The Sun.
London, England, 1828-04-05 00:00:00

RECEIPT STAMPS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—Observing that the inconvenieaee and
vexation which exists with regard to Stamp Receipts,
has caused numerous petitions from the chief mer-
cantile towns in the kingdom to the Legislature, and
that in reply it has been urged that if this impos is
taken off, the amount of the receipt to the revenue
must be made up by some other tax, I take leave to
suggest a plan by which I think that the Receipt
Stamps could at least in part, if not entirely, be
replaced by a Stamp oupForeign Bills of Exchange
drawn on England. This would be, on the other
hand, acting with reciprocity, as no Bill drawn from
England on France, Hamburgh, and Holland, can be
provided with acceptance before it is stamped ; and
this tax would be a most proper and equitable one,
as in most instances it would be paid by foreigners,
and operate in the prevention of forgery. This ar-
rangement might be complained of as fettering trade,
but under proper regulations, and the establishment
of an office in the City, it might easily be arranged,
so as to obviate any difficulty : what can be done in
Hamburgh, France, and Holland, as well as in
Prussia, it is easy to effect in this country.
I am, Mr. Editor,
Your's obediently,
J. A.

City, April 5, 1828.

SELECT VESTRIES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sir,—You will very much oblige me, and I trust
add much to the cause of justice, by inserting in the
Sun the following extraordinary case.
About four years ago, in consequence of the re-
fusal of the select vestry of St. Martin's parish to
render any account how they disposed of the church
rates, proceedings at law were, for the purpose of
obtaining that necessary information, commenced, in
the form of a feigned issue, viz., James Golding
wagered 10/. to 51. with Robert Fenn, that there
had been from time immemorial, a vestry of the
parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields,• composed of a
certain number of select persons parishioners.
This issue being signed by counsel on each side,
according to regular course, proceeded on towards
the day of trial. In the mean time, by an order of
Court, I got possession of the vestry-books.
The books at coned negatived the fact of the
number being certain, and they likewise proved that
the vestry was as frequent an open vestry as it was a
select one. It was likewise in evidence, that at
some periods the inhabitants chose 20, sometimes
less, sometimes they chose 28 ; and it likewise ap-
peared in evidence, that those chosen, at times called
in others to their aid.
Thus stood the facts of the case, until a little
before the day fixed for trial, when, through my
solicitor, I received a summons to appear before the
Lord Chief-Justice, for the purpose of obtaining, on
behalf of Mr. James Golding, his Lordship's order to
strike out of the issue the words " certain number,"
thereby leaving the question to be tried, " select
persons" only: this his Lordship, at his;hoese in
Russell-square, ordered to be done.
The issue, as it at 'first stood, had been tried
before Lord Kenyon in 1792 ; and it is reported at
great length in Peake'sGases at Nisi Prius, page
156, where it is set down in his Lordship's oharge
to the jury, that the plaintiffs must prove the num-
ber to be " certain," or they must find for the de-
fendant.
The Jury found the number to be " forty-nine."
In the present case my Lord Tenterden charged
the jury, " That they had not to find whether there
had been a vestry composed of a certain or definite
number of persons parishioners, but whether there
had been a vestry composed of select persons.' "
The Court of King's Bench, in giving final judg-
ment, state, " That the opinion given by Lord Ken-
yon in 1792 was conformable to the issue then pre-
sented ; that the vestry was composed of some de-
finite number of persons,' whereas the present record
raises no such question; anti my Lord Tenterden,
in giving this judgment says—" The jury were so
informed by me at the trial!'
I trust, Mr. Editor, that if any words in the
above statement of facts appear unguarded, the pub-
lic will make some allowance when they consider
hew distressing it is to be told, by an authority so
much respected as the Court of King's Bench, that
my cause was deficient in pleading, in consequence
of the record not containing the words which a few
weeks before had been struck out, against my con-
sent, by the authority above stated.
Such, Mr. Editor, being the extraordinary discord-
ance of high legal authorities upon a subject of such
immense importance,—and it really does appear from
the above facts, that the law will bend to the case,
when the case will not bend to the law,—that there

is no snurity whatever in legal experiments—and
such being the uncertainty of a verdict of " select
persons," a verdict quite indefinite, and as his
Lordship further told the Jury, that the question
was not raised by whom the'persons were to be se-
lected, it is generally believed that such a verdict
cannot, within the comprehension of any man's
mind, mean any thing else than a vestry open to
common rights,—a right the parishioners are now,
under the unheard-of blows of an armed power, pre-
vented from enjoying.
I am, Sir, your constant reader,
Charing-Cross, April 4. R. FENN.

SOCIETY of ANTIQUARIES of SCOTLAND.

The Society met on Monday evening last, in
their apartments on the Mound ; Sir Henry Jardine
in the chair.

The Right Hon. Lord Ruthven, John Kerr, Esq.
Blytheswood-place, Glasgow, and Mr. Robert
Fraser, pinto-street, Newington, were duly elected
Fellows; and Lieut.-Colonel Snodgrass, and John
Pearson, Esq., Nottingham, were elected Cor-
responding Members of the Society. Several gen-
tlemen were at the same time proposed for ad-
mission.

The following papers were then read :-
1. Description of two ancient Camps on the
Estate of Hay Newton of Newton, Esq. By Vim.
Waring, Esq. F.S.A. Scot.
2. A short Account of a very ancient Building in
the county of Kerry, called Staigh Fort. By James
Edward 'Alexander, Esq. of the 16th Regiment of
Lancers, Member of th© Royal Asiatic, and Cor-
responding Member of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland.
3. Notices, respecting the celebrated Broach of
Lorn, by Mr. Drummond Hay, Secretary.
Owing to the lateness of the hour, an account of
certain bronze instruments found beneath a large
rock near the summit of Roseberry Toppin, in
Cleveland ; by the Reverend J. S. Faber, Rector
of Long Newton, accompanied with drawings, was
necessarily deferred till a future meeting of the So-
ciety.—Caledonian Mercury.

The cost to the county of the apprehension
and conviction of the DYONS, we understand, will be about
four hundred pounds. We learn, that many of the faculty
were particularly on the alert to obtain one or both of the
bodies.—Sheffield Courant.

An infant, apparently about six months old,
genteelly dressed, was found fast asleep at four o'clock in
the afternoon of Tuesday last, lying under the boundary
wall of Wadham College Garden, near the Parks. The'
officers of the parish of Holywell having been apprised of
the circumstance, directed that the child should be con-
veyed to the workhouse, and sent it by a man, who, as he
passed through the Parks, showed it to s,weral persons,
and inquired if they knew any thing respecting it. Near
Wadham College he met a very respectable-looking wo-
man, to whom he put the same question ; she appeared
exceedingly agitated, and soon confessed it was her child,
and that she had placed it there ! The infant was given
to her, and she went off very hastily, and as the messenger
had no knowledge of her, the affair is thus involved in
mystery. It appears probable that the unnatural mother
had at first intended to abandon her offspring, but that re-
morse of conscience had touched her so deeply that she was
on her return to the spot to fetch it back. How long the
poor infant had lain there is not known—probably but a
short time, as it was discovered so very near the public
walk, and at the above hour of the day. The dress was a
light grey coat, and a black beaver hat with a gold band
and tassels... Oxford Journal,

THE OMN IPRESENCE OF THE DEITY.

We take pride to ourselves in being among the
first, if not the very first, to introduce the high
claims of Mr. Montgomery to public notice, and
consequent approbation. His merits are new so
acknowledged, that almost all our contemporaries
pay them a willing and deserved tribute of admira-
tion. His Omnipresence of the Deity we have
already noticed on two or three occasions, but
cannot resist inserting the following honourable tes-
timony to the genus of its author, from our able
contemporary, The Times, upon the appearance of a
second edition of that promising work :
" Mr. Montgomery's excellent poem on this awful and
impressive subject has, not more rapidly than deservedly,
arrived at a second edition. The work is dedicated, by
permission, to the Lord Bishop of London, and is, in every
respect, worthy the countenance and protection of that
elevated dignitary. The author is, we understand, a vervil
young man : but, in this production, he has displayed a
depth and maturity of thought, a strength and justness of
reasoning, which would do honour to any writer of the
present day. His versification combines, in no ordinary
degree, energy and, elegance ; his figures are beautifully
appropriate—they are never introduced merely at the sag-
gestion of fancy, but are called in to illustrate some feeling
of the mind, or some affection of the heart. A glowing
spirit of fervid devotion distinguishes the whole work. In
every page we find—
' Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.'
" The author appears to have felt that he stood in the
presence of Him whose greatness he was celebrating ; to
Him he has prayed for inspiration, and from Him he has
received it. He describes with felicitous effect the pre-
sence of the Deity in all times and places—in the glare of
day, and in the darkness of night; in the storms of win-
ter, in the mild breath of spring; in the gorgeous glory of
summer, and in the fruition of autumn. The all-seeing
eye is never closed ; it penetrates our most secret thoughts;
it views our most covert designs; it is fixed on us when
we are born,—it marks us during youth, manhood, and
old age,—and when the death-bed scene arrives, it is still
fixed on us. The author has inculcated this principle with
a force and vigour worthy of the theme; he calls on his
fellow men, eloquently and affectionately, never to let the
fact escape from their memory, that the Deity is ever pre-
sent ; and he argues, that where such a feeling exists, it
must check the growth of evil, counteract the tendency
of human nature to vice, and extend the empire of virtue.
A purer body of ethics we have never read, and he who
could peruse it without emotion, clothed as it is in the
graceful garb of poetry, must have a very cold and insen-
sible heart. _ _ .

" There are several small poems attached to the volume,
which possess great merit. That entitled ' The Cruci-
fixion' cannot be read without emotion."— Times, Aprill.

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD, APRIL s.—Saturday being the last day
of Lent Term, the following Degrees were con-
ferred :

BACHELORS IN DIVINITY.

Rev. Thos. Arnold, late Fellow of Oriel, Head Master
of Rugby School.
Rev. George Dineley, Worcester.

BACHELOR IN CIVIL LAW.
Rev. Henry John Divan, Wadham.