The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1841.

dare without contradiction, that the duel in which
Lord Cardigan had been engaged—taking it, of course,
with all its attendant eircumstat,ces—" did not imply
any morel turpitude." This was a volunteer at ar
went on the part of Sir John Campbell ; there was no
cell upon hisn to make it ; and he made it well know-
ing the notorious facts of the case, although he did not
choose in lead evidence regarding then. The decla-
ration of the Law Officer of the Crown, listened to in
apparently approving silence by the Lords,l amounts
to this—A Peer may taunt and tyrannize over the
officers of his regiment until one by one he disgusts
the whole of them with their profession, and when
one of them complains he may silence by shooting him ;
white a weaver, half-mad with suffering, must be se-
ver( ly punished, if, in imitation of the Noble Lord, he
• threatens to betake himself to " physiCal force." A
Pe,r may shoot a man under the circumstances alluded
to, while commoners (see the case of the duel between
Elliot and Mirfin) are punished even for acting as se-
conds. The cases of the two Wimbledon du:!a are not
so very different as might at first appear. in
case there is more rude blackguardism ; in that of Lord
Cardigan there is more cold envenomed despotism ; but
both nre examples of an individual, confident in his own
superior skill and courage, venturing to insult and out-
rage others. The Peers claim immunity for such of
their number as thus abuse their power, and have
thereby done more than enemies could do to weaken
their infloo:.ce. No man or class of men can with im-
punity outrage the moral sense of a nation. " Aristo-
cracy," says the Globe, "is the element in which we
live n 1
it is high time we were seek-
ing to healthifso, by trying a purer atmosphere.
a (
recruit breathe
our ; "
—Spectator.

f Some of their Lordships have protested against the
doctrine since the above was in type.

THE STAKE AT ISSUE.

The division on Lord Morpeth's Irish Registration
Bill must have important results, the great question
involved being whether a third part of the kingdom is
to be governed upon the principle of the protection of
popular rights, or on that of their contraction or sup-
pression. The choice of Lord Morpeth's or Lord
Stanley's Registration Bill is in effect the choice of
the system of Government which is to exist in Ireland.
It is the choice whether the system of Government is
to be continued which has produced a greater share
of tranquillity than has ever before been known in that
country, and which has allowed of reducing her garri-
sons, and spa.ing her troops for English exigencies;
or whether a return is to be made to the old system of
governing in distrust of the people, in dread of the
people, and in despite of the people, by the help of mi-
litary force and the Orange faction.

Under the administrations of Lord Normanby and
Lord Ebrington, we have witnessed the surest pledge
of the improved peace of Ireland in the . diminished
number of troops necessary in that part of the king-
dom ; Lord Stanley's system, too, would have its re-
duction, and he would see the test of its success is the
diminished number of electors. More soldiers, less
voters, woul►l be tl.c upshot of his scheme. The te-
gistration would then be small by degrees and beauti-
fully less ; but, to make up for that, the recruiting
would be en an enlarged scsle, and Irishmen, to con-
sole them and compensate for exclusion from the elec-
toral pale, would have the ranks thrown open to them,
with handsome bounties for serving to keep down their
countrl met;.

WlL.teler is taken from the content of a people in
the condition of the Irish, must be attended with a
tenfcld augmentation of coercive powers, and yo,u
must make up in muskets for what you retrench from
the confidence of the people in their representative
strength.

In-the st.►te of Ireland there are Oct two principles
for her Government—contentment or coercion ; make
your option of the other, and look to your means of
carrying them into effect.

If Lord Stanley's project and coercion he the choice,
let it be borne in mind that the old system will not suf-
fice ; Ireland has outgrown it; she must be measured anew
for her fetters, and touch increased in magnitude must
be the restraining powers suited to her present streagtb
and state of organization. Io sobriety alone the peolo
of Ireland have acquired an element of discipline of in-
calculable value, and millions, under the leadership of
Mr. O'Connell, have learnt the method of combining
for their objects, and of acting in vast bodies with tile
unity of purpose of one man.
But in considering the feasibility of governing Ire-
land, not as she used to he, but as she is, in despite
of the discontent of the great majority of the people,
it is ❑ecessary to advert not only to the present state of
the country on which so daring an experiment is to be
made, but also to the aspect of affairs in Europe, Asia,
and America. With five hundred thousand men under
arms in France, is it prudent to make five millions of
malcontents in Ireland ? For Lord Stanley's miserable
object of cutting down the electoral body in Ire:and, is
it wise to raise the hopes and encourage the hoqi!e at-
tempts of the enemies of England in every part of the
world ? The foreign foes of this country have always
reckoned extravagantly on the disaffection of Ireland,
and is this a jirreture for giving them to hope for an
illy against us in intestine trouh:es ? The commanding
position of England in the eyes of the world is lcwered
the moment she has to keep down Ireland. It is not
that the people of Ireland would cooperate with fo-
reign enemies, but that the diversion of so much of the
strength of England to the coercion of Ireland is more
than the most powerful empire can afford.
Arid for what are the hearts of the enemies of Eng-
land, in every part of the world, to be made to bound
with joy ? That Lord Stanley may decimate the
scanty electors of Ireland, and again place the Govern-
ment of Ireland on the apex instead of the foot of the
cone, curing the false balance by the prop of bayonets.
That the Tories can defeat Lard Morpeth's excel-
lent project is certain, for in the House of Lords it must
be doomed to destruction ; but in disappointing the
just hopes of the people of Ireland, and raising a nation
against them, they raise a difficulty for their Govern-
ment, whenever it comes, and however it comes, which
it must sink under. They cannot wrong► Ireland as
they would wrong Ireland, and hold it as it can only be
held under such treatment.

Ministers have done their duty, and whatever may
b.! the issue of the contest for the second reading of
Lord Morpeth's Bill, they will have made good their
ground for a stand or fall with honour. Their majority
is, we believe, secure, but even if they could be defeated,
the triumph of their opponents would he short, and the
lost advantage would be recovered with interest.
This the more sagacious members of the Tory party
are well aware of, and hence their dejection on the eve
et the victory on which they profess to reckon. In the
course of the week, indeed, their organs in the *press
have begun to inveigh against the dissolution which they
apprehend will be resorted to in the event of the defeat
of Lord Mori:ldles Bill. Why, these authorities have
been assuring us for the last four years that the
country was against the Government, and that on an
appeal to it the Liberal party would be scattered
hike chaff before the wind ; why is it then, that they
so angrily hold forth against a dissolution which would
so serve them ? They are here strangely distracted by
their hopes and fears ; they hope for the victory which
!Neill compel a dissolution, and they fear the appeal to
the country which, instead of scattering the Liberal
party, would terminate in the return of a popular tome,
against which a Tory Government could not long stand.
It we had to conteropl Ite the possibility of the break-
ing up of the present Ministry through disunion, we
should calculate on the evil of a Tory Government of
some permanence Out this is not the turn of things on
which, in the worst event, we have new to spec:Ll:ate,
the Ministers, to their honour,- having chosen a ground
for their pitched bottle which has re-united and ro-ani.
matel the whole Liberal party in the hearty support of
them, and this union is a mighty reserve of strength for
any event that may happen.

As to the division on the approaching trial of streegth
with parties so neatly balanced, we know that the trio-
jor:ty must be small ; but, small as it may be, it will
keep the wolf from the door. In the remarks that we
have made, however, it has been our object to consider
what the position and pro Tacts of the Tories would be
if they could carry the point of throwing out Lord
Morpetb's measure, without stopping to moot tile feasi-
bility of the exploit. Give them their best present
hopes, and what is the prospect before them ? Sup-
pose they could pass into power through the stab to
lrelarel, what will they do with Ireland ; how do
tlicy propose to govern it ? now do they expect
to obtain the convent of England and Scotland to
the costly coercive system that would become the
evil nece;sity of their administration. But there is
another more immediate difficulty. Never were the
Tory party more disjointed than at this moment. The
state of the Duke of Wellington's health incapacitates
him for office, and the state of S:r Robert Peel's rela-
tions with his tarty almost does the same. The dislike
of Sir Robert is Co !onger suppressed, it has broken out
in open quarrel in the very organ which is the main
support of the party in the press ; but Lord Stanley'sdemeanour, for the few days that he performed the Dart
of deputy leader, during the absence of Sir Robert Peel,
has not escorted the notice of shrewd observers.—Ex-
aminer.

ST. IvEs.—On Tuesday, the 9th instant, our
peaceable little town was thrown into confusion in conse-
quence of some few persons refusing to pay their rates; a
numler of sal ors, pilots, and others assembled, and re-
pulsed the overseers, -insomuch that it was deemed neces-
sary, for the peace of others, to call into office an evra
number of constables, and on the Frilly fillou.incrupwiards
of cne hundred were sworn into office, which so rrighteeed
the offenders that they confessed their guilt, begged for
pardon, and, after a reprimand from the Mayor, and paying
tin it fees, they were lip eratcJ.--West Briton.
On Friday last Lieut. R. ConThauld, R.N.,
chief officer of the Langton Sta ion, Weymouth, suet:cc 'el
in finding secreted in the Beach under the St .tion, 128
four-gallon tubs of foreign spiri!s, being the cargo of a
French smuggling vessel. From ti.e appearance of the
tubs, they had but te2..ntly been depositee. They were on
Sunday brought in and dave:c.l up to the Custom-house,
at Wejmouth. —Hampshire Telegraph.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
(From the Globe.)
Tin English Registration Bill, the debate on the
second reading of which occupied a considerahle part of
the sitting of the House of Commons lest night, is an
indication of good things to come to the Reform cause.
Experience has long shown that the machinery •of the
Reform Bill is inadequate to its purpose. - The cum;
brous and complicated nature of its details has impeded
its healthful•operation, and impaired its vitality. The
ancient " proprietors .of Parliament" have availed
themselves of its powers • to regain the influence it
was enacted to neutralize. . They have converted the
Regiqration Courts it established into arenas of mis-
chief; where the electors have been harrassed and an-
noyed, by means of frivolous and vexatious objet=
tons urged in vast numbers against them, until,
to avoid the annual journey to the Court and their
attendance at it, with the trouble and expense by
which these were accompalied, many have preferred
disfranchisement upon frivolous objections to the- fee=
quently-recurring inconveniences of attending to ploduce
their titles to the property out of which they cleinted,
or, if tenants, to establish their right against parties
who were employed by political agents to serve hundreds
of notices of objections, in the expeetalion that a -feW
would prove successful, either by failure of proof of qua-
lification, or by the parties objected to neglecting to Ap-
pian The various interpretations of the law by the re-
vising barristers was also another source of dissatisfac-
tion and vexation, and contributed largely to encourage
the agents of the political parties in the county or bo-
rough—who regarded only the interests of their ern--
ployers, and were paid according to their exertions,
or, possibly,' in proportion to their success—to mul-
tiply objections against those who were known to he
adverse to their party. The revising barrister of one
year applied his legal ingenuity to detect errors
in the decision of his predecessor—nay, contra-
dictory decisions by barristers . sitting under the
Same roof at the same time, and on cases precisely.
similar, were of constant occurrence. The complacence
with which this see-saw mode of deciding cases was
practised would have Inca amusing to .the spectators,
had it not been associated with reflections which were
neither honourable to the law nor creditable to the
honesty of its practitioners. The annual battle in the
registration courts has been a struggle for local poli-
tical supremacy, in which the last thing thought of was
the .legal integrity of the vote. The effect upon
~the
public mind, from this state of things, was big* in-
jurious, even in a moral point of view. The lesson in .-
culeated by it is, that the end justifies the means ; and
provided a vote be gained, or a claim destroyed, the way
in which the object is attained is a matter the least de-
serving of consideration ; the ingenuity of the successful
party, and not the honesty of the claim, or She val:dicy
of the objection, being the subject of 'congratulatior.
We therefore cordially congratulate the country on
the Bill before Parliament, introduced by Lord John
Russell, for emancipating the Reform Bill from some of
these obstructions to its free and beneficial working.
(From the Standard.)
_ _

It well becomes this great 'and highly favoured na-
tion, which has attained to such an eminence in wealth,
in power, and in arts, to take the lead in evary im-
provement of the human race. The practice of duelling,
the last remnant of the Romanist barbarism of the
middle ages, which seems to be obtaining new pre-
valence and vigour in other countriee, as they are
receding from civilization and Christianity, is at least
put upon its trial in England ; and if the press anti
those others who have influence upon the pub-
lic mind do their duty, England wilt have to
add to her wreath the glory of emancipating 'our
race from the savage self-imposed slavery of the
-codrrof honour, as she may boast to have set the ex-
ample of dissolving a less hateful and cruel servitude in-
flicted by man upon his brother. It will be seen by a
,reference to our Parliamentary report of last night, that
the Earls of Eldon and Mountcashel, and other Pcerr,
have made the proper use of the recent trial, by de-
mending of the Gevernment some measure, or some
exertion to repress the resort to 'private combat, and
it will seen olio that Lord Melbourne declared that
in his opinion the laws are strong enough to meet
:he evil. This is sufficient ; when the First Minister
of the Crown, the tepresentative of the executive
power, confesses that the ltws arc strong enough
to repress a crying tv,l, every hour's permitted
existence of the evil is his condemnatioa, for it is his
duty to execute the law. A case has opportucely oc-
curred since Lord Cardigan's trial—will LordMe,bourne
make use of the occasion to justify his assertion that the
law is s, rung enough ? We agree with his Lordship,
that the law is strong enough to drive duelling out
of England ; but a law suffered to sleep by its appointed
administrators, is equivalent to the absence of all lax.
The question is now settled, that to • fight a duel is
to commit a felony : will her Majesty's Ministers con-
Live at t'r.c commission of felony, and say that it
is no effair of theirs, but properly within the pro-
vince o! the inferior rna;istrate? But such is not the
caeca Robt.eriea and ordinary breaches of the peace
may be safely lett to the care of the inferior Magis-
trate, because those offences almost always tall forward
a coteplainaet, whose importunity will force the tune-
tionars- to do his duty.. A duel, however, rarely sup-
plies such a complainant : the public is the t aqy in-
jured ; and if the I aid servants of the public do not
.excit themselves to detect and punish the authors of
the injury, nobody else will.
(From the Courier.)
The Ralways 13:11 went through a second reading on
Friday tee 12th, and was to have been committed on
Friday, the 26th; but we have good reason to bdeve
Mr.' Labouchere will consent to its being postponed for
a week, to allow all the railway companies ample time
to consider the effect of the clauses by their experience
in working. We know, likewise, that the Committee
appointed at the Birmingham Conference are most
anxiously doing their duty, and are desirous to ascer-
tain the feelings and opinions of all the Companies on the
matter. 'We sincerely trust, therefore, that none of the
Companies will act without previous concert with these
gentlemen. Now is the time for the large railway in-
terest to show its strength and extent ; but to do it
effectively, it must be done by combination and a per:
feet understanding. Time
.Press and use public have
most unjustly been condemning thesh.vast-undertakings
as monopolies, which most unquestionably they are not,
and can only practically became so, by superior accom-
modation and safety, evidence in themselves against the
outcry which has laid the foundation far the present
Bill—a Bill we have already expressed ourselves upon,
as being the most frivolous and unmeaning, piece el
legislation ever concocted, and which shows the diffi-
culty of interference with the subject at all.

WOOLIVICH,• FEB. 19.—Intelligence reached
Woolwich on Thursday of the death of Brigadier. General
Edward Thomas Mitchell, of the Royal Artillery, on the
25th January, of fever, brought on by remaining too. long
in wet clothes at Damascus. This gallant officer entered
tie service a 3 second-I'm:tenant Septemlee 8, 1803, and
was promoted to be first,lieutenant on the 13th of the same
month. He was appointed captain September 5, 1811;
brevet major March 17, 1814; brevet lieuteLant-colonel
July 22, 1830 ;
,regimental colonel June 11, 1838; and
brigad:er-general, on a particular service, October 30,
1840. In 1840, he was detaAed from GP:a-altar and com-
manded a guerilla division in the Sierra c'e Ronda, and
was t resent 'at the capture of Ronda, and the combats cf
El Brusque and of &most, and the night attack and
capture of Arcos. He commanded the artillery, with the
force occupying Terlfa, 1810, 1611, and 1812, and oat
engaged in all the affairs and operations et Tardr,
Cara; Viejsp, Aleala, and Medina Sidonia; at the battle
of Baroasa he was shot through the shouLier, sn 1, mt.
Hl!taadicg the severity of the wound, he was present at
the final defence of Tarifa against Marshal Victor. In
1812, be was present at the assault and capture of the forts
and as the battle of Salamanca, the combat of Casts ejon
and many affairs of the out-posts. Served in the Ne.her-
lands from December 1813, to May, 1814, and was pre-
sent at the capture of Merxem, the investment aid bom-
bardment of Antwerp, and, iu the night attack en Ber-
gen-op Zoom ; conducted one of the columns and was se-
verely wounded on this occasion in several places. In
1838, be went to Spain, and was, appointed commander of
th; Hoysl Artillery, serving there until the end cf 1840,
when he proceede 1 to Syria on particular ie:vice wirh the
rank ef Brigadiet-Genetal, and commander of the Royal
Artillery engaged in the late successful contests in that
quarter. , Brigadie;r-General Mitchell was universally be-
loved by his brother officers.
TITHES AND' CHURCH-RATES.—Some time
last summer a eemand of 21. I9i. wait male upon a
member of the Society of Friends in Truro, for tithes, and
another of 6s. I Id. for a 'Clinrch-rate. Bah of these
demands, according to the_ uniform prsctice of the reli-
gious community alluded to, were, of course, refused, and
'goods of the value ef upwards of 131. were distrained to
meet them. These goods were sold .for 81. 14s. 31d.,
and after all the expenses were defrayed, about 1/. 53.
was returned to the party as surplus, which he refused to
receive, and it was consequently left upon some part of his
premises. Thus, for refusing, on conscientious grounds,
to par a sum of 3/. 6s. an hnnet and iadustriaus
man is fleeced t 3 the extent of nearly 121 • and this is•
done, too, for the maintenance of religion. West Briton

lt EC II UI T I NG. - h e F7an4fori Journal of the
13th instant publishes a letter, dated from Upper l-hui-
gary, which states that the population of that province
bad conceived so profound an antipathy to the recruiting
service, that several sanguinary collisions bad taken
place. At Mestegnego the inhabitants, with the Judge
of the district at their head, having opposed the recruit-
ing party, a squadron of Hulans was ordered to their
assistance. The pFople, supposing that the cavalry would
not fire upon them, commenced an attack upon the bar-
racks. The troops immediately charged the populace,
and in less than five minutes eight of the insurgents were
left dead, amongst whom was the Judge twenty-three
were wounded, and fifty-two wee made prisoners.
THE LATE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.
—HIGH Laos, FRIDAY. —The exertions of Mr. Hcrper
the special high constable of Cheshire, to discover Ann,
Simpson, the young woman who so suddenly disappeared
from Mr. Hewett's farm, have at length been attended
with success. About three o'clock yesterday afternoon
the body of the unfortunate girl was found embedded in
the mud of a marl pit, close to the farm yard, and this morn-
ing the body of a new-burn infant «as discovered floating
on the surface of the water. Mr. Hollins, county cure-
n r has appointed eleven o'clock to-morrow (this day) for
holding the inquest.—Manchester Times.