The Sun.
London, England, 1825-03-15 00:00:00

[MORNING HERALD.]

From some cause tin. British Funds continued
yesterday to he in a very low and desponding state. News of
a favourable nature does not tend to enliven them ; but any ru-
mour, provided it is of an unfavourable nature, has an imme-
diate tendency to depress them. Consols for the current Ac-
count opened yesterday morning at 93ii, and very shortly,
without any assignable cause, went down to 43, at which they
closed, with a very heavy Market throughout the day. The
Foreign Market was very heavy yesterday. In the Continental
Securities, however, there was but little variation ; but in the
South American Securities there was a decline of from a quarter
to a half per cent. in all. Greek Bonds and Scrip also remained
heavy, and were, upon the whole, a shade lower than on Satur-
day. A complete gloom pervaded the Scheme Market, and it
was difficult to find purchasers, even at reduced prices. Not-
withstanding, however, various new schemes are talked of.
This day is Settling Day, both in Foreign Funds and in all the
Schemes, which in some measure accounts for the drowsiness of
the Bulls. We on Saturday noticed the pamphlet which the
Directors of the Pasco Mining Company had published in an-
swer to the recent objections of the Company, and we also
stated that the Shares had, notwithstanding, considerably fallen
in value; that fall was yesterday followed up by a further
decline of 7/. on each Share : and, when we give the fol-
lowing short extract front the pamphlet alluded to, the public
may not be surprised at the decline. The following is the lan-
guage of the Directors themselves :—" As the Government of
Peru has constantly manifested a determination to encourage all
such enterprises as are calculated to improve the revenue, and
in other ways to promote the welfare of the country, and as the
mines are there justly regarded as the chief sources of national
benefit, the Directors conceive they should have been justified
in establishing a Company for working mines in Peril, even if
they had not, at the time of forming such a Company, secured
a contract for a single mine."

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]
Nothing tends more to lower the character of
the administration of justice in this country than
the arbitrary manner in which Judges and in-
ferior Magistrates observe or disregard certain
rules and maxims of law. We have more than
once alluded to the absurd caution given to men
accused of crimes, not to say any thing which
may be ( vidence against themselves. When the
feelings of the Magistrate are enlisted on the
side of the accused, he gives this caution ; when
he feels, on the other hand, an anxiety to convict
him, so far from giving the caution, he either en-
deavours directly by finesse to extort a confes-
sion when there is a want of evidence, or he con-'
nives at the use of finesse by others to extort a
con lesson, whic;i, when once made, the accused is
led to repeat before him. Some time ago a Judge
severely reprimanded a Constable for endeavour-
ing to draw from a female that she had murdered
her child. On Saturday again, on the other
hand, a girl of thirteen was indicted at Chelms-
ford for feloniously setting fire to a building con-
nected with the workhouse of the parish of
Tendring. T:te prisoner had been very active
in extinguishing the fire, but suspicion attached
to her from her having been seen by a labourer
going out of the building some time before the
flames were discovered. On being taxed by
one of the parish officers with the act,
she was told that there was no use in deny-
ing it, because she had been seen ; but she re-
solutely maintained that she was innocent On be-
ing taken, however, before a bench of Magistrates,
she confessed. Mr. K nox,Counsel for the prisoner,
strongly urged, according to the report, the inad-
missibility of the evidence, in consequence of the
finesse resorted to previous to her examination
before the Justices, but the Judge repelled the
objection. We do not learn that he found any
fault %.ith the course which had been adopt-
ed in this case. For reasons which we
have before assigned, we do think that the
confession of the accused ought always to be
encouraged rather than discouraged. Of all possi-
ble evidence, that which a party gives against him-
self is the most to be depended on. But we object
to the arbitrary manner in which Magistrates are
allowed to observe or depart from a rule, accord-
ing as they wish to secure an acquittal or a con-
viction. The crime was, no doubt, a very hein-
ous one, a crime which is very properly viewed
with great abhorrence, and the sentence of death
was no doubt merited ; but criminal proceedings
ought not to vary with the feelings of every per-
son entrusted with the execution of the laws.

[anmsn PRESS.]
The Bill at present passing through the House,
on the subject of the Quarantine Laws is one of
extreme concern to the commercial world ; and
we feel that we shall render an acceptable ser-
vice to the public by drawing attention to the
most interesting sources of information on a sub-
ject so important to its interests. The Petition
of Dr. Maclean, presented by Nlr. John Smith,
on Friday evening, contains a statement of facts
respecting the nature of epidemic disease, as dis-
tinguished from contagion, which well deserve
the ea rues t attention of the reader, and which
will lead his mind to the most satisfactory
conclusion. It is averred in this Petition, and
the averment cannot lie refuted, that, " in
principle, quarantine laws very much resemble
our ancient laws against witchcraft, recently re-
pealed, with this material difference in practice,
that whilst they a.e infinitely more destructive,

they have not however fallen into disuse ; that,
as- the petitioner has proved at large in works
which are before the public, these laws are in
times of pestilence a powerful additional cause of
sickness and mortality, as well as in other re-
spects highly injurious to many of the best inte-
rests of communities; that they impede science,
produce immorality, obstruct travelli►►g, restrict
commerce, navigation, and manufactures, occasion
the failure of expeditions and the destruction of
armaments, are injurious to the general consumer
and the public revenue, and are capable of being,
as they have sometimes been on the Continent of
Europe, rendered subservient to the purposes of
despotism ; that the detriment which has been
sustained by this nation in direct charges of
quarantine, in losses by detention of ships, goods,
crews, and passengers, and in consequence of re-
strains upon commerce and navigation generally,
during the one hundred and four years that this
singular system has been in operation, must have
been enormous ; that at home only the annual di-
rect charges of quarantine have for the last 20
years averaged nearly 30,0001., and that the
losses by detention of ships and cargoes, accord-
ling to the number (857) detained last year, may
be computed at about 200,0001. annually, inde-
pendent of similar charges and losses, probably
in a greater degree in the Colonies." The policy
of continuing in force those laws, which not only
give an effective sanction to all this evil, but
actually inflict it, can hardly, we think, i►►
this enlightened era, he much longer matter of
serious deliberation. The same subject is like-
wise most ably discussed in the last number of
the IVesiminsier Review, in an article from which
we formerly made some interesting extracts, and
which we would strongly recommend to the peru-
sal of every one who is anx►ous to inform his
mind fully upon the facts. In this article, and
in Dr. Maclean's petition, he will find all the
materials put before him wi►ich can furnish
the means of investigation, and accompanied
with such evidence as will carry conviction to
every inquirer who comes to the examination
with his judgment unbiassed, and with no other
desire than to embrace that side of the question
which reason and science shall be found most
decidedly to support. The subject has under-
gone so complete an investigation since the Re-
port on Quarantine of the Select Committee of
the House of Commoni on tl►e Foreign Trade,
published last year, and the evidence, which was
then considered insufficient, hai been since
strengthened by such an accession of medical au-
thorities, and such an accumulation of determi-
nate facts, that we trust the Quarantine Law will
not be permitted to survive the present Session,
and that the foreign trade of the country will be
relieved from those oppressive and vexatious re-
strictions which are so severely felt, and the
mischievous results of which have been so forcibly
pointed out.

ITIIE PUBLIC LEDGER.]
Intelligence as late as the 23d of November
was received yesterday from Calcutta, which
wholly overturns the sinister interpretation which
had been put on the painful occurrence which
took place at Barrackpore, about the begin-
ning of that month. The native troops, so far
from having been debauched by the mutinous ex-
ample, or alienated by the exemplary punishment,
of the 47th, were at that period tranquil anti
obedient. A Court-Martial had been held on
several of the ringleaders, who were shot pur-
suant to their sentence. This intelligence was
brought by the York Indiaman, who left the
Mellish at St. Helena. The latter is charged
with dispatches for the Court of Directors, which
the York offered to take care of; but the pro-
posal was declined, in the expectation that the
Mellish would reach England as soon as the
York. As soon as this arrival was known
yesterday in the City, a number of loose and
contradictory rumours got into circulation.--
It was said that an armistice had been I,
concluded between the Burmese and our troops,
as preliminary step to negociations for peace.
The next report was of a very different character,
according to which 8,000, or according to
another version only 4,000 of the native troops,
had joined the Burmese. Lastly, the old iv.'
mour was revived respecting the disposition ofl
the Siamese to make common cause with our
Indian army, with this alteration, however,
that what had been before a presumption, as-
sumed a character of absolute certainty. None
of these rumours, however, seemed to make
much impression ; and what we said a few days
since about the alarm occasioned by the mu-
tiny of the 47th speedily subsiding, has been
fully verified. Over the real cause of that most
unpleasant occurrence considerable mystery still
hangs, which may not be cleared up before the
arrival of the dispatches on board the Mellish.
We have great doubts, in the mean time, of
its having originated in a refusal to allow the
troops some conveniences to which they had
been accustomed, and to which from immemo-
rial usage, they claimed a right. It is altogether
improbable that any Indian Government would
choose the moment that the army was preparing
to take the field, for carrying reform into effect.
We have heard that it was a superstitious feel-
ing, which had seized the mutinous troops,
and their passive conduct, after the orders
to fire upon them had been issued, seems to sanc-
tion this opinion, as they evidently conducted
themselves more like martyrs than mutineers.
The Emperor of Ava, we understand, is vene-
rated throughout India, as a high Brautin, as a
personage of peculiar sanctity; and, if the mutiny
took its rise here, it assumes rather a serious
character.

It has been reported that General Mix& in-
tended to publish the documents found by him when he took
possession of the Seu d'Urgel, and which are said to be very
curious. e
-has, however, written a letter to state, that neither
his delicacy nor his regard to public convenience, will permit
hint, at present, to give them to the world.
A LAttoE llEAn.—There is at present in Guy's
Hospital a young man of the name of James Cardinale,
thirty
years of age, 5 feet 5 inches in height, whose head is of the tol.
lowing extraordinary dimensions :—Circumference round the
upper part of the head' 38 inches • and from the chin to the
pole of the neck, 29A
head, it appears that he has no' skull in the fore part of his
head, and when he walks out, which is but seldom,, he is
inches • from the examination of the
under the necessity of being supported by two men. ‘1 hat say
the ( rAniologists to this? .