The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-23 00:00:00

sels on the high seas, in time of peace, has been de-
clared illegal by the highest judicial authority that ever
presided over the English Court of Admiralty.
S. Because the exercise of such right is liable
to be resented and retaliated by all the Powers of the
world, including those with which her Majesty is bound
by treaties ; each authorizing restricted and regulated
mutual search of merchant vessels in certain 'oat ities,
in order to suppress the traffic called the slave-trade.
WELLINGTON, REDESDALE,
HAWARDEN, FITZGERALD,
BEVERLEY, ORMOND,
GLENGALL, CANTERBURY.
PARLIAMENTARY PAPER.

REPORT of the SELECT COMMITTEE ap•
pointed to inquire into the proceedings in the Action
of STOCKDALE v. HANSARD, and who were
empowered to report their opinion thereupon from
time to time to the House.
Your Committee, in their Report of the 15th of
June, in which they submitted for the consideration of
the House their views as to the different lines of con-
duct which might be pursued with respect to the
damages awarded against the defendants in the action
of Stockdale v. Hansard, expressed their hope that they
might shortly be enabled to present
,to the House a
further Report, in which it was their intention to have
entered into the consideration of the important general
questions which have been raised by these proceedings.
They have now to entreat the indulgence of the House
in stating that this ho-.e has been disappointed, and that
they have not found it possible to complete the task
which they were called upon to undertake.
The consideration which they have already given to
this important subject has been sufficient to satisfy
their own minds that the opinion upon it, expressed
by a former Committee, and confirmed by a vote of
the House in the year 1837, was strictly in accordance
with the law and with the Constitution of this country ;
but they have found that much more labour and research
than they had anticipated will be required in preparing
such an exposition as they would wish to furnish of the
grounds upon which this conclusion is to be supported,
and in weighing, as they deserve, the reasons assigned
for the contrary judgment which has been pronounced
by the Court of Queen's Bench. The late period of
the Session at which this inquiry was commenced, and
the professional avocations of some of their Members,
whose legal and constitutional learning rendered their
assistance of the greatest value to them, have made it
impossible for your Committee satisfactorily to accom-
plish an undertaking which has proved thus laborious.
Under these circumstances it has appeared to them
that it will be advisable rather to postpone for a time
making their final report, than to present one which
they know must necessarily be incomplete and unsatis-
factory to themselves, upon a question so deeply affect-
ing the authority of the House, and its means of dis-
charging the high duties with which it is intrusted.
Your Committee are not insensible to the inconve-
nience of this delay, but upon the whole they think is
will be attended with less disadvantage than must result
from their attempting to agree to a Report without
having been able to give it all the consideration it re-
quires ; and they are the more disposed to come to this
conclusion in consequence of the opportunity which
has recently been afforded to the House of manifesting
its determination to maintain its privileges by its own
authority. They trust that the resolutions which the
House adopted, updn the notice given to Messrs. Han-
sard of another action for the publication of a Report
printed by order of the House, will serve as a warning
of the consequences to which any similar proceedings
will expose the parties by whom they may be attempted.
For these reasons, your Committee beg leave respect-
fully to request that they may be permitted to defer,
for the present, the further prosecution of their inquiry,
in order that the consideration of this subject may be
resumed in the commencement of the ensuing Session.
August 20, 1839.

COMMUNICATION WITH THE

WEST INDIES.

We have learned from an authentic source, and corn
municate to our readers with much satisfaction, the
fact that Government have concluded a contract with a
powerful Company, established under the direction of
some of the first-rate merchants and capitalists in the
City, to convey the mails by steam twice every month
from England to the West Indies, and from the West
Indies to the United States and Halifax, by very power-
ful steam•vessels, which are to be built for this special
purpose. This extensive and well-combined operation
embraces every colony, British and foreign, and the
coast of America , from Surinam to New Orleans ; at
the same time furnishing all these countries with a con-
nected line of packets for correspondence and passen-
gers with each other aud with New York and Halifax,
as well as with Europe, by the direct line from this
country to and from the West Indies. The course of
post with the West Indies from London to London
again will be 58 days, with abundance of time at every
place (from three days to fifteen days, as may be—
Jamaica will have ten days) to reply to letters; and
besides their ordinary course of post, as just mentioned,
Barbadoes, Grenada, St. Thomas, and Porto Rico, and
also a portion of Hayti, will be able to communicate
with London in 43 days.
We hear also that it is contemplated to connect with
this plan a line of sailing packets from Panama to Syd-
ney, by which the course of post between that place and
London might be brought to about five months.
The bargain made for the performance of this most
important and wide extended service is, we hear, rea-
sonable on the part of the contractors and liberal on
the part of Government. It is also but justice to the
latter to state that they entered into this great measure
with the utmost readiness, and with the most anxious
desire to benefit and to advance the great commercial
and colonial interests of this country ; and as the plan
and all its combinations become knownrthese, we feel
convinced, will be acknowledged by all to be the greatest
boon ever conferred by any Government upo❑ the
colonial and the commercial interests of this country.
On the British colonies in the western world, and
all South America, and every place on the Gulf
of Mexico, it must confer inestimable and lasting
benefits. Placed in the heart as it were of the great
continent of America, the moving power of this
mighty combination and rapid communication will spread
its invigorating influence to places and to vast and rich
countries hitherto comparatively unknown and inaecesti-
ble, and from which every nation in the world, and
Great Britain in particular, will derive the greatest ad-
vantages. It will tend to the peaceable consolidation el
the different States of the New 'World, by increasing
the industry and the wealth of their people ; and, conse-
quently, enabling these States to repay the heavy debts
which they owe to British subjects. The whole plan
will be found to be worthy of this country, and to confer
credit and honour upon the Government and the Post-
office establishment thereof, and alto upon every one
' who has been engaged in planning and arranging this
most important measure.

HARKAWAY.—A Correspondent of the Pos
ob=serves that the only safeguard is not to bet on any race
where this horse is entered ; he has been kept out of the
handicaps, and " pity 'tis" he could not be kept out of
England.
IMPROVIDENCE OF THE MANUFACTURING
CLAsmEs.—With the exception, perhaps, of a tew particular
branches, I think it will be generally allowed that the earn-
ings of these employed in manufactures are adequate, with
prudence and economy, to provide a sufficiency of wholesome
food and clothing, and to procure ail the necessaries of life.
But these classes are notoriously improsodent ; even in
times of the greatest prosperity they rarely show any dispo-
sition to practise economy in the management of their house
hold, or have the prud• nee to make any provisions for periods
of.4kneekur 4her_accidental causes, which may occur to
putiritop to their eariiiiies. A large proportion even of
those who regularly receive high wages are constantly in a
state of the greatest poverty, and often bordering on actual
starvation ; their houses are almost destitute of furniture,
comfortless, and uncleanly—too often damp, cold, and ill
ventilated. Many of them live in dark cellars, in the
midst of filth and putrefaction, by which the atmo-
sphere is rendered foul and unfit for respiration—a
due circulation, of air being impossible. Their families
are ill fed, scantily clothed, and badly lodged ; three
or four persons being frequently crowded together
in the same bed, which is often filthy, and deficient
of covering. They live much on innutritious and
indigestible food, and often use articles of bad quality,
or such as are rendered unwholesome by adulteration,
or by being kept too long. They are extremely in-
temperate in their habits ; and, instead of purchasing
wholesome food and proper clothing, the greater part of
the wages is often expended by anticipation at the public
house. The effect of the intoxicating liquids they con-
sume is, of course, to produce a temporary excitement of
the whole system, which is succeeded by a corresponding
depression ; they lose all relish for plain nutritious food, and
their appetites can be stimulated only by something savoury
and piquant. This kind of diet does not afford sufficient
nutriment to repair the losses the body is continually sus-
taining ; great langour and debility are the consequence--
for the removal of which stimulants are again had recourse
to, and thus an alternately excited and depressed state of
the system is kept up.
y this mode of life too, the di-
gestive organs become impaired ; and thermed, function
th of di-
gestion is so feebly and imperfectly pe
rfoat even
much less nutritive matter is extracted from the
indiges-
tible and impoverished diet they use, than would be the
case, if the stomach and its appendages were in a healthy
and vigorous condition. Then, again, though many are oc-
, copied in sedentary employments, and pass the greater part
of tke day in heated, crowded, and ill-ventilated rooms,
they take no regular exercise ; they never breathe the fresh
and invigorating air of the country, but constantly, day
after
day, inhale the same vitiated and loaded atmosphere.
The vital function of respiration—that last and most im-
portant process of assimilation, which has for its object the
se;yruification of the chyle, and rendering it At for the nou-
rish:smolt of the body—is thus very imperfectly performed.
Yet an uncontaz,ninated atmosphere for the lungs is as es-
sential to the maintenznce of health, as a supply of whole-
some food to the stomach; and it isimpossible the frame
can continue vigorous under such a regimen. It is of little
avail that nutritious food be digested and converted into
chyle, if it is not further prepared for being changed into
bleod, by exposure to the action of pure air in the lungs.
Remarks by a:Physidan.