The Sun. — London, England, 1837-07-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. The Marquis of Blandford has addressed a letter to us on the subect of two articles in the Chronicle of Saturday and Monday last. That letter will be found in another column. We must observe that the Noble Marquis, in exonerating Mr. Timothy Curtis from the charge of exceeding his instructions in forwarding to the Times, without comment and without mutilation, the documents referred to in the articles in question, does not by any means meet our statement. We said in the article in Saturday's Chronicle : Ws have strong ground for believing that an improper use has been made by a pretended friend of the confidence reposed in him by the Noble Marquis. The subject matter of the correspondence first appeared in the Times some days ago. The Marquis of Blandford stated that he knew no thing of that article till he had seen it in a copy of the Times sent to him from a provincial town by a friend, and that he had only communicated his brothet's letter to two individuals, of whom the one could only have receivel the information (in Cumberland) on the day it appeared in the Times, and the other was Timothy Curtis, Esq. (Governor of the Bank of England), who had sent him the paper, al leging at the same time that he had had no hand in its pub lication: We wish we could believe that Timothy Curtis, Esq., who is the Marquis of Blandford's bosom friend and adviser, did not furnish another justification of the French proverb, Qui s'excuse s'accuse, and has not in the case of that friend been accessory to an act which is truly disgrace ful to all concerned in it. It is for Timothy Curtis, Esq., to show that his confidence has also been betrayed by some unscrupulous individual of the party, a stranger to the feelings which have hitherto been deemed sacred amongst men.' Our reference here was to the publication of the substance of the correspondence in the Times of Tues day, July 11th, which we stated that the Marquis of Blandford had positively disclaimed, and which, from the terms of the disclaimer, we were led to fix upon Timothy Curtis, Esq. The admission of the Noble Marquis that Timothy Curtis, Esq., did not exceed his instructions in publishing in the Times of the 21st of July, without comment and without mutilation, the documents in question, is not incompatible with the Noble Marquis's accusation, by implication, that Ti mothy Curtis, Esq., had abused his confidence by causing to be published the substance of the correspon dence in the Times of the 11th of July. In that ar ticle (of the Times, July 11) it is said— " But we should like to see detailed in extenso the corre spondence begun by a man in office with a Nobleman, the heir of a certain spendthrift and pensioned Duke, of which the object is said to have been to buy the interest of the son in a borough and a county where there must always exist some local family influence, by the promise of an immediate Peerage ! We should further wish to have an explanation of the motives which have actuated the aforesaid coroneted pauper in his expulsion of one son from the borough referred to, and his declared intention to sub stitute for him another son, the Radical secretary of a semi Radical (but always illustrious') Duke. We should re joice to gratify the curiosity of our readers by informing them what course the bargain-making Minister will take upon a question already raised by the ducal pensioner, of which the avowed purpose is to exempt his Grace from the payment of certain duties heretofore the property of the public, and to transfer the amount of them into the sieve like pocket of' his Grace. It will be a curious thing to ascertain by and by what connection there exists between the manoeuvres respecting the borough, the manoeuvres on the part of his Grace respecting the hoped-for plunder of the public revenue, and the projected, though (we rejoice to say, in consequence of the unshaken principles of the Noble Lord upon whom this temptation was tried) rejected, manoeuvre, of the peerage offered to him during his father's lifetime." This is the publication for which we said the world was indebted to Timothy Curtis, Esq. It is so far in accurate that it states the correspondence was begun by a man in office, Lord John Churchill having alone, without communication with any man in office, made the overture to the Marquis of Blandford of his own suggestion. We know not to what the Noble Mar quis alludes when he says " A grossly false, wan tonly injurious statement had appeared in a Minis terial print respecting myself ; and the only means at my command of refuting the calumny presented themselves in the publication of a correspondence by which the public might correctly learn in what quarter the proposition I was accused of having myself made originated, and how it came recommended, en forced, and stipulated for." The article in the Times of the 11th of July first communicated the substance of the correspondence to the public, and that article was not of a nature to pass without notice. The state ment in a Ministerial print having been subsequent to the at ticle in the Times of the 11th of July, could not, of course, have led to the publication of that article. The question, therefore, now reduces itself to this. The Marquis of Blandford admits that lie authorised Timothy Curtis, Esq. to publish the docu ments which appeared in the Times of the 21st of July. Whether Timothy Curtis, Esq. communicated to the Times of his own accord the substance of the article of the 11th of July, or whether lie acted in concert with the Noble Marquis, in order to afford the latter a pretext for afterwards publishing the docu ments, lies between the two bosom friends themselves. If we adopt the former alternative, all we can say is, that we should be sorry to see Timothy Curtis, Esq. in the confidence of any person for whiim we have any regard ; and if we adopt the latter alternative, we must say, for the sake of human nature, there are not many persons who would wish themselves in the situa tion of the Noble Marquis. We wish the Tory cause joy of the accession of character which they can derive from such a son.—Morning Chronicle. To the EDITOR of the MORNING CHRONICLE. Sir,—My attention has been drawn to some severe and undeserved strictures in your paper of Saturday and Mon day upon the conduct of Mr. T. Curtis, as connected with the publication of the " Blandford Correspondence." It is due to that gentleman distinctly to state, that in forwarding to the editor of the Times, without comment and without mutilation, the documents in question, he has not in any shape exceeded my instructions. A grossly false, wantonly injurious statement had ap peared in a ministerial print respecting myself ; and the only means at my command of refuting the calumny pre sented themselves in the publication of a correspondence, by which the public might correctly learn in what quar ter the proposition I was accused of having myself made originated ; and how it came recommended, enforced, and stipulated for. To that public I wholly and confidently leave the decision upon its merits, and upon the disclaimer DOW attempted ; but I cannot conclude without thanking you, Sir, for the obligation you confer upon me by bring ing under public notice the fact, that notwithstanding Sr Robert Peel's inability to comply with my wishes on a for mer occasion, I have not belied the principles by which I am guided, by a petulant rush into those of an opposite character. am, Sir, your obedient Servant, Howbury-park, July 23. BLANDFORD. " Frequent Parliaments," quoth a certain moralizing partisan of yesterday evening—" frequent Parliaments, under the present 'system of voting, would speedily ruin England. Such temptations cannot be thrown out— such arts cannot be practised—such intimidation and falsehood cannot be employed, without gradually lower ing the morals of the people," &c. It is very true that practices of such deep and base iniquity as are above referred to cannot be repeated often, or continued long, without one of two inevitable consequences—either the people must at length become wholly depraved and sunk in irredeemable corruption, or the people must turn upon the audacious criminals who thus attempt to destroy their political morality, and inflict on them a punishment so signal as effectually to prevent a repetition of their guilt. But who is it, we ask, that in this recent instance have ensnared the people by " such temptations," or have employed against the public morals of the elec tars of Greatßritain and Ireland " such arts"—" such intimidation"—and " such falsehoods," as those which in such righteous phrase are inveighed against by the evening monitor of yesterday ? Who had the means of " temptation" and " intimidation" most abundantly at their disposal as engines for seducing, that is for corrupting, the people ? Who is it that really have resorted to such profligate expedients, and that to an excess unheard of before in the case of the most aban doned politicians that ever oppressed or disgraced this country ? The Conservative journals, our own and those of our Contemporaries, have teemed with com munications from respectable parties, descriptive of the tyrannical and wicked efforts made by the Ministers of the Crown to deter the honest constituency of the metropolis and its adjacent boroughs from a free and voluntary exercise of those civil rights which the law professes to assign to them, by appealing on one side to their hopes, on another to their apprehensions — corrupt hopes and sordid apprehensions—and acting I upon both for the ignominious purpose of making all the political privileges of " the people" subservient to the selfish interests of one greedy faction of low-minded adventurers. There isnot a single department of the state the whole power and patronage of which have been ex erted since King William's death to any other cud than ;he corruption of electors, by bribing or frightening ihem into a gross prostitution of their sacred franchise, in the support of partisans who would in torn prosti tute their own votes to the maintenance of these Mi nisters in office. There is hardly a tradesman east or west of Temple-bar who has not been outraged by threat or bribe, with a view to the betrayal of the trust reposed in him by the Constitution. there not a right of appointment to any office, however mean, vested in any functionary of Lord Melbourne's Govern ment, which has notheen bartcred,on condition of prompt payment by a vote, or kept in abeyance to extend the influence of the Treasury by a multiplication of open mouthed expectants. had it not been for the abso lute necessity of providing attendants about the Queen's person from among the upper classes of the aristocracy, it is obvious that the warrants, com missions, or whatever may be the official instrument by virtue of which Ladies of the Bedchamber, Maids of Honour, &c., enjoy the luxury of standing behind the Queen's chair or in her presence, would have been as rigorously " kept back" as those through the cunning postponement of which it has been managed that greengrocers and fishmongers should be kept by dozens nibbling at the same naked hook, and violating their consciences by voting in the teeth of them, without the least real chance of being remunerated by the " Royal custom" for the visionary prospect of which they had sold themselves to a Government they de tested. The first impelling motive to practical reform, as expounded by the Whigs when they came a few years ago into office, was the moral obligation of " purifying the foul streams of corruption which flowed through all the channels of the state, " ruling the people by their reason," instead of their sordid appetites, and constituting a " Government WITHOUT patronage !!" What a beautiful illustration of this sublime theory—what an interesting fulfillment of this philosophical programme, has been afforded by the transactions of those 'Whig mountebanks who proclaim to the people of England, in their electioneering letters (Lord John Russell to Stroud, for example), that "they are the Ministers after the Queen's own heart I" When the Conservatives shall again occupy, as occupy they will, in far greater force than ever, the Opposition benches of the House of Commons, we shall ourselves be the first to denounce them to the country if they do not compel a grave and searching inquiry into the malpractices to which we have above alluded, and drag into day the hideous and baneful system of tyrannical intermeddling with the freedom of election, whereof instances almost endless have been detailed to us within the last week. As for the result of such inquiries, Mr. Grote appears to have had a sere anticipation of them when he affected to turn the tables on Mr. Palmer, and in Pharisaic phrase thank God that lie (Mr. Grote) had " not intimidated," that he had not bribed, or threa tened, or corrupted. Not he ;he would a thousand times rather lose his election. Now, it would be droll enough if the said Mr. Grote should (we do not say personally, but through his agents) be proved before a Committee of the House of Commons to have threa tened, bribed, and intimidated—nay, to have mustered fagot, and even dead voters—induced electors to vote knavishly, on the double qualification of householders and liverymen, at different hours of the day—nay, have set on foot the experiment, twenty-four hours after wards so brilliantly repeated in i\larylebone, of conju ring up electors long since dead. It will, we assure our readers, to very comical if these very malpractices should turn out to have been one and all tried by the agents of the fastidious banker, and if, besides disco vering to the world that such things have been done for him, which he taunted Mr. Palmer with having perpe trated against him, he (Mr. Grote) shall have the oppor tunity of adopting the very alternative for which he de clared himself so ready, viz. that of finally losing his elec tion. For Westminster it is needless now to say more than that was lost through gross mismanagement. The same Conservative power is still vigorous and health ful as three or four months ago brought in Sir F. Bur dett. But the professional exertions which ought to have been exclusively given to the cause of Conserva tism in Westminster, were simultaneously devoted to that of democracy in the City of London and in the borough of Finsbury, thus furnishing, if not consola tion for the past, at least a lesson of discretion for the future. The returns published of elections already over are in some important circumstances falsified by the Ministerial papers. We have promised our read ers a correct return of the variations from the state of parties in the last Parliament, and of the respective gains and losses of strength. At five o'clock yester day the accounts, officially authenticated, gave the Conservatives an increase against the Radicals of ten clear seats, making no less a difference than twenty on a division. With this one fact, for the truth of which we pledge ourselves, we now conclude. But the success of the Conservative cause outstrips the calculations of its friends, as it turns into ridicule the vapid boastings of the Ministers.—Times. The elections in the metropolitan districts at the present time afford no just criterion of the national sen timents, and their results will not be found to corres pond with the general results of the present appeal to the public judgment. We shall not affect to make light of the advantage which the unconstitutional party has gained in the metropolis, nor to conceal our regret that the result has been so unfavourable to those who manfully stood forward as the advocates of British in stitutions. We think it right, however; to protest against the deceitful attempt to represent these results as great victories on the part of the Ministry, when they are nothing more than a repetition of the circum stances which existed in the last Parliament, and which did nut enable the Ministry to conduct the affairs of Government with success, or to satisfy the public with good measures. There are two circumstances to be taken into consideration, which have unquestionably, to a great extent, affected the metropolitan elections,and which have nothing to do with the political sentiment of the public. The first is that the influence of the Court has been used to the utmost, and to the most unjustifiable de gree, against those whose object in getting into Par liament is to support the monarchy. Every one ac quainted with London must be well aware that, among the class of tradespeople whose votes collectively may be said to determine the metropolitan elections, the in fluence arising from the patronage of the Court is very great. It is, in short, an understood thing among them that their vote is at the disposal of the Court agents, through whom the commands which they re ceive in the way of their trade, are usually conveyed. We do not say that this rule is universal, and we are aware of several honourable instances in which the very opposite rule has been followed within these few days ; but it is an ordinary rule, and there has been neither stint nor scruple in taking advantage of it upon the pre sent occasion. The warrants to tradespeople have been suspended until after the election, and an implied threat of withholding the Court custom has been held in ter rorem over those who were thought to have no good will to radical domination. This says but very little for the sincerity of men who owe every thing to the part which they had in the Reform Bill ; but to such acts will men descend whose love of place gets the better of their patriotism, their consistency, and their know ledge of what is justly due to the freedom of elec tion. The other circumstance to which we have adverted is the absence from town of so very great a portion of the gentry, whose votes, had they been here, would all have been given to the Conservative candi dates. The classes upon whose votes the unconstitu tional party depends are always on the spot, and always eager for the broil and battle of election affairs. The metropolitan gentry are able to leave town, and therefore they do so at this season. But, in addi tion to the number which the season takes away, we must bring into account the hundreds, and, perhaps, we should say thousands, who are in the county attending to elections in which they are more nearly interested than in the metropolitan elec tions. Besides candidates and the friends of can didates, there is an army of men of law and agents of various descriptions taken out of town at general elections. Almost every one of thes e is a voter for one or other of the metropolitan districts, and of that class most likely to vote for Conservative members. THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1837. We have no doubt that in this way the Conservative candidates have been deprived of hundreds of votes which, lint for the general election throughout the country they would have had. When we call to mind that notwithstanding these great disadvantages—dis advantages which, we are happy to say, do not apply in other places as they do in the metropolis—the Gmservative candidates have been more successful than at any election which took place in the reign of the late King, we may well maintain that the metropo litan elections afford no just foundation for the vocife rous claim of " victory" which has been made in refe rence to them ; nor is any estimate of the result of the elections generally to be formed from the event of the metropolitan elections.—Morning Herald. The elections, so far as they have proceeded, have exceeded our most sanguine anticipations. At the period of the latest arrival.; in town last night the ga'n to the Conservative cause was, upon balance, no less than eight votes, making, on a division, a difference of sixteen. From this, our estimate of eight, we exclude Mr. Horsley Palmer, who is sure of the seat for the City of London—Lord Teignmouth, who will, in all probability, have the seat for Marylebone, and other candidates for the Metropolitan boroughs who have not been returned in consequence merely of the introduc tion into England of the Irish system. We are now more fully convinced than we have been at any former period that Mr. O'Connell is the master of the Admi nistration. He has initiated them into the mysteries, and compelled or persuaded them to adopt the princi ples, of his Irish electioneering. Proofs of intimida tion, perjury, and fraud, meet us in every quartet. And in spite of all these we have upon the official returns a clear gain of eight votes, although, by official manage ment, we have already encountered the elections upon the result of which Ministers most confidently relied. The City of London election, beyond all dispute the most important of the metropolitan contests, will present to us, when it is thoroughly investigated, as it will be, the most perfect specimen of the Irish O'Con nell system of perjury and fraud. Hundreds were ad mitted to vote against Mr. Palmer who, in consequence of having changed since the registration of last year the hovel in which they live, had no right to vote at all. The resurrection system had been resorted to unsparingly ; to such an extent, indeed, that if the poll, were rectified merely by the dedpction from Mr. Grote's voters of the men who have voted, though dead and buried many months, Mr. Palmer would have a decided majority over him. In addition to this, the poll clerks, appointed by Radical sheriffs, and deter mined Radicals of course, hare, in numberless in stances, -we believe, taken upon themselves to assign to one candidate the votes which were given to another. Mr. Palmer's Committee are about to publish the poll, so as to enable every voter to reclaim his right where its exercise has been fal sified by the return. There will be many instances of such OiConnellite falsification. This is cer tain. It was difficult to resist the introduction of Irish politics, but when Irish morals thus invade us it is evidently time that something should be done. The result of the inquiry by a Parliamentary Committee of the House of Commons into the city of London election will not be merely to show that Mr. H. Pal mer ought to have been returned ; it will be to show distinctly and unequivocally that he ought to have oc cupied a high station on the poll ; it will be to show distinctly and unequivocally that not Mr. H. Palmer only, but at least one or two other Conservative can didates, at an election honestly conducted, would have been returned for the city. We hope the Conserva tives at the next general election will start four candi dates for the city of London. Had they done so upon the present occasion they would have seated probably three of them. The poll will show 5,000 plumpers for Mr. Palmer, the whole of whom would have voted for three other Conservative candidates. And had three other Conservative candidates of the right sort been in the field who can doubt that their personal, local, and commercial influence and character would have created an accession of force sufficient to overpower the whole united strength of the Ministerial Radicals ? One of our Ministerial Contemporaries quotes sarcastically some observations which fell from us on the occasion of the festival of the City of London Conservative Association. The sarcasm is ineffectual. We re peat now in all confidence and gaiety what we said then : " And is it not, as some of the speakers finely and justly remarked, an extraordinary and an intolerable thing that the multitude of citizens, of which we yesterday witnessed the magnificent array—a multitude comprehending so large a proportion of the wealth, intelligence, and respectability of the City of London, should be withoet a single repre sentative of their political opinions in that House of Par liament which, according to the Constitution of England, ought to represent the people ? This, we venture to say, is a state of things too unnatural and monstrous to be per manent. The meeting of yesterday proves that the Con servatives of the City of London can, if they will, return at the next election three at least out of the four Members which that city gives to the House of Commons ; and we hope we do not reason rashly when we conclude, from the spirit displayed at this meeting, that they will if they can." The state of the poll, when the effect of the O'Con nellite system of falsehood and perjury is, as it will be, abstracted from it, will show that the City Conserva tives could have returned three Members at least. That they started only one was entirely owing to their desire to secure the election of Mr. Palmer, which was not too high a compliment to that gentleman, for none can be too high, but which was a mistake as to the true electioneering principle. Let the poll be examined— we rejoice to say that it will be examined—and it will, we venture to predict, show most conclusively that, had four candidates on the Conservative side been set up, with the fair share of management of the machinery of the election which their number would have given them, and their natural share of personal and local influence, three of them, at least, would have been returned. The same O'Connell system which has been pursued in the city of London has been pursued elsewhere. There is no shadow of truth in the return about to be made of the result of the Marylebone election. There also the O'Connell system, for everything is now O'Connellised, of fraud and perjury has been predominant. Lord Teignmouth will appeal to a Committee of the House of Commons, and he will be the Member for Marylebone for the next Par liament. But the Ministerialists have not been con tented with resorting to fraud and perjury. They have had recourse to intimidation to an extent never before witnessed in Great Britain. They knew that their case was desperate, and they have employed accordingly the most desperate expedients. There is not a man in Westminster, there is not a man in the city of Lon don, there is not a man in Marylebone, there is not a man in Finsbury, there is not a man in the Tower Hamlets, there is not a man in Southwark, there is not a man in Greenwich or Woolwich, N%ll o holds a situation under Government, or whose p os iti on i s such as to make the favour of Government an object of his anxiety, that has not been compelled to vote for Ministerial or Radical candidates by the pressure of a coercion more harsh, tyrannical, and brutal than has ever before been applied to English voters. The in fluence of the Government and of all the dependents and the hangers-on of the Government, and of all the expectants of anything good which the Government have in esse or in posse to bestow, has been exerted to the utmost. Every man has received from the Treasury, or from persons acting under its authority, mandates the most arbitrary, domineering, and inso lent as to the course he should pursue at the elections. Never, we venture to say, in England has insolent, vulgar, and brutal dictation been practised by Govern ment so unsparingly and with so much success. No mistake has been allowed about the matter. In some way or other everybody employed in the public service has been given to understand that if he and his connections did not show themselves to be zealous Radicals at the elections there was little probability that he would long continue to be a placeman.7 A new system of official morals has been promulgated. It has been denounced as an unpar donable crime to eat bread in the service of the people of England, and not vote at the dictation of the O'Connell Ministry, Uneh has at various times been said by the Ministerial papers against the sy s t em of exclusive dealing. But never was the system of e 4, elusive dealing so completely put in force as at the present election. The Court tradesmen have been kept without thciF warrants, But this is nothing. The 111411 who 3171/11eS 4 balirMi - WPTOo call • meat or a penny-worth of milk per diem to a stable man at the Queen's Mews has received an official in timation—as grave and solemn as official intimation can be made—that he can no longer be allowed to supply milk or cats'-meat unless upon the condition that he and all his uncles, brothers, and cousins should vote for Leader and Evans, for Hall and Whalley, for the four Radical candidates in the City, for Hawes and D'Eyncourt,for Harvey and Humphery, or for any body else of the Ministerial party for whom he or his relatives had a vote to give. The system thus practised in the metropolis has been still more rigidly and tyrannically enforced in the ports and arsenals where the employs of Government constitute an important part of the population. Never until now did the inhabitants of Portsmouth and Plymouth, of Chatham or of Woolwich, know what it was to live under an iron rule. Hitherto they have been per mitted to believe themselves Englishmen. It was re s.erved for the Whig-Radical Administration to teach them that they are regarded as slaves. But we rejoice to say that there is one of our national arsenals which has disdained to wear the ignominious chains with which Ministers would have fettered it in the exercise of the elective right. The borough of Greenwich, in which Woolwich is included, has, in defiance of the in solent and corrupt dictation of the Government, given to the new House of Commons an able and high spi rited Conservative Member in the person of Mr. Wol v.A.:ey Attwood. It was too much for the borough of Greenwich to endure that Englishmen, earning their daily subsistence by assiduous labour in the public service, should be told by such faineans as Lord Melbourne and Lord Minto that they must be turned adrift unless they voted at their dictation. The tyranny must indeed be grinding and bitter, at whiCh even the Government arsenals revolt. But the feelings which have decided the Greenwich election are widely dif fused, and the example of its noble constituency will be extensively followed. In spite of the odious ty ranny and the profligate corruption of the Government and its agents, the Conservative cause goes on conquer ing and to conquer. At the latest hour at which elec tion intelligence reached town last night the Conser vatives, as we have already said, had gained eight votes, equivalent to sixteen on a division in the House of Commons, leaving out of the question altogether Mr. H. Palmer, Lord Teignmouth, and several others, who, we believe, will be seated by Election Committees, although the Irish O'Connell system of perjury and fraud, now first introduced into England, has for the present deprived them of their return. We regret the effect of intimidation in West minster, inasmuch as it deprives, unless some re medy can be found, the' new House of Commons of the presence and services of a man qualified above most others to grace, dignify, and instruct any Legis lative Assembly. A remedy for this evil ought we think promptly to be found. Is there no Conservative candidate not yet elected, but who has made his seat secure, who will invite Sir George Murray to step into his place ? We hope that one such will be found. And we do not hesitate to promise such a man that his magnanimous self-sacrifice will be rewarded by the spontaneous offer of a dozen seats. Westminster, is, for the present the victim of Ministerial tyranny, and corruption. But the first Parliament of the reign of the Queen ought not therefore to lose the services of such a statesman as Sir George Murray.—Morning Post. LAW INTELLIGENCE. COURT OF CHANCERY, JuLr 26. MOSS U. BALDOCK. The LORD CHANCELLOR gave judgment in this case. It was a bill filed for the equitable performance of an agree ment alleged to have been entered into between Moss and Baldock, for the division of the profits of a contract that Baldock held from the barrack department, to execute some expensive works at Dover and Hythe. Moss and Baldock are both dead, and the suit was carried on by the executors, those of Moss alleging that he was to have contract price for the work done, and the executors of Baldock denying this, but admitting such tradesman's prices as would afford him a reasonable compensation for his trouble. His Lordship observed that a reference must be ordered to the Master, to take an account on the footing of the only ac count existing in the handwriting of Moss. which account carried up the transactions between the parties to a certain period. If that account was followed up his Lordship had no doubt it would ultimately give Moss all that it was intended he should have at the time the agreement was entered into. CARR V. APPLEYARD. In this matter, which was an appeal motion from an order of the Master of the Rolls, his Lordship confirmed the judg ment of the Court below. PREROGATIVE COURT, JuLr 26. BIRCH V. COLEMAN. This is a suit respecting the validity of the will of Mr. Knightley Adams, who died on the 26th of December, 1835, at the age of seventy years, possessed of valuable property. Mrs. Coleman, the niece, and a nephew of the deceased, would have been entitled in distribution had he died intestate. By the paper propounded as the last will, the whole property was given to Mr. Birch, the nephew of the deceased's wife, in whose handwriting it was. The paper was not executed until the deceased, as it was pleaded, had fallen into a stupor, from which he never ral lied, and during the continuance of which, in a few hours afterwards, he died. The paper is opposed by the next of kin, as being an invalid document. The evidence is of a very conflicting nature. Dr. ADDAMS, for Mr. Birch, supported the validity of the paper. Dr. HAGGARD will be heard at the next sitting in oppo sition to the will, on behalf of a nephew of the deceased. INSOLVENT DEBTORS' COURT-Jurr 26. IN THE MATTER OF LORD EDWARD TIIYNNE. Mr. COOKE, at the rising of the Court, had an applica tion to make on the part ofLord Edward Thynne, confined in the Queen's Bench prison, praying for leave to file his petition. The Noble Lord had made the usual affidavit, which the Court could not dispense with in any case. It set forth that he was committed to prison on the 28th of March, at the suit of a creditor named West, and that he had received since his imprisonment money amounting to 153/., which had been.expended. Mr. Commissioner BowEN—Have you a copy of causes, Mr. Cooke ? Mr. CooxE—A very long copy of causes, there being many detainers against the Noble Lerd. In the _estate pa per, accompanying the affidavit, there appeared a statement of certain wines and other property, which he valued at two thousand six hundred pounds. Mr. Tooke, a solicitor, disputed the right to the property, under a trust deed, made in 1830. The cause of his not filing his petition within the prescribed time was, that he had entertained hopes he should have been prevented the necessity of applying to the Court, conceiving that by remaining in custody his wife and his own family would have assisted him, to have enabled him to offer a composition to his creditors. They bad refused, and the knowledge of their refusal only came to him on Wednesday last. The COURT granted a Rule IVisi. ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE. HOME CIRCUIT.—MAIDSTONE, JULY 26. Jonathan Haslop, aged 32, was indicted for a burglary in the house of Charles Grant, a farmer, residing near Graves end, on the morning of the 14th of May last, and stealing from therein various articles, amounting in value to five pounds, his property. Charles Grant—l am a farmer, and reside near the Windmill-hill, Gravesend. I went to bed with my wife about 11 o'clock on the night of the lath. We then saw all fastenings were secure, especially the windows. On com i n g down stairs in the morning I found the place had been entered through the window. The shutter was forced from its hinges, a pane of glass broken, and the window opened. When I went out of doors, I observed some s mall drops of blood on the shutters, and found this piece of a belcher handkerchief, which I now produce. Robert Flaxman----Am constable of Gravesend. Was sent to by prosecutor, and went to his house. I found it had been entered by the parlour window, one of the panes of which was broken, and a shutter forced from its hinges. Prosecutor having acquainted me with what he had lost, I went to several public-houses to see if I could get any in formation, and also to several pawnbrokers, but without success. I heard nothing at all till about the 21st of May, w h e n, from certain information I received, I went to the house where the prisoner lodged, and after a strict search found these articles which I produce, part of a ham, a whole ham, the best part of a side of bacon, two silver spoons, and the bottom part of a loaf of bread. I then took the prisoner into custody, and on examining big person found one of his fingers badly cut, and bound up.in part of a handkerchief, exactly corresponding with the piece found by the prosecutor. I conveyed him before the Mayor, and he fully aommittod him, The prosecutor and his wife very reluctantly identified the articles. Verdict—Guilty. Recommended to mercy. Sentence deferred! DISCOVERY OF A HUMAN SKELE- TON IN THE PHCENIX PARK. (From the Dublin Freeman's Journal.) On Saturday, as sonic workmen were engaged in dig ging down the bank of the gravel pit in the Pl,cenix Park, immediately between Chapelizod and the new entrance, they discovered a flag of large dimensions about two feet beneath the surface. They immediately arrived at what afterwards appeared to be a head-stone at the edge of the pit, and mm removing that they discovered a cavity, formed by very large stones, and covered by the flag, in which were a quantity of human bones, that evidently formed the skeleton of one individual. The left hemisphere, and a part of the crown, in one piece, was all that could be found of the skull. Its size somewhat exceeded that of most men, hut its thickness, weight, and density far surpassed any thing we have ever found in the human skull ; and were it not for the perfect tracing of the sutures and fi brous lines on either surface, we might be induced to think that its Original dimensions had been altered by some pro cess of petrifaction, or the accumulation of extraneous mat ter. One of the cubital bones was the only piece of the skeleton which was perfect, and it was found to reach nearly to the knuckles of a rather tall man who was pre sent. All the other bones, as well as the skull, were muti lated, and appeared to have been partially exposed to the action of fire, or to some other agent, which produced a calcined appearance at their extremities. Judging from the joints, they must have belonged to a powerful frame, and the phrenological organs of the skull would charac terise the owner as a man eminently raised above the com mon herd of mankind, by moral and intellectual powers of a lofty order. What appeared to us to be the cubital}"Ae was more than fourteen inches in length, eleven being the length in men of the usual size. As far as regards the cal cined appearance of the bones, we are not sufficiently versed in chemistry to pronounce on its real ()Anse. The dimen sions of the cell in which the skeleton was found were as follow ;—lt was about 48 inches long, 23 wide, and 21 inches high ; the covering flag is from 18 to 21 inches in thickness, and greatly exceeds the other proportions of the tomb in the length and breadth. There were two head stones ; the interior one is triangular, and appears to be covered on the side which was turned in with marks which antiquarians will construe into some kind of alphabetic cha racters. From the dimensions of the cavity it is evident that the body could not have been put into it while entire, but that it was employed as a sepulchral urn for the mouldered or half' consumed remains. Although we are aware that in the days of chivalry the Templars had an establishment somewhere in that vicinity, the absence of all metallic substance, and the great similarity between the construction of the tomb and the huge flag which covered it with the Druidical remains, or at least with the Danish antiquities, would induce us to seek its origin in a far more distant age. This must be a mat ter of conjecture ; but we know that about twenty years since a similar tomb, and similar problematic remains of ' some hero of a by-gone age, were discovered within a few perches of the same locality. Tradition calls the place the " camp field ;" and when he heard a venerable man, who boasted of treading on that sod for more than eighty sum . mers, say, while bending over the mouldered dust--" these are the remains of a son of Fingal," the wild strangeness, and yet the probability of the conjecture, brought a thrill of unutterable feeling to the heart. GALLANTRY OF THE ENGLISH. —We were here sharply engaged. To my left I saw beautiful charges of cavalry, which, of course, I thought was ours ; but you may imagine my astonishment when I saw the fellows charge our flitches (fortifications), leap into the ditches, and send our Portuguese to the right about. They were followed by heavy columns of infantry, who now made themselves masters of our lines, excepting the two redoubts of Pas:.eleiro and Saldanha. At this time an officer came to ask me how he was to retreat ; I just looked him steadily in the face, and then said " Bah !" as much as to let him know there was to be no retreat. We were now, in my opinion, cut off. The flitches which had been taken by the enemy had been occupied by the tenth, our most famous Portuguese regiment. I had asked as a right to hare this fleche for my men, but the Chief of the Staff, Col. Gil Guedes, did not like to trust the drunken English !!! I said," Well, I will not let you have the credit, for I shall say I held Lordello when unfortified, and perhaps you will find it no such easy business even when fortified." We had a good deal of quizzing ; and, when standing alone with my bugler, all this came across me, and I exclaimed in an excited state, " If I die for it, I shall show them that I was right." I was standing above on the ruins of the picquet-house, looking through a cannon-hole below on the men doing their duty. I called out " Cease firing. Who wants the Tower and Sword ?" An officer and thirty Scotch volunteered (at this time English and Irish detachments had been sent to me). A Mr. Morgan called out, " There are thirty of us all ready." " Then do you see that unoccupied fleche in the centre of the enemy's present advanced line ; dash forward and seize it, and fire away so as to make a noise and show the red coats." They dashed forward splen didly, we cheering them. I waited to see the effect pro duced ; the enemy's cavalry first began to retire slowly, and I saw the infantry looking where the firing was coming from. I instantly formed another party (I had now my sabre), and we proceeded up the hollow road leading into the fleches, with fixed bayonets, I taking the precaution, while leading, to have a famous sergeant with me, a n d Captain Ricardson, of Dodgin's regiment with ten men. Before reaching the large fleche, we fell in with four fellows, who were disposed of very quietly. I took one of their great coats on my left arm. I knew every inch of the road, and as our party (23) approached the spot, the enemy began to fire on the rear, thinking they were the front. Now the row began ; I hallooed, " Now is your time— dash among them." We found about 150 in the ditch, terribly crowded, but intent on firing on those who were dilatory in coming up, not seeing us. The serjeant dashed his bayonet through one, and I slashed a fellow to the bone in the back, cutting his belt as with a razor : he roared out, which frightened the others, and then such confusion—hud dling over each other, we bayoneting and pricking them. I am ashamed to say the serjeant and I laughed, and I threw the great-coat to trip them ; we could not follow very well, the ditch being very narrow at the bottom , being shaped in this way—V. We inflicted about thirty wounds. At this moment I saw a great cocked French hat through an embrassure ; I made a dash with one of the men, but he bundled up his heavy g reat-coat, I hal looing., " Corre,corre." At this time the tenth were en gaged with the Miguelites between us and them at the sprung n g blow."upo covert way. Their balls were strik in g about us ; so to let t t h he e n t l o s p e , e c t a h ll a in t a l o a d t r h e e - t a p k i e p n e r the , üblaotwte, blast r t y lp you, We then ran towards the tenth , picking up prisoners ; and I felt proud when I now said to the tenth, " Hurry back to your post, and let the Chief of the Staff know what the drunken Englishmen have done."—Shaw's Memoirs. On Saturday evening last, between the hours of eleven and twelve, a cotton-spinner of the name of Smith, a nob, in the employment of Henry Elouldsworth, Esq., imme diately after leaving a shop in Clyde-street, Anderston, was dogged and shot by a ruffian in the open street, in presence of his wife and children. A few individuals near at hand having heard the report of fire-arms, hastened to the spot, where they discovered the unfortuuate man weltering in his blood. He was removed to the shop of Dr. Charles Paterson, where every attention was paid to him by that gentleman and his as sistants. A consultation was held by Drs. Paterson and Jack son. On examination a wound was discovered in the fore head, and on endeavouring to raise the patient it was found that the limbs were powerless. On further examination a wound was found penetrating at least three inches into the back, and most probably communicating with the cavity of the backbone. After the most minute inspection of the wound the ball could not be detected. Another wound was also ob served perforating the fleshy part of the arm, which clearly proved that the gun must have been loaded with two slugs, Dr. Paterson had the unfortunate individual removed to the Royal Infirmary, where, we understand, an unsuccessful at tempt was made yesterday to extract the ball. We believe . that the case is at prese n t un d ergo i ng a ll th e necessary inves tigation by the Procurator Fiscal. We are reluctantly com pelled to state that the police authorities of Anderston were extremely remiss on this occasion. The prompt and energetic conduct, however, of Captain Henry Miller, of the Glasgow establishment, not only after receiving information, but during the whole of yesterday, the public are deeply indebted for.— Glasgow Courier. On the 18th of July, his Majesty the, King of Hanover honoured with his presence the grand shooting match given by the i n habit an t s o f his m e tropolis. The King himself fired a carbine, and struck the target. On the same day her i Majesty the Queen and the Prince Royal arrived n the capi- Their solemn entry was made amidst joyous acclamations ; their reception was indeed truly characteristic of the sentiments of love and admiration which the Hanoverians have always che rished for the family of their Sovereign.—/Iforning Post. ANECDOTE.—A gentleman who had been a few months bound in Hymen's silken fetters, after great exertion and trouble on his part to procure t he fair lady's consent, found he had " caught a tartar." His wife being shocked at the di sco very that he had never gone to a place of worship since his marriage, expostulated with him for his conduct, " My dear," said he, " I have three ve r y sufficient reason* for n o t complying with your wishes." After some persuasio n , h e was induced to declare them :—" First, my love, I nev er can b ear any society where one gentleman monopolizes s theh6d k etnteirelcon versation." " you terrible man l" ig 4. Then , I hate singing when there is no drinking " Dear me, shocking 1 exclaimed hia Meek, partner. " But above all, I was married to yott there, " Oh, you vile wretch, you ere lest 1" ilAblled _ A• owgErty.—On Friday night some thieves broke into the mansion of the Ladies Fitzpatrick, called Farming Woods, and broke open a bureau, in which the steward bad deposited nearly 2001. in notes and gold for the purpose of paying the haymakers, &c. ; the burglars took all the gold and silver, leaving the note3l-49olictityten BEES The training of bees, which, in the greater part of Eu ropean countries forms an unimportant branch of rural eco nomy, is hi Russia, on the contrary, a source of existence to many entire communities. So large a quantity of wax is collected in the Russian empire, that, independent of the do. mestic consumption, from 12 to 15,000 pounds weight are annually exported to foreign countries from the ports of the Baltic alone ; while honey is no less an object of national importance, nearly the whole of Siberia being indebted for its supply to European Russia. The best honey is that which the bees extract from the flowers of the white litV (len, and it is gathered in great abundance in the distri'M where those trees abound,. as on the banks of the Oka and the Don, in White, and Little Russia, in loland, and the southern parts of the Oural, situated in Europe. Although hives are to be found in almost all the governments of the empire, their numbers are infinitely exceeded by thf;se of the wild bees, which have their dwelling in the trs . vernment of Orenburg, more particularly in the extensive forests of the Oural. Beyond this range of mountains, and throughout Siberia, no wild bees are to be met with. The tribes who chiefly devote themselves to the occupation of rearing and training bees are the Bachkirs, (who take the lead) t )- ,e Tartars, the Tehouvaehes, the Tcheremisses, ae.i the Mechtcheriaks, especially in the governments of - Kazan and Orenburg. Amongst the first-named t. oc, it is no unu sual circumstance for an individu;°. to possess a hundred hives of bees within theli~.',~sof his own garden, and as many as a thousand 1 the adjacent_ "..'ives, or hollowed trees, of wild bees i n forests, annually deriving from them forty, and gf.'::Ctimes even one hundred, pounds weight of honey. The greater part of the swarms of young bees are found in the woods, where they establish themselves of their own free will in the hives that have been prepared for their reception. The Bachkirs having selected, for this purpose, those trees which are of the strongest and straightest kind, as well as of the hardest wood, fix the dwellings of the bees at about thirty feet from the ground ; they then hollow out the tree, smooth it internally by means of a chisel, and close the chief opening, leaving only some smaller apertures for the free passage of the busy insects. Maraldi, and other writers have maintained that there is seldom found in a sin gle hive more than 18,000 bees. Rytchkof, having weigh ed at Orenburg some dead bees, found that seventy-five of them weighed a solotnick ;# but, to be sure of not exceed• ing the average, he reckoned them as only fifty. In tbr,:se parts a good swarm weighs generally from ten to twelve pounds, the worst varying from three to four : frequently two or three swarms congregate in the same hivr,, and there are swarms weighing from nineteen to twenty pounds each. According to the above estimate, there 3: - .ould be at least 57,000 bees in a hive of twelve pounds, and as many as 112,000 in one of nineteen pounds. If this observation does not disprove Maraldi's, it shows that the bees of Oren burg and those of other European countries are different species. It is generally supposed that bees compose their honey solely from the sweets which they extract from flowers ; but in the environs of Orenburg there is every reason to believe that they suck blood, flesh, and other mat ' ters of a filthy nature. Rytchkof being desirous of ascer ' taining, by his own experience, if bees were really consu mers of fleshy substances, caused a dead fowl, plucked, to be placed within a hive. For the space of three or four days it remained there untouched by the bees, but no sooner did it begin to decay, than they eagerly devoured it, leav ing nothing but the bones.—Bistorisch-Statistisches malde des Russischen Reich:. 96 Solotnichs make a Russian pound, which is equal to 6,3181 English grains. Hence, ono solotnick is about equal to 65 English grains. BRIDGE OF THE NILE.—The construction of the gigantic bridge of the Nile, so long projected, is at length about to commence, and will be completed, it is said, in less than six years. This colossal work is to be erected at the point of the Delta, fire leagues beyond Cairo, at that part o f the river where it divid es i n t o two y branches. During winter and a part of spring the waters of the Nile are too low to be turned to the account of agriculture ; the bridge will there fore be made to form a kind of lock, to keep the waters at all times at the necessary elevation. The husbandman will thus be spared an infinity of labour, and will only have to di rect the irrigation into the canals of absorption. The prelimi-• nary works of rectifying the bed of the river, raising dykes, and digging the lateral canals, will require 24,000 labourers, besides which the arsenal of Alexandria is to supply 340 smiths and 650 carpenters. As Egypt cannot easily furnish so great a number of arms it is in contemplation to employ four or five regiments of infantry upon the works. The stones aro to be transported by a rail-road, to extend to the mountains of Mo katarn, which are two leagues distant from the Nile. EFFECT OF LIGHTNING.—A flash of lighting caught a very handsome now farmhouse, on part of Mr. Fox's property, Bramham M oor , an d completely burnt it to the ground, with all its contents, last week. It stands on the Bramham Moor property, granted to Lord Bingley by Queen Anne.— York Gazette. AN AFRICAN FETE.—I had been about a week at Fundah, when the King sent a message, inviting me to ac company him to witness a fete which he was celebrating out side the walls. It was a beautiful morning ; the beat was tem pered by a pleasant breeze, as I was carried out by my kroo men to the eastern gate of the King's house. After waiting a few minutes, listening to the most horrid noises that the yeo men of the King's band could perpetrate, out sallied from the interior square about twenty eunuchs as the advance guard ; the King followed on horseback, surrounded by his musicians and body-guard of about fifty men, armed with also b iathbowsandy hisar- ar rows, and six of them with mus k e t s , accompanied chief men and a number of Mahomedan rnallams• The King graciously shook hands with me, and asked me, with a smile of satisfaction, if ever I had seen in my own country such a sight as this ? I answered him with great sincerity that I never had ; for certainly the wildest concert of Ducrow never approximated in the slightest degree to the figure and appear ance of his sable Majesty and his companions. Their clothes were all stuffed, so as to make them appear of an enormous size, and their horses being mit, seemed so completely over laden, that if I had not been aware of the want of solidity in their burthens, I should have wondered at their lively prancing under their apparently enormous riders. I took the lead in m y hammock; and after proceeding about a mile and a half from the palace, we halted under a magnificent wild cotton tree, in the shade of which the King and his courtiers seated themselves. The whole scene was novel and inspiring ; tho walls of the town were crowned with spectators, and the road leading to the town was lined with an immense multitude of persons. The sport commenced with horse races; three or four horses started from the gate, and galloping about half mile past us, they were pulled up with a jerk, which threw them on their haunches, when suddenly wheeling round, they came back, and their riders made obeisance to the King. Tho racing was succeeded by sham fights, the parties alternately retreating and advancing ; and the whole was closed by a ge neral dance, when the best performer was he who kicked his heels the highest. During the whole time in which theso things were going forward, the drums were beat, the trumpets brayed, and the fifes squeaked, producing altogether a discord. ance of sounds utterly indescribable. My kroomen afterwards trotted out with an air of conscious superiority, exhibited their own national dances to the accompaniment of a drum before the wondering natives. After the dancing, I was politely in formed that I had better withdraw, as the King was going to offer up his devotions privately, in a small hut near us. Laird's Narrative of the Last Expedition into Central Africa. THUNDER STORMS.--"The counties of Nortnuni land and Durham were visited, at intervals, for four days suc cessively, commencing on Wednesday, the 12th inst., and ter minating on Sunday last, the 16th inst., by a succession of thunder storms. These visitations were exceedingly capri cious in violence and duration, as regards paiticular districts; but the most awful storms appear to have occurred in Newea , - tle and Glanton, in the latter of which places, Miss Donkin, of Showdon Wood House, was killed by the electric fluid. n N e g m h e b r o o u u r s i h o o n d s t o a f n t c h e have al es destruction re oo of cattle. _ in ..o the surrounding cmtieourno SILVER WATCHES TWO GUINEAS EACH. An Assortment of Second-hand Watches, all of them vvarrtated, and of various sizes, may be selected from, for the above price, at T. COX SAVORY'S, application. Working Silversmith, Goldsmith, and Wat c h ma k er, 47, Cornhill, London. N.B. A pamphlet, containing a detailed li s t of the prices of W s vb a , te r hteo a Cs , post-paid loek s ' !ze., may b e had gratis, or NPvillalteb,ePfolartweadrdGedooicnlsa,n BIRTHS. Strat On the , of a d 2.5 th inst., in . New-street, S pr i ng -gardens, the Lady hedenaughter On the 24th inst., at Abbott's Anne Rectory, the lady of the Hon. and Rev. S. Best, of a son. On the 25th inst., in Bernard -street, Russell.square, Mrs. B. W. Powys, of a daughter. On the 25th inst., at Lambeth, the wife of the Rev. E. Miller, of a daughter. On the 22d inst., Mrs. Wm. Hunter, West -street, Finsbury circus, of a son. On the 25th i ns t ., at TempIe M ARRIED Balsa% Warwickshire, the Rey. John Couchman, of Elmbridge, Worcestershire, to Mary, the ortiy child, of the late Robert Turner, Esq., of New Park, Hants. On the 24th inst., at Government House, Isle of Man, St. George Cromie, Esq , late Captain of the 34th Regiment, son of the Rev. Jahn and the Hon. Mrs. Crombie, of The Neale Rock, county of Mayo, to Mary Jerne, only daughter of Colonel John Ready, Governor of the Isle of Man. DIED. - On the 25th inst., in Devonshire-place, Louisa Frances Mary. wife of General Sir Wm. Anson, Bart., and daughter and only child of J. Dickenson, Esq., of Birch-hall, Lancashire. On the 24th inst., at Stepney, Anna Charlotte, wife of J. Potter, Esq., surgeon, Ongar, Essex. On the 25th inst., in Great Russell-street, Eliz a b e th , wife of G. Gurney, Esq. On the 22d inst., at Brighton, Caractacus Wm. Philips, Esq.. of Holt-lodge, Farnham. On the 24th inst., at Gloucester, aged 77, Alexander Maitland. Esq., late of Peckham, Surrey. On the 24th inst., at the Rectory, Whitechapel, the Rev. Daniel Mathias, Rector, aged 68. On the 23d inst., at New-park, Bury, Hertfo r d s hi re , age d 58 s Mr. Wm. Stringfield, of Duke-street, Bloomsbury. London: Printed and Published by MURDO YOUNG, of Nce 112, Strand, at T/te Son Office, No. 112, Strand in the cowl, of Aliddlem....Thuraday, July 27 4 1x.37,