The Sun.
London, England, 1834-03-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The public in general, we are convinced, must
witness with feelings bordering on disgust the
enormous sums which certain of our absentee
nobility and gentry allow to be extorted from
them in the shape of mere rent for the dirty pa-
laces and apartments which they occupy in fo-
reign countries. One self-expatriated peer, for
instance, is said to give 2401. a month, another
2301., two others 1001. each, and certain wealthy
commoners seem i❑ equally extravagant propor-
tion. Apartments in a hotel after the rate of
very near 3,000/. a year for rent only far ex-
ceeds any thing ever heard or dreamed of in this
metropolis, where foreigners are often said to
complain of the charges. But John Bull
is proverbially the milch cow wherever he
goes, nor can we very much blame those of
whose extortion he allows himself to be the
dupe. Nor has the country any right to say to
these individuals " you shall not do what you
please with your own ;" but she has a right to
require, while she is protecting the rights and
properties of those who desert her soil, that they
shall, at least, be made to contribute their re-
spective quotas towards the national burdens.
We are aware that it is not very easy so to con-
struct the financial net but that many who
should be caught in it escape ; but, surely, it
would not be very difficult so to regulate the
size of its meshes, that at any rate some of
the largest fishes of all should not, as they
now do, get through. We do not wish to
particularise further than we have done—still
less to be thought unjust or illiberal. Per-
sons whose state of health demands a warmer
climate can require no apology for resorting
to it ; nor is foreign travel, generally speaking,
at all an unnecessary ingredient in the education
or experience of a man whose ambition it is
usefully to serve his country. Shakspeare,
with his unbounded knowledge of huma❑ life
and human nature, has long since told us—

" Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits ;"

. _
convinced of which, we arc by no means dis-
posed to deny the utility which may and has,
indeed, resulted, of late years, both to them-
selves and to the public, from the extreme
degree in which our countrymen, so long pent
up by a long war, have, since the peace, burst,
as it were, in shoals upon the Continent. But
to travel and to resPe are different things. We
hear it said that it is done on the score of eco-
nomy. To a considerable degree this is probably
the case; and that is a reason why a judicious
finance minister would so shape his scheme of taxa-
tion, as, on the one hand, to induce persons to live
at home, and, on the other, to mulct those who will
not. We confess it does mortify us to hear
of mansions in town and country, where, espe-
cially in the latter; so much patriotism might be
evinced, deserted ; and, on inquiring for the
owners, to find that they are spending their
fortunes in Florence, Rome, or Naples, from
whence, if ever they return, they bring back
with them habits and pursuits anything but
English. Anything like compulsion would, we
admit, be preposterous, as well, probably, as
useless ; but there is no reason why taxation
should not reach them ; and when it is consi-
dered how largely the revenue is diminished by
their abseHce, while their property remains secured
to them, in a great measure, at the public charge,
surely some method might be hit upon to compel
them to pay the community for the value of the
protection thus received.—Morning Herald.
We are at a loss to see why ministers ought
not to elevate Sir Thomas Denman to the peer-
age. Our contemporary (the Times) whilst
admitting that "a more upright, honourable
man does not exist," observes, " if Lord Grey's
government be absurd enough to offer it, we
may be forced to remind them of the credit'
which they laid claim to when Sir Thomas Den-
man was first raised to the bench, for the resolu-
tiDn, which they carefully announced, against
routine promotions of judicial functionaries to
the peerage." But Sir T. Denman has not
been elevated as a matter of course. He has
now been a considerable time on the bench
Without a peerage ; and although it does not
follow that a peerage should accompany the
elevation to the bench, yet elevation to
the bench ought not to disqualify for the
peerage. There are, no doubt, " plenty of
law lords," but, unfortunately, these law lords
have all been created by Tory administrations,
and their talents and learning are uniformly
exerted to embarrass the present Administration,
and, indeed, to defeat all liberal measures.
There may, perhaps, be too many Tory law
lords, but there are not certainly too many Whig
law lords; and we think Ministers entitled to
praise, rather than censure, for strengthening
themselves by the introduction of Sir Thomas
Denman into the House of Lords. That house
is already, no doubt, too numerous; but though
it may sound somewhat paradoxical, the country
would have more confidence in it if it were still
more numerous. At all events, we are sure that
the country would willingly wave all objection
to law peerages, in the case of Sir Thomas
Denman. Our contemporary, perhaps, has in
his eye some recent creations, where the property
has not not been sufficient to support the dignity
of the peerage. We are aware that this is a
delicate point. Perhaps the difficulty might be
got over by a few creations of life peerages.—
Morning Chronicle.
Lord Palmerston some days ago was not very
signally successful in defending his foreign po-
licy relative to the East of Europe ; and one
feature certainly in the badness of his case was
the unfortunate choice he had made of diplo-
matic agents, or the lamentable weakness with
which he had succumbed to the choice made for
him by others of the Cabinet. Now look to the
west of Europe—the extreme west ; and what
'An.dication can we find in Lord Palmerston of a
inure discriminating judgment, or of a more
;natlly resistance to the encroachments attempted
cn his patronage as Minister for Foreign Affairs?
Lord Palmerston Mpg responsible for the suc-
cess of his diplomacy, ought to have his free
agency in the proper conduct of that diplo-
macy undisturbed ; for in this, asin all cases,
it is but fair that power and responsibility
should be united, understanding that the
former is in no case to be abused. We
must take for granted, therefore, that the
selection of his subordinate functionaries is
Lord Palrnerston's own ; and in the case
of Portugal, what is that selection ? We have
heard a great deal more than his Lordship is
aware of as to proceedings at Lisbon,—more,
indeed, than a regard to the public interest and
to private confidence will at this moment permit
us to promulga:e. Suffice to say at present,
that if this government be sincere in its pro-
fessed good wishes to the cause of Donna Maria,
it ought to appoint as its ministers and sei vauts
to her court persons imbued with similar feel-
ings, and earnest and anxious not for the
triumph of the usurper Miguel, but for that of

the lawful Queen and of the constitutional
monarchy. At a crisis like that under yvhich
Portugal is just now suffering, nothing can he
of more essential urgency than to choose as
members of our mission there, none hut friends
to the Queen. And has such a principle of
nomination been observed ? Has it not, on the
other hand, been grossly violated ? Who are
the three secretaries of legation at Lisbon, and
how are they regarded by the heads of her
Majesty's government ? They are one and all
rank Tories. Mr. Grant, Mr. Chester, and Sir
Alexander Malet (the latter lately the Con-
servative candidate for a western borough), are
all rank Tories. They are one and all members
of, or biassed towards, that faction which has
laboured with indefatigable and disgraceful zeal
for the overthrow of that Sovereign whom the
King and Parliament have recognized as the inti-
mate ally of the British nation, and for the
defeat of that policy which has been espoused
and sanctioned by the most cordial approbation
of the United Kingdom. Such are the Secre-
taries, and who is their Chief ? Lord Howard de
Walden—a man (to say the least) of no political
sympathies with the government which employs
him. Is this wise of Lord Palmerston ? And
it is not the first time we have called his Lord.
ship to account on the same subject. Let him
revise his diplomatic list. It is a bad one ;it is
fit only for Schedule A, with two or three
exceptions. We do not mean to offend Lord
Palmerston—far from it ; but even should his
Lordship take offence, we cannot help it : we
must do our duty. His Lordship may not
relish this unceremonious snubbing. He once
hinted to the Duke of Wellington that in such
and such cases "he might be under the
necessity of resigning." " Well, my lord," replied
the pithy soldier, " what then ?"—Times.
On Saturday we noticed Sir Thomas Den-
man's rumoured elevation to the House of
Lords ; but highly as we thought, and think,
of the Chief Justice, and warmly as we felt dis-
posed to express that opinion, it was impossible
for us as honest men to do otherwise than
state our strong repugnance to any augmentation
of the legal peerage, even in the person of a
learned gentleman, in favour of whose upright,
manly, and amiable character the suffrages of
the whole community are united. 'We have
reason to think that the promotion which we
would fain have discredited, is actually on the
eve of taking place. We are in nowise led to
any change of sentiment on this important sub-
ject of the too frequent introduction of profes-
sional persons into the House of Peers, having
no other claim to that honour than their occu-
pancy of an eminent judicial office. On the
general ground of inexpediency, of cheapening
the highest dignity in the realm, of ruining
respectable private families by entailing on
them a rank which for more than one genera-
tion they are seldom able to support, and
thus making nobility corrupt by making it
dependant, it is difficult, we conceive, for two
reasonable men to differ in opinion, and on such
considerations we must abide by the judgment
which was plainly enough intimated in last
Saturday's Times. But facts are now enume-
rated which, while they seem to exculpate
Ministers from any voluntary adoption of a
practice much to be deprecated, appear to form a
justification of the measure on principles of
pure necessity. It is well known that the Tories
have for factious purposes, been encouraging
and bringing forward loud complaints of the
disappointment attributed by them to Scotch
suitors, touching a delay in hearing their
appeals from the Court of Session. Lord
Brougham, within these few days, told his mind
on the matter to Lord Eilenborough, and ad-
ministered to that conscientious peer a degree of
satisfaction with regard to the ostensible subject
of his remonstrance, which mayhap was more than
the noble complainant had bargained for. The
Lord Chancellor has been singularly destitute of
all active or useful co-operation from his legal
brethren, members of the House of Lords, since
his accession to the woolsack. Lord Lyndhurst
has been strenuously, and,no doubt, laudably exert-
ing himself in the business of his own proper
Court of Exchequer, and somehow or other has
had no time to do anything (at least, if anything,
it has been very little) in the trial of appeals
before the Lords. Lord Wynford's sufferings
from gout are such as, in spite of his zealous
anxiety to be useful, not to admit of his lord-
ship's sitting frequently ; so that, in fact, unless
the Lord Chancellor were to abandon his own
court of equity, and let its business run to absolute
neglect, it would be impossible for him alone to
grt on rapidly with appeals from Scotland. And
it' he were, as lie ought not, to prefer the House
of Lords, and to postpone the Chancery, what
would the Tories, or more important still, what
would the country say to it ? Under these
circumstances, and in submission to a strong
necessity, though in deviaei from the rules of
abstract policy, this expedient of calling up the
Lord Chief Justice has, we presume, been
resorted to; so that Lord Ellenborough at least,
and his hypothetical Scotch clients will have
sufficient reason to be grateful.— Tinzes.

A gentleman, whose name is supposed to be

Harrison, committed suicide on Siturday morning, at the
Rainbow Coffee House, Covent-garden, where he has been
for some days a lodger, by shooting himself through the

oily with a pistol.

LOVE AND CONTEMPLATED SUICIDE.-
About one o'clock en Saturday morning a police constab!e
observed a youth and a girl about the same age wandering
about the river at Thames Bank, under very auspicious
circumstances. He watched them, and shortly alter saw
the youth throw his hat, and the female her bonnet, and
a pocket-book, into the river, and then kiss each other.
The policeman hastened towards them, and was just in
time to prevent the parties plunging into the water. On
taking them to the station-house it was asserted that the
name of the youth was Charles Johnson, and that he
lived with his parents in Grosvenor-row, Milibank. The
Oil said her name was Caroline Miller, and resided next
door to Johnson. They had long loved each other, but
as their parents were averse to their union, they had come
to the determination of dying together. Information was
sent to their parents, who were in a state of alarm at
their absence, and the police delivered the love-sick pair
to their care.

The following occurrence has caused great
excitement in Kt nsington. On Saturday night week the
wife of a painter and gLizier, living at Kensington Gravel
Pits, was returning home after receiving her husband's
wages, 1/. 1 ls., throng) Church-lane, when a man
sullenly seized her by the shoulders, and having forced
her up a dark passage, commenced rifling her pockets.
She resisted, upon which he pulled out a knife, and in
the scalle he cut her hands severely. She screamed mur-
der, and endeavoured to prevent the escape of the fellow,
but she fell on the ground from the loss o: blood and
weakness, in which situation she was discovered by the
neighbours. A fellow named Shuter was taken up, and
Mts. Smith having identified him, he was remanded by
the Kensington Magistrates. When he was brought up
ogain Mrs. Smith was not in attendance, and on an
officer going to her house site was not to be found, although
her husband had in the morning left her at home. She
:as not since been beard of; and the Magistrates have,
t:ter repeated examinations, discharged the man Shuter.
'I he grounds and pieces of water in the neighbourhood
h ave been dragged for the body of the missing woman,
ut without success.

POLICE INTEI LICENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.

SHAVING EXTRAORDINA RV. —A journeyman barber
was brought before the LORD MAvon,eharged with:having
in a fit of drunkenness, threatened to assault and shave his
mistress dry. _ .

The mistress, who keeps a shaving shop in Petticoat-
lane, stated that she employed two men he.,ides the de-
fendant to do the business of the shop, which had a very
fair trade, considering the general negligence of the neigh-
bourhood as to the growth of unnecessary hair. Unfortu-
nately, the defendant's habits became offmsive to the cu'
tomers. She had expostulated with him frequently, for he
was a skilful hand, but remonstrance was useless. The
customers began to go to a rival establishment; and, to
save berselt Com ruin, she told him he must depart. This
sentence at once introduced him to a gin shop, where be
took so codiously of the " cream of the valley," that he
determined to besiege the shaving shop ; and to the terror
of the neighbours, proceeded to the work, razor in hand,
and swearing that be would shave his mistress vvithout the
mercy of a taste of soap and water.
The defendant—" My Lord, it's all revenge. Missis has
a grudge towards me, for she always puts me in the rough
work, and I'm blest if my hand cm stand it."
The LORD MAYOR" What do you call the rough
work? I suppose you have to shave and cut hair as the
other men do?" The defendant—" Like the other men !
Lord bless: you, your Vorsbip, I've got for to shave all
the Jews as comes to our shop out of mourning.—
(Laughter.) It's no joke to go over a pair of cheeks wot
no steel's touched for three months."

The mistress stated that those remarks were a libel
upon her character, and calculated to do great injury to
her shop.
The defendant—Only let me have fair play at a face,
and I defy Batbarossa; but I'm hanged if I can make a
norse's tail as smooth as a yard of welwet in a couple of
minutes.—(Laughter.) Besides, please you, my Lord,
if there's a blacksmith, or a coal-heaver as wants his face
to he goe'd over, why missis calls out to me " Jack, clap
your suds upon this face."—(Laughter.)
The LORD MAYOR tried to reconcile the parties, but in
vain. The defendant was discharged. He said he would
try for employment at the other end of the town.