The Sun. — London, England, 1832-02-02 00:00:00

PIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. The incessant persecution of the Press of France, ever since the elevation of Louis Phi- lippe to the throne, but more especially since the accession of Casimir Perier to the head of the Ministry, proves.that no experience can en lighten the understandings of the Bourbons and their chosen advisers. The moral power of a Government must be very weak which relies for its support upon crushing public opinion. It is, indeed, a consistent and necessary part of the policy of a despotic Government to enchain the Press—for a despotism and a free Press cannot co-exist : nor can a constitutional Government prosper where the P ress i s ens l ave d. N o ho nest chief of a free Government ever feared that freedom of opinion, which is only the whole some exercise of public criticism upon the actions of public men, and which can be ter rible only to those whose consciousness of wrong gives a sting to the accusation. The last insane act of the Government of the Ex-King of France was to strike the Press to the earth —the immediate cause of the revolution was the re-action of that great power against the violence that would have crushed it. It was in a print ing-office that the flame of resistance was kindled which spread through Paris, and consumed, in three days, the fabric of arbitrary power. Thus it took a regal revolution to overturn the Press, and a popular one to restore it. It is a fact well worthy of observation that the Editor whose noble resistance to an illegal ordonnance at the critical moment led to the sudden sub version of the throne of Charles X. is the Edi tor whose Journal the Prime Minister of the citizen King honours with particular persecu tion ! What occurred at the office of Le Na tional on the memorable 27th of July, in the year of the revolution, is matter of history ; and Casimir Perier had better take care lest, in giving occasion for the renewal of such a scene, he may not also bring about something like a repetition of its consequences. The declaration which the Editor alluded to, M. Caret, has pub lished, in which he avows his determination to resist by force any attempt to arrest him for an alleged offence of publishing a libel on the Go venment, before a Court of Justice shall have decided whether he has been guilty of any offence or not, puts Casimir Perier in a very awkward situation ; for if he would make a display of firmness and decision, he must go on in his ca reer of persecution—and the more so because lie is openly defied—and thereby bring about a dangerous collision, perhaps a fatal one, between the Government and the Press; or if he should retrace his steps, and abandon the practice of preliminary arrest, his conduct will be im puted, and justly, to that combination of ar bitrary feeling and moral cowardice which pro. yokes a resistance that it dares not face. No thing tended to diminish the strength of the Wel lington Administration so much in this country as its prosecutions against the Press. From the moment that a Minister endeavours to silence adverse opinion in the Press by the terrors of criminal law, from that moment he betrays a con sciousness that his conduct and designs cannot bear to be freely examined and discussed. Holy Writ says, of a certain class of versons, that they " loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." This maxim of Divine truth is strictly applicable to the enemies of open and free discussion upon public questions. No king or Minister ever wished to extinguish the light of the Press, through a modest aversion to the exposure of his honesty, his wisdom, and his virtues. Throughout the whole of his ministry Casimir Perier has been the servile sycophant of the Russian Autocrat, and the tool of his domi neering policy. In all his conduct he resembles more, as we said on a former occasion, a Minis ter of the Holy Alliance than a Minister of France. Yet this is the man who affects a high degree of determination and energy in crushing that power which was ma i n l y i nstrumenta l i n placing his master on the throne. Fearful as a bare in all his foreign policy, Casimir Perier at tempts to play the part of the roaring lion with the French Press ; but it is understood the Edi tors of most of the Paris Journals hive made common cause with M. Carel, whose cause is indeed their own. Let Casimir Perier beware, lest he render freedom a service which he never intends.-11torning Herald. We call the attention of our readers to our report of the proceedings at the Court-martial at Bristol on the 31st of January. Major Beck with, of the 14th Dragoons, gives the following curious evidence : " I must relate in what manner I saw the Civil and Military Authorities co-operating, in order to show to the Court the difficulties under which I saw Captain W. acting. On reaching Bristol on Monday morning, 31st October, I immediately went to the Council-house, where I found the Mayor and several Magistrates, who appeared to me bewildertd and stupified with terror. On hearing the state of affairs in the city of Bristol from those gentlemen, 1 urged that one or more Magistrates should accompany me on horseback, for the purpose of restoring order. They all refused to do so. " The President wished the Major to confine himself as cksely as possible to that which would exculpate Captai n Warrington, and not inculpate other parties, who would have no opportunity' of replying. " The Gallant Major then proceeded with his evi dence :—They all refused to accompany me, saying it would make them unpopular, and cause all their property to be destroyed ; they also added, that none of them could ride on horseback—(Laughter)—and the one I requested to accompany me, said be had not been on horseback for eighteen years.—(Laughter.) Seeing, therefore, that any assistance from the Magistrates would be out of the ques tion, I demanded to receive from them a written authority to take what measures I deemed expedient. From what I have related, and from what I saw in another quarter to which I cannot refer, the impression on my mind was, that Captain Warrington and the 3d Dragoon Guard. were in a great measure paralysed by the imbecility and misconduct of those who ought to have directed them. 1 Lave further to state, that during the time I had a per snal opportunity of t.bserving Captain Warrington he ap peared to me alert, zealous, and desirous of doing hie duty." There is one part of the above evidence that indicates something worse than mere cowardice. " It w ou ld make them unpopular, and cause all their pr o p erty - to be destroyed." What Is our respect for corporate rights to be carried so far, as to allow Magistrates to refuse to do their duty from selfish and base motives? There must be an inquiry. To refuse it would be a stain on the honour of the nation. We are sorry to say, however, that the case of refusin g to act through fear of becoming unpopular, and thereby having property destroyed, is but too common in times of agitation with the Unpaid. The squires and parsons are most heroic in peaceful times, when their services are not required ; but when the in cendiary is abroad, they are, like the Bristol Aldermen, too apt to be paralysed. One good man, like ColOnel Shaw, at Manchester, is worth a whole army of Corporation Magistrates and Justices of Peace. —Morning Chronicle, We call the attention of our readers to the report, in another column, of a case at the Queen-square Police-office yesterday. The case is exceedingly simple Mr. Edward Ford ham, a respectable gentleman of Cambridgeshire, on a visit to Mr. Tatham, the sword cutler, 37, Charing-cross, went with Mr. Tatham, Jun. to the shop of Mrs. Esther Tompkins, fruiterer, 11, Charing-cross, purchased two shillings' worth of oranges, gave them to his friend to take over the way, asked change for a sovereign, and received eighteen shillings. Thus far all was well. But a controversy now arose—Mr. Fordham insisted that he had given the sovereign before receiving the change, and Mrs. Tompkins maintained the contrary. Mrs. Tompkins gave Mr. Fordham in charge to a police constable, and after a hearing by Mr. Marriott, he thought proper to hold him and Mr. Tatham, jun. (who was not charged in the first instance, but attended as a witness) to bail for a fraud. There are are few men who have not at times been involved in disputes with shopkeepers, in the way in which Mr. Fordham has been in volved. Without any intention to deceive, nothing is more common than the shopkeeper forgetting that he has received the money, and the customer imagining that he has paid when he has not paid. We ourselves have seen frequent in stances of mistakes in this way. Sometimes 'the shopkeeper, on looking into his till, discovers his mistake ; and sometimes the purchaser, on counting over his money, discovers that he has not paid anything away. In ninety-nine cases in a hundred, the parties on both sides are bona fide. Without other circumstances indicative of a fraudulent intention, if there were no doubt that the party receiving the change had not pre viously paid the money for which it was received, that circumstance alone would not amount to even a presumption, much less a proof of fraud. e should be led to infer from the account, that this is one of the cases in which all parties are bona fide. We cannot say that we are sur prised at the proceedings at Queen-square Police Office, because (with one or two exceptions hardly worth naming) it would be difficult to discover, after a diligent search throughout the ' country, men so deficient in sagacity and powers of discrimination as the police Magistrates of the metropolis. Burke says that, in his time, the Magistrates of the metropolis were generally low knaves, with whom no respectable man would associate. The race of knaves is extinct ; but if their successors are well-intentioned, they are any thing but wise. We hardly ever look at a case in this office of Queen-square in which common sense is rot set at defiance. It is not long since a poor Turk, who had a quarrel with a female of easy virtue, in Tothill-street, who had robbed him, was committed by this very Mr. Marriott, we believe, because, being a poor stranger, he was unable to find security to pro secu;e for the robbery. In this case, not only is there no presumption of fraud, but there is a presumption the other way. If Mr. Fordham had been inclined to defraud a fruiterer, it is very unlikely that he would take with him a friend to witness the transaction, and still more unlikely that lie and his friend should select a shop opposite to the residence of the latter, to disgrace him in his own neighbourhood. God forbid that equal justice should not be done be tween rich and poor ; but when Mr. Marriott observed—" That if poor men had been brought before him on such a charge, supported by the same testimony, he should have committed them for trial ; and although the prisoners were rich men, it made no difference with him, and he felt it his duty to commit them to take their trial at the next Westminster Sessions"—he is alto gether wide of the mark. A poor man may be very honest, and a rich man may be a great knave ; but every animal has its peculiar habits. A rich English knave will do you out of a thou sand pounds, or even a hundred ; but he is sel dom found picking pockets. Lord Eldon is fond of money ; but if we %, ere to hear that he had a quarrel with a fruiterer about the change of a sovereign, we would presume, as a matter of course, that his Lordship was innocent of all cheating, even if it were proved that he had re ceived the change without paying the sovereign. If Lord Grey and the Duke of Wellington were to be charged with pocket-picking, and two per sons were to swear to their having seen their hands where they ought not to have been, we should, even in this case, where the act is conclusive as to the intention, refuse to credit the evidence. But if a man out at elbows, and displaying all the other evidences of extreme poverty, were to be charged, on the evidence of two witnesses, with picking a pocket, we do not say that this evidence might not be rebutted, but yet we should think that the charge did not outrage probability. In some countries, even Noblemen do not scruple to steal handkerchiefs and snuff-boxes. An English Nobleman will rob the public of ten thousand pounds without scruple ; but, except he is so reduced that he cannot defraud in the more ho nourable way of running into a tradesman's books without intending to pay him, he will not condescend to cheat in such a small way as the change of a sovereign. Respectable men—that is, in the English code of morality, rich men, — when they take a fancy to other men's property, are as high in their aims as Lords. We have no doubt that Messrs. Tathams and Mr. Foul ham are all really honourable men ; but if they were otherwise, we are almost certain that they would disdain the paltry fraud with which this Magistrate has thought proper to charge them.' The imputations which this Magistrate throws out, right and left, against Mr. Mayne and the Police Inspector, are not the least curious part of the business. There must be a purification of the Police-offices. Really no man can consider himself safe at present. It was but the other day that a gentleman of good connections was committed on. the charge of having stolen a watch from a woman of. the town three years be fore. He had accompanied her, she said, from the theatre to her lodgings, and she had not seen him till the night before in the theatre, though it was in evidence that the gentleman was in the habit of going regularly to the theatres. Yet in this case the sapient Magistrate refused bail.— Morning chronicle. The public will learn with regret the retire ment of Mr. Tennyson from the Ordnance Board, and that his resignation is occasioned by ill health. Mr. Tennyson is not a Reformer of " to-day." His personal exertions on the East Retford question, and his decided and manly de clarations in favour of Parliamentary Reform, before the fall of the Wellington Administration, greatly advanced public opinion, and contributed to the ground-work of the great Ministerial mea sures for the amendment of the representation. As there are no political motives connected with his resignation of office, he will continue his sup port to the Government, which we distinctly state, that the reasons of his retirement may not be Henry indirectly p arne Indeed, n n c ted with web the have v e dismissalreas ooto of Sir be lieve that Mr. Kennedy has been some time ap pointed to the Ordnance Board; and Mr. Tenny son voted for Ministers in the division .on the Russian debt. There is no public man.- more sincerely and distinctly pledged to Parliatnentary :Reform, and no one more certain consistent' • to It is not to be disputed that some late occur rences have given rise to unpleasant indications of the general temper of society in more quarters than one. The House of Commons is felt by some people not to have been very satisfactorily managed. The separation of Sir Henry-Par nell at such a moment from the Ministry has not been without its disagreeable though vague re sults, while the efforts and sacrifices of the Anti- Reformers contribute every where to affix more than its natural force to each sinister impression on the public mind, anti to throw into extensive, though, we believe, but short-lived currency, reports in themselves of little weight and value. The standing annoyance, however, is the delay in the creation - of Peers. No man meets his neighbour without asking, or being expected to answer the question, "what isGovernment about? Why are not the Peers Gazetted ?" In this single interrogatory, in the honest alarm which it expresses, and in the confidence and ex ultation inspired into a certain party by the in complete solution, or no solution, which it has ever yet received, are involved, with few and insignificant exceptions, all the political ma ladies of the existing crisis, in so far as relates to our domestic state,—perhaps we might go farther. It is but frank to tell his Majesty's Ministers that the country, vthich has well and zealously supported them, begins to be faint with disappointment. When the most mischie vous tales are in constant circulation, it will not do for the Government, whose life they aim at, and which suffers severely from them,—it will not do for a Government so situated, tb look tamely on, and do nothing. If it be said, and with a pertinacity of assurance which every day serves but to confirm it, that the Sovereign hesi tates about that application of the prerogative which alone can enable the Grey Cabinet to carry Parliamentary Ref'orrn into a law,—if that be said, and repeated, and whispered in drawing rooms, and bellowed through the streets, —that the King refuses his confidence to his Ministers, or withdraws it after it had been vouchsafed to them, and that such a calumny meets no refutation, direct or indirect,—what follows? Why, it ceases to be considered a calumny. It acquires the importance and ascendancy of truth, and the people, believing that the Ministers arein reality held cheap by their gracious Master, begin to think in sober earnest that it is time for subjects to imitate their King's example : so that, in fact, this wretched slander, which we know to be one, works destruction to its objects, from their own phlegm, vacillation, or negligence. As friends—and active, and we may say most useful, friends—of Ministers, we call upon them to strike at once the death-blow of their enemies, and publish without delay a liberal creation of Peers. Nothing less will sa tisfy the people of England—nothing less will carry the Bill even to the second reading in the Lords—nothing less will save the country from convulsion,—a convulsion caused by utter despair of finding in either of the recognised parties of public men, a single effective, and at the same time constitutional and freedom-loving statesman, on whom the na tion can place any solid reliance. If King Wil liam had withheld from his Minister the requi site authority to add to the minority in the House of Lords, it would have been the solemn duty of that Minister at once to resign. Lord Grey's continuance in office, therefore, would be to his friends an ample demonstration that he had obtained what he demanded of his Royal Master; even if, what we affirm distinctly is not true, there were no other evidence of that most important fact. The Sovereign has announced —long ago announced—his sanction of this essential exercise of the prerogative ; and the people of England have a right to ask, why does not the King's Minister give them (the nation) the full advantage of his Majesty's condescension thus graciously bestowed ? The enemy deny that the King has consented, and appearances will, we confess, be in their favour, until the Ministers shall undeceive the country by some decisive act. To us the delay is alto gether inexplicable, unless on the supposition that some wrong-judging or wrong-feeling—some timid, or cringing, or perverse mind, void of all true energy, should have set his vis inertice against the moving power of the Cabinet, and should rather have served to harass than to sus tain the Premier. Once more we join the friends of Lord Grey's Cabinet—that is, still the greater portion of the people of England—in calling upon his Lordship to disprove, by some bold act, the inauspicious rumours, or it will be taken pro confesso that they are not unfounded.— Times. It is more than probable that the Mayor and Corporation of Bristol would gladly have availed themselves of Mr. Perceval's expedient for de bating with closed doors, had it been lawful so to suppress the proceedings of military Courts martial of this country. Whoever takes the trouble to read the evidence delivered by Major Beckwith, of the 14th Dragoons, will find an edifying explanation of the fact which was stated by two former witnesses—viz., that his Worship the Mayor had given orders that nobody should tell " where to find him !" Indeed the gallant Major of the 14th appears to have discovered the worshipful Chief Magistrate and his col leagues in no very savoury plight. Major Beck with, on repairing to the Council-house found the Mayor and special Magistrates " stupified" (we forget whether he used any second phrase), " stu pified with terror." On being urged by Majorßeck with to accompany him, and aford the necessary sanction to an armed force, " they all refused to do so, saying that it would make them un popular" ! (precious public officers) ~ and would cause their " property to be destroyed"! (magnanimous doodles). Moreover, and above all things, their Worships. had never learned " to ride," save only one.of them, and " he had not been for eighteen years on horseback" ! Such are the persons to screen whose selfish timidity brave and estimable officers must be p j u o t upon d gea of their he trial. W Court 0 fK e i o k g to , i s now Benchnot what ma h y say t e to their minor brethren, the Bristol Magistrates, when, if ever, this case of imbecility and mis behaviour shall be brought before them. With a city still in ashes, and .proof on oath that the Mayor ran away to hide hiinself, when his duty was to appear at the head of the military, and by his influence and presence to assist them in stop ping the devastation, is it credible that we shall now be put off with the thatjudicialhe can dictum, that I that corruption or dishonesty must be proved against a Magistrate, otherwise criminal motives corrup no manner and by no means be punished ? malice, The law oftene d n° tion, fraud, an against the King's ,subjects, who happ en no t t o be - • Magistrates - , and finds the demonstration of • the criminal Motive in .the mischievous act Itself. Here' was t'filnetionary,—nay, a whOle batch of fifty''tgl i intendsther functionaries,—first absconding, that he might not be accessible, and next alleging as an excuse for the grossest violation of his duty, that the discharge of it would "render him unpopular." How fortunate for the country has it been, that the municipal authorities of Manchester have so well redeemed the reputation of the civil power, degraded as it was by those of Bristol ! It is, indeed, unquestionable, that had but two or three individuals gifted with common manhood and sagacity been in office at the commencement of the riots there, not a single house could have been destroyed, or life sacrificed either by the sword or gallows. A corporation Reform is, we trust, at hand.—Times. The skill and industry with which the foreign affairs of the British Government have been managed - since the Reform Ministers came into office are worthy of the highest praise, and their organs of the Press are laudably zealous in their efforts to exhibit to the world the admirable talent, assiduity, and success which have cha racterised the whole diplomatic proceedings of his Majesty's present Administration. It would indeed argue great want of discrimination and generosity on the part of the British people if they required to be informed of the conspicuous merits of a Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs like Lord Palmerston, yet we commend our Mi nisterial contemporaries for the great care they take that the eminent qualities of this functionary shall not be overlooked. When was there ever such a Foreign Secretary ? Why only the other night he sat at his office from eleven o'clock till three, some say till four o'clock —but these last we fear are flatterers—waiting the arrival of the ratification by three of the principal Powers of Europe of an important treaty. Let it, however, be only three o'clock, and how, we beg to ask, can the nation ever re pay this extraordinary anxiety and diligence in its concerns ? To be sure the ratifications did not come, but what of that ? If they had come would he not have been there to receive the n ? And was it any fault of his that they did not arrive ? He expected them, no doubt, or he would not have waited so long, and his disap pointment enhances his claims upon the gratitude of the nation, for how vexatious it must have been to sit so long in a cheerless office for no thing, when he might have been so much better employed sleeping or waltzing. Posi tively the Noble Lord must have a pension, or the British nation will lay under the re proach of being the most thankless people that ever existed. But we should do scanty justice to the public services of this distin guished Statesman if we confined our praise to the painful and dreary vigil to which he sub mitted upon this occasion. Had he not with singular generosity and pre-eminent prudence made a present of the sum of five millions sterl ing of the public money of Great Britain to one of the Powers, and to that one whose decision would most have influenced the rest, in order to induce that Power to concur in the Treaty ? Had he not, unlike the race of procrastinating and tardy politicians, taken time by the forelock, adopted in its most liberal sense the maxim, his dat qui cite dat, and, to avert the possibility of disappointment, positively paid the interest of the above sum, the gage and earnest of the ca pital, beforehand ? Political combinations, how ever skilfully formed, are, as long experience attests, liable to disappointment, and it hap pened unfortunately that Lord Palmerston was disappointed. But those ü bvigi n igiv e ri ie a tom n nu d ecsr i a il t:m. p oae e yfrt r ihh s tfl o ian n vovke s ; mit only nhigiisi aotnno w ys hopofrommj drawback u oo d nt geeye money, and his oa by s do them b t jt h ri o e e s t t s e i r e a l sitting up till four o'clock in the morning, anxiously t o u ieexpected s t ly awaitin g, although , fruitsof h alas o ! u i n t ty . And proved in vain, what were those objects ? Were they not ob jects of such deep importance to the vital inte rests of the country that every well :judging Englishman who reflects upon them for a mo ment must feel his sympathy with the Noble Lord's disappointment thereby enlivened, and his estimate of the Noble Lord's stupendous efforts in the same degree enhanced ? Was not one of them to weaken the national power and mortify the national pride of the Dutch—of a nation which, in former times, by its wicked and per verse attachment to the vain chimeras of national independence and the balance of power, has se duced the British Government into frequent wars, and never once has had the virtue to administer the edifying and profitable lesson of deser tion during their eventful and fluctuating pro gress? Was it not another of those objects to exalt and strengthen the new kingdom of Belgium, which has all the merit of having sprung from the pure and holy bosom of insur rection, the existence of which undoes part at least of what Great Britain accomplished by a glorious but anti-revolutionary war of a quarter of a century's duration, the growth and pro sperity of which are required to enforce the va luable doctrine, that human happiness can be best promoted by revolution ? Was it not ano ther and still greater object to arrest the revo lutionary movement in France at the exact point at which it could continue serviceable to the glorious cause of Reform in Great Britain ? What was five millions of money, what ;yds Lord Palmerston's sleepless night, in comparison with objects of such stupendous value ? And is it to be believed that there is a man in England who can withhold from the Noble Lord the tribute_ of his gratitude and admiration for the zeal, the energy, the perse verance, with which they have been pursued ? Should any one be so fastidious as to say that a Foreign Secretary of the King of England would have better consulted the dignity of his Royal Master by going quietly to bed than by sitting up all night waiting the arrival at Down ing-street of a Russian messenger, our only reply is, look at the grandeur of the objects at stake. f e . c E ol i t i o g m la i n s d t , sp a e n a d k of the ld any whether they could well afford to make a p resent distressSh ouchheu peoplerl of to the Northern Autocrat of so large a sum of money, again we triumphantly appeal to the vast importance of the national interests which Lord Palmerston had in view. If he has failed how could he help it ? Did he not give the money ? Did he not sit up all night ? Then let them at once give up their futile objections, and unite with us in extolling, as they deserve, the tran scendent and unprecedented merit, a merit wholly independent of success, of the Noble Secretary and his fellow-labourers in the great cause of their country's welfare and glory.—Morn. Post. POPULAR REVOLUTION.—The popular party is near its defeat when the moderate chiefs are forced to subdue the spirit of the more ardent. Frightened at some blameable menses committed by their partisans, they deprive themselves of all vigour in order to suppress diem ; they disarm those by whose strength they have conquered; they distrust their friends, and confide in their . enemies.—Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cycloptadia, Vol. Sismondi's History of the Italian Republics. Mr. MARRIOTT asked her if she could swear posi tively that Mr. Fordham did not give her the sovereign, and whether she had any doubt on her mind ?—The prosecutrix said that she could swear positively that he did not give her the sovereign. The prosecutrix Underwent a long examination, but her testimony was not shaken; and Mr. MARRIOTT said that she had given her testimony with great propriety. A man named Benjamin was examined—He said that he was in the shop at the time when the pfkoners came in for the oranges ; he did not see Mr. Fordham give a sovereign; if he had paid a sovereign, he must have seen it. Police constable Mumford, of the A division, No. 16, stated, that he was called by the prosecutrix to take Mr. Fordham into custody ; when she told him the charge he requested him to walk with him to the station-house, and the charge was taken b ) Serjeant Redmond. Mr. Tatham, sen., the father of Mr. Edward Ta tham, here stepped forward, and said that Mr. Ford ham was a highly respectable gentleman, and that when he was informed of the charge made against him, he went to Colonel Rowan, the Commissioner of Police, at a club-house in Pall-mall, and in formed him of the circumstance, requesting his ad vice hew to act, and to know whether his friend could not be bailed; Colonel Rowan, after listening to bum patiently, said that it was a nice point of law, but he would give him a letter to his colleague, Mr. Mayne, who was a barrister, and better able to give his opinion on the case than he was; the letter was written, and he took it to Mr. Mayne, who, after hearing the detail of the nature of the case, wrote a letter to the inspector of the A division on duty, desiring him to liberate Mr. Fordham on his own recognizance to appear at Queen-square Police office in the morning. Mr. Fordham was accord ingly liberated, and he had now come voluntarily forward to meet any charge that might be preferred against him. Mr. MARRIOTT expressed his astonishment that such ea order should be given, and that a man un der so serious a charge should be set at liberty, without proper bail was taken for his appearance. lie hoped that it would go forth to the public. Mr. Goodyear, the inspector of the A division, said, that knowing the respectability of the parry, he had taken upon himself to let him go on his own recognizances to appear the next morning. Mr. MARRIOTT condemned the conduct of the inspector, and said that he had acted highly im proper in letting the prisoner go without taking bail ; and that if Mr. Tatham had not come forward, he should have felt it his duty to have issued a warrant for his apprehension. A respectable gentleman, whose name we could riot learn, here stepped forward, and said that he was well acquainted with both the prisoners. From their well-known respectable characters and their connexions, he considered it en impossibility they could have been guilty of such an offence as that laid to their charge. Mr. MARRIOTT asked the prisoners if they wished tosay M r .l n 'oi t •d h h in a g ra in sai t d he t ir ha d t ef i e t n ‘ c v e a; perfectly true that he went into the shop with his friend, and purchased two shillings' worth of orange!. Finding that he had only one shilling in silver in his pocket, and a few sovereigns, he asked Mrs. Tompkins for change for a sovereign, which he gave her. She gave him the change, he was ready to admit ; but that he paid her the sovereign previously he could swear to. With regard to his offering intggied nihoat r h ove e et r tagoke ai do onthew with sovereign hethrs ot evthneaerte sove reigns bu siness; tl u e e. station-house, it was perfectly corre c t. H e did se because he did not wish to be troubl e d w i t h t h e sn t e s " s ; t and ta when hadwould s h n e o willinglynothing refused without lie admitted that he had not paid her, he in dignantly refused ; because he considered that such an admission, when he was confident in his own mind that he had paid her, would be a slur on him. Mr. MARRIOTT commented on the case at some length ; he said, that if poor men had been brought before him upon such a charge, supported by the same testimony, lie should have committed them for trial; and, although the prisoners were rich men, it made no difference with him, and he felt it his duty to commit them to take their trial at the next Wes tminster Sessions. The parties were then bound over to prosecute. The prisoners were quite astonished at the deci sion, and an application was immediately made, by their Wends, that they might be admitted to bail. Mr. MARRIOTT, after consulting with the Bench, consented to take bail for their appearance at the Sessions. A gentleman inquired what bail would be required. Mr. MARRIOTT said that he should require the prisoners to enter into their own recognizances in the sum of 100/., and to find two sureties each in the sum of 50/. Bail was immediately put in and the prisoners were discharged. Mr. Forditam is an elderly gentleman, of the highest respectability and character. He is an ex tensive landholder, and, with his family, has come to London on a visit to Mr. Tatham, and to receive his dividends from the public funds. Mr. BERKELEY PORTMAN has, we are told, presented a fine exatnple to his neighbours. In order to enable the farmers on his numerous estates in the counties of Dorset and Somerset to pay proper wages to their la bourers, he has given them back 25 per cent. of their last year's payment of rent. He has also, we are informed, discharged most of his gamekeepers, and allowed his tenants to kill the game on their respective farms. If the Tory landowners would follow this example, instead of straining their tenants to raise the means of attempting further opposition to the Reform candidate, they would gain more real power in the end. We have heard that Mr. PORTMAN will follow up his excellent conduct to his tenants, by assisting in the formation of schools of industry in the various parishes in which he is a landowner. Self supporting schools will do more for the agricultural pea• sentry, and in the end for the farmers and the landlords, than schools of any other description. The peasantry, greatly dismayed as they have been by the abuse of the. poor-laws, require some restorative measure of this description. CHELTENHAM Per Bushel. s. d. to s. d. Wheat -0 8 0 A 11K ET.—Jan. 31. Pet lb. d. to d 6 7 5 7 5 • '7 6 7 0 0 Barley 4 0 5 6 Oats 4 0 4 3 Beans Pease 5 0 7.0 Hay 3l. 10s. Beef Mutton Veal PI. s o ft% ........... ... . . . . . . . to SI. 15s. Od. per ton. LEWES MARKET.—Jan.3I. White Wheat (per quarter).......... £3 6 0 to £3 8 0 Red ditto 2 18 0 3 0 0 1 17 0 1 19 0 100 1 1 0 1 17 0 1 . 18 .0 12.10 0 per thousand. Oil Cake, New. DUMFRIES MA , s.d. s.d. s.d. s. d. Wheat, Imp. Bush... 7 0 to 7 6 Butter, 16oz 0 0 to 0 0 Barley ......... ........... 3 6 3 2 3 9 8 Eggs, Beef d pe o r ze lb n . .... ...... 0 0 0 4 0 0 s 0 0 Flour, 141 b. Oatmeal Potatoes, cwt.........., 1 0 1 4 ou:dem Lost 0 7 0 9 .KElS.—Jan 25 NORWICH, Jan. 28. Wheat (per qr.) 555. 625. 666. Beans (per qr.) 42s. Barley 245. 365. 386. Pease, Grey,.......345.385. Oats "Vs 26s 28s Flour, fine (per sack) 475. 496. uphold the popular interests on all subjects.— Morning Ch ronicle. POLICE INTELLIGENCE, QUEEN-SQUARE. Yesterday Mr. Edward Fordham, a gentleman of fortune, from Cambridgeshire, and Mr. Edward Tatha►n, jun., a partner in the highly respectable house of Tatham and Son, the well-known sword cutlers, No. 37, Charing-cross, were charged before Mr. MARRIOTT with defrauding Mrs. Esther Tomp kins, a fruiterer, of No. 11; Charing-cross, of eighteen shillings, and two shillings' worth of oranges, under the following exraordinary circum stances : It might to be mentioned, that Mr. Tatham was not charged in the first instance with the fraud, but attended at the office as a witness for Mr. Fordham, when, after the statement of the prosecutrix, Mr. Marriott directed him to be included in the charge. The prosecutrix stated, that on the previous evening, between nine and ten o'clock, the pri soners came into her shop. Mr. Fordham a-ke I for two shillings' worrh of oranges, which she gave him in a bag. He then asked her for change of a sovereign, and at the same time he gave the oranges to his friend Mr. Tatham, and told him to take them over the way. She brought him the change (eighteen shillings), which she gave to Mr. Ford ham, who nas about to leave the shop when she told him that he had not given her the sovereign; he insisted upon it that he had given her the sove reign and refused to pay her; she at last sent for a police constable and gave him in charge. They went to the station-house in Gardner's-lane, when Mr. Fordham offered to pay her the sovereign, which she refused to accept without he would admit that he had not paid her the sovereign in the shop. This he declined doing. Mr. MARRIOTT said that she had acted with great propriety in refusing the sovereign at the station house, and asked her what money she gave him in change ? The prosecutrix replied, that she gave Mr. Fordham a half-sovereign, two half-crowns, and three shillings. MRS. SIDDONS. It was a favourite, and a just maxim of Fro derick of Prussia, that accident must first lift man from the ground ; but that, once raised, tin vigour of his own wing can alone sustain him Mrs. Siddons verified the truth of this maxim Bath was, undoubtedly, a desirable station ti her ; for it was then, more than now, a selec London. But the theatre for some time wa: sufficiently cool when she played ; and Palmer troubled her only on his Thursday nights, when the Cotillon Balls carried off every body whc could move to the rooms, and when, conse. quelitly, that eye, which ere long was to fas. cinate all ranks and ages, was frequently bent on vacancy. At last came Frederick's " accident." On one of these devoted Thursdays, there hap. pened to be in the theatre persons not only 01 consummate taste, but, what is of infinitely more consequence in such matters, persons whose taste carried with it the authority of station. It was in vain that equal, perhaps superior, taste, on foot, had already pronounced her great ; the taste which rolls in a carriage, and speaks from titled lips, is the taste that becomes an oracle. " Let but a Lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens, and the style refines !" _ This oracle spoke—and fashion, for once, wore her bells beneath the casque of Minerva. All could then discern what they had been un able to discover till it was discovered for them. Even the cotillons languished on the nights when Mrs. Siddons performed ; and dancing was renounced for the pleasure of weeping, sigh ing, and trembling at the theatre. What a triumphant moment must that be, when a mind long conscious of the things it can do (as every mind is which can do any thing worthy of im mortality), finds itself at last fairly entered upon the bright path where all its lonely musings of long-neglected years start into realities ! Such a moment this was to Mrs. Siddons. She had gained the only point that true genius desires— opportunity to develop itself. Even had her's been less than it was, and so incapable of re sponding to the estimate of her judges, still it was a moment the consequences of which were most precious to her ; for, so long as the world chooses to call us great, we are in po!oession of all the advantages of being great. It is not surprising that the fame which now gathered round her should have prompted the London managers to make proposals for securing her services ; but it is surprising th a t th e B a th manager should have suffered her to escape from him in the way he did ; for it is stated by one of her biographers, upon " unquestionable authority," that a very inconsiderable income of salary would have induced her to relinquish all idea of appearing in LOndon again, at least for many years. That increase, however, the manager hesitated to offer till it was too late. The fact was, seeing herself esteemed and followed by the first people at Bath, Mrs. Siddons had com pletely acquiesced in her situation there ; the more so, probably, because of the distaste which her experiment of the London boards in 1775 had produpd. The growing dem an d s o f h er family, hovkver, determined her to accept a pro posal which would enable her to meet those de mands with more comfort to herself than she could hope to do if she declined it. When it was finally settled that she should enter into an engagement with the manager of Drury-lane (an engagement, it is said, mainly resulting from the influence of the late Duchess of Devonshire with Sheridan), she invited her friends and admirers to her farewell performance on the Bath stage, and to receive from her three reasons for quitting them. The night came, and Mrs. Siddons recited a poetical address of her own writing, in which she supposes they would feel some astonishment at listening to verses the composition of one who had hitherto aspired no higher than to " repeat with decency the verses of others ;" and some curiosity to know what the reasons were which she intended to submit to them. At length she produced her " rea sons," leading on the stage her three children, —and, as she pointed to them, exclaimed :-- "These are the moles that heave me from your side, Where I was rooted—where I could have died!" The appeal was irresistible, and the mother and the actress were alike gratified.—;-Annual Biography and Obiluaryfor 1832. THE MARKETS. COUNTRY CORN MARKETS DURING THE WEEK. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans. Per Quarter. And0ver.......,..... Birmingham flridport Cirencester Guildford Henley Hereford Highworth Maidenhead hlonmouth Reading Southampton Stroud Tewkesinay Uxbridge Warminster S. to s. 31 4.3 37 41 40 44 32 39 30 42 38 40 23 32 30 35 44 48 32 42 32 46 31 47 ii 38 40 42 27 40 30 4,3 30 42 65 66 44 51 HULL MARKET—Jan. 31. Wheat, Old —s. 565. 58s. New —.s. 565. 58s. - Foreign —l. 50s. Ms. ln bond... ...IL --8. —a. Oats, Poland —a. 20s. 225. Old —a. —a. 30s. Small or Feed.... —s. 16s. 20s ..-.5. -s. -s. Foreign —a. 16s. 18s —s. —s. --8. Barley, Norf. & Suf. ... —s. 345. 38s. Linc. & Wold —a. 34s 365. Foreign —s. 324. 341. Beans 32a. 365. 38s. Foreign —s. 364.385. Pease, White —s. 38s. 4(s. Grey —s. ..11. --41. rates —s —s. —s. Foreign . . . Itapest , ed, in bond none. Erse, per last —l. 261.271. BIRTHS. On the 30th ult. at White Hill, Great Berkhampstead, Hee., the lady of A. P. Cooper , Esq., of a son. On the 31st ult. in Bloomsbury-place, the lady of R. Black more, Esq., of a son. On the 24th ult. at Geneva, the wife of the Rev. J. S. Poles, of a daughter. MARRIED. ...... This morning, at St. Bride's Church, by the Rev. Dr. M'Leod, Rector of St. Anne's, Soho, Captain James Vetch, R.E, to Alexandrina Ogilvie, eldest daughter of Robert Auld, Esq., Scottish Hall, Crane-court. On the Ist inst. at St. Pancras Church , K. Dixon, Esq., of Tavistock-square, eldest son of the late K. Dixon , Esq , of Fins bury-square, f t G o ui Juliet,ffo rGuilfo r d - stree t , second st r e e t, a n ddaughter T gat e ko of . Sir re s tE B. Sugden, Lod county of Sussex. ge, in the DIED. On the 31st ult. at his father's residence, South Bank, Regent's Park, after severe and protracted sufferings, Mr. Amos Gann Rowlands, Assistant -Surgeon on the Madras Establishment, aged 27. On the Ist inst. Mr. John Rideal, jun. of Union.street; South. wark, aged 24. STRAN7,, LNDON. gi MURDO YOUNG, AT TOO SUN OFFICES PRINTgD AN 71Y2, B. to S. 22 30 24 32 26 30 20 29 28 38 26 35 20 30 28 34 22 30 21 32 21 27 28 32 22 32 30 38 23 33 21 30 22 28 21 22 31 32 t. to s. 38 52 -. 54 •-• 46 - 40 - 40 - 56 - 37 - 48 - 44 - 42 - 50