The Sun.
London, England, 1831-07-23 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JULY 23, 1831.

THE OPENING OF LONDON-BRIDGE.

" ROYAL PROCESSION BY WATER TO LONDON

BRIDGE.

" Their Majesties having been pleased to signify their
intention ,to honour with their presence the ceremony of
opening the New London Bridge, on the Ist of August,
and by command of the King, the procession by water
having been committed to my arrangement, I have consi-
dered it advisable to make some regulations with a view to
the general convenience of all persons who may desire
be present ; and, particularly, to give to the bargemen and
watermen the full advantage of his Majesty's gracious and
considerate attention to their interest in having determined
to go by water.
" Their Majesties will embark from Somerset House at
three o'clock precisely, and proceed to the landing place on
the City side of the river, at London Bridge, where the Lord
Mayor and the Bridge Committee will be in attendance to
receive their Royal visitors:
" To facilitate their Majesties' passage down the river,
and to prevent confusion and inconvenience to the spec-
tators, it is purposed to have two parallel lines of vessels to
form a passage of about 150 feet width, consisting of the
barges belonging to the several Corporations and Comes
nice, steam vessels and the large flat trading barges of 'tlir4
river to be moored h, ad and stern, and at a distance of 100
feet from each other : and between each vessel so placed a
boom will be secured to prevent the lines being broken ;
along which on the outside of the passage, the Thaines
wherries, with company on board, may take their stations.
" The flat barges, floored with deals, will afford a con-
venient place for spectators when moored in a-position and
in a state to receive company ; and the bargemen as well
the watermen will feel an interest in paying strict attention
to the means suggested for preventing the confusion which
might arise from their coming within the central line or
passage assigned for the procession.
" Such Corporations and Companies, owners of steam-
vessels, owners of barges, and persons as may wish their
vessels to occupy places in the line, are requested to give
in the name of the owner, and number and description of
the vessel, barge, &c., on or before noon on the 2501 in-
stant (addressed to Sir llyam Martin, Navy Off ce,) and
places will be assigned to them, under the superintend-
ence of Mr. Brown, the Master-Attendant of Woolwich
Dock-yard.

" In the event of its being found impracticable to pro-
cute a sufficient number of barges to complete the double
line, with the intervals occupied by the booms, every re-
liance will be placed on that general spirit of accommoda-
tion which must be prevalent on an occasion when his
Majesty's gracious and spontaneous determination to go
by water is intended for the benefit of the watermen, who
will no doubt do all in their power to avoid crowding in
upon the boats going in the procession ; and the converii-
ence of suspending operations or movements by steam-
vessels, and the trading barges, amid such an assemblage
of boats, on this occasion, will be obvious.
" Until one o'clock in the day, spaces will be left in
the line, midway between each of the bridges, for the oc-
casional passing of wherries, &c.—the channels across to
be boomed off;—but these openings will necessarily be
closed at and after that hour, in order to leave the passage
clear and uninterrupted for the Royal procession to and
from London Bridge :--parties, therefore, going off to the
stationed barges after one o'clock, must be put on board
from the outside of the line nearest to the shore where
their respective vessels are moored.
" Boats will be stationed at intervals within the line, in
order to be ready to give assistance in case of accidents :
and officers belonging to the Thames Police, with other
authorized persons, will be placed in various situations, to
preserve the lines until their 3lajesties' return.
" The Lord May or, in the exercise of his jurisdiction on
the Thames, has given the requisite directions for securing
a compliance with these regulations.

" T. B. MARTIN."

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The case of Mr. Bingham Baring must not rest
where certain parties would, no doubt, be right well
satisfied to leave it—namely, on the footing whereon
it was placed by the narrative of that person's co-
defendant, Mr. Francis Baring, delivered in second-
ing Colonel Evans's motion for copies of the official
papers. We have already said, that our impression
of Mr. B. Bar:ng's conduct was little, if at all,
amended by the letter (so-called exculpatory)
which he addressed to us. We now add, that the
proceedings of Thursday night in the House of
Commons, where no corroboratkri was given to that
letter beyond a repetition of its statements, by a
coadjutor of the party implicated, has not in the
slightest degree affected our original view of his
proceedings. We shall be called incredulous for
this, or uncharitable. What care we ? It is not a
rule of wisdom or justice to believe implicitly the
ex-pane representations of men who, having become

he objects of public censure, begin to writhe under
reproach, and make desperate plunges to escape
from it. But if we be hard of faith in refusing credit
to assertions offered in such circumstances by those
who are not responsible to law and hardly to opinion
for their fallacy, what are they who withhold all
credit from the evidence of witnesses, delivered
solemnly on oath, exposed to the snares of cross-
' examination, to the terrors of contradiction, to the
scorpion lash of an able lawyer's comments, to the
keen observation of a presiding Judge, and to the
searching and distrustful consciences of a special
Jury, and last, not least, to the penalties of perjury,
sure to be exacted by an angry prosecutor ? Mr.
Bingham Baring was condemned by twelve men
upon their oaths, who knew in their own persons
the state of the couwy on which so much stress has
been laid by the Baring Magistracy, and who ascer-
tained the facts of the case from the lips of wit-
nesses examined openly in their presence. lie has,
on the contrary, been acquitted by the Members of
the House of Commons, who knew nothing of the
county but from the description of Mr. Baring's
advocates, and who, it appears, know nothing of the
evidence but what those advocates thought fit to
say of it, with a view to disparage the verdict of
which it was the foundation. Did the Judge drop
one syllable of surprise or disapprobation at that
verdict ? Did not the charge of that venerable
person lead directly to a conclusion the tuost adverse
to the acts of Mr. Baring ? Was any intention
expressed by the Counsel for the defendant to move
for a new trial, on the ground of error or in-
justice to his client's cause ? But we are
told, that the gentlemen who might have been
witnesses for Baring were made defendants with
him for the sake of suppressing their evidence; and
Sir James Scarlett, whose opinion on such a sub-
ject is entitled to great attention, bet who tv,s 70
miles from the scene, tells the House of Commons
that when he read the trial, and saw the facts bear-
ing only against one defendant, when four or five
were named in the declaration with him, he SUS-
' ported the plaintiff's attorney of having some such
purpose to serve. To this we answer, that the
Judge who tried the cause, if he had observed any
such trickery on the part of Mr. Deacle's las;yers,
would, immediately on the plaintiff's ease being
closed, in pure regard for justice, have directed an
acquittal of the other four defendants, for want of
evidence against them, and his Counsel would have
beenjustified in demanding it, that they might im-
mediately afterwards have been employed as wit- t
nesses for the defer ce. Did any such proceeding
take place on the part of the Judge, or of the de-
fendant's Counsel ? ft is implied in Mr. Baring's
letter that he was taken by surprise, as to the na-
ture of the charge against him ! Surprise ! Did we
not yesterday publish a copy of the letter addressed
by Mr. Deacle's solicitor to the Mossrs,liaring—tem-
perate and conciliatory letter—pointing out pre-
cisely what it was that Mr. Deacle complained
of, and tendering to the defendant the liberal
proposal that lie should merely apologise to the
plaintiff; as one gentleman to another, for his vio-
lence, and reimbtirse him the costs to which he had ;

been put by what had proved to be an unjust pro-
secution ? A great deal appears to have been said
in Parliament about the previous conduct imputed
to Mr. and Mrs. Deacle ; and most discreditably,
as well as cruelly, in our opinion, the truth of such
charges was assumed all through the statements of
Mr. F. Baring, and Serjeant Wilde, by way of pal-
liating the tyrannical execution of the writ, although
the Magistrates professing such laudable anxiety to
bring to condign punishment persons of " superior
station," " promoters" of the disturbances, &c.
as an example to the deluded peasantry, and failed
to substantiate a single particle of those accusations
before a Jury ! We wish to say no more upon the
facts of this melancholy case, unless again pro-
voked to it ; but if it be according to the old con.
stitution of Parliament, that the House of Commons
where no evidence can be received on oath, should
take upon itself to re-try causes already settled in
Courts of Justice,—to set aside verdicts,—to white.
wash Magistrates found guilty of oppression, and to
blacken the characters of injured plaintiffs,—why
then, we say, that a thorough Reform of such Par-
liament is recommended by a fresh necessity,
strongei'than has yet suggested itself to the mind of
any British Statesman.—Times.
The work of demolition proceeds in the House of
Commons, though not so quickly as we could wish.
The Opposition still lay hold of every pretext for a
debate, and of this there was a good illustration in
the case of Minehead. A former resolution of the
House of Commons stated that " the elective fran-
chise in the borough of Minehead was in the pa-
rishioners of Minehead and Dunster, being house-
keepers in the borough of Minehead, not receiving
alms." Dunster has 1,235 inhabitants; but as
Minehead has fewer inhabitants than 2,000, it is
quite clear that it ought to be inserted in schedule
A ; for in 1821 the population of Dunster, being
housekeepers of Minehead, could not have made
the number above 2,000, as all the housekeepers of
Minehead were of course included in the popula-
tion of Minehead. It is not very likely that at
the period in question, inhabitants of Dunster had
double habitations, and chose to be enumerated
only in Dunster. But though nothing could be
more clear, that the right of the people of Dunster
had not had the effect of raising the population in
1821 above 2,000, and consequently exempting it
from the operation of the rule, still all sorts of
quibbling were resorted to, in order to perplex this
slain matter. The everlasting theme of the Oppo-
sition is the want of freedom of the Members of po-
pulous places, and particularly of the city of Lon-
don. The object of the constant allusion to this
subject it is not difficult to understand. It is akin to
that of Sir Robert Peel in reproaching Ministers for
not running counter to the Press. They wish to
shame the timid into an abandonment of their
pledges, by way of showing their independence.
This taunt comes with an admirable grace from the
nominees of boroughmongers, who lend themselves
to all their dirty purposes. Mr. Hudson Gurney
observed, " that if he saw the exthiction of the
borough of Newton, he should have the consolatio

of knowing that he had never seen a Member of
that borough make himself such a spectable for men
and angels as the four Members for London had
been."—(Loud and continued cheering.) It
would have been very convenient for many Mem-
bers to go into the House without pledges
to support the Bill, for then they might have
baulked the just expectations of the people, and
felt themselves more at liberty to consult their
own interests. The pickpocket thinks it very hard
that he should be restrained from putting his hand into
the pockets of passengers. It is a glorious state of
things when men can have liberty to buy from a
few drunken voters the liberty to plunder the whole
"lion. These taunts are deserving only of con-
tempt. But they originate in a soreness that the
people of England should have left no loop-hole to
their representatives to trick them out of a measure
on which the welfare of the country depends. A
precious independence it would be that should
leave the representatives of a great nation at liberty
to betray it. The Committee have now got beyond
"Ympton. Nineteen boroughs yet remain in sche-
dule A. Seventeen were disposed of last night.—
Morning Chl °nide.

There is believed to be some deep intrigue
going on at present against the Ministers, with a
view of frustrating the Reform Mil in the Lords.
This has been infee'rred, among other thing,, from
the reconcilement which appears to have been
effected between certain Tory leader. The Duke
of Wellington has plainly taken back Lord Chief
Baron Lyndhurst, who, being a Judge of the land,
may be reasonably expected
.to pursue his present
course of opposition, and gratitude towards the pre-
sent Ministry. It is also said that Sir R. Peel, the most
steady, firm, and consistent of politicians, has made
up his mind to oppose all Reform. Indeed, he made
some such declaration in the debate the other

night. This, of course, must Le caused by a re-
conciliation between him and the Duke. We
regard this intrigue as utterly hopeless. The
people are true to the Government—the Govern-
ment are true to the people and themselves,
and the King is true to both his country and his
servants. But what shall be said of the drama/is
personae in this plot ? Lord Lyndhurst is to join the
Duke on the broad ground of being against all Re-
form. From this position, the gallant military leader
of the Parliamentary opposition has never flinched an
inch. He held, and still holds, that the existing
system of rotten boroughs is perfect, and that if a
new Constitution were to be deviFed he would fly,

to
model of the present system. To this doctrine his
work
;race adheres; to this doctrine
must adhere. From this position the Duke
the Lord Chief
from this position the Lawyer
e;t the
has never swerved;
bu,ttrownithout hope of equallingit,
B
swerving half his I.;* was one of the
-Refo,,rm, ers. Latterly he gave it up
T
a iory. Then he was a furious
'imhLk.alords,stitbt.:n
C'o.eeheralitltue
oollibele,tingand spouted off Dr. Philpott's
pamphlets in Parliament. Afterwards he became a
violent Emancipator. Of late he was a very
moderate Anti-Reforrner—probably a moderate
Reformer with Sir Robert Pc-..eL ' Now he must
go the full length of the Duke's Anti-Reform de-
claration. So mustthSeir
Duke's
Pteeset.l afteri3ut all his
Tamworth and 'loose of Commons speeches, lie,
ttngs:a'ariltlio‘hre will do it. he for doing it
o.(sjeotc,ftlinn:prnul:itee? Will the Chief g4ron for doing it
'get WI: the Great Seel? Will the Duke ride into
the Treasury again ? We d 0 not think it among
die probabilities of the day. They would have to
govern in spite of the Parliament, the press, and the
people; and as Sir R. Peel began his late opposition
to Reform with solemn and earnest dea..nciations
against the Journals, he wov,ld probably, for a few
days, or perk7,ps weeks, take his resolution to govern
like the Polignacs, by a coup d'etal ! We don't feel very much alarmed at the prospect, He never
,cerns to be constant for a month to one thing ; and
if he were, we are sure lie has neicher the power in
himself, nor enough of the confidence of any one
party in the State, either in or out of Parliament, to
accomplish any 'abject of the least moment against
the feeling of the country. Another probable
reconciliation is, that of the Duke of Cumberland
and the Duke of Wellington—they are now,
" sworn friends and brothers." Yet no longer
ago than last autumn the Duke of Cumberland
publicly insulted the Duke of Wellington by re-
fusing to drink the la.tter's health when given by the