The Sun. — London, England, 1830-02-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TIIE PUBLIC JOURNALS. We publish a letter, bemuse it is a short one— though we do not charge the author with any other merit—ett that everiatting Pons Asinorum, the question of substituting a paper terrency for a gold one. This letter-writer calls the Tinges a " very decided advocate for the return to cash paymente:" Why, that is an old story ; for it is assuredly too late at this moment to talk about our being advo rates for a measure which took place ten years ago. It is true, however, that we were then very strenu saes in our demand few the return to cash-payments, and if the return were still to be accomplished, we should be as clamorous for it as ever. But the quee tion is now, shall we retmrst to a paper currency, haying already got possession of a golA end silver one ? That, we beg leave to obeette to our paper advocate, is a different mitt:talon of things from the existence of an exclusive currency of patret and a prospective return to gold. Tt 'change the standards of the currency egain, or rather to abolish 'the only fixed nod wholesome standard, replacing it by a sOCt of medium which had no. standard at alt but the cupidity, the diu rretion, or desperation, of any and easry Matt chose to take up the office which the Sovereitn had abandoned, and to coin to infinity bits bf paper into poußeds,—that, we say s would be once more to plunge the whole kingdote: into confusion, to incur another wholesome revolution in property, and to lay the nation at the feet of that odious and nnpriw cipled aristseracy, from which, by the favour of Providente, it has just effected its escape—we mean the dealers in base money. It is said, as if the &es revery were a new one, that 30 millicne of gold Sovereigns must cost the nation as many millions of capital, while a paper currency would cost nothing, True and obvious; hot the answer is, that the man who buys a sovereign in gold by 'selling goods or labour for it, gets solid value for his labour or his goods, and can per hale with the thing which he gets in exchange for them, such other labour, or fruit IA labour, as he may want t 'whereas, if he gets paper only for his ptoothicte, who or what caa guarantee to himthet `SoIV - ency of the henk-note m a n u f actur e r , by whom that paper was issued ? Wren we bap the precious metals, we pay for security and convenience combined. All nations do it : no tnanntry but Great Britain ever laid aside irs gidd and silver currency, and for having alone so, *f to now mourns in enekcloth and ashes. Getting paper to what amount he pleased, every tradearnan, and farmer, and merchant, and landlord, and, most mischievous of nll, the Government its self, plunged into undertakings more reckless and hazardous, and enlarged their expencea to a scale mnre enormous, than ever had I.reah heard of in any former age. A certain bold improvidence became the tharacteristic of all c l asses o f E ng li s h men and for their rulers ;,journeymen manufacturers thought it hard to weave four days in every week, and spent the other three in drinking; small tradesmen in teams aped the luxuries of merchants ; grey sawed farmers drank foreign wine, and bought pianofortes and petticoats with flounces for their daughters ; merchants all dabbled in stocks and country-houses ; country gentlemen, on trebled rents, began to flock with their aspiring families to tows; Ministers borrowed, and made war liks giants ; the taxes from 12,000,0001. rose to 80,000,0001.; and here we stand, bright examples of the perfectien of that sort of prosperity which is attainable through a cheap currency of the most complete and flourishing Orden...ea mob of profligate end audacious debtors, crying out for a return to that same base money which is regarded as tante , mount to a universal insolvent act, and a perennial " Saturnalia" for the slaves of prodigality, rapa city, and fraud. But there is no sense nor use in theta' manoeuvrings. The game is up; the Govern ment has declared that it will not imitate the barba rous expedients of Constantinople, and, with less apology than the Turk himself, debase the coin for the benefit of individuals who have been roused from the dream of borrowing without paying. The Government, we repeat, will have no more incon vertible paper. liven if they were inclined to it, such a measure it one which they durst not try. What ever sense and integrity exist in England would be up in arms against so ruinous an experiment.—Tinges. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. Sie.,—You are a'very decided advocate for the return to cash payments. Has it never struck you that, by the sub ititntion of 30,000,0001. of specie for the like amount of paper, 50,000,0004 of the capital of the country have been sunk, and the interest of that sum lost for ever ? Yon are art advocate for the principle of non-interfer essee, for not over-governing, as far as free-trade is con cerned ; are yen consistent in not extending it also to the currency question ? You talk of the depreciation of our money abroad ; and yet you know that trade cannot be carried on long between two rountries, except by barter, and not by the payment of ninth specie on either side. The country-bankers are a slandered and Injured body of men. Of those who failed during the panic of 1825,—through no fault of their own, the greater part have paid a considerable dividend, and will mast probably pay, in the course of a little time, the whole of their debts. Your insertion of the above will much oblige, Sir, your bedient servant, A SUBSCRIBER. Pamphlets on the Poor Laws are pouring in on no. We have now before us two, advocating the most opposite views—one of them entitled " Poor Laws in Ireland considered in their probable effects Ilion the capital, the prosperity, and the progressive improvement of that country, by Sir John Walsh, Bart.;" the other a second edition enlarged, of " A Discourse on the Poo: Laws of England and Scot land, on the State of the Poor Laws of Ireland, and or, Emigration, by George Strickland, Esq., Magis trate for the North and East Ridings of the County of York, Barrister at Law, &c." Mr. Strickland begins with observing, that the Poor Laws admit of such latitude of construction that no two Magistrates interpret them in the same mariner, rind that there has grown up in several parts of England a custo mary law of a very injurious tendency. The condi tion of the labourers depends on the proportion be tween their numbers and the means for employing them; but within the last thirty years more especi ally, it has been forgotten in some parts of England that these means cannot be increased in the ratio in which the population can increase. By holding out encouragements to marriage, and destroying the con nection bet Ween labour arid its reward, a redundant, and, consequently, a wretched and demoralized popu lation has been created in many parts of the South of Ireland. To grapple with this evil ought to be tire first care of the Legislature. But they who should infer that because the Poor Laws have been ill•interpreted in some parts, we should be better without them, reason without sufficient knowledge of all the bearings of the case. Mr. Strickland has some good remarks on the subject. "It would be quite foreign to my imention (he says) to enter into any disquisition upon that which is a favourite spe culation with some authors—the possible existence of a state of things respecting the poor, totally dissi milar to that of which we have experience, or of which history has given any account, in which man kind may be supposed, by the lights of education, or the benevolence of their nature, unsophisticated Ly institutions of law arid government, to be pro pelled to relieve all the wants of their fellow-citizens, arid the people thernsalves being made so sensible of the miseries attendant upon a population exceed ing the demands for labour, by self efforts and re straints, be induced to check themselves from pro ducing such an excess of numbers, and be taught to believe and repeat with the shepherd Milo— . For what has he that works for food To do with love? lie is an idle god.' All that I contend for is, that the evidence of his tory preoents to our view scenes of a totally different description : That in countries where laws have not interfered with, or provided any adequate provision for the wretched, great excesses of population seem invariably to hare taken place; and that the numbers of the people have been at periods Feduced to the means of subsistence by the occurrence of famines, which have swept away thousands from the facie of the earth in their tremendous progress." If we are not then warranted by our past experience in rely ing on the poor themselves on this point, and if it be found that without a legal provision their numbers will always be excessive, a most material tonsidera tion forces itself upon us, namaiy, whether without Poor Laws, we can haze such a police in a country as may ren-Jek it possible for all those who are :fat poor to lire in it with any de ';',,ace of comfort. " If (says Mr filttickland) there were no Poor Law!, th'as'e bhable to work would ask for charity S but if they Were riot allowed to beg, antl 'no't work , the 'necessary t:onse quanta would be, that death Would be inflicted upon such wretched persona by hunger. If laws supply no relief to such objects, we must allow beggary saithot,rt restraint—that is a necessary conteAtience ; the affluent must learn to sith'n':it with patience to being importuned am beset in the streets, on the roads, and tt their houses ; as is now the case in Ireland with such miserable objects as in England are better and more humanely supported in poor houses or in their cottages.. This ih A pride whieL we pay for a luxury,' to he '2,lle . tiVt itom such dis tressing settler:" We Cannot get rid of poor ; and the question, Whether they ought to be legally pro bidad for, or allowed to roam about the country, must be soon settled. Who would live in a coun try in which beggars were allowed to :barn about, if he could leave it for another, tree from such a pesti lence ? By pair ieling rot the poor-, the 'rich obtain tit 4; to interfere with them; and they ate forced, i'roan a regard for their oar. ilitere.sts, to take measures to piarv‘eat an undue increase of the poi) Which, without their interference, Would be inevitable. We have never skid to the rich, humanity calls on yott,t infercst yourselves in behalf of thepoor..s hat we have said, if you wish to preserve anu enjoy your property, attend to their 'coalition. And here we come to the necessity for the possessors of property in the South of England adopting measures to prevent the rindrie InCrease of the pauper population. M. Strickland contends that the Marriage 'Of paupers ought to be checked by kgitiAiviA, etiaatment. In the greatest part of fiernialiy, marriage is placed under great restric tions, for the sake of the poor themselves. The law, for instance, in Bavaria, distinctly states who shall be allowed to marry; and the Clergyman who should dare to marry a Tetson not possessing a legal title, is net oily subject to a heavy penalty ; but liable to the parish for the support of the fruit of each marriage. " They (says 111 a.. Strickland) who contend that such an attempt would be promoting immorality are ba!and to prove how it advances the cause e! Virtue or the well-being of society, that taao persons, already paupers, supported by the landed proprietors, without the industry or the means of maintaining themselves, should be allowed to marry and rear children to the same state of sloth and irregularity in which they themselves have lived. . . . . There is no room for doubt that some wholesome guardianship being placed over the poor, in this respect, must conduce to the benefit of the poor themselves, to the protection of property, and in the end to the diminution of vice, improvidence, and misery amongst the people." Mr. Strickland proposes, " that an Act be passed rendering it unlawful for a clergyman to marry any man, after the churchwardens and overseers shall have produced a certificate that he is a parish pau per, or that he has received parish relief within twelve months." But a number of other changes are demanded for the purpose of giving the laws a more decided tendency to improve the condition of the population. Mr. Strickland adverts to the in flux of Irish labourers into England and Scotland, and contends that that country ought not to be allowed to remain " a great nursery for peopling the wilds of Canada and breeding paupers for the parishes of England." The measure for which he contends is, a provision in Ireland for the aged and infirm poor. " Before Ireland can show," he says, " a fair ground of exemption for such a measure, it must be proved that her labourers are happy; that their number do not exceed the demand for them; that they have reason to be contented with their lot ; that the aged and worn-out do not die of fa mine ; that the heart-rending picture which has been drawn of their wretchedness is an unfounded representation, the work only of imagination and falsehood." There is not a country in Europe with any pretensions to being well-ordered, in which there are not Poor Laws very much like our own. Wherever there are no Poor Laws, the condition of the lower orders is dreadful. And this brings us to Sir John Walsh, who stoutly combats the introduction of Poor Laws into Ire land. Sir John, with the fact of the increase and wretchedness of the Irish population staring him in the face, lays it down that the " claim of succour has an invariable tendency to augment the Poor ;" that the. Poor Laws " incline to augment disprc portionably the number of the lowest ranks."—Sir John is a plausible writer, and a great master in the art of drawing legitimate conclusions from false premises. There is one fact which we will oppose to him, and all who combat Poor Laws, and it is this : that restraint alone can prevent the tendency of a population to increase in a ratio greater than that in which food cart be increased in an old country —and as moral restraint in a case of a people like the Irish is beside the question, the only available re straint we can have must be sought in the interest of the rich. Sir John states quite enough to satisfy us that nothing short of Poor Laws will compel the landlords to keep down the numbers of the people on their estates. " In Ireland," says Sir Jahn, " all the usual routine of agricultural employments is independent of hired la bour, and it is only in request at particular seasons. The children of the farmer are his labourers. An English farmer, should he have a numerous family, rarely keeps above two or three at home with him ; he strives to place the others in different trades and services; and, after as sisting. them to the extent of his abilities, he sends them forth to make their way in the world The children of the Irish farmer have no such views for the future ; indeed the future occupies but a small portion of the thoughts of his people. They remain to assist him in his farm, and indulge no more extended hopes or desires than to he able to maintain a family upon some scrap or division of their father's farm. . . . . . . While there is much in the state of this part of the com munity to excite our hopes for the future—hopes which their actual progress has in some measure realized—it re quires a constant effort on the part of the landlords to sustain this movement, and prevent their retrograding. The tenants have one universal object. It is to provide . for their children upon their farms, and enable them to marry and settle, by partitioning off a part of the ground, upon which they may erect separate cabins.— Early marriages are general in Ireland ; the stigma of rashness and imprudence, the disapprobation of older and graver heads, does not the least attach to them. They peens a part of the natural and inevitable cause of human events. They are often promoted by the influence of the Catholic Priesthood, whether, as their enemies assert, in consequence of the fees on marriage forming a large part of their emoluments, or from the more praiseworthy and disinterested motive of guarding the morality of their flocks, and giving a legitimate direction to the impetuous passions of youth. It is not wonderful that, when the authority of religion and her Ministers enjoins as a duty the gratifi cation of the strong:feelings of nature, their precepts should inset with a prompt and general obedience. A farmer possessed of a comfortable farm, and having saved some little money, has attained the highest pinnacle of his de sires. His personal wants are more than satisfied, and his hopes extend no farther. The simple structure of society around bins does not afford materials fur loftier wishes or a path to higher elevation : lie sacrifices no future expecta tions, and it appears natural to him to enable his children, by whose means he cultivates his farm, to settle upon it, a small part of it amply sufficing for their necessities. Yet it is evident that a subdivision of these small lots -rust throw the occupants back into the class of cotters. . . . The lowest and most numerous class in Ireland are the cotters, whose situation, numbers, and habits, are important considerations in the subject under discussion. It is this portion of the community whom Poor Laws would be intended to relieve; it is from this class that the numbers who dock into England in search of work are supplied. It is the vast proportion which they bear to the rest of the nation which covers the Irish soil with the marks of so much wretchedness and penury. They are the part of time population who seem so much below the standard of European improvement." Hers we find the Cottier population in the lowest state of wretchedness, and the class immediately above the Cottiers, the rarmars, 44 requiring a constant effort on the part of the Landlord to pre vent their retrograding," and altogether exempt from the desires and wishes of civilized society. On Sir John's own shewitlg; a sel'eitty like this, if left to *quid be a constant.niisance in our neighbourhood. It is quite cleAr; that in the exist ing state of the law; a r esent have a strong nerve of 111:'aself to counteract the inclina tions such a people. One man might do so, but for one that did, twenty .would give way, B ut when it comes to a,scramble AetWe't...n . interest and good-natures Vie ! . :how which will win the day. Give tile pcor a settlement, and ere long the pro prietors will b 3 compelled to thin their estates. Those who cannot themselves attend to their estates will be forced to part with them to those who can. The evil which threatens 1 - I,:tgl,tti iS th`s rapid multiplication of 'th'r, Trish; Hitherto the landlord, have encouraged this multiplication for the sake of political jobbing and competition for land, or they have not opposed it. Avarice has hitherto been enlisted on the side of increase. Let its try what it cam do when enlisted on thv side of dimi nution. The land of a country belongs tti the country ; and they whO are stdfered to occupy it ought never to be alloWed to shal:e themselves free of the respon sibility attached to their station. If the lower order of Irish were slaves, the landholders, as their owners, would still be answerable fur their human stock.— Morning Chronicle.. The Subletting Act formed on Tuesday night the subject of an animated discussion in the House of Commons. " A great part of the tenantry of Ireland (said Mr. Doherty), it was well known, were worse off than the beast that browsed upon the lands it was high time to thalte ah eltort to ameliorate their condition; and this Act had been brought forward with the view of raising the peasantry in the scale of civilization, and rendering them beings with whom there might he that degree of communication and interchange of kindness, without which there could be no permanent bond of union between landlord and tenant,(Hear, hear.) It was not, as the Hon. Member for Clare had represented it—the act of a haughty Aristocracy to exterminate the people. . . The Hon. Member had said he did not see the principle of the Act—it was this, that people should perform their contracts.—(Hear, hear.)" Mr. O'Connell, on the other hand, contended, that the Act would have the effect of creating " a more minute subdivision than ever had before existed," and of " increasing the pauper population, in dimi nishing the quantity of land which each man could hold." We confess that, circumstanced as Ireland is, our fears are, not that the Act can have any very extensive effects in increasing the size of pos sessions. The competition for land to supply the wants of an excessive population, will always sup ply but too powerful a motive for the subdivision of possessions. To give to landlords a strong in ducement to prevent the subdivision of possessions, they ought to be made to maintain the poor they create ; and then we will answer for it they will take care that too ninny persons shall not reside on their estates. But in burdening the land lords with the poor, we would leave his hands free, so that a surplus population should not be fastened on him in defiance of contracts. As part of a series, then, we can see no objection to the measure. The misery of the lower orders is caused by the too rapid multiplication of their num bers. In Erndand the Poor Laws had unquestion ably a powerful effect in keeping down the numbers of the people; and this effect was universally as cribed to them by all our public writers, who, when it was the fashion to bewail the evils of depo pulation, were continually inveighing against the practice of throwing down cottages. The good would hare been much greater but for the Bastardy Laws, which lead parish overseers to force the poor to marry, by giving the father of a bastard child the option between a prison and marriage. We trust that if Poor Laws are extended to Ireland, care will be taken, in establishing a rule for settlements, to avoid several abuses which have crept into ours, and especially the bastardy part of them. It is generally understood in Ireland that Government intend to propose a Poor Law; and Mr. Doherty may be thought to have said as much on Tuesday night, when he observed, that" he knew that it had been and was the intention of the Govern ment fairly to meet the wishes and the wants of the Irish people."—Morning Chronicle. Mr. Hume, by his motion on Monday night, ap pears to have put the sincerity of Ministers, on the score of economy and retrenchment, to a test which, though they contrived to escape from, they resisted with a very bad grace. For how stands the matter, as between them and the country ? Sir James Graham, on a former evening, proposes that the House shall immediately set about the work of cut ting down the public expenditure by every possible means ; and to prevent such a resolution being passed as coming from the opposite quarter, Mr. Dawson, the Secretary of the Treasury, meets it by other resolutions, in the slitipe of an amendment, scarcely differing from the first in terms. Well, here stands the House pledged to retrenchment as a general proposition—and what does Mr. Hume ? He descends at once from generals to particulars, and proposes the very items on which he thinks that the reductions can take place; yet these the Ministers reject—first, on the score that they are too extensive and impracticable ; and secondly, that the House is bound to wait for their plan, and not listen to that of an unofficial person. Whether the establishments of the country are prepared, at "one fell swoop," to undergo such a diminution as that proposed by the Hon. Member for Aberdeen, is more than some of the warmest friends to economy may, at first sight at least, be prepared to admit ; but it should be remembered that Mr. Hume's pre mises were not all embodied in his resolutions, and that it was, therefore, very easy to have severed what might have been deemed the practicable from the impossible part : Est quo lam prodire tenus si non datur ultra. But the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his col leagues find it much more convenient to stick to the generals rather than the particulars—to their own theory rather than to Mr. Hume's practice, and, therefore, with an implied salvo of what is to be expected from the Budget, Mr. Hume's resolution is negatived. And where is the earnest, we would ask, that Ministers mean to remit to the country vo luntarily one shilling of its enormous expenditure ? Let us look, for instance, as a test of their sincerity, to the Office of Treasurer of the Navy. Here is an office which the Finance Committee has pro nounced to be useless, which the honestest and best informed among its recent possessors has pro nounced to be a sinecure, and which they them selves have hitherto only given as a make weight to one of their own members. No sooner does this office become vacant, than, instead of abolishing it, or even keeping it in abeyance till their own plans of retrenchment are discussed, they confer it upon a gentleman who has hitherto been the avowed champion of retrenchments in all depart ments—thus at once sacrificing economy, and the character of one of its hitherto most unimpeached and uncompromising advocates ; and do Ministers suppose, or do the most slavish of their adherents imagine, that this is a course of conduct which will satisfy the country, or that it will even much longer be endured ? Ought a country with one-half of its labouring population scarcely existing, and that but from hand to mouth, and with its a griculture and manufactures fast sink ing into ruin—ought a country, we say, so situated to be thus treated ? A little sympathy, we all know, mitigates a load of pain. And who is there, we will ask, so strongly called upon to sympathise with the national distress as those who, if they have not caused it by their own errors, have at least pro longed it by their obstinacy up to the last stage of human endurance ? The truth is, that Ministers seem to be still ignorant of the real state of the country ; and this is the more extraordinary, consi dering that they possess, if they choose to use it, he belt sources of information. But we have heard of men in private life who never could see the decline of their affairs until they were ruined beyond redemption ; and the same blindness at the present Moment seems to beset our rulers, who, we only trust, will not continue to deceive themselves till it is toli late ttl repair dr atone for the calamities which they shall have brought upon the country. Morning Herald. It has been the practice, we believe.; at,the com mencement of every Session, fOr the Bailiff or High Constable of N 4 , 7 estrainker to receive a precept com manding him to attend, with a proper number of constables, daily, to preserve the peace in the lob bies and avenues of the house of Commons. The new police having superseded the common constables in most of their other Welt 'ettl:ebted to lade prom this—but report says that the Speaker has declined their services, and has required that the duties (within the lobbies, at least) shall be performed by the High Constable and his subor dinates, as usual. If this be the case, it must have arisen from a feeling on the part of the Speaker, which every friend to our cad institutions mast ap plaud--vi., a jealousy at the very idea of Parlia ment being attended, or even in the most remote appearance overawed, by a force appointed and paid by the Crown. But it may be a , ked, if this be a force Which Parliament has sanctioned, and ; indeed ) created, why shduld Parliarnent itself evince any jealousy of it ? But that May with equal truth be said of the standing army; and as a file of grenadiers would not be allowed to occupy the lobby (unless a new Cromwell should arise to bring them there,) neither is it fit that a corps of gene-d'armerie should do so either. But then this awkward question arises, if the new description of constable has been deemed fit for their constituents, how is he less fit for the representatives We will net pursue the matter any further at present, especially as the re flection of our readers will fill up the void, if there be any, in this slight allusion to the subject.—lbid. We present our readers, in another part of our paper, with an abstract—most imperfect it assuredly is—of the numbers awl expense of the army for the current year. The estimated charge for the present year, it will be seen, is upwards of six millions— last year it was upwards of seven millions; so that according to the figures, there is to be a reduction for the current year of upwards of a million, or, in exact numbers, of 1,586,260!. This preliminary step on tile part of the Government bodes well for its economical arrangements; but it must be re membered, at the same time, that the expenditure invariably exceeds the estimate, and that, if the hands of Government are not tied up by a reduc tion of taxes, there will be no safety guard against the increase of the expenditure in this, or in any other department. It is also a proper subject of inquiry why, in a time of profound peace, six thous and cavalry should be kept on full pay—why eighty nine thousand men should be kept up when there is no apprehension of war, or danger of invasion from abroad—and why, above all, now that Catholic Emancipation has been granted, and Ireland, ac cording to all accounts, in a state of the most pro found peace, it should cost the United Kingdom no less a sum than 977,732!. for keeping it quiet ! Morning Advertiser. LAW INTELLIGENCE. COURT OF KING'S BENCH, FZB. 17. OBBARD AND ANOTHER V. BETHAM. This was an action by the assignees of Thomas Guest Blowficld, a bankrupt, to recover a sum of 2551. In 1825, Blowfield, the bankrupt, who was a perfumer and cutler, in Middle-row, Holborn, fur nished the defendant, Captain Betham, with an as sortment of perfumery and cutlery articles, to take out to India. In payment, the defendant gave his acceptances, two of which were not taken up when they became due. The bankrupt, Blowfield, who was the drawer, paid one of the bills (a bill for 2001.) before his bankruptcy, and the other, which was in the hands of a third person, was proved un der his (Blowfield's) commission. The assignees now sought to recover 2371., the amount of prin cipal and interest on the 2001. bill, and 181., the amount of the dividend paid upon the bill proved under the commission. Under his Lordship's directions a verdict was en tered for the plaintiffs for the sum claimed. OURDEN V. ANDERSON. This was an action to recover 142/. as money paid to the defendant, a builder, under a contract to build a house for the plaintiff. The Jury found fOr the plaintiff—damages 1421. These sittings, at the rising of the Court, were adjourned to Wednesday, April 14. COURT OF EXCHEQUER, Fa. 17. The Court was occupied the greater part of the day in the following nine cases against publicans, for violating the Excise Laws by mixing deleterious articles in the liquors which they sold to the public for genuine porter. REX V. THOMAS. This was an information tiled by his Majesty's At torney-General, against the defendant, Mr. Thomas, the proprietor of the Brown Bear, in Broad -street, Bloomsbury, to recover a penalty of 4001. for taking into his stock a poisonous compound called "beer flavour." The SOLICITOR-GENERAL stated that the informa tion was filed against the defendant for receiving into his stock a composition called " beer flavour," for the purpose of enabling him to weaken the quality of the beer by inserting the fluid prepara tion, Avhich had the effect of extracting a consi derable portion of the genuine beverage, and to make up the quantity by what the publicans tech nically termed " liquor," which meant water. The effect of this was to reduce the strength of the beer one-half, and sever less than a third. He was happy to state that the brewers were never con cerned in the deterioration of the article. It was sent by them in its pure state to the cellar of the publican, where the spurious ingredient was intro duced, which gave a deeper colour and stronger flavour to it, and they passed it off as a genuine article to the public. The effect had been to involve the brewer in disreputation, who had been charged with sending forth a bad article for the same price, and to lessen the consumption of the beverage which was considered the most nutritive common drink among the working classes of England. They had received a prejudice against it in consequence of the way in which spurious ingredients had been mixed with it, destroying its original flavour, and not ren dering that support from it which they had been ac customed to receive from the genuine article. It was the determination of the Commissioners of Ex cise, not only to ferret out every individual case that could be discovered where the practise was resorted to, and in no case to listen to a compromise in the Court. Tho Jury gave a verdict for the Crown, 4001. REX. V. WILMOT. This was a similar information against Mr. Wil mot, the landlord of the Green Man and Still, in Whitecross-street, Cripplegate, for having the same noxious ingredients on his premises, aad a verdict was given for the Crown in half the penalty. REX V. J. SMITHSON. This was a like information against the defendant, the landlord of the Grapes public-house, in Porter street, Nei , port-market. . . The SOLICITOR-GENERA L addressed the Jury as in the former case, and a verdict was given for the Crown, 400/. The following publicans were convicted in the like penalty Talbot Smith, the keeper of a gin-shop in Broad-street, Bloomsbury ; Mr. Tan field, of the George public-house, in Chapel-street, Oxford-street; Mr. Thomas Dcvereux, of the Cherry-tree, in Whitecross-street ; Mr. Thomas Clarke, of the Horse and Sacks, Harrow-road ; Mr. Thomas Wennington, of the Marquis of Granby, Drury-lane; Mr. Joseph Bill, of the Angel, Fleet market. INSOLVENT DEBTORS' COURT, FEB. 17. William Pullen came up on his application to be discharged. The insolvent was not opposed, but on his examination by the Court, it appealed that on the 18th September he was arrested for a debt of 271. Ile gave bail immediately. At this tune he was possessed of stock in trade, &c., to a consider able amount. A few days afterwards -he disposed of part of his property for b 01.; and, on the 30th of October, a very short time before rendering to prison, he sold the remainder for about 171., making in all G7l. Instead of offering to come to any arrange. diem with the creditors who had arrested him, he disposed otherwise of a great part of the money, having 201. in his hands when he went to prison on the 6th of November. The CIIIEF Co IMISSIONEIi said the judgment of the Court was that the insolvent be remanded for six months from the date Of filing his petition. POLICE INTELLIGENCE. BOW.STREET. Yesterday Mr. Coghill, a constable in his own right, of St. Paul's parish, Covent-garden, who was charged on the previous day with having obstructed the police at the fire which took place at the English Opera-house, came to this office for the purpose of asking the magistrates how far he, as a parish con stable, was boun(l to act under the directions of the police. After commenting upon the manner in which he had been treated by the police, he expressed not only his unwillingness to act under such men, but his determination to lie quietly in his bed on the very next occasion requiring his assistance. He could not understand how a respectable inhabitant of the parish, holding the office of a parish constable, should be expected to place himself under the orders of mere police-officers, and he felt (he said) consider able surprise that Mr. Minshull should have ex pressed an opinion to that effect. Mr. MlNsitur,t, observed, that, however respect able Mr. Coghill might be, he only knew him as a parish constable, and as such it was his business to act under the directions of the person who controlled the police, instead of presaming to interfere with his duties. Mr. Coghill declared that no respectable man till ing the situation of constable in his own right would consent to act under the orders of such mon as the new police is composed of. Their conduct upon the occasion of the late fire was disgraceful. Mr. HALLS—Perhaps it would be just as well if Mr. Coghill would follow his own suggestion, and remain in bed on the next occasion of a fire. Mr. Coghill was again about to speak, when he was peremptorily stopped, and he then retired. WORSHIP-STREET. Mr. Albo, a Spaniard, of remarkable fine propor tions, was brought before Mr. BENKTT by one of the new police, into whose custody he had been given on Tuesday night, charged with violent conduct, and an assault committed in his own house. The defendant, although a man of good income, appeared dirty and negligent in person—was without cravat or other covering upon his neck, and seemed to have been unshaven for many weeks. He was charged a . short time since before Mr. Broughton, the purpose then and now being to place him under restraint as an insane person. The following state ment was, on that occasion, made respecting him : He came to London about fifteen years since, and was engaged in business with his uncle, a wealthy Spanish merchant, whose daughter lie married about three years afterwards, and at the death of his uncle became possessed of very considerable property, and is still in the receipt of an income of 3004 a year, upon which he lived with his wife and four children. His conduct of late was stated to have undergone a total change ; and Mrs. Albo, believing herself in danger, sought the protection of the Magistrate. The medical attendant of the family was examined before Mr. Broughton, and thought that the defendant's state of mind bordered closely upon madness,but said he could nut take upon himself to call it lunacy, but rather eccentricity; and he also stated that Drs. Burrows arid Babing ton had refused to sign a certificate of lunacy. '1 lie Magistrate saw no sufficient grounds for coercive measures on his part, but he suspended the warrant, and recommended that a person, then present, a friend of the family, should reside in the house with Mr. and Mrs. Albo, to guard against any appre hended danger. It now appeared before Mr. BENETT, that the person who had been residing in the house had on Tuesday been replaced by another person, and Mr. Albo, coming home at night and finding a stranger in his house, flew into a violent rage, assaulted and forcibly expelled the stranger, but was himself sent to the watch-house by Mrs. Albo, who now assured the Magistrate that her husband was a lunatic, and she could not exist in safety while he was at large. Mr. BEN TT—What proof have you that he is a lunatic ? Mrs. Albo stated, in general terms, the violent and strange conduct of her husband—his breaking and destroying the furniture arid property, and finally his violence towards the person brought into the house as a guard. The defendant said the stranger had no business in his house. "Ifl am a lunatic," said he, " why do you live with me ? You may leave me and take half the property : you are at liberty in this country, and I apprehend that a man has a right to do as he pleases in his own house with his ow❑ pro perty. If I knock about the plates and dishes, they are my own." The Magistrate was informed of the proceedings already laid before Mr. Broughton, and die state ments of the surgeon and physicians. The defend ant, it was said, sometimes drank to excess, and on those occasions his conduct was that of a madman. The defendant was therefore discharged. UM() N-N A lA,. Since the introduction of the new police on the Surrey side of the water the slip of Union-hall office has been crowded every morning with im mense numbers of those most abject and degraded of human creatures—nightly street-walkers. As in very many instances there has been no charge against these pitiable outcasts from society further than " found walking the streets." Mr. Hone has ordered them to be set at liberty, at the same time inform ing the policemen that a prostitute, unless riotous, had as much right in the streets as any other person. Yesterday morning the following conversation upon this subject took place between Mr. SWAIM', Mr. HONE, and Superintendent Dowling. Mr. SwABEY—In consequence of some unfortu nate females being discharged who had been taken up by one of your men whilst in the streets, he may go away with a wrong impression-, and think that these girls are not to be molested. At present the policemen seem not to understand under what cir cumstances this description of persons ought to be apprehended. It would, therefore, be hs well to in form them that unless they observe one of them conducting herself in an indecent and riotous manner she has as much right to walk along the streets as any other of his Majesty's subjects. Superintendent Dowling—l suppose if they see one of them running up to a gentleman and taking hold of his arm that would be considered indecent' and riotous. Mr. HONE—It depends altogether on the manner in which it is done. With regard to the word riot, in a legal sense, it is one of a most difficult defini tion, and I never yet heard two gentlemen agree as to its precise meaning. I was talking with two very learned Judges only yesterday on this ♦ery subject; and I question very much whether if a girl, for tak ing hold of a gentleman's arm, is guilty of a rio: or indecency. If they are found making a noise in the streets and using bad language then they are riotous and ought to be taken up. Superintendent Dowling—There are a great number of streets which are so much infested with these women at nightfall that the respectable and modest part of the inhabitants complain bitterly of their being allowed to parade backwards and for wArds before their houses. However, the suggestions of the Magistrates shall be attended to. There is now living in Totness a tradesman, who makes a practice every Christmas Eve to sleep in a manger. This he terms celebrating the nativity of Goo ! MURDER IN CARLOW, IRELAND. (FROM A CORRESPONDENT.) A murder of a veto atrocious nature has lately been committed at a place called Kiledmond, near Ragenalstown, in the county of Carlow, a county . which has for several years been unstained with any crimes of considerable magnitude, and our corres pondent states that the particulars of the murder, although two persons (the supposed principals) base been committed to the county prison, charged with the crime, have not been published in any of ihe Irish uewepapers. It appears that about a fortnight or ten days einet , , the deceased, whose name erns Smith, a small farmer and shoemaker, about forty - years of age, was discovered by one of his neigh bours, on a part of his own land, called " the Croppy's Gap") so called from the shooting o f eve ral of the insurgents there during the rebellion Of 1798), lying on his back, apparently lifeless; his skull was found to be deeply !met ured in one or tno places, and large heavy stones were /Awed on his breast and feet, as if to prevent his making any ef forts to move homewards. The person who found him had him brought home, and the deceased, from the attentions which were paid him, recovered his speech, and hinted that he had received clothe unfair treatment, alluding in almost distinct terms fo wife, with whom for some time past be had treed living on rather unpleasant terms, ns the person whn had ill-used him. He shortly after desired this person to go for the clergyman, as he would com municate all he knew to him. His friend complied with his desire and left him, at the time apparently recovering from the effects of the wounds which had been inflicted upon him; on his return with the Red. Gentleman, Smith was found to be quite dead." An inquest was held on the body the following day before two Magistrates of the county (for it is singular that in • Carlow there is not a single coroner, while in other counties of Ireland there are found ' so many as eight), the circumstances above narrated were detailed at the inquisition,' and suspicion being in consequence excited against the wife, site was immediately apprehended. Hints were also given that she had a paramour, who it was suspected must have aided her in the perpetration of the murder. The name of the latter, a young man, was Styles, and he, too, was apprehended by the police. They were kept apart, when Styles confessed that he had perpetrated the murder a t the instigation of the wife, and detailed the following particulars :—Mrs. Smith, he stated, had for a con siderable time past been making efforts to induce him to murder her husband; he had a long time re• sisted, but she persisted in her incitements. She lied a short time before the perpetration of the crime purchased some powder, and urged him to ahnet the deceased ; this he had objected to on the ground that the noise which the shot would cause would discover the deed, as the neighbourhood in. which they resided was rather thickly inhabited. She hen decided on the plan of the murder which was subse quently acted upon. The night on which it took place, Mrs. Smith made her husband get up about midnight to look after his sheep. She followed cohafi.nrcii,oisiriinotnoarttoolstege:fieidrlruder,liragvnittlnh,f hire rom some trifling cause took hich s th t e y r l e e : , a t n he an p g a rT am al o t u er r : attacked the deceased with a pitchfork, with which he gave him several blows on the head, and so se verely beat him, that the iron part of the instrument was broken off. They then, thinking him dead, placed the stones on him, and left him in the field, as lie was found next morning. Styles further added, that his belief was, that while the person who went for the clergyman (all the parties were Protestants) was absent, Mrs. Smith finished the work of destruction. On this confession the inquest returned a verdict of wilful murder against both parties, who w ere transmitted on the warrant to Carlow gaol, to abide their trial at the approaching assizes. It is said that since his committal Styles has de nied all knowledge of the circumstances attending the death of Smith, and retracts the confession which he made before the Magistrate. NERVOUS AFFECTIONS.—An impression made on one part of the body will often produce a ner. vow) affection elsewhere, at a distance from the original seat of the disease, and where no such ob►ious explanation of the fact presents itself. A disease in the liver produced a pain in the right shoulder ; a disease in the heart pro• duces a pain in the hack. The late Dr.'WoLLasron wee accustomed to relate the following :—Ple ate some ice' cream after dinner, which his stomach seemed to be inie pable of divesting. Some time afterwards, as he hail left the dinner-table to go to the drawing room, be found himself lame from a violent pain in one ankle. Suddenif he became sick; the ice-cream was rejected from the ato' mach, and this was followed by instantaneous relief of the pain in the foot.—Brodie'a Lectures. HADDINGTON MURDERS.—The girls MAGDALENE FRANKS, who shared the melancholy, btit in her ease still more untimely, fate of her mother, wan about fifteen years of age, and remarkably pretty. She was very attentive to her lessons, showed considerable aptness for the acquisition of knowledge, and, taking int° into account that she had been brought up in the country, possessed accomplishments of rather a superior kind. Sbe was uncommonly dutiful to her mother, to whom her at tentions were assiduous and unremittilig; while to all her acquaintance she habitually conducted herself with the greatest kindness and urbanity. This unfortunate young creature was al.° remarkably neat and tidy in her dress; and we were not a little affected the other day by °beery- Mg her parasol, frills, reticule, and sundry other aitieleg of apparel, lying in the same stAte of careful order iO which she had left them, neatly folded up and eoiered with handkerchiefs, probably not many hours before bee young head was literally shattered to atoms by the desrlll blows of a ferocious murderer, How the monster bar pelted to overkok these articles, while turning every thing else topsy-turvy, we know not : they were but little cal' ciliated to tempt his cupidity, if plunder was his object , which we rather think it was not; and, at all events► there they still remain, a touching memorial of the how cent creature, who, when arranging them with rental' neatness and taste, little dreamt of the horrid fate which impended over her head. The poor thing appears also to have been very fond of birds and prints; for there are se veral strings of birds' eggs hanging round her little bed room, the walls of which are also decorated with a variety of prints rather well selected, and calculated to instruct as well as to amuse children. Indeed, from all we have learnt of her, 111.kunALNNE FRANas appears to hare'beett a simple child of nature, just bursting into womanhoo.4. She was the general favourite, and engaged the good-will of all her acquaintance. The old woman who laid out the bodies remarked, "111annaLexx was the pride of the Tillage, for her modest demeanour, and the friendly way in which she treated all who had the pleasare of knowing her."—North Briton. BIRTHS. On the 15th inst. at Kennington, the lady of J. Ingranl Batten, Esq., of a (laughter. On the 14th inst. at St. Giles's Rectory, Domt, the lady of the Rev. R. Moore, of a daughter. On the 16th inst. the lcdy of Dr. Williams, of Bedford . place, Russell-square, of a daughter. On the 16th inst. Afro. Frederick Manor, of the P' ragon, of a daughter. MARRIED. By the Rev. Mr. Bourchier, Sir John Phillimore , K. C. 8., to the Bsroness Katherine Harriette de gersfield. On the 16th inst. at Coggeshall, Robert, second son 19( Charles Barclay, Esq., M.P., of Grorrenor-place s ta Rachel, third (laughter of Osgood Hanbury, Esq., o f floP 6e1(1-g range. On the 17th inst. at Westbury, Mr. C. J. Wretley, ° Platton-garden, to Miss Hinesley ) of Reiland, niece 1 G. Jones, Esq., of Bristol. DIED. On the 15th inst. at Whatton House, the seat of E. Dawson, Esq., in the county of Leicester, Catherine, the wife of the Rev. J. H. Hamilton, and youngest daughter of the late T. M. Phillipps, Esq., of the same county. On the 15th inst. J. Green, Esq., of Bedford. On the 17th inst. T. Mauriec, Esq., agesl 62, of Marc borough, Wilts. On the 14th inst. L. Lee, Esq., of Castle-street, JloP horn, aged 52. On the 16th inst. at his house in Ilerners-street, Robert Gooch, M.D. -, r,17 , n P R ISCrED AND PUBLIS HED BY IVA 11 ll r ILI %X VA , Sax Orrice, 11; Orators, Loin m 7 ~ brid i alder t o - a Rt ate , that • shirr cons from fur I Pany Kin g take of le 1822 'me the C had lie t view th e tita n , tnoti 13anl h e a ; quan Lord hnd the f doeu had mind impc apps thins tier' most the was the I •ente Moth ACCOI corn Arur rad pacil the 1 the , whit cifie2 voke Medi coati Were print Fears beini be Re tram Mod • th e 1 di nt , th e , chid! exe c , WRs on ce nan o had then path pan (th e Nob