The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-20 00:00:00

MARV OF NE S

AND

ipubltic La' pinton.

" Who runs may read."

FOREIGN.
With the exception of two articles in the Courrier Francais,
noticed in our leadingacolumns, there is nothing of any moment
iu the original columns of our Paris Contemporaries.
The Report of the Directors of the Bank of France for the
first quarter of the year, ending 31st ult., shows the following
results :—The notes in circulation amounted to 228,180,500
francs; its bills, payable to order, 1,102,969 francs ; balance
due to the Treasury in accounts-current, 121,864,068 francs.
Balances due on other accounts-current,- 39,021,285 francs,
and deposits, repayable on demand, 1,756,000 francs, making a
total of debits, of 391,924,824 francs. The specie in hand
was 211,909,148 francs ; bills discounted, 152,259,492 francs ;
advances on deposits of gold bars, 3,023,600 francs, and on
public securities, 10,662,071 francs. Capital invested perma-
nently in the branch banks, 20,000,000 francs, and further
temporary advances, 16,146,188 francs. During the quarter
the average amount of the specie in hand has been 195,955,000
francs. Average of notes in circulation, 225,241,500 francs.
Average of balance due to the Treasury, 115,452,000 francs,
and on other accounts-current, 40,870,500 francs. The dis-
counts during the quarter amounted to 229,120,400 francs ;
advances on public securities to 10,006,000 francs, and in gold
bars to 7,335,000 francs.
The Presse announces that an extraordinary mission was on
the point of being sent to Paraguay by the French Govern-
ment. " That mission," it says, "is to be intrusted to M.
D'Archiae, who has already been attached to the Embassy to
Persia, and has for its object to open an intercourse with that
country, which may be highly profitable to our commerce."
It appears from a statistical report that the regular clergy in
Sicily is composed of 23 orders, the members of which amount
to 8,000. The secular clergy reckons about 10,000. All the
Bishops are nominated by the King and confirmed by the Pope.
There are 5,000 nuns, of whom 500 reside in Palermo. They
live in convents richly endowed by their founders, and subse-
quent donations and legacies. Their large estates and reve-
nues are managed by priests and men of the law, under the
control of an inspector and curator. None of these communi-
ties are res?onsible for the employment of their wealth ; but
the superiors are accountable to the Bishops cf their dioceses
for the maintenance of order and discipline within their com-
munities.
A French paper announces that Commodore Ramsay is to
be placed at the head of an American squadron on the coast of
Africa, to protect the colours of the United States, and their
vessels from the right of search.
The marriage ceremony between the Prince Royal of Sar-
dinia and the Archduchess Marie Adelaide of Austria, was per-
formed on the 12th instant, in the chapel of the Palace of
Stopinigi, near Turin, in the presence of the King and Queen,
and the other members of the Royal Family of Sardinia, and
of the Viceroy and Vicequecn of the kingdom of Venetian
Lombardy. The Archbishop of Turin officiated. After the
ceremony the Royal pair entered Turin amid a salute of 101
guns and the acclamations of the people, and were harangued
by the Commandant of the city and the first Magistrate, in the
square of Vittorio-Emanuele. Twelve young females, dressed
in white, then presented them with fruits and flowers. There
was a grand dinner and evening party at the palace, and the
city was illuminated. The fetes in honour of this event are,
by command of the King, to be of fifteen days' duration.
A telegraphic despatch from Madrid, dated the 13th, states
that some disturbances had broken out there, in consequence
of a coalition of the operatives, owing to the want of work and
dearness of bread. Some persons had been severely wounded.
On the 13th, in the morning, tranquillity had been restored.
PARLIAMENTARY.
The Corn-laws exclusively occupied the Lords last night,
first with petitions, and subsequently with a motion of Lord
Melbourne's, calling on their Lordships to sanction the prins
ciple of a fixed duty. Lord Ripon opposed Lord Melbourne,
and the Earl of Clarendon supported him by an able speech.
A long debate ensued, in which a great many of the most dis-
tinguished Peers took part, and which ended by their Lordships
rejecting Lord Melbourne's resolution by 207 to 71.
Lord Brougham afterwards took two divisions on resolutions
against imposing any duty on corn, which was lost in both cases
by 96 to 9.
Their Lordships did not adjourn till Two o'Clock.
In the Commons Mr. Pryse Pryse and Mr. A. Lefroy took
their seats.
The Kingsclere Inclosure Bill was reported after a division,
and a vain attempt on the part of Messrs. Godson, Brotherton,
and Fielden, to protect, as they said, the rights of the poor.
On Monday, May 2, Mr. T. Duncombe is to present the
National Petition, signed by more than 3,000,000 of the in-
dustrious classes, and on the following day he will move that the
petition be taken into consideration.
Mr. M. Stewart, having put a question to Lord Stanley rela-
tive to emigration, the Noble Lerd answered it somewhat in
detail, and in a manner to show that the New South Wales
and other colonies are now overstocked with labourers, and
that they at present want capital more than labourers.
In reply to Dr. Bowring and Sir C. Napier, Sir Robert
Peel feelingly expressed his inability to govern Syria in addi-
tion to Eng:and, judging the latter task hard enough. Ne-
vertheless he informed the House that the Government had
remonstrated with the Porte against employing the Arnauts
in ,yria, and against placing Omar Pacha in the Government
of Lebanon.
Mr. Ferrand, in a long speech, full of bitter accusations
against the master manufacturers, moved for a Committee to
inquire into their practices towards their workmen. Sir
James Graham moved as an amendment, that the Com-
mittee should inquire into the working of the law which
forbids the truck system, and after a sharp and somewhat
personal debate, the amendment was adopted. Amongst the
master manufacturers there are no doubt many knaves, and every
honest man wil: be glad to see them exposed. Sir J. Graham's
remark, however, that when the men are prosperous, they are
the masters of their masters, was full of wisdom, and explains
in one sentence, the real cause of the sufferings of the people.
The Corn-laws have cut up prosperity by the roots, and so made
the workmen the slaves of the masters.
The Solicitor-General for Ireland obtained leave to bring in
a Bill to assimilate the criminal law of Ireland as to the
punishment of death to that of England, and Mr. Hutt obtained
a Committee to inquire into the expediency of renewing the
Grinding Act.—The House rose at a Quarter to Eleven.
PUBLIC OPZNIoN.
The Advertiser says:—" Like the msn in a play of Sheri-
dan's, who confessed that he lived by his bad name, and appre-
hended utter ruin if it were known that he had ever done a
good action, Sir Robert Peel, through his organs, declares
that he has not reduced the rents of his tenantry 20 per cent.,
as asserted in yesterday's Advertiser. The Post and Standard
denounce the imputation of such a concession as a mean and
malicious attempt to injure the Premier in the estimation of
his agricultural connections, who, we may remark, as yet seem
not to know whether to regard him as a friend or as a foe. On
this point, however, they would have no difficulty in coming
to a correct conclusion, were they to bear in mind that Sir
Robert Peel never yet exhibited any fixed principle of policy,
but always, however obnoxious and degrading to his own sen-
timents, pliantly yielded to the expediency which might best
befit the hour of his mean and selfish ambition. There could
not be placed at the command of a tyrant oligarchy a more dan-
gerous man than Sir Robert Pee:."
The following appears in the Post—" Lord Brougham has
failed altogether to prove his assertion, that the wages of labour
do not depend to a great degree on the coat of the necessaries
of life. Let hi Lordship show that if the price of these neces-
saries should fall in America wages would not fall ;—let him
show, on the other hand, that if these necessaries should in
America rise in price, wages would not also rise ; —let Lord
Brougham do these things—and, these, his Lordship may as-
sume the credit of having established one of the proposition,
most indispensable to the confirmation of thefree-trade theory 1"
The Times contains a leading article on the Corn-law ques-
tion, from which we extract the following :--" It will be years,
and may be many years, before the demand for corn in the
English markets will have created in foreign countries a cor-
-1 responding supply; and, unquestionably, till that time any re-
laxation of restriction will not have worked out its own legiti-
mate consequences. Till that time the English corn factor
will want more than foreign countries have to give, and accord-
ingly the foreign farmer will be able to drive his own bargain,
and foreign wheat will rise to English prices, instead of Eng-
lish wheat falling to foreign ones. Till that time the British
growers will not be really brought into competition with the
rest of the world. But when, and in proportion as the in-
dustry of the people shall be incited by more favourable cir-
cumstances, and urged by the enterprise of the English spe-
culator to the cultivation of tracts hitherto unavailable, in
Spin or Russia, in Africa or America, then certainly, though
not till then, the question will become one of the mere cost of
production and conveyance ; and we may calculate, on the one
hand, on getting our corn at the lowest price which will furnish
a remuneration to the grower, the factor, and the carrier; and,
on the other, on throwing out of cultivation all land which will
not produce it at the same rate in England."
The Chronicle remarks as follows on the subject of the In-
come-tax :—" An Income-tax places the resources of the
country much more absolutely at the disposal of a Minister
than any other mode of taxation. It is a screw which turns
with facility. The invention of a new and profitable tax is no
easy task ; and its imposition, when invented, is always un-
popular, and not always practicable. Even a very strong Go-
vernment would have some difficulty infighting its way through
the imposition of a succession of new taxes ; hut a mere addi-
tion to an existing tax, two per cent., one per cent., or a half
per cent., clapped on Olson the Income-tax, would occasion
little trouble, either by opposition within or without the walls
of the House of Commons. Tho worst features of the tax—
its inquisitorial nature and unequal pressure—remaining the
same, and belonging alike to the smaller per centage and the
larger, there would be no very formidable struggle to encounter
on such a question as eight-pence in the pound instead of
seven-pence. All facilities of this description increase the
power of a Ministry. They diminish the points of defence at
which a people can make its stand against the encroachments of
a Government. And hence an Income-tax, though the argu-
ment has been left comparatively in abeyance, is really as ob-
jectionable constitutionally as it is fiscally or commercially. It
deserves the hatred of a eople jealous of political rights not
less than a people chiefly dependent on trade and commerce for
their prosperity."
The Herald thus alludes a Viscount Melbourne's speech in
the House of Lords last night Lord Melbourne last night
exhibited his sympathy with thisi painsiple of the Corn-law pro-
posed by the Cabinet over which he ostensibly presided, by
moving, in the House of Lords, a resolution declaratory of the
superior advantages of a fixed duty on the importation of foreign
grain over a sliding scale. The Noble Lord's speech will be
read with interest, and in truth it deserves to be read, were it
only for the happy contrast which it affords to the exaggerated
arguments, declamatory expectations, and violent denuncia-
tions, which composed the staple of the orations of the Noble
Viscount's late colleagues in the House of Commons. It de-
serves to be read as an excellent specimen of the equanimity,
the calmness, and the entire freedom from bitterness or ill- i
feeling of an ex Prime Minister."
MONEY—TRADE—COMMERCE.
The Staffordshire nailors are in extreme distress : large stocks
of nails are on hand, for which, no:market can be found ; nearly
all the warehouses are closed, and the rest only at half-business.
At the Bristol post-office upwards of fifty persons have been
detected, within the last three months, purloining letters, the
chief portion of which have contained jewellery. The legal
expenses incurred in prosecuting post-office criminals amounted
last year to above 10,0001., and the money, jewellery, &c., lost
in that time is supposed to have been above 50,0001.
STATISTICS.
The Associations established in Great Britain at present for
the circulation of the Scriptures is 2,228; in Ireland, 550 ;
Continental Europe, 1,400; Asia, 83; Africa, 16; America,
2,800; Australia, 17 ; and the \Vest Indies, 226 ; 69 of the
latter being conducted by freed negroes.

NAVAL AND MILITARY.
The Earl of Ludlow died at his seat in Bedfordshire on
Saturday last, in his 83d year, having been 64 years in the ser-
vice. fie served in the American war ; was wounded at
Flanders, and lost an arm near Roubaix : he subsequently com-
manded in Egypt, Hanover, and at the capture of Copenhagen.
The title is extinct.

MAW AND POLXCE.
The case of the barque Bullfinch and the St. Petersburgh
brig Massachusetts, was decided in the Admiralty Court yes-
terday. The latter was proved to have driven against the Bul-
finch in the Lcndon Docks, and the Court pronounced against
the Massachusetts.

Nicolas Suisse, the late valet of the Martinis of Hertford,

was yesterday brought up again at Bow-street for re-examina-
tion. A letter from the English Consul at Paris had been re-
ceived relative to the prisoner : and furthet evidence being
expected in the course of a week from France, Mr. Jardine
declined accepting bail, and the prisoner was remanded for that
time.

John Powell was yesterday charged at Union-hall with having
a quantity of smuggled tea and tobacco in his possession, for
which he was committed in default of payment of a 1001. fine.
A motion for a monition against the Lords of the Admiralty,
calling upon them to put in an appearance to an action in the
case of the Athol and Jane Clark, was mado yesterday at the
Admiralty Court. The latter by collision at sea had been lost,
but on examination by the Lords of the Admiralty their judg-
ment was, that it arose from the darkness of the night and the
unseamanlike conduct of the Jane Clark's craw. Dr. Lushing-
ton was ready to allow of the motion, but at the same time
owned that his own Court was powerless towards carrying obe-
dience to the monition into effect. The point stands over for
consideration.