The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-05 00:00:00

CRIMINAL COURT.-(TUESDAY.)

OLD COURT.
CHARGE or FRAUD.—Joseph Alexander Trevethen, a
respectable-looking man, was indicted for obtaining 1701.
worth of wine, the property of Charles Henry Ramsbottom.
The RECORDER did not think the defence which the
prisoner made a valid one, and the Jury found the prisoner
Guilty. Six months' hard labour.
This being the last case for trial, the RECORDER pro-
ceeded to pass sentence on the following prisoners :
Transportation for Seven Years—Frederick Pierce.
James Garrett, and Henry Matthews.
Imprisonment for One Year—John Thompson, William
Smith, George Wilson, and James Young,
Four other prisoners were sentenced to more limited.
periods of imprisonment.
The Court stands adjourned until Monday week, the
17th of December.

NE.
CONSPIRACY.-.A NESTO
OF SwlNDLErts.—Ann Nor-
man, alias Streeton, alias Hathaway, aged 49, widow;
Mary Ann Grafton, 21, spinster ; Charles Foster, 18,
shoemaker ; Thomas Guy, alias :rohn Thompson, 48,
draper ; and John Hobbs, 28, beer-shop keeper, were in-
dicted, together with Win. Thomas, alias Bond, who lately
died in Newgate, for unlawfully conspiring together, and
by sundry arts, stratagems, and representations, getting
into their possession divers goods and chattels of divers
persons, to wit, John Pontifex and oothers.The usual evidence in cases of swindling was adduced;
and the Jury found all the prisoners

The LEARNED JUDGE said he should make a great dis-
tinction between the girl and boy on account of their youth,
and the possibility that they Lad been the tools of others.
The sentence upon Mary Ann Grafton, and Charles Foster
was, that they be confined in the Penitentiary for six calen-
dar months.
The LEARNED JUDGE inquired if anybody was in Court
who knew anything about the other three prisoners, as lie
had reason to think some of them had been before con-
victed.

Inspector Tadman said that Norman and Foster (sup-
posed to be mother and son) were o:►ce at Hatton-garden
on a charge of swindling ; the boy was dressed in livery.
He also stated that Thompson had been before convicted,
and sentenced to transportation. He put in a petition in
that prisoner's 6m;-writing, praying a mitigation of
punishment.

The senterce Was, that they be imprisoned in the Mill•
bank Penitentiary for the term of two years.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE TO-MORROW.
Morning 23 minntes atter 5 1 Evening ... 43 miuutes after 5

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PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS.
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Saunders and Otley, Conduit-street, Hanover-square.

The puhlication of Tin SUN NZWSPAPER commenced this day

at 10 minutes past Three o' Clock.

•
47.
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,~~

he olux.,

WITH WHICH
THE " TRUE SUN " IS NOW

INCORPORATED.

LONDON:
WEDNESDAY EVENING. DECEMBER 5, 1838.

In another place will be found a letter from Devizes,
which states three facts that are worthy of public at-
tention :—The first is, that the agricultural labourers
of the west are looking for relief, and with hope, to
the men of the north, and are ready to aid and
support them. The second is, and it indicates
the cause of the deep-rooted discontent implied
in the first, that the distress of the people is
so great, that many children are kept from
school because parents cannot procure them decent
clothing. The children being kept at home will, from
idleness, learn vice, and get into mischief, adding to the
distress of the parents, and causing an increase of
crime, which, our Correspondent says, always ac-
companies scarcity. The third fact is that the
distress has already reached the point at which
the people have recourse to a worse kind of food.
They are using barley meal for bread instead of
wheat. If such a circumstance occurred in the ab-
sence of all restrictions on the supply of food, the
people would have to bow in submission to it as the
will of Providence ; but the Corn-laws now justly bear
all the blame, and the Legislature by interfering be-
tween the people and their food, takes on itself the
immense odium and the immense responsibility of an
insufficient harvest. It is generally said that the evils
of life are quite as much as poor human nature can
bear, and to us it seems something like madness in the
Legislature thus to direct against itself all the discon-
tent of a hungry people.
The suggestion of our Correspondent as to sending
round persons to lecture Against the Corn-laws, and
forming Anti-Corn-law Societies, has already, we
know, occurred to the Anti-Corn-law Society of the
Metropolis, and will, we believe, be acted on.

With the accumulated evidence which is now before
the country of the vast distress caused by the Corn-laws
in every place, of the deep-rooted discontent which ge-
nerally prevails, and the fierce hatred of the national in-
stitutions which grows from the distress, surely the Par-
liament will seriously consider whether it will retain those
laws. It ought now to be convinced, if our institutions
are valuable, if the public peace be of importance, if the
preservation of property be essential to public happi-
ness, that the moral consequences of the Corn-laws are
far more pernicious than their economical and com-
mercial consequences. Without waiting, therefore, to
be asked to repeal such laws, a wise or a prudent
Legislature would repeal them for the sake of justice ;
but when asked, it ought to be eager to repair its enor-
mous error. The great mass of the Chartists allege,
as their main reason for demanding a complete
new Constitution—for such the Charter will be—and
for refusing to petition for the abolition of the Corn-
laws, that nothing good, nothing just, can be got from
the Parliament as now constituted. Let the Parliament,
by the abolition of the Corn-laws, convict them of
error. The just complaint of the masses is, that the
aristocracy make laws only for their own benefit ; and,
therefore, they demand Universal Suffrage. Let the
aristocracy but once show a disposition to disregard
their own presumed, selfish interests, by the abolition
of the Corn-laws—to which they should be moved by
all the motives which are influential with honourable,
honest, and magnanimous men—and they will, at one
blow, disarm their most formidable antagonists, and
take from the masses their present just grounds for
mistrust and hatred. We do not appeal to their fears,
though in our opinion there is good ground for alarm,
but to their sense of honour; and we tell them it
is more disgraceful in gentlemen than cozening usury,
to extort wealth from a confiding people, by stinting
their supply of food.
Of late several of the leaders of the people have
recommended them to get arms, and be prepared to
use them ; extreme and extensive violence is threat-
ened ; and both the Whig Chronicle, and the Tory
Herald, agree in stating that property stands in con-
siderable danger. We have of late heard of several
acts of incendiarism, and of torch-light meetings. The
people are said to have followed their leaders' advice,
to have armed themselves, and to practice shooting.
Such proceedings will and must be put down. All the
men of property in every part of the country will
call on Parliament, as soon as it meets, and com-
pel the Ministry, let who will be in office, to
interfere with all the power of Government and the
law, for the protection of property and the preservation
of tranquillity. Strong measures will be required, and
will be taken. If not rendered wholly unnecessary by
first abolishing the Corn-laws, that would recommend
and justify them. If coercion be necessary, it would
be soothed by a sacrifice on the part of the aristocracy
who seem now to expect that the masses will consent
to be half-starved and fettered for the presumed public
good, while they will not take on themselves the
slightest burden, nor give up one penny of the wealth
they can legally extort.
A

_n interesting communication on the highly impor-
tant subject of our present relations in India addressed
to this Journal by c •
Captain WESTMACOTT, of the
Bengal Army, will be found in our columns of this
day. In noticing—which we did last week--a pam-
phlet published by this Gallant Officer, rela-
tive to the present and future prospects of our
Indian Empire, we took occasion to point out the
claims to the serious attention of the people of this
.country, which his long residence and extensive travels
in British India gave to his statements. These
claims we shall not again dwell upon, as the views
of our Oriental policy, taken by Captain WEsT-
IIACOTT, differ in little or nothing from those uni-
formly set forth in the leading columns of The Sun. The
Gallant Captain complains that the timid policy of Lord
AM BEAST, and the mistaken economy of Lord
WILLIAM BENTINCK, in the administration of the
Government of India, have mutually contributed to
place our empire in the East in a situation of peril
from which nothing short of the utmost firmness on
the part of the supreme Government and the Local
Authorities can safely and honourably extricate it. We
have long endeavoured t,.1 place this fact in a strong
light before the British people. Many of Lord
WILLIAM BENTINCK'S measures of economy were
excellent ; and his Lordship certainly removed many
crying abuses in the interior Administration ; but upon

the whole, abstract theories, rather than the principles
of enlightened statesmanship, directed his public
career; and in carrying out theories, few public men
know where to stop. While the native subjects
of England in the East remain in a state of
ignorance—while they retain the religious and
local customs and feelings of their ancestry—
while they continue " aliens" in language, in
faith, in associations of national glory, in customs, in
colour, and in all the peculiarities of social life and
intercourse, we must continue to look upon our army
as the true sceptre of our Oriental supremacy. The
mildness of our sway, the native interests created and
maintained by our traffic, and the dread inspired by
the fame of our greatness in another hemisphere, are
accessories to the peaceable maintenance of an influ-
ence in the East, upon which a wise Government will
never place exclusive reliance. If we can find space
we shall to-morrow offer a few additional remarks
upon this subject.

By the arrival of the Tagus steamer at Falmouth on
Monday, we have received advices from Cadiz, of the
24th, and Lisbon, of the 27th ult. The Cadiz Jour-
nals state that General CORDOVA had seceded from
the revolutionary junta, leaving to General NARVAEZ
the glory and the danger of directing the popular move-
ment in that province. There is nothing that interests
us in this announcement ; and if our readers can but
remember one-tenth of what we have written concern-
ing the braggart CORDOVA, they will trouble them-
selves very little about his espousal of the cause of any
party. His proper sphere is: the Royal anti-cham-
ber. He is a courtier and a carpet-knight, but neither
a statesman nor a true soldier.

The only news of any moment from Portugal is the
announcement of the arrival of Lord HOWARD DE
WALDEN, the English Ambassador, in Lisbon.
The Queen and Royal infant are doing well ; and the
country is for the moment tranquil. The following
account of a new loan, which the Ministry has been
compelled to contract in order to meet the current ex-
penses, is from the Lisbon correspondence of our
Contemporary the Morning Herald, published in a
Second Edition :

" The Government has been obliged to contract a new
loan of 830 contos (190,0001.) with the Confianca Insurance
Company, mortgaging the revenue as a security. The
terms are to advance the amount in six instalments at in-
tervals of a fortnight, three-fourths in coin, and the re-
mainder in Government bonds, now in circulation. No
interest is to be charged, but as the bonds which are to be
received in part are at a discount of 85 per cent., the
lenders, recovering the whole in cash, will make a profit of
85 per cent. on one-fourth, or 214 on the sum total.

Have the Chartists of the North of England no
misgivings about the wisdom or sincerity of their os-
tensible leaders, when they find these men differing on
the essential principles of Radical Reform, and agree-
ing cordially only on one point, an appeal to physical
force ? One is an ultra-Tory, another an ultra-
Radical, and a third, who professes the same faith,
rejects its first principle, Universal Suffrage. We never
read the accounts of meetings about the People's Charter
without poignant regret, and shame too, that the
sober-minded people of this country should imitate so
closely the conduct of the dastardly, unprincipled
Spaniards. They seem to fight only for their own
destruction and the triumph of their old oppressors—
the men, or the descendants of the men, who trampled
down the people at Manchester, who, while
they had the power, punished Reformers as
criminals, and who at the present moment de-
sire nothing more devoutly than the consummation
to which the violent harangues of the Tory OASTLER
evidently point. These appeals to violence have al-
ready created disunion among the great body of Ra-
dicals ; and, even without the interference of Whigs
and Tories, were a contest to take place between the
two sections, scarcely a doubt remains which in the
end would prevail. Yet with This disunion before
their eyes—with the power of wealth opposed to them—
with the moral and physical influence of the middle
classes in favour of peace—with all the lower classes
who have an interest in seventeen millions sterling de-
dosited in Savings Banks—and with the tens of thou-
sands that would follow in the train of the titled and
untitled Aristocracy, independent of the immense
power of an established Government,'men are listened to
who proposing the alternative of " demands in full," or
" cold lead and sharp steel." Are the degenerate suici-
dal Spaniards more inconsistent, and have these men of
extreme opinions and extreme violence learnt nothing by
the experience even of their own times ? BURDETT,
and HUNT, and COBBETT were great leaders in
their day. They proposed sweeping measures—
Universal Suffrage, and a thousand other Reforms
which they knew they could not get, and which their
subsequent history proves they did not desire. COB-
BETT at the close of his life was verging towards
Toryism ; HUNT during the discussions on the
Reform Bill was cheered and tapped on the shoulder
by the PEELS; and BURDETT, the only living monu-
ment of base apostacy from the ranks of Radical
Reform, is now yoked with the men that hate the very
name of Reform. Extremes meet ; and if OASTLER
and O'CONNOR meet, why may not O'CONNOR and
BURDETT ? Violent measures of reform are always
full of suspicion ; and though we give Mr. O'CON-
NOR credit for his sincerity in the cause of the people,
we pay him this tribute at the expense of his judgment.

The Paris Journals of Monday are as destitute of
interesting news as those of Saturday and Sunday ; nor
is their barrenness relieved by the Papers from Spain,
received this morning. Extracts from both will be
found in another part of The Sun.

QUEEN'S BENCH.-(THIS DAY.)

HARVEY, ESQ, 31. P. V. RICHARDSON.

Mr. JERVIS (with whom was Mr. CHANNELL) stated the
case. It was an action brought by D. W. Harvey, M.P.
for Southwark, to recover so much as the Jury would con-
sider him entitled to under the circumstances which he
would detail to them. The Learned Counsel then pro-
ceeded to state the facts of the case at some length, from
which it appeared that the plaintiff was for some time pro-
prietor of the Evening and Weekly True Sun Newspapers,
and that on the 16th October, 1837, an agreement was en-
tered into between him and the defendant to act as adver-
tisement agent, in consideration of receiving a com-
mission of twenty-five per cent. upon the amount
of advertisements procured, and deducting 32/. 10s. a-week
for advertisements which ought not to be obtained through
the defendant's agency. The Learned Counsel then went into
a statement of the various sums received for advertise-
ments up to June 24,1838, when the plaintiff ceased to have
any connection with the True Sun newspaper, and deduced
from them that there was a sum of about 50/. due to the
plaintiff, besides 25/. paid into the Court.
Thomas Carpenter—l was in plaintiff's employment.
He sold the daily True Sun in December, 1837. After
that period I assisted in the publication of the Weekly
True Sun up to April or May, when I left ; defendant
acted as advertising agent, and gave me from time to time
statements of the sums received by him. The accounts
were put in, amounting to 1981. Is. 6d. There were two
th
in
other sums admitted—of 129/. and 4/. 10s.
Cross-examined
to by Mr. RICHARDS—My duty was to
attend
eadtvhe erttisweomepnatpearsccodui(ni tsn.ot Talmieopurnetviotous ad-
vertisements2B 1.
per week.
[Some discussion here took place as to the precise terms
of the agreement between the parties, but Lord Denman
directed the case to proceed,]
Philip Youngman, accountantun
a
and ffi
at the True Sun oce,
deposed that the True S
18,37eittlii7. paper, ceased to exist
on the 23d of December,
eng merged in The Sun
newspaper, and that he had n;
ade frequenti applications to
the defendant, after having made out
accounts. I was
present at an interview between plain
defendant in
July last, and the account now produced was shown to de-
fendan P
t. laintiff called upon defendant for the amount,
109/., and said he would not allow him
or any other man
to retain 1,35 money. Mr. Harvey objected to the defen-
dant's charge (or commission. Calculations we,,,
entered
into, and the sum of 04'.. 105. was made out to be due .

Mr. Richardson as commission. Mr. Harvey required the
full sum of 1291., and said he would allow the commission
afterwards. Defendant said he could not pay that sum,
but would give a check for 50/. Mr. Harvey said he would
take the 501., but that he must have a bill for the remainder.
Mr. Richardson said he would give a bill for 30/. in addi-
tion, but Mr. Harvey said he would not take it. Mr.
Richardson said he would then have no money as commis-
sion. Mr. Harvey said be would give him a check for 20/.
on account. That was refused, and they separated. There
are a great number of advertisements still unpaid, and
many will never be paid. lam employed to collect them
at a commission of .5 per cent. Witness then stated the
total amount of advertisements for the two papew up to
the 23d December to be 4551. 10s. 4d. ; and, deducting
32/. 10s. per week, it would leave a balance upon which
the commission would be about 341. 12s. 7d. A similar
statement for the subsequent period was made.
Cross-examined.—There was no complaint at the inter-
view by Mr. Richardson of not having been allowed to see
the books. The books were on the table, and he saw the
amounts stated. Mr. Harvey objected to Mr. Richard-
son's collecting the last quarter's accounts. Mr. Richard-
son had commission upon all the advertisements, whether
they were paid or not.
Mr. RICHARDS (in the absence of Sir F. Pollock) ad-
dressed the Jury for the defendant, who, he said, had reason
to complain of the manner in which he had been treated
by the plaintiff. He contended that the account sent in
by Mr. Richardson had " Errors Excepted" at the bottom,
and that it was impossible for the defendant to have made
out an accurate account of the transactions between him-
self and Mr. Harvey, as he was denied all access to the
books. The Learned Gentleman then referred to the de-
mand sent in by Mr. Richardson for 1341. l Os. as com-
mission, and also to the statement made by Mr. Harvey,
that he was entitled to a deduction of 32/. 10s. per week
for advertisements received from other sources, when it was
proved that the total amount was under 28/. per week.

George Dismore, publisher of the True Sun Newspaper,
deposed that about the 24th July last the defendant, Mr.
Richardson, in his publishing-room, tendered 251. to Mr.
Harvey, who said he could not think of taking it, as the
matter was in the hands of his solicitor.

Mr. JEavis replied ; and Lord DENMAN having summed
up the Jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages,
501. Os. 2d.

COMMON PLEAS.-(THIS DAY.)

BEEACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE.—VERREY U. GEORGE.
This was an action brought to recover damages for an
alleged breach of promise of marriage. The lady kept a
grocer's shop with her mother at a place called Leghland,
near Staines ; the defendant was a hair-dresser at Chertsey.
Sergeant Bumpus was for the plaintiff ; Serjeant Tal-
fourd and Mr. Humphreys for the defendant.
It appeared from the evidence of the mother, the bro-
ther-in-law, and uncle of Miss Verrey, that the defendant had
commenced his attentions to her in 1836, and the affair
had proceeded so far, that not only was he considered her
lover, but the wedding dress was actually purchased. In
Angust last, however, he wrote a short letter stating that
he did not think the marriage would prove a happy one, and
that he must decline the union.
The medical attendant of the family deposed that though
Miss Verrey had experienced an attack of the ague for a
short time she had completely recovered ; and there was
nothing in her state of health to prevent her forming a
matrimonial connection.
The certificate of the marriage of defendant with
another lady, at the commencement of the present year
was put in, as also divers letters, tending to show the rela-
tion which subsisted between the parties.
This closed the plaintiff's case.
Mr. Sergeant TALFOURD then addressed the Jury for
the defendant. He expressed a doubt whether it was wise
to give a legal right of action in cases of this kind ; and
whether it would not be better to leave them to be dealt
with by the feelings and opinions of society. He affirmed
that it was evident the defendant had no mercenary motive
in breaking off the marriage treaty ; for the lady whom he
had married was not, it appeared, possessed of any pro-
perty, whereas Miss Verrey was in the expectation of re-
ceiving a little fortune—of considerable importance to
persons in the station of life in which these parties were.
The Learned Sergeant read the letter which the defendent
wrote to Miss Verrey, declining the union, and which ran
as follows :—" My dear Miss Verrey—You will not be sur-
prised, I hope, at a letter instead of a visit. There has
been something of coldness between us ; and I do not
approve of our connection. I have come to the re-
solution of communicating to you the result—painful
to both of us. I think we should not be happy
together, and that we had better part, and bury the past
in oblivion. This is not the impulse of the moment, but
the result of serious consideration ; and I hope it will be
to our mutual happiness and benefit ; and that there will
be no animosity between us. Whether that be so or not
I think it will be better to part than to make a contract
with any doubt of our happiness." The Learned Ser-
geant put it to the Jury, if the defendant believing that
happiness would not be the result of his marriage with Miss
Verrey, this was not a very proper letter to write under the
circumstances. He ridiculed the idea of any sentimental
notions about " blighted affections," " violated attach-
ments," &c., with regard to the lady in this case, who, it
appeared, had been forsaken by a former suitor ; and
that she was now in the habit of going all the
way to Chertsey to the shop of an apprentice of
defendant's), who had set up in the same business of hair-
dressing, and in her way both to and fro passing the defen-
dant's shop—probably with the view of showing him, when
her ringlets had been beautified and adorned—of showing
the defendant what he had lost.—(Laughter.) If the lady
had any vindictive feelings to gratify she would succeed,
for the result of the present action, even with nominal
damages—and surely the Jury would not give more—
would be to send the defendant to prison for the costs in-
curred. The Jury would consider what the lady had really
lost by the disappointment of a marriage with a poor hair-
dresser in a little country town—his stock in trade a few
razors and a piece of soap—(Laughter)--his income
scattered pennies and twopences. And he (Sergeant
Talfourd) trusted that the Jury would think with him, that
that nominal damages would he quite a sufficient compensa-
tion to the plaintiff for what she had lost, especially as the
effect would be to send the poor hair-dresser of Chertsey
to prison.
The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE briefly summed up. It was
for the Jury, in cases of this kind, to assess the damages
according to their discretion.
The Jury found for the plaintiff—Damages, 201.
The next case happened to be one arising out of the do-
mestic disputes in a family, and Mr. HUMPIIRRYS, who was
Counsel for the plaintiff, pleasantly observed that he
wished, for the sake of his former client, this case had been
tried first ; for, if the Jury had heard the dissensions which
often attended the marriage state, they would not have been
inclined to give such heavy damages for a breach of pro-
mise of marriage, at which the Court, Jury, Counsel, and
audience, laughed most heartily.