The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We believe there is no doubt in any reason-
able mind that at the general election, four
months ago, the feelings of the great bulk of the
constituency were in favour of Lord Grey's
Government, as contradistinguished from the
two factions of Tories and Ultra-Radical.
There may have been some persons returned
under the description of outliers upon the skirts
of the above two parties, but of the important
fact there can be no question, that the main body
of the reformed House of Commons was, when
o
ue ced the
o majority atjhoeriir ty
general f
e
first sworn in, decidedly Ministerial, and, being
so, did fairly speak the prevailing sentiments of
the people out of doors. The motive which in-
fln l
goodectorsineothnerncihnoeincte,
of such a House of Commons was simply the
confidence
and of their eagerness to redress all grievances,
inspired by those Ministers who had carried
through the Reform Bill, and who had them.
selves announced that Bill to be but a step-
ping-stone and introduction to every other
useful reform. Now, it seems not altoge-
ther irrational to conjecture, that what the
King's Ministers gained by fidelity to their en-
gagements, they might, by continuing the same
proud course of honour and virtue, have pre-
served to this hour undiminished. Yet, what
appears to be the fact? In Parliament, as the
session advanced, their majorities have been
dwindling from week to week ; and out of Par-
liament their declared supporters have been
roughly handled wherever they showed them-
selves as candidates against Radicals or Tories.
In the city of London, which at the general
election had returned Alderman Waithman, an
avowed friend of' Ministers, a new election was
held for a citizen to supply the place of that
honest and consistent Whig; but instead of Al-
derman Venables, who, besides being a pledged
liberal, and a friend of the Grey Administration,
had recent and considerable claims upon the
favour of the London constituency, Mr. Lyall, a
known Tory, was returned. In Marylebone
Mr. Murray, a professed friend of his Ma-
jesty's Ministers, was set aside with little ap-
parent trouble ; and Sir Samuel Whalley, whose
liberal politics were understood to be of a far
broader and more thoroughgoing character than
those which had lately begun to be ascribed to
the Cabinet, was elected by a large majority.
Mr. Hope, the rankest of the Tory race, was
far ahead of the Ministerial candidate. The
Grey principles were, it seems, more odious
even than those of the Conservative Club. At
Sunderland thefriend of Ministers was signally
defeated.
,At Gloucester itself, where the Whig
I3erkeleys are so strong, a gentleman of that
family, who had just taken office, and had thus

identified his cause with that of Ministers, has
been beaten by a Tory, who himself but a few
short months before had been a rejected suitor.
Why are such things ? We speak of them,
God knows, more in shame and sorrow than in
anger. They are misfortunes—they are blots—
let them, we implore the members of the Go-
vernment—let them be salutary warnings. This
series of ill successes, where all had been hereto-
fore triumphant on the side of the Whigs, ought
to be regarded as an indication that the mind of
the country is undergoing an anti-ministerial
change. It is the part of an independent friend,
more disposed to love a Reform Administration
than to fear it,—it is the part of such a friend
to admonish such a Ministry, that, while there
is yet time, they must recall the people to their
standard, or they will not long have strength
to carry on the government. The public
have often been appealed to on behalf of Mini-
sters, by reason of the difficulties under which
Lord Althorp and his colleagues have been
placed by the keenness and pertinacity of the
opposition in the House of Commons upon the
Irish Coercive Bill. But were not such diffi-
culties in a great degree of their own creation ?
We are not now going to rip up the question as
to the necessity of some coercive measure ; hav-
ing more than once admitted that necessity, we
feel no occasion to retract our words ; but was
there ever a more unfortunate and injudicious
contrast than that which Ministers forced upon
every man's attention, between their eagerness to
pass such a Bill into law, and their seeming re-
pugnance to realize, or even to develop satisfac-
torily any plan of thorough conciliatory reform
for England or Ireland, in affairs of church, or
finance, or administrative policy ? And what
a judgment has such indiscretion brought upon
them ? Had Mr. Stauley or Lord Althorp
come forward in the first instance, and simult,.:.
neously with the proposal of the coercive Bill
opened out a scheme, at once enlarged and defi-
nite, for the readjustment of ecclesiastical inte-
rests of all communions,—for the amendment of
the poor laws, which they ought themselves to
have examined and considered—for the establish-
ment of Irish poor laws—for the relief of factory
children from torture and disease—for the rat),
ral and religious education of the poor of
both countries—for the removal and commu-
tation of odious and inequitable taxes, lung cried
out against by the whole kingdom,—it would
not have been at all required of Ministers that
fot(s of
tlis such
of
hey should proceed at once to discuss and enact,
such measures until after the Coercive Bill had
t
viewspassed;
wouldbut the
have
mere
neutralized
hree.
the opposition to the repressive Bill, so that the
time thus gained would have enabled Ministers
to get on far more rapidly with the other busi-
ness of the session than they have done. Then,
again, the weakness, approaching to childishness,
with which the leaders of the Treasury Bench
have been led by loud a id vehement threats or
invectives from their enemies to yield repeatedly
their own opinions, and to sacrifice their best
feelings, upon matters of paramount importance.
flow can thc. Ministers answer to themselves
their cruel concession of the appointment of a
Committee on the factory question ? Could
any evidence alter the notorious truth that infants
ought not to be worked 12, 13, or 14 hours a-da,y
within a cotton factory ? Can the natur,
things, or the capabilities of human beings be
affected by the swearings of any individuals to
points of mere usage, or of local or personal excep-
ion to wide-spread abuses ? Either the children
are worked beyond the reasonable number of
hours, or they are not. If they be, an Act of
Parliament ought for the future to prevent it ; if
hey be not, such a law would remain a dead
letter, and would do no harm. What have any
extraexaminatio .s before a Committee to do with

:In alternative like this, which, after all, embraces
the entire question? We grieve to reflect that
Ministers, by their facility, their unstatesman-
hsdeibsa
shouldrrset ought
burganhvetevlt)eo,
r.
ake pliability upon so great a question, have
ttle
we
rendered it almost impossible, during the present
year, to bring that much-required .‘ 13111 of. infant
protection" into Parliament, How many lives of
poor helpless little ones may be through this
misplacedlli.,i;v,ivede
tsfie.o,
ilyichsaotht:dtcsiye:
division
concession
of de r eg Tn
pluck,'
theul,

Imbecility is more dangerous to political power
than crime. The man who hesitates, con-
tradicts, or turns " his back upon himself,"
is first laughed at, then despised, then, with-
- 6 titY Biercp tailed" mit.' He cannot stand
by his friends, because he . dares not face his
enemies ; and, with the best and purest inten-
tions, he is eternally like an ugly woman in the
wrong. Why should a department of such
prodigious magnitude, with the most extensive
patronage in the state, be left in the hands of
Lord Hill and Lord F. Somerset, under a
Whig Administration ? The latter of these
Noble Lords may be, and, indeed, has the repute
of being, an excellent man of business; but really
as: it: has been often said, this continued
holding of the Horse Guards by Tories is to
the country such a ridicule upon the Grey Ad-
ministration, such a proof of weakness and sig-
nal of distress, as must encourage every political
antagonist of the Government to raise his hand
and offer it a buffet, either for the sake of di-
rectly overthrowing it, or for that of sharing
those rewards from which, with punctilious
greatness of mind, it excludes all but its adver-
saries-. Once more these observations have been
wrung from us. We see the ground slipping
from under the feet of Ministers. Now, or
never, therefore, when Parliament re-assembles,
is the time to recover their footing.— Times.

The extracts from the information received
by his Majesty's Commissioners as to the admi-
nistration of the poor laws, have laid open the
working of English society in the agricultural
districts in such a manner as to rouse the most
indifferent to the danger of our situation. In this
respect, the publication of these extracts will be
productive of much good. 'We have no fear
for the ultimate result, because property will
always exert itself when matters assume a serious
aspect. We were somewhat astonished to find
a charge of libel against the people of England
urged against the Commissioners by a contem-
porary (the Standard). What ! must we cease
to inquire into the state of the country, because
we may discover unpleasant truths ? Must we
cease to publish lists of commitments, because
the increase of crime may be greater than we
could wish it to be ? Must we refrain from
noticing the working of the bastardy laws, be-
cause they make incontinence the surest road to
marriage ? The following is the accusation of
our contemporary :-
6, We cannot close this subject without referring to an
odious libel upon the character of the English nation,
lately published by authority, under the title of ' Extracts
from the Information received by his Majesty's Commis-
sioners as to the Administration of the Poor Laws.' The
very publication of 'Extracts of Evidence,' in other words,
of garbled evidence, is an offence agait st decency and
truth. 'But this partial and mutilated representation of
the state of our country is by much the lightest offence of
the volume. The most criminal characteristic of the book
is one to which we cannot, with delicacy, particularly
allude. These Commissioners, however, do not scruple to
allege against the females, even in the h gher ranks of the
agricultural class, a growing depravation of morale. (See
page 404.)
Da the persons who make these hateful charges, as
unfounded, we are persuaded, as they are hateful—do the
persons, right reverend, right honourable, and honourable
as they are, who have picked out these nasty morsels for
publication—does the wretched Government which enters
into competition with Messrs. Benbow,&c. &c., in the sale
of such filthy trash, understand the effect produced neces-
sarily by their publication ? If not, we will tell them what
that effect must be.

" The well informed and reflecting will see, that if
families or individuals have descended from the moral
standard of their immediate predecessors, such descent is
easily to he explained, without assuming, as the Commis-
sioners would have us, the existence of any demoralising
principle in the habits or institutions of our country. It
is, we fear, an unhappy truth everywhere, that as we
descend in the scale of society from the middle class, the
restraints upon female imprudence relax in proportion.
It is no less true that the sanctions of religion are more
eminently the gnardiatis of female innocence than of any
other virile. Whatever, then, has tended to. impoverish
the British farmer, has inflicted the greater evil of bring-
ing his family by so much nearer to the contamination of
licentiousness—whatever has taught any class of females
to think lightly of religion, to reject its ordinances, to
slight its Ministers, and regard its temporal establishment
with jealitisy, envy, or hatred, has deprived weak woman
of her only faithful protector. And who are they who
have ruined the British farmer ? Who are they who have
alienated, as far as they could, the minds of the pea-
ple front their religion and their church ? Wbo
are they who have paupeti.ed the people, and, having thus
prepared them I,r depravity, have brought pollution to
their hearths? The vet y men who now expose the
nakedness of the land which they have corrupted. The
men now exulting in the moral havoc that they have
made. We say exulting, for the voice of triumphant
theory breaks out in every page of the volume.
"To produce this feeling, will he the effect of the
extracts' upon every cu'tivated and refh-cting mind ; but
what will he its effect upon the ignorant ? effect of
every like palliation of vice—to promote depravity by
asserting its frequency ; to take away from guilt that
which, in a temporal view, is its most awful terror—the
sense, that it is distinguished, and rare, it nit singular,
and that those stained by it are monstrous excel:viols to
the national character."
On turning to the extracts we find the pas-
sages 6--Jis denounced to lie the following. he)
are in Captain Pringle's report from Cumber-
land :

" It seems not unusual for the daughters of the small
farmers or statesmen, as they are here called (men farming
their own property), to have bastard children, and to come
to tie parish for an allowance.
"It cannot be expected that the overseer will apply for
the punishment of people in this station of life.
" The following extract is from a letter written by the
overseer of the parish of
" We at this time, in our parish, are supporting two
bastard children, whose mothers have landed property of
their own, and would not marry the fathers of their
ildren.
" ' The daughters of some farmers, and even land-
owners, have fastard children. These farmers and land-
owners keep their daughters and children with them, and
regularly keep back their poor-rate to meet the parish al-
lowance for their daughters' bastards. We have no doubt,
the same grievance exists in many other parishes.'
" I c.iuld adduce many townships where one or more
eases of firmer.' daughters receiving such an allowance
had occurred, but shall prefer giving an extract from the
letter of a clergyman of a parish more than twenty miles
from that to which the above refers :
" A very &ff rent description of women have, of late
years, Income the mothers of bastard children ; formerly
it was confined to the daughters of cottagers and girls em-
ployed in farm husbandry ; hot of late very respect able
farmers' daughters have ben in that situation, and applied
to have their offspring taken care of by the parish. As
one plan to remedy the evil, if the Magistrates would im-
pt,,e a larger sum on the mother, although it would not
put ar. end to bastardy, the parish would n,,t be so much
burdened by this numerous description of mothers, as
they would, in many instances, be kept at the expense of
her parents, who, Iron) their mode of management, are
often too Ir.quenthy to blame.'
" In another parish, the clergyman said in one year he
had Wind nine children ; the number of legitimate be
ing only seyen ; they wore almost all of them, however,
the children of women at service out of the parish, re
moved there to lie in. One from Suffolk, at a great
expense.
It was an observation frequently made, that the cus-
tom of hiring firm-servants- to live in the house, leads
frequently to these connections ; and that the certainty of
an allowance of money to the mother, either front the fa-
ther or the parish, encourages it ; whilst in the south, the
contrary system leads to improvident early marriages."
So much for the extracts. And now, are we
to admit, as a principle that we should shut cur
eyes to 0
ur real situation, that all tnanner oI
crimes and irregularities should be passed sub
silentio, in order that the ignorant may be de-
prived of the palliation derived from frequency ?
Or must we discriminate ? Must we procaim
murders, burglaries, robberies, swindlings, Sze.,
loudly to the world, but say nothing of bastardy.

matters? The Scotch Presbyterians took a dif-
ferent course. They made, in all cases, the
guilty do public penance. Male and female
were obliged to mount the cutting-stool, and
endure a cutting rebuke in presence of the whole
congregation. But, in truth, secrecy is out of
the question. In districts like Cumberland, all
that Captain Pringle has told is known to every
man, woman, and child of the different neighbour-
hoods. It happens rather unfortunately for our
contemporary's speculation, as the cause—
namely, the descent from the middle class to the
lower—that Cumberland is one of the districts
of England which is least affected by pauperism.
In fact the primitive manners of the island ceetn
to exist there in greater purity than anywhere
else. As a proof of this, take the following ex-
tract:—

" A mode of farming the poor is common in the
townships to the North and East of Carlisl?, which since
it is, I believe, peculiar to this part of the country, I shall
here notice—namely, to contract with a person for a fixed
sum who undertakes to satisfy all cl iirns of the pauper-
belonging to the township. * * The person
taking the contract has the use of the poorhouse and
ground attached, where tl ere is such an establishment ;
if not he takes the paupers tvhom he cannot satisfy with
a small payment into his own house. They are generally
small farmers, min, who, in many cases, sit down to their
meals with paupers. The custom will cease to appear
extraordinary when it is stated to be usual for the farmer
and his labourers to dine at the same table; and to gise
further proof of the diff,rent state of this part of the king-
dom as compare! with the south, I found the perpetual
curate of a parish lodging and boarding in the hou.e of one
of these contractors. The prevalence of this system of
farming will be sufficient to indicate that magisterial
authority, in ordering relic', is very seldom exercised."

In almost all mountainous districts throughout
Europe, less disgrace is attached to bastards
than in the plains. Lord Kaimes remarks that
there were hardly any females tried for child
murder in the highlands of Scotland though the
crime was common in the lowlands, because
bastardy was not reckoned disgraceful. Accord-
ing to a recent statistical account of Norway
which we possess, the natural children in the
Guldbransdal, a remote mountain district, is as
one to three of the whole births. In Switzer-
land and the hereditary States of Austria great
latitude in this way is allowed to young people.
In the Bavarian Alps, a female will often be the
mother of a tolerably large family before she is
married. Were it not that the clergyman,
Captain Pringle's informant, states that a dif-
ferent description of women in Cumberland
have lately been in the situation alluded to, we
should be inclined to believe that the practices
described by Captain Pringle have long been
common in Cumberland. It is rather the
remnant of old manners, than the introduction of
new. A great many things are taken up on too
slight evidence, and copied by one writer from
another. We have received, for instance, " An
Inquiry into the Expediency of the existing Re-
strictions on the Importation of Foreign Corn,
with Observations on the Present and Social
Prospects of Great Britain, by John Barton,"just
published ; in which there are many valuable
suggestions, and many very rash assumptions. Mr.
Barton, among other rash assumptions, conceives
that the Italian Republics, i❑ the middle ages,
acquired all their wealth without having any se-
curity for property. The very idea is absurd.
But let Mr. Barton look into the writers who
describe the private life of the Italians of those
days—as Sacchetti, Bandelli, Masaccio, and the
host of tale-writers who abound in the minutest
details, and he will see the habitual vigilance of
the Tribunals, and the night and day police.
Many of the tales turn on the shifts of debtors to
keep out of the clutches of bailiffs, the seizure
of property by hard-hearted creditors, Sec.; but
there is no instance of setting the law at defiance,
as we see every day done in Ireland, by the first
gentlemen of the country. In short, Mr. Barton
has taken the exceptions for the rule. Another
crotchet of Mr. Barton is, that the wealth or
poverty of Switzerland is stationary, arising from
there being no increase of the numbers of the
people. Little does he know of Switzerland.
We possess a volume, published some years ago,
by a Mr. Kasthofer, one of the Senators of
Berne, giving an account of the condition of the
peasantry of the extensive Highlands of Berne,
called the Ober-land. The population had di-
vided and subdivided every patch of ground,
till families had descended from keeping of cows
to keeping of sheep, and at last the ultimatum of
misery to the subsisting on one or two goats. In
most of the districts of Switzerland the pressure of
population is severely felt. The poor-rates are
heavy, and the laws of settlement extremely strict.
In fact, there are few parts of Europe where the
people suffer more severely that► in the moun-
tainous tracts of Switzerland. Heavy taxes on
marriage by way of preventive are common.
We cannot conclude these .desultory observa-
tions without remarking that Mr. Barton shows,
that when a district loses a particular source of
employment, the superfluous hands do not
emigrate, and that political economists, in their
calculations of profit and loss, are but too \apt
to lose sight of the permanent loss arising from
the above cause. " The county of Sussex (he
observes) was formerly the seat of a flourishing
iron-manufacture. The progress of smelting
the ore with coke was not then known ; and
coal cannot be employed for this purpose, on
account of the sulphur which it contains ; the
abundance of wood in Sussex, as well as of
iron stone, consequently gave to this county an
advantage over others in the preparation of iron.
When the process of smelting with coke was
discovered, the iron manufacture naturally passed
to the coal districts; wood being a much more
expensive fuel than coal. Owing to this,
combined with other unknown causes, Sussex
has been long overburdened with population,
and with poor-rates more than any other county.
Yet this excess exhibits not the slightest tendency
to relieve itself by migration, even in those pa-
rishes most heavily oppressed. In the parish of
Rogate, there are from 50 to 100 able labourers
at all times without regular employ, and the
rates amounted in it last year to twenty-four
shillings on the pound. The neighbouring pa-
rishes of Hastings, Midhurst, Billingshurst, and
many more, are neatly in the same state. In
the parish of Hastings, which I lately visited, in
company with one of the Poor Law Commis-
sioners, I inquired of the parishioners assembled
in Vestry, whether half the existing population
would not suffice for performing all the work to
be done ? They answered, without hesitation,
yes. Why do not these superfluous hands go
to seek employment at Manchester or Glas-
gow ? Or rather, why did not their fathers or
grandfathers go long ago ? Sussex is still as
much over-peopled as when its iron manufacture
ceased to exist, nearly a century ago. How
long 'a time should we allow for the population
to accommodate itself to that much greater re-
duction which would take place in the demand
for labour, in throwing open the corn trade ?”
We think we can take it on ourselves to say,
that in all the districts of England, where there
is any considerable redundancy of population,
the cause is to be found in the shifting of
manufactures- Thus, the manufactures of Bucks,

l3erks, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Kent, Sussex,
and the west of England, have mostly left their
seats for the north of England ; but a miser able
population remains, and the respective districts
Are permanently afflicted with a redundancy of
inhabitants. Sufficient attention has not hitherto
been paid to this circumstance.--Morn. Chron.

A corrected copy of the speech of Mr. T
Attwood, for an inquiry into the state of the
country, is before us; and an eloquent speech it
is. Its eloquence, however, and its object, are
the only points about it which we can conscien
tiously praise; for in all other respects it is not
only precisely the reverse of what we ex-
pected to have found it, hut the very reverse
of what it ought to have been. It is declama-
tory in the highest degree—full of exaggeration
and mistatement, and wholly unsupported in it,
details by any official documents. Of its ex-
aggerations the following samples may suffice :

„ .
The .ituation of the people of England,'says it, ” may
b. very shortly described, —one-half of them are obliged to
toil more than human na,ure can bear, and the other half
have no employment at all. Those who have employment,
too, work for such low wage., that they are actually dying
by incites in the hope of living. The others wander from
door to door begging for leave to toil.' "
Again, in the following page, we find the
following more detailed statement:—

" I have slid that agriculture is in a state of extreme
distreas. I am prepared to show that the poverty of
tarmera and agticutturista generally, consequent upon thei,
paying paper rents and taxes in golden money, has com-
pelled them to destroy the fertility of the earth. lam
prepared to prove, by indubitable evidence, that the whole
of England, in the course of the last seventeen years, has
been injured to the extent of one-fifth of its productive
power, which, when we look to the mere agricultural
wealth of England, is like cutting off the whole of the
land north of the Humber, and casting it into the sea. If
I book to the present state of manufactures, I find I havo
no better prospect before me If I look to the manufac
tures of iron, lead, or copper—if I look to the cloth and
woollen trade,—if I look to the cotton trade—in short, if
I to any branch of industry, I find that the wages
paid to workmen are exceedingly low, and that the profits
are almost, if not quite, annihilated—in some cases they
are even worse."

The state of the country is bad enough in all
conscience ; but it is not quite so bad as Mr.
Attwood has represented it to be. There may
be many on " short commons ;" but we are not
yet in the situation, to use Mr. Attwood's words,
" when every man looks in his neighbour's eyes
and wishes for his death." Such extravagant
exaggerations invariably defeat the very end for
which they are employed, and we cannot but
regret that Mr. Attwood should have so far
forgot the dictates of a sound policy as to have
compromised the interests of a great public
question by condescending to arts which better
befit the rhetorician than the legislator. Al-
though, however, we must condemn what
we deem to be the exaggerations of
Mr. Attwood, we must, nevertheless, cor-
dially join with him, not only in de-
manding inquiry into the state of the coun-
try, but in ascribing that state, be what it
may, to a mischievous interference with the
currency more than to any other cause. Inquiry
cannot possibly do harm, whether it be or be
not productive of good. It may prove the fal-
lacy of the notions entertained by the " currency
doctors ;" but that is a matter which we care
not for— it is the truth upon the subject that is
the thing desired, and provided an inquiry aid
in its di-covery, we care not whose preconceived
notions it may overturn. Without inquiry the
country neither will, or ought to be, satisfied ;
and we trust that when the motion is again re-
newed for it, Ministers will have the good sense
to accede to it at once, and with a good grace.
—Morning Advertiser.
The great, the all-pervading, and inexcusable
fault of the present Ministers is, that they have
totally failed to accommodate themselves and
their measures to the altered state of the repre-
sentation, of which they have been themselves,
so much to their honour, the authors. We see
the time of Parliament almost exclusively taken
up in receiving countless crowds of petitions.
And why so ? Because the Government, in-
stead of anticipating the fair expectations of the
people, leave them every thing to ask for. In
fact, after having reformed the Parliament, they
appear to have imagined that the whole machinery
of public affairs could go on as before. Now if
Ministers, instead of meeting the new Parlia li
-
ment, as they appear to have done, without any
settled or matured plan of proceedings, had
announced, either in the King's Speech, or on
the first subsequent opportunity, a determination
to investigate, calmly and specifically, the
grievances under which the country labours;
had they, for instance, expressed their de-
termination to investigate thoroughly the
whole system of taxation of the country,
with a view to equalise the burden ; had
they determined to court investigation into
the result of those theories of currency and
free trade which have brought so much ruin on
the country ; had they, while they resolved to
coerce the disaffected spirit in Ireland, resolved
to probe her wrongs to the bottom, and to re-
medy those two great sources of them—the ab-
sence of landowners and the absence of poor
laws ; had they, we say, manfully announced
their intention to look these and the other great
interests of the country in the face, the country
would, in the first instance at least, have given
them credit for their intentions, and would have
waited silently, though eagerly, the fruition, of
their hopes. We do not say that it is yet too
late to accomplish this; but in the meanwhile
much time and opportunity and confidence have
been lost. The present short recess of Parlia-
ment will enable Ministers to look hack upon
the two useless and unavailing months of the
session which have passed. We heartily wish
that this period of reflections may show them
where the error lies ; and that, knowing it, they
may correct it.—Morning Herald.

Throughout the country we observe the rapid
decline of Whig influence, and the proportionate
advancement of those conservative principles by
which the destinies of England must again be
ruled ere the country can be rescued from the
deplorable state in which it has been involved
by an imbecile faction, which has brawled itself'
into power, and endeavours to retain it by eter-
nally pleading " good intentions" as an excuse
for its regular series of blundering. But a few
days have elapsed since Sunderland gave evidence
of the re-action of the public mind in the return
of Alderman Thompson. Gloucester has followed
close glorious result, and Mr. Hope,
a
the
of
acknowledged integrity, talent,
and wealth, has been chosen to represent its
interests in the Commons' House. These
triumphs are the more gratifying as having been
accomplished in the very teeth of Ministerial
L
influence. We rejoice to find the people at
length appreciating at its real value a sys-
Lem of Government the direct tendency of
which is to prostrate the energies of the
country, to ruin its commerce, and to de-
prive it for ever of that proud pre.emi-
lit has hitherto maintained among the
lile'ale
ticons of the earth. Such men as Mr. Hope,
who have a large stake in the country, will pursue

a very different course to that adopted by those
who, to retain power, would humble to the
rabble, although the result should be ruin and
revolution. They are not like those political
adventurers whose restless poverty urges them
to experimentalize with the property of others,
reckless of the mischief they may cause the com-
munity at large so long as they themselves are
not the sufferers. We doubt not, when opportu-
nity offers, the example of London, of Sunder-
land, and of Gloucester will be generally fol-
lowed by all those constituencies who, under the
influence of a momentary delusion, have sent
violent democrats or political bigots to represent
the interests of commerce and agriculture.—
Morning Post.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HO USE.

SACRlLEGE.—Yesterday the churchwarden and
other officers of the parish of Allhallows, London-
wall, at the Justice-room, upon the
subject of the plunder of the communion plate, and
produced a letter, to which they seemed to attach
some importance, and which was addressed to the
Beadle, who has been exerting himself for the dis-
covery of the thieves :

" April S.
" Sir,—lf you have any interest in the recovery of cer-
tain property which you missed from your church, the
writer can give you information whereby you may recover
the same uninjured, provided you recompense the writer
by paying to him one-fourth of the value of the same.
Should you wish any further communication on the sub-
ject, addreis a line to V. T., Blue Anchor, Bromley,
Middlesex, to be left (post paid) till called for.' The
writer being fly to all the moves of the gentlemen of your
profession, begs to warn you of the inutility of attempting
to regain the aforesaid property, except by a written com-
munication. Should you endeavour to lay wait for the
party calling for your answer, &c., I would inform you
that I am wide awake, no green 'on, and you'll find it no
go. You'll be watched, and if you show this letter to
Sir Peter, or any other magisterial cove, you may save
yourself the trouble of writing. I shall know all. An
early answer required--Yours, &c."
The churchwarden stated to his Lordship, that
the parish authorities were determined not, under
any circumstances whatever, to compromise so atro-
cious a case of robbery, a course which, if pursued
generally, would have the effect of diminishing the
number of robberies.

The LORD MAYOR declared that compromises in
cases of felony were productive of the worst con-
sequences; at the same time that the temptation to
a serious loser to recover his property must be ad-
mitted to be very great. Mr. Wheeler showed ex-
traordinary power in resisting a temptation of the
kind, as he had been offered the restoration of all
the property which bad been stolen out of his ware-
house hi Bartlett's-buildings for less than 4001.
The parish officers said, that however advan-
tageous the terms of compromise might be, they
would never think of acquiescing in them.
The LORD MAYOR observed, that the letter had
all the symptoms of a hoax upon it. If thieves
wanted to negotiate they would do it through
attorneys, and not through the medium of the
two-penny post ; and those who would consent to
negotiate under such circumstances were, in his opi-
nion, as bad as the thieves themselves,although he
knew some of them who held their heads very high.
Perrin, the bell-ringer of Allhellaws Church, was
then put to the bar for a second examination on sus-
picion of having been concerned in the crime of
sacrilege.

An old feeble woman, named Mary Chapel, had
been sextoness of Allhallows Church nineteen
years. She was disturbed almost our of her life at
the robbery. She went into the church a little after
6 on Sunday morning, locked herself in, and after
making the fires, laid the communion cloths and
spread the plate. The prisoner came in after, and
after standing a short time before the fire, went up
to the bellfry and rung the 8 o'clock bell; he then
came down, and after having been in the church no
more than a quarter of an hour altogether, went
away ; she had seen nobody with him.
The gravedigger (a man of cadaverous appearance)
was then called upon to give evidence, and he spoke
as follows :—l've been gravedigger, please your
Lorthhip, man and boy, upwards of twenty years, at
Allhallows and Ethelburgh; and as I was'ilt able to
wind up all these here church accounts myself, I
engages Jack Hattles to assist me; so I comes down
of Sunday morning last as ever was, Hot for to dig
the graves, please your Lordship, but for to take the
money as they gives for a digging of the graves,and
it was then jist neither more nor less than twenty
minutes afore 8. So Mrs. Chapels she pays me a
shilling and two sixpences, which was all the porta-
ble money I had about ine.—(Laughter.)
The LORD MAYOR—Did you see anybody about
the premises besides Mrs. C)apel? Witness—l saw
a man a cleaning of the sconces.
It was proved to the satisfaction of the Lord
Mayor, that the intelligent grave-digger had con-
founded Saturday and Sunday, and his evidence, as
well as that of his brother of the churchyard, who
delivered himself of some " crowner's quest law"
upon the occasion, was dispensed with. " Please
you, my Lord," said tae, " I went along wi' my em-
ployer for to get the money as he specked of, and
so, my Lord, when he got it from the Missis he
corned away."
The LORD MAYOR—Did you see any more there
besides your comrade ? Gravedigger—No, please
your Lordship, barrin Mrs. Chapel.—(Laughter.)
Thomas West, a coachman, at about twenty-five
minutes to nine o'clock was near the church, and
saw a tallish, stout man, with a blue coat and dark
trousers, come out of the church. He, at the same
time, saw a man standing at the bottom of the steps.
The man walked away towards Broad-street ;
neither the prisoner nor either of the gravediggers
was one of them. Witness thought he should be
able to recognise the tall man.

The LORD MAYOR then told the prisoner that he
was at liberty—that there was no imputation upon
his character—but, at the same time, that his assist-
ance in detecting the thieves was most certainty
expected.
THE ROBBERY UPON Mr. VALPY'S PREMISES.--
Bewick, the old man, some days ago charged with
having received some hundreds of printed sheets,
the property of Mr. Valpy, the printer, was again
brought up for final examination, and fully com-
mitted for trial.
MARLBORO U GIL STREET.

A BEGGING IMPOSTER.—A very well-dressed fo-
reigner, who gave his name Antonio Lippe, was
brought before Mr. CONANT en the following
charge :—Mr. Seymour, a gentleman residing in
Grosvenor-street, said, that on Monday last the pri-
soner came up to him, and addre-sing him in Ita-
lian, represented himself to have been shipwrecked,
and as all his property was lost, he was unable to
reach his native country for want of means. He
concluded his story, which had every appearance of
truth, by soliciting some assistance, which witness
complied with, by presenting him with half-a-
crown. The prisoner was walking away, after
pocketing the money, when a gentleman came up
and stopped him, informing witness at the same time
that lie suspected he had been imposed upon, as tie
had relieved the prisoner himself about six months
ago, upon a similar statement, and he had every
reason to suspect that the prisoner had for a length
of time been carrying on a very successful system of
imposition. Witness immediately informed the
prisoner of his suspicions; and, upon stating that
he would give him into the custody of a police
officer, in order to have the truth of his story ascer-
tained, the prisoner returned the half-crown, and
pretended that Mr. Seymour had misunderstood
him ; asserting that he did not ask for money, but
he only wished to thank him for some assistance he
had rendered some time ago to a friend.
Mr. CONANT put several questions to the prisoner,
to elicit, if possible, where his residence was; but
tile prisoner refused to answer them, and at first
pretended that he was unacquainted with the Eng•
lish language. Information having been given that

a smartly-dressed young female, and a man, were in
the neighbourhood of the office, who had been very
particular in their inquiries respecting the prisoner,
Mr. CONANT directed that they should be brought
before him for the purpose of being questioned.
When they made their appearance, Mr. Conant was
informed by the female that she was the prisoner's
wife, and that their place of abode was in Leather-
lane. It turned out, however, from information
obtained by questioning the man, that the proper
address of the prisoner was in Saffron-hill.
Mr. CONANT, wishing to come at the real history
of the prisoner, despatched a note to Mr. Capper,
of the Alien-office, which was answered by that gen-
'leman in person, %vb.() stated that some time ago the
prisoner was sent to the Alien-office from Queen-
..quare police-offic.e, where he had been accused of
ittempting a species of imposition similar to the pre-
sent charge. The prisoner had then given his
name Antonio Philipe.
Mr. CONANT said it was clear the prisoner had
been obtaining a living by improper practices, and
he should, therefore, send him to the House of Cor•
rection for one month.

MATRIMONIAL MISERIES.—Simon Page, a little
harmless-looking journeymen tailor, complained to
Mr. Dyer that his wife, a sturdy amazon of twenty
stone, had given him a sound beating on Sunday
night. Mr. Page, who evidently stood in bodily
fear of the prowess of his spouse, in doleful accents
informed the Magistrates that for some years past
his wife had been in the habit of attacking him,
both with fiat and foot, and that latterly she had
addicted herself so inveterately to drink, that all
his earnings found their way to the gin-shop. The
worst part of the business was, that when she
reached a particular state of elevation, it was her
constant custom to amuse herself by thumping him
about the room with his own sleeve-board. On
Sunday morning last, discovering that his brawaey
helpmate had drank herself to the point of pugnacity,
he ran out of the house, and went to enjoy his pot and
Iris pipe in peace, at a neighbour's. He returned home
at a late hour, hoping to find his spouse in bed ; but
when he got into the room, he discovered, to hisgreat
dismay, his better half seated with a she gossip at the
table, on which was a full pot of half-and-half. Its
wife handed the pot to him ; but, seeing the sta e
she was in, he refused to drink ; upon which she
rose up, and, opening the door, ordered him to walk
out of the room; " or (said she) I'm blessed if I
don't kick you out." On refusing to quit the room
at such a time of night, she, without further parley,
floored him with a straight left-hander; which ad-
vantage was improved by the other lady throwing
her arms about his neck and hugging him, with all
the force and effect of a Russian bear. He roared
lustily for assistance, which having at length arrived,
he was rescued from the clutches of the two vira-
goes. The complainant reminded Mr. Dyer that
on more than one occasion before, he had been
compelled to apply to him for protection against the
violence of his wife.

Mr. DYER recollected that such had been the
case; and, though it was rather more usual to hear
of wives complaining of their husbands than to find
the husbands complaining of being beaten by their
wives, yet he did not see why protection should not
be as readily afforded in one case as in the other.
" All I want, your Worship (said the complain-
ant), is to be separated from her. I'll take the three
children, and undertake to do for them, if my wife
will promise to do for herself."
The Magistrate said, it was not in his power to
comply with the complainant's wishes; but as the
violent conduct of the wife must be restrained, he
should order her to find bail.
MAR Y LEB ONE.

ROBBERY AND ATTEMPT AT SUlClDE.—Yesterday
Il'illi ant Oliver was brought up under the following
circumstances :—The prisoner lodged at 18, College-
street, West Camden-town, arid the other lodgers
have lately lost several articles of wearing apparel
and other property. The servant, on making the
prisoner's bed, on Monday, found ;t purse. containing
seventeen duplicates, some of them for articles
which had been missed by the other lodgers, and he
was, consequently, given into custody.
Mr. Beverley, a student of the Veterinary Col-
lege, deposed to having lost a coat, trousers, and
other articles from his room.

Mr. Crea, of 18, Portlmid-street, Soho, surgeon,
deposed to having lost his watch a few days ago,
when he visited Mr. Beverley, and slept at his house.
It appeared that the prisoner, when locked up in
the station-house, made an attempt to destroy him-
self. The policeman on duty heard a gurglingnoise,
and on opening the door of the cell, saw the prisoner
lying down with hi: braces tied tightly round his
neck, and his face black and dreadfully distorted.
The prisoner wai committed.