The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, AIARCII 27, 1866.

ELECTION COMMITTEE—This Day.

NOTTINGHAM.

The members of this committee reassembled this
morning, and proceeded with their inquiry into the
merits of the petition against the return of Sir
Robert Clifton, the evidence being chiefly confined
to proofs of rioting and intimidation.

Henry 0. Bornee, the first witness called, said—
I am a lace manufacturer, and carry on my business
at Nottingham.- I am acquainted with Mr. Spenser,
of Welford, and Sir Robert Clifton and Mr.
Acland, whom I met on several occasions during
the election proceedings. On the day before the
election I saw them in conversation together in the
neighbourhood of Nottingham, Mr. Spenser being
in his carriage at the time. I heard Sir Robert
say that he would go into the town as there would
be a row there, and it would be very unadvisable
to do so. I understood him to say that there was
sure to be a row in the Market-place, and Mr.
Acland was standing close to him at the time. There
was a large crowd of persons present, and when
Sir R. Clifton walked away from the carriage he
was loudly cheered. I heard Mr. Acland say, in a
loud voice, " There will be a row there now."
By the Chairman—l understood that to be in
reply to a question from one of the crowd relative
to Mr. Paget and Mr. Morley.
Witness in continuation—Mr. Spenser spoke to
me in reference to the election, and said he would
not go into the town for £lO, as his carriage would
be smashed to pieces if he went near the market
place. He said to me also that the platform would
be smashed. I was in Stoney-street on the day of
the polling, and saw a crowd collected before Mr.
Sweet's shop. Sir Robert Clifton was passing at
the time in a cab, and stood up and smiled when he
was opposite the shop. There was another gentleman
in thecab whom he believed to be Mr. Hedington, who
was then Chief-Constable of Nottingham. The win-
dows and shutters of Mr. Sweet's shop were smashed,
and a number of books and papers thrown into the
street, which he assisted in collecting together, and
restoring to Mr. Sweet. The cab was not going at
the rate of more than five miles an hour, and was
proceeding in the direction of the polling booth.
Wm. Dawson, an omnibus driver, and Mr. W. G.
Wood, vice-chairman of the Chamber of Commerce
at Nottingham, gave similar evidence.
The committee resumes their sittings to-morrow.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

CHARGE OF STEALING A CHEQUE, &C.—A KIND PROSE-
CUTOR.—IIenry Freeman, a lad, was charged before Mr.
Tyrwhitt with stealing a cheque for £9 ss. and about £25
in money, the property of Mr. Frederick Hedge; estate
agent, 40, Pall-Mall.
A clerk in the employ of Mr. Hedger said that in conse-
quence of being told on the morning of Wednesday last
that the prisoner—who was in the employ of the house-
keeper who looked after the offices—had absconded, he
looked in a drawer of a table in Mr. Hedger's office—the
drawer having been safely locked overnight and still re-
maining locked—and he missed a cheque for £9 ss. and
about £25 in money. The cheque produced (found on the
prisoner when taken into custody by Butcher, 137 C) was
the one he missed.

Mr. Hedger said he had no wish to press hardly on the
lad, as he thought the prisoner had yielded to a sudden
temptation. Ho had seen the lad's father, a respectable
man, and he had taken every care of the lad, and would
continue to do so. He had no wish to lock anybody up,
and therefore would withdraw from the prosecution.
Mr. Tyrwhitt said the lad ought to be very thankful to
Mr. Hedger, for if he had gono for trial he might have
received a sentence of 12 months' imprisonment.
DISORDERLIES IN ME TIAYMARRET.—Henry Moss, of 38,
Oxford-terrace, Hyde-park, wine merchant ; H. Howard,
clerk, of 172, Camberwell, New-road ; and Ellen Leslie, an
unfortunate, were charged before Mr. Tyrwhitt with being
drunk, and behaving in a disorderly manner in the Hay-
market.

The case having been proved, Mr. Tyrwhitt fined the
defendants ss. each.

Edward Carroll, clerk, of john-street, Berkeley-square,
was charged with assaulting Police-constable Redford in
the Haymarket.
Redford said that at three o'clock that morning the de-
fendant was quarrelling with two women in the Haymar-
ket. He requested the defend Ant and the women to leave,
when the defendant said, Who the devil are you ?" and
kicked him in the legs; and he still felt the effects.

Mr. Tyrwhitt fined the defendant 10s., or seven days.

WESTMINSTER.

JUVENILE OFyssoans.—George Leach,- 9, Jas. Soanes,
8, Thomas Cavanagh,'lo, were charged With Unlawfully
possessing 191bs. of lead pipe.' - z
Mautice M‘Leod, 235 said that last night he was
called to Snow's Rents, Westminster, and from information
he received he went to a house there, and in the passage
found Soanes and Leach with 191b5., of lead pip in their
possession, and took them into. custody. He went and
took Cavanagh out of bed, as he was told he had been con-
cerned in the robbery.
Mr. Arnold said the prisoners were oharged with un-
lawful possession, and as two of them were found with
the lead in the passage, and the third in bed, how could he
be unlawfully possessed-of the property ?
It having been stated that Cavanagh's father would not
attend,

Mr. Arnold asked whether either had been charged
before.

Dennis, the gaoler, replied that Leach had.
Leach's father stepped forward and, with tears in his
eyes, said his boy would not be so bad were it not for his
wife's drunken and dissolute habits ; she spent all the
money in drink and encouraged him to thieve. It was
only last Saturday afternoon that while asleep. his boy
stole the whole of his week's wages, and he believed they
were spent in drink by the mother. He said, with tears
in his eyes, that his wages were only 15s. per week, but if
the magistrate would send the boy to a Reformatory he
would work hard to pay 2s. per week towards his main-
tenance. He tore his trousers off him yesterday, but he
went out without any, and had a pair given him at the
station.

Mr. Arnold sentenced Leach to be kept at Feltham for
three years, and made an order for the father for is. 6d. per
week. Cavanagh was discharged, and Soanes was re-
manded for the attendance of his father.

THE NEW REFORM BILL.

BIRMINGfIAM, Monday Night.

A town's meeting (convened by the Mayor in
compliance with a requisition signed by 800 persons)
to consider the Government Reform Bill was held
here this evening. The Mayor (Mr. Edwin Yates)
presided.
Mr. THOMAS LLOYD, J.P., moved the following
resolution :

" That, relying on the promise of her Majesty's Govern-
ment that a measure for the redistribution of seats will be
introduced as soon as possible, the members for the borough
be requested to support tke bill for the extension of the
franchise now before Parliament."

The Rev. R. W. DALE, M.A., Dissenting minister,
seconded the resolution, which was supported by
Mr. J. Dixon, J.P., also by Mr. Grew, a working
man, and carried by acclamation.
Mr. J. S. WRIGHT, Vice-President of the Cham-
ber of Commerce, moved the following :

" That, as in the opinion of this meeting the provisions
of the Government measure fall short of the just expecta-
tions of the people, the borough members be requested
strenuously to resist any attempt that may be made to limit
the scope of the bill, and to exert all their influence to in-
duce the House of Commons terput the most Liberal inter-
pretation possible upon all its clauses."

The foregoing was seconded, and supported by
several speakers ; it also was carried unanimously.
A petition to Parliament was adopted. The hall
was about three parts full.
In the course of the proceedings the following
letter from Mr. Bright was read :
_ _

"Rochdale, March 25.

"I feel sorry that I cannot be at your meeting to-morrow
night to witness and to help the expression of the senti-
ments of Birmingham upon the question which is now ex-
citing so much interest throughout the country. I cannot
write as I could speak, but I must write a few lines to you.
" The Franchise Bill now before Parliament is a per-
fectly honest bill. It will, if it become law, give votes
more extensively to the middle class, both in counties and
boroughs, and it will overthrow the principle of working
class exclusion, which was established-by the Reform Act
of 1832.

" It will admit to the franchise so many of the work-
ing men in all important and populous boroughs that they
as a class, will no longer feel themselves intentionally
excluded by the law.
" In the counties it will enfranchise 200,000 men, and it
may be expected in some counties to make the representa-
tion less than that of the class of landlords and more that
of the great body of the occupiers of houses and land
within the county.
" It will enfranchise in London and in'all the great cities
a considerable number of young men and of artisans who
live in lodgings or in parts of houses, and it will thus ex-
tend the franchise to many not included in the suffrage
granted by the Reform Act.
" I say the bill is an honest bill, and if it is the least the
Government could offer it may be that it is the greatest
which the Government could carry through Parliament.
" Parliament is never hearty for Reform or for any good
measure. It hated the Reform Bill of 1831 and 1832. It
hated the bill which repealed the Corn Law in 1846. It
does not like the Franchise Bill now upon its table. It is
to a large extent the offspring of landlord power in the
counties, and of tumult and corruption in the boroughs,
and it V, ould be strange if such a Parliament were in favour
of freedom and of an honest representation of the people.
But notwithstanding such a Parliament, this bill will pass
if Birmingham and other towns will do their duty.
" There is opposed to it the Tory party, of whose blind-
ness and folly we have abundant proofs in all its history.
We have no reason now to expect from it a wiser course,
and;we have a small section of men who do not accept the
name of Tory, but zealously do its work.
"These-combine to form a conspiracy on which all the
hopes of Mr. Disraeli and the Opposition/are based. I
think a more. dirty conspiracy has not been seen in the
House of Commons during many generations. It is directed
against this bill, and not less against Lord Russell, by
whom the Liberal and popular policy of the Governent has
been determined.

" What should be done, and what must be done under
these circumstances ? You know what your fathers did 34
years ago,'and you know the result. The men who in every
speech they utter insult the working-men, describing them
as a multitude given up to ignorance and vice, will be the
first to yield when the popular will is loudly and resolutely
expressed. If Parliament-street, from Charing-cross to the
Abbey, were filled with men aeeking a reform bill, as it was
two years ago with men come to do honour to an illustri-
ous Italian, these slanderers of their countrymen would
learn to be civil, if they did not learn to love freedom.
1 This Bill appeals to the middle and working classes
alike. It is a measure of enfranchisement to both of them,
and they should heartily unite in an effort to make it a law.
That which the Tories and the dirty conspiracy' oppose
cannot but deserve the support of every liberal man in the
kingdom.
" If the population of the Birmingham district would sot
apart a day, not for -humiliation,' but for a firm assertion
of their-rights; in great meetings' or in one vast gathering,
they •might-sustain this Franchise Bill and beat down as by
one blow thepower 'that threatens to bolt the door of Par:-
liament against-the people.
" I hope we shall see in all the towns of Great Britain
during the coming fortnight a great.support of the Govern-
ment and the
.If the vote of want of confidence is
carried against. the Government there will be a change of
Alinis6rs or a dissolution of Parliament. 'lf the towns do
their duty the • Government will be safe, because the bill
will be safe, and the suffrage once established on a more
rational basis, the country can then turn its attention to
the arrangement and distribution of seats, which is just as
needful as a wider suffrage to give us a fair representation
of the nation.

" Great meetings and great petitions will be not only
useful, but effectual.
" I am very truly yours,
" JOHN BRIGHT."

An American Professorship in an English
University.

A proposition somewhat novel in its character
is exciting considerable interest among the edu-
cated classes in England. It is made by HENRY
YATES THOMPSON, upon behalf of Harvard Uni-
versity of Massachusetts to the English Univer-
sity of Cambridge, and embraces an offer to
endow a lectureship upon the history, literature,
and institutions of the United States, the lec-
tures to be delivered at Cambridge every two
years. Mr. THOMPSON, who is an English gra-
duate, proposes to donate a fund for the main-
tenance of this lectureship, and it is understood
that the lecturer is to be an American. •The
idea has somewhat startled the British aristo-
cracy. They look upon it as a scheme to repub-
licanise the ideas of Englishmen ; in fact, to in-
struct them that Democratic institutions may
have something in them which is worthy of ap-
probation. A. commentator upon the plan says,
with truly Conservative alarm, that it is " a wild
scheme, and harm might come of it." He says
further—" Nothing can be more dangerous than to
" establish a strong political feeling in our younger
" members. Considering the large number of high-
" spirited young men we have among us just
" emerging from boyhood, to allow such a
" course of lectures to be delivered, would be
" to be put a light to gunpowder, unless the
" lecturer was gifted with superhuman—cer-
c, tainly with preter -American—prudence, or
" were content to make his lectures poor and
" passionless retrospects, emasculated of all that
" might render a course of this kind so interesting
" to a less inflammable audience."

This is the tone of aristocratic prejudice, and
it is an argument which has for its foundation
the assertion, " Things are well enough as they
are ; let us not injure ourselves by inquiring
whether there are not better things." A uni-
versity is established for purposes of education,
not merely to perpetuate political systems,
or defend hereditary abuses. No man can be
truly Llearned who confines his knowledge to
affairs of his own country, and rejects all infor-
mation as to the manners, customs, and laws of
others. Students of universities and colleges are
minutely taught the history of the ancient republics.
Everything that was done in Greece and Rome they
ought to know ; but of what value is that knowledge
in comparison with a thorough understanding of the
world in which they live ? Without full apprecia-
tiation of the manners, customs, and Governments
of other nations than their own, • they. are pro-
foundly ignorant, and their thoughts and opinions
are bounded by their own horizon. This must
be the opinion of enlightened men all over the
earth.-, Anglo-American Times.

The Oil Springs Chronicle of Canada West says
that an extraordinary oil well has just been discovered in
Canada. It yielded on the 21st of February 2,259 gallons
of oil in one year, which was at the rate of 1,692 barrels
of 32 gallons each a day.

George A. Trenholm, late Rebel Secretary of the
Treasury, has presented Bishop Davis, of South Carolina,
the property known as the Orangeburg Female Seminary,
/or the purpose of a theological seminary.

A CAUTION,

A writer in this morning's Times says—Can you
spare a corner of your valuable space to expose a
most disgraceful proceeding?
My niece advertised in your columns some few
days ago for a situation as a governess, and stated
qualification and her age-19. One of the first
answers she received was the following :

" If -, who advertised for a situation as governess in
this morning's 7'ime6., will call to-morrow at 4 o'clock at 4.
Arundel-street, Coventry-street, and inquire for Mr. Shir-
ley, she may hear of a situation to suit her."

Luckily she showed ine the letter, and suspecting
from the style of writing, coupled with the name and
locality given, that all was not right, I determined
to accompany her, and before allowing her to enter
the house to make some inquiry. On asking for
the street we found it was a narrow sort of
court, ending in a small square, at the top of the
Haymarket, and on inspecting the outside of the
house I saw that all the blinds were carefully
drawn on the ground and first floors, though there
was not too much sun on the foggy March after-
noon even out of the court. This naturally increased
my suspicions, but wishing to give it the benefit of
the doubt, and thinking it might by possibility be
an office of sonic kind, I directed my niece to knock
at the door and ask, but by no means to enter. She
did so, and the door was opened by an old woman,
who evidently expected her to walk in. She
then asked, "Is this an office ? What is Mr.
Shirley ?" The answer was, "It is not an office.
General Shirley is here." On hearing this she at
once returned to me. Need I add she did not go
back to seek the situation ? No doubt my niece
was not the only intended victim of a scheme, the
real purpose of which I leave your readers to judge.