The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-29 00:00:00

EXAMPLES.

, such a degree—his clients were se numerous, and hie
profits solarge, that he became tired Of the trade:—" asy
motive was to stop the frauds when I found they had
-arrivedto such a pitch as .400,0001 or 500,000/. a year
ivas tuy motiVe.. I bid no fear 'Of heing.dis-
covered. I could have carried it on to this day ; but
when I saw the frightful extent of the fraud, I deter-
Mined to stop it." • Another part of his evidence was
equally astounding. The public ought to know whether
it has been plundered by wholesale,
in the way de-
scribed :—" It is -a common practice of all landing-
waiters to purloin what they can get from the
docks. They have large coats fur the e. purpos
I had a large coat . with very large .poelicts:'
-There • are two circumstances connected ', ith the
witness Burnby, which will strike ..every oLee who
reads the-report-of the-preeeedings of -Monday wit.% .sur-
prise. The first is, the very lart!e pecuniary allow once
paid to him by the Customs in the 1i214 , of salary :—"
am not now in employment. I am living on my own pi
' petty, and on 15s. a-day allowed me by the Customs.
made these disclosures in November, 18 I have had
-15 s. a-day since." Five guineas a week, in addition to the
interest derived from his 0101 property, the produce of his
frauds, seems rather like a bounty upon guilty partici:tit-
tion in.the transactions he described, than anything lire
forfeiture of pecuniary advantages, as a punishment for
crime. The other circumstance was the protection sought
to be cast around him by the Attorney-General, by
which the fellow might :obtain impunity from punish-
ment for imputed perjury. Two indictments for-perjury
had been • returned " true bills" by the grand jury ;
and the 'Attornep:General applied' to the Court of
Queen's Bench for -permission to enter a no& privsegui
in each..case ; and thus stay all further proceedings
againsthim on those indicttnents. Ftir the
,credit of
our judges we are happy to add that this extraordi-
nary application was refused, and Burnby will haie to
answer the indictments in the ordinary course of
The proceedings of Monday were, as .we have said,
by indictment. The conviction will, therefore, be uppro-
ductive to the Crown, so far as restitution of any part
of the duties of which the revenue has been defrauded
is concerned. The witness Burnby, estimated the amount
of the fraudulent practices at from 400,0001 to 500;0001.
annually; and from 1837 to 1842, as the extent of-time
over which the transactions spread. Several verdicts
for large penalties have been obtained by the Crown in
the Court of Exchequer; but, if report speak truly, the
proceeds derived from those verdicts will be miserably
small.. It is worth while fur some Member of Parlia-
ment to move for returns upon these cases, as well as
for all papers likely to cast light on these extraordinary
transactions.

STANDARD.—Among a variety of notices of. mo-
tions given last night, by different Members of the
House. of Commons, is one by our old friend Mr.
Thomas Slingsby Duncombe, representative of the
borough of Finsbury, in which the Stunthird is concerned.
The motion is for a return of all money paid to the
proprietors, the managers, conductors, and agents
of the Morning Herald and Standard newspapers, for
the information furnished by them in reference
to the late• agitation in Ireland. How the Ministers
may,treat that motion, we are, of course, unable to an-
ticipate ; but we could most earnestly wish that her
Majesty's servants may feel4ustifietl in granting the re- .
turn. It is true that, in every case in which we have
been in possession .of information that it might be im-
portant to the public service to place in the hands of the
Government, whether such information related to foreign
or domestic affairs, we have been careful so to place it,
without a moment's delay, because we consider that our
connexion with the press does not in any manner re-
lease us from the duty common to all subjects. While
important events • were occurring on the continent
of Europe, and - during the troubles in Canada,
we had, by means of our expresses, frequent oppor-
tunity to render this service, and we always rendered it
promptly and cheerfully, without the least regard to the
political party to Which the Ministers might belong.
Of this we have abundant proof, in many courteous
letters of acknowledgment from Lords Glenelg,
Palmerston, and other Whig Ministers. Of late our
opportunities have been much less frequent, for the pre-
sent Ministers are wonderfully sparing of the materials

upon .which newspapers exis-t,:war Wand commotion ;
but, whenever. we have had the opportunity of commu-
nicating information to the Government of' Sir. Robert
. _

Peel, or of facilitating its acquisition of information, we,
it may be easily believed, have as cheerfully rendered
such assistance to the. present Government as to the
Government: of Lord Grey or Lord Melbourne.
This is one side of the account. Now for the

other ; and before presenting it to Mr. Thomas
Slingsby Duncombe, we warn him that it will gratify
him as little as a bona fide balance-sheet presented by
some fashionable persons that we could name to their
too long expectant creditors, or as the answer to the
bearer of a cheque, the effects to meet which bad been
previously taken out by the drawer. The debit side of our
account, then, with all the Governments that have existed
since the Standard has existed, is nil, nil, nil. Whatever
we have done for the public service, we have never re-
ceived one farthing for it, and in justice to all the
Governments of the last seventeen years, we gratefully
acknowledge that not one of them ever insulted us
by the offer of one farthing, or one farthing's worth.
This may astonish Mr. Thomas Slingsby Duncombe,
but let him quit his present party, and be
will learn that men may be zealous and sincere,
may be honest and independent, without eternally
mouthing Liberal common places—may even wish to save
their country without a eorrwt consideratin. If we
had been in possession of inMmation which could aid
in suppreSsing the treasonable agitation in Ireland, any
Government might have had it upon the cheapest pos-
sible terms—had it for nothing= had it pressed
upon them ; or if we saw slaty way to
such information we should not have delayed
ono moment to look for it—and still the return would be
payment nil Our readers will excuse our saying so
much, as this may be our last fitting opportunitz ; for i%
is by no means improbable that, having used his
lege of Parliament to insult persons connected with tie
Standard, as he has done an the average twice a year for the last five or six years, Mr. Duncombe mA 9as he
has found it convenient to do before, withdraw h!,
motion.