The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-25 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS

to enable Justices of the Peace in Petty Ses-
sions to make Orders fur the Support of Bastard
Children.
Note.—The words printed in Italics are proposed to be
inserted in the Committee.]
Whereas it is expedient to give more speedy and
effectual means for obtaining orders upon the putative
fathers of bastard children, for their support and main-
tenance ; Be it enacted, by the Queen's most excellent
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords
spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Par-
liament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That
after the passing of this Act, when any child shall have
been born a bastard shall, by reason of the inability of the
mother of such child to provide for its maintenance, be-
come chargeable to any parish, the Guardians of any Union
in which such parish may be situate, or if there shall be no
such Guardians, then the Guardians or Overseers of such
parish, may, if they think proper, after diligent inquiry as
to the father of such child, apply to the Justices of the
Peace holding any Special or Petty Session in and for the
division or borough within which such union or parish
shall be situated, after such child shall have become
chargeable, for an order upon the person whom they shall
charge with being the putative father of such child, to re-
imburse such union or parish for its maintenance and sup-
port ; and the Justices then and there assembled, not being
less than two, shall proceed with respect to the applica-
tion, and shall have all the powers and duties in regard
thereunto which are given to the Court of General Quarter
Sessions by an Act passed in the fifth year of the reign of
his late Majesty, intituled, " An Act for the Amendment
and better Administration of the Laws relating to the Poor
in England and Wales;" and all enactments in the said
Act relating to the Court of General Quarter Sessions
shall be taken to apply to the said Justices in Special or
Petty Session, except that the notice to the person in-
tended to be charged with being the father of the child
need not be given more than seven days instead of fonrteen
days before the Session at which the application shall be
heard ; and after the passing of this Act it shall not be
lawful to make any such application to any Cuurt of Ge-
neral Quarter Sessions, nor shall any Court of General
Quarter Sessions have any authority to make any order
upon any such application.
And be it enacted, That this Act may be amended or
repealed by any Act to bc passed in this present Session of
Parliament.

UNLAWFUL MEETINGS.
RETURN to an Address of the Honourable The House of
Commons, dated 19 July, 1839;—for
Copy of a Letter from her Majesty's Principal Secretary
of State fur the Home Department to Colonel Rolles-
ton, M P„ dated Whitehall, June 3, 1839, on the sub-
ject of Unlawful Meetings.
Whitehall, July 22, 1839.

" Whitehall, June 3, 1839.
" Sir—l have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 29'h ultimo, in which you request, in
consequence of communications which you have had with
the Magistrates of the county of Nottingham, to receive
from me information relative to my circular letter of the
7th ultimo.
" With reference to the second paragraph of my letter,
you wish to be informed, whether it is to be understood,
supposing sonie of the persons attending a numerous meet-
ing are armed with offensive weapons, that this circum-
stance will give a character of illegality to the meeting
generally. The meaning of the paragraph, I think, will
fully appear on reference to the Proclamation, to which I
have therein referred. The unlawful meetings described
in the Proclamation, are meetings attended by large num-
bers of persons, which, by exciting to *breaches of the
peace, and by their riotous proceedings, have caused great
alarm (some of the persons attending being armed with
offensive weapons). As undoubtedly meetings may be un-
lawful, though no persons present should be armed ; so,
on the other band, the presence of some persons armed
might not be of itself, and singly, enough to make the
general meeting unlawful, if in other respects the meeting
were lawful ; for it is possible the attendance; of such
persons might be entirely unconnected with the general
purposes and objects of the meeting.
" Upon the next paragraph of my circular letter, in
which general reference is made to the various kinds of
unlawful meetings, you inform me the Magistrates are very
desirous to receive from me a more explicit opinion as to
the circumstances which will give to meetings the charac-
ter of illegality, and will therefore justify the Magistrates
in acting, or rather will require them, in obedience to the
law, to act for the maintenance of the public peace. Upon
this subject, perhaps, I ought to refer the Magistrates ge-
nerally to books of authority which treat of unlawful
meetings (such books as Mr. Russell on Criminal Law,
Burn's Justice, &c.) On consulting these books, and the
authorities therein referred to, it appears to me the result
is this ; namely, that all assemblies, not held by lawful
authority, attended by great numbers of people, with such
circumstances of terror as are calculated to excite alarm
and to endanger the public peace, are prohibited by the
common law, and are unlawful, even though they proceed
to no act of destruction or injury of persons or pr( perty.
" This was the opinion of the Judges on the Special
Commision in 18.31: it is therefore of great authority,
and may safely be relied on by the Magistrates.
" I have the honour, &c. &c.
(Signed) J. RUSSELL."
" Col. Rolleston, M. 13.,&c."

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS

TIMES.-_A very extraordinary and unusual operation
on the part of the Bank of England has been reported to-
day ( Wednesday) in the city, and there is every reason to
believe that the circumstances connected with it are, in
substance at least, correct. An arrangement is said to
have been entered into with the Bank of France to allow
bills to be dawn upon it, not directly, for that the charter
will not permit, but indirectly through certain houses in
Paris, the means of payment to be provided by the French
Bank. These bills have necessarily the same cifeet in this
market as an exportation of gold in drawing in bank-notes,
the value being paid to the Bank of England ; and also the
effect of ordinary commercial bills in raising the exchanges.
The other consequences of the operation, of a far more se-
rious nature, are that the Bank of England is placed in the
situation of a borrower from the Bank of France, and, like
all other borrowers from banks, must put in a security for
repayment, which is understood in this case to be such a
portion of the " dead weight" annuity as may be sufficient
for the purpose ; altogether amounting to this—that the
Bank of England, holding a larger amount or securities
than can be with convenience managed, "re-discount"
them, and become something like M. Lafitte when corn-
pelled lately to ask assistance from the French chartered
bank, or like any of those banks at home to whom the
corporation in Threadneedle-street have themselves occa-
sisopoppoesreadti,ohnahvaes
hgeievnensoi
occa-
sionally given aid. But for the draughts on Paris, to
which
rise, the
ea
t
not, it is supposed, the
nego-
tiated yesterday.
ASSIZE INTELLIGPNCE.

OXFORD CdRCUIT.--STAju
Mrs. Sarah Hawkins, an elderly lady,RD
whe was attired
in mourning, surrendered to take her trial on the charge
of the wilful murder of Mrs. Catherine Goodall, by poison-
ing her with arsenic.
It appeared that the deceased, who was an old lady, had
come by her death by partaking of cheesecakes which had
contained the poison, the only evidence to implicate Mrs.
Hawkins being that of her having made the cheesecakes ;
but to countervail this it appeared that she had herself

POOR-LAW COMMISSION CONTINUANCE
BILL.
Clause to be proposed by Lord John Russell.
And be it enacted, That in the ease of any widow or
able-bodied person who shall respectively have been mar-
ried before the fourteenth day of August in the year one
thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, and who shall be
unable by his or her industry to maintain his or her chil-
dren, the issue of such marriage, it shall be lawful for the
guardians of the union or parish to which such widow or
able-bodied person is chargcab!e, if they shall think fit, to
give relief to such widow cut of the workhouse, or to give
relief to such widow or able-bodied person by admitting
one or more of such children into the workhouse of such
union or parish, without requiring such widow or able-
bodied person to receive relief in such workhouse,

A BILL to amend the Laws relating to the Assessment
and Collection of Rates for the Relief of the Poor.
Whereas it is expedient that more effectual provision
should he made for the assessment, allowance, amendment,
and collection of rates for the relief of the poor : Be it
enacted, by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and
with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament as-
sembled, and by the authcrity of the same, That in every
case in which any contribution by overseers or other officers
of any parish of moneys required by guardians for the per-
formance of their duties shall be in arrear, it shall be lawful
for the said guardians to levy the amount of eontribution so
in arrear by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of
the said overseers or officers, or any of them, by warrant of
any two Justices of the Peace.
And be it declared and enacted, That all orders hereto-
fore male and issued under the hands and seals of the
Poor-law Commissioners, and not rescinds dby them, or
quashed, before the 6th day of May in the present year,
by which the said Commissioners may have directed the
overseers or guardians of any parish or union to appoint
any person to collect the rates for the relief of the poor in
any parish or parishes, or shall have defined or specified or
(firmed the execution of the duties of such person, or the
places or limits within which the same shall be performed,
or shall have directed the mode of appointment, or de-
termined the continuance in office or dismissal of any such
person from his office, or the amount or nature of the
security to be given by any such person, or shall have re-
gulated the amount of salary payable to any such person,
or the time or mode or the proportions of payment thereof,
shall be deemed and the same are hereby declared to be
made in pursuance of an Act passed in the fourth and fifth
years of the reign of his late Majesty King William the
Fourth, intituled, " An Act for the Amendment and better
Administration of the Laws for the Relief of the Poor ;"
and the Commissioners shall have the same powers and
authorities with respect to all such orders, and to the per-
sons appointed in pursuance thereof, as they have with
respect to orders made and issued, and the paid officers
appointed under the provisions of the said Act ; and that
every person appointed by guardians of the poor, under
any such order of the said Commissioners, shall have the
like powers, authorities, privileges, immunities, protec-
tions, and remedies, in and for the performance of his duty
under such order, as are by law given to overseers of the
poor in the performance of the like duty.
And be it. enacted, That, except in as far as.,the provi-
sions of the said Act of the fourth and fifth years of the
reign of his late Majesty shall be hereby altered or
amended, the said Act and this Act shall be construed as
one Act.
And be it enacted, That this Act may be amended or
repealed by any Act to be passed in this Session of Par.
liament.
A BILL