The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-19 00:00:00

DEPARTURES.

Prince Lieven, from Ashburnham House, Dover-street, for
Richmond ; Edward Hartopp, Esq. from Syrnmons's Hotel, St.
James's-street, for Oxford; - Hartopp, Esq. from ditto, for
Eton ; J. Lawes, Esq. from ditto, on a tour; the Rev. Thomas
Lane Fox, from Crawley's Hotel (late Cook's), Albemarle.
street, for Dor: etshire ; Mr. and Mrs. A sheton Smith, from
Fenton's Hotel, St. James's-street, for their seat in Hampshire;
William Cumming, Esq. from ditto, on a tour; Mr. and Mrs.
Morgan, from Grosvenor-street, for Bath; William Rowlands,
Esq.. from Brook-street, for his seat in Berks ; Major 'Wheeler,
M eeler, and family, from the Berners Hotel, Berners.
s ",ellfton.
51 THE FROST.
r.-

FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
Orders have been issued to close the gates of the enclo-
sure in St. James's-park on a Sunday, during the skating
season, at three o'clock, so that no person can be admitted
after that hour upon the canal; and at four o'clock the
whole enclosure to be cleared. This is an excellent regula-
tion, as many, who are fond of the exercise, have been
known to remain until dirk or moonlight, by wiich nu-
merous accidents have occurred.

The ice which has been floating up and down the river
Thames with the tides has, in consequence of the intense
frost during the p Ist two or three nights, become corn •
bined, and many parts of the river on the Surrey side pre-
sent a body of ice extending above half-way across. Should
the present intense frost continue a day or two longer, we
may expect to see persons enjoying the exercise of skating
on many parts of the Thames.

The inclemency of the season has played sad havoc
among the pensioners of Greenwich. Jelin Shea, a blind
man, John Rowe, and a pensioner belonging to Duke's
Ward, suddenly dropped down, and expired on the spot.
Between twelve and fourteen others, whose constitutions
were sensibly affected by the late fogs, have also, within
the last eight or ten days " gone the way of all flesh."
In Burton-crescent a register thermometer of Fah-
renheit, exposed on 'a wall, fell to 14 degrees or 16 de-
gi ees below the freezing point, on the night of Sunday.

Mr. Secretary PEEL entertained the LORD
CHANCELLOR, Mr. WASHINGTON IRVING, and A select
party to dinner yesterday evening, at his residence, in
Privy-gardens.
The French Ambassador had a conference
with the Duke of WELLINGTON yesterday, at the Treasury.
His Excellency also visited the Earl of ABERDEEN, at the
Foreign-office. In the evening his Excellency sent off
despatches to his Government.

We understand that the recent death of a lady
of a gentleman at the bar, connected with an M.P., is
likely to bring to light some 'occurrences of a very extra-
ordinary nature, relative to the conduct of a married gen-
tleman, who is nearly related to the deceased lady. The
subject alluded to is currently spoken of in a not, Very
taut county, as having been carried on for several years.
past, but without having inducted the gentlemen of th,
Long Robe to interfere,

LITERATURE.

MOORE'S MEMOIRS OF LORD BYRON.
I.ONLON. . 1830.

We have seldom read a more instructive
never certainly a more fascinating—piece of bio-

graphy than the present. It is rich to profusion

in all that constitutes the excellence of this kind
of writing—simplicity of style, perfect familia-
rity with the persons and things described, abun-
dance of illustrative anecdote, a lively sympathy
with the hero of the narrative, an ability fully to
appreciate his greatness, and above all--a rare
quality among poets—a generous freedom from
envy, jealousy or any unworthy passion. In this
last respect, how greatly has Mr. Moore the
advantage over Mr. Leigh Hunt ! Both were
personal friends of Lord Byron ; bOth received
favours at his hands ; both were for a time do-
mesticated with him ; and both have made a cha-
racteristic return. The one unable or unwilling
to acknowledge the existence of moral or intel-
lectual worth superior to his own, l►as tasked
every faculty to lower his benefactor to his own
level ; the other has striven equall) hard to fix
him on his proper pedestal, and to prove that
his merits as an author were only second to his
worth as a man. In the pages of Mr. Hunt,
Lord Byron appears every where as a wretch
beneath contempt. He is alternately a coward—
a braggart—a coxcomb—fickle—ungenerous—
incapable of friendship or refined sentiment,
and alive only to the sordid interests of self. In
the memoirs of Mr. Moore he is the soul of

honour—the slave of sensibility—the truest of
friends—the most considerate of relatives—the
most affectionate of masters—the most munifi-
cent of patrons. " Look on this picture, and
on that !" Study both portraits attentively,
w:Agli the merits of the respective artists, com-
pare their competency to sketch a perfect resem-
blance, and then, reader, let your own heart—
to say nothing of your common sense--decide
which of the two has drawn the most exact por-

trait of Lord Byron, the malignant caricaturist
or the experienced limner ; the viperous scrib-
bler who has exaggerated him into a monster, or
the grateful poet who has pourtrayed him as a
man. But to pass to other matters.
Lord Byron was born in the January of
1788, at Holles-street, Cavendish-square. His
mother, who by the bye forms a very amusing
personage in the present memoirs, was a Scotch
lady and an heiress, of the family of Gordon.

His father was an officer in the Guards, we
known for his rakish disposition, and his in
trigue with the Marchioness of Carmarthen
At the early age of two years, young Byror
was carried by his mother to Aberdeen, where
he continued to reside, until by one or two
unexpected demises he succeeded to a title and
Newstead Abbey. In the year 1799 he was
put under the ore of Dr. Glennie, of Dulwich-
grove ; but hid; mother fancying that he made
but slow progress in his studies, transferred
him thence, about the year 1801, to Harrow,
Here he remained upwards of fire years—the
happiest portion of his feverish existence—and
distinguished himself by his reckless intrepid
spirit, his strange fits of alternate buoyancy and
gloom, his industry, his idleness, and more
especially by the warmth and constancy of his
friendships, which partook rather of the ardour of
love than of the sobriety of esteem. Among
his cotemporaries were the present Mr. Secretary
Peel and his brother William (the latter of
whom was Lord Byron's favourite, though he
speaks with great respect of the former), Col.
Wildman, the present proprietor of. Newstead
Abbey, Lord Clare, and Mr. Harness, well-
known as an eloquent and impressive preacher.
As a proof of the constancy of Lord Byron's
' school attachments, Mr. Moore mentions that
on meeting with Lord Clare, but a few years
before his death, on the Continent, the recol-
lections of their past intimacy came so strongly
upon him, that he could not speak, but burst into
tears. On quitting Harrow at the age of seven-
teen he entered himself at Trinity, where he first
became acquainted with Messrs. Hobhouse,
Mathews (which last, according to Mr, Moore's
account, Was a very extraordinary young man,
and was drowned in the year 1809 while bath-
ing in the Cam), Scroope Berdmore Davis, and
two or three other equally distinguished young
Cantabs. This coterie was noted for their viva-
city, their talent, and, we believe we may add,
their irregularities. Mathews, however, seems
to have been the idol of the circle ; all confessed
his superiority, particularly Mr. Hobhouse,
whose anguish, on hearing of his death, Lord
Byron describes as poignant in the extreme
We must not omit to mention, that previous to
his Lordship's departure for Cambridge, he had
formed an unfortunate attachment for a Miss
Chaworth, who resided in the neighbourhood
of Newstead, and who married a Mr. Mus-
ters, an event which preyed deeply on the
embryo poet's mind, and was the origin of
his exquisite " Dream
On quitting Cambridge, Lord Byron took up
his residence for a time in London, where he
entered recklessly into most of the dissipations
of the day ; and became an expert fencer,
boxer, and swimmer. Still lie was a desolate
and a lonely being, with no home ties to attach
him—his mother seldom had an interview with
him unaccompanied by a quarrel—little or no
respectable female society to wean him from the
follies of a town life—no rational enjoyment, inn
short, except what he derived from the occa-
sional society of his Cambridge friends. Under
the withering influence of this desolation he
quitted England for the Continent—having just
previous to his departure published the well-
known " English Bards and Scotch 4eviewers,"
as an answer to an attack made by the Edin-
burgh Reviewers on his youthful volume
4, Hours of Idleness"—and spent the years 1809,
1810, and 1811, in travelling with his friend
Hobhouse, through Portugal, Spain- Girece and
• t
parts of Turkey, and Asia
krifinor. It was during this
journey that he composed the major part of the.
two first Cantos of ." Childe Harold," w4i.cll
on their publication, in 1812, place 4 him in die
very first poc of EVish gets. Vivqi 4114 period

he doors of the highest fashionable circles were

unreservedly thrown open to him. He became at
once the wonder and the glory of his age; or,
as he himself quaintly expresses it, " I woke
one morninc!;, and found myself famous." The
Pilgrimage was iblowed in a few months by
the Giaour, the most brilliant passages of which
were (singularly enough) not inserted until two
large editions had been disposed of. The most

celebrated of these passages, where the poet
compares the present aspect of Greece to
a dead body, we have always thought over•
rated. The simile though ingenious is in-
applicable. It is a comparison of life with
death. " Such is the aspect of this shore,"
says Lord Byron, identifying Greece with a
corse. But surely such is not the case. The
" aspect", of this celebrated country, for the poet
no where alludes to its history, is the same as it
has ever been, immortal in the beauty and fresh-
ness of its climate, the lavish production of its
fruits, the grandeur and variety of its landscapes.
The pass of Thermopylw, the steep of Sunium,
the plain of Marathon, these still exist and
flourish as in the old heroic times ; while the
corse to which they are compared, knows
neither life nor growth, but is a mere mass of
senseless self-decomposing matter.
Lord Byron's next publication was the " Bride
of Abydos," which was completed in the short
space of two nights, and was followed quickly
up by the " Corsair," a noble production, full
of vigorous description (though in this respect
it is inferior to " Lara," which reminds us more
of the rough forcible versification of Dryden,
than any thing we have ever read), daring por-
traiture of character, and unequalled tenderness.
It was about this period of his life that Lord
Byron first ventured upon a Journal, from which
Mr. Moore has selected ample materials, and
which, as might be expected, abounds in satire,
wit, and shrewd, though severe knowledge of life.
About this period too—or a little later, in the
December of 1815—he married Miss Milbanke,
by whom he had been twice refused, and from
whom he separated within a year from the period
of their nuptials. The blame of this separation
seems, so far as we can learn from Mr. Moore's
surmises, to rest any where but with Lord Byron.
On his wife's departure from London he bade her
adieu with the utmost tenderness, and
even accompanied her part of the way.—A
few days afterwards, without the slightest inti-
mation of such an event, he received a cold
letter from her, bidding him adieu for ever.
The shock that this surprise occasioned him,
together• with the pecuniary embarrassments
which threatened to overwhelm him, and the
repeated attacks made daily on his moral and in-
tellectual worth, drove him nearly frantic, and in

a paroxysm of indignation, disgust, and misan-
thropy, he quitted England in the year 1816,
naver to return. Here Mr. Moore's present
Memoirs terminate.

On perusing this most enchaining volume,
the reader will glean a truer—inasmuch as it is
a more favourable—notion of Lord Byron's cha-
racter than any he has yet possessed. His Lord-
ship seems to have been a man of strong passions ;
extreme in hatred as in love, and preserving
no medium between his friends and foes. In
one respect Johnson would have reverenced him.
He was was " a good hater." To the defects
of his early education, and, above all, to the
caprices of his mother, who died of an up-
holsterer's bill, must be traced the origin of those
eccentricities which afterwards rendered him fully
as notorious as his genius. One feature in his
character is strikingly deserving of observation.
He was fond of making himself out worse than
he was, especially where women were concerned,
and but too soon got credit for his ideal
crimes. But with all his follies—with all his
Strange obliquities of thought and sentiment—
with all his professed contempt for man and
suspicious opinion of woman, his heart was in
the right place, ever foremost to do a charitable
action, and to make reparation where injury
had been inflicted. It was his love of mystification
that was his greatest enemy. His " tumultuous
passions," as Dr. Jones described them at Cam,
bridge, might have been forgiven—his sarcasm
even relished by the world ; but his inveterate
fondness for making fools of the public, and
keeping their curiosity perpetually awake by
quaint, mysterious allusions to some terrific sin,
some conscience•harrowing enormity, was not
to be " washed in Lethe and forgotten." It is
with the world as with individuals. We can
bear to be hated, but certainly not to be ridi-
culed. Hate implies that we are at least on
equal terms with the person so honouring us ;
but ridicule, that we are beneath his contempt.
This the public seem strongly to have felt. Lord
Byron, they but too soon found out, was fooling
them, and they resented the insult with more
than Briarean energy.
Of Byron, as a poet, we shall say nothing.
His works are in every one's hands. But one
feature in his literary character we cannot pass
without notice, as it is emphatically illustrative
of his temperament. He never hesitated to adopt
the thoughts of others, when he found they
suited his object, but paraphrased the spirit, and
in one or two instances, the very languNe
iseparallel.ldt ui sn
dt oe
rt hai swet
chtactdw
sec torrancLhoi
fs aet r
gre—
at
crle—a t
Wordsworth, with a boldness absolutely without
ill
th
Lake poet. His proud spirit spurned at the
idea of obligation. He knew he could never
repay his poetic loans, so took ref;; ;e from the
sting of this reflection in haughty unqualified
abuse.

But our limits warn us to a close. We shall
content ourselves, therefore, with observing, that
the volume before us, with a thousand attrac-
tions, has one unhappy blemish—it eaeonrages
too strongly the notion that Lord Byron was a
confirmed sceptic. That he at times doubted, the
spirit of his poetry leads us to believe, but that
he was ever a decided sceptic we have, en Mr.
Moore's own showing, the authority of Sir W.
Scott to contradict. It is to be lamented that
his Lordship permitted even a transient doubt
to cloud the surpassing kadiance of his ge-
nius; but better, far better even this unfortu-
r4te tendency to distrust* than that cold, selfish,
settled inAdelity which, deprived of hope, dc-.
prived of faith, deprived of all that in.?l,-tes the
present happy and the future at4ielous, looks
on death as an eternal shßhev, limn which no
Archangel's trunle ever awaken the soul.

VBE CODE OF HEALTH AND LOI‘ZO,
Tn our brief notice of thls', useful bate treatise,
we -mentioned thqt F;uthcr preferred " theory
to practice.'' '01,3 Was mistake of the printer;
the, 'sentence shoviiti have run thus, " the author
prefers praoke to theory," a fact which no one
4cquainted with his serviceable vublicaLtko. can
for an instant doubt,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOUINALS.

A curious suit has been instituted before-one

of the Courts of Paris, against the Civil List,
or the funds of the King's House-hold, by two
Counts, de Saur and Gueheneuc, members of
he former Senate. The sum which they de-
manded amounts to 500,000 francs, or about

20,000/., being the arrears of pensions which
have been paid to one of them only partially, am!
which have been totally withheld from the other
since the restoration. The cause is of much

greater importance to the Crown than the mere
sum in question, as the admission of this first

claim would authorise demands to the amount

of 14,000,000 or 15,000,000 of francs. It

grows out of the changes which took place in the
Government of France on the restoration of the

Bourbons. Bonaparte, it will be remembered,
had a Senate, not of a very independent charac-
ter, to discuss his measures, which enjoyed a
flotation of 4,000,000 of francs, settled on the
national domains. This fund furnished every

Senator with an allowance of 36,000 francs, or

about 1,6401. By a proclamation of Lous
XVIII., dated February, 1813, a Royal ordi-
nance, dated June 4, 1814, and the law of Nov.

8, in the same year, all the constituted authori-
ties were to retain their pay ; and the pension of
36,000 francs, which was expressly secured

,o the members of the Senate, whether in-

corporated in the new Chamber of Peers or
not, was to lae defrayed out of the Civil
List, which appropriated the fund originally des-
tined for their support. :It would appear, how-

ever, that these engagements have. not been

kept, and that many of the members of the
Senate, who were passed by in the nomination
of the Peers, have received no pension at all.

One of the plaintiffs was in this predicament.
Both had applied to the Treasury, and were told
that no order had been issued to grant their de-
mand, and they were therefore obliged to sum-
mon the King's Household before a Court of
Justice. The cause is not yet decided, but it is

extremely likely that the decision will be against
the claimants, as various modifications have been

made in the law since the issue of the ordinance

and the enactment of the statute on which they
found their right. The cause naturally leads us
to make a remark on the French Chamber of.
Peers, which, intead of being like our Upper
House of Parliament, an institution growing
out of the social condition of the country, and
embracing an aristocracy already existing; is a
mere creation of an upper council out ot demo-
cratic elements, on which the King or the
Charter has chosen to confer legislative powers.
This will become manifest by the slightest re-
flection on the materials of which it is composed.
At its first establishment many of the old
senators were incorporated with the new
Chamber, and retained their senatorial pen-
sions as the only support of their patrician
dignity. Since that time every change of ca-
binet has sent a batch of pensioned ex-Ministers
to swell its ranks, in addition to the elevation

of public functionaries, whom the Government
ennobled to command majorities. M. de Villcle,
by one single ordinance, increased it by more
than seventy members, many of whom were
men of extremely limited fortunes. He gave it
besides a kind of Episcopal bench occupied only
with pensioned prelates, who depend upon the
Budget for incomes less than the benefices en-
joyed by many of our parish Clergy ; the See of
Durham with its golden prebends alone yielding
an amount of revenue nearly sufficient to pay the
stipends of all the Cardinals, Archbishops, and
Bishops of France. Besides the allowances to
ex-senators, we find pensions of from 1.5,000 to
1,000 francs given to more than 30 Dukes, to
more than 20 Marquisses, to more than 40
Counts, to six Viscounts, and six Barons. The
amount of these pensions exceeds 1,370,000
francs, or 55,000/. sterling. To all of these
Members of the Upper Chamber the pittance of
4001. or 5001. is an object, and some cf them
have little else to depend upon. What madness
would it be in the Crown to rely upon such an
Ai istocracy in France !—Times,
The Norfolk Meeting of Saturday last was
of importance, as well for the resolutions there
proposed, as for the sentiments of many of the
speakers. According to our notions, however,
the repeal of the Malt-tax alone will 'ao but little
service to the people of England. So long as
the brewer's monopoly continues, and enables
him to charge what price he pleases for his beer,
any reduction of the tax on malt will be turned
to his exclusive profit. So long, main, as the
subaltern monopoly of the pub.:ican against the
public shall be secured by the same law of
licences which warrants the monopolist in chief,
namely, the brewer, against the rebellion of his
own dependent, who buys the great man's
liquor on such hard terms that he is forced to
adulterate it for the retail customers, or to starve,
even so long will a repeal of the Malt-tax be no
more than a donation to the brewer and the ni!,lo.
lican, and a delusion as it affects the cow: milky.
overthrowe of
abreal.
;nimble o f
Couple, indeed, the abolition of the above-
ntiond tax with a the Beer-tax,
an e
power of ma-
gistrates over licences fbr the sale of beer,
a large reduction of the duties on foreign
corn—an operrtir-
g of the odious monopoly of
tea in Le4aenball-street, and a sensible diminu-
tion of the tax on sugar, coals, and window-
lights, all which imposts, except the last, were
warmly reprobated by Mr. Wodehouse, who hail
the manliness to declare that an abridgment of
the poor raan's comforts was a scandal to the
aristocracy of England, join these beneficent
measures to the repeal of the malt tax, and the
lower classes, and through them the classes of
gentleman, merchant, and tradesman, will have
cause to approve the reformed legislature of their
country. A meeting of the meat county of
Devon, at; the pregnant subject of the
tithe sys-
tem, took place on Friday last at Exeter. The
names affixed to the requisition were those of
eleven hundred payers and receivers of tithes.
The object of the requisition was to " consider
the propriety of petitioning the Legislature to
deliheratP on the prevent state of the tithe laws,
with a view to some better arrangement of the
mode of paying tithes." This meeting, and the
motives for it, constitute the opening of a most
important crisis in the legislation of Er I d
Art an .
Ibid.

Some or our contemporaries are dissatisfied
with what was said by Mr. Chambers, the Union-
hall Magistrate, to Mr. Lambrecht, on his sur-
rendering himself to take his trial. The worthy
Magistrate is represented to have c, recom-
mendo the prisoner to prepare himself for the
worst, declaring it as his opinion that the law
would be carried to the fullest extent." It is
more thin insinuated, that if the Duke of Wel-
lington had silo the Earl Winchilsea, or the
Earl of Winchilsea his Grace, at Battersea-
fielda, Mr. Chambers would, in addressing the
survivor, have carefully abstained from the
slightest allusiori to the possibility even of any,
necessity for having' I:Qcourse to suck a personage:-
,

es the•one who " carries the law to the fullest
extent." Really this is hardly fair towards Mr.
Chambers. The worthy Magistrate feels as he
ought respecting the shedding of blood ; but he
is too prudent a tactician to take the lion by the
beard. When a man wishes to set off his own
virtue by the expression of a becoming indignation
against transgression, if he be prudent, he will
wait till he catches some unfortunate devil for
whom there are few people to interest themselves,
when his indignation will not be thrown away,
because it will be counteracted by no sympathy.
If a great man had been in the situation of the
unfortunate individual to whom Mr. Chambers
addressed his very delicate recommendation, the
indignation against wrong-doing which the worthy
Magistrate sought to produce might have
yielded to an indignation against his own want
of feeling; and this, so far from tending to dis-
courage duelling, would have quite a contrary
tendency. We remember, in the case of Faunt-
leroy, what a cry there was against the Magis•
trate who recommended him to read his Bible.
The recommendation would not have been blamed
in the case of a poor man, but in the case ofone who
had had hundreds of thousands through his hands
it was felt to be insufferable. Mr. Chambers has
displayed more tact. He knoss that the feel-
ing of the public against evil-doing is sure not to
be led astray when there are no adventitious cir-
cumstances in the case ; and that a better time
cannot be chosen for obtaining a good precedent
than where there is nothing to prevent all men
entertaining a becoming indignation against the
practice he wishes to put down. In England
there is never much danger of any improper sym-
pathy when there is poverty in the case. Good
men will, therefore, know how to appreciate the
discretion with which Mr. Chambers has chosen
his time for launching out into becoming severity
,against the crime of duelling. There Cannot be
a better rule for combating malpractices than
waiting till some powerless individual is caught in
them. Mr. Chambers is, evidently, both a pious
and a prudent man ; and virtue never appears to
such advantage as when in union with knowledge
of the world, for then it shines forth at the time
when it can be duly appreciated.—Morn. Chron.
There is something both melancholy and
amusing in the manner in which the INhie.'
triots treat the subject of national distress. They
whine the complaints which they cannot altoge-
eier suppress, in language at the same time meek
and dolorous. Their patience and their rest-
lessness seem to be severely tried between the
opposite influences of servility and suffering.
Whig landlords must feel the fall of rents as
well as others ; but, though there are the deep
shadows of misery over the fore-ground of the
picture, there is the golden light of office in the
distance. The long faces and empty pockets of
their agricultural tenantry would make them very
impatient, if not absolutely seditious, but
that, while the cultivators of the land are
fast falling into insolvency and ruin, their
patriotic landlords have a vision of the
6' loaves and fishes" in prospect. Hence the
weak and miserable compromise which we ob-
serve at their public meetings between obsequious
silence and energetic remonstrance. They who,
if a single wheel, or pulley, or screw, in the
great machine of State went out of order, used
so thunder forth their indignation against Go-
vernment in the boldest tropes and figures of a
glowing eloquence, now can see the whole frame
of society shaken and disarranged without rais-
ing a more startling, voice than that of the meta-
morphosed " Snip, in the play, who considered
it the most rare of his " savage" acccomplish-
ments that he could " roar a lion as mild as any
sucking dove." The speeches of Mr. Coke and
some others at the Norfolk Meeting, of which we
gave a report yesterday, exemplify this spirit of
gentle complaint and- amiable discontent which
6, Whiggism ' has put on. No expression discourte-
ous to a Ministry under whose auspices the
country has, somehow or other, fallen into a
state of unparalleled affliction and embarassment
escaped from one of them—no appeals were
heard there to the manly feelings of English-
men—no calls upon their patriotic energies in
defence of a sinking untry—no indignant
reprobation of measurecos which have broken
down the grandeur, exhausted the resources, and
crushed the productive industry of the country.
AU, as far as the Whigs were concerned, was as
&month and mild in expression as if they did
not themselves believe the tale of national
calamity which their language so feebly
portrayed. But though not true to their
ancient principles of vehement patriotism
and turbulent virtue, the Whigs still dis-
played their practised " talent" for trickery
and manoeuvre. They who were accustomed
ardently and incessantly to remind the people of
the " sacred right of petitioning," have taken a
very decided aversion to-that constitutional mode
- of bringing public grievances strongly under the
notice of the King and his Ministers. But did
they not meet on the present occasion to petition
for the repeal of the Malt and Beer Duties?
'They did, and yet they separated without having
agreed to any petition !---without having even
proposed one ! The fact is, they seem to have
been so much alarmed by a threatened petition
of Sir Thomas Beevor, which they naturally ez-
pected IYould not be couched in terms sufficiently
guarded and polite for the delicate taste of mo-
dern Whiggery, that they forgot the great object
of their meeting. They exerted themselves to
circumvent him, and they outmanoeuvred them-
iadves—they excluded his petition by a stratagem,
and in doing so forgot their own !—Morning
Herald.
The country is every hour becoming more
alive to the difficulties which press upon it, and
the important measures which must form the
subject of discussion in the approaching Session
of Parliament. ellready have the freeholders of
Lincoln placed their sentiments upon record.
Norfolk has followed on the same side. The
Magistrates and Grand jury of Kent have re-
presented their grievances to the Minister. The
county of Easex will be in the field immediately,
and a requisition for a meeting of the freeholders
of Cumberland is in the course of signature.
These are but the preliminary movements which
forerun a more general expression of public opi-
nion, and lead to petitions and reirsonstrances
from every county, and town, and parish in Eng-
land. The principal object of these meetings
has been to demand a reduction of the taxes,
particularly the repeal of the malt and tie ~.;.• taxes.
A meeting, however, has been held in Devon:,
shire of a very different nature ; for there, where
the people drink more cider than beer, the tax
upon the latter is less felt ; but, determined
to seek relief in some shape er other, they
complain, and we believe justly, of the ex-
cessive pressure of the tithe system, and pray
Parliament to revise the law, and mitigate
the severe .and contentious exactions of the
lay irnpropriatais end tke established clergy.
It appears that the object of these different
Parties is to obtain a reduction of some
of those tase and public burthens which

at the present moment press severely on their
stinte 1 incomes and reduced profits. But, as
far as we can comprehend their resolutio is, the
greater number think that a reduction of taxation
to the amount of five or six millions would mate-
rially alleviate the suffering of 'the people. None
of them say they will rest satisfied with the repeal
of the malt and beer duties. None of them
admit they will be content with a revision of the
tithe code, and a more equitable and less grind.
ing mode of alhnenting the religious establish-
ments of the country. On the contrary, they
candidly admit they have ulterior objects in view.
They say they will take what they can get in the
meantime—take more another time—be satisfied
with a little now, and with more hereafter. They
do not concede that it is only this or that tax
which ought to be repealed. They declare that
a general reduction of taxes must take place.—
They do not limit the reduction to three, five, or
eight millions, but insist that ten, and even
twenty, millions ought to be taken from
the taxes—that is to say, from the fund-

holders, from the dead weight, from the
naval, military, and civil lists, from the
sinecure list, and the salaries of mini-
sters, ambassadors, commissioners, secretaries,
and Government clerks of every grade. Now
this is what we call speaking out in a clear, au-
dible, and intelligible tone of voice. The re-
duction must be of a sweeping and wholesale
nature, or no good can result from it. Nibbling,
and trifling, and hairsplitting, and begging for
farthings and sixpences, can answer no useful
purposes. The lopping off of a decayed branch
is mere folly and a waste of time. The pruning
knife must be applied in a more vigorous man-
ner, otherwise it would be much better to leave
things as they are, and the demerits and oppres-
sions of the system to Pi ovidence and the re-
formers of the next generation. What would a
reduction of five millions of malt and beer duties
do for twenty millions of people struggling with
ruin, contending with pauperism and demoraliza-
tion, and on the very brink of national insol-
vency ? This relief would be to the country
what the supply of water by the New River
would he to England, if the Thames and every
other river and canal were dried up. The repeal
might benefit a few growers of barley, and might
enable a few families to drink a few more pints
of bad ale or indifferent porter in the course of
the year, but as to any thing else it is entirely
out of the question. Let us see who are the
parties who stand first on the list of those whom
the measures of Government have injured.—
There are—

The corn growers—The wool growers—The miners of
iron, copper, and tin—The shipowners—The graziers of
every class—The silk-throwsters and 'ilk-weavers—The
glove manufacturers—The maltsters and brewers—The
cotton-weavers—The blanket-weavers—The fancy-shoe-
raakers—The ship-builders, and the merchant-sailors and

ship-chandlers.
These are the leading sufferers, on whom are
dependent many thousands in other departments
of trade and commerce. The landlord depends
upon his tenant, the mason and carpenter on
the farmer, the dyer and twister and warper on
the weaver, the small shopkeeper and retailer,
the tailor, the shoemaker, and the milliner, on
the aggregate. Thus the whole nation must
participate in the embarrassments of those who
compose its leading interests. On the other
hand the only parties who can be said to be in
a flourishing and happy condition are those who
exclusively belong to the consuming and un-
productive caste. They may be rated as follows:
His Majesty's Ministers—His Majesty's Fundholders—
His Majesty's Pensioners—His Priajesty's Secretaries and
Clerks—His Majesty's Custom-house Officers—His Ma-
jesty's Excisemen—His Majesty's Lawyers—His Majesty's
Soldiers and Sailors—His Majesty's dead weight—His
Majesty's free traders—His Majesty's Dignitari,s of the
Church— His Majesty's Episcopal Clergy—His Majesty's
Dissenting Preachers—The people who distil gin—The
people who retail gin—The people who hold mortgages—
The people of fixed annuities—The people who sell
stolen goods—and the people who keep sponging houses.
These all belong to the prosperous classes. One
glance at the two orders will show how far five
millions of taxes would go to injure the one,
and benefit the other. Why, the sacrifice
would not purchase a quart of ale per week to
the suffering parties. It would not add a pair
of blankets to their beds, including the neces-
sary expense of washing them four times a year.
But, besides this, a reduction of taxes would not
correct the mischievous effects of a pernicious
system. It would not induce the cloth manu-
facturer to use British in preference to fo-
reign wool. It would not enable the ship-
owner to compete with the foreign ship-
owner. It would not prohibit the introduction
of foreign manufactures. It would not protect
the farmer against the inundations of Baltic
corn. It would not enable the national debtor
to pay thirty shillings in the pound to his fa.
vourite creditor. In short, without an entire
change of the system this paltry reduction would
be protluctivel of no good whatever. But,
let it be understood, we are not opposed
to the reduction nevertheless. On the contrary
we rejoice at the efforts now making, and that
principally by the Whigs.. The Tories are lite-
rally doing nothing for themselves or the country.
They are attending upon their wives, says the
Exeter paper, cherishing their loyalty at home,
and leaving the people and their grievances to
their old opponents and the Duke of Wellington.
We therefore at present look forward to no ame-
lioratiHg results, but in that change which we
hope, or that tremendous crash which we fear.
Out of evil sometimes comes good, and we there-
fore trust to events. It is consolitary to think
that while the Minister, like the country, is em-
barrassed, the people are determined that he
shall be embarrassed still more, His revenue is
deficient, and they are resolved to render it more
so. His Sinking Fund is extinguished, and
their object is to make him compound, or do
what will be tantainotint to compounding,
namely, fund a portion of the dividends, and
pay an interest upon his deficiencies.—Morn-
ing Jou rucif,
From the unanimity which has hitherto pre-
vailed at all the Meeting; which have been held
en the subject of the repeal of the Malt and
Beer Taxes—from the respectability and in,
creasing numbers of these meetings—and the
still greater numbers which are announced to be
held before the meeting of Parliament, we now
begin to entertain a confidential hope that these
taxes will be repealed in the ensuing Session ;
and assuvedly there are none more impolitic in
principle—more ve.:4ious in their collection—
more injurious to all classes in their operation,
or which press with a more leaden finger on the
comforts Of the middling and working classes,
All these points were urged with admirable force
upon the attention of the meeting of the
County of Norfolk, on Saturday last, by
several of the speakers, and resolutions passed,
embodying their purport, and concluding with
a prayer for the repeal of the whole of the
duties on maJt. Some of the speakers intro-
duced no smell portion of extraneous matter into
their speeches, and one was for radical reform—
another for a change in the currency—and a few