The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-07 00:00:00

FALLING STARS.

In the Scotsman of 29th July, 1835, we gave an account
of an extraordinary fall of meteors over a space of a thou-
sand miles in North America, on 13th November, 1833. A
similar phenomenon was observed in 1831 ; again in 1832 in
Ohio and at Orenburg in Russia : by Humboldt also in 1799 ;
and all about the same period, namely, the middle of Novem-
ber. In 1833, the shower of meteors continued the whole
night ; and it was observed that they seemed to radiate from
one point. This point did not shift with the change of the
earth's position on its axis, but followed the apparent motion
of the stars ; in other words, it continued fixed in one
part of the heavens (in gamma Leonis). Their height
from the earth was estimated at 2,000 miles. From these
and other facts, Professor Olmsted, of Yale College, con-
cluded that the falling stars were portions of a nebula or
body of fine combustible vapour, probably like the tail of a
comet, revolving round the sun in six months, which por-
tions were detached from the rest of the earth's attraction,
and falling with immense rapidity, took fire when they
reached our atmosphere. The subject has not escaped the
attention of M. Arago, whose profound knowledge of phy-
sics entitles his opinion to great weight. He has adverted
to it in a paper, of which we have a translation in the
Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for July. He mentions
observations made in France in November, 1835, confirma-
tory of the periodical occurrence of the meteors ; rejects
the idea of their originating within the atmosphere; and,
alluding to the grand display of them in America in
1833, says—" It is scarcely possible at present to see
any other mode of explaining the astonishing . appear-
ance of these bodies than by supposing that, besides the
large planets, there move round the sun myriads of small
bodies, which are not visible except when they penetrate
into our atmosphere, and there become inflamed ; that
some of these asteroids move in a certain sense in groups,
and that others are insulated." Again he says—" All
these facts tend more and more to confirm us in the belief
that there exists a zone composed of millions of small bodies,
whose orbits meet the plane of the ecliptic towards the
point which the earth occupies every year from the 11th
to the 13th of November. It is a new planetary world
just
to be revealed to us." M. Arago's idea is,
that beginning
millions
lonisiof globules, or small parcels of nebulous
matter, circulate round the sun in a vortex or whirlpool,
which crosses the earth's path about the middle of No-
vember ; and some of these, drawn from their course
by the earth's attraction, take fire when they reach
the atmosphere, and assume the form of shooting
stars. He suggests that they should be looked for
at. the opposite point of the ecliptic about the end
of April, and alludes to an observation of Messier, who
saw, in June, 1777, at mid-day, " a prodigious number,
of black globules pass across the sun for about five minutes."
Might not these be asteroids? This hypothesis explains
the facts better than Professor Olmsted's ; for we may
suppose millions of these small nebulous bodies revolving at
all distances and angles round the sun, but distributed un-
equally ; some moving singly, some in groups or circular
trains, and coming in contact with the earth at any point of
its orbit, less or more frequently, less or more abundant in
that part of space through which it is moving at the time.
We would thus account for the occasional appearance of
falling stars at all seasons of the year. The old notion that
they were trains of hydrogen, or some other combustible
gas
existing in the atmosphere, and accidentally inflamed, is
found to be untenable.—Scotsman.

CHARGE AGAINST MR. O'CONNELL. The
Manchester Guardian of yesterday, in an article on this PAM_
ject, says—" We had two good reasons for abstaining from
calling upon Mr. Bell for his authorities, on which he brought
forward his charge against Mr. O
and, in the second place,
'Connell. In the first place,
it appeared to us unnecessary to call for authorities in support
wuenitlr_uweis;
hers to Mr. O'Connell,' as
owfe aunderstood
t
meaning friends of that gentleman,
theman term ifest
l ir
amongst whom we have
not the honour to number ourselves. However as Mr. Bell
appears to be ready to give up his authority'
at our request, we
hereby call upon him to do so ; not in the expectation that
any additional light will he thereby thrown upon the charge
against Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Potter, but with the hope of
ascertaining the name of the man who has invented a mali-
cious but incredible calumny."
On Friday last, about seven o'clock in the morn-
ing, the men employed at the coal-pit on Bannockburn Muir
were alarmed by a sudden explosion in the bottom pit, caused
by the kindling of foul air or fire damp. This they instantly
suspected, and called those who were below; but receiving no
answer, they were afraid all the men had perished. However,
after a short time it was found to be otherwise, and they sue"
ceeded in extricating them from their perilous situation; when,
upon investigation, it was found that ouly four had be en hurt,
but one of them, named Richardson, so severely, %lir; he died
on Sunday.—Stirling Observer.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We have always advocated the principle of a poor
law, however much we may have lamented the abuses
which led to the Poor Laws Amendment Act. There
are some persons, however, who have allowed them-
selves to be so far carried away by the abuses, as to
suppose that any provision for the poor is mischievous
in principle, and are thence opposed to the enaction
of a poor law for Ireland. Mr. Leslie, a vestryman,
and a governor and director of the poor of the parish
of St. George, Hanover-square, has just published a
pamphlet describing the principle on which the poor
laws are administered in that parish, in which he has
introduced some observations deprecating the exten-
sion of a poor law to Ireland. Mr. Leslie is a clever
man, but his range of observation has evidently been
too limited to enable him to be a competent judge of
the question on which he has entered. He is evi-
dently not aware of the existence, and, therefore, can-
not appreciate the influence, of many of the causes
connected with the state of property in a country,
which condemn the mass of population to a state of
destitution and demoralization, from which, without
legislative interference, there is no hope of escape for
them :

To me (says Mr. Leslie) it appears that all the sys-
tems of poor-laws are erroneous in principle. I look upon
them as an immensei nsurance society founded upon false
premises and erroneous data, by means of which obliga-
tions are undertaken which never have nor ever can be
performed ; and on account of the delusive advantages held
out to the assured—the poor—they are lulled into a false
security, deprived of moral energy, and made to pay for
those apparent advantages such exorbitant premiums, in-
volving great pecuniary sacrifices, by the reduction in their
wages, and moral degradation, which not only end in the
ruin of the industrious classes, but prove equally injurious
to those who are the accusers—those who directly pay the
tax. _ _ _

The principal engagement entered into by the system
of poor-laws is to relieve and prevent destitution ; the
causes of that destitution, by the very terms of the engage-
ment, must be overlooked : hence, every distinction be-
tween industry and idleness, between virtue under mis-
fortune and vice suffering its penalty, must of necessity be
confounded in the appropriation of the tax."

" If a country is to provide, by a tax on all visible pro-
perty, against every possible contingency which may arise
to the labouring population, then it appears to me perfectly
obvious that for such an engagement property must have,
i❑ some shape or other, an indemnification.
" Now, there are many who assert that this indemnifi-
cation is given in the security to life and property which
the poor-law system affords ; and on this ground they urge
the introduction of the system into Ireland.
I am inclined to disbelieve the position of any security
to life an d property by the poor-law system.
* *

" The Rev. F. W. Lloyd, professor of political economy
in the University of Oxford, has recently published Four
Lectures on Poor-laws, in which, in instructing the rising
generation of the aristocracy of England, in his fourth lec-
ture, he maintains that the English poor laws were ori-
ginaily enacted, not for the sake of the poor, but for the im-
provement of police ; and it is highly improbable that they
would ever have been pased had it not been thought that
they would operate beneficially on the interests of the
He goes on to state that the truth may even be, that
poor-laws iastead of diminishing, are the means of in-
creasing the income of the landowners.'

" If such views be correct, then any benevolent inten-
tion to the poor in these laws, for their relief, must fall to
the ground. As to the correctness of such notions on the
improvement of the condition of the landowners through the
operation of poor-laws, long experience of their effects will
determine the value of the doctrines thus laid down."

If Mr. Leslie had made himself acquainted with the
actual state of Europe he would have been struck with
the fact, that in all those countries in which the culti-
vators arc not slaves, the lower orders are uniformly
found in a state of extreme destitution and demoraliza-
tion where there are no poor-laws, and that wherever
poor-laws exist the' population is orderly. In Holland,
Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway,
England, Scotland, and the North of Italy there is a
legal provision for the poor. Contrast these countries
with Ireland, Spain, the South of Italy, Sicily, and
the greater part of France (though, from the distribu-
tion of great estates among the peasantry, France, since
the Revolution, is in an anomalous condition), and see
the difference ! There can be no effective police in a
country without poor-laws, and consequently no secu-
rity to property. The great landowners live in luxury ;
everything that can be taken is taken from the cultiva-
tor ; but there is no capital invested in the soil, and
the peasantry become quite reckless. An account of
a journey through what was anciently called Latium,
with observations on its present state, by the late ac-
complished M. Bonstetten, seems to be a description
of Ireland :

" The Romans (he says) are charitable, the middle class
are very much so ; unfortunately they are not sufficiently
numerous. It was at Rome that I learned that there was
more true beneficence in a good law than in all the alms of
the world. Good laws for the poor have two salutary
effects ; they prevent the evil, and they render the cha-
rities of' the compassionate truly beneficial. In the coun-
tries without police your alms are bestowed by chance ; in
well-organized countries the remedy attains the object.
" Near the villa of the Emperor Adrian there are mag-
nificent forests of olives. In these woods I met two charm-
ing children of three and four years old : they came to me
without daring to ask charity, and one of them took me to
their father. He was a man in the flower of his age, and
I saw him leaning against the trunk of an old olive-tree.
His complexion was that of burning fever, his teeth of a
frightful whiteness, and his large black eyes seemed on fire.
What is the matter with you ?' said I to him. I have
nothing to give ;to these children.' You are dyint, of
hunger ?" For two days I have not ate anything. I have
more than a hundred leagues to go to my poor cottage ; I
am ill—devoured by fever, and I can't drag myself along.
The whole country is dying of hunger like myself, and I
have no longer anything to give to these children. I shall
die by the road, and when I am dead'-- he could not
finish the sentence.
" At Tivoli we required a female to take care of a child.
The landlord presented a young girl, tolerably well dressed.
No longer requiring her services, she was about to be dis-
missed. I saw her in great agitation at my room door.
What ails you ?' said I to her. I made her enter. She
burst into tears, throwing herself at my feet. I am going
to leave you, you foreigners, who have kept me alive, and
my mother will die of hunger." Where is your mother ?'
_ followed her—the mother was stretched on the humid
ground, in a kind of cellar. Her earthen bed had caused
her to have sores ; she could not stand for weakness, and
lying gave her great pain. Moreover, she was threatened
every day with being turned out of the shelter in which she
was an useless burden. We got a straw bed for this poor
woman : the very worst was so dear, that it cost several
crowns. Once on a bed, this poor woman had still no
secure shelter to place her bed in, nor rags to cover her
sores, nor any covering for her bed, nor clothes to go out
in, nor bread, nor money to buy any. The daughter was
crying. But you can go to service in Rome ?' said I to
her. She blushed, then owned that all the clothes she had
were borrowed, that she had but one chemise ; she had sold
her all to support her mother. It would have taken a capi-
talo ofa
,
to raise this family to the level of the very poorest
France or Switzerland.
" ' my way one day in the Campago, di
Rm
my guide found a cabin. I entered ; it was full of female
reapers. I sat down ; they made a fire. I looked at their
dinner ; I saw them eat bread and a few raw herbs pulled
in the vineyard. I questioned them as to their manner of
living. For a long time; they said, we have only lived
on bread and raw herbs or roots.' Their greenish and un-
healthy complexion sufficiently told me they spoke the truth.
" When these people are ill, they cannot change their
diet ; they are without remedy ; and I saw the proprietor
of Horace's field, who in a putrid fever had no other
nourishment than a little bread and rancid oil. In a walk
near Albano, I was forced by the rain to seek a shelter ; I
found a spacious house near the high road. An armed
man asked me to enter ; I entered, and saw another
stretched, without straw, on the naked boards ; he had a
fever, and no covering. I soon found myself, with three
armed men, in rags, dying of hunger ; and I said, if they
rob me at least my money will be well employed. I asked
them what they lived on ; they were labourers ; they showed
me a little loaf—each had two a day ; but that is not suf-
ficient, said I to them. We have herbs, they answered,
and during the vintage some grapes. One of them had
five children. Seeing they had no cooking utensil, I asked
them how they cooked? We never cook, they said ; we
have at most bread and a few raw herbs from the neigh-
bouring fields. And when you are ill?--We die, was the
answer.
" There are hospitals at Rome, but the patients have not
the quantity of nourishment which the state of weakness of
sill the starved wretches who enter them demands, and the
great number of applicants forces them to turn them out
half recovered, and they quit their mood beds for the streets,
condemned to the mortal regime of extreme poverty.
" If / wished to train a nation to great crimes and offences,

I should place despair on one hand and punishment on the
other.

" I have hitherto spoken only of the physical evils
caused by poverty. There is a degree of wretchedness in
which everything like morality becomes impossible. Who
would dare to speak of probity to a man dying of hunger—
a father of a family looking on his expiring children, wife,
mother, or father ? Who would think of speaking of vir-
tue to a young girl whose mother was dying in the tor-
ments of famine ? And from so many vices, originating in
deep wretchedness, there flows for the future a new and
inexhaustible source of vices and poverty. Immediately all
the classes of society become equally degraded, and with all
the virtues disappear at length all the means of curing so
many evils. If you establish houses of charity, you will
be robbed by the inspectors. If you found houses for edu-
cation, who is to educate children when all the men are
either vicious, or ignorant, or imbecile?"
When the soil of a country is in the hands of a few
great proprietors, and an excessive population has no
other resource than agriculture, it is impossible for
them to raise themselves without legislative aid from
the level of their misery. No man will embark ca-
pital in a country in which there is no resource for
extreme destitution. The people accustomed to this
state of things are without the hope, and cease to
have a wish even to extricate themselves from their
wretchedness. Famine and pestilential diseases are
matters of constant recurrence. Without a man is
imbued with the dread of falling lower, society has no
hold of him, and the Irishman is as low as he can well
be. Mendicancy has no terrors for him. In the last
Number of Blackwood's Magazine there is an article
on the Evils of the state of Ireland, which we would
recommend to Mr. Leslie, as containing much sounder
views respecting poor-laws than his own. One para-
graph we shall quote for his benefit :

The whole secret of the preventive check, so far as
we can see, consists in the growth and support of arti-
ficial wants among the poor. Now, in order to under-
stand how these are fostered by the practical operation of
the poor laws, it is necessary to look chiefly to their effect
on the rising generation. Take the common case of a
labourer dying in middle life, and leaving a family of young
children ; or disabled by injury or disease, and unable to
provide for his family. If this happens in Ireland, his
widow or family has no resource but in vagrancy and
casual charity, the children are brought up in misery,
they cannot possibly acquire any artificial wants, or look
forward to the enjoyment of any comforts, and all expe-
rience (if on so largo a scale as to be freed from accidental
fallacies) teaches that in these circumstances, there is no
moral or prudential check on their powers of procreation,
and such of them as survive the hardships of their early
years become fathers and mothers almost as soon as nature
will permit, and contribute to overspread the land with an-
other generation of sufferers. But in England they fall
under the protection of the law ; they arc fixed to their
parishes, and brought up under the eye of persons more or
less interested in their welfare ; their habits are prevented
from degenerating ; they grow up under the influence of
artificial wants, and would feel themselves degraded if they
were voluntarily to part with such of the comforts of life
as they have hitherto enjoyed, and descend to the filth and
penury of the Irish cabin. They live on wheaten bread,
as Mr. Malthus himself tells us, and are practically eon-
tent to remai❑ in smaller numbers than they might have
been if they had put up with coarser fare. Experience
proves that their numbers do not become redundant, and
that their standard of comfort, in after life, has not dege-
nerated from that of their fathers."—Morning Chronicle.

A pamphlet on the principles on which Poor Laws
are founded, and their proposed extension to Ireland,
has been recently published by Mr. John Leslie, whose
writings on the state and management of the poor-rate
in the parish of St. George, Hanover-square, we have
often noticed with the utmost satisfaction. This
pamphlet derives peculiar importance from the expe-
rience of the writer, and the opinion at present gene-
rally entertained of the application of poor laws to
Ireland. From the practical effects of the poor laws,
Mr. Leslie deprecates the introduction of a system into
Ireland, fraught with so many evils as those from which
England is now emerging by the operation of the Poor
Law Amendment Act. And after alluding to the
poor laws, as emanating from the most benevolent
feelings of our nature, though productive of such mis-
chievous consequences, he observes—
" Such a state of circumstances having occurred under
an apparently benevolent law, should induce the most se-
rious and solemn investigation of the principle on which
the poor laws are founded ; and which investigation I ven-
ture upon, notwithstanding the obloquy that must attach to
every one who inclines to doubt the humanity and policy of
the poor-law system.
" It may be asked—can the poor do better without any
laws for their relief? iam of opinion that they would ob-
tain more real advantages, both pecuniary and moral, if no
such laws were in existence ; that they would lose a shadow
and gain a substance ; that the market for their labour
would then be totally free from all the depressing influence
which the system of poor laws throws upon it ; but, al-
though I am of this opinion, I shall be most grievously
misunderstood, if I am supposed to urge an immediate re-
peal of the poor-law system. The repeal of that system
must not, in my opinion, be a legislative enactment, at least
for years to come ; it must be effected by the growing in-
telligence of the community, more particularly of the in-
dustrious portion of it, who will soon clearly trace to their
legitimate source the advantages which they are now be-
ginning to receive. In the meantime all those of the la-
bouring classes, who are anxious to live by their own in-
dustry, may depend upon it, that their sheet anchor is in
the workhouse system, because that will ultimately be
found to be the least pernicious pressure of the poor-law
system on the industry of the country."

Much praise is due to Mr. Leslie, for the boldness
with which he expresses his convictions, notwithstand-
ing the current of opinion which sets against them.
He may, however, exult in the reflection that the
greatest benefactors of mankind have often suffered
persecution in their own generation—but while those
who meanly follow in the wake of general opinion, and
seek distinction by the echo of the public voice, with-
out reference to the justice of the propositions it may
advocate or oppose, will be forgotten, or remembered
with contempt, such men as Mr. Leslie, whose vision
expanding over the past and future, look from an in-
tellectual eminence on the phases of society—their
causes and effects—and influenced only by conviction,
point to the dangers to be avoided, as well as to the
good to be pursued, will receive the thanks and grati-
tude of their fellow-men. 'With every sentiment of
Mr. Leslie's pamphlet we perfectly coincide, and shall,
when the time comes, be fully prepared to defend them
against every assailant. We rejoice to have the prin-
ciples we have always advocated in regard to Poor
Laws supported by a gentleman of Mr. Leslie's expe-
rience and talent. The following extract shall close
our present commentary, but we shall not lose sight of
the valuable information which the pamphlet presents
to us : _ _

" Firmly believing that there are, at the present moment,
brighter prospects for the industrious classes of this country
than there have been fbr centuries, I cannot but contem-
plate with dread the consequences which may befal them by
the introduction of a poor law system into Ireland. Vain
and delusive, as they appear to me, are the expectations of
a nation's regeneration by such a course. Vain and de-
lusive have been the anticipations of ameliorating the moral
or social condition of the labouring population by the poor
law system. Let the statute-book be consulted—and let
it reply to the favourable pictures drawn of the effect of
the 43rd Elizabeth. I have just shewn that the wages of
the industrious classes were, by the year 1610, reduced one-
half from what they were in 1595. Now, mark what the
statute-book unfolds so soon as eight years after the 43rd
of Elizabeth :—ln 1609, the 7th James 1., c. 4, sec. 8,
states, " that many wilful people, finding that they, hav-
ing children, have some hope to have relief from the parith
wherein they dwell, and, being able to labour, and thereby
torun awayrebeve themselves and their families, do, nevertheless,
out of their parishes, and leave their families upon
the parish:

~ Here, then,
l
arnoral crime of the deepest turpitude—a
crime against acs, human and divine—is for the first
time recorded in the
statute-book of our country :—a crime
involving a violation of the feelings of human nature, clearly
chargeable to the compulsory
system of taxation for the re-
lief eof'the poor, fully established by the then recent enact-
ment of the 43rd Elizabeth, crime still exists among
i
us, and to an extent that who are not practically ac-
quainted with the workings of the poor law system, and the
horrors which it inflicts upon a nation, would believe, or even
think of."—Morning Advertiser.

We believe we have on former occasions produced a
sufficiency of arguments to prove the urgent necessity
which exists for an efficient Reform of the House of
Lords. Additional proofs of such necessity are not
needed. Were they called for, we could seek no bet-
ter proof than the excessive zeal and pertinacity with
which the Tory journals labour to convince the public
that the Upper House is at present all that it ought to
be. There could be no better evidence of the great
need of Peerage Reform, than that those who are the

habitual advocates of all that is corrupt, should thus
hold up the Tory Lords as paragons of political per-
fection. It is a tacit admission not to be mistaken,
that they feel there is something " rotten" in the state
of the hereditary House. If the Lords were as im-
maculate and enlightened as their organs of the Tory
press pretend, why not let their Lordships' unsullied
purity of character speak for itself ? But we
can have no objection to the Tory press wasting
their energies, in vindicating the recent conduct and
present constitution of the House of Lords. If the
masters whom they serve are pleased with their advo-
cacy--though we much question whether they would
not infinitely rather purchase their silence at almost
any price—if, we say, their lordly masters are
pleased with the course they are pursuing, so are we.
Let them by all means exhaust their stores of eloquence,
however ample these may be, in eulogizing the wisdom
and patriotism of the Lyndhurst faction. This they
have an undoubted right to do. But let them not, in
offering the incense of their adulation to that faction,
deliberately misrepresent the purposes and conduct of
Reformers. The people of this country are constitu-
tionally of an open and straightforward disposition in
all public matters. They have no cause to seek the
concealment of their views and intentions on the great
question of Peerage Reform. They do not seek any
such concealment. They boldly proclaim those views
and intentions in the hearing of their foes as well as
in that of their friends. And the Tories are no
strangers to what the Reformers have in contempla-
tion with a view to harmonise the Upper House with
the measures of the Commons and the feelings of the
nation. They know as well as we do, that we
only seek such a Reform in the Hereditary branch
of the Legislature as shall secure its concurrence
in whatever measures are essential to the safety of
the Constitution, arid the well-being of this great
country. And yet the Tory Journals, in that
wilful and reckless spirit of misrepresentation which is
the invariable adjunct of modern Conservatism, charge
the Reformers with a design—why do they not accuse
us at once of treason to the Constitution ?—with a
design to annihilate the Upper House. It was only
yesterday that one of the Tory prints preferred this
charge against the Reformers. We will not so far
outrage the common sense of the people of England, as
to enter into a formal disproof of the imputation. No
one knows better than the journal which seeks to
fasten it on them, that it is as utterly groundless as it
were possible for charge to be. We are not Destructives ;
it is not necessary we should. We seek Reform—
which will abundantly answer our purpose—not de-
struction. Should the impending struggle between
the Peers and the people terminate in the destruction
of the Upper House, the destructives will be the Tories
—not the Reformers.—Morning Advertiser.
More importance than the thing deserves would ap-
pear, .after all, to have been attached to these Radical
and Whig squabbles, about the greater or less amount
of the movement leaven which is to be mixed up with
the Ministerial policy. When Lord Melbourne took
office in April, 1835, the cry among the members of
the Whig rump was, that " Reformers" of all denomi-
nations ought to unite and keep out the Tories from
the Government. This certainly was no bad bargain
for the Whigs, by far the weakest of the three patties
under which the House of Commons was enumerated,
inasmuch as they were to have the loaves and fishes
to themselves, while the unplaced " Reformers," being
those with the Radical brand upon their brow, were to
have only the honour of dividing for the Whigs, and
keeping them in office. This, however, would not
entirely answer the purpose of at least the Irish por-
tion of the movement—Mr. O'Connell, and some
others that we could name, being by no means well
disposed to exchange good votes for pompous acknow-
ledgments—gold for brass, after the manner of Glaucus.
No, a definite bargain was concluded. " You, anti-
Protestcstants, repealers, &c., said the unofficial
Whig negotiator, " are to support us in Parlia-
ment, while on our part we will do our utmost to
carry into effect your anti-British policy, and in the
mean time the bull: of the Irish patronage shall be
yours." So they have gone on. O'Connell and his clique
would have burst into open frenzy long ago, at the
miscarriage of all his promised measures for the esta-
blishment of Popish supremacy in Ireland, but for the
frequent sops that were privately administered to them
'by their own State-steward at the Castle. Neverthe-
less, what showed itself on the surface of things, was
the continuance of Whig Ministers in office, the con-
tinuance of O'Connell out of office, and the non-per-
formance of any of the boastful promises with which
he had been flattering the Popish multitude for years,
seeing that the Romish Church was not yet made pa-
ramount by law—not even was the Protestant Church
swept away—nor were tithes overturned—nor were
Popish Corporations yet substituted for Protestant ;
Ireland, in fact, remained, so far as acts of Parliament
were concerned, not very unlike what she would have
been had a Conservative Government ruled her, saving
always, that the patronage, instead of being mixed, on
fair grounds, was exclusively bestowed on Papists in
the O'Connell and priestly interest—a circumstance
which was not suffered to reach the ears of the out-
door multitude ; and that had Sir Robert Peel and
friends been Ministers, tithes would have been com-
muted ; the internal discipline of the Church would
have been improved ; many safeguards to the peaceful
enjoyment of property, for the introduction of capital,
and forthe encouragement of industry, might and would
have been adopted ; and those overt acts of turbulence
and agitation by which the unoffending citizen has
been harassed and terrified, would doubtless have been
discountenanced or repressed. But the main fact
which glared before the eyes of the out-door multitude
was the failure--.the total failure—of the combined
Whigs and Revolutionists to carry into execution any
one of their schemes for the subversion of the Pro-
testant State ; and this fact must have impressed
upon the minds of the populace a dangerous convic-
tion of the Agitator's impotence to execute the mis-
chiefs which he had avowedly undertaken. Well,
then, could O'Connell acquiesce tamely in such a
public discomfiture of all his ostentatious projects ?
Tamely he might and would, but by no means silently.
It was necessary that he should write letters, and pub-
lish manifestoes—that he should complain of injustice
done to the " people of Ireland," meaning the priestly
junta and himself—that he should belabour the
House of Lords for the insult they had offered to his
fine feelings„ and those of his high-minded vassals,
by refusing to inundate Ireland with normal schools of
insurrectionary agitation—that he should pledge himself
to the promising alternative of an elective House of
Peers or a repeal of the Union ! And all this he has
tried. He has reviled, threatened, bullied, and, in
the name of peace and patriotism, endeavoured his ut-
most to revive in the breasts of the people a spirit of
disaffection and sedition. He had nothing else left
for it. He had been totally and signally beaten in
every attempt to force, his schemes upon Parliament.
He could do nothing ; therefore his expedient has been
to vociferate much ; and for what ? Does he delude
himself with the notion that he will either compel or
enable the poor withered Cabinet to accomplish any
one of those measures which he says they must carry,
on pain of his displeasure—that they will, in reality,
curtail the duration of Parliaments, or extend the
suffrage, or introduce the ballot, or abolish the
church, or remodel the House of Lords according
to his Jack Cade fashion ? Not he. Or, failing such
grand enterprises, does he lay the flattering " ointment
to his chest," (vide J. Hume passim) that he will
actually repeal the Union ? Not he. He dreams of
nothing but how he may raise the rent. O'Connell's
bellowings are, however, we dare say, worth, for most
practical purposes, nearly as much as the more disin-
terested and reckless - indications recently offered by
English and Irish-imported Radicals who seem to have
been making a show at Halifax and elsewhere of what
the Radicals, as a body, will (not) do, when they
come to the push. Mr. Fergus O'Connor, at their
late meeting, taunted Mr. C. Wood, a Whig, with
counselling the Radicals to suppress all mention of,
and treat as utterly insignificant, those questions of
organic or other change upon which Whigs and
Radicals differed ! Yes, really this is shrewd and
sage advice ; and, withal the naivete of it is delight-
ful. " Ask us to do precisely that, and not a bit more
than we ourselves are inclined to, and you are the
honestest fellows and the best Radicals living ; but
for God's sake don't pester us with any of your ,

crotchets, which are not likewise the crotchets of us
Whigs, or you will provoke us to play the deuce. '
We will rather let in upon you those abominable
Tories." To be sure, it is a hopeful prospect for the
country to see these two factions greasing each other,
for no very intelligible purpose, with the common
name of " Reformers ;" but the minute they come to
compare notes and investigate reciprocally their respec-
tive titles to the epithet, exclaiming on one side, " Why
you Radicals are no better than downright Revolu-
tionists !" and on the other, " Why, you Whigs, with
all your talk about Reform, are ten times worse (be-
cause you are hypocrites) than Lyndhurst, Peel, or
Wellington himself I" Whatever may he the separate
—nay, inconsistent views of the several parties forming
this heterogeneous and grotesque majority, there will
flow from them, we dare say, a specific and speedy re-
sult-Ist, some miserable compromise, by which the
Whigs may retain their places for a little while longer
—2d, a general burst of contempt and indignation
throughout the country, which will swamp the crazy
ship, and send her ill-assorted cargo—Papist, Whig,
and Ultra-Radical--cursing each other to the bottom.
—Times.

The Duke of Montebello's note to the Swiss
Directory, which this paper published on Wednesday
last, begins now to attract a great deal of attention
here, as it has already done at Paris. In our view of
the case, France is perfectly justified in the step it has
taken ; and we trust that, before the affair is brought
to a close, Switzerland shall receive a deep and impor-
tant lesson for the future. It is not long since that
her open encouragement of the revolutionary madmen
who conspired for the subversion of all order and of
existing institutions in every part of Germany called
for the solemn and decided remonstrances of Austria.
She ought not to forget that her frontier was then
closed, the courier stopt, her trade impeded, and a
blockade the most strict enforced ; and that she was
compelled humbly to solicit pardon for her offences,
and to prove herself worthy of deserving of it by
rejecting from within her the apostles of the Pro-
paganda. It was clear at that period that the ma-
jority of the Cantons were opposed to the demo-
cratic spirit which had established itself at Berne ; and
it is no less now to he believed that the good sense of a
commercial and enterprising nation, dependant on the
freedom of its intercourse with surrounding countries,
will prevail over the miserable revolutionary faction
that has established itself in their territory, as a central
point of mischief. If not, the Swiss Directory may be
assured that France will perform all that it has pro-
mised ; and that the frontier will be sealed, according
to the language of the first note, " hermetically ;" and
further, that Austria will be ready, in case her services
are required, to interpose the power of her cordon on
the opposite frontier. As to Switzerland speaking of
a resort to arms—of her power to produce 35,000
men at once, and to organise 35,000 more in the
course of a few weeks—it is the very height of absur-
dity. This is not the moment when the Swiss moun-
taineers can hid defiance to a Burgundian or an Aus-
trian army. A short campaign, if they had the madness
to risk it, would soon convince them of the inutility of
the attempt. Indeed, they are not likely to be placed
in a position to make the experiment : it is not by
open war that they are to be brought back to com-
mon sense, but by the soothing application of strict
blockade—the cutting off their social and commercial
intercourse with the rest of Europe. The Duke of
Montebello's note is not a perfect document, but it
embraces many of the points which are at issue.
Faulty as it may be in some respects, the Swiss Direc-
tory cannot escape from its consequences, and all their
reproaches about the employment of Conseil will not
avail them, when it is well known that he was their
spy—though his engagement by the French Govern-
ment for the same disgraceful task may not be proble-
matical. It is already hinted that the mediation of
the English Government is to be resorted to between
France and Switzerland ; and we think such a solution
of the question will be the most easy and practical form
to be adopted. The award of course must be, that the
Directory shall offer an apology to the wounded pride
of France, for surely France will not consent to lower
its dignity by retracting its words. What a triumph
will such a result be to Louis Philippe ; what a gra-
tification it will be to have the author of the Quadruple
Treaty—the inspirer of revolutions within the circle of
his influence—recommending submission to his will,
and advising the pulling up by the roots the plants of
Liberalism whiCh have been nurtured until now by the
warmth of his patronage ! The result of our inquiries
is, that Switzerland will give way, and that all the
reasonable satisfaction the dignity of France may re-
quire will be awarded voluntarily by the Diet at once,
or subsequently, at the recommendation of whatever
Power the question be referred to. Our Liberal friends
are calling out against the invasion of the rights of
nations involved in the canduct of France on this oc-
casion : but they quite forget that Switzerland has
been for some time the centre of a conspiracy not only
against France itself, but against monarchy and good
order in every country of Europe.—Morning Post.
The ambition that led Louis Philippe to covet the
" throne of the barricades," does not appear to be pro.
ductive to him of much happiness. If he had not
more enjoyment of private life than a Crown seems to
bring to his troubled spirit, his domestic gods must,
indeed, have been of malignant aspect. Afraid to
show himself to the people, of whom he used to be re-
presented as the idol, except under the protection of
strong bodies of military and police, he sees, or fancies
he sees, in " young France" that invested him with the
regal purple, an enemy, against whose machinations
for his ruin it requires perpetual vigilance to guard. It
is a fact no less remarkable than true, that of all the
Sovereigns of Europe, the " Citizen King" is the one
that is most afraid to trust his life among the people !
What a contrast is the position of Louis Philippe to
that of William IV. The former, suspicious of every
subject that approaches him—living in continual alarm
of plots for his destruction, concealing himself in the
recesses of his palace, or, when he does go abroad,
changing place with the suddenness and surprise of one
who would elude some meditated blow ; the latter per-
forming the functions of a King with the frankness, the
kindness and affability of the father and friend of his
people—apprehensive of no plots, disturbed by no
dread of ambushed enemies, haunted by no apparitions
of air-drawn daggers, wanting no guard, except for
ornament, requiring no triple row of bayonets to hedge
in his Sovereignty from the sudden or the premeditated
explosions of " patriotic" violence—he can say, with
confidence, like his illustrious predecessor, Elizabeth,
pointing to the assembled people, " Behold the guards
of the Crown of England." Now William IV. is a
hereditary King, and Louis Philippe is a Sovereign who
has no claim to the sceptre which he wields by birth-
right, but has been called to the Throne by what our
Republican philosophers consider a higher title—
the popular will. Louis Philippe has also to please
that popular will which destroyed the hereditary
Peerage of France, and William IV. is called
on by desperate and profligate politicians to de-
stroy the hereditary Peerage of England ; but he
knows that Peerage to be not merely an ornament to
the fabric of the Constitution—not merely a bulwark
to the throne, but a protection to the people them-
selves, who, deprived of that protection, would soon,
as in the gloomy days of the long Parliament, groan
under the iron tyranny of rapacious and blood-thirsty
democrats, from whose grinding persecution they would
be glad to escape, as they were formerly, to the shelter
of a military despotism, relieved by somewhat of the
lustre of loftier intellect and more elevated ambition.
The sneers of the " philosophers" who deal out their
trite and common-place sarcasms against hereditary
Kings and hereditary legislators cannot apply to Louis
Philippe and his Chamber of Peers—the one being an
elected Monarch, the other having only a life interest
in their titles and honours. Yet the one fears that
every collection of the people conceals the lair of the
regicide, prepared to make his tiger spring, and the other
are the pliant instruments of any tyrant project of the
Ministers of the Crown from the mockery of judicial
proceedings by the abominable proses-nzonstre of the
Doctrinaire Cabinet to the making of Fieschi laws to
extinguish those liberties that survived the ordinances
of Charles X. The recent visit of the King of the French
to Compiegne is stated in some of the French papers
to have been undertaken for the purpose of demonstrat-
ing that the King dared show himself in public, and in
the presence of a large portion of the army. What a
position must a Citizen King be in to make such an

experiment necessary I Have, then, those examples of
the guillotine to which Louis Philippe expressed so in-
superable an aversion when he first came to the throne,
being wholly without effect ? or, rather, have they not
multiplied to his alarmed vision, the images of terror
which they were intended to suppress. Our gracious
Sovereign William IV., does not boast of his cle-
mency, but he practises it. The King of the French
has been the unceasing percecutor of the Press, ever
since the Press had been instrumental in raising him
to the throne ; but he only arms public opinion with
stronger will and greater power to create those vexatious
of which his sensitive vanity is so apprehensive.
William IV. fears not the fullest expression of the
opinions of a free people. Attached to that ancient
and inestimable Constitution which is the palladium
of the people's rights and liberties, he doubts not the
love and gratitude of an enlightened nation. Let the
pseudo-reformers, and those who put faith in them—
who would have us exchange our own ancestral institu-
tions for new-fangled foreign schemes of Government—
look on this picture and on that.—Morning Herald.

A BREAKFAST IN THE DESERT.—A short time
before daylight every morning Suleiman awakes me in a rather
an unceremonious manner, though becoming enough in a De-
sert valet. " Wullah 1 turn up," is his usual mode of address,
to insure attention to which he pulls me roughly by the legs,
or gives me a thrust in the side with his stick, and if that does
not answer, draws my pillow from under my head and walks
away with it. On rising there is no toilet to delay me. I
must be satisfied with the morning dew for my ablutions, and
the Great Desert itself for my dressing-room. We are able
to make a hasty breakfast while the camels are being loaded,
at a fire in which all the fuel in the camp is collected for a
farewell blaze, for it is yet cold enough at daylight to render
such a plan agreeable; every Arab, on approaching, brings
an offering of wood to increase the flame. My kettle is boiled
in a few minutes; a cup of tea, a bowl of camel's milk, and a
cake of barley, enable us to support a fast until the evening;
we then mount and set off, or sometimes walk for an hour or
two. —Major Skinner's Adventures in the East.
THE DUNMOW FLITCH OF BACON.—At the
late meeting of the Dunmow Agricultural Society, Mr. Brew-
ster said that to his regret he had heard that day that appli-
cation had been formally and properly made to claim that
flitch, but that the demand had been resiEted.----(Cheers.)
He did not know why that objection was made, but when there
was no such joyous occasions in Dunmow, the Saffron Walden
Society had come in to take the place, and there the joyous
husband, the wife, and child could come as candidates, and
join the Walden and Dunmow Society in harmony and con-
cord.—(Cheers.) This gave rise to a short conversation,
which we find reported in the Essex Herald as follows:
" Mr. Player said, as the flitch of bacon had been alluded to,
he begged to offer a flitch to be disposed of as the Committee
of Dunmow might think fit.—(Loud cheers and laughter.)
Mr. Brewster hoped they would allow him to propose that
the pig should be fed by a member of the society, and the
flitch cured at Dunmow.—( Cheers.) Mr. Fuller said he
should be glad to receive proposals from any gentleman in
Dunmow to provide a flitch, fattened by a member of the so-
ciety, to be produced about that time twelve months. Kr.
Wade said, as Mr. Player had given them a flitch, he (Mr.
W.) promised there should be no gammon in giving it away.
—(Cheers and laughter.) He was afraid they would not be
able to produce a loving couple in Little Dunmow to claim it,
but perhaps they should from some other place."

At Wakefield, on Wednesday evening, the Magis-
trates were engaged in the investigation of a most atrocious
outrage. A poor woman, named Mary Stuart, was on her
way from Halifax to Wakefield, on Monday night, and was
followed by three or more men, and abused and ill-treated by
them during a part of the way to the house of a Mr. Wilby,
some distance from it. When close to the latter house, the
ruffians seized her between them, threw her over a 'wall on
the road aide, dragged her across a field, and over a hedge
into an adjoining field, and there violated her person. The
cries of the wretched.woman were heard by a young woman
named Oakes who was going to bed. She rushed out of her
house, saw the miscreants in the act of dragging the woman
across the field, returned and called her brother, who was in
bed, and both, with a man named Dews, who was also alarmed
by the screams of the woman, ran to the spot, where, in the
abominable act, they saw John Milnes, as a principal, and
Jervis Kemp and William Carr, of Ossett, holding down the
wretched woman, who was by this time insensible, from the
dreadful blows she received on the head. They knew the
villains, and rescued the woman from them, at the risk of
their lives. The three wretches were committed to York
Castle for the capital offence. The head of the unfortunate
woman was battered, and her face contused in a shocking
man ner. —llalifax Express.

SPINNERS' TURN-OUT AT BOLTON.-About
eight years since, in consequence of the market being over-
stocked with yarns, the master-spinners of this town and
neighbourhood were compelled to reduce the wages of their
work-people twelve and a half per cent., at which standard
they have remained up to the present period. Owing to the
increase in the price of yarns that has taken place lately, from
the inadequate supply in the market, without a corresponding
advance in the price of cottons, the operatives and masters
have held several meetings respecting an advance of wages,
the former considering that they ought to receive the twelve
and a half per cent. wich bad been taken off The masters,
however, refuse to grant it, and the consequence is that the
workpeople of two mills have already made a strike, and those
of twenty-six other mills have given notice of leaving their
work in a fortnight from Saturday last. On Friday evening a
meeting of operatives was held, and a document forwarded
from them to the masters, requiring an advance of five per
cent. on their present wages, and to have the gas-light in the
factories gratis (which they have hitherto paid for out of their
own wages); this being nearly equivalent to twelve and a
half on the whole. The masters have not yet returned any
answer to this demand, but we understand that they will have
a meeting in the course of the week. It would be well if
matters could be amicably arranged between the parties, as a
general turn-out would be attended by the most disastrous
consequences to both masters and men, and to the tradespeople
generally.---Liverpool Mail.

A HEROlNE.—Saturday week, a cottager's wife,
in the parish of Edzell, went out in the morning to assist in
cutting down a field of barley in the vicinity of her cottage,
and when on her return to it, about mid-day, she observed
something fall from the window with a " whack" (as she ex-
pressed it) upon the ground. She found it to be a fellow,
who, in her absence, had entered her dwelling, and was car-
rying off his booty. Being a stout woman, she immediately
laid hold of him, and questioning him strictly, found he be-
longed to a gang of tinkers who lay in the adjoining wood,
and that the only thing he had taken was a quantity of oat-
meal. The woman, not relying on the veracity of the thief,
dragged him into the house, bolted the door, and there kept
him prisoner until she searched his pockets, counted her
money, and inspected every part of the house where anything
of value was deposited ; but finding he had told the truth she
dismissed him. He now quickly made his way to the above
named wood, closely followed by the eye of the victor, who,
as soon as he entered, observed him take up something from
a place of concealment, and, naturally supposing it to be
something of hers he had carried off at a former visit, im-
mediately gave chase, and after a hot pursuit succeeded in
capturing him a second time. A desperate struggle ensued,
and the victory was for some time doubtful, but it ultimately
declared in favour of the female, who grounded the fellow,
and kept him down until she had examined his parcel, but find..
ing nothing she could claim as hers, he was allowed to depart.
—Dundee Courier.

Farmers are now every where busily employed in
wheat sowing, for which operation the late rants have put the
ground in capital order.
• FRATRICIDE.—A dreadful instance of this crime
occurred at a village called Grand Vertes, about four leagues
from Dieppe, on the 18th ult. A young man of bad character,
named Marie Lecourtois, called on his brother, M. Louis Le-
courtois, a farmer living at that place, and while dining and
drinking wine the farmer alluded to his having lately lost two
sheep, which he supposed had been carried of by wolves, which
were known to have been prowling about in the neighbourhood.
Marie's observation on this was, that it was not wolves that had
taken away the sheep but robbers. Louis, the farmer, at the
approach of evening, proposed to his brother to go out and
conceal themselves, in order to kill the wolf. They accord-
ingly loaded their guns with deer-shot, and left the house
about seven o'clock. In half an hour after Marie returned to
the house, his face pale and haggard, and his dress in disorder,
and told the wife of his brother that he had killed a robber, and
begged her to go and view the body. She repaired with him
to the spot just outside the barrier, and to her utter misery and
consternation beheld her husband weltering in his blood. The
account given by Marie of the death of his brother was, that
he killed him by accident; but his story was so inconsistent
that he was immediately arrested and committed to the prison
of Dieppe.

The agents of the Tories are now actively engaged
endeavouring to produce a contest in Westminster, in favour of
Tory candidates, in case of a new election. Whatever altera-
tion may take place in the representation, at all events a Tory
candidate will have no chance whatever.

THE MARCH OF MIND.--The other week the
boys and girls employed at the various mills in the thriving
town of Galashiels took it into their heads that the mill-masters
had too good a bargain of their services, and that they should
have sixpence a week added to their wages. On a particular
morning those in command in the mill found themselves cu-
riously left alone in the midst of their machinery. Their
little troops dropt out slyly by twos and threes at a time, and
were shortly found, in imitation of their seniors, advocating a
Reform Bill, by parading the town with flags and banners,
and cheering their employers as they passed their variouspro-
perties. The bairns were quite orderly, but quite determined.
The mills were all at a dead stand, and the masters were com-
pelled to subscribe to the momentary revolution, which was
effected not only without outrage on the part of the juveniles,
but acquiecseed in with perfect good humour by their masters.
—Caledonian Mercury.
A quarrel took place On Saturday night, in the Rue
de Ponthieu, between a journeyman and a master carver, from
whom the former demanded work. After a violent struggle
the journeyman was taken to the hospital in a dying state, and
in the course of the night he expired.
On Sunday morning
the murderer was arrested by the police, but in a few hours af-
terwards it was discovered that he had hung himself in prison.
—Paris Pap