The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-12 00:00:00

TEXAS..

Emigrants are pouring into Texas, from all
.quarters, with
plenty of gens, powder, ball, and money ; and it is more than
probable that Mexico will be invaded this summer by the i
chasersT washe s°
last ldt
oapnubdhr
'realms. The army of the latter is now 3,000 strong, and is
concentrating on the Guadeloupe river.
Other accounts say that the people are thinking of a return
to their plough-shares and pruning-hooks for a season, or until
a sufficient demonstration on the part of the Mexicans shall
have been made to warrant an onataught. General Houston
has sat himself down at Houston, determined to wait until he
gets something tangible to shoot at.
An interesting incident is chronicled by the Fort Pickering
Eagle. While donations were being made in relief of the
Texian volunteers, a young lady, prornptedyrobably by a feel-
xraser ,o
feel-
ing of patriotism, natural on such occasions, took from her
neck a string of coral beads, which she presented to the auc-
tioneer, then at his vocation, in order that it might be sold—it
ec rheatsusehrrne resold,ie,
e had
tautwdor
enpterhdees
understand,ei
tnatuteoc iii auctioneer et
oet
art
trill beeda
least
0 company,
oLhomaer
donor,
naborzaiyeot,
nu
she
hrti
eidpmuderisd.
being the only article of value at her disposal at that time. It
sayingt
atit might be returned. 's Keep it, then," re-
as a memorial of what it has done, and
re-
jectedupwiloseitiea pdrdeoit
tshi tRi
ier,
neTp tmemoryuAr
FORMA TO ENGLAND.
FROM MEXICO—:SALE OF CALL
fyour departed friends!"
By late arrivals.at New Orleans, we learn that it is currently
reported in Vera Cruz that Santa Anna had negotiated a loan
with England for several million of dollars' and had agreed to
deliver the Californias into their hands, until the money
should be returned.
The yellow fever carried off four or five persons daily.
Trade is represented as dull in Vera Cruz. A conducta,
with money from the interior, was looked for by the 15th inst.
The captures lately made by the Texian vessels of war,
had tended to cast a gloom over the commerce of Vera Cruz.
A Mexican armed steamer and an armed schooner were
lying at Vera Cruz.
A letter from General Bravo, dated at Chilpancingo, March
23, gives an account of the defeat of a band of native
Mexicans or red men, who had taken up arms against the
Government. • •
It appears that the city of San Miguel has received with
open arms General Morazan, whose defeat by Carrera, two
years ago, is so vividly described by our traveller, Stevens.
Dr. Itatmel Gutierrez Martinez, and some other Mexicans of
note, were on the 20th of March assassinated in their houses,
by a band of fifty aboriginals, near Quechutenango.
MATAMORAS. Aran 21.—1 herewith transmit a printed
paper, containing an official account of the capture of San Aner
-
tonio de Bexar. on the sth ult., by 800 Mexican troops, und
command of General Vasquez.
The memorial of the American merchants taken with the
expedition to Santa Anna has been published. The Mexican
Government purposes to build a railroad across time Isthmus
of Tehuantepec, in the south of Mexico; but as the distance
is two hundred miles, the project will scarcely be carried into
execution.
Mr. Dickens arrived in town yesterday, from St. Louis, and
took lodgings, at the Broadway Hotel. He leaves to-day for
New York via Cohnnbus.— Cowin. Gazette, 20th.
NEW YORK MONEY MARKET.
SALES AT THE STOCK EXCHANGE, APRIL 28.
.21,,,000000000 DDDOOOI
..s .
OhiolNnde iwa
ns lai7xoer
Fivessk, Fl 8i v6eos .. and-a- H a 1 f , 1860,7 .... . Bsi
, 7l
s 3 days 20i
76 Shares Delaware andlludson
20 Do. Phenix 'Bank
95 Do. North River Bank . 7O
110 Do. Bank' of Commerce • ' full 86 •
i 70 Do. Firemen's Insurance Co ... 80

200 Do. Long Nand Railroad . . soi
25 Do. Mohawk Railroad cash 51
25 , Do. Do.
25. Do. Do. ... ...s 10 days 51
25 Do. lio. cash 51*
5 Do. Utica and Schenectady
6 Do. Boston and Providence

5, Do. United States Bank ....

_3i

• g quite a moderate extent, and with but slight vanities% i T. es
Ohio Sixes improved 1/2 ; Bank of Commerce 1 ; Indian ives
fell off and Delaware and Hudson
The intelligence which goes out to Europe to-day by the
Great Western is of a more favourable character than any
which has been transmitted for a long time. The shocks
which have affected our monetary system, and caused great
fluetuations in ovr currency, have •in a great degree subsided,
and appearances generally indicate that we have at last passed
the crisis, and that henceforward the tendency of business is
toward improvement. A much better feeling exists through-
out the community, and considerable activity is manifested in
all branches of business. We are not able to learn that much
improvement in the prices of merchandise, is realized, if we
make one or two exceptions, but the market presents much
firmness, and purchases are freely made at the prices.
The gloom and despondency which have so long over-
shadowed the community, are giving way rapidly to cheering
anticipations of a prosperous and healthy state of business.
Little exists, that is likely to defeat these calculations. The
condition of the South and West, as regards their currency, is
perhaps the most serious obstacle we have to contend with,
and may retard us somewhat in our course of improvement.
' The general impression is, that the portion of the loan adver-
tised ,for by the Secretary of the Treasury, 3,500,000 dollars,
will be taken on favourable terms; and the impress on has
done much to improve the market, especially in State and
local stocks.

5 Do. Harlem Railro;d
The business done at the Stock Board this tin

EXCIIA NG a-FORM tr.—For transmission per the Great
Western, there has been a fair business in sterling bills, closing
at 7to 7A per cent. premium. On Paris the rates still remain
at sf. 37k. to sf. 35c.

Every person who heard Sir ROBERT PEEL on
Tuesday, or who has read his speech, must have
echoed his remark, that there was "no country in the
world where greater skill might be exercised in the
making of furniture (and of other things) than in
England." Every person, too, must, like him, " not
despair, by the reduction of duties, to enable us to
export a considerable quantity of furniture, the pro-
duce of the skilful mechanics of this country."
Nothing, in fact, but a great mass of onerous taxes,,
only the least influential portion of which does Sir R.
I PEEL propose to touch, leaving the heaviest duties
virtually undiminished,—prevents our skilful artisans
mechanics, and labourers, from rivalling and surpass-
ing, in the cheapness of theiritroducts, those of all

other nations. Now that Sir ROBERT PEEL is sen

sible of that, it becomes his duty as a humane man,
as well as a Minister, to remove every restriction,
every monopoly, every tax, not absolutely indispensa-
ble, from the shoulders of the people.
In our opinion there are far higher motives
for such a course of policy than merely to in-

crease the wealth and comfort of the people, though
such is sure to be the result. It will also increase
their happiness and their morality. The immense
number of frightful crimes lately committed, in al-
most every part of the empire, in conjunction with
general distress, is enough to startle the most unre-
fleeting of our routine statesmen. The criminal law
—the police—the Magistrates—have all been as
powerful and as active in these latter times as ever
they were ; but, in spite of their exertions, there can
be no doubt that frightful crimes are rapidly on the
increase. ' Precisely those crimes, too, are increasing
for which the penalty of death is still inflicted. The

instant it is remarked that these crimes are, as the
rule, confined almost exclusively. to the lower classes
—that we never hear of murder being committed by

the easy and opulent classes—the suspicion that they
are the result of poverty and wretchedness, and will
increase in spite of penalties, seems deserving of the
name of a proof, and the Prime Minister and the
Parliament are required, by their wish to lessen
hateful crimes, to remove every impediment which
the law places in the way of the physical well-being
of the people. _ _ _

At present there is great distress in the land, and
we hear continually of frightful crimes. Betweenthe
years 1833, however, soon after the Whigs began to
remit taxation, and 1836, the country was very pros-
perous. Till the latter end of 1836 trade flourished.
Now in those prosperous years, namely, from 1833
to 1836, there was not a single person executed in
London and Middlesex. "No conviction for mur-
der," says the Parliamentary Returns (N 0.36), "took
place during the three years ending December, 1836."
In the three following years, when our prosperity
was blighted, the convictions were 21, and what they
will amount to in the three years ending with 1842,
we must wait for the Returns to see.
Something similar took place at an antecedent
period. From 1818 to 1821, the country generally was
prosperous, and the number of convictions for murder
in Middlesex, in those three years, was 25. It was
comparatively prosperous until 1824, and the number
of convictions for murder was 36. In 1825 and
1826, the country was a prey to commercial
difficulties, and in the three years ending 1827, the
convictions increased to 64. A pretty strong proof
we apprehend, that violent and frightful crimes mul-
tiply with distress, and diminish with prosperity.
In the Report of the Assistant Poor-law Commis-
sioners, sent to inquire into the State of the popula-
tion of Stockport, we find such passages as these :

" In the course of these inquiries, the general character
and condition of the operatives employed in the cotton
trade have been peculiarly objects of our observation.
We . have seen, that in an ordinary state of the trade,
those of the operatives who are employed (as the mass
of them are) in connexion 'With steam power and ma-
chinery, appear. to 'command, by the value of their labour,
the means of enjoyment of the comforts of life to an extent
and degree unknown to a large portion of the population of
thiS country."—" We find, in connexion with the large
earnings of this class, industrious habits of no common
stamp, regulated and secured in a great measure by the
peculiar nature of their employment, and a degree of in-
telligence already much in advance of other classes of the
working people, and still growing with the general
growth of popular education. It appears, also, that
when in the enjoyment of prosperity, they avail
themselves, to a great extent, of the provi-
dent institutions; and partly • 'through them, and
partly through other circumstances equally credit-
able to their character as a working class, they
avoid almost altogether dependence upon poor-rates.
On the recurrence of distress we find them neither a
pauperised mass, nor readily admitting pauperism amongst
them, but struggling against adversity,beating far and wide
for employment, and iu many cases leaving their country
for foreign climates rather than depend upon any other
resources for subsistence than their own industry and
skill."

Can any person read, that passage and not at once.
see the intimate connection between prosperity and
intelligence, between high wages and comfort, and
between comparative wealth and all the decencies,
moralities, and virtues of life ? When these people
were prosperous they provided against an evil day,
hut the unexampled length of the present depression
of trade hiis reduced these provident and 'intelligent
cotton manufacturers to very severe distress.' We
hope that our readers will remember that this 'is a
description from authority of a class of men whom
certain Tory writers have vowed to destruction,
and on whose present, distress, Caused by mischievous
legislation, certain Tory legislators have 'looked with
placidity and pleasure. What we, however, insist on
is this, what we call on the Members of both
Houses of Parliament to attend to, what we
say every opulent gentleman and every clergyman
will suffer if he neglect, is this, that the morality
and the prosperity of the people go hand
in hand. We say, therefore, that infinitely higher
motives than a mere desire to add to the national
Nyealth make it the especial duty of the Parlia-
ment, and the especial duty of the clergy, and the
especial duty of Sir R. PEEL, who has recognised
the skill and industry of the people, to remove
every monopoly, every unjust tax, and every impe-
diment now placed by the laws in the way of the
free exercise of their skill and industry.
We can supply the landlords and statesmen
with even a pecuniary motive for being honest
and just.. By a return just presented to Par-
liament, on Real property, we perceive that the
annual value of an acre of land in Middlesex,
where the people are most crowded, is 11. 14s. ;
Leicester follows, 11.75. ; then Somerset, 11.65. ; Wor-
cester, 11. Gs. ; Lancaster, 1/.5s ; Warwick, 11.55.--
while the value of an acre of land in Sussex is 135.;
in Devon, 15s. ; and in Suffolk, 19s. If the land-
lords wish to have the value of their acres increased,
let their, by doing justice, encourage that prosperity,
wanting which is the cause, its we think we have
shown, of many frightful crimes.

We have nothing but horrors to record this morning.
One short week ago the city of Hamburgh, the great
commercial emporium of Germany, was one of the most
flourishing on the Continent of Europe—now she is a
heap of ruins. Her Merchants were then rejoicing at
the prospects held out to them by the promised improve-
ments in our commercial tariff ; now they are mourning
over their richly stored warehouses in ashes, their houses
devoured by the flames, and their prospects of increasing
prosperity scattered to the four . winds of heaven. We
shall not here repeat the details of this dreadful cala-
mity. They are given at length in another part of Tice

Sun. We have only to express our profound affiiction
at the mass of misery 'which the de3truction of Ham-
burgh must occasion to a` multitude of most deserving
people. We have ever held the citizens of Hamburgh
and the other Hanseatic Towns in the highest estima-
tion. We have admired their attachment to Liberal
principles ; their spirit of social order ; their commer-
-Icial enterprise ; and in proportio:i as we admired and
-respected them, do we sympathise with them under the
infliction of so heavy a calamity.
The fire,-which there is every reason to believe was
the work of an incendiary, extended to fifty-two streets,,
most of which were reduced to ashes. On a rough cal-
culation, the loss of property was from three to four mil -
lions sterling, but it is believed that the total loss will be
double that amount. IsTo .person could tell how many
lives were lost, but a great number of persons must have
perished. The canals through the city were dry, so
that no water could be found. The fire raged the whole
of Friday night, and on Saturday morning, at nine
o'clock, the Danish, Hanoverian, and Prussian troops
entered the town, and, being well supplied with gun-
powder, commenced blowing up the house 3, to arrest the
progress of the flames. The Senate ordered every per-
son to leave the town, and nothing could exceed the
heart-rending spectacle of thousands of poor people,
frantic with their losses, and without means of procur-
ing food or shelter. The fire was raging when the

latest advices from framhurgh were written.
The destruction of Hamburgh is one of those ca-
lamities which will be felt in every part of the com-
mercial world. Great as may be the credit of the
Senate and people of Ilaniburo with foreign States, a
century will elapse before the city can replace all the pro-
perty destroyed by this conflagration. In the midst of the
confusion an incident occurred characteristic of the Go-
vernment and the people. A public notice was every-
where put up, stating that the vaults under the Batik,
containing the gold and'silver bars, were fire-proof, and
that the Bank books and papers were all removed and
in perfect safety.

The details, so far as they are yet known, will be read
with painful interest. ly,Q,._shall not now dwell longer
upon II subject so distressing.

Besides the destruction of the city of Hamburgh by
fire, our columns of this day contain an account of a
deplorable catastrophe which took place on Sunday
evening en Versailles and Meudon Railway, by which
from fifty to sixty persons were killed—one report says
eighty—and one hundred and fifty maimed and
wounded. In honour of die lima's fete the water-
works in the gardens, of Versailles were playing' on
Sunday, which attracted immense crowds from Paris.
The train, to which the dretidful accident occurred, left
Versailles for Paris at half-past five o'clock in the
afternoon, and was crowded with passengers.
" There were," says one account, " seventeen or eigh-
teen waggons, with two engines before and one behind.
The velocity was excessive ;- when between Bellevue and
Meudon the axle-tree of the first machine broke, and
stopping, the second ran over it, killing the stoker, and,
breaking the first machine in pieces, spilt its fire on
the ground. Instantly six or seven waggons were broken
in pieces, and the rest. running over the live fire of the
broken engines, burst into ftmes. It is the custom on the
Left Bank Railroad for the. doors of the waggons to
be closed, without any possibility of opening them, ex-
cept bykeys in the hands of the conductors: •No con-
ductors were forthcoming, and thus the inmates of three
of the waggons were burned." From this account it is
clear, that, but for the custom of locking the passengers
in the carriages-, so awful a lois of life would not have
taken place. We trust it will serve as a warning to-:those
English Railway Companies' who perievere in locking'
in passengers in the trains, without leaving
them a chance for their lives in. case of any
accident of a similar kind. We have again and again
denounced the practice of loCking up pasSengera.
railway trains, and in, this sad and deplorable Catas-
trophe, on the Versailles line, we have mournful. testi-
mony of the correctness of, our views. Of course, the
leaving the doors of trains in a condition to be opened
by passengers from within, does not infer 'that, no re-
strictions ought to be placed upon wanton egress on. the
part of very young or very silly travellers.
Forty-seven dead bodies were found, and three of the
iN;oimAed 'OW on Monday morning. It is a remarkable
fact, or rather, _perhaps,- we should call it a merciful dis-
pensation of Providence, that, among the travellers on
the road at the time was M. GITIZOT, the French Minister
for :Foreign Affairs. At the instant the destroyed 'train
started from. Versaillesq, train bearing M. ,Guizor left
I'aris for Versailles, and passed the other nearthe scene
of the dreadful accident. had this great ;.sta.te!sraan
been among the killed on-,t)ii*eeeasion wle,4oye reason.
to fear that the political aspect of :Europe ,would .have
undergone a great.change. .
We deeply regret this terrible accident.. We regret it
on' aecOunt. Or ;the *lnfidel's and their Mends ; we regret
it also on account of the prijudice which it Will excite in
the public mind of France against railv.ayS, -Only 'yet on
the eve or.' construction throughout that country. We
fear that several English families will have to mourn
the loss of some friend or relative by this frightful
catastrophe.

Madrid papers of the 2d. hale reached us, but they are
destitute of news.

" RICHARD'S HIMSELF AGAIN !"—Our Contemporary
the Morning Post, is once main in its proper element.
Nothing Can exceed the pleasing flutter and agitation of
spirits into which it acknowledges itself to have ben
thrown by its West-entl communications on the subject of
the Queen's Masked Ball, except the eloquence with
which it discourses on a theme so every way congenial to
its intellect. The Post is here in its glory. Here it
reigns without a rival. The Royal Ball has draWn
forth all its powers of fancy—exhausted all the re.
sources of its capacious genius. Observe- the mo-
dest air with which it congratulates itself on its
fashionable correspondence ! "We believe," says our
Contemporary, "there is no album in existence which
contains the contributions of ii greater number of noble
and distinguished ladies than these daily lucubratiotis of
ours." Enviable pre-eminence ! No wonder the Post
is quite beside itself with ex.tacy ! Such a collection of
fashionable autographs might turn a wiser head than
sits on our Contemporary's shoulders. The Post goes
to observe :—" Such -a scene as this Ball may never ,
occur till doomsday ! It will be . the most exhilarating
sight, and would overcome thegravity of even the seven
sages of Greece." Not a doubt of it. A Grecian sage. if he
Was once to get a glimpse of Lord Snooks, Black-bottle
Cardigan, figuring at Buckingham-palace, in the costume
of the Chevalier Bayard, would, we verily believe, go off
in, strong convulsions; and if he did not do so, we should
think but meanly of his taste for the ridiculous. But all
is not sunshine, even as regards this wonderful Ball, for
" the nearer the hour approaches," continues our Con-
temporary, " the snore impossible it is found to ac•
compliSh all the dresses in time. Sime of the
fair, members of the • aristocracy know not as yet
their fate : others do, ..and. are in a state of distrac-
tion r Unhappy creatures t lye grieve—deeply grieve
for their distress, and trust that their deprivation of
reason may not induce the necessity of a strait-waist-
coat. But who can wonder at their ".distraction ?" As
it is her Majesty's command, go they.. must, dressed or
undressed ; and if their- dresses be not finished in time,
but one painful alternative is left them7-namely, to
appear at the Palace in the primitive costume of the .fig-
leaf. .
ARCIII3IB}IOP OF CAIN.I.TERUVRY!S DINNER-PARTIES.—
The following advertisement appears in a Morning
Paper of yesterday There will- be no more public
dinners at Lambeth Palace this y,mr." This pithy and
sententious announcement is; • we suppose, caused by a
prompt recellection on his Grace's part, of the seven=.
pence which Sir Robert Peel sacrilegiously proposes to
lay on every twenty shillings of the Reformed Archi-
episcopal Income ! •
TAR LORD MAYOR'S JOlClt.—Lord Mayors are not,
generally speaking, remarkable for the dazzling quality
of their wit ; nor do we remgmber to have ever heard of
one who combined the graceful humour of Addison with
the sparkling fancy of Sheridan. But the present Lord
Mayor appears to be an exception. He is really a wag
the first water ; and it is gratifying to he able to
add that no illustrious Civic Magnate laughs ---louds,4*
or longer- at his own jokes, At the Mansion Housi.‘
on Tuesday a man was brought before *him,- charged by
a Jew with having sold him a copper.chain for a gold
one ; and when the case was disposed of, his Lord-
ship, in reply to the complainant's question -of what
he should do with the chain, observed, in his smartest
manner, " Put it round,. your neck to be sure,-the
proper place for it !" The drollery of this repartee was
irresistible.i Clerks,constables, policemen, were instantly
in extacies ; Mr. Hobler was compelled to hold both his
sides ; and even the illustrious wag himself was within
an ace of suffocation. It is a pity that the office of Lord
Mayor's Fool is abolished, for his Lordship could now be
his own Fool!

THE- • BRIGHTON ELECTION.—The result of the
Brighton election having long been foreseen by the more dis-
criminating of the Liberal party in the Borough, it has not
been productive of disappointment to them, though it neces-
sarily gives rise to much vexation and chagrin. The occasion
which has just passed away, might under more favourable au-
spices, have been made to confirm what has already been so
repeatedly and so conspicuously established,—that the political
feeling of the Borough is most decidedly Anti-Tory and Liberal;
but the great reform party of the country failed to provide a
candidate equal to the occasion,—and instead of being, as it
might have been, a contest of pringiple, it dwindled away at the
eleventh hour into a hopeless, and most indiscreet att( nipt on
the part of a gentleman, known only to the electors by an un-
enviable political notoriety, and guided by a most presumptuous,
ignorant, and in.ignificant clique, to supplant the son of a re-
spected and charitable nob'eman who has for many years re-
sided in the Borough. 'the bringing forwatd such a candidate
as Mr. Belford, after Lord Alfred and his friends had fully and
deliberately canvassed the Borough, was repudiated by the more
influential Reformers of the Borough as highly injurous to the
Liberal interest ; and convinced:thet, under such adverse cir-
cumstances, suecess was hopless, they very properly, in our
opinion, abstained from mixing up with a candidate, who, by
abandoninghis seat in Parliament; had virtually pleaded guilty
to the charge of having obtained a temporary triumph in a
neighbouring Borough by very corrupt means. This was a
feeling in which we participated, and will explain the silence
we have studiously observed throughout the vain struggle.—
, Brighton Guardian.

S MARY OF NEWS

AND
ti' tsbitr Optitton.

" Who runs may read."

rionzum.
The frightful accident on the Versailles and Paris Railway,
and the burning-of Hamburgb, are the only topics of interest
n the Foreign Journals received this morning.