The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-15 00:00:00

which, the parties who had been called to the bar were.
on the motion of the LORD CHANCELLOR, committed to
the custody of the Usher of the Black Rod.

The salutary changes which have taken place since
1836 in the constitution of committees on private bills,
and, most of all, the great improvement, effected during
the present session, in the constitution of Railway Com-
mittees, havo necessarily diminished greatly the possibi-
lity of such transactions as that of which Mr. BONHAM
is now paying the tardy penalty. We trust that the
new constitution of Railway Committees will be ex-
tended in the next session to all private Committees. A
small number of Al.mbers, consequent concentration of

•
respectability, and the exclusion of personal or local— in.

terest, are the best securities which can be given, and
are securities which the experience of the present ses-
sion of the Railway Committees shows to be Effectull,
for honest and careful decisions. And though, when
the Bills have got out of Committee into the House, the
system of canvassing, to which Mr. HAwes's Committee
has so properly directed attention, has been almost in-
variably resorted to, not less gratifying is the experience
afforded by the present session of the prevalence of jus-
tice and right feeling in the House of Commons over all
the exertions of interested parties.
In all the cases of attempts to overturn decisions of
Committees, with the single exception of one, where an
overwhelmieg majority showed that there were
strong reasons for differing from the Committee,
the just men of the House of Commons have turned the
scale against the attempts of disappointed interests. And
let us hope that this may lead to a cessation of such
attempts in another session. For, though right prevails,
wrong is done, and in both majority and minority,
on these occasions, will be seen men vot-
ing with an obvious personal interest, or in ob-
vious accordance with the wishes of constituents. And
this is a far more dangerous snare to public character in
this country than any pecuniary temptation. The Mem-
ber of farlisment who votes on a railway Bill in which
he has a direct pecuniary interest, as much for-

gets his duty as he who receives a ^ present
from the pronaot?rs of a Bill; and Sir THOMAS FRE-
MANTLE who, it will be remembered, made a speech and
gave a vote for an Irish railway, in opposition to the
standing orders of the House, that he might gain a spu-
rious popularity in Ireland ; or the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER, who threw the weight of his official influ-

once in favour of another violation of the rules of the
House, in order to gratify his constituents' desire for
the success of the Cambridge and Lincoln Railway
ought not to be entirely exempted from the r•
which is now so freely meted nut to Mr. P
~uNHAM

_ensure

The advices which we ha'.e from La Guayra, by the
Rochester packet-sf,'
portant, also ~,,
are distinguished by or., its.
all u de ..
sea believe, unexpected feature. We
the recognition of the Independence of Vene-
-testa by the Spanish Government. Of all her revolted
colonies in South America, Venezuela, as an inde-
pendent state, was that which Old Spain most per-
tinaciously refused to acknowledge. This characteristic
obstinacy in the face of " perfected facts," in defiance
of an irresistible combination of events which had long
previously rendered re-annexation to the mother coun-
try impossible, in forgetfulness, as it were, of that
awahLned and excited nationality to which the spirit and
the genius Of BOLIVAR had imparted an indestructible
vitality, has been maintained by Spain for fiveland-
thirty years. On the 11th of May last a Pi4ftlisb vessel
of war, however, run up the h"""our of La Guayra,
saluted the Venezuela flag -xith 21 guns, and landed an
agent of the Spattisit Government with the formal act of
recognit:^6n and the treaty concluded at Madrid between
the Ministers of the two Powers. /Ie proceeded to
Caraccas, where he was received with great enthusiasm,
and the document was immediately submitted to the
Congress.
Under any circumstances we should have greatly
rejoiced at a concession so wise acd dignified on the
part of Spain—so salutary for the young Republic,
which has claims of the highest intereA on British
sympathies in connexion with her bravely sustained
contest against the powers of a corrupt despotism, and
more especially with the career of one of her citizens,
perhaps the ablest and most disinterested—as he
was also among the bravest—whom the States of the
New World have yet produced. But Venezuela had
another claim upon our respect, another title to our
good wishes, by her .:onsistent patronage or ;fee
labour, and the moral influence which her example
is calculated fo exercise, in a degree difficult to be
calculated, t..,n the other nations of Gouth Ametica in
extending this most effective of all distouragements
to
the sl_ave trade. The arlatiasitn of her sugars under cer•
tiraeates of free labour proluction, into the English
market, had justly rewarded her for that encouragement
of her domestic agriculture, without slave labour, to
which her Government has so, long and assidu-
ously directed its energies. It has established the per-
fect practicability of profitably superseding slave by free
tillage, on a scale sufficiently extensive and romunera-
tive to produce a considerable export trade in its
products.

In contrast with this case of Venezuela, to whose in-
depenckace one of the oldest monarchies of Europe has
thus rendered a tardy but an impressive homage, we may
take the case of an empire on the eastern shores of the

The e tptjour,,ed.
The Commons met at 12.
The Lunatics Asylum and Pauper Lunatics Bill was
reported.

The Lunatics Asylum (Ireland) Bill passed through
Committee.

At the evening sitting Mr. HUME withdrew the motion
which he had given notice on the subject of the recal of
Lord ELLENBOROUGH.

Mr. HOPE gave explanations as to the recent disas-
trous occurrences in New Zealand and the Cape of Good
Hope.

Sir R. PEEL promised to lay the New Zealand papers
on the table to-morrow, and the discussion on the sub-
ject was fixed for Monday.
The House went into Committee on the Coal Duty
(Port of London) Bill, having previously agreed to an
amendment made by Mr. HUTT, imposing the same
duty on coals brought into London by railroad or other
conveyance, as on coal brought by sea.
The Earl of LINCOLN proposed an amendment con-
tinuing the ld. a ton duty, and ordering the proceeds to
be invested in the name of the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests, in trust to be applied to defray the ex-
penses of Metropolitan Improvements.
The motion was opposed by Mr. WILLIAMS, 'Mr.
HustE, Mr. MASTERMAN, Lord HOWICK, Mr. HAWES,
and Mr. EwAKT, and supported by Sir R. PEEL. Mr.
Alderman HOMPLIERY expressing an opinion that the
tax on coal ought to be taken off altogether. On a divi-
sion it was carried by a majority of 27 ; the numbers
being for the amendment, 69; against it, 42.
The remaining clauses were agreed to, and the Bill
was ordered to be reported to-morrow (this day).
The House then went into Committee on the Scotch
Poor-law Bill, several clauses of which were agreed to.
The House then resumed, and after disposing of the
other orders of the day, adjourned at Two o'clock.

Pecuniary corruption is not the sin of English states-
men ; and we do not at all participate in the fears of
some of our Contemporaries, that the recent unfortu-
nate disclosures in eonnexion with the Ordnance will
be likely to damage the general character of our public
men. The fact is, that Captain BOLDER() and Mr. BON-
HAM are startling exceptions to the general rule, even cf
our Members of Parliament, and much more of our
holders of political office. The universal surprise ex-
cited by the revelations of Mr. BONHAM'S parliamentary
transactions of 1836, and the condemnation of his con-
duct and of Captain BOLDERO'S much less serious pecca-
dillo by a Committee, containing a majority of their
political friends, are strong and honourable proofs (if
proofs be needed) of. the high standard of public cha-
racter in England.
But while we speak of Mr. BONHAM'S pecuniary
transactions with the South-Eastern Company, as an ex-
ception to the general rule of our Members of Parlia-
ment, we de not, of course, mean to say that no others
have done likewise ; and we regret that one part of Mr.
Witair's evidence was not a little followed up by the
Committee, to an elucidation of the motives of the
activity of some other of the South-Eastern Company's
Parliamentary friends in 1836. Mr. WRAY states
that some other Members of Parliament were
very active in the cause of the South-Eastern
Company ; and, when asked whether they received
valuable consideration, can only say that he does not
knew. Mr. FEARON, the solicitor to the Company, does
not know either. An investigation into the names of
the other active members, and the nature of their rela-
tions to the Company, would not have been further
beyond the province of the Committee than an inquiry
into the conduct of Mr. BONHAM in 1836, when he was
not an officer of the Ordnance ; to have established the
fact that no other Member of Parliament did receive
bribe before, or gratuity after, would have been much
more satisfactory to the public than to leave it,
as it is left now, to be surmised that other
Members of Parliament were tampered with ; or should
such further investigation have led to the discovery of
other misdeeds, it were only just that they should have
been exhumed with Mr. BoNHAm's. But, with Mr.
ROEBUCK and Mr. DUNCOMBE on the Committee, we are
bound to suppose that there has been some good reason
for not pressing the inquiry suggested by Mr. WRAY'S
answer.