The Sun.
London, England, 1832-04-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

There is little chance, we understand, that tle
second reading of the Reform ,Bill will be car
tied in the House of Lords by more than th
scantiest possible majority. Of the Bill passint
the Committee, without an entire change of it.
most essential clauses, there is no prospec‘
whatever, not the most remote, with a body to
Peers composed like the present. Although
however, a defeat upon the first great questiee
which is likely to arise in the Committee ma,
be repaired by an itemeditte creation of Peer.
who would aid the Government in rescinding
the obnoxious vote upon bringing up the
report, it is abundantly certain that a defeat oe
the second reading itself must be altogether
irretrievable. Yet how tremendously daring is
the game now played by men in power ! The
Ministerial lists for the House of Peers are not
represented as offering more than a majority of
six for the ensuing stage of the Bill. A majo-
rity of six in an assembly of 400 Members !
Now in a body of men who average one with
another near 60 years of age, how many risks
are there of the occurrence of accidents
which may shift a minute majority of half
a dozen voices from one side to the opposite
within four-and-twenty hours ! Is it, then, safe,
or otherwise than most rash and desperate, to
leave a stake so portentous at the mercy of so un-
tontroulable a contingency Let it be observed
that the condition of the parties is not equal. The
second reading is but an experiment for the Tory
Opposition,—to Ministers and their measure, it
is life or death. - If the Opposition be beaten by
even twenty votes on the second reading, they
can return to the charge ; they still can make
battle upon each separate provision of the Bill
in Committee,—they can worry the report,—
they may throw it out on the third reading. They
incur absolutely no evil by a discomfiture on
this next stage of the Reform Bill, but the ne-
cessity of continuing the struggle for some weeks
longer ; and they gain, with every day that
passes, some prospect of turning the fortune of
the fight, and eventually casting out the Whig
" devils" from office. But how is it with
Lord Grey ? Where does an adverse division
upon the second reading leave him ? Suppose
but a majority of one single vote against that
critical stage of the measure. The Prime Mi-
nister is struck by a thunder-bolt—the Whig
Cabinet perishes—the Bill is no more Lord
Grey's Bill, nor its title an inscription for his
monument,—it is no more the great Whig
measure of 1832,—its name and history have
henceforth nothing in common with those of
Lord Grey and of his colleagues, but as a me-
mento of the treason which surrendered this pal-
ladium of England to the public enemy. By
rugged boldness the Barons won their charter
from the Crown through degenerate cow-
ardice only the people's charter will
fail of being wrested from the Barons. What
is to become of this abused and insulted coun-
try, if—(and every man sees how possible it is)
—if, under the actual feelings of the nation, the
second reading of the Bill should be negatived
by a majority of Peers, after a large majority of
the Commons have twice sent it up fur :heir ap-
proval ? It might be well for some liberal Go-
vernment, even at that late hour, to come out
with a list of Peers ! But where is such a Go-
vernment to be found under circumstances so over-
whelming ? The only Ministry to which popular
principles have been attributed by the people of
England during more than one generation, is that
which now holds, or ought to hold, the reins of
Government, and which on the hypothesis we
are assuming—viz., the rejection of the Bill—
would be by one and all regarded as marks and by-
words of public abhorrence. Nor are we, indeed,
without apprehension that their lives, should they
venture to remain in this country, would at least be
made miserable by incessant and unrelenting proofs
of the spirit which animated every English heart
against them. Yesi—the " downfall of Lord
Grey" would be the universal echo to the Chan-
cellor's announcement, that the " not-contents
have it." Roman culprits, condemned by that
inexorable people, have been flung from the
Tarpeian rock. Milton has painted a fall more
terrible, involving the spiritual with the corporeal
being. Surely none less than Milton could
present to us, in its entire amplitude, that awful
ruin which awaits the destroyer of the temple
his own hands had raised, and his own lips had
consecrated,—the renegado to that faith which
he had spent a long life in propagating,—the
traitor to that cause on behalf of which he had
deliberately invoked the affections and efforts of
living millions of his countrymen. But Lord
Grey and his companions in ruin being thus
" devoted to the infernal gods," what—let us
repeat the question—what could become of
England ? In the excitement—the terror—the
disgust—the agony of that dreadful hour, the
name of a Tory Administration would sound
like the last trumpet to law and social harmony.
The weak would fly, the wicked would for a
time have dominion. Then, indeed, that " re-
volution," which the old enemies of all constitu-
tional privileges pretend to charge upon this en-
deavour to redress our grievances, would una-
voidably follow from its failure. A mighty
nation, familiar with its own rights, ought not
to be provoked to a forcible vindication of them,
nor a crisis, without necessity, produced, in
which the innocent must infallibly suffer with and
foe the guilty.— Times.

It is one of the most favourable signs of the
times that the heads of the Church begin to dis-
play a sensibility to public opinion. Hitherto,
the Church has seldom ventured to break silence,
when allusion has been made to its abuses. The
hierarchy have so far attended to the recom-
mendation of the Premier to set their house in
order, that they have actually commenced the
work of reformation, though the Pluralities' Bill,
as a bit-by-bit Reform, is no doubt as small a
hit as can well be conceived. But it is an ad-
mission that reform is wanted. In the discus-
sion on the third reading of the Pluralities' Bill,
Lord Suffield, by way of parting benediction,
observed, "that he found, by information on
which he believed he could depend, that there
were upwards of 6,000 livings in which there
was not even a nominal resident ; and that out of
7,167 of the richer benefices, upwards of 3,000
were without residents, owing to cathedral and
collegiate promotions, and other causes. Some
time ago the number of pluralities had been
1,797. That number had increased lately to
2,100." His Lordship added, "that the Most
Reverend Prelate expected, that by means of
this Bill the numbe- would be reduced to 700."
The Bishop of Durham went into a refutation
of a statement of the value of the preferment held
by certain individuals, which had been published
`it.3 morning, contemporary.--- This we say is a
good sign. We always like to see issue joined ;
for then we have a chance of getting at the truth.
Lord Grey observed, that " although the state-
ment of the Right Reverend Prelate (the Bishop
of Durham) had not much to do with the sub-

.eet in discussion, he yet rejoiced that he had, hi
naking it, refuted one of those shameful ant!
candalous misrepresentations which were non
.0 frequently p 6.11 forth.— (Hear, hear.)-
Nith all deference to his Lordship, his display
if virtuous indignation against the scandalous mis-
representations now so frequently put forth, was
little too violent for the occasion t for the state.
!nent of the Bishop of Durham applies to but a
very small part of the field of accusation. But
is a set-off, he announced that he was favoura-
ble to an Ecclesiastical Commission, by which
we trust we shall have a fair and honest inquiry
into the state of the 'Church. " With respect to
in Ecclesiastical Commission, the idea, he could
-tate, was not a new one ; it had been communi-
cated to him at his accession to the Councils of
pis Majesty, and this Bilk he regarded as the
first step of inginity, with the view to an im-
provement in the government and condition of
the Church." We would not -discourage Re-
form, by handling the Reformers roughly, on ac-
count of the inadequacy of their first attempts.
Had the Puke of Wellington begun with East
Retford the great work of political Reform, the
people would then have been tranquillized by the
prospects of more etensive Reform opened to
them. If the Archbishop of Canterbury,
had, in imitation of his friend the Duke
of Wellington, insisted that the government and
condition of the Church were so perfect that the
wit of man could not conceive anything equal,
public opinion would have been scandalized.
But as it is, we take this small beginning as an
earnest of greater to come. Luther began the
Protestant Reformation with an objection to the
sale of absolutions. Who knows but we may
yet see an Archbishop of Canterbury legislating
for the Church on the principle laid down by the
Master all the Ctergy profess to serve, but whose
conduit they carefully forget to imitate—" My
kingdom is not of this world." Lord Grey,
who seems to have been a good deal annoyed by
the doubts thrown by his friend, Lord Xing, on
his own sincerity as a Church Reformer, in the
observation that " whenever there was a ques-
tion of anxiety upon the part of the Hierachy
and the Government, for Church improvement,
his answer was, Derry, Derry, Derry,' " re-
torted with some asperity on his friend. Derry
is hardly a case in point, for it was given under
the condition, that the plea of vested interest
should not be set up by the holder of that See
against any change in the distribution of Church
property. Earl Grey is the most grateful man
alive. He follows the Christian maxim, when he
receives a blow on one cheek, of holding up
the other. He only hates those who support his
own principles ; but he loves the Church, be-
cause the Church hates him. Throughout all
the Elections, the late Clergy' have been the
strenuous opponents of his Ministry. The
heads of the Church, on the second reading of
the Reform Bill, voted against it, in order, as
was said by the Lord Chancellor, to trip up his
heels. Even in the house of prayer the clergy
were not sparing in their attacks of the Ministry.
So incensed were the people, that their patience
fairly deserted them ; but all this seems only to
have endeared the Church to Earl Grey. "He
hoped the House would be induced to pass the
Bill, and he trusted it would have the effect of
strengthening the hold which the Church of
England had, and deserved to have, upon the
affections of the people." The Church has at
present, and deserves to have, a hold upon the
affections of the people, according to his Lord-
ship. She is quite captivating at present ; but '
his Lordship wishes to make her still more cap-
tivating. She ought, indeed, to be dear to us ;
for we buy her favours at a great price. Ac-
cording to Henrion de Pausy, the learned au-
thor of the Code Eccleaiastique Francais, in
England and Wales, every person, on an average,
pays annually for the clergy 15 francs 80 cen-
times; in Spain every person pays nearly 5
francs 32 cents.; in every other country in Eu-
rope, excepting France, each person on an aver-
age pays from one to two francs ; and in France
each person on an average pays about 79 cen-
times, or about 7-sd. We prove our affection by
our liberality. Love, however, is often not mu-
tual, as we see in the case of many beside the
Church and Earl Grey. Ariosto, by way of
illustrating the capricious character of love, ex-
hibits a couple subject to this fate—the gentle-
man pursues the lady, and when he overtakes
and touches her, he flees in turn and she be-
comes pursuer. Whether the time may.come
when the Church shall pursue Earl Grey as
assiduously with her love as she now pursues him
with her hatred remains to be seen. The cram-
ming system, however, has hitherto failed to ge-
nerate a reciprocal affection. But, as the school-
men say, error lurks in generals. Let us view
the system in detail which, as a whole, has such
a hold of the affections of the nation. In that
admirable poem with which the author of the
" Corn Law Rhymes" has enriched The New
Monthly Magazine. for April, " the Splendid
Village," we have the following picture :-
6. Two stone-throws from the Hall of Doctor Drive,
And from the village workhouse four or five,
Where the Swung Turkey, with his plumage rough,
Welcomes all loyal men who drink enough,
Theflying curate lodges—doom'd to say
Three well-known sermons every Sabbath.day.
His donkey, like a rat without a tail,
ebst fifty shillings, and o'er hill and dale
Bears its lean master, at a hunter's pace,
Duly as comes his weekly steeple-chase.
The rector—a queer plural, one and three,
Yet not quite singular in trilogy—
Who, scandal says, is cousin to my Lord,
Would pay him better, but he can't afford.
He lives, they say, in London, and so forth ;
His country house is somewhere in the North.
Mine host much miss'd him when he left the lodge,
For fewer warrants summon Jem and Hodge."

Here we have the Reverend Unpaid Magis-
trate, the rich Pluralist, the slaving Curate, and
the neglected flocks, all brought within a narrow
compass. We shall see, by-and-bye, when the
Ecclesiastical Commission commences its labours,
whether all this is scandalous misrepresentation.
—Morning Chronicle.

The subject of flogging in the army was dis-
cussed last night in the House of Commons.
It was allowed on all hands that this punishment
was now rarely inflicted, but it was contended
by all the speakers that it could not be altoge-
ther dispensed with. Sir John C. Hobhouse
attributed the diminution " partly to the strong
expression of public opinion on the subject, and
partly to the changes which had been introduced
into regimental discipline by the Right Honour-
able Baronet opposite (Sir H. Harclinge).'
We are glad to find that there is a diminution,
and would gladly attribute the improvement
partly to another cause—an improvement in the
character of the class from which soldiere are
taken. In France, flogging ceased with the re-
volution ; but the change travelled into other
countries. in Prussia, for instance, of which
thel°i army
g been
nopsu flpoogsged in
gquite
.a But ptahtet enr,n
nt hperre has
long
ssias,
the son of a Prime Minister takes his turn as a
private soldier, and the son of a peasant may he
a general. It strikes us that there are but two
ways of managing men—honour and fear. Io
England, we fear, the condition of the soldier

ill long be far from that which will render it
oossible to dispense altogether with that most
degrading of punishments, flogging. No man
who has once been flogged can be worth much
ifterwards.—Morning Chronicle.
We are glad to learn, frorin the report re-
cently published, by *t. The Labourers' Friend
Society," that the benevolent and politic plan
of letting out small parcels of land to labourers,
to be cultivated by them and their families
during their leisure hours, is likely to come into
extensive operation. The tendency of this plan
to lighten the pressure of the pooh-rates;, to re--
vive industrious, tnorat, and domestic habits in a
rapidly 'degenerating class of the community,
and to encourage a spirit Of real independence
in place of the sturdy and unblushing mendicity
which the abuse of the poor-laws has given rise
to, would be a sufficient recommendation of the
system to those who have the good of the nation
sincerely at heart. But there is also an im-
portant advantage connected with it in the kindly
feeling which it is calculated to awaken between
two bodies whom many circumstances have con-
spired to estrange from each other; we mean
the landlords and the peasantry of the country.
Every one remembers the burning of human
food, which lately prevailed to so great
an extent in many of the agricultural dis-
tricts. It was the worst feature of the
times. Robbery has an intelligible motive, but
here was destruction—wholesale destruction—
apparently without motive. The bread by which
life is sustained, and which men used to feel a
sort of superstitious horror against wasting, much
more destroying, was annihilated by the mid-
night incendiary, without affording a portion of
sustenance to any living thing. People were
astonished, dismayed, and confounded, at an
exhibition of crime at once so fearful and unin-
telligible. But men do not act without motive.
The mere hopelessness of want could not have
instigated the rural population to such a syste-
matic perseverance in destruction—and there is
no such thing in nature as a love of destruction
for the sake of destruction alone. What was it
then that lighted up these frightful fires ?—Re-
venge. The pride of the gentry—the insolence
of their aping retainers—the atrocity of the
game laws—and, to omit other oppressions and
come at once to the greatest oppression of all—
the attempt to put into operation the exterminat-
ing philosophy of Malthus, conspired to bring
about a state of things which will be incredible to
future generations, who, we trust, will only have
the record, without the living example to convince
them. In looking for the causes which have
estranged and exasperated the peasantry, we
think that sufficient importance has never been
ascribed to the attempts made both here and in
Ireland to check population, by banishing large
masses from different estates. The accounts
published at the time were heart-rending. In
Ireland especially, whete there were no poor
laws to come in aid of the wretched outcasts, the
progress of the experiment • was dreadful.
These facts may be forgotten by many ; but
were they forgotten by the peasantry ? or,
rather, does not their recollection, alta mente
repostum, afford a reasonable solution of occur-
rences otherwise unaccountable ? When a
change so great as is universally admitted to
have taken place in the character of our rural
population comes to be investigated in a candid
spirit, it will be found that other classes of so-
ciety have more to answer for, in the production
of that change, than self-love will allow them
even to suspect, while they can shift the blame
from their own shoulders upon. the general in-
consistency of human nature, or any .other
vague excuse. The effect of institutions
like that of The Labourers' Friend Society,
besides the good they are calculated to
produce in improving the condition of
the poor, will be to awaken a better spirit to-
wards the landed proprietors than has latterly
existed. The report which attracted our atten-
tion to the subject states that the plan has been
already attended with considerable success. It
is highly creditable to the noblemen and gentle-
men by whom it has been patronised that they
have adapted every means for carrying it into
extensive operation, and the manner in which
their agents have been received in different coun-
ties furnishes a strong presumption that their ef-
forts will be crowned with success. Whatever
alterations may be contemplated in the poor-laws
—and we hope that very extensive ones are near
at hand—this plan, and every plan which tends
to ameliorate the condition of the working classes,
must operate beneficially on the system.
Whether it will go to the extent which some of its
advocates anticipate, or not, at all events it will
produce much good, if it were only by its ten-
dency to restore that kindly feeling between two
classes of the community whose interests are
identified, and whose combined prosperity it
should be the object and endeavour of every
friend of his country to promote.—Morning
Herald.

The Radicals are beginning to shout I 9
Paean in anticipation of the success of the Re•
volutionary Ministerial project, but their exulta-
tion is premature, and is doomed to severe
ppoi dis-
a "ntment. " The Bill" has indeed passed
the Commons' House of Delegates, the repre-
sentatives of Whig fraud and popular delusion ;
but it cannot pass the Louis. Will the guar-
dians of public safety lay the axe to our ancient
tree of constitutional liberty ? Will the heads
of our Church lay open her sanctuary to the
united attacks of Papists, Infidels, and Repub-
licans? Shall mobs and Radicals, Americans,
and Frenchmen, Popish Priests and Irish Agi-
tators, with Plunketts and Greys, both young and
old—shall these, we say, prevail against the
honour and conscience, and recorded determina-
tion of the Peerage? Never, Lord Grey ; never.
It were an insult to imagine for an instant
that the Peers of England can be other-
wise than faithful to their Sovereign, their
country, and themselves. As their ancestors
extorted from a tyrant King the Charter of our
liberties, they will now preserve it as our birth-
right from democratic violence ; and as the
Bishops in King James's time withstood the
united influence of Court and Priests and fa-
natics, so will they now protect the Church from
the gripe of Popish Reformers, and maintain
that establishment, without which neither peace,
nor order, nor social happiness can exist among
us. Common sense assures us that every motive
and every hope which animates the Re-
formers must operate as a warning to
both spiritual and temporal Peers against
the encroachments of democracy. Why, do
the mob huzza anti the radicals exult over the
Bill ? Because it endeavours to substitute
Whig for Tory influence ? Because it pro-
fesses to weaken an " oligarchy" which in f'act
never had existence, while it strengthens a real
oligarchy which even now dictates to the Sove-
northern Whig confederacy of How-
arenipsn ,
Staanleys, Cavendishes,
sells, treys, Lamhtons? N Fitz tams, Rus-
sells, such thing. To
them all Greys, Lambtons, and Stanleys

pear a 9 proud and haughty, and overbearing
and irascible, as nature has indeed made them ;
and Lord Grey's nepotism is almost as into-
lerable as a Duke of Devonshire's overgrown
estate. Why then is their monstrous progen)
the darling of mobs and radicals ? Because it
benefits the landed interest. Let the Dorset-
shire farmers answer ; they believed so, and
voted for it ; they discovered the cheat in time,
and voted against it. Radicals hate the Corn
Laws, and their first act, if in power, would be
to abolish them, Is then the Bill a favourite with
the mob because it is good for fuhded property ?
" The Funds are raised by it," quoth Mr. Stan-
ley. Indeed ! But Radicals are just as averse to
loanmongers as to horoughtnongers, and the
sponge is only kept, like the ballot, in the back
ground till Parliament becomes less sqeamish
about a debt which boroughmongers contracted.
Lastly, is the Bill popular because it is a final mea-
sure ? Every Radical in the kingdom laughs out-
right at such an idea, and, except as a ladder to
reach the upper story, a first stage, in short, to
revolution, there is scarcely a Reformer out of•
the Whig oligarchy itself who would not spurn
the Bill with as much contempt as Lord Grey
does the Constitution which his King has sworn
to guard and to maintain. The French and
Americans delight in it, however, as much as
their friends the Whigs. Why so ? Because
it promises increased political influence or com-
mercial prosperity to England ? Because it
strengthens our national credit, and will acid
lustre to the Crown ? No, Casimir Perier ; no,
brother Jonathan. The Whigs- may have ears
and not hear, and eyes, yet not see ; but you
have both ; and full well do you perceive that
what a Bonaparte in vain attempted, whilst Pitt
and Wellington stood at the helm, is now about
to be realised by a worse than foreign enemy
within our gates.—Morning Post.
Whatever may be the ultimate result of the
division among the Tories upon the exoediency
of voting for the second reading of the Reform
Bill, there can be no question that they are per-
fectly agreed upon the necessity of throwing out
the Bill in the Committee—that is, of mutilating
it in such a manner that it can neither be received
by the Commons, nor be acceptable to the peo-
ple. The Wharncliffe and Harrowby party have
never been uncandid on this point—they have
never ceased to proclaim their hostility to the Bill,
or attempted to make a secret of their intention
to allow the Bill to be read a second time, in order
that they may Burke it in the Committee.
For this candour we, who are Reformers,
ought to be truly grateful to them ; for had they
simply pledged themselves to vote for the second
reading of the Bill, without intimating their deter-
mination to emasculate it in the Committee, we
might have been deceived, and Lord Grey might
have been ensnared to his own ruin, and to that
of his country. But, thank God, there is no de-
ception with them on this point, so far as we are
aware,—nay, if we may be allowed to form a
judgment of their feelings on the subject, from
the publications which are put forth in their
name, they are anxious that their scheme of op-
position should be. fully understood, both by their
friends and the public. In a pamphlet, for ex-
ample, addressed in the shape of a letter to the
editor of the Quarterly Review, and in which
Mr. Croker meets with his just deserts, for his
various inaccuracies, misquotations, and false-
hoods, the author of it says—
" The.' noblemen and gentlemen' you speak of, (mean-
ing the waverers) yield to none in their dislike of the Bill ;
it is this very dislike, and their anxiety to mitigate the
evils with. which it is fraught, that have determined them,
after mature and anxious delih•ration, to vary the course
which they pursued in October last:" _

Nothing can be more clear, downright, or
determined than this declaration, which comes
from the Wharncliffe party, not in answer to
Lord Grey and the Reformers, but in answer to
the party from which they have seceded, but
with which, in point of spirit, they still continue
to act ; and what a lesson does it teach Lord
Grey ! A few Bishops may have been parti-
ally converted—a few Peers may have given a
dubious assent to support the Bill in all its
stages; but the Opposition is still almost nume-
rically the same—its neck is entire—its venom
more poisonous and deadly than before ; and the
oft-repeated question therefore recurs, when the
new Peers will be made ? That Lord Grey has
full power to create as many Peers as he may
find to be necessary, is not denied by the Har-
rowby and Wharncliffe party—nay, it is put for-
ward by them as a defence of their conduct.
_ _

" The whole of your argument," says the pamphlet,
" is founded upon three assumptions :—First, that the
King will not consent to a creation of Peers to carry the
Reform Bill ; second, that the Ministers would not ven-
ture upon such a measure; and, third, that their own
supporters would desert them if they did. The fir tof
these postulates may be dealt with as a matter of fact ;
the other two are still matter of opinion. It is no longer
a secret that his Majesty has given his full and unrestricted
permission to Lord Grey to make whatever number of
Peers, and at whatever period, he may think necessary.
However pr,bahle it may be, that a majority of the Whig
Peers would dislike the creation of such a hatch, there is
no evidence of any remonstrance against it on their part ;
and in the various rumours that are current, have we
heard of a single Peer who has announced his intention of
withdrawing his support from the Gore.nment, in the
event of a new creation ? With the King's consent in his
pocket,—the Peers of his own party neutral,--and the
public, to say the least, indifferent, what reason is there
for believing that Lord Grey would not venture upon such
a measure ? His firmness, on the contrary, is much more
required to resist the imperious demands of the Radical
Press, and the impertinent importunities of the meddling,
busy, mischievous insects, who buzz about the Treasury
and the Woolsack, urging to desperate deeds, and crying
' havoc,' without reserve."

These admissions on the part of the most despe-
rate enemies of the Bill, render the task which
Lord Grey has to execute more difficult than it
would otherwise have been. He must make
Peers ; that is unquestionable ; but if he make
them before the second reading, the Harrowby
and Wharncliffe party will oppose him ; and a
more numerous creation will be necessary in
consequence ; if he trust to their support i❑ the
second reading, he may be defeated, and who
would then answer for the peace of the country,
or the safety of his " order ?" Would to
Heaven that Lord Grey and the country were
well out of their difficulties ! Our hearts are in
the cause as well as his—and there is no one
in whom we would repose greater confidence
than his Lordship, but the times are perilous—
the enemy is crafty, lying, and deceitful ; and, in
order to put an end to all doubts, we would like
to see the list of the new Peers in the Gazette.
What a freshner it would be to the anti-Reform
Peers, and what magic would not the bare pe-
rusal of it exercise on the trade, comfort, and
tranquillity of the community !—Morning Ad-
vertiser.

CHEAP EDITION OF COOPER'S NOVELS.
—Among the sterling works of fiction now in course of ap-
pearance in the " Standard Novels," the productions of Cooper
stand pre-eminent. " The Spy," " The Pilot," and " The
Last of the Mohicans," have already graced the series. To
these is now added the one which he himself states to have
afforded him the greatest pleasure in writing—namely, " The
I'll:Met-I'S," which forms the 14th volume of " The Standard
Novels," just published, beautifully printed, and illustrated,
uniformly with the \Vaverley Novels. Each of these, corn_
plete in a single volume, with the Author's Notes and Correc.
tions, may Row be obtained for sit shilling?,

TAUNTON ASSIZES, MARCH 31.

The Assizes commenced here on Thursday
when the commission was opened by Mr. Justice
GASELEE.

Yesterday Mr. Justice PARK presided in the
Crown Court, and Mr. Justice GASELEEat Nisi Priv-8.
There are 239 prisoners for trial, and 29 causes in
the cause list.