The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-22 00:00:00

S Ny APRIL 22, 1846.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS.
(From the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons.)
TUESDAY, APRIL 21.
The following Railway Bills were withdrawn :
Derby, Gainsborough, and Great Grimsby Junction.
Midland (Newark and Gainsborough).
Cork and Passage.

PRICE SD.

THE RUMOURED DISSOLUTION.

(From the Times.)

There is a rumour of an immediate dissolution ; or, to
speak more correctly, there is the report of a rumour to that
effect. What is the ground and origin of this report—
whether the wish is father to it, or the fear is father to it—
whether the Protectionists wish Sir Robert to think that he
must resign, or Sir Robert wishes the Protectionists to think
that he will resign—whether an immediate dissolution of
Parliament is not a mere blunder for an immediate dissolu-
t ion of railways, or, after all, the report only expresses that
indefinite dissatisfaction with the existing state of things
which led Miss Squeers to exclaim, " I wish I was dead—l
wish all the world was dead"—it is not necessary for us to
decide. The report exists, and is put about with diligence.
The question is propounded. Something is to be gained, it
is thought, by looking upon the event as possible. As the
question is forced upon us, we have scarcely an alternative
but to reply. It is by no means an edifying theme. When
there is nothing else to talk of, the public generally be-
gins to talk of a dissolution, just as some men, whenever
they have nothing elso to do, immediately begin to think
of apoplexy, suicide, and such horrors. In fact, every time
within these twenty years that things have come to a
standstill, there has been a report of a dissolution. Any-
body, without an opinion in his head, can venture an esti-
mate of the odds for or against that casualty. Perhaps it
is beside the question to ask who is to gain by a dissolution?
The Miss Squeers who suggests the idea has probably given
up all thought of gain. It is enough that somebody would
lose something; or, if not damaged, will be at least disgraced;
or, if not disgraced, yet stigmatised. The vision of a dozen
agricultural constituencies, is addition to those which have
already changed their Members, turning out four-and-twenty
" apostates," with an immense deal of pother, with much
bluster and invective, avid giving us in their stead four-and-
twenty raw young men who have yet to apostatise, is enough
to console these satisfied dreamers for the absence of any
tangible advantage. Sir Robert Peel would "get it." Many
speeches would be made and circulated at a penny a piece.
Many prophecies would be uttered. Heaps of statistics and
financial statements would be collected for the benefit of
those who are ignorant of facts, and not versed in arith-
metic. Tamboff and New Orleans, the Vistula and the Ohio,
would again become names of terror. We should have a
Saturnalia of apochryphal facts and impossible estimates.
In the midst of the clamour there would perhaps be a dozen
victories ; though, perhaps, on the contrary, there would not
be one. But granting the said dozen victories, whose would
be the gain, whose the loss, in the day of reckoning? What
would the Protectionists have gained by a dissolution? It
is due to public peace and quiet not to canvass electioneering
probabilities till the occasion actually arises. It is rather an
American than an English usage to keep the elective contest
always on foot. Therefore we will not attempt to go through
the counties, and cities, and boroughs, in anticipation of a
new Parliament. We expressed at the time a gentle demur
as to the wisdom and taste of Mr. Cobden's masterly and
hitherto unanswered review of the British constituencies.
But we certainly do not see where the Protectionists can hope
to find the means of tuning the scale in another Parliament.
Why do they not favour us with the names of the constituen-
cies that are to settle the business? They talk of the 112.
A balance of 56 changes in their favour, therefore, will be
sufficient, not indeed to decide the question in favour of
protection, but to bring the Legislature to a standstill.
Where will you get your 56? Name, name, name! How
many cities and boroughs have been lately converted to the
sliding-scale? But your trust is in the counties—the
English counties. They have already done almost their
worst. They have left no margin for extraordinary efforts.
All the county scats will be insufficient for the purpose. But
even in the counties, and much more in the boroughs, the
change has been all the other way. The very farmers have
either come quite round, or given in, or got sick of the ques-
tion altogether. " Anything for peace and quiet," but the
chance of peace so long as the existing law is unrepealed
they know to be small indeed. Every week, too, has been
helping to disabuse them of their alarms. They no longer
believe that wheat will settle at 355., or fluctuate between
20s. and 100 s. They no longer think that there is or will
soon be too much food in the world. They no longer think
it the order of nature, and the decree of Heaven, that
Irishmen should eat nothing but potatoes. They daily
witness the phenomenon of landlords demanding an in-
crease of rent, and, what is more, obtaining it without
any difficulty. Land, also, sells better than ever. The funds
are by no means so high as they have been within this
year or two. Shares have fallen, scrip has become worth-
less, but land retains its value. In the face of these facts it
is scarcely possible to maintain with a grave face that the
landlord is ruined. There are ruined landlords—there are
landlords that were never anything else than ruined men—
there are landlords who have fled their country; and who,
like Coriolanus among the Volsci, consume their days in
melancholy exile at Paris or Rome. But they cannot ac-
cuse rest of their ruin. Rent has been true to them, were
they only true to it. Their misfortunes are beyond the reach
of legislation. They would be equally unfortunate, equally
poor, equally in debt, equally banished, if wheat were at
100 s. instead of 565., and if the corn-law, instead of being a
slip of paper, were an eternal necessity. The tenants of these
unfortunates know very well what rent they have paid, do
pay, and will pay. They know that if they asked for a reduc-
tion on the strength of Peel's measures, they would
only be laughed at. With so little to encourage even
from the most friendly quarter, what is it that the Protec-
tionists hope to gain from the dissolution ? What at least
beyond two or three stray triumphs, counteracted by
many more defeats, and the ephemeral plea sure of agitati-
tion, misrepresentation, and abuse, of indulging without stint
in false logic, false facts, false statistics, false finance,
false politics during the hubbub of a general election? They
would find these a poor compensation for the all but certain
result,—either one or the other object of their wrath securely
settled in the seven years' lease of a Parliament to his mind.
Inc enapter or accidents may do much, it not LA, accomplish
their views, at least to satisfy their vengeance, in ih,
,of this and the following session. Peel may have fallen by
his own weight before the winter of 1847. New questions
may then have arisen fatal to his cause on the registry and
the hustings. A dissolution now is a dissolution on the corn-
law. A Parliament elected now will be a free-trade Parlia-
ment; and if, for the comfort of the agriculturists, the story
of the late Westminster election should be repeated a hundred
times over, the result will be only more permanently, more
decidedly, and more offensively adverse to the feelings and
supposed interests of the aristocracy.

MR. BIINN'S BENEFIT.—The evening of Monday next
is fixed for the benefit of the enterprising impresario of the
Theatre Royal Drury-lane. The opera of Ifaritana, which
has secured to Mr. Vincent Wallace a foremost rank among
British composers, will be perfermed on that occasion, and
Mr. Wallace will himself preside in the orchestra. A concert
will follow, in which the fascinating Anna Thillon will sing
a cavatina from Rossini's Barbiere di Seviglia. Mademoi-
selle Rummel, of whose fame as a singer all Germany is rife,
will make her first appearance before a British audience, and
will sing the celebrated aria, " A non credea," from Lc:Son-
nambula. The Ethiof ian Serenaders will give some of their
most popular melodies. Monsieur Francois Prume, the cele-
brated Belgian violinist, will play his " Fantasie Fantastique,"
and Mr. Harrison and the Misses Romer and Rainsforth will
give some of the choicest morceaux from the operas of the
Daughter of St. Marl: and the Crusaders, the chefs decuvre
of Balfe and Benedict. A divertissement will follow, in which
Mademoiselle SA, Mr. Mathis, and the Elite of the corps de
ballet will appear. Such a bill of fare is alone sufficient to
attract a crowded house, but even were the entertainments
less attractive, every lover of the lyrical will be glad to seize
the opportunity of testifying his gratitude to one who,
through evil report and good report, has for the last ten
years laboured hard to found an English school of opera,
and who has at length, by overcoming difficulties innumer-
able, gone far towards succeeding in his endeavour, as the
operas of Balfe, Benedict, and Wallace will testify; and be
it remembered that each of these now celebrated composers
are indebted to Mr. Bunn for their first introduction to the
British public.
PRICE of GOLD.—The premium on gold at Paris
is 15 per mille, which, at the English Mint price of 31. 17s. 10%d.
per ounce for standard gold, gives an exchange of 25 52% ; and
the exchange at Paris en London at short being 25 72, it fol-
lows that gold is 0.78 per cent, dearer in London than in Paris.
By advices from Hamburgh the price of gold is 436 per mark,
which, at the English Mint price of Si. 17s. 104 d. per ounce for
standard gold, gives an exchange of 13 10% ; and the exchange at Ham-
burgh on London at short being 13 11 ,it follows that the price of
gold is 0.34 per cent. dearer in London than in Hamburgh.
The course of exchange at New York on London is 109 per cent.,
and the par of exchange between England and America being
109 23-40 per cent., it follows that the exchange is 0.58 per cent.
against England. But the quoted exchange at New 'rink being for
bills at GO days' sight, the interest must be deducted from the above
difference.
LIABILITIES OF RAILWAY SHAREHOLDERS.—It has
generally been supposed that when parties comply with the demand
made by railway companies for a contribution towards expenses.
with an understanding that this ends their liabilities, tbewthhooluge abfftairof
may be looked upon as terminated. Many persons
have
that
resisting these demands, but none seem to havease thoughtstated by one of
com-
pliance would lead to farther applications
the provisional committee
a new igh
ommitteleofton
the
the Midlandb
u ee. t
Grand
Theparty in
Junction Railway
Company throws
according to his own account, paid for his quota of expenses the sum
of 501. on receiving from the secretary an assurance that the board of
management would use their best endeavours to protect him from
further claims. This took place in January, and the party, far from
supposing that the sum would be insufficient, was under the impres-
sion that a part would ultimately be returned. A day or two ago he
received another letter, demanding the further sum of 501., on the
ground that other liable parties had neglected to pay. With this re-
quest our correspondent candidly owns he does not mean to comply,
and he expresses a hope that others in a similar situation will pursue
the same course. The lesson to be derived from the case by the
public in general is, that it is by no means safe to comply with any
of the applications for money, which are now so frequent, under a
belief that all further liability will be thereby avoided.
SUGAR. —Last night's Gazette contains a notice to the
effect that her Majesty, by and with the advice of her Privy Council,
orders that from and after the Ist day of May next ensuing the date
hereof, brown Muscovado, or clayed sugars (not being refined), the
growth of the dominions of the republic of New Granada, shall, if
imported from the dominions of the said republic, or from any British
possession abroad having been imported into such British possession
from the said dominions, be admitted to entry for consumption into
the United Kingdom at the respective rates of duty of 11. Bs. and 1/.
3s. 4d. per cwt. respectively ; subject, nevertheless, to tke production
of the like certificates, and the making of the like declaration, as are
in the said Act required wits respect to sugars the growth of China,
; Java, or Manilla.

KING. • ' S COLLEGE, LONDON.—Yesterday the theolo-
gical department of the College, established for the purpose of train-
ing young men as candidates for holy orders, was opened for the first
time, the bishops having consented to receive the students who have
passed the curriculum, without requiring them to graduate at Ox-
ford or Cambridge. The course is to embrace divinity in all its
branches ; and before a student can obtain the honorary certificate
from the principal, necessary before he can present himself to the
bishop, he will be required to go through six terms, extending over
two years, at an expense of twelve guineas a term. The persons
who will be admissible are graduates of Oxford, Cambridge, or Dur-
ham, associates of King's College, and all such persons who, having
passed a satisfactory examination in classics by the principal, shall
obtain the recommendation of a bishop. The following clergymen
have been appointed the Professors of Divinity :—The Rev. Dr.
lii`Caul, rector of St, James's, Duke-place ; the Rev. F. D. Maurice,
chaplain of Guy's Hospital ; and the Rev. F. C. Trench, examining
chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford.
EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE BY A Boy.—On Tuesday
Mr. Baker held an inquest at the Lord Nelson, Nicol's-row, Church-
street, Shoreditch, on the body of William Thomas Figess, aged nine
years, who destroyed himself under the following circumstances:-
11e deceased resided with his mother at No. It, Vincent-,treet, in
this neighbourhood ; his father having absconded from his home
about four years since, and no tidings of him had been since learned.
The deceased was always considered a very mild-tempered child,
and never exhibited any appearances of mental aberration. On last
Sunday forenoon he asked his mother for a halfpenny to purchas
an India-rubber ball of one of his playmates. Be was refused,
after sitting awhile in a chair in a sullen manner, he suddeititly
boy
and left the room. In less than five minutes afterwards a n le
k
found him hanging by a rope which was Pass'A his mother's
from
fastened to the bannister of the stairs leadingoolf a surgeon, was
room. He was cut down instantly, and Mr. Cr
h ours to restore
for upwards of two ou
called in, who tried every means
rary insanity."
round his neck and
life, but ineffectually. Verdict, Tempo
Lady
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Willoughby
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