The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-12 00:00:00

SICILY.

FILANGIERI has published a manifesto, announcing
that the KING has appointed his eldest son the Duke
of CALABRIA (a youth of fourteen) to be his repre-
sentative at Palermo.

The Opinione of Turin of the 6th mentions an
order issued by General FILAINGIERI on the 19th ult.,
directing that all the arms in possession of the inhabi-
tants of Palermo, National Guards excepted, should
be given up within forty-eight hours.

THE TREASURY AND THE DIS-
SOLUTION OF THE LATE BOARD OF
STA MPS.
A pamphlet is now lying before us, which we read
at the time of its appearance with great interest. It
is entitled, "Letters addressed to the Right lion.
Lord Granville Somerset, the Right Hon. the Earl
of Ripon, the Right Hon. Frankland Lewis, and the
Right Hon. Henry Goulburn, on the Extraordinary
Proceedings connected with the sudden and hitherto
unexplained Dissolution of the late Board of Stamps."
The correspondence between the Lords of the Trea-
sury and Mr. Sedgwick, the ex-chairtnan of that
Board, which has recently appeared in the Liverpool
Mercury, and which has attracted much public at-
tention, recalled this pamphlet to our mind. Its
contents are fresh in our memory, for they are not
of a kind to be soon forgotten, hut the correspondence
redoubled the interest we took in it, and we now
again turn to it with the intention of recording in our
columns the remarks which we made as we went on
upon the conduct of the Lords of the Treasury in dis-
solving a revenue Board, remarkable for the satisfac-
tion it had always given in the dispatch of the public
business, and against which no complaint had ever
been made. AV e remember well that its sudden dis-
solution caused the greatest surprise, and nail the
leters of Mr. Sedgwick to Mr. Wallace appeared in
the Morning- Chronicle, which we read at the time
with great interest, and a copy of which we have by,
us, no one could get at the cause of it. But the pam-
phlet, the title of which we have here given, furnishes a
clue to the vv hole m Atter. A tramaction more scandalous,
or brought about by means more disgraceful to the
Treasury, never yet came before us. It would not
be credited, were it not attested by facts that admitted
of no dispute. Their Lordships, it appeared, had
long been aware, from the great defalcation in the
legacy and probate duties in Scotland, and that this
defalcation was owing to the negligence, or some-
thing worse, of the solicitor, Mr. Bremner, under
whose collection they were, and had been for nearly
forty years ; and having had full experience of Mr.
Sedgwick's great activity of mind and talent for
buiness, their Lordships required him, about three
months after he had taken his seat as chairman of the
Stamp Board, to repair to Edinburgh, and there to
investigate the mode in which the management of
those important duties was conducted in the solicitor's
office, and to report to their Lordships fully thereon.
He accordingly, under their special Treasury war-
rant, proceeded to execute the arduous duty imposed
upon him. How he found matters on his arrival is
thus graphically related in his letter to the Treasury
of the Bth of February last, which makes part of the
recent correspondence :
In obedience to the above direction I immediately
repaired to Edinburgh. I had not proceeded far in my
investigation when I found the system of collusion and
mismanagement to be flagrant beyond all conception.
Not only was no register kept by the solicitor of
wills and probates (Mr. Bremner), but no entry book of
any kind, showing either the duties payable upon them,
or the duties received. In every other branch of this de-
partment the same absence of all check upon fraud pre-
vailed. No record had ever been kept of the prosecu-
tions instituted for offences against the stamp laws, nor
of the penalties recovered."
He then goes on to state the mode of conducting
the proceedings, which will be read with astonish-
ment.
" The mode of conducting the proceedings was of
the most extrsordinlry kind ; it was thus :—A prose-
cution was commenced, and a brief given to the Lord
Advocate ; but when the cae came on for trial, instead
of being heard and decided by the Court, it was referred,
at the- suggestion of the solicitor, to the Lord Advocate,
who thus became at once the public prosecutor and the
private referee, and proceeded to award whatever amount
of penalty he thought proper without hearing either the
party or his witnesses I Having received his lee as COUN •
SEL F ,n THE CROWN, he received a second fee as An-
BITR ATOR, OR patting his initials to his award. Aud
this was done not in one case only, bat in every case.
Those pr duced before me had the initials of Mr. Col-
quhoun, the then Lord Advocate. Such a course of
proceeding. which in England would be deemed in-
credible, was in Scotland the regular and recognised
practice."
So monstrous were the abuses which the Chair-
man's investigations brought to light, that the Board
of Stamps thought their duty to the public required
that they should suspend him with the view to his
ultimate removal, which they did, and appointed an
interim solicitor, a Mr. Benny, under whose dili-
gence and activity the stamp revenue in Scotland
began to double and treble its former return.
The Lord Advocate, and the other official autho •
rities in Edinburgh, soon began to miss Mr. Bremner
and the profitable system of abuse to which they had
been so long accustomed, and out of which they had
such pretty pickines, and they immediately set all
their influence in motion to get his suspension re-
moved, and to procure his re instatement in office.
The number and value of Scotch votes are calculated
to a nicety in Downing-street; a general election
was approaching ; no time was to be 10-t ; and a
Treasury Minute was accordingly prepared and
forwarded to the Board of Stamps, removing Mr.
Bremner's suspension and ordering his immediate
restoration.
As the appointed guardians of the public purse,
" my Lords" claim the privilege of applying to their
own political purposes the property of the nation at
large. We shall show how lavishly they have exercised
this privilege, not only in this particular instance, but
on all occasions where electioneering influence is to
be maintained. Scotch jobs are proverbial: if any
one ask, through what agency they are managed, the
letters we adverted to in the outset will furnish the
best materials for an answer. In the present instance
the subject is so curious a one as to be well worth a
detailed examination; and it is our intention to sift
it thoroughly. The result will well reward the public
attention.

QUEEN'S BENCH.-(THIS DAY.)

ROSS V. THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.
The Attorney-General had obtained a rule, in this
case, calling upon the Great Western Railway Company
to show cause why they should not permit him to inspect
the whole of the books of the company. It appeared
that Mr. Ross represented a gentleman named Mackin-
tosh, deceased, who had possessed a large stake in the
concern. In order to obtain access to the books of the
company he clothed himself with the power of a creditor
and demanded, under the 138th section of the Acts by
which the company was incorporated, to inspect the
books in order that he might ascertain the exact value
of the property left by Mr. Mackintosh. He
.had been
permitted to see several books, but he complained that
he had only been allowed to see the receipt books, whilst
others were withheld from him.
Sir FITZROY KELLY showed cause against the rule,
and produced the affidavits of Mr. Saunders, the secre-
tary of the company, and affidavits of several of the
officers, setting forth that the applicant was shown
the books of receipts and expenditure, which contained
all the transactions of the company, and that they were
scrupulously correct. Indeed, he had been permitted to
inspect all the books specified in the 138th section of the
Act. It was true he was not allowed to see the whole
of the books, which were most voluminous, and com-
prised almost a library, but the books he saw contained
the general totals of the whole of them. if be were en-
titled to see the whole of the books be would become
most improperly acquainted with all the private trans-
actions of the company, such as particulars with respect
to loans, notes, and mortgages of the company. In order
to remove any imputation that the company was unwil-
ling to have its books inspected, he should he happy to
submit them all to the view of one of the Masters of the
court. It was a groundless application, made not as in
the case of an ordiniery creditor, but for en indirect pur-
pose, and he submitted that the rule should be discharged
with costs.
Mr. MILLS followed on the same side.
The ATTORNEY. GENERAL sp.le in support of the
rule. The Acts spoke in the plural number.
Lord DENMAN said the Act spske of "a hock;" but
it was obvious that more than one book was required.
He contended that the Act meant that a creditor should
inspect the whole of the books used by the company;
otherwise, how could the real stag' of the company—
how could the condition of a merchant's affairs be ascer-
tained and valued, except this whole of his books were
inspected? To produce such books as those stated was
a mere delusion. If they said they had no such books,
be admitted that would be an answer; but it they. had, a
creditor, in the position of Mr. Ross, was entitled to
inspect them all.
Mr. J. BROWN was heard on the same aide.
'1 he COURT thought the company bad substantially
complied with the provisions of the Act. The book
ape cified a as the oily one a person had a right to see.
Rule discharged.