The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1839.

was altogether unfounded, and quite inconsistent with
the character of our countrymen. If Mr. M'Culloch's
opinion were acknowledged to be correct, there was an
end to all chance of transacting the ordinary business
of life ; since, if men could not be found to fulfil
their duty without a cheek, what became of nine-
tenths of the duties which we entrusted to paid-servants !
* # * * * *
___ .

This seemed to impute that not only letter-carriers, but
the whole community, were so devoid of all principle,
that unless men could get sixpence by it, they would not
be honest ; that if a letter was left for him, which in
reality belonged to some one else, as the letter was paid,
and be should not get the postage returned, he would
not do an act of justice by returning the letter to the
Post-office. It appeared to him that those two assump-
tions were as groundless as they were unjust on the part
of Mr. M'Culloch, and they were very like bringing an
accusation of criminality against a whole country. It
was Burke, he believed, who declared that he did not
know how to draw up a❑ inditment against a whole
people ; and if Mr. Nl.Culloch had here brought an
unfounded charge against a whole people, he thought
they were at least entitled to an apolozr from him.

CASE OF ARISTOCitAI'IC OP

PRESSION:

(From the Staffordshire Examiner.)
With feelings of shame and sorrow we refer our
readers and contemporaries to the report of a case heard
before the Westbromwich Magistrates on Tuesday,
which appears in another column of our paper. It seems
that a poor max was engaged by sonic parties con-
cerned in the opposition to the election of Lord
Dartmouth's nominee as churchwarden at Westbrom•
with, to publish a number of circulars containing the re-
print, from the Leeds Mercury, of an apparently very
flagrant case of oppression on the part of his Lordship
towards a Dissenting congregation in a Yorkshire parish.
The appearance of this report must of course have been
very obnoxious to his Lordship. He went forth to the
public as having been engaged in a gross act of persecu-
tion, to which accusation no refutation had been opposed.
Under these circumstances. what will the public sup-
pose was the course pursued by the Noble Earl or his
agents, for whose conduct of course, he must be taken
to be responsible ? Why, advantage has been taken of
the statute of George 111., which imposes a penalty on
the dissemination of printed papers not authenticated
with the printer's name, to convict the distributor in a
mitigated (!) penalty of ten pounds for each paper so
proved to be distributed, in the event of the non-pay-
ment of which penalty within a week he will be incar-
cerated for an indefinite period! Nothing libellous has
been proved to have been published in the handbill, and a
perusal of it will show to! our readers. that it is by no
means violent or rancorous in its expressions; nay, that the
principal charges it publishes against the Noble Earl
have already appeared, and gone forth to the world
without contradiction or comment, through the medium
of that widely-circulated and most respectable paper,
the Leeds Mercury. And yet with these facts before
the public, advantage has been taken of a mere flaw, and
a penalty has been imposed upon a poor man who could
not be charged as either author or printer of the offen-
sive paper, under one of the most cruel laws which dis-
grace our statute book—a law, of which a celebrated
Judge has said, " it is so obnoxious as seldom to be en-
forced"—a law, which having been raked from its ob-
scurity, and taken advantage of by the common in-
formers of the metropolis, the Solicitor-General deemed
it desirable, on Wednesday last, to move for leave to
bring in a Bill to amend and modify !!
It should be here mentioned that Wilkes, though in
an humble sphere of life, is a great favourite with the
majority of the parishioners, from the bold and indepen-
dent spirit which he has always shown in resisting op-
pression, and in particular for his opposition to Church-
rates. Several years ago he refused to pay a Church-
rate, and in consequence his household furniture was
sold under a distress warrant. His example shamed
and stimulated others in a higher walk in life to resist
this odious tax, and from that time Church-rates were
abolished in this parish. He e was supposed for this
cause to be an object of peculiar dislike to our lay rector,
the Earl of Dartmouth.

The first information was quashed on the ground that
the name of the informer was incorrectly set forth, and
the second shared the same fate, on the ground of some
alleged tampering with a witness on the part of the
Earl of Dartmouth's mine agent. On this being an-
nounced, the audience expressed their exultation by loud
cheers. The third and fourth informations were sub-
stantiated, on which Mr. G. Baker, the Eirl of Dart-
mouth's solicitor, applied (as we understand) to the
Magistrates to fine in thepd/amount of the penalty, for
making which application he was severely taken to task
by Mr. Edmonds.
The defendant stated that he was a poor man with
nine children ; that the papers were sent to him, he did
not know by whom ; that he did not know the name of
the author or the printer, and never heard of the Act
of Parliament before,
The Magistrates, however, did not appear to consider
these circumstances as any extenuation, but convicted
him in the penalty of ten pounds on each information,
allowing him one week to pay the money, at the end of
which time he would be sent to gaol if it be not paid.
We rejoice to learn, however, that the inhabitants of
Westbromwich have commenced a public subscription
of one penny from each contributor to pay the fines and
espenscs, and to present Wilkes with a handsome sum
of money, to show their opinten of 'the- means to which
his accuser has resorted.

The following is the handbill alluded to :
Westbronvich March 14, 1839.

" Friends and Neighbours—As the time is ap-
proaching at which'it •may be•expected that the persons
who so arrogantly style themselves the friends of the
Church,' will, at the instigation of our lay-rector, the
Earl of Dartmouth, propose that you should elect as
your Churchwarden some servile tenant of his Lordship,
in order that my Lord may the more easily renew the
attempt to tax )on by means of a Church-rate ; and as
I fear that some of you may be induced by a love of ease
and a dislike of a public contest, to rem tin in your
peaceful homes instead of attending the vestry meeting
and resisting the imposition, I think this a proper time
to hold up to your imitation the uncompromising firm-
ness of the poor Dissenters of Morley, in Yorkshire, un-
der the cruel oppression of the present Earl of Dart-
mouth. I have reason to think that a very small num-
ber only of the inhabitants of th's parish have heard of
this transaction, and as I wish to hold up his Lordship's
conduct to the reprobation -which it deserves, I think I
cannot do better than reprint the notice of it, which ap-
peared in the Leeds ,Mercury, in June, 1884."
[The extract front the Leeds Mercury is too long for
us to insert. The whole gist of the case lying in that
which is already stated.]

LIFE OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.—Mr.
Colburn has just published the First Part, price 2S. Gal.,
embellished with a fine Portrait of " The Life of the
Duke of Wellinelon " , , embracing his military, civil, and po-
litical career to the present time. Theloxrkande
is under
ofthe
the
appropriate editorship of Sir James
42d Royal Highlanders. As the leader of armies the cha-
racter of the Duke of Wellington was known to all the
world; but his disposition, his qualities as a man, his con-
duct as a statesman and diplomatist, remained yet to be
pourtrayed. To supply this desideratum is the object of
the present biography, which, not confining its scope to
the display of that genius which conceived and executed the
plans that were crowned with legit's", success at Waterloo,
and decided the future destinies of 'Europe, endeavours to
hying into fuller view all the most striking points of the
character of the individual. The work is to be completed
in 12 Monthly Parts, at 25. 6d. each, beautifully embel-
lished with Portraits, Battle Scenes, &c., by Landseer,
Warren, Landells, and other eminent artists.
COLBURN'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE FOR
MAY, it seems, is to present us with the first of a new se-
ries of papers by Mrs. Trollope, entitled " The Widow
Married," being a continuation of the celebrated " Widow
Barnaby." The last we heard of her was her auspicious
marriage with the notorious Major Allen ; and much we
regretted that the close of the third volume of her memoirs
shut out from our view the connubial felicity of the well-
matched couple. The curtain,hovrever, is about to rise again,
arid the whole novel-reading world will welcome with a
shout of applause the re-appearance in the "New Monthh"
of the bouncing Barnaby, now fat, fair, and—(vo dare not
for our eyes meddle with so delicate a subject as the
Barnaby's chronology)—and blessed with so meet a help_
mate. The story will be illustrated by numerous etchings 1
by Buss. r,
~.
TILE PHANTOM 0111 P, BY CAPT. NIA tt-
INYAT, IL N.—This interesting narrative, of which we have
_
inviig
before made frequent mention in terms of great and de
served praise, appears before us in the n shape of
three orthodox post octavo volumes.. It certainly possesses
all those characteristics of the peculiarity of captain ~ar.
ryat's genius and style of writing,' with ellich o Peter ''siim.
~ Mr. Midshipman Easy," so abounded. There
I "and
Sim-
ple," e, . .
gss a freshness
is a freshness about all our author's writn
of feeling
as well as of thought, a power to develop° elm-
racter also, and a perpetual cheerfulness and vein of „
phantomp lotss to rivet
hu-
mour, which assd-t the startling interest of his s
the attention of the reader. The
certainly the best of Captain Marryat's novels, the most
masterly written, and of the most various originality._
Court Journal.
It is rumoured that another Miss Lyons is about
of the Earl of Or-
to enter the holy estate ; the eldest son
ford Wing named as the gentleman. The complaint seems
raging at Athens, and we only trust Sir Edmund has more
daughters for our young nobles. James It Bradford, Esq .
of the Royal Horse Guards (Blue), eldest son of Si;
Thomas Bradford, Bart., is pronounced the affianced
hus-
band of the daughter of Mrs. Russell Ellice, of concert-
giving notoriety. The marriage is not to be solemnised
until after Christmas, by which period the gentleman will
have assumed the name of Atkinson, and succeeded to a
large property.
Yesterday, a pollacea, bearing the flan. 1 •
0 of his
1 Holiness the Pope—the keys of St. Peter surmounted by
the mitre—arrived at Greenock from Ancona, loaded with
wheat and flour. At the time (three mouths) when this
vessel sailed from Ancona, a vast number of both Foreign
and British vessels, loaded with wheat and flour, sailed for
various ports in Britain, but, owing to the contrary winds,
few of them have arrived. This is much to be regretted,
as the working of the obnoxious Corn-laws will cause this
supply of grain to be bonded. This vessel is supposed to
be the first bearing the flag of the Pope that has visited
; the Clyde since the Revolution.—Glasgow Chronicle.

CORN-LAWS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—Knowing the interest you take in the diffusion
of a right knowledge of the probable effects consequent
upon a repeal of the existing Corn-laws, at the request
of several inhabitants of Cheltenham, ardently interested
in the question, I trouble you with the statement of an
event, than which nothing more prejudicial to the cause
could have transpired in our town, hoping that it may
call forth a satisfactory explanation from the parties im-
mediately interested in the matter.
During the past week placards were posted in all
directions, announcing that Mr. Paulton would lecture
upon the Corn-laws, at the Assembly Rooms, " on the
evening of Thursday, the 18th of April, 1839 ;" acord-
ingly, long before the hour specified, hundreds were
wending their way to hear a man, of whom, through the
medium of your widely circulated Paper, they had been
led to form a high opinion of his power to deal with a
subject, which the fact of there being at least 1,000
present long before the time specified—fully proves
them to have taken a deep interest in. You may
imagine then the general disappointmeat felt, and more
especially the chagrin of those who were known by
their fellow-toa nsmen to ha the advocates of the views
which have been so ably from time to time expressed
in your columns, on finding that, although in addi-
tion to the posting of bills, a communication had
been received from the Corn-law Association of Man-
chester, engaging the room for two nights, and yet at
the time advertized Mr. Paulton was not forthcoming,
nor was any explanation furnished by letter or otherwise
explanatory of the cause of his absence.
Now, Sir, I the more regret this strange occurrence,
because, happening, as the advertized time did, upon
our market-day, and situated as Cheltenham is in the
centre of a most populous agricultural district, many
most respectable and wealthy farmers delayed their de-
parture after the conclusion of the market, for the ex-
press purpose of hearing the Lecturer's arguments against
their now cherished opinions.
And these are the men who require, more than any
others, information upon a subject, which to them (not
less than us) is of paramount importance, and upon
which it is natural (and I say it not to their disparage-
ment) they should feel a prejudice, uncommon to the
rest of the community, in favour of a law which from
childhood they have been taught to consider the ground-
work of agricultural prosperity ; a notion so palpably
erroneous, that we were led to imagine the correct
data and cogent arguments adduced by the Lecturer,
would at any rate have set their thinking faculties in
operation, and thus eventually they might have been
brought to admit, that whilst the existing protecting
duties, have, like an incubus, crippled our trade and
commerce, and is destroying the energies, physical,
moral, and mental, of the labouring population, it has
failed altogether in giving that protection to the farmer
which the originators of the present Corn-laws, with a
view to enlist their sympathy and support, boldly asserted
that it would.

Another most potent cause of regret we have at Mr.
Paulton's non-arrival is, that the Chartists of our town
attended the meeting to listen to, and not disturb the
proceedings, as has been the case so frequently at meet-
ings of a similar character in other places, and I
would that those who have enrolled themselves under
the Chartist banner generally acted as worthily on all
occasions, as the working men of Cheltenham, not
taking their tone from this or that demagogue's ill-
judged advice, but thinking and acting for themselves,
instead of rashly following in the wake of dangerous
and interested leaders ; then indeed would the middle
classes of society join heart and hand with them in en-
deavouring not only to ameliorate their particular con-
dition, but, aided by them, how satisfactory would be
the progression of those great and salutary reforms,
which alone can bind together the links of society,
strained almost to breaking, by the ill-advised doctrines
of finality in legislation, and elevate the condition alike
of the farmer, the artizan, and the labourer—the manu-
facturer, the merchant, and the landlord, to a pitch of
.greatness, prosperity, and consequent happiness, un-
equalled in past ages or at the present, and which,
great as it is and has been (despite the difficulties en-
countered), is but as a shadow compared with what it
would be, when the trammels at present existing shall
be removed, and the untiring energy, skill, and enter-
prise of our people, shall have that full development
which can alone be brought about by suffering, without
let or hindrance, the free interchange between nation
and nation of those commodities which one alone may
have in abundance, and the other be anxious to possess.
SAMUEL ONLEY, Jun.
Cheltenham, 23d April, 1832.
P.S. I should have written you earlier, but that I
waited until after the 22d, the day on which the last
lecture was to have been delivered, hoping, did he not
come then, that the cause would have been made known.