The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-26 00:00:00

r4Mvi-tY t'Y
9 A, )17, 14,1,4,417,, LE A 4,146

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1852.

Radical Reformers must now be on the alert from
one extremity to the other of the United Kingdom.
They must keep a watchful eye upon the course pur-
sued by the present Ministry immediately upon the
assembling of the Imperial Parliament. Hitherto the
country has continued almost uninterruptedly in the
dark as to the intentions of the Deem. Administra-
tion. Indeed, time was requisite, in the first instance,
to enable the new Cabinet to decide itself upon the
precise policy advisable in a Government so hastily
formed and prematurely organized. Had the Earl of
DERBY calculated beforehand upon the probability, or
even upon the possibility, of his being Prime Minis-
ter of England as early as last February, he would,
doubtless, have been prepared to submit at once to
his colleagues a series of measures suitable to the
emergency, if not a complete cut-and-dried scheme
fir carrying on the of sirs of the British Empire. As
it was, he was literally surprised into power—called
abruptly back to town by the commands of
his SOVEREIGN, and compelled to collect together
the requisite number of statesmen within the
limits of an anxious and agitated fortnight. The
\Vhigs had retired sudJenly in a huff. A coolness
had sprung up between Lord JOHN RUSSELL and
Viicount PALMEUSTON. The latter had seen himself
hurriedly, and even, we cannot but still think, most
discourteously displaced at the Foreign-office by the
Earl of Gitvevieee. Matters dragged on "much as
u4ual" for a little time in the Lords and the Com-
mons, when, unexpectedly, a single bolt thrown by
the hand of the exiled CUPID carried dismay and
confusion into the Councils of the Ministerial
JUNTER. The still dominant Premier found himself
stricken by the prompt and startling vengeance of
the ex-Foreign Secretary. Scarcely had the printers
to the House of Commons struck off the first
" proof" of the division-list upon the Militia Bill,
when Lord JoHN announced to his colleagues his
determination to resign, and that immediately. The
downfall of the Whig Cabinet, therefore, although
confidently looked forward to at the time as speedily
inevitable, was recognized upon all hands as at that
instant an event entirely unanticipated. Surprised
the nation was by the occurrence—surprised even
was the majority of the Legislature—but her
3si ATESTY must have been still more so, by an incident
which placed her for a while in some anxiety as to the
consequences. Everybody recollects no doubt that the
Royal summons was obliged to follow the Earl of
DERBY from his town mansion to his residence in
the country, whither he hadir gone only a few hours
before, little dreaming of
future," in the shape of honourswht was "looming in the
u'r.and responsibilities.
Thereupon came the
to
.a.nd fro
the inquiries and crosa-
itnhgen:propositions and
the refusals, the interviews at thlis moment with the
Earl of ABERDEEN, and at that with thoemex-
delibera-
tions 11 o r
LYNDHURST—in fact all those impromptu
oerfa-
tions which ended at last in the announcement
newly organized Government. Everything indicated
the haste with which the whole arrangements W4ere
driven to a conclusion—nothing showing it more
clearly than the circumstance that the new Prime
Minister was compelled, in order to carry into effect
his unrehearsed en.terprize, to crowd within a single
Gazette the unprecedented number of no less than
eighteen fresh Privy Councillors!
After this, of course, the nation had to wait pa-
tiently until the DARBY Cabinet had decided upon
the exact nature of the policy which it would be ne-
cessary for them sooner or later to submit to the ac-
ceptance of the Legislature. Several of the more
eager spirits on the side of the Opposition grew restive
under the delay, becoming noisy, and even to oar

thinking sometimes factious, in the expression of their
hostility upon the occasion (each more irritating than
its immediate predecessor) of every successive, btst
really, under the circumstances, unavoidable, postpone-
ment. Against this factious display of animosity we,
for one, raised our voice from the very outset, and
that, too, it may be remembered, rather frequently.
We saw that it was unfair, under the pressure of so
great an emergency. We saw that some procrastina-
tion was inevitable in order to enable her MAJESTY'S
Ministers to arrange their order of tactics with any-
tb:ing like decent deliberation. Occasionally we oh-
"cained a tantalizing glimpse of the probable views of
the Administration. We discovered at length that Pro-
tection was upon all sides at first virtually and at
last practically abandoned. We perceived clearly
enough that the Earl of DERBY and his colleagues were
not very long before arriving at the conclusion that
the Free-trade system was one in all respects thence.
forth inviolable. Added to this there were promises
thrown out at intervals by the Cabinet of intended
reforms, some of them of considerable importance, in
preparation. Mr. DISRAELI gave us the hope of large
and beneficial changes in the scheme of taxation.
Mr. WALPOLE intimated pretty plainly that the Mi-
litia might in some measure become in a maw. er
popularized. Lord JOHN MANNERS revived our
wishes of something really resembling a wholesome
effort at sanitary improvements. Lord St. LEO-
NARDS opened up the prospect of sweeping
innovations in the practices of the Court of
Chancery, innovations such as might have
saved the lives of a dozen GAIDLEYS and the in-
tellects of more than one Miss FLITE, making per-
petual Christmas on the hearth of Bleak House, car-
rying perrenial joy into the Growlery, and even
guarding from the east wind our good, honest, sensi-
tive, benevolent, "Cousin JARNDYCE." Under these
auspices, Ministers went to the country immediately
upon the dissolution of Parliament—and still under
these auspices, they will in a few days present them-
selves before the newly-elected representatives.
At such a crisis, it behoves the Radical Reformers
throughout the United Kingdom—we repeat it ad-
visedly—to keep a watchful eye upon the course pur-
sued by the Administration. At such a crisis, more-
over, every straw thrown into the air—even though it
be thrown up by the heels of a devourer of thistles—
becomes an object of curiosity, and in some sort also,
it may be at times, a matter of importance. Two or
three of these straws have been fluttering within the
last few days in the political atmosphere, and show,
we fancy, clearly enough in what quarter the wind
blows. There was the annual meeting of the Agri-
cultural Association held on Friday last, at Lough-
borough. There was the dinner given at the Bull's
Head, after the morning's inspection of the show, with
Mr. FACILE as chairman, and we don't know who as
croupier. There were the speeches when the cloth
was whisked away by the Ganymedes at half-a-
crown a-head, in pumps and white neckcloths. Above
all, there was the oration delivered to the assembled
farmers by the Marquis of GRABBY, in his capacity
as body-stretcher to Protection. " Close up its eyes,
tie up its chin ;" as the Poet Laureate says of the
old year. " Call for Shillibeer, and let them carry it
out, and bury it decently." The thing is dead—there
is no mistake about it, any more than there was about
the death of JACOB MARLEY—dead as a door-nail, or,
as Mr. DICREN'S suggests, "as a coffin• nail," as being,
perhaps of ell, decidedly the deadest article of iron-
mongery. Yes 1 the thing is dead, and the Marquis
of GRANBY probably feeling himself called
upon for a song—rises gravely in the presence
of the dessert, and solemnly chaunts the De
Profundis. A gentleman, benevolently disposed,
called BENET, rose, we cannot but think, some-
what humanely after this rather unconvivial per-
formance, and endeavoured by his jocularity to dissi-
pate the influence of the dirge. After drawing a
humorous picture of the so-called sufferings of the
landed proprietors when contrasted with those of the
middle-class agriculturists, he added that " he thought,
however, they had now passed the worst, and in any
case his advice to the tenant farmers was not to look
back." Mr. FAarquam had previously expressed a
hope that he should not be regarded as too sanguine
in congratulating the agricultural interests on the
late harvest, and upon their brightening prospects.
The truth is, the sticklers for Protection are trying
to put a decent face upon its abandonment, and are
fixing their attention more sedulously than has been
hitherto their wont upon those visions of improve-
ment which are already " looming in the future," ac-
cording to the assurance of the Right lion. Gentleman
the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER. Among these
on-coming changes for the better, even the Marquis of
GRABBY perceives the speedy and inevitable discontinu-
ance of the Income-tax—of all taxes the most unjust
and the most unpopular. While our friends the agri-
culturists are thus perking up their hopes by way of
anticipation, surely the Radical Reformers should
not just now be looking onward with a a glanee of
indifference. It is advisable, on the contrary, that we
should now begin to watch with eager and un wink-
into; vigilance the nature of the policy about to be
disclosed by the leaders of the present Government.
We are very marvellously mistaken, or we shall be
enabled to obtain more from them in six months than
we were enabled to obtain during six long years of
Whig Administration. At any rate—nous verrons—
a brief interval will now solve the mystery of the
Cabinet : and " Watcb," is our advice, in one word, to
the great mass of Liberals or Radical Reformers.

A few years ago Lord BROUGHAM died by report.
His Lordship's carriage wheel broke, and his Lord-
ship's head shared the same fate. It was evening
when the rumour arrived ; next morning all the
papers were filled with Brougham panegyrics. The
journal which had but recently lashed him unmerci-
fully, with English good feeling spoke as kindly as
the rest. Lord BaouGnAm enjoyed the unusual good
fortune to read his own funeral orations in his lifetime,
and they were flattering ones. Not so will it be
should the defunct Convocation return to life. With
but few exceptions, it would find itself denounced in
no measured terms. Its harmless ghost, at its yearly
appearance, has been annually smiled at as the image
from a magic lantern; but the very rumour of re-
storing that ghost to ecclesiastical life hes called
forth as many anathemas, es the rumour of Lord
BROUGHAM'S death called forth encomiums. Ana-
themas we should think almost sufficient to lay the
poor harmless ghost for ever—certainly sufficient to
deter it from attempting to live again on this ungrate-
ful earth.

We believe Lord DERBY is thankful enough for all
this hubbub about Convocation. That he ever wished
to advise her MAJESTY to set that body to work, or
rather to talk, again, nothing but his own assertion
will persuade us. Hence, we feel assured that he is
as pleased as the majority of Englishmen are, to wit-
ness the nearly universal reprobation with which the
very mention of the project has been received by the
press. The reputed Tory organ of the Government
denies that any such advice was ever tendered, or
even thought of by Lord DERBY; and repeats the
denial, attributing the origin of the rumour to a
Stock-Exchange wager. Another journal, a Liberal
oue, esserts that the Prime Minister and his colleagues
have nearly come to the determination to offer the
deprecated advice, but that they have not yet dared
to do so, and that it is known to be offensive at
Court. The great oracle does little more than expose
and denounce the folly and impossibility of the thing.
For ourselves, we pretend to the knowledge of no '
Cabinet secrets; we only presume that Lord DERBY
is guided chiefly by English common sense, applied '
to his own political position. He may have a lean-
ing to the High-Church party, for he broke with the
Whigs on the Appropriation Clause, and his appoint-
ments look that way. The much-to-be-regretted tam-
pering with the Educational Minutes, points also in
the same direction. But whether ho himself be
High Churchman or not, it is clear that he may as
naturally deem it his political interest to court that
party, as Lord Jouri RUSSELL deemed it his interest
to court the opposite party. His accession to power was
welcomed by that section of the Church ; they have
done their best for him-at the elections ; they conferred
upon him the honour of the Chancellorship of Oxford;
and with all these indications of willingness to render
him cordial support, and all these favours to repay, it
is natural he should wish to do all in his power to
retain their support.
Nowously the High Churchpartywde allr
eksneol
fw.
ghoov we r
ns strenu-
ously eennut
'
they have openly claimed it; they tried to introduce ,
it to th? noti"e of Parliament ; they have even sum. ,

moned abortive Diocesan Synods, having the aspect,
and the aspect only, of real Ecclesiastical Councils•
Nothing, assuredly, would more rejoice the hearts of
the impetuous H. EXETER, and the more smooth
tongued S. OXFORD, than to see themselves prominent
debaters in an Upper House of Convocation, with
their faithful proctors in full cry in the House below.
But no, your Lordships, it must not be. Mr. A. G.
DENIsoN, it must not be. Lord DERBY will be very
urbane to you,—he is a gentleman and a politician,
and will not affront his supporters ; but he is a states-
man also, and he will not complicate public business,
increase his Parliamentary difficulties, and endanger
the Church, by allowing you to meet in Convocation.
If your request should come before the QUEEN, the
advised reply of her MAJESTY will certainly be, not,
La Reine le veut, but La Reine s'avisera.
We have not ourselves noticed the matter before.
Our contemporaries all seemed to think more seri-
ously of it tha❑ we did, and possibly they were right.
If they were so, however, we frankly confess that it
will lower very much, indeed, our estimate of Lord
DERBY'S statesmanship. Much as we of course dif-
fer from him, we have never doubted his sincere at-
tachment to our Constitution, as it stands, in Church
and State. Now, we certainly hold that to resusci-
tate a body which was interred so long ago as 1717,
and to convert the annual formality into a reality,
would be tantamount to creating another estate. An
estate too, holding the purie-strings of an income
equal, taking all things into account, to nearly half
the sum raised by the nation for civil and military
purposes! Such an imperium is imperio, no sane
Minister would or could endure. No; the Convoca-
tio❑ zealots have now heard the plain truth told them,
that if they wish to be self-governed they must also
be self•supported. If they want this privilege of the
Voluntaries, they must make the sacrifices of the
Voluntaries. National property and national con-
trol must go together. It has done so ever since the
Reformation, and while the nationally- endowed Church
of England stands, they must continue to go together.
We believe, however, that not only the Court, as is
generally rumoured, but the large majority of the
clergy, and most certainly of the laity, are utterly op-
posed to the revival of Convocation. They all know
enough of its history, from the Reformation to the
reign of Queen Anne, to relish the restoration of
such scenes of theological pugilism. They remember
that amongst its dying speeches were bitter things
against the very worthy Bishop HEADLEY, and an
express denial that religinus liberty was a civil right
Indications in plenty appear, that now, as of old, it
would be a polemical, pugnacious, and intractable
body. The two great parties who now divide the
Church would contend with the bitterest exasperation.
Their common faith would be scandalized in the eyes
of the whole nation ; and could either of them be
suffered to have their way,—were the Evangelicals
allowed to revise the Liturgy, or the Tractarians
to expurgate the inconvenient Articles, then, of course,
must come the secession, after which the State
Church would quickly cease to exist. All moderate
men, and real friends to the Church, perfectly corn •
prebend this ; and they, luckily for the bigots, will
prevent their committing ecclesiastical suicide. 'We
have indeed observed, as a general thing, that of all
assemblies, none are less capable of regular business,
none more given to endless debate, than meetings of
clergymen. Whoever has had the misfortune to be
one of any committee in which ministers of any de-
nomination predominated, must have painfully felt
how impossible it was to get on with work. Their
professional avocations habituate them rather to dic-
tation than discussion, to defend every shade of
opinion where none can contradict them, rather than
to modify their views by conference with their equals.
Had we to devise a convocation of persons likely to
advise any really useful reforms, we should certainly
expect more from an assembly of pious and intelligent
laymen than from one of clergymen. It is, we be-
lieve, however, happily needless now to protract our
remarks, and to reiterate half the objections which
might be made against what will never be attempted ;
and what probably had never any existence except in
the imaginations and hopes of a zealous knot of eccle-
siastics. The Morning Herald, indeed, professes to
give the whole history of the plot, and denounces it
on behalf of Lord DERBY as a reckless endangering of
his position. Whatever the origin of a report so con-
venient for those who wanted something to write
about, we can only repeat our conviction that the
Premier himself is guiltless of its fatherhood.

ABOLITION OF WRITS OF INQUIRY.—There is a
provision in the Common Law Procedure Act which will go
far towards the abolition of writs of inquiry i❑ the superior
courts. Hitherto it was necessary in a number of actions to
execute writs of inquiry, which, as a matter of course, in.
creased the expense of the proceedings. Under the new Act
however, judgment can be obtained after the issuing of the
writ, where the writ is specially endorsed, showing the
amount to be recovered. According to the 94th section of
the statute, whenever the damages to recover money or
a liquidated demand can be reduced to a matter of calcula-
tion, they are to be ascertained before one of the Masters, by
virtue of which authority writs of inquiry will not be re-
quired.

LONDON AND PROVINCIAL JOINT STOCK LIFB
INsulsAwcE COMPANY.— The sixth annual general meeting
of the shareholders was held, yesterday, at the offices of the
company, 17, Gracechurch-street—Mr. J. Jones in the chair.
The report and accounts having been read by the Secretary,
were, on the motion of the Chairman, seconded by Capt. T.
Smith, and adopted unanimously. The vacancies in the
direction were filled up, and the meeting then separated.
THE CITY CHARlTlES.—Yesterday, the Lord Chief
Baron, with Aldermen Challis, Sidney, Lawrence, and Wire,
held a court of investigation into the administration of City
charities. The clerk of the Leather-sellers' Company was
called, and proved that the company had to administer
Robert Rogers' charity, amounting to 300/., and to pay 4/,
a year to poor prisoners in the City. The company had not
done so. Since 182.5 no payment, had been made to such
prisoners, except on special applicatior. The charity was in Chancery. The company also administered a charity
called George Humble's charity, the interest of which
was 81. a year. This Charity was also in the Court
of Chancery. Since 1835 no part of the interest
arising from the charity had been paid to poor prisoners
(the objects of the charity), except in 1842, when 31. was
paid to a freeman who had made a special application. He
had not been able to examine the state of the accounts as
between the company and the charity, nor had they been
made up since 1835. Monies had been paid to the keepers
of the prisons and particular applicants, but he could not say
how much. He had not the books of the company with him.
The company was ready to pay up any arrears that might be
due to the charity. There was a charity administered by the
company called Garner's Charity. That charity was also in
Chancery, By a scheme made by the Mester, one-third of
the annual proceeds was to go to poor prisoners, but that had
not been done. The recipients of the third were widows,
but he could not give their names. The court thought this
a very strange and unsatisfactory statement, and passed on
to the management of the Mercers' Company, which appeared
to be of a much more favourable character.
TIIE FALLBN HOUSES AT BAYSWATER,.—We have
received the following further particulars respecting the
houses, which, as we mentioned yesterday, fell at an early
hour on Sunday morning in that neighbourhood. A fur-
ther portion of the outer wall came down with a tre-
mendous crash at two o'clock on Sunday afternoon, when a
boy who was passing from out of the vestry of the adjoining
church into the house of the Rev. Dr. Magee, had a narrow
escape of his life ; large portions of the brickwork falling
down just behind him as he entered the door. A further
portion fell yesterday morning, between twelve and one
o'clock, including a large portion of the third house, and
almost all the timber-work of the interior. Consequently,
now there is only a mere shell standing, and the downfall of
this portion is hourly expected : in its present state it '9 ex-
ceedingly dangerous to the passers by. We find, upon
inquiry, that the houses in question do not belong to Mr.
Watts, of the Edgware-road, as we stated yesterday, but to a
poor man named Wheeler, who was erecting them as his first
speculation in house-building, conjointly with his sister, who
keeps a small cook-shop in the neighbourhood. The loss is
estimated at nearly 400/., and it is feared that the speculation
will prove ruinous to the builder. It is sow clear that, in
addition to the foundations being faulty, the houses
were
built without any tie-beams, and that the outer wall of the
furthest house was not perpendicular, and that in addition to
these defects the mortar used in the construction of the build-
ing had ho gravel or lime mixed with it, but was made of
ferosmakeof
the
common mud. It is surely time that some official authority
interposed to regulate these matters, as the lives of her
subjects
speculators, oug h not
as
ao
they
y ttoo
often
endangered
are,tli
rapidity and carelessness with which houses are run up in the
house-building Majesty's
suburbs of town.

BARBAROUS INFANTICIDE.—BARNSTAPLE, SATUR.
DAY.—Our usually quiet town has, within the last day or
two, been shocked by the rumour ;that a young woman,
named Eliza Boucher, a servant, in the employ of Mr. W.
Wadham Hill, hairdresser and perfumer, of High-street,
had been delivered of an illegitimate child, which she had
afterwards destroyed by burning in the washhouse fur-
nace. It appears that her condition was suspected by her
mistress, who taxed her with being enceinte, but the young
woman stoutly denied such an imputation. Discoveries
were made, however, which left no doubt of her confine-
merit having taken place, whereupon she was again ques-
tioned as to her conduct. She then admitted that she had
been confine' and stated that she had thrown the child into
the river. Subsequently, however, she said she had buried
it in the ashpit, and, as if to give a plausibility to her story,
she commenced digging herself, as if to bring it out. At
length, however, all attempts to conceal the truth failed, and
she confessed that she had burnt the infant in the washhouse
furnace, where she had kindled a large fire early on the
washing morning. She was then of course handed over to
the police authorities, but she was now too ill to be examined.
Such an act of barbarity has not been perpetrated in the
county of Devon for many years; and, after the stringent
remarks of Baron Martin at the last assizes on the crime of
child murder, it was hoped that the offence would not again
have been heard of.
Madame Grisi and her party of Italian singers gavo
a concert in Perth on Thursday, which was well attended.
The Duke and Duchess of Argyle tend party were pre-
sent.-IVorth British Mad.

The King of the Belgians and Court, on receiving the
Usual notification of the death of the young Prince Gus-
tavus, Duke of Upland, in Sweden, went into mourning
for ten days, commencing from Friday last.
The ex-Queen of the French, Mario Amelie, accom-
panied by the Prince de Joinville and suite, arrived at
the King of the Belgians' palace, at Claremont, from
visiting the Duchess of Orleans, in Switzerland. The
ex.clueen travelled to England r 4 Bale, Berne, Brussels,
and Ostend.
The venerable Duke of Portland, now in his 85th
year, is staying at Welbeck Abbey, Notts, where a
family circle has assembled. His grace's heir apparent,
the Marquis of Titchfield, has acceded to the
.desire of
the inhabitants, to improve and enlarge the island of
Troon, on the coast of Scotland.
The Marquis of Lansdowne has lately improved in
health at Bowood-park ; but his lordship, who has at-
tained the advanced age of 70, still suffers from a severe
attack of gout.
The Viscount Canning has arrived in Grosvenor-
square from a visiting tour in Scotland. The Viscountess
is still waiting on the Sovereign at Windsor Castle.
Commodore Lord Adolphus Fitaclarence arrived at
his residence in St. James's Palace last evening from the
French capital.
The Bight Hon. Lord Claude Hamilton, M.P., arrived
in Omagh, from Baron's Court, on Wednesday last, and
after having visited a number of his constituents in the
town and neighbourhood, left in the evening for tho resi-
dence of Charles Eccles, Esq Lot' Ecclesville.
CohoLelroSoNE: cGa t
rerAc Op
es Tri
Her;v6E7:B7:totiss,lENT.—Major-Gene-
B
ral Ewer!, C.B.G, who formerly commanded this regi-
ment, will, we hear, succeed the late Lieut.-General
ar-
rangedClit that rhea ew we understand,
military secretary, Colonel Airey,
will usually hol a levee on Tuesdays, as was formerly
done by the late Military Secretary.