The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-30 00:00:00

DUBLIN, SEPT. 27.

(From our Corresi.ondent.)
Still the intentions of the government with regard to the
expected changes in the higher departments of the law are
involved in uncertainty. The press is almost mute, but
the greatest anxiety prevails in society about the result.
Mr. Blackburne has returned to Dublin from Harrowgate,
and the Evening Mail begins to crow. If it be really that
gentleman's wish to continue in the confidence of a liberal
Whig government, he has reason to be thankful to Mr.
O'Connell, who has exerted himself most powerfully to fix
him in his present office. The letters mandatory to Lord
Duncannon, have furnished the Tory party with a fine ar-
gument to taunt the government withal, should it finally
decide upon acting in conformity with its-• Own principles,
and consulting the general desire and feeling of the country.
The cry will then be that the appointments are O'Connell's,
and that he is in truth the " Ministerial man" that he so
insidiously represents himself. Already, in anticipation of
the dreaded event, the cant has become quite prevalent.
" This is the touchstone," and so, indeed, it is. On all hands
it is agreed that this occasion will try the heart of the new
ministry. But the Tories affect to consider it as a test,
not of its soundness and honesty of purpose, but of Mr.
O'Connell's power and influenc3 over it ; and it cannot be
denied that the sinister mandates of Mr. O'Connell give a
kind of colour to such insinuations. 1 have heard several
of them say that if Mr. Blackburne shall be disturbed, or
any arrangement made, such as would satisfy the people of
Ireland, O'Connell will then be, de facto, and confessedly,
the government of Ireland. But such an assertion, though
plausible enough for the purposes of a party destitute of
solid argument, is in reality, a poor and miserable fallacy.
For the arrangement which these gentlemen dread is scarcely
an object of greater dislike to them than it is to Mr.
O'Connell. It would not answer his purpose that a po-
pular appointment should take place, unless it were possible
at the same time to select an individual to be Attorney-
General, who would agree to be his fag. An independent,
honest, patriotic man in that situation, would derange his
plans and objects, as much as some persons believe Mr.
Blackburne to have assisted them. Be assured that the
Conservatives and Mr. O'Connell are of one mind on tha

head ; but let the government take the -noble speech of
Lord Durham for their text, and they may laugh to scorn
all that the avowed malice or the illlmeant smiles of the
factious can devise against them.
But will they do so ? That is a consummation more

devoutly wished than hoped for. If we n-;y---judiieef
what they will do upon great occasions by their ma-
nagement of trivial concerns, it would be a bold thing
to predict what course they will take on this occasion, be-
fore it appears in the Gazette. Within the last month two
appointments have been made which are strongly impressed
with the original sin of the Whigs, that of neglecting
friends in the childish hope of propitiating adversaries who
are implacable. The Lord-Lieutenant, at the reqUest of
the Bishop of Ferns, has presented the Rev. Thomas
White, A.M., to the Diocesan School of Wexford. The
" A.M." attached to this gentleman'S name is a sufficient
index of his politics ; unquestionably he is one of the nu-
merous voters for Shaw and Lefroy, who have been sig-
nalized by the favour of Lord Wellesley and his prede-
cessor. It is needless to say who the Bishop is at whose
recommendation this lucrative endowment has been thrown
away. When the name of Elrington is mentioned it is
enough. The hostility of a Beresford is civilized warfare
compared to the odium theologicum with which the Bishop
of Ferns regards a Whig. He is in our Church the exact
counterpart of Wetherell at your bar.
Last July he sent out as many of his curates as did not
disdain the errand, to permeate the diocese, with inkhorns
at their buttonholes, canvassing for signatures to a petition
which breathed sentiments of the most fierce and contemp-
tuous nature against the present Government ; and yet
the Lord-Lieutenant gives him an appointment which many
an adherent of his Government would have been delighted
to obtain. We never hear of any of the Bishops offering
to provide, out of their abundant patronage, for the clerical
applicants who crowd the antichamber of Mr. Littleton.
The civility is all at one side.
The other case is the appointment of the Hon. Edward
Plunkett to the Lieutenancy of. the castor frigate, in the
room of the unfortunate M'Cleverty. This young gentle-
man, who has but just passed his examination, is no "Han-
nibal." He belongs to quite another stock, being the
younger brother of the Hon. Randal Plunkett, whose ora-
tions at the Conservative Society made up in length for

what they wanted in substance, and supplied a plentiful
lack of wit by an overflowing portion of acrimony. His
father, Lord Dunsany, was an original subscriber aud nurs-
ing-mother to that confraternity, and is now engaged in a
scheme for swamping the House of Lords with Tory Peers
from Ireland, by removing from the representative I'eer-

age all who are Peers of the United Kingdom, in order to
make room for himself and a few more of the same kidney.
There was nothing in such parentage to justify the Lords

of the Admiralty in passing over men of years and service
to confer a premature promotion on this Hon. Master

Plunkett.

SECOND COURT-MARTIAL ON PRIVATE J.
HUTCHINSON, CHARGED WITH DESERTION.

On Thursday last private Hutchinson, of the Scotch
Fusileer Guards (whose dreadful flogging at St. George's

Barracks, Charing-cross, must still be In the recollection
of the public, and who afterwards absented himself and
subsequently gave himself up to the regiment) was taken
before Colonel Bowater, and informed by him that he
would be tried by a district Court-martial on the following
day (Friday) on two charges, which were delivered to
him. Accordingly, on Friday, at twelve o'clock, the
Court-martial was formed at the barracks, and the prisoner
was brought in.
The charges were then read over by the Adjutant, and
were as follow :

Ist Charge.—For deserting from his Majesty's service
by absenting himself from his battalion without leave, when
stationed at St. George's Barracks, Charing-cross, West-
minster, at or about ten p.m. of the 25th of August, 1834,
and not returning until brought back in plain clothes to
the Infantry Barracks, Windsor, by an escort under autho-
rity of a War-office route, at or about half-past two o'clock
p.m., on 'the 19th of September, 1834 (the same being
25 days).
2d Charge.—For making away with a pair of regimental
boots.

Hutchinson was then asked by the Court to plead to the
charges alleged against him.
The prisoner refused to plead, and protested against the
proceedings--first, because he had not received sufficient
notice, and, secondly, that a very material witness on his
behalf, Sergeant Duff, of the 2d battalion of Scots Fusileer
Guards, was not present, and he had not been allowed time
to send for him. He begged that the court-martial might
be adjourned until the following day (Saturday) when he
should be prepared to proceed.
The PRESIDENT directed the court to be cleared upon
this point, and the members sat in deliberation for about a
quarter of an hour.
Upon being re-opened, the prisoner was told by the
Court that his objections had been taken into consideration,
and disallowed, and he was again required to plead to the
charges.

Tile prisoner asked if it •Was the intention of the Couit
;o allow the attendance of the.witness he had named ?

The COURT said, they would not answer the question
the court-martial would proceed.
The prisoner again begged that his court-martial might
be postponed, Sergeant Duff not being present, who could
prove the exact day that he surrendered himself to the re 7
giment, which was 19 days absence instead of 25 days, as
alleged in the first charge, and no soldier in the regiment
was ever tried for desertion, unless he had been absent, more
than 21 days.
The COURT refused to accede to the prisoner's request,
and he was again called upon to plead, and he at last
pleaded Not Guilty.
Two witnesses were called in, who proved the absence of
the prisOner on the 25th of August, and also that he was
not brought back to the battallion at Windsor until the
19th of September (25 days.) Some evidence was then
adduced about the boots which lie was charged wtth having
made away with, but it appeared that he had the boots on
when voluntarily surrendered himself, Wing sent the
whole of the other regimental necessaries to the barracks,
and also havalg• them on at the present moment in Court.
Captain Taubman, the adjutant of the regiment, was
next called and prodOced the War-office route, from which
it appeared, that the prisoner arrived at Windsor on the
19th of September.
In answer to questions ii om the Court,
Captain Taubman said thOt he considered the prisoner
was correct in his statement that he had been absent only
19 days instead of 25, as alleged in the eharge, as he had
givert himself up six days previous to hia being brought down
to Windsor at Knightsbridge barraeks.
The prisoner then addressed the Glint in his defence.
The proceedings of the Court were tien declared to be
concluded, and the prisoner wamemoved in custody to the
guard-room. The judgment of the Court will not be made
known for some days, as the minutes of the Court-martial
will have to be transmitted to the War-office.

The General Steam Navigatton Company's mail
packet, the London Merchant, from Rotterdam, arrived off
the Custom-house; at 2 o'clock p.m., 28th Sept.; having acaily
60 passengers on board, among whom was Sir C. Wetherell.