The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

REPRESENTATION OF LEEDS.—The ap.
proachiog vacancy for this borough has set all parties in
motion. Mr. M. T. Sadler is, of course, the favourite
with the Tories. Mr. Joshua Bower, of Hunslet, is expect.
ea, we hear, to be the nominee of the R olical party ; and
the Whigs, we understand, are directing their attention to
Mr. Fawkes, son of the late Walter Fawkes, Esq., ol
Farnley Hall. The name of Fawkes must ever be dear
to Yorkshiremen, and to all friends of rational and eifee-
tive reform.—Huddersfield Express.
REPRESENTATION OF HUDDERSFIELD.—
Some of the electors of this borough have invited J. C.
Ramsden, Esq. ALP., for Milton, and formerly one of
the Members for Yorkshire, to offer himself ; and a very
respectably signed requisition was forwarded to that
gentleman, last week ; but Mr. Ramsden very properly
declined the invitation. As the son and heir of Sir
John Ramsden, almost the sole proprietor of the town,
Mr. Ramsden could not represent Huddersfield without
subjecting himself to that odious imputation of borough-
mongering ; and, indeed, the influence of property at
tached to the family, would, whether unfairly exercised or
not, secure Mr. R:11 election, at any time. A requisition
to M. T. Sadler, Esq., the defeated candidate at Leeds,
last December, has bee❑ got up by the Tories, and it is
understood that Mr. S. will stand a contest. Colonel
Thompson, the well known author of the " Catechism
of the Corn Laws," has written to us, to recommend Dr.
Bowring to the electors. We publish Colonel T.'6
letter, in another column ; but we cannot join in
the recommendation. Dr. Bowring's talents are cer
tainly great, and his services to the cause of free trade
have been considerable ; but his political opinions are too
ultra,—his republicanism too decided, to meet our appro-
bation. Sir John Cam Hobhouse has been talked of.
Green Bentley, E.q., of Deadmanstone Hall, has issued
an address to the electors. Mr. B. is, we believe, of
Whig principles ; but his address is very general. "The
only claim I have," he says, " is based in pledging myself,
if I have the honour of being returned, to advocate those
noble and liberal principles to which we are indebted for
the privileges we enjoy as Englishmen, and for which I
shall contend so long as I live." Mr. James Knight, ol
Huddersfield, and formerly of Halifax, has also offered
himself !! ! The report that Capt. Wood, of Sandal, has
been invited by the R idical party, seems to have been
premature. General Johnson is now spoken of, as their
nominee. The liberal party, however, have invited John
Blackburne, Esq., of the Middle Temple, and whose situa-
tion, as the head of the Corporation Commission, is a
strong guarantee for the high character he sustains at the
bar. Mr. B. is a native of Huddersfield, and practices on
the Northern Circuit. He is expected to visit the electors
in the course of a few days, and there is every probability
of his return.—Huddersfield Express.
DEFENCE OF SCIENCE IN ENGLAND:
CURIOUS ANECDOTES OF TALLEYRAND I EXPOSE OF ST.
SIMONISX &c. &c.—The Literary Gazette of Dec. 7
(No. 881) will contain an Argumentative Defence of the
Science of England, arid its Friends, against the Extraor-
dinary Charges of Infidelity and Atheism by Mr. Nolan,
in his Banapton Lecture—Raviews of all Recent Publica-
tions, including an Expose of the Absurd and Profligate
" Religion" of St. Simon ; ►he Book of Beauty, and
Aristocratic Diffusion of Literature ; Miss Alartineau and
her Deinocratic Diffusion ; Carne's Italy ; Galt's Jaunt of
Baillie Daidles and his Wife to Greece; Flowers ; and
other Novelties—An Original Poem on Wordsworth's
Threatened Blindness, by R. Howitt—Specimens of
American Periodical Publications—A page of character-
ittic and piquant Anecdotes of Talleyraud—and the usual
Critiques, Literary and Scientific Intelligence, Varieties,
Sce. &c.—W. Scripps, 7, Wellington-street.
Died, on the 23d ult., at Worthing, the Rev.
John Wool!, D.D., formerly Fellow of New College, some
time Master of Midhurst School, and for twenty-one
years Head Master of Rugby
MIRROR OF THE INDIAN PARLIAMENT.--

A work under the above singular title has ben set on foot
at the Presidency, the profits of which are to be applied to
that excellent institution, the School Book Society, which,
we regret to learn, is in debt to the amount of nearly
1,0001., and obliged to suspend its operations. The work
is intended to concentrate the " Spirit of the Indian Jour-
nals," by reprinting the best productions which appear in
them. The discussions in the newspapers are assimilated
to those iu our Parliament, and hence the fanciful title of
the work,

We have now at last before us a complete re-
port of the proceedings which took place in the
court of the Municipal Commissioners at Liver-
tlool, on the inquiry into the state of that
corporation,—a most important and valuable,
though perhaps rather voluminous and fatiguing,
document. Its length, however, may well be
excused when it is considered that it details the
patient and laborious examinations of 24 days,
—that it communicates the evidence not only of
the corporation officers, but of their antagonists,
—and that it, moreover, admits the pleadings or
summing
up of the principal champions on both
sides at the close of the trial. Though in this case
the Tory corporators did not think it for their
interest to resist the investigation of their accounts
•in d management,—though they even affected plea-
sure,
at the institution of the inquiry, and professed
their willingness to meet it with every demanded
disclosure,—though in no part of their con-
duct did they pretend to an immunity from public
inspection or popular control,—and though the
Town-clerk, who had stood in the Town-hall
the brunt of more than three weeks' combat
with the enemies of corporate abuses, seemed to
withdraw at last from the field amid a haze of
dubious self-con gratulation or unconscious defeat,
—we have no hesitation in saying that in none
of the most notoriously corrupt boroughs in the
kingdom have we found stronger proofs or more
striking illustrations of the evil of the close or
self-elective system of municipal government. It
is true that the Liverpool magistrates and counci
did not indulge in small peculation at the expense
of their fellow. citizens, like some of their brethren
in the more insignificant boroughs,—it is true
that they did not help themselves to trust pro-
perty like the corporators of Cambridge,—it
is true that they did not first sell themselves
to Tory candidates, and then mortgage the
corporate lands to defray the bribes of their
corrupt voters, like Leicester,—it is true that
.hey did not alienate or pervert the charitable
funds intrusted to their care, like the same
" worshipful company,"—it is true that they did
not offer themselves as the humble and degraded
tools of some neighbouring lord or patron, like
Stamford, Tiverton, Banbury, and Warwick,
wearing their livery and feasting on their veni-
son : No ! the corporate junta of Liverpool
either could afford to despise such sordid and
degrading arts and compliances, or knew that
hey could not enjoy such mean advantages with
impunity. Their ambition was higher, or the
vigilant control of their enlightened fellow-
citizens over their conduct was stronger. With
powers to levy and to manage a revenue of nearly
300,0001. from the town, from the docks, and
trom trade—with the patronage and places which
such an expenditure put into their hands, the
snug little senate of 41 in Liverpool might safely
forego the dangerous gains of vulgar corpora-
tion plunder. When they could fasten them-
selves or their friends on the public at salaries of
from 5001. to 1,5001., or even (in some cases)
5,000/. a year, it would have been absurd to
expose themselves to suspicion or censure for the
petty larceny profits of common knaves. But their
mismanagement is not the less mischievous that it
is externally of a less sordid character, and the
necessity which it creates for corporate reform
is not the less urgent and imperative. When
we consider that the municipal government of
Liverpool was established for a state of things so
,ntirely different from the present, and that it
has stood still while civilization, trade, and
veaith have been rapidly advancing around it—
when we consider that the last of its mass of
charters, or its governing charter, was granted in
1695 to a population of less than 6,000 inha-
bitants, and that its present population amounts
co near 200,000, we are astonished that the
iniquitous incongruity should have been allowed
so long to remain, or that it should not have
produced more extensive mischief. A self-
elected junta of forty_one persons, under the de-
nomination of " Mayor, Aldermen, and Common
Council," rules the second commercial city in
the world, to the exclusion of all control either
over its formation or its conduct by the great
body of the citizens, by the great mercantile in-
terests, or the enlightened classes of the comtnu-
oity. The same sort of corporators, to the same
number, existed when it was only a kind ofmarshy
hamlet, as at present, when by the increase of
its population it exceeds in trade and resources
ill the cities of the world, with the exception of
London,—when the revenues of the town pro-
perty and dues amount to nearly IgN,OvelOsalon,oomdfoobelvtu.lerine.
when its dock duties exceed
182,0001.,—when its assessed house property
is estimated at 800,0001., —when the rates
levied for its poor amount to 50,0001.,—when
about 12,000 vessels, with a tonnage of
[2411,964 tons belong to its port,—and
I(i)eici
euasrt
loym
4s
,00 collectedo,o 001o.n
(iot its merchandise3,92s,
o oamountl.) The
reader may form some idea of the prodigious
!nagnitude of the latter item, when we mention
that it exceeds the Custom-house duties of all
Scotland and Ireland put together (the former
of which only amounted in 1829 to 1,370,240/.,
and the latter to 1,585,4761.), and that no port
of France, with the exception of Havre-de-
Grace, yields one-fourth of such a revenue. Yet
the whole interests, commercial, political, civil,
and ecclesiastical, of that great trading cotnmu..
mir
thi
wlsynysi areet undernlhy ich has oatsciftitieettdnuhteeodbf
ejboee feelings
tetgyil
Is:ts aeetfowribevheoatimrrchoiheaeunn superintendencengcelieilat
yizwehi
italhsv,e a ll:
their(dlf
tYh householders,
political
franchise, in
have
eee franchisei
the
Reform
omle for
Are electing
i has
independence or welfare. Tin the passing of
ct
the Reform Bill the counterpart of this govern-
tlsoi
vhieta,l
o:eosyse
tsi—l e Corporationilseaidmaettlitinferietetexentcli
municipal 15.ramnocohisoefistisiteislle
7.l,e%TNll:igettoei Representatives
choosing
af
r—tteloieenm ale Mayor.r
n
enjos
i:bmu ct
abouti;
the
in the
latter handsvoot
s
comprise in their ranks little of the stealth;
otelligence, or respectability of the town, We
have no room to enter on tiny summary of
the facts contained in the long
„, report be-
fore us, which would occupy sixty or
seventy
of our columns, and to which it is the
less necessary particularly to advert as it is
about to be published in a separate volume or
pamphlet—but we cannot help stating, as its
general result, that it exhibits a shameful waste
of the public money in salaries, allowances, and
jobs,—that the revenues of the borough, which
would be sufficient for a considerable state or
principality, have often been prodigally or igno-
rantly squandered,—that its extensive patronage
has been injudiciously, if not corruptly, exer-
cised,—that there has been reason to complain
of a general favouritism in the disposal of its
corporate offices,—that family connexions and
nereditary influences have been formed in the
Council or among the magistrates to the exclu.

sion of the persons best fitted for municipal
employments,—that venality has prevailed among
the lower ranks of its officers as corruption
among the higher,—that the bribery of the
dockmasters is not only charged but avowed;
—that the police of the town is inefficient or
partial,—that the administration of justice is
ignorant or corrupt,—that an illiberal spirit is
evinced towards persons who entertain opinions,
political or religious, different from those of
the ruling clique,—and that nearly the whole
body of the burgesses who engross the elec-
tion of the Mayor and Bailiffs are accessible
to direct bribes. It appears in the evidence that
nearly 6,000/. a year is paid to corporate offi-
cers,—that nearly 4,0001. is expended on al-
lowances to the Mayor and the support of the
Town-hall,—that immense sums have been
squandered in building churches of unnecessary
splendour, vthich have been supplied by ministers
related to corporators,—that, though more than
one half of the inhabitants of Liverpool are
Roman Catholics or Dissenters, neither of
those bodies have a single representative in the
Council, or among the Aldermen—that four
brothers engross offices, some of which should
be a check on the others,—that the Council still
insist upon retaining their hold over the ma-
nagement of the dock property, by retaining
the majority of members in the Dock Commit-
tee,—that the proceedings of this latter body
are held secret, and that a motion to admit re-
porters from the press has been rejected by the
corporators,—in short, that peculation, incompe-
tency, selfishness, abuse of patronage, favourit-
ism, partiality to kindred, or motives of poli-
tical partisanship, jobbing, and collusion, per-
vade and vitiate the whole system, pollute the
sources of justice, and lead to a scandalous and
absurd expenditure of the borough funds. Yet,
in answer to these well substantiated charges,
we are told of the existing prosperity of Liver-
pool, and of the immense sums expended in
widening its streets, embellishing its public
buildings, or enlarging its shipping accommo-
dation. Can such apologists for the Corpora-
tion believe that improvements adopted in
spite of them can be ascribed to their active
co-operation, or that they can monopolize the
credit of stimulating that industry or accelerat-
ing those ameliorations on which they have been
the greatest drawback ? Liverpool owes to its
situation, to its navigable river, to the coal field
on its banks, and to the seat of the cotton ma-
nufacture in its neighbourhood, those advan-
tages from which the capital and industry of its
citizens have educed such wonders ; and not to
the wisdom, exertions, or enterprise of its cor-
rupt, self-elected Corporation.—Times.

There seems to be a tide in the administra-
tion of the law of libel which is hurrying on
that branch of our jurisprudence, as it now
exists, to certain and speedy destruction. It is
not enough for the extravagance of the libel
system that its operation should be always suffi-
ciently doubtful to disable the most sagacious
lawyer from guessing whether any given passage
will, or will not, be deemed a libel by the jury.
It is not enough that all those parties who may,
according to the calculations of common sense,
be considered possible accessories to the manu-
facture of a printed libel into that state in which
it meets the eye of a newspaper reader, should
be amenable to punishment in the form of fine,
imprisonment, or damages, and that author,
proprietor, printer, should one or all be victims
to the torture of a law proceeding, just as the
caprice of the individual who chooses to be of-
fended may decide. Some practical illustra-
tions have recently been made public of
the preposterous oppression of this libel
law, that our readers will find their cre-
dulity somewhat taxed at the description.
We believe that hardly one person in a hun-
dred of those who constitute the educated and
intelligent class of society is apprised, that be-
sides the writer, printer, and so forth, the
newsman, who buys public journals by the
scores or thousands, and sends out his messen-
gers to supply them to his customers at their
breakfast-tables, is, by the equity of the law of
England, made answerable for every iota of
their contents, should those contents turn out
to be that mysterious and inscrutable thing de-
nominated " libel." Aye, a poor fellow, who
hawks his bundle of newspapers about the doors
of coach-offices, at seven or eight in the morn-
ing, for the accommodation of early travellers,
is, by construction of this precious law, supposed
to have been a party to whatever libellous matter
may be contained in them. Having, no doubt,
had a share in their composition and publication,
this poor devil might at any time be punished
as a libeller, but that Mr. Dicas knows his busi-
ness too well, to fish for costs and damages in
a pond of paupers.. This person, as was stated
at the meeting of newsmen, recovered 3001.
damages from a Sunday newspaper for a libel,
and, not content with that, the same attorney
brought an action against a newsman of the
tame of Warne, for selling the same paper in
the course of his business as a tradesman, and
obtained 101. damages against him also, together
with 851. costs ! He attacked a third person (a
newsvender), by name Goldwin, and from him
obtained 51. damages, with 851. costs ! It is
asserted that the afbresaid Mr. Dicas has no
fewer than eighty-four actions in preparation
against venders of newspapers, for selling those
which contained the libel that had already yielded
him the redundant harvest of 3001. No man,
indisputably, ought to know better the value of
character than Mr. Dicas, for none has suc-
ceeded in getting it estimated at a higher
comparative price. This, however, is an epi-
sode. We ask any body living, who has the
least sense of justice, whether a tradesman
who only sells a newspaper bearing a certain
name, which all the world knows he has nothing
to do with but its mere transfer from one band
to another—we ask whether such a man ought
to be presumed in law to have nut merely read
every syllable which the paper contains, but to
have had an active share in the composition,
he printing, and publication of it, with a full
eoptizance of its being libellous, according to
the law of England ? There is horrible barba-
rity the continuance of such a law. It can-
not stand for the first month of another session :
courttnartial law, bad as it is, would be more
tolerable. Couple this with the grotesque ab-
surdity of a libel cause two days ago in the
Exchequer, where the acuteness of a learned
judge, the attention of a pains-taking jury, and
that time, of which every moment wrung money
out of the pockets of other suitors, were alike
wasted on a critical analysis of the term
" fudge," and answer, can or ought the libel law
of England to be left in its actual condition ?
The Mr. Dicas here spoken of is the same person
who has lately figured as plaintiff in an action
against the Lord Chancellor ; and the unprin-
cipled Tory faction, with a blindness as dis-
graceful as their malice, have appealed to this
contemptible case as a proof, not of the shock-

ing state of the libel law, but of the misconduct
of the noble defendant, who, it appeared, had
merely followed the established practice of his
predecessors (Lord Eldon among the number),
and where he deviated, deviated for the purpose
of releasing the prisoner, The Globe, we see,
adverts to the proceedings in the cause of
Dicas against the Lord Chancellor," for the
purpose of showing, as an excuse for the arrest
of Dicas, that it proceeded from a mistake. It
is true that he was first taken in a privileged
place by the mistake of the officer, for which no
judge was ever yet held to be accountable ; but
it appeared that he was taken immediately
before the Chancellor, who left the House of
Lords to see him, and gave him his instant dis-
charge. As to the regularity of the warrant,
Mr. Elley, who was referred to in court as the
most competent authority, has explained how
the practice varied in the time of preceding
Chancellors, and that the present Chancellor
laid down a fixed rule, the operation of which
gave Mr. Dicas his liberty.—Times.

The Conservative Journals console themselves
under the dismal exposure of corporation abuses
elicited by the commission, by eulogies on the
absurd and discreditable conduct of the few cor-
porators who refuse to obey the Royal commis-
sion. It was not for want of due warning
and provocation to be contumacious from the
Tory papers that corporations generally through.
out the country wisely and cheerfully submitted
to the inquiry. The Standard early proclaimed
the " illegality" of the commission. Our con-
temporary confesses that he is c‘ both shamed
and disgusted. by the little effect" of the advice
of resistance tendered to the corporators, and
now pronounces " that the most corrupt and
vulnerable bodies are precisely those which have
yielded most readily to the usurpation." As the
majority of the country corporations, comprising
those of Liverpool, Bristol, Bath, Coventry,
Warwick, Northampton, Nottingham, Shrews-
bury, Cambridge, Oxford, and Hereford, have
freely admitted the inquiry of the commission,
this admission of the Standard would assert
(what we have never affirmed) that all the
corporations inquired into, with few exceptions,
are corrupt and misconducted. The soli-
tary cases of resistance, are now held up to
public estimation, and contrasted as noble in-
stances of patriotic principle reflecting on the
municipal bodies who have admitted the powers
of the Commissioners. The sum total of dis-
obedience referred to by the Standard as such
honourable distinction, is miserable in amount.
Our readers will recollect that the vaunted Town
Clerk of Leicester actually submitted to two
days' examination, and only refused to answer
inconvenient and personally disagreeable ques-
tions on the subject of alienation of the public
property of the burgesses. The boasted oppo-
sition of the Sheriffs of Norwich appears to be
ridiculous, as we observe that the inquiry is not-
withstanding in active progress in that city, and
promoted by the real Corporate authorities.
The Merchant Tailors' Company have refused
to admit an investigation of their constitution,
revenues, and municipal management, but it re-
mains to be proved how they will maintain
their hostile position, and how they will effec-
tively prevent an ultimate public and searching
inquiry. We yesterday inserted a report of a
Burghmote meeting at Maidstone, where by a
small majority it was determined to oppose the
commission ; but when forty.nine common
councilmen openly declared and voted in favour
of the inquiry, it cannot be doubted that the
commissioners who visit that borough will have
ample means of thoroughly sifting its municipal
government and examining fully into the ad-
ministration of its public funds. We should
imagine that the probabilities of integrity were
exactly in the inverse ratio of what is assumed
by the Standard. At Maidstone we should
expect that the commissioners will meet with a
rich harvest for their sickles. Mr. Ellis, a
common councilman, pertinently asked " ilthere
was anything to dread from honest and true
answers" to the queries of the commissioners ?
Mr. E. Russell spoke of " the little respect
in which the corporation was held by the neigh-
bouring gentry," which he attributed " to the
misgovernment that had always prevailed." If
the Maidstone corporation, therefore, had any
real confidence in their character and public
integrity, they would court the opportunity of
convincing the country of their integrity and of
the excellence of their present municipal go-
vernment of the borough. But serious dis-
cussion on this subject is unnecessary. The
objects and conduct of the commission are justly
and gratefully estimated by the great majority
of the national constituency and the people.
The reform and improvement of the grossly
defective corporate jurisdictions and municipal
administration of the kingdom, have been long
and ardently desired. The corporation commission
has been proved to be an economical and
efficient mode of enabling Parliament to legislate
on the information derived from preceding in-
quiry. The address to the Crown for the com-
mission was voted unanimously by the House of
Commons. It has been the most popular and
substantial act of the Reformed Parliament and
the .Ministry, and it is now too late for the
Conservative Journals to protest against its
" illegality," or to pour forth lamentations over
its certain efficacy. The public and exciting
results of the various inquiries in England,
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, like the first dis-
cussions on the Reform Bills, will necessitate
and insure a full and appropriate measure of
remedial legislation. The occasional contu-
macy of a solitary Corporation is only the sub-
ject of amusement ; and the " Constitution"
must be in a bad way when it is contended that
a few bigotted and disobedient Corporators resist
an inquiry thus sanctioned by the Legislature
and public opinion—which involves no question
of the rights of private property, but simply
concerns the extensive reformation and improve-
ment of the municipal government of the United
Kingdom. We direct the attention of our
readers to the Report of the Wenlock inquiry
in the Shrewsbury Chronicle, and we shall give
an early abstract of the extraordinary investigation
of the Liverpool Corporation, which will prac•
tically illustrate the necessity of a thorough and
matured plan of Corporation Reform. We do
not wonder that the Conservatives should lament
over the approaching demise of the self-elect,
when we see to what political and exclusive
purposes they have worked their power and
misused the public property.—Morn. Chronicle.
Next to the slavery, or rather consequent
upon the shivery, of living under laws the
contents or existence of which a man is ignorant
of, is that of being punished for offences of
which he cannot, in the very nature of things,
be conscious. Of this description, its grossest
sense, are the prosecutions which have- been
instituted against that useful and laborious cla,s
of men the newsvenders ; of which no less than
84 have been brought against as many newsmen

by one and the same individual. Few persons
can be unacquainted with the difficulties under
which those who have the superintendence of
daily papers labour—of the multifariousness of
the contents, and the haste with which the
public appetite must be supplied. To them,
therefore, every reasonable indulgence is due ;
and, in the absence of anything like malice, how
slow Juries and Courts ought to be in visiting,
with all the consequences of guilty knowledge,
what, at most, are generally the results of mere
haste or inadvertence. But if indulgence be thus
due to the proprietors of newspapers, with how
much more fairness and propriety, and on how
much stronger grounds, are we entitled to call
for actual and complete impunity on behalf
of the newsvender, who cannot, by possibility,
know what are the contents of the sheet
which he receives wet from the press, and hur-
ries away with, in the same state, to the
door of his customer ? It is not, perhaps, too
much to affirm that there are not in the kingdom
—at all events, in the wetropolis—any persons
habitually less familiar with the contents of
newspapers than those who distribute them to the
public ; and for this plain reason, that they have
neither time nor opportunity to be otherwise.
There is just one possible case—and only one—
in which we can imagine that a newsvender can
or ought to be held responsible for what he sells,
and that case is, when any matter which may
turn out to be libellous renders a particular
number of a Paper an object of attraction, and
the newsvender, on that account, and knowing
what he is about, provides himself with the
means of meeting such a demand. The case,
though possible, is a Nery rare one, and the only
one in which a possibility of knowledge can be
imputed to the vender. To render the opposite
position tenable, what must be the case but that
the newsvenders must have time allowed them to
read all through all the various Journals of
the day before they distribute any one of
them—a process which, allowing an hour
to each Paper, would occupy the whole
day, and put an end to their delivery
altogether ? The idea itself is almost too
ludicrous to be entertained ; but still, if news-
paper venders are to be held liable for the
contents of papers which they sell, we see no
other way in which they can protect themselves.
And then, to complete the ridicule of the
thing, only imagine some one of the public
journals, on some one particular day, being
declared unsaleable by the whole, or any por-
tion of this novel board of censors ! We put
the matter in this point of view, to show at
once its absurdity and injustice. Surely the
press, as far as the law of libel in concerned, is
hemmed round by trammels enough, without
this new class of victims being offered up at the
legal shrine. For what, after all, does it amount
to but a bait to needy, unprincipled attorneys,
who, under pretence of seeking damages for
injured clients, are merely making costs for
themselves ? Such a state of things—such a
system of oppression, is a disgrace to any coun-
try calling itself free. We are glad, therefore, to
see that the newsvenders are alive to the subject,
and we think the press is bound to assist them
in their struggle. But let us at the same time
whisper one thing in their ear ; that they be
careful not to give their struggle a party or
political cast, as it may, and indeed must, have
the effect of injuring a cause which, standing
upon its own merits, is irresistible.—Morning
Herald.

COURT OF CHANCERY, DEc. 5.

CONTEMPT OF COURT.

Mr. RICIIARDS appeared on the part of the
father of a ward of the Court, and produced the
affidavits of Mr. Reid, which stated that he was
aware of his son's marriage with a ward in Chan-
ceryearly in August.

The LORD CHANCELLOR said he should take
care in meting out punishment not to give more
than was necessary.
Mr. COLLINS, who appeared on behalf of Mr.
Reid, ►hought he could show his Lordship that no
contempt of Court had been committed.

The fl
LORD CHANCELLOR said that a person
having charge of a ward of the Court, and know-
ing that an allowance was paid from the Court for
her bentfit, had, without the permission of the
Court, allowed his son to marry her. He had also
concealed from the Court the intelligence of her
marriage for three months ; and a contempt had
clearly been committed by only concealing the mar-
riage. His Lordship thought it would be better to
leave the matter in the hands of the Court.

Mr. RICHARDS concurred in the opinion that it
would be better to leave the matter in the hands of
the Court, and said that he would wait for the
Master's report.
Ills LORDSHIP consented.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, DEC. 5.

DOE ON THE DEMISE OF WETHERELL V. BIRD.

In this case, whirl► was an action of eject►nent,
and which was not finished yesterday when our
paper went to press, the jury found a verdict for the
plantiff.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER, DEC. 5.

COLLINS V. GRESLEY.

His LORDSHIP (on coming into Court this morn-
ing) stated that he had received a letter from the
plaintiff in this case, which he was anxious the
Counsel on both sides, as well as Sir Roger Gres-
ley, should have an opportunity of perusing. The
writer seemed to be fully aware of the impropriety
of a party in a cause addressing the Judge who was
to decide it, but nevertheless had entered into a
long er parte statement of facts which it was but fair
the Counsel for the defendant should have an op-
portunity of seeing. The course which the plaintiff
had adopted he did not hesitate to characterise as
very irregular, very indecorous, and in every respect
very improper. Once before a similar circumstance
had occurred to him, and then, us he proposed to
do now, and always should do on the like occasion,
he immediately handed over the letter to the Coun-
sel on the opposite side. He trusted it was need-
less for him to observe that the contents of the com-
munication would never in any way or the other in-
fluence his judgment.
His LORDSHIP immediately handed over the letter
to Mr. Bottler, Counsel for the defendant.
Mr. BOTELER (having read it over) said it was
perfectly unnecessary tor him in any Way to allude
to its contents. _ _

Lord LYNDHURST.--I quite agree with you, and I
shall accordingly at once dispose of the case by
giving judgment. It was an application for a new
trial of an issue directed from this Court to aster
tain three points—firs!, whether the plaintiff, as
vicar of the parish of Sullington, was entitled to all
the small tithes of that parish; secondly, whether,
if not entitled to all the small tithes, he Was entitled
to the tithe of hay ; and thirdly, whether he was
entitled to any, and, if so, what portion of the small
tithes. The issue was decided in favour tif the
defendant, and the plaintiff not being content with
that decision came forward to have the issue retried.
After attentively considering the case in all its
bearings he had no hesitation in saying he saw no
reason to be dissatisfied with the verdict of the Jury.
It had been urged on behalf of the plaintiff that no
verdict had been pronounced by the Jury, because,
when finding generally for the defendant, they re-
quired the Learned Judge who presided to endorse
en the postea that they found their verdict without

prejudice to the rights of the Vicar and the Bishop's
award. Now what did that reservation amount to?
Simply that the Jury did not mean to prevent the
plaintiff from a future prosecution of his claim on
better evidence. By this verdict they decided that
the general right of the plaintiff to the small tithes
of the parish had not been established, that the right
to the tithes of hay had not been established, and
that no right to any particular portion of the small
tithe had been established by the evidence brought
before them; but not wishing to debar the plaintiff
from any future prosecution of his claim on amended
evidence, they added the endorsement which had
been mentioned. They wished, in fact, to confine
their opinion exclusively to the evidence brought
before them, without in any way interfering with
the abstract question of the plaintiff ii► point of
law. It appeared to him that, as far as the case had
been submitted to their decision, a decision had
been pronounced, and, therefore, that the verdict
was to be quoad decisive of the case.
The application was accordingly refused. No de-
cision was pronounced with regard to costs.

INSOLVENT DEBTORS' COURT, DEC. 5,

The Rev. Anthony Singleton Atcheson applied on
his petition to be discharged, and was supported by
Mr. COOKE.

The insolvent was Rector of a village near Oak-
ham, in Rutlandshire. He contracted some debts
while at the University, and those creditors who
now appeared in his schedule had recently obtained
a sequestration on his living. He had some pro-
perty in the country to give up. He lived in the
glebe-house, and had no family except his wife. It
appeared lie had a splendid library, which had been
sold in London, and only realized 361., which sum
had been paid into Court for the benefit of his cre-
ditors; arid other sums would be forthcoming.
Mr. COOKE applied to the Court to allowhis client
the surplus property above the excepted articles.
Mr. Commiss►oner HARRIS considered the appli-
cation reasonable, and ordered Atcheion to be forth-
with discharged.
A creditor named Davis was appointed assignee, and
The Learned COMMISSIONER said this was a fit
case for an active assignee to look after the seques-
tration issued on the living.