The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-27 00:00:00

troni)4ldittort

SUN OFFICE Three o'clock.

OPENING OF THE
FR ENC CH AMBERS.

The Extraordinary Session of the French Cham-
bers, convoked to pass a Regency Bill, in consequence
of the lamented death of his Royal Highness the
Duke of ORLEANS, was opened on Tuesday (yester-
day) by the KING ill person. The concourse of spec-
tators was immense, and the number of Deputies in
attendance, considering the shortness of the summons,
very great. The Princes, the Ministers, and all the
great officers of state were in attendance upon the
KING. His MAJESTY, who, though deeply affected,
laboured to quiet his mental agitation, opened the
esiion with the following Speech from the Throne :
" Gentlemen, Peers, and Deputies,

"In the grief which overwhelms me, deprived of
that beloved son whom I thought destined to succeed
me on the throne, and who was the glory and the
conservation of my old days, I felt the necessity of
'advancing the moment of your assembling round
me. We have a great duty to fulfil together. When
it shall please GoD to call me to him, it is necessary
that France and its constitutional monarchy be not for
a moment exposed to any interruption in the exercise
of the Royal authority.
" You will have, then, to deliberate on the measures
necessary to obviate, during the minority of my well-
beloved grandson, this immense danger. The blow
that has just struck me does not make me ungrateful
towards PROVIDENCE, which still preserves to me chil-
dren so worthy of my tenderness and of the confidence
of France.

" Gentlemen,—Let us to-day ensure the repose and
the security of our country. I will summon you
later to resume, on affairs of state, the usual course of

your labours."
This speech is brief, dignified, pathetic, and to the
purpose. The concluding paragraph tells the Depu-
ties that the session is an extraordinary one, and
they are summoned together to settle one question
only in conjunction with the KlNG—that of the
Regency. " 'We have a great duty to fulfil together,"
is the constitutional, but under such circumstances
parental, and even affectionate language of the KING.
We cannot conceive under such circumstances any
decent ground for that opposition which the
Ministerial journals apprehend from M. TRIERS
and his friends. As only the Regency ques-
tion is to be discussed, and as we have
not heard that M. THIEES and his friends
mean to call in question the propriety of appointing
tile Duke DE NEMOURS Regent of the Kingdom
during-the minority of the Count of PARIS, there is
really nothing upon which an opposition can fasten for
attacking the present Cabinet. The occasion usually
seized is when a resolution is proposed for secret
service money, and which when rejected is tanta-
mount to a want-of-confidence vote in the British
I louse of Commons. Now the secret service grant will
not be brought forward before the beginning of the
ordinary session of the Chambers in December, so
that the strength of parties can only be tried in the
elections of President, Vice-Presidents, Questors,
and Reporters of Bureaux. In these instances defeats
do not impose on Ministers the necessity of yielding
to the official pretensions of their opponents, however
strongly they may indicate the near approach of
such an undesired consummation.

But it is on higher than mere party
grounds, as rectards the pretensions of rival can-
didates for office, that we regard the _opening of the
present session of the French Chambers with consi-
derable anxiety. The strength of the monarchical
principle is now to be tested. We have now to wit-
ness the sentiments awakened in the bosom of
France, by cradled Royalty. If, as the Minis-
terial Journals affirm, the lamented death of the
Duke of ORLEANS he 3 the effect of silenc-
ing the clamours of faction, and of uniting
all parties in support of the institutions of July, then
may we look forward to the continued maintenance
of the repose of Europe, and the improvement, physi-
cal. and' moral, of the condition of the French people.
But should we, on the contrary, discover that the
voice of faction is only silent for a, moment—that
the Regency is accepted as a sort of ear-
nest of approaching political' changes far more im-
portant in their consequences—that such unscrupu-
louSleaders as M. TRIERS, and latterly ()DILLON BAR-
ROT, assume such a position as to await and profit by
the chapter of accidents, there will be reason to ap-
prehend for France and for Europe very serious cala-
mities. From the unscrupulous and indecent attacks
which are daily made by the Opposition press upon
M. GUIZOT, in the very presence, as it were, of the
Unburied remains of the Duke of ORLEANS, we con-
fess we hope little from the moderation of the Oppo-
sition

;Velum? heard that the KING of the FRENCH lays
great stress upon the support which the 'Regency will
receive from Foreign Powers, and especially from
England, Austria, and Prussia. Whatever 'support
these Powers can give to a constitutional Government
in France, which shall serve to. keep in check the
military extravagance of the Revolutionary faction,
Will doultless not be withheld. But that support it
would by madness to extend beyond the mere influ-
ence of opinion. There is in France no want of the
elements of Order, and of the means of repressing all
attempts to disturb the general peace,. provided :Ali-
ni,.ters know how to avail the'rriselVes of them. The
rabble of the wretched Fanbourgs of Paris, the dis-
contented workmen of Lyons, .and :the ferocious
convicts at Brest, have no more right to ,he
taken as specimens of the chivalrous, gal-
lant French nation, than the inhabitants of
lioundSditch and St. Giles's have to be considered
as samples of the people of England. There is in
France all the ►materials fir the construction and
maintenance of a Government capable of giving sta-
bility'to the Throne, and protecting with a strong
hand every right which ought to have been enjoyed
the people who effected the glorious Revolutio:z
of July.

It' apfears from a meeting of wine merchants, held
.yesterdtty, that ;icier several evasive answers on the
part Of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, they
hive at last aF,ertained fiom the Lords of the TrQ-
sury that no drawback iA to be allowed on stock in
m hen the reluotion on Portuguese wires takes
place. Vtaious,exeuses for this course of proceeding
have been given by Ministers. Mr. GOULBURN, it
would appear, could not invent any that had a re-
speditalais, appearance. So, after many vain attempts
in that quarter, they memorialized the Lords of the
Treasury. . The tirst answer to this application
was, that it was not usual to return, duty on goods
admitted under the Customs laws ; the next was, that
as•there was no Excise survey, fraud would he com-
mitted; and a third was, that by the Board of Cus-
toms they were not bound to make return duties on
stock. The variety and nature •of these answers show
that Government have a very bad case, and are con-
scious of doing an act of injustice. They, in fact,
very much resemble those persons of
tin
cha-
racter, who stretch their ingenuity in inventing
reason:. for retaining money to which they
are not entitled. the Treasury has received
large sums of money for wine on hand ; they
•have had the use of- the money for years, and when
the owners and the public expect to benefit from the
commercial treaty with Portugal, Ministers turn
round and say, ‘' We cannot suffer you to profit by
this treaty, because frauds, may be committed?'
'This, to say the least of the transaction, is a prepos-
-lerous mode of reasoning, and more or less charac-
to-15es Governments generally. " In matters of re-
venue and finance," as was stated by one of the
speakers yesterday, " they have a sort of ribbed
. stocking, that fitted for any purpose. When ,a Chan-
ueellor Of the Exchequer was going to do what was
itl ijust he pleaded expediency, and when he found
the.re was an empty treasury, he considered the
read;est way he could lay his hands upon money
the most expedient." It is no justification of a fraud

to urge it as a reason for preventing another. If there
no Excise survey, the Government are to blame, i.nd
it is contrary to- all the rules-of law and equity to al-
low them to profit by their own negligence and mis-
conduct. One thing is clear, that if Government per-
severe in this unfair course of proceeding, either a
portion of the public or the wine merchant; must he
the sufferers. The latter naturally fear that the
injury will fall upon them, as competition will bring
other wines into the• market, reduce the price while
the duty on a large portion of the stock is undimi-
nished, and thereby throw the loss on a few indivi-
duals. The wine merchants, however, are more
powerful than the poor tradesmen and customers, who
were robbed by the light sovereign proclamation, and
have only to persevere to attain their object.

The whole of the French Journals of Monday have
reached us, but their contents are of no political in-
terest. We subjoin soUie brief extracts from them :

We have received the following letter from Constan,
tinople, dated the 7th inst.:—
•' M. de Bourqueney, in consequence of a despatch
lately received from M. Guizot, has just turned his at-
tention to the affair of the hospital of which we spoke
some months ago. A conference between the two par-
ties'was indispensable, in order that the question might
be settled, because the piquet of soldiers placed by the
Porte in the hospital could not be withdrawn except on
this condition ; for if the hospital were once vacated,
the two parties would inevitably have come to bloWs in
order to get possession of it. M. de Bourqueney there-
fore, much against his will, has again brought the ques-
tion forward ; concessions have been made by both par-
ties, especially by one. I believe that the system of col-
lective protection will be reverted to, only all represent-
ations are to be made through the medium of France.
Though M. de Pontois 'delivered several notes, in which
he declared that he would never agree& to any other
protection than that of France, which was the natural
protection of establishmenta of this nature, the collec-
tive protection is now accepted. M. de Bourqueney will
not affix his signature to these arrangements. lie pre-
tends that the honour of doing so belongs to M. Pon-
tuis.—ConstitutionneL

From Beyrout, July 1, we have the following :—" The
mountains have been apparently tranquil for some days,
owing, it is supposed;' to the presence of the Albanians.
Omar Pacha is actively engaged in the administration of
affairs. The Druse Sheiks are yet in the prison of Bey-
rout, they obstinately refusing to repair the damage which
they occasioned the Maronites in the late troubles. The
EmirAbdallali,'a few days ago, left the English frigate In-
constant, upon the promise thathe should not be molested.
The Albanians are more quiet, but the English have had
satisfaction to demand for an insult offered by these troops
to a Midshipman of their navy. The Turkish troops of
the line, it is said, are to be recalled to Constantinople to
join the Imperial Guards. A strong proof this, notwith-
standing Sir Robert Peel's declarations about the with-
drawal of the Albanians,that there is no intention on the
part of the Porte to do any such thing. With regard
to Omar Pacha, we find no particular complaints against
his conduct. The rumour of sending troops from Egypt
to disarm the mountaineers seems completely false. A
detachment of Albanians, being sent against the Ansa-
ries, inhabitants of a portion of the mountains, is, how-
ever, a proof that there is not a voluntary and entire
submission. The news of this corps is favourable to
Government. Upon the whole, we may add, that the
measures of the Porte, however well-intentioned, will
not ultimately succeed.' There will be no permanent
rest in the mountains. There is not a word of the Eng-
lish Bishop of Jerusalem."
BOURSE—PAnts, MONDAY, JULY 25.
First Highest Lowest Last
Price. Price. Price. Price.
French 5 per Cents 117 25... 117 40... 117 25... 117 35
4 per Cents 101 30... 101 30... 101 30... 101 30
3 per Cents 77 25... 77 35... 77 25... 77 35
Bank of France 3190 ...3190 ...3185 .. 3187 50
Belgian Fives 1840 lo3 103:4 ... 103 ... 1034
Threes 7O ... -70 ... 70 70
Spanish Active 22i ... 22i ... 221 ... 22i
Neapolitan .. lO5 70... 105 95... 105 70... 105 95
Roman