The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-09 00:00:00

ADEL PHI.

A new burletta, by Idr.Coyne, under the title of Fanny
Sims; or, the Mistress of Arts, was the novelty of last even-
ing, at this theatre. The scene is laid in Russia, where Miss
Sims ( Mrs. Keeley) is the governess in the family of Count
Muffenuff ( Mr. Cullenford). She has originally sold cigars
in the neighbourhood of the Temple, during which time she
had formed a " romantic attachment," like Sylvester Dagger-
wood of old, for Brush (Mr. J. Webster), a smearer of sign
posts, who has also migrated to Russia, and become a portrait
painter, through the patronage of old Muff•anuff, whose face,
amongst others, he has transmitted to future generations. In
the present, as in former cases, the course of true love does
not run smooth. Brush has inspired Paulina (Miss Cotterel),
the niece of Muffenuff), with the tender passion, as has Fanny in
the breast of Ivan( Mr. H. Beverly )as great a "muff" as his lather
the Count. Plenty of courtship, singing, cross purposes, gallo-
pading, indicatives time out of mind of the tender passion,
ensue, and the affair, which is light and laughable, winds up
to the satisfaction of the parties, save, perhaps, in the despair
of Ivan, and the despondency of Pauline at the union of
Brush and Fanny. Mrs. Keeley, who has an excellent notion
of burl, sque, was quite at home in Fanny Sims, and perhaps
a more laughable er ludicrous scene was never witnessed than
that in which she sang► " The light of other days," with an
accompaniment by herself on the cornet a-piston. The cur-
tain fell amidst the applause of a full house, and the audience
testified their acquiescence by similar demonstrations on the
piece being given out for repetition.

It is rumoured that a bridge will be built over the
river Severn at Newnha n, and that the matter is to be taken
up by Government. It is assumed that the mineral wealth
lately brought to light in the Forest of Dean has tended much
to the desire to improve the communications in this part of
the country.—Gloucester Journal.
DISTRESS OF THE HAND-LOOM WEAVERS.—
In order to prove the cruel insufficiency of remuneration for
band-loom weaving, it is necessary only to glance at a table of
wages which was recently presented to the Commissioner by
Brierly himself, a hand-loom weaver, and published last Sa-
turday in the Halifax Express. From this statement of the
present earning of the weavers it appears that many indi-
viduals (in one township there are two thousand looms) do not
obtain upon an average more than daily for food and
raiment. The highest daily average per head is not more
than 2id., but from five to eight farthings is the more common
price per head paid for a day's work. The profit en capital, it
is admitted on all hands, is as low as remuneration of labour
is inadequate ; and the evil of all this is no doubt mainly at-
tributable to the iniquitous operation of the Corn-laws— of
that scandalous system of starvation, that cruel and accursed
code, the injustice and impolicy of which we have so often de-
nounced as the devil's own laws.
A remarkable specimen of the magpie species was
lately shot at Wath-upon-Dearne, by William Addy : it was
bred near Newhill Hall, the seat of John Payne, Esq., and is
about eleven inches long, and stands about eleven inches high,
is of a beautiful bright fawn colour on the head, neck, breast.
wings, thighs, and tail shaded to a bright brown on the darker
feathers of the wing coverts, and the belly is of a cinereous
white ; the bill, legs, feet, and claws are of a brownish black,
which another year would no doubt have made beautifully
black, and it is really to be regretted that its death was occa-
sioned by its capture. It is well worthy a place in any collec-
tion, and would even add interest to the still-life aviary of a
Waterton.—Doncaster Gazette.
•

A letter from Bagneres of the 30th ult., states that
a slight shock of an earthquake, attended with a rumbling
noise, was felt at Cauterets on the 24th, at a quarter to two,
A. M., but from its taking place in the night was felt only by a
few persons.

CUSTOM HOUSE ABUSES

{'ti

DiTOR OF TUE

SUN

Sin—The zeal and ability with which abuses of ad kinds
are exposed in your valuable and extensively circulated
paper induces me to request the favour of your giving the
following statement insertion in your columns.
In the course of business it occasionally happens that I
dispose of my refined sugar for exportation, engaging in
the contract of sale to the merchant that the quality of it
shall be equal in quality to that of the double refined
standard loaf in the possession of the officer of Customs
at the export docks. My sugar has been frequently ( and
as I will presently show, unjustly) seized by the officer, upon
the plea that the quality of it is not equal to standard
sample ; under such a dilemma the practice is that the
sugar refiners memorialize the Commissioners of Customs,
alleging generally that the sugar is of equal quality, and
ought to be shipped, and praying for a fair examination of
the respective samples, &c. As the majority of your readers
will not comprehend the nature of the contrivance by which
these memorials are brought under the august notice of
these Thames-street Potentates—their Honours the Com-
missioners of Customs—it is necessary to explain how the
Star Chamber-like affair is conducted : These said memo-
rials, being respectfully worded, are dropped into a kind of
letter-box, fitted up for the purpose, in the Custom House ;
in two or three days after a memorial is so deposited, the
applicant finds his name inserted in a book, having certain
figures placed against it—say twenty ; he has then to with-
draw a sliding piece of board, and to thrust his head
through the aperture which the removal of the slide dis-
covers ; his eyes then encounter a formidable green screen
of sufficient dimensions to hide a brace of clerks who are
comfortably established behind it : to the question, " what
answer for No. 20 ?" one of these officials replies, in 99 out
of a 100 cases, be the wording of the memorial what it may
—" the Boar d orders that the sugar be delivered to you on
payment of two, three, or five pounds (the amount being
regulated more by the bile on the Commissioner's stomach
than by any recognized rule) satisfaction money to the
seizing officer." From this decision it is useless to appeal ;
if a memorialist should do so he is brought in contact with
men whose stock of sugar knowledge is of the most mo-
derate degree, and, who, consequently, pinning their faith
on their practical officer's report (the man who is to re-
ceive the satisfaction money), surely end the matter by
giving their dictum confirmatory of the Board's order.
Now, Sir, would any human being beyond the precincts
of the Custcm House, believe that these said worthies,
their Honours of Thames-street, have, on the representa-
tion of their practical and satisfaction money-receiving offi-
cers, connived at and authorized the substitution of a
standard sample of sugar to govern the judgment of their
infal ible officers, considerably finer in quality than that
which the law warrants ! That there shall be no tnistake
in what I write, I quote the Act of Parliament, which is
remarkably particular in defining how these standard
loaves shall be fabricated. The Act says, " There shall
be provided by and at the expence of the Committee of
Sugar Refiners in London, and, in like manner, by and at
the expence of the Committee of Merchants in Dublin, as
many loaves of double refined sugar, prepared in the man-
ner hereinafter directed, as the Commissioners of Customs
shall think necessary, which loaves when approved of by the
said Commissioners shell be deemed to he standard samples ;
one of which loaves shall he lodged with said Committees
respectively, and one ether with such persons as the said
Commissioners shall direct, for the purpose of comparing
therewith double refined sugar, or sugar equal in quality to
double refined sugar, entered for exportation for the bounty ;
and fresh standard samples shall in like manner be again
furnished by such Committees respectively, and in like man-
ner lodged, whenever it may he deemed expedient by the
said Commissioners, provided always that no loaf of sugar
shall be deemed to be a proper sample loaf of double refined
sugar, as aforesaid, if it be of greater weight than 141b5., nor
unless it be a loaf complete and whole, nor unless the same
shall have been made by a distinct second process cf refine-
ment, from a quantity of single refined sugar, every part of
which had first been pt rfectly clarified and duly refined, and
had been made into lumps or loaves which were of a uni-
form whiteness throughout, and had been thoroughly dried
in the stove."-9 Geo. iv., cap. 76, sec. 18.
Having shown what the Act of Parliament defines and
decides how and what these standard loaves should be, it
remains for me to prove that the Board of Customs have,
in defiance of all law, imposed upon the refining trade, by
substituting a standard sample of sugar of finer quality,
and of a peculiar manufacture, not recognised by the Act,
and fortunately it happens that I shall not have to combat
with them without being able to supply excellent proof of
their delinquency. Oh, the satisfaction money ! How
tempting to the eager grasp ! This proof will be found
established beyond doubt in a letter addressed by the Lords
of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade, to the Lords
Commissioners of the Treasury, dated 17th March, 1838,
which states, that " they (the Commissioners of Customs)
rejected the legal standard,,and caused an arbitrary standard
to be prepared, which is of a quality superior to that de-
fined by the Act." * * * * Again, the
same letter refers to a report from the Commissioners of
Customs of the 18th August, 1836, " wherein the want
of legal authority for the standard in use is readily ad-
mitted" by the said Commissioners. With this conclusive
evidence of the scandalous fraud which has been practised
against me for two years at least, I mean to go before a
Jury, as soon as term commences, to seek the restoration
of all the satisfaction money I have paid to the seizing of-
ficer, as well as damages for the costs attending the neces-
sary re-manufacturing of the sugar thrown on my hands,
and the money I have paid to purchase sugar to complete
my various and numerous contracts, violated through this
base conduct on the part of these Worthies of the Cus-
toms, and I hereby invite all my brother refiners who have
been so robbed, both in Londo❑ and out of it, to be pre-
pared to do the same.
I am, Sir, your constant reader,
WtC., Sugar-Refiner.

LORD BROUGHAM AND GREEK.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,---You will excuse rue for informing you that it is
quite natural for the Times to think, as we all do about
this part, very lightly of people pretending to understand
Greek. who have not attailled the hen Atr of being " Gre-
cians." We don't know where Lord Brougham went to
school, but we know it was not hereabouts, and conse-
quently in our opinion, and in that of all " the Grecians,"
the language of the writers of Greece must be all Greek to
him.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
mus TRIMMINGS.
Newgate-street, near Christ's Hospital.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—Although I do not agree with you in politics,
I am happy to bear testimony to the talent and vigour with
which your paper is conducted. The Sun is,.in fact, the
only publication that deserves the name of an Evening
Paper, the other papers contenting themselves with a
merely servile copy from the papers of the morning ; while
your paper invariably contains the additional news of the
current day. Will you allow me to offer a few remarks,
suggested by your leading article of this evening, respect-
ing the proceedings of the " Reformation Society." I
should be sorry, if it were as true as I fear many suppose
it to be, that the aforesaid Society expresses the general
opinion of the English Clergy. I can assure you, on the
contrary, that the great majority of my. clerical brethren
view the proceedings of that Society with the utmost dis-
gust and abhorrence ; nor are there any individuals with
whom a large and increasing portion of our body would
more: peremptorily decline to come in contact than tvith
Messrs. O'Sullivan, M'Ghee, and O'Neill, of Exeter Hall
and Liverpool notoriety. In fact, Sir, the Church .of
England is not a Protestant Church, and I call upon tne
zealous members of the Reformation Society, and all others
whom it may concern, to show upon what grounds they link
the cause of the Church of England with that of Protes-
tantism t The term is never used in any of the formula-
ries of the Church, nor does our Church recognize the va-
lidity of the orders of any one of the Reformed or Protes-
tant Churches of Germany, France, or Scotland. We do
indeed differ from the Romanists, inasmuch as we contend
that the Church in this country being able to trace its
descent from the Apostles, and having made certain alte-
rations in its Liturgy, and by competent authority—
viz., that of the Church itself. They (that is the Ro-
manists) are acting schismatically in separating from us,
but we fully allow the validity of their orders, and their
right to be considered an integral part of Christ's Church.
This cannot be more clearly shown than by proposing a
familiar instance. Let us suppose that Dr. Chalmers
should wish to become a clergyman of the Church of
England ; in order to this he would be required to cease
from his ministerial duties for a space, perhaps, of. three
years, so as virtually to renounce all his present claims to
he considered a Minister of the Gospel, in ordertbathe might
obtain testimonials that for so long a time he had " neither
held, written,or taught anything contrary to the doctrine
or discipline. of the Church of England." He would then have
t?be °roamed a Deacon, in which office he would have to con-
tinue some time (a year usually), during which time he would
characterhl he be
; recognisedwhereas,
afußl loym investednßomania
p,
not be qualified to administer the sacrament of the Eucharist
nor to hold a benefice. Nor till he was ordained priest
twiaoluto
enter our communion, he is received without any re-ordi-
nation., without any further ceremony, than 'a mere sub-
scription to the Articles. Does it 'not therefore, appear
that. these. ultra-Protestants of the Reform' ation Society are
ewsitths should wishnis t
acting quite contrary to the spirit and intention of that
Church of which they fancy themselves the ornaments,
when they fraternize with Presbyterians and Independents'

_>,f;r

erpto. n,' on• cf

and the omninm galheryint of Dis
wi..)in the Church of England, to whicl
I:.;:i.irers of .J.e visible C.•:ri,ll, and clp:mi
their hatred upon the Church of Rome, through which
the Church of England derives her orders, and her quarrel
with which is upon points of very secondary consideration ?
I am not claiming your approval of these sentiments, but
I am speaking of matters of fact—that the Church of
England is not a Protestant Church, and has no con-
nection with Protestantism. For myself, I abhor Protes-
tantism in all its shapes, and I regret exceedingly that a
loose manner of speaking, and a foolish hatred to, the
Romanists, should ever lead members of the Catholic
Church of Christ in England to disgrace themselves, as
Messrs. ('Sullivan and Co. have done. I, for one, 1
upon the Reformation as an event greatly to be deplored.
I think that all the reformations effected (even if they
were all reformations) were not worth the sacrifice of unity
by which they were attained. I would willingly yield
much—aye, very much—to be reconciled again with the
other Churches of Christendom : and certainly, should the
Church of England fall (which God forbid), I should have
no hesitation in avowing my adherence to the Church of
Rome.
These are, I know, very hurried remarks, but the sub-
joct is of importance. For instance, lam a Conservative
or Tory in politics, but I (and I know it to be the case
with many others) cannot join the Conservative party be-
cause they make their abhorred Protestantism the stalking-
horse of their party, and endeavour to unite Churchmen
and Dissenters, or, in other words, England and Geneva,
against Rome, instead of trying to conciliate Rome, and
fighting with her against Geneva.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN ANTI. PROTESTANT LONDON
Oct. 8, 1838. CLERGYMAN.