The Sun. — London, England, 1837-08-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. Parliament meets for the dispatch of business in November ; and never• did a British Legislature as semble under circumstances so awfully momentous. The struggle between the friends of free institutions and a despotic faction will be one of the most arduous on record. The interest with which it will be re garded will be proportioned to the importance of the stake to be played for, and the strength of the con flicting parties ; but the struggle, though severe, will be but of short duration. A few weeks, perhaps the first week of the Session, will be decisive of the ques tion whether the Government of the Queen is to con tinue to be conducted on popular principles, or whe ther it is again to be usurped by the band of political profligates who have already entailed so much misery. on the people of this country. Need we, then, say what is the duty of the newly elected Members of Parliament in a crisis of such fearful importance ? Can they—can any one of them—need to be told, that they stand at this; moment in a situation of unparalleled responsibility ; and that no consi derations of a merely personal or relative nature can justify their absence from their place in Parliament one single day after its doors are opened ? ln the neck-and-neck race which the opposing par ties will have to run, it is impossible to tell the vast ness of the importance which may attach to a single vote. No one can say whether the destinies of Great Britain, and, indirectly, those of mankind throughout the world, may not hang on the solitary voice—the " Aye" or " No''—of ail individual Member. The re sponsibility, therefore, which will attach, on the open ing of Parliament, to every Member of the representa tive branch of the Legislature, is one which ought to fill their minds with fear and trembling. It is now, we believe, beyond all question that there will be a con test for the Speakership. The Tories, intoxicated with the recent accession they have received to their nume rical strength, have determined on making a demon stration of their power by starting Sir Edward Sugdcn as candidate for the Speaker's chair, in opposition to Mr. Abercromby. Should they carry their point, there can be no doubt as to the consequences which will follow. Can any Liberal Member be so igno rant of the peculiar position in which parties are at present placed, as to doubt for a moment that the success of a Tory confederacy on this question would be fatal to the existence of the Melbourne Go vernment ? Or any one be so inattentive an ob server of the signs of the times as not to see, with the clearness of demonstration itself, that the ejection of the present Administration from office, in the existing circumstances of the country, would be, to use Lord Melbourne's phraseology on another occasion, to " give a heavy blow and a great discouragement" to the cause of civil and religious liberty ? We warn the Reform Members of the House of Commons thus early to be at their posts on the opening of the ap proaching Session, in order that there may be no ex cuse for the absence of any one when the hour of trial arrives. We do not speak without book when we say that the Tories themselves look forward with exulting anticipations to the result of a contest on the Speakership, and that much of their confidence of a triumph rests on the assumption that there will be a remissness cn the part of the Liberals. Tiler know there is no chance for them—not the slightest pros pect of office—if the Members who have been re turned on Reform principles are at their posts on all important questions during the Session ; but they lay the flattering unction to their souls that there will be occasional absentees among the Liberals, and they narticulaily expect this on the opening of the Session. It will ❑ot be our fault if they do not find that they have been grossly deceiving themselves.—Morning Advertiser. Time out of mind, it has been a characteristic con comitant of general elections, that every defeated Li beral is distressed beyond measure at the extent to which the country suffers by his own individual ex clusion from Parliament. Of coarse any personal dis appointment to himself is wholly out of the question. What he . is mainly concerned about is the injury done to national interests ; nor is there anything more consolatory or more compensatory to Whig gentlemen at the bottom of polls, than their positional facilities for acquiring and proclaiming those clearer views of public questions which .their successful rivals, occu pying a dizzier and hazier altitude, are often una ble to form. For instance, it is truly astonishing what an adverse poll will do in the way of making converts to the Ballot. The circumstance of not being included in the Sheriff's return iffords the omitted party a goo d d ea l o f t i me to tale a survey of his own merits, and to ruminate :upon the causes of his rejection. Viewing the Ballot in the ab stract, he tells you plainly that heretofore he has opposed it. It was a cowardly and unmanly subter fuge ; it was alike immoral and inefficient ; it was such a temptation to ingratitude and treachery as would actually disfranchise thousands of the better class of electors, who rather than be exposed to its inevitable infamies would permanently withdraw from the regis tration roll : and with these constitutional views the Hon. unchosen commences a valedictory address, which he terminates by renouncing them. But then, ob serve, the worthy gentleman is a little out of tem per. He has just been thwarted in a prime object of his ambition. The constituency having been ask e d to decla re w h et h er h e i s or i s not a fit and proper re presentative of their opinions, have had the audacity to estimate his pretensions very differently from what lie had anticipated. He insists that he knows their sentiments far better than themselves. They are in love with him even to madness. They are literally panting to return him to Parliament. The pre-con certed majorities in his favour had ensured his election, and because the persons whose names were affixed to his requisition have long been dead or disqualified, he jumps to the conclusion that the personated voters, whose franchise was forfeited by removals or dissolution, has been so coerced by those great Tory la n dl or d s , Poverty and Death, as to j u stif y him in declaring out and out. his convictions in favour of the Ballot. Nor has a pinched majority been less effectual in achieving such conversions than an actual defeat. It is an infir mity of Whig candidates that a hostile estimate of their claims cannot be believed by them to be genuine. On no account can the electors be permitted to form an opinion of them less flattering than they had formed of themselves. Nothing but coercion could have forced an expression of their hatred to Whiggery ; therefore nothing remains but the Ballot to protect them in their predilections in favour 9f a Whig candi date. Now here let it be carefully marked that among successful Whigs, we hear nothing about the Ballot in any shape or form. Only return them to Parliament by a respectable majority, and the open mode of voting is the best that can be contrived. Narrow that majority to 20 or 30, and you have a monstrous evil which nothing but the Ballot can overcome. Thus, Mr. R. Steuart, in the Haddington burghs, Mr. Long in VVest Surrey, and several other Ministerialists have resorted to the Ballot salvo, as the only available resource to remedy their casting majorities, or to palliate their ignominious defeat. Let the public bear this in mind. These men, and various others in the same uupopular category, have broadly declared themselves in favour of secret voting. Before they made such an avowal, they were highly objectionable on many accounts. The local constituencies had no favour or liking for their principles. The men were odious for their own sake as well as for that of their political party ; but now, when in addition to former sentiments of the most obnoxious kind they openly express their attachment to a system that must inevi tably corrupt and dishonour the whole British consti tuency, we fervently trust that their newly acknow ledged ballot propensities will be regarded as only strengthening their future claims to a more thorough and contemptuous rejectio n . A not h er new light which adversity has forced upon the Whigs, i s the necessity or desirableness of extending the elective franchise. This has been insisted on with great zeal in divers' quarters, but especially by the Honourable convict who has been sentenced to seven years' transportation in the penal colony of Kilkenny. Joey, as he is familiarly dubbed by his Irish confra ternals, is decidedly of opinion that representation ought to go hand in hand with taxation—in other words, that every man who pays indirect taxes ought to have a voice in electing the taxers according to the interests he has at stake. Whether women should be excluded from this privilege or otherwise, the defeated of Middlesex does not condescend to say. For our selves, provided the proposal were to be carried out on any principle of equity, we are not sure that we should seriously object to it. An able friend of ours is of opinion that the 101. franchise is precisely the most dangerous that could have been fixed on. Placed ex actly between the 20/. householders, who, besides being generally members of the Church, are favourable to quiet reform, and the Si. tenantry, who are both too busy to bestow time on political agitation as well as too poor to pay seat-rents in voluntary chapels, our friend con ceives that the ten-pounders consist almost entirely of the class whose democracy, dissent, and infidelity, have given such an ascendancy to liberalism in many. of the boroughs of England. He, therefore, thinks that by extending the franchise to the Si. householder, we should receive the support of a class of poor Church men of whose suffrages we are now deprived. There is much plausibility in this, and if individuals were allowed to hold one vote or more, according to their rental or taxation (votes being muitiplied or restricted in individuals by an equitable scale of proportion), we feel inclined to think that the political influence awarded to men in strict relation to the extent of their interests in the country, might probably prove safe and beneficial to the maintenance and improvement of our national institutions. To effect this, however, in any just or satisfactory way, it is clear that the observance of the law of proportion is wholly indispensable. The proposed alteration does not originate with us. It comes from the party who, as Sir Robert Peel said, would be the first to find fault with their own Bill of Reform. If, therefore, Joey of Kilkenny finds that he must endeavour to do something for the breechless bogtrotters who have offered him a sanctum in adver sity, let him only propose his plan of an extended fran chise on a fair scale of proportion, and we can promise him, that notwithstanding the polluted quarter from whence it comes, it will be considered by the Conser.. vatives with a due regard to the rights of all the par ties concerned.—Times. In the recent elections the Whigs have received very intelligible hints of the general and merited odium in which their starvation and imprisonment " boon" to the poor is held by the people of England. When Lord Holland pronounced a eulogy on agitation, some time ago in the Hou s e o f L or d s , in d e f ence o f O'Con nell, whom he had formerly joined in denouncing in the speech from the throne, for the very same pestilent sedition which he subsequently praised, we took the li berty of telling the Whigs that they would soon have more agitation than would be agreeable to them—agi tation excited by the cruelty and oppression of that Bastile law, which seemed designed to extirpate cha r ity from the land, whi c h h a d long been the favourite abode of the first and fairest - of the Christian virtues. We told the Whigs that at the next ge neral election they would discover into what an error they had fallen, when they supposed that they had strengthened their power in sacrificing the rights and comforts of the poor, to conciliate, by a sordid appeal to their pockets, the support of the rich. We were not deceived. The Bastile law told power fully against the Whigs at the late elections ; and if it had not been for the unaccountable infatuation which induced some Tories in the late Parliament to begrime themselves and their cause, by jumping into the quag mire of Whig Poor-law legislation to save thcir sink ing adversaries, the effect would have been still more powerful. How different was the conduct of the Whigs, when, to retain the sweets of office, they covered the walls of the metropolis with placards bear ing this sentence, " If you would stop the Duke, go for gold," thus advising a general run upon the banks —a demolition of public credit, and the creation of a wide-spread commercial confusion, rather than they should lose the place and patronage in which the soul of Whip. patriotism delightcth. In one English county alone, the Whigs succeeded at the late elec tions in displacing a Conservative. That was in East Cumberland, in the instance of Sir James Graham, who had distinguished himself in the last. session of Parliament by a support of the Whig Poor-law in all its grinding oppressiori; worthy . of the paid advo vocate of the Central Board of hashaws at Somerset House. Nerer did any man work more zealously' and indefatigably in the harness of the pauper kings than Sir James Graham. As a member of the mock-Committee of Inquiry into the working of that law, lie acted throughout not as an impartial investi gator of the truth, but as one who was anxious to white-wash the Whig oppressors of the poor, and gild the bitter pill which the unfeeling and . unconscience less qilacks of the Malthusian Cabinet prescribed for the labouring population. What has been the reward of Sir Seines Graham ? Tne Whig journalists and the Whig emissaries have evinced their gratitude by the most malevolent and rancorous abuse, while the Whig Ministers took advantage of the unpopularity into which the worthy Baronet had fallen by the sup port of their pet measure, to eject him from the re presentation of Cumberland. We cannot say we ,re gret very much the lesson of Whig gratitude which Sir James Graham has received. It seems like an act of signal retribution for the assistance which he gave to their scheme of oppression against the poor. Per haps, when he is next in Parliament, he will leave the Whigs to enjoy th e un di v id e d cre di t an d f ame o f t h e i r own 'I - flundering or iniquitous measures, and not run a race with their well-paid hirelings to help them out of the pit of their own digging. The Whig Ministers, who used to claim the exclusive merit of the Poor Law Bill for themselves, are now ex ceedingly anxious to share it with the Tories. We do not wonder at it. They find it very convenient to get other shoulders than their swu to rest a share of the odium and unpopularity of that disgraceful measure upon. We no longer hear Mr. Spring Rice declaim ing, through some hundreds of " superficial inches" of a newspaper, in praise of the wonderful excellencies of that Bill. Even Lord John Russell ceases to ap peal to that proof of the extraordinary legislative wis dom and ability of the Whigs ; and Lord Morpcth himself, his elongated ears stunned with the sound of public murmurs, admits that the Bill, which he used to describe as all perfection, may be improved by ju dicious modifications. What a condescending avowal! Now, as to modifications of the Poor Law Bill, let us say what we think. The open and avowed supporters of the law—the whole-hog advocates of the Bastile and starvation system .we know how to meet ; but there is another class of persons who, by their faint and temporising opposition to the Bill, are calculated to do more mischief than those who are its unqualified admirers. We allude to those persons who peck and nibble at little details, while they leave the rank and monstrous principle untouched. Such was the sort of petty and partial opposition offered to this unchristian law by some dozen Members in the late Parliament whom we could name. Those Mem bers objected to several details of the measure, but they never held up to public reprobation the odious principle which confers upon- three Commissioners at Somerset-house the power of King, Lords, and Com mons, in legisl a ti ng f or all tFie‘ parishes of England and Wales. This is a principle which ought never be al lowed to take root in our free state. It is wholly at variance with the spirit of our free Constitution, and, if tolerated, must eventually familiarise the people with the most odious exercise of arbitrary power. It is true that in the eyes of some of our Whig-Radical philosophers this very objection is the greatest charm of the Bill. So it was with Mr. Grote, when he said that the only fault he, had to find with the measure was, that it was not more arbitrary and more uncon stitutional ! He has received a lesson in the city of London, as Sir James Graham has in Cumberland, and Mr. Roebuck, another admirer of the Bill, has in Bath, which he will not. soon forget. When Mr. Hume found the opinions whieh he had expressed in favour of this poor-grinding Bill rising in judg ment against him at the Middlesex election, he —even he—thought it prudent to acknowledge that things had been done under the Bill which ought not to be tolerated. This was a mean' recantation of his former sentiments. Among other things, he gave up as in defensible, the " sepaiation of man and wife," but had the unparalleled assurance to say that the Bill was not in fault, b ut t h e Guardians. He well knew that the Guardians have no more power to originate any measures of their own, than those black slaves had, whose bondage the liberty -loving Joseph wished to perpetuate. The Malthus- lan Act certainly does say that man and wife—parent and child, are to be separated—but it does what is the same, or rather worse, it gives the arbitrary power to the three Com missioners, of making that or any other violation of the rights of hnmanity, nature, and religion, which it chooses to promulgate, a law for all the parishes of England and Wales. It is that monstrous power that we want to see cut away. We want to see the rate: payers " emancipated" from the despotism of the Central Board, as well a 7... the starvation dietaries raised to a scale of really charitable and Christian allow-, ance. We want to see " relief" on the condition of perpetual imprisonment done away with, as a dis grace to a Christian country, and the means of inflict ing. the punishment of crime on the victims of mis fortune. But unless we strike at the root of the upas tree, it is of little use to lop away one or two of its branches.—Morning Herald. The consistency of the Whig-Radicals affords a never-failing theme for admiration. With respect to the elections, this pre-eminent virtue of theirs has been wonderfully conspicuous. From the beginning, when they exultingly dwelt upon the certainty that but a " very few" Tories would be suffered to " creep into Parliament" at this election, to the end, when they snivel forth in reproachful accents the admission that Great Britain has sent a majority of Tory representa tives to the House of Commons, all has been of a si milarly consistent and homogenous character. As the living- Lord Brougham said of the late Commoner Cobbctt, the Whig-Radicals are eminently consistent in their inconsistency ! Their latest effort in this way is perhaps the most transcendent of all—finis coronat opus. When we carping Conservatives were so illibe ral as to suggest that a few additional joints to the O'Connell tail was but a poor compensation for the particularly sound thrashing which the Whig-Radicals had received in many of the towns and most of the counties in England, we were answered that it was an exceedingly naughty and .unconstitutional thing to make distinctions between the representa tives of one place and the representatives of an other. We were told that it was unconstitutional to prefer the representative of an English county, how ever rich or extensive, to the representative of an Irish town, however poor and insignificant, because they are all equally, in the eye of the law, Members of the House of Commons. We were told that it was absurd to triumph in having driven Joseph Hume out of the representation of the county of Middlesex, since he was returned, whether he would or no, Member for the town of Kilkenny. Well ! this did tolerably enough for a day or two, as the irrefragable logic of Whin- Radicals ; but after a day or two it was quite intole rable, even to them, to admit that they had altogether broken down in the British struggle, and that they were in Great Britain no better than beaten men. What then do they fall upon for consolation ? Why, the very distinction between places which—with refe rence to Ireland—it is so abominably unconstitutional even to hint at. True we are beaten, say they—or some flourish of words to that effect—true we are beaten in the aggregate of British elections ; but then the great towns arc all in our favour ; and, this being the case, "we may boldly set the Tories at defiance." Now, if Conservatives may not even hint that there is anything less of " moral cogency" (as the Globe prettily and scientifically expresseth it) in the support of the O'Connell tail Members than in the support of the representatives of English counties, how happens it that 'Whig-Radicals may, without scruple, have their distinctions even within the kingdom, and set down the Members for Manchester as marvellous proper men, and most respectable Members of Parliament, while the Members for the county of Lancaster are to be set aside, as unworthy of consideration among the genuine representatives of the people ? Are we to look upon this as another illustration of that proverb which a writer of much pith and humour quotes as giving the very spirit of Whiggism, viz:, that " one man may steal a horse, while another must not look over a hedge ?" The Whig-yadical logic comes to this— that the AletnlE'r for an Irish county—that is to say, any of the O'Con'nellized counties--is very much to be prcferreal to a'lVlemblr for such English.townS as math or Norwich, which return Tories ; but a Member -for Cockermouth or Huddersfield, which towns return Radicals, is, on the other hand,- to be regarded as a much more considerable public character—a repre sentative deserting of much more weight with the " enlightened" public—than any of those who are returned by the counties of Essex or of Surrey, or any other Conservatively-minded county. Whoever can swallow this may certainly swallow any thing else which Radicals present to them. Whoever cannot, must admit that the Radical attempt to rate highly the importance of the Members of Parliament who support them, by reference to the places which have returned these Members, has utterly failed. • It is granted that if the present Government have not its majority from Ireland it cannot have any ma jority at all. Now, if the •Ministerialists as by their reference to English returns they seem to allow—that a distinction is to be made between the representatives of one place and the represen tatives,of another, they cannot get rid of the additional concession, that we have a right to consider this majo rity in its Irish character, and to weigh accordingly its claim to public confidence and respect. To us there seems something not a little ridiculous in the hypothesis even of the O'Connell-nominated Members of Parlia ment being entitled to equal weight—so far as the im pression upon:the public mind is concernd—with the representatives of British constituencies. The exqui site Globe, however, with all its lively perception of the pleasant, and its logical discrimination of the true, sees nothing of this. " There are the Papists," it says, in.its prodigiously humourous way, " there they ate, alive .and kicking, and voting, too—why not ? and just as like to vote you mad as you te vote them so." This may seem very conclusive, and doubtless it will be so when the House of Commons proceeds to divide upon the question of the madness of its Members ; but if we go a little beyond the mere faculty of voting, and inquire into the faculty of judging, and the honesty which leads to a-vote in conformity with the judgment of the voter, how will the case stand then ? A madman may s vote that he is sane, but that will not lead the public to confide in his sanity. .Now, with all due allowance for the well known sobriety, sedateness, coolness of judgment, and independence in the declaration of it, which belong to the Radical constituencies and representatives of Ire land, we must be allowed to doubt whether their opi nion concerning our madness is entitled to as much weight with the country as our opinion concerning theirs. But—to leave the very important and prac tical view of the' great political question involved in the Globe's assertion of the equal right of the Irish Papists to declare the English' Conservatives mad— ler us consider for a moment what a certain Whig Commission has decided concerning this same Irish population, whose Representatives—with the full ap probation of the O'Connell Ministry—are hencefor ward to rule our legislation here in England. These Whig Commissioners assert that .out of the " seven millions" so celebrated in the shouts of Mr. O'Con nell, and the•screams of Mr. Sheil, there are 2,300,000 in a state of " permanent destitution." No doubt many of these " destitute persons," according to the testimony of Poor Law Commissioners, are freeholders of 101, a year according to the O'Connell registers of persons qualified to vote for Members of Parliament ; but are we to admit that the representatives chosen by them are just as trustworthy in making laws for the protection of property as the representatives chosen in English counties ? We hope that as soon as the question concerning the comparative madness of English Protestants and Irish Papists shall have been' satis factorily settled, other questions concerning the leg,isla tive protection of property may be allowed'some con sideration. The Whig-Radicals may console them selves while they can with their strenuous efforts to depreciate the county constituencies.of England—now that these counties have rejected them—and t 6 exalt the Irish constituencies, whose very considerate and splendidly independent judgment is still in their fa vour. But when Parliament meets, and the divisions are exhibited, with reference to the constituencies re presented—as we shall take care they shall I:l7l—they will then perhaps find that public opinion will not sanction the verdict of Ministers in favour of that portion of the empire where alone they can escape de: feat.—Morning Post THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1837, TURKEY. CONSTANTINOPLE, JULY 26.—The Capitan Pacha sailed the 24th inst. for the Mediterranean with a squadron of three ships of the line, three frigates, four corvettes, and a few schooners. The destination of this expedition has not hitherto been officially made known. I find that since I mentioned it, the report of an interview between Achmet Pacha and Mehemet Ali off Candia being the real object of the departure of the former from Constantinople, and of the latter from Alexandria, has been gaining ground in the diplomatic circles. It is thought by many that both the Sultan and Mehemet Ali, having been taught at last by the Cabinets of Europe to look upon the renewal of a struggle between themselves as altogether inadmissible, have per ceived that their best policy for the present consisted in living together on the most friendly terms. The first pro posal of a reconciliation founded on firmer bases than the conditions contoined the convention of Kiutayah, came from Mehmet Ali. On making it he declared his readi ness to disband his army and to dismantle his fleet in the event of the Porte's compliance with his request. This re quest, which had for its object the grant of the right of succession to the administration of Egypt and Syria to his son Ibrahim and descendants, was partly acquiesced to by the Sultan. The restitution of Syria was demanded by the Leige, in compensation for the concession by him made to his vassal. The negotiations broke off on account of Mehemet Ali's refusing the acceptance of this condition. It is highly probable, in the event of the Porte having consented to their being renewed by Achmet Pasha, that Mehemet Ali will show himself more tractable than he appeared to Tarim Effendi. Affairs in Egypt are growing from day to day more critical. The exhaustion of the treasury, owing to the commercial crisis in Europe, is so complete, that the Pacha must necessarily reduce an estab lishment which, even in the days of his finance's greatest prosperity, was greatly beyond his means. As the reduc tion of his present naval and military forces is contingent on the cession of Syria to the Porte, and as this is the only sacrifice he has it in his power to offer to propitiate the Sultan's adhesion to his demands, there appears every reason to expect the prompt settlement of the question nt issue between both parties. Should Achmet Pacha's mission fail, war then becomes an object of first necessity for Meh met Ali. General Cass, on account it is said of the panic, which the exaggerated reports of the plague's ravages had spread on board the Constitution, suddenly left this on the 22. d inst,, and sailed for Candia, where he expects to meet Mehemet Ali. The plague has during the last three weeks bean but slowly on the increase. The number of patients entered at the Greek Plague Hospital last week amounted to 45, on the preceding week to 40. It is with the deepest regret I have to record, among the victims of this scourge during the last week, the name of Sir Puiteney Malcolm's only son. It has been lately ascertained that the cause of the Sul tan's favourite's disgrace and banishment was the discovery made by one of the courtiers to his Highness, of the prac tice Vassaff Effendi had resorted to of destroying every ,pe tition,or address presented to the Sultan, which might have led to the exposure of his malversations and arbitrary acts. In order to prevent the recurrence of the like abuses the Sultan has appointed two days in the week for the pre sentatien of petitions. After reading himself their con tents, his Highness writes with his own hand his orders on the back of the memorial previous to sending it on to the Porte. Numerous abuses on the part of men in power have in consequence of this sensible regulation on the part of the Sovereign been brought to light, and during the course of last week four of the functionaries of the Porte were, by way of punishment, sent into exile. The fore most among them is the Secretary of the Treasury, or Mu ree Kiatip ; the second, the Inspector of the Aqueducts ; the third, Moustafa Bey, the Moossahib. Letters from Teherhaun, June the 30th, state that the Shah had publicly announced the intention of placing himself at the head of the expedition against Herat, and fi xe d the 1.21.11 instant for his departure for Mesjid in the event of a favourable answer not being previous to that day returned to the ultimatum sent to the Khanat of Afghatinistan. The army encamped in the vicinity of the capital was composed of ten regiments of disciplined in fantry and of several thousands of irregulars. The state of the treasury continued as miserable as for the past. Sarim Bey has been appointed successor to Iteshid Bey, in London, Nouree Effendi's post in Paris Will be filled by the Haniedjz Ali Bey, and Achmet Paella's at Vienna by Mahir Bey the Me'etupdjy. The commercial crisis which I represented two months ego as imminent has already began to be severely felt. Three respectable ❑ooses, Stoyano, Mavridis, and Co., Katbaa and Co., Anastasius Papa Toakiva and Co. have failed during the week. But merchants arc as yet but at the beginning of their troubles. The dismissal of Ya koub Caraosmati Oglou from the Panalich of Aydeen has seriously injured the credit of some of. the principal Greek establishments-in this place, which carried on business with funds belonging to this functionary. Aloustafa Nouree Podia, lately appointed Governor- General of Southern Albania, is to embark shortly for Sa lonia. A person lately arrived from this place represents the disturbances along the Greek frontiers as far from being quelled. It will probably be a question mooted before a com mittee of the House of Commons whether Mr. Attwood, the newly-elected Member for Greenwich, can take his seat. That Honourable Gentleman, it appears, is chairman and a large proprietor of the General Steam Navigation Com pany, which contracts for the carriage of the Government mails. If this be the case, he will find it rather difficult to make out that he does not fall under the operation of the same law which excluded Mr. Bish, when he was for the first time elected a Member of the House. The harvest in France is, in every respect, as abun dant and propitious as in this country ; but, owing to the short stock of old wheat remaining, the prices have lately risen considerably. On 'Wednesday, about three o'clock, as a labouring man named Watson was walking along the banks of the Regent's Canal he observed a young woman dressed in white pacing to and fro in a hurried manner. He ap proached towards her, and had reached her within twenty or thirty yards when she suddenly plunged headforemost in the water, leaving her bonnet and scarf on the path. He instantly plunged in, and after the lapse of a few mi minutes succeeded in bringing her ashore, when th• usual means for resuscitation were resorted to, and happily with effect. She then stated that she was the daughter of a tradesman at Windsor, and about two months ago left her home with a gentleman who dwelt near the Long-walk, and who, after effecting her ruin, left her to shift for her self. Her life had consequently become a burthen to her, and she had, therefore, made up her mind to commit suicide. A gentleman to whom the distressing story was made known kindly undertook to defray the expenses attendant upon the poor girl's conveyance home. _ _ On Tuesday, between 11 and 12 o'clock in the fore noon, the family of Mr. Rogers, a gentleman of property residing at Edmonton, were most painfully distressed in consequence of finding their infant child, two years and a half old, in a washing-tub which was full of water. The unfortunate child was instantly taken out, apparently in a lifeless state, when a servant on horseback went for a sur geon, Mr. Biddle, who tried the usual means to restore animation for a considerable length of time, but without success. From the appearance of the child it had evi dently struggled a good deal. The nurse hid left it but a short time. The accident is supposed to have happened while the child was reaching for a flower, as there was one on the water, when, overbalancing itself, it fell in. The body of the poor fellow who accidentally fell from the quarter-deck bulwark of the Nymph steamer, and was unfortunately drowned, was discovered on Tuesday morning abreast of the hulks at Woolwich dock-yard. The sum of 2/. 9s. was found in his pockets by the fisherman who dragged up the body. The remains of this unfortunate victim to drunkenness now lie at, the Woolwich bonehouse a waiting the inquest of the coroner. We understand that a scientific gentleman connected with the Colosseum, has made application to the proprietors of Vauxhall-gardens, for permission to descend in a para chute from the Nassau balloon, when at the height of 10,000 feet, constructed upon the principle of M. Garnerin. We hope that the application met with a prompt refusal. As a labourer named Rood, was employed in taking down the wall at the south end of Melrose Bridge, the ground on which he was standing unfortunately gave way, when he was precipitated headlong over the rocks which are of a considerable height. The poor man, when taken up, was found to be so severely injured that he died shortly afterwards.—Kelso Chronicle. - There is said to be an endowed school at Thame, the revenues of which are 8001. per annum, but at which there has not been a single scholar for many years. It is in one respect somewhat curious that the Re form Ministers should have a majority of the counties of Great Britain against them and a majority of the towns, cities and boroughs in their favour ; for though they gave representatives to some of these boroughs and cities, they curtailed others when the Reform Bill passed and they de prived the town population generally of many represen tatives. At the same time they increased the number of representatives of the counties. The Reform Act, leaving the whole number of representatives the same as before, 658, increased the number of country representatives by no less than 64, which, together with 3 additional members g i ve n to Scotland, and 5 to Ireland, making altogether 72 members, were taken from the borough and town popula tion. By 64 members was the county representation in creased, and 67 is said to be the majority of English county representatives who support the Tory p4rty.--Brighton Guardian. : . LAW INTELLIGENCE. VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT, AUG. 17. COOKE V. DAVIES. Mr. KNIGHT moved, on the part of the plaintiffs, for an ex parte injunction to restrain the defendants from selling certain shares in a Company called the Standard of England Assurance Company. The plaintiffs were shareholders in this Company, of which they had also been directors. In this latter character they were entitled to certain remu neration for their attendances upon the affairs of the Com pany. The defendants, who were the managers, came to a resolution some time ago that the remunerated attend ances of directors should be discontinued. A dispute arose between the plaintiffs and defendants as to the claim of the plaintiffs for past attendances. The defendants then made a further call upon the plaintiffs in respect of their shares, which call the plaintiffs refused to pay until their claim was satisfied. In this state of things the defendants were pro ceeding to declare the shares forfeited, and the plaintiff.: were, therefore, compelled to apply for the injunction. His Honour granted the motion. CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT. OLD COURT. Yesterday William Sergcant,aged 28, a cabman ; Thomas William Hill, also a cabman ; Robert Johnson, aged 44, and James Nicola, aged 33, were indicted, the first prisoner for feloniously killing and slaying Elizabeth Ford, and the other three prisoners for aiding and assisting. At ten o'clock on the night of the Bth of August the prisoner Hill challenged Sergeant to run a race with their cabs for 55., from Stamford-street to the Circus, at the Surrey Gate. The challenge was accepted, and the par ties having each taken two persons into their cabs, dashed along the Rlackfriars-road with great violence. Imme diately the cab which Sergeant was driving passed Rowland Hill's chapel a female was seen to be knocked down and run over by it. The deceased was that female. A man named Mullen called out to the driver to stop, but he took no notice. Mullen followed quickly and overtook the cab, to which he clung until it arrived at Wellington-street, when Sergeant drew up anti began lashing Mullen with his whip with great violence, in consequence of which Mullen was obliged to give up his hold of the vehicle. A police man, however, succeeded in stopping the cab, in which were the prisoners Johnston and Nichol, the former of whom encouraged Sergeant to whip Mullens. It was also de posed by another cabman that when Hill returned with his cab he said, " A old woman has been run over." The Jury found Sergeant guilty of manslaughter, John son and Nichols guilty as accessories after the fact, and Hill was acquitted, on the ground that there was not suffi cient evidence of identity in respect to him. Julia Malony, aged 19, was indicted for burglariously breaking and entering the dwelling-house of David Stan bridge, and stealing therefrom a quantity of wearing apparel and other property.—Verdict, Guilty. Lord Denman told the prisoner that she must expect to be transported. Jeremiah Driscoll, aged 30, carpenter, was indicted for maliciously woanding Mary Driscoll, his wife, with intent to do her grievous bodily harm. The Jury found the pri soner Guilty. Lord Denman told the prisoner that sen tence of death would be recorded against him, but that he would not be executed. Mary Lyon, aged 17, and John Scanlan, were indicted for feloniously uttering a forged Bank of England note, of the supposed value of 101., with intent to defraud the Go vernor and Company of the Bank of England ; and Cathe rine Murphy, aged 44, was also indicted for harbouring and assisting the prisoners in the said felony. The jury acquitted the prisoners. NEW COURT. Girdlestone, a good looking man, aged 34, was indicted for stealing a gallon of rum and other articles, the property of Thomas Chadwick and others, from a vessel in a port of entry and discharge. Another count in the in dictment charged the property as belonging to the Commis sioners of her Majesty's Customs. Mr. Anotrnus said the prisoner was in the employ of the Commissioners at a salary, and 3s. a day in addition when employed on extra duty. Mr. CLARKSON reminded the Court that the misguided man had a wife and six children, and he could call respect able witnesses to prove that down to the day he was tempted to pilfer the rum he had borne on irreproachable character. The COMMON SERGEANT, having consulted Mr. Alder man Pirie as to the punishment which should be inflicted, said the Worthy Alderman thought the children should be taken into consideration. It must be made manifest that persons holding public situations must not commit depre dations with impunity. Had he been guided by his own feelings he should have marked him for at least a year's imprisonment (part solitary), instead of the very lenient sentence which would be passed upon him at the end of the Sessions. He ought o feeligra,Ceful•to the Worthy Alderman all the rest of his-life. John Langley and George Palmer were indicted for stealing a duck and drake, the property of Mr. William Wright, a gentleman connected with Captain Brereton's establishment at Hackney-wick. The Jury returned a verdict of Guilty against both the prisoners. Langley had been found Guilty upon another charge in this Court last year, and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. Joseph Jacobs and Thomas Jones were indicted for stealing several shirts and other articles, the property of William Gregory. The COMMON SERGEANT summed up the evidence, and, without hesitation, both prisoners were pronounced Guilty. The Court sentenced them to be transported for seven years. William Ad/ ew Amdcl, a farmer, 28 years of age, was indicted for intermarrying with . Elizabeth Emma Hardiman on the 27th of November last, at that time aged fourteen years and seven months, his wife Mary being then living. Richard Bell, the sexton of St. George's, Southwark, produced a register book to prove the prisoner's last mar riage, which appeared to have been solemnized on the 23d of September, 1829. The name of the bride was Mary Whitburn, and he (Bell) was the attesting witness. Elizabeth Emma Hardiman, the second wife, a diminu tive creature, deposed as follows :—I was 15 years of age on the 2d of April, and was married to the prisoner on the 27th of Nev - ember last. At that time I was fourteen years and seven months old. My mother keeps a greengrocery and fruit shop, in Park -street, Camden Town. Mr mother sent me into the country to avoid the addresses of the pri soner. He followed me, and persuaded me to marry him. I said people said he was married already, and he denied it. I then consented. I have had a child by him, which was not born alive. Verdict—Guilty. Mr. CLARESON said be had seduced two other young girls belonging to re spectable parents. Transported for seven years. POLICE INTELLIGENCE. MANSION-HOUSE. Yesterday Mr. John Webb, of Colebrook Cottage, Colebrook-road, soda-water manufacturer, complained to the LORD MAYOR that a very disagreeable hoax of a new character had been played off upon him by a young man, who was a clerk in one of the new Companies with which the joint-stock list abounded. A few days ago one of his (Mr. Webb's) carmen, in going his rounds, lost about forty bills of parcels, which he carried about him for the purpose of filling up as they were required by the customers. Two days afterwards he received a note from Mr. Osborne, of the Strand, a gentleman who dealt with him, inclosing one of these bills filled up and directed to Mr. Osborne, and a peremptory and insolent demand of 41. Bs. upon the same person, purporting to be the writing of the soda-water manufacturer. Soon afterwards he learned that Mr. Evans, another of his customers, had received another of his bills of parcels, with the ludicrous charge of 311. 15s. 6d. for soda -water, and an insulting note demanding payment. There were several other bills of parcels received by gen tlemen upon whom there was not the shadow of a claim, and they were all accompanied with offensive comments, evidently made by the writer to prejudice the trade of the applicant. Mr. Evans, one of the customers alluded to, said that he dealt with Mr. Webb for soda water, but seldom had more than three dozen at a time. He happened to be acquainted with the handwriting in the bill of parcels, and had no hesitation in pronouncing it to be that of a clerk in a company which he had left, because he discovered that it was a bubble company. Several letters written by the same individual had been sent to him through the Post-office, but that establishment had returned the postage to him at once upon finding that it was the result of a hoax. The LORD MAYOR said that if any further annoyance of the kind were experienced by Mr. Webb, it would be proper to make immediate application to the police, and every requisite assistance should be afforded. MARLBORO UGH-STREET. A sturdy fellow, crippled in one arm and one leg, was yesterday charged by a policeman with having begged in the streets. The policeman told Mr. Chambers that he cautioned the prisoner against importuning the passengers, but the prisoner replied that he had no other means of getting a morsel of bread, and if the policeman chose to take him into custody he might, for he (prisoner) could not be worse off in prison. Mr. Citameoas—Why does not such a strong fellow as you endeavour to get work ?—Prisoner—l can work with one arm as well as any man, but I'm crippled in the other arm, and my right leg, by the wounds I received in Spain. Mr. CHAMBERS—Did you receive no recompense for your wounds ?—Prisoner—Not a ghost of a copper. I was in all the hard fighting on the 16th January and the 3d of May. I received five musket ball wounds, and have lost the use of two limbs, and now I am likely to starve in the streets. When the General sent me to England crippled for life, I was rewarded with the Order of Isabella. Mr. CHAMZERS—What have you done with your valu able insignia ?—Prisoner---I never got it. A twopenny loaf would have been of more use to me than all this hum bug about the Isabella Order. Mr. CHAMBERS questioned the man as to his native place, and finding it ryas Durham, told him to go and make the best bargain he could for a passage there, and he would defray the expense, and give him a trifle in addition. The soldier p oc k e t te d his permission to wear the Isabella insignia, and went off to do as he had been directed. MARY LEBONE. Yesterday a clashingly-dressed young man, named Henry Sadler, whose wife is a first-rate milliner, at 32, Wigmore street, Cavendish-square, was placed at the bar before Messrs. HosKtNs and THISELTON, charged with having stolen tw•o cards of valuable blonde lace from the shop of Messrs. Mirfin and Dry, Tottenham-court-road. He was committed to Newgate for trial. QUEEN -SQUARE. Henry Rodgemond, a middle-aged man, was yesterday charged with having stolen a check on the firm of Smith, Payne, and Co., of the value of 181. 15s. The prisoner and his wife took lodgings in the house of Mrs. Cook, whose husbaad is a gardener, residing at Knightsbridge. A re ference had been demanded, but before sufficient time had elapsed to make the inquiry the prisoner and his wife brought part of their furniture. Mrs. Cook's niece, a little girl, was taken suddenly ill, and the prisoner offered to com municate the intelligence to the mother, who lived some distance off. At this particular moment the prosecutrix, Miss Mary Elizabeth Braipton, was desirous to have cash for the check, and Mrs. Cook being unable to take it to the banking-house, the prisoner was entrusted with it in a letter. He received the cash, and immediately absconded with it. The prisoner was remanded until this day. HATTON-GARDEN. Yesterday Dewy Fletcher was fully examined before Mr. LAING, charged by Miss Maria Morgan, aged 16, with an assault with intent to violate her person. The prisoner was also charged by Mr. Richard Morgan, the father of Miss Morgan, proprietor of the Golden Fleece Tavern, Lower-street, Islington, with having committed a robbery. It will be recollected that the prisoner was in the ser vice of Mr. Morgan, as potman, and a few evenings since Miss Morgan proceeded to her chamber, and whilst she was asleep the prisoner went to her apartment and entered her bed, when he took improper liberties with her, which awoke her. Her screams alarmed the family, and the pri soner was given into the custody of Sullivan, 256 N. The prisoner being identified as a thief, inquiries were made, when it was discovered that since he had been in the ser vice of Mr. Morgan, he had committed several robberies, and some of the stolen property was found in the posses sion of a young woman to whom he had been paying his addresses under a promise of marriage, and she was taken into custody, but was allowed to turn King's evidence against him. Miss Maria Morgan proved the case against the pri soner, and he was fully committed for trial. Martha Clarke, the young woman, being sworn, stated that the prisoner had been paying his addresses to her for the last twelve months, under a promise that he would mak. her his wife. A solicitor's clerk here told the witness that she was not bound to give evidence. Mr. LAING (irritably)—How dare you tell a witness un der my examin‘tion that she is not bound to give evidence? Clerk (abashed)—l beg your Worship's pardon, I meant as to the promise of marriage. Mr. LAING ordered him not to interfere, but to conduct himself with propriety. Mr. LAING (to the witness)—You had better tell the whole truth, and do not prevaricate, or I will deal with you in a manner you won't like. The witness added that the prisoner frequently brought property to her lodgings in Paradise-row, Islington ; and the broken silver spoon and brass cock now produced were brought by him, and left in her place. . King, 248, N division, found the articles at the lodgings of the witness. The prosecutor's initials wore erased. Miss Elizabeth Frances Morgan identified the property. The prisoner had been in her father's service ten weeks. She missed the spoon a week after he had been in the house, and several articles were missed during the time that he was in the service. Waddingtcn had known the prisoner for some time. He was connected with a gang of thieves who went about the town dressed as butchers, for the purpose of committing robberies. Mr. LAING said it was very extraordinary that the prc secutor should have engaged with s tch a ruffian, who was a known bad character. Mr. Morgan replied that he was recommended to him by Mr. Back, the distiller, and Mr. Goody, of tge Pares Head, Islington, and he had no suspicion of him. Mr. LAING asked him if he had Anything to say ? The prisoner, with much sang froid, simply said, " N. O " thing," and begged that some silver found upon him by the officer should be restored to him. Air. LAING—I shall nbt interfere in that matter. Prisoner (appealing to Mr. Morgan with effrontery;--• Oh, I dare say he'll have no objection to it. Mr. LAING ordered hint to he taken from the ,bar, tel ling him that he stood committed on both charges, to take his trial. FRONTIERS OF RUSSIA, JULY 27.—Accoun's from Swenciany (in the government of \Vilna) relate the following lamentable occurrence, which took place there last week :--In a Catholic church near the town, the fate of a saint was kept, with which a general absolution is connected. According to established cust om , th e countr y people, in large troops from far And near, brought their of fering (chiefly consisting of agricultural produce) to the church. A country woman, who had only some bundles of flax to offer at the altar, came too near a burning taper, so that the flex caught fire, and in a feWmoments the whole building, which, like most of the churches in that country, was of timber, was in a blaze. The people, with whom it was crowded, were the less able to effect their escape into the open air through the only door, because, on the first alarm, the persons who were outside, in their anxiety to afford assistance, had to force their way into the church. In this manner alone a hundred persons were trampled to death, suffocated, or burnt, and a much greater number more or less severely injured. MR. MAXWELL'S NEW WORK " THE 81V01T... ACTT ; OR, STORIES OF THE PENINSULAR WAR."—A more rare or charming combination of fact and fiction, observes the Sunday Times, we have never met with than is to be found in these delightful pages. The author must have been in his happiest, most imaginative vein, when penning this work, abounding, as it does, with all those qualities best calculated to fascinate and fix the reader's atten tion. Mr. Maxwell, more than any other novelist, has the great art of imparting all the semblance of reality to that which is absolutely nothing more than a sketch of fancy, whilst, on the other hand, he contrives to give to mere historical and often recorded events all the zest and novelty of fiction. We most cordially recommend this spirited production to the notice of our readers, the pe rusal of which will afford them a rich treat. PLATE SUITED FOR PRESENTATION.--- Elegant or Splendid Silver Inkstands—Silve: Waiters of every size —Silver Cups, New and Second-hand—Fik varieties of Silver Tea and Coffee Services—Splendid Snuff Boxes—Silver Epergnes• and many other articles of Plate adapted for Presentation as Testi monials, &c., may be selected from in the Show Rooms at T. COX SAVORY'S Working Silversmith, Goldsmith, and Watchmaker, 47, Cornhill, London. BIRTHS. On the 15th inst., at Shillinglee Park, Sussex, the Countess of Winterton, of a son and heir. On the 14th inst., at Sunbury, the lady of John Bishop, Esq., of a daughter. On the 13th inst., at Sydenham, Kent, Mrs. J. Hohnes, of a son. On the 15th inst., at Berkeley-square, the lady of Thos. Brown, Esq., of a daughter. MARRIED. On the 17th inst., at St. Marylebone Church, Edward Purrier, Esq., second son of the late J. V. Purrier, Esq., of York-terrace , Regent's -park, to Isabella Christian, second daughter of A. C. Johnston, Esq., of Nottingham-terrace, and of Charlesfield, Dum fries-shire. On the 17th inst., at St. George's, Hanover-square, W. A. Jar" rin, Esq., to Susan Rogers, the youngest daughter of the late John Rogers, Esq. On the 15th inst., at St. Paul's, Hammersmith, Albert Mortimer, Esq., youngest son of the late C. Mortimer, Esq., of Acworth Villa, Yorkshire, to Jane, third daughter of T. W. C. Perfect, Esq., ° f the Terrace, Hammersmith. On the 15th inst., at St. George's, Hanover-square, the 1 4 "' Augustus H. Moreton, M.P., for E as t Gloucestershire, to Ma r l Jane, daughter of the late Sir Charl es an d L a d y M`Donald Lock hart, of Lee, N. 8., and niece of the Duke of Leinster. On the 15th inst., at Enfield, William Everett, Esq., of Hi lt House, Hampton, to Anne, widow of the late J. F. Steadman' Esq., of Chase-side House, Enfield. On the 12th inst. at Newington Butts, Lieutenant J. S. Dixo n ' R.N., to Sophia, widow of th e late F. H. Hunter, Esq., of Ken nington-common. DIED. On the 14th inst., at Ramsgate, at the house of her n ephele , Robert Townley, Esq., Elizabeth, relict of the late James Drool: Esq., formerly Deputy of the Ward of Vintners in London, r 7 On the 14th in s t., Willi am , son o f J osep h Ti mperon , New Barnes, St. Alban's, Herts. On the 15th inst., at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, Dougal ties Esq., of Montague-square, aged 28. On the 13th inst , aged 31, Mary, wife of Mr. John Malinge r ' of Bishop's Stortford, and third dau g ht er o f th e l a t e R ev . J. BL' , of Halstead, Essex. On the 11th inst., at Pembroke, John Leach, Esq., aged 7 3 - On tho 15th inst., at FinchlayMr. John Whitby, aged M. p On the 16th inst., at B rec k noc k-t errace , N ew C a mden -to William Daniell, Esq., R. A. On the 16th , inst., Mr. James Shackell, of Gerrard's - er °l4 Buckinghamshire. —OO.l . o' London: Printed a n d P u bli s h e d by AIURDO Y auN G. 0-_,„ t y 112, Strand, a t Th e S un Office , No. 112, Strand , in ago cv" - of Middlesez.—Friday, August 18, 1837. - -