The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-20 00:00:00

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ANNOYANCE JUR.
Last • •
8 evening, a Committee of tradesm lES
n, elected at a
meeting held on Wednesday last, an account-of which
tteared in The Sun of the Saturday evening following,
th k Place at the Windsor Castle Tavern, Long-acre, for
,arpose of taking into consideration the best and
1,79 a iest method of effecting an alteration in the Act of
weights and
relating to the regulations respecting
,e,lghts and measures" and the " annoyance juries."
be't MARSHALL, tea dealer, of No. 20, Strand, having
e.'l? unanimously called to the chair, in a brief speech
mention
the objects of the meeting. Ile said he would
cleleltion one astounding fact, in addition to what he had
3,_,dY stated, in proof of the absolute necessity of a
tr`tllY alteration being effected in the present system
ned lithe Annoyance Juries, viz, that the jurymen
men
actuy been inflicting penalties on those trades-
,riewho, rather, as they imagined, than subject them-
:7,l's s to their eaprice, have preferred giving the pur-
Zsuia,er the benefit of over weight. Was this, he would
carrying out the objects of the Act of Parliament ?
w,"s what he referred to an act of dishonesty ? If not,
,ey Were upright, honest tradesmen, paying heavy
is and taxes, to be thus subjected to such
ti,l°ll.venience and injury to their business by
;s perversion of the Act of Parliament ? He
fecnild exp!ain the reason. It was on account of the
14 arising out of the numProua and frequent fines,
'eh fill the pockets of-the High Bailiff, the burgesses,
"T, and others. A tradesman being fined had no ap-
peal, unless it was to the parties by whom he had been
,ed• The fines for the last month, in Westminster,
,tili°Rated to 381. 7s. 6d., which for one year gave a total
L 460/. 10s. There were, however, other fines, not
aced upon the list, the names of the parties so fined
,open
by some means been suppressed. The Chairman
Of`ri read a portion of the Act relating to the disposal
theth penalties. It ran thus :—" The High Bailiff; for
e time being, shall be, and he is hereby entitled to one
'etY or half part thereof, and shall receive and take
tsame to his own use ; and the other moiety or half
in thereof shall be taken and applied by the Court of
that to pay the necessary charges and expenses
4eat shall attend the execution of this Act."
in IIAYNA.N, corn chandler, of the Westminster-road,
at ding to the Annoyance Jury, said that the loss of
the stabslard weights and measures at the time of the
destruction by fire of the Houses of Parliament was the
bade of many strict investigations being entered into
the Committees Cf those Houses touching the manner
which the Act respeciing the same was carried out.
C 0
would urge the necessity of every Member of the
eamittee as also their friends, to immediately furnish
ofeir Chairman with a written statement of their grounds
tia.,,l4Plaint, preparatory to a deputation of the Com-
-Ice la company of their Members of Parliament
(silo la
111., the latter comply with their request to acconi-
adnY them) waiting upon the Secretary. of State for his
xvicer. and assistance touching their grievances.
,„'" /Carom., the Secretary, having read the resolu-
s relative to the above, which were put and carried ;
Al's subscription, headed by the Chairman and Mr.
ImPhilion, was immediately entered into for the pur-
tba,:,of furthering the objects of the Committee; and,
'4* having be/on voted to the Chairman, the Cominit-
sePavated.

BOUTH EASTERN COUNTIES
RAILWAY.
I,,erestexclay, at one o'clock, a special meeting of the
2rietors and Directors of the above Railway was held
' tioc*`,* terminus, London-bridge, for the purpose of
Ilg into consideration the draft of a Bill to alter and
t,e.ove the harbour at Folkestone, and to form a branch
Cf-away from the main line to that place; also the draft
Eta lee° ed Bill, empowering the Company to make
I/ Ilea line from Ashford to Canterbury, Ramsgate, and
tia.tgate ; and to consider the propriety of autho-
r the Directors to raise, by the issue of additional
t 96 ,e 8 to the amount of 28,000, a sum not exceeding
izz'ut, for the purpose of providing for a correspond-
rtiount in securities new existing under the seal of
Tk °MI/any.
tWe Chairman of the Company, Mr. BA XENDALE,
pr.‘ tile chair at one o'clock, and said, the object of the
I,etit meeting was only to confirm certain pleasures
Nel; had been-adopted at the last general meeting of
tth, proprietors. As they had so recently explained all
tholti°l2ects for which the present meeting was called, he
not detain them longer than to express his perfect
tots'lneas to answer any questions which the Proprie,
ktnight wish to put to him.
ililtekly to questions put to him by several Proprietors,
e uRAIRMAN said that the new shares would not
kja-6L3tered until the first instalment of 4L had been
otherwise it would be only a scrip. Every person
to Paid 41. would have his name entered upon the
TlZPanY's book for 6/. 55., and be debited accordingly.
'ttlin of money so raised would be strictly appropri-
t.7 the purposes named in the requisition calling
kpicoeeting, and if there were a residue, it would be
14-," to the Parliamentary liabilities to which the
"InY was subject.
*lliollnrober of resolutions, confirming the objects for
45 the meeting was convened, having been passed,
h ted."isaks voted° to the Chairman, the meeting sepa-

/1E POST-OFFICE AND MR.
ROWL AND HILL.

(From the Westminster Review for March.)
tieoqr. Rowland Hill has printed an analysis of the evi-
-1 taken before the late Post-office Committee of
ko(stiry
W , and we are anxious to assist in giving the ut-
his Possible circulation to one of the principal facts of
,13,4ninhlet, entitled the " State and Prospects of Penny
e " bli h by
Mho g, pu s e Knight. The fac to which woe
hy " is the complete refutation of the statement mad
the Chancellor of the Exchequer during the last
that, under the new system of penny postage,
ost-office did not pay its own expenses ;".—and
tot,yroelisutation is by Colonel Maberly himself, the Secre-
bpor, the Post-office. The statement was made, not
to return but a mere estimate, which is now proved
ite;re been incorrect in nearly every item. One of its
key Was a sum of 612,8501., the whole cost of the pac-
tits."rvfee wrongly charged, and charged, for the first
• t° the account of Post-office expenditure, as if de-
ledlY to damage penny postage. It did damage it so
the 1" at foreign Governments, balancing at the time
diatt3Propriety of corresponding
_rred_uctions, imme-
taesttY took alarm on reading M . Goulburn's state-
lish and withheld the boon on the ground. that the Eng-
thatYstern had proved a failure. The mischief,
abroad,
14und as been occasioned by this extraordinary official
er• •has been incalculable ; and we do not doubt,
1, i.
.tito a question of personal honour, that Mr. Goul-
his place in the House, will hasten to remedy
titttry'r, to the utmost of his power, by a correct expla-
% °f the case, now that he is better informed. In
I\''‘,Teantirae our friends on the Continent would do
the to disseminate through all the foreignai journals:—
Tllowing evidence given by Colonel
.M b y
41,1,7 I have stated over and over again, looking at. it
hlise,trtis the Post-office revenue now ascomparedwith
the 1,40 Post-office revenue was before the. penny post,
• "rPhla of income over expenditure is somewhere
6°0,000/. !"
tel,litti° national honour is equally involved in the present
eta of the Government and the country
weto Mr.Ba
initt:lld Hill. If his plan had proved abortive,be
k, is,ar ~ltand why their author should. have.
; but to adopt his plans, admit their successto as
Vll)7ll,.theY have been yet carried out, and disown
• 44th'u"e obligation to Mr. Hill, is to disgrace the nation.
1.41!,,r" nobleman in the House who would us disown
Creltt' eontraeted on Newmarket race course,
taantedsmisena
trloral debt to be utterly disregarded by s
'at 'egislator 2 We talk of American " repudiation,'
'"at • s*.And where
ootsd is this ? in the history of the
eaten! tates shall we find a' parallel to Post-office
effected
of near) y every- one who. has proved himself
c•t;c11141. benefactor by the great improvements he has
Nio In postal communication ? Mr. Dockwra, who
Naited town posts shortly before the Restoration,
,44ttes-'l‘. Palmer, introduced madeonehes about the
"‘klpi lid of the last century, both saw their plans
kl,tifehg, and found themselves, like Mr. H .1, turned_
'aitt.,"R• 'hi,Y the Treasury, through the complaints and op
of the Post. office authorities.
parcel° d' we write we are reminded of the benefits which
result from, one of his proposals, that of a light
l''llt delivery, by a letter from Paris, in which the_
Ihts nninquires why he cannot send to London through
%AN a;st, under the new postal convention between Eg-
CaeliT Prance, a copy of the Journal des Economistes,
41,48 ?e finds the Post-office will take no further than
°• Ur
proZaders should know that while that treaty
.waes
„'"'o4l-eBs, an effort was made to procure the privilege
Ott, ~rebange through the Post-office, of pamphlets
`ae oY lit and scientific men on both sides
th,
This
This failed (as was understood) through
11,11° e,,liis started by the English Post-office,
fteak`iieulae4 the old fallacy, that the mails would
'ltt.• 1,1,,-()2,11 with their load. A clause, however, was
L't(lh,',„eed in favour of periodicals, but even this nig-
"htitovisior for the interests of literature and sci-
t7ao t''s been, up to the present moment, rendered
nullity. r times we have endeavoured
m'O' Periodicals under the new treaty, and in
Itlstanee foundthem charged nearly five shillings,
nors
f4l II over weight. In afifth instance, we went
Maealcer to, St. Martin's-le-Grand, and submitted
4: p,,,,tageautalnessecdle dw to
s Trance for pre-pament,
khirled nine shillings. W'e then
^hll
clerks
eh the he ea
at the Pay-office to the treaty, of
nita3ett aPPeared to know little or nothing, but they
3' sending our packet into the Secretary's
ull
:Peaty -t`) in whether it was one which under the
(s 'Nves
be forwarded at the reduced rate. The
`°trool returned was in the affirmative, and. that the
„ ,Pestage would be eightpence. The eigh.tpence
'Ye vald and although in- France a volume.. like the
Sal rt f'44inste
ran r Review can be sent any distance for
Pakek' ~fi.fteen francs were demanded
.for this
.(under, four ounces) when it. arrived) at 1141
k 44 we l'know.Whneroet, the blame oecotrthsis irregularity
to obtain
'nation at home have not hitherto been
any d' the Vtit)t In addition to this subject of corn-
of ge `.°U scientific. men formerly en-
e,4llol the g their letters and printed papers abroad
t% pre" Ambassador's bag has been stopped.. Such
tooeea sent state of international communication be-
-4.1i50 great Powers claiming to be at the head of
%-ilisation.

A•••••■••••m•••,....1
dreadful accident occurred on the 13th in the
Ait4ttiliOne
of St. rrive, A female of that place had ascended
;ttrk el' son to the fourth story of his windmill, situated at
ri4siniii, and was standing near the edge, when the wind
1., her dreSs to an iron bar which. was used to raise bags
14(41, :11,,,,i4g round. The dress got wound round this pieca of
the bar was im ;ately put in motion, and carried
htt-ton round and round, notwithstanding all the efforts
the
)14°11 to prevent it. He then rushed down and stopped
,t,t4,,,11,1Jut
Pieces, having
when he returned he found his mother literally
n 4 to
been forced by each rotation against
414' invathed her last immediately after.

~~.

ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS.-
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUZY.

happened lately to peruse the Bill brought into the
House of Lords by the Lord Chancellor, for the regulation of
I the Ecclesiastical Cotirts, and having previously read in your
Parliamentary reports that his Lordship had stated five
Administrations had before
,attempted a Bill for the same
purpose, and failed from the conflicting interests, and that, if
the present Bill did not pass, the Government would bring
I forward no other. As a tradesman, and parishioner of Green-
wich, I endeavoured to trace out what I should have to do
under this new Bill, if I was called upon to act as the execu-.
tor of any fellow-tradesman, or what my wife would have to
do if 1 died, leaving nothing but my stock in trade and debts
due to me by my fellow-paraioners ; and I think you will be
as much astonished as I was, to find that inhabitants of
Greenwich, who, by land and water steam-carriage, are
within half an hour of London, at the expense of 6d. or Is ,
are bound,to lodge their wills at the Bishop's Court at Ro-
chester, twenty-five miles off, at a considerable increase of
expense of money, time, and convenience; and when so
lodged at Rochester, that the stamp on the probate (which
stamp-duty the Lords of the land, under the old borough-
mongering Parliament, unjustly placed on my stock in trade
and debts, and yet have, and do still keep it off their own
landed property) must be obtained from Lef4 m ; and that after-
wards a copy of the will must be sent from Rochester to Lon-
don, that my children may pay one per cent. on all the pro-
perty I have scraped together to leave them, and vet the
owner of 100,000/. a year in land may leave it all to his chil-
dren by his will, without their being compelled or liable to
pay one farthing of duty. Oh, outrageous, unjust class legis-
lation ! Do, pray Mr.' Editor, make some observations in
your able paper, that will awaken the just, honest, and true
Members of the Lords and Commons Houses of Parliament
to this crying and invidiously cruel abuse. Surely the Bill
brought in by the Chancellor must have been drawn up by some
one not possessed of common sense, and totally unacquainted.
with the subject on which lie was directed by his patron to
draft this abortive foetus Bill, and utterly reckless of the wants
and wishes of the public. I suspect—the suspicion having
its birth from the speeches and proceedings in Parliament—
' it is a Bill never meant to succeed, but is brought in as a de-
ception, that the Government may seem to be doing some-
thing to help to stop the hands and mouths of others, but which
something it never meant to be completed. The population
of Greenwich, Woolwich, Deptford, Lee, Lewisham, Eltham,
Bromley, &c., in the county of Kent, who are thus sacrificed
to conflicting interests,are upwards of 150,000. Poor hard-
pressed over-taxed John* Bull will think their case is the
worst possible instance of rich oppressing the pcor, but
where does he think the poor inhabitants of Southwark, Ro-
therhithe, Kent-road, Lambeth, Brixton, Clapham, Wands
worth, Putney, &c., in the county of Surrey, with a popula-
tion amounting to near a quarter of a million, living within
a few minutes or hours' walk or drive of London, and whither
they can proceed on foot or by some conveyance almost every
minute of the day, at au expense of about one shilling, must
lodge their wills under this precious new, well-considered Bill ?
Why, the interest and convenience of 500,000 inhabitants,
being, of course, duly considered and thought of (amongst
the other conflicting interests), by the patriots who now com-
pose her Majesty's Ministry, they have in their wisdom de-
termined that Winchester (the Bishop's Court there), being
only about seventy miles off, is the most convenient place
for the Surreyites to take their wills to ; and, no doubt, as the
Surreyites are worse off than the Kentish men, the Kentish
men can have no just cause of complaint. .4h, bah !
I would, Mr. Editor, I had a voice of thunder, to make
this rank jobbing well known, and heard from one end of the
country to the other, from the Land's-end to Shakspeare's •
Cliff, from Plymouth to Hull ; or that my pen was like the
tongue of the Psalmist, a ready writer, that the inhabitants
of other localities might be roused up to peruse this Bill and
see how tenderly her Majesty's Ministers, through their Lord
Chancellor, attends to the convenience and interest of her
Majesty's subjects. I cannot do the subject justice ; you-can,
and I trust will. What does the Lord Chancellor mean by
conflicting interests? Is not the interest of the public at
large the first interest to be attended to by a Government in
its legislative enactments, and should not all interests that
come in conflict with this primary and essential one fall into
the shade?
As to on of the conflicting interests, I have heard it cal-
allate4 that, in §llleCures held mostly by the relatives or con-
nexions of the present or past Arch or other Bishops, or by
other persons having interest, direct or indirect, in Parlia-
ment ; and in fees to the clergy under the present working
of the Ecclesiastical Courts, including therein the fees on
marriage licenses ; there is the enormous sum of nearly one
million annually divided amongst sinecurists and clergy.
Here is, indeed, interest enough to make the conflict very
sev-cre, annual income sufficient to raise an army, or to main-
tain a tieg ; this is the key-stone to a social change, which
has been WR•ntNI and attempted for 300 years past, never
yet having been effected, and which for the last fifteen years
has engaged the serious attention of all the Administrations
for the time being, without their daring to face it ; but the ,
country at imp will now require to have it settled, not by
such a disgraceful, place-hunting, time-serving, sinecure-
screening, Bill as that brought in by the Lord Chancellor,
but by a measure founded upon broadklarge, and liberal
principles, haying the interest of the public, the poor equally
with the rich, properly provided for; and I beg to subscribe
myself,
ONE OF YOUR, CONSTANT READERS,
and one of the quarter of a million living within five miles
of Loudon, south of the River Thames.

WARWICK SPRING RACES.—TIIO Queen of the Gipsies was
declared not to start for the Trial Stakes.

RAPID TRANSIT.---An attorney's clerk may steam
it to St. Petersburgh and coach it to Moscow, and be back
before the long vacancy is over; ay, though he do
Warsaw and Berlin by the way. The shop boy in
Liverpool, after his Saturday's labours are ended, em-
barks his cherished person on board a steamer for
Dublin,. stares at Nelson's pillar in Sackville-street
and Wellington's obelisk in the Phcenix.park ; and,
after hearing Pathly's opera in the cathedral where Swift
once presided, and visiting two or three meeting-houses (the
best schools for flirtation in the world, as is known to every
visiter to the Irish metropolis), he may re.gmbark about
bed-time--when be may reckon with tolerable certainty
upon being home in time to open his master's shop, at the
wonted hour, and soberly assume the cares and duties of the
week.—.7ll-qatrit Traveller. .

The price or bread in Paris, for the re►nainder of
the present month, is fixed at 34 centimes the kilogramme.
A letter from Palermo, or the 25th ult., contains
the following account of an event which Occurred in the
recent earthquake at Caltanissetta, in Sicily. In one pf the
sulphuric mines of the Prince de Trebbia, in the province of
Caltanissetta, four men were buried by its falling in upon
them. The Prince immediately employed men to release
them, but their labour was continued for eighteen days be-
fore the sufferers could he reached. Three of them were
found dead, but the fourth, named Giacomo Paterno, was
still alive. He related that he escaped the wounds and bruises
which his companions received, and supported life by licking
with his tongue the moisture from the sides of the galleries as
he roamed about hoping to find some aperture by which he
might escape. The Prince de Trebbia has granted him a
pension sufficient to maintain him without labour.
SUDDEN DEATH. Yesterday an instance of
the awful uncertainty of human life took place at the office
of the Morning Advertiser journal, Fleet-street. It appears
that Mr. Blake, who has been the secretary at that office for
a number of years past, and resided upon the premises, re-
tired to rest on Monday evening at gout eleven, in his usual
health and spirits. I esterday, however, not making his
appearance at the breakfast table at his accustomed time, the
servant was sent to call him; but after knocking several
times at the door and receiving no answer, it was at length
found necessary to burst it open, when Mr. Blake was found
dead in his bed. Mr. Wray, surgeon, of Salisbury-square,
was immediately called in, but that gentleman pronounced
life to have been extinct some hours, apoplexy having, no
doubt, been the cause of death. The deceased, who was
about fifty years of age, was a bachelor, and was deservedly
esteemed by all who knew him.
DANGEROUS EXPLOIT—GILDING THE BALL AND
CROSS OF ST. PA.ur;‘,---Qn Monday numerous persons were
attracted to St. Paul's Churchyard, watching anxiously the
movements of a man placed on the extreme Summit of the
cross which completes the height of St. Paul's, whilst regild-
irg the ball and cross. The dangerous undertaking was per-
formed, we believe, in pursuance of acontract lately entered
into to keep that part of the venerable pile in a state of good
condition. From the extreme height the man was scarcely
perceptible—marked only .45 it were as a dark moving object,
which the brightness of the cross reflecting the sun served to
make visible.

SINGULAR CASE.--Yesterday, an adjourned coro-
ner's inquest took place before Mr, G. I. Mills, deputy
coroner for Middlesex, at the Marquis of Hastings, Ossuls-
ton-street, Somers town, on the body of Henry Hughes,
aged ten years, the son of an excavator. From the evi-
dence, it appeared that on Friday, the 9th instant, the
deceased, who resided with his parents in Ton-buildings,
was at play with two other boys, named John Silk And
Henry Nicholls, at a game designated by them as that of
" Dead Mari," which, it appears, was performed by deceased,
and who, in representing the defunct, was carried about
Tom's-buildings on the shoulders of his companions. In
the conrse of their perambulations, one pr other (it could
not be ascertained which) let go his hold, and the " dead
man" fell on to the ground, and his right shoulder came in
eentactwith a brick, which savarely injured him. As soon
as ha had recovered from his pain, he well thrashed the boy
Nicholls, wham he deemed the most culpable party. In the
afternoon of the same day the game was renewed, the de-
ceased again playing the part of "dead man," and, strange
to relate, the same accident in every particular, again
occurred, and the deceased then conceiving Silk to be in
fault, thrashed him, and went in doors. Towards evening,
he became very bad, the shoulder swelled, and medical aid
was procured, but erysipelas ensued, of which deceased
died on the Sunday evening following. The boys Silk and
Nicholls were called in and questioned, but their statements
were of such a conflicting character that nothing tangible
could be made out of them. Mr. Johnsen, the parish sur-
geon, who had made a post mortem examination) said, de-
ceased had died of erysipelas, in all probability induced by
the injury to the shoulder. Mn Mills said, that the case
was a pefuliar one, and he could not, strietly speaking, say
that the fall was accidental, nor did he believe there was any
evidence upon which A charge of manslaughter could be sus.
tamed against the boys at-the Old Bailey. The jury ulti-
mately returned a verdict, "that izieemeci died from erysi-
pelas, producecl by a fall."
• •

A VIEW OF MapplT ETNA.—Did }Etna exist be.
fore the human race f Was it for ages a great lonely
earth monster, sitting by the sea with its rugged woody
shoulders and ghastly crown ; now silent ;Ad quiet for
centuries, like A basking giant—now roaring to the
antediluvian solitudes, vomiting forth fire and smoke,
drivelling with lava, then silent again as before—alter-
nately destroying and nourishing the transitory races of
analogous gigantic creatures, mammoths, and mastodons,
which preceded nobler humanity? Was it produced all at
once by some tremendous burst of the earth and ocean—
some convulsion, of which the. like has never since been
known,--erhaps with all Sicily hanging at its root ? or did
it grow, like other earthly productions, by the aeemulations
of time and its own energies, inward and outward ? In
Whatever way it originated, and however the huge wonder
may have behaved itself at. any period, quietly or tremen-
mendously, whody can doubt that the creature is a benevolent
creature—one of the comities of the peaceful and profitable
existence of the far greater And more mysterious creature
rolling in the shape of an orb round tbg sun in midst of its
countless like, and carrying us all along with it in our
respective busy inattentions. We do not presume to
inquire how the necessity for any such evil mode
of good arose. Suffice .for us, that the evil itself
works to a general good purpose ; that the earth
apparently could not exist without it ; that nature has adorned
it with beauty, which is another good, and fertility, which is
another, and grandeur, which is another, elevating the
aind; and that if human beings prefer risking its neigh..
bourhoed with all its occasional calamities, those (341AMities
are not of Its DIM willing, nor of any unavoidable necessity,
nor perhaps will esdet AIWA,,I'A. Suppose Etna should some
day again be left to its solitiAlo2 d people resolve to be
burnt and buried alive no longer ! What a, pilgrimage would
the mountain be then ! What thought for t-fie poet And the
philosopher! What A visit for those who take delight in the
borders of fear and terror, arid would love to interrogate na-
ture the snore for the loneliness pf her sanctuary.—Leigh
Hunt in 4insworth's Ncipa;irif,