The Sun.
London, England, 1831-02-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

,_l4lO What had gone before, and take care that the game
Rot practised again, to the detriment of all justice and
the injury of the country.
444tatli. oil. MEMBER wished to ask, whether it was true
,it his present Majesty had declared his determination
16, toadopt Buckingham Palace for his residence ; and if
t: what purpose that building was to be applied ?
iienrderany
ALTLIORP was not able to answer that question.
r • RUTHVEN was glad that the House appeared to
agreed as:to the propriety of the appointment
e Committee; for, undoubtedly the people had, at
• -4L', a right to 'know hew their money was expended.
NColonel SIBTHORPE said that, understanding from the
°e Lord that the works at Buckingham House were
qed, he should not divide the House on that point.
_-ue-appointment of the Committee was then agreed to.
td ALTHORP, in moving the names of the Mem-
: to form
to the openinginto oes's-park
tle,,had teen taken by surprise. He now understood that
?),le was no legal difficulty to the undertaking, and the
-*age to the public would be opened as soon as possible.
„The following are the names agreed to as the Select
Lord on Lord Althorp's motion:—Lord Althorp,
aLI, J. Russell, Mr. Goulburn, Mr. Pendarvis, Mr.
tj,
071 ca, Mr. J. Wood, Mr. W. Bankes, Mr. Ward, Mr.
i'Llt, Mr. S. Browne, Lord Lowther, Colonel Davies,
kt• Sandford, Sir R. Vyvyan, Mr. Jones, Lord G. So-
-3.1c, 13""et, Sir R. Gordon, Lord Killeen, Mr. Rumbold, Sir
cbright, and others.
THE GAME LAWS.
n Lord ALTHORP—Itwas not necessary for him to press
torti4lb Rouse the evil produced by the Came Laws, ae-
pa,., NC to their present enactments.—(Cheers.)—No
Wci* of the legislative volume has produced more evil, by
I,„3_ngto crime by the infliction of misery, and by the
%cation of vice ; and the number of able men that
:re constantly committed to prison, and there learned all
lyst,tB of vices, sufficiently showed the bad workings of the
thi;-(Hear, hear.)—One of the principal reasons for
„wag, that the Game Laws, on the principle which
161,7 regulated
thentem, were contrary to the feelings and
Iruions of people 'of England.--(Hear, hear,)-
of'tead of giving the owner of land a full right over his
tewbo. property, the principle of the Game Laws gave ex-
v,it:we privileges to one particular class. Although it
well-known that no one, under the present laws could
p,tewrved
game, unless he was the owner of property ; yet
1:"11 who were the owners of such property had no
'Pt rights to the game upon it. His object, therefore,
op to get rid of these anomalies, and, by placing the laws
,10-" 4 more reasonable basis, to conciliate the feelings of the
blintrY toward them, giving them at the same time an
441,11 chance of being willingly obeyed. by the people,
, 4:44 the Member for Buckinghamshire had proposed to
1,/24,g forward his Bill, he (Lord Althorp) had offered that
lee 1e Lord the assistance of the Government on the sub-
but when the amendments the Government pro-
were submitted to that Noble Lord, he stated that
1,-v were such as to make his an entirely new Bill, and
tici therefore declined the proposal. At that late hour of
I gtb aight he did not intend to argue the question at
tattoos' he would, h state e ncipal regu-
; which he intended owever,
to propose ;th andpri though there
attt4,_iniY was a very great difference between the two Bills
,4 iue was bound to say that it coincided in many points
Ltteo, that. of the Noble Lord. The great difference be-
n his proposition and that of the Noble Lord's was,
p (t"le the Noble Lord preserved a qualification which he
tirol a to get rid of. He meant to do away with all
peLofications—(Hear, hear)--whatever, and allow any
on payment of a sum for a license, which should
a be of a very large amount, to be qualified to kill
Biel hi, The Noble Lord permitted the sale of game, so
MRill. The Noble Lord secured the owners of game
ost fraud, and: in this he concurred with the Noble
by compelling all the d 1 alers in game to take out a
He thought it was not desirable to allow every
ih7n. to sell game who pleased without any controul, as
krt tnight encourage depredations on property, and there-
Le he retained the licensing system. The mode by which
t-17. Proposed t protect the landowner was by the law of
eit,P44-(110
ear, hear.)—He would allow the landown-
tieeto carry trespassers on their property before two Jos-
*: by Whom they might be summarily punished. There
pre one important part of the present law intended to
ell ent night poaching. That was, he admitted, a great
14,4,, but he believed that increasing the severity of the
lki„,4td much tended to promote battles and bloodshed.
Ali Noble Lord, in his Bill, proposed that night poaching
e 0,114 be punished, for the first offence by tliFee months'
iC4Pnent, and at the end of that find security for good
-'lour, for the second offence the Noble Lord proposed
months', imprisonment also, with security at the end
44t,11e confinement ; and for the third offence he proposed
the
it should be regarded as a misdemeanour, and the
ender be liable to imprisonment or transportation for
romt° Years. In his (Lord Althorp's) Bill be proposed to
hithe the punishment for the two first offences somewhat
laiv". For the first offence he proposed four months' im-
the )4ntent ; for the second offence eight months; and for
toi‘ttliird offence be proposed that it should be treated as a
akheoleatiour, and punished with two years' imprison-
ahrttithot not by transportation. Be left out that part
tsarequired security, but it was te' that to demand
tiomltY (front persons of the description of those who
itaa .Y committed those offences, was to condemn them to
horwortment for an indefinite period. That was not, he
rtstoj: the Noble Lord's intention, but that would be the
tioo, °I demanding security. These were his proposi-
tlak,.."o4 they would, he believed, give persons of all
had and conditions the amusement of sporting. He
tiitat.,..cd, also, the difference between his Bill and that
ta,..eiloble Lord. There was, however, another differ-
if th:bieb be had forgotten. By the Noble Lord's Bill,
they 'e* Persons were found together in the fields by night
hil4were rendered liable to transportation for fourteen
Mated That clause he had wholly omitted. Having thus
mote the principle objects of his Bill, he had only to
Air for leave to bring it in.—(Hear.)
`ireSi PLTHELL approved of the measure.
a,rl* SHELLEY was sure the Noble Lord would find
tip';` ot deceived in his expectations of the good he anti-
Of but would not oppose the Noble Lord's motion.
tatibi; 't,'VLER expressed great satisfaction at the under-
e the Noble Lord.
tilt
th
Nil-ITTLETON expressed an opinion in favour of
I doe
of ou
little
suana td at t shou be two li ,
little cost,e to allow aere man told shoot over hiscenses own
tcner,l4l;ther to cost a larger sum, to allow him to shoot
l'Ye4't▪ h,l°l,nel WOOD objected to the two licenses proposed
lle `4°o• Member, and wished the Bill to be made as
tea ,il.Possible. He cordially concurred in the princi-
-47u.e. title Bill, and hoped that it migbt come to a happy
e suggested to the Noble Lord the propriety of
tio„ g the •
c.,ata fro Bill into two parts, separating the money
• j tti all puts that merely related to game.
'Nor; SEBRIGHT gave his hearty concurrence to the
ta4td.l
lit the• RUSSELL thought it would not be advisable,
,tellie.-`e of doing away the qualification, to lower the
'4lll ' °l3, the contrary, he thought the price of the
Sl e 41'4
ietent, eate should be raised, and he believed . it was
he; th too of his Noble Friend to propose to raise it to
th''''re the Committee. As to the money clauses, he hoped,
their Houses
Rill proceeded so far as the other House, that
pik-in t""t*r p i'.2,4sea would come to an understanding about
eges, which would remove the obstacles to
A„ii4leb Bills
t4le, sale MEMBER concurred in the propriety of making
Roble, and in making dealers take out licenses. ,
plpspine in PEEL was afraid the House was too
me ”pectation, and too ready to overlook the
I. ailling game. Any proposition to alter the
bLthoaetiogtisaiwa, they were so bad, ought to he listened to
e rot/cti°n, but he cautioned the House against ex •
tnueb from the Bill of the Noble Lord. He
ivper t
of an ,fe abolishing qualifications, but did not think
.1 ense of 5/. could equalize the privileges of the
le ohjee.eone acre or the owner of 1,000 acres of land.
h4lio ditit d also to the suggestion of the double license,
tlei,,vontiot know why a man might not shoot over
Lt 0,4° is land, if that neighbour pleased, with-
. .7 vet, r.lg additionally. The double certificate would
atio
h,t() th Lia• He was afraid that the Bill might
ocight
aed Present vexation of the Game Laws—that
to !Plc t,, d to the number of preserves, and stimulate
'l° Tcake care of game by adding a marketable value
4 %oar temptation to destroy game would, he believed,
n• He suggested to the Noble Lord not to at-
b.:th alter the ltwa respecting poaching by night. It
he as Zme in the Noble Lord not to attempt too much.
akttt !;hiing of large bodies of men by night was a
ttefete the Bill might increase the desire for that ; and
hod, th 'S hoped, giving friendly advice to the Noble
at ike
tko would not repeal the penal laws to which he
of „ He approved of doing away the qualification,
t~Apf-is a tie
n a; the sale of game; but he hoped the
1/0111.would not be too precipitate.
tO *Y, ,
e MEMBER was glad the qualification was done
1 the h should support the Bill, because he wished
1;•,i;lti Alpine laws simplified.
th_RPEPTH expressed his thanks to his Noble
ott!,.e he
Chancellor of the Exchequer, for the sound
had introduced. It was one proof of the dis-
,to '43 Noble Friend to use his new acquired power,
a 41;.. ,„:4,JotreytThe,,,few, but to benefit the many..
e AT, ',led) supported the proposition.
lORNEY-GENERAL wished that the Right

Hon. Baronet had not adopted the tone of discouragement
which he had made use of. He requested his Noble
Friend not to give up that part of his Bill which got rid
of the severe penal laws against night poaching. The
crime was the result of the laws. The common law was
sufficient to punish these offences, and they ought not to
be left to be punished by au extraordinary law made by
the landowners, and executed by the game preservers. The
difference between the mild punishments of a Judge at the
Assize and of the Justices at the Quarter Sessions had a
very material effect in confusing in the minds of the
people the notions of right and wrong.
After a few words from Sir Thomas Freemantle, Mr.
Benett, Mr. Hunt, and Mr. P. H. Howard, _ _

Lord ALTHQRP made a short reply. He did not ex-
pect that the Bill would do away with poaching alto
gether, but he thought it would greatly diminish it. As
to the licenses, the proper time of discussing that point
would be in the Committee.

In answer to a question from an Honourable Member,
Lord ALTHORP did not mean to extend the pro-
visions of the Bill to Ireland. He likewise stated that he
had some doubts in his mind with respect to the expedi-
ency of the arrests.
Leave was then granted to bring in the Bill; and Lord
ALTHORP soon after brought it in; when it was read a first
time, and ordered to be lead a second time en Friday.
On the motion of Mr. HUME, various returns were
ordered to be laid before the House of the Civil Superan-
nuations in 1830 ; also, of all existing Half-pay Superan-
nuations, Civil and Military, for 1830; also, of the Ex-
penditure of 12,0001. for forming tables of the parishes
in Ireland ; also, of the Half-pay of one hundred and fifty
Officers having Halt-pay in the Army and the Militia.
On the motion of Mr. MAXWELL, it was ordered
that the House should be called over on Monday, the 28th
February.
Mr. STANLEY obtained leave to bring in a Bill to
amend the Richmond Lunatic Asylum Act.
The House having resolved itself into a Committee on
the Revenue Acts (Ireland), it was ordered, on the motion
of Lord ALTHORP, that the Chairman should be in-
structed to move for leave to bring in a Bill to amend
the said Acts.
Mr. COURTENAY asked the Noble Lord when it was
his intention to bring in the Bills for the repeal of the various
duties alluded to in the budget
Lord ALTHORP replied, that he meant to bring in the
Bills repealing the duties on coals and candles tomorrow;
but that be had net made up his mind when to bring in de
Bill to equalize the duties on wine.
The House was then resumed, and Sir A. GRANT
moved for and obtained leave to bring in the Bill.
Mr. TRENCH obtained leave to bring in a Bill to amend
the Irish Election Acts.

Mr. O'BRIEN brought in the Bill for the relief of the
aged, infirm, and helpless poor in Ireland.—Read a first
time, and ordered to be read a second time on Monday the
28th of February; and to be printed.
Mr. R. GRANT postponed, until the 14th of April, his
motion for removing the Civil Disabilities of the Jews.
The other Orders of the Day were then disposed of, and
at Ten Minutes after Two o'clock this morning the House
adjourned.

FROM THE GAZETTE OF LAST NIGHT.

Whitehall, Jan. 27, 1831.
The Lord Chancellor has appointed Joseph Smith, of Carlton-
itnh et
hceouillitgyhof
oNuortttioilfS&alani,;ceGreynt. to be Master
uLP:tnra:orrr:Putiriyn

Whitehall, Feb. 5.
The Lord Chancellor has appointed Robert Beales Baas, of
Halesw•orth, in the county of Suffolk, Gent, to be a Master Ex-
traordinary in the High Court of Chancery.

Crown-office, Feb. 15.

MEMBER RETURNED TO SERVE IN TIIIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT.
Borough of Windsor.—The Right Hon. Edward Geoffrey
Stanley, one of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council,
and Chief Secretary for the affairs of that part of the United
Kingom called Ireland, in the room of Sir Richard Hussey
Vivian, Bart., who has accepted the Chiltern Hundreds.

\Var.Office, Feb. 15.

Magistrates' Office. Halifax. Edwards, Bouverie-street, Lon.
don ; Edwards, Halifax.
JOHN KILLERBY, White-street, Southwark, "straw hat-
manufacturer, Feb. 23, March 1, and '29, at eleven, at the Court
of Commissionrs. Wragg, Bedford-place, Southwark Bridge-road.
JOSEPH JAMES COLLINS Three Hats, Islington,
li-
cenced victualler, Feb. 22, March 1, and '2J, at eleven, at the
Court of Commissioners. Bowles, King's Anus-yard, Coleman-
street, London.

DIVIDENDS.
S. Furnis and W. S. Enrols New Bond-street, hatters, March
15, at three, at the Court of' Commissioners—H. Brown, Nor-
wich, laceman, March 15, at eleven, at the Court of Commis-
sioners—T. Vinen, Norwich, woollen-draper, March 15, at eleven,
at the Court of Commissioners—J. Rowbotham, Long-lane, Ber-
mondsey, furrier, March 8, at ten, at the Court of Commis-
sioners-,K. H. Marshall, Plymouth, draper, March 18, at eleven,
at the Court of Commissioners—D. Macleod, Water-lane, Tower.
street, cork-merchant, March 8, at ten, at the Court of Commis.
sioners—J. Thompson, Fox Ordinary-court„ Nicholas-lane, tailor,
March 8, at nine, at the Court of Commissioners—J. Poulter,
Black Horse, High-street, Marylebone, victualler, March
8, at nine, at the Court of Commissioners—W. C. Thorn_
t h waite, W. Ryland, and J. Wills, Fleet-street, iron-
mongers, March 8, at eleven, at the Court of Commissioners
—H. Holborrow, Oldbury-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire, meal-
man March 11, at one, at the White Hart Inn, Chippenham—
W. Williams, Bristol, ironfounder, March 4, at one, at Dee's
Royal Hotel, Birmingham—W. Barry, Bruton, Somersetshire,
banker, March 14, at two, at the Blue Ball Inn, Bruton—E.
Croft, Louth, Lincolnshire, tanner, March 10, at three, at the
New King's Head Inn, Louth—J. Tetley, Harden, Yorkshire,
worsted stuff-manufacturer, March 10, at twelve, at the Talbot
Inn, Bradford—S. James, Carlisle, mercer, March 9, at eleven,
at the Bush Inn, Carlisle.
CERTIFICATES—Maacu
- - ---• •

T. F. Drought, Ilminster, druggist—J. and S. X myates, Li.
verpool, provision-merchants—J. Booth, Plymouth-grove, Chorl.
ton-row, Lancashire, cotton-spinner—J. Hulme, Stepney, vie.
tualler—E. R. S. Falkner, South-hill, Nottinghamshire, school-
master—D. Stephenson, jun., Mitchell Laiths, Yorkshire, dealer
J. L. Parker, Birchin-lane, merchant—S. James, Carlisle, mercer.

A question was asked last night in the House of
Commons by Sir R. Vivian, with reference to a
subject of no small interest at the present moment,
namely, the demonstrations of France on the Bel-
gian and Prussian frontiers. He wished to ask
Lord Palmerston " whether the Noble Lord was
aware, or whether his Majesty's Government had
received information of the assembling of a large
body of troops on the north-eastern fro►►tier of
France ?" The answer was, that "he believed the
amount of that force had been much over-stated;
but this he would say, that his Majesty's Govern-
ment had received from the French Government,
with respect not only to that force, but to all other
military force in France, repeated and positive as-
surances of the most pacific intentions on the part
of France, and declarations of the earnest desire of
the French Government to maintain the relations of
friendship, not only with England, but with all the
other great Powers of Europe.—(Hear, hear.)"
We cannot divest ourselves of the suspicion that the
French Government and the Allies understand each
other perfectly well, and that the object of the force
on the Belgian and Prussian frontiers will soon be no
secret. There has been a great deal too much diplo-
macy about Belgium. First, the poor people were not
to form a republic; then they were not to choose for
their Sovereign any Prince connected with the great
States; then they are not to choose the Duke de Leuch-
tenberg; and all the while interest is made with the
Rulers of the secondary States that they shall de-
cline the Sovereignty if offered them. The people
are determined that the Nassau family shall not
reign over them; and the Powers exert themselves
to prevent their having any other. The unsettled
state of the country, the danger of commotions, all
pass for nothing. In Poland, in Germany, in Swit-
zerland and Italy, the people are moving. The
Sovereigns of the Holy Alliance are well aware
that the Revolution of July is the cause of these,
and will be the cause of further movements. We
may therefore be assured that they will endeavour
to make head against the new Power which shakes
their authority. Till it be determined whether despc-
tism or constitutional Government shall have the
ascendancy, Europe cannot know peace. The
French are manfully preparing for the crisis; and
we may be assured they have so taken their mea-
sures that no other Power shall prevent then+ and
the Belgians from forming a junction at the suitable
time. A strong force on the two flanks of the
Prussian territory on the left bank of the Rhine will
secure Belgium from that quarter. In the last
number of Cobbett's Register, a very happy applica-
tion is made of an observation of Fielding to the
disposition of the Belgians and French towards
each other :

" Fielding says that when both parties are of a mind,
whether it be to fight or to marry, it is extremely diffi-
cult to keep them asunder ; but that if either of the
parties have no stomach for the enterprise, a team of horses
will not get them together—a striking instance of which
latter I once witnessed in a man who was always boast-
ing of his pugilistic might and prowess, but who, having
taken a culling and kicking as silently as a woolpack,
and having been driven (in order to save his coward hide
for the moment) to postpone the sequer of the salutation
by the accepting of a challenge for the next day, dis-
covered, in shuffling out of the challenge, more ingenuity
than timid hare ever discovered to avoid her pursuers,
and, in resisting the arguments in favour of the necessity
of fighting, more courage than St. Dunstan discovered in
all his immortal battles with the devil. Far otherwise is
it in the present case. Here is a marriage in question ;
and the parties are both of a mind, and ready to leap into
each other's arms. It signifies not a straw, therefore,
what Louis-Philippe and his insolvent bankers may think
or say of the matter; the rich and beautiful bride offers
her hand to her brave and strong and ardent lover."

Is the honour of this country concerned in pie-
venting this union ? Before this question is an-'
swered, it might be as well to answer the question
why Russia was allowed, at the late settlement of
Europe, to run off with the lion's share of Poland ?
Was it not because Alexander had 500,000 men on
foot, as he told Lord Castlereagh ? Belgium was
dissevered from France, because France was unable
to resist ; Poland was retained by Russia, because
no one durst challenge the theft. In looking to the
future tranquillity of Europe, we see much less to
apprehend from France than from Russia. The
French are a brave people certainly, but they are a
civilized and industrious people. War is to them a
great sacrifice, and all the well-informed part of
them must know, that though war is preferable to
subjection
in the ca
to des posteis mu;
a itGuisve notrnm the Government
like Russia,
less a great
evil. But
war is always to be wished for. Occupation
must be found for the enormous army which is kept
up. The independence of Poland is an object of
far more consequence to the future tranquillity of
Europe than the prevention of the union of France
with Belgium. It is in the power of the French to
manage matters so that Belgium shall virtually be-
long to her, though nominally independent. They
have only to establish a free intercourse with Bel-
gium, and the connection will become so intimate
that all attempts to break it will be impossible. It
is useless, therefore to contend against the nature of
things; and we trust that our honour will never
prompt us to make the attempt.—Morn. Chronicle.
The Bishop of London again adverted to the sub-
ject of tithes :
" lie had made (he said) his calculations on returns
presented to Parliament in the year 1811—a year, he be-
lieved, of great agricultural prosperity. These returns stated
the whole amount at 2,300,000/. ; and taking the whole
amount paid to the lay impropriators, which be estimated
at full one-third, and making what he considered a very
large allowance for the incomes of Bishops and the Deans
and Chapters, he found that the average would not much
exceed 1851. ; certainly it did not reach 2001. a year.
The returns, he admitted, bad been made for the subject
of taxation, and therefore there was probably some little
deceit in them, but he had allowed for that ; and when
they considered the depreciation of alt agriculturul pro-
perty in the year 1830, he thought the calculations would
be found as accurate as any which could be made under
the circumstances.
He added, in answer to a question from Lord
Radnor, " that the estimate included the property
of ecclesiastical and lay corporations." So long as
reliance shall be placed on pretended accounts de-
Irived from this or that source, no conclusion can be
drawn as to the income of the chum!) of the least
value. The clergy may take less than their full
claims in some cases (we believe they do in many
cases;)
but as they can exact their full claim, we
entitled to estimate their income at the full
yran
Now leaving out of consideratio all the
other sources
n sources of income, and confining ourselves to
the tithe, it is laid down by Dr. Bearblock, the
authority most looked up to by the clergy, in his
Treatise upon Tithes, " that any sum not exceed-
ing one-third, may be considered a reasonable pay-
ment in lieu of all tithes arising on a farm ; for this
plain reason, viz, that unless the occupier can make
the produce of his farm return nearer four rents
than three, such farm cannot be worth his holding,
Wherever farms are notoriously under-rented or
under-rated, through concealment of the rent, there
the tithe-holder's claim, as in case of occupiers of
land, must be regulated, not by what is,
what ought to be the rent proportionably
buttrsh' ietilri by
theo'ln neighbourhood." Now, taking the rental
at 30 millions, and there can be no question
that it is considerably more, one third would
give 10 millions ; arid if we deduct one-third for
lav-innpropriations and moduses, the proportion usu,
ally assigned to them by the best authorities, we
shall have a sum of upwards of six millions and a
half. But this is wily a part of the revenue of the
church. We all know that the clergy possess a num-
ber of sources of income besides. The author of
the Extraordinary Black Book—a publication to
which the Bishop of London evidently alluded on
Monday night—allowing 6,8E4,8004 for the tithes
to the clergy, make the whole revenue of the church
9,459,5661. every one knows that in the city of
London the clergy have a large income from a rate
on the rents. However, the public are bound to
inquire into what the clergy actually do receive. It
is obvious they may claim and enforce payment of
about seven millions for their tithes. The well-in-

formed Editor of the Scotsman, in the paper of the
sth February, makes the rietual income of the
church seven millions. Sir John Sinclair makes
the stipends to the Scotch clergy amount to less
than one shilling in the pctind of the rent. It was
assessed to the property tax at upwards of five mil-
lions. As the rent of Scotland includes the tithe,
we may take the tithe at one-fourth of the rent, and
that would give 1,250,0001.—a sum at least five
times more than what the clergy receive, though
they have 2501. a year at an average. The nation
must not be mystified by such absurd statements as
those of the Bishop of London.—. Morning Chronicle.
The opinion extends itself fast throughout the
country, that boroughs, usually termed " close "
ones, however unfit to exercise any longer the right
of sending Members to Parliament, who do not and
•
cannot represent the " people," are nevertheless
very far from being the most disgraced by positive
corruption, or the most instrumental in spreading
and establishing amongst Englishmen an utter con-
tempt for all political duties. The electors for a close
borough, who have acquired the right to vote by
subscribing to the single stipulation that they will
vote invariably for one acknowledged patron, can
hardly be accused of personal criminality in doing
that which the very constitution of the borough as-
sures us must be done by every one wbo is admitted
to its franchise. The vice of a close borough is in
its own peculiar frame and character. The Legislature
has left it in the power of some one member of the
aristocracy to appoint the whole constituent body of
the place, and human nature has so willed it, that
the nominator of the burgesses does and ever will
select them for that office, solely with the view of
making, through them, a second nomination—viz.,
that of the person who shall call himself their re-
presentative. We dare to say that there are many
electors of close boroughs who, regarding the sep-
tennial election of their patron's nominee as the just
and indispensable acquittance of that service which
constitutes the tenure of their elective right, would
repel with scorn the offer of a bribe in money us an
insult to their integrity and honour. Such men are
merely passive tools for keeping up the movement of
a destructive system; no degree of virtue on their
part would purify or redeem the borough. Even if
the law, permitted them, one and all, to divest
themselves of the franchise, their successors
must employ it, as they had done, in electing
him, or the deputy of him, from whom they
had derived the privilege of election—an elec-
tion which leaves them no free agency, compelling
them to be either bad citizens, or faithless and trea-
cherous individuals. The constitutions of the open
boroughs, on the other baud, are often framed in
correspondence with some plausible theory of free-
dom. Numbers and poverty, as well as property,
are qualified to send Members to the House of Com-
mons. The people of these boroughs (such people
as they are !) enjoy an unrestricted right. They
have none to direct or force them ; they are " free
and independent" Englishmen ; and what is the
worth to them of their elective franchise ? Why, just
what it w ill bring in money from the candidates, so
often as Parliament may be dissolved. We have be-
fore us, and shall add to these remarks, the copy of
a curious petition, which was presented by Lord
Ebrington on the 11th instant, from Mr. Flight, an
attorney, respecting the practices which usually
take place at Bridport, between the majority of the
" free and independent voteis" of that town, and
those gentlemen who achieve the honour of being
sent by them to. Parliament. The number of
voters, it appears, is not quite three hundred
and fifty, and each constituent of those who
vote in the majority,—that is, who return the suc-
cessful candidate,—is in the habit of receiving the
sum of 101. for his vote. Such is the public spirit of
those who would very possibly be among the foremost
to cry out against the corruption of close boroughs,
and the despotism of an overbearing aristocracy !
Here the vice is not so much in the constitution of
the borough, as in the morality of the electors. The
cure may be, either—first to raise the qualification
in respect of property, at the same time that nine or
ten times the number of individuals having property
are admitted to the franchise; or, establishing some
more varied qualifications, introduce the so-much-
called-for screen (the indiscriminate screen) of inno-
cence and knavery, the ballot. The principle of
Reform has been for some time so universally re-
cognized throughout the kingdom, that it would be
an utter waste of time and labour to recommend it.
But there is almost an infinity of details to be dis-
cussed, on which it would be vain to hope for any
thing like uniformity of feeling among the abstract,
however honest, advocates for even the most exten-
sive Reform.
" COPY of a PETITION presented by LORD EBRINGTON
to the HOUSE of COMMONS, on FRIDAY, FEB. 11.

I 4 TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF THE
UNITED KINGDOM OF GRAT BRITAIN AND
IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED,

THE HUMBLE PETITION OF EDWARD GILL
FLIGHT, OF BRIDPORT, IN THE COUNTY OF
DORSET, GENTLEMAN, ATTORNEY-AT-LAW.

" Showeth,—That the number of voters for Memhers
of your Honourable House, for the borough of tii►lport,
is less than 350.

" That your petitioner is prepared to prove before your
Honourable House, that for a long time past and hitherto,
it bath been the established and recognized usage and
custom, for each of the majority of the voters for Mem-
bers of your Hon. House, for the said borough, to receive
101. for his s ote ; and also, immediately after the election
of the said Members, to be fed by the publicans and
victuallers in the said borough, at the expense a the said
Members.

" That your petitioner hath lieu informed that the
question of Parliamentary Reform is intended to be brought
before your Hon. House.

" Your petitioner therefore humbly prays tL•at your
Hon. House will be pleased to take into serious considera-
tion the case of the borough of Bridport, and of every
other borough and place where similar practices have
existed, or do exist, so that all such abuses may be put an
end to."

" And your petitioner will ever pray," &e.—.[ Times
The subjects of discussion last night, in the two
[louses of Parliament, were various, and some of
them important. We have elsewhere noticed Lord
Palmerston's statement respecting the pacific inten-
tions of the French Government, and the opinion
expressed by Mr. Alderman Waithman on the im-
ports and exports of the country. Besides these
topics, we invite attention to the sound, judicious,
and decisive declaration of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, that the currency was in a healthy con-
dition, and ought not to be meddled with—a decla-
ration the most important, as the rather ambiguous
language of Sir James Graham on the preceding
evening had occasioned some disagreeable appre-
hensions. Lord Althorp referred to a Committee
the extravagant bills for Windsor Castle and Buck-
ingham House—the former the pride, the latter the
shame, of English architecture. lie also announced
that the promised opening Mt!) St. James's Park
will be made with all convenient despatch, But
the most .;i4narkable circumstance of the even-
ing was the introduction of the Game Bill. When
Lord Althorp gave notice of his intention to bring
forward a measure on this subject, we anticipated a
rational and humane enactment. We are not dis-
appointed. We have not time, however, at pre-
sent, for more than a very brief summary of the
Bill. His Lordship proposes to repeal all the
existing game laws he abolishes altogether the
qualification to kill game, and any person taking
out a certificate of 51. may lawfully kill it. The
sale of game will be legalized, the sellers being
licensed. Land will, as in all other cases, be pro-
tected front intrusion and trespass by the common
law. Night poaching, which is a graver offence,
will be punishable in the first instance, after con-
viction before two Magistrates, by four months: im-
prisonment; on the second delinquency by eight;
the third offence will be considered a misdemeanour,
punishable with two years' imprisonment. The sim-
plicity and plain sense of the proposed measure
made a very forcible impression on the House. It
may not effect all the good intended; but it re-
moves much of the evil of the existing laws, and
by bringing the regular sale of game into competi-
tion with the irregular, must diminish the poacher's
profits, and in the same proportion his temptation

to steal. Nobody of course imagines that posch'ng
can be altogether abolished, any more than picking
pockets or sheep-stealing; but the poacher—cod
this is a great point--will henceforth be consi-
dered, not, as now, a daring sportsman, but a pet ry
sneaking thief.—Tintcs.

The affairs of Belgium have from the beginning
been felt to involve the question of peace or war,
—of the territorial aggratidizement or increased
power of France, with all Europe as her
enemy.,
or of her moderation and controulled ambition, with
the preservation of the General Alliance. Hence
the intense interest excited by every n ovement or
word of a set of inexperienced Belgic adventurer.,
who call themselves Statesmen because they tre
placed in a situation to embroil their betters; and
hence the legislative assemblies of four neigAnuring
nations—the only nations in Europe which Ilse,•
free legislative assemblies—entertain the satire in-
quiries at the same time. Almost :every day the
French Chamber of Deputies, the Belgic Congress,
and the States-Gen mai of Holland are called upon
to hear some statement, or provoked to enter into
some discussion on these agitating affair-. The
Parliament of England has, till last night, attained
from demanding disclosures, and the information
which our Minister has communicated was, very
properly, scanty and reserved. Though our cu-
riosity were even keener than it is, we
might be almost satisfied with the communi-
cations which reach us through the medium of
the papers and debates of our neighbours, with whom
politics seem again to have become, as in areient
times, a matter of the forum—who no sooner re-
ceive an official note or protocol than they lay it
before the sovereign people in the market-place—
who have abolished all diplomatic secrecy, and seem
resolved to play the game of negotiation, as M. de
Villele expresses it, cartes stir la toble. We have
no objections to thi. in the case of other nations,
but we are likewise pleased with the ordinary re-
serve of our own Government during pending nego-
tiations. '1 he answer which Lord Palmerston gave
to the questions put by Sir R. Vyvyan last night
was no departure from the usual course. The letter
of General Sebastian; seemed so extraordinary as to
warrant some doubt of its authenticity, sad the pie-
parations on the French frontiers have been so em-
blazoned as to require some explanation of their
amount. The Foreign Secretary having removed
the former, and given the latter in the shortest com-
pass possible, put an end to the conversation, The
letter of the chief of the Belgic deputation at Paris,
which fully accords with that system of publicity
to which we have above alluded, is a very singular
composition. It announces to the wondering Belgians
what great turn their Deputies have become at
Paris,—how they have been treated by the Minister,
arid received by the King. It moreover informs
them that tiny do not despair of yet inducing Louis
Philip to give them his son for their newly-erected
throne. Then the chief of the deputation dexte-
rously attacks the interest of both rivals of the
Duke of Nemours, by telling Congress that the
Duke of Leuchtenberg would not be acknowledged
by the Allied Courts, and that the preter.sioiis of the
Prince of Orange would be opposed if he ethic".
What does all this mean 1' Does the French Mi-
nistry intend, by this cajolery and toque!ry, to keep
the Belgic deputation in Paris until they ean find
some pretext for breaking their eigagements with
the rest of Europe, anti accepting the proffered
crown? If they are honest and sincere, wiry not
have given an answer at once? 'Why express so
many regrets about the necessity of declining, for
the sake of peace, an offer, the refusal ref which
good faith and solemn pledges render itievitaVe
What other Sovereign eau afterwards place reliance
on the Belgians, so wheedled and seduced at the
Palais Royal ? If we had not so great a reliance on
the character of the King of the French, we should
suspect a dishonest juggle in the whole of this pro-
ceeding from the beginning to the end.—Times.
It is with pleasure we fintl that Sir F. Burtie:t
has given notice of a motion to introduce a dame
into the annual Mutiny Bill to suppress the punish-
ment of flogging in the army. Marry years ago the
worthy Baronet distinguished himself by humane
and eloquent efforts to induce the Legislature to put
an end to a cruel and degrading practice, perfectly
unnecessary for the enforcement of discipline in the
a-my, and calculated to inflict the deep sta.,' of
barbarism on the habits of the country by wnieli it
is tolerated. The civil torture of the peineforte et
dare, which was once a disgraceful part of our judi-
cial practice, has long been abolished as inhuman
and barbarous ; and the spirit of civilization, which
denounced and rejected that malignant invention to
punish by lingering torment, the unhappy being who
stood obstinately mute wine called upon to plead
to a charge of felony, demands, with a loud voice,
the supprete.ion of the military tenure of the
cat-o'-nine-tails. But this practice prevails in
the navy, both in the King's met merchant,' ser-
vice, us well as in the army, though it is undoubtedly
in the latter that it is carried to the most exqui-
site degree of savage perfection. Only think of a
sentence of 300, of 500, and sometimes of 1,000
lashes, being carried into effect on tire naked back
of a human being, by an instrument ingeniously con-
trived to inflict the greatest possible amount of tor-
ture with a given quantity of laceration—wielded
by a muscular arm—with a surgeon occasionally
feeling the pulse of the victim, to ascertain how
much more of this agonizing pain call be inflicted
without breaking in irreparably upon the sources of
life ! Tell us not of the Holy Inquisition, with its
pulleys and its screws, arid other modes of inflicting
refined and protracted pain without destroying life,
while this instrument of savage cruelty is applied to
the back of the British soldier. Is there any thing
better calculated to destroy those manly feelings, and
that sense of shame, without some remains of which
no reformation of a delinquent can, at least by human
agency, be expected ? A being, with lacerated back,
and utterly dishonoured among his fellows, may stir-.
vive the torture of that punishment, but he cannot
escape from its degradation—he may linger for
years through the downcast, abject, blasted ex-
istence of the " whip-galled slave," but he will
never rise again into the station and attitude of man!
Vulgar minds, when they possess power (and such
vulgar minds may be found in the highest order of
patrician society) look only to force as the means
of preserving authority. It is u quick and compen-
dious way of settling questions of obedience and dis-
cipline, but it is often too the most ready and effectual
means of creating more disorder than it suppresses,
and of giving a more dangerous activity to the spirit of
insubordination. The application of the lash,however,
for the correction of either trivial or grave offences,
requires. the exorcise of no powers of mind—it
does not induce the necessity of thinking about the
reformation of the offender; and while it affords to
the cruel and revengeful an agreeable spectacle and
a favourite pastime, it recommends itself, by the
ease with which it is accomplished, to the disposi-
tions of the indolent. To regulate the actions, to
curb the will, and coritroul the passions of men by
moral government, is a more troublesome matter, at
least in the outset, and requiring a nicer and more
laborious exercise of the mental powers; hut we
imagine that the moral government, even of soldiers,
when once it is established on right principles
is not only more effective than that of torture
and force, but. becomes, in the end, more easy.
We believe, in the few regiments in which it
ttf..o,und to produce better soldiers,
has been substituted for the lash in the British
atbwerermthrtyloeirsimt‘oyefei:lassstaiayiberiedtee:laal more effective discipline, than the
se e hoafv efl
flogging
g oughtcreated.
ot-nine
to be abolished in the navy, as well as in the army, we
ought not to forget the recent instance of the cruel
and deplorable fate of the boy William heritage,
of the King's ship the North Star—the subject of
the late Court-martial at Portsmouth. There may
be tnany such instances that never come to light. In
that case the instrument of torture was not forth-
coming, though the victim sought refuge from it in
a voluntary death! If the Commander of the
cruet
sel, as it was peeved,. did not _know whattru2l
by means of tilli
suffering was daily inflicted