The Sun. — London, England, 1832-01-21 00:00:00

1-PUT OF THE 1-CBLIC JOURNALS. Some important views with regard to the manner of distributing the representation of the United Kingdom under the Bill now before Parliament have opened themselves, upon a closer inquiry into the around - of the pretensions first set up by the mischievous O'Connell fac tion, and since enforced by Irish Members of great respectability and talent. It has been said that Ireland ought to claim more Members than have been assigned to her by the Bill, because Scotland has been favoured with an addition of eight to forty-five, while Ireland has gained but five upon one hundred. Now we agree with Mr. Stanley that Irish gentlemen have no sort of right to draw comparisons between their country and Scotland, founded upon a reference to their respective Unions. Scotland formed her union with England one hundred and thirty years ago —has for many years been completely incorpo rated with her, in substance as well as name— and both together have long since constituted, not England and Scotland, but " Great Britain," with which country, as a whole, not with England and Scotland separately, did Ire land form the Union of 1800. In re assigning representatives, therefore, to the dif ferent portions of Great Britain, whatever changes take place in the old system ought fairly to be looked upon as mere internal movements between the parts of the same country, whereby pre-existing irregularities in the relation of re presentative and constituent are rectified, and which cannot furnish any more defensible right of demand or complaint on the part of Ireland, by reason of a transfer of franchises from one side of the Tweed to the other, than if the said franchises were interchanged between opposite banks of the Trent, the Humber, the Severn, or the Thames. We repeat, that whatever grounds of dissatisfaction,—and we do not say, but rather deny, that there exist any of much consequence between northern parts and southern, eastern and western, of Great Britain only, be cause of clumsy or ill-considered arrangements in the giving or taking away of representatives, —lreland, speaking on behalf of her own local views and interests, has no shadow of pretence for meddling with any such questions, so long as she continues to possess the same sum-total of Members for which she had stipulated by the terms of her union with this country. We do not deny that disproportioned privileges as between the several parts of Ireland herself might, and may afford just reasons for murmuring to thoseportions or classes of her inhabitants upon whom such mal-arrangement operates as a grievance. It is not, tor instance, very obvious why Trinity Col lege, Dublin, should have a second representa tive, or why the privilege of voting in that uni versity should be confined to the Fellows and Scholars,—to professed or novitiate monks, — Instead of being extended, as at Oxford and Cambridge, to Ministers of Arts living in so ciety, and familiar with its interests and progress. So, perhaps, in the choice of towns, on which the ambiguous benefit of a second representa tive may have lighted, it is just possible that the selection might in one or two cases have been more discreetly made ; and that is a question with which no reasonable man could blame the politicians of Ireland for directly and actively in terfering. If some half dozen of the smaller class of boroughs, as Midhurst, Petersfield, &c., which Mr. Sheil has made the subject of his mo tion for replacing in schedule A, should be with drawn from it, the people of England, perhaps, would not think it worth while to quarrel with tie donation to Ireland of the twelve members thus left disposable, should Parliament so apply them, though even here England might fairly expect them to be given to some of her great towns. But, at all events, as a matter of sight, how stands the question of addi tional representatives ? Had it been resolved by Ministers to adhere punctiliously to the propor i:nis existing since the Union between British representatives and Irish, would Irish gentlemen have had any reason to complain ? Now Scot land obtains eight new Members ; but how ? Are they in augmentation of the whole number of Members returned by Great Britain ? Does Great Britain henceforth elect 566 Members, instead of 558, and reduce the Irish quota to 95 ? No such thing. There were at the period of the liish Union, 558 British Members, there are now to lie hereafter but 553 ; and what be comes of the five thus lost to Great Britain Are they extinguished ! Even so, the relative proportion of Irish representatives would have been greater than by the terms of the Union ; and were England as petulant and perverse as her neighbour, the complaint might have been on her side. • But it is otherwise. The five Members which Britain loses she has made over to Ireland ; who thus secures a positive as well as negative profit ; and what is the return which she makes for this boon? Her faction yells, and her gentlemen insist that she ought to rob Great Britain of 20 or 25 Members instead of 5 ! This may be a sort of provincial patriotism, but it is not common justice. Come then to another consideration. Irishmen tell us that they have not, speaking abstractee'l , an equitable share in the total representation of the empire. The population of the whole united kingdom is to that of Ireland as 3 1-7 to 1 ; the taxes of the whole united kingdom are as about 12 to 1; take the mean between these taro proportions, as a corn pound basis for representation, and the number of Irish Members tot he whole House of Com mons is about 2.151,,, or less than 88, instead of 105. if taxation, representing property were to be the basis, the proportion of Member, would be something less than 55 ! So much for Irish grievance. Then, reverting to the con ditions of the Union itself, and the relative claims of the two islands to representation, founded on the progress of each in wealth and numbers, —of wealth we will say nothing, that speaks for itself,—but even in numbers, as appears b) the census of each decennial period since the Union, Great Britain, more especially England. has made greater progress on the whole than Ireland ; and therefore, if a difference in the Union scale were to be made, Great Britain, not Ireland, ought to be the gainer. We have taken throughout this article the data adopted by the Irish advocates for our guides, but deeply di we condemn and deprecate a resort to such, it our judgment, false and vicious grounds of cal culation as those which proceed upon the prin ciple that any thing exists like a collision of in terests between these islands. There is no more disposition in Englishmen to raise an adverse question on tile part of England against Ireland ; than on that of Mre h iddlesex against Yorkshire. Would that our Iris bthren could feel on thLn s ubject in the same spirit. Does it never occu' to them that an Englishman, acting in the spirit of their factions, [ nig ht take so invidious a view the-advantages exclusively given to the Iris'. h n o oh Catholic 0 1 a, a tiatioii (Na are not spea • Protestant, but of Ireland generally), to the de triment of the English producer and English tax-payer, that what are called the rights of Ire land on this occasion would be rejected by ge- neral acclamation ? But we forbear, as we have already - stated, we wish - England and Ireland to be considered as one whole, consist- ing of harmonious, not discordant, parts. — Times. Mr. Cobbett, in his Register of this day, has a long letter to Mr. O'Connell on the sub ject of his speech against Poor Laws. It is somewhat caustic for a friendly expostulation ; but, upon the whole, we think Mr. Cobbett has greatly the better of the argument. Before en tering on the subject of the Poor Laws, Mr. Cobbett deals rather disingenuously with Mr. O'Connell, in commenting upon his assertion that for three or four centuries the people of England had been making beggars of the Irish : "What, however (says Mr. Cobbett), even going back to the Conquest, have the English people done to make the Irish poor ! Conquered the country, and parcelled nut its lands amongst Englishmen. There ! Take it in its fullest extent ; and what have they done to the Irish to a tenth part of the amount of what the Normans did to them? Yet they have survived it; they have overcome conquest by their industry and love of country : they soon ma !e the conquerors proud to be considered part of them selves ; and they never sat brooding in sloth and filth over the fabulous dignities and splendour and possessions of their forefathers. It is, therefore, not perverseness, hut sheer nonsense, to talk of wrongs which the Irish experienced from that cause. The English imposed the Protestant Hierarchy upon the Irish. 'Very unjust, but having no tendency to make them poor, any more than the same imposition upon themselves ; and it has been heavier upon themselves ; for they have always had to yield greater tithes than the Irish. They forbade the open profession of their religion, on pain of exclusion from civil and political power. Unjust as well as foolish ; hut the same is done to the Quakers everywhere; and that does not make them poor and rugged ; and now, when the Irish have civil and political power, they are poorer than ever ! Hays the English people ever taxed the Irish ? We will see about that by-and -by, when we coma to talk of the Reform that you are seeking. How then have the ' English people' made the Irish people poor ? They have, indeed, suffered thetn to be made poor, by not compelling the owners of land in Ireland to pay poor-rates. This is their great sin towards the Irish people: and now, when they seem resolved to do ri tht in this respect, and to make reparation for the wrong, as far as they can, you step in with erroneous facts and fallacious arguments to induce the Irish to be li,ve that the long-withheld good is an evil ! The fact is, however, that the English people have never had any hand in causing the wrongs and misery endured by the Irish people. The wrongs and this misery, as far as they have been caused by misrule, have been ii.flicted by that band of oligarchs,' to whom you have so often, so re cently, and so justly ascribed them, and amongst whom your native oligarchs have been the very, very worst." In tie first place, the Norman conquest isnot analogous to the conquest of Ireland. The Duke of Normandy might defeat the King of England, and divide a great part of the land among his followers ; but the Normans could not retain so large a country as England in subjugation by Norman means ; and even before the separation of the two countries, it became necessary for the Norman gentry in England to provide for their security by English means. The great supe riority of England enabled the conquerors of Ireland to treat that country in a harsher man ner ; and when, in the course of a generation or two, the conquerors had become Irish, a fresh inroad of English adventurers plun ii 7ed the country again into confusion. Neither is it true that the people of England, as distinguished from the oligarchs, are not chargeable ,Aith much of the — misery of the Irish. The people of England, engaged in trade and manufactures down to our own times, looked with great jea lousy on the growth of trade and manufactures in Ireland, and were incessant in their applica tions to the Legislature to put down one branch of industry after another. In one single book, " Smith's History of the Wool Trade," there is unfortunately but too much evidence of the suc cess of the endeavours of the English manufac turers in their interference with the Government to destroy their Irish rivals. We must no therefore lay the flattering unction to our souls that the people of England are free from blame as regards the Irish. Mr. Cobbett successfully exposes the notion, that in a country well stocked with labourers, it will ever be in their power by savings to dispense altogether with aid, when no longer able to work : " Are all the labouring people (he says) able in youth to lay by something for old age? It is the decree of God that the human race should be sustained by labour ; nine tenths of labour is painful in some degree ; very few of the human race will encounter pain but from necessit,i ; and none will, therefore, seldom encounter more of this pain than is demanded by their present wants. To c,ll upon men who are engaged in putsuits not bodily painful, to ley by, in their youth, for the days of old age, is rea sonable and just ; but to call upon the hard,working man to do this is neither. If he do it—(and, in England, be, to a great extent, does it, in five cases out of six, after ell)—if be do it, where is the tongue or pen to speak the praise that is his due? But if he have not, from what ever came, been able to do it, r have not done it, he has a clear right to a provision in old age : he has spent his :ife and worn out his strength in the service of the com munity ; and that reluctance which every man naturally 'eels to ask another for something, is a sufficient securi , y against his being lezy and prodigal in his youth, upon a cool calculation of the benefit of parochial provision in his old age. With regard to your second objec•ion, namely, that by making a provision for old age, you de prive the indigent parents of the aid of th,ir children, who, seeing the 'naked cell' provided for them, will let them go to it ; with regard to this matter, you I ippear to regard the Irish people as being capable settinz at defiance, and as likely to set at defiance, not only the laws of nature, but also the express and a hundred-times-repeated laws of God, No very high com- At/lent to your countrymen! No very strong proof of ,tie sincerity of your belief in that t generosity,' that active and practical compassion for the poor,' and that deep sense of religion' which we shall preen•ly see you tscribiog to them ! But you, as a lawyer, might have ,old them one thing, and since you did not do it, I will; and that is, that if neither the laws of nature nor those of God could induce th.-in so far to honour their father and their mother as to keep them front the poor house, the poor laws would compel them to do it, they having the befits ; and if they have not the ability, how can poor laws deprive the parents of their aid? As a lawyer, you aught to have known that those poor-laws which you io vehemently decry, compel all persons, being able to to it, to maintain their indigent fathers, mothers, andfathers, grandmothers, children, and grandchildren. rills is what you ought to have told your Dub in audience, though it might have cost you the loss of some ,f thole valuable cheers, which you obtained by this sup- ire‘tion of the truth, and by supplying its place with the • naked cell,' existing nowhere but in your imagination. Either you did not know the law as to this matter, or you lid know it. If the former, you ought to have known it efore you made this speech ; and if the latter, I decline to ,haracteriza your conduct. " But, Sir, in your anxious haste to narrow the effect poor•laws, you forgot that, besides the sick, the maimed, nil the aged, there were some other partiea who are, how ver, by no means overlooked in that Holy Writ, for not a,lieving in which we shall presently find, you condemn ng the ' intidei' to be dealt with in a way to supersede Il legal punishment ;' namely, the widow, the orphan, aid the stranger. In your comprehensive scheme of ac -ive and practical compassion fur the poor,' you will make io provision for these ! The English Poor Laws, which lo not cry, ' Lord, Lord!' but which do Lis will, make ,ifovision for them all ; and well, indee 1 , is it that they 10, or thousands upon thousands of Irishmen would, at his very moment, be dying and lying dead from starva ion ; and that, too, if your doctrine be sound, without aving the hula lest ground for accusing the English of ~justice or cruelty." _ Cobbett pays Mr. O'Connell back hand, (Andy, in his own coin, All the following pay sage, in which he comments on his description of the effects of the Poor Laws : " I now come to your sweeping assertions relative to the effects of the Poor Laws, and to the picture whicli ou give us of the ;people of the two countries, so much in favour of the Irish. You told your cheering audience, that the Poor Laws made slav'es of the'English working people; that it completely destroyed their character for independence ; that you preferred the wild merriment of the Irishman to the half-sulky, half-miserable tones of the English slave to the Poor Laws ; that the Irishman cer tainly had his distress (indeed !), but then lie had his hopes (of what?) ; he endured much misery, but then he entertained expectation of redress ! Here, it seems, there was great cheering;' and well there might, if the mat ter conveyed surprise as agreeable to your audience as it does to me. Well, then, here you wipe away the heavy charge of our poor half-sulky, half-miaera'lle' slaves having made the Irish poor. And if this really be the state of the Irish people (and who can doubt it since you say it is ?) ; if they have those cheering hopes and flowery ex pectations; if they save in youth wherewithal to sup port them in age ; if they have disperisaries in all the ♦illages, and hospitals in all the county towns ; and if they be (as under such happy chcinnstances they natu rally must be) wild in merriment ; this being (as we know it is) their state, then, upon my word, if they still come here to mock with their mirth our poor, sulky' souls, I shall be for givinz their hides a little fink ing, a la Shrewsbury ; for ' United Kingdom' here, or United Kingdom' there, they ate not to come here with their wild merriment,' and taunt us with our half miserable' tones! However, when I get upon the same floor with you, we will soon make an equit,,ble adjustment as to this matter at any rate. You shall move and I will second a Bill, which, when it become a law, shall be called the Act of reciprocity, giving you power to whip all the half-miserable' English slaves that go to Ireland, and me power to whip ail the youths of wild merriment' that come to England. This would set all to rights in a trice; you would preserve your 'green island' from the contagion of the sulks ; and if f did not clear ours of the wild merriment,' there should be neither whalebone nor whip cord left in England." The English Poor Laws have been abused occasionally ; but, after all, there is great exag geration in the accounts of the extent to which the abuse has been carried. Let us only consi der that there are fourteen millions of inhabitants in England and Wales ; that the whole of the sum expended on the poor is a little more than six millions and a half ; that out of this sum are maintained the aged and infirm poor, widows, orphans, lunatics, idiots, &c. &c. ; that no small portion of it is expended on large towns where there are few abuses, and we must be satisfied that the payment of wages out of rates is con fined to comparatively few districts, of no great extent. We hear of parishes in the Wealds of Kent and Sussex, in which the poor rates are 255. and even 30s. in the pound ; but even in Sussex, in which the poor rates are higher than in any other county in England, the real pro perty assessed in 1815 was 915,3481., and the sum expended on the poor for the year ending Easter, 1830, was 358,461/., or about seven shillings and tenpence in the pound. We are no advocates for these abuses; but we would take the poor laws with all possible abuses a hun dred times, rather than the miserable state of things in Ireland, where the landlord has all the powers of a slave-owner, without the responsi bility. In the following contrast, the English man certainly has the advantage, and it would be well for Irishmen, before they make the abuses of the English poor laws a ground for leaving the Irish poor at the mercy of their landlords, to re flect how few are the grievances suffered by the Englishman compared with the Irishman : "You have, if you do speak the truth, the advantage over us in climate and soil; and you have, you say, a peaple brave, patient, generous, hardy, good-humoured, laborious, and intelligent.' Yet look at the difference in the people, and particularly the working people, of the two countries ! Look at it; consider it well ; here, in deed, is matter for an Irish Legislator to think, muse, and meditate upon. When did you or any body else ever see or hear of Englishmen prowling about in bands of half•naked beggars in any country upon earth; when did you ever hear of the necessity of taking them op by force, and carrying them like malefactors, and tossing them back upon their native shores ; when did you ever hear of them being an incumbrance to any people amongst whom they went ; when, since you talk of their hovels, did you see s:r hear of English labourers being in hovels, in com pany with the pig, the flesh of which they were destined *ever to taste, both feeding on the same root, at the same board, warmed by the same chitnneyless fire, and both blackened by the same smoke : when, since you talk of the naked cells' of the poor-house, did you ever hear of thousands of them living on stinking shell fish, sea-weed, and nettles, and of thousands at a time receiving the last offices of religion as preparatory to death from starvation: when, since you call them slaves, did you ever hear of one of them applying the cringing and fawning appellation of your harmer' to any human being, much less to any thing, though groom or footman, from whom they expected to coax a farthing or a mouthful of bread; when did you ever hear of English labourers who needed, or who would contentedly suffer, an employer to stand over them at their work : when did you ever hear of their dwellings bring destitute of every mark of cleanliness and of decent reserve, having about them no traces of huma❑ existence within, except the feculent heap at the door, which nature herself would call upon them to hide : when did you ever see or ever hear talk of one of their rural habitations, nut having about it (unless rendered impossible by local circum stances) gooseberry and currant bushes, beds of parsley and other herbs, plants of wall-flower and biennial stock, clumps of polyanthuses, daisies, and bulbs, and other il , wers, and, where possible, plants of roses and honey_ suckles, trained round their windows, or over their doors, with the greatest care, and the greatest taste, of all which, together with apple-trees grafted by their own hands, and together also with stalls of bees, the result of their own care ; there are more in a circuit, embracing ten rural pa rishes in England, than there are to be found in posses sion of all the millions of labourers that inhabit the lovely land ;' when, lastly (not to suffer the pi ovocation to urge me further), did you ever see or hear of au ' En;li•h slave' disowning the country of his birth, and wherever found, and under whatever circumstances, not forward to proclaim himself an Englishman, and to boast of the honour• of the ❑ame ? " Now, Sir, avoiding, as something too painful to en counter, a detailed exhibition of the other side, do I ascribe the difference to the nature of the Irish people, to Any inherent vice in them ? By no means. 1 ascribe it to the difference in the treatment received by the two people from their rulers. Not to anything dune by Eng land to Ireland ; but to the former not baying compelled the domes tic rulers of the latter to treat the Irish working pedple es the Eng working people have ;ken treated, during the last two centuries and a half ; and Nen:nisu ly to its nut having compelled the owners of the land in Ireland to :eave enough of its preduce in the several parishes., to provide for the wants of the destitute ; as is effectually done in England and America by those famous poor laws, which Blackstone truly says are, founded in the very principles of civil society ;' but th e unspeakable benefit of which you are no m l a b our i ng , t h ough, I trust, • in vain, to:prevent your ill-t rea t e d, un h appy, and ever troubled country from receiving. "—M orn i ng Chronicle. We are glad to find that Mr. Hume has given notice of a motion for the repeal of the Super annuation Act. This Act has been the means, under different Administrations, of adding to the number of sinecures, without startling people the sound of so unpopul ar a name. On the contrary, there is something ad captandton in the term superannuation. It fills the mind with such images as long service, powerful claims, advanced age, and justice and humanity a ppear to sanction the expense whi. - th it has entailed upon the country. But a little acquaintance with the mode iu which the Superannuation List has been worked up to its pres ent amount will soon dissipate those visions, and exhibit it in its true light, as a source of favouritism and es.- t:-ava ga l and e e a , ( lair)fr(n which,d the poti every principle of publiceconomy ought to be relieved. Without entering int o part i culars at present, we shall merely state dwell- known fact, that many persons have been superannuated be fore now, not because they were rendered inca pable by infirmity or old age from discharging their duties, but because it suited the purposes of men in power to make room for their adhe rents and retainers. They could not create new places for them on the spur of the occasion, but by superannuating those who held places the thing was as effectually done. Of late, indeed, since the practice became too glar ing, steps have been taken and resolutions adopted to keep down the list ; but, for some cause or other, it has a constant tendency to enlarge, so that the only effectual mode of deal ing with the subject appears to be that which Mr. Hume has in contemplation, the repeal of the Act altogether. But the principle itself, independently of the abuses which have grown up under it, is, to say the least, of very doubtful policy. That class of public officers to whom the principle applies is the class which is least in need of any such provision. It is not the poor clerk, who has been fagging all his life at 601. or 701. a year, who is selected by the humanity of the Government and the Legislature for protec- I tion against indigence in his old age, but the chief, who has been receiving hundreds and even thousands, and who, by the exercise of com mon prudence, might have rendered himself in dependent before he retired. It would not be easy to assign any good reason why those men should be placed above the necessity of econo mising like other people. The prospect of such a provision is an encouragement to extrava gance, and has often had the effect of inducing habits as inconsistent with industry and applica tion as with prudence and economy. Besides, in the present circumstances of the country, the public require relief. They are one of the parties to be considered, and it is a strong fea ture in their case that the only relief for which they contend is an exemption from charges, which they feel in their consciences that they ought not to be called upon to pay. As the question is shortly to come before Parliament, we hope that this fruitful source of extravagance will not exist another Session.—Morn. Herald. It is impossible for Government not to per ceive that public opinion grows continually stronger against punishments of blood. This is not merely the result of the improved influence which the advances of civilization and Christian knowledge exercises in favour of the interests of humanity ;—it partly arises from the increased and increasing conviction of the inefficacy of san guinary laws to repress crime by the terror of examples which do not, and cannot work any moral reformation. But the growing aversion, on the part of the public, to the judicial destruc tion of life is a gratifying fact to us, who have laboured long, and sometimes under very adverse circumstances, to diffuse better notions on this important subject than our Legislators had en deavoured to teach mankind. It has been our task for some years past to inculcate that reasonable horror which all Christian societies ought to feel of divesting human life of the sacredness with which the Almighty Creator clothed it, and mak ing that greatest gift of the Father of the Uni verse the cheap and common sacrifice to the angry spirit of exterminating laws—far it is only in courtesy we can ever give such a system the name of justice. If the public feel against the infliction death for crimes against private rights and private property be strong — still stronger is the feeling against the destruc tion of life for political offences. We are not, therefore, surprised at hearing from our Bristol correspondent that the petition which was to have been forwarded on Thursday from that city, praying for a commutation of the punishment of the five individuals condemned to the scaffold, had about 8,000 signatures affixed to it in the short time which had elapsed between the prepa ration of this appeal to the mercy of the Crown and the day of its transmission to the Secretary of the . Home Department. If it be denied that the comes of these five convicts, as well as the crimes of the other five at Nottingham, are strictly speaking political offences, inasmuch as, by their agency, supposing them all to have been rightly tound guilty, private property was destroyed ; yet it cannot be denied that, whatever were the consequences of the riots in which they engaged. the cause was political excitement—excitement arising out of the agitation of that measure of eform which those Ministers introduced whose duty it is to advise the Crown in the exercise of its prerogative of mercy. Can the Ministers, with any propriety, refuse to lay before his Ma jesty the petition from so large a number of the citizens of Bristol, praying for a mitigation of the punishment of men who were led into criminal excesses by the temporary phrenzy of a political crisis—a phrenzy that was chiefly stimulated by some of the Journals which profess to be the or gans of the Government, and which excited the popular passions on the question of Reform by those intemperate and furious addresses despised by all intelligent minds, but which can exercise, as we have seen, a fatal in fluence over an ignorant, and, because an igno rant, an easily misguided multitude ? Besides, are there not higher and greater delinquents, who have not been even brought to trial for the share which they had in bringing about the dis astrous events at Bristol, of whose original cri minality the kind-hearted and lamented Colonel • Brereton has been the pitied victim ? We do not designate those persons—for obvious reasons —but we say the country will not be satisfied if, in addition to the numbers of the rioters whose blood was shed by the sabres of the military, Government advises the execution of the five men for whose lives so many thousands of their fellow-citizens now put up their earnest suppli cations to the Throne. Surely the humane heart of William IV. will not be inexorable to the prayers of so many of his faithful subjects, if they are only permitted to reach his ear ; and w ill an y Minister venture to interpose between the Royal attribute of mercy and the deluded vic tims of political infatuation, over whose necks the sharp axe of the law is now suspended ? What, we a sk, in the case of these five convicts, and of those awaiting the infliction of a similar sen tence at Nottingham (though the guilt ()flour of the latter has been by no means clearly esta blished), is only what we exerted ourselves to obtain for the ex-Ministers of Charles X., con victed, as they were, of the most flagrant acts of hi ,b treason against the state of which modern history affords any example. Some of the indi viduals who are now Ministers of the British Crown exerted themselves in the same cause — and yet how much greater were the crimes of guilty ambition floated the than the outrages com mitted by the Bristol rioters—who, though they men, destroyed f stitro‘e'eeto Pari s wihno s blood, 1i much property, did not sacrifice the life of any one of their opponents ? Day after d a y we appealed to the French people to spare the lives of the great and ennobled traitors. The dreadful machinery of the guillotine was not put in action either then or since against political offenders. Will our Ministers proclaim to En have not virtue enoug h to imitate rope that they the example of mercy which revolutionized Paris afforded to the world !—Morning Herald. The discussion in the House of Commons last night will well repay perusal, being both curious and instructive. From it we learn that no less than six new official lists were presented to the Members of the House yesterday, no two of which coincide in their estimates as to the relative importance of the boroughs under con sideration. It is remarkable that they are pre cisely the critical boroughs, those just on the turn of schedule A or schedule B, in which the greatest variation appear, and especially those unfortunate Whig boroughs, Caine and Mahon, which have already been the subject of so much discussion. For instance, the number of houses in • Mahon is stated in one list to he 1,079, • in others 1,031, 849, 790, and 787. In one list the amount of its assessed taxes is stated to be 1,3001., in another 1,0301. The number of houses in Caine varies according to the several lists, from 673 to 996, and then as to Downton, we are left in uncertainty as to whether it contains 236 houses or 890 ! ! It is also doubtful whether Chippenham has 648, 653, or 798 houses. Similar discrepancies appear in the returns for Steyning, Heytesbury, and many other boroughs which were not parti cularly alluded to. Again, it appears that the notes frequently refer to a " Plan and Report . which is not yet before the House. The speeches of Mr. Croker and Sir R. Peel on these points particularly deserve attention. Now we would put it to any reasonable man in the three kingdoms whether the House should have been called upon to go into Committee with no other data upon which to form a judgment than these ridiculously confused and uncertain docu merits. Howes er, it is well known that whatever weight reason may have out of the House, it goes but a very little way with the pledged supporters of Ministers. Ac cordingly it was decided by 152 against 99 to go into Committee. The business then began with the proposition that 56 boroughs should be disfranchised. Why this precise number should be selected, without any reference to the merits of the case, neither Lord John Russell nor any of his colleagues could explain. Sic volo, sic jubeo. Ministers were resolved not to recede from their purpose, and a long debate ensued, in which was most forcibly shewn the injustice and utter fully of compelling the House to pledge itself before to the disfranchise ment of the particular number of boroughs which Ministers have pleased to put into Schedule A, when it is acknowledged on all hands that there is nothing like correct information to go upon. The plain and convincing arguments of Mr. Croker, Sir R. Peel, Mr. Praed, Mr. Goulburn, and Sir C. Wetherell, were answered by—an ap peal to " the majority," and the result was a preponderance of seventy-five in favour of the absurdity. It was well observed by Sir R. Peel that the amount of assessed taxes is a most fal lacious criterion of the importance of a borough, since the mere residence or non-residence of the proprietor might save or disfranchise it. He pointed out, in the course of his observations, the curious fact that the much-decried borough of Gatton, though containing only fourteen houses, pays a greater amount of assessed taxes than some thirty boroughs placed above it in the HA ; and the Right Honourable Baronet remarked, he had very little doubt that if the noble pro• prietor of Gatton had had due warning, he might have so raised the amount of assessed taxes as to have rescued it altogether from schedule A.— Morning Post. - - - MARKET INTELLIGENCE. LONDON MARKETS. (From the London New Price Current of yesterday.) Suoart.-The Sugar Market opened with great brisk ness early in the week, at prices Is. higher than on the Friday, since which a small improvement has been ob tained, making the advance from the lowest point about 4s. per cwt. ; the strong descriptions have advanced more in proportion than any other quality. The estimated sales this week are 3 500 birds. and trs. The public sale this day 659 hhds. 14 brls. Porto Rico went 1 s. to Is. 6d. higher than the last cargo, 16s. a 225. The Refined Market has been very brisk, but towards the close of the week there has been less doing, on account of the late extensive transactions. This evening the Market conti nues to be very scantily supplied with large and small Lumps, and though an advance of fully Is. is offered since list week, some of the refiners have for the present with drawn their goods from sale, in anticipation of a further rise ; higher prices are asked for the Crashed, but there are no buyers beyond Sls. a 325. ; the ord. and mid. sorts worth 275. 6d. a 305., are now extravagantly high in comparison to tile finer, entitled to the long bounty ; 275. 6d. on hoard is offered for the most common large Lumps, and good small have brought 30s. 6d., being 3s. a 4s. higher than in the middle of last December ; the appear ance of the market was very firm this morning, but the want of goods prevented any extensive operations. EasT INDIA SUGAILS.-Mauritius continues ia good demand, and the private transactions, which have only been partial, as well as the public sales, have gone off with animation at an advance of Is. a Is. 6d. ; the public sales contained 883 bags Mauritius, and 1,804 bags Siam ; the former sold from 435. a 525. fur ord. brown to fine yellow; the latter were bought in, the sound fine yellow from 231. a 245. ; 4,467 bags Mauritius have been entered here this week, they are ,sf the new crop ; also 259 bags East India. Fon.Etox Suoaits.-By private contract scarcely any business has been done ; hut the public sales have gone off briskly at rather improving prices ; the quantity offered is 320 chests Hai/annuli, and N chests Brazil ; the former consisted of low mid. to good strong dry white, which sold from 325. 6nl. a 31s. ; Rio,good brown 17s. 6d., fine yellow 21s. a 21s. 6d., low white 21s. 6d. mid. white 235. ; Per nams, fine brown 16s. 6d. a 17s. 6.1., good yellow 18s. 6d., ord. white 225., good white 245. 6d., damaged white 17s. 6d. The arrivals bring 1,321 boxes Havannah, and 984 chests, 282 brls. Brazil. Com:E.-There was a good deal of business dine early in the week in Ceylon at 525. a 535. ; Sumatra 505.; Semarang 461. a 475., and Brazil 51s. a 565. The mar ket has since become dull, and at the public sale of British Plantation yesterday the great proportion was taken in. There were no nublic sales this day. Considering the lirge quantity offered at public sale of late, when there has been but little inclination shown to buy, and at a time of year when the exportation to the Northern ports is closed, it argues well that prices have not further receded ; and it is only probable, particularly when the small stocks on the Continent are taken into consideration, that a reaction will take place when the general shipping season opens. In British Plantation there is still very little doing, and sales cannot be made unless at a reduction. East India and Foreign have found buyers at prices fully equal to those of last week. The public sales have consisted of 147 casks 113 hags British Plantation, 2,049 bags of For e i gn , 320 bales an d b 3,011 bags East India, which went as follows : -Jamaica, good and fine ord, bought in from 84s. toBBs. mid. bought in from 90s. to 925. ;.Demerara, rank triage, sold from 665. 6d. to 76'. 6d., fine ord. sold 795. 6(1. a 80s., being 2s. lower ; Berbice, good mid. bought in from 90s. a 945. 6d. ; Brazil , ord. p Ile, sold at 51s. 61, good ord. 525. 6(1., fine ord. from 545. a 563. ; Havannall, pale good ord. bought in at 525. ; Ceylon, ord. toll at 51s. a 51s. 6d., good ord. from 525. 6J. a 535. ; Batavia pale ord. sold at 525., yellow good ord. bought in at 58e. ; Su matra ord. sold in part from 475. a 475. 6d., and good ord. 4Ss. a 50s. ; Mocha, very ord., sold from 575. a tits. and good ord. from 82s. a 84s. Tim • arrivals bring 125 casks 50 bags British Plantation, 1,307 bags Foreign, and 1,545 bags East India. hist' Pitoviswars. Tbe Butter Market continues hi a depressed state, with a further accumulation of stock at the wharfs, and, as it is generally believed that at present there is little short of 30,000 firkins on the passage from Ireland, improvement in price or demand is not very likely. -For Bacon, Hams, 13:of, or Pork, we cannot alter our last quotations. SILIC.-Our Market is steady, with a prospect of a fur ther advance; there has been a little doing this week; PRICE OF CANDLES. The price of Store Candles, in the retail shops, is as follows : Candles, per doe. 7s. Od. to Ss. Od. I Moulds, per d0zen........95. C::UNTRY CORN MARKETS DURING THE WEEK. Per Quarter. Ashburn._ Basingstoke Bth Bridgewater Bristol Chesterfield Derby DeviZes Doncaster t)orctiester—.—... Gloucester. n get cord Itorasey Shaftesbury Shepton Mallet Sherborne--- l'aunton--.—.—. Yeovil —.---- Per Bushel. Wheat. 62 72 56 72 44 68 58 72 52 62 64 70 62 65 66 70 57 68 54 75 6 , 1 70 4S 66 51 66 44 '7O 55 62 Barley. 34 40 30 34 34 42 30 C 4 3ti 42 40 43 28 41 24 41 30 38 31 40 26 42 27 36 Shrewsbury .«...... Oats. 26 34 20 25 24 30 20 25 18 24 26 32 24 27 22 28 17 26 27 34 26 41 32 38 37 34 43 36 42 —.. 35 34 40 s. d. s. d. 60 6 6 20 28 20 29 17 32 24 26 52 63 56 62 58 72 56 64 s. d. s. d. 90 99 40 48 39 46 40 48 39 46 34 42 46 52 42 44 39 43 40 44 20 20 20 28 20 26 s. d. s. d. 56 681 GERMAN PAPERS. 36 46 34 44 48 36 45 56 44 36 45 38 44 41 34 33 s. d. s. d. 00 00 BERLIN, JAN. 4. —The disturbances of Neufchatel- on account of the distance and smallness of the province in which they occurred, excited but little attention among the inhabitants of Berlin, but they feel interested in the t rminatio❑ of them. One of our ablest and most esteemed officers 11 is given another proof of what such a min can effect by resolute and prudent conduct in difficult circum stances. It is said that Baron Von Schuckman, Minister of the Interior, has solicited to retire, on account of his very ad vanced age, and will be succeeded by Privy Counsellor Von Kampz. The censorship is still a subject of general con versation. The public have evidently a great dislike of ex cessive caution in these matters; those who do not ex actly wish for the unrestricted liberty of the Press, con sider, however, the prohibition of books as of no use. The whole edition of Borne's letters is said to be sold, as well as a pit-Acid edition, printed in Saxony—but who is hurt by this. Certainly no State, nor any respected name, except Byrne The Prussian Government continues to co-operate, by moderate measures, in solving the many difficulties that the affairs of that country present. No Pole has been compelled to return under the Russian Government, and those who wished to get to France have been humanely and amply provided with the means of doing so. Mean time the most false and exaggerated reports continued to be spread by ill-intentioned or ill•informed persons of the proceedings of the Russian 4. Thus even official letters ft our Warsaw relate that almost every night persons are secretly arrested and sent to Siberia. Persons of distinc tion have been mentioned by name as having suddenly vanished in this manner, and respecting whose fate nobody dared to inquire. But the Pules supposed to have been sent out to Siberia, all at once appear again, either re turning from Moscow, or welcomed on their way to France by the friends of the Polish cause. It is natural, that after such events, not only persons really guilty, but many implicated by the faults of others, may think it expedient to await the issue in foreign countries, and many persons secretly leave Warsaw and Poland, and are missing for a time, without the Russian authorities being to blame for it. " The Bravo," Mr. COOPER'S flew novel, stands side by side with the " Mohicans," " the Prairie," arid " the Pilot," and may even pretend to pre-eminence among them. Mr, CoorEit':i present work is based upon passions, not manners ; upon the eternal feelings of the human heart, which do not change with character, and are independent of the modifications of society. The " Bravo," indeed, displays all the energy, all the single• nest' of purpose, and a greater grandeur of design, than is usually painted by its author. We also trace a creates' degree of refinement and grace in this work."---IVest' minster Review. BIR TH.V. On the 18th inst. Mrs. E. Heilbronn, of Finsbury.circuh of a son. On the 19th inst. at Southend, Essex, the lady of the Rev. C. H. Hazeley, of a son. On the ltith in,t. the lady of H. J. Montefiore, Esq., of Streat' ham.hill, of a son. MARRIED. On the I9th inst. at Marylebone Church, Viscount Tumour', eldest son of the Earl of Winterton, to M ar i a , thi r d d aughter of Sir Peter Pole, Bart. ; and at the same time, T. E. Swettenhani , Esq., only son of the ltev. 'l'. K Swettenham, Rector of Swet tenham, to Wilhelmina, second daughter of Sir Peter Pole , Bart. On the 14th inst. at Marylebone church, John Graham Louie': Esq. of Great Portland-street, to Mary, second daughter of th e Rev. H. North, of Cornwall-terrace, Regent's -park. DIED. At his house in Gloucester-place, Portman-square John Tritton, Esq., after a long an d pa i nful illness, in the 44th ' Ye a s of his age. On the 16th inst. at Port Eliot, Ernest, the infant son of Lor a Eliot. On the 15th inst. sudd en l y, at Calais, J. Woodcock, Esq.. of Fern Acres, Bucks, aged 55. On the th inst. at West-ham Essex, Mrs. Rachel Smit h, aged SO, survivin g h er sister orily.2A days. On the 18th inst. at Hammersmith, after a lingering Miss- Loveless. aged 84. On the 13th inst. in Blincing-lane, Mrs. Henry John R uc ker , in her 43d year. On the 15th inst. suddenly, at Dalston, Jacob Henry Leroux , Esq., aged 55. On the 10th inst. at Stanmore, Middlesex, J. Tennent, EA' of Pool, Lanarkshire, aged 61 On the ISth inst. at Dover, Elizabeth, wife of Benjamin 133 i hard, Esq., of Cornhill, and of Ham-c o mmo n , i n t h e county ° Surrey, Esq., aged 55. Lately, at Grove-house, Berwick-on-Tweed, 'l'. Wood, Ess:- ,f the Wynding, B a mb o r oug h, N ort h um b erland, at a very A I vanced age. --- PRINTSD AHD PUBLISHED BY MURDO YOUNG, AT TO SUN OFFICE, 112, STUANTP, LONDON, China Raw Silk haa been selling freely at au advance of 6d. per lb. on last sale. INntGo....The sale at the India House commenced on Tuesday. The ordinary at last sale's prices, the good and middling at 3d. a 41 advance, the shipping at last sale's prices to 3d. advance. Seven hundred and forty-three cheats have passed the sale this day, making 3,498 chests passed: The biddings continue animated, and the a4vsaukce of 3d. a 4d. on middling_qualities, established from thiete ginning, is fully supported ; good and find sorts since yes terday are more in demand, and go off briskly at from last sale's prices to 4d. advance; Madras sold to-day at 4s. a 6d. advance on last sale's prices. Rum, BRANDY, AND HOLLANDS.-The demand for Rum was extensive early in the week ; proof Leeward, Is. 4,,1, since which the Market has been quiet, as a great proportion of the Rum offering is now in the hands of the trade or speculators. Brandy is more firm, and a large parcel is reported to be taken, in the expectation of the duty being reduced. Geneva is dull, on account of a fall on the Continent. HEsir, FLAX, AND TALLOW.-The Tallow Market has been brisk, at a further advance of Is. since Friday last. SALTPETRE. —There is no alteration in Saltpetre. COTTON.—The Cotton Market continues firm. TEA. —BoLeas in large chests have advanced 4s. per lb. ; Cangou chests are at 41. . a 4s. Id. ; Common Twankays are in request at d. profit ; Cmgous are steady ; Hysons at Id. profit. FRUlT. —Prices remain the same as last week, and but very little business has bean done. RICE. —ln Rice there is no alteration. PRICE OF SUGAR. The average price of Brown or Muscovado Sugar, computed from the Returns made in the week ending" Jan. 17, is 245. Id. per cwt., exelusiveof the duties of customs paid orpayable thereon on the importation thereof into Great Britain. Kent Pockets Sussex Ditto Yssex Ditto Fs►lham Ditto, Fine...« Seconds Kent t“gs- , Sussex Ditto Essex Ditto— PRICES OF HOPS.—Jan. 9.0. 41, 10.3. 61. O. to 41. 43. 41. 181. to 41. 103. 51. 153. to 91. 03. 121. Os. to 0/. Os. 6. 101 to 3!. 101. 5/. 123. to 3/. 153. 41. 103. to 15f. s'. Os. to 71. 12s. 51. Bs. 19s. 01. Os. 91 Os. 61. 10s. 41. 16s. 51. 12.-. PRICE OF OIL. Ripe Oil, brown 6s. Refined 6 Linseed Oil - .••••••••••POWAlt 22 0 12 10 5 5 Linseed Oil Cake at the Mill, per thousand Rape Cake, per ton PRICES 0 Per lb. d. to (1. - Butts, English 16 21 Ditto, 15 181 Dressing Htdea 121 14j Data —,. 161 18 Ditto, light Crop Hides, light..... 12 131 Otto ~0 to 451 b. 13 15 Ditto 15 161 LEATHER. Per lb. d. to d. English Horse Hides... 12 15 Spanish Ditto 17 19 Per dozen. Calf Skins,. 36 to 441 b. 15 21 Ditto 50 to 701 b. 21 24 Ditto 70 to 801 b. 19 211 Small Seals. Greenland 20 201 L:irgc- ditto WHITECHAPEL HAY MARKET.—Jan. 19. Hay 6Os. Od. to 84s. Od. I 75a, Od. to 126. Od. 30s. Od. to 365. Od. /LAW HIDES. Per Stone. s. A. to s. d. Per Stones s. d. to s. d. B,st Heifers & Steers 2 6 210 Ordinary 1 8 2 0 Nliddlinfo Pulled SHEEP SKINS. 4s. Od. to ss. 6d. I Downs 3s. ed. to 4s. Cd. Os. Od. to Os. Od. PRICE OF POTATOES—Jan. 20. 21. ss. to 31. Os. per ton. 01. Os. to 3/. 10s. ditto. Os. to 31. Os. ditto. Ware----- Kidneys -- Scotch Reds PRICE OF TALLOV town Tallow 51s. ed. Yellow Russia,,-.... 445. 6d 455. Od. Soap Ditto 435. Od. Nlcited 365. Od. Ditto Rough. 245. Od ', SOAP, &c. per 1121 b. Yellow Soap 60s. Od. Mottled—. 686. Od. 725. Od. Graves Good Graves ss. Od.