The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-28 00:00:00

for the destruction of the Caroline steamer, and also
any information received as to the treatment of
American citizens by the authorities of Upper Canada.
We think the Member who laid these and other pro-
positions respecting Canadian affairs on the table
might, as a matter of justice,: have added many others
to the list, and among these how much property of
British subjects had been destroyed by American citi-
zens during the last twelve months—how many
lives had been sacrificed in consequence of the negli-
gence or connivance of American functionaries, and what
may be the amount of expense incurred by the British
Government in sending out troops from England, and
paying the Canadian militia to protect the frontier
against the incursions of the citizens of the United
States. A fourth return might have been required,
and that the President could easily furnish, setting
forth how many of these citizens, guilty of a breach
of the laws of nations, had been captured, and after-
wards made their escape from American prisons, and
also the number of individuals punished by the Ame-
rican Government for carrying fire and sword into a
neighbouring and friendly territory. Possibly these
questions will yet be put to the British Government
by some Member of Parliament, and then the public
will be able to say which party has the best claim to
compensation.

It is very clear that Old Glory has survived his
friends as well as his faculties, or he would not be al-
lowed to make so public a fool of himself as he is
doing. We perceive that a small knot of obscure
Tories at Ashby-de-la-Zouch paraded him the other
day as. Chairman at one of their annual feeds. The
poor old dotard drivelled away, as he ale ays does—
praising to the skies the Tories past and present, and
reviling the Liberals, especially the Catholics of
Ireland, with the wreck of the virulence of former
times.

Among the presentments made lately to the Court
of Aldermen by the Inquests of the different Wards
of the City, was one from Billingsgate, stating the
hardship entailed on the Inquest by the expenses
attending the discharge of their duties, and suggesting
the propriety of paying these expenses in future out of
the funds of the City, rather than out of the pockets
of individuals. The LORD MAYOR told the gen-
tlemen of the Inquest that on the principle of their
application every public officer in the kingdom might
plead exemption from the duties devolving upon him.
" Your duty," remarked his Lordship, " is of a very
important nature, and, indeed, I think I may call it a
privilege. You have the inspection of all the weights
and scales in your Ward, and are to determine that
they are of proper balance and legal weight ; and, in
fact, it is the only security which you and your poorer
neighbours have against the fraudulent and nefarious
shopkeeper." There may perhaps be a difference of
opinion as to the privilege enjoyed by the persons ap-
pointed on the Inquest ; there can be none as to the
importance of the duties of the office, and we fear as
little respecting the slovenly and inefficient manner in
which they are discharged. It may be that from the
great increase of trade the Inquest is not capable o
fulfilling the ends of its original institution ; and in
that case it becomes the more necessary that measures
should be taken to adapt it to the circumstances of the
present times, and to make it an adequate instrument
for the correction of the great abuses over which its
jurisdiction extends. The use of weights below the
appointed standard, and the practice of frauds of various
kinds to produce the same effect of cheating the pur-
chaser, are things of general and notorious occurrence
among the retail dealers who hold out the temptation
of low prices to attract customers. The poor, who
chiefly resort to such shops, are in this wav cruelly robbed
every day to an- incredible extent. Formerly, we be-
lieve, offences of this description were punished with
great severity—with the pillory, and sometimes with
the loss of ears. These punishments are now, we are
happy to say, no longer in existence ; but what has
been substituted in their stead ? The condemnation
of the false weights, or a trifling fine of a few shillings,
is all that we ever hear of as a penalty for these frau-
dulent practices. And what does the convicted robber
of the poor man care for that ? Not a straw—it only
affords him an additional motive for persevering in the
same dishonest course. Why is not the name of such
a wretch branded with disgrace ? The character of
" fraudulent dealer" should be stamped upon him,
and be made to follow him to whatever quarter he
might remove. Thus the public would be put upon
its guard, and his depredations prevented. We ven-
ture to say that if the inquest men were to avail them-
selves of the means in their power of giving due pub-
licity to every case of detected imposition, they would
soon put an end to this enormous evil.

Notwithstanding the outrages. into which an impe-
tuous temper too often hurries the natives of the sister
isle, there seems to be no misgiving as to the security
of property, if we may judge from the price at which
land is now selling in that country. We perceive from
a statement in the Dublin Evening Post that twenty-
f:ve years' purchase is not now esteemed a sufficiently
high rate for landed property in the county of Limerick.
Estates with a net rental of 1,1921. a-year in that
county, were put up for sale, last week, by Mr.
SIMPsoN, the auctioneer of Bucklersbury, and bought
in at 30,3001. Mr. SIMPSON stated, in his address to
the company assembled on this occasion, that he had sold
or valued land in Ireland to the amount of 750,0001.,
and that a vary great improvement both in the culti-
vation of the soil, and in the price of landed property
had taken place within the last few years. This happy
change he imputes—and we think justly—to the disuse
of the sub-letting system, by which the poor cotter was
removed from the natural protection of the landlord, and
delivered over to a middle-man, whose only care was to
screw out of him an enormous rent, without regard to the
impoverishment of the soil, produced by the " scourg-
ing" to which a tenant without capital, and paying a high
rent, must necessarily subject the patch of ground
which he cultivates.

The Paris Journals of Friday and Saturday have all
been received, but their contents are of very little im-
portance. After twelve o'clock on Friday night the
KING, accompanied by the Dukes of ORLEANS,
NEMOURS, AUMALE, and MONTPENSIERE, his
sons, left Paris for Dreux, to be present at the
funeral of her late Royal Highness the Duchess of
WURTENIBERG. His MAJESTY was to return to
Paris on Sunday.
No Cabinet has yet been appointed, and, as might
be expected, the subject of one 'occupies the Paris
Journals, to the exclusion almost of every other. The
following article, from the Commerce of Saturday,
will be found to embody not only the prevailing ru-
mours, but the sentiments of the Moderate Opposition
on the policy of leaving France for so many days, at so
important a period, without a responsible Govern-
ment : pposition

The ministerial question has not advanced a step to-day.
The reports in circulation respecting it are consequently un-
founded. It has been said, for instance, that Marshal Soult,
in his conversation yesterday with the King, mentioned seve-
ral political personages with whom he wished to enter the
Cabinet, and that he had made overtures to them which had
been rejected. Now Marshal Soult recommended the nomina-
tion of no person to the King, nor did he make nor cause to be
made, any overtures to the persons in question. He could
consequently experience no refusal, for this very simple rea-
son, that he was not charged by the. King with the formation
of a Cabinet. He had with his Majesty several conversations
on the present crisis ; the King, at their first interview, asked
him to aid' him in forming a Cabinet, and proposed to him
to enter it with Messrs. Mole and Montalivet, which the
Marshal declined. The King, in yesterday's conversation,