The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-17 00:00:00

THE_ SUN, LONDON, WEDN'ES.DAY .EVENING, JIT

The Commons met at Twelve o'clock, when the
Earl of LINCOLN moved that the Metropolis Im-
provement Bill be committed.
Mr. lIA.wEs moved the previous question, and after
some discussion, the House divided, when there were
—for the motion, 39, and against it, 5.
The House went into Committee, and 50 clauses
were adopted, when the House adjourned. - -
The House again met at half-past Five o'clock,
when the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER presented
the Report of the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry,
which he moved to be printed. He thought, however,
that the evidence should not be printed, as it might
criminate certain individuals. It would, however, be
on the table for the use of Members. Mr. T. Dux-
COMBE objected to such a course, and moved that
the evidence be printed.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER in that case
withdrew his motion, and gave notice of it for this
day.
What is this revenue inquiry ? Is it the inquiry
into the enormous robberies committed at the Custom-
house under another title, and are the Government
anxious to screen the most egregious offenders ? We
trust, and indeed we have no fear, that Mr. DUN-
COMBE will do his duty. Are the frauds on the
revenue—frauds to an amount of which even Mr.
GOULBURN knows nothing—to be slurred over, be-
cause individuals may be criminated? Let the
Liberal Members muster all their force this evening,
and teach the moral Government a lesson of morality.
The wish of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER for
concealment is the best proof that the report of the
Commissioners does not state the real and important
facts of this atrocious system of robbery.
Lord PALMERSTON moved for a return showing the
number of African negroes landed for the purposes of
slavery on the continent and islands of America from
the year 1815 to 1843, both inclusive. His Lordship
made an admirable speech on the horrible traffic car-
ried on by men calling themselves Christians.
Sir ROBERT PEEL- followed in a long speech, and
said he would willingly have acceded to the motion
at once, but for the oratorical display made by the
Noble Lord, who had been comparatively idle all the
session, and now made a great speech at the close.
The Right Hon. Baronet, entered at great length
into the slave-trade, which he denounced in equal
terms with Lord PALMERSTON.

Several other Members followed, and the motion
was at length agreed to, Sir R. PEEL proposing to add
the number of slaves emancipated in Sierra Leone,
Surinam, and other places, to:the return.
Mr. Humes motion for inquiry relating to the
harbours of refuge, after some observations from Sir
R. PEEL, was agreed to.
Mr. E. DENISON then moved for an account of the
sums expended by the Ecclesiastical commissioners
of England; and Mr. ELPHINSTONE, as an amend-
ment, proposed that a return of the incomes of all the
Archbishops and Bishops in England and Wales be
presented to the House. A division took place, and
the original motion was carried by a majority of 28.
Captain PECHELL'S motion relating to the Lunatic
Asylum at Hasler was withdrawn, after a short con-
versation.

The other orders of the day„were then disposed of,
and the House adjourned at a Quarter to One
o'Clock,

The case of Mr. O'Druscom., the Irish magis-
trate, which has lately attracted some notice in the
sister-country, was brought before the House of Lords
last night by Earl FORTESCUE. The particulars of
this case are briefly as follows :—A man named
DENNEAN, being supposed by Mr. O'DRIscoLL to
know the persons who had rescued certain cattle
which had trespassed on his land, was called on by
him to declare on oath who had rescued them, and on
his refusal, was committed by the magistrate to
Bridewell. On being made acquainted with
this fact, the LORD CHANCELLOR declared that
Mr. OTostrscara, ought not to have pronounced
judgment in his own case, and insisted that
he should not interfere further. Soon afterwards
that gentleman was brought up for an assault com-
mitted, without the slightest provocation, on a boy,
on which occasion, said the Noble Earl, he made use
of the most disgusting language, and totally unbe-
coming one who professed to have the feelings of a
gentleman. For this assault his brother magistrates
fined him two pounds, allotting one to the boy as a
compensation for the blows which had been inflicted
on him. On hearing this award Mr. O'Daiscom. de-
clared that justice had not been done him, which led
to an altercation with the Bench, who insisted
on his publicly apologising to them for his
indiscreet and intemperate behaviour. The LORD
CHANCELLOR, as in the former case, was put
into possession of these facts, when he wrote to the
effect that "Mr. O'DnrscoLL, after his conviction,
had committed one of the gravest faults which a
magistrate could commit," adding with marked em-
phasis, "all these charges taken together, "satisfy my
mind that he has not at present that command over
his temper and actions (even when acting in a
magisterial capacity, or when appearing as a defen-
dant before the Bench) which is so essential to the
due administration of justice." Nothing can well be
stronger or more condemnatory than this language ;
it is a virtual and deliberate decision on the part of
the highest legal authority in Ireland that Mr,
O'Dmscom., first from his ternrer, and secondly
from •his conduct, is wholly disqualified for acting as
a magistrate; and he was in coasequence superseded.
And yet, notwithstanding this formal decision, no
sooner was a memorial presented from certain influ-
ential people in the county to the Viceroy, praying
for his reappointment, than the LORD CHANCELLOR,
without the slightest hesitation, restored him to the
commission of the peace, thereby; effectually stultify-
ing his own previous decision ! Who after this—and
Mr. O'DarseoLes is no uncommon ease—can wonder
that Ireland has no faith in the mode in which
justice is administered; and that the law which
should be regarded as a guardian, is looked
on by her as an oppressor ? In England
such a case as the one before us could never
have happened, for had any magistrate so
grossly misconducted himself as Mr. O'DurscoLL
appears to have done, public opinion would have ex-
pressed itself so earnestly and unequivocally on the
subject, that the LORD CHANCELLOR would not have
dared to replace the offending individual in the com-
mission of the peace. But in Ireland, it seems, they
manage things:very differently. There, a magistrate
may be carved out of any block of wood. Ex quovis
ligno fit Mercurius. No matter how indiscreet and
intemperate he may be—no matter how grossly ig-
norant he may be of the laws which it is his duty
fully to understand and impartially to administer—he
is still wise and prudent enough for the sister-coun
try. Such is the deliberate opinion of the higher
legal authority-in Ireland, as manifested by the reap.

pointment the Bench of an individual whom tha

same legal authority had previously stated to be

wholly disqualified fix actingan a magisterial capa-
city ! The defence set, up for Mr. O'Dmscom. by
their Lordships was the tnost.puerile it is possible,to
conceive. • Lord WHAttricurrz' went the length
of asserting that his assault on the boy
was by no means without justification, for

it had taken•place while he was out hunting, and what

sportsman could bear to be interrupted in his amuse-
ment ? Irritation at such a moment was• the most
natural thing possible, and he was astonished., there-
fore, to find the assault described as an " aggrivated

one." As for Lord- LYNDHURST, he thought the as,

sault quite " ludicrous;" while the Earl of RIPON

observed that " there was a material distinction be•
tween what Mr. O'Dittscom. bad done in his mdi•

vidual and his magisterial capacity,"—that is to say,
though the man might be peccant, the magic•

trate was to be held spotless, for, it was

quite plain

that when

he anointed the

shoulders of the boy with his horsewhip, he did so,
not in his official, but in his private, capacity. But

Lord MOUNTCAiHEL'S defence of Mr. O'DniscoLL

was the most comical, and logically considered, is
entitled to the praise of consummate originality.
He was of opinion that .that gentleman was en-

titled to be restored to the Bench, if only on
the score •of his gentility, for, added this
droll Peer, "in a part of the country where
gentlemen were scarce, it was a matter of great im-
portance that a gentleman of Mr. O'DmscoLL's

character and property should ha a magistrate." We
infer from this that to use " the most disgusting and
unbecoming language" is no impeachment of an Irish-
man's gentility, and that to thrash a boy without the
Slightest provocation, in nowise impugns his charac-
ter, or 16ss,:ns his efficiency as a magistrate !

We recur to the debate on the dank of England
charter Dill in the House of Lords, last week; witb

Lit..•,l

atz ',increasetl conviction that it was.better calculated
to apprise the public of what may be termed the phi-
losophy of the measure, than any of the discussions
which had preceded it in the House of Commons.
But we must not omit to remark, by the way, that
isome of Lord RIPON'S frank admissions as to the past
history of the results of the 13111 of 1819 were of an
effect not less fatal to the.pretensions of this measure
for its complement, than the more guarded, though not
more convincing, pleas advanced.in its favour by Lord
MOXTEAGLE. Let us see what these admissi6n3 of
Lord RIPON, amount to. " The pressure," said he,
" on the money market in 1825 was the most severe
pressure, he believed, which had ever existed in this
country. Indeed, he believed the effect of that pres-
sure to have been greater than that which occurred
in 1797, previous to the Bank Restriction Act." Now
there is no incident on which Sir ROBERT PEEL is so
fond of playing his battery of small common-places
of "fatal measures," "ill-advised expedients," "de-
plorable resolution," &c., as. this Bank Restriction
Act. There is no topic but this upon which he permits
himself to speak with flippant disparagement of his
great master, Mr. PITT. Let any man but recur to
the Restriction Act of 1797, and Sir ROBERT is
ready with his well-digested shake of the head—his
studied ingenuousness of dissent from the "Minister
of that day," and his carefully-rehearsed expressions
of off-hand regret. Yes--
"Lightly he'll talk of the spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him."
For what ? A daring but indispensable act of
policy; abrupt, but sound and far-sighted, which
saved the fortunes, developed the resources, and esta-
blished the permanent grandeur of his country.
Our business, however, is not, now, to vindicate the
Bank Restriction Act—to show the exigency of the
circumstances under which it was resorted to—or to
trace the marvellous results that followed its enact-
ment in the subsequent period of twenty years, or to
prove that those results could not have been realised
without that enactment. Lord RIPON admits that
after PEEL'S Bill of 1819 had served a seven years'
apprenticeship—in 1825, when, if ever, it should
have been able to work out all the good which its
projectors had so confidently predicted of it, "there
came upon the country the severest monetary pres-
sure which had ever been known here—worse than
that of 1797." But the Bullionists affirm that the
restrictive Act of 1797 was, in effect, a compromised
national bankruptcy. They date from that epoch the
origo of all the evils thatj ensued, in the shape of
adverse exchanges, of over-speculation, of over-issues
of paper, of inconvertible paper—all the evils, in
short, which Parliament was persuaded to believe the
Currency Bill of 1819 would infallibly cure. The
very State doctors who prescribed that empirical
remedy now admit that seven years afterwards the
patient was worse than he had ever been before,
even at that two-and-twenty years antedated
period which they had so long denounced as the most
malignant hitherto experienced by the monetary sys-
tem of our country. But what next ? Why, having
dosed us with this deleterious nostrum in 1819, and
acknowledged its total, disgraceful, and almost irre-
trievable failure in 1826, they have now the modesty
to insist on administering a larger and more nauseous
potion—the large remainder, the dregs, the " comple-
ment"—in 1844 I Between 1797 and 1819 there had
elapsed fifteen years of war and four of peace ; and
there had occurred no catastrophe to mate the crisis
of 1797 itself. Between 1819 and 1825 there had
intervened seven years of profound peace, the
closing year being distinguished by a mone-
tary catastrophe far more terrible than that which
had distinguished the first of the series of fifteen
years •of war ! Since 1826 we have been blessed
with A serene period, extending over eighteen other
years of profound peace ; and it is now— at the end
of this term—that the quacks, whose blundering
treatment of 1819 reduced us in seven years to a
more fearful state of exhaustion and jeopardy than we
were in, even in 1797, insist upon their greater capacity
to make, and our improved condition to submit to, a
further exhibition of their dangerous incompetency !
The Earl of RIPON sees the monstrous assurance and
inconsistency of the demand of his fellow Ministers
in this case, or the confidence and credulity of Par-
liament; for he next admits the failure of the joint-
stock banks' institution scheme to justify the expec-
tations of the then Ministers, that it would operate
as a check to any over-issue of paper. Several
monetary crises in 1832, 1836, and 1838, de-
monstrated, he says, the futility of these ex-
planations. He says that the effect of enlarged
issues of paper is to produce activity in
business, but of a most fallacious kind ; and that
under these circumstances men " overlook the terrible
revulsions which must arise if their issues of paper
be not regulated by a sufficient rule." We would
respectfully challenge Lord RIPON to point out any
period in the lapse of forty-seven years, from 1797
to the present time, at which, prior to 1819, when
we had not yet been favoured with a Currency
Bi)1, at which we experienced revulsions such
as there have been in 1825, and in several more
recent years, under its operation ? But Lord RIPON
contends that there was no sufficient rule whereby to
regulate these paper issues, except the condition of
the foreign exchanges.
We have more than once endeavoured to show the
occasional utter failure to which this test would be
liable ; but Lord MONT)AGLE roundly maintains that
it is exceedingly possible the Bank might largely con-
tract its circulation, and thereby bring the exchanges
nominally in our favour, so that gold ought to be
flowing into the country again, and yet that the
Bank might be compelled, to meet the pending drain
of bullion, Lefore this influx had taken place, to pay
away its last golden sovereign. This case is put on
no less an authority than Mr. Husiussoe's :—" lie
now came to the greatest and most important objec-
tion to the Bill—namely, that it was founded and
proceeded upon the assumption that the state of the
foreign exchanges were .constantly likely to pro-
duce a drain upon the Bank, and that it was not
even contemplated there would be such an effect pro-
duced by means of an internal drain. Now this was
directly in contradiction to the opinion of Mr. Hus-
Rissosr, in his pamphlet upon sudden depreciation, and
he held it even possible that in such a run on the Bank,
in consequence of the straightened circulation, the
Bank might part with its last sovereign without check-
ing the drain upon the Bank, which would have, of
course, only the effect of aggravating the evil. GOD
forbid that such a state of things should ever take
place, but a country so circumstanced as this was—
so deeply engaged in commerce and in manufactures,
with a mixed currency to so enormous an extent, as
well as with so extensive a system of credits—must
be at some time liable to such casualties."
What an exceedingly happy invention, after all,
this " final complement" and practical development of
" the great principle" of the Legislature of 1819
must be. It is to ensure the convertibility of paper
into. gold—with a view to control exchanges—which
exchanges either take a different evolution from that
you require, or turning exactly as you would have
them, may' at any time leave the whole ma-
chinery fur effecting this convertibility to pe-
rish by its own activity. -If the exchanges
won't be evoked, but, like a rusty weathercock, will
continue unaccountably steady at one point, the
Bank, to meet the rise of the price of gold from
3/. 17s. 100. (the Mint rate) to any higher sum per
ounce which it may be fetching in the market, must
contract its issue so violently that commerce and
trade must perish in the collapse. If the exchanges
walk down the Premier's new sliding scale, with all
the facility and certainty to be looked for from its
previous scientific lubrication, by the anti-attrition
processes of Mr. JONES LOYD, the gold may still
choose to be coaxed out of the Bank cellars ; and
then the balance or excess of securities in its deposit
branch over gold and silver bullion (Government
acknowledgments and Bills of Exchequer included)
will not prevent what we should deprecate, as the
most frightful of social evils, the bankruptcy of the ,
Leviathan Bank. Nay, it would not prevent that
greater evil, so feelingly denounced by Sir ROBERT
PEEL as the working of our monetary system before
the tinkering experiment of 1819, for it would again
"disturb men's theories and speculations on the
currency question."

Accounts from Alexandria of the 26th of June
announce the arrival of Sir HENRY HARDINGE, on i
the afternoon of the 22d, in the Geyser steamer, from 1
Marseilles. He landed next day, Sunday, as a pri-
vate individual, but 're-embark-ad again for a • short
time, and afterwards landed in state, in the PACIIA'S
barge, when a salute of 19 oune was fired. lie was

received by a guard of honour. At three:o'clock,
after attending church, he paid a visit to MEHEMET
ALI, who met him at the door of the Audience Hall,
and gave him a warm reception. On the 24th he
dined with the PACHA, and next day left for Suez,
where he was to embark in the llindostan for India.
From all accounts the interviews between the PACHA
and the Governor-General were of the most friendly
description ; a circumstance highly honourable to this
able and high-minded chief.

In the French Chamber of Deputies on Monday,
the amendments made by the Chamber of Peers on
the Orleans and Bordeau Railway Bill were dis-
' cussed. The chief amendment was the rejection of the
7th article, introduced by M. CREMIEUX, which pro.
hibited Members:of the two Chambers from becoming
contractors for works on railways and directors of
companies. A discussion took place on this clause,
and from the opposition made to it by the Govern-
ment and several influential Members, no doubt re-
mained that the Deputies would affirm the amend-
ment, and reject the absurd clause. The Committee
on the election of M. CHARLES LAFITTE for Louviers
met on Saturday.' Having withdrawn the letter
written by him to the Minister of Public Works, no
objection was raised to his taking his seat; but the
reporter, M. BERRYER, was directed, in recommend-
ing the admission of M. CHARLES LAFITTE, to pro-
pose to the Chamber that it should be intimated to
him that his withdrawing of the letter must necessarily
interdict him from taking any share, direct or indi-
rect, in the question of the branch of the Rouen Rail-
road to which it related. The papers bring no additional
intelligence from Africa; but all interest in the affair
had died away, as it was generally believed that the
Emperor of MOROCCO would accede to the terms
offered by France. On the 2d instant the whole of
the Prince DE JOINVILLE'S squadron, consisting of
the Suffren, Jemappes, and Triton, of the line, the
Belle Poule frigate, and the Gassendi, Pluton, As-
modee,_ and Phare steamers, were assembled in the
roadstead of Mers el ICebir. The Phare was dis-
patched on the Ist to Tangiers with the ultimatum of
the French Government.

The following are additional extracts from the
papers :

" A letter from Dreux thus describes the celebration of
the anniversary of the death of the Duke of Orleans :—At
half-past eleven the King, leading the Queen by the hand,
entered the body of the chapel through the crypt. His Ma-
jesty took his station in the centre of the choir, before the
altar, having the Queen on his right, and next to her the
Queen of the Belgians and the Duke de Montpensier.
On his: left was the Duchess of Orleans, between her Royal
Highness Madame Adelaide and the Prince de Wurtemberg.
The clergy followed the Royal Family from the crypt. It
was impossible to see without emotion the august widow
of the Prince Royal endeavouring to suppress the convulsive
sobbings of her heart, prostrated and motionless on the earth
by the weight of her grief, while the King and Queen were
seeking resignation at the foot of the altar. One overwhelm-
ing feeling predominated in all who were present; the most
lively sympathy with the august mourners was depicted in
every countenance. After the absolution, the King and his
family returned to the Palace, passing again through the
crypt, where the Queen and the Duchess remained a long
time kneeling before the tomb of the departed Prince.
"The money laid out upon the chateau at Dreux amounts
to a very considerable' sum. Between 1822 and 1830, the
King expended more than 100,000 f. in finishing the chapel
begun by his mother, the Duchess Dowager of Orleans. And
since 1830, the outlay has been no less than 3,500,000 f. Be-
tween this and the end of 1845 the works to be done are es-
timated at 800,000 f. His Majesty has also endowed the
Royal chapel with a revenue of 25,0001."
The Courrier Francais says:—We understand that imme-
diately on the close of the session Marshal Soult will go to
pass three months at his seat of Saint Amand ; the Minister
of Commerce will take a tour through the manufacturing dis-
tricts ; the Minister of Public Works will make a general
inspection of the railroads; the Minister of the Marine will
visit, Cherbourg and Brest ; the Minister of Justice will pass
a month with his family at Douai, and the Ministers of Fi-
nances and Public Instruction will go to take the benefit of
some of the mineral waters.
THE BOURSE—MONDAY, JULY 15.

First Highest Lowest Last
Price. Price. Price. Price.
French Five perents•••••• 122 05 .. 122 20 .. 122 05 .. 122 15
Three per Gents... 81 75 .• 81 85 .. 81 75 .. 81 80
Bank of France 3040 • • 3040 3040 ..3040
Lailitte Bank, I,ooof. Sharesll2o • • 1120 ..1120 • • 1120
5,000 f. Sharesso67 50 —5067 50 —5067 50 ..5067 50
Belgian Bank ..•• 6BO .. 680 .. 680 .. 680
Belgian Fives,lB4o 105 f .. 1051 .. 1051 1051
Spanish Threes 33i • . 331 .• 331 .. 331
Passive ...... 51 • • 51 • • 51 .• 51
Neapolitan•••••• •• •• • •• 98 80 .. 98 95 .. 98 80 .. 98 90
Roman •••• • .......... 104 .. 1041 •• 104 .. 1041
RAILWAY SHARES.
St. Germain ...... 895 .. 895 .• 892 50 .. 895
Versailles,L.R.•• •••• •••• •• 247 50 .. 247 58 .• 245 •• 245
Rouen .......• ••••... 9BB-75 .. 990 988 75 .

•• 990
Rouen to Havre ..... •. 768 75 768 75 ,• 767 50 .. 767-50
Orleans ...
Strasburg to Bale•• • 240 •• 240 .. 238 75 .. 238 75
Avignon to Marseilles.... • • 773 75 • • 773 75 •• 773 75 .. 773 75
RAILWAY SHARES FOR THE ACCOUNT, 151•11 JULY.
St. Germain
Versailles, R R••• •• • • 377 50 .. 377 50 .. 377 50 .. 377 fp()
L. 8..
Konen;... ••• ...••• •••••• •• 987 50 .. 990 .. 985 .. 990
Rouen to Havre..... • .... 770 770 .• 770 .• 770
Orleakna ••••••••••••• •• 983 75 .. 986 25 .. 982 50 -

•• 985
Strasburg to Bala- •• 240 .. 240 .. 238 75 .. 238 75
Aziguon to Marseilles.. •• •• 772 50 .. 773 75 . 772 50 .. 773 75

SIR HENRY HAUDINGE.—The new Governor-
General of India reached Alexandria in the Geyser,
from Marseilles, on the 22d of June, and after having
had one public and several private audiences with the
Pacha, left on the 25th for Cairo, where he would
arrive on the 26th.