The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-20 00:00:00

ZT),e 1111)1.

LONDON:
WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 20, 1837.

In the IlcusE of Loans petitions were severally presented
for the abolition of imprisonment for debt ; and for the intro-
duction of some mode of secret voting in order to put an end
to bribery and intimidation.
The Civil List Bill, the Houses of Parliament Bill, and
the Slave Compensation Bill were severally brought up from
the Commons, and read a first time.
Lord MELBOURNE gave notice that he should more the
second reading of the Civil List Bill this day.
The Earl of SHAFTESBURY having brought up the Report
of the Municipal Officers Declaration Bill, Lord BROUGHAM
moved that the provisions of the Bill, which are confined to
" Moravians, Quakers, and Separatists," should be extended
to all other sects who felt religious scruples on the subject
of tests. The amendment was negatived, and the Report
agreed to.

-The House of COMMONS met yesterday at twelre o'clock
As may been seen by our special report in yesterday's
Sun, they proceeded to the third reading of the Civil List
Bill. Several proposed amendments were negatived, one of
them only was carried : that was introduced by Sir ROBERT
' PEEL and acceded to by the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER,
who numbered 114 votes to the 26 who opposed the amend-
` ment ; its object is to empower the Crown to grant Pensions
to the amount of 1,200/. a-year; and providing, that if the
whole sum were not granted in any one year, the remainder
' might be carried over to the next year, and then granted in
' addition to the 1,200/. allowed for that year. But Mr.
Hums's motion for reducing the sum of 386,000/. to 335,000/.
and the stilt more important one proposed by Mr. GROTTE, in
an elaborate, clear, and able address, to omit " the clauses
empowering her MAJESTY to grant a certain sum annually in
new pensions," found no favour in the reformed House of
Commons-126 of whose Members voted against the amend-
ment of the Honourable Member for London, whilst only 23
earnest Reformers recorded their votes in favour of Mr.
' GROTE'S proposition.
The Bill was passed.
• After some proceedings relating to various Election Pal-
: lions, Lord PALMERSTON, in reply to a question by Sir H.
HARDINGE, said that he had been informed, but not yet
officially, that in consequence of somedifference between
_Brigadier-General O'CONNELL, commanding the Legion, and
Oceieral O'DONNELL, the Spanish General commanding at
St. Sebastian, that the infantry of the Legion had given up
their arms, and were no longer soldiers in the Spanish ser-
vice. If that were so, of course they must be brought home,
and he could assure the Right Hon. and Gallant Officer 3p-
Tosite that no time should be lost in taking steps to bring
[ ;them home to this country.
Mr. MACLEAN gave notice, that early after the recess ho
. •aiiculd call the attention of the House to the infraction by the
• -
Russian Government of existing treaties in relation to the com-
=scree of this country in the Black Sea and with Circassia.
On the motion of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, the
Slave Compensation Bill was read a third time and passed.
The SPEAKER then, at six o'clock, left the Chair. At eight
o'clock the SPEAKER resumed the Chair.
Mr. HUME then brought up the Report of the Select Corn-
mittee on Controverted Election Fees, which was laid on the
table. The Hon. Member then moved that the resolutions of
vele Committee be printed, and gave notice that he would call

the attention of the House to the subject on Friday, the 2d of
February.
The remainder of the sitting, which was protracted till
nearly three o'clock this morning, was occupied with discuss-
ing election petitions.

An interesting discussion took place last night in the
House of Commons on the subject of Mr. GROTE'S pro-
position for the entire removal of the sum allotted to Pen-
sions from the Civil List. The Honourable Member for
London made an able speech on this question—so far as
tact and skill go—but we do not think that he made out a
case sufficiently strong to warrant Ministers in agreeing to
his motion. " Suppose ourselves," he observed, " in
the reign of CHARLES the Second. What are the
payments which that Monarch would have been most
anxious to make ?—and who are the persons whom
he would have been most desirous to favour?
Why, the Duchesses of CLEVELAND and PORTSMOUTH,
and Mrs. ELEANOR GWYNN, would have stood at the head
of the list, with pensions, on the largest scale, assigned to
them ; of all payments, those granted to the above ladies
would have been most certain to have been paid, while the
SOVEREIGN remained in possession of his hereditary reve-
nues. I might make the same remark with regard to the royal
mistresses in the days of GEORGE the First and Second."
These remarks have no reference to the point in question, for
the days of CHARLES the Second, bear not the slightest
analogy to the present days ; then the English Monarch
was absolute ; now, a salutary check has been placed on
all attempts at arbitrary encroachment on the part of the
Crown. In the times of the STUARTS and the two first
GEORGES, there was nothing like the bold, vigorous, public
opinion which now exists ; consequently Mr. GaorE's
analogy has no foundation to rest upon. If a limited
sum is from year to year to be set apart—and we
think it highly desirable that it should be—for the
purpose of pensioning those who may have deserved well
of their country, and may stand in need of such pro-
vision, then we think that the privilege of granting these
small pensions ought to exist in the Crown; for were it to
be placed solely under the controul of Parliament, it

would occasion heart-burnings and animosities, and be
turned into a sort of battle-field for two parties to try
their strength upon. We are of opinion, therefore, that
Mr. GROTE'S motion, however well-meant, is an injudicious
one, and feel disposed, in preference, to coincide with the
CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER.

The proceedings in the House of Commons upon the
Pontefract Election Petition afford a specimen of Tory
profligacy not often equalled. A gentleman, rejoicing in
the name of GOMPERTZ, and over whom the Marshal of
the Queen's Bench exercises a parental care, got himself
proposed, at the last election for the Borough of Ponte-
fract, by a non-elector, a Parliamentary Tory tool—se-
conded by a thirsty brewer, and without, as we dis-
cover, having polled a singe vJte—presented on the
last day for such a purpose, a petition against the
return of the Liberal Member for that borough.
Sureties, men of character, are by the same Tory
agent proposed ; not in his own name, but in that
of a man of respeetahility. Mr. BENBOW the Tory
candidate for Wolverhampton, is dragged into the mire,
and for the mere purpose of Tory petitioning, and to for-
ward the views of the SPOTTISWOODE gan;. tha most fri-
volous and vexatious petition es er presented to the Howe
of Commons was brought to light. The sureties proposed
were disallowed by the examiners, on the ground of irregu-
larity. The House of Commons is, by improper representa-
tions, induced to grant an indulgence, which was last night,
after full investigation, witlidrawn,and the petition for Ponte-
fract was finally quashed. Here was a sham candidate, a
sham petition, and a sham agent ; and yet Tories—men oF
character, in the usual sense of the work—were
Loth in the House of Commons and out of it, to forward
the views of the SPOTTISWOODE conspirators, and to do
anything to serve their purpose. All that now remains, is
to put HENRY GOMPERTZ, Esq., upon the Committee of
the SrorriswooDE Fund, and let him sit side by side with
the abettors of his petition.

The Irish Orange faction detest the Earl of MULGRAVE
as they have right good reason to do ; but their detestation
of the patriotic Irish Viceroy is only equalled by tie, it
hatred of Mr. DRUMMOND, the e‘ficient Under Secretary
for Ireland, who has so acted by his impartial and upright
conduct as to earn for himself the malignity of the entire
Orangemen of that country. There is no oppresive Lind-
lord, no partial magistrate, no jobbing squirreen, no fire-
brand parson, that does not look upon Mr. DRUMMOND as
one of those who act as a barrier between them and their
prey, and who oppose their schemes of tyranny, peculation,
and plunder, and are, therefore, objects marked out for the
abuse and vituperation of the literary organs of the faction.
The Dublin Evening Mail has opened a flood gate of
falsehood and calumny against Mr. DRUMMOND in a late
number of that publication, which has been trium-
phantly replied to by the strongest of all arguments, undo.
niable facts—by the liberal portion of the Irish Press
The Evening Mail asserted that Mr. DRUMMOND not only
enjoyed a salary of 3,0001. per annum, as Under Secretary
of Ireland, but that he also received 3001. a year as a pen-
sion in addition to his pay as a Captain of Engineers.
Now what are the facts of the case ? Why, just that Mr.
DRUMMO4D hardly receives 2,0001. a-year for the arduous
duties which he has to perform as Irish Secretary, a sum
barely sufficient to support the dignity of his station ; and
that this excellent gentleman, with a disinterestedness which
it will be a long time until Conservatives learn to imitate,
resigned the pension which had been granted to him for
his exertions in the cause of science, when he became
Under Secretary of Ireland-; and that as regards his pay as
an officer of Engineers, which any
.private at Woolwich
might have told the Orange Irish Journalist, the Board of
Ordnance places any officer belonging to that department
on the superannuated list, so long as he fills a civil situation.

In our columns of this day will be found—copied from
our respectable Contemporary the Maidstone Gazette—a
report of the proceedings at a public meeting held in
Maidstone, to deliberate upon the expediency of estsblisli-
ing a branch of the National Loan Fund Life Assurance
Society in that neighbourhood. The rapid progress made
by this Institution since its commencement is creditable
to the intelligence of those classes for whose benefit
it was intended ; and the manner in which the people of
Maidstone received the exposition of its founder, Mr.
LAMIE MURRAY, confirms us in the opinion which we
first expressed on looking over the prospectus—namely,
that the plan required only to be known to be sup-
ported by every man of limited income, economical
habits, and prudent views in the kingdom. In address-
ing the Meeting, Mr. LAMIE MURRAY particularly dwelt
upon the protection which this Institution would af-
ford to that class of prudent workmen who now club
up a moiety of their weekly earnings to form Benefit
Societies ; and he pointed out, with great perspicuity and
force, how much bettor it would be for such workmen to
place their earnings—however trifling—in the hands of this
Society, than to leave them to be managed by the Com-
mittee of a Benefit Club. He instanced the system of
espionage to which the sick members were subjected—
the penalties attached to feigned illness—the obsta-
cles thrown in the way of granting superannuated allow-
ances ; and challenged the meeting to cite any advantage
which a Benefit Society held out, which the Loan Fund
Institution would not secure to the members, without
trouble or inquiry. We certainly know of none. The
Loan Fund Institution, by lending out two-thirds of all
the money paid into it, secures to the assured a provision
in sickness, without the meddling and annoying interference
of any party ; while the permission to change the assurance
into an annuity secures to the survivors of children, for whose
benefit the assurance was first effected, the benefit derivable
from their parental affection. It is no extraordinary
thing for parents to survive their children, and in the
event of their falling into distress in their old age, it is of
the utmost importance to enable them to convert assurances
effected for the benefit of such children into annuities for
themselves. Some of the more obvious, but at the same
time not less valuable objects of the Institution were thus
pointed out in Mr. LAMIE MURRAY'S lucid exposition :
" This Society partook in this respect of the nature of a
Savings' Bank and Life Assurance Society—the one to sup-
ply his temporary wants as a provision against casualties, the
other for a nobler object to found the independence of his fa-
mily. There was no class of society to whom this system was
more advantageous than to the farmer. A farmer who as-
sured his life for 1,0001., could, at one period of the year,
when he wanted to stock his farm, borrow two-thirds of the
amount of his paymen's. At another period of the year, he
could repay the loan, without losing in the mean time, in case
of his death, the sum for which he had assured his life, as
the loan would only in such event be deducted from the sum

assured. The same advantages would be derived from this
Society by the shopkeeper, when he wanted to supply his
shop. As a mode of accumulation, independent of its other
advantages, it was a superior one, as a man at twenty who as-
sured for 3001., living to his longest expectation, actually paid
only 2901. Benefit Societies were originally clubs, merely to
afford provision against sickness; they afterwards branched
out into superannuation allowances, and subsequently into the
granting annuities to persons of the ages of sixty-five or seventy
years, and some have included funeral expenses. This was the
scope of these institutions ; but, in his opinion, the new prin•
ciples adopted in this Society rendered it no longer necessary
to appropriate any portion of the saving towards a provision for
sickness, so that the whole amount of the saving now paid in
benefit societies for these insurances might be made to increase
the amount of the superannuation.
To enlarge further on the advantages of such an institu-
tion would be as useless as to write a treatise to prove that
water slakes thirst. The scheme requires only to be known
to be universally adopted. It is possible, however—
in order to keep it more before the :public, not yet
sufficiently alive to its importance—that we shall
return to it more than once during the holi-
days. All we require is, that people would be brought
to reflect upon the advantages which all classes
would derive from an institution, eminently calculated to
remove gloomy apprehensions of the future from the minds
of the respectable portion of the middle and lower classes.

Jamaica Journals to November Gth inclusive, have been
received, from which extracts are given in our City article.
The resignation of the Governor is mentioned, but we
have information upon the subject which would warrant us
in alluding to it otherwise than as a rumour. The
following extract from a private letter addressed by
a Clergyman resident in the Island to a friend here,
relative to the condition of the Negroes, will be likely to
attract a good deal of attention. We do not hold ourselves
responsible for the correctness of the writer's facts and
opinions :

" I must now give you some account of Jamaica—you may
fully depend upon the accuracy of my statements. We have
had several visitors during the course of the year from Eng-
land and America to examine into the working of the ap-
prenticeship. A Mr. Thorne and another from America—of
them we have hitherto received no tidings since their de-
parture ; but Mr. Sturge, the Quaker's, speeches at Birming-
ham, and i❑ Exeter-hall, have all been received and read in
Jamaica by every moderate, neutral, and judicious individual,
with da3station and disgust. He has related an immense
mass of misrepresentations. I will not say wilfully and
in,entionally, because I know the sources from which he
obtainel them. I could myself fearlessly give flat contradic-
tions to a part of his slanders ; for I am exerci,ing my clerical
functions in the very district to which he alludes in one por-
tion of his speech—where the Negroes are almost all of
them happy and contented, beginning to work cheerfully
for payment in money, and where the special magistrate is
very seldom requested to exercise his power to punish for
faults committed. Dr. Loyde and Mr. Harvey, the asso-
ciates of Mr. Sturge, came into this very district of Plantain
Garden River, in the parish of St. Thomas in the East, one of
the most fertile and beautiful valleys in the whole island.
They visited the estate of Golden Grove, the property of
Andrew Arcedeckne, Esq. They were allowed to have
free access to go over any part of the property—to
visit the houses of the Negroes—and to converse with
them in private. Upon this estate there are several hundred
Negroes. They remained there an hour, or perhaps a little
more. I would ask any reasonable person how much they
could accurately learn of the condition and treatment of
the Negroes in so short a space of time ? Yet, such indi-
viduals having taken a cursory view of our affairs in Jamaica,
will return to England, and at public meetings make assertions
injurious to our interests, which are based neither upon truth
nor facts. They obtained their information chiefly from the
Baptists, who are a decidedly democratical political party in
this Island."

The Paris journals of Monday, the whole of which we
have received, bring an account of the op ning of the
Chambers by the KING, together with a copy of the Royal
Speech on that occasion. The great length to which this
account necessarily extends must prevent us to-day from
offering any comment upon the topics referred to in the
Speech from the Fhrone—which is as meagre and unmean-
ing a document as we ever met with. His MAJEsTy ac-
knowledges that the amnesty was productive of those effects
which for two years previously we .maintained could only
fox from the adoption of a clement policy. As a whole,
the Speech has disappointed us, and must disappoint Spain
still more :
THE OPENING OF THE SESSION.—ROYAL
Sl'l TING.

The internal arrangements of the Chamber were nearly
the z.tne as on former Royal sittings. His Majesty's.fautenil,
and the seats reserved on each side for the Princes were'of rich
crimson velvet, edged with gold, and raised as usual on an
elevated estrade. The Royal fauteuil was surmounted by a
canopy also of crimson velvet, fringed and ornamented with
gold, and crowned with a round of tricoloured flags disposed
en faisceau. Oa each side of the crimson canopy the walls
of the Chamber were tastefully hung with green velvet, which
extended to the public tribunes on each side, and on which
a profusion of embossed gold ornaments stood out in bold
relief.

From an early hour the public galleries were completely
filled, the front ranges being occupied by the fairer moiety
of the auditory ; but till a few minutes before 12 o'clock the
body of the house presented a cold and inanimate aspect, the
huissiers of the Chamber alone slowly pacing backwards and
forwards amidst the empty benches. At five minutes before
12 o'clock we counted not more than forty Members in the
Chamber, amongst whom M. Salverte was one of the earliest
arrivals. From that hour, however, the number rapidly in-
creased ; and at a quarter past twelve o'clock, amongst the
Deputies present we noticed Messrs. Cuizot, Thiers, Berryer,
Dupin, De Sade, &c. Sooa after twelve, at which hour the
interior of the Chamber was nearly filled, a number of General
and Staff Officers arrived. The members of the Council of
State entered at twenty minutes past twelve o'clock, and took
their seats under the Royal estrade. The Peers soon after-
wards made their appearance, seating themselves on the right
of the Chamber.
Their Majesties left the Palace about one o'clock, the
Queen having preceded the King by a few minutes. At five
minutes past one o'clock the Queen and suite entered the
Chamber, and, amidst loud and enthusiastic shouts of Vive
la Reine, seated themselves in the tribune reserved for her
Majesty towards the centre of the House. All eyes were
turned towards her Majesty on her entrance.
At 20 minutes past 1, Baron Pasquier, Chancellor of
France, entered the Charaber with several Peers, and in five
minutes "the King I" was announced. His Majesty entered
the Chamber by the passage on the left, with the Dukes
d'Orleans, de Nemours, and d'Aumale, the Dukes d'Orleans
and d'Aumale taking their seats on his right, and the Duke de
Nemours on his left. The Duke de Nemours wore his left
arm supported in a black sling. The King ascended the steps
of the estrade with remarkable firmness, and was greeted with
loud acclamations of Vive le Roi which lasted some minutes,
in acknowledgment of which his Majesty repeatedly, and with
evident feeling, boa ed to the assembled auditory. When the
acclamations had subsided, his Majesty read the speech in a
tone of much solemnity, and with remarkable firmness, ex-
cept in the passage which alludes to the Duke de Nemours. At
this passage the King's voice assumed a tone of deep pathos,
which was responded to by repeated cheering from all present.