The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-04 00:00:00

NERAL ANNUITY 1 TO T,qE_ SECRETARY OF THE

BRAD_ FORD REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—On Viredi iesday the 27th, motion was made
to bring in a Bill to legalize marriage with a deceased
wife's sister. ;owe alteration has taken place in tie
complexion of the opposition, since the Bill was pro-
posed in last se pion. By dint of pains, it has been
beaten into the Opposition, that their quotation from
I,?viticus is one a uthorising such marriages and not
forbidding. Noti iing has in all ages been more re-
markable, than tile pertinacious vitality of what
Milton calls "the: gloss of theologians." Prove that
their quotation co ntains the negative to what they
represent, and like Proteus they slip out of }'our
hands, and appear- in a new shape nothing the worse
for damage dont:. to the original. On the present
occasion they ad witted that their quotation proved
permission ; but. :then they stood upon " the myste-
rious incorporalit y." They admitted that the Jewish
law did did not ; :brbid. But this, they urged, was
the reason why the Christian law must. For if the
Christian law is better than the Jewish, it is bound
to forbid what the other does not. Such was the
argument. 'I hey stood therefore on this, and on
" the mysterious incorporality ;" but showing no
reason, wby what :they intended by that term, was to
be continued after death which dissolves the " incor
porality" in its s:imple form. By such figments
should we be gove rued in Acts of Parliament, if hap-
pily the information of the public was not in all
directions rising iat arms against such Middle Age
decrepitude.
Another opponi n t of the Bill urged something
still more refined and imaginative. I could only
fragmentally collect it, though near the orator;
and as I can find rs.o traces cf it in the press, the pro-
bability is that it latterly transcended the reporters'
apprehension. The words I heard were, that the
phrase "a wife to her sister" meant "putting one
board to another,'" and the book of Ezekiel was
named, in a way which made it probable that there
the confirmation was• to be looked for. As the words
of an adversary are Always to be assumed to have the
most meaning which can be given to them, I venture
to surmise that the point meant to be stated was, that
the phrase " to her sister" was in Oriental phraseology
found,applied even to inanimate things, where a certain
degree of fellowship •or mutuality was to result; and
that in proof of this,, it was found applied to the put-
ting one board to another by a carpenter. On which
it will immediately occur, first, how little propriety
there is in applying the metaphor of one board put
to another by a caryenter, to the case of a prohibited
second wife forced into rivalry with one who will be
anything but a " sister ;" and secondly, how poor a
pass the opponents axe reduced to, when they are fain
to hurry their favourite passage off the field, by con-
struing it into a general prohibition of polygamy, to
escape the effect their own passage produces against
themselves.
On the whole therefore, the resistance to the Bill
for any assigned reason, may be said to be aban-
doned. Or at all events it rests on the "mysterious
incorporality," and the " putting one board to
another."
On Thursday came on Mr. Humes motion for
amending the National Representation. The case
was ably stated by the mover and. those who followed
him. The answer of the Prime Minister will probably
be sifted with sufficient severity by portions of the
press, without doing more here than pointing to one
i
of those glaring unfairnesses ▪
n argument which a
good lawyer takes care to avoid before the most
rustical assemblage of jurymen. In reply to the state-
ments of the unfairness of packi▪
ng fourteen or fifteen
thousand constituents like those of Manchester and the
Tower Hamlets, into boroughs sending no more Meru-
hers than those of three or four hundred constituents in
other places, the Premier asked why the complainants
did not compare the borough population with the
county. " There is Oldham," he said, " with 42,000
inhabitants and two Members, and Bradford with
34,000, and Dorsetshire, exclusive of the boroughs
(sic in orig.), with 170,000 persons, sending no more
Members to Parliament than Oldham or Bradford."
The merest babe in politics might answer the
Noble Lord, that the Borough representation is on
one scale, and the County on another, and therefore
borough ought to be compared with borough, and
county with county. But if borough is to be com-
pared with county according to the Noble Lord's
theory and practice, the complainants have a right to
extend their complaint, and compare Lyme Regis and
its population of two thousand, with the West
Riding of Yorkshire and its population of a million.
An argument which it would have been very
damaging to the complainants, to have been found ad-
vancing for themselves.
One very important point was conceded nemine
contradicente from all quarters of the House. Which
was, that the thing must come. Nobody pretended to
believe, that it was not in the ordinary course of
events, as much as the appearance of one of the
comets in our system, though perhaps nobody has the
power of pointing out to a month the time. This
then is a great point to act upon, for all who are
engaged in the campaign. What everybody says
Must come, is much nearer coming, than before
Such general opinion was admitted.
On Friday, the Bill for increasing the number of
Irish voters was proceeded with in Committee. The
opposition was not precisely of the same kind as on a
former evening ; but still resolutely slow. As was
said by a Member present, it was a contest pro aris
et focis, or at all events for their seats, with many of
the defenders. So much light begins to be thrown
on the connexion of the present position of things
with the condition of the Suffrage, that it is to be
hoped it will end in turning the bull's-eye in aid of
the darkness of the Minister.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN OLD REFORMER.
London, 4th March, 1850.

COURT CIRC ULAR.
Lord John Russell had an audience of the Queen
on Saturday, at Buckingham Palace.
Her Majesty and Prince Albert, accompanied by
the
Princess Prince
Royal, the Princess Alice, the Princess Helena, and
the
ofales, Prince Alfred, the Princess
Louisa,R' and attended by the Countess
of Mount Edgcumbe, Lord Byron, Colonel the Hon.
Charles Grey, Lord Alfred Paget, Colonel Bouverie,
lion. and Rev. G. Wellesley, and Mr. Birch, left
town at five minutes past one o'clock, on Saturday
afternoon for Windsor Castle. The Queen and the
Prince were conducted to their carriage by the
Marquis of Breadalbane, Lord Edward Howard,
Denman.
Lord George Lennox and Captain the Hon. J.

The august party went from Buckingham Palace
in five carriages to the terminus of the Great Wes-
tern Railway at Paddington, and proceeded by a spe-
cial train to Windsor.

The Queen's private band attended in Buckingham
Palace on Friday evening,
and performed the follow-
ing pieces :
Overture (Op. 44) ....... . ....... Kalliwoda.
Fantasia, violin, M. &Anton. .
Sainton.
Selection, " Faust" .......
Trio, "Le Pre aux Clercs"
WINDSOR, • SATURDAY.
Her Majesty and Prince Albert, the Royal Fa-
mily, . and the Ladies and Gentlemen in Waiting, ar-
rived at the Castle at two o'clock this afternoon from
town.

A guard of honour of the Scots Fusilier Guards
was on duty at the railway station. Tier Majesty
and the Royal party
went from the station to the
Castle in five of the Queen's carriages.
The royal dinner party this evening included her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, Lady Fanny
Howard, Baroness de Speth, Colonel the Hon.
Charles Grey, and Mr. Birch.

SUNDAY.
The Queen and his Royal Highness Prince Albert
walked this morning in the Slopes.
The Royal Family took walking exercise in the
grounds around the Castle.
kler Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince
cprivate
Albert, her Royal Highness the Princess Royal, the
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court, and the domestic
household, attended Divine
chapel We-
llesley officiated. Her l
this morning, The Hon. and Rev. G. Royal serve in
Highness
the he
the
Duchess
of Kent also attended the service.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge
visited her Royal Highness the Duchess of Glouces-
ter, on Saturday, at Gloucester House.
Admiral Bowles, Admiral Hope, and the Secretary
of the Sailors' Home, had an interview with the Right
Hon. H. Labouchere on Saturday, at the Office of
the Board of Trade.
The Finance Committee of the Exhibition of 1851
met on Saturday at the Board of Trade, There were
present Lord Overstone, Sir Alexander Spearman,
Mr. Thomas Baring, Mr. F. T. Gibson, and Colonel
Reid, R.E.

A deputation from the Corporation of London, con-
sisting of the Lord Mayor, Mr. Masterman, M.P.,
Alderman Wilson, Alderman Humphery, M.P.,
Alderman Hunter, Alderman Moon, Mr. Sheriff
Lawrence, and the City Reraembrancer, had an in-
terview with Sir George Grey on Saturday, at the
Home office.

Lord Gough had an interview with Lord John
Russell, on Saturday, at his official residence in
Downing- street.
Mr. Hutt, M.P., and a deputation, had an inter-
view, on Saturday, with Lord John Russell.
Messrs. Devereux, Talbot, and Fagan, had an in-
terview, on Saturday, with the Right Hon. H.
Labouchere.

DiTatches were sent off on Satulay evening from
the Colonial-office for the Governa of the Gambia
and Weotern Australia.

The Duke of Wellington, the Duchess of St.
Albans, and the Marchioness of Salisbury attended
the early service yesterday, in the Chapel Royal, St.
James's. The
,Rev. Dr. Wesley officiated, and ad-
ministered the sacrament.