The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-04 00:00:00

THF: MANCHESTER AND LEEDS RAILWAY

—This railway was opened throughout (with the excep-
tion of the Summit Tunnel) on Thursday last, the 31st
ult. ; and we are glad to learn, from two reports of the en-
gineers, dated the `2lst and 29th ult., that the failure of the
inverted arch, in a portion of the tunnel, is likely to
prove less serious than was at first apprehended, both as
regards the expense of repairing it, and the time which
will be lost thereby. It is now expected that the defective
work will be finished early in the month of February,
and that the cost will not exceed 3,0004 The open.
ing of the line has strikingly verified the anticipations
of the Directors. It appears on reference to their re-
port of the 17th Sept. 183 S, it was therein stated,
that " during the present year the entire line may be
expected to be in the course of execution, and it is hoped
should nothing unforeseen occur, will be opened to
the public within the year 1840." Considering how diffi-
cult it is to state, so long beforehand, the probable period
when works of even ordinary magnitude may be completed,
this affords an extraordinary instance of the literal fulfil-
ment of the expectations held out by Directors to their
Proprietors ; and it appears the more remarkable, when
the gigantic character of the works in question is ,t ,",7'
into account—the difficulties in which were pronounsea dt y
many to be insuperable.—illanchester Guardia.n.
g New
BRUSSELS, JAN. 2.—Yesterday
in'e,cilrl-received
Year's Day, their Majesties the King and Body,t2e the Great t
successively the Ministers, the Din
Dutch Government'
Public Bodies, the Civil and Military, ption began at noon
lo:
icAa to' th o r , and tho '
The Dutch
on ships arriving at
persons presented at Court. Tile',
sum of
and continued till four o'clock.
received in the year 1840 for
that port by the Scheldt, the Antwerp and leaving
ro.ati\:LvolsooCdlCsidOe,l `GILD 277,491 florins.
ss
i EESE.
—A gentleman residing
Liverpool, in-
EXTRAORDIN.A
forms us, that, on 'Tuesday
morning, whilst walking in
his attention was attracted bye very loud
Hamilton-squar,
which be at first took for a
noise, mob quarrelling • but
h distu b •
r ancc, he looked into th.. air, and
seeing no sue
ere saw a most extraordinary flock of wild geese, consist.
there 5W a most extraordinary Sock of wild geese, consist-
ing of at least 2,000, flying in the direction of Bidston.
The line of railway between London and Dar-
lington being now complete through its whole length, the
Government intend to render it available at an early period
for the transmission of the mails. This nets arrangement
wilt cause great alteration as regards Berwick.

EVENING EDITION.

DEATH OF A FORTUNE TELLER

A coroner's inquest was held at the London Ale
House, in St. Mary Arches-street, before J. Warren,
Esq., Coroner, on the body of a woman named Sarah '
Gribble, who had been found ded in her bed on Satnr-
' day afternoon. The deceased was well known as a
celebrated teller of fortunes. This must be our excuse
for trespassing upon our readers with some brief account
of her manner of living. She occupied a tenement in a
back court in St. Mary Arches-street, consisting of
two rooms on the smallest conceivable dimensions, ene
on the ground floor and the other immediately over.
The former of these was little better than a cold dark
cell, as miserable and comfortless as can well be ima-
gined ; and it was here that the numerous visitors
who came to seek for information of the good or evil
things in store for them were compelled to
wait until the prophetess was at leisure to attend to
them The room above stairs was that in which the de-•
ceased ate and slept, and in which she war accustomed
to deliver her ()rules ; and here, in fact, the whole of
her time has been spent for several years past. To
convey anything like an accurate idea of the scene
which preseeted itself on entering this apartment would
be altogether impossible ; it was a scene, indeed, of
filth and w retchedness, which, altogether, defies descrip-
tion. In one corner of the room a space was parti-
tioned off by a couple of deal planks, which served this
singu'etr being for a bed, and here, with nothing but a
heap of filthy rags between her and the floor, and with
a miserable covering of the same description, she was
accustomed to pass nearly every moment of her time.
Clothes,or linen upon her person, she had none, if we
except an old pair of stays, which she wore next
her sk.n, and a piece of coarse fustian cloth,
which was tied round her waist. A dirty
,brown
handkerchief was_ tl;rown :over her shoulders, and
tied in a knot upon her breast, and her head
was covered with a cap 'which she had never
been known to change during the time she Lad resided
in the house. She wore neither shoes natockings,
but dressed (if we may use the term) as we above
described, ehe used to sit continually in the place which
we have called her bed, remaining constantly in the same
position, with (as one of the witnesses stated) " her
nose and knees together." In her bedplace were found
after her death a great quantity of articles of food,
which appeared to have 11c-cumulated for some time,
and which there is much reason to fear had been pur-
loined by servant girls, who probably found it more con-
venient to satisfy their curiosity at their masters' ex-
expense than at their own. There was heaped together
in one heterogeneous mass potatoes, turnips, and vege-
tables of all kinds, fruit, butter, bacon, dripping, and
a variety of other articles of a similar description,
which the deceased was never known to have pur-
chased, and the possession of which by her can only
be accounted for in the way we have described.
The only articles of furniture which we ob-
served were two deal chairs, u small table, a tea
kettle, and some trifling vessels of earthenware.
There were heaps of rags and dirt covering the
whole of the apartment, and upon the man telpiece a bottle
;elicit had contained rum. The window was com-
pletely covered with cobwebs, and the odour exhaled
front so much filth was, as may well be believed, intol-
lerable. One thing struck us as curious ;it was an
old tin candlestick with a deep bottom, which was en-
tirely filed a ith the " snuffs" of candles, piled up
, so as completely to hide the tube in which the candle

should have been placed. There was a fire-place in
the roam, but she liad never been known to have a
fire in it, and her kettle was boiled for her by a
neighbour who was paid seven pence a week for her
trouble. About the loom were scattered several packs
of ca rds, in which she pretended to read the tales with
which she used to gull the simple fair ones who resorted
to her dweiling.The room was never cleaned, and she her-
self had nevir washed her skin while she had resided in
the house. And yet, wretched as was her abode, Sally
Gribble had numerous visitors, many from among the
more respectable classes of society ; and on a market-
day especially, hrr ante-room was thronged with cus-
tomers, anxious to obtain admittance. She always pre-
tended the greatest poverty, although, as will be seen,
a large quantity of money was found in her apartment,
and the necessaries of life were evidently supplied to her
in abundance.
The Jury having heard evidence, returned a verdict
of—Natural death.
While the old woman Eyed, she was not known to
have a relative in the world, but immediately on her
death, and the discovery of the money (941.) becoming
known, more than one person was found to claim
kindred with her.
The deceased was about sixty years of age, with large
masculine features.—)Western Luminary.

RAILWAY TRAIN IN A SNOW

STORM.

The following lively irecount of a railway•pluengcr's
adventures between New York and Philadelphia is
taken from an American paper just received. It it the
more interesting as it describes a scene which, we be-
lieve, no one has yet had an opportunity of witnersing
in this country :

" The snow-storm which commanced on Friday
evening and endured until Sunday night, accompanied
all the while with a fierce north-east wind, will be long
remembered by those who were travelling on Saturday
ostween New York and Philadelphia. As the night
closed in, the storm increased ; nevertheless, the dis-
tunes: between Camden and Bordentown was run over
in reasonable time, considering the obstructions of the
snow drifts ; but when the road between Bordentown
and Trenton, which is a side-cut along the canal, and
laid with flat bars, came to be passed over, our troubles
began. In anticipation thereof, we were provided with
two engines—one to draw and the other to push.
" Soon the engines began to labour—now dashing
with irresistible impetus through snow banks, and than
the wheels flying round without adhesion, owing to the
slipperiness of the rails—and ever and anon the strug-
gling giant that yet urged us onward would seem by
his deep-drasn sighs to intimate that his powers were
almost exhausted. Still we advanced gaily—for there is
excitement in difficulty—and though proceeding slowly
we yet believed we should get through. But suddenly,
while under great headway, we felt a sharp check, which
seemed, by the straining efforts of our fire steeds, to be
formidable indeed ; they laboured strenuously, but with
perceptibly-decreasing effect, till, after one long convul-
sive breathing, all became still. We then found our-
selves deeply imbedded in a snow-drift, and what was
not less unfavourable, we soon perceived a-head of
us, and also brought up in a snow-bank, the mail
train from New York. It was then about twelve
o'clock. Our only course now was, as there was no
turn out, to endeavour to get the train hack to Borden-
town, and accordingly oil hands and the engines were at
work to fire up and retrace our steps. But alas' going
back tsar as much out of the question as going for-
ward. We were stuck fast, and vain were the attempts
of the locomotives to stir us from the spot. After a
brief consultation, the engine in the rear was detached,
and ordered back to Borden-town, to bring up rein-
forcements. The interim of some two hours was not
without its incidents or alternations of hope and disap-
poiutment, moodiness and merriment.
" While this was going on with our train, that from
New York, from which we now began to hear,
was not idle. In the first place, the train was
separated, and the ladies' car, with one other,
were dropped, and the engine with the baggage-
trucks and forward car tried to get on. It advanced
nearly a mile, and within a kw hundred yards of ours,
when the engine gave out. Some of the passengers came
through the snow—no little undertaking, for it drifted
in some spots leg-deep—to our cars, and gave us the
first tidings that the ladies' car, in which were some
twenty ladies and children, was left a mile behind. This
redoubled the anxiety of all for the arrival of the en-
gines from Bordentown, and at last their distant fires
which was
ow.t:
,tir l
e reachedi
ot
uraetb o.ure
snowa
ch
eddies on
cars,on at
nh
(ei
were seen, one, two, three, and, with such a force, de-
liveranceh
ing
seemed at hand. Still their slow
indicated increased difficulties in..forcing their way.
and doubt. of t
wind and snow were fiercely raging, approach
probability of extricating all the cars began to circulate.
Finally the nearest car was reached, two engines were
attached ahead, and with the aid of that which had
brought us on, and now aided to push us hack, slowly,
and after repeated checks, we
aboute
re-conveyedhree , l
dentown,
and one by one
" The engines were all thenihe lennctreab.saienkg to
violenceb ring
ofin
thc Now York train, but
theich
tire
engines
gnidn,e
gave
road, rendered ;11ne
xtelliffacourstitrttseal
'and almost perished with
exhausted,
e men succeeded in
Thus, then, about half-past four
Poc n
o'clock, it became certain that the passengers of the
whole New York train, except the few who had suc-
ceeded in reaching the Philadelphia train, would be left
to oi
nitgehnei;ot,
wire
bfrl
till morning iu the cars. It was a vain effort to obtain
cold,
slei
or any s other mode of reaching them ; the canal
on "c side, and tuorassy fields on the other side of the
road, precluded approach in the night, and the drifts
on the roads itself rendered a passage of sleighs on it
impracticable—the only consolation was that of knowing
there was luel enough to keep up good fires.
" Sunday morning came in dull, dreary, and bois-
terous the snow and wind still prevailing. All the
force that could he mustered was early at work with
snow-ploughs and scrapers, and spades-men,to extri-
cate engines and cars frozen up ; but as their progress
was slow some of the passengers determined to approach
the ladies' car as near as they could with sleighs, and
taking with them hot coffee and hot milk tor the chil-
dren, with wine and various eatables, they started, but
it was mid-day before any tidings were had of them.
meantime, through great difficulties, and out by one,
the engines left on tire road the night before were
brought hack.
" About one o'clock we were cheered by the return
of the sleighs, having the women and children, who
thus, after 20 hours passed in the cars, were brought to
the hotel in safety, and without having suffered much.
The only mode of reaching the cars where they were
was by passing through the fields."

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

(SATLIROAI:
TIMES.—A great number of the Kiagston merchants
have, it appears by the Jamaica Papers, memorialized the
H use of Assembly against an increase of the duty of 1
p r coat. on British manufactured goods, which some have
recommended to Ire augmented two, three, and even four
fold, as an additional resource to the revenue, and that
even at the suggestie:a of some of the merchants who con-
sider the 1 per cent duty tua stall to allow them to
make any proportionate - increase in the sale of their
articles, whereas an addition of 2 or 3 per cent. would
allow them to traasfer the weight of the tax to the
corruturner. The memorializing merchants, who ap-
pear to rtpresent the general Icehog of the commer-
cial community mote than those who desire the in-
crease, ohioct to it im the grounds that such inertias:,
would rtq..ire an entire change in the handing system ;
that it would create a difficulty in repacking and ship-
ping from the warehouse for forelgn tralde ; that separate
ster.N would be t.teesary to deposit English apart from
foreign ; Glint foreign trade would be
its ti.e class of persons who support it are keen-touted to
have <twire control over their goods, and bale them up in
a particular manner; that the alteratons would cause an
increased establishment and t xpenditure ; and that the Cus-
toms has e invariably refused to allow portions of a packet
to be taken out of the bonded warehouses. 'I he propriety
of ivcrea-ong the import arid expert xos generally has
been suggested by scow of the Nl:atrars of Assemble, •
who, observing what a truitlui source of revenue they are.
the import duties of last year :amounting to 74.6901., and
the exports to 37,0411., haVe wislotti they might, if p"'-
sible. he doubled; while oa the o:i,er is argued
ghat the great prosperity of this brand: of revenue renders
at it more hazardous to ivicriere with h-
i: is not surprising that 9 oust porcons, free
trade sea a principle, are tti.Eng to ripply it to its mil extent
to the ankle of rmaiev, and while contemaing r,galnst all
legit! restriction in the rate ~f tntercB7, regard test present
rrvalificatain of the laws aff".-eting Bills vf laxFliange as a
wholesome state of thing:. and do net at: sufficient
imparaatt,e to the evils which are- part.scularly felt by the.
smaller vooksmen, and which arise dat:t before the eyes of
thus who are acquainted with to wants of that
class. These defenc:eis of the present laws advance as an ar-
gument the great sac, hices that used to be made during a
pressure for money, by selling goods at inadequate price,
and its some cases the fictitious sales by which an enormous
interest was virtually paid, sebile at the same tine
u.uary laws were evaded. Many such sacrifice?, especially
.that of the late importalion of tallo.v, would, it is said, have
'been made now did no the abolition of te.strictions on usury
enable the parties bolding, the goods to obtain money
at the rine of about 7 per cent. To a princplo that con-
fers such great Item figs, it is said that the inconveniences
attendiog a few trifimg transatoicns should nut be opposed.
To this it may be answered that it is these very trifling
tratisretions that grind down the humbler traders, and I
which, it all appearances be true, threaten many of them
avb.h destruction. It is nut the persons who require exten-
sive loans. and those from the great discounting houses,
.that arc the sufferers under the preterit systeM; on the I
contrary, they appear to benefit by it. The quutatiors
from time to time of the rate of money, varying accord-
ing to the state of the mosey. market, will show that
wits these it is merely a question whether they pay
1 or 2 per cent., more or less, than they would have paid
under the old usury laws. The borrowers of 50/. or 100/ ,
sums too trifling to be regulated by the general state of
the money-market, but not at all trifling if we regard the
interests of a most useful pert of the community, such es
small tradesmen, and young igen tout to yet up in b isi-
n.sv—taese are the suffati! fs, being spoud to the
rapacity of the worst o,,iur of mootry-lenders, who make
no scruplc of asking 30 au h 0 irer cent., regulating. their
dem,nd by ;to other stamlgt,l than their ow,. covetou-ness
and the pressing wants of tie uorrower, who is more or
less dam aged by every attempt to extend applications
to other quarters.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM Tin MOliNi NG l'Ael!Kii OF THIS DAY.
(From the lollt,it Chro,ride.)
We ineert s letter teem Mr. Bo?too, communicating
adtlitlo tel information with respect to the Walsall elec-
tion, en I we insert els-) a letter from a leading member
.of Aoti-Corn-law Losgua, in vindication of the
cote se adopted by that body. With all submission to
this member of the Anti-Corn-law League, he knows
very little of the real state of things io Eagland. The
adsocate of the Corn-laws, he says, is as olonexioue
boroughs as their opponent is is counties. Were that
the case, the goestion would coon be settled. But
dough this may be true of the great manufacturing ba-
rouebs, these constitute but an inconsiderable portion
of the whole. The greater number of boroughs are
venal, or subject to influences of the very worst dcscrip-
nier. It Walsall can be carried by an Anti-Corn-law
hiandidate, well and good. In our article on Satur-
day wc sated our opinion on this eu'ejeet with suffi-
6eut distinctness. We merely ohlected to the put-
ting forward a candidate pledged to absolute repeal
of the Corn-laws, when such pledee would give the ,
victory to a Tory. We will not say more on this sub-
ject at present, because we are extremely anxious that
Mr. J. B. Smith, the prosideut of the Chernber of
:Com-tier( eof Manchester, who has offered himself as a
,paralidate, should carry the borough. Provided the
stytk be obtaieed by a Liberal, the more decided his
oppeun:ion to the Core-laws, the mare wdl he he to our
taste. Nothing would give set greater plcature than to
ficd ourselves in error in the estitantc we were led to
form of the coestituescy cf Walsall. There can be no
aloes:ion As to the iltness of Mr. Smith to represent
`Woleall. As the president of the Chamber of Com-
=tree of Manchester, and head of the Anti-Corn-law
League, he appears before the Walsad constituency
talf!) these proofs of the respect in which he is held
by his own fellow-citizens, and having retired
irons business in possession of a competent
fortune, ho can aff,rd to devote himself to the affairs
of the nation. He has pledged himself to go to the
poll, and It's fellow-labourers having compelled Mr.
Lyttelton to withdraw, Mr. Smith is bound in honour
to tight the good fight, and to hold out to the last. We
ret. oat, that though we repudiate the principle on
theCorn7law Lupe has determined to act, with-
out reg..rd to circumstances, we are not the less anxious
that ireevecoplace where a decided adeocateof a repeal of
the Corn-lawscan be returned, the attempt to obtain from
candidatan explicit pledge on this soleject should be
mkie. What we insist on is this, that wherever the
standing out for such a pledge shall ''nave the effect of
gisinganocess to the Tories, and thereby defeating the
I
very object tor the sake of which the pledge s sought,
it should not 'e exacted. We intreat alt Liberals, of
.r.'hattiver grade, to support Mr. Smith in order to rxelucle
M. Gladstone. We will not believe the battle lost
eetolo a chance remains. the Liberal eleetors who
'meta have returned Mr. Lvatnton e ;Is yet return Mr.
Satith, if all differences of opinion be merged in the.
object which ail ought to 113);e lliart—the exclusion
01 a Tor:. This is nut tltr.o to give expression to
eloun'ie. Mr. Smith meet aware that extraordinary
atTarts eve requited to balance tlia advemago which a
leo tnigl t's canvass has 4ge.rn to Mr. Gladstone, and the
defection teem prorelses glen to Me. Lyt!elton, which
h:es reiremen': has releas, d. Let him ere, if he can, to
route an Anti-Corn-law eothesiesto. There is every
motis,-i for a display of clergy. The Anti-Corn law
Ln,,glie is on trial as SV,II as Mr. Sre.tit. If he succeed
to his arduous underteiciej, the AntieCure-law League
rise in influence, for the world is much guided by
eYcets. But, on the other hand, should a Tory be re-
turned, no small degree of blame will be attached to the
League, which will have to hear the reproach of ih.iuring
*a Liberal cause without advencirg the cause fur which
the League was entered into.
(From the Times.) _ . _

W” adverted a few days batik to the apathy induced
on the public mind by the want of moi:ver propounded
by, the poi tical leaders for the putting torth any exertion
in hehall of either of the two great parties. The ob-
servation may as justly be applied to the one side as to
the other. When we insist, as we frequently find oc-
casion to do, on the inhumaniti.::s of the New Poor.lAw,
the faaotitite retort of tic Ministerial prints is," which
of all your Conservative leaders can you induce to pro-
• roprzal of that law The taunt is a natural and
nut unfair one : but these gentlemen are open precisely
to the seine kind of interrogatory themselves. We can
never dilate 015 any of the misertes or oppresaions of the
poor without being instantly to:d titat the beginning
and "ding of all the suffoririqs of the peer in England
are found in the accursed Corn-law." Never can
a week pass over vvi•thout two or three d,elarations
(' • 1.164 kind from the Ministerial rinrning and
even rig papers. With just the saint: and pro-
PluetY'the ran we demand of them, " which of all
your vaunted Reform Ministers will t'eu ge-t to propose
.au abolition of the Corn-la is wit the (kola-
ration of your Premiert
buck
record,' that the
man who could think must be positively
mad ?" 'rue wishes, then, a tLing
the respective parties
out of doors are not res It';,-et1.0,tf,1,.(1, to with frankness and
,warmth by the leaders of
side in Parliament.
So much may be admitte(lt.
And as keontrovertible on the one
it is quite as true
tither. That a consciousness of ibis ;Id? as on the •
damping and retarding force among the acts as a
certea.partisans on
either side among the people is quite
,n; and this
is to he lamented, in,srnueli as the part.
.most by public apathy must be the partyYinwzill'-'h gains
Nevertheless, we a-c not astonished at 11i°s"essi''71.
unwise
And undesirable caution, however we may be
\:
and anrin)ed by it. Some of its causes are suffictais'nxtl"i y
obvious ; and at others we can venture on a reset_
able surmise. Yet- we would ever try to lessen this
unpatriotic feeling, although it may be impossible en.
tirzly to destroy it. Chiefly we should rejoice to see
some of the more free and commanding spirits among
the Conservative party begin to thipw off their con-
fotraint with reference to the New oor-law, confess
that the "experiment" has lasted long enough, and that
the time has come for some very important modifica-
tion, if not for a total repeal. The chief of all the evils
wrought by the New Poor-law is the massing together
Jorge districts and bodies of people, in place of the pa-
rochial subdivision which had obtained for nearly three
centuries before. The imaginary benefits of these new
" Boards of Guardians" have proved delusive, but the
evils resulting from them arc weighty, serious, and in-
creasing. The very first principle of a u
crganization is subdivision. Let every one
and
in safe
au-
thority" have just so many under
him "put
as he can
satioually oversee, and the chief objects of civil

society may be answered. But as soon as " masses'
I begin to be formed, injustice and mismanagement
• immediately ensue, and all that is dangerous to the
peace of the community rapidly grows and in-
creases. An old English parish would contain from
1,000 to 2.000 people. A parson, over these, to su-
perintend their spiritual wants ; a churchwarden, to see
to the external affairs of the church and parish ; and
two overseers, to visit, become acquainted with, and
properly relieve, the wants of the distressed poor, com-
pleted the official staff of the parish, and left nothing
In this respect to be desired. But what have we now
substituted? A dozen or a score of such parishes are
heaped together. A " Board of Guardians" is chosen ;
in whose proceedings discrimination becomes almost im-
possible, and the exercise of the kindly affections quite
out of the question. All is now burdensome and un-
feeling. The poor are relieved in crowds, instead of
one by one. The guardians arc wearied and rendered
ealious and indifferent by the pressure of their duties.
To attempt to argue on the side of the deserving or
the miserable is useless—" No preference can be
"shown." All is hasty, dreary, and unfeeling. Various,
ton, are the different kinds of injustice perpetrated by
this system. A parish of moderate wealth and liberal
dealings towards its poor is thrown "into union" with
ethers whose conduct towards their paupers has been
close and penurious. The record of the past is kept to
decide on the payments, for the future, to the ganeral
expenditure. Meanwhile, however, all kindness and
liberality to the paupers is at an end ; the parish pays
for the future according to its liberality for the past;
but its poor fare no better then others. The ratepayers
pay for beef and potatoes, but the paupers only get the
customary lase of water egruel and pork broth But
thcre is no end to these absurdities and freuds. And
shall we any longer be taunted by the " Liberals" with
the assumed fact, that no Conservative of any name in
Parliament will demand a reconsideration of this odious
Act ? We do not think that this backwardness can
endure much longer. Greatly shall we be disap-
pointed if this very neat session do not produce some
movement of a hope-inspiring kind, and that from amidst
the very elite of the constitutional array.

(From the Morning Advertiser.)

As usual, previously to the meeting of Parliament,
there are rumours and expectations of all kinds respect-
ing measures to be introduced—the succ,ss of those
measures—and whole or partial cL.nges in the Adminis-
trati, n which may take place• The Reform press has,
e believe, done little or nothing in this way, upon the
coanneacement of the present year, beyond either stand-
ing upo❑ the defensive, or pointing out the men and
measures whom it is determined to support ; but far other-
wise is the case with the Tory press, which, for the fifth
or sixth time since the overthrow of the first Melbourne
Administration, has been annually prophesying that the
d tys of its renewed power are numbered, and that a
Reform Government must necessarily give way to one
purely Conscrestive, cud that, too, in the course of the
present Session of Parliament. The Times would fain
flatter its Conservative readers with the indulgence of
such hopes ; but a twinge of conscience seems to come
across it in the very act of perpetrating the soft blan-
dishment, and after a flourish of trumpets, such as may
be supposed to have preceded the King of France--

.‘‘ 'Who went up the hill with 20,000 men,
And then came down again,"
it seems to give up the battle as lost for the present, at
least, if not for a great length of time. After having,
in its Saturday's and other numbers of its journal,
abused the Melbourne Cabinet to the tip-top of its
voiee---after having declared that the Ministry cannot
reckon with certainty upon even a majority of twelve
votes upon any question vital to its existence—after
having insinuated its doubts of the adherence of the
Liberals to the Reform cause, upon the ground
that one section is inclined to vote upon particular
questions in one way, and one in another—noticing
the repeal of the Union, and the anxiety of a foolish
portion of Radicals to let the Tories in, in order that
they may drive Ahem out again, with a few other
things of the same kind equally threatening to the
cause of progressive Reform, an invocatory of the tri-
umph of Conservatism—what do our readers think is
the conclusion of the writer in the Times I' Why, that
notwithstanding the alleged mutiny in the crew of the
good ship " Re/ore—notwithstanding the desertions
which are expected to take place—the shoals and the
quicksends which she must encounter in traversing the
ocean of political strife—the headlands, the reefs, and
the breakers which she has to weather, there will
after all be no shipwreck ;---the vessel will get into
port; and clear every storm and danger by which she
may be assailed. " They are reckless adventurers,
these Whigs (says it) and offer lavish bounties to
recruit their numbers ; but nobody enlists with them,
and their old muster roll has no margin for casualties.
If they are saved—and we will not positively pronounce
that they will be wrecked—they ought to build a
temple to Fortune, or rather Luck, and send public
principle to a treadmill or an union workhouse.' Most
lame and truculent conclusion ! Reckless " adven-
turers," and yet cannot be beaten ! Verily, this is a
bard case. 'They must have come mettle in them to
get over all their alleged difficulties, and not be ship-
wrecked,
as the Tories were a few years ago upon the
third onslaught of the Liberals. " Buccaniers" they
may be, as some of the Tory journals denominate
them ; but their courage is evidently of that in-
domitable cast which even their opponents must re-
spect. The Post, in a strain becoming the exalted
position of a Lady's Maid, is more flippant, as well as
more rancorous and more certain that her supporters
are perfectly right, and that any one questioning her
supreme gentility, or her certainty of conquest, must
be out of their senses ; but, poor girl, she forgets
that the rose has faded, and that artificial
blushes must paint its leaves and petals. With
regud to the Standard, we scarcely know how to
characterise its misty ingredients of action. Its con-
tents look very like the play of " She would and she
would nor—enacted since the days of Adam and Eve ;
—and, on the other hand, its warfare reminds us strongly
of the attack apon Acre by Commodore Napier, who
buried his opponents in so dense a smoke by his inces-
sant fire, that having taken a false aim at first, they
never could take a tree one afterwards. It does not
like Lord Olenborough and his policy—it hates him us
a Prime Minister in posse—it denounces others in the
same vein—it does not like Wbiggism—and yet after
all it says that the present Government is the best I
We might proceed farther thus, but it is needless.
No change of Ministry is contemplated. The most can-
' seine Tories do not dream of it. The external policy
of tie Government is approved by every Conservative
in the country ; and, with regard to domestic concerns,
there is no fair question which the Opposition could
propose, except a revision of the Corn laws, which they
will neither propose nor accede to. So mach for a change
of Ministry! At the same time we warn the Reformers
j that no remissness nor disunion characterises their Con-
servative adversaries. They hive not the work of pre-
paration to begin—it is, on the contrary, all but coin-
P!etc] as the former will find to their cost whenever the
campaign shell 'nave fairly commenced, unless they bestir
tliereselves without a moment's longer delay. Are the
Liberals aware of the importance of stake which has
tc be played for? Are they alive to the fact that the
sfruegle will not now be as it was a few years ago, for a
temporary, siy a few months', occupation of office? Teen
there was no chance of the Tories retaining power, even
had they succeeded in capturing Downing-street.Thecase
is a!tered now. If they succeed, as they did in 1835, in
displacing the ;Melbourne Ministry, and only contrive to
retain cffice for tiiree or four months, their tenure of it
may be prolonged to an indefinite period. Let no
Liberal deceive himself by imagining, that because we
heir less at present than we were wont to do at this
season of-the year of Tory dinners and Tory demonstra-
tions, the Tories are indifferent or inactive; on the con-
tsary, the very fact of our hearing of no such dinners,
and witnessing no such demonstrations, is one of the
most ominous indications of what we may expect froze
Tory opposition to Ministers and Liberalism in the
coming Session. The more silently they are working,
the more formidable will be the character of their pre-
parations for the conflict. They are working silently
and invisibly now, because they have discovered the
error of their former policy in making a flourish of trum-
pets before they were fully equipped for the battle, and
by that means stirring up the Liberals to prepare to
meet them. We are aware that they can and will be
beaten—but as "the quarter of an hour beforehand"
was the means, according to his statement of gaining
all his battles, so we say to the Liberals be up and
ready for the contest.

PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE.—On occasion of the
funeral of General Lamarque, when the streets of Palk
were strewed with dead and wounded to the amount of hun-
dreds, and 1,500 criminals were consigned to its gaols, a
singular occurrence took place. Tire detail of the ar-
rangements made to meet this anticipated movement, and
to bei,l its co,sequences, and even the sanguinary and re-
sr,dtu;g particulars of the terrible march itself, woul have
liqic interest for our readers, fresh as its melancholyd inci-
dent, must be in their recollection. But it is a curious
eireurn,tancc, not, we think, generally known, that among
Ow c,i!d schemes of that t...uilty day, one had been form d
to throw the illustrious Lafayette into Cie river, as the pre-
eiesina p,,s3ed the Pont d'Austerliis
a,
nd fur
in the purpose e
of as
t-
ttibutii;g his murder t 3 the police, flaming pa.
.ions of the multitude up to the point which would have
insu,‘,l the sackingol Paris. Such are the fearful stakes
twiginti::::oft.l),;hpeoclitical gamblers of France have pla3cd of
.ate years, '
tocarried him caccidjent of eueral appears to have owed his escape
the meta
tiftie plot,.
having forced im
another party of the insurgents
I tended executio h• into a 6-acre, and
lic, at the
of the terrible provocation, very the Hotel de Ville, to proclaim a
momentrepub-
and from the very scene of its in-
; occasion receivedi) It is an honourable fact, that, in spite
1 worth recalling
whole of the
'l:cation, the blood which flowed on this
0 accession from the scaffold--a fact
i duricsr the here, because in the same spirit which,
rema.kable degree, temperedpresent
the administration of a new-
stay justice —Athenceum.

VIENNA, DEC. 20.-1 hear that the Emperor
has been pleased to grant to the Protestant students of
Hungary and Transylvania, permission again to frequent
the University of Gottingen, which has been withheld for
many years.