The Sun. — London, England, 1829-11-21 00:00:00

flatted than the tenantry of the absentee. This would be no evil, if the landlord got no more than his share ; but it is everything where lie gets all above the mere subsistence of the human animals on his estate. As it is, the resident at present is but an absentee in disguise, and it is that fact which makes the question of absentee ship assume so fearful an aspect. The same phe nomena occur in Poland, and wherever agriculture is the sole employment of the people, and the land is in the possession of an Aristocracy." A very ingenious book was published at Edinburgh, in 1814, by the Father of Scotch Agriculture. Mr. Dawson, then an old man, under the title of " An Inquiry into the Causes of the general Poverty and Dependence of Mankind," in which he shows that the tendency of a law: of primo geniture is to reduce the body of a nation to the condition of slaves. " When the whole land of a country," he observes, " is the private pro perty of a few individuals, those who have no land must, to obtain food, serve those who have the food to spare, or they must obtain land from those who have it to spare, for raising food them selves, by giving the owners a share of the pro duce, or labour, or attendance. And where there are no common protectors appointed by the community, with sufficient power to defend the weak from oppression, even those who have some land, but not sufficient power to protect their property, must also attach themselves to some more powerful neighbour who can protect them. The estates of the weak will, in such a state of society, decrease in size from poverty and op pression ; whereas those of the powerful, par ticularly if the law of primogeniture is the law of succession, will be increased in various ways, and the power of the owners must increase in propor tion. . . . . In a populous country, where the people live in a simple state, and can, not better their condition by emigration, it is evident that as they increase in number, land and food must become more scarce, and those who have no land must, in the character of me tayers or as tenants, give a greater part of the produce for liberty to occupy land ; or, in that of labourers, a greater part of their .time for food. They will he obliged to submit, as their numbers increase, to harder conditions of various kinds, for food, or for liberty to occupy land. And when a country becomes very populous, and food very scarce, so many labourers are seeking employment, that the competition reduces the wages of labour so low that the weak and infirm are not able to earn even necessaries. _ _ are not only ruinous to labourers, hidiminish ing the quantity of subsistence and the demand for 'labourers, but they have also a powerful tendency to make them slaves. For as a proprietor can turn out any person who may occupy a part of his estate without a lease, if it is very extensive and lying contiguous (like the estates of the Barons formerly in Britain, and at present in Poland and Russia), he can by that means banish such person from his native place ; nor can the friends or relations of the banished per son give him a house or shelter, but at the risk of being banished themselves. Nor will neigh bouring landlords lessen the power of their order by allowing such persons an asylum upon their estates. In such situations, therefore, the best laws can have little effect in protecting the people fiom the tyranny of great proprietors of land, and of their stewards and favourites, as the people must expect to be banished if they apply to a Court of .Justice for redress. But where laud is much divided, if a person is turned out of possession of land or employment by one pro prietor, he may get a possession or employment from another in the same neighbourhood ; so that no individual has it in his power to banish an individual from his friends and neighbours, or can commit rapes, murders, or any other atrocious crime with impunity, such as have been, and are too frequently committed on very extensive estates, where the people depend entirely upon the owners of the land for employment and a residence. The more that the land is divided among the proprietors in a simple state of society, the better it is cultivated, the greater is the demand for labourers, and the proprietors have less power over the occupiers. Hence the miserable slavish situation of the people, and the absolute power cf the great owners of land in Britain in former apes, and in Poland and other nations of Eu rope at present, and the comparatively indepen dent titnation of the poorest people in the an cient Roman Republic." The Roman Catholic Church, by jut ieceiving the younger sons and slaughters of the 4ristocracy, enabled the pro prietors of great estates to keep them unbroken, and thus greatly retarded the progress of civili zation in Europe, in those countries in which primogeniture was the order of succession. In Ireland, where the Protestant Church has less ample means of maintaining younger children (not extinguishing them by celibacy), the estates must have been more cut up, but for the con nection with England. 1. he servility of the Aristoctacy has enabled them to quarter their children on the public, and thus to perpetuate the monstrous state of things with regard to property, and thus the English connection has been unfortunate to Ireland in perpetuating the iristocraey, as well as in furnishing that Aris tocracy with the means of keeping down the servile population. When there is an overgrown Aristocracy, and a large servile population com peting for land as a subsistence, and giving all to the landlord, all that is raised will be exported for luxuries to the landlord ; and it is true, as Sir Charles Morgan observes, that count s 42s like Ireland or Poland, may go on for ever in a vicious circle, without improving. Whether the Aristocrat live in Ireland or out of it, is of little consequence to the country. • The dia. culty is to destroy an Aristocracy, which, where ever it prevails, seems to render all itupeowereent impossible.—Morning Chronicle. The mystery which still hangs over the fate of the late Mrs. Phillips, for want of some known and responsible power to undertake or compel a thorough and searching inquiry into the. circum stances of this extraordinary case, induces Ls once more to remark upon the inconveniences , which result from there being in reality no such appointment as that of public prosecutor. We showed the other day how widely different the duties of the Attorney-General, as at present understood, are from those which an officer appointed to inquire into and prosecute crimes not coming within the range of State offences, or violations of the laws affecting the revenues of the Crown, would necessarily have to per form. The fiction that makes the King the nominal prosecutor in all penal cases, and gives to the Attorney-General, as the King's immedi ate law officer, an imaginary superintendence over the whole scheme of criminal justice, is ornamental enough to our system, but not of much actual utility. Another constitutional principle, not in exact conformity with this, has made the King the fountain of mercy ; and thus the. same authority is invested with the opposite prerogatives—to prosecute and to pardon. Of these two attributes of Majesty, the one severe, the other amiable—the latter mil ) . practically exercised, except in cases of high treason, where the Attorney-General superintends the initiatory proceedings; and is instrumental to laying the bill of indictment before the Grand Jury ; or in offences touching the Revenue Laws, or sediti ous and flagrant misdemeanours, where he has the power to put the offender on his trial with out the intervention of a Grand Jury, by filing ex-oSicio informations. All capital crimes, in the punishment of which the pub lic, as contradistinguished from the King and his Government, are interested, he leaves to any private or other prosecutors, who choose to undergo the trouble, expense, and vexation of bringing them under the cognizance of the law. In cases of murder, the parish officers are gene rally the prosecutors, though there is no power to compel them to commence proceedings.— When the King loses a subject by wilful vio lence of any sort, and the Coroner's Jury return a verdict of murder or manslaughter against any person, the Coroner issues his warrant to ap prehend that person. When the person is ap prehended, he is taken before the Magistrates, who, if they think the evidence strong enough to justify a committal, bind over the witnesses to give evidence at the trial. In a case like that of the death of Mrs. Phillips, there is no verdict of a Coroner's Jury inculpating any person.— The parish are not compellable by law to insti tute any proceedings, neither are the relations of the unfortunate lady, nor the executors to her will. There is, indeed, a moral responsibility, which attaches in a greater or less degree to all of those parties, and ought to make them ashamed of allowing the matter to rest where it does at present ; but a moral responsibility, not enforced by a legal penalty, is often, as in the present case, of no weight at all. The parish of Finchley, nut being quite so public-spirited as the parish of Polstead, that investigated the case of Maria Marten, and rested not until they brought her murderer to justice, may allow a silence as deep as the silence of the grave to cover this fatal occurrence, without being liable to any earthly tribunal for dereliction of duty. So it is with the relations and the executors : there is no motive why they should take pro ceedings to satisfy the public mind whether the yet unexplained death was the result of accident or design, except the claims of affection—the ties of kindred—the sense of moral duty—the voice of nature ; and such inducements are un happily sometimes weaker obligations on the human mind than the dread of personal inconve nience, or the apprehension of pecuniary loss. Yet it is upon the option of persons so cir cumstanced—so liable to he governed by influ ences and feelings which countervail a sense of duty, that the first movement of the process of criminal justice in this country mainly depends. It is as useless to talk of the perversion of the office of Attorney-General from what it was in its original institution, as to talk of the perversion of the office of Justice of the Peace ; a species of Magistrate whom the Constitution originally never intended to possess a judicial power; and who now adjudicates upon offences in a variety of instances without the intervention of a Jury. Our idea of a public prosecutor comprises the duties of an officer who would take up the case where the private prosecutor now takes it up ; who would inquire, collect, and arrange proofs, and -set in motion the machinery of criminal law. We also wish the power of committal in capital cases to be taken out of the hands of the ordinary Magistrates, and intrusted to the more intelligent and responsible authority of a duly qualified public prosecutor. When we first touched upon this subject, we were not aware of the existence of a treatise upon this subject by a Mr. Stephen, who speaks from professional experience of the serious inconveniences and frequent failure of justice which the present system, or rather want of system, occasions; and displays a great deal of practical knowledge and good sense in his mode of treating the question. The pamphlet of Mr. Stephen has been pub lished nearly a )ear, but did not happen to fall under our notice until it was forwarded to us since this discussion of a public prosecutor arose. This gentleman says, " It is almost incredible how much depends on the tale's!, activity, and honesty of the prosecutor, or rather of his pro fessional adviser, in the succsssful prosecution of criminal's in this country. It is left entirely to the prosecutor, or his agent, to procure the requisite evidence, and also to sift the degree of credit due to the witnesses themselves." Again— " Professional ignorance or inactivity, or a pro sccutor's poverty, may, in the very first stage of the proceeding, ensure the offender's impu nity—and still greater is the risk at that stage where the prisoner is tried, when an acquittal would immediately follow on a necessary link in the evidence being defective, or on its being ob. served that any essential witness was undeserving of credit, or incapable of giving evidence. But, if such may be the consequence of ignorance or poverty on the part of the prosecutor, still more certainly is it in the power of a dishonest soli citor to ensure the acquittal of the prisoner."— He then proceeds to show how a dishonest soli citor may defeat the ends of justice, as by the suppression of material evidence, by purposely liasons the indictment incorrectly prepared for the Clerk of the indictments by the introduction of legal or clerical inaccuracies. To remedy the evils which he describes, he proposes the ap pointment of a public prosecutor, and observes the duties of such an office cannot, for obvious reasons, be effectually and properly discharged by any indisidual filling the situation of his Ma jesty's Attorney-General ; but to prevent unne cessary innovation in point of theory or principle, the public prosecutor might be considered as the density of' the Attorney-General, exercising as his i substitute the office of criminal prosecutor, except hi the esse of Stale yrences, or ex-offcio informations:' Mr. ,9 t pp h en does not propose, as we did, that the public prosecutor should have the power of committing, but recommends a division of the duties of Justices of Peace, so as to cristitute two classes—namely, judicial Magistrates, 4n4 Magistrates of inquiry,—the former exercising the power of adjudicating on such offences as fall within a surc,rsiary jurisdic tion, while the duty of the latter would be to take tha examinations of prisoners, and discharge, I co mmit, or hold to bail, as the case might be, and as the evidence warranted. This arrangement would, in our opinion, very much simplify and lighten the duties of Magistrates, and thereby I enable them to discharge their office with more satisfaction to themselves and the public, than while they are called upon to exercise functions complicated and inconsistent. The preparations 1 of criminal cases for trial is the task which Mr. Stephen considers the peculiar duty of the public prosecutor, and for that purpose he suggests that such officer, or a- competent deputy, ought to sit as an assessor of the Magistrates of Inquiry, to collect such evidence as, at the first discovery of a crime, appears essential to discover and convict the criminal, to prepare bills of indictment, to arrange the evidence to sustain such bills, to pro duce such evidence before the Grand Jury, to prepare the requisite instructions for Counsel, to furnish the Judge with the depositions of the witnesses, and, lastly, to tax the costs Of the witnesses, and make the necessary arrangements with the Treasurer of the County for their pay ment. However we may differ from the author of this plan, with respect to some of the details of the measure, we fully concur with him in the i necessity of adopting its principle. It s clear that the Attorney-General, though nominally presiding over the criminal justice of the realm, is not a public prosecutor, and it is as clear that so important an office ought, as we have before stated, be lodged with an intelligent and respon. sible person, and not left to be exercised or ne glected according to the ignorance, malice, timi dity, or caprice of private individuals. We re peat it, that, if such an appointment were in ex istence at the present time, the public mind would not be left to this moment in dark and fearful uncertaintyas to the cause of the untimely death of Mrs. Phillips, which, whether it was the result of calamity or crime, reflects great dis grace upon the justice of this moral and intelli gent nation.--Morning Herald. A pamphlet has just been published by Ef fingham Wilson, entitled " A Review of the Arguments and Allegations which have been offered to Parliament against the renewal of the East India Company's Charter," which is likely to excite no small sensation among those who take an interest in the important question to which it refers. Who the author of the pam phlet may be comes not within our sphere of knowledge; but however we may differ from him in some of his conclusions, it is but justice to observe that he has handled his subject with great tact, and no inconsiderable portion of talent. The object of the pamphlet is to de fend the East India Company against the asper sions which have been directed against it by certain ill-advised and ill-informed persons, to prove that its monopoly has been any thing but detrimental to the national welfare, and that those who anticipate a great vent for our manu factures, or a greatly diminished price of the articles imported from India to China by the Company, on the trade being thrown open, are likely to deceive themselves to their loss. With regard to general invectives against the Com pany, the writer might well have spared himself the trouble of replying to them. With the ex ception of their last resolution to cut down the pay of their military force, there is no govern ing body in any part of the world, whose general conduct would bear a more close and severe investigation, whether in regard to its servants or its 'subjects. That it has always acted wisely, would be to predicate more of it than could be averred of the wisest individual who at any time has ever illumined our planet ; but that it has, in almost every case, taken justice for its guide, we may safely appeal not only to those who have served it, but to the millions who live under its sway, and are happy under its govern ment. In the same manner, also, the writer might have spared himself the trouble of endea vouring to convince us that great and almost universal ruin would be the portion of those speculators who, on the opening of the trade to China, should anticipate enormous profits from their adventures. The rational portion of the public cannot, we think, but be aware that for a year or two, perhaps even for a greater length of time, the same fate would befal them which they unluckily experienced some years ago in South America, and at a later period, in India; but such results, let us remark, are by no means pe culiar either to the contemplated and much-de sired trade with China, or any other,country, but, on the contrary, common to all countries with which it is hoped to carry on a gainful traffic. Every one is eager to grasp the golden prize, and in the common haste to appropriate it, it invariably eludes their grasp. But to come to what is more properly, as it ought to be, the subject of the pamphlet in question, the degree in which the East India trade throve under the Company's management, the degree in which it has thriven since it was thrown open, and the state of the trade with China, both as regards the commercial transactions of the Company it self, and of the United States, and other nations trading with China. If the results at which the author arrives, and the data on which they are founded, be in every respect correct, assuredly the country would gain nothing either by the throwing open of the trade to China, or the wresting of the Goverment of India out of the hands of the Company. We fully epee with the writer on the latter point ; but with regard to the trade with China (why should not the truth be spoken ?) all tile conclusions at which we had previously arrived, with the exception of those which rest on general principles, have ap parently been so overthrown by the returns ex hibited by the author, that we must beg for fur ther space to consider the subject, and in the meantime to suspend our opinion until we have had time to examine his statements satisfacto rily. That there are some sad glossings in the author's arguments we have already discovered, but they are not sufficient, we own, to affect ma terially the general result, and it would, in such case, be injustice, both to the author and to our readers, were we, in contradiction to the facts and statements which he has adduced, to adhere to conclusions which the latter would appear to demolish. The most curious, as well as the most important, parts of the pamphlet are those which refer to the trade of the Company, and of the United States, with India and China, and the prices of tea as imported by them re spectively. We extract the documents and ob servations respecting the first point ; and must defer those which relate to the other for another day. The following is an abstract statement of, the amount of exports from British India by American ships, from the year 1815-16 to the year 1826-27 : Years. 1 Bengal. Bombay. Madras. Holland Dollars. 230,137 235,471 337,a11 209,252 80,164 216,336 Dollars. 39,566 123,159 325,410 126,019 41,236 117,054 f• Gibraltar Hansa Towns and Ports of Germany France on the Atlantic Brazil All other places Total 1,309,694 772,443 Calling to mind the exaggerated statements of the petitioners, as to this part of the question be tween themselves and the East India Company, let sober persons look, first, at the vast amount of this trade in tea, from which the British mer• chant is so shamefully excluded ; and secondly, at the state of it. If the trade was a profitable one, if there really existed a demand for tea on the European continent, is it to be imagined that the supply would be what it is, and that it would not increase in the sole hands of the Americans, in a prodigious degree, considering the flatness of the markets in respect to all articles where there is competition.—lbid. M Oriental Commerce, vol. ii. p. 486. t The official account states only 17,051 dollars, which is evidently Wrong. A Huddersfield correspondent writes thus I am sorry to inform you that stealing in all its branches appears to be getting preva'ent in this neighbourbood."— YorA Chronic? 1815-16 1816_17 1817-18 1818-19 1819-Al 1820-21 2 4 182-28 1823-24 1821-25 18 5-26 18'26-27 Few persons will have the assurance to con tend from these data that the American trade with India is increasing ; yet why it should not increase in even a greater ratio than our own, is a question which seems to be soluble only by considering the augmentation of the latter as merely fictitious, the result of speculation run mad. We are borne out in this conclusion by the authority of Mr. Prmsep, who says,* 14 that External Commerce and Exebaoges of Bengal, p. 31: S. R. 44,21,435 59,98,251 48,91,053 70,26,531 45,87,438 19,25,079 33,53,916 30,63,019 12,25,000 2'2,89,719 20,10,78.5 6,61,318 Arc. Rs. 31,425 2,43,299 1,30,156 1,80,805 44,945 1,10,036 2,92,916 6,07,915 27,503 20,246 1,22,917 9,316 Born. Rs. 2,73,519 11,80,987 16,53,719 4,25,945 8,798 73,409 the Americans pushed their India trade for a while, more especially in 1818-19, beyond its natural bounds and they have had the wisdom to curtail it. He adds—" they brought into this market (Bengal) a portion of those exces sive supplies of British manufactured goods, which inundated their own markets immediately after the restoration of peace, and thus contri buted to injure the sale of those directly im ported." It may, perhaps, be concluded that, as their India trade decreased, their China trade improved. Unfortunately for our theorists, this is not the fact. The following is a statement of their trade with China from 1818.19 to 1826-27 : Imports into China. Years. Merchandise.' Bullion 1818-19 1819-20 1820-21 1821-22 1822-23 1823-24 1824-25 1825-26 1826-27 Drs. Dr. Drs. 2,603,151 7,414,000 10,017,151 1,861,961 6,2117,000 8,158,961 not stated 3,074,741 2,046,558 2,217,126 2,137,515 2,050,g31 2,002,549 9,041,755 8,182,015 5,125,000 8,199,741 6,292,840 8,339,398 4,096,000 6,313,126 6,524,500 8,962,045 5,705,200 7,756,031 1,841,168 3,843,717 7,058,741 7,523,492 5,677,149 8,5(11,121 8,752,562 4,363,788 What our petitioners would say to this state 'mein we are curious to know. According to their representations, the effect of excluding the British merchant from the trade with China has been to throw that highly profitable commerce entirely into the hand of the Americans. It would appear then, that, with a magnanimous degree of self-denial, they have not merely re frained from seizing upon the proffered advan tage, but have voluntarily reduced the amount of their trade with China from ten millions and a half of dollars, its extent so early as 1805-6, to little more than eight millions ! The ac count from which this statement is taken is sup plied by the East India Company ; its accuracy may, therefore, probably be disputed. Let us take, then, another account, furnished by the authorities in the United States to the British Consul General at Washington, of the number of vessels belonging to the United States which cleared out from their ports for ports beyond the Cape of Good Hope in each year since 1813. Years. Ships. Tons. Years. Ships. Tons. 1814 .. 5 1,995 1822 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 • From this official statement it appears that the average annual tonnage in the first four years (excluding 1814), was 33,664 tons ; in the en suing five years it sunk to 24,485 tons ; and in the next five years, to 19,661 tons, whilst in the last year, which, according to the hypothesis of our petitioners, ought to be the largest of this diminished average at least, the tonnage is only 14,112 tons, little more than one-third of what it was in 1817 ! Since 1821, it appears, from the same statement, several of the American States have given up the eastern trade altoge ther. Now, surely there is something supremely ridiculous, to say nothing harsher, in the allega tions of the petitioners, and in the assertions of those who support them in Parliament, that by our own ladies and false policy the Americans are aggrandizing their trade with India and China, when we find that trade to be diminish ing every year in so striking a degree, instead of increasing in a greater ratio than our own. But these petitioners have, with some tact and dex terity, selected one particular commodity, namely, tea. The Americans, they tell us, have now the exclusive supply, not of their own market only, but that of the whole European continent ; and we were prepared to find, in reality, that their tea trade, foreign and domestic, had greatly increas ed. The official papers afford us ample data upon this point ; and the result shows that, sus picious as we were of the allegations of these pe titioners, we have exercised too little distrust. It appears that, even upon this topic, they have reasoned not upon facts, to which they had pro. bably no access, but upon their own eager and erroneous presumptions. The following is a statement of, the quantity of tea exported from Canton by the English East India Company, and by the American traders respectively, from the year 1815-16 to the year 1826-27 : By the East India Company. ITo England. To British North America. 33,013,387 29,353,973 20,151,507 21,085,960 28,476,231 28,515,960 25,746,4 A) 27,478,813 29,761,C60 27,517,938 26,321,545 38,567,505 1815-16 1516.17 1817-18 1818-19 M 9-20 18'20-21 18•41-t'2 18•?2`l3 1 823- V 4 J 824-25 1825-6 182e-27 From hence it appears tin vilege of supplying the Euro abled the Americans—to dc their European carrying 2,731,0001b5. to 357,9661b5., our own export trade in tea, insignificant as it is, being bur thened with double freight, amounting, in 1826, to 279,0701b5. over and above the quantity sent to Ireland ! The total export of tea by the Americans from Canton is less at present than prior to the war : for it appears from Mr. Mil burn's work,* that in 1805-6 the quantity of tea exported by the Americans from Canton was 11,702,8001b5. It will, perhaps, be urged that their export trade in tea has taken a new chan nel, and that the indirect supply of Europe from America has augmented. The following is the value of all teas exported from the United States in 1826 and 1827, the only years given in the account, which emanates from the Board of Trade. it this exclusive prt )ean market has en what ?—to reduce trade in tea from Places. By the Americans. For Ameri can Con , sumption. For Fo reign Con- Eumption. lbs. 4,514,280 6,074,100 7,535,835 8,884,998 6,874,847 not stated 7,600,667 9,926,400 8,913,467 11,919,467 11,441,734 8,219,600 2,7;51,000 2,880,000 2,086,215 3,103,651 3,318,156 1,711,600 2,216,000 1,23,5,800 1,762,000 1,360,800 357,966 Exports. Total. 1,179,150 1,490,576 1,614,736 LAW INTELLIGENCE. ROLLS COURT, Nov. 20. COCKLE AND WRITING. This was a petition of the defendants in the cause, praying a reference to the Master, to inquire whether the •plaintiff's solicitors should not pay to the petitioners their taxed costs, amounting to 1211. Mr. KNIGHT stated, on the part of the peti tioners, that they were owners of the ship Elizabeth a South Sea whaler, of which the plaintiff, William Cockle, was mate. The vessel returned from a voyage in November, 1823, with a cargo of oil, to one-sixtieth share of which the plaintiff was entitled. In the course of the ensuing December a settlement took place between Messrs. Whiting and Cockle, when the balance found due to the latter was paid, he expressing himself perfectly satisfied upon that arid subsequent occasions. However, on the 14th of February, in the following year, a bill was .filed by the plaintiff, charging the defendants with fraud, arid praying that the settlement might not beheld binding, on the ground that the defendants sold one fourth of the oil previous to its arrival at 521. a tun, arid had only allowed the defendant for his share of the cargo at the rate of 421. a tun, the mar ket price at the time when the vessel came' into port. The suit proceeded until the 2J of July, 1829, when the Master of the Rolls gave judgment in favour of the defendants, dismissing the bill With costs. Petitioners had expended between 2501. and 3001. in defending the cause. Their costs were taxed as between party and party at 1214 Plaintiff having left England on a voyage to the South Sea, and not being likely to return for a considerable time, and it being also improbable that when he did return he would be able to pay those costs, peti tioners asked that Messrs. Howard and Jones, plain tiff's solicitors, might be directed to pay the amount, on the ground that the suit was, in reality, the suit of those individuals, who had instituted it for the purpose of saddling defendants with costs, or compelling them to pay a sum of money as the price of protection from litigation. The Learned Gentleman observed at considerable length on the fact, that the plaintiff in this cause could derive but little advantage from its result, even if successful, while the interests of the solicitors in the suit was very considerable. Mr. JACOB having followed on the same side, His HONOUR, without calling upon Mr. Bicker steth and Mr. Phillimore, who were of Counsel for Messrs. Howard and Jones, felt bound to reject the petition, and with costs. Mr. PHILLISIORE said, it was due to his clients to say, that the Vice-Chancellor did not refuse to en large publication on the ground that the solicitors were the real parties, but on account of the length of time which the cause had occupied. COBHAM AND COBHAM. This was a petition from an infant, praying that his allowance might be increased from 2001. to 3001. a year,—that he might be allowed to travel on the Continent for two years,—atsd that a travelling tutor might be appointed. The petitioner stated, that the infant was 19 years of age, and that he had been placed at Sandhurst College, but had no intention of leading a military life. It added, that he was equally averse to entering a University, and did not wish to qualify himself for any profession—(Laugh ter)--he simply wished to travel. His HONOUR said he could not give the infant permission to go abroad. Mr. PEMBERTON observed that Lord Eldon had allowed infants to travel, their guardians giving se curity to bring them back to this country before the expiration of their minority. M. SPENCE said the guardians would enter into such an undertaking, and The MASTER of the ROLLS granted the prayer of the pe:itio►► on that condition. VIOE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT, Nov. 20. FRY V. SIIERBORNE. The Court was occupied all day with this cause. The question at issue is the interpretation of a mar riage settlement, and the arguments were entirely of a legal nature. His Honour said he would give judgment after he had carefully read the settlement. COURT OF KING'S BENCH, Nov. 20. DOE, EX DEM. WIGGIN V. JONES. The argument in this case, which was supported with great ingenuity on one side by Mr. PRESTON, appeared to excite considerable interest at the bar; but a detail of it would not, we think, be interesting, and perhaps not intelligible, to the greater portion of our readers. We shall therefore content ourselves with a mere mention of it. The facts of the case appeared to be these :—ln 1822 a judgment was obtained against a person named Baker for a debt, in an action at the suit of a creditor of his. In 1826 Baker acquired, by pur chase, some freehold property, and in the deed of conveyance which was made to trustees to bar dower, was contained a power of appointment, tin der which, in 1827, Baker made a security to the lessor of the plaintiff, Wiggin, by way of mortgage for a term of years, Wiggin having advanced to him a sum of money. The question was, under these circumstances, whether Wiggin had a good title against the judgment creditor; or whether the judgment had been defeated by the exercise of the power of appointment on the part of Baker. Mr. PRESTON argued that it had been so defeated. In remarking upon the practice of searching for judgments in cases where parties were about to ad vance money on the security of freehold and other property, the Learned Counsel said that it %, as one of utter inutility, and by it parties were put to an enormous expence. While he (Mr. Preston) was Counsel for the Corporation of the city of London, he ascertained that their solicitor paid m ore i n f ees for searches for judgments than he (the Learned Counsel) had the honour of receiving from them for all the leases, conveyances, and other deeds which he had prepared on their part. It was generally considered that a search for judgments for ten years back was sufficient; but he had known of instances where judgments of 40 years' standing had been re vived against a party, and allowed to operate so as to defeat securities under circumstances of the greatest hardship. In the present case, however, the law was clear that the exercise of a power of appointment of this description overreached a jadg ment previously obtained. Mr. lticumoND was heard on the other side, and The CouRT, considering the question to be one of great importance, took time to consider of it. ADMIRALTY COURT, Nov: 20. THE NOORMAHUL.—SALVAGE. The vessel in this case was on its voyage from Manilla to London, with a cargo of sugar, cotton, and other eastern products, when, in the Athntic Ocean, she was run foul of in the night of the 12th of March last, by a large ship unknown, and sus tained damage. Soon after the accident, the Wan stead, a merchant vessel, bound from Van Dieman's Land to London, with a cargo of oil arid other goods, commanded by Lieutenant Langdon, R.N., hove in sight, and rendered her assistance, suppled stores, &c. At the request of Captain Hopkirk, master of the Noornzahul, the Wanstead remained in company, and towed the former vessel till they neared the Irish coast. For the services thus ren deredered the sum of 5001. had been offered, and refused by the salvers as insufficient. The evidence, which in these cases are generally contradictory, was in this case unusually conflicting. Besides the diametrical opposition of the state ments on material points, given by the witnesses on either side, some novelty appeared in th e circum stances of the carpenter of the Arbor nzahul (John son) swearing, in the very teeth of a report made by him, in conjunction w►th the carpenter of the iranstead at the time, as t o the state of the former vessel when the Wunstead came up; be alleged, in explanation, that the report had been drawn up by a passenger in the Wanstead, by dictation of Cap , tain Langdon. Mr. C. ROBINSON, who was assisted by the Tri- nity Masters, observed, that the' only points sir e 7 7.4 on seemed to be, that some services had been rer'-' dered and a tender made. On the other points T. I. ease was clouded by the unparalleled contradictio n which appeared in the evidence. He shoal there .1 fore merely propose to these gentlemen three qua " Lions :-Ist, What was the state of the Noormah u when the Wanstead came up ? 2d, What was ilt% state on the ensuing day, after Capt. Langdon heA t come on board and had an opportunity of observilt her condition? and, 3d, Was it necessary or prePe t for the Wanstead to stay - by the Nooilnah:d after th° 13th, and tow her ? The Trinity Masters declared, that in their oP i. nion the distress of the Noarnzahtd, on the 13th, was not such as to render her unseaworthy ; that she , could have taken care of herself, the leak in the , having been completely stopped before the Ira' stead came up; that she could have found her waY into port without assistance, after being fitted with • jury masts; that the Wanstead, nevertheless, bail rendered her considerable assistance, in supplying spars, &c., and ought to be liberally rewarded. The COURT adopted this opinion, and pronounced' the tender to be amply sufficient. With respect t° the charterer's claim, the Court was not in a..condi'f tion to go into that but by the consent of the 1r; ties : it might carry the Court beyond its jurisdictio n. , .After the sentence was pronounced, a protracted conversation took place, as to the objects which the, sum awarded was to cover, whether services alone', services and supplies, or services, supplies, and di'' , mage • also respecting the apportionment of t he, sum betwixt the owners of the Wanstead and the. salvors. Neither of these points, as far as we could' understand, was definitively settled. It was.aasert e , by the Counsel for Capt. Langdon, that he - wa s - au ' be out of pocket, owing to the advances-he had cod.° OPENING OF THE NEWFLEET-MARE Yesterday being the day appointed for the open' lug of the New Fleet-market, a great number; of ladies and gentlemen were early in their attenda e ( "_ e . the entrance from St onec utt er -st ree t, by to witness the ceremony. They w ere admitte d t icitetes which were issued by the Common-Councilmen ef the Ward. The proprietors of the - different abet ) (of which there are 79) had set them out in thee best style, particularly the butchers, some of whole had a very fine display of meat ; indeed, if such roly,. is intended to be sold in future, no one need f e a t that they will purchase any " wet uns." The poulterers' and fishmongers' shops were also remelt , ably well stocked. The fruiterers, whose shope-ar s on the eastern side of the Market, exhibited som a fine specimens of fruit, from which we may infer that they mean to compete with the rival market e l this commodity—Covent-garden. Each of th e , tradesmen, in their several departments, seeme d anxious to outvie his neighbour, and the appearance of the Market altogether was extremely interesting' The ladies and gentlemen promenaded round the Market, but until the arrival of the Lord M a yor ne t a single butcher dare put the constantly re peat:l question of that fraternity, " What d'ye buy ?' • . even a penny-worth of apples were not allowed V" be sold. This was frequently complained of 14 some of the ladies, who had waited upwards o f font hours for the arrival of his Lordship, but the eh e r t keepers were inexorable, and not a single ePPL e o : t pear would they dispose of. At length, at a m - 4 half-past three o'clock, the arrival of the L er Mayor was announced. and after some little co de ' sion, in clearing away the mob, the processioe old tered the new Market by the entrance from the one in the following order : Police Officers, two and two—The City S_ Ag lit. shalmen—The Common Council of that and the 1 "" joining Wards—The Sheriffs and Under Sheriff!'" The Town Clerk, Sword-bearer, Water Bailiff, &! The Lord Mayor, attended by his Chaplain) - ; , 3" full robes, followed by a number of the Com inv " Council, &c. The procession went round the whole Market at i : the above order, and his Lordship was repeat s d , cheered as he passed—the various tradesmee stsnN ing at the doors of their shops, and Lowing r e t he fully to him. He frequently stoppe d to lop* various articles exhibited in the different s hops, expressed his gratification at the to u r into The procession then moved slowly through the dense throng of persons assembled to the e ntrance of the Market from Stonecutter-street, where the opening of the Market was proclaimed with -the accustomed formalities. The gates were they opened, and several waggons laden with vegetable!: each draQvn by three grey horses, and decorate" with blue ribands, entered, amidst the loud cheers of the assensbled multitude, which by this thee, amounted to several hundreds. The businest the Market immediately commenced, and the scl that ensued ba ffl es description. Every one seemed anxious to purchase something " opening day," and joints of meat, vegetables, frl' i ts &c. &c. disappeared with astonishing rapidity. of His. Lordship then retired amidst the cheere the populace, evidently gratified with the procee" ings of the day. The dimensions of the Market are as follow:' Length of the Building 2BO Feet . Breadth 246 Height .. 41 Width of each Wing „ 48 Length of Opening 252 Width of ditto l5O On Sunday morning last the religious - t o ' s , mony of a baptismal immersion in the river agaii i r of place at Stamford, and attracted an immense eto spectators. The Minister on this oc c a s ion vial tb :s e vb° J. F. Wnsxs, of Loughborough; and the Per m t e , underwent baptism were Mrs. B. WasTmosit y , l ' a7 oed young woman who is parted from husfoniFlsu e servant man named E. BULL. The ceremony about ten o'clock in the morning, at Lamb's-4 1 71;i bu t part of Welland before selected for such an e xhil o P g ; i iiart a very dirty spot, and rendered particularly so 00 . ,_'' t iite by . the swoln and turbid state of the water at tol'iret Singing and prayer preceded the descent into the t o Minister also for some time with great ea:llo4%i tit! dressed the assembled multitude in explanation o ,''' n etout l , he was about to perform, until a visible perspirst'a„--1 an d upon his head and face; and in this state of 0,07,' hie bodily excitement he stepped into the water, souPul way with a stick as he proceeded, until hirns'el f - 0 to• proselytes were up to their middles in a mere re - for at e j He then pushed them backwards, and they stant lost in the river ; but by his aid they rePrt.gie on their feet, and were suffered to make the best of t ro P rt , way to the shore, in one of the coldest and most c ' 3 , P3 ,, ho.• less winter mornings that can be imagined. To the nour of the peat concourse of spectators, not the sligv manifestation of disrespect took place : on the coP tla u lil the ceremony passed off with all the decorum th a t he desired by the most zealous and respectable haPti,l6' of whom many, we understand, were present, from azs t le places. The society at Stamford is yet very sma ll . 0 0 persons composing it hold their meetings for worshiP.4 to room in North-street, which a few years ago was b° lu te' accommodate op public occasions the guests at the Sa Lion inn.—Lincoln Mercury. BIRTHS. .:„,• Lately at Adare, county of Limerick, the CouP" - Dunrayen, of a son. .0n the 18th inst. at Blackheath, the lady of S. Esq., of Bury street, St. James's, of a daughter. ,„ r i rd On the 19th inst. the lady of Mr. T. Pownallt of a daughter. powerful stre MARRIED. On the 9th of July last, at St. George's churchtor dras, Richard F. Lewis, Esq. Barrister-at-law, &Peale ter of his Majesty's Crown-office there, to Fano/ 0 0 e• land, second daughter of G. P. Tyler, Esq. of they's(' Company's Civil Service, niece to Admiral Sir C. t oter K.C.8., and Sir Wm. Wynne, and great grant"t o of Anne, Baroness Dacre, the 19th in desce nt lc ' cceded to that ancient and illustrious peerage. DIED. f ti nt On the 17th inst. John Heathfield, eldest so a o tb Dendy, Esq , of Dorking, Surrey, in his 27th On the 19th inst. in Camberwell-grove) Bi ej „if wife of H. Blakelock, Esq. On the 19th inst. at Upper Homertsa, Sarslit of T. Lermitte, Esq. aged 67. est 0 , PRINTID AN IitURDOI4-;•104 TIM Oint Oran*, Ile, eszAlsal Years. Total.