The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-25 00:00:00

ROYAL COMMISSION.

Shortly after one o'clock, the Lord Chancellor, the
Earl of Minto, and Lord Campbell, robed as Lords Com-
missioners, entered the House, and took their seats be-
low the Throne ; the Commons were then summoned to
the bar, and the Royal assent was then given in the usual
form to

THE HABEAS CORPUS SUSPENSION (IRE-
LAND) BILL;
The London and Blackwall Railway 4Connecting
Branch) Bill, and
The Edinburgh and Northern Railway (Boscobie,Keltr
head, and Glencraig Branches) Bill.
The Lords Commissioners then bowed to each other
and retired, and the House resumed the hearing of ju-
dicial business.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The SPEAKER took the Chair at Twelve o'clock.
WINDSOR IMPROVEMENT BILL.
Colonel REID presented a petition from Windsor in
favour of this Bill.

Lord MORPETLI stated, in reply to Colonel Salwey,
that the Bill was demanded by a majority of the inhabi-
tants of Windsor, and that it would be of great public
advantage.

Colonel SALWEY hoped the Noble Lord would lot
proceed with the Bill in the thin state of the House. An
important public path, used from time immemorial,
would be closed, and much public inconvenience would
result from the passing of the Bill.

Lord MORPETH admitted that one of the public
paths would be closed, but in lieu of it, a large part of
the Home-park, hitherto shut up, would be thrown open
to the public. _ _ _

Colonel REID contended that the people of Windsor
would be much convenienced by the Bill.
Colonel SALWEY went on to state that when the
great improvements made during the reign of George
the Third were effected, the path in question, which ran
directly under the walls of the Castle, and was, there-
fore, some inconvenience to the Crowu, was diverted to
its present course. If it were closed,the people would not
be able to get to Datchet so easy a s they did at present.
He moved that the Bill be read a second time this day
six months.

Mr. E WART, (as a great admirer of Shakspere,
trusted the Noble. Lord would not proceed so hastily
with the Bill.

As the amendment was not seconded it fell to the
ground.
The Bill was then read a second time.

POOR-LAW UNION CHARGES (No. 2) BILL.
Mr. BULLER proceeded to move the second read-
ing of this dill. No anxiety for legislation at this
late period of the session had induced him,
he assured the House, to introduce four Bills at
this late period of the session.—(llear, hear.) With
but hall-a-year'S experience in his office, he should not
have introduced these Bills, but he assured the House
that nothing but urgent necessity had induced him to do
so. An important Act passed last session expired in
October, and it would not be well to let it expire without
providing for the continuance of its principles, seeing
that they had worked well. He meant Mr.
Bodkin's Bill for the removal of the poor. In
1846, as the House would remember, an im-
portant Bill was passed with respect to the
removal of the poor ; but it could not be denied that it
had led to much shifting of burdens, yet its effect was
to equalize better than heretofore the division of the
support of the poor. The burdens were not borne in
many places with great forbearance. A Committee
some time ago was appointed, of which he: was the
chairman, and that Committee, though it considered
some details might be altered, yet they came to the
opinion that it was not expedient to alter the
principles of that Bill. They considered that
the area of these burdens should be enlarged.
The measure before the House embraced the principle of
a Bill introduced at the close of ,the last session by Mr.
Bodkin, whose absence he regretted. It would con-
tinue the principle with respect to the irremoveablo
poor, namely, making their support chargeable, not upon
the parish, but upon the union, and to continue the laws
respecting vagrancy upon the same footing us they now
stood. No matter was more difficult to deal with than
the question of vagrancy, but at the same time he
was prepared to say that great improvements might
be made. He had indited a letter to the different boards
of guardians on the subject, instructing them to use a
wise discrimination, and to refuse relief where it was not
right to give it; and he was prepared to take the whole
responsibility upon himself. But there was another im-
portant matter in connexion with this, namely, the
charge of the relief of vagrants upon parishes. He found
that the parishes in which the workhouse, or in which the
residence of the relieving-officer were situated, had a
great disproportion of the expenses thrown upon
them. . Many parishes understood the tactics of
these things well, and contrived most ingeniously to
throw the burdens which they should bear upon their
neighbours' shoulders. In South Devon one parish
provided a house fur the relieving officer which
was situated in another ; and the result was that
they got rid of much of the burden that wettld be other-
wise thrown upon them. lie was fully persuaded that
die charge for the maintenance of vagrants should be
wade upon the union, because at present the overseers of
one parish voted against the overseers of another,
in order that they might get rid of their respec-
tive burdens, and continual excitement and ill-feel-
ing were the natural results. The funds, out of
which the expense of carrying these principles
into effect would be defrayed, would be raised by
an equal contribution by the proprietors of all the
rateable property in the union. In this state of
things the questions they had to consider were—first,
should there be one equal assessment? or, secondly, the
old system of averages? Since the passing of the old
Poor-law Act the management of the parishes was
placed in the hands, of the collective unions. He had
provided in the Bill for the payment of any debts that
remained in respect of the building of workhouses by
the collective parishes. The expenses of the clerk of ,
the board of guardians and the medical officers were
as much in the pauperised as the unpuuperised
parish. For instance, even the most inde-
pendent
workman sought medicine and from the
parish surgeon, because his means did not enable him to
discharge it. The same remark applied to the other
officers of the workhouse—the necessity of such persons
in the one parish was as necessary as in the other; this
showed that the entire charge should be made upon the
union. Much intolerable fraud existed now in the en-
deavours to reduce the average. tireat grievances
existed owing to the system of clearance adopted
in many parishes, many of whom not finding it
convenient to support the poor out of the rates, took the
much easier course of sending them away, heedless of
their fate. Many parishes, in order to reduce the ave-
rages, raised private rates—(dear, hear)—aud in this
way no doubt great frauds had been perpetrated. It
was for these reasons that he wished to place all these
matters upon a proper footing, by supporting the entire
poor out of an equal rate upon the property of the
union. After due consideration and careful inquiry, he
had determined upon embodying this principle in the
Bill. These principles were—the support of the
establishment, the irremoveablo poor, ana of ~,,_
granoe out of an equalized union-rate.--(Hear.)
The Bill could not be taken into consideration without
reference being made to its general principle, that of
substituting union for parochial rating. The Honour-
able Member was here interrupted by the appearance at
the bar of the House of

Sir Augustus Clifford, the Usher of the Black Rod,
who informed the Speaker that a Commission of the
Lords had been appointed by her Majesty to give her
Royal Assent to several Bills agreed to by both Houses,
and stated that their Lordships requested the immediate
attendance of this House in the House of Peers.
The Speaker then left the Chair and proceeded to the
House of Lords, followed by several Hon. Members.
On his return, he informed the House that the Lords
Commissioners hid given the Royal Assent to several
Bills (for which see Lords' report).
(LEFT SITTING.)

HOUSE OF LORDS.-(THIS DAY.)
The House sat to-day to hear appeals and give several
judgments. The Peers present were the Lord Chan-
cellor, Lord Brougham, Lord Campbell, the Marquis of
Westminster, and the Bishop of Hereford.

WARXER, c SARNER.
Their Lordships gave judgment in this case, affirming
the decision of the Court below with costs.

THE GREAT NUN tUBE.—FULHAM V. ret‘CARTIIT.
Their Lordships also gave judgment on this important
case, which our readers will recollect was argued before
them a short time since upon an appeal
from the decision of th© present Lord Chancellor of
Ireland. The original suit was instituted in the Court
of Chancery in Ireland, for the purpose of obtaining two
distributive shares of one of the appellants, Maria
M`Carthy, and of a respondent, her sister, Catherine
M'Carthy, in the personal estate of their father, de-
ceased, Alexander M`Carthy, of Cork, merchant. The
appellant, Maria, had, with the approbation. of her
father, in 1828, become a nun, and professed of the
order of St. Ursula, at Black Rock, Cork, when
her father paid to that community 1,000/. for her
admission and maintenance for life. Next year her
sister Catherine adopted the same course, and paid
similar large sum to the convent. The father's pro-
perty at his death amounted to upwards of 100,000 t.
He had ten children, and it was conceived that
the 1,0002 given on his daughters' admission to the con-
vent was intended to be their portion, having renounced
by their vows the world and all right of succession to
wealth. The Catholic superiors of the convent, Cecilia
Fulham and Margaret Lynch, advised them to assert
their claim to two entire distributive shares of the
100,000/. in the Irish Court of Chancery. This the
heir-at-law resisted for the family generally. The two
sisters had executed deeds transferring their shares to
the two superiors of the convent, which there was reason
to beiieve were not made without the pressure and com-
pulsion of their religious " vow of obedience" upon
taking the veil, and the Lord Chancellor acting on that
impression, decreed " That the Court offering to direct
anissue at law to try whether the two deeds of
assignment in the proceedings mentioned, bearing
date the 29th day of December, 1843, and the 13th
day of March, 1844, were executed by the plaintiff,
Maria M'Carthy, and the respondent, Catherine'
M'Carthy, as tree agents ; and the counsel at
the bar for the appellants declining to take
such issue, they having insisted that, without any such

being directed,. the appellant.s.utexa entitaeds.lo. dem, and it appearing to the Court that the deeds wee() no -
nor was either of them, executed by the appel!an
Maria M'Carthy, and the respondent, Catherine Meer-
thy, as such freo agents, but that, on the contrary, the
same were executed by them not of their free will, but
under the pressure and compulsion of the vow of obi)
dience ' taken by them respectively on becoming pro-
fessed members' of the convent, and wherein they still
remained as such members, and under the obligation of
the vow, the Court declared that no relief ought to be
given by the Court founded on deeds so obtained, and
thereupon his Lordship did dismiss the appellants' bill,
with costs to be paid by the appellants Cecilia Fulham
and Margaret Lynch, without prejudice to any other
suit which the appellant Maria M'Carthy, or the respon-
dent Catherine M'Carthy might be advised to institute
as the next of kin of their father, Alexander M'Carthy,
deceased," From that decree the appellants appealed.'
and upon that appeal their Lordships now gave judgment.
The LORD CHANCELLOR, after going at some length
into the case, stated his opinion to their Lordships to be,
that the suit in the court below was improperly framed,
inasmuch as two co-plaintiffs having inconsistent inte-
rests, could not join in a suit. lie therefore re-
commended their Lordships to dismiss the bill
with costs generally, but without prejudice to
any party filing a new bill ; to reverse
the decree of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland so far as
it offered the direction of au issue, but to retain it so far
as it dismissed the bill of the plaintiff with costs.
Lord BROUGHAM and Lord CAMPBELL concurred
with the Lord Chancellor, and
The Hovel: ordared the decree of the Court below to
be reversed so far as it related to the issue, but retained
that part which dismissed the bill. The effect of this
discussion is to leave all parties in the position they
were before the bill was filed, but enable them to coin-
mence their proceedings de novo, in an amended form.
THE PRINCIPAL OF GLASGOW OOLLEGE V. THE ATTOR-

NEY-GENERAL.
The further arguments on this part-heard case were
resumed and concluded to-day; and
The LORD CHANCELLOR intimated that their Lord-
ships would give judgment on the case on Thursday.

BANKRUPTCY.—(THIS DAY.)
(Before Mr. Commissioner FONBLANQUE.)
IN RE BRADING.
This bankrupt was the proprietor of the StiMAIM
Tavern and Albert Saloon, Shepherd and Shepheidivis.
fields, Islington, and to-day came up to pass hia last ex-
amination, which had been adjourned in consequence of
the accounts not being prepared on the last occasion.
Since the issuing the fiat the business has been carried
on ander the management of Mr. Brading for the benefit
of creditors, under an order of the Court of Review, on
a petition for that purpose by the trade assignee, who
anticipated being able to pay off the mortgages, and
ultimately paying a dividend of 20s. in the pound.
The bankrupt passed without opposition.

MARLBRO'-STREET—(THIS DAY.)
Ann Burns, a woman of the town, was placed at the
bar, before Mr. Bingham, charged with having stolen
from the person of Mr. Robert Cornvon, a gentleman
residing at Anderton's Hotel, Fleet-street, a rid watch,
value 20/.

The prosecutor said he was now staying at Anderton's
Hotel, but his real residence was at Neweastle-npon-
Tyne. About one o'clock this morning the prisoner
accosted him in the Haymarket. After some little con-
versation he consented to treat her to . some wine,
after drinking which he went with her to a dark
place, where they stood some time. She then
suddenly called out " Here is somebody coin-
ing" and ran away. He then put his hand
to his waimcoat pocket and missed his gold watch;
He pursued her, and accused her of the theft. She
said, " Oh, nonsense," and put her hand into his waist-
coat pocket and said " Here it is." He then found it
there. At that time a constable came up and ho gave
her in charge.
Wells, C 1, said he took the prisoner into custody
about ten minutes after one this morning. He searched
the spot where the prosecutor and the prisoner had been
standing, and found the gold ring which had been cut
from the watch.
The prisoner, in tears, denied the robbery, and
Mr. 13tridnem remanded her for a week.