The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-14 00:00:00

abstract of this report into its columns, described this
result thus :—that the pretended signature of SHANK
was " proved to be a forgery." Now, if the affirmative
fact of a signature being genuine is disproved, it seems
to us the most legitimate of all conclusions that can be
jumped to, that the negative fact is thereby established.
If that which purports to be the signature of A. B. is
proved not to be such, the signature of A. 8., by all
necessary inference, must have been forged. But
the Mr. DEW, who was brought up before
the Marlborough-street police magistrate, and ad-
mitted to bail, subsequently brings an action be-
fore a sheriff's jury, to assess damages against the
publisher of the Brighton Guardian for a libel, inasmuch
as this mode of•stating the facts amounted to an imputa-
tion of forgery, which had had the effiect of seriously
damaging him in his business. Accordingly, Mr. DEW'S
book-keeper was called, who d posed that his master's
business connexion lay chiefly in Sussex, and that, since
the 17th of June, the day on which the libellous mis-
statement was published in the Brighton Guardian, Mr,
l)Ew's business had marvellously fallen off. The busi-
ness Lad, prior to that time,.been worth from 1,500/. to
1,600/. a-) ear. "For a fortnight no letter came from
Sussex." On his cross-examination by Mr. JAMES, this
witness admitted that DEW had been three times before
the police magistrate, and that, after the report in the
Tines got down into Sussex, they had no more letters.
He said that the business generally had fallen off—that
in Sussex in particular—and that himself and Mr.
DEW'S two other clerks had now not much to do
except to be looked at. We fully concur in the
opinien expressed by the Learncd Counsel for the
Brighton Guardian, " that the falling off of the plain-
tiff's business must have been owing, not to the pub.
lication of the paragraph complained of by him, in the
Sussex papers, but to the charge of being concerned in
the illegal sale of the cadetship, for which he was
taken three times before a police magistrate," and the de-
tails of which had been previously published in the Times.
Now, is it not scandalous that editors of newspapers,
in the honest discharge of their business, should be left,
by the present preposterous condition of the law of
libel, like trial targets, to be shot at (under ridicul-
ous pretences which no man is compelled to believe, and
few or none will believe) by parties, whose " business
is falling off," whether for their amusement or their
profit. The law which admits of such vexatious pro-
ceedings on grounds so trumpery as those which were
solemnly valued by a jury, empanelled upon oath, at
" one-eighth of a penny"—(the amount assessed in com-
pensation for the ravages alleged to have been committed
by the mistake of the Brighton Guardian on a business
estimated at 1,500/. or 1,600/. a-year) ; such a law
must surely have been devised by, and can only be
retained for the benefit of such plaintiffs and attorneys
as are sometimes heard of—as derive a subsistence from
invoking its latent capacities for the infliction of the
most annoying and intolerable exactions on the purses
of more respectable and honest individuals than
themselves. Mr. CoHusr may reasonably consider the
daa;sges against him as a verdict of honourable at
quittsl ; but why should the law subject him to incur
heavy costs in defending himself against such an meat)),
brought under such circumstances ?

We wish to draw the particular attention of our
readers to a letter of Mr. HUME'S, which appears in
Another part of our paper, and also to the letter from
the Dean of DURHAM to that gentleman, on the subject
of opening the cathedrals to the public without fee. All
admirers of our monumental and cathedral antiquities--
all lovers of the fine arts—all religious members of the
Church of England, are under the greatest obligation to
Mr. HUME, who, through evil report and good re-
port, has, for years past, unceasingly laboured to
obtaia for the public free access to these historical mo-
numents of the glory of bygone ages, and to rescue our
eccleAaitical dignitaries from the degradation of being
the keepers of a penny show shop. All honour to the
Dean and Chapter of Norwich, and the Dean and Chap
ter of Durham, who have so ably seconded him. All
honour, too, to Sir ROBERT PEEL, through whose persua-
sion the Dean and Chapter of Westminster have at
length been brought to take a common sense view of
this question. May the other Deans and Chapters of
the other Cathedrals soon follow such excellent examples.

Swiss papers of late dates have been received.
In the sitting of the Diet, on the Bth instant, Berne,
Argau, Basle country, and Soleure, paid to Lucerne be-
tween 500,000 f. and 600,000 f. for the ransom of the
members of their free corps, taken prisoners. These
sums were applied in indemnifying the citizens of Lu-
cerne for the losies they had sustained from the expedi-
tion. Lucerne then demanded indemnification for the
expenses of the war. This demand was supported by the
four small Catholic cantons who would each be bene-
fited by it, and they further demanded that the expenses
should be borne by the offending parties ; this latter
demand was resisted by the Radical Cantons, and it
was ultimately arranged that the indemnity should be
limited] to 130,000 francs, that Lucerne should, before
receiving it, prove that so much at least had been ex-
pended, and that it should be paid out of the Federal
treasury.

A letter from Soleure states that M. LOETZC ma, a
gunmaker of that town, has invented a new musket of
such power that, although no larger nor heavier than an
ordinary musket, and requiring no greater charge, will
carry a ball through an oak plank four inches thick, at
the distance of 500 feet. Another ball, fired at a dis-
tance of 2,000 feet, pierced a board two inches thick,
struck a rock behind it, and rebounded a considerable
distance. M. LOETZCHLI keeps his invention a secret,
and affirms that he is able to make guns of the same
size having a much greater range.

Madrid papers to the 6th have arrived. The publi-
cation of the pontifical rescripts, nominating bishops to
the vacant sees in Spain, is the subject of severe animad-
version in most of them. They blame the Cabinet ex-
ceedingly for authorising this publication, which the
Tiempo deeply deplores as a concession to the exactions
or Rome.

According to the Esprctador, General ALCALA has
been sent to Segovia, Brigadier MONTERO to Guada-
laxara. Commandant SARMIENTO to Alcarzas de San
Juan, and Captain SARABIA to Almaden.
El Herald°, the Ministerial organ, states that a number
of the inhabitants of Malaga, known to entertain revo-
lutionary opinions, have been arrested, and that arms
and ammunition have been found in their houses.
The same journal confirms the statement that M. Co-
RAM and M. CALvo, the 'editors of the Clamor Publico,
had been released from their imprisonment in the Fort
St. Catherine at Cadiz. The brigade sent to Cuenca
has received orders to march into Navarre, to be reviewed
with the other troops by the Due DE Nsmouas at Pam-
peluna.

It was reported in Madrid that as 200 convicts were
being conducted from Carthagena to the Canal of Castile,
they rose upon the troops escorting them, massacred
them all, banged the commanding officer on a tree, and
escaped in different direc►ions.
MADRID BOURSE.—Three per Cents., for Cash, 31i ;
for Account, 31.9-16. Five per Cents., for Account, 22.

The Paris Papers of Tuesday have arrived.

The Constitu4cnneland theftationaindulge in " songs
of triumph" on the result of the election of a Deputy
for the Haute Soane. M. THIERRY, the personal friend
of M. GUIZOT, was the Ministerial candidate, and he
polled only 106 votes, while his_ opponent, the Duc DE
Muß:suEn, polled 134.

AU the papers indulge in long comments on the speech
of Queen VICTORIA at the close of the session of Par-
lialnent. These comments are, if possible, even more
uninteresting than the speech itself.
On the subject of the suppression of the Jesuits the
Constitutionilel has the following : _

" Although since the arrival of the orders from Rome the
members of the Society of Jesuits residing in France are be-
coming dispersed, the houses which they inhabited are not to
be sold, because the fee-simple belongs to laics who do not
form part of this celebrated society. The late holders of these
houses were on the point of coming to some understanding
with other orders recognised in France, but they could not
arrive at any definitive conclusion, as they wanted simply to
let, and not to sell, their interest in them. These circum-
stances prove that the members of the Society of Jesus, and
their adherents, regard their present position as provisional,
and hope for better days."
A letter from Calais, dated the 10th, states that, in
consequence of a telegraphic dispatch received the day
before, a-courier had set out immediately for Ramsgate,
from whence it was expected the Queen of ENGLAND
would embark for Antwerp, and that it was conjectured
he was the bearer of a letter from King Louis PHI-
LIPPE to Queen VICTORIA.

A Toulon journal says " It is reported that General
DELAIWE, who at the date of the last news was waiting
for the return of M. LEON ROCHE from Paris, is again to
repair to Tangiers, to enter on other negotiations. For
some time ABD•EL-KADER has not been spoken of. It
is evident that the authorities themselves are ignorer t
of the direction which the chief has taken in quitting the
Tell, where he appears to have remained upwards of a
month. The columns of the Oran division are still in
the field. They cross the country in all directions, and
maintain in their duty the tribes which might be inclined
to again take up arms for the Emir. Some persons
affirm that ABD-EL-KADER bas regained the Moorish
territory, whilst others affirm that he has gone towards
Algeria, to place himself at the head of the Kabyles.
The illoniteur Algerien of the sth gives (Pt.-tiled ac-
counts of the operations of the army of Marshal Be-
GEAUD against the Arabs. It says that several Arab