his affectionate
regard for the welfare of the poor. It is only a few
years since he spent a whole Sunday afternoon, with
his episcopal nose flattened against the window-pane,
watching, from his palace at Fulham, the boats that
were constantly passing and re-passing, filled with
hard-working citizens, who were taking that oppor-
tunity of enjoying, after the toils of the week, a
mouthful of fresh air on the breezy river. The
ghostly Prelate was of course shocked at this act of
desecration on the part of the poorer classes of society,
and, by way of showing his affection for them, he did
his best to put a stop to their harmless Sunday water
excursion by holding it up to public reprobation in
the House of Lords. We do not learn that he ever
spent a Sabbath afternoon watching the carriages
of rank and affluence rolling past his town-house in
St. James's-square, on their way to the Parks,
the Zoological Gardens, and other places of
fashionable resort. The occupants of such car-
riages were, we presume, privileged persons,
and not to be subjected to episcopal scrutiny.
It is good that a High Church dignitary should
always have the welfare of the poor in his
eye; but it is not good that his interference with-
them should be of a petty, teazing, vexatious, and.
Pharisaic character. Interfere as much as you please,
my Lord Bishop, to bettolr their condition in life—to
improve the quantity and quality of their food—to
give them the means of acquiring a better education
—and to obtain for them more regard and kindness
from the rich ; but leave them to the quiet enjoyment
of their harmless bet at skittles Olen the day's work
is at an end ; and even should you again chance to
see them rowing on the water on Sunday afternoons,
inhaling the fresh air—a luxury to them, though not
perhaps to you—and feasting on the tranquil sylvan
beauty of the landscape, pray, shut—we beseech you
—your pious eyes, and forbear to horrify the House
of Lords with your indignant denunciation of the
spectacle.

Though the discussion raised by Lord ASHLEY in
the House of Commons on the affairs of Sinde has led
to no immediate result favourable to the Ameers, it
has been of great service to the cause of truth and
justice. It has dispelled the calumnies heaped on Sir
CHARLES NAPIER—it has placed before the public
the real position in which he stood; and it has

r elicited from all parties the highest tribute to his
foresight, skill, and bravery. It has done more; for
the statements made by authorities competent to
I judge leave no doubt that if a General of less
penetrating mind and less decision had been ap-
pointed to command the Sinde army, we should
have had a repetition of the Affg,banistan
tragedy, the whole of the British troops and their
auxiliaries would have been surprised, and every
officer, soldier and follower, put to an ignominious
death. No praise, therefore, is too great for conduct
which saved the nation from such a calamity, and
prevented a general rising of all the discontented
States adjoining the British possessions in India.
Lord. ASHLEY'S motion, to parts of which there can
be no objection, was lost by a great majority, and a
mixed majority, too, consisting of Whigs, and
Radicals, and Tories. Three of the leading members
of the late Government voted in the majority,
namely, Lord PALMERSTON, Lord JOHN RUSSELL,
and Sir J. C. HoBHoUSE, the late President of the
Board of Control. This is fair and honourable, and
removes all suspicions that Lord PALMERSTON or any
of his colleagues would join in the wild cry of execrat-
ing a line of policy which was forced on Lord .LLEN-
BOROUGH and Sir C. NAPIER, and which could not
he condemned without involving that of Lord AUCK-
LAND and Sir JOHN KEANE in the same condemnation.
Lord ASHLEY has the character of being a
very humane and impartial man in all his con-
' duct, both public and private, but it is singular
that a Nobleman with such a character
should waste all his commiseration and tears only on
one party, the hunting and tyrannical Ameers, and
would again subject to their iron dominion thousands
of emancipated slaves, and tens of thousands of in-
dustrious Hindoos, brought down to the lowest mi-
sery by their exactions and oppressions. Every
author, almost without exception, who has written
on Sinde, has described the sufferings of the people
under the late Arneers as intolerable, and their go-
vernment as the very worst to be found in
all the East. Has his Lordship no sympathy
for oppressed Subjects and may ca, and is ft
consistent with his professed humanity to call
upon the Indian Government to direct the " imme-
diate restoration of the Ameers to liberty and the
enjoyment of their estates ?" While he laments the
fate of a few chiefs, allowed 20,0001. a year, and, with
one exception, comparatively at liberty, he forgets
the sufferings, the civil war, and the murders which
their restoration, even for six months, would entail
on their unhappy victims. Let the Ameers be treated
with due humanity, let everything consistent with
prudence and security be done for their comfort ; but
keep them at a distance from Sinde, and leave the
inhabitants to the blessings of a civilized and paternal
Government.

Madrid papers of the Ist inst. have been received,
and bring intelligence of vast importance. Another
revolution in Spain has commenced which, in all pro-
bability, will lead to a bloody civil war. On the 28th
of last month a revolt of a formidable character broke
out in the seaport town of Alicante. The provincial
regiment, stationed at that place, joined in the insur-
rection, and the general cries were--'t Long live the
Constitutional QUEEN!" " Down with the Ministers !"
The military authorities were completely taken by
surprise ; the General Commandant, and the Political
Chief were arrested by the Custom-house Car-
biniers, and a Junta formed. On the intelli-
gence reaching Madrid, a Council of Ministers
was immediately summoned, the troops were all
placed under arms, and orders issued for the arrest of
all the leaders of the Progresista party, including,
among others,rounNa, LOPES, MADOZ, GARRET)°,
GERNICA, Oas, and BENEDICT°. These arrests have
taken place, it is said, in consequence of proofs of a
conspiracy being discovered from intercepted letters.
The Madrid Gazette was published at a late hour on
the Ist, and from the decrees and proclamations pub-
lished in it, the Government evidently anticipate a
general rising in the east of Spain. Ihe provinces
of Alicante, Murcia, Albacete, Valencia, Almeria,
and Castellon de la Plana, are ordered to be forthwith
declared under martial-law. The war steamer
Isabella 11., brig Nervion, and a schooner of war, are
ordered to proceed immediately to blockade Alicante;
and the most severe measures are contemplated with
respect to the insurgents, as may be seen from the
following atrocious decree issued by the Government,
dated Madrid, Feb. 1, 1844 :
" 1. All the chiefs, officers, and sergeants who belong to
the army, provincial militia, national militia, carabiniers, or
navy, wso have taken part iu the rebellion of Alicante, shall
he shot, wherever they can be met with, upon the sole identi•
fication of their perions.
"2. If, after the insurgent troops of all arms have been
invited to place themselves again under the loyal standard
within a short space of time, which remains at the discretion
of your, Excellency to fix, they do not present themselves,
they shall be decimated whenever they can be come at, ac-
cording to the regulations.
" 3. All the inhabitants who have taken part in the revolt
at Alicante, as leaders of the rebellion, shall be shot.
"4. The captains-general and commanders remain
strictly responsible for the execution of the preceding di-3-
posit ions."

Another journal, the Posdata, states :
" News has been received from Murcia thatthe provincial
regiment of Valencia had lett Alicante disarmed, having
refused to take any active partin the insurrection, and that
the only force there consisted of National Guards and Cara-
biniers. It says that D. Pantaleon Bonnet, formerly a Carlist
chief, is President of the Junta of Alicante; and D. Manuel
Carreras, an Exaltado leader, Vice-President.

" Several other deputies and other persons have been ar-
rested, and orders are out to take up some sixty persons
altogether ; besides which, five couriers were sent off express
in different directions, last night, with similar orders to the
provinces.
" A circular has been sent to all the captains-general an-
nouncing the revolt at Alicante, and ordering them to consult
with the political chiefs, and to be prepared to proclaim mar-
tial-law if required."

The following is another account, with additional
particulars, furnished by a Madrid Correspondent :

"The President of the Council was called at eleven
o'clock, on the night of the 31st, by the Secretary of
the Council, when a Council was immediately sum-
moned. After reading the official dispatches an-
nouncing the 'insurrection at Alicante, and the inau-
guration of a Junta in that town, the Ministry took
energetic steps to put it down. Very important
correspondence was consequently stopped and seized,
by order of the Government, and in consequence of
discoveries then made, a great number of persons
were arrested in the course of the night. Among
the persons arrested are MM. MANUEL CORTINA,
PASCUEL MADOZ, GERNICA VERDA Y PEREZ, I. B.
ALoNzo, and GARREDO. All the Deputies are de-
tained for the present at the Caral de Corte. All
the garrison is under arms, and since last night every
military post is doubled. A small flying column left
Madrid during the night, which is to proceed by
forced marches to Valencia, to reinforce the military
division of that province. The details of the affair
are not published, and the only thing known here is
the fact of the outbreak, and the measures taken by
Government. The Government did not wish the
details to be published in the Gazette. It is said that
the Commander of the Custom-house Carabiniers,
named BONNET, is at the head of the movement; and
that having surprised the authorities, he imprisoned
the military Governor, M. LASCALA, and the political
chief, M. RAMON CERATI, and the Provincial Com-
mandant of Valencia.

" The Junta in its proclamation, and the insur-
gents in their demonstrations, cried out, 'Down
with tyranny, down with the executioners!' Down
with the Government!' Viva liberty!' Viva the
Contitutional QUEEN !' The Government has given
orders to prevent the spreading of this unexpected
movement to Valencia, Murcia, Malaga, and the
cast. It is reported that the insurgents have carried
Valencia and Santander. The news here created an
extraordinary degree of excitement.
" P.S.—The Government has just received dis-
patches from Murcia. They state that some part of
the Provincial Battalions of Valencia did not take
part in the movement, but they were,'nevertheless,
disarmed by the authorities. The only troops re-
maining, therefore, at Alicante, were the National
Guards and the Carabiniers, who, it would appear,
were at the head of the insurrection. The head of
the Junta is Don PANTALEON BONNET, and the Vice-
president the celebrated Don MANUAL CABRERA.
Search has been made for M. LOPEZ JOAQUIM and
FERNANDO MADOZ, to arrest them, but they cannot
he found."

The funds, in consequence of this unfavourable news,
on the Ist of February, fell 14 per cent. The Three
per Cents. were done at 28 for cash, and 281 at 60
days, and the Five per Cents. at 201 at 60 days.

By accounts from Paris of the ith, we learn
that the Government had come to a• determi-
nation respecting the formation of railroads
throughout France, and that the plan proposed by the

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