The Sun. — London, England, 1844-12-23 00:00:00

••• -----.._. ! ) ,d ;. r' z FLANDERS MAIL. ---..—.-- 1544••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Loan of City, 11143, Four per Cont." ..... ........... . 313% - SPORTING INTELLIGENCE. ASHDOWN PARK COURSING MEETING.- LAST DAY. Gold Cup (Deciding Course)—Mr. Fowles's Feathers beat Mr. Etwall's The Winner, and won the Cup. The Craven Puppy Stakes—Mr. Gordon's Crape beat Mr. Flesher's Elsler, and won the stakes. The Dog Puppy Stakes were won by Mr. Etwall's West -end, and the Bitch Puppy Stakes by Mr. Bowles' Blessington. - MANCHESTER BETTING —FRIDAY. Very little done, Most of the members being absent attending the great coursing meeting at Lytham, the only bet laid was 500 to 7 against Grotesque for th e I )4rby: TILED. lISPUTED GREAT BOAT-RACE BETWEEN THE CHAMPIONS OF THE THAMES AND THE TYNE. The referee has pronounced his decision on this great ',Rik The dispute to which we alluded in our (Fri usky'a parier, in w hich it was allegehat arish a Celebrated London Waterman) had held up his hand as 111 signal to Coombes to direct his steerage, was then re red to the referee, who, on Thursday, gave his deci lion-in favour of Coombes. Clasper, nothing daunted b) his defeat, seemed, at the time of our communication 'saving Newcastle, in a fair way of being backed against Newel, of Battle-bridge stairs (the severe opponent ,Itgetinsteoombes last year for the London championship), whether a match would be made appeared doubtful. We are informed that the Newcastle gentlemen behaved /try 'roll to the London watermen. lialTsstms. 19.—The avArage price of wheat -' last week ilss 16f. 92e., ti:d that of rye 10f. Ste. per hectolitre. There has been a numerous meeting of workmen at •intwerp, the object of which was to sign a petition for * rerisal of the law relative to sugars. In consequence of the stagnation of the trade and the closing of the sugar hpuses, numbers of workmen are out of employ ment. The Chamber of Representatives was engaged yester thy and to-day in Secret Committees in discussirg the pro ject of law for sanctioning the treaty with the Zollvereiu. It seetni by what we have learnt of what passed in the Secret Committee, that some members of the Opposition attacked rather warmly the Minister of the Interior. M. Devaux dwelt on the little dependence that will be Placed en the words of the organs of the Government. The Minister of the Interior declared that he made the point in dispute a case of Ministerial responsibility. The point in dispute was whether the treaty gave to Belgium the right of importing its corn into Germany by means of the Rhine, at the same duty as by land, which the Minister affirmed it did. BELGIAN FUNDS—Bauosits, Bee. IR Actua Debt, 94 per Cent., ........ Rothschild's Loan, Loan of Thirty Millions, Four per Cent... ...... 94% Three per Cent........... Thlity-sevon Mink's, ditto ..... 77 (IMO) ...... 1 IRS lw 112 Society of Commerce. Fear and a Half per Cent — Rank of Belgium, Five per Cont. ............. ZS Issue of 1541.... —Freud, ........ Deo. 19. AUSTRIAN FUNDS.—Ttiona, Da. It Five per Cents. Motalliquos 110 1 Your per .............».»....«.«...» lO4 Three A er Cents.... ...... ....... 'lll% Less, 1134. ........ ...... Ditto, Is3a ...... Zetsrlasy4 Loon. ''' ,4ll gerossisso Litres, Dos. MURDEROUS ATTACK BY POACHERS. . • (FROM • CORRESPONDENT.) FIVE GAMEKEEPERS SHOT AT. WORCZSTER, FRIDAY EVENING.—A most desperate attack was made this morning, between twelve and one o'clock, by a body of armed poachers, to the number of 4 t least twenty, upon five night-watchers upon the pre lerres of the Earl of Coventry, at Croome, about seven Idles from this city, by which it is feared human life • will be sacrificed. It seems that the keepers were watch ' j Pg siortion of the preserves near to Mr. Woodward's, 11 4 Pirton Farm, in the parish of Croome, when they tre suddenly surrounded by a gang of some twenty ,POiChers, armed with guns and sticks, and having with them a number of snares for taking game. The fellows I " once attacked the keepers, who, seeing there was no 'chanc e of successfully encountering so numerous and del lijerate a body of assailants, fled, and were imrne ' A " l telY fired upon by the gang, who wounded c " or two of them, though not seriously, shots striking them in the face, and :: . I° eking off their hats which were perforated with the - Liot. One poor fellow, however, did not succeed in fte aPing without receiving such injuries as, it i • thought, W4l bring him to an untimely grave. Not being able to lit ks his escape with his fellow-watchers, the gang set ?" him and beat him about the head in a most in- L 44l a and•barharous manner, leaving him senseless on t t liround. The poachers were heard firing their guns 1 ; 1 Pieserves some time afterwards. Poor fellow last mentioned was this morning Ought in a cart to the Worcester Infirmary, where the • :"Ptest attention was paid to his wounds. It was found kra in adfttion to numerous bruises on thehead and upper porno of his body, his skull was extensively fractured Presenting literally a mass of horrid gore. The operation Of trepanning was skilfully performed this afternoon by 'the surgeons in attendanee, but the unfortunate patient •remains this evening in an insensible and hopeless state. Some of the gang are known to the police, and it is loped that in a few days they will be captured. They belong to a large 'body of poachers which has long in lasted this part of the country, and are indeed becoming a terror to the neighbourhood. A party of the same gang visited the keeper's house at Croome Perry Wood a abort time ago, and called upon him to get . up and find theta som e game , f or " t h ey 'd be d•-- d if they could rid any." They have also made similar visitations in o ther p laces, and have sent threatening letters to two or three game preservers. TO THE EDI T OR OF THE SUN. your paper of the 18th, in your leading _nick, you allude to the Great Britain steam-ship as propelled by the Archimedean screw. ,uhat vessel is not propelled by the Archimedean, or 2 4 °le screw, but by a propeller, consisting of f o ur ` ur ved blades, or sections of a screw. arn desirous of correcting the stat e m e nt, as th e pro iter she has on is the patent of Mr. James Lowe, which , 14 established on Monday last in the Court o f Q ueen ' s each, on t h e tr i a l' o f M r. P enn, of Greenwich, for an ingement of his patent. Ybur insertion of this communication in your next ItaProssion would much oblige, Sir, your most obedient li ervant. T. EYRE WYCHE, Solicitor to the plaintiff. 13 , George. street, Mansion-house, Dec. 20. RAILWAY RETURNS. TEAFFIC.—The following are - the Total Receipts of rll for the past week—that is to say, up to the date to which the rl,ective returns are made, together with the receipts of the same Rio the previous year • 4.s W eek , Last g • th dttig NAME OF RAILWAY. o : 2 week. E, am • bg e. • • ..£ .i 14 Arbroath and Forfar ••••••-• • • • • • • • 114 145 1 3 - - Birmingham and Gloucester.• •••• • . • • 2,067 1,594 : -- Brandling Junction . - 789 14 Bristol and Gloucester ••••••• • • • • • • • 980 - 13 , , Chester and Birkenhead . ............432 314 , i2"Dublin and Drogheda.. ...... ........ 530 581 1 7 ' Dublin and Kingstown • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 487 601 -- 15 ' Dundee and Arbroath .; 14 ' Ddrham and Sunderland 14 r Edinburgliana Glasgow. ~ 15 .. Eastern Counties and North Eastern • • 4,020 3,239 ,•14 . Glasgow, Kilmarnock, and Ayr ••• • •• 1,365 1,091 . '' 14 Glasgow and Greenock •• • ...... •• • • 635 637 14 Grand Junction •••••.•••• • • • • • • • • • • 7,350 6,580 14 Gloat North of England •• • •.• •••• • • • 1,526 1,331 15 , Great 'Western .• • • 14;845 13,940 13 Liverpool and Manchester ••••• • • • • • 4,490 3,505 14 London and Birmingham .•.••• • • • • . 15,108 14,264 15 London and Blackvrall GOG 610 14 London and Brighton .••••••• • • • • • • • 3,542 3,422 1 7 London and Croydon .. . 19 London and Greenwich .•••••• • • • • • • 31.6 692 16 London and South Western 4,579 4,840 ' l5 . Manchester, Bolton, and Bury ...... $O3 696 13 Manchester and Birmingham ... . 2,514 2,552 • 1 4 Manchester, Leeds, and Hull Assoc.. 5,672 5,179 14 Midland Counties .. 14 Newcastle and Darlington ••••• • • • • • 1,602 - 14 Newcastle and Carlisle.. •••••• • • • • • • 1,524 1,345 15 Newcastle and North Shields• •••• . . . 314 308 ;'l3 North Union and Bolton and Preston 1,317 641 16 Paris, Corbel], and Orleans ••••• • • • • • 4,325 3,852 1 6 Paris and Rouen . ..... •••• • .. ,.• 4,162 3,005 1 4 Preston and . Wyre 3u3 229 . . 14 Sheffield and Manchester • • • 579 470 ' .19 South 'Eastern. • • 14 Taff Vale , • . 809. 594 _---'4) 15 44. .trhter. .•••.••••••• • •• • • - •• • • • 6ll 591 Yarmouth and Norwich • • • 251 , - : i• .14 Turk. and North Midland ... • 14 Mt 44 Is - 6- .14 33 4. ELANCHOLT DEATH 'FROM TAKING LA UDANUM . E., --4 11 inquest was held in Whitehaven, on Monday, the ll inst., before Wm. Lumb, jun., Esq., on view of the „ ° I 'LY of Jane Temple, who came to her death in the f i r ,'g melancholy mannert—lt appears that the un -41Unate su ff erer was ill on Friday last, and her 17„_ mol ter sent a boy of about eight or ten years of age, eLwiessrs. Randleson and Foster's shop with a teacup, some tincture of rhubarb, which the boy obtained, ,ut on returnin g h ome , s pill e d it, i n consequence of which %g i rl, a year or two older than the boy, wags sent upon • same 1 — . errand. The girl stated distinctly that she motfur the tincture of rhubarb, which she obtained, e supposed, and returned home with the cup. The sad administered a dose of the supposed tincture, , She fell asleep. When she awoke the dose was re- Vi ikt ed. but as it did not produce the desired effect, th e Clark, surgeon, was sent for, and on examining ti; ct e uP, he at once discovered that, instead of tire of r h u b ar b, t h e unconscious mother had ad u4tlistered two doses of la u dan um t o h er su ff er i ng fttighter. Mr. Clark applied the usual rem e di es . Hi s R t ' r ts to preserve lifa were unavailing, and she 500 U after. The jury, after a careful investi d ~° , l l of the ease , re t urne d a v e rdi c t o f A' A cc id ental by t ' - ' ll, caused by laudanum having been a d m i n i stere d e for tincture of rhubarb." .At the requ es t a )4.• t he jury, th e C oroner severe ly repr i manded _tn ){were Landleson and Foster's shop-boy for the ca re l ess ner in which he had sent the poisonous narcotic from ti o ll , i rn t B tor's shop. Had the usual and necessary precau *ith-unen taken of labelling the cup containing th e d rug Via li u th ° Word "poison," th e m e lancholy ci r c ums t ance - ' l " 4 ell probability, have been prevented. LETTERS ON TILE CORN-LAWS, No. XII. (From the League.) LETTER FROM SOME OF THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND TO THE NORWICH WEAVER BOY. LONDON, Dec. 2. It may be generally supposed that the women of England who contribute to the Anti-Corn-law League Bazaar, or at least those who, raise their voices in ad miration of the principles and proceedings of that League, are the only ones who approve of free trade, or disapprove of unnecessary and undue legislative inter ference with the affairs of the nation. Such a supposi tion would, however, be erroneous. There are English women, and to their number we belong, who deprecate this interference, who are most anxious to see free trade and direct taxation introduced, who see the whole bearing of these matters upon the sufferings which they commis serate, but who still are prevented by every feeling of duty and humanity from upholding the principles of the League, the evident tendency of which is to let doctrines of political economy supersede those laws which God first wrote upon the heart of man, and after wards revealed in language which admits of but one in terpretation. These laws teach us to lore our fellow creatures as ourselves, and most forcibly enjoi■ charity; but that word has in the gospel a far more extended meaning than that in which it is usually employed ; and we do not there see it used as giving some classes of our fellow-creatures an exclusive right to our love, while, at the same time, we'are allowed, not only ourselves to hate and revile other classes, but even to teach the poor and ignorant to do so likewise. The gospel is a doctrine of love—of love so comprehensive that even the sinner is embraced in it, though sin is ab horred and reviled ; and we are taught in humility not to judge others, that we may not ourselves be judged. It teaches nowhere to denounce, though throughout it teaches us how to reform. It tells us who is blessed; it is man who has added who is cursed. The members of the Anti-Corn-law League may be the propounders of sound doctrines of political economy: but we do not see that they are on that account to ar rogate to themselves all the virtue in the community, and to denounce every opponent, not only as ignorant upon the subject (so far they would be justified), but as an object deserving the hatred and execration of man kind. What will be the benefit to society, if, to ensure triumph in the struggle for free trade, hatred between class and class is to be not only nourished, but incul lated ? What will be the advantage of bread in every mouth, if there is to be hatred and jealousy in every heart ? Is it with feelings such as these that justice is to be worked out, or when obtained by some is to be ex tended to others ? We ire aware that the members of the League are so little conscious of the tendency of their own speeches or writing's, that they indignantly repel every accusation of the kind here brought against them ; yet to every un biassed observer such is their tendency. The answer which these gentlemen make to the materialism of their doctrine is, that it is not their mission to preach the gospel. We admit that it may not be their mission to preach it, but it is their duty to follow its precepts; and only when free trade is advocated in terms which are not at variance with the laws of God enjoining peace and goodwill among men, can the advocates be joined by those who do not allow that any human necessity can supersede the necessity of obedience to those laws. We know that religion is in our day looked upon as a Sunday business only—a thing having nothing to do with the business of the week days; and as such, perhaps, it is excluded from the week-day labours of the Anti-Corn law League. As men passing judgment upon public measures, and advocating a new system of administra tion, the members cannot, however, pretend to be exempt from the consideration of all other state matters but those the study of which they have made their peculiar avoca tion. They ought to know that every citizen, though bound to do his best to correct errors of government, is likewise bound to do it in a manner that shall not subvert public order. Now, though we heartily wish to see the corn-laws abolished, we cannot agree with those who think that this cannot be done without pulling down the aristocracy of the land, thereby virtually subverting the constitution of the realm ; nor do we see the intimate connexion between the aristocracy exclusively and the corn-laws. The aristocracy of Great Britain is not an exclusive class, for centuries separated from the body of the nation by an insurmountable barrier of onerous pri vileges ; it is, on the contrary, continually being re cruited from the middle classes, which in their turn re ceive numbers from the classes below ; and it is in fact only in the precedency of rank that the main distinction between the aristocracy and the wealthy members of the other classes of the community consists. The corn-laws are connected with the prejudices of the landed pro prietors ; but surely these are not exclusively members of the aristocracy ; and, even were it so, the advocates of free trade have nothing to do with them in that capacity ; they have merely to combat their erroneous opinions as to administration. Administrative plea sures can never be meant _ to be more than teraporary, and ought to be repealed as soon as they are discovered to be pernicious. Not so constitutional laws : these are part of the life of the nation ; a n d none b u t the nation, in its entireness, can lawfully make any change in them. We do not see that there is in England any call or any disposition for such a change ; and it is therefore with profound _grief that we see the Anti-Corn-law League, while following out its legitimate ends, sowing the seeds of unholy things. Besides, we think that the Anti-Corn-law League, if working honestly for the abo lition of the corn-laws, and for nothing else, is rather defeating its own object by attacking with such virulence the class with whom the power of abolishing them, in so great a measure, rests. If the League, however, prefers carrying its point by brute force, and is only trying to get up a masked democratical movement, then, to be sure, the means used may be efficient, though they, as well as the end . are crimi na l. A n d t h en i t will remain to be ex perienced whether in England, as in France at no very distant period, the poor, after having been deluded by the middle classes into the belief that, by destroying what was obnoxious to the latter, they would be work ing for their own happiness, when discovering the decep tion,* will not turn upon their former flatterers, and exercise upon them the principles of hatred and revenge instilled by them. SOME OF THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND. REPLY TO "SOME OF THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND." Ladies,—The perusal of your reply to the writer of these letters will, in one respect, afford high gratifi cation to the advocates of the Anti-Corn-law League. You apprise us that the desire, in your sex, to see the labourers' bread untaxed, and the ports open for the admission of that food of which multitudes are in want, must not be measured by the number of those who contribute towards the proposed Baaaar, or who (at our meetings, I presume) " raise their voices in admiration of the principles and proceedings of that League." Beyond this body there is, you tell us, a wider atmosphere of female sympathy in free trade principles. You vouch for the fact as yourselves Ise longing to the number who occupy that position. The soundness of your reasons for standing thus aloof I shall discuss presently. It is just first to observe that those who do not stand aloof are so numerous ; they shed such a halo of grace and beauty around our cause ; they blend so becomingly the unobtrusiveness of wo men's nature with her keen and courageous moral sense; their very presence has so purified the movement from the common coarseness of party strife in polities; the wealthier of them have given so liberally to our funds, and the poorer have so cheerfully imposed exertion and privation on themselves to become con tributors; their suggestions as to the Bazaar plan, first in ..Manchester, and now in London, have been so ju dicious, and their co-operation so efficient ; and, bring ing into our agitation whatever of peculiar truthful ness, delicacy, compas -ion, and piety, constitutes their distinetive character, they have so imprinted on it the mark of a holy and Christian work, that it is gratify ing to learn there are more of their sex who will re joice in their triumph, although they do not aid in the needful means for its attainment. It is something to have the good they do appreciated; especially by those who leave the previous exertion unparticipated. You approve the principles of free trade, and yet withhold your countenance from the League. You will not contribute even to the Bazaar, which is, at any rate, free from the offence given you by other proceedings. Allow me, then, to ask ;chat else you will do, to promote your own principles and satisfy your own consciences ? You behold the production, by monopoly, of " sufferings" which you " commise rate." What is your process for their alleviation ? Are you content to stand by as inertly as if you were utterly indifferent to the wretchedness of which you know the source and the remedy ? Is it a sufficient excuse for doing nothing,. that those ,who are doing something speak sometimes erringly ? If the very devils confess Christ, is that a reason for practically denying Christ ? Are you willing to remember the injured poor in your prayers, but to remember them nowhere else ? 'What is your intelligence worth, or your sympathy, if it shun the company of the like minded, and adopt for itself no other course of action ? Christian women, you cannot be at peace with your selves, if you prolong this moral incongruity. You accuse the League of letting the doctrines of political economy supersede the laws of God. And whose laws are the doctrines of political economy ? What are those doctrines but the exposition of provi dential facts ? They teach mutual dependence, mutual service, and common interests, in all the tribes and nations of mankind. They exhibit that wisdom which in varied climates and remotest regions has stored up the materials of useful ex change and friendly intercourse. They identify the objects of individual pursuit with the means of universal enjoyment. They abate the pride of wealth, and render industry honourable. They show how to replenish the world and subdue it, by making the wilderness a garden, and not the garden a wilder ness. They interpose the strongest obstacles to the ravages of warfare ; and, as with the voice of angels, raise the season-song of " Peace on earth and good will among men." Were there no revelation, political economy would suggest a religion. Were there no Christianity, political economy would shadow forth some faint outline of its divine benignity. We use the term deception, because we cannot but see that, although much benefit would accrue to the country from the introduction of free trade, the blissful state of utopian felicity which is held out as a lure to the poorer classes would be far from attained. Suffering will be the lot of mankind until the laws of Christ reign in all hearts ; and woe unto the land if one of these laws is to be set aside, were it even tl facilitate the introduc tion of a more perfect human code than bee ever yet been know!. . .„ LILL' , • You say that you can only join the free trade cause, as sustained by the League, when it is "ad vocated in terms which are not at variance with tha laws of God enjoining peas. and good-will to man." If your requirement only related to the principles on which the League is founded, and the objects at which it aims, nothing could be more reasonable. In that case, I venture to affirm that your immediate co-operation may be challenged. But if your re quirement extend to all the speeches and writings of individuals, then nothing can be more unreasonable. You are requiring perfection of humanity ; and making the absence of perfection the excuse for not helping the effort for improvement. No large asso ciated body can stand such a test, whatever be its objects, or whoever its supporters. There is no mis sion to the heathen• or charity to the poor, no work of truth or mercy, in the language of whose sup porters you may not find some taint or flaw, and so justify yourselves for passing by on the other side. You thus exonerate yourselves from all useful service. You claim permanent leave of absence from i the warfare of good against evil. You plead a letter of license from the labours of benevolence. And, strangest of all, the very terms of your fancied ex emption are taken from the precepts by which it is most emphatically condemned; the commands for practically evincing that universal love which would leave no grief unsolaced, no wrong unredressed, no want unrelieved. Might not some of your charity be well bestowed on those whom you deem too fervent in a righteous cause ? You allow them to " denounce every oppo nent as ignorant." There has been little of rebuke employed which such leave does not cover. Is igno rance a virtue in a legislator ? Is it excusable, when he is surrounded by the means of knowledge ? Does it not become a fearful sin, when the interests and lives of millions are dependent on his using his powers wisely ? Should he be coaxed by soft words into contentment with his pernicious blunders ? Is ch..- rity so enamoured of Barnabas, that it must needs unchristianise Boanerges ? Have not both their work in the world ? And would Felix ever have trembled before Paul had the apostle only told the tyrant how much he loved him ? Can we, in Chris tian sincerity, and consistently with moral integrity, call bad things by good names ? Is there no dif ference between the righteous and the wicked—the friends of the poor and their oppressors—those who would secure to labour the full amount of its earn ings, and those who make laws to lessen that amount and fill their own pockets ? Love the sinner as much as you will, but do not hide from him that he is a sinner. You can do him no greater mischief. It is worse than being " angry with the wicked every day.' Is not your charity offended on the other side ? Do you observe no falsehood, no calumny, no vitupe ration, on the part of monopoly ? Is the bad cause purer in its proceedings than the good cause ? If not, your disapproval, extending in that case both to means and ends, must needs be much stron ger th an your disapproval of the League. And yet your con duct tends to support, in preference, what you most disapprove. For when the question is of repealing an existing law, the motive, as derived from public opinion, is exclusively formed by those who speak out against the law. The quiescent are acquiescent. Their silence tells for support. Their inaction is a sanction. Not showing themselves for change, they are reckoned as being against change. This is your inevitable predicament. You become responsible for the prolonged mischiefs, abhorrent to your principles and feelings, against which you do not protest. The muster-roll of monopoly includes all who do not erase their names by some act of adhesion to the opposite principle. Can you rest till you hare done this ? When one looks at the titled and wealthy sub scribers to the League, the notion of a " masked de mocratical movement " for " pulling down the aris tocracy " is almost ton absurd for notice. Doubtless, many members of the League have their democratical partialities; as you, ladies, have your aristocratical partialities. No political creed is imposed by the League; nor by the opponents of the League either, who hare from the first been not very scrupulously anxious to enlist the extreme democratical party in their cause. It is not by the League that any subsi dised alliance has ever existed with the Feargus O'Connor Chartists, the physical-force democrats. And if there be anything democratical in the present plan for extending and purifying the county consti tuencies, it is only that sort and degree of democracy which our Governmental system has sanctioned and presupposed for centuries. The power to be thus called into action has been, however dormant, the people's privilege from the days of the despotic Tudors. The mission of the League is merely to make this part of the Constitution a reality. It brings a "great fact" out of a dormant but conse-'I crated principle. There is some truth in your distinction, though it is rather fine, between the aristocracy and the land-. owners. Practically, the two classes are identical. But it is not 4s an aristocracy that the majority of our legislators tax the people's food ; they only do it as traders in land and the products of land. You may also be correct in thinking that the results of corn-law repeal have been sometimes, and by some advocates, overrated and utopianised. It would be very strange were it otherwise. Results so natural of this species of struggle for an immense good, ob stinately withheld, may be much more easily and rationally accounted for than by your hypo thesis of the middle classes deluding the poor; an charity, towards the selfish wrongers of o th ers hypothesis which serves to show how the extreme of may slide into the extreme of uncharitableness towards the injured party. I have thus endeavoured to avail myself of what appeared to be your invitation to discuss certain reli gious objections to active co-operation with the League. Their religious character entitles them to a respect which could not else have been felt for difficulties that tend to render all extended co-operation for redress of grievances impracticable, and so to prolong the mi series which man inflicts on man by the abuse of power and authority. The inertness of a portion of the religious public on this question is a phe nomenon which you deserve thanks for helping to explain. Explanation cannot justify it. Even by passiveness and silence to encourage those who tpiiotntanofcetheofgodaspeilly. bTroealde,aveis virtualt r o r u e n s u u n n c d i Ito under the f aces o f t h e poor, and abridge their the a injury, and the helpless unaided, when protest and exertion may serve them, is not doing as we would be done unto. There is no love in the wrong, even to the wrong -doer. We should bear and forbear with the mistakes of those who are striving to obtain_ redress, as well as with the mis takes of those who refuse redress. The corn-laws are a demonstrated source of vice, wretchedness, crime, disease, and death. The path of Christian duty is most plain. The League affords oppor tunity for the discharge of that duty. It thereby enhances the obligation, and devolves upon all a deeper responsibility, Deepest of all should that responsibility press on those who make a religious profession. Neglected opportunities of good are the sternest of accusing spirits. Nor will they be silenced by carping at those who improve such oppor tunities, earnestly, if not always (in your opinion) unexceptionably; and who have, by their zeal, been pioneers to clear the highway, through wilderness of a wi erness of ignorance, error, and indifference, in which Chris tian principle, moral duty, and human feeling, enjoin you to unite and advance. There is yet time to " enter into their labours," and accelerate their pro gress to, the great result. To w oman , as we ll as man, applies the admonition emphatically uttered by the Rev. J. Burnett, at a Covent-garden meeting of the League----" Let every one solemnly charge his (or her) own conscience with the high duty and sacred obligation of carrying out this work to its full and final completion." A NORWICII WEAVER BOY. TOE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY MORNING,--D-ECEMBER 23. Mt DR. PINEY. The following letter from Dr. Pusey has been ad ' dressed by him to a friend : My dear ask me what I should do in case this new test, to be proposed to Convocation, should pass. I would say at once, that others, nOt so imme diately aff ec t e d or intended by this teat, need not, I should think, make up their minds yet. I plainly have . no choice ; it is not meant that I should take it, nor can L You will not mistake me. I sign the Articles as ever have since I have known what Catholic antiquity is, to which our Church guides us, in their literal grammatical sense,' determined, where it is ambiguous, by the faith of t h e w h o l e Churc h (as goo d Bishop Ken says), before east and west were divided.' It is to me quite plain that in so doing I am following the guidance ; of our Church. " The proposed test restrains that liberty which Arch bishop Laud won for us. Hitherto high and low Church hare been comprised under the same Articles; and I have felt that in these sad confusions of our Church things must so remain, until, by the mercy of Almighty God, we be brought more nearly into one mind. But as long as this is so, the Articles cannot be (which the new test requires) • cerium Wipe indubitatum opinionum signum.' How can there be any certain and indubitable token of opinion,' when theycan be signed by myself and —? This new test requires that they should be : one then of the two parties who have hitherto signed them must be excluded. IVe know that those who framed the test are opposed to such as myself. It is clear then who are henceforth ex cluded. the test is indeed, at once miserably vague and stringent ; vague enough to tempt people to take it : too stringent in its conclusion to enable me to take it with a good conscience. Beginning and end do harmonise, if it be regarded as a revival of the Puritan ' anti-declara tion' that the Articles should be interpreted according to the consent of divines;' they do not in any other case. This shifting of ground would indeed (were not so much at stake) be somewhat curious ; how those who speak so much of fallible men' would require us now to be bound in the interpretation of the Articles by the private judgment of the Reformers (it being assumed, for' convenience sake, that Cranmer, Ridley, and Hooper agreed among themselves), instead of Archbishop Laud's broader and truer rule*, according to the analogy of the faith.' It would indeed be well, if all who have urged on this test could sign the Ist and Bth Articles in the sane sense as Cramer and Jewell. Well, indeed, would it be for our Church, if all could sign the 27th in the same sense as the Reformers, except perhaps Hooper. One could have wished that, before this test had been proposed to us, the Board who accepted- it and proposed it to us, had thought of ascertaining among themselves whether they themselves all took all and singular of the Articles in one and the same sense. And yet, while they enjoy this latitude, how can the signature of the Articles be any certain and indubitable token of people's opinions ? " However, this is matter for others ; my concern is with myself. I have too much reason to know that my own signature of the Articles would not satisfy some of those from whom this test emanates, since, when a year and a half ago, I declared repeatedly (as I then stated) that I accepted, and would subscribe, ex animo, every statement of our formularies on the solemn subject.upon which I preached, that offer was rejected ; and this on the very ground (I subsequently learned) that they did not trust my interpretation. When, then, they require that the signature should be cerium atque indubitatum opinionum mearum signum' it is plain that they mean something more than what I offered and they refused to accept. " The Articles I now sign in the way in which from Archbishop Laud's time they have been proposed by the Church : this test I should have to receive not from the Church but from the University in the sense in which it is proposed to me by them. Could I then ever so much satisfy myself that I could take the test according to any general meaning of the words, I must know from past experience that I should not take it in the sense in which it was proposed to me. I could not then take it without a feeling of dishonesty. " You will imagine that I feel the responsibility of making such a declaration, knowing, as I must, that in case, in the present state of excitement, the statute should pass, younger men, whom it might involve in various difficulties, might be influenced by my example. I know, too, of course, that some will be the more anxious to press the test, in hopes that my refusal to take it may end in my removal from this place. Whether it would or no I knOw not. But whatever be the result, it seems to me the straightforward cburse.' It is best in cases of great moment that people should . know the effect of what they are doing. " I am ashamed to write so much about myself, but I cannot explain myself in a few words. What is my case would probably be that of others. It has often been painful to witness the apparent want of seriousness in people when things far more serious than office, or home, or even one's allotted duties in God's vineyard have been at stake. But people now feel more readily what it is to lose office and home, and the associations of the greater part of life. It will be a great gain, if what is done is done with deeper earnestness. For myself, I cheerfully commit all things into His hands, who ordereth all things well, and from whom I deserve nothing. " Ever yours, affectionately, " Christ Church, Advent, " E. B. PUSEY. Ember Week, 1844.—Tuesday." * Vide Heylin's " Life of Laud," pp. 178, 182. MR. WARD. OXYORD, THURSDAY.- The friends of Mr. Ward hare caused the following to be extensively circulated amongst members of Convocation : " New Form of Declaration which the proposed statute will enable the Vice-Chancellor to impose. " Ego A. B. Articulis Fidel et Beligionis necnon tribus articulis in canons XXXVI. comprehensis sub scripturus, profiteor, fide mea data him universitati, me articulis is tis omnibus et singulis eo sensu subscripturum in quo eos ex animo credo et primitus editor ease, et nuns mihi al/ universitate propositos tampon opinionum mearum cerium ac indubitatum signum: " The attention of members of Convocation is re quested to the following considerations : " 1. That the proposed statute institutes a new reli gious test in the University. "2. That a local test, thus instituted, places the members of the university in a religious position different from that of all other members of the Church, and the whole body of the clergy. " 3. That the imposing any new test of doctrine be yond those which rest on the authority of the Church, is a serious innovation, and alters at once the constitution of the University, and its relations to the Church. "4. That a great difference of opinion has always been permitted among those who subscribe the Articles, and that it is now proposed to introduce a new limit and restriction to that difference. "S. That the test proposed, being itself liable to dif ferent interpretations, is likely to cause perplexity, and to operate as a snare to conscience. "6. That it is not right or safe to rest on the suppo sition that this test will not be applied ; since the ob vious presumption frora its being proposed is, that it is meant to be used. " 7. That a test not applied to all, but liable to be im posed upon suspected i n di v id ua l s , accor di ng t o t h e w ill of the Vice-Chancellor for the time being, is an objec tionable form of test, likely to encourage a system of secret and underhand information, and to, destroy mu• tual confidence and freedom of intercourse in the Uni versity." • RAILWAY INTIILLIONNerh"'VII _mum 4 my 'fist a deputation of the provisional committee of the Dunstable Branch Railway to the Birmingham Trunk at Leighton Buzzard, consisting of Messrs. Edward Burr, Richard Gutteridge, Henry Goude, William Elliott, amin Be ßennett, together with t h e so li c i tors of the pr ected line, Messrs. Parker, T wis d en, and Co. , of L i nco l n r 4 fields,lnn and Mr, James N. Cartevelght; of Dunstable, waited by appoihtment on the Directors of the London and Birmingham Company at Euston-square. On the following Saturday the resolution agreed upon by the said Company at their meeting was communicated through the secretary, Mr. Creed, to the effect that the London and Birmingham Company agree to lease the projected branch line of the Dunstable Company in per petuity. and to give a guarantee of 4 per cent. on the capital employed, with an equal division• of surplus pro fits ; the capital not to exceed 5 ,00 01. The proposed railway is likely to prove a great advantage to Dunstable —a town which, having recovered from the depression occasioned by the withdrawal of the . traffic on the turn pike-road, is gradually rising into importance. At pre sent there is none but the most inefficient conveyance for coals, and all descriptions of heavy goods, which will be conveyed at a very reduced price by railway. Two MEN DROWNED.—SEAHAW, Die. 19.—Yes terday an inquest was held at this port, which is about seven miles north of Sunderland, on the bodies of two pilots belonging to the.latter place, named John Givens and W. Maddison. who had been drowned on the pre ceding day. It is customary for the pilots of Sunder land to conduct vessels in and out of Soaham, (which is a private port belonging to the Marquis of Londonderry, for the shipment of his coals), and on Tuesday a coble, containing four men, was proceeding out to sea " to seek ships," as it is called. The sea was very high at the time, and a heaiy wave having struck the coble, it was dashed with great violence against the pier and swamped, all the crew being precipitated into the water. Assistance was promptly at hand, and two of the unfor tunate men were saved. The remaining crew met a watery grave. The Coroner's jury returned a verdict of " Accidental death," and after the inquest the bodies were removed to Sunderland. The deceased hare left large families to deplore their loss. FIER AT THE OM SAW MILLI: On Friday after noon another fire broke out in the extensive saw mills of Messrs. Esdaile and Co., Wenlock-terrace, City-road, Islington. It originated in the room appropriated fur preparing wood for lucifer metches. Having two engines of their own on the premises, they were soon set to work, supplied with water from the canal. Several of the bri gade engines were also quickly on the spot, and, *ter strenuous exertions, the damage was confined to the room in which the fire originated. The loss is considerable. How the fire originated was not ascertained, BURGHEAD.—UNSEEMLY DISTIIRTIANCE.—We have just seen a private letter from the fishing -town of Burghead, near Elgin, stating that a great deal of ill-feeling and an unfortunate riot had taken place between some of the people of Hope man and Burghead. The occasion of the disturbance was a meeting held for the purp ose o f l ett i ng the seats in the new Free Church erected in Burghead. The parties quarrelled as to the appropriation of the seats, and an unfortunate adjournment took place to the public-house. There, inflamed with drink, the dispute was continued, and fighting took place, more or less, throughout the whole of the night. The Free Church clergyman, Mr. Waters, endeavoured, but in vain, to effect a reconciliation, and get the parties to disperse. Next morning one of the men was found dead in a clearly in the neighbourhood. Such are the terms of the letter, but, of course, an hmetigation take place,--Inv.ensua Cowan PLYMOUTH. At a highly respectable and influential meeting of the parishioners of the pariah of Charles, held in the pariah church, Mr. Richard Martin, churchwarden, in the chair; Resolved,--lst. That this meeting views with deep regret and painful manifestation the changes directed by the Bishop in the services of the Church, and most ener getically proclaims to his Lordship the earnest desire of the parishioners that he will not, in order to obtain con formity, compel the clergy and laity to return to prac tices which have generally become obsolete. In urging this upon the attention of the Bishop, this meeting would remind him, that if a departure from the law of cere monies and observances has arisen, his Lordship and his byh ave sanct i one d t h ese departures, not *lily by their tacit consent, but doubtless by their actual pre mice upon many occasions. 2d. This meeting most emphatically declares that, should the Bishop persevere and succeed in his object, the most ready means by which the parishioners can testify their dislike and determination to resist, will be to retire from any church in which the innovations may be attempted, and seek to carry on the Church service in unconsecrated buildings until the Bishop shall remove the mandate and restore peace. 3d. That this meeting reserves its high sense of the charity and Christian conduct of the ministers of this parish, and imploring the Almighty to vouchsafe to them a right understanding, earnestly desires they will exert their best efforts to preserve the services of the Church in their accustomed form—this meeting presents to the Rev. Chancellor, Martin, Doctor Bell, and the other mi nisters of the Chapter who supported their views, sin cere and grateful thanks for having stood forth in the present crisis, thereby affording high and excellent ex amples to those of the clergy who resist the present in. novation. 4th. That this meetinc , proposes a sy s t ema ti c arrange . ment throughout the land, to ensure the most powerful opposition to the proposed innovations, as well as to cir culate the knowledge of authentic information of the proceedings of those of the clergy who, having reck lessly followed the views and practices of the Tractarian school, despite of the objections of the laity have ac quired support by the Bishop's letter, and have, in con sequence, introduced other and more Romish prac tices, the object of disseminating such information being to exhibit the design of the party who have commenced this movement ; and with this view the meeting urges upon the parishioners of every parish the expediency of forming permanent committees. This meeting also sug gests that n central committee should be formed in every deanery, to which the parish committees should commui i< tli . and that in Exeter one or two persons should be deputed from each parish to form a general committee o corresponden for the country. • • . • MARYLEBONE VESTRY. On Saturday two gentlemen, residing in Newman street, Oxford-street, presented to the above vestry a re quisition from the inhabitants of Newman-street, con cerning the macadamisation of that street. Mr. Dowmins, one of the deputation, reminded the vestry that on a previous occasion, the vestry having been requested to cause this street to be macadamised,, agreed to do so the next time the road required repairing. In consequence of some repairs which were going on in Oxford-street, Newman-street had become the principal thoroughfare for omnibuses, and it being now in a very bad state, the inhabitants, a great number of whom were artists, were much annoyed by the noise of the rolling of the wheels. and, indeed, some of these artists had said that they were unable to study, in consequence of it. A great number of hackney cabs and other vehicles had also made this street their thoroughfare, in order to avoid as much as possible the wood pavement in Ox ford-street. A VESTRYMAN thought that not only the cabs and coaches, but also a great number of the inhabitants of Oxford-street, would be glad to fly to Newman-street, to escape from the wood paving.—(A laugh.) The vestry, after a long discession, resolved that the requisition should be complied with. The VssTnr-cbsna read to the vestry a communica tion from the Committee appointed some time ago to in quire into a nuisance complained of by Mrs. Jennings, a resident of Nottingham-terrace, New-road. Some weeks ago a communication was received from that lady, complaining of the erection of some buildings in front of several homes, of which hers was one, and which were contrary to the " New-road Act," the 27th of George 111, The committee appointell to inquire into the correctness of this lady's statement this day re ported to the vestry that they had examined into the nature of the erection complained of, that they were nuisances, and contrary to the Act, but that the committee were of opinion that they were no public inconvenience; and, thefefore, if they were any annoyance to this lady it was her place to prosecute as a private individual, and it was unnecessaryfor the vestry to interfere. THE HOUSE OF CORRECTION. On Thursday an adjourned inquest was held by Mr. Wakley, M.P., at the House of Correction, on the body of a late prisoner, named James Hodges. It appeared, the evidence of the various warders of the prison under whose charge the deceased had been having been read, that another prisoner who had been in the same yard with him was examined in the absence of the officers of the prison, and in the course of his statement he said that the cell in which the deceased had slept at night was an extremely cold one ; that he had himself slept in it, and consequently was in a condition to state the fact ; that the prison diet did not allow a sufficient quantity of sustenance for the maintenance of health and warmth in the body during the winter months. He also stated that ifs prisoner made a complaint to the surgeon of the gaol that he was ill, and the latter thought he was not so, that he was punished by being deprived of half his meal; and that if it happened to be on one of the meat, days, then that meat would be taken from him, and he would be put upon gruel. The effect of this system was to deter prisoners, when they were ill, frequently from reeking the complaint of their being unwell, and especially if that visitation should chalice to be on a " meat day. "fhe witness also made further statements, which were of so serious a character, as affecting the general treatment of the prisoners, that The CORONER at length said, it was most painful to hear such statements without possessing the power or means of applying a remedy for them. If these accusa tions were justly made they demanded a remedy, and as from the length of the inquiry it would be impossible to conclude the investigation upon that occasion, he would endeavour to procure the attendance of the visiting jus tices, to hear them on the next occasion—on the day to which an adjournment of the case might eventually be agreed upon. Mr. MILLS, the deputy-coroner, accordingly waited upon the visiting justices, who happened to be sitting in another room in the gaol, and who, upon being informed of the nature of the statement which had been made by the prisoner, at once arranged with him to be present upon the renewal of the inquiry which was held on the fol lowing day. The proceedings on the return of Mr. Mills is 61100T011.61 court were adjourned accordingly. On Friuuy, Litereture, the jury re-assembled at the prison, when a number (if indeed they were not the whole of that body) of the visiting justices were present. Amongst them were Mr. Wilke, Mr. Tulk, Mr. Notch, Mr. Hoare, Mr. Bluck, Captain Bague, Mr. Rose, Mr. France, Mr. Crake, and Mr. Kemshead. The father, step-mother, and widow of the deceased were also in attendance. 'the inquiry occupied upwards of four hours, and was again adjourned. The prisoner, who had been examined on the first day, again underwent a protracted examina tion, but failed to confirm many of the heaviest charges he had set up on the first occasion. We, therefore, think it to be fairer to all parties to abstain from publishing any report until the whole proceeding has been brought to a conclusion. STATE OF TRADE. The imports of the week have been very insignifi cant, and a very large fleet of vessels, which must be in the immediate neighbourhood, have been prevented getting in, owing to the still continuing easterly winds. Holders of produce on the spot are reaping consi derable advantage from this circumstance, and per• haps, on the whole, adverse winds were never less seriously felt; for, so late in the year, we seldom find the market for goods brisk, and importers have always abstained from pressing sales until after the first week in January. The stock of cotton is, from the same cause, getting into smaller compass, and the excess over last year is now only about JOO,OOO bales. There has been a quiet market this week, without apparent change in prices; but buyers have the best of the bargain. Strenuous efforts are making to obtain the abolition of the duty on this article, the work being committed to the hands of influential parties. In Liverpool, generally speak ing, there seems a strong feeling that no particular claim exists to entitle cotton alone to be exempted from duty. The soap trade are making an effort for a remission of their duty, and, as it seems to us, with a more general ground for the application ; they complain bitterly of the system of collection, as it now exists ; and whilst, perhaps, a modi fication of that system would satisfy many, yet they go for a total repeal. This is a bra nc h o f ma nufacturing industry which is in a great measure confined to this immediate neighbourhood, and might be, as we hear, very considerably increased, even if the trade were freed from the annoying survey to which they are now subject, whilst, at the same time, it is thought the revenue would be very much assisted. It is evident from what is passing in all quarters, that there will be again an anxious session, and the door will be opened to all sorts of speculative invest ments, in the hope of a favourable change of duty to assist the articles purchased.—Liverpool Mercury of Friday. SEASONABLE ligNiwousercr.—Mrs. John Master- Man, jun., after having attended prayers at St. Dionis• back Church, Fenchurch-street, on Friday morning, with the other ladies of the Committee of the Infant School of that neighbourhood, distributed blankets, flannels, and other useful winter clothing to upwards of 60 mothers of the infants under their care, the benevolent contributior of that lady. ACCIDENT TO THE CHAIRMAN Or THE GLOUCES TERSHIRE QUARTER SESSIONS.—A rather serious ace! dent befel Mr. Purnell, the chairman of the Gloucester shire Quarter Sessions, this week. He was skating.;, along with some other gentlemen, on a pond near hi. residence at Stinchcomb Park, near Dursley, and, in consequence of a fall, his thigh bone was broken. Air Purnell is an accomplished skater, and fond of the exer cise, and one report is that he was skating backward., and cane in contact with another gentleman, who was doing the same, but comirl in an opposite direotion, alba that the accident was ocesetobed by *ail:asks. JUDGESat the CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, 1845. The following is a list of the Judges who will preside in rotation at the sittings of the Central Criminal Court during the year 1845, up to the commencement of Michaelmas T'erm : January B.—The Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer (Sir Frederick Pollock), Mr. Justice Patteson, and Mr. Justice Erie. February s.—Mr. Baron Alderson, Mr. Justice Wil liams, and Mr. Justice Cresswell. March s.—The Judges of the Norfolk and North Wales Circuits. April 9.—Mr. Baron Gurney, Mr. Justice Coleridge and Mr. Justice Coltman. May 14.—The Lord Chief Justice Denman, Mr. Baron Alderson, and Mr. Justice Coltman. June 18.—The Lord Chief Justice Tindal, Mr. Justice Patteson, and Mr. Baron Gurney. July 9.—The Judges of the Norfolk and North Wales Circuits. August 20.—Mr. Justice Williams, Mr. Baron Rolfe, and Mr. Justice Cresswell. September 17.—Mr. Baron Parke, Mr. Justice Wight man, and Mr. Justice Erle. October 29.—The Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer (Sir Frederick Pollock), Mr. Justice Coleridge, and Mr. Justice Menlo. IRELAND. CHARITABLE, BEQUESTS ACT. DUBLIN, DEC. 19.—The following is the opinion of the law officers of the Crown upon the case submitted by direction of the Lord-Lieutenant, in consequence of the representation made by Dr. Murray, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, who had transmitted to his Ex cellency the published opinion of Mr. O'Connell respect ing the operation of the Charitable Bequests Act as re gards the regular clergy in Ireland i— " QUERIES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE 7 ♦ND 8 VICT., C. 97 (CHARITABLE BEQUESTS BILL, IRELAND), • - FOR THE OPINION OF THE RIOHT HON. THE AT - TORNEY ♦ND THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL. " First,—Whether the provisions of the 10 Geo. 4, cap. 7, which are referred to in the 15th sec., of the Charitable Donations and Bequests Act, render any donation or bequest to any member or members of any religious order or community in the said provisions men tioned unlawful ? " Secondly—Whether the Charitable Donations and Bequests Act is calculated to prejudice or raise any ' doubt, by implication or otherwise, as to the pre-exist ing rights of any member or members of such religious order or community as aforesaid ? And if it be, what alterations would it be desirable to have made in the Act, for the purpose of preventing such implication or doubt ? " Thirdly—lf a devise, donation, or bequest for cha ritable purposes be invalid, as being contrary to the policy of the law, would it be the duty of the Commis sioners to sue for the recovery of the same, and apply it to other charitable purposes—or how should it be reco vered or disposed of ?" " OPINION.-(COPT.) " First—There is no provision in the Roman Catholic Relief Act, making devises, donations, or bequests to, or in trust for, religious orders, communities, or societies of men of the Church of Rome, bound by monastic or religious vows, unlawful. But a court of equity would not enforce a trust in favour of such a religious com munity, as it would be against the policy of 10 Geo. IV., cap. 7. " We are, however, of opinion that the 10 Geo. IV., cap. 7, does not, either expressly or by implication, ren der a devise, donation, or bequest to a member or mem bers of such religious order unlawful. A devise, dona tion, or bequest to a member of such religious order, for his own use, or upon any trust not contrary to law, would, in our opinion, be valid. " Secondly—We are of opinion that the 7 and 8 Vic., cap. 97, has not in this respEct made any alteration in the law, and that it is not calculated to prejudice or raise any doubt, by implication or otherwise, as to the pre existing rights of any member or members of such reli gious order or community. " The 22d section provides that nothing herein eon ' tained shall be taken to avoid or render unlawful any donation, devise, or bequest which but for this Act would be lawful, except as to the time within which the deed, will, or instrument containing such donation, de vise, or bequests for pious or charitable uses is hereinbe fore required to be executed and registered.' " This latter part of the section, as to the time within which the instrument is to be executed, refers to the 16th clause of the Act, which clause applies to members of the Established Church, to Roman Catholics, and to all Dissenters. "Notwithstanding the enactment in the 22d section, above mentioned, it has been suggested that the proviso at the end of the 15th section contains an express legis lative declaration that a devise, donation, or bequest to a member of a religious order is illegal—we do not concur in this opinion. " The 15th section of the Act was intended to facili tate the endowment of the Roman Catholic secular clergy —and we are of opinion that the proviso in that section was added to prevent any question being raised that it authorised a donation, devise, or bequest to the com missioners and their successors for the benefit of any but secular clergy. " The proviso does not, in ouropinion, either expressly or by implication, render illegal any donation, devise, or bequest, which but for the passing of the Act would have been lawful. The 22d section of the Act renders this construction of the proviso quite clear. The sta tute confers no benefit on the regular clergy—but it creates no disability, either expressly er by implication. " Thirdly—lf a charitable donation, devise, or be quest be invalid, as being contrary to the policy of the law, it belongs to the Crown to dispose of it by the sign manual for such legal charitable purposes as to the Crown may seem proper. And when it belongs to the Crown, by sign manual, to dispose of property given or devised for charitable purposes, the proceedings should be an information filed by the Attorney-General, and not a suit by, or in the name of, the Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests.—Attorney-General v. Mathews, 2 Levins, 167 ; Clifford v. Francis, Free man's Equity Reports (Ed. 1823), p. 130 ; Attorney- General v. Syderfin, 1, Vernon, 224 ; Moggeridge v. Tha,ckwell, 7 Vesey, p. 74. " It is to be observed, that by the former Charitable Bequests Act (40 George 111. c. 75, Irish), in case it should be inexpedient, unlawful, or impracticable to ap ply a charitable donation, devise,' or bequest, strictly according to the directions and intentions of the donor or donors, the Commissioners were authorised to apply the same to such charitable and pious purposes as they should judge to be nearest and most conformable to the directions and intentions of the donor or donors. " This enactment is omitted from the Act of last ses sion. " T. B. C. SMITH. " Dec. 13, 1844." " RICH. W. GREENE. MEETING IN THE DOMINICAL CHAPEL There was a very numerous meeting held this day, in Denmark-street Chapel. Alderman Staunton presided. After resolutions were passed, strongly condemnatory of the Charitable Bequests Act, Mr. O'CoNNELL addressed the meeting. Tie com menced by adverting to the Extraordinary Gazette of last nighty When he last spoke in opposition to the board, he did not know how it was constituted. Now he had the names of its members officially announced, and any remarks which he had to make in reference to the Catholic Prelates who had consented to act upon it, should be with the great respect and veneration.— (Cries of " Hear, bear.") It was a triumph of one portion of the Catholic community over another, and he was one of the defeated party. This was regarded as a triumph by the Government, who could not wait to announce it in the ordinary course, but adopted the mode used in time of war—they announced their victory in an Extraordinary Gazette.—(Hear, hear.) He regretted not been able to agree in opinion with these venerated prelates; but, after all, they were like himself only fallible men, and, with great respect, he expressed his opinion that they were in error. He feared that the Bill would have the effect of seriously checking Catholic bequests. Men would not like to have, their affairs ran sacked by a board, the majority of which were hostile to his religious belief. Mr. O'Connell stated that he had keen a letter frem Rome, and from a quarter entitled to the most implicit credence, stating that a Mr. William Peter, an English agent, was in that city negotiating a I concordat with England, in connexion with the Austrian envoy. ANOTHER MURDER IN TIPPERARY. The Evening Post contains the following:—" A letter, we understand, has been received in town, announcing the lamentable intelligence that another murder has been committed in the northern division of Tipperary. The victim of agrarian crime, in this instance, was Mr. Henry Carden, who resided near Templemore. It was stated that he was fired at yesterday, and died soon after. No details are given. The Tipperary papers contained some weeks since accounts of proceedings on the part of Mr. Carden against some tenantry." ATTEMPT AT MURDER IN MEATH.--A letter from Athboy states that an attempt at assassination was made in that neighbourhood. An extensive grazier, whose name we have not learned, went out yesterday evening, accompanied by his brother to look at some cattle, when they were fired upon. The brother, it is stated, was wounded, but we hope not dangerously. FUNERAL OF THE LATE EARL OF LlMERlCE.—There mains of the late Earl of Limerick, with those of the late Lord Glentworth, grandson, and Lady Mary Pery, daughter of his Lordship, will arrive at Limerick, on Saturday, and be laid in state at the family mansion, in Henry-street, until Monday morning, from whence they will be conveyed for interment in St. Mary's Cathedral, followed by the executors and relatives of the deceased. A CURIOUS ESCAPE FROM SHIPWRECK.—As an out ward bound vessel was bearing up for this port on Tues day evening, she was driven by the fury of the storm, bowsprit foremost, (in Creden Head, with such force that the bowsprit was shivered in atoms. The recoil sent her back some hundred yards from the rock, and, notwith standing the fearful concussion, she was enabled to reach this port in perfect safety.—Waterford Chronicle. DEATH or A FEMALE WHILST WATCHING A CORPSE.—On Friday Mr. Baker held an i nquest at the Gun tavern, Gun-docks, Wapping, on view of the body of Eleanor Thomas, aged seventy-five years. It appeared by the evidence of a brother of the deceased that on Wednesday evening, about seven o'clock, the deceased was sent for by some neighbours residing in Well-street, Wapping, to sit up during the night with the corpse of their mother. She was then in her usual apparent good health. About four o'clock in the morn ing deceased was suddenly seized with illness. Her brother was sent for, and she was removed to her own house in Gun-street, in an apparently lifeless state. Mr. Betson, a surgeon, was in a few minutes in attendance, but, upon examination, he pronounced life to be quite extinct. The gentleman said he attributed death to an attack of spasms in the stomach. Verdict in accordance with the medical testimony. The subscription for public baths in Birmingham alremly amounts to 4'600/, a fair earnest of the accom plishment of ale philanthropic purpose in Tiew, J O 11 SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNAMe,„.. PlO TIM E VENING PAPERS OF SAT e . : lIIIVALL3-,A GLOBE.—It is curi ous t o observe lierk fN most intelligent persons will believe, oicigect lieve, when their credulity is urged Ay 'xi cap their ease or their interest. Th - i+etait f i c know how they deal with the poorer:; : entirely shut their eyes to a matter offiliti experience. Of late they have even written and talked a great deal about it. No one new in dulges in the notion of any innate difference be tween the classes distinguished in the artificial order of society. All are admitted to be equally endowed with a natural sense of justice —a capacity to appre ciate kindness, and a tendency to r tsent injury. Yet wealth, holding the lion's share of political power, uses it mainly in a scrupulous care of itself—seldom thinks of poverty till its miseries show some upward tendency—and withal believes that nothing more is necessary to the permanence of such a system than the occasional passing of a few Acts of Parliament, recognising the existence of the labourer only in order to make sweeping regulations as to how long he shall work, or how his wages shall be paid, or on what conditions he shall enter a workhouse. Rick burning and Chartism are dreadful things ; but we treat them too much as our ancestors did thunder and lightning :—we deeply deplore their effects, and do not deeply investigate their causes. We hate already drawn attention to the spirit which seems to have animated the Legislature in the reforms of the last few years—to the remarkable facility with which right principles have been adopted and forced into practice in one direction, and the extreme difficulty which has attended their introduction in another. But the doings of Parliament present to us the opinions and feelings prevalent upon this subject among the wealthier classes, upon so large a scale, and so modified, as to ex hibit but half their errors and inconsistencies. Let them be examined as developed in the local legislation of large towns, or in the local influence of wealthy in dividuals in rural districts, and their want of what has been well termed " Christian principle" becomes still more strikingly apparent. In all municipal arrange ments, the safety, the comfort, the health of the rich are first cared for, and the poor are left to take care of themselves. Mansions replete with everyluxury and con venience that taste or ingenuity can suggest, are every where found the near neighbours of hovels less fitted fur human habitation than the huts or wigwams of the least civilised savages on earth. No house pays so good a profit to its owner as that tenanted by the pool. man. None is constructed with so little regard to the health or comfort of its tenant. The " gentry " everywhere bend the municipal authority to the drain ing, ventilation, and cleansing of their own dwellings, and leave those inhabited by " artisans and labourers" destitute of the benefit of these processes. Superior intelligence, the fruit of a better education, places the resources of modern science within the reach of the former. These are freely used—for themselves. They are equally applicable to the condition of, and far more needed by, those beneath them ; but how seldom are they so applied ! These are no hasty or ill-considered assertions. They are based upon sf careful and painful review of evidence which is only too ample. STANDARD. The Bishop of Exeter has written and published a letter to the churchwardens of St Sidwell's and St. James's parishes, in Exeter, in reply to an address from those parishes. Every one is prepared to expect eloquent and graceful writing from the Bishop of Exeter ; but the reply before us possesses merits beyond eloquence and grace. It is kindly, affectionate, and even pa thetic ; a picture of the struggle of an able, honest, and warm-hearted man, between the wish to con ciliate cn one side, and a severe sense of duty on the other. The Right Rev. Lord considers himself as (if we may use the phrase) amagistrate in the Church, not required perhaps to be over vigilant in detecting evasions or transgressions of the Church's laws, but under a peremptory obligation to see those laws exe cuted to the best of his judgment, arid in their exact spirit, without reference to the motives of those who put their power in motion ; further, as a magis. trate, strictly bound to make all the legal . provisions against any pr o b a bl e di s turbance of th e Church's peace, even though at the cost of . offering violence to his own feelings, in seeming to take part against those on whose side substantial right and justice are manifestly arrayed ; lastly, as a magis trate who would betray bis trust if he allowed his authority to be treated lightly. This is plainly the Bishop of Exeter's view of the nature and duties of the episcopal office ; and we can imagine no better conception of the nature and duties of the office, were a bishop merely "a civil magistrate ;" but we have a higher esti mate of the office of a bishop —we regard it as not merely in name, but as, in fact, paternal, and we think that as a father has power to restrain or to relax the domestic rule, as his judgment shall direct, so has a bishop considerable power to modify even the Church's laws in the government of his diocese, not indeed by a direct action, but by the exercise of a mild influence. These remarks will, we trust, acquit Its of any want: of respect either for the Right Rev. Lord personally or for his office, and we will now proceed to state strictly but fairly what appears to us to be the case made in the Bishops reply. Changes have, within the last few years, been made in the forms of Divine worship. These changes have been universally introduced by perverse men, either frivolous coxcombs or treacherous emissaries of Romanism, and consequently they have given great offence, and excited no small jealousy, in the people. There is a passage in the reply to which we refer with high gratification, because it proves that in the course which he has thought himself bound to adopt, the Right Rev. writer is not a Irolutiteer— proves that before he sought to provide for the peace of the Church by commanding a general uniformity with the change proposed, he tried to secure that peace by dissuading all from any change, but that he dissuaded many in vain : " If I should order my clery, as your latter seems to suggest, to continue the services of the Church as they now are, without any change, any one of them might say to me—' We cannot, conscientiously, do what you thus illegally order ; we are bound, by our ordmatton vow, to " minister the doctrine and sacraments, and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord bath com manded, and as this Church and realm hath re ceived the same ;" we have, moreover, solemnly de- Glared that " we will use the form, in the Book of Com mon Prayer prescribed in public pra:, er and administra tion of the sacraments, and no other ;" and the statute which requires this declaration from us, requires also that we "conform, in all points, to the things appointed and prescribed in that book." We will be faithful to these engagements, and will not serve as ministers in this Church ifj this our faithfulness is not permitted.-- How could I answer this ? " You may imagine that I am here proposing an ex• treme case, which is utterly unlikely ever to present itself in real practice. But your imagination would bo unfounded. Several such cases have actually occurred, and similar ones are likely to occur every month. Al ready they have caused to me much perplexity, and have produced practical effects seriously injurious to that great object which you value, and which it is among my first duties to seek to place on the firmed footing—peace in the Church, which cannot be secured without uniformity in the worship of Almighty God." This, we confess, opens to us a wholly new view of the question—a view of which the whole episcopal bench ought to have the benefit, in company with the Bishop of Exeter. AWFUL FIRE ON SATURDAY. REPRESENTATION OF DART. MOUTH. FROWAY.—Both Mr. Somes and Mr. Moffatt have returned here to complete thir canvass. As the day of election approaches, both the candidates ap pear confident of success, and each gives out that the re sult of his canvass leaves his return beyond a dcubt. The constituency of the borough does not, after deduct ing deaths and removals, exceed 250. Of these not more than 235 are expected to vote; and both parties state that they have more than half that number of votes pro mised them. There is no doubt, whichever party may gain the day, it will be a small majority only. At a meeting of Mr. Moffatt's friends, which took place on Thu rs d ay evening, a corre spondence between the Vicar of Dartmouth and the Chairman of Mr. Moffatt's Committee was read, in which the former gen tleman declared that "he could not Ealow the church bells to be rung for any election matter in which that gentleman might be concerned, if Mr. Moffatt, intended to rote against church-rates ; " and the latter replied that " Mr. Moffatt could not be in favour of the continuance of a payment which presses hard upon those who differ conscientiously from the tenets of the Established Church. At the same time we must be allowed to ob serve, that we cannot understand how you can be justi fied in making a coincidence with your own sentiments a necessary condition for a service which is, on these occasions, invariably given to either candidate without reference to the party to which he may happen to belong." Mr. MOFFATT, in the course of his speech, 'pledged himself to that meeting, in the event of his being re turned to Parliament as their representative, to do every thing in his power to obtain the speedy abolition of this obnoxious impost.—(Cheers.) Mr. Moffatt in the course of his address ably advocated the principles of free trade, as did also the Chairman of his Committee. His is the good cause, and he has every probability of suc ceeding. BATH AND WEST OP ENGLAND SOCIETT.—The Marquis of Lansdowne has offered two premiums of 501. each for the most improved system of draining on a farm of not less than 100 acres, of which not less than 15 !tete', shall bare been thorough drained. TWO POLICEMEN BURNT TO DEATH. A fire, attended with loss of life, occurred at the house No. 67, Guildford-street, Russell-square, the red. dance of T. Farey, Esq. Like most other fires, h origin of it cannot be distinctly ascertained, but it is sup. posed to have been quite accidental. Be this as it may, it broke out with such violence between three and fine o'clock in the morning, that before the engines could ay. rive, even from the nearest station, the house was one mass of flame, and no effort could save it. The house., with all its valuable contents, was destroyed. When *et fire had in some degree subsided, it was discoversdir that some of the inmates were missing, toad pollee.: constables Wright and Birkmyne entered the halt and were about proceeding to an interior apartmeatt when the first and second floors fell with a tremendous crash, and the unfortunate men were crushed to death% beneath the burning ruins. The body of Birkmyne, 1521 E, was got out at eight o'clock in the morning, shockingly mutilated and disfigured. It was immediately removed to the dead-room of St. Giles's workhouse, where it awaits an inquest. The body of Wright, 67 E, has eel yet been found. The house is a mass of ruins, and the houses on either side of it have suffered considerably. The above particulars were communicated to us by inspector Hawley, E, at Clerkenwell Police-court. (FURTHER PARTICULARS.) The fire was first discovered by the inmates of 64 house, who consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Farey, Mr. Farey, jun., three female servants, and a youth who acted as Mr. Farey's clerk, all of whom, with , the ception of the latter, succeeded in effecting their es. cape on to the roof of the house , in a state of nudit y, but were unable without assistance to proceed fur. then. Their cries of "Fire!" attracted the notice of a policeman on duty in the neighbourhood, who, oil hastening to the spot, discovered a den se body of smoke rising from the rear of the premises, and in. stantly springing his rattle raised the alarm. As soon as an entrance could be e ff ected thr oug h th e a dj o i n . ing houses, the po lice ascended to the roof s , a n d r es . cued the above - ment ioned six individuals from their frightfully perilous situation, and they were ultio mately conveyed to No. 55 on the opposite side of the street, where they still remain. The flames at that time appeared to be raging on the second floor, and speedily extended to the third floor, bursting through the windows, back and front, with terrific fury; and within an incredibly short space of time they also ap. peered through the roof, illumining the atmosphere for miles round the metropolis. About twenty minutes before five o'clock a portion of the roof at the back of the premises fell in, and 0 1