The Sun.
London, England, 1838-07-30 00:00:00

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LONDON :
MONDAY EVENING. JULY 30, 1838

We refer with much pleasure to the extremely gratifying
and cordial reception which his Excellency Marshal
Soue'r and his suite experienced yesterlay at Sheerness,
the derails of which will be round in another column.
The scene was altog,qlter d:frcrent from anything which
the Marshal had met w ith in his tour through England, Lnd
it was a fittingyinale to his departure from this great maii•
time nation, that he should be an eve-witness to the naval
power and resources, and partake of the hospitality of British
seamen. Much credit is due to Sir ROBERT OTW.',Y for
the admirable arrangements made by him to do ho-
nour to his distinguished visitors, and relic!) must have
deeply m:)ressed them with the eontictinn, that the
British navy was as great and magnanimous in its
friendship, as it has been powerful and unrivalled
when called int ) aztfon. It is tray gratir3ing to
find the two greatest nations of the earth thus uniting
their energies to promote peace and concord, and to
extend the arts of civilization, and do good to man-
kind. The sight wcs one worthy of the best days
of England's naval...glory, and we doubt not that the
impressions which have been made upon the minds of the
illustrious visitors, will tend still further; to promote the
good understanding now happily subsisting between the
two countries.

The following paragraph on the subject of the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER's Joint Stock Banks' Bill is
copied from the City article of our Contemporary, the
Morizing Herald of this day :
Considerable satisfaction has been expressed in the monetary and
commercial circles that the ChanCellor Of the Exchequer has, though at
the eleventh hour, brought a Bill into Parliament to amend the laws
relative to legal proceedings by joint-stock banks against their own
members, and by such members against the companies, inasmuch as it
will, when it passes into a law, enable many of these institutions to ex-
tricate themselves from a great deal of unjust resistance to just claims,
merely on the quibble that the former Joint-Stock Bank Act was defective
on that point, and that the law of partnership was so defective also, that it
could be made available where the partners were more than six in number.
It would be an idle work of supererogation to compare the merits of this
measure with that would-be parent of jobbing and patronage called the
Trading Companies Bill, which has rande such a speedy passage through
the House of Camm•ms and the House of Lords. So far as regards
banking institutions, this Bill of Mr. Spring Rice's Up! do away with
the necessity for Mr. Poulett Thomson's bantling, and a comprehen.
live end direct improvement in the law of partnership, that would
be administered by the Judges of the land with( ut favouritism or
undue bins, would, as it ought, send that patchwork concoction of
embryo jobs into the shades of legislation.
Our Contemporary's remarks upon the demerits of that
would-be legislative abortion, Mr. PoULETT THOMSON'S
Trading Companies' Bill, corrobora.e the view which
we took of it the moment it first attracted
our notice. But, luck for all parties concerned,
the Herald has m;l4lee?eimPant m'atitite--1-regttvtr-tzrit="!•;
namely as regard's its speedy"
Passage through the House
of Lords. The Peers conceded to it-the customary corn-
le Ws
' • PAIIE
pliment of a first reading ; but unless we are greatly
mistaken, when it next engages the notice of their Lon'
••.•
'7. —*hips, they will come to the conclusion that it will
.4e serving the country to postpone the second reading

rle

for six months. 'Thy more closely-. *e• examine it, in
conjunction with the Trading Companies Act of the
Ist of VICTORIA, chap. 73, which it purports to amend,
the more we are puzz!ed to find out what practical object,
save to increase litigation, its framer could have in sot,-
mating, it to Parliament. What was doubtful in the Act
of 1837, the Bill of 1838 renders quite unintelligible.
Were the Amendment Bill—as the President of the
Boa-d of Trade furetiously calls this last pledge
of his parturitive statesmanship—to become law,
there is one way in which there is a chance
of its operating advantageously for the country, notwith-
standing the contrary supposition hazarded above. It
would so bewilder the lawyers as instead of two opinions,
to leave them without any. The pleadings in an action
upon the joint statute would bear a stronger resemblance
to the speeches of the eminent counsel employed in the
case of the Paris Bells recorded in the Annals of the
" good Pantagruei," than any to be found in the
legal R, pons of this country. We are half inclined
• to suspect that Mr. POULETT THOMSON was engaged in
the perusal of RABELAIS, and had actually concluded one
the orations we are alluding to whe❑ the idea occurred to
him of amending his last year's Trading Companies' Act—
which was not three mcnths the law of the land before it
was the laughing-stock of every Trading Company in the
United Kingdom. With respect to the CHANCELLOR Of
the EXCHEQUER'S Joint-stock Bank's Bill, we are happy
to be able to concur in the favourable opinion of that mea-
sure pronounced by our Contemporary.

The Re.port of the Pension List Committee has been
published by order of the House of Commons, and we lay
before our readers the principal portion of its contents, to-
gether with some observations of a Morning Contemporary
on the subject. The investigation appears to us to have
been conducted with some care, and the Report is drawn
up with considerable skill. We cannot believe, however, tl, at
it will satisfy t!..e country. The Committee state, for example,
with reference to pensions granted in Scotland and Ireland,
that they were more carelesslygranted than in England. The
same principle applies to the pensions granted on the 4A
per cent. duties, and to the pensions granted for life in the
Irish list :
" With respect to these," adds the Report, " your Committee have
had before them the opinionraihe Attorney and Solicitor-Generals for
England and Ireland, which affirms that such grants were legal and
binding, and consequently ought not to be disturbed. Where grants of
this description have been legally made, and are legally operative, your
Committee consider that the economical benefit to be derived from the
reduction of a few questionable pensions, would be but an imperftct
compensation for the evil effects of disturbing those important princi_
pies, on which arc founded the permanence and security of all property."

We must beg leave totally to differ from the Committee
on some of the statements of this paragraph, and to expre's
our conviction, that they mistook the object in view, a d
mistaking it, have come to conclusions which will be and
ought to be unsatisfactory to the public. There was no
doubt, before the appointment of the Committee, that the
pensions on the local funds, however improperly, were
legally granted and legally held. The Committee was not
appointed, therefore, to inquire into the law, and ought
not to have consulted the Law Officers, but into tl e
principles on which the law was founded, and ought to have
consulted common sense. The plain consequence, avowed,
or at least implied by the Committee, is, that pensions un-
justly, carelessly, and improperly, though legally, granted,
are continued ; and for this injustice done to the tax-payers
there can be no remedy, because the Committee chooses
to bind itself by a law which it is the very business of the
Legislature, and the very purpose for which this Commit-
tee of the Legislature was appointed, to correct and im-
prove. So, however, it generally is, and injustice is made
of long life, because, when once embodied into a law, the
law is considered, by those who make it, more worthy of
observance than justice, and is suffered to overrule its
dictates.

Again, the Committee place in contrast'' economical be-
nefit," and the " reduction of questionable pensions," as if
the former alone, the saving a few pounds, were the single
object of its appointment. This is a grievous error.
Saving was one object, but to detect, expose, and repro-
bate the manner in which the public has been plundered in
past times, by those who claimed merit and honour
for protecting it, was the far higher and more import-
ant consideration which gave birth to the Committee.
To discredit the recipients of improper grants, and to
punish them by withholding such grants if possible, was
the duty of the Committee, and the little saving that
might etuse was a far less recommendation than the
warning which such a proceeding held out to evil doers.
The tenderness of the Committee towards the recipients of
" questionable grants" has made them overlook these im
portent moral considerations, and impose the continuance
of an unjust burden, however slight, on the industrious
classes. The original wrong has been approved of and con-
firmed by the Committee.
Nor can we by our silence sanction the conclusion of the
paragraph we have quoted. The Committee recommend the
continuance of questionable pensions, to pay which money must
be taken from the people, because to do otherwise would dis-
turb the " principles on which are founded the permanence
and security of property." So the permanence and security of
property are founded on preserving improperly granted
pensions ! The property of the industrious classes must
be invaded to continue the payment of these idle pensioners
for the sake of giving recurity to property ! For the Com-
mittee to have landed in such a gross absurdity is a pretty
striking proofof the error which has guided their deliberations.
We, however, owe the Committee some thanks for their
small reductions, at one or two of which we rejoice much.
Among the pensions to be suspended, is one to ROSANIOND
CHOKER, of 3001., during the life of her husband, the Right
lion. JOIIN WILSON CHOKER. This pension, the Committee
say, was granted in consideration of the long services of her
husband, us Secretary of the Admiralty, from which we are to
infer, that to jump into the possession of a large official income,
without any previous public service, and to enjoy it a con-
siderable number of years, is a just title to a pension for a
man's wife. Mr. CHOKER was bred, we believe, to the
bar, and began to seek his fortune by supplying cheap wares
to a temporary journal. Chance, it is said, threw -him into
Parliament for an Irish borough, where he made himsell
conspicuous tier a quality common to low Irishmen and
Cockneys. lie took an active pert in defending the
Duke of YORK, and was rewarded for his Parliamentary
service to his patty with the well-paid office of Se-
cretary of the Admiralty—a good appointment !Cr an
unknown Irish barrister. In that dice he is sad to
have been distinguished by the vulgar insolence with which
he treated all the gentlemen who were compelled to
communicate with him. In Parliament he was also dis-
tinguished for being always supplied with an appropriate
fact to rebut tiny and every assertion ; and for being
one of the most active instruments of his party. He
was always a zealous friend of abuses, and fought
to the very last against—Reform. The latest of his
notorious deeds was his pandering to lingering prejudices in
order to excite public animosity against Marshal SOULT.
That the HERTFORDS, the RUTLANDS, and the rest of the
boroughmongers should have rewarded such a man, seems
natural ; but why should the public be taxed to enrich a
mischievous instrument of a mischievous faction? The Com-
mittee have done a public service in branding Mrs. CROKER'S
pension.. It is now stamped with public opprobrium, and
must be wholly resigned.
Some similar remarks apply to a pension granted to the
son of Mr. HOLMES, ex-Ordnance Treasurer, which is to
be limited to his father's life. To be the Tory whipper-in
gives a claim on the purses of the Tories, but not on that of
the public. Let the faction reward those who are zealous
in doing its dirty work—the public protest against such
an application of its means. The Committee, however
preferring what is legal to what is right, and some of them
looking, perhaps, to future rewards for similar services,
continued the pension of Mr. HOLMES, junior, during the
life of Mr. HOLMES, senior. Why was it not abolished
Among the pensions to be wholly discontinued is one of:.
449/. granted to Sir D. SCOTT, Barrmet; ;and the Committee
give no information whatever as to the origin of the grant.
The pension is classed amongst those granted as Royal
bounty, and all that, the Committee say of it is, " that
they do not recommend that provision should be made for the
re-grant of this pension. How will the Baronet who is well
knownV Brighton henceforth administer the law there ?
,prepliegzat reuqation for severity towards poor back-
sliders ; what will. belsay fito7Vira? We have indeed seen it
stated that this pension was gaine'd WirmprOtie-rirteans—
the silence of the Committee does not disprove that accu-
sation. Either Si: DAVID or the public may complain
of the Committee. He should have been exo
nerated from the charge, or the Committee should ,