The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-10 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EV

S N,

&Aomori :rum the t,naw, sboAd thiirelon e.u'pport, the
clause, if a divi4en should take place.
Mr. -B. ItOCiik: said that he thought that the Hon.
Baronet (Sir D, Norr,,ys) was a a supporter of thi.,.!
Church, bee-ruse, as he believed, he (Sir D. Norreys) was
hiinself a titheowner, un,l was. therefore, acAog
own coup-All.—(l4'.ughter.) He obi,cted to the clause,
because it unjuviy tended to exempt the tilheowner
from those taxes to which he and every other occupier
are subject.

The -How? thPa divided, when there appaared—
FJr thP cian ... ... ... 50
A”-aiT'St it ••• 125
_ _

Ittj aity against
The clause was therefore lost.

...

Mr. M. J. O'CONNELL then.moved the omission of
clause 7, which appoints rent•charges by way of annuity
and jointure made liable to deduction for poor•rate. He
was curtain that this clause would give rise to endless
litigation, and being co;ivi,)ced of its inity)licy, if he saw
any intention of retaining it in the Bill he should cer-
tainly divide the House upon it.
Tho motion was agreed to without a division, and
the Bill was read a third time.

On the queition that the Bill do pass.
Mr. A. STAFFORD said that whatever inhumanity,
injustice, or oppression, might attend the operation of
the first and second clauses, it ought to be remember. d,
and he wished it might go forth to the country, that the
Irish Members wera in no degree chargeable with the
consequences, for they had voted against them. He
was by no means prepared to say that in this Bill the
Government had not improved upon the Irish poor-law;
but still he thought that a much more efficient and just
measure might have been prop ised. The Bill was in-
tended expressly to introduce capital into Ireland, and
in this respect it was an accompaniment of the Incum-
bered Estates Bill. The capitalist would purchase lan3
and--r the delusive impression of a maximum rate of five
shillings, but would soon find that his rate would be eight
shillings in the pound, the rate of 6d. for the rate in aid,
and the balance added in C mimittee to make up the
amount. The Bill, in fact, placed the property of Ire-
land in the hands of a people who had not to pay the
rates, and that was the justice which Ireland had to re•
ceive from a Poor-law Act.

Mr. BRIGHT said he confessed that after sitting in
the Committee from first to last ho found himself more
confused at the end than he was at the beginning—
(Laughter)—and on that account he had not voted
upon the propositions submitted when the veto was
in Committee. He had, however, formed an opinion
against the principle of the maximum, and with regard
to the operation of the whole Bill in Ireland, he thought
it would be nil, or next to nil. To relieve Ireland ma-
terially reference should be had much more largely to
surrounding circumstances, and he looked to other Bills,
rather than to this, for any good result.
Mr. H. HEHBEHT said he thought he might chal-
lenge the House to produce any evidence in support of
the principle of the maximum, or of union rating.

Sir D. .11ORREYS said ho only rose to express his
regret that the question should have been pnssed
through to this stage.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL postponed the con-
sideration of the Lords' amendments, particularly the
22d clause, of the Incumbered Estates (Iceland) Bill,
until Friday next.
The House went into Committee on the Joint-Stock
Company's Act (1848) Amendment Bill.
This Bill went through Committee.
The Highway Rates Bill went through Committee.
The Your Relief (Cities and Boroughs) Bill was read
a second time, and ordered to be committed this day.
The Titles or Religious Congregations (Scotland) Bill
went through Committee.
The Borough-, Relief Bill was read a second time, and
ordered to be commit' ed this day.
The Trustees Relict Bill was read a second time, and
,rd Ted to be c,,m eitted this day.
The !louse went into Committee on the Turnpike
Tru-ts Union Bill, for the consideration of the Lards'
atnetidmente, rshich, after Kraie conversation, were
%reed to, ai,d the House resumed.
The Bribery at Eleetioes Bill, as ami.nded, was con-
-idea d, and the nwendmen!s agreed to, and ordered to
o e priuteil and read a third time on Friday ❑ext. •
The Friendly Societies (Nu. 2) Bill was read a second
time.

The Bankruptcy (Ireland) Bill was read a third time
and passed. .
The adjourned debate on the Palace Court (West-
minster) Bill was adjourned to Thursday next.
ot.er ord,-,rs of the day were disposed of, and the
House adjourned at a Quarti-r to Two o'clock.

RIGHTS OF PUBLIC DISCUSSION.
A feeling of sympathy and commiseration, if not of
respect, was pretty generally felt for the Duke of Bruns-
wick during his legal campaigns agahatt a certain
obscene publication. To be compelled to maintain a
protracted struggle with men who degraded literature
into a means of pandering to the meanest tastes and most
licentious pas,ions, was no slight addition to the loss
even of a crown. The thought might indeed at times
intrude itself, that the vermin of the press only fixed
themseves on men who were less guarded in the choice
of associates, and scenes of amusement, than strict pru-
dence dictated; but indignation at the venal inventors
and dissetninataya of filthy scandal prevailed, and the
Duke of Brunswick's actions for damages were seconded
by the goodwill of toe public.
But success in any pursuit is apt to be dangerous to
men weak in intellect or deficient in prudence, and
such a man the circumstances under which the Duke
forfeited his throne bad sufficiently proved him to be.
Tee success which attended the forensic exertions in
which he generally hal engaged and persevered,
against the advice of those who imagine that there is
ecarcely less shaine in thrashing a scoundrel than in
being thrashed by him, appears to have given the Duke
an unhappy liking for such pursuits. The touch of da-
mages and costs has had the same effect upon him as the
taste of blood upon the sluith-hound. Flushed with his
victories over traders in obscene scandal, he is be-
ginning to strike indiscriminately at the whole press.
Were there no principle of law involved in such pro-
secutions, by which the liberty of the press or the right
of tree political discussion is endangered, they would
have been quite unworthy of notice. The Duke of Bruns-
wick has been so completely thrown, by the waves of
civil turmoil, far upon the beach, beyond the possibility
of the highest spring-tide ever again washing him back
into public lite, that there can be no use in drawing his
‘• frailties from their dread abode." His pugnacity, his
eagerness to rush into law proceedings, is matter of
notoriety. There can be little sympathy felt for indivi-
duals who get themselves involved in law suits by attack-
ing a person nut worth noticing, and who appears to like
nothing better than the excitement of litigation. They
might have known what would have come of it.
But the law, as laid down by Lord Denman and ap-
plied by the jury, in the case of the " Dnke of Brunswick
v. Harmer," is so pregnant with danger to the press and
to free puiitical discussion, that a protest must be re-
corded against it.
Four articles appeared in the Weekly Dispatch news-
paper in the !thi of
which
the Septemberd eat
hn dr 0
ne October,(nent olfBt4h7e,
1 m4B'
and march, 8
Duke of Brunswick was adverted to. The articles
were purely of a p &twat character ; and the Duke's
case was introduced inc-
;dental!y byof way of parallel
I le Plutarch, in treating
oue of the Duke of Llu . fgcca the more recent
themselves
it is evident the Duke felt that they
scarcely warrant an action, for he sought torwa,vs e
uld
g
their character by establishing a et eau exion g
betweenat
them and an article which had appeared in the same
paper us far buck as September, 1830. The latter article
also was in the main political, but contained allusions
which trespassed upon private Life. Sir F. Thesiger, on
he half of the defend ate, plea led the statute of limita-
tions in so far as the article of 1830 was concerned;
but L rd Denman ruled that the subsequent publica-
tems barred the application of the statute, and the decla-
ration of the foremen showtel that the jury regarded the
publicatiuns of 1830 and 1847 as one continuous act, and
that they had read the succinct paragraphs of 1847 and
1848 by the reflected light of the more questionable one
of 1830.
amigos to the amount of 5001. were accordingly
awarded against the proprietor of the Weekly Dispatch,
on the ground that the article of 1830, and the articles
published 17 anti 18 years later, were parts of a continuous
sy.tetnatin attack upon the Duke of Brunswick. Is it in
;he sliehteat degree probable that any party or parties,
animist--d by p..rsetial malice, would have allowed 17
years to intervene between their attacks? The utter
silence regarding the Duke of Brunswick, persevered in
for seventeen years, is proof sufficient that no ani-
m.tiity was entertained against him personally; and
list the notice taken of Min was prompted solely by a
desire to illustrate and establish a political principle. It
is quite possible. even assuming that the articles of 1830
isn't 1847 proceeded from the same pen, that the writer
in 1847 might have forgotten the existence of the article of
1830. Lis very probable that the prop ietor takes no part
iu the management of the paper, and that the present edi-
tors and writers hal no connexion with it in 1830, and
no knowledge of what it then contained. The uneuarded
trespass; on the fi old of private life in 1830 was
wrong, both in point of morals ant taste ; but it was
doubtless rendered more venial by the style in which the
controversy was at that time conducted on both sides.
The Duke advanced grave charges (personal as well as
political) against his uncles on the one band, and his
ci-devant subjects on the other; and the advocates of his
deposition retaliated in kind. Both parties were to
blame for the introduction of irrelevant and exasperating
topics. But the war of 1830, between the Duke of
Brunswick and the Dispatch, is a matter of nearly
twenty years past. The public had forgotten it. All
parties now connected with the Dispatch had forgotten,
if they over knew of it. It was as if it had never hap.
pened, to all save the Duke of Brunswick himself, who
had brooded over it—alto nrente rep6,4ant. It was with
no small labour that a copy of the paper containing
the obsolete offerice was ferreted out by the publishers,
when applied for, they knew not why, by an emissary
of the Duke. Yet, but for is gratuitous and forced con-
nexion of the forgotten article of 1830 with the articles
of 1847 and 1848, the letter could not have been brought
within the reach of the libel law.
There is no safety for the press, or for any person
engaged in political discussion, if such a practice is to
be tolerated. Had an action been brought in 1830, the
judge and jury would have been aware of every cir-
cumstance of extenuation or provocation. Now, they
can only know that words wore used which bring the
parties using them within the reach of the law. There
is no ni however severe in the exercise of self-control,
however cautious in measuring laneuage, who may not,
at times, in the heat of dibcu-sien, outstep the date
limit. And if every malt who has done this, and
regretted it, may, niter nearly ',elf a century, be
punished for such a lapse, because he engages in per-
tectly lair tli—ussi-n of the conduct of the same party,
there is an end to free and u-cful politiCal debate. Tire
deeis. wi of the Judge at,d
.t,ury in the case of, the " Duke
of Brunswick v. II ruler" :a (we have no doubt uninten-
tiont.lly) a Breve eneroachnewet un the liberty of political
discussion,--.Examiner.

e.—cCONTINUED.)

iBL IN UNIVERSITY.

The papers comprisieg, the number of this able
periodical for the present month are of a very high
order. The first is an elaborate critical analysis of
Mr. Raskins' interesting arid learned work, " The
Seven Lamps of Architecture." The other literary
notices are written in a fair and candid spirit, doing
justice alike to the nuttier, the critic, and the public :
The Virgin Victiale"—" Iphigenia"—" Jephtha's
Daughter," a poem of considerable length, in two
parts, of great poetical merit, glowing with true in-
spiration, and high and pure feeling. We cannot
avoid treating our readers to a stanza or two from
" Jephtha's Diughter," though perhaps not the highest
specimens of poetical excellence we could select,
but they seem to us simple, touching, and beautiful:—
" And yet I know not—surely Life is sweet!
Life—it is Love and Light.
Li e--'tis to wonder on with buoyant feet
Wherever Earth is bright.
To know sweet labours, sweeter still reposes,
To look on sunlight, and to smell the roses.
Life—it is crowned with flowers, and full of eyes
That we know well, and pleasant memories!
And woman's life
Buddeth thro' all its springs, and ripeneth
That it may have some fruit, or ever death
Raiseth his sharp edged knife.
The soaring mountains, and the sounding sea,
What are their songs, but life and liberty?
Life, shouts the storm—
Life, screams the Eagle—Life, th' unfolded flowers
Have pencilled on their pstals by the showers
And sun, where'er they form.
" Yes, but there's more, for Life bath other things,
IF it bath love, bath bate—
If it bath pleasant walks, bath wanderings
Or mountains desolate.
Life, it bath weariness, and much vexation,
And mid-stream strife, with no sweet alternation,
And seldom sunlights—and decaying blossoms—
And loves, deep-sepulchred in selfish bosoms,
And Life bath also many quench'd eyes,
Missed one by one, and restless memories
That walk amsng the dead;
They seek for comfort, finding none—so cold,
Lies on the long black hair the heavy mould.
Ocean and hills, disquieted,
Grow weary in old age—the Eagles bear
Life like a burden up the mountain air,
And flowers men rudely crush,
E'en where they live their little, happy lives,
Betray'd, because they blush."
The notice of the interesting-lifo and writings of the
late Professor Butter, of Trinity College Dublin, is
worthy the reader's attention. " Ceylon and the
Cingalese" is continued in its usual graphic, amus-
ing, and instructive style ; " The Opium Clipper, an
After Dinner Yarn," is light and characteristic. The
paper which demands our attention is a satrical poem
"Dublin," in imitation of the third Satire of Juvenal.
This poem, though requiring a few additional turn-
ings of the stylus, and though somewhat rugged in the
versification, possesses much merit, and has a dash of
spirit and boldness current through it which rather
pleases us; but we have some little more to do with
this poem than its mere literary merit. We feel the
author has done us great injustice in placing us in
the category of the anti-Irish press ; the shaft of the
satirist should be pointed with truth, otherwise it
falls blunted and useless to the earth, utterly power-
less either to serve a friend or to hurt an enemy ; we
feel that the arrow which has been shot at us has
`passed by like the idle wind which we regard not."
For upwards of half a century has The Sun been the
successful champion of humanity and liberty, and
long, ere this young aspirant for poetical fame
emerged from the " black north," ere yet
" His infant lungs inhaled Dungannon's air,"
The Sun was, as it still is, th warm advocate
of the rights and liberties of Ireland ; perhaps, after
all, we were but pressed into the author's service for
the mere purposes of versification ; a few extracts
may nerhaps amuse some of our readers.
"./. I atheit, make not the least pretence
To frank the fallacies of common sense;'
Can't comprehend, and truly never could,
How Abeetseeism does any good ;
Nor how, just now, if Court and Parliament,
Lords, Ladies, Commoners, and Madams went
To live at Petersburgh, the Cockney folk
Should take it as an economic joke.

Worse still, I never yet could bear the jest
Would make me evil bird' in my own nest,
Nor simpering cry How Irish,' when some fool
Has haply broken Hoylei or Priscian's rule.

In Irelanl, ❑ow, would Irishmen advance,
Who but your supple, servile, has a chance ?

Nor hero alone the self-abasing game
Prospers. In London, with e'en less of shame,
As more of profit, 'tis pursued by all
The servile Irish of the capital.
Yes, I confess, that crew degenerate
Are they of men I most abominate ;
Nor shall one touch of tenderness debar
My painting them the rascals that they are.
'ris not alone low Dodder disemhogues
Its Brook's dull sediment of bulls and brogues;
Lee, Shannon, Liffey, with united stream 9,
All bear their foul contingents to the Thames.

Nor only is the parasitic part
In Letters p!eyed. It scandalises Art;
Oh, shut the book—on sheets degraded cease
To trace the shame and genius of Maclise.
" Turn from the scoffing pago your saddened eyes,
Where taste and feeling make self•sacrifice,
And meagre Teague presents his rugged foil
To the smooth Briton, in the sketch of Doyle
Doyle whose fine pencil generously applied,
Moves free as beauty in her virgin pride;
Put to home mockings at detraction's suit,
Stumbles and shrinks, a conscious prostitute.
Ah! youths, before the gifted hand you lift
To strike your mother, think who gave the gift;
Nor scorn the land, tho' poor she be, and far,
That nursed the genius makes you what you are.

Yes—lrish all the men who chiefly mar
Poor Ir. hind's pleading at Great Britain's bar.
The anti Irish press, an Irish host
Itself, Sun, Standard, Herald, Morning Post,
In fine, who with seditious dirt begrimes
Poor Ireland in the leaders of the Times
Up-closes with the prompt diurnal lie
The opening band of English charity.
Gloats o'er our crimes, and laughs our woes to
acorn?
A servile Irish scoundrel, bred and born!"
This number closes with a powerful and argumenta-
tive paper on the necessity of Church Reform. It is
evidently written by a true friend of the Church, the
admitted and palpable abuses of which he would wish
to remove with the least possible danger to its sta-
bility. There is one matter to which he refers, call-
ing loudly for reformation, " the unequal distribution
of Church property." It is monstrous to contemplate
the enormous sums applied to the building of episco-
pal palaces, while in many dioceses the working
clergyman scarcely receives as much as the labourer
employed in raising these gorgeous structures.