The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-18 00:00:00

ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN.

After some discussion, Messrs. Flower and Orme were
appointed scrutineers. The ballot commenced at half-past
two o'clock, and closed at four, when the numbers were de-

dared—

For Mr. Sergeant Adams 3B
For Mr. Sergeant Andrews 3B
. _ .

It was stated that the Chairman had not the privilege
of giving the casting vote ; and, in consequence, the Court
adjourned till next Thursday, when the election will begin
de novo, and close at four o'clock.

The Parisian adventure of a certain Colonel, 'dis-
tinguished above all Colonels in Christendom for his powers
of captivating, with his particular friend, a Noble Lord
who figures in the gayest circles, has never been truly told,
though a favorite story in salons and boudoirs. The facts
of the affair, the extraordinary love-scenes, the extraordinary
duct, the peculiar sang froid, and, the peculiar sword with
which the combat was performed—all that preceded the
dread duel, and all that followed it—is to be related, we un-
derstand, in the Court Journal. The Colonel's brilliant
sayings, as well as his doings, ought to be recorded, and
specimens of both, it is said, are to appear on Saturday. Full
particulars of their Majesties' Grand Ball at Windsor will also
be given in the same number of that fashionable journal.
MURDER OF A WIFE.—At the Edinburgh High
Court of Justiciary, on Monday, Charles Donaldson was con-
victed of the murder of his wife Margaret, on the 9th Nov.
last. It appears they led a wretched life, and on the night of
the murder the prisoner came home late, and, according to the
testimony of a witness, Mrs. Donaldson was in bed sound
asleep. Prisoner hauled her out of bed, and knocked her all
over the floor : he then took the frying-pan from above the
fire, and bit her twice over her head with it; he immediately
took a whiskey bottle, drank the whiskey, and broke it over
her head, prisoner having previously sent witness for a gill
of whiskey. The testimony of the medical witnesses proved
that death resulted in consequence of this ill-treatment. The
Jury retired about twenty-five minutes, and returned with a
verdict, finding, by a plurality of voices, the prisoner guilty
of murder, but unanimously and strongly recommending him
to mercy, on the ground of previous aggravated provocation.
He was sentenced to be executed on the 4th of April.:
A child was baptized in the High Church, Paisley,
on Sunday
.week, whose grandfather's grandmother is still
alive. This the second member of the fifth generation, and
none of the direct intermediate links between the child and
his great-great-grandmother are broken.
We learn from St. Petersburgh, that on the 26th
ult., the Emperor Nicholas, accompanied by his son, the
Grand Duke Constantine, High Admiral of the empire, was
present at the laying down of the keel of a 120-gun ship, to be
called the Russia. It will be 206 feet in length, 57 in breadth,
and will carry 48-pounders and mortars of heavy calibre,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Conjecture is as yet by no means set at rest in Paris
as to the political features of the Thiers' Ministry.
The discussion of the amnesty was calculated, every
body thought, to place the new Cabinet in a position
which would indicate its character in terms less equivo-
cal than those in which it has been hittherto involved.
But a certain degree of mystery still controls its desti-
ides, which seems to vary from day to day. One hour
it seems Doctrinaire—the next it is Tiers-Parti—then
silence resumes her reign, and each party claims the
Government as its own in turn. The Opposition is
forbearing, though M. Thiers provokes it to anger
the Doctrinaires are afraid to speak, though they vote
in his favour ; the Tiers-Parti are ambitious to 'be
thought in the ascendant, and yet they veil their
blushing honours under a strong imperturbabh mo.
deration. The Journal des Debats alone speaks out
boldly, and. even vehemently, denouncing this vague
and fluctuating course of proceeding, demanding ex-
planations which nobody seems inclined to give,
and uttering, in pedantic phraseology, complaints
of which all the world seems wearied. Meantime-,
the Cabinet paces slowly towards a line of policy
which if it be not at this moment liberal, seems more
likely to advance in that direction than in any other.
M. Sauzet, the Keeper of the Seals, was called into
the Tribune by the amnesty question. It will be re-
membered that on a former occasion he was a strong
advocate for that measure—that is to say, before the
late Proces Monstre, as it was very justly called,
commenced. As a Minister, he felt it, however, to
be h s duty to contend that, now the trials are over,
an I judgment is passed, the question is not one of am-
nesty, but of pardon ; and that as the prerogative of
mercy belongs in an especial manner to the Crown,
with the Crown alone ought the initiative to be left
upon such a subject. The attempt to establish a sub-
stantial distinction between amnesty and pardon is a
mere sophism. " To forgive and forget" is the meaning
of an amnesty ; can it be said that " pardon" signifies
"to forgive' but not "to forget ?" This would be to
take away from the clemency of the King all the grace
with which it ought ever to be invested. Such, how-
ever, are the subtle and puerile controversies in which
our neighbours seem sometimes delighted to engage
their minds. It is wonderful what slight forms occupy
their attention, and with what facility, while they dwell
on words, they permit themselves to lose sight of the
real principles of Constitutional Government. In our
system of government we admit it to be the special and
highest prerogative of'the King to grant a free pardon
to convicts of every description : but that principle
does not prevent the House of Commons from request-
ing his Majesty occasionally, either by address, or by
questioning a Minister, to exercise his authority in
favour of persons who are supposed to have been
severely visited by the judgment of any of his Courts
of Justice. The case of the Dorchester labourers is
exactly in point. M. Sauzet was accused of having
varied, as a Minister, from the opinions which be
delivered on the amnesty as a Deputy. He declared
it to be the resolution of the Government to advise
the King to extend his mercy to such of the prisoners
as it might not be dangerous again to let loose on so-
ciety, at least for some time. This declaration atones
for any slight discrepancy which might be discovered
between his expressions at different periods of his ca-
reer. What is still better, there was a cordiality about
his promises in this respect very different, indeed, from
the harsh and repulsive tone in which Persil would
have made a similar declaration, had it been imposed
upon him to pronounce it. Further, N. Sauzet added
that " the times were getting better, and that they (the
new Ministers) came to aid that amelioration ;" that
" their mission was to maintain public order, to watch
over the execution of the law, and to preserve inviolate
the true principles of constitutional government." We
believe M. Sauzet to be sincere in the expression of
these sentiments ; whereas, if Guizot or Persil uttered
thoughts like these, nobody would repose in them the
slightest confidence. This, of itself, is progress.
One other sentiment, happily expressed by M. Sauzet
on this occasion, we must record. " When times
change," said he, " causes of irritation change also,
and far be it from us to convert the past into a perpe-
tual obstacle to the future." 'This simple declaration
disposes of the whole system of the Doctrinaires.
Accordingly the Journal des Desbats has become ex-
cessively angry. It describes the whole of this debate
as a most inexplicable affair, and swears that M.
Thiers has completely duped his colleagues. It must
be acknowledged that he has finessed more than one of
his cards, and that he has already won the first game.
It remains to lie seen whether he will gain the rubber.
—Morning Chronicle.

It is doubtful whether modern history—and we
will allow it to embrace 1,000 years—offers any series
of atrocities so revolving as those which during the
present civil war in the Peninsula have disgraced the
Spanish name and nation. The cruelties perpetrated
by the Guerillas during the war of what was called
emancipation were indeed sufficiently barbarous ; but
being provoked in some measure by the sanguinary
butcheries at Madrid and elsewhere, of which some of
the French invading troops had been guilty, and being
moreover exercised in favour of that quarrel which
England herself had embarked in, this nation may not
have been too curious in examining the details, or
very severe in judging them. The horrors, as they
are justly called of the French Revolution were ex-
hibited in an hour of perfect frenzy, when French
soeiety presented nothing but the Saturnalia of a band
of lunatics, and all semblance or pretence of regular
government, acting through responsible functionaries,
was wholly at an end—with the convulsive reign
of Robespierre at of waetos massacre expired.
The fiendish holocausts of the Irish rebellion in
1798, when Protestants, men, women, and children,
were by hundreds deliberately consumed to ashes—and
the not less terrible achievements of the pike, when
roads and bridges were rendered impassable by the gore
of captives unoffending and unarmed—all these were
examples of human nature in the depths of moral de-
composition. British ignorance, under the impelling
power of superstition and fanaticism, strengthened by
vague hatred and wild revenge, shed blood, inflicted
agony, and dealt out murder, with a mingled sense ofdu ty
and enjoyment. But the agents were the worstin-
structed and most uncivilized portion of a rude people,
who had been taught that their warfare was one of
life or death, that their fury was to be the recognized
measure of their zeal, and that freedom, plenty, and
Paradise were to be the prizes of a victory won by the
extermination of their enemies. But what can excuse,
or what account for, the crimes of these Spanish
barbarians ? The war is doubtless a civil war ; but

it is one carried on by " regular Governments" on
both sides. There is no palliation from feverish and
momentary rage, from the reckless violence of an in-
fatuated rabble, or from the persecuting frenzy of su-
perstition. In Spain all is sober, legalized, blood-
thirstiness. Carlos began by proclaiming that all con-
stitutional prisoners should be put to death. Instead.
of forcing this despot, by a milder and more generous
treatment of his own partisans, to renounce through
mere shame such systematic barbArity towards his foes,
the Queen's Government accepted the dreadful chal-

lenge, and butchered the Ca.rlist prisoners in return.
The Duke of Wellington, as became a British states-
man, mediated and obtained the signature of a conven-
tion, by virtue of which prisoners on both sides should
be spared. But how has it been acted on ? We fear,
not at all ; or latterly, at least, the bad nature of the
combatants has burst through the humane obligations
thus imposed upon them, and the unhappy captives
have been indiscriminately butchered. Tha circum-
stance, however, which above all others has roused
the slumbering instincts of humanity in relation
to this dismal contest, is new, we hope and trust,
even in Spanish annals. Cabrera, a partisan of Don
ts_the result
It would h
alarge price for
Carlos, has gathered some desperadoes about him,
tloia
offer' t l in,
and is accused, we dare say. with justice, of having
air‘
t,
committed
airrenbyeacitlrogctiltiiteesf. \
the capture of a barbarian who had violated the laws
of war, had taken advantage
of the confusion prevailing
everywhere to perpetrate crimes which are equally *—
in-
compatible with the usages of war and e p ace. Any pu-
nishment inflicted on such a criminal, after full proof of
the identity of his person, and of the reality of his
eifrences, would have i
neeueu no justification. But
this does not 1
suit the genius of a conflict so un-
christian, The Queen's General does not attempt

to lay hold of the culprit, in his own person ; he
hints out a vicarious sacrifice, and wreaks his ven-
geance on Cabrera's helpless and inoffensive mother ! !
If we could indulge any hope of redemption for
Spain, it would be founded on the evidence which hrs
reached us of the thrill of disgust and horror produced
at Madrid by this execrable assassination. The last
accounts state that General Nogueias had issued the
order under which this unhappy victim perished, after
obtaining the sanction of Mina, as Captain-General
of the province. If this be so, it mainly imports the
honour of the Queen's Government, and the eternal
cause of humanity, that the principal murderer, as well
as the inferior General, should be disgraced and signally.
punished. It is dreadful to contemplate our King of
England as the ally of a Government under which
such iniquities can be practised. It is most painful to
see our brave countrymen associated, though ever so
indirectly, with cruelties so base and monstrous.--

Times.
With the laudable design of furthering the cause of
religion by rendering the services of the clergy more
generally useful and available, we wonder that the at-
tention of the Church Commissioners has not been
turned to a class of that body who, most of them, with
ample stipends from the societies to which they belong,
lead a life, if not of general, at l east of professional, in
dolence. We allude to such of the clerical Fellows of
Colleges as have no' academical or professional duties
to perform ; and whose services might, we should
think, be very fairly and advantageously brought in aid
of parishes where the endowments are now too small
to admit of resident ministers, or of those where the
population is too large to be adequately provided for
by the Rectors or Vicars out of their present revenues.
There are in the two Universities of Oxford and Cam-
bridge 925 fellowships ; including the students of
Christchurch, of whieh 543 are held by persons in holy
orders. Of these latter it is not unreasonable to assume
that one-half, or say 250, have at present no offi-
cial or professional occupation, but are whileing away
their lives, waiting for college livings, which, it is well
known, too often devolve upon them at a period of life
when, for want of previous professional employment,
their utility is nearly neutralised. Now, where would
be the harm if the whole, or at least a large proportion
of these persons were, with their incomes, called into
action in some of the numerous cases to which we have
allUded ? Whether voluntarily or by compulsion, is a
point which we should be loath to suggest. At present
we only throw out the idea as one not unworthy of
consideration at this particular time, when the subject
excites such general interest and attention, and when
the Established Church is so eminently entitled to the
industry and the aid of all who have embarked in her
ministry. If this suggestion can be acted upon, in
which we see little practical difficulty, we feel con-
vinced that the advantage resulting from it would be
twofold—first, in the immediate benefit of the parishes
to which their temporary assistance might be called ;
and, secondly, as we have already suggested, in their
own greater fitness for the care of the benefices to
which they may be ultimately appointed.—Morning
Herald.
We have been curious to see whether the Ministe-
rial prints would seek to whitewash the Irish Educa-
tion Commissioners, by palliating, or by denying, the
charges of the Bishop of Exeter. They have done
neither. They have either prosed about education
generally, like Lord Melbourne, or eulogised Papists,
and ridiculed Protestants, like Lord Plunkett ; or been
struck dumb, like the Duke of Leinster ; or, hearing,
refused to hear, like Lord Lansdowne. When the
Bishop sat down we expected that the two latter would
both start up, each anxious to be foremost in second-
ing the motion. The Duke, as head commissioner, is
charged with a grave offence. His schools are said to
be hotbeds of Popery, and not only made use of to cul-
tivate error, but to eradicate truth. Not only
have nunneries and monasteries been made school-
houses, but schoolhouses have been turned into
chapels, and Protestants converted into massmongers.
It is not enough that Ministers themselves should
bow the knee to Baal ; but must the young, the inno-
cent, the godly, and faithful children of our Church
be made parties to what she has termed idolatry ?
Is it. not enough that the treasons, the robberies, the
murders which constitute Mr. O'Connell's peaceful
agitation," should be palliated by full-grown se-
nators in Parliament ; but in lieu of the old
text, ‘. Fear God, and honour the King," must in-
fant hands be guided to pen such words- as, " God
be with the poor fellows hanged at Maryborough ?"
Let Lord Lansdowne, let the Duke of Leinster,
look to this. The country expects from them a
denial of the truth of these statements, or a dis-
claimer of participation in the improprieties they
disclose. Inquiry is indeed desirable to us : but we
assure their Lordships it is not less desirable to them.
We waive for the present all reference to the other
charges, grave and discreditable though they be ; but
unless these two be met in a candid manner, and some
pledge be given of future reform, we must hold those
Noble Lords and their underlings guilty. Let their
friends the priests teach them to make a clear confes-
sion of ignorance and neglect, or we cannot absolve
them from the graver imputation of winking at Po-
pish infractions of their own system. If they will
not, let it be made better. We must find means to
prevent them from rendering it ten times worse.—
Morning Post.
We refer with much satisfaction to a Letter, which
will be found in another column, from Mr. Wakley,
upon the subject of the Stamp Duty on Newspapers.
The Honourable Member, as we are glad to perceive,
though determined in his opposition to any stamp
upon newspapers, is, nevertheless, willing that the
existing newspapers should be compensated for any
kisses to which they may be exposed by the irruption
of an unstamped press upon the ground which, despite
of the stamp, and many other difficulties, they have
made their own, at much risk, and at the expense of
enormous sums of money; but in order to secure this
point lie must, if he mean to deal justly by the ex-
isting press, take care to include, in moving an
amendment, a clause of compensation. His motion
must run thus,—" that the Stamp Duty on Newspapers
be abolished, and that compensation be granted to
those now in existence for any loss or losses which
may result therefrom ;" and if it do so run, and
be carried, no newspaper or proprietor of newspapers
can have any fair ground of complaint. If, on the
contrary, the total abolition be carried without compen-
sation, every existing newspaper will have as fair and
as just a right to complain as the West India pro-
prietors of slaves would have had, had the House of
Commons voted an abolition of slavery, without at

the same time voting an indemnification to the pro-
prietors of slaves. We were advocates for compensa-
tion to the West India planters, and deemed the aboli-
tion of slavery cheaply purchased at the expense of
twenty millions !--.-we are also advocates for the total
abolition of the Stamp Duty, but upon the same terms.
Some portion of the duty must be kept up, or com-
pensation granted to those who, at much expense, and
in despite of many difficulties, have fought the battle
of the people—grant the compensation, and we arc
ready to take the field with our rivals, without stamp
or any other imposition which enables us and all other
capitalists to secure to themselves a monopoly at the
expense of their poorer brethren.—Morn. -Advertiser.
A'scene singularly curious and characteristic took
place last night in the House of Commons, which, in
exciting the indignation of every liberal mind, gives
Lord Stanley additional claims on the odium and con-
tempt of the community. The most practised member
of the swell mob fraternity never made a more dexte-
rous attempt to pick a pocket than his Lordship last
night made " to catch an Act of Parliament ;" but,
thanks to the persevering opposition of Messrs. Hume,
Warburton, and Roebuck, the perpetration of the Act
has been postponed, and we may say say defeated, for
it is impossible to believe that the House of Commons,
unless when taken by surprise or fraud, as was the
case last night, will ever disgrace itself by giving its
sanction to a measure diametrically opposed to the
feelings of the country, the spirit of the times, and
tire principle of a Bill already approved by that
branch of the Legislature itself. We allude to
the " Macclesfield Small Debts' Bill," which his
Lordship endeavoured to smuggle through a House
which appeared to have been especially got up" for
the occasion. This Bill proposes to continue the
system of imprisonment for debt, the abolition of

which has been resolved upon both by the Govern-
ment and the House of Commons. We shall not now
comment on the oppressive, impolitic, and atrocious
operation of arrest for debt ; but merely explain in a few
words the fraudulent trick by which it was attempted
to be perpetuated under the especial patronage of the
House of Derby. Few Members of the House were
aware of the obnoxious clause in this Bill, and the
second reading was allowed to pass without op-
position. It wa's never printed, according to the
usual practice ; nor had any notice of the third
reading been entered on the list : the House,
therefore, with the exception of those whom the
noble mover might have specially favoured with
his confidence, were unacquainted with his inten-
tion, and totally unprepared for his motion. By
the absence of many of the Irish and liberal Members
at the St. Patrick dinner, his Lordship's supporters
had a majority, and his paltry ambition was gratified
by a temporary triumph. The third reading was car-
ried by a majority of 49, and the objectionable clause
by a majority of 23. The Tories mustered in great
force, and nothing remained to the Liberals on the
motion " that the Bill do now pass," but to move an
adjournment of the debate, which, after several divi-
sions and two'hours' debate with closed doors, was ul-
timately carried ; and thus an opportunity is reserved
to the House of rejecting the Bill in toto, which we
have no doubt will be the case ; and we trust, at the
same time, it will mark with some strong expression
of indignation the disgraceful attempt of the factious
clique to cheat it of the fair operation of its legislative
privilege. This act gives the finishing stroke to Lord
Stanley's political character. Before he was shunned,
not alone by those with whom he formerly acted, but
even by the Tories themselves, as was evinced by
their rejection of his health at the Conservative Din-
ner at Marylebone. Now his degradation is com-
plete, and he may be truly pronounced abandoned
in every signification of the term.—Morning Ad-
vertiser.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-THURSDAY.

COMMITTEE OF PRIVILEGES.-BARONIES Or BRAYE

AND VAUX.

These Peerage claims underwent further discussion this
morning, but no new feature presented itself. The circum-
stances of each case, and the exact condition of the parties,
will be found detailed in our previous reports. The further
hearing was adjourned to Tuesday next, when it is expected
that both cases will be concluded.