The Sun.
London, England, 1824-12-03 00:00:00

EBRlTlifi IrRESS.)

During Wednesda:ty sad yeaterday the rumours
were,curren I the City, that dispatches had been
reciiiited;at the India House, overland from Cal-
cutla UllO though no oneicould.give anypccu-
ratesciount of t heir contents, the general ifnpreS-
MOO Ives, .that they were unfavourable, 'and in
consequence, of this impreasipis nAreat manr.sa les
of gast:_Jpgiiii..stock have taken place during these
twe'ditys, at a depreciation of about tsiervo per
cent. At the India,Houss it waastfemaqualy de-
clared that, no such dispatches had .been
crivetl. Now, whether 'the Honourable Com
pany had .nceived official ciiiivitPtes . or. not,
we ,bave good reason to believe
,that intelli-
gence hies arrived in town'froriehilia withinthe
last two or t}mfe 41#3114. What the precise nature
of the news may be •we•kilow hot, but we ere
firmly qi ()pinion that.notligig; atirlifaclory can lit.
looked'foi frOm that quartet,-: The<Burmese ex-
pedition was soot .at the very beginning of the
rainy smasutt, which; will ngt.only, put 1 stop to;
or at jeust greatly retard, all mil 'Wry; operations,.
but.l,eayft,tbe troopx, exposed ~ta.,,the malignant
influence, ,of the, weather, during the inoutit,of
September,, and. thereby. necessarily subject them;
to the dangerous diseasos of the climaLe—aguq,
glysentety, „tin(' thp: jungle fever:. We-. should
therefore not ,be, surprised A°, hear that by the,
beginning; Qr... October not
,ouo.f"ourth • of the
troops sent on tlott vxpedition 41 ke,effactive.

If to this reasonable apprehension we acid the
facts that the Governor-General and the Corns
mitqer-inr,Phief, ar,,A,viripce, (for it will re,
4,141. r tglerible :portion of the virtne,' of faith
to make
,any man „believe, that Sir Edward Paget
would' give' up the Office 'orCornmander-in.Chief,
in India for the sake Of returning bonne 'to be,'
come Governor -of,. the Military. College), And.
that lk uederstood, in, the Indian .circies
that Lord ,Amherst hits quarrelled his Conti-,
cif, and More:pirlicularly,wiih-that member of it
to Whoin fie .ivaS'especially referred for. advice in
the conduct of his Goverment,. it must be obvious,
that- the affair's .of.ourOrieutal Empire are not in,
the most flouriaiing condition. Nor is it at all like-.
ly that the Mithi•atiaiand Phida'rries,when they see
us fully employed in the east,will remain peaceable.
spectators in the west and, north. At this mo-
ment we cannot 'help thinking that the .factious
of.the liouSe. would fed: their,
.propeity, much safer, were the. distinguished
Nobleman, whom they have treated with such
ingratitude an, neglect, once ,more at. the, head
of their. affairs`; And that if instead of attempting
to cast obloquy on the name of a man who has
done'mnre for thern than any Governor-General
(not even excepting the Marquis Wellesley)
ever did before, had they henotired him.. in his
retirement, and fiestow,e'd upon him, in the shape
Of an acknowledgment, one half of the sum they
have expended 'in printing the ioluminous docu-
ment, to . impeach his., acknowledged integrity,
ihey would have acted more. wisely as well as
more justly. As it is, we may say with Guile-
/anus's. . , .
Ye have made 'fine work of it."

[Tim rttitmc
The extracts, which We give from the Madras
Papers, that have•reached uito the 17th of July,
will not dispel the unpleasant sensations which
previous airrivals.from India had created in the
public mind. If they record no new cause of
alarm, they mention
.nothing calculated to allay
the apprehensions previously existing. It- is
stated, it is true, that the Bormese had evacuated
Ramoo,
.where our troops, it will he recol-
lected, suffered so severe a loss. - This
statement is given on the authority of letters
from Chittagong, which are ,dated on the
20th of April ; but letters of the 22d froM
the same place do not mention the circumstance ;
and others, dated.the 23d, are equally silent.—
In all these letters some anxiety is expressed on
account of • sonic. Europeans who had been seen
in the enemy's.,carnp. With respect to their
number, the accounts are contradictory ; but not
a word is said to .shew, to what nation .they be-
long. It is the uncertainty which prevailed on
this last point, th*at had evidetitlY imparted to the
Matter so much'consequence,; lint, whatever sus.
picion may haie suggested to our countrymen in
India, it is probable that thole Fiaropeaws were
the hostages token away from' Rangoon.

EMORNINp HERAL6.3
An affair recently
,bronght..before a Magistrate
in the Pity, and which is still pending, has called
the public attention in an especial 'winner to the
scandalous and detrimental practice of.entering
into' compromises with thieves and robbers, for.
"the restoration of their booty. A traffic of this
kind proOeily belongs to au uncivilized and law-
less state of -society---and in such a state, is not
quite to pernicious as in a moresettiesl cotrirnu.
;Illy,' The. first onestion is, where .the source of
this monstrous abuse lies ?----some have said, in the
law. Be how can this be, when there exists a sta-
tute specifying the very offence With. great arcu-
racy ? It must then be in those administrators 9f the
law who are morolmniediately paid to protect the
lives
.and properties of the citizens—in other
words„ with the police. FroM the general purity
and propriety with. which the. pelice.of.the.:Me-
tropolis conduct themselves, they'should not be
rashly condeinned,-,or even suspeCted.,.,They be-
sides received, itighternmendation from the Par-
liamentary Police Committee. The present case
is one, however, which seemStocail fora revision
of the Metropoliteta3olice Itepore. The frequent
declarations of wretches capitally condemned for
Bank forgeries,
,afford a strong presuMption that
the police ollicers .could, if they pleased, easily
bring greater criminals to judgrDottt,, ;Any, one
who bus attended at the Old Bailey must
frequently have heard wretches tried for utter-
ing forged, notes, retaliating upon: the Court and
Jury by accusing poliCeMen of sparing. richer fe-
lons, still deeper guilty of,t he crime of forgery.
Tlt4 mere ,puppet is brought to justice, and the
'director behind the curtain let live, as the Beg-
gar's Opera says, " another session- or two." It
is incumbent on the gecretery..for th-e.lfgine De-
partment, and' the. Parliament itself,. so Inquire
Into and, check the evil wherever
.iti.sburce, May
by fOund concealed.. .

[stont.ttric citnoNtcr.E.]
During the last Se.ssion of Parliament a Com-
mittee wasnppointed consider of (he, best mode;
of appal iioning'more.equally, the Jocal burthens
collected in Ireland,. and to provide for a general
survey and, valuation af;that pttrt.of the ..t.lnited
1611%616m. their
Report , by stating,-. that they have,
,not felt
ilifmielVes called upon to enter into_tl.prolonged
examination of witiOSes to prove thenecessiy of,
tt. new ‘surveyand'yaination at Irelancl: .it
appears b the Report an it e v4leuce collected, that
the only measure.hitherto proposed for removing
thr appressiveitletinti,litiesafthe:tqlessments Itited
• under the aitiberity, of Crandjitries and Vestries,
is a survey of the' boundaries of townlands,
vrtait) their. at:real* conteitts,attcLa I utiott
each two,nia,nti separately. ,The,utiiity of. qu ac-
curate survey of a country, in suggeging fittrl
promoting loca I 111 provoig4s,,is. niido,nbted.
the l'ert)..tuatiott
,the present system of levying;
,11110 llPPQrtif)tijqA kcal, taxation by tojilptids,
fn tte~r,fisr yßsy,'.!kri orp,oite t „up. Report.,
~sl4ws that a. sum exeedinglso,oGol. was leviod'
last year in this way, • 4.10, would Ile rrbout',~il;,
on
exieitt of Ireland. I
It, appears. hy. Mr. rni•ster's evidence, that there
.8" 1-"'ILIf3I. acres. of PT't-iPtVice Trelan4,
oneft-sevetum of tue whole.) ie.tax,
‘I,A
,st , therefore huve fallen, very, heavily
on the 1
c4pi ofit a tile Sonic echeSk se'il*ifiecivsAa.4"Y"
ito Inuit the gross amoqut of: this-bl)Ociesof, taxa-

Lion, and an annual Report should be sent from
each County.. to. Parliament, shewing the sums
levied in •it •by :the Grand Jury., Preientinents,
and the manner In which they have, been ex,
pended. The
_Representatives of the Country
would then ,be pnssessed of authentic informa,
tion, and might ;use • their influence in pre,
venting qppressive., exaction or improvident
expenditure. The diminution of the gross
amount of this species of, taxation, and the ju-
dicious application of all that. was levied,.. would'
afford some relief to the oppressed tenantry. But'
when the taxation is to be re-modelled, and the•
attention of a Parliament, which enjoys more
of the confidence of the country than its prede-
cessors have done for many years past, is drawn
• •
to the affairs of Ireland, it becomes requisite to.
notice every source from which oppressive esac,
Lion may arise. The very excellent evidence.given.
by ,Mr..,Spring Rice, in.this. Report, exemplifies.
completely the evils of the present townland 50-
tern..
,The, Returns and Evidence•shew the ex-
, cessive inequality of the townlands, that in
some places no townlands exist, that their
boundaries are sometimes unknoWn, and that a
reparation of the cess among the individuals in the
townlands must follow, even if: the towulands
were all accurately surveyed and. valued. The
new measure will then, if completely successful,
as far as it is at present contemplated, only rernedy
a part of the existing evils for a very short period.
When the valuation
.is effected, each townland
would' pay what it ought to do ;
.and when the first
improvement takes place, a new inequality will
arise. The reparation of the tax among the indi.
viduals in each townland is, according to Mr.
Rice's evidence,-the greatest source of oppres-
sion, and this is to remain untouched: At least
it does not appear that a survey and valuation of
a whole townland can prevent the Barony Col.
lector from making any honest, industriousinha-
bitant of it responsible for his.improvident neigh-
bour, and thus effecting his ruin.

[NEW TIMES.]
The Meeting of the Equitable Society to which
we yesterday adverted was held at the time,ap-
pointed, and was one of the largest ever assem-
bled on a similar occasion. The state of the
concern appeared to be fully as favourable as
we had been led to believe ; and, indeed, exhi-
bited a proud monument of the effect of British
judgment, economy, prudence, and moderation.
The actually realised Assets in Stock and.
Money amounted in value to the immense
sum of
,nearly Ten. Millions Sterling.! To this
are to be added the Premiums on existing
Assurances (being above 106,0001. in the last
Quarter), whieh, before the whole of the Poli-
cies can become claims, must accumulate to many
Millions more. An erroneous idea prevails with
some persons that the Ignitable ,Society has dis.
continued the effecting of Assurances. This is
not tie case. The Society does not appear
indeed to wish its Assurances to be very
rapidly augmented, but seventy-five new As.
surances were effected in the course of the
last quarter, and the premiums upon them
amounted to between 6 and 7,000/.---It will be
seen that we were right in supposing that °Wee-
s existed against
b y,
the proposed plan of divid-
ing
the p
no actual money payment.—
rofit
Other modes, however, have been suggested
for the same purpose ; and among thoie the one
reducing the premiums on the exist-
which appeared-,to be most, favourably received
proportion to• their antiquity. In
iwnagsptohlarctieosf
fact, those parties who have been long insured
have paid _a much larger sum in the .premiums
than would have been necessary to cover the
fair risks .of their original claims. The cele-
brated 1)r. Price, on whose calculations the
Society originally proceeded, entertained 'an
erroneous notion that our population was de-
creasing, and therefore provided for a much more
rapid succession of claims than has. ,actually
taken place. It is also to be observed, that in his
calculations he only assumed the money to be
improved at three per cent, whereas during the
chief part of the time it has been improved at
five per cent. Upon the whole, some distribu-
tion of part of the profits will undoubtedly be
made ; but the mode of doing it is referred, in
the first instance, to the deliberation of the Di-
rectors.

POACIIERS.—At Coisey, neat Norwich, on the
morning of Sunday week, Lord Stafford's gamekeeper, Robert
Thurtell, being on guard with one of the regular watch, named
John Woods, between three and .four o'clock, heard the re-
port of fire-arms, and soon afterwards met, two poachers
near the bridgain the park. On the keeper. approaching
one .of, the wen for the purpose of apprehending him, the
fellow struck him a violent
,blow on the head with a.gurr.--.
A severe. scuffle then ensued between Thurtell and the
poacher, who literally broke his gun, at the second blow,
on : Thurtell's head ; the latter, however, rushed- upon his
antagonist, and they fell together. Whilst they thus were both
struggling on the ground for the mastery, the poacher contrived
to tegain possession of the butt-end. of. his broken gun, and
with• ilinflicted several more dreadful contusions on Thurtell's
who, feeling faint with the loss of blood, relinguished
his hold of the poacher. On getting up, the gamekeeper per-
ceiied his .antagonist running •ftway, and. was pursuing
when Itroods, Itta assistant, who had during thin Interval been
occupied in taking 'and securing the second poacher, called
out to. Thurtell to come back and .hbld him. Thurtell's late
antagonist, on, hearing this, quickly returned by a circuitous
route,, and going up to Woods, dealt him else several terrible
-blows with the sammunlerous weapon (alio butt-end) on the
back of his • head. This enabled. the other . rioacher -to free
himself from Wood's grasp; and, both the offending pottiest tit+.
camped, leaving the game•keeper aud. the WALChui,an lying on
the ground.. During the conflict, tho joeOple at the.:Park
beds
alarmed by Thurtell's cries for help, rose from their Farm,
and proceeded towards :the spot;' but old not arrive there in
time to ,be efany further service than that, of conveying.the twO
Attoret#4 to the 10dg,.:
for Ahem surgical ;
~.Thitrtell; when filitrice,'vitie in and.o!naining Shaking condition the 1)),n
titan butt rOeivgdAi%.or adieu twain" the chin, eheek, forehead,
and tog of the head;
,c he flop of the temples was very much
'ilneerited, and face and clothes covered with 100,1. Woods
likewise vas ' severely cut and bruised about the head. IVe
are. glad. understand that both, these, individuals are noWin
Way of recovery.—since we were makacquainted with
I theSe nartliulars, we have leeint that two persons, iritabitarits
of Cosset', narned,F..dnionds-and"Adcock, apprehended on sus-
niclon being the ,p4Ftit# wlaj,woundeti the gaintkeepFr and-
his iwwint „w atter aae examination, bPfPrf (Minks,
Esq., 'of' Utile Melton,- ioninitted on lednesita to
,Norvviol
Castle.

• The French GuYertiaiik"bas
_—(French' Paper) ordered that the
stator,
ofthe
great. jurist Mb NTEstitilEU be
erected 'in air the Courts of Justice throughout
France;

ECIUiTAI3LE ASSURANC} SOCIETY.

..,..~

.Yesterday a Quarterly General Court of the
Members of this Society was bold, and crowded m excess, in
consequence of a notice of motion h' a Metriher, to divide a
bonus cif 26 per cent.. upon the policies of Assurance at this:
' Office in certain described contingencies.
At eleven o'clock the RECORDER took the Chair, and the.
Actuary read the minutes of the last.COurt. •
The RECORDER then informed the meeting, that the Di.
rectors had prepared a report, which, with, the permission of
ihe Court; would be now read for the information of the
Members. • _ _

Mr.,Busu WAN rose amid loud cries of " Order !" and having
said‘that it was upon the point of order he meant to speak, silence
was obtained. He then explained, that agile intended to with-
draw the notice of motion which he had given, and which
had, he believed, led to the assemblage of such an unexam-
pled attendance of members, he submitted whether there was any
necessity of hearing.the report read as a preliminary part of their
proceedings, when it was known that other gentlemen meant to
give notices of motion, calcUlated to bring the whole state of
the Society on affinity occasion under the consideration of the
I members. He unwillingly withdrew the notice of motion which
he had himself given, becauie lie was advised that the objector
it could not, consistent with the by-laws or the Society, be
legally, carried into effect. There were, they all knew, three
classes of assurances effected by the Society : one class insured
in the year 1016, and alive in the year 1020, had become enti-
tled to a great addition upon their policies; a second class, who
were insured subsequently, had certain contingent additions;
and there was a third class who insured after 1820, that might
'be involved in something like a breach of faith, if the contem-
plated arrangement were, under existing circumstances, pressed
upon them. Under the legal operation of these circumstances,
he begged leave to withdraw the motion of which he had given
notice, and to leave the matter in other hands.
Mr. SWEET said,.that.he had a notice of motion to make
which he requested leave shortly to explain. His desire was,
. that the attention of the Court of Directors should be called to
certain specific points, for the purpose of the better elucidation
of the affairs of the ompany, in the event of any new arrange-
ment being deemed eligible. He wished, in fact, to arm the
Court of Directors with the additional weight of the authority
of the.mernbers at large, for, the purpose of giving more effect
to whatever consideration the former were called upon to devote
to any, specific- object. The intention of his motion was
simply thisTthat it should be referred to the Court of Direc-
tors to consider and report, whether it would be advisable
to cease to effect assurances upon the footing of their, exist-
ing system ; and whether it would be advisable to revise and
open a new system for the new members who may be acquired,
without prejudice to the present Members, and having regard
in their pecuniary arrangements to the existing price of the pub-
' lie funds. In giving notice of this motion, he should refrain
from pronouncing any opinion which was likely to lead to • pre-
mature discussion, all he desired being to have the attention of
the Directors brought to the specific consideration of a new
ar-
ran
A very long discussion then arose upon the point of form,
whether this notice of motion should be inserted on the minutes,
and published and advertised in the circulars sent to Members.
&Vera' Gentlemen from the country observed, that being out
of the limits of the twopenny post, they were left without notice
of the Special Meetings of the Society, in which they were
so interested, and they desired that they should be furnished
with.letters, the postage of which they would themselves pay,
apprising them of special meetings. To this it was replied,
that a great hurden would be .imposed upon. the office, if 4,000
additional letters, which would be the number required, were
to be constantly sent to country members;. it was, however,
hinted, that any individuals who desired notice might have it
by leaving their names with the clerks.
Mr. SWEET'S notice of motion was then entered on the mi-
nutes, and an' Extraordinary General Court was ordered to be
summoned for its consideration this day fortnight..
It was then proposed that, for the purpose of securing the
efficacy of the intended Motion, by the requisite confirMation
the business of one General Court by another, there should be
convened another Extraordinary General Court on the 23d of
December next.

This led to some discussion, and the notice for convening the
Court on the 23d of December, was abandoned, on the ivotmtl
that they could not, as at present advised, anticipate the deci.
sion,at the Court to,be. held. this day formight ; and that when.
that was known, and not .before, it, would be time enough to
call for the confirmation of another Court. • • •
These matters being disposed of, the RECORDER said, that
it was for the Meeting to consider whether the report prepared
by the Directors shotild.be then read. This led, to , much fur.
filet, discussion,.btit.the report was ultimately postponed until
the next Meeting, it being said, that us- the report was founded
upon the intention of a Member to make a motion, ,which he
had afterwards withdrawn, it was premature, as matters stood,
to consider of it.

Mr. SLADE gave notice of a motion for the next court day,
to render valid two policies of insurance assigned over by two
individuals who had gone to Smerica, without giving the requi-
site notice, upon the payment by the holders of the additional
premium, and satisfaction being given that they took immediate
steps for doing so upon being, apprised of the departure or the
parties.
The Court adjourned at half-past 12 o'clock.