The Sun.
London, England, 1822-05-02 00:00:00

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]

The wisdom that continued several most op-
pressive taxes with a view to a Sinking Fund of
five millions, and then proposed an addition to
our Debt in order to obtain a relief from part of
the annual burden of the pensions, which was so
happily exposed by Mr. Brougham, on Monday
night, received still farther elucidation last night.
The pension speculation, is not very likely to
prove peculiarly attractive to capitalists. The
length of time during which they must continue
to advance money, consequently befok, they can
enjoy the benefit of their speculation, the chance
of war in the interim which gives to it a pecu-
liarly hazardous character, are all certainly far
from being a recommendation in its favour ; and
any bargain entered into with the public cannot
be expected, under such circumstances, to he very
advantageous for it. Here against the debt paid
off by the Sinking Fund, we have not merely to set
off the fresh debt incurred bythis pension operation,
but also the profit to be made by capitalists. How
then can the Sinking Fund be better employed
than in supplying the place of capitalists, and thus
preventing the creation of fresh debt, and saving
the profits of these capitalists to the nation ? But
to crown the absurdity, while Ministers are thus
buying up the Life Annuities of those having.
pensions, they are every day selling Life Annui-
ties to all who apply for them. The folly of all
this is so egregious, that if any man in ordinary
life were to act in the same manner, he would
certainly run a risk of confinement in a mad-
house. We have no hesitation in approving of
any measure calculated to alleviate our present
burdens, and therefore we approve of the prin-
ciple of throwing part of the burden of the pen-
sions on futurity ; but we cannot approve of this
and approve of the opposite of it at the same
time. We leave this to the faith and accommo-
dating spirit of the Country Gentlemen.

[THE TIMES.]

We have alluded more than once to the dread-
ful situation of the poor in the southern counties
of Ireland, wherein, from the late unfavourable
season, the potatoe crop has failed. It gives us
much satisfaction to state, that private charity
has begun to exert itself strenuously for the sake
of the unhappy sufferers--a " Society for the Re-
lief and Employment of the Poor of Ireland" has
been formed. At the head of it are several men
of rank connected with the sister island, who
have undertaken to promote a subscription, and
to employ the first fruits of it in the purchase of
potatoes. " Relief" may be a temporary, though
a most urgent and indispensable object ; but
" employment" is one which bespeaks more
extensive purposes, and which will require the
aid of more skilful arrangements, more per-
severing steadiness, and more regular and per-
manent contributions. We heartily wish suc-
cess to both branches of this benevolent and pa-
triotic enterprise. The least that the absentees
from Ireland can do, is to return, in the shape of
charity, to the poor wretches who live at rack-
rent on their estates—by whose toils they are
maintained in splendour, but whose affections
they have despised, and whose miseries they
have enhanced while they dare not witness
them—it is, we say, the least redeeming sacri-
fice by which such men can atone to their in-
jured country, to send back some small memento
of the obligations which she has entailed upon
them : and to assist the generosity of the people
of England in prolonging the lives of a race
of men to whom the wisdom of the English

Government, and the huma;;ity of their own ter-
ritorial Lords, have left no property but exist-
ence. Subscriptions for this good work are re-
ceived by many of the principal bankers. If
care be not taken to apply the fund judiciously,
and to exclude the spirit of jobbing, the novelty
of such an example will not be the least precious
among the advantages which may be thereby se-
cured to the inhabitants of the South of Ireland.

[NEW TIMES.I
Consols fOr Account left offj yesterday at 78i,
and it is confidently expected that the quantity
of money aboutitto be soon brought into circula-
tion by the payment of the Dissentients, and other
measures of a like nature, will effect a much more
considerable rise. The fifth of Mr. Vansittart'g
resolutions points to a particular mode of
„under-
ing effective the monied capital or tbe country.
By that resolution it is provided that the Govern.
ment may treat with individuals or great com-
mercial bodies, who may be willing to provide
for the charge of the pensions, amounting at pre-
sent to five millions a year, but which it is meant
to extinguish by redeemable annuities. Annexed
to this resolution is an estimate (calculated, we
presume, on the ordinary chances of life) shelving
the gradual mode in which pensions to the
amount of five millions might be expected to be
reduced in 45 years. By this it would appear
that the annual burthen would not be reduced to
four Millions till after seven years; to three
millions till after fourteen years ; to two millions
till after twenty-two, and to one million till after
32 years ; whereas, by the proposed scheme
(as we understand it,) the reduction of the annual
burthen will be more immediately effected, and
consequently a larger portion of the national re-
sources will be rendered available for public
purposes. Although this transaction may be said
to be in the nature of a loan, yet it is free from
the objection of increasing the debt ; for in fact
the Military and Naval Pensions, and Civil
Superannuations, form a part of the National
Debt, as sacred as any other part, inasmuch as
the national faith is equally pledged to its pay-
ment, and the consideration given for it was in
services as valuable as the consideration given
for any part of the Funded Debt.

[MORNING HERALD.]
It appears from the Provincial Papers that a
scarcity of good grain, particularly of wheat, has
caused some advance of price in the markets,
and that the purchasers seem rather on the alert.
We also perceive in the Hop-market the proba-
bility of a start in the price. This strikes us as
the effect of a principle in trade to which we
have formerly adverted. After any article has
glutted the market for a time, and the prices,
in consequence, become ruinously low, a tran-
sition takes place, and the article again be-
comes comparatively scarce and dear. There
is again an eagerness to purchase, and the
most eager are those who were before
loudest in predicting that the article would
fall still lower. In trade of every kind,
men very much resemble the flock of sheep
in old Rabelais—when one jumps in, another
and another follow, each hastening to purchase,
before the price, as he apprehends, rises still
higher ; and this impulse is communicated from
man to man, and from town to town, avarice and
speculation tempting men on, until at length the
price rises so far, that it can go no farther;—then
the bubble bursts—and then down comes the
price of the article as rapidly as it ascended.—
Before, all the sheep rushed in, because one had
done so,—now, however, one sheep has disco-
vered the mistake, and endeavours to get out,
upon which the herd follows as before. Thus
the market vibrates between the extreme points
on the one side and on the other, from a sort of
mechanical impulse of imitation.

[BRITISH PRESS.]
The smallness of the majority on Mr. Can-
ning's motion must be a subject of surprise and
regret to every person acquainted with the story
of the times in which the disabling Statute of
Charles 11. was enacted. Mr. Canning's mea-
sure is one not merely of political expediency,
but of justice and of retribution for the greatest
injury that could have been committed. The Sta-
tute which prevents- the Catholic Peers from
sitting in Parliament would never have had ex-
istence but for the per of Titus Oates' and
of Bedloe, and the enactment of it bears the
same character of justice as did the arbitrary
imprisonment of the Lords Powis, Arundel,
Peters, and Bellasis, and the subsequent murder
of the venerable and noble Strafford. The Act
was an Act of attainder against the Catholic
Peers, who, until that time, sat in Parliament
by the privilege of their birth, and it passed
simply upon the evidence of the convicted per-
jurers we have mentioned. If it stood upon
the precise footing, and bore what might be
called the technical form of an Act of At-
tainder, could any one so tar doubt the justice,
the sense of honour and the probity of Parliament
in the present day, as to believe that such an Act
would not be reversed ? Yet it wants only the
form of an attainder, for virtually it possesses all
the characteristics of such a measure, and no man
ought to vote for preserving it upon our statute
book will:, is not prepared at the same moment to
attest his belief in the evidence of Oates, and
Bedloe, and conscientiously to believe as a-Chris-
tian, or as a man of ordinary understanding, that
Lord Stratford was guilty. The very mob who
surrounded the scaffold where this venerable
and innocent Nobleman was to be made the
victim of a terrific delusion, protested against
his murder. In the very midst -of the panic

that seemed to have unseated the reasoning
powers of the whole empire, the ;affecting decht-
rations which Strafford made of his innocence ex-
cited the 'sympathy of the popula,:e, and'it per.
haps afforded some consolation to We noble
sufferer in his last moments to hear the rabble
exclaim, "We believe you, my Lord! we belieie
you to be innocent ! Gon bless you !"

THE ARMY.

~~

Three officers and about 40 men of the 13th
Light Dragoons, now at our Cavalry Depot, will
leave here for Madras, on the 10th instant.—
They will embark at Gra‘csend, on board the
East India Company's ship 4stel. About 130
men of the 11th Light Dragoons will also leave
this Depot on the'3oth instant, for Bengal. An
order has been received at the Cavalry Depot
for the detachment of the 17th Light Dragoons,
stationed here, to be in readiness to repair to
Romford, to take charge of upwards- of one
hundred horses, belonging to the 16th Lancers,
under orders for embarkation to India.—( Maid-
stone Journal.)

Monday morning, part of the 58th Regiment
landed at Portsmouth, and the other part, which
separated in a gale and was supposed to be lost,
arrived yesterday morning. They are quartered
at the Military Barracks, Gosport. This Regi-
ment embarked in October, 1816, from Ireland
for Jamaica, where they have been stationed
ever since, and we are concerned to'state that
they have lost five, Officers, 530 men, 110 women,
and 200 children, which have been carried off by
the local fever. The inhabitants ofJamaica have
equally suffered from that dreadful malady. The
.Regiment came home in the London Brilliant,
and John and Thomas transports.
COWES, APRIL 30.—There were embarked
here yesterday, 10 officers, 107 meti, 10 women,
and 4 children of different regiments, on their '
route to Chatham fOr Bombay ; also arrived a
number of recruits from Southampton, for Al-
bany barracks. •
DOBLIN,A PRI L 29.—The 12th Lancers marched
this morning on their route to Ballinrobe ' • they
are to be replaced by the King's Dragoon Guards.

READING, APRIL 23,

PRESENTATION OF A SILVER CUP TO CAPT. MONTAGU.

On Monday last an interesting event took place on Mr.
WHEnLE's newly inclosed ground. After the drill', of the
Woodley Cavalry, preparatory to the review on Tuesday, one
of the privates of that corps (Mr. CHILD) addressed the Com-
manding Officer, Captain MONTAGU, and•said—That he was
deputed by,the Quarter-master, the Non-commissioned Offi-
cers, and the Privates, to request his acceptance of a mark of
their respect and gratitude for his unremitted attention to their
discipline, and kindness to themselves. He expressed their
determination to neglect no opportunity of shewmg their at-
tachment to him by their public services and private regard.
On receiving the present, a very beautikl Cup, -with suit-
able emblems, and inscriptions, Captain 11.1wfwa.au said
that, during the whole of his military services, he had never
been caught by surprise by his enemies, but thit now he
must declare, that he had been taken by surprise by his
friends, for he had not received the least previous sugges-
tion of the kind intention of the corps whom he had the
good fortune to command. lle felt himself utterly unable
to express his grateful feelings in words, but he assured
them that this liberal and splendid proof ,of their approba-
tion would remain indelibly engraven on his heart to the
latest moment of his life. The honour of being at the head
of one of the oldest and most respectable Troop of Yeomanry
in England was most gratifying to him. If his attention to
discipline had sometimes the appearance of strictness, he was
most happy to find by that public mark of their approbation
that they did justice to his principles, and entertained that
sense of his conduct, which he should always be most anxious
to deserve.

'This extempore address was delivered in a forcible, and af-
fecting manner, and was followed by the repeated cheers of
every individual present.

GENERAL MEETING OF THE BRITISH AND
FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. •

-~_

Yesterday the General Meeting of the British and Foreii,m
Bible Society was held at the Great Hall of Freemasons' Ta-
vern, and at an early hour it was filled by a numerous and re-
spectable assemblage.—Lord TEzoxatoUTri was called to the
Chair.

The SECRETARY read the Report, which is extremely volu-
minous, and gave the most satisfactory details of the progress of
the British Auxiliary Society;. and also of the Bible' Societies
which now pervaded almost every part of Europe, and the
most flattering communications from persons of the first
rank in almost every province on the Continent .avere read
to the meeting, and detailed the progress and the effects which
the dissemination of the Scriptures had worked upon the people,
in some instances amounting almost to an entire change of
manners. In Catholic countries the progress was beyond
their utmost expectations. Even amongst the Jews, the Chi-
nese, and the NI ahometans, Bibles had been introduced; and had
gone on under circumstances of great promise. In the Society
Islands also a translation of the. Gospels of St. John had been
introduced,-after the establishment of a schooL In Patagonia
Bibles had been circulated, and in every part of North America
societies had been formed, and were flourishing. In Nova
Scotia they had introduce l 'a translation, as well -as in Labrador,
where some of the natives had subscribed seals and blubber for
the benefit of the Society, when they were informed of its na-
ture and objects. In the remote parts of Scotland, societies had
been established, and liberal contributions made towards the
support of the present establishment: In Ireland they had also
made considerable progress in the dissemination of. the Scrip-
tures. It appeared that the numberof Bibles circulated during
last year were beyond that of the preceding year ; and altoge-
ther there were more than three millions and a half of the So-
ciety's Bibles in silent but active operation in almost every
quarter of the world, and in almost every language:- The con-
tributions of the Society amounted last year to. upwards • of-
-103,0001. of which more than 69,0001. had been received from
the Auxiliary Societies. The disbursements amounted last
year to 510,4901.

At the 'conclusion of the reading of the Report, his Royal
Highness the Duke of Gloucester .entered, and was warmly
cheered from all parts of the hall.
The Earl of Harrowby, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Lord Teignmouth, Lord Calthorpe, ,Mr. Wilberforce, and other
Gentlemen, successively addressed the Meeting, and several ap-
propriate Resolutions were agreed to.

The wheat in every part of the west•of Scot-
land is extremely promising, and the oats present
a fine braird. There were some oats sown in a
field near Tollcross, and on the fifth day they
were nearly all through the ground. 'the coun-
try people are at present busy planting..otatoes. Mo
ntrose
market week butter was purchased in
market at 9d. per pound, and eggs at 3d. per
dozen ; and on Thursday last, potatoes were
called through the streets, to be kill in the
neighbourhood at 4s. per boll.—(Edinburgh Con-
rant, April 27.)