The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-14 00:00:00

bedews the details of such appalling iniquity as the
press has lately had to record is really a very maudlin
tribute of a very sickly sympathy. The blush which
such details calls into the check of many a reader
who at first mistakes an unwholesome excitement for
the impulse of an innocent curiosity, is not, we fear,
the mantling expression of a generous and virtuous
indignation at the convulsive hectic of an already
diseased imagination pampering to its self-destroying
demands.

Where the fault lies we will not now attempt to
inquire. That the evil exists nobody, we apprehend,
will attempt to deny. Surely no questions can better
deserve the careful investigation of the authorities,
civil and executive, connected with the administration
of the law, than the cause and effect which involve
a signal failure in the highest and most solemn
branch of positive law to vindicate its own majesty, or
to deter men from breaking through its restraints
and braving its penalties. The law has already lost
half its forte, as well as its justification, when its
extreme vengeance is encountered habitually, as it
were, with an indifference which amounts to defiance,
or a fortitude which is the manifestation of indiffer-
ence, and this in the face of all the world, and at the
last closing moments of their existence in it.

Madrid papers of the 6th have been received. A
settlement of the difference between Spain and the
Holy See appears to be in a fair train. The Heraldo
announces that the POPE acknowledges the rights of
the owners of Church property purchased according
to the laws of the State, and a nuncio from Rome
was daily expected. The following appears in the
Madrid Gazette of the 6th:—" Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.—DoN JOSE DE CASTILLO Y AYENZA, in a dis-
patch dated Rome, March 28, announces to the Go-
vernment of her MAJESTY that he received on the27th
a note from the Cardinal Secretary of State. The
prelate informs him in that note, that he is officially
authorised by his HOLINESS to accept the Royal cre-
dentials delivered to M. CASTILLO as Minister Pleni-
potentiary of her Catholic MAJESTY QUEEN ISA-
BELLA 11. to the Holy See. The CARDINAL is like-
wise empowered to proceed immediately in conjunc-
tion with said Plenipotentiary to arrange the eccle-
siastical affairs of Spain."
On the sth the Three per Cents. closed at 351 at
60 days ; the Five per Cents. at 25i ; and the Debt
without Interest at 8i at 60 days.

The French Chamber of Peers have advanced another
step in favour of the slaves in the colonies, but it is to
be regretted that the step, though ostensibly liberal,
can hardly produce any material result. A debate
took place on the clauses for allowing the negro to
purchase his liberty on certain conditions, and was
adopted with an amendment proposed by Count BEIM-
NOT, to the effect that he shall have the right of
choosing the employer with whom he shall labour, for
the period of five years, which he is still to serve after he
is able to purchase his freedom. The price is reckoned
at about 52L, and few slaves with only one day to them-
selves for the weeks' maintenance will be able to realise
that sum in ten years. With the five years of probation
added, he cannot be free for fifteen years. This is a sad
mockery, but possibly the Chamber bad no choice, as the
opponents of emancipation are more powerful
in Franca than they were in England, and it would be
impossible to wring frem the Deputies such a liberal
grant as was voted by a British house of Commons.
The Journal des Debuts regards most of the remedies
proposed as of little value, because they hold out so
littla hope of liberty to the victims of slavery. "It
would be difficult," observes that journal, "to imagine
a system of emancipation more limited, more prudent,
more slow, and, we should add, more timid, than that
which the Chambers of Peers has been occupied in dis-
cussing for some days past. England on the same day,
and on the same hour, gemrously and boldly granted
liberty to 800,000 slaves in her colonies, and drew from
her treasury 500,000,000 f. to indemnify their masters.
We are far from possessing so much decision or so much
liberality. We tell the slaves in our colonies, you shall
be free on condition that you pay the price of your free-
dom. But the slave possesses nothing. The Bill under
consideration, however, provides for this by giving the
slave one day in the week, on condition that he supply
himself with the means of existence during the remain-
ing days of the week. The value of a day's wages in the
West Indies is estimated at lf. GOc. It follows from this
calculation that at the end of the year the slave will have
gained from 75f. to 80f. If from this sum be deducted
what the slave shall have expended for his subsistence,
the difference will constitute the amount of savings by
which the slave is to pay his ransom. But what is the
value of a slave? By some a slave is estimated at 1,200 f.,
by others at 1,4001. According to the Bill under dis-

cussion, the value of the slave is to be fixed by commis-
sioner. It is not to be feared, therefore, that the work
of emancipation will advance too rapidly. It appears
certain that, by the proposed measure, slavery will re-
quire a longer time to disappear from our colonies than
the period which has existed since its establishment."
This is a dismal prospect, and shows that the
French know very little yet of the true secret of
governing colonies. The same paper announces
the following decision of the Council of Prefec-
ture in the case of the officers of the National Guards
who had signed the petition against arming the fortifica-
tions of Paris :

" Of the several officers of the National Guard prosecuted
for havirig signed petitions against the armament of the for-
tifications of Paris, thirty-five have already been brought
before the Council of the Prefecture, presided over by Count
Rambuteau in person, and composed of Messrs. de la Morelle,
Lafond de Ladebat, de Maupas, Lucas
dehlontignv'
were
dainsd-
Molin. The officers were defended by M. Ledru Rollin and
M. Joly, both Members of the Chamber of Deputies. It
was not till Friday that the Council pronounced its decree.
Thirty of the officers cited are suspended from the exercise of
the military functions of their rank for two months, but the
five
charged othe rfrs
e, havingefro
from
t hgei vceonmspaitai
isnf at cit aog a
explanations,
against them."
Some of the journals add, that a distinction was made
between the officers who admitted that they were igno-
rant of the existing law, and those who persisted in
their right notwithstanding the law. The former con-
sequently were acquitted. On Friday, the Chamber of
Deputies adopted the Bill relative to the arrears due to
the members of the Legion of Honour, by which all
those admitted previous to the 6th April, 1814, and
whose dotation was reduced by one-half from 1814 to
1820, are to receive 100 f. per annum, in addition to the
pension of 250 f. attached to the decoration, from the Ist
of January, 1846. Those decorated by NAPOLEON dur-
ing the hundred days are included in this list.
The Constitutionnel contains some rumours relative to
the negotiations carried on in London on the right of
search, but places no confidence in them. " Twenty
different plans," it says, " have been imagined for the
mixed commission, and the Duke DE BROGLIE ought to
have carried from France an enormous pile of those in-
ventions, more or less ingenious. But the oldest of all
WAS the best—the American treaty."
The accounts from Switzerland are to the 9th inst.,
and we regret to say, very unsatisfactory. There seems
to be no controlling power, in fact, no effective executive
in the country. Each canton will have its own way.
At Lucerne great exasperation still prevails, and serious
apprehensions are entertained for the fate of the pri-
soners. The Constitutionnel says :--
"The unusual precipitation with which judgment has been
proceeded to at Lucerne, on the principal leaders of the un •
fortunate expedition of March 31, had led the. Commission of
the Diet, assembled at present at Zurich, to fear that the
victorious party would have the capital condemnations car-
ried into effect before the Diet could have come to a decision.
This circumstance had induced it to leave aside for the
moment all other questions, in order to attend to the am-
nesty only, and the Members of the Diet had been given
notice on the 7th that there would be a sitting next day.
Brit on the Bth the Commission had two of the Deputies of
Lucerne, Mbt, Siegwart and Attenhofer, called before it,
and, or; the e,ssurance that they gave that there would be
no capital execution during the week, it decided that it
should resume the simultaneous examination of the pending
or it questions, awl awl the report was to be submitted to thecan Dieteoobn
the 10th. As it is not probable that a maj y
tained for the interdiction of the Jesuits, under form of
summons, or invitation, this question will be allowed to
rest until the meeting of the ordinary Diet, which is to
take place in the month of July. Lucerne will judge
meanwhile if it become her to call the good fathers in the
midst of the streams of blood which they have already
caused to be shed."

The accounts in the Journal des Debuts are a little
more favourable :
By accounts from Geneva of the sth, we learn that, on
the preceding day, lin attempt was made in that town os-
tensibly to raise a free corps, but in reality to excite a local
insurrection. Several hundreds of persons assembled on the
Paquis, proclaiming an hatention to march against Lucerne;
buttheir real project becon'ing evident, the Government im-
mediately took measures to /Asperse the agitators. They
were composed for the much greater part of men from Vaud,
Neufchatel, and Germany, very few Genevese being amongst
them. The movement was principally directed by two men
from Vaud, who have escaped. The soldiery answered the
call of the authorities, wad came out with the greatest ala-
crity. In Lausanne itself" the Radical Government has been
outdone by the people, at id has been .obliged to resist their
exigencies. We have reo.eiyed the report addressed to the
Vorort by the Federal Ce imnfissioners. It is dated on the
6th, from Arau, and exprbrsses great uneasiness, the Com-
missioners being forced to Acknowledge that, in general they
have met complete defiance from the Government of Lucerne
and its allies, and that they seemed to foresee a federal in-
tervention. The Commissioners declare their apprehensions
that Lucerne and the less er cantons will refuse to place their
troops under the federal command."
THE BOURSE- —SATURDAY, APRIL 12.
:First ll4hot Lowest Last
Price. Price. Price. Price.
French Five per Cents..... 117 10 117 15 .. 117 .• 117
Fours.... ..... 107 50 .. 107 50 .• 107 50 .• 107 50