The Sun.
London, England, 1832-11-16 00:00:00

ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH A LABOUR-

RATE.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
A great deal of inconvenience has resulted from a
blunder in the Act of 2d and 3d of William IV.,
cap. 96, respecting the employment of the poor. At
the last Quarter Sessions at Petworth a great many
parish-officers were in attendance, for the purpose of
getting the signatures of the Magistrates to the re-
solutions of the inhabitants for the establishment of
a labour-rate, by which they would be enabled to
take the labourers off the unprofitable roads, and
employ them in the farms. In the parish of Pul.
borough alone the expenditure of the poor-rate
amounted to 4,4481. Bs. for the last year; and the
farmers would, by giving employment to the able-
bodied men on the roads, considerably reduce
that intolerable tax, but the deficiency of the
Act presents an insurmountable obstacle, the
Magistrates having declared that it is so worded
as to be altogether inefficient and unavail-
able. The consequence is, that the parishioners
are compelled to pay a rate which operates
most injuriously to them, and, as it were, sanc-
tions the continuance of the most abject pauperism,
amongst men who are competent and inclined to
work. The dissatisfaction of the parish is aggra-
vated by the refusal of the Rector to compound for
tithes; and more than one-half of the parish ac-
tually pay in kind. In the beginning of the year
1,0001. was offered by the parish to the Rev. Gen-
tleman for tithes, the farmers agreeing to pay the
poor arid highway rates, and take the men off the
roads, but the proposition was rejected. Many
families stay away from church in consequence of
this refusal. The monstrous abuse of an unem-
ployed pauper population has been, it seems, re-
peatedly attempted to be corrected in Sussex and
Surrey, but the efforts have failed for want of a
power in the majority of the inhabitants and rate-
payers to compel the general consent. At Pul-
borough the parishioners came to the determination
that a labour-rate, affecting all tangible property
alike, and apportioned after the manner of the
ordinary poor-rate, which is iA fact a labour-rate,
every assessment for the maintenance of the poor
being, under whatever name, a tax upon the com-
munity for making good the deficiencies in the la-
bourer's wages, was the least exceptionable mode of
obtaining the equal distribution of the burden.
They were of opinion that if it appeared in its appli-
cation to effect any species of property more than
the customary poor-rates had done, it was because
such property had never yet been made to feel its
due share of that exhausting power of pauperism
which is always increasing, and which, after having
extinguished all profit, threatens to absorb every
particle of the farmer's capital and the landlord's
rent also. In illustration of the workings of the late
miserable plan of procedure, it may be mentioned,
that in the year ending March, 1824,, when the la-
bourers were distributed in farm labour, the money
paid to the unemployed, or for labour on the roads,
was 2811. 15s. 6d,, and in 1825, 2601. 4s. 10d.,
while in the year ending March, 1832, it amounted
to 1,8071. 12s. I Id.

On u Saturday a monument was erected at
Theusligrove, the property of JAMES TURNER, Esq., to
the memory of ANDREW HARDIE and JOHN BAIRD, who
suffered at Stirling for high treason in 1820. The monu-
ment is a neat pillar, fluted, and surmounted by an urn,
with a wreath and appropriate drapery. It bears the follow-
ing inscription This monument erected 10th of
November, 1832, on the lands of Thrushgrove, the pro-
perty of JAMES TURNER, Esq. ; where, on the 29th of
October, 1816, in spite of every opposition, 40,000 inha-
bitants of Glasgow first bravely met and petitioned the
Legislature for a redress of grievances and for a reform of
the representation of the people in the Commons' House of
Parliament. Sacred to the memory of ANDREW HARDIE,
aged 28, and JOHN BAIRD, aged 32, who were betrayed
by infamous spies and informers, and suffered death at
Stirling, Bth of September, 1820, for the cause of Reform
now triumphant, 1832." On one side was an epitaph to
their memory, written at the time of their execution.--
Glasgow Chronicle.

Just as the Court was about to rise, at a late
hour, Mr. Sergeant MEREWETHER moved for and
obtained a rule Nisi for an information in the nature
of a quo warranto, to oust Mr. Sampson Kingsford
from the office of Mayor of Canterbury.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, Nov. 15,

RAMADGE V. RYAN.

This was an action, it will be recollected, brought
by the plaintiff, Dr. Ramadge, against Dr. Ryan,
the editor of the Medical Journal, to recover
damages for a libel published in that paper, imputing
to the plaintiff that he, being in attendance upon a
young lady who was labouring under an attack of
typhus fever, reduced her to such a state of debility
by excessive bleeding and leeching, that another
physician was obliged to be called in, who refused,
however, to consult with Dr. Ramadge, in conse-
quence of his correspondence with St. John Long,
and who being retained, and Dr. Ramadge dismissed,
cured the young lady by treatment the very opposite
to that pursued by the plaintiff, whereas, in truth,
the patient had died under the hands of the other
physician. The libel had originally appeared in the
Lancet, from ►which it was copied, with a few obser-
vations, into the defendant's journal. The plaintiff
brought actions against the editors of both publica-
tions, in the first of which, that against the Lancet,
he obtained only a farthing damages ; and in the
present action, which was tried on the following
day, he obtained a verdict for 5001.
At the commencement of the present term, Mr.
Sergeant Taddy obtained a rule calling on the
plaintiff to show cause why the verdict should not
be set aside, and a new trial had, upon the ground,
as stated on affidavit, that one of the Jury, who had
been an attorney, and whose name had been struck
off the roll for fraud and misconduct, stated, ►when
leaving the Court at the close of the first trial, in
which only a farthing damages had been recovered,
that he should be on the Jury on the following day,
and he would take care that the verdict should not
go the same way, his mind being made up to give
heavy damages.

Mr. Sergeant 'WILDE and Mr. Sergeant SPAN..
KIE to-day showed cause, and produced affidavits
denying the material allegations contained in the
affidavits on the other side, particularly that of the
Juror himself.—Rule discharged.