The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-28 00:00:00

PRICES OF SHARES THIS DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK.

Paid.
British Iron Company 5O
Mexican Mining Company ~... 531 t
Brighton (Gibbs') Railway I
Danube and Mayne Company 5
National Provincial Bank of England

Per Share.
3436
3
0,;.4
314 31,4
2414

PRICES OF IRISH STOCKS; DUBLIN, DECEMBER 24.
3 per Cent. Consols 9014 Grand Canal Debs. ti per cent.., 84,,i
Ditto Reduced - Ditto, 4 per cent sr)!!
3'(, per Cent. Stock 994 Hibernian Bank -
Ditto New, IS3O
3ts; per Cent. Debentures 9l g, . National Insurance Co -
Bank Stock 2lO City Debentures, 4 per cent... 78
Royal Canal Stock 34 Ballast Office Debentures, 4
Grand Canal Stock ---• ner cent -

venom bag is drawn, and though she may still continue
to hiss and wriggle a little, she will no longer be able
to do any effectual mischief. We always looked for-
ward to the Municipal elections as decisive of the fate
of Toryism. We knew that, however it might be with
the counties, this was a test the faction could not
stand ; and most triumphantly have our expectations
been fulfilled. Wherever the independent voice of the
people has been permitted utterance, there has it spoken
out against the Conservatives. Henceforth, then, let us
hear no more of a Conservative reaction in England. The
cry can deceive none but the most prejudiced. Why, even
in Leicester, where the faction from time immemorial
have played so many strange tricks and antics, and
where they have always boasted of their overwhelming,
influence, they have been defeated—and this so sig-
nally, as to prevent the possibility of their ever again
rearing their head ! In Bristol, where they were
equally sanguine, they have received an equally fatal
blow. In Norwich, too, which Lord STORMONT
would have us believe, hates the " very mention of
Reform," the Conservative cause has received such a
shock of paralysis, as must henceforth leave it in the
condition of SHAKSPEARE'S "lean and slippered
pantaloon." In fact, the Tories-bid fair to be routed
at all points ; and if the Post of to-morrow bring us
such cheering intelligence as the Post of to-day, not
the faintest glimmer of a hope is left to them. The
counties will no longer avail them. Their influence
there is more than counter-balanced by the influence
of the Reformers in the Municipal districts. Thus
the CIIAI,.±DOS clause is neutralized, and the tricks of
the Tories recoil on themselves. Adieu, therefore, to
all their convenient Councils of Aldermen and Burgesses.
Adieu to their presents of fat bucks and hampers of
wine, so instrumental in the return of some favourite
Tory Member ; for the future they will adopt the
discreet principle of " nothing get nothing give," and
corruption being thereby deprived of its means, common
sense and honesty will obtain the ascendancy. There
are many points in which the Municipal measure is
still imperfect, and which Ministers will, no doubt,
take an early opportunity of rectifying ; nevertheless,
even in its present state, it has proved quite sufficient
to shatter the Tory fabric, and impart renewed energy
to a Liberal Government. Of these additional means,
thus placed by a generous and confiding people at
their disposal, Ministers will, of course, avail them-
selves to the utmost. They will be firm, bold, and per-
severing, and not allow themselves to be scared by
those imposing, but futile, shadows, which the Tories
have such a happy knack in conjuring up, and flinging
across the path of Reformers. If Government was
strong last Session, it will be twice as strong the
next. It need have no more apprehensions of waverers
and apostates, for a dissolution will soon do away with
all fears on this head. In a word, Ministers have the
game in their own hands, and they have only to play
it courageously, to play it successfully.

The Times makes a clumsy attempt to-day to back
out of the ridiculous position into which it has
brought itself by the circulation, during the past week,
of falsehoods, greater and more absurd than even
those in which it habitually deals. Some body wish-
ing, no doubt, to try how far its credulity could
he imposed upon, sent it secret information that
Lord MELBOURNE was on a visit to the Duke of
It lc ti MOND. A flood of light immediately bursts upon
the dazzled eve-balls of the " leading journal." It
proclaimed the important intelligence that Lord MEL-
BOURNE was "in communication" with Lord STAN-
LEY and Sir JAMES GRAHAM, without whose as-
sistance he found it impossible to carry on the Go-
vernment, and capered with joy at the glorious pros-
pect opened to the Tories by this unequivocal proof of
the weakness of the _Ministry. Certainly, had
,
_Lora :MELBOURNE " put himself in commu-
nication" with either of the above-mentioned persons,
it would have been a proof not only of weakness but of
downright madness. Nothing short of insanity could
have justified Lord MELBOURNE in proposing, as he
is represented by the Times to have done, to throw
overboard the appropriation principle, by the manly
assertion of which the Tory Administration was over-
thrown and his own substituted in its place. And we
may remark at the same time that nothing short of
insanity could have justified Lord STANLEY or Sir
J. GRAHAM in accepting any other proposal. This
was so obvious that no one paid the least attention to
the nonsense uttered by the Times on the subject.
The Liberal journals, in fact, scarcely thought it worth
while to notice, beyond a simple contradiction, a state-
ment which carried its own falsehood on its own face.
It now turns out that Lord MELBOURNE, instead of
being at the Duke of RICHMOND'S, was at his brother-
in-law, Earl COWPER'S, at Pansanger. Thus slips
away the foundation of the fine, but alas, visionary
fabric reared by the Times.

We subjoin two articles from our weekly Contem-
poraries, the Bell's New Weekly Messenger and the
Atlas, on the working of the new Poor Law Amend-
ment Act in the opulent and extensive metropolitan
parish of St. George, Hanover-square, as exhibited in
Mr. LESLIE'S pamphlets. We particularly recom-
mend the perusal of them to the Vestry-clerk of Lam-
beth, who upon a recent occasion, when violently
abusing the introduction of the Bill into that parish,
is reported to have said, " that the price it cost the rate-
payers to victual a pauper in St. George's Workhouse
would not keep a dog in Lambeth," he will perceive that
the rate-payers of St. George's paid 3s. id. for the diet
of each pauper per week, under the old system in
1832, for the same diet-table which, under the im-
proved system of Poor Law management, now costs
the rate-payers less than one-half that sum. How-
ever much vestry-clerks may dislike the new adminis-
tration, there‘cannot remain a doubt that it is working
advantageously for the rate-payers and the, deserving
poor.

(From Bell's Wew Weekly Messenger.) •
Mr. Leslie has favoured us with another pamphlet of
his, entitled, " A Practical Illustration of the Principles
upon which the Poor Law Amendment Act is founded, as
exhibited in the Administration of the Poor Rate in the
parish of St. George, Hanover-square," the perusal of which
we would recommend to all such as may be disposed to
question either the justice or the humanity of the new
regulations. A clearer exposition of the case we have
not seen ; here is no hollow sophistry, no rhetorical
flourishes to draw the reader's attention from a weak ar-
gument ; Mr. Leslie states his case like an honest man,
and convinces his readers by a simple arrangement of
facts. We are anxious to remove the erroneous opinions
that prevail with respect to the Amendment Act, which
was intended to lessen the rate-payers' burthens, and im-
prove the condition of the poor. How far these objects
are accomplished in the parish of St. George, and may be
accomplished elsewhere, Mr. Leslie's pamphlet shows. In
that parish the estimated expenditure for the third year of
the new system is 33,2041., being 6,5991. less than the ex-
penditure of the second year of the new system, and
28,1211. less than the last year of the old sytem ! It is
the vulgar error to suppose that such reduction has been
effected by " starving the poor," by reducing their allow-
ance of meat and drink, by throwing them into a state of
wretchedness revolting to humanity, and causing the work-
house to resemble the felons' cell, with the exception of
its chains and straw. These are the representations of
the old jobbers in the poors' fund, the penny-a-line con-
tributors to the press, and, we regret to add, the editors
of some contemporaneous journals. These are the repre-
sentations which are blazoned in the columns of newspapers ;
the representations of the lazy, the wicked, the dissolute
poor." But what are the facts ? The very same diet
table which was used under the old system, is used under
the new ! Not a grain of meat does the pauper receive
less than he received under the old system ! the quantity
of bread is the same ! the quantities of cheese, pudding,
soup, gruel and potatoes arc all the same ! The only

thing we find absent is beer, and the nature of the liquid so
Calle which was supplied to the inmates of the work-
house under the old system, may be imagined from the
price paid for it, 4s. 6d. for thirty-six gallons! If the rest
of the pauper's food were of a similar quality, good hog-
wash must be nectar and ambrosia to the " food" of the
poor under that blessed old system, the downfall of
which is so much bewailed ! An idea of the abuses in that
system may be formed from the fact that the same diet-table,
which in 1832 cost 3s. Id. for each inmate per week, is now
obtained for less than one half the price !
That no unkind treatment is received by the poor in
their applications for relief, is evident from the following
regulatious :—" There is but one place where any relief can
be obtained, called The Overseers' Office,' in Mount.
street, where there are always stationed two officers, whose
duty it is immediately to attend to every application ; they
have have additional assistance within their reach, if re-
quired. If any case of urgent distress is stated, or any new
application is made, an immediate visit from one of the paid
overseers is undertaken ; so that while no case of real dis-
tress can pass unattended to, or neglected, except at the
peril of the officer's loss of situation, so no impostor, by a
plea of urgent necessity, can defraud the rate-payers."
Is cruelty or starvation apparent here ? Are not these
regulations particularly humane and kind ? What then
becomes of the allegations of unprincipled brawlers, and of
those who speak without knowledge of the matter, who
have such fine sympathy for the paupers, and for the rate-
payers none at all ? _ _

We may next week have an opportunity of going through
the whole of Mr. Leslie's exposition ; there are features in
it that will interest all our readers, and facts that will sur-
prise a few. The admirable provision for the education of
pauper children and the regulations respecting bastardy
cases demand our particular attention.
(From the Atlas.)
A Letter to the Industrious Classes. By John Leslie.
—ln this pamphlet, Mr. Leslie, a vestryman, and governor,
and director of the poor of St. George's parish, Hanover-
square, furnishes a very lucid historical sketch of the poor
laws of England, from the 43d of Elizabeth to the recent
Poor Law Amendment Act. In this outline of the pro-
gress of the corruptions that grew up with the system, and
the idle attempts. that were hitherto made to remedy them
and prevent their recurrence, he brings together, in a very
short compass, a body of facts well worth the consideration
of every person concerned in the payment or the adminis-
tration of the poor's rates. The conclusion to which he
leads is a complete vindication of the benevolont principles
of the late act, the clamour against which he shows to have
been raised, not by the rate payers or the poor, but by those
who were personally interested in the abuses which that act
swept away. An illustration of the old and new system de-
rived from this brochure will prove, in one striking instance,
the correctness of Mr. Leslie's opinions. We must throw
this into a tabular form, abbreviated from a table furnished
by Mr. Leslie. The first column shows the period, the se-
cond the number of workhouse poor in proportion to the
population of the parish (St. George's), the third the nuni-
ber admitted to the workhouse in the same proportion, and
the fourth the actual amount of money allowance out of the
workhouse rated per head of the population.
1795 to 1801-1 in 41-1 in 20...`-'s. 27.0.
1801 to 1810...1 in 53...1 in 29...t25. 10c1.
1811 to 1821.-1 in 54-1 in 27...45. 9'70.
• 1811 to 1811...1 in 71_1 in 33-si. 140.
Year enrlng Lady Day 193.2. 1 in 06_1 in 9i)...55. 410.
1833...1 in 67...1 in `27...55. 7d.
Half yearending Michaelmas, 1335...1 in 95...1 in 2.65... os. 10d.
At Lady Day, 1833, a gradual return to the principles of
Yueen Elizabeth's system commenced, and the last line
(to 'Michaelmas, 1835) shows the incredible reduction
that, under the new law, has been effected in two years.
This is conclusive.

The whole of the French Journals of Friday and

Saturday have been received. Their contents are of
little moment, with the exception of certain rumours
which, we fear, arc entirely unfounded. Two of
these are of an important nature. The first states
that Admiral RousslN has been instructed by the
Government to join Lord PONSONBY, the British
Ambassador at Constantinople, in representing to tile
SUBLIME PORTE the imperative necessity of rescind-
ing the secret treaty entered into with Russia for the
exclusion of English and French ships of war from the
Black Sea. The second asserts that the Citizen King,
in consideration of the success of the French arms in

Africa, has resolved upon granting an amnesty which will
extend to most of the prisoners convicted of political
offences. We trust that there is more than mere ru-
mour in both these reports. Something must be done
to counteract the baleful influence of Russia in the
East ; and previous to a declaration of war it is the in-
terest of the King of the FRENCH to reconcile all
classes of his subjects to his Government. In the event of
a war with Russia the French Republican party
—strong in numbers, strong in zeal, and stronger in
intelligence--might prove a dangerous foe to the
reigning dynasty. Let the KING but appear to sym-
pathize with the disappointed of that party—let him
draw a veil over errors by which he gained a Throne,
and without which he never would have become a
Member of the family of Kings—and we are very
confident that he will be repaid by a gratitude as lasting
as sincere. There can be no political use in display-
ing a power which cannot extend farther than the
lopping off a few withered branches from the tree of
Republican liberty. On the contrary, its growth
would be increased by such a childish artempt to de-
stroy it. Had our suggestions been attended to, the
amnesty now talked of would have been granted before
the last anniversary of the days of July ; and the con-
sequence would have been, that France never would
have witnessed the FIESCHI Tragedy. We asserted
from the very commencement that the prosecution
by the Chamber of Peers held out a direct encourage-
ment to the disaffected to punish their enemies without
having recourse to the ordinary process established by
the Charter, and only known to the Laws. When
extraordinary tribunals are established for the trial of
crimes already committed, it is evident to all thinking
individuals, that the main object of the Government is
not justice, but revenge. The people are not slow in
comprehending this ; and as they know that they are
equally privileged as Kings to dispense with justice,
they too establish such extraordinary tribunals as pro-
mise to succeed in the accomplishment of purposes not
more atrocious in rea4ty than those meditated by
their rulers.

The French Papers, on the authority of advices
from Leipsic, state that the accounts from Poland are
afflicting. The political and religious inquisition. still
goes on. Russia appears to be inclined to impose
upon Poland the Greek ritual. Several persons who
have returned to Poland in faith of the amnesty have
been sent into Siberia, not only without the form of a
trial, but even without the Government taking the
trouble to give the slightest reason or pretence
for their banishment. Notwithstanding the treaty
of Vienna and the representations of the Emperor'
of AUSTRIA, large bodies of Russian troops have
been established in Poland, and even in the pro-
vinces 'adjoining Austria. The Emperor NICHO-
LAS, in his speech to the municipality of War-
saw, deceived himself when he declared that the
Poles could not. rely upon the sympathy of the Ger-
mans. All Germany, were it only for its feeling for
its own interests, must be indignant at the attitude
which Russia assumes in Poland. The same senti-
ments prevail at Berlin and in all Prussia.

The latest news from Madrid is to the 18th inst.
The Government was proceeding slowly but effectually
in the great work of National Reform. The accounts
from the North were, on the whole, very favourable.
The timely arrival of the British Legion to the assistance
of the garrison of St. Sebastian, was expected to• have
the effect of obliging the Carlists to raise the siege.

The Court of Peers held a secret sitting on Satur-
day. Its object wag to decide upon the sentences to
be passed on the convicted prisoners of the category of
St. Etienne. As yet the decision of the Noble Judges
remains a profound secret.

On Friday, the Duke of ORLEA/9/ left Toulon for
Paris, having performed quarantine! 'The Duke's r -
turn to France was not altogether voluntary, as
despatches had been received by General CLAUSEL,
at Mascara, commanding the immediate recall of his
Royal Highness.
So great a quantity of snow fell last week in va-