The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY MORNING, JANUAR

IRISH

SPIRITED
ILLUSTRATIONS

OF THE

IRISH STATE TRIALS,
WILL APPEAR IN
"TILE SUN,"
DAY BY DAY, MORNING AND EVENING,

in some great conspiracy ?
If meetings held at different places, at various
times, during a period of nine months—songs
and other publications during the same lapse of
time—speeches delivered to assemblages vary-
ing, as the indictment alleges, from 200 to 800,000
in number—each meeting, publication, and
speech, varying in circumstances, in nature, and
in tendency, are to be taken as overt acts of
one great conspiracy, proof, clear as daylight,
must be given of a conspiracy pre-existent to
those meetings, publications, and speeches, and
that they were held, published, and spoken, in
furtherance of the intent of that conspiracy.
We assert and maintain that if such proof be
not given, no honest jury can take intent upon
inference—assume guilt, where not plainly ap-
parent—or convict upon presumption.
What is the Repeal of the Union? Neither
more nor less, in fact, than to replace Ireland
in the position in which Ireland stood in the
year 1799. We do not believe that Ireland would
be placed in any better position than at present,
by such a return to its separate Legislature; but
that forms no part of the argument for the
legality of the agitation so to do. How is it
proposed to effect the Repeal? By legal and
constitutional means; by calling upon the people
to join in appeals to the Crown and to the Legis-
lature, to repeal an Act of Parliament. Is not
this as much within the pale of the law as any
past effort to obtain reform of abuses, or
repeal of Acts of Parliament ? If there had
been any intention to affix a penalty upon the
attempt to obtain a repeal of the Act of Union,
a clause would have been inserted, declaring
that to agitate, or ask for the repeal of that Act,
should be punishable by force of law. But no
such absurdity was sought to be perpetrated, as
the declaring any Act of Parliament final and
unalterable ; finality then, as little suited the
public ear, as finality now; but the Crown
officials seek to effect that by stratagem, which
open declaration could not have accomplished,
even if' attempted. Unable to impeach the end,
they accuse the means used to attain it—know •
ing the legality of the object sought, they attack
the intermediate agency—and, to prevent a legal
agitation for a legal purpose, they charge a
number of persoOs with aims and intents of
which the charge is easy, but the rebuttal diffi-
cult, because the aims and intents, and the acts
done in furtherance thereof, are so insignificant
as, separately, scarcely to draw attention, and
yet, jointly, a conspiracy is sought to be deduced.
Public prosecutors know full well the advan-
tages of indictments for conspiracy ; actual, or
presumptive, real or imaginary, it enables them
to go to a jury, upon proof of almost any
matter ; to a jury (it may be) packed or un-
fairly chosen, and an instrument of injustice,
under the sacred name of justice. But we hope
better things, from Irish juries.

The Gazette de France has announced, on the
authority of a private letter from Munich, the
death of the Duke D'ArmouLENE, son of the
late CHARLES X., who, it may be remembered,
in the year 1830, abdicated his pretensions to the
throne, in conjunction with his royal and saga-
cious parent. The other French papers take no
notice of this event, and it is possible, therefore,
that the announcement may be premature. The
probability, however, is, that his Royal Highness
is by this time dead, for when the last accounts
reached Paris he was :in a state which left no
hope of his recovery. Though he lived in
a stormy period, and one calculated to
call forth whatever mental energies he pos-
sessed, the Duke never distinguished himself
in the slightest degree, and during the long
period of his exile he was as much forgotten by
France and Europe as if he had never existed.
It was not till the war drew to a close, and WEL-
LINGTON had crossed the Pyreanees, that he
made his public appearance at Bourdeaux, where
he was received with acclamations, and made
himself conspicuous by his eager desire—all dan-
ger being now over—to play the part of a warrior
and a patriot. He coveted also the reputation
of a diplomatist, and attempted to enter into
negotiations with WELLINGTON for the re-
establishment of the BOURBON dynasty, which,
however, were coldly and evasively treated,
it not being at that time decided by the
Allies than Lours XVIII. should be called to
the throne. Immediately on the restoration
taking place, the Duke—true to old hereditary
instincts—omitted no opportunity of showing his
marked dislike and contempt of those brave
military veterans who had acquired fame and
fortune under the Consulate and the Empire. In
conjunction with the Duke DE BERRI, who, if
possible, was a still greater imbecile than himself,
he insulted the Marshals, and more especially
the officers of the Imperial Guard, on every
occasion ; and once, when questioning one of the
latter respecting the service he had seen, and being
told that he had been thirty years a soldier, he
turned upon his heel with the supercilious re-
mark, that be had been engaged in " thirty
years of brigandage." Conduct like this—which
the KING, to his credit, did all he could to check
—soon produced a reaction, and the triumphant
return of NAPOLEON was the consequence. We
do not find his Royal Highness—notwithstand-
ing his military propensities—taking a share
in the battle of Waterloo, in whose issue he was
so deeply interested ; possibly he was laid
up with a severe cold at the time, or he
was compelled, much against his inclination,
to remain in a state of drowsy inactivity. On
the second restoration, he became somewhat
more moderate and tolerant in his bearing to-
wards the army ; and in the year 1822 was ap-
pointed to head that absurd military expedition
into Spain, of which M. CHATEAUBRIAND, its
author, has so often boasted as a miracle of poli-
tical sagacity. On this occasion, the Duke
D'A NGOULEMB, before quitting France, laying
his hand on the hilt of his sword, made that
absurd boast respecting his sense of duty and
patriotism as a soldier and a Frenchman, which
was so much ridiculed at the time, and procured
him the soubriquet of " Prince Hilt." As this
was his first, so was it his last, warlike expedi-
tion of any consequence, and he ever after rested
perfectly satisfied with the prodigious crop of
laurels he had gathered in the Peninsula, more
particularly in the attack on the Trocadero.
During the " Three Days," when, if at any period
ofhislife, he might reasonably have been expected
to exhibit something like vigour and decision
of character, he distinguished himself by nothing
but a quarrel with MARMONT, in the course of
which he cut his Royal fingers, in a vain attempt
to break the Marshal's sword. From this period
to the day of his death lie lived in exile and per-
fect seclusion, forgotten by all but his own imme-
diate friends and dependents. In the private rela-
tions of life, his conduct was,we believe,unimpeach-
able ; lie was a good son, a good husband, a kind
master; and, had he not unfortunately been born
to a throne, he might have passed happy and con-
tented through life, and maintained the cha-
racter of a very respectable, humdrum, and
somewhat thick-headed gentleman. His wife,
who survives him, was the daughter of Louts
XVI., and was a prisoner in the Temple at the
tittle when her ill-starred parent was led forth to
execution. NAPOLEON observed of her, that
" she was the only man of the family," and
with justice, for from the days of the -Grande

STATE TRIALS be, at public meetings, stirring up angry pas- Monarque—who was himself by no means re-
. I sions, and raising hatred and ill-will, are overt markable for superior talents—there has not been
acts of a conspiracy, what might be said of the one single member of the BOURBON family who
speeches of Sir FRANCIS BUSDETT, in days was otherwise than an imbecile.
gone by I—of Lord LYNDHURST'S alien speech ?
—of the Exeter Hall displays I—of Mr. PER-
RAND'S harangues I—and of a thousand others,
which might all have been charged as overt acts

We have accounts from Madrid to the Bth
instant, on which day the elections of Senators
and Deputies commenced. The Progresista, or
Liberal party—if any party can be called liberal
in Spain--had in the preliminary proceeding ob-
tained the majority in seven bureaux out of
twelve, while the Ministerialists had the majority
in only four—the twelfth consisted of both par-
ties. The success of the Progresistas was consi-
dered certain. On the 6th General NARVAEZ
had been raised, by a Royal decree, to the rank
of Captain-General of the Spanish armies. The
General, however, modestly declines the appoint-
ment, and states, in a letter to the Minister of
War, that he cannot think of accepting the ap-
pointment, lest the efforts which he had made
towards bringing about the present state of
affairs, from which he anticipates great things,
both for the QUEEN and the country, should be
attributed by the world to " ambition, or any less
noble views." The decree for restoring to Queen
CHRISTINA her pension, which has appeared in
The Sun, was published in the Madrid Gazette
of the Bth. It is founded on an address pre-
sented to her MAJESTY by all the Ministers, in
which we find these words:—

" A decree of the ex-Regent, dated Vittoria, 26th
October, 1841, ordered payment to be suspended of the
dotation assigned in the law of the budget to her Ma-
jesty the Queen Donna Christina de Bourbon, a dotation
voted by the Cortes, and of unquestionable and legiti-
mate origin, as proceeding front matrimonial contracts.
The political pretexts, equivocal and fanciful in them-
selves, could not authorise the suspension of a legal
payment, which custom, agreements, and the consent of
the country by the medlum of its representatives, alike
sanctioned. , Nor was it decorous to leave unprovided
for the person who, with so much glory, generosity, and
nobleness of mind, had governed the kingdom during
the turbulent times of your Majesty's minority. For
these reasons, Senora, your Council of Ministers has
thought it one of its principal duties to efface the track
of deplorable events, and to satisfy equally the imperious
neoessity of justice, and the filial sentiments of your
Majesty, by restoring to your august mother the pension
which, if it were not due to her as Dowager Queen by
the laws, would ever be justly due to her as the generous
and humane Regent, the restorer of the public liberties,
the zealous guardian of your Majesty's throne and the
interests of the country, in the midst of the conflicts of re-
volution and of war."
The annual pension amounts to 30,0001. a year,
and the arrears to 70,0001., so that she will
receive at once about 100,0001.
Much business was done on the Madrid
Bourse on the Bth. The transactions in the

Three per Cents. alone exceeding 68,000,000
reals, which caused a rise of for cash, and for
time. The closing prices were 25f for cash, and
25i at 60 days. The Five per Cents., 191 at 35
days, with 1 premium.

The Paris papers are chiefly occupied with
comments on the address agreed to by the Com-
mittee of the Chamber of Deputies, and remarks
on the budget. On the latter topic the Opposi-
tion journals have not many remarks, a circum-
stance which the others regard as favourable to
the statements of the Finance Minister. The
Deputies of the Left Centre (says the Constitu-
tioanel) had a meeting at the house of M. GAN-
NERON on Saturday evening, when it was re-
solved to oppose the Ministerial policy. M.
THIERS was present, and it is understood that he
will speak on the address in opposition to the
Government. Only three Deputies had inscribed
their names to speak on Monday. Two of those
gentlemen, M. CORDIER and M. GUSTAVE DE
BEAUMONT, are decided Oppositionists ; the
other, Viscount DE COURTAIS, is a Conservative.
The students who were arrested by the police,
on occasion ofsome disturbance when on their way
to the house of BERANGER, the poet, were brough t
before the Court of Correctional Police on Satur-
day, when seven of them were convicted. Two
of them were sentenced to twenty days' confine-
ment, two to ten, and the other three to five
days. They were all law or medical students
except one—the Viscount de NARBONNE DE LA
CORNILLIERE.

The Gazette de Prance announces the death
of the Duke of ANGOULEME in these terms, but
without any date :
" A letter from Munich, which arrived in Paris to-day,
declares that the Duke d'Angouleme has sunk under the
malady from which he has been suffering for a length of
time.
"A report was current to-day in Paris,"says the Courrier
Francais, that " the Duke d'Angouleme had sunk under
his illness. Jt was added, that a courier who had arrived
from London in the course of the day, had brought the
intelligence that the Duke de Bordeaux had taken his
passport to proceed in all haste to Goritz, to his family."
The following paragraph appears in the Augs-
burgh Gazette, in an extract from a letter from
Hanover, of the 30th ult.:—
" The Duke de Bourdeaux, who intended returning to
Goritz, by Hanover, Brunswick, and Dresden, was very
politely informed by the Hanoverian Minister at London,
that King Ernest would be at that period at Berlin,
where he intended passing some weeks."

Owing to the press of matter caused by the Irish
State Trials and other intelligence, we are compelled
to omit the report of the proceedings which took
place in the Court of Aldermen yesterday.