The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-10 00:00:00

surface and eats into the vitals of public mora-
lity—namely, that poverty is the only crime ;
and that money, however acquired, being the sole
criterion of respectability, is the pledge of im-
punity ! Hence the multiplication bf commit-
tals and imprisonments for petty offences. Hence
the punishment and amercement of the poor
barrow-women, while struggling to save them-
selves and children from the poorhouse or
starvation. Hence the imprisonment of house-
less persons for not robbing enough to pay for
a night's lodging. Hence the disgraceful spec-
tacle of parish fighting with parish on questions of
settlement—carting pregnant paupers from one to
the other, and depositing them on the pave-
ment. Hence the daily committal to prison of
mere babies for stealing an apple, a roasted
potatoe, or a few sticks, and the thrusting them
into the rank contagion of association with
hardened felons. Hence the glutting of our
gaols with nnclassed multitudes of offenders,
and the fatal familiarization of a large part of
our population with houses of correction, till
they regard them as their legitimate domiciles.
For this appalling result—this gross perverion
of the " religion of poverty," by a promo ion-
hunting university education, of which "vlrtus
post nummos" is the device—is the cause to
which we are chiefly indebted. From evil roots
what can proceed but evil fruits. The state-
ment recently put forth by the Shrewsbury
Chronicle respecting the conduct of the clerical
magistracy of Wenlock, in Shropshire, supplies
an additional example of the foul consequences
which flow, and always will flow, from a pol-
luted source. If the Corporation Commis-
sioners had done nothing more than carry the
torch of their inquiries into the dark and
antiquated cells of magisterial partiality, abuse,
and oppression, as in this case, they would
deserve the thanks of the country. It appears,
from their inquiries, that a constable of Wen

lock, named Walter, already known as having,
through means of blank warrants, signed by a
Reverend Magistrate, and filled up by himself
ad libitum, arrested and committed two harm-

less broom girls, whose crime was poverty and
want of protection, was in the systematic and
long continued perpetration of similar abuses.
It, moreover, appears that the clerical magistrates
permitted the above constable, who was an agent
to one of them in collecting tithes, to place
himself in a very peculiar predicament by ap-
pearing to informations in another person's
name ; that they thereon granted executions
against Dissenters, for their Church rates,
" in order," to use the words of the Report,
" not to trouble the wardens to go before the
magistrates." The instances of similar enormi-
ties are too numerous to recapitulate. In one
case this precious tithe-agent and constable
issued a warrant of distress against a Dissenter
for church-rates ; seized a rick of hay of ten
times the amount of the claim, sold it for half
the value, and pocketed the proceeds. We may
be thought to be extracting from some satirical
romance worthy of Voltaire, the ironical details
of judicial proceedings before some Arab Cadi,
half robber and half magistrate,' or recording
the exploits of some of Gil Blas' friends the
Alguazils ; but in order to guard ourselves from
any imputation of fallacious over colouring we
give totidem verbis from the report, the query
of the Commissioner, and the answer of the
Wenlock constable and agent for tithes :
_

" Commissioner—So that, in fact, you swore the debt
—served the summons—levied the distress—printed the
handbills—sold up the goods, and put the money in your
pocket, without paying any one a farthing. Is that the
c,so ?

Walter—lt may be so for anything I know. I don't
deny it." _ _

It is clear that these detestable abuses, and all
those springing from the same source to which
we began by pointing, must be reformed and
eradicated, or they will be "reformed" ultimately
" with a vengeance." In the meantime let us
hear no more of the "equality of a free born
Englishman before the law." Nothing is equal
before the law but money. When 'a Roman
citizen was to be stigmatised or degraded by
opprobrious punishment, he was previously
stripped of his claim to Roman freedom ; he
was replunged into serfdom, and liable, without

appeal, to the instant infliction of personal in-
dignity, as well as physical penalty. According
to the magisterial view in this country of the
crime of poverty, we apprehend that a larger
proportion of the English population must be
characterised as a degraded and unprivileged
caste, than there might be reckoned among the
swarming slaves of Athens, or free Rome, or
the crushed and brutalized helots of Sparta,—
Morning Advertiser.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HO USE.

Yesterday John Martin, the Downs pilot, who
was on board the ship Marquis of Cliandos when
ti r. Mills went nn board that vessel, whose family
accuse Captain Gaylor of having forcibly detained
that gentleman for the purpose of taking him
back to Demerara to answer certain pecuniary
obligations, appeared before the LORD MAYOR
and presented to his Lordship a paper, of which the
following is a copy

" Gravesend, Dec. 9.
"I, John Martin, of Milton, next Gravesend, in the
county of Kent, Downs pilot, took charge of the ship
Marquis of Chandos, Captain John Gaylor, at Graves-
end, on the 29th of November, from Mr. John Hall Dix,
the river pilot, in which ship Mr. William Milli was on
board, and was treated as a gentleman the whole time I
was on board the ship, and that no irons were used or any
restraint whatever put on Mr. Mills, but he frequently
spoke to me in the highest terms of Captain Gaylor, and
said it was a hard case for Captain Gaylor to be a loser by
bin,.

" We arrived in the Downs on the 11th inst., at 8
when the boat that attends the ship came alongside. Mr.
11tlls expected some intelligence from his lrienis, but
received none. He then left the deck, and I came on
shore. This statement lam ready to make oath to if
required. " JOHN MARTIN."
John Hall Dix, the river pilot, who offered to
swear to the truth of the statement he had a few
days ago presented to the Lord Mayor, said that lie
felt grateful for the publication of the facts he had
stated, but it was represented by some person that
the Lord Mayor had refused to allow the oath to
be administered to him, and wrong constructions
might be placed upon his Lordship's reluctance to
the use of the Testament on such an occasion.
The LORD MAYOR said that he certainly had the
greatest objection to the horrid rapidity with which
affidavits were constantly made, and lie therefore
felt the utmost reluctance at the idea of signing
them as a matter of course. As fur the two per.
sons who had shown so strong a desire to vindicate
the conduct of Captain Gaylor, there appeared not
to be the slightest imputation against either of them.
The pilots felt that great injustice had been done
to Captain Gaylor by the account, which attributed
to him violence and misconduct, which were alto-
gether the reverse of his character, and they hoped
the public would give them credit for this assurance.
They were ready before any tribunal to take their
oaths that they had misrepresented in no particular.
A gentleman who was with the pilots observed
to the Lord Mayor that it would be but fair that
Mr. William Mills should take the trouble to appear
at the Mansion-house, and let his Lordship a little
more into the particulars of the transaction. As such