The Sun.
London, England, 1832-07-11 00:00:00

MARLBOROUGH STREET.

Miss Thomassin, the niece of Miss Twamley, the
surviving relative of the unfortunate ladies of that
name who were burnt to death at the late cala-
mitous fire in Oxford-street, yesterday morning
applied at the police station of the C division, in
order to have the assistance of the police. She
stated to Joshua Clements, the Inspector, on duty,
hat
the extreme
the
pe
nsaolnty- i no-fl at‘ of S
the
ela
‘v mori
on Monday
who(a
y ustfered
morning,
was, together with others, clearing out the remains
of the
a vaneafurnituraet
the
left in
doortb readye ruins
to
n
in e Oxford-street,
fo ridt
away.
- st reayet
and
Clements refused to apprehend him, although re-
quested so to do, but immediately sent a constable
to see that none of the articles were removed. Miss
Thomassin was then favoured with an interview
with Mr. Conant at his private residence, and, on
his taking his seat on the bench yesterday, he in-
quired of Clements whether an officer was still at
the premises.

Clements replied in the affirmative.
Mr. CoNaNT observed that Mrs. Smithers could
not possibly have any claim to the property remaia-
ing, as all the effects of a convicted felon became the
property of the Sheriffs, added to which the fire-
offices might have some claim.
Clements retired, and on his return in about an
hour, observed that he had sent Daly and his wife
away from the premises. The son-in-law was now
in attendance, and had the written authority of the
Sheriff for removing the goods.

The paper was produced, and it having been ex-
plained that commiseration for Mrs. Smithers's
situation had induced the Sheriff to give up the
property, the worthy Magistrate expressed his satis-
faction at the conduct of Clements, and the parties
retired.

---------- - -
BATH.—A curious contest has commenced
.tt Bath. A Lord of the Bedchamber, Lord JAMES
O'BRYEN, has entered the field against the two Reform
(and therefore Government) candidate,, Gen. PALMER,
'11,!. old Member, and Mr. liostiotisE, the Secretary at
War's brother.

SPIRIT OE THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

We are greatly relieved, and, we will add,
much gratified, by the few words which fell from
Mr. Stanley last night, in answer to some obser-
vations from Mr. Hume, on the motion for re-
suming the debate on the Irish Tithe Bills.—
Mr. Stanley distinctly stated that it was not his
intention to press more than the first Bill in the
present Session, and to leave to another Par!i
meat the disposal of the other measures wit!!
which it was at first accompanied. This Bib
merely provides for ascertaining by valuation the
amount of a money commutation for tithe, in tilos(
parishes where no agreement has been math
under Mr. Goulburn s Bill, and to impose the
commutation on the landlord instead of upon
the tenant, in all future cases. So far there can
be no objection to this measure, as it is obvi-
ously necessary, whether the future payment is
to be collected in the shape of commutation, or
by an acreable land-tax, the amount due to the
public for the Church shall be ascertained.
No new powers are taken for the collec-
tion ; and great advantages are held out
to the tithe-payer, as an inducement to a vo-
luntary commutation and the ultimate extinction
of the tithe, by a composition for a certain
number of years' purchase of the valuation.
But the valuable part of Mr. Stanley's speech
consisted in his statement, that he did not desire
to pledge Parliament to the future application
of this portion of the church property. On the
contrary, lie wished to leave that question en-
tirely open. He observed, that this was the
main difference between his proposition and the
resolutions of Mr. Grattan, the latter pledging
Parliament to a specific application,and prejudg-
ing a settlement, which it would be unadvisable
and embarrassing to discuss at present. All
parties agree that the actual incumbents shall not
be called upon to make any considerable sacri-
fice of income ; and no person desires that the
landlord should be allowed to put into his
pocket that share of the produce of the land to
which clearly he is not entitled. Nor would
the occupying tenant derive the smallest advan-
tage from such a transfer. The Irish landlord has
been at least as hard a task master as the Irish par-
son, and no other benefit could result to the occu-
pier, by an absolute cc nfiscation or any deduction
from the payment of tithe, than having the (with's
exaction imposed by one collector in the shape of
rent. We have never seen the advocates of any
proceeding which would produce this result, and
have always desired to see a fair arrangement
under which the landlord could exonerate his
property and his tenantry from the burden and
vexation of tithe by a fair commutation to be
paid to the State, and to be applied by Parlia-
ment, in the first place, to the maintenance of a
sufficient Protestant establishment, and• the re-
sidue to other purposes of religion anti educa-
tion. It would be, above all things, desirable
to obtain some provision for the working Catho-
lic Clergy and for the Dissenting Ministers in
the North of Ireland. We hope, therefore, as
Mr. Stanley appears to have given up his unpo-
pular propositions of collecting the commutation
for tithe by Clerical Corporations, and investing
the fund to arise from compositions in land, for
the exclusive benefit of the Church Establish-
ment; and as the question of application is to be
left open to tne Reformed Parliament, that some
amicable arrangement may be made with the
Irish Members to pass the first Bill. Adjourn-
ments were moved by them last night, princi-
pally, we believe, on account of the absence of
Members who were much interested in the de-
bate ; but we have no doubt they will soon be
satisfied of the expediency of allowing the busi-
ness to proceed, and more especially of aiding
the Government in some measures for the tran-
quillization of the prevailing excitement in Ire-
land. No civilized society can long remain in
the state in which the last accounts left that
unhappy country ; and after Mr. Stanley's de-
clarations of last night, we would fain hope that
all parties would join cordially in an endeavour
to arrest the tumultuous and riotous conduct of
the people. The hay crops of persons who have
paid lawful demands upon them cannot be got
in, and a threat is held out that the same system
of violence and intimidation is to be extended to
the corn harvest. The mail-coach contractor
cannot perform his contract for the conveyance of
mails, the people refusing to harness his horses
from the sainer eason—and no Bank-note is nego-
ciable in certain districts, which is not stamped
with a mark, as free from the contamination of
having been passed for a payment of tithe. How
long can this continue? The Government ap-
pear disposed, by Mr. Stanley's speech, to con-
cede as far as any reasonable man can desire,
and if the Irish Members are not sensible of the
necessity of putting an end to a state of things
which threatens an entire annihilation of the
rights of property, we trust that there will be an
unanimous feeling amongst the English Mem-
bers to support Government in such measures
as may be indispensable to protect the empire
from the imminent danger to which all our in-
terests must be exposed, by the continuance of a
state of confusion and anarchy in the sister king-
dom.—Morning Chronicle.
In a short conversation which took place last
night in a Committee on the Customs' Acts,
moved by Mr. Poulett Thomson, for the pur•
pose of reducing the duties on some additional
articles in the Schedule of the Customs' Bill,
the Member for Worcester again interposed his
eternal babble for the same purpose as usual—
the advocacy of everything that is illiberal in
commercial policy, and the delay to the best of
his powers of the business before the House.
Really we almost regret that Worcester did not
bring up the rear in schedule A ; and unless it
vindicates its right to the election of representa-
tives at the next general election, by dismissing
its present Members, and by the return of men
endowed with common sense and tolerably
enlightened views, we are of opinion that it
ought to be placed there. Reform is now hap-
pily achieved, and the only claim vihich either
of these gentlemen possesses, that of having
under the fear of their constituents abstained from
opposing it openly—cannot, or at least ought not
to, be considered by the electors as of sufficient
weight to counterbalance their absolute want of any
of those qualities which ought to distinguish the
representatives of a large and populous city. Ig-
norant, shallow, frothy, full of long exploded
prejudices, and cursed with a kind of volubility
which enables him to expose these qualities for
hours together to a suffering audience, the one
stands forth on all occasions in which the coms
Inercial policy of the country is touched upon,
the self-elected champion of the Merchants of
England, who repudiate such an advocate.
The other, disappointed in fondly-indulged ex-
pectations of power, is, by turns, the supporter
of the most Ultra-Radical opinions—as in the
case of the Army Estimates, or of the most
violent Ultra-Toryism—as in his denunciation
of the creation of Peers, when it was indispen-
sable for the success of the Reform Bill. Dif- ,

fering in their general professions and their opi-
nions—the one a Whig, the other a Tory—
they are agreed on one point—the most virulent.
hostility to the Government. Equally vain,
equally shallow, they are alternately the victims
of their own passions, or the dupes of the Tory
laction. Surely the city of Worcester will not
again submit to the stigma of such representa-
tives ! If the electors are really opposed to the
present Administration, they might find, without
difficulty, men who would support their views in
straight-forward and manly way—men whose
opposition, whilst it was far more effective,
would be far more honourable to them ; but if,
as we believe to be the case, Worcester be really
friendly to the liberal Government of Lord Grey,
it cannot inflict upon it a deeper injury than to
insure the presence, in the House of Commons,
of men who use the power intrusted to them
solely to gratify the spite engendered by offended
vanity, and who strive, by all the means which they
possess, to oppose the ends of good govern-
ment, and, under the mask of patriotism, to war
with every measure which is wise, liberal, or
useful.—Morning Chronicle.
One of the subjects brought before the House
of Commons last night must soon occupy the at-
tention of a Reform Parliament—the expendi-
ture in counties. Some means must be devised
ror giving the rate-payers a control over a con-
tinually increasing local taxation, which Justices
of Peace order at their discretion. The subject
was introduced by a petition from the county of
Chester, complaining of the burden imposed on
hat county under the provisions of the Police
Act. The Earl of Grosvenor seemed to think
that he had sufficiently met the allegations in
the petition when he stated that Mr. E.
Davenport was the only Magistrate present
at the meeting at which the petition was
agreed on. So much the more creditable to Mr.
E. Davenport,. that lie was the only Magistrate
who had the courage to-set himself against the
hole-and-corner system of which Magistrates are
so enamoured. Mr. Warburton supported the
petition, and thought that all Courts in which
public money was voted should be public and
open Courts ; and Mr. Hume supported the
petition for the same reason, adding that he
agreed with the petitioners, the clergy ought no
longer to be continued on the commission of the
peace. It may be taken for granted, that when-
ever men are anxious for secrecy, they are
conscious that their acts will not bear the
light. It has been admitted that Cimmittees
of the House of Commons did not scruple
to make their privilege of secrecy avail-
able to the commission of the foulest jobs; and
great pains were taken to devise a system for
putting an end to this abominable system. Surely
it will not be contended that Justices of Peace
ire more likely to be pure than Committees of
the House of Commons. The public ought not
only to be admitted into Court when their money
is voted away ; but there ought to be some sort
of provincial assemblies for voting the money
for local purposes, in order to secure property
against the arbitrary encroachments of Magis-
trates.—ATorning Chronicle.
The policy of demanding pledges fro.n a can-
didate at elections, and, on the part of a candi-
date, that of complying with such demand, is
not a very easy question. To state the outline
of our opinion as briefly as possible, it appears
to us that a proper choice of representatives
would, in 99 out of evary 100 cases, render the
practice of requiring formal pledges almost, if
not entirely, useless; and therefore, that on a
general view of the subject, " pledging" ougEt
to be the exception, and " mutual confidence"
between elector and representative, the rule.
'There are, doubtless, emergencies in the affairs
of nations, of such critical and transcendent im-
portance, that no obligation can be imposed
upon the candidate more binding than a due
regard to the public welfare would justify. But
then, as is fairly stated by a correspondent, in a
letter too long for insertion here, the subject
matter of the pledge ought, for the most part,
though not always, to be a principle, not
a specific measure. Reform of Parliament,
at the last election, was a proper subject
for a pledge ; but in that instance it must
he confessed that peculiar and unprece-
dented circumstances warranted a specific de-
mand upon the candidate, that he would support
not merely the " principle," but " the measure,"
the " Bill itself," and no other than that which
Ministers had already laid before Parliament.
The example of the Reform question, and the
difficulties it encountered, may serve to illustrate
both affirmatively and negatively, the rationale
of the " pledging system. " Will you sup-
port," we may imagine a constituent to have
asked a candidate upon the hustings, " will you
support Parliamentary Reform ? " " I will,"
was the answer. Would such a pledge, then,
have sufficed for the attainment of a real Reform
of Parliament this last session ? So far from

it, that there was no conceivable evasion, delu-
sion, or extravagance of boroughmonger trickery
framed for the sole purpose of defeating the
Reform principle, which might not have satisfied
the letter of a solemn promise to promote it.
After a certain stage of the proceedings
on the Reform Bill, almost every change that
was urged upon Ministers assumed the guise
and shape of " Reform." The rankest oli-
aarch, on the third reading of the Bill, would
have claimed to be a Reformer, by substituting
the di'franchisement of East Retford—and at most
of old Sarum, with one or two more in schedule
A—for the great body of the measure with its
extent and variety of improvements. A specific
pledge, therefore, in favour of " the Bill,"
ought to have been, and was very generally, ex-
acted from the majority of the present House of
Commons when candidates, as a necessary pro-
tection to Reform. But even in that there was
danger for conscientious and consistent men, as
well as danger from the dishonest. If the
whole Bill' was the subject of the pledge,
how should lie vote who stood so bound,--when
Ministers saw reason, with a sincere and upright
view to the interests of Reform itself,—succes-
sively to correct and amend, but very seriously to
alter likewise, some of the most important and
prominent provisions of the measure ? A
pledge still more specific, therefore, was adopted,
and the Bill, " as understood and approved by
Ministers," was held to be the only safe form
of obligation for the candidate. So much for a
question which had been for so many months
before the country, sifted rand familiarized,
and pretty universally understood. In that
case, regard being had to the arts which
were resorted to for the stealthy subversion of
the principle, under the semblance of au anxiety
for certain details,—the real difficulty was to find
,1 form of obligation sufficiently minute and vi-
gorous. But how would it he with subjecls
more imperfectly examined as to the practical
effect of given enactments towards the production
of desired ends ? Take the question of a pro-
vision for the clergy by commutation of tithe ;

take that of poor laws, to he amended in En
land, to be created in Ireland, or that of West
India slavery, or of banking, or of finance, or of
emigration, or of colonial trade,—all questions of
high value to the community,—and see what
would be the inevitable consequence of exacting,
we do not say a declaration of general princi-
ples, but of detailed pledges of support to parti-
cular measures, upon subjects where the whole
truth does not always lie upon the outside ; and
where, from the complexity and intricacy of the
operation of various half-appreciated causes, the
provisions of an Act of Parliament seldom, if ever,
go straightforward to their proposed end. A re-
peal of the present fluctuating duties, imposed
by the corn laws,—with a view to alleviate the
difficulty of importimg foreign corn, and of re-
gulating the price without injury to the grower
or consumer—is a plain and direct benefit ; to
a specific pledge on that point, there can be no
fair objection. A repeal of the Union with Ire-
land would be, in our judgment, an evil to both
countries. A pledge to oppose any measure so
calamitous would be easily understood and ful-
filled. But unless the end be at once most im-
portant and most urgent, the general character of
any man, fitted to be a representative, ought to
suffice without the exaction of pledges, which
imply the want of such qualification ; and on
any other than simple and uniform questions, no
pledge, beyond that of supporting a principle,
ought to be conceded or required.—Times.
The cruel, unnecessary, and man-degrading

practice of military flogging we have often de

nounced, and shall continue, whenever occasion
offers, to denounce, until the British empire
shall cease to be disgraced by a system of tor-
ture only worthy of the barbarous institutions of
Russia. That time, we trust, is not far distant. It
cannot be supposed that the genuine representa-
tives of the sentiments of the moral, the re-
flecting, the humane, the Christian English
people, when once such representatives shall
have been in Parliament assembled, will
long either allow the slave-driver of the West
Indies or the flagellators of the military
service to treat rational beings in a manner in
which our laws will not allow the beasts of

the field to be treated, and to bear, as the
symbol of their " civilized" power, the lash
dripping with human blood ! If the torture of
the cat-o'nine-tails be confined to offences
strictly military, it is bad enough; but if it be
made the means of punishing and degrading
men for other offences than those which are cog-
nizable by a Court-martial it is still worse. The
case of the soldier Somerville now attracts, and
deservedly attracts, public attention. On the
merits of his case we express no opinion, except
so far as to say that there are circumstances
connected with it that call loudly for inquiry. It
is not on the part of Somerville alone that such
an inquiry is requisite. The character of Major
Wyndham, whom Somerville's statement so
seriously inculpates, makes it necessary that that
officer, if conscious that the charges brought
against him are groundless, should insist upon in-
quiry, for his own vindication. Weunderstandthat
the Noble Lord commanding his Majesty's forces
in chief was at first adverse to any inquiry when
applied to for that purpose, saying, that Major
Wyndham " had done no more than his duty."
It may be, that, under the existing system, the
Major had acted in strict conformity with the
rules of the service, in which case it is the sys-
tem and not the gallant officer that is to blame ;
but, certainly, by granting an inquiry Lord Hill
avows the propriety of altering his original opi-
nion, and of satisfying public feeling that the
punishment of a British soldier by the British
knout was a matter of military discipline, and
not of political oppression. But to satisfy pub-
lic feeling in this matter, we must have an inquiry
instituted before such persons ae will place the
result above all suspicion. It is not only the
character of an officer in his Majesty, s service
that is at stake—the official integrity of Sir John
Hobhouse, the Secretary at War and Repre-
sentative for Westminster, is involved in the
question. Nothing but a bona fide and search-
ing investigation will satisfy the public. The
Secretary at War ought to know this, and we
hope he will act accordingly.—Morn. Herald.
Referring to the report of a meeting in another
part of this day's paper, on the subject of parlia-
mentary pledges, we beg, at the same time, to
point the attention of our readers to the obser-
vations of a contemporary on the same matter.
" We observe of late," says our contemporary,
" a remarkable anxiety on the part of the re-
formers to exact pledges from the candidates for
seats in the House of Commons. This is an

ill compliment to the Bill which has lately
passed, if we are to understand that men re.
turned under its provisions are lcss fit to be
trusted with a liberty of acting independently
than their predecessors ; or, if it be otherwise
explained, that the extortion of pledges is but
the exertion of a privilege intended to be con-
' ceded to electors by the measure, still it is but
an ill compliment to the Bill." We have ob-
served precisely the same thing as that for which
our contemporary vouches--namely, a just
anxiety to exact pledges from candidates for
seats in the House of Commons ; and we
have also made another observation, which
our contemporary does not appear to have
made—namely, that there is a remarkable
reluctance in certain quarters to give the
pledges required. Both facts—for they are
facts—will, no doubt, be set down by our con-
temporary, as an " ill compliment to the Bill,"
and as a proof that " men returned under its
provisions are less fit to be trusted with the

liberty of acting independently than their prede-
cessors ;" but we opine so far otherwise that we
consider the anxiety for the exaction of pledges
as the best imaginable proof of the value of the
Bill, and the just sense which the people enter-
tain of the rights and privileges conferred upon
them by it. We make no doubt, from all that
we can see and hear, that it would be vastly
agreeable to the Tories, and very agreeable also
to no inconsiderable body of lukewarm reformers,
who have gone with the tide, and enrolled them-
selves under Whig banners, to hear nothing of
pledges, and to be sent to the House of Commons
as unfettered as the representatives of Sarum
and Gatton now are ; for then they might safely
and without any breach of faith, play again the
same game which they have hitherto played, so
much to their own profit, and so deeply to the
injury of the country ; but with their likings or
dislikings the people have nothing to do ; they
are anxious to have men who will serve diem in-
stead of serving themselves, and if it be not the
wish of certain
.persons to do so, why they have
only to retire from the contest, and make way
for others whose sentiments are more in unison
with those of the public. 'l'o talk of the exac-
tion of pledges being an " ill compliment to the
13i11," or an illiberality on the part of the people,
neither more nor less than downright lying, or
downright nonsense. It is not the people who
) but, on the
are unreasonable in their demands