The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-13 00:00:00

for maintaining in Ireland any Protestant church
whatever. As the case at present stands, there are
but three modes of action for those who favour the
existence of the Protestant Church of Ireland, which,
as one of our ecclesiastical institutions, Lord Mel-
bourne, the head of his Majesty's Government, has
declared his anxiety to preserve. Ist—To assist the
clergy in enforcing the payment of their tithe from the
occupiers of land throughout the kingdom,—an at-
tempt which we have the authority of Mr. Stanley,
and of others besides that Right Hon. Gentleman, for
asserting to have been utterly impracticable a twelve-
month ago and more, but which, considering the pro-
gress of alienation from, and active hostility towards,
the temporal church, in the minds of the people since
that period, we might at the present moment pronounce
to be absolutely frantic. 2d—Failing tithe, what
next ? An application to Parliament for another
grant of the public money to save the parochial
clergy from starving ! But this is an expedient
which Lord Melbourne has described it as im-
possible again to have recourse to, inasmuch as
Ministers could not ask, and the House of Commons

would not give, their concurrence. 3d, and finally—.
A voluntary contribution from all members and we

wishers of the Protestant Church, consisting of all
those landlords who had under the late Tithe Bill
undertaken to charge themselves with a payment of
three-fifths of the existing tithe, aided, and of course
encouraged, by those holders of landed property to a
vast amount, who on Monday evening, by their rejec-
tion of the Tithe Bill, gave an understood pledge that
they would themselves, if necessary, indemnify the
Irish clergy for the loss of all legal support to which
that vote consigned them. We should like to hear
from our Conservative brethren what further alterna-
tives beyond those above enumerated they have in
store for the maintenance of the Established Church
[ of Ireland. The impudent mockery of referring the
• poor parsons to their peasant parishioners for the col-
: lection of tithe, we hope, from a regard to decency,
the Tory press will not again dare to practise.—Times.
The rejection of the Irish Tithe Bill by the House
• of Lords involves two considerations of the highest
[ moment—the one as regards its effects upon the con-
, dition of the Irish Protestant Clergy ; the other, its
consequences to the House of Lords itself. The story
of the first is soon told. The effect of the rejection
of the Bill will be to reproduce starvation among the
Irish Clergy—to deprive them of all means of living
—or, if they employ the strong arm of the law, as re-
commended by the Duke of Wellington, to enforce
the payment of tithes, not only to render them odious,
but to place their lives in jeopardy, and expose the
country to the dangers of insurrection, if not of actual
rebellion. Every one knows that for years past, but
more especially within the last three or four, the Clergy
of the Established Church have not been able to col-
lect more than one-third, or three-fifths, under the most
favourable circumstances, of the amount of tithes le-
gally and fairly due to them ; and for two reasons,
whose force it would be difficult to gainsay—the first,
that, in many cases, the people had not the means ;
and the second, that whether they had or had not the
means, the payment of any contribution for the support
of a church which, although denominated the Esta-
blished Church, did not reckon even one-seventh of
the whole population among its supporters, was an act
of gross tyranny and injustice. That this opposition,
or rather resistance, to the payment of tithes, in any
shape, would be continued, no sane person ever at-
tempted to doubt ; and it became, in consequence,
the duty of the Executive—seeing that the law could
not be enforced without dangers of infinitely greater
amount than any exaction of obedience would have
compensated—to devise a means whereby the clergy,
on the one hank, might be saved from starva-
tion, and the arum brought upon them by con-
flicts, resulting from a compulsory collection of tithe,
be avoided on the other. To attain this object the
Administration of which Lord Grey was the head, and
Mr. Stanley, the Earl of Ripon, and others were Mem-
bers, dreK up a Bill, which was afterwards amended in
the Comffions, and which provided that—to use the
language of an evening contemporary—for every 1001.
of the nominal amount of the tithe claimed, but never
collected by the clergy--and, indeed, utterly incapable
of collecting by them—,, the clergy should receive 60
per cent. from the landlords, and 20 per cent. out of
the Consolidated Fund, which 20 per cent. was to be
paid back to the Consolidated Fund as the revenues
from the bishoprics abolished by a former Act of Par-
liament should fall in. Thus the Tithe Bill, which
the Lords have rejected, secured to the established
clergy of Ireland 80 per cent. upon the nominal amount
of their tithes ;" and who, whether lie were a tithe-
owner or a land or house-proprietor, would not, as
Lord Melbourne very justly observed, be exceed-
ingly well satisfied—more especially under the peculiar
circumstances in which Irish property of all kinds is
placed—to compound for a certainty of eighty per
cent. of his whole claim, to be received without trou-
ble, odium, or danger, rather than run the certainty of
all these disagreeables, and receive nothing ? The
House—the opposition side of it—laughed when the
Noble Lord declared that the arrangement was not
a bad one ; but the time is rapidly approaching when
the matter will not be one of laughter—and when,
perhaps, those Noble Lords who found so much
amusement in the proposition of the Noble Lord, will
be veryglad, without any risk of bad tenants, and with-
out any odium, to receive something less than 80 per
cent. of what they deem to be their just claim. At all
events, greater wonders have been seen. With regard
to the consequences to the House of Lords, as
...a, dis-

tinct portion of the Legislature, we are really un-
willing to say all that we think. That their decision
has not raised them in the estimation of any portion
of the public—that they have proved themselves
to be utterly ignorant of the real state of the public
mind ; and that they have moved the question a few
steps farther, whether there should or should not be a
house of hereditary wisdom, is but too true ! Would
to Heaven that, for the sake of the wise and good men
'who are to be found among their Lordships, the
House had not come to a decision which involved the
question whether an hereditary legislator had any better
claim to the indulgence of the public than an heredi-
tary tailor, or an hereditary boot-maker ! The question,
however, has been mooted, and it will not be put to
rest until the Hous-e of Lords becomes more cognizant
than it has hitherto proved itself to be, of the state of
public feeling, which is wholly in favour of a repre-
sentative House of Lords, and more practically in-
clined to accord with them.. We merely throw out the
hint—we trust their Lordships will take'it to heart,
and either save themselves by better conduct, or im-
prove upon it.—Morning Advertiser.

ACCELERATION OF THE MAIL.-The citizens of
Edinburgh now feel great benefit by the early delivery of the
London letters, and we understand that the mail will in a
short time arrive at half-past ten o'clock instead of half-past
twelve. Should the projected low-water pier at Granton be
carried into effect, one at Burntisland will speedily follow.
When these take place, the north mail will cross direct through
Fife, to Dundee, Montrose, and Aberdeen, instead of the
present circuitous route by the Queensferry and Perth—a
change which will be of the greatest benefit to the merchants
in that line of road ; and we have no doubt those interested
will avail themselves of an opportunity of petitioning the Post-
master- General on the subject.—Edinburgh Chronicle.

THE LAUGHING SKULL.—The tradition (Irish)
of the laughing skull possesses a sort of horrible drollery alto-
gether unequalled. It is said that a comic actor, or minstrel,
by name Clepsanus, once flourished in that island, who was
the Liston of his time ; his face was such a farce in itself, that
any person, no matter how much oppressed by the most ago-
nizing grief at the moment, who looked at him, found it im-
possible to avoid laughing. Having fretted his hour upon
the stage of this life, he made his exit, and was buried in
the churchyard, where in due course of time all that was
mortal of
shim disappeared, except his pericranium. The
gravedigger, while making room in the same spot for a
new claimant, shovelled up the skull of the minstrel, and
without at all remembering to whom it had once belonged,
placed it on a large stone that was on the surface of the
earth. Some stragglers came into the churchyard, and
happening to approach the said stone, they set up such a peal
of laughter that the gravedigger was astonished. He loosed
about to ascertain the cause of their mirth, when his eye falling
on that part of the caput from which the mouth and tongue of
Clepsanus had formerly set many an audience in a roar, he,
too, yielded to the contagion, and laughed till he could dig no
longer. The funeral train, for whose reception he had been
preparing, next appeared, rending the air with that melancholy
howl which even vet may be heard in some parts of Ireland on
such occasions. But as the procession advanced, and reached
within view of the skull of Clepsanus, the notes were suddenly
changed to shouts of irresistible merriment. The tradition
adds, that this singular relic micilit be seen even within a cen-
tury or two ago.—New Montnig Magazine.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE,

MANSION-HO USE.

Yesterday a man named Daniel Donovan, who has been
for some time known to the police as a " regular macer,"
was brought before the LORD MAYOR, charged upon 'ins-
picion of having broken into and plundered the shop of Mr.
C. Williamson, of No. 98, Royal Exchange, on Sunday
last. The burglary, it appeared, was accomplished in such
a manner that the principal officers are convinced that the
housebreakers consisted of the most desperate fellows about
town.

There is a gate leading from Castle-place, Cornhill, at
the corner of which is Mr. Williamson's shop, to the inte-
rior of the Royal Exchange, and there is another passage
between that gate and Mr. Williamson's shop leading to the
Assurance Office on the second floor of the building. Be-
tween the shop and passage there is a wooden partition.
The door of the passage is locked and secured inside every
evening ; but the gate is locked upon the outside, and the
thieves contrived to pick the lock, and to have their full
swing in the building on Sunday, when not a creature was
to be found there but themselves. The moment they en-
tered at the first door their great difficulty was passed, for
they brought with them a set of tools which no metal would
be able to resist. They proceeded up stairs,, burst open
the door of the Assurance Office, and then descended to
the passage immediately adjoining Mr. Williamson's shop.
They then cut away the partition, entered the shop, and
wrenched open a large iron safe of great strength, contain-
ing thirty gold watches and thirty-seven silver watches, be-
, sides a great number of gold and silver watchguards, gold
seals, and other articles of jewellery. Of all this property,
the thieves plundered the shop, and they no doubt quitted
the Royal Exchange at a time when the chances of detec-
tion were greatly diminished. The gentleman who is so
serious a loser by this flagrant robbery cannot be charged,
as many tradesmen have been, with having neglected to
watch his property with sufficient care. One of the rules
laid down by the Committee called the Gresham Committee,
who have, the management of the estate, being that no
person shall be allowed to sleep on the premises, nothing
more could have been done by Mr. Williamson for the pro-
tection of his goods than he had done.
The prisoner was brought before the Lord Mayor by
John Forrester, the officer, who apprehended him in a lane
in Aldgate, and searched him as well us his premises, but
found nothing which was calculated to strengthen the sus-
picion entertained against the man.
Mr. Williamson deposed that the premises had been
locked up on Saturday night, and left in the usual state,
the watches and other portable articles of jewellery having
been locked up in the iron safe. In various parts of the
premises were the articles which were not of so portable a
nature, and no attempt had been made to take anything
likely to encumber. At about one o'clock on Sunday night
or Monday morning, he -received intimation that something
wrong had happened,, and upon going to the premises he
saw that the safe had been smashed open and plundered of
all the property deposited there.
Upon the premises Forrester found two crowbars, a lever
strong enough to tear iron from iron, and other house-
breaking implements, with which, in his opinion, a couple
of able men could in a short time burst open any place,
however strong.
The Lord Mayor asked whether the prisoner had been
seen lurking about the premises at any time ?
Merchant said there were witnesses who could identify
him as a person who had been during Sunday in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of the place where the robbery was
effected.
The prisoner was remanded.
Mr. Williamson has offered a reward of 1001. upon the
conviction of the thieves and the restoration of the property.
The LORD MAYOR sent for Mr. Saunders, the water-
bailiff, in order to make inquiry concerning the nuisances
of the piles which were visible at low water at London
Bridge. Some allusion had been made to the extraordi-
nary continuance of such a nuisance by Mr. Prior, the
Chairman of the Blackfriars Bridge Committee, in the
Court of Common Council, and a question was asked of
Mr. Hunter, the Chairman of the Navigation Committee.
The subject, however, came under the jurisdiction of the
Lord Mayor more properly than under that of the Navi-
gation Committee, and lie (the Lord Mayor) should take
care, as Conservator of the River Thames, that every
means should be taken to remove so dangerous an ob-
struction.

The water-bailiff bore testimony to the existence of the
nuisance.

The LORD MAYOR then directed that if Messrs. Joliffe
and Bankes did not cause it to be immediately removed an
indictment should be preferred.
GUILDHALL.

Yesterday, Francis Clark, a coal-dealer in Fleet-lane, was
brought before Mr. Alderman KELLY, charged with steal-
ing a pair of woman's boots, the property of Mr. Fare,
shoemaker, of Fleet-street and Newgate-street.
The manner in which the case was brought home to the
prisoner was rather sigular. On the 7th of May, Mr.
Toby, a shoe-manufacturer in the Dover-road, delivered a
large quantity of work in hampers, at Mr. Fare's premises
in Fleet-street, and on the following day the prisoner was
employed to remove thither some coals, from his late resi-
dence in Newcastle-street. Shortly afterwards, eight pairs
of boots and an odd one were missed ; but, as the prisoner
was apparently a shopkeeper in good circumstances, no sus-
picion attached to him. Last week, however, a woman
named Ann Matthews, who resides in Elliott's-court, Old
Bailey, brought the odd boot to Mr. Fare's shop in New-
gate-street, desiring one to be made match it. It was re-
cognised by the mark, and the woman related that she had
purchased it from the prisoner, who told her that it was an
odd one his wife had. Hodgson, a policeman, was called
in, who proceeded to the prisoner's apartments, and found
a duplicate of a pair of boots, which had been pledged two
days after the theft, and turned out to be one of the eight
pairs of boots that were stolen. There was also found on
his premises a brass cock, with several feet of leaden pipe,
which had been stolen only three days before, out of the
cellar of Mr. Swile, a baker, in Fleet-lane, who had suffered
a similar loss a month before.
The pair of boots was produced by the pawnbroker, and
identified by the maker and Mr. Fare, who said the pri-
soner had access, when removing the coals, to the place
from whence the boots were stolen.
The prisoner said he received the duplicate in payment
of a debt for coals, from a stranger whom he had- no oppor-
tunity to seek, in consequence of his apprehension ; and he
asked. Mr. Fare if he could swear he had not sold this pair
of boots in his shop.
Mr. Fare said he could..

Mr. Alderman KELLY observed that the account given
by the prisoner was very unsatisfactory, and he should com-
mit the prisoner for stealing the cock as well as the boots.
The prisoner was committed for trial.
BOW-STREET.

CRUELTY TO A onsE.—Joseph Brown, a young man
in the service ,of Mr. Edward Pepper, an ironmonger, re-
siding at No. 14, Brydges-street, Covent-garden, as horse-
keeper and groom, was yesterday placed at the bar at this
office, charged with inflicting a number of wounds on, and
otherwise injuring a horse, the property of his employer, on
Saturday afternoon.

It appeared that the stables of the prosecutor are si-
tuated in George-yard, Drury-lane, and that on Saturday
afternoon the horse in question was observed standing in
the stables by George Mitchell, who works in the same
yard, much cut and wounded about the hind-legs, who also
saw the prisoner asleep, in a state of intoxication, in the
hay-loft over the stables. Information of the fact was con-
veyed to the prosecutor, who, on coming to the stables,
found eight wounds on the horse's near hind-leg, and se-
veral others about its back and off hind-leg. On the ground,
lying among the litter, was found the pitch-fork used by the
prisoner, with one of the prongs broken off. Upon compar-
ing the wounds on the animal's back with the fork, it was
evident that it had been the weapon with which they had
been inflicted. The horse was then taken to a farrier, when
several severe bruises about its eyes, belly, and hocks were
also discovered. The wounds were dressed, and the horse is
now in a fair way of recovering, although still very lame. The
prisoner was afterwards questioned on the subject by Thos.
Maynard, a smith, in the employ of the prosecutor, when he
at first denied all knowledge of the circumstance, but subse-
quently admitted having inflicted the injuries described, af-
firming as a reason that the horse had kicked him. The pri-
soner was apprehended in Drury-lane while intoxicated, and
was brought up at this office on Monday, from which day
he was remanded until yesterday, in order to obtain the
evidence of the farrier. The prisoner now, in his defence,
stated, that on his going to dress the horse on Saturday af-
ternoon, the animal endeavoured to bite him, and after-
wards to kick him. In a moment of passion he seized the prong
and made a blow at the horse, but missed him, and the prong
coming in contact with the pavement, was broken. He
afterwards beat the horse with a whip, when the animal, in
kicking at him, kicked his feet through the stall-board, in
endeavouring to extricate which the wounds were inflicted.
The animal was very vicious, as the prosecuttit well knew.
He admitted he was drunk at the time.

Mr. Pepper denied that there was any evil in the ani-
mal's disposition.
Sir F. ROE then convicted the prisoner, under the Act
for using cruelty towards the animal, and fined him in the
penalty of .5/. or in default of payment committed him to
the House of Correction for thee months.

CHARGES OF ASSAULT.—Janzes Neale and Thos. Leo-
nard, residing in Great Wyld-street, Seven Dials, were on
Monday brought up in custody of the new police, charged
with assaulting police constable Keene, No. 57, of the F
division, in a most violent manner, at an early hour on Sun-
day morning.
It appeared from the depositions of the complainant, and
police-constable No. 101, of the same division, and those of
George Nicol, who witnessed the occurrence whilst casually