The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-18 00:00:00

IRELAND.

INCENTITESTO MURDER.—The:MaiI affects to see in the following reso
lution adopted on Tuesday by the Precursors, an incentive to murder :

" That the address of the Rev. Mr. Rafferty to his people, in the chapel
of Darrow, on Sunday the 6th of January 1839, touching the recent
barbarous murder of the much lamented Lord Norbury, be printed and
circulated among the people of Ireland, at the expense of the Society."
The Mail's perception of what is promotive of murder, it is evident, is
peculiar. _ .

Loan OIMANTOWN.-At the'meeting at which the'above resolution was
carried, Mr. O'Connell commented, with much severity, on the Tulla-
more speech of the Lord Lieutenant of King's County, declaring that
" The murderer who committed the crime is culpable—but the man
who uses language calculated to provoke the commission of such a
crime is still more culpable. Such language is a palliation for the crime.
How dare he (Lord Oxmantown) speak of the Catholic peasantry of
Ireland in the manner he has done? He talks of them as a band of
assasins. Why, the fact that he lives shows they are not so."
THE EARL OF CHA RIEVILLE AND THE REy.
MR. O'RAFFERTy.
The following correspondence has passed between the Earl of Char-
leville and the Rev. Mr. O'Rafferty

" Charleville Castle, Monday, Jan. 14, 1839-
" Rev. Sir,—My attention has been called this day to an article in the
Pilot newspaper of the 9th instant, headed ` The Murder of Lord Nor
bury, (from our own Reporter.)' You are described as addressing your
flock from the altar in the following words :
" `That was the man that was basely butchered in the midst of them,
and whose loss filled their hearts with sorrow. But whilst he (Mr.
O'RafTerty and his people were pressed down by the most heartfelt afflic-
tion at the calamity which had thus come upon them, he was disgusted
and astonished at seeing joy and exultation in the countenances of some
persons in high life, who seemed, by their language and their conduct, to
hail the bloody deed as a god-send that would enable them to traduce
and blacken the character of their country, and aid the views of their
party. He would only say God forgive them, for they were little less
guilty than the assassin who did the bloody deed.'
" You will oblige me, Rev. Sir, by informing me if you made use of
these words, or any of similar meaning or import.
I am, Rev. Sir, your obedient servant,
" CHARLEVILLE.
" P.S.—I shall consider myself at liberty to give any publicity I may
think proper to your answer,
" To the Rev. J. O'Rafferty, P.P."

:` Tullamore, 14th Jan., 1839,
" My Lord—l am honoured with your Lordship's letter of this day,
in which 3 uu transcriLe,
from the Pao/ Dm, bpapur, an extract of an
address, alleged to have been delivered by me to the Roman Catholic
parishioners of Durrow, on Sunday, the 6th instant.
" Your Lordship will pardon me for stating that I do not hold myself

accountable to any individual, save iity irtavrr,ble Ilit,hop, for any lan-
guage I may deem it expedient to use in my pubit exliottptions. flow-
ever, with due respect, I take leave to observe, that having miv!e no
allusions whatever to your Lordship upon that ocegsion, I cannot see
why you should feel yourself called upon to ask, If I have made use of
the words' referred to, or any of similar meaning or imp rt.'
I have the honour to be, my Lord, with great respect, your Lord-
ship's most obedient servant,

To the Right Hon. the Earl of Charleville."

" J. O'RAFFBRTY.

MR. Straw AND THE CORPORATION.—The first official dinner of
High Sheriff Taylor was given on Tuesday, when certain proceedings
took place which makes the Mail wince and whine after the following
fashion :—" With feelings of sorrow and disgust we refer (says the
puling adherent of the corral-tii.nists) to the proceedings which took
place at the Sheriff's Dinner yesterday. flow some half dozen of in.
terested individuals can have contrived so to brutalize their fellow
men, is beyond our comprehension or conception. The old and invete-
rate foes of the Corporation are chuckling with delight at the triumph
which. their folly has afforded them ; and their long tried friends—men
who u placid their rights end advocated their privileges, when the rot-
ten props upon which they now lean, add which we tell them will fail,
were riot in existence—cannot advance a word in their defence or ex_
tenuation. If these men were in the pay, and acting under the imme-
diate directions of Mr. O'Connell, they could not adopt a course more
certain to insure his main object—the downfall of Irish Protestant Cot,
porations, and their transfer to Homan Catholics, than that they are
readly pursuing, the irepolicy and folly of which they will see when it
is too late."

RUMOURED ARSASSINATtON OF JUDGE BURTON.—The Irish Corres.
pondent of the Morning Post writes of a rumour in Dublin, to the
effect that the venerable Judge Burton had faPen by the hand of an as_
sassin in Clonmel, where he went as going Judge on the Special Com-
mission. The Irish Papers to-day do not allude to any such rumour,
and in the Cork Southern Reporter of last Tuesday, we see a report of
the Learned Judge's charge, delivered the day before.
Ma. O'CONNELL—A very numerous and highly influential meeting
of the citizens of Cork, took place on Monday in the People's Hall,
Castle-street, pursuant to requisition, for the purpose of marking their
sense of the recent publication put forth by Mr. Peter Purcell, of
Dublin, regarding Mr. O'Connell, as to the disposal of the funds of the
Precursor Society. The meeting, which was attended by nearly all the
gentlemen of the city, remarkable for public spirit and liberal principles,
evinced more of ardour and enthusiasm than we have witnesse,l for a
long time.—Southern Reporter.

DEATH AND CHARACTER OF TILE
DUKE OF BUCKINGHAAI.

---...,r1.,,.--

( From the Morning Herald )
We d,eply regret to have to anuou:Ate the melancholy in -
' telliricace of the death of his Gr,tce the Duke of Bockingharn
andCliand,s, which took place at his priacely residence o!'
Stowe, about a quarts r before eight o'clock yestet day
(Thursday) morning. On Monday last the Duke, whose
health had for some time previously* appear( d to be improving,
became suddenly worse, and the illness assumed at once so
serious and alarming an upp,-aranee, that the Marquis of
Chandos, who had invited a large party to his scat at Wotton,
sent expresses off in various directions to countermand the ar-
rival of his visitors, and remained at the bed-side of his af-
flicted parent until his lamented decease at the time already
mentioned. Lady Chandos, the present Duchess, with Earl
Temple, now Marquis of Chandos, and his sister Lady Anne,
were also at Stowe, so that the last moments of the Duke were
solaced by the presence and attentions of his immediate family
and kindred.
The late Duke was born in the year 1776, and is March
next would have completed his 63d year. In April, 1796, he
married the Lady Anne Elizabeth Brydges, sole heiress of
James Brydges, last Duke of Chandos. He succeeded his
father, the late Marquis of Buckingham, on the 11th of Fe-
bruary, 1812, and on the 4th of February, 1822, he w;,s
created Duke of Buckingham and Chandos by the then King
George IV. The Duchess departed this life at Avington a
few years ago, universally beloved and regretted, and by none
more than the poorer classes of the neighbourhood, to whom
she was, indeed, an unceasing and unostentatious benefactress
It is through this lady that the present Duke represents the
ancient line of the Dukes of Suffolk, one of whom, Charles
Brandon, married Mary, sister to Henry and Queen
Dowager of France, to whose issue, by the last will of that
Monarch, the Crown of these Realms was limited in remainder
on the contingency of a failure of issue in other lines. Hence
the names of Plantagenet, in connection with those of Gren-
ville, Brydges, and Temple.
The talents which the late Duke possessed for public life
were of no ordinary kind, as he showed on those occasions
when ha addressed the House of Lords, where he had not for
some time past appeared on account of bodily infirmities,
brought on by repeated and violent attacks of gout, which de-
prived him at length, of the use of his lower extremities. In
retirement his active mind and fine taste f; mid constant em-
ployment among the varied literature and works of verb with
which Stowe, his favousite residence, abounds. To the latter
of these he greatly added by his own ecquisi:ions of rare and
exquisite specimens of art, made while in Italy. He was par-
ticularly fond of fine engravings, and laid out vast sums of
money in making such a collection of rare and curious prints
as, perhaps, no man ever possessed. His graphic illustrations
of " Grainger's History of England" occupied him many years
and cost him many thousand pounds.
If in him' the arts have lost a friend, and artists a munifi-
cent patron, the poor have no less reason to lament the kind-
hearted employer and benefactor. In .that liberality which
shows itself in the quiet acts of silent charity he allowed no
political considerations to stop his hand or stint that bene-
volence. He had a heart that felt for the sufferings of the
afflicted, and

A hand open as day to melting charity.
There was another species of liberality which he formerly
cultivated, if not with less success, certainly with less satisfac-
tion. He had been a strenuous and firm advocate of what was
called " Roman Catholic Emancipation," but subsequently
admitted, as some other generous-hearted but mistaken Pro-
testants have seen cause to do, that the consequences of that
measure were very different from those which he had antici-
pated. In a letter published in his name some years ago he
frankly acknowledged the severe disappointment which he
suffered from the falsification of the sanguine hopes which he
had entertained of that measure proving beneficial to Ireland
in allaying the rancour of political and religious agitation, and
promoting the cultivation of the arts of peace. That letter
was not more distinguished for the manliness and candour of
the sentiments which it expressed than for the beauty of its
composition, worthy the literary name of Temple.
There was another act of " emancipation," more advan-
tageous to the interests of humanity than that which gave
political power to the Romanists of Ireland, with which the
name of the late Duke was connected—we allude to the
" abolition of the slave trade ;" that great act of an Admi-
nistration at the head of which was his illustrious relative,
Lord Grenville, in whose Ministry his Grace, when Earl
Temple, held office.
When his health allowed him to attend in his place in Far•
liament, he did not often address the House; but when he did,
his style was elegant and forcible, his reasoning acute, and
the general character of his senatorial eloquence that which
displayed various reading and a cultivated taste.
As a Chairman of Quarter-Sessions, to the duties
of which office he formerly gave great attention, the
late Duko was one of the ablest and most efficient; that,
perhaps, ever presided in such a Court of Justice.
Men of all political parties willingly bore testimony to
his dispassionate and discriminating impartiality on the
Bench of the Sessions Court, where be showed a know-
ledge of the law of evidence, and a readiness and accuracy in
applying it, which is rarely displayed by any man not educated
to the bar. Natural talent without considerable application,
we need hardly say, could not have supplied him with such a
qualification for the efficient discharge of judicial duties.
By his Grace's death the offices of Lord Lieutenant and
custos rotuloruni of the county of Buckingham have become
vacant. An Order of the Garter is also placed at the disposal
of Ministers. The elevation of the Marquis of Chandos to
the Peerage makes, of course, a vacancy in the representation
of Buckinghamshire. Ministers, notwithstanding their former
defeats, will probably try once more to force'one of their crea-
tures upon that county, but none, save a Conservative, has the
slightest chance of representing a constituency so sincerely
devoted as the freeholders of Buckinghamshire are to the pre-
servation of our ancient institutions in Church and State.
While they lament over the memory of the departed, they will
not forget to vindicate the Conservative and Constitutional
principles, which, as a British Peer and patriot, he loved and
cultivated.

AGRICULTURE AND 11ORTICUL-
TURE.

Yesterday the Anniversary Festival of the Society of
Agriculturists and Horticulturists was celebrated at the Crown
and Anchor Tavern, in the Strand. Mr. GLENNY in the
Chair. The company was very numerous. After theremoval
of the cloth, " Non Nobis Domino" was given in a style of
first-rata excellence by Messrs. Robinson, Ransford, Pyne,
Green, Turner, Walsh, Willing, and other vocalists.
The licalths of her Majesty the Queen, the Queen Dowager,
and other loyal and constitutional toasts, were severally
proposed, and drunk with enthusiasm. Then followed
" Success to Agriculture and Horticulture," given by the
CHAIRMAN, who took occasion to notice with satisfaction
the increasing interest manifested for those pursuits,
especially the latter, not only in Europe, but in both the
Americas. A variety of other toasts, in connection with the
objects of the Society, were likewise given. Mr. Francis,
an extensive fruit grower in East Kent, in responding to
the toast of his health, stated that he had that day made
one of a deputation to the President of the Board of Trade,
in reference to the most oppressive operation of the fruit
duty clause in the Customs Duties Bill. The Right Hon.
Gentleman promised to call the attention of the Chancellor
of the Exchequer to the subject ; though at the same time
he did not hold out much hopes of an amelioration of the
evil complained of; in compliance with his requsst he (Mr.
Francis), in conjunction with other extensive growers in East
Kent, had engaged to place before the Right Honourable
Gentleman a full and fair statement of the grievous effects
of the clause in question upon a large and most meritorious
chi's of persons. The health of Mr. Glcnny was next pro-
posed, and that gentleman acknowledged the honour with
much spirit. He intimated to the company that in the early
part of the day a meeting of gardeners and florists had taken
place, at which it was resolved that a petition to Parliament be
presented, praying fora protecting duty on all fruit imported,
which was imperatively called for by reason of the distress and
injury inflicted upon the English grower, in consequence of
its repeal. At the same meeting it appeared also that a
Society for the Relief of Indigent Gardeners was established,
and subscriptions to a considerable amount handed in.
" Dr. Sigmond and the Medico-botanical Society," " The
Metropolitan Society of Florists," and a number of local toasts
followed in succession. The hilarity of the meeting way pro-
longed to a late hour. The vocalists above-mentioned gave a
number of e'erlin,7 English glees and sales in capital stale;
and in addition, Mr. Hudson, the prince of comic singers and
good fellows, sang several of his choicest songs in his happiest
vein.

THE LAWS.

( Prom the Tidies. )
Twetay-thiCe years aee this journal was found'. amotig
the cost strenuous otii,onente of the oppressive s eateru of
Corn-'enes, and nothing has since happened to impair, but
everything to confirm, the censures we then, and have ever
since, bestowed upon them. The present movement of
the country for a redress of the grievance arises not from
party or factious impulses—it is a teenuine and intelligent
effort to sheke cif a painful load. The Tended proprietary,
which attempts to stop the progress of this popular deter-
mination, mistakes very glaringly its own interest, and we
are sure exaggerates its own power. A law- establishing 3
monopoly for the supply of food in favour of (me particular
class of the community is redly nothing bett.er, thought!
may not sound so monstrous, as a similar monopoly nessessed
by Mehemet Ai. It is argued, that if we repeal the Cora-
Lev, hslf the tillage lands cf Britain e'euld become waste ;
hat mililuee of capital laid out iu farm-buildings, in uteri'
sib of husbandry, and in complicated improvements, on the
With of a protecting law, will have been altogether wasted;
and that landlords and farmers will be involved in a com-
mon ruin. The answer is plainly, that a large proportion of
the Lauds of this country, now under tillage, ought never to
have be en token ()tit of pasture—that such soils are fitted
nay, in the actual state of England, have long been re-
ytirrd, for feeding lean stock ; the application of them to
which essential purpose would have tended to reduce the
price of butcher's meat, now almost inaccessible to the
labouring classes, instead of enhancing, as does their net'
version to tillage, the price of bread, on which the main"'
nanee of human life itself is dependent. How would our land
owners like to see a portion of the stiff elay-soil of Wiltshire
tut ned into vineyards, with tie grapes thereon raised node:*
glass, and a prohibitory duty on all foreign wines impose";
for the sake of encouraging the home producer, who would
thus be enabled to charge these same British landlords 50
per rant. more than the price of the highest flavoured
foreign claret, champagne, &c., for his sour and unpalatable
beverage ? Just a parallel cage is that of bolstering up hY
bounties and prohibitions the costly and inferior grain crop*
of our coarser soils, meny of which would supply our al
clusttious countrymen with beef on moderate terms. The
objection, therefore, to the existing mismanagement of oar
resources amounts to tlys—that the withdrawal of feeding
lends from pasture, and their conversion to the plough, for,
which they are not fitted, create.; the twofold evil 0'
rendering both animal food and cons unnaturally dear--ethe
first from actual scarcity, the second ,from the cost of its
production. Then, as to the combined scale and mechanist°,
of the present fluctuating duty, must it, not be coast-
dered intolerable that when wheat is at 70s. in Eng'
land, and possibly abroad at 405., the tax een imported
corn should be 103. more, besides freight and other
charges? Are the millions of bread-caters in England.
while corn waits to be purchased in foreign markets at 40se
to be debarred of all access to it at a less cost when it tomes
here than 80s., because our landed proprietors and farmers
have so contrived their mutual relations that we. calm"'
have English wheat for less than 70s. ? A fixed dutY"--
but it ought to be a moderate one, if any—is preferehle
to a varying one. It must not, of course, be a protecting,
duty, and it ought not, we think, to be a duty for revenue:,
but merely such a duty as will cover those taxes ft"'"'
which the agricultural intereet may fairly claim to be re-
lieved when the existing Corn-laws shall be repealeu"
As for a fall of rents, we believe that it noiglit;
at first be a natural effect of the proposed Meastl.rer
but if it were, it would not negative the justil
of the repeal. Thee °
e question is one, in fact, "c
rght, and of humanity, which no considerations ,*
artificial expediency can fairly be suffered to, withstand'
Again, there would be much greater steadiness in the
proceedings of the agriculturists of great Britain. Wh,e,./:
the trade in corn had the whole cont.nent for its field,
current of supply and demand would exhibit a greater re.
gularity, and hazardous speculations would have fewer at"
tractions for the farmer ; the results of a widened theatre,
of experiment would assume more the character of fi-le
and unvarying laws. At all events, the alteration must he/
made. lime people of England in their own persons, en".
we trust by their representatives, will, ere long, have eo de'
&ded, and the advantages immediately derived from it bf
our exporting manufacturers will soon, by the increase'
home demand for feted, react, as well upon the proprietersi
as on the cultivators of the soil of England. We seal
just add, that the manoeuvres now set on foot, and actively
prosecuted by the Queen's Ministers, to degrade this vast
national question into an instrument of their own fiction*
and jobbing selfishness, will recoil upon them fearfully be'
fore they are one month older.