The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
(From the Globe.)
_ _

Lord Stanley, last night, receded from his declared
purpose of bringing on his measure for Irish disfranchise-
ment on a night appropriated by the invariable custom of
the House of Commons to Bills brought in by
Members of the Government. His Lordship—a cir-
cumstance not very usual with him—called discretion
to his aid, and acquieSced in an arrangement, by which
the necessity of taking a vote on the question of prece-
dence was rendered unnecessary. Lord John Rus-
sell proceeded with the Canada Reserves Bill, and
Lord Stanley's Bill for disfranchising a large propor-
tion of the Irish Electors, by placing numerous obsta-
cles in the way of their exercising the franchise with
which the law has invested them, stands for Friday
next. The remonstrances which have been addressed
to the Liberal members, on the absence of so many of
their number on recent important divisions, have had
the desired effect. The attendance last night was ex-
pressive of a determination on their part not to allow
a repetition of neglect to give even a temporary ad-
vantage to their opponents. To this, in all probability,
was it owing, that Lord Stanley yielded the point far
which it would have been vain to contend.
(From the Standard.)
Last night in the House of Lords, Lord Lyndhurst
put to Lord Melbourne the significant question whether
it was the intention of Ministers to introduce a Bill for '
correcting the errors in the boundary clauses of the Irish
Municipal Bill. Lord Melbourne replied that it was
not. We 'nave already explained to our readers the
position in which this refusal places the Municipal Bill.
The course which Ministers have thought proper to pur-
sue is, to say the least of it, extraordinary. In the first
place they introduced the Irish Municipal Bill imper-
fect, that is, without certain clauses regulating the
boundaries of boroughs, which are necessary to pre-
vent an unfair pressure of taxation on some of the
suburban districts of these boroughs, and they then
proceeded to embody these provisions in a separate
bill; so that their course of legislation was to have two
bills passed in the same session on the same subject,
containing inconsistent, not to say contradictory, provi-
sions. This was in itself strange enough, but this was
not all. These provisions they did not include in a
Bill by themselves, but they sent them up to the House
of Lords, tacking to them provisions relative to taxa-
tion utterly unconnected with the main object of the
Bill, so that the Lords could not adopt these boundary
provisions without, at the same time, assenting to a
measure neither in reason nor fact connected with
them.

(From the Courier.)
We remember reading some years ago in the Journal
du Commerce an able paper on the contagion of suicide,
which was distinctly traced to the mental disorder pro-
duced by the excitement of fearful example, and known
as insanity. In this country we often see the effect pro-
duced upon others by the infliction of self-murder in
some remarkable manner ; thus the death of the female
suicide who threw herself from the Monument was fol-
lowed by another death from the same cause and at the
same place, and by another from the top of a lofty tower
or spire in the country. Great crimes against the lives
of others operate in exactly the same manner ; a kind
of mania for murder becomes epidemic. Witness the
murders that followed the horrible crime of Thurtell,
or more recently those which arc clearly to be traced to
the murder and suicide in Clerkenwell. The murder of
a nobleman, and the notoriety acquired by Courvoisier,
may have exerted considerable influence on a mind pre-
disposed to the kind of insanity which we are consider-
ing, and Oxford may have derived his first impulse from
that melancholy event, and the final one from a morbid
determination to exceed the valet in regard to notoriety.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS in GLASGOW.

While, by the erection of new and elegant buildings,
the city is rapidly stretching itself to the north, south,
and west, we are glad to observe that its adornment
within is not neglected. Several public edifices of con-
siderable architectural beauty are just on the eve of
being completed, and others are in progress, which
will, in a high degree, ornament their respective
localities. On Wednesday, the woikmen began to
lay the foundation of the New British Linen Com-
pany's Bank, a building which, we arc given to
understand, will, when finished, be every way
worthy of the site it is to occupy under the
shadow of our noble Exchange. The new Western
Club is rising up a rich and splendid piece of '
architecture, and promises to be one of the greatest at-
tractions in the leading thoroughfare to the west end of
the city. The Union Bank in Virginia-street, and the
Western Bank in Miller-street, two fine buildings, have,
to a considerable degree, relieved the dulness that has
long pervaded those streets ; and we believe there is
some expectation that the Glasgow and Ship Bank will,
ere long, adorn the top of the former street with an
elegant edifice. The Clydesdale Bank has just been
opened for business, and its very handsome exterior has
tended not a little to ornament the lower part of
Queen-street. Internally the arrangements of this
Bank, and its splendid decorations have excited
general admiration, and display at once the taste
and the munificence of the Company. The tellers'
room, in particular, has been fitted up with great care
—the ornamental work almost approaching to the
gorgeous. The whole of the rooms, indeed, have been
finished off in a superior style, and do great credit
both to architect and tradesmen. We understand
that the same architect (Mr. Hamilton) has bees em-
ployed on almost all the buildings we have referred to :
he has the merit of the Clydesdale and Western Banks,
and the Western Club, and is also employed upon the
British Linen Bank, just commenced. We need not
say that we rejoice to find, when movement to the
west-end has become so fashionable, that the ornament
of the city within the royalty is not neglected by our
public-spirited citizens.—Glasgoto Argus.