The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEM'BER 15, 1e45.

No doubt the Hon. Gentleman has enough.—(Laughter.)
There seems no scarcity there.— (Loud laughter.) Now,
to all who think with this Hon. Gentleman, all who sup-
pose that there is enough, because they happen to be
well filled, I will say, what is the opinion of those who
have not so good a spencer as that gentleman appears to
have ? What do they think who happen not to be so
well filled respecting this question ? Let those who
wish to know whether there is a scarcity or not go to
Bethnal-green, in the neighbourhood of Spitalfields, and
hear what they have got to say respecting this momen-
tous question.—(Hear,) They at least will say, we do
not at present get plenty of Essex bread.—(Cheers.) If
there is plenty in the land there is no use to go 3,000 miles
to America for a supply ; but if there is not plenty,
then that system which prevents the people irons receiv-
ing a supply must be an unrighteous system.—(Loud
cheers.) Every law is bad, and to be condemned, that
interferes to prevent a supply of food to the people of
any country —(Cheers.) Now, gentlemen, with regard
to the protective societies, of which we have heard so
much. They tell us confidently that there is a sufficient
supply of corn and potatoes in the country. If this is
so;, I wish to know what is the matter in head-
quarters.—(Loud cheers.) If there is no deficiency in
the potato crop, what have we got wrong in the Cabinet?
—(Renewed cheers.) During the last session of Par-
liament, near to the close of it, judging from appear-
ances, Sir Robert Peel and Sir James Graham were re-
velling in the luxurious idea that power and pace were
likely at least to last a lifetime.—(Cheers.) But now
we hear that this strong Cabinet is broken up, and if there
were nothing wrong about the crops, and no scarcity of
food, what the mattercan be I want to know ? (Cheers.)
No, gentlemen, there are ominous signs in the sudden
rupture of the Cabinet.—(Hear, hear.) I believe it is
based on some reports received respecting the crops in
Ireland, ancliin'many parts of England, reports informing
Sir Robert that the evil is much worse than
any intimation the public have yet received, that
this sudden break up has taken place. Since
I have come into this hall a gentleman has put
a printed statement into my hand respecting the potato
crop ; and I may add, no gentleman that I know of is
better qualified to give a statement on the question
than he is. He says, in the paper in question, that
the number of sacks of potatoes delivered in the port
of London during the three last months of the years
of 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, were as follows :—ln the
three months ending December, 1842, the number
was 440,700 sacks ; in the three months ending Decem-
ber 1843, 315,800 ; in the three months, ending De-
cember 1844, 381,800 sacks ; and in the three last
months of the present year 1845, 195,400 sacks, Now,
gentlemen, what was the fluctuation in the price of
these potatoes in 1842, 43, 44. 45. In the three former
of these years they ranged from 40s. to 90s. per ton.
In the presens year the average has been from 10s. to
150 s. per ton. I also learn from the same gentleman
that of these twelve cargoes some were so bad, that they
were cleared out to the lightermen, and given to them to
carry away for the purpose of being converted into ma-
nure.—(Hear.) There was also an instance of one
cargo, which, at the cost of 30/, had to be dug out and
thrown away, being of no use whatever to any one I
have latterly been in every part of England, and I re-
gret to say that the accounts of the potato crop coincided
with what I have stated regarding the port of London.—
(Hear.) I believe that by next spring—and it is my
duty to state it—there will not be a sound potato to be
applied for the purposes of seed.—(Hear.) It is easy for
our dukes and squires, maundering like old women, to
say there is no scarcity, and to attempt to arrest the
opinion in favour of free-trade. They can go out
to shoot and hunt during the day, and when they
come in they can regale themselves with venison
champagne and the like dainties. With them there is
no scarcity ; not so with the people—(Hear, hear.)
But these men are ignorant of what is going on in the
cottages upon their own estates ; and, being ignorant,
are unprepared with a remey for the evil which
is impending. I am quite certain that before
the fine weather of next spring sets in, that
whole districts will be dependant on charity,
and in consequence will be flocking into the
great cities and towns for relief; and you in this great
city will be called on to subscribe to save the starving
peasantry from famine. And what is the state of things
respecting the Executive of the country ?—(Hear, hear.)
We have no Government. Sir R. Peel has taken flight
on the first operation of his sliding scale.—(Laughter
acid cheers.) Though possessing a majority of ninety in
the House of Commons he has ran away
from his own handy work.—(Hear, and laughter.)
This does not show much pluck on his part.—(Renewed
laughter.) But he has not even told us what he intended
to do. On this occasion he has put on as much mystery
to the free traders as he did to the agricultural interest
when he first brought forward his alterations in the
tariff. Noody knows what he intended to do.
We enly know that he has run away from
office—that he has left the ship without a
helmsman.—(Loud cheers.) On the first signs of
danger his courage failed, and he retired.— (Cheers.)
Lord Jchn Russell was now called in.—(This was fol-
lowed by loud and long-continued cheering.) We are
all deeply interested in the public career of that states-
man; yet, notwithstanding that, I will say, as an elector
of the City of Lond,,n, that I wish, for the sake
of our cause that Lord John Russell was not her Ma-
jesty's adviser, but that she should receive the Duke of
Richmond in his place.—(Hear, hear.) Let him try to
form a Cabinet, with Sir John Tyrrell in the Home-
office, and Colonel Sibthorp at the Horse Guards, and
see the issue. Let them try a Protectionist Govern-
ment, and see what they can do.--(Hear, hear.)
I am sure such an object -- such a Ministry
would kill us all with laughter. If Lord John Russell
undertakes the government of the conntry with 180 or
200 men only to vote for his measures, and support him
in his position, at all events, I am sure he will act in a
much more dignified manner than the Minister who
has ran away with a majority of ninety behind
his back.—(Loud cheers.) Suppose he does accept
office, and stand by the people on this question—and that
he will do so I am firmly persuaded—and supposing
that he is defeated by the protectionists in Parliament,
what follows ? A general appeal to the country. In
that case what will you do in the City of London ? Why
send four good ones.—(Cheers.) We must have four good
ones and no shams.—(A voice here called out, " We will
have you for one.") No, continued the Hon. Gentleman, I
do not intend leaving Stockport till I go in for Bucking-
hainshire.—(Loud and enthusiastic cheering.) With
you, electors of the City of London, it must ba four or
none. It must not be as at present, half and half—two
voting on one side and two on the other—like parties in
an action, firing the half of their guns on their own
friends.—(Loud cheers.) When the election takes
place, you must do as they do in America,
have a ticket for four free traders, and go the whole
ticket.—(Cheers.)—Four good men must be got to re-
present you ; two of these you have already got ; two
others you must obtain.—(Cheers.) When the time
does come for taking the sense of the country, you will
have to set the example. Your election takes
place first, and you must make it such as
will be felt in every part of the country.
I know you will do it, for your registry has
been right well looked after this last two years. With
tegerd to the metropolitan boroughs, I am sure they
will not return any curry powder candidates, but deter-
mined supporters of free trade.—(Loud cheers.) Middle-
sex will be safe, as will also every large town in the
North. We shall have Edinburgh and Glaigow; and do
not for a moment think that a protection candidate will
go for Bristol or Newcastle. Give us a general election,
and we will carry a repeal of the corn-laws.—(Loud
cheers.) We; will command the unanimous voice of
the Members returned from every large and powerful
constituency of the country.—(Cheers.) Do the calf
representatives of Essex think that they can stand in
array against the power and the wealth of this great
coutry on such a question as this.—(Hear, hear,) If
Lord John Russell stands to the principles declared in
his letter, and I am sure he will, the country will be at
his back. He will also have the support of a disin-
terested organisation at his back, who seek to obtain
neither place nor power, but whose only object is to free
industry—to emancipate the commercial, the middle,
and the working classes from an injurious monopoly—
(Hear)—and who, having once accomplished that great
work,will be fullysatisfied with it as their reward.—(Loud
cheers.) The time has gone by for tricksters and chicanery
men to deal with us. The country wants honesty and
straightforwardness—an honest man to speak plainly
what his opinions are—to print them and put his name
to them, so that they might be brought to bear against
him in uture times if he attempted to vaccilate. That
man we have long looked for, and we have him now.
—(Cheers.) Now, gentlemen, it was said by one of the
speakers who preceded me, that four years ago the
League would have been satisfied with a compromise.
Gentlemen, I can only say, that for my own part, I
would never have been a party to any compromise of
this question.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) I never
looked to a repeal of the corn-laws as a matter of ex-
pediency, or a matter of compromise. I looked to it on
the broad ground that you have no right to tax the food of
the people—no right to prevent the industrious man from
living by the fruits of his industry, and I say in principle
we are bound to remove the corn-law, and by God's help
we will remove it.—(Cheers.) But we seem to be
talking of a compromise still ; for I see by the Morning
Heald—(Laughter)-1 see according to that venerable
authority, that if Sir Robert Peel had brought in this
measure he intended to have compensated the mono-
polists.—(Cries of " Oh; oh," and laughter.) And
this paper goes on to say that a country which
compensates slave-owners would never object to com-
pensate landowners.—(Hear, hear.) Why, gentlemen,
the difference is this, that we are not slaves, and do not
intend to be so.—(Cheers.) I will tell you the sort of
compensation I would give them, if compensation they
ought to.have. They should take just that sort of com-
pensation which one of our city policemen would give
if he traced out a lost piece of furniture—perhaps a
last bit of furniture of some industrious artizan that
had been stolen, and he had traced to the hands of a
light-fingered gentleman. (Laughter.) The light-
fingered gentleman says, "I have been enjoying this
piece of furniture for the last thirty years. I have
been making arrangements founded upon its possession.
You will not, therefore, take it away from
me, without making me some compensation;"
upon which the poor artizan steps in, as we will step in,
and puts in the plea of those who have been deprived of
their own property for a long series of years, and says,

and there will be meetings everywhere of electors, to
instruct their representatives to vote for what is right
and just in this matter.—(Hear, hear.) This is the true
spirit which actuated our forefathers when they met in
this hall seventy years ago, when they had to deal with
the power of the great and arrogant dictation
of an autocrat Ministry. To show that they did
not quail before the Crown of the Sovereign,
look to that monument (pointing to the monment of
Beckford) put up there to record an act of spirited
citizenship on the part of one of you Lord Mayor's when
in the presence of a King. But, gentlemen, our strug-
gle is not with our most gracious Sovereign, she does
not wish to have the interest of the people sacrificed, she
does nut desire to reign over merely sordid men,
she desires only to live as the Queen and Sovereign of a
free and contented people.—(Applause.) No your strug•-
gle is not with the Queen ; it is with a section not most
intelligent—not most disinterested—nor a most useful
part of your country.—(Hear and laughter.) Your
struggle is against a large section of the landed
aristocracy of the country, whose everlasting struggles
are to keep you, the people of England, within the nar-
rowest limits they possibly can for the exercise of your
skill and the reward of your industry.—(Applause.)
They wish rather to live great amongst a little and
impoverished people than to rise with the greatness
and increased power of those who will rise higher
still if they will only allow claims to those beneath
them.—(Applause.) Your struggle is with the mono-
polising landowners of this country who are but a hand-
ful of men. Confront them with the people of this
country, and they are as but a cork upon the Cataract
of Niagara. Confront them with the millions, and they
will shrink into their native insignificance. Founded
upon injustice, .their power will shrink from under
them, and then they will forget to ask who will com-
pensate them. But they are not entitled to com-
pensation, because they will only be giving up that
which they never were entitled to. They passed the
bread-tax in 1815, but they never had a right to it, and
it was passed under protest from the people of England.
Why there are men living now, old enough to remem-
ber how the thousands assembled around the Mansion-
House to sign the petition against this tax, but it was
simply against the tax. They prayed in a body the Par-
liament to give time to consider what its effects might
be upon the nation. Upwards of 40,000 names were
put to that petition in one day. London was moved from
its very centre, to oppose this infamous law. We say,
therefore, down with the idea of compensation—down
with the idea of compromise—we go for the total, im-
mediate, and unqualified repeal of the corn laws.—
(The Hon. Gentleman resumed his seat amidst thunders
of applause.)

become payable to their representatives or nominees,
and which have been duly discharged: this amount paid
to the representatives of deceased members fully demon-
strates the benefit of Life Assurance, most of the
members whose deaths are referred to, though in
health at the time of effecting the assurance,
did not live long enough to contrikite more than a small
proportion of the sum paid to their respective families
who are now deriving the benefit of the provision thus
made.

" The death of six annuitants has caused the sum of
1,687/. to fall to the credit of class 3.
" The next division of profits will be made in Novem-
ber, 1847, and the Directors have no doubt that the re-
sult will prove perfectly satisfactory to the members.
" In the early part of the year, in consequence of the
large increase that had taken place during the two
former years in the nnmber of proposals, and the great
accumulation of general business consequent there
upon, presented weekly for the consideration of the
Directors, it became obvious that it was impos-
sible longer to get through, in a satisfactory
manner, all matters pressing upon them at one weekly
meeting ; and to relieve this pressuae, and to afford
greater convenience to persons attending to make as-
surances, a second weekly board, to be held every Fri-
day, was adopted. In confirmation of the necessity and
expediency of holding an addional weekly meeting, the
Directors refer to the extraordinary increase of business
since its adoption.
" In conclusion, the Directors confidently trust that
by a perseverance in the course hitherto pursued to in-
sure the stability of the Institution, and which has led to
the succesaful results herein detailed, the members may
have the satisfaction to witness a long continuance of
that prosperity which has throughout so signally marked
its progress."
In answer to a Proprietor,
Mr. CASH, one of the Directors, said that the Direc-
tors had expected that the price of Exchequer-bills
would fall, and that they had accordingly been prepared
to take advantage of the fall, by purchasing those
securities. He assured the meeting that no more funds
than were necessa y were le:t in the hands of the bankers.
The report was then agreed to unanimously.
Mr. GOSDELL then rose to propose the election of
several gentlemen in the room of the present Directors.
He had no fault to find with the present Directors,
who had done all they could for the prosperity of the
Institution, but they had too much power. There were
several of the rules of the Institution which required
altering, and as the power of altering them was lodged
in the Directors alone, be with a view to get those altera-
tions made his new list.

The resolution was then put and carried by acclama.
tion.

Mr. LLOYD seconded the nomination solely for the
purpose of affording an opportunity for discussion.
Mr. TYLER, who represented the great body of those
who were desirous of seeing the rules altered, yet bore
testimony to the honour, integrity, attention, and effi-
ciency of the present Board of Directors, but it was
to prevent any future Board abusing their power,
that he wished to see the altered, and more power given
to the subscribers at large. The Honourable Proprietor,
in the course of a long speech, went through the rules
of the institution, pointing out them which he considered
required amendment, and concluded by moving
as an amendment, that the meeting do adjourn, in order
to give the Directors an opportunity of more fully con-
sidering the subject.
A long and somewhat acrimonious discussion
followed, in the course of which it appeared that
the Directors themselves had already taken steps for
the alteration of many of the rules. After this
discussion has lasted nearly four hours, it was suggested
that the amendment should be withdrawn as the Di-
rectors had already taken the subject of altering the
rules into their consideration.

Mr. P. TAYLOR moved the next resolution which was
to the following effect :—" That our four representatives
be requested and instructed to support the re-
peal of the corn-laws in the Commons
House of Parliament." Whether they would all
four do so he could not tell, but it they did not he
trusted they would follow the example of Sir Robert
Peel, and resign.—(Loud laughter.) Without mean-
ing to hold out any threat, he wished to commu-
nicate a little information to them. Mr. Cobden
had told them that great pains had been taken
with the registration of the City of London in the
last two years, and he was witness that there bad been
great attention paid to it. He was happy to say that
there was not the slightest doubt that when-
ever an election took place, four thorough free-
traders would be returned for the City of London
by a very large majority. Some gentleman said no, but
the proof would appear by and by. In the spirit of
these remarks he begged leave to move the resolution
which he had read to them.
Dr. BOWRING came forward to second the resolution,
and was received with loud cheers. When silence was
restored he said—My Lord Mayor and fellow-electors, I
have been delighted at seeing the work of conversion
going on even here. Against the first resolution three
teen had the courage to hold up their hands, against the
second two, and against the third one. I believe now
that those who oppose this resolution will not venture
to show themselves at al/.—(Hear, and laughter.) You
have done your duty nobly and bravely to day, and
the object of this resolution is to call upon those who
profess to represent you in the House of Commons to
do their dnty. How delightful it is to wit-
ness the progress of this great question. When
I see my friend appear before you who, in a spirit the
most disinterested and most self-sacrificing, first came
forward to organise that admirable work whose effects
we now see visible in every part of the land, how
little could I anticipate that here, in the City
of London, his proposal could be received with
perfect unanimity. How little did he expect that with
one voice the people of the metropolis would now be
prepared to declare that the time had arrived when the
corn-laws should be repealed once and for ever.
Whom e have we convinced ? From the Premier
in the highest regions down to Punch himself.—(Laugh-
ter.) Everybody is now with us. The Premier is with
us by deserting his friends, and we have now the secu-
rity that whether to-day or to-morrow, or the day after,
no Ministry can long exist whose aim shall not be the
total overthrow of the corn-laws. My friend has spoken
of those who will probably be some of the new Ministers,
but, I believe, public opinion would not be satisfied until
a portfolio was in his own hands. He should be Presi-
dent of the Board of Trade.—(Applause.) He is the
man to hold out the hand of peace and of friendship
to all nations.—(Hear, hear.) He is the man
to teach mankind, as he has taught his
country, that their interests are the interests of peace
and commerce and extended trade, and to give a new
tone to the character of the legislation of the land.
—(Applause.) Gentlemen, I will not detain you longer.
You ask obedience of your servants. You are
the electors, and the masters, and have a right
to ask it. You, in whose power the interest
of the country, and the country itself, is vested, have a
right to require, and you will require, that your views
and your opinions should be carried into Parliament
—namely, that Parliament should represent the
voice of the people, and let me tell you
that the voice which now echoes through
England, and, in fact, throughout the world, shouts for
the overthrow of monopoly, and calls out—Free trade I
Free trade for ever !—(Loud applause.)
The resolution was then read, and carried unanimously.
Mr. PATTISON, M.P., said they had heard the excuse
of Lord John Russell for not being there, and that was
quite satisfactory. Why their other two representatives
were not present was best known to themselves. For
himself, he had only to say that his principles were
known to them all. Now, what was the case with
the late Ministry? Why, they had fair weather
all along, and when a speck came on the horizon
they deserted their post. All they had now to do was
support his colleague, should he be called on to take the
reins of Government. He could only say, in conclu-
sion, for he was not addicted to long speeches, that he re-
quired no instruction,,but was ready to do_his duty on the
question of the corn-law!.—(Hear.) In conclusion, he
would request them to give three cheers for their inde-
pendent and uncompromising representative, Lord John
Russell.—(The demand of the speaker was heartily re-
sponded to.)
Mr. WANSEY said he had to propose to them that a
vote of thanks should be given to the Lord Mayor for
his presidency upon this occasion. He had earned that
honour from his having merged his private feelings in
his public character.
J. DILLON, Esq., chairman of the requisitionists who
had gone to the Lord Mayor for the use of the hall, said
he:felt bound to second that: resolution. He had waited
on his Lordship, who mentioned to him that he was
quite opposed to the repeal of the corn-laws, but, never-
theless, that be would not only give the use of the hall,
but also would agree to fill the chair on that occasion.—
(Hear and No, and some confusion.) The resolution was
then put and carried with a few tokens of dissent.
The LORD MAYOR briefly acknowledged the compli-
ment paid him, and the meeting, after three hearty
cheers for the repeal of the obnoxious restriction on food,
separated.

After a few words from Mr. G. THosisoN in favour of
altering the rules for the purpose of giving the general
body more power in the direction of affairs,
The CHAIRMAN said that he had consulted those
Directors who were present, arid that he thought he
might say on the part of the Directors generally, that
they would be prepared at the next annual meeting
to propose certain alterations in the rules and
that the proposed alterations should be printed and cir•
culated among the proprietors two or three months be-
fore the meeting.
This amendment was received with loud applause.
The amendment and the original motion were both
withdrawn. The Directors were re-elected, and a vote
of confidence in the Buard of Directors carried by accla-
mation. Thanks were voted to the Chairman and the
officers of the Institution, and the meeting separated.

DIRECT LONDON AND EXETER
RAILWAY.—(THIS DAY.)
A very full and influential Meeting of the shareholders
of this Company was held to-day, at the London Tavern,
in consequence of the call of the Chairman of the Com-
mittee of Management, Sir Bruce Chichester, for the pur-
pose of hearing a statement of their affairs, and determin
ing whether the Company should be (carried on :or not.
The proceedings of the meeting, which throughout,was
an extremely stormy one, were opened by
Sir BRUCE CHICHESTER, from whose statement It
appeared thst previous to his joining the Com-
mittee [of Management the affairs ,of ;the Com-
pany had been carried on in a very improvi-
dent spirit, that out of 61,000 shares that had
been allotted only 28,000 had paid up the deposit, that
the produce of those deposits was 32,3951, that out of
that amount there bad been paid tor preliminary ex-
pentes, 4,3441. 11s. 3d.; for engineering and surveying
expenses, 14,050/. ; for law expenses, 8,791/. 6s. ;
for advertising, 2,639/. 19s. 4d. ; for printing and
stationery, 584/. ; for travelling expenses, 2361. ;
for rent, salary, &c., 5571. 15s. sd. ; for miscel-
laneous expenses, 1861. 3s. Id. ; to Dr. Blundell,
not accounted for, 512/ 10s. ; leaving a balance in hand
of only 492/. 14s. The announcement of these expenses,
and the statement of the balance in hand, created the
greatest dissatisfaction in the meeting.
The report of the Committee of Management having
been read, a long and stormy discussion ensued, in the
course of which several motions and amendments were
proposed, and it was admitted that the affairs of the
company had been grossly mismanaged by the
preceding Committee. Ultimately, amid great con-
fusion, the following motion was agreed to:—" That
Sir Bruce Chichester, Dr. Phillimore, and Mr. Cham-
bers be requested to form a Committee of Manage-
ment, with power to add to their number. That
the Committee be authorised to issue shares to
the extent required by Parliament, with this condition,
that if the necessary amount should not be subscribed
for, the whole sum to be raised should be returned ;
and that whatever steps can be taken without expense
beyond the means in hand towards placing the project
before Parliament be so taken, and that the Committee
of Management be requested to prepare a statement of
the accounts of the Company, and that a copy thereof
be sent to every share and scrip holder.
The report of Mr. Braithwaite, the engineer, was
read, and a vote of thanks was unanimously car-
ried to Sir Bruce Chichester, not only for his
presiding over and calling the meeting that day,
but for the manly course he had pursued in endeavouring
to uphold the interest of the shareholders.

CRIMINAL COURT.—(THIS DAY.)
/VA IV CO UR T.
(Before Mr. Commissioner BULLOCK.)
CRUELTY ON THE HIGH SEAS.— Alexander Gordon,
captain of the barque Nathesis, and John Cummins,
mate of the same vessel, were charged with having
cruelly assaulted William Scott, one of the apprentices
on board that vessel, about the 20th of June last, while
the ship was near the line.
Mr. PAYNE, the counsel for the prosecution, said the
case was one of a serious character, and if proved would
exhibit a very cruel mind in those who have been in •
dieted on the charge. The charge was made against the
master and mate of the Nathesis of assaulting
and cruelly treating Scott, the apprentice. One day,
after crossing the line, the boy had been rather tardy in
getting up out of bed. Cummins, the mate, went below
with a rope's end, and flogged him up on deck. When
the boy came on deck he was sent aloft to tar the royal
rigging, with nothing on him except a blue shirt. The
mate followed him up, and struck him while aloft, but
the boy to escape the flogging, leaped to lay hold of the
stays, which he missed, and tell into the water. But the
main part of the charge was—when the boy was brought
upon deck, after falling into the water, the mate
pulled the shirt over the boy's head, and the master
himself gave him two dozen of strokes with a cat made
for the purpose. The mate wished to give him another
dozen, but the master refused to allow him then; but a
short time after the boy was brought again on deck, and
the mate gave him a dozen more. The boy was then
taken down into the cabin, and was placed on his knees
on the cabin floor. The master and the mate then said
they would pour vitriol on his back. The master re-
quested the mate to put it on the boy's back, as he was
afraid of burning his fingers. The mate had the same
fear, and hesitated to use the liquid, but he afterwards
poured what both called vitriol out of a bottle on the back
of the apptentice Scott.
Mr. PAYNE then proceeded to call the witnesses to
prove the charge.
The first witness called was the boy William Scott.
He said he was an apprentice on board the Nathesis
barque. Gordon was the master, and Cummins the
mate. The day after crossing the line, he was late in
getting up. He was flogged up on deck,i and then sent
up the foremast with the tar barrel to tar the royal
rigging. He had nothing on but a blue flannel shirt.
When he refused to tar the rigging, the mate, who was
aloft, struck him.
Mr. BALLANTINE here interrupted the evidence, to say
that his Learned Friend had so conducted the case as to
make the acquittal of Capt. Gordon a matter of justice.
He had already proved an assault against the mate. There
was but one count in the indictment. The assault proved
against the mate satisfied that count ; the captain,
therefore, he argued, must be acquitted. It had been
settled so long ago as the time of Lord Ellenborough,
in the case of " Stant v. Prickett." More than one
assault had been committed in that case. The counsel
for the prosecution had proved one assault, and was
proceeding to prove another, when Lord Ellenborough
stopped him, and said he might have detained the
Court and the jury all day going through the different
charges in order to select the one on which to
rely ; his Lordship said that must be done by
counsel previous to coming into Court, enough
in that case had been proved to satisfy the
count. On this ground he (Mr. Ballantine) held
that enough had been proved to satisfy the single count
in the indictment in the present case, and as that was
proved agains the mate alone, he held that Captain j
Gordon should be acquitted.
Mr. HUDDLESTONE, Counsel for the mate Cummins,
objected against the Counsel for the prosecution tends ring
evidence of any further act in which the mate might have
been concerned. The case in the present instance was
analogous, he said, to the case of a declaration. There,
if there was but one count put in, and a juatifi-
catioi proved by the accused for any one

NATIONAL PROVIDENT INSTI-
TUTION.—(TBIS DAY.)
The tenth annual meeting of the members of the Na-
tional Provident Institution was held this day in the
large room, at the London Tavern ; Charles Lushington,
Esq., in the chair.
Long before the commencement of the proceedings the
room was crowded to excess, and at length the pressure
was so great that the gallery was ofened, and that also
crowded. This full attendance was owing to the circum •
stance of Mr. Gosbell, one of the Proprietors, having
given notice of his intention to move that the present
Board of Directors should be ousted, and a new Board
substituted in their place. This announcement brought
up several subscribers from the country, and it was evi-
dent throughout the proceedings that the large
majority
of those present were in favour of the present Board of
Directors.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, briefly
adverted to the motion of which Mr. Gosbell had given
notice ; and having congratulated the members on the
prosperous state of the institution, he called upon the
Secretary, who read the following
REPORT of the Directors to the Tenth Annual Meet-
ing of Members, held at the London Tavern, Bishops-
gate-street, Dec. 15, 1845:
" Encouraging and satisfactory as all former Annual
Reports have been, the Directors are much gratified, on
this the Tenth Anniversary of the Institution, to have
to present to the members a statement of the business of
the past year, far surpassing in amount every previous
one, and exhibiting, as the Directors confidently believe,
an extent of prosperity which is, unexampled in the his-
tory of life assurance societies.
" During the past year, 911 policies have been issued,
making an increase of 189 beyond the former year, and
producing an annual income of 16,335/. 13s. 7d., and
during the same period, the number of proposals de-
clined have amounted to 113, the lives not having been
deemed eligible for assurance.
" This large yearly increase of business of the insti-
tution has been effected, notwithstanding the coMprqi-
lion it has to contend with from many new as well as old
established offices, a convincing proof, that the more
the benefits of the mutual principle of Assurance) on
which this society is based) is known the more it is ap.
proved.
" The total annual income now amounts to the suns of
70,819/. 14s. sd.
" The accounts of the Institution, made up to the 20th
of November last, have been subjected to the usual
audit, from which it will appear that the capital stock of
the Society on that day amounted to the sum of 241,460/.
13s. 3d., being by far the largest annual increase vehich
has hitherto been made. -
"By the deaths of members since the last rtport,
claims 41310unting to the sum of 21,2304 25., Bay.

" compensliticit indeed, away with him to the poliZle-
office, and let him have compensation there !"
(Applause.) There is one part of the resolu-
tion to which I am speaking which I look to
with great satisfaction, and I wish here to express
my gratification tt) you for having passed a
resolution wherein you direct, you request, and instruct
your four members to rote for a total and immediate

repeal of the corn-laws.—(A voice, " We have not
passed that yet.") But, gentlemen, it is coming, and I
am sure you will pass it.—(Loud cheers.) It is the
sort of language which electors should hold out
to their representatives, and it is an exam-
ple that will be followed throughout the country.