The Sun.
London, England, 1832-01-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The death of Colonel Brereton has produced
every where a very painful sensation. It is ma-
nifest from the whole course of the trial, that
nothing but the most refined and active huma-
nity could have induced this amiable officer to
abstain from the employment of the force under
his orders, since it is on record, from the evi-
dence of four or five witnesses, that he all along
persuaded himself he would be able to prevail
with the rioters by conciliatory means to dis-
perse. Undoubtedly it requires some expe-
rience of mobs to understand how we ought to
deal with them. A slight effort on the part of
soldiers or constables may suppress at the outset,
and without bloodshed, a tumult which, if dal-
lied with, will cost an hundred times as much
of exertion and punishment to overpower. But
in Bristol it appears that there was, in fact, no
civil power of any description organised, so as
to present a front to the mob, or to act as an in-
termediate body—an object of immense im-
portance between the populace and the army.
The blame of such an omission must rest ex-
clusively with the Magistrates, and to it as a di-
rect and immediate cause, must be ascribed the
whole of the dreadful destruction which followed.
Next, after the absence of the constabulary or civil
power, comes the obvious insufficiency of the mili-
tary means which were placed at the disposal of
Col. Brereton. It is not enough that the number
c3i troops provided against an apprehended mob
should be able to defeat it in case of actual hos-
tilities. The politic and humane proceeding
would be, to have at hand a force so abundant
and imposing, as to deter the multitude from the
work of mischief, by making it plain to the
most stupid or desperate among them, that their
resistance would be absolutely unavailing.—
Here were, so far as can be conjectured, a sum
total of about 80 or 90 horsemen, to put down
the most daring mob in England, in a city of
60,000 or 70,000 inhabitants. Now it is plain,
from much of the evidence, that had the cavalry
made 100 charges, the rioters would have
eluded the most vigorous efforts of dragoons,
by slipping into lanes and alleys, where it was
impossible for cavalry to pursue, or act against
them ; an infantry force ought therefore to have
been prepared to support the horse, and this
omission, added to the former one, of which
the Bristol Magistrates stand guilty, takes
off a second share of blame from the shoulders
at Colonel Brereton. Why is it that a large
military force is preferable to a small one,
especially its civil tumults ? Not, surely,
for the sake of shedding a greater quan-
tity of blood, but for that of more effec-
tual intimidation, and the consequent preven-
tion of all recourse to arms. We are not sure
that a mind of sterner mould than Colonel
Brereton's would have been more fitted to such
trying circumstances, but of this we are sure,
that his error, if it were an error, was wholly
" on virtue's side," and one by which the univer-
sal compassion for his fate, and affection for his
memory, will be greatly enhanced and perpe-
tuated. If we were to indulge, at this moment,
la remarks upon the spirit evinced by military
men in general, we should unquestionably cen-
sure it for characteristics directly opposite to those
for which the brave and humane Colonel Brere-
ton was subject to a public trial. The hue and
cry raised in military circles against that unfor-
tunate gentleman, for his backwardness to em-
ploy the sword against unarmed Englishmen,
even though guilty, affords an index of the
besetting sin of many amongst our military
Aristocracy, which- is, in truth, a too great
forwardness to substitute force for concilia-
tion. We speak what is notorious in society,
that some at least of the condemnation of
Colonel Brereton, for " not at once putting
down the mob," was, because the criticising
parties chose to regard the Bristol tumults as
the work, not merely of a mob, but of a mob of
Reformers and radicals. A " Church and
King mob," of the olden time of Priestley, would
have found more favour in their eyes. Against
this description of soldier severity, which de-
rives its sanguinary tinge from politics, in the
name of our constitutional Sovereign,—of the
people,—and the law of England,—we openly
and decidedly protest. The heads of the Tory
aristocracy are not the only parties chargeable
with using unseemly threats or boastings of
future chastisement, to be inflicted on the middle
and poorer ranks of Englishmen engaged in the
cause of Reform. We have heard language in
other quarters which calls for severe animadver-
sion. It is to the credit of the British navy that
many officers of that noble service have, to our
knowledge, declared themselves strong advo-
cates for a Reform of the abuses in the compo-
sition of Parliament, and have expressed their
hopes that the Sovereign and his Mi-
nisters will succeed in a peaceable and ex-
peditious accomplishment of the great mea-
sure which they have so honourably under-
taken. But the profession of a navy man has a
direct tendency to exercise and open the reason-
ing faculties of its members,—to throw them,
in various unforeseen embarrassments, on the
resources of their own intelligence,—and, by en-
abling them to think originally and correctly, to
give them the habit of just and upright feeling.
We meet but few officers bred to the sea who do
not impress their acquaintances with the convic-
tion that they have carefully educated their own
minds, or have profited largely by instruction re-
ceived from others. Is it so in the case of mili-
tary men? We fear not in the same degree as
with their gallant brothers of the quarter-deck.
Zealous in the discharge of their own appointed
duties they may be, and we believe are, in a vast I
majority of instances. Brave in battle, and
humane in victory, their enemies confess them ;
but they undoubtedly have not an extensive re-
putation for capacity to form very sound opinions
on subjects altogether extra-professional, parti-
cularly if such subjects should happen to in-
volve a set of interests and sympathies at
variance with those which are naturally gene-
rated in the course of military service. Naval
officers are, no doubt, formed, like soldiers, in
the school of peremptory command and prompt
obedience ; but they can look on, as distant and
calm spectators, at the affairs of political society
ashore, where the maxims of free agency are
more current than those of personal subordina-
tion or authority ; and not being called upon to
take part on the scene, they can judge on ques-
tions agitated there as if they belonged to history
or to abstract speculation. Political interests,
regarded collectively, seldom come home to the
persons, or excite the passions, of seamen.
'Their minds may, therefore, on such themes,
afford to be unclouded, because their passions
are untouched. This advantage is not possessed
by guardsmen, dragoons, or marching regiments.
Their service, when at home, consists exclusively
of endeavours to uphold some branch of the
public authorities against those who defy or me-
nace them.- The mob are the only enemy they
ever hear of while in home quarters. At the

same time the powers of the State, and mainte-
nance of the laws, have long been vested in the
English oligarchy ; hence the natural bias of a
military man, both here and in Ireland, is
in favour of oligarchy, and adverse to the
lower orders of the people. These two com-
ponents of the political character of an officer,
when he acts from pure impulse, not giving
himself time or trouble to consider both
sides of an important question, go to render
him neither more nor less than an habitual
(though perfectly well-meaning) Tory. It is
not surprising, that if the oligarchs themselves
regard all attempts to disseminate more widely
the various descriptions of power which they
have managed to wrest from their fellow-subjects
and concentrate in their own gripe, as so many
conspiracies to overturn the State, military men,
a large proportion of whom take pride in consi-
dering themselves as subordinate members or
attach& of the oligarchy, should imitate their
patrons, and give Reform, however safe or salu-
tary, the vulgar nickname of revolution. Nor is
it more extraordinary, that when the chiefs have
deliberately confounded all ranks of Reformers,
and denied the least distinction between the
middle classes and the populace, imputing to both
indiscriminately a design to outrage the laws,
and trample on all property,-4 does not, we
say, by any means astonish us, that soldiers
should become the dupes of this fashionable
slander, and should repeat with eagerness the
lesson taught them, that " a little mititary exe-
cution would be a wholesome cooler of this
epidemic malady of Reform." That there exist
hundreds of enlightened gentlemen in the servie,
who would laugh to scorn such stupidity, or
treat with grave indignation the proposal to act
upon it, none are more convinced than we are. It
is known to all the world, and will be known to

after times, that there are in the British army
minds great and powerful, as well as common-
place and little ; but it is likewise true that such
minds are not always placed where they ought to
be—at the helm of the military machine. Men
holding high official rank as officers should be
careful of their expressions. The people of Eng-
land, the Parliament of England, will not en-
dure to be talked at by those whose professional
existence hangs on a single vote of the House
of Commons, as if the creatures of our in-
dulgence
were our masters, and we, their creators,

were their slaves. " Let out the army, and put
down Reform." Dare you breathe such sounds
again, even in the ears of your own menials ?
Do so in that of gentlemen, and we will denounce
you to the empire by name. It may be added
here, that the first article in the United Ser-
vice Magazine for December (upon the whole a
very clever and useful publication), which is
entitled " Bristol Riots," and the first article in
the number for the present month, display some-
what more of the anti-popular vapouring than
either becomes an English military work, or was
provoked or called for by the subject. In allu-
sion to the melancholy subject with which we in-
troduced this article, it is our duty to add tlu
not merely the suicide of the lamented Colonel
Brereton, but the condemnation to death of five
unhappy men at Bristol, and four others under
the Commission at Nottingham, have been the
blessed, though indirect, fruits of the obdurate
resistance to 'Constitutional Reform, and conse-
quent agitation of the whole frame of England,
for which a certain Tory faction will, one day
or other, have to atone.—Times.

In the Quarterly Review for January, just
published, there is a long and laboured article,
in which the mischief produced by the continued
agitation of the Reform question is very chari-
tably transferred from the selfish and unfeeling
opponents of the measure to Ministers, and an
argument against all Reform is drawn from the
mischief caused by its enemies, who ought to
benefit by their own wrong. It is taken for
granted, that if the Lords only hold out a
third time, Earl Grey would find it difficult to
reconcile his longer continuance in office with
his past declarations or his personal honour, and
that the country is now so sobered down by the
sufferings caused by the agitation, that a general
election would now return " a better House of
Commons." " Every election, it is said, which
has taken place since the general election (we
do not even except that for Cambridge, where
the Tory candidate was unsuccessful) has given
token of a better spirit. The agricultural popu-
lation, in all parts of the kingdom, are now, we
believe, very generally become sensible of their
danger. The political spirit is up in Ireland ;
and had the strength of the conservative party
been displayed with the same energy through-
out the kingdom a year ago, as it has lately been
at the meetings (of Lairds and corruptionists and
their retainers !) held in Scotland, the Reform
Bill would not now have been in existence."

Want of space prevents our noticing further at
present this extraordinary article. The moral of
that seems to be, that if the Lords will only
kick the English people sufficiently hard, they
will be compliant enough. Nothing succeeds,
it seems, with all Englishman so well as treating
him with insult and contempt.—Morn. Chron.

The flames which civil tumult had kindled in
Bristol were quenched by military execution in
blood. The humane officer who hoped to be
able to restore the public peace without turning
the edge of the sword against the lives of his
countrymen has fallen by his own hand, the vic-
tim to that " sensibility of honour, which felt a
stain as a wound"—a stain which the stern spirit
of the military code could not forgive, because
that code speaks the language of a system or-
ganized for the purpose of human destruction :
but his error, if it be one, is hallowed in the
eye of mercy. It will do more honour to his
memory than the guilty glory of civil slaughter,
tarnished by the tears of the widow and the
orphan, and pursued by the curses of suffering
humanity. He has gone down to the grave
without the honours of the soldier, but not
without the nobler and more lasting recollections
of the virtues of the man ; and indeed we do not
know that even the soldier's fame can be the
worse because his sword was pure of the blood
of his fellow-citizens. The rash act which hur-
ried him into the presence of an omniscient
Judge, before whom his accusers must one day
appear, would indeed have been a great crime, if
it were not the act of a sensitive spirit stung to
that degree of madness which precludes the idea
of moral responsibility. It is lamentable to think
that a generous aversion to take the lives
of others should have placed him in circum-
stances which drove him to lift his hand against
his own. But why has Colonel Brereton, of all
the persons whose duty it was to protect the
peace of Bristol, been made the scape-goat to
bear the sins of so many who were recreants to
their trust ? lhe Magistracy of Bristol were,
in the first instance, responsible for the public
peace. Great and serious complaints of dere-
liction of duty were made against several Magis-
trates of that town. Those accusations may
have been true or they may have been false, for

no legal decision has been had upon them, there
having been no legal inquiry. Why has there
not been a legal inquiry into all the circum-
stances of the riots at Bristol, that the °rip,'
and causes of those deplorable events might be
ascertained, and the blame of the consequences
might rest upon those who were really culpable ?
The inhabitants of Bristol called upon Govern-
ment over and over again to institute such in-
quiry. Government evaded the demand for some
time. Lord Althorp gave the alleged indisposi-
tion of Lord Melbourne as the reason for the
delay, although, as we showed at the time, on
the authority of the Court Circulars, Lord Mel-
bourne was actually attending Cabinet Councils
at the time when his excuse was offered to the in-
habitants of Bristol for his inattention to their
demands. At length Lord Melbourne came
forward alid pretended that no precedent could
be found to authorise the Government to com-
ply with the request to send a Commissioner to
Bristol to inquire into the whole ot the circum-
stances connected with the disturbances. In vain
we suggested that, if there were no precedent, the
case was of such a nature as would justify the
creation of a precedent, that there might not be
a defect of justice. At the same time we showed
that there was a precedent, by referring to what
Government had recently done in the Newtown-
harry affair, on which occasion they sent down a
King's Counsel as a Commissioner to collect
evidence relative to the whole of its case—the
origin, the causes, and the result. Ultimately
Lord Melbourne informed the people of Bristol
that; if they were resolved to have an inquiry,
they might institute one themselves, and send,up
the evidence which they collected at the Home-
office. But this they might have done without
asking the permission of the Home Secretary;
and as to any evidence which they chose to
transmit to the Horne-office, it could have no
legal consequence, because the inquiry had no
legal character. In the mean time the Govern-
ment, though they refused the inquiry demanded
into the conduct of the Magistrates, put Co-
lonel Brereton on his trial. We admit that
Colonel Brereton was responsible for the exe-
cution of such orders as he received from the
Magistrates, and his great error, in our opinion,
was his not insisting upon the Magistrates ac-
companying him to every place where there was
danger, that the orders might be executed in
their presence. But the persons to whom the
the olrdf;e uponr sema- a
Government were bound to look in the, first
ema-
nated, wereas
the those
civil from
whomauthorities.
proper legal inquiry, it appeared that they were
guiltless of the serious charges of timidity, vacil-
lation, and desertion of duty—if it also appeared
that they had given the proper orders, and
without any default of theirs, those orders were
not executed, the persons to whom the Govern-
ment had next to look was the military officer on
whom the execution of the orders devolved—and
then the trials of the rioters should have fol-
lowed, by which arrangement the causes of crime,
as well as the amount and extent of crime, would
have been investigated by the operation of im-
partial and comprehensive justice. But Go-
vernment began with the lowest class of the
accused, and the highest have not been subjected
to the ordeal of any legal investigation. Special
Commissions are of plentiful growth in these
days of a liberal Government, but, upon Special
Commissions, the causes of popular tumult and
crime cannot be investigated. The bare facts of
criminality or innocence can only be ascertained,
and consequently no such trials can lead to the
removal of'the causes. They, however, autho-
rise the application of the almost universal remedy
of our criminal law—that of hanging—a sharp
remedy indeed, but which, like all quack medi-
cines, only attacks the symptoms of distemper
on the surface of the body-politic, and, by driv-
ing the malignant humours back upon the vital
parts, aggravates the disease. There are now
five wretched men condemned to death, awaiting
the execution of their sentence in Bristol. We

cannot but admit that their offences are of a very
serious nature, though there are
.tircumstances
which ought to have weight in mitigating the
, severity of the law—crimes of impulse and sudden
excitement may be very dangerous in their effccts,
but are far less malignant in their motives than
those of cold, studied, and deliberate inten-
tion. If a party had conspired of malice afore-
thought to burn down Bristol and murder the
inhabitants, whose property was doomed to the
flames, the law could inflict upon them no more
than death. It is possible to aggravate even
that punishment by torture; but even if the
law allowed its infliction, public opinion would
not tolerate it. This shows that for a crime of
such deep malignity the simple infliction of
death would not be considered too light a punish-
ment ; but wide is the difference between such a
crime and that for which the five convicts have
been ordered to perish on the scaffold. Their
crime was, from all that has transpired, without
premeditation, and during the whole ofthe tumults
they did not destroy a single life. We are
glad to hear from our Bristol Correspondent
that a petition, very generally supported, will be
forwarded from that city to Government, pray-
ing for a commutation of the punishment of
those unfortunate men. In the prayer of that
petition we heartily and earnestly join. We do
not say enough, but too much blood has been
shed already in consequence of the Bristol
riots. Many perished in the fires—many have
been slaughtered by military execution, and
many more maimed for life. The judicial de-
struction of five more human beings in cold
blood will not be of the least advantage to the in-
terests of society—justice does not demand their
lives. We implore the kingly prerogative of
mercy to inimtemrfoelraet,elde st
on thetile countryaltarsofmraeyvenb,eglei:e

The proceeding; of the Military Court of Ju-
dicature, which sat during the last week upon
the alleged misconduct of Colonel Brereton,
who commanded the troops stationed at Bristol
during the recent riots, have been interrupted in
an abrupt, unexpected, and most melancholy
manner, by the suicide of the ill-starred subject
of their investigations. We have given the full
particulars of this lamentable event elsewhere ;
and we now refer to it, not for the purpose of
exciting sympathy with the fa;;(3 of the gallant
man who fell a sacrifice by his own hand—for
that would be a useless as well as needless task—
not for the purpose of passing umningled com-
mendation or unmingled censure upon him, but
of expressing what we conceive to be the truth
with respect to him, both as a man and an officer.
That Colonel Brereton was not possessed of ta-
lents and energy equal to the task in which cir-
cumstances had placed him, no one can v.-ell
eiJubt who has perused the evidence adduced
upon his trial. His defence we have not, and
how far that defence might have wholly contra-
dicted the evidence adduced, or in part mitigated
the charge brought against him, it is theretbre
impossible to say ; but even supposing the de-

fence to have been capable of bearing the most
ftvourable construction, we cannot see how it
could have been possible for him to have
escaped censure, not for wilful negligence
of duty, but for the absence of that energy
which the greatness of the emergency, and
the extent of the mischief, and the madness
of the rioters, demanded. With part of a great
city blazing about him—with hundreds of rioters
setting fire to public and private edifices, and
committing every species of plunder and devas-
tation around him—who that had arms in their
hands, even supposing him not to have received
sufficient authority from the Magistrates—much
less who that had the command of an armed
force, and saw the civil authority insufficient
for the preservation of the peace—would
have refrained from employing those arms,
and that force, which were at his com-
mand, for the purpose of quelling riot,
and putting an end to conflagration and
plunder ? It is true that the officer so act-
ing would have incurred a heavy responsibility ;
but what is it that distinguishes the man of
decision and talent from the common herd, but
that of adopting, with all its difficulties and
dangers, the line of conduct which circum-
stances prescribe as the most necessary and
proper ? Colonel Brereton, no doubt, knew
his duty well, and no doubt saw clearly what
ought to have been done ; but he neither pos-
sessed the energy sufficient to enable him to
carry his views into effect, nor the talent which
was necessary to persuade others to the adoption
of more vigorous measures. He was beset by a
stupid and vacillating Corporation, which had
drawn upon itself difficulties and dangers which
it was unable to encounter, and from which it
was glad to seek personal safety, instead of '
seeking for the means of retrieving them ;
while his own humane disposition coun-
selled him to employ all and every peace-
ful means, even to cheering with the rioters,
to put an end to the disturbances, rather than,
by employing force, to imbrue his hands in
the blood of his countrymen. So much for the
late Colonel Brereton 's military qualities and
conduct. As a man, he may be spoken of in
far higher and more unexceptionable terms of
praise. He was a favourite in his neighbour-
hood—and he is deplored by his servants.
There is no slander against him in his private
capacity—there is no accusation of his having
been, in his public conduct, actuated by his private
principles—there is no imputation that he was
destitute of courage—that he was a bad man—
a bad master—a bad father of a family, or a
bad husband. The only accusation against him,
is, that he had too high a sense of honour,
and that, seeing that the trial, according
to the evidence adduced, might end in his
disgrace, he had not the nerves which were ne-
cesssary to bear up against it, or the activity
which might have satisfactorily repelled it. He
felt that he was a doomed man—that he had no
chance after the adduction of certain evidence,
of averting his fate, and he determined to en-
counter the fate apparently awarded to him before-
hand, than that the ignominy of it should rest
on his family. We pity him from our very heart.
He was a good man so far as our information ex-

tends, and he has fallen a sacrifice to his o‘sn
humanity, and to the pitiful conduct of a pitiful
corporation. May every British officer die a
better death than Colonel Brereton; but may no
one be less abundant in humanity I—Morning
Advertiser.

That s
eI f
to
ot portiontho seservice
of the Press v
io
o of t
hepresent
Ministers
devoted
and
the promotion of the particular measure of Re-
form, by means of which the Administration
has
rooscio,lnotri,itiltied
ors, so
tolong,keep notwithstandingits
elfio
office, itsbe me-
gniluisto
manifest some not unnatural impatience for the
announcement in the Gazette of the new Peers,
who are to be appointed for the purpose of
overruling the independent judgment and sub-
verting the legislative power of the House of
Lords. If we had no other grounds for the
conviction that this revolutionary project of
Ministers had encountered difficulties far greater
than were anticipated in its execution, we should
be satisfied that such is the fact from the
feverish anxiety manifested by those who have
hazarded their reputatation for political
sagacity upon the vigour, the firmness,
and the success of the Administration.
Our contemporaries, before they pledged them-
selves so deeply, would have done well to recol-
lect that Ministers might be very vigorous in
their measures and very firm in their detennina-
tion to pack the House of Lords, and that never-
theless they must fail unless they could find a
sufficient number of natural-born subjects of the
King willing to co-operate in their undertaking.
We were always of opinion that it was one thing
for a revolutionary Ministry to hawk about the
offer of a title, which in being offered by them,
and for their purposes, ceased to he a badge of
honour, and became a symbol of baseness and
guilt, and another for English gentlemen of
honour and integrity to accept it. Ministers
we suspect begin, now that it is too late,
to discover that we were right ; that having
overcome the constitutional scruples of their
Royal Master they have done no more
than half, and by far the easiest half, of
their work ; that instead of drawing round them,
as they hoped, a troop of accommodating
and subservient Peers, by an abuse of the Royal
prerogative, their enterprize is likely to end in
leaving their abused and betrayed Sovereign the
only English Monarch upon record in whose
name the Peerage was extensively offered and
generally spurned. That this distinction has
been offered and has been rejected, in some in-
stances at least, is not denied. We are yet to
learn in what instance, if in any, it has been
offered and accepted. The only persons, we
are told, upon whom the Administration can yet
venture confidently to reckon as likely to submit
to their proffered indignity will constitute a class
of Peers of a quality similar to those whose
creation farmed one of the peculiar characteristics
of the reign of Charles the Second. There is
much to pity, no doubt, in the situation of these
individuals, since they are not at liberty, like
other men, to spurn at any thing which the
King's Ministers may be authorised to offer
them. Having no choice, they of course are
exempt from all responsibility for the conse-
quences which may ensue from the extinction of
the House of Lords as an independent branch
of the Legislature. Theirs is, however, an iso-
lated case ; and it seems generally to be felt that
their example ought to have and can have no
weight with other persons who, without any con-
troul, legal or moral, compelling them to acqui-
esce, may be invited to share the criminality and
the danger of the Ministerial design.—Morning
Post.

The East India Company's ship Waterloo,
arrived in China on the 31st of July ; the L,idg
on the Ist of August ; and the Buckinghamshire, on the
4th of the same month.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

(From the Portsmouth Herald of Sunday.)

PORTSMOUTH, JAN. 14.—H s Majesty's sloop
Dispatch, 18, Commander E. A. Frankland, arrived
on Wednesday, from Lisbon with dispatches fiom
Rear-Admiral Parker, and upwards of 3,0001. in
specie on merchants' account. She left the Tagus
on the 3d instant, at which time were lying there,
his Majesty's ship Prince Regent, 120, (bearing
Rear-Admiral Parker's flag); his Majesty's ship
Asia, 84, Captain Hyde Parker; his Majesty's ship
Revenge, 76, Captain D. H. Mackay, in quarantine,
and Victor, 18, Commander Ellice, the two latter
had arrived a few days previous, the former from
Plymouth, and the latter from Oporto. His Ma-
jes'y's ship Briton, 46, Captain J. D. Markland,
C.B. sailed on the 17th ult. to cruize off the Wes-
tern Islands for the protection of British interests.
The Prince Regent was expected to leave Lisbon
for Spithead, immediately the Revenge was released
from quarantine. The Dispatch has, during her
short run, encountered severe weather, and was
struck by lightning the day after her sailing, when
seventeen of her crew were violently alf cted and
biuised, but we are happy to add, the whole have
recovered from the shock. She has brought home
four discharged marines from the Prince Regent and
Asia for misconduct, and sailed yesterday for Chat-
ham to be paid off, having been three years in com-
mission.
The Hope transport, Lieut. Ryder, Agent, sailed
on Monday from the river for Plymouth.
The Amphitrite transport, Lieut. Cooley, Agent,
arrived yesterday from Deptford.
His Majesty's ship Galatea, 42, Capt. C. Napier,
C.B. and Stag, 46, Capt. Sir E. Troubridge, Bart.
are daily expected from Leith, the former to be paid
off in►o Ordinary, and the latter to proceed hence
for Cork, to lie there as Guard-ship in the room of
his Majesty's ship Semiramis, 24, as mentioned in a
former Herald.
At Spithead—Melville and Recruit.

In Harbour— Victory, Britannia, Royal George,
Madagascar, Pearl, Childer•,Viper, Coufiance, Sylvia
and Pantaloon.

PROMOTIONS, APPOINTMENTS, &C.—Commander
W. Hewitt (b), and Lieutenant G. Williams, are
appointed to his Majesty's sur►.eying vessel Fairy.—
Lieutenants T. Tribe and W. Knight are appointed
to the quarantine service at Standgate Creek.—
Lieutenant J. Maxwell is appointed to his Majesty's
ship Stag, vice Hoare.—Mr. J. Barrard is appointed
Master to the Fairy, and M. J. Menzies, Assistant
Surgeon to the same.—Mr. W. R. Crispin, and
Mr. J. W. Nicholls, are appointed to his Majesty's
strip Melville, as secretary's clerks to Vice-Admiral
Sir J. Gore, K.C.B.—Rev. C. W. Dodd, chaplain,
of his Majesty's ship Madagascar, is appointed to
act as schoolmaster on board that ship.
Vice-Admiral Sir J. Gore, K.C.B. arrived from
London yesterday and immediately re-hoisted his
flag on board his Majesty's ship Melville, 76,
Captain H. Hart, which ship will proceed on Wed-
nesday for the East Indies, via Cape of Good Hope.
Commander Robert Gordon, la e of the Herald
yacht, took command of his Majesty's ship Pearl,
20, on Monday, vice Broughton, who has been pro
rooted to the rank of Captain since November last,
for his gallant conduct while in command of the
PriMrose on the coast of Africa.

Second Lieutenant John M. Coppinger, of this
division of Royal Marines, embarked yesterday on
board his Majesty's ship Madags-car for a passage to
join his Majesty's ship Actreon in the Mediterranean.
The 28-gun frigate named Vestal, ordered to be
Built at Sheerness, has been proposed by Captain
Symonds. We understand the principal feature in
her form is that of carrying her main breadth above
the water line; in fact, being similar to the razees.
His Majesty has been pleased to commute the
sentence of death lately passed upon Thomas Lap-
ham, private marine of Lis Majesty's ship }Etna, for
mutiny, into that of transportation for life, and he
will accordingly be sent to New South Wales by the
first ship proceeding thither.
It is now reported, we know not with what truth,
that the contemplated reduction of clerks in his Ma-
jesty's Dock-yards and Victualling-offices, is for the
present suspended, until the completion of a general
survey and valuation of stores about to be taken in
each of those departments.
Two new 16-gun brigs for his Majesty's Navy
are now in progress of building in private yards on
the River, to be called the Serpent and Snake.
Orders have also been given for the construction at
Woolwich of a new packet, to be named Pandora.
carry
two
The large steam-vessels which are now in pro-
gress
Woolwich
s of building,ock
bomb cannons, mounted on pivots, so as to swivel
and command an extensive range without altering
the course of the vessel. This is certainly a vet),
ar in Sheerness,
are and
severaily Chatham,
to
desirable property, as it will enable a steam-vessel
to be put in the best possible position, relatively to
an enemy's armed vessel, so as to protect or keep
the paddle wheels free from shot. This seems to
be the grand desideratum in the introduction of
staam-vessel warfare. One cannon is to be so si-
tuated on the aft part of the deck, as to range en-
tirely over the arc of the stern, and as far forward as
the paddle boxes will permit. The other is to be
mounted before the wheels, and will command an
arc on each side, from the bow to the fore part of
the casing of the wheels; the latter prominence
will, however, interrupt much of the service of
this piece of ordnance. The calibre of the cannon
in question is ten inches, and the weight upwards of
eight-four cwt.

(From the Devonport Telegraph )

DEVONPORT, JAN. M.—His Majesty's ship Fly,
18, Commander P. M'Quhae, went out of harbour
into the Sound on Wednesday, and will sail for the
North American and Wrest India station, as soon as
the weather permits. His Majesty's brig Leveret,
10, Lieut. Lapidge, also went out of harbour on
Thursday.

The Spey packet arrived from Falmouth on Tues-
day,and has come up harbour to refit.

The two troop ships now fitting at this port, to
be commanded by Masters, are, we understand, to
have Pursers.

With reference to the various reports respecting
the Packet Service at Falmouth, it is now ru-
moured that ten of the sailing vessels on that esta-
blishment will be reduced.

Alfred JohnsOU, Esq., formerly Agent-victualler
at the Cape of Good Hope, retires from the Secre-
taryihip at this Deck-yard, the latter situation now
abolished ; a Clerk of the first class will hereafter be
invested with the duties attached to the immediate
office of the resident Commissioner.

Remaining in Hamoaze—San Josef, Wellesley,
Harrier, Pike, Spey packet, Diligence, and Supply,
naval transports.

At the Island—Leveret.

In the Sound—Caledonia and Fly.

ROYAL PATRONAGE.—The Civil List of
Louts Puir,Lim contains some items, which, we con-
ceive, would not figure to a useless purpose in that of a
King of Great Britain, whether in a political, or literary
and scientific point of view. Those to which we refer are—
Library Department (for subscriptions to publications) £lO,OOO
Music, boxes at theatres, and benefits 12,000
Manufactures 23,500
Museums and the Fine Arts
Works of Art 20,000
Medals and Mint
It would therefore appear that the French So ercign has a
sum of nearly one hundred thousand pounds placed at
his disposal, for the special encouragement of native arts,
sciences, and manufactures.—Athencum.

THE PRAYER FOR THECHOLERA.—A few
weeks ago the form of prayer appointed to be read in our
churches, deprecating the spread of the above disorder,
was received from the post-office by the carrier of a village
not one hundred miles from Calverton. As it was directed
to the officiating clergyman, the carrier of course took it
to him ; but as there was Is. 61. to be paid for it, he
said, "Oh ! I have nothing to with it, take it to the
churchwarden," which was accordingly done; the carrier
was there equally unsuccessful, as he made him a similarly
reply, adding " tike it to the clergy fnan."• The poor
prayer, after two or three week., delay, was at last re-
ceived, and is now " solemnly used."—Nottinyhan; Rev.

ADMIRALTY COURT OF THE CINQV

PORTS, JAN. 9.

THE KING, IN HIS OFFICE OF ADMIRALTY, AGAINST T 1
LORD WARDEN OF THE CINQUE FORTS, IN THE GASEOI,

A WHALE.

This was a proceeding instituted for the condemnstioe
of a whale discovered off the coast of Kent by some fisbe
men, who drove it into Whitstable Bay. ne transaction
taking place as ithin the jurisdiction of the Cinque Pore)
the Duke of Wellington, as Lord Warden and Lord Ad
.+
took steps for the condemnation of the fish in this
Court. The fishermen, by whose address the animal We,
stranded and secured, claimed salvage for their services, ands
the Lords of the Admiralty claimed the whale itself an 6,
droit and perquisite of the King in his office of Admiralty'
Dr. PHILLIMORE gave sentence. The right Royal &Ili'
as the whale and sturgeon are denominated, is a right 0,
which our ancestors attached very great importance;
it is an undoubted law of this realm, that when a whale 16
found on the shore, er is caught near the coast of Great
Britain, it is to be considered the property of the C.owld
When, therefore, the case was before the Court on
f inner occasion, the question of salvage was readily dit•
prsed of; neither of the parties who claimed a right to the
whale contesting the claim of the salvors to remuneration'
But the question to whom the condemnation of the,
whale was to pass, is one of great difficulty. Al'
though the wh de unquestionably belongs to the
Sovereign, yet the Sovereign may transfer Imo
right to another; and it is clear, that by his letter'
patent he has transfi rred it in this instance ; but the
question is, to whom ? On the one hand, the Lords of the
Admiraliy claim it as a right transferred to the high Tune'
tions which they represent; on the other, the Admiral 01
the Cinque Ports has a right extended, at least, to every
other perquisite of the Crown within his jurisdiction. DI
6e patent of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty
t':ere is no mention of royal fish ; but the grant to them is Of
all duties, rights, and privileges to which the Lord High
Admiral and other Admirals were entitled. On reference t°
the patents of the Earl of Pembroke and Prince George of
Denmark, the royal fish to which they were entitled are
specified. So with respi ct to the Lord Warden, his pa'
tent gives hint the same rights which his predecessors ea'
joyed ; and there is every presumption that immunites and
rights as ample as those conferred en the Lord High
Admiral were conferred on the Admiral of the Cinque
Ports. In a charge given at a session of Admiralty within
the Cinque Potts, in 1668, Sir L. Jenkins distinctly states,
that " all fines and amercements imposed by this Court
are the Admiral's ; all royal fishes, such as whales and
sturgeons, are his ;" and, in the state in which I an) left
with respect to evidence, I am disposed to place consider'
able reliance on this authority. If it be correct, there is
an end of the question; and if we look to probabilities,
they strongly aid the presumption ; for is it not 89
probable that the Lord High Admiral would be excluded
from the right to whales, as that he should be expressly
excluded from the right to wreck, flotsam and jetsanh
within time Cinque Ports? Under a choice of cases, this
is one of the last which I should have wished to decide, as
i el ra t eis3ut ot
cjurisdictionts of the Courthaveotl er a
toevde •
whichunderpre-
side.ilmii
s;
circumstances, and I have been able to discover no special
ground on which I could claim an exemption. I have
brought my mind to a clear conviction that the right is in '
the Lord Warden ; but it is a great satisfaction to me, that '
if my judgment is erroneous, it Inv be corrected by the
Court of Delegates.
COUNTRY CORN MARKETS.

DURING LAST WEEK.

Wheat. Barley. I Oats. I Beans.

Per Quarter.
Cat lisle
Hexham
Morpeth
Penrith
Sheffield „
Winchester
Per Bushel.
Coventry
Newcastle (Staff.)
Nortliallerton
Swansea
Warwick

I s. to 8. 8. to 8.
57 34
58 65 32 38
53 59 32 33
60 ! 35
61 39
51 64 29 3.5
I s.d. s.d. s.(l.
60 69 36 40
I 7 0 90 48 54
I 8 9 90 64 66 •
70 93 36 46 •
90 93 58 60
7 6 8:0 42 46
9 0 10 0 4 6 50
14 9 17 0 9 0 10 0
140 163 90 100
146 166 96 100
139 143 96 100

s. to 8.

. 8.
al ......

21 30
20 23

'2l
22 24
s.d. s.d.
18 20
36 40
36 49
33 40
36 40.
22 26
22 26'

-
02 4 0

Per 8011.
Barn ardeastle --.
Durham ----.
Richmond —....—.
Stockton —...............

40
42 46
s. d. cd,
00 00
56 60
53 59
56 60
76 80
00 00
73 78

50 60
53 79
50 68
50 70

00 110
90 100
90 100
00 00