The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-22 00:00:00

It remains only now to examine the pretensions affirmed
by the United States, first in respect of their amazing claim
to the discovery of the Colombia River by Captain GRAY ;
second, their derivative title under treaty with France, and
through France from Spain.

A letter from Constantinople, published in the Augsburg
Gazette, says—." The Grand Duke CONSTANTINE leaves to-
morrow for Italy; he will not visit Greece. The Prince has
not accepted the presents intended for him by the Porte. Of
all the members of the diplomatic corps, M. LECOY is the only
one he has given audience to."

A Frankfort journal states, from Athens, June 26, that a
proposition made by M. CoLErri, to send a deputation to
Constantinople, to compliment the Grand Duke CONSTANTINE
and invite him to visit Athens, had not been acceded to by
the Ministry, as it was considered inopportune to make any
pnblin dernnnOratinn in .11"za favvui, under the existing state
of affairs. The KING, it is said, will send one of his aides-
de-camp with an autograph congratulatory letter.

We have received Madrid papers to the 14th instant. The
decree against the press, which is censured by even some of
the Ministerial journals, appears to have produced a deep im-
pression. On the 15th all the editors of the periodical press
were to meet, in order to agree as to the best course to be
pursued. The meeting was expected to present considerable
interest.

The Heraldo, the organ of the Ministry, expresses its ap-
proval of the decree, in defence of which it reproduces the ar-
guments of the Ministers in their report to the QUEEN.
The accounts received from Barcelona state that the move-
ment is entirely put down. The conscription was proceeding
with.

MADRID BOURSE, JULY 14.—Three per Cents., 28 for
cash, and 28 9-) 6 for Account ; Five per Cents. for Ac-
count, 20%.

The French papers of Sunday, which arrived this morning,
are chiefly filled with comments on the recent decree issued
in Spain against the press. The Presse alone (the organ of
CrusmA) ventures to defend it. The Journal des Debats,
and all the other journals, speak of it as putting the seal on
the reactionary movement of the Spanish Government. The
Opposition journals speculate on the approaching dissolution
of the Chambers. The Presse, however, states, and appa-
rently from authority, that there is no intention to dissolve
the present Chamber immediately.
Don CAnLos and his consort are stated to have left Bourges
on the l 7,th for Greoulx, accompanied by MDR FiNA27, Aide-
de-camp to Marshal SOULT, the President of the Council and
Minister of War.

LATEST FROM AMERICA.
(EXPRESS FROM LIVERPOOL.)
LIVERPOOL, MONDAY NIGHT.
The Joshua Bates, which left Boston on the 2d inst., ar-
rived here this evening, and bring papers from that city till
the same date, but their contents do not add anything to the
accounts previously received. The accounts respecting the
crops are rather encouraging. Harvest operations had com-
menced in several districts : the wheat is said to be of good
quality, and a tolerable yield.

CHANCERY.-(THIS DA Y.)
The Lord Chancellor sat in Lincoln's Inn-hall to-day.
HILLS V. CROLE—JUDGMENT.
The LORD CHANCELLOR gave judgment in this case, which came
before his Lordship some time since upon appeal from the de-
cision of the Vice. Chancellor of England refusing to grant an
injunction to restrain the defendant from acting otherwise
than according to the agreement formerly entered into between
him and Hills, and also for buying acid from another person than
Hills. It appeared that Croli had obtained two patents for the
purpose of purifying gas, and the result of that purification was the
production of muriate of ammonia and the sulphate or ammonia. The
plaintiff and defendant entered into an agreement, the effect of
which was, that Crole was to purchase all the acids from Hills, and
Hills was to purchase all the ammonia from Crole; and there was
an additional stipulation that all parties to whom licenses
were granted were to purchase their acids from Hills, and
Hills was to purchase from them all the ammonia. Hills
having the option of supplying sulphate of ammonia,
or muriate of ammonia. Subsequently, a more modified agree.
meat was entered into, which, it was contended had been put an
end to, and the plaintiff filed his bill to have the original agree-
ment specifically performed, and also for an injunction in the
meantime. The Vice-Chancellor of England refused to grant the
injunction, and his Lordship, considering that judgment correct,
ordered the appeal motion to be dismissed, with costs.
The Court, after disposing of one or two other cases, proceeded
to hear the further arguments in the part-heard case of Taylor v.
Wylde, which occupied his Lordship the whole morning.

The other Equity Courts were occupied the whole day with cause
petitions of no general interest.

SHERIFFS' COURT.-(THIS DAY.)
(Before Mr. Under.ShorifF BURCHELL.)
HARRISON V. GREENWOOD.
The plaintiffs in this action are founders and engineers, and the
defendant is a builder, in Portland-town. The claim was for the
balance of an account for goods sold and delivered. The original
amount of the demand was 481. ss. 5d., but the defendant had
paid 401., and a further sum of 41. into Court, disputing the balance
as being overcharge. The items consisted of stoves and numerous
other articles.
The UNDER-SHERIFF said it was next to impossible to do jus-
tice by evidence given in this way before a jury. In such a case
• it would be much better to refer the matter.
Mr. Cooper, for the plaintiff, and Mr. Thomas, for defendant,
assented. Mr. Cooper, however, insisted that the costs should
abide the event.
The
Sinai
Nrso.askedßefwerheeetshegrentheeryalldyidacntoedt uesnuall Mr.cUoosin pege;
considered equitable principles, and made each party pay his own
whatyP
they
costs.

1
The reference was agreed to as proposed by Mr. Cooper.
MATCHER V. ROGERS.
This was an action brought to recover the sum of 91. 58., the
balange of an account for work and labour done, and thehire”of a
horse and cart. The plaintiff was formerly a soap.boiler in
Whitechapel, but gave up business, and became journeyman for
the defendant, who resides in John-street, Roston.
Mr. THOMAS, for the defendant, contended that the amount
already paid was all that was due, and that the plaintiff had so ad-
=Med on being dismissed, but, afterwards, in very gran language.
said he would be revenged. The charge for the horse and cart was
Bs. a day, although it was only used jointlywiled
defendant,charg24 and
there was a furtber charge for stabling. He

jects of either nation should thereafter make settlements, the
subjects of the other were to have free access. Now the title
of Spain at this time was good against all the world but Eng-
land ; the title of England was admitted by Spain to be
good, in virtue of this treaty ; and the admission was
fortified by the fact, established in MitAnEs'svase, surely,
of occupation as well as discovery and possession. When
Captain VANCOUVER arrived out in Nootka Sound again to
take possession, no " tracts of land" were to be discovered.
He was offered a hut, which he refused. Leaving the
sound in possession of the Spaniards, he took possession
of the coast in the way ridiculed by the Edinburgh
Reviewer, in what we contend, on the contrary, was a wise,
bold, and just conformity to the spirit of his instructions and
the rights of his Government. The Foreign Quarterly ob-
serves upon it :—" By this legal and official act the country
was annexed to the British Crown for ever. The act was
notified to the whole world : it was published under the
sanction of Government in VANCOUVER'S narrative—every-
body knew it, nobody disputed it. If Spain regarded this
act or declaration of sovereignty as an infringement of her
rights, she would have remonstrated or protested ; but she
did neither the one nor the other. On the contrary, she
abandoned from that hour the shores of the north-western
region, and has never appeared upon them since." We
intreat our readers, here, to remark, that this act of

sovereignty was done, not by a private individual, but
by a recognised agent of the Crown. It, therefore,
satisfies the very condition insisted on by the Edinburgh
Reviewer in stating the law of nations on this point. " The
acts by which sovereignty is acquired must be the acts of a
Government, not of unauthorised individuals. The acquisi-
tion of sovereignty is a grave act No title is,
therefore, given, by the discoveries made by private adven-
turers. If they make settlements, these form no portion of
the territory of the state from which the unauthorised
settlers have proceeded. If theyenter into treaties, such trea-
ties give them no right against either their own Government,
or any other." Now, in this case, the act of sovereignty was
made not only by a distinguished officer of the Crown, and
under the orders of the Crown, but enforcing the conditions
of a treaty negotiated between that Crown and anofher
sovereign power. In all these respects the pretensions of
America are UTTERLY deficient. No public officer has
even yet taken possession, on her behoof, of one foot of
land in Oregon; no public servant of the United States
has executed any treaty touching any part of the Oregon.
Out of the five conditions, therefore, which the jurist,
' who writes in the Edinburgh Review, insists upon as those
by which alone sovereignty over an unoccupied country can
be acquired, namely, " Discovery, Settlement, Contiguity,
Treaty, and Prescription," we have:thus demonstrated that
England claims—and holds, too, by Settlement, Treaty, and
Prescription. Half a century since we had complied " with
all the legal and solemn conditions by which new territories
are annexed to the dominion of the Crown." As to the title
by discovery, it is eighty years ago since a Spaniard—
HECETA-90 far as the Colombia River is concerned, demo-
lished the possibility of the United States ever establishing
it (though they set it up), by being the first European to
find it and to enter it. At that time (1775) the Americans
knew nothing about the river itself, or the whole of that
territory through which it ran. It remains only to complete
the conditions of the British title to Oregon to speak of
"contiguity ;" and, with this head, we shall close our argu-
ment in support of the title of England to the Oregon,—we
dare hope not without having established it to the conviction
of our readers, unless there shall be a superior title set
out in the claim of America, as expounded by her own
Presidents, state officers, and diplomatists. Any such
title we pledge ourselves to disprove by the irrefragable
evidence of the documentary papers, &c., which they have
brought forward to establish it. "On the other hand," (we
quote here from the Foreign Quarterly), " if any political or
international value can be reasonably attached to proximity
of position and comparative facility of access, the short and
easy transit which we can command from the remotest point
of our Canadian possessions to the shores of the Pacific, in-
vests us with geographical advantages which it would be
impolitic, not to say fruitless, to contest. Whatever be-
comes of Oregon, the English, who hold so vast a stretch of
country due east of the mountains, and who have long wielded
direct sway over the disputed territory itself, through the nu-
merous locations of the Hudson's Bay Company, must al-
ways exercise an inevitable influence over its destinies. If
Oregon were ceded to the United States to-morrow, British in-
fluence must still predominate from the source of the Colombia
to the sea ; a state of things which, so far from producing
any practical benefits to the Union, would be attended by
disastrous consequences, sooner or later."