The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-14 00:00:00

PROSECUTION FEES.

Sir J. SHAW (the City Chamberlain) stated to the
Court that he had received an order from the Judges of
the Central Criminal Court to pay the sum of 21. 4s. 6d.,
as a fee of Counsel in the case of a man who had Leen
tried for felony, and the Recorder, Common Sergeant, and
City Solicitor having been of opinion that the order was
obligatory upon him, he had acted accordingly. He had
looked into the City accounts of a distant date. His Hon.
Friend (Alderman Harmer) having intimated on Saturday
last in a committee, that about 20 years ago a considerable
bill had been paid to him (Alderman Harmer) for prosecut-
ing. certain parties who had been concerned in a great silk
robbery on the Thames, and he had found that as much as
142/. ss. 2d. had been paid to the prosecutor alone in that
case ; but the order did not specify whether any part of
that sum had been received for Counsel or no. There were
several other charges for various witnesses, &c.
After some further discussion, Alderman BROWN moved
that the Court do approve of the Chamberlain paying the
amount of the order.

Alderman WILSON approved of the resolution, but said
that were it not for the Act, which he contended ought to
be called an act for the protecting thieves and robbers, and
the rest of the basest of society, it would not be necessary
to incur the additional expense.

The motion was then agreed to, and the Court adjourned.

AGRICULTURE.

CENTRAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND

IRELAND.

The first annual meeting of the above Society was held
yesterday, at the Crown and Anchor, Strand. The meet-
ing was most numerously and respectably attended by the
leading agriculturists from all parts of the kingdom. In
the absence of the Duke of Newcastle, the President of the
Society, Ormsby Gore, Esq., was called to the chair.
The CHAIRMAN congratulated the meeting on the im-
proved, and still improving, state of agriculture : better
prices were obtained, but it was vain to hide from them-
selves the fact, that it was only at temporary improvement,
occasioned by the scarcity of the late harvest ; and he was
firmly convinced no real and permanent benefit would arise
until the Legislature agreed to some measure of relief.

The SEC;[ETARY then read the report. After drawing
up the report, the Committee read in the public papers the
speech attributed to Sir Henry Parnell at Dundee, as to
the intentions of Government relating to the Corn-laws
next Sessions. The Right Hon. Baronet was made to
say " Ministers intended to bring forward a measure for
the modification, if not for the repeal of the Corn-laws."
Lord John Russell, however, in his letter to Mr. Denison,
threw great doubt on that assertion ; but he did not give it
a full denial.—( Hear.) Apprehensions, therefore, existed
that something of the kind was intended. The report con-
cluded by calling on the farmers of England, Ireland, and
Scotland to be united in calling on the Legislature, to give
the grievances under which the agricultural interest la-
boured a full, fair, and impartial inquiry.
Mr. SPOONER moved that the Report be adopted. The
present improvement in the price of agricultural produce,
arose from the scarcity of the late harvest, but it afforded
no security for the future. Sir R. Peel did not understand
the causes of distress under which the agricultural interest
was labouring.—(Hear, hear.) That Right Hon. Baronet
said it was the cultivation of light lands, instead of the
heavy lands ; that was not the cause, it was the Bill of
1819, known as Peel's Bill, which caused the distress.
A GENTLEMAN present inquired if the Committee of
the House of Lords stated any reasons for not agreeing
to a Report

Mr. SPOONER believed not ; but he was told by a Noble
Lord, a member of that Committee, that there was very
little difference existing amongst the members who attended
to the evidence, as to the nature of the Report they should.
make ; but on the day on which it was to be agreed to,
down came a number of Noble Lords who had never be-
fore been present, who had never read a single word of the
evidence adduced, and outvoted those who had given the
greatest attention to the inquiry.--(Hear, hear.)
Mr. LEWIN seconded the motion, which was unanimously
agreed to.
Mr. WILKs, M.P., moved the first resolution, changing
the time for holding the annual meeting of the Society,
from December to the second week in March, which was
carried unanimously.
__

Mr. RICHARDS, M.P., moved the following resolution :
—" That since the drawing up of the Report a letter from
Sir Henry Parnell to Lord John Russell had appeared in
the Morning Chronicle, dated Nov. 29, 1836, in which Sir
Henry Parnell denies the report which has appeared in the
newspapers of his speech at Dundee, but the note appended
to that letter tends to confirm the alarm already felt by the
agriculturalists of the United Kingdom." The Hon.
Member believed the state of the currency was the chief
cause of the distress of the agriculture. In 1819 he
strongly opposed Peel's Bill.—(Hear, hear.) That Bill,
he would unhesitatingly declare, had been the ruin of thou-
sands and tens of thousands —(Hear, hear.) He con-
sidered the question of poor laws for Ireland one of the
most important questions which could engage the attention
of the Legislature. _ _ _

Mr. BAIL seconded the resolution.
Mr. HOLNIES had for the last three months been offi-
cially employed in Ireland, to ascertain the best mode for
the employment of British capital.—(Hear, hear.) All
present must have heard of the dangerous state of some
of the joint-stock banks, but that .danger arose from their
own imprudence ; they had, however, done much good by
affording a circulating medium, by which all classes had been
benefitted. The wet weather had been injurious to a fright-
ful extent in some parts of Ireland, but in others the far-
mers had had a better harvest than in any season for the
last fourteen years, but he was sorry to say in the West
of Ireland the destruction of the crops bad been dreadful ;
the produce of hundreds and thousands of acres was at the
present moment rotting on the ground.—(Hear, hear, hear.)
The land was in such a state that it was impossible to
gather it in. With respect to the question of introducing
poor laws into. Ireland, the best law that could be intro-
duced would be for the cultivation of waste lands, and.
thereby
,giving employment. It was a fact, that
.120,000
Irish labourers came over to this country every harvest.
He would, however, assure the meeting that Ireland was
at present improving
in its condition—the number of beg-
gars were not one half. He believed, if encouragement was
given to joint-stock banks, relief would be obtained to a
great extent—they would assist the farmer in his capital,
and the best results would follow. The resolution was
then carried.
It was then moved by J. al.'s, Esq., of Maidstone, and
seconded by Mr. A. RANSOM, of Ipswich—" That consi-
the dering efforts made by Captain Rudkin,
Ldleurriinngg
many years, in his endeavours to bring to maturity
an invention which appears to be calculated to secure a
considerable saving to the revenue, and thereby afford a
substitute for the duty on malt, while we return Captain
Rudkin our sincere thanks -for his exertions, we congratu-
late the public that Government has pledged itself to give
hisinvention a full arid lair trial, having the confident ex-
pection that the amount of such saving will be so appropri-
ated ; and should any deficiency remain, we feel assured it
would be easily replaced from the surplus revenues or other
substitutes."

The CIIAIRMAN wished to inform the meeting that the
invent Lon of Captain Rudkin would save the Government in
the collection of the duty on spirits 25 per cent., and such
would be the advantage other ways that it was calculated it
would enable the Chancellor of the Exchequer to abolish
the malt tax without danger to the revenue. He (the
Chairman) was one of the deputation that waited on the
Chancellor of the Exchequer on the subject, and that Right
Hon. Gentleman assured him that Captain Rudkin's inven-
tion should have a fair trial at the public expense.—(Cheers.)
The resolution was then agreed to.
A vote of thanks was given to the Chairman, and the
meeting separated.

The same Limerick paper which recently told its
readers that " Essex" was a street or parish in London,
contained on Saturday the following announcement
A literary and scientific institution has recently been
formed in Uxbrid2c, London."