The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-17 00:00:00

tant topic,—all the more so, because, before a brief
fortnight has elapsed, the door of the county regis-
tration court will be shut against forty-shilling free-
holders. Those, therefore, who mean to qualify for
any of the counties, by purchasing a property which
will produce them forty shillings per annum, must
carry their intentions into effect without delay. As
the great metropolitan county is one of the places
which the free-traders feel confident of being able,
with ordinary exertions, to wrest from the grasp of
the monopolists, and as our paper circulates to a very
largo extent in that county, we wish to make one or
two observations on the subject of a forty-shilling
franchise, with the view of enforcing the exhortations
of the League to qualify without delay. Our
readers need not be told that a free-trade triumph in
Middlesex would be of inestimable service to the
anti-monopoly cause. There is a moral influence
connected with the metropolitan county, the great-
ness of which it would be impossible to overrate.
At present, Middlesex is represented by a rank mono-
list, and by an advocate of a fixed duty. The vene-
rable father of the House of Commons, who identifies
himself with the corn-law views of Lord John Rus-
sell, might probably be induced, did he see a
majority of the constituency avowedly favourable to
total and immediate corn-law repeal, to desert the
ranks of the Whig leader, and enlist under the
banners of Messrs. Cobden and Bright. We hope
he would; for having, for more than half a century,
been the consistent and uncompromising representa-
tive of popular principles and popular interests in the
House of Commons, it would cause us a pang were
we now compelled to part with him. The national
wish must be to see Mr. Byng die in harness. We
should like to see him close his life as the Member
for Middlesex. And we doubt not he will die as
he has lived—the friend of the people, and the repre-
sentative of the great metropolitan county. Of his
Tory colleague we must speak in very different
terms. There are no hallowed associations con-
nected with his name. He ought never to have been
the Member for Middlesex. His election was ore
of the most lamentable occurrences which has been
witnessed for many years. The poet Campbell tells
us that " Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell."
Liberalism, if it did not weep, ought to have done so,
when Mr. Wood, or Tom Wood, as he is familiarly
called, was chosen Member for so important a county
as Middlesex. His presence in Parliament, as the
representative of that county, is one of those things
for which the friends of popular principles have cause
to blush. An opportunity is now afforded of getting
rid of him. If the free traders who possess the means
will only, without the loss of a day—for, literally, a
day is not now to be lost—purchase some little cot-
tage, valued at forty shillings per annum, there will
be an overpowering majority of free traders at the
next election for Middlesex. We need not, in that
case, name the result—the legislative services of
friend " Tom" will be dispensed with.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
PEON THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—Attention has been re-called to the Otaheite
affair by the publication of the official correspon-
dence between the Charge d'Affaires of France, M.
de Jame, and the French Cabinet, on that ,ques-
tion. The disclosures there made are so curiAts that
we return to the subject. Some little is said about
Morocco, but the Otaheite affair forms the staple, its
indeed, it was the most critical, point in the relations
between the two countries. The style of M. de Jarnac's
dispatches is clear and intelligible, and with far less of
ambiguity than belongs generally to displowatic corn -
!nucleations. It exhibits clearly his sentiments as to
the great danger of the interruption of friendly relatione
between the two countries. In plain terms, M. de
Jarnac thought the risk of war was imminent in August,
1844, fully bearing out the extreme suppositions of the
contemporary press of that period. His expres-
sions are explicit enough. He " hopes the counsels
of
wisdom and moderation may prevail," implying that
he fears greatly they will not : he speaks of " self-love
so fatally engaged on both sides," of " lively Inquie-
tude and sinister presentiments," " rupture on the
point of taking place," " feeling that a struggle was
inevitable for England;" and many other phrases of a
similarly unequivocal character. So, then, we were, in
the estimation of the diplomatist who conducted the
affairs of France in this country, extremely near a de-
claration of war during the last year. Several re-
flections arise out of this assumed fact. Under
the theory and practice of protectorates, as ex-
pounded by. M. Guizot in his dispatch of August
29, authorising the expulsion of any individual at the
virtual discretion of the authorities, and considering the
ardour of French naval officers and employes for advanc-
ing the national honour after their own fashion, a similar
case may probably occur again. And in such an event
we cannot but think that a very awkward precedent
has been established by the Government—that, we
meal ; of waiving admitted claims without ob-
taining an equivalent. Our Cabinet seems to have
acted in the right direction, but to have arrived
at it by course injudicious in itself, and likely
to cause future embarrassments. The end and object of
its policy was the unexceptionable one of peace ; but,
after a long silence on the part of France, Lord
Aberdeen caught at the most distant approach to
concession on the part of M. Guizot, although quali-
fisi by so much objectionable matter respecting the
protectorate of the Society Islands. Let not our mean-
ing be for a moment mistaken ; none but the most
rash and criminal policy would have risked a war with
France on any grounds but those of absolute necessity.
But we should have liked more dignity and reticence on
the part of our Cabinet. The concession was the mini-
mum possible. There was no abandonment of the elastic
theory of protectorates shown in practice to be absolute
sovereignty ; on the contrar), the right of removing
any individual " who may trouble established order,"
was triumphantly maintained in M. Guizot's latest dis-
patch. The description of benefits and blessings
of the French rule in the Pacific, stands in painful
conti adiction with every narrative, official or other-
wise, of what has taken place in the Society Islands.
Yet on the bare intimation of a disapproval of the mode
and plan of Mr. Pritchard's imprisonment, and the pro-
clamation of the 3d of March, backed by a hint at a
pecuniary indemnity to that gentlemat:, Lord Aber-
deen hastens to proclaim the acquiescence of' this
country in the proposals of France, rendering it im-
possible " that incidents of this nature, if treated in a
spirit of justice and moderation, can result in other
than an amicable issue." It is, no doubt, safer to err on
the side of placable contentment than that of irritable
jealousy, in our relations with foreign Powers. Yet it
may well be asked, is there no medium ? Cannot a
statesman, without captiously objecting to all offered
terms of concession, avoid acquiescing in such as
are ludicrously disproportioned to the cause of
complaint ? Is, in short, no juste milieu attainable
between a policy marked by rashness and one charac-
terised by timidity ? Our Ministers seem to have
chosen the latter, and it is, as we said before, because
we firmly believe that abandonment of national dignity
leads less sorely to the maintenance of pacific relations
with foreign Powers in the long run, than its due
and moderate exercise, that we object to the tone
taken by our Cabinet in its communications with
that ;of France relative to Otaheite. There seems,
indeed, little reason to envy the French their forci-
ble occupation of that island, which, to be main-
tained at all, must be so by continual exertions of
an armed force. Assuredly, neither commercial power
or military renown are to be reaped in the distant field
of Oceania by such course as Messrs. Bruat and
D'Auhigny are disposed to take; but from England
something more might well have been expected, both in
vindication of the national honour, insulted in the per-
son of its functionary, and in behalf of that oppressed
nation who have received the rudiments of Christian
civilization at our hands.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS

CITY WEDNESDAY EVENING,

CHRONICLE.—The second notification from the
Railway Department, of the Board of Trade, which ap-
peered in the Gazette 'of last night, disposes of seventeen
proposed schemes of railway in the southern district and
vicinity of the metropolis. The first division consists of
four lines ; and the second, or metropolitan division,
contains thirteen lines. As respects the first, the Board
has decided on reporting to Parliament in favour of one
only, namely, the Guildford, Chichester, Portsmouth,
and Fareham Branch, being an extension of the South-
Western line from Guildford to Chichester. The pro-
' posed direct line from London to Portsmouth is rejected
by the Board of Trade, as well as the proposed line to
Portsmouth, with branches to Shoreham-bridge, Fare-
, ham, and Reigate, and the proposed branch extension,
' by the Brighton Company, from Chichester to Ports-
mouth, now to form part of the south-western branch
from Guildford. Of the second, or metropolitan district,
the Beard has decided to report to Parliament in favour
of three lines only ; namely—l. The extension of the
South-Western from its present terminus at Nine Elms'
to a more centrical and convenient position •, 2. The
RiChmond and West-end Junction ; and 3. The pro-
posed line from Richmond to Staines.
The Epsom and Dorking, one of the numerous irons in
the fire which the Croydon Company has in hand—the
London and Croydon Dorking Branch, belonging to the
same family—the London and Brighton Dorking Branch
—snd the South-Eastern Dorking and Reigate Branch,
are recommendend to be postponed until a future period.
The Board has decided on reporting against the
Grosvenor Railway; the Great Western, Uxbridge, and
Staines Junction; London and Brighton and Wands-
worth Branch; Landon and South-Western Epsom
Branch; Metropolitan Central Junction; and the South
London and Windsor. Four lines, then, out of seven-
teen, only are to be favourably reported on to Parlia-
ment; four others are postponed; and nine are thrown
overboard by the Railway Department of the Board of
Trade.
The result is in favour of the South-Western line ;
protective of the interests of that Company, nearly as
much as the previous notification was in favour o the
interests of the Great Western line. The pr motors of
' rejected lines will prove a formidable and numerous
body to all appearances. It is not to be expected that
they will submit without further effort to the opinions of
the Board of Trade, or at least it is not likely that
many, if any, of the Provisional Committees will rebut
their eforts until they have an opportunity of perusing
the report to be presented to Parliament, which, no
doubt,
will explain the principles on which the notifica-
tions have been made, and the reasons which Actuated
the members of the Board in forming their decisions,
The labours of the Select Committees on Railway
Bills in the House of Commons must, in that view of the
question, be of a very arduous and extensive character.
What effect the previous opinions of the Board of Trade
t may produce upon their proceedings it is difficult to say,