The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-03 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 3, 1853.

TIIE 139th Number of the HYGEIST and
MEDICAL REFORMER, for February, contains :—A most
important article on the Blood, by Dr. Southwood Smith, with ro-
ma* ks Hier, on—Dcath of a Penitent near Bristol —Obj •ctionable
Mebeal dvertisemmts, &c., &c.—lllay be had at the Briti,h Col-
lege of Health, New-road, London ; ant at the Office, 262, Strand.
Price Id.. or 2d. by pest. Also of ull the Ac ents for Moriaon's
Vegetable Universal Medicine throughout the country.

the desire for relaxation was the necessary rebound of
the slavish devotion to Mammon duribg the week ; but
how was it that the clergy had never found this out
till now, when they imagined their own interests were
threatened ? (Cheers.) The clergy hapo right to corn-
phin of this state of things, for if they had not actually
promoted it, they had tacitly admitted it, while setting
themselves up as the guardians of the public morals.
They had reposed on the support of the middle classes,
whose pew rents and subscriptions to schools had pur-
chased them immunity in their oppression of the working
men. (Cheers.) But it was patent to the world that
the priests of this country had now ceased to hold do-
minion over the minds of the people. (Cheers.) Either
the priests lacked the will or the power to remedy the
state of things complained of ; and that being so, it was
for the people to plead their_own causo with the Legisla-
ture. Dr. Cumming said if the Crystal Palace were
opened on Sunday, the same permission must be extended
to the British Museum and exhibitions of various kinds.
But the argument told the other way—if the clergy
were powerful enough to close the Crystal Palace on
Sundays, they might close Hampton Court, and stop the
running of railways and steamboats, in the vain attempt
to force people to church. The truth was, this was not
a question between the Crystal Palace and the church,
but between the Crystal Palace and Battersea-fields—
between it and public-houses, .beer-shops, and other less
reputable places of resort. (Cheers.) By raising the
amusements of the people, their habits and morals would
be improved ; and they would be thus brought nearer to
a religious frame of mind, and elevated in the social
scale. Instead of opposing this meagre, the clergy
ought to go hand-in-hand with the working classes in
seeking to obtain the boon ; they woukiVereby do more
real good than by all their learned polemical disquisi-
tions. If they wished the working-classes to have no
enjoyment at all, they should' first set the example.
(Hear, hear.)
Mr. FERDINAND°, delegate of the silk weavers, said
he represented the inhabitants of Spitalfields and Beth-
nal-green, where there had lately been a large supply of
churches ; but he could state that not more than one in
fifty of the weavers attended those churches. Theywere
low in the social scale, and their remuneration was a
positive disgrace to the community. He could not tell
how they lived ; they lingered on from day to day ; but
it was one of the greatest problems that could be pro-
posed how they maintained their existence. (Hear,
hear.) Most of them spent the Sunday in-doors ;
they scarcely dared venture out on account of their
lowered position. But they were anxious for the
opening of the Crystal Palace, as a means of intellec-
tual improvement, and of consequent amelioration of
their condition. They worked from 14 to 16 hours
a-day, and their average earnings were 10s. a-week.
Some of the better class, whose clothing was a little
decent, ventured out on the Sunday, not to church,
but on short excursions, and in the evening occu-
pied themselves with discussions on moral and intellec-
tual subjects. (Hear, hear.) The meetings held to
oppose the opening of the Crystal Palace on Sundays
were not a faithful reflex of public opinion. He had
attended some, and found them largely composed of an-
cient ladies and antiquated gentlemen—(laughter)—of a
class addicted to revel in tea and scandal. There were
also young persons, Sunday-school teachers, of whom he
spoke with all respect, but whose short experience of the
world hardly qualified them to form a proper estimate of
a question like this. There were the poor people who
attended church on account of the small gratuities given
away there from time to time. ("Hear, hear," and
laughter.) Such were their opponents, along with
the parsons ; and unless a movement was made on the
other side, it might be supposed that these small
parties expressed the public opinion. (Hear, hear.)
He was confident that the Crystal Palace would be
opened on the Sunday, for the public opinion and the
intelligent portion of the press were in favour of it.
(Cheers.)
Mr. READ (the bakers' delegate) said that no class
more needed healthful recreation than the trade he
represented. They had hitherto been denied this needful
rest, by the clergy amongst others ; for the Bishop of
ILondon said that by one baker staying at home twenty
persons were allowed to go to church— (hear, hear)—the
bakers of the metropolis worked from 16 to 21 hours a
day, with short and irregular intervals for rest, and some
at the east end actually worked 144 hours in the week.
It was most important to this body of men that some
additional means of relaxation should be afforded
them. (Hearihear.) Dr. Cumming admitted that not
more than a dozen bakers, though a large number of
them were Scotchmen, attended his church. (Hear,
hear.)
The resolution was then put and carried, with not
more than seven dissentients. Loud cheering followed
the announcement of the result.

OPENING OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE ON

SUNDAYS.

A general meeting of delegates of the working classes
of the metropolis took place, last evening, at St. Mar-
tin's-hall, "as an organised demonstration of the feelings
and opinions of the labouring population of the metro-
polis in favour of the opening of the Crystal Palace on
Sundays." It was stated that delegates had been elected
from every branch of labour, representing the sentiments
of 92,500 working men. About 100 delegates occupied
the platform, and the body of the hall and spacious gal-
lery were densely crowded with the general public, chiefly
members of the working classes.
Mr. HENRY MAYHEW was called on to preside amidst
loud cheering. He said the meeting was a remarkable
one, from the numbers present, nearly double the inhabit-
ants of some German principalities ; it was still more
remarkable from its representative character, the whole
of the London trades having been polled, and the dele-
gates represented about 100,000 of their fellow-workmen.
(Cheers.) It was one of the most righteous meetings
ever held. (Cheers.) Their object was not to encourage
Sunday labour or to abridge the poor man's rest, but to
ensure to him the means of rational rest and improve-
ment. (Hear, hear.) The Puritans would have them
believe that this was to commit a national sin. Was
it national righteousness to keep the people brutally
ignorant and deny them any pleasures more intellec-
tual than gin and tobacco ? A country which did
this could be neither nationally righteous nor nation-
ally wise. The question was, Was there to be
any medium attraction on the Lord's-day between
religious exercises and debasing sensuality ? It had been
proved to be impossible to make the people religious
by Act of Parliament ; multitudes would not go to
church ; and it was at least desirable to vigan the minds
of such, by intellectual pursuits, from gross and debasing
pleasures. (Cheers.) Some urged that there was a
divine command for the Sabbath to be kept strictly, and
to this consideration they first addressed themselves.
They did not reject the authority of a divine command,
but merely claimed the common Protestant right of in-
terpreting the injunctions of Scripture according to their
consciences. (Cheers.) The theological objection being
the main one in this case, they could not overlook it,
unless at the risk of being charged with playing Hamlet,
and omitting the chief part. (Hear, hear.) Christians,
')e it remembered, observed their Sabbath, not on the
"a day, as commemorative of the rest of the Al-
ighty after the work of creation, but on the first day of
,he week, as commemorative of the resurrection of
Christ. The one was a Jewish, the other a Christian,
observance. Without quibbling, it was impossible to
deny that the Old Testament command referred to Satur-
day. (Hear, hear.) What authority, then, was there
for the present Sabbath law ? It was admitted that the
Saviour enunciated no such law ; the Sabbath of which
he spoke was the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday. Nor did
the Apostles lay down any such injunction ; and there
was no evidence that they ever regarded any other than
their Jewish Sabbath, the observance of which was be-
lieved to be obligatory on all Jews and Christians till
the destruction of Jerusalem. Some relied on the pas-
sages which spoke of the disciples coming together " on
the first day of the week." But this merely showed
that the early Christians were accustomed to meet
on that day, not in compliance with any direct
command. There was no injunction to abstain
from labour or worldly enjoyment on that day.
So far from this, the observance of the day was
evidently regarded as one of the " weak and
beggarly elements" of Judaism. During the Ist and 2d
centuries of Christianity, it appeared from a letter of
Pliny, jun., that the Christians were accustomed to meet
for prayer on a certain day of the week ; but there was
no mention of abstaining from labour or worldly occupa-
.

seve:

The Rev. J. T. BA LEE, secretary of the Lord's-day
Observance Society, who announced himself as a work-
ng el man, expressed his wish to speak.

&MAN, Maid. the weekii4i4244colll4o AcriCriE•
in„ men and their representatives, butre'w, 'willing to
waive the rule in favour of the rev. gentleman. (Cheers.)
Mr. BAYLEE said he claimed the privilege of an Eng-
lishman to correct some misrepresentations that had been
made. The chairman's argument had gone to prove that
the Sabbath was designed both for the recreation of the
working man and for his labour. ("No, no," and in-
terruption.) He was an advocate for every man enjoy-
ing the Sabbath according to his conscience, but let him
do nothing to interfere with another's enjoyment of the
same. (Cheers, and cries of " The bishops.") He for
one never employed his fellow-men on the Sabbath.
(Hear, hear, and cries of "Time.") The meeting be-
coming impatient and somewhat clamorous, the rev.
gentleman exclaimed, "Ah you're afraid ; you dare
not listen to argument or to the truth." (Great uproar,
amidst which the rev. gentleman retired.)
Mr. NEwToN announced that the meeting would be
adjourned at its close till Wednesday next.
Mr. WEBSTER proposed a vote of thanks to the chair-
man, which was seconded, and unanimously agreed to.

Titi tiststlays---The '..aine itSpearssilsfaarloasess.,__
of Justin the Martyr and others. As early as Tertul•
lian's time Sunday was observed as a day of Christian
rejoicing, the Christians indulging in mirth and festivity.
(Hear, hear.) A decree of the council of Gangres, in
Paphlagonia, A.D. 357, anathematised those who passed
the Sunday in bodily mortification ; and an edict of Con-
stantine, while exhorting to a general rest from labour,
made an exception in favour of agricultural labourers.
Beza declared that the practice of a total abstinence from
labour on Sunday, though brought in by Constantine
with good intent, was to be condemned, as not abolish-
ing Judaism, but merely shifting it to another day.
The early reformers held similar opinions. Cranmer, in
his Catechism of 1588, claimed for Christians full liberty
to select their own day for religious observances and rest
from labour. Melancthon declared that the non-obser-
vance of such day ought not to be regarded as sin.
Calvin proposed to transfer the observance from Sunday
to Thursday, as a proper exercise of Christian liberty,
at the same time denying any obligation to observe one
day in seven. It was a tradition that when John Knox
visited Calvin on the Sunday, he found his austere coad-
jutor bowling on the bowling-green, and it was custom- COLLISION ON THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.—A collision,
ary with the bishops and clergy to recreate themselves causing considerable destruction of property, but hap-
in this way after divine service. (Cheers and laugh- pily unattended with loss of life, occurred on Tuesday
ter.) The notion of a strict rest on the Sunday morning on the Midland Railway, about three miles
being obligatory on Christians was first promul- north of Leicester. Close by the side of that part' of
gated by Dr. Bonn, in 1594 ; it was opposed by many the line where the collision took place is a ballast-hole,
divines, but was warmly espoused by the Puritans. and shortly before nine o'clock a ballast train was leav-
The dogma found its way into the " Westminster Cate- ing this hole, and entering upon the down line of rails
chism," and had thus come down 'to our day. Paley, in upon the main line. The engine only had got upon the
his "Moral and Political Philosophy," admitted that main line, when a luggage train, which had left Leices-
there was no injunction by Christ or his Apostles for an ter for Derby and the north of England about a quarter
abstinence from labour on the Sunday, but that it was before nine, ran against it, and turned it completely
merely an ordinance of human institution. (Hear.) over. The engine of the luggage trained was turned
Some might say that, even if this were so, the fact upside down, and several of the goods vans were shat-
should be withheld from the people, lest it should lead tered to pieces, scattering their varied contents in heaps
to a general desecration of the Sabbath. This would be on the up line. The driver and stoker of the ballast train,
one of the pious frauds for which bigots were so netori- strange to say, escaped uninjured, but those of the lug-
ous. (Cheers.) If the strict observance of the day were gage train were not so fortunate. They were at
an idol of the conventicle, the sooner it was overthrown, first thought to be very seriously hurt, and were
and the institution placed on its right footing (the im- removed to the Infirmary at Leicester as speedily as pos-
prevement of the body and mind of the labourer)the sible. On examination it was found that no bones were
better.
necessity (Co
fhe
ourers .)
physicalT h u
The observanceuatfora certain portion of legs should rest onthe broken,and b
andips t. h el rft After
injuries were principally bruises of the
d recovering from the shock they were
relaxation, and to those eternal principles of justice, able to be remove to their homes at Derby, whither
which were at least as obligatory as Revelation. (Hear.) they were sent by the mail train in the afternoon. One
telegraphic
ohiteegraphic communica-
tion The social grounds for the observance of the day he of the engines, or a goods van, appears to have been vio-
post, and all the wires
smheoeutlidngpowstopuolnde
be
ell
adjourned.nextWedn esHdaey,wtoonwldhiecohnteilmudeethbiys lwenertleybtrhorkoewnn, apgautitnisntga
atesletogsp
ff tion for some hours. At the time of the accident there
reading the declaration of the working men which had
been drawn up and signed. It was as follows : was a dense fog, so that it was impossible to see any
"1. That the working men wish it to be understand object more than twenty yards off. It seems that the
Leicester, but the goods train had either passed the •
that they are in no way desirous of questioning• the autho- men with 'the ballast train had turned on the signal,
e,u,eopu
it. It
Ilitniesotow thoughtasridgs.
rity of the decrees upon which the institution of the Sab- wuahlicbhefoisresiittuwaatesdtuaruboeudtor6OhOadynaortdss
bath in this country is founded, but merely assert for
themselves the right to interpret those decrees as their
n. A c nsidera-
ble body of workmen were soon taken
conscience dictates.-2. That the mode of observing the
Sunday among the early Christians proves incontes- thatthe t
heads
e .
arrangements y h
ea
of the
tp 1
were
es
es
rve
end r
iin
Ito
uadsed beforeefpo
rai it
departments
sumae
nts at Leicester, and
tibly that the present Sabbath is a social rather than to the spot by
eseting each passenger
a divine institution.-3. That the Sabbath, whether
viewed as a divine or a social institution, is designed
hour,la ter. . andrr hbe y
damagehalf-p t to
especially for the benefit of the labourer.-4. That while train with empty carriages. The passengers, by walk-
Th down by
wouldae
the working classes are desirous of obtaining such ing over that part of the line which was rendered im-
a relaxation of the present rigorous mode of observing passable for the regular traffic, were thus enabled to pur-
the Sabbath as will bring it back to its true uses—the re- stuweotoh,eeilroejkoutrhneieuspwliinthe
wlitastleeldeealra.y. We believe that no
asdsealabyleedfomrorseomtheanhouanrs
creation and refreshing of the labourer—they are likewise
especially anxious to guard the day of rest against any
tnroatin bewaps
other encroachment than what is absolutely necessary, and
at the same time to procure for their fellow-workmen who thegoods is notgreat it
so as was at first thought
may b© engaged in ministering to their necessities on the to be.
A piansratell
Sunday some other day of rest in the week, so that the o and two bas, e-boards were smashed, and a
boon of the Sabbath may be equally extended to all.-5. quantity of coffee was spilt. The other goods scattered
That the working classes, moreover, desire no infringement upon the line did not appear much injured, but the ex-
of the day of rest, but such as is absolutely required for tent of the damage cannot be ascertained until the pack-
their physical and intellectual necessities.-6. That physi- ages are opened. The fog continued to be very den
cal recreation is as necessary to the working man as food in the locality where the collision took place throughoutse
and drink is to him on the Sabbath.-7. That'refined and the day ; even when the sun was shining brightly
intellectual enjoyment, as well as the means of obtaining noon),
two miles off it was impossible to (about
information, are even more necessary to the working man 40 or 50 yards. see more than
than physical recreation onthe Sabbath ; and that if these
-u4 „,
' d him on the present day of rest, then SSENTIAL OIL OF ALMONDS.—On Tuesday night Mr.
necessities be denied
two Sabbaths must be appointed in the week, one day to W. Payne, the coroner, held an inqu
est at the Crown
be observed as a day of mere repose, and the other as a day Tavern, Blackfriar's-road, on the body of Mary John-
for the recreation of the mental and bodily energies of the son, aged 45, who lived with Christian Poland,
pro-
labourer." prietor of billiard-rooms, at No. 97, Blackfriar's-road,
Mr. PRIDEAIJX, a delegate from the cabinet-makers, for 25 years, as his wife. On Saturday last, she sat
moved the adoption of the declaration. He said this was down at a side-table in the billiard-room, and said to
neither more nor less than a battle with priests and Mr. Poland, " I have done it. After that he saw her
creedmongers. (Cheers.) It was as though only priests with a phial in her hand. As soon as she had said this
and publicans were God's ministers on that day. (Cheers.) she got up and went into the passage. He followed
They could not regret that Belgravia had turned up its , her, having at this time the bottle in his hand. When
nose at the Crystal Palace, and compelled it to find a she got into the passage her legs gave vsa—y ,
and she fell
better site, where it was less tainted by the proximity of on the floor. Being in alarm, he ran to a surgeon's.
aristocracy. (Cheers.) Immediately the new site was The oil of almonds was in the house ; it was bought for
determined on, the bigots had ransacked the " Clergy a sister to be used in cookery ; but by some means it
List" to get up an opposition to it ; but they might as I was neglected to be used. It had been in the house for
well seek to stop the waves of the Atlantic as to roll ' six months. The bottle was labelled " Essence of bitter
back the tide of intelligence. (Cheers.) The declara- 1 almonds, for the purpose o f flavourin—
g custards, bla.nc-
tion contained no infraction of any individual right ; it mange, or any kind of confectionary, avoiding the
left every one free to act according to the dictates of his trouble of pounding the almonds, and is less expensive.
conscience. I In using this article the palate will be the •
I best guide,
Mr. W. NEwToN seconded the resolution with great &c.—Lowe and Hornblower, 57, Blackfiiar's-road."
pleasure, and said he subscribed to every one of the prin- She lived for about 20 minutes after W. E. Evans was
ciples embodied in the declaration. He would avoid the called in. The surgeon said he had himself administered
theological part of the question, and regard it as purely ammonia to her. On the Saturday morning she had
a question of social interest and benefit. Both physical been to his shop for a small quantity of laudanum, and
and intellectual recreation were necessary for the eoe• from the odour arising from a teacup found, it appeared
their life was not to be one round of brutetoil' that she bad
poured the laudanum
andse. 1 f among the oi o
pose. Not only was this necessary, but it would be ob- almonds. The jury returned a verdict of " Temorary
twined. (Cheers.) Sunday which insanity " The foreman, on the verdict ofthe •
was the only day on • saidh hdb Jury
those who worked every day for twelve hours could relax being recorded, e a een requested by his bro.
theniselves or derive mental improvement. th r Jurymn to express their disapprobation of the way
closing the Crystal Palace that peoplecould be forced to
in which such bottles as these were sold. There was
attend church. (Hear.) If nothing on the label to indicate that it was • and
they were debarred from poison,
higher recreations they would seek those of a more de- this indiscriminate sale of it they considered to be highly
basing character. lie agreed with Dr. Cumming that improper.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(From the Times.)
The readers of Scott's novels will easily remem-
ber the catastrophe created when Richie Moniplies,
in conveying to King Jaines I. an important me-
morial from his master, Lord GlenVarloch, took
occasion to insert between the pages a " bit siffii-
cation of his own" respecting a small account for
butcher's meat long overdue from the Royal house-
hold. The like experiment, nevertheless, has bpen
recently attempted by no less a personage than Mr.
Richard Cobden, who, in his elaborate exposition
of the relations of Great Britain and France, has
adroitly contrive,' to insinuate three of his own
private charges against the institutionspf his native .
country. That the hon. member dislikes our aris- .
tocracy, and has a grudge against our church, is
pretty well understood ; but the artifice by which
these particular grievances were introduced in a .
discussion upon French policy must have taken
most people by surprise. Speaking of the abso-
lutism ascribed to the Emperor of the French, Mr.
Cobden observes, in mitigation, that there are three
things which even his supreme and irresponsible
power could never accomplish, and that these
things nevertheless " are all in full force in Eng-
land." The institutions thus dexterously stig-
matised are the Established Church, the Peerage,
with its custom of primogeniture, and the exemp-
tion .of real property from probate duty ; so that
three particular objects of Mr. Cobden's disfavour
are insensibly put before the reader in passing as
abuses of a nature in reality so detestable that the
most absolute despot in foreign countries might
vainly endeavour to establish them. We hope this
most ingenious piece of tact will not be lost on a
discerning public.
With respect to the points at issue, we do not
venture to borrow Mr. Cobden's confidence in pre-
dieting so circumstantially what Napoleon 111. can
or cannot accomplish ; but this much we can tell
him, that Napoleon I. did undoubtedly attempt
one of these very objects ; that his attempts were
suggested by the notorious desires of the country,
and that, in despite of democratic repugnance, they
were materially successful. The law of primogeni-
ture, as Mr. Cobden correctly observes, was de-
molished by the French revolutionists for the pur-
pose of perpetuating social equality, and these legis-
lators did their work with their usual zeal ; but the
operation of their ordinances was found to involve
such " insupportable tyranny"—we use the very
phrase of French writers—that when Napoleon first
succeeded to consular power, after the fall of the
Directory, the removal of this grievance was forced
upon his notice as a popular demand admitting of
no delay. So intolerable, in fact, was the nuisance
of the republican edict, that it was resolved not to
wait even for the systematic remedies of the New
Civil Code, and in the year 1800 an enactment was
hastily passed restoring to all testators a partial,
and to some an entire, right of disposing of their
own property as pleased them best.
English readers, perhaps, may be fortunately un-
conscious of what this matter really means. They
may think that primogeniture, or, in other words,
the settlement of a whole paternal estate on the
eldest son, to the prejudice of the others, is
rather unfair, and productive sometimes of cum-
brous and overgrown properties. Mr. Cobden,
that his doctrines may not lack the farce of an
example, takes occasion to speak of a certain
" walled park" close by his own residence,
" ten miles in circumference," implying, that such
a possession is out of all reason for a single man.
Now, we will not enter into the question of the
relative productiveness of unbroken or subdivided
estates, a question on which political economists have
expended a vast amount of argument, but we will
just explain, ,for popular comprehension, what have
been the measures devised for the suppresion. of
the custom described. To abolish primogeniture
it is not enough to say that an estate shall not ne-
cessarily go to the eldest son—that our law says
already. So instinctive and common is the desire
in the creator or possessor of a property to keep
this property and the family together by perpetu-
ating some single representative of himself, that
it can only be counteracted by imposing upon all
men alike those testamentary disabilities with which
in tyrannical times, our laws have occasionally
visited cer,444 proscribei or suspected classes. The
abolition ofNOTilogeniture;in the "social °quality"
sense, means that no man shall have the power of
making a will, but that the LegislatUre shall make
it for him. To preclude the vision of inherited
estates, so abominable in democratic eyes, the
French revolutionists enacted, that any man hav-
ing children might dispose by will of one-tenth of
his whole possessions, but no more, the rest being
distributed according to their dictation, while, even
if there were no children to inherit at all, a frac-
tion of one-sixth of his property was all that the
law permitted‘a testator to consider his own. The

consequences were easy to foresee. " Primogeni
ture" was abolished, but at the cost of annoyance
and disorganisation in half the families of the land.
No man could regulate or control the behaviour of
his children by his testamentary dispositions ;
every child knew that, whether dutiful or unduti-
ful, wise or foolish, thrifty br good for nothing,
he was safe to inherit a certain portion, nei-
ther greater nor less, of his paternal estate.
No man in his age or sickness could promise
a recompense to those who attended him, or be-
queath a legacy to those whose deserts he had
practically ascertained. Possibly he might have
no kin but cousins or nephews, whom he had never
seen. This, however, signified nothing. The law
stepped in, claimed the distribution of five-sixths of
his property, and left him nothing but the remain-
ing fraction at his own disposal. So hateful had
this tyranny become when Napoleon stepped into
power, that he modified it instantly by restoring
rights over one-fourth instead of one-tenth of their
possessions to all men ; over one-half to those with-
out children, and over the whole to those without
fitting heirs. The proposal excited the vehement
opposition of the democratic party ; but so detest-
able had been the law, that it was carried by an
immense majority amid the applause and congratu-
lations of the whole country.
If it could be said that our custom of primogeni-
ture resulted in a species of social mortmain, so
that half the land of the kingdom was locked up
from the reach of purchasers, the case for reform
would be substantial ; but that, nothing like this
is the truth Mr. Cobden must be well aware. He
himself has eagerly made it known that any work-
ing man, from his moderate savings, may become a
county voter and a proprietor ; and, in fact, the
very foundation of the Freehold Land Societies was
the facility offered for advantageous purchases by
the constant occurrence of laiae land sales. Within
these five or six years we have seen some of our
noblest houses stripped, not only of their estates,
but of their heirlooms and personalities, down to
the very crockery of the mansion. There is never at
any time a difficulty in converting money into land,
though there may often be both difficulty and loss
in turning land into money. Mr. Cobden harps
on the exemption of real property from probate
duty ; but how does such property fare at any
other transfer ? What does the transfer of 1,000
acres cost, contrasted with the' transfer of 50,0001.
Consols Y Of late times,
_indeed, we have heard
considerably more of the burdens of land than of
its privileges ; and, though the outcry perhaps
had no great foundation, it was certainly not
fair to bring forward a single privilege without
a word of the compensations on the other side,
This, however, may be matter of adjustment,
though it savours of absurdity to quote it as an
abomination beyond the power of a despot to in-
troduce ; but with regard to the institutions which
Mr. Cobden, in his horror of aristocracy, would
fain see substituted for our customs, we can use
his own illustration in assuring him of a most in-
contestable truth. No species of tyranny what-
ever, whether exercised by a single autocrat or a
democratic club, would ever be successful in de-
priving Englishmen of the right of testamentary,
disposition. Our laws look with very proper jeal-
ousy on all arrangements tending to lock up estates,
and favour all expedients for cutting off entails, or
otherwise releasing encumbered proprietors ; but
to go beyond this, and to limit every man's title
in his own property to a simple life-interest, would
be an act of oppression infinitely more odious than
the existence of even 10,000 noblemen with parks
ten miles round.

(Korn the Morning Post.)
Cobden, Bright, and Wilson are names which
would lend a modern application to an old couplet
without spoiling its metre :

"Then Howard, Home, and Douglas rose
The kindling discord to compose."
Of Mr. Cobden and his peace treatise, we have
already said enough to show the prodigious • igno-
rance of history which has encouraged him to be-
come an historical lecturer, and the mis-stated facts
and erroneous assumptions on which he builds
reasonings, more unsound, if possible, than the
basis of them is illusory. Men have argued cor-
rectly on false data, and incorrectly on true. Either
of these defects would render their counsels dan-
gerous, and. their teaching worthless. Both these