The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-02 00:00:00

HABEAS CORPUS.
[We insert the following letter as an act of justice to
one who has been hardly dealt by, and from ret pest to the
son of a great man. We do not, however, agree with
the writer in his eonclusions.3 _

TO THE EDlTait OF THE SUN.
SlR,—There is no end to the outcry that this is a
"land of liberty" whenever an infringement is made
upon the privileges of any of the great men whose
pedigrees state that their ancestors " came in with the
Conqueror," and, in fact, whether the ancestors "came
in" with William I. or William 111. the cry is equally
loud, and generally successful, in vaunting and insisting
on the forms of laws to secure liberty, which forms were
established or re-established by the Saxon ancestors of
the bulk of this nation. Now I, one of the bulk, have
been in prison seven years, charged with being a rebel
and a contemner of the laws, but without having been
convislted or tried. My keeper having certified on the
return to my habeas corpus to the effect that I had been
tried and convicted, I was remanded to his custody. I
brought ivy action on the case for a false return; he
pleaded "not guilty," and no other plea, and Lord Den-
man, on Saturday, the 19th inst., before a jury of the
country, held that the return must be assumed to be true
until it was proved to be false, and that the onus of proof
lay on the party making the charge. Now what would
be the proof of the truth of the return? Simply the
warrant in the keeper's office. What would be my
disproof of the return? Notfring but the same warrant,
which I must produce by subpoena of one of the
defendant's own officers. I should like to know how I
could prove that that warrant was falsified? I cannot
put leading questions to my own witness ; but he, the
willing witness against me, is open to leading questions
in the shape of cross-examination by the defendant, and
cross-examination affords the best evidence.
In the times of Charles 1., so much abused for tyranny,
corruption had not sunk so deep that jailers would cer-
tify mater not in their warrants of commitment, as
appears by the Petition of Right (3 C. 1., c. 1, s. 5); but
if this doctrine that the party complaining of the return
bas to disp:ove it, had then sprung up, the judges of
Charles might have been spared the difficulty and odium
of remanding persona, as stated in the Petition of Right,
who by the returns appeared to have been committed
illegally on vague charges by' the Lords of the Privy
Council. If this doctrine is now law, the result of course
is, that the return is never to be supported on oath, and
that I am debarred from cross-examination of the agents
of the officer on whose nnsworn statement I am detained,
turd that therefore I have no remedy but the troublesome
one of indictment at common-law, in which I may be a
witness.

I think, Sir, that this being a matter in which public
liberty is concerned and common sense the test, the press
is the proper quarter to appeal to; and therefore, not on
individual but on public grounds, I hope the press will
respond to this appeal by directing its attention to the
subject, not only in England, but in Ireland and Scot-
land. Lord Denman observed that his opinion was given
in the absence of any authority for my view of the point;
but I hope that the precedent in this case will end by
becoming such authority, on my motion for a new trial,
and on the public opinion expressed through your dis-
cussion of the question.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
WM. COBBETT.
Queen's Prison, June 22, 1847.

NATIONAL EDUCATION IN
IRELAND.

The thirteenth report of the commissioners of
National Education in Ireland, for the year 1846, was
issued on Monday morning. It is addressed to the Earl
of Clarendon as Lord-Lieutenant, being the first import-
ant public document in which his Lordship's name has
yet appeared since his appointment. The commissioners
state that, at the close of the year 1846, the number of
schools in operation was 3,637, and the number of pupils
in attendance therein 456,410. The increase upon the
year 1845, was 511 schools, and 23,566 pupils. The
increase of pupils in 1845 over 1844, was 37,294, and
the commissioners attribute the diminished amount of
increase in 1846, as compared with that of the previous
year, to the prevailing distress having compelled parents
to obtain employment for their children upon the public
works. Grants had been promised towards the building
of 335 additional schools, amounting to 11;501/. 17s. 6d.,
by which accommodation will be afforded for 31,461.
additional pupils. During the year, 85 schools bad
been struck off the roll, and fourteen suspended for
various causes, such as the houses being unsuitable,
want of local contributions, inability to procure sites,
transfers to other places, and other reasons. The model
schools in Marlborough-street, Dublin, continue to be
numerously attended and efficiently conducted; the total
number on the rolls stated to be 1,368. In all the
schools, the arrangement for the separate religious in-
struction of the children of different persuasions, and of
the teachers in training, are described as being carried
on with punctuality and satisfaction. The salaries for
the year amount to 44,177/. 1 ls. 6d., thus, taking the
total number of teachers to be 4,000, the average
amount is only 11/. to each, but the commissioners say
they ought to be augmented. The maximum at present
is 20L, and the minimum 81. per annum—low enough,
certainly, for any degree of efficiency. The commis-
sioners also express a hope that the arrangement which
has recently received the sanction of Government for
giving retiring pensions to meritorious teachers in Eng-
land, will, as soon as possible, be extended to Ireland.
During the distress that lately afflicted the country
gratuities were awarded to the poorer teachers, in ad-
dition to their ordinary salaries ; and in this way,
3,0001. were expended by permission of the late Lord-
Lieutenant. The yearly interest of Lord Morpeth's do-
nation of I,OOOL, `is in future to be awarded in gratuities
varying from 11. to 31., to schoolmasters in each of the
34 districts, who are most distinguished by the order,
neatness, and cleanliness observable in themselves, their
scholars, and their school-houses. The demand for the
school-books of the commissioners is increasing greatly,
especially in Upper Canada, where a similar system of
national education has been recently established. In
connexion with the ordinary schools, there are 99 work-
house schools, and five agricultural model schools ; and
it is intended to establish a school at the fishing station,
near Galway, the pupils of which are to be instructed in
navigation. Many other details are given in the report.
Appended to it are a statement of the year's accounts,
and a great number of tabular reports and returns, illus-
trating the state of education in every province, county,
and town in Ireland.

THE AMERICAN TARIFF.

The following is a copy of a dispatch from Mr. Paken-
hair, her Majesty's Minister at Washington, to Viscount
Palmerston, on the subject of the customs' revenues of
the United States under the new tariff, printed by order
of the House of Commons:—
" Washington, March 29th, 1847.
" My Lord,—Her Majesty's Government will be glad
to hear that the session of Congress closed without any
addition having been made to the rates of import duty
established by the tariff of last year. That measure
will, therefore, now receive a fair trial; and I am happy
to say that there are already such indications of its
almost certain success, that it may be considered, as it
were, beyond the reach of danger; I speak with refer-
ence to the amount of revenue produced by it. It was
confessedly for the sake of revenue that the exorbitant
tariff of 1842 was introduced, and it was on the assump-
tion that the moderate tariff of last year would not pro-
duce a sufficient revenue that it was so strenuously
opposed by the advocates of the protection system.
Now, let us see what has been the result, so far as the
experiment has yet gone.
" The new scale of duties came into operation on the
let of December last—that is to say, not quite four
months ago, and from the enclosed statement, for which
I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Walker, the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, it will be seen that the receipts
under the reduced scale of duties during the period em-
braced in the return exceed those of the corresponding
period of the year before, when the high rates were in
force, by nearly a million of dollars. I think it likely
that by the end of the present month the excess will
amount to quite a million.
" This is a matter of great interest to England at the
present moment, when it is of so much importance that
our export trade should flourish, in order to meet the
heavy demand upon the resources of the country, occa-
sioned by an extraordinary importation of food.
only
produced the same amount of revenue as the old one,
the result would still have been very gratifying, because
to create the same amount of revenue under a reduced
o hadod s im-
ported,herscale of duties it is obvious that a proportionate increase
inpclrazeinEnthgelanodu,anotfitcyouorfseg,
but when we see that the reduced tariff
must hainvewhtaickhen
natura share .
bees msaoidretshtartiktihneglpyeraipopdaermenbtr.
produces at the rate of 250,000 dollars per month more
than the high one, the satisfactory result of the experi-
aced in the men
it
tbrnecaoym
en-
closed return being that immediately
following the re-
duction in the duties does not afford a fair criterion of
what may be the ultimate working of the measure. But
I do not think that this
argument applies to the case
under consideration,—
first
" In the place, because we Ere that the month of
December, . the first month of the new system, was not,
by upwards 01100,000 dollars, as productive as the suc-
ceeding month of January, thereby showing that there
was no unnatural or extraordinary influx of foreign
commodities immediately consequent on the introduction
of a lower rate of duty, to be counterbalanced by a fall-
ing off at a later period.
" In the next place, because it should be borne in
mind, that simultaneously with the new tariff, the ware-
housing system was for the first time introduced into the
United States, which everybody knows has a tendency
to made the introduction of merchandise, or rather the
clearance of goods for consumption, steady and gradual,
and proportioned to the wants of the market.the natural
" Upon the whole, my Lord, looking to
effects of an improved commercial policy, and to the state
of general prosperity and well-being:'which pervades this
country at the present moment, owing, principally to a
steady demand for all sorts of agricultural produce at
remunerating prices, I think it can scarcely be doubted
that the consumption of foreign merchandise must, for
' the present year at least, exceed the average of former
years, and thus help to redress the balance of trade,
now, owing to an unforeseen calamity, unfortunately so
much against us.—l have, &c.,

" R. PAKENHAM."

PENSION TO MAJOR-GENERAL SIR G. POLLOCK.
—On Wednesday, at a Court of Directors of the East
India Company it was decided that a pension of 1,000/. per
annum be granted to Major-General Sir G. Pollock,
G.C.8., in consideration of the eminent services per-
formed by him in India.
COPENHAGEN, JUNE 24.—The first division of the
Rwsiau tket, colisistin„., of t,ix Ships of the line, a fri.
gate, and a steamer, sailed northward from the road of
Helsinger on the 23d. The other division, consisting of
three ships of the line and three frigates, will remain
here some days longer.