The Sun.
London, England, 1838-06-12 00:00:00

Wher )fl

WITH WHICH
" THE TRUE SUN" IS NOW
INCORPORATED.

LONDON :
TUESDAY EVENING, JUNE 12, 1838.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL moved last night the further
consideration of the Report on the Municipal Bill for
Ireland. Mr. O'CONNELL supplicated a week's delay, on
account of Dublin, as he is to make out a peculiar case fur
that city ; but after some little coquetting the Bill was
proceeded with, and the clause referring to Dublin post-
poned. Sir ROBERT PEEL again insisted on the 101. fran-
chise, which was again resisted by the Ministers, and, after
a long debate, he was defeated by a majority of 20 in a
House of 5.50 Members. So far as the House of Com-
mons is concerned, this settles the question of the amount
of the franchise. The whole evening nearly was employed
in debating this clause, and the Bill will not be further pro-
ceeded with till Friday next. Let us look at the grounds
of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S arguments.
The mutual animosities and violence of the factions in
Ireland have given rise to protracted party contests, which in
the last result have been decided by Election Committees
of the House of Commons. They have been followed by
Intimidation Committees, Fictitious Vote Committees, and
various other Committees, to inquire into the mode of ex-
ercising the elective franchise in Ireland, which has accord-
ingly become, in all its imperfections, inconsistencies, and
corruptions, well-known to the public. Too often has
the exercise of the franchise been dictated by unworthy
motives, and the investigations have led to the conclusion,
that great numbers of the electors are fictitious and cor-
rupt. Sir ROBERT PEEL last night artfully took advantage
of this circumstance, and defended his proposition to ex-
clude all persons who are not rated to the poor at 101.
from the franchise—thus shutting them out from the Con.
stitution, and giving them proper motives for discontent
and disobedience, by quotations from the report of the Ficti-
tious Vote Committee. In our estimation it is mast desirable,
by the widest suffrage possible, to give all the people an in-
terest in making and in supporting the laws, and those who,
like Sir ROBERT, Will only legislate for class interests, and
on class views, will never command the willing obedience of
those whom they disregard, contemn, and exclude.
Every observer is aware that all the persons who are
excluded from the franchise under the Reform Act, by the
101. clause, constituting the bulk of the labouring classes,
are at this moment as hostile to that Act, and to the laws
made under it, as ever they were to the rotten boroughs,
and are at this moment engaged in a wide spread combina-
tion, the offspring of their discontent, to procure the people's
charter. By and bye they will overturn the Government,
or the Government will have to put them down by force.
Ignorant of this, or still disposed to treat the bulk of the
people with contempt, Sir ROBERT PEEL wishes to extend
the error, and would willingly compel all the excluded
Irish to remain in hostility to the Imperial Legislature. The
line of argument by which he supported his disfranchising and
hate-sowing scheme was worthy of the unstatesman-like
project. If we were to hunt through all the reports of
controverted Election Committees for England, it would
be just as easy for us to make out a case against the whole
body of English electors and English representatives,
against the rich as well as the poor, the bribers as well as
the bribed, as Sr ROBERT made out a case against the
Irish electors. There is no system of Govertment, is fact,
however arbitrary and despotic, which may not be justified
by referring only to the vices and crimes of mankind, and
his arguments are as powerful against every species
of liberty, including the representative system of
England, as against extending the franchise to all
the inhabitants of the towns of Ireland. Those who
supported him are in truth the enemies of all liberty.
Another basis of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S argument was his
undisguised wish to maintain the Protestant Church in
Ireland. Whether avowed last night or not, every body
knows that his determination, and the determination of his
party, to fix that nuisance, by the force of law, on the
Irish, is the key to his and their policy. Whether he care-
fully avoided speaking of the Church or not, and substi-
tuted Protestant for the Church, what he had at heart,
and has now, was to preserve the Establishment. For that
purpose, by securing, if possible, the ascendancy of the
opulent Protestants, in the towns he is zealous for the 10/.
franchise. If those who dwell in houses of less than 10/.
value were all Protestants, and the rich were the Catho-
lics, the Right Hon Baronet would be for universal suf-
frage. Personal predilection, and ancient traditionary and
unfounded religious prejudices, and class interests, are at
the bottom of his hostility to an extensive franchise.
On introducing the Catholic Emancipation Act, the
Right Honourable Baronet carefully enumerated the
representatives of the people who were in favour of eman-
cipation, as a reason for passing it. His subsequent con-
forming policy is also a proof that he recognises the neces-
sity of consulting the people. Yet in this case, for the sake of
preserving an Establishment which even here only fana-
ticiscs without instructing the people, and is deeply stained
1 with the blood of Ireland—an Establishment which in
Ireland is opposed to all theory, and which the experience
of two hundred years has demonstrated to be a mere ele-
ment of discord—for the sake of preserving the greatest
disgrace to legislative skill tlAt ever existed, did the
Might Honourable Baronet, while he admits the propriety
of deferring to the people, willingly propose to outrage and
insult all the Irish who are not rich enough to live in a
tea-pound house. And this specimen of miserable personal
partialities and gross ignorance of what is going on in the
land', is called by the Tories our greatest Statesmen—Bah!

The conduct of the Herne Secretary, in the case of
THoo, so far as releasing him from confinement is con-
cerned, and about which some conversation took place last
night in the House of Lords, can be defended, without
referring, as is done by a Ministerial Morning Contempo-
Try, to some similar conduct in Sir R. PEEL, when he was

at the Home Office. The whole of Thom's conduct, from
the moment of his coming p,rom;nently before the public,
was that of a lunatic ; and he having been finally sent to
a lunatic asylum, completely took his case out of the
hands of the Judges and the Courts of Law. Lord
Jolts RUSSELL might have asked the opinion of mad-doc-
tors, but the Judges do not belong to that category. Now,
when THom had never before been violent, and when,
being a lunatic, be could not be knowingly guilty of an
offence, Lord JOHN RUSSELL was bound to attend to
the supplications of his friends to place him at their dis-
posal, instead of being treated like a pauper-lunatic. Lord
JOHN listened to their prayers ; the fault of not subse-
quently taking due care of him was theirs, not that of the
Noble Lord. If the justices and parsons of the country
have really any duties to perform except those of enjoy-
ing their revenues, it was the duty of those in the
neighbourhood of Boughton and Herne Hill to be
informed of what was going on around them since
last October, and to have taken measures accordingly.
Either the Magistracy, or the system which constitutes
them, is to blame for the affair having come to such a con-
clusion. Lord JOHN RUSSELL is not to blame for having
allowed THOMS'S friends to remove him from the lunatic
asylum. He has a good defence in the nature of the case,
and to defend him as the Chronicle does by referring to
Sir ROBERT PEEL implies that the Whigs have no rule
of conduct but that laid down by the Tories, and that,
whether in opposition or in office the Tories still, in fact,
govern the country. It is a virtual acknowledgement of
the superiority of the Tories, and of their exclusive fitness
to administer the affairs of State.

Since the appointment of Lord MULGRAVE to the
onerous duty of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. he has taken
every opportunity of convincing the peopla cf that country
that one great object be had in view was to make the law
respected by enforcing the due and impartial administration
of justice. Where Tory Judges have inflicted punishment
greater than the offence, he has exercised the prerogative
of mercy by remitting or mitigating the sentence ; where
Magistrates have, in accordance with the old practice, shown
gross partiality Go one class, or encouraged hostile feuds by
drinking party toasts at their nightly revels, he has, not-
withstanding the denunciations of Colonel Pis:cis-AL and
Colonel VERNER, dismissed them without ceremony from
the Commission of the Peace ; and, as a natural con-
sequence, the oppressed Catholics, who knew the law
before only from its severity, begin now to look up to it
as their protector. Orangernen,however, had so long usurped
all the magisterial functions, and been so habituated to see
only one side of a question, that some more sweeping mea-
sure was necessary, and Lord MULGRAVE has accordingly
taken advantage of the demise of the Crown to carry his
views into effect by a general revision of the Magistracy of
Ireland. The circular addressed to the Lieutenants of
Counties shows very plainly the necessity of such a revi-
sion. We infer from that circular that persons hold Com-
missions in the Peace whose character or circumstances
render them totally unfit for the sacred duty of a Magis•
trate. In several counties naval and military officers,
clerks of the Crown, officers in the Customs, and per-
sons holding offices connected with county gaols, who
have no property in the district, held Commissions of the
Peace. In others insolvency, or serious pecuniary embar-
rassments, operate to disqualify individuals for the useful
and independent discharge of the duties of a Magistrate.
Many of them too are the agents of estates, who possess no
property in the country; not a few are Clergymen, whose
duties as Magistrates, his Excellency thinks, are not suit-
able to the sacred character ; and last of all, there are some
whose conduct or character renders itdesirable, for the better
administration of justice, that they should not be re-ap-
pointed to an office of such trust and importance. A tho-
rough expurgation, therefore, has taken place, and new
lists have been prepared and submitted for the considera-
tion of Lieutenants of Counties. This will be a bitter
dose for some of these gentlemen who have long been in
the habit of recommending only violent party men ; but it

is a dose which the Irish Government seems determined they
shall take. If they should still continue refractory there is one
great remedy left ; and the Government, who have had
the courage to propose such a sweeping change, will not
be deterred from adopting the only measure by which it-can
be fully carried into affect. Lords-Lieutenants have but
too often thwarted the Government in this country, as well
as in Ireland, and an example or two might be made with
good effect.

We insert, in another part of our paper, an artiele from

our enlightened and liberal Northern Contemporary the
Scotsman, on the National Loan Fund Life Assurance So-
ciety—an article which, for sound and well-considered
views of the importance of this Institution we have not seen
equalled. For our own part, having so frequently and
early discussed this subject, and unceasingly insisted on the
moral advantages it opens out to the middle and productive
classes, it gives us infinite satisfaction to observe it elicit-
ing the notice of so many of our Contemporaries, and more
particularly so able a one as the Scotsman, who, being si
tuated in the midst of so large a mass of our industrial
population, is so well prepared to pronounce a valuable
opinion.

We select a paragraph or two, which must strike our
readers as full of sound judgment and philosophical
truth :

" No efforts of legislation can adequately provide against these mis-
chiefs : the prosperity of the labouring class must always depend on their
own habits of prudence, fore-thought, and self-controul ; and, when the
time arrives when every working man shall ccnsider that he had no right
to marry and bring human beings into the world, until he is able, from
his previous savings, to meet the additional expense thus thrown upon
him, and to provide for their support and education, in the event of his
being carried offprematurely by death, or rendered unable to labour by
sickness, then, and not till then, will the general condition of the la.
bouring, class be permanently prosperous and happy. The savings,
which are capital, will then go to augment the general capital of
the country, and labourers and the demand for labour will increase in
equitable progression
Its leading principles appear to be twofold—first, it provides by its loan
fund to the assured or purchaser of a deferred annuity, a resource from
whence, during sickness or want of employment, be may support his
family and continue his premiums ; and, secondly, besides the larger
provision its calculations allow, it makes the provision adapt its form
to the eventual acquirements of the individual, giving him the alterna.
tive of an annuity, a large sum of money in cash, or a larger sum at his
death. Thus a payment of Is. a-week, or 21. 12s. per annum, by a per-
son at 20, continued till he arrives, say at 65, will give him the option of
en annuity of 471. I 6s. 6d., or a sum in cash of 394/.115., or a policY
with-
out any further premium, payable at his death, of 4661. On the other
hand, should sickness or want of employment at any time interrup-
the payment of his Is. per week, he can at any time borrow to the ex-
tent of two.thirds of his payments, and should he die before reaching
the stipulated age, two-thirds of his payments will be retuened to his
representatives. It pretend sto no exclusively
magnanimous or philanthropic motives—it is established on purely com-
mercial principles, and therefore presents no restrictions—requires no
qualifications; and when it gives the loan which the poor man may
need, it gives it as his right, in terms of the bargain, and not as a
favour which lie might blush to claim, or on an exposure he might
shrink from subjecting himself to. * s We esteem

it not the least among the many benefits of Reform, that, by gradually
elevating the tone and feelings of the great mast; ofof society, it renders
the once-thought chimerical plans of sdf.irr.provement by the working
classes every day more obviously of practical and even easy attainment.

We have received New-York Papers of the 21st ult.,
four days later than the published arrivals of our Mornirg
Contemporaries. They bring no accounts of fresh move-
ments in the political world. At Washington, things ap-
pear to be going on much in the old way. The Legisla-
ture is busy, but about what is scarcely a question of in-
quiry in the second city of the Union. To the state of
the Money Market every eye is turned ; and we arc happy
to observe many symptoms of its increasing stability. The
following extract from the City article of the J.Vew Yolc
Daily Whig of the 21st ult., will best explain the appear-
ances of improvement visible in Wall-street

NEW YORK MONEY MARKET, SATURDAY, 3,1,v 19.
United States Bank Shares continue to rise. They opened this
morning at 1181, and shut at 1181. This advance in these securities
must he very galling to the enemies of Mr. Biddle. It is a sure sign
of the confidence of the people in the institution. Even its notes have
come down to within one, and one and a quarter per cent. of our specie
4,300, at ad-
vanced
paying bank paper. By the time Mr. B. resumes cash payments, his
detractors will find themselves in a dilemma, out of which they will
have to escape by a liberal use of falsehoods.
Tle
rates.w ho! e numberueiaw a
roe of shares
and i, soldso n tol-oday amount
soon to
time.
wc are
happy to see that the stock of the Bank of Illinois stands at par. That
of the Bank of Kentucky has risen to 91. This will be a source of gra-
tification to our western friends.

packet from London, of the
24
tithVeuthtai
nothingmo. There Hues 2-enisb'irianj: piaortant In the money market.
Cotton was steady in Liverpool, at the prices brought by the Westchester.
The Treasury Note Bill for the creation of 10 millions more of irre-
deemable paper, has passed the Senate. 'lbis troublesome affair being
disposed of, and the wheels of Government being set again in motion
Mr. Boon can continue his efforts to rescind the specie circular at leisure:
How the vote stood on his third motion to suspend the rules, it is not
stated in the Washington Papers. While he will be directing his fire
in the Lower House against this anti credit measure, the Senate will he
engaged on Mr. Clay's resolution. Next week will, therefore, probably
furnish some interesting topics for discussion in the money world.
Our last dates from Nashville, I Ith of May, speak of a betterness in
the money market of that city. Premiums on funds to the north and
east of that town, keep up to 10 a 13 per cent. Mississippi money has
fallt.-n two per cent full. The Post Notes of the PlaLter's Bank were
eagerly taken. U. S. Bank Notes and specie were firm at 124. per cent.
premium. The rates of Nataez's Bank Notes stood at 18 per cent.
dis. Brandon money ruled at 25 per cent., being the worst in market.
The report of the President and Managers of the Susviehanna Canal