The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-31 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS.

On Saturday evening a public meeting of the Reformers o
Liverpool was held in the Music Hall, Bold-street, to allow
William Sharman Crawford, Esq., M.P., for Rochdale, to ad-f
dress the audience on the duty of all Reformers to unite in
thircehdrtehss.
eedgrievTanhecems
eoeftintghewpaseonpule-
inerously attended, and resolutions in accordance with the
might
eghcot
common
most setffo prrtombyp which
object of the meeting were adopted.
A return has been made of the state of education in the
House of Correction, Coldbath-fields, among the convicts
already confined there. From this document it is shown that
there are three male prisoners who can read and write well,
are acquainted with arithmetic, and possessed of a knowledge
of languages. There are no women who are thus gifted.
There are 99 men who can read and write, and who are ac-
quainted with arithmetic, and 25 women. There are 256
men, and 60 women, who can read and write a little ; 270
men, and 105 women, who can read a little only ; and 209
men, and 70 women, who are totally uninstructed.
On Tuesday a meeting of the Oxford Agricultural Society
was held in the large room of the Star Hotel, Oxford, for
the purpose of passing resolutions in favour of protection to
agricultural produce. The meeting had been convened by
the Chairman of the Oxford Agricultural Association, on the
requisition of a great many members. There were about
500 gentlemen present. The usual resolutions were adopted.
A Court of Aldermen was held on Tuesday, but the pro-
ceedings possessed little interest.
At a meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of the
Barton district, held on the 29th, an address to Earl Spencer
was agreed to, which thus concludes :—" At a time when the
Anti-Corn-law League are in full operation, you, my Lord,
have felt it your duty to declare yourself an adherent to their
doctrines--doctrines which we think are false in principle,
dangerous in practice, and carried out by very disreputable
means. Your open adherence to their principles, when a
dignified reserve ought to have guided your conduct, compels
us to declare that we will not support the Royal Agricultural
Society of England if you remain any longer President."
=MUM
TO THE EDITOR OF 7'HE SUN.

SlR,—The Standard of Monday has an exquisite "leader"
relative to Mr. Sheil's speech.
After (tacitly) almost admitting the innocence of each se-
parate act for which Mr. O'Connell and his " co-seditionists"
(vide Times) have been dragged into Court, and put to in-
tolerable expense, the editor ingeniously discovers that a
number of acts separately innocent may be conglomerated
into guilt " by the vinculum" (how learned !) " of a common
bad purpose." (Of course the "vinculum" is not to be dis-
covered in the usual vulgar way of inference from the facts,
but by some admirable metaphysical process in the mind of
an Attorney-General!)
Now let us imagine a case :—A. 8., on a bright sun-shiny
day, mounts his horse. at the door of his residence in Dublin;
rides ten miles to get an appetite for his dinner; meets on
the road Mr. O'Connell, with whom he has a bowing ac-
quaintance—exchanges a remark on the weather; returns to
the city ; puts up his horse ; strolls through a street or two ;
sees a capital carving knife and fork in a window ; recollects
that he was puzzled to get through with his present one
yesterday, it being marvellously blunt and obviously worn
out ; buys the knife and fork ; at dinner admires and com-
ments on the sharpness of the new carver ; eats a hearty
dinner of roast beef, " settles" it with a tumbler of " poteen,'
and water, laughs at its potency, and exclaims " Erin go
bragh !" in the evening goes to the theatre—the piece
happens to be John of Procida ; returns to his domicile, and
in a few days is informed that the Goverrunent have pro-
ceeded against him for a conspiracy " against our Sovereign
Lady Victoria, by the grace of God Queen of Great Bri-
tain," &c. The poor man protests that he is guiltless—asks
what guilt there is in riding, eating roast beef, &c.—and is
informed that all these acts may be innocent in themselves,
but " become criminal by the vinculum of a common bad
purpose." He inquires how • this applies, and is informed
that the Attorney-General is convinced of his guilt, and
means to argue that the ride in the morning was taken, in
order to obtain physical vigour to sustain the fatigues of a
campaign against the Saxons, if necessary—the eating roast
beef for the same purpose ; that the meeting O'Connell, a
repealer and " co-seditionist," was " doubtless" concerted to
plan the details of an insurrection ; that the preference of
poteen to Port, and the exclamation " Erin go bragh" were
strong proofs of antipathy to English connexion, and that
his going to the theatre to witness the performance of a piece
grounded on the success of an insurrection (followed by a
massacre), proved to demonstration that he was prepared to
join in one against Saxon rule, and to massacre all the Pro-
testants

Are not all these "proofs" as cogent as those produced
against " the Traversers ?"—I am, Sir, &c.,

MOMUS.

MARKET NEWS.-(THIS DAY.)

CORN EXCHANGE-WEDNESDAY.
The Market exhibited a very scanty supply of English
Wheat, yet the demand for that article was inactive, at
about previous rates. In Foreign Wheat a fair amount of
business was passing, and Monday's prices were supported.
Malting Barley sold firmly; other kinds slowly, at unvaried
figures. The Ma4t trade was in a sluggish state, yet the
quotations were supported. Although the supply of. Oats
was extensive, that Grain was quite as dear. Beans, Peas,
and Flour as last quoted.