The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-18 00:00:00

• SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
mom THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—Civil disabilities—as penalties for hold-
ing doctrines and observing ceremonies which differ
from those of the Established Church—are not yet
extinct. Roman Catholics have obtained emancipa-
tion, and Dissenters relief, from the invidious and im-
-1 politic restrictions which the legislation of the darker
ages had imposed, and the intolerance of more enlight-
ened times had long refused to remove. The Jews,
however, still remain under the curse. The Corporation
ofLondon, in its highest Court, clings to the prejudices
against Jews for which the Corporation was pre-eminent
in those days. gone by when such prejudices prevailed
more generally than, happily, they now do. The
Court of Aldermen torture their little wits to twist
and distort a statute couched in plainest phraseology,
into a meaning foreign to its spirit and design, to
afford a pr-text for their pre-determined decision.
The Ward of Portsoken hid elected for its Alderman
Mr. David Salomons—a gaatleman whose intellee:nal
superiority, great wealth, high po•eition i.i com-
mercial society, uniuipeach.thla honour, awl ev-
' tensive benevolence, unrestrained by seeterim dis-
tinctions, all men agree to .idinit eel cu~nmen+l,
Mr. Salomons has served the office of Sheriff
of London and Middlesex with a fidelity, zeal, and
hospitality seldom equalled, never excelled. He
has also served the same high office in 3 county
in which one of his estates is sitiinte; Ana is a maiei• •
trate for at least two counties. Yet, on presenting
himself for the purpose of being admitted to the
office to which he had been elected, a form of de-
claration was placed before him, which he was re-
quired to subscribe ; but to which, as a Jew, he had
conscientious and insu?erable obitaa s,.
lomons applied for a short adjouroeleot, i=i order
that the qaestion ,night be argued by eoun.:E.!.
whether the required form of declaration is
applicable to his case ; and if so, whether the
obnoxious form is imperative on the Court, antl, com-
pulsory on the individual, or whether the former has
not a discretion vested in it by law, and -the party
held responsible for exercising the functions of Al •
dermanic office, not having qualified in the terms of
the statute. This reasonable application was refused.
The election was declared void ; and a precept for a
new election at once ordered to issue from the Court.
Mr. Salomons has declared his intention of bringing
the question, as to the validity of the proceedings of
the Court, before a higher tribunal. When Mr. Salo-
mons was elected Alderman of another ward (that of
Aldgate), and was ousted by the Court of Aldermen
on similar grounds to those now taken, he was barred
from obtaining redress from the superior courts by one
of those technical objections by means of which legal
ingenuity frequently defeats the claims of justice.
He will, of course, take care, in the present case, to
avoid such an occasion of defeat. The whole ques-
tion will, we hope, be placed fairly before the Judges,
to be decided on the fair construction of the terms of
the statute, and in conformity with the principles of
law. The objection urged by the Aldermen who con-
tended against Mr. Salomons' admission as a member
of their Court, would equally apply to the admission
of a Jew to the Court of Common Council—it would,
doubtless, be taken if a Jew were to be returned as
one of that body by any one of the City wards. The
corporations of Birmingham, Southampton, Ports-
mouth, and other towns—to whom the Act pressed by
the Aldermen of London against Mr. Salomons is
equally binding as on the Corporation of London—
admit gentlemen of the Jewish persuasion to office.
The declaration required to be made is in lieu of the
sacramental test; which was enforced or not, at the
pleasure of the corporations : some requiring a rigid
observance of the statute by which the tokens of
atoning grace were prostituted to the purposes of
party, and the most solemn rite of the Christian faith
was received as the passport to secular place. The
annual Act of Indemnity, passed every session
of Parliament, relieved persons who had omitted
to observe this required religious proof of peculiar
fitness; and thus Dissenters, by a side-wind, were
admitted to corporate offices. The Corporation
of London was, however, among the most
earnest sticklers for the lttiv of excluson—ex-
cept, indeed, when the eoffers of its Charaberleie
were exhausted, and the tines imposed by their
charter upon persons who r:J'Ll•ed to tae;., upon thorn-
elves offices to which they had been elected,
afforded the Corporation au opportunity of re..
plenishing their empty exchequer 'from the pockets
of wealthy Dissenters. Then, indeed, they were
liberal with a vengeance. Under such circum-
stances, the Corporation was in the habit of select-
ing the richest and most consistent Dissenters for
Sheriffs. These, of course, objected to take the sacra-
mental test ; and, to avoid the annoyances and more
substantial evils of resistance, generally paid the fines.
The records of the Corporation, still in existence, show
the use to which this monstrous perversion of a perse-
cuting statute was put in those days by the Corpora-
tion of London. An observation, which had passed into
a proverb from a conviction of its truth, is not yet for-
gotten, that the building of the Mansion-house was
paid i'or by lines impo:letd upon Dig,s,,nt:rs. At length
the question as to the legality of these flues was
brought to an issue by a Dissenter named Evans,
who had the courage to contest the power of the Car
poration to fine him for not taking upon himself an
office for which he was disqualified by law. The case
was carried by appeal to the House of Lords ' • and
Lord Mansfield's judgment, in pronouncing thedeci-
sleble and La
of
fthe
Ileoursnee is among the most luminous of that
Learned Judge's very able judgments.
STANDARD.—We have sincere pleasure in di-
recting attention to the proceedings of the meeting
held yesterday in the Egyptian Hall, Mansion-
house, for the purpose of adopting measures for
the establishment of baths and washhouses
for the accommodation of the working classes
of the metropolis. The proposed plan has been
already tried in Liverpool, where public baths
and washhouses for the poor have been es-
tablished upwards of two years, and we cannot
doubt therefore that such an arrangement would
tend most materially to the improvement of
the health and comfort of the working classes of
this great metropolis. We could have wished that
this excellent design could have been associated with
some comprehensive plan for improving the dwellings
140commodation
much cheaper
aansdupperroiovridoinrdgetrh, ebmutwaitths,
onfotthoenlyo poor,
rate than is accessible to them at the present moment ;
but we must not reject an acknowledged good
because benefits of even greater importance re-
main yet to be supplied. The distinguished aus-
pices under which the meeting of yesterday took
place encourage the hope that the two objects may
eventually be combined. Meanwhile, the associa-
tion which is about to be formed cannot fail of
doing unmixed good. It is the melancholy con-
dition of the poor, that there is scarcely a necessary
of life for which they do not pay considerably
more, by comparison, than the rich. But there is,
perhaps, nothing for which the operative in a large
town is more extravagantly taxed than forrent. Pub-
lic attention has been prominently directed to this fact
by the report cf the Sanatory Committee of the House
of Commons. Miserable dwellings, in confined and
unwholesome situations, underlet in single rooms
to the poorest class of tenants, have been known
to yield three and even four times the expenses of
the entire tenement. Thus the metropolitan artisan
will often be called upon to pay a fourth of his
weekly wages for the mere shelter afforded to him-
self and his family by a single room. In this con-
fined domicile must they all sleep (the sexes indie-
eriminately mingled), abfl the whole of the do
mestic 'Affairs' ineluiling evashing end cocking, be
performed. Yet, for a less rent, two comfortable
and wel:-ventilated rooms, with access to a wash-
house, might be afforded by the eomi;truetion of
barracks, capable of accommodating a con-
siderable number of families under the same
roof; each edifice, if desirable, being provided with
the baths and other conveniences contemplated at
the meeting of yesterday. In order, however, to
effect this object, the matter should not be left to
miner trading speculators. ti guarantee fund should
provided,' and. a 9ystent organised, by
which numbers might be lialged in the
same building; and the experiment might be
tried for a sum comparatively unimportant; ,
when the vast benefits it would confer
are te.ken into consideration. Associations for the I,
purposie of retailing to the poor cheap provisions, and
even cheap coals, are far from unconunon ; bait we
have never yet heard of any attempt to carry out the
principle to cheap lodgings. In the present condition
of the poor the parlour of the labouring man, the place
in which most of his leisure hours are passed, is the
tap-room of a public-house—for want of that decent
accommodation which his home cannot afford him;
and which is eventually, by his desertion of it for
such a substitute, rendered infinitely more miserable
than it need to be. Any scheme which would avert
such consequences would effect a purification at once
moral and physical; and would do more to benefit
the working classes than anything that has hitherto
been devised for their benefit.

LYNN.—DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT COETINE.--As
sites( of
elaßbolauerkebrso,rolautgehly,pwrieorrey,employed
Middleton,in diggi digging
they ondtihse.
covered three stone coffins in a good state of preserva-
tion, one of which contained a complete skeleton. We
understand that the proprietor of the land has presented
them to the Lynn Museum.— Bury Farmers' Journal.
The weather at Killarney during the last week has
been very bad. On Wednesday a dreadful storm sprung
up on the lakes, and a large party bad to take shelter
for the night, at Glena Cottage, as the passage across
the lower lake was extremely perilous. The mail-car to
Kenmhre was thrown over the cliffs on the same even-
ing—the driver sustained serious injuries, and the horse
was killed on the spot —Cork Examiner.
Such has been the effect of the mildness of the pre-
sent season, that in the orchard of Lieutenant John M.
..Liles, near Castleisland, an apple tree is to be seen, part
in blossom, part knitting into fruit, and part bearing the
4;,1L rsrnum nail 1111711 P_ Tra lee Chronicle.