The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-18 00:00:00

MARYLEBONE.

Yesterday William Lucas, a running dustman, was
charged with carrying off a sack of dust from a house in
Sussex-place, Regent's-park, thereby defrauding Mr. Henry
Thome, the contractor under the Woods and Forests.

Mr. LATNG (to the prisoner)—Do you deny it ? Why
don't you follow some more honest mode of getting your
living ? Prisoner—So I vill ; blest if I don't. It arn't a
crust for nobody now-a-days. The " breeze" (small cinders)
is so worry low that we finds it unpossible to " raise the
wind ;" and the dust wot the contractor makes such a dust
about, if one takes a pinch, fetches nothing. There's no
sich a thing as flaring up as I used to do : my substance is
nearly consumed ; and if things don't alter, I shall soon
turn to dust myself froth starvation, and that's all about it.
Mr. LAING—YOU must be punished.

Prisoner—Under what pact ? I've studied law a little.
Coke upon Littleton .says nothing about dust or cinders.
Burns' Justice is equally silent, and the Runnymede Charter
says no one shall go to quod unjustly.
Mr. LAING—You are fined 101. under the statute of
George the Fourth, which is imperative and cannot be
altered.

Prisoner—Wot under that ere ugly statty at King's-
cross? It's time it was altered, I think, for I never see'd
sich a stiff 'un in my life. Vy, so help me 'tater, I could
carve a better tnysplf. Is there no 'peeling from this statty?
Mr. LAING—No appeal et all. I cannot, as I said
before, fine you less ; but when the fine is not paid, the
punishment is discretionary with the Magistrate, and I shall
therefore, in this case, commit you for 14 days only.
The running dustman was then conveyed to the lock-up,
vociferating loudly against the unsightly statty of George
the Fourth.

HEARTLESS INGRATITUDE.—On the arrival of
one of the Wick smacks on Thursday week, one of the
passengers, a Mrs. Graham, who had come from thence to
Leith, upon an annual journey to effect purchases, brought
with her to the house of a friend in Giles-street, at which
she usually stays, a young woman, about eighteen years of
age, who had been disappointed in not being landed at
Aberdeen by reason of the coarseness of the weather ; and
being a stranger in this quarter, Mrs. Graham felt interested
in her, and thus kindly saw after her welfare. The young
woman, however, was little more than a night under the
hospitality of her mutual benefactors, when she gave proofs
how ill she could appreciate it. Having learned the ad-
dresses of several acquaintances of Mrs. Graham, she went
to 'two, and in Mrs. Graham's name borrowed small
sums of money from them ; and from a third, by the same
fraudulent means, obtained a quantity of goods. To oom-
plete her course of ingratitude, she, the same day, laid
hands upon a quantity of wearing •apparel belonging to
Mrs. Graham and her friend, an‘dvdihsiccsohudewndraeaed suddenly disappeared,.
Information being immediately given at the Police-office,
S
ieo gf andapannradtirsGeeteuvonolir.iet,irleyda
te anactivity,
it
property,y officer
soonc e r
of
the
v name
e tracesofpawned, Macleod,o
pa
fr
tth
,with
il
y
rogistnpoilean.i\esgisicaoaogrbiiecoi.
She was brought to the bar of the
aianry,do,naen odf
nt the
eAberdeeneve
es
pmaarctku
rot ,e
on
nd
hi Edinburgh and partly in Leith. The heartless womaa
jvll
Shad
dtsi
eetraki
day,c)ettno Court
and sentenced to sixty
days' con-
finement in Bridewell. She is a good-looking young woman,
fair complxioned, rather respectably dressed, and gave her
name as Jess Mill.—Scotsman.
We understand that the petition against 1 Mr.7orbes
of Callender, the present Member for Stirlingshire, has
been sent off by Col. Abererombie's agents with every
prospect of success.—Glasgow Chronicle.
I)icd a few days since at Athlone, the Conserva-
tive Advocate, a Tory, tithe-loving,, and " state of the
country" organ of Orangeism. Ile chief mourners on the;
occasion were a pauper peer, a pennylesa parson, and a
justice of corarn, who were accountable for thehirthluir:
tronago, and education of the misbegotten. It died or a
lingering decline, probably hereditary, since its parents
notorious for a derangement and a vacuity in the chef

LONDON :

SATURDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 18, 1837.

The Chronicle of yesterday conchele:l a singu-
larly violent and still more singularly indiscreet article
en the aff'airs of Portugal with these word 3—" It is
true, however, that to counterbalance these advan-
tages, the Government to which M. CASTRO DE
PEREIRO may be attached will have all the credit
of a moral character that is held in so much repute
in Lisbon." We stated that this conveyed a sneer at
the moral character of the people of Lisbon, but the
Chronicle of this morning denies the imputation, and
asserts that it was intended to convey the very reverse.
We take the writer's word for this ; but at the same
time must be permitted to remark that he has a
strange mode of conveying his intentions, and that
not one reader in ten would attach such meaning to
the sentence. Had he not attacked so many parties
in that capital, and added after moral character" such
as peculiarly belongs to PEREIRO," we could have
comprehended his meaning, and so would the people
of Lisbon ; but after the violent tirade against the
Lower Chamber, the armed force, the newspaper in-
cendiaries, the political societies, and in fact against
almost every individual and party in that capital to
which he adverted, it could hardly be expected that he
intended to conclude with such a striking compliment
to the inhabitants of Lisbon, including among them
the National Guard—the elite of the people, and
whom he alludes to as the armed force that over-
awes the Legislative Assembly. But it would
be ungenerous to criticise words, written under
such evident excitement. Persons under pecu-
liar circumstances, and labouring under some
strange hallucination, lose all self-command when
some particular topic is introduced ; and such is evi-
dently the case in the present instance. The writer
seems to have an innate horror of political societies.
FRANCA, and MANTAS, and PEREIRO seem to
haunt his imagination—and at the very mention of the
word " club," he becomes utterly rabid, and gives ut-
terance to big words, equalled only by those used by
a Morning Contemporary in denouncing that rebel-
traitor, and incendiary, DANIEL O'CONNELL. Substi-
tute " O'CoNteeLr," for " clubs," and the article of
yesterday, with little variation, will appear an exact
transcript of one of the most violent of those in the
Times ; e. g. " The overbearing and unconstitutional
influence of O'CONNELL, who has succeeded in
usurping all the functions of Government—the vio-
lent—the peculating—the pardoned traitor—with the
turbulent priests (exiles)—may think fit to overturn
the existing institutions of the country, in order to try
their wild experiments of government." " The Lower
House may vote away the privileges of the co-ordinate
branch of the Legislature, and, in obedience to the
cry of a speculating incendiary, strip the monarchy of
those prerogatives that are essential to its very
existence." Never was more violent language
directed against O'CONNELL, or by the anti-Re-
formers against those Political Unions in this country
which carried the Reform Bill. We should have
taken no notice of these absurd forebodings, but for
the injury which such violent language will cause to
British interests in Portugal, and for the additional
impulse which it may give to that excitement against
our Government, which unhappily prevails among an
influential portion of the Portuguese community.
When language of a similar description has been ap-
plied month after month, the writer with great naivete
asks, what provocation was given for their conduct to-
wards this country ? He seems, however, to know
little of the fiery temperament of the Portuguese people,
or of the national spirit which such insulting lan-
guage may excite, and still less of the proper mode of
re-establishing commercial relations which may be
beneficial to both countries. Will our readers believe
that in a letter from Lisbon, which the Chronicle
praised for its valuable information, the great argument
that it would be a check
against the new tariff e as,
on the introduction of English goods into the interior
of the Peninsula—which means that we ought to en-
courage smuggling, and assist in robbing the Exche-
quer of our faithful ally, the Queen of SPAIN. Truly
the people of the Peninsula may say we scruple at
/nothing to force our produce on other countries.

It will be seen by our report of the proceedings in

the Court of Queen's Bench, that the ATTORNEY-
GENERAL yesterday moved for and obtained a writ of
prohibition to restrain the Consistory Court from pro-
ceeding any farther in the Braintree Church-rate case.
The effect of this will be to take the case out of the
Ecclesiastical Courts, and to have the important ques-
tion, whether Churchwardens may lawfully make a
Church-rate, after the parishioners have met and re-
fused to assess themselves, argued and decided in the

Court of Queen's Bench. We shall now have the
law on this much agitated point declared, and we trust
so established as to set it finally at rest. .

We beg the attention of our readers to another
Letter on Parliamentary Privilege, from our able
Correspondent, " A Reformer," in which the various
instances in which the Judges have attempted to interfere
with the privileges of the Commons, and the consequences
of that interference, are briefly stated. In one instance
the Judges were impeached before the House of
Lords ; and, by the sentence of that House, eight of
them were hanged—an example which, one would sup-
pose, might have re strained others from pursuing a
similar course. We scarcely need say, that we concur
with our correspondent in the two propositions in
which he has embodied the result of his careful and
meritorious enquiries into this important subject.

We resume our remarks on Lord NUGENT'S excel-
lent pamphlet on the Ballot. The subject is an all-
engrossing one at the present moment ; for the Re-
formers feel that the period has arrived for regarding
it as a practical question. The two great objects of
the Reform Bill were to purify and to extend the Par-
liamentary Representation of this country ; and in the
first of these it has most signally failed. This failure
the SPOTTISWOODE faction are preparing to prove to
the conviction of Parliament ; so that, strange to say,
the Tories, who hate the Ballot, are involuntarily
among its most efficient advocates ! As for the sneers
of the organs of that faction at the increasing
popularity of the Ballot, and their vaunted boasts
that Englishmen will never submit to a system of
voting which would entail on them a necessity of con-
cealing their political opinions from those against whom
in secret they exercise the right of suffrage, the Reformers
can afford to laugh at such appeals to the narrow-mind-
edness of ignorant prejudice. But do the boobies, who
would co gull the people of England, pretend to have it
inferred, that the Electors who are driven to the hustings
like cattle to vote against their country and their con-
science, enjoy the right of proclaiming aloud their politi-
cal convictions ? Is not the voter who is coerced to
vote against his conscience compelled to play the hypo-
critc—ay, and to corrupt others as far as his example
can corrupt men of no decided political views ? To
save his character--to avoid the flagrant charge of
committing an act of deliberate perjury—is not such a
man constrained to play the hypocrite for life, even in
the bosom of his own family, by advocating principles
which he detests ; and in public, by participating in
political revelries at the bare idea of which his mind
is filled with horror and a sense of the vilest self-
humiliation ? What mockery—what insult to talk of
the independence of such an elector ; and yet, he
may be taken as a fair sample of the county and
cliyie borough constituency of England, wherever the
Tory influence is paramount. But the system of secret
voting is " un-Ei!,2lisk,” shout the Tories, as if it were
a disgrace to Englishmen to adopt the beneficial mea-
sures of other countries. Yet this assertion, like every
other made by the Tories, is as false as it is ridiculous.
The system of secret voting, except in the administra-
tion of the Criminal Law, is not only English, but
• pre-eminently English. For centuries the Votes of
the Two Houses of Parliament were secretly given,
as regarded all but the Members themselves ; and
even now the proceedings in the House of Lords are
presumed to take place without the cognizance of the
country. But upon this question we cannot do better
than quote the following clear and convincing passage
from Lord NUGENT'S pamphlet:—

" The real meaning of the term un- English did not at once
strike the understanding. Yet it sounded eminently well, and,
so long as the mind did not endeavour to analyse too closely
its force and meaning, our love of country and respect for our
ancestors were quick to kindle against what was pronounced
to be foreign. Till, upon reflection, it suggested itself that
each successive reform, by which popular abuses have been
checked, ar.d bad laws ab.ted, had been, in its time, an Un-
English innovation upon English Custom and Institution.
That the first Reformation of our National Religion had been
the sitting of a German and Genevan graft of Religious Free-
dom upon the ancient stock of English Popery. That the
Revolution, which gave and secured the Crown to that Royal
race which is tile perpetual pledge to us of the great principles
of our liberty, had been a disturbing with Dutch and German
safeguards for civil freedom of tile ancient system and succes-
sion of English tyranny. That the African Slave Trade, and
West Indian Slavery, had been very English. That the close
borough system of Representation, and the :preposterously
bloody code of capital punishments lately repealed, had been
specially and peculiarly English.
" I am anxious not to leave this subject, nor to suffer our
adversaries to leave it thus. I wish to show that, instead of
the system of secret voting being at variance with the general
spirit of the English Constitution, it is in the strictest accord-
ance with it. That the principle of discharging a great
public trust by means, the working of which is in secret, and
of which the result only is publicly declared, is within the
practice, and is of the very essence, of some of our most an-
cient, most popular, and most important, constitutional
functions.

When we assemble, under the trust delegated to us by
law, to determine, by a majority of voices, upon our present-
meat, whether a sum ought to be expended, or not, on public
works, or whether or not a fellow citizen shall be put upon his
trial for life, liberty, or estate, does each of us, so required to
perform this duty, without fear, favour, or affection, or hope
of reward,' having hoard the evidence, declare his vote openly,
in order that the public, whose trustee he unquestionably is in
the matter at issue, may be satisfied as to how he has discharged
that trust according to the spirit of his duty and his oath?
No. The exact contrary. The Grand Juryman's oath binds
him to keep secret, not only the counsel of his Sovereign, but
likewise his fellows' counsel, and his own. And why ?
Clearly in order to prevent all canvass, all influence, all inti-
midation before-hand, and all question after, which might
lead to corrupt reward or personal enmity or revenge. Now
apply this to Election.
" A petty Jury is impannelled to try a damage,—to adjudi-
cate property between man and man,—the whole fortunes of
generations between family and family,—to determine finally
on the life, liberty, or estate of a fellow citizen, cast for this
purpose in trust upon it's verdict. Does it, having been put
in possession of the evidence, take counsel in open court, and,
having so discussed it, does each man openly proclaim his
opinion, and give his vote accordingly? Just the reverse.
The petty Jurors consult privately as to their verdict. If they
disagree, they are locked up in private. They are carefully
barred from all communication with others. The officer who
attends them is sworn that none but himself shall speak to
them ; and himself only to ask them if they have agreed on
their collective verdict ; nor will the Courts admit any fact to
be made to appear by the affidavit of any of the Jurors. And
why ? In order that the compromise of opinions, which pro-
duces finally an unanimous verdict, shall be free and unbiassed,
uninfluenced by intimidation or by bribe, and that the public
may never know the particular suffrage of each, which, on
comparison and conflict of individual judgments, has led to the
general agreement of the whole body.
" The members of a coroner's jury, charged with the en-
quiry into the gravest of all matters, the enquiry into how a
life has been lost, leading often to an indictment for murder,
sit in what is now declared by law to be virtually a secret
court, 'even in cases where absolute privacy may not be re-
quo ed, •• " I quote the words of Lord Tenterden, the exclusion
of particular persons may be necessary and proper. Who
then is to decide on this? We again answer the Coroner, and
the Coroner alone.' It may be said that in some cases there
may be supposed to be reasons for secrecy in judicial enquiries
and judicial suffrages which do not apply themselves to judg-
ment given by suffrage on the fitness of a man to be elected
representative in Parliament. But the question must not be
thus evaded. Remember, the question now is, not as to the
application of the principle of secrecy, but as to the principle
itself; whether it be or be not a principle recognized by the
Common Law and Constitution of England, that persons
charged with a public trust shall give their individual opinions
and vote in secret. I instance the case of Jury, Grand Jury,
Petty Jury, Coroner's Jury—l ask if the charge committed
to a Jury be or be not a public trust, and I ask if the institution
and practice of Juries be tin-English?

In another part of The Sun is inserted a statement
respecting the Ramsgate and St. Lawrence Dispen-
sary, which shows at a glance the great benefit result-
ing from that Institution. It appears that during the
last nine years 8,539 cases have been admitted into
the Dispensary ; of which the number cured was no
less than 7,833, or rather more than 92 per cent.