The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-22 00:00:00

PROTESTANTISM IN POLAND.

Count Valerian Brasinski delivered the first of a series of
three lectures on the Rise and Fall of Protestantism in
Poland, on Saturday afternoon, at Willis's Rooms, to a select
assembly of the nobility and gentry. The lecturer, after a
rapid glance at the introduction of Christianity among the
Sclavonian nations, which was finally established in the 9th
century by the labours of Cyril] us and Methudins, concentrated
his attention on Bohemia and Poland, whose close connexion
and sympathy of feeling generally made their struggles for
principle common. He remarked the feeling of nationality
which strongly characterised the Sclavonian tribes generally,
and which in no small degree affected their reception of
Christianity, showing itself so early as the times of Cyrillus
and Methudins, when the Pope felt himself, in that age,
compelled to grant that mass, and the rest of the service of
the church, should be performed in the language of the
country. These same two missionaries translated the Scrip-
tures into the native tongue, and did the inhabitants thereby
additional gratification. In 1341 the predeeessor of John Huss
in the work of reformation was a Polish barrister at Breslau,
who denounced the Pope as Anti-Christ and the Roman
Church as the Whore of Babylon. The fame of Wickliffe,
too, was so great as to elicit from some of his admirers a
hymn in praise of his metaphysics, which was written about
1410. Already Huss was before the public mind, and his
followers increasing, not only in Bohemia, but in Poland also.
The Lutheran movement extended into Silesia, and produced
great excitement in Dantzic in 1518. The Hussites and the
Lutherans joined, and formed themselves into a church, con•
stituted with bishops, after the order of the Waldenses, and
were known in Poland as the Episcopal Protestant Church.
Throughout the several struggles that were made, and which
were all but national, the Romish clergy still continued
dominant, and did continue so, very much confirmed by the
revulsion excited by the preaching of the anti-Trinitarian
doctrines that originated in the Genevese Church. This
failure of our attempt to establish Protestantism in Poland
was ascribed by the lecturer to the movement not having
been identified with the national interests. Having brought
down his review of events to the year 1570, the Count con-
cluded his first lecture.

INVERNESS SHEEP AND WOOL FAIR,—Our annual
market for sheep and wool—the principal products of the
northern counties—commenced on Friday, July 10, and
closed on Saturday evening. The market has been an ex
cellent one for the sale of sheep. Nearly all our flocks are
disposed of at prices considerably higher than those which
were obtained last year. On Wedders the rise has been from

ls. to 2s. ; on ewes and lambs from Is. to 3s. The brisk-
ness of the demand was highly favourable to the mid-
dling class of sheep, on which the advance was greater
than on the very best description. On all, however, there is
an improvement in price, and the demand for lambs and ewes
has been almost unprecedented. The full employment of the
labouring classes, engaged in railways and other works, and
the revival of trade, with the prospect of still further im-
provement, have, no doubt, tended to produce this result.
In wool there has been very little business done. Our
farmers looked forward to good prices, owing to the settle-
ment of the American question and the passing of the corn
bill, which must operate in rendering trade more secure and
giving an impulse to manufactures. But the staplers allege
that the market is overstocked with foreign wool—that the
price of Scotch wool has been too high for the last two or
three years—and that the foreign Wools are supplanting it in
the estimation and the use of the manufactures. These
arguments did not convince the fleece-owners, and most of
them have resolved to "hold on," or to consign their stores
to the commission agents.—Ross-shire Advertiser.
ALE TO BE SOLD IN A CHAPEL.—On Sunday morn-
ing last, the sober and temperate inhabitants of a certain
village near Bradford were quite thunderstruck on entering
the chapel, in consequence of a large card being hung on the
door of the sacred edifice, upon which was printed, in large
characters, " India ale sold here in pint bottles." On making
inquiry as to the cause of this strange announcement, it
turned out that a publican residing in the township had oc-
casion to place a notice on the door of the chapel on that
day, " according to the statute in that case made and pro-
vided;" and being wishful to give the sexton as little trouble
as possible, he wafered his notice to a card which had been
suspended in the bar of his house, and the wind being stronger
than usual that morning, the legal document had been wafted
away, and the card was left exhibiting its original inscripti9n.
Leads Intelligencer.
RE-APPEARANCE OF THE POTATO DISEASE IN FUR-
NEBB AND WEST CUMBERLA-ND.--OUr Ulverton correspon-
dent, writing under Thursday's date, says—" Accounts have
been received here to-day of the potato disease of last Year
having made its appearance on some farms in the Furness
district and Millom " (West Cumberland).— Lancaster
Guardian.
THE POTATO DISEASE.—WO grieve to state that we
have received several reports of the recurrence of the potato
disease, not only in the neighbourhood of this city, but also
iII nveral parts of tin coluty.—Hereford Tim,,.

COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL.
Monday a Court was held, principally for the purpose of
discussing the motion of which Mr. An.lerton had given notie..
at the Court immediately preceding, " That it be a standing
order of the Court that the Chamberlain shall not pay out of
the Chamber any sum of money for any charges or expenses
for any visitation or journey by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, or
any other branch of the Corporation, either for the purposes of
conservancy or otherwise, when such visit or journey shall be
beyond the boundary of the jurisdiction of the City, without
the previous authority of the Common Council upon a motion
for that purpose." The notice of motion brought together a
large number of the Commuers, but the number of Alder-
men in the Court was very limited throughout the day.
A conversation took place upon the subject of the granting
of freedoms upon the presentation of the Chamberlain's list of
applications; but it was declared to be necessary that notice of
motion upon the question should be given previously to dis-
cussion, and Mr. Wire accordingly gave notice.

THE INTENDED TRIP TO OXFORD.
This subject, which had been looked for with very great
interest, then came on.

Mr. ANDERTON commenced by alluding to what had taker
place at the late Court of Common Council, when it was stated
that the Court of Aldermen had determined that the Lord
Mayor should pay a visit to Oxford, and that the expenses
hould be defrayed by the Corporation. The Chief Magistrate
had, he submitted to the Court, just as much right to go in his
conservancy capacity to Cambridge or Portsmouth, or any other
place in which his jurisdiction was not known. The Mayor of
any one of these places might as well come into the lower district
of the Thames to perform the duties of his office, and would net
excite more surprise by his intrusion. After having adverted
to the occasions on which conservancy visitations had been
made within the last thirt, or forty years, Mr. And rton
peremptorily denied the right of the Court to decide, that the
Lard Mayer had the power to take the City cash and treat
with it whom he pleased, where he pleased, and to what
amount he pleased.—( Hear, hear.) No advantage could pos-
sibly be derived from any stretch made by his Lordship beyond
the boundaries of his own acknowledged jurisdiction at Staines.
The Corporation then were authorised by all the rules of com-
mon sense and common prudence to condemn the expenditure
o. money on an useless expenditure, as wasteful and extravagant
What practical good indeed, he would ask, resulted from any
view of the Thames taken his Lordship at all ?—( A laugh,
and cries of .‘ Hear, hear.' ) There were many ready to
assert that the Court of Aldermen were altogether independent
of the Court of Common Council, and in no or e point eons
trolable by that Court. He most distinctly denied that state-
ment. The Court of Common Council ha I passed a law pre.
venting the Court of Aldermen from appointing any dip ity
who was not a member of the former.--( Hear, hear.) And
on several occasions an interference had been made, in which
the authority of the latter was shown to be subordinate. He
admitted that the Court of Aldermen had privileges nor
callable of being invaded by the other branch of the Corpora
non, but over the City cash their worships certainly, in his
opinion, had no power, putting out of the question the sin -
, limited control which they assumed on the subject of the
projected visitation.—( Hear, hear.) He hoped the Court
would unr imously adopt the motion. If it appeared that
notwithstanding the objections thus made to an unnecessary
expenditure the object of the C6urt of Aldermen were
likely to be attained, the Livery, who had an unquestion-
able power over the Chamberlain, was still to be applied to.—
( Hear, hear.) The Lord Mayor could, and he had no doubt
would, go to Oxford, and treat all his visitors there and at
other places beyond his jurisdiction as a private gentleman, and
at his own expense, (for a more liberal man never presided in
the City of London), but it was quite absurd to carry the
expenses of the mayoralty beyond the stone which marked the
City boundaries at Staines.—(Hear, hear.) Mr. Anderton
concluded by submitting the motion.
Sir PETER LAURIE most cordially seconded the motion.
The subject was, he said, by no means a new one. He had
successfully opposed it in the late Mayoralty, when an attempt
was made to obtain permission to perform the agreeable cere-
mony. The first visitation within his memory was that made
by Sir C. S. Hunter, who was dubbed Doctor of Law upon
tne occasion at Oxford.--( Laughter.) It would no doubt be
extremely agreeable to the present Lord Mayor's friends to see
him covered with the same sort of distiction, but his Lordship
was too independent to seek any honour at an expense which
proceeded from any other source than by his own pocket. It
was with mingled pride and regret he had to declare that upon
almost every occasion on which he advocated the cause of
economy, he found himself in a minority. —( Laughter.) He
believed the present would be a decided exception.—(Cheers.)
He hoped so, for he did not wish to have it as an argument to
be handled by the versatile power of Lord Brougham, that the
Corporation of London yielded to so unjustifiable an expendi-
ture.—( Hear, hear, and laughter.) It would be ridiculous to
attempt to keep the matter secret, but it would come as the
decisivebill of the Mercers Company came through the medium
of Lord Lyndhurst, and with comments as benevolently in-
tended.--( Hear, hear.) It was not to be wondered at that
Charitable Trusts' Bills were brought into Parliament when
Bills resembling that which the Noble Lord had taken under
his patronage, and introduced to the notice of the House of
Peers, were perpetrated,—( Hear, hear.) The motion of Mr,
Anderson was exceedingly temperate and moderate, and the
City were indebted to the Lord Mayor for having so promptly
called a Court for the discussion of a question of such vital
interest.
Deputy STEPHENS said he had no objection to see the Lord
Mayor and his party go beyond the boundaries, if they paid the
expenses incurred after they quitted his jurisdiction. If the
Corporation should at any time have any remaining after the
payment of the expenses of the prisons and the various contin-
gencies which were inseparable from its maintenance, the over-
plus ought to be given for the support of charities and educa-
tional institutions.—(Hear, hear. )
Sir JAMES DUKE was not only opposed to the expenditure of
money beyond the limits of the City jurisdiction, but he wished
that the expenses within the limits should be defined.—( Hear,
hear.) He wished them to be limitted to 1501.—( Hear, hear.)
Alderman WiLsorr said he thought every real friend of the
city of London must very much regret to hear such a discus-
sion as the present in the Court of Commou Council.—( Hear,
hear.) Had he consulted his own feelings he would have fol-
lowed the example of some of his brethen, and absented him-
self from the meeting ; but he attended at much per-
, sonal inconvience, lest his absence might be construed
into acquiescence in the truth of the observations and asser-
tions which had been made t.y some members of the Council
against the Court of Aldermen. With regard to the first
charge against the Court of Aldermen, a " breach of faith,"
he denied most positively that the Court of Aldermen had
acquiesced in a joint address to the King of the French, but
that two Aldermen had dune so he would not deny, because
they admitted the fact. With regard to the motion then
before the Court, he begged it might be understood that he
did not attend as the representative of the Court of Alder-
men, but he spoke as a member of the Court of Common
Council, and he regretted that any member should have thought
it right to attack the Aldermen in their absence without
giving any notice of such intention, but assuming the plea of
breach of privilege as an authority for the scandal.—( Hear,
hear.) H~ should show that no Lord Mayor had ever been
more imperatively called upon to take the view his Lordship
had signified his intention to take than the present Chief Ma-
gistrate. He would then show that two or three, who were
the most noisy and clamorous against the Court of Aldermen,
ought to have been the very last persons to join in the unge-
nerous attack ; and, lastly, that if any portion of the freemen
and liverymen of London had cause to complain of a wanton
and wasteful expenditure, the Court of Common Council did
not form that portion.—(Laughter.) As to the necessity
which existed for the Lord Mayor's visit, any one who knew
anything of the lands and navigation must be aware that they
were in the very last extremity in consequence of the comple-
tion of the railways, and that it was only by adopting an im-
proved mode of navigation, by reducing the tolls, and by giving
to these traders advantages in the mode of towing and other
improvements, that sufficient income would be producable to
pay their expenses. As to any profit, that could hardly he
expected, now that the Corporation bad raised a sum of
153,000/. for the purpose of improving the navigation of the
Thames, from which, in the year 1839, they derived an in-
come of 20,419/. Under the Act of Parliament they were
bound annually to pay off not less than 5001. in reducing the
debt. Owing to railroads, and other circumstances, the in-
come had fallen off in the last seven years 4,8651., and but for
the reduction in the interest effected last year by the Committee
under a new Act of Parliament, they would not have been able
at the present time to pay off the 5001. of debt annually re-
quired. The great carriers of the canal, too, had complained
to the Committee of inability to pay the present high price of
toll, and made so good a case as to induce the Committee to
pass a resolution that the tolls should be reduced But that
would be of no avail unless the Commissioners of the upper
districts would unite and do the same. They had refused to
make the reduction, Now, it was well known, that in the
upper districts barges were frequently aground in such sea-
sons as the present for want of water, for which they were in a
great degree at the mercy of the Corporation, and mill-
owners of that district, who would shut up, and withhold or
abstract the water as they pleased. It was necessary to the
navigation that the Lord Mayor should occasionally visit the
upper district, and ascertain what new dams. sluices, and other
alterations had been made. The Commissioners always re-
solved the Lord Mayor most cordially, and readily listered to
any useful suggestion for the improvement of the
navigation, either above or below ; and it was
hoped that his Lordship would be able to convince them '
of the propriety of concurring with the Committee on re-
ducing the tolls.—( Hear, hear.) To say that the Lord Mayor
was only to visit once in seven years, and pass over a time like
the present, when his presence might he the means of saving
the income of the navigation, was to say that his office, as
Conservator, was useless.—( Hear, hear.) With regard to
the intention of the Lord Mayor to sleep at Oxford, it was
only reasonable that when his Lordship was obliged to leave
his home and his family, in the discharge of a public duty, he
should be allowed, if he found that better accommodation could
be obtained at Oxford than at Staines, to make his election.
Alderman Wilson then referred to the speech of Mr. Anderton
in which that gentleman spoke of wontonly expending the
City money, by junketting at Oxford; and of the septennial
visit lip the River in 1839, the cost of which freak was
1.099/. 6s. 6d. He denied that it was a septennial visit.
The upper district had not been visited for thirteen years at
that period, and the Court should see who it was that took
upor himself to call the Court of Aldermen to account for
having expended in thirteen years, i n support of a great pri-
vilege, ana tne performance of a very important dirty, the
averase sum of 84/. 11s 2d. per annum, for that period. It
would have been but modest and fair if the mover had to d the
Court that he had been present himself, and had helped to
increase the amount, and how much enjoyment he had expe-
rienced.—(Laughter.) He had not the candour to tell the
Court that he was Deputy-Governor of the Irish Society; that
he went to Ireland last year; that instead of go
to Londonderry, where the society's property tlayi,:;ghe stayed
took
a most delightful tour over the Welsh mountains;
or six
some time in Dublin, was absent a month,a
weeks ; and that the deputation expended
that
0t 0f :15vitia)iins.
addition to 527/. set apart for the society to dine upon,
or spend as it pleased, and one ditinnaedrhto:
forgotten
oatmteonun h
given in the extreme of luxury.
a member of a Court which
annually sanctioned the expendi-
ture Load of a fixed sum of 2,675'. in eating and drinking
laughter)—Another fixed sum of 7001 annually, in eating and
drinking. and dancing, and music, with their wives and daugh-
ters, on the river, and on parts of it hich were not confined
to the limits of civic jurisdiction ?—( Laughter. ) In fact, in
the Common Council, in erinoss and drinking last year —of
which the mover had, God knew, his share—there was ex-
pended the sum of 4,4801.; and the Hon. Gentleman had par-
ticipated in all these luxuries without seeming even to remem-
ber that such things had ever been. —( Laughter, and cries of
Hear, hear.") The worthy mover, at ttisame time that he
attacked the Court of Aldermen. for expending, in 13 years,
1,0991. 6s. 6i1., at the rate of 84/. 1 Is. 2 id. per annum.,
knew well that he and the Irish Society were spending trust-
money at the rate of 12,099/. in ti e same period.—( Hear,
hear, and murmurs.) He would next say a few words about
the Chairman of the London-bridge Approaches-fund, who
had also been a partaker of the good things of the Irish Society
without uttering one syllable of complaint—( Laughter )—and
who joined in the sally against the Court of Aldermen. It
would be an interesting document which contained an account
of the funds of the freemen of the City which had been ex.
pended in the delighted presence of that worthy gentleman, in
eating, and drinking, and music, and dancing, and entertain..
ments, splendid and multifarious, to ladies at Richmond and
Greenwich, and Blackwall, since his appointment as Chair -
man of the London-bridge approaches Committee.—( Laughter
and great murmuring). He had applied to the Chamberlain
for the returns, but that officer very courteously declined
giving it ; very probably because he was ashamed to produce
such evidence. Under these circumstances he was obliged to