The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-25 00:00:00

MORNING SUN

of Devonshire that at twelve o'clock at night on
Christmas-eve, the oxen in their stalls are
always tbund on t heir knees, as in the attitude
01 devotion ; awl that, which is more singular,
since the alteration of the style, they continue
to do this only on the eve of old Christmas-day.
An honest countryman, living on the edge of
St. Stephen's Down, near Launceston, Cornwall,
informed me, Oct. c2S, 1790 (says the same au-
thority), that be once, and some others, made a
trial of the truth of the above, and watching se-
veral oxen in their stalls at the above time, at
twelve o'clock at night, they observed the two
oldest oxen only fall upon their knees, and, as'
he expressed it in the idiom of the country,
" make a cruel moan like Christian creatures."
He seemed to" marvel at my unbelief."

CHRISTMAS IN THE COURTS OF LAW

There were anciently great doings in the halls
of the Inns of Court at Christmas time. At the
Inner Temple, early in the morning, the gentle-
men of - the Inn went to church, and, atter the
gervice they did "presently repair into the ball
!IIP) breakthst with brawn, mustard, and malmsey.'
At the first course at dinner, was " served in, a'
a fitir:and large Bore's head, upon a silver plat-
ter, with minstralsaye," says Dugdale.
This custom is still observed at Queen's Col-
lege, Oxford, and tradition repress►►ts this usage
as a commemoration of an act of valour per-
ibrmed by a student of the College, who, while
walking in the neighbouring tbrest of Shotover,
and reading Aristotle, was suddenly attacked by
a wild bear. The furious beast came open-
mouthed upon the youth, who, however, very
courageously, and with a happy presence of
mind, is said to have " rammed in the volume,"
and cried, Giyeettnt eat, fairly choking the savage
-with the sage.

HoEnsiled says, that in the year 1170, on the
day of the young Prince's coronation, King
Henry 11., served his son at the table as
sewer, bringing up the Bore's head, with trum-
pets before it, according to the manner."

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—The Chronicle of this mornieg observes,
We confess it gives us pain to see a respectable
Paper like the Herald pointing out two distinguished
individuals—the one almost by name, the other by cir-
cumstances which could hardly be misunderstood—as
implicated in the Exchequer bill fraud. The Globe of
Wednesday observecl,' the matter cannot now be left where
it is; and our Contemporary, the Herald, if it does possess
the names of the parties pointed at, is bound to give
them to the public; without hesitation or ceremony, no
matter who or what the parties may be.' From an
article in the Herald of yesterday, it appears to us that
that paper has only gone too far already." We are
much of the same way of thinking upon this point
as our Morning Contemporary. As, however, our
previous remark may be liable to some misconstruc-
tion, we may perhaps as well state somewhat more
at length our view of the duties of journalists, as
regards the propogation of reports of the above nature.
Whatever may be thought of the present state of the
law of libel, it does not appear to us that any iniquitous
quality which there may be io that law, affords the
slightest apology for shrinking from supporting a
charge which bas once been put forth in such a man-
ner as to point evidently at individuals. The law of
libel may furnish very good reasons for abstaining from
individual illusions ; and indeed, independently of the
law of libel, we think such allusions should never be
published on no better authority than mere unsup-
ported rumour. It is, indeed, said that journalists
who happen to obtain early information of whatever re-
ports are abroad, must not be withheld from communi-
cating them. But this privilege evidently must have
its limits; for a mere flying verbal rumour acquires an
added appearance of authority from the " form and
pressure" of type, and circulation by a respectable news-
paper.
STANDARD.—We have copied from the Man-
chester Courier a long and very able article, exposing
most satisfactorily and most usefully the " enormous
lies" of "the League." There is one part of this
article which we must acknowledge with gratitude,
and which we recommend earnestly to the public
attention. We allude to the passage in which
the Manchester writer demonstrates the necessary
antagonism between the particular interests of
the manufacturing class, and the interests of the na-
tion. Our excellent Contemporary quotes Adam
Smith in support of its proposition ; and Adam Smith,
who certainly was no enemy to manufactures, speaks
clearly and strongly upon the point ; as onr Con-
temporary truly remarks, more strongly than
even the Quarterly Review, the Standard, the
Morning Herald. or the Morning Post, or any
other of the defenders of the agricultural interest
has ever spoken. The truth is, that it has been the
giving too much weight to the representations of ma-
nufacturers that has led the national policy astray in
every instance in which it has gone wrong. Take the
single case of Ireland. What is it that has con-
demned that important part of the United Kingdom
to poverty and ignorance, and all the melancholy con-
tequences of poverty and ignorance, during nearly
a century and a half? The destruction of her trade
and manufactures upon the suggestion and for the
benefit of the manufacturers of England. Had the
same pains been taken after the revolution of 16S8
to foster and protect the trade of Ireland that was
taken to destroy it, that country would be now the
strength of the empire, instead of being confes-
sedly " the chief difficulty" of every administration.
Swift saw this, in a hundred places in his writings ;
he predicts the evil that England was preparing for
herself, by sacrificing the prosperity of Ireland to the
cupidity of English manufacturers. Swift, as zealous
a Protestant and as earnest a supporter of the British
connection as any of us, did not scruple to expose him-
self to oblcquy and persecution as a Jacobite rebel, in
proclaiming the truth, that only by rendering justice to
tha industry of one division of the empire, could the
security of the whole be provided for.
COURIER.—The plan sketched by Mr. Christo-
pher, pretty plainly, we believe, indicates the principle
which Sir Robert means to adopt as the basis of his
new bill—namely, the reduction of the extremes of duty
within much narrower limits than the present scale allows,
and the fixing of a maximum and minimum amount, Mr.
Christopher considers the object of whatever alleviation
short of the present law, may be proposed, should be to
settle the price of wheat at some point between 565. and
65.. per quarter ; and this he proposes to secure by a
minimum duty of ss. when the price reaches or exceeds
the latter limit ; and a maximum duty of 20s. when it
fells to or below the former limit—the intermediate
range being so gradually regulated as to discourage, if
Tint prevent, gambling speculation, and all those frauds
which disgrace the present system. A different mode
for taking the averages must, of course, be introduced
simultaneously with the proposed change in the duty-
scale. The great temptations to tamper with and fal-
sify the averages, as well as the facilities for doing so,
consist in the vast extent of the sliding scale as at pre-
sent constituted, ranging, as it does, from the absurd ex-
treme of 535. to Is., and from the abruptness of its de-
scent at that end where regular gradation is most neces-
sary. The fact of confining the range to the limits pro-
posed, would of itself have a most beneficial tendency
in repressing the falsification” of the sales, now resorted
dinite averages to the required
to, for " working up th
point, both by greatly ialling the premium, and
enhancing the difficulty of the operation. Combine
this with an improved method for taking the averages,
and we have no doubt but that gambling in corn would
soon become a very profitless and troublesome game,
and consequently be abandoned for some
W
other epecu-
on. It must be borne in mind, that Mr. Chris.
topher, on the occasion alluded to, has di,
claimed all pretension to the character of
" a pilot balloon," wishing to be understood
as merely speaking his own sentiments. We II",
strong reasons for believing such to ,be the ease,
and that whatever points of identity may be hereafter
found to exist between the Government measure and
that adumbrated in Mr. Christopher's address, will be
attributable not to any preconcerted arranarrangement be-
tween the parties, but to the fact of a coincidence of
opinion on a subject which has engaged the attention of
all enlightened men for some time past. For ourselves,
we have long laboured under the conviction that no
other mode for adjusting the question on a sure and
satisfactory basis was open to any Government, but by
contracting the range of the scale, and fixing at either
end a point of maximum or minimum duty. Such a
plea appeared to us to combine all the requisites and
desiderata of sound legislation, serving, as far as human
legislation can extend, to steady the prices of corn, and
in ruling the introduction of the foreign-raised article
on terms the reasonableness of which none could justly
object to.

BARBAROUS MURDER IN HANTS.
SouTnA)trroN, DEC. 23.—Intelligence has just been
received here of a mcst barbarous murder, committed
on a servant girl, by a party a three excavators, on the
road between Winchester and Southampton. It ap-
pears that the young woman was walking towards South-
ampton, rather late last evening, having been engaged
as a.servant to a family in the neighbourhood. She
was acempanied for some distance on the road by her
fatter, and when he separated from her she gave
him a stilling to go into a public-house on the road-
side to refresh himself. While he was sitting there
three excavators walked in one carrying a bundle, which
the father knew to belong to his daughter. He, of
course, took immediate steps to have them taken into
custody. Several persons went immediately in search
of the young woman, and found her murdered, which
atrocious act was committed (there is not the shadow of
a doubt of the fact) by the three ruffians who had just
been secured.

Shortly after the arrival of Sir James Graham
from Windsor Castle yesterday, the Earl of Lincoln,
First Commissioner of Woods and Forests, had a long
interview with the Right Honourable Baronet at the
Home-office.