The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-05 00:00:00

franchise; which Lord John Russell declared to be
finally fixed by that Reform Bill which he was per-
mitted to father—a shortening of Parliament, which,
with their usual trickery, the Whigs declared to be no
longer necessary as soon as they had fixed themselves
in office—the concession of the ballot, against which
many of them spoken, and all of them voted, since
they have been in power ; and, above all, that conflict
with the Lords, the object of which is assuredly the
greatest and most pregnant of the organic changes
which Lord John Russell has publicly declared, in
Parliament and out of it, he never would consent to;—
all this is not submitted to the option of Lords Mel-
bourne and Russell, it is not offered to them as what
may be, but what must be, done, or the peasant hand
that raised them up will assuredly hurl them down.
The Lambs are proverbially a gentle race in the order
of creation, and the Russells have manifestly dwindled
down to the extremest point of diminution in the per-
son of the present Home Secretary, and thus these
two leading Members of his Majesty's Govecument
may be dead to the deplorable debasement of standing
in the nation's eye as the cowering creatures of an -Irish
demagogue. But we appeal to the robust and manly
mind of England, and that with the fullest confidence,
when asking if any Minister of this country was ever
before subjected to such dictation as that which we de-
nounce ; and whether any Minister, submitting to it,
ought to be permitted to preside over the destinies .of
a free and independent people ? Mark the position
assigned to the Prime Minister of England by the
Chief rebel 'of Ireland ; for we contend that the
overthrow of the House of Lords is an act of un-
questionablerebellion against the Constitution." If," he
says, "Lord Melbourne will but conduct and manage
that necessary organic change—if he will combine
in hii-olarn person the popular leader with the Kirig's
Miuisier, the transition wilL be easy, and safe, -and
secure from. social change or individual misery.". • Here
is a combination not very devoutly to be wished, but
very definite as to its import. But we fear Lord
Melbourne will be startled, and shrink from the ener-
getic activity required of him. He is to combine the
popular leader with the King's Minister I The latter
character he has abundantly proved his ability to fill,
so long as nothing is required of him but to 101 l on
the Ministerial benches, with the occasional variation
of vapid, vulgar, and frivolous speech-making in reply
to questions beyond his industry, if not above his un-
derstanding. But to be a " popular leader" requires
something more than this ; and the combination of the
two characters would leave but little space for such
innocent and interesting speculations as whether Mary
Magdalen were, or were not, the most virtuous of
her sex. To such strenuous exertion we are con-
vinced that Lord Melbourne will never submit,
unless the Agitator should effect in his Lordship, indi-
vidually, as great an organic change as that with which
he impotently menaces the order of the Peerage gene-
rally. After some, to say the truth, not unmerited
puffs of his pet Peer, and appointed Lord-Lieutenant,
Lord Mulgrave—after charging that Noble Lord with
" vigorous exhibition of common sense, with a manly
display common honesty," Daniel gives a description
of himself, not intentionally, we admit, but so truly
that we cannot but extract it. He speaks of an illus-
trious assembly being, as they certainly are not, and as
his bigotted and besotted slaves, with equal certainty,
are, " led on by the most base of mankind, sustained
by the most selfish of the human race, and encouraged
by the least chivalrous but most daring of successful
adventurers." It were impossible to heighten this self-
portraiture ; we therefore leave it to the appreciation
and approval of all who have any knowledge, political
or personal, of Mr. Daniel O'Connell.-L-Tinzes.
There appeared in our columns the other day a re-
port of the sale by auction of a captured slave-ship
at the Captain's room at Lloyd's, the last slave-vessel
that can be so put up to sale within his Majesty's
dominions, since, by a- very proper alteration of the
law, it is required that, for the future, all prizes of this
sort shall not be sold, but broken up, the only way of
effectually preventing the possibility of such vessels
being again employed in the. abominable traffic which
has so long ravaged one quarter of the globe to sup-
ply the "man-degrading marts" of another With human
black cattle. Our readers may recollect that some
time ago we gave in our Private Correspondence an
account of the capture of the slave-ship in question,
the Cazador, and the proceedings with regard to it,
which were of rather a peculiar nature, in the Vice-
Admiralty Court at Gibraltar. We commented upon
the proceedings at the time, with the view of direct-
ing the attention of the Government at home to
a case in which there seethed to be some danger
of a failure of justice in regard to the claims of
the real captors. In order to the effectual sup-
pression of the slave trade, it is necessary that
those who are engaged in capturing slave-vessels
should have the fullest confidence that they shall not
be deprived of the rewards which the law attaches to
all successful efforts to abate this horrible nuisance.
But something more energetic ought to be done, than
anything that has yet been attempted, for the extirpa-
tion of a traffic so afflicting to humanity, and so dis-
graceful to the civilized world. The capturing a slave-
ship now and then, and condemning it under a mixed
Commission, has had very little effect indeed in abat-
ing the nuisance. It is now ascertained that on the
average no less than 100,000 Africans are imported
as slaves in Brazil every year, many of them by
Spanish and some by English adventurers ! The suf-
ferings to which these unfortunate beings are sub-
jected are much greater now of course than before
the trade was declared to be contraband—a diaboli-
cal ingenuity has contrived the most extraordinary
modes of concealment, at the expense of great addi-
tional torture to the slaves. Why should Mr. Fowell
Buxton and his party be so remiss—so apathetic
as they have recently been in regard to the exten-
sive carrying on of the slave trade, in fact, though
prohibited by law ? Much remains to be done before
the blood-stained commerce can be put down, which
bars a vast portion of the African continent against the
entrance of civilization, and delivers it up to unceasing
desolation, misery, and crime ! Why are not armed
steam vessels sent into those creeks and harbours on
the south-eastern coasts of Africa, where the nests of
slave-pirates are known to be established, and where
these infamous wretches carry on their detestable traffic
with an impunity similar to that which was so long en-
joyed by the Barbary States in dealing in Christian
slaves ? It was at' the instigation of some of those
slave-pirates that the late enterprising and lamenied
Richard Lander and his party were butchered, while
endeavouring to introduce legitimate commerce into
Africa. Why, we say, does our. Government content
itself with lopping off a shoot now and then from this
upas tree of crime, when it has the means of laying
the axe to the root?—Morning Herald.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

GUILIJHAL L.

Reuben Gilbert, a lad in the service of Mr. Brown, of
Great Carter-lane, was re-examined, charged with having
inflicted a dangerous wound on a lady, as she was riding in
a Mile-End omnibus, round. St. Paul's Church-yard, on
Monday forenoon, since which time the prisoner has been
detained in custody. The intervention of a false curl alone,
it is believed, saved the lady's life.
George Perry, the conductor of the omnibus, stated that
the prisoner was drawing a truck, laden with coals, and, in
passing the omnibus, some altercation occurred between
him and the driver. The prisoner, in a fit of passion, threw
a lump of coal, which, apparently, was intended to hit the
driver, but it struck the lady, who was sitting near the door.
She bled profusely from a wound on the temple, and after it
had been dressed by a surgeon on the spot, she was sent
home in a coach.
Mrs. Trusler, the lady above-mentioned, said she still felt
ill from the effects of the blow. The silk dress she wore,
which was worth 61., was spoiled by the stains of blood.
The prisoner said the omnibus came so near his truck,
that he called out, " Where are you coming to ?" and the
driver answered, that he would smash him and truck
too, at the same time catching his wheel. This aggravated
him (the prisoner) to throw the piece of coal.
The Magistrates (Mr. Alderman KELLY and Sir CHAP-
MAN MARSHALL) said they bad no doubt the injury was
inflicted accidentally on the lady, but the prisoner must be
taught that persons were not permitted to take the law into
their own hands. If the omnibus driver behaved ill, the
prisoner should have applied to a Magistrate, and not have
resorted to a course which had nearly deprived a person of
life. They concurred in fining him 51., or to be imprisoned
three months, unless he chose to pay the lady 31. as a com-
pensation for some of the damage he had done.
The prisoner was locked up.