The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-16 00:00:00

Sir P. LAunv, that the 'Justice-I-Jura sh:mh.;
be cleared as soon as possible of such vermin. Thus
the case, which excited great disgust and laughter, t6r-

ininated.

THE CORN-LAWS AND THE IRON-

TR tWV,.

The following letter IS---ii;niSir 3. J. G test, Bart.,
one of the greatest iron masters in Wales :
Sir—l am sorry that I have been prevented, by ab-
sence from this place from giving an curer answer to
your letter of the 4th inst. With respect to the action
of the present Corn-laws upon the iron trade, there can
be no doubt of their injurious effect. A very large por,
tion of the iron manufactured in this country is exported
to the United States of 'America, and the present very
distressed state of the trade is mainly caused by the
diminished export to that country, not only of the raw
material, but of the articles of hardware and cutlery—
and this state of depression would have been very mutt:
obviated if we could have taken from the United
States the corn and flour, of which they have much t,
spare, in return for our iron and hardware. The pro-
hibition of their corn in this country has alio had, and •
will have, the effect of causing the establishment of iron
works aiid other manufactories in their own country,
and protecting them by a hi,zher duty on the importa-
tion of those articles which we have been accustomed
to supply them with, and which we refuse to exchange
for the corn of which they have a superabundance. 1
should think that the iron trade of this district (of Gla•
morgan and Monmouth) employs at least 50,000 per-
sons, and give; subsistence to 100,000 in addition to
that numter of operativ. s. Their wages range from 12s.
per av eA (for libourcrs) to 18s. and to 255, for colliers
and miners, and for persons employed in the processes
of iron making from 20s. to 30s. per week. Boys and
women proportion:ably less. I should think that the
amount paid in the iron trade of the districts falls little
short of from one-and-r•-half million to two millions
sterling per annum. lam sorry I have not been able
to go More fully into the question, and sincerely hope
that your meeting at Manchester may be of service to
the cause of humanity, and.remain, yours, faithfury,
Rev. C. Thompson. J. JOHN GUEST.
I am sorry to say, that at this moment, we have a
practical example of the fallacy of the argument of
high corn giving high wages, and the reverse. The
wages of the neighbourhood have, within the last three
months, been reduced 20 per cent., whilst flour has ad-
vanced from 4e. 8.1. per 281bs. to Gs. Gd.
Dowlais, Aug. 14.1841.

.1111 t. DAWSON.
(From the Devmport Independent.)
As soon as the list of Sir It. Peel's Ministry was
published, the eves of all Mr. George Robert Dawson's
supporters anxiously turned to the office they fondly
hoped he was to fill. They could hardly believe their
senses when they found his came not there. This was
rather curious they thought, but the first draft of a
Ministry is. never to he dependei on. A week's exer-
cise of the virtue of p.ttit.,cce was therefore necessary.
and on the appearance of the authentic list, a second
scrutiny took place ; ohs! with n) better success than
the first. The obtuse faculties of the Tories are slowly
end painfully awakened to the fact that the Right Hon.
G. R. DAwson is nut a Member of his brother-in-Ws

Ministry ! This, as.tlie organ of the party stated on
Wednesday, " has very nr,turally excited some sur-
prise in the borough." If the party posseised the
smallest amount of perception, they would have felt
no surprise at the circumstance. We stated some
months ago our firm persuasion that should Sir lt.
Peel obtain power, Mr. Dawson would form no part of
his Ministry. Sir George Grey stated the same thing
during the last election, and the evert has confirmed it.
The Tories of Davonport arc vexed and disappointed
for them Mr. Daws.-in might as well not exist et ali
as not ba in office ; the " crowning rose" is absent
from the Ministerial wreath, and tf:e official list ex=
hibits, as we hint above, in the stale of quotation the
Right Hon. Gentleman i 3 so fond of—
" A gap and vacancy most sorely wept."

FLAGRANT DESECRATION OF
THE CEREMONIES OF THE ROAIISH CHURCH.
(From a French Paper.)
On the 28th of July, at about two o'clock, the inha-
bitants of Tontvannes were surprised, on passing near
the church, at hearing chants from the Liturgy sung
with a most energetic and extraordinary power of lungs.
They at first thought that the curate was going through
a sort of rehearsal, but were speedily undeceived.
Those whom they found in possession of the church
were truly somewhat strange vicegerents. Two men
were in the reading-desk, and two more walking to and
fro ; they had substituted lot the sacerdotal vestures
the cloths of the altar, which were thrown over their
shoulders in the form of a surplice. They then—
making, instead of the salutations and external
signs used in the Catholic ritual, grimaces and
ridiculous distortions of countenance— formed in
procession, and preceded by a broom instead of
a crucifix, they, in this way, marched round the
church. After a scandalous ".confessional" scone,
in which the priest and the penitents were most
grotesquely delineated, and in which the symbol of con-
fession was represented with mockery and derision, the
' new officiators sprang up, caught hold of the bell-ropes,
and, pushing themselves backwards and forwards, they
I swung immediately in front of the altar ; the others,
displacing the confessional, carried it in triumphal pro-
cession round the church ; these latter, roaring and
singing, broke the chain and the wax taper of the lamp ;
the others, breaking to pieces beneath their feet the
seat of the curate, male the church the theatre of the
most culpable sacrilege and desecration. But the ex-
cesses of this gang of maniacs did not stop here. One
of there, being wounded by too prolonged a swing on
the bell-ropes, jumped down, utte lug horrible oaths,
and approaching the statue of the Virgin, he ad-
dressed it in highly' disgusting langu ige, and.
finally, gave it a blow on tho cheek. It
will hardly be believad, but it is, nevertheless,
the fact, that these wretches had not even the mieera-
bh excuse of intoxication to extenuate their inlaarous
conduct ; on the contrary, they acted with calmness,
reflection, arid perfect sang livid, and were so we;l
aware of the consequences of the unheard-of offences
which they were committing, that two of the gang kept
" watch and ward" at the door of the church, in order
to prevent the apps oach of the curious, as well es to
give notice to their companions in case of need.
It is impossible to account for the above conduct by
alleging the ignorance or stupidity of t hose accused, the
latter being, for the most part, inern'oers of effluent fami-
lies, and of tolerably good education. One of them,
Earned Braley, is a professional singer; another, CI eda-
nor Pernet, has been for some time clerk to a huissier ;
and his accomplices are for the most put owners of pro-
perty, and sons of affluent parents. The eight accused
all belong to the commune of Estksac.
The prosecution was instituted on the complaint of
the assistant-curate of the Church of Fontvannes ; and
that worthy. ecclesiastic made his deposition with great
calmness, endeavouring to extenuate the revolting con-
duct of the accused.
In spite, however, of. the able addresses of their de-
fenders, MM. Berthelin and Masson, the accused,
upon whom M. Robert (the deputy ;Attorney) slemanded
that the severest punishment of the tribunal should be
irdlicted, were condemned as follows :—The principal
ringleader, Galley, to 40 days' imprisonment, and to a
fine of 100 francs; Bra ey, the singer of Estissae, to a
month's imprisonment and to a fine of 100 francs ; Cie-
danor Pernet, the hussier' s clerk, to 20 days' imprsor.-
trent and to a fine of 20 francs ; Hoot alias Bidet, and
Niels, to 15 days' imprisonment and a fine of 16 francs ;
Sutot, Armand, Boutet and Dimanche were discharged.

A CORN SHIP STRANDED IN THE RIVER.
—On Tuesday considerable excitement prevailed in the
river below bridge by a report that the brig Isabella, a
Hamburg trader, laden with 1,400 quarters of wheat and
a considerable quantity. of wool, had gone ashore near
the Shadwell entrance of the London dock, and had be-
come a wreck. It appears that the Isabella intended to •
enter the London Dock and discharge her cargo there,
and was to have entered at the lower entrance at Shad-
well at high water yesterday morning a few minutes be-
fore one o'clock. The ship, however, had not arrived on
the top of the tide, and the dock-master and the lock-
men not expectitv her afterwards until the next high wa-
ter, left the entrance and went home. About an hour after the
Isabella arrived off the dock entrance; the tide had then
fallen considerably, and, as is usual with ships deeply
laden which arrive after the tide has begun to ebb, the
plot and men attempted to moor her to the Dolphin,
off the dock entrance. By some mismanagement, how-
' ever, the ship was suffered. to drift between the Dol-
phin and the shore, and her heel caught the ground
abreast of 'Shadwell Dock Stairs, where there is a
causeway for tie use of the ferry. The vessel grounded
at this place, and stuck fast, and at low water she
was left dry in , a very awkward position, and was
very much " hogged" (back thrown up, and her
seams opened sufficiently to enable any one to insert
their hands in the openings. Her' scams were caulked
as well as the exigencies of the accident permitted,
and tile Collincrwood steamer was sent for four lighters
to keep her afloat on the rising of the tide, in conse-
quence of her leaky condition, and it was for some time
fared she would break up, and become a total wreck.
The lighters succeeded in lifting her, and she was taken
down to New Crane Dock, about 200 yards above the
Shadwell entrance, in the afternoon, with four feet
water in her pumps, where she commenced dircharging
her cargo into barges alongside. The ship is a perfect
wreck, and a great part of her cargo spelled.
TEETOTAL LECTURE.—John H ockings, the
Birmingham blacksmith, who lately delivered several
lectures in this town on total abstinence. delivered the
first of another course in the theatre of the Mechanics'
Institution, Cooper-street. last evening. He spoke for
upwards of an hour and a-half ; and, though an unedu-
cated man, and, as he himself states, brought up " in the
college of drunkenness, where neither grammar nor logic
taught," he has evidently a strong and vigorous mind.
His manner of treating 4,tis subject is original ; his illus-
trations are striking and forcible, and he relates them.
with no small degree of piquancy and effect. He was
heard throughout with the greatest attention, and was
frequently much applaucled.—Ma nch este Guardian.
" A short time back," says the Marietta Ant,
"the dead body of a man was found in a wood, Nvith the
weapon that slew him in his stiffened hand—a rum
bottle !"