The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-17 00:00:00

Mr. SIIILLIBEER, the defendant, had deserved well
of the country. No private person had, during a
long series of years, done so much to in-
crease the national revenue, or to promote
the public convenience ; indeed we much doubt
whether the sharp practice and strained interpreta-
tions of all the Commissioners since the country was
first
blessedsola(rgly
lewitto the Exchequer as the enterprise
with
a "Board of Excise" had con-
tributedof this persecuted individual, and while the footsore
and weary pedestrian, expedited in his journey
through the metropolitan thoroughfares by a cheap
ride in one of the thousands of omnibuses plying in
every quarter, and saved both time and labour thereby,
blesses the name of " SIILLIBEER," the inventor and
introducer of the system, benedictions of a very
different character are bestowed upon those who screw
from the industrious tradesmen charges which a strict
adherence to the letter of the law may possibly justify,
but which are wholly opposed to the spirit of its
enactments.

When deprived by increased competition, and
the almort universal adoption of his inven-
tion of the legitimate profits and emoluments
he might reasonably have expected, and
which would have been insured in a country where
useful discoveries were fairly encouraged, Mr. SHIL-
LIBEER started " The Economic Funeral Company,"
in which, by means of a patent carriage which he
had invented, and by combining in himself the occu-
pations of a "funeral postmaster" and a "furnishing
undertaker," he was enabled to reduce the charges
for funerals to about " one-third'' of what they had
previously been, and to lessen the crying abuse of
intramural interments, by bringing the sub-
urban cemeteries within the reach, and
within the finances of the less wealthy classes.
In this novel undertaking Mr. SHILLIBEER met with
the encouragement to which he was so eminently
entitled. The Excise Commissioners, however, are
opposed to all improvements or innovations ; any
alteration occasions some degree of trouble to those
well-paid functionaries, and, therefore, changes are
discouraged and ameliorations regarded as rank
heresies, deserving of the most stringent punishments.
It is unfortunately but too notorious that improve-
ments in the process of manufacture are retarded, if
not rendered wholly impracticable, because experie
relents are forbidden as being contrary to " Excise
regulations," and calculated to disturb the old and
time-honoured modes of assessing the duties to be
levied on the different article. Any invention there-
fore excites the utmost indignation of " the Board,"
and it may easily be conceived that so active and
ingenious a spirit as Mr. SHILLIBEER 's must have
incurred the deepest displeasure of the body.
But his discoveries and inventions did not form the
head and front of his offending. He had committed
the deepest crime known to Excise law. He had
actually dared to differ,from the Board in their con-
struction of the statutes—and, horribile dictu, he was
actually in the right!! They were compelled to
disgorge a portion of the duties they had erroneously
demanded, to repay a portion of the taxes they had
improperly levied. Every person carrying on the
business of a postmaster was materially benefited by
the acts of Mr. SHILLIBEER, but Ire was an offender
that should be taught how dangerous it was to ques-
tion the dictates of a body clothed with such
enormous and such despotic powers. Accordingly
when he demanded " information and instruction"
from the department as to the nature of the returns
which he was required to make, under circumstances
altogether different from those contemplated when the
statute was originally enacted, the reasonable ap-
plication was superciliously and contemptuously re-
jected, and with that urbanity and courtesy for
which public functionaries are so remarkable (civility,
it appears, not comingewithin the scope of official
duty) was informed, that "it was his own business
to prepare his returns, not theirs." This application
and denial were distinctly proved by the most unim-
peachable testimony for the defence, which the counsel
for the prosecution looked upon as so much matter of
course, that they did not think it worth their while
either to explain or to deny.
The obnoxious SHILLIBEER was thus placed
on the horns of a very unpleasant dilemma. If he
took an erroneous view of the law, if his construction
of the statute was incorrect, he would be not only
liable for enormous penalties, and for the costs of pro-
ceedings, where the Attorney-General and the Soli-
citor-General, aided and assisted by two coun-
sel learned in the law, being retained, would
materially increase the expenses ; but were it
even otherwise, and that notwithstanding the disad-
vantages to which he was exposed, and the opposition
of four gentlemen well qualified to make " the worse
appear the better reason," his interpretation should be
adopted by the Court, he would still be no trivial
sufferer, for he would have to bear the entire expenses
of his defence, being beneath the dignity of the
Crown
in any case in which it
may be concerned. Whatever be the result of the
proceedings, the due punishment of his audacity was
thus secured in either event.
We haveen to payce " ic t
costs"
witnessed the result. Mr. SHILLIBEER
made the returns according to his own views. An
action for no less than twenty one cumulative penal-
ties was forthwith commenced. If the object had
been merely to obtain a judicial exposition of these
obscure and contradictory enactments (however
unjust it might appear), to settle the practice at the
expense of Mr. SHILLIBEER, it would surely have
been sufficient to have sought for a nominal penalty,
or even to have enforced the consequences of one
infraction of the law. But that did not suffice. The
rebellion against the despotic authority of the Board
was to be punished, and these harsh and vindictive
proceedings were accordingly resorted to.
The verdict of the jury, although returned in ac-
cordance with the charge of the Lord Chief Baron,
and convicting the defendant on two penalties,
amounting together to 701. sterling, was a virtual ac-
quittal. They declared " that it was their unanimous
opinion that the defendant had taken every means in
his power to obtain the information necessary to
enable him to make his returns correctly," thus
completely exonerating him from that which consti..
tuted the gravamen of the charge, the desire to evade
payment of the fair duties to which he was
liable, to defraud the Crown of the taxes
to which it was justly entitled.
Under such circumstances, we cannot conceive that
these penalties will be enforced. The error, if error it
could be called, was occasioned by the acts of the Excise
authorities, and for such Mr. SHILLIBEER should not
be punished. We may, however, ask, how long will
that inflicts enormous
the public tolerate a system under v. hich such pro,
ceedings are even possible ? How long will they
sanction the existence of acode
pecuniary sacrifices on persons who have not erred
intentionally or deliberately, but who have been led
into mistakes by the difficulty of rightly interpreting
an obscure and contradictory Act of Parliament ?

The fifth annual meeting of the Ragged School
Union was held on Tuesday evening, at Exeter Hall.
The retrospective report was most encouraging.
" Pour years ago," said Lord ASHLEY, who officiated
as chairman, "they numb2red their schools by tens
and their scholars by hundred?, but now they main-
tained eighty-two schools, and there had passed
through them, receiving more or less instruction ac-
cording to circumstances, nearly 15,000 of the most

' filthy, destitute, forgotten, and hitherto despised
children." So far, he wever, learn restMg satielled
with such a result, the noble advocate of this most
noble charity only looked upon that success as an in-
citement to fresh exertions. " Had they done no-
thing at all," he urged,;" they might plead that all
was hopeless, but the great measure of success that
bad hitherto attended them would be turned to their
condemnation if they did not go further." And they
will go further! We have too much confidence in
the philanthropy, or rather let us say in the
justice of our countrymen, to imagine for one
moment that such an institution once fairly estab-
lished will be suffered to dwindle into insignificance
for want of support. It appeals to no maudling sen-
timentality, its claims are based on a sense of justice,
and earnestly enforced by a strong necessity. It re-
quires no " throat of brass or adamant::ne lungs," it
hardly requires the use of pen or printing-press, to
set forth the terrible nature of that necessity which
has called for the establishment of ragged schools.
It stares us in the face in every thoroughfare of the me-
tropolis. It speaks to all who have hearts to feel and
eyes to observe, which latter class are, strange to say,
of much the smallest number—as that eloquent
spokesman of the poor; THOMAS HOOD, has truly
shown, when he 'makes the repentant Lady in the
" Lady's Dream" exclaim—
" The wounds I might have heal'd!
The human sorrow and smart!
And yet it never was in my soul
To play so ill a part :
But evil is wrought by want of thought
As well as want of heart!"
The excuse of ignorance cannot now be pleaded; on
the contrary, it is become rather the fashion of late
to talk about the sorrows and sufferings of the poor.
The advisability of such schemes for their ameliora-
tion as that of the ragged schools has never been
called in question. Their usefulness, the report of
Tuesday evening has sufficiently demonstrated.
What obstacle now "remains ? What is to prevent
the generous co-operation of all who are happy
enough to have the means of assisting in the good
work ? Why should not ragged schools spread
throughout the length and breadth of this land—a
more glorious movement than any crusade or foreign
mission: "It is well to send out missions to the
heathen," exclaimed Lord ASHLEY, " and I re•
joice that it is so; but there are to be found
instances of heathenism just as striking in the
courts and alleys of this Christian city, as in the
depths of Pekin or the haunts of Timbuctoo." From
this often, but never too-often, repeated observation,
the Duke of ARGYLE, who took part in the meeting
of Tuesday, drew a very practical and useful conclu•
sion. "Some persons," he observed, " objected to
missions to the heathen world, on the ground that in
their own land they were surrounded by heathens,
and the assertion, he regretted to say, was too true; but
let all who withheld their sympathy and support from
foreign missions on such grounds come forward and
support ragged schools, and they would soon have a
glorious union and overflowing funds." "In his `Elegy
on a Country Churchyard,' the poet GRAY," con-
tinued the Noble Duke, "lamented the great powers
of intellect that were lost in the obscurity of poverty;
but in the children whose welfare we are met to pro-
mote, intellectual power, instead of being undeve-
loped, is misdirected to the most grievous purposes of
evil. They become the victims of the hangman or
the inmates of the gaol. It is from such a fate that
the Ragged School Union is formed to rescue them."
Considered in this point of view, the claims of the
union are so obvious that it appears almost a work of
supererogation to recommend it to the charity of the
philanthropist or the consideration of the commu-
nity. We do so, nevertheless, and with unhesitating
confidence, for never was there a cause better de-
serving of support, or one that appealed more power-
fully to the best sympathies of our nature.

To use an Irish mode of expression, Tuesday night
was a grand field-day in the House of Lords on the sub-
ject of that fearful night-mare—Agricultural Distress.
It is known that his Grace the Duke of BUCKINGHAM
has already been crushed beneath the weight of the
night-mare, and from the pathetic and vehement ex-
pressions of Noble Dukes and Earls under the pres-
sure, there is no, saying how soon other prominent
members of the aristocracy may be involved in shni-
lar results; for one of the allegations made by a Noble
Lord was, that the land was going rapidly out of
cultivation, as the result of free trade, that the free-
traders held heavy mortgages upon it, and their ob-
ject was to depreciate the value in order to foreclose
and become possessed of it at a reduced value I That
many of the broad domains attached to ducal and
baronial castles are subject to heavy incumbrances,
forming a night-mare much more burdensome, and
from which much more is to be apprehended than
from free trade, is quite true, but it certainly requires
a considerable exercise of faith, not to say credulity,
to believe that mortgagees who look to derive half-
yearly interest from investment of capital should
wilfully cut off the only source from which the
interest can be paid, namely the rental derived from
the occupaaacy. However, the statement of the
Noble Duke is not to be doubted, that broad lands
and extensive domains are heavily incumbered ; that,
in numerous cases, the nominal owners are not the
real owners, but it may be permitted to differ from
his Grace on his views as to the proceedings of
mortgagees-.
It is unfortunate for the cause of which the Noble
Duke is the champion, that the field-day of Tuesday
night did riot come off previous to the division on Lord
STANLEY'S amendment against the second reading of
the Bill for the repeal of the Navigation Laws. Who
can tell but that the thunder from the coronet
might have produced lightning from the mitres,
for his Grace of RICHMOND positively threatens no-
thing less than a combination, if not a conspiracy,
of the agricultural interest to destroy the Church,
or at least to deprive it of its revenues, which is very
similar to destruction. In this sacrilegious work his
Grace calculates on an accession of strength from the
peaceful members of the Society of Friends, and from
all who " hate the Church of England."
The House of Lords is, perhaps, the last place
where we might expect to hear that sacrilege was
publicly held forth and cheered, but the following is
extracted from the report of the speech of his Grace
of RICHMOND :

"If the reasonable demands of the farmers were not
complied with, they would petition and would combine
to get rid of the tithes, and if they did that they would
be joined by all the Brights, and men who hated the
Church of England.—(Hear, hear.)"

This conspiracy or combination for the destruction
of the Chut•ch by depriving her of her revenues is not
to be the work of disaffected, working manufacturers,
but of the farmers of England headed by the ari,to-
cracy. His Grace prefaced his statements of what
the object t• be combined for was by explaining who
were the pardes to combine :

These farmers lived in various parts of the country;
they had not been in the habit of combining together;
they had ever been loyal men, and ready to aid in carry-
ing out the laws of the land at all times. But now they
said—and he said so too, in that Ilouse—that they were
injured."

The leaders of the combined forces who are to
attack the altar, if not the throne, are already chosen
or self-appointed, and our readers will be surprised to
learn that one of theta is that very religious and
Protestant Peer, the Ear I of WINCHILSEA, who, as the
next speaker, followed v‘p the intimation of the Duke
of RICHMOND by decla]ing that—
" At whatever risk to himself, his part was taken; and,
by the God in whose presence he stood, if the people of
England wanted an hone st though a feeble leader, in him
they should find one. F(e was sure they would unite as
one man to oppose unjw ,t legislation."
_ _

It will be observed that his Lordship founds his
pretensions to leadership on two qualfications, honesty
and feebleness. It is zof for U 3 to decide which of the
two is most pre-eminent in his Lordship; on this
point there may be diff.erence of opinion, but those
who are inclined to doubt whether he possesses both,
will surely give him c:redit for the possession of one
of the two qualification s.

It would appear tha t this conspiracy cr combina-
tion has not merely it ; general or staff officers in the
House of Lords, but ts sergeants and corporals in
the provinces ; and A i.s not difficult to trace a con-
nexion between the speeches and the acts of the two.

At the commencenter it of his speech the Earl of
WINCPILSEA referred t. .) his connexion with the pro-
vinces and " that great body of respectable yeomanry
in the county in which he was born." It happens
that one of the b.trorlial mansions of his Lordship,
called Burley-on-the -Rill, is situate near to Oakham,
ifi the county of Rutland, and as lately as last week
a public manifesto was. issued in the local newspapers,