The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-23 00:00:00

CUSTOM DUTIES ACT.

Amongst the 349 articles in the Custom Duties Act,
producing less than 1001. each of revenue, " alkali"
stands at the head, the duty received on which, in 1839,
was Bs. Ashes, not otherwise enumerated, 1/. 4s. 7d. ;
copper ore, the produce of, and imported from any Bri-
tish possession within the limits of the East India Com-
pany's charter, gave 4s. 7d. ; camels' wool or hair, is. ;
dog skins in the hair, not tanned, Is. 7d.; fish's skins,
undressed, Is. ; slates, not otherwise enumerated, the
large sum of Bd.; walnut oil, 35.; tanned goat skins, 6d.;
steel unwrought, prepared in and brought from any Bri-
tish possession in Asia, Africa, or America, 6d. These
are taken at random from the table in the appendix to
the report of the Select Committee on import duties,
which contains numerous others of similar insignificance,
ranging from shillings to pounds, and vice versa.
The list of 147 articles on which no duty was received
contains alkali again at the head, not being barilla ; the
duty being lie. 4d. per cwt., and running up to 11. 10s.,
according to the per centage of soda contained. Basket
rods, Is. per bundle ; cinders, 2L per ton ;,and this list
ends with thrown silk, on which a duty was paid of
38,452 L, and a drawback allowed of 43,850/.
By the new tariff, this duty on alkali, not being barilla,
is reduced to Is. 6d. per cwt. ; ashes, nut enumerated, to
5 per cent. ; and the duties on copper ores were, as is
well known, materially altered, and for the better ; but
the tariff was left with the whole army of unproductive
duties still standing in the schedule to the Custom Duties
Act ; and, therefore, it may be safely inferred that any
document correctly prepared, to show the operation of
the new tariff, will contain numerous sums of sixpences
and shillings, denoting the amount of revenue received.
As many as 1,150 articles, or nearly so, may be said to
remain liable to Custom-house duties ; and yet, out of a
revenue of 22,000,000 L, about 17 articles produce as
much as 94i per cent., or 21,700,630/.
This state of things show that the Custom Duties Act
requires a complete and searching reform, and it is ma-
nifest that a very large saving in the expense of collec-
tion would thus be effected, exclusive of important ad-
vantages and facilities to trade.—Chronicle.

GARDENERS' BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION.—About
ninety of the friends and supporters of this useful In-
stitution assembled together last evening, at the London
Coffee-house, Ludgate-hill, to celebrate the sixth anni-
versary of the Society. Mr. Alderman and Sheriff
Sidney presided, and amongst the company we observed
H. Pownall,l Esq., the ISliddlesex magistrate ; A. L.
Gower, Esq. ; Captain Lamont, R.N.; the Messrs.
Noble, Mr. Groom, and most of the leaing gardeners
and horticulturists of London and its vicinity. The
dinner was served in Mr. Lovegrove's best style. The
usual loyal toasts were given and responded to, after
which the secretary announced that the subscriptions of
the evening amounted to 1701., the lion. Chairman and
the Lord Mayor being in the list of subscribers for five
guineas each. The secretary also stated that that morn-
ing no less than thirty new annual subscribers of one
guinea each had enrolled their names in the subscription
list. Several appropriate toasts were given and res
ponded to, and the amusements of the evening were
varied by several glees and songs, given with much
effect by Messrs. Bradbury, Lloyd, and Showbridge.
Miss Steele, a lady with a charming voice and consider-
able taste, whom we do not remember to have met
before, sang Benedict's beautiful song, " By the sad sea
wave," in a style which reminded us forcibly of Mrs.
Alfred Shaw.

A " RECK.L.E SS" COUPLE.—On Wednesday week a
marriage was about to be celebrated at Boston, between
a Mr. John Reckless, well known as a waiter, and Miss
Eliza Procter, daughter of Captain Procter, of Boston,
but who had been brought up by her aunt, an old lady
named Lilly, of Leverton. The license was bought—a
good dinner provided—friends and relations met—and
every arrangement was made to do honour to the
joyous occasion. The bride and bridegroom were present,
and received the congratulations of, the assembled guests,
and the aunt of the bride, in the joy of her heart, gave
a cheque for 100/., as her marriage portion. On the time
arriving to :proceed to church, the company were much
alarmed by the sudden disappearance of the young
couple, and, although the strictest inquiries were made,
not the slightest intelligence of them could be obtained.
Much anxiety soon prevailed, and joy was turned into
mourning. An application at the bank upon which the
cheque was drawn, however, set all their fears at rest.
It was there ascertained that the youthful pair had
called at the bank and received cash for the cheque, and
had then decamped without having the marriage cere-
mony performed, leaving their friends and relations to
enjoy the marriage feast by themselves. It is supposed
that this " reckless" pair have fled to Loudon.—Boston
Herald.

PROGRESS OF ITIIE PRINTING PRESS.—We have
lying before us a little vocabulary of fourteen pages,
being the first attempt at printing on the island of Fer-
nando, and the work of the Rev. Mr. Merrick, Baptist
missionary there, who, having procured some English
type, has printed this vocabulary for the use of the
natives in learning English. It is printed only on one
of the paper, and, on the whole, is a very creditable
first attempt. It seems that, in the native language, or
dialect, the long and short sounds of the vowels are the
same as on the continent of Europe. Gis always hard ;
a single H is never sounded, but tlll marks the aspirate;
and KW is sounded as QU in equal. Obassi signifies
God ; bubi, sin ; niolima, mind, soul, or spirit ; linggam,
to love. With this book we received another, "The
Adeeyah Vocabulary, for the Use of Schools in Western
Africa," by John Clarke, and printed at Falmouth,
Jamaica, last year, for the use of the Baptist mission.
Father, in this dialect, is Boy-em, or In-ta ; mother,
Efnmi, or 0-mi ; the great spirit, Al-e-hun-du ; the good
spirit, Dupe; bad spirit, Mo-o ; man, Bu-bi ; woman,
Wa•di.-111axchester Guardian.
ORANGES AND LEMONS.—The Lords of the Trea-
sury have issued an order to the effect, that chests or
boxes of oranges and lemons, measuring 36 inches in
length, 20 inches in width, and 7 inches in depth, and
having cones of'9 inches and under 12 inches in height,
are to be admitted to entry at the duty of 3s, 9d. each,
as not exceeding 7,300 cubic inches, and as this result
is to be arrived at by rejecting any fractional parts dim
inch which may appear to remain after the deduction of
the two-third parts of the cone has been made, in eon:
formity with the order of the Commissioners, of Customs,
dated 19th May, 1830, the board have issued directions
authorising the officers of the revenue to apply the prin-
ciple to boxes not exceeding 5,000 cubic inches, so far
as regards the rejection of the fractional parts of the
cone. These orders have been communicated to the
several departments in Londepi arid %t all the out-ports
of the kingdom; fpr the information and government of
the officers and the trade.
PVT! or I POLICEMAN.—At an inquest held on
Monday night, before Mr. William Payne, the City
coroner; 9n the body of a young man who died suddenly
in a cab, it transpired, in the course of the evidence, that
the policeman who came up, instead of at once taking
the deceased to the nearest surgeon's ol'doreki the cab-
man to drive to the 4t§tiue-bourse i>a black -Horse-court,
Fleet-street. The coroner said the present Was the
sec* case rriziph 110 Nine under his notice recently,
where a person taken ill in the street had been taken to
the station-house, instead of to the nearest surgeon's.
In so doing much time, which was of the PivAs.t Y 441 im-
portance, was lost, It wits! hid that the first
thinUa police Tap shpµlil CI% on coming to a fresh beat,
wits'toa'sceitain the residence of all the medical men
near it, so that in all cases of sudden illness or accidents
in the street, he might know where toobtainMedical
aid, without first going to the statien-llow fcr cyders. he
se.
He trusted the inspector world takeWU"' f what
said, so that in iill • Wre cases orler4a4A being taken
ill in ill() streets prompt medical assistance might be ob-
tained.
The venerable Earl of Carlisle, who has been again
much indisposed, was, in answer to inquiries yesterday
at Carlisle House, Grosvenor-place, comevhat better.
viscount Morpotia is oipected in town next month from
Castle Uowara.

IRELAND.
= TEE CHIEF SECRETARYHIP.
DUBLIN. JAN. 21.—Intelligence of the death of the
venerable Earl of St. Germans reached Lord Eliot this
day, at Dublin Castle. As his Lordship goes to the
House of Lords as Earl of St. Germans, it is very pro-
bable that he will not continue in the office of Chief
Secretary of Ireland. There are already rumours as to
his successor, and amongst those spoken of are Lord
Dalhousie, Vice-President of the Board of Trade, and
Mr. Sydney Herbert, Secretary to the Admiralty ; but,
of course, everything on this point at present must be the
merest speculation.
Lord Eliot had arranged to receive a deputation from
the Corporation at the Castle to-day ; but, in conse-
quence of the event above referred to, the interview did
sot take place.
Lord Eliot is to sail for Port Eliot, Cornwall, this
evening, to attend the funeral of his father.
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY.
The following is the petition for the repeal of the
penal clauses affecting the regular clergy in the Emanci-
pation Act and the Charitable Bequests' Act. It is now
in course of signature, with the cattiest sanction of Arch-
bishop Murray, amongst the Roman Catholic clergy of
Dublin .

" THE PETITION OF THE UNDERSIGNED ARCHBISHOP AND
SECULAR CLERGY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
IN DUBLIN.
" Most humbly showeth—That petitioners presume to
approach your Honourable House, soliciting your gra-
cious consideration in favour of the regulars ur clergy
bound by monastic vows in this city and country.
" That petitioners have had lung and constant oppor-
tunities of closely observing and intimately knowing the
clergymen aforesaid.
" That this close observation and intimate knowledge
have rendered it evident to petitioners that the said re-
gulars
have always constituted, and still constitute, a
class not only of peaceable and loyal subjects, but a class
entitled to great merit and great gratitude for their un-
ceasing, extensive, and successful labours in the advance-
ment of morality, education, and soci..l order.
" That in the year 1829, when, in a spirit of liberal and
wise legislation, your Honourable House, by the Act of 10
Geo. IV., chap. 7, commonly called The Catholic Relief
Bill,' admitted to a very full participation in civil rights
the Roman Catholics of the realm, to whom, on account of
mere abstract religious opinions, these rights had long
been denied, the regulars were, petitioners humbly sub-
mit, uumeritedly excluded from a participation in the be-
nefits which that measure of justice and of wisdom con-
ferred on their Catholic fellow• subjects.
"That your petitioners, actuated by their intimate
knowledge of the deserts of said regulars, appeared at
that time before your Honourable House, by petition,
stating that the institutions composed of said regulars
were suited to the wants of Ireland, promoted exten-
sively the public good, without being, in any manner, at
all known to petitioners dangerous to the Government
or prejudicial to the State, and that the suppression of
them would, in the opinion of petitioners, tend much to
retard the progress of education, and the moral improve-
ment of the people,' and praying that a measure of relief
and conciliation should not be rendered the means of vi-
siting with penalties and deprivation of character whole
classes of meritorious individuals.

" That, notwithstanding, petitioners saw with sorrow
your Hon. House pass clauses 27 to 39 inclusively of
said Catholic Relief Bill, which clauses enact most dis-
tressing disabilities against said regulars.
" That nearly sixteen years of additional experience
have confirmed petitioners in the opinion then formed of
the merits of said regulars, and of their value to the
morals, the education, and the good order of the people.
•"That petitioners have now further to regret, that in
the last session of Parliament your Hon. House thought
proper to enact section 15 of 7 and 8 Victoria, chap. 97,
commonly called, The Charitable Donations and Be-

I quests Act,' which section, while it provides for the pro-
tection and conveyance of ecclesiastical property held by
the parochial clergy, extends to said regulars no partici-
pation in said beneficial provision, and thereby virtually
declares said regulars still unworthy of the rights and
privileges of British subjects.
"Petitioners, humbly conceiving that these exclusions
I and disabilities affecting said regulars are unmerited pe-
nalties upon a peaceful, loyal, and most useful body,
whose conduct individually and collectively petitioners
most respectfully submit deserves from a just and
paternal Government protection and not proscription,
humbly solicit your Honourable House to restore said
regulars to the rights and privileges of the other subjects
of the realm, or grant such relief in the premises as
your Honourable House ix its wisdom shall graciously
think proper. And petitioners will ever pray."
SICK AND INDIGENT BOOK-KEEPERS' SOCIETY.—The
annual meeting of this excellent society was held to-day,
at the Commercial-buildings. The Lord Mayor pre-
sided. Mr. O'Connell and several of the leading citi-
zens attended.

FEVER IN ENNISTIMON WORKHOUSE.—We have been
informed that fever to an alarming extent has broken
out in the Ennistimon Workhouse. The master, porter,
and fifty of the paupers, young and old, are in hospital.
Several of the male and female children, and adults, are
also infected with the complaint called " tetters." The
workhouses throughout Ireland are too large, and con-
sequently exceedingly cold, particularly on the ground
floors, composed as they aro of flags or earth.—Clare
Journal.

RECRUITING IN IRELAND.—The most vigorous efforts
are being made throughout the various recruiting dis-
tricts to raise recruits; and commanding officers of some
corps have received a most formidable circular, in J. E.
Napier's energetic style, to use every exertion to com-
plete the deficiency in their respective corps.—Cork
Examiner.

FALLING OF THREE NEW HOUSES IN LIVERPOOL•
—On Thursday night last, about ten o'clock, three new
and unfinished houses, in Upper Canning-street, fell with
a tremendous crash, the walls carrying nearly the whole
of the joists, floors, &c., into the cellar, and smashing the
timber into comparatively small pieces. The buildings
were of four stories in height, of brick, and formed the
eastern end of a new row of houses on the south side of
the street. Luckily no one was by at the late hour
stated. We find that the lower, or cellar portion of the
walls, up the datum level, was roughly built of broken
pieces of soft freestone, called " nobling," and so imper-
fectly put together us to be inadequate to support the
superincumbent weight, rising to an elevation of forty-six
feet. The walls were but nine inches (or only brick
length) in thickness, which is sadly short for buildings of
that size. The buildings are upon what was formerly
Mosslake-field, in which the unbroken ground is yet a
black moss to the depth of two or three feet. The foun-
dations, however, were sunk below this, to apparently a
stratum of soft sandstone, and the probability is that the
houses gave way from the cause assigned.—Liverpool
Courrier.

ADMIRAL DUPETIT THouatto.--There is a pom-
pous account in the French Radical newspapers of a
subscription to purchase " a sword of honour for
Admiral Deputit Thouars, who had the command of the
French expedition to (Aabeite. We are told that sub-
scriptions have been received in all the principal towns
of }ranee," arid that "it is calculated that no less than
175,000 persons had joined in this expression of feel-
ing." From this it is argued how strong must be the
national feeling of France in favour of the Admiral, and
of all he had done against the actual or supposed inte-
rests of Great Britain in the Pacific. But what do our
readers suppose may be the total amount of the sub-
scription of these 175,000 French patriots ? The sum is
19,685 francs, with the addition (in order to be exact) of
five centimes, or one halfpenny ! As 19 then is to 175,
so is the subscription of each patriot to the munificent
sum of ninepence halfpenny ! The fact is, that 175,000
patriots have combined among them to put together
374,000 halfpence. Each patriot has, on an average,
contributed a fraction beyond one penny sterling, in
order to accumulate honour upon the Admiral of the
Pacific, and to impress England with a due sense of
French determination to uphold her officers, however
marked their hostility to British interests may be. We
are of opinion, however, that this penny subscription is,
on the whole, a very ludicrous affair.—Post.
THE BITER BIT.—A gang of horse jockeys made
their appearance before the magistrates on Saturday
last, charged with an attempt to swindle a farmer in a
most audacious manner. The farmer, it appears, had
brought a nag for sale to the fair, &c., and an the pre-
vious evening fell into the company of several dealers,
one of whom proposed to change horses with him, and
give him 30s. "to boot." The farmer closed in with this
ofllsr, knowing that his horse was considerably inferior
to the one he was to receive from the dealer. On the
Saturday morning the exchange of the horses took
place, and the farmer mounted his new steed for a jour-
ney home. On arriving opposite the House of Correc-
tion, however, he was stopped by a jookey, who de-
manded in the most peremptory termswhither the farmer
was taking the horse, which he said belonged to himself.
The rustic at once explained the process by which he
became possessed a the animal ; but was instantly met
with the reply that the person who had sold him the
hone had no right whatever A 4 dispose of it ; and was,
moreover, ordered to aisglount, and to return to the
stable for his original steed. The fhrmer at once per-
ceived the 4‘ dodge' arid knowing full well that if ho re-
turned to the stable on foot he would lose both horses,
held firmly to that which ho had, and referred his new
acquit stance to a policeman for aatisfaction. The con-
sequence was, that the entiro company had to make their
appearance at the Town-hall the same forenoon, when it
was clearly prc;ved that the trick had been concerted
areong them. The magistrates ratified the bargain
which had been made and the designing swindlers, lerin
order to escape Nailer exposure, added another
sove-
reign to the eaohange money, thus itiereasi
n the tor-
DilAtea vain to fifty shillings, and leaving him
n posses-
sion of an animal much av h erlor to is own.—Preston
Guardian.
It will, perhaps, be re.
me
THE RITI4Nq PASSION.—
ntbeA TA that we stated,
been committed
ago, that a fortnight or three weeks
a man named Birkenshaw had i
to York, fur trial at the assizes, for robbingi a person. at
Ardsley, near Wakefield, ofa oons.derabe sum e money,
and, that principal witness against him was a man to
whom he
the
ehnticcctihis
secret
whilst under remand in
the ilouseof Correction. This witness, whose name is
jp,hp Painison, was tried at Leeds Borough Sessions and
acquitted. He was bound to give evidence against
llirkenshaw at the assizes, During the recent West
Riding Sessions, at Wakefield, he could not resist the
temptation of ayaiiing himself of the opportunity offered
by a eA'oßded court to abstract a handkerchief from the
pocket o'a person naineti George Haigh, of East Moor,
for which he was brought up before the magistrates at
the Court-house, Wakefield on Monday last, and colli-
mated for trial at the sessions.—Doncaster Gazette.
The sum of one thousand three hundred pounds
has been subscribed for the relief of the widows and
children of ;con who were killed by the explosion of
the bailer of the Gipsy Queen, atßlackwalLi4 November
last. The relatives of the sufferers have received weekly
allowances since the accidet4, and some of them have
been supplied with mangles as a means of obtainiug a
livVialoecL