The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-25 00:00:00

COURT OF REQUESTS.

On Saturday a nuarercus Melting of the Commis-
sioeeis of the %Vhitechapel Court of Requests, was
held in their huge rood) in Osborn-greet, in consequence
of one of their body, Mr. Brushfield, being some time
ago served with notice of action for false imprisonment,
and to consider the best means of providing the neces-
sary funds for defending such action.
It appears that some six or seven weeks ago Mr.
Jeremiah John Kelly, landlord of the Black Horse
public-house, in Shade ell, had been summoned before
the Commissioners of the Court for a sum of money
alleged to be due to the members of a musical band,
who had been engaged to play for the members of
Mr. Hutchinson's Committee, during the last election
for the Tower Hamlets. On the hearing of the case,
the claimants swore they were hired by Mr. Kelly, who
was en active member of Mr. Hutchinson's Committee,
and, therelorerthey looked to him for pay meat. Mr.
Kelly, in reply, denied the hiring of the band, but ad-
mitted at the salve time they gave their services for two
days to the cause of Mr. Hutchinson, and he (Mr.
Hutchinson) should in justice pay elem.
The applican's, however, repented they had been en-
gaged by Mr. Kelly, and the Commissioners, in con-
sequence, made, an order on him for the payment.
Mr. Kelly feeling annoyed at what he considered
an improper decision, got into a great passion, and ad-
dressing Mr. Brushfield, who had taken the most pro.
minent part in the hearing of the case, told him; with
some warmth, he was as good a man as he was, and
that they would meet somewhere else.
Mr. Brushfield considering this, from the tone and
manner in which it had been expressed, not only an in-
sult to the dignity of the Court, but in the nature of a
personal threat towards himself, ordered Gregory, one
of the officers of the Court, to take him into custody.
Mr. Kelly was accordingly taken into custody, and
several of the Commissioners requested he would make
an apology, but he refused to offer any unless one of a
very qualified description, and Mr. Brushfield, feeling
dissatisfied with it, appealed to Mr. Lang, a solicitor,
who is one of the clerks of the Court. That gentle.
man recommended 11:s (Mr. Kelly's) removal to-Lam-
beth-street Police Court, and he was accordingly taken
there and charged by Mr. Brushfield with a want of
proper courtesy towards the Court, and the threat to-
wards himself. On referring to the authorities upon
the subject, Mr. Norton discovered he hal no jurisdic-
tion in the matter, and that the Commissioners had
by their own Act, the only power of punishing par-
ties under such dircumstances, as it enacted, " that if
any persen or
,poesone shall contemptuously and wilfully
insu:t or" ebusea4of the said Commissioned or any of
the officers oftlie said Court during its proceedings, it shall
be lawful fir the beisdleof the Court to take such person or
'petsans,by order of the said Commissioners, into custody
and the said Commissioners shall then examine into
such insult, &c., on oath, and upon such nsult, abuse,
or misbehaviour being duly proved, it shall and may be
lawful to and for the said Commissioners to impose a
fine not exceeding al. for each and every such offence
The clause, then empowers them to issue a warrant of
distress on the goods of such person, and if he has none,
to commit him to the House of Correction for two
months.

Mr. Lang, finding the dilemma he was placed in,
ordered his officer to take Mr. Kay back to the Court-
house to be dealt with by the Commissioners, but Mr.
Kelly refused to comply with the request, and told the
beadle of the Court that if he attempted to take him
back, he must take the consequences, as ha was not
legally in custody. The beadle took the hint, and Mr.
Kelly lia3 allowed to go at large, and he has since
brought an action against Mr. Brusbficld for false im-
prisonmect.
After some discussion, it was moved and seconded
tut the expense of Celonding tha action be defrayed
out of the funds of the Court. Mr. Waite, one of tele
Commissioners, strenuously opposed the proposition,
and urged that, as Mr. Lang bad been allowed a very
liberal salary as one of the legal advisers of the Court,
and had led the Court into error, he should pay the
expenses out of his own pocket. Mr. Waite also urged
that the funds from which it was intended to defend the
action were barely suffieient to pay the officers ; and
that, therefore, it would be unjust to med,lle with them
for this purpose. The proposition was, boweier, car-
ried, Mr. Waite's being the only hand held up against it.

CHARTISTS AND CORN-LAWS.
- There are very few persons who can see an inch
before their noses, who have been induced to believe
that the Corn-law does not greatly augment and aggra-
vate the distress of the poorer classes, even supposing
they think that the distress primarily arises out of other
and deeper causes in • the constitution and government
el society. Weil, then, if this be so, why, in the name
of common sense, should any men be so stupid as to
play the game of the plunderers, by checking or divert-
ing the assault that is now being made upon
them, through the sides of this bread-tax, by the
"League ;" and, above SP, why should any be so
ill-mannered and so barbarous as to force themselves
into meetings called for the purpose of increasing
the opposition to the bread-tax, and by noise
and riot put a stop to the proceedings ? If there be
any who do not approve of the object for which such
meetings are called, they have, no doubt, the right of
going thither, of stating their reasons for not approving,
and of moving such resolutions as they may deem fit-
ting for carrying out their own purpose. But lam
now speaking of persons who are opposed to the Corn-
law—who look upon it as a most unjust and iniquitous
thing, employed by the landowners to take from eighty
to a hundred millions a year out of the pockets of the
rest of the country, and at the same time to limit, in an
almost incredible degree, the fields for our national in-
dustry and enterprise. Fur such persons to do any-
thing which tends to perpetuate this law, is the excess
of stupidity.
I may be told that the object. which these persons
have in disturbing the Corn-law meetings is misrepre-
sented. Their object is not to up/old the Corn-law,
but to obtain the Charter. Is it ? Then it is much
to be desired that they would adopt a more rational
plan of procedure. It does not say much in favour
of their notions of the Charter, that they may imagine
noise and rioting to be the fitting me ins for obtaining
it. No ; the Charter needs and will have no such
auxiliaries as these. At the time when there was rea-
son to believe that the Chartists could, by their num-
bers and their moral character, influence the
public mind, it was all • very right and proper
for them to mike Anti-Corn-law meetings, or any other
meetings, contributive to their great object, by di-
recting the attention of the public to the chief cause of the
Caen-law iniquity, and of most other iniquities we suffer
from ; namely, to the imperfect constitution of the
House of Commons, and the vices of class legislation.
But that influence is, for the present, lost ; and it has
been lost, moreover, by the folly ar d wickedness of the
very same description of persons as those who are new,
on the plea of serving the cause of Chartism, disgusting
all reasonable and right-feeling people, by their indecent
intrusion and violent conduct at the - Anti, Corn-law
meetings.
We believe there is but little fear that the example
of such men as these will have any influence upon the
working classes generally. If a sense of interest did
not induce them to repudiate such proceedings, their
sense of decorum, and their general good and correct
feeling, would do so.—Carperder's Weekly Political
Letter.

NAVAL INTk:LIAGENCE. - •
(From the Hampshire Telegraph.)
The Styx swam frigate. Captain Vidal, which arrived
on Sunday, sailed on Wednesday, with his Excellency
Sir Charles Begot, the Governor-General of Canada,
and suite, on board. She anchored in Yarmouth Roads
that night,- and proceeded on Thuraday morning.
The Volcano, steam-vessel,
_Tdetit. West, arrived yes-
terday from Woolwich, and proceeded the same day for
the Mediterranean, touching at Plymouth.
Captain Purvis is to hoist his blue pendent in the
Alfred, 50 guns, and not in the Fox as at first intended.
The Illustrious, 72, has had her complement of men
increased to 628. She is to receive on board 140 super-
numeraries, for distribution among the ships on the station
to which she is destined, and is to be got ready for sea
with all despatch.—The Comet steamer arrived on Wed-
nesday, from the Eastward, with volunteers, having been
some days blocked up in Newhaven Harbour, by the
shingle thrown up by the gales.—The Prospero steamer
conveyed volunteer seamen frOm Pembroke to Plymouth
on Monday. Lieut; Ellicombe, of the Excellent, has been
sent to Gloucester to raise landsmen for the ships fitting
out.—The complement to he borne by the Queen, 110, is
fixed to be 900. Of these there are to be 1.3 boys of the
first class, and 18 of the second. She is to bear only one
_clerk, being a reduction of one.=-The Siren, 16, Com-
mander W. Smith, was taken out of the basin, at Wool-
. wich,- on,Tuesday, and, it is understood, will leave in a
few days for China.--The Apollo troop-ship is forthwith
to be paid 'off, and will be re-commissioned by a Corn-
matter, for a special service.—The Thunderer survey-
ing vessel sailed from the Little Nore on Friday at noon,
and was riding in the Downs last evening, with about
120 sail of merchantmen.- Wind from S. to
blowing hard. The Thunderer left Chatham on Thurs-
day.—The
Numa transport is about to-embark, at Wool-
with, Captain Kendall's company of Royal Artillery, for
Barbadoes. She will also take out detachments to com-
plete the companies in the Windward and Leeward Islands.
Sir George Seymour and the Right Hon. H. T. L.
Corry, Lords of the Admiralty, accompanied by Captain
Brandreth, having inspected the Naval Departments
here, left on 'Tuesday for .Plymouth. They travelled by
land, though the Firebrand, steamer yacht, was waiting
on -them,the weather being very boisterous..
The eyser steam-vessel, fitted withhcr machinery by •
Messrs. Seaward and Co., is ready for trial, and will
leave Limehouse in a few days for She'erness..- _
The Emerald, tender, sailed on Wednesday
.for Brid-
port and• Poole for newly4aised Men ' • and the Rapid, 10,
on the following day, ,for Cork and Waterford, .for the
same purpose.
The St. -James, New York packet, arrived at Shithead
yesterday in the short space of 27 hours from the Lon
don Docks, a distance of 242 miles—one-third the dis-
tance in an easterly, and two-thirds in a\vesterly direction.
In Harbour—St. Vincent, Victory, Queen, .Excellent,
Illustrious, Vindictive, Warspite, Madagascar, I3elvidera,
Royal George, North Star, Driver, Hazard, Pantaloon,
Viper, Apollo troop-ship, Echo, Alban, Sylvia, and
Mercury.
A diving apparatus has, this summer, been set to work
off Cape Bear, Prince Edward's Island, to raise the guns
and shot, thrown overboard from the Malabar, about two
years since. Eighteen guns had been weighed and sent
to Halifax, with several shot, and the 'remainder. will be
recovered next summer.
Messrs. Lang, Fincham; and Atkins, it appears, have
surveyed, in the last fortnight, thirty-three ships in the
ordinary at this port, notwithstanding the tempestuous
state of the weather, blowing and raining every day
more or less ; these officers have previously visited
Sheerness .and Chatham, and examined the ordinary at
each port ; they will now proceed to Plymouth on a
similar service, having been selected by the Admiralty
fur the purpose.
PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS.
PROMOTION.—Second Master—The intrepidity of Mr.
George Hodges, second master of the Warspite, which
we recorded last week, in saving a lad from being
drowned, has been to-day rewarded by his promotion
to the rank of Master.
APPOINTMENTS.—Captain —Thomas Ogle, to the
Southampton, vice William Hillyur.
Commander—George Knyvett Wilson, to the Cam-
bridge.
Lieutenants James Saunderson, to the Malabar; G.
Kenyon, to the Madagascar ; H. Wellington, to be Flag
Lieutenant to Sir Edward Owen ; E. Sotheby, from the
Madagascar to the Alfred ; John Wildey, to the Sema-
phore. Station, Portsdown Hill, vice Long, to rendezvous,
Douglas, Isle of Man ; David Elliot, to the Siren, vice
Sibbald. •
Mates—R. L. Curtis, to the Cambrian ; E. H. Blake,
to the Excellent ; J. E. Bridges,, to the Madagascar ;
A. C. Kerr, to the Heroine.
Second Master and Pilot—J. Matthews, to the Queen;
J. M. O'Brien, to be senior Second Master of the Apollo.
Clerks—G. S. Singer, to be Secretary's Clerk, and E.
A. Smith, acting additional Clerk, to the Queen.
Volunteers, First Class—G. M. Purvis, to the Howe ;
W. Lowry, to the Queen ; C. Moore, to the Implacable.
Lieut. Hill, of the -Semaphore, near Downton, Wilts,
has been appointed to open a rendezvous for the purpose
of raising volunteers for the• Royal Navy.
Mr. Thomas Gibson is appointed Surgeon-Superin-
tendent of the Somersetshire, convict ship, and Mr.
David Wyge, Surgeou-Superintendent of the John
Brewer, convict ship, both fitting at Deptford.

WOOLWICH-FRWAY.
ROYAL ARTILLERY.

The Numa transport ship is ordered round from Ports-
mouth to,Woolwieh to embark Capt. Kendall's company,
4th. battalion, to Barbadoes. It is expected Captain►
Morg►an's company, Ist battalion, when relieved will re-
turn in the same Vessel.

Ana non-cominiSsioned otEeer and eight gunners and
driverS ernbarkecf:frtnn the Loyal Arsenal on Saturday
morning last in one of the General Steam Navigation
Company's vessels for is passage to Dublin, to complete
the companies at that station.
Detachments to complete the companies in the wind
ward and Leeward Islands will embark in the Numa, with
Captain Kendall's company.
Experiments were carried. on at the Mortar Battery
on Friday with an eight-inch mortar, and a-shell having
a fuze invented by Captain Norton, R.N. None of the
shells exploded, and it is therefore conjectured the fuzes
were a failure.

The Master-General has been pleased to appoint Col.
Lacy. of the Royal Artillery, to be Inspector of the Royal
Carrifige Department, in the room of Sir John May, who
resigns -
_ _ _

Captain Hope's comp:my, with a detachment of Captain
Statlway's company, Ist battalion, relieve the detach-
ment at Purficet to- morrow (Saturday) morning. Capt.
Hope and Lieutenant Shakespeare proceed with the Le-
tachroent.