The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-05 00:00:00

*tronbrZbition

SUN OFFICE Three o'clock.

OVERLAND MAIL.

The Mail from India was to leave Bombay on
the 27th of August. It will not be due in
London until about the 10th instant, but the
telegraphic announcement may be expected on
the Bth.

We regret to learn, from the Paris papers re-
ceived this morning, that a strong and angry feel-
ing prevails in most of them, relative to the long
disputed question of the light of search, and
that violent attacks are made on the English
Government and . the commanders of English
vessels for the rude manner in which, they state,
French vessels are visited by our cruizers. The
affair between the Cygnet and the Eagle, of
which we gave an account yesterday, has re-
vived all their hostility to the conventions of
1831 and 1833, which is not a little heightened
also by the contrast drawn between the posi-
tion of France in this respect, and that
of the United States. We are not surprised
at the bitter and abusive language adopted by
the Constitutionnel, knowing the character of the
man who directs the politics of that journal ; but
there are others equally violent, and little doubt
exists that, but for a certain influence, the whole
papers, not excepting even those friendly to the
Ministry, would display the same acrimony. On
' looking at the transaction, as described by the
French and the English commanders, we cannot
see anything peculiarly offensive in the manner
in which the Englishman performed his duty.
He was on a coast where the slave trade is
carried on to a frightful extent, and, suspecting
something wrong from the appearance of the
vessel, he fired a shot to bring her to, and on this
being disregarded a second shot was fired. We
believe this is the usual mode adopted on similar
occasions, and if the right of search is to be ex-
ercised at all the French have little cause for
complaint; but seeing the jealousy with which
our interference is viewed by the two Chambers,
and by nearly the whole nation, it may be a
question whether the best interests of humanity
are not more endangered by the observance than
the breach of these conventions. The slave-trade
is a disgrace to humanity, and nations that
encourage it have no claims to be ranked among
civilized nations; but if the traffic cannot be di-
minished, much less abolished, without constant
heart-burnings and collisions, which may endan-
ger the peace of two powerful countries, we may
pay too high a price even for this great object of
our wishes. To carry the plan into effect
the voluntary and cordial co-operation of
England and France is necessary. At
present there is no co-operation whatever, as
French vessels do not capture one slaver for
fifty taken by the English, and to continue this
system it is evident will neither tend to effect its
purpose nor restore a good feeling between the
two countries. If France reject conventions into
which she voluntarily entered in behalf of huma-
pity, let the blame and the disgrace rest with
her, but -let not the peace of the world be en-
dangered by any mad attempt on the part of
England to compel her to do her duty.
We trust, therefore, that new negotiations will
be entered into on this important question, and
measures be adopted for removing all those
causes of jealousy and suspicion of this country,
which evidently have made a strong impression
on the minds of the French people. In this man-
ner there might be some hope of abating the evil,
while at the present day it exists to as great an
event as formerly, and never can be put down
unless both parties join willingly in the sacred
cause.

It is exceedingly amusing to observe the per-
plexity and embarrassment that has of late beset
the Tory journals, which this time last year were
the unhesitating, thick-and-thin supporters of
Sir ROBERT PEEL and his Cabinet. Fain would
they still continue their unqualified support of
him and his; but they know not how to do it
with a due regard to their own consistency, and
the prejudices and predilections of their readers;
and this imparts to their manlier a reserve—au
4wkwardness—a hesitation—that sits as gro-
tesquely and ludicrously upon them as- a
a cow. Like the
cocked hat
wouweathercock,ld
y uponare constantly chang-
ing. Now they adopt a blustering, inde-
pendent tone ; now they are melted almost to
tears at thought of the sad straits to which they
are reduced. One day they muster up brass
enough to give their equivocal friend, Sir ROBERT
PEEL, an encouraging pat on the back ; the
next, they assume an air of dignified reserve—
ofinjured innocence--and shake their thick heads
at him, as though he were past all hope of amend-
ment. But of all the Tory organs, the Post is un-
questionably the most perplexedand discontented..
The Times now and then gives out a low, threa-
tening growl, indicative of a sort of half-formed
intention to spring out upon the Premier and
rend him to atoms; and the frequent bray of the
Herald is by no means one denoting satisfaction
at his course of policy; but the Post is uniformly
sulky and desponding, and, like RACH A EL weep-
ing for her children, " refused' to be comforted."
The " Lamentations" of JEREMIAH are touching
enough, but those of our Contemporary are of a
still more affecting character. He is in hysterics
at least six days in the week ; and the respite
chat he obtains on the Sunday, only seems to
deepen his melancholy on the Monday. This
morning his frame of mind is
peculiarly distress-
ing and convulsive. He has made the alarming
discovery that the Agriculturists are at length
' brought to the verge of ruin; that they are at
theirwits' ends—no great distance to travel—with
apprehension ; and that they have no more
chance of redeeming their fortunes, than Sir
H. PEEL has of screwing an Income-tax out of a
Tipperary bog-trotter. Mark the tone of our
convulsed Contemporary !—" There is one fea-
ture by which all the agricultural Meetings are
distinguished—it is fear! Symptoms are already
exhibiting themselves, and these symptoms go in
every instance to the discouragement of any ra-
tional hope that fartniog profits can maintain
themselves against the working of the new law r'
Encouraging language this from a Tory journal
which, no longer ago than last February, was
among the foremost to cry up the PEEL Ministry
as a godsend; and to assure the agricul-
tural party that they would find in the
Premier a steady, zealous, and affectionate
friend, who would have far too much re-
spect for Asses of home-growth, to reduce the
duty on colonial ones; and who would never
allow a free-born British bullock to come into
undignified competition with a Dutch or Flemish

one

It was said of FALSTAFF, that he was not only
witty himself, but the cause of wit in others.
Parodying this remark, we may say of
our Contemporary, that he is not only
afflicted himself; but the cause of affliction in
others, for one of his correspondents writes from
Liverpool in this dejected strain :—" All my in-
quiries lead to the conviction that the mischiefs
of the Tariff are only as yet in the infancy oftheir
development. The farmers' friends may hold
forth to them on the superior flavour of English
hams and bacon; but facts are stubborn
things, and the fact at this moment is,
that American salt provisions are fast
increasing their proportionate amount in the
supply of this part of the kingdom. The
bonded warehouses here are literally crammed
with American beef and pork, which, on the re-
duction of the duty, will all be thrown into the
market." Alas, for the pig monopoly of the
Agriculturists! Jousr BULL will now be able to
get his ham and bacon cheaper than he has yet
done; there will be an awful fall, too, in the
price of his buttock of beef; and the farmer's
and grazier's vocation is at an end! Heaven only
knows—reiterates the Post from day to day—
what will be the result of this appalling state of
things : and then he goes on to insinuate all ,