The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-11 00:00:00

1 MUSIC AND DANCING LICENSES
FOR WESTMINSTER.

(THIS DAY.)
At the Middlesex Sessions, held by adjournment
this day at three o'clock, in the Guildhall, 'West-
minster, the magistrates sat for the purpose of hearing
applications for music and dancing licenses to be
granted to persons residing within the City and
Liberties of Westminster. The subjoined is the
result of the day's proceedings :
Thomas Martin, for the Hanover-square Rooms,
in the parish of St. George's, Hanover-square.—
Granted.
John Blake, of the Lowther Assembly-rooms, in
St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, not being present or ap-
pearing by counsel when his name was called on, the
application was not entered upon.
John Braham, for the Princess's Theatre, Oxford-
treet.—Granted.
Martin Swift Welford, for the Duchess of Clarence
Tavern, Vauxhall Bridge-road, in the parish of St.
ivlargaret's, Westminster.—Granted.
Rebecca Hudson, for Belgrave Tavern, Elizabeth-
street, St. George's, Hanover-square.--Granted.
John Paine, for the Prince's Head, corner of
Princes-street, and Little Queen-street, in the parish
of St. George, Hanover-square.—Granted.
John Buckmaster, for the Swan Tavern and Lord
Dover's Hotel, Hungerford-market.—Granted.
Henry Swift, for the Catherine Wheel, Windmill-
street, in the parish of St. James, Westminster.—
Granted.

FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)
SOUTH SHIELDS, OCT. lo.—After a minute exami-
nation of several other witnesses, the jury delivered the
following verdict :—" That the deceased was killed by the
Nelson locomotive engine propelling a carriage in which
was the said John Brown, to and against certain other
carriages, thereby causing his death, the engine being
the property of the Brandling Railway Company. Deo-
dand on the engine, 300 L" The jury also expressed a
strong opinion that the accident was the result of gross
negligence and mismanagement of the agents of the
Company.
Considerable interest was taken in this unfortunate
affair. Mr. Alport, the railway manager ; Mr. Flues,
director ; and Mr. Newton, solicitor for the Company,
were in attendance ; and the verdict was received with
expressions of satisfaction on behalf of the friends of
the sufferers.
Burrell, another passenger, has since died of his in-
juries, and Greenwell, Gamble, and Young, are still in
a precarious state.

BANK OF ENGLAND.
(From this Night's Gazette.)
An Account, pursuant to the Act 7th and Btb of Vic-
toria, cap. 32, for the Week ending on Saturday, the
sth day of October,lB44.

ISSUE DEPARTMENT.

Notes issued ... 28,082,905

Government debt 11,015,100
Other securities 2,984,900
'Gold coin and

bullion
Silver bullion

£28,082,905
M. MA
Dated the 10th day of Oci

£28,082,905
RSHALL, Chief Cashier.
tober, 1844.

BANKING n:

:PARTMENT.

Proprietors' capi-
tal 14,553,000
Rest 3,552,704
Public deposits
(including Ex-
chequer,savin gs'
banks, Commis-
sioners of Nu-
tiona 1 Debt, and
dividend ac-
counts)
Other deposits
Seven day and
other bills 1,081,255

Government secu-
rities (includ-
ingDeadWeight
Annuity) 14,554,834
Other securities 10,510,120
Notes . 7,930,010
Gold and silver
coin

£33,614,366

M. MA,
Dated the 10th day of Oct

£33,6140366
R.SHALL, Chief Cashier.
.ober, 1844.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

GLOBE.—The official returns of the National
Revenue for the year and quarter, made up to the
10th October (yesterday), will be found in the usual
tabular form in another column. The results scarcely
warrant the inordinate praises which the Ministerial
journals pour upon Sir Robert Peel for his
skill in finance. The increase in the Customs
department is designated by the Herald as
" enormous." Of this increase the " sliding-scale"
has the principal merit. That ingenious piece of mis-
chievous mechanism is as slippery as Sir Robert Peel;
and yields to atmospheric influences as certainly as lie
does to expediency in the adaptation of his scheme of
Government to the ever-changing events of the age
and nation. The threatening aspect of the Spring
months, the long drought which prevailed, and the dis-
astrous effects upon the growing crops which were ap-
prehended, gave a stimulus to speculation. Large
quantities of wheat were imported, in the expectation
that high price would be realised. The genial change
of weather that took place just at the critical moment,
and which continued throughout harvest, until the
almost unprecedentedly abundant crops were safely
housed, was fatal to the hopes of the importer ; and,
by a natural operation, also deprived the farmer of
the advantages which, under a sound policy, a good
harvest would confer on him. To meet his engage-
ments the importer, who had speculated on the proba-
bility of a deficient harvest, was compelled to enter
large quantities of foreign corn for home consump-
tion, at 16s. and 19s. duty. This produced an ad-
vantage to the Exchequer of little less than a
million sterling. But this advantage to the na-
tional revenue has fearfully diminished the English
grower's legitimate profits. The foreign corn
poured into the market at the moment when
that of native production was ready to be sent
thither, and large quantities of which were com-
pelled to be sent and sold, to supply the farmer with
the means of meeting his engagements, caused a
fearful competition. Prices were reduced to an ex-
tent which has inflicted a positive loss on the Eng-
lish grower; and holds out to him a prospect of un-
remunerative markets during the year. From infor-
mation received from the best-informed sources, we
have reason to believe that the average price of sound
wheat for the next ten months will not be higher
than 475. At the present rents, and other charges
upon land, it is absurd for the landlords to expect that
the farmers will be able to pay the rents which are
" nominated in the bond ;" or that labourers can be
employed on the land in numbers, and at wages,
which will ward off suffering and discontent from the
agricultural districts. The Government organs may
sound the notes of triumph on the " enormous in-
crease in the Customs' receipts." Their masters know
better than to find satisfaction in a state of things
which will, most certainly, produce among their
already estranged agricultural supporters additional
reasons, for denouncing the perfidy of Peel, and
for cursing their own folly for trusting in him for
" protection." His promises have proved fallacious—.
not because of any settled purpose he had formed to
deceive, but because of the unsoundness of the system
on which they were founded. Sir Robert Peel's tin-
kering of the old sliding-scale, by which he " un-
settled everything, and settled nothing," has exposed
the hollowness of his professions ; and has caused
among the farmers a very general desire for a
fixed duty, as the only means of giving stability to
prices, and thus afford an opportunity of calculating,
with something like certainty, the amount of rents
they can pay for land ; the items of expense to
which they are subject in the process of cultivation ;
and the returns upon the capital they invest. At
present, the farmers are left to the mercy of cir-
cumstances which they are less than ever able
to foresee or control. While anticipating a fair
remuneration for their toil, they are victimised
by the operation of the very system to which
they were induced to look for an effectual check
upon the introduction of the foreign article. So
much for the " enormous increase" upon the Customs'
revenue, of which the Herald crows ! Take a million
from 1,723,1651., and the residue is not much to boast
of. To the absence of speculation in corn in the pre-
ceding year, and to the activity in the specul,tors in
that just closed, must the increase be attributed. The
same veritable oracle keeps the deficiency in the
Excise upon the quarter wholly out of sight. " The
Excise, the index to the comfort of the people, presents
also its increase upon the year, 173,8981." But if
the Excise be " the index to the comfort of the
people," then during the past quarter there must
have been a diminution in those comforts ; for in
the Excise there has been a falling off in the quar-
ter's receipts of 5,6001.; and this upon what is
called "the long quarter," which consists of five
days more than is assigned to either of the three
other quarters of the official financial year.
On this decrease, the Times remarks :—" A
trifling decrease in the Excise on the quarter is
to be ascribed rather to growing habits of tem-
perance in the lower orders, than to any diminution
of means. It will bear, in fact, no other construction,
for activity reigns in almost all the departments of
trade, and the wages of labour in the manufacturing
districts have probably doubled in amount within the
past year." But if "growing habits of temperance
in the lower orders" have induced increased abstinence!
from ardent spirits, with activity in trade, and increased
wages, there would have been an increased consump-
tion of the real and substantial comforts of life. Tea,
sugar, soap, and such like articles, of which the
lower orders are the principal consumers, would have
been purchased in greater quantities; and thus what
had been lost to the revenue by decreased con-
sumption of ardent spirits, would have been more
than compensated by the increase upon the prin-
cipal articles of consumption we have named. The