The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-09 00:00:00

SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING,

length been attended to, truth has prevailed, and
sounder and healthier cpinions are now generally
entertained on these points , and, notwithstanding the
existing prejudices in favour of incarceration as a
mode of enabling men to satisfy all who have just
demands, we do not despair of seeing a great change
of public opinion in this respect also. All we ask is
that the matter should be calmly and dispassionately
investigated, being thoroughly convinced that truth
will ever be promoted by discussion.
What, then, we ask, are the objects for which im-
prisonment for debt is sanctioned and tolerated ? The
first and most important is to enable a creditor to
enforce payment, if at all practicable; and, secondly,
if that cannot be attained, to punish the fraudulent
debtor, who has contracted obligations which he is
unable to satisfy. We believe that there will
be no dispute on those points, and that
there is no other tangible reason that can
be assigned in favour of the continuance
of the present law of imprisonment for debt. Now
we boldly assert that neither of these ends are at-
tained under the present code, but that both objects
would be greatly promoted by wiser and more equi-
table arrangements, which would transfer the power
of arrest from the hands of creditors to those of an
impartial and unprejudiced judge, without whose as-
sent no writ of ca. se. should be issued.

At present it must be observed that we do not in
any degree interfere with the power of levying the
debts upon the goods and chattels of the parties, if
any there be, although we are convinced that it would
b 3 for the good of all to place the administration of
the assets of a party who had given such practical
evidence of his insolvency as to permit a sheriff's sa!e
of his property in a competent tribunal, who would
distribute the proceeds for the general benefit of the
creditors. We shall not, however, discuss this point
now, but allude solely to the question of imprison-
ment. Let us suppose, then, that a person resorts to
that remedy, having either found it impossible to
seize any goods and chattels under aft. fa., or having
deliberately rejected that course for the more favou-
rite one of incarceration. The debtor is arrested and
transferred to Whiteeross-street, and perhaps thence
removed to " the Bench." If he is without property
he files his petition, and endeavours Ether to obtain
protection or pass through the court. If, on the con-
trary, he has property, he either endeavours to settle
or remains in prison, endeavouring to weary out the
patience or to excite the sympathy of the creditor, and
so to obtain his discharge without any, or only a
partial payment on account. He is not, however,
compelled to file his schedule. It is true that a vest-
ing order may be obtained after be has been a
certain time in close confinement, but there

tha power ceases. He cirnot be brought up
and examined before a Commissioner, and criminally

punished if he refuses to make full disclosures with
respect to his property. A man who has made up
his mind to endure imprisonment may set them all at
defiance. Now, in every case the object is to get at
his property. Why, we ask, may this not be done in
the first instence, without the preliminary imprison-
ment ? If a man refuses to pay his debts, the pre-
sumption is that he is unable to do so, and ha should
he fort hp.ith divested of his property, in order that the
same may be administered equitably for the lyn,fit of
all persons having claims upon him. This would be
far more beneficial to the general body of creditors
than permitting the debtor to remain in prison until
all the assets were expended or made away with, and
would, we venture to say, be productive of much
larger dividends than are obtained under the present
system. _ _

Agin, as a punishment to the fraudulent
debtor, the present system is by no means
so efficacious as if imprisonment were only
allowed under the order of a judge as a criminal
punishment. At present the innocent and the guilty
are placed in similar positions; there is no mode of
discovering whether the prisoner be worthy of com-
passion or of censure, whether he be the victim of his
own misconduct or of the cruelty of his creditor.
Under such circumstances, the mere fact of imprison-
ment is by no means so disgraceful as it would be if
it could only be inflicted by the order of a judge upon
full inquiry into all the facts. Then, indeed, it
would be a matter to be dreaded, to avoid which the
debtor would strain every nerve, and make every
exertion, but at present the matter is too common to
excite much observation.
It may be asked, then, what substitute we
would suggest for the present practice ?
Simply this, that creditors who had ob-
tained judgments, or in certain cases—such as
on bills of exchange, or, in fact, any other debts where
the creditor pledged his oath for the validity of his
demand, should obtain an order for the debtor to ap-
pear before an Insolvent Commissioner to show cause
why a vesting order should not issue by which all
his property would be transferred to an official assig-
nee. If he did not then, within a limited period,
convince the judge of his ability to satisfy the demand,
he should be proceeded against according to the
present practice in bankruptcy, and if, on full inves •
tigation, it should appear that he was deserving
of punishment it would be inflicted under the
sentence of a competent tribunal, and for a
fixed and definite period, and not as it is at present, a
mere matter of chance, depending on the caprice or
humanity of the creditor. We believe that this
system would be found a great improvement on that
now in operation, and that it would prove far more
beneficial to the creditors as well as to the debtors.
The only parties who would suffer would be vindic-
tive creditors who could not gratify their private ma-
levolence, and dishonest debtors, who could not keep
their property for their own use, and live in luxury
in " the Bench," while those who had just claims on
them were set at defiance, and dared to do their
worst.

TUE UCKFIELD BURGLARY. APPREHENSION OF
TUE SEVENTH BURGLAR.—Last (Tuesday) evening a report
was current in Lewes that a seventh individual, supposed
to be implicated in this daring affair, had been apprehended
during the day, near London, with a quantity of the stolen
property in his possession. The name of the party was
freely mentioned as that of a man well known in the town,
and recently holding a situation of responsibility, but from
obvious reasons we refrain from giving it. Brighton
Guardian.

AFFECTING SUICIDE.—In the night of Wednesday
last a poor woman, named Penfold, of Yapton, near Arundel,
who since her confinement, about six weeks ago, has been in
a very desponding state of mind, left her bed with her child
in her arms without her husband perceiving it, and descend-
ing to the garden, leaped into the well. On being missed,
search was made, and the lifeless bodies were foun'l, the
child being firmly grasped in the mother's arms, and but
little bruised.—Brighton Guardian.

REPRESENTATION OF FINSBURY.—Mr. Wakley,
at a meeting held at Islington on Tuesday, said, " In the last
session, when the question of the window-tar was moved,
his Hon. Colleague, Mr. Cuncombe, was almost it might be
said on his death-bed ; and he was now so ill that he ( Mr.
Wakley) did not like to refer to it, and would only say that
every man must deplore his state ; but it must be hoped that
they would see him appear again in health and spirits. For
himself, he (Mr. Wakley) had only to say that size was not
strength. Once, indeed, he had got strength, but con-
tinuous labour for many years had struck his nervous sys-
tem, and rendered him incapable of performing his duty;
and he had already intimated that if in the coming session
he found himself still incapable of attending to his duties in
Parliament, he should resign his seat. He was bound in
honour to take that course, and did not shrink from the
avowal of it."

BURGLARY AT CAMBRIDGE.—On Sunday evening
between seven and nine o'clock, some thieves obtained an
entrance into the house of Mr. Goodbody, a grocer in King-
street, no person being therein, by picking a small lock on
the back door. It would seem that Mr. Goodbody, who is
a young beginner, has some rather eccentric habits in the
secretion of his money, and that these habits must have been
known to the thieves. After ransacking the first-floor room
and stripping a sofa bedstead of the squabs, &c., they pro-
ceeded up stairs and broke open sundry boxes before they
came upon the object of their search. At last, on moving a
small box, they discoverei under the edge of the carpet a
purse containing a cheque for 581. 2s. 3d. on Messrs. Fisher's
hank. and 121. 17s. 6d. in gold and silver, with some keys,
which they carried away. The cheque has not been pre-
sented, and payment will, of course, be stopped. Mr. Good-
body is a single man, and the only other inmate of the house
is his apprentice.

SAVAGES AT SEA.—Captain Daley, the com-
mander of the Jeremiah Garnett (which arrrived yesterday
at Liverpool from Shanghai), reports that on the 7th Sept.
he fell is with two canoes. which contained nineteen savages
of a copper colour, tattoed all over, and in a state of nudity.
By signs and other means of interpretation it was gathered
from them that they had been blown out to sea thirteen days
previously from the Islands of St. David's. They were re •
ceivel on board the Jeremiah Garnett and fed, but one of
the poor wretches died the same evening. Captain Daley
bore up for St. David's (which lies off New Guinea), and
there landed them.
EXTENSIVE ROBBERIES AT KENSINGTON.—Much
alarm and excitement exists among the nobility and gentry
resident in the vicinity of Kensington from the numerous
and extensive robberies committed there of late. The pre-
aebwoue jewellery
L of the
naises 28, Lower Phillimore-place, Kensington, have been
entered, and silver plate, value 1001., a large quantity of
j
m nmeoys, t
ccaor
elyd-
odfres.criTpthieoniloguosled t c 11: e sgeaartsid.
dale-place, was also entered, and a large quantity of
valuable jewellery abstracted, and, notwithstanding the
exertions of the
police, no clue can be gained to the per-
petrators.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The Ministerial crisis continues and threatens to
be something more than a Ministerial crisis ; the
situation is becoming more clearly defined every hour,
and it is now evident that the continuance in the

command of the garrison of Paris of General CHAN-
GIRNIER is totally incompatible with the contintiqnce
at the Elyse, of LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE as
President of the Republic.
The Constitutionnel makes the fullowing appeal to
the Burgravcs to rally round Louis NAPOLEON :
" Will it be dunied that the more Louis Napoleon

gains ground in public opinion the morn ho appears
to lose it in the National Assembly ? Parties become
irritated, and coalesce at the risk of soon betraying
each other. The President of the Republic, in spite
cf many difficulties, has restored prosperity to the
; country the hour for the revision of the Constitu-
tion will soon strike. What an immense misfortune
it would be for France if Louis Napoleon Bmaparte
were to be re-elected! What a misfortune for France
if that re-election should take plat: without disturbance,
without shock, without revolutionary and sanguinary
days, without the overthrow of public fortune, without
diminishing our credit and our importance abroad—in a
word, without overthrowing that Republic which a fine
Legitimaist spirit in the National Assembly a few days
since disdainfully called a consump.ive subject, whom
a current of air clawed to cough.' A war is declared by
parties against the President, and it is the more invete-
rate b,cause the country, from a feeling of gratitude,
and, above all, the desire for repose, seems to have an
increasing wish to prolong his powers. France,' say
the Legitimatists, ' wants Henry V.' The Orl:‘anists
say, France wants the Regency and the Count de Pari;.'
The Alontagnards say, ' France wants Communism,'
and yet these three parties, each having a contrary et-
j,et of its own, nw.v coalesc.) and obey the same mot
d'ordre—namely, that of causing Louis Napoleon Bona-
parte to disappear from the stage of politics, either by
conflict or by a non re-election. As we may be permitted
in these times to imagine the impossible, let us suppose
Louis Napoleon at Vincennes, or to have given in his
resignation, or not to b 7 re-elected. To what G Ivan
ment, what political and financial state of things would
these three parties lead us after the rupture of their
union? We cannot bring ourselves to draw so terrible
and sanguinary a picture."
The Constitutionnel then proceeds at some length to
apostrophise M. TIIIERS, for whom it professes at-
tachment, notwithstanding his " febrile and fluc-
tuating ambition." It calls upon him, in the interest
of the country, to give his support to the honourable
and courageous men who .abstained from joining in
the hostility of a portion of the Assembly to the PRE-
UDEN; and thus produce in that body a majority
which would inspire respect and confidence, and re •
store prosperity to the country. This, it says,
would be a noble part for M. Tarsus to play.
It adds : _ _ _

" For the deferco and honour of that Parliamentary
Government, to v..hich you are so much attached, and to
which you owe so many b:illiant triumphs of eloquence,
act in such a way that each party in the National As-
sembly may not be able to say, in the presence of an
alarmed and menaced country, No Government can
exist without us or with us."
The Patric reiterates assertion regarding the
authenticity of the Instruction cigued REIBEI., and
dec'ares that it was issued only two months since,

without the knowledge of the ii2.ESIDENT or of the
Mitisters, and that it was a portion of a plot for a
military restoration of Osleanisin, in which plot M.
DueiN and General CHANGArLMLE were accom-
plices, and of which the she'll conspiracy of ALLAIS
was a portion. The Republique has the following on
the sanguinary order :
" Cau our readers now understand why the journal of
the European coalition, the AsAemb'ee Nationale, did no•
cease during six months to recoxnernd a dictatorship and
a D:cta'or ? De they understand why the Royalists of
the Assembly have desired to maietain, at every co: f,
the monstrous eituetien of an °mei; °tett and irrespoe-
sib!e General? We do not deny the cleverness of the
arrangement; in the event of a conflict, which no
pains were spared to excite, the Constitution, the
President of the Republic, ti.e Opposition party of the
Assembly, might, in virtue of the instructions Changer-
nier-Reibel, have bean set aside at once, and the dictator,
possessing himself of all the powers, including that of
causing parties to be immediately shot,' might have
treated with Europe on the condition of the fusion, or
any other monarchical arrangement, destined to cause
the happiness of F. ance. We must render homage to
the great party of order—it neglected nothing for suc-
cess—it only wanted the occasion of a❑ &mute, which,
however, was obstinately refused by the intelli-
gence of the democracy. In the present conflict
between the President and the Assembly, we republi-
can sociali7ts have only to occupy ourselves with
the interest and preservation of the Republic. When
the peril appeared to us to come from the Executive
Government we attacked, by all the means the law
permitted, the princely journeys and speeches, the re-
views with champagne, and the unconstitutional cries of
soldiers under arms. At present the danger comes evi-
dently from the other side, and in seeing under whet
ty im e we lived without knowing it, in seeing an occult
dictatorship suppress, of its own authority, all pudic
powers, and substitute for them a savage despotism, of
which all the instructions appear to have emanated fcore
Attila or Haynau, we say that it is impassible that such
a regime can survive the darkness which protected it, and
that the destinies of Paris and of France cannot remain
at the mercy of an irresponsible General, labouring for
a restoration which cannot be accomplished without being
preceded by a formidable revolution. To play success-
fully the part of Monk, it does not suffice to lie—the
game must not be allowed to be seen."
The following from the Ordre may be. considered
as the CLIANGAENIER manifesto :
" The strange declarations mentioned on Monday in
the Petrie, and repeated yesterday by other journals,
stating that it was intended to wait to see the effect pro-
duced in the departments by the Ministerial crisis, give
rise to the idea of calculations of middling prudence,
founded on along temporization. Yesterday, on the con•
trary, all the news in circulation led to the supposition
that the situation was about not to terminate, but to sud-
denly be aggravated by the dismissal of General Chan-
garnier. Last evening, it was positively asserted, thie
resolution, already decided on in principle, would be
signed by the President of the Republic, and accepted
by an Elysean Ministry, in which would remain MM.
A. Fould, Bineau, Dumas, and General Schramm. It
was remarked that several of the persons who dissemi-
nated these rumours, or who greeted thorn with joy, had
during the day entered into conferences with some of the
Mountain, without doubt to rouse up their old hostility
against the illustrious General, and sound their disposi-
tions on the measures which the Assembly might bo led
to take for its defence. The adventurous spirits who
counselled the President of the Republic to fling himself
without return into a course of aggression are obliged,
in fact, to foresee the case where the Assembly, whilst
remaining on the defensive, will not deliver itself up dis-
armed. What more direct challenge, what more
thrt atening provocation could be conceived, than the dis-
missal brutally announced the day after the sitting, at
which General Changarnier, in place of allowing himself
to be caught in the kind of trap hell out for him, in order
to place him in hostility with the Chamber, replied in
a victorious manner to the Moun;aineer speaker, M.
Napoleon r, maparte, coming forward to inflict on him a
public blame, and declared solemnly that he bowed with
respect before the constitutional rights of the National
Assembly and of its President ? What is the crime of
the General-in-Chief of the army of Paris ? Is it to
have not admitted as emanating from him, as assigned
by him, as having a general and permanent character,
instructions which, in reality, he never gave, such as
they are published, which do not emanate from his staff,
which he did not draw up, which he did not sign, and
which, in the thought clearly expressed by the general
of brigade who had so construed the recommedations of
the General-in-Chief, applied solely, as common sense at
once indicated, to the case of combat I Is that crime to
have denied in strong terms that he was the audacious
c mtemner of the Constitution ? Is it to have declared
that, if a legal requisition was addressed to him, not by
a representative, not by several, but in the
name of the whole Assembly, he should consider him-
self bound to obey? What, it is because ho pronounced
such words, because the majority unanimously ap-
plauded, because the whole Chamber, minus MM.. Miot,
Valentin, and Bourzat, passed t 3 the order of the day
pure and simple on the denunciations directed against
the General, that his dismissal has been proposed, de-
manded, signed, and that a chance Ministry should come
with the ordinance of dismissal in its hands, and signify
to a sovereign Assembly to submit to that humiliation,
or to prepare for a struggle? Nor we cannot believe that
the President of the Republic will allow himself to be led
away by senseless counsellors to such extremities. It is
said that the act in question is strictly within his right.
Yes, undoubtedly it is. But it would be also within the
right of the Assembly to invest General Changarnier on
the instant with the superior command of the troops
charged to watch over its safety, and, in the present
circumstance, its honour, as well as its duty, would pre-
scribe to it that course."
It was rumoured on the Bourse on Tuesday that
General CIIANGARMER. had resigned, and the funds
immediately rose. On this the Prase observes :
" The Ministerial crisis has not varied during the
course of yesterday. It continues, and as it continues, it
grows worse. A single point appears definitively re-
solved: General Ghangarnier, admitted to he impossible,
is irrevocably dismissed. Whatever may be the combi-
nation which carries the day, whether the old Ministry
remains, or a new one is appointed, no doubt subsists on
that head. There is between the President of the Re-
public and General Changarnier an incompatibility of
situation and dignity which does not allow the mainten-
ance of his command to be thought of. This resolution,
which appears to have been taken two days ago, has
been retarded, it is said, in its execution, in order to
allow public opinion to declare itself. General Chan-
garnier may have measured yesterday, by the thermo-
meter of the Bourse, the decline of his importance and
popularity. The news of his resignation has been re••
ceived by a movement upwards. This movement at the
Bourse, known at the Assembly about four o'clock, pro-
duced a profound emotion."
We find the following in the Debuts :-
4. For two or three days past the Presse has accused
General Changarnier of falsehood, or of having allowed
anarchy to reign in the army of Paris, because he has
not discussed in the tribune the acts of the generals of
division, and of the 19 generals of brigade placed under
orders. The public will easily appreciate the merit
of this polemic. In the fist column of the Fecund page
of the number of yesterday the same journal contains the
following article:—' General Reibel, having been sum-
moned to the Ministry of War, has, it is said, sffirmed

that the instructions signed by him had been given him
by General Changarni7Jr.' General Reib:-.1 begs us to
give the most formal contra,:lietion to the latter part of
that assertion."

The same journal says—
" The Representatives who hold their club in the Rue
do l'Universitie hid a me.etin7 on Monday evening,
which was very numerously attended. The subject of
discussion was the Ministerial crisia, a-.d the dangers
which might result from it. The meting was unani-
mous in expressing a wia4 that the und,irstauding be-
tween the powers of the St rte—For a moment disturbed
—might be re-established as soon as possible, and that
the maintenance of General Changarnier in his com-
mand might serve as the pledge and guarantee of that
union. It declared with the same unanimity that, on
those conditions, its concurrence would be assured to the
new Cabinet."

The Pouvoir states that M. MOLE advised the Pau-
SIDENT not to attempt to remove General CHANGA/L-
-NIER, from his command; the PREEIDENT, however,
remains inexorable. It is said that as M 11. B AROC LIE,
BINEA.U, LAHITTE, and ROUHER are in favour of re-
taining CHA NG ARNIER, their retirement will be ac-
cepted ; but that as the other Ministers, including Ge-
neral SCHRAMM, are not opposed to the disinise.al of
CIIANGARNIEN, the will still retain office. The fol-
lovvr:g extracts from the three evening organs of the
Elys6e furnish the latest authentic intelligence on
the subject of the crisis :
The Patrie says—
! " Notwithstanding all the reports of a contrary na-
turn which have been current at the Bourse and at the
National Assembly, no definitive resolution has yet been
come to. The financial w,)rld, however, appears to have
resumed confidence. A rather important improvement
has taken place in the price of the funds. This rise was
generally attributed to the news that the Oat major-
general of the army of Pads was to be dissolved. There
is nothing astonishing in the € ffect of this report. Every
act of energy on the part of the President, within the
limits of the Constitution, must necessarily inspire con-
fidence, by showing to public opinion the force and po-
pularity of the elected of the country."
We read in the Bulletin de Paris :

The rumour of the dismi,sal of General Changar-
nier is without foundation. We have reason to believe
that it was never contemplated by tho Government.
The Ministerial crisis is nearly terminated. The re-
tirement of MM. Baroche, R miter, and Bineau, is still
spoken or. As to M. Rotnains Dosfosses, his retirement
is positive, but the only motive is the desire of the rear-
admiral to have the command of a squadron. It is said
that he will have for his successor M. Ducos. MM.
Leon Faucher and Dare are spoken of for the Interior
and Public Works. M. Mole and about forty members
of the majority had an interview with the President of
the Republic this morning at the Ely: 6:. A great num-
ber of Repressntatives visited the Ministers this morning
to entreat them to remain in the it places."
We read in the Moulton? du Soil. :

" The Ministerial cri6is was to-day the sole subject of
convers&ton in the lobbies of the National Assembly,
but the conversation wal less animated than yesterday.
Tt.iera tnd Odilon Barrot had a long conference in
the 14th bureau."
The Biurse was animated, and the price of Public
Securities was firm. The Five per Cents. opened at
94r. 603., and rose to 91f. 803.; they closed at 94f. 75c. ;
the Three per Cents. closed at 56'.. 80c.; Orleans
Railroad S'.iares, 835 r.; Rouen, 677 f. 503. ; Havre,
2371. 50 ; Great Northern, 470 f.; Basle, 186 r. 253. ;
Paris and Strasburg, 352 r. 503. ; Tours and Nantes,
2471'. 503. ; the New Loan 94r. 753.
ULTSINI, ss IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT 'fl;E
LONDON STOCF.: EXCHANGE, JAN. 8.

Boulogne and Amiens, 9—Central of France (Orleans
and Vierzou), 15.:!,i —Luxembourg, 1 Ditto, 2%/—Namur
and Liege, 8% —Northern of France, 15 Sambre and
Meuse, 3.