The Sun.
London, England, 1832-04-26 00:00:00

rt r Ault

LONDON,
THURSDAY EVENING. APRIL 26, 1832.

We this day present our readers with a
fair sample of the public rejoicing on the
news of the Reform Bill being read a
second time in the House of Lords. For
this information the public was mainly in-
debted to the Depresses forwarded by The
Sun Newspaper to all parts of the king-
dam, on the memorable morning of the
14th April. On that occasion we
had rivals in the field of emulation, and
to each and all we cordially award whatever
merit is due to their alacrity in running
the race of competition. Sufficient for us,
the consciousness that The Sun has been
the first to quicken the march of intelligence,
by assiduity as unwearied as the enterprise was
arduous. We claim no other merit. To
such of our provincial contemporaries as
have recorded their sense of our exertions
on the present as well as on former
occasions, we return our best thanks for their
flattering notices—notices the more grateful, as
they have been wholly unsolicited.

With regard to the expression of public feel-
ing on the arrival of the news throughout the
country, he who runs may read. If Lord GREY
but witnessed otie-half the exultation which we
saw manifested on the majority of nine being an-
nounced—he would, without further delay, se-
cure the final accomplishment of the measure
by a creation of Peers; for where the joy
has been so great at the bare prospect of the
Bill passing—how tremendous must be the re-
sponsibility of that Minister who shall hazard
the public peace, perhaps the national safety, by
disappointment ! The Tories have raised the
cry of reaction—with how much justice let
the columns of The Sun this day testify ! But
let the Reform Bill be once again thrown out,
and there will indeed be a re-action, of which
no man living can foresee the end !

We are happy to learn by the private ac-
counts from Paris that the mortality in that city
is on the decline, though the number of victims
is still very alarming.

Accounts from Madeira represent that island
as blockaded by a squadron from Terceira. This
is, we presume, a preliminary step to the expe-
dition preparing to attack it—and which will
probably arrive in a few days..

The great Yorkshire county meeting in favour
of Mr. SADLER'S Factory Bill, took place on
Tuesday last. It was most numerously and re-
spectably attended, and appears to have created
an extraordinary sensation throughout the north.
Many able and energetic speeches were made,
deprecating the oppressive labours to which
children of both sexes are exp:sed in
the unwholesome atmosphere of flax and
cotton factories. Some alteration (and that
to no trivial extent) should undoubtedly
be made in the present system adopted to.
wards operatives of such tender years ; their
hours of daily toil should be diminished ; their
little comforts—and few enough, GOD knows,

these poor creatures possess !—increased ; but at
the same time justice should also be awarded to
the manufacturers, many of whom, we know, are
unremitting in their benevolent attentions to their
young work-people. The question, though
full of difficulties, is a most important one,
and demands the prompt attention of the Legis-
lature.

Dutch papers of the 24th seem to justify the
arrest of M. THORN upon a strange presumption
—as being accused (yr having cooperated in the
overthrow of the Government established by the
fundamental law of the kingdom of the Ne-
therlands, and that he shall ba imprisoned
till further orders from the Hague. Upon
the same principle his Dutch MAJESTY
may seize any Belgian whomsoever—even
the adopted KING himself. If such a spirit

f animosity pervades the Dutch Court, what is
he use of ratifying Ow Belgian treaty ? The
whole proceeding becomes as great a mockery as
he delay has been insulting. Let us hope that
a more satisfactory explanation mly soon be given
of this matter.

AMSTERDAM, AMITE 21.
Actual Debt, 2% percent 42 to 424
Amort Syndic, 44 per cent ...... .......
Ditto, ditto. 3Y, per cent.
Voluntary Loan, 1831, 6 per cent 93% to 113%

The Allgenzeine Zeitung of the 19th instant,
states that the affairs of Italy are in a very fair
course of being speedily and amicably settled. •
The office of an English Consul in the Papal
States no longer exists. The Roman ports in
the Adriatic are placed under the Vice-Consul
at Ancona, while those in the `Mediterranean
are under the Vice-Consul at Rome, who takes
the title of English Consular Agent.

VIENNA, APRIL 14.—Five per Cent. Metalliques,
87 13 16; Four per Cent, 77 ; Bank Stuck; 11521.
—Allgemeine Zeitung, An•ii 19.

Brussels Papers of the 25th have been re-
ceived this morning. They inform us that M.
DE VAN WEYER has returned from London
with the ratifications of Austria and Prussia,
which are published in the Moniteur Brl2r.
These Papers contain no further news respecting
the capture and detention of M. THORN by die
Dutch. Matters appear to be very unsettled
throughout Belgium—and the fatal prevalence of
the cholera in France adds considerably to the
public apprehension. Severe measures are adopted
with respect to travellers, and the utmost caution
is observed in preventing the introduction of the
disease into the Netherlands. Judging from the
previous career of the cholera, we think, should
the disease bend its course in that direction,
Belgic vigilance, however acute, will prove of
little avail in resisting its progress.

Lisbon Gazettes from the 14th to the 19th
inst. have been received, but they contain no
political information. An order was issued from
the Board of Trade against vessels which had
endeavoured to evade payment of the light-dues
on entering the Tagus, under the plea that they
were stopped by quarantine regulations, and con-
sequently were exempt from paying harbour dues,
The dues must be paid.

CHOLERA MORBUS, OFFICIAL REPORT.

SPIRI I U 111}; PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The enemies of the 10/. qualification, in the House
of Lords, having voluntarily abandoned, after firini
some blank shots, their opposition to that class or
householders in the :smaller ancient boroughs of tlif
country, and lieving beets driven from their nesition
in the greater provincial manufacturing end commer-
cial towns, by such arguments end facts ac we em-
ployed yesterday, will endeavour, it is said, to con-
centrate 'their scattered forces on the capital, and
resist with united vigour both the enfranchisement
and the qualification of the metropolitan districts.
Ir, this provision of the Bill, these noble Anthße.
formers would appear not only to detect the latent
seeds, but to observe the bursting germs of revolu-
tionary violence; and to expect from the first heat
of popular excitement, their almost instantaneous
maturity. Here they descry, it lotig perspective,
mobs of voters ranged under the banners of revolt
—electoral hustings converted into stages for sedi-
tious haranguers—and democratic delegates receiv-
ing from tumultuous assemblies their cenernission to
overturn the Church and the Monarchy. The sec-
tions of Paris in the worst period of French anarchy,
or the comitia of the Roman republic in the time of
itire Grat chi, would appear in their eyes to be only
ta.nt prototypes of Marylebone and the Tower nem-
lets, during the first general election alter the pas•
sing of the Reform Bill. Those who pretend to
be frightened themselves, or who endeavenr to
frighten others, with such a phantasme_geeia of political
c'hange arising from the metropolitan clause,—with
such manifest fictions or !tech gross exaggeration,---
must be bungling impostors, who give their dupes
no credit for common information Or common
reflection. The public know what popular elec-
tions are and have been, in Westmineter—no incon-
siderable portion of the metropolis ; they knew, tins
der the most vicious s 2. stem of polling that can be
devised, the extent of disorder to which such elections
have given rise, and the character of the members
whom they have returned. They know, that often
during 13 days of the excitement of a contested can-
vass, though some local inconvenience: was felt, the
state and the capital were never endangered,—that a
few Bow-street officers and special constables could
stay the mighty tumult, and give confidence to the most
timid aristocrat,—and that the candidates were never
sworn on the Bible to overturn the monarchy, how-
ever hostile their partisans might be to the Red Book.
Even, therefore, though the eight proposed Mem-
bers for the metropolitan districts were to be elected
like the four Members for the 1-ity, and the two
Members for Westmin:Ster, by the confluence of the
voters to four lofty hustings, erected in central points
of their respective circuits, and though the poll were
kept open, its at present, for the space of a fortnight,
we should apprehend no more confusion from the ar-
rangement than we now witness at Guildhall and
Covent-garden during a general election, The oc-
cisions on which the people convene for the purpose
or exercising ithout dispute a legal privilege, or
performing an important duty, are not likely to be
those selected for dangerous tumults. A general
election has never witnessed a Lord George. Gor-
don's riot. But even the danger of popular disturb-
ance arising from the meeting of great masses of elec-
tors, trifling as it would seem to be, is not likely to
be incurred under the new Bill, when the votes shall
be taken in parishes, or smaller divisions, and when
the whole polling shall be concluded in two days.
We think it quite possible, with proper arrangements
grafted on this provision of the Reform measure, to
conduct the business of a general election in the me-
tropolis, or to renew its representation in the
House of Commons, with as little tumult, anti
as little danger, as to renew the Common
Council of London on St. Thomas's day. In
the universal suffrage elections of the United States
the greatest tranquillity prevails, and the wake cona-
tiorum, qwe, ut mare profit ndum et imnzensum, tier-
rescued, are not always the accompaniment of the
most popular institutions, or the most perfect poli-
tical freedom. But though we may have thus
found a conductor which shall discharge into the
earth without noise or danger, the electric element
of tumult which is alleged to be collected in the
storms of popular suffrage, it is contended that we
have not exorcised the tempest or diminished the
more distant chances of its violence. The new me-
tropolitan constituency, it is alleged, is dangerously
large : it consists of the vulgar rabble, who have
imbibed levelling and revolutionary ideas, and who
will return to Parliament members pledged to pro-
pagate their noxious principles, or to second their
disorganizing projects. To this we reply with con-
fidence, that though the constituency of the new
districts is large, it is a calumny to style it a rabble;
that its great majority is richer, more intelligent,
and more independent, than any constituency
in the kingdom ; and that the very complaint
of its magnitude is the evidence of an in-
justice to which it is still subjected. The way
of making it less in proportion to the other masses
of population entitled to return representatives to
Parliament in the provincial towns and boroughs,
would be to give it more members,—dividing it
into more district,. If its proportion were ascer-
tained by its extent of population, by its amount of
property, or by the ratio in which it contributes to
the national revenue, the motropolis ought to receive
50 additional members instead of eight. This
would render necessary 23 district electoral bodies
instead of the number of four proposed by the Bill;
and none of these districts would possess an enor-
mously disproportioned constituency. As, however,
we do not contend for such a right, and only sug-
gest the claim as an answer to a reproach, we shall
proceed to show that the magnitude of the body of
metropolitan electors is ne indication of their un-
worthiness, and furnishes no proof that by adopting
the higher census of 201., its numbers ',could be
much diminished, or its respectability increased.—
The whole number of householders paying above
10/. in the metropolitan county is 116,279,—the
number paying between 101. and 15/. only 15,923,—
and the number between 15/. and 20/. only 13,093 :
so that, though we struck off the two lowest grades
in the scale, and raised the qualification to 20/., we
should only get rid of 29,016 votes, arid should still
retain an immense constituency of 87,263 capable
of overpowering the lower census, if preserved.—
It is always assumed by the enemies of the 101.
qualification, that because a householder occupying a
tenement of the annual value of 10/. is entitled to
vote, therefore that all or the majority of voters are
of that class. Thus the lowest grade in the scale is
confounded with the whole scale ; or rather, the
qualification of the minority is mistaken for that of
all the constituency. Thus, for instance, Maryle-
bone, which has 8,77.3 houses rated above 20/.,
would be calumniated as a district with a 10/. con-
stituency, because it has 3,019 houses between 10/.
and 20/. It may therefore be safely averred, that
even in the metropolis not a single reason can be
assigned for altering the present provision of the
Reform Bill as regards the 10/. qualification ; that
with as high a census as the boldest Anti-Reformer
would dare to propose, a large number of persons,
out of a rich population of nearly a million, would
still be entitled to vote ; and that a departure, in the
capital, from the rate fixed upon for the rest of the
empire, would create real and just discontent to
avoid imaginary danger. But, departing from the
question of the qualification altogether, the adversa-
ries of the Bill contend that the metropolis is suffi-
ciently represented already, and that it is impolitic
to try the experiment of additional members, whe-
ther returned by a large or a small, by a rich or a
poor, by a quiet or a turbulent constituency. They
generally ground this notable argument on the fact of
the residence of so many members in the metropolis
during the sitting of Parliament. Now, if this argu-
ment is good for any thing, it would prove that
neither London, Westminster, Southwark, nor Mid-
dlesex ought to have any representativesbatr
ra e statell,be-
cause they are all within reach of a me
their grievances or to support their interests when-
ever they choose. But the members for Orkney,
for Clare, or for Cornwall, are not the members for
the Tower Hamlets or for Marylebone, and cannot
be controlled by the latter districts at a renewal of
their teust ;—and he who would insist on such de,
trieta being represented by the member; of these

distant counties, could trot go much farther wrung
in recommending the general election of Great
Britain to be conducted in Canada, or Calcutta.
Supposing we were making a new Constitution,
instead of introducing a Reform, would it ever
enter into the mind of the most insane enemy of
the rights of the capital to deprive London of
its fair share of representatives ? Would its ex-
clusion from electoral privileges be reckoned
consistent with common sense,—with common
prudence,—with general principles or general pre-
cedent ? The metropolis of France returns fourteen
deputies to a Chamber of 449,—its just number ac-
cording to the ratio of its wealth and population to
that of the rest of the kingdom ; and why should
the intelligent and enlightened inhabitants of the
British metropolis, in despite of their wealth—in
despite of their patriotism—in despite of their im•
mense contributions to the national revenue—be ex-
cluded from the electoral rights so prodigally con-
ferred on a hundred decayed or insignificant places ?
But we are told, as a last objection to the metropo-
litan clause, that tho membora feom the metropolitan
districts would not be representatives of the
popular interests, but delegates of popular voli-
tion,—that their conduct would be closely watched
on every occasion by constituents on the spot,
—that • they would be obliged to vote on
every eier.stire, not according to their own judg-
tient, but according to the arbitrary dintation
of electoral juntas,—and that when they and their
constituents agreed., the former might be supported
in their political views by such a host of the latter
as to overawe the proceedings of Parliament, and
king about a new reign of terror. To such reason-
ing it might be sufficient to answer, that the Mem-
bers for London, Middlesex, Westminster, and
Southwat I:, are already subject to the same influ-
ences as those which would press upon the eight
new representatives by the Reform Bill; and that we
have never heard of any mischief which dictation.on
the one hand, or subserviency on the other, had in
these cases produced. If we are to suppose the
great body of the wealthy and intelligent inhabitants
of the capital to be a mob, and if that mob is to
overawe the Legislature, merely because it has the
power of doing so, then no reason can be given why
they should not attach themselves to the cause of
any demagogue in the House, as well as the Mem-
bers of their own choosing. Was Lord George
Gordon, when he proceeded to Westminster with
the petition of the Anti-Catholics, a Member for
the metropolis; or were his rioters who overawed
the Legislature, and set fire to the capital, house-
holders entitled to vote under the new Bill ?—'Ti„tes.

The Political Unions throughout the country are
preparing for the worst. The Dumfermline Politi-
cal Union unanimously resolved, "that in the event
of the rejection or mutilation of the second Reform
Bill by the House of Lords, this Union will contri-
bute and assist in any plan for the attainment of
Reform which may be suggested by the National
Council and sanctioned by the national will." In
another part of our paper our readers will find a re-
port of the proceedings at the Northern Political
Union, on Wednesday week. There was nothing
like flinching displayed at this meeting. Mr. John
Fife observed, with regard to the Tories, " Their
day is past; but if,as a last effort, they spoil the Bill,
let us reject with disdain.—(Cheers.) No longer
will I pay taxes in money.—(Cheers.) Let them
confiscate my land—(Cheers)—let them seize my
goods.—(Cheers.) 1 am prepared to endure the
last extremity—(Cheers)—eternal banishment—
(Cheers)—death itself—(Cheers)—rather than be
The willing slave of a tyrannical, unprincipled Tory
Administration.—(Long continued cheering.)"—
We do not believe these are idle threats. We are
of opinion that the people, if disappointed in their
expectations, will do what they say. At all events,
it would be the height of madness to dare them to
the experiment. But the people must he sabred
The Duke of Wellington, who drew such an apall-
ing picture of the horrors of civil war, is now on
quite another tack. At the meeting of the great
Nontiern Union, Mr. Larkin observed :
" The Duke calculated on insurrection as being a pro-
bable consequence of the rejection of the Reform Bill, and
endeavoured to re.animate the fattering courage of the
Peers, to screw thair courage up to the rejecting point, by
observing that there could be no violence where there was
an efficient Government. Ninety men, he observed, were
sufficient to put a stop to the disasters that occurred at
Bristol, as soon as an officer was found to do his duty.
Aye, Sir, the sabre, the bayonet, the cannon, are this magi's
recipe for government. He knows nothing of the moral
strength and force which justice and beneficence place in
the hands of rulers. But is it so easy to quell an insurgent
people as his military Dukeship supposes ? Was the in-
surgent populace of Paris so easily quelled?—(Cheers).
Were the revolting citizens of Brussels so easily quelled?—
(Cheers). Besides, are armies always faithful ? Will officers
always do their duty against their country? "—(Cheers).
Mr. Larkin is not probably aware of the lesson
which the Tories have derived from Paris. He no
doubt thinks that Paris and Brussels ought to be a
warning to men in power, not to forget that Go-
vernment can only rest on the foundation of popular
approbation. Not so. That is the last thing with
which they concern themselves. They have disco-
vered—not that the people are formidable when
roused, but that Marshal Marmont blundered. Our
Tories are not afraid of the people ; and only thank
God that Paris and Brussels have taught them to
avoid splitting on the rock on which Charles X. and
the King of the Netherlands were shipwrecked.
The author of " England and France; or a Cure
for the Ministerial Gallomania," reveals the plan of
the Tories, when, in speaking of the Revolution of
July, he observes—" Had a powerful force been
from the first posted round Paris, and not in it, no
blood whatever would have been shed—at least, in
conflict between the troops and the people. The
passions of the populace, excited by the dread of
famine, would probably have risen against the real
authors of their sufferings, and been enlisted on the
side of authority and of Government. It is unde-
niable that Paris can never hold out three days. A
Parisian is a hero, but his heroism must be sup-
ported by a due supply of Cafe au fait," The les-
son derived by the Tories from the Revolution of
July, is not that Governors ought to respect the
wishes of the governed, but that it is better to
starve citizens by surrounding towns with troops,
than to expose the troops to the danger of being
fired at from behind barricades. It would, to be
sure, require a tolerable number of troops to coop
up the inhabitants of the different towns of this
island, and to cut off supplies. But the Tories do
not allow themselves to be turned aside from their
purpose by trifling considerations of this nature.
They have made up their minds to starve the
people. Of course, they conceive soldiers have no
community of feeling with their fellow-countrymen.
By the way, the Bishops can hardly be aware of
the immense difference between esoteric and exote-
ric discourses, when they advocate, in an open and
unblushing manner, their preference for what
is base and shameful in the Constitution—for
perjury, bribery, and drunkenness. Unsophisticated
persons are quite horrified at the language ascribed
to Bishop Phillpotts. Mr. Larkins supposes that
the man who openly advocated practices at variance
with religion can have no religion. " Dr. Phill.
potts (he says) concluded his address with a so-
lemn warning to the House to do its duty, to despise
consequences, and trust
permanencyusttoG to injustice. o H eipuvsokeeet.l
the
God of Justice to give
invoked the God of Freedom to make tyranny
eternal and slavery immortal. Blasphemy and hypo-
crisy were mingled in that peroration, in which the
champion of oppression makes a solemn, deliberate
appeal to Heaven, as if God were the patron of the
oppressor, and not the avenger of the oppressed.—
(Great cheering.) The hypocrite who uttered that
blasphemous peroration conceals under the robes of
a Bishop the heart of an infidel and an atheist."—
(Cheers.) This is going too far. Dr. Phillpotts
may not be an infidel because he advocates what is
unchristian. He may, like many other men, be
more faulty in practice than in faith. He may have
made " a solemn, deliberate appeal to Heaven, as if
God were the patron.of the oppressor, and not the
avenger of the oppressed," believing all the while
the very opposite of what he said, We have con-

slant examples of most edifying departures burn
this life at Newgate, of men whose faith is
unquestionable, though temptation too often pre-
vailed against them. Every one knows, that as
far as this world is concerned, Exeter is not
so eligible a diocese as Winchester or Durham, and
the Bishop of Exeter, Dr. Phillpotts, thinks he pro-
bably will be so long as Whigs remain in power.—
To be sure, even an insincere advocacy of practices
condemned by the Christian religion, is not the best
way to bring the Establishment into favour with the
people. A correspondent from Exeter, in the Chro-
nicle of Tuesday last, observed that Dr. Phi Hearts,
could he lay aside his longing for Canterbury, would
be an exemplary Bishop. Indeed, it may be said
of most of the Bishops, that it is unfair to expose
them to such severe trials as translation implies.—
We trust the day is not far distant when they will
be humanely relieved of the unapostolic desires with
which translation fills them. Bishop Burnett ob-
serves, that the Church requires this act of kindness
from some statesman; for Bishops, however sensible
of the advantages of poverty, have not the heart to
embrace it. " I wish," says the good Bishop,
" the pomp of living and the keeping high tables
could be quite taken away: it is a great charge, and
no very decent one; a great devourer of time ; it
lets in much promiscuous company and much vain
discourse upon you : even civility may carry you too
far in a freedom and familiarity that will make you
look too like the rest of the world. I hope this is a
burden to you : it was, indeed, one of the greatest
burdens of my life to see so much time lost—to
hear so much idle talk, and to be living in a luxu-
rious waste of that which might have been much
better bestowed. I had not strength enough to
break through that which custom has imposed on
those provided with plentiful Bishoprics. I pray
God to help you to find a decent way of laying them
down ir nine; Chronicle.
There is one advantage in the Ministerial Reform
Bill having been read a second time in the House of
Peers ; it enables us to reason by close analogy upon
the state of things, if it had been rejected in that
stage of its progress, instead of being allowed to
take another step. At/cording to the declarations of
those who wish what they assert, the annihilation of
the Bill previous to the second reading would
have produced an universal ferment and dis-
content throughout the country. Now let us
refer to the two leading Ministerial Morn-
ing Journals to bear out our assertion, that in
their opinion, and consequently that of the rabble,
the Bill is as effectually lost as if it had been thrown
out on Saturday week, and yet where is to be found
that universal panic, and consternation, and confu-
sion throughout the empire that we were told were
to follow upon the destruction of the Bill ? We
have never spoken unadvisedly, or upon loose infor-
mation, when we have declared that not only the
property and intelligence of the country were op-
posed to the fatal scheme, but that the middle class
were generally hostile to it, and that the artisans,
the really industrious operatives of the country,
were indifferent to it. We have gained our infor-
mation upon these points from various and distinct
quarters, at distant periods of time ; we have con-
cealed nothing, we have garbled nothing, we have ex-
aggerated nothing, and we now say in the face of
the country that the bulk of every grade
of society is indifferent or positively opposed to the
measure now pending, save and except the rabble.
They, en masse, follow their leach rs, the mob
Ministry, and bawl in favour of their Bill :as
the best stepping-stone to pillage and anarchy.
Operatives are dissatisfied to a great extent ;
but they know as well as the Minister,
do that this Bill will not benefit them. It is the
idle and the dissolute only who with unsophisticated
energy clamour for the proposed change, as a ready
means of producing other changes still more con-
genial with their habits and prospects. The Chro-
nicle of Tuesday says that if the 10/. franchise
be raised, or the metropolitan clause be aban-
doned, the Bill is virtually lost. But as indi-
viduals who have hitherto been of high cha-
racter have chosen to waver in their course, and
postpone their opposition from the second read-
ing to the Committee, they must either then turn
the majority against it, or stand confessed as false
apostates before their insulted and injured country;
for it is to the endeavour to soften down its democra-
tical principles there that they are solemnly pledged,
the two clauses referred to being the leading abo-
minations ; and therefore, if the House of Lords
continues at its present number, the Bill is already
ruined. The process of agitation, according to these
veracious chroniclers of public opinion, ought now
to be going on, because the essence of the
Bill, in their estimation, is destroyed unless the
House of Lords be swamped, or several high-minded
Noblemen belie the whole tenour of their lives, and
sink into mere machines to do the bidding of a mob
ministry. But the truth of the matter is, that Lord
Grey himself does not care what becomes of the
Bill if, in its abandonment, he can be let down easy
by his friends the Political Unionists and the rest of
the rabble rout of the nation. And why have these
people, knowing that the clauses they are most
anxious about, because most likely to lead to revos
lotion, will be rejected, been so quiet under the
virtnal destruction of their favourite scheme of re-
volution ? Because a stronger power overbears
them—the general feeling of
.the country. That is a
moral force that would have equally prevented ex•
tensive tumult if the second reading had never taken
place, as it now prevents it under the expectation
that the most democratical clauses will be destroyed.
Those who clamour about such a Reform as the Mi-
nisters would give them are always ready for a riot,
whether it be at a radical meeting, a Lord Mayor's
day, or a dog fight : they are not nice about the oc-
casion of it ; but public opinion, founded on the in-
telligence of the higher classes and the sterling
sound sense of the middle classes, when it is not op-
pressed by momentary violence, as was the case last
summer, will always break down the violence of the
mob.—Morning Post.

The state of Ireland is still one of the most dis-
tressing and embarrassing subjects, in a national
point of view, which can possibly occupy the atten-
tion of a British statesman. Notwithstanding all
that has been done, and all That has been promised
to be done, in order to produce general content and
harmony among her people, not a post arrives which
does not bring intelligence of some outrage upon—
some wanton aggression—some lawless invasion of
the rights and property of one party by the hired,
or voluntary, agents of another. At one time it is
the hard-hearted landlord who is alleged to be the
cause of these excesses—at another it is the tithe-
collector, who has carried off the all of the poor cot-
tager, and left him and his children to starvation or
beggary. Again, Lady Clare is announced as the
chief, by whose orders threats and menatices are
dealt out, houses set on fire—cattle driven away or
slaughtered—or the murder of innocent persons per-
petrated in cool blood, and in open day;—and let but,
a week or two elapse, and then Lady Clare will
have vacated her turbulent throne to Captain Rock,
and " Whitefeet" have given place to " Blackfeet,"
or some other unintelligible gang of desperadoes and
disturbers of the general peace. Whatever be the
reigning dynasty, however, the same effects are
always perceptible—the same deplorable results are
always realized ; and what is still more lamentable,
the more kind, the more lenient, the more concilia•
tory the lawful government of the country may be,
' the more numerous the breaches of the peace—the
greater the general disorder and confusion. Such a
state of things is almost a perfect anomaly in a
civi-
lized country, possessing a national and civilized
government ; nor do we know of any course of cir-
cumstances in the history of modern Europe that
can be compared to it, except the ravages, some
eighty or a hundred years ago, which were com-
mitted in Scotland, by the adherents of different
chieftains, upon the property of the lowlanders.
These ravages, however, were ultimately put down,
partly by the strong. arm of the law, and partly by a
more general diffusion of religious and moral edu-
cation among those who had been guilty of them ;
but even when at their height—when no man's pro-
perty was safe, and no man's person in safe keeping,

ercu in his own dwelling, if it happened to be
ttituated near the line of demarcation which separated
the proud but ignorant clansman, from his more in-
dustrious and peaceable neighbour—these ravage-
had a plain and intelligible origin—ascertainable mo-
tives and causes, with which a Government, anxious
to restore tranquillity to the country, could fairly
grapple. In Ireland the case appears, unfortunately,
to be far otherwise. The real causes and origin of
all the general disturbances which take place, are, no
doubt, invariably the same, or very intimately con-
nected with one other ; but there is no possibility of
getting at them—there is no tracing of them ro
their source, so as to deal with them as they ought
to be dealt with. Were the exaction of tithes for
the benefit of a church which has but few sup-
porters the cause of discontent and disturbance, it
might be easily dealt with—were it simple ab-
senteeism, that also might be done away with—
were it excessive taxation, which it is not, it might
be reduced—were it scourging poverty, the Le-
gislature could find the means not only of af-
fording temporary relief, but of laying a foundation
for future prosperity—were it gross and general
ignorance, even that is to be cured ; but, although
all these elements of evil are, no doubt, to be found
in the overboiling cauldron of Irish discontent, gene-
ral disturbance, and disorganization, there is evi-
dently some other, which, while it possesses the
power of maintaining them in perpetual and malig-
nant action, seems to have also the property of
eluding the detection of the most anxious investi-
gator. We will not be so ungenerous towards the
clergy of the sister country as to believe, without
direct proof of the fact, that they have any thing to
do with the setting in motion of the various elements
of discord of which we have spoken. It would, in-
deed, be a perversion, beyond all forgiveness, of the'r
holy and confidential office, to call that good which
is evil, and evil good ; but with the lay portion of
the Irish community we have no such delicacy, and
we assert, without fear of contradiction by any per-
son or authority from whom a contradTtion could
have any value, that to them, and to them above all
other causes, are to be attributed the manifold evils
under which their country has so long suffered, and
is still suffering so dreadfully. Can a worse ex-
ample be set to the community at large, than
that which is daily held forth by no inconsi-
derable portion of its aristocracy ? Is it not
constantly agitating the country on every, even the
most trivial, subject of complaint, that can pos-
sibly be imagined ? Nay is it not constantly praising
the blessings, and recommending the practice, of
agitation, throughout a country which is unfortu-
nately but too much agitated already ? Yet these
very gently, who are thus by their precepts and
their example, a main cause of the grievances of Ire-
land, are the loudest in their complaints, within the
walls of St. Stephen's, about the rights of Ireland
and her interests by his Majesty's Ministers, and
most forward to attribute to their plans for her im-
provement what is fairly to be traced, not to any
thing which has been done by his Majesty's Minis-
ters, or to the indomitably turbulent spirit of the
Irish people, but to their own nefarious practices
and precepts. How can they expect the people to
exhibit a pattern of wise and peaceful conduct when
they themselves set au example of the contrary
We tell them that " repentance and reformation"
must first begin "at horne"—even with those who
are the natural friends and protectors of Ireland,—
and that until it has become perfect and sincere,
there can he no hope, whatever may be the charac-
ter of the King's government, of peace and prospe-
rity to her.—ilurning Advertiser.

LORD GODERICH'S DESPATCH TO THE

GOVERNORS OF COLONIES.

Downing-street, Dec. 10, IS3I.

Stit,—l have the honour to enclose to you herewith, for
your own information and for that of the Legislative
Bodies of the colony under your government, a copy of an
amended Order made by his Majesty in Council on the 2d
ult., for improving the condition of the slaves in British
Guiana, Trinidad, St. Lucia, Mauritius, and the Cipe of
Good Hope. The grounds upon which his Majesty's
confidential servants have felt it their duty to advise the
making of this Order, and the views by which they
have been guided in resisting the opposition made to
several of its provisions, are fully set forth in a circular
despatch which I addressed to the Governors of the above-
mentioned colonies on the sth ult., and I enclose cer-
tain printed papers which have been presented to the
House of Commons by his Majesty's command, wherein
you will find a copy of that document, as well as of
others relating to the Order in Council. The further ob-
ject of my present despatch is to enable you, at the same
time that the measures in favour of the slaves, which have
been thus enforced in the Crown colonies, are brought to
the knowledge of the Council and Assembly within your
Government, to communicate also to those bodies the
course which his Majesty's Government have resolved to
adopt, with a view to induce the extension of those mea-
sures to the Colonies having local Legislatures ; and it is
my anxious desire, not only that the intentions of
his Majesty's Government should be made known
to the Legislative Bodies at the earliest possible
moment, but that our motives should be fully explained to
them. lam most desirous to satisfy them, if not that our
tneasuras are, as we consider them, necessary for the well-
being of the slaves, at least that they are dictated by a
conscientious sense of duty. I am anxious to convey
to them an adequate impression of the necessity.
which exists for us to take at length some ef-
fective step towards the redemption of the pledges
given, with the concurrence of the West India body, in
1823, and of the solicitude which we have felt to consult
the interests of the planters simultaneously with those of
the slaves, and to accomplish by such means as should be
the least unacceptable to the owners of West India pro-
perty, an object which it has become impossible to postpone
without compromising the dignity and consistency of the
Imperial Legislature, gnd occasioning danger to all parties
concerned.

When I look back in the records of this department to
the many earnest appeals upon this subject which have
been addressed, since the year 1823, to the reason and
discretion of the Colonial Legislatures, it may well
seem superfluous to observe, that nothing has been
further from the wish of those who have succes-
sively administered the affairs of this country since
1 that period, than to have recourse to any measures of a
coercive character. The circular despatches which were
written from year to year, repeating the expression of hopes
which had been in no instance fulfilled, and of confidence
which has not been justified, evince with what extreme re-
luctance the Ministers of the Crown have been compelled
to relinquish tl.e expectations which were originally enter-
tained, that effectual measures for the improvement of the
condition of the slaves should be at length spontaneously
adopted by the Colonial Legislatures. The despatches
which have been written to point out in detail the defects
of suet, laws as were enacted in alleged fulfilment of the
wishes of his Majesty's Government, or in partial compli-
ance with them, bear further testimony to the patient and
persevering endeavours which have been made by his Ma-
jesty's Government to impress upon the several councils and
assemblies the necessity which existed for satisfying the
feelings entertained in this country in favour of the slaves,
and the inadequacy of their legislation to effect that purpose.
If his Majesty's present advisers have resolved to pursue no
further this course of warning and entreaty, it is not that
they are in any degree less anxious to conciliate the good-
will, whilst they consult the real interests, of the colonists,
but only because they feel that the language of admonition
has been exhausted, and that any further attempt to pro-
duce an impression upon the Legislatures by the same
means alone, could add nothing to the respect of those
bodies for the authority of the Crown, whilst it would be
in vain to expect that it could contribute anything to the
accomplishment of the object in view.
his Majesty's Government had thus before them the
alternative either of proposing some measures of a stronger
character than mere injunction, or of desisting altogether
from the promotion of an object to which Parliament is
not less justly than solemnly pledged, and the postpone-
ment of which is tending more and more every day to
precipitate a powerful party in this country in the oppo-
site extreme, and to produce dangers which, however ill
they may be understood in a distant quartir of the world,
no one who is conversant with the influence of public opi-
nion in this country, and the direction of it upon the sub-
ject of slavery, could fail to see.
At the same time that this alternative presented itself,
the increasing commercial distress of the West India inte-
rest could not but attract the most anxious and painful
attention of his Majesty's Government. Deeply as they
have regretted the opposition of the colonists to their
measures in favour of the slaves, neither that opposition;
nor any thing that was ill-judged and intemperate in the
manner of it, has prevented hi. Majesty's Government

from entertaining the strongest feelings of sympathy slid
-kompassion for the distress under which all persons
Onnected with West India property are indiscritni-
tiately suffering. His Majesty's Government were thus
Scarcely more anxious to secure the adoption of their
measures for the protection of the slaves than to find
means, not incompatible with that object, of relieving
the planters from some portio❑ of their commercial
difficulties. I❑ this view, as well as from its importance to
the interests of humanity, it has been peculiarly gratifying
to his Majesty's Government no have been enabled to con-
clude a convention with France, which promises more than
any other practicable measure to repress the foreign slave
trade ; and this, at the same time that it militates against
the dreadful atrocities of that traffic, will give some check
to the competition of foreign sugar growers, so far as it is
promoted by such iniquitous means. A measure of fiscal
regulations, so devised as to be productive of real and sub-
stantial relief, has appeared to be the only additional me-
thod within the power of his Majesty's Government to
propose, which would in some degree meet the exigencies
of the West Indian commercial interests; but to offer such
an advantage to the planters without at the same time
taking any security for their acceptance of the measures in
behalf of the slaves, would be, if not directly inconsistent
with the Parliamentary Resolutions of 1823, at least an
abandonment, and even reversal, of the policy of the execu-
tive Government resulting from those Resolutions. On
the 16th of March, 1824, the late Mr. Canningannounccd
in his place in Parliament the several modes of giving effect
to the resolutions of 1823, which were successively to be
tried, for the purpose of overcoming the resistance to them,
which, it had appeared from the experience of the preceding
year, wasto be expected from the colonial legislatures. He
pointed out the course of authoritative admonition, as the
most eligible in the first instance; and, should that be
unavailing, he adverted to the means which Parliament
possesses of constraining the colonies by fiscal regulations
snd enactments adverse to their navigation, as preferable to
a more direct application of the powers of Parliament, of
which more direct exercise of power he nevertheless declared
the necessity, should all other means fail. The course of
authoritative admonition has been pursued for eight years,
and has been, as I have already observed, utterly unsuc-
cessful. Advice, again and again tendered to the colonial
legislatures, has bee❑ hut little listened to in any of tie
colonies, and in some of the most important and consi-
derable, bas been more than once rejected without even the
forms of respect. Ceasing, therefore, to entertain hopes
that their admonitions will ever prove efficacious, it might
perhaps be expected of his Majesty's Government to pro-
pose at once to Parliament the second mode of operating
upon the legislatures, which was contemplated by Mr.
Canning. But to use any endeavour to " harass the co-
lonies by fiscal regulations," in their present circumstances
of distress, would indeed be most repugnant to the feelings
of his Majesty's Government. They could not, at this
moment, nor until a less painful experiment should have
been tried, reconcile it to those feelings which the suffer-
ings consequent upon commercial adversity must always
excite, to propose any measures to which a character of
unmixed severity could be attributed. Whilst, however,
their feelings of concern for the difficulties of the West In-
dian proprietors and merchants withhold them from of igi-
noting any measure in which their interests should not be
considered, they are not less powerfully withheld, by a
sense of their duty to the great cause of slave melioration,
and by a consciousness of the obligations under which the
Government of this country has been placed by the resolu-
tions of Parliament, from propounding any measure of in-
dulgence to the planters in which the interests of the slaves
should be lost sight of. To propose a measure of
fiscal relief, to take elf et before the object of the Parlia-
mentary resalutions should be secured, would be a mani-
fest dereliction of the only course of policy, short of the
direct application of power, through which there has ever
been a prospect of redeeming the pledges contained in
those resolutions. Such being the position of the ques-
tion, and such the obligations incumbent upon his Ma-
jesty's Government, it only retrained for them to com-
bine the two great objects which they had to effect i❑ a
single measure, and thus to make the one contingent upon
the other.

I have, therefore, to announce to you the fixed determi-
nation of his Majesty's Government to propose to Parlia-
ment, in the present S, ssion, and so soon as the &tails of
this, in common with their other financial operations for
the year 1832 can be arranged, a measure of substantial
relief to the West India interests, and that this measure
will be so framed as to take effect upon the produce of the
Crown colonies as a matter of course, and upon that of
those only of the other colonies in which the provisions,
in their precise terms, and in their entire extent, of his
Majesty's Order in Council of the 2d ult., fur improving
the condition of the slaves in British Guiana, Trinidad,
Sr. Lucia, Mauritius, and the Cape of Good Hope, shall
have acquired, in perpetuity, the force of law. It cannot
be too distinctly explained, that the measure to be sub•
nutted to Parliament will be so framed that the indispen-
sable condition of receiving the consi quent benefi', will
he the fact of a Statute having passed the colonial legisla-
ture, simply, and without qualification in terms, or limita-
tion of time, declaring the Order in Council to possess the
force of law in the colony.
The language here used is by no means needlessly strict.
The motives and sentiments of his Majesty's Government
would be much mistaken, were it to be conceived, that in
making the terms of the proposed alternative thus definite
and precise, they bad been actuated by any spirit of
peremptory dictation. The whole efficacy of a law de-
pends upon verbal distinctions and minute accuracies of
expression. To leave the choice of the words to any body
of men, is to place the substance and essence of the law at
their discretion. To do this, would be nothing less than
to resume and continue the fruitless correspondence of the
last eight years, upon the terms of Colonial Slave Acts.
An interminable controversy would arise between his
Majesty's Government and each of the Legislative Colo-
nies, as to whether the required amendments in the laws
relat ng to slavery had or 'sad not been enacted ; and his
Majesty's Government would be called upon to discharge
the invidious and even impracticable office of determining
constructively upon the words of 13 different codes, while
upon their decision it would depend to which of as
many colonies the benefit provided by Parliament should
he dispensed, and to which it should he denied. Even if
such a revision were possible, the experience of eight years
has now placed beyond the reach of all rational doubt the
fact, which, independently of such experience, might have
been anticipated, that laws framed in the colonies, and
passed by the Colonial Assemblies, for the improve-
ment of the condition of slavery, are deficient in that
quality without which all such legislation must be ntiga•
tory. The compilation of Acts passed during that period,
by 13 different Assemblies (with the exception of a few
enactments passed in some of the smaller islands on the
subject of slave evidence, and of an Act of Grenada re
specting the legal presumption in favour of freedom), does
not contain a single statute which carries within itself any
reasonable security for the faithful execution of its provi-
sions. lam willing to give to the Colonial Legislatures
the same credit for upright intentions which is claimed for
those who discharge corresponding functions in this coun-
try. But I should sacrifice truth to an unmeaning and
ill-timed compliment, were I to attribute to the Members
of those bodies that freedom Irons prejudice, and dispas-
sionate self-possession, on the subject of slavery, or that
skill in the technical business of legislation, without which
the most honest intentions are totally inadequate to the
production of an effective law. Moreover, tile opinion of
the Assemblies has been too distinctly and repeatedly ex-
pressed, to leave it doubtful what would be the result, if
the task of reconstructing the Order in Council were re-
ferred to them, instead of the option of unconditionally
adopting or absolutely rejecting it.
You will lay this despatch and its enclosure before both
branches of the Legislature in the colony under your go-
vernment, and I shall await with feelings of deep and
anxious interest, the result of the proposals here made.
Should they not meet the views of the Legislature, his
Majesty's Government will have more than one cause for
the most serious concern. They will then have to regret,
not only the temporary postponement (for more than tem-
porary it cannot be) of the benefits which are intended for
the slaves, but the failure also of their efforts to renew the
prosperity, or mitigate the distress, of the planters ; and
above all, they will have to deplore the continuance, on
the p trt of the West India colonists, of that insensibility
to the influence of public opinion in the mother-country,
by which they are daily bringing themselves more and mote
within the danger of calamities far more grievous than any
aofndanos,f.
Go-
vernmentdis-awsltieircsh
feraonmbierhciaeuhseidt
mbyaycbome
imweyrotniadl
to protect them. I have, &e.
(Signed) GODLRICII.
t eev power

---
The Batavier steam-boat arrived in the river
instantaneous effect o
yesterday afternoon with the letters of Monday from Amster-
dam. News hid arrived there of the ratification of the
Belgian treaty, and of the reservations with which it was
accompanied on the part of Austria and Prussia, which
a
Iptr ohcaededainng highly acceptable to
public credit, and so eager was the desire to profit by it.
that though the intelligence was first promulgated 011
Sunday, much business was done in Government securitie-
thepeDar uttc o
h h amv merchants.
madehan ts. the
at the coffee-houses on that day, On the following (I,y
business was actively kept up, attended with an improve-
meat in price, the 2 per Cot% leaving off at 4-3/.-+ ri!The•'•

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

G UILDHALL.

Yesterday, Mr. Alderman Gars:LAND called in to in-
quire whether the minutes respecting the misconduct of
the watchman in St. Paul's-churchyard towards a young
woman had been forwarded to the ward authorities,
and learning they had not, be desired ►hat they should be
sent to him, that he might himself remit them to the Alder••
man of the ward. He said that, in his experience as a
magistrate, he had never met with a grosser case of op-
pression to a poor woma❑ than this was, and it would have
been more wise and politic in the common council-men
who had investigated this complaint, if they had formed
their opinion, not on an ex•-parte representation, but on
the whole case as he did on Saturday, when he heard both
sides on their oaths. He would take care that the watch-
man should be prosecuted at the sessions.
Me. Alderman Lucas said the rehearing of the case was,
pressed upon him, and took up a great deal of his time,
but he thought it was right to give the ward authorities,
who came down with their beadle in great force, an oppor-
tunity of setting the character of their watchmen right
with the public. The woman certainly was not brought
before him, but he thought if Mr. Alderman Copeland had
had an opportunity of hearing the witnesses Mr. Deputy
Hicks had produced, he would have arrived at a different
conclusion. The conduct of the woman at the Compter,
fir an hour after she was out of the hands of those who
had offended her, was sufficient to show that her temper
was most violent, or that she was intoxicated.

" Not at all," replied Mr. Alderman COPELAND. "If
I had been so ill-treated, separated from my friends, and
locked up in a gaol,—if I had been the object of such a
shameful violation of the liberty of the subject as this was,
1 should have been unappeisable for six hours instead of one.'
Mr. Alderman LUCAS proceeded to redeem his pledge
of repeating to Mr. Alderman Copeland the substance of
the exculpatory evidence he had received the day before,
and adverting to the worthy Alderman's threat to insure
the prosecution of the watchman, he observed that he had
no doubt the gentlemen of the ward would take up the de-
fence of the accused, and he thought they ought to do so;
fur, if the gentlemen would throw up their windows, and
order a watchma❑ to lock a woman up, it waa their duty
to protect him afterwards against all consequences fur
doing so.

Air. Alderman CorELA ND agreed in this pirneiple.
Here the conversation dropped.

BOTV-STREET.

Yesterday, a tall respectable looking man, about
years of age, having the appearance of a foreigner, was
placed at the bar before Mr. HALLS, charged with having
stolen a Bible and a hat-brush.

Thomas Parker was son-in-law to Mr. Stenson, book‘
seller, Greek-street, Soho. On Wednesday evening, the
18th instant, the prisoner came into the shop and asked
witness if he had an edition of Tasso in two volumes?
Witness turned round to the shelves to look for the work,
but not finding it the prisoner told him to ask Mr. Stenson
if he had got it, saying he would call again in the morn-
ing. He then went away. The Bible now produced was
lying on tie counter when he entered the shop, and when
he went away it was gone. The prisoner did not call
again in the morning, and witness subsequently saw the
Bible in the shop-window of Mr. Biron, of Drury-lane.
Mr. Baron was a general dealer, and lived at 58, Drury-
lane. On Thursday evening last the prisoner came into
his shop, supposing it to bo a pawnbroker's, and asked
f ran advance of 15s. on the Bible now produced. Find-
ing his mistake, be subsequently offered to sell it for 10s..
arid witness gave him eight for it. The prisoner wore a
pair of silver spectacles, and witness remarked his pecu-
liar tone of voice. Was quite satisfied he was the same
man. Last night, April the 24th, the prisoner came again
to his shop, and offered to sell a hat-brush, and witness
having received information that the Bible was stolen,
gave the prisoner into custody.
Elizabeth Roberts lived with her father, who kept a
brush-shop at No. 16, St. Martin's-court. Last night
between six and seven o'clock the prisoner, who had on a
large blue cloak, and wore a crape on his hat, came to
the shop and asked to see a clothes-brush. She turned
round to hand him one, when the prisoner said he wanted
a brush with a handle. Having shown him one of that
description, he observed that the hair was not long
enough, and went away. Witness subsequently missed a
hat-brush from the counter. It was the same now produced.
Thomas R ly, a policeman of the F division, was an
duty in Drury-lane at nine o'clock on the preceding even-
ing, when be was called into Mr. Barron's shop, and took
the prisoner into custody, and conveyed him to the station-
house. The witness here produced a large and handsome
blue cloth cloak and a fashionable walking cane, mounted
with gold, and having a cornelian set in the top, both of
whicht hhTteihhmetoontaolitkaostuilsreahointdti
oa ttft hhi
,ba)ente
ing c,ek when trihe,i
ede tog with
appeared
ahanmireeedrrdl
kausei
tdbelr3hionsiu.idgui
brought
beforea.lr
ti a.
n
he could possibly think of treating a gentleman like 8,
common thief.

The prisoner, in reply to questions by the Magistrate,
said his name was William Johnson, and that he lived at
an hotel in Islington, the name of which he had forgotten.
He could not tell in what part of Islington it was situated,
but knew it was somewhere n, ar a turnpike. He was a.
German by birch, and had been but three months in Eng-
land.

The constable said that the prisoner told him he bad
been eighteen months in England.
The prisoner denied that be had said so ; and in replY
to a question of Mr. HALLS, said he came from Brighton
a short time ago. lie was remanded to give time for
further inquiry.

HAT T ON- GARDEN.
Yesterday Thomas Blair, a middle-aged man, was
placed at the bar, before Mr. ROGERS, charged with
having robbed his employer, Mr. Thomas Richards,
auctioneer, of No. 10, Worship-street, Finsbury, of s
time-piece, and other valuable property.
The prisoner was fully committed to Newgate for trial.
Turner and his wife, who were remanded on a charge
of having stolen a dressing-case, containing jeweller), t°,
the amount of 400/., the property of Captain Dalton, °I
the Royal Artillery, were placed at the bar for re-examine'
lion, and discharged for want of evidence.