The Sun.
London, England, 1830-06-07 00:00:00

LADY WILLIAM LENNOX.

Mary Anne Paton was born in October,'• 1802. Her
*taller was a teacher of writing and mathematics in Edin-
burgh, and his classes were so numerously attended, that
for a considerable time he was in the receipt of about
2,000/. per annum.' Unfortunately for himself and his
family, he entertained peculiar notions regarding the
Christian dispensation, and was not content with the en-
joyment of that liberty which the Chief Criminal Judos
if this country on the occasion of a late trial stated to be
,:he right of every British subject--thinking a. he pleased,
provided he kept his thoughts to himself. Mr. Paton,
the contrary, did not confine his opinions on this most
mportant subject to his own bosom. Orthodoxy took the
alarm, and he gradually lost that professional connection
which his talents and manners had acquired. Mary Anne
it a very early age evinced a love for music that gave
sromise of future eminence. Her natural taste was fostered
and cultivated by her mother, who was herself an excel-
lent singer ; and with so much success that while yet a
mere child, her extraordinary proficiency reached the ear
:if the Duchess of Buccleuch, who offered her patronage
for a public concert, and her infant syren appeared before
an Edinburgh audience as a singer, an elocutionist, and a
half player, before she was eight years of age. A highly
uccessful debut decided the course of her future pursuits.
The study of music became the great object of her being,
engrossing, even at that infantile age, all her thoughts
ind occupying all her time. Her devotion enabled her to
triumph over all technical difficulties with very little
assistance from masters. Some time after her appearance
;n Edinburgh, Mr. Paton removed with his (moil), to
London, where he opened an academy, and Mary Anne
continued her studies under her father's roof, with no other
!assistance from professors than an occasional hint frost
Crenelli. She wished to place herself under the titieon
of Mr. Bishop, but he declined receiving her as a pupil,
and she met with a similar repulse from some other erni,
'sent professors, who gave her no reason to expect success.
For three years did she offer her gratuitous services at al-
most every theatre in town, without finding a intinap,er
who would run the risk of allowing her an appearance•
At last, hotvever, Morris consented, and she appear, d at
the Haymarket on the 3d of August, 1821, as Susannah,
in the Marriage of Figaro, and a few nights after as
Rosina in the Barber of Seville. She was most favour-
ably received, and gave earnest of those transcendent
powers which have since acquired for her the high d;s_
tinction of being the first British vocalist of the age. She. I
was immediately engaged at Covent-garden Theatre, wheres,i
she appeared, on the 19th of October following, as Polly,
in the Beggar's Opera. Her subsequent career is suf.
ticiently known to the public. Lord William Lennox was
one of those sdrigs of fashion who had the privilege of the
entree at the theatre. Miss Paton was, of course, the
object of universal admiration, and of his Lordship's most
assidious attentions ; but as his intentions did not ut rust
app. ar in the character they afterwards assumed, they
were indignantly repulsed, and on more than one occasion .
his Lordship was threatened with chastisement from her
friends. In 1824, however, a marriage between the
parties took place, but under circumstances so nlystelionso
as for a time to deprive the lady of the society of ler owit
family, although the public acknowledgment (if the tor>
riage has since removed their objections. Lady, Lem lux
has two sisters, Isabella and Eliza. The former is alreadv -
known to the play-going portion of the public as a singer
of considerable musical talent. The youngest resides with,
her parents at Edinburgh, and, though a proficiens
music, has a great aversion to the stage, and yasikaiwa,
merely as a concert-singer and teacher.

ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE, AT
SANDHURST.

The Haleyearly Public Examinations of the Wyal Mili-
tary College, at Sandhurst, commenced on Thuts.lay
before a Board of Commissioners, at which there were pre-
sent Generals Sir Herbert Taylor, the Adjutant-Cenci-al
of the Forces, the Hon. Sir Alexander Hope, Lient,o,:nt-
Governor of Chelsea Hospital, Lord Edward Suniuniet,
Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, the Hon. Sir
ward Paget, the Governor, and Colonel Sir George
Scovell, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Establibli wen t.

On Thursday a class of 17 Gentlemen Cadets werr
rigidly examined in various branches of the matheinati..e
Euclid's geometry, mensuration of surfaces, solids, itt..ightg,
and distances, in connection with military purposes, plant
and spherical trigonometry, and conic sections, The Com-
missioners next inspected the military surveys and sketrle-s
of 20 Cadets who bad, during the half-year,
their qualifications in the field in that most essential blanch
of practicA instruction. A variety of landscape aketci,ess
taken by the Cadets from nature, during the last two
months, were also laid on the table. The examioation of
two more, of seven and eight young gontlenien, in
the French and German languagea, concluded the businrss
of the day.
On Friday a class of 14 Cadets were examined In per..
manent and field fortification, and the attack I4nd defenvo
of places; after which the Commissioners proceeded to
view the entrenchments and saps which bad been throwli
up during the half year, for the instruction of the Officers
studying at the Senior Department, and the Cadets, in
actual field operations. The Gentlemen Cadets examined
then proceeded to trace on the ground a field fort of thy
form selected by the ,Commiusinners. The work chosen
was defined by the young gentlemen, without as.iatanee,
by line and pickets, and working profiles set up at the
angles, in less than au hour, While the Commissioners
visited the Riding-house, and saw 20 of the Gentlemen
Cadets, most advanced in that branch of instruction, put
through all the exercises of the school. Lastly, two
classes of Cadets were examined in Ancient and Modern
History, and in Latin. By the result of the examination
it finally appeared that upwards of 60 Gentlemen Cadets
had made various steps of qualification for commissie...c.„
and that the 12 following, who were accordingly rocont..
mended to the General Commanding.in-Chief fuy Ensign..
cies, had completed their course of study
Charles P. Hamilton Farquhar 1 t eampben
Henry Farrant Williaw W. Nixon •
Robert Aldridge George P. Malcolm
John T. W. Jones Arnold E. Burmestet7
William G. C, Mb- ;ins Francis A. Cook
Robert Moorsmn John Lee
The first five of these young 'gentlemen having made
progress in their studies superior to that of the other.,
were also presented with certificates, declaring the special
approbation of the Commissioners; together with Set.:ond
Lieutenant Petley, of the Rifle Brigade, who, having al-
ready received a commission, had distinguished himself by
his further proficiency in fortification And military sur-
veying.

On Saturday the commissioners held an examination of
the Officers stedying at the Senior Department, when
Lieutenant Donald Stuart, of the 46th Regiment, displayed
his attainments in a highly creditable manner, and rece',,
a certificate of the first clam The subjects of examination,
in mathematics and fortification, did not differ from those
above mentioned, except that the higher range of mathe-
matical study provided far the senior students emluaces
a most useful course of practical astronomy, for which
every facility is afforded by the College Observatory. Nu-
merous military drawings and 'sketches in the field, the
work of the etudeuta in the Senior Department, during
the half year, vvere inspected by the Commissioners; and
large plan, from actual survey, of part of Bedfordshiie,
containing nearly 50 inieare miles, and showing a strong
chain of position between Luton and Silsoe, was deservedly
admired. This large survey, sketched and drawn in tho
late spring, was the joint work of Captain Kershaw., lath
Light Infantry, and Lieutenants Stuart and Rogers, of the
90th Regiment.

The Erato, from Sunderland and Lisbon, to
Quebec and Montreal, foundered last month off the
Azores ; crew saved, and landed at Havre.
About two o'clock on Friday morning, Mr.
Joint I,antatt WARD, manager of a company of come-
dians now at Xltharn, was about retiring to rent, when I e
was alarmed lay the shrieks of some females, who were
calling far help. Mr. WARD instantly aroused Mr. Bs-
vistaxy, one of his company, and both having armed
themselves with swords, they prock,,eded to the resideoe.
of a I ttly named KINQ, witik, with her three daughters,
were at the windows„ exclaiming that the house was at-
tacked by AV.bbers. Mr. Bearcucxy observed a small arch
communicating with tie garden, through which be saw
the figures of two men. He instantly exclaimed " Sure
render, or you are dead men." 'the words were scarcely ut-
tered when Mr. WARD, who was close behind him, rushed
forward, sword in lazed, when he received a severe, blow on
the head frogs a heavy bludgeon, and at the same time the
point of the sword he carried entered his leg ; Mr. Ile-
VERLIcr also received a heavy blow ma the arm. An
alarm instantly was made, when the persons who had in-
flicted the blows rushed from the arch, and, to the asto-
nishment of all, they prow(' to be TnomAs BATNX4 Ea+,
;!, gentleman of fortune, and Mr. Km:, a medical gentle-
man, both residents of the village, who, it appeared, had
also been alarmed by the screams of the females, and bad
run to their ass stance. Mr, Bayziaa and Mr. KING
took Mr. BRVERLIT alika Mf. WARD for robbers, and%
%% hen called upon, to surrender, they acted upon the dr.
tAire, and Aimed the blows at them which produced such
a melancholy effect. Mr. WARD was taken So his t
(I, nee quite insensible, and his medical:lV:Adapt entertain.
but small hopes of his recovery. Mr. Barents and Ms.
KING are in a state of great aWction at the oecntreuct.'

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We have inserted a letter on certain facts and
modes of action; exhibited by the gentry of Ireland,
which appears to deserve consideration. It is true,
undoubtedly, that the population of Ireland, taken
man for man with that' of England, cannot af-
ford to pay the same proportion of taxes. If,
therefore, it were to become a question whether a
poll-tax should be imposed in both islands, and to
what extent, most reasonable persons would allow
that the pressure ought to be far lighter across the
Channel than with us. Nor are we disposed to say
that in all cases the Exchequer should bear with the
same weight on articles of consumption in the two
countries, judging merely by fiscal rules; and still
more ought we to discriminate between them if one
great political want of Ireland be regarded,—we
mean that of gentlemen resident on their property.
If the same imposts be laid on articles of luxury
consumed in Ireland and here, it is pretty obvious
that the choice of habitation will be determined in
favour of that country which offers, cateris paribus,
the greatest number of comforts and enjoyments, that
which is the most civilized, the most intelligent, the
most abounding in all that contributes to sooth in-
dolence or to furnish excitement; and to serve most
largely the demands of pleasure, or ambition, or fas-
tidious mediocrity, in whatever form. The Irish
gentry must be bribed into the discharge of their
most obvious duties; we may say further, into the
guardianship of their own most serious interests—
the moral education of their tenantry, and the scien-
tific improvement of their estates. Unfortunately,
they are well aware that the Government attaches
too high a value to the mere condition of residence
in Ireland not to purchase it from the landed gentle-
nun at any price, and they are more willing to ac-
cept the bribe than to perform the condition. We
find accordingly, that house and window-tax, with
all the others which come under the denomination
of assessed taxes, and constitute so large a portion of
the yearly expence of the upper and middle classes
in Great Britain, have been abolished in Ireland ; so
that me►► of comparatively trifling fortune can keep
great establishments, and enjoy many descriptions of
luxury unmolested, which, in England, are denied by
the tax-gatherer to individuals of nominally far more
extensive means. Yet this does not suffice. In
Scotland, parts of which are more remote from
London than any Irish county, there is no want of
resident proprietors, great or small, and they keep
up the proper relation between gentry and peasantry.
The Irish proprietors, with all their exemptions and
privileges, reside in very scanty numbers; and
of those who are resident, the absence would
too often be acknowledged by their inferiors as
a boon. Still, whenever the slight addition to
the scale or denomination of Irish imposts is
known to be contemplated, no matter how
trifling in comparison with the burdens borne
by the remaining portions of the United Kingdom,
the gentlemen of Ireland band themselves to-
gether, protest their inability to bear another
shilling of taxation, make a common enemy of the
Government, which had hitherto been their shield
against the ancient common enemy, the people,—and
expect that the aristocracy of Ireland is to have a per-
petual release from the lot of all political communi-
ties,—that of paying for protection from the state.
Why, if our correspondent's letter be conselted, it
will be found that the defence of these Irish gentry
from those who ought to be their natural and only
defenders, viz., their own poorer neighbours, is to be
achieved no otherwise than by military force,—a
shameful reflection upon the spirit in which they
have acted habitually towards the poor of Ireland,
and an equally frightful illustration of the spirit which
they have engendered in return. If, however, one
Irish county requires more protection from the state
than half the realm of Great Britain, it is too much
for those who have reduced their country to a situ-
ation so deplorable to get up round-robins against
every measure which goes to reduce the disproportion
between English and Irish imposts. The tax on
the press we are sorry for, because we doubt
whether it will produce an additional shilling to the
revenue, and because even the semblance of an hos-
tility to the expression of public opinion ought
always, if possible, to be avoided. Of many, in-
deed, of the Irish newspapers, it may be said that
their readers are heavily enough taxed already ; and
to those readers, at least, the new impost may
operate as a relief; but if the gentlemen of Ireland
are to be brought to their senses, it must be by a
strong and unshrinking policy. The state has a
right to some more effective support than arty which
it now derives from landed property in Ireland ; and
the property of England, as well as Irish poverty,
have claims upon the land of the sister country
which have not yet been discharged. We believe
that a property-tax on Ireland would be an effectual
and salutary method of sending her gentlemen back
from their travels; and we are sure that some
scheme for supporting the poor of Ireland who are
industriously disposed, out of the produce of the soil,
would mitigate at once the sufferings of both
con tri es.— Times.

The discussion on the third reading of the For-
gery Bill is expected to take place to-night in the
House of Commons. It will then be decided
whether this portion of penal law, like the great
mass of our criminal code, is to remain for some
time longer the reproach and scandal of the country
and of the age, or whether it is to come forth from
the Legislature purified from barbarism, and ren-
dered conformable to the principles of enlightened jus-
tice. To those who look on such reform as an inno-
vation upon our ancient laws we say, antiquity may
render good principles the more venerable,but ought
not to consecrate the errors of Legislators and the
abuses of power. Yet the argument of antiquity does not
avail this branch of our criminal code. Every statute
by which death is inflicted for that species of circum-
vention known by the name of forgery is compara-
tively of recent date. The common or ancient law
of England punished the offence by fine or imprison-
ment ; and by those penalties or some other mode
of punishment short of death, we maintain that every
invasion of the right of property in which
human life is not attempted ought to be restrained
and punished. Forgery is a species of fraud--
higher in degree, but identified in principles, with
what is vulgarly called swindling—an offence more
frequently successful from the culpable negligence
and folly of the persons defrauded than the dis-
honest ingenuity of the culprit ; for, in roost in-
stances, the exercise of ordinary caution would baffle
the contrivances of those Ishmaelites of civilized life
who prey upon the easy credulity of mankind. No
statute has ever been enacted to punish swindling
with death, and, if there had, should we have fewer
swindlers? No, the very severity of the law would,
as in the case of forgery, counteract its own object.
In most instances those who were defrauded would
rather quietly put up with the loss than make them-
selves instrumental to the destruction of human life.
Some persons would, no doubt, have less compunc-
tion in availing themselves of the exterminating se-
verity of the law, and thus occasionally a swindler
would terminate his career on the scaffold, while the
great majority of equally criminal depredators would
enjoy a perfect impunity. Is there any person,
at present, who feels any remorse at prosecuting
a swindler, knowing, as he does, that life is
not at stake, but that the law must be satis-
fied with the imprisonment or transportation of
the convicted delinquent? We venture to say
there is not one. Can the same be said of
forgery ? There it is the very reverse. In the
great proportion of forgeries there is no prosecution.
Most of those who suffer a loss of property in this
way do not like to inflict on themselves the greater
suffering which springs from the consciousness of
shedding, without adequate cause, the blood of it
fellow-creature. Does any body pity the fate of a
convicted swindler ?—No. It is known that he
will suffer no more than his offences deserve. But
never does a forger depart from the dock, to prepare
for death, without the recollection of his crime being
merged in the universal sympathy of the public.
Never will it be reconciled to the feelings of the
people of a civilised country that fraud and murder

should be visited with equal punishment. The re-
formation of our criminal law has long been the ob-
ject of the enlightened solic'tude of the greatest
and best of our Lawyers, our Jurists, and Legis-
lators. In this field, where so rich a harvest
of moral glory is to be reaped, such men as
Romilly and Mackintosh laboured in vain ;
not, indeed, for their own reputation—the
laurels of humanity, unlike those of war, have a
charm independent of the lustre of success—but
they laboured in vain as to any immediate prac-
tical purpose which genius and public virtue ought
to achieve. Sir Robert Peel came forward as a re-
former of the law under different circumstances.—
With moderate abilities—with limited views—with
an intellect rather artificially trained than richly en-
dowed, added to a love of fame more personal than
generous, this gentleman, in possession of a high
office and great political power, appeared in the cha-
racter of a legal reformer. He had no up-hill work
to undertake—no adverse majorities to struggle
against—no venal resistance, intrenched- behind the
barriers of office, to overcome. The announcement
of his design was hailed by the acclamations of those
to whom the opinion of a Minister is the fiat of in-
fallibility, and who had uniformly opposed every
plan of improvement not recommended by the per-
suasive logic of official authority. He was cheered
in every step of his progress. The amended law
came forth—it was praised by his flatterers in Par-
liament and the Press, and, between interested
praise and ignorant admiration, obtained for
him a considerable share of popularity. A journal
devoted to the present Ministry, and whose
habit it is rather to dogmatize than to reason, de-
clared, not long ago, that when Mr. Peel's Forgery
Bill should be added to his other productions of
reformed criminal law, we should, without the
pretension of a code, have a better digested
criminal code than existed in any other country:
We thought it necessary that the public should be
undeceived, not from any hostility to Mr. Peel, but
from a regard to the best interests of society. We
saw that the public, because they were continually
told so, acqu►esced in the notion that the criminal
law was thoroughly reformed. We felt that this im-
pression, founded in misrepresentation and perpetu-
ated by ignorance, was calculated to do great mis-
chief, and to substitute the shadow of reform for
the substance of improvement. We, therefore, took
the trouble of showing loth what Mr. Peel had
done, and what he had left undone. We showed
that he, or those who were the pioneers of his re-
putation, had only performed the mechanical work
of consolidating a number of statutes into a few—
cutting off a portion, and but a portion, of the bar-
barous technicalities prejudicial to justice, and to
some extent relieving the law from a redundancy of
its peculiar verbiage. As to what constituted the
spirit and the life of improvement we shewed that
the law remained untouched; we declared it to
be vindictive to a degree of which no other
country afforded an example, and that Mr. Peel,
with all the credit he had obtained for its sup-
posed amendment, had allowed it to go out of his
heads more barbarous in its spirit and character
than any other in the civilized world. It was not
long after this that Mr. Peel, with singular candour '
or strange inadvertence, admitted, in his place in the
House of Commons, that the criminal law of Eng-
land was " more sanguinary than that of any other
country in Europe?' We cannot give him the credit
of equal frankness in another respect. He stated,
on introducing his Forgery Bill, that, in repealing
the punishment of death in those cases in which it
was never carried into execution, lie went as far as
lie thought public opinion would at present allow
him, and he pretty plainly intimated that if public
opinion would manifest itself in favour of further al-
terations he would abandon the present. We pre-
tend not to quote his words, but we well recollect
this was the substance of his declaration. How has
his pledge been redeemed ? We are not astonished
at instances of political trickery in the present day.
We are not, therefore, surprised at the conduct of
Sir Robert Peel, who still persists in forcing this
Bill, with all its sanguinary provisions relative to
negotiable securities for money, &c., on the Legisla-
ture, although public opinion has declared itself
against ►t in the most unequivocal terms, and
the tables of Parliament have been loaded with
petitions, praying that it may not pass into
a law. Nay more ; on the discussion in the
Committee, on the clause for the abolition
of the penalty of death, moved by Sir James
Mackintosh, in conformity with the prayer of those
petitions, the Right Hon. Secretary exercised all the
influence, not merely of his arguments, but of his
office, to negative the proposition I So far was lie
from allowing public opinion to hold the scales by
which the merits of this question was to be weighed,
that, like a political measure, on which the very ex-
istence of the Ministry depended, it was made a
Government question. The retainers of the Trea-
sury were required to be in attendance, and the au-
thority of office was opposed to the disinterested ar-
guments of reason, and the almost universal ex-
pression of the public sentiment. With all these
efforts to ensure the defeat of a sound and rational
principle of justice, without which Sir Robert Peel's
plan of reform was but a mockery of improvement,
the majority for Ministers amounted only to sixteen.
Only the number of Representatives that eight
Government boroughs could furnish to uphold the
barbarous system which triumphant reason would
others% ise have swept away for ever I Such is a
specimen of the honest tactics of the enlightened
policy of the Secretary for the Home Department,
whom his flatterers so very lately dignified with the
honourable misnomer of the English Justinian. The
honours of such a fame are reserved to flourish on
more capacious brows. We see nothing in these pro-
ceedings of Sir Robert Peel of the generous cha-
racteristics of a great, and noble, and disinterested
ambition—the ambition of being distinguished for
making the opportunities which the possession of
power affords conducive to the triumphs of wisdom
and humanity. The Home Secretary has never
ventured to defend the law of forgery on principle,
his arguments were all founded in that favourite plea
of N% eak and narrow-minded statesmen—expe-
diency. His best argument drawn from that source
is now removed. If we believe that the great
majority of that considerate and calculating class of
mankind know their own interests, it is no longer
expedient that the crime of forgery should be pu-
nished with death. Setting every consideration
drawn from reason, humanity, arid religion aside,
their petitions to the Legislature prove that expe-
rience has convinced them of the inefficacy of the
law which was said to be especially meant for their
protection. We ask Sir Robert Peel whether he can
reconcile it to his conscience or his feelings to per-
petuate the revolting scenes of human sacrifice which
it was once thought the idol Mammon imperatively
required, ashen he is informed, on the best possible
evidence, that the oblations of blood are not ac-
ceptable. Let him, when l►e strives for victory on a
question in which human life is at stake, only re-
flect for an instant on the ensanguined laurels which
a triumph in such a cause can produce. Let him
figure to himself the apparatus of death ; the dread-
ful solemnities which precede the judicial extermi-
nation of a fellow-creature, and the pale criminal
brought forth to meet his fate amid the deep mur-
murs of the spectators—the object of the com-
miseration and sympathy of the multitude ! Let
him then think of the mourning widow, and the
children made fatherless—no place, no opportunity,
left to him who has injured .his fellow-creature by
written fraud for repentance, amendment, or re-
stitution Let him reflect on how many have fallen
in this way, without any advantage accruing to so-
ciety from the sanguinary spectacles resulting from
a law which violates reason, and, in defiance of
Christian sentiment and judicial morality, inflicts
upon the fraudulent imitator of a promissory-note
the death of the murderer ! Let him also imagine
to himself the numbers that may yet perish in
this way should his Bill, at present before Par-
liament, pass into a law. Let hint think on the
doom of those future victims to an unjust law;
a law which is " part and parcel" of what he
has himself called the " most sanguinary code

in Europe." Let him think of these victims, we
say, whom his law may exterminate in his life-time,
and when his ashes are reposing in the grave; and
if he ever again makes this a Government ques-
tion, let him ask his heart if he is prepared to say
" their blood be upon me and my children " We
now leave this subject. We have enforced the sen-
timents for which we now contend in times and
seasons when the prospect of success was more
remote than it appears to be at present. We
have abided by them through evil report and
through good report. We have had the sa-
tisfaction of seeing the impulse given to pub-
lic opinion, which will yet clear away every ob-
stacle opposed to the establishment of an enlight-
ened system of justice; and, in retiring from this
respo‘nsible situation, as we do this day, we quit a
post from which the influence of opinion is carried
to the utmost limits of the empire, with the confi-
dent anticipation of the eventual triumph of the
principles which we invariably advocated, having
had no object but what was identified with the
public cause, and conducive to the interests of
morality and civilization.—Morning Herald.
When the late Lord Londonderry was obliged to
set off, with all imaginable speed, to the Congress
atVerona, to repair the alleged blunders of the then
diplomatic agent of Great Britain, it was generally
understood that the latter would not again be called
upon to exercise his apparently very mediocre ta-
lents in the public service. Events, however, have
falsified this expectation, and the Duke of Welling-
ton is contented, or, perhaps, for want of a better,
constrained, to call to the office of Foreign Affairs
the very personage whom his predecessors had
tacitly consigned to oblivion. Indeed it seems to
be either the policy or the misfortune of his Grace
to have nearly every office in his Government filled
by men of the most moderate calibre; and, were the
talents of the British nation to be judged of by
those of most of the men who for the last two years
have held high political appointments, our boasted
" march of intellect" must be deemed to have made
a retrograde movement from the neighbourhood of
Downing-street and Whitehall. But in no de-
partment of the public service has such mani-
fest incapacity been displayed as in that of our
foreign affairs, which (if such topics can be matter
of ridicule) place the Government, and, with it,
the country, in a situation alike ludicrous and
mortifying. We need scarcely again advert to the
state of our relations with Portugal and Greece
in proof of this. Those who would wish to see
those two topics handled in a concise and mas-
terly way, have only to refer to the present number
of " Blackwood's Magazine," where, under the
head of an article entitled " The Silent Member,"
they will find the whole of our foreign policy, but
especially as it regards the two countries in question,
treated of in a way which we leave the Duke of
Wellington and the President of the Society of Anti-
quaries to digest. At the same time it is impossible
to conceal the mortification which such a state of
things must produce in the mind of every man who
has the honour of his country at heart, tend who
carries within him the proud, and, happily, yet un-
extinguished, recollections of her former greatness.
At the same time it is amusing to see our volatile
neighbours, the French, imputing to the Duke of
Wellington's foreign department the honour of con-
trolling the acts of their Government as well as our
own. Mercy on us ! Why the fly on the coach-
wheel might as well boast of the dust it made, as
Lord Aberdeen lay claim to swaying or, in the re-
motest degree, influencing the destinies of France.
No, to influence foreign nations, a Government
must possess respect at home ; and what respect our
present foreign department possesses in the eyes of
Englishmen, we may learn in every circle not under
the degrading influence of the slaves and sycophants
of power.—Morning Herald.
Sir James Scarlett, on Friday night, did not,
certainly, appear to any great advantage, when put
on his defence by Mr. R. Gordon. His inability to
defend himself (for all that he said was foreign to
the question) did not excite the sympathy of any
members capable of atoning for his deficiency. We
confess we were delighted to see the Attorney-
General left in this state of abandonment, amidst
the attacks of men of all parties and principles. It
is proper that he who sins against the age so sig-
nally, should be signally chastised, that his example
may not be lost on the world.—Morning Chronicle.
A good deal of anxiety is manifested with regard
to the sort of defence which Lord Aberdeen will
set up for crippling Greece. To the English alone
belongs the disgrace of this pitiful proceeding; for
even a Polignac Administration, dependent on the
Duke of Wellington for its existence, would not,
without considerable reluctance, lend itself to what
is calculated to produce such an untoward impres-
sion on a gallant people like the French. We long
to hear the pupil of Metternich on the nice points
connected with this piece of diplomacy. There
does not seem to be any particular eagerness for the
sovereignty of Greece, though it has been some
time hawked about. There is no lack of cadets of
princely houses; but they must have their misgiv-
ings as to the duration of their reign. Even a man
of the right kingly ore may well be allowed to fight
shy of the honour intended for him, when it is to
he purchased at the expence of having as many
enemies as subjects. After all, however, it is pos-
sible that sonic man with a noble indifference to the
affections of the Greeks, may consent to become
the instrument for punishing them under the name
of their Sovereign. In such a case, however, it
would be well for him to have his residence on the
waters of Greece, where he might be protected by
the guns of an English man-of-war.---elforn. Citron.
We have more than once alluded to the attempt
of the Governors of the Free Grammar School of
Birmingham to smuggle a Bill through Parliament,
containing several most objectionable clauses. We
had understood that there was at length a probabi-
lity of a compromise between the Governors and
the principal inhabitants, and that the Bill in an
altered shape would be allowed to proceed ; but we
perceive by the proceedings of a public meeting at
Birmingham, on Wednesday last, reported in the
Birmingham Journal of Saturday last (the resolu-
tions passed at which will be found among our adver-
tisements), that this result is not likely to take place.
The inhabitants wish that time should be allowed
for the full and mature consideration of all the clauses
of the Bill, and think that it is expedient the Bill
should be withdrawn for the present Session. We
are glad to see that all parties at the meeting seemed
to be agreed that the funds at the disposal of the
Governors should be applied in providing for the
inhabitants a liberal and comprehensive education.—
We trust that with these sentiments, in the course
of the interval between this and another Session, the
Governors and people of Birmingham will be able
to come to a good understanding. The Governors
have experienced that they cannot succeed in their
narrow Sectarian policy of excluding all but Church
of England men from the management. As no
party can hope to exclude others, it is to be hoped
that all will agree in what all have an interest in—
the communicating to the School the improvements
necessary to adapt it to the wants of the present
ddy.—Morning Chronicle.
Some very judicious and well-timed observations
fell from the Earl of Darnley and Lord Wharncliffe
on Friday night, in the House of Lords, on the pre-
sent state of Parliamentary business. The fact is
undeniable that, at the present moment, there are
several Bills of very great public importance, in pro-
gress through the House of Commons, which, from
the advanced period of the Session, cannot this year
become laws, unless the Upper House of Parlia-
ment should so far relinquish its privilege and
abandon its duty as to pass them without that cau-
tions inquiry and independent deliberation which
its character and proper constitutional function
require, and the nature of many of the measures yet
to be submitted for its concurrence unquestionably
demand. There are obviously only two ways of
accounting for this state of things. The one is that
which supposes the quantity of labour thrown upon
the House of Commons to have been too great—the

other that which imputes to the House of Commons,
as at present constituted, some deficiency of dili-
gence, energy, or skill in the discharge of its neces-
sary and ordinary duties. To the first of these
causes Of embarrassment and obstruction Lord
Wharncliffe has suggested what at first sight ap-
pears to be a very unobjectionable and effectual
counteraction. The initiative of all measures which
directly or indirectly take money out of the pockets
of the people, whether with a view to replenish the
Exchequer, to effect local improvethents, to inflict
punishment upon offenders, or with whatever other
view, is held to be the peculiar and exclusive privilege
of the House of Commons. Hence it follows of
necessity that almost all legislative measures are
first introduced and discussed in that Assembly, and
by this means any thing like a division of legislative
labour between the two Houses of Parliament
rendered impossible. All the tedious and elaborate,
and too often frivolous discussions which arise out
of a subject yet imperfectly understood, fall to the
lot of the House of Commons, while the short and
easy task of the Upper House of Parliament is
merely to confirm or reject the determination of the
Lower after the question at issue has already been
abundantly discussed—after it has been disencum-
bered of all extraneous arid irrelevant matter—after
the errors and prejudices which perplexed and
obscured it have been in a great degree cleared
away. The mode which Lord Wharncliffe suggests
for the relief of the House of Commons from the
excessive and overwhelming load of business, is,
that it should enable the House of Lords to take
a larger share of it, by surrendering so much of
its exclusive privilege with respect to Bills containing
money clauses as is not founded upon constitutional
principle or reason. To take the lead in determining
the amount of supply to be granted to the Crown, and
the manner in which it shall be raised and appro-
priated, is the constitutional privilege of the House
of Commons, which no friend of the country would
wish it to abandon or compromise ; but it seems
difficult to connect this privilege with the exclusive
right of fixing, in the first instance, the manner in which
money shall be provided for a new road or bridge, or
the amount of fine which shall be paid for killing a
hare, or breaking through a fence. The backward
state of the business of the Session is not, however,
we apprehend, to be ascribed altogether to the mul-
tiplicity of subjects which have been brought before
the House of Commons. It arises quite as much
from the manner in which they have been treated,
and the habit which has sensibly gained ground, of
indulging in desultory discussions, without any de-
finite Parliamentary object. We long ago pointed
out the necessary consequences of this habit, and it
cannot be denied that the state of business at the
present moment more than justifies our anticipa-
tions. The remedy for the evil is only to be sought,
where we believe it is sure to be found, in the good
sense of the country. Those Members of Parlia-
ment who are anxious for popularity must be taught
that to interrupt and retard the useful and necessary
labours of the Legislature, upon frivolous grounds
or pretences, is not the way to acquire or retain it.
The progress and results of the present Session of
Parliament will, we believe, show the people of
England how much it is their interest to inculcate
a lesson which they alone can inculcate effectually.
—Morning Post.
We have hitherto refrained from making any ob-
servations on the late, or rather the extremely
early hour, at which the business of the House of
Commons has been concluded, in the hope that the
Hon. Members themselves would see the mischief
which must result from the practice, and put an
end to it, as equally injurious to themselves, and to
the important. interests committed to their trust;
but, instead of having recourse to the ancient prac-
tice of the House, the departure from it has become
greater and greater every day, and instead of de-
, bates being uniformly closed soon after twelve at
night, the House has lately proceeded to open
up fresh subjects, and these of the greatest
importance, and to debate them at as great
length as if they had been brought under
discussion several hours previously I Now there
are three great evils resulting from this prac-
tice, which we think must strike every one who
pays the slightest attention to the subject as justify-
ing, or rather calling loudly for, its immediate
discontinuance—first, the incapability of the Mem-
bers at two, three, four, or five o'clock in the morn-
ing, to legislate wisely on any given subject, in con-
sequence of the fatigue arid weariness consequent on
the previous discussions of the evening—secondly,
the chance of measures being passed against the
will and conviction of a majority of the Members,
owing to numbers having left at earlier and more
proper hours—and, thirdly, the almost total suppres-
sion of the debates which take place at such late
hours, owing to the utter impossibility, on the part
of the Morning Papers, to give even a twentieth part
of the discussions which take place, and the conse-
quent ignorance, on the part of the public,of the side
taken, and the opinions expressed, by its represen-
tatives. We do not throw our own grievances, and
those who labour with us, into the scale, though
they are neither few or small; but we can-
not help denouncing, on the part of the public, a
system so prejudicial, in every respect, to its inte-
rests, and so calculated both to defeat and to pro-
mote measures, which, if discussed at an earlier
hour, would share a very different fate. In illustra-
tion of these observations we beg to point the at-
tention of our readers to the debates which have
taken place on the Beer Bill—a measure which, if
it pass, will strip thousands of their property, and
consign many respectable arid industrious indivi-
duals to poverty and want. These debates have,
with one exception, been brought on after eleven
at night, and sometimes after one o'clock in the
morning, arid been continued until half-past three
and half-past four o'clock in the morning; and the
consequence has been not only an almost total sup-
pression of an important debate, but that many
Members who wished to oppose the Bill have left
the House in consequence of an expectation that it
would not be brought under discussion. Now,
we protest against this conduct as most unfair,
both
.to the public and to the Licensed Victual-
lers ; and we do call upon the Chancellor of the
Exchequer to give the measure at least a fair chance
of discussion. If a serious nuisance is to be in.
flicted on the public, let it know at least the nature
and the extent of it; and if a great injury is to be
done to the Licensed Victualler, let him, at all
events, have a fair and impartial hearing—let him
be put upon his trial, arid let his defence at least be
recorded. We know that the feeling of almost
every class in the community is decidedly opposed
to the wholesale ruin which the present Bill is cal-
culated to inflict, and we are confident that if a fair
discussion be allowed to take place, the Chancel-
lor's project, if not wholly defeated, will at least be
so modified as to render it less destructive to the
Licensed Victualler, and less injurious to the pub-
iis.—Morning Advertiser.

It is not very:decent and becoming, but it is never-
theless very true, that a potent Opposition is now
mustering against the existing Administration, and
that great hopes are entertained, in case of a certain
event, that a great modification, if not a total change
of it will ensue. We will not enter into any discus-
sion of the probability of such a change, though
we know much on the subject ; but we will add,
that, excepting the mustering of the Opposition, the
fact of a change is by no means certain. Prince
Leopold, we understand, has declined connecting
himself with the party of the Whig Lords until
" future events have cast their shadows before ;"
and he is as wise i❑ his resolution as the Whig
Lords would have been in even declining his aid,
had he been inclined to afford it. His name, under
any circumstances, can add no weight to any party,
ministerialist or opposition.—Morning z.dvertiser.

At a recent ordination by the Bishop of
BRISTOL, his Lordship, in addressing the newly ordsintd
Ministers, drew their particular attention to the impro-
priety of the Clergy attending balls, and expressed a hope
that the Clergy of his diocese would abstain from all such
public amusemeots....Bristol Mirror.