The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-27 00:00:00

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
BRADFORD REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—On Wednesday the 22d, the House was
engaged on the motion for the second reading of Mr.
.Sharman Crawford's Outgoing Tenants (Ireland)
Hill. 'the object of the Bill is to legalise the right
of an out-going tenant to claim compensation from
the in-coming tenant, for improvements made by the
former during his occupation. At present this
appears to be accomplished by agreement between
the parties; and it is presumable, a tenant who
should venture on the occupation of land
without the consent of his predecessor, would be
exposed to those pains and penalties which in various
shapes and degrees await breaches of the unwritten
agrarian law in Ireland.
On one side it is pleaded that it would be advanta-
geous to bring the practice within the pale of the law,
and regulate its action. On the other, that it is
doing something like raising up a middle-man in
the person of the outgoing tenant, and that the ten-
dency is to bring in the new tenant at what will vir-
tually be to him a rack rent.
Atter continuing all the evening, the debate was
finally adjourned.
On Thursday an attempt was made to resist the
issue of a new w rit for Harwich. " Treading upon
eggs" is but a type of the caution with which the
House proceeds when the errors of a rotten borough
are in question. Committeemen and all concerned,
fly to the rescue, and declare that nothing was proved
before them which could authorise severe measures with
the borough. Whereas the object should be to come at,
not what the Committee did see, but what it did not.
Nobody believes Committees responsible for knowing
all that can be known. Everybody is aware that
Committees do not push inquiry further than is
urged by the parties to the case, and that where the
whole is corrupt together, parties always do the least
which will serve their purpose, which is to oust a
sitting Member, but not to damage the borough. The
rule therefore ought to be, that whenever the pro-
ceedings before a Committee smell of putrefaction, a
searching inquiry should be directed by the House
of Commons to find the maggots the Com-
mittee did not see, and not to rest content with what
were volunteered to be produced to them. And
in addition to this, the law should be altered to pre-
vent the every-day scandal of sending a candidate
declared guilty of bribery and treating by his agents,
to be re-elected upon the strength of the meat which
is still in the stomachs of the electors. All
laws may by possibility fall hardly ; and so might
this. But the w holesome rule in the aggregate
would be, that any candidate declared guilty of
bribery and treating by his agents, should be inca.'
pable of standing for the same borough during the
existing Parliament, and wheve " knowledge and
consent" were proved, should be incapable of standing
for tally borough during the same Parliament, beside.
such further penalties as the law may have already
assigned. But it is to be feared all this must be
deferred till the day of account.
The issue of the writ to Harwich was carried
triumphantly by 164 against 78. In the sister case
of Horsham the opposition was more successful ; to
the extent of deferring the writ till the minutes of
the evidence are laid before the House.
On the same evening Mr. Bright moved to bring
in his Bill to repeal the Game- Laws. The principal
new fact elucidated, was the enormous destruction of
agricultural property caused by the preservation of
game. It was to help to make up for this, we were to
have the Corn Laws.
By a maladroitness of the Liberal party, the House
was adjourned. So all that was said against the
Game-Laws will have to be said over again.
On Friday the principal debate was on the amend-
ment on the order of the day for the Committee of
Supply, proposing an address to her Majesty praying
that negotiations may be entered into with foreign
Powers, to relieve this country from the engagement
of maintaining a squadron on the coast of Africa.
This is the rallying of all the different interests
which are calling for the restoration of the slave trade,
and the removal of the obstacles thrown in its way
for the last half century. And the point of curiosity
is to see what are the interests which combine, and

why.
First, there is the West Indian interest, which is
at this moment furious against the depression of the
slave trade of Cuba and Brazil, consequent on the
employment of cruisers against it. As it is always
to be assumed that men have some reason for what
they do, the only rational explanation of this zeal of
the West Indian interest in favour of their apparent
rivals, is the expectation that the slave trade is to be
r -.opened for their benefit, in the shape of a free im-
portation of " labourers" from the coast of Africa.
Next come the nee -Traders, represented as the di-
vision list will show. In the flush of their success
against monopolists at home, they are indignant at
the interference with the freedom of the trade in slaves,
and the non-enjoyment by the British people of free
slavery sugar at the lowest possible price. Interfe-
rence with the slave trade interferes with the price
of sugar, therefore interference with the slave trade
is to be put down as a commercial evil.
After this comes the Peace party, who cannot re-
strain their feelings at the sight of her Majesty's ship
Acorn stopping the slave vessels with scriptural names
on the high seas, and probing into their cargo in a man-
rer most irritating to the owners and assignees in fo-
reign countries. They are scandalized also at the impro-
priety of interfering in the internal regulations of
toreigners, implied in using the influence of Great
Britain on one side of a domestic question. In pur-
suance of which idea, Parliament and the country
were distinctly threatened with the anger of the
American slaveholders, ending in a declaration of
war from America, in defence of the peculiar insti-
tution of the republic, as interfered with in Cuba
and Brazil.
To these follow the philanthropists ; who are strong
on the exasperation which attends attempts to put
down violence, and cannot tolerate the increase of
suffering consequent on the interference of any
Hercules with the Cacus-es of the universe. And
they strengthen themselves on the declarations
attributed to a name of philanthropic eminence,
which unless there is some misrepresentation or expla-
nation:which I am not aware of, lead me only to the con-
elusion that the authority appealed to must either have
been swayed by some excusable, but not justifiable,
pique, arising out of the disappointment of cherished
expectations, or else have bowed under some of the
mutations of the human intellect, to which the
greatest as well as the least is liable.
Finally come the political philosophers. They have
made the discovery, not totally unknown to the an-
cients, that the earth belongs to those who are favoured
with the best physical organization for taking it, and
that true wisdom consists in depressing the inferior
races, and filling the world up with the superior
caste, which means their own. They have
a strong impression of the destinies of the
Anglo-Saxon race, and view with approbation the
theory reduced to practice by our relatives in
Mexico, and regarded with serious interest by nume-
rous classes here, that any man has a right to any
other man's lands or property, provided he can con-
scientiously convince himself that he can make a
better use of them.
Under this conjunction of forces, the opposition to
the slave trade is fast dwindling into a squirearchal
prejudice. The West Indians will have their twenty
millions, and their slave trade too. Philanthropists
will be gratified by the opening of the middle passage
to its natural comforts ; and the efforts of the philo-
sopher and the publicist will no longer be controlled
by rude boatswains and unsympathising first-lieute-
nants. When Exeter Hall sends its representatives
to support the abandonment of the anti-slavery nui-
sance, the question may be supposed decided; with
the single reservation that the British people, who
are assumed to be ready to go any way for a pound
of sugar, should take in hand to disappoint the ex-
pectations of the wise.
The Ministerial leaders and Sir Robert Peel were
united in opposition to the desired emancipation of
the trade. But their defence was to a certain extent
apologetic, and founded on the existence of a Com-
mittee of Inquiry ; in which latter reason some of
the leading supporters of the hostile system joined.
The division therefore is not to be trusted as a sign
of strength. For the present the object was post-
pened, by a majority of 216 to 80 for proceeding
with the Committee of Supply.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. PERRONET THOMPSON.
Blackheath, London, March 27, 1848.

The fine steam-ship Hibernia, Captain Stone, left
the port of Liverpool on Saturday, at two o'clock r.sc,
carrying her Majesty's mails and 61 passengers.
Amongst the latter are Sir John Richardson and Dr.
Wray, who are to accompany the Arctic expedition in
search of Sir John Franklin and his fellow-travellers.
EXTRAORDINARY REVALATION RESPECTING A
MURDER.—It was rumoured on Friday evening that in-
formation had been obtained respecting' the mysterious
disappearance, eight years ago, of Mr. Charles Schofield,
builder, of Every-street, :whose body was subsequently
found in the river Irwell. The story told is, that a per-
son in his last moments has made a confession to the
effect that he and his son were together on the night of
the 10th February, 1840, in a place named, and that
Mr. Schofield entered and joined their company under
circumstances that induced him (the father) to strike
Schofield. The blow proved mortal, and to conceal the
body they hid it in a cellar for about eight days, and
afterwards threw it in the river. It will be recolleeted
that Mr. Schofield, on the night of his death, had been
with a party celebrating the Queen's marriage, and that
the body of the unfortunate gentleman was not recovered
for a month afterwards, when an inquest was held,
which resulted in an open verdict of " Found drowned."
"We forbear to give turther particulars under the cir-
cumstances, as the facts will probably be made known
more in detail.—Manchester Times.
TILE LATE MARQUIS OF BUTEo-..The mortal re-
mains of this lamented Nobleman are to be removed
from Cardiff Castle, on Thursday next, for interment in
the family mausoleum, at liirtling, near Newmarket.