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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The situation of the future Governor of South
Australia, with respect to the body of colonists, is
widely different from that" of the Commissioners. We
explained yesterday that the office of the Commission-
ers is purely ministerial. Not one of them, probably,
will have any individual interest in the prosperity of
the colony : their duties are clearly marked out by the
Act of Parliament. But it is far otherwise with the
Governor, and with some of the colonial officers. Col.
Napier, we are happy to hear, intends to be a colonist,
as well as aleader of colonists. He will not be one of
those " strangers" who, in our present colonies, govern
for a few years for the sake of the salary, and then re-
turn to England, making room for other " strangers,"
who, like their predecessors, can never really sympathize
with the inhabitants. It was not so with the men who
led in the founding of Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Lord Delawarr and William Penn embarked their all
in the undertakings which were placed under their
guidance : they left England not merely to govern, but
to settle. Such, it is said, is the intention of Colonel
Napier. He will, then, be one of the colonists. He
is so now ; for, be it remembered, that a body of peo-
ple about to settle in a distant place are quite as much
a colony as after their arrival in the new country. The
preparations for their departure and settlement require
as much skill, care, and judgment, as any proceedings
in the colony. Nay, the latter will be successful, in
proportion as the former have been wisely planned and
ably conducted. Ever since we lost the thirteen great
English colonies in America, and thereupon established
a colonial office for the management of conquered
provinces, the work of founding colonies has been
shamefully mismanaged, without forethought, order,
or indeed preparation of any kind, that deserves
the name ; a mere scramble, often ruinous to indi-
viduals, and always disgraceful to the colonizing
Government. This is to be a new case, or rather a
return to the old system. In preparing an expedition
of settlers, it is most desirable that the future Go-
vernor of the place should be the leader of the people
before their departure. He will be so with effect only
when his interests are the same as theirs ; and here we
see the difference between the Commissioners and a
Governor who intends to be a settler. The distinction
is important, since it fixes upon each party the true
nature and the right degree of the responsibility which
each ought to bear. Colonel Napier has been called
" a remarkable member of a remarkable family." This
colony may now be considered as his, and if he should
manage, as there is good reason to expect he will, his
fame will be grEater than that of the inventor of loga-
rithms, of the historian of the Peninsular war, or of
the gallant and skilful sailor to whom Portugal owes a
prospect of regeneration.—Morn ng Chronicle.

- We believe there cannot. be now two opinions with
respect to the origin of the fire which destroyed the
two Houses of Parliament. Yet, strange to say, the
Herald would seem still to insinuate that the fire was
the work of an incendiary. "It is curious enough
(says our contemporary) to observe how anxious the
Government papers are to make the public believe
that the fire was purely accidental—that the fire
originated in accident ; but we want to see the
proofs." After the evidence of Mr. Snell, iron-
monger, of Tiverton, copied by our contemporary from
our columns, we should have imagined the accidental
origin of the fire could not be doubted. Mr . Snell
and Mr. John Shuter (who accompanied him) were
the last persons in the House of Lords. Mi. Snell's
evidence, were it necessary, can be fully corroborated
by Mr. Shuter ; but though Mr. Shuter was in at-
tendance, his evidence was not taken. But we have
good ground for stating, that this is not the first, se-
cond, or third fire which has been occasioned by the
flues being over-heated. On one occasion, some three
years ago, we have it from the most credible witnesses,
the flues were so over-heated, that had not the then
superintendaut acted with the utmost promptitude and
decision, by cutting out a piece of timber inserted in
the flues, which was then on fire, the whole premises
would in all probability have been soon destroyed. The
evidence of Mr. Snell being genuine, and the visionary
statements of Mr. Cooper being utterly discredited, it
would be a pure waste of time to say another word on
the subject.—Morning chronicle.
Many persons must remember the clamour which
was raised against the practice of the Lord Mayor and
Aldermen fixing the assize of bread from the weekly
returns of the Corn Inspectors at Mark-lane. Great
doubts, however, may now be entertained whether its
abolition has really produced any advantage, but whe-
ther, on the contrary, the public has not ever since
been paying, and especially at this time, a much higher
and disproportionate price for this first necessary of life
than they would have done had the assize continued.
We are among the number of those who do not
consider that " cheap bread" has done any such wbn-
ders for the country as its advocates prognosticated.
Commodities may be too cheap, as well as too dear ;
and unless the corn-grower can receive a fair remune-
ration for his outlay, it is not difficult to foresee what
must be the effect upon those who have hitherto de-
pended upon his custom, whether as tradesmen or
labourers, for support, and ultimately upon the land
itself, from which the main sustenance of the people is
derived. But the price of corn is not now the ques-
tion, but the disproportion which it bears to the ma-
nufactured article, bread. We are enemies to clamour
upon all occasions ; nor is there any subject or occa-
sion on which it is more unjustifiable than upon that
which we are now discussing. On the other hand, the
practising of crying " Wolf," when no danger is at
hand ; or, in other words, of resisting inquiry, and
perpetuating imposition, on the ground that clamour
ought not to be raised, is exceedingly convenient to
certain persons, but not on that account the less re-
prehensible. It was to be hoped that competition
would be found to furnish a sufficient check. That
such, however, is not the case, is apparent from
the result, and may be attributed to two causes—
the one, the fact of the mealing trade throughout the
kingdom being mainly in the hands of a comparatively
small number of capitalists, who now fix the prices
both of floor and of bread ; the other, a strong pre-
judice which exists in the public mind (and, like most
prejudices, in all probability a groundless one) against
cheap bakers, as a tribe of undersellers who enhance
their profits by adulteration. In large establishments
nay even in private families, much might be done by
persons grinding their own coin and making their own
bread. But still this would afford no redress to that
large portion of the community who stand most in need
of it. Under these circumstances there appear to be
but two alternatives ; the one that the public should
continue to submit to the evil—the other that some
other remedy than what now exists should be found
for its cure. In the first we trust that no acquiescence
will be found ; and, looking to the other, we confess
We see no method which presents itself so readily and
available as a return to the assize, or, in other words,
a power in competent authorities throughout the king-
dom to regulate the price of bread by the average price
of wheat at the neighbouring market-towns. If this
method existed at the present moment, the price of the
quartern or four-pound loaf would, we are assured by
competent judges, be Id, or 12* per cent. less than it
now is ; and let it be recollected that this overcharge
of 12-1,- per cent. upon bread is a much heavier and
more objectionable tax than any which is raised upon
t'ie people by the Government.—Morning Herald.
It cannot be denied that the late attempt to foist
spurious tea upon the public at the first free trade sale
from Singapore has reflected but little credit on the
parties ; at the same tine it must be admitted that
there were some teas of a superior quality put up at
the last sale ; indeed we have received a sample of Padre
Powchong, which is decidedly excellent. There were
not many lots of this kind of tea put up at that sale,
and though delicate in flavour, we understand, it would
also had an of of
suit all classes. We have
tasting some of the doubtful sort—a black kind of
Congou, in which there is mixed a leaf that does not
belong to the tea genus, whilst that which the trade
rejected was any thing but tea, both in appearance of
the leaf and taste of the liquor. This passing of bad
tea, and leaves that were not tea at all, truly exhibits
the mischievous provisions of the China Trade Act,
and the fallacy of . a fixed scale of duties, over the late
ad valorem duties of 96, under 2s. per lb., and cent.
per cent. at and above 2s. per lb. It has made the
ignorant judges of that they understood; not but the

:. ~ ..

ejection of the bastard stuff reflected much credit on
the trade. The same remarks will almost in circum-
stance apply to the teas put up last week at the sub-
sequent sale at Garraway's, and our experience will
support our past and often-repeated objections to a
new system, adopted in the very teeth of practice, and
bunglingly forced through the Legislature upon the
country, scarcely ten minutes previous to the first hour
of the cock crow. We have often exposed the folly
of this midnight legislation, and in the instance of the
China Act, as regards the tea trade, we have it fully
illustrated, to the disgrace of the reformed Parliament.
Surely the Government has no intention of persevering,
in a system so inimical to the true interests of do-
mestic commerce—so open to the frauds of any fo-
reigner who iray choose, through the ignorance of our
Custom-house officers, to inflict their accursed trash
upon us : if they do, the jobbing system will truly be
sponsored by the very Whigs who would most un-
ceasingly have railed against any Re attempt on the
part of their political opponents. It has long been
notorious that spurious teas have been imported into
the United States. The vigilance of the East India
Company, during the existence of their monopoly, pre-
vented the same here ; under present circumstances,
nothing can prevent it now, beyond the respectability
of the major part of the dealers in tea ; but as the
chances of fraud have been much increased from the
opening of all our ports to the importation of teas, in
consequence of the ignorance of inspectors and the
temptations and facilities for the exercise of cupidity,
it will be difficult to define where the mischief may
end ; therefore the sooner the Government abolish their
late patchwork system, the better. In conclusion, it
may not be amiss to remark, that the selection of teas
for the Glasgow market, brought home in the Glas-
gow, though admirably suited to the south of the Bri-
tish Empire, was, for the greater part, unfitted for that
market ; this will prove that the free trade to China
will but turn out a queer speculation for many who may
rush wildly into it. This is an evil which will pain-
fully cure itself, but the evils inflicted by the China
trade in the scale of duties, and the inspectorship sys-
tem, can only be removed by an immediate revision of
the obnoxious clauses which have created them.—
Morning Herald.
Another inflammatory epistle from the sturdy Irish
mendicant, shows how hard he is working the ma-
chinery of agitation, to increase the " rent." As the
day of collection approaches, his patriotism becomes
more " intense," but not a word of the real grievances
of his famishing countrymen, whom lie and his assist-
ant beggarmen plunder of their last pence. He has
dismissed Lord Duncannon from the office which he
lately conferred upon him, of " Cat's-paw Extraor-
dinary" to the repeal and begging cause, and he has
taken on Lord Durham in his stead, to whom he
readily transfers all the " intense" blarney with which
he baited his hooks for the Home Secretary. The
text of the Durharnite epistle is to show that " the re-
form given to Ireland by the Whigs was restricted,
scanty, anti-popular, and avowedly conservative in its
nature—that it was grossly insulting, by reason of its
contrast with the more ample reform provided for
England, Scotland, and even Wales." Really the
effrontery of this man is equal to his contempt for
truth, and his sordid eagerness for unearned gold.—
Morning Herald.

On the day when the duty was imposed upon us of
recording the destruction of the two Houses of Parlia-
ment by fire, we alluded to circumstances attending the
first burst of conflagration which excited a strong and
general suspicion that the calamity was not the effect
of accident, but the triumph of crime. This sus-
picion we strove to allay, and we expressed our hope
and expectation that the strict inquiry which must of
necessity be instituted into the whole circumstances
of the transaction, would not terminate without con-
vincing the public that their suspicions, however ex-
cusable and even natural in the circumstances, had
been destitute of any solid foundation. Since that
period we have been anxiously waiting from day to day
for the chance of having something to state in confir-
mation of the hope which our feelings, rather than our
understanding, then led us to entertain and to express.
The time is now come at which we can no longer dis-
guise from our readers our complete and entire disap-
pointment. Nothing has transpired calculated in the
slightest degree to allay the original suspicion of the pub-
lic. Much, we regret to say, has transpired to strengthen
that suspicion. It is now nine days since the Privy
Council, or his Majesty's Ministers acting under that
name, commenced a secret and inquisitorial investiga-
tion into the circumstances and cause of this calamity,
which has had no other result up to the present time,
and does not seem to promise any other, than to in-
crease the public suspicion and anxiety ; unless it be
that of adding to the value which mankind generally
and justly attach to the publicity of judicial proceed-
ings. It is to be inferred from the unanimous lan-
guage of the journals which are supposed to be the
best informed as to the opinions of his Majesty's Mi-
nisters, not merely that the latter have at length, after
a laborious investigation, arrived at the conclusion that
the fire was the effect of accident, but that they had
from the first a strong predisposition to that opi-
nion. And if the public do not coincide in this
charitable judgment it is, perhaps, only because the
evidence upon which it is founded has been with-
held. The publie-has yet no authentic information of
the evidence which Ministers began to collect so long
ago as last Monday week, and the unauthenticated,
but uncontradicted, statements of that evidence which
have obtained general circulation, from day to day,
have certainly not been such as were calculated to
produce in the public mind an opinion upon the sub-
ject coincident with that which his Majesty's Govern-
ment appears to have formed. The first witness ex-
amined, according to the unauthenticated but uncon-
tradicted report of the proceedings, was a Mr. Whib-
ley, who is called Clerk of the Works. This gentle-
man is reported to have said that he authorised a man
of the name of Cross to burn the wooden tallies of the
Court of Exchequer in the stoves for heating the flues
communicating with the House of Lords, and to have
added that he could not have apprehended any danger
from such a proceeding. This is all that the public yet
know of Mr. Whibley 's evidence, although, of course,
the Lords of the Privy Council know a great deal more.
TheirLordships,we may be quite sure, asked him whet her
the impossibility of apprehending danger was not in his
mind dependent, in some degree, upon the moderation or
intensity of the heat to be communicated to the flues—
whether, for instance, he would have thought it im-
possible to apprehend danger upon the supposition that
the flues were to be made red hot ? Again, there can
be no doubt that the Privy Council were particularly
inquisitive as to what Mr. Whibley knew of the man
of the name of Cross, to whom he delegated the power
of making the flues communicating with the House of
Lords, red hot, if it should so please him ; and that
they ascertained to their entire satisfaction that the man
of the name of Cross was some old well-known and
faithful servant of the Board of Works ; that his past
life had been unimpeachable ; that he was free from
dangerous connexions of any kind ; and especially that
he was far removed from the suspicion of having, or of
having had in times past, any thing to do with Poli-
tical Unions or Trades' Unions, or any other irregu-
lar or illegal confederacy. They inquired also, we may
reasonably conclude, as to the time which elapsed be-
tween the receipt of the order to burn the tallies and
the execution of it, and investigated with infinite
pains, and to a satisfactory issue, the manner and
the society in which the man of the name of Cross
passed this important interval. All this must be
taken for granted, but unfortunately nothing of all this
has yet been permitted to transpire. The second wit-
ness examined by the Privy Council was Miss 'Wright,
whose evidence according to the same unacknowledged
but uncontradicted reporter, was of very great import-
ance. This lady deposed, we are told, that in the
course of the day in the evening of which the fire took
place she became alarmed at the change of temperature
in the House of Lords, that the thermometer rose at
one period five degrees higher than it had ever before
been possible to raise it by an unlimited supply of coals,
and that, under the influence of the alarm thus naturally
excited in her mind, she sent several messages to the
man of the name of Cross, to apprize him that she
apprehended danger from his proceedings ; the only
answer to which messages was that "he knew what he
was about, or words to that effect:- The fourth witness
examined was, according to the unauthorised but uncon-

tradicted and unreproved reporter, John Reynolds, the
fire-lighter of the House of Lords, a person, therefore,
whom the man of the name of Cross might not unnatu-
rally suppose to know something about the flues con-
nected with the House. Reynolds is reported to
have deposed that he cautioned Cross three several
times, and told him that the flues would not bear the
intense heat, and that "he was going it too rapid."
The fifth witness was the son of Reynolds, who deposed
that he heard his father give the above caution once,
and that he was himself the bearer of three cautionary
but abortive messages of Miss Wright. To rebut the
presumptions which this reported evidence would seem
to warrant, there is the declaration of Cross himself,
who says that lie had no apprehension of danger, and
denies that he received any more than one caution from
Miss Wright. This person was no doubt further ex-
amined ; but of this we have no report. It appears
that he must have succeeded in convincing the Privy
Council either that the one caution, which he is said
to have admitted, came too late to avert the calamity,
or that, in a matter of this nature, a single caution
may in all reason and propriety be disregarded. We
do not speak of the evidence which is said to have
been given, at a subsequent period of the examina-
tion, to the effect that the destruction of the two
Houses was known at Dudley, and formed the
subject of public conversation in that town, within
a period after the event too short to admit of the
transmission of intelligence. This circumstance pro-
duced a very strong impression upon the public mind,
and seems to have engaged the entire attention of his
Majesty's Government for the last four or five days,
although it is evidently of little importance in compari-
son with the very striking testimony recapitulated
above. It is proper and useful that Government should
be accurately apprised of the state of public opinion
upon the subject of the pending inquiry. It is the
duty of a Journalist to give even to the surmises and
suspicions of the community upon such an occasion as
the present, an intelligible expression and a definite
form. In pursuance of this duty, we inform the King's
Government that a very strong opinion upon the sub-
ject has been formed by the people of this country ;
that the disposition to ascribe the calamity to accident,
which was at first so prevalent, exists no longer ; that
the nation requires to be fully satisfied ; that, after all
it has heard, it never will be satisfied by anything short
of the most complete and most public investigation ;
and that, in short, the kind of inquiry which has been
proceeding so long, and to so little purpose, cannot
now answer any purpose whatever, save that of in-
creasing every painful feeling to which the calamityhas
given rise.—Morning Post.
We sometimes hear sensib • ir
prize that Mr. O'Connell does not take for his subject
of agitation some admitted grievance, and thereby
obtain the sanction and support of the great body of
the just and rational reformers, instead of uniting against
him all such persons by an insane and impracticable
project. A little consideration will, however, make it
clear that this would not be the card for Mr. O'Con-
nell's game. Agitation being now his profession, the
course of reform threatens to cut up his livelihood ;
every subject of complaint that is removed is so much
taken from the demagogue's stock in trade ; to wage
war with abuses would be in effect to set about the
destruction of the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Had bigotry retained the ascendancy, Mr. O'Connell
might to this day have agitated Catholic emancipation,
and would have stood in a position of alliance with the
just, the liberal, and the enlightened. The success of
that cause threatened him with the loss of his import-
ance and its emoluments. Thanks to the long system of
misgovernment, there were large grievances left, against
which he might have taken the field with effect, but
for a life of agitation they presented but a precarious
means of subsistence, and the Relief Bill had shown
the danger of success to him whose craft lies in a strug-
gle. A few victories of this kind would have ruined'
the trade in agitation. Mr. O'Connell might have
proposed feasible objects, in the pursuit of wliiich
he would have been seconded by the public sense
of right ; but, because they were feasible, they
were unsuited to his purpose, for the ground of agi-
tation would have been cut away by success. Though
Alp rises on Alp in the progress of reform, Mr.
O'Connell saw that the summits were attainable, and
that his descent must then have a beginning. The
pursuit for him is a pursuit without end—a wild chase
in the air for a phantom quarry : in this interminable
hunt he would engage the ardent spirits of Ireland,
and hand round the huntsman's cap for subscriptions
to the arch deceiver. Catholic emancipation had its
date, though a good milch cow in its time ; ecclesi-
astical reform will be had ere long, but the repeal of
the union is a topic for life. To make a profit of
running after this obct is to make a profit_ of
chasing the horizon. No matter how fast and far the
hunters go, the object will be as distant and unattainable
as ever. We often doubt whether Mr. O'Connell would
propose repeal if he were really wild enough to believe
it practicable, for he has timorous instincts, and would
not be without dread of Irish anarchy, and the break-
ing up of his influence in the riot of new factions. If
he deemed repeal feasible, we are inclined to think
that he would propose some other insane scheme fur-
ther removed from practicability—such as, that the
seat of Government should be Dublin, and the domi-
nant portion of the Legislature Irish—in a word, any
nonsense for bottling moonshine at the price of a yearly
rent. Mr. O'Connell has precisely the interest in the
morbid state of the Irish mind, which a quack has in
the sickness of a patient; and full well does the quack
know that hypochondria is the most golden of all ail-
ments. In ordinary cases the sufferer may get well in
spite of the prescriptions ; but the man who imagines
himself a teapot, and cannot be easy unless he is filled
with hot water, is a subject that will never escape from
the hands of the impostor while he has a penny to put
into them.—Times.

sur-

It were to be wished that some cool heads and reso-
lute tempers could be intrusted with the execution as
well as the formation of a plan for providing-Ist, tem-
porary-2d, permanent chambers for the two Houses
of Parliament. In a letter from a correspondent,
signed " Economy," intentions are ascribed to the act-
ing authorities, which, if we could credit them, as he
seems to do, we should feel it our bounden duty to
condemn and hold up to public censure, in the strongest
terms the English language can supply. Our corres-
pondent " is informed that Government means to fit up
the insecure ruins of the late Houses, as a temporary
building, at the estimated expense of 30,0001., until
Buckingham Palace can be adapted for the purpose.
Now we affirm at once, that such a statement is incre-
dible—incredible, because it supposes Government to
be either insane or criminally indifferent on one side to
the waste of the public money—on the other, to a still
more ruinous waste of public time and labour. If the
Parliament is to meet hereafter on any portion of that
site where the two Houses have stood until the recent
fire, it is plain that the necessary works for the erection
of the future Chambers cannot be commenced too soon
after a fit scheme for the purpose shall have been duly
considered, an estimate given in, and securities taken
for an exact fulfilment of the bargain, by the architect
and builders. But if the same site be pitched upon
for the temporary meeting of Parliament, as has been
for the future and final accommodation of that body,
it is plain that the operations of the workmen must
be cramped by the assembly of the Legislature
in old buildings, adjacent to, or intermixed with,
those _under process of erection ; and likewise—
what is of more pressing importance—that the
noise and bustle proceeding from the concourse
and activity of hundreds of masons, carpenters, and
other handicraftsmen, engaged from Monday to Satur-
day, for months, perhaps years, in succession, al most
within touch of the assembled senate, must be altoge-
ther intolerable. That is one objection. But if it be
true that so large a sum as 30,0001., is required to put
the two temporary Chambers in order for the transient
use of parliament, the said apartments to be afterwards,
at a fresh expense, converted to other purposes, and
the 30,0001. thus actually thrown away, we only put it
to the good sense and right feelings of Ministers, whe-
ther they can conscientiously sanction so prodigal a
waste of the public funds, in tunes so critical as these;
and in the teeth of their own professions of economy ?
There are places enough, keeping clear of the rub-
bish and ruins of Westminster, to be had, if wanted,
and to be completely fitted for the use of parliament,
at less than ope-tenth of the sum alluded to by our