The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-10 00:00:00

the agency of the Commissioners, except at an
enormous sacrifice and a ruinous rate of interest,
until the debentures which will pass from hand to
bane; -without expense or difficulty, by a simple
endorsement, and will circulate freely in the money
market, can no longer be obtained. In proportion,
therefore, as the new corners will be benefited the
old holders will be injured, and the British Parlia-
ment should not, and we believe will not, sanction an
act of such gross and palpable injustice, although the
aggrieved parties be a body so little favoured as the
landed proprietors of Ireland.

There can be no difficulty in extending and gene-
ralising the measure, so as to confer a " Parliamen-
tary title" on every debenture holder, and to afford
the same facilities for transferring by simple endorse-
ment the charges on every description of estate. Old
encumbrances might be paid off and satisfied,
or placed on an entirely new footing, and
at an easier rate of interest. Money to almost any
amount could readily be obtained at three-and-
a-half or four in place of five or six per cent. ;
and this would at once reduce the amount of interest
payable by one-third of its former amount, which
would thus remain at the disposal of the proprietors,
and enable them to discharge more efficiently the
duties imposed upon them, which have at all times in
Ireland, and more especially since the passing of the
new poor-law, been peculiarly onerous. This great
desideratum would be further promoted if the
Government were to undertake the manage.
ment of every transaction, requiring the
owner to pay the amount of interest, afcer the rate
of four per cent. per annum, into the Bank of Ire-
land within a certain limited period after it became
payable, and to guarantee 3} per cent. to the holders
of such debentures. With such a guarantee they
would speedily be quoted at a high premium in the
money market, particularly if there were no direct
dealing or possibility of collision between the debtor
and creditor—the former depositing the amount of
his liability in the Bank, and the latter calling for it
at fixed periods, as he would for his dividends in the
public funds, and with an equal certainty of being
paid the amount to the day.
This principle is partially sanctioned by
the new measure, for the Solicitor-General last
night declared that " one thing, at least, was very
manifest, that provi.ion ought to be made for the
payment of all sums due for interest money at some
fixed time and place, and the place proposed to be ap-
pointed fur that purpose was the Bank of Ireland,
where a department might be created for the purpose
of receiving and paying the interests on those estates,
somewhat in the manner of dividends." Here, then,
one part at least of our suggestion will be carried
out; all that remains is " the full and satisfactory
guarantee" that would render the holders
perfectly contented to receive the same note
of interest payable on Government securities, and
that such a course is in contemplation may be
gathered from what fell from the Right Honourable
Gentleman. He said—" It would, of course, be neces-
sary for some company, or persons, to guarantee the
punctual payment of those several sums of interest, and
remuneration out of the interest itself might easily be
awarded to them. Looking, then, at the case as it
stood, he thought it exceedingly probable that some such
arrangement could easily be carried into effect." No
guarantee, however, could be so effectual for
all persons as a national guarantee, and one-half
or even one quarter per cent. would be amply suffi-
cient to secure the country against the possibility of
loss, and even to leave a handsome surplus to be ex-
pended on arterial drainage or other works of public
utility in Ireland.

A provision might also be added for the gradual
redemption, by means of a sinking fund, of all those
charges, so that the proprietors may eventually come
into the full enjoyment of their estates, without being
subject to any encumbrance or liability whatsoever.
The principle of the Prussian landshaft, or mort-
gage banks, to which Mr. C. H. BOWEN has directed
the attention of the Premier in the admirable
pamphlet to which we alluded on Friday last, would
in fact obtain every object that the best friends of
Ireland could desire. It is, therefore, no new or un-
tried experiment, but one that has already been fully
tested, that has been " weighed in the balance, and
not found wanting." It elevated the proprietors of
land from the depressed condition to which they had
been reduced by the protracted war, and restored
them to the position which they were justly en-
titled to occupy. Is it not then, we ask,
due to Irish proprietors, that something should be
done, and that speedily, to elevate them from " the
slough of despond," in which they have been involved,
through no default of their own, but simply through
the mislegislation and mal-administration of affairs in
Ireland through a long series of ages ? and have they
not an ur.questionoble right to call upon Government
to reverse their former policy, and to do something
tangible for their benefit, although the aid has been
deferred even until the eleventh hour ?

CABINET COUNCIL.—(rnis DAY.)—The Ministers
assembled this afternoon, at two o'clock, in Council
for the first time since the holidays, at the Foreign-
office, Downing-str( et. There were present Lord
John Russell, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Mar-
quis of Clanricarde, Earl Grey, Sir George Grey,
Viscount Palmerston, the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, the Earl of Carlisle, Sir Francis Baring, Mr.
Labouchere, and Mr. Fox Maule. The newly-appointed
First Commissioner of the Woods and Forests (Lord
Seymour) is not, we believe, to hold a seat in the
Cabinet.

THE ROBBERY Or PECKHAM, TUE POSTMAN.
Notwithstanding the most strenuous exertions on the part of
the Post-office authoritie4, no clue to the thieves who stole
the letter-bag from William Peckham has been discovered.
It is said that the Post-office authorities have suspended
Peckham, who has been in the service twenty-eight years,
and bears an excellent character. Several inquiries have
been made at the Post-office for missing letters since the
robbery. _ _ -

ERRATUM.--In the leading article on the land-tax
in yesterday's impression, we are made to say that " previous
to the late convulsions on the Continent the land•tax in
France yielded 23,5C01. ;" a casual misprint for 23,500,0001.
FATAL EVENT.—It is our painful duty to record a
most dreadful accident that befel the Rev. George Pretyraan,
of Great Carlton, eldest son of the Chancellor of Lincoln.
On Saturday afternoon last, as he was passing through a
hedge with a gun in his hand, its contents were unhappily
lodged in his body, and in a few seconds he was a corpse.
The whole neighbourhood, by whom he was deservedly re-
spected and beloved, are thrown into the utmost consterna-
tion and grief, especially the family of the Rev. W. Smythe,
of Elkinton Hall, to whose daughter he was on the point of
being united in matrimony ; and it is awful to relate, that in
the very week in which his marriage was to have taken
place will be the day of his funeral.
PROTECTION OF INVENTIONS ♦T THE 1851
correspondent of the Builder says—The paper on
Cheapening Patents," in your last number, is a step towards
agitating this question.—at least, I hope so. Perhaps you
will be humane enough, also, for the sake of the humble
workman—l repudiate the term poor—to throw out a hint to
the prime movers of the intended Exhibition in 1851, as to
the absolute necessity of publishing what sort of protection
they intend to hold out to inventors who are minus the means
to protect themselves with 1201. patents—and whose anxiety
is immense_ to exhibit their inventions to the discerning
world. I know three, who, with your humble servant, all
Englishmen ! have dared to exercise some ingenuity respect-
ing machinery connected with manufactures, aid articles of
domestic use. hut, Sir, one of the perfections of human
reason !—i. e., the patent law—forbids us to be too commu-
nicative to each other, and, consequently, with everybody
else, having very naturally a terror of the black flag before
our eyes; for of what avail are small craft against the well-
equipped pirates who so abound in a trading community.
How are inventors and improvers, without a shot in the
locker, to steer in 1831 ? Might not many a good and useful
thing (even though it were only suggestive of something
better) be still kept in darkness for want of paternal security
when realised before the public eye?

LIBERAL CHARITY.—The venerable Baroness N.M.
de Rothschild has given new clothing to 650 boys of the Jews'
Free School for th.e Passover Festival.—Jewish Chronicle.
TOE LATE HUNGARIAN WAR.—There is now, in
this metropolis a Jewish Rabbi, of the name of Margoliouth
Merl, whose congregation at Sztcniy, near Waitzen, is totally
ruined by the late campaign. The Rabbi, who is .a very
learned and pious man, informs us that the town was for sixty-
four hours successively bombarded by the Russians and then
pillaged. The distress is indescribable, and he has come over
to these hospitable shores for assistance. His documents are
unquestionable.—Jczcish Chronicle.

MarcciresTEß APRIL 9—The TRADE REPORT,•
whichmarket
might to-day ayh
have
es
beenfailedat t
ici exhibitpate ii those
which
e signse, of
yto
activitymtthe
.aii
,
were teridly hoped tor, from the improved aspect
goods market last week. For heavy goods especially, the
market has been very dull; and though prices keep firm,
goods of all descriptions move off slowly. The Indian mar-
ket takes off a large quantity of light cloths, at prices rather
score remunerative (say 2d. to Dt, d. a piece), than those of
this day week. :;6-inch shirtings have still little sale at pre-
sent prices, and producers are unwilling to concede the
demands of purchasers, It is considered that the continental
trade will be materially improved by the end of the pre-
sent month, as most of the orders at present in hand are
worked up.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.-1-ler Majesty
the Queen and his Royal Highness Prince Albert, accom-
panied by the Prince of Wales and the Princess Alice,
honoured the Zoological Society by visiting their gardens in
the Regent's-park yesterday afternoon. The Royal visitors
directed their attention more particularly to the fine collec-
tion of animals which were recently received from the Em-
peror
of Morocco, and which her Majesty has graciously
presented to the society.