The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-29 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN

- late accounts our squadron in the Mediter-
ranean were all well, and our jolly tars have been com-
pensating themselves for not having any real work to do
in their own line, by a little sham-fighting, which, by the
bye, is quite out of their way. The last gunpowder
battle is called the battle of Mytelene; as the former,
which so astounded the Sicilians, was styled that of Syra-
cuse ! The day after the Madagascar joined us near
Scio we had this brilliant effort of genius, which will be
long remembered by the performers ! The Spartiate
and Windsor Castle managed to hove one or two sick on
board, and therefore asked permission to decline taking a
part in the glories of the day, which was conceded ; and
the Samarang and /sip. took their places in the line,
hove to, and received and returned the fire of the Asia,
Ocean, &c. tcc. Scc. without one single manoeuvre taking
place to give even a semblance of benefit to the actors in
this scene ! So much for the idea of its utility as to the
practice of seamanship
On the former occasion, above alluded to, the Welles-
ley, when a similar plan was proposed, instead of taking
even these playful blows quite so tacitly, passed athwart
the bows of one of the ships, luffed up under the Admi-
ral's stern, and raked him. This manoeuvre was entirely
unexpected by his Excellency, and it very considerably
surprised and annoyed an elderly lady. on board, for whose
amusement principally the sham-fight took place. You
may well suppose that, situated as we are, we should not
be backward in catching at any thing that could benefit
us, either physically, morally, or professionally; but the above
child's-play (or old-foolery) can do neither, and is only
calculated to expend an enormous quantity of gunpowder
uselessly, and to make us ridiculous in the eyes of every
one.

This, my dear friend, is not my opinion only, but the
general feeling of the whole fleet.
FROM A FORMER CORRESPONDENT AND

Dec 28, 1829.

ADMIRER.

Mr. HUSK ISSON and Mr. CIIARLES GRANT
left town yesterday to join a numerous party, who have
been invited on a shooting excursion to the residence of
Prince Laorotn at Claremont.

ROYAL ACADEMY.—Strange rumours are
afloat with regard to the late election. The members of
the Academy, it is said, felt extremely indignant at the
appointment of Mr. WILKIE as principal Portrait Painter
to his MAJESTY on the very eve of the election, which
appeared to them in the light of an attempt to overawe
them. Without presuming to discuss the merits of the
different individuals on whom attention was directed as
likely to receive the honour of the Presidency, we believe
we may say, without fear of challenge, that Mr. WILKIE
stood very high with his brethren, and that. be chiefly
owes his disfavour with them at present to the manner in
which it was manifested that he was in high favour in
another quarter. He had, it is said, only two votes ;
while Sir W. BEEcHEY had five, and Mr.. SIIEE eleven.
Such is the rumour, and in noticing it we wish to offer
no opinion of our own as to the choice of the Academy.—
Morning Chronicle.

THE LAWS OF PARTNERSHIP, COM-

MERCIAL AND BANKING.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—From the extent and variety of your
information upon all questions affecting the in-
terests of the Empire at large, I might have ex-
pected, that in urging the policy of amending one
of the above laws, in favour of a more liberal ex- '
tension of its principles, for the investment of
capital, you would have adduced the example of
Ireland, where the French system of en com-
mandite has been in legal operation for many
years past, and unquestionably productive of
great advantage to that country. The Act of
Parliament, which is called " the Anonymous
Partnership Act," was introduced thereby the
late Lord Annesley, many years before the
union ; it enables individtials possessed of capi-
tal, but not disposed themselves to engage in
commercial or manufacturing pursuits, to invest,
in partnership with others, any sum not less
than 1,0001. withorttfitrther risk than the sum
so advanced, which must be the whole amount
intended to be engaged." And in recommend-
ing the policy of the measure to the Legislature
of that country, he strenuously relied upon the
necessity of encouraging by every means the
employment of dead capital in commercial un-
dertakings, whether trade or manufactures,
where a paucity of this requisite was generally
acknowledged as the most formidable obstacle to
the civil prosperity of Ireland.
Adopting his Lordship's sentiments most con-
fidently in reference to that country, where this
evil still unfortunately exists to an unprecedented
extent, considering the fertility of its soil, and the
superabundance of its produce, there yet seem
to be no arguments applicable to Ireland which
may not, with still more force, apply to England,
where capital so much abounds, and where its
profusion, from the want of legitimate employ-
ment, has been the frequent cause of transporting
it abroad, with most improvident temerity, and
there sinking it for ever, either in Foreign Loans,
or other enterprises equally ruinous in the result;
or else generating at home that mania for bubble
speculation, which, to the disgrace of the common
sense of England, lately involved so large a por-
tion of our population in visionary schemes of
pecuniary profit, and eventually exposed so many
individuals to all the consequences of pecuniary
embarrassment.

Nothing surely can be more natural than the
caution and timidity which these examples must
excite in the mind of a prudent man possessed
of capital, and wishing to employ a limited
portion of it in bettering his condition in life ;
he sees on one side the effect of a foreign enter-
prise in the total loss almost of the capital en-
gaged ; on the other, his personal responsibility,
so deeply implicated, as to endanger the pro-
bable loss of his entire property, and he pru-
dently resolves to' reject both, as pregnant
with hazard to his interests. While on
various considerations of legitimate and rea-
sonable benefit, recommended by every principle
of national policy, he might be disposed to com-
mit a portion of his property to the management
of a son, whom he wished to establish and for-
ward in life ; or to a friend, in whose skill and
integrity he reposed entire confidence ; or to
some other individual, whose genius and merit
might justly entitle him to the patronage of those
who could alone supply the means of maturing
both into prosperity and distinction ; provided
that in all these cases, and many more which
might be included, he were legally protected from
the danger of miscarriage, beyond the sum ac-
tually advanced ; and provided also, on the
other hand, that the sum so advanced should in
every case be sufficiently respectable to protect
the public from the effect and abuse of merely
speculative experiments.
If further proof were wanting to confirm the
effect of personal responsibility, in deterring men
of capital from commercial investments, apart
from their own controul, it may be found in the
backwardness and difficulty evidently experienced
in propagating the system of share banks through-
out England, a favourite project with the late
Lord Liverpool, in whose administration the
law for that purpose was introduced. This law
makes every individual shareholder responsi-
ble for the whole amount of his property,
while, with strange inconsistency, it enables any
set of projectors, associated or confederated
together, to commence and carry on the
trade of banking, without any regulation
whatever as to the quantum of capital, or the
manner in which it shall be subscribed, so that
on the mere subscription of a per centage, a
fifth or a tenth part of whatever capital they may
think proper to nominate, or, in other words,
comparatively no capital at all, they may engage
th 3, confidence of the public to an immense ex-
tent, and in the same ratio, pillage those who
have been credulous enough to repose faith in a
bank so constituted.

This, it must be recollected, was precisely the
system on which the bubble speculations of 1825
were founded ; none other than mere nominal
capitals would, in fact, have answered the pro-
jectors of that period, whose chief object was
to take advantage of such ephemeral excite-
ments on the public mind as the novelty or in-
genuity of their own schemes might produce,
and dispose of their shares, on which no more
than a mere trifle had been actually advanced ;
and along with this to procure either tempo-
rary or permanent offices for themselves, as the
scheme might happen to answer, in the various
official departments necessary to constitute a
respectable Company ! Nor can it be doubted
that the same system and the same motives will
continue to be less or more in operation, even
in the projection of such establishments as banks,
so long as the law, in its present form, shall
continue to encourage and protect them !
I know it may be alleged that no intentional
deceit has yet been practised in the formation of
the small number of these establishments,
hitherto associated together, but having all in-
variably adopted the principle of subscribing no
more than 20 or 25 per cent. on the amount of
their nominal capital. Putting forth the latter
as the most prominent and, imposing feature of
their character and solidity, they must be justly
considered as practising in this instance a
dangerous deceit upon the public mind. Since
the melancholy experience of this country has
long taught every practical and rational man to
feel that in the science of banking there should
be nothing nominal or hollow, but that every
thing connected with such institutions should
be solid, ample, and substantial, promptly ade-
quate to extend every benefit to which the pub-
lic may be fairly entitled, and equally ready to
meet every exigence which that same public may
be disposed to inflict.

It is lolly, gross folly, practically speaking, to
presume, that in a crisis of danger, which may
be supposed alone to produce the necessity fur
calling in more cdpital, men will be ready to
obey that call with necessary prompti:ude. We
i all know that the instinct of rats will teach them

6, `.

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• :Vik
•

to fly from a falling building; itf.lire need
no proof that the sinte kintF. of caution,
whether real or imaginary, will operate
with more than equal force upon the conduct of
mankind. With the example of the chartered
banks, the Bank of England foremost, where all
capital has been invariably paid up by early in-
stal►nents, after each addition from the com-
mencement was agreed on, it is difficult to con-
ceive how any deviation from that rule could
have been adopted by a Minister of so much
prudence and caution in other particulars. Wit-
nessing as he did the successful and prosperous
effect of this principle, in every instance above
referred to, and having such frequent cause to
lament the consequences produced in provincial
banking, by a total relaxation of the same rule,
or of any controul whatever to that effect,
although the project of this law was avowedly
introduced for the purpose of providing pro-
gressively, a substitute for the latter system, and
consequently a remedy for all its defects.
The only remedy in truth requisite would
have been to enlarge the number of partners by
law to any extent which the capacity of the di,
trict might supply, and in all ether respects to
adopt the constitution of the Bank of England,
every shareholder taking such amount (not less
than one hundred pounds) as he might desire,
but in every case paying up the fall amount of
his subscription, beyond which he was not to
be held responsible. This would have induced
a body of respectable individuals, in numerous
cases, to associate together, where now, it may
be justly apprehended, that a body of adven-
turers, with little to lose beyond their 10 or
15 per cent. upon a nominal amount, may be
quite as frequent as those who would have a
just right to claim the confidence of the public
in that capacity.—l am, Sir, yours,
PUBLIUS.

LATE RIGHT HON. GEORGE TIERNEY.

Yesterday afternoon a Jury assembled at the
White Horse Tavern, New Burlington-street, to
inquire touching the lamented death of the late
Right Hon. George Tierney, M.P.
Lieutenant-Colonel Phipps, 187, Piccadilly,
sworn—On Monday last, the 25th instant, I was at
the house of the deceased gentleman, between two
and three o'clock in the afternoon. . I had been cos►-
versing with Mrs. Tierney in the drawing-room;
and wishing to see Mr. Tierney, I proceeded to the
library to speak to him. His servant announced
me, and I entered and saw him sitting in his chair
in theiattitude of sleep. No one was in the library
at the time but the deceased. The servant told me
his master was asleep, and I withdrew. I was
struck with the paleness of his countenance, but
withdrew, leaving the servant to approach him.
The servant almost immediately came back to me,
asking me to return to the room, as he was afraid
his master was dead. I immediately complied, and
on looking at the deceased closely, I was convinced
that such was the fact : he had ceased to breathe.
I instantly directed his servant to call medical as-
sistance, and when alone with the deceased, I at-
tempted to loosen his neckcloth. I likewise felt his
forehead and hands, and found them nearly cold. A
surgeon soon came, and in the interim I prepared the
mind of Mrs. Tierney for the afflicting intelligence,
by saying I believed the deceased was suffering from
a fit.

The CORONER—Did the surgeon attempt to do
any thing to restore the deceased in your presence ?
Witness—l withdrew to the members of the family.
I had not been in the house a quarter of an hour
when the melancholy circumstance was discovered.
I had not seen the deceased before on that day. It
was at Mrs. Tierney's suggestion that I went to the
deceased in the study. She said, "If Mr. Tierney
is in the house, he will be happy to see you."
William Pritchard, butler to the late Mr. Tierney,
sworn—l have been upwards of two years in the
service of the deceased as butler.. I first saw Mr.
Tierney on Monday last, about half-past eight
o'clock in the morning, in his dressing-room, that
being the usual time of rising. He appeared'then
quite as well as usual. I saw no difference whatever
in him. He dressed himself, and he breakfasted
about half-past ten o'clock, his family having break-
fasted before him. They were, however, present in
the room. Mr. Tierney usually had his breakfast
after his family.
The CORONER—What occurred to your know-
ledge after breakfast. Witness—Mr. Tierney then
retired to his study, and I do not believe he quitted
it afterwards; he did not go out of the house to
my knowledge, In the course of the morning I
went to him two or three times to settle the weekly
accounts. The deceased during the time never
made the least complaint whatever : he appeared as
well as I had seen him for some time past. No
person visited him during the morning until Colonel
Phipps called. When I saw Mr. Tierney he was
writing a note, and had no appearance of drowsi-
ness or illness of any kind. When I next entered
the library, it was to announce Colonel Phippta„
when the deceased appeared to be asleep in Ids
chair. I announced the Colonel a second time, and
received no answer. I then walked up to the chair,
and exclaimed that my master was dead. Colonel
Phipps was just behind me at the time.
James Johnson, M.D., of Suffolk-place, Pall-
mall East, sworn—l have attended the deceased
professionally for several years past. He has been
afflicted with an organic disease of the heart, caused
by its unnatural enlargement. The body of the de-
ceased was opened by Mr. Pettigrew and Mr. John-
son, jun., in my presence, on Tuesday. It, was
then proved that the disease which caused his death
was the same with which his medical attendants be-
lieved him to be afflicted.

By the CORONER—A person labouring under this
disease usually dies in a sudden manner. I do not
believe from this circumstance that had I been 'pre-
sent when his death happened, I could have done
any thing to relieve him.
Mr. Thomas Kearsley Pettigrew, of 21, Saville-
row, surgeon, sworn—l examined the body of the
deceased, with Mr. Johnson, on Tuesday last, in
the presence of the last witnesss. I found consi-
derable disease of the chest, particula►ly of the
heart, which was very much enlarged, especially on
the right side, to which his death was clearly attri-
butable. The mariner of the Right lion. Gentle-
man's death was such as is usual in cases of this de-
scription.

The Jury returned a verdict " that the deceased
died a natural death by the visitation of God, occa.,
sioned by enlargement of the heart."

A Jury assembled yesterday at the Town-
hall, Southwark, to award compensation to Messrs. Poi.-
hILL and Jomis, the eminent snuff.manufacturers, No.
35, High-street, Southwark, whose extensive premises are
required for carrying on the improvements consequent on
the erection of new London-bridge. The ease occupied
the Court from ten in the morning to eve o'clock, when
the Jury returned a verdict for the ailments of 13,1001. ;
including freehold and leaselic.ld property, with goodwill, &c.

LATE CONIMISNION OF LUNACY.-Re-
joicings took place at Newton, Montgomeryshire, in con-
sequence of the termination of the inquiry into the ease
of the alleged lunacy against Mr. EnwAlan DAVIEA, tea-
dealer, of Philpot-lane, London, and of Trefeen, in the
parish of Kerry, Montgomeryshire. The verdict of the
Jury was first communicated by a private letter which
arrived an Sunday evening, and Monday morning watt
ushered in by the ringing of bells and other rejoicings,
The friends of Mr. DAvirs in the town and neiglthour-
hood commenced a subscription on Tuesday, for the pur-
pose of defraying the expence on a more pohlie demon-
stration of their joy at this triumph over cruelty and op-
pression ; and on Thursday several hheep were roasted in
the Market-place, Newton, and distiltuted to the poly; a
public supper was prepared for a numerous arr.l respec-
table company at the Castle-inn ; and a-. a tini.li to the
whole, Mrs. D. was burnt iu cftigy.— Chester Cow-aut.