The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-15 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1847.

THE SUN.

A comparison of the entreaties addressed to Lord
JOHN RUSSELL by the deputation of 107, and of the
schemes of the Government for the relief of Ireland,
presents to us a spectacle more repulsive than any-
thing we can just now remember. Men could nut
by possibility evince a greater degree of callousness
to the sufferinzs of their fellow creatures than did
these sixty-four Peers and these forty-three represen-
tatives. In the contrast of their resolutions and of
the acknowledged wretchedness which is now rife in
their afflicted country, there is something absolutely
horrible. Hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men
would at this moment be in a state of hopeless desti-
tution but for the lavish assistance of the Govern-
ment. But for that extraordinary assistance from
the Executive those hundreds of thousands of able-
bodied men, and the families dependent upon their
labour for sustenance, amounting to a frightful
aggregate very nearly approaching to 4,000,000
souls, would have to. perish like rats in their
cabins. Upon the munificence of Government these
4,000,000 are subsisting. Fo: the time being,
during the first paroxysnas of hunger consequent
upon the existing dearth, the State advances man-
fully for the rescue of its children; it takes the whole
burden of their sorrows upon its shoulders ; it opens
the veins of its own vitality, and lets the blood by
which it subsists flow freely into the impoverished
system of the starving millions; it does everything
that a loving parent and a benignant guardian could
do to prevent the evil consequences which, but for its
gigantic and cordial exertions, would have been in-
evitable. It appropriates a magnificent grant of
10,000,0001. for the exclusive use of Ireland in her
present affliction. It has been so far from extorting
from the pockets of the Irish proprietary the contri-
butions which were, on the outbreak of the
calamity, most imperatively necessary for the
salvation of the lives of the peasantry, that it
actually undertakes to become the lender of additional
money to that proprietary, at the insignificant interest
of 31 per cent. It establishes an enormous commis-
sariat throughout the island ; it accumulates corn in
the stores for a possible increase of the emergency ;
it awards a sum of 50,000/. for the purchase of seed
for the ensuing spring; it taxes all its combined
intellect, all its time, all its energy, all its pecuniary
strength, all its moral and physical influence, to
conquer the dread Demon of Famine, and to ward off
the javelins of its follower, Pestilence. Under the
..:Egis of the Government Ireland has been sheltered
in its extreme desolation and helplessness. Through
the sole exertions of the Executive 3,500,000 of our
fellow-creatures have been preserved from a terrible
and inevitable death. But for those exertions on the
Part of the Government these 3,500,000 souls would
have died long since, and Goy knows what might
not have been the mortality which would have fol-
lowed thereupon !
Meanwhile the proprietary are remaining on the
whole inactive. They take an interest in the struggles
of the Government officers against the local destitu-
tion which is growing and growing, and widening in
all directions over Ireland—but their interest is
passive. Nor is this all. Instead of taking a rigid
supervision of the manner in which the charities of
the State were being distributed, they look upon
that distribution with the utmost indifference;
insomuch that the agents of the Government have
been very largely swindled by the sons of the
more affluent agriculturists. That is the difference
of the labours of the Government and of the Irish
proprietors in regard to Ireland. A more splendid
munificence could hardly have been displayed by any
administration—a more hardened and inflexible in

difference could not have marked the conduct of any
body of landlords similarly situated, than that which
has been evinced by a considerable number of the
landlords in the afflicted provinces.

In honesty, in justice, in self-defence, and for the
general safety of the empire, it was incumbent upon
the Government, however, to put a limit to its
enormous charities. Without the purse of FORTU-

NATUS, or the lamp of ALADDIN, it was impossible for
any power en earth to keep fountains of gold playing
perpetually. A barrier must be marked up, beyond
which no further disbursements of this kind should
proceed from the Exchequer. By its generosity on
the original appearance of the dearth, time had been
gained for a calm deliberation of the plans to be
adopted under the circumstances. That time has
been gained, that deliberation has taken place, these
plans have been adopted, and the skeleton of those
plans is the establishment of an extended poor•law
for the relief of poverty and starvation in Ireland.
It is a notorious fact, as demonstrable as the concen-
tric revolutions of the planets, that the present woes

of that portion of the British islands are flowing

entirely and directly from the criminal conduct of
the Irish proprietors themselves. For the result of

their sins we have been paying enormously---‘se .re
still paying enormously—and have promised to pay
yet more enormously, both in loans, in grants, in
gifts, in manual toil, in taxation, and in the exhaus-
tion of the bulk of our legislative energy. If,
therefore, we regarded this matter merely
in respect to its integrity, namely, upon
the principle that every culprit must pay
the penalty of his own offences, the guilty proprie
tary of Ireland would be compelled by the Executive
to liquidate all those expenses and payments which
have been incurred through the malign operation of
their own evil-doings. But the Government is not

thus inexorable. The Government merely requires
that the Irish landowners shall in future provide for
the destitute population by a judicious imposition
of poor-rates. The Government sees that it
is but fitting that the men who are deriving
their incomes from the muscular exertions, from
the toil, and drudgery, and ill-remunerated strug-
gles of the peasantry, should be called upon tor
assistance, when that Peasantry has been brought
down to a condition bordering upon starvation.
Hence it is that Lord JOHN RUSSELL proposes the
introduction of the poor-law into Ireland, and there-
upon 107 Legislators adjure the Government to pause
before that measure is forced into an enactment. They
are averse to out-door relief to able-bodied labourers.
Why, what in the name of Common Sense has the
Government been doing for the last six months but
giving out door relief to able bodied labourers ? And
without doing so, upwards of 3,500,000 Irish must
have died in their cabins, and their decaying bodies
must have bred a plague that would have ravaged the
survivors. But the Irish party, speaking together to the
number of 107, express their abhorrence of all out-
door relief to able-bodied labourers l Now that
clamour either means that 4,000,000 men shall be
abandoned to death, or that the Government shall
continue to drain its revenues by pampering their
iniquitous, and extortionate avarice. Either con-
clusion is as disgraceful as it is criminal and mon-
strous.

It has frequently been our duty to direct the public
attention to cases in which individuals have been
subjected to serious expense and inconvenience, to a
prolonged imprisonment, and the demoralisation con-
sequent upon the intercourse and communication with
the most abandoned characters, while detained in
custody, and to the odium and disgrace necessarily
attendant upon a public trial, through the culpable
negligence of the committing magistrate, who too
often receives the informations, and sends:parties for
trial, without having such evidence before him as to
afford any reasonable prospect of a conviction. The
Senate has rung within the last week with the in-
dignant remonstrances of Lord BROUGHAM on the
conduct of one of the metropolitan justices, who
committed a child of five years old to prison on a
charge of felony ; and on another occasion of another,
who sent three boys, under twelve years of age, to
stand their trial also on a charge of felony, for having.
taken the cap from the head of another boy and
flung it into a piece of waste ground, manifestly in
boyish sport. At Chelmsford, on Friday, we
find two persons, a young man and a
woman, placed at the bar on a charge
of wilful murder, in its most terrific and horrible
form—by poison ; when the first witness, the medical
man who opened and examined the body of the de-
ceased, at once established the fact that there was no
proof whatsoever that the deceased child had died
from any other than natural causes, IN hereupon the
Chief Justice, as a matter of course, at once stopped
the case, and directed the jury to acquit the pri-
soners. In this case the cause of the child's death
was investigated before the Coroner and a jury, who
returned a verdict, " That it died of convulsions."
The body was opened, and no trace of poison was
discovered; and yet, notwithstanding these facts, a
magistrate was to be found, who sent two manifestly
innocent persons to a comman gaol, on the most
serious charge known to the law, either from gro,s
ignorance of his duty, or for some unaccountable
reason. 'And in another similar case, tried the same
day at the same place, the evidence of the medical
witness entirely negatived the fact of any poison or
corrosive substance being the cause of the death of
the infant, and stated that, according to his opinion,
it might be accounted for by perfectly natural causes.
Under these circumstances the counsel for the prosecu-
tion most properly withdrew from the case, saying
that he could not ask for a conviction. Surely cases
each as these to which we have just alluded are de-
se-rving of the most grave reprehension. The liberty
of the subject is not to be disregarded in such a
reckless manner by persons clothed with an authority,
far the due and discreet exercise of which they are
!manifestly not fitted.
Every member of society surrenders a certain
portion of his natural liberty ; he binds himself
to submit to certain restrictions, and to contribute
to certain expenses for the general benefit ; in return
he obtains protection for himself and property, and
tile entire power of the State is bound to
be exercised on his behalf to protect him in the en-
joyment of his rights. In every case of grave sus
p icion he is subjected to arrest, to be brought before

ne of these public functionaries, whose duty it is
Sully to inquire, and if there should be sufficient
grounds, to remand the prisoner for further evidence,

tut if that evidence should not be of such a character
a s to afford a fair and reasonable prospect that a jury
v vill be thereupon satisfied of the guilt of the accused
party, he should at once be discharged from custody
scud restored to his family and friends. Injustice is
neldom committed in the final result. Eminent men,
celected for their learning, hold the scales of justice,
who, recollecting the benign principle of the British
" That it is better that ninety-nine guilty per-
sons should escape the consequences of their crimes,
fiihan that one innocent person should be subjected to
indeserved punishment," instruct the juries that if
t bey entertain any reasonable doubt of the prisoner's
railt they should give him the benefit of that doubt ;
t d if, from poverty or other cause, a prisoner
s h ould be unable to obtain professional assistance,
f Lr his defence, he always finds the presiding judge
r( trtdy to act as his advocate, and anxious to discover
1.(1 lay before the jury any favourable or mitigating
ci nalmstances. In the earlier stages, however, the
principle appears to be reversed. The moment a

pp xty is brought before a magistrate he is treated as
if lie were actually guilty; even before he is corn-
iniltted for trial he is subjected to treatment fitting
on'tv for criminals; he is not allowed free intercourse

wi ti his friends, nor full opportunity of preparing
for his defence; he is locked up in his cell
at the same hours and under the same circumstances
as those who are suffering the punishment due to
the crimes; he is not permitted to obtain, although
wil Ling to pay for them, the comforts to which he
has ,been accustomed. If he wants to write on the
mos At private matters to his friends his letters must be
e3ted and read by the prison authorities before
they can be forwarded or received. He

is treated as a criminal and punished be-
fore there is sufficient evidence to warrant
an in .vestigation before a jury of his country. The
law a trthorises his detention and nothing more, but
the r,!...gulations of the visiting justices turn that
detent ion into a serious punishment. Surely there
should. be reguations for untried prisoners wholly
differe r t from those to which we have referred.

Ant )1 her magisterial practice has come to light
within the past week which has elicited the just and
indigr e nt reprehension of the Learned Judge : it
appeal ^s that a policeman was disguised and locked
up in a cell with a prisoner at Warminster, in order
to ent e r into conversation with him, and to report
any st a tement which might be extracted from him to
the su p erintendent. There is something so repugnant
to ev a ry manly feeling in this abominable spy
systen s. —it has been already so often animad-
verted on by many of the judges of the land—

it lu Is forth such a temptation to per-
jury, and takes such unfair advantage of the
accuse d , that we had hoped it could not have
obtain e• 3 the sanction of any English gentlemen at
the pr.( ;ent day. We regret to find that we were
mistak e n. Most seriously, however, do we hope that
a full : u id searching inquiry may be directed by the
Home- I Jffi ce or the Legislature, and that a warning
may b e held out to other occupants of the magis-
terial 1 k nch, that they cannot with impunity outrage
the put 'ic feelings by a repetition of such unconsti-
tutiona 1 conduct.

A lc t ter from Berlin, of 5, states that the
trial o.! the Poles compromised in the events of
Februfis y, 1846, is shortly to commence. The in-
iiictme 2 '; divides the prisoners into three categories,
the firs t of which comprehends all that were led away
by the idea that the Government menaced the
Catholid.' religion. Against this class of persons the
law (Ala rs call for no punishment, considering the
imprisons nent which they have undergone as a suffi-
cient exji ation of their conduct. It is, consequently!
against tal e other two divisions that the proceedings
are to bc-J. directed.

The 2. 'rankfurter Journal contains a letter from
Lemb( mg, of the 25th ult., which states that a conflict

result.

; •

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 15, 1847.

had just taken place between the peasantry and the
soldiers. Great distr(,s exist?, nrcl. sever:lll),nd? of
peasants were going through the country armed. It
was with one of these that the armed force had come

to a collision. Nothing is said in the letter as to the

The Augsburg Gazette publishes a letter fro :u
Posen, of the 2d, stating, on the authority of some
persons who had just arrived from Warsaw, that the
reports which have been mentioned of the movements
of Russian troops towards the frontier of the kingdom
of Poland, and which have been contradicted by a
Vienna journal, were well founded.
We learn from Warsaw, 2d inat., that an imperial
ukase has been published there for the formation of a
Council of Commerce and Manufactures.

The Mankeim Journal gives the following account
of the loans contracted by the German States during
the last two years :—Grand Duchy of Baden 14 mil-
lions of florins; Electoral Hesse, 114 ; Hanover, 84 ;
Austria, 98 ; and Wurtemberg, 12 ; amounting in
all to 1444 millions of florins (296,250,000 f.) To
this must be added loans contracted by Anhalt, Proe-
then, Hamburgh, and Frankfort. As to Austria, her
loans since 1830 are these :—in 1830, 20 millions of
florins at 4 per cent., at 97; in 1832, two five per
cent. loans amounting to 94,644,000 florins ; in 1833,
40 millions of florins at five per cent., taken at 894 ;
in 1884, a five per cent. loan of 25 millions at par :
in 1835, a three per cent. loan of 40 millions at 75 ;
in 1839, a five per cent. loan of 30 millions at par ;
in 1841, a five per cent. loan of 38,461,000 florins at
102 ; and in 1847, the late loan of 80 millions ; mak-
ing in all 368,105,000 florins.
Madrid papers have arrived.

Another Ministerial crisis has occurred. The
Minister at War, General ORAA, having determined
with the consent of his colleagues to dismiss General
BRETON from the government of Catalonia and to
appoint General PAVIA, Governor of Old Castile, in
his room, at the same time conferring the Govern-
ment of Old Castile on General MaNuEL DE LA CON-
CHA, presented to her MAJESTY on the 6th, decrees
for the purpose of carrying out these arrangements.
Her MAJESTY refused her signature to these, as she
did not approve of the appointment of General CON-
CHA. On the 7th the Duke of SOTOMAYER is said
to have waited on the QUEEN with the collective re-
signation of the Cabinet. It was stated that NAR-
VAEZ and Mote and PIDAL would be the chiefs of the
new Administration, and that B.:taro MURILLO would
retain his office of Minister of Justice.
The following document, addressed by Don
ENRIQUE to the Cortes, is published in the Hera/do:
" Don Eenrique de Bourbon, with the profound respect for
the Cortes which their national mission and noble and elevated
character inspires, says that, considering himself as isolated
and cast into oblivion since the marriages of Queen Isabella
11. and her august sister with two illustrious princes, he has
decided in this case, and exercising his free right, to follow
' in all things the dictates of bis own soul, has imposed upon
himself the obligation of not placing his affections upon any
but a Spanish lady. The requests he has addressed to her
Majesty the Queen having resulted in obtaining the verbal
permission, with all the assurances he could desire, for con-
tracting a marriage with Donna Elena Castellvi Shelly Fer-
nandez de Cordova, daughter of their Excellencies the Count
and Countess del Castellvi de la Villaneuva y Garces, with the
sole condition of remaining for some time out of the capital,
lie had decided upon having the public and solemn contract
drawn up, submitting to aa the consequences of this mar-
riage. But on the morning of the 7th, although his health
had been suffering since the end of the autumn, and he had
been ill on the preceding evening, be was arrested by sur-
prise, and carried in his bed with all the apparatus of force,
and surrounded by bayonets, to the palace Of his father, and
without having obtained permission to take leave of their
Majesties and present his homage to them, was sent off'
under escort for Barcelona, where orders had already been
given to allow him only the time necessary for his meal.
lie was there charged, in the name of the Minister of Marine,
with a mission for Naples, which would have been an ho-
nourable one if he had been permitted to prepare for it, and
if the means employed to remove him from the capital, his
family, and his country had been milder, and less public—
a mission which would have been honourable if he had been
allowed the suite befitting his rank in the navy, and still
more so as an Infante of Spain, and if he had been furnished
with the elements indispensable for such missions, and
for the labours, investigations, plans, models, &c., which
have to be addressed to the Government as the result of
them—an honourable mission if he had not been allowed
too short a time to become acquainted with the modern ame-
lioration of so vast an arsenal as that of Toulon in all its
branches, and with the present system of organisation of
the French navy, which must be studied with care in
order to be able to prepare a proper report, and if he had not
been required to remain an unlimited time at Naples,_ from
which is expected the important information which is to
raise our navy from its present low state, and our arsenals
from the ruin and oblivion in which they have been left—an
honourable mission if any importance were attached to the
results which would ensue from an examination of the
arsenals of England, the great maritime nation of which no
mention is made—an honourable mission, in short, if the mo-

tive of an exile long prepared for could have been better con-
cealed from the nation; and if, in thus removing Don Henry
de Bourbon from his mother country, his family, and his affec-
tions, an Infante of Castille, thefiear relation of kings, had not
been compelled to present himself in foreign countries with-
out any suite, and without any other resources than those
which in a moment of confusion and surprise, and of very
natural regret for his family, his august father had been able to
procure for him for his arrival at Barcelona, and his first
exigencies. Reduced as Infante of Spain, and as commo-
dore, to his sole person this order itself proves the impos-
sibility of any good result, and places it in a grave position,
for it is there said that her Majesty feels confident that he
will fulfil his mission as he ought to do. It is therefore
far from being honourable. It is thus that he has been torn
from his mother country, from his family, and from the
person whom lie bad chosen to form his domestic happi-
ness, without having fallen into any fault which had
tarnished his honour, and which deserved the application
every as unworthy :
of measures so little honourable, so severe, and so far
from conciliatory. Strongly convinced that his enemies
ungenerous
alone could hope f.r a retractation of his public and sacred
oaths, in order that he might lose his influence in the face of
the
xp o world,se
action, firm in his noble design, faithful to his word, re-
solved to seek in domestic life the calm of which he is so
much in reed, and of which he has been for a long time de-
privedfromandweakness,to
; disengaged from the superstitions of past days, which
are in opposition to the Constitutional system, he has the
honour to make known to the Cortes and to the nation, that
conforming himself to what is prescribed by the laws and
Royal pragmatic, he is decided as a man of honour to so •
lemnize his marriage with the above-named lady Dona
Elena de Castellvi Shelly Fernandez de Cordova.
,6 ENRIQUE MARIA DE BOURBON.
" Toulon, Feb. 24."
On the 7th, TRISTAN; at the head of a Carlist
band, gained possession of Tarassa, a small town,
eight leagues from Barcelona. He was, however'
shortly afterwards driven out by the QUNEN'S troops'
with the loss of 15 men.

The following is an extract from a letter from the
frontiers of Catalonia, dated March 5 :
" It is now impossible to disguise the fact that the Carlist
party seriously intend again to raise the standard of civil
war in Spain ; a great movement may, therefore, be speedily
expected. It appears that it has only been hitherto delayed
by the severity of the weather and the deep snow which
still covers the mountains. The Carlist chiefs have decided
that their troops shall all be clothed alike; their dress is to
be the blouse, pantaloons of olive velvet, with caps of grey
felt. A merchant of Cerdagne, whose name remains no
longer a mystery, has entered into a contract for their supply.
A number of packages of caps have already been rent to the
Carlists. I only state facts to you, which I might multiply,
and which are of incontrovertible exactitude. The great
expenses into which the party enter make it to be supposed
that they have abundance of money; and the resolution
to which they have come to have a regular uniform leads
one to suppose that they intend to carry on the campaign
openly."

of June. Two days ago bargains were made at Havre for
the delivery of American flour, at the period we have
i ii± price
was from 46f. to 48f. London follows in the same progres-
sion. In Belgium we are forestalled, the northern store-
houses are inadequate to the demands upon them, and as
long as this f,reign competition shall keep up the prices, it
will be impossible to stop the rise here. Nevertheless, the
arrivals are becoming multiplied, ani the Mayor of Havre
has just published au encouraging list of ships laden with
corn shortly expected in that port. We eagerly accept these
promises, but we must not delude ourselves in the anticipa-
tions of their consequences. The wants of France are un-
questionably very great, though they may be exaggerated by
fear. Many municipalities and private associations, more
alarmed for public order and security than frightened at an
apprehended dearth, have formed themselves into mercan-
tile corn companies, and make purchases at the ports. From
this it results that the quantities of wheat imported, though
presenting an important mass, disappear the moment
they are landed and disseminated throughout the country.
Hence arises a natural consequence ; speculation not being
affected by the importations, as it would be if the corn re-
mained for a time at the port of its arrival, the prices do
not give way, the demands are made in quick succession,
and the high price continues. This clearly explains why,
notwithstanding the numerous arrivals, the prices have not
been reduced, nor probably will be reduced yet. In the
last case the population is fed, the imported corn is
brought into general consumption, only it is paid dearly for,
more dearly even than it is really worth. We have a pro •
found conviction that there is no real danger of a dearth—it
has, indeed, become impossible; but we may expect that the
prices will become excessively high. In a word, the
country will have all the wheat necessary for its sustenance,
but it will cost enormously dear. Let it not be said, tl at
it did not depend upon any one to save France from these
sacrifices. If the operations which have been practised
within the last one or two months had been commenced
in October or November, we should have received before the
seas were shut up by the ice all the corn we have need of,
and even more, instead of being embarrassed and distressed
in March and April, and even until June, and then find our-
selves in July encumbered with a superabundance. The
dealers would have had enough to supply all demands,
and the prices could not have risen beyond a certain
limit. Corn would have been undoubtedly sold at a
high price, but to the natural causes of the dearness there
would not have been added that panic which creates
factitious prices, and deceives all foresight. If .the Ministry,
better informed or more sincere, had not kept up too long,
by imprudent circulars, a deceitful security—if it had taken
the initiative in such energetic measures as provident minds
advised them to take, the evil would have been considerably
alleviated. It is its inexcusable want of care and its igno-
rance which have brought on the crisis. Nothing now re-
mains for the country but to bear the consequence of the
faults committed by its Government. May this be at least
a profitable lesson to all ; and when the evil days have
passed may it please Almighty God to teach us to seek
from an experience so severely taught to take all due means
to prevent their return, which would be worth more than
incessantly talking of repression. It is legitimate, no
doubt, to take precautions against disturbances, but the
first duty of a Government is to prevent the causes which
provoke them, and sometimes give them the semblance of
justification."

From the provinces the accounts of the scarcity
are deplorable. At Bayonne fire bakers have been
compelled to shut up their shops, from inability to
procure flour.

Queen CHRISTINA, who arrived at Bayonne on the
11th, was to leave for Paris on Sunday.
The Monileur publishes a dispatch of Marshal
BUGEAUD, dated Aumale, the Ist inst., confirming
the previous account of the submission of the cele-
brated califa of Abdel Kader, Thaieb Ben Salem, of
Bou Chareb, of Medeah, Sid Abderrehaman, former
chief of Dellys, Bel Kassem and his brother Ahmed
Ben Salem, &c. " The man claimed by those chiefi
who had hitherto given proofs of the greatest fidelity
to the Emir, cannot fail," says the Marshal, " to pro-
duce a strong moral effect over all tins native popu-
lation, who must now renounce the hope of seeing
ABDEL KADER again at their head. The eastern
frontier of the province of Algiers was but 18 leagues
distant from that city; it is now removed to 50
leagues."
Don ENRIQUE remains at Toulon.

. •
The Three per Cents. closed on the Paris Bourse on Satur-
day at 77f. 70e.; the Five per Cents., 115 f. 65c.; the Orleans
Railroad Shares, 1,263 E 75c.; Rouen, 857 E 50c.; Havre,
6721. 50c.; Great Northern, 61:3f. 75e. ; Avignon, 810 f. ;
Vi(!rzon, 560 f. ; Bordeaux, 510 E; Boulogne, 400 E; Troyes
and Alontereau, 300 f. ; Basle, 200 f. ' • Dieppe, 325 E ; Paris
and Strasburg, 443 f. 75e. • Nantes, 442 f. 50c.; Paris and
Lyons, 4551 ; Lyons and Avignon, 475 E; Cette, 451 f. 25c.
MARSEILLES, MARCH S.—Marseilles and Avignon, 825 E;
Northern, 622 f. 50c.; Paris and Lyons, 490 E
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANtIE, MARCX 13.
Boulogne and Amiens, 13%—Orleans anti Bordeaux, 65 —Paris
and Lyons, 7—Paris and Orleans, 48% —Paris and Strasbourg, 2%.

RAILWAY COMMITTEES.

(THIS DAY.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
GROUP I.
The Select Committee appointed to consider the merits of
the Bills comprised in this group, re-assembled in Room 30,
at the usual hour this morning ; Lord Granville Somerset in
the chair.

IMES NORM" ILIUM MIN=
Mr. Thomas Philpott, town-councillor of Canterbury, gave
general evidence in favour of this line. As to the idea of
competition, it was preposterous. The lines would never
pay, and in the end an amalgamation would throw the
cost of the railway upon the public. The pec,ple of Canter-
bury suffered from an instance of that nature during the old
coach system. There was once a severe competition in coach
travelling between Canterbury and London, but eventually a
union of interests took place, and the public had to pay, in
the shape of increased charges and reduced speed, for the
former fully. Besides, Kent had nothing to fear from mono-
poly, because, should the railway company misbehave them-
selves, there was still the old river communication open to
them.
Mr. M. J. Knatchbull, son of Sir E. Knatchbull, the late
Member for the county of Kent, and Mr. Cooper, alderman of
Canterbury, gave corroborative evidence.

VICE-CHANCERY.-(THIS DAY.)
(Before Sir L. SIIADWELL.)
BIRCH V. JOY.
This cause came on for futher directions on petition. It
appeared that the plaintiff entered into an agreement with a
Mr. Colquhoun for the puchase of certain leasehold and free-
hold estates in the county of Norfolk, which were liable to
certain incumbrances. One of the incumbrancers was the
present defendant, who was the personal representative of
Mr. Colquhoun. The plaintiff was put in possession of the
property; but Mr. Colquhoun having become embarrassed,
was obliged to leave the country before any conveyance
was executed, and in two years afterwards Joy filed a
bill, in which he alleged that the purchase-money, instead
of 95,0001., the sum paid by the plaintiff in the present suit
110,0001., and that he (Joy's) annuity of 300/. per annum,
was not redeemable; therefore that he was entitled to its
payment, together with the interest which had accrued,
which was resisted by Birch. The bill of the defendant came.
before the Court in 1830, and his Honour decreed that his
annuity had ceased in 1824. In 1831 this decree was con-
firmed by the then Lord Chancellor, but in 1836 was altered
by the House of Lords, who directed that Joy should have
a reference to the Master, to ascertain what lien or claim he
had on the purchase money. The Master's report, in 1841,
found that the estate was liable to certain incumbrances,
among the rest, to the annuity of Joy, and 5,000/. also due
to him.

Mr. Bethel!, Q.C., and Mr. Parker were heard to-day fur
the plaintiff.

MARLBRO'-STREET-(THIS DAY.)
Hester Baggett and Joseph Baggett, her son, were placed
before Mr. Bingham, charged with obtaining the sum of 20/.
by means of a forged order, from the Provident Institution
Savings' Bank, Saint Martin's-place.

Jose-ph Baggett, butcher, No. 7, Market- street, Newport •
market, stated that the prisoners were his wife and son, and
that hie wife had been in the habit of drinking to excess.
On Wednesday last he was informed that his wife had lost
eleven pounds, and knowing that she could not, from her
habits be possessed of eleven pence, he made inquiries, which
led him to search fur his savings' bank book. On finding it,
and referring to it, he was astounded to find that she
had been to the bank and drawn 204 out without his consent
or knowledge. The prisoner, after obtaining the money,
absconded. He then gave information to the police, who
took her into custody last night.
Mr. Edward Boodle, comptroller and secretary to the
Provident Institution Savings' Bank, St. Martin's-place, said
that on the 26th ult. a female came to the bank and applied
for the payment of 201., and the same time producing an
order purporting to be signed by the prosecutor. Through
some informality in the wording of the order, he
refused to pay the money. On the 6th in-
stant, the female prisoner, accompanied by the boy,
came to the bank, and brought a letter purporting to have
been written by the prisoner's son, by his authority, which
stated that the prosecutor was in very ill health, that the
bearers were his wife and son, and requested that the money
might be paid to them. The money was paid, the female
prisoner giving him a receipt for the same.
In reply to Mr. Bingham, the prosecutor said that he
could not write, and that he never gave his son any autho-
rity to write the letter and order produced for him, or to his
wife to draw the money from the bank.
Mr. BINGHAM remanded them till Wednesday next.

We have received the Paris papers of Friday and
Saturday. On Friday Marshal SOULT announced to
the Chambers the death of M. MARTIN (du Nord),
Keeper of the Seals, and Minister of Justice and Re-
ligious Worship. He is succeeded in his offices by
M. HEBERT.

The high price of bread continues to produce
considerable alarm in Paris. On this subject the
National says-
" At this moment it would be useless to dissemble the
gravity of the state of the country. The crisis has become
general, and more than two months must elapse before any
reduction in the prices of corn can restore activity to busi-
ness, or security to its dealings. On every side the rise
continues to go progressively on. From the end of January
to the end of February, in different regions, this rise was
from 2f. 79c. to 61. 9c., being upon the average 3f. 86c.,
or more than double the increase of from December to
January. The average price of corn at the end of February
was 331. 78c. the hectolitre. Since the beginning of March
this rise has been universal throughout France. In the
circle of Paris, during the first week, wheats have reached
from 41f. to 43f. ; in the Nord from 38f. to 41f.; in Nor-
mandy from 38f. to 40f. ; in the West from 32f. to 36f.;
in
the Centre from 40f. to 441. In the East, in Alsace.
Franche Comte, Champagne, and Lorraine, it is still worse.
In the Vosges, at Raon l'Etape, wheat has been sold at
45f. 80c. the hectolitre. There has been no fall except at
Marseilles, and there it cannot last. At Dijon there have
been no variations of prices. Since that period the state of
the markets has become still worse. At Paris, flour, which
was sold at 107 f. to 1081. the 157 kilogrammes from Satur-
day to Monday rose between 3f. and 41., and on Wednesday
the dealers demanded from 116 f. to 117 f. Certain choice
marks were even held up to from 118 f. to 120 f. the 157 kilo-
grammes; thus the rate for the assize on the 10th was
67t. 27e., which makes bread come to 57c. the kilogramme,
or nearly If. 15c. the 2 ki ogrammes, or 41b. loaf, being four
centimes higher than for the present fortnight. Out of
Paris, but at our very gates, as in Champagne, for instance,
the price of flour is from 120 f. to 1221. the 157 kilos. In the
Allier, at the last market of Montlucon, rye was quoted at
41f. the hectolitreaud wheat at 49f. and 50f. And this is the
case in all other parts. What should most particularly
occupy our attention is the fact, that we can no longer rely
upon the home produce for the general supply. Our harvest
of 1846 is coneumed, and if there be any reserves at all, they
are in very small quantities, purchased by individuals at the
beginning of the winter for their personal wants. Private
granaries are exhausted, and the dealers have no resource
but foreign countries. As we have often observed, the
nature of things will not permit us to hope that the
arrivals will be sufficiently numerous, and the wheats im-
ported considerable enough to put at once a stop to the rise,
and then cause a fall before the middle or perhaps the end

SOUTHWARK.-(THIS DAY.)
Thomas 'larding Faith, a powerful man, was charged
with assaulting a police constable.
The defendant forced his way into the station-house, and
smashed the windows, in consequence of being refused' ad-
mission, and bit the policeman's leg. It was further stated,
that previously to his being locked up he went into a public-
house, and, being a man of great strength, insisted on
drinking out of the glasses of all in the room, without con-
tributing to the payment.
In answer to the charge, the defendant said he must have
been mad at the time, or he would never have insisted on
being taken to the station-house. He regretted all that had
occurred.

The MAGISTRATE said, that he should fine the defendant
205., or 21 days' imprisonment.

ROYAL BOTANIC SOCIETY, REGENT'S PARK.—At
a meeting of fellows held on Saturday, at the gardens of
the society, George Bishop, Esq., in 'the chair, a Lallot
took place, and the following ladies and gentlemen were
placed upon the list of the society :—Viscount Templeton,
Wm. Sewell, Esq., H. Blanchard, Esq., H. Wilson, Esq.,
R. Wheen, Esq., W. Thornthwaite, Esq., Henry Goodford,
Esq., Lieut. Fletcher Compton Hayes, Mrs. Levein. Mrs.
Cats, W. Hutt, Esq., M.P., J. Tullock, Esq., George
Chapman, Esq., J. 1). Peele, Esq., B. Kennedy, Esq., u.
Morgan Smith, Esq., Joseph Sykes, Esq., C. J. Shou-
bridge, Esq., Mrs. Gruning, Miss S. E. Amory, A. J.
Valpy, Esq., J. Fergusson, Esq„ E. Budd, Esq., W. Fin..
belly, Esq., Ed. Cane, Esq., S. Kennedy, Esq.. E. Bilke, Esq.,
J. 8i1k,., Esq., George Paton, Esq., J. Williams, Esq., Mrs.
George Hill, and Mrs. Basch. The most interesting fea-
ture of the gardens, and, indeed, a novel one in the me-
tropolis at this season of the year, is the large conserva-
tory, which throughout the winter has exhibited a con-
stant succession of flowers, and has proved a most agree-
able resort for the fellows.
A Puzzuz.—A letter last week passed through the
Halifax post-office, directed to" Mr. John hie Cabegs lane, ale-
fackee." Notwithstanding the novelty of the orthog.raphy,
the letter was duly delivered—according to the direction.