The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-15 00:00:00

great number of signatures; submitting that the admininistra-
tiqn of criminal justice would be much improved, if the trial of
offendtre fe'r We tighter degrees of crime were transferred from
the Assizes and Q'ilarier Reisi'sns to the jurisdiction of Magis
trates in their local districts. ills pkitioners state that during
the year 1835, out of 372 convicts for alodefiafershire at the
Quarter Sessions, 104 were sentenced to imprisontfient for
three months, or less, with or without labour, or solitary con-
finement, or whipping ; of these, 55 were for two months or
less: Twenty of the former, and ten of the latter, were under
seventeen years of age.
A deputation of members interested for their consti-
tuents in the Danish claims of the shipping class, consisting
of Mr. flume; Mr: Crawford, Sir John Rae Reid, Mr. Ewart,
Mr. Robinson, Mr. Pc Scrope, and Mr. P. Chalmers, waited
on the Chancellor of' the Exchequer by appointment, at one
dibloek this day, to confer with him on that subject.
COM Si ISBIMS OF LUNACY.—The inquiry respect-
ing Lady Kirkwall (rids resumed on Saturday morning at
ten o'clock, and after evidence of tie public interest bad been
adduced, the further hearing of the case was adjourned till
Monday (this) morning.
The admirers of beautiful engravings will thank us
for directing their attention to a work just published under the
title of The Book of Gems. Among the illustrated works of
the day, numerous and beautiful as they arc, we feel that this
splendid volume will be admitted to be without a rival ; it
consists of fifty-three exquisitely finished engravings from ori-
ginal pictures by our first living artists, each illustrating a
beautiful passage selected from an English poet. Such a work
is admirably suited for a gift, token, or souvenir, and appears
most opportunely at a season usually chosen for an interchange
of presents and new year's gifts.
The Semaphore of Marseilles, of the Bth instant,
says, " A commercial letter from Algiers mentions a battle
between Marshal Meisel and Abdel Kader, who had engaged
our troops in a defile still more confined than that of Macta ;
but the Marshal overcame every obatacle, and killed a great
number of Abdel Kader's men."
A Sunday Paper says, a reduction of nearly 4,0001.
a year has been effected In the office of the Secretary at War,
in consequence of judicious and economical arrangements
which have just been brought into operation by the Noble
Lord at the head of that department.
Letters from M. Pageot (French Charge d'Affaires
at Washington) have been received in Paris from the United
States, mentioning that he had taken his berth in the packet,
which was to sail on the 24th of January. M. Pageot is
married to the niece of President Jackson.
CORONER'S INQUEST.—Saturday an inquest was
held at the North London Hospital, Gower-street, cn the
body of Thomas Faulkner, who was killed on Thursday last
by falling from a three pair of stairs window in the house of
Mr. Flower, a Magistrate, residing in tipper Bedford-street.
From the evidence of Mr. Flower's footman, it appeared that
the deceased was employed on Thursday afternoon last, clean-
ing the windows on the third story at the back of the house,
when be lost his hold, and fell into the area below. The
force with which he fell broke a stone in two, and when
taken up he was found- to be alive, but quite insensible. He
was conveyed to the hospital, and died in about an hour. His
skull was fractured, and all the ribs on the left side were
broken, portions of the bone being driven into the lungs. Se-
veral of the Jury observed that they could not let the present
opportunity pass without expressing their disapprobation of
the practice of gentlemen requiring their domestics to clean
the outsides of their windows. If a glazier were employed,
he always sent a man with a proper machine, and accidents
were thus avoided. The Jury then returned a verdict of Ac-
cidental Deatb. The deceased, who was about forty-five
years of age, has left a widow and seven children, the youngest
only two months old, totally destitute. His family lodge at
No. 27, Cromer-street. •
AMERICAN NAVY.—The whole of the American
squadron in the Mediterranean, quitted that station for Ame-
rica, before the last accounts came away.—Hampshire Te-
legraph.
FIRE.—AII alarming fire broke out yesterday after-
noon, in the house of Mr. Goold, rag-merchant, King-street,
Westminster. No person was in the house at the outbreaking
of the fire, and the neighbours, fearful of their own safety,
procured some ladders, and obtained an entrance by the first
floor, followed by several of the police of the A division. They
discovered that the bed, curtains, and every article on the se-
cond floor was in flames, but by the speedy application of seve-
ral pails of water, they succeeded in arresting the progress of
the fire before the engines arrived, and confined the damage,
which is very extensive, to the upper part of Mr. Goold's
house. The property is insured in the Protector Fire Office.
We understand it is the intention of Government to
erect barracks in or near Bristol, and that a very eligible piece
of land on the Stapleton road (part of the Boswell House
estate.), has been selected for that purpose.—Bristol Mercury.
An observation has appeared in a public print res-
pecting the "story of a separation" between an Earl and a
Countess, as involving other Earls and other Countesses.
Whether the hero and heroine of the story, which appears in
the Court Journal of Saturday, are to he numbered among
those Earls and Countesses, we shall not pretend to guess ;
but it must be confessed that the tale contains a striking
warning to young noblemen not to marry the wrong lady when
they may have the right one ; arid to lovely spinsters, not to
covet anything (not even a husband) that belongs to a sister.
—Morning Post.
CITY, SATURDAY.—This morning had been 9.1)-
pointed to fill up the vacancies in the Committee of the Stock
Exchange, caused by the resignation of the members who were
in the minority with regard to the mode proposed of settling
the transactions with Lakeman's brokers. All these members
were re-elected unanimously, with the exception of one vote,
given to a candidate who had not previonsly been a member of
the committee; they all received 304 votes. This very
marked determination to replace the same individuals on the
committee is an indirect mode adopted by the members of the
Stock-Exchange of showing their disapprobation of the reso-
lution adopted by the majority on the occasion above alluded
to, and, unless opinions alter in the meantime, will lead to some
material changes in the committee at the next general election.
The members now re-chosen are—Messrs. James Capel, John
Hensley, B. Kennedy, J. F. .Flaubert, A. Mieville, John
Moxort, and James Norris.—Morning Paper.
Mr. T. H was once observed, during a dinner
at Hatfield, nodding like a Chinese Mandarin in a tea-shop.
On being asked the reason, he replied— 'Why, Lady S., when
nobody else asks me to take Champagne, I take sherry with
the epergne, and bow to the flowers."—Quarterly Review.
DEPRA VI T Y.—A wild goose shooter, named John
Crosby, while paddling his boat in Lea Marsh, near Gainsbo-
rough, on Friday evening last, heard two persons calling out
" Lost !" He went in the direction the sound proceeded
from, and found two boatmen wading about the Marsh.
Happy in being the means of extricating them from their pe-
rilous situation, he immediately pointed out their nearest way
to land, and then proceeded to show them the best way to get
out of the pastures, leaving the boat, with two guns, at the
water's edge, when one of the men made an excuse to go back
again, who stole one of the. guns, and threw it into a ditch,
and his companion shortly after followed him. Crosby, sup-
posing that all was not right, went back to the boat, and met
the rascal carrying off one of the guns. Ile asked him civilly
to return it, but was answered with very insulting language,
and beat most cruelly. Crosby then rushed upon him, threw
him down, and succeeded in re-taking the gun, which he
pointed at them in his defence. The two villains then re-
treated, as they thought, unobserved, but he traced them to a
public-house in Gainsborough, and had them taken into cus-
tody.—Lincoln Gazette.

NEW COMMERCIAL TREATY BETWEEN ENG-
LAND AND SPAIN.—The Journal de la "Faye, which has
often very interesting particulars in its private letters from
Spain, has a letter dated the 24th January, from Onate, in
which it is affirmed that a treaty of commerce is on the point
of being concluded—nay, in the opinion of the writer, is
already concluded—between Lord Palmerston and M. Men-
dizabal, by which the latter, in return for . the protection

. .
afforded him by Lord Palmerston, consents to give very great
advantages to England in its commerce with Spain. The
existing laws of Spain prohibit the importation of the pro-
duce of the Spanish colonies into any part of the kingdom
except in Spanish vessels, for they impose such heavy duties
on foreign vessels as to be equivalent to a prohibition; but it
seems that the new treaty will give to English vessels the
same privileges as are enjoyed by Spanish vessels, particularly
with respect to Spanish goods. This treaty, says the writer,
will, if concluded, prove fatal to the trade of all other nations,
especially Prussia, Norway, and France, with Spain, and will,
if Isabella should prove victorious, destroy at the same time
the exclusive privilege of the Biscayan provinces, which are
already a subject of great complaint to the other provinces,
especially Catalonia.
CORPORATION OF HULL AND MR. O'CON-
NELL.—Mr. O'Connell received at Birmingham a deputation
from the Corporation of Kingston-upon-Hull, from whom he
has accepted an invitation to a public dinner to be given in the
Easter Races.

DISTURBANCES IN THE NoitTir OF DEVON.
—We have just been informed that there has been a serious
riot among the paupers at Chittlehampton, in the North of
Devon, in consequence of the proceedings as to the unions
under the Poor Law Bill.

FORGERIES BY AN A TTORN EY.---The inquiries
set on foot by the tow❑ council of Leeds to ascertain the ex-
penses to which this borough will be subjected in case of a
separate gaol being built, have led to the detection of a long-
cont►nued and extensive series of forgeries, committed by an
attorney in this town on the treasurer for the West Riding.—
Doncaster
_Gazette.

THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE.—We hear that
the whole of the debt on Zion Chapel, Wakefield, has just
been cleared off. One of the members of the chapel offered
to contribute 50/., provided the remainder of the debt, amount-
ing to above 400/., could be raised ; and, as example is
stronger than precept, the voluntary sponge was instantly
rubbed over the whole debt, a ithout a citation from the
courts ecclesiastical, or the violation of any mates conscience.
—York Courant,
THE ROYAL ELOPEMENT IN ITALY.—Prince
Charles of Naples and the belle Irlandoise, Miss Smith, have
been traced as far as Nice, whence, it is believed, they have
proceeded VI England, travelling with false passports, under
the name of Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor. They are accompanied
by a gentleman of that name, a Seotchman, servant, and
English maid.

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HYMENEAL DISAPPOINTMENT.—On Thursday
last a blitbsome damsel of Chard, barmaid at an Inn, arrayed
in bridal attire, repaired to the church in the full expectation
of being united in the holy bond of wedlock, to a spark of
Lyme belonging so the equestrian order yclept "post-boys,"
who had plighted his vows to the fair one in such manner, that
she was to be certain of meeting him at the hymeneal altar at