The Sun.
London, England, 1836-05-31 00:00:00

THE IRISH CORPOBATION BILL.

TO the EDITOR of the MORNING CHRONICLE.
SIR—In one of the best of the many able articles which
have appeared in your journal in reference to the Irish Cor-
poration Bill, it .was stated (in the Chronicle of the 9th inst.).
" We have heard that an active town-clerk from the city of
Cork has been in constant communication with Lord Lynd-
hurst ;" and then it was asked, ",Was it to meet his wishes
that the nefarious clause (the 14th, which preserves the offi-
cers after the offices have been extinguished, and their duties
done away with) was smuggled into this nefaaious Bill?"
Now, Sir, as it would be to detract from the high fame, and
name, and reputation which Lord Lyndhurst deservedly en-
joys in the estimation of the public, to suppose for one mo-
ment that in seeking for information on the subject of Irish
Corporations, or assistance or advice as to the best means of
accomplishing their abolition, with the extinction -of all the
evils, corruptions, and jobbing which his Lordship admits
were interwoven with them, he did not refer to and consult
the most disinterested and impartial sources, we must believe
that he the "active town-clerk from the city of
Cork " as a perfectly safe and pure authority upon which to
rely, and introduced his nefarious clause accordingly.
But, Sir, whatever Lord Lyndhurst may have thought, it
is right that you and the public should be informed of facts ;
and the few which I propose to submit to you may furnish an
insight cf the means and machinery resorted to for the con-
coction of his Lordship's " amendments," and some of the
purposes it is intended to effect, which perhaps a longer narra-
t:ve could not supply. Lord Lyndhurst is an innocent and
simple-minded gentleman ; but if he finds that his amiable
credulity has been imposed upon, it is easy to imagine with
what an outpouring of virtuous indignation he will reproach
the cunning men who took advantage of it.
The name of the " active town-clerk from the city of
Cork" vvith whom his Lordship was "in constant communi-
cation," is Julius Caesar Besnard. You ask, " Was it to
meet his wishes that the nefarious clause alluded to was smug-
gled into the Bill ?" In order to ascertain whether he had
any wishes, let us see whether be had any interest in clause.
In the first place, then, Julius Caesar is town-clerk of the
city of Cork, with a considerable salary.
lie is secretary and law agent to the Board of Wide Street
Commissioners. . .

He is law agent to the Board of Harbour Commissioners.
He is law agent to the Market Trustees; and
Ile is secretary and law agent to the Foundling Hospital.
In the cases in which he is sccretrry lie is paid bv fixed
salary. As law agent, of course his emoluments depend upon
the suits which he carries on for the different bodies, and
they have been many and heavy. Some time since the Found-
ling Hospital had to defend a case against a plaintiff in reple-
vin. The case never came to trial, although the record had
issued, and the costs charged against the Hospital and paid by
the Governors amounted to 6191.
All these offices, recollect, Mr. Editor, would be continued
to the " active town clerk of the city of Cork " by the nefa-
rious Bill, which professes to abolish corporations. The force
of impudence could go no further.
Bat let us do the town clerk justice. He took care of him-
self to be sure ; but his family affections are strong, and he
looked after his kindred and connections also.
His brother Peter is at present Mayor of Cork, with a
salary of 1,2001. He is also weigh-master of that city, the
revenues arising from which office amount to from 1,2001. to
1 5001. a year. The latter office the nefarious clause con-
tinues to Peter for life. _

But is this all? No, nor half.
. The Court of Conscience at Cork consists, when full, of
six aldermen. At present there is a vacancy for one. The
revenues of the court amount to 1,500/. per annum. The now
aldermen are—John Besnard. Sir Anthony Perrier, Thomas
Gibbings, Barton Gibbings, and Charles Perry.
The first-named of these aldermen is another brother of the
" active town-clerk ;" the daughter of the second is married
to the son of the " active town- clerk ;" and the third and
fourth, the two Gibbings, -arc father and son, and have inter-
married and arc closely connected with the same active town-
clerk's family. Alderman Perry only, of the entire Court of
Conscience, cannot boast of alliance or relationship with him.
Again, I have to remind you, Mr. Editor, that all these offices
arc continued to the present possessors under the Bill of Lord
Isyndhurs.., which professes to abolish corporations !!
The people of Cork, Sir, will be much obliged by your
inserting this statement in your able and patriotic journal,
and I am prepared to substantiate every circumstance therein
set down. It is to no purpose that the facts arc notorious on
the spot where the parties reside ; but it would! be of great
value to show, pending the discussions in the ,Commons on
the Lords' "amendments," the disinterested and impartial
assistance which Lord Lyndhurst sought, procured, and had
the advert! ege of, in ft.:ening his measure.
I shall only add, Sir, that the Besnards, the Gibbings, and
the Perriers, are all of the " real stuff"—Orange, Tory, and
Conservative to the backbone, and worthy in every respect of
Lord Lyndhurst's favour and protection.

A CORK MAN.

IRELAND.

PUBLIC MEETINGS.— AGlTATlON.—Tipperary is agitated to
its centre, and although great the excitation there, the people
of Waterford vie with them in their unmitigated reprobation
of the Lords' conduct. Indeed, every part of Ireland is rising
up against the most unwise and tyrannical course contemplated
by the Lyndhurst scheme of destruction. All the accounts
which we have received this morning from the scene of agita-
tion concur in representing the excitement and indignation
which the Lords have stirred up by their nefarious and shame-
less conduct, as being stronger thanl was ever before witnessed.
More public meetings have been held than the journals can
report--the columns of all the newspapers in Ireland are found
to be wholly insufficient to contain the accounts of the meet-
ings held, holding, or to be held, in every part of the country.
For the mischief inseparable from thus stirring up the popular
energies the public are indebted to those plotters against the
peace of the country, who, preferring destruction to Reform,
did not heeitate to insult Iceland, outrage justice, and compro-
mise the ieterests of the United Kingdom, by bringing in a
Bill of Pains and Penalties against every Municipality in the
coon:ry.
ViumEN IN Anms. —lf any farther evidence than that already
given were required to prove the ineradicable hatred to the
infernal tithe-system, it might be found in our Exchequer re-
ports to-day. The galling grievance h s converted the Irish-
women into heroines. None can feel the. misfortunes of a
widow so well as a woman. The very locality pointed to the
widow Ryan and the other women who had been made widows
in the tithe massacre at Ratheoernac; accordingly, we find
pay females-forgetting their sex, arming themselves, and re-
pulsing and despoiling the tithe bailiff. —Freeman.
17101INE IN THE WEST.—TIIC most melancholy accounts of
the distress which at present prevails in the north-west
reach us daily. The people arc starving, and still it
is said we live under a fostering administration ; a fa-
mine is in the land, ,and we are desired to " wait
awhile." When the .privations are so great at present,
what must they be when the potato crop of last year is en-
tirdy consumed? Would that we could, then, without mock-
ing their misery, desire our famishing countrymen " wait
awhile," and a British Ministry will prevent the future recur-
rence of an absolute starvation by the introduction of a system
of poor laws ! If the people could live on promises; all would
he well ; but we regret to say, that the sympathies expresse 1
for them are "vox el prceterea nihil"—there is no practical
proof of a sympathy—there will he no poor laws this season.
—Freeman.—[We arc not disposed to defend a " British Mi-
nistry" from deserved censure ; but on this question we cannot
see the justice of attaching that Llama to Ministers which an-
pears to us to belong- more properly to the Irish landlords,
ho not only, at this crisis of suffering, neglect their duty as
natural protectors of the poor, but actually extort rent from
their starving tenantry. Poor laws cannot be suddenly intro-
duced into Ireland, and the, landlords arc always opposing
parties to their introduction at all.]

The project for the establishment of an exhibition
of pictures at York, for the encouragement of native talent,
is malting, great progress. Several eminent London artists
have sigaified to the do-ectors their intention of sending pic-
tures to the exhibition when the time is fixed for receiving
their works.
A short time since, Major ---- succeed,2l in car-
rying off the daughter of an opulent tradesman at the West
end, a beautiful and accomplished girl. The parties left town
for a fashionable watering-place, but, after a short sojourn, re-
torrred to London, and put up at one of the hotels. The
young lady's father succeeded in discovering their retreat. On
seeing the Major, his rage could not be restrained. lie seised
the poker, and darting upon him, bestowed several most tre-
mendous blows upon the head and shoulders of the " military
hero," who made the best of his way into the street. He was
pur,:ued by the father, who called out to the astonished passers
by, that this was the villain who Lad seduced his daughter.
An officer succeeded in preventing him from further violence,
aid the young lady tvas ultiTately restored to the parental roof.
—Observer.

---- ----- '
PRICES OF STOCKS THIS DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK.
Bank Stock.
3 per Cent Red 110% %, Ditto Bonds 1 pm.
3 per Cent Cons ... 9114X, ; Svuth Sea Strck —
3'i per Cent — i --
Old Annnities
Ditto Iced.... 08%% New Ditto -
New 3N, per Cent. lOOl4 100% 3 per Cent. Annuities, 1751...
New 3 per Ce"t -- Exch. Bills, £l,OOO ... ... I`2 11 pm.
Bank Long Annuities to expire Ditto .500 l2 14 pm.
Jan. 5, ISM 15% Ditto Small
Oct; 10, MO ISIK 11-16 i Ditto C0mmercia1.......... 5 pin.
Jan. 5. 15N'...... ........... ... ; Ditto Advertised ll 13 put.
Jan. 5, 1880 - ; Bank Stock for Account --
April 5, MO - I India Stock for Account -
Jan. 5, 1870 — Consols for Account

Gentleman's notice, Lord J. RUSSELL observed that,
in his opinion, as it was the undoubted right of the
Commons to introduce Bills to regulate the succession
to the Crown, and to reform the representation of the

people in Parliament, " so likewise it was their un-
doubted right to introduce, and to favour, if they
_ . _

should think fit, Bills respecting a reform, but which
he did not consider a reform, in the other branch of
the Legislature." This is sound, manly doctrine,

such as it becomes a British Minister to deliver,
and a British House of Commons to listen to. On

he ears of the Tories, however, it must grate with

peculiar harshness.

They will, of course, pro-

nounce it unconstitutional, and start at the bare

idea of the Upper House being reformed through
the agency of the Lower. Yet it must come to this
at last. If the Lords will not be reformed from within—
and of this there is scarcely a hope, or they would have
set about the task of regeneration long ere'now—they
must perforce consent to be reformed from without ;
for it is impossible that the interests of a great country
can be sacrificed to the prejudices of a few aristocrats,
who have little in common with the age, but the
fashion of their garments. It is notorious that a great
portion of the. Tory Lords are at least fifty years be-
hind their day. While all about them is in
progress, they alone are at a stand-still. The
reason of this is, not so much want of capacity, as
want of sympathy with, and knowledge of, all
below a certain grade in the community. They build
up a wall of demarcation between themselves, and
those whom they are pleased contemptuously to call
" the people." An Almack's spirit of exclusiveness
pervades all their actions. They live in a petty world
of their own, fenced round by prejudice and conven-
tional etiquette. Hence they are constantly mis-
taking the language of sycophancy for that of
truth ; and the smiles of a coterie for the ap-
plause of the country. Will nothing rouse them
from this delusion ? Are they really deaf as the
adder, and blind as the mole ? Let them calmly
consider—if, indeed, prejudice, grown into second na-
ture, have not wholly incapacitated them for reflec-
tion—the rapid, the unparailelled progress that events
have lately made, in spite of them. But ten short
years ago they were omnipotent in both Houses, and
exercised, too, an influence over the Crown which re-
duced the Monarch to a mere cypher. Theirs were
the pensions and the sinecures ; theirs the Church—
the Law—the Army and the Navy ; they had the
key of the public Treasury in their pocket; and a snug
berth in every colony. Moreover, they had the Ca-
tholics and Dissenters at their feet ; bad forced the
Whigs into an all but unconditional surrender ; and
chained the Prometheus of Radicalism to his rock. Such
was the overwhelming power of the Tory arigtocracy
but ten years since. What is it now ; and what is
the inference we would draw from the contrast between
its present and its past position ? Why this, that all
authority that does not emanate directly from the
popular will, and take this as its corner-stone, is—no
matter how numerous and stable its conventional props
may appear—built upon a rotten foundation, like the
palace which the fool erected on the sands, and which
the first hurricane shivered to atoms. Would that we
could induce the Tory Lords to look at their position,
with reference rather to what it is, than what it was !
If they could not stlstain- their predominant influence
when supported by all the factitious props to which
we have just alluded, how can they be expected to
sustain it now, when these props have, one by one,
been removed from them ? But it is vain to reason
with the unreflecting. Prejudice may be subdued, but
not fanaticism ; and the Lords being resolved to per-
Severe in their headstrong, fanatical policy, must be
prepared to pay the penalty of their infatuation. We
take for granted that in expressing himself hostile to a
Reform in the Upper House, Lord JOHN RUSSELL
referred, not to the general principle, but to Mr.
O'CONNELL'S particular motion.

Our readers gill perceive, on reference to our re-
ports of the public Meetings at Worcester, Taunton,
the City a London, and elsewhere, on the subject of
the Irish Municipal Bill, that the cour.try is at length
fully awake to the necessity of rendering " equal jus-
tice " 'to Ireland. The spirit displayed at all these
Meetings breathes a bold and uniform determination
of purpose, which the Lords, however they may storm

. .
and bluster, will never be able to make head against.
In answer to the assertion of these infatuated men,
that their amendments to the Irish Corporation
measure have been dictated by the purest split of
justice and impartiality towards Irishmen of all classes,
we need only refer our readers to a letter addressed
to a Morning Contemporary, which appearsain another
part of The Sun of this day, whereby it will be seen
how " disinterested and impartial" has been the local
assistance of which Lord LYNDHURST has availed
himself, as respects the Cork Corporation.

In the Committee of Supply, last night, Sir AN-
DREW AGNEW, it will be seen, took the opportunity
of angling again for a few stray votes on the subject
of his Sunday-persecution Bill. Luckily, however,
time ghostly Baronet met with no sport. Not
a single Member bit. There was not even a
nibble. While speaking of this pious Parlia-
mentarian, we may just observe that our attention
was arrested yesterday evening, while crossing the
Hampstead-road, by the shrill tones of a field preacher
who was damning a motley audience consisting of about
a dozen old women, three Irish hodmen, a squa

child in arms, and a stray donkey, with incredible zeal
and alacrity. 'We did not get close enough to the
stormy fanatic to be able to recognise his features ;
but, from the style of his eloquence, and the circum-
stance of his looking like a scare-crow eloped from a
corn-field, we have every reason to believe that he was
St. Stephen's leading Apostle.

Our correspondent at Portsmouth has forwarded to
us the following communication respecting the state
of the British Legion at St. Sebastian :

POKTSNIOUTH, MAY 30, 1836.—The Messenger steamer,
Mr. King master, arrived this morning from San Sebastian.
Her despatches were landed yesterday at Plymouth ; she
brings no news of any movements of the belligerent troops ;
but she brings very satisfactory news of the state of General
Evans's troops and his means of keeping his troops effective.
The Gallant Member for Westminster requires to know who
are his enemies, and he will march against them with his
eleven thousand men ; but more than this, prudence directs
him to ask, who are his friends ? He has fully ascertained that
the winter season has been embraced by Carlos most effect-
ively, and that be has strengthened himself in men, munitions,
and means in a most surprising manner ; that he is not to be
put down now, as he could have been six months ago, when
there was in reality no British Legion in existence—that, in
fact, the tables are quite turned, and it is clearly shown, from
the activity of the Carlists in Spain, the Legitimatists in
France, Italy, Germany, and the rest of Europe, and the
Tories in England, and from the effect of this united
activity, that Spain is not yet in the condition to
be morally and politically improved. Struggle we may,
but we, in our wishes, and above all General Evans and
his brave companions in their exertions, will wish and exert in
vain. Spain and Spaniards are is yet to be kept in ignorance
and slavery, and it is- much to be feared, from the disposition
of the people, that only some bloody, tumultuous events will
lead to a better order of things—such only in the present state
of affairs can be expected. The people are priest-ridden, or
abhorrent of priestcraft ; and the priesthood are too besotted to
understand that education should be admitted to the people.
Let them stand the consequences—the fault be upon their own
heads.
The ships at San Sebastian arc the Tweed sloop-
of-war, English
Commandersi Maitland ; Royalist, 10 guns, Lieutenant
Barlow ; Viperii lschooner, Lieutenant Robinson ; Phoenix
steamer, Commander Henderson, with Lord John Hay's broad
pendant ; Salamander steamer, Lieutenant Duffil • Comet
steamer, Lieutenant Otl,vay ; the Alonzoth fourransp larort, igler.aWrmaeld-
tars, Master; and Commodore Henry, with
steamers, in the service of the Queen of Spain.
The above view of the condition of the Carlists is