The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-13 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen held a Court on Saturday afternoon at
Buckingham Palace.
The Marqus de Viluma, Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary from her Majesty the Queen of
Spain, had an audience of her Majesty. His Excellency
was introduced by the Earl of Aberdeen, K. T., her
Majesty's principal Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, and conducted by Sir Robert Chester, Master
of the Ceremonies.
The Queen was attended by. Viscount Hawarden,
Lord in Waiting, and Sir Frederick Stovin, Groom in
Waiting.
Her Majesty and Prince Albert, the Ladies and Gen-
tlemen of the Royal suite and the Household, attended
Divine service yesterday afternoon in the Chapel Royal,
Buckingham Palace.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert, attended by Mr.
George Edward Anson, went on Saturday morning to
the office of the Duchy of Cornwall in Somerset House.
Her Majesty and Prince Albert walked in the
royal gardens on Saturday.
The Royal Family were taken their accustomed daily
airing on Saturday in the royal gardens of Bucking-
ham Palace.

Her Majesty the Queen Dowager returned to Marl-
borough House, attended by her suite, at half-past seven
o'clock, on Friday evening, from her residence, Bushy
House, Bushy Park.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge attended
Divine service yesterday morning, in Grosvenor Chapel,
South Audley-street.
The Duke of Cambridge visited her Royal Highness
the Duchess of Gloucester yesterday.
The Governor of the Bank of England and the De-
puty, Governor had an interview with the Chancellor of
the Exchequer on Saturday, at his official residence in
Downing -street.
The Duke of Wellington, tin Duke of Rutland, and
Sir F. Trench, attended the early service in the Chapel
Royal, St. James's, yesterday morning. The Rev. Dr.
Wesley read the prayers, and the Rev. T. Mills preached
the sermon.

The Duchess of Beaufort, the Marquises of Salis-
bury and Northampton, Lords Devon, Wilton, Howe,
Colville, Ingestre, Alford, Palmerston, and De Manley,
Ladies Wilton, Palmerston, and C. Sanford, attended the
daily. service in the Chapel Royal, St. James's, yester-
day. Prayers were read by the Rev. J. V. Povah, and
the les§ons by the Rev. C. Packmaa. The sermon was
preached by the Rev. T. Mills.
The anthem was " I have set God " (Goldwin). The
musical service was Nares, in F, and the Sanctus,
Hawes, in F.

The agent for Jamaica, accompanied by Mr. M'Gre-
gor, and a Deputation on the subject of Sugar had an
interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Sa-
turday.
The Lord Chancellor has-left town for Turville Park.
Dispatches from the Governor of the Mauritius, and
also from South Australia, were received on Saturday, at
the Colonial-office.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council sat on
Saturday, and resumed the appeal " William Meddow-
croft v. Harriet Huguenin," from the Prerogative Court
of Canterbury. Dr. Addams was heard for the re-
spodent, and Dr. Phillimore was heard in reply. Lord
Brougham gave judgment on the part of their Lord-
ships, affirming the decision of the Court below with
costs. The Court then rose.
Lady Peel has issued invitations for assemblies on
Saturday, the 18th, and on Wednesday, the 22d instant,
in Whitehall-gardens.

Lunt SOClETY.—The'supporters of the above As-
sociation, established for promoting the education of the Irish
peasantry through the medium of the vernacular language of
the country, held their twenty-second annual meeting yester-
day afternoon, at Hanover-square. George Finch, Esq.,
presided, and called upon the Rev. Secietary for the report of
the Society's operations during the past year. The report
furnished a detailed account of the proceedings of the Society
in the sister country, and stated that in the King's County
district, notwithstanding the hostility of the priests, the pro-
gress of the Society, and consequently of Scriptural instruc-
tion, had much advanced during the past year. In that dis-
trict alone were no fewer than 8,000 scholars, not one of
whom had been found in possession of a repeal card, to attend
a repeal meeting, or to be in any way favourable to the move-
ment. A favourable report was also made of the state of
affairs in Donegal, where against threats of violence and
punishment the teachers were resolved to proceed. The
Society's schools in Drumclair, Cork, Kerry, and other parts
of the country, were also in a satisfactory condition. The
schools in Ireland numbered altogether 797, containing
17,301 scholars, of whom 1,235 were adults. The total in-
come of the Society during the past year amounted to
4,1071. 13s. 6d., a sum exceeding the expenditure by
1211. 6s. 11d. On the motion of 'Viscount Bernard,
the report was adopted, and the meeting, after
speeches from several reverend gentlemen, and passing reso-
lutions favourable to the cause in which the Society was en-
gaged, separated.
A FACT FOR THE LEAGUEBS.—At a recent meet-
ingl there
of the charity trustees of the boroughof Faversham,
situate in the midst of an district,agricultural
were no less than 154 applications for assistance, and
ample, yet such is the constant and pressing
although the funds at the disposal of these gentlemen
are ver
demand on them, they had only the means of relieving
three very distressing cases. So much for the benefits
of protection to the agricultural part of the community.
—Dover Chronicle.
EXPLOSION or A LOCOMOTIVE BOILER.—On Wed-
nesday morning last, great alarm was created in the station
yard of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, at Lon-
don-road, near Carlisle, by the explosion of a boiler
of the Adelaide locomotive engine. The engine had
just arrived in the station
coal waggons, from the yard,caial wibthasian trainandofba emptyn
taken in a supply of coke, the engine-driver was about
became enveloped
tog
paedteiVafiedennosiseedwoasudand the
trainstart heard,o steam
On examination,• it was found that, owing to some cause not
yet precisely ascertained, the upper part of the fire-box of
the engine had burst, and that with such tremendous force
had the steam rushed forth, that it had lifted the engine
bodily from the rails to a distance of eighteen inches, and
striking the engine-man between the legs and on the lower
part of the body, had thrown him backwards a distance of
several yards; he was found at the bottom of the fourth coal
waggon from the tender. The stoker, who was standing on
the top of the coke in the tender, was thrown into the first
coal waggon. The engine-man was insensible; the lower
part of his body was dreadfully scalded, his head much bruised,
and he had several contusions about his face. The stoker
was severely, though not dangerously, injured. The engine-
man was on Friday going on favourably, but not out of
danger. The stoker is rapidly recovering.—Leeds Times.
RINGWOOD.—A fine covey of eleven partridges
were discovered a few days since on Potterne Farm, by
the keeper at Verwood, Dorset. The birds were strong,
and must have been hatched full a fortnight, as they
could fly a short distance; so early a brood is considered
Qf rare occurreuce.—Hampshire Independent.

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I THE FACTORIZS—D - ,'',..).'
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(From th 'tt;les.) • :-. ' ' • •',
tick
The desperate tenacity with liieh Ministers stick to their
twelve hours of factory labour • Is' something 'which. Stol4s
quite alone in our times. Beall there„.w-ould-jie a,degree Of
heroism about it, but for the ut r miserableness-Of the Ob-
ject. Many occasions have there beets in -Sir Robert Peel's
life when he might have shown himself h great inan.", We
will not say that lie has entirely thrown them away; but he
has most unhappily reserved the cream and flower of his
strength for an ignoble and inevitably unsuccessful war with
labouring women and children. The only account of his ob-
st,inacy is to suppose that now, as on some former emergen-
cies, the Premier is not entirely his own master. We do
think better of him than to believe he really does stake the
prosperity of the empire, including that very prosperous cir-
cumstance, his own possession of office, on the first and the
last hour of the factory woman. And, after all, it is conso-
latory to remember that Sir Robert has not so wholly and
inseparably identified himself with the Government Bill as
the Home Secretary.
But with what a singular ill grace does this unwonted tena-
city now show itself, considering how many things great and
sacred have been touched—yes, touched in the strongest
I sense, handled, abstracted, mangled, and even destroyed.
But it is capital, capital invested in factories, and, by an in-
: direct but probable consequence, capital invested in land,
I which is now in danger. Of all things, wealth in every
shape is the most cowardly, suspicious, and touchy. It is the
most thin-skinned of all the children of selfihness. The miser
might as well be flayed alive, for any comfort he has of
his hoard. A hungry mouse stirs behind the wainscot,
and he imagines a dozen robbers ransacking his chests. He
is is shipwrecked, and, leaving his wife and children to the
sailors, he instinctively ties his bag of money to his neck, and
dies the natural death of a dog. His house is on fire ; he
runs away from his terrified family, and nothing is heard of
him till, when all is over, the firemen find in some hiding-
' place a few calcined bones, and among them a fused lump of
1 gold and silVer. So, after the nation has borne everything,
swallowed everything, sacrificed everything, done every-
thing, laughed-at every terror and every scruple, at last it
makes a stand—for what? pro axis ac focis)' No. For
twelve hours' labour a day !
The isle is frighted from its propriety. It is terrified by a
vision of bankruptcy. It imagines the whole of its wealth
running out ; a universal unproductiveness of capital—a great
blight on money. Who have caused this panic P The factory
women and children. To the disordered senses of the capi-
talist that feeble cry is a voice of thunder, that small loss a
tremendous defalcation, that hour or two of leisure a univer-
sal stand still of labour and machinery. So it has always
been. Forty years ago the northern manufacturers wrote,
subscribed, published, and published again, the same terrors,
the same exaggerated statements, the same melancholy pre-
dictions of universal ruin, as Sir James Graham now intro-
duces to the House with so much pomp of sympathy from
the Manchester millowners. Of course they had some
truth on their side, otherwise it is not to be supposed that so
many honest men would have published what they did.
The particular custom which they considered the palla-
dium of British prosperity, and in behalf of which they so
strenuously deprecated all legislative interference, was that
of working their apprentices by relays during the whole of
the 24 hours, so that the engine never stopped night or day.
In their fervid and inventive fancies a single hour's stop-
page was utter ruin. Their calculations to prove this point
were elaborate, ingenious, and, of course, quite infallible.
They made quiteas much of the twenty-fourth hour as their
degenerate sons, with the assistance of Mr. Senior, have
made out of the eleventh hour. However, Parliament ven-

•
tured to pass an Act prohibiting the employment of appren-
tices during any of the nine night hours, thus reducing the
daily task to fifteen hours. The manufacturers were not
utterly ruined, but rather the contrary, though they remon-
strated a good deal at first. So thoroughly is it the nature
of the capitalist to exaggerate into mountains the most
Wiling impediments to wealth—to dream of the workhouse
and the gaol in the midst of growing heaps and improving
dividends. Exquisitely and painfully susceptible of danger,
he hears the faintest rustle in the leaves, and is ready to
drop with terror—et corde et genibus tremit.
The British people are by nature brave, confiding, and
hopeful. It gets over difficulties by not seeing them,•and is
not defeated through being unconscious of defeat. But all
this will be changed if it allows itself to borrow its tone
from the craven spirit of the capitalist, whether that capi-
talist derive his wealth from horses or from horse-powers.
It may as well go to learn greatness in the parlour of the
money-lender, and largeness of mind at the stall of the
huckster. Your monied men are great in their place. Let them
be attended to on currency and revenue. But beware how
you deliver up to the rigorous demands of mercantile con-
venience all the women and young persons in the most po-
pulous districts of the empire. We see in these debates a
something rusty and leprous diffusing itself through the mind
of Parliament. The rust of gold and silver is the worst of all
rusts, because it is invisible. Other corrosions stain the
hands, or the garment ; the secret canker of gold poisons the
soul, and makes it callous to social appeals of the most ap-
palling and sacred urgency.
Certainly it is a day of deterioration and ignominy which
is marked by such portents as the sudden recantations we
have lately witnessed. Mr. Gaily Knight with his " time
to get sober," and Mr. Liddell reproaching Ministers for
their inconsiderateness in not having earlier let their sup-
porters know how much they staked on the question, are
prodigies. The Act must mean more than the authors are
aware of. It is so unnaturally base. We view them scarcely
as conscious agents, but as ordained types of truckling, for
the warning of the age. The sacred nature of the cause—
the monstrous inequality of the compromise—justify the mind
iu imparting a little of the preternatural to this history.
Surely these two persons are meant to be remembered— not
merely as Ministerial dummies, not merely as Parliamentary
men of straw, but as mementos to a selfish and sentimental
age of the dangers attending susceptible feelings, showy
virtues, and weak resolves. Whenever we hear of gratui-
tous professions of kindness, ending in as gratuitous a cut
direct, we shall be reminded of Mr. Liddell and Mr. Gaily
Knight.
Nothing has occurred within our recollection so calculated

to destroy the sympathy and confidence of the people, as
the whole discussion of this question. How can the people,
already scarcely aware of any benefits received, respect a
body which seems so loth to help them at any risk, and.
which is so ready to rescind its decisions in their favour ?
It already suspects Parliament to be a mere function of the
Government. The rejection of Lord Ashley's measure would
certainly go some way to countenance that impression. Yet
how dangerous just now to efface from the popular mind all
trust in Parliament, and refer the people to themselves for
legislation and deliverance ! Such, however, is the advice,
not of Chartists, not of Whigs, not of Mr. Ferrand or Mr,
Muntz, but of Ministers themselves: They remand all
ameliorations, even those of the most unquestionable and de-
sirable kind, even the protection of women and minors, to the
internal and spontaneous workings of the labour market.
" The law cannot help you ; help youiselves. You have
heretofore struck for more wages, and got them. Why do you
not strike for less time ?"
Very well. This is not our way of effecting great social
improvements ; we would rather have them done by the
nation. But if the Government will not do them, and leaves
the matter in the hands of the people, we have nothing to
do but to acquiesce.

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