The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-01 00:00:00

HAYMARKET THEATRE.

The Quadruou Slave, a drama in two acts, adapted
from the French, and produced on Saturday, is good
in idea, but its execution is indifferent. A high prin-
cipled gentleman in Jamaica, a member of the Colonial
Legislature, while possessing every virtue, is a severe
anti-abolitionist (F. Vining), and the cruelties of which
his heart disapproves he sanctions from regard to disci-
pline. lle is betrothed to a lady (Madlle. Celeste) of
unknown origin, who is likewise beloved by a young man
(J. Webster), the very opposite of his favoured rival,
an advocate of the cause of philanthropy, yet less infea-
, enced by principle, and generally acting from sudden
impulses. When the anti-abolitionist would consent to
the punishment of a slave, the lady and the generous
young man are the pleaders for mercy. Circumstances
invert this position ; the youth is indignant at the pre-
ference shown to his rival, who is married in the course
of the piece, conceives his feelings have been trifled with
by the lady, and sopns finds materials for a terrible re-
venge. The lady, though her complexion is fair, and
though she has had the advantages of a liberal educa-
tion, turns out to be a slave by birth, and the property
of the young man, who, blinded by passion, demands
her of her husband, and replies to the agonized en-
treaties of the latter, by using his own arguments. It
should be observed the, the disclosure of her real situa-
tion to the anti-abolitionist is left to the wife herself,
and this gives the one point in the character—a point
which was well made by Mademoiselle Celeste. To ex-
tricate herself from the dilemma, the Quadroon Slave is
about to drown herself, but the better feelings of the
young man prevail ; lie tears up the document that alone
gives him title to her, joins the hands of the married
pair, and the lady's extraction remains a secret.
The piece was triumphantly successful ; the freedom
given to the slave produced a pleasing sensation, and the
curtain dropped upon the gratification of a philanthropic
feeling. which manifested itself in loud applause, and
hearty shouts for Mademoiselle Celeste. Mr. J. Web-
ster played the impetuous young man with a great deal
of judgment, and a vigour which is not often displayed.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE MORNING- PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
HERALD.—Had
.Lord Monteagle been as attentive
to the duties of his office from the time when the gross
Newport-Rice job was perpetrated as he now is, the
enormous national fraud that has been committed would
never .have been committed, the public faith in a most
valuable and popular description of public securities
would not have been shaken, the price of Consols on the
arrival of the intelligence of Mr. M'Leod's acquittal
would not have remained almost as it was during the
agony of his trial, and the country bankers and other
holders of the duplicate Exchequer Bills would not have
been placed in the painful state of doubt in which they
now are. The present bustling activity of his Lordship is
perhaps the most severe practical censure that can be ap-
plied to his past negligence. Lord Monteagle is paid two
thousand pounds sterling per annum for superintending
and controlling the Exchequer ; he has neither super-
intended nor controlled that department of the state; and
his poor and miserable excuse is that his predecessors,
Sir John Newport and Lord Grenville, did no more
than he has done—which is nothing. Now, why have
the comptrollers of the Exchequer been in the habit of
pocketing two thousand pounds a year without perform-
ing any public duties ? Simply because in the hands of
Whig comptrollers—for all these three personages, be
it recollected, were Whigs—that high and respor.sible
office has been converted into a sinecure. Lord Grey's
Cabinet had an opportunity of placing this high office on
a proper footing ; but they pei petuated it as .a sinecure,
to put its emoluments into the pocket of the worn-out
Whig hack, , Sir John Newport, who during the six
years he retained the place never saw the Exchequer-
office. Lord Melbourne's Administration did worse ;
on the basis of this job they erected another—they
got the aged Whig partisan to retire, on the false
plea that he was too infirm to fulfil duties, which
he had never even attempted to undertake, in order
that they might thrust their ejected colleague into a com-
fortable life-place. If Sir John Newport retired because
he was physically incapable of performing the duties
alleged to be incident to his place, Lord Monteagle's
qualification was his competency ; but his Lordship has
proved more negligent, with all his bodily activity, than
the aged victim of his voracity. The reason, we repeat,
is, because the place, in his possession, was intended to
be a sinecure, and his Lordship has not baulked the in-
tention. The cause of this enormous fraud may be sum-
med up in one word—Jon !In that job Lord Monteagle
is the latest actor.- It would appear that his Lordship
wishes to cast doubt,son the genuineness of the bills fra-
dulently issued by Mr. Smith, his agent ; happily, how-
ever, Lord Monteagle's authority on that point is just
as worthless as on most other subjects ; the law of the
case we have shown to be indisputably in favour of the
holders, and no Government can afford so to prejudice
this description of public securities as they would do by a
refusal to be bound, in the present instance, by the acts
of their own servants.
The anxiety of the public mied as to the fate of M'Leod
is now relieved. The news of his acquittal, the ac-
counts of the deportment of the Court, the charge of
the Judge, and the circumstances attending the deli-
very of the verdict of the Jury,—so far as they go,—
impart a character of the highest and most satisfactory
interest to the papers and despatches received by the
" Acadia." It is pleasing, indeed, to contemplate, un-
der any circumstances, so noble a spectacle as the ma-
jesty of law and justice riding in tranquil triumph over
the wildest 'tide of popular violence and through the most
furious tempest of popular faction. And this spectacle has
been afforded to the world at large by the dignified and con-
scientious m nncr in which an American Judge and an
American Jury have discharged their high and responsible
duties. Did the case end here—were this " the be-all,
and the end-all," of the blow, which has been struck—
we should not interpose one word to mar the favourable
aspect of affairs in connection with our American rela-
tions, which the termination of M'Leod's affair appears
to have imparted to them. But, without derogating. in
the least degree from the clear and dispassionate review
of the facts into which the charge of Mr. Justice Gridley
entered, we cannot shut our eyes to the remarkable fact
that the whole gist of that charge went to this; that the
judgment of the Court above—the Supreme Court—had
already affirmed the fact of the murder of Durfee; and
that the three several grounds maintained by M'Leod's
Counsel as "excusing, in the individuals, the act
charged against them—namely, first, because those
acts were authorized; and, secondly, because done in
self-defence; and, again, because the whole transaction
has already become the subject of recognition between the
two Governments, so as to deprive this Court of jurisdic-
tion over the offence," were equally overruled. The
judgment of the Supreme Court had already found that
the killing of Durfee, although performed in the prose-
cution of an enterprise like that which had been de-
scribed to the Court, was murder • " it followed, then,
that all who were engaged in it had been guilty of the same
offence." It was nut necessary to prove that the arm or
weapon of M'Leod dealt the blow; it was enough if he had
been engaged in the enterprise with others. The Learned
Judge continued—" Then comes the question—the im-
portant question on which you are to pass—is Alexan-
der M'Leod guilty of that murder?" Now, this was
blinking the whole question of the rights of a foreign in-
dependent State against rebels opposed to it as bellige-
rents, and against subjects of a friendly State aiding and
abetting those belligerent rebels, That which would be
murder under circumstances not coming within this ca-
tegory ceases to be so under these conditions. The oc-
cupation of the Caroline, piratically trading with muni-
tions of war and stores to rebels to the British authority
carrying on their designs and communications on British
waters, took, from all parties engaged in those transac-
tions, or on board that vessel, the rights of subjects of a
friendly power.
TIMES.—From the fact that Mr. M'Leod's life and
liberty, whatever might be done by the solemn little
folks at Utica, had been virtually guaranteed by Mr.
Webster on behalf of the American Government, we
must frankly own that we have awaited our countryman's
fate with much irreverent composure. Poor Judge Grid-
ley—one can scarcely read his elzborate summing up
without a compassionate smile ! Conceiving that he had
to deal with the most important cause that had ever agi-
tated the world, the anxious functionary seems to have
been literally bowed to the dust under the weight of his
fancied responsibility. The quiet and humble apart-
ment he sat in, became, in his excited imagination, " the
solemn temple of justice. The presence of a few
straggling Canadians, whom curiosity had attracted to
the spot, was felt to be so flattering to the solemnity,
that the Judge publicly complimented them as " distin-
guished actors in the scenes of blood and suffering " con-
nected with the suppression of .the M'lcenzie rebellion,
Whatever excesses might have disgraced the Republican
frontier, no unseemly ebullitions had ventured to escape
in the consecrated Court of Utica. The entire cir-
cumstances of the cerenaonial had , perfectly delighted
Judge Gridley. Nothing, he thought, could possibly
equal the talent and learning evinced by the Attor-
ney-General of. New York, except perhaps the ability
of the prisoner's Counsel, and the decorum of
the people's Jury. All the mass of worthless evi-
dence adduced for the prosecution, was as patiently ana-
lyzed by Judge Gridley, with the usual cautious dis-
tinctions, as if it`Leod', life had been lyettally dependent