The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The country will not rest satisfied with the conduct
of the Lords on the Bills for the partial disfranchise-
ment and reformation of the corrupt boroughs. Four
have been sent to the Upper House during the present
session, all of which, excepting that for the annexa-
tion of Leamington to Warwick, have been uncere-
moniously postponed by the Lords, till next year. The
Bribery Bill of Lord John Russell—originally an im•
perfect measure—has been so mangled, so altered by
interpolations, that the Commons scornfully rejected
it. The most staunch supporters of Ministers de-
clared their disgust at the amended Bill. A resolu-
tion of the Peers—in the same spirit of opposi-
tion—in the case of Liverpool, limited the inquiry
to the proceedings of the last election, although
the Commons had very properly investigated the
habit of election in that town, and the notorious
corruption of the_ freemen in all preceding contests.
In the case of Warwick, all the evidence respecting
Lord Warwick—on the scandalous riots which endan-
gered the security of life and property—and on the
fraudulent increase of the franchise by fictitious rating,
was summarily refused at their Lordship's bar.
During the whole progress _of the Lords' inquiry,
no leading member of the Government attended, and
oil an average of each day's attendance not a dozen
Lords were present. The strictest rules of the Com-
mon Law Courts were enforced on Counsel—no
second reading was vouchsafed—no time given to
the House for the patient consideration of the
mass of evidence produced in support of the Bill—
no discussion on that evidence took place after
the summary of Counsel. If it is supposed that
the House of Commons, or the country, will be
content with the decision of such a tribunal, the
Peers are egregiously mistaken ; and we are glad to
learn that it is determined to revive the subject in the
Commons next year, and more especially that the pe-
cuniary contribution of Lord Warwick, and the acts
of his steward Brown, and other agents in the ficti-
tious creation of electoral qualifications, will be fully
investigated as a distinct question in this important
case. On Tuesday, as an afterpiece to the destruction
of the Bill last week, Lord Warwick declared that " he
had done nothing unconstitutional," and "he ap-
pealed to the Noble and Learned Lord on the Wool-
sack, with reference to the extent to which a Member
of their Lordships' House might justifiably go in such
matters." The Lord Chancellor answered this appeal,
and we confess most unsatisfactorily. Lord Brougham
drew a refined distinction between " unconstitutional"
acts, and acts "contrary to the law of the land." His
Lordship asserted, that notwithstanding the well known
annual declaration of the Commons against the inter-
ference of Peers in the election of Representatives of
the People, a Peer might legally do any act in an elec-
tion which a Commoner could legally and constitution-
ally perform. The Lord Chancellor then referred to
the personal opinion of the late Duke of Norfolk,
who, it is well known. always claimed to vote at elec-
tions ; and he further contended that the " legal" in-
terference of a Peer was not an " improper or disho-
norable act." Now, the specific resolution of the
House of Commons, recorded on its Journals of the
sth of February last, is as follows :
,‘ Resolved, That no Peer of this Realm, except such Peers
of Ireland as shall for the time being be actually elected, and
shall not have declined to serve for any county, city, or borough
of Great Britain, hath any right to give his vote in the elec-
tion of any Member to serve in Parliament.

' That- it is a high infringement of the liberties and privi-
leges of the Commons of the United Kingdom, for any Lord
' of Parliament, or other Peer or Prelate, not being a Peer of
Ireland at the time elected, and not having declined to serve
for any county, city, or borough of Great Britain, to concern
himself in the election of Members to serve for the Com-
mons in Parliament, except only any Peer of Ireland at such
elections in Great Britain respectively, where such Peer shall
appear as a candidate, or by himself or any others, be proposed
to be elected ; or for any Lord Lieutenant, or Governor of
any county, to avail himself of any authority derived from his
commission, to influence the election of any Member to serve
for the Commons in Parliament.

" That if it shall appear that any person bath been elected
or returned a Member of this House, or endeavoured so to be,
by bribery, or any other corrupt practices, this House will
proceed with the utmost severity against all such persons as
have been wilfully concerned in such bribery or other corrupt
practices."

- The violation of this resolution, periodically repeated
for the last two centuries, is a gross breach of con-
stitutional law. It is true that the doctrine is not
sanctioned by any statute, nor are many of the re-
ceived doctrines of the common law. Moreover, it
is notorious that both Houses of Parliament, as the
turators of their own rights and privileges, enact
various ordinances which, by long custom and the
spirit of the Constitution, are in effect laws—rigidly
enforced, and universally obeyed. This is peculiarly
the case with respect to the Peers, who have always
jealously excluded the Commons from all inter-
ference with their rights and privileges. The
Peers have no power whatever over the writs of
the Commons ; and the Commons, in 1604, on the
occasion of their difference with the Lords, made
their memorable declaration to James I.—" That
though they were but part of a body, as to make. new
laws—yet, for any matter of privileges of our House,
we are, and ever have been, a Court of ourselves, of
sufficient power to discern and determine, without their
Lordships, as their Lordships have used always to do
for theirs, without us." (Commons' Journals.) For-
merly the Crown and the Sheriffs, it is well known,
enjoyed the prerogative, exclusive of the Peers, of
issuing or withholding writs from decayed and delin-
quent boroughs. We do not contend for this anti-
quated and surrendered power, but it illustrates
the original letter and spirit of the Constitution.
And how is the fact regarding the resolution of the
Commons above cited ? It has been always acted
upon by the latter branch of the British Legis-
lature. In the well-known case of Dr. Lloyd, the
Bishop of Worcester, in 1702, a petition was presen-
ted to the Commons by freeholders of Worcestershire,
complaining of the interference in a recent election of
a Spiritual Peer of the diocese of Worcester. The
Commonsinvestigated the charge at the bar of their
House, and witnesses established the fact of an interfe-
rence much less unconstitutional than that imputed to
Lord Warwick in the instance of the borough of War-
wick. The Commons unanimously resolved that the Pre-
late, as the Peer of the realm, had violated the orders of
their House—that an address should be presented to
the Queen, praying the Bishop's removal from his
office of Almoner to her Majesty—and that the At-
torney-General be directed to prosecute " the Lord
Bishop of Worcester's son for his said offences." The
Lords took alarm at these proceedings of the Com-
mons, and endeavoured to screen their member from
the resentment of the Commons. The Peers addressed
the Queen, but her Majesty, through her Comptroller,
reported to the Commons " this most gracious
answer :

" I am very sorry that there is occasion for this address
against the Bishop of Worcester. I shall order and direct that
he shall no longer continue to supply the place of Almoner ;
but I will put another in his room to perform that duty."
By a special order of the House all these proceed-
ings were printed and recorded in detail. In the more
recent election case of the Borough of Helston, the
Duke of Leeds was specially reported by a Commons'
Committee, for contracting with the Corporation to
return his two nominees for an annual sum of money.
A motion was made that the Attorney-General be di-
rected to prosecute the Duke of Leeds, which was lost
only by a majority of three votes, and rather from a
dispute as to the facts than on any question of the
doctrine of Parliament. We need say no more on the
subject of the Lord Chancellor's distinction between
illegal and unconstitutional act. The Commons,
having suspended the Warwick writ, cannot allow the
case to remain in its present desuetude, During the
whole progress of the inquiry, in both Houses of
Parliament, the opponents of this Bill have never
called a single witness to disprove the facts of bribery,
treating, riots, and false rating, nor tendered any dis-
proof that these gross violations of the freedom and
purity of election were effected with the money, the
property, and through the immediate agents of Lord
*Warwick. The English Reform Act was passed to
extinguish rotten and nomination boroughs, and if the
first House of Commons allow Warwick to continue
the pocket borough of its Earl and Lord-Lieutenant,
there is an end of all respect for the assembly. Lord
Warwick is entitled to all the legal and constitutional
influence of his property, station, and private cha-
ractePeersr—but to no incre. It is not in the power of
any to white wash his acts, nor to prevent the

House of Commons, next session, from doing that
justice- which the Lords have denied to an oppressed
and insulted constituency.—Morning Chronicle.
The amendments of the Commons to the Poor
Laws' Amendment Bill were agreed to last night by

the Lords. Some discussion took place on the sub-
ject of the clause allowing the Ministers of dissenting
sects to enter the workhouses. We do not believe that
much difficulty would have been experienced by Dis-
senters, in obtaining admission to workhouses to give
spiritual assistance to the poor. We can easily con-
ceive that great difficulty might be experienced in pre-
vailing on clergymen of the Established Church to
enter workhouses ; and we say this because we have
often seen that large sums arc voted out of the poor
rates to the clergyman of a parish, for affording spiri-
tual aid to that portion of his parishioners who dwell
in the workhouse. It is very hard on the inhabitant
householders to be obliged not merely to clothe and
feed the poor, but also to pay a clergyman to afford
them spiritual instruction, such clergyman being
already established and paid for affording spiritual aidr
to all his parishioners. What with gaols, correction
houses, lunatic asylums, workhouses, &c., there is no
end to the sums paid to the clergy—all which addi-
tional 'sources of income do not figure in any accounts
of their revenue. We will answer for it no clergyman
of the Establishment will ever stand in the way of a
dissenting parson praying as much or as often as he
pleases to the poor, if there be no pay attached to the
ministration. The dispute seems to us quite uncalled
for.—Morning Chronicle.

Our readers will observe that the Coroners' Bill is
lost. Mr. Warburton, on moving that the reasons of
the Lords be taken into consideration that day three
months, admitted that the House had placed itself in
a difficulty by making the clause respecting publicity,
which the Lords had struck out, enacting instead of
declaratory. On the whole, however, it seemed to
him much more expedient that the measure should be
dropped for the present Session, and such would be the
result if his amendment were carried. It was quite
clear that the House ought not to give the go-by to
the great principle involved in the question with the
Lords. The amendment was supported by Lord Al-
thorp ; and indeed the general feeling in the House
seemed to be, that there was much more danger in
gavinga power to exclude the public than from admitting
the public. It has been said that the Attorney-General
is of opinion that the Court ought to be an open
Court. There cannot be a higher opinion ; but still it
is only an opinion. A Coroner may exclude the
public ; and Mr. Ferrand, the Oldham Coroner, con-
tinues to this day to do so. Great inconvenience was
experienced at the late inquest on the man shot, from
Mr. Thomson's factory, from the stupid 41prmination
of this Coroner to prevent the introduction of any per-
sons who were not witnesses. But Lord Tenterden
decided in the case of Garnett against this very Co-
roner, that he could not be called to account for his
decisions in either admitting or excluding the public.
We all know that, with such ample discretion, the
right of admission to Coroners' Courts is a mere farce.
Many a Coroner would laugh at the opinion of the
Attorney-General, so long as he knew himself pro-
tected from responsibility, and might even exclaim, in
imitation of a distinguished individual, that he did not
regard such a opinion more than that of a drunken
piper.—Morning Chronicle.
Parliament is to be prorogued to-morrow by his
Majesty in person. All the necessary preparations
have been made for the purpose, and the public, what-
ever disappointment they may have experienced from
their representatives, feel but one impression as to the
patriotism of their venerable Monarch, who, by coun-
tenancing and supporting the efforts of his people, has
secured to them the advantage of a reformed Constitu-
tion. It is no impeachment of the utility of that re-
form to say that, on the first trial of the experiment, it
has not worked as well as could be wished. Enough
has been done—that is, as much as could be expected
in the course of things has been done—if a founda-
tion has been laid to which, when time and experience
shall have added a consistent superstructure, English-
men may look for the security of their rights and pri-
vileges. That this has been effected in the consum-
mation of that great measure, which not only forms
the distinguishing feature of the present reign, but will
stand out in future history amongst the most remark-
able and creditable events recorded of any nation,
those who look fairly at the subject will be the first to
confess. They will also recognise in the favour
which his Majesty has shown to the party still in
power, not a predilection to Whig politics, or Whig
purposes, or party purposes of any kind, but an exten-
sion of the rule of fair play io those who happened to
be Whigs, and whom circumstances had made Re-
formers—a desire that they should have an opportu-
nity of working their own measure and carrying their
own principles into full operation. Though the state
of the Ministry, whose weakness has been manifested
upon more than one occasion, is not such as to afford
any triumphant announcement at the close of the Par-
liamentary Session, and though the loss of its distin-
guished leader is a circumstance upon which neither
the King nor the people can be expected to dwell with
much complacency, still it is greatly to the honour of
both that no hollow practices and no inconsistent
desertion on their parts contributed to the recent change.
Never did Sovereign meet his Parliament at any crisis
with a more direct claim to the approbation of his
subjects than his present Majesty has done, and still
continues to do. Without making any invidious com-
parisons, we rejoice at the good old habit revived in
the present reign of convoking and proroguing Parlia-
ment in person. Hoping, therefore, that his Majesty
may long continue in a state of health to perform this
popular office, without having recourse to deputy, we
trust also that the task itself will become more agree-
able from the course which events may take hereafter.
—Morning Herald.
Wretched Whigs ! Soon will Whiggery and defeat
be convertible terms. Beaten night after night in the
House of Peers, compelled to truckle to Mr. O'Connell
and his tail in the House of Commons, the objects of
the faint praise of their nominal friends and of the
mingled hatred and contempt of their avowed oppo-
nents, they turn to their own constituencies, the chil-
dren of the Reform Act, and entreat at least their aid
whom they called into a painful and mischievous exist-
ence. But even this last resource fails them. East
Glougstershire comes forth, after the many previous
defeats they have sustained, to fill up their cup of bit-
terness and disgrace. In spite of the exertions of ma-
nufacturing Stroud (alas! its electors know their in-
terest but little, although the constituents of Mr. Ellice
and Sir John Hobhouse could inform them what kind
of friends they find in the Whigs,) in defiance of the
youthful zeal of the newly-enfranchised Cheltenham
(to the independence of whose voters Lord Seagrave
can bear witness,) Mr. Tracy Leigh, a gentleman of
irreproachable character and respectable station, is re-
jected by the manly electors of East Gloucester, and
compelled to chew in private life the cud of those
reflections with which an unsuccessful contest
abounds, while Mr. Codrington, a Conservative
of talent and reputation, is elected to advocate
the hitherto neglected interests of the agriculturists of
the district. In that county, where scarcely two years
back, the excellent and amiable Lord Edward Somer-
set was ejected to make room for another scion of the
Berkeley stock—where Mr. Codrington himself had
been defeated by a large majority—is Toryism now tri-
umphant--Toryism, the very essence of whose creed
is the best interests of all classes of his Majesty's snb-
jects. All the denunciations of the 'Whig press have
had no other effect than this, that after the noble and
manly vote of the House of Peers was anticipated
most confidently in Gloucestershire, that vote whose
effect was to have been annihilation of the upper
branch of the Legislature, and the eternal discomfiture
of Toryism, the electors of Gloucester resolved to do
their duty, and have, accordingly, returned an un-
flinching Conservative to advocate their interests in the
Commons' House of Parliament. The triumph in
Gloucestershire, which would have been valuable at
any time, acquires a double value from its coincidence
with the recent vote of the House of Lords. The
two occurrences unite to proclaim that the British na-
tion, in all its various ranks. have determined to obey
the wise injunction, and to imitate the high example

of their Sovereign ; and when they see the most im-
poi tant institutions of the country likely to become
the prey of faction they will " speak out."—Morning
Post.

No criminal proceeding that ever took place in this
country seems to have made a deeper impression on
the minds of Englishmen than that which led to the
conviction of the trades' union murderers. of Mr. Ash-
ton, accompanied as it has been by the minute, but
still incomplete, confession of Garside, one of the
condemned assassins. The crime referred to was of
all forms of barbarity the basest—a cold-blooded, sti-
pulated, mercenary murder. The Venetian bravo of
former days was a being to whose name and attributes
a greater degree of horror is now attached than to any
other class of human monster on record. Venice
shares with other states the stigma of tyranny, treach-
ery, the inquisition, secret torture, tale destruction of
innocent life, for the tortuous and cruel ends of state
policy, but her monopoly of time system of hired assas-
sins is that peculiar stain which will never be wiped
out ; it is that infamy which blurs the honour of her
sagacious government, which desecrates the renown of
her arts, her industry, herenterprise, and her arms. Yet
even for Venice there was in the despotism of her rulers,
and the utter hopelessness of redress for private injury
inflicted on the weak by the powerful, some shadow of
vague and indistinct excuse for the assassin. He went
armed it is true, but so every man was armed. He
lived in a land, he professed a faith, and had for his
instructors a priesthood which recognized in the most
atrocious crimes fit subjects for religious absolution.
He lived in ages wherein moral obligation
was but
imperfectly comprehended, and when the soul of a
culprit was supposed to be cleansed of blood for less
than a moiety of the sum which he earned by shedding
it. The brutalized bravo of modern times, combining
the savage with the coward, may, as we have heard,
be found at this moment in some districts of the south
of Ireland, where any revengeful villain may for a few
shillings get his enemy shot from behind a hedge ; but
until within these few days we had trusted that no-
where, save in ancient Venice, and in actual Munster,
could the life of a human creature be bartered for a
definite, and that an insignificant sum of money, made
a subject of sober bargain and sale, and destroyed as
deliberately for purposes of traffic as the butcher fells
the ox. The trial at Chester, and its subjoined disclo-
sures, have'painfully undeceived us. England has become
the scene of hireling murders, and Englishmen are the
perpetrators. There never was an assassination plan-
ned or executed within a league of the Rialto, or under
the orders of a blood committee in Cork, Tipperary,
Limerick, or Clare, performed in a more business-like
manner, or in a spirit more sordid, heartless, and re-
volting, than that for which the two convicted wretches
—Garside and his brother miscreant, are to suffer. It
appears-that the working cotton-spinners had " turned
out," and that one of those blessed inventions of a ma-
nufacturing age—to wit, a trades' union—was at the
bottom of their proceedings. It appears that Messrs.
Ashton were master-manufacturers in the same place,
and that having incurred the resentment of the trades'
union, the criminals now under sentence of death were
hired for the sum of 101. by the Committee, or by
some members of the same trades' union, to murder
one of the Messrs. Ashton, which condition of the
compact they fulfilled by lying in wait for the unfortu-
nate man on a private road contiguous to his own pre-
mises, and delibtely shooting him on the spot. This
is the main outline of the transaction, and what com-
ment can be made but that England is indelibly dis-
graced by it ? It is a disgrace altogether new in nature,as
well as amount. It is as if a demon had sprung from the
earth, and left this representative of himself behind
him. No personal knowledge of the victim by his
destroyers—no individual vengeance to gratify—no
impulse of passion to force them onwards—nothing to
provoke—nothing to palliate—murder, " contrived
murder," for 3/. 6s. Bd. a-piece I Those who, like
ourselves, have always manifested a strong dislike of
these trades' unions as things of dangerous growth
to the community—as convertible, through the sworn
secrecy of their proceedings, to whatever lawless and
criminal purposes may be entertained by their chiefs
—and as, by the power which they concentrate in the
hands of a few men, generally chosen for their fierce
and overbearing turbulence rather than personal merit
or good sense, fit instruments to impose upon, and
deeply injure, the great body of the journeymen, who
confide in them—those persons; we repeat, who, with
ourselves, have always avowed such sentiments to-
wards the invention of trades' unions, cannot be ex-
pected to relax in their distil. e of them, because of
these late disclosures. We allow that there must be
something fundamentally wrong in the management, of
the manufacturing system by the masters, or they
would not be the objects of sanguinary vengeance
to the working body. But is this an apology for
murder ? Does any master manufacturer in this
free kingdom possess a power of wrong-doing to:
wards the men in his employment, the abuse of
which can no otherwise be redressed than by his assas-
sination ? Revenge has been called, it is true, wild
justice," but such justice can be tolerated only where
there exists no other. The workmen had already left
Mr. Ashton's work, and so long as they remained idle,
deprived him of the means of turning his capital to
use ; they had therefore already exercised their free
agency in a manner over which he had no control, in
a manner which was calculated severely to affect his
interests ; and if they still complained that they had
not full enjoyment of what they conceived to be their
rights, we may be permitted to question the validity of
rights which in a country of equal law seek to vindi-
cate themselves by prepared and counselled murder.
There is, we have reason to believe, much harshness
displayed by individual masters, as well as exaction
and unreasonable encroachment by the imm. Indi-
vidual character will of necessity show itself in these
relations of society as well as in all others, and law and
personal free agency must be resorted to for the cure.
When profits are low, there must be struggles between
men and masters to see who can shift most of the
common grievance off his own shoulders upon those
of his neighbour, and all that can be done by the
public authorities is to deal out justice according to
law towards each.—Times.

The most popular New Books of the Season are—

MRS. AUSTIN'S CHARACTERISTICS OF GOETHE.

THE FIELD BOOK,

Comprising all the Sports and Pastimes of the People of England;
By the Author of " Wild Sports of the West."

THOMAS CAMPBELL'S LIFE OF MRS. SIDDONS.
Iv.

MR. 'GOULD'S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES of the

ARTISTS of all AGES and NATIONS.

MRS. AUSTIN'S STORY WITHOUT AN END.

MRS. AUSTIN'S TRANSLATION of COUSIN'S REPORT
on PUBLIC EDUCATION in PRUSSIA.

MRS. HOWITT'S POETICAL SKETCHES of NATURAL
HISTORY. Alia
1 •
GROUSE.—Grouse are, this season, most abundant
in Yorkshire, the northern counties of England, and in Scot-
land. The manors on which game is strictly preserved, far
in the north, have been let at higher rents this year than oa
any former occasion. The following gentlemen yesterday
passed through this town on their way to the Moors :-,.44e
William Cooke. —Wheatley, P. D. Cooke, Esq.—Owston,
Hon. Lumley Saville, Joseph Higgington, Esq.—Hull, Rev.
George Chandler, &c. The Tontine yesterday was the scene
of great bustle, there being besides the above, many other
crack sportsmen, who had already made themselves sure of full
bags, as there were at least fifty hampers, waiting for birds,
directed for all parts of the kingdom. The bilberries on the
moors are unusually abundant. Last year the beautiful bru-
nettes who gather this delicious fruit were much gratified by a
sportsman of considerable celebrity in this town, being disap-
pointed in his expectations of bagging birds, ordering all the
bilberies into his hampers that could be procured within the
reach of their shrill voices—." Bilberries" were heard for several
miles around.—Sheijicld Iris.

PROPOSED WEST INDIA BANK.—It is proposed
to form a West India Bank, with a capital of 1,000,0001. ster-
ling the head-quarters of which shall be in England, and the
branches thereof divided among the colonies ; such a measure
would equalize or regulate the exchanges, would promote com-
mercial intercourse, between each island, andfacilitate the ope-
rations of the planter, by affording him that accommodation
which the country bankers of England give to the farmers and
merchants. By drawing bills on England at 2or -21- per cent.
the irresistable temptation to the transmission of the colonial
currency to England, would be prevented ; and by giving an
expansible circulating medium as the representative of value to
the colonists, their wellbeing would be materially promoted.—
From Montgomery Martin's History of the British Colonies,
Vol. 11. West Indies.

EAST INDIA HOUSE.

(Concluded from The Sun of yesterday:)

. .
Mr. WEEDING regretted that it had been necessary for
the Proprietors to bring the subject of compensation again
before the Court, but the scale of the Court of Directors
could not be agreed upon by the proprietors.—(Hear.) The
plan was not in accordance with the character of the East
India Company, to the intentions of Parliament, and to the
moral obligations due to the maritime officers,—( Hear.) He
hoped to show to the Court of Directors that they ought
to act with more liberality to the maritime officers. The
Hon. Proprietor then referred to the correspondence be-
tween the Directors and Mr. Charles Grant, to show that
in giving up the commercial assets of the Company, which
it was urged were sufficient to provide for the annuity to
the Proprietors, and for compensation to the commercial
officers, the claims of the maritime officers were recognised,
and that this principle was fully acknowledged by the Pre-
sident of the Board of Control. The Hon. Proprietor en-
tered into particulars of the Company's assets to show that
there were adequate funds to provide for all claims. Though
the scale of compensation had been referred back by the
Proprietors, still nothing more was recommended than that
the fifth and sixth mates should be included. The intentions
of the Court of Directors to augment the amount of com-
pensation out of the Poplar Fund, was making the measure
one of charity.
The CHAIRMAN said the fund alluded to had existed
for a long time, and was totally different to that now
proposed.

Mr. WEEDING still thought the scale objectionable. He
then read the resolutions, for which see advertisement.
Sir C. FORBES rose to second the revolutions, and said he
was sorry to say that the sums for compensation were not
ample for those meritorious and he must say ill-used offi-
cers. The Hon. Baronet compared the scale of compensa-
tion to the home service with that of the maritime service,
and said a large sum had been paid into the treasury of the
Company by the maritime officers amounting to 1,600,0001.,
an exaction of not less than twenty-seven per cent. being
paid by them in teas brought home on private account,
whether the voyage was fortunate or otherwise.—(Hear.)
He thought the trade to China should not have been given
up by the Company. which trade had so benefitted
The Company had, however, surrendered the trade, and
let it remain in abeyance for forty years in lieu of 640,0001.
to be drawn from India for the dividends—(Hear)—there-
fore liberal compensation should be made to the maritime
service.

Sir P. MALCOLM said that from the first beginning of
the Company till now none had promoted the interests of
the Company more than the maritime officers. Many of
the Directors had been chosen from among them on account
of their talent, and he could speak in favour of their
zeal. He was at the siege of Port Graham, and there
bad an opportunity of witnessing their praiseworthy con-
duct. By the opening of the China trade none would
suffer more.

Mr. FIELDEI4, at some length, addressed the Court in
support of the claims of the service, and contended that
they were entitled to full compensation out of the assets of
the Company.

Mr. SWEET could only consider the scale of compensa-
tion as having emanated from the Directors in consequence
of a doubt as to their claim. Of this, however, there could
be no doubt, and he thought they ought to be more libe-
rally provided for.
Mr. TWINING regretted that he must differ from the
Court of Directors, but knowing the merits of the maritime
officers he could not agree to the scale of compensation
proposed. The Hon. Proprietor spoke in high terms, from
his own knowledge, of the conduct of the maritime officers,
and of the advantage they had been to the trade of the
country.

The CHAIRMAN wished to say a few words respecting
some remarks that had fallen from some of the Gentlemen
present. The opinions of himself and colleagues were re-
corded in the rninute that had been read. He had a solemn
duty to perform--to decide upon the claims of all parties.—
It had been stated that the assets of the Company were
between eighteen and twenty millions. Sir C. Forbes had
indeed taken a different view of the question. The
amount likely to be realised was about 14,600,0001. The
Hon. Proprietor (Mr. Weeding) stated to-day that it
would take 10,800,000/. to purchase an annuity for
forty years ; but there was also 2,600,0001. required to
redeem a sum of 12,000,000/. at the expiration of the
forty years ; so that the balance would Be small when it
was considered that superannuation allowances, &c.,
were to be paid amounting to nearly 500,000/. more.
The donations and compensations now proposed would re-
quire 430,000/. ; but had the increased compensation been
adopted not less than 1,160,0001. would have been re-
quired. Though the proprietors might wish to give, still
the Directors bad to consider that they would have to raise
the money from the people of India, already heavily em-
barrassed. He perfectly agreed in the useful services ren-
dered by the maritime officers. The Hon. Proprietor (Mr.
Weeding) had attempted to place the Court of Directors
in an invidious situation as compared with the wishes of
Mr. Grant on the point of compensation. The Honour-
able Director here read a letter from Mr. Grant, in which
the aggregate amount of the compensations were stated to
be very large. The amended plan of the Court of Direc-
tors would augment the number of commanders entitled to
remuneration from thirty-two to sixty-five, and other officers
in proportion. The Court had done everything they could.
They had strained points to give these meritorious officers
full compensation. The Court must recollect the situation
of India. Applications were daily made for relief. The
late failures in Calcutta had added to these applications.
His opinion on the subject remained unaltered, and if the
proprietors adopted other measures it must be on their own
responsibility.—( Hear.)
Mr. MILLS (one of the Directors) did not think so fa-
vourably of the assets of the Company, and thought the
claims ought to be paid out of the dividends if the assets
were deficient.

Mr. WEEDING replied, after which the Chairman put
the question.
The original motion was lost by a large majority, and
Mr. Weeding's amendment carried.
The CHAIRMAN said a ballot on the main question had
been demanded, which was granted, and Wednesday next
was fixed for that purpose.
The meeting then adjourned.