The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-05 00:00:00

THE SUN. LONMIN. WEDNESDAY, MAY 5. 1841.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON.
On Saturday the Annual Meeting of the Council and Pro-
fessors took place for the distribution of prizes to students who
had distinguished themselves in the Faculty of Medicine during
the past year. The Right Hon. Richard Lalor Shell, M.P.-,
presided. Amongst the other gentlemen of consideration pre-
sent, were Mr. Warburton, M.P. ; Mr. Booth, Mr. Strutt,
M.P.; Mr. Goldsmid, Mr. Hutton, IMP.; Mr. Mills, and
Mr. Liston, of the hospital of the College..
Professor Sharpey, the Dean of the Faculty, read the Report
of the last Session. The number of students who had attended
the medical classes during the session just ended was 328, of
whom 112 began their studies at the itiollege this year. The con-
duct of the young gentlemen has been honourable to themselves,
and gratifying to their professors. Last year, for the first time,
honours were awarded at the medical examinations of the Univer-
sity of London. The report concluded as follows :—" The Coun-
cil think that they will best consult the wants of the pupils, and
make the best provision for the continued cificiencyand reputation
of our school, by adding to the staff of the hospital a profes-
sor whose sole duty it will be to train students to habits of
exact abservation and careful discrimination in the practical
treatment of disease ; and who will be able to devote his un-
divided attention to this most important subject, which is the
very scope and end of all medical science."
The Right Honourable Chairman then delivered the prizes
in the following order :
CLASS OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIGLOGV (PROFESSOR
SHARPEO.
Gold Medal and First Certificee.—Mr. John Burford Car-
la!, of Hull.
First Silver Medals and Second Certificates.—Mr. John
D. Heaton, of Leeds; Mr. John E. Stocks, of Ilull (equal. )
CLASS OF OBSTETRIC MEDICINE.
Gold Medal and First Certificate.—Mr. John Waggett, of
Exeter.
First Silver Medal and Second Certificate. —Mr. Francis S.
Haden, of London.
Second Silver Medal and Third Certificate.—Mr. H. Wal-
ton, of London.
CLASS OF CHEMISTRY (PROFESSOR GRAIIA3I).
Gold Medal and First Certificate.—Mr. Alfred B. Garrod,
of Ipswich.
First Silver Medal and Second Certificate.—Mr. Henry
Allen, of Macclesfield.
Second Silver Medal and Third Certificate.—Mr. William
T. Edwards, of Caerphilly.
First Silver Medal (Prize Essay).—Henry Mlen.
Second Silver Medal (I'rize Essay ). —John Thompson.
CLASS OF ANATOMY (Professor QUAIN).
Gold Medal and First Certificate.—Mr. Arthur Hadwen,
of Lutterworth.
First Silver Medal and Second Certificate.—Mr. S. S. Sted-
man, of London.
Second Silver Medal and Third Certificate.—Mr. Edward
Ballard, of London.
Silver Medal and First Certificate (Junior Class).—Mr. E.
Hearne, of Taunton.
CLASS OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY (Professor GRANT).
Gold Medal and First Certificate.—Mr. John Hudson, of
Huddersfield.
CLASS OF MATERIA 3IEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS (Professor
ToOMSON).
Gold Medal and First Certificate.—Mr. IL Fcarnside, of
London.
First Silver Medal and Second Certificate.—Mr. B. A. Har-
ling, of Chester.
Second Silver Medal and Third Certificate.—Mr. T. S.
Blackwell, of London.
CLASS OF MEDICINE (PROFESSOR WILLIAMS).
Gold Medal and First Certificate.—Mr. J. D. Heaton.
First Silver Medal and Second Certificate.—Mr. C. J.
Hare, of Leeds.
Second Silver Medal and Third Certificate.—Mr. W. L.
Adey, of Bath.
CLASS OF SURGERY (PROFESSOR COOPER).
Gold Medal and First Certificate.—Mr. J. B. Carlill.
First Silver Medal and Second Certificate.--Mr. W. A.
of London.
Second Silver Medal and Third Certificate.—Mr. H. G.
Dalton, of Demerara.
Fellowe's Clinical Gold Medal.—Mr. John Gorringe, of
Brighton.

ANTI-BREAD-TAX TRACTS—No. 5,

- -
HOLY BIBLE.
" And God said, Behold I have given you every herb
bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and
every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding
seed ; to you it shall be for meat."—Gen. i. 29.
" The bread of the needy is his life; he that defraudeth
him thereof is a man of blood. "_Eccles. xxiv. 21.
" The Heaven, even the Heavens are the Lord's ; but
the Earth hath be given to the children of men."—Prov.
xi. 62.

" Moreover the profit of the earth is for all, the King
himself is served by the field."—Eccl. v. 9.
" He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him.
—Prov. xi. 62.

AUTHORITIES AGAINST THE CORN-LAWS.
" The unlimited, unrestrained freedom of the corn
trade, as it is the only effectual preventative of the mise-
ries of a famine, so it is the best palliative of the inconve-
niences of a dearth."—Adam Smith.
" Wherever commerce is known to be always frel, and
the merchant absolute master of his commodity, as in Hol-
land, there will always be a reasonable supply of corn."—
Benj. Franklin.
" Of all things, an indiscreet tampering with the trade
of provisions is the most dangerous. My opinion is against
an overdoing of any sort of administration, and more espe-
cially against this most momentous of all meddling on the
part of authority—the meddling with the subsistence of
the people."--Edmd. Burke.
" In England all other particular interests are over-
borne and crushed by one great particular interest, named,
in the aggregate, the agricultural interest."—Jeremy
Bentham.
" All classes, except the landlords, will be injured by
the increase in the price of corn."—David Ricardo.
" Those countries which have depended the most upon
foreign countries for their supply of corn have enjoyed
beyond all countries the advantages of a steady and inva-
riable market for grain."—James Mill, author of the
History of British India.
" For the sake of its moral benefit, we know of no
achievement more urgently desirable than that of a free
corn trade. There is not a more fertile topic of clamour
and borniug discontent all over the land ; and were it but
effectually set at rest, we arc aware of nothing which
might serve more to sweeten the breath of British society."
—Doctor Chalmers.
" The larger the surface from which a country draws
its supplies of food, the less likely is it to be injuriously
affected by the varieties in the harvests."—J. R. MCI&
loch.

' Parliament has the power to go at once to the root
of the evil, and remove entirely the cause of the disease.
Parliament has the power to to abolish the Corn-laws.
This is that which would relieve the people ; no other re-
medy can eradicate the national disease."— Colonel
Tor; ens.
" We cannot persuade ourselves that this law will ever
contribute to produce plenty, cheapness, or steaiiness of
price. So long as it operates at all, its effects must be the
opposite of these. Monopoly is the parent of scarcity, of
dearness, and of uncertainty. To cut off any of the
sources of supply can only tend to lessen its abundance ;
to close against ourselves the cheapest markets for any
commodity must enhance the price at which we purchase
it; and to confine the consumer of corn to the produce of
his own country is to refuse to ourselves that provision
which Providence itself has made, for equalizing to man
the variations of climate and of seasons. "—Protest by Lord
Grenville, signed by 10 Peers.
" It is my unalterable conviction that we cannot uphold
the Corn-lags, now in existence, together with the pre-
sent taxation, and at the same time increase national pro-
sperity, and preserve public contentment. —Mr. Hushis-
son's Speech, House of Commons, March, 25, 1830.
" Food is the last thing upon which I would attempt to
place any protection."—Jas. Deacon Hume.
" I consider that the taxation imposed upon the country
by our duty on corn, and the provision duties and prohi-
bitions a-e far greater, probably much more than double
the amount of taxation paid to the T, e isury."—Evedenee
of J. McGregor, Esq., Joint Secretary to the Board of
Trade.
" All protection means robbing some`sody else.—Colo-
nel Thompson.
" The Corn-law is an extension of the pension list to the
whole of the landed aristocracy of Great Britain."—Lon.
don Times.
" To propose to enrich a nation by forcing a permanent
scarcity of corn, and obstructing the natural course of
trade, is indeed at variance with cammon sense."—Sir
James Graham's pamphlet, " Free Trade in Corn the read
Interest of the Landlord and the true Policy of the State."
" All that has been advanced on this point is a mere ex-
cuse for keeping up high rents."—Speeci of Mr. Baring
(now Lord Ashburton) against the Corn Bill in 1815.
" No better mode of cheating a na'inn could be devised
than the present Corn-laws."— Lord Morpeth.
" Your device has been to create an artificial scarcity. "
Lord Fitzwilliam's Address to the Landowners.
" The Hon. Member for Kilkenny attributes the de-
rangement of the currency and the high rate of interest al-
together to the bank. But the present state of the Corn-
laws is at the root of the question."—allr. Chancellor
Spring Rice's retiring speech.
" If there is any class of persons whose opinions on this
question arc entitled to deference and respect, they arc un-
doubtedly political economists, men who have made the
sources of national wealth the principal subject of their
inquiry; and where shall we find one, from Adam Smith,
to the present time, who has not reprobrated the interfe-
rence of the Legislature with the price of corn ?"—Rev.
Robert Ball.
" If the moral and religious bearings of this question
were rightly understood, the room would have been filled
with the clergy and dissenting ministers of London. It
is impossible that they could resist sueh a call upon them,
for they could not but feel that the objects of the society
were founded in justice and humanity, and tended to the
welfare of their fellow-men."—Doctor Pye Smith's speech
at the lute meeting of the Metropolitan Anti- Corn-law As-
sociation.
" Let the British Parliament no longer display their
hypocritical compassion, lay dealing the bread by means of
Poor-laws, to those whom they have first made hungry by
means of Corn-laws."—Rev. Thomas Spencer.

A FEW

WORDS TO THE OPPO-

NENTS OF THE CORN-LAWS..

---
We trust that the Corn-law repellers of Liverpool
will not lose any time in assembling to express
their satisfaction that her Majesty's Govern-
' went have determined to make the alteration of
the Corn-laws a Cabinet question. What Minis-
ters have done is what the opponents of these laws
have long and earnestly desired, and now that the
Government has done its part, it remains for them
to do theirs. No one can entertain a doubt, that
the proposed change in these oppressive laws Will
be strenuously resisted by the class for whose be-
nefit they were enacted, end no one can indulge a
hope of as urcoming that resistance, without equally
strenuous efforts on the part of those who have suf-
fered, and are still suffering from their baneful ef-
fects. We therefore earnestly call on the thousands
of 'persons in this large community who regard these
laws with just feelings of dislike, and who consider
their repeal necessary for the prosperity of their own
businesses, the comfort of their own families, and
the well-being of the whole nation, to come forward
and make a great mod united effort to secure that

consummation so devoutly to be wished. There
is now an opportunity such as never occurred before,
and such as may not occur again for many years, if it is
now neglected, of doing something effectual on this all-
important subject. Those who refuse to exert them-
selves at this great crisis will richly deserve to endure
all the evils which a continuance of the oppressive
taxes on food must produce.

If any thing can rouse men of all parties and classes
to determined and persevering effort to free them-
selves and their country from the incubus which
presses upon them, it will be the unparalleled state
of suffering which exists at the present time,
and has long existed, in every department of busi-
ness. We can fearlessly challenge any man to
point out a single department of industry which is
not, at the present moment, in the most deplorable
state. Through the whole of the great cotton dis-
trict, which derives its supplies through this port,
the mill-owners are working short time, and still are
unable to produce any thing like a revival in trade.
The same state of things exists in all other parts of
the country, nor is there the slightest hope that busi-
ness will improve until food becomes cheaper, and the
monetary system again acquires stability. Prom the
experience of the last few years it is evident that
neither of these things can occur until the trade in
the prime necessary of life is placed on a liberal
and stable basis. Under the present laws everything
is fluctuation and uncertainty, the duty varying
almost every week, and the dealers in foreign
grain being unable to regulate their transactions
by any thing better than mere guess work. With
great reason it was that Lord Howick replied to
Sir Robert Peel's complaint that Ministers were
going to leave the duties on corn uncertain for
a period of five weeks, that under the present sys-
tem they were uncertain from one end of the year
to the other, changing from week to week, and
baffling the most careful calculations. Under such
a system it is in vain to hope for anything like regu-
lar trade, but until that is established this country
can never receive its supplies of grain from abroad
without having the whole monetary system thrown
into confusion, and without being compelled to
see the 13 ink of England striving not to extend and
uphold, but to limit and depress the trade of the
country, as the only means of saving itself from
bankruptcy. If the last two years of gloom, de-
pression, and ruin, resulting from these causes alone,
will not rouse the country to proper exertions at
the present critical period, it is vain to hope that any
thing else will. We entertain better hopes, however,
and feel confident that the offer of Government to
give freedom and stability to the corn trade will
be met as it ought to be, by those who are inte-
rested in its success. No time is to be lost, and
we, therefore, again earnestly call upon the enemies
of the Corn-laws in this town, at once to come forward
and to express their desire for cheap food, and a steady
and uniform admission of foreign grain.—Liverpool
Times.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
HOUSE OF LORDS, MAY 4.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat OR the Wool-
sack at Five o'Clock.
Lord HATHERTON presented several petitions
from Lincoln, praying for an alteration in the Turn-
pike Roads Acts ; also a petition from Scotland against
the Small Debts (Scotland) Bill.
Lord SONDES presented a petition from Stafford,
praying for a repeal of the Corn-laws.
The Marquis of DOW NSHIRE presented a pe-
tition from a body of persons professing the Jewish
persuasion in favour of the Jewish Declaration Bill ;
also 25 petitions from places in the north of Ireland
against the law of Church Patronage in Scotland. He
could not concur in the prayer of these petitions, and he
was satisfied the longer the law was permitted to remain
as it was the more mischief and inconvenience there
would arise. The Noble Marquis then presented a
petition in favour of the existing Corn laws from se-
veral parishes in Down, and other places in the north
of Ireland. Unless the existing protection was con-
tinued to the landed proprietors, neither could the la-
bourer receive regular wages, nor could the landed
gentry of the country maintain their station in life.
Eorl FITZWILLIAM presented a petition from a
place in Yorkshire, complaining of the operation of the
New Poor-law Act. The petitioners considered the
workhouse regulations extremely oppressive.—( Hear,
hear.) He could only say that ho thought they were
mistaken in the character of the law. Also
a petition from a body of Socialists, complaining
of having been misrepresented in that House, and pray-
ing inquiry into their doctrines. He really did not
know why they had selected him to present their petition.
Viscount DUNGANNON presented a petition
from Derby in favour of the Drainage Bill.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE gave notice,
that on Monday next he would move for a Select
Committee to inquire into the rate of interest paid upon
Promissory Notes and Bills of Exchange.
DRAINAGE BILL.
The Marquis of NORMANBY moved that the
Drainage Bill be rend a third time.
The Duke of WELLINGTON said he wished the
University of Oxford should be excluded from the Bill,
on the ground that it would interfere with local Acts.
The Marquis of NORMAN BY said he had no ob-
jection to exclude Oxford from its operation.
Lord LYNDHURST inquired if there would be
any objection to exclude Cambridge also.
The Marquis of NORMAN BY said there had
been no allegation that aiy local Acts would be affected
in the case of Cambridge.
The Earl of HADDINGTON could see no reason
for hurrying on these Bills. The session was not, he
supposed, near a close.—(Hear, hear.) It could make
no difference if the third reading were postponed to
Friday or Monday.
The Earl of RIPON said ho would propose to
except Birmingham.
Lord ELLENBOROUGH did not think that
places having local Acts ought to be ex-
empted from the operation of the Bill. He implored
their Lordships not to allow any trifling considerations
to weigh with them, but to pass the measure without
any deviation from its main principles, and principal
provisions, whereby they would confer a great boon
on large masses of the people, and particularly the
working classes.—(Hear, hear.)
The Bill was then read a third time, when the House
proceeded to consider the amendments, of which notice
had been given for this stage.
The Earl of HADDINGTON proposed as an
amendment to the 47th clause of the Bill to strike out
the words" Sheriff or Sheriffs," for the purpose of in.
sertiiag the words " Committees or Commissioners of
Supply." The object of the Noble Earl's amendment was to
give the powers conferred by the Bill, as far as Scot-
land was concerned, to the Sheriffs-Substitute and
Commissioners of Supply for the various counties.
Viscount MELVILLE objected to the Noble Earl's
proposition.
The Earl of HADDINGTON replied.
The Marquis of NORMAN BY said that from all
the information he had been able to obtain, he had
reason to believe that it would be advisable to leave the
machinery of the Bill in the hands of the Sheriffs.
The clause was then negatived without a division.
The Earl of HADDINGTON begged leave to
move to add to the schedule—the Commissioners of
"An Act for better improving, watering, lighting, and
paving the town of Birmingham, in the county of War-
wick."

The Marquis of NORMANBY said his Noble
Friend had omitted to mention an important distinction
between the Commissioners of the town of Birmingham
and the Commissioners of other towns, inserted in the
schedule ; and also the distinction between them and
the Commissioners of the town of Oxford. All these
Commissioners were elected in the same manner by the
rate-payers, but the Commissioners of Birmingham were
self-elected. He thought if this power was not given
to those who were subject to popular control, it should
be given to those for whom the Executive was respon-
sible. He did not think a Town Council popularly
elected was a proper body to entrust with these func-
tions.

The Earl of WARWICK said these Commis-
sioners were universally looked up to and respected
at Birmingham, and in all the political excitement that
had taken place at Birmingham had done their duty.
The Marquis of NORMANBY said this Bill
would not transfer this power from the Town Council,
but merely give the Crown a power of selection.
The Earl of RIPON said his object was to
prevent confusion in the town of Birmingham, since all
who read the Act would find these Commissioners were
able to do many thirgs which must bring them into
conflict with those whom the Crown might appoint.
In answer to a question from Lord ASHBURTON,
The Earl of RIPON said he apprehended the
amendment would not preclude any other persons from
sitting as Commissioners ; but, it it did, it would not
make any difference.
After a few words from Lord ELLENBOROUGH,
Strangers were then ordered to withdraw, and their
Lordships divided, when there appeared—
Content
Not content

Majority for the clause —33
The Duke of WELLINGTON then proposed an
amendment excluding the University of Oxford from
the operation of the Act.
The amendment was agreed to, and the Bill was
then read a third time and passed.
BOROUGHS IMPROVEMENT BILL.

On the motion of the Marquis of NORMANBY,
that this Bill be read a third time,
The Duke of WELLINGTON moved a proviso
for excluding the University of Oxford from the opera-
tion of the Bill.
The Marquis of NORMANBY had no objection
:o the amendment.

Lord LYNDHURST said he had on a former day
presented several petitions from inhabitants of the bo-
rough of Birmingham, praying that the town might be
excluded from the operation of the Bill, and, as he rose
to move a proviso to that effect, he would state shortly
the grounds of his motion. There had been for thirty
years a local Act applicable to the town of Birming-
ham, and the Commissioners under the Local
Act had powers similar to those given to the
Town Council under the present Bill. They had ex-
ercised those powers to the entire satisfaction of the
people of Birmingham. He would appeal to any Noble
Lord resitfent in the neighbourhood, whether a great
improvement had not taken place in Birmingham since
their appointment, than in any other town in the king-
dom ? There was a power of appeal to the Quarter
Sessions against their orders, and in ❑o one instance had
any appeal been made during the time they had exer-
cised their authority. He looked upon this as decisive
evidence of the admirable manner in which t hey had
exercised the powers with which they were entrusted,
and of the entire satisfaction of the people of Birming-
ham with the manner in which t hose powers had been
administered. The Commissioners had been elected
without reference to party or politics. There were
persons of all denominations of party among them, acd,
notwithstanding no complaint existed against them, they
all performed their duty conscientiously ; whereas the
Town Council of Birmingham, which it was proposed
to substitute in their stead, was the most partizan body,
the most radical body, in the empire. That Council was
composed of persons of but one description of politics, and
those politics of the most extravagant kind. As an
instance of that, he would mention one circumstance.
The person who lied the office of registrar of the Bo-
rough Courts should be a lawyer, but he was
a man who was not bred to the law, and the editor
or manager of a Radical journal of that town. Those
were the first fruits of the town council. Whether
would their Lordseips entrust an unlimited power of
taxation to the Commissioners who had hitherto dis-
charged their duty so well, or to that council of party
men who performed their duty in the way he (Lord
Lyndhurst) mentioned? He would never consent to
give such powers to a body so constituted. By those
powers they might purchase any property they chose,
and give what price they pleased for it, and that with-
out any appeal being allowed to be made against their
conduct. Would their Lordships countenance such a
system of favouritism as that? There was no clause
in the Bill to abolish the jurisdiction of the Commis-
sioners, and it was ridiculous to establish another juris-
diction—a rival jurisdiction, for the same purposes.
He would propose, therefore, by way of proviso, that
nothing, in the Act should ;extend to the Borough of
Birmingham. _ _ _

The Marquis of NORMANBY opposed the clause.
Ile saw no reason why Birmingham in particular should
be excluded from a system which was devised for the
benefit of large towns in general.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE justified the man-
ner in which Birmingham had been divided into wards.
In every case he preferred a responsible to an irrespon-
sible body.
In reply to the Earl of ELLENBOROUGH,
Lord LYNDHURST said that he should be ready
to invest the existing Commissioners with all the powcrs

ven to the Town Council by the present Act.