The Sun.
London, England, 1825-06-04 00:00:00

DIED.

_
On Monday, the 30th ult.' at his lodgings in the High-
street, Cheltenham, whether he had gone for the recovery of his
health, universally regretted by a large circle of acquaintance,
the Rev. T. B. Woodman, M.A.' Vicar of Brackley, Rector of
Daylesford, Prebendary of York, Chaplain to his Royal High-
ness the Duke of Clarence, and nephew to the late. Warren
Hastings, E 9. of Daylesford House. He was a- most tender
husband and Lather, a sincere friend and truly honourable man,
and -will ever he remembered with affectionate regard by all who
knew him.

At Paris, on the 23d ult., his Excellency the Chevalier de
Brito, Minister Plenipotentiary of his illajesty the King of
Portugal at the French Court.
On the 7th ult., at Vienna, after a long illness, the celebrated
composer, and first master of the chapel, Mr. Anthony Salieri.
On the 2d inst., at his house at Wallington, Surrey; Francis
Gregg, Esq., of Skinners' Hall.
On Thursday, the 2d inst., at the Rectory-house, Piccadilly,
in the 76th year of his age, Gerrard Andrewes, D.D., Dean of
Canterbury, and Rector of St. James's, Westminster.
At Greenwich, on the Ist inst., Major-Gen. George Bridges,
of the corps of Royal Engineers.
William Armistead the elder, recently, at his house in Cle-
ment's-lane (one of the people alled Quakers), aged 70.
On Thursday, the 2d inst., at Keswick. in Norfolk, Mrs.
Gurney, relict of the late Richard Gurney, Esq,
On Wednesday, the Ist inst., at Denmark-kill, Mrs. Frances
Piper, relict of the late Wm. Piper, of Camberwell, aged 38.

i'iiE I,ONIOT.roUItNAI.S.

DAILY
. _
E.Fti acts fr•o;n the Morrang l'aJper•s, June 4, 1525.

. •
[N EW TINES.]
lit the House of Lords, last night, the Earl of
12V-erpool gave notice, 'that on Tuesday next he
should move the second reading of the Bill for
improving the law of dealing with Factors or
Agents. Petitions, signed by almost all the most
eminent merchants in London, including many
who are Members of Parliament, Bank Direc-
tors, &c. have been presented to both Houses on
the subject. It was proved in 1823, that the
laws of France Portugal, Spain, Sardinia, Italy,
Austria, Holland,. the Hans Towns, Prussia,
Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, all concurred
in adopting the rule, that in moveable property
" possession constitutes title," and that persons
making advances of money upon such property
are .not hound to inquire to whom it belongs, but
are fully protected for the advances they make.
A similar principle exists in the law of Scotland ;
but in England, prior to 1823, the Courts of
Justice held, that a person making a bona fide
advance, in the regular course of business to an
agent, upon the security of merchandise, in igno-
rance that such agent was not the owner of the pro-
perty, might be deprived of his security ; and that
a bona fide purchaser from an agent not invested
with the power of sale, would be liable to pay a
second time the value of the merchandise. This
English rule is to be found in no statute, nor in
any decided case earlier than 1742, but between
that time, and 1823, it had been established by
a series of decisions ; and the argument generally
Used in its defence was, that it gave increased
security to the foreign merchant, in sending.
goods to this country, by protecting him against
the possible fraud of his agent. Now there
seems to be no reason, in natural equity, why
our laws should protect foreign merchants from
the consequences of their own want of caution in
the choice of agents, at the expense of our own
dealers, whom no caution could save from loss.—
S"either is there any reciprocity in such rule, as
between us and the nations which afford no pro-
tection to our merchants. A refined argument,
however, is suggested, namely, that the superior
security which our rule gives to foreigners, in-
duces them to send their goods hither for sale ;
hut, in the first place, the. main and almost the
only motive, for any merchant to select a parti-
cular market for his goods is the demand which
he supposes that market to afford ; and secondly,
in order to prove that he pays any regard to a
collateral circumstance, it must at least he shown
that he knows that circumstance to exist ; but it
was distinctly proved in evidence, that of the
foreign merchants trading to England, scarcely '
one ever suspected that time English law differed
from his own, and the few who came to knowl
of time .difference disapproved of it. In 1823,
the English. rule' as we have called it, was
so: far departed from, that by Statute George
IV. cap. 83, it was enacted that persons
in whose names goods appeared by a bill of
ladiiig to be shipped, should be deemed own-
ers, so as to entitle the consignees to a lien there-
on for advances made upon them. A Committee
of the House of Commons had recommended a
Statute applying not only to bills of lading, but
to any apparent .symbol of property ; but it was
thought fit to confine time measure, in the first
instance, within the narrower limit. Hence
arises, in the present state of the law, a curious
inconsistency : a merchant in London receiving,
One parcel of goods by sea, from Leith, Bris-
tol, &c. and another parcel of the same goods,
horn the same person by land, may acquire, by
the mere difference in the mode of conveyance,
totally different, and even opposite rights !
Such an absurdity as this cannot surely be suf-
fered long to disgrace our legislation. It, was,
therefore, proposed, last year, and is now pro-
posed again, that the rule suggested by the Com-
mittee of 1823 should be adopted, in its full ex-
tent,. as law. If we were even to grant that the
rule of 1742 was applicable to the state of trade
at this period, when Factors or Agents were uni-
versally known as,a separate class of persons,
and never traded on their own account, still we
should say that the present extended commerce
of the country produces such complicated trans-
actions, and mixes up agencies and ownerships so
indiscriminately, that a different regulation is de-
manded by justice for the protection of the mer-
cantile interest.

- [BRITISH PRESS.,
The capriciOus rising and falling of the Public
Funds is a phenomenon to all who are aline-
(painted with the mysterious manceuvering of the
motley Market. These, however, are operations
with which we have noimmediateconcerthand upon
which we are not at present disposed to comment.
But we must say, and we feel assured, that it can-
not have eKaped the attention of the higher powers
of Government, that for any opulent stock-jobber,
Or family of stock-jobbers, to be staking deeply
both in our own and in the foreign funds, and to
•be employing all the enormous influence of their
credit, and command of capital, to force those funds
either up or down, as may best suit the nature
and extent of their speculations, is a most per-
nicious system-i- and---11roductive of highly mis-
chievous results. .By the combined operations
carried on under a family compact of this kind,
a vast indirect political influence is obtained and
exercised, over which Government has no con-
:troul, but which, both in its immediate . and re-
itOte consequence, materially affects the interests
`of the State, and acts, more or less powerfully,
upon commercialdiscounts, upon invested• capital
of'eyery kind, and Upon all the leading transac-
tions of the mercantile world. This is no light
smatter ; it is a source, at this moment, of great
evil, and it threatens evils still greater. The
despotism of capital, real and fictitious, becomes
every day more palpable and more dangerous.—
This subject is one of the greatest magnitude,
hut" it is one we are well aware, with which the
Land of power cannot directly interfere. The
mischief will sooner or later work its own cure.

[THE putudc LEDGER.]
The Paris Papers, which arrived• last night,
are almost wholly occupied 4ith the proceedings

connected with the Coronation, but supsequent
to that ceremony. On Tuesday last, according
to immemorial usage, the King, followed by a
numerous and splendid suite, visited the Hospi-
tal of St. Macrould. This establishment, which
is situated in the neighbourhood of Rheims, is
devoted to the treatment of scrophula, or King's
evil. Here he touched all the patients, addressed
to them some consolatory expressions, and per-
haps effected a cure upon some of them. After
having left to the pious sisters of the Hospital
some solid marks of his piety and munificence,
the King, followed by the same train, proceeded
to the ancient abbey of St. Rainy, where he per-
formed his devotional exercises, and afterwards
reviewed the troops of the camp of St. Leonard.
Upon this occasion, Marshal Victor, Duke of
Bel luno, quondam Imperialist, now Ultra Royalist,
commanded ; and as he is not upon the very best
terms with the present Ministry, his selection for
this honour is not easily accounted for. If it was
the act of the King,. it would be honourable to
his judgment and feeling, for Victor may be
truly said to have created the present French
army. On Wednesday the King was to leave
Rheims for Paris ; and on his arrival in the latter
city a succession of splendid pageants and enter-
tainments was to take place. For a man of 67
or 68 years, the King sustains his part pretty
well, or rather excellently, in so harrassing a
ceremony. He has fulfilled, almost to the letter,
one part of Mr. Burke's remarks, where he says
that a King of France should be always on horse-
back ; and nothing has operated so much in his
favour with the Parisian canaille, and with some
of the more respectable classes too, as this cir-
cumstance.