The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-05 00:00:00

MAJORITY-NOES, 114.

PRINTERS' PENSION SOCIETY.—The Sixteenth
Annual General Meeting of this Society was held yester-
day, at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, for the
purpose of transacting the usual annual business, and electing
six pensioners upon the funds. Richard Taylor, Esq., in the
chair. The Report stated that the Committee, having consi-
dered the advantages of the enrolment of the Society, had
devoted considerable time to the revision of the rules, to
make them conformable to the requirements of the Act of
Parliament. The prospects of the Society were encou-
raging, for although a diminution had taken place in the
amount of the annual subscriptions, they had been more
than counterbalanced by an increase in life subscriptions,
by which the Society had fully met all demands, and also
added 300/. to its funded stock. The total receipts of the
year were 1,352/. 95., and the disbursements 1,1851. 6s. 7d.,
leaving a balance in favour of the Society of 168/. 2s. sd.
The total funded property now amounted to 3,505/., pro-
ducing interest to the amount of 109/. 17s. 7d., 1,1001. of
which had been funded in the last three years. The Report
also alluded to the great loss the Society had sustained in
the decease of his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, and
contained a warm eulogium to his memory. The anniver-
sary dinner was also glanced at, at which Charles Dickens,
Esq., presided, and which produced to the charity the net
sum of 2504 the largest amount ever collected on, any similar
occasion. The Report was unanimously adopted. Richard
Taylor, Esq. (Treasurer), Mr. J. Hodson (Secretary, whose
salary was increased from 25/. to 42/.), and Mr. T. Billing
(Collector), were re-elected. The numbers polled for the
successful candidates were as follow :—William Walker,
2,256 ; William Davis, 2,156 ; Robert Sizeland, 2,113 ;
Mary Brooke, 1,884; Jane Geldart, 1,728, and Ann
Newnam 1,688. There were twenty-two candidates. The
number of pensioners now on the funds is fifty. After the
other routine business was transacted, thanks were voted to
the Chairman, and the meeting was dissolved.
ACCOMMODATION TO THE PUBLIC AT RAILWAY
STATIONS.—The maistrates of the Croydon division held a
special meeting on Saturday, at the Town-hall, for the pur-
pose of hearing applications for wine and spirit licenses. All
the old licenses were renewed, and there were six new appli-
cations, one of which was front Mr. W. Coulstock, for a
license to a new hoUse situated 'near the Brighton Railway
Station at Croydon. The application was supported by Mr.
W. Drummond, and opposed by Mr. Child and Mr. Richards
on behalf of the other innkeepers and licensed victuallers of
the town. Mr. Drummond, in support of the application,
presented three petitions, one from the applicant ; another
from the Directors of the Brighton Railway, in which they
expressed their opinion that if the house were licensed it
would be a means of affording great accommodation to the
public arriving at this station; and a third from a number
of magistrates, and other persons who had come to the
station and wishing to have accommodation and refreshment
at Mr. Coulstock's house, were very much disappointed to
find that it had not got a license. Mr. Drummond, in support
of the application, addressed the bench at some length, and
argued that inasmuch as the house in question being situated
so near the station of the railway, would be a very great ac-
commodation to the public, the magistrates ought to grant
the license, and he trusted they would do so. Messrs. Child
and Richards opposed the grant of the license, upon the
grounds that no other inn was required in Croydon, and that
there was already plenty of accommodation for all classes of
the public. They also said it was well known that the di-
version of the old traffic from the road to the railway had
very materially diminished the business of the licensed vic-
tuallers ; and, in fact, that of almost every other trade in
the town, and they said that, under these circumstances, it
would be a great injustice still further to diminish their
means, by granting fresh licenses. It was also argued that
the Directors of the railway could not have any means of
judging whether the house in question would be an accom-
modation to the public or not, and that their petition ought
not to have.any weight, as the magistrates themselves were
much better acquainted with the wants of the district than
the Directors possibly could be. Mr. Child also presented a
petition from the officers of the East India College at Addis-
combe, against the license. The magistrates, Messrs. Reid
and Warrington, and Sir H. Bridges, after a short delibera-
tion, refused the license. All the other applications were
1 likewise refused.

Lady Augusta Fitzclarence, sister to the Earl of
Munster, is to be united to Comte Boucle, a Swedish Noble-
man, of large fortune and very ancient family.—Court Journal.
ACClDENT.—Yesterday, as Samuel Poole, in the em-
ploy of Messrs. Barrow and Co., wine merchants, Tooley-
street, was driving a chaise-cart over Westminster-bridge,
the horse suddenly took fright. In endeavouring to arrest
its progress, Poole was jammed between the shaft of his own
and the wheel of another vehicle. When extricated the poor
man was in a state of insensibility. He was conveyed to
Westminster Hospital, where, on examination, it was dis-
covered that he had sustained the fracture of five ribs, some
of which had punctured his lungs. Slight hopes are enter-
tained of his ultimate recovery.
ATHLONE ELECTION COMMITTEE.—On Monday
the general Committee of Elections met in Committee-room,
to select six Members to try the merits of the petition pre-
sented in this case, complaining of the election of Mr. Collett
as Member for the above borough. The folloviing were the
Members selected :—Mr. W. Beckett, Mr. W. 0. Stanley, Mr.
Lockhart, Mr. Currie, Mr. Cripps, and Mr. Ward. The
Chairman's panel will meet to-day, and elect a Chairman to
preside over the Committee, and on Wednesday will proceed
to consider the merits of the question which they have to
try. The counsel for the petitioner, Major Beresford, is Mr.
Cockburn ; for the sitting Member, Mr. Austin and Mr. Ser-
geant Wrangham.
SUITABLE REWARD.—Mr. William Beale, of East-
street, Point, Portsmouth, now in his 76th year, after fifty-
five years' revenue service as a commissioned boatman, has
been superannuated on a pension of 551. per annum. He was
attached for many years during the above period to the
Custom-house watch-house boat, and had the enviable sa-
tisfaction, throigh his intrepid spirit, of saving from drown-
ing between fifty and sixty of his fellow-creatures. There is
one gallant piece of service performed by this brave veteran
which needs warm mention, and is still fresh in the memory
of our townsmen. About thirty-two years since, a detach-
ment of soldiers were embarking from the Point for a fo-
reign station, and had with them a quantity of ammunition,
when by some accident, one of the barrels containing the
ammunition exploded,. and killed eight or ten- men on the
spot. Beale, who was standing by, perceiving several ether
barrels of powder in close proximity to the explosion, and
foreseeing the additional dreadful sacrifice of human life by
their possible ignition, dauntlessly ran the risk of losing his
own to save the lives of others, and without an instant's he-
sitation, and without assistance, rolled the remainder of the
barrels into the sea, while all hearts were beatingwith appre-
hension for the lives of themselves and the safety of the ad-
jacent property.
The delay in calling out the pensioners for a few
days' training has solely been caused by the arrangements
for clothing and arming them not having been completed.
Indeed, the season of the year is unsuited for the purpose ;
and unless there were very urgent necessity, we see no just
ground for exposing our veterans to the severity of the cli-
mate, when, in a month or two more, there will be better
opportunity for refreshing their recollection of the soldier's
duties, without detriment to their health. In the organisa-
tion of the pensioners we see the first step towards establish-
ing a reserve force—a sort of national guard—so long re-
quired in this country, where the jealousy of a standing
army is so great, that people blind their eyes to the glaring
truth, that without an army their liberty would not be
worth a month's purchase. We ask these jealous men, have
they ever felt easy, on the breaking out of local disturbances,
unless the military were called out by the civil power? 'When
has the civil power of itself quelled any riots on a large
scale? In all cases of breach of the peace, actual or threat-
ened, the very men most jealous of the military are the first
to call for their aid. It tells volumes in favour of the officers
and soldiers of the army, that on all occasions they act with
ready alacrity in aid of the public, though, in England, too
often slighted by the public.—Naval and Military Gazette.
THE LATE EXTENSIVE SEIZURES AND CUSTOM-
HOUSE FRAUDS.—EXTRAORDINARY SALE OF GOVERNMENT
STORES.—In the course of a few days, a very extensive sale
by auction, of property under confiscation, called Govern-
ment stores, arising from the numerous and large seizures
by the officers of the Excise, of illicit spirits, &c., from for-
feiture by smuggling transactions and Custom-house frauds,
will take place, by order of the Commissioners of her Ma-
jesty's Customs and Excise. In consequence of the great
variety of articles to be disposed of, the sale will occupy nine
days ; namely, three for the Excise, and six for the Customs
department. The property consists of merchandise, wearing
apparel, household furniture, &c., amounting to some thou-
sands of pounds value, including cabinet chairs, carpets,
carved wood, artificial flowers, buffalos' and elephants' horns,
China and East India porcelain, cotton, tallow, spermaceti,
coffee, trays, feathers, tea-caddies, pearls,
pianofortes, Eau de
Cologne, raisins, rice, rum, sago, shawls, tea, tamarinds,
tongues, cigars, wheat flour, wines, window curtains, 1,300
gallons of illicit Irish whisky, 102 cases of foreign and mixed-
brandy, in bottles, leaf tobacco, cheroots, copper stills, &c.
The whole of this large collection of stores lies in the Queen's
warehouses at the Custom-house, at the Excise, and the'
London, St. Katherine's, and Commercial Docks.
The South Western Railway are now having
wires laid down for an electric telegraph on Barn's principle,
one wire of which is in the Thames at Nine Elms, and- the
other in a river about five or six miles oft; the earth between
completing the galvanic circuit. If this succeeds it is in,.
tended by: the Admiralty to carry the telegraph on„tn Ports",
mouth.—Hampshirc Independent,