The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-14 00:00:00

Derby, without putting Mr. Lawrence Heyworth and
his friends to the incalculable expense of a petition. A
simple process in an ordinary court of law, a judicial
tribunal created for the purpose, a local commission of
inquiry in every case of disputed return, and even an
oath put to every member, obliging him to state his be-
lief that no bribery had been committed to bring about
his return, could not but abate the nuisance. But the
House of Commons is not serious on this point, nor *ill
it ever be till the terror of some imminent catastrophe—
the ballot, perhaps—drives it to the work of self-purifi-
cation.

That there is no real necessity for very strong mea-
sures, much less for so great an experiment as the ballot
would undoubtedly be, we may see from the case before
us. How much has been done under the existing state
of the law ? First, "W. B." censured and disgraced ;
then Mr. Frail in trouble and denounced ; then his
agent, Mr. Morgan, caught, examined before magistrates,
indicted, a true bill returned against him, and to be put
on his trial forthwith, or his bail forfeited ; then a con-
siderable number of persons found guilty of bribery, and
requiring only the operation of the police to be forth-
coming ; then thirteen corrupt voters struck from the
poll, and just as easily struck from the register, if
the house desires ; finally, the sitting member un-
seated, and the petitioner put in his place. All
this has been done with the existing machinery of
the law, and, though it is true plenty of money
has been spent in the process, and there has been
treason in the camp of the member petitioned
against, no one can read the evidence and the report
before us without feeling that every case of a corrupt
return could be investigated with the same success, if
the house only wished it. It is the will alone that is
wanting. But how can that will not be wanting when
the facts are as everybody knows them to be ? With
some few happy exceptions, every member of the Lower
House knows that, since last July, he has paid to some-
body, on account of his election, a sum very much
larger than his legal expenses could possibly amount to.
Indeed, he has not ventured to ask what those legal
expenses area He shuts his eyes to the expenditure as
much as the miserable creatures who confess in the
evidence before us that they presented themselves at a
bedroom door backwAls, with their hands behind them,
and received 21. without seeing the donor. What one
takes blindly the other gives blindly also. It's a case
of walking backwards with one's hand behind through-
out the whole affair ; the candidate and his constituents
walking backwards about the town, and sovereigns pas-
sing from one unseen hand to another. Of the whole
666 members, at least 600 know by the diminished
balance at their banker's, if not by a still severer proof,
that this is the real fact of the case, and coward con-
science accordingly unnerves them. Nay, since nothing
is so bad as hypocrisy, and itself acquires a new horror
when it pretends to be virtue, we cannot complain that
the House of Commons refuses to manifest any extra-
ordinary indignation at every proved case of bribery.
They that are so happy as not to be petitioned against
only congratulate themselves on their good fortune, and
blame not the sins, but the blunders and inexperience of
the less fortunate.. But this state of things cannot long
endure. Something must and will be done, or we shall
have the ballot, and Heaven knows what beside. We
must set our House in order, or we shall lose it, and
with it, most probably, no small portion of what is
valuable in the British constitution.—Times of Thursday.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

CUSTOM-HOUSE-MARCH 12.

ENTERED INWARDS.—The Cherub, from St. Michael's ;
Neptune, Guernsey ; Dania, Genoa • Deux Sceurs, Cha-
rente ; Anemone, Oporto ; Cuba, Algoa Bay ; Glenmore,
Odessa • Cossack, Guernsey ; Seine, Boulogne ; Brougham,
South *hale Fishery ; Panther, Ostend ; Bordeaux, Cha-
rente ; Prosperitas, Moss ; Pauline, Rouen ; Wanderer,
do. ; Susan, Guernsey ; Franc Coeur, Lucon ; Celerity,
Caen ; Bengal, Calcutta ; St. Pierre, Graveline.s ; James,
Cuba ; Chieftain, Mauritius ; Don, Gothenburg ; Mary,
Messina • Walmer Castle, Calcutta ; Maid of Athens,
Rodastoe ; Mincarlo, Malta ; Joseph, Guernsey ; Treaty,
Rouen ; Prince Albert, Guernsey ; William Pitt, do. ;
Emperor, Lacquillon ; Edith, Seville; Elizabeth, Taylor-
son, Berdianski ; Janvrin, Leghorn ; Steffan Opvich,
Odessa; Petrino, Barletta.
ENTERED OUTWARDS FOR LOADING.—The Albemarle,
for Port Philip ; Augusta, Lisbon ; John Heyes, Barce-
lona ' • Neptune, Hamburgh ; Equator, Algoa Bay ; Octa-
vio, Melbourne ; Walter Hood, Sydney ; Lady Hilda,
Barbadoes ; Marie, Havre ; Panther, Ostend ; City of
Boulogne, Boulogne.
CLEARED OUTWARDS WITH CARGO.—The Diana, for
Stettin ; Rhine, Hamburgh ; Laura, Stettin ; Echo, Ant-
werp ; Caesar, Demerara; Centaur, Algoa Bay; Eclipse,
Madeira ; Patriota, Malaga ; Susan, Genoa ; Andalusia,
New York ; Earl of Auckland, Rotterdam ; Lord Join;
Russell, Harlingen ; Baron Osy, Antwerp ; Vesta, Gee-
long ; Eliza, Trinidad ; Sir Henry Hardinge, Port Philip ;
Martin, Santander ; Brilliant, Copenhagen ; Pauline,
Sydney ; Albemarle, Port Philip ; Thames, St. Kitt's ;
Spykje Alida, Constantinople ' • Ccesarae Constantinople ;
City of Rotterdam, Dunkirk ; Albion, Boulogne.

GRAVESEND, March 12.—Arrived--The Seine, from.
Boulogne ; Panther, Ostend ; Franc Coeur, Lucon ; Ben-
gal, Calcutta ; Emperor, Lacquillon ; Edith, Seville ;
Elizabeth Taylorson, Berdianski.
YOUGHAL, March 11. The Telscida, of Fiume, for Eng-
land, is on shore in Whiting Bay, and expected to be a
total loss; the water flows over her at high tide ; crew
saved._

REDCAR, March 12.—The Leonidas, of and for London,
from Sunderland, got on Redcar Rocks, March 11, and re-
mains. March 11—The Britannia, from London to Hartle-
pool, has been got off shore, and proceeded for Whitby.
BRIDLINGTON, March 11.—Arrived—The Zephyr, from
Seaham, for Jersey, with broadside stove, from contact.
PARIS, March 12.—The Jenne Leonie, D'lsigny, Isigny
to Dunkirk, got on the rocks near Blanc Nez, in a fog, pre-
vious to the 10th March, filled immediately, and is not
expected off; crew saved.

CAGLIAIRI, March s.—There is an appearance to-day of a
steady change in the weather, and there is every proba-
bility that the wind-bound vessels will be able to put to sea
to-morrow or next day.

VESSELS SPOKEN WITH.
The Maple Leaf, Dec. 6, lat. 25 N., long 64 W.
The Helen Douglas, Calcutta to London, Jan. 20, lat.
10 N., long. 13 W.
The Jane Green, Madras to London, Feb. 26, lat. 47 N.,
long. 27 W.
The Adriana, Africa to Liverpool, March 3, lat. 47
N., long. 15 W.
The,Rother, Pernambuco to Queenstown, Feb. 26, lat.
44 N., long. 30 W. .
The Letitia, Mauritius to London, March 2, lat. 47 N.,
long. 25 W.

The Violet, March 1, lat. 44 N., long. 13 W.
The Briton, Singapore to London, lat. 47 N., long. 28 W.
The Rappahannock New Orleans to Liverpool, Feb. 28,
lat. 24 N., long. 83 W..
The John and Lucy, New Orleans to Liverpool, Feb. 11,
lat. 24 N., long. 80 W.
The Mary Holland, Valparaiso to Liverpool, Feb. 28,
lat. 49 N., long. 31 W., and supplied with provisions.
The James Green, Madras to London, with rudder
sprung, Feb. 28, lat 47 N., long. 29
The Inglefield (or Ingleboro), Mauritius to Queenstown;
March 3, lat. 49 N., long. 21 W.
The Braken Moor, New York to London, March 5, lat.
49 N., long. 14 W.
The William Gibson, Bombay to Liverpool, Feb. 26, lat.
44 N., long. 30 W.
The Canada (barque), from Singapore, Dec. 26., lat.
2.24 W.
The Sarah Budge, of Portland, Jan. 29, lat. 34 N., long.
24 W.
The Jessie Mann, Liverpool to New Orleans, 30th, lat.
24 N., long. 23 W.
The Witness, of Neath, for Australia, Feb. 18, lat. 38
NN. long. 23 W.
~
Mirzapore, London to Calcutta, 22d, lat. 41 N.,
long. 14 W.

The Rochester, from the South Seas, Feb. 25.
A large ship, No. 46, under the Union Jack, Nov. 25,
lat. 9 S., long. 88 E.
The Bell, Dec. 14, lat. 28 S.,long. 50 E.
The Pemberton, off Cape t. Thomas, coast of Africa,
28th.
The Tribune, Dec. 31, lat. 35 S., long. 17 E.

The Mary Spencer, Jim. 17, lat. 9 S., long. 13 W.
The May Queen, Coringa Bay to London, March 1, lat.
44 N., long. 28 W.
The Albatross, Liverpool to Melbourne, Jan. 20, lat. 13
S. long. 37 W.
lathe e Alba
on tross (ship), Liverpool to Melbourne, Jan. 20,
.S., lg. 37 W.
The May Queen, Coringa to London, March 1, lat. 44
N., long. 28 W.;
The Gloriosa, London to Calcutta, Feb. 22, lat. 48 N.,
long. 8 W.