The Sun.
London, England, 1831-05-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We have seldom read a speech more calculated to
effect great good throughout the empire than that
of Lord Althorp, at the election dinner for
Northamptonshire. The strong sense and fine po-
pular feeling that pervaded it were admirable in a
Minister of a King of England; and the devotion
with which the Noble Lord pledged himself and
his colleagues to the principles of the Bill, as being
those of public liberty, which they had as stre-
nuously supported when the nation was against
them to the total sacrifice of official power, as now,
when 99 Englishmen out of every 100 were cheer-
ing and animating them in their glorious ta-k will
not be lost upon the country. National ardour and
enthusiasm in a public functionary, like those evinced
by Lord Althorp in his manly speech, will do
more to attach the hearts of the people to the
Crown and State of England, whose interests are
entrusted to men agreeing so thoroughly with the
Noble Member for Northamptonshire, than even
the measure of Reform itself would have done,
if brought forward in a hesitating and re-
pugnant spirit by the politicians of the " late
convert" school. As Lord Liverpool would
have said, speaking of his own diplomacy, the
'° tone" is hardly of less importance than the
terms," and the tone of Lord Grey's Administra-
tion throughout has been that of Statesmen whose
pride was in promoting the solid welfare of the na-
tion ; so has it been the point of honour with our
Gracious Sovereign. He has spoken and acted as
if he felt, not that he was cutting deep into his own
prerogatives and just influence, for the sake of
granting magnificent concessions to his subjects, but
as if what he proposed to their acceptance was the
establishment of rights which he claimed in common
iinth (hem—the means and securities of mutual pro-
tection, against those who had usurped an ascend-
ancy perilous both to King and people. William
IV. does not sanction modern paradoxes, or per-
plex himself with Tory subtleties, nor has he so
read our limited Monarchy as to insist that it had
been from time immemorial constituted of " King,
Lords, and nomination Boroughs." The country
has borrowed the trite light from his Majesty on
this great question, and we suspect that the House
of Lords will not be led away by the gloss of Tory
commentators, however ingenious, to misinterpret
that sacred book.—Times.

The French and German Papers abound with
rumours of the treatment of the Polish General
Dwernicki and his troops by the Austrian autho-
rities in Gallicia, of the circumstances which at-
tended his entry into that province, and of the con-
ditions on which he is to be allowed to return home
or to be detained in the Austrian dominions. Many
of those rumours, as we mentioned yesterday, must
of course be erroneous, because they suppose on
the part of the Austrian Government a barefaced
violation of international law, and on the part of the
European Powers a disgraceful permission of a po-
licy destructive of every principle of public right
and justice. Without enumerating or attempting
to confute these reports, we may advert for a little
to the very grave question on the rights of neu-
trals, and the law of nations, which arises out of
the official statement of the Polish General him-
self, and out cf the acknowledged fact that he
and his troops are still detained in Gallicia. Ac-
cording to the General's statement, he respected
the neutral character of the Austria!' territory so
much, that he never fired a &hot upon it, and ex-
posed his army to be attacked in the rear by the
Russians, because he supposed that they would
equally respect it. On the other hand, the Rus-
sians, by violating the law of nations, and taking
advantage of a neutral territory, were enabled to
drive him from a position otherwise impregnable,
and to compel his retreat into a province whose
neutrality offered him the only chance of an asylum.
Had he not relied on a neutral boundaries a bul-
wark to protect the rest of his position, he would
not have taken up that position, but might have
retreated earlier, and thus have prevented himself
from being surrounded. Thus a feeling of good
faith and a respect for Austrian rights became a
cause of his defeat, without availing him in
his misfortune; while the Russians were not
only allowed to disperse his troops by a b: each
of international law, but enjoyed the favour
of the party whose territory they had violated.—
Not only was the Russian General enabled to turn
the position of Dwernicki by a violation of the Aus-
trian territory, but he heightened that original vio-
lence by attacking the Poles after they had passed
the Gallician frontier, and by taking aid carrying off
Polish prisoners who had laid down their arms re-
lying on the Austrian protection. This was not
all. The Russians did not do all this by a hasty
incursion, or from any mistake of the boundary lice;
they remained unmolested for several houra in the
Austrian dominitms,—they retained their arms on
the Austrian territory,—they acted as . disciplined
troops on the Austrian territory,--they made the
Austrian soil the arena of contest,—they overpowered
the sentinels on the Austrian frostier,—they retired
with their booty by Austrian permission,—and they
received a promise of recovering the whole Polish
arms, horses, and artillery froin the Austrian authorities.
If this account of the Polish General be correct (and
we have no tea Lon to doubt it), the Powrrsof Europe
will be called upon to interfere, and to dealarid for
Poland a reparation of the injustice which she less
suffered by the partiality of Austria in favour of her
oppresscra. The se.zure of Polish prisoners on the
Gallician territory is as gross a violation of the rights
of nations as ever was committed by Napoleon, in
any period of his career ;—in seizing, for instance,
the Duke d'Enghien on the territory of Baden.
Austria has added to this injustice by appearing to
consider as prisoners of war those Poles wl:o could
not be curried off by the Rusaian barbarians. it is
stated in the foreign journals, that .Dwernicki is not
to be allowed to return to Poland unless he gives
his parole that he will not fight against Russia during
the war ; and that a similar engagement is to be
esr-
acted of all the officers who commanded in his corps.
This, of course, we cannot believe without official
proof. Whatever Austria may attempt, or the Powers
of Europe permit, on this occasion, the law; of neu-
trality, to which the Poles can appeal against the
partitioning despots and their accomplices, cannot
for a moment admit of doubt or miaapplicatiott. It
is laid down as a first principle by every writer
on the laws of nations, that a neutral has a right to
prevent fighting on his territory. The consequence
of this principle must be, that he disarms the weaker
party, who demand the rights of hospitality, in
order not to provoke the stronger to abuse them.
Vattel, after having enumerated at considerable
length the cases in which it is allowable for a belli-
gerent to demand a passage through a neutral terri-
tory,—after having mentioned, that when an army
is exposed to imminent destruction, and cannot re-
turn home but by passing through such a territory,
it has the right of doing so sword in, hand,—adds,
that no belligerent right can be exercised on neutral
ground—" Il West pas permis Xi:Wavier son ennemi
pans an pays neutre, ni d'y exercer aucan (nitre
acte Diostiiile." He then mentions the attack
'Tke by the English on the Dutch fleet in a Nor-
eglah port in 1666, as a breach of the law of no-
ticing, and praises the conduct oft he Danish Governor,
who,
though an ally of England, fired upon the
Whatassailants.gz'la" would he have said to the con-
duct of the B.
General, who attacked an
unresisting foe iiia
neutral territory, and was allowed
to depart not otily'
withoutf opposition cr remon-
strance, but with a bodytip,risoners and a premise
of the arms belonging to
publiciste refugees?
does this acute and boredtheimagine that a
prisoners of
troops who
neutral possesses a right to detaiti
war, that
take refuge in his territory as
he thinks they ought to be sent liorneofe
passage chat
they and by the shortest route; taki,igsZt?", as
they do riot commit damage in their
that they recruit no new strength against the other
belligerent. " Lors done gee flier ennemis Lanus se
retired chez un neulre, si la ekarile ne lui permit
pas de leer refuses passage et circle, it doit lesfaire
!f •
passer cube le plata possible, et tie potut so? ru

qu'ils se liennent aux oguels pour Walloper de
nouveau." If it did not appear like pedantry to
cite any other authority on so plain a point, we
might quote the whole of the 13th section of the
second chapter of the second book of Grotius, de
.lure Belli ac Pads, in which the topic is discussed
with his trarial display of learning and accumula-
tion of ancient examples. It may therefore be laid
down as an invariable rule, that a neutral cannot, in
humanity, deny refuge to a belligerent fleeing from
an enemy of superior force ; that he may disarm the
fugitives for his own security, and is bound to refuse
them the advantages of matching in a body through
h's territory, or remaining disciplined and united in
ids dominions, in order to attack their enemy ; that
as he prevents them from defending themselves, be
must likewise prevent them from being attacked by
the enemy in pursuit ; that he may send them home
in separate bodies or as individuals; but that he
has no right to detain them as prisoners; and
that if they are the forces of an independent
power, their arms must be given up to the Go-
vernment to which they belong. We have re-
cent examples in which these principles have
been applied and observed by Powers not very
much disposed to attend to the dictates of a magna-
nimous or enlightened policy. In 1826, the Por-
tuguese rebels who supported Don Miguel and ab-
solute power, were driven into Spain by the Consti-
tutional troops of the Princess Regent. They could
not of course return into Portugal, but they were
allowed to go into France or into any other country
they chose. In 1828, the Constitutionalists were
in their turn defeated and obliged to take refuge in
Spain. Now was the time for Ferdinand both to
gratify his own political prejudices and to confer an
obligation on a relative of his own stamp. What
did he do ? Did he retain the refugees as prisoners ?
No, he could not—he treated them with barbarous
cruelty, it is true, during their stay, but he allowed
them to proceed to England, or to France, or to
any other country which they chose to adopt. We
have no doubt, from the liberal temper and en-
lightened principles of the English and French Mi-
nistry, that a severe scrutiny is now taking place
into the conduct of the Austrian Government on this
most important occasion.—Times.
The Reform Bill is already carried in the House
of Commons. The question which now forCes itself
on the attention of every one, is, what will be its
fate iu the Lords? We ourselves are without alarm
on this point. The Peers have, no doubt, many of
them, a deep interest in upholding the system which
opens to them the pocket of every man in the United
Kingdom ; but they have also, many of them, a deep
interest in the preservation of tranquillity. Now we
are led to the conclusion that the latter considera-
tion will weigh more with them than the former, by
several reasons, and perticulerly by one, that by
• hozarding the public tranquillity, they cannot, by any
possibility, obtain their object. Lords are as little
without the middle and lower classes, as Generals
without armies. They will not be so foolish as to
take their stand against the nation, for no other
purpose than to show their own weakness.
However, lest some evil spirit should get pos-
session of them, friendly advisers are by times in
the field. A pamphlet, which will not be mis-
taken for the composition of an ordinary writer,
has just been received by us, under tine title of
" Friendly Advice, most respectfully submitted to
the Lords, on the Reform Bill," in which the pos-
sibility of their exhibiting the consummate folly of
attempting to prevent the progress of Reform is in-
ferred from their having already evinced equal folly.
Cl It is doubtless impossible (says the writer) for
the House of Lords to stem the tide of Reform—
but in attempting to do it, the rash act may en-
danger their own safety, and with theirs that of all
of us, who are, to a certain degree, in the same bout
with them: Tine apposition of the Lords must be
powerless for any good purpose, but it may be yet
pregnant with evil. Their continued resistance to
the measure, so ardently desired by the people, may
cause convulsion in this happy land—nay, even civil
war." The writer, after observing that no such state
of things as existed in France before the revolution,
exists here, as the English Nobility " have for the
roost part as plebeian an origin as the people;"
and they enjoy no exclusive privileges which
ere onerous to the rest of tine community—
proceeds to say,—" But why, it may be aLked, do
we suppose that any set of men can act thus madly
—,imply because of their previous conduct? Because
they have never conceded anything to the wishes of
the people, till all the grace of concession was (Tone
—because they have never seen the signs of' the
times—because they have never been warned by
the past, or alive to the future. But they are now
playing a deeper and more hazardous stake than
tiny ever did before. They now find themselves,
not opposed to a party, but face to face with a united
people. In such a position, we most respectfully
warn them of the consequences of an unwise re-
sistance. Those consequences are such as we
tremble even to think of. In every one city or bo-
roueh which haa any thing like a popular election,
both candidates, and in London all four, were re-
, tuned in favour of the Bill." The writer adverts
to a delusion which it seems is entertained by some
of :heir Lordships with respect to the measure ,:
" There is a hope," he says, " lurking in many breasts,
of being able to steer a middle course. They do not deny
that the country has pronounced its irrevocable will—for
a large Reform. Nor do they question the imperious ne-
cessity of complying with the wish. But they would fain
hope that something short of ' the Bill' will satisfy the
people, and their project is to throw it out with a decla-
ration in favour of a more scanty measure of Reform." He
adverts to another project of some who will not attack the
Reform Bill openly in front, but try to take it in flank.
"They wil! not oppose it, or move any thing against it;
hut they viii certainly vote against the Government on
every thing else, in order to throw out the Government
and the Bill also. They will hardly move an Amendment
on the Address to the King; but they will get up little
Nfotion,.:;.gainst the Ministers—they will try to throw out
whatever is pcopsed by the Government—they will op-
pose the Chancellor's Law Deforms, and Lord Melbourne's
Sub-letting Act, and whatever else they can hope to de-
fe.•;.t. Let the Lords beware of all such tricks, for tricks
they are. 411 of their manoeuvres mean only one thing
—hostility to the Reform Bill. The meaning of every
thin!! the Opposition will say, iss---' Throw out the Bill ;'
—the meaning of every question they will pnt, is—' Throw
Gut the Bill!'—The meaning of every vote they will give, is
' Throw o:it the Bill !'—They may affirm, and vow, and
swear, ar.d smite the;:r breast, shed abundant tears, and
heave deep sighs, and call Qod to witness that they have
no enmity to the King's Government, a4d are nut prepared
to give any opinion on the Bill, until it comes before them!
Heed theta 1-wt.—turn away the ear from their cry—all
they do really me.-.a i 3 to get your votes against the Mi-
nistry, and then they reckon en the Bill, the hateful Bill,
being lost for ever. All wino wish well to the House of
Lords and the Constitution must carefully be on thgir
guard against such devices."
Of course the country would understand the ma-
noeuvre, and know how io veal with the authors of
i t.— ello ening Chronicle.
The fouPnal des Debats, which may be said to
speak the sense of the Government, has a very im-
portant article on the affairs of Europe. To judge
from its tone, it would seem that the recent pacific
manifestations in France have been misconstrued,
and that it has become necessary to hold a more me-
nacing language :—" Europe (says that paper)
would fall into the strangest error if it believed
France disposed to avoid a war of interests, as it
was not to provoke a war of principles. So long as
Belgium shall not be constituted in a manner in-1
offensive for France; so long as Poland, by force or
by arrangement, shall not have recovered its na-
tionality; so loner as the independence of several
States of Italy shall remain exposed to the bad ht-
mour and to the caprices of Austria,—there can,
indeed, he no durable peace in Europe
The Belgian Revolution 1139 withdrawn from the
hernia of our natural adversaries a line of fortresses
constructed
Belgium. against us. The Veto of France saved
The fortresses of Belgium must not find
again the destination which they have lost. The na-
fVoiTnennit!''Y of Poland, when it was as it were effaced
Europe, .vas judged. by the Congress of
of Russia. ue
I,o7tr,yid.cotittireiterapdomisierabtloe
pthoelanpdoweorf

l R3O, ought to remain independent, for the ho-
nour as well as for the security of Europe. Fi-
redly, France, which !WS always felt herself bound
to watch with uneasiness the developments of the
Austrian power in Italy, cannot permit Austria to
increase her territory and influence in the Italian
provinces. On these three capital points the French
Government, we are thoroughly convinced, will not
fail in any of its duties." This is an important
article. What is meant by the Belgian fortresses
not finding again the destination which they have
lost ? Is this a veto on Prince Leopold ? The sen-
timents expressed with regard to Poland are impor-
tant. We are delighted to see an effort made to
save the Poles. The concurrence of the other Go-
vernments would go far toward,: obtaining this gnat
blessing by pacific means. We are sure that the
English Government, at all events, would roost cor-
dially co-operate with the French in an endeavour
to make some atonement to the Poles for the horrid
injustice of which they have been the victims.
Russia must know that a much feebler demonstration
than that of the Allies in behalf of the Greeks could
strip her of the most valuable of her Baltic provinces
without much difficulty. The Lithuanian insur-
rection is now really formidable, and we are much
mistaken if even that province will be reduced to
subjection. Coutland and Samogitia would hardly
fail to follow. It might be prudent in the Autocrat
not to push his obstinacy too far.--el Arm Chronicle.
Our readers will see from our Chancery Report
that the Lord Chancellor has sustained the order of
the Vice-Chancellor, in the case of Hamlet and
King, to which we alluded yesterday. This opens
up the transaction and throws upon Mr. Hamlet the
establishing what the actual value of the prole -qv
was which he furnished to Mr. King. When the hear-
ing takes place, the public will be put in possession
of the whole of the circumstances of the case. The
grounds of the opinion of the Lord Chancellor were
sated by him at considerable length. It is not on
the ground of Mr. King being an expectant heir that
the injunction proceeds, but that the transaction was
not what it purported to be—a security for a bona
fide purchase to the extent of B,oool.—but that the
goods were supplied with a view to the raising
money on them. We may observe, by the bye, that
every interference of this kind only adds to the
rigour of the ter s imposed by lenders 011 neces-
sitous borrowers.... The lender will calculate the
chances of an appeal to a Court of Equity, as a
shopkeeper calculates the chance of bad debts and
adds them to his bills. Nine out of ten young gentle-
men, who have occasion to deal with goldsmiths
and jewellers, will, of course, be ashamed to appear
before the public, and the lender will indemnify
himself for the loss in the ease of the tenth, by
raising his terms on all.—Morning Chronicle.
All public and private accounts which we have
seen concur in representing the distress among the
peasantry in the county of Mayo, arid a great part
of the county of Galway, as most appalling. Instead
of being diminished, it is rapidly increasing in ex-
tent m 1 severity, attended by malignant disease—
the usual concomitant of the last stages of misery
and famine. The relief hitherto afforded appears to
have had but a momentary effect in checking the
progress of calamity, which exposes its victims to
the most cruel sufferings that the hand of misfortune
can inflict on human nature. To such a pitch has
starvatisn reached in some places, that the peasantry
are represented as driven to the desperate expedient
of attempting to appease the ravenings of hunger for
the present by anticipating their future means of sub-
sistence—tearing the seed potatoes from the ground,
and eagerly devouring the scanty stock which
they had committed to the entail as their defence
against future famine. We hope that tine meeting
appointed to be held this day upon this melancholy
subject at Exeter-hall, will be well attended—par-
ticularly by such Irish absentee landlords now in
town as have been draining, large revenues from Ire-
land to spend any where out of it, while their te-
nantry are a prey to the most wretched destitution.
It would be well if those opulent persons of gusto,
who lavish the wealth of a province on an Italian
fiddler, and think nothing of giving a foreign
singer in a season mere than the value of the rent-
rolls of half a dozen German noblemen, would pur-
chase tine exquisite pleasure which a small propor-
tion of the sums so lavishly bestowed, and often so
thanklessly received, would procure for them, in
the consciousness of having been instrumental in
saving thousands of their fellow-creatures from
the lingering torments of a cruel death. What
dulnet notes of a siren's song, what thrilling strains
of a melodious mechanist are half so delicious as the
voice of gratitude, breathing to heaven, from the
hearts of thousands, for blessings upon their bene-
factors, who found theta ready to perish, and rescued
them from death ! There are hours when the great-
est and the gayest must look into their own hearts
for consolation. In such hours those recollections
which bring with them -the consciousness of bene-
volent deeds, and breathe the " still soft music of
humanity," are worth all the other music in the
world. Ac die Duke of Devonshire and tine Mar-
quis of Lansdowne hold very large possessions in
Ireland, we naturally expect to see them foremost
in pleading the cause of the starving Irish, and in
contributing to their relief. This is not a question
of polities, but of charity, and no party feelings
ought to be mixed up with it ; but we do hope
that, when the famishing peasantry are relieved:rout
their great peril, Government will take effectual
steps to introduce into Ireland a system which will
secure the poor against periodical starvation,—
Morning Herald.

Though we are far from advocating what is called
mob-law, there arc occasions when a quiet yielding
to a state of popular excitement is, to say the least
of it, judicious. An occasional boiling over of po..
pular heat, like the breaking out of peccant hu-
mours in the body, is, in the end, far less disad-
vantageous than the penning up of the one or the
other till inflammation of a more mischievous kind
is the result. Thus it is with the late general illu-
minations which have been called for by the popu-
lace in London and in Dublin, a resistance to which,
by a few individuals, led, in the first instance, to
considerable damage, and in the latter to injury and
bloodshed. If it is the object of those who resist
the call upon such occasions not to gra.ify the mob,
they would do well to consider whether they do not
in the end afford them more real gratification, by
giving them a pretext for wreaking their resentment,
than any compliance with their wishes can afford.
And when it is considered that the mere exhibition
of a dozen lamps, or as many farthing candles,would
satisfy the demand, and prevent a great deal of mis-
chief, we cannot say much for the wisdom and pru-
dence, or even of the high principle, which is thus
thrown away upon occasions so totally unworthy of
it.—Morning Herald.
When we reflect upon the important consequences
which depend upon the firm cohesion of the conser-
vative party in the House of Commons during the
approaching Session, we feel that we cannot too
often or too earnestly impress upon the Members of
this very powerful and truly national and patriotic
body, the expediency of establishing among them-
selves, before the Session begins, a definite under-
standing as to the line of conduct they are to puritre,
an inflexible resolution to act upon all occasions in
perfect unison, and, as an essential part of this
effective system of cooperation, a general agree-
ment in ail matters of mere Parliamentary tactics,
or arrangement to follow implicitly the guidance of
some recognized and well-qualified leader. We
urge this obvious counsel to the party upon the
success of whose efforts the salvation of the
country must mainly depend, with the greater
anxiety, because, notwithstanding the loud vaunt-
ings of the Revolutionary Press as to the result of
the elections, and the despondency manifested by
some of our constitutional contemporaries, we are
decidedly of opinion that there is really no cause to
despair of the rescue of the Constitution by the
votes of the House of Commons, without recurring
to the painful and alarming anticipation of a conflict
upon such a subject between the two Houses of
Parliament. The partisans of Ministers admit that

there will be in the new House of Commons a body
of above 260 Members pledged to oppose the revo-
lutionary Bill, upon the passing of which, in its
integrity, the existence of the present incapable Mi-
nistry is plainly seen to depend. This phalanx,
if it should prove as compact, indivisible, and
well conducted, as may be expected, will, we
think, be invincible. For what is the body it
will have to encounter or to persuade? A body
composed of men agreeing only in the necessity
of an extensive change of the represereative sys-
tem, and presenting every possible shade and
diversity of opinion as to the proper degree
and manner of that change. This body compre-
hends some, and but a fex, who are pledged to the
I3ill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill—a
pledge much too irrational and ex•ravagaut to be
depended on. It comprehends some who are
pledged (such has been the degree in certain places
of popular insanity) to support any Bill of Reform
the present Ministers may think proper• to bring
forward. This is a smaller class even than the
last, and their pledge is of a nature evidently too
absurd, unprincipled, and unconstitutional to be
held binding, even by the men who, for election
purposes, have disgraced themselves by giving it.
We believe we should greatly exaggerate the num-
Ina' of there two classes of Reformers in the new
House of Commons if we stated it to amount to
a hundred. There remain, then, of the body
upon which the conservative party will have to
encounter or persuade, nearly three hundred
Members, Reformers, it is true, but in no man-
ner pledged to any specific plan of Reform ;
inclined, a large proportion of them probably, in
their hearts, to the conservative rather than to the
revolutionary party, although this tendency, consi-
deriag, the violence which decided so many of tire
elections, they may have judged it prudent to con-
ceal ; several of them the declared friends of discus-
sion, and open, therefore, it may fairly be presumed,
to conviction ; several of them, in the midst even of
the worst excesses of Ministerial and revolutionary
violence, the declared opponents of parts of the
Ministerial and revolutionary measure proposed to
the late Parliament. Does this—which we believe
to be a tolerably accurate view of the composition
of the new House of Commons—offer any grounds
or afford any apology fer despair to a body of 260
Members, who are or may be united and indisso-
luble in action as they already are in principle and
purpose—who are animated by a conscientious con-
viction, that upon the success of their efforts depends
the salvation of their country, and who know that
the men by whom of necessity their opponents must
be led have already proved themselves intellectually
and morally incapable of concocting any scheme of
Reform that has so much as the appearance even of
being either rational or honest ? There are so many
propositions connected with the question of Reform,
which the new House of Commons, notwithstand-
ing all the Ministerial influence, and all the rabble
violence and excitement that have been brought to
bear upon the elections, will, we are persuaded, be
well disposed to affirm, each of which the present
Ministers will be compelled to oppose to the utmost
of their power—either because its affirmation must
shatter their Bill to pieces, or because they cannot
concur in it without sacrificing the mob popularity
upon which they rely for support—that a series of
decisive ttiumphs to the Opposition are, in our
judgment, already secure, provided only that the
latter shall conduct its Parliamentary warfare
with ordinary tact and unanimity and discretion.—
What, for instance, would become of the Minis-
teriel measure, if the House of Commons should
resolve that it is inexpedient to commit to a Com-
mission of the Privy Council, or to any authority
emanating from the Executive Government, the di-
vision of counties, the augmentation of boroughs, or
any other operation by which the character of the
House of Commons can be permanently affected ?
And what House of Commons, we may further ask—
what liberal House of Commons especially, could
refuse to concur in so just, reasonable, and consti-
tutional a resolution ? To all who have read the
Ministerial Bill it must be obvious, however, that
such a vote would be equivalent to the declaration
that the Bill must be entirely remodelled ; while to
all who have accurately perceived the spirit of the
13111, it must be equally obvious that such a vote
would sensibly abate the zeal of his Majesty's
Ministers for Reform, by depriving them of that
which they plainly prize more highly than any thing
else—namely, the hope of obtaining, under the pre-
tence of Reform, a great, permanent, and certain
increase of Whig influence in the House of Com-
mons. What again more reasonable or just, what
more likely to find favour in the new House of
Commons, or what more incompatible with the
rabble popularity of which the present Ministers are
essentially and irredeemably the slaves, than the
proposition, that men, the marketable value of
whose property is in any manner impaired by a
measure of Parliamentary Reform, shall be corn-
pensated by the nation which the measure is in.
tended to benefit, or the proposition that an in-
terval of three or four years ought to elapse between
the enactment of a treasure so important, so com-
plicated, replying so much of local regulation and
of new machinery, and the moment when it is first
to come in•o operation ? Never, we venture to say,
since the House of Commons existed, did it offer a
more premising field to the labours of a consci-
entious, patriotic, and united opposition.—Morning
Post.

RIOT AT HAMMERSMITH AND ATTACK
ON THE NEW POLICE.

The hamlet of Hammersmith has beau the scene
of great excitement during the last week, in conse-
quence of a mob having committed outrages upon
the persons and property of several of the most
respectable inhabitants of Fulham. The hamlet of
Hammersmith and the parish of Fulham were ori-
ginally connected, but are now quite distinct, except-
ing that the parish officers of Fulham have been
always accustomed to meet those of Hammersmith
on Holy Thursday, and to beat the bounds of the
hamlet in company. A jealousy, however, has
always existed be wren the parties, but nothing per-
sonal ever took place until last Thursday week.
Mr. G. Bird, the overseer of Hammersmith, on that
(lay repaired, with several of the parishioners and
the clergyman, to Parr-bridge, where they met
several of the Fulham officers, and the parties hav-
ing united, they proceeded down a road which was
being made by the Metropolitan Road Trustees;
they had not gone far before the Fulham officers
discovered that a water course which divides the
hamlet and the parish had been contracted, and
they immediately urged their followers to destroy
the brick-work. This was soon done, but in
so violent a manner that Mr. W. Bird, a highly re-
spectable inhabitant of Hammersmith, refused to
proceed with them, and turning his horses' head to-
wards home, left the party. The officers then went
on, and when they came to the boundary near Chis-
wick, the Fulham people bumped, as it is vulgarly
called, some grown up persons, and then collected
around Mr. Attwood the clergyman of Hammer-
smith, and threatened to bump him if he did not
Ave them some money. Mr. Attwood,from intimi-
dation, gave ss. The fellows then by threats ex.
torted Is. or 6d. from each of the Hammersmith
parishioners who were present, and bumped a
gentleman named Painter, who had given them
money. Having thus intimidated many, they again
applied to the Rev. Mr. Attwood for money. He,
however, refused to comply with their demand, and
they actually had the impudence to pull him of his
horse and bump him. The Fulham officers then
proceeded on their course, and when they arrived
at Acton their followers stopped a carriage, and ex-
torted money from the persons inside; they then
threatened to attack a Mr. Coleman, an inhabitant
of Hammersmith, but he expressed his determina-
tion to prosecute them if they touched him, and he
was not further molested. They then pulled a Mr.
Gomme off the box of a carriage, and served him as
they had previously done the Rev. Mr. Attwood.
The party proceeded across Shepherd's-bush to the

house of Mr. Hackett, in Wood-place ; there they
palled down the iron railing in front of the house, and
broke into his garden, where they met and assaulted
him, striking his head, which is dreadfully 'cut, with
large stones : they then bumped him against a tree,
and left him on the ground bleeding profusely.
Lady Cockburn's premises were next attacked, and
the posts and chains in front of the house were de-
stroyed. Lady C. is between eighty and ninety
years of age, and was dreadfully alarmed and agi-
tated at the attack, fearing that the mob would next
break into the house. After quitting Lady Cock-
burn's, they met a stout elderly gentleman, named
Spier; they immediately seized and bumped him
against an oak fence ; not satisfied with this attack
on his person, they went to his house, and cut and
tore up the posts in front ; whilst they were thus
occupied, a fight between two of the Fulhamites
ensued, and seven police officers, who had that
minute arrived, interfered ; Serjeant Tedman placed
himaelf between the combatants, but the mob, which
amounted to 700 persons, immediately attacked him
—knocked him down, and his six companions in
rescuing him were very roughly handled. The police
finding that they should be overpowered by numbers,
retreated, but were compelled to defend themselves
from the pickaxes and other weapons of their oppo.
rents. Mr. G. Bird, the overseer, of Hammersmith,
finding that the police officers present, even with the
assistance of the inhabitants of the hamlet, could not
contend with the rioters, or prevent them from commit-
ting further excesses, sent off to the Superintendent of
the T. Division, with a request that he would come
with a large force to suppress the riot. The seven
police officers, attacked in the manner before stated,
retreated to the Beaumont Arms—when within the
door they attempted to make a stand, but the mob
compelled them, by throwing bricks and blocks of
wood, to seek refuge up stairs. Two of the police
officers were, however, unfortunate ; one of them, a
man named Wincoop, was knocked down ; and
Macarthy, who had that day joined the police, was
struck on the stairs and felled to the ground ; the
mob then broke the railings of the staircase and beat
him in a dreadful manner ; the poor man kept crying
murder for nearly a quarter of an hour, and his
companions, by a desperate effort, succeeded in
getting him up stairs ; they then locked them-
selves in an attic, and remained there, the mob
endeavouring all the while to break in, until Mr.
Williamson, the Superintendent of the 'l'. division,
arrived with seventy men. Immediately Mr. Wil-
liamson came up with the mob, an inhabitant of Ful-
ham, having parochial authority, told him that the mob
were j unified in what they had done, and used language
which was calculated to urge them on. Mr. William-
son replied that if he cmoinned to use such inflam-
matory language he should feel it his duty to take
him into custody. The person then became alarmed
and left the Green. The mob, however, were not
to be dispersed so easily ; and it was not till after a
severe fight that twelve of the most active were
arrested ; the remainder retreated towards Fulham,
doing great injury to the premises of Mr. Scott, a
Magistrate; Mr. Hall and Mr. W. Bird, Brook-
' green. Mr. Williamson, at the latter spot, himself
took a pickaxe from is man who had been using it
wilt great violence, striking at the police whenever
they approached.
The exertions of Mr. Williamson, the superin-
tendent, have met with the approbation of the whole
of the inhabitants of Hammersmith, who feel con-
fident that had he not thin actively collected his
whole disposable force and boldly attacked the mob,
murder would have been committed; and to testify
their approbation of his conduct, several of the
most respectable and wealthy inhabitants have re-
solved to prosecute, at their own expence, the ruffians
arrested by him. _ .

Wincoop, Macai thy, and Kelly, three officers NN ho
suffered most severely, have not been able to quit
their beds since the affray.

BIOGRAPHY OF PAGANINI.

Paganini was born at Genoa, in the month of
February, I7S-t. His father was a small trader, a
great calculator of lottery chances, by which he ex-
pected to become affluent, and also made pretensions
to musical talent. He early discovered the natural
bent of his son's genius, and gave him the first in-
structions he received ; but he appears to have been
an unfeeling parent, and though young Paganini was
an enthusiast in his art, the hard-hearted father fre-
quently goaded him to an application beyond his
strength, by dint of an empty stomach. His hopes
of musical eminence were encouraged by his mo-
ther's dreaming that a genius had appeared to her
and given an assurance of his becoming a great violin
player. In his ninth year he played upon the stage
at Genoa, for the benefit of Marchesi, having for
some time before been a constant performer in the
churches. His father soon after took him to Parma,
to place him under the care of the celebrated com-
poser Rolla. They found him sick in bed ; his
violin, and the latest concerto he lard composed, lay
on a table in the ante-room into which they were
shown. Paganiui's father gave him a wink, in an
instant the violin was in his hand, and he played off
the concerto at sight. Rolla forgot his illness in
the surprise and delight, and %vhen be was con-
vinced that. the sounds he had heard were produced
by the boy before him, he said to the father.
" There is nothing left for me to teach him, for
Heaven's sake take him to Paer." Paer wires at
that time Director of the Conservatory of Music at
Parma, and received him very kindly, and placed
him under the care of the leader of the chapel band.
When he was fourteen his father took him through
the principal towns of Italy, in all of which he gave
concerts, by which he received great applause, and
his father considerable sums of money. At an an-
nual feast of St. Martin, at Lucca, he made his
debut as a solo player, and was greeted with the
greatest applause; from that time he considered
himself emancipated from the fetters in which
his father had held him, and soon commenced
travelling as an independent performer. 11e had
then saved 20,000 francs. His father insisted on
having the whole, and threatened to kill him if he
refused. He gave him the greater parr, and since
his father's death, twelve years ago, supports his
mother. His intense application to his art has
affected his breast and stomach, and obliged him to i!
submit to three operations for relief, and for a time
the sight of his left eye was in danger, but by taking
rest all danger has passed away. His power of
memory is so great, that he cats play every thing
from recollection without having a note before him.
When his musical expedition shall be at an end, it
is his design to write an opera " in which he shall
impart a musical secret to his fellow-creatures,"
which will enable any young man to become a mas-
terly performer in three years instead of ten. He
has tried the efficacy of his secret on one of his
friends, who, in three days, came out with so com-
plete a metamorphosis in his style, as to excite in-
describable astonishment. Paganini, in the midst of
all the incense offered to him, appears free from self-
conceit. "I frequently play," he says, "soas to
satisfy numerous public audiences, but never to
satisfy myself." Paganini praises others where it is
possible, and if he cannot praise it silent—he never
censures. Paganini was for a time confounded in
rumour with a distinguished young Polish performer
on the violin, who had joined a band of assassins,
awl been imprisonel for years. The calumny, how-
ever, was soon completely disproved. BY ragallinl's
own account of his professional gains in the year
1825, it appears that they amounted to 7,1751.; bar
this is far exceeded, in proportion to the time, by
his late receipts at Pam is, which are stated to amount
to G,ooo!.—Abridged from the Ferrer Qua,,tcriy
Review.

The river on Tuesday afternoon was covered
with boats, containing crowds of holyday folks, on their
way to Greenwich, some of which were secu shooting
London-bridge at a Liter period of ate tide than prud,mce
justified ; and we understand many accidents occurred.
The town is at this time exceedingly full, at
least if „,, may judge from the various public exhibitions
of pictures and other works of art, which are daily thronged
with visiters.

BRTHS
On the 23d inst. at the vi Icarage. House, Kentish-tmvn, the
wife of the Rev. J. Grant, M.A., of a daughter.
On the 23d inst. at Brixton-place, the lady of C. D. Newton,
Esq., of a son.
On the 24th inst. the wife of Captain T. Blair, of the Hon(
E. I. C. S., of a (laughter.
On the 25th inst. in Albany-street, Regent's-park, the lady of
F. Taber, Esq., of a daughter.
On the 24th inst. at Tring Park, Hells, the lady of the Rev%
J. E. Austen, of a daughter.
MARRIED.

At Malvern Charles W. IL Evered, son of John Everedt
Esq., of Hill-house, county of Somerset, to Ennna, daughter
of Henry Candler, Esq. grandson of the Venerable Henry cant'.
ler, of Callan Castle, in the county of Kilkenny, A rehdeaeop of
Ossorv.
On the Nth inst. at Brighton, George Burroughs, Esq., of the
Royal Artillery, to Celina, eldest daughter of the late Colonel
Childers, of the 11th Light Dragoons, and of Cantley, county
of York.
011 the 21th inst. at Compton Bishop, Somerset, Mr. Parson,
of Southampton, to Lucy Anne, youngest daughter of P. Fry,
Esq., of Compton-house, Axbridge.
DIED.
At Lymington, in her 70th year, Mrs. Ahmuty, relict of
Ahmuty, Esq., formerly of the Inner Temple, and of the Ist'
of Grenada, barrister-at.law.
On the 24th inst. in the 21st year'of his age, Francis Charles,
youngest son of R. Van Heythuysen, Esq., of John-street, 13"1"
ford-row.
On the 25th inst. aged 73, J. Walker, Esq. of Lisson-street, St'
Marylebone.
On the 20th of March, at Dominica, in his 75th year, Mr. C-
Court, sen.

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