The Sun.
London, England, 1836-06-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PU.

PARAGRAPHS from the AMERICAN

PAPERS.

BREACH OF PROMISE.—A young fellow in a town, not far
distant from this, having been for some two or three years
" engaged" to a young lady of the neighbourhood, became
suddenly enamoured of her elder sister, and, shortly after,
made her honourable proposals of matrimony—not, however,
without much hesitation as to which was his " true love," nor
perhaps without many secret regrets that the laws of the state
would not permit him to act the part of Laban's
His proposals having been accepted, the contract was soon
consummated by the kind intervention of the village parson,
who pronounced them " husband and wife, married according
to the laws of the state." The new couple were not, however,
permitted long to enjoy the felicities of the station into which
the parson had so easily introduced them, before the younger
and aggrieved sister gave her former love to understand that
a" breach" was not to be thus unceremoniously made with
impunity, but that a suit for damages in a court of . judicature
was a proper remedy for a dismissal of one in the Court of
Hymen—and that she was disposed to appeal to the remedy
" in such case made and provided." The affair beginning to
assume somewhat of a serious aspect, the parties came to the
wise conclusion to submit all their demands to a tribunal of
their own selection, and accordingly chose three referees to
adjust the difficulty. After a careful investigation and inquiry
into the various " items of account" presented, and a " patient
hearing of the various allegations, arguments and erimina-
tions of the parties," the referees, nem. con. awarded the sum
of sixty-two and one-half dollarsas the propel; "balance of ac
count" in tavour of the complainant,—with which award both
parties appeared perfectly satisfied, and on payment thereof,
became mutual friends.—Bangor Advertiser.
ARREST OF MURRAY TUE MAIL ROBBER.-oEficers A. M.
C. Smith and Gilbert Hays arrived yesterday morning in the
Albany boat, having in custody James W. Morgan alias Mur-
ray, the South Carolina mail robber, whose procurement of
900 afid odd dollars at the Fulton Bank, on a draft stolen with
other drafts and money, from a mail in South C irolina a few
weeks since, was mentioned in yesterday's paper. Ile left the city
and proceeded up the North River on the same day he pro-
cured the money at the Bank, and the above officers, getting
trace of him, pursued and overtook him at Concord, Columbia
-county, where he had put up durirr, one stage, to rest himself.
The officers found upon him 745 dollars,' and a gold watch
which Murray bought for 50 dollars before leaving the city.
He was armed with a pistol and dirk, but the officers seized
him so suddenly that he had no opportunity of using them.
—Mw York Sun.

CRUELTY OF TIIE INDIANS TO THEIR PRISONEES.—An Eng-
lish traveller who remained a considerable time among the
tribe of Flat Head Indians, has given a description of their
methods of torturing their prisoners. A chief of the Black
Foot tribe having been captive in one of their wars, was con-
demned to death ; and the Englishman repaired to the camp
to witness the frightful spectacle. The prisoner was fastened
to a tree. The Flat Heads, after heating an old gun-barrel
red hot, made use of it to burn successively his legs, thighs,
stomach, cheeks and belly ; and cut the flesh round his nails,
which they tore out ; and afterwards cut off his fingers, joint
by joint. During this horrible torment, the prisoner did not
shrink. in the least, nor testify the slightest emotion; instead
of crying for mercy, and uttering groans, he endeavoured to
excite the barbarous ingenuity of his executioners by taunts
and the most insulting reproaches. One of the Flat Heads
rushed upon him, and with his knife scooped out one of his
eyes in aninstant, and clove his nose in two parts. But the poor
devil did not desist from his provocations :—" I killed your
brother I" he cried. " I tore off the gray scalp of your father I"
The warrior to whom he spoke again rushing upon him, tore
off his own scalp, and was about to plunge his knife into his
heart, when the voice of his chief forbade him. With his
naked skull, his cloven nose, and the blood streaming from the
socket of his eye, the intrepid Black Foot offered a hideous
spectacle; notwithstanding which, in this terrible condition, he
ceased not to shower reproaches and outrageous insults on his
foes. "It was I," said he to the chief, "it was 1 who took
your wife prisoner ! We tore out her eyes and tongue! We
treated her like a dog ! Forty of our young warriors"— He
had not time to finish what he was to say ; for at the mention
of his wife, the fury of the chief broke through all bounds, and
seizing his musket, he put an end at once to the insults which
he uttered, and the sufferings he endured. These cruelties
were even surpassed by those that were exercised on the fe-
male prisoners ; and it must be owned that the Flat If sad
women showed a more fiendish barbarity than the men. The
details of the tortures which they inflicted are too horrible to
be described save with a pen dipped in bleed. The Europeans
have vainly endeavoured to abolish these atrocious customs.
The natives pay no attention to what they say. They answer
coolly, that the Black Feet use the Flat Heads in the same
manner ; that it is one of the laws of war, among the red men,
to torture their prisoners; and that nothing can equal the
pleasures of vengeance.
TIIE SCYTHIANS.—These people drank the blood of the
first enemy they took, and presented to their King the heads
of all those whom they bad slain in battle. If they brought
the heads to him, all the booty was their own. Those who
omitted the ceremony, or could not discharge it, were not en-
titled to the smallest share of the spoils of war. They are ac-
customed to tan the scalp of the head, and use it as a towel.
They tied it to their horse's bridle. It was the most honour-
able trophy. The value of the Scythian was estimated accord-
ing to the number they possess of these towels. Many of the
Scythians sewed together the skins of men instead of those of
beasts, and wore them for clothes. The poorer claimed the
skulls of the victims and covered it with leather. The rich
added a gilding within, and both used them for cups. They
used the skull of a friend in the same manner, if they had
quarrelled with him, and had vanquished in the presence of a
king. When they were visited by respectable strangers,
they showed them their skulls. They related to them the un-
friendly treatment they had received from the persons whose
saulls they exhibited, and the particulars of their combat and
victory, which they deemed the greatest glory of their life.
Every governor of a province made an annual feast, at which
he presented a cup of wine to each man who had killed his
enemy. This mark of respect he did not show to those who
had not distinguished themselves by some exploit. They sat
apart unnoticed. They were therefore deemed ignominious.
Those who had slain many enemies drank at once of two cups.
INDIAN Qum:is Docrons.—lf nations which call themselves
civilized and enlightened are overrun with charlatans and em-
pirics, we need not wonder that they play a very successful part
among the savages. Each village has its quack doctor. When
a native is seized with any malady whatever, this lEsculapius
is immediately called in, and begins his course of treatment by
stretching his patient on his back. \V bile he is in this position,
his kinsfolk and friends, who are all furnished with two sticks
of unequal length, beat time to the measure of a melancholy
chant, which the doctor sings throughhis nose. At intervals,
they unite their voices to his. Sometimes a slave is ordered
to mount on the top of the hut, where he accompanies this
strange harmony by striking on the roof with a great club, and
singing with all his might. The quack, in the meantime,
kneels down by the sick person, and presses both fists heavily
upon his stomach. This violent pressure compels the patient
to utter dolorous cries ; but the noise of his complaints is
drowned by the uproar and racket of the doctOr and his assist-
ants, who thump and shout so much the louder. At the close
of each stanza of the hymn, the operator takes both hands of
his victim and blows upon them ; and thus continues to squeeze
his stomach and blow upon his hands, till the patient ejects a
small white stone, which had been thrust into his mouth by the
doctor himself, at the beginning of the operation. This he
shows to the family, and, with the unabashed effrontery natural
to quack doctors, whether civilized or savage, affirms that all
danger is over, and that the sick man will quickly be restored
to perfect health. It often happens, as may well be supposed,
that a poor wretch, who might have been easily cured by the
most simple remedies, perishes in consequence of this most
barbarous treatment ; but let him live or let him die, the doe-
= must not be disappointed of his fee.
THE FLAT HEAD INDIANS. —The Indians who inhabit

the shores of the Columbia river, in North America, arc dis-
tinguished by the oddity of their manners and customs. They
are known by the name of Flat Heads, on -account of the
shape of their skulls. Immediately after the birth of art in-
fant, it is placed in a sort of a cradle in the shape of a trough,
the bottom of which is covered with moss. The part on
which the head is to rest, is a little more elevated. A piece
of pine bark, covered with a cushion to preserve tlfe skin from
bruises, is then fitted to the child's forehead, and by means of
a cord passing through holes on each side of the cradle, the
cushion is made to press upon its head. This operation
continues a whole year, and causes little pain ; but while the
process is going on the appearance of the infant is frightful ;
and its little black eyes, which the pressure of the bandages
squeezes almost out of their sockets, look like those of a mouse
in a trap. By the time the ligatures are taken off, the head

attains the requisite degree of flatness ; the upper part is rarely
more than an inch thick ; and it never recovers its rotundity.
In the eyes of the Indians, this deformity is a grace that can-
not be dispensed with. They justify the custom by saying that
their slaves have round heads, and therefore free people ought
to have flat ones. In fact, all the children who are born
in slavery, unless adopted by the Flat Heads, inherit not only
the degradation of their parents, but also the rotundity of their
skulls. It can hardly be conceived what a repulsive ugliness
this detestable custom gives to the Indians. Nor have they
naturally so much beauty, that they need put themselves to the
trouble of lessening it by art. Tho men, indeed, are of good
stature and pretty well shaped ; but the women are five or six
inches shorter, and have flat noses and large open nostrils.
Their mouths, which they have not wit enough to keep shut,
display short and and ill-shaped teeth, set in uneven rows,
and never cleaned. These red-skinned ladies are invariably
bandy-legged ; their feet are broad and flat, their cars slit,
theu nostrils bored, their hair coarse and thick ; and the better
to set off their charms, they anoint their skins plentifully with
fish-oil. As to their character, the Indians of this part of the
New World arc certainly cunning, sober, and patient ; but
generally also they are thievish, idle and cruel. The Flat
Heads believe in the existence of a good and an evil Genius,
as well as of rewards and punishments in another life. Ac-
cording to their creed, the righteous, after death, go to a land
of bliss, where they enjoy a perpetual Spring, where they
again dwell with their wives and children, where the rivers arc
full of fish, and the plains are covered with bison, the flesh of
which forms their principal nourishment. There they give
themselves up to the pleasures of the chase, fearing neither the
rigors of winter, nor hunger, nor the horrors of war. The
wicked, on the other hand, are transported to a country which
is covered with perpetual snow, and where. the cold penetrates
to the marrow of their bones. From the midst of their to!--
ment, they are condemned to see their righteous brethren in
the delightful fields, chasing the game, or repcsing them eI'CS
with their families ; but the pour frozen sinners cannot stir one
step towards that sunny region. Nevertheless,
theirmisery
degree of
has an end ; it is longer or shorter, according t
their guilt ; and after its expiration they are permittedtle to be-
come inhabitants of the Indian Paradise.

,LIC JOURNALS•

The great increase in the majority since the
division on Lord Francis Egerton 's motion, proves
how generally Mr. Grote's sentiment is entertained,
that " Imes collision come when it might, it could not
be on a nobler and more important question." Even
Lord Stanley Nees forced to admit that in supporting
the destructive meesure of Lord Lyndhurst, he was
pursuing an unpopular course. But the collision is at
an end. Grasp but the giant, and be dies. The in-
crease in the majority, which would have been greater
but for one or two accidents, in
,the absence of Mr.
Wason, for instance, sufficiently indicates how repug-
nant to the people of this country is the mad course
that the Peers have adopted on the recommendation
of Lord Lyndhurst. Their Lordships are, as usual, out
in their calculations. They must have been deceived into
ye
the belief that in destiv,ving the Irish Corporation Re-
form Bill they were doing hat would be exceedingly ac-
ceptablewhat manner could the col-
lisionbut on the supposition
to the nation; for in,
work to their /advantage
:?ie Commons on a
that it would gain them votes in"
dissolution ? The, Lords Must yield. It is not to be
supposed that the Commons, on a popuii;.r question of
this kind, will give way. The Lords have no alter-
native but to strike their flag. If we supposo them
mad enough to hold out, Ministers have a plain course
to pursue. The Commons will not recede from their
determination, and therefore the Lords must receive
the infusion of fresh blood, which the Constitution
allows in such cases. But the knowledge of the
Peers, that such a remedy must he prescribed, will
induce them, as in 1832, to become wise at the
twelfth hour. They know that Ministers must over-
come the collision, or. resign. If' Ministers resign,
because they are refused the means whereby the colli-
sion may be overcome, what can the Tories do ? They
cannot carry on the Government with an adverse House
of Commons. The supplies a:e not vet voted. This
House will, of course, refuse its confidence to army Go-
vernment which should accede to power on the condition
of withholding justice from Ireland. A dissolution would
not improve the Tory prospects. Who would dare to
go to the country on a question like this ? The Tories
are, therefore, in a dilemma, from which there is
no escape for them. We will not do the great body of
Tory Peers the injustice of supposing that they enter-
tain any wicked project of recovering their lost do-
minion over the Commons by violent and unconstitu-
tional means. There may be adventurers among them
who, having little to lose, might be ready to embark
in any scheme, however desperate ; but the Pedrs
possessed of property (and the power which the
Peers possess is derived from their property alone),
will never expose it to hazard by countenancing
any unconstitutional courses. We assume, then, that
the Peers will proceed within the limits of the consti-
tution, and in that case we know precisely how far
they can go. We are not sure whether it would not
be better for the country were the Peers to refuse to
take a hint from the majority on Saturday morning,
and to persist in their infatuated course till it become
necessary to resort to means .which should work a
thorough reform in the body. If they they yield now
without more ado, we shall have again to en-
counter the principle which arrays them against
the Commons. Till the two Houses are go-
verned by the same principle—that of consult-
ing the welfare of the people by the improve-
ment of our laws and institutions, and the removal of
all recognised abuses—the nation will be harassed by
constant collisions, which it may not always be possible
to encounter so conveniently as at present. An end
must be put to this evil. A great nation like this
must not have its best interests endangered, and its
tranquillity interrupted, by the insane conduct of a few
factious Peers. As we know that the reform of the
House of Commons is incomplete without a reform of
the Lords, we are therefore almost tempted to wish
that the blindness of the Peers may continue, till an
operation becomes necessary which will work a tho-
rough cure. But however this may be, we are quite
at case with respect to the collision. The Lords are
in what in familiar language is termed a cleft stick.
They will now discover, to their cost, the true cha-
racter of the counsels of Lord Lyndhurst, who affords
a fresh exemplification of a remark often made, that
there may be abundance of confidence without much
wisdom. Sir Robert Peel's advice to them to fight

their battles only in the House of Commons, though
it might not be palatable to them, was yet founded on
an accurate survey of the powers given by the Consti-
tution.—Morning Chronicle.
Sir Robert Peel began his speech on Friday last by
combining a plain truth with a cutting sarcasm. The
Right Hon. Baronet, admitting that the general sub-
ject of the Irish Municipal Bill had been completely
worn out, noticed, in proof of his opinion, the total
absence to all approach to even the shadow of an ar-
gument on the part of the Irish advocates for the Mi-
nisterial measure. The allusion of the Right Hon.
Member for Tatnworth to Mr. Sheil's speech was on

that occasion strikingly just. It is difficult for Mr.
Sheil, with his talents and his fancy, to be otherwise
than an entertaining speaker, though latterly, when an
instructive one, he has been so aga►nst his will. There
is indeed no. more severe or melancholy lesson, in the
unnatural condition of parties which we have under
our eves, that than here and there a man of genius
should from pure want of moral courage be found yoked
to the car of a wretch whom he must scorn and exe-
crate, dragging knee-deep his brutal driver through
heaps of abom►nat►on, to that licentious triumph in which
he himself will never share, and enduring the coarse
lash with inward agony, but without an audible murmur.
Mr. Sheil, on I'r►day, made no attempt at reasoning
upon the merits of the Municipal Bill for Ireland. He
strove to escape, by some sort of explanation, from the
charge which had been fixed upo❑ him of having
asserted the conclusion, at Lichfield-house, of an indis-
soluble compact, or treaty, between the Ministerial and
the O'Connell factions. The Learned Gentleman was

not very fortunate in this effort, inasmuch as, accord-
ing to Sir Robert Peel's observation, in which every
reasonable person must concur, the difference is but
verbal between a " compact" and an " alliance upon
certain definite conditions." Nor, as has been said
more than once in this journal, is it of the slightest
moment whether the alliance be formal and ostensible,
or intrinsic—imposed upon Ministers by the obvious
necessities of their position; and by an actual and
understood, whether avowed or not, dependence upon
O'Connell and his tail for their tenure; of office from
one day to another. The language of the Irish ad-
versaries to the Lords' amendments was, moreover,

that of men who felt argument to be wholly superfluous,
because the majority was insured by considerations quite
alien to the merits of the Bill. That Ireland was
insulted" by refusing her similar Corporations to
the English, appears to be the only suggestion re-
lied upon in the course of these late discussions.
Now, in the first place, if Ireland feels " insulted"
for such a cause, she is much in the same predicament
with a gentleman who d—mns the looking glass for
making his own face so ugly. What power on earth
could bestow upon Ireland similar Corporations to
those of England ? By what- human contrivance
could the ascendency of Popish priests over an igno-
rant Roman Catholic people be annihilated, or the
spirit of rancorous animosity towards Protestants, in-
spired by them into their several flocks be neutralized
in- its influence over the Acts of those Corporations,
of which the large majority must be composed of Ro-
man Catholics ? Unless miracles like these were
performed, how, let us ask, could any resemblance to
English Corporations be established in Ireland be-
vond a mere similarity of name ? The materials do
not exist for such an English system. Nor has
this objection been ever fairly grappled with by the
O'Connell or Ministerial party—nay, nor been so
olightituTv iz.,
much as glanced at. They tell us that the "people of
Ireland" arc as well entitled to the enjoyment of po-
pular rights and priviliges as the people of Great
Britain :
riselapnldain(tlaionsde
downright—viz.,
that poeuorplerely
I
ofp
Po-
lish advocates mean by the people of
Ireland)
would he equally well entitled to such • privileges, if
after obtaining the legal property
in them, they WOUld
be permitted freely to exercise and enjoy them ; but
that this is notoriously not the case, for that they are
are under the most d • I. egrat ing and inexorable thraldom
to their priesthood, . ' add , Lx4rose no.ri,hts.but as di-
rected by that body •
; that the Popish 'priests are sworn
enemies to the connection of the State with the Pro-

as well as to the settlement of property
and to the union between Great Britain and Ireland ;
and therefore, that whatever franchise or whatever pri-
vilege is bestowed by Parliament upon the vassals of
the priesthood, is a power vested substantially in the
foes of Protestant property, of the connection between
Church and State, of the British Crown, and of the
united empire. Here then is a plain and downright
statement, and what is the rejoinder ? Nil. They
don't meet it—they don't dare to look at it ; they
travel off to something else. A reasoner and
statesman, in considering this part of the sub-
ject, might say—" But you have already given
political franchises to 101. householders or lease-
holders in Ireland, and why not act with some re-
gard to analogy, but giving municipal franchise to
five pounders ?" Our answer is, that the 101. lease-
hold suffrage has itself proved fatal to the freedom of
election, by the supremacy it has vested in the priests,
and that, so far from aggravating such an evil by the
admission to corporate privileges of a class of voters
still less independent and effective, we would, if we
had the opportunity, double the amount of the existing
qualification by raising it to 20/. in Ireland, and thus
confine the exercise of power to a class of Roman
Catholics so intelligent and self-protected, that the
priests would vainly attempt to intimidate or delude
them. Is it not curious to mark the effrontery of this
jargon, which deals so freely with the accusation of
" insult to Ireland ?" The corporate privileges have
been heretofore enjoyed by Protestants exclusively.
The Papists never had the slightest interest in them,
save only as allowed by Protestants. A Bill isbrought
in to abolish these Corporations, and there is forthwith
an outcry raised " of insult to the Irish people." And
by whom is that outcry raised and encouraged ?—by
the Protestants who have been robbed of their old
possession ? No ; but by the Papists, who have
lost nothing at all ! The Protestant corporators
acquiesce in the deprivation inflicted upon them
alone. The Papists get into a fury because they
are prevented from seizing that which they never
were possessed of, and because they are unable
to employ against Protestants in a more violent
and oppressive shape that very principle of exclu-
sion, which, when directed by Protestants against them,
was insisted on as an intolerable grievance. Under
thee circumstances, and with a preponderance of ar-
gument and common sense in favour of the policy
adopted by the Conservatives, such as we have never
known at any former crisis, O'Connell and the Minis-
ters have rejected the amendments made in the mea-
sure by the House of Lords, and have produced a
majority of 86 votes—a larger majority than has yet
supported them, against a more appalling power of
truth and political reasoning. The effect of this vote
upon the relations between the respective branches of
the Legislature, on the course of the Government, and
on the feelings of the people out of doors, we may
have to consider presently. In our opinion the event
is not likely to realize either the sanguine and sinister
anticipations of one party, or the fears which may be
entertained by some of its more conscientious and up-
right opponents. The House of Lords will be intre-
pid in the discharge of their duty, and in the guar-
dianship of our constitutional monarchy. When re-
volution yawns before the face of Englishmen, they will
know how to retreat in time ; but we are bound to
state that the time to determine is this moincmt.—
Times.

To all who take an interest in the success of the
great measure of Negro Emancipation in our colonies,
and more especially to those who await with some de-
gree of anxiety the consequences of the expiration of
the term of apprenticeship, it will be gratifying to learn
that Government is likely to be effectually assisted in
carrying ont the benefits resulting from that philan-
thropic measure, by an association of Noblemen and
Gentlemen connected with Jamaica, formed for the en-
couragement of free labour in that colony, particularly
in the virgin lands of the interior. The names of such
pr.)prietors as the Marquis of Chandos, the Earl of
flarewood, Lords St. Vincent and Seaford, and
Sir Alexander Grant, at the head of this asso-
ciation, justify us in anticipating that the course
of operations, which it is intended to adopt, in con-
junction with the I-louse of Assembly in the island,
and the Government at home, will be the most judicious
and the best for effecting the great object in view. The
practicabil:ty of the design is satisfactorily proved by a
v,:ry clever treatise now lying before us, entitled "a Let-
ter to the Ploprictors and INlottgagees of Estates in the
Island of Jamaica, on promotihg Immigration into that
Colony." The author truly says, that " up to this
p;,riod the most lamentable ignorance, and to a very
considerable extent, prevaile:l in respect to the value
of our West India colonies, for which it would be
difficult to account, unless we suppose it to have arisen
from the principal part of the trade with that portion
of the empire having hitherto been confined to the
hands of a comparatively few individuals." The as-
sociation to which we allude is, we understand, purely
agricultural, and will in no way interfere with the
West India interest, or the merchants, while it will
most materially protect those who have estates in the
island, and extricate them from a difficulty which has
ever been viewed with some reason as one embarrassing,
if not endangering the complete success of negro eman-
cipation. 'We are told that the Legislature of Jamaica,
convinced that the welfare of the island will be promoted
by the settlement of towns among the rural districts,
have voted considerable grants for their foundation.
Their advancement will be a leading object with the
Company, " whose lands and whose tenantry must de-
rive the most important benefits from such a vicinage.
European artisans and tradesmen of such crafts as can
be useful in the early stages of a settlement will, there-
fore, be united and assisted to place themselves in those
towns—employment and encouragement will there be
assiduously extended to the black and coloured people,
without distinction of caste. It is intended that every
location should be the residence of a Christian minister
—of a schoolmaster—and of a medical practitioner.
We agree with those who anticipate from such careful
and beneficent arrangements, that " the danger which
some have apprehended that, at the expiration of the
terms of apprenticeship, the negroes may betake them-
selves to the wilds, and relapse into an idle and savage
life, will be effectually obviated, without forceable re-
medies or expensive precautions—for the proposed set-
tlements will not only afford an example and an invita-
tion to the industry of the native people, but likewise
furnish a chain of stations extending widely over the
country, and be occupied by a population of civilised
habits and available for the maintenance of public tran-
quillity." The success of the design will be a triumph
to humanity.—Morning Herald.
The division of Friday night has excited among the
supporters of the present Administration a momentary
hope that Ministers may yet extricate themselves from
the awkward and dangerous position in which their
political conduct has placed them, or, we ought rather
to say, has afforded to the organs of the party a mo-
mentary occasion for the affectation of that hope
which they do not really feel. The tone of exultation
assumed in this instance is, we venture to say, no proof
of genuine confidence. It is the swagger of pretenders
who hope. by putting on a bold air to confound and
terrify their antagonists, and, as it is wholly unfounded,
it will prove wholly ineffectual. It would have been
su:prising if in an assembly so numerous as the House
of Commons there had not been some individuals
with whom the dread of a dissolution of Par-
liament is paramount to all other consider-
ations. Of this dread, on
it the part of indi-
vidual Members, Ministers, is known, availed
themselves; on this occasion, to the utmost possible
extent, and, by operating upon it, they have obtained
a majority of votes in the House of Commons which
renders any renewal of that threat impossible—impos-
sible because it is certain that the threat, if repeated,
as it would now be without the semblance of apology
or pretext, would produce not submission, but revolt.
It is a menace which, in present circumstances, would
dispirit and disgust the friends of Ministers, andim-
part additional energy and determination to their ene-
mies. This we believe to be the universal impression
in political circles. But with their majority, their de-
cided majority as it is called, their increased majority
as everybody must acknowledge it, what are Ministers
to do ? Send back to the House of Lords the mea-
sure amended, as the obedient majority in the House
of Commons have agreed to amend it. And what
then ? Surely it is not expected that the House of
Lords will be swayed by a bare majority of the House

of Commons, whose numbers are reinforced by men
horror-stricken at the thought of an appeal to the
people of England. An appeal to the people of
England has no terrors for the House of Lords,
who, so long as they courageously and conscien-
tiously discharge that duty which the Constitution has
imposed upon them, may rely with the utmost confi-
deuce on the sympathy, and applause, and gratitude of
the country. The House of Lords have taken a posi-
tion from which nothing can remove them, or nothing,
at least, which the present House of Commons can
hope to accomplish, or dare venture to attempt. They
have, in effect, resolved that it would be an abdication
of their constitutional duty to consent to the creation
in Ireland of new Corporations of which the agitators
of that country would obtain the absOlute control, and
which would instantly be converted into the means and
instruments of an organised assault upon the Protes-
tant Church, the British Constitution, and the subsist-
ing connection between Great Britain and Ireland. In
the spirit of that honest and virtuous resolution the
House of Lords will continue to act, with calmness
and temperance, but with the utmost firmness, and the
most perfect inflexibility. Their Lordships have
hitherto acted upon principles and feelings which iden-
tify them with the people of Great Britain. They
are stedfast and immovable in the consciousness of
right. They are invincible and omnipotent in the
unity of their principles and feelings whith those of
a mighty nation. The House of Lords, we re-
peat,. have nothing to retract, nothing to rescind,
nothing to qualify, and those who calculate upon
their giving way in the slightest degree to the
dictation of an O'Connellite and dissolution-
fearing majority of the House of Commons will
find themselves grievously disappointed. As to the
peculiar powers of the House of Commons as the
guardian of the public purse, of which we have heard
and read so much, they are powers not imparted to that
assembly by the Constitution for the purpose of
enabling it despotically to controul and coerce the
other branches of the Legislature ; nor can their exer-
cise for such purposes be recommended unless by
politicians in whose minds the love of place has en-
tirely superseded every constitutional principle, and
every patriotic feeling. Such politicians, if such
there be, are not so much antagonists of the House of
Lords, as rebels to the Crown. And we scarcely
think that the time is yet arrived when the characters
`' of Minister and of rebel to the Crown will generally
be deemed compatible with each other. 'We are not
quite sure, indeed, how far the present Ministers,
rather than go out, might carry the attempt to recon-
cile constitutional inconsistencies ; but we own we do
not see much reason to apprehend that a House of
Commons in which the terror of dissolution is predo-
minant, will venture to employ a weapon entrusted to
it for purposes merely economical and defensive, as an
instrument of attack upon the constitutional independ-
ence of another branch of the Legislature.—Morning
Post.
We have one remark to make on the dull and wea-
risome debate which terminated on Saturday morning
in a majority of 86 in favour of Ministers. It cer-
tainly was most wearisome in point of argument, and
most useless in point of practice. The House of
Lords had provoked a collision with the Commons.
They had rejected the Bill for granting those equal mu-
nicipal privileges to Ireland which had been previously
granted to the rest of the United Kingdom—a Bill
sent up to them by the Lower House in a wise spirit
of conciliatory foresight. Certainly a Bill not grant-
ing equal rights to one of the three co-equal mem-
bers of the Union, would be tantamount to a public
declaration that the Union was mere waste paper,
and that a repeal of it was just and necessary.
This Bill, thus wisely framed for the purpose of pro-
moting a national union, and putting doyen agitation
in Ireland, the Lords rejected. They seem to have re-
jected it for the mere purpose of showing their capa-
city for and delight in mischief. We cannot imagine
any other motive either for the rejection of the Bill,
or the insulting mode in which that rejection was
was made. The Bill which they sent down in lieu of
it to the House of Commons, was so totally different
from that of the Commons, that an obliteration by pen
of every line of it would have been a less insultin,? act.
Like grown babies, or spoilt children, their Lordships
pettishly and spitefully rejected an overture, which
was for their own good as as for the good of the
country. They tore the Bill thus characterized into
fragments, and threw them contemptuously into the
I face of the Lower House. Deprecating agitation,
they have moved heaven and earth in order to create
it ;—deprecating collision, they have themselves, with
wa}ward perverseness, forced on a collision which
cannot fail to be baneful to themselves. What
was the use of so many words ? Words arc wasted
on their stolid temerity. The insulted majority of
the House of Commons, instead of talking, should
have raised the cry of " question " oo the first
night, and instantly come to a division. The broad-
side was provoked by the enemy, and should have
been given instantly, without parley. This is the
great fault of all our public proceedings. There is
too much talk, and too little promptitude of act—
the fruit of public benefit is overwhelmed with a rank
foliage of words. We are hurrying on fast towards a
Logomachy—of which hamlet's response to Polonius,
Words, words, words !" would form a good motto.
We should like to see something like the vote of a
French Conventionalist during the French Revolution,
'to which he appended the words sans phrases. Well ;
—the Lords have themselves fairly provoked the colli-
sion which they have all along pretended to deprecate
and fear so much. They have created the dilemma
for themselves, and they must endeavour to get out
of the Caudine Forks into which they have blindly
plunged. If they get out of them without injury and
loss, it will indeed be miraculous. It is a question of
political life and death between them and the Com-
mons which they have provoked, and the first of
the two which yields may as well pronounce their
abdication, turn the key of their door, and retire
from their public function. Which then must yield
—for one must ? That is the question. The House
of Lords, according to its organ, will not budge an
inch—the Commons dare not, cannot. Into this col-
lision has the ex-Jacobin, Lord Lyndhurst, returning
probably to the vomit of his early opinions, entrapped
his unfortunate aristocratical friends. His object might
be fairly suspected—to promote that universal liberty
and equality of Sansculotism which was his first and
youthful love. Certainly, if his clients 'have no reason
to be dissatisfied, the people have no reason to be dis-
satisfied ; for good must eventually result to them out
of that conflict of the aristocracy and democracy which
he has counselled or provoked. There was one re-
markable sign of the times perspicuously brilliant du-
ring the verbose clouds and shadows of Saturday
morning's debate. To this we point the attention of
the Peerage. It was an observation of Sir R. Peel,
whose sagacious skill in political meteorology cannot be
disputed. To the Lords it is a sign like that exhibited to
Milton's angel of darkness when contending with the
angel of light, namely, a subverted balance. To the. peo-
ple it is a sign of certain triumph, (sub hoc sign° 'Lances)
like that which appeared to Constantine in the midst of
his conflict with a system about to pass away. Sir
R. Peel's observation was to the effect, that if a con-
test were to arise between the hereditary and popular
Houses, lie would stand or fall with his order. Sir
E. Sugden, whose Toryism and sagacity are equally
indisputable, gave cotemporaneously, at a public
meeting, a similar intimation. He said, that it was in
vain for the Peers to resist the Commons, unless sup-
ported by a large majority of the intelligent population
of the country. The Lords, therefore, have a chance
of being " left alone in their glory" in the belligerent
position they have taken up—where, like Macbeth at
Dunsinane, there is neither means of tarrying or flying.
But were it not so, what would the puny phalanx of
the Rodens, and Kenyons, and Winchilseas do against
the united popular force of the three kingdoms? What
shield would the glittering trinkets of their stars, and
ribands, and coronetted baubles, be against the thunder-
stroke of public indignation ? In that political day
of judgment, they would cast away their idols, and
call on the rocks to hide them. Yet their champions
boast and threaten by turns, while they avow their
fears.

" So spake the apostate spirit, unsubdued,
Vaunting aloud, though rack'd With deep despair."
...Morning Advertiser.