The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-10 00:00:00

I
THE NEW YEAR.
(From the Derbyshire Courier.)
We cannot allow the occasion of the publication of
our first number for the year 1851 to pass, without
returning our best thanks to our friends and sub•
scribers for the very encouraging support which we
heve received during the past year. Our circulation
during, that period has been much larger than that of
any preiiens year since the commencement of the
Courier, in 1828. This is the best possible evidence
that our labours have been eppreciated by the public.
And in thus speaking we accord to our friends,
equally with ourselves, their fair share of approbation.
The great English moralist has said justly that
" We who live to please must please to live."
The venality of the public press is frequently re-
marked on, but let the public ask themselves
what do they do to encourage a manly, inde-
pendent tone of feeling in these who provide
them with information and tender their sugges-
tions on passing events. It is, however, our belief
that the growing intelligence of the time is daily
seeking, from the public press, something more than
an echo of the opinions or prejudices of parties or
clases. Acting en this belief, it Les been cur en-
deavour to advocate Truth rather than Party, and the
general welfare than the advantage of any section of
the community. It has been our sincere wish to lead
our readers to the consideration of w hat we believed
to be a just and right view of public affairs, rather
than by holding in the beaten track of public opi-
nion and flattering preconceived notions, to secure
support. The result has shown that we were not
mistaken, and that the public is prepared to record its
approbation to the journalist who honestly, boldly,
and independently makes the promotion of the general
weal his first object.
It is unnecessary for us to particularise the line
taken by the Courier on the general or local topics
which have been recently brought under discussion.
According to the Nonconformist and the member of
the Romish Church that liberty of conscience, and
those rights of citizenship which are man's unalien-
able birthright, we have thought it our duty when
the subjects of church-rates and repel aggression
were brought before us, to uphold what appeared to
us the just demands of the English Church, and to re-
sist the unjust, unwise, and tyrannical usurpation of
the Church of Rome.

As to secular affairs, we have every reason to be
satisfied with the prominent part we have taken in
attempting to direct public attention to the important
question of monetary reform. We do not regard that
subject as one of mere philosophical inquiry, but as
involving in its practical effects the best interests of
all classes—high and low—of the community. If it
were merely an abstract question we should leave
it to the investigation and research of learned and
scientific men. It is because we believe it to be in-
timately connected both with the prtservation of the
noblest institutions of the nation, and with the wel-
fare and happiness of the great masses of the people,
that we so earnestly advocate this question. In doing
so we have attempted to render a difficult subject
plain and intelligible to all thinking men of ordinary,
cepacity—and this, we think, not without a consider-
able measure of success.

We need not further remind our friends of the
exertions which we have made to lay before them re-
ports of various public meetings during the past year,
to an extent equalled by not many of our provincial
contemporaries ; nor of the amount of original corre-
spondence on many interesting and important topics
which, by the kindness of our friends, has appeared in
our columns. We *dial! continue to do all in our
power to support the character which, we are happy
to think, the Courier has obtained. _ _

Finally, we beg leave with sentiments of grateful
acknowledgment, to wish to our friends in this county
and in the various parts of the country, to which our
labours extend, a very happy new year.

BEER-POTS.-IMPORTANT IN VENTION.

Yesterday an invention, deserving of the serious
attention of licensed victuallers, was brought under
the notice of Mr. Paynter, at Wandsworth Police-
court.

It is a generally known fact that the licensed vic-
tuallers of London and its suburbs are sufferers to a
ruinous extent by the wholesale plunder of their
pewter pots, and that the facility of the disposal of
the metal, either in its manufactured or fused state, is
a matter of no difficulty. Not a week passes but a
case of pot-stealing arises, and the statements made
in some instances of their losses by licensed victuallers
would be deemed hyperbolical if facts did not bear
them out ; and as a proof of the extent to which this
system of plunder is carried, it may be stated that on
one occasion a licensed victualler of Westminster
proved that in one month he was robbed of eleven
dozen of pots.
To remedy or, in fact, to annihilate this great evil,
has been the Earnest desire of the police magistrates,
and various have been the suggestions thrown out by
them, even to not lending out their pewter pots ; but
the licensed victuallers are convinced that it would be,
in a measure, the ruin of their trade.
It is twelvemonths since Mr. Paynter, after com-
mitting a man for stealing at one time no less than
twelve pots, belonging to different licensed victuallers,
all of which had been cut up and flattened, said to the
prosecutors present that there many very clever men
who, if the licensed victuallers united and offered a
rev, and of 1001. for a measure that could not be cut
and doubled up, like the present pewter measure, and
were otherwise difficult to destroy, he had no doubt
they would speedily obtain what they wanted, and the
evil would entirely cease.

Yesterday Mr. Samuel Stocker, of Arthur-street,
New Oxford-street, hydraulic engineer and beer-
engine manufacturer, waited upon Mr. Paynter, and
addressing that gentleman, stated that in consequence
of his noticing two reports of cases of stealing li-
censed•victuallers' pots, under the head of " Wands-
worth," in the Morning Advertiser, twelve months
since, he had determined on renewing some experi-
ments he had tried some four years since in manu-
facturing a pewter pot or measure for licensed vic-
tuallers, which, whilst retaining all the properties of
the article in use, should be so made as to be in-
capable of being cut, bruised, or flattened; and what
was still more important, unavailable for melting, and
consequently valueless to the thief. Mr. Stocker
continued his observations respecting his invention,
explaining the process of manufacture, and concluded
by producing samples of pots or measures he had ma-
nufactured and patented. They were certainly to all
appearance superior in style and durability to the
present measures, and will, according to the inventor's
account, be much cheaper. Mr. Stocker said the
worthy magistrate had by his remarks induced him
to persevere, and he had therefore done himself the
honour of exhibiting to his Worship, in the first in-
stance, the fruits of his invention, although not alto..
gether in a perfected state.
Mr. Paynter expressed himself highly gratified,
observing it was only on the previous ,day he saw
some pots exposed at a door, which brought to his
recellection how desirable it would be that something
similar to what he had suggested should be brought
out, little thinking that he should see the very thing
that day. He thought it a very great benefit to the
licensed victuallers, and the sooner such an invention
was adopted the better for the morals of the people.
The licensed victuallers would then escape any ohance
of fine for their pots being deficient in measure, and
crime would be much lessened.—Advertiser.