The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-16 00:00:00

CP:NCERT OF ANCIENT MUSIC.

The first of the Ancient Concerts took place on Wednesday
night, at the Hanover-square Rooms. It is almost to be wished
that these Concerts were at an end, or at least that they were
entirely re-modelled, in such a way as to suit, in some measure,
the taste and feelings of a modern auditory. All that is really
good of Handel and the other old masters will hold its ground
in the estimation of the musical world, without the aid of this
antiquated institution to keep its memory alive. The occa-
sional introduction of the best of Handel's songs at concerts,
and the constant repetition of his sublime chorusses at provin-
cial festivals, and at other meetings expressly adapted for the
performance of such compositions, from the masses of
vocalists brought together, aided by an orchestra of the
largest extent, will be sufficient for this purpose, without
the comparatively puny efforts of the Noble Directors of
the " Concert of Ancient Music." They have already
been compelled, by the " march" of events in music, as
in other matters, to deviate from the original plan. Mozart
has been played at the Ancient Concerts in former seasons ; and
even last night, to eke out the bill of fare, we observed the
names of Ilorsley and Lord Mornington in the Programme.
The concert commenced with the Coronation Anthem, which
has been much better done than it was on the present occasion,
for the chorus singers as infected by the general feeling that
seems to pervade these meetings, started off much too flat, and
kept stoutly to their pitch nearly throughout the composition,
in utter defiance of the accompanying orchestra. Mrs. Kny-
sett is quite at home in this class of music, and sang " In
these Blest Scenes" very beautifully. We never heard Mrs.
Bishop to greater advantage than in " Hark, 'tis the Linnet ;"
she sang that charming air delightfully, and the cadence she
introduced was of the most judicious and pleasing character ' •
ono of its best features was that it was not too long, although
it would seem that some of the first violin players were of a
different opinion, for they started off without giving her time
to finish it I Mrs. Edward Knight (formerly known to the
to the musical public as Miss Povey) sang " From Mighty
Kings." Although evincing some talent, the efforts of this
lady were ineffective, and we think it would be wise
of the Directors to " shelf" this song till the recol-
lection of Miss Stephens, and above all, of Mrs,
Salmon, has utterly passed from our remembrance. The cho-
russes from Israel in Egypt, have too recently been heard in
the most magnificent style, to acquire any additional popularity
from the performance at the " Ancient." Handel's concertos
might be consigned altogether to oblivion, with advantage both
to the name of the composer, and to the gentlemen violinists
who arc compelled to labour through them at these concerts.
They will not do in the present day, the noble Directors of
these concerts may depend upon our assurance. Mr. Lindley's
accompaniment to " Softly Sweet," was as redolent of splen-
did tone and masterly execution as ever. In the second part,
(which by the byo, in the programme of the ancient concerts,
we observe, is still called " Act IL") Mrs. Knyvett was again
"at home" in " Farewell ye limpid streams." The trio of
Sarti, " Amplius lava me" was beautifully sung by Mrs. Kny-
vett, Mrs. Bishop, and Mr. Phillips. It was one of the
gems of the evening. Did, however, the Noble and
Right Reverend Directors, when they selected this piece,
happen to remember that it was a " Popish" piece of
business ? We suppose not, or we should have been, perhaps,
deprived of the pleasure of hearing it. " Revenge ! Revenge 1
Timotheus cries," by Mr. Phillips, was given with his usual
judgment and firm taste. The Hallelujah chorus concluded
the evening's performances. The first concert was under the
direction of the Duke of Cambridge, who was present on the
occasion, with her Royal Highness the Duchess, and his
lioval Highness Prince George of Cambridge. There were
also present her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester,
ins Grace the Duke of Wellington, his Grace the Archbishop
of York, Lord Burghersh, Lord Cawdor, Lord Lady Fitzroy
Somerset, Sir Gore Ouseley, the Campbells, Gen. Upton,
&c. The room was about two thirds filled. The concert
was altogether a very heavy affair, and was not over till nearly
twelve o'clock.

CONTROVERTED ELECTIONS.—A plan for de-
cuing these has been suggested, which it is contended will
remedy not a few of the objections to the present system of
revising barristers ; and we think, moreover, would afford
more than a fair chance of effecting all that is wished on the
secre of impartiality. We are not sure that we are right in
tati.ributing it to Mr. Warburton ; but we believe he recom-
mended that the kingdom should be divided into seven dis-
tricts, an.-1 that seven revising judges should be appointed to
take +.'ne districts in rotation, and, by adopting fixed rules of
law for their decisions, give the registration of voters a uni-
formity of which, 'at this moment, it stands much in
ticcd. A second part of the plan was, that—after a ge-
neral Election—these seven Judges should meet in Lon
den, and sit there for the decision of controverted returns.
The principal argument against this arrangement will be
kunded upon expense, and it will be urged that it will not
diminish the cost of trying a controverted return, as wit-
tiOnes must still be brought from a distance to the metropolis.
This may be true, whenever a return is controverted ; but, on
the other hand, the more perfect the registration system is
rendered, the fewer must necessarily be the appeals from the
tbeision of the returning officer. The ground of appeal in
the great majority of cases now is, that he has admitted votes
he ought to have excluded ; but once s itisfactorily settle the
list, and make that list conclusive until a new registration and
revision, and he will have no excuse for a wrong determina-
tion.—Morning Chronicle.
ONE 111,INDRLD POUNDS REWARD.—A few
days since a very astounding advertisement appeared in
one of the daily papers, offering to any person affected with
ulcerated cancer, bad breasts, bad legs, ulcerated sores of any
kind, and even in every description of indolent skin diseases,
as scrofula or King's Evil, &c. &c. ; and likewise in cases of
put and rheumatism—the above sum was offered to be given to
any person who shall use Holloway's Universal Family Ointment,
ald who should not find it of greater benefit in the above cases
than any other remedy extant. This is a bold offer, but it is
certainly a wonderful ointment, and has effected most astonish-
ing cures—no family should be without it. We believe it
may be had at Mr. Holloway's residence, No. 13, Broad. ,
street Buildings, City, and no doubt it is kept by most of the
respectable patent medicine venders throughout the kingdom.
A GOOD CROP.—An Irishman in Burrillville
planted last spring a peck of potatoes. This fall he dug his
rturphys, and the whole crop measured just a peck. " And
what did you get by that ?" said a bys!ander• " Arrah ?"
said Pat, " and surely and didn't I get new ones for old
ones ?"

LONDON :
FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 16, 1838.

The greatest of those monopolies which impoverish
stint, and starve the people, was last night brought under
the notice of the House of Commons. Mr. VILLIERS,
after making an able speech, moved that the Corn Laws be
referred to a Committee of the whole House, with a view
to abolish them. He was seconded by the Member for
Leeds, Sir WILLIAM MOLISWORTII, who, by that, did
something to redeem his character with his constituency,
for his late foolish motion against the Colonial Minister.
Sir HENRY PARNELL, Mr. CLAY, Mr. DUNLOP, and Mr.
RocHE (Cork), supported him ; but their exertions pre-
vailed nothing against the united phalanx of landowners,
led on by the Marquis of CHANDOS and the Earl of DAR-
LINGTON, and Mr. VILLIERS' motion was lost by a ma-
jority of 205. The numbers were 95 for, 205 against ; 95
therefore, in a House of 305 Members, or less than one-
third of the whole represent the interests of the manufac-
turing and labouring classes, the bulk of the population
in the Reformed House of Commons. For the inhabitants
of our great towns this will be a mortifying disclosure. Lord
JOHN RUSSELL avowed at the commencement of the session,
that the Reform Act was based on the principle of securing a
preponderance to the landed interest, and the division of
last night demonstrates that Lord GREY, in time of need
stood by " his order" most effectually. Ungrateful men !
They have never since ceased to oppose and revile him,
while the manufacturing classes deluded, by a promise of
great and the concession of a little improvement, long held
him in honour, and supported him and his party in power
and dignity. Not now, however, to suffer ourselves to be
diverted from the question of the Corn-laws, we shall only
observe that the preponderance of the landed interest in
the Legislature which the division of last night has mani-
fested must in the end be fatal either to the Legislature or
to the community. The landed interest is no longer,
either in wealth, numbers, or intelligence, the predominant
interest in society. Its relative importance is every day
decreasing, and to give it that predominance in the Legis-
lature which it has not in society—to place the law mak-
ing power in the hands of a minority—is to lay a certain
foundation for discord between the Legislature and
the community, which must in the long run be fatal
to one or the other. As we have no notion that
a few land-owners plunged up to the head and ears
in debt can control the nation, we look on Earl
GREY'S scheme for ensuring stability to the legis-
lature, by giving in it a predominancy to the landed
interest, as certain to hasten its decay and final de-
struction.

What, in fact, is the characteristic of that law of which
the landowners last night resisted the amendment ? We
answer in one word—wickedness. Its avowed object is to
curtail the supply of our food, in order that those who
make the law—the landowners—may get a higher price
for the quantity grown on their estates. The Dutch, as
Mr. VILLIERS last night reminded the House of Commons,
stand branded before all Europe as selfish, diabolical de-
stroyers of the bounties of nature, worthy of execration
in all times, because they burnt a few spices to keep up
the price—poor condiments which merely enhance the
flavour of food, without sustaining life : but how trifling in
malignity is the conduct of the Dutch compared to that of
our landowners in Parliament, who, by a deliberate act,
avowedly limit to a degree no man can tell, the supply of
food to their own countrymen, inflict en hundred and thou-
sands daily the pangs of hunger, and condemn many
more to an untimely death. We know that it is said
that such is not, in fact, the result ; that tlse limita-
tion of the supply encourages native industry, and ensures
in the long run a greater and more regular abundance
of food to the people. Such, indeed, is the paltry pretext by
which those who starve the people to enrich themselves seek
to delude them, and to stifle the misgivings of their own
consciences ; but we have 'sow marked the course of poli-
tical events, and the results of legislation too long, to place
the least confidence in the assertions of those who tell us
to hope for good ont of their evil deeds. The avowed in-
tention is for the law-makers to plunder the eaters of bread,
by means of the law ; and no reasoning, no long array of
statistical facts, no pretended difference of a few pence or
a few shillings in the price of a quarter of wheat here and
at Hamburg, put forth by those to whose assertions the
events of every day give the lie, and whose policy is conti-
nually found to be one great error, will ever convince the
public that to thus have their food stinted can he ultimately
beneficial. Landowners must, in fact, establish a re-
putation for great wisdom by a long course of suc-
cessful policy, such as they have never yet per-
formed, before they have the smallest chance of per-
suading us that to be starved at present by law, in
order to enhance their rents, will by-and-bye b© for
our advantage. If, then, the characteristic of the law be
wickedness, diabolical, unmitigated wickedness, to give in
the Legislature a predominance to those who persist in per-
petrating this wickedness, must, by the laws of God and
the constitution of the human mind, hasten its destruction.
But we are prepared to show that the folly and igno-
rance of the landowners in enacting, and persisting in
maintaining the Corn-laws, are equal to their wickedness.
Sir HENRY PARNELL observed that the limited supply of
corn we are allowed to get—and no man can tell how much
more we should get if there were no Corn-laws—costs the
country 12,500,0004 more than it would cost if there
were no such laws. That sum, he added, does not
all go into the pockets of the landowners, but a great part
of it is altogether lost. What, now, if it should turn out
that the landowners themselves are the greatest losers by
the Corn-laws, and that they could obtain the greater part
of this 12,000,0004 or, perhaps, even more if there were no
Corn-laws ? We see a prodigious anxiety on the part of
the landowners or planters in all the West India islands,
to have an increased supply of labourers, because they
know, and every man knows, that just in proportion as the
labourers are multiplied in any given spot of ground, the
rent of the landowner is increased. Nothing in fact is better i
known—although the rent of the landowners has not kept
pace with the profits of the merchant and manufacturer—
that the rent of the land-owner has increased in proportion
as the population has multiplied. But for the population
to increase food is essential, and whatever curtails the
supply of food, lessens the population, and diminishes the
amount of rent. We hold this proposition and the con-
sequent ruinous influence of the Corn laws on the rent of
the land-owners to be as demonstrable as any proposition in
Euclid. Nor is it of the least importance, whence the
supply of food is drawn ; for the accommodation required
for those who dwell in comfort is so considerable that an in-
crease of them in any shape, though they should all eat bread
baked abroad, will in that spot enhance the rent of land.
Liverpool is in a great measure fed by Ireland, but the land
in and about Liverpool has been much enhanced in value.
The increase of population, which the landowners prevent
by the Corn Laws is the single source of the increase of
rent; and every quarter of corn, consequently, which the
stupid landowners will not allow to be consumed in
England, because grown in Germany, takes some-
thing out of their pocket. We are thoroughly convinced
that no classes are so grievously injured by the Corn-laws
as those who own and those who cultivate the soil ;'but we
have at present neither time nor space further to advert to

the subject. We shall conclude by asking if the palpable 1
folly of the jolter-headed landowners—cutting their own
throats, like drowninsr, pigs—can recommend their wicked-
ness, by which they starve others, to our love and admira-
tion ? The avowed intention of preventing any class or
condition of men from obtaining food wherever they can
honestly obtain it, for the purpose of enriching those who
prerent them, we denounce as diabolical ; but we have the
consolation of knowing that the course of nature and
of society is so ordered, that this diabolical purpose
cannot be attained, and that in proportion as the land-
owners impede the growth of the population they impo-
verish themselves.

We direct attention with much pleasure to the report
of the meeting held yesterday at Manchester, of the Man-
chester and Leeds Railway Company. It will be seen
that one-half of the line is already contracted for,
that there is a large balance in hand, that the works
on the North Midland, on the York and North Midl
and on the Hull and Selby railways are in active operation,
and all these railways are likely to be opened about
the same time, thus connecting all the principal
towns in the North of England. If any proof were want-
ing of the confidence which people in the vicinity place in
the success of the Manchester and Leeds Railway, it will
he found in the fact that two Shareholders had willingly
paid up in advance '20,000/. The advantages of Railways
over Canals was placed in a striking light before the
people by the late severe weather, when for three
months the Canals have been stopped up altogether ; yet
the communication by the Railroads between Manchester
and Liverpool and Birminghan has been uninterrupted.
When these arrangements are all completed—Hull and
Liverpool, the North Sea and the Western Ocean, will
be but a few hours apart.

We are glad to see by the following resolutions agreed
to at a numerous public meeting held at Kilkenny, on
Monday last, that the electors of that city have given a dis-
tinct contradiction to the charges of Col.TitomrsoN against
them and Mr. EwAR•r. We shall endeavour to-morrow to in-
sert an abridged account of the proceedings, from which it
will be evident, that so far from Mr. O'CONNELL having
bargained away the representation of Kilkenny, to which
Mr. EwART was a party, he recommended Mr. FOWELL
BUXTON to the electors, who would not think of him.
Their choice of Mr. HuME, and their wish to .have Mr.
EWART, were expressly dictated by the knowledge that
those gentlemen had been rejected by English constitucn•
cies on account of the support they had given to Ireland,
and were extremely honourable to all parties. Would to
GOD that the constituencies of England displayed half as
much discrimination and public spirit :
At a very numerous meeting of the Citizens' Club of Kil-
kenny, convened by special Requisition, and held at their
Rooms, High-street, on Monday the 12th instant, Mr. JAMES
WALSUE, in the Chair.
The following Resolutions were, on a Ballot, unanimously
agreed to:—
Proposed by Mr. Joseph Hackett, and seconded by Mr.
James Quin—

Resolved—That we have read in the public papers, with
mingled feelings of surprise and indignation, a letter signed
"T. Perronet Thompson," dated March 3, 1838, and ad-
dressed to the electors of Marylebone, wherein the writer im-
plies corruption against the electors of Kilkenny, and that we
deem it our duty, as members of this club and electors of this
City, to give to that prooflesa and calumnious imputation the
most direct contradiction.

Proposed by Mr. Henry Potter, and seconded by Mr. K. T.

Buggy--
Resolved—That the nomination of Mr. Ewart, which origi-
nated in the rooms of this club, arose solely from the estimate
in which the members held his political services, talents, and
public honesty ; that the nomination was purely incidental, not
having been suggested by Mr. O'Connell, or any other per-
son, beyond the limits of this club; and that Mr. Ewart would
have been returned for Kilkenny, if it had not occurred that
the loss of Middlesex to Mr. Hume brought us to consider
that he (Mr. Hume) having prior claims, ought to be, without
loss of time, secured to the House of Commons.
Proposed by Dr. Cana, and seconded by Mr. T. Hart, jun.—
Resolved—That what Colonel Thompson terms •' The
Irish military chest," and " The treaty of Kilkenny," have
no existence save in his ( Colonel Thompson's) imagination,
or in the imagination of some one who has played upon his
credulity, and that we call upon Colonel Thompson to
prove as true, or retract as false, his most unwarrantable at-
tack.

Proposed by Mr. Edward_Kelly, and seconded by Mr. John

Kavanagh—
Resolved—That the thanks of this Club are due to Mr.
Evvart for the very proper reply which he has given to Colonel
Thompson, as well as for the handsome manner in which he
expresses himself as regards the electors of Kilkenny.
Proposed by Mr. John Potter, and seconded by Mr. John

Buggy—
Resolyed—That our Secretary do forward a copy of these
Resolutions to Colonel Thompson.
Proposed by Mr. John Flynn, and seconded by Mr. B. A.