The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-12 00:00:00

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE BRADFORD
REFORM ASSOCIATION.
(EVERY MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY.)
Sir,—On Wednesday the 7th, a long debate on the
Audit of Railways Accounts Bill, resulting in little
more than an impression that nothing very effectual was
blecly to be done on any side. As one proof of this,
trio last division presented another " tie," being of 57
against 57. Tee observers of such natural phenomena,
remark it as probably a unique instance of ties on two
following days.
On Thursday. Petitions against Papal Aggression,
with upwards of 100,C0:) signatures in the whole, were
presented from Edinburgh and Ghsgow. And the
Votes of that day are headed with the following curious
annour:cement.
"1. Public Petitions Committee,—Special Report
brought up, and read as follows:
" Resolved, That the Petition of Pierce Connelly,
clerk, complaining
of the forcible detention of his wife
in a convent, and praying the. House to take into con-
sideration the whole subject of Convents and Nunneries
in England, which was presented upon the 29th day ,te
April last, is a Petition which ought to, be printed for
the use of Members only; and that a special Report be
made to this effect.
" Report to lie on the Table.
" 2. Convents, &c.,—Petition of the Rev. Pierce
Connelly, for inquiry [presented 29th April], to be
printed, for the use of Members only."
The Petitioner and his wife appear to have been two
weak people, who could not be cuutent without tamper-
ing with Home to the extent of the one becoming " a
Roman cleric" and the other being abut up in a convent,
andthey, did not know whether they repented or not;
having apparently a remedy before them as easy as that
of the man who to keep out the flies was advised to shut
his mouth, which was to return to' their old creed when
they were tired of their new.
On the same day was the debate on the Malt Tax.
The supporters of its repeal stood upon its being an
invasion of the principles of Free Trade, present-
ing a parallel to the Corn Laws. The plea is an in-
stance and a proof of the imperfect way in which the
nature and principle of Free Trade is even at this hour
understood. The Corn,,Laws were a tax on foreign corn
alone, with the avowed object of putting a stop to such
trade as is now carried on from Bradford in that article,
and thence making au artificial trade and an artificial
price for the English growers at your expense. The
Malt Tax is a tax upon all malt, or if you please upon all
barley. It just as much restrains the profitable trade
which might be conducted through the intervention of your
goods in barley,—obliges the foregoing of more profitable
exchanges, and accepting of others which are less,—as it
restrains the agriculturist from growing barley on the
. lands he would prefer, and obliges him to grow some-
thing he likes less. There is in fact precisely the dif-
ference there would have been, between the Cora Laws
as they were, and a law which should have imposed the
same tax on home-grown corn as on foreign; a dillereuce
which after all the agitation on the Corn-laws no-
body understood, but which was not the less real
on that account. Whatever the consequences of such
an arrangement might have been, it is clear it would not
have been a struggle for what all the world meant by
Free Trade, which was a struggle on the part of home
producers to suppress manufacturing for foreign com-
merce. The outcry against the Malt Tax on this ground
therefore goes for nothing. It may be a good tax or a
bad tax, but it clearly is not this; and there is small
chance of arriving at sound conclusions, by discussing a
thing as what it is not. The repeal was finally negatived
by 258 against 122. It is astonishing how much there
is to do before the nature and principle of Free Trade
will be even tolerably understood in the House of Com-
mons. There is nut a debate admitting of the introduc-
tion, where Protection for British Industry, and Compe-
tition with the Untaxed Foreigner, are not unsparingly
pus forward, though the certainty is there would be a
storm of cries of " Question" if your representative pro-
ceeded to answer them. And yet it is as clear as the
sun, that what is called Competition with the Untaxed
Foreigner, is iu reality competition with you at Bradford,
whose trade it is to make goods for exchange for foreign
coru, and who are assuredly neither untaxed, nor with-
out claim to be British industry. The untaxed foreigner,
I apprehend, has no more to do with the subject, than if
it were proposed to put down the Greenland trade in
favour of home-made oils, on the ground that the blubber
was got from untaxed whaler. It is the merchants, and
not the whales, who are the competitors with the men of
homemade oils; and unless the industry of these mer-
chants and their associates can be proved no portion of
the common stock, it would tie pure folly to run up and
down the country exclaiming that the ti.les were not
Britons. It is with the industry that can bring here, and
not with what it brings from, that the competition is.
When you at Bradford thoroughly understand this, and
can make others do the same, you will be safe and not

before.
On Friday, on the order for going into Committee on
the Ecclesiastical Titles Assumption Bill, Amendment
was proposed to add the words, " That the recent act
of the Popo iu dividing England into dioceses, and ap-
pointing Bishops thereto, was encouraged by the con-
duct and declarations of her Majesty's Government.'
The facts advanced appeared to amount to establishing,
that the Government had been civil to the Pope and the
Catholics so long as it could, and that the Pope and
his counsellors had taken advantage of this to make
their aggression. The absurd part of the averment,
was that the one was the natural and invited conse-
quence of the other. As if any possible coquettings ot
Lord Miuto with the Pope and Cardinals, it such there
were, could by reasonable men have been construed into
an invitation to partition England like the ox and sheep
in the instructions for young carvers, with a flourish ot
trumpets in the practicable quarters, declaring that the
time was come tur putting down 'rotestantism every-
where by force. The Minister took high ground by
declaring, that it had since become known that the ad-
vice given to the Pope proceeded from avowed enemies
of England, acting with the object of embarrassing
England with a view to neutralize her influence in the
promotion of constitutional government in Europe, and
that as such it had been boasted of by the authors at the
time ot the transaction. The assertion of the previous
communication with Lord Tinto, sinks into a twaddling
story of the Pope's having tapped upon a box and said
" Here is something for England;" which might have
been a pound of snuff for the nostrils of the existing
stall' of the church in that country.
The amendment was finally negatived by 280
against 201.
I am, Sir, yours very sincerely,
AN OLD REFORMER.
London, May 12, 1851.

Total ... 123 killed ... 188 injured.

• cxf'' Ari

---
CASES TREATED IN
T THE MESMER]
HOSPIAL.
A dreadful case of despondency, with pains and noises
in the head, giddiness, and dimness ot sight, in a man 56
years ot ago, is yielding in a remarkable manner.
Various medical gentlemen did their best, but in vain;
and month atter month life became a greater burden to
him. He was admitted hero' in April, and now makes
the following statement:—" All my accumulated afflictions
have been gradually subsiding; indeed, some of them,
the giddiness and noises in the head, together with the
great nervous oppression and dismal gloomy foreboding*,
have already left me, never, I hopefully trust, to return,
eyesight are progressing favour.
My hearing and my
ably, the latter most especially, as I can now read better
without glasses than I could see to read with them pre-
viously to being mesmerised." This patient is still an-
der treatment, and may be seen.
We must not pass over the case of Catherine Brown,
7, King's Head-yard, Tooley-street, 57 years of age,
When seven years old she tell down in a fit, and was tin•
conscious for twenty-four hours. She had a similar at-
tack monthly till she became a patient here, last Feb.
ruary; and for seven or eight days after tho fit was in•
variably so weak as to be unable to attend to her
avocations, and indeed was at no time able to attend to
them properly. She suffered agonising pains. She was
treated by numerous medical gentlemen in London and
in Ireland, v. ithout the least benefit. Her agonies:fre-
queutly made her contemplate self-murder. She was
three times in Guy's Hospital and twice in St. Teomae s,
the last time for four months. She applied to a ddisupen:
eery else, and the surgeon told her she bad
atieo, lher
reins; and, iu attempting to extract seevitirrbtl t
teeth, broke some of them. From thf
ce
fromatptaaciku:
above forty-four years ago, she was never
and took large quantities of laudauum
in February,
dical treatment. She saw Mr. Capern early
whren under me-
and he mesmerised her head with contact !or a quarter
of an hour. The pain instantly and entirely ceased;
and from that moment sho has not experienced the
fit. On leaving the
slightest pain, nor has she
dhilla
she e,iele sleep,
her niece at Islington,
infirmary that day
and, feeling a great desirro to sleep, sat down in a chair
found that her relatives were
and tell into a sleep
Pthat some doctor had given her
alarmed, and supposedso
too large a dose ot laudanum. She woke spontaneously
in four hours, greatly refreshed, and has remained well,to
this very time.
RETURN relative to RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.
By the Returns made to this department, it appears that '
the total number of persons of every description killed and
injured on all the passenger railways open for public traffic
in Great Britain and Ireland during the half-year ending
3 1 fit December, 18t0, amounted to 123 killed, and 188 injured,-
and that they may be classed as fellows:-
9 passengers killed, and 138 injured from causes beyond
their own control.
13 passengers killed, and 9 injured, o ;
weig to their own
misconduct or want of caution.
40 servants of companies or of contractors killed, and 25
injured from causes beyond their own control.
34 servants of companies or of contractors killed, and 11
injured owing to their own misconduct or want of caution.
25 trespassers and other persons, neither passengers nor
servants of the company, killed, and 5 injured, by crossing
or walking on the railway,
1 suicide.

The number of passengers conveyed during the half-year
amounted to 41,067,9191 A.
The length of railway open on the 30th of
6308 relief:.
June, 1850, was ...
1
The length of railway open on the 31st De- miles.
6,6-
cember, 1850, was ••• ••• ••
•"

Increase during the half-year 313 miles.
DUNCAN MACGILIWOR, RCgiStrar.
Oflice of Commissioners of Railways,
Whitehall, 6
_

The Coventry Parliamentary and Financial Reform
Association held its annual meeting of members in the large
room of the Temperance Hotel, Bishop-street, Coventry, on
Tuesday evening. The room was inconveniently crowded
with the attendance of members on the occasion. The ob-
ject of the meeting was to bear the accounts for the past
year; ,to consider the best method of electing the eera.
inittee for 1851; and generally to secure a better organiza-
tion of the reformers of this city, upon the principles laid
down in the bill of rights issued by the National Association,
or tree trade in all its integrity ; financial reform ; econo-
mical and equitable, Parliameatary refotro, immediate and
I complete.