The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-20 00:00:00

BANKS FOR SAVINGS.
This day the new Act regarding Savings' Banks
will come into operation. There are 33 sections in
the same, amending, not repealing, the two former
Acts respecting those establishments, namely, the 9th
George IV., c. 92, and the 3d and 4th William IV.,
c. 14. From the day mentioned the interest payable
to trustees of savings' banks will be at the rate of
31. ss. per cent., whilst the depositors are to receive
not more than 31. Os. 10d. Some of the banks intend
to pay as much as 31. per cent., and others not more
than 21. 18s. 4d. per cent., leaving, in the former case,
only ss. in every hundred pounds, and Gs. Bd. in the
other instances, for the expenses of the establishments.
And when it is considered that they pay no interest
on fractional parts, the interest to be derived will be
very great. A declaration, set forth in the recited
Act, is to be signed by a depositor, a copy of which
is to be placed in the deposit book. Officers of banks
not paying over money in the time specified by the
rules, on conviction, to he guilty of a misdemeanour.
Depositors are once a year to produce their books at
the institutions. At present, annuities, through
the medium of savings banks, can only be pur-
chased to 20/. ; but after Wednesday next annui-
ties may be purchased to 301., and both hus-
band and wife may each possess an annuity to
that or to a less amount. There are several pro-
visions in this Act to prevent the waste of funds in
litigation, and Mr. Tidd Pratt, the barrister appointed
to revise the rules of societies, has power conferred
to decide all matters relating to deposits in savings'
banks. In case a will be not proved, money may be
paid to the parties entitled to the same, or, in case of
persons dying intestate, a similar proceeding may be
adopted. Payments may be made to married women,
unless the husband shall give notice in writing of his
marriage, and shall require payment to be made to
him. In future rules are not to be sent to the clerks
of the peace, but two copies are to be submitted to the
barrister appointed for his certificate, who is to return
one, and to transmit the other to the Commissioners
of the National Debt.

ADVENTURES OF A FOX.
those of our readers who are in the habit of inn
dulging themseivo With p i*:4; a
into the country must know the new hotel kept by
Mr. Henry Blunt, at Woolton. Amongst his live
stock Mr. Blunt bas long had a couple of foxes, male
and female, which, like Home's hermit, are " the
wonder of the neighbouring swains.`' Bound in
chains rather stronger than the chain connubial,
neither the lady fox nor the gentleman fox ever ap-
peared inclined to rove from home, till lately a dispo-
sition to wander suddenly seized upon the latter, and,
strange to say, he received assistance from his lady in
the accomplishment of his wishes. Mrs. Fox actually
gnawed through the collar of her lord, and like
many an heroic female " famous in story," heroically,
for his sake, dared the vengeance of offended
power. Reynard might immediately have made
his escape, but whether the ancient appetite of
his kind prevailed over his proverbial discretion,
or whether he wished to fortify his inner indivi-
duality ere he set out on his travels, we know not,
but certain it is that he crept slily among the poultry,
and selected a fine plump chicken, on which he forth•
with breakfasted. Then, " consideration, like an
angel," came, and he gallantly determined upon help-
ing his lady, who looked wistfully on, unable to help
herself. He selected for her a black Spanish cock, of
a valuable breed, which, having killed, he laid before
his spouse. He next set himself to work to provide
provision for a future day. Seizing a fat goose, he
quietly bit off his long neck, and concealed the huge
bird beneath some branches in the garden. The vil-
lain next snapped at a fine duck, and was proceeding
to bury it alive, when he was discovered, and, upon
a rush being made at him, he at once cleared a wall
ten feet high. He took another wall into Mr.
Gibbons's garden, where his brush was seen
for a moment ; but, determined to escape, he
dashed at the carriage gate, which is planted with
spikes, and actually cleared it into the road, where he
was seen by Mr. Gore, who turned him, upon which
he made across the country. He want to a farm be-
longing to Mr. Bibby, where lie lay concealed for
some time ; but, on the following morning, he ap-
peared at the residence of Mr. Ambrose Lace, the
excellence of whose poultry we believe he had the
honour of testing. Next morning he favoured Mrs.
Foster, widow of the late Mr. Foster, town-clerk,
with a visit, and did her a similar favour. Here,
however, he was pursued by the dogs, which seem to
have given him something of a fright, for he was not
heard of for several days afterwards. His next ap-
pearance was at the residence of our friend Dr. Shep-
herd, at Gateacre. Here, however, he again met with
a reception which he did not like, the dogs having
rushed upon him and chased him a considerable dis-
tance. He took the direction of Toxteth-park.
Now, this very queer fox came originally
from America, having, with his spouse, been
presented to Mr. Blunt by the commander of
one of the New York packet ships. Whether he was
disgusted with the treatment he had met with in Eng-
land, and had determined on returning to his native
land, or whether he mistook the forest of masts before
him for a forest of another description we know not ;
but it is certain that he " pondered refuge from his
toil" in a very singular locality. Passing behind the
Coburg Hotel, he crossed the bridge of the Coburg
Dock, and took shelter under some loose timber. Here
he was taken by Mr. Green and his man, who, seeing
that he had a rope on his neck, at once conjectured he
had escaped from captivity. Mr. Blunt was soon in-
formed of his whereabout, and, in a few days, he was
taken back to his old quarters, where he may be seen
living with his spouse, in apparent contentment and
felicity, though he is compelled to regale on food less
to his taste than fatted poultry.—Liverpool Albion.

The following, though short, is a very comprehen-
sive provision :
" Section 21.—And be it enacted, that all the pro-
visions of this Act, in as far as the same can or may
be applicable, shall apply to the trustees and mana-
gers of any Government annuity society, and to the
parties purchasing annuities, and to the rules and
regulations to be made for carrying the same into
effect."
The Act has operation in Great Britain and Ire-
land, Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the islands of Guern-
sey, Jersey, and Man.

THE LATE SWINDLING AFFAIR.
(From the Birmingham Journal.)
On Wednesday a number of respectable tradesmen
who had been swindled by the blind man, of whose
nefarious transactions we gave an account last week,
came before the magistrates (Messrs. Shaw and Nel-
son), for the purpose of detailing their grievances, and
laying, if possible, a foundation for the arrest of the
gang by whom they had been robbed.
The first gentleman who presented himself was Mr.
W. Arnold, solicitor, of Bennett's-hill, who stated that
he applied for a warrant against a blind man, named
Rice, and his accomplice, Joliffe, who had lately been
practising upon him and numerous attorneys and
tradesmen in the town. Indeed, he believed some of
the oldest and most respectable practitioners had been
defrauded by the swindlers, although they were
rather ashamed to come forward. He, however, felt
no difficulty about the matter ; and, considering that
it was his duty to aid in detecting and punishing
such persons, he should state the facts of his case, and
ask for a warrant against the parties. The week
before last Rice, who was a blind man, accompanied
by a youth of most respectable appearance, called at
his office, presented his card, and stated that he was
recommended to him by Mr. Smith, of New-street, a
friend of his (Mr. Arnold's). After a few words,
Rice told him that he wished him to write to a man
named Joliffe, of the Aston-road, for a debt of
631. 10s. He accordingly wrote, and in a day
or two after Joliffe sailed at his (Arnold's) office, and
expressed his great regret that Mr. Rice should have
proceeded against him, particularly as he did not owe
all the money sued for. He (Mr. Arnold) then agreed
to accept 581. on the Monday following, in discharge
of the debt due to Rice; and Joliffe was about to
leave, when he expressed himself very grateful for
the kind manner in which the debt had been reduced,
and begged him (Mr. Arnold) to accept a guinea for
his trouble, which he, of course, declined to do, and
Joliffe left the office. On the Monday following Rice
called again, and, on being informed of the arrange-
ment made with Joliffe, he appeared quite delighted,
observing that he never really expected to have re-
covered the money. He then proceeded to say that
he had advanced Joliffe 301. upon some deeds, and
being short of cash he had assigned the deeds to
another party, at Coventry, for 201., and had not then
the money to redeem the writings previously to their
being delivered up to Joliffe on Monday. He then
asked him (Mr. Arnold) if he could advance him 20/.,
and the latter replied he would if he had so much in
his desk, but opening it he found he had only 101.
Rice immediately said that would do for the present,
as he could borrow the remainder from some friend,
upon which he handed him the money, and took his
I 0 U for the amount, and the boy attested it.
The money and deeds were to be delivered on
Saturday, the latter to be given up to Joliffe on Mon-
day, when he paid the 581. Before leaving the office,
Rice expressed himself deeply grateful to Mr. Arnold
for the accommodation, and, as a small recompense
for his trouble, begged his acceptance of 31. 3s. This
offer he refused, saying that it was unprofessional
to accept of any consideration of the kind, and Rice
then left the office. On Saturday he was hourly ex-
pecting Mr. Rice with the money and deeds, but the
gentleman not arriving, he (Mr. Arnold) was be-
ginning to wonder, when he took up the Birmingham
Journal, and his eye caught a paragraph headed
"A New Way to Raise the Wind; the Lawyers
Outwitted ;" and thinking it something strange for
those honourable gentlemen to be done, he read the
article, and soon perceived that he himself was one
out of a number of the professional gentlemen who
had been swindled. Under these circumstances he
applied for a warrant against Rice and his associate,
as there could be no doubt they had been acting
in concert.
Mr. W. Hall said there were several other per-
sans in the town who had been swindled, but he could
not get them to the office, as they did not like to ap-
pear under the circumstances. The parties then left
the Court.
We have received several communications from
gentlemen in London and elsewhere, who have recog-
nised in Mr. Rice, from the case reported by us last
week, an old acquaintance. One of our correspon-
dents, a sufferer, who dates his note from the Par-
thenon Club, Regent-street, informs us that the
blind man, when practising in town, went by the
name of " C. Radley, tailor, 13, Hatfield-street,
Stamford-street, Borough," and his accomplice by
the name of " Charles Portlock A ttwood, of Eltham,
Kent." Another correspondent, a professional gen-
man, who, we have no doubt, was also victimised,
says he can furnish a clue to the discovery and ap-
prehension of the scoundrels, should any measures be
determined upon for bringing them to justice. This
gentleman's address we shall be happy to furnish,
if
required, as he is most willing to lend a hand in
bringing the transactions of the swindling company to
a close. It appears the parties are well known to the
metropolitan police, whose vigilance they have suc-
ceeded in eluding ; we trust our Birmingham force
will be more successful when they make the attempt.

INCENDIARY FIRE AT PANFIELD.—We regret to
state, that about twelve o'clock on Sunday night last, a
barn upon Currant's farm, the property of Mr. Gosling,
and in the occupation of Mr. John Ratcliff, of Panfield,
situate about a mile and a half from the town of Brain-
tree, was discovered to be on fire. Superintendent
Malins and three of his constables were quickly on the
spot, and two engines were in attendance •, but notwith-
standing the exertions of those present the barn, with
its contents, consisting of the produse of 9 acres of oats
and 2 of beans, a stable and cartledge, were totally
consumed. There appears to be little doubt that this
destruction of property was wilflully occasioned, and at
present there is no clue to the guilty party. The stock
was insured in the Sun Fire-office ; we have not heard
iIT lann oEus CREEP ac tin May
ATslTa. last.
PETER'S Essex
DHoed.
cealic.—
An alarming
whether the buildings were similarly protected. Mr.
Ratcliff, it will be remembered, suffered from a similar
v
occurrence took place yesterday morning, at St. Peter's
Quay, about three miles below this town, the surface of
the ground for some acres in extent, having been affected
with what in this district is called the creep, being a sort
of incipient earthquake, by which considerable destruc-
tion has been done to property in the neighbourhood,
the extensive building yard of Messrs. Thomas and
William Smith, the eminent ship-builders, having been
rendered for a time entirely useless. The first intima-
tion of danger was observed a week ago, but it was very
slight, amounting only to a rent in one of the houses to
the north of the building yard, which was repaired, and
matters continued in the same state till nine o'clock
yesterday morning. It may be proper to state that the
dock, though on the north side of the river, is com-
pletely undermined by the workings of the Friar's Goose
colliery, situate on the other side, and it is supposed
the accident has been caused by the working or falling
of the roof, or superincumbent strata. At the period
abovementioned, the whole of the men and boys, nearly
200 in number, were at breakfast in the smith's shop and
store, on the north side of the building yard, when they
heard a thundering noise,
and on looking out, beheld the
surface of the ground in motion. They ran away from the
spot, and reached a place of safety, and there they were
soon joined by the inhabitants of the neighbouring house
who fled in the greatest consternation. In a few minutes
the heaving of the surface ceased, and, on the men re-
turning to the building yard, they found the ground
rent in various directions, presenting chasms several feet
in depth ; the bottom of the spacious dry dock, capable
of admitting vessels of the largest size, was thrown up
in dreadful confusion ,• the sides rent ; and the whole
presented a scene of destruction which might well appal
the stoutest heart. The windows in the neighbouring
houses were broken, doors and framework split and
crushed, and several walls were levelled with the ground.
The movement was confined to the building-yard and
the adjacent houses. The quay next the river has sunk
several inches, and the bed of the river, which before
was " high and dry" at low water, is now covered to the
depth of from eighteen to twenty-four inches. The water
in the river was agitated,
and the motion was felt on
board the vessels, lying near. The men employed in the
building-yard have been discharged, and all work sue.
pended, and it will be some time before the injury can
be repaired.—Newcastle Journal.
THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OP A BRIDE-
GROOM—It will be recollected that a paragraph ap-
peared in the papers last week, giving the details of the
extraordinary and mysterious disappearance of Mr.
Joseph Amis, many years bookkeeper at the Bull Inn,
Aldgate, who immediately after his marriage had writ-
ten a letter to his bride, sending her a bag of sovereigns,
telling her where to obtain the rest of his property, and
concluding by a statement that she would in all proba-
bility never see him again. It appears that previously
to the wedding he made arrangements to come into the
occupancy of the Kent and Essex public-house, High-
street, Whitechapel, and had paid a deposit as earnest
money. On the receipt of his extraordinary letter, his
wife and her friends were naturally greatly alarmed, and
began to fear that he contemplated suicide; although
they knew no cause to which to attribute any mental
distress or annoyance. They have, however, since been
relieved from all their fears and anxieties by the return
of the bridegroom, who having " thought better of the
matter," resolved to come back and claim his wife like a
man. The oddest part of the business is, that he could
assign no motive for his strange conduct, merely saying
that he experienced a feeling of despondency with regard
to his new undertaking. He is, however, now in pos-
session of the Kent and Essex.
Lord Saye and Sele, whose death we recently an-
nounced, was the oldest Member of the House of Lords,
of the Whig party, having entered it soon after the death
of his father, Thomas, the teeth Baron, in July, 1788.
In common with Lords Clinton, Dacre, and the Duke of
Newcastle, he derived his descent from the Lord Saye,
who, with other confederated Barons at Runnimede,
compelled King John to sign Magna Charta, and from
the Viscount Saye and Sele who, in the wars of Charles
1., sided with the Parliamentarians, and was the friend
of Hampden, Fairfax, Denzil, Hollis, and Oliver Crom-
well. Lord Saye and Sele assisted in the ever-memo-
rable struggle for carrying the Reform Bill, and having
fur more than forty years uniformly and consistently
voted with the Whig party, was offered an earldom by
the Guy and Melbourne Administrations, of which
offer, however, his Lordship did not avail himself. He
is succeeded in his title and estates by the Honourable
William Eardley Twisleton Fiennes, present and twelfth
Lord Saye and Sele. It is expected that the mortal re-
mains of the departed Nobleman will be deposited in his
ancestral sepulchre at Broughton, on Saturday next.
SPARROW-SHOOTING EXTRAOEDINARY.—A very
novel and successful mode of shooting sparrows was
witnessed at Deptford on Monday morning. Two
men of colour, who from their dress appeared to be
Lascars, were amusing themselves by shooting sparrows
in the proximity of the Docks, which they effected in the
following wanner. Each man was furnished with a
bamboo cane, measuring about three feet in length, also
with a bag of clay pellets, resembling small marbles.
One of the men, on perceiving a sparrow settle upon the
ground, would approach it within fourteen or fifteen
paces, and applying the tube to his mouth, placing it in
a line with the bird, would propel one of these pellets by
the force of his breath, through the former at the spar-
row, with sure and certain effect. In the course of a few
minutes they had managed, between them, to kill no less
than 13 of these birds, and were proceeding successfully,
and so deadly was their unerring aim, that, out of four-
teen objects of the above description at which they dis-
charged their pellets, one only escaped, and in that soli.
tart' instance the bird was at least 20 paces off the
shooter when the missile was proketed at it.
DEATH Or HARRY GATTIE, EsQ.—Died, at Read-
ing, on the 13th inst., aged 70, deeply regretted by his
family and friends, Harry Gattie, Esq., formerly a most
popular actor at the Theatre Royal, Drury-lane, and
other principal theatres. Mr. Gattie's inimitable repre-
sentation of Frenchmen will be well remembered. Ifr.
Gattie was a most honourable man, and he retired from
the stage several years ago, universally esteemed by his
brethren, and every one who knew him.

•
SUICIDE FROM DOMESTIC DIFFERENCES.--'An in
quest was held on Monday, at the Black Lion, Water-
lane, Fleet-street, before Mr. Payne, on the body of
of Anne Duck, aged 48, who destroyed herself with
poison. Elizabeth Duck said that the deceased was her
mother, and resided with her, her father, and her sister,
at No. 1, Britton's-court. Deceased was very unhappy,
and witness knew no other cause for her unhappiness
than the quarrels she had with her husband. On many
occasions, when suffering from his ill-treatment, she had
taken poison, and on Sunday week she made a vow that,
if he did not come home in a peaceable manner,
she
should not live another Sunday. On Sunday morninL
last her husband came home, and the first thing he said
to her was, " How about the lawyer," in allusion to his
having been bound over to keep the peace towards her
some time previous. Witness, while sitting up in bed
shortly afterwards, waiting for deceased to come to her,
heard her draw the cork from a bottle, and believing that
she had drank poison, got out of bed to see. Shen then
found two phials, both of which smelt of laudanum. Wit-
ness got her hot water to try and make her vomit, but find-
ing that ineffectual, she wentby her father's advice for a sur-
geon. She heard the deceased say that she had taken
eight pennyworth of laudanum. Her father was a waiter
at the Half Moon, Borough, but contributed nothing to
the support of the family. He frequently beat her.
Police-constable 327 said that be had frequently been
called upon to quell disturbances between deceased and
her husband. The husband he often heard use towards
her the most disgusting language. Mr. Beasley, assistant
to Mr. Day, surgeon, of Salisbury-square, said that,
while administering emetics to the deceased, she begged
to be left to die, saying that she wished the Almighty
would take her. Notwithstanding all his efforts she sunk
and died from the effects of the laudanum. She told
him that she had become possessed of the poison by
purchasing a pennyworth at a time. Stephen Duck, the
husband, said that the unhappy differences between him
tind his wife commenced a year ago, when he found her
incenstant to the marriage vow. Two sons of the de-
ceased said that, ever since their childhood, the deceased
and her husband had been in the habit of quarrelling
through jealousy of each other. The jury returned a
erdict of " Temporary insanity.*
A new English church, called the Church of St.
Paul, has been consecrated at Malta. It was erected at
the expense of the Queen Dowager, at the cost of
13,5001. Lord Howe presented a beautiful statue of
Faith, but the Lord Bishop objected to its being placed
fn the church, and Faith accordingly remains in the gar-
WWI

TII SUN, L6NDON, WEDNESDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER
.. (), 1344.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
ern nit TA (.1 —The various parties particularly charged
with the national burdens have begun uy com-tn,n
consent their annual outcry for remission. A motley
group is already besieging the Treasury, proclaiming
their several woes, and casting malicious side glances
at every fresh competitor. Any attempt to settle
their precedence cannot but be invidious. Each
party has a claim which in itself is undeniable. Yet
it is evident they cannot all be attended to ; for fiscal
remission is by no means that illimitable thing some
people seem to imagine. Tax-payers are a very
grave kind of people, with solid apprehensions, and
not easily put off with a joke; otherwise one might
suggest to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to appoint
one day and hour to all his deputations at this season,
and, when he had fairly got all the heads of the
hydra before him, to read a chapter out of Swift's
" Advice to Servants." The Dean advises the cook,
the butler, the valet, the coachman, and the gardener,
each to spend in his own department his master's
total income of 2,000/. a year, leaving other out-
goings to take care of themselves. In like man-
ner the servants in the national household, the pur-
veyors of meats and of drinks, the clothiers and
other ministers to the public necessities, in the sin-
gleness of their vision towards their own _depart-
ments, seem to lose all sense of other demands, and of
the common responsibilities. It may, however, save
disappointment to ascertain what must be done, and
what, on the other hand, May be deferred. There
are some broad lines of difference which must be
attended to. Taxes on luxuries or on mere comforts
stand on a different footing from those on the neces-
saries of life ; and among taxes on necessaries there
is a plain difference between those which only limit
the consumption, and thole which press more directly
on industry, and restrict or even prohibit branches
of trade. In a country like ours, whose internal re-
sources are so limited that the Legislature ten years
since found it necessary to pass a sort of declaratory
Act to the effect that the land was not sufficient for
the employment of the population, it is evident that
raw materials for such employment are become ne-
cessaries of life in the highest sense of that term.
When they can be got, they are as so much gained
from the sea, or rather as so much manna from
heaven. Coincident with the growing sense of our
insular straitness of territory, it has become the
policy of the nation to seek adventitious means of in-
dustry. By this time it is an established axiom that
when the duty on raw material is found to exclude us
from competition with foreign manufacturers, we
have no alternative but to remove it. Encumbrances
must be removed when they become destructive.
Once afloat we must either swim or drown. The duty
on cotton wool is an incumbrance of this sort. It has
ceased to be a matter of choice ; the law of self.pre-
servation demands its removal. It is fast extending
a prohibitory influence over the whole of our cotton
manufactures. The cheaper the material becomes and
the more our competitors acquire our manufacturing
facilities—both changes in rapid progress—the more
does a fixed duty become an absolute bar on our in-
dustry. It was at first imposed only as a temporary
measure, in a season of great financial difficulty. Con-
fessedly impolitic at first, its impolicy has con-
tinually increased. The amount of its produce, which
shows of course the amount of its injury, is the only
reason why it has survived other duties of an exactly
similar character. It remains after the duties on
flax and wool and other raw materials have been, re-
pealed, only because it is a larger sum to deal with.
But, unfortunately, its yearly continuance entails
more than yearly consequences. While our commerce
is hampered, the commerce of other nations is making
permanent advances. The duty, s.l6ths of a penny
on the pound, was only 5 per cent. on the value of
the material when first laid on, and now is 10 per cent.
Meanwhile, the cost of manufacture has diminished
in a still greater ratio ; so that the duty, which was a
mere trifle at first, is now so great on the coarser
cotton fabrics as absolutely to prevent competition in
them with the American manufactures. e The Ame-
rican has, of course, great advantages over us .to
begin with ;—the cotton produced at his very door,
at least in the southern states, where factories are
fast springing up in the very midst of cotton fields.
We must cover in some way the expense of carriage
across the Atlantic, and other charges, amounting,
it is said, to 7-16ths: of a penny in the pound, before
we can compete with him in the neutral market.
This unavoidable burden we almost double. The
result is, that in South America and other quarters,
even in China—China, which our own arms have
opened to the commerce of the world,—we are losing
ground, which the Americans, with the assistance of
our financiers, are now fast gaining from us. We
impose ourselves on the produce of our own industry
a differential duty compared with our greatest rival.
We enter every port of the world with a difference
of 5-16ths of a penny in the pound between English
and American cotton manufactures ; a difference
which we surmount in the finer descriptions, where
skill and labour have more play, but which is quite
insurmountable in the commoner and more domestic
articles. The duty is said to be in effect 30 per
cent. on the cost of " domestics," as they are called,
the chief cotton export to China, among other places.
Under shelter of this " differential duty," the Ame-
rican manufacturers are now making a greater
push than ever, and other natious are following
their example. Of course, they desire nothing better
than its continuance. Indeed, if they had imposed
it on us in the shape of an export duty at the
American port, supposing that otherwise possible,
it would not have been so much to be wondered
at. The case may be rendered more clear by an
illustration which will come home to many a benevo-
lent mind. ¶Years ago there were very great endea-
vours to devise some means of employment for the
idle and half-starved women and children in our
agricultural districts. All kinds of simple, laborious,
and unproductive industries were projected for this
purpose adapted to the humble strength and expert-
ness, and no less humble ambition of that class all
kinds of tedious spinnings, knittings, weavings, and
plaitings. Suppose an ingenious clergyman's wife
had discovered some material out of which rustic
hands, with the assistance of our peculiar national
akill, could procure decent employment and support,
and become the benefactors instead of the burdens of
the earth. The fair inventor would quickly have
been installed in a niche between Mrs. Trimmer, of
school celebrity, Mrs. Montague, the friend of
sweeps, and other worthies of benevolence. Her
cause would have been held sacred, and her proteges
would have been preserved by their country's enthu-
siasm against all competition, but that of their own
increasing numbers. If other nations had taken the
hint, as undoubtedly they would, how jealously
should we have watched the race, and seen that our
own little ones had at least fair play, if not a little sly
help ! If there was to be any difference of facilities, we
should have considered it our place to set the balance
against the foreign rival, and take care that the English
runner had not to carry any weight beside her own. The
much hoped-for vision has been realised, and that far be-
yond all possible anticipations, though not exactly in the
place and manner in which it was schemed. " There
is a Divinity that shapes our ends ;" and the provi-
dential supplement to our agricultural resources has
been achieved, not at the cottage hearths of Bucking-
hamshire and Suffolk, but under the smoky chimneys
of Lancashire—not under the pious attentions of
elderly ladies and their chaplains, but under the
more masculine auspices of Cromptons, Arkwrights,
and Peels. We may not easily recognise the aspira-
tions of youth in the sober realities of age. We miss
the picturesque outline and the Elysian hue. But
there substantially is the thing we desired. Let the
philanthropists of the last generation transfer their
sympathies to the more successful undertakings of
the present. What would they have felt if the Minis-
ter, driven to cruelty and shamelessness by his exi-
gencies, had suddenly put such a duty on the mate-
rial we have supposed the ingenious lady to discover,
as should at once render whole counties of women
and children helpless against foreign competition,
and cut off half their demand ? It would have been
thought madness. The case of our cotton manufac-
tures is only different in that it is vastly larger and
more important, and its women and children, or
rather the whole empire, are more thoroughly em-
barked in it.
CHRONICLE.—It is rumoured that Lord Ellen-
borough is going to the Admiralty. We sincerely
wish he was there. His Lordship is so sure to do the
contrary of what his employers wish and intend, that,
ten to one, he might actively set about putting the
navy into something like an efficient state. Guns,
trumpets, blunderbusses, drums, and thunder have
such charms for him, that he would probably go to
sea in propria persona, and find himself as much at
home ou the quarter-deck as he was in the tented
field of Gwalior. Lord Haddington some time since
sent four vessels to sea on a cruise of practice and
experiment—a melancholy ghost of what was a British
fleet. But lest they should use powder, or get too
expert, a spare Lord of the Admiralty was entrusted
with the command, a sailor who never smelt powder,
or, we believe, ever got under fire. There was a
second in command who had; but he would have
been but too capable of instructing Admiral Bowles,
and consequently of putting him to shame. But, for
fear that anything so very derogatory to the navy
should take place, Captain the Earl of Hardwicke was
sent down, at the eleventh hour, to air his earldom
on board of a man-of-war, and gather a share of that
instruction which he was incapable of communi-
cating. One would think that the old " hearts of
oak" on our list of admirals, if too superannuated to
fight, might at least be made use of to instruct, and
to instil some share of that old spirit which prevailed
in the days of Nelson. But the Tories seem deter-
mined that our navy shall not resemble, in traditional
spirit more than in efficiency or force, that glorious
navy which made the world of waters, and,'-by cense-
eDf treei or
ef n Icahn de
ffit oeoe, r os u
at
th'leVpeorhtsamveouhteharddinthnaetr onede
dared, in the exuberance of his heart, that light

cow may now be imagined, in many districtsitirntst-Y-):.:-..',.----
as fabulous in his attributes as one of the Littlenore-
English Saints. Nevertheless-, the possibility Of cow-
keeping is not, it appears, extinct; for Mr. Grey and
!he Rev. W. S. Dilly assure us that it still slzs_ists •
in scie North of England ; and that not onlyk,repwii.
are kept on cottage allotments, but that the cot-'
tage tenants keep themselves off the parish. However,
we do not present the north of our island as a la-
bourers' Utopia; nor do we assert that the " binding,
system" would be all-sufficient to restore " a bold pea-
santry." We believe that, in the southern districts, a
peasantry of a very different character has grown
up in many places under the old Poor-law, and is
pinched under the new. The provident virtues were
rendered useless and objectless ; and the improvident
vices show their fruits. The system of allowance in
aid of wages was introduced to palliate the effects of
a real revolution in the state of the cultivators of
the soil, produced by war-prices, changed habits, and
agricultural speculations. The palliative was a
quack-medicine, doubtless ; it was not the pure
milk from one's own cow ; parish provision
for families was a sorry substitute for indivi-
dual prudence in entering on marriage ; and parish
pay had no principle of growth in it for the resources
of its recipients—though it had for their numbers.
Still, while agricultural speculation was ascendant,
and the tide of prices rising, the system could
go on. But when the tide . had turned, and the
old parish practices were abandoned, it became
imperative to seek some substitute. The land, and
property on it, still remain, in the last resort,
chargeable with indigence. tis clear that it must
either make an effort to throw off the population
supposed redundant, or an effort to enable that po-
pulation to keep itself above indigence. The throving
off method has been most in favour—emigration Cie
most " familiar word." But emigration is exceed-
ingly costly ; notwithstanding certain quack pro-
mises to the contrary. Emigration is exceedingly
inadequate to transplant any great " surplus" from
the soil. Can the supposed " surplus" be
put in the way of keeping itself where it is'
One reply to this question is extension of freedom to
buy food with labour. This was long withheld, and is
now only imperfectly conceded,—for the sake of those
agricultural speculations which have revolutionised the
state of the peasantry. But it has appeared of late
that agricultural speculation can neither support its
own pauperism in idleness, nor set it all at work on
sufficient wages. Yet, somehow or other, sup-
port must be furnished. Commerce is one aid ;
are not allotments another ? Agricultural capital,
it is said, is insufficient to carry on the extent
of cultivation it undertakes to the high pitch to
which it might, and ought to be carried. Well,
but one grand portion of agricultural capital are
the labourers' hands and arms. There is a sort of
absurdity in those lying idle because agricultural
capital cannot use them. They are themselves capital.
The only indispensable pre-requisite to the operations
of this capital is the supply of food to the labourers in
whose bands and arms it consists. But that is im-
perative by law already. To say that men, who must
be fed, cannot work to a profit, is to talk idly.
They can, at all events, work to a diminution of loss.
But is it true that these manual capitalists, supplied
with a field to work on, cannot work profitably? The
farming speculators, by their own account, cannot
cultivate the land as it ought to be cultivated. So
far as that is true, so far they are not its natural and
proper holders. The land has been viewed too ex-
clusively as an object of moneyed speculation and
monopoly. It is, however, something else than this,
and something more. It is a grand national instru-
ment of production—an instrument pledged by posi-
tive law to the national support. That any given
class of capitalists cannot operate to suit their account,
is only a fresh proof of the necessity of calling in aid
those who can. It is a gross absurdity to assert, in
one breath, that the land would take much higher
cultivation, ami to assert, in the next, that the best
use of national capital would be to make advances
out of it for the expatriation en masse of the culti-
vators!
STANDARD.—We are conscious of no rancorous
feeling to the Cabinet of 1835. On the other hand,
having done our part, however inconsiderable that may
have been, in depriving them of the opportunity to
pursue their evil course, and having witnessed their
ignominious expulsion from office, we could willingly
forget that England had ever been disgraced by
such a Government—assured, as we are, that a
repetition of the stain must remain for ever im-
possible. The indulgence of this forgetfulness is nef,
however permitted to us. As always happens, the
malice of bad men proves too strong for the restraints
of prudence ; and we are reluctantly compelled by
the demands of justice—of justice to ourselves as well
as of justice to others—to recur to what posterity will
consider the most odious of the crimes of the
late Administration—the construction of the Court
placed round the innocent and unsuspecting Queen,
at her accession to the throne, at the age of eighteen
years ! This is a topic upon which the bitterest
enemies of the Melbourne Ministry might expatiate
with pleasure; but it is one which we see revived
by the retainers of that Ministry with an astonish-
ment qualified only by a recollection of the
rage and heedlessness of malice. The writer,
whose rash ill-will has forced us back upon
the hateful topic, charges the Standard with
having taken part in the denunciation of the
Melbourne-formed Court The charge, like every
other charge ever brought against this journal by the
same writer, is false. We took no part in the denun-
ciation, cordially as our feelings sympathised with
it ; on the other hand, we exerted ourselves
earnestly to restrain the public indignation, because
though we knew and felt it to be just, we
remembered that there are classes of crimes, to
name which in the presence of a young and inex-
perienced woman is an offence ; and becau ad
se we h
full confidence that the native good sense and ad-
mirable education of the young Queen would carry
her, even in a corrupt Court, through the danger
of misconstruction the only danger to which
her pure and lofty nature could permit her to
be exposed. As we foresaw, so has it proved ;
the Queen has passed happily through the
danger spread round her. But is the guilt
of those who spread the snares lessened by the vir-
tues of her for whose feet they were set ? Are we
the less bound to honour the men who, though un-
necessarily, and at the risk of offence, raised the
warning voice for her protection, because the beloved
object of their care has proved herself worthy
of such ready and absolute devotion. The time
has arrived when we can, without scruple, render
justice to these truly loyal and devoted subjects
of the Queen. The exemplary and honoured wife,
the happy mother, can now look back not only with
complacency, but with pride, upon the dangers of mis-
construction to which her treacherous servants ex-
posed her inexperienced youth; of pride not only in
her own faultless course, but of pride also in the
noble people who reposed upon her prudence art
unbounded confidence, while they abhorred those
who had exposed it to a trial, terrible to any
young woman of eighteen—most terrible to a youth-
ful Queen. The matron Queen can now appreciate
her true friends—can distinguish between those who
placed about her person individuals unfit for female
society, and those who even rashly raised their voices
against the profanation. None need regret exposure
to perils through which they have gloriously passed ;
and none, with a heart like our Queen's, will be un-
grateful to the friends who watched her progress
through these perils with even an excessive anxiety.

steamers had been got ready at Cherbourg and the
northern ports to make a dash at Portsmouth and
burn the dockyard, had war beet; declared. All we
can say is, that there was liolltIg• at Pori;:l"outh to
prevent oat' t:'"'esstion of the threat, nor is there.
Were Lord Iladdington and Sir Robert Peel
Ministers of Charles 11., and bought by Louis
XIV. to deliver up to him the naval power
of England, to be crushed and insulted without
possibility of defence, they could not have earned
the money more fully than they have done. There-
fore, with all his folly, his petulance, his contempt
of civilian and commercial interests, we should wel-
come Lord Ellenborough to the first Lordship of the
Admiralty. In the Cabinet there are abundance of
tame elephants to render the wild one harmless. But in
his department Lord Ellenborough would at least
bestir himself, and get in order and preparation those
materials for a row, which, when copious and at hand,
go so far to prevent other parties from provoking it.
Even at the risk of strengthening the Tory Adminis-
tration, and rendering it somewhat respectable in these
departments, in which it has fallen below contempt,
we pray for the riddance of its somnolent non-enti-
ties. More than once have we been driven to the
very brink of war, because Lord Aberdeen had dog-
gedly determined to keep on his night-cap, and not
raise his head from his pillow. We know, on the
most positive authority, that in the Morocco affair
Lord Aberdeen was warned, six or eight months
before anything occurred, of the inevitable difficulties
that would arise, unless Great Britain took steps to ob-
viate and prevent them. Of this Lord Aberdeen was
not only repeatedly warned by his own consuls and
servants, but, we learn, by the French Government
itself! What steps did Lord Aberdeen take in con-
sequence of this very fair warning of the French
Government ? How did he exert himself? What did
he do ?—Nothing! We could point out another
case in which English influence has suffered annihila-
tion, and in consequence of which English trade will
suffer curtailment, in which Lord Aberdeen was
most fully and fairly warned to exert himself, and
obviate the evil results to his country. But this,
as every other warning, hie Lordship answered
with his uenal pooh, pooh ! And the French
steamers would have been in Portsmouth harbour
ere any other ejaculation more lively or to the
purpose would have been elicited from his Lordship.
With such facts before our eyes, we do ardently
pray for the paying off of the present hulks which
occupy the Admiralty Board and the Foreign-
office, and the substitution, if not of Lord Ellen-
borough, at least of some active clerks, who, if
they do nothing to further the nation's interests and
augment its force, will, at least, not act as checks and
dampers. The activity of the French in their naval
department is quite wonderful ; nor do they make a
s!,cret of it. Day after day the Moniteur comes forth
with a frrn.h ordonnance for docks, founderies, schools,
and colleges for gunnery, hydrography, and every
department of naval art. In addition to the money
lavished on their dock-yards, their anxiety for raising
a supply of well-instructed officers is prodigious.
They prepare to officer fleets after fleets, making up
her cadres of a naval force superior to our own. And
all this time the Single-ship Administration of the
navy is resting on its oars, with one flag-ship to guard
three ports, and an experimental squadron under the
command of the most inexperienced seamen on the
navy list. In order to get up and bestow a kind of
premium upon our Ministerial schoolboys for slum-
bering over their task, the Times puts forth a solemn
boast that they have preserved peace. Peace, indeed !
The awe, so long and so wisely inspired by the power
and the spirit of the British lion, has been up to this
period sufficient to keep At a respectful distance, the
curs which bay at him. In Lerd Palmerston s. time
the French talked of war, indeed, but they seriously
thought of it as little as they did of restoring the
Roman empire. It is only since the fall of the
Whigs, and the reign of their pusillanimous succes-
sors, that the French have become emboldened, not
merely to talk war, but to brave it. And we have
not only borne this, but the Tories have provoked
them to insult us, in order that we might practice
meekness and habitually swallow shame. In Ota-
heite, our Prime Minister himself cried out that we
had suffered a " gross outrage," and that he would
have reparation. Well—he got no reparation, and he
swallowed the outrage. And we are now called on
to congratulate Sir Robert for keeping peace ! The
Times might as well congratulate the hound that has
run to his kennel submissively, after a good horse-
whipping, for having kept the peace. Peace is
always to be purchased—at first cheap enough
—a spirited nation has but to abate its spirit
and barter its honour in order to satisfy a rival.
But the satisfaction is brief, for the cowardly pur-
chase of peace but emboldens the rival to ask
each day for concessions more substantial. It is
Otaheite, our Consul, and our missionaries one day—
it is the occupation of Morocco another—it is the
right of search given up next. In fact, since the ad-
vent of the Tories we have paid a yearly tribute, in
one shape or another, to French ill-humour ; and that
French ill-humour is not the least abated. The
causes, and elements, and materials of war have aug-
mented with every year and every act of Tory rule.
The policy has been to meet this with pusillanimity
and obsequiousness, not with spirit. Now, we main-
tain that every concession does but embolden the
French to demand more ; whilst, had they been met
from the first with spirit, we should have long since
heard no more of either their caprices or demands.
The result of Lord Aberdeen's policy has been to con-
vert one of the most timid, and cautious, and uneasily
seated of French monarchs into a conqueror and a
hero. We do not say that had Lord Palmerston
remained in the Foreign-office, but even had any
Tory of spirit and abilities represented England in
that department; one of the two kinds of policy
which were before a Minister would have been fol-
lowed with something like consistency and success.
Either the maintenance of the old English tone of
spirit would have defied and silenced clamorous
brawling and empty threats ; or if the contrary policy
of deprecating French wrath by conciliation were
adopted, then a certain degree of vigilance and of
address would have been employed to prevent those
collisions and causes of quarrel which have been per-
petually starting up. The untoward and disgraceful
events of Otaheite ought to have been prevented.
The merest idiot must have foreseen such results from
the way in which things were abandoned there, with
authorities which must clash, and with the English
flag on board a " ketch "—a thing just sufficient to
provoke insult, not repress it. The same story may
be told of Morocco, of Greece, of Spain. No spirit,
no foresight anywhere. Ministers had neither the
wisdom of courage nor the wisdom of timidity. They
on two occasions employed the language of the bully,
and shrunk from it ere they could appreciate its
effects ; and they showed the meanness of the sneak
without even a sneak's prudence. There is but one
opinion in all Europe with respect to the foreign po-
licy of the present British Cabinet, and that is, the
somnolent pusillanimity of the head of the Foreign
Department is only to be equalled by the total and
dense ignorance of the Premier on all subjects not
exclusively domestic.
GLOBE.—The question of Land Allotments to the
labouring people has not, we think, been yet fairly
considered under all its aspects. We observed re-
cently that it might be considered as a mode of part-
payment for labour. It is a circumstance which
never should be left out of recollection, that, till
lately, the payment of agricultural labour formed a
large item in parish rates. No doubt the system
was a vicious one ; but it arose out of real difficul-
ties. Those difficulties recur on its abolition ; and
the question is what new means can be found for
meeting them. The late Lord Winchilsea, in a Re-
port to the Board of Agriculture in 1816, made the
following statements, which appear to us to throw
light on the present question, as well as on the past
state of things, from which we have not yet escaped
in their consequences. His Lordship, speaking of the
causes which oppose all attempts to better the
labourers' condition, mentions, as one great cause, the
dislike which the farmers, in general, have to seeing
the labourers rent any land. Perhaps, he continues—
" Oise of the reasons for their disliking this is, that
the land, if not occupied by the labourers, would fall
to their own share ; and another, I am afraid is, that
they rather wish to have the labourers more dependent
upon them ; fur which reasons they are always desirous
of hiring the house and land occupied by a labourer,
under pretence that by those means the landlord will
be sure of his rent, and that they will keep the house
in repair. This the agents of estates are too apt to
give into, as they find it much less trouble to meet six
than sixty tenants at a rent-day, and by these means
avoid the being sometimes obliged to hear the wants and
complaints of the poor. All parties therefore join in
persuading the landlord, who it is natural to suppose
(unless he has time and inclination to investigate the mat-
ter very closely) will agree to this their plan, from the
manner in which it comes recommended to him ; and it
is in this manner that the labourers have been dispossessed
of their cow-pastures in various parts of the midland coun-
ties. The moment the farmer obtains his wish he takes
every particle of the land to himself, and relets the house
to the labourer, who by these means is rendered miserable;
the poor-rate increased ; the value of the estate to the
landowner diminished ; and the house suffered to go to
decay, which, once fallen the tenant will never rebuild,
but the landlord must, at a considerable expense. Who-
ever travels through the midland counties, and will take
the trouble of inquiring, will generally receive for an-
swer, that formerly there were a great many cottagers
who kept cows, but that the land is now thrown to the
farmers ; and if he inquires still farther, he will find
that in those parishes the poor-rates have increased in
an amazing degree, more than according to the average
rise throughout England."
These statements, which seem to us to bear strongly I
on the present position of this question, bring the
withdrawal of land from the peasantry in close con-
nexion with the rise of poor-rates. The same logic of
facts would seem to show that the withdrawal of
money from the parish should be followed by the re-
storation of the previous " land privileges." It may
be true that the peasant's character has been altered as
well as his condition; and that the peasant who kept a

CHARGE OF WILFUL MURDER.
An inquiry took place at Navestock, last week,
before Mr. Lewis, the coroner, and a respectable jury,
touching the death of Martha Phillips, the wife of a
labourer, who was found dead in a field in that parish.
It appeared, from the evidence adduced, that the
deceased was found lying on her back in one of Mr.
Hicks's fields ; an umbrella and can of beer were by her
side, and her clothes were in disorder, and her pocket
turned inside out. On her being removed some
blood came from the right ear. There were appear-
ances about the ground as if there had been some
struggling.
Rebecca Phillips, a daughter of the deceased, stated
that she was in good health and spirits the day be-
fore. She went out with a can for some beer for
dinner at about half-past twelve o'clock. There had
been no quarrelling. Her health was not generally
good ; she complained usually of pain across the
chest. Sach's beer-house, to which she went, was
about a mile from the house of deceased.
William Millbank, a gardener, who was sitting at
the beer-shop when the deceased arrived, stated that
she called for half a pint of beer and drank it ;
and that when that was done, she called for
another. Two men, named Baker and Young,
were there and had beer also. She 'went away
about a quarter before two o'clock, and took three
pints of beer away with her in a can. She
asked Young if he was going home to dinner ; he
lived under the same roof in the family of deceased.
Before she had got out of the yard Baker and Young
followed. They were a little fresh but not drunk.:
Another witness stated that subsequently to this
he saw the deceased and Young walking together
under an umbrella, and Baker walked on before.
It wasp stated that deceased frequently got drunk,
and would then fight. Baker deposed to having
seen Young and the deceased
go together into
the field in which she was found, and lie down
on the ground. When he: came out of the
field he had a snuff-box, which he said she had
given him. But he put a stone into it, and threw it
away, and several times told him not to say anything
about what he had witnessed. Young, who was in
custody, stated in his defence, that as they were
going along the road, the deceased made a proposition
to him, and asked him if he would give her any money.
He told her no; she then got over the gate, and he
turned back.
The CORONER having summed up, the jury returned