The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-08 00:00:00

1.-ittentlXbttton

SUN OFFICE Three o'Cloch.

Sir ROBERT PEEL is the Atlas upon whose shoulders
rest the entire weight of the Government. His nominal
colleagues can do nothing without him, and when he
happens not to be in his place in the House of Commons,
which is but seldom, that House presents more the ap-
pearance of a village school in the absence of the school-
master, than a grave Legislative Assembly deliberating
upon the affiiirs of a great nation. The Right Hon.
Baronet dined at the Palace yesterday, and his friends,
taking advantage of his absence, got up an enter-
tainment for the evening, the account of which
cannot but delight and edify the country.
Mr. CHARLES BULLER quoted the old proverb,
When the cat's away, the mice will play ; "
and the House, acting upon it, exhibited a scene of up-
roar, which was kept up with great spirit till one o'clock
this morning. The House of Commons' bal costume—
for Mr. COBDEN tells us the figurantes appeared in white
waistcoats and white neckcloths—was opened by
that pink of veracity and discretion, Mr. FERRAND,
and Dr. BOWRING, and was continued by Lord
HOWICK, Lord STANLEY, Mr. T. F. BARING,
Mr. WALLACE, Colonel PEEL, Mr. C. BULLER,
Mr. COBDEN, and Mr. HUME. Mr. FERRAND, it ap-
pears, a gentleman of extensive foreign travel, for he
told the House last night that he had been as far abroad
as Switzerland. There he had the good fortune to
make the acquaintance of the Mayor of some little
town in some small canton, who asked him to dinner ;
and, among other funny after-dinner stories, told him
that when Dr. BowaiNG was collecting commercial in-
formation in that country, he refused to receive evidence
opposed to his free-trade theories. The Hon. Member
for Bolton, with great simplicity, and Lord HOWICK,
with still greater, called hastily for the name of thi,
" high and mighty" Swiss Mayor, who had been giving
dinners to, and bandying badinage with, the lion. Member
for Knaresborough, or as its representative will soon
baptize it, Knavesborough. The story being the coinage
of the fertile brain of the Parliamentary story-teller,
no name, of course, was given. It was manufactured
to slander a private man in his private and personal
character, and an explanation was refused, on the dig-
nified ground of shielding from the fury of the ireful
Member for Bolton, one of the most poetical of the off-
spring of Mr. FERRAND'S teeming imagination—the
dinner-giving Mayor of a certain town, in a certain
canton of Switzerland. Pity Mr. FERRAND'S travels
did not extend to Africa, as then he could have named
ABD-EL-KADER as his informant, and let Dr. Bow-
RING make the most of it.

Lord STANLEY spoke as if he were annoyed at the un-
founded charge made by Mr. FERRAND against the cha-
racter of Dr. BOWRING, but in reality he was well
pleased with it. The Members of the Government
' could not appear to be idle, and they knew that it was
their master Sir ROBERT PEEL'S pleasure that they
should not proceed with the tariff in his absence. Mr.
FERRAND as usual was thrust forward to make a diver-
sion to distract the attention of the House from the im-
potency of Ministers. Their supporters were glad of a
night's sport, and cheered as lustily as if they believed
every word uttered by the Harlequin of the agricultu-
rists. The grave mood in which Dr. BowitlNG re-
pelled the charge, was perhaps excusable in him, but
Lord HowicK's disrelish of so good a joke rather annoys
us. Instead of gravely reprimanding Mr. FERRAND forin-
venting spicy personal anecdotes for the amusement of
the House, the Liberals ought to join the Tories in the
more sensible course of laughing at them. The Punch
performances in Parliament, are as well worth laugh-
ing at as the Punch and Judy exhibitions in Seven-Dials.
The leading performers in both have a predilection for
mingling mischief with mirth ; but in extenuation of this
cruel practice, it may be pleaded that the blows of one
of them never take effezt, and that the other cracks only
wooden sconces. Of the two we think the Parliamen-
tary Punch by far the more amusing, because he is
always varying his performances.

The French Journals of Monday devote their columns
to comments upon the news brought by the Overland
Mail from India. In general they take the same view
as, or rather they borrow their views from, the London
Journals.

" A letter from Algiers, May 30, in the Commerce, says—
We are without news from the army. Whilst it is march-
ing in the mountains, our mowers in the plains are frequently
exposed to attacks from the Arabs, and it is impossible to go
from Algiers to our nearest camps without a powerful es-
cort. This shows clearly that we have made no real progress,
and that we have not solved the problem of security even at
our own gates. On the evening of the 27th, great sensation
was created here by the visit of the police to the shop of Messrs.
Brachet and Bastide, booksellers, where there was posted a
placard announcing the publication of a work entitled—"L'Al-
gerie prise au serieux," with the addition of the words " The
destructian of an Arab costs us 33 men and 15,000 francs."
This placard was instantly torn down by the police. Theaffair
of the persons charged with fraud in the supply of the hospitals,
&c., has been just concluded. Two employees have been found
guilty, and condemned to five years' imprisonment. - • t•,
The following letter from Tlemcen, 14th ult., is given by
the Constitutionnel:—'• The Emir is at his. last shift—all the
money he lavishes can only procure him a few raw soldiers.
Our contingents, on the contrary. present a striking contrast,
and there is reason to apprehend a conflict of jealousy among
the chiefs is ho join us. Zinn, the chief of the Beni Amers, who
marches with as at the head of 1,000 horsy, is a rival of old
Mustapha, who shows a resolution to maintain the position of
supreme commander of the allies, in which we have placed
Him. Zinn pretends that he has submitted to the French
alone, and will not acknowledge the General of the Douairs
and Smelas in any other character than as a friend and fellow-
counsellor. General Bugeaud, to prevent any collision, keeps
Mustapha Ben Ismael with him to assist him on his grand
expedition, and leaves Zinn with the corps acting in the
west. The light troops of Abd-el-Kader no longer. approach I
our outposts and fire upon them. At Oued Bommida some
of his regulars got surrounded by the Beni Amers, and his
Bachi-Schidough was taken prisoner. Abd-el-Kader himself
was, on the 4th, encamped on the plain of Angad in front of
the small Morocco town of Ahonda. General Bedeau went
to reconnoitre his position with half a' column. At' the point,.
where the mountain touches the plain, he found 2,000 Norse •
drawn up in order of battle, protected by a deep ravine. They
were all Moroccomen whom the Emir had induced to make
this demonstration ; but, as they showed no disposition to
come to action, the General would not attack them. We march
to-morrow for the frontier of Morocco."