The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-19 00:00:00

IMPORTANT MEETING IN SKIBBEREEN,

The Cork Reporter of Tuesday contains the following :
—" Yesterday (Monday) the Presentment Sessions
called by the Lord-Lieutenant's proclamation under the
late Act, was held in Skibbereen. The attendance of
magistrates, landAl proprietors, farmers, and labourers,
was most numerous.

" The proceedings passed off in a harmonious spirit,
and seventy-two presentments, involving an outlay of
40,000/., were agreed to. A discussion ensued as to the
feasibility of constructing a line of railway from Bandon
to Bantry, by presentment, aided by a grant, if it could
be obtainal, as the best mode of employing the popu-
lation in a work of national benefit, and of a remunera-
tive character, and the following resolution was passed:—

That a committee be appointed to meet and take into
consideration the survey of the line of rail way now made
between Bandon, Bantry, Skibbereen and Clonakilty,
with a view of ascertainingits practicability of making
a line of road by baronial presentments in conformity
therewith, which may be available for the purpose of a
railroad at a future period, and of reporting how far it

would be reasonable to call on Government for assis

ance: "

of discount, all the bills of exchange by means of which
the moneys have been remitted ; and although most of
these bills were drawn at six months after sight, yet the
directors of the Bank of Ireland, with a benevolence
which commands respect, have ordered the full amount
drawn for to be placed at the credit of the trustees, with-
out any banking reduction whatsoever. The fund thus
so humanely placed at the disposal of the trustees has
been distributed amongst about 350 local relief com-
mittees, to whom 639,700 destitute poor look for the
means of being saved from the horrors of famine."

ASSEMBLING OF PARLIAMENT IN
NOVEMBER.
T 6 Cork Reporter contains the important announce-
ment made to the Mallow and Doneraile deputation, by
the private secretary of the Lord• Lieutenant, that Par-
liament is to be assembled in November, in order to
remedy the defects in the Labour Rate Bill and to pro-
vide other effectual measures for the relief of distress in
Ireland.

LETTER FROM MR. O'CONNELL.
The Evening Post contains the following from Derry-
nane:—

" Darrynane Abbey, Cahirciveen, Sept. 14.
" My dear Conway,—l have only this morning got
the Labour Rate Act, and thus am able to state its pro-
visions accurately. lam the more anxious to do so, as
my former statement of its contents was necessarily
taken from the report of speeches in Parliament.
" The Act provides that the Lord Lieutenant, upon
being informed of the existence of distress in any dis-
trict, shall, by proclamation, direct and require an Ex-
traordinary Presentment Sessions' for such district.
" This is mandatory upon the presentment sessions ;
they are bound to meet on the day mentioned in the pro-
clamation, and they will be guilty of a violation of the
law if they do not meet upon that day.
" 2d. The presentment sessions having met, they are
bound to make presentments for public works within
their district. This clause, also, is mandatory. It would
be a violation of the law if they were to refuse or neglect
making such presentments.
" 3d. The Lords of the Treasury are bound to
advance all sums of money, without specified limit, to
the amount necessary for the works included in such
presentments.
" 4th. The Board of Works are bound to put into
execution the works so presented for without delay.
" Such is an abstract of the operative part of the sta-
tute, as far as relates to public works. There are also
provisions for the repayment, by instalments, of the
money to be advanced for those works.
"The repayment is not to commence until the next
year, 1847, so that the landlords are, by the Act, left all
their resources for the present year, untouched by the
payment of any rate.
. . .

No specific remedy is given by the statute if the pre-
sentment sessions disobey the law, and refuse or neglect
to make presentments.
" Let it be recollected that if they so refuse or neglect
—the existing distress in the district will remain, not
only unrelieved and unmitigated, but naturally increas-
ing in intensity and severity. This will be so strong a
pressure upon the presentment sessions, that it is not
likely that they will anywhere refuse to make present-
ments, and by such refusal leave the starving labourers
without relief. But, supposing any presentment sessions
so to refuse, they are subject to legal compulsion as well
as to punishment.
" For example, the Act being mandatory on the pre-
sentment sessions, if they refuse to do that duty., they are
liable to be proceeded against, criminally, by indictment,
or by criminal informations, at the prosecution of the
Attorney-General. Besides, on application to the
Queen's Bench, a mandamus would issue to compel the
presentment sessions to make presentment according to
law. I take it, that the cost of the proceedings would be
visited on the defaulting presentment sessions.
" It is, therefore, to the last degree improbable that
any sessions will refuse to make presentments.
" Let it be recollected that the one thing wanted at
present is food; that the pressure for food is immediate;
that the supplying of food cannot be postponed without
the utmost inhumanity—nay, cannot be postponed with
safety to any class.
" Food the people want, and food it is the duty of
everybody to provide for them: as well the Government
as the landlords—in short, everybody, having any means
whatsoever.

" The Government plan suggests the mode of obtain-
ing food by earning wages—such wages to be paid for
the execution of public works.
" It is quite true that many faults may be found with
the Government plan; but, then, it is rapid of execution,
and rapidity of action is, under existing circumstances, of
the most vital importance. No plan can be of any value
to meet the present horrible emergency but a rapid plan.
There is no time for delay or postponement. The penalty
of delay would be death—in fact, deaths innumerable.
From 10,000,0001. to 12,000,000/. sterling will, I fear, be
necessary to keep the people alive; but, while many are
writing or talking, the people are starving.
" I am not at all insensible to the disadvantage of
laying out money on works that are not, in themselves,
productive of direct profit ; but the complication of in-
terests—the properties of minors—the properties vested
in trustees for married women—the properties in the
hands of the receivers of the Court of Chancery, and of
other creditors and annuitants—all these and many other
complicated relations, would require much time and labour
to aftange in order to secure any Government loans made
for profitable works, and it would, consume much time
to investigate titles and ascertain the validity of ssou-
rities.

" In the meantime, the cry is loud and universal for
food ! food ! Everything must be clone to get the food
for the people without delay. Rapidity constitutes, I
repeat, the essence of humanity and political sagacity.
. . . . .

"It seems abundantly clear that there must bean early
—very early meeting of the Parliament. The practical
defects of the Labour Rate Bill must be amended, and
other modes of relief will require to be suggested and
worked out. But in the mean time let us one and all
struggle to procure wages and food for the people. Let
us do the best we can with the existing law, instead of
discovering defects and proclaiming them to a starving
people. Let us, if possible, inspire in that people a con-
fidence in our exertions, and let us convince them, that
we will leave no practical means untried to preserve the
country from famine and pestilence.

."
Believe me to be, very faithfully yours,
" DANIEL O'CONNELL.'

DISGRACEFUL STATE of WANDS-
WORTH POLICE-COURT.
About five years since an Order in Council created a
Police•court at Wandsworth, and assigned as the circle
of its jurisdiction the parishes of Wandsworth, Clap-
ham, Battersea, Tooting, Merton, Wimbledon, Barnes,
and a portion of Streatham. The place selected to ad-
' minister justice was the then sleeping apartment of the
superintendent of the V division of police, together with
a very small room for the private accommodation of the
magistrates. With respect to persons compelled to at-
tend the court, they were, and are still, obliged to put
up with the sorry accommodation of a stable-yard, or
the less wholesome jostling in a circumscribed and ill-
ventilated apartment, dignified by the title of a police-
court. The entrance to the court, too, is up a steep
flight of stairs, that threaten each day to dissolve
connexion with the building to which they are the
only public approach; and the absence of cells
obliges the prisoners being at various times during
the sitting of the court paraded between that
place and the station-house, which is nearly a
quarter of a mile distant; and. the fully of such
a course being persevered in cannot be better ex
emplified than in the case which is appended. The
reporter would not have been induced to make these
remarks but for the miserable economy and imbecility
of purpose exhibited by those who are constituted
the agents of Government in these matters. For
three years past the magistrates at this court have
been deluded with the idea that a building commen-
surate with the dignity of a court of judicature would
be erected. Surveys have been made over and over
again, but still the court remains an eye-sore to the
neighbourhood, and a disgrace to the executive depart-
ment of the Government.
A case strongly illustrative of a necessity for a reform
occurred yesterday. A man named William Wilson,
who has already been convicted of burglary, was
charged with embezzling several sums of money be-
longing to his employer, Edward Covenay, of Bri-
tannia-place, Wandsworth-road. The prisoner, a
powerful young man, was remanded, and was
being conveyed towards the station-house by Eastman,
182 V, the Clapham summoning officer, when the fellow
suddenly turned round, struck the officer a tremendous
blow on the breast, and started off with the the speed of
a deer-hound towards Putney. The officer, although
almost stunned by the blow, followed in pursuit, and
after a sharp run of some hundred yards succeeded in
coming up with the prisoner, who had been stopped near
the Adelaide Inn. The prisoner, on being again taken
into custody, made a most desperate resistance, atrikinc
the constable in the face and in various parts of his
body, and also biting bite severely. The constable, al-
though so severely handled, did not draw his staff, and,
with the assistance of civilians, whom it was necessary
to call upon to aid and assist in the Queen's name, the
prisoner was taken back to the court, and from thence
to the station-house.
Had this court possessed the necessary conveniences
that appertain to other courts, this mishap could no
have taken place.

The last published annual account of the Equitable
Assurance Society shows that the directors in the ye'
1845 paid for claims on policies 365,0001., and for addi-
tions made to them 429,000/., being a total of 794,000/.
At the close of that period, and after all these payments,
the invested capital of the society was 5,715,000/. Three
per Cents., and 4,050,000/, on mortgage. The society
has lately paid claims on policies exceeding the sum
originally assured, in some instances five times, and in
others six times the amount. On a sum assured of
5,000/. the amount paid was 26,610/. ; and in another
case for 2,000/. an amount of 10,040/. was paid ; while
in a third case for 700/. assured the amount paid was
4,980/. Among the causes which arpear to have con-
tributed to these important results, is the reservation at
each decennial division of one-third of the surplus fund
for future appropriation. The amount of the additions
made to the oldest 5,000 policies at the last decennial
division, in 1839, was 4,094,661/., estimated to be worth
in present money 2,969,502/. ; and the third reserved for
future accumulation and division was 1,484,7511. The
third reserved in 1799 was 225,0001. The 5,000 oldest
policies, it is stated, are entitled to share in the additions;
and should the life assured die before January Ist, 1850,
being within such 5,000, two and-a-half per cent. per
annum on the sum assured will be added for every pre-
mium paid subsequently to 1839, or. subsequently to the
admission of the policy into the above number. The
actual number of policies existing on the 31st December
last was 6,537. The number of policies which have
annually become claims, on an average of the last 14
years, having been 235, it is expected that all the poli-
cies now existing will be admitted into the number of
5,000 within the next seven years.—Times,