The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-22 00:00:00

SOUTH AMERICA.

LATEST FROM CARTHAGENA. 1
(By way of Bermuda.)
The following are particulars of the capture and de-
struction of the Carthagenian fleet by the British man-
of-war brig Charybdis : •
(From the Royal Gazette Feb. 15.)
IMPORTANT FROM CARTHAGENA.—Her Majesty's
brig Pilot, Commander Ramsay, arrived here on Fri-
day last from Jamaica and Barbadoes. She brought
some highly interesting news from Carthagena—no
less than the capture and destruction of the Cartha-
genian fleet by her Majesty's brig Charybdis, Lieut. M. ,
De Courcy, Commander. We cannot find that th e
Pilot has brought a single newspaper giving the pa r-
ticulars of the action ; we therefore are compelled to
resort to oral information, though we have no doubt., of
its correctness. The particulars, as far as we can
ascer-
tain, are. that a Colonel Gregg and some other Th„itish
subjects, either for some real or imaginary o ffence,
were incarcerated by the Carthagenian Goveriuneat.
The Colonel having applied to the British Consul
resident there for protection, that functionary inter-
ested himself on his behalf, but his intercession proving
unsuccessful, he communicated the particulars to Lieu-
tenant De Courcy, of her Majesty's brig Charybdis, then
in the neighbourhood. Lieutenant De Courcy dis-
patched an officer with a letter to the Commodore of the
squadron at anchor in the port, demanding the release
of Col. Gregg and the other British subjects. Thi,
letter, because it was not written in Spanish, 'w•Ar,
treated with contempt, and the bearer with mi „eh
hauteur. On the officer's return to the Chary} Adis,
and reporting these circumstances to his 0
mander, Lieutenant De Courcy immediately e-nicered
the port • and when proceeding to an aP.ctiorage
he was fired into by the Commodore's vessA a cor-
vette, and the forestay of the Charybdis shot away.
Lieutenant De Courcy then took up a position
however desperate such a proceeding may have' and,
ap-
peared on his part, in so small a vecisel against so ap-
parently overwhelming a force, he did not overrate the
bravery of his little band, for after a short fight the
corvette surrendered, the Commodore and 25 of
men having been killed. A brig and three schooners,
that came to the assistance of the corvette, were at-
tacked in turn by the Charybdis. In five minutes
after the Charybdis brought her guns to bear OR the
brig she was sunk, and the schooners soon after I.lr-
rendered.

The Charybdis carries but three guns, one long one
amidships, and two carronades, and her full complement
of officers and men is but 55.
Whatever offence the Carthageniun Government
had received from Colonel Gregg (who, it appears, was
shot immediately after Lieutenant 1)e Courcy's appli-
cation for his re'.ease was made) and the other British
subjects whom, thy had imprisoned, and however in-
formal the Consul s proceedings may prose to have
been, notWarg could justify the contempt offered to
Lieutenant.De Courcy's application by the Commodore,
who, poor man, paid dearly for his temerity. We are
told that, Lieutenant .De Courcy intends to remain at
Carthagera, with his prizes, till he hears from the Ad-
nib' al on. the subject of their capture, &c.
W e trust that Lieut. De Convey will meet that reward
to which his bravery, in this instance, so well entitles him.
The cause of the fight above alluded to was, that the
brig Jane and Sarah, whilst lying at Sapote, in com-
pany with the sloop Little William, was, on ,the 6th
ultixno, boarded by Gen. Carmona,'s squadron, both ves-
sels plundered to a 'large amount of goods and specie,
imprisoned, and Col. Gregg and three other pas-
sengers of the Jane and Sarah shot.

(From the Charleston Mercury.)
FROM HAVANNAH.

By the United States mail-brig llayne, Captain
Morris, arrived yesterday, we received a file of Havan-
nah papers to the 15th inclusive.

TROUBLES IN CUBA.

Captain Morris informs us that when he left Havan•
nab, on the 15th inst., there was " considerable excite-
=tent " there, owing to a difference of opinion, or some
.other difference, between the Governor-General and
-the British steam-packet. The latter was going off
without passing her mails through the Post-office,
according to the laws. of the place. She was stopped,
and the Governor-General said or swore, that it she
Moved out, he would sink her as she passed the Moro.
The matter was still unadjusted when the Hayne left
the British steamer was lying very quiet, and nobody
lznew 11.,w it would end. Rumour said the Governor-
General had sent the captain of the steamer word, that
tinlcss he complied with the laws he would imprison
him. Forthwith. There are the seeds of trouble in this,
and we may as well keep an eye on the progress of Bri-
t; sh "enterprise" in Cuba. It is quite as interesting as
their doings in China just now.

:SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—Sir Robert Peel has a motive not only for
everything he does, but Kor everything he leaves undone;
and We can now clearly perceive the object with which
he concealed, as long as he possibly could, the measures
:he intended to propose when he should become posses-
sed of the Government. Had he declared 'before the
election the course he desigred to pursue, so general
wouldrhave been the indignation excited by- his grand.
financial scheme, that the country would never
have returned to the House of Commons a majority to
carry lois project ; and if, after the elections had termi-
nated,:he had made known, on the meeting of Parlia-
ment, the nature of his views, there would have been
time for,theliation to reflect upon them during the re-
cess,'and the, people's representatives would have found,
by Oinmanication with their constituents, that the-
feuding of the public is powerfully opposed to the plans
the'Alinister. Sir Robert Peel has however, got his
mai 411(1 thinking he can do as he likes with his own,
tic counts confidently" upon dragging it after him through
the mire of nepepularity in which all who have a Band
in the imposition of the income tax (in the shape which
the Tory- Minister seems resolved it shall bear) must
be inevitably immersed, when the evil consequences,
which are now only partially foreseen, shall come to be
fully and bitterly experienced. The Premier is like
the proprietor of the goose that laid golden eggs ; for,
allowing him to be master of the niejority—which
stands 'in this instance for the goose—and admitting
that this majority might give him many golden eggs in
the shape of frequent votes in his favour, die is rsck-
. lessly destroying the goose, in order to get all the gold
at once, for the doom of the present Parliament is sealed
from the day that it gives Sir Robert Peel his income
ta:i. We would recommend the Tory Members to rouse
themselves from the blind and stupid subserviency into
which they seem to have allowed themselves to fall : if
they had been regularly mesmerised, or subjected to any
other species of humbug, they could not be more com-
pletely at the will of the quack, than they are at the beck
aind call of the present Minister.
STANDARD.—We cannot think ourselves uneha-
, ritablesin assuming that all the complaints against the
proposed income. .tax which we hear are either purely
factious, or the promptings of the subtle spirit which has
csAiblished its shrine ha .the complainant's breeches
pockets—too often the vestibule of the heart. These
coraplitints touch, first, the consideration of personal
honoter-'--inen ought not to •be subjected to an inquisi-
tion. S'ecol-idly,' the question of jaatice-s-the tax upon
property-and incotne is unequal. Thirdly, the question
of national honour. Nobody complains of the invasion
of the. brecc/Les pocket ;, all would freely pay twice or
three times as much if 'it could be paid without the
humiliatien: of au inquisition, upon terms of perfect
equality, and consistently with national dignity.
We shall, therefore, we are sure, render an acceptable
service, -if we can relieve these patriots from the
scruples by which they are deterred from serving
their Country to the extent of their generous de-
sires. • First, then, comes the question of personal
honour. When was honour before identified with mys-
tery ? We have -been accustomed to think that
honour loves the open plain, and prefers to . walk
in dq,ylight. But is the laW of England so
tenders as it is pretended, of the honour that
would skulk in darkness and obscurity ? By no
means. Every man may be compelled to give evi-
dence sof the most secret transactions of his 'life;
when-'-produced as a witness in. a court of justice,
and_ to render this account, not before commissioners
sworn, to secrecy, but before the- whole world. Again,
by filing a bill in Chancery against u man, often upon no
just grciunds, you may compel him to make an equally
minute and equally public exposure of his most private
affairqs Neither the law of England then, nor the practice
of England, respects the dark lantern and cloak of such
spurious honour even in individual cases ; but it is ob-
vious that a general demand for explanation—even
were it public, instead of being guarded with elaborate
delicacy--can be neither so invidious nor insulting as an
individual demand—what all suffer no man sutlers in
such Oases., But it is insinuated that interest as well as
honoit' is affected by the inquiry into a man's in-
come. '"fhis is disproved by experience. No man
was made a bankrupt by the operation
of tq old income tax. No man ever pre-
tended that he was. The fact is, that the greatest
possible,
benefit would result to trade, and to
erectit,,,, and to , the interests of every honest
trader,sdrom the utmost publicity being given to the
affairs of every man in the kingdom. Secondly, the tax
is said ,to be unequal, because the same amount, three
per cent., - is demanded from incomes and other life an-
nuities:as from realised property, landed or funded pro-
perty.- We have already in part met this objection, by
showing that realised property has been already sub-
mitted to taxes in the process of its accumulation ;
but
.May go further as regards landed property ;
i s 'already subjected to a taxi much greater in
amount, than the income tax, from which commercial
and professional incomes, and the
interest of funded
property is wholly free • the land pays the land
,tax,
the poor rates, and a host of other rates, from
which mere , income
ha
eholly exempt. If it is
Said the • Corn laws
compensated this ine-
quality'. hitherto, let it be forgotten that
the Corn-laws . are about tot
be relaxed for the
benefit, of all classes, but the ayricultural class, and
the case of fundholders does not indeed stand upon the
same footing, but they have. a power which we fear
TTlliaitridollira,lthere is
must help, them in the place of justice.
the national honour, forsooth l—yes, the
supporting the
honour
is endangered !' by an arrangement for
public service by equal instead of supporting it by un-
equal 7lnxation ; and to complete the impudent
absurdity of the pretext ; the complaint of injury to the
national honour is raised by those who have asserted the
national honour by six successive years of declased in.
solvenckby six years of furtive and unauthorised loans.
Who have pursued this shuffling case concurrently with
gross neglect of the proprietors of the means by which a
nation is to be defended—precious guiudians of national
i.).honour in peace and in war.
f COTJRI
nation must keep a sharp lookouts,
or it will get neither fiscal reform nor revenue from pro-
s perty. Bit 'by bit the financial scheme of Sir Robert
s
is nibbled at • here, and a piece pecked at there, so
that unless the framer tent his own fabric

Ave 11, there will not be a rag left out of
wl dch to make a bank note, or dust out the cob-
ebs from an empty Treasury. Igni.s fatuus like,
t ie splendid creations of Ministerial wisdom, which on
- 3 ieir first appearance were hailed on all sides, Whig,
".fory, and Radical, with rapturous and resounding plau-
(fits ras the twin stars of England's salvation, are now
.lanced about in will-o'-wisp fashion through Conserva-
tiff, highways and byeways, through Whig and Radical
beg and morass, until at last it may be feared the
tful corruscations, ever diminishing distance ren-
dered more dimly taint, will disappear altogether,
swamped in some Whig-Radical quagmire, or engulphed
in the slough of despond. Excepting ourselves of the
Courier, our contemporary of the Post is alone among
the faithful Conservative few of the press who stand by
their colours, true to the pilot lashed to the helm of the
gallant ship which the Whigs left desperately flo.mdering
on a lee shore.