The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-02 00:00:00

(.71T lienin Alit„

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 2, 1845.

It is truly astonishing to observe the morbid horror
which modern legislation entertains of general prin-
ciples. To deal with any engrossing question of public
interest, that occupies the attention while it excites the
hopes, or the fears, or the indignation of the million, on
the ordinary rules or tests which determine the lines of
demarcation between right and wrong, in the every-day
business of mankind, would be deemed in Parliament a
species of gaucherie, similar to that innocence of " things
as they are" and the practical mode of encountering
them, which, at our Universities, is reckoned the certain
characteristic of " freshmen."

The debate in the House of Lords on Lord RADNOR'S
Motion, which we read with regret, afforded a curious ex-
emplification of this fact. We had the ci-decant intrepid
champion of popular rights and constitutional principles
—the quondam Lord FOLKESTONE, the denouncer of
Marquis WELLESLEY'S Indian Administration, the sup-
pressonof Colonel WARDLE'S memorable charges against
the late Duke of YORK, the ultra-friend of CORBETT'S
most ultra doctrines touching the necessity of upholding
the common law and charter-granted rights, and pre-
scription-sanctioned customs of the people against all
conflicting pretences of modern-made statutes—bringing
forward a measure to remedy the intolerable abuses of
our Post-office jurisdiction lately exposed in the tam-
perings of Sir JAMES GRAHAM and his colleagues in her
MAJESTY'S Government, with the inviolability of private
seals and correspondence. In what manner? Not by a
broad proposition to extinguish the power of such viola-
tion in any Government her MAJESTY may hereafter ap-
point, but by making it compulsory on the Secretary of
State for the Home Department to issue a warrant
giving such authority to break the seals and private
letters in the case of each and every such particular
letter so to be dealt with. This power, this odious
power, it is known, is derived under a clause in an ob-
solete Act of Parliament, passed in the reign of WmarAm
III.; and such a power the Noble Earl and his friends
contend, to our astonishment, it would be injudicious to
withdraw alt :gether from the employment, at its discre-
tion, of the Government. The absurdities into which
this compromising method of dealing with a broad and
distinct principle has thrown those very Peers of the
Liberal party by whom the outrages practised on M.
Mazziaa's correspondence were at first most vehemently
denounced, are absolutely deplorable. The Lord Chief
Justice seems to think to quibble away his own proposi-
t;pns into safe, vague, and worthless generalities. He
is no,' of opinion that, inasmuch as the machinery by
which the Home-office has been brought to bear
on the admintszative and executive departments of
the Post-office, wouia: suffice to enable the Home Se-
cretary to grant a specific „,arrant in each separate case;
therefore there can be no objectioi: that the Government
should retain the power which it has enjoyed fur the
last century and a half, to be exercised as emergencies
may arise, but under the guarantee of issuing a sepa-
rate warrant for each letter. But it was well shown
that in practice the preparation of the separate warrants
would be impracticable. Then the other inconsistencies
to which this paltry modification of a great principle
would lead are as obvious as they are multitudinous,
Should the Government possess, or should it not, this
irresponsible power of violating at its own pleasure, and
on its own motion, the consecrated privacy of that cor-
respondence which passes through its posts ? If we are
answered in the affirmative, we ask why not to a greater,
if to this limited, extent ? If we are answered in the ne-
gative, we demand why will you concede the limited exer-
cise of a power to which you will not hear of permitting a
more extensive application? The power is in itself good
or bad, proper or improper, to be retained. If it be
wrong, it cannot be convertible into right on demand,
like Sir ROBERT PEEL'S currency notes. If it be right, it
cannot be transmuted into wrong by virtue of a Secre-
tary of State's warrant. Even the flimsy plea of expe-
diency is too palpable to deceive the mural perceptions
of the country, seeing that the blundering manner in
which this power has recently been called into action
has demonstrated its inexpediency. The veil of expe-
diency was rent asunder by the rude conversion of ex-
posure ; and yet it is to the rescue of this demonstrated
deformity—this spy-like, secret, dirty abomination—
darkly created in the obscure councils of by-gone Go-
vernments, and disgracefully and clandestinely resorted
to by the present, that Whig Lords, constitutional
lawyers, and Peers, whose proudest boast it is, that in
the House of Lords they resolutely uphold the rights
and liberties of the Commons of England, rush in ad-
vance even of the unconstitutional Cabinet Ministers,
whether Whig or Tory, who have insulted the spirit of
age and country, by embarking in such un-English
cotn:fes to gratify the political resentments of foreign
Powers. Truly public principle and constitutional con-
sistency are fast becoming among us sonorous abstrac-
tions, without representative or example.

We have intelliience !romConstantinople to the 17th
of May, Athens the 19th, u:d Alexandria of the same
date. The Russian Embassy h.,:d officially announced
to the Porte the intention of the iy nerial Prince of
RUSSIA, the Grand Duke, of visiting Consu2ntinople in
the month of June, and the Gourrier d'
contains a paragraph stating that the Russial,
steamer Critn&., which entered the Piraeus
some days before from Constantinople, was
the bearer of orders to the commanders of Russian ships
of war in Greece, to sail immediately for the Darda-
nelles, there to await the arrival of the Imperial CuowN
PRINCE, who, after visiting Constantinople, is to take a
tour through the Mediterranean. The accounts from
Lebanon are very unsatisfactory. Fresh disturbances
between the Druses and Maronites had broken out, in
which several lives had been lost, and it is said the
Moronites were ultimately defeated by Turkish
twho to 4 part with their enemies. These
rdisturbancesoops,
the subject
bissadors, who held conference on , and
had attracted the n9tice of the Foreign Am-

drew up a note for the Divan, in which they blamed
the Turkish authorities at Beyrout, and called upon
the Porte to adopt measures for res,oring trim*
quillity. According to accounts from Alexandria,
MEHEMET ALT enjoyed excellent health, and
was engaged in superintending the arming of the
fortifications of that place. An Egyptian frigate had
sailed for Constantinople, conveying 1,000,000 piastres
as a present from the PACHA to the SULTAN, on the
occasion of his sister's marriage. The Turkish fleet
under Haim. PACHA, after a cruise off the coast of
Tenedos, reached the Dardanelles on the 15th of May.

We have received Madrid papers of the 25th of May.
On the previous day the QUEEN, her mother, and
sister, left Madrid. They were to arrive at Barcelona
on the sth instant, passing by Aranjuez and Valencia.
NARVAEZ was to join the Court at Aranjuez, and
MARTINEZ DE LA ROSA would follow, if his health
should permit. The editors of the Clamor• Pub-
lico were arrested on the 25th for a libel-
lous article on NARVAEZ, and were to be tried,
according to some accounts, by a Court-martial. No
public measures had been taken with respect to the dit-
ferences between the Government and his Holiness, but
it was understood that fresh instructions would be sent
from Barcelona to the Spanish Ambassador at Rome.
Barcelona is a destined place for intrigues and plots.
O❑ the 24th the Three per Cents. closed at 34k, at
60 days; the Five per Cents. 24 at 60 days; and the
Debt without Interest at 8 at 40 days.

The Paris papers are chiefly occupied with the abdi-
cation of Don CARLOS and the probable results. Many
conjectures are formed by those of the Opposition,
the Government journals merely publishing the docu-
ments. The Praise, Queen CHRISTINA'S paper, infers
that an arrangement has taken place between the
different sections of the Carlist party, and that the
marriage of the QUEEN to the Prince of ASTURIAS, now
Count DE MONTEMOLIN, will be the consequence. That
journals says:—" The abdication of Don CARLOS is not
the work of a single day. It cost long and painful
efforts, and it crowns the negotiations which long
continued fruitless, but which were conducted
with great reserve and great skill. For many
years past Don Can Los has lost all prestige and all in-
fluence. After having caused the ruin of his party in the
Basque provinces, he became at Bourges an obstacle to
every species of honourable compromise. The moment
however had arrived to adopt a decision, for there was
no possible medium between the abdication of Don
CARLOS and that of the entire Carlist party. The mar-
riage of Queen ISABELLA became every day more immi-
nent, and, right or wrong, the most influential men
amongst the Spanish emigrants regard this marriage as
a natural, legitimate, and honourable mode for all parties
to complete a reconciliation on a grand scale.
We are aware that the Progresista party and
a considerable fraction of the Moderate party
are opposed to every plan of a compromise
with the Carlists ; but, on the other hand, the
marriage of the QUEEN with the son of Don CARLOS is
supported by the party represented by the Marquis de
VILUMA and the Baron DE MEER, by the entire Spanish
clergy, all the officers who signed the convention of
Bergara, all the influential Carlists who have emigrated
to France ; and in Europe, all the northern Cabinets."
The National says :—" The abdicatioa is the result of
an intrigue which has been a long time in prepara-
tion, and which Queen CHRISTINA considers to
have arrived at maturity;" but it is needless to
quote further, for we believe the Presee is correctly in
formed. This upshot of the affair has greatly discon-
certed the Court of Naples, and it is said the ICING is
going to Paris to urge the promises made to his brother,
the Count DE TRAPANI, but he will arrive too late,
The Courrier Francais states that Prince JERO3IE
BONAPARTE has obtained permission from the French
Government to visit his cousin, the prisoner of Ham.
It is added, that the object of the Prince's visit to Ham
is to make a proposal to the Prince Louis NAPOLEON,
on the part of the French Government, which, if ac-
ceded to, would set him at liberty.
The proceedings before the Chambers on Saturday
possessed no interest. The Peels, as anticipated, had
rejected the Bill for the conversion of the Five per
Cents. On a division the numbers for the Bill were only
28, and 118 voted against it.
The Three per Cents, closed on the Paris Bourse, on Satur-
day, at 85f. 90c. ; the New Loan, at 80/. 15c. ; the Five per
Cents. at 121 f. 60c.; Orleans Railroad Shares, 1,230 f. ; Rouen,
1,1026 50c. ; Vierzon, 830 f. ' - Havre, 88711 50c.; Avignon,
1.042 f. 50c. ; Basle, 272 f. 50c ; Spanish Actives, 40f.
ditto, Three per Cents., 421. ; Spanish Passives, 7:%.
The following are the quotations for the new lines:—

Orleans and Bordeaux, 225 f. premium ; Boulogne, 120 f.
ditto ; Troyes and Montereau, 50f. ; Paris and
LyonsLaffitte), 17f. 50c. • ditto (Calon), If. 50c. ; ditto (Gan-
neron), 7f. 50c. ; Northern line ( Laffitte), 301. ; ditto
(Rosamel), 91.; Tours and Nantes (Mackenzie), 10f. ;
ditto (Drouillard), par; ditto (O'Neill), 151. ; ditto
(Jacques Lefevre), par; Lyons and Avignon (Lecointe), 13f.
50c. ; ditto (Talabot), 37f. 50c. ' • ditto (Cornpagnie Meridio-
nale), 10f ; Bordeaux and Toulouse (Mackenzie), 2f.
50c. ; ditto and Cette (Espeleta), 11 f. 25c. ; Creil and St. Cuen-
tin, 12f. 50c. ; Paris and Strasburg (Ganneron), 1 1f.25c. ; Di-
jon and Mulhouse, 2f. 50c.

LYONS, MAY 28.—Avignon and Marseilles, 1,026 f., end of
May; Paris and Orleans, 1,227 f. ditto; Paris and Rouen,
1,110 f., ditto; Orleans and Vierzon, 816 f., ditto; Orleans and
Bordeaux, 705 f. ditto; Boulogne, 603 f. ditto; Monterau,
552 f., ditto.

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