The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-28 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,—As the potato disease is occupying the atten-
tion of the great bulk of the community, and its se-
rious results upori the poorer class, allow me to men-
tion that the same disease is now showing itself in
the turnip in this neighbourhood. I have a c.aop of
swede turnips, which has excited great notice from its
luxuriant and forward appearance, being drilled on
the 22d July, upon ridges, with a composition of sul-
phuric acid and bones, nightsoil, ashes, and gypsum
mixed up together. From their first appearance the
plants looked healthy ; they grew very strong and rapid,
escaping that general scourge, the turnip fly. I had
them regularly horse-hood between the drills, and struck
out by hand to about twelve inches apart in the drills.
Although no rain fell for lit least five weeks, they never
once flagged in their growth. As the rains came on,
the impulse given to the turnips was very perceptible ;
the land soon became covered with the plant, and bulb-
ing began, which has now attained a very large size,
many of the bulbs weighing upwards of 101 b. It always
gave me great pleasure when I visited them, par-
ticularly when the accounts of others ,were so dis-
couraging. On Saturday week I was induced to go
amongst the Swedes, from what I observed in some white
stone top turnips (about half an acre), which I had had
drilled in the same piece, but which I now found to be
all rotten, and emitting an effluvium of the most offen-
sive kind. I thought as the white turnips had attained
a very large size, they might have overgrown them-
selves, and decayed prematurely; but upon examining
the sound ones I found them perfectly sound, not
hollow. Now the swedes are certainly affected as above
stated, but not 80 extensively as the white turnips. I
found many putting on this appearance--4he leaf a little
mildewed, in the centre of the eye a dark appearance ;
in a word, in every respect like the diseased potato. On
putting the end of my stick down the eye, I could force
_ .

it intosoms of them as much as a couple of inches; the
smell from them was most offensive, a kind of mattery
appearance, the same as the potato had last winter. I
visited the same field last Saturday, and am sorry to say
nearly the whole of the white turnips are affected, and the
swedes to a much greater extent. Not feeling satisfied, I
have visited some of my neighbours' crops, and can
easily see the same disease amongst them, in the inci-
pient state ; being lat ,r in their growth, the disease has
not yet developed itself so fully. One field I examined
particularly, which bad been transplanted in June, but
they were affected. Not wishing to become an alarmist,
I merely write this in the spirit of inquiry. Having
carefully perused the different agricultural reports from
your numerous correspondents, I cannot see in them any
allusion to the disease ; all concur that since the late
rains, the turnips are looking much more promising. I
wish when they write again they would pay especial at
tention to the crops in their several localities, and report
thereon ; for if the disease should prove to be an epide-
mic,-the consequence to the grazier the ensuing winter
will be very serious. Its being detected early in the
season may be the means of enabling us to provide a
substitute before winter sets in.—l am, Mr. Editor, your
obliged servant, IL MORRIS.
Gasberton, near Spalding, Lincolnshire.
THE POTATO DISEASE.
TO TIIE EDITOR.

Sir,—On the arrival of your paper nt my cottage, I
was surprised to read, in Mr. Balkwill's communication
to the Royal Agricultural Society, that the great de-
stroyer of the potato was an insect ; and that that insect
was in such numbers in the neighbourhood of Kings-
bridge, Devon, as to destroy whole fields of the potato
crop. The potato crop in the district of North Lincoln-
shire, with which I am acquainted, looked as well to all
appearance as any crop of the kind could look a fort-
night ago. In a very short time many crops withered.
A respectable carpenter of my acquaintance looked over
his crop on Saturday evening, the Bth—they were well
and thriving then ; on Sunday morning, the 9th, they
were withered. Can this be the work of a tiny insect ?
On Saturday last I saw two crops of potatoes divided
only by a wooden fence—one, about half an acre, en-
tirely withered ; the other, belonging to myself, about
one acre, freshly green and in full flower, no insect per-
ceptible to the eye on either of the crops.
This year I have grown several kinds of the potato;
they are all affected with the disease, some more so than
others; the tops withered in a very short space of time.
The potato which we commonly call the " toad back"
—a goad sound potato for the spring of the year—is
more affected than most others, and this potato has the
seed apple upon it. I, for one, have not been able to
solve this question, although I have paid a little attention
to the subject, and most certainly have never discovered
a bug, or any other insect, on mine or my neighbours'
plants; and I am led to think it is not an insect (with
us at least) from this circumstance.—l have dug up the
Cambridge white kidneys this year, the foliage being
T hire found in the tuber,
although I was most particular as to seco,
every 1 otato of the kind in the ground vbith my own
hand.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Caistor, Aug. 20. E. W. G.
—Bell's Weekly Messenger.

JUDGMENT CP,EDITORS.
A BILL.

NTITULED AN ACT TO MAKE CREDITORS
WHO HAVE PROVED UNDER PROCESS OF
BANKRURPTCY OR INSOLVENCY JUDG-
MENT CREDITORS OF THE BANKRUPT OR
INSOLVENT.

Whereas it is expedient to give additional remedies
to creditors against debtors who, having been declared
bankrupt or insolvent, do not account in a satisfactory
way for such property as has been traced into their
possession, or who have not kept such books as they
ought to have done, or who have not continued to make
the usual entries in their books up to the time of their
bankruptcy or insolvency, or who may appear to have
been guilty of great extravagance in their expenditure, or
who may have put their creditors to unnecessary ex-
ponse by vexatiously resisting proceedings taken against
them in courts of justice for the recovery of debts, and
who for these or for any other reasons shall, appear to
the Commissioner to be undeserving of proarestion ; Be
it therefore enacted, by the Queen's most excellent
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of
the same, that the Commissioners of the Court of Bank•
ruptcy acting in the matter of any bankruptcy or insol-
vency may at any time suspend or withdraw the protec-
tion granted to the bankrupt or insolvent as to his per-
m n and property, as to either of them, as to him may
seem just and expedient, and may again renew and
again suspend the same from time to time.
And be it enacted, That the assignee or assignees of
any bankrupt or insolvent shall from the time of the
bankrupt's or insolvent's accounts becoming records of
the Court be deemed judgment creditors of such bank-
rupt or insolvent for the total amount for which such
bankrupt or insolvent shall thereby admit himself to be
indebted to all his creditors; and that if the Commis-
sioner acting in the matter of such bankruptcy or insol-
vency shall think fit to withdraw or suspend the pro-
tection granted to the bankrupt or insolvent as to his
person, he shall, on the application of such assignee or
assignees, grant to him or them a certificate according to
the form specified in the schedule to this Act annexed,
marked (A), which shall have the same force and effect
as a judgment of her Majesty's Court of Queen's Bench
for the sum therein specified.
And be it enacted, that every creditor of a bankrupt
or insolvent who shall have proved his debt, shall from
the time of his proving such debt, and in the order in
which the same shall be or have been proved, be deemed
a judgment creditor of such bankrupt or insolvent for the
sum so proved ; and that if the Commissioner acting in
the matter of such bankruptcy or insolvency shall think
fit to withdraw or suspend the protection granted to the
bankrupt or insolvent, as to his person or property, or
both, he shall, on the application of any creditor so ad-
mitted, grant to him a certificate thereof according to
the form specified in the schedule to this Act annexed,
marked (B), which shall have the same force and effect
as a judgment of her Majesty's Court of Queen's Bench
fur the suns therein specified.
And be it enacted, that the assignees or assignee or
any creditor holding such certificate may procure the
same to be sealed with the seal of the Court of Bank-
ruptcy, and upon producing such certificate so sealed
to the proper officer of her Majesty's Court of Queen's
Bench, may procure the proper writ of Capias ad satis-
faciendum or Fieri facias against such bankrupt or in-
solvent, or his property, as the case may be, to be sealed,
in the same way in which be might have done if he had
recovered a judgment against such bankrupt or insolvent
in her Majesty's Court of Queen's Bench, and had pro-
duced to the proper officer the judgment paper.
And be it enacted, that if any bankrupt or insolvent
shall be in prison unc?er a caphs ad satisfaciendura so
issued as aforesaid, the Court having jurisdiction in the
matter of his bankruptcy and insolvency may order his
release after he shall have undergone such imprisonment,
not exceeding one year, as to such Court shall seem
sufficient punishment for the offences of which he may
have been guilty : Pr added always, that no bankrupt
or insolvent against whom or by whom in respect of
his bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings shall have
been had shall be imprisoned fir any debts, proved by
whatever creditors under such baekruptey or insolvency
for a longer period than one year, taking into the ac•
count all the imprisonments which lie shall suffer under
such process.
And be it enacted, That whenever a bankrupt whose
certificate the Court shall have refused or suspended, or
an insolvent to whom the Court shall have refused his
final order, shall appear to any creditor who shall have
proved his debt to be in possession of property which
might have been seized for the benefit of the creditors,
but which has not been so seized, he may apply
to the Commissioner acting in the matter for an order
upon the assignees to show cause why he should
not be permitted -to seize the same at his own
risk for his own benefit, upon which application the
COMUliSkiQuer may order, unless came kfe shown to the

PUBLIC HOUSES (SCOTLAND).
Report from the Select Committee arpointed to take
into consideration the system of granting certificates for
public houses in Scotland, laid upon the table of the
House of Commons:-
1. That the number of houses in which spirits are sold
for consumption on the premises is excessive, and ought
to be restricted ; and in particular that the nu•nber of
such houses of inferior class is excessive, and productive
of evil, and that it would be expedient to repress the evil
arising therefrom.
2. That the facility with which licenses for the sale of
spirits is to be consumed on the premises are obtained,
is one main cause of the excessive number of such houses,
and of their indiscriminate character.

3. That the combination of the trade of grocers and
venders of other commodities with the trade of vend Ts
of spirits to lfe consumed on the premises, is, especially
in towns, productive of evil consequences to the working
classes.

4. That great inconvenience arises from the circum-
stance that the Excise licenses are in force from October
to October annually, while the occupation of houses and
shops in Scotland is almost universally from Whit Sun-
day to Whit Sunday, and certificates are commonly
granted in May.
5. That with a view of diminishing the number and
improving the character of houses for the sale of spirits
to be consumed on the premises, and with the view of
securing a better appointment of the number of such
houses to the wants of each particular district, it is ex-
pedient that the system of granting certificates be
altered and amended.

6. That at their meeting on the 30th of April, the
justices of the peace of each county should appoint a
committee of their own number for the purpose of as-
certaining and fixing the number of public houses ne-
cessary for the wants of each locality or district. That
this committee, after full inquiry, should fix the number
for each district for a certain number of years prospec-
tively, and that such decision of the committee should
be final.
7. That at the same meeting the justices of the peace
should appoint local committees to act in the several
localities or districts, in granting or renewing certificates,
and that the decision of every such local committee
should be final.

8. That no certificate to any new party should be
granted until the number of public-houses in the district
or locality shall have been reduced to the number Exed
by the general committee first mentioned, without a spe-
cial reference to and approval by the said committee,
and in no case should more than one such new certificate
I e granted in any cne district in any one year.
9. That each local committee should fix the minimum
rent of houses to the occupants of which new licenses
may be granted, and the minimum rent having been
so fixed, the same should not be altered without the
consent of the general committee.

10. That there should be one certificate for keeping
a common inn, alehouse, or victualling house, in which
beer, cider, or perry should be sold- to be drank or
consumed on the premises, and a separate certificate for
keeping a common inn, alehouse, or victualling house,
in which spirits, &c. shall be sold tk) be drank or con-
sumed on the premises ; and that there should be se-
parate licenses to correspond with the separate certi-
ficates.
11. That no certificate for keeping a common inn,
alehouse, or victualling house, where beer or spirits aro
sold to be consumed on the premises, and no license for
such sale of beer or spirits should be granted to any
person who sells groceries or such lik commodities,
unless special permission to that effect shall be annexed
to the certificate, and subscribed in like manner as the
certificate.

12. That in no case should a certificate for license be
granted to any person whose character is not satisfac-
torily attested on the personal knowledge of the attesta-
tors, c ach of whom should add to his signature a state-
ment that the attestation is made on his personal know-
ledge.
13. That there should be a license for the sale of
spirits to be consumed on the premises, distinct and
separate from the retail license.
14. That no certificate should be necessary to entitle
any person to a license to retail spirits not to be con-
sumed on the premises.
15. That it is very expedient that the period of tho
currency of Excise licenses should be made to corre-
spond, as nearly as possible, with the period of the cc-
cupation of the premises, viz., Whitsunday to Whit-
sunday.
16. That no certificate should be granted for a license
to the occupant of a toll-house in any case in which
there is a licensed public-house within two or three miles
of such toll-house on the same road ; nor unless the
aforesaid general committee shall have resolved that a
license for such toll-house is necessary for the con-
venience of the district in which it is situate.
17. That the remuneration to the clerks in respect of
the matter of certificates shall be by a fixed annual sum,
and not by fees on each certificate.