The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-20 00:00:00

-;;)1,11V

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 20, 1844.

Our readers may perhaps renvmber that some five
or six years ago, Sir ROBERT PEEL being in want of
a clap-trap for the Mouse of Commons—a want, by
the bye, which he seldom experiences—and anxious
to show Parliament and the public }iow great was
the political influence which he had exercised, even
though " withering in the cold shade" of Opposition
—to use Colonel NAPIER'S expressive phrase—since
the period of the Reform Bill ;—the Premier, we say,
panting for an opportunity to show off, suddenly took
it into his head one night to. boast of the great and
increasing Conservative party which he had built up,
amid a world of difficulties, out of the wreck of
Toryism. No man sounds the trumpet of self-
laudation with so much skill and apparent bashful-
ness as Sir ROBERT PEEL, and accordingly, on the
occasion to which we refer, he was listened to
with marked deference, and the most im-
plicit reliance was placed on his statement.
He had found the party in question, he told the
House, depressed—diminished —divided—and scat-
tered to the four winds of Heaven ; there was not one
single bond of union remaining among them ; they
were filled with regrets for the past, and with doubts
of the future ; they acknowledged no direct chief;
they proposed no great aim or object, but drifted
about, like some shattered vessel without a pilot, at
the mercy of the winds and waves. But he—the
Premier—took this weakened and discomfited party
under his own special care, and from that auspicious
moment all was changed.• Having got them duly
baptised as "Conservatives," the Quarterly Review
officiating at the political font, he next proceeded to
infuse, courage and confidence into them by his
°NFU example ; and having succeeded with much
trouble in rallying and uniting them under
his own banner, he led them forth to battle
against the Whigs, and, after a long struggle, suc-
ceeded in displacing them. There was much truth
in this statement of Sir ROBERT PEEL, though it was
not true to the extent he would have the world be.
lieve. He certainly did succeed in rallying the scat-
tered Conservatives, and increasing both their nu-
merical and political strength; he certainly did build
up a powerful party out of the mutilated fragments—
the " disjecta membra"—of Toryism ; but this was
owing infinitely more to circumstances than to the
force and influence of his own individual character.
He was not elected by the Conservatives as their chief,
of their own free will—from their own strong, innate
conviction of his intellectual and moral fitness for the
post; but he was elected by them as a matter of neces-
sity—because, in fact, they could not help themselves.
It was Honsost's choice with them. They must
either place themselves under the guidance of Sir
ROBERT PEEL, or else consent to be wholly extin-
guished as a political authority. This, of course, was
not to be thought of, and accordingly with apparent
good will, but much real reluctance, they surrendered
up what little conscience they had left, uncondition-
ally, into the Premier's keeping. From that day to
the present they have not dared to uphold one
single principle but such as he approved of.
Wherever he has led—no matter what might be the
direction—there they have followed. He has dragged
them through the dirt without the slightest ceremony
—indeed he even seems to take a malicious pleasure
in covering them with shame and confusion ; he has
made them recant their most cherished doctrines ;
falsify their most sacred pledges ; think only as he
thinks; and act only as he acts. He is the substance
and they are the shadow I They have no life but in
him. From a party of desperate but honest and con-
sistent bigots he has converted them into a party of
mere expediency-mongers, who, lost to prin-
ciple and character, are ready to take any
colour, and adopt any change that may suit the
caprice of the times, or the interests of the Premier.
Oh, what a fall—what a degradation for the once
proud, consistent, dominant, Tory fraternity I Are
these cringing, cowardly, Conservative slaves, who,
like spaniels fawn upon the very hand that lashes
them, the same men who for so many years swayed
the destinies of England just according to their own
sovereign will and pleasure ? In their present cha-
racter we can scarcely recognise a single trait that
belonged to the Tories ; and still less can we recog-
nise in them a trace of what they once were, when we
find them acting without a murmur as the ready, sup-
ple tools of a man whom at heart they distrust and
hate, as much as they fear him—a man who first helped
to break up their unity and weaken their strength ;
and then, when he had rendered them sufficiently de-
fenceless and tractable for his purpose, made them
the veriest slaves of his will, heaped upon them shame
upon sliame, humiliation on humiliation, and finally
succeeded in stamping on their pliant, ductile nature,
the ineffaceable impress of his own individual
will. By their pitiful conduct on the Factories
Bill, the Conservatives have for ever sunk themselves
in the estimation of the country. This is the "damn-
ing spot " on their fame, which no after-penitence
will ever wipe away. Justly—most justly observes
the Times of this morning, in reference to their un-
blushing tergiversation on this question, " it is re-
solved by all Englishmen, nem. con., that the Con-
servatives have betrayed the people, and utterly done
for themselves. Their most devoted friends are
speechless. Their ordinary adherents and allies
give way to angry or sorrowful reclamations. Their
foes are derisive. Some of the deepest and most
bitter, having cautiously compressed the lip of scorn
till the deed was done, and even helped to seduce the
Conservatives to their doom, now break out into every
species of contumely, at the unquestionable motives
of their conduct." It is a sad—a humiliating thing
for England, that she should be governed by the
votes of such an abject, sycophantic, PEEL-ridden
party. But we have confidence in the old French
proverb—" Le bon temps viendra !"

In the classification which posterity will make of

the statesmen of this century, Mr. President TYLER
and his political supporters in the Legislature of the
United States of America, will possibly occupy an
ignominious rank. They may achieve that bastard
notoriety which is no genuine progeny of the love of

true fame; but they will be known only to be
scorned—remembered, but to be held up to the exe-
cration of those who would advocate the rights of
human freedom, in the individual, and the integrity
of national guarantees for the masses. These rights
and guarantees it has long been the deliberate aim of

the PRESIDENT and his faction to violate, audaciously
and openly, for the purposes of his own aggrandize-
ment, and the extension of their influence 'in

the " American Congress. But even their
complete success would but secure them a
niche among the "receivers of stolen goods" whOtn

the consent of all mankind ranks among the most mis-
chievous pests of society, whether in states or muni-
cipal communities. They are taking from Texas that
which, while there is no Texian people to give away,
Mexico rightly reclaims as her own property. And
all this time they are allied with Mexico?
From the answer of the Earl of .ADERDEEN 'to
Lord BuouGuAm's question of Friday evening last,
in the House of Peers, it seems that a treaty between
the Government of the 'United States and that of
Texas has actually been signed by President TYLER
for the annexation of the great territory of Texas to
the already enormous dominions of the Federal
Union. To give validity to this act on the part of
the principal organ of the United States' Go-
vernment, it seems, indeed, that it must be
ratified by the affirmative votes of two-thirds of the
Senate; and we are rejoiced to find that there exists
`Aso marked a dissent from the views of the PRESIDENT.
on 'this- subject, in-all:lost extensive 'and influential

party in Congress, who have already protested against 1
such an annexation, that Mr. TYLT.n is likely, after
all, to be out-voted in his efforts to carry through
this scandalous affair. We call it scandalous for
many reasons :—of these the most apparent and incon-
testible is, that it is a scheme for adding either three
or seven new States (for such, according to Mr.,
O'CONNELL'S information, are the two territorial divi
sions proposed) to the existing Union, and thereby
oversetting the present equalized balance of influence
between the northern and -southern—the free and
the slave-holding States. To these last, in which
negro slavery exists under its most cruel, immoral,
and revolting forms, the annexation of Texas, a new
southern acquisition lying on the shores of the Gulf
of Mexico, would give not merely a prepon-
derance, but a permanent swamping control over
the wishes and opinions, the practice and the
policy of the northern States 'on the sub-
ject of slavery. The same influence would
of course predominate in determining the whole
social and political relations of the Union. There
would thus be worked an absolute, organic change
on the very principle of the Federal Constitution ; the
development of which, in the course of a very few
years, would certainly manifest itself in &secession of
the northern from the southern members of the
Federation.

But the aspect under which the case presents itself
to other Governments, especially to that of Great
Britain, is the immediate matter for our considera-
tion. We have very lately, in speaking of the geo-
graphical importance of our position in the West
Indies, remarked on the degree in which it gave us
the command of the entrance into the Gulf of Mexico,
and the trade of enormous regions of North and
South America. But an inspection of the coast line
of Texas, will show how vast an accession
of sea coast on the Gulf the United States
would acquire, and the facilities they would coin•
mand of increasing slave importation into their
southern territories, and carrying on the
execrable trade in slaves to any extent which the slave-
holding majority of their Legislature might then be
disposed, covertly or openly, to sanction. For all
preventive purposes as to slave-trading, the position we
have spoken of, hitherto invaluable as one of observa-
tion, would be, as it were, outflanked by this enlarged
maritime frontier of the States. In relation to the
slave-trade question, therefore, it is difficult to imagine
how—with any regard to her own honour, with any
consistency in that vindication of the faith of treaties,
for which she is justly renowned throughout the
world; with any sincere determination to uphold the
spirit, and propagate the example, of her own illus-
trious proceeedings inthe suppression of slavery through
her colonial dominions—England could avoid a hos-
tile collision with the United States, were this
annexation carried into effect. But the complicated
difficulties which such an annexation of Texas would
introduce into our specific relations with the United
States, would not have terminated, were all th ese
perils obviated, and these causes of mutual alarm and
jealousy removed. So true was the observation of
Lord ABERDEEN, that " this was a question new and
unexampled in the history of public law." Mexico is
an independent state. We are in amity with her, and
have long kept up diplomatic connections with her. The
republic of Texas has avowed and fought for its in-
dependence, as a State. We have so far recognised
her claim to virtual independence as to have ;were-
' dited Consuls and agents to her Government, with
which, also, we are on terms of amity. But Mexico
claims Texas as an integer of her own republican do-
' minion. She has, up to this time, prosecuted that
claim, and regards the Texian Government and its
subjects as contumacious rebels. She has never given
her consent to any proposed transfer of her rights of
sovereignty over Texas. Can we preserve friendly
relations with the Power which still reclaims this se-
parated State as a revolted dependent, atthe same time
that we maintain them with another Power which
absorbs and receives into its own dominions such se-
parated State, on the plea of the voluntary proposal
of the latter in the character of a free and indepen-
dent State ?

These are the political accidents of the affair, with
which it may one day become so perplexing to deal.
There can be no mistake about the motives and the
objects which have precipitated its present aspect.
They are, beyond all doubt, on the part of the
American PRESIDENT and his supporters, the reckle,a
suggestions of an unprincipled and criminal, Illit
paltry attempt :o secure a longer lease of power in
the Governmert of the United States, by sacrifices
however base, and pandering- to the excited passions
of the populace—at a cost however frightful, of the
blood of nations, and the best interests of humanity
and civilisation.

Madrid papers of the 10th and 11th inst. have been
received, but as usual they are very barren of intelli-
gence. The QUEEN and the rest of the Royal
Family on the 20th were to set out for Barcelona, on
her way to the baths of Caides, where she would re-
main for a considerable part of the summer. The
Cortes of course would not be convoked till her re-
turn. Great preparations were made at Barcelona for
her reception. " This morning," says a Barcelona
paper of the 12th, " an extraordinary courier arrived
from Madrid, when the news immediately spread that
their Majesties will arrive in this capital at the end
'of the month. We learn that the City of Madrid
steamer has been ordered to Valencia, where two
other steamers are to be on the 19th. We daily ex-
pect in this port two English line-of-battle ships and
a frigate, as well as some French ships of war."
On the 10th Queen CHRISTINA reviewed the regi-
ment of which she is Colonel, and conferred several
orders on both soldiers and officers.
The Funds have fallen still lower. On the 11th
the Three per Cents. were done at 27k for cash, and
27i- at 60 days ; the Five per Cents. at 21/ at 60
days, with / premium.

The pamphlet of the Prince DE JOINVILLE, on the
state of the French navy, has caused much excite-
ment in Paris, and furnishes subjects of remark in
nearly all the papers. Some of them had published
it at length. According to the Constitutionnel, it has
created in the political world, and particularly
amongst the officers of the French navy, the utmost
sensation ; and the Journal des Debats says it will
raise very grave questions in the forthcoming discus-
sions on the navy estimates. It is believed that a
considerable increase of the estimates for the navy
will be proposed by the Minister of Marine. A sup-
plementary vote of credit is alSo required for Algiers.
It will be seen from the following extract, taken from
the Itioniteur Algerine, that the Duke D'AirliALß is
-carrying on operations in that country with consider-
able activity :
" The last accounts of the military operations of his Royal
Highness the Duke d'Aumale are of the 3d inst. The Prince
baying learned that a great meeting was taking place :in
the Aures, with a view to an attack upon our camp, and the
Ouled-Sultan tribe having disappeared, his Royal Highness
' proceeded with great rapidity towards that point with all his
cavalry. This rapid march produced the desired effect, for
the tribes dispersed, and most of them are said to be desirous
of treating for their submission. In an engagement which
took place on the 24th ult., with the Kabailes, the thick fog,
that prevailed haying caused a panic amongst the goum, who
marched at the flank of the column, the Kabaile cavalry
throwing themselves upon the Arab convoy, caused some dis-
order, but they were repulsed with considerable loss. On
our side we have to regret the loss of twenty-one killed,
amongst whom was one officer, the brave commandant
Gallias."
It is stated, says the National, that the Deputies
of all shades of opinion in the Chamber have decided
that the proposition made last year by M. DE
LAROCHEJACQUBLIN, that no members interested in
any line of railroad, either as shareholders or .as
directors, shall take any part in the votes of the dif-
ferent lines to be granted, is to be again brought for-
ward in a few days, and that all Deputies having any
personal interest in railroads will be invited to sign a
declaration to this effect.

The Funds remained firm. On the 17th the Three
per Cents. closed at 84f. 60c., and the Fives at 122 f.
30c.

THE BOURSE--FRIDAY, MAX 17.
First llighest Lowest Last
Price.
•Price. Price. Price.
French Five per Cents i 22 15 .. 122 15 122 10 .. 122 10
Three per Cents, 84 GO .• 84 GO .• 84 45 •. 84 45
Bank of France 3115 ..3115 • 3110 ..3110
Whit° Bank, I.ooof. Sharesll67 50 —1167 50 .. 1167 50 ..1167 50
5,000 f. Sharessl62 50 —5162 50 ..5162 50 —5162 50
Belgian Bank.. .• ••• • .. ~, ~ 675 .. 675 •,. 675 .• 675
Belgian Fives, 1840 ......., 106 .. 106 .. 1051 .. 1055
1842 lOBl .. 1081 .. 1084 .. 1081
Spanish Passive ...... .. „, ~ 65 .. 61 • • 6 •• 6
Threes ..... .., „ „ 36 .. 36i • • 36 ••• 365
Portuguese Five per Cents 461 .. 461 •• 461 • • 46f
Neapolitan..... ........ lO2 25 .. 102 40 102 25 .. 102 40
Roman, ex diy 104 .. 1041 .. 104 •• 1044

----- •
RAILWAY SHARES.
.. •... 377 50 .. 377 50 377 50 .. 377 50
257 50 .. 257 50 247 50 .. 247 50
Rouen •• • ..... •• •• •• 991 25 ..1000 990 —lOOO
Rouen to Havre.
Orleans. • 998 7S "1006 25 •• 998 75 ••1006 25
Strasburg to Bale.. ...... . 273 75 .. 273 75 •• 268 75 .. 271 24
Avignon to Marseilles.. .. 762 50 .. 765 • • 762 50 .. 76&

RAILWAY SHARES, FOR THE ACCOUNT.
Yerallles,R.8... •.....
L. 8.•• • .
Rouen •• •• ••

Rouen to Havre• • • • .• • ... . 750 .. 755 .. 750 .. 755
CT! firls ••••• • • • . • •• 1.88 75 .. 1015 • • 69i 75 • .1015
Strasburg to Bale 275 275 .• 26i 75 .• 271 25
Avignon to 3.lraseilles...• .. 760 .. 765 -. 760 .. 765