The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-20 00:00:00

--EVEN ING EDITION.

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.
THIS EVENING, SEPT. '2O.
Wiii be presented an entirely new and original Nautical Drama,
in Three Acts, entitled
ARMSTRONG, THE SHIPWRIGHT.

) Reuben Armstrong., Mr. T. P. Cooke; Abel Armstrong,
Mr. E. F. Saville; Annis Mildred, Mrs. H. Vining.
After which (`.29,n time) the successful Nautical Drama of
BEN BOATSWAIN ; Or, SAILOR'S SWEETHEARTS,
Ben Bowling, Mr. T. P. Cooke.
Titl conclude with,
THE BROKEN CHAIN.

ROYAL SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
Under her MAJESTY'S IMMEDIATE PATRONAGE.
ON MONDAY, TUESDAY, and THURSDAY,
9.3 d, :2-Ith, and 9.tltb.
, GRAND PROMENADES MUSICALES ET CHAM.
PETRES,
By the unrivalled Band of this Establishment,
Conducted by Mr. Godfrey.
Exhibition of the Wonderfully-intense and beautiful new Lig'
KONIAPHOSTIC,

Under the guperintendenee of 31r. H. Carter.
And the ERUPTION of MOUNT HECLA.
Admission One Shilling.
Feeding Hour Five o'Clock—Concert at Six.
The Eruption of Heela, with all the other unique Entertain
ments, every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

HIGH WATER AT LOND:IN BRIDGE TO.NIORROW.
Morning lB minutes alter 0. I Evening ... 43 minutes atter 0.

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Zbre nu.

LONDON :
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1839.

Mr. SHILL has been re-elected for Tipperary
without opposition. We should have been much
surprised at this had we not been acquainted with
the tactics of the Tories, for up to the last they
threatened a serious.opposition. Their man was
named, and they were ready for the fight. It was
all vapour. The Tories did not dare show them-
, selves. If the Ministers lost Cambridge by a small
1 majority, they have, as Mr. SHILL said, kept Ire-
land—and kept Ireland almost unanimously--with
I them. In Tipperary with a population of 500,000,
where the Tories possess great wealth and great
estates, but where they are well known, they could
t not poll, when they mustered all their strength, 500
Ivotes. Such is the popularity of the Ministers
where they have endeavoured to do justice to the
people, and have treated them with confidence and
'kindness.
Mr. SIIIEL, at another part of his speech, could
t happily point to a diffrent proof of the same facts.
i Notwithstanding, as we mentioned on Saturday,
I that upwards of 1,100 soldiers were employed
in the first half of the year in enforcing writs of
1 ejectment issued by Noble Lords to clear their

estates, and notwithstanding the military are still
required in Ireland to collect the tithe impost,
Mr. SHIEL was able to state that now there are
only 13,000 troops in Ireland, while in 1834, under
Lord STANLEY'S ill-tempered Administration,
there were '23,000. Nearly half the military,
Itherefore, can be spared, because the Administration
merits and receives the confidence of the people.
Well might Mr. SHIEL exclaim that Lord NOR-
MANBY should have disdained all reply to the carp-
ing criticisms of the Tories :—"A larger view ought
to have been taken ; and to nothing but to the
great political results of his administration ought
any reference have been ever made. He secured
for England and for her QUEEN the attachment of
7,000,000 Irishmen--where deep discontent
had reached, he infused confidence and attachment,
and with a genuine loyalty filled the nation's
heart." A noble result, indeed, of virtues sup-
posed in the exercise to be most pleasing to their
possessor. And why should not a sinilar result
be looked for in England ? A very little,
perhaps we may call it flattering attention,
satisfies a people, and makes them patiently
submit to numerous privations, and even bear
hardships with glorious enthusiasm. On the
accession of her MAJESTY, and more especially
on her coronation, events testified that all the old
feelings of loyalty were still slumbering in the
hearts of the people, and midit be easily awakened
into renewed life and vigour. A little deference to
the privations of the people—a little economy—a
little restriction on pensioners and idlers, so that
the industrious might not be the only sufferers—a
little encouragement to the public hopes of political
improvement, would have sufficed to make the Go-
vernment almost as popular in England as it is
deservedly popular in Ireland. The lost opportu-
nity can now only be regretted ; but we would fain
hope that the Ministers, taught by the advantages
they have derived from their kindly conduct to-
wards Ireland, will think 'the affections of the
English as well worth being purchased by a show
of justice and of mercy, as the affections of the
Irish.

Our hopes are revived by Mr. SHIEL'S speech.
It is conceived in an honest and bold spirit. It
breathes defiance to the Tories, and hatred to their
crooked, coercive policy. We trust its spirit may
pervade the Ministry.
"By associating (said Mr. Spiel) with the Govern-
ment, individuals enjoying the confidence of the Irish peo-
ple the Government is strengthened, and in this view all
reference to the merits of those individuals may be pot
aside. I make no doubt that at the opening of the naxt
Session the Ministers will preSent to their antagonists a
force which will render all the efforts of their antagonists
vain.—(Cht,ers.) The Tories speak with great al.
fected reliance on their success in breaking up the Go
vernment. But they have held the same language for
three Sessions, and nona cl their predictions have
come to pass. It is true that. they have been able
to baffle the Government in the Lords, but look to the
signal success of the Ministers in various great transac-
tions, then consider how latle ground there exists for that
despondence, to which some amongst us are tco apt to give
way.—( Cheers.) , The civil aux- in Spain is at an end—
the affairs of Belgium and of Holland have b"en adjusled_
the diffcalties arising :ram the Mexican block I:*e are at an
end—the Indian expc,thion has been triumphant, ant a
trcety of inc.,lcu!,Le!e ;mportance wilh Austria ir).s been
eunciud ed. Surely the p,•opic of England will attach
more importance to those great events than to the decla-
mations Against Porry, with which an anneal has been re-
cently mace to their religious yrejudices.'
Should the Miinsttrs, as the recent appointments
made by them give us reason to suppose, be deter-
mined next Session to show a bolder front to To-
ryism. whatever guise it may assume, all may vet
be well, but unless they do, we should not be in-
clined to an-wer for the continuation of public
tr,inquillity. We recommend Mr. SHIEL'S speech
erusal. The Rialit Hon. Ge,itleman has lost
nont• of his vivacity by it s acceptance of office.

In at. other part of The Son will be found a par
tion of si...n:e Parliamemary Papers just publishee,
relative to
.t.ransportation, and assignment of con-
victs. Ti vi fslini.iters, it appears, have resolved
on modiivine, die present system of secondary
~,
punisinnents, retainn;,?; at home all the persons scn-
teneed to seven years' k.'rnprisonment, and making,
with some judicious alterations, transportation in
all cases a severe, and, as much as possible, an
equal punishment. A much smaller number of
convicts will consequercly be seat to New South
Wales ; a still smaller number wilt be at the corn-
'nand of the settlers, the plan of assigi:ing the con-
\
vi
,_ets he , destined graduaily to terminate. The
taann '
, . "''gave may give a temporary check to the progress
• ol tnat cot
us character,
but it will in the long run tend ~o
1 reacerrihicheha.racter
1 with w , and save it from the disasters
t. is threatened.
? The two letters which w '
e publish announcing
the determination and the i
are accompanied pans of Government,
.by a n
i secondaly puhi,hmote on transportation and
1 _RUSSELL to Lord GLEent transmitted by Lord JOHN
iSCOIIIIL HOWICK, and LaG' a memorandum by
1 I ICHARD BOURKE. wmemorandum of Sir
these, or a portion of them,
befpoereto be able to by
e ho
o
nioirow ; in the mean time we must
tr readers to-
remark that
th:r• do credit to Lord JOHN
LuiLl HOWICK. We shall not
RUSSELL and
hesitate to express
our von-concurrence with many of their • views on the
very important subject of punishment, but We shall
Papers
of ourselves now with saying that the '
of both these Noble Lords exhibit a strong wish
to
gut at the bottom of the subjc'ct and to form correct
opinions as to the effects of secondary punishments
now in use. Th!=: daculLes of the system are not
slurred over, but met and grappled with, arid reasons
are assigned, particularly in Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S
paper, for the conclusions to which he has come.
He may not be able much to improW our present
sy9lllkm, which is perhaps founded on ao erroneous
Conception of the very qualities and att.-ibutes of
crime, but he evinces an honest intention and en-
deavour to • improve it. He is sensible of many
of its faults and '
vices, and anxious to amcnd theru•
The Tories, like hardened sinner 5, ,have
denied that the system had any faults. They have
insisted that it was all excellencies and have
stickled as stoutly for the preservation'
lows and transportationif
t
as } of the gal-
le fate of tlw, Church 1

and the State was involved in retaining unaltered
the venerable penal systems of our ancestors, some
of which, indeed, can scarcely boast of the anti-
quity of half a century.
If Lord JOIIN RUSSELL, however, and Lord
HOWICK, find it necessary to set forth in elaborate
essays the reasons why they recommend convicts,
who are completely in the power of the State, to be
treate.l in a particular manner, will they not find it
necessary to justify still more elaborately their
policy towards all the free and independent part of
the population ? Such essays as those mark a
great change in the relation of the governed and the
governors. We are arrived now at a period when
Mr. BENTHAM'S recommendation, that the lawgiver
should assign his reasons for every law he passes,
is and must be practically carried into effect.
It deserves, then, to be cons,dered, if no new
law, and no change in the old laws can be
effected without such reasons being assigned,
whether the old laws and Constitution can be
long preserved unless they can be justified
by reason. The working classes who are now
agitating and agitated, who are stirred up into ask-
ing questions through the length and breadth of the
land, will never again sit down quietly under the
present Constitution, and under any system of
Government, nor, we may say, under any distribu-
tion of property, which cannot be defended and
justified to their inquiring minds.

The interest at present taken in monetary affairs
will make the public read with eagerness the ac-
count which appeared in our Evening Edition, of
the half-yearly meeting of the Proprietors of the
Bank of England. We have only one remark to
make. While the country is suffering, the Bank
seems to prosper. The divicknd was declared
to be 31,- per Cent., and the Rest, from
which future dividends may be taken, is in-
creased by 62,0001. The spirit which dictated the
objection to a gift of 5001. to the Church of Eng-
land, while some gentlemen of the Jewish per-
suasion reprobated the objection, is instructive.
To have an anti-Church feeling manifested in the
money corporation is the effect of the many efforts
made to excite a factitious regard and support for
the decaying Church of England.

It was our opinion from the first that the riotous
'proceedings which took place at Birmingham in
July were not to be attributed to any peculiar vio-
lence of character in the working men of that town,
but to the indiscretion of the metropolitan police,
who had unfortunately been employed to keep the
peace. The course of the investigation which is
now going on gives daily confirmation to this opinion.
The evidence which we published yesterday, as well
as that which will be found in our columns to-day,
goes to show that, until the police interfered, there
was no disposition to tumult manifested by the
persons in the habit of meeting in the Bull-ring,
and that when this disposition displayed itself it
may fairly be traced to the unnecessary, and in
some instances brutal, violence of the police. We
are sorry to speak in this way of a force to whose
moderation, forbearance, and general good conduct
we have often with pleasure borne our testimony ;
but a regard to truth extorts this language from
us. It almost appears as if the police had, on
leaving London, left most of their good qualities
behind them, as things which were not wanted
in the place whither they were going—incum-
finances which it were better to be without. They
seem to have been impressed with the idea that
die inhabitants of Birmingham had forfeited their
right to he treated like other subjects of the
realm. There was no attempt made, and ap-
parently no desire entertained, to distinguish
the innocent from the guilty—if the latter term can
be applied to persons who had offended against no
law. The staff was indiscriminately and vigorously
applied to the heads of all who came in the way.
Respectable tradesmen, passing quietly along the
streets on their ordinary business, and thinking of
anything rather than of rioting, were knocked down,
beaten in a very cruel manner when down, and then
handcuffed and driven or dragged through the town
amid the jeers and insults of the police. One of the
persons thus maltreated, WILLIANI JAMES, was
held to bail by the Magistrates for an alleged as-
sault upon one of the policemen who were guilty of
these outrages towards him, which Magistrates, he
states in his evidence on Monday last, refused to
call any other witnesses than the said pcliceman
and one of his companions. Yet when JAMES was
arraigned at the Assizes for this assault, the Coun-
sel for the prosecution declined proceeding, and thus
proved the futility of the charge and the gross in••
justice which t:iis man had suffered.

The point of most importance, however, which is
elicited in the course of these examinations is, the
fact now, we think, proved beyond dispute, that.
the riot which took place on the 15th of July,
when two houses were burnt down, and various
acts of plunder committed, was not premedi-
tated. The evidence of EDWARD SAVAGE is
conclusive on this subject. He states that when
he went to the meeting on the evening of
that day, the last speaker was descending from the
chair, the business having been completed—that im-
mediately afterwards another person got up, and
told the people to go round by certain streets which
he named, and then to disperse—that then a second
person directed them to take a different line—and
hat a third recommended a route different from
both the others. These varying directions, at such
a time, are totally irreconcileabie with the notion of
a preconcerted plan of operations. It is also to be
borne in mind, in corroboration of this view of the
matter, were any wanted, that the testimony of
Captain Moortsom is to the same effect. That
gentleman, who was in command of the special con-
stables during the whole of the disturbances, who
was in the midst of these unfortunate transactions,
and who, therefore, had the best means of ascer-
taining the real state of the case, closes his evi-
dence on Saturday last with the following emphatic
words :—" From all I knew and saw, I am of opi-
nion that the riot and destruc!ion of property on
the night of the 15th, was not premeditated."
No one, indeed, oan read the evidence of
SAVAGE without being satisfied that the violent
and lawless proceedings of that night were confined
to a very few persons—namely, the party, prenci-
pally lads, who were met and appealed to by the
man who had been roughly handled by the police,
and had been rescued from them. This was the
origin of the riot, and the thieves and other worth-
less characters, who are always ready to lend a hand
where mischief is g=oing on and booty expected,
fanned the flame. Whether there wai sufficient
promptitude on the part of the Magistrates to quell
the tumult, is a question which can only be decided
when the present investigation is concluded. We
shall therefore not enter upon it till then.

Letters and Papers from Madrid of the ll th
instant, have been received. On the previous day
the Chamber of Deputies concluded its preliminary
inquiries, elected its officers, and voted an Address
to the QUEEN, for which we shall endeavour to
make room in our columns of to-morrow. On the
11th, General ALAIX proposed the following pro-
ject of law to the Chamber, which was unani-
mously adopted, without discussion :
" Art. 1. The fueros of the Basque provinces and of
Navarre are confirmed.

" Art. 2. The Government as soon as possible will
present to the Cortes, after having, however, been first
understood with the provinces, the modifications which it
will believe indispcnsible to conciliate the interest of these
provinces with the general interest of the nation and the
pulitical constitution of the Monarchy."
This is the true way to render the peace pur-
chased by the valour of the QUEEN'S troops, and
the friendship of the British and French Govern-
ments a source of permanent happiness to Spain.

The Monifeur of Wednesday, which we have
received along with the other Paris Journals of the
same date, con:ains the following telegraphic de-
spatches :

BAYONNE, SEPT. 16, TEN A M.
THE GENERAL COMMANDING TAE 20PII DIVISION TO THE

MINISTER OF WAR.
Four Navarrese battalions have taken refuge in our ter-
ritory at Sarre. Eight battalions still remain in Navarre.
Espartero is to depart this day from Urdax t• pursue them.
THE PREFECT OF THE LOWER PIRENEES TO THE MINISTER

OP THE INTERIOR.

Don Carlos departed yesterday even nog Sep t. 17.
g at eight o' clock
for his destination.
Everything passed off in the greatest order.
The Monzteur announces that the KING of the
FRENCH has named General ESPARTERO a Grand
Cross of the Legion of Honour. Captain FOLTZ,
one of Marshal SOULT's Aides-de-Camp, left
Paris on Tuesday for the General's head-quarters,
charged to deliver him the insignia of the Order.
On the same day, the Baron DE TINAN, another
of the Marshal's Aides-de-Camp, was sent by the