The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1841.

The complainant's daughter--My Lord, Dan Donovan
was never in the shop at all. I can bring forward -NlL-
nesses to prove that.
•• Dan Donovan-,-Wiiy, who said I was. Sure I know
I wasn't, but I was standing outside the shop.
The LORD MAYOR—And how could you hear what
took place within ? Dan Donovan—Hear I why, aisy
enough. Sure there's only a bit of a wall between the
shop and the street.—(Great laughter.)
_ _

The LORD MAYOR—And you heard through the wall
the bargain about, cocoa-nuts, did you ? I suppose you
saw through the wall too ?—(Laughter.) Ah, Mr. Do-
novan, this won't do. I have no doubt as to your being
near the shop, but it was to help your companion, Mr.
Farrell, in his plan to rob this poor Jew. •
Dan Donovan—The Lord save us I I hope your
Lordship would not think of such a thing. God knows
I knew nothing at all about it.
The LORD MAYOR—Now, prisoner, if you don't pay
the five shillings ou shall go to Bridewell for 14 days.
Prisoner—Oh,-Lord, I'm innocent as a bird.
Dan Donovan (to the prisoner)—Pay the money,
Jim, and have done with it. I towld you so afore.—
( Laugh ter.)
Mr. Jem Farrell then said that, as his Lordship had a
wish that way, he'd thry and get the money, but he was
greatly mistaken if he was not an innocent man, quite.
George Scott, one of those boys who are employed by
experienced and dangerous thieves who work at a dis-
tance from the places pointed out for plunder, was brought
up, ckarged with having been on the premises of
Messrs. Ellis and Everington, for the purpose of com-
mitting a robbery.
It appeared from the statement of Mr. Howell, who is
in the employment of the firm, that the boy entered the
premises with a bag, and was seen close to a spot from
which but a short time ago three pieces of silk had been
stolen. Upon being asked what he wanted, he said that
he was waiting for his master, but he would neither tell
his master's name nor address.

The prisoner said, in a very slang voice, that as he
was standing at the corner of King-street, Cheapside, a
gentleman asked him whether ho wanted a job, and gave
him the bag, and told him to go to the premises, and
wait for him. Well, he went, and he was grabbed.
The LORD MAYOR—Yon have been in prison before.
Prisoner—Never know'd such a place.
John Forrester (the officer)—lle was committed under
similar circumstances on the 4th of May.
Prisoner—No such a thing ; that's all a mistake.
Remanded.

THE GRAND POLISH BALL AND

A ee eeeeele. : te2. eeeeee..
Couecit and of the Committee of tee Literary Aesecia-
don of the Friends of Poland took place at the Guild-
hall yesterday, Deputy Peacock in the Chair, for the
purpose of making the necessary arrangements for the
ball and concert announced for Wednesday the 17th inst.
Mr. ANDERTON stated that the sale of tickets, both at
the West-end and in the City, had already been so great
that he felt it his duty to recommend to the Committee
the propriety of raising the price, as many apprehended,
from former experience, that the Hall might be over-
crowded, whilst, as the ball and concert were merely de-
signed to encourage a charitable object, he thought the
public could have no reason to complain of such an ad-
vance in the price of admission.—(Hear.)
The CHAIRMAN stated in reply that the Committee
had already taken due precautions to limit the issue of
tickets to the number which the Hall could accommo-
date. These precautions were now become doubly ne-
cessary, since he had the gratification to announce that
Miss Adelaide Kemble had, on being applied to, at
once acceded to the wish of the Committee, and pro-
mised to lend the attraction of her name and talents to
the approaching concert.—(Great cheering.) Talent was
the inheritance of a Kemble, but when devoted to the
advancement of a noble and interesting charity, at the
moment when public enthusiasm had hailed the rising
of a new and a brighter star above the horizon of the
musical world, our admiration for her talents deepened
into esteem.—(Cheers.) There could now be no doubt
that the ball would exceed in brilliancy all its prede-
cessors ; and be hoped the Noble Lord near him (Lord
Dudley Stuart) had some gratifying announcement to
make, and he would therefore call upon his Lordship to
address the meeting.

Lord DUDLEY STUART then said he had been an-
ticipated by their worthy Chairman, in one of the most
important statements which he had to make, namely,
that in relation to Miss Adelaide Kemble. He felt also
that he was totally inadequate to render that amiable
young lady justice for the cordial manner in which she
had promised them her support, and the hearty sym-
pathy which she had manifested tpwards the unfortunate
Polish exiles. There was an old Latin proverb, " Bis
dat, qui dat cito," which he would take the liberty of
translating into
" Who gives at onca what he intends,
Gives twice his gift, and makes more friends,"
a proverb never more appropriately exemplified than
in the case of Miss Adelaide Kemble, who had doubled
the favour she granted by the handsome manner in
which it had been conferred.—(Cheers.) It was with
great pleasure, also, that he anneunced the intention of
Lord and Lady Palmerston to be present at the ball, a
letter from whom to that effect was in the Chairman's
hands. It was no less gratifying to find that Lord and
Lady Stanley and Sir James Grahainhad signified their,
desire to patronize the hall, whilst Lord and Lady
Wharncliffe and Lord and Lady Sandon had also ex
pressed their intention of being present.—(Cheers.) His
Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex had likewise de-
chu•ed his intention, not merely to patronize, but to be
present at the ball, accompanied by the Duchess of In-
verness. Lord Chesterfield, Count D'Orsay, and several
ethers, whose names, in consequence of the rapidity
with which they were uttered, we could not catch, were
likewise mentioned by Lord Dudley Stuart as having
promised to attend. His Lordship warmly thanked
the Chairman, the Honorary Secretary of the Managing
Committee (Mr. Carr), and the other members of the
Corporation, for the great zeal and activity they had
displayed. The unfortunate men for whom such exer-
tions were made might challenge the strictest scrutiny
into their conduett and would to God it were upon the
merit of that. conduct their prosperity were to depend.
The time was now long past since the first ebullition of
enthusiasm burst forth in their favour, yet they
were the same Poles who in 1331 withstood the whole
power of the Russian armies, and could net be subdued,
until at last, under the combination of brute force and
diabolical treachery, nature itself gave way. They were
the same Poles who fought for the independence of their
native land against odds that would have deterred a com-
munity of lions, while many of them flung into the scale
with their lives, the advantages of rank and fir tune, and
other gifts of prosperity. They were the same Poles who,
to the astonishment of all Europe, held out against the
mighty armies of their oppressor, with a courage that
equalled the proudest memories of Greece, and realised,
in every thing but in success, the days of Marathon and
Platen—and great must have been the display of that
valour, and glorious the constancy of that suffering,
which could dignify defeat itself with the laurels that
belonged to victory.—(Great cheering.) He (Lord
Dudley Stuart) knew that English men, as well as Eng-
lish women, felt and resolved that those who survived
the conflict, as it were, to show how they could endure
adversity in its more slow, but not less appalling horrors,
should not at last sink under their accumulation.--
(Cheers.)
Resolutions were subsequently passed, to the effect
that preparations on a grander scale than have been
hitherto made in the Guidhall, should at once commence,
in the expectation of a more brilliant attendance than
has been witnessed, even when the appeals made to our
fair countrywomen were most powerfully supported.
Miss Adelaide Kemble will be heard to the. greatest
advantage in the Guildhall, which was pronounced ;.by
Sir George Smart, on the night of the Polish ball, which
followed the visit of her Majesty to the Guildhall, the
finest area in England for song.

BURDEN OF THE CORN-LAWS.
The following estimate of the tax imposed on the
community by the Corn-laws, is from a spirited little
pamphlet, which we are happy to see has reached the
third edition, entitled " A Plea for the Total and Im-
mediate Repeal of the Corn-laws" :
" The amount of taxation occasioned by the opera-
tion of the Corn-laws, since their enactment in 1660,
down to the present time, has been so grew, that even
an approximation towards it cannot be made without
exciting the disbelief evan of those who aro acquainted
with their principle of operation. But the magni-
tude of the oppression on the national industry is
not less true on that account. The landed interest,
since they attained the power 4" to prescribe the rule of
civil action," have been determined to tax the public for
their own benefit. Accordingly, when, the unprin-
cipled system of the bounty had ceased to be operative,
from the increase of population raising the price so high
at home as to prevent exportation even with the bounty,
duties on impoitation were imposed for the express
purpose of artificially maintaining high average prices.
And as the bounty on exportation had the effect of im-
posing a heavy load of taxes on the community, so the
import duties had and
have now a still more oppres-
sive operation. To impose an import duty, and to
exempt the home produce, is to legislate that Go-
vernment shall receive the tax on the small quantity
imported, and that the farmers shall collect a like
excess of price on the whole quantity sold by them, the
Government receiving about five per cent. of the tax
imposed, and the home grower collecting the remaining
ninety-five, to be transferred to the landowners in the '
shape of increased rent.* For there can be no ground
for believing that under a free trade in corn the price
in London would exceed the price at Amsterdam, as
neither England nor Holland produces a sufficient sup-
ply for the requisite consumption. Both are importing
countries, and as the expense of conveying corn from
the place of growth to London would not be greater
than to Amsterdam, it follows that the prices would
equalize at the two ports. The average price of wheat
at Amsterdam, from 1822 to 1831 was 345. 41d.,
and therefore may be taken (less abut 4s. 4d. of import
duty) as a fair average of the natural price of wheat in
Europe during those ten years. In England, the average
price for the same period was 61s. 8/d., or an excess of
31s. 41d., which can be attributed to no other cause thon
the existence of restrictions on importatinnt. Then
as " the difference between tile natural price of an
article imported from abroad, and the high price of a
similar article produced at home, is a tax imposed upon
the whole community in order to put the difference
into the pockets of the producer of the homemade
article ;" it follows that the community paid this ex-
cess of 31s. 41d. on the whole amount consumed
in the country. Now, supposing that this excess
is an average of the increased price of food during
the twenty-six years from 1815 to the present
time, 1841, the population being 20,000,000, and
the estimated consumption for each person to be
equal in value to two quarters of wheat, we shall then
arrive at a tolerably correct estimate of the annual
taxation, collected by the farmers, and transferred into
the pockets of the landocracy, or wasted in unprofitable
cultivation. Thus :

20,000,000 X 2=-40,000,000 X 31s. 41=62,670,8334 ;
or a grand total overpaid by the community te the land-
ocracy in the last 26 years, of 1,629.441,6581—a sum
more than double the National Debt !! Bat immense
as this sum may appear, it is probably not one-half of
ttia actual amount which has been paid in 'the excess,
occasioned by the operation of the laws " to protect
the land-owners." It has been officially estimated
by the Secretaries of the Board of Trade, " that the
annual taxation imposed upoa the country by our
duty on corn, and the provision duties and prohi-
bitions, are far greater, probably much more than
double, the amount of the taxation paid to the
Treasury." Such an extraordinary fact appears cape-
bie of tho most perfect demonstration : and yet there
a;e statesmen who deny it ; but they are so dis-
trustful of their ability to sustain their opinions, that
they are determined to resist inquiry—a line of conduct
not calculated to raise them in the estimation cf the
public. No political combination can long uphold such
an unparalleled system of public robbery and oppres-
sian. If it is attempted to be continued, it ought to
justify a confederacy of the national manhood to resist
such an undoubted usurpetioa of the sovereignty es
the taxation of the peaple for other than national ob-
x'cts. It is not mere) the trile load of taxation
p
hich it imposes upon the country, that constitutes the
full amount of the grievance, but the loss occasioned by
y
the reduction of the value of labour, the diminution of
the profit on capital,
and the bankruptcies and insol-
vencies which are certainly attributable to these laws.
Tile national wealth is wasted by this vicious legisla-
tion to an amount probably equal to the entire land-
rental of the United Kingdom.
* Some remarks of an intelligent and experienced
Scotch agriculturist have been transmitted to the writer
on this illustration; it is not here meant, as has been
supposed, that the farmers are benefitted by the Corn..
laws—on the contrary, they are merely the tax-collectors
for the landowners, and not one farthing of the excess is
allowed to be appropriated by them in the long-run: the
table of the increase of land-rent will satisfactorily ex-

plain to whom it is transferred. The author has never
i.i a towards agri
the farmers, On the contrary,
sote uttject is to ateuipt, like the Scotch agri-
culturist, "to direct attention fully to the whole ini-
quities of the system, which are chargeable solely on
the inventors and supporters of the Corn-laws." He has
also great pleasure in attaching the accompanying extract
from his letter :—" Since 1815, more farmers have been
ruined than in any other trade ; take for example one of
the richest and most agricultural districts in Scotland,
Haddingtonshire, and you will find two sets of tenants
(generally on leases ofnineteen years) have been swept
utf, and the condition of the existing set it might seem
invidious to speak about—at least for one tenant that has
continued in his occupancy since 1815, there have been
three ruined." In 171 the land-rental of the parish of
Yester, Haddingtonshire, was 2,000/. ; in 1840 it was
8,0001. Will this not satisfy the farmers that they are
deluded by the blandishment of the public enemy ?
f In the previous editions of this tract, the excess was
taken at 275. 41d. as the author was not aware that in
Holland there wq.s an import duty of about 4s. 4d.
[See H. C, H. 253, p. 26.] In Prussia an excise tax is
levied on the whale quantity consumed, which if an im-
port duty is to be continued in this country, ought also
to be imposed to a like amount, and then the tax on the
community would wholly go to the public revenue.

FROM LAST NIGHT'S GAZETTE.

WHITEHALL, Nov. 2, 1841.
The Lord Chancellor has appointed Frederick Crabb, o'
Rugeley, in the county of Stlffird, Gent., to be a Master Ex.
traordinary in the High Court of Chancery.