The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVSNING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
(From the Globe.)
We yesterday drew attention to the inferiority of
Lord Stanley's Registration Bill, as compared with that
of Lord Morpeth, and slightly glanced at the inconsist-
ency and injustice of the threatened opposition to the
sN'end reading of the latter, on the weak pretence that
'4:he proposed franchise is a violation of the integrity
of the Reform Bill. The self-stultifying arguments
by which the Tories endeavour to justify their prefe-
rence for Lord Stanley's Bill, and their determination
to effect the rejection of Lord Morpeth's better mea-
sure, receive a characteristic illustration from the Post's
attempt to aid its party in their work. To show why the
Conservatives ought not to vote for the second reading of
Lord Morpeth's Bill, although they approve of its principle,
the Post has recourse to a curious process of ratiocination,
The principle of it is, the prevention of false swearing.
It aims at the very object they have professedly most et
heart ; and yet the Conservatives ought not to vote for
the principle they approve and the object they supremely
desire, because the bill threatens to invade the Reform
Act, and re-opens the mighty question which so agitated
the country ten years ago! Now, this would have
been a very good reason for not introducing Lord
Stanley's KU of last Session. If disturbing the Re-
form Act is a thing so much to be deprecated, that
no Conservative can consistently vote for a Bill which
does it, then no Conservative can consistently vote
for the Bill of Lord Stanley. Sir R Peel, we re-
member, used to check the ardour of his partisans, when
they wished to attack the Reform Act, by tel,ing
them it would not be long before its authors would do
so. He thought the passion for Reform would outrun
the passion for re-action. But he was mistaken ; and
he who took up his Conservative position upon the Re.
form Act, has allowed his partisans—the zealots of re-
action—to cut away the very foundations of the posi-
tion he professedly took up. Curiously enough, the Post
without meaning it, tells the Conservatives what they
ought, according to -,eery rule of duty and logic, to do
l'-'sCeetieg the second reading of Lord Stanley's Bill :
icians tell us of a sophism, pluriuni interroga-
tio where several propositions arc put together which
".annot be either affiya,a_ekor- denied in the lump, because
.;11; r:;I:
part of them are au4 part false. They huller tell
us that the way to avoid th t meshes of this sophism is to
take each of the propositions separately, and affirm or
deny it, according to its truth or falsehood. Now, this is
just the way to meet the legislative sophism of Lord Mor-
pales Boll."
We quite agree with the Post. This is the logical
reply to the 811. The second reading is the time for
affirming one of the propositious of the Bill—the prin-
ciple of the repression of perjury at the registries ; and
therefore the Conservatives are logically and morally
bound to affirm this true principl e To affirm what is
to them a true proposition, is as much a duty as it is a
duty to deny a false proposition.
(From the Standard.)

We have put iv!o plain quest ens to the admirers of
Lord Morpeth's Bill, neither of which any of them has
condescended to answer. First, we have asked, why if
the Bill is in other respects an excellent Bill, as Mr.

O'Connell says it is, is it necessary to engraft upon
it a reduction of the qualification ? It might be
very well to say, after abusing Lord Stacdcy's Bill for
12 months, this is a vile Bill, but wo vill take the
sting out of the " Scorpion "by throwing Univers il
Suffrage into it by way of parenthesis. This migLt
be plausible enouii,,h as regards L-ird Stanley's Bill ;
but surety it will ❑ot be said of the excelert Bill of
Lord Morretb, that to te at all palateable it must

. _
be seasoned with a revolut on. Occe more tie crave
an explanation of this seeming difficulty. Our second
question regards the same topic—the Universal Suf-
frage parenthesis. The reason given for this extra-
ordinary injection is, that of persons qualified to
exercise the elective franchise, according to the scale
of qualification established by the Reform Bill, there
are not enough in Ireland, Non' we ark, if such
be the case, is not the proper remedy, accord-
ing to the theory of the Reform Bill, a reduction in the
number of Irish representatives ? In Great Britain the
Reform Bill gave to one-fourth of the population—
namely, the inhabitants of cities, towns, Sze., three-fou► the
of the representation, because the towns were supposed
to contain qualified electors in that proportion. The num-

her of qualified electors was thus made the test, and the
very foundLtion of the contt tution of 1832: and why
should it not be applied to lte‘azd, when we are
told that the number of qualified electors in tliot
island is likely to prove insufficient. But is this likely ?
Whet ought tet be the number of electors for z.n
Irish city or county? the City of London, Ix e
believe, has 14,000, or thereabouts; and we see by
a return moved for by Mr. Flume, that the city of
Dublin has 17,000, Cork 8,000, Belfast 5,400, Gal-
way 3,267, and so on—so that the disparity of
numbers in cities and towns is not very grcaf. The
average of electors in the Irish counties appears by
the same return to be above 3,000, and this we sub-

mit isan average that scarcely calls for an augmentation.
But it is said that the number is diminishing; the reverse
is the truth. In the county of Dublin and the county of
Longford only is th4e-'-ittly decrease since 1835, whereas,
in nine cities there has been a great increase. The total
decrease in five years has been 878, the increase
11,297—leaving a balance of increase considerably be-
yond ten thousand. In the cities and lnroughs the
decrease has, in five years, amounted to a solitary unit

—Coleraine has lost one elector : the increase has
Leen, on the other hand, 2,2-i1 ; leaving a balance of
2,240 in favour of the increase. These, surely, are not
symptoms of decline in the constituencies.
(From the Couricr.)

During some days past reports have been in circula-
.ion touching certain misunderstandings between Sir
John Harvey, Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick,
and Lord Sydenharn, (late Mr. Poulett Thomson),
the Governor-General of British North America, which
have resulted in the recallof the former functionary on
the demand of the hitter. The groundwork of the dif-
ferences is stated to have been the expression of an opi-
nion adverse to the propriety of mploying the regular
troops for the defence of the Madawaska settlement,
the frontier British stt.tion on the territory in dispute
with the State of Maine, such troops having been
ordered there by the Governor-General himself. The
gravamen of the charge, however, is to be found in the
tact, as fact it is assumed, that Sir John Harvey not
only entertained the sentiment imputed, but that he
should have chosen, of all mcn in the world, to im-
part it by letter to that hair-brained person Governor
Fairfield, of the State of Maine, with the add,tjon
that it would hate peen more wise to have comm'tted
the care of the settlement to a posse contitatus, rather
than to troops. Now here was an act both of insubordina-
fon, of weakness, and of impclicy. It could not be 0t1.e7-
wise than prejudicial to the public service, as putting arms
or arguments into the enemy's hands, wherewith to resist
or deny the just claims of this country to deal in the mat-
ter of her own territorial occupation and possession as
might best be for the protection of the subjects entitled.
And it cannot be denied, that the mode adopted for
giving publicity to this disagreement in opinion was
Loth offensive and disrespectful towards the superior
officer, the Governor-General.

NOVEL MODE OF THIEF CATCHING.—A
few days since an inhabitant of the ancient burgh of Prest-
wick having observed that a potato-pit in his kail-yard
had been broken into, and a quantity of potatoes carried
away ; and supposing that another visit might be paid
to it, bethought himself of a plan which would effectu-
ally lead to the detection of the offender. Accord-
ingly, next day, he dug a pit, to the depth of about
n'ne feet, adjoining the potatoe pit, and covered it with
small sticks, straw, and earth—thus rendering the sur-
face level with the ground. All things thus being
prepared, the thief again, during the night, proceeded
to the potato pit, expecting to rifle it of a portion of its
contents as formerly unmolested ; but having unwittingly
planted a foot on the covered pit, in the twinkling of
an eye she descended, along with the sticks, straw,
and earth, to the bottom with a vengeance ;
and, after wearying herself in endeavouring to make her
escape, she sunk down, and quietly submitted to her
fate. Next morning, the Prestwickian went into his yard
to examine how matters stood ; and upon approaching
the mouth of the pit, he looked down, and, to his
amazement, saw, not an urchin or brawny chiel, but an
old and hagard woman cowering at the bottom, and al.
most overcome with cold. Having thus found out who the
person was who bad been helping away with his potatoes,
he was moved with compassion towards her, and, there-
fore, instead of handing her over to the ministers of jus-
tice, to be " prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law,"
he kindly liberated her from durance vile, believing that
she had already suffered a sufficiently lengthened period of
imprisonment. —Ayr Observer.
ROME.—The Constitutionnel publishes a letter
from Rome, which states that the feast of languages was cc'e-
hroted on the 12th ult. at the Celle,l-e of the Propaganda.
Cardinal Nlezz.fcuitt pt e.ided at this solemnity, unique in
its nay. All the strangers of distinction in Rome were
invited and asti:tel. The festival commenced by a prc-
logue in 1.4,1 tin, delivered by an Illyrian. A young man
from New York then recited a poem in Ilebrem. Two
Chalicans a dialogue in the idiom of the Rabli=. Abrl-
Allah- Assemari, a tative of Lebanon, decl lintel in Sy-
rian verse; and a young man from Bethlehem delivered
a discourse in Samaritan. A Persian spoke in Chaldean.
Two Turks, ore from Aleppo, another from Conttint -
nople, de, laimed in Turkish poetry. Two young Latins
if Pegu spoke ia 13irn an ; t' e younger of the twe, only
' tvi elvc years if age, dcclai r cd vrith so much ski l that be
rece'ved unbouneed applause. Some Armenians read a
La is eles'y, a discourse in ancient Greek, and series is
modernG;-cek A Kurd read verses in tbaAanguage,rernark-
ahle for the hardness r f the sound. An American if New
Sc thud an i lyl in Celtic. After ads f Hewed Illyrian,
Bulgarian, Poli,h, Germa •, Detch, Er g'irb, and Freceb.
A negro from Godsciand spoke in Ammarien. An iuha-
bita t of Calit.rr ia sung a song ia t' e barbarian dialect of
his nati rn, accompan3i,•g liar elf pith ca,tagnette3. lie
was applauded, but the g, eate t applaase vi as reserved for
the Chi,e.e, n Ke-o, fr rm t,';e provi -cc of He-nan,
speaking tte la- g',age if l i> c ,ur.try compose I entirely of
monosyllable. A second sreaki g the Cl itie cif Can-
ton. In fire, two other Chine e of Sci-an pre.ented
themselves in their ratbral enstqine, and read verses in the
n!t,,to of their pr.,vi,ce, terminati• g those academic exer-
et .es by a root L liztraloni arc Ct i e scour_. The greaterpart t a t ;pd. bast ore word
whien occurred frequertty. The loud aaplauae bestoned
by the vbiters, Catholic and Prutestant, proved to those
young men how much their performance was admired.