The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-10 00:00:00

THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE TWO COURTS.

The Town Clerk int' rmed the Court that he had
been directed by the committee of the whole Court of
Common Council to apply for a copy of the opinion of
counsel on the Qualification Bill upon the case submitted
by the Court of Aldermen.
Alderman HUMPHERY—I move that the case, and the
opinion be at once supplied to the committee.
Alderman WILSON wished to be informed with wiat
object the committee made such an application.—(Hear.)
Alderman FAREBROTHER said he should decidedly
oppose the motion. If the proper time had arrived he
should entertain no objection to give to the committee
copies of any cases and opinions they might have re.
ceived, but he understood the committee of the whole
Court were about to draw up a case of their own and to
obtain opinions upon it, and it might be expedient that
the Court of Aldermen should see shat that case, and
these opinions were, before they produced their own.
Besides the Recorder, who was cne of the authorities to
whom the question was submitted was not present.—
(11,ar, hear.) He trusted that so amicable an arrange-
ment might be made between the two Uourts as would
identify the cases and opini.:ns of both.
Sir CHAPMAN MARSHALL deprecated the notion of
withholding from the committee what they were most
undoubtedly entitled to as part of the corporation. If
they had reas-n to be asham,A of an, thing that might
be an excuse for refusal, but the imnutation ought not
to be allowed to go torth to the public, that they were
afraid to exhibit their proceedings. For his own psrt he
was per3,u,ded th,t the more the proceedings of the
Court were known the more would the body be re-
spected.
Alderman FAREBROTHER was of opinion that. the
Court would exercise sound judgment in keeping back
for a time the ease and opinion.

Alderman WILSON thought the application was.not
made in the friendly spirit calculated to give it effieacy.
It was understood that the Committee of the whole
Court meant to go for a decision to the Queen's Bench,
and would thus come into collision with the Court of
Aldermen. Under such circumstances, it would be
a serious mistake to supply an adverse party with
materials to carry on the contest.
Alderman Woon thought such suspicions adapted to
dissipate all chances of amicable arrangements, and that
the refusalof the modest request of the Committee of
the whole Court, to be furnished with the case and
opinions so essentially necessary to both branches of the
Corporation would be injurious in an extreme degree.--
(Hear, hear.) They were all, it was to be presumed,
aiming at the accomplishment of a pubic good, and
instead of withholding information from each other,
they were bound especially to supply all facts likely to
be made subject to argument and discussion. There
should be no concealment, no apparent encouragement
to a disgraceful system of chicanery.—(llear, hear.)
The subject ought not to be treated as one involving the
interests of private persons.
Alderman CorELAND thought differently. In his
opinion, the question ought to be treated strictly as
a matter between individuals. The conduct pursued by
the Common Council manifested a strong tendency to
personalities of a nature not very equivocal, and cer-
tainly placed them in the light of adversaries to whom
it would not be at all beneficial to yield any advantage.
—(hear, hear.)

. .
Sir PETER LAURIE was sorry to hear Alderman
Copeland designate the Common Council as adver-
saries to the Court of Aldermen. He by no means
looked upon the two Courts as opposed to each other.
They were mutually dependent upon and supported by
each other. All the intorm.i.tion they possessed was on
their records, and it was absurd in one branch of the
Corporation to attempt to withhold any portion of that
information from the other, particularly as the voice of
the public, by whore opinion both Courts were and
ought to be governed— (Cries of " No, no," and
" Hear, hear")—was decided upon it.
Alderman NIUSGROVE considered that the application
of the Committee of the whole Court showed a dispo-
sition in the members of the Common Council to conci-
liation, and he thought it would he wise to refer the
subject to a Committee, with power to consult the
Itecordi r and the other legal authority who had given
his opinion upon the c isc, as to the propriety of deliver-
ing a copy to the Committee of the whole Court.—
(Hear.) Alderman Musgrove moved an amendment to
that effect. _ .

Alderman IIumPHERY, who was called upon to with-
draw the original motion, peremptorily refused to do so.
lie insisted that the whole of the Corporation should be
trade acquainted with the case and ovinions. lie could
not understand why the Court was alarmed at exhibit-
ing their case. If it wore good, then there could be no
ground for not adopting it ; and if it were bad, the
sooner it wa, got rid ~f the beAer.
Alderman CuaLis approved of submitting the matter
to a Committee, and the amendment was finally adopted
by 10 to 5.

ABOLITI,N OF TRANSPORTATION, &C.

Alderman COPELAND took the opprtuntty, afar the
Remembrancer had stated the procee,iings in Patios
ment by which the city of Lund .n was 1;1(..ly to be
effected, to call the attention of th.- Court to a subjrc-
which he considered to be of the greatest importance to
the social interests of the country— he ro, ant the abuli
Lion of the penalty of transportation.—(ll, sr. hear.)
He recommended tilt-, attentive perusal of L,rd Denman',
speech to all who wished for the sound.-st views upon
the great theme of the punishment of eriminals.—(llear,
hear) He begged also to draw the atten ion of the
Court to the projected measure for the removal of
Smithfield market, and he represented the necessity of
obtaining all the information connected with the profits
arising from that market preparatory to opposition.
Sir PETER LAURIE said that no man possessed more
profound knowledge on the subject or the puniAment
of criminals than the high authority quoted by Aldka-
man Copeland. Ile was delighted to find that Lord
Denman and Lord Brougham were earnestly engaged in
investigating matters of such importance to all society,
and he hoped that amongst the changes which were to
take place, the disgraceful practise of sentencing crimi-
nals to punishments which they well knew themselves
they could not be subjected to would be put an end to.
Alderman Woon condemned in very strong terms the
plan adopted in Millbank prison, which PA considered to
be governed upon the principle of the most perfect con-
tempt of the lives and reformation of the wretched crea-
tures confined within its walls. It was not long since
the public feeling was outraged by the history of an ex-
hibition of military flogging. That scene did not sur-
pass the punishment inflicted upon a prisoner confined
in the Bastile Penitentiary, where it appeared, from the
late returns, twenty of the inmates had attempted sui-
cide, and four had succeeded in destroying themselves._
(Hear, hear.) Alderman Wood proceeded to enumerate
the cases of rigid punishment to which the returns re-
ferred, and said that while such a system existed it was
absurd in Englishmen to talk of the revolting instances
of suffering in the French Bastile, which that of Mil-
bank equalled in horrors.

Alde.rman SIDNEY differed from those who had pre-
ceded him. He considered that Alderman Wood had
taken a very exaggerated view of the evils of the Mill-
bank penitentiary, and had charged persons with inhu-
manity who were really specimens of charity and kind
feeling. He insisted that the congregated plan as
to prisoners was the sure mode of preventing the possi-
bility of reformation, and he regretted to be obliged to
say that one of the City prisons still afforded evidence
of all the evils which spring up amongst the most aban-
doned criminals, who were huddled together to expiate
their delinquencies.
Alderman CHALLIS, as Sheriff, and constant visitor of
the City prisons, denied the accuracy of Alderman Sid-
ney's statements, at the same time that he gave that
gentleman every credit for sincerity, and for the purest
desire to benefit his fellow creatures.—(Hesr, hear.)
The RECORDER said, with reference to the alleged
ins fficacy of transportation, that in his opinion that in-
efficacy aros from the want of a proper system abroad.
H. re the conversation dropped.
THE ATTORNEYS OF THE MAYOR'S COURT.

The RECORDER, in alluding to the case brought by
Mr. Ashurst, for the purpose of establishing his right of
prdcti-ing us an attorney of the Mayor's Court, upon the
ground that he practised in one of the Courts above, re-
marked that the gentlemen who had been so long prac-
tising exclusively in ►he Ma} or's Court, were certainly
entitled to receive all the money they had paid to the
orporation for their places.—Adjourned.

LLOYD'S SHIPPING.
LONDON, MARCH 9.—Wind N.W., fresh breeze and fine.
DgAL, Manor B.—Wind N. to N.N.W.—SId. Hugh,
Walker, China; Nemesis, Calcutta; Elizabeth, Hughes, St.
Jago de Cuba; Maria, Virginia; Caroline, Norfolk; Ceure,
New York.
JERSEY, MARCH 3. —Sid. Elizabeth, Havannah.
BRISTOL, MARCH B.—Wind N. E,—Arid. Rebanee, Crowell,
St. John's, N.B.
NEWPORT, MARCH B.—Wind E.N.E.—Sld_ Admiral Price,
Grenada.
LIVERPOOL, Kano' B. Wind N. to N.N.W., fresh.— Arrd.
Wallace, Main, Callao. Sid. Standard, Demerara; Salem,
New Orleans; Liberty, New York. Off port, Albert Edward,
China; Catherine, Valparaiso.
Hutt, MARCH B.—Wind N. E.—Sld. Sovereign, St. John's,
New Brunswick.
CORK, MARCH 6.—Sld. Benin, Africa; Margaret, Rundle,
New York.
LamEruch:, 111micit 7.—Wind E.—Sld. Spring Flower,
New Orleans.
GALWAY, MARCH 4.—Arrd. Chieftain, Duffy, St. John's,
New Brunswick. Sid. 2d, Pactolus, New York; Susan,
Charleston.
SHEERNESS, MARCH B.—The brig Ann, of South Shields,
grounded on the Maplin Sand lakit night ; assistance has
been sent.

MAncll G.—The York, London to Selby, at
anchor, was in contact with the Friends, and received some
damage.

DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.—It is confidently
stated, by persons who ought to be well-informed on the
subject, that the present Parliament will be brought to a
close by means of a di,solution about the end of June, or the
beginning of July. The registration returns are mentioned
as being in the opinion of the Government, sufficiently in its
favour to justify this appeal to the country.—Post.
DE kTII OF WILLIAM HAIG, ESQ., PROCURATOR-
FiscAL, (11..isnow —We regret to record the death of Wil-
liam Haig, Esq., Procurator-Fiscal of this city, by typhus
fever, on Thursday morning last, in the 50th year of his age.
Mr. Haig was appointed fiscal of the[city, by the first Reform
Municipal Corporation, in the year 1833; so he held office
during the uninterrupted period of thirteen years. He was a
kind-hearted man. The generosity of his nature sometimes
interfered with the strict discharge of his official duty; but
he was always at his post, at the police-office, on Mun day
ruing, and throughout the week, We saw him offictatirg
there in apparently good health within the last ten days; but
he has been suddenly cut off, we are afraid, by contagion in
the public:service, in the vigour of ha life.—Scotch
Be-
forinsrs Gautte.