The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-02 00:00:00

lONIAN ISLANDS.

The Malta Mail publishes the following extract
from the speech of the Lord High Commissioner of
the lonian Islands on proroguing the Parliament :
" Mr. President and Gentlemen,—l have now laid be-
fore you the questions upon which I conceive that you
may honourably and usefully co operate with the Go-
vernment for the benefit of your common country. Ex-
tend the range of these as much as you think proper.
In the work t f internal amelioration—the revision of the
system of public education, of taxation, and the removal
of all burdens that press unequally upon the people—
there is a wide field of utility open to you, and I can
have no bettergeide in approaching it than the decisions
of the Assembly. It would be most painful to me to
think that the practical good which may be thus
achieved is destined again to be sacrificed to visions
which it is impossible to realise without an entire
change in the policy of the Great European
Powers connected with the East by treaty and
by territorial possessions. No such change is contem-
plated. It has never been the intention of the Queen to
abandon a position placed under the safeguard of the
British Crown by the treaty of Paris. And, while it is
the desire of her Majesty religiously to respect the rights
secured to you by the Constitution, and to which she has
herself added so largely, it will be ray duty, as her Ma-
jest3's representative, to assert, upon all occasions, the
rights which that same Constitution secures to her, and
to maintain them inviolate. I am compelled to make
this declaration by the publication of a document to
which some members of the Assembly have affixed their
names, and by the continuance of an agitation in one
or two of those islands, which can have no other effect
than to divert the minds of the people from things that
are practicable and easy of attainment, I believe this
agitation to rest neither upon the property nor the intel-
ligence of the country. I have, during the last six
months, been brought largely in contact with
_the popu
lation of the rural districts, and I should do little justice
to my own feelings if I were tot publicly to express my
grat ful eenee of the reception that I hive experienced,
and my admiration cf the good sense, good feel-
ing, and intelligence which I have found amongst them.
Believe me', gentlemen, they think little of political
theories, or personal rivalities. They want good go-
vernment. They are occupied with practical things.
Their roads, their schools, the opening of the ports,
which serve as an outlet for their produce, the removal
of unnecessary restraints upon their trade, security for
property and life by an effective police, and an impartial
administration of justice—these are the questions which
interest them, and upon each and all of these they will
find in me a zealous fellow-labourer. What it depends
on me to do, by freeieg commerce from unnecessary
shackles, and facilitating the communications between
the islands, is done already. In what remains to be done,
1 ROW most earnestly solicit your •co-operation. In
seeking this, I ask for no unworthy concession. I
ask no man to give up the principle of nationality.
Greeks, by birth, by education, and in mind, you
naturally look back with pride to the ancient splen-
dours of your race, and retain a lively interest in
its destinies. All that I desire is, that you will ac-
cept the good which the present time may afford, and
place yourselves and me in a position to realize it, by a
frank and loyal recognition of the rights of a power
which desires to act frankly and legally ny you, and has
no other desire or wish, in the administration of your
affairs, than to see the principles of constitutional liberty
developed amongst you under the protection of the
oldest European free states and the greatest of her mari-
time powers. By the development of constitutional
principles, I mean the best possible administration of
your ir.ternal rAftirs, by the men who shall show them-
selves to have the best title to the confidence of their
countrymen, and the gradual improvement of the con-
stitution when time and events shall hare proved it to be
necessary. I am enabled, however, to communi,ate to
ycu, in his own words, the sentiments of Lerd Grey
upon the subject ; he reminds you, that changes in the
constitueie.n of the Legislature, and in the divtiibution
of political poser, although from time to tittle they may
be necessary in every country, contribute nothing
directly to the improvement cf the condition
of the people. They are valuede only as
affording the means by which improvements in the laws
and in the system of administration and economy in the
public expenditure may be secured. So far from being
beneficial in themselves, it is notoriou i that, so long as
the discussion of constitutional changes is going on, the
consideration of those practical measures, which are the
ultimate objects of such alterations, is suspended; while
the frequency of such changes is in the highest degree
injurious, by destroying that confidence in the stability
of the constituted authorities which is one of the main
elements of their strength. It will therefore be much to
be desired that the attention of the Parliament, whets it
re-assembles, should be directed more to the use of the
powers already granted to the people in the introduction
of practical improvements, than to the consideration of
new plans for further changes in the constitution so
lately established.' Upon this basis I invite you to
concur with me in doing what good we can during the
remainder of the present session, by entering at once
upon a course of legislation honourable to yourselves
and useful to your country. I entreat your kid in this
good weak, and I repeat to you the assurance of my most
cordial cc-operation.

THE TRINITY Houss.—A vacancy is occasioned
among the elder brethren of this Corporation, by the de-
cease of Captain Aaron Chapman, the senior of the brethren,
having been elected as far back as 18U9. Captain Chapman
died on Saturday last, at his residence, Ilighbury Park, in
his t,Otli year. The deceased gentleman was long known and
highly esteemed in the city of London, and in four successive
Parliaments since the Reform Bill repres:nted the borough
of Whitby in the House of Commons.

THE COLLISION ON THE YORK AND NORTH MID-
LAND RAILWAY.—SOUTII MILFORD, DEC. 30.—T0-day the
coroner and jury again assembled at the White Swan, when
the jury gave in their verdict, which was that of " Manslaugh-
ter against Edward Grimston," the guard of the luggage train
which caused the accident. Grimston will, of course, be
committed to take his trial at the Yorkshire spring assizes.

We are enabled to state from unquestionable au-
thority that the report that Mr. Bennett has retracted his
resignation of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, is wholly devoid of
foundation.— Chronicle.

PRIZE FIGtITINCI I s SURREY.—At a meeting of
the Surrey magistrates on Tuesday, a lengthened discussion
took place with reference to the conduct of the South-Western
Railway Cumpany, in giving a special train for the use of
the combatants and their friends on the occasion of the re-
cent fight between the Tipton Slaster and Paddock. One of
the magistrates, Mr. Scott, who is also a director of the com-
pany, on the part of that body stated that they had no know-
ledge of the purpose for which the train was used on the oc-
casion referred to, and gave an assurance that no facility for
a similar "demonstration" should be hereafter afforded by
the railway authorities, On the faith of this assurance the
indictment for a misdemeanour has been withdrawn.

SCOTTISH HOSPITAL.—The quarterly general
court of the members of this corporation took place yesterday
at the institution, Crane-court, Fleet-street, Sir Walter G.
Stirling, Bart., in the chair. The minutes of the last meet-
ing having been read, some alterations were made in the
bye-laws of the corporation, and a statement was brought
forward showing the position of the Kinloch Fund for the
past year. From this it appeared that 2,000/. had been dis-
tributed during the year to about 500 pensioners. On the
motion of Dr. Webster, it was agreed that the " building
committee " be renewed, for the purpose of establishing a
better home and refuge for the pensioners, and that the names
of the chairman, Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm, Mr. Bennoch,
and Mr. Croll be included amongst the members of such com-
mittee. Some formal business was afterwards disposed of,
and the meeting separated.

THE GItEAT r. EXHIBITION.—FOREIGN GOODS--
The Commissioners of the Customs have approved of the
following new form of sight bill of entry to be used for goods
imported from abroad, and intended for the Great Exhibi-
tion of the Works of Industry of All Natiocs, and have or-
dered the same to be adopted and used for that purpose ac-
cordingly : —" Warehousing Sight—Goods for the Great Ex-
hibition only, viz. (here the description of the goods, with
the requisite particulars, is to be given). I, importer, do
hereby declare that the packages herein described are in-
tended for the Great Exhibition, a❑d that I will forward
them in the same state as when landed, with due dispatch,
to the buil:lino- for the Great in Hyde-park.
Signed and declared this day of —, 1851, in the presence
of 6c. P.S. Let this sight pa's for the packages above-
ment'oned. to be laude and forwarded to the buikting for
the Great Exhibition in Hyde-park, for examinati n under
the regulations contained in the minute issued on the
subject."

A WORD FOR. MR. BENNETT.—Whatever we may
say about the conduct of Mr. St. Barnabas Bennett, there is,
at any rate, no doubt that he is adverse to the display of one
very great virtue—resignation.—Punch.
TI.IE LATE Ma, RAPHAEL, M.P.--The Dublin
Evening Mail contains the following :—" The late Member
for St. Albans died without signing the deed transferring
the new churches at Kingston and St. Albans, as well as
Prior-park, near Bath, to the Cardinal. The delay is said to
have been caused by the Cardinal's objecting to Mr. Raphael
naming the clergyman, and the result is that he has lost about
70,0001. worth of property. Mr. Raphael's sister died on
Sunday, so that his nephew comes in for all. The personal
property has been sworn at 250,000/. and the landed property
14 estimated at a larger Ogue'