The Sun. — London, England, 1844-12-16 00:00:00

t tea Mbittion THE FUNDS-(CI :i i SING PRICES.) BRITISI• Bank Stock. 206 3 per Cent. Red ..... 100% 3 per Cent. Cons. ....—..... 101% per Cent. Red ..... New per Cent............. 103 New 5 per Cent.-- ........ Long Annuities to expire Jan. 1860............... 12 1-16 Oct. 1859............... 117. Jan. Indian 5t0ck........„........... FOREIGI i FUNDS. Ditto Bonds £l,OOO — Pm Ditto under £l,OOO '72 pm. South Sea Stock [Ditto Old Annuities ... Ditto New Annuities ... Ex. BRIJ, 1,0004 I)id 58 pm. Ditto 500/. ..... 59 paL Ditto 5ma11..„........ ... 59 pm. 'Bank Stock for Acct.... 209 Consols for Opg. ..... .... 100 1 4 India Stock for Acct.... 28536 I FUNDS. Russian, 5 per Cent....... — Ditto, ..... Spanish, 5 per Cent , 1840 25 ilitto, 1841 Ditto, 1842........... ...... Ditto, Ditto, 1844 Ditto, 3 per Cent ........».» 3 .IU Venezuela Bonds, 2 per Ct — Freuch, 5 per —t — French, 3 per Cent. ..... . —f Exchange ..............».. —f —c. Dutch, 2% per Cent Ditto.ls per Austrian, 5 per Cent — Belgian, 5 per Cent 102% Brazilian Bonds 89 4 Buenos Ayres, 6 per Cent Cuba Bonds, 6 per Cent Chllian, 6 per Cent Colombian, 6 per Cent 1434 Danish, 3 per Cent Greek, 1825, 5 per Cent — Mexican, 5 per Cent ..... 984 Neapolitan Bonds,s per Ct — Prussian Bonds, 4 per Cent — ikruviark Bonds, 6 per Ct — 141prtuguese Bonds,s per Ct HARES. Birmingham and Gloucester (100 paid)...............9634 Cambridge and Lincoln, 134 paid. 2 Edinburgh and Glasgow, 50 paid Ely and Bedford, 1 paid 1 Great Southern and Western (Ireland) 5 paid Great North of Efnd, 100 paid Great Western ( 'd) Ditto Half Sha s, 50 paid Ditto Fifths, 12 paid ......:. .........«....» Lancaster and Carlisle, 10 paid London and Birminghani(Stock) ___ . Ditto Quarters (`s ` paid) London and Brighton (50 paid) London and Greenwich (12t. 15s. 4d. paid) :9% London and South Western (411. 6s. 10d. paid) London and Croydon London and York 2% paid 4% Manchester and Birmingham, 40 paid 52 Midland (100 paid) ....- 11234 Birmingham and Derby, .£lOO paid 833 Newcastle and Darlingron Junction, 24 paid 6O North British, 736 paid North Kent, 2% paid 2% Norwich and Brandon, 6 paid Ditto, New Shares, I paid 3 21( Richmond and West End Junction, I paid houtE Eastern and Dover (33 25 4d paid) Ditto New Shares (4 paid) York and North Midland (50 paid) ..... Ditto Half Shares (25 paid) ......... 52 Ditto Extension Boulogne and Amiens, 2 paid ..... .......... ...- Orleans and Bourdeaux, 2 paid ........... ...... Paris and Lyons, %paid 3 Paris and Orleans 2 l2o paid) ...... ........ Paris and Rouen. 20 paid ................. Erratum in Saturday's list.—Read Paris and Strasburg 3 instead of Paris and Lyons. LETTERS ON THE CORN-LAWS, No. XI. (From the League.) TO MESSRS. E. MOSES AND SON. GENTLEMEN,—You are, unquestionably, the most renowned slopsellers in Europe. The eye always ad verts to your advertisements. Your shop-mark is on the daily broad sheet of fame, as if it were only one of your own blankets. The poetry of your puffs, and the cheapness of your charges, are alike prodigious. Peel and Russell rise and set with the session ; but you are alWays above the horizon—the Ursa Major of the Minories. " Custom" cannot " stale your infinite variety." You are, indeed, a " commercial pheno menon." But rivalry is threatened, and you must submit to a comparison of claims. You are an " establish ment,' but my Lord Ashley dissents, and erects a voluntary institution. His Lordship is a philantro pist ; and his love of man turns to hatred of Moses. He charges you with taking undue advantage of the need of needlewomen. Meetings are melted by his picteires of your oppressions. It is said that, although you rig the ragged, yet you starve the stitchers. The world cries out that you are too worldly. The Queen Dowager heads the hostile slopshop; and the lists are up for contention of charity with cheapness. Messrs. Moses, father and son, I know nothing of you, but the public notoriety that you keep a very cheap shop and pay very low wages. Doubtless you act on the principle of the Premier ; and when he has a principle, it ought to be acted upon ; and, if not by himself, there is the greater need that it should be acted upon by other people. Doubtless, I say, you act on the principle of the Premier, to "buy in the cheapest market, and sell in the dear est." But you do not, like Lord Ashley with his corn, legislate for rendering dearer the market in which you sell. You undersell your competitors, and pull down their prices. He oversells his com petitors, and keep 3 their prices up to the consumer, by a tax. You make a cheap market cheaper by competition, and he makes a dear market dearer by legislation. Thus fat, Moses, your Judaism is more merciful than his Christianity. No, replies his Lordship, for cheapness is the root of all evil. At the Society for the Protection and Employment of Distressed Needlewomen, last week, his Lordship " wished to impress upon the meet ing, for he felt it very deeply himself, the very great evil arising in all directions from that constant and unceasing effort to get every single thing, not only the common trumperies of life, but even the, greatest necessaries, at the very minimum of remuneration."—( Horning Herald report.) The assembly cheered, ladies and all ; and in the name of consistency let 119 one of them ever try for a bargain again, but always inquire after the highest price when they make their purchases. The mischief is, however, less, it seems, of bidding low for the " trumperies of, life," than for its " greatest necessaries." A curious distinction. The wealthy, if their wealth be in land, are the sellers of neccessaries and the buyers of trum peries. Pleasant doctrine for the fashionables of Willis's Rooms, but hard measure for those who forego the trum peries of life, and, with a minimum of money, are advised to be content with even less than a minimum of bread. Moses, how does this bear upon your customers ? Many of them must go with bare backs, did not you cover them at the aforesaid" minimum of remunera tion." They must make shift without shirts, did not ~. you supply them cheaper thau his Lordship's charity slopshop. Yours is the emporium for poverty stricken purchasers. It drives nakedness down a degree lower in society. Sir Peter Laurie backs Lord Ashley, and scolds people for buying cheap stirts. This is cold work when the only alternative is to remain unshirted. That must they do, unless there were some such Refuge for the Destitute. Your shop is as good as a charity, with an associ ation, and a secretary and reports and patrons. Much better, Moses. You clothe the naked with out making beggars of them. They pinch their bellies for the sake of their backs; out of the daily bread which Lord Ashley helps to tax, they screw enough for two shillings' worth of the " common trumperies of life," foregoing a portion of its " greatest neceesaries," and walk away with an un subdued sense of independence, not less satisfied than if clothed in purple and fine linen, but less disposed to rate Lazarus for obtaining the rags that stanch his sores at a " minimum of remuneration." But, then, you only pay 6d. for the making of these 2s. shirts. Your needlewomen famish. They wear out eyes and fingers, brain and heart. Their privations are terrible. I will not blink that part of the case. God foflsit. No, nor will I for get the fact that out of this fearfully earned 6d. a day Lord Ashley and the landowners take 2d. by their bread-tax. The broad-acred philanthropists exact the 2d., and you, whom they abuse, pay the 6d. It is "villainous low ;" but not so low as robbing them of the 30 per cent. out of that miserable pittance. That is by far the dirtier trick of the two, and the most cold-hearted. They get little from you, those poor needlewomen • but, were it not for you, would they get anythin g ? You have not cleared the coun try of cottages. You have not obstructed the progress of trade and commerce, and so diminished the amount of employment. You have not enhanced the price of food, and the terrors of the poorhouse. If you do but little in mitigation, and that little for the sake of business, still it is a mitigation. Lord Ashley says lou should do more. Let him and the landlord egislators do less, and your mitigation will grow thereby. On what principle, and by what law, are Jewish slopsellers bound to feed the poor whom Bri tish landlords have impoverished for the benefit of their own rent-roll ? Answer me that, ye aristo cratical man-milliners of philanthropy, who talk of charity and vote for scarcity. The professed object of Lord Ashley's Society is to raise the needlewomen's wages to 9s. a week. if accomplished, the needlewoman may be thankful she is not a Dorsetshire man : a man, with a family, la bouring on a farm. But let us see how this charity works. It promises to raise the cost of making a shirt to tho price for which you are now selling the shirt. What, then, becomes of the poor purchaser who can afford no more ? The Society ought at least to tattoo him gratis. He is driven out of the market, victimised by benevolence, made an example of, for being an accomplice, after the fact, to the " minimum of remuneration." There is another sort of result likely to happen. The Ashley slopshop only with draws a third of the applicants from the general competition. That vacancy will soon be supplied by a rush from the hovels of starvation and the dungeons of the poorhouse. The numbers of the destitute will keep down wages. The Queen Dowager might as well be patroness of a society for suspending the law of gra vitation. Mot a voice less will the " Song of the Shirt" have in its dismal chorus. There will be quite as many to bear the burdeir. The ranks will be promptly filled up by remorseless necessity. Still will " most unwomanly rags" hang loose upon the wasted form ; the insufficient pay tempt to fraud or prostitution ; and famine or suicide close the dreary scene. More work is the want. Proportionate abun ritwe of employment, and that alone, can ensure ade- I • sPef ilaitsseration. The valley of the Missouri 7 11ula my of food for all the meedle-women i . ,:,4 i fg riti f jakitaik; and the roughly cla d growers have tt, 7 -,-- 4 4w,000 - ii for their services. , 2 the c ord Ash 4, - -- -' 7 .1 .kiiigiolt-01 1 way to the repeal of ~,;: 'lliji--' crinds the faces of the corn -laws. rk---. , - :, .. - ~. - t... <-,,_ eels tii /t e . oted heel upon their stomachs. D e _ N..,' 1 / 4 - •- s r friends and save us from the selfish- AieSse Araept4l benevolence. ifar THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 16, 1344. ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE. NORTHERN CIRCUIT.--York, Dec. 13. (Before Mr. Justice COLERIDGE.) His LORDSHIP this morning at the sitting of the Court passed sentence upon several prisoners whose cases had stood over, avd amongst them was Joseph Steadman Maddison, His Lordship said,—Josedh Steadman Mad dison, you have been convicted of the crime of embez zlement—always a serious offence in its character, be cause it involves a breach of duty between the master and the servant, the employer and the employed. We must, as well as we can, as we pass through this world, protect ourselves against the violence and fraud of strangers ; but no person can effectually protect him self against fraud from a clerk or servant whom he em ploys. I have, therefore, always been in the habit when I meet with a case of this description of awarding a se vere punishment to the offender. You had alleged in your favour a good character, but that, in cases of this sort, I do not consider a very mitigatory circumstance, because no person would be placed in a situation of trust unless he had maintained a pretty fair appearance in the world. It appears, however, that there was a good deal of negligence on the part of the gentleman who employed you, in not calling upon you oftener to make up your accounts, and this perhaps may have herd out an improper temptation to you to com mit the offence of which you have been convicted. This circumstance, and this alone, induces me to abstain from sending you abroad, as I should otherwise have done. I am not quite sure that I do right now in inflicting upon you a milder punishment ; and I trust that you will not abuse the clemency that has been extended to you, but that you will endeavour, by future good conduct, to make amends to society for the injury you have dote it. The sentence of the Court is, that you be imprisoned for 18 calendar months, and during that time be kept to hard labour. (Before Mr. Justice Ceasswitu..) John M'Cann, Thomas Rogan, John O'Brien, Daniel Donovan, William Quinn, and Daniel Pourer, the last five of whom were convicted at the last assizes, and the first at the present assizes, of the manslaughter of Benjamin Gott, at Bradford, were this morning placed at the bar to receive sentence. The case will no doubt be fresh in the recollection of our readers, as we recapitulated the details of it upon the occasion of M'Cann's trial in the course of the present assizes. The prisoners are all Irishmen, and the de ceased was a mueician belonging to the Idle and Cal verley band. In July last there was an Orange proces sion, which was attended by the band referred to, and in the course of their march they played the " Boyne Water," " Croppies lie down," and other airs offensive to the Irish population of the neighbourhood, who sub sequently set upon them, and so violently attacked the deceased that his death resulted. The prisoners had all been found guilty of manslaughter, but in consequence of some legal objection being taken by the prisoners' counsel, Judgment was arrested till the opinion of the Judges could be ascertained upon the point in dispute. His LORDSHIP this morning, in passing sentence, ob served that the jurl had taken a most merciful view of their case The line which divided their crime from that of murder was exceedingly narrow, and bad they been found guilty of that offence, the manner in which the deceased's death was compassed was such that he should have deemed it his duty to leave them all for execution. At an early part of the day they had allowed themselves to be influenced by passion, and there was evidence from which it might reasonably be concluded that they had assembled together before the deceased returned to Bradford, and had fixed a time for the perpetration of those acts which had resulted in his violent death. He repeated, that the most merciful construction must have been put by the jury upon every circumstance connected with the case, or they would have been unable to distin guish it from the more heinous crime of murder. As it was, this was a manslaughter of the most grievous de scription, calling for the heaviest punishment that the law awarded for that offence. Their punishment had been postponed, however, since conviction, in con sequence of a doubt entertained, not as to their guilt, but as to a technical form in which the crime imputed to them was required to be preferred. As far as he (Mr. Justice Cresswell) was concerned, having tried five of the prisoners, he felt it to be his duty at that time to decide the point without further deliberation, and to pro nounce sentence against them, that justice might not fail by the lapse of an . interval from one assizes to another. If, on farther consideration, any doubt should be raised as to the propriety of their conviction, there was no question but the Secretary of State would prevent them from harm ; but at present he must overrule the objection, and proceed, as his duty de manded of him, to secure their removal for ever from this country. They were wholly unfit to move in society in this country—wholly unfit to enjoy the liberty they once possessed. In the land to which they were going they would live in a condition little better than one of slavery ; but he trusted that they might live there long enough to repent having caused the death of a fellow creature. The sentence of the Court was, that they,be transported beyond the seas for the term of their natural lives. James Gill was indicted for corrupt and wilful perj ury. At the last Summer Assizes, tried before the Lord Chief Baron, a labourer, named Bailey, brought an action against Mr. John Wilson, a manufacturer at Keighley, to recover damages for having, as he alleged, kicked him on the leg, and thereby fractured the bone. The prisoner Gill was a witness for the plaintiff, and he deposed at the time that he was present, and that he saw Mr. Wilson run at Bailey, and give him •a kick which lamed him. The evidence given by Gill on that occa sion was proved this morning by Mr. William Green halgh, a shorthand writer, and the reporter to the Yorkshireman newspaper, who was present at the trial, and was engaged to take a note of the proceedings. Evidence also was adduced to prove that the prisoner was not present at all when the kick was said to have been given, and that Bailey, instead of being lamed by a kick, was drunk, and had received his injury from falling over a form. This was the case for the prosecution, conducted by Mr. Hall and Mr. Ingham, and attempted in vain to be contravened by Mr. Blanshard, on behalf of the prisoner. The jury found the prisoner Guilty, and His LORDSHIP sentenced him to be imprisoned for two years in the House of Correction, with hard labour. - One other case concluded the business of the York assizes. Their Lordships got through the whole of the business by six o'clock this afternoon. Mr. Justice Coleridge proceeds in the morning to Durham to open the commission there, and Mr. Justice Cresswell returns, we believe, to London. Durham, Saturday, Dec. 14. Mr. Justice Coleridge arrived here this morning by the half-past nine o'clock train from York, and in the even ing opened the commission with the usual ceremony. The Court will sit on Monday for the trial of prisoners. The calendar is rather lighter than usual, which is to be accounted for by the fact that special general quarter sessions have been held within these few days, in order to clear :from it as many unimportant cases as possible, that his Lordship might not be delayed longer here than is absolutely necessary. There are at present but 26 prisoners in the list, of whom 1 is charged with the murder of her new-born child ; 1 with manslaughter ; 1 with cutting and wounding with intent to kill ; 7 with assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm ; 3 with rape ; 5 with forgery ; several with burglary ; whilst minor offences complete the number. MIDLAND ClRCUlT.—Nottingham, Dec. 14. THE LATE RAILWAY ACCIDENT. The commissions of assize for the borough and county of Nottingham were opened before Mr. Justice Patteson this morning. The chief cases of interest for trial were of course those of Robert Lightfoot and Jonathan Raven, charged with manslaughter on the occasion of the late fatal accident on the Midland Counties Railway. In conseque ace of these trials being expected to last at least two or three days, Mr. Justice Patteson, as will be seen from his charge, determined to co mme n ce busi ness this day, otherwise Monday was understood to be the first day of the assize. The Borough Court, in which the first trial of Mr. Lightfoot was to take place, was crowded by railway directors and others to hear the charge to the grand jury. Mr. Justice PATTESON, in proceeding to charge the grand jury, commenced by observing, that he was aware that the grind jury of the borough (Saturday being a very busy day in Nottingham) were assembled on that occasion at great personal inconvenience ; and he wished, therefore, st the commencement to say a few words in explanation. When he appointed the various commis sion-days sit Warwick, Coventry, Leicester, and Derby, the business at Nottingham was apparently so light that ho had every reason to suppose that the business of that borough arid county would conclude so early as to allow him to finish and arrive at Lincoln at least at an early hour on Wednesday. In consequence, however, of an unfortunate occurrence on the railway, which happened after these :appointments were made, it appeared to him (Mr. Justice Patteson) very :possible that it might be necessary to commence at an early hour that day (Sa turday), in. order that they might complete the business of the asiiizes by the time fixed for their being holden at Lincoln. It was under these circumstances that he had conversed them at the inconvenient time at which they were then assembled. The calendar presented no cases of diiinculty with the exception of that to which he hadallakled. He would, therefore, not detain them with any observations upon other cases, but would direct their attention in a few words to that of the un fortunate rio2ideut which happened on the neighbouring railway. With respect to the charge against Robert Lightfoot for the manslaughter of John Dean, he might be allowed to say that that charge could not come before theist, as the violence took place in the county of Nottinglutm, as also did the death of the deceased. In that case, therefore, the borough grand jury had no jurisdiction at all. The Learned Judge proceeded to remark that: it was to be regretted that the two inquests had not been held within the same jurisdiction, as then the cases wot dd have been one and the same, and tried before one cot trt. He would not say that the inquests had not been properly held, but in the case of Mr. Dean the grand jury of the town had no jurisdiction.—[lt ap peared that in, the case of Mr. Dean the deceased died on way h i f a r from. rival .13 e e a s t t o v n 0 t t o ti t g h h e a Nottingham nith e bodbod y wasl n p fi l r ac m e a d r o ; b h u is t on b tl o ia ro t u p g a h r . t o T f h t e lite t in ri fi a r l m o a f ry w lsr l . iic L h is sat Lightfoot tfoiotuted for w th itn the e hi man. t s i l o a r u a g r h i te in r t o of t;btier. CDoeuanntywacsoaufrtte.r3wavvrdisthremreoavpeadotbtyo ctehro charge against Mr. Lightfoot and Mr. Raven, jointly for the manslaughter of Mr. Bolestridge, the death took place within thlsi borough. In that case the indictment might be preferred either in the county where the violence took place, or in the town, where death ensued. It was, therefore, extremely probable that in this case a bill would be preferred before the grand jury for this borough, and .ass uming that would be the case, be wished to make a few ob servatioas. He (Mr. Justice Pattison) had not seen The evidence given in this last case, but a verdict of ma.nsi'aughter had, he perceived, been re turned by the coroner's jury against Jonathan Raven and Robert Lightfoot. As he had before observed, he had not hrbd an opportunity of seeing the evidence in that case, because the inquest had been held so re cently that it was almost impossible that he could have had the depositions placed before him ; he had, how ever, read the evidence in the case of Mr. Dean, and, as a matter of course, the unfortunate occurrence arising out of the same circumstances, the evidence at the second inquest must be principally the same as at the first. Of course it would be so. Now, there was a great deal of the evidence given before the coroner not admis sible as to the charge of manslaughter against any par ticular person, and some of it was not legal at all. Other parts of the evidence were not at all applicable to the case. He (Mr. Justice Patteson) did not say this with a view to find fault with the coroner ; not at all. The inquiry before a coroner's jury extended over a much wider field than an inquiry before a court similar to that in which they were then assembled. The in quiry before them was, whether a particular person had been guilty of a particular crime, whereas the inquiry before the coroner was how the body, then lying before him, came to its death. That being so, they would not have brought before them the whole of the evidence taken before the coroner. Now, the law upon the sub ject was perfectly clear, but the difficulty was how to apply the law to the facts. It was perfectly clear that no man could be indicted for manslaughter for a mere mis take or error in judgment. If he acted to the best of his judgment or ability, in the discharge of his duty, he was not criminally responsible or liable for a mere mis take; but if, on the contrary, a person placed in a situa tion of great responsibility, duty, and trust, conducted himself with gross negligence and inattention, then, in case of death, he was unquestionably guilty of the crime of manslaughter. Therefore, it was always difficult to apply facts in such a case as the present. The law was the same, whether applied to a man driving a waggon or carriage on the highway, managing a vessel on the seas, or conducting an engine on a railway ; if he did not display due care and caution he was liable to the charge of manslaughter. But if a person so em ployed got into a difficulty, and, however untoward the result, if he acted to the best of his judgment, if he acted as he thought best under the circumstances, however un fortunate his judgment might be, he was not to be made to suffer for his error. It was very easy for persons to say, after a disastrous occurrence had taken place, that another course would have been better, but it was often times very hard to judge of a man by particular circum stances—by events which happened afterwards. Per sons too often said, " But he should hive acted so and so ;" but let such persons place themselves in a case of sudden difficulty, and then say whether he was fairly answerable for thetconsequences which followed. Now, the particular facts of this case were very plain and clear indeed. It seemed that Mr. Lightfoot was the sta tion-master at Nottingham, and that he had voluntarily put himself in a situation in which he had no right to be —that was, he went by a " down-train," the " up train" being blocked up by the overturn of a tender. His ob ject in thus going appeared to be to direct the engine driver to drive slowly and properly. He (Mr. Jus tice Patteson) thought Mr. Lightfoot wrong, and that hi committed an error in leaving the Not tingham station at all, but ,for that he was not to be indicted for manslaughter. It was clear that when he went all was safe ; there was no mischief as to that train, and it was plain and clear Mr. Lightfoot had taken up the notion when he went up the line that the tender would be shortly removed, the line speedily cleared, and the next up-train from Nottingham proceed upon its proper line. that was the opinion which he appeared to strongly entertain, and upon which he most unquestionably acted. Then they found Mr. Lightfoot proceeding back to Nottingham on his proper line in the 'front of the engine, himself in the most hazardous and dangerous position about the engine. He was apparently confident that when the train came up from Nottingham it would be upon its proper line. It turned out, how ever, unfortunately otherwise. A collision unhappily took place, and Mr. Lightfoot was committed upon a charge of manslaughter. That being so, another death ensued, and Mr. Raven, the station-master at Beeston, was next committed by another coroner's jury for the same offence, but for what reason he (Mr. Justice Patti son) could not divine. He supposed it was for not stop ping the train when at Beeston. It did appear to him (Mr. Justice Patteson) that the charge of manslaughter against Raven was perfectly preposterous. In the con sideration of this case no one seemed to him to have sufficiently considered the rate at which the up- train was coming from Nottingham, and the circumstance that no person, in obedience to the Company's code of regula tions, had preceded it to see that the line was clear. It was in evidence before the" coroner, that the up-train was going upon its wrong line at the rate of between twenty and thirty miles an hour, while that upon which Mr. Lightfoot was travelling was going slowly. Then, again, as he had before intimated, no one, in obedience to the Company's laws, had preceded the train. They were told that a man was always understood to precede a train 800 yards, when danger was apprehended ; but, on this occasion, no person preceded it. Much had been said about the Company not having sufficient force for the proper and careful management of their business at the Nottingham station. If that were the case, then, most certainly such a fact was decidedly in favour of the accused—blame rested upon a higher party. He (Mr. Justice Patteson) did not see that that charge was made out against the Company, but if it were it could not be used as au argument against, but rather in favour of the prisoners. They would have all the evidence before them, and say whether they thought such a case was made out as would justify them in placing either one or both of the accused upon their trial for the crime of manslaughter ; whether they had been guilty of gross and palpable negligence, or merely committed an error of judgment. At the conclusion of the charge, the Learned Judge proceeded to the County-hall, and opened the commis sion of assize for the county. At twelve o'clock he returned to the Borough Court, sad commenced the trial of prisoners. There was not one case of the slightest public interest. During the afternoon public speculation was afloat as to the probability or improbability of the borough grand jury finding bills against Mr. Lightfoot and Mr. Raven. The Judge having concluded the trial of pri soners at four o'clock, returned to his lodgings; but at half-past seven o'clock Mr. Collinson, the clerk of the arraigns, was summoned to the court to hear the decision of the grand jury. The Foreman announced that they found no true bills against Robert Lightfoot and Jonathan Raven for man slaughter. The result was generally expected. On Monday another bill against Mr. Lightfoot for the manslaughter of Mr. Dean will be presented to the county grand jury, when it is thought there can be little doubt a similar result will follow. It is not in tended to offer any evidence in support of the coroner's inquisition. In the case of Mr. Raven there was a singular instance of speedy justice. His committal took place on Thurs day, the indictment, not less than two yards long, was drawn by Mr. Lewis, the clerk of indictments, on Fri day, and it was ignored by the grand jury on Saturday. NORFOLK CIRCUIT.—Bury St. Edmund's, Dee. 13. (Before Mr. Justice WILLIAMS.) MURDER. —Mary Sherring, aged 51, pleaded " Not guilty" to an indictment charging her with the murder of John Sherring, by administering to him some arsenic on the 30th of July last. Mr. Sanders and Mr. Power conducted the prosecu tion ; the prisoner was not defended by counsel. From the evidence adduced in the progress of this painful case, it appeared that the prisoner resided at the village of Martlesham, near Woodbridge, in this county, with her husband, an honest, hardworking labourer,their family consisting of a daughter, Elizabeth, aged 14, and two boys respectively 10 and 3 years ; besides these chil dren however, this couple h a d t wo ot h er d aug ht ers , Matilda, who lived out at service in the neighbourhood, and Caroline, who was also in service at Lowestoft. This latter girl had fallen from the paths of virtue, inso much as that she had, about three years ago, given birth to an illegitimate boy, who had been thrown on her parents for support and protection. After that unfor tunate occurrence his mother again went out into the world, but not with any very steadfast moral reformation, for in the course of the last summer she again became a mother, when she bore another son, whose untimely death was the subject of the present inquiry. He also, together with his frail mother, became an inmate of the prisoner's roof about three weeks after Whitsuntide, he being then only four or five weeks old. With this serious addition to their already poverty-stricken esta blishment, the grandfather and grandmother had much to do to provide for themselves and those who were thus cast upon their hands. The grandfather, however, stea dily pursued his daily labour, while his wife and her daughters endeavoured to help him as much as was within their power. Soon after the deceased and his mother came home, the prisoner was frequently heard to complain of their situation, and of the fact that no allowance had been made to her by the father of John. In the course of a conversation with Mrs. Brett, a neigh bour, she said one day, about a fortnight before the death of the child, that "If no allowance was made, something must be done ; if they go t no assistance, to the union-house they must all go,' appearing, at the same time, to be in great distress of mind. In about a week afterwards, at a time when the deceased- was in perfect health, she went to the village coffin-maker, and said that "John Sherring was very bad, and that there would soon be s' job for a coffin ;" and on the evening of Tuesday, the 30th of July, about eight o'clock, she went hurriedly to Mrs. Brett, requesting her presence and aid, as her daughter Caroline was at Woodbridge, and " her child was overwhelmed with sickness." On going into the cottage Mrs. Brett found the poor thing lying in Elizabeth Sherring's lap, retching and straining violently, his eyes ready to start from their sockets, and his mouth covered with foam. In the absence of anything else the neighbour suggested an emetic, but the prisoner said, " No, that will do him no good ; he will not be here many hours." "Dear me," said Mrs. Brett, " why, what have you been giving I him ?" when the prisoner answered, " Nothing but pap." Soon after this conversation the mother came home, when the prisoner repeated her assertion that she had given the baby some pap ; and, his sufferings grow ing more acute, the distracted parent went to bed with it. No doctor was sent for, and in the night the sufferer passed from this world as it had come into it—the inno cent victiih and object of vice and passion. On the fol lowing day the order was given for the coffin, and the body was in a few days consigned to the grave in the burial-ground of a chapel in the adjoining parish. Although no indecent haste was observed in the funeral, rumour soon began to busy herself about the cause of the death, and one day the prisoner went angrily to Mrs. Brett, and accusing her of talking about the child, threatened to " make her jump for it" if she repeated her scandal. In spite of this, however, the neighbours still talked, and it being about that time ascertained that the prisoner had bought some arsenic a fortnight before the death, "to poison rats," as she said (when she had received a solemn caution as to its use and danger), it was deternainedeby the authorities that the body should be exhumed4and subjected to chemi cal analysis. This important.tep was accordingly taken about two mouths after We- burial, and the stomach and its contents having been intrusted to Mr. Moore, a skilful practitioner at Woodbridge, that gentleman ap plied to them the approved most modern tests, all of which resulted in the production of arsenic, both in its original metallic form and substance, and in a state of solution with the fluids in the stomach. Under this state of things the accused was consigned to prison on thtis grievous charge, in support of which, besides the facts above stated, it was shown that she had actually regis tered the death of her grandson long before he died, and just at the time she bought the arsenic, and had assigned to the registrar the very causes of death—viz., " convul sions and retchings," which did afterwards mark his exit from life. It also appeared that, when before the coroner, the prisoner made a long statement, admitting that she had bought the poison, but adding that she had used some of it for the rats, and had thrown away the rest into the dungheap. She also then denied having fed the baby for more than a week before it was dead ; but to day, when called on for her defence, she varied her state ment as to the disposition of the arsenic, and evidently endeavoured to screen herself at the expense of her daughters Elizabeth and Matilda, one of whom she said had found, or shown her in a drawer, the paper in which she had originally put away the arsenic in a shed, while she insinuated that she had on one occasion missed about one• third part of the poison soon after she had bought it. It also further appeared that the child was quite well from twelve to six o'clock in the evening of the 30th, when his mother went to Woodbridge, leaving him in his grandmother's care ; and Mr. Image, an eminent sur geon of this town, distinctly deposed that the effects of arsenic on the child would of necessity develope them selves from 10 minutes to three hours after it had been received in the stomach, and that it must have been ad ministed between 6 and 8 o'clock that night. The Learned JUDGE, at the close of the evidence for the prosecution, summed it all up most carefully and luminously to the jury, who, having retired for about 20 minutes, returned into Court with a verdict of Guilty. Mr. Justice WILLIAMS then, in most solemn anal suitable terms, proceeded to pass sentence on the pri soner. In so doing he expressed his entire concurrence in the finding of the jury, and after having exhorted her to occupy the short remnant of her present life in peni tent and anxious preparation for that future one into which she was so soon about to enter, pronounced sen tence of death upon her, without holding oat to her the most distant hope of mercy in this world. The prisoner, who had preserved an unwonted degree of composure and self-possession up to the last solemn moment of her trial, received her awful doom with un disturbed serenity of feature, and as calmly descended from the dock as though she had been an unconcerned spectator of another's fate. NORTHERN ClRCUlT.—Liverpool, Dec. 13. George Evans, a young man, aged 20, was placed at the bar on a charge of the wilful murder of Jane Millen, at Manchester, on the 14th of August last. He was charged with doing it, in the first count, by inflicting a wound on the forehead with an iron bar ; in the second, by a blow on the back of the head ; in the third, by strangulation ; and, in the fourth, by both means—those of strangulation and the blows. The case for the prosecution having closed, Mr. POLLOCK, in addressing the jury for the prisoner, complained of the more than railway speed at which they had travelled in the case ; and he would venture to ask whether, if they had heard cases of murder tried, they ever witnessed such haste—such rapidity—such more than railway speed ? The JUDGE—What do you mean, Sir—what do you mean by rapidity ? Mr. PoLLocx—l apply it, my Lord, to the way in which my Learned Friends have examined the witnesses. The JUDGE—I cannot allow such observations to be made ; there has been ample time to take everything down. Mr. PoLLocx said he was a very young man in the profession, and he had too much respect for that profes sion to degrade it by any observation on the Court, to which he was bound to pay every respect ; but he was determined to do his duty to his client, and he did com plain of the mode in which his Learned Friends had conducted the case. At the conclusion of his address the jury retired, and after being out of Court a quarter of an hour, returned and pronounced a verdict of Guilty. His LORDS/SIP proceeded to pass sentence as follows : —" Prisoner at the bar, the jury have been compelled, by the evidence which has been laid before them, to find you guilty, guilty of a foal, cruel, wicked, and I fear, deliberate murder. To a man who has discovered such an utter absence of all feeling, I am afraid that any ad monitions of mine would be useless. Lose no time in applying to God, your maker and your judge, for that mercy which my duty to the public forbids me to show to you. The sentence of the Court upon you is, that you be taken to the place from whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution ; that there you be hanged by the neck until you shall be dead, and that your body be afterwards burled within the precincts of the prison in which you shall be confined. And may the Lord have mercy upon your soul l" The prisoner bowed respectfully to the Bench, and walked steadily from the dock. Saturday, Dee. 14. Richard Leach was indicted for arson in setting fire to a steer of timber, the property [of Thomas Graham, at Little Bolton. Mr. Hulton and Mr. Pellock conducted the prosecu tion. The prisoner was defended by Mr. Monk. It appeared that the prisoner belonged to a sawyers' union, and had several times, in the absence of Mr. Gra ham, forced his way into the yard, and endeavoured to intimidate the men who were at work in the sawpit. He had also at various times held out threats of injury to Mr. Graham. On the evening in question a person who lived in the neighbourhood saw a sudden blaze of light in the timber yard, and immediately after two men, who got over the palings and ran away. One of them had clogs. Within a few minutes the prisoner was seen in a public-house near, in company with two other men. An alarm of fire having been given, the parties belonging to the yard succeeded in extinguishing it. Close to the steer or stack of wood in which the fire broke out were found two ginger-beer bottles, which seemed to have contained turpentine. One was a good deal smaller than the other, and they were of different colours. It ap peared that a very short time before the fire broke out the prisoner went into a chemist's shop not far from the yard with two bottles of similar appearance and got a gill of turpentine in each. Mr. MoNx addressed the jury for the defence. His LORDSHIP summed up, and the jury, after some consultation, found the prisoner Guilty. To be transported for fifteen years. POLICE INTELLIGENCE. (SATURDAY.) MANSION-HOUSE. Two women, named Maria Allen and Elizabeth Sutton, were brought up from Bridewell for having broken the Mansion-house windows about a fortnight ago. They applied to be passed to their respective fami lies some distance from London. The LORD MAYOR said it was not in his power to pass them. Mr. Goodman, the Chief Clerk, said that these women, with others, had broken upwards of 100 panes of glass in the house within a short period. The LORD MAYOR said he could give no encourage ment to such offenders, and refused to pass them. Maria Allen, on leaving the room, said if she had a stone she would throw it at his Lordship's head. Upon this, she was brought back, and ordered to find bail herself in 101., and two sureties in 101. each, to keep the peace. The prisoner was then removed to prison till she could find bail.—The other prisoner ran off as fast as she could.. question were part of the change he received. He denied all knowledge of the transaction. He was remanded until Wednesday. WORSHIP-STREET. George Baynes, police-constable 51 N, was sum moned before Mr. Broughton, to answer a charge of assaulting George Geaves, and taking him into cus tody upon an unfounded accusation of having vio lated a young lady, the wife of a clergyman. The particulars of the alleged violation, and names of the accusing parties, however, did not transpire. The complainant, a smart-looking young man, who described himself as a chronometer-maker, living in Graham-street, stated that about half-past ten last Sunday night he was at a public-house, when the defendant and another policeman entered, and the defendant addressing him, said, " How do you do ?" but immediately afterwards caught him by the collar, and said " I want you ?" He asked what he wanted him for, and the defendant saying& was on suspicion of felony, began dragging him out of the place. He was at the bar at the time, and caught hold of the beer machine handle, but the defendant kept hauling him away,and dragged him out of thehouse, holding him by the throat so as to hurt him. He de sired the defendant to let go of his collar, and to hold him by the wrist as policemen usually do, but the de fendant refused, until another constable, 233 N, en tered, upon which the defendant relinquished the hold of his throat and held his wrist. He was then taken to the station-house, and there told that he was charged with committing a rape upon a lady. He was detained altogether about three hours, and the lady being sent for, attended at the sta tion-house, accompanied by a gentleman, who, he was informed, was a clergyman. The lady, however, on seeing him, said,," Oh ! no ; that is not the man ;" and he was then released. He then asked the name of his accuser, but, instead of receiving any satisfac tory answer, was thrust out of the station-house. When thrust out of the police-station, he waited out side until he saw the same lady and gentleman come out, and he then " politely" begged to be allowed to speak to the gentleman, who, however, cried out Police, police," and he was thus prevented from further inquiry. The defendant said that a reverend gentleman had given him information of a rape committed upon a young lady, and the description given of the offender was such as left no doubt upon his mind that it was this complainant, whom he knew as an associate of thieves. The offence was alleged to have been com mitted some days before, and he, upon receiving the information from the clergyman, went on the night in question into the public-house where the com plainant was, and laid hold of him, telling him at the same time the nature of the charge. Mr. BROUGHTON said that whatever might be the complainant's character in other respects, he had un doubtedly sustained an assault, and been illegally arrested in this instance, and the defendant must find bail to answer any indictment he might prefer at the sessions. The defendant was then held to bail in his own recognisance of 301., and two sureties in 201. each. UNION-HALL. Charles Richart, a Frenchman, enveloped in a large cloak, and with a sable boa round his neck, was brought before Mr. Cottingham, charged with steal ing a valuable gold watch and a lady's gold neck - chain, the property of Miss Eliza Williams, of No. 10, Upper Stamford-street, and Fanny Dronsart, a Frenchwoman, was charged as an accessary after the fact. From the complainant's statement, it appeared that the male prisoner had been lodging in her house for about two months, and that his bed-room was on the same floor as hers ; that on Monday morning last she missed her gold watch and neckchain out of the drawers of her wardrobe. The prisoner was out at the time, but when he returned home she mentioned the circumstance to him, at the same time remarking that no other persons could have had access to the room from which the articles were stolen but the female servant and he, the door being left unlocked. The prisoner, however, denied knowing anything about the watch or chain, and hinted at the necessity of giving the servant girl into custody, and added, that owing to what had occurred, instead of retaining his bed-room up stairs, he should sleep in future on the ground-floor, and requested that his luggage might be moved down stairs. His directions were accordingly complied with, and nothing more passed on the subject of the missing articles until Thursday morning. When Miss Williams rose she found that her lodger was gone, and on the table in his bed room was found a slip of paper, in which was written, that, having been disappointed in remittances from his father in France, he (the writer) had started off for Paris, to obtain some money, and that he should return in about twelve days. The proceedings were here for some time inter rupted by the female prisoner being attacked with a hysterical fit, and she was obliged to be carried out into the open air. On her recovery, and being brought into Court again, the inquiry was resumed. The complainant went on to describe that the abrupt departure of the male prisoner from her house had the effect of strengthening the suspicion that he was the man who robbed her of the watch and chain, and she accordingly gave information of the circum stances to. Sergeant Leighton, of the L division. That officer, it appeared, at once set about inquiring on the subject, and ascertained that on Thursday morning, between four and five o'clock, the female prisoner hired a cab in Oxford-street, and was driven over to Stamford-street, where she awaited within a few doors of Miss Williams's house, while her fellow prisoner came out by stealth with all his luggage, and, joining her in the vehicle, they bosh drove to John-street, Oxford-street, where the female lodged. The latter prisoner had, on the subsequent day, called at the complainant's house, and represented herself as Monsieur Richart's washerwoman, and that she had come for some soiled linen which he had ordered her to wash and have in readiness for him on his return from Paris. The sergeant took the prisoners into custody on Friday evening, in John-street, Oxford street. A foreigner said he knew the male prisoner as a honourable man, and not as a thief; that he did not think he would be guilty of such a crime, his father being a wealthy burgess in Paris. The prisoners were remanded until Wednesday, the Magistrate Paying he would take bail for their appear ance in two sureties of 1001. each. The prisoners, however, being unable to procure that bail, were committed. Robert Norton, the driver of cab No. 1,758, was charged with stealing a carpet bag, containing va rious articles of dress, the property of a gentleman named Gibbs, residing at Northampton. It appeared Mr. Gibbs arrived on the preceding evening from Northampton, at the Bell and Crown, in llolborn, at which inn he was met by a Mr. Stirling, with whom he got into the prisoner's cab, and having placed his luggage, and amongst them the carpet bag produced, in the vehicle, they drove off to Mr. Stir ling's residence in the York-road. Some altercation oc curred respecting the fare, and the prisoner drove away, and soon afterwards the bag and its contents were missed by the complainant,when Mr. Stirling, his friend, recollected that it was placed on the box of the cab. The latter gentleman immediately went off in quest of the driver, and, in passing along Bow-street, he was hailed by the prisoner, who asked him if he wanted a cab, and this led to his apprehension. When ques tioned on the subject of the carpet bag, the prisoner denied that he knew anything about it, although told it was at his side when he drove off from the Bell and Crown. Mr. Stirling, not satisfied with the mere denial, proceeded to examine the vehicle, and in the boot of it, stowed away under horse-cloths and hay, he found his friend's bag and its contents. Mr. Stir ling took possession of the property, and was proceed ing to call a policeman, when the prisoner jumped on the box of his vehicle and drove off, but his number being known, he was soon afterwards taken into custody. Mr. COTTINGITAII said it was evident the prisoner drove away with the carpet bag and its contents, either for the purpose of waiting for the reward, or appropriating it to his own use. Even if the former was his intention, he was equally guilty of felony, for the owner's name and address were on the carpet bag. The Magistrate added that, for the purpose of protecting the public against such dishonest persons as the accused, he should send him before a jury. The prisoner was accordingly committed. THAMES POLICE. Sergeant Waller, acting inspector at the Poplar Police-station, applied to Mr. Ballantine, requesting to know how he should act under the following cir cumstances :—The sergeant stated that about a quarter past six o'clock that morning, a person came to the station-house and reported that the inhabitants in the neighbourhood of the Union Chapel, Bow-lane, had been disturbed and alarmed from a late hour in the night by dreadful groans, and, notwithstanding the most careful inquiry, no one could tell from whence they proceeded. The sergeant at once dis patched Plowright, 106 K, to endeavour to discover the cause of alarm. Notwithstanding the seeming improbability, he felt assured that they isued from the :Union Chapel, and having procured the keys from one of the trustees, he proceeded at once to search the place. Tracing the sounds, which had now become very weak, he found that they issued from the chim ney in the vestry-room, and, on demanding who was there, the voice of an apparently much exhausted and gasping-for-breath person exclaimed, " Oh, for God's sake, take me out !" As the person appeared to have stuck half way in the flue, this was no easy task, and, on proceeding to extricate him, it was found that the pot of the chimney iu which the man was transfixed had been re moved and placed cap-wise upon an adjoining one. At length it was found necessary to dig away at the spot, and after some time, a man, named Smith, who had several aliases, and is well known to the police, was rescued from his perilous position in a state of great exhaustion from cold and want of air. lie wa* at i once conveyed to the station-house, where, being placed before the fire, and the attendance of a sur' geon procured, he was so far recovered as to be con veyed to the London Hospital, where he as presen t lies under the surveillance of a constable. The ser geant's object in applying to his Worship was to knot" how he shou!d act with respect to this man ? Mr. BALLANIINE—You must take him into CO' tody as soon as he is able to be removed. Has Of property been missed from this chapel before ?—Th e sergeant replied that he understood property had been missed from the place on a former occasion, but tl B amount was not stated, nor did he know of what i t consisted. Plowright, on bringing the man to the station,.charged him with being on the premises for an improper purpose. Under these circumstances: would it be proper to leave a constable in charge at the hospital ? Mr. BALLANTINE—That's a police regulation, Wal l which I have nothing to do. Sergeant Waller—But I suppose your Worship will look to me to produce him here ? Mr. BALLANTINE—Most certainly; as he has bee n charged in the sheet, it will be your duty to produce him. The sergeant then left to take further measures fo r Smith's safe custody. GALSTON-CESSN OCK IRON WORKS. The whole estate of the late Cessnock Iron Com pany, sequestrated by his Grace the Duke of Ilor't land, was brought under the auctioneer's hammer 00 Monday last. As an evids.nce of the flourishing staff of trade, much higher rates were got for many of the lots than anti ipated; in most cases double the amount of their estimated valu e was the resu lt. Messrs. Finnie, of Kilmarnock, and Howie, Hurl ford, were among the m os t ex t ens i ve purc h ase rs. Th e Cessnock Iron Company were among those unfor tunate enterprising persons who speculated largely shortly before the late trade stagnation. In the ye ar 1838 they procured a lease of the minerals in Gess; nock estate, from his Grace the Duke of Portlanoi and ground whereon to erect work s . Abundance minerals were considered to be on the estate, but after working part a deficiency was feared. 1, 1 black-band ironstone could be found. Ab un dance . clay ironstone of superior quality wa s f oun d in Deu s of from four inches to fourteen inches in thicknes s ' running through the estate. Little of it, howeve r ' could be wrought open cast, and mining, of course' was the result, which was carried on at an incredlb l expense. The coal-fields were extensive, and superior quality for smelting iron, but the limesr"" was inferior ; and the limestone used in smeltut which was excellent in quality, was brought ft° ll ' the estate of the Marquis of Hastings. It was er. parent to all, from the large a moun t o f capital pended in the erection of the works, and from roan) parts, after being built superfici a lly-, requiring to • w " taken down and built more substa n ti a lly, that ' speculation was not likely to be conducted to succe ss :. After a great many seemingly unsurmountable o r stacles had been overcome, small quan tities of ( 1 ficient iron were produced, whi c h, f rom its Dl i ", nature, did not suit the Scottish market, and was s ° l cordingly regularly exported to Liverpool, where market was found—but at a low figure, not eve commensurate with the expense incurred in its k r s duction. Of course, this could not last a lengtu, time. Two furnaces were kept constantly smel t . l % iron, producing, on an average, twenty tons of . 10 4 every twenty- four hours, at a loss of t we nty shill, r per ton, or twenty pounds sterli ng , daily. ' nv Company became involved in debt, and bankrurZ followed. Part of the estate was sequestrated by Commissioners of his Grace the Duke of Porthor'i and sold as above, and the remai n d er w as sold , c :t behoof of the other creditors, whose claims ' to about 18,000/.—Kilmarnoch Herald. STATE OF TRADE.—Adverse winds continu o o 0 ft keep out many ships, and consequen tly the stoc: o 4,, produce are now suffering some re d uc ti o n, wit o re et however, improving prices. Ther e h as been s business in cotton, about fifty thousand bales ha v e ben sold since our last publicati on ; s p e culators been freely in the market, and have taken Po ° ' one-third the quantity. The great supply ° n has prevented any advance, and importers are ge. s , rally willing sellers. Even at our p re sent low q uo to tions many of the next imports will re t u rn a pro n. . the shippers, and thus there w ill no t b e the co m e inducement to withhold them from the market. is Manchester trade is not so brisk ; it rarely is, so isr o s the year, when a great proportion of our export busr,, is stopped ; still manufacturers of all sorts are do 7 a good and highly lucrative business. Money ef iti nues cheap, and apparently very pl en tiful r thus str e k, and shares of all sorts, which usually feel the first pin are yet as buoyant as ever. Opinion is much divide° 0 to the ultimate fate of the multitudinous schemes 0 . 1 0 the office of the Board of trade, but we think wetlr; e 4 the ideas of a large portion of the community wb el3 , state that they ought to p ass th roug h a very stile>, deal; very great inte res t s are at sta k e — t h e publio dr venience, the public purse, and the national welter/soy mand the utmost investigation before such a Vt.si l lw4 and such evident injury t o ex i s ti ng i n t erests arse ner ll3 „ l- at , As the time approache s f or th e meeting o i Parlis'lds we hear on all sides of energe ti c en d eavours being 'of by differently interested parties to obtain r e ductir w eL the existing duties on many o f th e l ea di ng srlic:Sta c.Anmerce. Thus we find cotton, tobacco, and tea gr o ei very prominently forward, and with a very di' 0. ground-work for the application, as at present cottlgo, subject to a duty of ab ou t 71 per cent. on the /1 0 0 tobacco 900 per cent. ; and t ea pro b a bl y 150 per cejin ° the average; whilst the so r t s i n greatest consume ris. the poor pay fully 200 per cen t. on th e i r value. .1%0, cise regulations, to o , seem lik e l y to prom i se some e t o • pation for the next ses s i on ; thi s i s a d epartme nt ca ay revenue which has always been collected with 1 214 / re . . o oo' noyance to individuals than an y ot h er b ranc h ; it '„ o a very great expenditur e on th e country, an d it wil_l_et matter for serious considerati on w h et h er t h e c ost 0 7 n bo „, o r be diminished, a n d th e revenue protecte d , w hilst Sw' e r . facturers are allowed greater license than they O W ;oy.—Liverpool Mercury. DEATH OF THE OLDEST PREACHER IN ScoTl4ol9lo* —The Rev. Thomas Jolly, minister of Dunnet, county of Caithness, died in the manse there, on 720 1 7 0 , the 2d instant, at the patriarchal age of ninett, o r Mr. Jolly was undoubtedly the oldest preae;ner in no land, having been upwards of sixty-fiv e years in 95'. pulpit at Dunnet, as assistant to his predecesso r ' lS Train, and minister of th e p ar i s h. g s was o rdain, t ogl August, 1784. He retained his fioulties to the la s ,r ea tlir, preached regularly till w i t hi n a f ew weeks of big "osts with all the vigour and clearness of his earlyl so or When the disruption in the Church of Scotlasa place, the venerable minister addressed a letter Ww O Chalmers on the subject, which was sicknowledle. t ate one of the ablest of the vast mass of letters an°, "f o rk merits which that unfortunate secession ca11e5, 4 6 . 0 Mr. Jolly was a native of the Mearns, and stuL t ir Aberdeen and Glasgow Colleges, where he will : i l es! guished for his acquirements in metaphysics asal,;,ies° philosophy. He was a l so an accomplished ands scholar, and cultivated t o th e l ast hi s tas te for 00 elegant studies, as w e ll as f or t h e exact science‘a hi/ benevolence and ch a rity were tru l y unbourtaed, 100 memory will be long 'revered in Caithriess.--- 1 / 1 Courier. 01°. THE IVEkrunt.—The winter has set 10 . " d lO severely, with an intens e groun d-f rost, an d the s'. l , c io Egst. The navigatio n o f th e r i vers between th i s 14 and Yarmouth, and from th a t p ort to B ecc l e s, 1 2, 11 0 tie and Aylsham, has b een s t oppe d b y the ice. boat' L mosphere has been v er y thi c k f or severa l d a ys, filf.4 cuing snow, but none h as f a ll en, except a veil `—‘,o,of descent on Sunday evening. A cover i ng o f the; able clothing f or th e groun d would be very acceL In some parts of th e coun t ry snow has fa l len , thong to any considerable extent. —Norfolk Chrsnick. FELLOWSHIP OF THE COLLEGE OF SURG IC Ig ft We regret to say th a t no li st, t h at can c l a im cr(P N • 0 4 1 0 correctness, can yet be published of the gentler4e° have passed their examinations for this new gr.h de. .dell / i fate of several of the candidates is yet under coll o be tion ; and the noti ces o f names t h at have b e en pu b are entirely inaccurate.—Medical Times. BIRTHS. Ir On the 12th inst., at Houghton Hall, ne ar Carlil l " , lady of Peter J ames Di xon, E sq., of a son. f On the 13th i ns t., a t H e d ger l ey-park, the law bv J o Clayton, Esq., M.P., o f a son . On the 13th i ns t., a t Greenwich Elospital, Lady j ta 110 44 Hope, of a daughter. On the 13th inst., at Calver, Derbyshire, 311 ' 4 ' 1 / # Crompton Be n tl e y, of a son. f ° On the 13th inst., at Wolford Vi car age, the la dy Rev. G. Domvile Wheeler, of a daughter, still-born' .10 On the 14th inst., at St. John's-hill, Battersea, 111 7 the Rev. J. M. Seule, of a son. ~.101 11$. On the 14th i ns t., a t H y d e - par k -place W es t, n ' Sykes, of a s o n. peg On the 14th inst., a t E a t on - square, t h e w if e , J f T Esq., of a son. M.AR.RIE .D. _ r t. Or o * On the 12th inst., . at Aldbrough, Char)es Stood-1 . 1 - 4 , son of Joseph Stubbs, Esq., of Mecklenbuigh-sclual l -bn uf ,%l to Jane, eldest daughter of W. Hirst, Esq_., of Borougj. On the 12th inst., at Preston-notxt-Favershsn o, v'epsb,fo Venables, Esq., son of the Venerable Archdeacon ' o f Gfr of Lysdinan Hall. Breconshire, to Sophia, da u g ht ul' r e.ot• Hilton, Esq., of Preston House, near l'avershain---- T S i ce ffs ' broOOthn etri t i l oe i t e ,l llth inst., at DLleEantgton, waiter younngest son of Major-General T. Stewart. ~,„/ the Earl E in a s r t l ., o n f e v ar a ß rt i m cbm t o i nd, the H 57 0 . n. At Frith-street, Soho, Lo o n u do i n, ag ll e lrs. Cla med' tlhVeallniiaedrr,aKs e N n a t t , h w e id l o n w fan o t f ry t . he late Major Jam: s C' Jew tphoe O di n ,na t ng h ee e rd B T6 t se h m. inst in Brunswick-place, Rege nt's- " --"tri4 L On the 11 th p i l n e s:t a ., g a e t d T 2 o 6 r . quay, A. Burnett Saar — „ e fa r "' Qn the 1 lth inst., at Dunfermline, Fifeshire , 1 daughter o f th e l ate A lexander Robertson, Estl' irenr9 Fr-- ('u the 11th i ns t., L ou i sa A nn , the wife of Mr . ford, of Calthorpe-street. of A dirll' On the llth inst. at ChieTely, at the residence _A f i lt. Sir Ilugh Pigot, K.C.H., Mrs. Mary Barbara Hill, sS"' On the Iha inst., at Bath, Mrs. Emma _ .., On the 12th inst., at Tottenham, Samuel Stalew•ZZ, On the 12th inst., at Brighton, E. E. Mic h° New On City. the lath inst., at Peckham, Harriet M. A d .... _0 1 ,_,,5 1:4 " London: Printed and Published by MIIRDO I so. )1 „i No. 112, Striool. Printer, at The. Sun Officel co nti ia the Precinct of the 13svey, in t l2 ' ifonday, December 16,1844• One word more, not peculiarly for yourselves, but for the whole class of tradesmen to which you be long. There is no reason why any of that class should be dispensers of charity in the disguise of wages. Ignorant or hypocritical is the outcry against labour being purchased at its market price. Individually, you must purchase it, or you may shut up shop. What good would that be to the poor needlewomen ? But, Moses, remember you are men as well as slopsellers. Those whose fingers ache over your shirts are stitching their own shrouds. Misery toils in your cheap factory. You ought not to have done with it, when you have paid its wages. The employers of the poor are their natural protectors. Unfairly have the tables been turned against you; but not altogether without fault on your part. You should have been the foremost to expose and denounce this state of things, and the system by which it is produced. Your inert ness, your disregard' of the wants and rights of the toiling poor, has allowed the authors of the wrong, the taxers of their fool, the obstructors of employment, to come forward as their patrons, and point towards your heads the thunderbolt of public indignation for inhumanity which should have fallen on their own. You and they are thus juggled into the wrong places. They should be in the dock, and you in the witness box. Why do you not tell Lord Ashley that he, and his class of monopolist :legislators, have wrought this shame in the land? Why were you not first in the field clamouring for justice ? Why did you wait for the wretchedness, of which you had know ledge, to be found out and laid at your own door by its finders and its makers ? Why have you handed over the poor to the care of courtly Cades and dandy demagogues. Retrieve your blunder. Leave not this sore disease in the body politic to be tam pered with by legislative empiricism. Demand of Lord Ashley that he helps to untax the needle women's bread. Claim emancipation for the giant industry, who, when free, will feed all his sons and daughters. Bestir yourselves for such a demonstra tion of public opinion as will enforce a wiser policy on the Government. Come forward, though late, for the sake of those who depend on you, and make amends for past indifference, whether real or only seeming. Win the blessings of intelligent gratitude, instead of the curses of misguided ignorance. By your zeal, your votes, your remonstrances, ignorance, and sufferings, be earnest for trade; more trade; and all whom trade feeds ; the widow and the orphan whom it supplies with work and shields from starvation. It is the duty which belongs to your position in society. between selfish lawmakers and injured millions. You who make the lawmakers can unmake the misery, Up to your duty, or both Jew and Gentile amongst you must bear the curse of Meroz. A NORWICH WEAVER BOY. PRIVY COUNCIL.-(THIS DAY.) (Continued from our Afternoon Edition.) THE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF GUERNSEY. Mr. ROEBUCK concluded his arguments on behalf of the Crown, and in support of the course pursued by the Lieutenant-Governor. Mr. WADDINGTON followed on the same side, and not having concluded at four o'clock, when their Lordships rose, the further consideration of the case was adjourned till Wednesday next, at ten o'clock. SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OP THIS DAT. GLOBE.—We intimated last week that an anxious wish prevailed among the Liberal members of the Ox ford Convocation, that in dealing with Mr. Ward and his book, the heads of the University would avoid two things. Conceding that it was due to truth and honesty that some steps should be taken to mark with suitable ignominy the attempts now making to reconcile subscrip tion to Protestant articles with the advancement of the in terests of priestcraft, we expressed a hope—first, that there , would be no repetition of the imp,ropriety and folly of submitting theological differences to the arbitration of those sagacious critics, the majority of Convocation; and secondly, that in vindicating its consistency, the Board should avoid adopting extreme measures towards the un fortunate disciple of the Littlemore Pope—of whom we may truly say,:on his own confession, "non sponte suit." We have now before us the actual statute, which ap peared on Friday last, and which we understand was assented to by a large majority of the Oxford Board of Heads, and we think it has sufficiently guarded against both the evils which some had apprehended. No at tempt to submit theological opinions to an incompetent tribunal is made, nor is it proposed to deprive the author of " The Ideal Church " of any pecuniary advantages purchased by his non-natural profession of conformity. The first of the two Statutes proposed, after reciting certain passages of the work, in which (to quote the author's own words) he proposes to show " how the dry wording " (which Dr. Pusey would call the literal sense) " may be divorced from the natural spirit" of the Articles of the Church, " how their prima facie mean ing may be evaded, and the artifice of their inventors be thrown 'Sack and recoil on themselves," and after quoting farther his avowal that "in subscribing the Articles, he renounced no one Roman doctrine," signing them in " non-natural sense, proceeds to remark, that whereas the party notoriously reputed in the University and believed to be the author, had obtained the degrees of ILA. and M.A. on the faith of a subscription which he cancels by his present avowals—he be required to an s wer to the charge of having published passages incon sistent with good faith, and be degraded from the privi leges attached to those degrees. The second statute is of more importance, and is rendered, it seems, necessary by the following circumstance :—A statute is already in ex istence entitling the Vice-Chancellor to summon before him a member accused of heresy, and to require him to purify himself by subscribing to the 89Articles. Most per sons will recollect the not very decent sarcasm of the Vicar of Leeds in his Church Dictionary, when he stated that an Archbishop of the Church of England had purified himself from the suspicion of heresy by signing the Articles on his appointment to his see. Dr. Hook, however, was a good judge of his own friends; and so the Hebdomadal Board seems to think—for the new statute proposes to add to the subscription a declaration that the party subscribing does so in the sense in which they were "pritnitus editi," that is, in 1571, when the impo sition of the articles as tests was first made by the joint authority of a Synod and of Parliament. This is a plain and intelligible proposal. If you take a pledge, take it without equivocation or mental reservation— take it in the sense in which it is meant—in the sense in which its imposers put it—or—support those by your example of refusal who object to subscription altogether. We have no time now for further remark, but shall return to the subject, which, between this and the day of Convocation (February the 13th), will, we anticipate, engross much of public interest—and involve the recon sideration of the whole subject of tests. We hear that the Tractarian section of the Oxford Convocation are disposed to abandon Mr. Ward to his fate—provided they can eject the second statute, w hieh provides a check to their own practice. STANDARD.—A great deal of noise has been made about a few bags of Venezuelan sugar imported at Liverpool. This noise has been made on the ground that the sugar is slave-grown—with how much reason the sugar is said to be slave-grown will appear from the letter of our old and valued correspondent, Mr. M'Queen. Mr. M'.Queen, who has visited Venezuela three times within the last ten years, and who knows more of the commercial geography and statistics of the tropical countries than any man alive, has brought home with him all the, public docu ments of Venezuela, as well as of the other countries that he has visited, and has been kind enough to place the Venezuelan papers in our hands. We prefer, however, to the labour of translating these voluminous documents, to avail ourselves of Mr. M'Queen's own letter. That letters tells that the territory of Venezuela —a territory as large as France—has a population under 900,000, of whom, notwithstanding that slavery has been long abolished by law, about 30,000 (one in thirty) are in a state of qualified slavery, for this sole reason, that the Republic has been hitherto too poor to buy out the liberty of all its slaves, though having made the provision it was able to do so. No slave, however, can be born in Venezuela, for all are born free. No slave can be imported; and even the remnant of the slave population that lingers, notwithstanding large annual redemptions ; and manumissions cannot be transferred from master to master—the thirty thousand slaves—one in thirty of the population, are thus almost necessarily employed as house servants, or in the cultivation of gardens and small farms, and, from the nature of things, cannot be em ployed in sugar grounds. The Venezu e lan su gar , therefore, is neither slave-grown, nor the produce of a country attached to slavery. All the world is not as rich as Great Britain, and able, like her, to buy the freedom of the negro; but the Venezuelans are doing the best they can to imitate our example, and therefore deserve all the encouragement that we can give them. Unfortunately, however, we have little opportunity to encourage the sugar trade, for the country produces little sugar, and it costs a dollar the hundred weight to carry it to the coast. To compare Venezuela in any respect with slave-trading countries, like Cuba and the Brazils, would be the grossest folly as well as injustice. GENERAL NOTT.—We lament to learn that Major- General Nott, now residing at Carmarthen, amongst us, is so seriously ill as to create apprehensions of his ulti mate recovery. The severity of the weather during the past week, it is believed, has been the chief cause of re lapse.--The Welsizman. THE FISHERIES.— Immense quantities of soles (says the Eastern Counties Herald) are weekly imported into Hull and dispatched by railway. One day during the past week 57 paekages, weighing together five tons, were dispatched by train for the London market; and the day preceding, four tons had been forwarded to the same destination. Contrary to the general rule, that when we have large exports, Hull is ill-supplied with fish, the opposite is now the case, for the fishmongers have their stores abundantly supplied with the best. The take is extraordinary. One vessel consigned to the old-established house of Wilson (late Askew, Todd, and Johnson), delivered on Monday last 2,040 pairs, the actual fishing for which had only occupied twenty-four hours. From 50 to 70 vessels, from Yarmouth, Rams gate, and other ports, may daily be seen upon the fishing grounds at sea off Yarmouth. By making Hull, the fishermen have their produce much earlier in the market. All that is landed in Hull on one day, before five o'clock in the afternoon, is in London early in the morning of the next day ; besides which two or three days are saved in every voyage by coming to this port instead of Itamsgate. THE HAGUE, D Ec . 13.—Th e accoun t s received to day of the state of the rivers, announce that they are for the most part entirely frozen over , and passable on foot. Th e nav i gation in all is m' terrup , ted. GUILDHALL. Robert Clffford, a journeyman carpenter, was brought up for re-examination, charged with break ing a policeman's arm, under the following circum stances :—On Sunday morning last Samuel Coveney, a City officer, was on duty at the corner of St. Mar tin's-le-Grand and Newgate street, when the prisoner came up to him, and asked him which was Newgate street. The constable replied that was Newgate street where they were then standing, whereupon the prisoner said it was "a d—d lie," and gave the con stable what is termed " the leg." Coveney fell upon the pavement, and his arm was so much fractured, that the elbow was forced upwards half-way to the shoulder. He was immediately sent to St. Bartholo mew's Hospital, where the injury was found to be of so serious a nature that he was obliged to become an in-patient. Coveney was perfectly sober at the time; the prisoner had been drinking, but appeared to know very well what he was about when taken to the sta tion-house. On Saturday the prisoner was again placed at the bar, when the wounded officer was again unable to attend, as will be seen from the following certificate from the surgeon of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which was handed in : " This is to certify, that Samuel Coveney is not in a fit state to leave his bed and appear before the court of magistrates. " (Signed) "JAMES REID, House Surgeon. " December 14." Alderman JOHNSON said he should remand the pri soner to Saturday, the 21st instant, and ordered him to be placed on low diet. BOW-STREET. William Ledbury, a stamper in the General Post office, was charged with stealing a letter containing 125., the property of the Postmaster-General. Mr. Peacock attended for the prosecution, and called Walter R. Sculthorpe, residing at No. 6, South square, Gray's Inn, one of the presidents at the Post office, who „proved that on Friday afternoon he en closed 2s. ail(' a half sovereign in a letter addressed to Mr. Smurdeh, Chapel.street, Islington. He sealed the letter, after marking the money, and gave it to Mr. Blott, an inspector of letter carriers. Witness, from a communication with Mr. Blott, expected to find the letter among the Islington letters this morn ing, but on searching them he could not discover it. Witness had a communication with the superintending president at ten o'clock, and the stampers, among whom was the prisoner, were sent for into that gen tleman's office. He proposed that they should be searched. They consented, and Tyrrell, the constable, took some money, among which were two shillings, from the pocket of the prisoner. Witness examined the two shillings, and found they were the identica f l shillings he had enclosed in the letter on the previous evening. The prisoner said, after he was in custody, that yesterday (Friday) as he was coming on duty he had changed a sovereign at a Mr. Stevens's, a public- 1 house in Gutter-lan e , an d th a t th e two shillings in 1 • i E ~' i i b Ptt inn Ix r ikk t , fit 4.1%1 tit; 'T I k en , loo k, Of u te. %ft Cim 1 )e 144 4 hitt . h.~