The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-09 00:00:00

ettrlY Vattion

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'Clock.

QUEEN'S BENCH.—(THIS DAY.;
(Sittings in Banco.)

CARPUE V. THE LONDON AND BRIGHTON RAILWAY

COMPANY. -.7 lIDGMENT.

This was an action to recover compensation from de-
fendants for the injuries plaintiff had received, in conse •
quence of the terrific accident which happened to the
down train from London to Brighton, near Mertsham-
tunnel. The jury found for plaintiff, and a rule nisi had
been obtained for an arrest of judgment and a new trial,
on the ground that defendants had not received the no-
tice of action required by the Act of Parliament incor-
porating the Railway Company.
Lord DENMAN this morning gave judgment. The
Court was of opinion that the defendants had been sued,
not as proprietors of the railroad, but in their capacity
of common carriers; that therefore notice of action was
not necessary, and consequentl that the plaintiff was
entitled to retain his verdict.—Rule discharged.

EXCHEQUER—(THIS DAY).
(Sittings at Nisi Prius before Lord ABINGER and a
Common Jury.)
'ROBINSON U. MASON.

This was an action to recover compensation in da-
mages by reason of a trespass and illegal distraint,
alleged to have been committed by the defendant.
The plaintiff (Mrs. Robinson) occupied a room in the
house of the defendant, in which there was property
valued at 1201. Some differences arose between the
plaintiff and her landlord, which ended in an examina-
tion at a police-office. On the return of the plaintiff
from which with her daughter (to whom it was alleged
that a portion, if not the whole of the property be-
longed), she was refused admission. The plaintiff
alleged that the room was engaged on a quarterly
tenantry, and that at the time of the trespass their oc-
cupancy had not terminated. The defendant, however,
contended that the room was engaged at a weekly rent,
and that the seizure was legal.
Lord ABINCIER summed up the evidence, and the jury
returned a verdict for the defendant.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—The case of the deposed and incarce-
rated Ameers of Sinde was last evening brought under
the notice of Parliament by Lord Ashley. The Noble
Lord confined himself to a narrative of the facts and
circumstances of his more than questionable stroke
of State policy; for which no defence has been set
up, except the hackneyed plea by which similar in-
fractions upon the rights of the defence-
less, by those who have the power of inflicting
wrong, have been justified. Unadorned by eloquence,
which, indeed, the subject needed not—alike free from
the brilliant flashes of genius and the thunder-bolts of
declamation, both which would have found a fit place
in a speech on such a subject—Lord Ashley con-
tented himself with a lucid exposition of facts, sup-
ported by the papers which had been laid upon the
table of the House ; and left the subject to find its way
to the hearts and consciences of his auditors. The
end Lord Ashley sought to attain, perhaps to the full
extent he anticipated, was secured. The utter absence
of proof that the unfortunate Ameers of Sinde had
been guilty, or even contemplated the commission
of the acts -by which the policy pursued by the Go-
vernor-General toward them was sought to be jus-
tified, was forcibly dwelt upon by the Noble Lord,
and made a powerful impression on the House. had
the strictures applied to Lord Ellenborourgh been
employed by a Member of the Opposition, they would
have been attributed to the virulence of party ; and
thus their effect upon public opinion would have been
diminished, if not altogether destroyed. Coming
from a supporter of Ministers, they acquire a cha-
racter for impartiality which they would not have
obtained had they proceeded from the opposite side of
the House. They are not merely justified by facts;
but these facts prevail with double sway," when
made the basis of that severe condemnation which
Lord Ashley pronounced upon the conduct of the Go-
vernor-General toward these unfortunate Princes.
The effective and much-required aid afforded to
our army in 1841, by the Ameers whom Lord
Ellenborough has deposed and imprisoned, and whose
dominions he has seized upon and annexed to the
British territory, was alluded to by Lord Ashley, for
the purpose of exhibiting the baseness of ingratitude
by which the Governor-General had heightened the
terpitude of injustice :
" Let them (said Lord Ashley) recollect what they
(the Ameers) had done for them. Let them call to
mind their danger—their dismay—their terrible reverses
in Caubul. Let them remember the trembling and
nervous anxiety which existed at that time in this
country, and the imminent danger of their empire in
India ; and let them remember also the ready aid of
the Ameers and their friendly and ready co-operation.
During all the year 1841 supplies were required in
abundance for our armies ; those supplies were liberally
bestowed. Detachments of our army marched through
their country without control or objection, demanding
and receiving everywhere every possible assistance."
How have we rewarded these Ameers, who facilitated
the march, and sustained, by supplies of food, our
troops when in circumstances of peril and privation ?
Without adequate provocation, if assumption be taken
as proofs—without any proved provocation , for no
proof of provocation has been supplied—we have
stripped these unfortunate Princes alike of
their private possessions and public power ;
and left them to mourn apart, in the solitude
of distant prisons, over their own lost freedom,
and severe and complicated sufferings ! The close of
Lord Ashley's speech is not more beautiful in its
simplicity than it is fraught with matters for serious
reflection, and motives to practical application by those
who wield the destinies of our Anglo-Indian pos-
sessions :-
1 i" The generosity of mighty power was safe, and cheap,
and honourable. Many men have been led to believe
that the reward of a Christian empire in the East would
be universal dominion. Whether by such means as these
Great Britain would accomplish the empire of the East,
would remain to be seen. He did not think we had made
a very auspicious beginning. Let them, however, not
lose what they had obtained, by injustice. Let them
wipe out the awful imputation cast on them by the Ameer
Moobaruck Khan, You tyrants—you Christians
' lieu pietas! heu prisca fide!'
' Now, we perceive there is no hope or justice for us, un-
til God Almighty shall sit in the last great judgment.'"
Mr. Roebuck undertook the defence of Lord Ellen-
borough; but did so by a most questionable line of ar-
gument. His Lordship, as Governor-General of India,
had not acted in the case of Sinde worse than his pre-
decessors in that Government! All who had gone before
him were inferior to him in mind, and exceeded him
in carrying cut an aggrandizing policy. For this
purpose the Member for Bath referred to the conduct
of successive Governor-Generals for more than half a
century ; but reserved his peculiar powers for the
administration of Lord Auckland, upon whose ex-
pedition against Affghanistan he poured the vials of
his concentrated evsence of wormwood and gall with
his more than ordinary illiberality. 'Without re-
spect to the marked difference which exists bei
tween the two cases, both with reference to their
origin and design, the Hon. and Learned Member
for Bath persisted in withdrawing the attention of the
House from the question before it, for the purpose of
gratifying a taste, of which he seemed to be alone in
the indulgence. He concluded a rambling, vitupe-
rative speech, with a string of resolutions for which,
as no seconder could be found, the Honourable and
Learned Gentleman has the sole merit. Sir J.
Hothouse's refutation of Mr. Roebuck's uncalled-
fur and unsustained attack on Lord Auckland,
was complete. Under any other circumstances the
castigation it administered would have been deemed
severe; but the House seemed to feel that it was de-
served. Sir Robert Peel admitted the spirit and
talent which Lord Ashley had evinced in bringing
the question before the House. The Right Hon.
Baronet did not venture to justify all that had
been done; but dwelt upon the extreme in-
convenience and embarrassment that would result
from a vote of the House of Commons,
,which would compel the Governor-General to line-
st;te at once the Ameers of Sinde, and restore them
t o power. He deprecated the effects which such a
courae might have on other native Powers ; and un-
dertook that, if left in the hands of the Government,
every consideration should be given to the situation
of the Ameers, with a view to the amelioration
of' their condition. Lord John Russell's speech,
though short, merits regard, not merely for
the sentiments it expressed, but also for the
generous spirit in which it was conceived. His
Lordship abstained from embarrassing the Govern •
ment by voting for Lord Ashley's motion—and thus
showed himself superior to the narrow and illiberal
spirit which actuated his opponents when a similar
question arose respecting
oann expedition ; but
refused to admit that the annexation of Sinde could
be justified by the plea set up, that its former rulers
were despotic, and that liberty and civilisation would
be improved by the inhabitants being brought under
British supremacy.
STANDARD.—The debate on Lord Ashley's mo-
tion last night was highly interesting, but it is totally
impossible to abstract it in any form in which the
interest must not evaporate. The splendid speech of
the Noble Lord was worthy of his most humane and
generous motive, and both were worthy of his cha-
racter ; but to say this is not to say that the
motion ought to have been agreed to. In the
unhappily mixed condition of human affairs, though
the highest degree of virtue ought always to
be the ultimate object of our pursuit, and though we
are bound to venerate those who inculcate it by
their doctrine, and illustrate it by their example, the
advance cannot always be made rapidly and with-
out interruption. It is, undoubtedly, our duty to
make all men happy; but whether we pursue this
object upon a small or a great scale, if we pur-
sue it irrespectively of circumstances, we run a very
great risk of ending by making many miserable.
km the matter before us, it iS impossible to