The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-22 00:00:00

NIONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS

SUN.—Although the Bank and another influential broker,
made some extensive purchases, the one in Consols and the other
in annuities, the prices of the Funds gave way just before the
close of business. No particular cause can be traced far this
decline, beyond the re-action naturally consequent upon a con-
tinned rise. The prices even now are 24 per cent. above
what they were in the middle of March, lelsing been steadily
advencing -d.urirg the whole •of the intervening period, and
when the present quotation be taken into account, namely,
914 per cent:. for a stock bearing three per cent, interest, the
only astonishment which can be felt is, that it is so high.
Consols left off at 91g 911 for Money, and 914 91a for the
Account.. Bank Stock, 165 166; India Stock, 243 245;
Ex-
•hequer Bills, 37 39 premium.
Some little business was transacted in Foreign Securities at
the prices of yesterday. Belgian, 10:4 1041, ; Brazilian, 67
1;•=s ; Danish, 80 81 • the Dutch Ts o-end-a-flalf per Cents.
52% 524, and the Five per Cents 1001/2 101.
Alexicati has been dropped nearly 2 per cent. to-day, from
337,i 30 to 37 37k. The reason assigned is the invasion of
the Texien territory, but as the news by the ColuMbia had
already been foreseen, the operations are only to he attributed
to Stock Exchangespeculation ; they have (wen wholly confined
to that p'rce, the public having most pertinaciously kept aloof.
Railroad Shares are firm. London and Birmingham 87 , 89 ;
Great %Western, 291 301; the Half Shares, 141 16 premium.
Birmingham and Gloucester, 55 57 ; South Western, 601 617,,
Gosport, 604 614, North Midland, 69 70 : New, 31 :35;
South Eas'ern and Dover, 30 301 ; Eastern Counties, ;
ll'ackwalt, 123 12,4 ; the New Shares, loa ma; and Brighton,
37 37i per share
The Insolvent Bonds were thus quoted : Portuguese Five
to,ttax_ that a highly respectable firm
per Cents., 37 371; the Three. per Cents., 2;11- 221; Colom-
lA'ne2meslica halt suspended its payments; the
bian, 26T1 27A ; Spanish Five per Cents., 24‘i 211 ; the
2i;ai.massseints,futieshsatartee
dsttaothe(al
have
eo
bbeeensutfliile-
hnlrntecetvy:eisir Cents,
cd
causeiictluoltflyatrl orgi fse realizingproceeding. pay
all

-There are.no foreign letters beyond those by the Colombia,
which add nothing to the voluminous detail of American intelli-
gence which appeared in The Sun of to-day.

The appointment of Mr. Criivford. to be her ma-
jesty's Consul in the. island of Cuba, 'confirms the statement
which we noticed in our last, that Mr. 'Turnbull no longer
held
,that Office. We have the satisfaction .af being ab:e to
state, Lowever, that this gentleman rernait.ks in Cuba in the
responsible and important post of Protec,sor of Liberated
Africans. —Anti- Slavery 'Reporter.

LONDON-
FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 22, 1842.

1, The Election Committees of the House of Commons
!
have begun to excite considerable attention. Yesterday
the Wakefield Committee, the majority of which is
Tory, seated Mr. LASCELLES, the Tory petitioner for
!that borough. On Tuesday, the Longford Committee,
of which the Chairman, having the casting vote, was a
.Tory, unseated, as the Times says, a Whig Member,
and gave the seat to one of their own politics, meaning, •
•we presume, of the polities of the majority. These are
specimens of the general conduct of these tribun, .
The complaints are universal ; they are partial
expensive ; and several petitioners have given up their
claims on seats, and some sitting Members have res!gned,
merely became they would not incur the expense of a
contest before these Election Committees.

The Longford Committee (says the Times) went the length
of determining that a registered vote, which had never been
objected to before the Revising Barrister in Ireland, might be
called in question, investigated, and eventually struck off the
sitting Member's poll by a Committee in London. Such a de-
cision, is truly monstrous—we care not whether the first pre-
cedent for it was established by Whig or by Conservative
authority ; it is nothing less than a deliberate repeal, by a side-
wind, of the 54th section of the Irish Reform Act. The words
•of that section arc, that the certificate of registry " shall be
conclusive of the right of voting of the person named therein;"
and that " no inquiry whatever, as to the right of voting of such
person, shall be permitted to be made, nor shall any scrutiny
be allowed." It requires more than the usual hardihood of a
lawyer to argue, as Mr. Sergeant Wrangham did last week,
that, under this clause, the certificate is only conclusive as to
the right to poll, and not conclusive against the world ; and
that the scrutiny abolished is that by the returning-officer, and
not also that by a Committee of the-House of Commons.
The Committee, however, seem to have adopted Mr.
Sergeant WRANGHAM'S interpretation of the 'law, have
opened the registry, have compelled every elector, if
called upon, to prove his qualification in London, and
have at once destroyed the franchise in Ireland.
Boroughs arc no more safe than counties, and should
the decision of the Longford Committee be
,followed by
other Committees, there are few elections for Ireland
which, if they can be disputed, may not be set aside.
This is the state of the ElectiOn Law and of Election
Committees, though only two years have elapsed since
Sir ROBERT PEEL passed his law for regulating Election
Committees. After much and serious deliberation, after
a Committee had sat to inquire, and several Members
had introduced measures, after so much scandal had
been brought on the House, that it was impossible to
allow the old law to continue, Sir H. PEEL took up the
matter, and passed a law which was to remedy the evil.
We remember contending at the time that it would
fail, and that the proper way to proceed was to simplify the
law, and leave all questions of fact' concerning elections,
as concerning other disputed facts, to the decision of the
ordinary tribunals of the country. The result of Sir R.
PEEL'S Wisdont is to leave the Election Committees of
the House of Commons still open to all the imputations
which were before cast on them. . In short, Sir R.
Pmen's new law is admitted' on all hands to be a corn-
plete failure.
So far as the investigations under it have gone, they
have revotded, we think, an astonishing degree of cor-
ruption amongst the electors, and amongst the Members
of Parliament.. What has been exposed at Sudbury and
other places,- is but an index to what is almost every-
where.praetised.. If there be bribery in the boroughs,
there is intimidation in the counties, and legislation is
vitiated at i s source by the manner in which the
House ,of Commons is formed. With a Legis-
lature so constituted, we see no means of cr.rrect-
.hig ;the evil. Who shall purify the House, so as
to make it spread a healthy stream of law over the
land ? Who shall pull the beam out of its eye to en-
able it to pull the mote out of the eye of the nation ?
We-cannot expect a cure froM its blindness, nor can we
hope that the nation will be restored to health by its
pestilence. If 'We cannot find a source of healing
wholly independent of the HOuse of Commons, it is clear
that .corruption must and will go on increasing and ac-
cumulating till it destroys itself.

When Sir ROBERT PEEL proposed the Catholic Eman-
cipation Act, because it was beyond the power of the
Tories to exercise any longer that bioted oppression
which is, so dear to their. hearts, he carefully enume-
rated to the House of Commons the number of County
Members and the number of constituents they repre-
sented, who had previously declared themselves adverse
to the continuance of persecution. From that statistical
information he drew the conclusion that it was no longer
practicable to carry on the Government on the principle
excluding the Roman CatholieS from the pale of the
Constitution. In the nmspar r press there is quite as
sure an index to public opinion as the County Members
and their constituents, intLzmed as they have both
been by party prejudices for a party purpose ;
and were Sir ROBERT PEt:L noW to consult
that, we think he would come, in relation to the In-
•eoine-tax,' to the sound and rational conclusion he
adopted in 1829 in relation to the Roman Catholics. He
would see that he must soon give it up. With the ex_
ception of the Morning Post, there is not one metropo.
litan daily journal which cordially supports the Income-
tax. We may safely conclude, therefore, whatever may
Le Sir R. PEEL'S majority in Parliament, that even now,
before the inconvenience of the tax has been felt, the
I majority of the nation is decidedly against it. The op-
position will wax strongas the public feels the burden, and
is convinced that the tax is not necessary, except to sup-
port those monopolies which Sir R. PEEL has on prin-
ciple condemned. Much irritation will ensue, and when

~G

ral d eiver, it may perhaps kick

In the meantime, to console Sir R. PEEL, some of the
Tory journals reco.d, with exultation, the fact that the
Journa! des Debuts approves of the tax. Deprived of
support from pubic opinion at home, the Tories f4eek-4
substitute in the .praise of the minions of despotism
abroad. The Journal des Debats is notoriously sub-
servient
to LOUIS PHILIPPE, and Louis PHILIPPE is
notoriously the Isubverter of that freedom he Ma; raised
to the throne to defend. It is his business to en, o::-
1 rage tyranny everywhere, and we know that he does
that. The Journal des Debuts speaks . the sentiments
and opinions of that wily tyrant. Vat, then, will our
people say to the fact that the Income-.ax gives - in•
finite satisfaction to the Juurn4.l des Deles, tLiti to the
tyraunic Governments of the Continent ? "It bus con-
ciliated," says that Journal, " the approbation of ell
Europe." (Meaning all in Europe who envy our great-
ness and hate our freedom.) "Itis a plan, conformalat
to the spirit which animates British statesmen, zs ready
to act as to speak. When they have probed the wound
they apply the remedy with a steady hand. The chief
of the new Ministry has furnisbd a fresh prof' V ;he
superiority qf the furies over the Whigs Ilis plea is.
simple, and conformable to the eternal rules of good
sense and reason, as well as to the laws cf experience.
It bears the stamp oi that unbouf.ded liberality for whir h,
when the necessity exists, the Tories know b, tter than
their rivals how to give the example."
Superiority of the Tories over the Whigs ! Yes ; on
the old Tory plan of subverting the liberties, and filching
the property of the people. Unbounded liberality
Yes ; in fingering our money. Such praise front French-
men wilt go to the heart of j-0/IN BULL. His masters
are great and generous men. His submission conse-
quently raises him to the rank of One of the adorers of
Louts PHILIPPE. He has before now forced the French
to do hoinago to hit vigour ; he was never before for his
servility degraded by their praise.
What then is the vigorous measure which is so phering
to the Fieneh Journalist? We only know that it takes
away his property on false pretexts by an atuny of corn-
Iliissioners and tax-gatherers. As for understanding the
Income-tax law, that is beyond JoaN BULL'S compre-
hension. On its outside it bears this significant mark,
" under 20 oz." The law which he is to obey, therefore,
which is to be a rule of life: (like the command, "thou
shalt not steal"), is contained in a book which weighs
something less, without any c iver, than I Vb. troy. It is so
cumbrous, that no journal will probably publi'sli it entire,
and Dile Tory print said yesterday—
" It is quite impracticable for us to print this Bill, as it con-
tains no fewer th in 189 clauses, which, together with sale-
dules, forms of tillidavits, and other explanatory matter, occupy
130 cloiely printed pages."

Such a law will mean whatever the Commissipners and
interpreters choose to make it say. To the bulk of the
people it will be " heathen Greek." They will be go-
verned and plundered by a law which they cannot com-
prehend. It is a restoration of the age of mysticism as
well as plunder. To us that ::ecins the climax of degra.
dation. It is bad enough to have our Government
praised by the Journals of Lours PurraPpt, but to b.:
compelled to obey a law which is so voluminous, com-
plicated, and perhaps, contradictory, that not one man
ia a million can understand it, is to be the slaves of in-
,c o preh e n sible jargon.

The determined opposition given last night by the
Ministers to Mr. S. CRAWFORD'S motion must undeceive
the working classes, if any of them. yet suppose that the
Tories will help them to political power. The Tories
have of late been flattering the people a little, and have
pretended that they were studying the benefit of the
working classes, bat it was only as a good farmer takes
care of his cattle, to get as much work out of them as
possible. The Tories want more revenue, more money ;
they avow that they cannot get any more from the bulk
of the people till their condition be. improved, and there-
fore they spare them, they say, flPrtaxation ; but they wil
no more allow them to have a share of law-making than
the farmer will allow his oxen or his swine to take up
their abode in his carpeted parlour. The' Tories are
by their very nature opposed to the people. Their po-
litical creed is, that the people must obey, and that
they must be the masters of the people. Last night
they merely spoke and acted as they are always inclined
to speak and act. Their existence as politicians is
bound up with class privilege; and class legislation ; and
to ask them to give Universal Suffrage, is to ask them
to commit political suicide.

We were somewhat astonished yesterday to learn that
the Columbia could not get her broken engine re-
paired at Halifax. There is a Royal Dockyard at Hali-
fax, and the Navy List contains the name of ALEXAN-
DER EiAOTT as Storekeeper there. That establishment,
however, and the whole town of Halifax, were unable to
repair the damage of the Columbia, and she was navi-
gated across the ocean by her sails and one paddle.
We are not acquainted with Mr. CUNARD'S arrange-
ments, and cannot therefore say what precautions he may
have taken to provide against accidents ; but we should
think that it was incumbent on him to have spare gear
at the port his vessels stop at, and the means of repair:
ing any ordinary damage.. W e must, therefore, 4xpreAs
our surprise that such was not the case for the Columbia.
We must express still stronger surprise thatthe damage
could not be repaired in Halifax. It is now ninety-
three years since that town was founded. It has a noble
harbour, where a thousand ships might ride in safety.
It has long been the chief resort of her MAJEsTv's
fleets in those seas, and its dockyard is said to be sup-
plied with all kinds of stores for the Royal Navy. At
present, that navy comprises a considerable number of
steam-ships, and the dockyard, if kept up at all, ought to.,
be provided with stores for them, and with all the means.oP
keeping them in repair. That the Columbia was obliged
to come home from such a place with one paddle, reveals
to us, better than would many volumes of statistics, th
backward and neglected state of Halifax, with all
possible advantages as to extent of territory,
proximity to England, and great conveniences of trade.
at the end of nearly one hundred years it has scarcely
attained the size and rank of a third-rate town of the
.United States. Such comparatively slow progress is
not creditable, either to the inhabitants of Nova Scotia,
or the Government of Great Britain.

But if it cannot repair a steam-boat, we shall be told
that it can supply an author and a book ? SAM SLICK
has made Halifax renowned, and though he cannot
teach the Blue Noses engincering, he can hold up the
Yankees to never-ending ridicule. The contrast, may
serve as an illustration of the progress of civilisation in
our American Colonies, and in the United States. In
our colonies it leads towards the agreeable—it grows
from a Government more polished than the people—it it
something partly derived from the Court and the Go-
vernment ; in the neighbouring United States civilization
is towards the useful, and grows from the natural laws
which determine the progress of nations. We will not
say that the ibrmer may not have the most charms for
certain classes, but it has this terrible defect, that it keeps
the country behind in population and in wealth, and
exposes it in the end to be swallowed up by the nation
in which the useful is the guiding principle.

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