The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-02 00:00:00

BARON MOUN

Baron Mounier having, as we on,
England, where he reckons among h.,
individuals who have figured conspicuously in public
affairs, our readers will not peruse without interest a
brief biographical sketch of the life of one of the most
honourable and distinguished men whom events have
permitted to remain in the service of his country.
Baron Mounier is of a family of Dauphine, and the
son of an eminent orator of the Assemblee Constituante,
who withdrew from that celebrated assembly when
convinced that his efforts, and those of his friends, could
not prevent it, from destroying the monarchy on pre-
tence of regenerating its ancient institutions and laws.
Compelled to quit his native country, with other men
whose talents had been equally inadequate to arresting,
the progress of the most sanguinary revolution upon re-
cord, he returned to France only under the Imperial
Government, by which he was entrusted with the ad-
ministration of a first-rate Prefecture.

It was whilst his respected father was initiating him
into the knowledge of public affairs that the early
talents of Baron Mounier attracted the attention of
Napoleon, who admitted him into his immediate ser-
vice, in the capacity of private secretary. In this ar-
duous and irksome office, which was but ill-suited to the
independence of his character, Baron Mounier was in-
,lchtcd to his merit for beinginaintained until the downial
of the Imperial Government.
When the Bourbons were restored, Baron Mounier
was appointed Superintendent of the Crown buildings ;
and when, a year later,, Napoleon invaded again the
territory of France, faithful to his lawful Sovereign, he
withdrew from his country, and returned to it only
when Louis X VIII. recovered his throne. He was
then reinstated in the Superintendence of the Crown
buildings, and almost immediately after appointed a
Councillor of State. About two years later his loyalty
was further rewarded with a peerage, a dignity then
the object of much ambition, but which has been di-
vested of almost all its prestige since 1.630.
When the Duke de Richelieu was placed, for the
second time, at the head of the Cabinet, be offered the
Home Department to Baron Mounier, who, with a
modesty very uncommon in France, declined it, deem-
ing himself too young for so important a station. He
nevertheless bestowed his services on the department
under Count Simeon, being invested with the title of
Director-General of l'Adniliastralion Departemenlak ct
dc la Police, and favoured with the unusual prerogative
of a seat in the Council of Ministers.

On the retirement of the Duke de Richelieu, which
the death of that justly respected nobleman soon fol-
lowed, Baron Mousier also withdrew from the adminis-
tration of the kingdom, retaining only the superinten-
dence of the Crown buildings, his functions as a Coun-
cillor of State, and his seat in the Chamber of Peers.
In this branch of the Legislature, wherein he still sits, he
has throughout displayed a capacity, knowledge, and dili-
gence, of which many a bright rapport bears evidence.
Upon Baron Mounier's visit to England, many com-
ments have been ventured by the journal of both coun-
tries. Spanish and Eastern affairs have been alternately
assigned as the objects of a mission supposed to have
been entrusted to bins by the French Government. If
we believe a Contemporary, he has even successfully
accomplished his task, which tended chiefly to make
France recover her share in the settlement of the
Oriental question, to substitute a treaty between the
Five Powers and the Sultan for that of the 15th of

July, and to procure, through the interference of
England, an improvement in the political and social
condition of the Sy Tian Christians. That any mis-
sion at all has been entru,ted to Baron Mounier is
very doubtful. Ile has himself positively denied it,
and we Lava. reeeked that as:uranee front one of his
friends, who considers his visit to England as one of mere
curiosity, or, as suggested, perhaps, by a desire to ob-
serve this country at a moment when its power is called
into play by the great questians which attract the at-
tention of Europe. But even though confidential nego-
tiations had been con.initted to Baron 'Moonier, as they
have been to equally exalted personages at critical junc-
tures, a man who retired front office many years ago is
not likely to have taken upon himself the ungracious
task of imploring the indulgence of the Allied Powers
towards one which has deliberately seceded front them,
of procuring its participation in an arrangement which
it has striven to thwart by secret intrigues and overt
threats, and still less of advocating cause of the Chris-
tians of Syria, whom that power would have doomed for
ever to the galling yoke of Mehetn,A

AMSTERDAM, DEC. 28.—We hear that a
new organisation of the army is in contemplation, by
which the number of battalions in each division will be
reduced from four to three ; each battalion to consist of
sixteen companies. The field artillery is to be composed
of only one battalion of inhe companies. Great reductions
arc intended in other respects, and it is said that at least
170 offie,rs. Inc.tly of high rack, will be pensiuced off.
II NOVER, DEC. 20.-1 m Custams' Union
with lirunsAi;k and Oldenburg was renewed on the 19th
of this mouth fur several years.
Tit E HAGUE, DEC. `29.—The first Chamber
of the States-General agreed yesterday to all the laws re-
lative to the budget fur 1841.

AMSTERDLI, DEC. 29.—M. Von Doom is
appointed Vice• Pro,iticiit of the Council of State. O.her
change- in the higher oaicca of State are spoken of.

ST. PETEII;;BURGII, DEC. IS.---Ye-tcnbty
the ceremony of the confirmation of the Princess of Ilese
Darmstadt, and her admission into the pale of the Gree's
Church, took place in the great chapel of the Winter
Palace, when she rccei%ed the name of Maria Alexan-
dria'. To-day she was solemnly betrothed to the Grand
Duke Alexander. The city is splendidly illuminated this
evening.— Ilamburgh. Papers, Dec 2d.
" Silver coin and bullion shipped at Dover from
Dec. 13 to 31, were 699,600 ounces of silver, and 1,4:+5
ounces of gold.
We have reason to believe that the christening
of the Princess Royal is fixed fur the 10th of next month,
the anniversary of her Majesty's marriage.
FOOT MACE.—"Phis morning, at eight o'clock,
a grand foot race for 100 guineas, between Captain Small-
wood, and James Cupthall, the celebrated groom, of rac-
ing notoriety, came off in the Regent's Park. The pedes-
trians started from the New-road, fronting St. Maryle-
bone New Church (each taking opposite courses), rand
the exterior of the Regent's Park, up Great Albany.
street, by St. John's \Vood Chapel, along the Parkroad,
•to the starting-place, opposite Marvlebonit. Church. The
distance, being three miles and three-quarters, was per-
formed in the space of 17 minutes and 10 seconds ; the
groom beating Captain S. by the short distance of eleven
yards.

The Cork Southern Reporlcr says " the announce-
ment of the intended Aggregate Meeting of the Province
of Munster has been received and responded to in a man-
ner that will afford the liveliest gratification to all Irish-
men desirous of seeing shivered to pieces the chains now
forging, with unholy zeal, for their country's enslavement.
From Limerick, Tipperary, Tallow, and different other
localities, signatures have poured in, and assurances been
received of the anxiety felt by every Liberal to take part,
to the utmost of his power, in the effort for the preserva-
tion of Constitutional Government in Ireland. Clergy
and laity arc, one and all, throwing off the apathy of which
we have had occasion, in Previous articles on this subject,
to deplore the existence. We hope and think that this
manifestation of returning life is a real, not a fictitious one ;
that it will be followed up by practical proJfa of the
nation's perception of the peril that encompasses, and the
duties that become, her. The meeting of the eleventh
of January will afford one great oppoi tur.ity of doing so
with dignity and effect."

FATAL ACCIDENT IN THE LONDON DOCK.
—On Thursday night, about ten o'clock, the watchman
and dockman stationed about the pierhead and entrance of
the London Dock at Lower Shadwell heard the splash of
a man in the water just above the lock-gates, and the cry
of " A man overboard" being raised, many persona got
upon the top of the gates and others on the quay, when
they saw a man struggling in the water, who called out,
" For God's sake make haste, for I can't swim." A man
present immediately put down a long boathook towards
the person who was in the lock, but in his trepidation he
dropped it, and directly afterwards the poor knot% isap.
peared, and nearly half an hour elapsed bcforh body
ittv.oreuring.to get out of
was dragged out of the water, when 110 was
_ („tidentified as
the steward of the ship Caroline, bound to Cal • tta, lying
in the coiner of the entrance basin, not more than fifty
in. It is believed that
yards from the spot where he fell d
the en
the unfortunate deceased was
the dock by swinging his body rounde the
Istiding partition
overhanging the water, and was Iperhaps not awhre he
gone out of the dock through
could have
side
wicket-
gate on the opposite of the lock. The body was
taken to the deadnousc in c Churchyard.
\Vc regret to learn that Dr. Olinthus Gregory
has suffered a paralytic stroke, and remains in a very pre-
It IS not saying
carious state. too much to designate this
excellent man :Isat re great Christian philosopher of the
day, Ifis rein, . I
.w.henever it may occur, will be felt as
a loss to the ..eientltie, the literary, and the Christian
world, which unitedly they can but rarely sustain. —Leices.
tershire M crew y .
The Lath of John Hall, Esq., of Portsladc,
took place, alter an illness of same weeks, in Brighton, on
Tuesday lust. M Hall in - I
Mr.was his if) I year, and was
senior passer of the Brighton Union Bank, a Magistrate
for the eastern division of the county acting on the Bench,
and Treasurer to the Sussex County Hospital.
ADULTERATION OF BUTTER.—Mr. Patrick
Black brought under the notice of the Board the
extent to which adulterated butter was sold in Glas•
gow. Portions of it had been analysed by Pro-
fessor Thomson, who found one-half to consist of the ge-
nuine cruidle, and the other of oatmeal. But this was not
all, said Mr. It., for yellow turnips, baker'i soda, and
even weaver's dressing, were mixed up with the article
for the purpose of imposing on the public. Mr. Black
produced a quantity, which he had
analysed
himself, and
only ene-halt of which appeared to deserve the name of
butter ; the rest was oatmeal. In the discussion which
followed it was stated that many persons were in the
habit of selling this butter without being aware of its adul.-
teration. AU, or most of it, was Irish butter; and Mr.
Burnet stated that there was a regular establishment at
Londonderry for the adulteration of it. He would recom-
mend the Magistrates of Glasgow to correspond with the
Mayor of that city on the subject. It was finally resolved
to leave the matter in the hands of the Magistrates, with
a request that they would apply a remedy to an imposition
i alike mean and dishonest.--. Scots Times.
, A WHITE BLACKBIRD.—Last week Mr. R.
r Smart, of Melton Mowbray, shot a perfectly white black-
bird at Lung Clawson.

EVENING EDITION

THE OPINION OF THE CITY
SOLICITOR ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF
THE POOR-LAW.

TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE POLICE COMMITTEE.
GENTLEMEN—In obedience to your directions, I
have the honour to report in writing the opinions upon
the construction of the Poor-law, which at your last
meeting I delivered, viva voce, to the Committee.
I have hereunto annexed a copy of the several sec-
tions of the Act of Parliament, which bear upon the
particular questions submitted to my consideration. I
have also appended copies of two of the orders of the
Commissioners which, having been made under the
authority of the statute, and in conformity with its pro-
visions, must be equally received as law, and construed,
in reference to the wording of the several clauses of
the Act, as much as if they had been incorporated in
and formed part of the statute itself.
I have not the smallest doubt but that it is the duty
of the Board of Guardiaas in the City of London Union,
to make provision for giving, in cases of urgent neces-
sity, immediate shelter, either temporary or permanent,
as the case may require, to houseless wanderers found
in a state of destitution within the limits of the Union.

... -
By the 26th and 76th sections of the Act, work-
houses for each Union are to be provided. It is not
prescribed by the Act that these workhouses shall be
situtated within the district ; if, therefore, the Guar-
dians with a view to the ecenomioal administration of
the funds, or the better to secure the health of the in-
mates, or for other lawful reason, shall see fit to occupy
a workhouse at a distance from London, they are un-
doubtedly at liberty to do so ; but, in my opinion, the
fact that the workhouse is at a distance, does not
exonerate them from the obligation of providing tempo-
rary shelter upon the spot, in all cases of emergency
where the necessities of the case do not admit of imme-
diate removal, to the house provided in ordinary cases,
kr the reception-of the poor.
The Committee will perceive that the 52d section
of the Statute expressly mentions " temporary lodging"
as well as " food and medicine " as being part of the
relief to be provided in cases of particular urgency.
It is true the Words " temporary lodging " are not
repeated in the 541,11 section of the Act, or in the or-
ders of the Commissioners, and thence some persons
have contended that " lodging, or shelter" is not of the
description of relief required to be provided in cases of
emergency.
I confess that the attempt to put upon the S:atuto
such a construction appears to me quits untenable.
The word " medicine" is omitted in these ciaus2s, es
well as " temporary lodging," yet it will be se trcely
contended that a person perishing in the street from
the consequence of accident or active disease, is not
entitled to medieel relief, as instantaneous and effectual
es if he were dying from want of food. The a-ICI sec-
tion expressly says that the relit f is to be " such es
each ease shall require;' and it would be an insult to
common sense to say that this requirement of the
Statute would be complied with by offering bread so
a house's: s stranger, about to perish of cold, eel to
refuse hirn shClt&r " such as l:is case required."

I have, the honour to be,
Your rust obedient servant,
C H A iILES Ci!.3/ Solicitor.
Dec. 1, 1810.