The Sun.
London, England, 1836-04-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 1836.

LONDON,
FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 15, 1836

Oil the LORD CHANCELLOR moving the Order of
the Day last night in the House of Lords for the
House to go into Committee on the English Munici-
pal Corporations Act Amendment Bill, Lord LYND-
HURST suggested that it would be better to discuss it
•
in a Select Committee up stairs. In this suggestion Lord
MELDOURNE at once acquiesced; which, we confess,
we are somewhat surprised at, for we cannot but enter-
tain an apprehension—especially when we look to the
list of the Committee, which contains the names of only
eight Liberals, and twelve Tories—that the proposal of
a Select Committee has been made with a view to pre-
vent the discussions on the Bill from being made pub-
lic. We may, or may not, be correct in this suspicion,
but it is next to impossible not to entertain it, when
the known inveterate prejudices of the House of Lords
against this, and every other, measure of substantial
Reforn, are taken into consideration. When open
hostility is found to be of no avail, their Lordships
never hesitate to have recourse to cunning and chica-
nery, as was fully proved by Lord LYNDHURST'S me-
morable side-wind attack on the Reform Bill ; and who
knows but that the same intriguing Peer may
be now meditating some such covert assault on the
Municipal Act Amendment Bill ? However, if such
be his intentions, he will infallibly be disappointed,
for the circumstance of Lords MELBOURNE, DEN-
MAN and RADNOR being on the Committee, is a suf-
ficient guarantee that no very serious damage will be
done to the Bill. Would we could speak with equal
confidence on the subject of the Irish Corporation
measure, which will in a few nights come before the
House of Lords for discussion. But the language
held by the Duke of BEAUFORT at the late Covent
Garden Conservative Dinner is too explicit to allow
us to be sanguine. " A collision between the two
Houses" observed his Grace, " was very much talked
of. He dreaded such a collision as much as any man
could ; but this he would say—the House of Lords
were not to be deterred by the threat of that collision
from doing
what they considered best for the good of
the nation, let that collision come as soon as it would.
They would stand manfully forward, and do their
duty." In other words, their Lordships will destroy
the Irish Corporation Bill, simply because it is sup-

ported by Mr. O'CoNNELL, a gentleman who hap-
pens to be particularly obnoxious to them—and this
act of mixed spleen and caprice they will justify on
the plea that "they consider it best for the good of thq
nation." We thank the Duke of BEAUFORT for his
plain speaking on this subject, and trust the people
will not lose a moment in taking the matter into their
most serious consideration.

The House of Commons had an opportunity last
night of reconsidering its vote of the previous evening,
with regard to the degrading and inhuman punishment
of flogging in the British army. Had the vote of
Wednesday been for the removal of the malt tax, or
some other trumpery affair connected with the re-
venue, we doubt not the Right Hon. and Hon. Gen-
tlemen who represent the British nation in Parliament
—agreeably with the letter and the spirit of a well-
remembered precedent—would have been most ready
to rescind their ill-considered resolution ; but as it only
related to the mode of governing the subordinates in
the military service, the second branch of the Legis-
lature thought it necessary to practice more decorum—
preserve the externals of dignified consistency—and
seem, at least, too reflecting for being hurried into the
adoption of a premature policy. Accordingly the
motion was a second time lost ; and so, out of
pure devotion to the memory of our ancestors,
our soldiery are to be as soundly flogged as ever.
It would be madness on our part to quarrel with an
overwhelming majority of the House of Commons.
The opinion' of that majority is that without flogging
discipline cannot be maintained among our troops.
This is intelligible. Now if such be the fact, let the
principle be carried out to the same extent in the army,
as similar principles are in civil society. The civil
code for the repression or punishment of offences
knows no distinction of rank in the criminals liable to
punishment. If a man commit an assault, get drunk,
or otherwise violate the law, the Magistrate has no-
, thing to do with the consideration of his rank.
The punishment is the same, whether the offender
be a groom of the stole or a groom of the
stable. Extend this principle to the army, and we
shall rest content, if the officers and men be satisfied
with it. If it be expedient on any occasion to flog the
Corporal, it is equally expedient on similar occasions to
flog the Captain. The difference between them is not
greater than between a magistrate and a sweep. The
House of Commons, in order to prove itself acquainted
with the first principles of jurisprudence, ought to subject
officers in the army to the same punishment as the pri-
vate soldiers, for the commission of similar offences.
There is no greater difference between men in the army
than there is between the same men out of it. If it be
just to subject a gentleman to the same punishment for
committing an assault, or creating a riot, as if he were
a coalheaver, it is equally just to subject the
the Captain of a Company, and every man
comprising it, to the same rigorous discipline, and to
the same system of punishment. An officer in the
army has no inducement to good conduct, which is
relatively so strong as those which every gentleman has
in civil life ; why, therefore, should the former claim
an exemption from a responsibility to which the latter
is liable ?

We call, then, upon the majority of the House cf
Commons to remove this discrepancy. Place the cri-
minals in the army, of whatever rank, upon the same
footing as to punishment. All jurists maintain that
crime levels rank ; wherefore then should the military
service—the only service in which it would be of the
greatest efficiency as the rule—he held as the excep-
tion ? In the army the private soldier and the of-
ficer are constantly in the presence of each other--
the example of the officer will necessarily' have the
.most powerful effect upon the moral conduct
of the men—consequently, the bad conduct of
an officer is an hundred-l'old more pernicious
than the ill behaviour of a private soldier. If
then flogging be necessary for the represSion
crime in the subordinates, it must be still more ueces-
sary for the same purpose with regard to gentlemen
holding commissions. We hear a
„great deal about
the gentlemanly feeling, and honourable spirit of
officers : we arc constantly reminded of the different
motives by which they are influenced from men in the
ranks : and we,_ are perpetually assured that so sensi-
tive, are they in whatever regards the honour of the
cloth, that there is not one of them who would not
blow his brains out, rather than submit to the indignity
of receiving " an hundred lashes on the bare back."
To all this we answer, what privileges of exemption
are civilians allowed to plead at Bow-street, and the
Old Bailey ? Will the bluster about " gentlemanly
feeling"—" sense of honour"—and all that sort of
ridiculous nonsense, serve a criminal placed at the
har, charged with an infringment of the civil law ?
Wherefore then, as we observed before, allow to
officers exemptions which cannot be pleaded by gentle-
men in private life ? If our civil code be based on
an equitable principle, our military system is mon-
strously unjust, and vice versa. What we want then
is to equalize them—to make them so that in principle
they will harmonize with each other. If we must have
flogging, let us have enough of it—so that no back
may escape so wholesome a chastener of peccant
propensities..

We had intended to have treated the subject more
gravely ; and to have expressed, in strong language,
our disapprobation of the speeches of Lord HOWICK
and Mr. CUTLAR FERGUSSON. But another occa-
sion will not be wanting for this purpose. The system
of military torture has, however, received its death-
blow ; and the best thing the Government can do is
to prepare 'the army for its total abolition—and that
very shortly. The opponents of the abolition shall
have justice done to their memory by posterity. It
will be recorded of them, that so tender were they of
the observance of the precedents handed down to them
by their ancestors, that they flogged men for nearly a
century after they discovered that it was most inhuman
to flog donkies ; that after the Suttees were abolished
in India, they defended the rights of the demi-gods of
the British army to have human beings immolated at
the shrine of their honour—the only salve for the
wounded feelings or irritated pride of an officer being
the warm life-blood drawn from the bare and lacerated
back of a private soldier.

The Eastern Counties Railway Bill was read a se-
cond time last night in the House of Commons, after
a feeble opposition from a few very feeble persons.
Mr. BONHAM, the bungling successor of BILLY
HOLMES, the late Whipper-in, who was really an
artist of talent, moved the rejection of the Bill without
assigning any reason for so doing. The Hon. Gen-
tleman was followed by some other Members equally
ill-prepared with their lessons. Mr. G. F. YOUNG,
who must have a finger in every pie, wished a prima
facie case to be made out in favour of the Bill, before
he could allow the private property of individuals to
be invaded, and was informed that five thousand shares
had been taken by proprietors of land on the line—a
pretty good proof, we should think, that the invasion
'
of the Eastern Counties, so much dreaded by the
Member for Tynemouth, was not a hostile invasion.
The
Hon. Member was also informed that this rail-
road traverses three of the greatest agricultural coun-
ties in England ; and it might have been added, that
from its skirting a great number of towns in its passage
—from its connection with the coast, at various points,
by means of branch railroads—from the transport of

fsi►--from the traffic of all sorts, which it will attract
from the coasts of England and Scotland, as well as
from foreign parts, through Yarmouth—it promises to
be one of the most useful, in a public point of
view, of the many railroad plans now under the con-
sideration of the Legislature. This is the view
which the House of Commons seems to have taken of
the subject, if we may judge from the result of the
division, on which there appeared 99 for the second
reading, and 20 against it, or nearly 5 to 1 in favour
of the Bill. It thus appears that the Whipper-in was
even more out in his calculations than when he per-
suaded Sir ROBERT PEEL to that disastrous division
on the Address, which on the first night of the Session
levelled the hopes of the party with the dust.

We perceive the Standing Orders' Committee have
rcuorted against the Chelmsford railroad, which, if we
mistake not, was a branch from one of the Northern
lines, falling into the Eastern Counties' line at
Chelmsford.

The Bill for the Bristol and Exeter Railway was,
we are glad to see, read a third time, and passed, by
the Commons, last night.

The following announcement appears in the Brigh-
ton Guardian :

" The Earl of Ashburnham and Lady Webster have se-
x orally warned their tenants to quit, or pay a heavy advance
of rent, in consequence of the reduction of their poor-rates."

We have always distrusted the professions of dis-
interestedness put forth by the landlords in their ad-
vocacy of the claims of their tenants to legislative re-
lief, and have done our best to expose the selfish views
by which they appeared to us to be actuated. When
the farmer complained that he could not pay his
rent,' owing to the fall in the price of agricultural
produce, the natural remedy for the evil was a, re-
duction of the rent. This, however, was the very last
remedy in the contemplation of the landlords. They
set heartily to work, and, imitating the example of one
whom they are constantly holding up to public abhor-
rence, they stirred up a furious prmdial agitation, the
object of which was to keep money in their own
pockets, and to take it out of those of the people.
Among the first and foremost causes of agricultural
distress, the farmers were instructed to place the
Poor Laws ; and when it was stated that the new
Poor Law was operating beneficially for that class, the
landlords replied that it would be a long time before
any substantial relief,could be expected from that
source. This prediction will, we have no doubt,
prove true. The tenant will never benefit either by the
reduction of poor-rates, tithes, or any other burden
which falls upon land. His master will take special
care that the last farthing shall be screwed out of him.

We have received the whole of the Paris Papers of
Wednesday. They are as literally barren of intelli-
gence as an African desart of vineyards. The Court
of Peers are talking about the responsibility of Minis-
ters, for it would be absurd to dignify their proceedings
with the name of deliberations. The measure, howe-
ver, will not be carried this Session, or we are much
mistaken.

PAkIS, APRIL 13.—The Committee appointed to enquire
into the administration of the Invalides had its first sitting yes-
t qday at the Hotel des Invalides. Marshal Lobau presided.
It is said that the Emperor Nicholas thinks of having another
interview with the Emperor of Austria, for the purpose, it is
alieged, of proposing a marriage between his eldest son and
a daughter of the Archduke Charles, but the Archduke is nut
desirous of this alliance ; he does not like Russia, and would
p-cfcr marr) lug his daughter at Athens or Paris.—Journal au
Commerce.

It is affirmed that the sub-financial Committee, which has to
examine the Budget of the War Department, seems to be in-
disposed to the Colony of Algiers.
A Journal publishes the following letter by Marshal Clau-
sol, to a Member of the Chamber of Peers :

"M. de Vicomte,—ln spite-of all obstacles, those especially
of the Tribune, our colony is rapidly advancing—settlers and
funds arrive, every where there is work, the natives mingle
the Europeans, and Abd-el-Kadcr is reduced to the ne-
cessity of seeking refuge now with one tribe, now with an-
other, without being able to unite them, as he would wish, to
commit depredations, the only harm he can now do us. From
Trentezon to Algiers, and soon I shall say from Tremezen to
Constantina, all goes ou as I desire, and answers the object
of the military and political measures which I have thought it
necessary to adopt. lam now certain of the most complete
success, even though there should remain some obstacles to
be surmounted in France. Here there are none; it is only
at Paris that any remain.—AccePt, &c.
"MARSHAL CLAUZEL.

" Algiers, March 24."
The Gazette de France says—" We receive very afflicting
news respecting M. Peyronnet, dated Ham, the Bth of this
month. His health has -been much shaken of late. The
nervous fever under which he has been suffering for these four
months, has not been caused by the serious illness which has
lately attacked him. His nights are bad ;he has no sleep,
with a constant perspiration, which is the result of the debility
caused by the fever.—Messager, April 13.
VIENNA, APRIL 5. —Five per Cents. (Motalliques), 1031 ;
Four per Cents., 991 ; Three per Cents., 76 ; Bank Shares,
I,37o—Allgemeine Zeituny, April 10.

FRENCHFUNDS.,ymus, APRIL 13.

Five per Cents., 10Sf. be. 107 f. I/5e..
Four per Cents., ltlef. 75c.
Three per Cents., t-t2f. 11t. Sit 00c. 95c. 01:e.
Bente de Napl, 102 f. 10c. 101 f. 05e.
Roman Five per Cents., 105.
Spanish Actives, 475 y 4h;SI.
Spanish Passives. 141 i
Belgian Loan, Frye per Cents, 102%.
Portitotese Low, Five per Cents.,
Portuguese Three per Cents. 504 51 5:'%.
Dutch Two ana a half per Cents , 57f. loc.
Haytian Loan, acsf.

ro.cuarmis ON LONDON.
Or,e month, paper, —c. ; money, 251. 47V,c
TN ree mouths, paper, —f. —c. ; money, 251. 3-2ytjc
ors Atakextivre.

BOURSE, QUARTER TO FOUR.—A rumour on 'Change, of a
co-operation of France with England against the Carlists, has
depressed the French securities. The Three per Cents, fell
almost without any business to t"lf. 95c. Spanish stock is
also worse; the Active stock at this moment is at 461.
LAST PRICES.—Five per Cents., 108 f. sc. ; Three
per Cents., 82f. —c. ; Five per Cents. Spanish, —; Three
per Cents. Spanish, —; Cortes, —; Coupons, —; Gueb-
cards, —; Differes, —; New Loan, ; Actives, 461;
Passives, 14a; Ducats, 102 5 ; Romans, 105; Pedros, ;
Belgians, ; Dutch, —f. —c. ; Haytians, 3951. —c. ;
Miguels, —; Brabant Bank, —; Belgian Bank, 16 ; Con-
tinuation, —c. ; New Differes, —; Five per Cent. Perpe-
-; Royal Loan, —.

We have received Brussels and German Papers of
the latest dates. Prince PASKEWITSCII is about to
proceed to St. Petersburg, from Warsaw, where he
has constantly resided for some time. His journey has
relation to the administration of affairs in Poland.

There are no accounts of any importance from Brus-
sels. The average prices of Wheat and Rye for the
week (4th to the 9th of April), were 14f. 19. c. and Bf.
78c. per hectolitre ; and the import duty accordingly
remains at 75f. and 43f. per one thousand kilogrammes
respectively.

• BELGIAN FUNDS, BRUSSELS, APRIL 12.
Actual Debt, 2% per Cent.
Rothschild's Loan, 5 per Cent. ..........
Loan of City, 1832, 4 per Cent VS%
Society of Commerce, 45.; per Cent 128%
Bank of Belgium, 5 per Cent 116%
—Brussels Papers, April 12.

We have been informed that a petition, signed by
the most influential British merchants engaged in the
trade with Turkey and Persia, complaining of the re-
peated and dangerous aggressions of Russia, and
praying for suitable protection against the encroach-
ments of that Power, will be presented in the
House of Commons this evening. We sincerely
that it will meet with every attention from
the Government and the Legislature ; and that
if the prayer of it be found reasonable, no ap-
prehension of Russian wrath will deter his MA-
JESTY'S Ministers from granting it as fully as will
meet the emergency of the case. Russia not only
menaces us with the terror of her arms, but she has
entered into a compact with every tribe and people
subservient to her influence, with a view to ruin
our commerce, and dry up the spings of our national
wealth.

We have received Lisbon Papers to the 3d instant.
In its sitting of the 26th of March the Chamber of
Peers received a project of law for the abolition of the
slave trade in every part of the Portuguese dominions.
The details of this measure are before us, embracing a
great number of articles ; but it will be time enough to

publish them after they have received the sanction of
the Cortes. The QUEEN was in good health, and in
momentary expectation of the arrival of her Royal hus-
band. The Ministers keep floundering on ; and
nothing has yet been done with regard to the altera-
tion of the tariff.

DUBLIN ELECTION COMMITTEE.

(THIS DAY.)

The Committee met this morning at the usual hour.
Mr. WRANGIIAM, on behalf of the petitioners, objected to
the vote-of Thomas O'Brien, 16, Lower Kevin-street, on the
ground of being in arrear more than six months of the Wide-
street tax.
The affidavit of registry was put in in proof of identity, and
the evidence of the collector in proof of arrear.
Mr. WEANGHAM founded his objection on the circumstance
of the premises being described in the voter's affidavit of re-
gistry and the collector's book being the same. In addition,
it appeared that the collector had called at the house in ques-
tion, and was not paid the arrears.
Mr. AUSTEN submitted that this case was exactly similar to
the vote of Quigley, decided yesterday.
Strangers were ordered to withdraw, and the Committee
came to the resolution that sufficient was shown to connect
O'Brien with the house proved to be in arrear.
Mr. AUSTEN having requested his Learned Friend Mr. Hut-
ton to read portions of the evidence taken before the Com-
missioners in Dublin, proceeded to say a new point would
arise, and he would contend that the voter was not chargeable
by any legal assessment or warrant for Michaelmas, 1834.
The evidence just read would completely alter the complexion
of the case.
Mr. G. F. YOUNG interrupted Mr. Austen. He did not
think counsel ought to go into a question already decided, upon
full deliberation, by the Committee.
Mr. AUSTEN read the resolution of the 12th of April, and that
of the 14th. The first stated that no evidence had been given of
an assessment for Michaelmas, 1834. The second was come to
on the production of additional evidence from the other side,
counsel for the sitting Member were on Wednesday taken by
surprise by the course followed by the petitioners. He was
not then prepared, as fully as they could wish, to argue the
case, and all he asked was common justice for his client.
That he was sure the Committee would give him, and for this
purpose he asked them to receive further evidence which they
thought fit to offer.
Mr. G. F. YOUNG.—In the first resolution to which you
refer, I think the Committee gave the questien of the assess-
ment the go-by, as there was no evidence given in on the part
of the petitioners, and we came to the resolution on other
grounds.
Mr. RUNDLE.--I beg Mr. Young's pardon. There was
evidence ; the block receipts were put in by the petitioner's
counsel.
Mr. YOUNG.—No.

The CHAIRMAN (Mr. Maxwell) concurred in Mr. Rundles'
view, and Major Vivian nodded his head in token of assent.
Mr. WRANGIIAM objected to Mr. Austen's being allowed to
proceed.
Mr. YOUNG—In point of fact this argument goes to induce
the Committee to rescind their former resolution. I ask the
Learned Counsel if that is not his purpose? There is no use
in mincing matters, and quibbling about terms. If Mr. Aus-
ten proposes it with regard to the individual case, I have no
objection to hear him, but I do not think he is justified in rip-
ping up the general question.
Mr. AUSTEN—Every argument on general cases must apply
to individual ones, but I can have no hesitation in saying that
I think if the Committee had before them the additional facts
which I now produce, they would come to a different conclu-
sion.

Mr. YOUNG—I will only make this additional remark—per-.
Imps I have been already betrayed into making too many—that
I shall not be ashamed or afraid to reverse my former decision
if I see very special grounds for doing so.
The CHAIRMAN-Then let me understand you, Mr. Austen.
You ask us to do equal justice to the parties, and you say that
to do this justice it is necessary that we should, upon a
new state of facts, come to the conclusion that
this vote is not legally liable to be assessed.
Am I also to understand you to contend that the rate is not
yearly, but that there must be a half yearly warrant ?
Mr. AUSTEN-Exactly so, Sir.
Mr. WRANGHAM repeated his objection ; and the room
having been cleared, the Committee deliberated.