The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-21 00:00:00

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LONDON:
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 1842.

We have read the protest of the officers and
crew of the Creole, and shall, when we can
find room, lay before our readers this Ame-
rican version of that affair. After reading
it, and after reading the violent language
which has been used in Congress on the sub-
ject, by Mr. CALHOUN, Mr. PRESTON, and
others, we still remain of opinion that this sub-
ject is of trifling importance compared to the
claim of a right to visit and search American
Ships, and is not likely to interrupt the harmony
which exists between the two Governments.
popular orators habitually indulge in exag-
geration; they are under no responsibility but
that of
pleasing their auditory, and their ha-
rangues seldom lay down those principles which
guide the calm decision of responsible states-
men. Mr. CA LHOUN is not the Government,
nor even the President of the United States.
His language seems to us of about as much im-
portance as the intemperate effusions of any of
the Irish Colonels in the House of Commons.

It is impossible, we believe, for the Go-
vernment o>i the United States to act against
a principle, it .hag continually enforced
with. yespett
vci.-'4"doininion, and which its
judicial authorities !lave ntwa'ys recopised and

acted on—the principle that every State is
is the
laws
absolute and independent judge of w
shall prevail within itsl own territory-. The
American Government cannot, and dare not,
for its own sake, call in question the right of
Great Britain to make what laws she pleases in
her own territories ; or. Great Britain might at
once, with far more reason than American could
appeal against any law of ours, call in question
the law of the United States which authorises
the continuance of slavery. Neither can the
American Government call in question the right
of the authorities of the Bahamas, to extend the
protection of our law to every man within their
jurisdiction. The right on this subject is clearly
on the side of England, and we do not believe
that the Government of the United States will
dispute it.
The only point which seems to us doubtful, is
where the authority of the American Government,
which extends over every American ship, ends,
and where the authority of the English Govern-
ment, which extends over the Bahama islands
and its waters, begins. If an English man of war
had met the Creole at sea, she would have had
no right nor business to interfere with that
vessel, and set the slaves at liberty. At the same
time, if an American vessel contravene our
municipal laws within our own waters, where
the Queen's writ runs, ifshe had imported slaves,
for example, into the Thames, a writ of habeas
corpus would bring them before the Queen's
Bench, and set them at liberty. The limit of
the respective jurisdictions of the two States
seems the only doubtful point.

In the case of the Creole, however, the doubt-
ful point seems set at rest by facts. She was
within pilot waters, and was boarded by a pilot-
boat from Nassau. She was within the quaran-
tine district, and received on board the quaran-
tine boat. She was, in fact, placed expressly
under English authority by the request of the
American Consul to have a guard sent on board
her, which, in addition to her being within our
jurisdiction, entirely superseded for the time the
authority of the American Government ever the
Creole. Not till then did the slaves receive the
benefits of the English law, and not till then did
they claim the rights which that confers on
them. The only point which can be subject to
doubt being set at rest by the facts, we do
not apprehend that the Government of the
United States will.ever enter into a dispute with
our Government as to its right to give freedom
to the slaves on board the Creole.

The crew of that vessel, in their protest, dwell
much on the men in the pilot-boat having
told the slaves they were all free, and on our
law officers and other persons having given them
the same information. That amounts to nothing.
It was the conversation of man with man, it was
proper information to give, and it was even
praiseworthy in the surrounding black population
to assist their brethren, as they appear to have
done, to obtain the protection of the English
law. We cannot say that it was equally
proper in the Americans to make an attempt,
happily abortive, to wrest the American vessel,
by force of arms, from that guard under the pro-
tection ofwhich the American authorities, namely
the Consul, had placed her. The protest clears
the authorities of Nassau of every imputation,
but convicts the Americans there of a settled de-
sign to make an armed attack on the English
authorities, whose aid they had sought, which is
wholly unjustifiable.

If international law on this case be clearly on our
side, it is also clear that on it we shall have the
support of a large section of the United States.
On the right of search, international law 18
against us; and all the Americans, to a man, will
go with their Government in resisting our
claims. On the question of slavery we shall
haVe the non-slave-holding States, and the
great anti-slavery party, of the United States
on our side. They will feel, and will re-
present to their countrymen; that it is their
own institutions and laWs;
which are the sources of all. the evil. the de;
cutrence, therefore, will not be without its ad-
vantages, and will furnish the anti-slavery party
in the United States with a strong argument in
1 favour of their views.

England is not the only State which has abo-
lished slavery. The United States are surrounded
by States—the Danish Islands, Haiti, Venezuela,
&c.—in which slavery is abolished as well as in
the colonies of England. The maintenance of
slavery in the United States, therefore, so con-
trary to the principles of their free institutions,
threaten to involve them, the anti-slavery party
may urge, in continual- collisions ; and to pre-
serve slavery, they must be prepared for perpe-
tual war. The people of England may safely rely,
therefore, on receiving the countenance and sup-
port of the great anti-slavery party in the United
States on this question, which will do something
more towards keeping the peace than neutralize
the vapouring of Messrs. CALHOUN and Co.
We must add, that, according to the account
given by the Americans, the slaves who cap-
tured the Creole appear to have used no more
force than was necessary to obtain their not un-
righteous end. The slave owner on board, who
was killed in the fray, was, in the first instance,
armed with a musket; and though he fell beneath
the knives of numerous assailants, there was no
disposition evinced to act cruelly, or to take a
barbarous revenge. What is to be done with the
nineteen slaves who were the ringleaders, may
supply some grounds for a negotiation, but we
cannot believe that it can afford any occasion for
a serious dispute between the two countries.

A singular condition of mind may now be de-
tected in the writers on the Tory side, which has
had no counterpart, we believe, in England,
since the days when Sir' ROBERT FILM-Eit
wrote his hook on Divine Right. The defenders
of abuses in`Church and State insist, with great
and incessant pertioacity, on the deference due
-to authority. For a man to make discoveries in
chemistry and mechanics is praiseworthy ; to d e
monstrate a new truth in politics, or to depart
in any way from what is already laid down,
(is stigmatised as impudence and self-con-
ceit, not to be met by argument, but to
be put down by whipping and imprison-
ment. The same condition of mind pervades the
advocates of the Church, and the defenders
of trade monopoly. Rely on authority, say
the Puseyitet ; hear the Church, reiterate the
anti-Puseyites ; there will be no rest, exclaim the
Tory politicians, if the people call in question
the authority of the law, and they all unite in
claiming a blind obedience to authority.,
It is remarkable that, as Sir ROBERT FILIKRIL
wrote his book soon after the period when
Church and State had been upset in the land, so
the Tories in Church and State now come forth
with their slavish doctrines on the heels of a
semi, but much more quiet, revolution. FIL-
MER'S doctrines soon received a refutation, and
never had much influence on the public mind, as
the revolution of 1688 proved. We are inclined
to infer, therefore, that the similar doctrines
of our Puseyites and Tories will meet with
a like fate, For their recommendations, it is
singularly unfortunate that there never be-
fore was a time when experience had so com-
pletely discredited authority both in State and
Church. The disorders in the Church, the dis-
tress in the community, will, in spite of all doc-
trines, force men to throw off a deference for
the principle which has steered the nation into
a very troubled sea.

we copy from the Liverpool Courier of Wed-
nesday the following painful intelligence respect-
ing the failure of the Niger Expeditiou
It is with feelings of no ordinary concern—feelings
which we are sure will be participated in through the
length and breadth of the land—that we have to com-
municate the melancholy tidings of the total abandon-
Inent, under circumstances of the most disastrous cha-
racter, of the Niger Expedition. The Lady Combermere
arrived yesterday at this port, from Africa, having sailed
from
Bonny on the 19th of October, and from Clarence,
Fernando Po, on the 26th. Capt. Midgely reports, that,
the vessels, forming the Expedittoit had returned to the
latter port ; that all the commanders and most of the
crews had died ; and that all further attempts to explore
the Niger had, of course, been given up.
We despaired of the success of this expeaitiorc
from the very first_ moment that the 41inottlice-

ment appeared that it was about to be under-
I taken; nor did we lose any time in making the
Admiralty and the country acquainted with the
extent of our fears. The result, therefore, while
it distresses, has not disappointed us. To the
country the loss of sixty thousand pounds, the
cost of the expedition, may not appear too great
for such an experiment; but what has been
gained to compensate for the loss of the gal-
lant officers and seamen who perished in the
exploration of the Niger ? The previous
failures of attempts to penetrate the interior
of Africa ought to have convinced the Go-
vernment of the inutility of the Niger route; for,
even supposing the first dangers surmounted, and
regions discovered beyond them, opening chan-
nels for profitable trade, they would not be the
less beyond the reach of the most enterprising
merchantman. As public attention will be di-
rected with a painful earnestness to discover
Whether the cause or causes of the failure
„
or the expedition may not yet be removed,
the following extract from a letter signed A
Surgeon," and dated from Cheltenham, which
appears in the Times of this day, may be con-
sidered worthy of attention. Man is naturally
subject to no disease arising from a particular
climate for which Heaven has not bountifully
provided an efficacious, and very simple remedy,
did we but know it. If ever Africa be entirely
explored, our impression is that it will be first so
by missionaries, and individual travellers, not by
expeditions fitted out at the expense of nations :
The most distinctive characteristic in the personal
habits of the natives of Africa, as contrasted with those
who visit them, is, that the common custom of the one
people is to anoint their bodies freely, while the other
are at great pains to remove everything of the kind which
even the natural secretion of the skin provides. The
one people anoints, the other washes. They are both
equally exposed to the influence of malaria—the one es-
capes, the other is nearly annihilated. It has been
noticed in those parts of Turkey where the
plague (not the same as the African fever, certainly,
but still a fever) is most prevalent, that there is a
class of persons who possess an immunity from its
attacks, and this class consists of those who arc engaged
in the practical part of the oil trade. It is quite im-
possible for these persons to keep themselves clean ;
their clothes imbibe the oil, and they seem conse-
quently to move about clad as it were in an ar-
mour plague-proof. One more example will suf-
fice ' • it is the fact mentioned as having been observed
in London at the time of the great plague—viz., that
no tallow-chandler was known to suffer from it. It
has been supposed that the effluvium of the melted fat
might be the cause why these persons escaped the destruc-
tion which raged around them. I am, however, dis-
posed to attach great weight to the fact of the clothes of
these men being in the same condition as those of the
oil traders, because here are examples of three totally
distinct classes of men having no one thing on earth in
common except greasy skins and freedom from infection.
Surely this cannot be mere chance; indeed, I think it
not at all unlikely that the practice of anointing, so com-
mon to several nations of antiquity, took its rise from
some similar observations and experience. As the
cleanly habits of Europeans may be somewhat
shocked at the idea of wearing clothes saturated with
palm oil, it may be as well to state that I do not appre-
hend it to be at all necessary to use it to any such
extent. The skin will retain a certain quantity of oil
when rubbed in without giving rise to the inconvenience
of soiling the dress, and perhaps that might be sufficient;
but, however, the quantity and the most convenient
mode of applying it are matters that could very soon be
ascertained by those immediately concerned in using it.
It would only add, that I think it important that it should
be used in the evening as well as in the morning, be-
cause it would appear that the influence of malaria is
most powerful between the hours of sunset and sunrise.

We call attention to the very important com-
munication we have received from Nottingham.
Our anticipations are beginning to be real-
ised. The Ministers cannot be otherwise
than alarmed at the fearful respon-
sibility they have incurred by so long pre-
venting relief from reaching the suffering people.
It is clear, however, that they must now give
way. Facts are stronger than sophistry,
and majorities, however numerous, only make
themselves contemptible in contending against
truth. A few weeks', or perhaps days', steady
perseverance in the good cause, and unflinching
adherence to principle, will consummate our
triumph.

From Madrid the news is of the 11th inst.
In the Chittnbar .of Deputies on the 10th an at-
tack was made upon the Minister of Finance for
admitting goods into the Basque provinces dur-
ing- the past month at an abatement of duty
of from fifteen to twenty per cent., but such was
the unanimity of the Chamber in repelling
it, that the motion had to be withdrawn.
The citizens were in raptures with the firmness
displayed by the REGENT in the case of M.
SALvANDY, and talked with seeming pleasure of
a probable rupture with France.
The Five per Cent. Actives were on the 11th
at 33 per cent. cash.

The whole of the French Journals have
reached us, but there is nothing in their con-
tents of much interest. On Tuesday the Court
of Peers condemned the responsible Editor
of the Siecle to one month's imprisonment and a
fine of ten thousand francs, for an exceedingly
temperate article, written and avowed by M.
CHAMBOLLE, a member of the Chamber of
Deputies, reflecting on the indecent attacks of the
Peers upon the liberty of the Press. As the Siecle
is a supporter of the dynasty of July, this act of
persecution may serve for a warning to the
ultra-Liberal Journals. Compared with the
present enslaved condition of the Press of
France, the German Censorship may be re-
garded as an encouragement to the licen-
tiousness of public writers. Wherefore, then,
does not the French Press, since it can-
not shake off the crushing nightmare of
the Peerage and the September laws, seek
refuge in demanding the restoration of the Cen-
sorship ? Why does it not implore chains to es-
cape the scorpion tortures to which every lordly
apostate in the State hospital of incurables
now dooms it at his pleasure'' While we pity
we almost despise the Press of France. When
an ally is to be abused, how loftily it
elevates its crest; but what a contempti-
ble figure it cuts when some domestic
tyrant places his iron heel upon its head! If
the French Journals were not traitors to each
other, they would simultaneously cease to appear,
and leave all France without an organ of
opinion, rather than submit .to the tyranny of
those contemptible tools of,Government—the
members of the French Peerage.
The Breton of Nantes contains an account of a de-
structive fire which broke out in that city, at ten o'clock
on the night of the 11th inst., on the premises of an ar-
mourer named Chenard, situated near the Fosse. At
eleven o'clock at night, by which time the fire had made
considerable progress, about eight pounds of gunpowder
which were in the warehouse `exploded, but without
causing knyadditionat injury. The fire was now rag-
ing With greaffury, for the evening was so cold that very
few' ?coons were st the streets'te give assistance, and the
cries *of fire" were scarcely heard at a distance..By the
thee, .however,-sliatlbe flames had -communicated with
the ackloinincwarehouses, -which were filled with colo-
nial produce, a' considerable crowd, able and willing to
render assistance, bad collected together, and the firemen
with their engines were on the spot, with a body of mili-
tary, to assist in extinguishing the fire and to maintain
order. Bales of cotton, bags of sugar and coffee, and
casks of wine and spirits, were removed with all possible
promptitude, but unfortunately the fire continued to
rage and to destroy a vast amount of property. The
danger to the Rue de Biaise becoming imminent, the
inhabitants began to remove their effects, many of which
were thrown out of window, and several persons leaped
out upon matresses which were placed in the street to
break their fall. One woman resolved to perish in the
flames rather than abandon her property, and obstinately
resisted all the entreaties of the people to leave her most
perilous situation. At length a ladder was raised to the
window by two gendarmes, and she was torn away just
as the flames were about to destroy her. The Prefect, the
Mayor, and other municipal authorities, were on the spot,
rendering the most zealous and judicious assistance, which
was the case also with the military. By half-past two
in the morning, the fire had extended to several other
warehouses, and was still raging furiously, although the
firemen, notwithstanding the intensity of the cold,
worked with unceasing zeal, and the engines were in
good order. At four "lock they had succeeded in pre-
venting the further progress of the flames, but the fire
still raged in all the buildings which it had attacked. By
nine in the morning, the fire was nearly got under, and,
fortunately, no loss of life, or any 'very serious acci-
dents, accompanied the vast destruction of property
which had taken place. The Breton states that the
warehouses which were attacked formed a large square,
surrounded by sheds, and that it is impossible to esti-
mate the loss of property at less than six or seven hun-
dred thousand francs. Great as this calamity is, how-
ever, it is almost astonishing that it was not more
uartearnidn
ware
h w.
extensive, for immediately adjoining the
the fire raged, were immense timberyards
houses filled with combustible material&
The Archbishop of Piris has pUblis,h4d tOtoreiL
letter', ordering a general collection toliel3iMesnarti4
churches of his diocese, for the raishig 'of a fdridtofur-

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