The Sun. — London, England, 1837-09-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS independent man in that priest-bound country to con tinue, as now, in fear for his property, his liberty, and his very life ? Is every statute of the realm to remain a dead letter, from the universal persuision of the people that, under it such an Administration as now preys upon Ireland,i s safer to violate the law than to enforce it ? Murders, and of course the whole class of those outrages which just stop short of mur der, are nothing rare among the Irish population, whose suffrages are estimated by our Ministerial con temporaries as equivalent to the judgments of the Eng lish freeholders. But every now and then there comes a case of homicide so much above the common average of cruelty and ferocity, that even the Whigs, who boast of the perfect quiet and security of Ireland under their all-healing regimen, are obliged to admit the existence of the crime, and make a show of searching for the criminal. The murders arising out of the recent elec tion for the county of Sligo are of this shocking and frightful enormity. A month ago there were living, within the parish of Achonry, in the county of Sligo, two Protestants, of the rank of yeomen, one named Al len, the other IVl , Kenzie. On the occasion of the contest for the county, which began on the 14th of last month, they set off together for the town of Sligo, where the election was held, either to give their votes for the Conservative candidates, or, according to other ac counts, to escort a freeholder in that interest. Day after day elapsed, but they neither appeared in the town of Sligo nor returned to their own abodes in Achonry. Their friends became alarmed. It was known that they had taken the mountain road, and the minutest search was anxiously instituted. At last, on the 19th, after five days and five nights, they were found on the mountain-side, one of them with his arm fractured, and both of them bound, blindfolded, and disfigured with bruises and wounds. From the 14th to the 19th they had remained in that helpless condition, exposed to the extremities of hunger, damp, and cold. Their history was a short but fright ful one. At the commencement of the election a band of ruffians had taken possession of the moun tain roads to prevent the Protestant freeholders from passing to exercise their franchise. When Allen and M'Kenzie, two resolute Protestants, arrived at the place where this body was stationed, they were first seized and cruelly beaten. They were then carried into an uninhabited house or barn, in a village called Cloonacoole, where they found an other elector, also a Conservative, already confined, 1 and there they ‘vere kept immured for a part of that day. From half-hour to half-hour their persecutors without would come to the door of this building, and thundering at it would call to the three prisoners within, revile them for being Tories, and then exhort them to pray for their souls, assuring them that they had only a few hours to live, and would be beheaded in the following night. Under these apprehensions, which one of the poor prisoners described as more ex cruciating than even the pain of their wounds and bruises, they remained till towards evening. But be fore the night set in some of the conspirators entered, and having blindfolded them, to prevent any recogni tion of the guilty parties, tied the legs and arms of all three, and carried theni forth among the crowd assem bled without, to the number, as computed, of be tween 3,000 and 4,000 persons, who received them with tumultuous mockery. In that state, with their ankles crushed together by tight cords or bands, they were dragged along the ground to a distant height, where Allen and vl'Kenzie were dropped on one side of the mountain, and their fellow-prisoner on the other. A deep hole or pit was then digged, into which Allen and Nl‘Kenzie were lowered, a guard remaining over them at the pit's edge. Allen repeatedly implored them to relieve him from his sufferings by shooting him, but they were not so merciful. After a time the two men were brought up and taken into the shelter of a house or cabin. This change for the better ap peared to pioduce an improyement hi their strength, upon which they were carried back into the open air, and lowered again into the pit. The third prisoner, before the close of the election, submitted to the force of his persecutors, and consented to vote as they com manded him. He was accordingly taken from the hill into Sli g o, where he saved his lite by voting for tile Roman Catholic candidate. Allen and 'Kenzie, whose powers of endurance were greater, remained in the pit till the election was over, when, on the 19th, they were discovered by their friends. On the 20th Allen died, and M'Kenzie has since followed the same fate. We have now before us a letter from a gentleman of respectability,whosavv the remains of Allen, and who says " his legs had mortified in the cords, and his widow told me that in washing the corpse the calf fell rotten off one leg. I saw the other leg, and it was a sickening sight." And these are the constituencies who boast of their tranquillity—who value themselves on their loyalty to their Queen—who clamour for an increase of their political power ! Let us not be told that a single atrocity is no proof against a whole country : we insist, that under circumstances like these, a whole country participates in the crime and the disgrace, for this was not the act of an individual—it was the act of a district. Between 3,000 and 4,000 persons were assembled at Cloonacoole, when the victims were beaten, maimed, and carried forth ; yet not only did no portion of them interfere for the rescue, but among the whole of that great multitude there was not found during the entire period of five agonizing days and nights a single individual who had the courage or the charity to repair to the mountain-side and release the sufferers, or even to make known to their distracted friends the place and circumstances of their confine ment. Are the Irish in the county of Sligo, then, so far more barbarous and brutal than any other beings who hear the name of Christian men ? Not so ; their hearts, no doubt, have",the natural yearnings of huma nity and compassion ; but terror overpowers every other sensation, and the man who should have released, relieved, or taken steps for the assistance of those afflicted people, nay,- who should even have breathed a hint that could lead to the discovery of the injuries they had suffered or of the spot where they lay, would himself in a week have taken the place of the victims he had contributed to deliver. And now, in the Gazette the Irish Government offer a reward of 501. for the detection of the mur deters. Why, the murderers are the three or four thousand peasants who were drawn up at Cloonacoole, with perhaps a bevy of priests, accessories before the fact. But the ringleaders, the half-dozen particular ruffians who actually tied on the ropes, may be brought to trial. They may, and if the reward of 501. will induce any one or more of the crowd to turn Queen's evidence, with the certainty of assassination on their way home from the witness-box, the half-dozen ruf fians, provided there be no Roman Catholic on the jury, may be convicted. That improbable result being conceded, what are the chances that, before the day appointed for their punishment, the mercy of Lord Mulgrave will not find some circumstance of mitiga tion in their case, and let the murderers loose again upon the country ? If the Government are in earnest, published in the Gazett e o f th e let them supersede th e f ut il e a d v e 2 ri 9 t t she, mand t which instead they of offering a reward of 501. for the discovery and appre hension of the criminals, which they know, that under the existing system of terror, a reward of a thousand times that amount would not effect, let them offer 2001. for private information, whi c h may not expose the informer to the ban of the priest, and the bludgeon -of the Ribandman. Then, perhaps, they may obtain intelligence ; but if they obtained intelligence, they -might be expected to vindicate the country against the assassins, and that might be inconvenient to the pa -ternal government of the Castle, the continuation o f whose reign is, we are told, a full equivalent to Ireland - fox, all she may feel and all she may fear.—. Times. Some of our Liberal Contemporaries are alarmed at the threatened wholesale Tory petitioning against the -return of Reformers to the House of Commons. We - participate not in their fears ; they are just as ground ' .less as are the Tory expectations of an immediate :advent to Downing-street. Money is proverbially the sinews of war : it will he found especially necessary in as Committee war in the House of Commons. And - where, let us ask, is the money requisite in this case to «come from ? Mr. Andrew Spottiswoode may take the chair at public, or rather hole-and-corner meetings , to " resolve that a su b scr ipti on s h o uld be raised to 'enable the Tories to prosecute their wholesale system *of petitioning ; but there is all the difference in the , world between " r !solving" that a subscription ought lj to be raised, and the actual " raising" itself. The We have received various communications on the subject of the proceedings of the committee for col lectingisubscriptions to encourage petitions against the Irish representatives. In some of these communica tions which we have published an analysis is given of the committee, which may serve to explain the motives of many of them for taking a prominent part in these proceedings. But this is Toryism. There are, pro perly speaking, no disinterested Tories. You can always, by using a little diligence, discover the selfish motive which actuates every Tory ; for selfishness is of the very essence of Toryism. How then, it may be said, do we find Mr. Andrew Spottiswoode, the Queen's Printer, so very active an opponent of the Ad ministration on this and all other occasions? One cor respondent thinks it very hard that he, the keeper of a twopenny-post-office, should be prohibited from Yet ing, while the Queen's Printer takes such a promi nent part in elections. Mr. Andrew Spottiswoode, we have no doubt, considers himself independent of the Government, his office being held by pWent, and that constitutes the distinction between him and the keeper of a twopenny-post-office. It is not, however, usual for men in Mr. Andrew Spottiswoode's situa tion to take so prominent a part in opposition to the Government, and the world will suppose him something different from Tories in general, who are seldom so outrageously independent, except it can be shown that the Whig Government have touched him somewhere on the raw (to use a familiar phrase) in the matter of profits. There is no reconciling a Tory, who has been in the habit of dipping deeply into the public purse, to a more moderate scale of remunera tion ; and Mr. Hume, who has, during his political life, been labouring to save money to the public, has found that public much less disposed to remember the benefit, than the individual deprived of improper gains to resent his activity. But to return to the subject of the subscription to encourage election petitions. Now that the Tory designs have been so unequivocally dis closed, we cannot suppose that Ministers will allow the country to be insulted in so barefaced a manner. In order that the matter may receive all the considera tion to which it is entitled, we would humbly suggest the expediency of the whole House coining to some such resolution as adjourning the consideration of all petitions till after Christmas. The Standard, on Saturday last, justly, we believe, laid claim to the origination of this scheme. It began to propound the idea of bringing English wealth to bear on Irish elections so early as the 3d of December last. It then told us that " the Protestant gentry of Ireland, though territorially rich, are noto riously a class not abounding in ready money. . . . . . . A very slight effo tof the Conservatives of Great Britain and Ireland would raise quite enough of money to give an opportunity of contesting every election in the Sister Is'and ; and every one at which tin O'Connellitc shows himself ought to be contested, how slight however the present p,ospect of success. By contesting every election the Conservatives would gain at least thirty in addition to their present number." On the 14fh December the Standard took courage to proceed a little further : " We hesitate not to assert (said our sanctimonious contemporary) that if the island (Ireland) he fairly con tested from end to end, instead of a loss of three or four, a dissolution would give a Conservative gain of five times as many. But every county and borough, without excep tion, where a Radical presumes to show his face must be contested if Ireland is to be rescued from this Tail.' There must be no faint•heartedness, no compromise, no neglect. The battle of Dublin and Wexi'ord must be fought in Kerry and in Mayo ; and in these pisees it will he fought more effectually even than upon the spot which is to give the seat contended for—though it must be fotillt there too. A great sum, it will be said, would he required for such a purpose. Not so great, we assert, as many may suppose, fin we deprecate all except legal expenses, though within that description it were desir able to make each contest as obstinately expensive as pos sible. But be the amount of expense great or small. it ought to be incurred, for it is the stake of a mighty game— of a game upon which the British empire may be lost or won ; for surely it is not rash to say that upon the result of the next g eneral election the fate of the empire may and probably will depend. By pursuing this course the Con servatives, too, will make the battle upon the oround where they are strongest and their enemies are weakest. It will be a war between the wealthiest class in the world and a knot of pennyless paupers, the elect and admitted chieftain of whom is a penniless beggar." This naked proposal to the Conservatives of Eng land to employ their vast wealth in putting the Irish representatives to a vexatious expense in defending their seats is precisely such an interference as must re coil on those who have recourse to it. The Conserva tives must, for the sake of both countries, be placed under wholesome restraint. Can they imagine that a people so spirited as the Irish—a people who have the courage to set their own landlords at defiance—will tamely suffer themselves to be deprived of their victory by such a base and unprincipled attempt of English • Conservatives as that which has just been made on the recommendation of the Standard? Were the Irish to be defrauded of their proper representatives by such an op pressive application of the wealth of English Conser vatives, they would have the best of all pretexts for de manding an independent Legislature. The Standard itself, on the 2d of January last, observed it would be an exceedingly dangerous policy for English Members to determine Irish questions against the sense of the great majority of the Irish Members. " Give the Whigs (it said) Mr. O'Connell, and his ninety Members, and it little matters in what proportion .we may outvote them in Great Britain. Some right-minded, but hasty men say, Never mind Ireland ; let Mr. O'Con nell have his ninety Members, and as we shall have a ma jority of twice ninety upon the British elections we can afford to let him have them.' No ; we reply, you cannot afford it. Take your majority in the House of Commons to-morrow—restore Sir Robert Peel's, or, if possible, any better Administration ; but leave Mr. O'Connell and his ninety Members, and you will be beaten and your party broken and dispersed so as never to rise again. A. body of Representatives so nearly commensurate with the whole Irish representation, would plausibly claim to govern the legislation of their own island. If outvoted by purely Bri tish majorities, they would have an argument for their darling project, the repeal of the Union, such as they never had before. They would say to the Conservative Ministers, give us the Irish Corporations—give us the pro perty of the Church in Ireland, which all the Irish Re presentatives agree in demanding—give us these things, or we shall no longer come here to be swamped by an alien majority, but restore our native Parliament on College— green. Will any one say that this would not have an effect even upon a Conservative Administration, through the timid slaves incumbered with wealth ?" Does the Standard then think that the Irish people, who have achieved such a glorious victory over their old oppressors, will allow themselves to be deprived of that majority by another edition of the plan of alien swamping, the notable scheme of contest ing all the returns by a joint-stock purse, raised by English Conservatives ? If the English Conservatives were to be suffered to make such an unhallowed use of their money,. the Irish would unquestionably resent the insult. But we have too high an idea of the discretion of the House of Commons to suppose that it will not instantly set its face against these Tory tricks. The Standard on Saturday last told us, with its usual assurance, " that considerations mingled with • party interest" called for subscriptions to carry on the election petitions, as they " concern no less than twenty seats in the House of Commons ; and if firmly supported and vigorously promoted, they will all to a certainty succeed. Here is an end to all doubt as to the prompt fate of the Mel bourne Cabinet—here is an assurance of a Con servative administration for many years to come." And all this is to be effected by a subscription, not perhaps, one-third part of what the Duke of Welling te:i allowed his son to expend in corrupting the Nor wich voters. The old Whigs will keep away from the ballots for Irish election petitions ; the Tories will thus be enabled to pack committees ; the Irish repre sentatives will be unable to meet the expenses of the contests, and twenty members will be ejected without fail. There is something of the &Ladd in this find scheme ; but the subscription committee will find the task they have undertaken not so light as the Standard would represent it. However, their wings must be clipped ; and we are much mistaken if Mr. Andrew Spottiswoode and his compeers do not find, ere long, that they have embarked in a more ticklish business than they had any conception of.—Morning Citron. Justice to Ireland T. Will the Government who live upon this cry enforce the law in Ireland ? or is every, TIIE SUN, LONDON, TtTESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1837 Tories had long pockets ; but they are now pretty much curtailed of their fair proportions. The treasury of the Carlton Club is notoriously exhausted ; and, what is worse, there is not the slightest chance of its being replenished for some time to come. The late elections drained the pockets of the Tories to the last shilling, They did more ; they have left them in debt. Look at the miserable exhibition they are now making in Finsbury. Poor Mr. Perceval 1 We wonder what he thinks of the projected subscription to harass Li beral Members, by petitioningagainst their return. We doubt not that he would recommend his Tory friends to relieve him from the embarrassing. situation in which, by their non-payment of his election claims, they have placed him, before they commit themselves with their threatened enterprise. No, no ; it will not do. It is true the Tories are reckless and profligate enough to resort to any expedient, however desperate and base, which they might deem likely to accomplish their ends. But the disposition is one thing, and the power an other : the latter, we repeat, they do not possess. They may bluster andthreaten as much as they.please, but more than that they cannot do. The secret of the matter is sufficiently plain. They talk about this indiscriminate petitioning against the Liberal returns, because they have now no other hope. It is the des perate expedient of a desperate and dying faction ; and one, moreover, which, as just observed, they cannot carry into effect. The very threat, however, is not without its lesson of instruction. It is a virtual ad mission that they have abandoned all hope, if, indeed, they ever entertained any, of defeating Ministers in le gitimate Parliamentary warfare. It makes another most important virtual admission. It is an undoubted though negative proclamation, that all their expecta tion of ejecting Ministers by any other means have vanished. Had William the Fourth—peace to his manes I—bean still on the throne of these realms, we should never have heard of so wild and monstrous an enterprise. The Tories would, in that case, have trusted to back stairs influence at Court to accom plish that which they could not effect by fair means. They would have trusted to certain intriguers in pet ticoats repeating the affair of November, 1834 ; but the Court no longer holds out any hopes to them— their influence is gone for ever in that quarter. — Morning Advertiser. Of all the difficulties which present themselves to an intelligent and impartial mind in considering the actual circumstances of British politics at the pre sent time none, perhaps, is so embarrassing as the Parliamentary representation of Scotland. Why should that kingdom send to the House of Commons a majority of Destructives ? Why should a people who are certainly in the mass neither stupid, nor ignorant, nor s ubservient—why should they think fit to send representatives to the House of Commons who will fight the political battle in the same ranks with the O'Connell slaves—the deputed enemies of Protestantism—the supporters of a Government on account of its badness, and its consequent injui ions ness to the British name and nation ? 'What is there in Presbyterianism that it should league with I Popery ? What is there in the perferdiunz genium Scdtoruin that it should so largely devote itself to the support of a feeble faltering Administration ? What is there in the rugged simplicity of that land, or in the stern and thoughtful character of its population, to sympathise with a Government which lives by in trigue, and by base associations—a Government in which there is nothing strong, nothing noble, nothing generous, nothing independent ? What can the spirit of Caledonia find to admire in an Adminis tion which is utterly spiritless—which creeps along, seeking apparently no prouder goal than that of quarter-day, and desiring no higher reward than that of wages ? Is it possible that they are Scotchnien who thus degrade the land of their birth, and the spirit of their ancestors, by giving a helping hand to much that is villainous, and all that is vile in political go vernment ; or are we to believe that the encroaching, flood of Irish population, with its machinery of Pro testant-hating Priesthood, has so far intruded into the Scottish towns as to command within them no incon siderable influence ? Doubtless there is a good deal to be attributed both in Scotland and in the manufac turing districts of England to Irish immigration, and the hostility to British institutions with which the pas sions, the prejudices, and even the reasoning powers of these people are so deeply imbued. Another obvious cause of the Scotch sympathy with Radicalism may be found in the sullen discontent, and sour conceit, which the Edinburgh Review poured so vigorously into the Scottish mind from thirty to twenty years ago. But the matter is better accounted for in an able article of Blackwood for the present month than it ever has been before. The following paragraph we consider to contain a very able developetnent of the men who carried the Reform Bill would rather have died a thousand deaths than have made a base league with O'Connell and his faction, and have owed to him their continuance of place and pay. The Whigs who carried the Reform Bill set O'Con nell and his vile machinery at defiance, and were com plimented by him as " base, brutal, and bloody." The paltry underlings in that Administration, who are leaders and managers in the present Administration, have prostrated themselves before O'Connell, and, being under his protection, he calls them the very best of Ministers, and actually professes, for their sake, loyalty to the Sovereign I We trust that when the Scotch have duly weighed, as in the course of time they wndoubtedly will, the broad distinction between the " Reform" Administration which gave them their elective privileges, and the O'Connell Administration, which renders these privileges of no avail in the just and manly government of the country, we shall find them, as we find the English people, returning a majo rity in favour of preserving intact (especially from Irish Revolutionists) those privileges which have been ob _ _ t ain ed.— Mo rn ing Post. - From all the calculations which have been made by those who have directed their attention to the subject, and whose report may be depended upon, it seems certain that Ministers cannot bring forward, with any chance of success in the ensuing Parliament those measures which hitherto they have described as " vitally" important to the good government of the country. We allude, of course, to the chance of success in the House o f C om m o ns ; as to the other House, it is out of the question that the present Mi nisters can have any success there. They have them selves admitted often enough that the only way to obtain the acquiescence of the House of Lords was to bring their measures before that House supported by a considerable majority of the House of Commons. It is true, that when they made this admission they supposed that the calling of a new Parliament would give them this considerable majority in the Commons, and it is equally true that in this expectation they have been com pletely disappointed. But their diappointment cannot alter the doctrine which they have themselves laid down respecting the Upper House, and while their House of Commons' majority lessens, instead of increasing, they can have no excuse either for violent measures to pass their experiments through the LOrds, or violent complaints that these experiments are still rejected in the Upper House. In speculating, then, upon what Ministers will be likely to do when Parliament meets, there seems to be, according to the present state of af fairs, but two courses open to them. They must either resign or be content to hold back their ultra-Radical and Church spoliation measures, and to propose more Conservative measures in their room. Experience teaches us that whatever may happen to these Ministers, the resignation of their offices is the very last mode they will think of resorting to for getting out of their diffi culties. When they were out on a former occasion, they were rEsmissed, and nothing with regard to their future history is so certain, as that when they go out again it will be because they have been dismissed. We do not mean to say that this is likely to happen ; ~ ve only say that, judging, from all that has happened, Ministers, whatever defeat or disgrace they may sus tain, will not go out until they are turned out. We must, therefore, dismiss the alternative of resigna tion, and fall in with the other—viz., the abandon ment by the present Ministers of the " appropiation clause" and the church-rate scheme, and the adoption of much more Conservative policy than they have hitherto thought proper to advocate. There arc many adherents of the ministry, and particularly those con nected with Scotland, who have already made up their minds to this change of policy, and who do not hesi tate to avow their opinion that, under the existing cir cumstances, it is the hest thing the Ministers can do. They, no doubt, mean that it is the only thing which they can do, unless they choose to go into the unpro fitaGle position of oppositionists. We are confirmed in our opinion that this accommodation of their neces sities to a more conservative tone of policy will be adopted by Ministers, because we find some of the more cunning among their advocates giving out that the acquiescence of the Conservatives in several minis terial measures may be expected in the ensuing session. This is preparing the way beforehand for the false representation which it will be necessary to make by and bye in order to save their credit. Ministers will bring forward measures based upon conservative policy, and then they will boast that they have obtained the acquiescence of the Conservatives to their policy. This will be a very paltry shuffle ; but Mi nisters now are so well used to that, as to think no thing or it. Such a trick will, of course, be very well understood in England ; but Ministers do not so much care about that. Their dependence now is not upon England, but upon Ireland ; and they are well aware that any trick, however gross—and any treachery, however flagitious—will serve to impose upon the be nighted Irish population, if only it be promulgated by Mr. O'Connell, and supported by the priests. Cer tainly there is no way so likely to obtain the acquies cence of an opponent—especially if he be an honest and fair one—as to conic into his opinions, and to adopt his views. But there remains a question, how far it is honourable or decent to adopt the views of an opponent, because you must do so or sacrifice some great advantage, and then to take credit for his ac quiescence in his own views ? This is the question which every one will have to decide who wishes to come to a fair judgment upon the apparently-intended conduct of the Ministry.—Morning Herald. The general feeling produced by the remembered struggle for the Reform Bill has more peculiarly prevailed in Scotland, where the former state of the representation was unduly limited, and, on abstract grounds, indefensible. In addition also to a sense of gratitude towards those who are thought to have bestowed the gift of popular suffrage, there is the further circumstance, that the parties vested with the franchise are entirely new to the exercise of it. They are inclined, accordingly—at least the more incon siderate portion of them—to use it with much of the wantonness with which a weapon or toy is generally wielded by a newfangled possessor. As a boy is constantly taking out his new watch to see if it is going—as a stripling with his first gun is almost ready to fire it in your face, to ascer tain its effects—so are our friends on this side of the border now dealing with the instrument that has been put into their hands. They wish to ascertain its power, and to :hoc their own strength. They would feel as if they had it not, if it were not exercised in defiance of their natural supe riors and leaders. They think not as yet of the proper object for which it was given—of the true interests which it ought to serve. They seek merely the most marked and prominent manner of making a display of it, and seem sometimes to have a pleasure in selecting the most extraor dinary and least appropriate representative, merely to prove what they can do if they choose." They who know but superficially the national cha racter of Scotchmen will perhaps think that there is a levity in the feelings and motives above attributed to them which does not well harmonize with their actual dispositions. We believe that they who thoroughly understand the depths and the shallows—. the " lights and shadows"—of Scottish life, will have no sueli opinion. Serious and even severe as the Scottish character is often found to be, it is far more susceptible of excitement than the English, and far more apt to treat the gravest affairs, when they are no way connected with the imaginative, the picturesque, or the pathetic, with the exuberance of boyish vivacity, than are the steady and comparatively unimpassioned natives of England. Moreover, it will be observed that apart from the lively figures which the writer in Black wood uses to illustrate his views, there is nothing in his statement which reflects unfavourably upon the cha racter of the Scotch people, or forbids the hope of a great amendment in their political dispositions. It is from no ignorant submission to tyrannical dictation that so many Scotch constituencies send representa tives to Parliament who vote with the Destructive fac tion. It seems to be from mistaken views of that which is demanded by gratitude, and that which is due to an independent spirit. These mistaken views time will probably correct, and then, as the principles of action are good, all will be well. If the Scotch people really believe that they owe important and useful pri vileges to the exertions of the men who now ate Mi nisters, we do not blame them for supporting these men. We value too much the sentiments of genero sity and gratitude—the best sentiments of the human heart—to regret their exercise, even at the expense of our own political party. Even as a matter of interest we are well persuaded that the Conservative cause must in the end gait► by habits of generosity and gr iti tude, though they may temporarily, and partially, ope rate against us. We were not persuaded of this we should not be Conservatives. But it is quite a mis take on the part of the Scotch, or of anybody else, to suppose that they are indebted for the Reform Bill to those who are now in office. The present Ministers could no more have carried the Reform Bill than thoy could have carried mountains on their shoulders. They were men of a far different mould who accomplished that great, and, as we believe, pernicious, revolution. They were of minds too daring and too reckless for the safe conduct of British government at a time when so much popular excitement raged throughout Europe but they were mighty in their mischief, and not mean, as the present Ministers are. Tile leading On Sunday night, between the hours of eleven and twelve o'clock, an accident of a serious nature, and which created a good deal of alarm in the Pool, occurred to the collier brig Briton, coal laden, lying just below the Com mercial Dock buoy, off the Deptford Victualling-yard. The crew had all retired to their berths, and the ship at that time appeared secure enough at her moorings. Shortly before midnight, the ship, in swinging with the flood tide, touched the anchor of another brig, and pricked a hole in her bottom. The vessel being deeply laden, immediately began to fill, and soon went down. The ship's company narrowly escaped with their lives. The crew of the brig alongside, some of whom were on deck, observing the Briton sinking fast, alarmed the hands, and they rushed on deck, hastily snatching a few things within their reach, and had but just got into the boats which put off to their aid, when all that appeared of their vessel were her masts, and she now lies sunk in deep water. Yesterday morning a sloop heavily laden was coming up the river, when in going over the spot near where the Briton had sunk, she touched the same anchor, which made a large aperture in her bot tom, and she also filled and went down. The two vessels are now under water, alongside of each other, forming a great obstruction to the navigation of the river. The loss to the owners of the two ships is very great. Efforts will be instantly adopted, by means of chain lighters, to raise the vessels, when they will be taken into dock and refitted, and the damage made good. The e . pidemy now raging at Warsaw, which at first was believed to be the plague, but which is now looked upon as a very malignant typhus, is assigned by several German papers as the cause why his Majesty the Emperor of Russia has, for the present, given up his intended visit to that city. Pope's villa, at Twickenham, continues to attract visitors, who view it with pleasure, and traverse the grounds with delight, in veneration of the memory of the poet whose diversified works have rendered him so popular, and rank bins so high among the British bards. His villa for a cen tury has been the object of attraction. A diving-bell has been constructed at Harwich, for the purpose of fixing air tubes to sunken vessels. The Prus sian galliot Blucher, laden with corn, was last week raised by means of this ingenious machine ; and a brig, laden with a general cargo, which sunk last winter, is now undergoing the same process.—Bury Hei On Saturday, as some boys were bathing at Usk bridge, near Brecon, the son of Mr. Hughes, of that town, was taken with the cramp and sank. Mr. Prosser, of Bridge-end, who was providentially passing, jumped into the stream, and diving in the place where the boy sank, brought him up apparently lifeless, and conveyed him to a neighbouring house, where be was restored to animation through his exertions. This is the fifth person Mr. Prosser has rescued from drowning.—Hereford Journal. On Friday Samuel Dokey, the driver of a train of carriages on the Cromford and High Peak Railroad, fell under the train, when the carriages, passing over his leg, cut it off. The poor fellow was left on the road for some con siderable time, and when discovered he had bled to death. —Derby Mercury. A boy was last week at our petty sessions sen tenced to three months' imprisonment for stealing a pair of breeches from a soldier, and in the indictment the breeches were said rather strangely to be the property of Queen Victoria.—Chester Gazette. CRIME DETECTED BY iNEDICAL SCIENCE About five in the morning the head of a man was found under the second arch of the Bridge de la Tournelle, Paris ; the trunk of the body was afterwards discovered in a sink, in the street De la Houchette, and two lower extremities near the Pont Neuf. Subsequent inquiries led to the know ledge that the deceased was a man of the name of Ramus, and that he was an old soldier, lately employed as a messen ger for the bureau of a receiver of taxes. The head and body being deposited at the Morgue, the medical examina tion commenced, which, from the very great length at which it is reported, renders it exceedingly difficult to enter much into it, though, from the careful and judicious mode of pro cedure, the medical men in this country would derive great advantage from its perusal. The exterior appearance showed the deceased to be about thirty ; his countenance exhibited not the slightest mark of suffering or of anxiety ; the features were calm, the eyes half open, the mouth wide open, the skin pale and livid ; there was a slight wound upon the forehead, and there appeared two or three slight bruises upon the face, but no indication whatever of violence upon any part of the body. The medical men, from all th• cir cumstances which presented themselves, on examining the manner in which decapitation and amputation had been per formed, came to the conclusion that Remus was killed during sleep, and that sleep must have been produced by artificial means ; that it was either the result of drunkenness, or the elect of some narcotic ; that the throat must have been cut, and an immense quantity of blood lost ; that the de capitation and the cutting-off of the limbs must have been immediately performed by a person accustomed to such operations either on man or on animals ; that the instru ment must have been sharply-edged and long, either such as is used for amputation or for the kitchen ; that he must have been a vigorous person, that all the incisions were made by the same hand, and that the murderer became nervous as he concluded his horrid act. They then pro ceeded to the examination of the internal parts of the body, .which led them to pronounce, that the unfortunate man had laboured under no disease which had a tendency to ter minate life suddenly ; the death was solely produced by the cutting of the throat ; that the:contusions on the face were the result of the endeavours made, during the amputation, to perform it quickly ; and that death must have taken place about three hours after he had had a meal. The contents of the stomach were submitted to anal) sis, and were pronounced to contain a small quantity of alcohol and of hydrocyanic, or prussic acid, but its quantity could not be deter mined. About three weeks afterwards the murderer was ar rested, or, rather delivered himself into the hands of justice ; for, learning that his son, who had been just appren tioned to an apothecary at Paris, had been taken up on suspicion, he returned to Paris, having previously left it for Arc. He confessed, at the Prefecture of Police, after some hesitation, his crime ; and it was most satisfactory o all those who were interested in the subject, to find how completely the opinions given by the medical men were borne out by the narrative of the person who committed the deed. Just previous to the death of Re mus he bad given him a mixture of brandy and prussic acid, and had murdered his victim exactly in the manner which the documents delivered in by the examiners of the body had led the public to expect. In the examination of the contents of the stomach there were proved to be pre sent traces of other matters which had been taken. The rooms in which the murderer lived were next the subject of examination, and all the bottles, the utensils, the differ ent stains and marks which were visible, became the sub jects of chemical investigation, and completely was each particular of every substance that had been taken, analysed, and everything entirely elucidated ; and so thoroughly satisfactory a chain of evidence was submited to the Jury, that even without the necessity of receiving the confession, the man was found guilty of poisoning, murder, and theft. —Dr. Sigmond on Poisoning, in the Lancet. WEST 1, A -y- A respectable citizen of Dublin has received a letter from his brother, who i s gone ou t t o t hi s co l ony w ith a determi nation to settle there. The letter is published in the Dub lin Evening Yost; it is a very interesting document, inas much as the writer has en t ere d i n t o th e mos t m i nu te details as to the climate, the productiveness of the soil, manners and customs of the people, both natives and settlers, and his own pecuniary and ultimate prospects. With respect to the climate and colony he says— " As to the colony itself, I am delighted with it, and am determined to settle here. My reasons for taking this resolution are—the climate is, perhaps, the finest in the known world, although that of Italy is so much the fashion, and so much spoken of ; and the land, with very little help, is almost laughably productive. Only think of pigs feed ing upon melons, and their owner, an Irishman, grumbling at the dainty dish they were getting. Wheat is now (15th March, 1837) ss. per bushel ; meat, 10d. per lb.—but this latter article is expected to decline in price by next year, as it has, heretofore, been from 14d. to 18d. per lb. The great obstacle to the progress of agriculture is the high rate of wages to labouring men, that rate being at the present period from Ss. Gd. to 4s. per day, food, lodging, and grog ! You, however, see nothing but happy faces everywhere ; there is no poverty amongst the working classes ; oval man has his employment, and it pays him well ; and the people are as hospitable as the land is productive, and that is nearly inexhaustible. It is a pity that the real value of this colony is not better or more generally known, as a knowledge of it might help thousands out of poverty, dis tress, and actual starvation. All garden vegetables grow here in a most surprising manner, the bulby, especially- - such as carrots, parsnips. turnips, kales, asparagus, &c. clovers and grasses thrive well in almost every part of the colony. The system of agriculture is to scratch the surface of the ground with a sedge, and throw in the seed broad cast, and then leave it to the four winds of heaven to do the rest, and the result is abundant and luxuriant cro ps. The scenery is very beautiful here (Perth), although, as I am told, it is more so over the hills where they feed the sheep—the pasturage being much better." The writer here says that his saw a great deal of the world, but was never really or truly astonished until he saw Australia, as it differs in so many re spects from all the other countries that he had seen. There is an abundance of fine mahogany, with which they roof the houses, and large quantities of gum-trees, which are of great use in their way. He then speaks as to what would be the best course to be adopted in a mercantile point of view, and, as to that, lie says, the best speculation is that of pas turing sheep for fine wools ; the young Merino ewes, of the Nigretti flock, which, he says, are the finest sheep in the world, produce wool which sells for 2s. 3d. per fleece, all expenses paid. And he further adds, that it was his deter mination to purchase 100 of them, at about W. 10s. each, and get them taken care of until he could purchase laud for thirds of the profits, his risk being covered, which is s mode of dealing very much in fashion there. As to the land for pasturage, he says that it sells from Is. to 2s. Gd. per acre, fee simple, and will feed one sheep to three or four acres ; and almost all the cattle there are of the finest breeds. With respect to the sheep—of which he possesses a considerable quantity, be thus speaks :—" On the 15th I bought 40 sheep, at an average of 41. 15s. Id. (1901.55.) ; they are now lambing, and the lambs are worth, even before their birth—and they have been sold prior to that event taking place—ll. 10s. each, so I am content with the purchase, as they are sonia of the finest sheep in the world, a nd I can make a further increase to my stock, as circumstance s may guide me. I intend putting these out to a land owner over the hills, and living with him ; the sheep wd be taken at ' fourths' (i. e. of the profits), or 251. pe r 100 sheep, clearing the proprietor of risk or expense. « e want shepherds and labourers ; but we cannot depend eh their fulfilling their engagements, after paying their passage out. No industrious, well-disposed man could fail of success here. I admit, however, that many persons have brough t misfortune on their own heads in consequence of being drank morning, noon, and night ; and such people could not be prosperous in any country." The writer here describes. the natives of the country as a harmless, innocent race of people, who attend the markets, and go about their ordinary business, in a state of nudity, with as much ease as t * best-dressed Dublin dandy would stroll down College-green "As to field sports,'" he says, " there is plenty o f k anga roo hunting and shooting, and the rivers are full of fish." Then with respect to the ignorance which prevails in these countries relative to the colony itself, he thus remarks--" I have e ntered into the most minute details relative to everything that I considered worthy of note, and I must say, that I wasin duced to do so because I know that this colony has been, slandered in the most shameless and malicious manner, a n e I have heard positive and barefaced, nay, gratuitous fals e ; hoods asserted openly against it. Ido not own an acre 0 ; land there, but I wish to do so, as I am anxious to suprOi.re P and belong to a community upon ' which the mali gn ity of h jobbery of other colonies is brought to bear. Soo t , Australia the Company,' get 11. per acre for their lase . Here the Government price is only ss. per acre. In SydntY and Van Diemen's Land you are obliged to associate with convicts ! and all these circumstances act as provocati ve° to that greedy appetite for slander which yearns to devour and destroy the prospects of those they envy. Hence it that if you ever happened to hear this colony well spoke n _ of by any other person, you were led to suppose that tea encomiums passed upon it were fallacious, and uttered through interested motives. I, therefore, wish that ?iir r countrymen could be roused out of that lethargic slu mber into which they seem to have fallen, and come to pl ac e where there are neither tithes nor taxes ; and where r labouring man, as I have already shown, is well paid f° his labour." STOKESHILL-PLACE; OR, THE MAN O V BVS I- 0 NESS, BY MRS. GORE.—This is not so much a novel of, manners as it is a novel of what may be termed everydl) experience. The description of the electioneering strugVe —of the canvass for the suffrages of the tradesmen O f the f . the, borough—the jar and conflict of personal interests-- 0 modes of annoyance which the injured and the prejudic.eiu. employ on occasions of this kind, which yield them l e i mate opportunities of revenging themselves upon the y r ' d and oppression of their superiors —are conceived w ith , mind of larger scope and greater strength than is n 0 ° 11 ; developed by woman. Indeed, throughout all her nnv e r Mrs. Gore exhibits an amount of knowledge and a P °vie t of delineation which are almost masculine. And Y e ; with all this sagacity, a womanly charm presides o ver he_ writings, which softens their bolder traits, and redeems theo ; completely from that offence of pretension which cle! e women too often commit. This charm i s simply gen i lti ", g ' which makes all things appropriate and delightful.- - Ani The Swedish Governm en t h as announc ed that vessels and travellers from Prussia, Mecklenberg, Lubec" and Holstein, must be provided with bills of healtb, T. COX SAVORY, Goldsmith, &c, 47, Co rn. ' London, inform s th e P u bli c, t h at h e h as a considerable variet:fec. SECOND-HAND GOLD WATCHES, any of which he off T: at EIGHT GUINEAS eac h. Th e y have all been carefully el amined, and are warranted.—Watches purchased in eachan BIRTHS. Cat.. On the Ist inst., at East Barnett, Hertfordshire, Mrs. Janie' IMg, of a son. On the 26th ult., at Upton, South Devon, the lady of H. g ar hew, Esq., of a son and heir. On the Ist inst., in Devonshire-place, Mrs. C. Cure, of a 5 " • On the ht inst., the lady of C. Millet, Esq., of a daughter. k, On the 4th inst., in Weymouth-street, the lady of R. W. Lie Esq., of a . On the 2d son inst., at The Limes, Lewisham, the lady of E. Leah' Esq., of a daughter. l a dy of Captain Schonswa r t On the 27th ult., at Dunda lk, Mo O o n re t , h E e s 2 q d ., in of st a ., d a a t u i g T h az te l r e . y, Worcestersh ire, the lady of J. Carrick King's Dragoon Guards, of a titerdaug. MARRIED. Aannonv,ero-nslqyu daughterar e,Jam e s o i H j e o n ti r n y 'to n St. Hill, of Soho-square, Moon-street, Piccadilly. Robinson, Esq , of Half E. Bell, Esq" On the 2d inst. On the 30th ult., at St..Grcehoirtegeet',s youngest (laughter of Walter Bevan, Esq of White to Susannah, youno ,at St. Luke's, Ch el sea, W' head's-grov. On the 2d inst., at Highgate, Harry, youngest son of Sir Robert Chester, to Anna Maria, the only child of the late Robert 'she' wood, Esq. On the 29th ult., at the British Legation atAlunich, Jas. Henry, Callender, Esq., of Craigforth, to the Hon. Jane Erskine, young' . daughter o f the Ri g ht Hon. Lord Erskine, Envoy Extraordin2rJ and Itlinister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Bavaiia. u p n i d e r a r y e , p t o h n e t, 3 o d nl i ,, n , s s t o . l , l DIED. o i f n Ai L r a . m \v b i ' l s li a C m on T tl r u e i d t- w s a tr v ee c t iar ir 1 On the 2d inst., at Ri c h mon d, R ear- Ad m i ra l Ch ar les Fielding mo O nt n hs B , aged 57. On the Ist inst., at Brompton, the infant and only son of-faf nce Scott, Esq., of Lincoln' s Inn-fields, aged four months. Mut- On 25 the - .th ult., at Little Berkhlistead, Eliza Eleanor ra On g aed 60. Essex, f W' the 4th inst., a t L ey t on , E , aged 72, M ary, re lict o Copeland, Esq. Darby' On the 19th ult a t Leghorn El'relict of the late G. -- ~ , , Esq., aged 61. Gee , On the 26th of March, at Bangalore, the lady of the 'Rev' of t he Grime, late wid o w o f H. Harris, Esq , M.D., first member Madras Medical Board. • E94'' of On the 27th ult., Doris, the wife of James Wilson, Hamburgli. tson , F ' "' i On the 24th ult., at Edinburgh, aged 70, George WI. ~.r r, a n President of the Scottish Academy of P aintin g , Sculln" th. _ Architecture. w ife of .'-'' e On the Ist. inst., at Grove-place, Brixt on, Mary, J. James Fletcher, Esq. 'fe of 311. " On the lot inst., at Camberwell, Frances Mary, w 0 •ls tor Davidson. lea On the 2d inst., aged 27, Mrs. Frederick Thomas, infant daughters. the v. _ife o f it' On the 31st ult., in Wilderncss-row, Mrs. D odd, Dodd, A.M., late of Titchileld, Hants. , f I‘l'''' , vo • o On the 25th ult., at Yately, Hants, Henrietta, vs' , '" ° ' r , artney Moore, Esq., Bengal Civil ,ervice, aged 3 ___________—•—:, . f l l° -- . ---- — 0 UN G ' ° wi t y London: Printed and Published by MURDO Y , . n the e.. 0 11 0 , Strand, at The Suit (Mice, No. 112. Stranu ,l of Aliddlesex.—Tuesday, September a, 1837. DONCASTER RACES. At the terminatio❑ of the races of last year, the atten dance at which was truly splendid, whether as regarded the long list of the nobility and gentry with their respective equipages, or the number of visitors generally from all parts of the country, as well as from Ireland and Scotland, the expression was then generally prevalent that the ensu ing year would, if possible, be of surpassing excellence. Whether this expression, which followed the remarks of perfect satisfaction as to the superior quality of the running and the magnificence of the whole scene on that occa,ion, will be fully verified this year, remains to be seen. There are certainly no just g rounds for the entertainment of any forebodings, although it has been surmised that the occur rence of the general election and the late pressure upon the mercantile interests, would have the effect of dimi nishing the number of visitors. With respect to the former of these assertions, which, by the way, applies not to the nobility, the fears, if any, are groundless. The reverse is rather the case. Many, indeed, escaped from the whirl of political excitement, from the remembrance of subjects which have been exhausted by discussion, amid incessant wrangling, strife, and contention, until the heart has become sickened of politics, will feel disposed to seek for relaxation and enjoyment by visiting Doncaster, and participating in the splendid scenes which the race week invariably presents. As to the latter assertion, the prospects of the manufacturing and commercial interest are brightening around—the storm is passed—and full scope will soon be given for the employment of capital, and far accelerating the progress of manufacturing industry, and for again entering upon the field of commercial enterprise. With respect, indeed, to a large and important class of the community, the induce ments to enjoy the pleasures of the country, and the oppor tunities for doing so, now happily join. The duties con nected with Parliament are yet in the distance—the elec tions have terminated—and the advantages arising from re laxation—from unbending the bow which has been long tightly strung—are too apparent to be enforced. The no velty of moor-game shooting will have partly subsided ; and many participators in that arduous, but invigorating, ex ercise will be upon the return, previous to a full participa tion in the field sports nearer home. The splendour of the St. Leger and the numerous enjoyments connected with the race week are, therefore, quite opportune. And by what can these be excelled ? The fame of Doncaster is spread far and wide ; it has gone on the wings of the wind to distant lands ; it has attracted the stranger from many a foreign shore. " Why (says Mr. E. L. Bulwer) should not Doncaster turn out as classical a name as Elis ?—the St. Leger or Derby become as famous in all future time as the Pythian or Olympic games ? All antiquity can boast of nothing to be compared to the Great Na tional Race at Doncaster. The splendour of the com pany, the beauty and the number of the contending animals, the excitement of the contest, the skill of the jockeys, and the fearful risk of the sportsmen, all combine to make this one glorious race a grand characteristic of the land we live in. Looking at it merely as a matter of taste, without reference to the national utility of continued atten tion to the powers of horses, or to the great efforts spent upon the preparation and getting up the contest in all its perfection, the St. Leger race is, perhaps, one of the most beautiful and exciting spectacles in the world. We can compare it, in the sensation which it produces, only to the falls of Niagara. The number of horses that start, each in all the luxuriant pride of breed and beauty ; the well known skill, power, and resolution of the variegated riders ; the thunder of the pace ; the alternation of the chances of success agitating miriads of human beings in masses, on perches, exalted in stands, swarming in booths, altogether produce on the spectator a tremendous excite ment, only to be compared, as we have said, with one of na ture's grandest exhibitions. If we wished a foreigner at once to penetrate the mystery of the English wealth and power, we should plant him on the Grand Stand at Don caster, on the Tuesday afternoon in the race week." Few sights, indeed, can compare with the one in question, which, with all its varied associations and all its numerous conco mitants, casts into shade all the famed games of high anti quity.—Doncaster Gazette. The rubbish and broken stones which covered the ground in Trafalgar-square, opposite the National Gallery, have been removed preparatory to finishing the square, which is to be completed with all possible dispatch, and will be a very great improvement to Charing-cross. The square will contain serpentine walks, ornamented by shrubs, and enclosed by a handsome iron railing. The Reformers of Rochdale have been under the necessity of serving more than their usual number of objec tions against county voters for this year, on account of the numerous persons whom the Toties have put upon the list that have no right to be there. Many whose names were struck off the last year are claiming again for the very qua lifications which were pronounced bad twelve months ago; and others for property that has not been two months in their possession. The Reformers have issued nearly three, and the Tories two hundred objections, in the different t o wnships that vote at Rochdale. In the Borough each party has objected to about ninety names.—Manchester Guardian. DRESDEN, AUG. 26.—The King and Queen ar rived safe at Pilnitz yesterday, at two o'clock. Prince and Princess John went to Toplitz, and Prince Maximilian, with the Princesses Amelia and Augusta,ito Pinna, to meet their Majesties. At Pinna they were received by the Mi nisters, a deputation of the Estates, the Clergy, &c. On the frontier, and , on the road to Pinna, triumphant arches were erected, where the Burgher Guards of the neighbour ing towns were posted. From Pinna to Pilnitz their Ma jesties and the Royal Family came by water in the Queen Maria steam-boat. _ . The Retford Municipal Magistrates have tied in the highest penalty of 5/. each, between 20 and 30 English labourers, for driving the Irish reapers from the fields, and assaulting them.—Doncalser Gazette. I