The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1840-02-25 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

TWO MILLIONS OF. DOLLARS. Of which very little was insured. Another fire also broke out in Pearl-street on the evening of the same day. The loss from this catastrophe is estimated at .150,000 dollars. There must be something egregiously Wrong in the fire police system at New 'York, There is no news Of any importance limn Canada. By an arrival from Rio de Janeiro, news had been received that two French bomb vessels had reached that place at the end of November, and that from two to three thousand troops were daily expected.  The villanously ungrateful conduct of the respective governments of Spain and Portugal towards those unfortunate British subjects 'xvlio have been instrumental, more or less, in the overthrow of Don Carlos, in:tilie' one, and Don Miguel, in the other, of these distracted countries, is such as must excite the indigination of every man who has the least spark of feeling, or the least degree of respect for honesty of principle. The case of those British subjects who entered the service of Don Pedro is, if possible, even worse than those who were inveigled into theservice of Queen Christina. We rejoice to find that,l,'OM Sandon called the attention of the House of`Commons to the condition of those poor men who are still claimants on the Government of Portugal. His Lordship's speech, on introducing thissiibject, will be found in another column. He -said that the men who had been induced,hy the policy of this country, to enter into the service of I)on Pedro, in 1832, had afterwards been called upon by the Portuguese Government to abandon the conditions upon which they had entered the service, and to accept others in their stead. That, however,. they had refused; and in consequence of that refusal they have been subjected to the most gross and brutal indignities. They have been put into dungeons, deprived.pf every means of= subsistence, and almost reduced to a state of nudity. This is the sort of return with which they have met for contributing to place the present Queen of Portugal upon the throne. This is a characteristic specimen of liberal " honesty and gratitude. These men, who had, in many cases, shed their blood, and, in all cases, risked their lives, on behalf of Don Pedro and his daughter, have been refused every farthing of *their pay from 1833 to 1835—not Ilcause the means to Pay were not in the hands of the Government, but 'because they refused to submit to fraudulent impositions of the most scandalous description. It is true that Commission after Commission had been apPointed, 'for the alldged purpose of inquiring, into these claims: but the real objects of each 'of these Commissions were, undoubtedly, delay and chicanery. From 1835 to the present time nothing has been done towards satisfying the just claims of these unfortunate individuals. They have been compelled to wander about the streets of Lisbon in the most destitute and miserable condition. Their appeals even for temporary relief from the government have been treated with contempt. Many of them, goaded on by despair, have committed suicide. The representations of the British Government on the subject of these claims, have throughout been contemptuously disregarded. This is not to he wondered at. England, under the present Adtninistration, is uniformly treated in the same manner, not only by Portugal, but by every other petty government in the world. As was very properly remarked by Lord Sandon, " we hear nothing of French claims, or Belgian claims, or American claimS." The claims of other countries readily obtain satisfaction, while those of Great Britain are contumeliously postponed or refused. This is one of the blessed results of Whig ascendancy.  The " tyranny" of the liberals only matched by  their consummate impudence. Never were these odious qualities more completely or unitedly developed than in the instance of the Middlesex county meeting of freeholders, to petition ,for the liberation of Mr. Sheriff Evans, which was held on Friday last, at the Freemasons' Hall, in London. That meeting was convened by Mr. Sheriff Wheelton, in compliance with a requisition, most numerously signed by the magistrates, freeholders and electors of the county. The object of the meeting was most distinctly and emphatically stated in the advertisement by which the meeting was convened. That object was declared to be, the  liberation of the Sheriff now in custody, under the charge of the Serjeant-at-Arms, at the instance of the House of Commons. To attain that object it Naas proposed. that the meeting should proceed by an address to the Crown, or otherwise,.as might be deemed most advisable. It is necessary to make this explanation in order that the character of the extraordinary scene which we shall presently describe may be the better understood. The meeting was convened for a specific purpose, which purpose was clearly defined and well understood. It -was, therefore, a matter of Some surprise to find that, before the appointed hour for the meeting, Mr. Hume, Mr.,O'Connell, Mr. Warburton, Mr. Wakley, Mr. Tuffnell, Mr. `rigors, and Mr. Pryme, all members of Parliament, backed by a horde of Precursors, had taken possession of the room. There could have been no objection to the presence of these gentlemen as mere listeners at the meeting : but it certainly appears to be the very height of impudence that they should take an active part in the proceedings. Such, however, appeared to be their determination. One of the most prominent topics to be brought before the meeting was the conduct of the House of Cornmons,Or rather of the " tyrant majority," in reference to the Sheriffs of Middlesex. The House of Commons was, in fact, to be put upon its trial, before the bar of public opinion. Where, then, was the decency or the delicacy of those members of the Commons who thus obtruded themselves upon the meeting ? But why ask such a question ? No rational man would ever expect either decency or delicacy from such coarse and vulgar  buffoons as O'Connell, ITutne, Wakley, and others of the same kidney.  111011 S :--