The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-25 00:00:00

Inman .alint

LONDON, THURSDAY, JUNE 2;, 1846.

The Corn Importation Bill having virtually passed
through the House of Lords, the protectionist Peers
turned their attention to the Customs Duties Bill,
and sought in every respect, and by " every means,"
to delay and embarrass the Government, and to pre-
vent the country from receiving the full benefit of
the enlightened policy brought forward by the
Ministry. The agriculturists were not satisfied
with the unavailing efforts made by them to continue
taxation on the nation's food, but they put
forwardthem-
-1-e. as the defenders of the manufacturing
Population. They are such ardent lovers of monopoly
that they are anxiousw to sustain it in every particular.
They are well aware
that the various reductions and
alterations formeAa
Part
tt
of
one great and compre-
hensive whole, and
an-7 change
isolated portion must e
be
as to its effects in that sin, nett merely
re
as to an
ia l
but as to the entire
measure. progl 'nstance,
tection might
be taken an-ay from some
trades, but a
corre-
sponding benefit given to them in the other redue.
tions thereby contemplated. It is a nicely.poiied
and well-balanced plan, in which the taking away of
even one tingle link must be injurious to the general
working of the whole. If the changes proposed were
ever to be carried into effect, no time could
be so /wipe: for the purpo,... as the present,
when the entire system of our commercial relations
with other countries is about to undergo
a change productive of the greatest advantages to all
classes. The system of protection has, we trust, been
finally. and for ever abandoned ; the wiser and better
plan of permitting every trade to be free and unfettered
by any restriction has taken its place. Henceforward
every man must trust to his own skill and industry;
the strongest motives are applied fur his exertions, for
while on the one hand he roust trust entirely to those
exertions, unassisted and unprotected, on the other
:laud,. he is assured that no vexatious interference
will prevent his obtaining full employment for his
industry, he will possess that which is the birthright
of ~-,very fnera.tn, the power of selling in the dearest
Invir4ir. tas cs!arelit naarkA. EreV-,,-n-a- are

not deficient in any of the qualities calculated to
ensure success, in a free and open competition, and
the experience of past years fully proves that in every
instance in which the experiment bas been tried it has
been eminently and entirely successful. Another
reason also might have influenced their Lordships in
their newly acquired zeal. By the invariable prac-
tice of more than 200 years, the entire legislation on
Money Bills, Bills of Supply, and of Customs, has
been vested in the Commons House of Parliament;
this practice has been founded on the well recognised
principle, that the people can only be taxed
by or through their representatives. It is
to the strict and invariable observance of
this undoubted privilege of the Commons
that their power is chiefly owing, and that we are
indebted to some of the most valuable enactments of
modern times. The greatest jealousy has ever existed
as to any, the slightest interference, by the other
branch of the Legislature therewith, and any Bill of
this description, receiving any alteration or amend-
ment in the Lords, is, as a matter of course, rejected
by the Commons on its return to their House
Thus, the amendments recently carried to Lord
HARDINGE and Lord GOUGH'S Annuity Bills, will,
unless their Lordships reconsider their decision, have
the same effect as if they had rejected the measures.
Their only power is that of affirmation or
negation. If, then, the monopolists bad suc-
ceeded in obtaining a majority on any of the
points they brought forward, it would have
had the effect of destroying the entire measure.
The Duke of RICHMOND led the assault. His Grace's
first attempt was solely for the purpose of delay;
it was founded on a petition from the Spitalfields
weavers, praying to be beard by counsel at
the bar of the House againA the repeal of
the duty on foreign silks. Had the motion
been carried, much delay and inconvenience
would necessarily have been the consequence. How
it have been possible to have refused the same
privilege to any other mile arr,-ctea by the Bill ? The
speech of the counsel employed would not be the
only thing their Lordships would have had to hear.
To make such a speech in any degree valuable, it
would be necessary to examine witnesses in support of
the statements made; and it would be impossible to say
to what length the proceedings would go, or when they
would terminate. Practically there would have been an
end to any legislation on the subject during the session.
Lord DaLnousts pointed out the true distinction
between the present case and those which had been
adduced as precedents for the application. These
cases were when some particular trades or interests
were to be affected by some special measure, but this
was a general measure only, incidentally affecting
the petitioners as well as a great number of
other individuals. The proposal was finally rejected,
but by a very narrow majority, and by the votes of
proxies, a practice which we confess we do not regard
with a favourable eye, however satisfactory its result
might have been in the present instance. If; however,
the practice is to be tolerated, we think the occasion a
perfectly legitimate one for its exercise. Last night
the various clauses were gone through in detail, and
although amendments were proposed and divisions taken
on many points, we are happy to say that the Bill was
finally reported without amendments. It will, we
suppose, receive the royal assent at the same time
with the Corn Importation Bill, and the cause of free-
trade will be triumphant. True it is, that the Bill as
it stands is not all we could have wished for, but it is a
step in the right direction ; and we have little doubt
that the experience of its good effects will speedily
lead to the further and entire carrying out of the
principles on which it is founded, and the removal of
the anomalies in the present Bill, alluded to by Lord
DALHOURE.

If his intentions be carried into operation, Mr.
CHARLES BULLER may be entitled to some portion
of the renown attached to 11OLLINSHED, &rows,
Timm, and LINCIARD, inasmuch as he will have been
instrumental in preserving from oblivion some of the
most precious relics of our national history. There
is, indeed, a very peculiar importance in the motion
brought forward on Tuesday evening by the Hon.
Member for Liskeard ; and a motion, moreover, which
comes upon us with additional pleasure, as one alto.

gether divested of party recrimination, and wholly
incapable of eliciting invective. It is simply a pro-
position that a Select Committee be appointed

to consider and report on the best means
of providing a General Record-office, as a suitable
repository for the public records of Englan:l
and Wales. And when it is remembered that these
most invaluable documents, constituting, according
to the expressive language of the Deputy Keeper of
the Records, " a series unequalled for antiquity, for
extent, for continuity, and for the information which
they afford," are scattered through a variety of public
edifices, wholly inappropriate for their reception ; when

it is remembered that a vast bulk of them are actually
" lumbered" away into the dilapidated riding-school
of old Carlton House, as though so much cumbersome
rubbish ; that others again are squeezed (without
any reference to their safety or their symmetry of ar-
rangement) into the White Tower of the Tower
of London, immediately above the vaults appropriated
by the Master-General of Ordnance as a gunpowder
magazine, and that the remainder are involved in a
complication of dangers from accidental destruction

in the Westminster Chapter-house, the Rolls' Chapel,
and the Beauchamp, or Wakefield Tower, it will be
readily acknowledged that these inestimable treasures
hold their existence by a wonderfully precarious te-
nure. To the bibliographer, the bookworm, and the
historian, the arrangement proposed by the Hon. and
Learned Member for Liskeard would prove of the most
inconceivable advantage ; it would enable that laudable
fraternity to collate occurrences with more scrupulous
accuracy than heretofore : it would save a large amount
of unnecessa,ry pedestrianism between Westminster and
Chancery-lane, and would, moreover, facilitate in
every possible manner the compilation of copious his-
torical commentaries. Had these jumbled and diffused
-records been thus parcelled out and accumulated in a
single structure, Mr. CARLYLE might much more
readily hire pulverized Daysainusx, and we might
long since have obtained the still unpublished lucu-
brations of Mr. MACAULAY. But, looking at the
matter in its most comprehensive and generalised
light, it
_becomes one of the most signal neces-
sity to us, as lovers of our country, as cherishers
of our history as a people, as advocates of the
diffusion of civilization, and as a race

"4 who speak the tongue
That Shakepere spike,"
to perpetuate every vestige of those public documents
in which the deeds of our ancestors, even as far back
as the thirteenth century, are recorded. It is a
trust for which we are responsible to our
posterity, and for the partial removal of
which we opine the Master of the Rolls would not be
entirely ungrateful—by the construction of a separate
building for their reception, and in which
every individual paper might be duly classi-
fied. As those records remain at the present
moment, they are in the extremest jeo-
pardy; through a thousand nooks and crannies
annihilation seems to be ever hanging over them.
They are bundled into out-of-the-way closets in the
most alarming propinquity with fire-stoves, they are
incessantly defaced by the ravages of mildew-, and
caked over with the dusts and cobwebs of an-
tiquity. Some morning an antiquary may wend
the discover,
have
his way towurds Carlton-gardens, for the par-
consulting some protocol among the MSS.
to
beenhis consternation,
involvedthatduring
thnight,e .
the i
n ren ca
catastrophe similar to that of pap,f
re
is really distressing and intolerablert-tbo uconsider
how
t
much these documents are dependent
atom of tinder ; the more so, as upaoun aacral
to them would be utterly irreparable. From
t
Mr. Breeeit's Committee we may, however, antici-
pate the substitution of some remedy, and the con-
struction of some edifice, worthy of containing the
real history of Great Britain, a structure in which
the public records might be ranged in consecutive
order, and entirely removed from danger by
fire-proof precautions. We are not now speaking of a
mere niaVere de eunrenarace, but one of positive, and
scarcely calculable importance. Indeed, so impressed
are we with this consideration, that we are verily
rejoiced that, what with
• Mr. BARRY'S diago-
nal roof-beams, and Dr. REID'S vary flatulent
machinery, the public records were not removed to
the projected cocklofts of the new Houses of Partia-
l" 711 ts c`32l2eMr-g, as c (io, the theea pars Ebuid

not be regarded as subordinate matters, and as mere
materials for filling the unused bins of a wine cellar,
but rather as the most costly relics of our national
antiquity in the posQession of the Government. We
shall, therefore, look with considerable interest to
the Committee proposed by Mr. CHARLES BULLER.

It is said that the Austrian Government has refused
to accede to the proposition of the King of SARDINIA,
to submit the commercial differences between the two
States to the arbitration of a third power, but has
expressed a wish that a commission should be appointed
to arrange these differences.
By a decree issued on the 6th inst., by the King of
the Two Sicilies, a reduction) of 15 per cent. is made
in the import duties upon foreign merchandise brought
into the kingdom by the port of Brindisi, and intro-
duced at Beece, Barri, Foggea, Campo Basso, and
Chieli. In other provinces the reduction is 10 per
cent., except at Naples and Palermo, where it is only 2
per cent.

The King of SAXONY prorogued the Assembly of the
States on the 17th. In the course of his speech from
the throne, his Majesty, after expressing his regret that
greater progress had not been made in the measures for
reforming the criminal law, said that he was disposed
to admit the principles of publicity in the proceedings of
the Court, but that at the same time he felt the necessity
of proceeding with caution.

Madrid papers of the 17th hare been received. Their
contents are unimportant. It is said that the Madrid
and Barcelona Railway is to be commenced imme-
diately.

'MADRID BOLSA, 'lulls 17.--Threes quoted at 33f for
cash.

We have received the Paris papers of Monday. The
speech of Sir ROBERT PEEL on Friday is the subject of
comment in almost all these journals, and they at.,
nearly all unanimous in acknowledging it to be a pow-
erful display of eloquence and reason, Is hich must pro-
duce a favourable effect on his position. The Journal
des Dibuts devotes three columns to the review of th.
of the French Chambers during the session ;
and the National has a long article on the subject of the
United States and Mexico. We extract the following
from the Epoque :
" We learn from a certain source that the Austrian Ambas-
sador at London, who also is the representative of Florence,
ban refused to grant a passport to Prince Louis Napoleon for
Tuscany. The Austrian Ambassador declares that from the
moment Prince Louis made his escape from the citadel of
Ham be could not, without being wanting in consideration
for the French Government, facilitate the Prince's journey to
Italy without a special authority from the Grand Duke of
Tuscany. He therefore has recommended the Prince to
apply direct to the Grand Duke for permission to go to Flo-
rence aid visit his sick father."

A letter from Conatantina of the 13th says :—" Colonel
Eynard has had to repulse two vigorous attacks by the
Hamouchas. One was on the 9th, the other on the 1 1 th.
In the latter he killed about 120 of the enemy, burnt their
villages, and carried off their corn. The sth regiment of
Hussars suffered severely. It is said to have lost in one
charge 25 men and horses."
PARIS BOURSE, JUNE 22.—The market has been again
very dull to-day, and from the small amount of business
transacted, the prices may be almost considered
nominal :—Threes at 83L 15c., and Fives 120 f.
55c. for end of month. In the Coulisse, after the
Bourse, prices were a shade lower. The market closed as
follows :—Three per Cents. for Cash, 83f. 10c.; for Account,
83f. 15c.; Five per Cents. for Cash, 120 f. 50c. ; for Account,
120 f. 55c.; Bank of France Shares, 3,4,80 f. ; Neapolitan,
102 f. 90c.. Spanish not quoted. New Loan, 83f. sc.
RAILWAYS.—The Share Market has been depressed
throughout the day, and at the close prices were again a
shade lower. For Cash—Paris and Orleans left off at
1,245 t 75c.; Paris and Rouen, 1.015 E ; Avignon, 880 f. ;
Strasbourg and Bale, 218 f. 75c.; Northern, 733 ; Bordeaux,
692 f. 50c.; Montereau, 375 f.; Paris and Lyons, 563 f. 25c. ;
Paris and Strasbourg, 500 f.; Nantes, 512 f.; Havre, Vierzon,
Boulogne, Fampoux, and Dieppe, not, quoted.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, JUNE 23.

Boulogne and Amiens,l2% —Louvain and 'Jemappe, —Luxem-
bourg. IN —Northern of France Constituted, 13N —Paris and Lyons
Constituted, 6%—Sambre and Meuse, 45.

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen and Prince Albert took an airing-on
Tuesday afternoon, the Prince driving, in the rides of
Osborne House.

Yesterday morning their Royal Highnessesthe Prince
of Wales, Prince Alfred, the Princess loyal, and the
Princess Alice went to the sea beach, and took their
accustomed exercise.

Her Majesty and her Royal Consort walked yesterday
forenoon in the plantations of Osborne House.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cambridge,
attended by Lady Augusta Cadogan, Baron Knesebeck,
and Mr. Edmond Mildmay, honoured Mr•;. de Roths
child with their company yesterday at a dejeune, at Gun-
nerabury Park. His Royal Hightless Prince George
also honoured Mrs. de Rothschild with his company.
he Earl of Radnor had an irterview with the Earl
of Dalhousie yesterday, at the office of the Board of
Trade.

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England had a
general meeting yesterday. There were present the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London.
Winchester, Bangor, Bath and IVells, Gloucester and
Bristol, Hereford, Lichfield, Norwich, Oxford, Rochester,
and Worcester, the Earl of Devon, the Earl of Bess-
borough, and the Right Hon. H. Hobhouse.
Mr. Higham. Secretary and Comptroller-General to
the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National
Debt, had an interview with the Chancellor of the
Exchequer yesterday, at his official residence in Down :ng-
street.

Dispatches were sent off yesterday evening from the
Council-uffice for tho Governor of Hong-Kong.
Mr. A. Oswald, M.P., had an interview with the Earl
of Dalhousie yesterday.
The Judicial Committee of tho Privy Council sat yes-
terday to hear an appeal from New South Wales,
"Willisv. Sir George Gipps." The Lords pre,ent were
the Lord Presi•:ent, the Lord Chancellor, Lord 13rougham,
the Lord Chief Justico of the Court of Common Pleas,
the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Nlr. Baron
Parke, and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Cornwall.
Mr. Dundas was heard. Their Lordships adjourned the
case.

ROYAL ARTILLERY.
The following general order has just been issued, for
the guidance of the Commanding Officers of the Royal
Artillery on foreign stations, relative to the men dis-
missed from the regiment with ignominy :
" The Master-General having directed that soldiers
of the Royal Artillery, dismissed with ignominy, instead
of receiving their discharge abroad, shall be sent ho•ee
as prisoners (but not in close confinement on their pas-
sage), for the purpose of being discharged from the ser-
vice in England, Commanding Officers are apprised that
such men will, of course, not be entitled to pay as sol-
diers, while waiting tor a passage, or on the passage
home, but only rations, or subsistence ; and with a view
to prevent such men from becoming burdensome to the
parish in which they may be discharged, an allowance,
to take them to their respective places of enlistment, or,
if the expene be not greeter, to their intended places of
residence, will hereafter be granted, at the rate of one
penny per mile, but that money is in no case to be paid
to the man, if a conveyance can be furnished.

BATHS AND WAsHHOUSES.—Sipco the visit of his
Royal Highness Prince Albert to the batks and washhousee in
George-street, Euston-sqnare, the estadlishmeut has been inspected
by the Dukes of Grafton and St. Albano; the Bishop of Durham,
Winchester, and Hereford ; the Marquis and Marchioness of Exe-
ter, the Marquis and Marchioness of Lansdowne. the Earls West-
morland, Spencer, and Winchester; Viscounts nal, Campan, and
Lorton ; the Speaker and Miss Shaw Lefevre; Sir G. and Lady Grey ;
the Hon. R. H. and Lady 11. Clive, Sir C. and Lady Hulse; the lion.
Mr. Grantham, Mr. C. Baring Wall, M.P., &e.
The Duke of Cambridge did Sir James Reynett the
honour of dining with him on Tue,qlnr. in Harley-street. Baron
Knesebeck was in waiting' on his Rovil Ilighates.
The Duke of H-imilton has quite recovered from his
recent indisposition, and is expected to arrive in Portman square
early in the ensuing week, from Hamilton Palace, N. B.
Tins BARONY of PRESTON.—A Correspondent calls
our attention to the fact that Sir James Graham could not be
elevated to the title of Lord Preston whilst Sir R. Graham lives, as
he is the son of the elder brother, as a matter of course, the elder
branch. The estates belonging to Preston wei a confiscated to the
Crown, but it is believed much was returned in after ye-irs, and,
If our correepondent is rightly informed, they lie somewhere in
Berks.

PRESENT FROM MEBEMIT ALI TO HER MAJESTY.
On Taeaday morning a handsome horse, estimated at the
value of 2,000 guineas, arrived at Brighten, by the General Steam
Navigation Company's packet, the Magnet, as a present to Iler
Majesty from Meheinit Ali, and was immediately forwarded to Lon-
don by railway.
GENERAL ILLE3IINATION.—It is intended that there
shall be a general illumination almost immediately after tho passing
of the Corn Bill by the House of Lords. In Manchester, Liverpool,
Birmingham, Sheffield, Blackburn, and Ito,tdale, the illumination
will be on a scale of great magnificence. In the metropolis the illu-
mination will be of a similar kind to that which took place at the
time of the passing of the Reform 11111.
Ihr.hun l'aeha. the future sues reign of Egypt, is
expected to visit Newcastle on his return ftom Scotland, whither he
will shortly proceed from Belfast.
e are happy t., sate that Sir Gcorze Murray,
Maeter General of the Ordnance, who had been seriously Indispoeed,
is once again progressing towards convalescence.
The Gold .;up. or Piece 01 Plate, which is to be
run for on the 25th of June at the Newcastle races, is a piece of or-
namental plate of the moat beautiful design and admirable workman-
' ship. It is a group of figures, in solid silver, representing a well-
known and interesting incident in the life of Edward L, in the Holy
Land; when, after having been wounded by a Saracen assassin, hie
devoted Queen Eleanor, with her own mouth, extracted the poimon
from his arm. The artist, in modelling the group, has selected the
moment after the incident, and the expression of the figures is ex
ceetlingly beautiful. The plate is manufactured by Messrs. Lister and
Soe, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, eilversinithe to the Queen.
The provincial papers of Saturday last mention nu-
merous cases of persons drowned whilst bathia e At lea t thirty
deaths thus occasioned are noticed in the papers.
ATTEMPTEN ASSASSINATION IN ST. GILES.-011 TlPS-
day afternoon, between two and three o'clock, great excitement pre-
vailed in tke neighbourhood of St 01 ea, 111 consequence of a young
man having been etabb,d in Church-lane, by a girl of the town, well
known by the name of " Bustle Bet," living in that street. It ap-
pears that Martin Welch, the father of the unfortunate victim, was in
the habit of collecting rents, &c., for Mr. Mason, the owner of the
house at which the occurrence took place. lie had also been co-
habiting with the woman Bet, and at the time already alluded to, he
repaired to the premises, under the pretence of getting in some money
due for rent, but for the real purpose of visiting the prisoner. His wife
having heard of the circumstance, at once proceeded to the room,
which is on the second floor front, and being refused admittance,
she burst open the door, when she saw the prisoner and her husband
in bed. He immediately got up and ran down stairs, when words
ensued between her and the prisoner, who threatened to kill her
At this moment, John Welch, a Intl about eighteen, stepped forvrard
t,) protect his mother, and the prisoner caught hold of a large
table knife, and inflicted a dreadful wound in his breast. She then
attempted to stab him in the abdomen, but having missed her atm
she struck him on the left leg just above the shinbone, and thus
caused a wound of about ell inch and a half in length, and an inch
deep. The screams of murder had by this time attracted the atter
tion of Police-constable 123. who having secured the prisoner,
boy was conveyed e,
the Teniversty College Hospital. wherei
re-
mains in a very precarious condition. The prisoder, ois a
young
Woman about tWienty-three years, Wee talc= to the tieorgqi-strect