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

Queen and Rcy

Legislative bodies
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ditto Grace and Justice
Ditto Home Department
T)itto War, including the new Guardia Civil 323,419,845
Ditto Marine and Colonies
Ditto Finance 362,558,540
Sinking Fund Board
Clergy and Public Worship

1,205,522,08
The above estimates, supposing the new taxes can be
levied, show an excess of revenue of 45 millions of reals.
Senor Mon also presented the following project of law:—
" Art. 1. The expenses of the State for the year 1845,
are fixed at 1,205,522,688 reals.
" Art. 2. The Government is authorised to proceed to
the arrangement of the national debt, both foreign and
domestic, and to satisfy, according to that arrangement,
thy' interest of that not comprehended in the estimates of
expenditure for 1845, with the excess of public revenues
and contributions, and with a prudent increase of the
same. An account to be given in due time to the Cortes
of the use made of this authority,
Art. 3. The right of cesantea and jubilace on,' i.e.,
retirement from office on a pension, is only to be con-
ceded to those who serve by royal appointment, and
whose salaries are equal to or exceed the sum of 16,000
reals per annum. This disposition is not to have retro-
active effect, all rights acquired previous to this law being
iiereby recognised."
The above projects were sent to the Committee of the
Sections to report upon. They wore received in silence,
there being no marks either of approbation or disappro-
bation from the Chamber.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
PROS THE EVENING PAMIRS OF YESTERDAY.
GLO BE.—Attention has been re-called to the Otaheite
affair by the publication of the official correspon-
dence between the Marge d'Affaires of France, M.
de Jarnac, and the French Cabinet, on that Aues-
lion. The disclosures there made are so curious that
we return to the subject. Some little is said about
llorocco, but the Otaheite affair forms the staple, us
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 displomatic com-
munications. It exhibits clearly his sentiments as to
the great danger of the interruption of friendly relations
between the two countries. In plain terms, M. de
sTarnac 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-
poanded by. M. Guizot in his dispatch of August
29, authorising the expulsion of any individual at the
✓irtual 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
mesa ; 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-
fied by so much objectionable matter respecting the
protectorate of the Society Islands. Let not our mean-
_ ang 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 contrary, 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
contradiction with every narrative, official or other-
vise, 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 indensnity to that gentlemac, Lord Aber-
deen hastens tcp ?claim the acquiescence of this
~, country in the , pro o,sals of France, rendering it im-
I,
,ai ...sible " that inc. Wta of this nature, if treated in a
,!•irlt of justice :la moderation, can result in other
5,..: 5,.._% ran amicable issue." It is, no doubt, safer to err on
''''lltli'sids of placable contentment than that of irritable
.jealousy, in our relations with foreign Powers. Yet it
'ay well be asked, is there no medium ? Cannot a
statesman, without captiously objecting to all otThred
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
sad moderate exercise, that we object to the tone
Laken 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
tor military renown are to be reaped in the distant field
(Ii Oceania by such course as Messrs. Brunt and
D'Aubigey 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-
awn of its functionary, and in behalf of that oppressed
:nation who have received the rudiments of Christian
ocivilization at our hands.

The Plymouth and Dartmoor Gunpowder Col-fl-
yway, who obtained a license at the Michaelmas
,Quarter Sessions fbr the erection of a set of mills
land a magazine on the Cherrybrook estate, in
the parish of Lidford, applied at the late sessions
for a new license, to authorise the erection of
the mills, on a site contiguous to that originally
chosen, but more advantageous as regards the amount of
water power to be obtained, and equally unexceptionable
in point of public safety. The court granted the license.—
Pevoripor t Telegraph.