The Sun. — London, England, 1832-01-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS• When a Minister of the King of England proposes a measure, having for its understood object the redress of manifold and inveterate grievances, it is of the very highest importance, not merely to the success of the measure, but to the character of the Government which intro duces it, that there should be no pretence afforded for questioning the sincerity of its official advocates, and therefore that there should not appear in the construction of it any obvious inconsistency between the means and the end. The ostensible purpose of the Reform Bill— stay, its real purpose, for we, at least, cannot doubt the honour of his Majesty's Ministers— the real intention, then, of the Bill has been to crush, in future, as much as possible, all combi nation of the few against the many—to guaran tee to the people of England that the House of Commons shall henceforth be fairly chosen by them, instead of being nominated by strangers to their feelings, and usurpers upon their rights— that, in short, the " representatives of the British nation shall no longer consist of those who are sent into Parliament by a certain list of families, not a long one neither, and who fulfil the solitary trust assigned to them when they vote the public money, on every occasion, into their own pockets, or those of their re si,ective patrons. It follows that if the mea sure recommended to the country contains provisions from which effects at variance with its avowed objects are demonstrably likely to ensue, the framers of it must incur the cen sure-1, of not having foreseen the consequences of their own propositions, which involves a charge of incapacity ; or, 2, of having foreseen the mischief without endeavouring to avoid it, which impugns their honesty ; but above all, it follows, that let what will happen, the real friends of Reform, both in and out of Parliament, must strain their whole energy to resist the objection able clauses, and to adapt more skilfully the powers of the Bill to the results anticipated from it. Unquestionably we are not amongst those who would he forward to throw blame upon his Majesty's Government for defects, or even vices, in the structure of the most difficult piece of legislation that ever, perhaps, was attempted. Minor instances of haste or incongruity, in the Reform Bill, it is the duty of all men to pass over who desire unaffectedly to see the founda tions of the new edifice laid, its roof set on, and its outline completed, before the season comes when the raging of the elements shall warn us that there is no longer time for perfecting our civil institutions in tranquillity. Now is the day or never ; and therefore we deprecate every opposition or embarrassment which has not in view the repair of some fundamental evil in the principles and working of the Bill. But if there be such, it is treachery to the cau , e of Reform to let it remain like a gangrene in a vital organ, undermining and inevitably ruining the better portion of the new representative system. It is not now for the first time that we have raised our voice against the division of counties, the most pernicious and deplorable anomaly that could have been en grafted upon a Bill for breaking up an unjust aristocratic power. It is pure folly to talk of the present Bill, as affording an undue preponderance to the commercial interest. The reverse—the direct reverse—is the manifest tendency of the measure. The vast mass of petty boroughs having representatives just above the rank of those which constitute the bulk of schedule A, will be in fact a broad and deep depository of aristocratica: dominion. Combining the small number of votes in these boroughs with the na ture of the household and leasehold qualification, it is clear that the majority of the electors in such places will be mere dependents on the country gentleman who happens to have that estate in the immediate neighbourhood, out of which the greater portion of the area of the re; presented borough has been cut. Had a more numerous representation been allotted to large towns, and schedule A been extended, or even the double Member been withheld from those paces in schedule B which have retained that privilege under the new Reform Bill, having lost it under the former one, the independent commercial interest might have had less motive to murmur ; but when to this defect in the Reform Bill there shall be added a sub stitution of half-county nominees, for the less mischievous because less plausible and more distrusted nominee Members put in for a set of miseaable boroughs, it is not at all too much to se), that pro tanlo the oligarchy stands on a more solid footing, and the people on one more slippery and dangerous than ever. Why, the county representation and that of the more po pulous towns used to be that on which the hopes of the kingdom generally rested, for some thing like the expression of a variety of inte eases and independent opinions. There has been hitherto, in almost every county of Eng hied, a power—and often a practice—of confe deracy, against the landed Leviathan of the pLice. Otte or two, nay, half-a-dozen Lords, have frequently proved unable to encounter the force of the scattered independent interest of a whole county leaguing for the common security. NN hat becomes of this resource, when you di side a county, extend comparatively the assailing, power, and contract as well as separate the de fensive ? Suppose Monmouthshire divided— suppose Gloucestershire—would the Beaufort monopoly not be invigorated by either ? Would the alliance of Rutland and Hard wicke sustain such another overthrow from the independent interest of Cambridgeshire, were that high-spirited county to be cut' in twain ? There may be not so much objection to have Lancashire severed. Yorkshire is broken up already; perhaps a dissection of Lin colnshire might be tolerated—tolerated, we say, for all divisions of counties we look upon as a crime against Reform,—a crime against the principle, be the county ever so extensive ; and in the inverse ratio of the magnitude of each county is the division of it a practical war upon the existence of free representation. We do not wish for delay, God knows, in the progress of this measure ; but such delay as might be requi site for a full discussion, with a view to the re jection of that clause which if suffered to remain part of the Bill would effectually " Burke" almost halt the counties in the kingdom, would be hailed by us and we will add by the better part of the community, as an equivalent for much alarm, long suffering, and weariness of spirit. To us it is a wonder how so fatal a suggestion came to be embodied in the Bill. That Minis ters mean all that is upright and effectual, few can doubt who are aware of the three conditions which Lord Grey spontaneously tendered to the Sovereign, or of the alacrity with which he has tened to realize the benefit of two of them, at least, for the nation ; nor do we fear but that his Lordship and his colleagues will eagerly re• consider this unfortunate characteristic of their Dill, when they are told by friends, what we now frankly, but in a spirit of thorough kindness, declare to them,—nalnely, that no person favour able to Reform has spoken in our hearing upon the proposed division of counties, without ad ducing it as an irrefragable proof (of course we cl;) not 'agree with such an assumption)—an irrefragable proof, that the old leaven of an over bearing and oligarchic mind still, as formerly, ferments among the Whig noblemen of this country, and taints and poisons to the very core their best conceptions of an enlarged State policy, and the most strenuous efforts of which they are capable for repairing or amending the Constitution. Of course, as has been said, we condemn such manifest injustice. We are not ignorant that the division of counties formed one feature of the system of Reform propounded by Mr. Grey upwards of 30 years ago; but sure we are that the Noble Lord who has had such experience of the mighty changes hourly develop ing themselves in human affairs, must be far better able than we are to appreciate the essential difference between a condition of the national temper which 30 or 40 years ago would have hailed an accession of power to the aristocracy as a public triumph over a domineer ing and grasping Court, and that more advanced state of intelligence as well as freedom which, now that the aristocracy has become omnipotent, and the Minister of the day its servile creature, regards the oligarchy as the real object of appre hension, and its encroachments as those of our sole remaining enemy. We repeat, therefore, frankly and conscientiously, the advice which we gave when the former Bill was in the same stage : let the odious clause be rejected, and it will prove, even to Ministers, an invaluable vote.—Tinzes. It was positively asserted very recently, by some of the French and English Ministerial Papers, that the ratification of the treaty of Belgium by the Emperor of Russia would have been given m time to have been received in England by the 15th of the present month, if his Imperial Ma jesty had not gone to Moscow. We thought it very strange that, just at the time when he must have expected to be applied to for the ratification of the treaty, the Autocrat should have gone out of the way. If he had done so, it would have looked very like a political journey to avoid con firming the acts of his own Plenipotentiaries, without being under the necessity of assigning, any reasons. But we now hear that the Em peror of Russia is coming to Berlin, not from Moscow, but from St. Petersburgh, where it ap pears that he has continued to reside during all tie time in which he was represented to be at the former place. This is one of the many proofs which we have had to observe upon, from time to time, of the fictions which are continually coined by the agents of the Conference, or by stock jobbers, to delude the public with regard to the real state of the protocol-negotiations. and the true cause of the non-ratification of the treaty ; which, having been drawn according to the instructions of the three despots of the Holy Alliance, and in concurrence with the views of the English and French Ministers, is yet sent from one end of Europe to the other in quest of its unnatural parents, who seem to re gard with suspicion and distrust their own di plomatic offspring. An English Minister, let it not be forgotten, pledged himself, in his place in Parliament, the treaty would be ratified by the 15th of the present month. He said it would he ratified by that time, or, rather, the notification of that fact would reach this country by the 15th, if there were faith in human pro mises. We believe Ministers deferred the re assembling of Parliament to the 17th under the belief that they would then be enabled to an nounce the settlement of Belgic affairs for the present by the ratification. It is now quite clear that, whoever have been the deceivers, the Eng lish protecolists have been egregiously duped, and the journals that were their servile oracles in this matter have grossly misled the public_ If the treaty, without any modifications in favour of Holland, should be ratified by the 31st, the day to which the time now stands extended, we confess the delay which has taken place will be totally inexplicable to us. It will appear the most causeless and capricious interrup tion to the final adjustment of tedious nego tiations that ever took place. It will look like mere children's play, and exhibit in a very contemptible light the conduct of the arbiters of the destinies of nations. But if modifications for the advantage of Holland are made in the treaty before its ratification, then Belgium will have been most unjustly used ; be cause her ready adhesion to the treaty will, in that case, only operate to her prejudice, while the framers of the treaty, who punish Belgium for submitting to their terms, will bestow re wards upon Holland for obstinate resistance ! The whole of the five Powers profess to be most anxious to preserve the peace of Europe. They know that Europe cannot enjoy the advantages of peace while there exists the apprehension of a war. Yet the moment the whole of the nego ciations respecting the affairs of Holland and Belgium are brought to a conclusion in every thing but the formal act of ratifying a treaty, to which all the Powers had already virtually agreed, the pacificators of Europe hang back, and ap pear afraid of finishing their own work, and so leave Europe in that state of trembling and anxious doubt as to peace or war which is detri mental to ail the regular pursuits of commerce and industiv, and only favourable to the specula tions of stock-jobbers, who fabricate news on one side or other, as it suits their views, and accord ing as their speculations are for a rise or fall in the public Funds. If it be true that the Em peror of Russia is about to visit his brother ofl the Holy Alliance at Berlin, it certainly is, at the present crisis, something very different from a visit of ceremony. Diebitsch was on a special mission at Berlin before the Polish insurrection, when the armies of the North were collecting from all points, for the evident purpose of put ting down the " bad example" in France. Po :and is no more, and Russia has since drunk of the intoxicating cup of conquest. While she keeps up her armies, how can Europe feel repose —Morning Herald. In the Edinburgh Review, just published, here is art article on the West Indian distress, which must, we think, go far to open the eyes of the planters and their mortgagees. The re viewer has traced the distress to its true causes, and shown, we think, in the most satisfactory manner, that relief from the source to which the West Indians have hitherto looked for it is altogether visionary. The prices of colonial produce are so low as not to afford any profit to the planters. During the last twelve years they have been constantly declining, and they must decline suit further from the indefinite extension to which cultivation in the foreign colonies may be carried. It is impossible that the consump tion of sugar in this country should ever equal the supply ; and the foreign market is supplied from colonies able to produce at a lower ex pense than ours. That our readers may see how hopeless is the expectation that any relief may be obtained from foreign markets, we quote the pas.,.ge on that :;übject : " Though there may he temporary rallies, we look upon it as utterly visionary to expect that prices should ever regain their old level ; and are not inclined to believe that they have as yet touched their lowest point. This result is partly to be ascribed to the breaking up of the old colonial system, and to the consequent extension of cultivation in Cuba, Porto Rico, Brazil, Java, &c. ; and partly to its extension in Louisiana, Demerara, the Mau ritius, &c. The exports front Cuba only have increased, since 1800, from about 100,000,000 lbs. to about 200.000,000 lbs.! and the increase iu the exports from Brazil has been equally great. In Louisiana, where little or no sugar was produced twenty years ago, the crop is now estimated about 50,000 tons, or 112,000.000 llts. The exports from the Mauritius have increased from 4.630 tons, in 1825, to 23,740 tons in 1830. There is also an increased importation from Bengal, Siam, the Philippines, &c. And yet, notwithst.nding this extra ordinary increase, it may be truly said, look'ng at the vast extent and boundless fertility of Cuba, Brazil, Java, and the other countries that are now bec amine the great marts for sugar, that its cultivation may be indefinitely extended, and that, though there were a demand fur ten times the present quantity, it might be furnished without any ma terial advance of price " The only essential relief to the West Indies must consist in the reduction of their expendi ture. Mr. Huskisson deluded them with liberal speeches (the reviewer acquits him of all inten tion to deceive, and says he was forced to yield to the ignorant prejudices of some, and the sel fishness of others) into an idea that his Act, 6 Geo. IV., c. 114, would admit a free intercourse between all our colonies and other countries; but the effect of the Act was to continue every abuse that he had denounced. The Americans rejected with contempt the delusive reciprocity offered them ; they have and must have the supply through the neutral islands of our West India Colonies ; and the only effect of the mo nopoly given to Canada is to load the colonists with heavy duties, a double voyage, and tran shipment. That our readers may see how com pletely the West Indies are sacrificed, we copy from the Review the following table, showing the influence of the duties in adding to the price of all the principal articles required for the supply of the Sugar Colonies : Herrin g s (Danish) at the Island of St. Thomas, the barrel LI 0 0 Ditto (British) in the Colonies, the barrel 1 11 0 Mess Beef, in Hamburg, the barrel 3 0 (/ Ditto in the United Kingdom, the barrel 4 0 0 Pork in Hamburg, the barrel 2 6 6 Ditto in the United Kingdom, the barrel 3 5 lied Oak Staves in the United States, per 1,000 4 0 0 _ _ Ditto at Quebec, per ditto _ 7 8 4 White oak Staves in the United States, per ditto 6 10 11 Ditto at Quebec, per ‘ntto lO 6 9. Flour in the United States, the barrel 1 1 0 Ditto at Quebec, ditto 1 5 5 Shingles in the United States, per 1,000 0 14 0 Ditto in Canada, per ditto 0 18 0 The West Indians are chiefly sacrificed to the Canadians and the shipowners ; and yet, with a stupidity unparalleled, those who pretend to re present the West Indians in Parliament have entered into a league with these monopolists. New Orleans is the natural market for the supply of the West Indies with provisions and lumber, and they are brought down in the greatest abun dance, and at a fourth part of the expence for which they can be sent from Lake Ontario or Lake Erie to Quebec. The value of native American produce, now exported from Orleans, was, for the year ended 30th September, 1830, 10,898,183 dollars, while the exports from New York were 12,036,561. Such are the prospects of the West Indians, and such the miserable system to which their ruin is ascribable. If they have not sense to see that their only hope of salvation de pends on reducing their expenditure to the level of that of the planters of rival colonies, they almost deserve the ruin which awaits them.— Morning Chronicle. We hardly know the object of Sir C. We therell's notice of motion which stands for to morrow, and shall therefore simply present its terms ; which are, for—" A statement of the respective numbers of English Peers created in each and every year successively, from the com mencement of the year 1689 to the end of the year 1831." Would nut a motion for the pro duction of Mr. Lodge's new Book of the Peer age have been as useful ? However, of this we are certain, that the more the subject of the Peerage is discussed the better. The times, and seasons, and motives of creation, will be seen by those who are in any degree versed in history ; and, singular as the proposition may appear, if it shall be found, on an investigation of this kind, that any considerable batch of Peers was ever created for any purpose so useful and ho nourable as that of rescuing a portion of the re presentation of England from the sordid hands of boroughmongers, we shall he content, and shall do all we can to induce the people of Eng land to be content, to suffer their Reform Bill to fail from the want of sufficient majority in the House of Lords ! There is no occasion, no era that ever consecrated, or could consecrate, the creation of a batch of Peers like the present, it being well understood that the persons to be elevated shall be men of high character, and as such calculated to improve the general reputa tion of that body into which they are to be— we will not say raised, but—admitted. Nay, we will even go farther than we have gone in the preceding paragraph. What do men talk of an addition to the House of Peers? A simple increase, bounded by the necessity which pre scribes it ? Was it not an occasion like the present which actually gave birth to the House of Commons, and created the representative body in this comparatively free country ? The struggle for power at the crisis of which we speak was between the House of Peers, then the only Parliamentary Assembly, and the King, Henry 111., when the latter was forced to do that, which it is represented in the present King and his Ministers to be an offence to contemplate, —namely, to increase the Members of the deli berative body, in order to save the Crown and nation from the usurpation of the Barons. The passage in history, though familiar to every Eng lishman, cannot be too often cited. W e s h a ll on this occasion, instead of quoting the more elaborate histories of England, (we are almost tempted to quote the Tory Hume), make our extract from a very little useful work, with which even children are acquainted, entitled—" A History of England, in a series of letters from a Nobleman to his Son." " In short, it was necessary that the powers on both sides should be so exactly balanced, that so small a weight as that of the people, as i t was then considered, should be thrown in to turn the scale. A Parliament was called, in which the King was obliged to give orders that four Knights from each county should sit, in order to represent their respective shires, and deli berate for the general benefit of the Peopl e : an d this is the first rude outline of an English House of Commons." We confess we know not what answer is to be found to such a precedent of English history, where an undoubted preroga tive was exercise for a constitutional purpose,— none, we think, that Sir Charles Wethereil's reading can supply : however, let his motion come forth ; we know its discoveries, though of a more recent character, will turn against him self. It is said that some of the members of the present House of Peers disapprove of the proposed addition to their bOdy. Is it a pro mising way of securing their own rights to ob :truet the exercise of the rights of others ? The power of creating Peers belongs to the King; and though men entirely separated from the Peerage might discuss the propriety or magni. tude of a new creation, it can never be becoming or decent in the existing body to prescribe whe ther any or who shall be admitted to their ranks. This were, indeed, the thing formed, saying to him who formed it, not exactly, " why }last thou made me thus ?" but something yet more inso lent and envious,—" why least thou made others like me ?" Some of the Peers might wish others ejected from their body ; there are those whom we should wish eliminated, through mere respect to the order : but an addition of men of character and station can only be a neutraliza tion of noxious qualities,—an increase of consi deration with the people,—a new bulwark to the torane, and a fresh title to general respect. — Times. The Scottish dinner, which was held yester- . day at the Freemasons' cavern, was a complete failure, and a shameful political job— a disgrace to the memory of the immortal bard, whose memory it was its professed object to perpetuate, and an insult to the living bard, whose acciden tal presence in town was laid hold of as a pretence for celebrating it with additional eclat. The announcement of the names of the stewards— almost all Tories—naturally enough induced the public to believe that as Burns was a Whig, and a man who had been oppressed by a shame less Tory Government, due honour was in tended to be done to his memory—that no dif ference of political sentiments would be allowed to mar the object of the meeting—and that while due honour would be done to the departed bard, some portion of his mantle might be awarded to the living man, of no inferior note, who was to be present on the occasion : but the expectation was baulked,—the dinner had a Tory origin and a Tory packing, and it seemed less to be the object of those who had the charge of it, and had some what presumptuously taken the charge of it, to celebrate the memory of Burns, and do honour to his living successor, than to testify their political prejudices, and thrust down the throats of the company toasts which had nothing to do with the occasion. To the proof, however. The Duke of Wellington's health was proposed, and the proposing of it called forth considerable dissatisfaction ; and what had his health to do let us ask, with the celebration of Burns' memory ? It might, perhaps, have some distant connection with the interests of the " bellows blowers," and " political quacks," who at, tempted to cheer it so lustily ; but what had it to do with a dinner in honour of Burns and the Ettrick Shepherd ? Was it not out of place ? Was it not :the lastand in-laking toast which ought to have been given ? However, as we have already said, the dinner was a failure. The independent portion, and the most numerous portion too, of the company manifested their disapprobation in hearty style; and unless the party which busied itself in get ting up such a palpable insult to the memory of the departed, and the honour of the living, bard, be possessed of impudence Xre perennius Regalique situ pyrammidam altius— it will not be in haste to repeat the experiment. How Bulwer, who is an honest and downright Whig, could have allowed himself to be included in a list of such -- faugh—we cannot con ceive; but we shall not condemn him unheard —he will no doubt give a satisfactory reason for his conduct, and the sooner he does give it the better. As an additional proof of the taste of the meeting and the real objects which it ap pears to have had in view, it may be men tioned that " Lord Porchester and the Poets of England," formed one of the toasts, and that no meliton was made of Campbell, the poet of Hope and Liberty, and no no tice taken of the bard of the Green Isle. Moore and Campbell are both Whigs, and we rejoice that their names were not mixed up with tho,e of the butterflies which presided on the occasion, and who outraged by their miserable arrangements and little party intentions the feel ings of their countrymen.—Morn. Advertiser. Admitting, as is now universally admitted, that a certain number of new Peers must be created, in order to pass the Reform Bill, it is truly satisfactory to us to perceive that those of our cotemporaries who range themselves, along with us, on the side of Reform, do now also ad mit, that the sooner the new creations take place, the better in every respect, for the success of the Bill, and the better also for the trade and peace of the country. The Ministers, no doubt, know what they are about—what they can do—and what is the most proper time for doing that, in the case of the new Peers, which is intended to be done ; and we shall, therefore, be loth, because we are un willing to emharrass his Majesty's Ministers, to find fault with any delay which may take place ; but there is assuredly no good reason known to, or suspected by the public, why the new creation, if the King has given his frank and unconditional assent to it, shbuld not be de clared immediately. It is, indeed, possible that the good-nature of the Kinn., and the tenderness of Earl Grey for the " order" to which he be- longs, may dictate a respite to the Anti-Re-I formers, to the last hour, in the hope of their repentance, and in order that the obstinacy of the latter may furnish a reason of undeniable necessity for adopting a measure which the Tories, in their madness, characterize as a de gradation of the Peers ; but, on the other hand, the reflecting and unprejudiced portion of the public will be apt to inquire why the trade of the country should be ruined—why the public should 'ce rendered anxious about a matter which is not worth one moment's reflection. Forty-one Peers formed the opposition which prevented the Reform Bill from passing into a law last session, and of these forty-one, twenty one were Right Reverend Fathers in God— men of believed piety and conscientious dealing —who sprung from the very class whose rights they endeavoured to withhold, and who only hold a stake in the country for their lives! What does the country owe to them ? Under what o bligations does it lie to injure itself for their benefit ? And, finally, what proportion, in point of wealth, influence, and property, do forty-one Peers, of whom twenty-one are Bishops, bear to the united voice—and to the united wealth of the community, which has declared that it will have the Reform Bill, and that n othing less will satisfy it On all these grounds a new creation of Peers ought not only to take place, but time creation to be made public as soon as possible. The domestic as well as the external affairs of the country, suffer sadly from doubts which are so diligently propagated by the enemies of Reform, respecting the firm ness of the King; and we have no doubt that • I the Reform Bill lingers in the Commons as much in consequence of the hopes entertained by the Anti-Reform party that no creation of Peers will take place, as of their antipathy to the Reform Bill. They would bring in the Bill to-morrow if they could have ousted the Ministry to-day, or perhaps one of even greater enfranchisement ; but they may save themselves the trouble of dreaming of such a possibility. The public has no confidence in them, and the best Bill that they could possibly propose for amending the representation of the country, would not be as acceptable as that which boasts for its patron the venerable name of Grey.— Morning Advertiser. POLICE IN 1 ELLIGENCE. MARY LEB ONE. Yesterday Mr. William Grenly, landlord of a house in Ogle-street, appeared before Mr. RAWLIN SON, to show cause why he rook forcible possession of a portion of his own premises, occupied by Mr Benjamin Pye, a knight of the pole, introduced a journeyman tonsor therein, and proceeded to shave the customers, without his, the said Mr. Benjamin Pye'a, consent or approbation. Mr. Benjamin Pye stated that he occupied a shop and small room in Mr. Grenly's house, carrying on the art and mystery of shaving; and on Sunday morning last, being obliged to be absent for several hours—to wit, from seven until eleven—when he reached his establishment he was thunderstruck at finding the shop open—a brother of the craft in pos session—the fire lighted—a mountain of lather on the table—the chins of most of his customers beard lees, and the new occupant lathering away at the few that rerniiini d. Although Mr. Benjamin Pye came in only at the " eleventh hour," he thought he had a right to shave the remainder; but the land lord thought otherwise, and so did the landlord's journey man; therefore t he landlord continued to pocket die pennies, and the journeyman continued to unhir su e the hairy chins of the customers, until' there remained not a chin to be shaved, nor a penny to pocket ; and he, Mr. Benjamin Pye, was obliged to look on at this unwarrantable encroachment upon his rights and razors. " Really," said Mr. RAWLINSON, " I think you ought to be much obliged to your landlord, for taking care of your customers' chins in your absence." " But why should he take all the money ?" ex claimed Mr. Pye.—" Oh, I think that was only fair," replied Mr. RAWLINSON : " 6 the labourer is worthy of his hire;' I don't see why a barber is not cqually so." " But only think of using my fire, my soap, arid my razors," said Mr. Pye, who looked upon it as by no means a laughing matter; " does your Worship call that nothing ?" " But only think, Mr. Pye, of leaving a customer to carry about all Sunday a week's beard upon has chin," returned Mr. RAWLINSON ; " do you call that nothing ?"—" But he made a forcible entry," re sumed Mr. Pye. Mr. Grenly being called on to explain this affair about " the forcible entry," replied that between nine and ten o'clock on Sunday morning he was a little astonished at finding a crowd of unwashed artisans, with beards as black as Jews, collected round the shop door; and on inquiring the cause, several voices exclaimed that " the barber had hanged himself!" Mr. Grenly became a good deal alarmed, and hastened to the room up stairs belong ing to Mr. Pye, which he broke open, where he was happy to find that the opinion entertained by Mr. Pye's customers, that he had laid violent hands upon himself, was totally groundless. His next object was to allay the fears of the customers, who finding Mr. Pye was still able to perform his tonso rial duties, declared, one and all, that they should and would be shaved by Mr. Benjamin Pye's razor, and Mr. Benjamin Pye's alone; so, finding them determined not to go away unshorn, at length he opened the shop, called in another barber, and pro ceeded to do Mr. Benjamin Pye's work by proxy. " But, ifuo be I had hanged myself," said Mr. Pye, " you l could have seen it through the window, without breaking in the door." " I diilut.t know in what part of the room you might have tucked yourself up," replied mine host ; " you might have hanged yourself up the chimney for all I knew." " Really I don't see what injury you have suf fered," said Mr. RAWLINSON ; " the landlord has been very kind, in my opinion, to keep your CLlStornels." " Jest so," continued the landlord; " I tell you what, Sir (turning to the complainant), you have no more gratitude than a barber's block." " Besides, young man," observed Mr. RAWLIN• SON, " do, for a moment, consider the injury this person (M , . Grenly) was likely to sustain. His shop had acquired a character for barbarisiag of superior quality. Now, if the admirers of your razors found that they could not enjoy the luxury of an ' easy shove; on Sunday morning, at your shop, they would go elsewhere ; and, as this is the age of intellect, they might find blades as keen as yours; thus the shop would lose the character your superior skill in operating has procured for it, and the land lord would find the value of his premises deteriorated. Now, Si,, I would recommend you to attend on a Sunday morniug betimes. There is a great moral responsibility resting upon a barber to take care that los customers' chins should be lathered in proper time, that they may get early to church. My advice to you then is that you have your razors stropped, your water hot, soap ready, and b eg i n ear l y. S tic k to your lather, S:r, stick to your lather." And so saying, the Worthy Magistrate dismissed the summons. THA MES OFFICE. Y e sterday Ann Simpson, Catherine Egg, Ellen Barnett. Mary Brian, Ellen Regan, Isabella Graves, and Ann .lackson, Irishwomen, who supply the in habitants of the ,astern district with fish, and are well known at Billingsgate fir their pu g ilistic pro pensities, were charged with assembling, in Blue gare.-fii-Ids, Shad well, on the previous night, for the purpose of " settling a dispute," to the great terror of all his Majesty's peaceable subjects, and in defi ance of his laws. It appeared, from the evidence of Eagle, a policeman, that about twelve o'clock he wire alarmed by screams of murder, arid shrieks of numberless women, and other noises, proei eding from the place mentioned. He repaired to the spot, and f d a ci r e i t . d m p d e r o a n t tio le other r t. Ot: apparel tllhn 3 r. a Some to o r o iri fromr n i s f h wm themtheir t er r i had bckag l a their s gowns others were without caps, and had their hair pulled out by the roots ; and several were lying prostrate in the mud, with broken heads, dislocated noses, black eyes, and bruised limbs ; while fragments of shawls, bonnets, and gowns were lying about in all direc tions. lie sprung his rattle, which brought a num ber of other officers to the spot, and the combatants, like rabbits creeping into their burrows, soon disap peared in the tenements surrounding the field of battle. Peace was not of long duration, for soon afterwards the prisoners, whose fury was not exhausted by the first onslaught, again returned arid renewed the conflict, and would have pulled each other to pieces had not the police again interfered and secured them. All the prisoners were more or less disfigured from blows, and, except from the fact that their dialect bespoke them to be natives of the sister isle, it would have been impossible to have told whether their complexions were white er black, so effectually had they been rolled in the mud. They each accused each other of beginning the skrini mage, and said they came to make pace. They also acciised the policemen of using them very roughly, and " riot at all like ladies." The officers said they would sooner have had 100 men to deal with than these seven women ; and ap pealed to their faces, which were disfigured with scratches from the nails of the ladies. They said these rows amongst the Irish venders of fish were veiv frequent. The inhabitants complained loudly of the noise occasion by this battle of the Amazons, which, it seems, originated in a quarrel at Billingsgate, in the Wheat. I Barley: Oats. Beans. Per Quarter. Ashburn 62 72 34 40 26 34 40 48 Basingstoke 56 72 30 34 20 25 39 45 Bath _ . 44 66 34 42 24 30 40 48 Bridgewater.,,,,.,,, 58 72 30 34 , 25 39 46 52 62 36 42 18 24 34 42 Chesterfield 64 70 26 32 46 52 Derby 62 65 40 43 24 27 42 44 Dances 66 70 28 41 22 23 39 43 Doncaster 57 68 28 41 17 26 40 44 Darchester .. 54 75 30 38 27 34 52 60 70 31 40 Gloucester „,.. 48 66 26 42 20 28 36 46 EI ting er ford 51 66 27 36 20 29 34 44 Leicester 75 44 29 48 44 70 25 41 17 32 56 45 Ramsey 56 62 32 38 24 26 51 Shaftesbury 56 37 j 27 44 Sheldon Mallet ... 52 63 34 43 j2O 26 36 45 Sherborne --... 56 62 36 42 i2O 28 38 44 Taunton.. 58 72 35 20 41 —. Yeovil --- 56 64 34 40 j2O 26 34 38 Per Bushel. s. (1. s. d. s. d. s. 0. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d . Shrewsbury ... 90 9 9 6 0 66 56 68, 0 0 00 Wheat, Old -- Foreign Oats, Poland - Small or Fee, - Foreign Barley, Norf. & Sul Foreign Beans Pease, White , Tares Rapeseed, in bond ELL M ARk ET—Jan. 24. —s. Ms. 58s. New —s. 56s 58s. —s. 50s. 545. ln bond... —s. —s. —s. —s 20s. 22s Old —s. —s. 30s. J.... —s. 185. 20s —s. 2os. 21s f —s. 40s. 425. Line. & %Void —s. 34s 365. —6. 32i. 343. 345. 36s 38s. Foreign —s. 365. 38s. —s. 38s. 40s. Grey —s —5. —s. Foreign —s. 30s. 365. none. CHELTENHAM Per Bushel s. d. to s. d. Wheat Barley 4 0 5 6 Mutton Oats 4 0 4 3 Veal Beans A R KET.—Jan. 24. Per lb. 50 7 0 Hay 3l. 106 1 Lamb to 31. 15s. Od. per ton d. to d 6 7 5 7 5 7 6 7 0 0 LEWES MARKET.—Jan. 24. White Wheat (per quarter).----£ 3 4 0 to £3 12 0 Red ditto 3 1 0 3 4 0 Barley-- . l 8 6 1 18 0 Oats, New ._ ........ ll 0 12 0 Pease 1 17 0 0 0 0 Oil Cake. New l3 0 0 per thousand. DUMFRIES MA s. d. s. el. s. d. F. d. Wheat, Imp. Bush... 7 () to 7 6 Butter, Irxjz 0 ()to° 0 Barley ......... ........... 3 6 3 9 Eggs, dozen ... ....... Oats... 23 28 Beef, per lb. Flour, 1116. Oatmeal Potatoes, cwt. .KETS.—Jan. 18. THE CONDEMNED RIOTERS AT NOT TINGHAM.—We understand that the petition from Not tingham, for sparing toe lives of the five rioters senterced to death, bears the signatures of more than twenty thou sand persons residing in that town and its immediate vicinity. Nothing can exceed the anxitly which prevails to obtain for those unfortunate men the mercy of the Crown.—Morning lien,ld. Some indistinct whispers have reached us re lative to a private soldier whose remains were interred in the course of last w eek. As far as we can understand them, it appears that he was sentenced to receive a certain nnrnner of lashes for permitting a prisoner to elude his vigilance, while on duty, and escape from tie new gaol a lt.w weeks i•ince. It is s tid that, alter receiving a portion of the punishnient, by the advice of the surgeon w o at tended its infliction, the remainder was deferred until the man should have been sufficiently recovered from tie effects of his first chastisement to enable him to hear it without endangering his life. This measure of precaution, how • ever, it is said, was nut adopted until so touch violence had been done to his system as shortly to place hint beyond the reach of his tormentors. Barbarous as is such a trans action, we are, nevertheless, by the knowledge of similar occurrences, prevented front altogether discrediting it. At present, we can only say that, if there be any truth in it, we shall be happy to be furnished with well-authenticated particulars, which we promise to lay before the public at the earliest moment. —Bristol Mercury. On the 15th inst. at Broughty Ferry, N. 8., the Hon. Mrs. N. 11. Dowbiggin, of a son. On the 4th inst. at the Caffarelli Palace, Rome, Frances, the lady of the Chevalier Barsea, resident Prussian Minister at the Papal Court of Turin, of a son and a daughter. R RIE D. On the 14th inst. at Paris, M. Nicolas dc Bergue to Made moiselle Stefanie Picot, daughter of Lieutenant-General Picot, of Rouen. On the .21st inst. at Bathwick, the Bev. W. S. Dowell, Vicar of Shorwell, Isle of Wight, to Julia, third daughter of Thornag Ecasley, Esq., of S afield, near Dublin, and niece of Dr. Frandc 'foddrick. morning, between the chiefs of two rival clans of Gshwornen. Mr. BALLANTINE said he wished the ladies had settled their dispute at Billingsgate, instead of end ing their differences in a more civilised part of the metropolis. They were unable to find the required sureties, and were committed to prison. PUNISHMENT OF DEATH. (Extract from the Correspondence of a Morning Paper.) PARIS, JAN. 221. SlR,—This is the anniversary of the death of Louis XVI. I have no apology to offer for the Convention ! I would rather have been Male sberbes than Vergulaud—and I should have loathed at pronouncing the words, " I declare, in the name of the Convention, that the punish ment it decides against Louis Capet is death."— But whence would have arisen this repugnance ? Because Louis Capet was a King? No. Be cause he was not guilty of treason against his people ; against the French nation ? No ; for he was guilty. But I should not have dared to pronounce the penalty of death, when out of an assembly of 721 voters, there was only a majority of 26 in favour of capital punishment. To vote away the life of a human being, however cul pable, by a majority, is a crime. Unanimity would, in my eyes, be no justification, as all capital punishments are murders. " Laws are framed only by means of a simple majority," ex claimed a besotted Mountainist on the trial of Louis XVI.; but there was a voice which re plied to him, " But decrees may be reformed, and the life of a man can never be recalled."— That man was not less patriotic than the Moun tainist, and he was ten thousaHd times more humane, civilized, moral, philosophical, enlight ened, and religious. How my soul has sickened as I have lately read the deplorable accounts of your Bristol and Nottingham Commissions. History will acquit Brereton, and the executions at the former city will be viewed by our grandchildren with the same abhorrence as the martyrdoms in Smithfield. The bloody Criminal Code of England, notwithstanding all its recent improve ments, is a disgrace to the nineteenth century. Let us hope that a Reformed Parliament will begin by reforming the laws. Great Britain is called a land of " Bibles, Tracts, and Missions," and yet the people assemble in thousands to witness the public death of a criminal ! First, then, render the population humane and civi lized before you export Bibles ; and labour by night and by day to follow up the benevolent and virtuous desires of your immortal Romilly, who strove to clear the statute-book from such laws of blood. Oh ! if the people of England did but know one-thousandth part of what is said and thought throughout civilized Europe of these periodical executions in London, and at the country Assizes, I cannot but think they would demand the abolition of capital punishments with the same unanimity and energy as they now dis play for a Reform i❑ Parliament. On a recent occasion, at a town in France, when a man, a criminal, deserving solitary imprisonment for life, was ordered to be executed, on the morning of the day all the shops and houses were closed, the streets were deserted, and no one assisted at the execution but the public executioner and officers of justice. This was enlightened, hu mane, Christian, and noble conduct. " Go thou and do like wise." THE MARKETS. COUNTRY CORN MARKETS DURING THE WEEK. DIED. On the 22d inst. at Tunbridge Wells, Janet Jane, wife of O. I). Yeats, M.D., and third daughter of the late P. Colquhoutir Eiq., of James-street, Westminster. In Bury-street, St. James's, John Hale, Esq., aged 70. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY MURDO YOUNG, AT ttiS , SUN OFFICE, 112, STRAND, LONDON.