The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-16 00:00:00

Morniffg 4P

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1844,

time, was told by the Board of Guardians, in common
with several other paupers, that they had been there
long enough, and must therefore go out and work.
lie had, upon this intimation—we quote his own
words—" said that he was very willing to work
for his living, but he thought that an old man
like himself had not much chance of obtaining an
engagement. He had in former days kept a house
in Lambeth, and had paid rent and taxes until mis-
fortunes had compelled him to give up his establishment
When he left the workhouse, he received one shilling
to carry him on his way, and, after wandering over a
considerable portion of Surrey and Middlesex, in the
vain hope of obtaining employment as a house painter
—during which journeyings he had frequently gone
forty-eight hours without a morsel of bread to eat—
he reached the neighbourhood of Hanwell, where
some pers6s, taking compassion on his exhausted
state, gave him somethiug to drink ; it was not much
but took an immediate effect on him, in consequence

of long fasting, so that, when he arrived at
the prosecutor's house, the cravings of hunger
coupled with what he had drunk, drove him
to the commission of the theft." Now it will
be observed that in both these cases, the prisoners
were the victims of misfortunes, to which all classes,
the highest as well as the lowest, are liable ; there
was no proof that either had ever been guilty of rash-
ness, negligence, or extravagance; they were simply
unfortunate, and being so, n 5 one can deny that they
were legitimate subjects for the kindly consideration
of the Boards of Guardians of their respective
parishes. In fact, the new poor-law—if we
are to place any reliance on the philan-
thropic asseverations of its originators—was ex-
pressly intended to meet such cases as those
which we have just been detailing, and to deal with
them in a lenient, charitable, and forbearing spirit.
It is a law whose avowed object is to protect and
cherish the pauper, made so, not by his own fault,
but the iron pressure of circumstances; while it repu-
diates the claims of the idle, the dissolute, and the

extravagant. And how has this object been followed
up in the two instances before us ? Has it been
carried out in a proper spirit? Far otherwise.
It has been wholly lost sight of, and ALFRED
MATHEW and JOHN GOODWIN have both been treated
as if they were unworthy to receive workhouse pro-
tection, as if, in fact, they were no better than lazy,
incorrigible scamps, whose legitimate destination is
the treadmill. Even the years and grey hairs
of the latter produce no efftct on the in-
exorable Board of Guardians ; he is turned out of the
work-house with as little ceremony as if he were a
dog; and the natural consequence is that, driven to
desperation by his circumstances, he, as well as
ALFRED MATHEW, have recourse to theft. We do
not defend their act; but thil we will say, that they
are much more to be pitied than blamed; and that
the prime offenders have been the Hackney and
Lambeth Union authorities, whose brutal inhumanity
drove the prisoners to that state of reckless despera-
tion which induced the commission of theft. A
month's imprisonment with hard labour, or the disci-
pline of the treadmill for a week or two, would do a
prodigious deal:of good to some of these heartless,
upstart Boards of Guardians, by quickening their
discretion and discrimination, if not their sense of
humanity.

A case which was brought on Monday, before the
Sitting Magistrate for the Clerkenwell district, calls
for a few words of animadversion. It related to the
misconduct of one of the New Police Force. From
whatever cause the fact may arise, it is the fact—that
a considerable section of this well-paid constabulary
have lately been earning a disgraceful notoriety for
all kinds of scandalous misconduct. We have strong
misgivings that a yet more numerous body of
offenders, of the same cloth—between the timidity of
individuals who are afraid to appear as complainants
or witnesses against them, and the somewhat over-
strained leniency of certain magistrates towards those
officials when brought before them as culprits—is
concealed from public reprobation. In the course of
a very few weeks we have had one police-officer de-
nounced for giving information to, and being bribed
by, keepers of houses.of ill fame ; others for indecent
and violent behaviour ; not a few for intoxication ;
another for a robbery committed on a comrade, by
ransacking the pockets of his trowsers while he thought
him asleep ; and on Monday a policeman was charged
with an outrageous assault on a brother constable,
er " officer," as they be-dub one another. It is really
high time that the morale of this force should be
rigidly inspected and revised. Indeed—regard being
had to the extremely liberal scale of their pay, ac-
commodation, and indulgences—for, of all these, they
are the recipients—any offences against decorum or
morality, any breaches of the peace or violation of the
law, on their part, so far from being screened or
lightly visited by the justice, under whose cognizance
such instances of misconduct may come, ought to be
most uncompromisingly dealt with, and punished
accordingly. Any one who remembers the very
numerous cases that are, from time to time, occur-
ing of scandalous behaviour in this "corps," will con-
cur with us in thinking that there is no class of the
metropolitan population which, in reference to its
limited numbers, supplies a larger average quota of
candidater for offensive notoriety than the metropoli-
tan police.
We have always borne a willing testimony to their
general usefulness, and—until AA ithin these two or
three years—their general good conduct; but, of late,
some individuals among them are constantly exciting
public indignation by the excesses proved against
them. In the criminal courts they are rebuked by
counsel and judges, for over-officious and mischievous
meddling between parties—tampering with witnesses
—prompting evidence, or unduly obtaining it by im-
proper promises, &c. On duty, they are justly re-
proached with the pruriency of their attentions to
servant girls and nursery maids, and a consistent ne-
gligence of the public thoroughfares, and the removing
of the bad characters who infest them. We have wit-
nessed, ourselves, in the newly opened Trafalgar-
square, the impunity which, for some days, they ex-
tended to the idle and noisy vagrants, of ages from
fifteen to twenty, who climbed over, and ran along,
and defaced the parapets of the terrace, and polluted,
with all sorts of rubbish and dirt, the water in the
basins of the fountains ; at the same time they ex-
pelled, with boisterous and most unnecessary harsh-
ness and insolence, a very little group of unoffending
children, who were seated about the square. It was
only on a personal remonstrance' being addressed to
him, that one of the A division desisted from this
process of worrying the little girls, and betook him-
self to abating the nuisance of the ruffianism which
was going on at his elbow. In short, we see constant
complaints of tt proneness to bullying, or the neglect
or the misconception of their duty, on the part of the
police, to an ,extent which is becoming thu subject of
very general and grave complaint.
constables
The case brought forward on Monday was of this
kind. A police
. of the G division (whoe
name is suppressed in the reports) deposed that be-
tween nine and ten o'clock on the
previous
he
evening,
he had found one Jolt's ANDREWS "creating
distur-
bance" with five or six females at Cow cross that
desired ANDREWS to desist, but that the man became
only the more violent, struck him on the breast two
or three times, and was only secured and taken to the
station-house with the aid of another policemen, whose
assistance this "letter G" was obliged to invoke.
But, " mark how plain a tale" was to " set him down."
This we give in the language of the report.:--.
The prisoner solemnly denied having struck the officer;. he
was talking to some female acquaintances, when the police-

The ,House of Commons met at 'the usual hour,
and, after a number of petitions had been presented,
an Hon. Member moved that the lionie be counted,
and, as only thirty-four Members, were: present, the
House adjourned.

Two cases were heard at.the Middlesex Sessions on
Tuesday, which exhibit the justice and humanity of
the Guardians of the Hackney and Lambeth Union
workhouses in no very enviable light. The first
Case was that of ALFRED MATHEW, who pleaded
guilty to having stolen two punds weight of pork ;
and when called on for his defence, alleged that dis-
tress had driven him to the commission of the act,
that he had not a bed to lie on, and that on applying
to his parish of Hackney for relief, he had received a
ticket admitting him to the stone-yard to break
stones, together with some bread, and had been
told that he was never to apply for further re-
The prisoner added—and his statement
as not disproved—that he had formerly been en-
gaged in an extensive way of business, and had
maintained hii.:wlfe and three Children in comfort and
rtuesnpehtbdi,flaitiyien' em,,isfortune after misfor-
tiietizey
wifinanadfit of desperation,
created by h'at his chi/dien had been
deprived of anything to eat foer more than a day and

a half, he committed the theft of which he had been ac- i man came up, and pushed him away. He went into his own
house, marine-storeaastd,k' shop, in Cow-cross-street. The police-
cused." A policeamn who had visited the poor man's !
abode, said that " there was nA anything left in the boasting fga'nner, fl
Li r7sihdi n behavedg il u
isbai a
ono mostr
w itne s sand
, insolent
an
room, and the family slept on the bare boards. the females' heads. Were it not for another policeman who
The prisoner had been obliged to part not . cmaumeehuxiowreheztehne le
tratvhwe was sprung, 54 G would hare been
n
only with his bed, but with nearly the the constable came in, and prisonerragged `hviemnteinntt,o
andh is own
tenh
took
whole of his children's clothes as well as , bilk tLtchenetstoaottn-house.h
his own. In fact, they were all in a state of the the correctness of whatlooking
m e t
haen pi mechanic
stme came forward
fsotateadrd, whose
deposedeeductnd bt to
greatest distress." The magistrate, after commenting, ;bullyingdandquitinoffensive. The policeman's manner
Isfr.
NG offensive,
ctetbepe and he was quite drunk.
in just and forcible terms,_,94 _the want of " mercy n)—Did you obtain the assist-
and consideration" evinced bY the Hackney Board of ance of another officer? Constable—l did ; 192 G.
r-e-Nr. LoNa—Why is he not here? The constable made no
Guardians, sentenced the poor fellow to a week's ..'
imprisonment, with hard labour. The second case Air.ioNc,— Did you, as stated, go into this man's h q
was that of JOHN Goonwrg; an old man, sixty-four anci\ildrraif him.out of it ?. Policeman—l did go into his hoeuusee.
c.—And you took him out of it? Policeman—
years of age, who was found guilty of having stolen yes. * °N
a putty-knife, of the value of one shilling, and or- Mr. LoNa—Then why did you not state this on your direct
dered to be imprisoned and kept to hard • labour in exilarrinLaotiNon ?
T'hfhe policeman made no reply.
wit-
the House of Correction , for one month. It ness, and lam soe4ristoensearvis
tdbisacthalrfieednalbetleiN!evelhnniscb
nf
bwhat has been stated by the policeman, whose conduct has
appeared, from his own statement—which, as in improper,er and will, I hope, be made the subject of
the preceding case, was not contradicted—that, ineeun moiryels elsewhere.
being unable to obtain a livelihood, he had gone into lergeant Boyson promised to report the policeman's con-
duct to his superior officers.
the Lambeth workhouse, and, after being there some It would be useless to point this narrative. It

carries with it its own confirmation, and its own com-
ment. We will only observe that whereas poor JOHN
ANDREWS is discharged, after a night's locking up,
and the brutal treatment described, having been him-
self the victim and not the offender, he gets no redress
fGr such an infamous outrage. Letter G, "the name-
less one," who is the offender and not the victim in
the case—who adds to the scandal of his "drunken
and . bullying" deportment the mean subterfuge of a
false deposition, is told by Mr. LONG that he does not
" much believe him," and is recommended for a report
upon his conduct to the Commissioners. We suppose
it is about an equal chance whether this report be
made or not.
Now, something must be done in the shape of better
discipline, and securities for better behaviour, in this
very costly force. A. little of the systematic attention
paid to the dressing and getting up of their clothes
should be devoted to a rigorous and impartial scrutiny
into their deportment, and offences such as we have

referred to should be punished, on proof, by instant
dismissal, in the first place. At present, in too large
a class of cases, they as little resemble keepers of the
peace in the discharge of their duties, as they do sol-
diers in their bearing or movements. They ought to
know that carrying a baton and making a diurnal re-
port to the superintendent or inspector, will no more
sufficiently qualify them for their employment, than
stand-up collars, and worsted braiding, and glazed
hats will give them that "air military" which they
all ludicrously affect—in defiance of impracticable
legs, unsorted feet, and that grotesque awkwardness
which are the characterics of so many among them!

A. connected, intelligible, and faithful , statistical
memoir of the principal elements,. of, hei material
power and political strengths s almost
,a debt , of in-
struction which the LegislatUre of Great. Britain owes:
to posterity. Our advance in all the arts of peace
and war, prodigious as this has- been, and directly in-
strumental in establishing us in our present pOsition
of paramount influence, authority, and force among
all the nations of the world, is but a common-place
reputation by the side of that nobler renown which
we shall have achieved by the stupendous results of
that spirit of discovery which we have fostered and
protected in all the branches of moral and physical
science, of philosophic investigation, of political go-
vernment, and civil polity. In reference to each and
all of these subjects we shall have left landmarks to
guide, and provided havens to shelter, those who shall
be our successors in future ages, in following out
the same good works. Among the evidences of
unwearied industry, and of an enlightened liberality,
in ascertaining with scientific accuracy, and illus-
trating, by all the aids of trigonometric and hydro-
graphical surveys, the topography of these islands,
none will probably be deemed more remarkable or
found more useful and important than those surveys
which have been conducted, of late years, under the
superintendence of one branch of our ordnance service.
Of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain," how-
ever, admirable as it is in the conception of its plan,
the details of its management, and the manner of its
execution, the publication of the maps, charts, &c.,
seems to halt somewhat unaccountably. We are not
unaware of a portion of the difficulties which have
protracted its progress to completion. The necessity
of producing it, after certain portions of it had ap-
peared, on one common scale, raised formidable diffi-
culties in dealing with other portions still to be pub-
lished, or to which subsequent discovery and.expe-
rience had shown that the adoption of an altered and
enlarged scale would have been most advisable.
Again, in the outset of this vast undertaking the ex-
pediency of incorporating into the construction of
the maps, the indications, and district, and boundary
lines of a geological survey, which might have been
conducted contemporaneously with the superficial
one, had been overlooked. In a later period of the
work this geological survey has been undertaken by
order of the Government, and so far as the public have
yet had the benefit of the data and information col-
lected by it, they have reason to be highly gratified
with the mass of invaluable facts and phenomena
which has been thus accumulated. A further diffi-
culty, of course, occurs, as to the earlier maps of the
Ordnance series for Great Britain, touching the mode
of communicating to them the same geological fea-
tures which, we trust, will 'claim everybody's admira-
tion in the more recent maps. Then, there are the
several claims of the mining counties of the south-
west and western districts of the island, and of the
northern and Scotch counties, to be pourtrayed on a
much larger scale than the Government have laid
down as that which shall be common to all the other
countries. There are, undoubtedly, perplexing pre-
tensions ; but where they are not conceded they can
scarcely be allowed in accounting for the delay which
has attended the consummation of this great national
work. The votes of Parliament on account of it
have been, moreover, continuous and most liberal;
so that we may speedily look, we trust, for the final
execution of the maps, and some general explanatory
Memoir to accompany them. The utility of such a
memoir it would be, we suppose, quite a supereroga-
tory labour to enforce. Without it, the value of their
labours, who have had the practical conduct of this
, surrey, can never be adequately appreciated. With
it, that value will be enhanced a hundred-fold to the
present generation and to posterity.
Of such a "Memoir" as we suggest, a good ex-
emplar is supplied in the recently published " Report
of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the
facts relating to the Ordnance Memoir of Ireland,"
including Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, &c. From
the " Memorandum" by Sir R. PEEL, prefixed to the
report, it appears that the Right Hon. Baronet referred
in June, 1843, to these Commissioners, a certain
paper or representation which had been delivered to
him by a deputation of noblemen, gentlemen, resi-
dents, and proprietors of estates in Ireland; that a
similar representation had been addressed to the Lord-
Lieutenant of Ireland by the Council of the Royal
Irish Academy ; and that the principal points to
which the Premier directed the especial attention of
the parties to whom he deputed the inquiry (namely,
J. YOUNG, Esq., M.P., Captain BOLDER°, M.P., and
Lord ADARE), were the twelve enumerated in his
memorandum. These points regarded the nature of
the general information previously collected respect-
ing the geology, natural history, and statistics of Ire-
land ; its collection, arrangement, Collectors ; the
money taken for the safe custody of the MS. volumes
comprehending such information ; 'present state and
future progress of the geological survey commenced
in Ireland; the digestion of a memoir for each county
of Ireland, connected with its statistics, history, and
antiquities, &c. We perceive that the minutes of the
evidence taken by the Commissioners arrange them-
selves under no less than forty-two heads ; of which,
the following are the most important;—Agriculture,
Antiquities, Botany, Census, Contouring, Drainage,
Economic Section, Education, Fossils, Geological
Surveys (French and English) of various districts,
County Histories and Inquisitions,. Maps, Museums,
Railroads, Registration of Births, Deaths, and Mar-
riages, Statistics, Topography, Triangulation, and
Geology. We have been thus particular in our
abstract, because such an enumeration powerfully sug-
gests the extreme variety ,of their topics, their bear-
ing, and their interest, which a memoir, illustrative of
the Ordnance survey of Great Britain, adapted to our
moral, physical, and social condition in the present
times, could
an
devoted,could not fail to embrace. Such a work would
indispensableto the text-book
purposes in
nthe e
e libraryonono
noifc a n
any
institution d
statistical instruction: §uc. fian institution, organised
on popular principles, would ultimately produce an

incalculable amount of public benefit by the informa-
tion it would diffuse, by the curiosity it would excite,
the intelligence it would awaken, and the accessions
to an economic knowledge it would inevitably develope.

The accounts from Spain, which are to the 7th
inst., hold out little prospect of peace or security for
Spain. The new Cabinet leave the public in
ignorance as to their plans of government, but these
may be guessed from the feelers put forth by their
organs. The Heraldo, fur instance, says that the
principle of the NARVAEZ Ministry is legality, while
the only principle of action is military despotism.
After this statement about " legality," it then pro-
ceeds to state what course the Cabinet probably will
pursue, which is simply this—to call the Cortes to-
gether, to register the unconstitutional acts committed
by the BRAVO Ministry, and also to sanction a
system of organic laws such as NARVAEZ and
his party may consider necessary. If • the
Cortes obey these modest commands, they are
afterwards to be dispensed with, all their work oflaw-
making being accomplished. If they refuse, they
will be abrogated at once, so that either way their
fate is sealed. Of this there can be little or no
doubt, judging from articles in the Ministerial papers,
both French and Spanish, as well as from the line of
policy pursued by the various Cabinets since the
downfal of ESPARTERO. In the meantime the Funds
continue to fall, there is no money in the treasury►
and the country is bankrupt.
On the 7th the Three per Cents. had fallen to 281
for cash, 29i at sixty days ; and the Fives at 20 9-16
for cash, and 21} at sixty days.

Some of the Paris papers, for want, probably, of
domestic subjects of more importance, have latoly
been discussing the affairs of their neighbours. The
Journal des L)ebals has an article of four columns, on
the recal of Lord ELLENBOROUGII, and the appoint
ment of his successor, which is not without in-
terest, as it shows the view taken by foreigners of
the management of affairs in the vast British Em-
pire in the East. The Globe, another Ministerial
paper, has an article on the Spanish Ministry, of
rather an ominous character. M. GUIZOT, of course
knows what is the intended policy of the new
Cabinet, and that journal, which is said to be almost
exclusively under his influence, intimates, in rather
plain language, that there has been such a rapid suc-
cession of new Cabinets, and affairs have succeeded so
ill under a Constitutional Government, that her Allies,
including France among the rest, may begin to think
that such a system is totally inapplicable in Spain. The
history of the seven last Cabinets, which had
all been formed within the last year, is curious.
"At the moment," says that journal, " when a
new Cabinet has assumed the direction of affairs in
Spain, it may not be uninteresting to recal to mind
the various Cabinets which have succeeded each other,
during one year, in that unhappy country. They are
seven in number, without including the Provisional
Government installed at Barcelona under the Presi-
dency of General SERRANO. The first was the RODIL
Cabinet, which was overturned on the 9th of May,
1843, and replaced by that of M. LOPEZ, which lasted
only ten days. Next came the Cabinet of GOMEZ
BUENA, which lasted sixty-five days. I his was suc-
ceeded by the reconstitution of the LOPEZ Cabinet,
which lasted four months. The fifth Cabinet was
that of M. OLOZAGA, which lasted, like that of RODIL,
only ten days, and was replaced by that of GONZALEZ
BRAvo, which had fifty-four days' existence. We
have now the seventh Cabinet, viz., that of General
NARVAEZ. How lung Will this last ? Let us hope
that Spain will at length comprehend that, of all
countries, she has the greatest neel of stability.
Changes of Ministry, when too frequent, usually
lead to anarchy in public affairs, but in Spain they
present another danger ; they may cause her allies to
think that the constitutional principle, so vigorous
with them, is totally inapplicable to the Spanish
nation."

The following is an extract from the article in the
other Ministerial journal, on the appointment of Sir
HENRY HARDINGE, and the character of his pre-