The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-19 00:00:00

I tious character, for that was not charged against the
defendants, but whether the meeting was unlawful arid
calculated to excite immediate terror and alarm. His
Learned Friend had stated that there had been nume-
rous public meetings in the neighbourhood, the tendency
of the language used at which was calculated to deluge
the country with blood. There had been nothing of
the kind stated in evidence before them, and they were
to confine themselves strictly to the evidence which had
been given by the witnesses. It appeared that the meet-
ing was composed in the greater part of young girls
and boys, and that there were banners and bands of
music. Why there was nothing illegal either in ban-
ners or bands of music, and the inscriptions were cer-
tainly in no sense of the word illegal. He appealed '
to the Jury whether any one of them could for a
moment consider such a meeting illegal or unlawful.
There had been no noise, no tumult, and the witnesses
had told them they were not in the least alarmed—that
the people were orderly and quiet, and under these cir-
cumstances he was satisfied that the Jury would, with-
out hesitation, return a verdict of acquittal on behalf
of his client.

The defendant, M'Douall, then addressed the Jury.
In appearing- before them to advocate his own cause,
he well recollected the old and trite adage, that he who
was his own counsel had a fool for his client. If he
had employed Counsel it might perhaps have added
something more of dignity and importance to his cause ;
but he rested with perfect confidence upon the verdict
of the Jury, notwithstanding the prejudices which had
been so unjustly excited against him by the state-
ments of the Attorney-General. He objected to the
manner in which the case had been opened to them by
the Learned Counsel, and to the motives that had been
imputed to him without any evidence upon which to
ground it. Further, it was alleged that he had attended
public meetings in other parts of the country, the
object of which was to bring the Government
into contempt. He contended that he had never ad-
vocated such doctrines, hut on the contrary he
heartily spurned and despised them. His only object in
attending these meetings was to endeavour by constitu-
tional means to obtain for the people their just rights.
Mr. M'Douall then entered into a lengthened disserta-
tion on the ancient Constitution and usages of England
and other countries, for the purpose of showing that in
every age and country, and in every stage of civilization,
the people had a right to, and had always taken a share
in the councils and the government of the country. He
then pointed out what he conceived to be the social and
pol t condition of the great mass of the people in
England at the present moment, and contended that they
had not their fair share in the representation, and were
not in that position of comfort and happiness which they
were entitled to enjoy under the institutions of a free
country. Mr. M'Douall proceeded in a speech of ex-
traordinary power and talent to detail what were his
principles, and those of the advocates of the People's
Charter, and the absurdity of supposing that the meet- 1
ing of the 22d April was an unlawful one,

[We shall give the defence at full length in our next
publication.]

Mr. HILL replied,and.the Learned Judge summed up,
stating his opinion that there could be no doubt that
the meeting in question was an illegal one.
The Jury immediately returned a verdict of Guilty.
In the course of the day the Grand Jury came into
Court and returned true bills against Scar, Duke, Ri-
chardson, M'Douall, Livesey, Benbow, and several
others for conspiracy, sedition, attending unlawful
meetings, &c.
The Grand Jury was then discharged.

SATURDAY.

At the sitting of: the Court this morning, the pri-
soners convicted during the Assizes were brought up to
receive the sentence of the Coutt.

Peter Murray M‘Douall, twelve months' imprison-
ment, and securties to keep the peace for five years, him-
self in 500/., and two in 2001. each.

John Bradley, to be imprisoned eight months, like
rule of bail.

Thompson, Mitchell, Davis, and Higgins, to be im-
prisoned eighteen months each, and give the like se-
curities to keep the peace.
The other indi, tment found against M'Douall, on
Friday, for a conspiracy, it was intimated by the At-
torney-General, would be abandoned.
The following persons, against whom bills for sediti-
ous conspiracy and attending unlawful meetings had
been found, traversed till next Assizes :—Jas W. Leah,
Richard Pilling, Rev. W. Essler, Isaac Armitage,
senior, and Isaac Armitage, junior, John Wright, James
Burton, George Wareham, Thomas Howarth, John
Broadbent, James Duke, and Benbow.
All the traversers were ordered to enter into their own
recognizanees in 500/. each. and three in 100/. each.
Mr. Coppock, of Stockport, acted as agent on behalf
of the Crown.
The Court then adjourned.

SCOTTISH CHARTIST CONVEN.
TION.

(From the Glasgow Argus of Thursday.)
The Convention of Delegates from the various towns
and districts of Scotland commenced its sittings here
yesterday in the Universalist Chapel, Dovehill, Gallow-
gate. The number of Delegates was 57. Mr. Feargus
O'Connor was present ; as was also Mr. Moir, in the
character of a listener. Mr. Duncan, Delegate from
Edinburgh, was chosen Chairman, and Mr. Gillespie,
Secretary. On the motion of one of the Delegates,
the meeting was opened by prayer. As the avowed ob-
ject of the Convention is to concoct measures for the
better organization of Scotland in the cause of the
Charter, it was agreed, before proceeding to any busi-
ness, to hear from the Delegates the state of matters in
their respective localities. We heard upwards of forty
of them accordingly give in their reports to the Conven-
tion, and were certainly highly pleased with the appear-
ance of truthfulness which generally characterised their
statements. They confined themselves to brief details
of matters of fact, and seemed anxious to lay before
each other an account of things as they really stood,
without exaggeration, or any attempt at useless oratory.
The result of the various reports was far from being
satisfactory to the Chartist. cause. There was an almost
universal complaint of want of organization, of want of
lecturers and agitators, and even of a want of know-
ledge of the Chartist principles among the people at
large, in extensive districts of the country. But, in
order that the reader may be able to judge for himself
as to the actual state of the organization in the various
districts, we subjoin the substance of the brief reports
given in by the Delegates from the following places.
The language given is that used by the Delegates.
AYR.—The Chartists here are described as being
" precious few,"
and a great want of organization. Lec-
turers and better organization recommended.
BARRHEAD.—The Chartists here are determined to
work out Universal Suffrage, but cannot agree to the
ulterior measures of the General Convention ; they are
so poor as to have no money to take out of the Banks ;
they will not give up exciseable articles ; and are not
prepared for a sacred month.
COATERIDGE.—Chartists determined and resolute,
but disapprove of the sacred month. About twenty
have given up tobacco, whisky, &c. A loud call for
more agitation._

DUNDEE.—The Chartists not so strong- here as
might be ant,cipated, and they are inclined to the moral
force view of tbequestion. No preparation whatever made
for a sacred month. A run had been made on the
Banks, and change can scarcely be got for a note in
Dundee. The same Delegate reported from Forfar,
that the people there were prepared for the sacred
month, but, in consequence of information from Glas-
gow, the resolution was rescinded.
DUNFERMLINE.—Determined to carry out the sa-
cred month.

EAGLESIIAM.—The members are few—some cry for
a sacred month, but they are so few as scarcely to re-
quire being mentioned. Moral force is the general
wish, and some are determined to abstain from excise-
able articles.

EDINBURGH.—The active Chartists are opposed to
discussing the question of moral or physical force—as
there is little difference between them ; a number of
them are, however, armed, and determined to have Uni-
versal Suffrage at all risks. If smitten on one cheek, the
Chartists of Edinburgh will not turn up the other also.
The organization is good—one man being placed over
every ten to collect their subscriptions. In one night,
after the police had broken the peace at Birmingham, a
hundred and thirty-six members joined the Association.
Not prepared for ulterior measures.
GREENOCK.—The cause behind, in consequence of
the want of speakers ; agitation necessary. The work-
men generally have too good wages to join the move-
ment.

PAISLEY.—Rev. Mr. Brewster declared to have done
much harm to the cause ; have adopted the whole of
the ulterior measures of the Convention ; there has been
a run en the Savings' Banks ; one Friendly Society
having lifted 200/., another 700/., and another 50/. ; a
great number of the people of Paisley have resolved to
exercise the right of arming themselves ; a Society ex-
ists which is collecting money ; they do not say to what
purpose they mean to devote that money, but. it is for
an article that costs 15s. 6d.—(Laughter.) The De-
legate stated that he is not a member of that Society,
being already prepared in that way.
The above is a fair sample of the reports given in by
the Delegates.

TIIE PROPOSED MODEL PRISON.--It is re-
poi ted that negotiations are on foot for the purchase of a
piece of ground at Barnsbury Park, Islington, on which
is to be erected the new Government model prison. The
site is near Copenhagen House, with a cold bleak atmos-
phere and a deep clay soil, which renders the ground gene-
effectual dlly damp,rainage.standing upon a hill, it is capable of
It appears from the Report of the Directors of
the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, that the aggregate
receipts for the six months ending on the 30th of June
have been very nearly the same as those of the correspond-
jig period of last year. The receipts have been
1`)3,814.!. 6s. M., and the expenditure 73,69 V. 7s.
c 1 -iwing a net profit for the half year ending the 30th June
of on/ 1.95. 7d. The Directors have declared a divi-
dend of 4/. Ws. per share.

THE REV. SIDNEY SMITH AND

THE BALLOT.

The flippant, witty, burlesque, and specious at-
tack of Sidney Smith on the Ballot has just re•
ceived from a " Working Man," an answer remark-
' j able for sound reasoning, apt inference and a
thorough knowledge of the subject. Want of
space alone prevents us from giving the whole of
the letter, but as the next resource, we shall give
our readers a few specimens in order that they may
judge of the whole, or rather that they may be in-
duced to read the whole ; because we consider it one
of the best productions that has come under our no-
tice on this much agitated question. The intro-
duction will at once give an idea of the humour
and power of the writer. He begins thus
am a Radical—one of those upon whom, in your
Pamphlet on the Ballot, which now lies before me, you
have lavished a number of opprobrious epithets. I see in
the first sentence these words—" the rabid and foaming
Radical :" many such and still stronger terms are inter-
spersed throughout the work. It is true, you make in one
place a parenthetical reservation, a kind of crotchetty com-
pliment ; but your dislike, your loathing abhorrence of " the
carnivorous animal," as you elsewhere so mildly designate
the Radical, oozes from you in a manner, let me tell you,
altogether unbecoming of a gentleman and a scholar.
You are a parson : but never fear I I shall not retort,
and bespatter you and your order with indiscriminate abuse.
I know not, neither shall I inquire, whether you are a
pluralist, or whether you hold any office in the Church in-
consistent with the simplicity of the Gospel. Personal
abuse is a sorry substitute for argument. The cause of
truth and jnstice needs not the aid of weapons borrowed
from so foul an arsenal. But though I disclaim the use
of personalities, I claim for myself the right of expressing
candidly and freely my opinions of you and your pamphlet
in the plain homely phrase of an unlettered man.
I have heard and read much about your ballot-
pamphlet, but in its first form it was too dear a purchase
for a poor man like me. When the cheaper edition came
out I eagerly obtained a copy, and as eagerly read it. I
had no sooner done so, than the desire entered my mind to
answer it—that desire quickly merged into resolve, and
the resolve into action. So here I am, an uneducated
man, scribbling away in hours stolen from sleep, against
you a college-educated divine—blest with literary ease
—not, be assured, from any contempt of your
powers—still less from any overweening conceit
of my own ; my reliance is on the reasonableness and rec-
titude of my cause."
He adds, further on—

" How far your mountebank Merry. Andrewism harmo-
nises with the clerical character, I leave you and your ad-
mirers to determine. You would no doubt have done ad-
mirably well as a disputant, in the good old times of
religio-metaphysical speculation, when folio upon folio
was written to solve the knotty question, how many
thousands of angels could dance on the point of a needle
without jostling each other.'"
Passing over the Reverend writer's jejune attempts
at humour, in describing the ballot-boxes, &c., he
comes to the adjuncts, and thus answers, the
" standing reason" against the frequency of dis-
missal of tenants for voting against their landlords:—
Your standing reason argument is stark nonsense:
you might as well urge your standing reason against the
keeping a dog-kennel, or indulging in any other gentle.
manly sport, that it is injurious to his pecuniary interests.
There arc many things for which men recklessly squander
their money, and for nothing more readily than revenge to
a baffled will. Besides, from the fierce competition for
farms now-a-day, caused by the disproportion in the num-
ber of farms to the number of those seeking them, the dis-
charge of a tenant does not involve the landlord in much
risk of pecuniary loss, from the almost certainty there is
of the farm being instantly refilled.
Your next argument is of still less worth :—" To part
with tenants for political reasons always makes a landlord
unpopular."
Unpopular with whom ? not with the party whose opi-
nion he fears. What cares the titled grandee, wallowing
in wealth, who is capable of meanly ejecting a tenant, for
having a will of his own, and for exercising it like a free-
born Briton—what cares he for the opinion of the hewers
of wood and drawers of water, the tillers of the ground, the
serfs of the soil ? Does it make him unpopular with his
own clique ? And is not the opinion of that clique the at-
mosphere in which he breathes and lives? Do not then
talk of public opinion alLcting the Newcastleite Squire.
The Rev. Sidney Smith, like most men ad-
vanced in years, imitates old Nestor, and talks
only about things which were when he was young.
He sees now, as he did in the tenth floor of some
house in Edinburgh, when lie began the " Blue
and Yellow Review," only two great parties in the
political community—namely, Tory and Whig, and
thus reasons—

" Interference with the freedom of voting, bad as it is,
produces no political deliberation; it does not make the
Tories stronger than the Whigs, nor the Whigs than the
Tories, for both are equally guilty of this species of
t)ranny.".

o this the Working Man (and it is no assumed
title, for lie adds his name) gives the following
cutting reply, and the reply is the more pungent,
because the Reverend Whig of 1802 is now a
Whig, and something less :
Why, Mr. Sydney Smith, are you dozing, or is your
mental vision obscured ? Cast your glance, I pray you,
around the political horizon : see you nothing else than
Whig and Tory ? Where is the great mass of the people,
who care as little for either party as I do for you, or, less
still, as you do for me, and who every day are caring less
and less ? These are they who would reap the benefit ;
these are they who desire the change. Whe says or
thinks anything about Wbigs or Tories benefiting by the
Ballot? Does not every body know—do Whigs and
Tories not know—do you not know—come now, I put the
question plumply—do you not know that both these poli-
tical parties would lose by the Ballot, and that their loss
would be the people's gain ?
The Whig as well as the Tory squirearchy march up
their serfs of the soil, rank and file, to vote for their man.
Now what I, a Radical, one of the carnivorous varieties of
the animal' (how pat your words come in) want is that
every man—be he Tory, Whig, or Radical—shall vote
for whomsoever be pleases—unmolested, unbribed : and
this the Ballot, and the Ballot only, will effect."

After answering other objections urged by the
Reverend writer against the Ballot, he concludes
the pamphlet with a few observations on one topic
which Sidney Smith had no doubt, for very good
reasons, passed over, but which, nevertheless, is
still in the mouth of almost every man opposed to
the Ballot—namely, that it is un-English :
This is an objection much heard from the lips of genteel
folks, yet it is nothing more than the cant of a low-minded
nationality. Un- English, indeed—pooh ! suppose it were
so, what then ? Are we to be deprived of every thing of
foreign growth or extraction? Must we aboli-h printing,
break to pieces our clocks and watches, and expel the Royal
family ( 0 ye disloyal wretches I) because they are of
German origin ? And pray, what are we English our-
selves? Listen to Daniel Defoe on this subject ( I quote
from memory) :

' A true-born Englishman's a contradiction,
A figurative fib, in fact a fiction ;
A something meant t' express in verse
A man akin to all the uni%erse
From Pict, Scot, Saxon, Norman, Dane, began

That heterogeneous thing—an Englishman."
And who are they who mostly make the charge ? The
Nobility and Gentry, who quaff the wines of France and
Italy and Germany, and I know not of what other coun-
tries ; who amuse themselves with Italian operas and
French fashions and plays ; these are the persons who cry
out against the Ballot as being un-English. They have
recourse to it themselves at their clubs, to protect them
from a challenge ; yet they term it sneaking cowardice
when required by the farmer and shopkeeper, to ward from
them the savage vengeance of these self-same gents. This is
on a par with their code of honour, which compels them
to pay their black-leg debts, but allows them to cheat the
honest, industrious trader with impunity. Such Aristocratic
one-sided reasoning will not do for us. As we scorn the
rotten morality of their laws of honour, and hate their
interference with our honest votes, so we despise
their cry of the Ballot being un- English, an assertion as
false as it is silly ; for if there is one thing more than an-
other incorporated with our social institutions it is the Bal-
lot. It is in use from the thrifty poor man's sick club and
the Mechanics' Institute, upwards to Brookes's and the
Carlton Club. It is thoroughly English—
" In short, it is our custom national,
And, more that that, it's just and rational."
There is this consolatory reflection, that all the blindly
bigoted and interested opposition to the Ballot is unavail-
ing. It progresses rapidly in public estimation. Almost
every day gives us some illustrious convert to add strength
to our ranks. As sure as day succeeds night—as sure as
truth will conquer falsehood—so sure is the Ballot's ulti-
mate triumph.

The Lords of the Treasury have awarded to Mr.
J. Carter, the late Town Clerk of Coventry, the annual
sum of 2901. during his life, for the loss of the appointmen!
and of the Clerkship to the Magistrates. Mr. Carter's
claims for arrears are nearly 1,0001.--Coventry Standard.
GAS-WATER A GOOD MANURE.—A cor-
respondent of the Mark-lane Express, from Penzance,
communicates the results of an experiment with gas-water
—the water in which the street gas has been cleansed.
lie says he was induced to try it on a piece of barley land.
A quarter of an acre was taken in the middle of a
field, or rather a close soil, in a granite district. The
land was of average quality. The gas-water was
distributed over the quarter acre by a contriv-
ance resembling a common watering cart, and at the
rate of 400 gallons to the acre, about a week before
seed time. The rest of the field was manured in the usual
way. The difference, both in colour and vigour, of the
barley plant, was so striking in favour of the part manured
by gas-water, that persons passing within view of the field
almost invariably came to inquire the cause. The yield
also was superior, as well as the after pasture, the field
having been laid down with the barley. It might be
poured on manure heaps, where it would probably destroy
grubs, &c., in addition to its fertile properties.
A considerable quantity of wheat has been stacked
and housed in very good order during the last few days ;
and though we hear complaints of there being less straw
than the farmers expected before they began to cut, yet we
believe the cars never were finer or heavier in yield. Ge-
nerally speaking there is rather a scarcity of hands ; but a
more than usual activity seems to prevail in carting the
corn the moment it is fit to house, for the weather has not
the appearance of being settled. A great quantity of
oats have ripened earlier than usual, and have been secured
in excellent order. liar,.ey is ripening fast..—..6righton
1 Gazette.