The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-03 00:00:00

(From the Standard.)

The President had not yet arrived when our last
letters from Liverpool were written. She is sup-
posed to have been delayed by heavy gales in the
At'antic, of which some vessels lately arrived have
had experience. The President has been expected
with anxiety, chiefly because it is believed that no
Government despatches came by the Britannia; for, as
regards other news, the Britamit, which sailed some
days later than the President, has anticipsted her. The
belief, however, that the Britannia brought no Govern-
ment despatches is erroneous, according to the state-
nomt of an authority entitled to respect. It is said that
despatches have been received by the B,itannia,
and that " these dispatches leave no doubt of
an amicable and immediate settlement between the
United States and Great Britain as far as regards
the question of M'Leod. Mr, Fox hal received a com-
munication to that effect from the American Govern-
mete, couched in the most conca'atsry language."
For ourselves, we anticipated as much from the
inaugural address of General Harrison, which,
whatever faults of style may seem to characterise it—and
we must not condemn, even in its style, without reflsetieg
that it was addressed to an American, and not an English
public, breathes from first to last a spirit of manly sincerity,
with a sincere respect for justice, and a love of peace.
(From the Courier.)
It will be seen by our Pariiimentary report that the
18th clause of the New Poor-law Continuance Bill, for
enabling the guardians of one union to contract or farm
out their poor with the guardians of another union, was
withdrawn by Lord John Russell for the present, after
Lord Granville Somerset had forcibly pointed out the
cruel bearing of its provisions, according to which
paupers might have been draughted from their own to any
other parish, where starvation chanced to be more strin-
gently administered under the dispensations of the commis-
sioners, ar,d therefore rates economised in both the one parish
and the other. According to this clause, which, it must be
otneived, is intended to be re-introduced in some other
shape, the unhappy teaents of workhouses, or applicants for
relief, were to be let out on lease, for terms not exceed-
ing seven years, to such contractng parishes as should
Li] for their support at the lowest money rates of pay.
meat, so that side by side of the usual advertisements
of " Cattle taken to grass at per head," may come to
figure also " Paupers to let out on convenient terms ;
tenders for the supply of food at the lowest rate per
heal to be addressed, sealed, to the Poor-law Commis-
sioners, Somerset House," &c. This, however, was not
the worst feature in the clause, for the paupers might be
classified under it, and the husbands contracted for to
one union, the wives to another, the sons' to a
third, and the daughters to a fourth. We recollect
t'at, in the first report of the Commissioners appointed
ti inquire into the working of the old Poor-laws, it was
made a special charge that they tended to the destruc-
tion of family, that is parental, conjugal, filial, and
fraternal affections, which of course the intent of a
new Poor-law morality was, in favourable contrast, to
cherish and re-establish. It was with this laudable
view, we presume, that the• new Poor-law theory for
strecgthening the ties of kindred was invented, under
which each of the members of the same family, consist-
ing of father, mother, sisters, and broth:rs, were to be
separately transported for periods not exceeding seven
ems each, renewable on expiration of the terms ad
libitum and ad infinitum, to separate workhouse as-
titles, as far asunder each from the other as within the
extremities of the kingdom could, be contrived, so that no
out of family communion,
fmamigilityt bbyiepkoesrsiinbgill'ty garroisweitnogimpair the family love which,
at first and final parting with eeeh other to be immured in
those living tombs from whose sad bourne perhaps never to
emerge, was in all the full bloom and vigour of natural
reeling.