The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-31 00:00:00

EVENING SIJN

I- r.

SPIRIT of the

JOURNAL.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.

GLOBE.—There has been from time to time con-
siderable speculation as to the course that the Govern-
ment will put sue with regard to the forged Exchequer
bills ; and much has been said on the hardship of the
position in which " innocent holders" will be placed,
should the Treasury repudiate any liability to meet
such of the documents as are found to he fraudulent.
It has been, of course, a matter of much deliberation
in official quarters, what plan shall be pursued ; for
while it is felt that the parties who have given value
for their bills would have great reason to complain if
they should be made to suffer by the malpractices carried
on by a servant of the Government, it would be no less
unfair towards the Treasury to be called on to discharge
in full the claims of those who could not but have
known, by the terms on which they took their bills, that
some irregularity must have attached to them. We
have every reason to believe that the Government has
at length resolved to meet the question upon equitable
grounds, and, taking for granted its non-liability in a
legal sense, it has determined to state to the House of
Commons the facts of the case, leaving it to that body to
deal with it. The Chancellor of the Exchequer will pro-
bably bring the matter forward, and, without deny-
ing the laxity that has hitherto been allowed to prevail
in the Exchequer bill department, will propose that the
parties who have really taken the forged documents
under circumstances showing no ground for believing
that they could have suspected fraud, shall be indem-
nified to the full amount of their fictitious securities.
It will, however, be urged that persons who gave
only SOW. for bills which, if they were genuine, were
worth 2,0001., and if not were of no value at all,
must be considered to have been merely gambling on
the chance of the documents turning out good or
bad, and that, the latter being the case, the stake so
improperly played for should be regarded as sacrificed.
It is clear that there are no funds out of which the for-
genies can be paid, and the House of Commons must
therefore be resorted to in the existing difficulty,—
though the Government will propose the plan for getting
out of it. The liabilities to the public, presuming them
to be equitable and not legal, may be adjusted with
greater facility than the question which will arise be-
tween the Bank and the Treasury, which in official
quarters is now creating considerable perplexity.
STANDARD.—Lord Melbourne is more interested
than any other man in proving that the country which
he has governed for seven years is not suffering from the
ill effect of contemporary Government, or even from the
influence of preceding errors, which, during seven years,
he surely might have repaired ; hence his unwilling-
ness to see the actual distress exaggerated. But Lord
Melbourne, true to his party practice, has still a
reserve of fallacy ;he talks of lessons for the future,"
as if there were something to condemn in the system
which has brought Great Britain to her present state,
Now this must not be suffered to pass without a re-
mark. During 50 years the population of England has
doubled ; her territory has multiplied fourfold, and her
wealth, probably tenfold ; concurrently with a war, in
which she has had to battle for the liberty of the human
race, and has battled triumphantly. Does the system,
under which so much has been effected, present results
that are to be read as lessons as to what we ought to
shun ? Do not the effects of such a system, on the other
hand, point out in striking characters the danger of
every deviation ? It temporary distress is the result
of such a system—a fact which we do not dispute—a
great progressive prosperity is no less certainly. We
have agai❑ and again shown that temporary distress is
the necessary attendant upon rapid progress. This is
the lesson to be learned ; and if Lord Melbourne and his
colleagues had studied this lesson, they would ❑ot have
ensured by their New Poor-law that every temporary
distress shad be exasperated into misery and torture,
nor attempted by their budget measures that would
slay the national progress, and cause it soon rapidly to
retrogade. We repeat it once more, that you can-
not have progress without occasional distress ; but that
under the old Poor-law distress was so effectually miti-
gated as to threaten no danger to the community.
Prosperity causes the accumulation of capital—capital
becomes the competitor of labour, and for a time it
must prove the successful competitor ; but during the
interval that passes before labour can right itself, by the
opening of new markets, there must be distress. These
are plain propositions, a priori, and the evidence of ex•
perience warrants their soundness.

COLTRIER.—Few are the manifestations, and
scanty the measures of popular sympathy evoked by
the downfal of the \Vbig cabinet. A kind of sulky
silence seemed to have taken possession even of that
portion of the public supposed to be most favourable to
the views of Whig policy, which, being rightly inter-
preted, meant to say that in being cashiered from race
the Whigs had only met with their deserts. This, we
repeat, is the inference which we have drawn from the
ind,fference evinced towards the leading members of the
Melbourne Ministry by the country at large ; their offi-
cial extinction appears to have inspired no regret ; the
change which has transmitted subtle, glozing courtiers,
into jPalous and watchful, we will not add factious, op-
positionists, seems to have excited no hopes. In vain
they preach to the miserable remnant that still adheres to
them the virtue and magic potency of union—in vain
they labour to enforce the stale truism by references to
the achievements of their party in 1834,5. The temper
of the times has wonderfully changed since then ; at
that period the first indications of the ebb were only
given ; ever since the reflux has been rapid and steady,
and therefore to appeal to what Whig-Radicalism was
then coal led to effect as an illustration of what it might,
if similarly directed, be no% able to achieve, is to betray
a total inappreciation of intermediate occurrences—is to
confound vigour with debility, and the confidence of an-
ticipated victory with the discouragement of certain
defeat.

THE CHIRK MURDER.
APPREHENSION AND EXAMINATION OF
THE MURDERERS AT SHREWSBUY.
SHREWSBURY, DEC. 29.—The murderers were taken
at Coventry on Christmas-day, and were brought
into Shrewsbury yesterday evening, in a post-ehaise,
and lodged in the gaol. The greatest praise is slue
to the county police-force, under the direction of the
Deputy Chief Constable M.Michael, for their exer-
tions in tracing out the suspected villains. The
Viscount Dungannon has been unceasing in urging
a rigid investigation into all the circumstances con-
nected with this inhuman and bloody deed. The
Magistrates of the county offered a reward of 20/. for
the apprehension of the perpetrators of this atrocious
murder, and, through Lord Dungannon's intercession,
a further reward of 1001. was immediately offered
by the Secretary of State, and strong hoees were
entertained of their being soon taken, especially as
they were such well known characters. Their names,
as has already been stated, are Williams and Slawson.
The general opinion, both :rem report and a close and
vigilant look out on the part of the police, led the au-
thorities into a belief that the fellows lay concealed
either in the town or immediate neighbourhood of Wrex-
ham, and the efforts of the constables were directed ae-
cordiugly, but without avail. Up to Mondey no doubt
was entertained as to their being still ha-boured about
their native place, on which day a letter was received at
the Chief Constable's Office, in Shrewsbury, with in-
formation that two men answering the description giren
of the suspected murderers were taken by the Coventry
police, in which city it appears that they had offered for
sale at a silversmith's 11 silver spoon j, marked E. E.,
and he, having heard of the murder end robbery at
13ronygarth, Bare information to the police.
Mr. NleMiehael left Shrewsbury on Monday in order
to convey them here. The prisoners came to 'Wolver-
hampton by railway, and from thence to Atcham by the
Salopian coach. At nine o'clock yesterday
evening
they arrived in this town, a chaise haying heels pre-
viously sent to meet them at the village of Ateleam,
three miles distant.
John Williams is a stout young man, aged 22 years,
a native of Cornwall, but has resided at Wrexham
from his infancy. He had been in custody three years
ago, at Rathio, under the Vagrant Act, and was in the
same prison a year ago for an assault, where he under-
went nine months' confinement. The other prisoner,
Slawson, is about 21 years of age, has rather a boyish
look, and far from a ferocious appearance. When at
Cot entry, Williams assumed the name of Jones, and
Slawscn that of Halley. They reached Coventry on
Wednesday evening, on their way from the scene of the
murder. Slawson, who is a tailor; worked at his trade
in that city, and earned from Wednesday to the Friday
Bs. 4d. The examination took place this day in the
Guildhall, before the Hon. Thos. Kenyon (Chairman
of the Quarter Sessions), the Hon. and Rev. R. H.
Hill, T. C. Eyton, Esq., Sir B. Leighton, Bart., H. Jus-
tice, Esq., E. Jeffreys, Esq., Major Bayle/, and other
Magistrates. The witnesses examined were T. S.
M`Michael, Superintendent of the Shropshire Rural Po-
lice ; Thomas Henry Prosser, chief constable of Co-
ventry ; and Mr. Moss Fridland, watchmaker and sil-
versmith, of Fleet-street, in the same city, to whom
the spoons were offered for sale by the prisoner Wil-
liams. Mr. Prosser, on searching Williams, discovered
in his inner pocket in his waistcoat a half sheet of paper,
with the following directions written upon it by some
companion in crime
" You must make the best of your way through South
Wales to the Bristol Channel, and cross over to Corn-
wall, and inquire at Tregonna for some of the Beards,
if you are lucky enough to get there."
The Court was crowded to excess, and the examina-
tion created the most intense interest ; but the late hour
at which it concluded renders it impossible for us to send
any part of it by poet. Both prisoners were remanded
till Friday next, when they will be committed.

"►I C

DUDLEY.—The Coroner's inquest on the body
of Richard Hunt, who was killed by Mr. Edward Alsop.
of Rowley Regis, on the morning of the 12th instant,
whilst in the act of committing a robbery in an outhouse
on his premises, terminated on Wednesday- evening,
when the Jury returned a verdict of " Jnstifiable Homi-
cide." The deceased was about sixty years of age, and
had long been known as a most profligate chatheter and
notorious thief.—Worcestersliire Chronicle.

THE _MURDER at SEVERN STOKE
(From the Worcestershire Chronicle.)

The adjourned inquest on view of the body of the ill-
fated Richard Kenton, was held on Thursday, on suspi-
cion of murdering whom, W. Tippin (the man who was
in custody) has been committed on the Coroner's warrant,
to take his trial. The only fresh circumstance of import-
ance which transpired at the adjourned inqu •st was the
fact that two peculiarly situated nails had disappeared
from one of the prisoner's boots, but which he positively
denied having drawn. Contrary to what has been pub-
licly stated, Tippin has invariably denied all knowledge
of the crime, declaring again and again, that he knew
nothing of poor Kenton's death till he arose on the
Sunday morning. His conduct in the inquest-room
was certainly far from decorous, and his levity continued
after the inquiry closed, for on his way to Upton, the
police cart passed an Italian carrying a board of images on
his head, upon which he burst out into a loud laugh
and said—" I was serving the masons once, and as such
a fellow as that passed under me, I pitched a brick-end
upon his board, and broke half of them !" Being re-
monstrated with upon his ill-timed merriment, he be-
came more quiet during the rest of his journey. He
remained at Upton till about three o'clock on Friday,
shortly before which time Superintendent Craig re-
ceived a warrant (which he had been anxiously
expecting) directing his removal to the county
gaol. After receiving this authority, the Superin-
tendent lost no time in starting with his prisoner,
and as several policemen were in attendance, the
order of the town was not in the least disturbed on
removal from the lock-up. Before Tippin left Upto❑
he conferred with a gentleman of the legal profession,
with a view of preparing for his defence. Since he has
been in the county gaol his conduct has been very be-
coming, but so far from admitting his guilt, or any par-
ticipation in the crime with which he is charged, he
strenuously asserts his innocence. Stanton, Powell,
and Andrews, the other men in custody, were liberated.