The Sun.
London, England, 1834-11-13 00:00:00

THE SIT, LONDON, THURSDAy, NOVEMBER 13, 1834.

the last which is put. Intrigue and influence do that
which a regard for the public welfare only ought to
determine. There never was a. time, however, when
a Prime Minister ought to be more upon his guard
against such an 'abuse of office and influence as the
present ; and from Lord Melbourne's conduct in the
matter, a fair average judgment may be had of the con-
duct and duration of his Ministry. We again say, let-
him not consider himself too safe in his position—let
him think of those with whom the supporters and
members of his Government will have to contend in
the ensuing Session, and he will see at once that they
will have no boy's play to perform. Verily with Peel,
Stanley, and Sir James Graham, the office either of
Leader, or of Chancellor of the Exchequer, is not very
greatly to be envied.—Morning Advertiser.
Among the mediocrity of financial- talent which at
the present day moves in the sphere out of which a
Chancellor of Exchequer if to be selected, it matters
little what candidate for the appointment has the pre-
ference. If the new Minister of Finance is only to
follow the course of financial legerdemain and trickery
which has been pursued by his predecessors for many
years past—if, instead of being expected to exercise a
capacity able to grasp, revise, and reform our whole
system of taxation, which is radically vicious, he
shall only be required to devise some temporary
expedients to prolong the existence of the system,
whilst it is possible for a cobbling ingenuity to keep
it together, a man may be found in every office
of Government fit for that purpose. Indeed there is
not a clerk in any of the offices who is quick at
marshalling figures and mystifying accounts who
could not, by a little tuition in the arcana of the red-
tape school of statesmanship, become qualified to
control and administer the finances of this great empre.
So little do some of the Whig Journals think of the
necessity of any high qualifications for the office, that
they have actually named Mr. Littleton as one of those
who may possibly succeed Lord Althorp. What soli
of adept Mr. Littleton is in figures we have no oppor-
tunity of knowing, but we do know, and the public
cannot easily forget, that he cut a very miserable figure
in his late " confidential intercourse with AR.
O'Connell—an intercourse equally marked by disin-
genuousness of purpose and imbecility of conduct, the
exposure of which in the House of Commons, along
with the detection of some other low trickery of certain
members of the Cabinet not yet publicly explained,
led to the retirement of Lord Grey in disgust
from his Majesty's Councils. It is strange, indeed,
that so recently after such an exhibition the name of
Mr. Littleton should be obtruded on the public for
the high and responsible office of Chancellor of the
Exchequer. Is the Finance Minister, whose talents,
discretion, and political character, should command the
respect and inspire the confidence of the nation, to lie
carved, like a heathen god, out of any block—ex
quovis ligno fit Mercumus? Another candidate is
stated to be Sir John Hobhouse. The official life of
Sir John has been a very short one, not yet half the
length of a London apprenticeship to the craft and
mystery of a cabinet-maker, yet it has had many
changes. Scarcely has he learned the rudiments of his
duty in one office when he has been transferred to
another. Indeed, though long accounted a sturdy
Radical, the circumstances under which lie first en-
tered office gave great promise of a sufficient flexibility
of principle to suit the policy of the Whig Ministers,
having succeeded to the office from which Sir Henry
Parnell was dismissed, because he declined to vote
for the scandalous Russo-Dutch Loan job. But pli-
ancy of principle alone will not fill a Chancellor of the
Exchequer's budget with the riches of , financial
wisdom. Even in the department of the Woods and
Forests, if we may judge of the jobs now going on in
the neighbourhood of Westminster Hall, Sir John
fills the Chief Commissioner's chair more for ornament
than use. Of Mr. T. Baring's financial talents we
know nothing, and if there was anything worth know-
ing, we presume the public would have found it out
before now. The last, but not least of the candidates
mentioned is Mr. Spring Rice. We readily admit
the prior claims of that gentleman to the others, even
though Mr. Abercromby, who has managed his own
finances very well under both the Wellington and
the Whig Administrations, should be enumerated
among them ; yet the probability that the Office
will be conferred upon Mr. Rice is only another
proof of the dearth of superior intellect at the
present day. This gentleman is industrious ir! the
discharge of official duties, and attentive to business,
at least comparatively so with some of his colleagues.
He has had some practice in financial arithmetic, but
still he is a mere man of detail. The great princi-
ples of the science are beyond his grasp. To say
that he may make a better financier than Lord Althorp
is not to pass upon him any very flattering eulogium.
If ever there was a time when it required a man of su-
perior intelligence and commanding intellect to take the
charge of the financial affairs of this country, it is the
present moment. The good or evil is incalculable that
the country may enjoy or suffer from the wise or inca-
pable management of its finances during the next year
or two. Things have come to that state when neither
official tactics nor the resources of a small ingenuity
can pass current for financial science and wisdom.
Trickery has too long prevailed in that as in other
departments of the State, but in no department is
trickery so mischievous. The country is in the state
of a most reckless prodigal, over head and ears in debt.
Like a prodigal it has long lent a ready ear to flatter.
ing and fallacious accounts of returning prosperity, and
to the hollow schemes of financial pretenders, who,
like tinkers, make two holes where they mend one.
The country now begins to be convinced that if ever it
is to escape from its embarrassments, and to avoid the
ruin in which those embarrassments will otherwise ter-
minate, it must look boldly at the state of its accounts.
It must alter a system thoroughly under which relief
and prosperity have been promised by every successive
pretender who has assumed its management, but under
which difficulties only accumulate, and danger becomes
more menacing.—Morning Herald.

INCENDIARISM.—SOOII after seven o'clock on
Tuesday evening last, a fire broke out a crew-yard, about half
a mile from Colsterworth, in the occupation of Messrs. Jack-
son and Rudkin, of Stainhy. When first dicovered, the flames
were burning in two places—in the barn, and in a rick of
barley in an adjoining hovel. The previous dryness of the
weather, and the very high wind on Tuesday evening, caused
the fire to•communicate to an adjoining corn stack, and at
eight o'clock the whole was blazing forth, throwing a strong
glare of light over the surrounding country. Some idea of
the conflagration may be formed, when we state that the flames
were visible at Stamford, Oakham, Lincoln, Newark, Leices-
ter, and Nottingham. The fire was not completely exhausted
until four o'clock on Wednesday morning. The two Gran •
tham engines, and one engine from Colsterworth, arrived at
eight o'clock, but unfortunately there was no water to be had
nearer to'the place than Colsterworth, full half a mile off.
The corn destroyed was the produce of forty acres (barley),
besides the barn and hovel which contained it. A few pigs,
two carts, and four beast crews, were the only articles saved.
The corn was all insured in the County Office. That the fire
was caused by an incendiary no doubt whatever is entertained.
A labourer who had been thrashing in the barn during the day
left at five o'clock, when all was safe ; and it is supposed that
the miscreant who fired the premises had watched his depar-
ture. Mr. Rudkin is an overseer of the highways, and the
amount of wages allowed by the parish is 9s. per week ; with
which the men have lately been dissatisfied.—Boston Herald.
TIIE BOOK-TRADE WITH FRANCE.—A table
has just been published in Paris of the importations and expor-
tations of books between France and England from 1821 t„,
1832, with the indication of their value ; we notice the prin-
cipal features, observing that, for the first five years, the in-
crease was progressive ; for the two following the number fell
off; it again increased till the revolution, and has subsequently
declined. In 1821 the numbers were—
Exportation from France Exportation from England
to England. to France.
81,197 vols. 407,534 fr 19,036 vols 110,375 fr
In 1825 ... 178,366
In 1830 ... 108,897
In 1832 ... 84,954
According to this table the number of volumes exported from
France to England every year may be averaged at about
400,000, while Great Britain has exported only 80,000. This
disproportion in the exchange of ideas between the two na-
tions who are at the head of modern civilization, arises from
peculiar circumstances. If England requires a greater quan-
tity of books from France then she sends thither, the cause
arises from France being made the intermediate in the trade
between England, Germany, and Italy, the books in those
languages being principally transmitted through France. On
the other hand, the French booksellers reprint a great num-
ber of English works, which are afterwards sold on the conti-
nent much cheaper than those could be which are printed in
London ; a speculation which English booksellers could never
undertake with regard to French works. If to these two
considerations be added the fact that translations of English
works are more frequent in France, than translations of
French ones in England, the difference which exists in the
exportatiou of the two eouotrks may beeasily amounted for,

COURT OF CHANCERY, Nov. 12.

A gentleman pf the name of Brand, in the course of the
morning, applied in person to the Lord Chancellor to. ap-
point a day for the purpose of hearing a motion of great
importance, and he hoped his Lordship would name an
early day, as Mr. Richards (the barrister), who is engaged
on the other side, had several times addressed the Court,
and made statements which were altogether unfounded,
which statements invariably found their we into the neva.-
papers, as he (Mr. B.) considered much to his prejudice.
The LORD CHANCELLOR, smiling, said—" Oii ! never
mind about newspaper reports, Mr. Brand."
The case here dropped without a day being nam©d for
hearing the motion.

VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT, Nov. 12.

V. BURGESS.

Mr. COOPER moved for a special injunction ex-parte to
restrain the defendant from proceeding with the construc-
tion of a road through the premises of the plaintiff in The
neighbourhood of Manchester. Affidavits were read in sup-
port of the application, stating that the plaintiff purchased
the property in 1820, and immediately commenced improve-
ments, and laid out the grounds with walks and plantations,
and had ever since enjoyed quiet possession. In the present
month the defendant, who was in possession of an adjacent
property, commenced pulling down the plaintiff's walls and
cutting trees to make a way through the premises, asserting
that he had an ancient right of way, which 'the plaintiff bad
interrupted. The plaintiff denied the right of way, and it
was clear it had never been exercised since the plaintiff's
purchase.
His HoNoua said that as against a quiet possession of
fourteen years, the defendant must be restrained from as-
serting his right in such a manner.—lnjunction ordered.

of the accounts, which application the Magistrates granted ;
but they were refused a sight of the bills from which the
accounts were made out. Now the bills could only show
whether the monies had been profusely expended. The
bills of the. Clerk of the Peace amounted altogether nearly
to 1,2001., not that it was intended to reflect upon that
officer, but it was necessary to see the items were regular
and correct, and properly authorised. Many sums were,
from a mistaken notion, paid out of the county rates, which
required an Act of Parliament to sanction. The Learned
Gentleman then referred to the Leicester case, as reported
in Barnewall and Cresswell, as illustrating his position, and
contended that the inhabitants has a right to appeal. An
application had been made to the Magistrates in Sessions
without effect. _

....,.... .....___
Sir J. LITTLEDALE granted a rule to show cause.

COURT OF COAIikION PLEAS, Nov. 12.

FINCH V. jIROOK.

This was a suit brought in the Cambridge County Court
to recover the sum of 11. 13s. The defendant pleaded a
tender, and the Jury found a special verdict to this effect :
—" That a person- went to the plaintiff from the defendant,
and said, I have come to give you 1/, 115.,' which the
plaintiff an,swered by saying he would not take it." The
witness did not produce the money, but had it in his pos-
session when he went to the plaintiff. The case how came
before the Court on a writ of false judgment, and the ques-
tion was, whether the conduct of the defendant amounted
to a waver of the irregularity of the tender. After hearing
Counsel on both sides the Court held that, although it
would have been competent for the Jury to have found the
fact of waver in the affirmative, and for the Judge so to di-
rect them, yet, it not appearing on the face of the special
verdict, they could not presume it.