The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-17 00:00:00

BIRMINGHAM.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRE,SFONDENT.)
THURSDAY E VININ(s. /
There was another meeting of the working men thiV
evening, which took place in Smithfield.
Mr. FUSSELL read from The Sun a. Report of the pro-
ceedings of the National Convention yesterday, narrated
what had taken place to-day, and read the manifesto
adopted by that body, which was listened to with great at-
tention. He also read the Report of the examination of
the Chartists at Bow-street. , .
.. . .
.... !

The meeting was subsequently addressed by Messrs.
Neesom, James Taylor, and Brown, who commented on
the proceedings before Sir Frederick Roe, and declared
that agitation among the working clasces would never
erase until Universal Suffrage and the Ballot became tilt
law of the land.

There were about 1,500 persons present.
There is a rumour that the whole of the Delegates are
to be arrested early to-morrow morning. and carried off tw
the seven o'clock train to London, but I do not think it is
entitled to any credit.

v (Jr- ,

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, MAY 16.
The House sat to-day, shortly after two o'clock, for
the purpose of enabling witnesses to be sworn to give
evidence before the Irish Outrage Committee.

CHARACTER OF LUTHER.

(From Mr. Cal iisle's Lectures.)
Martin Luther presides yot over modern history.
Great he was, not only in the actions he did, but in his
own intrinsic qualities. And in all manner of contra-
dictions did he seem to have been born. The son of the
very poorest people—liv f tth;•r a miserable in;ncr, his
grandfather and all his ancestors peasants of like sort—
he was reared in the depths of poverty, and struggled
forward to the light out of an extremity of vilest hard-
ship. He " bore the bag" at. school, and he sang
there, and in the streets, for asslstneee end support.
But what of that ! Truth did not desert him tor It.
" There was no formality in my :riend Martin. Luther."
He could stand alone in the middle of the world. Law
student he was at the first, but an event very sudden and 1
full of awe withdrew him from wordly studies. While
yet only twenty years 61,1 he was walking with a
friend in the University of Erfurt, when a thunder bolt
darted out of Heaven aid struck down his companion
dead at his feet. This seemed as it. were to Luther to
have borne a mission from above ; and from that instant
in which he thus saw eternity lying et his feet, law and
all its matters, and indeed all other proceedings of the
world, looked poor and mean, and insufficient for the
cravings of his soul. He entered the order of Angus-
tines, and became a pious and laborious monk. At
the first, as be expresses it, he was in a sort of state of
reprobation. But he began to study the Bible, and it
happened to him to see the Pope 1 This was on a
mission to Rome, ween, just as the natural loveliness of
religion had broken in upon him, he beheld in this way
the worst. vices and corruptions of her ministers in the
world. Yet he was silent. In truth, he now felt he

had onother concern to look after, for was there not his
own soul to save. Now, nothing. was so admirable as
the entire simplicity and modesty of him ! The idea of
reforming the Church never entered his head. The
living the life of a true man—that was his notion—and
all else flowed naturall, out of that. He saw that pe-
nances, and vigils, and the like would not, and could
not, work out salvation. It must be more hope in the
Bible—it must be more faith in the Bible.
At this very time--in the memorable year 1517
Tetzel came to Wittenberg with a very famous set of
indulgences for sale. Luther saw him enter his own
church, and offer in exchange for sundry pieces of money
what were called " indulgences," from " Christ's holy
lord the Pope," for the total remission of sins—pieces of
paper with a red cross upon them, by which, for a con-
sideration, the gates of hell were closed, and those of
heaven and glory eternally opened! Luther saw these
things publicly sold in his own church to his own people,
and then spoke out and said, " That shall not be." This
was the beginning of the Reformation. Again observe
the modesty of Luther. He set forward no grand
plea or pretence of reforming the church. He shouted
out nothing in big words about what he would do. There
was no vanity in him. All he did was to deny, and re-
fuse to tolerate, a falsehood—and so the Reformation
began. Four years went on in this way, and then
he was summoned to the Diet of Worms to appear be-
fore all the princes and chiefs of the Roman Catholic
faith. It was on the 1 ith of April, 1521—a day to be
remembered for ever—that he arrived at the old city of
Worms, to testify eternally to the truth, or to give it
up utterly. A fearful enterprise ! More than two_
thousand good people had gone out, on horse or foot,
to meet him, and dissuade him from advancing further.
He said he had the safe conduct of the Emperor.
Well, they answered, Huss had it too, but it turned out
to he safe conduct into a prison six feet long, seven feet
wide, and two feet eight inches high, from which he was
carried out to be burocd. " I cannot help it," Luther
remarked, " I must go on. To Worms will I
go, though the gates of hell, and the powers
of air were against me. Yea, to Worms will
1 go, though there are as many devils in the city as
there are tiles on the roofs of the houses." He went ac-
cordingly, and was asked to recant what he had written,
and he answered that he could not. Whatever there
was of intemperate expression in his writings he would,
indeed, recant ; but the doctrine of them was God's
truth, and he durst not do it. " Here I stand," he
said. " I can do no other. It is impossible to admit
any thing that is against the conscience, God be my
help. Amen." And there and then, upon that very
spot, was the Reformation consummated. A poor man
stood up before the princes of the world and said that;
and all the world rose up and said, " Yes ; it is right,
that thing which you have said."
And never—Mr. Ca, lyle continued, in affectionate
eulogium on the personal character of Luther—never
stood up a truer hearted, a better, or a greater man
than he who stood bAOre the Diet of the German em-
pire. In his face might be read the various elements of
his cearacter. A course, rugged, plebeian lace it was,
with great crags of cheek-bones—a wild amount of
passionate energy and appetite! But in his dark
eyes were floods of sorrow ; and deepest melan-
choly, sweetness, and mystery were all there.
Often did there seem to meet in Luther the very oppo-
site poles in man's character. He, for example, of
I whom Richter had said that his words were half battles,
he, when he began first to preach, suffered unheard-o'.
agony ! " Oh, Dr. Stauplitz, Dr. Stauplitz," said he
to the Vicar-General of his order, " I cannot do it ! • I
shall die in three months. Indeed, I cannot do it 1'
Dr. Stauplitz, a wise and considerate man, said upon
this, " Well, Sir Martin, if you must die, you must—
but remember that they need good heads up yonder too.
So preach man, preach—and then live or die as it hap-
pens." So Luther preached and lived—and he became
indeed one. great whirlwind of energy, to work with-
out resting in this world—and also before he died he
wrote four hundred books ! books in which the true man
was !—for in the midst of all they denounced or
cursed, what touches of tenderness lay ! Look at the
Table Talk, for example. We see in it that a little
bird having alighted at sunset on the light bough of
the pear tree that grew in Luther's garden, Luther
looked up at it, and said, " 'That little bird, , how it
cowers down its little wings, and will sleep there, so
still and fearless, though over it are the infinite starry
spaces and great blue depths of immensity! Yet it
fears not ;itis at home. The God that made it too is
there." The same gentle spirit of lyrical admiration is
in other passages of his books. Come home from Leipsic
in the autumn season, he breaks forth into loving won-
der at the fields of corn. " How it stands there," he
says, " erect on its beautiful taper stem, and bending its
golden head, with bread in it—the bread of man sent to
him yet another year!" Such thoughts as these are as
little windows, through which we gaze into the interior
of the serene depths of Martin Luther's soul, and see
risible—across its tempests and clouds—a whole:heaven
of light and love. He might have painted—he might,
have sung—could Lave been beautiful like Raphael,
great like Michael Angelo.
As it was, the extremes of energy and modesty met
in his active spirit. Perhaps, indeed, in all men of
genius one great quality strongly developed might force
out other qualities no less. Ilere was Luther—a sa-
vage kind of man as people thought him—a Wild Or-
son of a man—a man whose speech ordinarily a
wild torrent that want tearing (loan rocks and trees—
and behold him speaking like a woman or a child. But
no sentimentalist was ! A tolerant man, but with
nothing of sentimental tolerance. He went to the real
heart of that matter. When his reforming associates
made vast fuss about, some surplice that somebody or
other wanted to wear, he ceded the matter with a " What
ill can a surplice do to us ? Let him have three sur-
plices if he will. That is not Our religion, nor inter-
feres with it at all. Domine misrrere mci. That is what
we have to think of. That is what we must think the
essential of Christianity." Nothing of what is com-
monly called cant, sir pride, or ambition, was in Lu-
ther. In his modesty, cart Ainly, there was an indomit-
able pride. It was this that made him not higher than
the lowest man with a soul, nor yet lower than the
highest. Thus, when he was threatened with the
anger of " Duke George" if he went to Leipsic, he
made answer that he lad no business at Leipsic, but if
he had, nothing on earth should prevent him. If it
rained Duke Georges for nine days mining, there
he would go. Well, and this man who thought and
acted in this way passed a whole life of suffering ! He
was a deeply melancl'Vy man. More labour had fallen
upon him than he you'd rightly bear, and it was in vain
that he prayed to be releesed e he toiled and sorrowed
on. Even with Satan hiraself—the evil principle of the
world—was he destined to hold high argument. Men
would laugh at that, and a cheap game, indeed, was
ridicule ; but be it recollected that in Luther's days
God and the Devil were equally real ; and that he
thought he was from the first, as when he had that
vision of the crowded house-tiles of the old city of
Worms, a man speci,illy selected to fight with devils.
Well then, he sat alone one night ; be was translating
the twenty-third psalm, and, pondering on its deep sig-
nificance : he had sate fasting for two days, when the
Devil rose and stood before him, and opened the famous
dialogue, accusing Luther of crimes, and threatening him
with hell, and terrifying him to recant ; all which the
Christian hero put an end to at last by taking up his
ink bottle and flinging it at the Devil. The mark made
by the ink on the wall is shown to this day ;—and a
memorable spot truly, is that !—a spot that may mark
at once the greatness and the poverty of man !—the
record of a delusion which any doctor's or apothecary's
'prentice could explain now-a-days ; but also of a cou-
rage that could rise against what seemed to be the bodily
impersonation of darkness and despair, and of enmity to
to good. No braver man than Luther ever appeared
is Zurope.
-

COURTENAY REDIVIVUs.— rt-le lant.
the Red Lion and severml others have received a lit
rit is
from London signed ‘, Willi.trn Courtenay," where
stated that he vts only in the grate seven days. and that he
will make an appearnnce at the Red Lion, Boughton, in
the course of this month ; that everything Is to be in pre-
paration, and he will then and there explain all mysteries
and work miracles. We understand that the Rev. Mr.
of Herne-bill, has see.none of the letters. Strange
Handly,
as it may appenr, many of his deluded followers in the
Ville of Dunkirk are anticipating the day of his arrival.
It was at the latter end of May !art year that the lament-
able occurrences known aa the " Courtenay Tragedy',
the place. Tke.subject is too setious for a hoax - and
th atte,.pt. an exciter': of' this kind
discreditable to the writers of these letters. —Kent .herald.

lord o

EVENING KMON':

POLICE INTELLIGENCE•

---,,,--- ,
.HAT TON-GARDEN.
Yesterday James Geary, coal dealer, of No. 133,
the
Saffron-hill, v-as summoned by Mr. James Child, in-
spector of weights and measures, charged with having in
his eossession a weighing machine of false balance.;
The.-Irnfl;tnt's niece attended-to answer the complaint, I
'.l
and said elle was prepared to pay the penalty in the even'
of a conviction.
W:lham Turner, of No. 15, Vine-street, Hatton-
assistant to the inspector, being sworn, stated that ort Sac-
•
turday the 11th inst , he went. in company of the inspe
tor, to the defendant's shop, where they found the weighLig
machine, now produced. Witness examined it with tbsl
standard weights, and the draft against the purchaser was
2.1 b, 2.1,- oz. After the small coal had been cleared away,
they discovered that the false draft was caused by a pound
and a half weights and a piece of iron, which were placed
under the scale in which the coals were weighed.
The niece said that the machine was certainly out of
order, but it should not occur again. A neighbour had
weighed some glass and left the weights under the scale.
Her aunt was in ill health and unable to attend.
Mr. BENITT—She is not to plunder the public because
• she is in ill health, and profit at their expense.
The defendant was convicted in the penalty of 51. and

costs.
The defendant, it was stated, was one of those selected
by the Minister of the parish to serve out coals to the poor
at Christmas.

SHAMEFUL CONDUCT OF THE
TOWN-CLERK AND OTHERS AT HUN-
TINGDON.

We have received accounts of the reception of the anti-
Corn-law lecturers at Huntingdon which must excite the
surprise and indignation of every honest and right-mind beci
reader. Will it be believed that the town-clerk, aided y
councillors, magistrates, landowners, farmers. &c., should
pack the boxes of the theatre at Huntingdon, and, on the
appearance of the lecturers, who had paid for the use of
the house, commence a deliberate system of interruption
and disturbance, which, in spite of the assistance rendered
to them by the common people, forced them, after a strug-
gle cf several hours, to abandon their attempt to obtain &
hearing ? The town-clerk began by crying out in reference
to some Christian and philanthropic principles laid down hi
the lecturer, " We came to hear a lecture on the Corn-
laws and not some nonsense about Christianity; " after
which, in answer to the remonstrances of Mr. Sidney
Smith, the lecturer, he insisted on his right to interfere.
Meanwhile the house was in a tremendous uproar, and
though cries cf " Go on" proceeded from the majority of
the audience, the gentlemen rabble yelled only the loud
and various missiles were thrown upon the stage. A town°
er,
councillor, who expressed himself strongly as to she
cowardly and disgraceful conduct of his brethren around
him, was assailed with cries of " D—n your eyes," "
to h—l," &c. After a while, Mr. Smith was beard JOl
loud enough making the statement that the labourt
is i!1 off whew food is dear, and well off when i
is cheap ; upon which the town-clerk exclaimed,
" It's a d—d lie." A rich farmer said it wass
"An infernal lie," and these outrageous interruption
were vehemently cheered by the aristocratic portion i
of the
audience. .Mr. Smith, taking advantage of the admissen
of his opponents in regard to the comparative rate of wegefds
in cheap and dear seasons, completely refuted the gross an,
ruinous fallacy, exclaiming " Out of their own
bel
mouths I have condemned them." Tremendous cheer,
mingled with yells and hisses, immediately followee•
And from this moment the gentry who occupied the
boxes would allow nothing to be heard. Attempts were.
made to put out the lights, oranges, and afterwards ;
number of halfpence were thrown into the pit, eedd.
scene of confusion, beggaring all description, ensue,.
Many of the working men at length came from rbe
lery to Messrs. Smith and Shearman, expressing the gin,
eir 10'
dignatioo at the conduct of their masters, and dec
that though they did not wish to interfere, seeing the
ldslt
were dependent on the gentlemen rioters, they wou m,
least defend them, if necessary, from bodily harm.
Td
ra
last it became evident to the lecturers that they. "lite,
make no progress, and, at the request of a Magist
who is respected by all parties, they consented to retrieti
on condition that their opponents should leave thee
o'__
first, which they accordingly did. On leaving the thestrb;
Messrs. Smith and Shearman went right through
Id
0300550
midst of the audience, amid great cheering and
" God bless you." But many of the aristocratic Idll or
followed them with hootings and hissings to the verY _ehe
of their inn. All concur in saying that the effect ei
row will be worth many lectures. r state
A letter has been addressed to the Secretary' bet
for the Home Department, calling his attention te_t,",‘„ the
of the legal peace preserver (the Town Clerk)• he'": the
principal disturber of the Town of Huntingdn: ether
above occasion. Defenders of the Corn-lan; of the
places, who are desirous of emulating the cl,..e.eo,,,turers
worthies of Louth and Huntingdon, against t"
the etr"st
of the Anti-corn law League, may 'depenu
meats.
.üblicity being given to their heroic achieve°

SHIPPING INTELLIG'"'

(LLOYD'S.)

CUSTOM-HOUSE, MAY 16.
for St,'
ENTERED INWARDS.—Briton's Queen, Newto...
Michael's ; Black Cat, Chesser, ditto; Ear' coo•
Lomax, Ostend ; Antwerpen, Bretten, Antwerp.;cka
merce, Mason, Rotterdam ; Fortuna, Alsen, Fredris.t.l:
Minerva, Gromers, ditto ; Margaretba, 13lom, Scnwer,
Dryade, Heard, Sydney ; Lord Nelson, Quenton,
Michael's; Stag, Predeaux, Havre • Hero, Wickanh Pr
Michael's ; Azores packet, Gibson, 'Havre ; Menix, 11%
fort, Havre ; City of Boulogne, Tune, Boulogne • 130,:,
Love, St. Michael's ; Wm. Jolliffe, Pashley, COP'
Ocean, Fife, Rotterdam; Harriet Carrel, Jersey.
ENTERED OUTWARDS.—The John Bull, Corben, Har)
bro ; Rob Roy, Lantret, Malta ; Liverpool, Burney, 1...17
bon ; St. Pierre, Potter, Havre ; Caroline, William
s, e'
Adelaide. sober
CLEARED OUTWARDS WITH CARGO.--Tb% •
&VOA.
Whitcombe, for Antwerp ; Frau Margaretibtitior;--- Li
.-cpm o
arokr:
Hambro ; Lord Strangford, Goddard, d
Francis, Cape of Good Hope ; James Crulk ;
Young, Trinidad ; Alexander Schroder, Kos
now, Seeger, ditto ; Albion, Hick, Halifax. or Ria;
°ll5
IN BALI,AST.—The Foyle packet, Stevens, • r
Dixon,
Raven, Hannington, St. Pctersburgh ; '1
Pegg, Riga.

EAST INDIA SHIPPING. Chi n¢+ of
Arrival.---The General Palmer, noun, from tjul,resb•
Penzance, sailed 10th November ; St. Helena, 22' f ID
ruary ; Setris, Trip, from Java, off Penzance; sailed 11:1
St. Helena 7th March. tujese
Arrivals at the Cape of Good Ho e.--Ser 'c,.eres,
ship Nautilus, Beaufoy, March 8, fromPMauritius; '".- 6,
Gilbaud,', 6, from Mauritius; St. George Willialil-'
,
from Calcutta. la eoeleliv
Departures from the Cape of Good Hope.---men 6, °
Gilbert, March 5, for Loudon ; Sabine, Gil
'
Mauritius. „J
e/.
~.
Passengers per Madagascar, Walker, from 13ellAg3i
Mrs. Smith and two children, Mrs. Parks, Mrs.
—1
Mr.'
and two children, Mrs. M`Kenzie and two childre;cl,6di
Macqueen, Mrs. Cragg and child, Mrs. Penny B„oal‘e°
Mrs. Walker, Miss Watson, Miss Oakes, Miss .1. 001;
Miss BagshAw, William Mackenzie, El.. Dr. Als,c,;,:i /4.0;
James Goss, Esq., Lieutenant Gunthorpet.,`; lir::
Lieutenant Bird, 12th N. 1. ; Charles Penny, n.' Miss
Leslie, Esq., and children ; Miss Boisesg°s'eseoet
Carter, Miss Glass, Miss Callagher, Master 13,°131 ster'soo,
Master T. Boiseagon, Mister Carter, Master 11;c ivarler
and Master Somerville Carew. Steerage.---".' ale'
eon, Mr. Early, six English female, two native feloslV
dtwiaocP,oorartpuagauye,sseilmiveansT:,rvants, and 46 of the fl°a
CoWel
Passengers per Minerva, Ireland, for Madras.' 4 il,
Bird, Madras N. I. ; Mrs. Bird. Captain Mrs'rensas,
Mrs. Grant, Miss Grant, Miss Davint.on, '''''', IP;
son ; William Lavie, Esq., Madras Civi! Serviee'fill'
L‘i,vie, Lieutenant Pratt, 63d Regiment ; Mr°' gds.
ljor Jackson, her Majesty's 57th Regment; her Tv
Cassioly, 57th Regiment; Lieutenant Stewartt,r 04
jesty's 21st Regiment; Lieutenant Brabazon, i''' Cber;e:
ly's 21st Regiment.; Lieutenant Taylor, desl• Crete:
Ellis, and Fane, Madras Civil Service L
'.
C. J. Bradley, Esq., Cadets ; West, Ea;ck

eief . 0001/4°11;
LIFE OF THE DUCHESS OF MA°ll°- of 'trot
—We are requested to state that Mr. Colbur.sg, 0000-0,1
Marlborough-street, has this day published ' coertv:of
Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and of try, D"-015e
Times of Queen Anne," by the Author O' lll°. Of
Colbsri?spirls ip
Henry VIII.," &c., in 2 vols. Bvo. Mr.
just published New Editions of Mr. tlrqubart,:‘ grevrl~d•
East," 2 vols. Bvo. ; Captain Spencer's a 1,00 -yip!'
Circassia," 2 vols. Bvo., with illustrations ; so t W,
say's " Letters on the Holy Land," 2 volo.r,,,speltile'ader
illustrations, which can now be had of 11111 ~,..g .----',„",. se,
CHARLES X. AND Louis PlilLir',--.olr.- 01
this title a work is about to appears fb_icie:l,llett-011- _PA
-
first time unfold the secret history of tsv.iiproL.,,ginc'"
July, 1830. The contents' of this work °lives; rie co'
thenticity, or never, perhaps, could it ka/etaslii land the
that the circumstances •narrated could o°'-unclers`feasoos,
curred. Although written in French, o/e byloos, teas at
manuscript has been translated, as, for :ecl ill r- .
such a publication could not have ape'.
least during the present Government.

'lO
na,
SECOND HAND PLATE PUS „ (se tr' ~.0-11
COX SAVORY, Goldsmith, Etc , 47, ‘-'1"-bxecu-1, I'll'
from Gracechurch-street), London,' infortillate, tb.so Mt°,
others, wishing to dispose of Second-han PO! I,ll'
having a ready sale, he can offer more advantage°l2-06erOgtilto
can generally be afforded by the trade. Strangerse ,t°,,r Of';
for sale are required either to give a refereoc;or tP"
cheque crossed \N all their banker's name, 'wich
prefer.

.0.0.1•1010MMINFERRIMOMM•111.- Of bP--
BIRTHS. , ,rs► the
On the 12th inst., the lady of Henry Y je^e 0'
field, Solicitor, of a son. weer's' cot
On the 15th inst.. in Leicester-place, I.llbt•P f
wife ot James Nichols, Esq., surgeon, of a
the "iadf °
On the 15th inst., in Curzeu-street,
the
Bruce, of a son.

_ttteitic te
MARRIED.
_no, erilrottor
On the 16th inst., at St. George's, "` oleo' of
Hon. Henry Spencer Law, brother of Lord__4ifort,
Dorothea Anne, eldest daughter of Co on
renane, Carlow, and niece of Lord Downes.

_--------------------- •glif
DIED. , Sri. ;joy,*
09 the 14th inst., in Oxford-street, Liverp"°," evil
Lieutenant-Ye° !
byll.
'
beth Grose, widow of the late
aged 70. of Vag%
On the 15th inst., Ann, wife of John Phillips, to
one of the Society of Friends, aged 62. k Mrs. °'
On the 13th inst., at Dean-street, Southvrar t jot.
Robinson. ~_„e j‘farP
On the 9th inst., at Billericay, Es.ex, Care!!!') esq,,
eldest daughter of the late Joseph Radford, aged ?"'"frorimv
On the 11th inst., at Euglefield-green, Benornil3
aged 78.

nt
London: Printed and Public;lied by hlll}ll.lo sit,i4.l.,s, • "
'"" - 0-- Ns. 111,

cuuaty uS :viiatife-557:—.F—ri#1;;:".1iiity 17, it