The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-03 00:00:00

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

Admiral Sir George Cockburn, Vice-Admiral Sir William
Hall Gage, Lords of the Admiralty ; and Captain W. A. B.
Hamilton, one of the Secretaries to the Admiralty, left town
yesterday for Portsmouth, to attend on the Queen and Prince
Albert, and their Majesties the King and Queen of the Bel-
gians, on their visit to Osborne and the experimental sqxadron.
The Chevalier Bunsen and other foreigners of distinction ac•
companied them to Portsmouth.
The Black Eagle yacht, Master Commander B. Cook,
waits the pleasure of their Lordships.
The Hon. H. T. L. Corry, Secretary to the Admiralty, and
Rear Admiral Bowles, one of the lords, paid an official visit to
Woolwich Dockyard yesterday, and inspected the school for the
apprentices there.
PROMOTION ON THE ROYAL VISIT TO THE FLEET.—We
are enabled to announce that tt.e three officers whose names we
mentioned as likely to be promoted on the occasion of the
visit of her Majesty and Prince Albert to their respective
ships at Spithead, wore elevated to the rank of commander,
on Monday last, by the Admiralty. They are Hector Tause,
First Lieutenant of the Albion, 90) Captain Lockyer, C. 8.,
appointed to that ship in November, 1843, an old officer of
nearly twenty-one years standing as a lieutenant, having been
made in August, 1824; John Cheere, of the St. Vincent, 120,
Captain Rowley, appointed to that ship in December, 1841,
made a lieutenant in 1836, passed mate in 1826 ; and William
Frederick Fead, second lieutenant of the Trafalgar, 120,
Captain T. F. Martin, appointed to that ship from the Queen,
in July, 1844, made a lieutenant in 1838, passed mate in 1830.
It was hoped that the first lieutenant of the Trafalgar, Hector
Loring, notwithstanding his absence, which was imperatively
unavoidable, would have obtained his promotion. Mr. Loring
was first lieutenant of the Thun lerer, 84, in the Mediterranean;
afterwards of the Camperdown, 104; then of the Queen, 110;
and now of the Trafalgar.
The experimental squadron of Spithead were exercising
sails on Monday, and the Trafalgar, 120, Captain 1. F. Mar-
tin, was exercising her crew at quarters, firing her lower deck
guns with blank cartridge.
The Nautilus, 10, Lieutenant Commander Robson, arrived
on Monday at Portsmouth from Bristol.

TILE PACIFIC STATION-TAHITI.

The slodeste, 18, corvette, Commander Thomas Baillie, was
lying at Otaheite on the 6th of January, with the Salamander
steam-sloop, Commander Andrew Snape Hammond. On the
morning of that day the Modeste ran down along the reef, and
saldted the French Admiral with thirteen guns, which was re-
turned in due form by the French ship, after which she went
into port. She has called there from the Sandwich Islands for
dispatches.
The Collingwood, 80, Captain Smart, with the flag of Rear-
Admiral Sir G. Seymour, had not arrived.

The French ships lying in the harbour at that time were the
Admiral's ship ; a frigate of 52 guns ; Urane, 64 guns ;
Ariuna, 23 guns ; Phaeton, steamer, 4 guns ; and schooner
Su'tana, tender to the French ship.
The Phaeton (French steamer) got on the reef in the en-
trance of the harbour on the 2nd of January when returning
from Riatea, but was got off without further injury than a good
shaking.

Dispatches for the Governor of New Zealand, and
also for the Governor of South Australia, were sent off
last evening from the Colonial•oflice,

CONSTITUTION OF JERSEY•

TO TilE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
LETTER W.

Stu,-A friend once remarked to me that he
thought he should like to purchase a pretty cottage
in Jersey for his summer residence, bu, I doubt
much whether he or any other person would do 01
after perusing the following exposure of the laws
here :

Although you are now aware that you would he
coming to an island where the law allows a man to
run extensively in debt, and having plenty of means
to pay his liabilities, yet can swindle his creditors out
of every farthing of their claims, by passing his
effects over to his wife; and moreover are cognisant
of as much as I have mentioned relating to the law
of decret. Yet, you may possibly imagine, that if
you see a nice little cottage, &c., for sale, which will
suit you in every particular, and pay the whole of
the purchase-money for it, that you, at least, are
therefore beyond the reach of being swindled out of
your property; but foolish indeed must you be if you
can imagine that any one is safe when such gross acts
of fraud as I have stated in former letters are rendered
legal. It will perhaps seem to you to savour of ro-
mance upon being told—but nevertheless it is fact---
that you could be turned out by the operation of the
law, although you may have been in possession
for many years, and purchased it of the legal
owner, without committing fraud or wronging
any one; aye, and under certain circumstances,
no time, however long it may have been your pro-
perty, would avail you. I described in my second
letter the method of drawing up the list of a -bank-
rupt's liabilities—these efend not only to all the real
and personal property he owned at the time, but to
all which he possessed for the fifteen years previous,
and, in some cases, to that which had ever been in
his possession. The more you examine the law of
decret the more you will be at a loss to discover the
purpose for which it was framed, unless it was to
give the colour and protection of law to the grossest
acts of fraud; in its 22d Article it is stated, that con-
tracts passed with the insolvent for fifteen years at
least before the renunciation of the property in de"
cret, shall be exempt from insertion, excepting in
the case provided for in Art. 44. This exemption is,
that should a decret be void in consequence of no one
declaring himself tenant, those who possessed con-
tracts with him for fifteen to thirty years previous,
shall be summoned, in crder that one may be found
therefrom—and if that be not sufficient, all those
with whom he he has ever passed any contract. Is it
not a monstrous state of the law, that should a person
sell his estate, and become insolvent after the lapse of
twenty years, the purchaser of it can be legally de'
prived of it ?

I will now show how you can be dispossessed of
house, taken upon a lease, as I mentioned in nli,
first letter, but must premise, that no lease is valid
againt a tenant under a decret, and should a tenant
die without lineal heirs, the Lord of the Manor re-
ceives the rent of the estates for a year and a day, or
takes possession of it for that time. Let us now as'
sume I have taken my house upon lease for three
years, have paid the money in advance for the whole
of the time (for which I have a receipt), and that In)'
landlord at the end of the first year dies, leaving no
direct issue, in such a case the Lord of the Manor
can claim possession for the second year of ml
tenancy ; suppose I pay him for it sooner than be
turned out, well, at the expiration of the time I mai
be surprised by a visit of the Deputy Viscount, wile
comes to take bona fide possession for the tenant
under a decret, as my landlord died insolvent, and
his property had been adjudicated subsequent to his
decease ; if lam allowed to remain upon payment
for the remainder of my term, I shall have paid fire,
years rent for three years possession, and, if not, shell
be turned out at the expiration of two years! having
taken my house for three ! ! and paid rent for four ! 11
Were I te tell you all the various methods wherell,
swindling can be legally perpetrated by the aid 0.;
even the few laws I have mentioned, my task would
be almost endless,—and as it is necessary, for the
perfect understanding of our anomalous position, thet
you should be acquainted with our constitution,
purpose in my next to begin a short sketch of
leaving any further account of our laws till you Wilt'
thus be better qualified to understand the causes 0'
their present state ; and when you find how the
Royal prerogative is not only usurped, but Orders ill
Council, and Acts of Parliament, &c., set at defiance,
you will be able to form some idea of the importance
of Wilson's case, wl-ich is but little understood jo
England, owing to the want of information in the
public press—aye, but little understood, notwitiv
standing their fierce denunciations. B. L.