The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-29 00:00:00

RIGOUR OF MAHOMMEDANISM.

About twelve years since a person who had violated
the law, proceeded to the palace, and, in the presence
of the King stated his crime, and demanded justice ac-
cording to the Koran. The singularity of an indivi-
dual appearing as his own accuser, induced the King
to direct him to be driven away. The man appeared
the following day with the same tale, and was again
turned out. He repaired a third time to the palace,
repeated his sins, and upbraided the King for his remiss-
ness in declining to dispense justice, which, as a be-
liever of Mahommed he intreated it might lead to his
punishment in this world instead of the next. The
Ulema, or congress of divines, was assembled ; death
was the punishment ; and the man himself, who was a
Moollah, was prepared for this decision. He was con-
demned to be stoned till dead. He turned his face to
Mecca, and, drawing his garment over his head, re-
peated the kuluma, (" There is but one God, and
Mahommed is his prophet !") and met his fate. The
King was present, and threw the first stone ; but he
had instructed his officers to permit the deluded man
to escape, if he made the attempt. When dead, the
King wept over his come, ordered it to be washed and
buried, and proceeded in person to the grave over
which he read the funeral service. It is said he was
much affected ; and to this day verses commemorate
the death of this unfortunate man, whom we must
either pronounce a bigot or a madman. An incident
similar to the above happened within this very year.
A son who had cursed his mother appeared as a sup-
pliant for justice, and his own accuser. The mother
solicited his pardon and forgiveness ; the son demanded
punishment ; the Ulema directed his death, and he was
executed as a criminal in the streets of Bokhara. A
merchant lately imported some pictures from China,
which were immediately broken, and their value paid
by the Government ; since it is contrary to the Ma-
hommedan laws to make the likeness of any thing in
the earth beneath. On some subjects their notions of
justice arc singular. An Afghan plundered a caravan-
sari, and was sentenced to die, but permitted to pur-
chase his blood according to the law if he exiled him-
self from Bokhara, because he was a foreigner. Be-
fore the arrangement had been completed a second rob-
bery occurred by a party of the same nation ; the
clergy directed their death ; and since they thought
that the punishment of the first offender, together with
the others, would present a more salutary and impres-
sive example, they returned the blood money, cancelled
the pardon, and executed all the offenders.—Burn's
Travels into Bokhara.

LONDON,
WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 29, 1834.

There are few subjects which require to be handled
with greater delicacy than the personal differences
which unfortunately too often arise between public
men, equally honest in their intentions, and equally

desirous of promoting the prosperity of their country.
The difficulties which the umpires in such cases have
to contend with are rather increased than otherwise,
when the parties disagreeing have only imaginary
grievances to cc:nplain of ; for strange as it may seem
at first sight, the less cause there is for the indulgence
of unfriendly feelings, the more are we disposed to
cherish them. As it is with the diseased body, so is
it with the distempered mind : and as physicians all
agree that no complaints give them such trouble in the
eradication as those which most strongly exist in the
fancies of the patients, so in like manner, no diffe-
rences between individuals are so hard to be reconciled
as those which, in point of fact, are either wholly ima-
ginary, or originate in some breach of etiquette. By
the country generally, matters of this kind, so unworthy
of statesmen and philosophers, would be regarded as
occurrences below public notice, were it not that the
best measures are frequently retarded by them, which
affords a temporary, and sometimes dangerous, triumph
to the common enemy.

We, in common with the majority of the liberal
press and people of the United Kingdom, sincerely
lament that Lords BROUGHAM and DURHAM
should have so comported themselves of late,
as to afford room for rejoicing to the Tories
here, and the organs of the Holy Alliance on
the Continent. We regret this untoward event the
more, because we are convinced that the difference be-
tween these Noble Lords, if properly understood,
would be found to consist in a misunderstanding of
each other, which each would endeavour to be the first
to rectify. The breach between them happens most
unluckily at the present moment, as the country never
stood in greater need of the cordial co-operation of
both in endeavouring to amend our laws, and reform
our institutions. It is a pity that both cannot see the
undignified position in which they stand, by a perti-
nacious adherence to expressions dropped in speeches
delivered in the heat and excitement which always
must prevail at public dinners, at which the orators
are the greatest strangers. Lord BROUGHAM might
say as much as he pleased about the caution which
ought to be observed in the correction of abuses—he
might declaim as frequently as an opportunity would
be allowed him against any undue precipitancy on the
part of the House of Commons—but it would not be
fair to argue from such declarations of the necessity of
mature deliberation, that his Lordship was not most soli-
citous to uproot every abuse which at present disgraces
the constitution of this country. Let any one who pre-
tends to feel alarmed by the cautious tone assumed by
the CHANCELLOR, look to the notices of reforms
which he has given for the ensuing session of Parlia-
ment—mark the number of Bills which he prepared
since his acceptance of the Seals—and see the un-
sparing hand which he has outstretched against the
mal-practices of his own Court—which, if they
could derive sanctity from age, might rank with
Divinities ; and having carefully noted all this, let
him then say whether Lord BROUGHAM deserves
to be suspected of falling to the leeward, when he
talks of the necessity of steering cautiously, sounding
frequently, and guarding against rocks and sand-
banks ? On what occasion did Lord BROUGHAM'S
caution lead him to desert the cause of the people ?

What Bill, having for its object the extension of popu •
lar liberties, has not had from him the most strenuous
advocacy and support ? We answer none—no, not
even the so much talked of 'Warwick Disfranchisement
Bill, which he approved of so long as he was not con-
vinced that it was based on defective evidence. It is,
therefore, an act of injustice towards the CHANCEL-
LOR to maintain, that he is not most anxious to im-
prove whatever is defective in the institutions of the
country. The character of Lord DURHAM is equally
high in the estimation of all who have paid proper
regard to his past public conduct. His Lordship's
conduct, on the whole, has been that of a sound
and consistent statesman, who very wisely suffered not
his own private opinions on many great questions to
impede the progress of national improvement. We
cannot, therefore, but deeply regret that the success of
many most important measures are allowed to be en-
endangered by a difference between these distinguished
statesmen, so utterly below regard, that we are ashamed
to mention it in the same sentence with themselves.
They are both to blame in this affair,—Lord DURHAM
in commenting upon a casual expression which fell
from the CHANCELLOR, and Lord BROUGHAM in
thinking it necessary to defend that expression, which
he might have given •up without the least blemish on
his reputation. We think, too, that Lord DURHAM
would have acted in a more dignified manner, had
his Lordship not taken that notice of the article
in the last number of the Edinburgh Review, which
called forth the letter from the Editor that ap-
peared yesterday in our columns. However, all that
now remains is for each party to examine well, whether
he can reconcile to himself a standing aloof which
must naturally impede the progress of Reform, and
perhaps end in the overthrow of every liberal project
contemplated by the present cabinet. The Ober-por-
ta9nts Zeitung, a journal which advocates the princi-
ples of the Holy Alliance, dwells with peculiar satis-
faction on the division between Lords BROUGHAM
and DURHAM, which the Editor expects will even-
tually lead to the triumph of Toryism in England.
We earnestly counsel both Noble Lords to remove all
pretence for such baneful inferences. They are at
present engaged in a contest precisely similar to that
of the two Knights about the gold and silver shield, of
which both repented, when a Dervise showed them that
both were right, and both wrong. Let them take
more than a one-sided view of the question at issue,
and we are confident that their only surprise will be,
how they could have so strangely mistaken each other.

The inquiries and discussions now going on in
France, relative to her tariff, may perhaps serve to
make us sensible of our errors with respect to our own.
We can see the absurdity of France in maintaining a
system of prohibition from which we ourselves, how-
ever, have only lately departed ; but we still cling to
excessive duties upon import, for which we blame her;
but which in our case, as in her's, operate mainly as
prohibitions upon the import of articles of great bulk
with heavy weight, and give rise to the smuggling of
articles of little bulk and light weight, operating in
either case to the injury of the general industry of the
country. As regards our lively neighbours, also, we
can perceive and descant most learnedly upon the injus-
tice as well as impolicy of benefiting one interest at
the expense of another, which we ourselves, never-
theless, continue to practice, and also upon the absur-
dity of sacrificing industry to income ; but we are un-
willing to perceive how we continue to sacrifice
industry to income ourselves, though we ought
long ago to have found out that increase of income
depends upon the increase of industry, and that
one interest cannot be benefited at the expense of
another, without limiting and repressing general indus-
try, upon the increase of which the well-being of the
community depends. We can at once perceive the
injury which France does to her agriculture by pre-
venting the importation of iron, and the heavy burthen
she imposes upon the whole community of France, by
the increased and increasing price of fuel, occasioned
by the enormous consumption of wood in the smelting
of iron, and the further injustice committed upon the
consumers of fuel by her prohibition of the importation
of coal, in order to benefit still more the proprietors of
forests ; but we do not choose to see, at least we do
not act as if we did see, that we have brought a similar
burthen upon the community of Great Britain, by
levying a duty of 271. upon one description of Baltic
timber, when we levy only V. 17s. 6d. upon the like
description of plantation timber, or 21. 15s. upon
another description in the one case, and only 10s. in
the other; thus depriving all who have occasion to use
timber of the benefit of the best description at a
low price, and confining them to the use of the
worst sort at a high price, in order to give high
profits of freightage to a few British shipowners,
and to enable a few Canada merchants to charge a
monopoly price. What we ourselves experienced from
preventing the exportation of wool, enables us to see
more clearly the impolicy of France in preventing the
exportation of silk, thereby sacrificing the silk weavers
to the silk manufacturers, while her prohibition cannot
fail to have the same result in France that attended our
prohibition of the exportation of wool ; that is, other
countries will improve in the growing of silk as other
countries have improved in the growing of wool, and
France will then become dependant for a supply of the
finest raw material for her favourite manufaCture, as we
have become dependant upon foreign countries for a
supply of the finest part of the raw material necessary
to what was once our staple manufacture. But we
still continue our errors with regard to the manufacture
of silk. Until lately we prevented, as far as absolute
prohibition could prevent, the importation of manufac-
tured silk at all. The prohibition enabled a few manu-
facturers in Spitalfields and Coventry to make fortunes
a monopoly price for bad articles, but the
by charging
manufacture languished as a branch of industry. Since
the prohibition has been withdrawn, the manufacturers
of Macclesfield and Manchester have left those of Spi-
talfields and Coventry far behind ; and the silk manu-
facture is extending and improving in every part of the
Kingdom ; but it is still suffering from a system of
heavy import duties, which have been substituted for
absolute prohibition. Thirty per cent, which is ra-
ther less than, the. duty paid upon the import of the
finest and-lightest fabric, brings the smuggler into
competition with
.the British manufacturer, who is
thus beat down by the smuggler to a losing profit; for
all the vigilance of the Preventive Service, or any other
service, to prevent smuggling, where duties are exces-
sive, will not avail to prevent smuggling. If our ma-
nufacturers could be prevailed upon to believe that
from 51. to 10/. per cent. upon importation would ena-
ble them to maintain a successful competition with fo-
reigners, then industry in this and other manufactures
would not be injured and repressed, as it now is by a
competition with smugglers, or those concerned with

smugglers, which no industry can withstand. Our
silk manufacturers admit that they are behind their
French neighbours in all that relates to taste in pat-
terns, the change of patterns, and the adapting
of machinery to them ; and that they cannot im-
prove without (or at least do improve with) the
use of French patterns, which they can have only
by the importation of French fabrics. So the ma-
nufacturers of earthen ware in France agree that
they are altogether behind England in all that
relates to designing and colouring ; and that they are
careless, from the want of competition, which the in-
troduction of English earthen ware into France would
produce. Still, even those who are not for absolute
prohibition, are desirous that very high duties should
be imposed. In this way they would no doubt have
the competition, but they would have it in a way
to injure industry in this manufacture, not to bene-
fit it by exciting care and skill. On the con-
trary, care and skill would be deprived of their reward,
by being exposed to an unequal competition with smug-
glers. It is singular that in two manufactures, e 7,
quiring taste in design and the assortment of colours,
the one suffering in England and the other in France
from excessive duties, the manufacturers in both coun-
tries should have come to the same conclusion as to
the benefit to result from a communication of what re-
lates to the beauty of either manufacture. But our
French neighbours have gone beyond us in their im-
pressions in regard to competition. They admit that
competition with the English would stimulate them to
improvement in designing and colouring. A whole-
some conclusion has been thus arrived at upon one
point touching the manufacture of earthen-ware in
France, and when the inquiry shall be resumed, we
trust further wholesome conclusions will be arrived at.

The French Papers received this day, talk of the
resignation of Marshal GERARD, and a probable
change of Ministry, in consequence of the resolution
to which the Cabinet has come on the question of a
general amnesty. We do not know on what data the
rumours afloat on this subject are founded. The news
from the North of Spain is of the same undecided cha-
racter as hitherto.

Since we last week noticed the atrocity, as the
Athenceum justly calls the facing Norwich Castle, we
have made some further inquiry on the subject, and
we have considerable satisfaction in finding that Mr.
131.0 RE is at last to be employed "to survey and re-
port upon the present state of the Castle, and the best
mode of proceeding with the repairs, and to report
thereon at the next Sessions." Up to the present
moment the chief injury that has been done, is the
destruction of a very curious old basement story of
flint-work, and two large arches of alternate Car and
Caen stone (the only specimen in England), which
have been swept away—and the wall, which at the
base is about twelve feet thick, faced with a plain
coating of softish York stone, and two plain rims sub-
stituted for the arches in question. The only way in
which we can account for this change is, that the
flint-work was so nearly perfect, that there was no
plausible excuse for removing it to substitute similar
materials ; and that, consequently, in order to give the
mason a better job, and to put the county to greater
expense, it was needlessly pulled down, and its place
supplied by stone.
Now we have a word or two to say to Mr. BLORE,
on what he may expect to find on his arrival at Nor-
wich. He will find a parcel of country Justices ex-
tremely galled at having been dictated to by the
citizens of Norwich, and he will moreover find, that
since their expression of disgust at the proceedings led
the majority of Magistrates to vote that he be called
in, for his opinion to be taken, the workmen at the
Castle have been hammering away, to do all the mis-
chief in their power before his arrival, and this of
course under orders, that they may render his journey
to Norwich, if possible, of no use, as being too late.

But, from what we understand, it is not too late.
We trust that he will confine himself to the main
question—namely, whether or not it be actually neces-
sary to pull down the present facing, either for the
security of the walls, or for the safety of the public ?
He is called in to save, if possible, a noble relic of
antiquity from being barbarously and needlessly de-
stroyed, and several thousand pounds of public money
from being shamelessly squandered ; and it will re-
dound infinitely more to his future fame to have put a
stop to the atrocious and ruthless Vandalism which
has been begun, than if he were to expend five times
the money by restoring it stone for stone. The inte-
rest of Norwich Castle is, that it is a thing sui genesis.
The beauty of Norwich Castle arises from the decay
of its peculiar structure. Reface it ever so correctly,
its interest is gone. Reface it in the slovenly manner
in which it is commenced, and it will have neither
interest nor beauty.

We are convinced, from the inquiries we have made,
that a slight palisading would have saved the entire
expense, with the exception, perhaps, of here and
there a few stones being supplied, and some other
partial repairs, which would have in no way detracted
from the interest or beauty of the building.
The only plea which is given for the measure is,
that now and then a portion of a stone crumbles away,
and perhaps, if persons were walking under, might
injure them by falling upon them ; but no one ever
sees these things—no one has ever been hurt—and, as
we have said, supposing there were danger, a few pali-
sades would have prevented any one going so near as,
by any possibility, to receive injury. In short, the
whole affair is a scandalous piece of business. We
hope it is effectually checked.
We can assure Mr. BLOKE, that we look with
anxious expectation for his decision ; and we beg to
inform the gentlemen of the Gaol Committee, that we
shall keep an eye upon them and their proceedings.