The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-05 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 1841.

THE FIRST PUBLIC EXHIBITION of
MONSIEUR 11.10INAU'S PATENTED CLOCKS,
which are kept in perpetual action, without winding up. The
beautiful DISSOLVING VIEWS, by CARY, with appro-
priate music, are exhibited at One o'clock, Half-past Four
o'clock, and in the Evenings, after the MICROSCOPE, at
Ten o'clock. The PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS, and
the numerous Works and Working Models, which display emi-
nent art, science, and ingenuity. The Diver, Diving Bell,
Popular Lectures, and Experiments.
Admission, One Shilling.
THE ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION,
REGENT-STREET.

Will be OPEN for EXHIBITION on MONDAY, the 10th
of May, 1841, at the EGYPTIAN HALL, PICCADILLY,
RAYDON'S GREAT PICTURE of the
GENERAL ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION,
assembled in the Freemason's Hall, in June, 1840,
THOMAS CLARKSON, Presidtga.
The Artist has selected the interesting period when Thomas
Clarkson delivered his solemn and impressive address at the
opening of the Convention. The Picture contains 137 original
Portraits.

Admission, One Shilling. Catalogue, Sixpence.

THE KREMNITZ WHITE LEAD
WORKS, BELVIDERE-ROAD, LAHBETH.
The Proprietors of the above Works beg to offer to the
Consumers of WHITE LEAD a very superior article in co-
lour and quality, at the following low prices, for prompt pay-
ment:—First Quality, 245. per cwt. ; Second Ditto, 225. ;
Third Ditto, 20s..—Thc White Lead is made up in kegs, to suit
Shippers and ethers.

CARPETS.—LUCK, KENT, and CUM-
MING, CARPENTERS' HALL, 6ti, LONDON
WALL, and 4, REGENTSTREET, CARPET MANU-
FACTURERS to her Majesty the QUEEN DOWAGER,
respectfully solicit the attention of the Nobility, Gentry, and
Public, to their STOCK of BRUSSELS CARPETS. Be-
ing Manufacturers, they can supply a quality that can be relied
upon, at prices hitherto unprecedented. •
A large Assortment of Satin Stripe Tabourets, Damasks,
Chintzes, and every requisite for furnishing, at their West End
Establishment.

A FEW WORDS TO THE OPPO

NENTS OF THE CORN-LAWS.
We trust that the Corn-law repeaters of Liverpoo.
will not lose any time in assembling to express
their satisfaction that her Majesty's Govern-
ment have determined to make the alteration of
the Corn-laws a Cabinet question. What Minis-
ters have done is what the opponents of these laws
have long and earnestly desired, and now that the
Government has done its part, it remains for them
to do theirs. No one can entertain a doubt, that
the proposed change in these oppressive laws will
be strenuously resisted by the class for whose be-
nefit they were enacted, and no one can indulge a
hope of overcoming that resistance, without equally
strenuous efforts on the part of those who have suf-
fered, and are still suffering from their baneful ef-
fects. We therefore earnestly call on the thousands
of ,persons in this large community who regard these
laws with just feelings of dislike, and who consider
their repeal necessary for the prosperity of their own
businesses, the comfort of their own families, and
the well-being of the whole nation, to come forward
and make a great and united effort to secure that
consummation so devoutly to be wished. There
is now an opportunity such as never occurred before,
and such as may not occur again for many years, if it is
now neglected, of doing something effectual on this al!-
important subject. Those who refuse to exert them-
selves at this great crisis will richly deserve to endure
all the evils which a continuance of the oppressive
taxes on food must produce.
If any thing can rouse men of all parties and classes
to determined and persevering effort to free them-
selves and their country from the incubus which
presses upon them, it will be the unparalleled state
of suffering which exists at the present time,
and has long existed, in every department of busi-
ness. We can fearlessly challenge any man to
point out a single department of industry which is
not, at the present moment, in the most deplorable
state. Through the whole of the great cotton dis-
trict, which derives its supplies through this port,
the mill-owners are working short time, and still arc
unable to produce any thing like a revival in trade.
The same state of things exists in ail other parts of
the country, nor is there the slightest hope that busi-
ness will improve until food becomes cheaper, and the
monetary system again acquires stability. From the
experience of the last few years it is evident that
neither of these things can occur until the trade in
the prime necessary of life is placed on a liberal
and stable basis. Under the present laws everything
is fluctuation and uncertainty, the duty varying
almost every week, and the dealers in foreign
grain being unable to regulate their transactions
by any thing better than mere guess work. With
great reason it was that Lord Howick replied to
Sir Robert Peel's complaint that Ministers were
going to leave the duties on corn uncertain for
a period of five weeks, that under the present sys-
tem they were uncertain from one end of the year
to the other, changing from week to week, and
baffling the most careful calculations. Under such
a system it is in vain to hope for anything like regu-
lar trade, but until that is established this country
can never receive its supplies of grain from abroad
without having the whole monetary system thrown
into confusion, and without being compelled to
see the Bank of England striving not to extend and
uphold, but to limit and depress the trade of the
country, as the only means of saving itself from
bankruptcy. If the last two years of gloom, de-
pression, and ruin, resulting from these causes alone,
will not rouse the country to proper exertions at
the present critical period, it is vain to hope that any
thing else will. We entertain better hopes, however,
and feel confident that the offer of Government to
give freedom and stability to the corn trade will
be met as it ought to be, by those who are inte-
rested in its success. No time is to be lost, and
we, therefore, again earnestly call upon the enemies
of the Corn-laws in this town, at once to come forward
and to express their desire for cheap food, and a steady
and uniform admission of foreign grain.---Liverpool
Times.

ABOLITION OF THE CORN MONO-
POLY.—REVISION OF THE IMPORT
DUTIES—THE BUDGET.
The whole political conversation is absorbed with the
important announcements made on Friday night. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Government have
been studying the Report of the Committee on Import
Dukes to some purpose. They have promised measures
which will raise the commercial community from one end
of the country to the other in their favour—they have
adopted a principl r that must, sooner or later, succeed--
they have determined to abolish the system of protective
monopoly, and to adopt duties for the sole purpose for
which their i:nposition can be justified, the raising of re-
venue—and they have boldly proclaimed to the House and
to the country the alternative, the proposed reduction or
additional burdens on the industry of the poor, and ulti-
mately a property-tax. The country has to choose be-
tween the two. and we have not the least doubt of the re-
sult. In the House they may meet with defeat, but an
appeal to the country will confirm their opinions.
Nor is this the whole of the valuable promise held out
on Friday night, The President of the Board of Trade is
to bring forward several practical alterations in other
parts of the tariff, such as the duty on coffee, and the duty
on French wines, to meet the requirements of the new
commercial treaty about to be signed.
It is stated confidently in the Tory circles, that, not-
withstanding the plain twaddle of Mr. Goulburn, the whole
strength of the Opposition is to be brought down to defeat
the Ministerial plan, when introduced in the shape of reso-
lutions, and they say that they are sure of a majority.
This is not unlikely; the Conservatives, par excellence, are
reckless enough for anything ; but if they do defeat the
Budget in the House, they will have to answer for it to
their constituents without delay, for there will be a disso-
lution, to try the issue between monopoly and justice.
Nothing can exceed the delight, which the statement has
given to every Reformer that we have seen, and it is a joy
that will be participated in by every part of the community.
The Ministers of the Crown have done their duty, and
it now rests with the people to support them in the ap-
proaching struggle. Let petitions be poured into Par-
liament on behalf of the measures that have been an.
flounced, and a death blow will be given to the principles
of monopoly, from which it is impossible that they can
recover. Whether the battle is to be brought to a close
in the present Parliament,. or in that which is to follow,
it is alike the duty of the people to make their opinions
known, and the result cannot, in the end, be doubtful, if
they act with sufficient promptitude and determination—
Glasgow Argus.

ANTI-BREAD-TAX TRACTS—No. 5.

HOLY BIBLE.

" And God said, Behold I have given you every herb
bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, acd
every tree in the which h the fruit of a tree yielding
seed ; to you it shall be for meat."--Gen. i. 29.
" The bread of the needy h hip life ; he that defraudeth
him thereof is a mat of blood."—Eccles. xxiv. 21.
" The Heaven, even the Heavens are the Lord's; but
the Earth bath he given to the children of men."—Prov.
It'. 62.

" Moreover the profit of the earth is for all, the King
himself is sened by the field."—Eccl. v. 9.
" He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him.
—Prov. xi. 62.

AUTHORITIES AGAINST THE CORN-LAWS.
" The unlimited, unrestrained freedom of the corn
trade, as it is the only effectual preventative of the mise-
ries of a famine, so it is the beat palliative of the inconve-
niences of a dearth. "—Adam Smith.
" Wherever commerce is known to be always frea, and
the merchant absolute master of his commodity, as in Hol-
land, there will always be a reasonable supply of corn."—
Benj. Franklin.
" Of all things, an indiscreet tampering with the trade
of provisions is the most dangerous. My opinion is against
an overdoing of any sort of administration, and more espe-
cially against this most momentous of all meddling on the
part of authority—the meddling with the subsistence of
the people."--Edind. Burke.
" In England all other particular interests are over-
borne and crushed by one great particular interest, named,
in the aggregate, the agricultural interest."—Jeremy
Bentham.
" All classes, except the landlords, will be injured by
the increase in the price of corn."—David Ricardo.
" Those countries which have depended the most upon
foreign countries for their supply of corn have enjoyed
beyond all countries the advantages of a steady and inva-
riable market for grain.".—James Mill, author of the
Bistory of British India.
" For the sake of its moral benefit, we know of no
achievement more urgently desirable than that of a free
corn trade. There is not a more fertile topic of clamour
andsburniug discontent all over the land ; and were it but
effectually set at rest, sse are aware of nothing which
might serve more to sweeten the breath of British society."
—Doctor Chalmers.
" The larger the surface from which a country draws
its supplies of food, the less likely is it to he injuriously
affected by the varieties in the karvests.."—J. R. 111' Cul.
loch.
" Parliament has the power to go at once to the root
of the evil, and remove entirely the cause of the disease.
Parliament has the power to to abolish the Corn-laws.
This is that which would relieve the people; no other re-
medy can eradicate the national disease."— Colonel
Tor? ens.
" We cannot persuade ourselves that this law will ever
contribute to produce plenty, cheapness, or steadiness of
price. So long as it operates at all, its effects must be the
opposite of these. Monopoly is the parent of scarcity, of
dearness, and of uncertainty. To cut off any of the
sources of supply can only tend to lessen its abundance ;
to close against ourselves the cheapest markets for any
commodity must enhance the price at which we purchase
it; and to confine the consumer of corn to the produce of
his own country is to refuse to ourselves that provision
which Providence itself has made, for equalizing to man
the variations of climate and of seasons."--Protest by Lord
Grenville, signed by 10 Peers.
" It is my unalterable conviction that we cannot uphold
the Corn-lams, now in existence, together with the pre-
sent taxation, and at the same time increase national pro-
sperity, and preserve public contentment. —Mr.
Bushis-
son's Speech, House of Commons, March, 25,1830.
" Food is the last thing upon which I would attempt to
place any protection."—Jas. Deacon Hume.
" I consider that the taxation imposed upon the country
by our duty on corn, and the provision duties and prohi-
bitions a. e far greater, probably much more than double
the amount of taxation paid to the T,e isury."—Evidence
of J. AP Gregor, Esq., Joint Secretary to the Board of
Trade.
" All protection moans robbing somebody else. —Colo.
eel Thompson.
" The Corn-law is an extension of the pension list to the
whole of the landed aristocracy of Great Britain."—Lon-
don Times.
" To propose to enrich a nation by forcing a permanent
scarcity of corn, and obst-ucting the natural course of
trade, is indeed at variance with common sense."—Sir
James Graham's pamphlet, " Free Trade in Corn the rent
Interest of the Landlord and the true Policy of the State."
" All that has been advanced on this point is a mere ex-
cuse for keeping up high rents."—Speeei of Mr. Baring
(now Lord Ashburton) against the Corn Bill in 1815.
" No better mode of cheating a nation could be devised
than the present Corn-laws."—ord Morpeth.
" Your device has been to create an artificial scarcity."—
Lord Fitzwilliam's Address to the Landowners.
" The Hon. Member for Kilkenny attributes the de-
rangement of the currency and the high rate of interest al-
together to the bank. But the present state of the Corn-
laws is at the root of the question."—Mr, Chancellor
Spring Rice's retiring speech.
" If there is any class of persons whose opinions on this
question are entitled to deference and respect, they are un-
doubtedly political economists, men who have made the
sources of national wealth the principal subject of their
inquiry; and where shall we find one, from Adam Smith
to the present time, who has not reprobrated the interfe-
rence of the Legislature with the price of corn ?"—Rev.
Robert Hall.
If the moral and religious bearings of this question
were rightly understood, the room would have been filled
with the clergy and dissenting ministers of London. It
is impossible that they could resist such a call upon them,
for they could not but feel that the objects of the society
were founded in justice and humanity, and tended to the
welfare of their fellow-men."—Doctor Pye Smith's speech
at the late meeting of the Metropolitan Anti- Corn-law As-
sociation.
" Let the British Parliament no longer display their
hypocritical compassion, by dealing the bread by means of
Poor-laws, to those whom they have first made hungry by
means of Corn-laws."—Rev. Thomas Spencer.

A very curious document has, within these few
days, been discovered amongst the ancient records at Guild-
hall. It is a contract made between Charles I. and his Privy
Council on one part, and the Corporation of the City of Lon-
don on the other, in Which the King makes over in mortgage
to the Corporation several large tracts of Crown lands in the
counties of Northumberland, Durham, York, &c., for certain
loans of money to him amounting to more than 300,0001. of
the then currency. But the unfortunate Monarch never
having had the power of redeeming these lands, they became
legally part of the City estates ; and several years afterwards,
finding that from their remoteness, and the rough unproduc-
tive nature of the soil, they were not very productive or
profitable, the corporation disposed of the city interest in them
to the ancestors of the present great coal-field proprietors, not,
of course, having the slightest idea that they were throwing out
of their hands the richest and most profitable soil in England,
which would long since have produced them a net profit of
above 490,000/. per annum. The document is quite perfect,
and is very well written. The King's signature, " Charles R."
is in a tine free hand, anti the signature of the members of his
Council at the foot of the deed are easily deciphered, but are re-
markable for the diversity of the handwriting. That of Buck-
ingham's is quite different from the others ; it is very free, but
in good taste. The Royal seal is affixed to the deed, and the
seals of the signing Privy Councillors are appended likewise.
On Monday, a party of Agriculturists assembled
Lord Western's im-
gofpeas and beans. In
he weather, the party
consequencedrill,
Hall,
fs t
the Witness
rlui
en (fla t‘.oot
uhhreaobrpsi reei
-nshetoiapet
ileen f t
was not so numerous as it otherwise would have been, and in-
disposition prevented his Lordship being present. Great satis-
faction was expressed at the way in which the horse-hoeing was
performed. The party afterwards partook of a plenteous lun-
cheon, which the accompaniment of some of his Lordship's
choice wines, Dr. Baker presiding, when a conversation took
place relative to the Ministerial announcement on the subject
of the Corn-laws, and it was the general opinion that pronnit
and decisive steps ought to be taken to petition against any al-
teration,-.Essex Herald.

r THE CHANCELLOR'S BUDGET.
MOST IMPORTANT REFORMS IN THE SU-
! GAR AND TIMBER DUTIES, AND THE
CORN-LAWS.
On Friday evening, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
and Lord John Russell announced to the House of
Commons the intention of Government to commence a
series of most important reforms in the commercial sys-
tem of the country. The changes proposed by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer are a reduction in the pro-
tecting duties on Baltic timber, and a much bolder and
more important reduction in the protecting duties on
foreign sugar. On the former article, the reduction is
only Gs. :load, but on the latter it amounts to nearly
30s. a cwt. The most impoitant announcement, how-
ever, of all, was that made by Lord John Russell, who
gave notice, that on Monday the 31st of May, he
should move for a Committee of the whole House, to
take into consideration the Acts relating to the trade in
corn! It is scarcely possible to describe the the sensa-
tion which the announcement of these reforms produced
on the House, and we can say from personal observa-
tion, that the sensation produced on the Liverpool Ex-
change, was scarcely less extraordinary. Amongst the
friends of Ministers, the feeling is one of universal delight,
that they have commenced a courie of reforms most ur-
gently required by the wants of the country and in which,
whether they succeed or fad, they must cover them-
selves with honour ; and even amongst those who differ
most from Ministers on general questions, especially
those who are connected with the American and Brazi-
lian trades, the feeling of satisfaction is scarcely less
decided. By all, or nearly all classes, these proposals
are regarded as the commencement of a new commer-
cial system, which, if followed out to its proper results,
will enable the country to bear its burdens, heavy as
they are, without difficulty, and will raise the trade and
commerce of England to a point of greatness unexam-
pled in ancient or modern times. By grappling with
the strongest of all the monopolies, namely, those of
corn, sugar, and timber, Ministers have struck at the
very root of the evil, and have prepared the way for a
complete change in the whole commercial system of
the country. In the midst of the unexampled depres-
sion which pervades trade and commerce in every one
of its branches, these bold reforms will revive confi-
dence, and excite the hope of better days. They have
not come a moment too soon, for never within our re-
collection has the trade of Liverpool and the manufac-
turing districts been so profoundly depressed as during
the last fortnight. This year, even the arrival of
spring, which generally brings a revival of trade, has
only been followed by a deeper gloom than that which
prevailed amidst the winter.
There are those who fear that the great change pro-
posed by Ministers in the Sugar duties will never be
carried through Parliament. We entertain no such
fears. It is perfectly clear, from the Chancellor of the
Exchequer's statement, that the nation's engagements
cannot be discharged, and the nation's establishments
cannot be supported, without art additional income of
nearly two millions sterling. There are only two ways
inwhich this sum can be raised. The one is by im-
posing additional taxes on the whole British people,
who are already ground to the earth by taxation—the
other is by giving a fresh spring and impetus to trade,
by relaxing the protecting duties, and thus at once in-
creasing the income of the country and adding to the
comforts of the whole people. The merits of the whole
change may be stated in a sentence. It will add nearly
a million sterling to the revenue of the country, and
will reduce the price of sugar to every family in the
British dominions. That such a plan as this can ulti-
mately be defeated, we never can believe, and we feel al-
most equally confident that it cannot be delayed. There
must be an additional revenue raised to meet the expendi-
ture of the country, and those who will not allow it to be
raised in this manner, will themselves have to raise it by
imposing additional taxes on the country. That Sir
R. Peel will attempt to turn Ministers out and bring
himself in by assuming so odious a position as that he
would occupy if he succeeded in defeating this measure,
and afterwards had to propose a heavy tax in its place,
is what we have too much confidence in his sagacity to
believe, without some decisive proof. We arc happy
to see that we were right in our conjecture that the
East India Rum Bill and the West India Provision
Bill were mere preparatives. By those measures the
mother country freed the East and West India colonies
from the monopolies which formerly existed for her be-
nefit, and she surely has now a right to ask that the
protections established for their benefit shall at least be
mitigated. In this matter Ministers have wisely begun
at the beginning, and we trust they will never relax
their efforts to emancipate the industry of the country,
until those efforts have been attended with complete
success. This one alteration in the sugar duties, while
it will relieve the revenue, and the whole people of
England by its direct operation, will also save the Bra-
zilian trade, which is at the present moment of the an-
nual value of many millions sterling, and which, if it
had not been for this measure, would, at the termina-
tion of the present treaty of commerce, which is just
expiring, have been destroyed by the imposition of reta-
liatory duties on British goods.
Great, however, as will be the benefits resulting
from the reduction of a protecting duty on foreign
sugar, they will be nothing in comparison with those
which will result from the establishment of the trade in
corn on sound principles. What Lord John Russell
intends to propose in the name of the Government is
at present uncertain, but from what is known of his
own opinions, and those of several of his colleagues,
especially of those of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
it is believed that the fixed duty which he means to
propose will be a moderate one. Every friend of the
Government will rejoice if Ministers should make such
a proposal, and, we trust, that even those who wish for
a more extensive change will have the good sense to
support a plan incomparably superior to anything that
has been proposed by any former Minister of the
Crown. The plan of the Government being a mode-
rate fixed duty. we cannot entertain the least
doubt as to its ultimate success ; although
we are not sure that it will be carried in the
present Session. But even this is less certain
than the supporters of the Corn-laws will be disposed
to think ; for, whoever may be the Minister, the pre-
sent system must be abandoned, and Sir Robert Peel,
who is already vehemently suspected by the country
gentlemen of a secret hostility to it, will feel great he-
sitation in committing himself into direct opposition to
a plan very similar to that which he will himself be
compelled to adopt, if he should succeed in throwing
out Ministers on this question. One thing, at all events,
is quite sure, namely, that Ministers, by proposing a
reasonable plan of settling this most important question,
will do their duty, and place themsaves in a proper po-
sition before the country ; for although we do not alto-
gether agree with Lord Sandon in considering that no
plan of Corn-law rcform, not proposed by the Govern-
ment of the country, can be deserving of support, yet
we do quite agree with his Lordship that such a plan
ought to originate in that quarter, to give it any chance
of success,—Liverpool Times.

INCOME OF FRANCE AND
ENGLAND.

In the year 1840 the total net income of the country
was 47,567,566/., of which was derived from the
First Class (Customs and Excise) ... £35,536,469

Second Class (Stamps 7,168 625
Third Class ( Assessed Taxes) 3,946,444
By which it appears that the portion of the public in-
come dependent on the consumptive ability of the whole
community, and particularly the working classes, as pre-
ponderating so much in numbers, is about three-fourths
of the whole ; while the second class, which has rather
a mixed character, constitutes not quite one-seventh
of the whole ; and while the third class, a tax attaching
to property only, constitutes rather less than one-
twelfth part of the whole ; and if we put the two last
classes together, they yield less than oce-fourth of the
whole income.
It may be useful to put in comparison with the distri-
bution of our taxes that of the only other country in the
world the income of which assimilates at all to that of
this country—France. In the year 1840 the net in-
come was 1,184,523,3631, or 47,380,932!., of which
was derived from
Customs and Excise 398,915,000f., or about of
the whole
Stamps and Assessed Taxes 617,915,000 f., or more than
of the whole

The comparison will stand between this country and
France, on the whole income of each country, thus :
England. France.

Customs and Excise, or Con-
sumption Tax .....
Stamps and Assessed Taxes,
&c., or Property Tax 23 52
Tne direct assessed taxes, alone considered, being in
this country little more than S per cent., while in France
they exceed 33 per cent. of the whole income.—The
Revenue, a Pamphlet by J. Wilson, Esq.

DUNDEE TRADE.—Our markets have under-
gone no change during the last week. Prices of flax on
the spot, and of linen and yarns, are without alteration.
In hemp, hemp coda's, and flax codilla, no transactions of
any consequence have pasted for some time back, owing
to the scarcity of some, and want of demand for others, of
these articles. The last advices from Riga are of the
3-15th instant, when flax and hemp were in demand, and
the prices fully supported. Flax -coddle readily fetched
15 Spanish reels per Sibs., owing to its scarcity, which is
much out of proportion to the rates paying for flax this
season. Hemp cedilla was offered out at 44 reals, with
no buyers thereat. Unless something unforeseen occur to
depress the hoMe trade, it is generally believed that the
present prices of flax will be maintained abroad during the
summer, because of the superior quality of the new crop,
which cannot be appreciated until the arrival of the spring
vessels with the first supplies.--Dundee Courier.

PRICE sd.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS IN

AMERICA.
The New York Herald of the 16th ult. contains the
following account of the " sayings and doings" of Peter
Robinson, who was executed for murder at New
Brunswick on the preceding day.
Robinson's brother James came to see him this
morning (says the writer), and on leaving him appeared
to be very much cut up. After a pause he said, " But
it's a poor way to die, after all. Have you seen any of
the preparations in front of the gaol ? I wonder whether
they are going to run me up like a man to the yard-
arm of a frigate, or to let me drop with a run. I wonder
which is the easiest death ; but I suppose there is very
little difference any way. It will be all over in a few
minutes."

In answer to a question of mine (proceeds the wri-
ter), he said, " The books which I used ,ta read prin-
cipally were all accounts of pirates, and highwaymen,
and shipwrecks, and banditti ; and I often wished that
I'd had money to travel ; I should like to have seen
foreign parts, and liked to have been a pirate. I'd a
shown 'em all how to do their work. I used to read
the Scottish Chiefs,' and Arabian Nights,' and Gil
Blas,' and ' Rinaldo Rinaldini.' I was very fond of
reading Rinaldo ; it was my favourite book ; but I used
to read the Bible a good deal too, because my mother
wished me. And, Sir, if I'd never been led into that
miserable speculation with buying that lot, of Mr. Suy-
dam, he'd a been alive and I should have been a happy
man. So much for giving notes. I learned to read
well before I went to Barnes's ; and as I was down in
New York and an apprentice, I used to get whatever
books I wanted out of the Apprentice's Library.
(Pause.) Oh, Sir, I thought I shouli make a fortune
in buying that lot, but.Tveznade a halter instead."

l's;o men were in the cellar underneath his cell, one
crazy and the other drunk ; when the clergy left him,
Peter said, " I'm glad he's gone." " Why, Peter ?"
said the gaoler. " Because them fellows below there
are a carrying on so ; they put the old devil into me,
and then I'm so afraid I shall burst out a laughing
before the clergyman's face ; and I do solemnly believe
that I shall burst out a laughing under the gallows.
Oh if they would only let me have the big field, and a
bald of music; Pd ask no more."

Peter had once got his chains off, in the absence of
the gaoler. He said to me to-day, "If my brother
Bill had only sold my tools when I wanted him, and
brought me fifty dollars, I'd a soon been out of this
place like afl 16. I had all my chains off, and every-
thing ready ; but I had no money to start with. And
now they have put a new set of chains on me, and I
give it up for a bad job."
He this morning expressed a most anxious desire
that the Sheriff would 'take him out on the big field, as
he calls it, and, added he, " then everybody can have a
fair chance to see me, and I'll make 'em a speech an
hour lone, if the Sheriff would let me."

Mr. Strong and his assistant have just arrived from
New York, and they are at this moment engaged in
taking a cast of Peter's head. Ho is highly delighted
with the idea of being handed down to posterity in this
way, and complied with my request the first moment
that I asked it. He said to me, " Now be sure that
you put my head alongside of Gen. Jackson's and
Gen. Washington's, and Napoleon Buonaparte's, and
Lord Wellington's, heads, and the heads of all the great
men and great murderers. Don't put me alongside of
the heads of any speculators in lot s, and above all, be
sure and don't let any of 'em get a mortgage on to my
head ; or if you do it'll be a gone goose and no mis.
take. A mortgage winds up pret y much everything ;
it wound up Suydam, and it will wind up me to-mnr-
row, and I shan't inn down again like a clock after I
am wound up."

Robinson has lately kept his room so excessively hot
that scarcely any one but himself could remain in it.
He said I make my stove so hot that when I stand up-
right it makes my hair all crisp, and I want to get the
room so hot that it will curl like dogs' hair."
Well, in consequence of this there was a great deal
of difficulty in taking the cast of his head, because his
hair, after at least half a pint of oil was put upon it,
was as stiff and crisp as so much wire. The first cast was
broken, and some of his hair was cut off. " Oh," said
Peter, " shave the whole of it off, it will make no differ-
ence to-morrow, and then you can make a good one of
ma." " Oh," said the jailor, " but, Peter, you promised
me the scalp, and I wouldn't lose that for 50 dollars."
•' Very well," replied Peter, " the hair will all grow
again ; or," he added, laughing, " you can keep me for
a few weeks till it does grow. But after all, I believe
the best way is to cut my head off and take it down to
New York ; and then you can do it at your leisure,
and be sure to make a good one. Bat, after all, I don't
know that the old woman would like that at all."

On the phrenologists first going into his cell, he
rather objecied to having the cast taken ; says he, " I
know what you want to do with it ; you want to hawk
it about the streets of New York, and cry out, " Here's
the head of Peter Robinson, the murderer, only half a
dollar." At last he said, " Well, what other great
men's heads have you taken a cast of ?" " Why," re-
plied the phrenologist, 4• we've taken Webster and
Clay, and Van Buren, and"—Peter stopped him with,
" Webster and Clay, I like them—l like Clay ; I
don't like Van Buren ; he goes for too quick payments ;
but will you put my head by the side of Clay's ?" He
was told it should be put there. " Very well, then,
you may take it ; what way shall 1 lay ?" And on
being told, he laid himself down accordingly.
The phrenologist told him he could change his posi-
tion as it would be much easier. " Oh, no," said be,
never mind, " I can stand hard knocks better than
Suydam could." The phenologist told him he had
some white hairs in bis head. "Yes," said Peter,
but I ain't very old—l'm rather young ; but it makes
a great difference when a man is obliged to work as
hard as I've been forced to do all my life." When the
phrenologist was feeling his head and making one or
two remarks, Peter said, " Well, there was a man
feeling of my head soon after I was put in gaol ; and if
I'd a known as much as I do now, I would have asked
him what it all meant." When the phrenologist ob-
served that he must be quick as all Peter's time ought
to be devoted to religious exercises, he said " Oh, go
a head with it ; we've got plenty of time, and you might
as well make a good 'un at once. A priest is going to
be with me all night to-night, but I don't know much
good it's going to do, for what's bred in the bone must
come out in the flesh. And I am a fellow that was
alive to all kinds of fun and frolic:'
When the phrenologist told him he must keep his
face very steady, he said, " Oh, yes, I'll keep my face
as steady as a minister's ; not like that Methodist Mi-
nister, though, that stood behind the Judge in the
Court-room, for he looked as ridiculous as an owl in
an ivy bush, when you see 'em by daylight. But I will
look very amiable though ; I'll look as smiling as a
basket of chips." A minister who was present said to
him, " Peter, you should remember what an awful
matter you have to undergo to-morrow." " Very well,"
said Peter, " suppose I have, it's only me that's got to
suffer any of it."
He was highly amused when he talked of shaving off
his hair, and said to the gaoler, " Conover, you've got a
night-cap you'd lend me to wear tomorrow, or this
would do for a night-cap—this plaster ; a pretty
tight fit to be sure ; but then I always was fond of
tight fits."
Mr. Graham asked how he thought he would feel at
the last moment. " Well," said he, coolly, " I've tried
to imagine how I should feel under the gallows ; but I
know how I shall feel ; I shall feel pretty much the
same as I do now, and the same as I did in the Court-
house. Didn't I look the Judge right in the eye then?
I've always felt the same ; my feelings haven't
changed, and they won't change, for I can't realise
anything so dreadful about dying, only I should like to
have a band of music, the big field, and 20,000 speP.
tators."

After musing a little, he said, with great earnestness,
" Alter I'm dead and gone beyond the reach of all
their tyranny, and grinding, and vengeance, I don't be-
lieve that a good many of 'em will be satisfied ; but
whatever you do, don't let 'em dig me up and make
medicine of me." I put my hand to his head and ob-
served to him that his brain seemed heated ; he smiled,
and said, " You've just tnken your hand out of a warm
pocket, and conceit is as bad as a consumption."

FROM A CORRESPONDENT.—The budget, &c.
has created a sensation in this neighbourhood ( Ashton
and Dultinfield), the like to which has not been since the
first Reform Bill. All here, Whigs and Tories, wish
Ministers strength to carry their plans out. You will
see from the Manchester Guardian of this dav, that the
mills at Hyde, Ashton, Dukinfield, &c , will begin ou
Monday to work only four days in the week. Mr. A.
tells me that the arrangements adopted in these places
are likely to extend to Preston, Burnley, Blackburn, and
Rochdale; in fact, that the limitation system be, never
bean so general as it now is likely to be in the manufac.
turing districts.—Evening paper.
POPULA RI TY.—The natural drollery of Jeannot
not only rendered him the idol of the thea.re at which he
performed, but gave him the entree into the
.best seek ty.
He soon received invitations to the most fashionable par-
ties in Paris. Nothing was talked of but Jeannot. Not
only was his portrait to be seer in every shop-window, but
to the exclusion,
. for a time, of
, instead of lead-
Queen, too
busts and figures of him were to be found on every draw-
mandarins.. The
gthese busts todistri
cinifin-raoovmaseeshiamundeyn-opdidecineg,
•fetlthebuosrtds
irnega:ltyhteofafsahllioinn,toputhre.ehaesrerdora.ocifuafnoltlizeywomf
bute among the courtiers, which crested a considerable sen -
tion in the palace, They were regarded as insigniaeoef
order, those,
bkinsieguhitt,horaoiclingThoonsley
asw hkonigrhetesti: plaster or
whose busts were of alabaster or Sevres chin,a, werecon-
sidered grand cordons, or commanders. Luckily, Jeannot
was not cut in bronze.... Theodore Hook's French Stage.

From the deputation which has been sent to London by
the Scots Banks to watch over their interests, we natu-
rally infer that some scheme is in agitation which they
dread as injurious. Certain it is that many projects arc at
present afloat which are wild and chimerical, and not a.
little hazardous. The mercantile calamities which have
of late years befallen this country have naturally excited
a deep sensation, and a general anxiety to ascertain the
cause. This was to be expected; and the best conse-
quences might have followed from inquiries prosectitedl
with caution arid sobriety. But unfortunately a rash spirit
of speculation was engendered; and as the subject is
doubtful and intricate, and not exactly to be understood
by an intuitive glance, hypotheses doubtful and vague,
dashing theories and bold projects, were substituted for the
cautious investigations of true philosophy.
It has been unfortunately taken for granted, it being an
easier process to assume tbati to prove, that of all the
commercial convulsions which have occurred of late years-,,
paper currency, and the mode in which it is managed by
the banks, are the sole causes ; although it can be provzd
from history that trading countries, such as France, Erg-
land, and Scotland, were, each in their turn, subtectrid is
mercantile shocks of precisely the same nature, before
paper was introduced into the circulation. The paper
circulation being thus held to be defective, the point is.
where is the fault, and where the remedy ? which affords
a wide field for every kind of speculation. The Bank of
England is abused at all hands for its mismanagement,
although this charge has never been brought to the test
of any intelligible fact. That the Bank has contracted
and enlarged its issues is certain. But how those
variations arc in any degree connected with the coneul-
sions that have taken place, has never been pointed out.
Among other projects, it has been suggested that the issue
of paper should be confined to one bank, and the whole
capital, industry, and skill invested in the various esta-
blishments throughout the country at once annihilated.
Such a proposition, however, hardly merits notice. It is
not worth powder and shot, and we only mention it as a
specimen of the wild spirit of speculation that is afloat on
this difficult subject, and that would so easily sweep down
every thing in its way. It is the same class of projectors
that are for abolishing the one-pound notes in Scotland as
in England, and with no better reason. The one pound
notes have nothing whatever to do with mercantile
convulsions. The circulation of those notes, payable
on demand, cannot possibly be injurious, while they
are extremely convenient, as in a country less opu-
lent than England, they give the necessary stimulus to
industry in the remotest corners of the land. The y form
an essential elemeut in the national prospertv, which, if we
were rudely tearing away, we should inflict a painful
wound that years would scarcely suffice to heal. Words
would fill, indeed, to characterise the extreme rashness
and folly of such a proceeding. Experiments on the con-
cerns of society, even for the removal of admitted evil:,
are frequently critical. But to tamper with the machinery
of a society which is working so admirably to its appointed
end, to alter what is already nearly perfect. and of which
none complain—to incur the risk of change where there
is no evil, argues a degree of rashness and self-confidence
that must end in mischief.—Edinburgh Paper.