The Sun. — London, England, 1845-01-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING," JANUARY 7, MO. SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS. FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY. GLOBE.—The public balance-sheet, which will be found in another column, will be regarded with general satisfaction by all to whom the prosperity of his country is a source of satisfaction. It not merely shows an excess of income over ex penditure : that might be the result of increased taxation, producing, for a time, an immense revenue wrung from the already diminished means of the community. The finance accounts now before us indicate a steady increase of revenue from those sources of taxation which rise, or fall, according as the trade and commerce of the country is in a state of profitable activity or depression. The " budget" of the approaching session will be looked for with no ordinary anxiety by the bulk of the nation. The " surplus" upon the April quarter— which will include the saving effected by the reduction of the Three-and-a-Half per Cents. to Three-and-a- Quarter per Cents., estimated at 1,300,0001.—wi1l raise the gross revenue at the disposal of the Government to upwards of 3,000,0001. In what way will Sir Robert Peel apportion the relief which this " surplus" will enable him to afford ? The removal of the in come and property-tax at the expiration of the three years for which it was originally imposed, is an almost necessary consequence of the large surplus remaining after the national expenditure has been met. The contingency on which Sir Robert Peel placed his possible application to Parliament for an extension of the period to five years, has not arisen. The country is, happily, in a state which does not require its subjects to be harassed and oppressed by an impost at once inquisitorial in the made of its assessment ; unequal in the distribution of its burdens; and oppressive, by the amount which it wrings from the humbler classes of those engaged in trade and professions. had the resources of the country been as flourishing as they now are, there would have been no pretext for the income-tax, to which Sir Robert Peel flew, as by an instinctive im pulse, because it was a means of revenue of all others the most odious in the eyes of the nation. Nor can it be forgotten that the estimate which Sir Robert Peel gave of the probable amount of the proposed in come-tax fell far short of the sum it has actually realised. His estimate of its yearly produce was 3,770,0001.; its actual produce in the past year, when it may be fairly taken to have settled down into some thing like its legitimate results, is 5,190,000/. ; being an excess over the Premier's estimate of 1,420,0001. This excess over the estimated sum it would produce, constitutes a ground on which the nation may rest its claim for a discontinuance of the tax. The nation will have paid a larger sum than it was originally proposed should be raised by means of the tax within a given period. It has, therefore, a right—irrespec tive of other considerations, which tend to show that the imposition was wholly unnecessary—to be re lieved from the load. STANDARD. —We this day insert what we are happy to consider the close of the correspondence between the Provost of Oriel and the Bishop of Exeter. We must, however, add, that our satisfac tion at the termination of the correspondence, does not arise from any disapprobation of the tone of either of the writers ; on the other hand, the correspondence on both sides is a model of the style in which gentlemen and Christians ought to treat each other when they state their differences;] a model which we could wish to see generally imitated ; we rejoice that the correspondence has terminated, solely because we must always regard with pain any dispute between men whom we are bound to venerate and to love. Akin to this feeling is the satisfaction with which we publish the first letter of the admirable series with which we have been honoured by our correspodent " A Provincial." Without being Puseyites, as a Shrewsbury journal (patronised, if not written, we believe, by Mr. Ben jamin Disraeli the Younger) asserts we are, we feel that it is high time to pause in a popular agitation, when we find men proposing to carry the system of the Church for repair to a Parliament in part con stituted of Socinians and other Infidels, Protestant Dis senters, and Roman Catholics. This, we submit, is a warning that we may be going wrong, not in opposing the Tractarian heresy, but in the manner of opposing it. We wish the Church to be re-established by the Church, not by a mixed Parliament. Let the true friends of the Church look to the course taken by the authorities at Oxford, and they will see that the greatest of the Universities is nobly doing its duty in the right way—prostrating a system of falsehood founded on a vile fraud, by cutting away the root of the fraud. We trust that the Bishops, who have it completely In their power to put an end to Tractarian preaching, andmay by their just influence, supported as they will be by the people, put an end to Tractarian practices—we trust that the Bishops, whose complete power to extinguish the heresy it were gross hypocrisy to affect to doubt, will but imitate the authcrities at Oxford, and we shall not be under the ignominious necessity of supplicating Mr. Joseph Hume and Mr. Torn Dun combe, Mr. Benjamin Hawes and Mr. Benjamin Disraeli, Mr. Dan. O'Connell and Mr. Patrick Somers, to reform the orders of our Church. Mean while, let us give the Bishops time, and a calm op. loortunity to obviate the necessity of appealing to the lay Church reformers named, and others like them. 'The Oxford statute is now the great object—let ali energies be bent to carry that. If this statute fail. ' we see no resource but the terrible appeal to Par liament. FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT. CHRONICLE. —We are not aware that a Govern ment based on such a foundation as that of the Peel Administration has had its place in English history. There have, no doubt, been coalitions, and there have been compromises ; but the principle, or want of prin ciple, has been avowed, and a mysterious mixture of new practices and old opinions has never heretofore been palmed upon a Parliament. We do not defend alto gether the great coalition between Fox and Lord North; it has the common defect of coalitions to an eminent de gree, and whatsoever the grounds on which party writers of the day rested its justification, it undermined and lowered the public estimation of public men. But when Mr. Fox and Lord North combined, the America', war, about which there had been such grave differences, had closed, and although persons without long rromorie could not but be scandalised at a sudden reconciliation. for party purposes, between chiefs who for so many years. and with such vehemence of invective, had denounced each other, the real points of difference had yielded to events, and the new class of questions which origi nated about the period of the Frenchßevolution, and which have since so altogether occupied in their several phases the thoughts of politicians, had not then come into vita. lay. Nor at that period of the history of the House of Brunswick were principles so accurately defined as they had been in the reigns of the two first Georges, or as they were subsequently, in the meridian of George 111 The politics of England up to 1745 were dynastic and anti-dynastic. The Whigs and the moderate Tories were for the House of Hanover, and made up the dynastic party. The Tories, and many of the old families, were for the Stuarts, and constituted a sort of anti-dynastic party, not differing much from that which has existed since the Revolution of July in France, but which, in all probability, will gradually become absorbed into the ranks of the Phtlippist monarchy, just as the Jacobites of Cheshire and Lancashire, as soon as they found they had a real High Church King, fell into the ranks of King George 111., and supported him, on monarchical principles, through the American and French re volutions. If our readers will turn to the diaries and memoirs of those times—those, for instance, of Horace Walpole and Bubb Doddington— they will not fail to be astonished at the menagerie of parties. Politics, in a great measure, were personal. If a Minister offended a Member of Parliament, the gen tleman went into Opposition. If the Crown did not bow to a Peer, the magnate, with all his cousins and his boroughs, went over to the Prince of Wales. Fox and Pitt were retained at the commencement of a session, pretty much as Sir William Follett is, to conduct an im portant case ; sometimes they were together, sometimes on different sides—sometimes Fox led Pitt, the latter consoling himself in lucrative isolation—sometimes Pitt led Fox, the latter maintaining a sort of sulky amity, and indemnifying himself by the well-paid office of the Pay muter for loss of dignity. But these times are over. Politics became more stable in the school of the second Fox, at whose feet the leading Whigs of modern times were brought up, and a more definite system of party honour was established. The Tories under Pitt were also still more banded. They basked for the first thirty years of the present century in the exclusive enjoyment of power and place, and they established themselves and their party on the basis of a general resistance to im provement, and an inflexible enmity to change. In this school Sir R. Peel had his education. mo nopoly, however, monopol , h o wever, of-the Tories was brok en up by the death of Lord Liverpool ; and although the Duke of Wellington and Sir R. Peel maintained a struggle of some 4ars against the advancing intelligence of the age, and com promised themselves to an inconvenient extent against such plain axioms as religious liberty, religious tolera tion, Parliamentary reform , and negro as well as Catholic ema ncipation, the irresistible current of events ran the other way, and the stationary party of the Tories was hurled from power. We well remember the appearance of Sir IL Peel in the first session of the reformed Par liament. He scarcely knew his position ; isolated, or nearly so, by the mighty stream of popular opinion, to which his impolicy and want of foresight in the case of East Retford had given indefinite augmentation, he trod the floor of the House of Commons as a tourist walks about tEtna or Vesuvius. For a time he bent gently, like a willow, a weeping willow perhaps, to the tempest and the storm. The impetuous career of Lord Stanley on the side of the people had not then closed, and Sir James Graham at that period had not addicted himself to baroraetical observation on the state of parties. ties For a time all was well. Sir R. Peel ac cepted the new order of events, and rumours were not wanting that the chief of the Conservatives would shortly connect himself with Lord Grey, and be glad to take his share in the practical regeneration of our insti lutions. In an evil hour, however, for his fame and his country, he took a widely different course, connected Itln2self with the surviving leaders of the Tory host, re arse hied the scattered members of the party. and avail ing hiotself of the secession of Lord Stanley and his Joh lowers from the Whigs, pitched the old Tory camp, with &l its ancient intolerance towards Ireland, and with all its inveterate addiction to monopoly, under a new name. In the years which followed we find him playing the part of a sort of Pulteney against Lord Melbourne. He crippled the education of the people by intermingling religious animosity with that sacred cause. He laid the foundation of the anti-Saxon nationality of Ireland by obstructing all the measures, so wise and peaceful, of the late Administration. He has jeopardized for ever the legitimate claims of the landed interest, by repudi ' sting a compromise which would have settled, for the next half century to come, a source of discord which is disturbing the relations of social life, and separating, by the ties of selfishness and imaginary gain, the great interests of town and country throughout the empire. He became, in fact, the champion of a faction, when circumstances put it into his power to hare been the mediator between parties. He lost the golden opportunity of establishing a Go vernment in avowed conformity to progression, and by associating himself with persons notoriously indisposed to consult the temper Of the age, he placed himself in the disagreeable position of an apparent identity of pre judice, and he has since found himself in the still more disagreeable position of being forced by circumstances to disavow his second Toryism, and to throw his Ad ministration on the mercy of the House of Commons, by a wholesale piracy of the measures of his opponents. We do not, of course, object to useful measures. Con ciliation towards Ireland is better, far better, than bayo nets—the recal of Lord De Grey is worth half a hun dred batteries ; but we have a right to say that if the measures of the present Ministry are right, nothing can excuse the factiousness of the late opposition. If it be right to recognise the Irish Prelates, to place their .Arch bishops in precedency to temporal Earls, and to give a Catholic bishop the pas: before a Protestant dean—if it be right to augment the resources of Maynooth in the way indicated in the letter of our Dublin correspondent, and to extend to others than Protestants the immuni ties and privileges of Trinity College, Dublin—if it be right in Lord Heytesbury to receive the Roman hier archy with courtesy at his levees, and to recognise them on all occasions as the priesthood of the people—we will not attempt to designate the course of those who de nounced the initiate justice of Lord Normanby, or im pair the fair chances of success which this dexterous experiment may bring about, by contrasting the present with the past, or by drawing a portraiture of Sir Ro bert Peel from 1836 to 1841, at the he head of the Jack sons and the Lefroys, with the M`Neiles and Stowels in his train—opposing the moderate arrangements of Lord Morpeth for Irish Church reform, stigmatising the la mented Mr. Drummond for a sentiment which is now incorporated amongst English axioms, and raised by men of every party to the first dignity amongst maxims. It is no wish of ours to recur unnecessarily to what is past. Political necessity is the mother of strange com pliances.. The campaigns of opposition might have re quired such stimulants. But be this as it may, the aspect of things before us—whether we contemplate the tardy change, at the close of last session, in the Irish policy of the Government, or indulge in conjectural esti mates of their future course—justifies us in the conviction that by the success of the Whig system, and by the failare of the Tory, one thing is proved, and that to demonstration, namely, that Ireland mu3t no longer be trifled with for party purposes as it hitherto has been ; and that Sir R. Peel, whatever his past conduct may have been, must be supported by the Liberal party, if, upon the opening of Parliament, he produces—as it is rumoured he intends to do—measures in coincidence with the expectations ho has raised. The Liberal Parliament gave him credit for agreement with them in the abstract. By the recal of Lord De Grey he has secured to himself and to Lord Eliot full scope for administrative liberty. There is no Castle wherein the contumacy of Orangemen will have a sanctuary ; Phcenix Park will no longer be a sort of Leicester House, in opposition to her Majesty's Prime Minister. As for Sir R. Inglis, he will have enough to do at Oxford before Easter, and it will not be neces say next session to put off all useful bills till the lion. Baronet is out of England, and fairly landed at Wiesbaden. TIMES.—The perturbation of the Ministerial ma jority on the first preliminary vote of the French Chamber, and its recovery on the second division, are striking exemplifications of the truth of the remarks we made the last time we adverted to this subject. They have exhibited more conspicuously than before the ennipotence of a party, not altogether unknown at other times in the British House of Commons, which boasts of the title of " the King's friends :" and the practice of the ballot enables these pliant servitors of the Court to bowstring a Minister with as much certainty and secresy as the mutes of a Turkish seraglio. Such, however, was not on this occasion the purpose or intention of the 'sovereign. Ile has contented himself with giving 'iis Ministers what children and old maids calls a fright ; and the effect of this sudden impulse of the royal mind was so transient as to be set down to accident. Like most accidents of the same kind which occur between Cabinets and Kings, it tends very visibly to strengthen the personal power of' the Sove reign at the expense of' the dignity of his advisers and the consistency of their adherents. The springing if this little mine, which alarmed the garrison with- out making a breach in the walls, will tend, if we are not mistaken, to embarrass the proceedings of the Oppo sition in the approaching general assault. It turns out that the chief weakness of the Government is not with )ut, but within their camp ; their dangers are in the intrigues of the Opposition with the Court, not in their invectives in the Chamber ; and those tactics have been tarried to such an extent, that the aspirants for office seem to have abandoned even the pretext of an attack in the system of the Government to concentrate all their vehemence on the persons who compose it. If we are to attach any credit to the leading organs of the French )pposition, they yield to nobody, now-a-days, in their seal for peace and their respect for the English alliance. ['hey protest they will only beat M. Guizot by a better ise of his own weapons, and they engage not only to do what he has attempted, but to perfect what he has left indone. They were his antagonists—they have become its rivals. These professions must not be construed oo literally, nor must they be too contemptuously -ejected or discredited. The cause of peace cannot but ;ain by any change which makes it the interest of he Opposition to preach peace instead of war ; and we -eadily believe that both in France and England he party who have talked most of war were thoroughly nsincere, and only used these high-sounding words as a weans of throwing dirt at the Ministry. The shots Limed at M. Guizot took effect upon us, though, it must ie confessed, the balls were spent before they reached is ; the hooting of the Minister was converted into a sue and cry against England, and if in our supposed alliance with the French Foreign Secretary he shared my of our power, we certainly came in for a more than iroportionate share of his obloquy. Such a division of urofita is neither agreeable nor just ; but it is an inevit ,ble inconvenience of a party preference in a foreign country. We have repeatedly seen the effects of these unlucky predilections in the less powerful States of the world, and they have proved a halter round the necks if our best friends on several important occasions in )pain, and Greece, and elsewhere. A Government hat cannot exist without that sort of foreign support very soon unable to repay that foreign support, even iy the ordinary courtesies of friendly Powers ; it ither denies its benefactors or sinks into complete liscredit ; every act of common civility is stigma ised as a base concession, and we invariably get east from those who claim most from us. The same inciple applies, though of course to a very different -xtent and in a very different manner, to our relations with the French Government itself. The moment it is ,elieved, however erroneously, that the whole strength f the Ministry is derived from the English alliance, hat alliance becomes virtually powerless and inefficient. if that union exists for the purpose of keeping in this or hat Cabinet, in either country, it is contemptible ; if it s maintained for the real purpose of uniting the policy and interests of the two nations, it is the glory of our •ime and the basis of the peace of the world. At a )eriod when, by the confession of all parties in France, the differences between them are reduced to mere shades if distinction, and the whole warfare of the political world is conducted by closet intrigues or personal attacks, with which we have nothing in the world to do, it is uot only convenient, but absolutely necessary for us, as Euglish politicians, to insist upon our neutrality in all such party contests. Our object is to be on good terms ,with France, without being dependent on this or that Minister. God forbid that the pacific relations of the two !ountries should depend on anything so precarious as a French Cabinet! Without doubt, when those relations were in serious jeopardy, the energy and prudence of he French Government succeeded in resisting the in temperance and indiscretion of the Opposition ; but it is ,n erroneous assumption to suppose that the same ele ments of discord are still raging against us on the other side of the channel ; and the truth is, that the organs of :hose dangerous opinions have been not only conquered, .at, what is better, converted. And we can bring no higher testimony to the success of the policy of the two '..;abinets of England and France, than the fact that their ppunents are now seeking not to resist or undo their work, but to turn it to their own purposes, by professing L still greater zeal than that of the authors of the system. .Ve have said thus much before the opening of the de iate on the Address in the French Chamber, because, if this disposition of the Opposition has been corrottly ex ,,ressed by themselves and reported abroad, the issue of the conflict will be of comparatively little importance. It is extremely probable that M. Guizot, awakened from my excessive confidence which he may before have en tertained by the discovery of the late intrigue, will crush sis rivals in debate, and obtain his usual majority ; but -f he falls, we have no reason to doubt that a Conserva tive and pacific policy will still he pursued in France, and probably with a gr eater freedom of action in favour so unentangled t o s this country. The stahteatof the e e w t h ri o o le co tr u o n t t h rie m s for tunatelyaisyhoor we t o s hall see spokenno attempts outright to o n I d ai w n e g t o r e u a s t t io t n b s at varnish aiip n o t's ver a p n prejudices or boasting of baseless negotiations. be get dangerous errors, by giving countenance to Unfounded HERALD.—Sir Robert Peel has now fully and en tirely accomplished one of the great objects for which the nation, sick and endangered by Whig quackery, " called him in," in Mil. He has restored the national finances. The last two years of Whig Government, if we take our view at the period of the year at which we have now arrived, furnished the following account of the national revenue : Year ending Jan., lE4O Year ending Jan., 1841 While the account just now published stands as follows : Year ending Jan., 1845 Perhaps some Radical, or some unthinking person, who is not a Radical, may exclaim, " Well, there is nothing to boast of here ! Sir Robert Peel has laid on a pro perty-tax, and has thus managed to screw more money out of an overburdened people than they before yielded, ,Ind that is all !" No, it is not all. For be it observed, that to raise a large revenue by fair means—by means which shall not cripple trade or destroy commerce, is not by any means the easiest thing in the world. The immediate cause of the utter failure of the Whigs in 1841 was just that they could not do this one thing—. could not raise the needful revenue by means which Par liament would sanction or the nation bear. First, being unable to invent any new impost, Mr. Baring quietly added 5 per cent. to the existing duties, supposing, as a matter of course, that every 1001. would become 105/. But he soon found out his error. The 1001. remained 1001. still, and obstinately refused to increase and multiply at his bidding. Grown frantic at this disappointment, and at their wit's end what to do next, the Whigs, as has been often observed, " set the house on fire in the hope of being able to run away by the light of it." They boldly proposed, by way of improving the revenue, to ruin at one blow our farmers at home and our colonies abroad, on the pretext that the Customs' duties would be increased by the admission of foreign corn and slave-grown sugar. Utterly disgusted at such undisguised quackery, Parlia ment, by a distinct vote, declared its confidence with drawn, and the nation, on a general election, put the Whigs out of office by a majority of 90. And thus the reign of empiricism ended, and that of statesmanship re commenced. For, however unpleasing the fact may be, it is not the less true, that it is a principal duty incum bent on an English Minister, to discover the means of raising nearly fifty millions of annual revenue in an equitable and not oppressive manner. And to say that this has been effected, is, in fact, to say, that the Mi nister has adequately performed one of his most im portant functions. The Whigs took office in 1830, with a surplus of 2,667,000/, handed over to them by Mr. Goulburn, the retiring Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1841, Mr. Baring, when opening his last budget, was obliged to confess, that on the most favourable view he could take, there was a deficit of nearly the same amount I In fact the real deficiency must have been much larger, for Mr. Baring stated his expenditure at 50,731,7661.; while his income, in January of that year, appeared to be only 44,746,400/. This state of things was becoming matter of just alarm, and there can be no doubt that the Whigs felt it to be such, and were but too happy to escape from a responsibility which was growing serious. A nation whose expenditure exceeds Its income by two or three millions per annum, must be daily plunging into fresh difficulties and dangers. Its cre ditors must gradually lose confidence. Its securities must decline in the public esteem. Its enemies, mean while, must daily become more and more alive to the perplexities which surround it. Thus the downward course would be fearfully rapid. A vast empire, like that of England, spread over the whole globe, and open to attack at every point, must mainly be defended by its internal character—by the known valour of its troops whenever called into action, and by the known vastness of its pecuniary resources whenever required to be exhibited. And the first moment that should ex hibit such an empire, either without defenders, or with out the means of sustaining them, would leave her, like some huge carcase among the vultures of the desert, an instant prey to myriads of assailants. This may appear far-fetched and improbable; but the confusion into which the Whigs had thrown our finances in 1841 had made even this a possible supposition. The extent of that confusion may in some measure be estimated by the fact, that it has taken Sir Robert Peel three years to restore matters to a healthy condition. That task he has now successfully accomplished ; and if he were to resign the helm to-morrow, and never more to appear in public life, he might exultingly look back on the three years which have just concluded as those in which he fully and triumphantly restored the financial credit and prosperity of the British empire. POST.—Beyond all question the present state of the public finances of this country is, per se, a legitimate ground of Ministerial congratulation and triumph. When we consider what the state of the public finances was when Sir Robert Peel obtained office, and what it is after three years of his administration, we must own that in this point he has been most successful. Whether he has taken the best way of increasing the public re venue of the country is, no doubt, open to discussion, and many men of ability and experience are of opinion that equally good results as regards the Exchequer might have been arrived at with much better results as regards the general condition of the people. But the iu portant fact is indisputable that whereas, for several consecutive years, the Whigs had gone on with a public annual revenue considerably below the annual expen diture—since the accession of the Government calling itself Conservative, this bad state of things has been re versed, and the public revenue of the country has been made to exceed the expenditure. The Government, we say, deserves to have credit for this fact, and we do not see how any one who is not dishonest, or driven out of his right mind by the acrimony of party spleen, can refuse to Go vernment the credit of having effected this great and salutary change. But while this matter of fact, by itself, is a fair ground for praise of the Administration, we must take leave to protest against the nonsense, and the sycophancy of certain inventors and publishers of fl At tering inferences from the state of the public revenue. Surely these people would be more discreet if they bridled their tongues a little, and restrained their pens from exaggeration and fulsomeness. They tell us that it is a necessary inference from the state of the public revenue that the country is highly prosperous. What dc, they mean by this word " prosperous ?" We know they would have the world believe that, as the Minister has succeeded in obtaining a revenue greater than the expenditure, so he has succeeded in improving the general condition of the people ; but will they ven ture to say plainly that there is good evidence upon which sensible and observing men may rely that the iin provr-naent in the general condition of the people is similar to that in the public finances? Some people we know have not any other standard of the prosperity of the country than the prosperity of the public finances. So far as they are concerned, the affirmation that the state of the revenue proves the .country to be prosperous is merely the affir mation of an identical proposition. The prosperity of the revenue is the prosperity of the country—the revenue is prosperous, therefore the country is prosperous. Granting the first assumption, we cannot deny the infe rence. But experience will not confirm the proposition that the prosperity of the revenue is the same thing as the prosperity of the general condition of the people. It may be (as a Member of the Government has ad mitted in the House of Commons), that the rich are growing more rich, while the poor are growing more poor. In that case, a direct tax on wealth, which dues not touch incomes below 1501. a-year, may swell the coffers of the Exchequer, while poverty is sorely pinch ing the lower orders— " While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below." For let us remember that, though the revenue de rived from taxes on consumption is improving upon what it was two years ago, it scarcely yet equals what it was in the worst time of Whig mismanagement, and it is very far below what it was when the population was but two-thirds of its present amount, if so much, and when the people appeared to have no difficulty iti paying the heavy taxation. That there is direct evi dence of the greatly improved condition of a portion of the labouring people in the manufacturing districts, from what it was in the first year of the present Administra tion, we admit ; but the direct evidence as regards the agricultural districts is quite the other way ; and in the face of such evidence it is folly to ask the world to infer that farming labourers are prosperous because the public revenue shows a large increase of receipts, One Ministerial writer asks, with anile simplicity, !tether it can be that the agriculturists suffer while the home and foreign markets are manifestly so pro sperous ? The answer is that the home market for agricultural produce is not prosperous. If thousands of able-bodied labourers are seeking work, at from a shilling to fifteenpence a day, and cannot obtain even that, shall we tell Hodge and Giles, and the rest, that they must be prosperous, since Mr. Goulburn is rubbing his hands cheerfully as he contemplates the state of the Exchequer ? If the union workhouses be getting too full, notwithstanding the general hatred of them—if discontent prevail, and agricultural property be burned by stupid wretches whom want has made desperate— shall we say, nevertheless, that all must be well since the public revenue is in a prosperous condition ? A Whig and free-trading journalist, with the habitual au dacity of Whigs and tree-traders in forcing matters of fact into conformity with their theories, makes no scruple of asserting, point blank, that trade in our manufacturing towns is trade for Essex, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk—that bustle in the manufacturing implies a mitigation of distress in the agricultural districts. People who write in this way would make no hesitation in saying (if it suited the party purpose of the hour) that the scarcity of chalk implied the dearth of green cheese. At this moment they would willingly transfer the wheatgrowing business of Essex and Norfolk to Poland and Upper Canada ; and if the business of Manchester increased, in conse quence, they would insist that Essex and Norfolk must be all the more prosperous, although their occupation was gone, and the land was receding into sheep-walks or barrenness. There is nothing too monstrous for poli tical bigotry—nothing too servile for political syco phancy. Rational observers of public affairs will, how ever, take facts as they find them—give credit where credit is clue, and not hesitate to condemn where disap probation appears reasonable, and likely to be useful. THE ARMY. (From the Limerick Chronicle, Jan. 1.) • A strong troop of the 4th Dragoon Guards, under Major Hodge, from this garrison, two companies of the 35th depot from Nenagh, and Captain Cole's com pany, 15th, from Killaloe, made an extensive detour of the country on Monday last in search of fire-arms, in part of the disturbed district of Tipperary, includ ing Birdhill, Derry, O'Brien Bridge, Keeper Hill, Silvermines, and neighbourhood of Killaloe, accom panied by Lord Dunally, John Bayly, Esq., Major Priestley, K. 11., from Nenagh, with a strong police force. Captain Capel's company, 15th Regiment, is ordered from this garrison on detachment to Newport, where barrack accommodation has been secured. The com pany will march on Saturday. First Lieutenant Lugard, Royal Engineers, in this district, is promoted to the rank of second captain in that force. Lieut.-Colonel F. Maunsell, 85th, landed at Bar badoei, and has sailed for St. Vincent, to take the command of head-quarters, Major French returning to command the depOt, now in Derry. Captain Coape, Lieuts. Keyt and Ogilvy, 85th, had relieved the Grenadier company, 46th, under Capt. Peacocks, at Berbice, which then returned to Barba,does head quarters. Dep. Assist. Commis. General M'Mahon, in charge of the Commissariat at St. Lucia, has preferred charges against Lieut. King, Royal Artillery, and Ensign Argentil, 3d West India Regiment. Lieut. Colonel Bush, Ist West India Regiment, is ordered from Demerara to preside at the court-martial. The House of Assembly at Grenada presented an address to Major Maclean, the officers, and men of the 48th, on quitting that island for Barbadoes. The 7th or Royal Fusiliers have embarked at Giitcaltar, in the itesistame troop-ship, for Jamaica, to relieve the 46th Regiment on the `Veit India sta tion, and which embarks early in spring for Canada. Major Rawnsley's company, Royal Artillery, marched from Athlone for Dublin on Monday, and will arrive on Saturday next, to embark for Woolwich. A detachment of Captain Tylden's company, Royal Artillery, will arrive at Cork, on Saturday next, from Duncannon Fort. This day, an officer, ser geant, and 20 gunners of Captain tylden's company, left Derry for Banagher, to be stationed. The 73d, in Dublin, expect to change quarters with the 65th, in Castlebar. A company of the 69th is ordered from Temple more to Borrisokane, there to be stationed. The 66th Regiment has sent a recruiting party from Dublin to Boyle. Lieut. Edmund Peel, 11th or Prince Albert's Own Hussars, has been appointed aide-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Sergeant Joseph Taylor, on the staff of pensioners in Tralee, and late quartermaster serjeant of the depbt, Ist Battalion Royal Regiment, has been pre sented with a medal and gratuity for long service and meritorious conduct. The Ist battalion Ist Royal Regiment Depot, Clare Castle, have sent a recruiting party to Ennistimon, county Clare, in place of Enniskillen. Recruiting parties 6th Regiment, Richmond Bar racks, Dublin, have marched for Castle Connell and Newcastle, there to be stationed. Monsygall, Borrisokane, and Newport, will only he occupied by troops at present. The company, 35th, at Portumna, under Lieutenant Henry and Ensign' Morton, which was under orders to join the head quarters at Nenagh, will remain, being counter manded. A company 34th Regiment, Athlone, arrived at Carrick-on-Shannon on Christmas-day, from head quarters, and occupied barracks. Major Harrison's company of the Bth battalion Royal Artillery, consisting of First Lieutenants O'Connell, M'Crea, and Smyth, 3 sergeants, 2 bom bardiers, 48 gunners, 1 trumpeter, 9 women, and 13 children, embarked at Kingstown on the 27th Dec. on board of her Majesty's steam-vessel Dee, for con, veyance to Cork, and on landing marched for Bal- I incollig. Captain Stokes' Company of the 6th battalion Royal Artillery, consisting of First Lieut. Hon. W. C. Yelverton, Second Lieut. Baddely, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 2 bombardiers, 1 farrier, 1 wheeler, 1 car riage smith, 1 shoeing smith, 62 gunners and drivers, embarked at Cork, yesterday, for Bristol, en route to Woolwich, to join head-quarters. Royal Marine Artillery, Spike Island—A detach ment of one sergeant and five gunners marched from Cork, 26th December, for Tarbert Fort, Shannon River. _ _ . The third and last division of the 67th Regiment, three companies, under the command of Major Orange, consisting of 2 captains, 1 subaltern, 20 sergeants, 3 drummers, 171 rank and file, 23 women and 32 children, arrived at Kingstown from Liverpool, on the evening of Christmas-day, were disembarked, and proceeded by railway to Dublin, and occupy Richmond and Island-bridge Barracks. MovEstetcr or TROOPS.—Quartermaster General's Office, Dublin Castle, Dec. 2, 1844. Memorandum. —ln all marches of troops in Ireland, and in all embarkations coastwise, or to England and Scot land, reports will be made to this office immediately after the march is ended, or the troops have dis embarked, or have arrived at their destinations, show ing how the troops have been billetted or accom modated on board ship ; also showing whether the marches were long or harassing, or whether the men have suffered from the inclemency of the weather, either by land or on ship board ; also showing if the provisions were good. Anything extraordinary will be reported. These reports will be made direct from the officer commanding the division or detachment, addressed to the Quartermaster- General, Dublin, by post, and not through any other commanding officer; the object of which is that this office may be put in possession of the required information as soon as pos sible after the march or voyage shall have been corn pleted.—By order of the Lieutenant-General com manding.—Signed, &c. Major-General Turner inspected the 16th Regi ment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, and a division of the 61st Regiment, in the barrack square, Cork, on Friday. Captain J. H. Rutherford, Royal Engineers, has been allowed to retire upon full pay, after thirty-one years' service. A COUNTY WITHOUT A FIRE ENGINE. DOLGELLET.—A. fire broke out on Friday, the 27th ult., at Dolgun Hall, near this town ; and we regret to state that this splendid mansion has been totally destroyed. The fire was discovered at about half-past one o'clock in the afternoon ; but it evidently had been burning for some time. Information was immediately dispatched to this town, when the fire bell was rung, and the town-crier went his rounds. All the tradesmen, and others having men in their employ, readily sent assistance to the spot; and, on arrival at the scene of destruction, they set about to save the furniture, and with such right good will did they work, that the whole of the building where the fire did not rage was cleared of everything moveable. Mr. Lewis, the proprietor, has not been in the county for a twelvemonth, owing to ill health. The house had been built eighteen years ago, at an expense of about 10,0001., and was most magnificently furnished, but it has not yet been ascertained whether there was any insurance effected. We have, on several occa sions, adverted to the circumstance of there being no fire-engine at Dolgelley, or in the county of Merio neth ! ! and we trust that, after this other sacrifice, something will now be done towards providing so necessary a thing for the preservation of life and pro perty. It was qu►te evident to all at Dolgun, when the fire first showed itself, that, with an engine, it might easily have been put out.—Carnarvon Herald. POLICE INTELLIGENCE. MARLBORO UGif-STREET. EMBEZZLEMENT.—Georye Edwards was brought be fore Mr. Maltby, charged with having embezzled various sums of money, the property of his master, Samuel Sug gett, baker, No. 85, Margaret-street, Cavendish square. Mr. Suggett said the prisoner had been in his service about three months. He was authorised to collect bills, but as soon as the money was received it was his duty to pay it over to him. The prisoner was ascertained to have received a number of bills from various customers, which he had never accounted for. Mrs. Amelia Barber, of No. 9, Market-street, proved that she paid the prisoner a sum of ten shillings on ac count of his master. Mrs. Elizabeth Laming, 58, Castle-street, proved that she paid the prisoner seven shillings and fourpence for his master, and Mrs. Martha Adams, No. 15, Hamilton-place, proved she paid a bill of four shillings, for bread, to the prisoner. Mr. Suggett said none of the above amounts had been paid into his hands. The prisoner, in defence, said he knew nothing about the amounts in question.—Committed. MATRIMONIAL MONOMANIA.—Ana Nunn, a well. dressed woman, between thirty and forty years of age, possessing no very remarkable personal attractions, was charged with having importuned William Simmons, tailor, of No. 200, Oxford-street, with so much pertina city as to create a serious annoyance to himself and an obstruction to his business. From the statement of Mr. Simmons it appeared that the female laboured under a delusion that he intended, or else that he ought, to marry her. She constantly pre sented herself at his shop, conjuring him, in the most pathetic way, to accede to her matrimonial proposition. It was in vain that he appealed to the police to take her away. She was no sooner free from the constable than she ran back and repeated her unwelcome solicitations. Mr. MALTBY asked the complainant if anything had occurred to sanction the defendant's delusion ? Mr. Simmons declared that no promise on his part, nor any familiarity, could warrant the female's conduct. The only way in which he could account for the infatua tion was by supposing that the defendant was Not quite right in her head. The defendant, who appeared quite absorbed by her attachment, said, in a low voice, that the complainant would not call upon her, so she was obliged to call upon him. Ile had promised to marry her a twelvemonth ago, and she was resolved that he should not dally with her any longer. Mr. MALTBY—Unless you promise to keep away from the complainant's shop I must order you to find bail. Defendant— I'll keep away—not unless he promises to come and see me. The complainant declared there was no truth in the assertion that he had promised the defendant marriage. Mr. MALTBY thought the father of the defendant ought to be required to restrain his daughter's be • haviour, and he should, therefore, advise the constable to take her to her home and leave her in the charge of her friends. Police-constable English tcok the defendant to her father's, a tailor, in Windmill-street, but very soon afterwards returned with both daughter and father, in consequence of the daughter having as soon as relieved from custody made her way once more to the corn plainant's"shop in Oxford-street. The father said he was quite at a loss to account for the infatuation of his daughter. She was sane on all points, except as far as regarded her matrimonial passion for the complainant. The origin of his daughter's at tachment was from the circumstance of her having worked as waistcoat maker in the same shop where the com plainant was formerly employed. After some expostulation, the defendant gave a half promise that she would not go to the shop In Oxford street again. The complainant quitted the court. The defendant, on being released, was observed to break away from her friends and to follow the com plainant. MARYLEBONE. ASSAULTING ♦ND WOUNDING WITH AN Ax.E.—Yes- Thomas Macnamara, a tall, well-dressed man, who de scribed himself as a schoolmaster, living at 34, Rich mond-street, Lisson-grove, was charged before Mr. Rawlinson with having out and wounded with an axe police-constable Flannagan, No. 41, of the S division. A surgeon's certificate was produced, setting forth that the sufferer was unable to attend, and that it was necessary that he should, from the condition he was in, be kept at present perfectly quiet Policeman Kell, 333 S, deposed that yesterday morn ing, about two o'clock, while he was on duty in North street, St. John's-wood, he heard the springing of a rattle and loud cries for assistance from Richmond-street. He proceeded to the spot, and in the passage of the pri soner's house saw him and Flaunagan struggling to gether. The former had an axe in his hand, which wit ness saiv , d from him, and then took him into custody. Mr. RawuNsoN—Did you observe at the time that Flannagan had received any injury ? Witness—l did ; the blood was streaming down his cheek, and I saw that he had two wounds upon his head. Mr. ItamLuasoN—What was said when you took the prisoner in charge ? Witness—The prisoner's brother was there, and Flannagan, the constable, said that the prisoner had threatened to shoot him with a pistol, but that he laid hold of the axe instead, and with it struck him. The prisoner's answer to the charge was, that he had a party, and that Flannagan,his wife, and others of the family were present. Some words arose between him and Flannagan, the latter of whom must, if he was wounded at all, have injured himself by running against the axe, which he (prisoner) had taken up to cut some wood, in ordar to light a tire. The prisoner was ultimately liberated on his entering into security, himself in 1001., and producing two re spectable housekeepers to put in bail to the amount of 501. each, for his being forthcoming on Wednesday (to morrow). QUEEN• SQUARE. Yesterday John Gough, a - man between 30 and 40 years of age, was charged with having obtained various sums of money by fraudulent pretences. The prisoner had been for about eighteen months in the service of the late Mr. Joseph Hall, carver, of No. 8, Broadway, Westminster, and on the death of that gentleman in June last, was continued in the service by Mr. Hall's son, who succeeded to the business. In Sep tember last the accused was discharged, and it was sub sequently ascertained that he had, both before and sub sequent to his dismissal, obtained various sums of money from persons with whom his employer was acquainted. The course pursued by the fellow was calculated to do a wick -ter tradesman considerable injury amongst his connexions. The two following cases, which were deemed sufficient to sier. G send fo e r o t r r g i e al, H w a i l l l l , serve to No. 16, I s 6 h , ow zo t i4 h , e er sy ß st r e u m ns : A Brunswick-ter race, Barnsbury-road, Islington, said that he knew pri soner well, as one of the men in his deceased brother's employ. On the 2d of October prisoner came to him with a note, purporting to be from his nephew, Mr. Joseph Hall, of No. 8, Broadway, Westminster, repre senting that he had a heavy bill which became due that day, and requesting the loan of a few pounds. Witness gave him 10/., for which prisoner signed a receipt. Mr. William Wilson, of 55, Jrucifix-street, Bermond sey, stated that he had known Mr. Hall and his family for some years by having done business with them. In September last prissner came to him and said that Mr. Hall had come that day to that side of the water without any money in his pocket, and would feel obliged if he would lend him ten shillings. It appeared by the repre sentation made by prisoner that his master was in the neighbourhood, and witness immediately lent ten shil lings. In about a fortnight afterwards prisoner again made his appearance with a letter purporting to be written by his master, in which, after thanking him for having lent him the ten shillings, requested as a parti cular favour that he would make it up 2L, which he would repay on the Monday following. Witness gave prisoner 11. 10s., and received a memorandum to that effect. Mr. Joseph Hall stated that the letters produced had not been written by him, nor had he given prisoner any authority to use his name, or sent him to either of the parties. The prisoner, in answer to the charge, said he was exceedingly sorry. Mr. BURRELL committed him for trial. FEROCIOUS ASSAULT AND " GOUGlNG."—Yesterday William Woodham, a plumber and glazier, living in Ellis street, Chelsea, was charged with a ferocious assault upon Benjamin Williams, a gentleman's servant. It appeared from the statement of the complainant, whose left eye appeared in a dreadfully inflamed state, that on Friday last ho went into the Woodman, in Doy ley-street, Chelsea, with two friends, and while they were drinking some gin and water defendant came up, and, without the slightest provocation, nudged coin ptainant's elbow intentionally, and spilt some of the liquor. Complainant took no notice of this the first time, but on it being repeated immediately, endeavoured to fling the remainder of the gin and water at defendant. Defendant then attacked him with great fury, and com plainant defended himself as well as he could. They fell on the ground, when defendant, who was uppermost, held complainant's head down, and forcing his thumb into his eye, turned it right out on to his cheek. Com plainant cried out for assistance, and his friends took defendant off him. Defendant, in reply to the charge, said he had no animosity to the complainant. He (the defendant) had been drinking very freely, and being under the influence of liquor, might have pushed up against complainant's elbow by accident, as he left the house. He complained that he had been much hurt in the affray, and said that complainant must have received the injury of which he had spoken by accident. Mr. BURRELL said he should fine the defendant 51., or commit him for two months, in addition to which he should call upon him to find good bail for the next twelve months.—The penalty was paid. THE IRON TRADE. The iron trade of South Staffordshire is, we are happy to say, in a most prosperous condition at the present time, the demand for all descriptions of iron being unusually great, and the stocks which have been held on s peculation being nearly all absorbed by the anticipated demand for the new lines of railway. Although the Board of Trade seem determined to weed the different projects with an unsparing hand, yet the extent to which they will be sanctioned by the Legislature, justifies the opinion generally enter tained by the most extensive ironmasters, that a great increase will be called for to supply this demand. In anticipation of such a state of things, several large works, which have been for a long time standing still, are gradually getting into operation throughout the district, and we are happy to say that the work men are likely to partake in the prosperity of the trade by the advance of their wages. On the whole, without being led away by expectations which might seem to be fully borne out by the present aspect of things, we think we may safely congratulate those immediately engaged in, and dependent on, this important branch of our national industry, on the prospect of steady improvement which the opening of the new year presents. Indeed, so brisk has every department of the trade become throughout the South Staffordshire district, that the masters have, within the last few days, advanced their prices 103. per ton, thus raising the value of iron to the same standard as before the recent fall. The Welsh trade has also par taken of a similar improvement, and is considerably advanced. In connection with the prosperity of the staple manufacture of the district, our readers will be glad to learn that the American trade is also brisk, although the same activity does not exist that pre vailed a few months back. From information, how ever, that we have obtained from the best sources, we believe a good trade may be calculated on during the spring. The election of Mr. Polk is regarded as rather favourable than otherwise to British manufac tures, but no change is anticipated in the existing tariff. —Birmingham Journal. GALLOPPING MATCH POR. FIFTY POUNDS.-011 Wednesday a match to gallop over 20 miles of ground came off at Leatherhead Downs, Surrey. The race was between Mr. Masse:lan's bay horse and Mr. Fenton's brown mare. The terms of the match were to gallop 20 miles each, and the horse performing this distance in least time to be entitled to the stakes, which was 251. a side—five miles of course was se lected. The horses kept together for two miles, when the mare took a lead of about 300 yards, and came in this distance in advance. At the completion of fire miles, which occupied 17 minutes and 47 seconds, they were pulled in and refreshed, and in three minutes were at their work, and performed the next five miles in 18 minutes and 31 seconds, coming in nearly together, and without evincing the least apparent distress. They were allowed two minutes' breathing time, and re commenced their work with great speed. At the conclusion of the next five miles the horse came in at a lead of 400 yards. Fifteen miles had now been accomplished in 54 minutes and 18 seconds. The horses were gruelled and remounted , and started for the remaining five miles, and on the seven teenth mile the mare was at a good lead. The horse was then pressed by its jockey, which duly complied, and was quickly alongside its opponent, and on the ap proach of the 19th mile had succeeded in going a head, and ultimately came in first by 200 yards. The last mile was performed in two minutes and 38 seconds, and the whole distance of 20 miles was accomplished in one hour 12 minutes and 30 seconds. The animals were ridden by their respective owners, and were jockeyed in admirable style. The horses at the termination of the race appeared not at all distressed. HANDSOME AND NOVEL CHRISTMAS GIFT.—Mr. John Allen, the contractor for keeping the line of the Lancaster and Preston Railway in repair, has presented every man in his employ (sixty-five in number), with a fat goose.—Lancaste r Guardian. TILE HEROINE OF MATAGORDA•—We have much pleasure in stating that the subscription to this deserv ing old woman now amounts to a sum sufficient to se cure her 301 a year for life, with a few pounds over to set up house with. The money will be invested in Glasgow, on her behalf, next week.—Glasyow Post, SOUTHIV ARK. THREATENED ASSAULT ON LORD HUNTINGTOWER.— Yesterday an application was made by Lord Hunting tower for a warrant against an individual named Duckett, for using threats of personal violence against him. Lord Huntingtower stated that on Saturdvy evening last, as he was proceeding along the lobby of the Queen's Bench Prison, he was accosted by a Mr. Duckett, who asked him if he knew Captaia White's address, as he wanted to find him out. The reply was that he did know, upon which Mr. Duckett inquired if he (appli cant) knew anything about an acceptance of his which he said had been improperly obtained from him by Captain White, and that it was relative to that transac tion he wanted to meet with the captain. He (Lord Huntingtower) answered that he himself was in pos session of the bill, and that he should not part with it, knowing the acceptor had received 'value for it. Upon this Mr. Duckett called him and Captain White '• pair of scoundrels, that the bill had been stolen from him, and ho declared that if it was not given up, he would give him 41 - 4ord Huntingto wer ) i nto custody for stealing it. F inding that ho was not disposed to comply, Mr. Duckett became very much excited, and threatened that if the bill was not delivered to him, and that very speedily, he should break every bone in the skin of the party who held it. Ho also expressed his determination to kick both him and Cap tain White on meeting them, even in the most public place, unless the bill was restored. Lord Huntingtower added that, under the apprehension Mr. Duckett would have carried his threats of personal violence into effect on the spot, he resigned the possession of the bill, at the same time informing him that he should adopt proceed ings against him for the violent nature of the threats, and for the purpose of making him deliver up the bill. Lord Huntingtower added that several persons were within hearing during the time he was so improperly treated by Mr. Duckett, against whom he wished a war rant to be granted, for putting him in bodily fear, and thereby obtaining the possession of the bill alluded to. Mr. TRAILL said that, as the applicant was ready to swear he went in personal fear of the party against whom he made the application, a peace warrant should be granted for his apprehension. Shortly after Lord Huntingtower retired Captain White entered the Court, and made a similar application fur a warrant against Mr. Duckett. Mr. num. said that there would be no necessity for issuing two warrants, that Captain White could be in attendance on the day Mr. Duckett was brought up, and that he would then have an opportunity of having his case investigated, as well as that of Lord Huntingtower. LAMBE TH. GROSS CRUELTY AND NEGLIGENCE OF A CHILD BY ITS PARENTS.—Yesterday, Jonathan Storey, a middle aged man, and formerly a publican in Newport-market, was charged before Mr. Henry with gro,4ly neglecting his child and keeping her without the necessary supply of food, so that her life is at present in great, jeop:irdy. From tho evidence it appeared that some days past the attention of the neighbours had been directt , d vo the gross negligence of the prisoner towards his child Martha, between five and six years of age, and informa tion of the circumstance was given to Mr. James, one of the overseers of the parish of St. Mary, Lambeth. On Saturday afternoon that gentleman applied for the assis tance of Dunn, one of the beadles of the parish, and with that officer proceeded to a house in Doughty-place, Lam beth, and on forcing open the door of a room on the first floor, they found the poor child, who presented a fright ful spectacle, sitting in a chair nearly benumbed with cold, and without a tire, or a morsel of anything to eat in the place. The poor child was nearly naked, and her person and head were a moving mass of vermin. Mr. James had the poor child at once removed to the work house, where she at present remains in a very dangerous state. Caroline James, a nurse in the parish workhouse, de scribed the appearance of the poor child when brought there. She said that the few rags by which her person was scantily covered so swarmed with vermin that they were obliged to be destroyed, and her head was obliged to be shared to get rid of the vermin. Witness put some questions to the child as to the manner in which she had been treated, when she said that her father had been in the habit of leaving her locked up all day during the late cold weather, without any fire ; that her only food was a little bread and water ; and that her father was in the habit of ill-using her. The parish doctor considered her case of so serious a character, that he had been to see her as late as ten o'clock on the night before, and his impression was that her recovery from the state of exhaustion to which she had been reduced was very doubtful. The prisoner, in reply to the charge. said he was a married man, and had two children and a wife living. About three years ago he kept the Jolly Butchers pub lic-house, Newport-market, but had been burned out from there. Ile subsequently received 160/ from the insurance company, and with this he paid several debts he owed, and placed 401. in the hands of his wife for security. Shortly afterwards his wife left him, taking away one of the children, and leaving him the other. The prisoner here became very much affected, and wept bitterly, saying the conduct of his wife in leaving him had nearly broken his heart. He said it was . true that, through poverty, he was reduced to the greatest want, but still he loved his child too well to allow it to want food, for while he himself had but a pennyworth of dry bread, he took care that she did not want. He had ap plied, he said, for relief to the parish of St. Ann., Soho, where he had a settlement, but they refused to give him any, and knowing the way in which poor people who ap plied for relief were generally treated, he did not wish to maks a second application, nor had he gone to the parish officers of Lambeth at all. Mr. HENRY remarked that it was much to be lamented that he had not applied for relief to Lambeth parish to have something done for his unfortunate child, and not allow her to be reduced to such a state of wretchedness and suffering as that described by the witnesses who had been examined. As the child was described to be in a dangerous state from his negligence and improper treat ment, he (Mr. Henry) should feel it to be his duty to re mand him to a future day. The prisoner was accordingly remanded until Wednesday. ANOTHER CASE OF CRUELTY.—Robert Pratt, who had been remanded since Wednesday last, on a charge of grossly abusing his son, a boy of five years of ago, was again put to the bar for further examination. At the last examination Mr. Henry expressed a wish that the parish officers of Lambeth should prosecute in a case of so serious a character as the present, and de sired Dunn, the beadle, to communicate his opinion to the vestry-clerk. Yesterday Mr. Logan, who holds a situation under the Poor-law Guardians, attended, and said they had no fund in the pari,h applicable to such a prosecution, else they should with ple,sure act upon the magistrate's suggestion, and aid the ends of justice in such a case as far as they could. . _ _ Mr. HENRY said he should certainly send the case for trial as it was, and thought it was one in which the pa rish ought to prosecute. CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT. In the case of Peter Watkins, committed upon an in quisition held by Mr. Wakhry, the coroner, to take his trial for manslaughter, the RECORDER complained that the depositions had only just been returned, it being then nearly four o'clock. He observed that justices and coroners were bound by the Act of Parliament to return the depositions taken by them, at the sitting of the Court, and they subjected themselves to a fine for neglecting to do so. He then directed Mr. Clark, the Clerk of Arraigns, to write to the coroner to know why the depositions had not been returned at a mere early period. PRESTON COUNTY COURT. (From the Preston Guardian.) BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE. MARY HOOTON V. HENRY RIMMER. Mr. CATTERALL, who appearead forthe opened the case. The action was brought by Mary Hooton, of Churchtown, for a breach of promise of marriage by the defendant, Henry Rimmer, of the same place. Damages were laid at 1001.—the de fendant being understood to be in good circumstances. The defendant, he said, was the author of the ruin of the plaintiff in every respect. He called the follow ing evidence : Ann Twist—l live at Churchtown, and am aunt of the plaintiff. I know defendant; his father is a farmer. Cannot say what quantity of land he has. Defendant has been in the habit of seeing my niece about ten years. She is about 28 years of age, and he is the same. About two years ago my niece came to live at my house. When living at my house, defendant came two or three times a week to see her. He talked to her about marriage and she talked about purchasing a rocking chair, when he said he would send to Preston and get a pair of them against their marriage. He said to her he was not thinking of being married before spring, as he could have a cottage from his father then. About half a year after she was at my house she gave birth to a child. This was in last August but one, in 1843. The child is now above a year old. I remember she charged him with being with Ellen Baker. He denied, and said he never intended having any one but Mary. My daughter, who is now dead, was present. I heard him saying he would like a mahogany chest like Mary's. He said, on another occasion, he hated young men de luding young women, and he would never do so. He said he had visited her for seven weeks at South port, and found she never had any other sweetheart. Plaintiff went to a little cottage of her father's to be confined. Heard him often speaking about his wedding. He said he bought a marriage ring, and he thought it was gold, but it turned out not to be so. —(Laughter.) He had a horse and cow, and the cow was to be Mary's cow.—(Laughter.) He was in the habit of buying presents. He once bought her half a sack of potatoes, and said when these were done he would buy her more. I have also seen him going after her at other places. Cross-examined—My name is Ann Twist, and I have been about ten years a widow. I had seven children by my husband, and one since. I have brought an action against James Gregson for a breach of promise of marriage. It is not yet tried. It is to be tried at Liverpool. It was not to the defendant I had the child. The plaintiff has three sisters. The eldest is named Betty, and is about thirty years of age, and has had a bastard child. The second sister is named Ellen, and has had two bastard children by different fathers. The third sister is named Hannah, and has not yet been in the family way. I have frequently been at plaintiff's father's house in my widowhood. I was in the habit of going about once a week. I did not go on a particular day ; sometimes I went in the morn ing, and sometimes in the afternoon, and sometimes at night. When at night I did not remain so late as twelve ; it might be abcut ten. I cannot exactly say how many persons I have seen there. Never saw a .lozen young men there, nor eight, nor ten, nor six ; but four, I think. Will not swear I saw more than four there. I had no connection with the young men. I cannot say whether I always met the same four, or a variety of fours, at this place. Only occa sionally met young men there. Can't tell what the young men were doing. Never took any notice of what the young gentlemen were doing. Never saw them upon the young ladies' knees, or near them ; nor WAS there a " squab" there uponwhich they sat. N eve r sa w them " tickling the young ladies—(Laughter )—nor with their arms round their necks. Never got a kiss from any of them, nor did any of the young ladies. I will tell you another day where the unfortunate circumstance that occurred to me took place.—(Laughter.) It has g i ven me much sorrow. My niece went to live with me i n February, 1843, or beginning of January. The child was born about six or seven months after. Since plaintiff left my house I have never seen her and de fendant together. I know a person named Margaret Cadwell, and about three months ago met her in the house of Ann Cadwell. I did not say in this house that Rimmer never promised marriage to plaintiff. I sometimes met Gregson at Ann Cadwell's house. Did not know the plaintiff was in the family way when she came to my house. The child has never been fathered. Re-examined—l had the bastard child about eight years ago, and since then Gregson has promised to marry me. Mary Hooton, mother of plaintiff—l live at Church town. Have known defendant for ten years. Hi' father was a neighbour of mine. He has been in the habit of coming to my husband's mother's house. My daughter had slept with her grandmother a long time before she went to her Aunt Twist's. Have seen marl a time Rimmer and my daughter together. In January, 1842, heard Rimmer say to my daughter, " It is time we were married," and he also said the " askings" should he put up on Sunday. She took ill with the ague afterwards. The Sunday after Rimmer gave her a present of 2s. 6d., and a little pork for her to eat when ill. She went to live at one of our cottages after leaving aunt Twist's, and was confined there in August. Rimmer came to see her after, and held the child and said, "It is a fine child." lie frequently came after the child was born. Cross-examined Have had thirteen children. Nine are living, five of whom are girls. The young o t is named Ruth, and is twelve years of age. Mrs' Twist has come occasionally to my house. Young men came to my honse ; and if they had not, mf daughters would never have been injured. Some' times Henry has come in, and others. Have had young men in my house to the number of six of eight at once, at a Christmas or at other times. John Blundell has been there, but many years since' Thomas Rimmer, too, who was a neighbour, an d others. I and my husband have retired to bed w hen they were there, hut this was many years since. was about the time Rimmer kept company with Mary. My daughters lived at my house when their children were born. . _ Elizabeth Hooton, of Churchtown—l remember being at the weaving shop end about three years ago , when Rimmer said he would be " asked" the Sundsi after. Cross-examined—lt was outside the shop where this was said, on the 18th Jan., 1842. Plaintiff caught coil that night in consequence of staying ou t with defendant. I am not come to tell you whether 1 have an action also for breach of promise. I wil l tell you another time. My father and mother wer e in the habit of going to bed and leaving us np the young men. I won't tell you who kept company with me. I shan't tell you low many stayed uP with me.—(Laughter.) I did not come here to tel you these things. People have come here with lie s in their mouths. I will tell you nothing but el truth. It is true I have had a child. It does n°' matter whether my sisters have had or not. James Halsell, of North Meols, labourer—l kn° W Rimmer, and have seen him walking with plaintiff lie said on one occasion he had 2001. in ready money', and did not think it worth his while to talk to poor people. I was just behind him when he said this t ° me. On another occasion he told me he had a grey' mare of his own. He has been in the habit of gra.' ing potatoes for sale, the land of which was given hi° by his father. Cross-examined—The land on which he grew tb: potatoes was more than twenty times as large as the table in Court. I was at Kirkiale a few hours one day about stealing a duck, and I have once in time been in prison for poaching. Thi s was abo ut twenty years ago. I never was in prison for Or thing else. Mr. NOBLE then addressed the jury, and con tend that the character of the family was of such a flagrli n description as to free the defendant from the char ( There was no direct evidence that a pr o mise marriage had been made ; but in the event of th e jury deciding that there was, it would be for there t ° say how much damages would be required as ccll'o pensation; and certainly one farthing, he thonicb t ' would be a sufficient compensation for all the rn jury such characters could sustain by a breach of promise. he The ASSESSOR, in addressing the jury, said t• - • first question to be disposed of was, whether then had been any promise of marriage. It appeared him, from the evidence, that there was somethi n s like an understanding that the parties were to b e married. In deciding upon the question of darnag eA f they must take into consideration the character i t the family, who appeared to be most immoral. ~e would he their duty, also, to consider whether t u P e defendant was actually worth 2001., as stated in 0 ,, evidence, or whether it was not likely he had on i . 7 made a boast of having that sum. The jury, after about an hour's consultation, II : : called into Court to try two other cases. Alli o doing so, the Court adjourned, leaving the jury I decide upon the case. The jury remained in conol l .A . tation until ten o'clock, the result of their prolong" deliberations being a verdict for plaintiff—damsg e* 303. THE RIVER ELLEN.—In consequence of the S ri ibB number of fish which have lately been found dead in io l river Ellen, it was generally supposed that the river ' o f been extensively poisoned 134 , poachers for the peeposo procuring their prey. This conjecture, however, ° tile been proved to be entirely groundless, as far so r, vachers are concerned, through the exertions of , 1 . 0 Senhouse, Esq., of Netherhall, who was led to incl, l / 4 into the cause of the destruction of so many of the " P oe race as was daily observed by him in that portion Of river which runs through his grounds. Mr. Senb oll o s suspecting the river to contain some strong poison) ingredient, had two bottles filled w ith th e wa ter, he transmitted to Mr. J. B. Wilson, surgeon, of Wi lt •c , haven, for the purpose of being analysed. o n subli t , ting the water thus sent to him to an analytical test, o a Wilson discovered that it contained peroxide of iron h i ',ll sulphate of lime to the extent of three grains and e "de to a pint of water. This at once accounted for the po t struction of the fish, as it was wholly impossible l ie the tenants of the stream could exist in their native e he r ment when in such a state of adulterati , m. On fur • inquiry respecting the cause of the river being in e lle 'e o state, it was discovered that the owners of the collier l io in the neighbourhood of Durham had been pumping.„ t o f water out of some of their pits, which had found its " c o into the river Ellen, and had produced the consequee ec i which we have just described. Some idea may be ibr l lhe of the poisonous nature of the water pumped ND, b f pits, when we state that the fish were destroye' do i• wholesale, and that they were found dead in great ill' ot s hers at least three miles below the junction of the st re o f, from the pit with the Ellen. We feel assured, hov e s e that as soon as the owners of these mines are insde„ipg quainted with the disastrous consequences of si ne ti this poisonous water to flow into rivers, they will deavour to direct it into some other channel.— Car Patriot. CO I ! [ADVERTISEMENT.]—AN EXTRAORDINARY - A t ' ' OF A BAD LEG AT HORNCASTLE, BY HOLLOW obo PILLS AND OINTMENT !—A few days since Mr. Simpson, a highly respectable bookseller in that ° v ets, states that a gentleman of his acquaintance had , suffering for years, from one of the worst descripti °„ ;iii , bad legs, frequently enduring the most excruciating Pity He had been under the care of several medical men t o e out obtaining the least benefit. This gentleman , . ; t io ever, has just been cured by these invaluable med ic , / after every other treatment failed. The Oill,t: o tt will cure chilblains and chapped hands in a few ,7, 0 0.,° Sold at Professor Holloway's Establishment, 244, P" t (where advice may be had gratis), and by stio,l, respectable vendors of medicine throughout the of' world. BIRTHS. On the sth inst., at Waresley-park, Huntingdonshif e,V Caroline Duncombe, of a daughter. no' fl On the Ist inst., the lady of J. de Prati, M.D., of a e l le' , On the 2d inst., at Brighton, the lady of the Bor. Green, of a daughter. w its On the 2d inst., at Catherine-place, Limerick, the Captain 11. Lugard, Royal Engineers, of a son. r , bi rg ' 'On the 3d inst. at eoleshill House, Berks, the ri°' Edward Pleydell Bouverie, of a daughter. „ 4 , On the 4th inst., at Cl a ph am - r i se , th e w if e o f R. ea Evans, Esq., of a daughter. lArg On the 4th inst., at Stanmore Villa, Weybridge' Webster Flockton, of a daughter. On the 4th inst., at the Parsonage, Leaven-heath , p i ed( by -Nayland, Suffolk, the wife of the Rev. H. T. Curl'''. ° lO ll ° On the 4th inst., at Wadsley, near Sheffield, the the Rev. Walter Scott Dumergue, of a son. f r A ile tvd On the 4th inst., at Bromley, Middlesex, Berger, of a daughter. bte r. r On the sth inst., Mrs. Frederick Heisch, of a daU; A On the sth inst., at Reading, the lady of Captain ' r • ray, R.N., of a son. e, On the sth inst., in Wimpole-street, Cavendish-se r , h i lady of the Rev. George Bethune Norman, of a daug u 'i e ' On the 6th inst., at Shaftesbury House, Bays' , " lady of Thomas Davidson, M.D., of a daughter, MARRIED. ' On the 12th of November, 1844, at Benary, A. 0. o uti 1• Esq., Madras Civil Service, to Isabella Fanny, Y ve daughter of Major-General Leslie,K.ll., commanding DIED. 1• 94 On the let inst., at Cheltenham, Sir Jacob AdolPh ix* Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. tc p fd ' On the Ist inst., at Cheltenh am , L a dy Burdett, rail 00 late Sir William Burdett, Bart. is 13" f. 'og On the 28th of August last, on board the ship -- 4 , ir 'iv i t o, her passage out to Bombay, Emily Henrietta, unly, 7 9 ; ' l4lO daughter of the late Nathaniel A. Austen, Esq.,o l' `,,:rci be aged 19 ; and on the Bth of October following, on is of ' same ship, her brother, Lieutenant Augustus AU Q, 0' Bth Regiment B o mb ay N a ti ve I n f antry, age d 27- coil ° On the 7th of November, 1844, at Calcutta, Marl wife of W. Toiler, Esq., commander of the WellesleP f eo A ir On the 15th o f N ovem b er l ast, i n J ama i c a, Ge c4 ' , 9 thong, Esq. - V 5113511 On the 28th ult. at Romsev, Hants, William t'' J. „, tra Esq., solicitor, of that place. ile r On the Ist inst., Augustus Manning, Esq. , c). street, Mayfair, aged 77. bed 65 On thQ 28th ult., a t Ep som , M r . J ames Garda', 1.5.,I .S., f er tfor On the Ist inst., Augustus Manning, Esq., of o f street, May-fair, aged 77. wiCla ir On the 2d inst., at St o k e N ew i n gton, Isabella, - bto, Captain David Young, aged 81. o l' e On the 3d inst., at Woodlawn, Dulwich, Mrs . Jan ; London: Printed and Published by MURDO YOB 1 1 0" No. 112, Strand, Printer, at The Sex Officat,, otY Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the Tuesday, January 7, 1845. It I i~