The Sun.
London, England, 1833-08-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It is painful—we might add without extravagance
that it is disgusting also—to witness the obtrusive
and pertinacious temper of some high dignitaries of
the Church of England in disturbing the innocent
indulgences of the people. A correspondence has
taken place, it appears, between Dr. Blomfield,
Bishep of London, and a getatleman of the name of
King, under whose management a series of per-
formances of sacred music have been carried on, by
subscription, at the Apollonicon Rooms, St. Mar-
tin's-lane, on successive Sunday evenings. These
inoffensive and highly-appropriate musical enjoy.
ments have, as we learn from a letter which bears
his name, been put down by his Lordship of the See
of London, who says he considers them an " offen-
sive violation of the sanctity of the Christian Sab-
bath." What next, my Lord ? Is this the way
"to set your house in order ?" Will you choke
the charity boys who whistle on a Sunday ? We
should recommend Mr. King to set the Thshop at de-
fiance. If the Rev. Prelate have any legal right to
make such an interference, let it be clearly known,
and the House of Commons, we are sure, will put
an end to such intolerant priestly tyranny.—Times.
We do not marvel that the Liverpool Freemen,
and their more wealthy Corruptors, were seized
with violent convulsions on the publicity of the
Report of the Commons' Committee, exposing their
abominable mal-practices, or that they entertain
excessive fear of Mr. Benett's notice for next ses-
sion, of a " Bill to prevent bribery and other cor-
rupt practice; in the elections of Representatives to
serve in Parl amenta and in the elections of Mayors
and all other Municipal Officers, for the borough and
town of Liverpool, by disfranchising the burgesses,
and by adopting such other measures as may be
deemed necessary." Twelve hundred of these
venal gentry immediately held a public meeting at
the " Golden Lion," an appropriate sign of their
corrupt propensities, ostensibly to bestow the bribe
of a pi ce of plate on their " Nominee" member
of the Committee, John N;choll, but really to con-
cert measures for preserving their vendible fran.
chi-ea, and to relieve themselves of natural spleen
against the public spirited electors of Liverpool,
who, as petitioners, so successfully exposed the
long-practised and incurable had habits of the
freemen. As eighteen hundred of these abandoned
electors are reported to have been bribed, so lately as
1830, it is no wonder that twelve hundred freemen
had the indecency to attend this meeting; but as
judicial bribes are nut of fashion, we presume that
Mr. John Ntcholl will not relish or accept the in-
tended Conservative compliment. We regret that
we cannot extract the sensible comments of the
Liverpool Mercury and the Liverpool Times, and
other local journals. on the proceedings of this ini
mitable piece of political quackery. The character
of the electors who played their parts on this solemn
occasion, and who joined in the funeral dirge over
the obsequies of the rotten freemen, may be judged
from the report of the meeting which records that
it dispersed, " giving ti ree cheers for Mr. Nichol!,
the like for Lord Landon and Sir Howard Douglas
(the unsucces ful Tory candidate), and three groans
for Mr. Ewart." We suppose that the assembly
will be again convened, reinforced by the six hun-
dred non-attending bribed freemen. The Stafford
burgesses held their public meeting in the Tessa'
Dad before the last Stafford Committee, and af-
fected extreme and indignant surprise that they
should be soap cted of corruption. Members
of a reformed House of Commons were even
found last week to act as champions of the
forlorn cause of Stafford. Petitioners are also
on the alert to save Carrickfergus, steeped as it is in
political iniquity. The tools of the Marquis of
Salisbury are at work to save Hertford from an ex-
tended boundary. Eleven bold men comprising
corporators, petitioned to be heard in vindication of
Warwick, from the impeachment of the first Elec-
tion Committee Report, and Leamington rate-
payers are protesting against their incorporation
with Warwick. We repeat, therefore, that Liver-
pool is not singular in the motions of its brazen-
faced and crafty defenders. Belshazzar's Feast
preceded long deserved punishment. The speeches
of the Liverpool corruption-mongers were extremely
edifying and instructive; they will form a good
supplement to the evidence before the recent Com-
mittee, and should be re-printed as an appendix to
the report. The orators averred that other con •
stituencies were equally depraved—an undoubted
and unquestioned tact; and they bespattered their
opponents with tecrimination—" a fool's defence"
—and which, if true, only adds to the common stock
of corruption. We confess that we were surprised
by the perusal of the queer speech of Mr. Joseph
Brookes Yates—that a man of his sense and li-
beral opinions should be present in such bad corn-
parry, arid should infelicitously liken the apathy of
the freemen (we presume the six hundred bribed ab-
sentees) to " the son of the patriarch of old, who sold
his birth-right for a mess of porridge." That notori-
cus sin of the Liverpool freemen is their scandalous
offence ; and the sympathy of the audience was
curiously exhibited in the unpopularity of Mr.
Yates's impeach:nent of the close Corporation of
Liverpool, which the Chairman, Mr. Moss, saga-
ciously interrupted by the remark that Mr. Yates
" appeased to be going rather beyond the objects of
the meeting." Doubtless this relapse of Mr. Yates
was alien to the object of the assembly, and he twill
do well to abstain from such society in future. Mr.
Yates was a miserable advocate when he asserted,
" that it was the gentlemen of the town that had
corrupted the burgesses, who 'were too poor and too
couch distressed to resist the it of a bribe."
Here is the gravamen of the alregations against the
freemen, viz.—the corruptibility of that portion of
the Li, erpool constituency, and the fact of their
frequent sacrifices on the altar of temptation. The
comparative abstinence of the freemen from the
usual potation and acceptance of bribes at the last
contest in December palpably arose from the scare-
crow of the Disfranchisement Bill of Mr. Benett,
which opera. din terrorein. The proceedings in
Parliament, for the amputation of the corrupt limbs
of the Liverpool franchise, commenced in March,
1831, when the writ was suspended, and the Com-
mittee of that year reported that gross bribery
and treating prevailed at the then last elec-
tion. Aso] because Parliament was dissolved before
the contemplated measure of cure could be effected,
—arid because subsequently the question of general
refoirn, and the pressure of public business, have
prevented the progress of a subsequent Bill for (its-
franchisement, are the Liverpool bribed freemen at d
their more criminal bribers to escape merited punish-
pent, and to plead in justification a well-understood
aw; running avoidance of gross bribery in 183:2 ?
Can ani honest or open-minded man doubt that if
Mr. Tnortiry's party had resorted to bribery in De-
cember, all the old sluices of venality would have
been opened, and the floodgates of Liverpool elec-
total corruption have been drawn up? Does any
honest elector affect to doubt that the return 01
such an " unconnected" young member of the aris-
tocracy as Lord Sandon, was not a natural or po-
pular return by 12,000 electors of an important
commercial town—that Sir Howard Douglas was
not " a fit and proper person" to propose himself a
candidate for its representation Why did the To-
ries in 1831 craftily propose their" amendment" of
the original English Reform Bill, to perpetuate the
franchise of the freemen ? Are the " Conserva-
tives" friendly to universal suffrage, except when it is
plastic and corruptible? But the patrons and merchants
of political and mufficipal corruption in Liverpool may
be assured that their devices will not sun cued, and t hat
they cannot now successfully throw dust in the eyes
of a Reformed House of Commons. We never
questioned the anxious desire of the Corporators
and Tories of Liverpool to preserve in the political
custom-house the materiel of currupt franchise. We
are glad to see Lord Jahn Russell's " Bribery Bill"
pos.poned to next session. It was not eflicient.
It is too voluminous and verbose to accomplish it,
purpose, '1 here is no val d objection to a declara-
tion by Members of the Reformed House of Com-
mons,subject to the penalties of perjury, that they
have not procured their rettuns by bribery, treating,

!or other corrupt practices. The axe must be laid
to the routs of these upaa trees of polit cal corrup-
tion. 'We believe :hat the ballot can and soon will,
with extended constituencies and schedule B turned
into schedule A, practically exterminate election
impurity. The speech of Mr. Grote was unan-
swerahle. We have no; sufficiently called
public attention to its meths, and it ought to
he cheaply reprinted and extensively circulated.
But if we ate still to have open-voting forced upon
us by the aristocracy—if Municipal Reform and
its coniingent popular elections are not to inundate
the country with bribery and beastly demoraliza-
tion, the statute law must be radically altered. On
these grounds we deem the Warwick report, which
recommends a revision of the election law, of in-
finite national importance; and it is high time that
an example were made of a Peer who dared in these
limes to provide money for the agents of vote-
making and mal-practices. The disfranchisement
of the Liverpool freemen will also be a salutary
• lesson to the constituency or the United Kingdom.
We trust that the Municipal Commission will add
, to their inquiries the investigation of the political
habits of the freemen of the cities and boroughs.
Their franchise cannot be termed a right when they
corruptly sell it ; nor can that be a real privilege
which depraves their motels and extinguishes their
principles. We shall he curious to see whether,
when purity and freedom of election are better se-
, cured, the Cardiff boroughs under the " influence"
of the Marquis of Bute will return Mr. John
Nicholl to the next Parliament, or whether Lord
James Stuart will emancipate the electors of that
district.— aliforning Chronicle.
We have deprecated more than once the apathy
of the citizens of London with regard to the forth-
coming election. That apathy, we are glad to say,
has since disappeared, Mr. Crawford, of the house
of Farquhar and Crawford, having consented to
become a candidate for the representation of
' the City. It is but justice to admit, that if that
important elective body have been long choosing,
hey have chosen well at last. Mr. Crawford is
just the man they wanted. An experienced mer-
chant and an holiest reformer, he is eminently qua-
I fled to represent their interests, both as a political
and as a trailing community. We, therefore,
heartily wish him success. That in coming forward
at so late a period, he has afforded a great advan-
tage to his opponent is certain; but if the know-
ledge of that fact operates as it ought to do, in
stimulating his friends to more active exertions,
there is still time enough to carry him through
triumphantly. The great question at issue in this
contest is—whether reform shall be carried into
effect by its friends or by its enemies—whether the
correction of abuses shall be accomplished by those
who have always contended for laying the axe to
the root, or by those who cannot even slip a branch
from off the tree of corruption without sticking it
in the ground, in the hope that it may grow again.
Mr. Crawford has been announced to the electors,
by several well-tried ft iends of the people, as a
stanch reformer. His own declarations also prove
him to be such. But Mr. Kemble we may be told is a
reformer too. He will vote for the repeal of •he
assessed taxes, the alteration of the corn laws, the
introduction of poor laws into Ireland, and other
measures of a beneficial and reforming tendency.
Th's is all very well as far as it goes; bur there is a
difference between a willing and an unwilling advo-
cate; and the great test of reform in these times,
when sin public man dare profess to be any thing
else, is the opinion which, he held or the conduct he
pur-ued in respect to the Reform Act, at the time
when that Act was a Bill struggling against the
machinations of powerful adversaries. But away
with all affectation and disguise Mr. Kemble is
well known to be a thorough-paced Tory. He may
qualify his creed or his conduct, but the great ob-
ject of his political life must be to stand still while
the world is moving onward. Mr. Kemble may be,
and no doubt is, a very honest man ; but what is
the recommendation of a Tory's honesty to those
who are sick of Toryism? Is it not a pledge that,
so far as he is concerned, he will take care that they
shall never get well? Had the two candidates
started fairly, we should have no doubt about the
success of Mr. Crawford. Eten as it is, we think
his prospects favourable; for though our City Re-
formers may not be of a very sanguine temperament,
they trust be accessible to shame, and the shame of
being beaten is one of the ingredients in the spirit
that leads to victory.—Moraing Herald.
We expect that the report of the Committee of
the House of Commons on the subject of the peti-
tion against Sir Jahn Key will be matte public either
this day or to-morrow ; and, in this expectation, we
postpone some observations which we deem essen-
tial to the placing the matter in its proper light
before our readers. Just now we will only say that
it has assumed, within the last few days, an aspect
of even more importance than that in which we
were originally disposed to view it. We did, at
one time, await the issue of this investigation as
one simply effecting Sir John Key, or Sir John
Key's character. The disclosures, however, which
have taken place within the last few days have
made it one so vitally touching the character of
Lord Grey's Government, so directly impugning
the integrity of that Government, that we have not
a moment's hesitation in stating, if they do not
come forth from it pure and without a stain, the
most devoted to their followers, the most pliant, or
the most paid of their supporters, will hardly ven-
ture, with the eyes of the country fixed upon them,
to support such a Ministry as Lord Grey's Mi-
nistry shall then have become, even with the few
vo es w hich shall enable them to close this Session
of Parliament as Ministers of the King. For the
e-ent we leave Mr. Stanley to the full enjoyment
of the speech which lie made in vindication of his
colleagues when this matter was first brought for-
ward. But in doing this, we fear we do not leave
Mr. Stanley on a bed ofroses.—Morning Post.
It will be seen, from the very ample repot t which
we have given elsewhere of the proceedings of the
House of Commons on Saturday, that that most im-
portant of all the measures introduced during the
present session by his Majesty's Ministers—the
Bank Charter Renettal Bill—passed finally through
the ordeal of a pretended Committee of the whole
House—is to be pressed to a conclusion—and is
likely, in spite of all efforts to the contrary, to be-
come the law of the land during the next ten years.
From the opinion which we have so repeatedly ex-
pressed of this Bill, we need not observe how deeply
we deplore this result, and how fatal, dangerous, and
unnecessary we consider it. If the passing of the
measure had pressed —if no fin then time had remained
for deliberation—there might have been some show
of excuse for what we cannot but term the indecent
haste which has been betrayed to procure for it the
sanction of the Legislature during the present ses-
sion—but there was not even a vestige of pretence
r hurrying it to a conclusion ; for the existingßank
Charter not only renews itself from year to year,
hut even requires a twelvemonths' notice from Par-
liament to put a termination to it. While, there-
tore, in point of engagement as to time, there was,
on the one hand, no actual necessity for bringing
the measure to a conclusion during the present ses-
sion, it would be a matter of borne d fliculty to
show, on the other, what injury could have arisen
from allowing the existing contract to continue in
lull foice until next year, when more time might
have been devoted to its consideration—the opi-
Joon of the country better ascertained upon it—and
when also it might have been hoped, in conse-
quence, that it would have been settled in a man-
iier more beneficial, as well as mote satisfac-
tory, to all parties. Just as mischievous also,
in almost every respect, as uncalled for,
iii point of time, or necessity arising out
iif a contract, is the measure which is about to
receive the sanction of a Reformed House of Com-
awns. One of the points of exception to this cen-
-tire is a clause, wh ch was confessedly an after-
:nought, and was out added, by
way of a rider
ro the Bill, on Saturday last--we wean that
which allows the formation of banks of deposit
with more than six partners in the metropolis, and

within 65 miles of it ;—the other exception is, that
of allowing any rate of interest to be charged on
Bills not having more than three months to run.
We acknowledge the partial benefit which is likely
to result from the adoption of these two clauses;
but after all, the b nefit will be very partial
in both cases, and in the one, we fear,
even somewhat questionable. Be they, how-
ever, what they may, it cannot, and it ought
not to he forgotten, that the measure confirms, in
all respects, the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by
the Bank—that, notwithstanding this monopoly,
an enormous sum is annually to be paid, for ten
Years certain, to the Bank for the management of
the public debt—and finally, that when a Reformed
House of Commons had in its power to confer ever-
lasting honour en itself, and incalculable benefit
upon the country, by throwing open the trade in
money to all who had money to deal in, it confirmed
the most grievous of all monopolies for no sufficient
reasons, and delivered over the entire circulation of
the country to a body of irresponsible traders—
thereby giving to them a power which the Sove-
reign himself does not possess—a power, as has
been well expressed by a contemporary, " of raising
or depressing, at will, the prices of all markets, aid
of all moneyed securities, the value of all property,
real or personal, and the returns of every speculative
investment of labour or capital ; a power of increas-
ing or diminishing at pleasure the weight of the na-
tional burdens, as well as of all private money engage-
ments to the extent, probably, of several thousand
millions And this unparalleled power is, by the
proposed charter, to be lodged irredeemably, for a
term of from eleven to twenty-one years, in the
hands of a company of private traders in money,
not responsible, directly or indirectly, to the public,
—having an interest in the working of their power
at variance with that of the public,—and left at
complete liberty to employ this vast uncontrolled
and uncontrollable power to the furtherance of their
private pecuniary profit." Important, however, as
the power is, the final details of the measure em-
bodying it were considered on Saturday last, in
a reformed House of Commons, consisting of 658
Members, but of whom not more than fifty
were present. Sir J. Wrottesley very properly
took occasion to remark on this gross dere-
liction of duty in the following terms, and with his
observations we finally close all remarks upon the
subject :—" That clause," said he, meaning the
clause relative to the establishment of banks within
65 miles of London, " was so important, that he was
impressed with a feeling of awe upon it, seeing the
state in which the House then was. That Parlia•
merit had been elected under the impression that
all monopolies should ceuse. By looking at the
public papers he found that 300 out of the 658
Members were pledged at the hustings to vote for the
repeal of all monopolies, more particularly the Bank
and East India: yet, now when they were discus-
si. g one of the most important of all, there were not
above fifty Members present.—Morn. Advertiser.

EXCHEQUER COURT, AUG. 10.

SMALL V. ATTWOOD.

The LORD CHIEF BARON, on coming into Court this
morning, gave judgment in this case as follows :—Th i 9 case
came before me upon exceptions to the Master's report.
A supplemental bill was filed, and in that supplemental bill
the proceedings which took place in the former suit were
stated, and the decree by which the contracts which were
the subject of the former suit were declared void. The
bill went on to state that the purchase money which had
been paid by the plaintiff in that suit to Mr. Attwood had
been laid our, or part of it, in the purchase of stock to
the extent of 200,0001. The bilk were traced and iden-
tified, and those hills so traced and identified by the numbers
and other circumstances, were stated in the bill to h eve
been invested in the purchase of stock, which ultimately
became 192,7661. three and a half per cents. navy stock.
The contract having been declared void, and all this money
having been paid under the contract, and having been
traced and identified in the manner described, the ohject
of this bill is to declare that those notes so laid out
and the property in the said never paused from the
plaintiffs, and to obtain a declaration consequent therefrom
that the stock which was the produce of those notes should
be considered and delivered up as the property of the plain-
t ffs. This is the main object of the bill. It is further stated
in the hill, that this stock hail been assigned without con-
sideration to Phoebe Attwood, and that she is a trustee for
Mr. Attwood, and that she, under these circumstances, is
a trustee with reference to this stock for plaintiff, and that
the plaintiffs, therefore, ought to have a creel iration that
the stock thus transferred to her is, in reality, their pro.
per!y. Another object of the 101 l is to asc, rtain what has
become of the rest of the purchase money for the purpose
of tracing and identifying it, and, if possible, to make it a
subject of the declaration. A third ohject is, to have a writ
of ne exeat regno issued against Mr. Attwood. The ques
tion is, as to the relevancy of certain allegations ~nd charges
contained in interrogatories in this bill. Besides the state-
ments already made, the bill goes on to state, that with
the exception of the property in the iron works, which
was worth 100,000/., and this stock, which is stated to
be under 200,000/., paid as p rt of the purchase money,
and with the ex,:eption of 40,0001., Mr. Attwood has no
other property ; and it is further stated that Mr. Art-
wood is very much encumbered with debt, and that
his debts are to such an amount that he is absolutely in a
state of insolvency. 11e is called upon to ansot r certain
questions put to him, namely, as to whether or not he is
in a state of insolvency, what his property consists of,
from whom did he purchase or otherwise obtain it, and
for what consideration, and what was its value when the
bill was filed ? It further goes on to inquire what was the
amount of his debts, to whom they were due, the considera-
tion for those debts, and the ciicuinstances connected with
them? This seems a most extensive, and, as far as Mr.
Attwood is concerned, a most important, inquiry with
reference to his interests. The question is, whether these
inquiries are relevant, or whether they ought to he made
a stioject of inquiry whatever may be the consequences ;
and if they are relevant, that is to say, material to the
scope and object of the bill, whether or not they ought to
be struck out as impertinent ? The first object of the bill is
to obtain a declaration with respect to the 192,000/. navy
per cents. The only grounds on which the plain ifs
ale entitled to the relief p, aged for with respect to this sum,
which the toll states to have been purchased with the
notes, the actual notes paid by the plaintiffs to the defend-
ant, and which were laid out in the purchase of this stock,
so as to identify the stock with the notes, rest on this
principle, that these notes, the contract by which they
were obtained having been declared void, were Indolently
and improperly obtainid, and that no property in them
had passed to Mr. Attwood. After having attended very
minutely to the consideration of this question, I do not see
how an inquo y into the general stare of Mr. Attwood's
property, and the ,eneral amount of his debts and credits
when the bill was filed, can he relevant. The next guts •
tion is. is the inquiry material with reference to the situa-
tion Pticebe Attwood stand, in as a trustee? She is
charged win being a trustee of property which is stated
to have been transferred to her by Mr. Attwood for the
t:pi which
o htabei
e such
greatest
tai na
t i
hn-
e
put pose of protecting himself, she having no interest in it.
It does not appear to me material to ascertain this fact,
and the sheequeeaorrcieedomf
igthhet ebxeteprirdu
toto wh: f h
e
i
injury. It Mr. Attwood were Insolvent, and bad no
other property, it appears to me highly i
would have passed this stock without consideration.
Another point raised at the liar was this, that this argu-
ment must be considered material with reference tothe
interim injunction. With respect to that I granted the
injunction, and the sole ground on which I granted it was,
that upon the evidence I was satisfied that the identity
of the notes was established, and that these notes had been
laid out in the purchase of stock. On these grounds I
was fat they satisfied that Mrs. Attwood was a mere trustee
to illy. Attwood, and that the stocksdvasthitsranissfe,hrieed,,otloe
b-r name, and she was made use of for the purpose of
sheltering Mr. Attwood. This was the sole ground on
g".r.loliuenhd oln gwrhanictleidl tthEienkintjhueni(ntjitinonc, and
ought to be COD.
; and on these grounds I consider that I must allow
the exceptions to the M ester's report, in osier that these
tray be struck out. With respect to the other
standingnt
Its
kind.
passages J
perow
i of
cents. a n
sitlku,rttli
ol'ject is to have the sum of 49 0001., and something
Accountant. General in this in
this
oc_sfstehreite
cause, trans-
s tel
namethan bolt/0,1,1.e. in
reired to the plaintiffs. I shall mike an order to the
Accountant- General to transfer the stock into the name
01 the plaintiffs, and to pay over to them the balance of
cash remaining in band,

After sotne-conveisation between the Counsel on both
it was agreed that this stock shoul,! brtiansf•tred
(ai i,
the
i nt
trustiiflfb: the other plaintiffs, end by
theto consentRober t S
ofn