The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-28 00:00:00

HER MAJEST

All the preparations rendered necessary in conse-
quence of the near approach of her Majesty'
accouchement are in readiness. That interesting event
may now be hourly expected, or possibly not
take place for a short time, as, although the Queen
has been rather indisposed the last day or two, yet
she has never considered it necessary to keep her
room, and this morning her Majesty is quite as well
as yesterday. Orders were given some days past for
summonses to be issued from the Home-office to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London,
the Lord Chancellor, and those Cabinet Ministers
whose duty it is to be in attendance at the Palace when
the birth of a Prince or Princess is expected, the mo-
ment aoy intelligence of her Majesty being unwell was
received from the medical attendants, or officers of the
household on duty ; but up to the time of our going to
press no such official information had been received,
neither had any summonses been issued.

The different branches of the Royal Family sent to
Buckingham Palace this morning, to make inquiries
after her Majesty's health. Sir Robert Peci's horses
have, for the last two day!, been kept harnessed day and
night, in order that if any information should be received
from the Palace, the Right. Hon. Bart. may not be de-
layed one minute._

Hcr Majesty joined the Royal party last evening at
dinner ; and is, we are happy to say, to-day in the pos.
session of her wonted health and sprits.

THE EXCHEQUER. BILL AFFAIR.
The inquiry into this mysterious affair is pursue] in
a most private manner, but at the sae time with ti►e
greatest vigilance in all the offices connected with the
Exchequer departmeut. Last night about five o'clock
a number of the most influential members of the
Stock Exchange, and several gentlemen connected with
the Money Market, met Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Goul-
burn, Sir Jatnes Graham, and Lord Monteagle, by ap-
pointment, at the official residence of the Right Hon.
Baronet in Do.vning-street, on the subject of the late
fraudulent transactions in Exchequer Bills. The meet-
ing did not separate until half-past eight o'clock. This
morning the inquiry was again proceeded with. The
meeting last night, we believe, was attended by one or
more gentlemen connected with the Bank of Englind.
It is:expected Mr. Lewis will be again examined. Mr.
Hall, Chief Magistrate of Bow-street, and Mr. Manic,
Solicitor of the Treasury, were in attendance at the
Home-office this morning.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS,

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
STANDARD.—No one can doubt that the Repeal
agitation in Ireland was much encouraged by the evi-
dent neutrality of the late Government with regard to
it, if, indeed, its treasonable pretensions did not receive
the direct countenance of some of the most influential
of its Members. No sooner, however, are the senti-
ments of the new Lord Lieutenant perfectly under-
stood than that agitation subsides, and member after
member of the party by which it professes to be sup-
ported abjures all sympathy or connection with
Even Whig friends, who, so long as anything was
to be gained by agitation, on whatever pretext, were
his unwilling supporters, can now afford to leave Mr.
O'Connell to his Corn Exchange rabble, and openly
declare their repugnance to his traitorous projects. The
lion. Mr. Ponsonby, the late unsuccessful Whig can-
didate for Carlow, has we perceive from the letter
received this morning from our Dublin correspondent,
added his name to those of the seceders from the
Repeal faction, an example which all men who have
a character to lose will no doubt imitate. As a set-off
to these defections, American sympathisers continue to
pour in their subscriptions, and to convey to the incen-
diary chief of the Repeal agitation their determination
to aid the Irish in their " struggle for liberty." Tbe
time may come when these patriotic philanthro-
pists may need the breath they have expended in
such declaration to "cool their own broke.:' The
cause of Repeal is absolutely in a state of syncope.
No person of even average notoriety—the stipendarj
agitator excepted—will venture any longer to ex-
hibit himself at meetings in its favour, and such
is the dearth of " noticeable" visitors that Mr.
O'Conneil has been forced to enlist in the cause an
old Parsee, whose dignified person and Anglo-Indian
costume astonished and delighted the Repeaters on
Tuesday at the Corn Exchange, almost as
much as he
appears to have been astonished and delighted in his
turn. Tne figure cut by Mr. O'Connell on the occa-
sion was miserable enough. He is paralysed for want
of something to rail about ; a few months more of Lord
de Gre)'s government, and his " occupation will be
gene," and with that, if he does not look very sharp,
the recompense he has been accustomed to receive for
his labours. The result of the municipal elections in
Dublin does net surprise us ; still less can it surprise
those who have been instrumental in securing it, and
who pretended to believe that the passing of the
Municipal Corporations Act for Ireland would tend to
promote and consolidate the Protestant interest in that
country.
COURIER.—The result of the municipal election,
which touk place on Monday last in Dublin, the first
under the new Act, has, it will be seen, verified the
very worst apprehensions which the opponents of that
measure bad entertained, hendirg over the municipal
government of that city, the second in the empire,
entirely and exclusively to the noisy and turbulent
faction that acknowledges the leadership and submits
to the dictation of Mr. O'Connell. Dublin, under
the Municipal Reform Act, was divided into
fifteen wards, each ward returning four Common
Councilmen, the highest on the poll amongst them
being entitled to the Aldermaoic gown, and of these
eleven have returned Mr. O'Connell's nominees ;
thus giving the arch-Repealer an overwhelming majority
in the new Town Council, and placing in his hands the
bauble of the mayoralty. That the first effect of the
bill which broke up the exclusiveness, and put
an end to the jobbing of the" old Corporation," would
be to transfer municipal power from one set of exclu-
sive factionists and needy politicians to another—merely
changing the outward and visible form of the evils
which it was intended to remove—we anticipated from
the very first moment the question was mooted ;
knowing that the system of exclusiveness so rigidly
and rigorously practised by the now defunct body,
which admitted no man, however high his position in
the mercantile world, or unobjectionable in his character
as a citizen might have beta, into the Corporation, who

was not prepared to join ind an re-echo their sentiments
of stale and obnoxious intolerance, was most likely to
he persevered in by their successors, although in pre-
cisely the opposite direction. There are few men ge-
nerous enough to despise retaliation when they have
the power, and least of all would we look for such men
amongst the frequenters of the Corn Exchange, or the
aspirants to corporate honours under the new regime.
Therefore, however deeply we may regret the perpetua-
tion of invidious distinctions amongst fellow-citizens,
and the perversion of the Irish Municipal Reform Bill
to the purposes of a paltry faction, or the further
aggrandisement of a bloated demagogue, we cannot say
that these temporary abuses of recently conferred pri-
vileges have taken us by surprise. We were fully pre-
pared for them.

GLOBE.—Our article of yesterday on the Exche-
quer Bill forgery has of course excited considerable
attention ; and even the official organs themselves,
while simplifying and e'aborating our facts, seem to be
in no small degree surprised at finding the exactness of
our exclusive intelligence. Without regarding the
hints of the Pest, that secrets which it cannot obtain
we are imprudent to divulge, we shall continue
to put our resources of information at the disposal of
the public, even at the risk of startling the
'offi-
cial pints by the unaccountable priority of our
information on subjects of which their official cot:-
nections might be supposed to render them more
immediately cognizant. We shall, therefore, proceed
with our disclosures as far as we consider it convenient
at present to carry them. The banking world will be
well aware that Exchequer Bills to a vast amount
are deposited in the strong box of various firms,
from the day they are received from the hands
of the Paymaster of Exchequer Bills, until the cor.
responding day in the following year, when they
are again returned to that officer, by whom they
arc renewed, according to the provis'ons of the Act
of Parliament. None of the Bills so deposited are
in the smallest danger of having a doubt thrown
on their validity, since it is not through the
connivance of any public officer that Mr. Smith
is believed to have circulated his forgeries. In using
the term " forgery" we are perfectly corrects in
spite of the question raised by some of our Con-
temporaries, whether the fraud amounts to the crime
we have named ; and we arc enabled positively
to state that the doeurnents in question are forgeries
in the strictest sense—both as to the signature
of Lord Monteagle and his deputy. There has not
been a surreptitious use of the genuine autographs
of these officers, but they have been copied with so
much skill, as we obser'.ed yesterday, as to have asto-
nished one of the individuals whose duty it was to sign
the Bills, when the imitation of his own handwriting was
shown to hire. It is believed that Mr. Smith has acted
through confederates in the City ; and there are one or
two names implicated, which, until direct proof is in
our possession as to their share in the guilt, we shall
abstain from mentioning. We, however, think our-
selves quite at liberty to divulge the fact that certain
circumstances connected with this affair had induced the
issuing of a warrant for searching the house, and an
authority for apprehending the person, of an individual
connected with the Foreign Stock Exchange—which in-
struments were placed in the hands of Forrester, the ac-
tive officer, to execute. Oa reaching the abode of the per-
son alluded to it was discovered that he had voluntarily
called on the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to whom
he expressed his willingness to efford every facility
in the detection of the forgery. This promptitude is,
6o a certain extent, favourable to the party hinted at ;
but in a day or two we shall be enabled to speak more
plainly on this part of the subject. In some instances in-
dividuals have brought suspected Bills voluntarily to the
Treasury, and in one case these documents to the amount
of 60,0001., have been lodged in the hands of the official
personages at that department. Tue system of Mr.
Smith has been to use his forged Bills through
agents in the City, by whose instrumentality they
have been deposited as securities. The fact that
Exchequer Bills are called in, that the interest may
he paid upon them only in the months of March and
June, has enabled Mr. Smith to take up the Bills of
March deposited with one party, by supplies raised from
another party on Bills dated in the previous June ; and
thus, the year they have had to run has not ex-
pired until three months after the period at which
he has employed them to conceal his criminality.
These latter Bills were, in their turn, taken care
of by the proceeds of others dated in March ; and
thus he has for a series of years been enabled to
carry on without detection his system of forgery.
We are happy to be enabled to set at rest the appre-
hension of those whose little all may be invested it)
Exchequer Bills of small amount ; for we believe that
there are none under 1,0001. that have been made the
subject of fraudulent practices. It may also be satis-
factory to some parties to know, that of all the nume-
rous B.l's brought within the last day or two to the
office of tl,e Comptroller-General, for the purpose of
having their validity tested by the counterfoil, not on
has been condemned which is of a lower number that)
6,000, Mr. Smith having selectel the higher numbers,
For reasons that will be hereafter alluded to. We have
;rest reason to hope that none of the forged documents
have been purchased in the open market, but that all
have heel used as securities, and lodged with parties,
some of whom have not scrupled to take an enormous
rate of interest. liaised it is owing to this circumstance
being known that the matter began tea be canvassed,
sad the susp.}eiuns were raitecT which led to

liseovery. Some of the holders, al the readiest way
of aseert linimr the %alidity of their bills, have paid them
into the Binh of England as part of the recent fund-
ing ; but we bel:eve this has been done to an amount
that is not considerable.

The Duke of Buckingham transacted business
this morning at the official residence of Sir Robert Peel,
Downing-street.

A depu-tation from the Short-time Committee of
the West Riding of Yorkshire had an interview with
Sir James Graham this morning at the Home-office.
The deputation consisted of W. Beskett, Esq., M.P.,
Messrs. Fleming, Hobson, Leach, Crabtree, and Brooke.
FALL OF CHALK ON THE BRIGHTON RAIL-
WAY.-A great deal of excitement was caused in thr
City this morning by the statement that during the
night a large fall of chalk took place at the Merstham
cutting, about eighteen miles from London, which
at present impedes the traffic ; but it is expected that
in the. course of the day a passage will be made
for the trains. Fortunately the discovery was made in
sufficient time to inform the conductors of both the up
and down train, and not the least accident has there-
fore occurred beyond the falling of the chalk. The pas-
sengers to and from Merstham have during the morning
been conveyed in post-chaises. The engineer has left
London for the purpose of inspection and giving the ne-
cessary directions.

%.,11ATIIAM, OCT: 27:—The greatest activity
prevails in the Dockyard here, preparing the ships for
sea which are already in commission, and getting ready
others. Nearly all the men are withdrawn from the

_
slips to work in the docks, which contains, at present,
the Thalia, 42 guns; the Castor, 36; the Wolverine, 16;
and the Eagle, 50 ; this last, a very fine ship, is spoken
of as the next for commission. The Lynx and Harle-
quin are ready for sailing, and only detained by the
contrary wind. The Isis frigate is to sail for Liverpool,
there to complete her manning ; her ultimate destina-
tion is said to be China, unless a declaration of war with
America should render a naval armament necessary in
that quarter. The Thunder, surveying ship, left on
Wednesday last for the West Indies. No movements of
any importance have taken place among the military
during the last week. Recruits have come in -more
slowly than usual. A company of sappers is expected
to leave shortly fur Woolwich, previous to embarkation
for India.