The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-09 00:00:00

SOUTHWARK.

George Duplock, Francis James Philpot, George Filnry,
and Thomas Hartley, tour respectable looking men,
living at the east end of the town, before
brought ,fore
Mr. Cottingham, charged with having in their possession
a quantity of velvet plush used in the manufacture of
hats, 3501. worth of which article had been stolen from
the premises of Messrs. Angier and Co., bat manufactu-
rers, of the Southwark-bridge-road.
Mr. Angier stated, that on the night of the sth of
March the premises of the firm in the Southwark-hridge-
road were broken into, and plundered of velvet plush to
; that the policeman who inspected
uently to the robbery were of tthh
ee amount
premises
u3b550e1.4
opi-
nion, from an examination of the counting-house, that
some person had concealed himself there, and afterwards
admitted his associates, and that they selected the most
valuable articles, showing that they were well acquainted
with the nature of the material.. Although every exer-
tion had been since made to discover the stolen pro-
perty, it was not traced until within the last few days,
when, upon search warrants having been executed at the
houses of the prisoners, a portion of the velvet plush
was there found.
Sergeant Baker, M division, stated that he discovered
some black velvet plush at .Duplock'a house, and also
at Philpot's, who, in accounting for the possession of
it, said that he had purchased it some time pre-
viously of a man whom he should not know again
and that he (Philpol) used it in business—that of a
hatter. At Hartley's, also, some of the same article
was found ; and the latter said h e purchased it of a man
who told him that he was going to Manchester,
wanted to raise money on the plush in order to pay' and
his
expenses there. The sergeant added that he then pro-
ceeded to Filney's house and found a small piece of the
plush. The sergeant then produced the various pieces
all
nal
eseins
g; athnedma,
swaiitdnethssatvi as e cwaallsedthfeormwaarndufwachtou,reorn
aerxi
of the article he had discovered at each of the prisoners'
d
identified each of them as forming a portion of the article'
which he had sold to the firm. _

The complainant proud that he had not disposed 01

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TlMES.—There is a well-known fact in natural
history about pigs swimming down a stream. The
faster they make way the more rapidly do they cut
their own throats. Such is the case with Mr. John
O'Connell. It will be found in our Parliamentary
summary of last night that this person has again stood
between the public and a knowledge of the proceed-
ings of the Commons. So far as we know, Mr. John
O'Connell this time has not a quarrel with ourselves,
or with any other journal, or with anybody in parti-
cular. Ile is simply in the position of the Friendly
Island savage mentioned in Cook's Voyages, who _ob-
tained a watch from one of the ship's crew and wound
it and wound it until at last he overwound it, and
broke the spring. He did this, not from any parti-
cular motive of malevolence, but simply from the love
of power, and in order to hear the instrument go
" tick-tick." It is quite clear there is no use in
making a revolution against Mr. John O'Connell and
his vagaries. This question is not a Ship-money
question, nor a Reform Bill question, nor a Corn-law
question. We are merely suffering from a ridiculous
annoyance which it is in our power to remove by a
simple act of volition. There is mixed up with our
annoyance on this subject a -strong sense of the
ludicrous, and a still stronger feeling of contempt.
Compare the man with his father. The elder O'Con-
nell, with all his demagogneism and reckless selfish-
ness, worked out his ends in the broad light of day.
He stood up on a hill, raised his hand to Heaven, and
told four or five thousand half-witted peasants that
they were the model population of the world, and so
he carried out his ends. But the son only can work
by quips and quiddities. He has the bias and incli-
nation, without the talent or knowledge of a Nisi
Prins lawyer. What his motive may be in his pre-
sent maneauvres, beyond the gratification of an inor-
dinate vanity, we cannot divine ; but thus much at
least is clear—that he is pursuing the direct course to
necessitate an abrogation of the powers he has abused.
A few days after the former exclusion of strangers on
the lath of May, Colonel Thompson moved an
amendment on the present practice, which, if adopted,
would have obviated the ridiculous occurrence of last
night. We will here give his short speech again ; the
chief value of it consists in its expressing the general
feeling of the House :

"He moved that the House will take into its con-
sideration the rule or practice whereby strangers have
been excluded on the motion of any single Member, with
a view to alter the same • so that the motion for the ex-
clusion of strangers shall be made and seconded, and
question thereupon be put, as is the practice with other
motions.' He was of opinion that rules of such a nature
as that which he proposed to alter became generally ob-
solete; and therefore it seemed expedient that the House
should calmly inquire whether it was for the public ad-
vantage that it should be continued or not. He would
abstain from pressing the motien if any Hon. Member
would prove to him that the privilege was attended with
advantage; but be had in vain used every power of
romance he possessed to conjure up the possible cases in
which such might be the case. The Right Hon. Gen-
tleman (Mr. Wynn) who had been present that evening,
but whose state of health prevented him from remain-
ing to that hour, could have illustrated the question by
his superior knowledge. But it was one on which an
ordinary man might form a judgment. It was desirable
to keep up everything which tended to maintain what-
ever deserved the name of the wisdom of Parliament;
and he heartily wished to do samething to prevent the
repetition of what he felt to be a great evil."
It is quite clear that in no imaginable case would
the absence of strangers be of public advantage,
when the majority of the House denied that such
exclusion was not necessary. The view of the Go-
vernment may be gathered from the few observations
of Sir George Grey. As the wont of statesmen is,
he was unwilling t.o acquiesce in any sudden and
violent change, but always upon the presumption that
the ridiculous proceeding of Mr. John O'Connell
should not be repeated by himself or anybody else.
" He thought that a question of so much importance
ought hardly to be disposed of at that time of night
(twelve o'clock). He was not at all prepared to say that
some of their rules ought not to be considered and re-
vised ; but the best mode of proceeding would be, after
a full and deliberate inquiry by a Committee, for the
House to introduce such changes as it might think pru-
dent and judicious. He hoped the Hon. and Gallant
Member would not press his motion. It was not desir-
able to lead the House hastily into a discussion with re-
ference to a proceeding which took place the other
night, and which he hoped would not be drawn into a
precedent."

Lord H. Vane admitted that the existence of a cer-
tain evil had been substantiated, and that it was right
a Committee should be appointed to determine how
far that grievance could be remedied. Mr. Aglionby
went further, and as it has turned out took the more
practical view of the case :
"He objected to an indefinite postponement of the
matter. The question could easily bo determined by
men of common sense, when it was borne in mind that
they sat there every night with strangers present, know-
ing that part of the strangers were the most valuable
portion of the House—(A laugh)—for without them
what passed there would not be known. Considering
the difficulty of hearing, the rapidity with which many
Members spoke—(Laughter and cheers)—the number
of unconnected sentences, it was to him a miracle how
the reporters were able to discharge their duties as they
did. What the Hon. and Gallant Member propostd
was, that the House should no longer allow anything so
childish to be done as that one Member might get up and
say, observe strangers in the House.' Ihe better
course would be to require that one Member should move
that strangers be excluded, and that on the motion being
seconded a division should take place."
Colonel Thompson finally withdrew his motion, but,
from the extracts we have given, it will be easy to
gather the views of the Members upon a subject in
which they are even more practically interested than
the public out of doors. Thus, then, the matter
stands—at present Mr. John O'Connell or any other
Member, by way of an insane freak, may exclude the
public from the knowledge of a debate with which it
is most important they should be acquainted. We do
not say if the contest were fairly tried out, and the
privilege maintained, but what ways and means
might be found to transfer the reporters from the
gallery to the body of the House, and blow this
puerility to the four winds. But, practically, mat-
ters are not decided by such extreme courses. If no-
thing fresh had occurred no doubt the House would
have referred this question to a Committee, and, act-
ing upon their report, have modified the privilege;
but as it is, there is good reason for adopting some
more summary method of abating a nuisance which
has become intolerable.