The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDIVESDA I EVEIVING, JULY 1, 11448

The Earl of WIcKLow thought the, object sought
would be attained more easily by a Bill than by those-
reL•olutions.

After a few words from the Duke of RICHMOND, the
Duke Of WELLINGTON, Lord BROUGHAM, and Lord
CAMPBELL, the resolutions were agreed to.
The Protection of Property Bill having been read a
third time and passed, their Lordships adjourned to
Thursday.
The Commons met at Four o'clock.

Captain BERKELEY moved, " That no private Bill for
the construction of railways, or other public works, to
which the consent of the Admiralty is required, will be
committed until the decision of the Admiralty shall be
communicated to the House," be made a standing order.
The motion, which was opposed by Lord G. Soataß•
SET, Mr. WA.RBURTON, and Mr. J. S. WORTLEY, was
lost by a majority of 48, the numbers being, for the mo-
tion, 22 ; against it, 70.
Mr. GREENE moved the re-appointment of the Rail-
way Bills Committee, for the purpose of referring to
them similar resolutions to those which had Leen agreed
to by the Railway Bills Committee of the Houae of
Lords.

After a short conversation, the motion was agreed to.
A new writ was ordered for Exeter, in consequence
of the vacancy occasioned by the death of Sir WILLIAni
FOLLETT.

The correspondence on the subject of the admission of
Cuba sugars was laid on the table.
Captain LAYARD moved an Address to her Majesty,
praying her to cause inquiry to be made into the expe-
diency of limiting service in the army to ten years, with
a view to secure the services of a better class of meu,
and thereby prevent desertion.
Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, on the part of the Govern.
ment, could not accede to the motion.

Mr. HumE supported the motion.
The House was subsequently addressed by Mr. S.
HERBERT, Mr. HUME, HOWARD DOUGLAS, and
several other Honourable Members; but ultimately the
motion was withdrawn.
Mr. M. MILNES then rose to address the House on the
present mode of conducting public executions in this
country ; but there not being forty members present,
the House adjourned at eight o'clock.

On many occasions we have had to call the attention
of our readers to the flagrant enormity of the dispropor-
tion between the legalised costs decreed against offenders
over whom the Magistrates exercise summary jurisdic-
tion, and the amount of damages found against or fine
levied upon the same parties. But the cases we have
hitherto adduced on such occasions are comparatively
trivial in the character of their vexatiousness, and the
disparity of the penalty to the offence, when put side by
side with that which we noticed in our paper of yester-
day. A poor man was charged on Wednesday last, be-
fore the Magistrates of the Egham division of the
County of Surrey, with having cut down grass of the
value of four farthings, on the edge of a ditch upon the
farm of one LANE. The man, ROSE, was convicted of

having committed damage to the extent of four far-
things—no doubt an exceedingly heinous offence, and
far be it from us to palliate it. If a penny saved
be tt. penny gained, according to the assurance of
the old proverb, a penny insidiously purloined from the
sacred purlieus of a man's ditch, must be at least the
square of four pennies ; and that is a large allowance.
But what was the sum of the costs actually decreed
against this formidable agrarian felon who had, out of
an overweening affection for his donkey, we presume,
clandestinely, but in a moment of reckless sympathy,
cut down a part of the valuable growing crop which
adorned and gave importance to the brink of a fosse ?
Some 150 times the amount of the assessed damage.
Thirteen shillings and sixpence was the modest demand,
en nomine expensarum, of the enlightened bench, conse-
quent on damages assessed of the amount of one penny.
Within the memory of most living men, we believe that
the price of hay has not risen to such a price as it was
fetching in the Spring, 71. a load. Supposing that the
present season promised no better grass crop than that
of last year, and that this rustic plunderer had cut down,
that is if he could, so much of the matchless bordering of
this inviolable ditch-bank as would have amounted to the
equivalent, dried, of a truss of bay ; the Egham bench
having ordered him to pay 4s. fur the "damages," ought
to have sentenced him, on their own rules of proportion,
to 150 times four shillings as costs—say 301. sterling.
This may seem very absurd to uninformed people, who
have never learned to believe with the earlier sages
among our legal commentators, " that the law is the
perfection of common sense." But to talk, after this,
of agricultural protection ? What is the necessity for
it ? Any speculative farmer who has surrounded his
homestead, like some retired burgomaster in the suburbs
of Leyden, or a rich Landdrost in his canal-encircle d
domain in Batavia, with a ditch of banks as verdant as
its waters, may realise upon a few roods of land a more
profitable return than other men can derive in these
times from ten well cultivated acres. Let him only
leave his gates open o' nights, so that whether " at early
dawn or on dewy eve," these wayfaring interlopers may
test the quality of the neglected herbage on the borders
of his walks or the edges of his ditches, and he will
have sown and reaped at once to some purpose. A bench
of cou❑ty magistrates—perhaps his brother guardians in
the union—it may be his landlord or his customers—
will feel every just degree of indignation on his account ;
every disposition not to wrong the mysterious unknown,
whoever he be, who is the party benefited by these un-
accountable, excessive, overwhelming cots :-13s. 4d.
on a decree of 4 farthings damages ! There is one re-
markable allowance to be made, it is true, as a set-off
against such legitimate and equitable profit as might
otherwise accrue to vigilant trespass prosecutors. Pay-
ment ought to follow upon conviction. But it does not
necessarily follow that conviction is followed by pay-
ment—either of damages or costs. The Act of Par-
liament, with singularly ill-judged lenity, has provided
for the course to be taken with the convicted, in " de-
fault of payment." Instead of following up the ad-
mirable principle of apportioning costs after the rate of
150 fold on damages found, by some acts of personal
infliction on the delinquent, as it ought in consistency
to have done, such as drawing out a tooth per week
(from those who have them). during the period of de-
fault, on King John's graduated scale of Jew-dealing ;
or putting them in the pillory once a week, till full
liqu on of debt and costs ; instead of this, the Act
of Parliament directs, for such defaults, a certain equiva-
lent of imprisonment, founded on very uncertain rules.
In the case to which we are immediately addressing our-
selves, the very bad, who, having committed damages to
the amount of four farthings, is unprepared to pay, in
addition, 160 farthings for costs, is most properly con
demned to three weeks' imprisonment. Oh, righteous
law ! Oh ! paternally treated peasantry ! Oh ! land
of equal justice, equal rights, equal penalties ! It must
be a source of peculiar gratification to poor ROSE to
know that had he been of gentle blood and gentle for-
tunes he might, on the very first day of next bunting
season, have gratified himself by riding over the lands of
every Magistrate on the Bench—and in a gallop over
springing corn and young turnips have committed da-
mages with impunity to the amount of four pounds in-
stead of four farthings,—followed by no costs (to himself),
and no consequences on default of paying damages.
Let us hope that he has by this time learned to appre-
ciate the impartial bearing of, magistrate-made laws on
all classes of her Majesty's subjects ; the high protecting
duty of agriculturists, who extract, in enhanced prices for
their own grown corn, millions per annum frcm the pockets
of our indigentand industrial community,—and the small
ditch-edge grass cropper, who robs a farmer in a single
night of green forage to the amount of four farthings !

We are mortified at the remarkable confirmation which
the sort of naval review, in the presence of her MA-
JESTY last week, has afforded to those animadversions
which we have so frequently found ourselves compelled
to pass on the system pursued by the Admiralty for the
manning of the navy. Of course these animadversions
were founded much more on reports sanctioned by,
or immediately emanating from, the highest pro-
fessional authority, than from such opportunities
of perscnal observation as we have been able to
command, or from any unassisted judgment of our own
that we could pretend to exercise. We are rather,
therefore, to lament that the evolutions of the ex-
perimental squadron have rendered Captain BERKELEY,
Sir CHARLES NAPIER, and other eminent offi-
cers of the service, " prophets in their own country." As
we should be exceedingly sorry to be ranked among
those who have been accused, and not without reason,
of expE3ti iting on the deficiencies of our naval executive,
with an invidious but evident tendency to magnify the
force and equipment of other navies, that of France
more especially,—we must protest, beforehand, against
any such misconception of our motives. Whether or
not public attention ought to be specifically directed to
those elements of national force, offensive and defensive,
in which there exist material and destructive deficiencies
it is now too late to inquire. The fact of these defi-
ciencies in the most vital functions of our effective sea
service has been already distinctly and repeatedly
affirmed, demonstrated, and discussed in the House of
Commons, and in the columns of one-half of the public
journals of the United Kingdom. Any hypothetical evil
that might have been anticipated from this publicity has
been at once ascertained and compensated for by the
amount of practical reform which it has stimulated,—
achieving much, and setting in motion more, in the im-
provement of those departments that most urgently re-

quired revision. Indeed notwithstanding the lamentable
deficiencies of which wt have still to complain, it is with
increased confidence tha;we look forward to their imme-
iiate permanent removal Far from being justly ob-
noxious to censure for flea' unrcmitted exertions in as-
certaining (through the nists of no little official misre-
presentation and professonal prejudice) the true bear-
ings and relations of what in time of war would
inevitably prove so Many disorganizing principles, de-
structive in precise proportion to our previous inade-
quate knowledge of then,Sir CHARLES NAPIER and the
other independent officers Members of Parliament and
others, who have so opportunely and so frankly spoken
out, are entitled to the lasting gratitude of the country
for the course they have tiken. Of what use is it now to
regret that such an expression of our naval mismanage-
ment, and the ineffectiveness of many important branches
of the service, of the perfect condition of which we had
been previously desired by tae Government to be perfectly
satisfied, should have been thus publicly made in the
face of France and of all the world ? The thing is done,
and cannot be recalled. But let us, instead of sitting
down,like spoiled schoolboy eta whine over the humiliation,
such as it is, of our d isappoistment, address ourselves with
the calm and steadfast energy of man to repair the errors
which have produced that Cisappointment. It is, thank
GOD, still in our power to amend these things in good
time ; and from what has happened, we miry be assured
that nothing short of a radical and universal scheme of
amelioration wi.l be acceptel by the public.
The inexcusable folly, so tong ans, blindly persi,ted in
by the Admiralty, of sending out ships of the line with
" reduced complements," not because they have less
metal to carry, less canvass to hand, less steerage to
attend to, less vicissitudes of wind and weather to en-
counter, less occasion for prompt evolutions and able
hands to accomplish them, but because it is
a time of peace ; this folly draws near, we
will predict, to the term of its deplorable in-
fluence. The QUEEN of the greatest naval and
maritime State that ever existed has been a witness of
the slovenly manceuvring of a fleet composed of some
of the most magnificent and formidable ships that were
ever built. Signals so tardily answered that they must
be presumed not to have been understood, and precon-
certed movements disconcerted in their execution, these
appear to have been among the " surprises" with which
her MAJESTY was regaled at a grand parade naval re-
view—of a crack squadron commanded by officers of un-
doubted ability and excellence. Their professional
skill—as little to be doubted as their personal intrepidity
or the native courage of the officers and men who sailed
under them—was unequal to the task, it seems, of main-
taining the past character of British seamanship for un-
exampled rapidity and precision. The Trafalgar, alone,
we perceive by one account, answered signals,
and manoeuvred with facility and exactness.
This fine first-rate had by no means her full
complement of able seamen on board ; but then
those which she had were experienced hands, who had,
on being paid off from one snip, been entered on another,
instead of quitting the service for a protracted period,
in which they lose all they have ever learned. These
men had formed, before joining the Trafalgar, a part
of the crews of other two first-rates successively. They
were, therefore, not only able for their duty but up to
their work. Of other first and second-rates, one b iasted
80 able seamen, another 36, out of full complements
varying from 700 to 850 men. We are sincerely grieved
for the mortification her MAJESTY must have expe-
rienced at Spithead ; but we hope and believe, at the
same time, that it will be productive of unmixed good by
ensuring an early and 'vigorous remedy for such un-
sightly failures.

he influence of bad example is a trite subject of re-
mark with moralists and philosophers. The navy sup-
plies another illustration of that influence. As if the
Admiralty had not done mischief enough by the " re-
duced complement" system, the officers whom it has for
some time commissioned appear to have been indulging
in the sort of foppery which dictates the choice of foot-
men at the west-end of the town, or the standard for
troopers in the Household Brigade. In 1845, it seems
we have captains of the navy who reject " good men knd
true," on applying to be entered, because of their being
not above five feet six inches in height ! Their patronage
is given to those whom it is their pride to exhibit as a
ship's company of " fine fellows, six feet high." The
brave tars who followed NELSON to victory were what
the majority are of our soldiers who have endured the
severest campaigns, and won the most brilliant victo-
ries—short men. NELSON, every body knows, was
a very short man ; and WELLINGTON is not
a giant in his boots, however lofty in his
spirit and achievements. Let a determined stop, for
Heaven's sake, be put to this zoxcombry. which is
disgraceful to the navy it intends to adorn. Get ~,or
able seamen, whatever their stature. Nor is this all : -
retain them. How will you get them, when, unlike that
spirited commander, Admiral ROWLEY, you offer no in-
due( ment of adequately improved pay and allowances,
and permanency of engagement, either to mark an ho-
nourable distinction between them and ordinary seamen
or landsmen ? How will you retain them, if, the mo-
ment your turn is served, and the exigency under which
you called for them has passed away, you cut them off,
dismiss them to indolence and poverty, or the accide::ts
of better fortune (which you do nothing to ensure for
them), and turn them upon the world with barely a cer-
tificate of good conduct to reward them for their eminent
and efficient services? There must be provision made for
able seamen, on being paid off, so as to guarantee their
services to the State when required, and a subsistence
for themselves when they are not required, conditional
on their entering into the services of no other power.
Incorporate a sufficient body of these men into your
ship's crews, and the improvement of the skill,"alacrity,
and discipline of the men, will be as rapid as extensive.
Is there one man in the House of Commons who would
balance the cost of effecting so vast and so immediate
a regeneration of the effective branch of our naval ser-
vice against the incalculable benefits to be derived
from it? We do not believe there is. Let this be
strenuously insisted upon, speedily adopted, and all that
is wanting to economise, and give increased effect to
improvement in sailing, power, armament, placing of ma-
chinery, &c., will follow as matters of course, in certain,
easy, and harmonious order. We are well pleased, w,+
reptit. that her Majesty has visited Shithead on this
occasion.

In the Madrid journals of the 24th ult. a new version
is Liven to the statement published in the Gazette, an-
nouncing that the bank of San Fernando had suspended
all discounts. The secretary of the bank, by order ef
the directors, had address-d a letter to the Espanol
journal, explainieg that, in suspending their discounts
for 'the moment, they had only exercised a sound dis-
cretion. They add, " The San Fernando bank may
pursue his course without its being concluded, because
it refuses to receive bills at a certain hour, that it closes
its coffers on discounts, or permanently suspends them.
It has never thought of it, still less when its own ac-
ceptances are in question."
The Opposition journals approved of the circular
issued by NARVAEZ respecting the family of Don CABLOS.
According to the Tienipo, the abdication was rc-s,,lved
solely to further the views of the Carlists. Every thing
had been prepared tor organising the Government of the
Prince of ASTURIAS, when married to the QUEEN, by
nominating his Ministers and making extensive promo-
tions in the army.
The Bourse was closed on the 24th in honour of some

In the French Chamber of Deputies, on Monday, a
motion was made by M. BEAUMONT to postpone till next
session three important railway Bills—namely, those for
Paris and Strasburg, Tours and Nantes, and Dieppe and
Fecamp ; but, after some discussion. the motion was ne-
gatived, and the Chamber proceeded with the Tours and
Nantes Bill. The Journal des Debals thus adverts to
the proposition for delay :—" It is said that a financial
objection exists, that the Northern, the Lyons, and the
Avignon railroads will absorb all the capital of the country ;
and to avoid a crisis it becomes necessary to postpone two
lines of such considerable ex tent as those to Strasburg and
to Nantes. Those who make such an objection lose sight
of an essential circumstance. The Northern railroad alone
requires considerable capital for two-thirds of the ex-
pense. But the shareholders will have five or six years
to provide the capital for the Lyons and Avignon roads.
This is a sufficient guartntee against the market being en •
cumbered with shares. The last two roads cannot be
adjudicated on before six months. As to the Strasburg
road, if it were even voted at present, the company bid-
ding for it would not have any capital to disburse until
the Government should haVe completed the embank-
ments and the works of art. Another fact is worthy
of consideration. German and English capitalists
have subscribed for half the shares in the Strasburg
railroad. But British capital is anxiously sought in the
two Peninsulas and in Germany. Is it not to bo feared
that British capitalists may yield to the temptation ?''
On the same day the sum of 2,650,000 f. was voted f
the repairs of Notre Lame. The preparations for this
work had already commenced, by propping up all the
parts which appear dangerous ; and it is understood that
the repairs will be proceeded with promptly and on an
extensive scale. The Constitutionnel says the pass-
ports
for Don CARLOS had been delivered to him
at Bourges, by an aide-de-camp of Marshal SOULT,
M. DE TirteN, who is to accompany the family to Greouls,
in the department of the Gard. We find we were

led into error yesterday respecting the amount of
the sums voted by the Chamber of Deputies,
for the repairs of the harbours of Boulogne, Calais, and
Dunkirk. According to the published report of the
proceedings, the following are the estimates voted :
Boulogne, 1,000,000 f. (40,0001.) ; Calais, 500,0001.
(20,0001) ; and Dunkirk, for a wet dock at that place,
4,000,000 f (320,0001.)
In the course of Monday a considerable fall took
place in the Funds on the Paris Bourse.
The Three per Cents. closed at 83f. 50c.; the New Loan
at 83f. 90c. ; the Five per Cents. at 121 f 50c. ; Orleans
Railroad Shares, 1,160 f. ; Rouen, 1,0301. ; Vierzon, 750 f. ;
Havre, 8321. 50c. ; Avignon, 970 f. ; Basle, 2501. ; Spanish
Three per Cents, 41 ; Ditto Passives, 7%.
The following are the quotations for the new lines:—

Orleans and Bordeaux, 170 f. premium ; Boulogne, 110 f.
ditto ; Troyes and Montereau, 25f.; Paris and Lyons
(Laffitte), 20f. ; ditto (Calon), If. ; ditto (Ganneron),
10E ; Northern line (Laffitte), 32f. 50c.; ditto (Rosamel),
6f. 50c. ; Tours and Nantes (Mackenzie), Bf. 50c. ; ditto
(Drouillard), par; ditto (O'Neill), 3f. 50c.; ditto (Jacques
Lefevre), par; Lyons and Avignon (Lecointe),l2f. 50c ; ditto
(Talabot), 37f. 50c. ; ditto (Compagnie Meridionale), Bf. 50c. ;
Bordeaux and Toulouse (Mackenzie), par. ; ditto and Cette
(Espeleta), 3f. 50c.; Creil and St. Quentin, par; Paris
and Strasbourg (Ganneron), 10f. ; Dijon and Mulhausen, par.
LYONS, JUNE 27.—Avignon and Marseilles, 980 f., end of
June; Paris and Orleans, 1.170 f., ditto; Paris and Rouen,
1,040 E, ditto; Orleans and Vierzon, 726 f., ditto; Orleans
and Bordeaux, 645 f., ditto ' • Boulogne, 580 f., ditto ; Monte-
reau, 530 f., fur the 15th of July.

THE SUGARS OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO. —Sir R.
Peel last evening laid on the table of the House of Cons-
mons copies of correspondence respecting the claim of
Spain, that the sugars of Cuba and Porto Rico should
be admitted into the United Kingdom upon the same
terms as the sugars of the United States and Venezuela.
This correspondence consists two letters—one from
the Duke of Sototnayor to Lord Aberdeen, and the other
from Lord Aberdeen in reply. The letters extend
to great length. The Duke contends that all the
provisions of the treaties of 1713 and 1783 were
extended to the colonial possessions of Spain since
the commerce of the Spanish colonies was opened
to foreigners in 1824. And he adds—" Tinale.b this
argument is in itself incontestable, it receives a corrobo-
ration which does not admit of any rational reply on
bearing in mind that the British Government itself re-
cognised its force by exempting from the high duties
which are the object of the present application the
sugars proceeding from her Catholic Majesty's domi-
nions its the Philippine Islands. He therefore hopes
that these statements will have due weight with
the British Government, and that the sugars will
be admitted on the terms demanded." Lord Aber-
deen denies the validity of the claim in these
words :—" Her Majesty's Government have duly exa-
mined the different treaties subsisting between the two
countries, and have attentively considered the various
arguments advanced in the Duke of Sotomayor's note ;
and it now becomes the duty of the undersigned to de-
clare to the Duke of Sotomayor, that her Majesty's Go-
vernment cannot admit that, either in the early treaties
between the two Crowns, or in the later decrees of her
Catholic Majesty, or in the acts of the Parliament of this
country, any valid ground is to be found for the demand
with which that note concludes, namely, that the sugar
of Cuba and Porto Rico should be admitted into British
ports on the footing of sugar of the United States and
Venezuela." 'This subject- is likely to give rise to im-
portant discussions.
THE REPEAL MENBERS.—Mr. Smith O'Brien and
Mr. John O'Connell having been summoned by the
Chairman of the Committee of Selection to serve on
Railway Committees on the 14th instant, the two Hon.
Members have announced to the Chairman that they re-
fuse to attend, and deny the power of the House to en-
mrce the order. Mr. O'Brien says, "I trust that the
Committee of Selection will not think that I am prompted
by any feeling of disrespect towards them, or towards
the House of Commons, when I inform them that it is
my intention not to serve on any Committees, except such
as may be appointed with reference to the affairs of
Ireland." Mr. John O'Connell says, " I absolutely de-
cline attending."