The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-05 00:00:00

TO TIIE SECRETARY OF THE BRADFORD
REFORM ASSOCIATION.
(CONTINULD ON 11;;NDA.IS AND NVEDNE:,DA76.)
Sint—On Wednesday 314. March the debate was on
Tottaat Right (In laud). The toceeires egaiust • tha
bectad lieucling of Mr. SiI&TIUL;3 e7iLVSfurd'zi Thu
pointed strong:y to the fact, that there wt.; is geed dial
to he said upon the ether side. There is nothing by
which the useful science? of Political Economy (which
has somewhere beon called the mathematics of grown
gentlemen) has. been so much injured, as by throwing
cut pomoous enunciations of leading principles, which
may bo true enough in all eases where reason to the
contrary is not established.
One of these Brands ;nets, as the French, call them, is
that everything should be settled by contract between
parties, and that if it is not so settled, the parties have
only themselves to blame. Nov. this is partially true,
and partially not. There is no doubttslatarot
ntgheepasoewemruostf
making contracts should be left free and open; and
where a contract has not been made, a
he made out for the necessity of legislative interference.
No man doubts that .to leave the parties to the conse-
quences, is in general the easiest mode of deaiing with
the subjtet.
But the question is, whether there are cases where
the easiest mode is not the best, and where it is fur the
public welfare that the Government should take other
methods to reduce the evil.
In Ireland, the great complaint is, that from some
causes or other, the land is not cultivated as it ought to
be. The fault may bo in the landlords, or the fault
may be in the tenants; but in one way or other, the
thing is net done, and no good is to be gained by preach-
ing upon the benefits of fOrethought and managing after
the English model or the Scotch. Whatever may be
the national virtues of Ireland, forethought is not the
ono which has ever been claimed as peculiarly developed.
Irish landlords in general are, not makers of fortunes,
but evaders. They have not money to spare for im-
provements upon their land; and the general fact is,
not only that they spare none for improvements, but
that the expenses from time to time demanded for keep-
ing the estate in its actual condition, are found by the
tenant rather than by the landlord. Your spruce poli-
tical economist will say, this ought to be remembered by
the tenant in agreeing for the rent. But Irish tenants
are not apt to remember what has not yet come to pass,
and the occurrence of which is viewed through all the
uncertainty attendant upon distance. And to such a
length has this gone, that in Ulster it appears a kind of
home-made law has sprung up upon the subject, not re-
cognized by the courts, and thereby only the more
strongly proved to be an effort for the general
weal. A tribunal of it is not distinctly stated what,
giving its decisions it is not stated where, and acting
upon rules the nature of which is equally non-descript,
goes on enforcing certain modes of compensation to the
tenant, for what he has kid out upon the land in the
shape of what there appears a disposition to characterize
es " unexhausted improvements;" and this, so far at
least as appears, with a degree of general consent
which prevents resistance to what any man might re-
sist if he thought worth while. It has never
been stated that tenant right in Ulster is enforced by s
musquet balls from behind a hedge; and it would cer-
tainly have been so stated, if anything- of the kind could
bo established.
The question therefore is, whether Tenant Right in
Ulster is not an effort of nature to diminish an evil, and
whether as such it ought not to be recognized by the
State physicians, and possibly both recognized and ex.
tended. The question is, whether Irishmen, for want of
law, have not been a law to themselves; and whether
their handiwork is not worth looking at, like that of
bees and beavers and other non-professional architects.
Tho Government promises to recognize the principle of
compensation for " unexhausted improvements." In this
there may be many difficulties; but if things were given
over for difficulties, the world would not be carried for-
ward. Whst is to bo an " unexhausted improvement,"
and how is the tenant's claim for it to be measured? If
a farm-heuse is built by the tenant, he may at all events'
have the right of carrying it away. But how if instead
of a house it is a dreinege? The best resource which
occurs upon view, is to stick as close as can be done to
what has established itself in Ulster. It may not in-
clude everything; but it will be a gain if it includes
something. There is an evil in Ireland, and the object
is to mend it by law, as in some pieces it appears to
have mended itself without law.
On Thursday Ist April, on the motion for inquiry.
into Bribery at Harwich, was some curious sparring on
the part of the Government, on the subject of the rights
of minorities. It is natural that a Government which
is avowedly governing by minorities, should have a
theory upon this subject. And the theory apparenfly
that when they the Government are in a minority, it is
to Count as a majority; but when anybody else is in a
Minority, tho minority is to give away. This theory
wants examining; it is desirable to know how far it is to
go, and where it is to end. Is it intended to propose,
for example, that because a minority, or some minority,
is a minority, therefore justice and right demand that its
power of voting should be increased in tho inverse pro-
portion? If a certain opinion be the opinion of, for in-
stance, one-thirdof the whole community or of that
part of it to whom the right of having au effective'
opinion is conceded, is the doctrine, that to make all
right this third ought to be divided into voting parcels,
each containing half the numbers of the others, and con-
sequently bringing their power to that equality which is
stated to be simple justice to a minority of citizens? If
this is not precisely the proposition of the Government,
it is something very like it. Tho times are favourable
to the examination of the question, with a view to ex-
actly knowing where it is ;o end.
It is characteristic of the time, that the motion for
inquiry into Harwich was negatived by 137 to 95. It is
but fair that poor persecuted abuses should have a
breathing-time sometimes.
On Friday this was followed up by voting a now writ
for llarwich without a division. It is a strange thing
that men cannot either let a thing alone, or else divide
and let it be seen who is who. Surely nothing can be
gained, by proclaiming desire and then declining a test
of power. The truth is that tho Liberal party is
beaten at all ends, till the constituencies recover it. It
has quarrelled, and threatened, and talked; but it has
not had the wit to keep out its opponents, and now it
must wait till somebody comes to help it. And the only
way to make anybody come, will be for the liberal aris-
tocracy, who in the combined ratio of discipline and
numbers are the most efficient body in the field, to take
another " step into the right," and bring the people once
more to their side.
I ant,Pir, yours very sincerely,
e AN OLD REFORMER.
Blackheath, sth April, 1852.

DISCOVERY OF A NEW PLANE;(.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—l; have received this morning a letter from
Professor de Gasparis, of the Royal Observatory at
Naples, announcing his discovery of another small
planet on the evening of March 17. The following are
its observed places:—

North
9 36 21.2
Right Ascension. . Declination.
Mean time Naples.
k. in. B. h. in, s. deg. in. sc.
.4 52 33 957 56.7 12 51 20
March 17, at 820 19 956 9
tis Stateto be equal in brightness to a star
March 19, at
the 10th and 11th magnitude.l3 1 41
9 2ad
-7
anet
i
I have little doubt that this pi
ol'llf‘baberacphttcl2aonC),:enat
identical with
'an object which I entered upon a chart for the 10th
hour of right ascension on the 29th of January last in
E. A. lOh. 32m. 405., r.nd north declination 8 deg.
59 min., and noted as of the 11th magnitude. This
chart was placed in the engraver's bands soon after, but
I did not receive a proof until March 18. On the even•
ing of that day I missed the above object and imme-
diately commenceed an examination of the heavens in
the vicinity of the bright star Regulus, where I ex-
pected to find what I felt certain was a new planet; in
fact, I expressed my conviction of having seen one to
Mr. Bishop on March 19. My search has been
sadly interrupted by thick weather and moonlight; but
on the 29th ult. I find I entered a star of the 11th mag-
nitude in R.A. 9h. 56m. 30s, north declination 13 deg.
4 min., which agrees so closely with the above observation
by Dr. de Gasparis on the sawn night that it appears
highly probable this was really the new planet. I have
waited for the absence of moonlight to renew my search,
which, in a week or two longer, could hardly hav
e
failed to lead to the re-discovery of the missing
ts o
tar.
I mention the above facts without intending
inter-
fere in the slightest degree with the claim of my friend
of this '
Professor Dr. de Gasparis to the honours o
had not
dis-
covery, but simply to show your readersw that,hich were circumstances occurred to prevent it,
be-
yond my control, I should have been able to add this
also to our list of English planets.
Future calculations will prove whether I am right in.
identifying our missing star with the planet of Gasping.
I entertain very little doubt of it myself.
During the last four years several other planets have
escaped me through long continuance of cloudy weather.
These remain to be re-discovered.
Yours very respectfully,
J. R. BIND.
Mr. Bishop's Observatory, Regent's-park, April 3.

FALSE CHARACTERS.—At the Marlborough-street
Police-court, on Thursday, a notorious giver of false charac-
ters to servants, who assumes the title of Mrs. Colonel Aus-
tin, was convicted of having given a false character to Elizet
beth Bartlett to a lady named, Smith, residing in Percy-
street, Tottenham-court-road. The Servants' Royal Prow'
dent and Benevolent Society were the promoters oft he pro-
ceedings against the woman Aust or Austin, and agnst the
servant Elizabeth Bartlett, who attempted to gain
tion of cook in Mrs. Smith's family by means of Bartl
ettfale cha-
racter. Mrs. Smith proved the application of l for
in consequence of infor-
nel Austin. She went to Mrs. Colonel Austin, and received
her situation and the reference to the pretended Mtrhs.e etloulsaa-
an excellent character of Bartlett, who was stated to have
by Aust. service
lived in her service for the last two years. Mrs. Smith,
police, who had seen
Aust ; and Mr. Bingham,
hmoawt
ieovne r, ,
receiveddid not
from engage
the
detect i Bartlett,v..
afterh er
enter BIN. Aust's house, No. , Vincent-place, and who had
by no means
followed her to her residence to make
Southampton- acquainted with
too severe ocroinana-
the imposition. Mrs. Bentley, of ro, came
forward, and said Bartlett had recently lived in her •
by means of a false character given
sidering the offences to which the system of giving
remarkingcoivictio
ratters led, inflicted the fall penalty
0,
__. false chit-,
rac n
twashatptrioi se- elda
w againstw as
imprisonment. I "01., or three Mora?
DREADFUL MURDER."*". On Friday,
nine o'clock, as a man in the employment J morning about
at his farm at 13allyniaek, is, of Mr. Townsend'
found at the field-gate theas driving out some cattle,_ he
fracture on the forehead. body of a woman, with a dreadful
poor-looking, and 1 The woman is a stranger, vs/7
hawker. she
had aving the appearance of a strolling
open—the contents if
a.little purse round her neck, which WAS
, any, having been abstracted. A man)
and his wife
are
e arrested on very strong suspicion. Marks
of blood w
and i re tracked to their house, about 250 yards dis-
tant,straw.—.......n a room blood was found, coTereci over with
Atikenify ([m7-flat