The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-19 00:00:00

THE COBBET-CLUB PETITION.

SCRAPS FROM THE UNITED I
STATES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

The sill serpent was seen again yesterday off Fire
Island, by a schooner boiind Itt. This is a very singu-
lar coincidence. We are told by one who sa* the mon-
ster, that he is as long as the British Queen and Great
Western wottld be if placed together stem to stern. The
monster doubtless intends to try his speed with these
twu monstrous ships in a race across the Atlantic. It
is the only chance he has had worthy his acceptance or
powers of competition. And since this is the case we
withdraw our bets on the British Queen, and back the
American sea serpent, tail and all.
ENVIABLE! VERT !—Although the thermometer is
at 98, we are enabled to feast on ripe peaches, melons,
new apples, new potatoes, bright eyes, ice cream, warm-
hearted, beautiful girls, and tender mutton. Delicious !
very I
Hydrophobia is on the decline. Dogs are plenty, but
beef and good water are scarce.
CRITICISM ON DANIEL WEBSTEIL—The following
extract contains the best criticism on Mr. Webster's
oratory that we ever fetid Webster never talks
anything but English, and he handles it just as a strong
man handles a sledge-hammer ; that is, in an easy kind
of way, as if be was playing with it ; and
-Set the sparks
r
fly right and left from the red-hot iron. I heard vlr9b-
ster myself at Bunker-hill, when the corner stone of the
monument was laid. It was the 17th of June, 1825,
I sat right next to one of the old soldiers who was in
the battle. When the speech was over, the old patriot
pulled up the waistband of his breeches with his right
hand, and turned to me, saying,' That's a grand speech,
Ido declare. lam pretty ,deaf, you know, but I heard
seemed
t o
can weigh
we a pound."
to-day or to-mefrott,
iiotigo
it all as plain as I did the British cannon. Every word
of thatosicpteeNc.h_W
see
to be so cool and comfortable as to Hoboken ? The air
is refreshing, the distance short, the trees shady, the
tout ensemble delightful. Put on your bonnets, my girls,
and let us all go over to Hoboken to eat ice creams,
breathe pure air, sit on the grass, and—and—keep coo)
and feel comfortable.
G. T. T.—General Nathaniel Smith, late the Indian
emigrating agent for the Cherokees, has fled to Texas,
with from 40,000 to 100,000 dollars of Uncle Sam's
money in his pocket.
ARKANSAS TAVERN RATES If one inquires the
price of a dinner in Arkansas, he is thus informed by
the obliging host—S' Four bits for a common dinner of
bacon, greens, bread, and meat ; six bits, if we add
chicken flxins ;' and one dollar, if you have flower
doings.' "
COLOURED VIOLENCE.—Richard Wallace, a black
hero of gigantic proportions, from the proboscis to the
heels, was fully committed for hitting Richard Evans,
also black, but no hero, several blows right on his right
temple, " which caused him to lie insensible and unable
to speak for eight or ten hours afterwards."
RISE IN PRICES.—Fat young negro girls are now
sold in this market at 100 dollars a-piece. They make
excellent roasting joints, and taste like mountain mutton.
—Hamburg Alabama Despatch.
A young gentleman had the gold buckler of his sus-
penders melted on the levee at New Orleans by the sun,
on the 28th of June. His brain was not injured by the
heat. Cause vy? He was brainless.

Sin,—Being one of those who had the honour of
signing the petition of the Cobbett. Club, which caused
such a sensation in the House of Commons on Monday,
evening, I beg to thank you for defending the petitioners
against the false and unmannerly attacks made on its
presentation. _

I am utterly at a loss to ateount for tile opposition of
Lord John Russell on this occasion. He accused the
petitioners of " having threatened the House with force
and resistance !" Now, Sir, I appeal to you, who have a
copy of the petition, to say whether there is one word
in it that can be fairly construed to mean anything of
the kind. One would really think, from what his Lord-
ship said, that the Cobettites were determined to attempt
an immediate resumption of Church and Abbey lands !
Mr. O'Connell hinted that the petition was worthy of
being laughed at (the House seemed to be of a different
opinion). That is his accustomed made of reply to a
rather unmanageable opponent. He well recollects
that on one memorable occasion he promised to'' laugh
a reply" to a " comical miscreant." Now, if Mr.
O'Connell, instead of laughing at the " humble petition
of the Cobbett Club," will refer to a little sixpenny
tract) just put forth by that Club, and read an article in
it on the subject of the 6' Irish Coercion Bill," and an-
other on " Poor-laws for Ireland," he will there find
food for his laughter. If other people will read those
two articles they will be able to account for Mr.
O'Connell's desire to get the " Honourable House" to
join him in laughing at the complaints and prayers of
the Cobbett Club ; but they will expect that his part of
the cachinnatory concert will be performed on the wrong
side of his mouth.

The Newspapers tell us (but I am sure untruly) that
Sir R. Inglis called the petition " an impudent and
deliberate attempt to insult and coerce that House."
We are sere, Sir, that not one man could be found in
all England to make such" an impudent and deliberate"
assertion as the Newspapers have put into the mouth
of this polite and gentlemanly Representative of the
drones of Oxford and of the Clergy of the Church of
England !
The Learned Attoreey-General declared that the
petition would 44
excite to insurrection and bloodshed."
How that brilliant idea got into his learned noddle the
God of Folly only knows ; but there it seems to
be, and while we are under the sway of the ever
" vigorous" Whigs, who are protected by such a
diabolus regius, we cannot wonder that you started back
with affright at the proposal made to you to publish
that " raw-head and bloody-bones" of a petition.
Mr. Fieldcn wound up the tragi-farcical affair with
an epilogue, declaring that " whether that House re-
ceived or rejected the petition, ninety-nine out of every
hundred of the people would say the allegations in that
petition were perfectly true." You, Sir, also, have had
the manliness to say the same ; and you say further,
that " the petition touched the House of Commons
too much on the raw ; it was rubbing nitre into their
wounds, and they kicked it out," and so must say
every honest man who has read, or heard read, that
memorable petition.

I am, Sir,
Your obliged and very humble servant,
B. TILLY.

92, Fleet-street, August 14, 1839.

GALIGNANI'S MESSENGER.

We extract the following from the first number of a
new periodical, called the " Inventor's Advocate and
Patentee's Recorder, &c.," published on Saturday. It
certainly is most preposterous to make the proprietors
of newspapers here and a few commercial men pay 3s.
6d. postage for Galignani's Messenger, while all the
French papers are charged only one halfpenny each.
We can see no sense in the regulation either as regards
England or France. The British Government never
trouble their heads about any attacks made on them by
foreign newspapers, and should a printing press be
established in London to bombard the throne of the
Citizen King by means of a French newspaper pub-
lished here, Louis Philippe, without any breach of the
contract, could prohibit its admission into France. We
may mention, before giving the extract, that there is an
article on expeditious travelling in this new publication
to which the printer has neglected to prefix the words
" from The Sun."

" While the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the
Lords of the Treasury, are busily employed in the
details of the new Post-office Bill, and professions
are made by the Government to place the cor-
respondence of this country on the most liberal
footing, our attention is strongly drawn to a prohibition
enforced by the Government in relation to a particular
foreign journal, which seems to us as irreconcileable with
their professions of liberality as with public convenience
and common sense. The journal we allude to is
the well-known Anglo-Parisian paper, Galignani's
Messenger, which, by the admission of a most uncalled-
for clause into the Act regulating the permission of
newspapers between England and France, has been
virtually excluded from this country—that is to say, it
is admitted only on the postage being paid for it as for a
letter, which amounts to somewhere about three shillings
and sixpence, while its contemporaries are admitted at
the cost of a halfpenny! The law contains a provision
t hat the Journals admitted into either country must be
in the language of the nation in which they are pub-
lished. Now Galignani's Journal, as we presume all
the world knows, is in English, containing little original
matter—the news being translated from the French and
other Continental journals, and consisting also of ex-
tracts from the British papers.
The reason given for this notable piece of legislation,
is said to be this :—That the French Government,
having the fear of the Republican refugees who had
escaped to England before their eyes, were fearful that
if journals in the French language were admitted into
France, the fugitive perturbators would set up a print-
ing press, and, from this side of the Pas de Calais, bom-
bard the throne of the Citizen King with libels which
no Procureur du Rei would be able to reach ! This
is possible ; and the precaution might have been pru-
dent and necessary on the part of the French authori-
ties ; but granting this, what conceivable reason existed
for rendering such a clause binding upon England ?
Our late old brave Monarch, in whose reign the Act
was passed, feared no paper pellets from the shores of
France ; he laboured under no apprehensions of being
pushed from his stool " by expatriated scribblers ; and
sure we are, that our present amiable young Sovereign
stands in need of no such protection. Why then, we
ask again, was the prohibition rendered mutual ? The
only effect here, has been to deprive the Public of a
useful, talented, and agreeable newspaper, and the
Journals of a ready and sometimes valuable assistant ;
at the same time, committing an act of signal unfair-
ness towards Galignani's Messenger. We will go fur-
ther,—setting aside its injustice, we contend that this
senseless exclusion, which serves no useful purpose upon
earth, is a positive injury to the commercial part of the
community. Galignani's Messenger, in addition to
its wide general circulation, is received, by the per-
sonal influence of its proprietors, into many of the Con-
tinental States, where the English, and even many of
the French Journals are rigidly prohibited ; and a news-
paper which thus finds its way into every Court in Eu-
rope—which is read in every city from " Pekin to
Peru"—must obviously present advantages as a channel
of communication in a commercial point of view, of the
utmost value to a country like our own, where enter-
prise, skill, and ingenuity, are daily bringing forth some
new element of commercial wealth. In aiding our
Anglo-Parisian Contemporary to get rid of the silly and
vexatious prohibition which excludes it from our table,
we deem ourselves in some sort paying off a debt of
honour, in acknowledgment of the honourable impar-
tiality with which the sentiments of the English Press
have been for years represented in its columns."

Lord and Lady Lovat are receiving a numerous
circle at Beaufort Castle, Inverness-shire. The Earl and
Countess of flardwicke arrived on a visit to his Lordship,
on Monday last, and the Duke and Duchess of Leeds ar•
rived a few days previously. The Hon. W. S. Jcrninghatn
left town early in the week to join the party.
The Duchess of Buceleuch has left Montague
House, accompanied by the Earl of Dalkeith and family,
for Broadstairs, where her Grace purposes to reside until
the return of the Duke from Scotland.

LUNACY.—It has been found, that the en-
couraging the exercise of the mental and bodily powers is
the most important of the curative measures which have
yet been tried in the treatment of the insane.—British and
Foreign Review.
, .
BOLTON, FRIDAY.—Order is completely re-
stored, no apprehensions of prisoners have this morning
taken place. The Bth Hussars left the town this morning
for Rochdale.—Manchester Guardian.

AWFULLY SUDDEN DEATH.-Between eight
and nine Gn Saturday morning, a young woman named
Mary Ann Rupert, app irently in good health, fell down
dead while conversing with a neighbour at the door of her
residence, in James-street, Vauxhall. She had not mani-
fested the slightest indisposition previously.
THE WEATHER AND THE HARVEST.-TO
load our columns every day with dull twaddling tautologi-
cal bits of accounts cut from the country papers were a
misappropriation of our space, by which the reader's at-
tention would be fatigued to little purpose. Yet nothing
can be more remote from our feelings than than to pas-
over without notice intelligence that bears on the imports
ant question, whether the working classes, justly dissatis-
fied with the Corn-laws, are next winter to have a loaf at
a purchaseable price, or to be driven to desperation
by being deprived of bread. We, therefore, obtain all
possible information on the subject, and have now
before us a multitudinous mass of reports re-
lative to the crops from all parts of the king-
dom. Nothing certain is yet, or possibly can be,
known of the yield, and all that can be said is simply con-
j..ctural. In some of the reports received we re-
gret to see it stated that there has been a good deal of
rain, not only in Ireland, where the " continual rain has
been accompanied by stormy wind from the south and south-
east," but in most parts of England. Still we incline to
hope that the amount of injury done to the wheat is incon-
siderable, and that, despite the iniquitous Corn laws, the
sufferings of our population will not be increased and ren-
dered unendurable by a deficient harvest.

THE SIN, LONDON, MONDAY, AUG-UST 19, 1839.