The Sun. — London, England, 1831-01-07 00:00:00

• titer parts of England, and the practice has been sanctioned by the Legislature itself. No peculiar blame, therefore, rests upon any particular parish for making use of a mode of proceedin , so generally adOpted, and enforced by such high au thority. 'Nor has it been suddenly enforced in this parish, or even in the memory of the present set of parishioners. It had been my wish to trace the first o7iein of this principle of parish administration, and to mark, if possible, some at least of its intermediate steps ; but the information I have obtained from the books of the parish has not been sufficient for that purpose. The only safe inference which I have been able to draw from the parish accounts is this : that in the years 1730 to 1734., no parochial relief was deli vered out for the maintenance of day labourer:: In agriculture, cases of sickness and accident being alone excepted." This Clergyman enters into a calculation of the operation of the practice on different descrip tions of property. In the case of a rate of Bs. in the pound, an occupier of 20/. a-year, who employs no labourers, will nevertheless be obliged to pay 8/. a-year towards the maintenance of the labourers of the parish. Ile makes the follow ing sensible observations on the dreadful conse quences of this This presure (he says) upon the smallest occu piers of land is of all the most ruinous in its effects, because it falls upon a class of men who are the least able to bear it ; for as small occupiers are al ways obliged to bring their produce to the most early, and on that account, generally, the lowest markets in the year, they seldom dispose of it, ex cept under great disadvantage, even in tunes of the least difficulty ; and, in times of calamity and scar city, like the present year, there are seldom any of the smaller farmers who have any bread corn to dis pose of at all; and many of those who have fami lies, are under the necessity of purchasing it for their own domestic consumption. Perhaps it may not be an extravagant conjecture to venture, if we were to affirm, that if the small farmers should re main under a pressure of poors' rates for ten years to come, equal to the pressure which they have ex perienced during the last ten years, that so useful and respectable a set of men must necessarily be ex terminated entirely in many districts of the king dom, and many respectable fathers and mothers of families would themselves become objects of that charity which they had been ruined to support : their farms would, on the first vacancy, be purchased by neighbouring gentlemen, or by opulent farmers ; and evemually, by the emit e suppression of small occu pations, every hope would be taken away from the labouring poor of ever bettering their condition by renting and cultivating a few acres for their own advantage lndustry and main tenance are every day in this case less and less con : ected The labourer is now more in different concerning his wages titan I have ever be fore observed. As that indifference increases, the master or employer will not be behind-hand in the advantage he can derive from it ; and without taking into consideration the obvious effects which might be brought about by collusion, it seems highly im probable that wages can ever again receive an aug mentation, whatever may be the price of the neces saries of life." Under this abominable practice, therefore, the poor arc shut out from all hope of bettering their condition, and all the gradations between the great farmer and the parish serf are destroyed. A variety of circumstances led to the intro duction of this practice. We have already alluded to the existence of manufactures in, and their departure from the home counties, as a cause of redundancy of people. Another cause is to be found in the taking in of commons, which deprived thou sands of people of their possessions, and their means of earning a livelihood. The best account of the motives of the Aristocracy with respect to commons, and the principles which prevailed in the enclosure of them, is to be found in the work of an acute but singular Frenchman, who lived many years in this country, M. Rubichon, a strong admirer of the English Aristocracy, whose invasion of the rights of the poor he held up to the Ultras, to encourage them to invade the small properties in France c— " In 1791 (says M. Rubiebon) there were more than 200,000 families—that is to say, more than a third of the agricultural population of England— who, for a small quit -rent, possessed in perpetuity a cottage, a garden, and some small pieces of ground, with the right of Peking fuel and pasturing on the common. Such was the territorial divisiou of Eng land when France seemed to menace all the Monarchies of Europe with the same destruction of which she alone has been the victim. Messrs. But ke, Pitt, Dundas, and many other Statesmen, who have so often deplored in their speeches and writings the loss of their relgious corporation, armed in the defence of the civil corporations, which alone sustained the mutilated trunk of their Monarchy ; but, to defend the Aristocracy against such violent attack, it was necessary to strengthen them in wealth and in dependents. No commons could be divided without an Act of Parliament ; but, as Parliament is composed of great landowners, it easily received f. out these three celebrated States men an electiical movement to proceed to the di vision of the commons of their manors. " Certain inhabitants of the villages had a right of common; they insisted that the division should take place to the exelns!on of those who had no right ; several had paid an annual acknowledgment for their possessions; some were trespassers ; others bad no ground. Though the villagers disputed among themselves, they made common cause against the great; they fought before Judges and Juries, who are equally at variance. But the Twelve Judges, setting out from the prin&ple that the Lords of the Manors being only tenants for life, led no right to make any concession, delivered, through Lord Kenyon, the following judgment. 1 copy it, because I consider it as having put an end to the numerous disorders, and thence being the most active principle of prosperity ever possessed by arty Monarchy The Court does not wish to ieter fore with the execution of the laws for the Division of Commons, except in order to cause the Commissioners named by Parliament to act, in case of their refusal ; but it ought to allow them to act freely. If the Court were once to admit applica tions of this sort, it would be necessary to institute two or three tribunals, which should have nothing e:se to do ; it is doubtful if the law gives a right of common to any cottage whatever. The inhabitant of a cottage, who possesses only a garden, has no right, as he cannot support, during the winter, a cow, or any of the cattle he is permitted to feed on the common ; several of the inhabitants of the vil lages have encroached on the common, with the connivance of the Lord ; but they have no right to a share or a division, except the ground taken has been enclosed from time immemorial. By the law of England, no proprietor even has a right to com• mon, but between the rising and the setting of the sun, and neither is it permitted to any proprietor to send more cattle titan he can keep in winter on his property ; it cannot be alleged that a Leech of ground attached to a cottage can support a cow; it might support pigs, but the Court doubts if it be rightful to send them on the commons; as to geese, there is no right : the Court decides then that the in habitant of a cottage has only right to fuel, and this too only by the courtesy or connivance of the Lord ; and besides, this right is only legal in cases where the oldest men of the parish do not remem ber the having seen its commencement, that is to say, from time immemorial. The clergy obtained a victory over the Lords, the Lords over the pro prietors, and the proprietors over the villagers. The strong prevailed over the weak, and happy is it " that it was so. That remains to be seen. In 1808 appeared a General Report on Inclosures, drawn up by order o; the Board of Agriculture, which ex hibits the melancholy consequences to the poor of these proceedings ; " In the year Idoo (says the Report) a journey was made of about 1,600 miles, in which the effect of inclosing on the spot where the inclosures had taken place was examined, without trunting to the reports of the poor only 3 but of the clergy, farmers, and es en commissioners, who had been employed; and it appeared, that in many cares th e poor had in:questionably been injured. In sonic coves many Icows had been kept without a legal right, and no thing given for the practice. In other 'cases where alktmenta were assigned, the cottagers could not pay the expence of the measure, and were forced to sell their allotments. The Brea: loss of the poor is the loss of fuel, where long: custom has prevails d. In other caies they kept cows by right of hiring their cottages on common-rights, and the land going of course to the proprietor, was added to the farms, and the poor sold their cows: this is a very com mon case. The causes were in this manner various, but the result the same. The Board will observe that these injuries in fret, though not in legal right, are not mentioned to show that such inclosures should not have nil:en place, nor to assert that an increase of regular e mployment by the cultivation of the farmers might not more than make amends for them, which is another question ; but to state the facts really as they are ln Decem ber of the same year (1800) a Committee of the House of Commons sat on the high price of provi sions; the Right lion. Dudley Ryder in the Chair. By their orders letters were sent to the 1,845 parishes and places that had been inclosed during the first forty years of his present Majesty. The object was to ascertain the increase or decrease of the culture of wheat ; but the Clergy, in their answers (1,384 in number), adverted to various other circumstances, and a few of them to this point —of the effect cf the enclosures on the interests of the poor. In twenty-nine cases out of thirty-one noted, the poor, in the opinion of the Ministers, were sufferers by losing their cows and other stock. There does not appear to be anything done illegally in any of these cases : in some instances the poor had no right to keep stock on the commons ; these are all cases which the lawyers term usurpation ; and in others allotments were assigned them; but as they were unable to be at the expence of the en closure it forced them not only to sell their cows, but their horses also. This is a very hard case, though a legal one; and as instances are not want ing of a much more humane conduct, it is to be la mented that the same motives did not operate on all." The poors'-rates increased rapidly on the division of commons. The details in Appendix No. IV. of this Report are distressing in the extreme. " Mr. Forster, of Norwich, after giving an account of twenty enclosures in which he had acted as a Commissioner, stated his opinion on their general effect on the poor, and lamented that he had been accessary to injuring two thousand poor people, at the rate of twenty families per parish." Thus we have seen the Legislature systema tically stripping the poor of their little posses sions, whence they supported themselves when out of work, depriving them of their accustomed fuel, taxing coals, that employment might be driven to the north, and placing them in a des titute condition at the mercy of the owners and occupiers of land. We have seen the Magis trates and farmers next availing themselves of the machinery of the Poor Laws to degrade them still further, and prevent them ever retain ing or acquiring property. They were sunk in the lowest wrttchedness. But they began to give signs of life. We have yet hopes of them, ough they require to be assisted. AN APPEAL TO THE JUSTICE OF HIS JUDGES AND HIS COUNTRY FROM AN AGRICULTURAL LA BOURER ON HIS TRIAL AT SALISBURY FOR MA CIIINE-BREAKING. Lo pleld guilty to the charge of which I un act-used. But I humbly beg to urge the following circumstances in extenuation of my offence :—My Lords, I have long felt that the share which, as a labourer, I have received of the produce of my labour, was less than in fairness it should have been, less than it was worth to those who purchased it. I have been so assured by many re spectable and well informed neighbours who compassionated the pitiable situation from which, with the utmost efforts of industry, I could not escape. I have been told that this is neither the natural or necessary condition of tkc labourer; and that if a Government acted with wisdom in the interest of the people, for whose good it is appointed, such a state of things could not exist.' All I have desired is to he enabled to earn a decent main tenance by honest industry ; but this privilege has been denied me. lam told that in other countries, in America, in Canada, in New South Wa'es—a day labourer can earn ten times as much as is necessary to maintain him. Hsi, why am I not allowed to go there? True, my poverty prevents my paying the expences of the passage. But there is wealth e nough in the country to pay them. Should not•the Government which spends so many mil lion% a year professedly fur the people's happiness, expend something to preserve me, and such as I am, from ex treme distress? The law which protects property, pre vents me from helping myself to the means of removal to those happy countries. Surely the law ought to provide me with those means. The law now confines me in this country, where the legal owners of wealth make a profit of my misery, by hiring my labour for the bare pittance which can keep me alive; and the same law stops me at every point from bettering my condition by my own efforts. The law then is not made for me. It gives some persons a property in my wretchedness. But it gives me nothing. The law regards not ins. Is it wonderful I should disre gard the law ? But I am told that I ;on indebted to the benevolence of the law for a provision against want. My Lords, it is the mode in which this benevolent law is administered by the legal authorities that has brought me into the un happy position in which I now stand. lam unmarried; and, for this reason alone, during nearly one half of the year, I am refused all employment by the farmers of my neighbourhood. They prefer the men with large families, because, as they truly say, they must keep them, and whatever wages they pay them go to save the poor rate ; whereas, if they employed me, the same wages would be far more than I can claim from that rate, and by not doing so, they save that difference. My Lords, I humbly beg to represent that the diffe rence which they save, as employers and rate-payers, I lose. lum prevented, through no fault of my own, but ' solely through my being unburdened with a fatni:y, from earning fair wages in an industrious employ ment, and driven to apply to the overseer to save me from starvation. The overseer sends me to work for those very farmers who refused to employ me voluntarily—to work, on their farms and for their profit, at a rate of pay of 6d. a day. My natural sense of justice revolts at being required to do the same work for sixpence, for which other and weaker men than myself, working by my side, receive two shillings, because they have a wife and family, The overseer takes me before a Magistrate fur not doing as much work as the man who receives four times as much pay as myself ; and the Magi strate cotmnits me to gaol. Thus in every way I feel the severity of the law, while its protection is is every way denied to me. Once more, I ask, is it wonderful that the law fails in obtaining my respect? But I have been informed that the making up from the poor-rate the wages of farmers' labourers, to which prac tice is owing their refusal to employ me, with all the cruel consequences I have described, is itself illegal ; that, in truth, neither overseers have the power to wake, nor Ma gistrates to order, any payments to able-bodied labourers already in full work fur private individuals, and conse quently that I have been deprived of the opportunity of earning fair wages, not by the law, but by its abuse and infraction. My Lords, if this be so, am I alone to suffer for breaking the law? Are those who have not only broken ' the law, hut, by doing so, have driven me to disregard and break it, to escape all punishment, all blame, even all notice? It cannot be urged that their motives were charity to the men with large families. It could make no difference to them whether they were paid their parish allowance by the parish alone, or partly by the parish and partly by the farmers. The object of the farmers and overseers who contrived the practice was, as I hare said, to save the dif ' rence between the wages I should have received as a farmer's labourer, and the pittance I did receive as a parish pauper—to take this difference from me, and put it into their own pockets. I will not presume to say the Magistrates shared this motive, but every Magistrate who owns hind must, in his rents, experience the benefit of a con trivance which reduces the gross amount of wages and poor-rate, at the expence of the unmarried and unburdened labourers. If, then, this practice is authorised by law, I can only complain of it as cruel and unjust to me, and such as are in my circumstances ; if it is, as I am informed, unautho rised by law, then I sly the law has been broken to my great injury, and I claim its protection. I claim to be allowed to Drove the injury I have suffered from its in. fraction, and require compensation from the parties who have so conspired to injure me for their own benefit. In either case, I humbly and earnestly entreat the attent on of your Lordships, and of my countrymen at large, to the injustice which has at all events been inflicted on me, and which has driven me unwillingly into the position of an offender against those laws, which, if 1 had ever felt their beneficial influence, I should have been foremost to respect and support. My Lords, lam a prisoner—l ant a pauper. But, if you are here to administer justice, then I call on you to administer it impirtiaLv. Let not the rich an d educated offender escape, while the poor and ignorant fe el y our se verity. It the rank, the station, or the difficult circum stances in which the Magistrates and farmers have acted, are admitted its an excuse for their infraction of the law, surely the same excuses plead a thousand times as strongly in palliation of the offence of the labourer. IRELAND. (From the Dublin Mercantile Advertiser.) IRISH STAMP DUTIES. We are rejoiced to be enabled authoritatively to state, namely, upon the best authority possible, that of the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Spring Rice, that there i, no intention whatever to bring forward Mr. Goulhurn's Stamp Act. The following letter has been addressed by Mr. S. Rice to Mr. Robert Roe, the Secretary of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce : _ _ " London, Dec. 31, 1830. " DEAR SIR,—I feel much obliged by your letter of the 2sith of December, as it gives me the opportunity of enabling you to contradict from authority that most ex traordinary misconception which has attributed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer an intention of introducing the Stamp Duties for Ireland, proposed in the last Session. Nothing can be more groundless than such a supposition. To the general spirit of that former proposal, I see the same objection which I explicitely stated both in Parlia ment and at the Meeting of Irish Members at the Thatched House. The proposal for an increased duty on N e wspapers in Ireland appeared to me equ iliy ind:fensible as a in, , ature of finance and as a measure of general policy, both on its imposition of new re•trints upon the circulation of knew ledge, and the active controul of public opinion. " Nothing that fell front Lord Althorp could have fairly given rise to these extraordinary misapprehensions, which ' you may therefore, on my authority, contradict, in the most direct anti unqualified manner. " I am, my dear Sir. " Your very faithful humble Servant, " R. Roe, Esq." " T. SPRING RICE." --- SWITZERLAND. We have received the Journal de Geneve of the 30th, which contains matter of some interest, and tending, perhaps, to remove a portion of the alarm which may have been felt here respecting the pro gress of events in Switzerland. Annexed are two declarations which have been issued by the Swiss Diet : " DECLARATION. " The Diet of the Swiss Confederation, assembled in extraordinary session, penetrated with the extent of its du ties, has, from its very first sitting, unanimously acknow ledged the necessity of manifesting the attitude which be comes the nation in the difficult circumstances in which Europe is placed at the present moment. " It declares, then, in the name of the Twenty-two con federate Cantons, that in the event of war breaking out among the neighbouring Powers, it has resolved to main tain the strictest neutrality. Switzerland possesses the • right of so doing, as an independent State, and that right has been guaranteed by the most solemn treaties. It more over declares, that all the means within its reach shall be employed to cause itself to be respected. " Desirous of peace, hut not fearful of any struggle, and confiding in the God of their fathers, the Confederation will await events with calmness and firmness. They will unite in efforts to defend the integrity of their territory, their national independence, and their ancient liberty. No sacrifice would be spared for such a noble purpose. " Under existing circumstances, the Diet confides the destinies of the State to the patriotism, courage, and pqr severance of all the Swiss who may be called upon for time express purpose of defending the frontiers against any foreign attack, from whatever quarter it might be made. It appeals to the faith of the Governments of the Cantons, and of the whole nation. " May the blessing and aid of the Most High be in fu ture, as hitherto, on our dear country. " In the name of the Swiss Diet, " The AVOYER, President of the Federal Directory. " The CHANCELLOR of the CONFEDERATION." TIIE ARMY. MILITARY FORCE of GREAT BRITAIN for 1631. STAFF OFFICERS. 7 Field Marslnds.* 110 Generals. 215 Lieutenant Gener ds. 236 Major Generals. 295 Colonels. 773 Lieutenant Colonels. 869 Majors. 1,796 Captains. 2,485 Lieutenants (Ist and 2d). 1,999 Ensigns and Cornets. 8,'777 Total of Officers on Full Pay. CAVALRY. 2 Regiments of Life Guards, (Ist and 2d) 1 Regiment of Horse Guards, Blue. (Cuirassiers) forming the Cavalry of the House ho!d Brigade. 7 Regiment , , of Dragoon Guards. 3 Regiments of Heavy Dragoons, (Ist, 2d, and 6th). 5 Regiments of Light Dragoons, (311, 4th, I 1 th, 13th, and 11th). I Regiments of Hussars (7th, Sth, 10th, and 15th). 4 Regiments of Lancers (9th, 12th, 16th, and 17th). X 26 Regiments of Cavalryt. Royal Horse Artillery. Royal Waggon Train. INFANTRY. 3 Ileffiments of Guards—let, or Gre nadiers ; 2d or ' Coldstream ; and 3d Foot Guards, forming the infantry of the Household brigade. 1 Regiment of Royal Artillery. I Regiment of Royal Engineers. 1 Regiment of Royal Staff Corps. )9 Regiments of the Linet. 1 Rill, Brig:ole. 2 West India Regiments. I .Crylen Rifle ditto. I Cape ditto ditto. I Royal African Colonial Corps. 1 Royal Malta Fencible Regiment. 5 Royal Veteran Companies for service in New South Wales, and Newfoundland. "DECLARATION. " Resolved upon unanimously by the deputations— " 1 . The Diet unanimously pet petuates the principle, that each State of the Confederation, by virtue of its so vereign right, is at liberty to make any changes in its own Constitution which may he deemed necessary or use ful, so long as they are not contrary to the federal conven tion. In pursuance thereof, the Diet will interfere in no manner with the reforms already made, or those hereafter to he made i❑ the Constitutions. " 2. The Diet is convinced that the case provided for by the 4th Article of the Federal Convention, of a federal interference, does not at present exit. It indulges tl,e just hope, that all constitutional modifications, in what ever Cantons they are proceeded with, will terminate in a legal manner, and without at all endangering public tran quillity. C nsequently, it sees no reason to deliberate any further on the Ist Article of the Directorial Circular." CONFESSION OF THOMAS GOODMAN, (From the Brighton Gazette of yesterday.) I Thomas Goodman under sentence of death Aged twenty years Bread and born in Battel hoop maker By trade had bean working the last year and A half for Mrs. Eldridg in Battel and had latley had fifteen shillings a weak i bird of one Mr. Cobbit going a bout gaving out lectures at length he came to Battel and gave one their and their was a great number of Peopel came to hear him and I went to and he had a great deal of conversation con cerning the states of the Peopel and the (gantry telling them that they were verrey 'mach impose upon and he would tell them how to get the better of it or they would sone be starved he said it would be verrey Propper for everrey man to keep a gun in his house espessaley young men and that they migh Prepare them selves i readdyness to go with him When he called on them and he would show them the way to get their rights and liberals (liberties) and he said that the Farmers must expect their would be Firs (fires) in sussex and in Battel as well as other Places and is conversation was all as sutch to inflame the Peopels minds they thinking that he would be A friend to them with made A verrey great imprision on me and so inflame my mine and i from that time was detrmined to set stacks on fire and sone afterwards their was three firs in Battel and that same night the last fire was at the Corsbarn whent and set fire to Mr B Watts is stack with A eandel and lantern and some few (lays afterwards i was standing A talking to three more Persons their came A verrey gente man on horse hack and he rode up to us and said why you have had A fire hear i said yes we have he said well how do Nape' seame to like theas firs or do they seame ene ways A larmed at them i said yes they do but some of them are verrey mutch harden in it and think their will be no more he said i am sorry that they should think so Be cans they have but gust (just) made A begining he ask Wether we had bird of any Person being taken in Battel that day on suspicon of theas firs i said i did not know he asked if we though (thought) the Poor Peopel would as sist to find thus Persons out that Set theas places on fire if the farmers was to gave them to shillings a day we said we did not know and he seam( d so verrey mute!' Pleased a bout theas firs he stopt a haf a nower his hole convesation was as sutch he was a Person welldresst and verrey good horse new saddel and Bridel With made more imprission on my mind and some little time after i was at a niblick house in Battel with Mr ockupies there was severe' Peopel their Which among them their was one and —...--- i new them both verry well i whent out and they came after me and son fell into convesation concerning theas fires had been - said he wish some one would set fir to the Premises of Mr and Mr said he would do it if he could do it Privat help he said he would go with me 0) set Muster Watts his hildings o❑ fir if i would go i said if i did any sucth thing should do it by my self. " Thomas Goodman." MILITARY DTTARTMENTS. Ordnance, Commissariat, Assistant Quartermaster -Ge neral's, Medical, Paymaster-General's, and Chaplains' De partment. FIELD MAasuALs.—llia Royal Highness the Duke of Cstrihridge, K.G., G.C.8., &c. ; H. R. H. the Duke of Cumberland, K.G., K. '3 . P.. &c. ; H. 11. H. the Duke of Gloucester, K.G., G.C.8., &c. ; 11. 11. H. Prince Leopold, K.G., G.C.8., &c. ; his Grace the Duke of Wellington, K.G., G.C.8., G.C. H. ; Sir A. Clarke, G.C.B. ; and Hon. Sir S. llulse, G.C.H. t In the 26 regiments of cavalry three arc Scotch and three Irish ; and in the 99 regiments of Infintry five are Scotch Lowland Regiments, eight Ili.Aland, six Irish, and one Welsh (Royal Fusileers). The Royal Malta Fen cible Regiment is a Maltese Regiment, all composed of na tives, and in the Ceylon Rifle Regiment the men only are Ceylonese, but officered partly by English and natives. These are the only two foreign regiments at present in the British service. The whole forming an effective military force of 9;735 Cavalry, 5004. Foot Guards, 80,399 In fantry of the Line, with Artillery, making a total of about 135,000 men, including Vie present levy. TIIE REVENUE. It is not unimportant to call the attention of the public to the following facts connected with the close of the financial year. The sums are stated in round numbers, in order to make the statement, as it ought to be, ppular and intelligible. It is unnecessary to state that the Excise Revenue is that on which it is most important to dwell, as giving the surest indications of the actual condition of the people. After the important remission of taxes made in the last Session, the decrease on the quarter in the Excise Revenue of Great Britain does not exceed 51,0001.; and in Ireland the Excise Re venue has, from augmented consumption, increased the very considerable sum of 70,0001. But to com plete this calculation, it becomes expedient to add to the receipts of the last quarter the sum that would have been paid in, had not the repeal of the duties on beer, leather, and cider taken place; and if the consumption during the quarter on those articles had continued unchecked, the results would have been as follows : Beer £307,000 Leather Cider 3,500 Actual surplus Total surplus on quarter, if the taxes on beer, cider, and lea ther had not been repealed £450,500 It is important, with a view to the actual condi• tion of the people, to consider on what branches of Revenue the increases of the year appear. They are as follows, and their importance is obvious : Bricks Candles Malt Paper... Printed Goods •• • 90,000 Soap Spirits Starch Tea The principal heads of decrease are given in round numbers, as follows : Auctions Glass B,OOO Hops 48,000 Now it is observable that the duty on auctions generally increases in periods of distress, when com pulsory sales are resorted to, and when the ordinary modes of sales are more difficult ; and that the fall ing off on the duty on hops is the effect solely of is short crop. With respect to the Customs Revenue, the pay ments for the two last years appear us follows : For 1829 £16,346,761 1830 16,027,339 Excess in the former year £319,422 But it may, perhaps, be considered that this ex cess may be accounted for by the duties on corn. Such is not the case. The receipts under this head arc as follow : Corn duties in 1829 £913,686 -------183 0 790,877 Deficiency in 1830 £122,810 The deficiency estimated to arise in the Excise from the repeal of taxes was no less I sum than 1,190,000 The actual deficiency is ...... ... 660,000 The receipts of the year will therefore exceed the calcula tion £330,000 It is impossible to consider these accounts without being impressed with R conviction that the great re sources of the country are unimpaired. This con victio❑ ought not, however, to induce the Govern ment to suspend its exertions in the great work of economy and Reform, or to prevent the people for one instant to cease the loudest and most urgent call on Parliament and on the Administration. But it is an answer, and a triumphant one, to those timid minds who consider that all is lost where any thing is in danger; and who, after years of folly, are now disposed to consider exertion and common sense to be unavailing, and therefore unnecessary.—Times. An ancestor of Sir WALTEit SCOTT jOilled the Pretender, and with his brother was engaged in that unfortunate adventure which ended in a skirmish and captivity at Preston, in 1715. It was the fashion of those times for all persons of the rank of gentlemen to wear scarlet waistcoats. A ball had struck one of the brothers, and carried a part of this dress into his body ; it was also the practice to strip the cap'ives. Thus wounded, and nearly naked, having only a shirt on and an old sack about him, the ancestor of the great poet was sitting along with his brother and a hundred and fifty unfortunate gen tlemen in a granary at Preston. The wounded man fell sick, as the story goes, and vomited the scarlet which the ball had forced into the wound. L—d, WATTLE!" cried his brother, " if you have got a wardrobe in your warne, I wish ye would bring me a pair of brooks, for 1 have meikle need of them." The wound healed : I know not whether he was one of those fortunate men who escaped to the Continent. —New Monthly Magazine. EXPRESS FROM PARIS. (From the Times.) We have just received by express, the Paris Journals, morning and evening, of Wednesday, and letters from our private correspondents, from nll of which it will appear that great apprehensions were entertained in that capital that the terrible crisis of affairs in Poland, and the uncertainty of the Belgic a►rangen►ents, were calculated to embroil Europe, at no distant time, in a general war. The hopes that such a calamity may be averted rest upon the mo deration and abilities of the Ministers of the prinei- pal Powers, who are now employed in negociation in behalf of their respective Cabinets. The following are extracts from Wednf.sday's Paris papers, most of which give the proclamation of the Emperor Nicholas against the Pa's, with comments upon the probable fate of Poland : The Journal des Debats, after giving the procla mation, smys, " We 'ee there that the combtions offered by Russia are equivalent to a declaration of war, and this war has perhaps commenced at the moment we are tracing these lines. We shall re , turn to-morrow to the considerations which grow out of so great an event." It is said that a number of deputies, forming, the centre droite and the centre gauche of the Chamber, have addressed a memorial to the King, recom mending him not to dissolve the Chamber of ID:- pities, and to strengthen the Peerage by creating 40 new Peers taken from the centres.—National. The following circular has been addressed by the Minister of the Interior to the Prefects of the De partments:— " tint,—The official acts which you have already re• ceived have informed you that General Lafayette has re signed his command of the National Guards of France. I hare no occasion to notice to you the regret experienced by the King on receiving his resignation. The National Guards of your department will, I am sure, readily con• ceive that they cannot better do honour to General La fayette than by redoubling their ardour and activity. The Commanders of the National Guards must be informed that the service is not on this account to suffer any inter ruption or change ; and that it is to me, through you, - they are now to address themselves on all affairs relating to the National Guards of your department, and I rely on their ardour to second me in this respect. I take this oppor tunity of dissipating the uneasiness that may have been occasioned to the National Guards by the Law Project on their organization. This law will give to the Government the power of maintaining their formation by battalions in all the districts where it is possible for it to be establish, d, and the Government will uniformly exercise this power. Therefore, wherever there may be occasion, assure the minds of the public, and let no person remain ignorant that the first object of our solicitude is, and ever will be, to maintain the organization of a citizen militia, which will render order and liberty inseparable. " Receive, &c. " MONTALIVET." The interest of Treasury Bonds will be fixed at five per cent, from the Ist of Jan. 1831.—Moniteur, The Commission named for the re-organization 01 the National Guards of Parisian Artillery, assem, bled yesterday morning at the house of the Minister of the Interior. We are assured they will not sepa rate without having arranged the basis of the re organization of this essential corps. It is si.id that the organization by legion will be maintained. Orders have been given in each nrairie, for the in scription of citizens who wish to belong to it. The old members will have a preference.—Journal des Debats. Extract of a private letter of the 20th ult. from Warsaw :—" The number of Russian officers who are prisoners of war in this city is 140; they are all lodged at the Royal Castle, and if one of our Journals is to be believed, M. Schmidt, the Prussian Consul, has frequent communications with them. The new Journals which have appeared here since the Revolution are the Conscientious Pole, the Spy, the Patriot, the Standard Bearer, the White Eagle, the Sarmatian Sybil, and the Bard of Free Poland. The Sarmatian Sybil proposes the Duke de Reich stadt as King of Poland ; but this Austrian Utopia is not approved by the other Papers. We have a French theatre, in which are displayed the Polish white flags and the French tri-coloured one, the White Eagle of Poland and the Gallic Cock. Every evening the actors sing the " Mar seilloise," the " Parisienne," the " Polish Lancers," and other patriotic compositions. The police can scarcely be said to exist at Warsaw, as the Uni versity National Guards discharge the functions of it with extraordinary ardour and activity. The staff of this guard occupies the building formerly appro priated to the censorship. The Warsaw National Guards wear no uniform, but are distinguished from the other citizens by printed cards in their hats bearing two numbers, one of the arrondissement, and the other of the company to which they belong. A singular fact is related of the Prince de Lubeke When the Emperor was at Warsaw, in June of last year, the Prince recommended him to change the system of his Government, and foretold the revo lution of France as well as that of Poland; but Nicholas laughed, and replied Your prophecies are mere dreams.' It is this same prophet, however, that is sent by the Dictator to St. Petersburg!) at the head of the Polish deputation. He possesses the confidence of the Emperor,and is well acquainted with the wants of Poland and Russia, for he was Russian Governor at Wilfl, and was subsequently sent on several diplomatic missions to Berlin and Vienna. A general persuasion exists that the Emperor will listen to the remonstrances of a man so highly esteemed as he i s . Yet the propositions he is authorised to make are of a very serious nature, and the Dictator declares that the Polish nation is ready to perish if his Majesty does not agree to them. They are :- 1. The union to the actual kingdom of Poland of all the provinces separated by the first, second, and third division ; 2. The abolition of the additional act to the constitution of the kingdom, by which the proceedings of the nuncios and Deputies are carried on with closed doors ; 3. The correction of several articles of the Charter; 4. The establishment of the same constitutional system in Lithuania which will only make one country with the kingdom ; 5. Guarantees for the execution of the laws ; 6. Not a single Muscovite soldier shall remain in Poland. As to the freedom of the Press, individual liberty, and other fundamental points, they are all found in the Constitution of 1715, which requires but very few changes. Never would the revolution have broken out in Warsaw, if the Grand Duke and other Russian agents had not violated the Constitution every day." CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.—StrrixG Or JAN. 4. The President took the Chair at one o'clock. M. Arthur Labourdonnaye took occasion to com plain of severe measures exercised upon M. de la Houssaie, a young mercantile man of his depart ment, who had been arrested for some inconsiderate expressions. A search had been made at his house, by which his interests had been greatly injured, and a draft for 3,000 fr. had been lost. lie had been now three months in prison, without being brought to trial, although the Keeper of the Seals had pro mised that the affair should be brought to an issue. M. Willard Kerbortin, Chief President of the Royal Court of Rennes, said that NI. de la Houssaie had been arrested upon charges of a very serious nature. Among others, it was alleged that, after having made an agreement with a boatman to convey him to St. Lo, he put a pistol to his breast, and made him sail for Jersey, where he remained several days. It was necessary to make researches and in quiries at Jersey, and this necessity occasioned de lay. There was no doubt , h owever, that the Chain her of Council would shortly come to a resolution. M. Dupont (de l'Eure) observed that there was reason to believe that M. de la Houssaie had gone from Jersey to Charles X. in England. His arrest was not illegal. It was not svithout great efforts and the intervention of the National Guards that he had been apprehended, for he threatened the gendarmes with his pistols. M. Arthur de Labourdonnaye had no intention of accusing Ministers. In the affair in question he could only see a misfortune; and would persist in maintaining that not a single fact would be brought b y d,)ete. strnohenedleN'eil against M. de la Houssnie. thi s ours M ' . Dupont wished the affair to be referred to the , Keeper of the Seals, in whose office would be found are the ''re all the papers upon the subject, which would show son a i that in the arrest there was nothing of an illegal rio es _ in oat ore. m em b er t A f ter a f e w wor ds fro m G enera l L amarque an d pared 11. Bar the, the petition was referred to the Minister for of Justice.-Adjourned. measur e SITTING OF WEDNESDAY, JAN.S. of the A The Deputies assembled again to-day to proceed Severe to the preliminary investigation of the law for elect- to wear t ing of the Members of the House. It is said that merry bureaux have opposed the plan of elections (Prom t proposed by the Government ; and that they are of Opinion that a sense should be fixed in the same t Nothir manner as that which imposes any other eligibility. Proposed This electoral sense should, according to these, be as we she less than 300 francs of direct taxes., as established tioned by the Charter of 1814.. The adji: l'he Deputies of the centre of tho Chamber start, talented it is said, so many difficulties, that it is supposed canna 1 they will succeed in rejecting the projected law. firmly be When the 'Members assembled it was half-after such a I. two o'clock ; they seemed still heated from the die- hers will cessions that had taken place in the bureaux. von to tl The llouse continued to deliberate on the pro- tione h; posed law for the organization of the National Guard. ir is sai The following are the punishments which may be to gore iiffcted on National Guards :-I. A reprimand ; Lefitte t 2. Reprimand, with correction ; 3. Incapacity to has ma receive rank ;4. Imprisonment, not exceeding five France, (lee's. The Chamber considered it improper to in- dieted th flict fines for transgressions. and Ow General Lafayette entered the house at half-past `vas not three o'clock; arid M. de Tracey was left speaking at expect t four o'clock, upon parts of the National Guard Law, men of t FRENCH FUXES.-PARIS, JAN. 5.-Five per Cents., after wh 92f. 20e. 15c. 10c. 15c. 10e. 92f. 91f. 75c. 50c. 91f. Prevailir 80c. 92f. 91f. 90c, 921. 92f. 20r. 30c. 20. 921. 10e. Dupo nt 15e. 10c. sc. 92f. ; Four per Cents., 77f. 761. 50c. ; about tl Three per Cents., 61f. 20c. 10e. 61f. 601. 80c. 50c. 85c. opini on . 61f. 61f. 15c. 611. 20e. 10c. 20c.. Bank Stork. 1,520 1 . wh o w * 1 1 °r e 1,5151. 1,517 f. 50c. 1,5101. 1,5001. 1,5101. ; Rente de not 7' . Naples, 61f. '7sc. 621. 25c. 15c. 62f. 62f. 10c. ; Rents N , d'EApagne, 16 15 ; Royal Spanish Loan, 60 ; was the i 7 1 ; Rente Perpetuelle d'Espagne, 45t 45 46 461 461 made so 46 451 46. Exchange on London, one month, money, fayette't 251. 15c. ; three months, money, 25f. 5c.-Ceuvs House, Authentique. Guards fools of, (From the Times Private Correspondent.) action- PARIS, WEDNESDAY EVENING. frighten You will find by the journals that the affairs of plot-ii Poland arid Belgium are looked upon with anxiety the m er and apprehension. Some of the students of the spot or schools are this day engaged in presenting standards, ceed fc in the square of the Pantheon, to several natives of for orde Poland as ho are about to depart this evening to joist over th the patriots of their devoted country. At the head spirator of these is a gentleman named Czapski, who is, if 60,000 lam not misinformed, the same person who so fre- acsistan quently appeared at the soirees of General Lafayette I ask in the proscribed ancient costume of his country. the re 1 , lam informed whilst writing, that the ceremony of to m a k, presenting these standards was conducted with great vict ory enthusiasm. O'Gorman Mahon has arrived in felt sat Paris to present a Dublin address to M. Odillon power Barrot, at the hotel de Ville to-morrow, sight You will find, too, that the popular societies, lendino which were crushed by the firmness of the Govern- Ch ar d . ment last autumn in the metropolis, where, bow- of Lib ever, 1 have reason to believe they have since kept and la up it silent organization, have reappeared with The more than their original strength in Alsace, the dc- rable I partment lately represented by Benjamin Constant. facility I subjoin their prospectus, which I have this more- republ ing received by post, dated in Strasbourg on the 2d His a instant, where it has just been printed in French reache arid in German. of the The new electoral law will give rise to warm de- but it bates. It is said that the centre of the Chamber are which indignant at the admission to the electoral franchise some of the learned bodies, who are deemed by them to in il l( be the most turbulent of the population ; while the studer extreme liberals of the left do not think the franchise Sor sufficiently extended, and demand a more enlarged speak electoral body. l b be an I enclose you the prospectus of the liberals of ca bl e _ Alsace. men c [We have not room for it to-night. Our ear' have I respondent, also speaks of a letter of vindication Grey, written by M. Odillon Barnet, but it was subse- office, quently withdrawn by the writer.] but in PARIS, TUESDAY EVENING, a bo3 On the subject of local politics here, there was 0 Picnic meeting at General Lafayette's house last Sundays Solve( Tit in which, I am informed, it was determined to ore ganize a proper " left" (opposition) in the Chamber; rid of the leading members of this left to be the venerable „ General, M. Dupont (de l'Eure), M. IMat b euin, I‘l , "we Salverte, M. de Tracy, M. Coreelles, and one Of to, Du two others, who were to arrange tactics. An es'efia"P. plosion in debate is hourly expected from this oleo' Th nization, but I know the Chamber will be disstowlveeedri ins o) the moment the new electoral lew has been enacted , I 'olyt M. Guizot will lead a sort of centre, or moderate theor cons titutional party-an intermediate body be the Government as composed at prevent and the 0' to th, treme liberals. The latter organization is in goo, rittml time for these Ministers-it will be a " breakwater thee] for their port against the tempestuous tide of coo' Corn coaled republicanism. office that Meantime', the public out of doors are looking on, as far as I can observe, rather tranquilly at there Stud party arraneemente. Commerce and trade of 0 11 Min kinds are in stagnation, and the youth of France evi' of th dently seek with a keen relish the sad pastime of Porti war for their occupation ; and all eyes are turned to'' form wards Poland, to see what combustibles are within they the reach of ignition, from the sparks which must be e struck out of the collision between Russia and P o ' had land. Marshal Soult is most active in putting th 6 in le whole military establieleraent upon a war footing' Denis However, the Government declare these measures revol to be alone precautionary. bibl e There is at this moment, in Paris, a violent con; troversy raging between the disbanded artillery an°, V Count Nlontalivet, who is said to be the author 0 ' eubli their dissolution. The Commission, at the head of Gove which is General Lobau, is now sitting to re-or' I : l r i i e n e l ganize this corps, and to purge it of some refracted( Cab members. I will not engage in this controversy , w which I have heard a good deal at either side, bu t and refer you to the Journals for the arguments pra t nen, and con. I am, however, from private sources 0 , Ada , information, which I believe to be accura t e , enab led to inform you, that while on the one hand a number bat' meat officers (of artillery) have si g nified to the Gov ern' ment their approbation of this re-organization, Fr; sever veral others are at this moment combining to proses se) , against it in the following tarns. I must prernis c ' sAy, however, that the paper which follows is at thi s ( in moment only a projet, in circulation among some ° 'mug these gent lemen, to see how far it meets the appr ° ' arrei bation of those who feel unjustly stigmatised by ti e disbandment of a corps which, they insist, was l rnrc ways ready to do its duty. The projet is in the" Nit words:- , Z oe " The artillery of the P ar i s i an National Guer u cost has been organized like the whole National Guard' env by virtue and according to the forms of the law , next 1791. tow " The elections have been made, under the forc e ": of this law, in presence of the municipal authoritie s ' " This lass , is the only one which this day rule s day, as, and that which is before the Chamber of DePi r sent ties is not yet en a cted. 131'4 " Nevertheless, a simple ordinance has dissolved m e ,°, l ` the artillery, un d e r the pretext that some officer° p `' z ut ai have given in their resignation. tui n " NVe declare that this ordinance is illegal in r i f L ek its parts, and that we have the right to reclaim ° ll e has artillery and the standard which have been entrusts ti es to us. a, a " We believe it, then, to be our duty to pr otee , nll and we now protest formally, against the royal ord, nance, countersigned Montalivet,' which dissolver ttohnel the artillery of the Parisian National Guard. t ae nes, think, even if it be true that twenty officers hair' „f sent in their resignation, that is no reason for l l d i solving a corps of National Guards-a corps "hips could only be suspended or deprived of its funetiO°