The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-03 00:00:00

-THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY. DECEMBER 3. 1840.

that country. Who will answer, even with the
whole power of the SULTAN, for the peace of
Egypt, if MEHEMET ALI be removed? and who
then will secure the free and safe passage of our
mails to India ? We felt great surprise, therefore,
yesterday, to read in the Morning Chronicle an
article, the tendency of which was to degrade
MEHEMET ALI, who is virtually indepen-
dent of the SULTAN, unless by our arms,
into a dependent Pacha, who is to have no
power in Egypt but what the SULTAN, who has
none, chooses to bestow. We ate not aware whether
M. GUIZOT used the phrase hereditary sovereignty
or not ; but our impression, and we believe the pub-
impression, throughout the contest has been, that
if the PACHA retire from Syria an here-
ditary power, call it sovereignty or not, over
Egypt is to be secured to him. It never
has been contemplated by the public that
MEHEMET ALI was to be reduced to the same
state of dependence, liable to be bowstringed, as
one of the ordinary Pachas. If such is now the
object, let it be declared, that both the English and
Fiencli may know what to expect. For many
years Egypt has been really independent of the
SULTAN. That independence has been found
consistent with the integrity and preservation of
the Tuikish Empire, and the public are not
prepared to wage war against MEHEMET ALI
to restore Egypt to the condition of a Pa-
chalic of the Empire. Because, however, ac-
cording to the Chronicle, there is some chance
of Fiance erecting a protectorate over Egypt,
should the PACH A be independent, England is to
deny him the sovereignty he has so well-earned.
Syria, a usurpation of his from the SULTAN, we
have taken from him ; so well : but Egypt he has law-
fully acquired and long possessed. By its language
yesterday the Chronicle makes the condition of the
PACHA. a personal question between France and
England. We hope our Contemporary, we believe
the Ministers, have no intention of fostering and
provoking a quarrel between these two great and en-
lightened countries ; but seeing, we think, some in-
dication of such an intention in the language of our
Contemporary, we at once declare against it.

We are not surprised that the late proceedings
at the revision of the Registration Lists for the
boroughs, has excited much attention, and called
forth many remarks. Amongst other articles on
the subject, we notice one in the " Eclectic Re-
view," which is brief and much to the purpose.
The writer treats the subject under the following
heads :—The qualification of Municipal Electors,

the System of Registration, and the Revision of the
Voters' Lists, the Practices obtaining during the
Canvass and Election, and the Mode of Voting. To
the qualification of municipal electors, which con-
sists in being of full age, having occupied premises
within the borough for three continuous years,
being rated, and having paid all borough-rates
during the occupation, there is not much to
object, except to the last restriction. That "is
the source of frauds without number. The
parish books having, during that interval, pas-
sed through the hands of six different overseers,
and, perhaps, as many assistants, the most
extraordinary facilities are afforded for the erasure
of names and items, and the foisting in of charges of
'arrears." This provision is purely mischievous, and
merely.enahles those who may be so inclined to
give trouble to the electors or to thin down the con-
stituency. It does not secure the payment of rates,
because that is otherwise provided for, but it places
so many difficulties in the way of securing the fran-
chise that it exposes the majority of the electors to
vexatious opposition, and perhaps disfranchisement.

It looks as if those who framed the Municipal Act
grudged their own bounty, and covertly sought,
while their professions were large, to make it as
narrow as possible.

The registration of voters, of which the princi-
ple ought to be to save the elector the trouble of
proving his qualification when he comes forward to
vote, has become, by the above restriction and similar
conditions, a means of disfranchising him. "Besides
the hostility of objectors" the franchise is placed in
peril by various acts of the overseer, such as omit-
ting the name of the elector, writing it in pencil,
not giving credit for the payment of rates, informa-
lity, and erasures. Every year the registration is
opened, with all these conditions to be fulfilled,
objections may be renewed, and every year must
be rebutted. This is annoying and vexatious. It
is also erroneous. When a qualification is once
stablished there can be no reason—except the
necessity growing out of the vicious enact-
ment requiring proof that the taxes have
been paid for three years—why that qualifi-
cation should be liable to question as long as
the man occupies the premises which first conferred
it. Such a system is delightful to all the enemies of
popular rights, whether they be avowed Tories or
not. They set their agents to work, they get hold
of the books, they raise objections, and disfranchise
the electors almost by wholesale.
" It is now an established plan," says the writer,
in cases where a landlord pays the rates of a number
of houses to give a receipt for A, B, and others,
thus destroying the proof of the rating in the case of
the others." This is most mischievous, because it

,ends to disfranchise the poorer classes. A similar

trick is played as to the Parliamentary electors
which operates to prevent those from paying the
rates, who are willing to pay them in order to have
a vote. The result of this Tory mode of working
the law, is to exasperate the disfranchised against
both the Parliamentary and Municipal Reform
Acts, and make the poorer classes believe that all
legislation, even that which nominally confers a
privilege on them, is intended to juggle them out of
their rights.
The author supplies several cases in which the
carelessness or the fiaud of overseers was allowed
to operate against individuals, in one of which
by good luck the overseer's receipts had been pre-
served and were produced. If by any accident one
of them had been lost, the elector would have been
disfranchised, so that many a vote may depend on
every receipt for three years being carefully pre-
served. That makes a man's rights, and the Go-
vernment of a country which may be affected by his
vote, depend on chance.
It is plain that by making the conditions so nu-
merous, the chances are that they will rarely be all
fulfilled, and a needy set of attorneys and political
partizans are always ready, for the sake of the
fees they can levy from their patrons, to take
objections on the chance that they will
be sustained. By acting on this principle
the number of voters objected to on the burgess-
roll of Liverpool, at the late autumnal revision,
was 7,303 ; and after the Court had sat from the
Ist to the 15th of October, the full period allowed
by the law, above 5,000 objections remained 'in-
disposed of. It was impossible to revise the list ;
and the consequence was, after the opinion of
Counsel bad been taken on the subject, that the
Court was shut up, the new burgess-roll was cast
aside, and the burgess-roll for the last year was
used for the late election, and will continue in
force till the next revision. It is clear, how-
ever, unless the Legislature interfere in the mean
time and alter the law, that the same circumstances
will prevent the revisal of the list next year, and the
present burgess-roll will remain till the end of
time the only record of legal municipal voters for
the borough of Liverpool. Several hundred quali-
fied electors whose names wete added to the list

this year have thus been disqualified, and the num-
bers will be still greater next year, thus the law will
secure, if it be unaltered, in the halals of an ever-
decreasing number, the whole powers of the Corpc-
ration.

A precisely similar case occurred at Leeds. The
revision there could not be completed in time, and
no less than thirtee❑ hundred new voters, who had
been placed on the list, in five wards (for so far
the revision had taken place), were actually disfran
chised because the revision could not be com-
pleted; and the elections were made on the roll of
last year. On breaking up the Court, the Mayor
of Leeds declared, notwithstanding the unparalleled
number of objections, that not one hundred had been
made good. It is quite clear, therefore, that artful hire-
ngs take advantage of the imperfectio►►s of the
law, to evade its provisions, and torture them into a
means of annoying and injuring their fellow-men.
A smuggler only causes a little loss to the revenue ;
a hired Tory lawyer, who prostitutes the law to
the purposes of his employer, disfranchises half a
town, and carrier.' grief and vexation into the hearts
of many thousand persons. Surely he is a greater
criminal than a smuggler, and ought to be put
down like the smuggler.
All these evils grow from the law, and the Legis-
lature therefore is bound to remedy them. They
are not, like the evils of poverty and superabundant
population, or like a bad season, beyond its power.
As the law is now framed, it is a positive bounty
on chicanery, fraud, and strife. The source of
the evils :s the perversion of the principle of regis-
tration. The idea which lies at the foundation of
that, is to secure the ease and the right of the voter ;
but the Legislature in its jealousy of popular rightF,
has perverted it into a security for the legality of
his vote, according to the restrictions, sometimes ab-
surd, which it has thought proper to prescribe.
We shall not now follow the writer through his
observations on the practices which obtain at muni-
cipal elections, nor shall we now enforce his recom-
mendation- of the Ballot as a cure for these
evils. The two cases of Liverpool and Leeds,
with the notorious and avowedly corrupt practices
which have taken place in other boroughs,

ought to be sufficient to induce the Legislature to
rectify the evils it has unwittingly inflicted on the
burgesses of the empire. The Ministers must be
anxious, we think, to complete their own inten-
tions, and secure to all the inhabitants of the
towns that control over their affairs which was the
proposed object of the Municipal Reform Act,
The extension, as well as the securing, of popular
rights, recommends itself to every liberal politician.
But if the Ministers and the Radical members
need any stimulus to undertake the revision
of the Municipal Act, they will find it in the fact,
that the immoral restrictions we have adverted to,
which nourish only chicanery and strife, are the
means by which the Tories have recovered part of
their lost ground in the Corporations, and arc able
to boast that in some, by the command of plenty
of money and skilful agents, they have secured a
victory. They threaten still more ; and that alte-
ration of the law which would put an end to the
harrassing practices of low • attorneys, would check
the progress of the corrupt Tories.

The whole of the Paris Journals of Tuesday

lave been received, with the continuation of the

debate upon the Address in answer to the Speech
from the Throne. The speakers on Monday were

MM. DE CARNE, DE TOCQUEVILLE, Jour.

FROY, Dueos, and General BUGEAUD, The

debate on Tuesday was opened by M. CONALLY,
who was succeeded by M. BERRYER, and when

post hour arrived M. DE LANIARTINE was as-
cending the tribune. Of M. BERRYER'S speech
we can only to-day give a mere outline ; but by
to-morrow we shall be in possession of a full report,

which, if interesting, shall be submitted to our

readers.

The best speech delivered on Monday
was M. JOUFFROY'S. This gentleman, who

was Reporter to the Commission appointed.

by the Chamber to inquire into the state of tl,e
navy in 1839, demonstrated that the policy of M.

TRIERS was not the policy of his predecessors in

office—that it was as novel as it was rash, inexpe.

dient, and dangerous to France and to Europe. Ni
THIERS' predecessors sought to establish the in
fluence of France at Constantinople, and so coun

erhalance the intrigues of Russia ; but M.

THIERS abandoned Constantinople, to eaablis
a French influence at Alexandria. He au

proved both of the principle and the execu-
tion of the Treaty of July, and only com-
plained that France was not treated with the re-
spect due to her. He also observed, with more
truth than the trammelled supporters of the policy
of the Four Powers will dare to admit, that Rus-

sia is not less surprised and disappointed than
France at the little share she has had in executing
the Treaty of July. For our own part, we never
entertained the least doubt upon this point. Had
the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh foreseen that Eng-
land, almost unaided, would have restored Syria to

the Porte, and at the same time avoided a war wi
Russia, it would never have been a party to ai

treat) for such a purpose ; and but for the folly of
France, or rather of the late French Ministry, the
humiliation of Russia would be indeed complete.
In Monday's sitting the peace-policy of the
SouLT-G utzoT Cabinet was supported by Gene-
tai BuGEAUD, but as that honourable and gallant
Deputy is somewhat addle-headed and eccentric,
his silEnt vote would have served his friends
better than his speech. He has a trick
of speaking to• plainly, and never addresses the
Chamber without putting it out of humour.
The following extracts from the Cannrier Fran-
cais of Tuesday will be read with lively interest :

The Journal des Debuts announces that Mehemet Ali
has communicated his resolution to accept purely Emil
simply the Pachalic of Egypt, and to restore the Turkish
fleet. The submission of the Pacha is official ; the Mi..

nisters have affirmed it, it is said, to several Deputies in
the Salk des Conferences. The yielding of Mehemet
Ali might have been foreseen, when it was seen that he bad
issued orders to Ibrahim to concentrate his troops in
Egypt. The capture of St. Jean d'Acre left him without
defence, and the discouragement of his troops no longer
permitted him to resist. The Allies have thus regulated
the East as England wished ; the voice only of France
has not been able to be heard, nor her flag to be displayed.
Peace is insured for some months. Russia still governs
in Constantinople; the flag of England floats on all the
fortified points of Syria; the Pacha of Egypt is, in despite
of himself, the vassal of Lord Palmerston. These are the
first consequences of the Treaty of July lb."
The Moniteur Parisien says—
" The rumour was current on Monday afternoon, in the
charged
i tota
ry offer
possession t o
in totphfeo rds, m weh oof, as
he
Chamber, that the Government had received news of ti.e
Sn ti tF ios
u krn o
pwo
adhosion of Mehemet Ali to the propositions of Admiral
nw'erwsas h a
, t
he hre
gre
of Egypt. We have seen ourselves a letter
seilles, announcing that this news had been brought by the
Euphrates."
Gall/planes Messenger confirms this
news, and
a private letter from Paris assures us that the mis-
sion of M. MouNiEn to London has for its ob-
ject to obtain some concession from the Four
Powers, which will enable France to escape with
some show of dignity from the painful position
'of
in which her rejection the Treaty of July has
placed her. If such be the case, we implore Lord
PALMERSTON to make every concession in his
power capable of soothing the wounded feelings of
France. He has shown sufficient firmness
to concede any reasonable favour with a good
grace. It was never the wish of England to place
France in a humbled position, and it would de-
light us to see Lord
PALMERSTON seize the first
opportunity that may yet offer to re-assure the no-
ble-minded statesman now at the head of the
French Government, that France has not a more

sincere friend, even at this moment, in the world,
than honest John hull.

Respecting the new French loan—another of
THIERS' precious legacies to his war-loving
cout.tiymen, we find the following details i❑ the
Commerce :

" The amount to be contracted fur is said to be 61. J)
millions, either against the Five per Cont: or the Three
per Cents. If the loan is made in Three per Cents. the
100 millions must be paid in eff..,ctive, and the subscriber,
will receive in exchange for their payment 3f. of Three p r
Cents Itehtes for each 100 f. paid with a certain number
of Annuities, which will snake up the difference betty een
par and the rate at which the loan shall be contracted for ;

that to to say, that it the loan striscribod for at 76f., the
subscriber will receive for 100.0001. paid into the tieasurY
a title for P,ooor. of Rentes :via 24 Annuities of I,ooof.
each, or 12 Annuities of 2,0001."

The following intelligenze from Alexandria is
from the Temps el Tuesday. Though the date is
the same as the accounts received ye“erday it is
not the less interesting as characteristic of the
policy of the VICEROY :

ALEX,:NDRIA, Nov. 1 I.—Three small vessels from the
Tiber have arrived to take on board the three alabaster cc-
lumns which the Chevalier A. de Reseal has obtained from
Mehemet Ali for the Church of St. Paul, at Rome. On the
day after their arrival the Consuls-General of Rome and
Tuscany presented the officers to the Pacha. It was nine
;n the evening, and the Viceroy was surrounded, in his
larffe illumirated hall of audience, by the Capitan Pacha
and all the officers of the Palace. The reception was very gra-
cious, and the Pack. commenced c series of compliments I y
inquiring as to the health of the Pope. The means of trans-
porting the columns was then talked of, and the Pacha ad-
vised that the three vessels should go up the Nile and take
them on board at Tours, half a league beyond Chisa,
where he would send everything necessary.. The conver-
sation then turned on politics. The Pacha, speaktng of
Syria, said that, whatever might be the result of events,
that country was destined to be for a long tune to come
unfortunate. Not concealing from himself Lhe critical
position of St. Jean d'Acre, the attack upon which
had just been announced, he said, after a _short
silence, and addressing himself ;in -a strong tone
of voice to the French Consul, " Yes, you
are the cause of all that ras happened to me ;
it is your couns.l which has brought me where I am,
mad fettered all my movements. • I have followed your
way long enough ; it is now time that I should have
my own. The fleet shall go out and remove from us the
disgrace of being blockaded by a few enemy's ships and my
son Ibrahim will then be free to act." M. Coebelet
replied, " I persist in observing to your Highness,
that to send the fleet out of port would be rash
and impolitic. As your Highness has waited so long
you can wait a few days longer. The question in
France will then be pos►tively decided." Some per-
sons thought Mehemet Ali was serious in hie hasty
manifestation of feeling towards France. This, however,
was not the fact ; he merely wished to deceive public
opinion by causing it to be believed that he bad acted
under French counsels. It had, on the contrary, always
been believed that he consulted nabody. Despatches
from Candia announce that Mustapha Paella has not com-
plied with the desire of the Porte, and declined receiving
from it his confirmation of the post which he holds under
Mehemet Ali. The Viceroy has been much effected at
this proof of fidelity, and would be very sorry to. see
anything unfortunate happen to his representative in that
island.

CHANCERY COURT-(THIS DAY.)

JUDGMENT.-CLARKE AND OTHERS V. CORT AND OTHERS

The LORD CHANCELLOR gave judgment to-day in this
case, which was argued before him yesterday in appeal
from the decision of the Vice-Chancellor, who on the
previous day bad ordered an injunction to be dissolved
which restrained the defendants from entering up judg.
ment on a verdict which they had obtained in an action
against the plaintiffs. From the statements of the Learned
Counsel who opened the case yesterday, it appeared that
the plaintiffs were bankers at Leicester, and in that
character took an assignment from the late bsnkrng
firm of Mansfield and Co. of several debts and mort-
gages, among which was a mortgage debt from a
builder, nag), d Cr,gan, to Mansfield and Co. Crogan
was a bankrupt, and• the defendants were his assignees.
C.arke and Co. bad been indebted to Cregan for work
done for them by hi►rt, z.nd his assignees had brought an
action against them fur that amount, and obtained a ver-
dict, Clarke and Co. not. being allowed at law to set off
the debt of Crogan assigned to them by MansfiAd and Co.
Upon this the Meavrs. Clarke and Co. filed their bill for
the purpose of having the accounts taken between
them and Crogan, and obtained the common injunction,
restraining further firictieedings in the action. This
injunction the Vice-Chancellor ordered to be dissolved
yesterday, and from that decision the case came, by way
of appeal, before this branch of the Court. The Lord
Chanctllor ordered the injunction to be continued, thereby
reversing the decision of the Vice-Chancellor.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL V. THE MAYOR AND CORPORATION

OF BOSTON.

The information in this case was filed for the purpose
of obtaining the opinion of the Court as to whether the
Corporation of Boston had the power, under the Acts of
George 111., George IV.. and William IV., to apply the
surplus fund derived from the navigation of the rivers
Welland and Witham to the improvements of the harbour
of Boston. Upon the case coming on before the Vice-
Chancellor, his Honour was of opinion they had such
power under the Acts of George 111. and Geoige IV.,
but be gave no opinion as to the effect of the Act of
William IV. upon the previous Acts. Upon the case
coming on before his Lordship, he was of opinion that'
they bad the power independent of the Act of William IV.,
but at the same time his Lordship expressed a wish to have
that question argued by one counsel on each side. That
argument was appointed for this morning, Mr. K. Bruce
appearing for one side, and Sir William Follett on the
other.

The case was procteding when our reporter left.

BOLLS' COURT.-(THIS DAY )

His Lordship the IVlssrea of the ROLLS, after disposing
of the consent petitions, beard motions.

HOPE P. HOPE.

Mr. TURNER moved to discharge an order which had
been obtained in this case on the 7th of September last,
for the examination, de bene esse, of Mr. Bram Hertz, a
person whom it was stated was well skilled in the know-
ledge of precious stones, jewels, and diamonds, and who
had under the direction of the testator, Mr. Henry Phillip
Hope, arranged a catalogue descriptive of the jewels and
diamonds in the cabinet, with respect to which it was
alleged the testator had executed a deed of gift on the 9,11
of April, 1839, in favour of Mr. Abraham Hope, and that
he knew what jewels were in the cabinet on that day. Mr.
Hertz was the only person who could speak to these facts.
The case was proceeding when we went to press.

VICE-CHANVERY-(THIS DAY.)

LITTLE V. BAKER.-JUDGMENT.

The VICE. CHANCELLOR gave judment to-day in this case,
which came before his Honour a short time since, upon mo-
tion for a receiver, and also for an order for payment of
6,000/. into Court. His Honour refused the motion.

EXCHEQUER COURT-THIS DAY

(Sittings at Nisi Prius before Lord ABINGER and Special
Juries )
GILLETT V. MOORE, GILLETT V. ASHLEY.

Mr. KELLV, Mr. WHATELEY, and Mr. PEACOCK ap.
peared as Counsel for the plaintiff. No one appeared for
the defendants.

It was an action for an infringement of Hansom's pa_
tent for the safety cab. The cabs used by the defendants
wero proved to be an infringement of the patent of which
the plaintiff was assignee, and a verdict was token for him
accordingly.

SNEEZuM V. mARVIALL.
This was an action brought for the purpose of recovering
the expenses incurred in making a contract for the pur-
chase of the lease of the Rising Sun, in Somers Town.
After a lcng negotiation and examination of the defendant's
title, it was found to be bad, and the contract went off.
Mr. KELLY, on the part of the defendant, took several
objections, which his Lordship thought good; however,
he would leave the case in the hands of the Jury, and re.
serve leave to the Learned Gentleman to move the Cot.rt.
The Jury found for the plaintiff, with 1461. 135., which
covered the plaintiff's expellees, and gave 1001. as liqui-
dating damages.