The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-18 00:00:00

TO THE SECRETARY OF TH.t:
BRADFORD REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—On Wednesday the 13th, the attention of
the !louse was demanded to a Bill called the Great
Northern Railway Deviations Bill ; and as I believe
the existence ff the nation !night he debated upon
what is called a Private Bill without its being
noticed in the reports, it may be useful to state the
circumstances.
Three or four years ago, the Great Northern aid
the East Lincolnshire Railways applied for Acts for
their establishment, upon the ground that they would
offer peculiar advantages to the public, and particu-
larly to the less opulent portion. Of course there was
no resitting such an appeal, and they got their Acts.
And now they present themselves with a Bill to re
peal their obligations. What these obligations were,
will he best seen from the following account of the
whole f the provisions they desire to repeal, ex-
tracted verbatim from the Breviate laid before the
House of Commons.
EXTRACT FROM BREVIATE.
" The following provisions arc proposed to t e re-
pealed:—
" That the second-class carriages should be closed and
have glass windows.
" Tt at the third-clash carriages shall be covered and
have seats.
" Teat the Company shall run third-class trains every
day as ( ften and upon such conditions as the Ralway
Board shall prescribe.
" Also the following provisions of the Great Northern
R iiliaay Act, s. 207:
That the charges for conveyance of passengers shall
be charged according to the geographical distance be-
tween the places, and not according to the length rf
railway."
This is a specimen of the mode of legislating on
rail ways. Some people thought the popularity of
the House of Commons was sufficiently compromised
on that subject already.
But there is another point in the Bill worth notice.
It contains a clause confirming the power of opening
your parcel or mine, to see if we have put two
parcels under one cover. As was said on the opposi-
tion to the second reading, would it.not be as reason -
able to ask for a clause to oblige every-man to weight
his parcel with stones and gravel to a hundredweight,
in order to enable the railways to charge ? It would
be equally for the profit of the railway, and equally,
for the detriment of the public. Why. is the trad-
ing part of the community to be deprived of the
power of economizing in this direction as well as any
other ? Post.offices have giren up the absurdity of
demanding to know whether one or two pieces of
paper were inserted under the same' cover, and are
content to charge by weight ; and why should the
nuisance be continued for the benefit of railway po-
tentates ? Commercial men state seriously, that be-
sides the attempt upon their purse, the practice is
employed to get at their secrets of trade, and find
out who corresponds with who. Surely this is a
discredit to a commercial country which ought to be
abated.
On Thursday motion was made for the House re-
solving itself into a Committee to take into considera-
tion the rate or tax called " Ministers' Money" in
Ireland. The Government moved the previous ques-
tion, which was carried by 96 against 76. No great
majority, and showing that the question is advancing.
What is to become of the children whose heads we
lay our hands on, if within the term of their natural
lives there is not made as great a change in the
feeling of Ireland, as has taken place in Scotland
since "Johnny Cope" slumbered on his laurels ?
They will be lucky if they are allowed to have a vote
for the President of the United States, with an Anti-
Wilmot Proviso.
On the same day motion was made for leave to
bring in a Bill to repeal to much of the existing Act
as empowers the Crown to appoint any places in the
British dominions for the transportation of felons.
The difficulties connected with this question are
not yet fairly before the public eye, If men will be
felons, they must be transported somewhere, or else
kept at home. The tendency of modern observation
and discovery seems to be, that the preventive for
moral as for physical infection, is by planting out, and
as thinly as you can. Fifty years ago, men suspected
of ill health were huddled into a lazaretto, and there
kept to fester and accumulate. The modern belief is,
that the best way is to divide them into healthy lo-
calities, and the evil will go out, and nobody be the
worse. But then what an unpleasant operation for
the places fixed on for the process! It may not be
altogether pleasant, but there must be a balance
among the necessities of different parts of the com-
munity. A couple of hundred years ago, on the
alarm of disease in the metropolis, villages barricaded
themselves, and threatened to shoot any citizen that
attempted to air himself within their limits. Such
things would not be allowed now. Suppose Kent
and Essex *eta to get into a heat, and declare that
no part of the filth of London should be washed by
the Thames, because it would be 'bringing it within
their borders. There must clearly be some balance
between the different interests. London, if there is to
be London, must not be condemned to_ helpless pu
tr• fiction, lest Kent or Essex should detect an unsa-
voury odour among their breezes. This is only one
specimen of the questions there are to resolve. And
till more is done towards this, it seems premature to be
shifting the power of decision from the Crown to Par-
liament. Were the American colonies any better sa-
tisfied with their Tea Duty because it was founded on
an Act of Parliament ? The House seemed to have
some feeling of the same kind, and the motion was
negatived by 110 against 32.
On Friday it was resolved in Committee, that it is
expedient to make further provisions for the repay-
ment of advances which have beets made or authorised
to be made fir the relief of distress and other pur-
poses, to Poor law Unions, Electoral Divisions, Baro-
nies, and other districts in Ireland. And that the
Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury be autho-
rised to direct the issue, out of the Consolidated
Fund of the United Kingdom, of any sum not ex-
ceeding 300,0001, to be advanced to certain distressed
Poor-law Unions and Electoral Divisions in Ireland,
on such terms and conditions as may be directed by
any Act of the present session of Parliament.
The " further provisions for repayment" I appre-
hend consist in giving forty years for the proposed re-
payment instead of twenty.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN OLD REFORMER.
London, 18th Feb., 1850.

NEW FIRE-ESCAPE.
TO THE EDITOR OF 7hE SUN.
sin,—Permit me submit for your inspection a
model of a simple and economic bedroom fire-escape.
togethernes a
ortasbepll night-stool, wash-stand and
ate,
with the means of saving
Iglitflaes.ltbiis an ornament to a room, light, and easy of
movement, and its construction so certain and safe,
that the most timid, the young and old, the bed-
ridden and infirm, may avail themselves of it, and be
removed from the precincts of a horrible fate in a
less space of time than is taken up in the fixing of a
fire-escape or the common fire-ladder.
These advantages, Sir, are to be obtained for so
small a sum as to be within the reach of nearly all,
not exceeding two days' wages of the ordinary work-
ing man, and should it meet the approval of, and be
worthy of a notice in your valuable journal, the in-
ventor, who is a working man, will not long , want
patronage to'enable him to bring forth his invention,
and reap the advantages thereof in this great metro-
polis. I remain, Sir, &c.
5, Angel-place, Broadwall. 3. G.
[l'Ve have seen this very ingenious and useful fire-
escape, and strongly recommend the inventor to place
it in some public institution for exhibition. It is at
the same time an elegant piece of furniture and a
most efficient fire-escape,—ED. Sun.].

BRUTAL OUTRAGP. BBATITOILD, THURSDAY.—
An outrage of a most revolting character, which termi-
nated in the death of an unfotenate woman, has created
no trifl ng sensation in the neighbourhood a this town.
The facts elicited by the magistrates and coroner are
briefly these:—The enhappy victim was a drunken
Irishwoman, named Margaret Duggan. She was mar-
ried, and had three children, but had been disowned by
them in consequence of her dissolute habits. On the
afternoon of the 6th inst. she was returning from the
Wakefield House of Correction, where she had been
confined for some disorderly conduct, when she dropped
into a public•house at Tong. There happened to be
carousing at this house some nine or ten rough fellows,
who, after giving her some ale and rendering her intox-
icated, commenced larking with the miserable creature
by shoving her against the forms and on the floor,
and otherwise abusing her. She remained drink-
ing with the men till near ten o'clock, when
she left, accompanied by four or five of the party.
They led her up a road, and instead of taking the
direct route to this place, where she wanted t ) go,
dragged her over a stile into an adjacent field. Here
the fellows were guilty of the most revolting conduct,
and left her in a help:ess and insensible state in the field.
These facts were sworn to by a little boy named Dunn,
who watched them carrying the deceased, and whoa as
driven away by them when they saw that he was vrateh-
leg them. On the following morning the stiffened corpse
of the poor woman was discovered r ear the edge at a
ditch in the field. Her clothes were torn, as if she bad
been engaged in a struggle, and scratches and bruises
were on different parts of the body. Mr. Field, a sur-
geon, considered that exposure to the cold by being 1, ft
in the field during the night might have caused her
death. Mr. lnghatn, the superintendent of police, im-
mediately set to work in detecting the rufhanti, and four
men named James Oates, James Farrar, George Coates,
and Richard Hollingdrake, were taken. After a pro-
tracted investigation, the magistrate decided upon com-
mitting Oates, Coates, and Farrar for trial on the charge
of manslaughter at the next assizes. The fourth party,
Hollingdrake, was discharged.
SELECT , COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC LIBRARIBB,.
On Friday this committee held its first meeting in the
Speaker's room, Mr. Ewart in the chair, and arranged
the order of, proceeding with reference to their proposed
inquiry as to the means of extending the establishment
of libraries freely open to the public in large and popu-
lous towns.