The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-03 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 3, 1851

NEW STORY OF SCOTTISH LIFE, by :the Author of
i,rnytor,

M h

N

By the Author of
" Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland of Sunny Side,

A work of extraordinary beauty and p ewer."—Weekly News.
"The popularity of that most remarkable work, ' Margaret Mait-
land,' will be eN, en surpassed by Merkland.' "—Critic.
" The merits of Merkland' entitle it to rank with these unrivalled
works which have conferred enduring honour on the country of
the great author, by obtaining the emphatic name of ' the Scottish
Novels: "—Standard.

Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

MEETING of PARLIAMENT

THE THIRD EDITION OF

"THE SUN
will be found highly interesting during the present
extraordinary Session of Parliament.
The THIRD EDITION will contain the
DEBATIS of the SAME EVENING up to the
HOUR of POST ; also, SPORTING of every
description, with TATTERSALL'S on Monday
and Thursday Evenings in time for Post ; with
the GAZETTES of Tuesday and Friday, con-
taining Army and Navy Promotions, Bankrupts, &c.,
and ALL NEWS arriving in London up to the
Hour of Post.

EXPRESS EDITIONS
ON ALL IMPORTANT OCCASIONS.

Orders received by all News-agents, and at the Sun
Office, 112, Strand.
Sun Office, 112, Strand,
JANUARY, 1851.

HIGH WATER Al LONDON BRIDGE
Tim DAY —Morning 2i min. after 3 I Evening 39 min. after 3
To -Moazow—Morning 54 min. after 3 I Evening 11 min. after 4

THE WEATHER.—Strx OFFICE, FESRUARY 2.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
39—highest since noon yesterday.
31—lowest this morning and during the night.
36—this day, at noon.
BAROMNYEB, 29.56.
Main S. to S.E.—dirty weather with rain and sleet—fine
starlight in the evening.
MONDAY, FEB. 3.
THERMOMETER, EN THE SHADE.
38—highest since noon yesterday.
31—lowest this morning and during the night.
40—this day, at noon.
BAROMETER, 29.55.
WIND S.W.—morning foggy; afternoon dull.

The Commissioners is Lunacy, the proprietors of
private lunatic asylums—all, in short, who are inte-
rested in upholding the present monstrous system of
lunacy law and of lunacy administration in this
country—are just at this moment in a state of ludi-
crous distress and perplexity. They feel that the
time is come when they must "set their houses in
order," but they are exceedingly unwilling to set
about it ; and, like the hero of PRIOR'S ballad, who—
" Now fitted the halter, now traversed the cart,
And often took leave, yet seemed loth to depart,"
these worthies have recourse to all sorts of in-
ventions to linger out the existence of those
monstrousthelatest examples of these was in the
abusesby which they profit. One
of
shape of a paragraph which appeared in a morn-
ing paper, announcing that the Government of the
United States had applied to Dr. FORBES WINSLOW
for an analysis of the law of lunacy in this
country. Wow, seeing that Dr. FORBES WINSLOW
has recently put himself forward as the champion of
the Commissioners, of the keepers of private lunatic
asylums, and of the present state of the law, the
intention of this announcement is obvious, it was
neither more nor less than a cunning red herring-
trailing affair, as " who should say" Behold ! our
lunacy laws are so perfect that even the Govern-
ment of the United States come to learn wisdom
from our G-arnaliels of lunacy, the Commis-
sioners; how absurd then must it be to
seek to alter these most excellent laws I
The red-herring trailers, however, reckoned for once
without their host, they forgot that the Alleged Lu-
natic's Friend Society was still in existence, and still
as vigilant as ever. The committee of the society saw
this paragraph, and forthwith applied to Mr. LAWRENC E,
the United States Ambassador, to ascertain its truth,
whereupon Mr. LAWRENCE granted the depu-
tation an interview, at which he explained " that,
from the nature of the constitution and powers of the
Central Government, it was not probable that any
application had been made to Dr. WlNsLow—that
certainly none had been made through him,
but that possibly one of the states of the
Union had applied to him, or more probably
some individual in one of these states." And
then Mr. LAWRENCE, having been furnished by
the deputation with the information for which it was
asserted in the paragraph in question that his Govern-
ment had applied to Dr. FORBES WINSLOW, pro-
ceeded to assure the deputation that " there need be
no apprehension entertained that the abuses of
the laws here would be adopted in any of
the states of America, or that they would put on
our old-fashioned, and, he hoped he might
soon say, cast-off clothes." Had the worthy
red-herring trailers entertained the remotest
notion that the only result of their cun-
ningly-devised scheme would have been to have
elicited from the United States Ambassador
such an unequivocal condemnation of the
system which they are interested in upholding,
that paragraph would never have appeared. But the
matter did not stop here—Mr. LAWRENCE proceeded
to detail to the deputation the state of the lunacy law
and of lunacy asylums in the state of Massachu-
setts ; and Mr. M'Cuany, the Chargé d'Affaires
from the United Srates to the Court of Vienna, fur-
nished them with similar information with regard to
the state of Connecticut. The information thus
afforded to the deputation will be found detailed in

....-
eittenso in a letter from Mr. PERCEVAL, the Honorary
Secretary to the Society, which appears in another
column. The grand principles acted on are
those which we have so long advocated, viz.,
that no person should be incarcerated as

an alleged lunatic without the previous in-
stitution of a preliminary inquiry before some
public court of justice, at which the alleged lunatic
should have every opportunity of being heard in his
defence, and of rebutting the evidence adduced against
him ; and that after incarceration every facility shall
be afforded to him and his friends of renewing such

r, 111/
We

of the courts of law, has evoked the eloquence
of `:rose gentletwn, e e f;:rnit if au
ere made, is would be strong grounds for com-
plaint and remonstrance. But we believe it has been
over and over repeated, on high authority, that no
such thing is in contemplation ; we shall, therefore,
dismiss it as an item in the list of grievances
brought before the meeting not having the slightest
foundation.
We will, however, candidly admit that the Irish
bar has some strong and just ground of complaint—
we admit that the gentlemen called to the
Irish bar suffer under a system of great
injustice. It seems to us an unaccountable anomaly
that an Irishman cannot be called to the Irish bar
without becoming a member of one of the English
inns of court, and serving half his terms is England.
An Irish student on entering the Queen's inns in
Dublin has to pay stamp duty to a large amount,
larger, w e believe, than in England, at all events
quite as much; after making legal indentures in
Irish beef and mutton for nine terms, he is then obliged
to come to England and enter one of the inns here,
where he has to pay a second stamp duty, and serve eight
terms, after which he is at liberty to return to Ireland,
and, on exihibiting his receipt for two years' commons
in England, and on payment of a third stamp d
is admitted to the degree of barrister-at-law
believe some drawback has been recently made in
Ireland ; but still there is the additional and unneces-
sary expense of two years' residence in England. And,
further, should a member of the Irish bar, no matter of
what standing, seek to be admitted to the English bar,
he must serve additional terms and pay additional
stamp duty. We know the case of an Irish barrister
admitted to the English bar last term who paid stamp
duty four several times. This we look on as a real
and substantial grievance, a deep injustice to the Irish
student and barrister. To this we would call the at-
tention of Mr. NAPIER, Mr. KEOGH, and others, who
in their places in the House of Commons should make
an effort to remedy so great an evil, and thus confer a
benefit upon their profession and their country.
Before we close our observations on this demon-
stration against the abolition of the Irish Court, we
again willingly bear testimony to the respectability
of those who composed it; but we still look on it as
a mere manifestation of the feelings of the citizens of
Dublin, and a few kind-hearted noblemen and gen-
tlemen who sympathised with them. The country at
large appears quite apathetic on the subject; no county
meetings have been called, the large towns and cities
have given no signs, no argument has been advanced
to prove the necessity or utility of any longer con-
tinuing a Viceroy in Ireland, save the paltry one, un-
worthy a great city, that the withdrawal of the ex-
penditure of a few thousands a year would bring
ruin upon the whole trading community of Dublin.
The commercial interest of that city was fitly
represented by the highly respectable Chairman.
We entertain strong doubts if that gentleman
would venture to assert that the withdrawal of a
Viceroy could materially affect the great establish-
ment at St. James's-gate. The sale of a few gloves
and ribbons are not sufficient to countervail the many
social and political evils engendered and fostered by
an Irish Court. The Tory Peer or Commoner
will not make his bow to a Whig Lord-
Lieutenant, and, vice versa, the Whig will
not attend the Court of a Tory, while the rampant
Radical will absent himself from both. Thus the
whole country is split into factions, party feuds are fo-
mented, clam is separated from class, and that unani-
mity of action is destroyed, without which no national
good can be effected. All these evils are attributable to
the continuance of the Yiceroyalty ; and no matter
how able, how wise, or how good the Governor-
General may be, these vices will continue.
Ages have proved that these evils are inherent in the
system, and can only be cured by removing the cause
—that is, by the abolition of the Viceregal office.
`We have before pointed out the immense amount of
good which might be effected by the Chief Secretary
having a seat in the Cabinet, where such wholesome
measures could be proposed and enforced as we have
no doubt the present Lord-Lieutenant and his
able colleague, Sir WILLIAM SOMERVILLE, would wish
to carry out for the benefit of Ireland. The office
of Chief Secretary is an onerous and a difficult one,
and certainly the present Sight Hon. Gentleman is
frequently daalt some hard knocks by some of the
splenetic orators on the other side of the Channel-
knocks totally undeserved by his talents and long and
faithful services, services which we trust to see, ere
long, rewarded in a manner befitting bis large fortune
and station, and his unremitting zeal in the cause o
his country.

whengneyer he or they 01,11 eon,ifier that he

S V

ST: • • t'ocri anether
great principle adopted in the American system
to which we would call the attention of all
county-rate payers. In this country, although
the pauper county lunatic asy!ums are by far the best
managed of any (witness Hanwell), yet none but
paupers are admitted to them, and these asylums are
supported solely out of thw rates ; in America private
patients, not paupers, are also admitted to these
asylums, and the asylums are consequently self-
sustaining. We recommend this circumstance to the
attention of the rate-payers throughout the king-
dom, and would urge them to petition for the
introduction of a legislative measure authorising the
reception of private patients into public county
asylums. The adoption of such a plan would
confer incalculable benefits upon the unfortunate
lunatic by rescuing him from the grasp of the
private madhouse-keeper, who has a direct personal
interest in driving him mad if he be sane, and if he
be insane in keeping him so ; while, at the same time,
it would greatly diminish the burden of the county-
rate, and in many instances make that a source of
profit which at present is a source of very heavy
expense.

THE LATE MR. SEDGWIC.K.
We have often had to notice the undeserved per-
secution heaped, by a Tory Government, upon the
late Mr. Sedgwick, a martyr, though a long-endu-
ring one, to the cause of the people. We have as often
noted the shabby pretences of its Whig successors
in denying a revision of previous injustice. Sacrificed
as a detector of Scotch financial abuses, slandered to
excuse the denial of justice, cast back from redress
with offers of compromise on the virtual admission of
deeds which his conscience and his honour revolted
at, there can be little doubt that his disease of the
heart was the consequence of long anxieties and bitter
indignities, heaped upon him by those whose iniqui-
ties he would neither abet nor conceal. Peace be
with him after his weary toil—after a life made fruit-
less by the idea of one continuous wrong. Let the
people honour the memory of a man whom their ene-
mies persecuted because he was their true servant,
and would not join in the conspiracy to rob them
when he had undertaken to protect their interests.—
Weekly Dispatch.
[While we heartily agree in the due honour ac-
corded to the memory of a most worthy man, who in
his public capacity was as much respected as the
quiet, unostentatious dignity of bis private life en-
deared him to a large circle of friends and acquaint-
ances, we would, for the sake of a beloved
child, say—" Let bygones be bygones !" For
a long number of years Mr. Sedgwick had
been allowed by the Treasury only 4001.
something less than one-third of his public right ac-
quired from long services too well performed, as his sub •
sequent persecution too truly and too bitterly proved I
He had insured his life for 5,0001. for the benefit of his
wife and daughter. That insurance he was not able
to keep up in consequence of his crippled means, and
the partner of his troubles, the wife of his bosom, died
broken-hearted. He has followed her, bent down
with the accumulated sense of his wrongs, leaving an
orphan—a most amiable, accomplished, and beloved
daughter, to mourn her too sad bereavement. Surely
the Crovernment will now continue to the daughter
the poor pittance so grudgingly awarded to
her unhappy father ! The country will
lose nothing, and the Government will be but
making a partial atonement for justice too long de-
ferred. We war not with the dead—let us be
honest-hearted to the living—and hope for mercy
even as we bestow it.—EDITOR or The Sun.]

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
As You Like ..11 was performed here on Saturday,
with the same cast, with one exception, as it had been
performed oil the previous evening before ber Ma-
jesty and the Court at 'Windsor Castle. The Rosa-
find of Mrs. Charles Kean has been always one of her
most finished impersonation, and she never appeared
to greater advantage in it than she did on Saturday
evening. Mr. Charles Kean's Jacques was a most
effective piece of acting; his declamation was beau-
tiful exceedingly. Mr. Wigan sustained the charac-
ter of Orlando for the first time, and has henceforth
made the part his own ; he was most artistic yet
most unconventional.; his is the true Orlando of Shak-
spere. Keteley's Touchstone, Mrs. Keeley's Audrey,
and Meadows's William were excellently quaint ; and
Mr. Addison acted old Adam with great care and
propriety. The min en scene was exquisitely beau-
tiful. The house was crowed.

N I,', P--

We have received the Paris journals of Saturday
I and yesterday.
The debate on M. NADAun's Socialist proposi-
tions was brought to a conclusion on Friday. The
order of the day was voted by a considerable majority.
On Saturday the Committee of the Assembly re-
solved to recommend that the authorization to arrest
M. MAuGuils for debt should be granted.
N. ETIENNE has presented the following proposition
relative to the sale of juurnals in the public streets :
—" Political journals which have not for the space of
two years undergone a condemnation either by the
Court of Assizes or by the National Assembly, may
be sold in the public streets. The sale, however, may
be interdicted in times of emeutes and political dis-
turbances."
On Saturday the central jury for the choice of arti-
cles to he sent to the Great Exhibition in London
held its first sitting. M. CHARLES DUPIN presided.
The jury was addressed by the Minister of Commerce.
General RULHIERES, representative of the people,
and late Minister of War, when leaving the Club of
the Rue des Pyramides slipped on the stairs and broke
his leg.

AI. MICHEL CHEVALIER, the celebrated Professor
of Political Economy, has beea elected a Member of
the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.
The Ordre affirms that the Dotation Bill will be
presented on Monday or Tuesday.
The committee on supplementary credits on Sa-
turday heard explanations from the Ministers of
Foreign Affairs and 'War. Questions were put to
them relative to the occupation of Rome, and several
members of the committee expressed a desire that
that occupation might cease at the end of the year.
It is stated that General D'HAUTPOOL will soon
return to France. The hea!th of the Governor of
Algeria has rather severely suffered during his short
stay there, and he has been obliged to ark fur leave of
absence for some months.
The Five per Cents. were done in the passage of
the Opera at 96-85.
BUStiNt SS i).•,% I ,N FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, FES, 1.
Boulogne and Amiens, 9.74 —Dutch Rhenish, 214—East
Indian, 121/B—Luxembourg, 21,4.2—Namur and Liege, Si/2
Northern of France, 15'4—Orleans and Bordeaux, 4 —Paris
and Strasbourg, 9;A—Rouen and Havre, 111/B—Sambre and
Meuse, 3'4—Tours and Nantes, 51/4.

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