The Sun. — London, England, 1831-08-20 00:00:00

..*c v el,.. , at ia pp g - : ., i' ,-. 1 : r.., t i, e t ,,-.-- 7...,.: . .,,, ,' ,, , :-., . ,„ . a should (re a saint cer um not 'mirage the dude's . f that o ffi ce on hits? ! " The Journals of that House did ati .fo t afford any case so-tyrannical as that supposed by the Attorney-General 1.4(sueuttionin g a returning officer to the bar who had been only made a returning officer by the . A -without being compelled by it, and punishing him for ng his duty. The doctrine of his Learned Friend - .,4 4 " c : ' ether law nor privilege. It was necessary to add .1:.3 ' 111 (nciii-ie bora requiring these officers to do their duty. lie '. wished those who cheered him could produce a case of that House bringing a man to the bar for not undertaking en office that the law dial not compel bins to undeetalse. He again contended that the clause is it now stood was in complete. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL adteeitted that he and Lis Learned Friend were at issue about the law. Ills opinion last week was formed on the chute :ben different from what it now was. The clangs had not then the words " The returning officer appointed by the Sheriff shall be the returning officer.'" Those who by any Act of Parliament were appointed returning officers must take that duty on themselves. Mr. J. CAMPBELL, being called on by his Learned Friend (Sir C. Wetherell), contended that the Act (lid snake the people mentioned in the schedule returning officers. The Act made them so without adding penalties, or saying that they violated privileges, and these returning officers would be liable to all the penalties of other re turning officers for neglecting their duty. The Mayor of Stafford was the returning officer. The Bill made the Mayors of several of the towns now to receive Members returning officers, and they would, by this Bill, be placed on the same footing as the Mayor of Stafford. Sir G. CLERK stated that the opinions of the Attorney General and of the Noble Lord, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as to the clause, were at variance with one another, and he asked to have this discrepancy reconciled. Lord ALTHORP had only stated what wart the inten tion of the Government, not what was the legal meaning of the clause. He meant the clause to be compulsory in the first instance, and he supposed it was so. Mr. WASON showed by the 55th clause of the Act, that all persons mentioned in the Bill were made subiect to the ordinary punishments for neglecting any duty they were ordered to perform. Sir ROBERT PEEL thought there was a distinction between the returning officers' names in the Bill and thews to be hereafter named by the Sheriff. The former were already responsible officers—the latter might be anybody whom the Sheriff pleased. It would be competent for the Sheriff, under this Bill, to compel any man he pleseed to select to reside in any borough and pee form the duties of a returning officer. There was no example of any one man having such a power ; and therefore it was necessary that this power of appointment should be regu lated in detail. To propose to prop up the defects of the law by calling in the aid of privilege was one of the most monstrous pieces of legislation he had ever heard of. In order to render the clause complete some words and some additions were necessary, to prescribe the duties both of the returning officer and of the Sheriff' with regard to hint. It was monstrous to give such a power to any one person as the Bill gave to the Sheriffs. They might prevent any man from leaving the country. This was so monstrous that it was plain the clause required to be re considered ; and he implored the Hon. and Right Hon. Gentlemen opposite to re-consider the clause. Mr. Serjeant WILDE argues], that there was no char ter of any city or borough in which the ditties of the returning officer were specified; but that, however, they might vary in their extent of those duties or methods of appointment, all returning officers were supposed by the law to be answerable for the discharge of the ordinary business of their office, either as it was regulated by cus tom, or occasionally controuled by particular Statutes. That these being the known and acknowledged principles under which returning officers acted, and for any depar ture from which they were open to punishment, he could not see why they were to adopt the suggestions of the Hon. Gentleman opposite, and make such alterations as would render that doubtful which the law had rendered clear. Undoubtedly there was some force in the areu silent of the Right lion. Baronet (Sir R. Peel) that the power vested in the Sheriff of appointing the returning officer was a very extraordinary and dangerous power; tut if it proved that in point of law the person so appointed was compelled to take on himself the office —to discharge its duties, and answerable like any other public officer to be punished by indictment for neglect, be could not see what good objection could he made to the Sheriff having the power of appointment, or in what other hands it could more safely be placed. In what officer, indeed, could the ap pointment be placed with greater propriety than in the High Sheriff? The appointment must rest somewhere, and the Sheriff, who was in a greater or leaser degree the presiding officer in all the elections of his county, must be considered the fittest person to be entrusted with the ap pointment of the officer who was to preside at elections under the Bill. Sir C. WETHERELL repeated his objections to the clause to be, that it was not compulsory enough, and that it did not state that the individual named as returning effi cer was either under the necessity of acting, or punishable by fine or otherwise for refusal to act. lie contended that tire clause (lid not specify this, and he was at issue with the other side respecting its necessity, for in his opinion the person appointed might refuse to act. Mr. CARTER likened the case under discussion to that of churchwarden(' or overseers, who, when appointed, were bound to take on themselves all the duties of these offices without any formal specification of what the duties were. So he apprehended that returning officers would be bound under penalties to fulfil the duties imposed by their appointment. Sir E. SUGDEN contended that the clause did not either compel the individual appointed to act or punish him for refusing. If it did so, why was it, he would ask, that in page 25 there was another clause specifying the penalties incurred by the returning officers for offences in discharge of their duties ? Was not this a plain admis sion, that the offence was not provided for in the clause under consideration. The Attorney-General had, indeed, on a former Occasion, admitted that the clause was defec tive, and he could not understand why they should con tinue to object to an amendment of the wording, so as to do away with all doubts on the subjects. The only reason he could find for the proposal to give such extraordinary power to the Sheriff on the appointment of returning officers was, that the Government had neglected to make inquiries into the nature of the duties of those officers in different .!places, and as to the persons who were fit to be named to fulfil them.—(Hear, hear.) In London the Sheriffs would have the privilege of naming the returning officers for the metropolitan districts, and the Noble Lord (Althorp) knew well that they would possess on such occasions a very extensive influence. That the Noble Lord did think so at one time was evident, from the fact that he proposed the returning officer should not be permitted to offer himself as a candidate for one year after he had ceased to fill the office. He thought, on the whole, that the clause was open to very great objections, and that the sug gestions of the Right Hon. Baronet deserved the best con siderations of the Committee. The ATTORNEY-GFNERAL, in answer to the lion. and Learned Member for St. Mawes, said that di ligent inquiry had been made as to the most proper persons to whom to entrust the power of appointing the returning officers. The result was that the High Sheriffs were those persons ; and none of the Hon. Members opposite had suggested any other. Sir R. PEEL begged the House to consider the exten sive power which the returning officers would possess. To them was to be entrusted the authority of revising the lists of the voters and of expunging the names of those whom they might consider nut qualified. To the Sheriffs was to be given the irresponsible power of appointing these re turning officers ;—to the Sheriffs, annually appointed themselves in Febru ivy, and who might be called upon in March to make these appointments. The Sheriff himself could not be a candidate at an election ; but his son or his brother might be as. By the Act, whoever was qualified to be a candidate was exempt, if he chose to be so, from discharging the duties of a returning officer. How easy , would it be far any man to obtain a nominal qualification, called a rent charge, of three hundred pounds a year, for the purpose of claiming exemption. There was no re semblance between the appointment of Sheriffs and the ap pointment by Sheriffs of returning officers The Judges of Assize nominated annually three individuals, of whom the Privy Council selected one as Sheriff. But the caution thus used was no reason why the Sheriff should appoint the returning officer. Ile strongly recommended the ex punging of that part of the Bill which empowered the Sheriff to appoint the returning officers. Mr. CRAMPTON, in answer to one of the observa tions of the Right Hon. Baronet, observed that the clause was compulsory on all persons appointed to discharge the or to subject them se l ves to the duties of returning office r, penalties of a refusal. Mr. G. BANKES contended that the case was a stronger one than even that which had been put by hiS Right Hon. Friend, the Member for Tarritiavorttdh.uties ofHis Right Hon. Friend, adverting to the impor n the returning o ffi cer—duties judicial, and calculated to influence an election—had represented the, danger o f vesting the appointment of that o ffi cer in a Sheriffwh o was chosen annually. But his Right lion. Fri end bad omitted to observe, that it might be vested in an indi vidual who would hold the authority for life. It was true that the Sheriff wai annually appointed ; but the Under- Sheriff, although by law he was annually appointed, prac tically, it was well known, held his situation for life. Ile had even, known counties—Oxford for instance—in which the office devolved from father to son, Now tto 'man could doubt that it would be the Under a'Ad not the Sheriff, who would vominate 'the returniirg officer.— The Sheriff rornipg info bit ee ih ;Febrirary, and having to make his nonaination of returning officers in March, whom could he 'consult, in whose hands could b' iiiree himself, but the Under Sheriff? He (Mr. 13ankes) had a great re_qpect for attorneys and solicitors ; but they were not persons, agents as they were to so many parties, wh'6m he wished to see returning officers. Yet t'::e'y were the pre cise persons who in general 1 - ./,';Ultt be appointed. He ac knowledged that there were difficulties in the ease, but these dOtillties ought to have been foreseen in the outset ; atad the authors of the Bill had no right to call on the op ponents to it to suggest an expedient. Lord ALTHORP said due inquiry had been made, and no other person occurred to the framers of the Bill as the person in whom the right of appointing the returning of ficers should be vested but the High Sheriff. Being an annual officer lie was less liable to he influenced in an elec tion. Responsible as he was for the election of the county, it was most natural that to him the power should he en trusted of appointing the returning officers for the Val-4ms elections within the county. The objections which had been made to the High Sheriff were only objections which were equally applicable to anybody else. Yet somebody must be appointed. It had been said that all who were qualified to be Members were excluded from the situation of returning officers. This was not the cast. They were only not compelled to serve. There was no reason to sup pose that any one appointed to he a returning officer would be desirous to decline the appointment, for it was a kind of feather in his cap. The Right Hon.. Member for Tam worth had said it would be easy for any man to exempt himself Irons the office by obtaining fallacious qualifica tions. He might do the same thing in order to enable himself to stand as a candidate. Into the legal argument he would not enter. He repeated that they had male every inquiry as to the proper persons to be appointed re turning officers, and the result was, that where they did not already exist, it was found the High Sheriff was the fittest individual. It was certainly possible that the High Sheriff might be the friend of the candidate; but that was an objection which would he equally applicable to any other person., Mr. WYNN observed that if a person appointed to be a returning officer chose to decline that office, how was it to be known until the writ came down? and then there were no immediate compulsory means to make him serve. He thought it would be better if the High Sheriff of the county were to have the right of selecting one from three persons nominated by some other authorities. He earnestly advised his Majesty's Ministers to grant charters to nev. , boroughs, and appoint municipal magistrates. He knew this could not be done at once, but he recommended them to take measures for carrying it into effect as speedily as possible. Mr. HUNT objected to the Sheriff of Middlesex having the right to appoint returning officers for the metropo litan districts. Mr. CALVERT said that, consideting the way in which the Sheriffs of London were elected, he could not avoid thinking that if they had the right of appointing returning officers for the new districts, these offices would he filled by persons who would not discharge the duty honestly, hut would look rather to their own advantage than that of the community. Mr. HARVEY thought the Sheriffs would be sure to choose respectable persons to act as returning officers. He concurred with the Hon. Member for Southwark in believing that the Sheriff of Middlesex ought to have the power of appointing the officers for the new districts. Accredited officers ought to be instituted in all the en franchised places. The clause, with a number of verbal amendments, was then agreed to. The returning officers named in schedule C and D were agreed to. A discussion followed respecting the clauses which should be taken to morrow, when Lord ALTHORP stated, that he proposed to take clauses 19 and 20, but not 21. Colonel WOOD having made some observations on the mode of registration, which he supposed would be introduced into the Bill, Mr. C. WYNN suggested, that the Bill should be divided into distinct portions, and that the principles should be separated from the details. The discussion of the latter might be very complicated, and would probably occupy much time. He proposed that the elective franchise should be passed, and the rest be discussed afterwards. The House resumed, and the Chairman obtained leave to sit again to-morrow. Mr. H. HUGHES gave notice for Tuesday, that he should on that day move a resolution before the House going into a Committee, declaratory of the opinion of the House that the present number of its Members ought not to be reduced. Mr. LEFROY moved the second reading of this Bill. Mr. HUNIE said that the Hon and Learned Member for Kerry intended to oppose this B 11, and had given notice of his intention to do so. Knowing that intention, he (Mr. Hume) should, in the absence of that Hon. and Learned Member, move that it be read a second time this day six months. Mr. LEFROY insisted that this Bill was a good Bill, and ought to receive the approbation of the House. Mr. LEADER and Mr. MOORE O'FERRALL opposed the Bill. Sir R. INGLIS would vote fin. the second reading. Mr. STANLEY recommended that the Bill should be o•ithdrawn, because, in legislating upon that subject, no alteration should be attempted, unitss it were a decided improvement. Mr LEFROY regretted that his ALtjesty's Govern ment abandoned the principle which they had recognised in the House of Lords; that is, that the Protestants of Ireland should be provided with convenient places of wor ship, and should have proper accommodation for the per forming of the church service. Although the Govern ment retracted its pledges, and deviated from good faith and good policy, he would adhere to both, notwithstanding the notice which had been given by the Member for Kerry. Mr. STANLEY denied that he was lukewarm in his support of the Church of Ireland. He had, indeed, been complained of for too great a disposition to promote its interest. When the Bill was first submitted to his Noble Friend, he said, as he now repeated, that he did not think it would have any important effect either for good or for evil, and that the improvements which it contemplated were too trifling to justify the change. The House then divided, and the numbers were— For the second reading 11 Against it 38 Majority 27 The other Orders of the Day being disposed of, the House adjourned at Two o'clock. THE ANTI-REFORMERS.—A correspondent informs us, that at this eleventh hour, a certain batch of simple-minded gentlemen are at the old dirty work—get ting up a snug Anti-Reform petition. This exposure of ignorance and presumption is taking place, we hear, at Hurstmoneeux, in which neighbourhood gentlemen and farmers are called upon " just to sign this petition." We do not recommend that the impertinent intruders should be ill-treated, but we do counsel all men who would avoid being laughed at as simpletons, politely to show them the door. We really wonder these despicable Tories cannot copy the old Roman, whose anxiety it was " to gather his mantle round him, that he might fall with decency." We have since heard that these very discreet personages in tended hawking their petition about Brighto❑ in private circles. We should thank them for a list of the signatures they obtain. —B righton Gazette. , THE GARRICK PAPERS.—The private cor respondence of DAVID GARRICK with the most celebrated persons of his time is at length before the public. BURKE was accustomed to style his friend, GARRICK " one of the deepest observers of man ;" and indeed such unbounded powers in the display of human character cannot be pos sessed without the most subtle knowledge of life. It was this practical study of our nature that rendered him one of the most instructive as well as delightful companions that ever existed. From a perusal of the correspondence now published the reader may not only estimate the intel lectual eminence of this great ornament of the British stage, but is likewise in , roduced to the wide and brilliant circle of his friends—which included nearly all who were conspicuous either for rank, genius, or talent. NOVEL MODE OF "GOING TO WAR."— The vehicle in which the Dukes of ORLEANS and NE.. MOURS took their departure from Paris fur the field of battle was of a very uncouth construction, and certainly not much like the equipage which the English Dukes Royal would have put their bodies and baggage into, t a h ie o n u s g e h, inacne pr h o i bab , ly, far m ore appropr i ate. It i s an im something like an omnibus, and was drawn by six horses, three abreast. It is divided into three compartments, the first of which was occupied by the Dukes and tbeir Aides-de-c amp , t h e second formed a bed-room, and the third was a kitchen, which contained a servant of all work, and a very modest set of culinary appdratus, 1 . We shall not disguise our drop regret at the result of this division last Thursday evening, when Lord Chandos carried agaitiut the Ministers, and to the serious injury of the Beform Bill, his amendment, providing that tenants at will, paying 501. per an tiusn rent, shall be entitled to vote for county Mem bers. Whatever the easy and good-Natured folks, the optimists of the thy,—those friends of Reform who. telt!: edifyingly, and act even honestly, but who take all in good part, and resign themselves, like pious Mahometans as they are, to the heaviest visitations of destiny, congratulating themselves that the matters "are no worse,"—whatever such people may say or sing on the occasion, we do not belong to them. Some of our contemporaries, who a few days back would have screamed at the notion of of making tenancy at will a county qualification, have already, since the Anti-Reform majority of Thursday evening, begun to find out that there is "something to be said for it ;" that it is but fair play to the " agricultural interest," and that really the landlords are as much at the mercy of their yearly ten tilts as the tenants are at theirs. Now we have confessed above that we are not of that supple nature. It is impossible for us in our consciences to deny that a blow the most malig nant has been struck at the vitals of true Reform, — o f that Reform which would insure a responsible repre sentation of the kingdom, by providing, first, that the constituent body shall be independent. The question was argued by Lord Althorp, who unveiled the gross hypocrisy of founding the pretensions of the tenant at will to a vote on the amount of capital which he might have laid out on his landlord's pre mises. Why it is clear enough that if the tenant has a long lease, the greater the quantum of land that he occupies, and the larger the sum which he can supply for its improvement, the stronger may he deemed the evidence of his personal respectability, and of his civil qualifications as an elector. But what is the case if the Fame and vidual have no tenure of the premises, and consequently no power of resisting the will and pleasure of his landlord? Manifestly, the greater the proportion of his capital that he has laid out upon the soil, the less is he likely to have a will of his own; because the more severely would lie feel the calamity of a sudden ex pulsion from the premises, and the more authorita tive, therefore, would be the mandate to vote " ac cording to his landlord's wishes." We were our selves among those who thought that even a seven year,' farming lease was of too short duration to become the basis of a vote for Members of Parlia ment. It is unfair to put the yearly lease of a house in a county town on a level with that of an agricultural possession. The capital vested in a dwelling-house is for the most part no more than the price of the necessary furniture, which is easily transportable to another habitation, even at the shortest notice ; whereas, in all cases the outlay upon a farm meditates haute gains, and the greater part of it is only sepa rable front the land by the scythe or sickle of per haps some yet distant harvest. Indeed, Lord Chan dos and his supporters, now that they have carried this ins:dious clause, take no trouble to conceal the grounds of their exuberant exultation. It is a landlord's measure,—it is, like the county division clause, a stab in the heart of Parliamentary Reform. Not long since the Duke of Buckingham made known pretty generally throughout the kingdom, that the bulk of his estates were let out to tenants at will, of whom many families (and we doubt not the fact) had occupied the same farms for a century. But that was a Idle tenants had no votes, and could not be made the instruments of their landlords for electioneering purposes : let its see how things are to be in future between the Duke of Buckingham and his tenants. How many of the latter will dare to vote against the nominee candidates of the house of Buckingham ? and if they do, for how many more centuries will they remain its tenants ? It, might, indeed, afford a satisfactory clue to the motives from which my Lord Chandos's amend ment proceeded (that is to say, had his Lordship been a less magnanimous personage), that the effect of it has been to place as many votes as there are tenants upon the vast estates of the Duke of Buck ingham at the absolute disposal of their aristocratic master ! sWe do not scruple to affirm, that the clause for dividing the counties, conjoined with that for immense a the landlord's influence over so a body of electors, dependent exclusively oil his arbi trary pleasure for the continued enjoyment of their vested capitals and habitations, has actually frus trated in a very large degree the advantages pro mised to us by the " Reform Bill." HowMinisters came to support one of these clauses, and how they contrived to be beaten in their opposition to the other! is not for us to say—the facts are before the country, which will know how to appreciate them. Nor are further aggravations wanting to these com pound mischiefs. While the weaker constituency of the counties is increased, that branch of the con stituency which is, in its nature, more sound and wholesome, has been grievously weakened by the arrangement, which, in all borough cases (and nearly all the boroughs in schedule B, besides some towns returning two Members, are so circumstanced) where the strictly local constituency does not amount to 300 voters, the deficiency is to be made up by electors from contiguous places, some of these con tiguities being nearly twelve miles off. Thus, while the intrinsic strength of the counties is drawn off to form a borough constituency, the vacuum is filled up with a herd of dependent vassals. As a counterpoise to this macslof feudal slaves, the above mentioned constituency transferred to towns and bo roughs ought to be restored to their respective coun ties, and the borough qualification lowered to Si., that a sufficient number of resident householders may vote. With regard to the operation of the county-separating clause, in one important instance, we recommend to notice a letter from a " Leicester sidle Freeholder," who represents, we are satisfied, the feelings not of Leicestershire only, but of so ciety at large throughout England, on hearing the result of the division on the amendment of Mr. Hughes Hughes. The Bill last night made very little progress. Il marche,mais ne s'avance pas.- 7'imes. Mr. Hume proposed, last night, his motion rs specting the Bishopr:c of Derry, to Tuesday week, not wishing to interfere with the progress of the Reform Bill. An anecdote is told of a distinguished Bishop of Derry, that at his table sixteen hogsheads of claret were drunk in a single year. A writer, commenting on this anecdote, observes, " This shows hew much matters have been improved since the days of the Apostles." We are not aware, cer tainly, that any of the Apostles had well-sfocked wine cellars. The Bishop of London, we suppose, thinks it very proper that the descendants of the Apostles should be able to carouse on claret and tokay. It is only poor men playing at skittles, or taking a glass of beer on Good Friday or Christmas, that excites the Christian indignation of the Right Reverend Father in God. Bishops know, of course, that rich men cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven; and considering their own exclusion, it is most charitable in them to strive to keep their flocks in a condition to enjoy a blessing of which they must themselves be deprived. We trust Mr. Hume will do justice to the good disposition of the Church.— Aforning Chronicle. A most absurd attempt has been made to repre sent the majority on the Marquis of Chandos's amendment as a Ministerial defeat. It has been long understood that many of the Reformers were fa vourable to such an extension of the suffrage as the amendment would give; and Ministers would, under Euch circumstances, have been insane, had they exhibited a determination to reject the altera tion coule qui collie. In fact, all that they could wish, was, to ascertain the feeling of the House or the subject. It could be no disappointment to them that their most strenuous supporters favoured the extension. The alteration, however, renders other alterations necessary. Last night, Lord Althorp observed that it became necessary to introduce some provisions which the vote of Thursday night had rendered necessary. " It had now (he said) been determined to admit tenants at will of land to vote in counties. Re supposed that it was not the intention of the House to exclude tenants at will of houses without land, but paying the same amount of rent, from the enjoyment of the same franchise." As the motion of the Noble Marquis had given to all tenants of 50/. a year the right of voting, if they paid that rent on land, he proposed that tenants who paid that amount on houses without lands attached to them. Following the analogy in the clause re specting houses in towns, he proposed pro visions for cases where houses were let to sub tenants at a profit rent. We are of the number of those who approve of the extension of suf frage to all occupiers of land, whether at will or by lease. In England there are whole counties where all the land is held by lease; but for the most part land is held at will. We are not sure that, in these times of fluctuation, the tenantry at will is not considered as advantageous a holding as tenantry by lease. At all events, the custom of the country in the mode of valuing the improvements of way-going tenants, which custom is law, gives an advantage to them, which, in general, will secure them against the caprice of landlords. In this, however, we may be mistaken. But should it be found that this is not the case, an admitted evil will demand a suit able remedy. The extension of the suffrage to all occupiers of land of 50/. renders a farther extension necessary. The communication of the franchise to all payers of 50/. rent, is in accordance with the principle of Lord Chandos's amendment. It is not intended, it will appear, to confine the vote to one house and piece of land. In answer to a ques tion from Mr. Denison, Lord Althorp said, that se parate holdings, of which the rents together amounted to 50/. were intended to give the qualifi cation ; and that if a man occupied in the town (that town not being a borough) a hou-e at the rent of 20/ , and held a piece of land in the county, at the rent of 301., or paid, in any other proportion, two separate rents for such house and field, amount ing together to 501. a-year, that should be a qualifi cation to vote for the county.—Morning (hronicle. In Cobbett's Register of this day, there are some excellent observations on the Beer Bill, and that system of everlasting interference with the poor, which we yesterday reprobated in stronger ,terms than we are in the habit of using:— " It is a strange thing (he says) that the people cannot be hit to follow their own taste, even with regard to what they can pay for, to go down their throats. They must be ever lastingly watched and super intended as if they were babies. It is an itch for interference with thorn : this Bill is, it seems, to shorten the hours during which they might drink : and, to ease the Magistrates of the trouble of superintendence, it is intended to authorize the con stables to enter the houses of drink, and interfere at their discretion, without any warrant from a Magistrate. Thus the system creeps on, dispensing with the old forms which were intended to secure men's personal liberty, and thus it will creep on until it tear itself to pieces, unless it be saved by justice and wisdom corning in time, and put ting a stop to the destruction. I shall insert an account of what took place in the House of Lords. The reader will require no commentary ; but I will just add this re mark, namely, that there never will be any prevention to men's assembling in great numbers to drink, and that, too, very frequently, and sometimes noisily, until the tax he taken from the malt and the hops. Then every man will have beer in his own house, as he had formerly, and as he always ought to have bad." In another part of the Register, in commenting on the opposition of the Aristocracy to the Reform Bill, and the singular contrast between their language in speaking of it and the language of the rest of the community, he says, " When ce:•taiu expressions— certain haughty, and scornful, and contemptuous ex pressions—escape the former, when speaking of this Bill, and of the Reform of the Parliament, men in general look upon the speakers as being absolutely mad. They do not reflect that these speakers really know nothing at all of the thoughts, the words, and the intentions of the people; they do not reflect that these seemingly haughty speakers never con verse with, never correspond with, never hear or see a word from any soul living, except from one another, from their several dependants, or from their vermin." " The greater part of them (he adds) divide their time between their mansions in the country and the west-end of the Wen. At the former they see nobody- but their steward, their various menials, who stand with their hats off beton: them in the rain, half-pay officers and parsons, in whom they find servility equal to the former, though a little varied in form ; and, with their ears filled with ma ledictions against Reform, from this servile tribe, back they gallop again to the Wen, where they again see and hear one another, and have another crowd of servile creatures to flatter them, and to urge them on to deeds of desperation against the people. If they would only stop at the inns as they come along, snd ask the innkeepers, though they are in general apt to bow pretty low ; but, if they would but ask them what they thought would be the consequence of the Lords rejecting the Re form Bill, they would learn something at any rate. I have indeed heard of one haughty upstart in the North of England, who sends forward orders to the posting-houses to have the entrance of the:inn clear, that no other person may be in the door-way or passage whi!e he enters, and that nobody may stand round the inn-door to look at him. It is said, and even in the country where he resides, that he has had recesses constructed in the passages of his house, in order that the servants who happen to be in a situation to meet him in the passage, may pop into a recess, and that he may thus avoid coming in contact with their persons. All this is said of him, and all this I believe. Speaking of them generally, they do not carry pride to this beastly ex tent ; and some of them, and, I hope, many, are sensible, gentle, kind and affable men ; but there has risen up, within the last forty years, a new set of manners, a totally new demeanour in the nobility towards the commonpeople, and particularly towards the working part of them, the rural part of whom they have got to call peasantry, and have obtained a plentiful supply of their hatred in ex change. " The long war, the barracks, the inland fortresses, the immense standing army in time of peace, the great navy, kept up, apparently, for no useful purpose ; the military and naval academies; the enormous establishments of every description, have given them an ample and everlasting supply of eating and drinking and talking companions.— a T n h d e s c e o c l o o n mp el a s a i n s a d n t c K a p n t a i n h : s ; t a h n e d s e G g e e n n e t e r e a s l f , e e a d n e d r A u d p t o n n i rtahl the public wealth, have come to supply the place of those independent country gentlemen who were the companions of their fathers anti grandfathers ; so that all the notions. they imbibe are military and naval ; every thing is to be done by word of command, and every remedy is to consist of coercion of some sort or other : the Government is totally changed in every thing but name and form, and the connection and communication between the Nobility and the industrious classes of the people are completely destroyed : and, along with them, all the good feelings and all that cement of society to which they gave rise. The Nobility have not been able wholly to disconnect them selves from the immediate renters of their estates ; hut they have studiously, by throwing four or five farms into one, made this circle as small as possible, and have created a dew race of men, who are not farmers, but a sort of gamblers in grain and cattle, and have as little connexion with the working people as the nobility them selves, except that they are so many oppressors of that most valuable of all the classes of the nation ; and these great monopolists of farming are the very last men in the world from whom Noblemen are to expect to get a word of truth as to the real situation of the country. " So that, here are these Lords, living in England, know ing no more about their opinions or their designs than they know of the opinions and designs of the people in Persia. They never see or hear an independent man ; that is to say, a a man who does not know or who does not believe that a Reform of the Parliament would take f r om him a part, if no t the whole, of what lie has to live on. ,r sit down i.siese t tranquilly,he musket watchman ; hearm y the Lords, ,,,ii}tuiin h e aiascnhdd ofdark nuati lr,inonn,g ehis in in i e you lla alone his country-house; see the n i g ht a pproach ; look out of borne to your ear by the wind s; an d t h en go 4y b plo a iise c ut k ol o l your rvidm t loa:gDred: solitary seat, and ask yourselves if this be ' old England.' " Your feelings, your reflections, will tell you that it is not ; will tell you that you have not a thousandth part of the real enjoyment which your grandfathers had ; and rea son will convince you ; taken front your flatterers, reason will convince you that it is not power and influence that you have gained, but feebleness and contempt. An old farmer that I knew, and who died about fifteen years age, used to say, that if his father, who had been dead about forty years, were to come to life again, a_wonlih t 't be able to bide here;' and then lie used to go off, itbout the new game laws, the assessed taxes, the monstrous t a x e s on letters, the stamped receipts, the legacy duty, . ibe malt tax, and divers other oppressions, all which he bad at his finger's ends; but if his father would not have been able to ' bide here,' how would your fathers be able to bide here if they were to come to life now ? How would they be able to bide with their mansions surrounded with watch men to protect them from being burnt in their beds by the people—those very people who, from the nature of things, ought to deem then► their benefactors, and their rock of safety in all cases of oppression ? How would they have been ab!e to abide here ? " TLis system has gone on making the burdens of the people heavier and heavier; making all the laws that affect them harder and harder ; making their toil still greater and greater, and making the fruit of those toils less and less; till at last the numberless oppressions form a mass that is become absolutely intolerable." There is much truth as well as force in the seob servations. The Aristocracy may depend on it that there are no other means of insuring the obettence of the people than the persuasion of the people themselves that they have an interest in enforcing the laws. Opposition must have an end ; we hope it will die a natural death by the Reform B II. Do not let them imagine that the opinion of the people of England can be safely set at defiance.—illorning Chronicle. The Beer Bill was passed with the professed in tention of putting down a nuisance, and it has, as we foretold, became a nuisance of no small magnitude itself. This Bill was the great and liberal measure of relief which, during a whole Session of Parlia ment, the Duke of Wellington's Administration afforded to the distressed population of this country. The greater part of that Session was consumed in the discussion of this Bill in both Houses of Parlia ment. Now the House of Lords is, night after night, obliged to afford a large portion of its valuable time to complaints of the mischief which it every where produces, and to projects for its amendment. Thus our legislators expend one year in making laws which are to work wonders, and find it necessary to waste the following year in vain attempts to mend them. This sort of legislative cobbling has made our statute book the mass of confusion and absur dity that it is. It is as foolish a labour to patch up a bad law as to mutilate a good one—neither unity, conciseness, simplicity, nor clearness, are the dis tinguished qualities of patch-work legislation. The Beer Bill was first introduced for the avowed pur pose of abolishing a licensing'::system which had been grossly abused in practice, and of opening the trade in beer so as to enable the poor man to procure a cheap and wholesome, instead of a dear and deleterious, beverage. Both objects were good, but the means of affecting them betrayed an ignorance and incapacity of the con s 'quences of which we, at least, did not fail to forewarn the country. The Courier said the other day that it was the first to complain of the abuses of the Beer Bill. We recollect that we had the Courier as an opponent during the discussions on the Bill, when we pointed out, as the inevitable re sult of the measure, the mischiefs and abuses of which that journal now complains. Great, indeed, were the encomiums which the London Press in gi neral lavished upon this measure before it o as t r i e d. It was no better than heresy to express a doubt of its perfect wisdom. To suggest that a better Bill might be framed for the accomplishment of the same objects was to run the ri-k of being set down among those who are incapable of marching with the " intellect of the age." In short, the legislative capacity of the Duke and Mr. Goulburn was consi dered infallible, and their joint production could not fail to be a prodigy of legislations Never was" free dom of trade" advocated with more intolerance of freedom of opinion. The Beer Bill has not had the effect of making beer either cheap or wholesome. The trash which the beer-shops in general dispense to their customers would be dear at any price. But if the Government that once gloried in the pa rentage of this Bill wished to debauch the morals of the working classes beyond all former example, they have no reason to feel disappointed. It has done, and is doing, its work in that way. It has covered the country with dens of riotous vice and ruinous dissipation. The Grand Juries of several counties have presented it as a nuisance. The beer shops were the places of rendezvous of the rioters last winter. They are in many parts of die country places of vulgar assignation, where the servants of the neighbourhood are initiated in the practices of bad company and tempted into crime. They are the haunts of poachers, where they assemble for their nocturnal adventures; and they afford admirable fa cilities to all sorts of depredators to meet, without much danger of detection, to arrange their plots, and stimulate themelves for the execution of their guilty enterprises. The Bishop of London has done himself credit by exposing some of the evils of this Bill; but be has not gone far enough. I' is his duty not to pare down the mischiefs of the Bill, but to extirpate them. Rightly did Lord Carnarvon say, the other night, " It was one of the worst modes of legislation in the world to multiply temp tations to the poor man, and then accumulate pe nalties on him for having yielded to them." Yet such is the principle of Lord Melbourne's amend ments which sanction the continuance of the demo ralizing temptation to the working classes, and then attempt to prevent its effects by new and severe penalties. The Doke of Wellington, though he still, in tine teeth of experience, insists that the Beer Bill has improved the quality of the beer—an improvement, which at least in the metropolis, a certain class of low chemists under stand better than his Grace does—yet admits, that, " as a matter of police, tine experiment has al together failed." We confess we do not under stand how the Bill could ever have been regarded as a " matter of police." If he mean, by a " matter of police," 'something that was to cut out additional work for the police, the Duke may make his mind easy on that head ; so far is the Bill from having failed in that respect, that it has been signally suc cessful. It has not only furnished additional. work for the police, as Lord Melbourne's amendments prove, but it has furnished additional work for Ju ries, Judges, and event for executioners, upon the circuits. Indeed, its efficacy in generating crime was proved as early as last winter, in the course of the judicial proceedings which took place under the Special Commissions. But we have repeatedly shown that the restrictions introduced into the old law relative to ale-houses, and first enacted in the reign of EdwardVI.,were " matter of police." They were intended to chee s k e the dangerous and demoral izing consequences which experience proved were the result of an unlimited number of houses for the sale of an intoxicating beverage, kept by persons without substance or character. To obviate the evils of such a state of things the Legislature made it necessary that all persons applying for licenses should produce competent testimonials of character, and should show that the house required to be li censed was necessary for the public accommodation. The fatal error of the authors of the Beer Bill was in not preserving those qualifications when they al tered the licensing system. They did not distin guish between the good principle and the bad prac tice, and so, in breaking down the one, destroyed the other. But the evil effects of this proceeding would have been obviated, in a great measure, if tine Bill had provided that the beer purchased at the new shops should not be consumed on the premises. The Duke of Wellington has already admitted that his a o c w t t e n d pri up n o c n i l p , l e by o f free-trade" p : 0 ‘ posi ngt ilat t i n il e b b e e should should o be i d be closed when the poor man's hour of recreation be gins! Thus one error begets another.—Morn. Her. We observe, whenever any Peer thinks proper to ask a question, or to offer a remark in the House of Lords, upon the present state of the foreign relations of the country, that Earl Grey has a certain formula, a fixed and predetermined set of words, which he employs invariably, and which he seems indeed to consider as a kind of cabalistic charm, capable of warding off the effects of all such inconvenient and impertinent interference. The spell consists simply in the assertion that the question which tine Noble Earl finds it difficult to answer, or the aigutnent which it is not in his power to refute, is a question of an argument calculated to excite animosity in the minds of foreign Uovernments, and to in- volve the country in war. The Minister sorts habitually to an incantation so imporr, this, in order to silence the curiosity or aib? hostility of the Opposition, may very afe, re ' set down as no wizard, for, if prorerly conslu e ' it is in truth a confession of the importance, the Opposition, and of the comparative insig e .,' cance of the Minister in the estimation of Fc rel !, Power , . Did Mr. Pitt or Lord Liverpool, ot4, Duke of Wellington, when they were Min i° , ever imagine that the scurrilous invectives aged, foreign sovereigns, in which the present Pre fl i, the present Lord Chancellor, and others of party, were in the habit of indulging, were lib to embroil the country with its neighbours ? deprecated such invectives indeed as indeceneie°, point of manners, and as derogatory to the digl of the assemblies in which they were utteredil, never for a single moment was any one of thns ei i , nisters in such a position, its the eyes either of friends or the foes of the country, that any statell ie l , or inferences or declamations proceeding from , i Opposition in Parliament could have been ratio lk described as matters of international importan ce. ; But there is am ther reason why this necrotei° when employed by Earl Grey, is as injudicin u ' it must necessarily be abortive. The Noble t. cannot forget, with whatever pain he may notet member, the loud praises he bestowed at the o ut, of his Ministerial career upon the French reilj Iron, and the emphasis with which he proclaims as his peculiar policy to cultivate the friendsh i p, the regenerated Government of Fiance. Hasit occurred to the Noble Earl that if there were efficacy in the ,pell by which he proposes to g d : the course of Parliamentary discussion into channels which lie deems most conducive to his c , pacific policy, that he ought to have spared 6 ° portion of its power for th e benefit of his c h l friends, the King and the Mi n i s t ers o f re gene 0 France ? In their case the charm ought 1 10 have been wholly ineffectual. What is Pu bil said by Kings and Ministers is of some national importance. When they make spe c , diem ifically opposed to their written and f o r acts some suspicion of their sincerity will hii rally be excited. When they make boasts imply the degradation of a country whose p rI Minister has declared that the c hief obje ct , his policy is to cultivate th e ir f r i en d s hip, die,' s little respect to that Minister, to hi s p o licy, t ( c, country whose character and fortunes ar e corn 1111: 1 to his care. And it is rather too much fora e0 ulster so uncomf o r ta bly s i tuate d to attem pt tosilbe t.,ose who are more jealous than he happens t° the honour of their c o u nt r y, an d l ess partial ci confiding towards a f ore i gn G overnment w hich e ib , ducts itself as we have described, by the threat i t if war should arise he will charge them with o f its authors. We think war is upon the w hole17 likely to he averted than occasioned by the °Fv1 sition in both Houses of Parliament speaking,'" minds as °erasion may arise, with frankness ant' r ti dour, upon the aspect of foreign politics so le fr , it is visible, and upon the conduct o f f ore i g n GO / :, meats so far as it may seem to inv o lv e th e i n tereg t ? honour of Great Britain. It would perhaps notbe f t to leave the people of the c o ntin en t i n th e l i t supposing that the British nation is unanininn Earl Grey's opinion with respect to the cultiv s ei t of friendship with France, a s a sp ec i a l and,rd mount object of national policy. Peace with eV is desirable—peace with all the world is des irli t But it is not the time we think far a Thitishig#, sister to manifest a feverish apprehension o f when the Kiog of France, whether to gra il) ) own disposition, or to gratify at once and exc ite ( diseased appetie of a predominant portion ° , 4 01 subjects for military glory, is heard from the t" tl to indulge in ridiculousfary4rronnades, belying a i letter and the spirit of his express compacts i.t? other Powers; and when the Foreign Iii of France in his despatches promises the vi! of that country that a military enterprise 1 ,0 1 ,; progress shall terminate with the acorn? merit of a certain definite purpose, W hile j , moment that purpose is a ccom pli s h e d t he s Minister of France declares publicly to the 1.6 4 sentatives of the nation that the same military), terpleze—inferimg the intermediate possessio n 0 , neutral territory—shall not terminate until on° and an indefinite purpose is accomplished als ° ' hi these circumstances a British Minister mar guarded and stately and reserved as he pleas e l far as regards his own personal conduct a nd tin his colic tgues, hut to depreca e the natty's', madversions of the Parliamentary Opposition , the threat of holding them responsible in the et of war, is to be rather more obsequious tharl' ( appears to us, t he occasion requires towards th e vernment which acts as we have des( motto of Earl Grey would seem to b. license to the King and the Minister; in the British Parliament the silence fear." The maxim is neither wise, mi triutie, and we venture to assure the Mer House of Parliament that they will b, applause and confidence of the cou temptuously disregarding it.—Morning SUDDEN DEATH.-TWO young names of BLOOMFIELD and ALDERSON, res: parents at Stamford• hill, died suddenly h consequence of drinking water when heated FISHING EXTRAORDINARY.—. of this town, who is in the habit of viaitin 1 ally on a fishing excursion, was last week ei customed sport, when, after a few glorious disappeared, and, in a jiffy, every inch of hundred fathoms, spun out with the velocL from his reel. Wholly engaged with the subji thought nothing about his footing, which lost, and before he c‘mld say Jack Robi: himself fairly afloat. Expert at swimming, securing his prey, he seized the rod in his rn, out vigorously. Then came the tug of gonist, on one tack, was standing out to the other, using all his energies to make th seemed to declare in favour of Neptune, receding from the shore, was just psnderii whether he would slip the tow line, or be At this critical juncture, a brother sportsm, a distance, witnessed the struggle, hove him his rod, and thus turned the scale of aid of this new ally proved most efficient, minutes, a huge porpoise lay grasping on tht J o, to one against the poor porpoise, and out of hi' i ll too, what could be expected ? A few blows , ro bludgeon, and he was rendered hors du combat• rof i engage the hooks, an opening into the captive'" P mu re store became necessary, when the cause of his c a r to i came apparent. A trout bad first caught the fill bei / porpoise afterwards caught the trout, and hence t tell into the fisher's toils. The contents of the sta r 00 into which the captors had cut a passage, present if/ curious nhdley of commodities. Amongst th e ' e w itli pieoe of a velvet vest, th e r e mnant of a sho e iron heel, a silv e r watch in ruins, a ladY '6 fll tippet, or collar, and the fragment of a flut e ' n ot/ the charge of e pi cur i s m th e y ve ry justly ex en ,' 0 5 g e watery rover, but found it difficult to opinion that cannibalism, es well as trout been among the number of his crimes.—S cots BIRTHS. law On the 12th inst. at Archer Lodge, H a mpshire, th e J. Vaughan, Esq., of a daugter. °l oom . On the 20th inst. in the T h ower, Mrs. Macleod daughter. o f f On the 17th inst. at the Countess Morel's, the la • Vo ry Watson, Esq., of a daughter. ti‘" On the 10th hist, at Judd-place East, the lady 0 -, oil Esq. of White-hall, Garstang, Lancashire, of a son a MARRIED. On the 18th inst. at All Souls' Church, °lib/ Right lion. Lord C. Paulet, second son of the A 1 , 4 !" - jolin , chaster, to Caroline Margaret, third daughter of o' r so ?‘ den, Bart. On the 13th inst. at Milton, next Gravesend, Sir her i sir Bart. to to Mrs. Isabella Evans Raymond. f CO a d Of; the 17th inst. at Edmonton, M. Culley, ° , $ t Castle, Northumberland, to Margaret Ann, young 01 of E. Tewart, St.uthgate Palk, Middlesex. DIED. we V t. On the 13th inst. Emma, the relict of the oo r Clinton. e On the 19th inst. in York-street, Portman-squar , • year, J. Hughes, Esq. of - On the 19th inst. in Weymouth-street, th e son at, ward Thornton, Esq. Ses qtr e) , On the 15th inst. of decline, at North Fair Bee:: jlao of Wight, aged 20, Edward, son of the Rev. ' Under-graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge. en the 17th inst. s. smith, Ecci., of Home rton• „ iv SOt • PRINTED AND PuBListi en BY MUIII)O SUN OFFIEE, 12, S'IRAND, 1.0$0' c Aran • Co Intention of h to be by l ‘ i 'ved by scribed. .' be " Ua bri c i .s of of apot'''' manly, of, f ill/ !mbersoiv, best sec intro by rtg, Post. ladies ° Ei ,ti siding last Sato with day -A geo de ol ng Arran P enjoyin g nibbles, P"! a line, sip •y of /le e . bject in b di he very inson, b e P t g, A I A , it nte t d outh, 3 0 " : ,of` j war--- 1 “' had i sea, an d s 4 , he land an d ur ' j of• ing in k 110 jY e tow nan who P . , 4 1; in s ig h t , v 1 , 1 pf victor,' , and, in fi • he straudigod4: