The Sun.
London, England, 1834-01-28 00:00:00

CORPORATION COMMISSION.

(TWENTY-FOURTH DAY, JAN. 27.)
The Commissioners this morning resumed their
inquiries in the Guildhall as to the customs of seve-
ral wards in the election of common councilmen,
ward officers, &c.
In the course of the inquiry, it was stated that
Bridge Ward was at one time divided into 14 pre•
cincts, some of which, though there was no resident
inhabitant, contrived, by some means which the
witness (a ward clerk) could not understand, to
make a return of the usual precinct officers. Resi-
dence was generally considered necessary as a qua-
lification for a common-councilman, though there
were instances where some members did not reside.
The question was a delicate one, on which witness
would give no opinion. There were many who
had only what was called a "colourable residence,"
though they were rated inhabitants. He knew an
instance of an active member of the Common
Council who, in order to be able to say that he
slept within the ward, used sometimes to go to his
temporary room in it and take a nap after dinner.
In the course of the inquiry into Bassishaw Ward
it was stated, that by ancient custom the Lord
Mayor's Court was held in that ward. The hust-
ings part of the Guildhall was in Bassishaw Ward;
the other part was in the Ward of Cheap, and it
happened that the person who came to vote stood
in one ward, while the Sheriff, who received the
vote, stood in another.

It also appeared that Fishmongers' Hall paid a
third of the rates of the parish in which it was
situate.

Before the adjournment the Commissioners in►i-
mated that on• Friday next they would go into the
case of the city brokers, and on Saturday into that
of the borough of Southwark.
Adjourned at four o'clock.

LAMENTABLE MURDER IN GREENWICH
HOSPITAL, BY AN INSANE PATIENT.

On Saturday afternoon a poor old pensioner in Green-
wich Hospital, named Bailey, was murdered under the
following melancholy circumstances, by another pensioner
named James Ward, who has been in the hospital nearly
two yeats. Bailey was a quiet, inoffensive man; and
Ward, up to the fatal moment at which the dreadful deed
was committed, had always borne an excellent character.
He was a regular attendant at George-street chapel, in
Greenwich, and was distinguished for his steady habits
and general good conduct. On Saturday morning last,
at eight o'clock, he became a patient in the Physician's
Ward, in consequence of symptoms of fever. He was
seen by Sir William Beattie, who found it to be ao ordi-
nary febrile case, and prescribed accordingly. Besides Ward
and Bailey, there was a third patient in the room, a bed-rid-
den old man, eighty years of age. A little after five in the
afternoon of Saturday, as the Ward Boatswain, Connor,
was passing along the hall in which the room, No. 13, is
situated, he heard the exclamation, " Oh, ob !" twice
loudly repeated, and he and another boatswain, Prowse,
entered the room. The old man and Ward were in their
respective beds; but Bailey lay upon the floor, with his
head towards the fire-place. Prowse attempted to move
him, and by the light of the fire saw that he was lying in
a pool of blood. He breathed three or four times and
expired. The two boatswains thought the poor fellow
had broken a blood-vessel, and instantly sent word to that
effect to the medical officers, all of whom were speedily in
attendance. In the meantime Prowse, observing some
spots of blood on the shirt of Ward, who was sitting up
in bed, began to suspect murder bad been committed, and
said m him, " Ward, was it you did this?" Ward imme-
diately said, " Yes, it was 1 that killed him, and you may
now take him to the burying-ground ;" and jumping out
of bed, took up his shoes, and flung them through the
window. He was then secured and taken to the strong-
room, a place of confinement for those who exhibited
symptoms of insanity. Sir Richard Dobson, upon his ar-
rival with the other medical officers in the strong-room,
after they bad seen the body of the deceased, asked
a question of Ward, who answered, " What are
you looking at ? you cannot see through me with your
glass eyes." Sir Richard said, " Well, my man, what
have you been about ?" " Why, I killed him." " How
did you kill him ?" " Why, like a sailor,
and I'd kill you too if I could get at you." " What did
you kid him for ?" " Because he was plsguiug me—
mocking me when I coughed." He had been previously
asked by a nurse how he did it, and answered, " With a
knife; the knife is on a stool by the side of the bed.'
The poor helpless old man who lay in the third crib, when
questioned relative to this transaction, said Bailey was out
of bed Sitting in a chair, when he saw Ward get out of
bed, and make a push at him ; he heard no word ; nothing
was said, nor did be, from his own infirm state, take much
notice of the circumstance. Bailey fell towards the fire
place, and the floor from the chair to that spot was covered
with a stream of blood; the quantity of blood on the floor
is described by Prowse to have been nearly two gallons.
Death must have been almost instantaneous, as there were
five wounds in the shape of a five of diamonds : all of them
might be covered with the hand, and each had penetrated
to_ the heart. No resistance appears to have been offered,
,nor could it well have been made, as the poor murdered
man bad lost his right arm. After the medical officers
had left Ward on Saturday bight, Lieutenant Rivers visited
him, and Farmer, the constable, was also present. Lieute-
nant Rivers asked him how the knife (a long clasp-handled
one) came to be so clean. He said, " Why, I licked
it with my tongue." Ile had before given a similar an-
, swer to the same questions put to him by Boatswain Con-
nor. He was asked what ships he had served on board ol?
sod named one in which he said be had broken his skull,
by a fall from the main rigging; he said he had also
killed a man before in a merchant ship. During Sunday
and yesterday he appeared to recover somewhat from his
violent feelings. He conversed very calmly and rationally
with his attendant—asked what he thought would be done
with him? The man said he did not know, but recom-
mended him to pray to God. Ile said he could not pray
—he did not know how to pray, and burst into tears.
The deceased, who was 60 years old, belonged to the second
Duke Ward in the Hospital, and was familiarly known as
the " 3lole Citcher." Ward is 54 years of age, and had
a snug litdecabin in the Victory Ward.

EXCHANGING WIVES.—On Monday night
week, says a correspondent, two fellows agreed, While
drinking together at a public-house in Beestou, near Bon-
hury, to exchange wives, and on the following day they
completed their contract : the parties to this shameful pta-
ceeding, adds our informant, are upwards of 50 years of
age, and appear to live coulfintably together.

LONDON,
TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 28, 1834.

The French papers of Sunday, and some
dated yesterday, mention that it was reported
that the French Government had recalled their
ambassador from Madrid, and that the Duke de
CAZES was spoken of as likely to be his succes-
sor. They allude, also, to another rumour, to
the effect that the British Cabinet had protested
against the violation of the Portuguese territory
by the troops of Generals RODIL and MORILLO
in their pursuit of Don CARLOS. The Editor
of the Gazette had been found guilty of pub-
lishing a seditious libel, and sentenced to three
months' imprisonment and a fine of 4,000 francs.

In another part of The Sun will be found an
interesting report from General SALDANHA to
the Secretary at War, communicated in the
Chronica of the 17th, and dated Leyria 15th,
announcing the occupation of that town, and
the capture of all Don MIGUEL'S forces sta-
tioned within it. At Santarem the Miguelites
are reported to be in a most deplorable condition.

Besides issuing notes in proportion to the
gold which may be in its coffers, the Bank issues
notes in proportion to the securities which it
holds, that is, it issues in the proportion of one-
third of bullion to two-thirds of securities.

Among the securities which it holds are
Exchequer bills, Government stock, long an-
nuities (dead weight), and mortgages. In
making such purchases or investments it uses its
notes as capital, and not as instruments of
exchange, to which purpose alone its issues
ought to be confined. In discounting bills of
exchange, which it does only to a very small
amount, in advancing money upon temporary
loans of stock, and in making advances to
Government, in anticipation of the receipt of
the taxes of the year, its issues are limited by
the amount of such securities, which are them-
selves limited, and notes issued upon them
return to the Bank on repayment of the ad-
vances made. But there is no limit, except its
own discretion, to the purchase of Exchequer
bills, or of Government stock, or to the amount
which it may invest on mortgages.
The rule, therefore, which it has adopted
for the regulation of its issues is a false rule,
leading to error and incalculable mischief. Gold
coming in upon it,by reason of its not being wanted
for the purposes of currency, this consequence
should teach it rather to contract than to ex-
tend its issues. But by issuing not only in
proportion to the gold thus increasing in its
coffers, but to the amount of the securities
which it holds, which it may increase to any
amount it pleases, the evil is extended, with
consequences arising from the expansion and
subsequent contraction, which cannot be esti-
mated, but are felt in the universal distress of
the couatry.
But one necessary consequence of the rule
observed by the Bank for the regulation of
its issues is a constant alternation of expansion
and contraction of the currency.
.The ultimate
effect of an expansion of the currency, in other
words, an over issue of Bank paper, is to raise
home prices, that is, prices estimated in British
currency ; but such an over issue has no
effect upon foreign prices, which are estimated
in bullion. In proportion as home prices are
raised, home consumption is diminished, and a
market must be found abroad for that which
cannot be sold at home. Hence our home
trade languishes while our foreign trade pros-
pers. But by raising home prices, the imme-
diate effect of an expansion of the currency is
to increase production, which is not only
disappointed by diminished consumption, but
is attended with a further positive loss through
the fall of home prices upon the con-
traction of the currency, which sooner or later
must follow its expansion. Hence capitalists
have become afraid to embark their capital in

the operations of industry, and thus labour, as
well as capital, which is only the fruits of labour
accumulated, suffers from the want of employ-

ment.

The Christian Greeks of Crete have addressed
an affecting petition to the Pachas of that island,
in which they protest strenuously, in the name
of the Allied Powers, against the despotic
measures lately put in force against them by
their Egyptian task-masters. They add " that
every Candiote, even the women and old men,
will abandon the island should the ambassadors
at Constantinople, instead of asserting their
legitimate rights, condemn a population of up-
wards of 100,000 Christians to roam, like for-
lorn exiles, far from their native land."

The manifesto of General LLANDER appears
to have given great offence to the Queen Regent
of SPAIN, who instantly gave orders that the
obnoxious document should be sent back to
him. On this the General summoned the chief
authorities of Barcelona and requested their opi-
nion as to whether the address coincided with
their views. All present instantly answered in
the affirmative, and " the different Commanders
of the troops of the line in garrison at Barcelona,
of the Volunteer Corps, promised that they
would support him in such steps as he should
consider it expedient to take in the present
crisis, and all expressed their disapprobation of
the Zea Ministry." It would appear from this,
and other significant symptoms, that the late
change in the Spanish Government was, as we
before observed, less a matter of choice than of
necessity, and that could the QUEEN REGENT
have had her own will, M. ZEA would have
been in power at this moment.

The account we gave yesterday of the capture
of Leyria, and, what appears to us, the wanton
slaughter of 1,500 of the Miguelite troops,
affords only additional reasons for the inter-
ference of adjoining States in putting down the
unnatural warfare in Portugal. The contest
now seems to have lost all its nationality.. At
the commencement, MIGUEL was supported
by the peasantry, and PEDRO was as vio-
lently opposed by them, so much so, that
his troops, if they travelled but a few miles
from Oporto or any town in his possession,
met with as little mercy from the country people
as from the armed soldiers. Now he keeps
possession of the open country around San-
tarem, while at the same time he pushes forward
a division of his army towards Oporto, and
captures without resistance, and apparently not
the least annoyance on the part of the people,
one of the principal military stations on the
high road between the two chief cities
of the kingdom. Here we have now a
few thousand men at least eighty miles
in advance of Lisbon, carrying on an
exterminating war, while, after his landing at
Oporto, he found it inconvenient to remain,
even a few miles out of that place with his
whole army. We need not wonder at the fact.
The people have been robbed and plundered
equally by both armies, and now leave the quarrel
to foreigners and mercenaries utterly despairing
of any repose for their unhappy country.
No nation in Europe has suffered more
from the ravages of war during the last twenty-
five years than the Portuguese, and all ac-
quainted with the simple and kind hearted peo-
ple that inhabit the provinces can have but one
feeling—that of unalloyed sorrow for their con-
tinued sufferings. The time is now fully arrived
when the Governments of Europe ought to
come to an immediate understanding on the
question, and put an end to a contest which,
however it may gratify the passions of the two
Princes, serves only to inflict the greatest calami-
ties on the unoffending people.

THE FUNDS.-(THIS DAY.)

CITY, TWELVE O'CLOCK.

By the arrival of the London line of packet-ship, Mon-
treal, Captain Champlin, at Portsmouth, in 16 days,
from New York, papers have been received at the North
and South American Coffee-house, to the 11th January,
but they are not of much importance. The Mercantile
Advertiser of the 10th January, publishes the message of
the Governor of Albany, which occupies 6 columns. The
Editor says that the great length of the speeches deters him
from making at present any remarks.
(From Vera Cruz, Dec. 17.)
The civil war is all over; Santa Anna has gained the
day. Bustareente, Arista, Adada, &c., the principle in-
surgents, have been banished ; the army is to be reduced
and the militia organized.
Montreal papers have also been received at the above
coffee-house to the sth Jauuary, but they do not contain
any intelligence worth communicating.