The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-31 00:00:00

BEER BILL.

Mr. PA KINGTON deferred the second reading of the
Beer Bill till to-morrow.

LAW OF EVIDENCE (SCOTLAND).
The LORD ADVOCATE moved the Order of the
Day for the House going into Committee on the Law of
Evidence (Scotland) Bill.

Sir W. 'RAE had allowed the Bill to be read a second
time, but on this motion he must say that there was in
Scotland a very strong objection to the Bill, and to the
continual introduction of English practices in the Courts
of that country. He would, therefore, move that the Bill
be read a second time this day six months.
Mr. RUTHERFORD defended the Biil, and contended
that many of the exceptions to evidence on account of the
kindred of the witness with the parties before the court
ought to be removed. In other respects also, it was
de.,irable fir the ends of justice that the present law should
be altered.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL, said he should be
careful how he trespassed on the main principles of either
Scotch or English law, but he thought this Bill merely
remedied some errors so gross in the law of evidence in
Scotland, that he wondered how the Country could have
gone on,so long without an alteration. For instance, at pre-
sent no father could be evidence for or against his child,
brother for sister, uncle for niece, in civil or criminal
matters. In all cases the Juries would of course, as now,
decade upon the sstrength and nature of the evidence.
He wished one alteration had been made ; :ceording to the
law of Scotland, a witness could not be questioned as to
what he had testified or said on a former occasion of the
same transaction. He hoped that this alteration would be
introduced in a subsequent stage into this Bill, as it was
one of the most important methods of discovering false wit-
nesses, and he thought it would tend greatly to reconcile
the Scotch to trial by jury.:
Mr. BLAIR said that he knew several professional men
who were highly in favour of the Bill, and wished it to go
further.

Sir W. RAE withdrew his amendment, and the House
went into Committee, Mr. BERNAL in the Chair,
The clauses were agreed to, with a tew verbal amend-
ments, and the House resumed.
The Report to bo received to-morrow.
The other Orders of the Day were then disposed of, and
the House aljourned at Half-past Twelve o'Clock.

CLERICAL DISCIPLINE.—On the Bth instant,
Mr. Perriman, mason, together with his wife, took their child
to the parish church to be baptized, the Rev. G. Smith, Vicar,
as usual, commenced the service, and continued until he cane to
the name of the child, when he refused to go on, until some other
person also appeared as sponsor; he desired them to call Charles
Gover, the grave-digger; this they demurred at, and said,we are
the most proper persons to stand for our own child, as it is almost
impossible for the sponsor to perform the promises required to be
made. The mother said, " You have done it fur others, why
not do it for us ?" His Reverence said, " Not to my know-
ledge." " Yes," said the mother, " you have done it for Mrs. '
Tinney, and Gullick, and if you will not do it for us, we will
take the child to the Wesleyan Chapel ;" when the Rev. Gen-
tleman closed his book in great warmth, to the great annoyance
of the parents. On Mr. Perriman's retiring from the church,
he acquainted the Wesleyan minister of the circumstance of his
child being partly baptized, and asked as a favour if he would
baptize the child, which he readily consented to do, and Mr.
Perryman, although previously a regular attendant at the
church, has not since been inside its doors. The practice of
calling the grave-digger appears to be a very old and conve-
nient one ; it is said the present grave-digger's father (who
died drunk) stood as sponsor for upwards of five hundred chil-
dren, during the time he held the office, and made a consider-
able profit thereby, sometimes in the way of vkliat was termed
by him a good drink, and at other times in money. Note—
The old grave-digger died at the time Parker was elected, and
was crowned, the Jury's verdict stating his death to be aided
by drinking.— Western Times.
MURDER ALLEGED TO
,HAVE BEEN COM-
MITTED SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.—Considerable sensation

has been produced in this neighbourhood (Aylesbury) by the
deposition made by a woman named Rice, at the meeting of the
Ashendon Magistrates, on Monday last, implicating tour re-

spectable persons in the murder of a Welsh drover, said to have
been committed seventeen years ago. For obvious reasons,
we have suppressed our report of the proceedings, and we
now notice the matter for the purpose of calling atten-
tion to an advertisement which appears in another part of
our paper of this day, in which the parties best calculated
to form an opinion on the subject, express their utter disbelief
of the woman's story. In the statement, as taken down in
writing by the magistrate's clerk, and attested by the oman
Rice, a connected and circumstantial account is given of the
occurrence—the number of blows struck, and by whom—the
mode in which the body was taken away Seam the house
—the description of the man's dress—the conversations
which took place between the alleged murderers—with
several other remarkable particulars ; which she gave in
a cool, collected, and straightforward manner, never once
contradicting herself. It is not a little singular that a similar
report was current seven years ago, and that, at that time,
steps were taken to discover the truth or falsity of the report.
The not finding the body, however, arid the improbability
of four persons allowing a fifth to follow them, and observe
all their proceedings, while they were committing so horrible
an act as murdering a fellow creature with a mallot,
must convince all of the falsity of the woman's story.
Should any doubt remain, the fact that the woman Rice is
one of the worst of characters, coupled with the decleration
of all the respectahle individuals in the township in which thi•
murder is alleged to have been committed, published in the ad-
vertisement alluded to, must tend to remove Cut doubt. The
excitement which the woman's deliberate statement has occa-
sioned in this town and immediate neighbourhood justifies us in,
making these few remarks; while the otr'ss'on in our report of
the Ashendon Petty Sessions, of all that relates to this extra-
ordinary case, will convey to the public our own opinion of th,,
matter.—Aylesbury News.
THE AssuEs.--The assizes have been the
most protracted known for many years. The Learned Judges
sat nine days, Mr. Baron Rolfe closing his Court at two o'clock
on Friday morning; and Mr. Justice Coltman terminating his
labours at the witching hour of night—a couple of hours before
him. The greatest credit is due to the Learned Judges for the
anxiety which they have shown to dispose of every cause in this
unusually heavy Assize. The excellence of the motive is un-
questionable ; but we much question the goodness of the practice
in sitting so late night after night. It is impossible that men
drawn from open- air vocations can keep their attention alive for
twelve or fourteen hours together, in a close-heated Court, to a
series of complicated facts, tangled and perplexed with legal
subtleties and superfluities—jury and witnesses become ex-
hausted, and the losing party goes away from Court, impressed
with dissatisfaction at the reflection that his case had been de-
cided by men who had been kept out of their beds too long, and
were in no humour to deliberate upon nice distinctions, for
winch indeed their minds were not equal. Some alteration
should be made in the system to meet the exigencies of such an
Assize, for no learned Judge cul,,ht to be made a judicial Mac-
beth, to " murder" the " sleep" of a whole county. To Sre
the same haggard, anxious faces, night after night, glancing
with lack-lustre eye on the wakeful functionary who kept them
from their rest, brought to one's mind the curse of the Thane
of Cawdor—" Sleep no more—the Judg,- cloth murder sleep. "
If estern Times.

THE JEWS.—A Hamburg paper, the Drilp-
zeituny, says, "the Jews of Constantinople have, with their
Rabbi, declared that they will not wait any longer than an-
other year for their Messiah. If within that time he does not
appear, they will conclude that he has already come, and then
they will try to discover by what religion he is already recog-
nized. The Rabbi is entirely of this opinion, and has even
proposed to his congregation to profess Christianity forthwith."

METROPOLITAN POLICE COURTS BILL.—
Lord Wynford has given notice that he shall on the re-commit-
ment of the Metropolitan Police Courts Bill, move the follow-
ing amendments : Ile proposes to strike out the words
"Metropolitan Police District," in the third line of section the
second, and introduce the words "limits of the jurisdiction of
the Central Criminal Court." To add, at the end of the said
section. this proviso :—And be it further provided that there
shall not be more than twenty-sev.oi Alagistrates appointed to
execute the duties of Justices of Peace at the said Courts.
Clause to be added after Clause 2.—And be it. further enacted
that so much of the Act of her present Majesty, intituled " An
Act for regulating the Police Courts in the Metropolis," as
authorises her Majesty to alter the number of the Police
Courts, and to alter the number of Magistrates appointed to
any of the said Courts, shall be repealed.
UNEMPLOYED POOR.—Upwards of two hun-
dred pounds has been collected in Barnsley to relieve the
wants of the unemployed. The committee have been dis.
tributing daily large quantities of tread and potatoes during
the last fortnight, which has, in some ine2snre, relieved the mi-
sery entailed by the present scarcity of emi loyment.
ABDUCTION.---A feeling in favour of Barratt,
who was lately sentenced to fifteen months' imprisonment for
the abduction of Miss Ellis, seems to manifest itself in Peter_
borough,; and petitions for the commutation of the sentence are
now getting up.
CAUTION ABOUT ENVELOPES.—Letters can
without detection, un-
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gummed down, with a knife, and draw one of
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The seal remains untouched.

MENDICANCY IN IRELAND.-We have reason
to know that it is not intended to press the kill on this subject,
of which Lord Morpeth gave an outiine on Thursday night, in
the House of Commons, through Parliament in the prese,t
session. Although tho Noble Lord stated that he would not
hasten the Bill through the House, his words were taken to
mean that he would not press it immediately ; but we can take
upon us to siatyatnhiact,itbwairtrlancokt.mbenteurgred to legislation in this
isession.._ Southern Reporter.
of
transferred to Birmingham. Boyle, has been