The Sun.
London, England, 1829-12-31 00:00:00

(From the Courrier Francais.)

Pam, DEc. 27.—The Ministry is so alive to the
representative system, that the most extraordinary
reports are in circulation. We have already men-
tioned that the French Cabinet had submitted to
Foreign Cabinets some questions relative to the in-
ternal situation of France. These communication•,
so contrary to the national dignity, have of late been
more frequent, and it is said that the following ques-
tion has been asked :—ln case the French Govern-
ment should find it necessary to make an alteration
in the fundamental laws, could it rely on support
from Foreign Powers ? To this note no answer
has yet been received. The French Ministry relies
probably on the peace in the East to allow the co-
operation of the Powers in the affairs of France ;
and it thinks that at present a new Holy Alliance
may be formed. It is painful to us to mention such
rumours. After so many proofs of humiliation, it
is time France was restored to her place and her
power, and that the counter-revolutionists should
cease to invoke foreign aid, when at home they
meet only with neglect and contempt.
(Frum the ConstitutionneL)

PARIS, DEC. 27.—The acquittal of the Journal
des Debats has made the Ministry furious, and its
Evening Paper published yesterday the two follow-
ing articles:—
" The infallibility of the inferior tribunals is a
respectable fiction. The arret of the Court the day
before yesterday is beyond our competency; but
we can assert, as within our competency, that the
licentiousness of the Press has now no bounds, and
that legislation has left the Government disarmed,
exposed to the attacks of faction. It is wisdom not
to be vexed at what is past, but to make it u guide
to improvement in our institutions. Thus the
check■ which the cause of order may receive are
useful; for this is for the general interest, which
must prevail."
" No, the penal laws against the Press are not
sufficient. This is proved by the Tribunal of Cor-
rectional Police having sentenced the Editor of the
Journal des Debats to six months' imprisonment,
and to pay a tine of 500 francs, and that the Pro-
cureur de Roi had appealed against the minimum.
The article of the law invoked against the Editor
increases the fine to 10,000 francs, and imprison-
ment to five years, with an interdict on all civil
rights. iWe must seek, therefore, for another source
of the licentiousness of the Press, and we believe
that our legislative education is every day making
flesh progress."

It ImeT)mes the anarchical apologists of right di-
vine, the fire-brands of state tricks, to complain of
the licentiousness of the Press, when they have
pushed it to the greatest extreme. It was not
enough to maintain that the Elective Chamber
could not refuse its consent to the Budget—now
the tribunals must submit their consciences to the
passions of the Ministry; and, for the satisfaction
of M. de Polignac, declare an author guilty when
they thought him innocent. The Magistrates,
therefore, are in the same disgrace as the Deputies.
It is not the Legislation that must be reformed, but
the Niagistrates who must be changed. What is
intended by these threats of the Ministerial Journal ?
Are we to have Polignac Commissions, as we had
formerly Maupeou Parliament.? Or will the Chief
Minister, condemning himself to be popular, give
the Press the Trial by Jury ?
(From the Journal des Debate.)
_

The General Council of the Bank of France has
fixed at 34 francs per share the dividend of the
second half rear of 1829. The Reserve is of two
francs per share. The dividend is to be paid with
open doors at the Palace of the Bank, beginning
the 2d of January next. The Shareholders may
transmit powers of attorney to receive and sign
their quota. It will be indispensably necessary to
exhibit the titles.

The documents respecting the Association Brc-
tonne, and the suit commenced by M. Aguado,
against the Quotidienne, the Constitutionnel, and the
Journal du Commerce, have reached the clerks%
office of La Cour Royale. The Court will pro-
nounce judgment in these causes during the course
of January.

The Court of Assize terminated the cause res-
pecting the theft of 12,000 francs, committed in the
church of St. Roche, upon Madame de La Fare, on
Thursday evening. The aggravation of the penalty
—that is to say, the condemnation to seclusion—
could not be applied to the accused from the verdict
of the Jury, but in as far as complicity had been
proved. The circumstance being set aside, the
rabbery committed in a church belonged to the class
of simple thefts, with the only difference—that the
463 d Article, which admitted of the penalty being
lessened, is no longer applicable.
The youth La Fontaine, called LI Grandeur,
has alone been found guilty of the theft of a bag
containing six large sol pieces, belonging to Made-
moiselle Victoire Carori, and of the theft of a bag
containing 12,000 francs in burl:-notes belonging
to the Countess de La Fare. Antoine Sauvagnac,
aged 17, the little Melihi r, aged 14, and Madame
la Fontaine, the mother of the principal culprit, hive
been declared accomplices only account of the share
they had in the concealment. Consequently La
Fontaine and Antoine Sauvagnac have been con-
demned only to five years' imprisonment each, and
Madame La Fontaine and the little Melihior to only
two years' imprisonment.
(From the Journal du Commerce.)

The report gains confirmation that M. Ouvrard
has reecived the promise from the Minister of Var
that the liquidation of the supplies to the army of
Spain shall be revised. What interest can his Ex-
cellency have to attack an affair already adjudged ?

The wife of a posthoy at the Haycock inn
st Wsnsford, near Stamford, named RUSSELL, was on
Tuesday last delivered of three ch.ldren, all girls. One
of them is since dead.—Boston Gazett,.

SINGULAR OCCURRENCE : TIIE CLERK IN
♦ DILEMMA.—On Christmas-day, at die Chapel of the
most Illessmi Virgin Mary, on the clerk giving out " Lei
us sing to the praise and glory of Got), art anthem," a
psu►e ensued : after which he exclaimed aloud, with ali
" I bare neither number or book !" The con
fusion of the clerk, the kelter skelter of the vergers to
the organ loft, and the risibility of the congregation mar
easily be imagined, until the respected chaplain gave out
from the communion table " No. 112, page 53," thus
having been obliged to officiate both as parson and clerk
The organ then commenced, and the congregation en-
joyed a rich treat of sacred

_ .
It will be remarked that this letter was written
before the date of the late invasion. The oliset--
vations, therefore, about the conduct of the
Spaniards who were expelled from the country,
and who mainly contributed to prepare the ex-
.
• pedition, have been justified by the eveut in a
way to show the sagacity of the writer. They
likewise afford us an assurance that no tie:U:lr
act of folly or madness can be perpetrated.
" You remind me of my premise to give you a
sketch of the state of this country, and I :direst IT-
pent having been so rash. It is a tubjeet diftHilt
to be explained, and difficult to be understood, by a
person who has passed his life in Europe, in the
midst of the civilization of the nineteenth century,
and under long established Governments. The
error wlich has been committed by all p its ho
have examined this country, is the comparison they
draw between the new Spanish states of Arre: ice

and the free and civilized nations of Europe, Ls they
present themselves in this age; wherea, i< insy ins
fairly doubted whether this nation had adv:lneed orie

step in knowledge, or civilization, front the time ef
the conquest to the moment of declaring themselece
independent of the mother country. Freese._ it, ex-
tensive and fez-tile territory, its rich and var ad 1 -o-
ductions, and especially its great mitten:tem:Az,
Mexico was watched over with greater and mole
jealous care than any other portion of the Spani,it
possessions in America. livery precaution that
human prudence could suggest was taken, and Cie'.
Ce'Shiny taken, to prevent the access of straireers or
the introduction of books, that might tend to en-
lighten the people. Not only were the Mexicans
deprived of the means of keeping pace with the
rapid progress of knowledge in other count ries during
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but the
peculiar circumstances in which they were placed
scarcely allowed them to retain the eta, ion they
occupied in the scale of civilization immrtlia-cly after
the conquest. The emigrants front Spein, who
alone were permitted to enter the ciiteit!y, were,
for the most part, the most ignorant and viieous por-
tion of the people well known to b? nearly a eon u y
behind the rest of Europe. They came to ore, pr all the
places of profit or trust, and to keep in tubjection
the children of the soil. The exiseeni-e of art agri-
cultural population, descendants of the aeeient In-
dians, had a singular effect upon the cleiracter of
the Spanish settlers. The poorest man
scorned to be placed on a level wiih the bi.lien; his
colour ennobled hint, and Spaniards, or their de-
scendants, would have perished rather thee degrade
their caste by working in the field, or by following.
any other laborious occupation in which the Indians
are habitually employed. Here, then, is waz:ting•
that portion of a community which forme the Join-
cipal strength of every nation,—a free end rheum's
peasantry. 'lhe Indian population cement yet be
regarded in that light. They are slow!) emerging.
from the wretched state of vassalage to v. hick they
have been reduced; but they must be educated and
relieved from the tyranny of the groseee,t supersti-
tion before they Coin become useful citizens. At
present at least seven-eighths of the population of
Mexico live in wretched hovels, deiritute of the
most ordinary conveniences, their furniture con-
sisting of a few coarse mats to sit and sleep on ; their
clothing miserably coarse and scanty, and their
food fraits and vegetables. It is not that the pike
of labour is so low as to deprive them of the means
of earning a more comfortable subsistence, nor are
they by any means an idle race, but they ere encou-
raged and frightened into the habit of employing all
their money in pageants of the church, in which
Heathen and Christian rites are strangely mingled.
The white population, in whose hands the whole
property of the country is concentred, were but little
more advanced. The colleges and other institutions
of education were liberally endowed, but served only
to enrich the curators and profseeors. The youth
were taught nothing useful, as you may suppose,
when I tell you, that it is not ten days since I re-
ceived an invitation to attend a Func.ion of the
University of Mexico, when the Degree of Doctor
of Civil Law, was to be conferred upon an eminent
student, and the theme wes, The immaculate con-
ception,' and yet the means of acquiring knowledge
now are greater than they were before the revolu-
tion. Their lamentable ignorance, the absence of
all excitement to exertion, a mild and enervating
climate, which affords the means of suhsiseence
most without labour, and their coestant intercom-se
with the Aborigenes, debased as they w ere to the
very lowest class of human beings, not only pre-
vented these people from making any advancement
in civilization, but when to these causes are added
the degraded state of the church, and tie excessive
ignorance and shocking profligacy of the clergy, who
exercised a fetal influence over the people, it is not
surprising that the Mexicans of the nineteenth cen-
tury should be interim in knowledge and in moral
character to their ancestors of the sixteenth. In
examining, therefore, the actual condition of these
countries, we must keep is view the point from
which they set out, after shaking off the ycke of Spain.
" A people in the condition I have described,
suddenly called upon to govern themselves, must ne-
cessarily fall into innumerable errors under any form
of government they had chosen to adopt. That of
a Federal Republic, as it requires and cabs into
action a greater number of public men than any
other, makes them feel more acutely their inability
at present, although it is the best calculated, in the
end, to instruct their youth in the science of govern-
ment, and to cause them" to appreciate and cherish
free institutions.

6' At the adoption of the present constitution,
and the election of ' President 'Vittoria,' the aff,tirs
of Mexico wore the most favourabla appeanince.
The large sums of money introduced into the coun-
try by the several mining companies produced the
most benefical effects upon the agriculture of the
districts in Which the mines are situated, and con-
tributed very essentially towards the osperity of
the states. Whatever may he the result of these
speculations to the indi►iduals engaged in them,
they have produced lasting benefits to Mexico,
and to the nations engaged in commerce with this
country.

" From the nature and physical construction of
these regions, the chief t xchangeable product is the
precious metals; and by these operations the mines
have been made to produce annually nearly fifteen
millions of dollars—an amount more likely to in-
crease than diminish. The loans which the Govern-
ment made in London had a more doubtful effrct

upon the prosperity:of this country ; the Corninand
of money I eniered the Goveduzent improvideur.
They acted as if the millions they had borrowed
formed a part of their annual income—they aug-
mented the number of troops, purchased rotten
and worthless ships of war, and continued the la-
vish expenses and scandalous abuses of the siceregul
Government. The higher crders of the ekrgy, the
aristocracy, and the European
.Spaniards, were al-
most rem:died to a republican government by this
state of things.
's'
off hiensteitutalireien
tecileassts,eswidm,,roensruu
unfiredtel to2ether by
it
%wiled by the rules and 1 ites of w i;,v iscallNl.."-cotch
tie
Masonry, xlOl were distinguislad by the tide of
Escoseses.' a de-
claring wo-
That: party, at the moment '
this country ibidependela of Spoliii hoped to