The Sun. — London, England, 1834-05-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. In our police report of yesterday appeared a case of the effect of trades' combinations, which ought not to pass unnoticed. Mr. Balcombe, a master builder, had been suddenly deprived of the services of between fifty and sixty work men by the influence of threats and intimidation. Four men were brought before the magistrates for this offence,but the principal witness against them, a journeyman, was so manifestly wrought upon by the fear of consequences, that lie declined stating facts which must have been within his knowledge, and the magistrates, after publicly announcing their opinion that " intimidation to a most mischievous extent, had been used," and promising to the fright ened witness (a man of the name of Slade)the future protection of the law, if required, were under the necessity of dismissing the defend ants. Here then is the condition which we have arrived at—not only personal liberty laid prostrate by a system of terror, to the ruin of scores of industrious workmen and their fami lies, but by the same cause the ends of justice frustrated, and crime unpunished and trium phant. This is Ireland all over Transgres sion too powerful for the law ! We are told that many parts of London have for some days past been covered with placards, exhibiting an unmeasured abuse of all the more affluent classes of the community, treating their support of the master tradesmen with derision, and main taining the absolute independence of the work ing classes on those by whom they have hither to been employed. According to this profound doctrine, industry requires not the moving power of capital, and accumulation is altogether use less ! If the trades' - unions could reflect at all, they must see the fatal consequences to themselves of the proceedings they are now engaged in, whe ther they fail or succeed in them. Failure speaks for itself ; it is so much time lost—so many days or weeks' wages sacrificed— so much debt incurred for rent, food, and clothing—and the necessity of go ing to gaol, or of paying the money due, out of the daily wages of future industry. For let it be well remembered that there is no instance of men engaged in a turn-out of any duration receiving as large an allowance from the committee as they had earned in the shape of wages from their masters, even under the greatest depression of trade, or ever indeed ob taining near so much by way of allowance from the leaders of the " strike" as would yield the commonest necessaries to their wives and chil dren. On every occasion the turn-outs have been compelled, by their sufferings, to beg again for regular work. Well, now turn for a mo ment to the event of a possible victory over the masters, and see-1. By what means it is ac complished ; and 2. What must be the results of it. None but a hypocrite will deny that the frequent and only effectual instrument resorted to by the active members of combinations for forcing others to join them, or to deter those who have already joined them from receding, is neither more nor less than the application of some species of terror—either the fear of bodily outrage, or of some other punishment for dis obedience to the commands of the majority. This then—this bond of the trades' unions—is a direct attack upon the freedom and property of every individual who is reluctant to co-operate with or to submit to it, because it openly violates the right of every man to turn his own industri to the best account-for his own and his family s advantage. What is that but tyranny—tyranny in the most oppressive, most harassing, and revolting form ? But it is successful, for a little while successful, and what does it effect ? The master bows his head and yields to the terms of the journeymen—of the joAneymen who have frightened away all competitors, how ever willing to undersell them : they extort their high wages—their monopoly price of labour— a monopoly walled round by compulsion—and what then ? The wages are unnaturally high —the cost of the article becomes so too—the price to the customer follows the cost of produc tion ; but will this artificial price extend over the whole of England—nay (or it soon vanishes) over the whole of industrious Europe ? and if not—what happens? The masters, who have been lashed into high prices, lose their custo mers, contract or wholly abandon their trade, and dismiss a portion of their journeymen, or the entire body, who are thus thrown upon the poor rate, but who will scarcely mend them selves by a " strike" against the parish officers to force a rise of wages, for the agreeable occupation of breaking stones by the road-side. We have no desire to encourage counter combinations of customers with masters against the workmen, or for meet ing one evil by another, for evil are all such hostile confederacies, and productive of a malig nant and anti-social spirit ; but if the system of persecution be resorted to on one side, and the gauntlet instead of the olive-branch thrown down to all the rest of society, under the name, equally false and odious, of the " unproductive classes," what can the latter hope for, unless from the use of some like and equivalent weapons ? We have already said more than once that the only parties who derive a profit from such courses are the busy, bustling, bullying, and designing men, who issue their orders to the subservient multitude, make laws to regulate the -manner in which that foolish multitude may best evade and undermine the operations of public justice, and finally and especially who keep the keys of the money chest, and retain their gripe over the subordinate members of the combination, by determining at their own will and pleasure how much every j u dibidual of the union shall receive from the fund for the support of himself and children. A power like this exceeds what was ever before vested in the hands of any autocrat known to history. It is at once too enormous not to be abused, and too gratifying to be easily parted with. This is the secret of the stimulating, the exasperating placards, reports, advertisements, and orders, which are issued from day to day. Like gin to the morbid stomach are these poisonous addresses to in flamed and parched imaginations. The fever must be kept up by the quacks who have pro duced it, so long as a shilling to swell the re ceipts of the union chest can be wrung from the pockets of their dupes. We continue to have letters on this painful subject, and from many quarters. Miss Martineau has come out with a little essay on the general question of com binations which is well-reasoned and well timed. We eertainly do not rank ourselves among this jadiris general admirers ; her sub-' jects septa tl9 fix the most part, unsuitable - to a female pen, And 'teen suitable,t4he treated with Mile skill; herstories .scarcely ever illus trating her doctrine. An unfortunate notion, too, seems to possess ber mind, that to be a great writer the first essential is to be a volumi nous vditer. WO, on the- contrary, wish that, 4 ~~ with the view to the solid utility of Miss Mar tineau's exertions, some decent check could be administered to the fecundity of her pen, whose progeny, if paid for out of the poor-rates, would beggar the richest parish in Great Bri tain. The publication, however, which we now allude to is a good one ; it is entitled— The tendency of Strikes and Sticks to produce low wages, and of Union between Masters and Men to insure good wages. We quote a pas sage or two in illustration of the former truth ; we 2h the latter on a future occasion : " At present, we hear nothing of masters combining against the men ; for the good reason that they can not afford to let their orders wait while they are dis puting about wages. The direct interest of the mas ters just now is to give their men the most that they can afford, in order to getting their orders executed, and their capital returned as quickly as possible. The disposition to strike is, at the present time, all the other way. The first effect of a strike would now be to drive the masters, who are making the smallest profits, or no profits at all, to give up business. Their work people will then have to be provided for in some way or other ; and they will be found offering their labour to other capitalists, so as to bring down the earnings of their fellow-workmen yet lower, by dividing the same amount of wages among more people. No good can come out of this to anybody. " If a strike be made against a large capitalist at an inconvenient time, it may succeed for a while. Com binations do not always, though they do usually, fail of their immediate objects. Now and then they frighten or worry masters into giving larger wages for a time ; but unless trade improves much and imme diately, bad consequences follow even from what is gained. Wages being higher in the district of the strike than elsewhere, the commodity produced there is dearer, or the capitalist loses by it. The commo dity being dearer puts an end to the demand ; and the capitalist's loss of money obliges him to contract or give up his business; and so there comes an end of the higher wages, if not of wages altogether. " It seems, at first sight, as if this consequence might have been prevented by a combination Jring made to spread wide enough. When a handful of men may not be able to keep up the struggle, it may be thought that the whole working population might stand out successfully, if united. This has been fre quently said and written and believed ; but it does not appear that the most extensive unions that have ever been formed have done more for the working classes than the smallest and weakest. In fact, the one meets the evil no more than the other, but rather aggravates it in a greater proportion. No union of workmen against their masters can improve trade, or raise pro fits, or persuade capitalists to carry on a losing busi ness. If all the workmen in Scotland and Ireland could join those of England, and if all these joined France, and Germany came into the agreement, and America sided with them, the condition of the work people would only grow worse the faster, because there would be a greater depression in all trades, and a more rapid sinking of the masters' profits, and a more terrible waste of capital while the dispute was going on. If a small combination fails from taking a wrong aim, the larger it is made, the wider it will go from the mark. " Something of this may be seen from the fate of all the largest combinations that have been seen among us. The last long stick among the pitmen of the Tyne and Wear did more harm to the pitmen in pro portion as it was more widely supported. Not only did the coalowners lose as many thousand pounds as would have supported their men in comfort through many a month that they spent in want, but every week that the quarrel was spun out gave more occasion and more opportunity to bring miners from a distance to do the pitmen's work. Such new people were brought from the lead-mines; and they are now sharing the wages that the pitmen might have had to themselves. If the combination had been universal, so that the lead miners had refused to come, the case would have been no better, but much worse. The coal-pits would have been shut up, and there would now have been little work for anybody. " There are other ways, too, of baffling an extensive combination—methods for which the workmen become answerable as soon as they begin to encroach on the fair profits of their masters' trade. The combinations which supported the Manchester spinners, in the va rloea mikes which they made between 1824 andlb..3l, were very extensive, but the. spinners were no better off for that. It appeared at last that every one who had helped them to stand out from week to week had helped them to miss their mark in a way they had not thought of. Their turn-out was of most serious con sequence both to the masters and their neighbours, as every head spinner has six or seven people working under him, who cannot go on when he stops. These people were willing to work • the masters were pressed to execute their orders, and they began to think whether stnne plan could not be devised for doing without the head spinners. As often as the head spinners came back to work, the plan was laid aside : as often as they turned out, the wits of the masters were sharpened. At last the great strike of 1831 did the business. A machine called the self-acting mule is in use in upwards of fifty fac tories, doing the work of the head spinners so much better than they could do it themselves, as to leave them no chance against it. Those who helped the pit men to stand out brought the lead-miners to the Tyne and Wear ; and those who helped the head spinners to stand out, brought the self-acting mule to take their work from them. " It is no less melancholy to discover, from the notices to their brethren at a distance, the poverty in which the turn-out left the people of Bradford. They begged to be excused contributing in their turn : The Bradford workmen are, at the present time, utterly incapable of relieving any other class of work men. Hundreds of them cannot get bread, and few of the remainder anything besides.' Some of the committee, confident as they were at the outset, were known to be living at last by obtaining provisions on credit, by selling any furniture they might have left, by pawning their clothes, or asking their friends to support them for a time. " Melancholy as all this is, it is far from surprising when it is seen how money goes during a strike. In the first place, the waste of maintaining many thou sand people for ten months in idleness is frightful, when their future support actually depends on there being no waste. At Bradford the sum thus spent was 14,4311. 10s. 3d. So, when they returned to work, there was all that and whatever increase their labour could have added to it the less to pay wages with. How should the masters raise their wages ? " But even this expenditure was less vexatious ti its wastefulness than some which belongs, like a curse, to a strike. It is a hard thing for a man to see his children's maintenance frittered away in upholding such expenses as the following Meat, drink, lodgings of delegates from £ s. d. various parts of the kingdom 240 16 11 " Travelling expenses of delegates from . Bradford. 286 14 1 " Expenses of committees 466 9 10 " Stationary, newspapers, and advertise ments . 345 8 9 " Postage and carriage of parcels 43 15 11 " Loss by bad bank-notes ll 1 0 " Before the struggle was over, there was much dif ficulty in raising money. To prevent unfavourable suspicions getting abroad, money was borrowed on pay days from anybody who would lend it ; and the matter ended in a debt of 661. to the lenders ; and there was besides a debt for advertisements and stationary of 51/. The committee were in debt 1171. when they closed their proceedings ; and the first earnings that their fa mishing brethren could spare must go to pay it. " There are very plain reasons for the worst men of the working class being disposed to patronize strikes. If an idle fellow, who likes anything better t han work, sees an honest delegate on his travels, he begins to think that it must be very pleasant to jaunt about at other people's expense. The next thing is to set about stirring up discontents that may lead to a turn out, and perhaps to his being sent on his travels, and made a great man of. A tippler, who sees a commit tee-man moistening his throat with ale before he de livers his sentiments, longs to sit and drink ale that the general fund must pay for, A vain man courts such a fine opportunity for making, speeches, and the proud man of getting known. These few stir up a strike, and delude many thousands of people much better than themselves. There is no saying how much mis chief they may do among the simple-minded, if the wisest men of th,e class arc not present to be a match for the agitators. •There aro too many men in our manufacturing cities and n 9,1,1,r collieries who could point to one or another of such jobbers As their most cruel enemy. Jobbing is bad enough everywhere and in every way ; but the most detestable jobbing . of all is that of the canning idle, to the injury of the simple minded and induitiioui, It makes one's blood boil to think of four or six sly unPrineipleci fellows- flattering so many thousands about their interests and their liberties, while they are making slaves of them, and bringing them down to starvation, that they them selves may fatten on the substance they never tried to earn. __ . _ " Tyrants are often the foremost in talking of liberty. In every turn-out there is much said of the tyranny of masters, but no masters have now the power of inflicting such tyranny as takes place in most strikes. Let the masters be well watched, but let the members of a trade union look nearer at home at the same time. The master declares what wages he will give ; but the leaders of a strike interfere further with a man than this, they dictate what wages he shall take. A master may, with the stroke of his pen, dash out the labourer's prospects of work for the next week or month. His fellow-workmen too often do something more cruel than this. When his work is before his eyes, and his wages ready for his hand, they turn him back to his own door, to spend the day in idleness, and perhaps trip him up with insults by the way. There are some well-known dreadful cases of men being hunted, and whipped, or stoned, or ducked, be cause they wished to sell their own labour at their own price. Such things have been heard of in a Court of Justice as their wives being assaulted and cruelly treated by dastardly cowards, who would thus get the husbands into their power, or punish the independence of spirit which would not submit to their dictation. Such acts as these discredit a whole union, while they are the the work of a very few, and while the many are those who suffer the most from them. No body of people ever agrees in such deeds, and no body of people should submit to the disgrace which follows them. The many who are innocent should narrowly watch the guilty few, and resist every movement of tyranny, independence, and they value the good name, and the and the very existence of their class. " The reason why large bodies of workmen so often submit to be dictated to by a few, as to the terms on which they shall sell their labour, and even to be ill treated if they follow their own judgment, is no doubt because they are not aware that they are protected in their liberty by the law. It is not the case, as the leaders of strikes are apt to declare, that because combination is now allowed by law, any bad acts that may arise from combination are allowed by law. While the law protects the liberty of men in combining, it protects both masters and men from the interference of . any party whatever in arranging the price or car rying on the exercise of labour. The law is this :—Neither masters nor workmen shall be liable to any prosecution or punishment what ever for combining to raise, lower, or fix the price of labour, or to alter the hours of working, or the quan tity of work, or to regulate the way of carrying on their mutual business. But if threats or violence be used in the pursuit of their objects, or if any workman, or number of workmen, interfere to prevent another from fulfilling his engagements, or finishing his work, or letting his labour in any way he pleases, the offend ing parties may be committed by two magistrates (not interested in the trade or manufacture) to suffer im prisonment, with or without hard labour, for any term not exceeding two calendar months."— Times. The public cannot fail to observe the striking contrast between the zeal lately displayed by ministers in support of the pension list in all its prodigal, unpruned luxuriance, and the in difference with which they are ready to sacrifice good faith to economy by effecting a trumpery saving at the expense of the hard-earned su perannuation allowances of the working clerks in the public offices. When the undeserved allowances of the noble or right hon. persons who condescend to accept of 180,0001. of our money for doing nothing, are proposed as fit objects of inquiry, we hear of nothing but " vested rights," of the validity of the act of Parliament which settled the civil list, and of the dishonour of breaking public faith ; but have these public servants no " vested rights," and may not acts of Parliament be pleaded in their favour with as much force as in favour of those who have done nothing to earn their 1 grants ? By the 50th of George 111., cap. 117, and by the 3d of George IV, cap. 113, the clerks in the public offices have acquired a title to certain superannuation allowances, which a bill before Parliament now proposes_to reduce. Are these acts less binding than the bmore recent act for the settlement of the pen ' sion list under William IV.? or does the dif ference in the station and connections of the parties diminish the right of the latter to that compensation to which the former have no pre tensions ? We shall, when the bill comes on for discussion, make some further observations on this subject.— Times. Never was there an administration in this country so circumstanced as the present, since England first submitted to the control of regu lar government. There was once a time when to be beaten on a division, was considered a proof of weakness ; a proof of the want of public support, sufficiently decisive to call for an immediate resignation of the government. This submission of the ruling party to the po pular voice, for such is the fair interpretation of the custom, was honourable alike to the freedom of our institutions, and the spirit of our public men. But times are changed. A new generation of officials has started up, the first principle of whose parliamentary tactics is to stick like pitch to their places ; and in con formity with that principle, they not only stick to place after defeat, but frequently contrive to avoid defeat, by the assistance of their old ene mies the Tories. The last time the Tories ren dered their Whig friends good service in this way, was on the question for a revision of the pension list. It is true they received a quid pro quo, the Whigs having in reality undertaken to fight the Tory battle, not only against pub lic opinion, but against Whig opinion, at least against Whig profession, repeatedly and ve hemently avowed, up to the period of their getting into office. That the Whigs are not over nice as to the source or party from whence they derive support in any extremity, may be inferred from the fact that they have been saved by the Radicals as often as by the Tories. , This is what constitutes the peculiarity of the present government. They discard all idea of self-respect as an illusion too refined to occupy the brain of a practical Statesman, and by playing one party against the other, continue to laugh at the public, who look on with a sort of bewilderment at the dance of politicians in which Ministers dexterously manage to change sides without ever losing their places. One of their favourite expedients for rousing the sympathies of either party, as the case may suggest, is, a threat of resignation. It was something like bad taste though to have re course to it as they had on the occasion of the pension list. It looked as if they were never in earnest in these threats. But the principle of sticking to place may be carried too far after all. There are certain indications, as the man in the play says, from which a well-bred dog will take warning to make the best of his way down stairs instead of waiting till he is kicked into the street. Some dogs may have a weaker instinct, or a worse taste, and either miscalculate or prefer the more violent process of ejection. We should be sorry to confound Ministers with such indiscriminating animals ; but there is no accounting for tastes. Many are the inti ma ti ons w hi c h Ministers have had that public opinion is deserting them. The Radicals have saved them, the Tories have saved them, trickery has saved them. But there are politicians who would rather die a 1 thousand deaths than yield an inch of office.— Morning ilera . la, There is a rent in the veil—the Ministry iti divided against itself, and upon a question-- the appropriation of church property—than which there is none more important, either as regards the feelings of the public, or the future ' condition of the church. We know not what may be the result of this ill-omened division of opinion, upon which we have much to say ; but it is proper that the public should know that their friends form the minority in the Cabinet, and that, unless they rouse themselves as one man, to oppose their expulsion from the Cabinet, they will be delivered over to the tender em braces of the Whig-Tory majority, with the delightful adjunct of the Peel wedge—in other words, to a Cabinet composed of men ambitious of office—ambitious of power—imbued with aristocratic feelings—and possessing no other idea of the mode in which the people ought to be governed, than that of controlling them by military force. We have not space to-day to enlarge upon this subject ; but to-morrow we shall endeavour to revert to it in a manner not to be mistaken.—Morning Advertiser. We rejoice to find that the country is now generally awakened to a just sense of the enor mity of the ministerial project for what is ridi culously called the amendment of the poor laws —which project we were the first to denounce as pernicious, unconstitutional, and tyrannical. It is scarcely necessary to enter into details in order to prove the iniquity and absurdity of this scheme, since, with the exception of those who make a point of thinking that whatever is proposed by ministers is " wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best," mankind are already unani mous in their decision, that it is iniquitous and absurd, and since this general decision of man kind is pronounced too distinctly and emphati cally to leave much cause for apprehension that the project will ever be carried into effect. The idea of establishing in London a central board, appointed by ministers, removeable at their pleasure, and acting under their authority, for the government of all the parishes in England, with respect to the treatment of the poor, is an idea which might by possibility have arisen in the minds of speculative inquirers, not limited in their reveries by an intimate knowledge of the character of British society and not bound to keep constantly in view the principles of British freedom ; but it is also an idea which could never have found a welcome reception into the mind of a British Minister, whose sta tion implies that he cannot be entirely ignorant of the habits, temper, and disposition of his countrymen, that the principles of the British constitution are not entirely unknown to him, and that he at some period or other of his life has taken a glance, however hasty and imper fect, at the structure of British society, unless such British statesman had selfish and sinister objects of his own to promote, and had from the first determined to disregard in favour of these objects every national feeling, every constitutional maxim, every social habit of his countrymen. An attempt has been made to transfer the responsibility of this wicked and tyrannical project from his Majesty's Ministers to the Poor Law Commissioners. It must have been made without the con sent of Ministers ; for, however unfavour able our opinion of them may be, we can not believe them capable of the despicable meanness of shifting to others the censure which is exclusively their own. What does the country care about this body of Commissioners, or anything they recommend ? It is only when Government adopt their project, that that pro lea becomes of -any importance indeed, live under an entirely new system of government if the responsible Ministers of the ring were to be invested with the privilege of appointing Commissioners to investigate im portant subjects of national policy, and be at liberty to adopt their recommendations, and to cast upon them the whole responsibility in every case in which absurdity should become apparent, or calamity should ensue. The host of Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, and other functionaries whom the Poor Law Bill would call into being, and the immense mass of patronage which it would place in the hands of Ministers, have been inducements to the adop tion of the iniquitous absurdity of the Poor Law Bill, which a sinking administration has been unable to resist. Their popularity having fled, they no longer think it necessary to pre tend that patronage is indifferent to them. Hence the present and a multitude of other projects, every one of which is calculated to augment, more or less, the patronage and in fluence of the ministers of the Crown. If the French system of centralization could be esta blished with respect to the management of the poor, it might be established also with respect to every other department of our domestic eco nomy. • The magistracy and police, even the roads and bridges of our most remote provinces, might speedily be placed under the superin tendence and control of the government, or of its boards of commissioners. The Whigs are not insensible to the advantages which they would derive from such a change. It would give them direct patronage and power to an extent in which patronage and power have never been enjoyed by any administration in this country, and to an extent evidently incom patible with the existence of public liberty. But this is not all. Influence and authority iu,relation to local affairs throughout Great Britain, are at the present moment, and in a natural state of society must always be, in the hands of men of wealth, importance, and respectability, who again acquire an accession of power in consequence of the management of the local affairs of their several neighbourhoods being in their hands. Men of this description, however, so far as they take any part in the po litical affairs of the country, are very seldom, and of this the Whigs have a very mortifying consciousness, on the same side with the pre sent ministers of the Crown. Hence it happens that to deprive this class of men of the oppor tunity of contributing by their exertions to the welfare of their several neighbourhoods, and of establishing by this means the strongest claims upon the gratitude and esteem of their inferiors in society, is an object of interest with the pre sent government scarcely inferior to that of di rectly augmenting their own patronage and power. To these combined motives we be lieve we may confidently ascribe the adoption by ministers of that French system of centrali zation of which the Poor Laws' Amendment Bill forms so characteristic and conspicuous a part. We refer our readers to the reports of the proceedings upon this subject of the Court of Common Council and of several parochial meetings which were held yesterday.—Morn ing Post. A correspondent of the Lancet says that when all the ordinary modes of stopping haemorrhage from a. leach bite - had been found ineffectual, he accomplished it as a last resource before applying the actual cautery, by putting a spoonful of plaster of Paris, in the same state as when taking a cast, on the bleeding orifice. COURT OF CHANCERY, MAY 8. His LORDSHIP gave judgment at the rising of the Court in the following cases:— PALIN V. HILL. His LORDSHIP, after recapitulating the facts of the case, reversed the decree of his Honour the Master of the Rolls. MOUSELEY V. CARR. His LORDSHIP said that Mr. T. Hardcastle had by his will of the 2d July, 1787, bequeathed to his wife, and to a Mr. Berry, the whole of his real and personal property, in trust for his wife for her life, with re mainder over to his nephew and niece. The testator also directed that his coal trade should be carried on for the benefit of his wife for her life, and afterwards for the benefit of those to whom he had devised the residue of his property. The wife carried on the business as directed, and also expended considerable sums in its improvement, and the question now to be decided was whether that expenditure had been made for the benefit of the tenant for life, or for the benefit of the corpus, which the testator had directed to go to his nephew and niece. His Lordship was of opinion, upon the . whole circu ms t ances o f t h e case , that the wife had increased the capital of the trade at her own option, and that the rights of the residuary legatees could not be prejudiced by suc h opt i on ; an d consequently he should, in that particular, alter the declaration of his Honour the Master of the Rolls. COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, MAY 8. PRICE V. HARRIS AND OTHERS. This was an action brought by the plaintiff against the defendant and seventeen others. One of the de fendants suffered judgment to go by default ; the other sixteen joined issue. The action was brought for pull ing down a house in Cheapside. It was tried three Terms since at Guildhall, before Mr. Justice Gaselee, when a verdict passed for the defendants. Mr. Sergeant ACIIERLEY, on a former day, obtained a rule to show cause why the defendants should not be paid their costs. Mr. Sergeant 'Wu-DE to-day showed cause against the rule. Mr. Sergeant ACIIERLEY was heard in reply, When the COURT were unanimous in their opinion that the defendants were entitled to their costs, though, under the 9th of William 111., relied upon by Mr. Sergeant Wilde, it appeared that they were not. But under the statutes of Henry VIII. and James I. they were, as also many subsequent authorities. Rule made absolute. COURT OF EXCHEQUER, MAY 8. HERRING V. BOYLE. This was an action by a boy ten years of age (by his guardian) for an assault and false imprisonment, tried yesterday before Mr. Baron GURNEY at Nisi Prius. Mr. COMYN applied this day for a rule to show cause why the nonsuit should not be set aside and a new trial had. Lord LYNDHURST—You may take your rule. COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL. Yesterday a Court was held for the despatch of business. CITY IMPROVEMENTS. Mr. PRIOR presented a petition, signed by 140 of the most eminent merchants and tradesmen in the City, complaining of the present state of the great thoroughfare of Mansion-house-street, the Poultry. and Cheapside. The petition stated that, most anxious that useful improvements should meet encouragement, the petitioners had examined a plan which had re cently been published by Mr. Peter Jeffery, showing a line for a new street from the Mansion-house to Southwark-bridge, opening a communication through Watling-street and St. Paul's Churchyard with the west end of the town, as well as with the county of Surrey over Southwark-bridge. They approved of the plan, and also of Mr. Jeffery's proposal for taking down the Globe Fire Office, and rebuilding it on the site represented in his plan, and recommended them to the immediate consideration of the court. He then moved that the petition be referred to the London bridge committee. Alderman WINCHESTER seconded the motion, and stated that if some plan of the kind were not adopted the traffic of the City would turn into other channels. Mr. R. L. JONES (the Chairman of the London bridge Committee) submitted that the Court were not in a situation to consider such a-subject as the adop tion of the project. In the year 1825 this very plan formed one of the bubbles of that speculative period and if the parties who set it afloat at that time were desirous, they might adopt it now for the benefit of their fellow-citizens. He admitted tiat the improve ment would be an important one, but he contended that those in which the corporation was already en gaged were infinitely more important, and were quite extensive and expensive enough to occupy the atten tion and the funds of the citizens. After some observations from other members the petition was ordered to lie on the table. THE GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD. Mr. HUNTER brought up the report of the com mittee appointed to watch the proceedings on the bill in parliament for making the Great Western Rail road. It recommended that parliament should be petitioned against the bill, and it was unanimously agreed to. THE NEW POOR LAWS BILL. Mr. R. TAYLOR brought up the report of the tithe committee on the bill in parliament in relation to the poor laws. It stated that the Committee, having carefully and attentively considered the subject, found that by the bill lately brought into the House of Commons " for the amendment and better administration of the laws relating to the poor in England and Wales," it was proposed to give to certain commissioners therein specified vast and extraordinary powers, and to clothe them with a degree of protection and indemnity dangerous to the maintenance of civil liberty. That the delegation of executive powers of legisla tion to commissioners, however appointed, would, in the opinion of the committee, be a dereliction on the part of the representatives of the people of the high duties which attached to them as forming one branch of the legislature of the country ; but that the union of such persons with judicial and magisterial functions in the persons of commissioners so appointed by the crown, and removable at pleasure, was a contravention of the principles of the English constitution, pernicious in itself, and alarming as a precedent. That these dangers were greatly aggravated by placing the Commissioners beyond the reach of the authority of the ordinary tribunals of law, and giving them perfect impunity in the exercise or abuse of their powers except in the case of their becoming the ob jects of parliamentary impeachment. That both in spirit and in practice it Was a maxim of English Constitutional Gaverrinient that all taxes should be imposed and appropriated by the people or by their representatives, and that to place the vast revenues levied for the relief of the poor under the control of Commissioners so appointed was a violation of that salutary principle, not the less mischievous for the specious semblance of a limitation of their powers by the appointment of guardians, a li m it a ti on w hi c h would bear no practical efficiency, inasmuch as it was proposed to extend the right o f vo ti ng i n t h e e l ect i on of such guardians to owners of property, to clergy men, and to justices of the peace, not being ratepayers, by whose instrumentality, aided by the influence of the commissioners, guardians might be chosen utterly at variance with the wishes of the ratepayers, in whom the . free and e xc l us i ve c h o i ce o f th ese o ffi cers oug ht o f right to remain. That the undue influence of the commissioners in the elections of guardians would be open to more easy exercise on their part from the power which it was proposed to give them of determining arbitrarily the number of guardians to be chosen in each parish or union of parishes. That the committee were fully aware of the im portant advantages which would be derived from con solidating the administration of the poor laws, but be ing convinced that these advantages might be obtained by the agency of commissioners to be chosen by the ratepayers, and to be subject only to such general re gulations as Parliament in its wisdom should from time to time ordain, the committee were of opinion that it was expedient that the Court of Common Council should forthwith petition the House of Com mons that the bill referred to might not pass into a law in its present state. (Loud cries of " Hear.") Mr. R. TAYLOR said it was not by any mf..ians the wish of the committee to adviz t e the interposition of the court to prevent the improvement of the existing system of poor laws. The bill aimed at objects which it would be extremely desjrable to acoxnplish, but he considered that the means suggested for the attainment of those objects were exceedingly ob jectionable, and the committee had unanimously condemned them. ( Hear, hear.) The committee offered no captious objections upon a subject of su ch great moment, but were anxious that the court should give the matter the examination which it deserved. He moved that the court do agree to the report. Mr. HErem, seconded the proposition. Mr. STEVENS spoke against the intended bill, and. concluded by expressing his most fervent hope and expectation that the measure would soon meet the fate which all seemed to unite now in admitting it merited. (Cheers.) Mr. DIXON asked whether there was any one of the members of the City in Court to take up the peti tion, which no doubt wou ld b e unanimously passed ?. The LORD MAYOR - said the members for the City were engaged in the Committee of the House of Commons on the Islington Market Bill. The report was then agreed to unanimously. Mr. R. TAYLOR now proposed the petition to Par' liament not to pass the Poor Laws Bill in its prese nt state. Mr. PEACOCK thought the motion of the latter gen tleman did not go far enough, and he should therefore move as an amendment that the petition do pra y the house not to pass it at all. Mr. Deputy Wool) and Mr. GALLOWAY spok e against the bill. Mr. R. TAYLOR said that, as the bill contained great deal of what was good, he thought the Co!. t ought only to pray that it should not be passed in Its present shape. It might be so amended in conunittee. as to be acceptable, but he despaired of the efficiency of any measure so long as the agricultural laboure r remained so completely at the mercy of the landed we' nopolists, who had by the enclosure of the cowme n lands deprived them of the only chance of independen ce and comfort. Mr. Dixon—l'll vote for the amendment, for "11 l the committees in the world could not make this bo one that could be endured. (Hear.) The amendment to the effect that the House ef l Commons should b e p e titi one d to t h row out the WI altogether was then carried by a large majority. MUNICIPAL CORPORATION INQUIRY. Mr. PRITCHARD (the chairman of the corporal committee) brought u p t h e report of the committe e d •I the whole court, which was ordered to be printed, al t the discussion upon which was adjourned till "e l ' I 4. court day. . _ After the transaction of some business of Ic7ser port, the court adjourned. THE MARKETS. GENERAL AVEItA GE PUICE OF BRITISH COBT4L, For the Week' ended 'May 2, 1834, made up from the It .E VI of the Inspectors in the different Clues and Towns in and Wales, per Imperial Quarter. 011. 4d.1 Oats 19F. Barley 4,1,1 Rye 313. 6d I 34.1. HPERIAL AGGREGATE AVERAGES OF TUE NIX WEEKS raircselii: Wheat—. 475. 8:11 Oats —18 s. 43.1 8ean5.,..........3 2 c c d, Barley.-- 275. 103. I Rye —......... 31s. 10d 1 341, DUTIES ON FOREIGN CORN- Wheat.. Oats 196. 9d.1 Beans—. 5,1. Barley-21s. 4d.1 Rye 225. 91j Pease—. , 1136. COUNFRY CORN MARKLTS DURING THE W. Wheat. Barley. I Oats. Per Quarter. s. to s. s. s. s. to s. I t 0 Blandford 53 23 20 35 6rlgg- 4O 58 36 40 15 22 30 28 Cambridge 45 26 15 31 Chard 148 52 24 26 16 20 ~v 4 33 Huntingdon—. 58 63 24 27 16 20 zZ, 35 Long Sutton-- 56 64 17 22 42 Louth 148 54 28 32 18 22 40 31 Lynn l5O 60 22 25 16 20 92 40 Newark 57 60 29 40 16 22 34 Nottingham 40 50 27 32 17 22 r. 36 Peterborough —.... 38 48 25 29 13 2 1 --- Plymouth 5O 64 30 31 20 r 43 Sleafonl Pontefract--.. 4l 36 43 65 70 36 38 22 2 6 39 Uppingham 42 47 28 :32 22 30 35 Wisbech 48 62 20 33 14 LEWES MARKET. —May 6• White Wheat (per quarter)...........X2 0 Red 2 60 Barley lO 1 1 6 Oats, New ••••••••••••••••••••••~0•W1..../... 0 ? 16 0 00 0 Pease • ►s 12 0 0 per thou_ 0 0 10 £2 12 1:1, ''''.....Th 6. CHELTENHAM .MA . lb Per Bushel.- s. d. to-s. d Pet . d. to d. Wheat Barley 3 0 3 9 Mutton 1 Oats 2 6 3 3 Veal Beans 0 6 7 5 0 0 PorkLaub .. ............... .e. :6 8 Pease Hay W. 10s to 31. 150____)____d. per ton. LEEDS CORN 111 A RKET.—May 6. Wheat, Norfolk and Suffolk, 601 b.. 4os. to 565. 4 -- 35 5 . to York. and Lincoln. 60 1 b. 2Ss. to 40s. Barley, Norfolk and Suffblk Yorkshire and Lincolnshire 27s. to 345.. to 2E". Grinding Beans. 6Mb. Oats, Potatoe -.....lltesting, For. ISILL to 13d.........4... Soirgd tO 103441. per Shelling Rapeseed, English, 231. to 27. FOre"ig .. n.-1 . " D tr e .-:l Per . pet l° l 3 ati l 4.1 LI V Eft VOOL CORN EXCHANGE.—May 6. WHEAT, English, White, per 701 b. Red --- Scotch, Welch, and Manx -- Irish, White 6 9 7 0 Red 5 6 6 9 ' 0 ' Foreign OATS, English, Welsh, and Scotch, per 451 b lO 3 , . 1 1 2 ', Irish 3.2 F ore i gn 0 0 o '. ~ BARLEY, English, Malting, per Imp. quarter ‘,.. "3 0 ~ ii 0 -- Scotch and Irish, per 601bs. 38 0 Feeding ,2 3 6 BEANs, English, per Imperial quarter 37 6 28- 0 . 3 Irish, &c. a 41 ° Foreign PEASE, English, per Imperial quarter 42 0 o 42 0• ; Foreign FLOOR, English, per 2801 b. - Irish 21 0 '' ' OATMEAL, English and Irish, per 2401b5. ......... 0 58 INDIAN CORN, per 4401 b. Itva, per Imperial quarter 4 8 0 MALT, per Imperial quarter IMPORT OF GRAIN for the Week ending O ai 4. 041 101 " / ' ' Wheat. Oats. V;11 I Barley Flour. 1-oa k 16, Sclo l . Qrs. 10, Qrs. oB3 Qrs. IForeign, 64 Brls.llrish 81c. 2., 2 31 660 1,046 1,4 I , • MEETINGS OF CREDITORS ,r AT THE COURT, BASINGHALL-STit (From the London Gazette.) 1.1. ji tt.' TO-NIORHOW, MAY 10. 1 st . . O. D. Douglas, baker, Whiteellapel-road . ........... -••••••".. t it DIVIDENDS. S. Barber, draper, Drury-lane ........................ ...••••• BIRTHS. of 611°' On the sth inst., the lady of Colonel Gwyn brae Park, of a daughter. On the 4th inst., the lady of Mr. Henry 11°111tp :: Stonefield-street, Islington, of a son. On the 2d inst., at Margate, the wife of Hoffman, surgeon, of a daughter. MARRIED. , if a ylebl On the Bth inst., at Trinity Church, "'L ig hter Daniel Mildred, Esq., of Woodford, to Emily, Brice Pearse, Esq., of Munkham, Essex. ,_;„ f,cll o o f On the 19th of Dcember last, at Ceylon,..Nu'r Ater 1 Wodehouse, Esq., to Katherine Mary, eldest daup.,„64. F. J. Templer, Esq., of the Civil Service of that op i se! On the 18th September last, at Governinen, t uo ie Parramatta, New South Wales, Edward Deas o isP" Golfer ° " Esq., F.L. S., Clerk of the Councils to the . ..I I; youngest son of Sir John De as Thomson, 1(0 . 11, 00 Anne Alaria, daughter of his Excellency 515.1°." Bourke, C. 8., Governor of that Colony. On the 6th inst., at Barham, Suffolk, R. 3107, 1 of Islington, to Lucy, eldest daughter . of R. GeTeirbt.' of Lewes, Sussex, and niece o f th e R ev . Willialum f , P l _l' ; On the sth inst., at St. James's Church, Picestc.Wra ). Thomas Jones, of Llanbadarn Tref Egiwys, to Helena, the second daughter of Thomas 0 3 " . : ' • of Llanddewv Aberarth, South Wales. 0 010 I / On the inst., at Clapham Church, Ro— hart loom/' Esq., of Dublin, to Jemima, only daughter Howell, Esq., of Clapham. ,ralard' el On the 6th inst., at Godmanchester, Philip ton of Alwalton House, Hunts, to Phillip 9, 0 0' daughter of J. T. Baumgartner, Esq., 'slit shester. fora si!ire' d PA . On the 6th inst., at Datchvvoc.th, lier t , fi d son o p- Rev. James Hesse, rector of Knebworth, see'"' h, Hesse, Esq„ of Chisfield Lodge, to Susall n _ a d , s :; daughter ofJohn Green, Esq., of Bragbury On the 6th inst., at Hove, Sussex, Litr i r .,4 9 , Ai; Degen Lewis, Esq., Royal Engineers, to Scott, eldest daughter of Hugh Scott, Esa i tA Roxburghshire. 13 ! On the 6th inst., at St, Mary's, IslingtOo!...h Alf 4, of Esq., surgeon, of Islington, to Eliza , foW..:d tiolle'cos iwand at the same time the Rev. George Easy r - ' Friroley, Surrey, to Caroline, youngest a cre. j late John Willis, Esq., of MeckleqHF:i Captain Philip Ripley, of York-terraoo liege° On the Bth inst., Mr.l)ChlarElDesilv4,el4l, of CharulS_;,,a fir°7fter On the 7th inst.. Ellirna Jane, 'ale infao vt`,7lar. pttiso * On the 2d inst., aged 35, • JO On the P ince Hayti, _ 10th of March, at P t-aw - r 'F• Petiole' at Cc 4 ronill Air , , Or _, NI % F. ~ . Dorset Charles Fellowes, Esq., son v` JO Esq., of Buckingham, in his 23d Y ear ' On the 6th inst„ '' in Cornw_; ~.' a n place Holloway, Pattullo Esq. sur lola 6411 On the 13th ' Jan g uary , in n his passage to Engl ,t o n Calcutta, Lieut. G. Si: Archer, Rith Foot, young" ~ ev' of the late General Archer Grenadier Guards. On the 6th inst., Mr. Randall, of Fleet-street, Weil On the 27th ult. at the Rectory, TwYf ° „ rel 4kios , aged 73, Anne, relict of the late Rev. Win. ry , that place. S ° London i Printed and Published by 3IURDo y 0 4 thit.Sun Office, No. 112, Str~'d• 'Aothony t ttil Wllll at th the n , t o st The with be 1 : 11 fni, 1 ~ r