The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TRURgDAY MORNI446,,_,FEBRITARY 18, 1841.

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I inform your Lordship, that w, are quite prepared to
procped to thp election of the officers. but, as a matter
of privilege, our first duty is to have this paper read.
The LORD MAYOR—That paper can be read after the
[election of the officers.
Mr. J. 11. HALL said hr, wished the Court would post-
pone, of its own accord, the reading of the paper until
after the election of the officers.—(Hear, hear.) He
[ accordingly moved that Mr. Low, the chairman, be re-
quested to postpone the presentation of the paper.
Mr. HARTLF.Y seconded the motion.
The LORD MAYOR—No, no, I shall put that question.
Several members here said that the Recorder, who
from time to time communicated with the Lord Mayor,
was prompting his Lordship to persevere in his opposi-
tion to the Court.
The RECORDER —I am in my office performing the
duties of it.
Alderman WILSON denied that there was any precedent
for the course just suggested.
Mr. LAWRENCE expressed strong indignation at the
power assumed by the Lord Mayor. It had he said been
intimated that if the Court thought they were justified
in pointing out a certain line of conduct, from which the
Lord Mayor could not deviate according to law, they
ought to move for a mandamus. It was very easy and
agreeable to suggest a cause which would probably occupy
four or five years before a decision could be arrived at.
He was prepared to adopt the folio wing course, if the
Lord Mayor refused to call upon the Town-Clerk to put
the motion, and if that officer refused to call upon the
City solicitor to perform that duty.—(llear, hear, and
No, no.) With that view he should wish that these offi-
cers should be sworn in.
Mr. PRENDERGAST said the Court was actually trifling,
and called upon the members to proceed at once to the
election.
Mr. Willi here reminded the Court of the Mayoralty
of 1835, and the conduct of the Court when the Lord
Mayor, that day, endevoured to ride, rough-shod, over
the members. In that Mayoralty the Court carried the
question of privilege unanimously, in the teeth of the
person wbo disgraced the chair.
The Town. Clerk rose, with the list of the names of the
officers in his hand.

Mr. KING called upon the Town-Clerk to reflect whose
officer he was.—(Cries of disapprobation.)
The LORD MAYOR said that insinuation contained a
threat against an officer, through his pocket, tor doing
his duty.
Mr. WIRE said the imputation was intolerable. It
was unjust, and without foundation, and possessed ad-
ditional offence, coming, as it had come, from the Presi-
dent of the Court.

After having stood a siege of applications from many
other members,
His LORDSHIP declared, in the most positive terms,
that he would put no question, however modified, until
the officers were appointed. He then called upon the
Town Clerk to try the Court once more, and told the
Court not to blame him if any ill consequence resulted
from their refusal to proceed to the election.
Mr. R. TAYLOR—It is your Lordship and your legal
adviser, the Recorder, who are responsible. I have no
doubt of your Lordship's disposition to do what is right,
and just, and honourable, but, by the advice of the Re-
corder, you are placed in a most unenviable position.—
(Cries of "No, no," and " Hear, hear.") You do not,
ray Lord Mayor, act upon your own judgment, and, un-
less you do that, you will not perform your duty to your
fellow-citizens. —(Loud cries of " Hear, hear," mingled
with disapprobation.)
Many members expressed their readiness to proceed
at once to the election, and appeared to be satisfied with
the Lord Mayor's assurance, that the reply to his state-
ment should be read immediately afterwards. The
great majority, however, considered that the principle
for which they had all along contended, would be affected
if they yielded in the slightest degree to what they evi-
dently considered to be the usurped authority of the
ch-

LITERATURE.
THE BATTLE OF AIBLEY GREEN. By.l. B.
Kington
Since the publicition of the "Reliques of Old English
Ballads," by Bishop Percy, the beauties of that noble
species of poetry has been more and more appreciated.
Not only have tt.e lovers of ballad literature revelled in
the perusal of the ancient Saxon compositions, but a
number of imitators have appeared among them—men
who, '(rifted with a natural affection and admiration for
everything good and beautiful, have frequently evidenced
the possession of faculties worthy of emulating the
genius of their antique predecessors. Among these may
almost be reckoned the present Paymaster of her Ma-
jesty's Forces, his "Lays of Ancient Rome" having
about them all the most admirable characteristics of the
most perfect ballad poems extant. He has fully trans-
ported his imagination to the woods of Algidus and the
streets of Tusculum, to the days when the valorous
Horatius "kept the bridge so well," to the merry bouts
and carousals of the Roman citizens—
" When the oldest cask was opened,
And the largest lamp was lit,
And the chestnuts glowed in the embers,
And the kid turned on the spit."

And ho has not only revived those days of heathen
greatness, but he has embalmed them fur ever and for
ever in poetry—" flies in amber." The " Oriana"of Alfred
Tennyson, again, though fraught with more of the fanci-
ful than is usually found in the ballads of the olden
time, has about it all the vigour and pensiveness which is
so remarkable in those glorious originals. There is,
moreover, in those verses of Tennyson's the impassioned
iteration and verve so peculiar in the master-pieces of
our Saxon bards: instance the lines—
" The bitter arrow glanced aside
Oriana,
The false, false arrow glanced aside,
Oriana,
The damned arrow glanced aside,
And pierced thy heart, my love, my bride,
Oriana,
Thy heart, my love, my life, my bride,
Oriana!"

Happily we might go on adding to our instances of suc-
cessful imitators in this particular kind of metrical com-
position to the length of many columns. It were unne-
cessary, however. We should only be reviving the
recollections of the vast majority—not testifying to a fact
hitherto unrecognised. What we have here to do, is to
comment upon the appearance of a little volume with
pretensions of a like description. Mr. Kington displays
in this book a genial and spontaneous enthusiasm for
the manners, habits, and even the diction of our remote
ancestors. The principal poem in the collection is
modelled after a somewhat similar fashion with the
chivalric poi-ms of Walter Scott—"Rokeby," " The
Lord of the Isles," and •• Marmion." Excepting in the
descriptive line to the first portion, or canto, or what-
ever else it may be designated, there is nothing incon-
gruous to the original conception. That line would in-
cline us to anticipate a species of paraphrase upon Mac-
pherson—" The Earle sits in the gloom of the evening,
his thoughts amid the gloom of the past." If the anti-
cipation were formed, however, that the succeeding parts
were Ossianic, that anticipation would in no manner be
realised, for the " Battle of Nibley Green" is consistent
throughout. The story is English, the characters are
English, the language is English—and that is saying
much now-a-days. Sometimes in the hurried chaunting
of his song Mr. Kington, like his brethren of the lyre,
flings off from the strings a delicious snatch of melody,
as where he says
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" the faint moon lit, with a silver flicker,
The ivy leaf that crept along the glass."
Clever, however, as the portraiture of the Lord of
Berkeley may be in the " Battle of Nibley Green," we
are more charmed with some of the smaller pieces
appended to the volume, especially with those dedicated
to the delineation of " Maid Marian." There is much
delicate and gentle beauty in these stanzas, a purer wor-
shipping of ideal excellence than that of Sacharissa, by
Waller. And there is a pleasant variety in them which
renders them particularly palatable. " Marian and the
Water Party" is descriptive, for example, of " a summer
morn, a sunny morn," when

" The butterflies were all about,
The bees sang to the morning early;
And Joy rose, clamouring, with the shout
That scared the bird among the barley."
Immediately before this is the following graceful de-
scription of " Marian at her Evening Prayers:"—
" Do not light the candles yet;
Close not out the Evening Star;
But leave me quite alone ; and let
The door remain ajar.

" Bow thee down irreverent head,
For a sound comes down the stair;
Marian, kneeling by her bed,
Saith the Evening Prayer:
" Praying—Evermore to Bless
Those that all about her be!
Hush: God give me worthiness;
Marian prays for me !

" Marian! kneeling by her bed,
Earnest, meek, ab.orb'd, and calm ;
Drooping forward her dear head;
Pressing palm to palm."
Besides what we have already enumerated, there are
various humorous, melancholy, and miscellaneous frag-
ments in the hoik, of different, and occasionally in-
different merit.

TMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
HOUSE OF COMMONS, Feb. 17.
The SPEAKER took the Chair, but no House was formed
until nearly a quarter past Twelve o'clock.
SECOND READING.
The following Railway Bills were read a second time, and
ordered to he committed .

Exeter and Exmouth Railway
Leeds and Thirsk Railway (Leeds, Durham, and Newcastle
Extension, ic.)
Leeds and Thirsk Railway (Deviation of Main Line in
Crimple Valley, ac.)
Leeds and Thirsk Railway (Knaresborough and Borough•
bridge Branch.)
Leeds and Thirsk Railway (Eaglecliff and Stillington
Extension).
Leeds and Thirsk Railway (Harrowgate and Pateley
Branch, &c.)
Leeds and Thirsk Railway (Branch from tlelmerby to
Northallerton, &c.)
Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland (Extension
from Athlone to Galway).
Several Bills were brought up and read a first time.
TEN HOURS' BILL.
Petitions in favour of the Bill were presented by Mr.
Ainsworth, from workers in Mr. Ryder's factory, Bolton ;
from other workers in Bolton and in Huddersfield; by Mr.
Blackburn, from Warrington ; by an lion. Member from
shopkeepers and others at Warrington; by Mr. Ferrand,
from Bradford; and from a working man in Manches-
ter, setting forth that he had been engaged for
twenty years in weaving cotton, that he was convinced the
Bill would expel the heartburnings which had so long
existed between the employer and the employed, and that
many middle-aged men who had been compelled to leave
their work, in consequence of the protracted hours, would
return to it if the Bill were passed into a law. He also
wished to know front him (Mr. Ferrand) if he could pre-
sent his petition to the House without his name being made
public--(blear, hear, and laughter}—as if it were made public
he considered that he might suffer some injury. Mr. B. B.
Cabbell and Mr. Fielden presented a number a petitions to
the same effect.

cause at ten minutes to six o'clock on last Wednesday he
made what the Noble Lord called an attack upon him.
Short, however, as the time for addressing the House
was, it did not prevent the Noble Lord from making a
counter attack upon his Hon. Friend, and at the same time
upon a question of this vital importance, the first Minister of
thp Crown did not hesitate to say, that during the few mi.
ntites he had then to occupy the House he was quite pre-
pared to state his reasons for opposing the measure.
Now, he confessed that his Hon. Friend stated one argument
which, at the first blush, would seem to carry, if not convic-
tion, at the least great weight, and which, if it were not met,
would place the opponents to the Bill in a different position.
He alluded to the point made, that this wouli not be the first
.
time that the State has interfered in the hours of labour.
There had certainly been a reduction made from fourteen to
twelve hours, but that was only a nominal reduction, and
was not general throughout the country, for twelve hours
had been always the average, and this being the fact the
whole arguments of his Hon. Friend fell to the ground. He
considered that to put a limit on the power of steam was
tke most absurd idea that could enter into the
head of man, The Americans had a natural advantage
over the maneifacturers of this country by about 20 per cent.
In the year 1843 there were 400,000 bales of cotton spun in
England, out of which 342,000 were expended, leaving only
58,000,000 pounds to be consumed in the country.
The result of the measure would be to limit
the production of the country to one-,eventh.
It they passed this measure, before many months elapsed,
they would find it necessary to retrace their steps and to
abrogate all they had done.—(Hear.)
Mr. FERRAND said, when his Hon. Friend the Member
for Oldham (Mr. Fieiden) presented, this afternoon, petition,
signed by malty thousands of the factory operatives of the
north of England in favour of this Bill, he could not heap
being struck with the contrast winch the Honourable
Gentleman the Member fur Dundee (Mr. Duncan) pre-
sented, in rising immediately after him to inform the
House that he had a petition to preterit on the
subject from a different class of persons—lrom the members
of the Chamber of Commerce of Dundee, praying that the
Bill might not pass into a law. He was, indeed, prepared to
admit that they were a very different class of persons. On
the one hand, there were thousands of operatives re-
questing the protection of the House, steeped in
misery and distress; whilst, on the other hand, the members
of the Chamber of Commerce of Dundee had presented a
petition requesting that House not to listen to the prayers of
millions of the people of this country. We were on that
occasion to support the prayers of the millions—the toiling
millions of England and Scotland, and in doing so he
should offer no apology to the House, but ask them to give
' him his attention whilst he read to the House some extracts
from the writings of a gentleman who was perfectly compe-
tent to inform the House what were the feelings of the ope-
ratives of England on this vital question. For himself he
might say, that it was now seventeen years since
he first became the firm advocate of a Ten
Hours' Factory Bill ; but, at the large number
of meetings he had attended on the subject, he had
never yet witnessed one manufacturer who durst raise his
voice at any of those meetings against those who had pub-
licly assembled to advocate this Factory Bill. He had never
heard one manufacturer who durst meet his work-people and
fairly argue the question which was at issue. If there was
an instance, he should be glad to hear it. He saw the Hon.
Gentleman the Member for Sheffield (Mr. Ward) taking
notes; he believed it was not many weeks since he visited
his constituents, and was obliged to admit that the people or
this country were unanimous in favour of this Bill.
Mr. WARD assured the Hon. Gentleman that he did not
make such an assertion.