The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-10 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 10, 1851.

the question, said it was perfectly true that it
had been thought necessary to increase the number
of the metropolitan police force in consequence
of the influx of strangers which the Great Ex-
hibition was likely to draw to the metropolis ; but
the increase would be only for a limited period.—(Hear,
hear.) With regard to the question of expense, the
Royal Commissioners of the Exhibition would be re-
quired—in fact, had agreed—to pay a portion of
the expense, that was, the expense of the
police force engaged in guarding the building,
and in keeping the avenues and park in order;
while the Royal Agricultural Society. who proposed
to hold an exhibition near the same spot, had
also agreed to pay part of the expense.
Any additional force that would be required for the
streets would, of course, have to be paid for out of the
general fund.—(Hear, hear.) With regard to the next
question, namely, as to whether any intimation had yet
been made to foreign powers, that their subjects whilst
visiting this country would not be allowed to wear side
arms, the police authorities thought that no danger was
to be apprehended from that course, and therefore that
intimatio❑ had not been made.—(Hear, hear.) Should
such an intimation be necessary, there would be ample
time to make it.—(Hear )
THE STAMP ACT.

Mr. M. J. O'CONNELL wished to know whether
Government intended to bring in any Bill to emend that
part of the Stamp Act of last session which confines the
trial of offences under that Act to the Court of Exche-
guar in England?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER replied
in the negative, as the restriction only applied to cases
of a particular nature, which the Act itselt created.
ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES—ADJOURNED
DEBATE.

On the order of the day for resuming the adjourned
debate on this Bill,
Mr. REYNOLDS said, in rising for the purpose of
explaining his reason for opposing the motion of the Noble
Lord the First Lord of the Treasury, he felt he had con-
siderable difficulties to contend with. Indeed he thought
when he took into consideration those difficulties he migh
call them legion; and arranging them in numerical order
he begged to remind the House that in the first instance
he had to contend with a gigantic and powerful opposi-
tion. He meant the temporalities of the Established
Church; and when be referred to the Established
Church, he begged to be specifically understood
as not referring to that Establishment in its
spiritual capacity. With its spiritual capacity he had
nothing whatever to do. Conscientiously dissenting
from its religious creed, he conceded to it those privi-
leges which he claimed for himself, to worship God ac-
cording to the dictates of his conscience. With its
temporalities he had much to do,because he believed to the
position of those temporalities he might safely attribute
all the insults that bad been offered to his creed, and all
the disturbances which within the last few months had
disgraced the character of certain persons in this coun-
try. He hoped the House would grant him its indul-
gence, differing as he did with the majority of the
House. And what did be find? This gigantic
church, established with its head on Canterbury,
and extending over the whole of England and Wales—
one hand rested upon the Land's-end, another grasped at
John-o'- Groats. He found that in Scotland there were
six bishops of the English Church assuming titles, ma
if he crossed St. George's Channel, pursuing the me
caphor, he found one heel resting on Cape Clear an(
another on the Giant's Causeway. Wncn he considered
that the Established Church possessed in Englati(
5,000,0001. per annum, with 1,200 benefices, and
Ireland halt a million, with 1,500 benefices, then he felt
justified in saying that be had considerable enemies ti
contend with. Be believed that much of the disunion
and disturbance might be attributed to these temporali-
ties. It bad been said that the whole people of Englane
bad protested against this step, but he did not believe
that the whole of England had stirred in the matter
The charchman had shouted at the top of his voice,
but the working class, the bone and sinew of England.
had stood entirely aloof from the quarrel.
Re appealed to the common sense of the people, b)
whom at last justice would be done. The word aggres-
sion had been frequently made use of in this agitation.
and, as he contended, without foundation. He had lookeo
in the dictionary to see what the word meant, and he
found it defined as " the commencement of a quarrel.'
Now, he was told that his Holiness the Pope had coin
neenced a quarrel with this country, but he denied this
in toto. The quarrel had been commenced by the
Church of England. The Pope had done nothing
more than what he had a right to do. He ha('
published a bull metamorphosing vicars-apostolic int(
bishops.—(Hear, hear.) Bat then it was said that
the Pope had conferred territorial power upon these ec-
clesiastics. They might as well say that the man in the
moon could confer territorial power, as easily as a poten-
tate who was the weakest in Europe. It was absurd to
say so. The real aggression was that which was now at-
tempted to be made upon the Roman Catholics of Ireland.
When Catholic emancipation was granted, one condition
was exacted from the Roman Catholics of Ireland, which
was that they should give up the 40s. franchise, and the;
the 101. should be substituted. Now he (Mr. Reynolds)
was told that in 1851, twenty-one years after Catholic
emancipation had passed, that her Majesty's Govern
meat meant to introduce a measure to deprive the
Roman Catholics of Ireland from the benefit of that
compact. No Catholic bishop bad power, by the
Bill, to assume any title in a Protestant
diocese under a penalty of 1001.; that was part of the
Catholic Emancipation Bill, and no Catholic
bishop had ever violated that rule. Now, how-
ever, the Noble Lord at the head of he►
Majesty's Government proposed that it should
be penal for any Roman Catholic bishop to Gall himself
of er the name of any diocese or place in the United
Kingdom. He (Mr. Reynolds) called the proposed Bili
a violation of the compact entered into between
the Government and the Roman Catholics
when Catholic Emancipation was granted. Thu Noble
Lord bad said that in the year 1829 an address had
been issued by twenty-six Roman Catholic bishops,
thanking the Legislature for the benefits which had
been conferred upon them, and the Noble Lord
bad said it would have been will if Drs. Machete
and Cullen had imitated their example. There was.
however, no analogy between the cases, for the twenty-
six bishops had received privileges, but the present Roman
Catholic bishops had no privileges to thank Government
for but for penalties. The Hon. Member for Norwich
(Mr. Peto), when he seconded the Address, had said that
the Roman Catholics themselves would be benefited by
by the proposed Bill, and he had said that several
Roman Catholics of distinction were on the side of the
Government, and he mentioned the names of the Duke
of Norfolk, Lord Camoys, and Lord Beaumont. He
(Mr. Reynolds) had great respect for the Duke of
Norfolk, but in matters of religion he felt much re-
spect for those from whom ho received spiritual
advice and assistance. He (Mr. Reynolds) as a Roman
Catholic refused to be bound by the opinions of the Duke
of Norfolk or Lord Cemoye, and as for Lord Beaumont
there was no member of the peerage for whose opinion i
religions matters he had less respect. The Hon.andn
Learned Member for Youghal (Mr. C. Anstey) had
said there were two kinds of Roman Catholics—one
was the Roman Catholic of the Church of Rome, the
other the Roman Catholic of the Court of Rome; and
he (Mr. Anstey) belonged to the Catholics of the
Church of Rome. Now he (Mr. Reynolds), although
not deeply read, had always thought that he understood
the cardinal points of his creed, and yet he had never
heard of the distinction referred to by the Hon. and
Learned Member for Youghal. However, it was clear
that his Hon. and Learned Friend belonged to the
Roman Catholics of the Church of Rome and of the
Court of Rome, for the late Pope Gregory X VI. had
conferred the order of St. Gregory upon him, and the
proper title of the Hon. and Learned Member for
Youghal was Sir Chisel-em Anstey.—(Loud laughter.)
The Hon. Gentleman had said that if the Catholic
hierarchy was established in this country the canon law
of the Church of Rome would be revived. Now, al-
though he (Mr. Reynolds) was not a lawyer, yet he
challenged the Hon. and Learned Member for Youghal
to prove his assertion to the satisfaction of any lawyer.
It was an assertion which he (Mr. Reynolds) utterly
and entirely disagreed with. The Roman Catholic
bishops would not have any more power now than they
had as vicars apostolic. With respect to the order
of St. Gregory conferred on the Hon and. Learned Mem,
ber for Youghal. If he did not tell the House for wha

services that order was conferred he (Mr. Reynolds) would
take the earliest opportunity of doing so. No one—
especially no Irishman—could refer to this ques•
tion, without referring to the memorable latter
_ _

of the Noble Lord at the head of her Majesty's Govern:
ment to the Bishop of Durham. He had a double reason
for referring to that letter,—first, because it had caused

him (Mr. R.) some astonishment when he read.the_tern-3;

certainly not very complimentary in which the Noble
Lord referred to his (Mr. Reynolds's) creed. The se-
_

cond, why he referred to the letter was because it had
occasioned him (Mr. Reynolds) some pecuniary loss.
Ever since he had been a Member of the House of

Commons, he had given his invariable and steady sup-
port to the Noble Lord at the head of the Government

—(Hear, hear, and loud laughter)—at least so far as the
doing so was consistent with the exercise of his public
conscience.—(Laughter.) Shortly after the publication
of that celebrated letter, he had met with one of
his constituents, who was in the habit of
doing that which he (Mr. Reynolds) was not
in the habit of doing that of betting. His friend had
asked him whether he had seen his friend, Lord John
Russell's letter; he replied, "Yes." He had certainly
seen a letter with Lord John Russell's name at the
bottom of it, but it was a forgery, it was not genuine.
I'll bet you a sovereign," said his friend, " Done,"
said I (Mr. Reynolds). It was not necessary
for him to tell the House that he was done.—(Roars of
laughter.) But the Hon. Gentleman (the Member for
Limerick) had stated his bell( f that the letter in ques-
tion contained matter which, if it did not refute itself,
would at least be serviceable to the Church in Ireland.
They said that it would—that is, that the letter would—
largely tend to prevent the increase of Catholicism. For
that purpose the Noble Lord's letter was intended.
He would apply that to his own ct:ae. There was not
throughout all England a more zealous Catholic, than
himself, and he wouid therefore suppose that the Noble
Lord's letter, and still more his speech, had warned
them against any increase of the Pope's power. Iu that
speech the Noble Lord had asserted that it e as
the custom. of all ecclesiastical communities to
encroach upon the temporal authorities.--(Hear.
hear.) To this he most contcieniiuusly and readily
acceded. If it was the case with most ecclesiastical
harly the case with the church of Rome to which he
com-
munities, it was, as tlae Noble Lord had stated, pew-
(llr. Reynolds) belonged.—(llear, hear, and ironical
cheers.) There was not a Protestant. inside that House,
or outside of it, who was more opposed to that encroach-
ment than himself.—(Hear, hear.) In his opinion
there was nothing that dam ed religion more than its
connexion with the State, Re might tisy there was
ag

nothing that he regretted more, and he could assert
that be wished from his heart that the Pore wa, not,
and never had been, a temporal Prince. It was
the connexien of his own crs ed with the State
which bad damaged it through all time.—(Hear.) But
while saying thus much he was not prepared to assert
that a church should receive no assistance
When they came across the Channel the case was very
different. In England the Roman Catholic population
did not contribute more than 5 p, r cent. of the whole
number of the inhabitants. In England, for more
chars three hundred years, ever since the
reign of Henry VIII. the Roman Catholic hierarchy had
been all but dissolved. In Ireland the chain of the
Apostolical descent had remained unbroken from the
time of St. Patrick to the present time. That Apostolical
4 uccession or successions it might be called was oue of
the tests by which a true religion was to be ascertained.
in Ireland the Protestant Church was in the lowest
state, and its supporters were few. In England they had
6,000,000 L a year to support the Establishment, and
16,000 clergymen to fulfil its offices. Was it any
wonder that there should be such a discre-
pancy between the two churches.—(Hear, hear.)
rho Noble Lord in the course of his speech had said
that he desired that the title of bishops should
not have been assumed from dioceses in
England in place of that of vicars apes olio, and
the Hon. Member for Kerry had expressed a still
stronger desire that the measure should be extended to
Ireland. He, for his own part, desired that the
names should not be altered.—(Hear, hear.) But
what he desired was, that the means given to the over-
grown establishment to which: he he had alluded should
be more equally distributed, and better disposed of, for
the benefit of the empire. The fact was, that the duties
duties of the Vicars Apostolic and the newly appointed
bishops were the same in fact and only different in name
The Noble Lord had told them that calling:thesCatholic
Archbishop of Dublin his Grace, was a mistake of Lord
Chamberlain; but he (Mr. Reynolds) could tell them a
very different story. They all recollected the
period of 1821, when George IV.' visited Dublin.
At that time Lord Liverpool was Prime Minis-
ter, and George IV. was accompanied by his
lordship and the great officers of state,
amongst whom was Lord Sidmouth, the Secretary of
State for the Home Department, who wrote a letter under
under the authority of the King to the Catholic bishops
and archbishops of Ireland, addressing them by
their titles; and they were received in Court
in the capacity of bishops and archbishops.
They were addressed as "My Lords," and
they received the natural position which their rankentitled
to them. Now that was eight years before emancipation,
and yet they were told because the same thing had been
done in 1850 that it was a mistake of the Lord Cham-
oerlain.—(Hear, hear.) Within the last week he
had the . honour of attending the levee of
Lord Clarendon, and he found that the Catholic Arch-
bishop of Dublin attended the levee. He was received
in his official capacity, and he got his position, which
was higher than some Protestant Biships, and superior
to that to that of the Duke of Leinster. —(Hear, near.)
Last Saturday week he (Mr. Reynolds) had the honour
Jf partaking of the hospitality of Lord Clarendon, and
amongst the company whom he met at the Vice-Royal
table were the Protestant Archbishop and the Catholic
Archbishop of Dublin. Surely that could not he called
► Papapal aggression. If a stranger had come in at the
inne he would not have been able to discover from the
nnner of the two dignitaries that there was the
:east jea ousy between them so much was it " your
;race," here and "your grace" there.—(Hear, bear,
asid a laugh.) All was courtesy with tec Viceroy,
ao one was more remarkable tor courtesy than his
lordship, and he treated the two dignitaries just as it
:here was no such thing as a Papal aggression.
—(Hear, hear.) Now if, such scenes as islet were
to be seen in England . it'. would be said that the
whole court was about to turn Catholic.—(Hear, hear.)
!kit the Noble Lord had stated that this measure was to
give satisfaction to the Catholics. Now let him take the
whole of the Catholic* of England, deducting from them
hose who were presentable, such as the Duke of Nor-
ulk, Lord Camoys, Lord Beacmont, and some others,
co whom the Noble Lord referred the other night, and
he would venture to say the whole of them
n opinion were hostile and in opposition to this Act.
He called it an Algerine Act, but others seemed to have
formed very various notions of it. The Honour-
able Baronet the Member for Oxford said was
not severe enough; while the Hon. Member for Kent,
referring to the Noble Lord's letter, said he hoped the
Noble Lord would follow it up in his Bill.—(Hear.)
The Hon. Member for the county of Limerick
Jonsidered the measure was not only insufficient but
absolutely contemptible; but he (Mr. Re)nolds) be-
ieved it was neither insufficient nor cuntempible.
It was a measure of pains and penalties, and
'le believed it was calculated to inflict a wound
apon the great bulwark of civil and religious liberty.
—(Hear, hear.) He believed with his Honourable
Friend the Member for Sheffield, that it was
a step backwards, and he was ashamed that such
a measure should be thrust upon the House out
of respect to the ignorance of the multitude.—
(Hear, hear.) :The people had been so blinded, so
misled, so deceived by the agitators of the press, and
the agitators out of doors, that they had not an opinion
of their own on this matter; while there were many
Members in the House whom the agitators had
made supporters of the measure out of sheer fear of leav-
ing their seats if they followed the dictates of their
own minds. He was one of those who entered upon the
discussion of this question with deep is gret; he
had begun to hope that the time bad arrived
when Protestant, Catholic, and Presbyterian could
live in peace together; but he, it seemed, had been
wofully mistaken.—(Hear, hear.) lie had crossed the
Channel in the expectation that he should be called

;o support a motion for the repeal of the window
hay, the taxes on knowledge, the malt tax
And such like taxes which were obnoxious to
he country or to express his opinion as to the propriety
of granting the people of Ireland some thing like a
tenant right law or some protection:of that sort, but
he had been dreadfully out in his calculation.—(Hear,
hear.) The House of Cornmora had b: en sitting now
some five days, and yet they bad been occupied with
lothing else but this miserable, absurd, and mischievous
question of Papal aggression.—(Hear, bear.)
It was his determination to do all in his power to oppose
the Bill in every stage. If it should pass, and he thought
the chances were it would, in some shape, he would not
oe far wrong if he prophesied that the Bill would be a
dead letter. He denied that any Government could
enforce its provisions, and if the Hon. Gentlemen
opposite were to take office to-morrow, he denied
also that they could, with all their powers, carry out
any penalties against his creed in his native country.
Elie Right Honourable Gentleman the Member
for Ripon said, on a memorable debate last
session of Parliament, that Ireland was essen-
tially a Catholic country. He thanked him for
(laving made the admission. It always was a Catholic
country, and he hoped he would not be thought guilty of
An exageeration or of uttering a bigotted
phrase, when he said he trusted it would
,!ways remain a Catholic country. What
did they care about Acts of Parliament when they dealt
with their religion? Its safety was to be found not
only in the intrinsic value of its doctrines.
out in its poverty: it was not clothed
in purple and fine linen, and did not
fare sumptuously every day.—(Laughter.) It was—and
he gloried in the reflection—clothed in sackcloth and
ashes, and he hoped it would continue so. The Catholic
people supported by their voluntary contributions
3,500 clergy of regular and secular orders. These
clergycost the state nothing, and within the
last four years some of them had been in want
of the common necessaries of life, yet would rather be
in that state than ask men to support their
Church who did not believe in it. He recollected an
instance lately of a Protestant rector of a parish
in the city of Dublin seizing the furniture of
a Catholic clergyman and advertising it to be
sold by auction for the purpose of paying an ecclesias-
tical due called minister's money. Four-fiEhs
of the inhabitants of Dublin were Catholics
and they paid 13,000/ a year to the
the clergy of the Established Church

for ministers' money, and yet supported tbeir own
priests. That was spiritual and temporal superiority
with a vengeance. S.) great was the anti-Papal agita-
tion throughout the country, that he was astonished
not that effigies of Cardinal Wiseman were burnt, but
that the Cardinal himself did not sharp the same fate.
If he were not mistaken a considerable portion of
the funds of the Established Church had been furnished
to supply the combustible matter.—(Laughter.)
After some further observations the ATTORNEY-
GENERAL rose, and was

LORD EBRINGTON AND THE
POOR LAW BOARD.
(From the Plymouth Journal.)
We have bad the honour of receiving from Vis-
count Ebrington the following important communi-
cation, which his Lordship, on resigning the office of
Parliamentary Secretary of the Poor-law Board, ad-
dressed to Lord John Russell :
" Grosvenor-square, Jan. 26.
"My Dear Lord,—After the communication you
recently made to me respecting the decision of the
Government with regard to the reduction of the
salary of the Parliamentary Secretary of the Poor-
law Board, recommend by the Official Salaries Com-
mittee of last session, you will not be surprised at
my resigning that office into your hands; but I am
anxious that my motives for so doing should not be
misunderstood, I hope you will excuse my trespassing
shortly upon your valuable time by stating them.
"I have not taken this step because of any differ-
ence of opinion with the Government; on the con-
trary I have supported, not from a sense of official
duty merely, but from hearty and sincere conviction,
every really important measure, and most of the un-
important ones also, that you have introduced since
you came into office. I can say, without flattery,
that I am proud to acknowledge as my political
leader one who has been so long the distinguished
champion of civil, religious, and commercial liberty—
the man who in opposition carried the repeal of the
Test Act and assisted in passing Catholic Emancipa-
tion—who in office introduced the Reform Bill, and
was a leading member of the Government which
passed the Poor-law Amendment and Tithe Commu-
tation Acts, and gave municipal reform to the corpo-
rations of Great Britain and Ireland. lam proud to
have held even a subordinate place under the Minister
who not only repealed the navigation-laws and com-
menced the work of legislation for the sanitary im-
provement of the people and for the establishment of
a new social system in Ireland, but has also preserved
the public tranquillity in this country, while all
Europe was in a state of unexampled convulsion.
" Nor is it from any indisposition to give my time
and trouble to the public service that I retire. Not
to mention my salaried place at the Poor -law Board,
and to speak only of gratuitous offices, I may state
that in my own county I am at this time one of the
chairmen of quarter sessions, and have acted for years
as a magistrate and visiting justice of the gaol and
lunatic asylum, and that I sat as vice-chairman of a
board of guardians till I accepted an office at the
Poor-law Board incompatible with that honourable
post. To say nothing of Parliamentary Committees,
I have served on three successive Commissions of
Sewers in the metropolis, tend am now habitually
placed in the chair of the present one. I think,
therefore, I need say no more to prove that up to this
time, at any rate, I have shown no indisposition to
fender to the public what humble services were in my
power without looking for fee or reward.
" But as I consider the recommendations of the
Committee impolitic with respect to the office I hold,
as well as unfair towards myself, I feel that 1 cannot
do otherwise than retire, now that it has been adopted
by you and your Government.
"I am not going to enter at all upon the policy of
originally granting the Comnaittee, or of placing:upon
it but one member (yourself) who belonged to the
present or late Administrations, and one other only
who bad ever been in office at all. I will only say
that it does not appear, from the published proceed.
ings of the Committee, that much consideration was
given to the salaries connected with the Poor- law
department, whatever there may have been to any
others ; for the examination with regard to them was
very short, and the resolution concerning them was
one of a long series, dealing with a very great num-
ber of offices, which, being all passed in the course of
the same morning, must necessarily have been dis-
patched with little, if any, discussion. Moreover,
from these examinations, as from most others, and
from the passing of these resolutions as of many
others, you, the only official member of the Com-
mittee, were kept away by your more important
public duties. lam able, however, I think, to gather
from the blue book that some of the members of the
Committee believed most of my time to have been
devoted to the unsalaried duties of the Commission of
Sewers, and those of the Poor-law Board to have
been to some extent neglected by me.
" It is certainly true that much of my time in the
morning was frequently taken up by attendance at
courts and committees of sewers. In 1849 I attended,
I think, 69 of them, which frequently lasted from 10
is the morning till two or three in the afternoon ; but
this was in addition to, not in substitution of, the
the business of the Poor-law Board. It only often
obliged me to continue at work till very late at night,
at the House of Commons, disposing of poor-law
papers, which my regular office hours, so infringed
upon, had not allowed time for completing ; and I
can confidently appeal to every one conversant with
the working of the Poor-law department, whether I
bad not taken, from the commencement, my full share
of the work and responsibilities of the office, not
merely as regards the routine bueiness, but also
as regards the introduction of amendments into
the law itself, and more especially into the internal
system of its administration of the board and its
officers.
" This, however, was not effected without consider-
able exertion, nor, indeed, in 1849, without some in-
jury to my health. But of this I never complained,
and, indeed, at Lord Carlisle's urgent request, con-
sented reluctantly, and perhaps not very wisely, to
serve again on the Commission of Sewers; and this
year I did so, partly for the sake of your Government,
whose credit I thought much involved in the success-
ful working of the Commission, and still more for the
sake of the sanitary cause, which I have long had
deeply at heart. But I must protest against this vo•
luntary extra labour of mine being turned against
me, as it was by the Committee; and against the
smooth working of the poor-law being assumed as a
reason for undervaluing the importance of my office
or depreciating the services of him who filled it.
" You will remember that when Parliament placed
the Poor-law department upon its present footing,
you offered me the secretaryship as a ' laborious and
responsible' office. Of the important influence for
good or for evil upon the mass of the community,
which must be exercised by any system of legal relief
according to the manner in which it is administered,
and of the delicate and responsible nature of the trust
confided to those who have to superintend that ad-
ministration, I became daily more and more sensible ;
and that the Poor-law office, during my connexion
with it under two successive presidents, has not been,
as it was up to that time, either unpopular in the
country, or a source of annoyance to the Government
in Parliament, is certainly a matter of some surprise
to me—especially as our administration has been de-
cidedly more consonant with sound principles than
was that of our immediate predecessors. But though.
of course the credit of this unexpectedly successful
working, on the part of the Poor-law Board, accrues
mainly to the two presidents, I think that in fairness
some share of it ought to be attributed to my col-
league (Mr. Nicholls) and myself, who not only have
throughout conducted the business of the department
under them, but who for some months after Mr.
Buller's lamented death were left exclusively in charge
of it.

" I do not profess to be altogether indifferent to
5001. a year more or less, yet 1 can ;truly assure you
that, if that were the only question, you would never
have received this letter ; but it is to be remembered
that in public estimation, especially in the case of a
new office, the amount of salary represents not merely
emolument, but authority, position, and influence.
"Now, my late lamented chief, Mr. Buller, told
me, when we first came together into the Poor-law
Beard, that be had undertaken the office on the ex-
press understanding that it was to be placed on the
footing of a regular political department of the Go-
vernment, and he often expressed to me Ilia determi-
nation that neither the board nor any of its officers
should be placed in a position of inferiority in com-
parison with other Government offices of that descrip-
tion. I leave you to judge how far that understanding
has been fulfilled.

" But further, within the poor-law department my
present posit' m is one of complete equality with my
valued friend and colleague, Mr. Nicholls. On that foot-
ing we have worked most harmoniously and comfortably
together. As one of the original commissioners he
received from the Government 2,0001. a year. This,
after he bad served thirteen years, and had successfully
established the poor-law system in Ireland, your
Government reduced to 1,500/. ; and that was the
sum at which both his salary and mine, as secretaries
of the Poor-law Board, were fixed about three years
since by this present House of Commons.
" For an assistant secretary, Mr. Lumley, whose
reputation as a legal authority on poor-law questions
is established, but whose services can only be fully
appreciated by those who have been in office with
him—poor Mr. Buller most properly obtained from
the Treasury an annual increase of salary from 7001.
to 1,000/., with a gradual immediate rise up to 1,2001.
Most of the poor-law inspectors, that is, all who hal
served under the name of assistant commissioners,
many of them having rendered long, and all useful
service to the public, receive, in pay and allowances
(exclusive of their travelling expen,es), rather more
than 1,0001. a year. How is it to be expected, then,
I should acquiesce in the propriety of the recom-
mendation of the Committe, with regard to the salary
of the assistant secretary's and inspectors' superior
officer--the secretary of the Pocr-law Board ?
" It only remains for me now, with many apologies
for this long intrusion upon your valuable time, to
renew my protest against the unfairness of making
the amount of unpaid labour I have performed for the
public, at the desire of the Government and at consi-
derable sacrifice to myself, a reason for reducing the
salary of my paid off ce ; and to repeat my decided
opinion of the impolicy of fixing that salary below
those of other public servants of similar rank in other
departments of the Government (such as the secreta-
ries of the Board of Control and of Trade, &c.), below

that of my colleague and equal, Mr. Nicholls, and
what is stronger ye', below those of my sub,:rdinatt s
in my own office.
"I have the honour to remain, my dear Lord, yours
sincerely. " GT ON."

THE DIABOLICAL ATTEMPT AT

ASSASSINA LION AT ih YE.

We subjoin a more detailed statement of this dreadful
occurrence:—lt appears that every Saturday Mr. Hills,
the bailiff, is in the habit of attending the market at Can-
terbury. After returning on Saturday evening last, he,
as usual, went to Captain Daris's heuse tor bis books,
and was returning through a lane, when he was shot at
from an ash plantation, and slightly wounded iu the
shoulder. His escape was a most miraculous one, his
gaberdine, coat, awl shirt being shot through. No
information of the occurrence was given to the
county constabulary until Monday morning, when the
indefatigable superintendent (Mr Gifford) itnwediati ly
rode over to Wye and saw Captain aivis, and after c-r-
-tain irquiries, he, in the course of two hours, appre
hended three young m«-n on suspicion, mimed Hadard,
Price, and Vig on. He conveyed them to Ashford, and
the same day they we re examined arid remanded, at the
officer's reques', until the following day (Tie sday).
when Price and Hallard proved a satisfactory alibi, and
were di-charged. Vige,,n was the:. siegly charged by
the superintendent with the crime. and
Price was called as witness. He deposed that on Sa-
turday last he acceinpanied Vigeon, shooting in the
fields, and as they were returning home threugh Canter-
bury-lane, there was only one charge of powder left, cad
Vigeon wished him not to shoot it away, a: he wanted
it particularly for a purpose of his own. Witness
fired off the charge, and told prisoner he could buy
some more as they got nearer towards home. They
went a few yards on, and sent a boy for an ounce of
powder ; it was put into a lucifer-box; the powder file,'
the box. Before they bought the powder, and just after
he (witness) fired the last charge, Vigeon asked for a
couple of caps; and on giving them to him, witness
inquired what he wanted them fur? Prisoner at the
same time took a round piece of lead out of his pocket,
and showed it to him (witness), who pressed to know
what he purposed doing with it. He refused to tell him,
but said he would hear of it quite soon enough. Asked
him what he was going to shoot—if it was a four or
two-legged thing—and if he (witness) should go with
him. He replied, " I laid up the other Saturday for
him, but missed him ; and if I get into trouble myself,
I dont want to bring any body else into it." They
then bought the powder. and Vigeon took it, along with
the two percussion caps and eight other caps. On tke
following morning (Sunday) they bad agree d to go out
together shooting again. Witness went for prisoner as
promised, but he did not go out.
Other evidence at great length was given, of a circum-
stantial nature, closely.connecting the prisoner with the
offence.

The evidence of Mr. Gifford, the superintendent of the
county police, went to show that, when he tookVigeon, he
asked him," Where were you on Saturday night?" He
said, " I was at home on Saturday night at seven o'clock. I
was out with young Primo until between four and five, and
then returned." Witness searched the rooms occupied by
the prisoner, and found in the dwelling-room the gun pro-
duced. A piece of paper was stuff d into the muzve,
and half the orifice was filled with dirt, as if it had been
plunged into the ground. There was dirt also upon the
lock. The cap was on the nipples. The gun had been
fired. There was also ar. d mark across the lock, as it
it had been rubbed against a red brick wall. At the ter-
mination of th . plantation there is a brick wall with
red brick coping, over which a person must pass before
he could get into Cold Harbour-Line.

Othir circumstantial evi&nce of a conclusive nature
was then gone into, and on Friday the prisoner was
fully committed for trial at the March assizes at M=tid-
stone.

The inhabitants of this part of the county are per
hotly horrified at such a desperate attempt at cold
blooded murder.—Kentish Gazette.

THE SEAMEN'S STRIKE IN THE NORTH.—On
Thursday a meeting was held at South Shields, at which
upwards of 2,000 sailors were present, and resolutions were
adopted in which the new articles provided by the Mercan-
tile Marine an:, Merchant Seamen's Acts were denounced as
unjust and unconstitutional. It was also resolved that no
ships, coasting or foreign, should proce,d to sea under the
new articles, a:id that no ships should go to sea whose men
went to the shipping.t ffice. This latter resolution, it was
stated, meant that all ships were to remain at anchor until
the question at issue is determined.

CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAILWAY.—WO have
reason to believe that the past half-year's working of this line
is of a very promising character.

SHIP NEWS.

LIVERPOOL, Fug. 9.—Wind N.W., moderate.—Asia,
from New York, has arrived at this port, sailed on the 29th
ult. ; on the 2d inst., in lat. 45, long. 50, at nine r. at., fell in
with a large body of field ice, and proceeded at half speed;
on the 3d inst., at three A.M., got clear of the ice: from nine
to eleven A.m. stopped engines to repair broken floats; has
54,5001. in specie on freight. Arrived—Frost, from Palermo.
Sailed States Rights; Queen of the West.
QUEENsTOWN, FEB. 7. - Wind W., moderate. - Arrived
Zoe and Globe, from the Mauritius; Bromley, from Terra-
noga ; Martha, from Panama; Salisbury, from Callao.
GILAVEBEND, FEB. 9.—Wind E.N.E., light, cloudy.
Arrived—Minerva and Mary Ann, from Calcutta; Plan-
tagenet, from China ; Lydford, from Demerara ; Triton, from
Ostend; Emily, from Rouen; Active, from Landscrona ; Mary
Ann, from Seville; Eliza Esther, from China; Mountain
Maid, from Barletta; Eter, from Denia ; Nundees, from
Smyrna ; Sophie, from Denmark; Commerce, from Callao;
Amora, from Galatz ; George, from Sweden ; Ann, from St
Antonie ; Maridon. from Calcutta; Flora, from Nantes;
Chieftain, from Callao Princess Royal, from Hamburgh ;
Fairy, from St. Milo; Jasen, from Uddewalla ; Mary Jane,
from Sicily; Colchester, from Sierra Leone; St. Leonard,
from Dunkirk; Calmus and Jane, from Odessa; Admiral,
from Fecamp ; Twende Sodskende, from Aalborg; Lydia,
from Calcutta; Giraffe, from Rotterdam; La Societe, from
Caen; Anne Bert, from Denmark; Bideford, from Santa
Cruz; William, from Leer; Menai, from Calais; Paquebot
de la Plata, from Callao; Diana, from Harlingen; Clipper,
from Newfoundland; Lavinia, from Gothenburg; Expert,
from Dunkirk.

Sailed—Sarah Metcalf, for Madras; John Panter, for Swan
River; Constantino, for Constantinople; Ariel, for Algoa Bay;
Wellington, for Sydney; Antwerpen, for Antwerp; Rainbow,
for Rotterdam; Fame, fur Calais; Albion, for Boulogne; Sir
Edward Banks, for Ostend; Sir Robert Peel, for Dunkirk;
Sir Robert reel, for New York; John Bud, for Hamburgh ;
Estanacional, for Cadiz ; Fyeaeord, for Rotterdam ; Lord John
Russel, for Harlingen; Venezuela, for Havre; Nimrod, for
Constantinople; Hercules, for Cons antinople ; Sarnia, for
Jersey; Leander, for Swan River;. Rapid, for Galatz ; Att-
wood, for Galata; Flecha, for Ghent; Estacional, for Cadiz;
Cassandra, for Dunkirk; Cornwall, for Hobart-town.

SEABORNE MAILS.
[N signifies that the mails are sent from the General Poet-office
by the night—and SI by the morning—dispatch.]

When made up in I From what
PLACES. General Post-oltice port dig- When
• London. I patched. due.
America (by Brit. pkt.) N February 14 „Liverpool Arrived
America (by U.S. pkt.) N February 21 .. Liverpool Feb 17
America (by US. pkt.) M March 8 .. !Southampt. Feb. 22
Africa (West coast)•• N 14th of the month 'Plymouth March 3
Alexandria* • • ...... N 19th & 30th of rno.,'Dover .. Feb. 1#
Belgium • • • • • . N Daily .. over .. Daily
Brazil .. . .. 31 9th of the month 'Southampt. Feb. 24
Buenos Ayres • • .. M 9th of the mouth Southampt. Feb. 24
California(viaChagres) M 17th of month Southampt. Feb 20
Cape of Good hope N 14th of month Plymouth.. March 3
Constantinople* .. •• N 711117th 27th of mo'Dover .. Fen. 10
Central America .. M 2el& 17th of mon Southampt. Feb 2,)
Channel Isles •N Mon., Wed., & Fri. Southampt. Tu. Th. Sa
Chili .. • • •31 17th of the metith Southampt. Feb. 20
France M& N Twice daily .. Dover .. Twicedaily
Greece* .. • • • • N 7th I7th 27th of mo Dover .. Feb. 10
Hamburgh N Tuesday & Friday London .. Tues. Sat.
Rolland .. • • .. 31 Wednea. & Satur. London .. Moh.Thur
Honduras . N 17th of the month Southampt. Feb. 20
Ireland .. M& N Twice daily .. .. Holyhead .. wicedaily
India (via Southamp.) 31 20th of the month Southampt. Feb. 2$
India (via 31 arseilles) N 7tha 24th of month Dover • • Feb. 23
Mediterranean (via
Southampton) .. 31 20th of the month Southampt. Feb. 23
Mediterranean (via I
Marseilles) .. N7th& 24th ofmonth Dover • • Feb. 23
Mexico .. 31 2d of the month.. Southampt. March 5
Madeira • . • • .. 31,9 th of the month Southampt. March 12
Malta* • • 7 tb,l7th,l9th,27th } Dover Feb. 21
N t & 30th of month
Naples* .. • • N sth 15th 25th offno Dover • • Feb. 12
Papal States* N sth 15th 25th of mo' Dover .. Feb. 12
renlnsular 31 7th 17th 27thof ato Southampt. Feb. 15
Peru 31 17th of the month Southampt. Feb. 20
Tuscany* .. N sth 15th 25th of mo Dover • • Feb. 12
West Indies 34 17th of the month Southampt. Feb. 20
West Indies (except
Havanna & Nassau) AI 2d of the month .. Southampt. March 5

A. The mails to those c
French packet via Marsei

[l2d of the month ..
countries thus marl
;ffies.

ISouthampt. !March 5
Eed (*) are conyeyed by

Y MARKETS.
trade to-day, with nochange

a•
e.
Do. Meal, perl96lb 15 0. to J 6 6
Barley, English, pr
imperial quarter 26 0— 28 0
i Irish, S cotch, and
; ilanx,per6olb.. 3 4 3 6
Foreign, grinding 3 2 3 6
Rye, per 601 b .. 3 3 3 6
Beans, English, pr
imperial quartr 29 0 30
Irish and Scotch,
per 4801 b .. 25 0 27 0
Dutch .. .. 26 0— 28 0
Egyptian .. 22 0 23 0
Peas, English, per
imperial quartr 30 0 32 0
Foreign .. 27 0 —3l 0
Oats, per 451 b :
English, Scotch,
and Welsh, old 2 9—2 10
Irish, n^- cot
mealin; .. 2 61— 2 7
Do., feeding .. 2 5 2 6
Do., foreign .. 2 6 -- 2 8
Oatmeal, English,
BcSeotch,pr24olb 23 0 24 0
Irish. new .. .. 21 6 22 0
Do,, old . 20 0 21 0