The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-27 00:00:00

STOCKS AND STONES.

We have no hesitation in saying that whoever,
after reading some of the recent disclosures in the
Morning Chronicle, can wear a cheap stock, must
have a heart of stone. If we were Prince Albert, we
would at once insist on the total release of our royal
name from those hateful ties which are paraded in
the shop-windows as " Albert ties," and for the
making of which only Gd. a dozen is paid ! It is a
libel on his Royal Highness, who has lately shown so
much warm-hearted interest in the cause of the in-
dustrious classes, to couple him, even nominally, with
those stocks and neck-ties, whose wearers—if they
knew the horrible sacrifices entailed by the low price
manufacture—would be ashamed to hold up their
heads over even the stiffest of these odious articles.
We shall never look upon one of those cheap stocks
again without feeling our choler raised in an extra-
ordinary degree ; and we could not put such a thing
round our neck without a sort of throttling sensation,
engendered by the knowledge that, for the production
of these stocks and ties, rapacity has taken necessity
by the throat. The wealthy capitalist, who -watches
the daily fluctuation of the funds, has thought hitherto
but little of the fearful consequences resulting from
the downward tendency in the prices of another kind
of stocks. A fall in Spanish may diminish, by a few
thousands or hundreds, the gain of the millionaire or
the less opulent speculator, but a fall in the Albert
Stock-market curtails the already insufficient crust of
the poor needlewoman, and sends tottering into the
abyss many who were trembling on the edge of the
slippery partition between starvation and crime.
" The Albert Stocks used to be 3s. fid. to 4s. a
dozen when they first came up. They're 2s. to ls. 9d.
now," says the informant of the Morning Chronicle.
And we venture to assert, that the decline in the
Stock Market is more appalling in its consequences
than the ups and downs of that other Stock Market in
which knavery and jobbery, avarice and recklessness,
folly and cunning, pursue their unhallowed course.
Henceforth, whatever we may hear said of prosperity
in connexion with rises in the funds, we shall cease
to have faith in the soundness of the state of things,
until we are satisfied that the Albert Stocks are look-
ing up.—Punch.

LIBERATION OF MISS LEGGOTT.—We understand
that this young person, the victim of the lottery of split
quills, drawn by the jury who tried her at the late Leeds
Borough Sessions, was on Thursday liberated from cus-
tody. It will be recollected that when the verdict of
guilty was arrived at by the extraordinary means
alluded to, the Learned Recorder sentenced Miss
Leggott to six weeks' imprisonment. Immediately
afterwards the discovery was made that her fate had been
fixed by lot. Such an outrage on an Englishman's no-
tions of trial by jury—the great bulwark of personal
freedom in this country—was, of course, at onco made
the subject of an application to the Home Secretary for
her release on the ground of the unparalleled character
and illegality of the finding of the twelve unenviable
men who sat upon, and ought to have judged her case.
The answer to this application was received by the Go-
vernor of the Leeds Borough gaol on Thursday, Sir
George Grey directing Miss Leggott's immediate libera-
tion. The result is but an act of justice to Miss Leg-
gott, while it conveys a well-merited censure upon the
jury; and we hope it will answer as a check against the
aggravation of the notoriety which Yorkshire juries
have of late attained by their decisions in this case, the
Barnard Castle murder, and a few other instances.—
Leeds Mercury.
We are glad to find that the election of George
Leeman, Esq., to the chair of the York, Newcastle, and
Berwick Railway Company has given the most entire
and general satisfaction in this district. The Journal
(who was sole defender of Mr. Hudson here) speaks of
Mr. Leeman as " an able and respectable man;" and
the Sunderland ilerald, after designating him " honour-
able and trustworthy," says, " Mr. Leeman, it will be
remembered, discharged the laborious duties of secretary
to the Committee of Investigation, and this appointment
bears eloquent testimony to the value of the advice and
assistance he rendered in that capacity. We wish the
company a good start and a prosperous career under
his presidency."—Newcastle Guardian.
Never put a curb on humanity ; we are too apt to
stop without it.—Eliza Cook's Journal,