The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-16 00:00:00

MANSFIELD GUARDIANS.

It seems as if it were decreed that the guardians of
Mansfield union should stand moat conspicuously before
the world. It is not long ago that their names were
called into question i❑ the House of Commons in re-
gard to the non-producing wheel ; since then, a ques-
tion has arisen against them on account of the room in
which travelling mendicants were lodged during nights,
said to be most unfit to place them, and the Poor-law
Commissioners' attention was called, and they caused
tho room to be improved. A month ago, the guardians,
contrary to the spirit (and we think will prove contrary
to the letter too) of the poor law Acts, passed a resolu

tion that no able-bodied mendicant should be admitted
into the union house for a night's lodging, though, by
the law, they are compelled, before quitting the house
on a morning, to perform a task of work in return for
the lodging afforded them. Since this most extraordi-
nary resolution was passed, vagrants, who have been
refused admission into the house, have committed
various offences, such as breaking windows, gas-lamps,
and taking provisions out of a shop, for the express pur •
pose, as they stated, of obtaining lodgings at the police-
office and in prison. Some of these men having been
taken before Major Coke, he, with a promptness which
does him great credit, put himself in communication
with the Poor-law Commissioners. The Commission-
ers, through Mr. Weale, Assistant Commissioner, in-
stantly instituted an inquiry into all this, and if we are
not greatly mistaken, the guardians will once more find
themselves at fault. We hope to be enabled to learn
the result of Mr. Weale's inquiry, and put the public in
possession of it.
Since the resolution was passed, vagrants who had
been refused admission into the workhouse have gone to
Mr. Richardson, the present acting overseer of the poor,
and demanded assistance. At some times he has sent
for the police to remove the applicants, and other times
given ,relief out of his own pocket, fearing his shop
windows would be broken. Three weeks ago Mr. Ri-
chardson wrote to the Poor-law Commissioners upon the
subject, and he received a reply from them to say the
matter was one of serious consequence, and would be
duly'inquired into.
We never yet heard of any union workhouse, except
Mansfield. being without beds for vagrants. At Mans-
field, they, lie upon straw at nights, and until bed time
they are placed in another room on the ground floor,
without a fire, scarcely anything (if anything at all)
to sit upon, and provision not very bountiful. A con-
demned felon has a bed, a fire, and proper sustenance ;
but a month ago, three or four vagrants found themselves
so cheerless and cold in the lodging place, prior to being
sent to their bed of straw, that they actually pulled up
boards in one of the sleeping-places, put them into the
firegrate, in the fireplace, and ignited them in order to
be warmed. These things must not, and shall not, be
longer tolerated.—Aottingham Review.

RICHARD COBDEN.—And one at least of that body
has won a larger measure of confidence and respect than per-
haps was ever before awarded, both by friends and enemies,
to the leader of a great enterprise. Calm, indefatigable, in-
flexible; with singleness of purpose, never diverted to the
right hand or the left; shrinking from no fatigue, shunning
no opponent, and never yielding to an antagonist an advan-
tage in temper or argument; reasoning not for effect but to
produce conviction, and carrying conviction by communicat-
ing to the minds of others, with the evidence of plain facts
i❑ plain words, a belief in his own sincerity; the right cham-
pion appeared at the right time; the hour came and the man ;
the man without whom public opinion would even yet have
been so unformed upon the fallacies of protect ion, that no
Whig or Tory ministry could have dared to propose more
than a slight or temporary modification of the existing sys-
tem—the man who has given to this generation the blessings
which without him would not have been realised till the
next; and the honest thanks of all good men be given now,
end hereafter the world's gratitude, to Richard Cobden.—
Westminster Review.
DETERMINED SulcinE.—Mr. Bedford OR Saturday
held an inquest at the Chesterfield Arms, Stanhope-street,
Mayfair, on the body of Mrs. Henrietta Herbert, aged 67,
who destroyed herself under the following circumstances :
Emma Herbert, the daughter of the deceased, residing at 6,
Bolton-street, Piccadilly, stated that her mother had been
living at Windsor, but was in such a low and desponding
state of mind that she persuaded her to come to town, which
she did about a fortnight ago, and lodgings were taken for
her at Carrington-street, Mayfair. Witness was in the
habit of seeing her daily, and on calling on Friday, to her
horror, found her suspended by a rope to the bed-
dead. An alarm was given, and she was cut down,
but a ' surgeon, who was in attendance, pro..
nounced her dead, and that she had been so for
some hours. She was under an impression
.that her land-
lady would turn her out of the house, when, in fact, she had
always behaved very kind to her. Her manner had been
very strangely altered of late, especially on trifling subjects.
Mrs. Slater, the landlady of the house, gave evidence of the
unhappy state of the deceaeed's mind ever since she had bred
with her. She had often wished she was dead ; regretted
very much leaving Windsor. and complained of the conduct
of a young man named Barnard, who, she said, was setting
her daughters against her. This, however, did not appear to
be so, but was entirely a delusion. After some other evi-
dence, the jury were not satisfied without further inquiry,
and the inquest was adjourned.
IMPORTANT TO FISHERMEN.—FOUTteCH mackerel nets,
two pieces of cordage, and two casks which appear to belong
to an English fishing boat, have been picked np at sea by
the French boat St. Jean, and taken into the port of Calais
If these are not claimed before the Ist of April next, they
will be disposed of by public authority.—Brigliton llcrald.
TRADE AT BLACKBURN.—The cotton trade here is worse
than it was a fortnight ago There is very little demand for
manufactured goods, and prices are ruinous to the manu-
facturer. Yarns remain rather flat, and prices much the
same. Power-loom weavers are at present fully employed,
but those engaged in waiving by hand are in most miserable
circumstances. Many of them have not much more than half
work and wages are very low. Joiners, builders, and masons,
have a tolerably good share of employment at the stations
of the Blackburn, Darwen, and Bolton railway, and the
Blackburn and Preston railway. Engineers, millwright::,
moulders, smiths, and mechanics, are not so well employed
as they were some time past. Block and machine printing,
at Church, Parish, Accrington, Oswaldtwisle, and their
neighbourhoods, are still flat; but hopes are entertained that
as soon as the ministerial measures have passed the House of
Lords things will be better.—Manchestel Examiner.