The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-31 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(From the Courier.)
Great praise is claimed by the Ministerial organs, be.
cause—

" The acknowledged industry and tact of the Noble Secre-
tary for Colonial Affairs, which have been so long exempli-
fied in his administrationk of the Home Department, have
been applied to the consideration of the best mode of
carrying out the principles laid down in the Report of a
Select Committee of the House of Commons on colonial
lands, and in forming a plan for giving efficiency to the
operation of those principles.
" The result will be seen in the resolution taken by
Lord John Russell to recommend that the South Austrian
Commission be revoked by the Crown, and the office of
General Agent for Emigration be abolished; and that, in
lieu of these authorities, a Colonial Land and Emigration
Board, to consist of three Commissioners, shall be formed.
To this Board is to be entrusted the control and disposal
of all the Crown lands in the several colonies; and hom it
will be readily obtained suctr corgi information as parties
interested in emigration may desire to receive."
What the " principles" to be carried out may be
does not very clearly appear, but we can have very
little hesitation in expressing our belief that any change
in the system of colonial management generally must be
for the better, and more especially in that department
connected with the disposal of colonial lands and emi-
gration. Hitherto these have been made available al-
most wholly to the purposes of Ministerial patronage
and to the private views of land-jobbers and schemers,
who might chance to possess Parliamentary influence,
with the tact to bring it to bear upon the fears or favour
of the Colonial-office. The revocation of the South Aus-
tralian, as well as of the Emigration agency, are more-
over advisable measures to begin wan, for the extraordi-
nary anomaly of the first, by which a sort of imperiuni
in imperio was created, the direct authority of the
Colonial Office superseded, and its indefeasible du-
ties of administration and protection of the subjects
and the property of the realm transferred to an
irresponsible and unconstitutional body, was too
monstrous long to be tolerated. How the heavy
debt with which it has already burdened that un-
fortunate colony is to be disposed of; or liquidated, we
have yet to learn, but it may be apprehended that with
the dissolution of the Commission the Colonial Office
means to take charge of all its obligations and respon-
sibilities also. If so, and the debt come therefore to
be guaranteed, that is consolidated with the National
Debt, is it proposed to continua payment to the loan
contractors and bondholders of that grossly exorbitant
interest of ten per cent. per annum, of which we believe
they are now in the rneipt according to the contract

COMMERCIAL TRA VELLERS' SOCIETY.—On
Saturday last the anniversary festival of this Society was
celebrated at the London Coffee-house, Ludgate-hill ;
and muster of the members and friends of the Society,
we are happy to say, was even greater than that which
took place on a similar occasion last year. The Lord
Mayor presided, and, after proposing the usual loyal
toasts, introduced, in a speech replete with good feel-
ing, the principal toast of the evening, " Success to the
Commercial Travellers' Society." His Lordship pointed
out in a very forcible manner the advantages which every
one engaged in the laborious occupation of a commercial
traveller might derive from being a member of this So-
ciety. It. appeared from his Lordship's statement that
the total amount of money paid by the Society to mem-
bers who had declared on the funds was 11,1091., and
to their families, 8,8664 ; while the money which the
Society had received from them did not exceed the sum
of 3,2721. Independent of this, 65,7301. had been ex-
pended on sick and infirm members or their families,
from whom only 9,2391. had been received. The num-
ber of claimants relieved by the Society amounted to
1,112, and consisted of 362 members, 313 widows, 384
children, and 53 orphans ; and the number on the fund
in October last was 296, consisting of 50 members, 110
widows, 30 children, and 6 orphans. The toast was
drank with great enthusiasm. The Secretary then read
the list of subscriptions, which amounted to about 1,000
guineas.

DRUNKENNESS AND SUlClDE.—Yesterday an
inquest was held before Mr. Wakley, at the Victory,
Newman-street, Edgware-road, on the body of Francis
Richards, aged 48, a coach painter. At appeared that
on Friday night last the deceased left his home whilst
under the influence of intoxication, and returned in a
short time with a cup containing some laudanum, which
he had procured from a chemist's in the neighbourhood.
On returning with the laudanum he asked his daughter
to smell it ; she did so, and thought it was rum. The
deceased then drank the contents of the cup, and said it
was laudanum, but subsequently denied that such was
the case. He was seized with the usual symptoms of
drowsiness and heavy slumber, and in that state was
placed in bed by his wife, under the supposition that it
was merely the effect of intoxication. In the morning
he was ,ound dead. The deceased had been out of
work ten months. He was much addicted to drinking,
and whilst in that state became a perfect madman. He
had frequently threatened to hang himself, and wished
family dead. The surgeon who was called in gave it as
his opinion that the deceased had died from the effects
of laudanum, probably accerated by spirits previously
taken. Verdict, " Temporary Insanity."
DRUNKARDS.—Forty-one cases of drunkenness
awaited their Worships' 'disposal at the sitting of the
Bench this morning. They were principally tradesmen,
and had been committed to Bridewell on St. Stephen's
night by the police, whose reports of the state of the
town represented much more of doting and robbing
than had been presented at any former sitting of the
Court for several months.—Cork Reporter.

HORSE KEEP.—Horses consume in England
the produce of seven million acres ; there are one mil-
lion horses for labour, and two hundred thousand used
for pleasure in England.
IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT IN SCOTLAND.
—The law for the incarceration of debtors far sums below
81. 6s. Bd., finally expires on the last day of December
this yaar.

LORD FIFE.—A correspondent requests us to
state that the Right Hon. the Earl of Fife has expressed
himself entirely satisfied and well pleased with the course
which has been followed, by the majority of the Presby-
tery of Strathbogic, in reference to the Marnoch case.
His Lordship, we are informed, has expressed himself
to the effect that it mas a farce for ministers of the esta-
blishment to pretend that they did not recognize the law
of the State, when it was notorious that they never he-
sitated to resort to that law to obtain augmentations of
their stipends.—Aberdeen Herald.

ad week Mr. Benjamin Hartley, stonemason,
Middleton, got a mushroom 19 inches in circumference,
in a field belonging to Thomas Ashton, Esq., of Park
House.—ManchesterCourier.

UMBRELLA FOR THE QUEEN.—We have
been highly gratified by an inspection of the umbrella
that has been in preparation, and is now nearly com-
pleted, by Mr. Samuel Stears, of this town. The cover
is of the very best rich white satin, the stick a Pastriza
cane ; the hand part is beautifully carved pearl, with
gold eyes. The top, which is in the form of a crown,
is of the finest chased solid gold, with a beautiful silver
string and two tassels in the form of English acorns. The
slide and other inner parts are of silver. The case for
the reception of the umbrella is lined with rich crimson
velvet, and is covered with scarlet morocco leather.
Altogether the appearance is most chaste and elegant.
Leeds Intelligenccr.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
(From the Globe.)
For a party which, according to its recognised organs,
is on the eve of office, the Tories seem sadly divided
as to the period when the event, so big with the pecu-
liar advantages which Tory officials are known to
prize, should commence. Even the same journal
does not preserve the same tone for two days in
succession. One day, the Whigs are to be driven
from Downing-street by an immediate coup de may: ;
the next, caution is recommended to the eager
aspirants to office ; and Sir Robert Peel is represented
as disposed to sacrifice his convictions of duty to a de-
licate regard for her Majesty's known partiality to her
present Ministers, and to permit them to remain in
place to please the Sovereign—although his doing so
endangers the Protestant institutions of the country !
Sir Robert Peel's hold on the affections and confidence of
his party is manifestly less firm than it was twelve months
since ; and the efforts of the Tory journals to conceal
this diminished confidence only serve to render it the
more apparent. The disappointment inflicted on the
hungry gobe mouehes, who imagined themselves se-
cure of present pay and good quarters in Downing-
street, through the Right Honourable Baronet's at-
tempt at negotiation for office, which failed by his
d mends to become Major Domo of the Palace as well as
First Minister of State, will not be easily forgiven, as
it must greatly tend to weaken confidence in his suc-
cass, should he ever be again " sent for," an event of no
likely occurrence. Then his " timidity,"—as the
more furious of the faction delicately term his
unwillingness to go the " whole hoe of hostility to
the Catholic Relief Bill, the repeal of which they
demand as essential to Protestant ascendancy—is
assigned as a reason why some more bold and uncom
promising chieftain should be nominated as their leader to
conduct them to the Canaan of their hopes ; and Lord
Roden is not obscurely hinted at as more suited to
the enterprise than the expediency-losing Peel. Pity
it is that the Tories should be at sea respecting their Pre-
mier ; who certainly should possess the confidence of his
tr.ends, as a necessary preliminary to his acquiring that
of the country ! In the midst of these dissensions in the
Tory camp, the Standard looks to the farmers for
help, and labours lustily to enlist them, as a body, on
the side of bigotry, under the pretext that the Corn-
law monopoly cannot be preserved if the Whigs re-
main in office. True : Lord Melbourne has expressed
himself against the abolition of protection—(theStaudard,
by the way, avoids citing Lord Melbourne's words,
which we shall do, on occasion)—but the agriculturists
arc cautioned against trusting to his declaration ; and
therefore, with admirable consistency, our Contempo-
rary recommends that his Lordship's post should be
filled by Sir R. Peel—who is not trusted even by his
own party !