The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-27 00:00:00

CH RISTMAS FESTIVITIES.

The Duke and Duchess of Richmond are sur-
rounded by a numerous family circle at Goodwood-
park, Sussex, for the festive season. The Duchess's
health is quite restored.
The Duke and Duchess of Norfolk have a select
party assembled at Art:ndel Castle, Sussex. The
Noble Duke and Duchess propose to receive a suc-
cession of visitors up to tt,e close of the ensuing
month.

WOBURN ABBEY.—The Duke and Duchess of
Bedford are dispensing their princely hospitality to a
distinguished circle of guests, including his Serene
Highness Prince Lowenstein, Viscount and Vis-
countess Palmerston, Lord and Lady John Russell,
&c. On Christmas-day there was a large party to
dinner, covers being laid for upwards of 30 guests.
The Noble Duke and Duchess purpose receiving
company during the whole of next month. Tt.e
majority of the visitors depart early in the ensuing
week, when there will be a fresh accession of guests.
The Duke of Wellington had a large party congre-
gated at Strathfieldsaye, Hants. The Marquis and
Marchioness of Douro, Lord and Lady Charles
Wellesley, Viscount Strangford, the Right Hon. C.
Arbuthnot, and the Hon. George S. Smythe, are
among the guests of his Grace.
The Marquis of Anglesey is receiving a numerous
and distinguished circle at Beaudesert, the family
seat, near Lichfield. 4is Royal Highness Prince
George of Cambridge arrived there on Thursday last,
and Prince Louis Napoleon joined the circle the same
day. The Duke and Duchess of Beaufort, the Earl
of Uxbridge, Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence, Viscount
and Viscountess Sydney, the Earl and Countess of
Sandwich, Lord George Paget, Lord and Lady Alfred
Paget, Viscount and Viscountess Maidstone, Lord
Clarence Paget, and Lord and Lady Crofton, are
among the guests met there.
The Marquis of Northampton is entertaining a
large party at Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire. The
Earl Compton and Viscount and Lady Marianne
Alford are staying there.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Lansdowne are
seeing company at Bowood Park, Wilts.
The Marquis and .Marchioness of Westminster have
a family circle at Motcombe House, Dorset, to pass
the holidays.

The Earl and Countess Spencer returned to Althorp
Leamington Spa, and are now entertaining a select
Wednesday last, from
Hall, Northamptonshire, OR
party at the above seat.
The Earl of Shaftesbury is surrounded by a family
party at St. Giles's Dorset. The Right Hon. Henry
and Lady Harriet Corry and family, and Mr. and
Lady Charlotte Lyster are there.

The Earl and countess of darewood have a party
.Howe
rs
staying with them at Harewood House, Yorkshire.
Th
are entertaining
company at l
q Gaonpds.aCnollunittne,ssi.,
Leicestershire. The Mar-
quis and Marchioness of Worcester, Viscount and
Viscountess Curzon, and the Hon.
eEar
Captain Curzon,
are staying with the Noble Earl and Countess.
A large party, includi▪
ng the Earl and Countess
of Desert, Viscount and Viscountess Emlyn, Vis-
count and Viscountess Brackley, sm, are passing the
Christmas with the Earl and Countess Cawdor, at
Stacpoole Court, Wales.
i
Lord and Lady Leigh ▪
ntern!, to keep up Christmas
in " the good old English style," at Stoneleigh Abbey,
Warwickshire. The Warwickshire hounds meet at
the Park to-day, when the Noble Lord gives a sump-
tuous breakfast.
DRAYTON MANOR.—Sir Robert and Lady Peel
will receive a distinguished succession of visitors
during the present week. Company will assemble
there to-day.

ROBBERIES IN NEWOATE-MARKET.—Christmas-
eve, NeWgate and Leadenhall-markets were literally
crowded with people, all seemingly anxious to provide
for the feast. As is usual on such occasions, the thieves
and " market prowlers" gleaned a plentiful harvest, as
many of the butchers and poulterers know to their cost.
but, notwithstanding
police were
plentifully distributed about the market,
their exertions, several men lost
their watches, and women their pockets. One poor
woman, by the name of Smeeth, who, for safety,adopted
the foolish practice of carrying her purse in her band,
had her attention called off by. a young vagabond, while
another snatched the purse from her hand, anti bolted
with its contents, amounting to IL 78. Gd. The con-
sternation of the poor woman at her loss may be better
imagined than described.
A BREWERY BURNED.—The famous Castle Bel-
lingham brewery took fire last week. Before the flames
were extinguished the mill and a large quantity of malt
were destroyed.
THE IRON TRADE.—The first decided step towards
a reduction in the price of South Staffordshire iron has
just taken place, the agent of Lord Ward having issued
a circular fixing the price of forged pig iron at 31. 10s.
Last quarter day the nominal price was 51., although
little business has in the meantime been done at that
quotation.

ON THE FINANCIAL AND COM-
MERCIAL PROSPECTS OF ENGLAND.
(From the New York Herald of Nov. 30.)
The financial crisis in Great Britain and the fre-
quent changes made in the financial systems of that
country are rapidly reducing the immense influence
it formerly enjoyed in the commercial world, and
throwing into the hands of this Government that
supremacy which we have been long striving for.
The- revulsion recently realised in England has
been the xesult of an opposition between the banking
and the commercial interests since the adoption of
the Peel Act in September, 1844. The currency of
the United Kingdom under that Act became esta•
blished upon a pure specie basis ; the accumulation
of specie in the Bank of England to nearly
17,000,0001. sterling, and the extension of issues upon
that and Government securities, to more than
30,000,0001. sterling, while the actual circulation was
only about 20,000,0001., gave the commercial classes
the impression that an expansion of credits could
with impunity be brought about, and the operations
of commerce extended to an unlimited extent. With
the 17,000,0001. sterling in the vaults of the Bank, and
about 10,000,000/. of notes in reserve, specu-
lators and all others disposed to an inflation con-
sidered there was sufficient leeway for their opera-
tions. The operations commenced and every species
of speculation increased to an enormous extent. In
the midst of these movements the harvests were pro-
nounced deficient, and an importation of food and an
exportation of bullion commenced. The Bank met
the drain of bullion by reducing its reserved notes;
instead of reducing its actual circulation, as its bullion
was drawn away, it maintained its issues in the hands
of the public by reducing the amount of notes on
hand. Amidst all the drain of bullion, the actual
circulation has not been reduced altogether more
than 2,000,0001. sterling. With about 7,000,0001.
sterling in bullion, the circulation is nearly the same
as when the bullion on hand was 17,000,0001. sterling.
The crisis was postponed by these movements, but
not reduced ; it was put off, but not prevented ; but,
on the contrary, the revulsion became strengthened
and more extended, and finally spread destruction
over a wider extent. Had the Bank been regulated
in its movements entirely by the movements of bullion,
the pressure would have been for a time more severe,
but it would not have been so general. Prices would
at once have been depressed to the lowest point ; but
the recovery would have been more rapid and upon
a more healthy basis.
The position of the Bank of England, in the midst
of the panic, is by no means of a satisfactory cha-
racter. Its management is sadly deficient in finan-
cial talent, and its course is so fluctuating that the
community generally depending upon it know not
what to expect from one week to another. The
immense money power appears to be in the hands of
a small clique of capitalists in London, who use it
exclusively for their own interests, and have turned
it into a complete speculating machine, using it at
one time to inflate prices of breadstuffs, and at an-
other time to depress them—at another time to
depress prices of stocks, and then to inflate them.
It has, in the hands of these speculators, become
merely an auxiliary for the advancement of their
own interests. The commercial classes are not only
deprived of the benefits of such an institution as the
Bank of England was created to confer, but they
are in reality at its mercy ; they are at one time
deluged with credits and facilities for speculatives
purposes, and at another restricted to the smallest
amount. The rate of interest at one time rules as
low as two per cent., at another at eight; and at
times - accommodations of every kind are cut
entirely off. These fluctuations, so ruinous to
the financial and commercial classes generally, which
are ignorant of the matter until they are made, are
the direct cause of the revulsion and panic which is
sweeping daily so many old and once wealthy houses
from existence. The influence of such an institution
in the financial world is such, that when used for any
purpose it usually carries it, until, when used
illegitimately for any length of time, it gets beyond
its depth, and becomes merely a helpless object in the
current setting so strong to bankruptcy. The
cliques which have used the Bank, which have, in
fact, appropriated its immense capital and credit to
their own interests, abandon it in its extremity, and
make enormous fortunes out of its, ruin.
This brings us to the development of a fact connected
with the recent movements of the Bank of England,
which is destined to hare a very important
effect upon financial affairs. It is well known
that the most intimate connexion exists between the
British Ministry and the house of Rothschild, both
politically and commercially—that in the recent ape
culations of breadstuffs the Government played into
the hands of the Rothschilds. This shows the power
of the houses when the Aid of the Government is re-
quired. It is equally well known that all the depu-
tations to the Government relative to the revulsion
could extort no promise from the Ministry to remove
any of the obstructions to a return of confidence, or
to the adoption of any measure to relieve the corn -
mercial classes from the panic w hich was proving so
disastrous; and not until the interview between
Rothschild and Lord J. Ru,sell was there the slight-
est probability of any interference on the part of the
Government. That interview lasted two hours, and
the result of it was a virtual repeal of the Peel Act.
The repeal of that Act, or, we might say, the modifi-
cation of that Act was such as to ) elieve the great
bankers of London, who held large amounts of Go-
vernment securities ; the commercial and manufac-
turing classes' were not benefited a fraction by this
movement on the part of the Government. It enabled
the Rothschilds to realise an improvement of 3 and 4
per cent. on their securities, and to raise money for li
the purchase of more at the depreciation. '1 he whole
operation was nothing but a stock-jobbing affair
from beginning to end. What can be expected
from a Government that is so connected with these
capitalists
,that their interests are protected to the
injury of all others? Or, of what use is an institu-
tion controlled and used by these capitalists for the
advancement of their individual interests? This is
invariably the result of such a system. The existence
of such an immense banking institution is one of the
greatest curses any country was ever inflicted with.
We found it so here, and the people of England are
fast finding out the same thing. We bought our ex-
perience dearly enough, and the people of England
must pay the same price.
It is impossible to tell where the revulsion in Eng-
land will stop. It must run its race, and in so doing
may sweep away every vestige of the present secill
system of the kingdom. It may revolutioniz,?, the
Government, destroy the nobility, and work out a re-
form in the institutions of th at country greater than ever
anticipated. It may anticipate the more tardy move-
ments of political progress,and bring about at once a state
of things which would not have otherwise been realised
in a century. The recuperative energies of great Bri•
tain are nothing compared to those of this country,
and they are by no means sufficient to raise her to
the position she has fallen from. When our revulsion
came upon us we had no public debt; it is true the
states were heavily indebted, but that had nothing to
do with the general Government. England has a
debt of more than 800,000,0001. sterling, upon the
interest of which thousands depend for their daily
bread. Whatever affects the revenue of the Govern-
ment endangers the income of this large class, and the
failure to pay the interest promptly would ruin thou-
sands.—The famine in Ireland, the increased number
of operatives out of employment in the manufacturing
districts, almost in a starving condition, are sufficient
to create the most alarming apprehensions relative to
the preservation of peace and good order. The seeds
of political revolution are generated among a starving
people ; thty take root and acquire strength, where
everything else is drooping and dying. We cannot
conceive a more terrible state of things than what
exists at this moment in Great Britain, and we look
upon any attempt to improve them as weak and abor-
tive, compared with the depth and extent of the evils
experienced.
The financial affairs of every state in the Union are
daily improving, and the general Government has
nothing in the shape of a debt likely to depreciate the
market value of its stock as a permanent investment.
We have a debt of about 50,000,000 dollars, with a
revenue rapidly increasing. We have an income,
over and above our ordinary annual expenditures,
large enough to pay the interest on a public debt of
200,000,000 dollars. Eighteen months of war have
increased our debt only 27,000,000 dollars, and
eighteen months more of war would not add one-half
of that amount to the present debt. Our financial
and commercial systems are based upon the soundest
principles, and while we are in the midst of a war of
invasion every element of industry, in every sec-
tion of the Union, is in full activity ; our commerce
is rapidly increasing, immigration continues to be
uninterrupted, the sales of our public lands continue
large, and the most healthy prosperity exists in
every department of business. Compared with this,
what a spectacle Great Britain presents to the
commercial world ! We are rich and she is
poor—not only poor, but upon the eve of a revolution,
which may blot out some of her institutions and de-
stroy many of her resources. We hold within our
limits the greatest and most important elements of
wealth in the world. Our cotton and corn will at all
times command the precious metals of Europe, which
will flow in from the east ; and while we hold pos-
session of the mines of Mexico, the precious metals
will flow in from the west, in one steady, unbroken
current. The effect of this addition to our currency
of gold and silver must be of the most favourable
character. It will give us, in the first place, a more
valuable currency than we now have; it will give
us, in exchange for our products, the only recog-
nized evidence of wealth in all parts of the world ;
it will finally give us the power of r e ;ulating
prices of our exports, both at home and abroad,
and give us a position in the commercial world never
before enjoyed. We have, heretofore, almost entirely
depended upon foreign countries for any material

increase to the national wealth. Prices for our prin-
cipal exporting staples in our own markets have
been regulated entirely by foreign capitalists. We
have been in their power so much that they have been
able at any time to depreciate the value of our cotton
crop millions of dollars. Prices of breadstuffs have
even been controlled by ,them, and we have suffered
something by being so dependent. The times have
I experienced a wonderful change. We now consume
more than one .fourth of our entire cotton crop. The
domestic consumption of breadstuffs is so large, that
I a very slight foreign demand puts up prices rapidly,
and foreign consumers have to pay a high price for our
products. The increased consumption of cotton
within our own limits places the manufacturers of
Europe in a position where they will be less able t'o
compete with us in manufactured goods ; and our mar-
-1 kets will be supplied to a greater extent with our
own fabrics. It operates with twofold effect upon
foreign manufacturers, as it reduces their supply in
times of scarcity, and cuts off markets for their goods.
The manufacturing interests of the United States
were never in a more prosperous, promising conditiOn,
and the increase in the number is more rapid than
many have any idea of. In every section of the
country mills are springing up as if by magic. The
eastern ststes no longer monopolize this business; in
the south, and at the west, the consumption of cotton
is already largo, but we have no official returns show-
ing its extent. The consumption officiallyreportedis of
the section of country north and east of Virginia.
Now, that is a very small section of the country, and
if.the consumption in it reaches 600,000 bales, the
consumption of the remainder of the country cannot
he less than 200,000 bales, making an aggregate of
800,000 bales. As extraordinary as this may seem,
it will be realized in 1848. We are approaching
Great Britain in cotton manufacturing much more
rapidly than is dreamed of even in this country.

SPLENDID RUN WITH THE
NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE HOUNDS.
On Monday last the meet was at Stableford Bridge,
and trotting on to Swynnerton Old Park, we soon
unkennelled as game a fox as ever ran before a pack.
" Opening the ball " at a clipping pace, he went
through Herleythorn Wood, and the Black Firs
shortly afterwards, crossing the Newcastle-road, by
Knowll toll-gate. He next skirted Trentham large
Wood ; having taken the wall and ascending the hill,
ran close by the monument. At this time nothing
could exceed the beauty of the scene. Beneath us
was the stately hall of Trentham, with its fine lake
overhung with rich and luxuriant oak. In the dis•
tance herds of deer were on foot., scared by the
melody of the deep-mouthed hound, while many a
mansion was seen rising amid its " old ancestral
trees." It was a coup d'ccil, which the lover of the
sylvan charms of our own " merrie England" would '
have dwelt
.upon with rapture. But the hounds are
getting a-head. Turning to the right, he made over
Tittensor Common to Hill Top Farm, and on to
Berry Bank. The pace was now tremendous, none
but the right sort having a chance, and many good
men having been thrown out. A check of two
minutes here gave us a little breathing time, but
Maiden, having made a beautiful cast, was on his fox
in a twinkling, and crossing the Chester-road,
througn Darlaston Wood, over the Stone-road, at the
Gorsedale's, he made for Walton Heath, over the
Norton-bridge branch of the North Staffordshire
Railway. Then, turning to the right, he pointed for
Shallowford Gorse, which he passed on the left, ford-
ing the river Sow, and crossing the London and North
Western Railway at Shallowford, leaving Yell's
Rough to the left. But the "pace kills" even the best
of us in time, and poor slyboots, seeing that his mo-
ments were numbered, came to the conclusion that as
all who contribute to sport, whether they be the pur-
sued or the pursuers, should have a common sympathy
he would follow out the motto to the last, and die near
his oid friend and acquaintance the venerable Squire
Eld, of Seighford, as good a sportsman, and as perfect
a specimen of " the fine old English gentleman" as
breathes. But ere he had"' quite accomplished his
task he was run into, after having passed Chebsey
township, in an open field, after a day which is with-
out precedent in the annals of Staffordshire sporting.
The field at th finish was of course select ; among
the chosen few were the Marquis of Stafford, Alessrs.
Eld, Adderley. Handcock, and Fitzherbert.
Thus concluded this extraordinary run, having
gone upwards of twenty-one miles in one hour and
thirty-five minutes. The superior style of Madden's
hunting and his " quiet system," which he has been
the first to introduce into the English kennel, told
admirably, and was the ;theme of unusual praise.—
Staffordyhire Mercury. I

CHRISTMAS-BOXES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
know not whether to quarrel with your
" Occasional Correspondent" for what I cannot but
call shortsightedness, or to extend to him the right
hand of fellowship for having called attention to the
nonsensicalities of the soft Christmas-box aboli-
tionists.

Ile is content with giving as a reason why the
ancient custom :hould be upheld, the fact that " wages
are regulated with direct reference to the supposed
emoluments ret•eivable from this source in numerous
places." This fact, so far from being an argument in
favour of Christmas-boxes, is, I conceive, a very good
reason why the custom should be abolished, if it were
possible ; for then would the servant have to receive
in pay from his master that which he no longer
pocketed as charity from his employer's patrons. But,
sir, if these very modern Reformers, instead of
wasting their breath and time in the seeking after an
absurdity, were to direct their unite." energies to the
crushing of the villanous system almost innocently
pointed out by your correspondent, it strikes me they
would be the means of setting wiser heads thinking,
and a gcod might possibly be effected.
It is a monstrous thing that the generosity of the
Public should be so grossly perverted—for in truth,
ihat donation intended by the giver to add to the
comforts of the honest worker goes into the pon-
derous pocket of the bloated employer. It is very
in
fant.
Trusting a great boy stealing a rattle from an
Trusting you will grant me the same favour as that
extended to an "Occasional Correspondent,"
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
F. J. DAMER CAPE.
1, Church-row, Savoy, Strand, Dec. 24.

EXCESSIVE DRINKING IN
CANADA.

That such excessive drinking prevails in Canada
may be attributed partly to the cheapness of a vile
mixture called Canadian whiskey, and partly to cli-
mate, with a thermometer ranging to 120 degs. and
with such rapid alternations. In Canada, also, man
really conquers the earth by the sweat of his brow;
for there is no harder labour than the preparation of
timber, and the subduing of a primeval forest in a
country of lakes and swamps. I have an instance of
the effects of excessive.drinking daily before my door,
in the person of a man of respectable family and of
excellent talents, who, after habitually indulging him-
self with, at last, the moderate quantum of sixty
glasses of spirits and water a day, now roams the
streets a confirmed idiot, but, strange to say, never
touches the cause of his malady. Are, therefore, not
idiocy, madness, and perhaps two-thirds of the
dreadful calamities to which human nature is subject
here, owing to whiskey ? I have seen an Irish
labourer on the works take off at a draught a tumbler
of raw whiskey, made from Indian corn or oats, to
refresh himself ; this would kill most men unaccus-
tomed to it, but a corroded stomach it only stimulates.
Canada is a fine place for drunkards ; it is their
paradise—" Get drunk for a penny; clean straw for
nothing," there ! Think, my dear reader, of whiskey
at tenpence a gallon—cheaper than water from the
New River in London. Father Mathew, your
principles are much wanted on this side of Great
Britain. Then, smoking to excess is another source
of immense evil in the Backwoods. A man accus-
tomed only to a cigar, gets at last accustomed to
the lowest and vilest of tobacco. I used to laugh
at some of my friends in Seymour when
1 saw them with a broken tobacco-pipe
stuck in the ribbon of their straw hats. These
were men who had paraded, in their day, the shady
side of Pall-mall. They found a pipe a solace, and
cigars were not to be had for love or money. " Why
do you not put your pipe at least out of sight ?" ' said
L "It is the Seymour Arms' crest," responded my
good-natured gentlemen farmers, "and we wear it
accordingly." Smoking all day, from the hour of
rising, is, I actually believe, more injurious to the
nerves than hard drinking. It paralyzes exertion.
never saw an Irish labourer, with his hod and his
pipe, mounting a ladder, but I was sure to discover
that he was an idler. I never had a groom that
smoked much who took proper caro of my horses ; and
I never knew a gentleman, seriously addicted to
smoking, who cared much for anything beyond self.
A Father Mathew pledge against the excessive use of
tobacco would be-of much more benefit among the
labouring Irish than King James his Counterblast
proved among the English.—Bonnycastle's c
and the Canadians, in 1846.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL AND THE BISHOP OF
EXETER.—It may not be generally known that the Bishop
owed the Premier a grudge, which, in some measure,
may account for his recent insolent vituperation. In or
about 1830, De.Phillpotts was under a promise, from Sir
Robert Peel's Administration, of the see of Exeter, and
ho expected to hold the rich rectory of Stanhope, in
Durham, the tithes of which alone, from the mines of
lead, ore, &c., are worth about 5,000/. a year; a change
of Ministry, however, took place, and Lord John and his
coadjutors frankly declared that they would be non par-
ties to such a monstrous arrangement as to
unite'le apart.
rec-
tory in Durham with the see of Exeter,.
Henry of Exeter was, therefore, obligseod:totornrielinquish
hold his
the rich rectory, although he was alto
prebendal stall in Durham Cathedral
.Newcastle
with the see, the
rectory being given to another canon.
Guardian.

AMATEUR THIEF-CATCHING.
Anglin nolunt leges mutare.
The English dislike to change their laws. Such is
a stupid and dogged sentiment on which John Bull
has prided himself for centuries. No man has less
reason for coming to such a resolution. His laws
are so bad that scarcely any change could be for the
worse. Of his jurisprudence he may say, as was said
of the man who complained that he had lost his cha-
racter, " and a good thing too, for it was a very bad
one." The British people seem to be of King
Charles's mind, that they have nothing to do with
the laws but to obey them. They contentedly sub-
mit to be made mere shuttlecocks for the battledores
of Westminster Hall to knock about as pleases them.
Law is separated from equity. There are the Courts
of Queen's Bench, of Common Pleas, of Arches, of
Bankruptcy, of Admiralty, of Privy Council, of
Chancery, of the Rolls, of the Exchequer, of Insol-
vency, and heaven knows how many more beside,
with separate jurisdictions, principles of interpreta-
tion, rules of practice and of evidence, with thousands
of volumes of contradictory decisions, and every day
enunciating dicta so totally opposed to each other,
that the glorious uncertainty of the law has become
confusion worse confounded. Even in the same court
the same judges seem the Cynthia of the minute,
" Everything by turns, and nothing long."
About half the time of every court is taken up with
motions for new trials, on account of misdirection on
the part of the very judges who grant the rule.
There is not even the ghost of an attempt at codifi-
cation, and although we have a Sovereign, Lords, and
Commons, a full fledged Legislature, three-fourths
of our whole jurisprudence were never heard of
within the walls of Parliament, and have been esta-
blished and bound upon the subjects of the realm no
one can tell bow. A man reading " Blackstone's
Commentaries," or wading through the judgments of
our. courts, cannot fail to be humiliated by the con-
viction that our laws have bee founded on sophistry
so transparent, logic so lame, and reasoning so unrea-
sonable, as that upon which most of the leading de-
cisions of our judges have been founded. The
master mind of Bentham has already made the
wisdom of the Bench ridiculous, and we
are only left to wonder that such an ex-
posure of the narrow-minded incapacity and hum-
drum drivel of our horse-hair-wig legislation has not
opened the eves of an intelligent community to the
gross absurdity and pernicious injustice of our whole
judicial fabric. But what we have more imme-
diately to bring under public notice in this brief
space, is the present deplorable condition of our
criminal law, or rather our criminal practice. We
say nothing here of our strange notions of the
moral proportions of public offences, as, for instance,
that a starving wretch shall be transported for seven
years for picking a pocket of a kerchief, while a
gang of miscreants who conspire to rob a flat of
1,4001. by a long and intricate scheme of cheating is
only sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment, or
that an area sneak shall be sentenced to the hulks,
while a banker or great merchant who shall
continue to issue promises to pay for ten
years after he was self-consciously insolvent,
shall not even incur the disgrace of the
Gazette,'or even a reprimand from his creditors, for
-living like a prince upon other people's means. Our
business just now is rather with the mechanism of
detection and punishment than with the principles of
criminal jurisprudence, and it appears to us that
this has reached a height of folly that calls loudly for
reform, The policy of requiring unanimous verdicts
where real unanimity is notoriously a moral impos-
sibility is, we know, a theme of great self-praise with
us English. It is supposed to be a proper protection
to the accused, when it is forgotten that in the ratio
in which it extends hi 4 chances, it necessarily defeats
the ends of justice, and that practically it as often
operates to his prejudice as to his safety, by inducing
a majority, who are for acquitting him,
to yield to a stubborn minority, who insist
on finding him guilty. This is very distinctly
proved by the fact that in Scotland, where the
verdict requires (except in cases of treason or sedition)
only a majority, the proportion of acquittals is con-
siderably larger than it is in England; and that in
England, where juries have to be locked up because
they cannot agree upon the verdict, the ultimate
result generally is, that the verdict is returned for the
prosecution. It will scarcely be believed by the
people of any other civilised country, and 50 years
hence it will not be credited by our own, that it is
only very recently that we have been, with the
greatest difficulty, prevailed upon to allow an accused
person the privilege of a counsel to plead his case, and
that, while a prosecutor was allowed the advantage of
the greatest orators at the bar, to strain their inge-
nuity and eloquence to the utmost to prove a poor
fellow-creature worthy of the gallows, the wretched
Irisoner locked up in gaol from the moment of his

.rst arrest

not permitted the means of getting at
itnesses to prove his innocence, utterly illiterate,
ften of the tenderest years, without advice or assis-
ance, was pushed into a public court with the
cutest intellects in Europe arrayed against him, and
lot only no provision whatever made by the commu-
ity for his dt-fence, hut a positive prohibition inter-
posed by the law itself against his being allowed to
rind it for himself, or his being placed in a position
of equally with his accuser. Such a social idiotism
as that has only its parallel in this other, that in
England a crime is practically regarded as an of-
fence not against society, but only against the private
individual who suffers by its committal, and that the
prosecution, detection, and punishment of offenders is
not a duty of the community, but a tax upon their
victims. We recollect a gentleman short-sighted
enough, mentally as well as physically, to
pursue a thief who had tugged his gold
quizzing-glass from his neck, who had 261. to pay
for the expenses of the conviction. It is scarcely ne-
cessary to point out the absurdity, as well as danger
of such an intolerable system. It makes it the interest
of every person against whom a crime is committed
"to wipe it up and say no more about it." It makes
the counsel given bybogberry the wisest that a sub-
ject can listen to, when he advises that " when you
do take a thief, let him show himself what he is, and
steal out of your company." It renders an organised
and skilful system of criminal prosecution imprac-
ticable, because each prosecutor necessarily employs
his own attorney and counsel, who proceed upon no
uniform system of either drawing indictments, exa-
mining witnesses, or conducting the necessary pre-
liminary inquiries. It places in the power of
individuals the means of compounding the gravest
offences, not excepting murder itself, so that for
a consideration a prosecution may be purposely
misconducted, an indictment intentionally wrongly
laid, or an important witness intentionally over-
looked. It is recorded in the life of Mrs. Bellamy
that being shocked at the idea of procuring the execu-
tion of a sorry thief who had robbed her house, she
purposely contrived that the prosecution should break
down, and was shortly after visited by the criminal
himself, who extorted money from her on the threat
of informing against her for compromise of felony.
Perhaps a still more startling view of the danger of
leaving to the wronged party the:prosecution of crime,
is to be seen in this, that the payment of his expenses
becomes often contingent upon his establishing a con-
viction, and it thereby becomes directly his interest
to strain a point as principal witness against the pri-
soner, or at all events to suppress any evidence
which he may discover likely to tell in favour
of a verdict of " Not Guilty.": The daily ex-
perience of prisoners being placed at the bar,
and no prosecutor appearing against them, or at
least no counsel to conduct the accusation, is another
shameful exposure of the grotesque absurdity of the
whole system. The fact that in the case of the atro-
cious murder of Mr. Bellchambers in the public
streets of our metropolis, no barrister was instructed
to conduct the indictment, so that a counsel caught
iumptheavpehnaeznarad in court
bled tosta
state
tthhee roeaqsuee stto o
tf a
the
judge,was
jury,
haa
brought things to a climax, and renders the immediate
institution of a totally new theory of criminal pro•
cedure essential, not only to the vindication of public
justice and the protection of society, but also to the
shielding of the innocent from the punishment due
only to proved guilt. In no country in the
world except in England is the detection and
punishment of crime left to private indivi-
duals. In France there is a Minister of Justice in
r5OO years
y Scot
Imperial Cabinet, responsible for the cognizance
of offences. In the neighbouring kinogfd
land there has existed for upwards
public prosecutor in every court of justice, a Lord-
en a -
Advocate and his deputies, procurators fiscal, and
other functionaries, all expressly charged with and
responsible to the Government and Legislature for
the detection and punishment of crime, and let us
add, also for the liberation and safety of the innocent.
We observe, by a question recently put to the Prime
Minister in the House of Commons, that the subject
of taking the cognizance of offences in England into
the hand of the Crown is at present seriously under
the consideration of the Government, and we trust
that no time will be lost in bringing to a period our
present barbarous system, which makes our criminal
jurisprudence most justly the laughing-stock of
E whatur o pfeu.r t
hOe
ru rwlei limits
have
teemsi
say
yd uesn
tthhiast
vwitealmsuubsjtecdtefetor
another opportunity.— Weekly Dispatch.

TFNANT-RIGHT.—A correspondent of the Lime-
rich E.rumincr says, that on the estate of the Marquis
of Lansdowne, near Limerick, where the custom of
tenant-right has been in force for thirty-five years,
there is not a man wanting work on the property ; nor
has a tenant ever entered a poor-house, except one.
ARRIVALS OF SPECIE.—In addition to the arrivals
of specie especially recorded on previous occasions the
following have since taken place :—The Pearl, from
Sierra Leone, has brought (being, we believe, the first
recent arrival of the kind from that particular place)
one box of gold, addressed to a metropolitan firm ; and
the steam-ship Princess Royal, from Hamburgh, three
casks of gold, consigned to order.