The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-18 00:00:00

(11 Lo it 1 littg aline

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1844.

Lord ABINGER, after the usual ceremonies, took
his seat in the House of Lords, lait night.
Lord BEAUMONT postponed the second reading of
the Roman Catholic Penal Acts Repeal Bill, and at
the same time expressed a wish that the Go.werninent
would allow it to be brought on with as little delay as
possible. _ .

The Duke of WELLINGTON gave notice that on
Thursday next he would move the adjournment of
the House till the following Thursday.
In answer to a question from Lord BROUGHAM,
the Earl of ABERDEEN said he believed the treaty for
the annexation of Texas to the United States had
been signed, but he trusted the Congress would not
sanction it. Whatever might be the result, his Lord-
ship added, he should, in reference to this matter, act
consistently with his duty as a Minister of the Crown.
It was a measure quite unexampled in the history of
nations.

Lord WHARNCLIFFE called the attention of their
Lordships to the present state of the Houses of Par-
liament, and made some remarks not at all com-
plimentary to Mr. BARRY. He said it
had become necessary to bring the sub-
ject under the consideration of the House, inas-
much as very extensive alterations had been made by
Mr. BARRY in the plans as originally laid down—
these alterations having been made without the con-
currence of the Committee which had been appointed
to watch the progress of the new buildings. He
moved that the matter be referred to a Committee of
the Board of Works. Several other Noble Lords
made remarks on the subject, but none of them
seemed disposed to justify the course adopted by Mr.
BARRY; and Lord BROUGHAM expressed a hope that
the architect for the Houses of Parliament in future
would make no changes without consulting the Go-
vernment. The motion of Lord WHARNCLIFFE was
agreed to, and the House adjourned at Eight o'clock.
In the House of Commons, after a vast number of
petitions had been presented, Mr. HUME gave notice
that when the Savings Banks Bill came before the
House he should move a repeal of the clause in the
Act of GEORGE IV., which allowed the Government
to deal with moneys deposited in the savings banks.
In answer to soiree questions put by Mr. EWART,
relative to the war between Monte Video and
Buenos Ayres, Sir R. PEEL said he feared there was
little chance of its speedy termination. British
subjects, however, would be protected; but he did not
consider that England would be justified in taking
any steps to put an end to the war between the two
belligerents. There was a naval force in the Plata
which would afford every protection to British
subjects.
The House went into Committee on the Customs
Duties Bill, and a number of clauses were adopted.
On the 13th clause being read, Mr. EWART moved
that the reduction of duty on coffee be fourpence, and
on cocoa one penny per pound.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer opposed the
amendment, and on a division the amendment was
rejected by a majority of 11.
The remaining clauses were agreed to, and the
House resumed.

The Stamp Dutics Bill went through Committee.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of,
and the House adjourned at One o'clock.

The Navy certainly owes a debt of gratitude to one
of its most gallant and successful officers, Sir CHARLES
NAPIER, for the consistent solicitude with which he
avails himself of every opportunity to advocate the
interests of the service in the House of Commons.
In the course of the present session, he has already
brought urvissr ths; „mice of Parliament many
matters involving, unquestionably, some points im•
mediately connected with the efficiency as well as the
rights of this justly popular arm of the national
power. We may instance the force with which the
Gallant Commodore pressed upon the consideration of
the Legislature the folly of underrating the great
exertions now making by other maritime States in
getting up their fleets to a condition for
active service. He spoke, we remember, of
the admirable manoeuvring which he himself
had witnessed in a French squadron in the
.Mediterranean; and contrasted with our own tardy
progress in the business of providing harbours of
refuge on our shores, the promptitude of the efforts
made, and the advance of the works commenced, for
similar purposes, by the French on their coasts. The
Chambers, he stated, had voted, some years since,
170,000,000 francs on account of harbours of re-
fuge, and had voted 40,000,000 more for the same
objects for the present year. By an article in
Galignani, we perceive that the Committee of the
Chambers, on admitting a credit of 46,000,000
francs for the improvements of the ports of France,
has reported in favour of applying that large sum
equally between the ports of Marseilles and Havre,
for strengthening and improving the works of them.
It is well that facts like these should not be with-
drawn from the observation of the British public.
Incessant attention to them should be paid by both
the Legislative and the Executive of England.
Thus, whilst we please ourselves with the important
fact that we have, at present, a large and un-
questioned superiority in the extent and force of
our steam navy over every other flag in existence,
our ports and harbours, in their present state, at least,
are by no means adequate to the exigencies of such
squadrons as in time of war we must maintain. The
French, on the other hand, at St. Maloes alone, have
a magnificent basin, capable of containing 200 war
steamers, with a depth of twenty-five feet water.
Our readers will, no doubt, have concurred in the
reflections of Sir CHARLES NAPIER on the impolitic
caprice which seems to direct the counsels of the Ad-
miralty Board with regard to the staff and extent of
our navy. The Board exercises as irresponsible
a power in this respect as the Bank of England
customarily does, in its analogous control of
the currency. The vicissitudes of expansion and
contraction in the latter case, are not more impolitic,
though we may conceive them to be more absolutely.
mischievous, than the absurdity of augmenting our
fleet one day, not so much in reference to the
demands of the public service, apparently as that it
may be reduced on another ! But the defective eco-
nomy of such a practice is as palpable as it must be
unquestionable. There is this additional evil con-
nected with the variety of duties which the reduction
of force imposes on superior officers ; namely, that
an admiral—on the Mediterranean station, for ex-
ample—may not be at sea one month consecutively,
out of his five years' command there.
It does not appear to us that any sufficient answer
has been given either by Mr. S. HERBERT, Secretary
of the Admiralty at the time, or by any authority
connected with the Administration, since, to the grave
complaint brought forward by Sir CHARLES NAPIER
(on the discussion of the Navy Estimates the other
evening), as to the quantities of rejected ship timber,
' which, after being refused by the superior Civil De-
partments of the Navy, had been, from time to time
received into store by the store-keepers of the
several dock-yards. The timber in question, it
was said, had been so received, after rejection,
by the order of some subordinate official ; but
it is impossible not to participate in the sur-
prise expressed by Sir CHARLES NAPIER at this state-
' ment, seeing that, by the late Act of Parliament con-
solidating the two Boards—Admiralty and Navy--all
subordinate authorities were expressly deprived of any
power to issue such orders. Moreover, the Gallant
Officer put it strongly to the Secretary to the Admi-
ralty, that it was no reason to plead for this irre-
gularity, " that such timber might well be received,
after being rejected for ship-building, because, though
it might be either too long or too short for that ap-
propriation, it might yet be advantageously employed
in other work ;" for, as the Hon. Gentleman himself
knew, it had been received into store after being
rejected because it was bad timber. The
impropriety of such proceedings had been urged on
the Admiralty by the highest professional authorities.
We have some fears that there is a sort of monopoly
interest in the supply of ship timber, which it is the
tendency of the Admiralty, like all other authorities
in this country, to encourage ; or which is, at all
events, too potential just now for the Board success-
fully to oppose and defeat. We may recur to this
matter, however, more particularly at a fu-
ture opportunity. We cannot, in the mean-
time, abstain, for one moment, from remark-
ing on the momentous importance of a most
rigid adherence to the duties connected with the
supervision of naval timber received into store, whe-
ther, we bear in mind the improving aspect of the
}reach navy, or the much too lowered standard (as
we deem it) of our own, notwithstanding all that
occurred in 1840. Whilst we are on this topic of
ugly unanswered questions, we could much wish to
r. learn what reply the Government are prepared with
to the complaint preferred on behalf of our seamen,
engaged in the late affairs in the Chinese seas, as to
their being kept out • of their prize-money, on
account of the numerous captures made by them
of enemy's craft, &c. &C. To have removed those
of her MAJESTY's vessels engaged in such services'
—to have retained the craft, &c., so captured—to have
had them ransomed by the Chinese authorities—and
then to treat the general compensation paid, in
Sycee silver, as a simple State payment made into her
MAJESTY'S Exchequer, was, as SIP CHARLES NAPIER
has strongly phrased it, neither more nor less than " a
piratical act," calculated to excite the utmost discon-
tent among the seamen who have been robbed by this
mode of proceeding. Another proposition which Sir
CRABLae warmly advocated some time since, has more

immediate connexion with the subject matter ofhis re-
solution on Thursday night. He touched on the invidi-
ous distinction which has been habitually made be-
tween public acknowledgments of naval and of
military services. His reasoning was irresistible.
`Why not give sailors medals for the great victories
achieved by them, as you give soldiers for their illus-
trious successes ? Why not have distributed medals
to all engaged at Trafalgar, as you distributed them
to all engaged at Waterloo ? They might yet be
given to all the survivors of our greatest naval
battles, in and since the reign of GEORGE III.; and
let the honour be thus more largely distributed here-
after, whenever it shall have been deserved, for vic-
tories of similar importance and distinction at sea.
In this way, that good understanding now subsisting
between the two services might be most admirably
maintained.

We must defer, to another opportunity, a careful
notice of Sir CHARLES'S speech of Thursday evening.

It very cleverly, though unsuccessfully, advocated a
proposition, not only of great interest and novelty
and justice in itself, but, to our mind, one which it
would eminently contribute to the welfare of
the British naval service to affirm. We may
remark, by the way, that in May last year,
he moved an address to the Crown, praying
her MAJESTY to give directions that a certain
number of old officers should be allowed to retire on
a separate list, with increase of pay, with a view of
bringing forward young and active officers ; " Lord
INGESTRIE seconded this motion (observed Sir
CHARLES, on Thursday), and was reprimanded by the
Right Hon. Baronet (Sir ROBERT PEEL) in conse-
quence." His motion of Thursday was, " that this
House recommend that previous to the preparation of
the navy estimates, to be submitted to Parliament
in the year 1845, some plan of retirement for
officers in the navy on the top of the respective lists
should be devised, so as to make the naval service
more effective, and to afford the opportunity of re-
warding old and meritorious officers."

It must be allowed that in the debate which ensued,
at all events a much more respectful hearing and
lengthened discussion were conceded than the pro-
position of May 1843 met with. We trust that
this fact was not wanting to induce the Gallant Officer
to persevere.

After considerable throes 4nd much apparent suf-
fering, Sir ROBERT PEEL at a late hour last night
was safely delivered of a brace of heavy jokes, in the
House of Commons. Hon. Members were exceed-
ingly considerate and complaisant on the occasion—
as they usually are, a4-•e^ 2,l;...ister affects
the comical—and laughed heartily as each joke
sprang into existence, infinitely of course to the delec-
tation of the waggish utterer. The circumstance
that called forth his drollery was this. The article of
Confectionary having been incidentally touched upon,
Mr. HUMPHERY asked what was the reason that the duty
on plums was to be altered, whereupon Sir ROBERT
PEEL, delighted at the opportunity of making a
humorous hit, observed—" He could scarcely be
much surprised at the remarks of his Hon. Friend,
the worthy Alderman, for he was no doubt so en-
couraged by his extraordinary success last year
in discussing the duties on turbots and lobster-
sauce, that it was no matter of astonishment to
find him now standing for ward as the advocate
and defender of the great plum-pudding interest.
In discussing the first course his triumph had
been so complete, that at a late period of the
festivities he could be expected to do nothing less
than bring the same energy and equal know-
ledge to bear upon the subject of plums and
puddings." Having thus demolished Mr. Alderman
HUMPHERY, the irresistible Premier next proceeded
to let fly the keen arrows of his wit against the Hon.
Member for Kendal, who, it acres, had had the
hardihood to make some unpalatable remarks on the
increase of the. duty on foreign apples, adding that he
"should be very glad to hear any excuse given for
the increase, except that it was agreeable to Sir
EDWARD KNATCIMULL and the Kentish farmers."
Upon this the facetious Premier replied—" He could
assure the Hon. Member that when his Right Hon.
Friend accepted office with the present Government,
he made no stipulation whatever on the subject of
the apple duties, and had entered into no compromise
upon that great and important question, which ap -
peared so deeply to agitate the mind of the Hon. Re-
presentative for Kendal." This, it must be confessed,
was brilliant ; though, so far as we can perceive, it
had no more to do with Mr. WARBURTON'S question
respecting the increased duty on foreign apples, made
—a3 that gentleman observed—" in the very teeth of
the Report of a Committee of the House," to whom
the subject bad been referred—the Premier's sarcastic
reply, we say, had no more to do with the Member
for Kendal's question, than it had with the turbot-
and-lobster-sauce question so eloquently and im-
presively argued last year by Mr. Alderman Huss-
PHERY. But great wags are seldom close reasoners,
and in our admiration of the PEEL drollery, we must
consent to overlook the deficiencies of the PEEL
logic. In answer to the Premier's humorous allusion
to the turbot and lobster duties, the discomfited
Alderman observed :—" It is true I talked about them
when the tariff was on the table, and now I
will go on. I've spoken of plums, and now
I'll go to another question of importance—
orange-peel. Orange-peel was not to be touched,
and yet they were going to raise the duties on
preserved plums ! Why was this ? He was sure
there was something more in it than met the eye."
The worthy Alderman is right. There is something
more than meets the eye in the proposed non-inter-
ference with Orange-Peel. Orange-PEEL —that is to
say, the PEEL who was once Orange, but is now ready
to adopt any colour that may best suit his interests—
is a privileged person, who must not be touched, nor
even indirectly interfered with. He must be left free
to pursue his own course, without let or hin-
drance. No Member must presume to question
his motives, or offer the slightest opposition to his
sovereign will. When Orange-PEEL—or rather
Camelion-PEEL—says a thing must be so--why,
then, ft must be so ; as we saw the other day in the
case of the Factory Bill, where a body of upwards of
eighty Members hastened to recant their opinions
merely because the Premier had assured them that
their perseverance in a consistent course of action
would be exceedingly distasteful to him. He
willed, and they obeyed. How long this abject
submissiveness on the part of the House of
, Commons is to continue, we know not ; but
this we do know, and rejoice at—namely, that it has
already damaged the party, which calls itself Con-
servative, irretrievably in the eyes of all the thinking
portion of the community, who now see clearly that
it has no fixed, manly, principles of its own, but
readily takes whatever impress Sir ROBERT PEEL
• may choose to stamp upon it—sees with his eyes—
hears with his ears—wears his livery—and accommo-
, dates itself, without so much as a whisper of remon-
strance, to every change that may from time to time
, take place in his course of action.

The intelligence from Madrid is destitute of in-
terest. The funds still remained in a very depressed
state. On the 10th, the Three per Cents. were
quoted at 28k, and the Fives at 21, both for 60 days.

Paris papers of Thursday, and the Aladrid mail of
the 10th, have been received. The intelligence from
the United States respecting the annexation of Texas
to the republic, has caused some sensation in Paris,
chiefly among the parties hostile to England.
The National calls on the nation to disregard the
entente cordiale of M. GUIZOT, and to think only of
the great advantages which a good understanding
with the American Union must create for France.
The writer adds that the annexation of Texas to the
States is a new political combination, weakening the
British Government and its aristocracy in the most
sensitive point; that the relations of England Kith
the Cabinet of Washington cannot be friendly ; that
her Canadian possessions are in danger ; and that
the European Powers, and particularly France, who
have tolerated the insulting yoke of British supre-
macy, should be prepared to take advantage of the
chances which this new combination must ere long
afford.

-----
'
a concert on Monday evening, at Covent-y,. ..,
The veteran Braham, aided by his
Covent-y,;Theatre,
iduals have
when many attractions are promised. Few indt.
~_his gen-
tleman much claim upon the patronage of the public as ~_ Maim
; and it is to be hoped that, in this instance, the t....
will be duly and liberally honoured.
It is confidently rumoured in the legal profession
two sons, gives
that the venerable Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Sir
Nicholas C. Tindal, has expressed his resolution to retire
from the bench he has so long adorned, on the termination
of Michaelniaz Term net