The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Manifesto of the Polish nation, which wiii
be found in another part of our paper, is perhaps
the most important exposure of national grievances
which has been given to the world since the cele-
brated declaration of independence by the United
States of North America. The wrongs of the
Poles are infinitely greater than those of our for-
merly Americo) colonists : their resolution to cc-
dress them seems to be taken with equal courage.
Let us hope that it will be followed with the same
heroic perseverance, and terminate in the same glo-
rious result. Whatever may be the future fate of
this oppressed and gallant people, they at least must
have the sympathy of the world, as they have the
laws of eternal justice in their favour. They have
not revolted from a capricious love of change,—
they have not been stirred up to assert their inde-
pendence by mere pride or passion,—they have net
hazarded their tranquillity and that of Europe for
any object of sordid ambition or commercial gain.
No; they have been roused by the infliction of
insufferable indignities,--they have " forged their
chains into arms " against their masters, because
they could no longer endure them RS chains,—then
have risen to assert their rights because they had all
been violated,—they have declared their indepen-
dence, because their late degrading vassalage—the
result of perfidy and violence—was an insult to their
race, and a dishonour to human nature. The history
of cruel oppression and violated engagements,which
the Poles have here detailed, must be the more
striking to Europe, because, though correct in all
circumstances, it is in a great measure new. This
unhappy people have hitherto been deprived even
of the sad privilege of complaint. Though the li-
berty of the press was promised in the charter
given by the Emperor Alexander, it was never esta-
blished, and no organ existed for expressing their
national grievances. Far removed from the active
and stirring scenes of European civilization, the
Poles had ceased to be objects of contemporary
interest with politicians or political writers, and
were only remembered as they appeared in his-
tory. None of the Powers which signed them
over to Muscovite oppression ever thought of in-
quiring if the stipulations of the treaties which dis-
posed of their independence had been observed or
violated. This document shows, that for the last
fourteen years the annals of Polar:d have only been
a history of such violations. The separate national
existence which solemn engagements had guaran-
teed, was daily invaded or disregarded by a military
barbarian, who endeavoured to break it down into a
portion of an empire without rights, liberties, or pc-
pular institutions. The Polish army was insulted
by degrading punishmetits, or harassed by a tortu-
ring discipline, inflaaed by an Imperial Comman-
der-in-Chief, who had no sympathy with its officers,
nor regard for its honour. The trio4t respectable
citizens were treated with as great a disregard of the
laws and constitution of their country as their mi-
litary brethren. Individual liberty was daily vio-
lated, anti persons of all ranks were arrested, im-
prisoned, and punished without the sentence of a
court—without the forms of justice, or the power
of appealing to the laws. The system of espionage
which was organized sad employed by the Grand
Duke, was even more intolerable than his insulting
and arbitrary punishments. The houses, homes,
ar:red,
emeetings,beset w
with
hf
spies, who
middlewppehrnanredgisteredan
cldassrees.
ported every expression of dissatisfaction—every sign
of disgust—which an anti-national and tyrannical Go-
vernment provoked, and who had too often the malig-
nant pleasure of seeing their reports followed
by the arrest or degradation of their victims. If
such was the state of the kingdom of Poland, or of
the duchy of Warsaw, what was the condition of
the other parts of Poland incorporated with Russia,
which had likewise been promised free institutions,
and an immediate union with the Polish kingdom
The following extract of the manifesto will answer
this question :

" the picture of the disasters of our brethren may be
supercilious, but truth forbids us to pass it over. The
provincts formerly incorporated with Russia have not been
reunittd to the kingdom. Our brethren have not been
admitted to the enjoyment of the liberal institutions stipu-
lated by the Coupe's of Vienna ; on the contrary, the na-
tional recollections awakened in them, first by promises
and encouragement, and then hy a long expectation, be-
came. crime against the State, and the King of Poland
caused to be prosecuted, in the ancient province, of that
State, such Pole. as bad dared to call themselves Poles.
The youth of the schools were particularly the objects of
persecution : young children were torn from their mo-
thers breast ; the issue of the first families were trans-
ported to Siberia, or were foreed to cuter into the rr.nks
of a corrupt soldiery. In official documents and judicial
examinations the Polish language was suppressed ; the
Polish tribun ill and civil law were annihilated by ukases;
abuses of administration reduced the landed proprietors to
misery ; and, since the accession of Nicholas to the throne,
the stare of things hail constantly been growing worse.
Religious intolerance itself employed every means to con-
solid arci the united Greek ritual upon the ruins of the Ca-
tholic ritual."

As we are sure that our readers will examine
every word of this long document, we think it su-
perfluous to recapitulate further the grievances
which it describes.. The most slavish apologist of
absolute power cannot find a justification of op-
pression like this, brought about by violence and
perfidy, and must hail the efforts of a brave people
to shake it off. This people do not disguise from
themselves the fearful odds with which they have
to contend, and require the sublime resolution which
they have expressed. They are soon to see their
frontiers menaced or invaded with numerous armies
of Russians, intoxicated with recent. successes, and
actuated by national resentments. They are cut off
from all assistance in men, if mot from supplies of
arms, by the jealousy of the two partitioning Powers
who shared with their Russian oppressors in the
spoils of Polaud. They have nothing to rely upon
at first but their own swords, their own courage,
and the jdstice of their cause. They have hitherto
conducted themselves with such a spirit of mode-
ration, and such a patriotic devotion,--they have
displayed so much activity, such concert and enthu-
siasm, as promise the happiest results in resisting a
first onset ; and if they but persevere, the humanity
and justice of the civilized world will step in to
prevent them from being exterminated by those
barbarous massacres which disgraced Europe and
modern times in former Polish invasions.--Tithes.
It would now be silly to assert that the cause of
Reform is merely " making progress" through this
country. The country, from end to end, is already
occupied and engrossed by that great qwestion, and
the mind of the whole community is made up upon
it, as if the people of England were but an indi-
vidual man. Bristol and Norwich must be added
to the other important cities and towns which have
declared their sentiments in favour of an immediate
purification of that body, which is not constituted so
as to represent with truth the opinions, the intelli-
gence, or feelings of the nation, and which there-
fore cannot be expected, as indeed it has not beers
found, to consult their interests with the requisite
integrity or wisdom. Entire confidence may, we
apprehend, be reposed in the sincerity with which
the present Ministers hays undertaken to realize
the public anxiety for Reform. The grounds on
which the former Government was overturned were
such that no Ministry appointed to succeed it, could
have entertained the hope of standing for four-
and-twenty hours, except on the strength, and by
virtue, of a solemn renunciation before King and
country of the unconstitutional heresy of the-Duke
of Wellington, who, in declaring that Parliament
as already framed was all-perfect, had shocked the
understanding of most Englishmen, no less than
their love of freedom. '1 hat Ministers must, in
admitting the necessity of the measure, have ant!et-
pared likewise the practical difficulties of carrying
any extensive plan of Reform into execution, ib
manifest from the language of Lord Gley, who
avowed that their best reliance was on the supportof the people themselves. The proprietors of close
boroughs under the existing trystori, er men of over-
powering influence in open ones, should unless
acted upon by extraneous urgent and paramount nlo,

rives, node at once to a change in the constitution
of Parliament, whereby their own peculiar ad-
vantages over others of their fellow-subjects with
equal pretensions on the score of property rnuet
be thenceforth demolished, supposes an amount
of political heroism in the English aristocracy
of the present day, which assuredly the most vir-
tuous of their ancestors could never have been vain
enough to boast of. The Ministers, we have no
doubt, do look for an obstinate and bitter struggle
on the part of the old borough interest, to retain
the worst features of their system,—that is to say,
those of its characteristics which favour most the
monopoly of borough patronage. As few, more-
over, of the County Members are destitute of bo-
rough interest, or unconnected with those who have
it, there is some reason to dread that the spirit of
Baste, or clanship, may serve to reinforce the cause
of corruption, by procuring for it advocates among
Members of Parliament, whose honourable station
as representatives for counties or great towns, would
help to divert suspicion from their less ostensibly
objects, and enable them, under the respected robe
of County Members, to indulge, while they con-
cealed, their contraband propensity to the traffic in
rotten boroughs. We have little doubt that the
war-hoop will be yelled in many quarters against
the spirit of revolution with winch this country has
been infected by the Continent, and that a long
and strong pull will be risked by the borough oh-
garchy, as their last stake in the fruitful misgo-
vernment of England. Now there is but one
effectual expedient for defeating this policy of
the dealers in old abuses : it is to show them,
from the outset, that their cause is desperate,—
that the nation are universally leagued with the
Government in defence of a measure by which the
i itself roust be strengthened, all temptation
to corrupt the legislative body he annihilated, and
the burdens of the people be essentially and per-
manently reduced. What are the details of the
measure to be proposed by Ministers, we do not
undertake to specify. Universal suffrage, however,
will undoubtedly have no share in it. Ballot, it is
said, will riot form part of the plan as introduced to
Parliament, although it would be affectation to deny
that the feeling in favour of that important novelty
gains ground among most classes of our countrymen,
and that if not checked by further inquiry into its me-
rits, the result may be its adoption, ere long, into the
frame of' our Parliamentary constitution.* But again,
and earnestly, we pray our countrymen to meet in
every part of Great Britain, and honestly to stand
by a reforming Administration. It is a rare pheno-
menon, and let it not be undervalued ; for its pledge
is one which deserves the public reverence, arid the
perilous difficulty of fulfilling: it demands the sup-
port of men in whose eyes freedom is something
better than a shadow. The pretence that meetings
in favour of Reform would but "embarrass" the
King's Ministers, has been made use of, invariably,
by those who wish to embarrass them, by leaving
them at the mercy of the borough-traffickers in Par-
liament. The Minister himself has called upon the
nation to support him,—that is the true reply to all
such sham objections. Lastly, let the people ac-
cept whatever Reform may be offered arid carried
through Parliament, be it ever so narrow arid mi-
nute. We ought to remember at once the difficulty
and the value of the first step towards amendment.
It must inevitably lead to more ; and, as the har-
binger of more, be it welcomed.—Times.
Having taken an earnest and anxious part in re-1
commending that the lives of the remaining men
left for execution under the Special Commissions
should be spared, we feel a corresponding satisfac-
tion at finding that both Lush and Withers, whose
awful doom had been pronounced at Salisbury under
the most tragical circumstances, have been reprieved,
and that respites have been forwarded to Ayles-
bury, in stay of the execution of Blizzard arid
Sarney, with a view to a commutation of punish-
ment. This is a circumstance gratifying to huma-
nity, and will make a more salutary and moral im-
pression
on the classes of distressed labourers arid
artisans, who engaged in the late disturbances, than
could have been produced by the effusion of blood.
Government deserve credit for at length attending
to the voice of public opinion on this subject, and
advising the Sovereign to interpose the noblest at-
tribute of the prerogative between so many victims
and the uplifted axe of the stern law. It is well
even for a King to be able to say, in that fated crisis
to which all must submit, and when the recollection
of power, mercifully exercised, administers a balm
to the spirit which all the jewels of the crown could
not purchase, " The blessing of him that was ready
to perish came upon me." Such blessings ascend
not to Heaven in vain ? Of the convict Holdaway
we have heard nothing, but presume that he will
not now be made a solitary exception to the lenity
of the Crown, The taking of a single life in con-
sequence of the late disturbances is to be re-
gretted. The laws that confound the offences of
rioters arid machine-breakers with the guilt of the
deliberate murderer are not to be justified on any
sound principle of justice, policy, Dr morals. It is
time for legislators to teach the people that life is
too sacred to be made a mere political sacrifice for
offences that imply no heinous depravity of heart—
too noble a gift of the Creator to be set at no
higher value than the price of a rag-grinding ma-
chine or a spinning jenny ? It is time to humanise
the law of a country which has had the benefit of
the civilizing influence of the Gospel for at least
twelve hundred years ? While science—while lite-
rature—while the arts that grace and embellish life
have advanced to a high degree of excellence, have
our moral faculties been asleep, that justice should,
even in the nineteenth century, appear in unnatural
alliance with the principles of barbarism. How
long shall England possess the disgraceful distinction
of having a collection of criminal laws more san-
guinary than those of any other country in Europe,
tvith the exception, perhaps, of Turkey, where life
has no more value than the Nvantonn ers s and caprice
of a benighted despotism chooses to assign to it,
and where the tyrant's will is law ? Until the Le-
gislature interposes to reform effectually the criminal
Jaws of England, we hope they will be, for the fu-
ture, so administered as to make their practice more
consistent with the principles of Christian civiliza-
tion., and prepare the mind for that judicious and
enlightened change which public opinion demands
and expects.—Morning Herald.

We find, from a letter addressed by Mr. O'Con-
nell to his constituents (among our Irish extracts),
that we were not far wrong when we stated, that
the Anti-Unionists acted from various motives, and
that the object of many was to frighten the Aris-
tocracy into concessions, which, except under the
dread of separation, they would never make. In this
letter Mr. O'Connell says—" In all my Addresses
to you before my election, I ventured to prophecy,
that the time was fast approaching when the
people of England would join with us in a bud
and irresistible demand for a total abolition of the I
Tithe System. That salutary cry has commenced 1
in England. It it beginning to be re-echoed in a
proper and legal manner in Ireland. The accost.
plishment of my prophecy is fast approaching. If I
shall be permitted to do my duty in Parliament
this Session, I hope that this most important
result will be advanced; but, after all, u is only to
the repeal of the Union that we can look with 6'er-
lain& for the total abolition of tithes. This is one'
.of the great reasons why I insist upon that repeal.
. . But therepeal of the Union terrifies the sordid
Aristocratic absentees, and especially the bloated
pluralists of the Established Church, who shudder
lest we radical Reformees and Anti-Unionists zwould
realize our plan of the payment by the State of ail
94
such of the Protestant Clergy really perform
spiritual functions, in an ample proportionto their real
labours,and not payingat all those who do no work."
In all countries, and more especially in those aft
which the Government is like oaz awn, oligarchical,
there are few institutions which are A.-ot perverted
from their original object, (or the profit a the pos-
. Lord Taviritnekt in a speech at the Bedford Reform
:Meeting yesterday weeks, hinted pretty plearly that the
votes of non-resident freesae rould
.be abolish!.d

sessors of power. Thus, for instance, the object of
a religious establishment is professedly the religious
instruction of the people. In a pure Monarchy,
where the head of the Government is not
under the necessity of going to work conscien-
tiously, a religious establishment is really what
it professes to be. But in a country like this,
where an oligarchy exercies power through popular
forms, the instruction of the people is the last object
' looked to in a religious establishment; the primary
object is the enjoyment of the property for which
it furnishes a pretext. Were the religious instruc-
tion of the people of Ireland the object sought to
be attained, there would be little difficulty in effect-
ing a suitable arrangement. But as the primary
object is the enjoyment of property under the pre-
text of religious instruction, it would be to little
purpose to prove that the establishment is not only
on a footing which is not adapted to promote its
professed object, but even that it is on a footing
which directly impedes the realization of the pro-
fessed object. In vain, too, should we prove that a
Protestant sinecure Church Establishment, in the true
senseof the word,in the enjoyment of enormous wealth,'
must be an object of dislike to the great body of the
people, who, though of another religion, are forced
to contribute to its support, and that religious ani-
mosities must retard the progress of industry and
improvement. They who profit by the abuse do not
consider the welfare of the country, but their own
advantage; and so long as they can, they will resist
any benefit to the community obtained by the re-
moval of the abuses from which they profit. The
Dublin Evening Post, a paper strongly opposed to
the partisans of the repeal, alluding to the destruc-
tion of a great part of the crops in the western
counties of Ireland, has the following remarks :

" The consequence is, that even at this early period the
markets are advancing, not only in Connaught, but in
every other part of the country. In short, we are me-
naced with a scarcity, which may, if timely efforts be not
made to avert the calamity, terminate in a famine. In
the face of this statement, which we are afraid cannot
with any justice be contradicted, we are assured upon the
best authority, that rents, particularly on corn lands, were
never more punctually paid ; and indeed we should be sur-
prised were it otherwise, for agricultural produce is rising
in the market, and our corn crops were an average at
least, last year. How then will the anomaly be prevented,
by a comparatively flourishing agriculture and a starving
peasantry ? Thi■ is not new in Ireland ; it is of periodi-
cal occurrence. It comes at certain cycles as regularly
as a parching summer or a wet harvest. In the fa-
mine of 1822-23, it is notorious, it has been stated
in this Journal a thousand times, that cargoes of
corn, on account of the landlords, or the farmers,
have been shipped off to Liverpool or Glasgow,
purchased there by the London Committee, and
sent back to feed the famishing wretches of the
very districts from which the corn came. Now this is a
state of things intolerable, or at least would not be borne
in any other country. flow is it to be cured? Why, by
making the sustenance of the pauper population compul-
sory. This is our doctrine generally, but at present we
shall confine our remarks to the state of degradation and
vice which mendicancy engenders, with a view of showing
that the country can never be secure until mendicancy is
exterminated—until the ulcer is cut out, and the body
politic restored to a wholesome action. If, in pursuit of
this course, we offend some of the landlords of Ireland, we
really cannot help it. Our object is to ameliorate the
general condition of the people, and not to offend, if we
can avoid it, any man. But when it is well known—
when no man can dispute that the landed proprietory of
Ireland were themselves to blame for the present unsettled
condition of the country, such of them as have been negli-
gent or obstinate must not be angry with us, if we some-
times tread a little too heavily on their—we must call it
—misconduct."

Now it may almost be demonstrated, that without
a provision for the poor, Ireland can never know
order and tranquillity. But it is much easier to
prove how indispensible a provision for the poor is
to Ireland, than to point out the means by which
that object is to be effected. Superficial observers
only can suppose an English Ministry, however
well•disposed, able to give effect to their own re-
views of what may be necessary to the well-being
of a country. The welfare of the people ought to
be the object of every Government; but, practically,
speaking, the business of Government is to calcu-
late the relative strength of the different interests
in the State, and to propose only such measures as
shall not be successfully opposed by any preponder-
ance of these interests. The Irish landlord will
never consent to any provision for the poor of Ire-
land, which opposes any bar to his draining the last
farthing from the wretched beings on his property.
In vain The Dublin Evening Post tells us that land-
lords " are induced to extort the uttermost farthing
from the famished peasant, and then to turn him
adrift upon the cold charity of the world." The
writer adds—
" There has been no identity of interests hitherto.
Many, taao many, an Irish landlord, never dreams of pro-
viding employment for the peasant, unless it is to make
some improvement on bis estate, and even the peasant re-
ceives no remuneration but his wages, and too often is it
drawn by the landlord as rent. These are the cheap and
simple attentions of several of the landlords of Ireland,
the natural and necessary results of Dr. Chalmers' politi-
cal economy."
How are we to reach the landholders ? How are
we to give them the inducement to consent to the
well-being of the peasantry ? We are assured, and
we firmly believe, that Ministers really intend re-
medial measures for Ireland of undoubted value. Mr.
O'Connell, indeed, in the letter in question, says—
" Mark me well ; recollect my prophecy, you will have
the Whigs introduce some delusive measure—some nib-
bling at the Sub-letting Act—it will, probably, be some
aggravation, to be styl, d an amendment. There will be an
alteration in the Vestry Bill, that probably will make it
worse than it r?t7 is. There will be some little peddling
about Corporation monopolies, and a grand ingt.iry, to
last three years longer, into tolls and customs—and these
mighty boons will be consummated by some law creating
a Dictatorship, or something of that kind, in Ireland.
Believe me, I shall prove a true prophet."
This, we have no hesitation in saying, is far
below the intentions of Ministers. But it must riot
be forgotten, that the great difficulty, in a country
like Ireland, is to give effect to good intentions.
The lower classes in both Ireland and England, at
the present moment, form a fearful subject of con-
templation. In England the abuses of the poor laws
are no doubt great : but still the poor laws are a
security against tue euridity of the rich. The great
objects of the Romans, in th.eir agricultural policy, was
to secure the cultivation of the ground against the
caprieca of the powerful. This is indirectly effected
in England through the poor laws. In Ireland 1
there is no check and with the tendency of popu-
lation to outrun capital, viV.enage would be greatly
preferable
to what Niebuhr calls the beggarly free-
dom, of which the only advantage is on the aide of
the owner of the soil.—Morning chronicle.
We deeply regret to learn ;on undoubted informa- '
: tion, that the fires of the incendiaries, in the agricultu-
' rai diat;icts, are certainly extending into parts or the
country hitiierto free from their visitation, if not in-
creasing in number. f)n Monday week the hay-
:tacks of a Worcestershire faz,;,,, the Wilderness, a
few miles from Birmingham, were fired, Wheat and
barley.-ricks were fired at two farms in Staffordslirei
a few miles from Dudley, and under remarkable cir-'
cninstances. Great mystery irwolves the origin of
these acts, which have been, in many ecunties, pe-
culiarly distinct from riots against machinery arid
contests for higher wages. But in some districts
the conduct of the Magistrates is rashly incentive,
gilj encouraging of these lamentable acts of ;giro,
ranee &rad niisery. We have been informed that one
of the largest hiani,lepwtiers in the midland counties
(and a Magistrate), acid,:aTsed a circular to his te-
nants, either directing Of adv:a.iniz them to take
down their machines: and that in a co;.:nv where
roc single act of an incendiary or riot had occurred,;
'Sach abaJ,:t.i persons, although Justices, should be
struck out orthe,cammission,and turned back—not
to the " schoolmaster,- i-,i:t to the elementary in-
atirua2ion of the infant school of the perish school-
mistress, W.e, have heard also, that after the tenaliZri
of the Great 'pew la:sta,te, in Oxfordshire, had, with
the aid of their labourers, succaeul4, protected their
own property and that of the landlord, Mr.Boulton?
try. the threats of the machine-breakers, some
Magistrate,,, :4; Mr. Bonito'''s absence at Soho,

'near Birmingham, induced the parishioners to take
down or remove the machines. It is reported that
Mr. Boulton has, or will take legal proceedings
against the Justices; we trust that he will, as a
public duty, bring these Shallows before a Jury of
their country, even though a great University Head
should be the chief noodle. Such Magistrates had
better hold mops or statutes for the special and
legal destruction of agricultural machinery. It is
curious to see Sir E. Wilmot in one county form-
ing a society to promote improvements in agricul-
ture, and other Magistrates in an adjoining county,
exercising their " Commission of the Peace," by
enjoining " Swing" to put an end to the use of ma-
chines on farms. The Society for the Diffusion of
Useful Knowledge could only reach the brains of
such Jackasses with a pickaxe. Among the im-
provements of the age, we ardently hope to see
other motives prevail for nominating Magistrates
than dirty intrigues, time-serving meanness, the
possession of acres, or sham qualifications to evade
Sir Robert Peel's notable principle for securing
through property alone the superior performance of
the magisterial functions. In the Berkshire Agri-
cultural Report we find complaints against the mis-
chievous interference of the Magistracy, to whom
are attributed no small share of the late disturb-
ances, expressed in the strongest language:—
" We are sorry to give such an unfavourable statement
of the situation of our country, but justice compels us to
declare the truth ; and, in faithfully stating our opinion,
we are also obliged to confess, that to the very injudicious
conduct of some persons who have unfortunately been
made Magistrates, is, in a great measure, owing the pre-
sent state of things. Fur a long time past, by the impro-
per decisions of these Magistrates, idleness has been en-
couraged and deceit promoted, while the well-meazing
farmer, who endeavoured to frustrate such proceedings,
was severely reprimanded and completely discouraged.
Some of the Magistrates, almost without an effort, suffered
the farmer's machines to he broken, and themselves to be
insulted and robbed ; they without hesitation, directed the
farmers to advance their labourers wages, and were pro-
ceeding further, with a high hand, had not Lord Mel-
bourne's letter arrived just in time to stop the career.
Since that time it is quite laughable to see the fallen
countenances of these wise keepers of the peace ! and one
would think that, after the severe castigation that their ac-
tions received by Lord Melbourne's letter, and by the ex-
cellent opening speech of the Judge at the Assize, that
some of them at least would resign the Commissions, and
let others more fit for the office be appointed. We sin-
cerely hope that reformation will not he omitted in re-
spect to the Magistrates, as well as the exorbitant county
rates."—Morning Chronicle.

We earnestly call attention to the Manifesto of
the Poles, containing a moving description of the
sufferings of that unfortunate nation under Russian
despotism, and of the signal violation of the pledges
so solemnly made to them at the Congress of Vienna.
The following paragraph affords a striking exempli-
fication of the sort of freedom which may be expected
under a despot—Freedom to hymn his praises; so
far so good ; but freedom in any other sense a
monstrous evil :

" On the meeting of the first Diet of the kingdom, a
renewal of the solemn promises that the blessings of a
Constitution should be extended to our brethren, who
were to be re-united to us, revived extinguished hopes,
and caused that moderation to reign in the Chambers which
was their only end and object. The freedom of the Press,
and the publicity of the proceedings of the Diet, were
only tolerated in so far as they gave vent to the hymns
and praises of a subjugated people in honour of their all-
powerful conqueror ; but when, after that Diet was
closed, the public journals continued to discuss public
affairs, a severe censorship was introduced ; and on the
meeting of the following Diet, which proposed to itself the
same object as the former, the representatives of the people
were persecuted for the opinions they delivered in the
Chambers. The Constitutional states of Europe will be
astonished when they learn what has been so carefully
c.ncealed from them ; when, on the one hand they be-
hold the wise and moderate use the Poles have made of
their liberty, the veneration they have shown for their
Sovere;gn, his religion and customs uniformly treated
with re-pect, and on the other, the bad faith with which
power has bees used, not content with despoiling an un-
hippy people of their rights, but imputing the horror of
these violations to the unbridled exercise of their freedom."

May the school of adversity, in which the Poles
have so long suffered, steel their arms at the present
crisis ! But other nations have duties ! Where
was England, with her pretended regard for the
balance of power, when the robber-despots thrice
partitioned Poland ? Why do not the rich men of
this country come forward with their contributions
to the Poles at a crisis like the present ? The
amount of what our Sybarites of this luxurious me-
tropolis spend in one entertainment might be of
material aid to the Poles. Even one thousand
pounds from this, the richest country in the world,
might furnish a thousand warriors with the means
of destroying their tyrants.—Morning Chronicle.
We are glad to perceive that an evening cotem-
porary has vindicated in a more determined and un-
hesitating tone than on Thursday last, the legality
of the arrest of Mr. O'Connell and his associates.—
How any one, who has looked into the Act of Par-
' liament which authorized the proclamations, and
sanctioned the issuing of the warrants, could pos-
sibly entertain a doubt on the subject, is to us in-
comprehensible; for the Act is so widely worded,
in every respect, as not only to leave the power of
decision respecting what are, and what are not,
dangerous associations, wholly within the discretion
of the Lord Lieutenant, but, as a consequence re-
sulting from it, the personal liberty of every one
who may have been present at such meetings. That
;he Act itself is a bad Act, and the power given to
the Lord Lieutenant by it a dangerous power, and
inconsistent with the spirit of the British Constitu-
tion, we do not mean to deny; but neither Lord
Anglesea, or the present Government, made the
law, and if a case should arise to meet it they are
only answerable for its being duly enforced. That
they have not strained it, in order to suit a parti-
cular emergency, must also be evident to every per-
son of common sense, who will take the trouble,
first to look at the Act itself, and then at the nature
of the meetings which have been suppressed, and
the avowed intentions of the persons who have been
arrested and held to bail. Does any one doubt that,
though under different names and devices, these
names and devices were mere pretexts for holding
continued meetings on the same subject, and to pro-
mote the same object ? Are there any twelve
honest men to be found who would, on their oath,
deny such to be the fact ? And, with regard to the
persons arrested, will any one be bold enough to
aver, in the teeth of their own declarations, that their
object in getting up, holding, and attending these
meetings, was not agitation, and agitation of a
nature to endanger the public tranquillity? Can
any one vouch that it was only fair and legitimate
discussion, when the very leaders of the faction
themselves resorted to threats and menaces, and
have even so far succeeded by these threats, as to
prevent peaeeable meetings of a different character
from being held ? la it pot true that, when
their call for a repeal of the Union was met by a flat
denial from the respectable and intelligent part of
rue community, they resorted to a system of terror
which has already sheaved its effects by a partial run
upon the tanks—by preventing people from giving
expression to their reel opinions—and causing a
most deplorable stagnation in the trede of the
country ? What was the language of Mr.
!lell at the parish meeting of St. Audeon, on the
iSrli instant if truly reported he said,
" Notwithstanding every effort to the contrary, time
cause of ;.tiwrzl is advancing ; and who will tell toe we
ought to support time own who are for Continuing the
Union? Why should we buy
.frout them or sell to them I
Why should we not mark out these men ? What I pro,
pose to you is this. I was a decided enemy in the Cd,
tholic Association to exclusive dealing, it might have a sec-
tarian yisr7,; but nosy the matter is otherwise, for there
are Cath-olies al-4cup. the foremost in getting up the ad-
dress in the Chanther of Cotntner:e to Lord Anglesea.—
There is a Catholic Bank Dire`ct6C, toe, them.
Who made him a Bank Director? I tell him it'ss/aa
11',0 property—he would have been a slave to this hour if
had not, wpiir.ed for hini. Yet that is the man who is
'base enough to pra:se, the administration of the man who
persecutes 111 e, and ilfhp sent hs ccminon thief-takers to my
hop,,,e to aerest me in the presence of py wife aud
also mean to form SPrielp to !fire up Me

of all excise:l,k goods—not to consume any thing that
pays a tax so long as this Act remains unrepeakd."
Was ever such a system of terror allowed to be
adopted in a free country? Could the Agitator
have transgressed the law of the country even to an
equal extent, if he had sent threatening letters to the
parties named in the above extract from his speech
Again, at another meeting, the same disinterested
well-wisher of Ireland is reported to have spoken
as follows, of that Lord Anglesea whom, only two
short years ago, he preached up as the very acme of
perfection—the best friend of Ireland :
" Welsh Lord Anglesea," said the Celtic bard, " you
sent your thief-takers to my house—the mother of my
children stood by, and saw felon bands do violence to my
person—for the first time a tear, occasioned by me, fell
from her. Lord Anglesea, I row by that virtuous
woman's tear—do you know the value of a virtuous
woman's tear ?—that, tear I appreciate more dearly than
all the gems that ever yet have decked the turbaned head
of an Eastern monarch—a virtuous woman's tear, Lord
Anglesea. It fell from the mother of the children of my
love—it fell from a matron—of one whom it almost be-
comes me not to speak--of one who has made the cup of
life for me one unmixed draught of honey--of one who is
spirited, brave, and good, as she is pure and virtuous—
one who many and many a time, when I was about in
despair to abandon my labours for Ireland, and which an
ungrateful aristocracy would have driven me from, still
urged me on, with the cheering hope I should succeed—
from her has fallen a tear on soy account. You, Lord
Anglesea, have caused that tear to be shed. Again I ask
you, do you know the value of a virtuous woman's tear ?
I tell you that you shall yet know it."
Steele, the colleague of the Agitator, is equally
eloquent as a terrorist as his chief himself, as will be
seen from the following extract from his speech.
Alluding to an article in a newspaper, he is reported
to have said,

" Whoever is the writer of that article is a villain, ac-
cursed of God and of man. All the dew of Paradise
would be unavailing to waoh out the blood-stain with
which his soul in incarnadined. I disclaim him as one
of our specks ; he is not of human race; or if, indeed, he
bear the human form, he is some Ghoul or Vampire, fiend-
begotte❑ in b.ileful ecstacy, by Burke, the murderer, upon
Helen Macdougal, the murderess, in one of their orgies,
after the suffocation of an anatomical victim in their ghastly
den ! ! !"

The above is harmless because it is ridiculows ;
but can any one say, that after such a display of the
desperate dispositions of those with whom it had to
deal, the Government could refrain from acting as it
did ? Can any one doubt, that the Act on which
the proclamations, the warrants, and the arrests,
were founded, were not meant to apply to meetings,
persons, and conduct, such as we have now de-
scribed ? Nay, would not the Government, find-
ing such an Act in the statute-book, have fairly laid
itself open to charges of a very serious character, if
it had refrained from putting it in force ?-31orning
Advertiser.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-110 USE.

A young man, named Cheiplin, wearing a large
blue coat, with a white border to it, was brought
before the LORD MAYOR, charged with having gone
up to a butcher's stall in Leadenhall-market, and in
an instant cut a shoulder from the carcass of a sheep,
with the intention to steal it. The case was an ex-
tremely odd one.
The watchman of Mr. Jeffries, the butcher, on
the preceding night, saw the prisoner go up to the
stall, take hold of a knife, and with great dexterity
separate the shoulder from the carcass of a sheep.
Witness went up and seieed him, upon which he said
he was distressed, and begged to be let go, and not
be lodged as a prisoner in the Compter. The job
was done better than witness, who had served his
time to a butcher, could have done it. The shoul-
der was regularly severed in cooking order.
The prisoner said the witness had made a mis-
take. He (the prisoner) was passing by the stall,
but doing nothing, when the watchman seized him
by the collar, and accused him of stealing the
mutton.

The LORD MAYOR asked the prisoner what he
was ?—Prisoner—A sailor, please your Lordship.
I knows nothing of butchering.
The shoulder of mutton was examined, and it
was evident that the hand of a master had been ex-
ercised upon it, for it had been shaved out of the
socket in the neatest possible style at one twist.
The LORD MAYOR (to the watchman)—Are you
confident that is the man ? Watchman—Not the
least doubt of it, my Lord, I couldn't mistake him.
I saw him whip off the joint in a trice—never saw
such a hand in my life. He'd scarce lifted up one
hand, when the meat was bang in the other.
The LORD MAYOR—Does any one know him to
be a butcher ? Some of the officers looked at him
with scrutinizing eyes. They were divided in opi-
nion. Two or three of them thought he was more
like a sailor than a butcher; whilst others fancied his
appearance was rather of the butcher cast.
The prisoner himself did not let slip the oppor-
tunity to take advantage of the doubt. He assured
his Lordship again and again that he knew nothing
about sheep ; and that he had been all his life at sea.
To some questions about his nautical excursions,
asked by the LORD MAYOR, he, however, gave such
answers as convinced his Lordship that the slaughter-
house had the stronger claim to him.
The LORD MAYOR—I am convinced that your
object was to steal the meat; but I shall not send
you for trial to the Old Bailey : you shall go to
Bridewell for a month.

Here a man in the crowd behind the prisoner
cried, " My Lord, my Lord, he's an innocent man.
He is, s'elp me God."
The Loin) MAYOR—Come forward, and tell
us who you are, and what you know.
The man then appeared before the Lord Mayor,
and said his name was Palmer, and that he lived at
Grovenor. place, Spitalfields.

The LORD MAYOR—How do you know that
the prisoner is an innocent man 1' Palmer—
Because I am the guilty one. It was I that cut
away the shoulder. I served my time to a butcher,
and I can prove to you that I can use the knife.
I know nothing of this poor man, and never saw
him before, but I can't let him Le punished for my
fault."

The crowd in the Justice-room were disposed to
applaud this speech, bet
The LORD MAYOR called upon the witness be
had already examined, and asked whether he had
seen Palmer at the time the meat was cut down ?

The watchman—Yes, my Lord. He came up
to me when I had hold of the prisoner, and said, if
any harm was done, he would pay for it, and he
begged me not to put the poor man in the watch-
house.

The constable of the night said that the prisoner
went down on his knees to the watchman, and
begged for mercy, at the same time declaring that
it was distress that compelled hints to commit the
theft.

Paltrier persisted in the truth of his statement
that the prisoner knew nothing whatever of the
robbery. " I offered to pay for the mutton," said
he, " when I saw that an innocent man was charged."
The LORD MAYOR—NeII; the prisoner shall
have the benefit of your evidence, if you will have
the boldness to appear at the Old Bailey for him.
I iOended to confine him for a month, but now I
shall commit him, and we shall see whether this
marFuvre will do before a .judge. I would have
you, however take care how you swear, for as save
as you were born, if you don't be cautious in giving
your testimony, you will be committed for perjury.
Palper then departed, stating that he should ar
pear at the .SiesiionsJiOuse in due time, whatever
might be the consequence, and the piis9Y9F wag
consequently committed for trial.

110 W-STREET.
Charles Barber, driver of a job-carriage, in the
service of a gentleman who resides at No. 52,
Harley-strest, was yesterday brought up on a warrant
wherein he was charged with having, by negligent
and furious driving, kithdced down and considerably
injured Colonel Campbell and General Salmon,
whereby the lives of both were endangered.. The
face and head of the latter gentleman were covered

with patches, while the Colonel received so severe
an injury in his foot that a lameness for life will be
the consequence.

The defendant declared it was entirely an acci-
dent, and said be had done all in his power to avoid
it. He pleaded that he had a wife and family de-
pending for support upon his exertions, and hoped
the gentlemen would not press the case against him.
The Magistrate observed that, in justice to the
public, it was fitting that such conduct as his should
be severely visited, and he was therefore fined 50s.
for each assault, and in default of payment he was
sentenced to four months' imprisonment in the House
of Correction, being two months for each assault.

The young man who was charged on Saturday
night with having sold an order for admission to Co-
vent-garden theatre to a young foreigner, who was
charged at this office with uttering the same, was
brought in custody in the course of the morning,
when, upon inquiry, it appeared that he is the son
of Mr. Ble►vitt, the musical composer.
He acknowledged that he had written the order,
and said that want of employment had driven him
to do it, adding that he had lived apart from his
father since the death of his mother.
Soon after he had been removed from the bar for
further examination, Sir George Smart came for-
ward in his behalf, and after communicating with the
treasurer of the theatre and Mr. Charles Kemble,
the latter gentleman consented to forego proceedings
against the accused.

In the eour,e of the day another person, who it
was stated had once been in a respectable situation,
was charged with a similar offence, he having writ-
ten an order for admission in the name of Mr.
Bartley, the comedian, and given it to the shopman
of a Jew clothes-man in the Strand.
As it did not appear, ho;vever, that he had taken
money for the order, Mr. C. Kemble consented to
his discharge, cautioning him, however, not to re-
peat the offence ; and Sir R. BinmE, in discharging
him, told him not to appear before him again under
similar circumstances, for if he did he would be
otherwise treated.
HATTON-GARDEN.

Yesterday morning a young man, named John
Grey, was brought before Mr. LAING, th• Magis-
trate, charged under the following extraordinary
circumstances :

Mr. Wooler attended for the prisoner.
Serjeant Grave, of the division G., No. 6, had
been for some months on the " look out" for the
prisoner, and on last Saturday night he succeeded
in apprehending him at the Garrick Theatre, Le-
man-street, Goodman's-fields, where he was engaged
to act the part of Antoine, in the Unconscious Par-
ricide. He begged leave to remind his Worship,
that on the 14th of August last, two young men
(William Godie and the prisoner) went to the
lodgings of a Mr. Pennarie, 31, Bowling-green-lane,
Clerkenwell, and inquired at the door, from a young
girl named Cope, " if Mr. Pennarie was at home ?"
The girl said, "she believed not." Upon which
William Godie and the prisoner said, " We will
then go up to his room and wait for him." They
accordingly went up stairs to Mr. Pennarie's room
(which was opposite to the room occupied by the
mother of the girl Cope) and seated themselves, as
if to await his return. During their stay there the
girl Cope heard a noise, as if caused by the wrench-
ing of a lock, but took no further notice of it at
the time. Shortly afterwards the primmer and
Godie left the room, and told the girl, " they
could wait no longer, and would call again."—
On the return of Mr. Pennarie, he discovered
that his drawers had been forced open and
robbed of twenty-four sovereigns, a silver snuff-box,
and a gold mourning ring. lie (Serjeant Grove)
found out the name of the prisoner and Godie,
through a boy who knew them, and saw them speak-
ing to the girl Cope at the door; and, in a day or
two after, he traced Godie to the White Conduit
House, Ptntonville, where he was engaged in the
theatrical line, sad where he apprehended him.
Godie was tried at the Old Bailey, convicted, and
transported for the offence. The prisoner Grey,
hearing of Godie's fate, ever since evaded the hands
of justice.
The prisoner was remanded until Saturday.

SECOND EDITION.
SUN OFFICE, Seven o' Clock.

THE LONDON GAZETTE

OF THIS EVENING.

Lord Chamberlain's Office, Jan. 21, 1831.

Notice is hereby given, that the Drawing Room to be
held at St. James's Palace, on Thursday the 24th of Fe-
bruary next, being for the celebration of her Majesty's
Birth-day, the Knights of the several Orders are to appear
in their Collars.