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

ANNOYANCE JURIES.

Last evening, a Committee of tradesmen, elected at a
meeting held on Wednesday last, an account of which
appeared in The Sun of the Saturday evening following,
took place at the Windsor Castle Tavern, Long-acre, for
theurpose of taking into consideration the best and
speediest method of effecting an alteration in the Act of
Parliament relating to the regulations respecting
' 4 weights and measures" and the " annoyance juries."
Mr. MARSHALL, tea dealer, of No. 20, Strand, having
been unanimously called to the chair, in a brief speech
explained the objects of the meeting,. He said he would
mention one astounding fact, in addition to what he had
already stated, in proof of the absolute necessity of a
speedy alteration being effected in the present system
pursued by the Annoyance Juries, viz, that the jurymen
have actually been inflicting penalties on those trades-
men who, rather, as they imagined, than subject them-
selves to their caprice, have preferred giving the pur-
chaser the benefit of over weight. Was this, he would
ask, carrying out the objects of the Act of Parliament ?
Was what he referred to an act of dishonesty ? If not,
why were upright, honest tradesmen, paying heavy
rents and taxes, to be thus subjected to such
inconvenience and injury to their business by
this perversion of the Act of Parliament ? He
would explain the reason. It was on account of the
fees arising out of the numerous and frequent fines,
which fill the pockets of the High Bailiff, the burgesses,
jury, and others. A tradesman being fined had no ap-
peal, unless it was to the parties by whom he had been
fined. The fines for the last month, in Westminster,
amounted to 381. 7s. 6d., which for one year gave a total
of 4602 10s. There were, however, other fines, not

placed upon the list, the names of the parties so fined
having by some means been suppressed. The Chairman
then read a portion of the Act relating to the disposal
of the penalties. It ran thus :—" The High Bailiff, for
the time being, shall be, and he is hereby entitled to one
moiety or half part thereof, and shall receive and take
the same to his own use ; and the other moiety or half
part thereof shall be taken and applied by the Court of
Burgesses to pay the necessary charges and expenses
that shall attend the execution of this Act."

Mr. HAYMAN, corn chandler, of the Westminster-road,
in alluding to the Annoyance Jury, said that the loss of
the standard weights and measures at the time of the
destruction by fire of the Houses of Parliament was the
cause of many strict investigations bring entered into
by the Committees of those Houses touching the manner
in which the Act respecting the same was carried out.
He would urge the necessity of every Member of the
Committee as also their friends, to immediately furnish
their Chairman with a written statement of their grounds
of complaint, preparatory to a deputation of the Com-
mittee in company of their Members of Parliament
(should the latter comply with their request to accom-
pany them) waiting upon the Secretary of State for his
advice and assistance touching their grievances.
Mr. KNIGHT, the Secretary, having read the resolu-
tions relative to the above, which were put and carried ;
a liberal subscription, headed by the Chairman and Mr.
Pamphillon, was immediately entered into for the pur-
pose of furthering the objects of the Committee; and,
thanks having been voted to the Chairman, the Commit-
tee separated.

EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC
CHILDREN.
MEETING IN MARYLEBONE.
Yesterday evening a large public meeting took place at t
Princess's Theatre, Castle-street, Cavendish-square, for the
promotion of the education of the Roman Catholic children of
the metropolis. The meeting was convened with more espa-
cial reference to the support of the Associated Catholic Ch
rities of London.

Mr. O'CONNELL, M.P., was announced to preside. On
entering the , room he was rapturously applauded. The
Hon. and Learned Gentleman, in opening the proceedings of
the. evening, remarked that hitherto the poor people of this
country had received a very limited quantity of education ;
now brighter days were dawning, and he felt assured that,
as far as the Catholic Church was concerned, it was taking
deep hold of the affections of the people.--(Cheers.)
The Hon. P H. HOWARD, M.P., moved the first resolu-
tion, declaratory of the duty of using every exertion to give
a more extended moral and religious education to the chil-
dren of the poor.

Mr. ROI3INSON seconded the resolution, which was put and
carried nem. con.

The Rev. J. MOORE, one of the Ministers of Virginia-street
Chapel, Ratcliffe-highway, moved the next resolution, ex-
pressive of confidence in the course adopted by the directors
of the schools to extend their usefulness.

Mr. PAGLIANO, of Leicester-square, seconded the resolu-
tion, which was carried unanimously.
The Rev. ➢ir. OWEALE, of St. John's-wood, moved the
third resolution, conveying the thanks of the meeting to the
" Christian brothers " who had conducted the religious in-
struction of the children.

The resolution having been seconded by the Rev. Mr.
KKANE, passed without opposition.
Other resolutions, pledging the meeting to the support of
these schools, and recommendatory of the formation of so-
cieties, to which small monthly subscriptions might be made,
were agreed to.
A vote of thanks was then proposed to the Chairman, and
was received with vociferous and long-continued applause.
Mr. O'CONNELL rose, and the applause was resumed. He
had great reason to regret what was done in this country,
as far as education for Catholic children was concerned.
Every means was taken to seduce them from the faith of
their fathers, while little was done to establish them in that
religion which was so deeply impressed on the minds of the
Catholic people.—(Laughter.) It had been said that the
present Government, when the Factories Bill of last session
was introduced, meant fairly. lie, for one, asserted, that the
present. Government did not, and never could mean fairly.—
(Loud cheers.) He deprecated the attempt made in France
to take the education from the hands of the clergy, and give
it to an infidel university. The King of the French had
given his sanction to that scheme; he seemed to be possessed
of that species of madness which indicated a speedy downfal.
—(Loud cheers.) So soon as a people forget the name of a
God, they would soon forget that of a King.
The meeting dispersed at half-past ten.

THE PROPOSED TAX ON COALS.

MEETING AT OLD BRENTFORD.

Yesterday afternoon a public) meeting of the inhabitants of
Old and N'evt Brentford, and of the towns in the adjacent
neighbourhood, was held, pursuant to public notice, in the
Committee-room, Old Brentford, for the purpose of petition-
ing Parliament against the imposition of a tax of fivepence
per ton upon all coals imported into the port of London, to
defray the expense of erecting an embankment and terrace
on the banks of the river Thames, at London.
The Rev. Mr. Thompson, the minister of Old Brentford,
was in the chair.
Mr. T. LarToN, of Old Brentibrd, moved the first reso-
lution.

Jury seconded the motion.
Mr. J. MorrcomEur, of Old Brentford, moved the second
resolution.
Mr. KEEN, of Isleworth, seconded the resolution.
Mr. W. Jurr begged to ask if the coals brought to Brent-
ford, and further upwards, were not already taxed by the
City three-halfpence per ton after they passed Strand-on-
the-Green, while as far up the river as Chiswick they were
not liable to the tax.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. BANYON said that was a fact.
Mr. Bccrim: (agent at Brentford to the Clay Coal Com-
pany) said, from the inquiries he had made, he understood
that that the proposed tax would apply equally to inland
coals as to seaborne coal, and that all coals coming into Lon-
don, whether by sea or canal, &c., will be liable to the tax.
Mr. R. B. ROWS, of Brentford Soap Factory, in moving
the third resolution, said the tax was, in his opinion, a most
urust one.—(Hear.)
Dlr. J. FLETCHER seconded the resolution, which, as well
as the preceding one, was carried unanimously.
Mr. WARNE then moved the adoption of petitions to both
Houses of Parliament, founded on the resolutions, which were
earned without a dissentient voice. _ . _

A Committee was then appointed to carry out the object
of the meeting, and a subscription was commenced to defray
the expense. The meeting then broke up.

The price of bread in Paris, for the remainder of
the present month, is fixed at 34 centimes the kilogramme.
A letter from Palermo, of the 25th ult., contains
the following account of an event which occurred in the
recent earthquake at Caltanissetta, in Sicily. In one of 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 be 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 hiin without labour.

ECCLESIASTICAL COURT'S.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sui,—l happened lately to peru cello Bill brought into the
House of Lords by the Lord Chanr, for the regulation of
the Ecclesiastical Courts, and having previously read in your
l'arliamentary reports that his Lordship had stated five
13_1:1huichwncerphpar:irsniesIde,seentnnarodtanoeattitohilfnl.aeolsilrur.dedhediadAsdfrnotbaomoetftotrtprradhe,caseeseco_as,tmoititeutanflimlie:v,ptGateitiepiIarnnatrmeBisresihell for the same
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should ni
interests,
e parishioner wouldna
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but or whatm s
ander this new Bill, if I was called upon to act as the excels*
nwouldk y ando
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be tt o
andtno-Icy k
Ii wife
i think
he tradei
trioff a 1
due to me by my fellow-parishioners;
no much astonished as I was, to find that inhabitants of
Gs 'eenwich, who, by land and water stertna-carriage, are
wit hin 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
expeifse of money, time, and convenience; and when so
lodged at Rochester, that the stamp on the probate (which
;,'tamp-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 London ; 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-
perly I have scraped together to leave them, and yet 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, mid 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
oae not possessed of common sense, and totally unacquainted
with the subject on which he 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 oethe rich oppressing the poor, 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 ordrive of London, and whither
they can proceed on foot or by some conveyance almost every
minute of the day, at an 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 tctake their wills to ; and, no doubt, as the
Surreyites are r-
c.irse off than the Kentish men, the Kentish
men can have no j•ust cause of complaint. Ah, 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, froo the Land's-end to Shakspeare's
Cliff, from Plymouth to Hui; ; 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
oome in conflict with this primary and essential one fall into
the shade ?

As to one of the conflicting interests, I have heard it cal-
culated that, in sinecures 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
severe, annual income sufficient to raise an army, or to main-
tain a fleet ; this is the key-stone to a social change, which
has been wanted 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 large 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 broad, large, and liberal
principles, having 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 London, south of the River Thames.

COURSING MEETINGS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sra,—A question of considerable importance to per-
sons who are in the habit of attending public coursing
meetings has arisen in West Norfolk, upon the con-
struction of the Acts relating to game certificates,
under the following circumstances :—A public coursing
meeting took place on the 17th of November last, upon
the farm of Mr. Charles Edward Overman, at Burnham,
for the running of matches, at which about twenty
qualified gentlemen attended with their dogs, as well as
a considerable number of persons in the neighbourhood,
who had no game certificates. Besides the flogs be-
longing to the qualified gentlemen present there were
other dogs ran whose owners were also qualified, N.:t
who were not present. Informations were subsequently
laid by common informer..., under the Game Certificate
Acts (52 Geo. 111., cap. 93, and 54 Geo. 111., cap. 143),
against between twenty and thirty persons who were
in the field, for aiding and assisting persons in
taking game who did not use their own dogs,
but who no otherwise aided or assisted than
by riding to see the several courses ; the beating for
the hares, and the proceedings of the day being
wholly conducted by members of the Burnham Coursing
Club. All the informations except one were dismissed,
upon formal, or legal objections, by the Commissioners
of Assessed Taxes before whom the informations were
laid ; but Mr. Shearman, one of the defendants was con-
victed in the mitigated penalty of 10/. because he was
unable to prove that all the dogs which ran belonged to
qualified persons tvho were present. This conviction was
appealed to at the last Norwich Sessions, and quashed
upon a point of law, leaving the main question still un-
decided, namely, whether unqualified persons attending a
coursing meeting as spectators, be liable to penalties if any
of the dogs belong to persons who are not present. Many
lawyers contend that such is the true construction of the
Acts, and some opinions given upon cases sent to the
judges of the superior courts by Commissioners of Taxes
tend to confirm this view of the question. It can hardly
however, be believed that such could have been the in-
tension of the Legislature, as it would effectually
put an end to all public coursing. What unquali-
fied person would, for instance, attend a meet-
ing at Swaffham or Newmarket, and expose him-
self to penalties, as the informers contend he
would do, in case Mr. Gurney, or any other
gentleman whose dogs ran, should happen to be absent?
It never could be intended to make the liability to the
certificate duty dependent upon such a contingency, or
to preclude unqualified persons from occasionally par-
ticipating in an innocent amusement in company with
those who are qualified, by rendering it necessary to
ascertain that the owners of all the dogs which ran are
present. While, however, the law is in a state of un-
certainty in this respect, informers mar, in expectation
of a rich harvest, put hundreds of respectable persons to
great expense, and in hazard of paying penalties by
lodging informations ; and it therefore behoves all those
who take an interest in coursing to unite in an appeal
to the Legislature to make such an amendment of the
Game Certificate Act as will remove all doubt upon the
question. W. WITHERS,

Solicitor for the above Defendants.
Church House Holt, March 16.

Note.—The Act of 52 Geo. 111., imposed a penalty of
201. and a double game certificate upon every person,
not having a certificate, who should assist in taking or
killing game ; but these penalties are repealed by the
54th Geo. 111., " provided that the act of aiding and as-
sisting be done in the company or presence, and for the
use of another person who shall have obtained a certifi-
cate in his own right, and shall then and there use his
own dog, gun," &o.

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.—Yester-
day there was a numerous meeting of the members at the
Horticultural-rooms, in Regent-street; Sir Charles Lemon,
Bart., M.P., in the chair, supported by a fashionable assembly.
There was a large miscellaneous collection of ornamental
plants and flowers. Amongst the more remarkable were
some specimens of the Schomburgia undulate, a plant of
brilliant flower, indigenous to the tropics, but naturalised
in this country by Schoenberg, the traveller. Mrs. Law-
rence contributed some line specimens of dendrobium and
epidendrium. A curious plant, cultivated with charcoal,
from the Society's gardens, was likewise exhibited, remark-
able for its gay and flaunting colours, and which has
found its way into the floricultural cabinet under the title
of "Fanny Trippit." There were some fine specimens of a
class of richly coloured plants called epacris, with other
distinct varieties, from Mr. Arabin, of Woodford, Essex,
Mr. Schroeder, Brixton, and other Fellows, of the Society.
The hot-beds of the Society's gardens, produced cucumbers
frombetween 13 to 19 inches long. The following is an ex-
tract from the Society's weather almanac :—March 8, baro-
nieter highest, 30.260 ; March 15, ditto lowest, 29.452.
March 9, thermometer highest, 58 deg. Fahrenheit;
March 5, ditto 'owes* 19 deg. Fahrenheit. Total amount of
rain, 14 inch. The medals and rewards, together with the
subject for exhibition at the Society's annual exhibitions,
having been announced, the meeting separated.
STEAM BOAT COLLISION.-011 Saturday night last,
soon after twelve o'clock, the Royal Adelaide ateaws ship left
St. Katherine's wharf for Leith, with passengers, and a largo
and valuable cargo, and about two hours afterwards run
down the sloop William, of Yarmouth, off Erith, and the
master and crew narrowly escaped with their lives. It ap-
pears that the night was very dark, and the wind blowing
fresh from the east at the time the accident happened. The
sloop, which had a cargo on board of nearly four hundred
barrels of Yarmouth ale, from the brewery of Sir E. Lucan,
was bound up on the flood tide, nearly in mid stream, and
the steamer was going in the contrary direction, nearly at
full speed. The Royal Adelaide struck her in the bows, and
such was the force of the concussion that she began to fill
immediately, and went down The loss is estimated at up-
wards of 1;500/.
DEATH IN THE MILLIIANIE PRlSON.—Yesterday
Mr. Higgs held an inquest iu the Milbank Prison, on the
body of Samuel Siltett, aged seventeen, a convict, sentenced
to ten years' transportation. Captain Groves, the governor,
said deceased was received on the Ist of December last, from
Ipswich gaol, haying been convicted at the October assizes
of housebreaking, that being a second conviction, and re-
ceiving the above sentence. Dr. Baly, the prison physician,
said that when deceased was admitted he had scrofulous
affection of the intestines and lungs, from the effects of which
he died on Monday last. In reply to a question by a juror,
the Governor said that, though the silent system prtyailed in
the institution, it was not rigorously enforced. Dr. Baly
also, in answer to a question, said that the silent system
would aggravate the diseases most common to the inmates of
the prison.—Verdict, " Natural death."