The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1840.

Council of Ministers and the Keeper of the Seals, and on
his left the Grand Referendary and the Keeper of the Ar-
chives of the Chamber of Peers. The Chancellor, at the
command of the King, read the civil act, and received the
required declarations from the Duke de Nemours and the
Princess Victoria, and then pronounced them to be man
and wife. The entry in the register having been signed
by the parties and all the witnesses, the bride and bride-
groom, accompanied by their Majesties and the whole of
the august and illustrious company, proceeded to the
chapel, where the nuptial benediction was given by the
Bishop of Versailles. There was no mass performed on this
occasion. It was celebrated in the palace this morning at
ten o'clock.

Now Ready, Price one Shilling,
PART V. OF THE

TOWER OF LONDON,
An Historical Romance.

By W. HARRISON AINSWORTH, Esq.
With Throe Illustrations on Steel, and Four Woodcuts, by
George Cruikshank.
ROOK THE SECOND.—MARY THE QUEEN.

Chapter IV. Of the Tower of London; its antiquity, foun-
dation, and extent ; its towers, bulwarks, palace, chapels, and
moat ; its royal inmates ; its dungeons and prisoners ; its se-
cret murders and executions.
V. How the Duke of Northumberland was arraigned of high
treason in Westminster Hall ; and how he made four reqaests
after the judgment.
VI. By what means the Duke of Northumberland was re-
conciled to the Church of Rome.

VII. How the Duke of Northumberland was beheaded on
Tower Hill.
Illustrations on Steel—l. Northumberland professing the
Catholic Religion in St. John's Chapel in the White Tower.
11. Mauger, the Headsman-, sharpening his axe in the Cradle
Tower. 111. Execution of the Duke of Northumberland on
Towei Hill.

Woodcuts—l. Interior of the Cradle Tower. 11. Exterior
of Ditto. 111. Interior of St. John's Chapel in the White
Tower. IV. Inscription of the Dnke of Northumberland in
the Beauchamp Tower.
Richard Bentley, New Burlington-street.
Sold by all Booksellers and Newsmen.

SPORTING IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND.
Now ready, in 2 vols. post Bvo., with numerous Illustrations,
price lids. bound,
THE SPORTSMAN !IN IRELAND,
and SCOTLAND.
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-streat.
• ." To be had of all Booksellers.

THE NEW NOVEL.
Just ready, in 3 vols. T
post Bvo.,
E It NESI N E;
Or, the CHILD of MYSTERY.

By A LADY of FASHION.
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street
To be had at all the Libraries.

THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN.
UNDER THE MANAGEMENT OF MADAME

VESTRIS,
THIS EVENING, APRIL 30,
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

Sir John Falstaff, Mr. Bartley ; Master Slender, Mr. C. Ma-
thews ; Ford, Mr. Cooper ; Fenton, Mr. W. Harrison ; Mrs.
Ford, Mrs. Nisbett ; Mrs. Page, Madame Vestris ; Ann Page.
Miss Rainforth, Mrs. Quickly, Mrs. C. Jones.
After which will be repeated, the entirely New and Original
Grand Comic, Romantic, Operatic, Melodramatic, Fairy
Eximaragansa, in Three Parts, entitled end founded on that
popular Nursery Tale,
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY IN THE WOOD.
The Principal Characters by Mr. Harley, Mr. J. Vining,
Mr. J. Bland, Madame Veetris, Mies Rainforth, Mrs. C.
Jonas, Sm. he.

Brass Boxes, 7s. ; Second Price, 3s. 6d.; First and Second
Cirelos, be. ' • Sooond Price, 2s. 6d. ; Pit, 35.; Second Price,
21. • esilery, Is.
Doors to be opened at half-put Six—the performances to
mammas at Seven o'Clock.

Tisk,le and plates for the Ilexes to be taken at the Box-0-
es, fres Ten till Four, where Season Tickets may be had
apoeapistiaation.

Privisie Sews to be kad solely of Mr. Andrews, bookseller,
1117, New Bard-street.

ROYAL OLYMPIC THEATRE.
EMIR THE MANAGEMENT OF MR. BUTLER.
THE HOUSE OF LADIES having been received with
unanimouae applause by crowded houses, will be repeated (to-
gether with " The Ladies' Club") every Evening until the end
of the Season.

THIS EVENING, APRIL 30,
Will he presented, for the Fifty-first time,
THE LADIES' CLUB.
Fitnemyth (the Chairwoman), Mrs. Stirling.
To be followed by
THE HOUSE OF LADIES.
Mrs. Fitatewayth (Member for Chatterton)—Mrs. Stirling.
Mrs. Morton (Member for Smallborough)-3liss Atkinson.
Rookiiy (Member for Edroondsbury—bliss Treble.
Mrs. Derby (Member for Melton)—Alias Fitswalter.
Mrs. O'Donnell (Member fer Donnybrook).—Alias Ayres.
Mrs. Natio (Secretary for the Fashionable Department).,
Miss Stephens.
Mr.. Twankay Garrick.
Fancy, Miss Beachamp. Time, Mr. Edmonds.
After which,
THE BUDGET OF BLUNDERS.
Dr. Snugface, Mr. Wild ; Dr. Daidaneour, Mr. 11. Barnett ;
Bridget, Miss Ayres.
To mole& with the New and Original Drama (by the author
of " The Ladies' Club"), called
GWYNNETH VAUGHAN.
sawynneth Vaughan, Mrs. Stirling ;
OWN& Williams, Mr. Baker ; Evan Pritchard, Mr. Hell;
Hugh Morgan, Mr. G. Wild.
Boxes, 4s. Pit, 2a. Gallery, ls.

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.
The Theatre has been entirely Re-Decorated, and embellished
in a novel and tasteful styli, during the Recess.
The Three New Pisces have met with tumultuous approbation
from erowded audiences, and will be repeated every evening.
THIS EVENING, APRIL 30,
ITTII be sated an entirely New Village Tragedy, illustrating
Horerth's eelebrated " Harlot's Progress," entitled
TIE LIFE OF A WOMAN; OR, THE CURATE'S
DAUGHTER.
After which, a New Comic Drama, sailed
THE WET NURSE.
Ts eaushide with an entirely New Romance, entitled
THE VENETIAN ; OR, THE COUNCIL OF TEN.
The Seenery comprising some of the most splendid Views vs
Venice.

NISH WATER AT LONDON ,BRIDGE Tlll-11•KROW.
Morning 17 minutes after 1 1 Evening 45 minutes after .

lit. Paidiosoi on of tho Evening Edition of TNE $v Can-
amused at 10 aniLatos after Throe.

- 3,4*.

Zbt -ianx.

curiosity in its way, and ought to be engraven on a
brick from one of the Pyramids of Egypt, to be pre-
served among the mouldering treasures of the So-
ciety of Antiquaries. Mr. PALMER does not
propose to ask the House of Commons to express
any opinion about either the morality or the expe-
diency of the traffic in opium. His motion says
nothing about discouraging the growth of the
poppy ; or about placing Liles name on the Pen-
sion List while he lives, and in the Rubric after
his death, to figure, not with martyrs or confessors,
but with saintly conquerors and heroes. All Mr.
G. PALMER wants the House of Commons to do
is simply to resolve that if payment for the confis-
cated opium be refused, the refusal is not to con-
stitute a justification for hostilities against China.
When Commodore ELLIOT, at the head of a Bri-
tish squadron, arrives in the Chinese waters, Mr. G.
PALMER does not object to his asking for the
money in a civil fashion, He may pen a respect-
ful Memorial to the Commissioner, transmit it to
LIN through the humble agency of the Hong,
wait in the outside waters for three months for an
answer from Pekin, and, on receiving a refusal, make
his best bow to the nearest Mandarin, and quietly
return home again. Should the gallant Officer have
acted differently, and by a few hard knocks have
compelled the EMPEROR to pay the money, Mr.
PALMER, by implication, has the modesty to pro-
pose to pledge the House to refund it, leaving our
merchants to pocket the loss of their millions, and
the Government to defray the expense of the Chinese
expedition I

That the proposed motion is purely factious is
known by looking at it. Mr. PALMER and his
party know right well that the justification of a
war with China rests not upon the question whether
she shall pay, or refuse to pay, for the illegally
confiscated drug. That is but one item in a long
catalogue of grievances. The Hon. Gentleman
must also know that the question will be settled, so
far as regards war or peace, long before any decision
of the House of Commons can reach China ; so
that any vote on the part of the House, at so late
a period of the proceedings, would be exceedingly
preposterous.

The cant of the pretended morality-mongers in
• the House of Commons, and in the public press,
about the opium traffic, begins to excite general
disgust. The importation of 40,000 chests of
opium into China in one year, is to be regretted, as
indicating the general use of a pernicious
stimulant ; but, surely, the inhabitants of a
country which imports annually about seven
millions of gallons of ardent spirits, exclusive of
immense quantities of wine, and the intoxicating
produce of almost countless distilleries and brewe-
ries, ought to look to the state of morality at home
before travelling so far as China. According to
the Parliamentary Returns, there was imported into
the British isles in 1838 of rum 4,612,416 gal-
lons, of brandy 2,088,452 gallons, and of gin
290,862 gallons, exclusive of the whiskey, gin,
and malt liquors brewed and distilled in England,
Scotland, and Ireland. Now the extract of the
poppy is quite as natural, and not a jot more perni-
cious as a stimulant to the inhabitants of China,
and the adjoining nations, as is a glass of gin to a
denizen of Wapping, or a glass of whiskey to a
Dublin coal-heaver or a Scotch drover. It has,
moreover, been calculated that 40,000 chests of
opium would not afford one whiff in the day to the
opium smokers of China ; whereas, in moral Eng-
land, what limit is there to the indulgence of the
drunkard save the emptiness of his purse and the
want of credit ? He may drink himself blind,
morning, noon, and night, if he bring himself to
disregard the physical consequences following the
action of intoxication upon himself. Heaven
knows we are bad enough without adding hypo-
crisy to the catalogue of our national vices. While
there is such a place as BELLAMY'S at the door of
the House of Commons—while the very roof of
that House covers a tavern, where, if there is no
opium smoked there is brandy drunk—and not un-
frequently in rather immoderate quantities by our le-
gislators—let us, in the name of common honesty
and consistency, avoid canting, and the indulgence
of our fancies in drawing caricature representations
of the abuse of opium.

A correspondence has been sent to us for publi-
cation, which has taken place between the
Home Depaitment and the Secretary of the
London Committee for procuring the pardon
of Messrs. FROST and WILLIAIis, relative to
policemen being sent to watch their proceedings ;
but as it is of considerable length, while the facts
it states are few, we must decline publishing the
correspondence, while, for the general information,
we feel bound to state the facts.

The first letter, is written by Mr. DYSON, the
Secretary of the Committee, to Lord NORMANBY,
stating that on March 17, two policemen, in plain
clothes, entered the Committee-room in the Arundel
Coffee-house, Strand, and refused to give their
name and address, which every ether person present
gave, and were then requested to withdraw, which
they did. On March 31, the same policemen at-
tended in uniform, and requested permission to be
present as witnesses of the proceedings of the Com-
mittee. They stated that they acted under the
direction of superior authority. The sense of the
meeting was taken on the propriety of acceding to
their request, which being favourable, they
were allowed to remain. The Secretary, after
stating these facts to Lord NOBMANBY, added
that the Society was conscious of pursuing
a just and legal object, and requested that the Noble
Lord would not permit them to be further annoyed

by the surveillance of the police. They also ap-
pointedfANß ;and the lettdeputationerPHlLLlPS,wait
answer oft ill;.
to this letter of Mr. Dysori, is politely
to decline
seeing the deputation.
The Secretary again wrote to Lord NORMANBY
on April 21, stating that the policemen had again
obtruded themselves on the meeting of the Com-
mittee, when it was resolved that the Committee
objected to the presence of the police, who with-
drew ; and that it was then further resolved, in
order to avoid being entrapped, that no person
should come to the meeting with any offensive
weapon whatever, and whoever did should be ex-
pelled. The Secretary also described at length the
objects of the Committee, quoted the address it
had issued to the people of England, and again
requested that the Noble Lord would receive a de-
putation from the Committee. The second letter
from the Home-office, signed by Mr. MAIILE,
said Lord NORMANDY was unable to appoint any
time for receiving the deputation. Such is the
substance of the correspondence.
We cannot blame the Marquis of NORMANDY
for not receiving the deputation, for the Secretary
of State might have nothing else to do were he to
receive every person or deputation wlio applies to
him. He must be left to the exercise of his discre-
tion as to whom he will receive, and only on sow.
very sufficient reason will we question that exercise.
We quite exonerate the Noble Marquis also from
any knowledge, till informed by the communication
of the Secretary, that the Committee was placed
under surveillance ; and when informed of it we
can readily suppose that the Home Secretary might
not conceive it his duty to give positive instructions
to the Commissioners of Police to abstain from
sending the policemen to the meeting;; of the Com•
mittee. The Home Secretary must confide to a

great extent in the discretion of the Commissioners,
and he cannot give them precise directions as to every
meeting which is held. We blame the Commissioners,
or those who employed the policemen, though at the
same time we must state that, as they are made re-
sponsible for the preservation of the peace, they
must be allowed the means of accomplishing their
task. Chiefly we blame the system, which, being
founded on a want of confidence in the people—
which, essaying to regulate all the parts of the com-
munity, as if society, the creation of the Almighty,
were like a regiment of dragoons or the etiquette of
a Court, the creation of man, must meddle with
every p art ; and men in authority can never for one
moment be satisfied that all is right unless they or
their servants are everywhere.
For a long time the country has prosecuted war
successfully, and great masses of the popula-
tion, particularly of the aristocracy, have been
drilled into military habits. Her statesmen have
been taken from among her Generals, and the in-
fluence of the soldiery in her councils has caused
the establishment of a military police. Now every
part of an army—an instrument for a General to
work with—must be regulated and controlled by
him ; but society is not an instrument for either a
General or a Legislator to work with, and it is a
fatal mistake to dream of applying the principles of
military life to;any other part of society than the army
itself. The consequences are obvious in the facts
we have stated. The Commissioners of Police
being military men, and imbued with military ideas,
must be informed of and must control everything ;
hence the employment of spies, hence a general
system of surveillance, hence the rural gendarme-
rie, and hence, as the necessary consequence, a
system of passports, which will come next. It will
be most unjust towards the rural police to make
the few men who are scattered through the agricul-
tural districts responsible for the security of pro-
perty or persons, unless they be authorised to question
travellers as to whence they come, End whither they
are going, or require them to prove by a passport
that they are good and true men.
At present it is only a Committee to procure
the remission of the sentence on FROST, WIL-
LIAMS, and JONES, which is exposed to 'the
surveillance of the PolicO and as they
are very generally condemned, the unusual and un-
constitutional proceedings taken as to this Commit-
tee, are not likely to be censured—or they may even
be approved of. But if Colonel ROWAN and Lord
NORMANBY be justified in sending policemen as
spies into this Committee, why should not Sir
JAMES GRAHAM, were he in office, send spies to
a Committee of Anti-Corn-law Delegates ? Or
why may not Lord STANLEY, or Sir H. HAR.
DINGE, or Sir E. KNATCHBULL, when either of
them shall be in office, send spies into meetings
or committees to promote household suffrage, pro-
cure the reduction of the Army, or oppose the ex-
tension of the Church ? The blow is now aimed
at the Chartists, but it strikes at the professors of
every political opinion. It is levelled against the
lower classes, but, prostrating them, it will prostrate
every other class before the police. There was a
time when such facts as we have stated, and
such consequences as we have shown flow
from our present Frenchified military central-
izing system, would have aroused the man-
hood of the empire. Two-thirds of the press would
then have breathed words of fire, and kindled the
nation almost into rebellion. But we live in other
times, when fear of the masses overweighs every sen-
timent of confidence, and will make the middle
classes, we are afraid, approve of spies, approve of
every meeting being subjected to surveillance, and will
make them submit to the employment of passports,
whenever that shall be proposed, as necessary to
the proper working of our police system, intended
for the protection of life and property. We say
intended, for with the vivid recollection we now
have of several murders committed in this metro-
polis since the police was established, the authors
of which have not been detected, we cannot say
that it protects life, but to this system intended to
protect life and property, liberty, which "lends to
life its lustre and perfume," will, we are afraid, be
sacrificed.

We copy the following paragraph from the
Times of yesterday, which inserts it as from its
own Dublin Correspondent :

"The Rev. Mr. Smithe, assistant chaplain of the
Molyneux Asylum, preached last night upon the
crucifixion of our Saviour, what he suffered and
why he suffered, the atonement and its final cause.
The Rev. Preacher, after expatiating upon the bene-
fits resulting to society from the dissemination of
pure Scriptural Christianity, and showing that such
a religion was the best basis of rational government
and social freedom, proceeded to comment upon the
close connection between infidelity and treason. The
man who rebelled against his God was always
ready on the first pretence to rebel against his King.
The Rev. Gentleman then, after an apology for in-
troducing the shocking anecdote he was about to
state, yet said that if it should go forth and con-
vince one unhappy Chartist, who had not as yet
renounced his Saviour, the anecdote would not be
told in vain. When the three late convicts were
on their way by sea to the port where they were to '
he put on board the convict ship, they were over-
taken by a storm so great as to excite apprehensions
of danger, during which time Jones, the convict,
was loudly expressing his anxious wish that they
might all go to the bottom together. This might
be the frenzy of despair, but the worst remained to
be told. Among the papers of Frost, the leader of
the Chartists, was found one, a coloured print, re-
presenting our Saviour upon the cross, and at the
bottom of it this blasphemous inscription-.-" This
is the man who was hanged for stealing an ass."
Mr. Smithe gave as his immediate authority an of-
ficer of the 19th Regiment, a stated member of
that congregation, and who had heard it from a
brother officer of the same regiment, who had the
conduct and custody of the three Chartists to the
convict ship."
We can comprehend why a zealot—for a zealot
has no reason, and no discretion—should, on the
mere assertion of one officer, who heard it from
another officer, be utterly careless how he calum-
niates and injures an absent, a very unfortunate,
and, we think, a guilty man ; but cannot either
comprehend why a newspaper should give insertion
to such a paragraph, except to show its baseness,
or excuse its insertion. If the Rev. Mr. SMITHE
could have produced some authority for the story
better than hearsay, we should have blamed his
zeal in throwing dirt on a banished man. If the
Times possessed undoubted evidence of the correct-
ness of his statement, instead of its being the as-
sertion of a zealot, believed on hearsay at
third hand, it would have been cruel to
publish such an assertion of Mr. FROST.
Even were the person of whom such a tale is told
present and capable of explaining or refuting the
statement, it would be criminal to raise such a pre-
judice against him, for the refutation might not fall
into the hands of all who read the insinuation. But
to publish such a hearsay statement of an absent
man, already suffering a severe punishment, and
very generally condemned by the public, seems to
us wholly inexcusable. If it be intended to fix on
Mr. FROST by such evidence the stigma of un-
belief, and trample on him, now down-stricken and
helpless, such conduct in the clergyman and his
abettors, the writer and editor, in our judgment, '
justly deserves the name of infamous.

The Tories exalt, we see, at having in one or
two places carried the election of a Churchwarden,
an officer whose peculiar duties make many con.