The Sun.
London, England, 1822-10-19 00:00:00

[MORNING HERALD.]

An Archbishop, figuring prOprio nomine in the
Journals as an amateur essayist on the politics of

the day, would have rather an odd appearance
amongst us. It is, however, no novelty in Paris.
The Abbe de Pradt frequently puts forth a poli-
tical homily in the Journal called the Constitu-
tionnel ; and, what is still more curious, in his
last contribution has run into a political libel.,
We read this article when it appeared without
thinking it deserving of particular notice, and
return to it only to give a specimen of what
is deemed sufficient to set in motion the
machinery of the French Police to arrest the
circulation of a newspaper. The Congress is the
theme of the Archbishop—or rather of the Ex-
Archbishop of Malines. The distinction will
render his politics less startling than they might
otherwise appear. " Every-
.body," says he,
" makes his Congress to his own fancy—why
should not I have mine 7." We see no objection.
Why should not M. de Pradt have the same right,
in this busy time, to occupy himself with a Con-
gress, which, Diogenes had to gird up his Ic4lts
and roll his tub at Corinth, !dist the Corinthians
were busy in rolling stones to resist King
Phillip, by whom they were besieged. The
French Police, however, thought differently upon
the matter. Indeed we strongly suspect that if
Diogenes were to re-appear, and choose the
self-called modern Athens for the theatre
of his sayings and sarcasms, he ,would soon
be provided with a more sheltered and solid abode
than his tub. The Abbe, who is fond of di-
vision and method, begins with saying " The
Congress of Verona has two objects ; the first,
known, and of necessity, the second, unknown
and coujectural. The first is the purely Italian
question, resulting from the stipulations of the
Congress of Layback, which provided that, in
1822, the Sovereigns should meet again to know
what was further to be done with Italy. The
second relates to the supposed intentions of the
Congress respecting the general affairs of Europe
—" a vast and free field for speculation," conti-
nues the Abbe, who, however, now finds it not
quite so free as he supposed. The Abbe dis-
poses as follows of the " Italian question," in
a manner certainly which cannot be very palat-
' able to the Congress. " The question," he says,
" is not the shorter or longer stay of the Austrians,
' but their being there at all. The question is the
simplest in the world. Italy wishes to be her-
self mistress in her own family ; she feels regret
and shame, at having become little after-having
been great. Has the Congress any means of
; making her no longer feel the grief and shame of
having missed her existence—of having in poll-
tics to lament her Paradise lost,'" &c.

Mrs. GAIUUCK'S private box, at Dury-lane, in
consequence of that venerable Lady's death, has
been closed for the present.
The execution of felons condemned to death
in the 14th and 15th centuries, and probably
much earlier, was, in many parts of England by
drowning. In the year 1,315, complaint was
made against the prior of Christ Church, Sand-
wich, for that " he had diverted the course of a
certain stream called the Gestlyng, so that felons
could not be executed for want of water."

An old man, who had resided for upwards of
40 years in Vinegar-Gardens, Clerkenwell, al-
ways living in a state of• misanthropy, had been
missing since Monday last, and the neighbours
were deterred from entering the house by the
violent barking of a large Newfoundland dog,
which he kept constantly on the premises. On
Thursday morning means were taken to secure
the dog, and then they broke open the house,
where they found the old roan lying upon the
bed, dead, and completely stiff. From the at-
titude-in which he was found, it is supposed that
he was sitting ,on the foot of the bed, and fell
backwards. On the premises were found a great
number of sovereigns, and an immense quantity
of crown pieces.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

CAUTION TO PAWN-BROKERS.

BOW-STREET.—Yesterday William Cropley, a child ten
years of age, was brought before the Sitting Magistrates, G. R.
MINSHULL and THOMAS HALLS, Esq. charged with stealing
a coat, the property of his father, William Cropley, the elder.
It was stated by the father and mother, that the prisoner,
young as he was, had been in the habit of plundering them
almost daily for the last two years, and punishment or kind
treatment was equally inefficacious in curing him of his invin-
cible attachment to pilfering. Some months ago he was brought
to this Office and sent to solitary confinement in Tothill-fields
Bridew.:ll, but he was no sooner released than he commenced
his old practices. His fatheris a very industrious coal-porter,
and goes to work about five o'clock in the morning. Yesterday
morning he went out at his usual hour, and locked the prisoner
in his room : but he had not been gone many minutes, when
the young delinquent broke the lock of the door, and ran out of
the house with his father's coat. When the coat was missed
some hours after, a search was made for the prisoner, and he
was found playing with a gang of idle boys in Hungerford-
market. Six or seven shillings were found in his pocket, which
he said had been advanced to him upon his father's coat at the
shop of Mr. Harris, a pawnbroker in the Strand. An inquiry
was made at the pawnbroker's, and the fact was readily admitted.
Mr. Mixsiiimr. said, the taking a pledge for such a child
was shameful conduct on the part of the pawnbroker, and im-
mediately sent an officer to the shop with orders to bring before
him the person who took the coat.
The officer returned in a few minutes with a spruce young
fellow, who brought the coat with him, and who admitted
that he advanced money upon it to the prisoner. His name
he said was Joseph Burgess, and lie was shopman to Mr.
Harris.
Mrs. Cropley was questioned by the Magistrates, and she
stated, that the prisoner hail several times stolen things, and
pledged them at Harris's with Burgess, and she had in conse-
quence warned the latter that the boy was given to pilfering,
and desired that he would never take any pledge from him
again. About four months ago he stole a shawl, and pledged
it with Burgess, and then she gave him the same warning, and
he knew that the boy had been in prison for theft. She had
redeemed several articles thus pledged.
Burgess seemed to treat the charge with the most sovereign
contempt, and when told by Mr. MiNsilur.r. that he regarded
him as a receiver of stolen goods, and should deal with him ac-
cordingly, he, with a smirking countenance, assured his Wor-
ship it was all false—mere vile perjury; Mrs. Cropley had been
in the constant habit, for these four years past, of sending' the
prisoner with articles to pledge. He admitted that he knew of
the boy having been in prison, but said it was for running away
with money advanced upon things sent with him by his mother,
and not for stealing the things.
Mr. MiNsfrum.—Mrs. Cropley, you are upon your oath,
and for God's sake speak nothing but the truth. Did you ever
send the prisoner to pledge articles with this man ?
Mrs. Cropley—Upon my oath I never did. I repeatedly
warned him not to take any thing from the boy.
Burgess said she would yet have the worst of this, for she
should be indicted for perjury.
Mr. Mrsrsrium. said he would not suffer a witness to be in-
timidated, and desired Burgess to hold his tongue.
Burgess insinuated that Mrs. Cropley was given to drinking
and bad company, but this was denied by her landlord, who
said she was a sober, industrious woman.
Mr. MistsituLL said, he had heard nothing which could in-
duce him to alter the opinion he had first formed upon the case,
and should commit the;:prisoner for theft, and Burgess must
find bail for his appearance at the Sessions, to answer to an in-
dictment for receiving the coat knowing it to have been stolen.
Burgess's master, Mr. Harris, made his appearance in the
course of the examination, and protested against the course
about to be adopted by the Magistrates ; observing, that by the
Pawnbrokers' Act they were liable to penalties for taking
pledges from persons under a certain age ; but this was the
first time he bad ever heard of a Magistrate committing a pawn-
broker as a receiver of stolen goods.
The Magistrates said, it might be so ; but they were deter-
mined upon that course in the present instance.
The boy was fully committed for trial, and Burgess was held
to bail, himself in 401. and two sureties in 201. each, to appear
at the Sessions.
The Isitnesses were bound over to prefer both bills of in
dictinent.

BENEFIT SOCIETIES.

GuILDUALL.—The stewards of a Benefit Society, held at
the Coach-makers' Arms, Foster-lane, and called " The
Laudable Society of Master Tradesmen," attended qt this of-
fice yesterday, before the Aldermen Armor and WAITIIMA-N,
to shew cause why they had discontinued the payment of the
pension of 10s. ed. a week to a superannuated member, named
John Fisher.
Mr. Fisher, it seems, has been a very respectable Tradesman,
and still carries on a small business as a cutler, in Ratcliffe-
highway. He is now totally blind, and had in consequence
been compelled to declare on the society's chest. He had re-
ceived, according to the articles, the full allowance of 30s. per
week for the first six months ; half that amount for the next
six months; and subsequently became what is termed a pen-
sioner upon the box, at half a guinea per week, which, after
having been paid to him for twelve months, was discontinued
from the 21th of August Last.
There was no' suspicion of fraud or impropriety of conduct
on the part of Mr. Fisher ; on the'contrary, the Stewards spoke
of him as highly respectable, and much respected by every
member of the society. But he was still carrying on business
upon his own account ; and the only difference between them
was, whether he was, under the peculiar circumstances of the
case, legally entitled to claim to be a pensioner.
By. the 16th article of the society, when a member became
superannuated he was entitled to a pension of half a guinea a
week, and permitted to do any small matters on his own ac-
count, " provided his earnings do not exceed his weekly pen-
sion." It was admitted that 'nr. Fisher was incapacitated from
earning any thing by his personal labour, and the moot-point
was, did the profits he was supposed to receive from his trade,
come within the meaning of the term " earnings ?"
Mr. Fisher's family consisted of his wife, a son, and a
daughter. The son was no partner, but the whole of the busi-
ness was managed by him ; , and upon the proceeds of it the
whole 'family were supported.
Mr. Alderman ANSLEY seemed to think that the receipt of
the profits of the trade, although not the produce of Mr.
Fisher's personal labour, must be considered as his earnings,
according to the equitable constniction of the article; and in-
stanced the case of a business to a large extent carried on by a
widow, of a nature probably where her personal labour could
not be exerted. Would a person, under such circumstances,
be legally permitted, if ill, to declare upon the box, and be-
come a pensioner ? -
Mr. Alderman WAITJIMAN viewed the question in a differ-
ent light. A widow, if she had her eye-sight, could at least
superintend her own business, which might be considered a
species of personal labour. But here the complainant was wholly
incapacitated ; and it was in evidence, that the business was
so small that the profits of it would not maintain the family,
if carried on, with the expense of servants. If the son, there-
fore, by. his personal exertions supported his father, it was too
bard to say that he should not receive that support, without for-
feiting his claim as a pensioner, when it was allowed on both
sides that the father was himself incapable of earning any thing
by his persbnal exertions. Supposing some friend were to leave
him an annuity of more than half a guinea a week, could that
be considered his earnings, stud made the reason for depriving
him of his pension ?
What the decision of the Magistrates upon this moot-point
might have been (for neither Mr. Payne, the Magistrate's
clerk, nor Mr. Hayward, who attended as Solicitor for the
complainant, Ventured to express any very decided opinion on
the strict legal interpretation of the word " earnings,") is left to
the curious in such matters to surmise. An ingenious special
pleader would have contended that the proviso in the article as
to the extent of the weekly earnings, bad reference only to the
permission granted of doing small matters on the pensioner's
own account, and not to the pension,. and that, by exceeding the
stated-amount, he forfeited, . not the pension, but the permis-
sion to do such small matters ; and that there was no clause ex-
pressly forbidding a member from working at his business,
when reduced to be a pensioner, but only while he was receiv-
ing from the box either the full or the half allowance. The
case, however, was at length decided:upon the facts only; for,
on a more particular examination, 111 r, Fisher declared, that
after the payment of the necessary expenees of the trade, the
average profits. 'did not .exceed half a guinea a. weel; and in
this he was borne out by a person who is in the habit of leading
him about, who stated that they frequently did not take a shil-
ling in the shop for da's together.
The Stewards perceiving the 'decision about to go against
them, changed their ground; and started another objection.
Mr. Fisher, they said, and it was allowed, with the exception
of his blindness, was otherwise in good health. They Would
undertake to find him an employment 'by which he Might earn
15s. a week ; one which was healthy, and which lie was fully
capable of performing, and contended, that while thus able to
maintain himself, he could not legally claim to be continued a
pensioner.
The Magistrates inquired the. nature of the employment,
which was stated to be turning a wheel. The stewards, how-
ever; were-unable to produce any clause in their articles to for-
tify die position they had taken ; and the Magistrates thinking
it rather too hard for a respectable tradesmen to be compelled
to the drudgery of turning a wheel, the objection was over-ruled,
and the ultimate decision given in favour of the complainant,
upon the ground that his earnings had not exceeded the amount
of his weekly pension.