The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-11 00:00:00

BOROUGH OF SUDBURY.

Upon the motion that the House go into Committee
on the. Sudbury Disfranchisement Bill,
Mr. BLACKSTONE said that much as he depre-
cated the sytem of bribery which had been followed at
Sudbury, he did not think a case was made for the dis-
franchisement of the borough. He concluded by
moving, "That it be an instruction to the Committee to
extend the right of voting fur the future election of
Members to serve in Parliament for the borough of
Sudbury, to all persons residing within the hundred of
Baberg, within the county of Suffolk, and the hamlet of
Ballingdon cum Brundon, in the county of Essex.
having the qualification required as electors for cities and
boroughs, wider the Act of 2 Will. IV., c. 45 and that
the following persons, viz. Peter Alston, James Berry,
Thomas Brown, William Barnard, William Cross, Joseph
Cook, George Dawson, Thomas Erith, James Johnson,
Charles King, Thomas Making, George Parsonson,
William Rolfe, Richard Steed, William Tolliday, and
Joseph Wheeler, being guilty of receiving bribes at the
last election ; and Joseph Barker, Samuel Berry, Wil-
liam Cook, Thomas Ginn, Thomas Goody, Golding
Herbert, Samuel Hale, James Herbert, John Jones, and
William Warner, being concerned in the distribution of
money among the voters before or during the election, be
hereafter disqualified from voting at any election for
Members to serve in Parliament for the borough of
Sudbury."
Captain BERESFORD seconded the motion, and
denied that the majority of the constituents of Harwich
were corrupt;
Mr. B. COCHRANE denied that cases of bribery
were brought against Sudbury sufficient to justify the
disfranchisement of the whole constituency.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL supported the Bill,
and contended that there was an ample body of evidence
to justify the disfranchisement of the borough. The
majority of the constituency were tainted with cor-
ruption.
The House then divided, when there appeared—

For going into Committee 37
For Mr. Blackstone's amendment I
Majority
The Bill then went through Committee, and was or-
dered to be reported to-morrow.
The LORD ADVOCATE was about to ask leave to
bring in a Bill to diminish the expense of completing
feudal investitures in Scotland, when
Mr. HUME moved that the House be counted, and
there being only twenty-one Members present, the
House adjourned.

MASTERS AND SERVANTS' BILL.
TO THE TRADES AND WORKING CLASSES

GENERALLY.
The Metropolitan Duncombe Testimonial Committee
have found, from statements and applications repeatedly
made to them relative to the Masters and Servants' Bill,
that few have any knowledge of its nature, and there-
fore the great masses of the people do not understand
how it was likely to have affected their interests, their
rights and liberties, had it passed into a law. This we
are not surprised at when we consider the little publicity
which has hitherto been given to those Government
measures which have, evidently, been intended to be
smuggled through the Houses of Parliament, as the
Masters and Servants' Bill no doubt was, and would
have been, but for him who is ever on the watch to
guard the interests of the people—namely, Thomas
Slingsby Dunconibe.
And finding, also, that there exists in the public
mind a strong desire to be informed of the nature of the
Bill, which in our Address already issued, we have said
was fraught with mischief to the working millions of
this kingdom :—We, therefore, deem it to be our duty
to give publicity to the Bill, especially to those clauses of
it which would have most materially affected the condi-
tion of working men, and working women too, in order
that they may judge for themselves, and be able to ap-
preciate the eminent services which the undaunted,
and unswerving Friend of the People, T. S. Duncombe,
Esq.,M.P., has rendered them by his strenuous exertions
in thwarting, and finally defeating, that infamous mea-
sure, evidently intended still further to subjugate labour
to the merciless power of capital.
We subjoin a few extracts from the Bill, to show its
tyrannical and oppressive nature:—
" And be it enacted, that if any servant, workman, la-
bourer, or other person shall contract to serve or work
for any other person, and shall not enter into his or her
service or employment according to the contract, or having
entered thereunto, shall absent himself or herself there-
from before the term of his or her contract, or before the
work contracted to be performed shall be completed, or
shall be guilty of any other misbehaviour concerning
such service or employment, it shall be lawful for any
justice of the peace, upon complaint thereof made upon
oath by the master or employer, or by his or her steward
or agent, bailiff, foreman, or manager, instead of awarding
damages or abatement of wages, to order that the party
complained of shall be imprisoned in the common gaol or
house of corection, with or without hard labour, for any
term not exceeding two calender months.
"And be it enacted, that any justice of the peace,
upon any complaint being made before him, which he
has authority to hear and determine under this Act,
may issue his summons in writing for the attendance of
the person complained of, at a time and place to be
appointed for hearing the complaint, and to be set forth
in the summons ; and if the person to whom any such
summons shall have been directed shall not appear
according to the tenor thereof, and no sufficient cause
shall be shown for his or her non-appearance, it shall be
lawful for any justice of the peace, upon proof of the
service of the summons, to issue his warrant for the
apprehension of such person, or if complaint shall be
made upon oath before such justice that the person
complained of has absconded, or is about to abscond, it
shall be lawful for such justice to issue his warrant for
the apprehension 'of such person, either without issuing
any summons or after the issue of the summons, in
order that the complaint may be heard and determined.
" And be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for any
justice of the peace, at the request in writing of any of
the parties to the said complaint, and oa the oath of such
party, that he or she believes that the attendance of any
person as a witness will be material to the hearing of
such complainf, to issue his summons to any such person
to appear and give evidence on oath before such justice
as shall hear and determine the complant, at a time and
place to be set forth in the said summons ; and if any
person so summoned shall not appear at the time and
place set forth in the said summons, and shall not offer
any reasonable excuse for the default, to the satisfaction
of the justice attending for the purpose of hearing and
determining the complaint,' or, appearing according to
the summons, shall not submit to be examined as a wit-
ness, then it shall be lawful for 'such last-mentioned
justice, upon proof of the service of the summons, by
warrant under his hand and seal, to commit the person
so making default in appearing, or appearing and re-
fusing to give evidence, to some prison within his juris-
diction, there to remain without bail or mainprize, for
any time not exceeding one calendar month, or until such
person shall submit to be examined and give evidence."
We think that comment by us is altogether needless,
as every reflecting mind will at once perceive that a
law framed in such indefinite terms, as in the fourth
clause,—giving such extraordinary and despotic powrs
to a single justice of the peace in the fifth and seventh
clauses, would have placed the toiling free-born sons
and daughters of Britain entirely in the hands of their
foremen and masters, who, we have every reason to be-
lieve, would soon have used, or rather abused, the power
thereby given to them, to crush and still further de-
grade those dependent on them, who, alas 1 are already
in thousands of cases too mush degraded. The ten-
dency of such a law would have been to make good
masters and foremen bad ones, and to render bad ones
a thousand times worse by legalising oppression in all
its forms.
We believe, then, that this tyrannical measure has
only to be made known to be generally, if not univer-
sally detested, by all honest men ; for what trade, or
what labourer, could have escaped the effeots of such a
wily law so long as any misbehaviour, however trivial,
respecting their service or employment, made them liable
to be imprisoned in the common gaol for two months,
with or without hard labour. We feel confident, that all
in whose hearts there exists a sense of gratitude, will
unite with us, and aid us in presenting a National Testi-
monial of Gratitude to Mr. Duncombe, for his past ser-
vi.:es in our, and in their behalf—but chiefly for his noble
exertions in defeating this Government measure, thereby
I rescuing us from its evil consequences had it become the
law of the land.
On behalf of the Central Committee,
JOHN ROSE, Chairman.
JAMES SYME,
Secretaries.
JOHN KELSEY,

On Tuesday information was received at the chief
station of the S division, in Albany-street, Regent's-park, of
the commission of a murder on the previous day at the village
of Bow Brickhill, near the, town of Newport Pagnell, Buck-
inghamshire. The victim was a man named Joseph Leach,
and the supposed perpetrators of the horrid deed are two
young men named Joseph Keen and William Stephens, both
belonging to the same neighbourhood, who have absconded,
and for whose apprehension warrants have been issued. A
description of the supposed murderers was immediately
forwarded by route throughout the metropolitan police divi-
sions, And it has been subsequently ascertained that two men
answering the description went, about 11 o'clock that fore-
noon, into the Coach and Horses public-house, in the Edg-
ware-road. They appeared to have just come from the
country, and, having partaken of a pint of beer, left the house,
going in the direction of Cumberland-gate, Hyde-park, where
all further trace of them his been lost. One of them had a
small bundle with him. It has not been stated how the
murder was committed.