The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-21 00:00:00

THE STN, LONDON, THURsinAlr, JANUARY 21, 141.

they say, 4' makes a man acquainted with strange bed
fellows." Truly, politics must enure hint to very dis-
gusting society.
t'roitt the
The it'ifenitir of A. ThkeiS been exercised in his
long 'report on the project for the fortifications of Paris,
to put forward the views best calculated to, act upon the
assembly he addressed, and to, elude 'rather than to an-
swer the objectionsticeur very forcibly to the
rest of tt'e csorlci. He relied upon various uncontro-
verted calculations to shOw that the plan is feasible; he
quoted great military authorities to show that it was
useful to the defence of the French territory t but he
did not attempt to demonstrate that the tthetne was
compatible with t 6 habits eto inteiett bf a great me-
tropolitan tothtbutlity) or endurable to the common
sense of a free people. The estimates for these great
works, as presented to the Chamber by the Committee,
are under five millions and a half sterling. Those for
the wall and bastions of Paris, with all their appen-
dages, are taken at about 2,000,0001. (800,0001.)
though the circumference will form a belt of eight
leagues in length, and 142 metres in widths whilst the
cost of the external line of forts, covering a circuit of
20 leagues, is computed at a still lower sum. To this
extent of ground must be added a zone 250 metres in
width, blasted for all the purposes of industry or hebi-
tation, for which, as we telerstand, no indemnity is
proposed. We area of course, unable to overhaul tin-
data en which these calculations are made ; but miles,
sve arc greatly deceived as to the value of land in tie
neighbourhood of Paris, which is enhanced to excess
by the subdivision of property, and unless the analogy
of railroads and other public works undertaken in the
vicinity of a great metropolis be totally fallacious, it is
evident that these estimates fall enormously short of the
real expense which will be incurred, if the French
Chambers really set to work to construct these towers
of Babel. But if the cost were ten times as great,
it would not strengthen the arguments against the pro-
ject. The primary tax of 5,000,000 or 10,000,00) on
the public purse is as nothing compared to the tax
which fortifications impose for ever on the freedom,
the time, the revenue, the improvement, the exten
sion of the city, and the very soil on which it stands.
All other preparations for war are reserved till the
time of Reed comes ; ships are laid up in ordinary, regi-
ments are reduced to depots, stores are husbanded in
arsenals, but fortifications are always to be kept in re-
pair, always to be watched and guarded, always ob-
truding a portcullis and a ditch, a battery or a maga-
zine, into all the occupations and pleasures of life. A
city is no longer built for peace, but for war ; ever; -
thing reminds the inhabitants of capture and siege.
Men might as well walk about armed to the teeth, as
pass their lives in a fever of preparation to resist a
storming party or defend a breach. In a rude state of
society security for the person and the dwelling is the
primary want of mankind ; and, accordingly, war was
every man's business ; every house was a fortalice,
and defence the first of necessities. But, if civiliza-
tion has done anything to improve the world, it is
by removing, as far as possible, from man's
thoughts the cares of physical defence. Those ho-
nourable duties are much better performed by a
class of men trained and set apart for that service ;
and the rest of the community cheerfully supports the
charge by which it is exempted from a far heavier bur-
den. Nobody doubts that the port of London is to be
protected, not by batteries in the Isle of Dogs, or a
permanent militia on the coast of Kent ; but by a stout
fleet in the Channel. To fortify a capital like Paris is,
on the contrary, to bring home to every man, in some
direct form or other, the apprehension of attack, the
care of defence, the burden of military service, and
the vexatious necessities of military discipline. M.
Thiers rests the whole expediency of the mea-
sure on the authority of Vauban and Napoleon. On
a military matter he could not find a better, nor one
more questionable in a matter which threatens to
sacrifice the pacific internal prosperity of a country
to its warlike propensities. But even if Vauban did
propose to Louis XIV. to fortify his capital, then about
one-fourth of its present size, and exposed to the
chances of the wars of the 17th century, does that
prove that Vauban would recommend Louis Philippe
to circumvallate a city grown to a fourfold bulk, in an
age when the arts both of peace and war have under-
gone the most complete alteration ? The circumstances
of the case Ore so entirely changed, both as regards the
city and the enemy, that Vauban's opinion cannot fairly
be applied to the modern case. Napoleon had thought
of fortifying Paris in 1806 ; he was not in the habit of
postponing projects which he judged to be of import-
ance to the greatness and security of France, yet this
scheme was thrown aside ; and when he recurred to it
in his memoirs, he did so under the direct impression of
those extraordinary events which had attended his own
fall. Would the fortifications of Paris have saved Na-
poleon in 1814 ? They might have enabled him to
prolong the campaign, which was devastating France ;
but a capital like Paris is always too formidable
to be attacked until the whole force of the em-
pire is irretrievably broken. The case of 1792,
which is put by M. Thiers himself, is conclu-
sive on the subject. Dumouricz's army, on the
northern frontier, was turned by the Prussians.
Dumouriez knew that the Prussians would not
dare to march upon Paris until they had beaten
him. Paris took the alarm, and orders were sent to
Dumouriez to quit his position, for the purpose of cover-
ing the capital. He disobeyed the order, which would
have compromised his army, from a conviction that
Paris had nothing to fear, as the sequel proved. To
make Paris the citadel of France, is to make it the
point to which all the military operations of her own
armies would converge, and all those of her enemies be
directed : and tho population of the metropolis would
be continually agitated by all the chances of the cam-
paign, aimed directly at their own homes and hearths.
The duties of a garrison, requiring a force of
70,000 men, are, we are told, to be performed by the
National Guard% but will the National Guard suf-
fice to defend the whole line of forts, extending over
twenty leagues of the adjacent country ? Those out-
works, and the extensive zone they would include,
must require a vast army to keep up the communica-
tions between them, to protect the supplies and the
fugitives collected there, cad to resist a combined at-
tack on opposite points of this enormous circle. On
the suggestion that these outworks may eventually prove
destructive not only to Paris, but to the liberties of
France, M. Thiers declares that no Government would
venture to contend for power over the nation by bom-
barding the capital. Possibly not ; but the uses of
strong walls and towers are not confined to horn-
barclment. They may command the supplies of the
itv ; they may shelter the forces repulsed by the
populace ; and, as M. Thiers himself set the
example of declaring the capital en etat de siege,
another Minister may have the means of • giving
its full literal signification to that expression. These
projects arc indeed too wild to be made the subject of
argument amongst ourselves, and, as it would appear,
too peremptorily adopted by the French people to be
made the subject of remonstrance amongst them. As
in the case of the French occupation of Africa, .it is la-
mentable to see how few of the best statesmen of
France have moral power or courage enough to abjure
and confute the visionary and pernicious projects which
they reprobate in their hearts. It seems to be admitted
by each succeeding Government, that the people must
have its plaything and its prey. African campaigns
and Parisian bastions are tolerated, not for themselves,
but because they stand in lieu of something worse ; and
the world is worried, that Paris may be entertained.

FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.)
(From the Globe.)

In consistency with our invariable rule, to afford all
parties who conceive themselves injured by any state-
ment which has appeared in our columns, an opportunity
of explaining or denying the whole, or any part, of such
statement, we insert a letter from Lord Strangford's so-
licitors on the article which appeared in the columns of
the Globe on Friday last, with the cony of an opinion
of his Lordship's Counsel on the decision of the Court.
In support of our remarks on the republication of
the Times' article, and our allusion to the criminal
orocee(tings instituted unsuccessfully by Lord Strang-
ford against another journal for sonic scvcie comments
on the case, we are bound to state that the letter and
opinion of counsel leave the matter just where it was
before. The Court requires those who seek 'the pro-
tection of its extraordinary powers included in a crimi-
nal information for libel, to deny upon affidavit the
imputations upon their reputation of which they
complain. This is the " technical rule" with
which Lord Strangford failed to comply. There was
no shrinking from responsibility on the part of the
defendant ; no pretence that the publication did not
impute falsehood to Lord Strangford. This was
unequivocally and boldly avowed. Lord Strangford
could not, as his counsel states, " frame any affidavit
which should operate as a denial of every charge con-
tained in the Times' article and the Court left his
Lordship to the ordinary remedies, either by indictment,
or action for scan. snag., of both of which the Noble
Lord declined to avail himself. If Lord Strangford or
his solicitors should be of opinion that the publication
of the observations of the Court on dismissing the rule
will at all benefit his Lordship's reputation, we will
readily give them a place in our columns. We abstain
from doing so until such request be made, because we
do not think that any such benefit to his Lordship
would accrue from their publication.
" TO THE EDITOR. OF TILE GLOBE.
" Sir.,—The follo,ving observations appear in the lead-
ing article of the Globe newspaper of Friday last, with re-
ference to an application made to the Court of Kinws
13cneh by Viscount Strangford in Michaelmas Term,
1825.

The affidavits in support of the application did not
satisfy the Cuurt, and the Noble Lord took nothing by
his [potion.' _

" As his Lordship's solicitors on that occasion, we take
leave to set you
.right as to the grounds on which that ap.
plication was r,fuscd.
" The accompanying opinion of his Lordship's Counsel
will fully explain the reason why further proceedings
were discontinued in this case, and will also afFord the
public an opportunity of learning the opinion of two of the
most eminent lawyers of the day, that it was only on ac-

count of the non-observance of a technical rule, which it
wlts almost impossible to have observed, that the Court
refused to gratit the information applied fur.
Thy btAetvAtiong iii the Giobe would lead to the sup.
positich that. It lirth oh the merits Of the case that the
Court had.refitse,d to comply with the made by
Viscount Stripgford.
" tiVc ha'm the tionoiir to remain,, Sir,
".Yo'ir AdiCni,t4nihib servants
" PICKERING, SMITII, and tEIMPSON.
" Stone-buildings, Lincoln's Inn, Jan. 18, 1841.
" Copy of opinion of Sir C. Wetherell and Sir N. C.

Tindal—in re Lord Strangford.
We are of opinion, that after the decision of the
Court as td the insuiLicetiz df the affidavit upon which
the rule t 6 lioi7 6aliati *an tamed (and which deci-
son we are free to confess was greatly to our surprise),
it will not be advisable to have recourse to further
proceedings, "Aced, the nature and description of the
paragraph originally printed in the Times newspaper
were such that we scarcely secs how it was possible to frame
any affidavit which shoUld operate as a denial of every
charge contained in it. All persons *llO tinderstafid the
nature of the case will perceive in a moment that it c•as
only on account of the non-observance of a technical rule,
which in the particular case it would have been almost
impossible to observe, that the Court refused to grant the
information.

" CHARLES WETHERELL.
N. C. TINDAL,
" Inn, Dec. 1, 1828."

( From the Standard )
When it is d.fficult or impossibla satisfactorily to
answer a question which has been proposed, it is no un-
common stratagem, to seem to reply by answering 11 ques-
tion which has not been proposed, or to offer a detence
against a charge unjustly assumed to be involved in the
tormenting interrogatory. We yesterday put a ques-
tion, which, as we believe, must, long before we or any
one else of the public had propounded it, have sadly
perplexed the (4i:cell's Ministers, the question—Would
her Majesty's advisers dare in the Royal Speech to re-
fer to the Repeal sedition, or would they dare to pass
over that tremendous danger as undeserving the
notice of the Legislature ? This plain question, plainly
put, has provoked from the Morning Chronicle an angry
article, in which it is assumed that the Ministers are ac-
cused of having created the Repeal sedition, and the at-
. tempt is made to faster the production of thi mischief
upon Lord Stanley's Bill. Now this, tiro submit, is
not answering our question. We did not charge
Ministers with having created the Repeal sedition ; in-
deed, we brought no charge of any kind, not even that
which we might have justly brought—lie charge of
supinely neglecting the advance of the formidable
evil ; we merely inquired whether it was likely
that Parliament would be expected to close the eye
upon it ? As to Lord Stanley's Bill, making even
the ridiculously false admission that the treasonable
movement is the effect of the Bill, still the Morning
Chronicle can make nothing of the admission in
reference to our question. If we are to accept the
doctrines of the Morning Chronicle, Ministers are only
to restrain sedition of their own making, or such as they,
according to their own taste and judgment, do not alto-
gether dislike : but such is not the doctrine of the British
Constitution—by that Constitution Ministers arc bound
to protect the institutions of the country whenever
threatened, or upon whatever provocation threatened.
True it is that her Majesty's present advisers have
a sufficiently heavy task in guarding against the con-
sequences of their own misconduct, and it is equally
true that they have a direct and a vital interest in
encouraging whatever may embarrass any mea-
sure that shall check the frauds, the corruptions, and
the prejudices of Irish elections ; but it ought not
to satisfy the nation to hear that Ministers
are too busy in staving off the effect of their political
crimes to give attention to an imminent peril, or too
deeply interested in the collateral purpose of a
sedition threatening the dismemberment of the em-
pire, to offer it to the notice of Parliament. What it
-concerns the nation to know is, not the origin, but the
existence of the danger—not the bearing which that
danger may have upon the interest of parties, but its
tendency to the ruin of the empire itself ; and it any
danger of great magnitude really threatens, it is surely
the duly of the executive—all other considerations laid
aside—to communicate the fact to the assembled Par-
liament. Will Ministers dare to do this, or will they
dare to leave it undone?

(From the Courier.)
The chief thing complained of as a monopoly is that
of the coal trade ; and if there be one article more than
another which ought to be brought free from all the
charges incidental to such a state of things, to the door
of the consumer, it certainly is coals. We have been
blessed by Providence with extensive beds in different
parts of the country of the most beautiful coal ; that
which lies under the counties of Durham and Northum-
berland being the acknowledged best. The insular posi-
tion of Great Britain brings with it humidity and fogs,
followed by catarrhs, rheumatism, and fever ; the best
prevention, however, to these complaints is the social
habits of an Englishman's fireside, and where a good
blazing coal fire can be procured the vice must be
natural, and not acquired from necessity, that drives a
person to the gin-shop. But in this immense metro-
polis, where the highest degree of luxury and the lowest
depths of misery are equally to bo found, coals, the ar-
ticle most essential, and indeed the very foundation of
all our comforts, is the very dearest we have to pur-
chase ; and this evil is made doubly severe by the cir-
cumstance that they are made dear, especially, to the
metropolis. Take coals to any distant outport, the
freight is no greater than in London, the charges less,
and, in fact, they may be carried on to the West ladies
and sold at the ordinary London price.

DEATHS IN THE HOUSE OF CORRECTION,
COLDBATH-FIELDS.--011 Tuesday Mr. Baker, officiating
loco Mr. Wakely, invalided, held two inquests on the
bodies of prisoners in the House of Correction, Coldbath-
fields. The first was on the body of Letitia Stringer, aged
thirty-five, the wife of a policeman. It appeared that de-
ceased was received into the prison in November last, hav-
ing been convicted at the Central Criminal Court Sessions
of that month, of stealing in the station-house, in which
she lived with her husband, divers articles, such as Sc.',
sugar, bread, and butter, and sentenced to three months'
imprisonment and hard labour. When she came into pri-
son she was large in the family way, and consequently was
not put to any labour. On the 10th instant she was de-
livered of a fine male child, now alive and doing well. Hcr
confinement was preceded by convulsions, attributable to
fretting at her situation. She gradually sank after her
necouchement, and died on Sunday last of peritonitis.
C second inquest was on the body of Charles Dyer,
aged seventeen. Deceased was received into the prison
on the 28th of October, having been convicted at the
Central Criminal Court of stealing haj and corn, and
sentenced to three months' imprisonment and hard labour.
On the 20th December deceased complained of severe
cold, and was taken into tho infirmary. He got better,
and on the 29th of the same month, at his own request,
he was placed in the convalescent ward. On the 3d in-
stant he was re-admitted into the infirmary with sore
throat and cough. Though every attention was paid him
by Mr. Wakefield, the prison surgeon, he expired on Sa-
turday last of bronchitis. Verdict in each case—" Natu-
ral death."

SINGULAR COMBAT.-A short time ago a
rather curious circumstance, though not unpossessed of
serious features, occurred among the mountains in the vi-
cinity of Keswick. Two shepherds met on Saddleback
Fell, about three miles from that town, who had some time
previously had a slight dispute relative to the superiority
of the flocks they respectively tended on the mountains,
aggravated, report says, by each having made choice of
the same rosy-checked mountain maid to share their bed
and board, and become the partner of their joys and sor-
rows through life. Be this, however, as it may, here,
upon the top of this lonely mountain, with no mutual friend
to appease their anger, did those two guardians of their
woolly tribes kindle up the dying embers of their former
animosity, and resolved to try their prowess in a regular
turn up, unaided or abetted by either seconds, bottlehol-
ders, or bystanders. To work they went in right good
earnest ; they fought hand to hand and foot to foes
through many a weary round; the lonely mountain bird
was the sole witness of the valour they displayed. The
contest long continued doubtful, till at length, by the
chance of war, one of them was thrown down upon
the naked rock, and had his shoulder dislocated, and
was otherwise much injured. The victor knew not what
to do with his vanquished companion ; no one was at hand
to lend his aid, and he cculd not leave him to perish on the
mountain. As a feeling of generous sympathy has alwa,s
a place in a valiant heart, the brave shepherd, actuated by
the best feelings of his nature, sct about bearing his com-
panion from the mountain, which he found to be a much
more laborious task than he had even to perform in van-
quishing him. Like the knights of old, whose greatest
care was to provide for those whom they had vanquished
in battle, our heroic shepherd bore his ill-starred opponent
from the mountain with no little labour, presenting him to
his friends in a condition which showed him to be at once a
proof of his valour and an object of his sympathy. If ever
this doughty champion should again go to battle, we are
apt to think he will calculate the trouble of conveying
home a wounded antagonist with more accuracy than he
did on this occasion, and fix the scene of his future triumph
nearer the abode of man, and on sonic less elevated station
,in t
t, Mont-
gomeryvi,itil
than the far-famed Saddleback.—Carnberland Pacquet.
A deputation from the Bank of Asia, consisting
of Mr. Jardine,
Martin, hadE. anS. interview, M.
) 1)73. appointment, 'tad
w, i
the Chairman and Deputy- Chairman of the East India
Company on Tuesday._Colonial Gazette.
THE CORN-LAWS. -- STARVATION. —Two
men hare been committed to the Walsall borough gaol
for stealing bread, while in a state of starvation. The
matter has excited a strong feeling in the borough on the
subject of the Corn-laws, and a placard, of which the fol-
lowing is a copy, has been posted in different parts of the
town:---" Corn-law Crime.—Two pour men are now in
the gaol of this borough for stealing bread this morning
from the shop of Junes Wes:kes, baker, Digbcth. The
prisoners were in a state of starvation—without money, and
unable to procure employment. Starved by Act of Par-
liament, they have now to be punished by Act of Parlia-
ment. Christians, the curse of God is coming upon us,
Holy Writ declares the bread of the needy is his life, he
that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood.' Dare
you then, in the face of Heaven, vote for the bread-taxer ?
—l,Valsall, Jan, 18, 1841."
ANCIENT CONCERTS.—The seventy-fifth eca-
son of the Queen's Concerts of Ancient Music trill cont.
mence on the 10th of March, and the rest of the perform_
ances vein take place as fellow:—March 24th, April 21it
and 28th, May sth, loth, 19th, and 2611. The Messiah
will be performed on the 2d of June, which will close the
season.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF CHANCERY, JAN. 20.
TAYLOR V. RUNDELL.

This case came before the Court upoa appeal from
the decision of his Honour the Vice-Chancellor. The
bill was filed by the late Sir Herbert Taylor, and tht
ather otecUtors of his late Royal Highness the Duke of
York,-calling upon the defendant to account for the
svciking of the mines of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia.
which ttcre granted by George the Third to the Duke
of York, and whd tad leased them to the defendants,
who bad Ton:-.2d a company for the purpose of working
them. The defendants their answer to the bill.
in whieli they gated their inability to :ye a full account.
Com-
pany the ifaiisat,titht, as the other members or ~.I.
who had not been ttiade pattie; refused to Five up
the books. To this answer exceptions Ware taken for
insufficiency, and a reference was directed to the Master
to ascertain that fact. 'rbe Master reported the an-
swer ..inflicient, but to that report exceptions were taken
width *ere allowed by the Viet-Chancellor upon their
being argued before him, and from that decision the
present appeal was brotOtf:
Mr. WAKEFIELD and Mr. Wool) Weft uotm,el for
the appellant.
The Loan CIIANCELLOR, without callia;:,r upon Mr.
Wigram, who was counsel for the respondents, ordered
Cie appeal to be d!sruis'wti, thereby upholding the deci-
sion of the Vice Chanedlur.