The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-18 00:00:00

ebriening ..""

LONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1850.

Once more before-the opening of Parliament occu-
pies public attention, with purely political matters, we
would recommend to the consideration of our readers
the claims of that very excellent remedy for a gene-
rally lamented evil—the Female Emigrant Fund.
Three subscription lists have already been made public
=--the' slims subscribed amounting to more than
sixteen thousand pounds, and the subsnribers' names,
including individuals of all classes, from her MAJESTY
to the humble artisan, and of all opinions, from the
Marquis of Gaannr to Baron ROTHSCHILD. Yet,
notwithstanding the great success which has attended
the opening of the subscription, the sum obtained,
large as it may appear—large indeed as it is—is not
enough -to carry out the work as it should
be carried out. A few thousands more will
effect an almost incalculable difference, and taking
the merits of the case into consideration, we can
_ hardly believe that those few thousands will be re-
'r fused. Unfortunately, however, it has been attempted
to give a political bias to a matter of a purely social
charkcter, and moreover avowedly of only a tempo-
rary ratre. The case is so simple, and its beneficial
properties so- obvious, that it is difficult to enter into
the prejudices of its opponents. The case is briefly
thus—the benevolent public have been repeatedly
distressed by cruel accounts of the arduous labours
and inadequate earnings of the needlewomen of the
metropolis. At one time- those sufferings formed
the theme of an exquisitely pathetic ballad—
again and again they have filled the columns
of newspapers, and have continually excited the
commiseration of all. Finally, a meeting of the un-
happiest
of the sufferers took place, and a fact, long
suspected, was publicly announced in a daily paper.
It was told how, in an enlightened age, irr the midst
of a wealthy, a philanthropic, and a religious people,
in the reign, moreover, of a woman—a young, pure,
kind-hearted woman—girls and mothers, once as good
and :as gentle as that Royal Lady, are compelled,
literally compelled, under peril of starvation, to em-
brace a life of ignominy and sin. Many there are who
turn from the consideration of this subject with a
careless indifference, but few, we believe, very few,
actually examine into and ponder over its details
without groaning in spirit over the contemplation of
so much and such bitter anguish. We should all of
us be wiser and better if we were more accustomed
to extend the narrow circle of our sympathies. We
should, undoubtedly, become more grateful for the
blessings we ourselves enjoy, and more compassionate
for the wants and wishes of others, if somewhat
oftener than at present we turned our attention to
that other half of the world of whom we know so
little. We teach our children the manners and cus-
toms of foreign nations, we lament over the cruelty
and immorality of the heathen and the infidel, but we
neglect to inquire if it be true that, in our own land, at
the doors cf our many churches, and under the shadow
of our stately hospitals, haggard wretches with wasted
frames and depraved hearts, in their days of fruitless
toil and their nights of miserable sin, again and again
re-echo that pitiful ejaculation—

" It's 0 to be a slave
Along with the barbarous Turk,
Where Woman has never a soul to save,
If this is Christian work!"

It is not our purpose now to recapitulate these hor-
rors ; happily, they have been set forth in a manner
which cannot have failed to move the hearts of all
who have met with that most melancholy revelation.
These evils had been long recognised and generally
deplored when Mr. SIDNEY' HERBERT first ventured
to give a practical turn to the general com-
miseration. What avail is it to pity the sufferings
without helping the sufferer ? Some few unthink-
ing philanthropists threw the whole blame of the
workwomen's sorrows upon their niggardly paymas-
ters, but those who reflected upon the case saw at
once that the evil chiefly arose from the terrible mul •
tiplicity of hands. To reduce that number appeared
the simplest and most efficacious remedy ; at the
same time it is notorious, that among the crowd now
seeking their fortunes in the New World the female
emigrants are few and far between. Since the days
when CANNING.fint exclaimed with boastful exultation,
" I called a new world into existence to redress the
balance of the'old !" that magnificent boast has never
been more felicitously realised than it has been by
Mr. HERBERT'S proposition. Who can wonder that
that proposition has
met wit such immediate and
proposition so feasible in
universal approbation—a
execution, and so doubly advantageous in its effects ?
The rich and the benevolent are solicited not for an
almsgiving productive of only evanescent benefit—they
are asked to prove the reality of their benevolence
by putting a stop' to an intolerable evil here, and at
the same time effecting a remedy to a social grievance
in the colonies. They are asked to arrest the sup-
plies whence are furnished the miserable victims of a
miserable and vicious trade, and, by stopping those
supplieS ivhile yet uncontaminated, to turn their
course and direct them to where they may
be productive of social virtue and individual
happiness. This is what the subscribers of the
Female Emigrant Fund propose to do, and this can
only be efficaciously accomplished by an adequate
Aura being provided. Give, then, while there is
yet

opportunity, all you who have been loud in your phi-
lanthropic lamentations! Heed not the plausible
remonstrances of the political economist, who may tell
you that this is not the right way to go to work.
Reply to him that this is a temporary means
to overcome a present evil. We are well
aware that a wider and a deeper system of
reform is required to purify the under• current
of our social system; and such reforms we intend
to have before long. But in the meantime there is
an existing and intolerable evil (who can deny it ?)
to remedy which future reforms are ineffectual.
A means is before us of alleviating it—again we say,
who can deny it ? and why then shall we hesitate to
make use of it ? Our facetious contemporary Punch,
whose ordinary humour only gives additional force to
his occasional pathos, has recently contrasted the
luxurious profusion obtained by " Pin-Money" with
the beggarly produce of " Needle-money," and
again he has showed us side by side the starving
workwoman rushing into " the streets," (as must be
her fate if—

"0 it is pitiful
In a whole cit3ful,
Friends she has none,")

and the same, or a similar sufferer, happy in a do-
mestic home beyond the seas, as may be her fate and
the fate of thousands, if rescued by the timely succour
of the Emigrant Fund. h not the experiment at
least worth the trial ? Much has already been
given—a little more, and incalculable blessings may
be its result !

Towards the close of the year 1848 a feeling of
deep sympathy was excited on behalf of a much in-
jured man. After enduring the most heartrending
sufferings for more than four years, Mr. WILLIAM
HENRY BARBER was at length restored to his family
and friends, with an untainted character. An act of
tardy (can we call it) justice was performed, and the
unfortunate gentleman was at length permitted to
revisit his native land, from which he had been so
long an exile, and where his entire innocence of the
offence for which he had been erroneously convicted
had been fully and completely established.
From the defective state of the law, there was
no tribunal by which he could be reinstated
in his former position, and the mistaken decision of
the jury reversed. No appeal is allowed in criminal
cases so far as the " facts" are concerned. Although
the innocence of the criminal may be rendered clear
as light, although no doubt could remain in any ra-
tional mind on the subject, the fatal verdict must
remain for ever recorded. The decision of the jury is
indeed final and irrevocable. One remedy, and one
only (but, oh, how inadequate !) remains to the
victim. He who has undergone unmerited
persecutions, who has much to forgive his
fellow-men, must be contented to receive,
with all humility, his pardon for an offence of which
he was never guilty! The losses, the misery he has
sustained must be forgotten. He can claim no re-
compense for the days and nights of sleepless agony,
for blighted prospects and vanished hopes. Pardon
is all he can demand, too happy if his claim be even-
tually recognised.
That pardon, free and unconditional, was awarded
to Mr. BARBER after a long and weary probation.
It was even rendered more valuable by being accom-
panied by a letter, in which the Home Secre-
tary, after " full and anxious consideration,"
expressed his belief that the victim was " free from
any guilty participation in the frauds of which he had
been made the instrument." Seldom, indeed, have
such acknowledgments been made by official person-
ages to convicted prisoners, and it is greatly to the
credit of Sir GEORGE GREY that he so far departed
from the ordinary rule. It proved that he was
thoroughly convinced that no lingering doubt re-
mained—that guilt was not only "not proved," but
that clear, palpable, and unquestionable innocence
had been established.
There were, indeed, few persons competent to form
a judgment on the case who did not feel a similar convic-
tion. Perhaps no man had ever previously succeeded,
under such circumstances, in bringing forward a
body of evidence so powerful and conclusive. There
was not only the confessions of the real criminals, of
those who bad succeeded in deceiving Mr. BARBER,
as any professional man might have been deceived,
but there was a consistency and verisimilitude in their
statements, agreeing completely with his own un-
varying assertions and declarations ab initio, that
must have fully satisfied any unprejudiced inquirer.
The conduct and demeanour of the unfortunate gen-
tleman powerfully strengthened his case. There
was a meekness under persecution, a mild and
patient fortitude, which nothing could confer but a
mind conscious of its own rectitude, a deep and
fervent spirit of religion, and an humble hope that
the period would at length arrive when all would be
cleared up, and the true state of the case be made
apparent.
dwhhhoeemmbwehilehineefct haownlef
aerstehisnpepleatccoeottenadatl: dca(t,bf,e
:went
nelhlecometei
leoeorf
certified
t
in the unfortunate affair, but even
unhesitatinguwnnliydt hedrwi
the wretched knowledgetfyrnrtsesotched and degraded beings with whom he was
associated looked up to him as one of a different order
from themselves; he was "with them, but not
of them." While they were expiating guilt, and sus-
taining the punishments due to their respective
crimes, he was undergoing much greater privations,
and an intensity of suffering far beyond theirs.
" Much greater," we say, because his former position
had been widely different from theirs ; and the very
association with the outcasts by whom he was sur-
rounded has in itself a misery and a degradation of
no ordinary magnitude; and all this he was enduring
although free from guilt and unstained by crime.
It might be supposed that, when liberated
from confinement, and once more restored
to the society of freemen, every assistance
would have been rendered to enable him
to resume his former position. He had been carried
away from England at the public expense—a free
passage home at least should be accorded, and ample
resources placed at his disposal, to enable him to
reach his native land with ease and comfort ; but
no such aid was in store. His conditional pardon
(for a conditional one only was first granted) was
announced, and he was directed to deliver up his pri-
son clothing, without any other being supplied to
him, and to find his way as he best could, naked
and penniless, to Hobart Town, to receive the
official document. What the mercy of the Govern-
ment denied was, however, rendered by those who
had lately been his fellow-captives, who gladly con-
tributed a portion of their clothing to relieve the ne-
cessities of the " innocent convict." Mr. BARBER
WAS subsequently enabled to return to Europe by the
liberal and munificent subscriptions collected at Syd-
ney and Madras ; and, as we have already stated, he
reached his home in the month of November, 1848.
Here, at least, there should have been an
end of oppression and persecution ; here, he
should have been freed from any unpleasant
consequences resulting from the mistaken verdict of
the jury. His first desire was to resume the practice
of that profession by which he bad formerly realised
a considerable income, and to the very highest ranks
of which he was rapidly ascending when the untoward
circumstances occurred which brought ruin and d&
solation upon his hearth. But here, again, an unex.
pected obstacle has been interposed, which bas corn-

gelled him to remain another year in compulsory
idleness, unable to engage in professional pursuits.
By the Attorneys and Solicitors Act (6 and 7
Victoria, cap. 73, section 25, and by Rule of Court
adopted Easter Term,. 1846) it is necessary for an
attorney who has omitted the renewal of his certifi-
cate for twelve months to apply for liberty to do so
to the Court or to a Judge at Chambers. Desirous
of the utmost publicity, Mr. BARBER applied to the
full Court, having previously given the usual notices,
which expired on the last day of Hilary Term, 1849.
No evidence was then brought forward to show that
his petition could not be granted ; but it was suggested
on the part of the Incorporated Law Society that
some inquiry should he made before the renewal of the
certificate should be granted ; the matter was accord-
ingly referred to the Master, in whose office it long
remained, moving on according to the mere will and

pleasure of the Incorporated Law Society. AU
things, however tedious, must have some termination.

The report of the Master was actually finished, and

on the first day of the present term Mr. Sergeant
W 11.81149, on behalf of Mr. BARBER, applied to the
Courkto fix a day for hearing the arguments, and the
26th instant was accordingly appointed for that

purpose. Here then has this unfortunate gentleman
already been delayed nearly fifteen months, from
the time of his arrival in England, and the matter
is still unsettled, and to this moment he knows not
what new difficulties may be interposed to dash the
cup from his very lip.
The sole reason why the matter has at all been brought
before the Court is, that Mr. BARBER omitted to take
out his certificate for more than twelve months. This
discontinuance was occasioned by his arrest and im-
proper conviction. But for the obduracy of the then
Government who refused to take the entire circum-
stances of his case into consideration, and the difficul-
ties with which he was studiously surrounded, his
innocence could have been as fully established
in the few months that intervened between his
trial, and deportation to Norfolk Island, as it has sub-
sequently been, and in that case he would not only
have been spared the fearful sufferings he subse-
quently endured, but he would have had no occasion
to have come before the Court, but could have obtained
his certificate as a matter of course, as in former years.
It is somewhat hard, that because his sufferings had
been aggravated by a voyage of four months in that
horrible floating dungeon—a prison ship, and by
nearly three years captivity in that ocean hell—Nor-
folk Island, to say nothing of being unjustly de-
prived of a lucrative and increasing practice, and
of six years of the prime of his life, that he should
now be subjected to this harassing and wearisome
struggle for his certificate. It would seem, indeed,
to be a matter of the simplest equity, that after the
palpable and unquestionable error which carried with
it such fearful and heartrending results, the unfor-
tunate gentleman should be placed—legally, at least—
in the same position in which he stood previous to the
charge now universally acknowledged to have been
groundless. Everything opposed to that broad prin-
ciple is merely adding additional injuries to those
which be has already undergone.

The only issue we submit that remains for the
Court to decide is this: whether matters have been
brought forward which would in themselves be suf-
ficient to warrant the removal of Mr. BARBER'S
name from the roll of attorneys and his expulsion
from his profession. If this be true, why should
such unnecessary delays be tolerated—delays which
carry with them the deepest injury to the ill-treated
applicants ?

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The discussion on the Education Bill was resumed
on Wednesday and again adjourned.
pay of the non-commissioned
T hfuerCionmermeaistiteeeg
tthoe which the Ministerial proposi-
tionofficers in the army was referred has chosen M. Pis-
CATORT as reporter, M. ODILON BARROT having
declined the office. According to the Journal des
Debats, the Committee has decided by a majority of
15 to 12 to report against the proposition as pre-
sented by General D'HauTrouL, and to present
another of a more general nature, and which shall ex-
tend to corporals and privates.
The Evenement states that a new Parliamentary
club is about to be formed under the direction of the
Duke DE BROGLIE, NIM. TIMERS and PISCATORY.
It is further stated that a new Parliamentary club is
about to be opened in the interest.of the PRESIDENT,
and that it will hold its sittings in the Palais
National.
La Presse states that at a Cabinet Council, held on
Wednesday, it was resolved almost unanimously
that no intervention in the affairs of Monte Video
should take place even should the Government of that
Republic offer to pay the expenses.
The Moniteur contains the following announce.
meats :
" The Procureur of the Republic has ordered the
Liberte to be seized at the Post-office and on the premises
of the journal. The gerant is pursued, first, for publica-
tion, in bad faith,' of false news cf a nature to trouble
the public peace; salondly, for exciting to hatred and
contempt of the Government,of the Republic. The pro-
secution has been provoked by three articles which fellow
in succession, the first cf which is entitle 1 Organiser la
Resistance."
"The journal La Liberte of the Bth cf January pub-
lished an article in which there is mention of a gratuity
of 1,500,000 francs, 'that a company which offers to
undertake the railway from Lyons to Avignon, has con-
sented to pay down in ready cash.' The Procureur of
the Republic has ordered inquiry t i be made regarding
the facts alleged by the Liberte. The gerant of the jour-
nal will be summoned before the magistrates charged
with this inquiry, to give precise explanations as to the
facts or the source from which he derived them,"
The Reforme has again been seized.
The " clerical party" has been carrying on a
war of slander, calumny, and insinuation, against the
PRESIDENT of the Republic ever since, by the publi-
cation of his letter to M.EDGATID Nnr, he informed
the world that he would not permit himself to be
the instrument of their blind hatred. Their eff its
to debauch the soldiers have been as persevering as
they have been unsucces'ful, and they are now en-
deavouring to accomplish a coup d'etat, by deposing
the PRESIDENT, and appointing General CHANGAR-
NIER as the French Haynau to do the behests of a
camarilla of priests, The Assembler Nationale, the
organ of this party, assumes that there exists an
intention of appointing General MacsiAN to
the command of the garrison of Paris, in
the room of General CHANGARNIER and
thereupon this organ of the party of " order" and
" legality" declares that the Assembly would in such
case not hesitate to choose General CHANGARNIER
President of the Assembly, and set him up to depose
the PRESIDENT of the Republic. The article thus
concludes :
" At the side of the chair of the Presdent cf the As-
sembly there is a dictatorship, and no one will deny that
a President of the stamp of General Chargarnier could
not, in a moment of crisis, abaadon the chair except to
receive from a vote of the Assembly the supreme aad
sovereign formula—Caveant Consules."
It is well that at length the truth should be known ;
it appears clear then from the avowal of the " clerical
party" that they are determined, even at the risk of
civil war, to do their utmost to reduce France to the
by
yotal despotism. On
forcing her to submit to
the levelofh
ely ari
triael g
tyrannypa Spain,
a sacerdotal
the subject of these repeated rumours of intended
coups d'etat, we find the following in the Constitu-
tionnel :
" It-ports are again current relative to coups d'etat.
It is a kind of attack which the present Opposition keep
permar clay on its order of the day. We have just
° trd that procee,!ings have been ordered against a jour-
nalth e Presidentwhich
f denouncedthe Republic,sma preparatory work done by
to sound the feelings of
the army on the proclamation of an empire. General
officers had been summoned and interrogated. If the
imperial enterprise were to be attempted, General Mag•
nan would replace General Chargarnier in the command
of the first military division. These are circumstantial
details. As they have no kind of foundation, the Go•
vernment has naturally thought that they were of the
nature of those false reports and lying news, which hav-
ing fir their object, or at least for their effect, to alarm
public opinion and interests, and to cause an injury to
public fortune, which are provided against and punished
by the penal code. As journalists, we do not judge this
prosecution brought against a journal. But we can
understand that the Government, driven to extremities
by the systematic perseverance in such unjust charges,
should employ new means to put an end to it. The Pre-
sident of the Republic, since the 10th December, has
victoriously replied to these calumnies by the invariable
loyalty of his conduct; he has only made use of the
force with which he has been armed by public opinion
and passing events, to impose on alt, and to religiously
practise hiniselF, a respect for the laws." -
A meeting took place on Tuesday at the residence
of General CAVAIGNAC. Among those present were
Generals DE LAMORICIERF' BEDEAU, LEFLO, and
LEBRETON. A good deal of discussion took place on
the subject of the recent rumours of a coup d'etat,
and the general feeling expressed was that no at-
tempt of the kind was to be feared for the present.
The " clerical party" are at length throwing off
the mask. The following, which appears in the De-
mocratic Pacifique, furnishes an admirable example
of what the " liberty of teaching" is for which the
prelates and priests of France have been calling out
for the last two years :
" There has been for many years at Bergerac a
boarding-school for Young ladies, which has acquired
a high fame, and which is directed with much success
by the sister of lane of the most reactionary members
of the Council-General of the department. The fame
of this establishment attracted several Protestant pupils,
the parents of whom requested the governess, whose
orthodox Catholicity is well known, to engage an
assistant belonging to the Evangelical faith. This
very natural condition was accepted, and carried into
execution to the satisfaction of all parties, when M

GEORGE, Bishop of Perigueux, caused it to be noti-
fied to :Madlle. G. that if she continued to keep in
her establishment an assistant who was a Protestant,
he would forbid the exercise of the Catholic worship
to herself and her pupils. She has therefore been
obliged to dismiss her Protestant governess. The
circumstance has created a great sensation at Ber-
gerac." This specimen of the tolerance exercised by
Catholicity in the ascendant speaks for itself."
It is stated, in quarters gene
Roman affairs, that a difficulty has arisen relative to
the Pore's return to Rome. It is said that the POPE
has consented to return to his capital, but on condi-
tion that he shall be accompanied by the King
of NAPLES, General BARAGUAY D'HILLIERS,
Baron D'ASPEE, the Commander-in-Chief of
the Austrian troops in the Legations, and
General CORDOVA,. Commander of the Spanish troops.
"MO farther requires that on his arrival at