The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-07 00:00:00

of Sir Robert Peel's want of feeling fepeaslina gwfoirthtohaetppurbolpoic
adinisg-
tress, in allowing a
the months of October
andsom e
Nleogviselmatbi:re,remineddeyed;
such complaints excluded
almost every other topicT The
oro Premier was,mthecolum however,nsofthe
journals in question.
obstinate in preparing carefully his plan of cure
or palliation, before presenting it, and fixed the
meeting of Parliament for the usual time. Parlia-
ment has at length assembled—the Ministerial plan
is announced as mature and ready, and the
Whig-Radicals in Parliament prove the sincerity
of their so lately expressed impatience by soliciting
a delay of- the time in which it shall be considered;
some of them even seek to obstruct that consi-
deration by introducing other subjects. Meanwhile
Ministers lose no time -in bringing forward such I
auxiliary measures for the benefit of the labouring
classes as they can bring forward. Witness the
two most important Bills introduced with universal
approbation by Lord Stanley last night. The terms
applied by Sir Robert Peel to the subject of his
proposed plans in commerce and finance have
furnished the Opposition journals with occasion of
much speculation—speculation which we imagine
proceeds upon erroneous grounds. The Right Hon-
ourable Baronet spoke of the awful subjects to which
he must direct the attention of Parliament—
and awful subjects an embarrassed commerce and a
deficient revenue must be always esteemed ; but it
does not follow that either is necessarily to be met
by an awful remedy, and it is to "the expected remedy
that the Opposition journals appropriate the term.
It may be, and we think it is, an unwise policy on
the part of any Government to involve its designs in
needless mystery. Generally speaking, the people
are cheated out of their right deliberately to canvass
all measures proposed for their government, when
the Legislature is called upon, as in the case of the
Reform Bill, to adopt, ex tempore, an unexpected
law. Measures of finance and measures other-
wise affecting commerce, however, present an
excepted case. 'With respect to them, any pre-
vious notification must furnish a temptation to
ruinous gambling, and the less perfect and authentic
the notification the greater the extent of the mis-
chief, because the greater the uncertainty. Would
the forms of our free Constitution permit, it would
be desirable that the proposition of such measures
should be simultaneous with their rejection or adop-
tion ; but this cannot be the case while we call our-
selves freemen. The strict secrecy with which the
Ministerial plan has been guarded is proof of the care
of the Government ; and the obvious motive for it
must surely satisfy all, that no slight was intended to
any class by the omission to consult it.
COURIER.—We read, in " Caesar's Commen-
taries," that the Nervii, when defeated in battle,
were accustomed to stand upon the bodies of their
slaughtered brethren, in order to hurl their darts with
greater precision into the ranks of the enemy. We
should imagine that the partisans of the late Govern-
ment have taken a lesson from the wild warriors of
ancient times, for they avail themselves of each fresh
loss of political existence which occurs among their
friends to vent their bitterness against their political
opponents. Instead of marching with reversed arms, and
drooping colours, they raise the shout of defiance, and
leave the dead to shift for themselves. Thus, when
the amiable Lord llowick was defeated in Nor-
thumberland, and the poetical Lord Morpeth ex-
perienced the same fate in Yorkshire, the sufferings
of these two patriots who

" Left their counties for their countries good,"
were totally overlooked, in the anxiety of their
quondam allies to turn their defeats to some account,
by urging upon the disciples of free trade the neces-
sity of vigorous and decisive measures to coun-
teract the: selfishness of the landed aristo-
cracy, and the love of class legislation, which
had driven from their strongholds two such
wholesale • legislators as the above-mentioned noble-
men. And now, when poor Lord Morpeth has expe-
rienced a second sad defeat at Dublin, instead of shed-
ding tears of sympathy for his melancholy fate, and
sweetening the bitter draught by some drops of affec-
tion, they profit by his misfortunes to attack the pre-
sent Government with increased violence. To them
the loss of the election is an evidence, not that the
sun of Whig glory has set—not that the nation is
unanimously convinced that the specifics and nos-
trums of the former Administration were wholly des-
titute of virtue, fit only for quacks and charlatans—
but an evidence that the franchise must be imme-
diately extended, and the conduct of Lord de Grey in
permitting one of his household to appear in the
streets while the election was proceeding, and in in-
viting Mr. Gregory to dinner, be made a subject of
Parliamentary inquiry : that on the whole their tem-
porary defeat (for they promise themselves to turn
out Mr. Gregory on petition) is rather a source of
congratulation than condolence, as it will ensure the

future unity of their party, and lead to systems of or-
ganization which must hereafter be attended with

success.

MONEY MARKET und CITY NEWS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.

CHRONICLE.—The immediate improvement in the value
of the Funded Debt proceeds upon the belief that the modifi •
cations to be proposed by Sir Robert Peel, both in the Corn-
laws and in the tariff of imports, will be of a comprehensive
and vigorous character, sufficient to settle the question, bold
enough to relieve the prevailing distress, and to restore manu-
facturing prosperity. These views will prove short-lived and
falacious if the Ministerial measure in regard to corn stop short
of a moderate fixed duty. The Money Market can never be
free from periodical convulsions and panics, while the impor-
tation of the necessary supplies of food from abroad are sub-
jected to the anti-commercial action of a fluctuating duty,
based upon average prices. The curiency of the country
has never regained its soundness since it was thrown
into derangement by the sudden drain of gold in
the spring of the year 1839, after the bad harvest of
1838. A succession of bad harvests since that time has caused
a succession of specie drains to pay for foreign corn, and the
circulation of the country has been in consequence disturbed
from that period to the present. This ruinous state of things
must necessarily occur again at the approach of the first de-
ficient harvest, unless we can previously establish a regular
trade between the raw produce of the land in foreign countries
in exchange for the manufactured goods of this country. Until
that change be obtained the price of the food which we must
import annually, will carry oft a large amount of specie from
this country, and to keep the exchanges healthy, prices must
be kept at a very low figure, to tempt the sellers of foreign
corn to become buyers in our markets. There can be no
" trade" in foreign corn under a sliding scale. Some benefit
may be obtained from clipping out the worst features of the
present scale when the averages mount to 68s. and 703., but
while a sliding scale exists at all, anything in the shape of a
fair trade in foreign corn in exchange for articles of British
manufacture can never take place.

EMBARKATION OF THE KING

OF PRUSSIA.

WOOLWICH, FEB: 4.—At an early hour this morning the
garrison and town of Woolwich presented an animated scene,
owing to the preparations in progress for the reception of the
King of Prtissia and Prince Albert.

Ai twenty minutes past ten the carriage containing the
King, the Prince, and Duke Ferdinand of Saxe Cobourg, was
observed approaching, and the signal being given, the Royal
standard was hoisted on the flag-staff, and a Royal salute an-
nounced the arrival of the Royal party, who immediately
alighted and were introduced to several of the officers.
The exercises of the troops immediately commenced by the
Royal Horse Artillery and Field Batteries marching past at
slow and quick time, and tiring ; but owing to the softness of
the ground, or more probably owing to an evident anxiety in
the countenance of the King of Prussia to embark, the troops
did not gallop past, or fire so many rounds as on former occa-
sions. The Royal Horse Artillery, however, unlimbered their
guns, and his Majesty went up to them while they sat upon the
wheels, and remained with apparent satisfaction to witness the
guns remounted in an incredibly short space of time. Th,
tt,,eal Horse Artillery were immediately afterwards ordered
borne, and the field batteries to proceed to the marshes.
His Majesty the King of Prussia was by this time joined by
Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, who walked on one
side, and the Duke of Cambridge on the other, across the
common and through the south-west gate to the Repository,
and during the progress of the Royal and distinguished visitors,
the immense concourse of spectators who had assembled had
excellent opportunities of witnessing the King of Prussia and
Prince Albert, and the grand and brilliant staff present in ho-
nour of the omission.

The crowd following in the direction of the marshes on this
occasion was most immense, and one so numerous ha seldom
been witnessed at Woolwici. Indeed, the attempts of the police
to prevent the people front entering at the marsh-gate only in-
duced them to break through the hedges, and many most ludi-
crous scenes were witnen. of torn coats amongst the gentle
men, and the women caught in the hedges by their veils and
bonnets, or where their dresses were of slight texture. None
of these obstacles, however, deterred the people from pushing
forward, and they entered in masses in ddfiance of hedges,
banks, and ditches;_and the police. At the time of the firing
of the rockets, the only practice carried on, there could not
have been less than bO,OOO persons in the marshes and adjoin-
ing fields.
At two o'clock the King of Prussia entered the East gate of
the Royal Arsenal, and within less than a quarter of an hour a
Royal salute ar nounced that he had embarked in the Firebrand
steam-vessel, which had dropped down to the West wharf of
the Royal Arsenal to receive him. Prince Albert and his suite
left Woolwich about three o'clock, escorted by the Life Guards,
for Buckingham Palace.