The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-29 00:00:00

*mg
SPIN of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE I ,VERINa PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE—The c organs of monopoly are immoderately
elated by what w e cannot help considering an uncertain
tri ph. If these .oracles of an " insane and cruel policy"—
as Sir James Gramm designated the corn-laws in his
" Corn and Currency'.—be correct in their predictions, the
corn-law contxovers)is settled. The majority of Wednesday
night, which negatived Mr. Villiers' motion for inquiry, has
given perpetuity to the sliding-scale; extinguished the agi-
tation for corn-law repeal; and reduced the Anti-Corn-law
League to a mere name, an empty delusion, which is fast
passing away. We, on the contrary, regard the decision as
fraught with encouragement to the practical portion of the
community. A numerous and daily increasing class are
sensible of the mischiefs which the existing system of
duties on the importation of corn inflicts upon the coun-
try ; but they are not disposed to rush upon Charyb-
dis in order to escape from the perils of Scylla.
The tenacity -rrith which the League has clung to the
" immediate and total abolition" principle, although it has
effected much good by the discussion it has raised on the
general question, has provoked the resistance of the landed
interests ; and led to that formidable confederacy and
co-operation of the protected classes, by which they
have sustained the proverbially vacillating Premier in
his expressed adhesion to his sliding-scale of duties.
This is the immediate and necessary consequence of
the extreme demand put forth by the Anti-Corn-
law League, for immediate and final extinction of
the import dirties on corn. But this consequence being now
manifested, and the impossibility of obtaining entire aboli-
tion being shown by the vote of Wednesday, the effect upon
practical men will be a disposition to moderate their expecta-
tions. By co-operating with the firm and consistent advocate
of a low fixed duty, the question will be narrowed; the points of
difference diminished ; and an early and advantageous settle-
ment of the controversy, on a basis at once solid and satis-
factory, be expedited. The majority of Wednesday night
was against the League, and its sweeping demands. To the
League; then, the result of the division may be discouraging.
But to the practical portion of the community, to those who,
within and without the walls of Parliament, have opposed a
fluctuating system, as alike prejudicial to the consumer and the
grower; and have advocated, as immensely superior in all its
results to both, a low fixed duty, for the purposes of revenue ;
the division will operate as an encouragement to perseverance
in pressing their views upon the public mind. In pursuing this
mode of action they would be strengthened by constant ac-
cessions from the ranks of both the extreme parties. The
agriculturists, as distinct from the less intelligent section of
the landowners, are anything but satisfied with the working
of the sliding-scale. They are the prey of anxiety which fluc-
tuation necessari/yoccasious.The severe loss—in man yi us tan ces
absolute ruin—which have fallen upon them at intervals,
neither few nor far between, have exposed the fallacy of de-
pending upon a sliding-scale for protection. The tenant-far-
mers begin to be .xwake to the deception successfully prac-
tised upon them in the days of ignorance. The influence of
delusion is fast passing away. These men, who formerly
hugged their yoke, embraced their fetters, and called the ratt-
ling of their chains music, are beginning to examine for thein-
selves, instead of pinning their faith upon the sleeve of their
landlords. The result is a revolution in the views of many
farmers on the subject of " protection ;" and a shaking of
that implicit confidence which they once placed in the
deceptive promises of the sliding-scale, in many more. From
the ranks of the tenant farmers the advocates of a small
fixed duty, as giving stability of prices, in the place of un-
certainty, may confidently expect an accession of effective
support. From the manufacturers and traders a large and
powerful body of supporters of a moderate fixed duty woul
be obtained. We are satisfied that if the great bulk of those
classes•cotild be polled upon this question, a majority of their
members would regard the substitution of a small fixed duty
for the sliding-scale, as the only safe mode of settling the
controversy.
STANDARD.—The Trish poor-laws came under the con-
sideration of the House of Lords last night, upon a motion of
the Marquis of Clanricarde for some papers. The progress
of this great social reform in Ireland has hitherto been
far from satisfactory, and sanguine as we have ever
been in 'the hope of its success, we own that our expec-
tations have lately been much clouded, though as yet we
do not altogether despair. We were the first of the
present generation to urge the necessity of a provision for
the Irish poor, analogous to the provision made by the
statutes of Elizabeth for the poor of England—those statutes
that fixed the Reformation in this country, and laid the firm
foundation of civil government amongst us. Our proposition
was, however, first made a quarter of a century ago, when
the forms, at least, of Irish Government were still Protestant,
and when the poor-law to be imported into Ireland was very
different from what the Whigs have since made it. We
might, therefore, with consistency retract our support
of an Irish poor-law at present ; but we do not—the
reform is too important to be abandoned, however imperfect
its shape, or difficult the circumstances of its adoption. An
extract from a Cork paper, which will be found elsewhere,
points.out one of the chief difficulties—the spirit of faction
which. is permitted, no matter how stupidly, to mix
itself in everything to which the political Romanists
have access. This, however, though a serious difficulty, is
only one of a numerous family, all to be traced to the same
parent. If we were aslced to name the most striking cha-
racteristic of the political Romanists of Ireland, we should
say that they are eminently, above all mankind, a dis-
honourable people. They have lied themselves, and
sought to lie others, into the opinion that they
are slaves, for the purpose of being able to indulge with the
less restraint in the vices of slaves—which vices are the op-
posite of honourable. They have no confidence, no can-
dour, no truth, no moral courage. What can be
thought of a people with whom pettyfogging fraud is
an object of idolatrous worship ? What of a pee-.
ple who hail Mr. O'Connell as the hero and the
representative of all their qualities—that Mr. O'Connell
whose latest exploit it has been to compose libels to be
spoken by his own son at the Repeal Association, and to be
reported in the repeal newspapers ; taking good care, how-
ever, that they shall be known for his (Daniel O'Connell's)
own work, though he evades the responsibility for
the work by withholding his name, and by the
circuitous mode in which he publishes it ? Can
anything meaner or more dishonourable than this
trick be imagined? Yet it only establishes for its author
a new claim upon the admiration of the millions as disho -
nourable as himself. It is to this dishonourable character,
to which the middle and lower class Protestants and the
loyal Roman Catholics are in Ireland the only excep-
tions, that must be abscribed the difficulty, if not
impossibility, of introducing useful reforms into that
country. Whatever power you place in the hands
of men without truth, honesty, shame, or pride, will rather
be wasted in the indulgence of the idlest fancies when not
employed against you, more especially because, having de-
wed to you the right to give or to withhold, these dis-
honoirrable persons affect to receive your most valuable
gifts as insults. What hope, then, is there for the success-
ful inatitution of a system of poor-laws in- Ireland ?
None, certainly, while power to thwart it shall rest with
the dishonourable and perverse class. But peace and firm-
ness will, we trust, go far to diminish the numbers and de-
stroy the influence of this class. And, meanwhile, it is
better that the beneficial working of the poor-law should
remain in some degree in abeyance, than that the Legis-
lature should finally condemn the principle of a poor-law by
repealing the Act now in existence.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
HOUSE OF LORDS, June 8 .
THE DUKEDOM OF SUSSEX.
Mr. ERLE (in continuation from our Afternoon Edition of
Testerday) said—He submitted that this marriage was bind-
ing, according to the ordinary rule, by the law of Rome;
and he also submitted that this marriage, ex necessitate, did
not presume a marriage as if it had taken place on English
ground, or within the English realms. It was a foreign
marriage to all intents and purposes. The enact-
ments referring to the slave trade, evidently contemplated
acts which were not done within the English territory.
The validity of the marriage was, he contended to be tested
by the lex loci in the country where it was performed. He
contended that the words of the Marriage Act were not suf-
ficient to make the marriage in point invalid. The words
wanted, in order to effect that object, were—" whether within
the realm or without." It had been repeatedly de-
cided that the intention of the Legislature should be
gathered only from the words contained in the statute.
The case set up against the marriage was personal incapacity,
and he submitted that the words of the Act did not bear that
meaning. From the opposition made to the Bill, it seemed
probable that the omission to which he referred was inten-
tional. 'The Act would probably not have been allowed to
pass without amendment, had it contained the words,
" whether within the realm or without" It was upon the
question of construction that their Lordships were
asked to decide; for down to that time, • notwith-
standing the judgment of Dr. Wynn, the illegi-
timacy of the marriage could not he considered res
judicata. . What took place was in the nature of a compro-
miie. The Duke of Sussex having no funds but what were
under the control of his father, the case was compromised on
a provision being made for Lady Augusta, with an agreement
on her part that she would discontinue to use the royal
arms, and the style and title of Duchess of Sussex.
The question of the policy of extending the Act to foreign
marriages was entirely in favour of his argument. A decla-
ration of invalidity must be a violation of those principles by
which nations were held together. The marriage was valid
in Hanover and in foreign countries generally ; even Ireland
was totally unaffected by the Royal Marriage Act. He
trusted that no violation of known principles would be re-
sorted to, but that the marriage de facto would be declared to
be a marriage valid in law.
At the conclusion of the Learned Counsel's address, the
following question was submitted to the common-law Judges
by the Lord Chancellor for their opinion :—" Evidence being
offered of a marriage solemnized at Rome, in the year 1793,
by an English priest, according to the rites of the Church of
England, between A B, a son of his Majesty King George
the Third, and C D, a British subject, without the previous
consent of his said Majesty, assuming such evidence to have
been sufficient to establish a valid marriage between A B and
CD, independently of the provisions of the statute of the 12th
;. George 111., chap. 11, would it be sufficient, having regard to
.that statute, to establish a valid marriage in a Suit in which
the elder son of A B claims an estate in England as son of
A B, by virtue of such marriage ?"
The Committee was then adjourned sine die.

POLICE
INTELLIGENCE.
(YESTERDAY.)
CLERKE,..V WELL.
-Sarah Murray, a cook, in the employment of Mrs.
Jane Fa:th Aust, the proprietress of a boarding-house,
at 68, Guildford-street, Russell square, was charged with
stealing a quantity of house linen, wearing apparel, and
a turquoise ring, the property of her mistress ; also with
stealing a satin vest, belonging to Mr. Sauley, a student
for the bar, who lives there.
Both cases were established against the prisoner, most
of the stolen property having been found in her 1,„
Or
in the pawn•office ; but sho attempted to justify herself
for the robbery on the lacipient barrister, by alleging
*hat he had criminal intercourse with her.
Mr. Saidey, however, demurred to the plea in abate-
ment.

The prisoner admitted having stolen Mrs. Aust's house
linen, and seeing Mrs. Aust was determined to prosecute
her, she !Rated that Mrs. Aust was in the constant habit
of giving false characters to servants, and sometimes
had ten or a dozen servants in her house, who, after re-
maining there a day or two, received an excellent cha-
racter of long servitude from Mrs. Aust.
Mrs. Aust—l deny it.
_Mr. GREENWOOD—DO you know Maine? Mrs. Aust
—I do.

Mr. GREENWOOD—Did you never give a character for
servitude to any person who did not live with you? Mrs.
Aust—Never.

• Mr. GREENWOOD—You are on your oath, ccnsider
what you say. Mrs. Aust—l'm positive of it.
Mr. GREENwoop—(holding up a written testimonial
, affixed to it)—Do you know that, Madam ? Mrs. Aust
. blushed, and was silent.
Mr. CrutlExwoon—Did you not give several charac-
ters to persons who-did not live with you? Mr. Aust.
hesitated, and said she did not recollect.