The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER, 25, 1845.

persons who were walking about, and upon his requesting
that they would desist, and allow the performance to pro-
ceed without further interruption, they pushed him about as
if determined to eject him from the theatre, causing such
confusion that the music was stopped. They were quite
sober, and as Felling refused to attend to any remon-
strance, he was taken into custody. The conduct of the
defendants and their companions was so violent that a
gentleman, in his trying to get out of the crowd, was
knocked down. and must have been seriously injured,
the defendants crying out to the company to turn out
the police.
The defendant Felling said that he was not known to
any person in the theatre, and the only reason he had
for remaining close to the officers was that they might
afford him protection.
Constable 19, A division, said that when he and his
brother officers endeavoured to check the disturbance
they were forced into the refreshment•room, where the
chairs and tables and ices were thrown about; in addi-
tion to which, witness had his hat knocked over his eyes
and a chair thrown at him, the defendant all the time
crying out "The Polka ; let us have a dance." The
defendant was then taken into custody, while Belius cried
out "`Down with the police," and took hold of him to get
him away. The defendant Belius also struck witness
twice with his fist, while he received a blow with a stick
from behind. A rush was then made, which enabled
Belius to escape, and while witness was receiving several
kicks and blows he succeeded in conveying De Costa to
the station, his companion being subsequently appre-
hended in the street. Several persons cried out for the
police to interfere, there being upwards of 3,000 in the
theatre at the time.
Mr. Thomas Harper, who was engaged in the orches-
tra, said that he could not speak to the conduct of the
young men at the bar, but there was great disorder among
the company in consequence of some trying to get up a
dance, pulling about respectable females, many of whom
took refuge on the platform to save themselves, and,
being at the rear of the orchestra, he advised M. Jullien,
who was in the centre, to suspend the performance until
the riot was put an end to by the police. There were all
sorts of cries kept up by a number of young men, who
appeared not to be partial to the sort of music the greater
part of the audience wished to hear.
Mr. HALL ordered Felling and De Costa to pay a
fine of 5/. each, or go to prison for 15 days each, and
the other defendant to be sent to the House of Correc-
tion for 14 days.
Richard Jones and Archibald Hamilton were next put
to the bar, charged with taking part in the riot, and
similar evidence being given as in the last case, they were
fined 5L each, or 15 days' imprisonment.
CLERKEIV WELL.

Mrs. Elizabeth Beswick, a genteel looking elderly
woman, was charged with assaulting and annoying Mr.
George Beswick, who was said to belong to the thea-
trical profession, and who resides at 34, Clerkenwell-
green.
Mr. COMBE asked the complainant, on being sworn, if
the accused was his wife ?
Complainant was silent.
Mr. COMBE repeated the question. Complainant—
That is a question which is to be tried in another place,
and which I don't wish to answer just now.
Mr. COMBE—Then hare you been living as husband
and wife? Complainant (hesitatingly)—Yes ; oh yes.
Mr. COMBE—Has she not passed as your wife? Com-
plainant—Yes.
Prisoner (with evident surprise)—l am his lawful wife.
Complainant went on to say that he had been sepa-
rated from the prisoner, and had allowed her 10s. a week
for the support of herself and two children, but discon-
tinued the allowance a month ago. He had put the
matter into the hands of his attorney ; and if she
thought herself aggrieved, she must take the proper
legal steps.
The prisoner said she was in want of the common ne-
cessaries of life, and was about referring to a paper
which she held in her hand and entering into a state-
ment of her condition, but
The MAGISTRATE told her he could not listen to it.
The complainant, in support of the charge, said the pri-
soner had struck him, on Saturday night, in John's-row,
St. Luke's, having found him in a house in the neighbour-
hood. She struck him several times in the face, and
attempted to tear the clothes off his back, and he was
reluctantly obliged to give her into custody.
The prisoner, being called on for her defence, burst
into tears. She said that, having had nothing from her
husband for the last month, she went to Wenlock-road,
where his paramour resided, and where he generally
stopped. She was in great distress at the time, but did
not commit any offence until the paramour called her
bad names, and her children " bastards." The com-
plainant was by, and did not say a word to check this
insolence, though she had been his wife for twenty-seven
years, and the mother of his two children. Enraged at
such conduct, she certainly did strike him. Some days
ago, being absolutely destitute, she was obliged to throw
herself on Shoreditch parish% but the :officials there
refused to take up her case. She repeatedly waited on
her husband's attorney, but he did not give her any
satisfaction, He said he did not know Mr. Beswick's
address. Her two children as well as herself had been
in great distress.
Complainant—Children! why your son is 23, and that
lassie there (pointing to the daughter, a modest, genteel-
looking girl, who stood behind her mother) is more
than 20.
The poor girl came forward, and stated that what her
mother said was quite true; they had been in the greatest
distress. She had been endeavouring to support her
mother out of her own earnings, but they were half
starved upon it. Her brother got into a situation about
a fortnight ago, and up to that period their condition
was even worse than it had been since. The landlady of
her father's paramour was present, and would corrobo-
rate her mother's statement. She did not think it right
that her father and that bad woman should be allowed to
treat her mother so.
Mr. COMBE (to complainant)—You should not allow
the woman to starve.
Complainant—l do not call upon your Worship to
decide between us.
The Clerk—That is not the proper way to speak.
You ought to continuo the allowance. Will you do so?
Complainant—Decidedly not; she has injured me in my
business.
Mr. COMBE—WiII you let the woman starve? Com-
plainant—Let her take the proper steps.
Mr. COMBE—Are you aware that for refusing to
maintain your site a warrant can be issued for your
apprehension if she throws herself on the parish?
Complainant—l am quite prepared to meet such a pro-
ceeding, but I am not going to give her weapons to fight
me with. I want to be protected.
Mr. COMBE—WeII, she has committed an offence.
Will you be satisfied with her entering into her own re-
cognisance to keep the peace ? Complainant—l don't
think a wife can enter into her own recognisance whilst
her husband is alive ; but I don't wish to hurt the
woman.
The poor woman said the complainant had taken
away her furniture and everything that belonged to her,
and she was now pennyless and friendless.
Mr. COMBE, who seemed to sympathise in her helpless
condition, discharged her upon promising not to y
Mr. Beswick in future.
SOUTHWARK:

James Morris, a respectable-looking young man, clerk
to Mr. Gardner, house and estate agent, Newington-
causeway, was placed at the bar, before Mr. Cottnigh:"
charged with taking a quantity of laudanum for thA pur-
pose of destroying himself.
A police-constable, of the M division, sas' that about
"
half-past ten o'clock on Saturday pi nt he was called
into Mrs. Gardner's house, where t.e found the prisoner
in a stare of lethargy. Believ2ing that he had taken
poison he took him to the, station-house, from which
place Inspector Yates sr
;,it him to Guy's Hospital, where
the stomach-pump used twice, and a quantity of
laudanum was er.racted from his stomach. He was
afterwards takr:a to St. George's workhouse, where he
remained urtil brought to this Court.
An Prentice to Mr. Bellamy, chemist. Brigdehouse-
place% igewingtun-causeway, said he had known the pri-
sor..er some years, his mother being in business on the
opposite side of the road. He came into his master's
shop about ten o'clock on Saturday night, and asked for
fourpennyworth of laudanum, saying at the same time,
in a laughing manner, that he intended to poison him-
self. Not believing he had such au intention, he served
him with twopennyworth, when he said that as he would
not let him have the quantity he desired, he should go
to another chemist, and purchase twopennyworth more.
Ile then left the shop.
Mr. COTTINGIIAM said he had actel very wrong in
supplying him at all, after his making use of such lan-
guage.
His mother said that sho believed that he was not in
his right senses. Ile had formed an attachment to Mrs.
Gardner's daughter, and the banns of marriage had been
published in St. George's Church, but Mrs. Gardner
refused to sanction the marriage. He was, however, a
very bad lad, having robbed her to a very serious extent
some time ago.
Mrs. Gardner said she knew nothing of her daughter's
attachment to the prisoner; she did not believe that
there was any truth in the matter.
In answer to the charge, the prisoner said that on Sa-
turday evening he had been letting a house, and after-
wards partook of some liquor. Not being used to such
indulgences it affected his head, but he had no idea of
poisoning himself ; in fact, he did not take enough to
to do so. his mother would hang him if she could, and
he had not a friend in the world.

Mr. COTTINGHAM said, it was quite clear that he in-
tended to poison himself, therefore he should order him
to find bail for 12 months, and remain in prison until
sufficient security was forthcoming for his future conduct.

He was coinniitted to prison in default of the required
bail.

Jokn Lawrence, a horse-dealer, was placed at the bar
on a charge of having intermarried with Sarah Burkett,
his former wife being still alive.
The circumstance attending the discovery of the pri-
soner having a plurality of wives arose out of a quarrel
that he recently had with a third female, with whom he
had latterly cohabited. In the excitement of passion
this woman gave such information as led to his appre-
hension, but when he was brought up for examination
she absented herself, and a warrant was therefore
issued for her apprehension as an important witness
in the ease.
The prisoner's two wives, however, attended, and
from the production of the certificates it appeared
that he was married to Ann Collis on the 28th of
March, 1823, and to Sarah Burkett on the 11th of June,
1844.
When the prisoner was placed at the bar he declared
that at the time he contracted the second marriage ho
heard that his first wife was dead, and he believed so up
to the present moment.
The first wife, however, was here confronted with
the prisoner, and he admitted that he was married to her
at the period specified in the certificate. He added that
he had not seen her until then for 13 years.
Mr. COTTINGHAM said the woman who gave the first
information, but who had now very properly absented
herself, stated that at the time she W5/3 1,1Y113,7, under the

protection of the prisoner she heard him admit that his
first wife was alive at the time he contracted the second
marriage. The Magistrate added that he should commit
the prisoner for trial, but that he should be brought up
again in order that tire evidence of the woman before
alluded to might be•included in the depositions.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TlMES.—There is a certain work on " Corn and
Currency" most respectfully and sympathetically ad-
dressed to the landowners by one of their class, and dis-
playing more than sufficient information and ability to
account for its having come to a second edition. Long
ere this, however, it would have been overlaid and for-
gotten under the subsequent accumulation of literature
on and about those recondite subjects, but for one little
circumstance. If it has not conferred celebrity on its
author, its author has done that service to it ; for it is
by no less a person than Sir James Graham (of Ne-
thezby), Bart., M.P. Though rather pass& in some of
its topics—for it was published in 1826—it possesses,
under the circumstances, a freshness ever new, and an
interest just now more than ever on the ascendant. It
-has been carefully investigated by those who consider it
discreditable to modify a published opinion, and,
we are bound to add, that their generous
industry has not been entirely without its reward.
How far the Right Hon. Author may himself be haunted
by his litera scripta or his vox miBsa—those once for-
midable bugbears of political men—perhaps we are not
the party to guess. But if there ever was a time when
be might turn over the leaf not only with that mental
and visible composure which practice alone can impart,
but also with advantage to the nation, that time, we
think, has now arrived. The currency is the chief
subject of the book, and would undoubtedly have been
first in the title had that been an euphoneous arrange-
ment. On this point Sir James Graham exhibits a very
keen apprehension of the misery and injustice occasioned
by the alternate expansions and contractions of the cir-
culating medium during and after the war. how far
these vicissitudes were entirely artificial, how far they
resulted from political and commercial events, and how
far they are now completely under the control either
of Bank or Parliament, are questions apparently beside
the scope of Sir James's inquiries. He makes out a
case against the Act of 1795, and not less against the
Act of 1819 ; he describes the crisis of 1825, and
one or two more ; he exhibits some striking
tables ; detects some considerable wrongs ; but
perhaps leaves no impression so definite as that
a depreciation of the currency, from whatever reason
arising, has an almost exactly proportionate effect in in-
creasing the price of corn and other principal commodi-
ties of life. It is the now Right Hon. Baronet's view of the
corn-laws which gives to the work its chief present in-
terest; and fortunately this also is the point on which he
happens to be most explicit. Addressing himself to his
brother landowners he probably felt that figures would
be asked for, and while he assures them of their abstract
right to some equivalent boons which a just Legislature
would certainly allow, he recommends them to volunteer
the first step in the adjustment by surrendering their
share in the existing injurious compromise. He asks
them, in fact, to give up all attempt to fix the price of
corn, and content themselves with what he calls a " pro-
tective " duty of 15s. a quarter,—to accept a fixed duty
in lieu of a fixed price. Advice so unpalatable is intro•
doted with a preface so much to the purpose, so gene-
rally significant, and so peculiarly appropriate to the
Right Hon. Baronet's own career, that our readers will
thank us for the extract :
" I am aware that you will not be inclined to attend to the
suggestions which I am about to offer; past errors are ad-
mitted with reluctance; measures of precaution, especially
if they be of a decisive character, are slowly adopted against
dangers which are not immediate; and the course of legisla-
tion is very rarely the result of previous wisdom; it. is rather
guided by circumstances, and influenced by the occasion."
Sir James makes it his purpose to view a prohibitory
system of corn-laws in the bearings as an attempt to
regulate prices. Wishing well to the landowners—nay,
avowing a decided predilection in their favour—for that
very reason he advises them to renounce a compensation
which does not really save them from the losses entailed
by gold payments and contracted issues.
" It may be doubted even whether the existing (1826)
system of prohibition be so entire a benefit to the landowner
himself as he would seem tc imagine; for, in the variety of
seasons, it is impossible that the land cultivated within these
islands can, year by year, from one harvest to another, pro-
duce a supply of corn exactly commensurate with the de-
mand. At one time the prohibitory system is unjust to the
grower; at another, to the consumer. The grower is injured
when, after a harvest somewhat deficient, the ports are
opened by a sudden rise of price, and a large accumulation
of foreign corn is poured at once into this country ; bringing
on the farmer the losses incident to over-production, and
ultimately to the landlord a correspondent decline of rent.
The consumer is injured in the interval between the rise
of price and the importation of foreign grain ; he is even
exposed to the horrors of famine ; for in proportion as the
demand for foreign grain is unusual, the supply in case of
emergency must be precarious. Thus the alternate evils of
redundancy and scarcity, unsteady prices and uncertain rents,
are the inevitable consequences of the present system of our
corn-laws. Farming is therefore made both a gambling and a
hazardous speculation. No caution can guard against ruin-
ous losses, for no prudence can foresee the chances on which
they depend ; whether the price •f wheat will rise to 78s.
per quarter, when the profit of the farmer would be enor-
mous, or touch the maximum of 80s., when by the opening
of the ports and of the granaries of corn in bond, wheat
would instantly fall at least 50 per cent., to his entire ruin,
is a matter almost of accident, frequently influenced by
fraud; thus the full operation of the present corn-laws ex-
poses agricultural capital to losses rather incident to the
hazard table that to fair mercantile speculation."
As the writer proceeds to prove, the conclusion
is that " thus revenue from the soil is literally made
the sport of wind and of weather." It is unneces-
sary to observe that the argument applies to the present
sliding-scalo as much as to that against which
the enlightened Lord of Netherby was levelling
his indignant remonstrances. Still less is it neces-
sary to remind our readers of a recent instance
which fully illustrates the tendency to a sudden ruinous
downfal. Amongst the numerous resources and claims
c:dyes.swetoanfgeteasi
of the present Ministry is the stock of credit it has
gained by a certain million pounds sterling, or therea-
bouts, paid at once into the Treasury on the importation
of several millions of quarters of foreign corn, the effect
of which, pleasant as it might be to the manufacturers
and her Majesty's Ministers, was to lower the price of
corn immediately more than the Baronet's 50 per cent.
It is only just now that the national and universal cala-
mity of a bad harvest has rescued the agriculturists out
of that slough of despond ; though we are by no means
sure that the agriculturists will not find the remedy
worse than the disease. But let us go on with Sir
James. We shall find him keeping up the spirit of his
argument :
shr
eitgmloyhmuosepntrr
ibichseei
high
tihhit manufacturer;oegyhrreoerfidtut
sc:eti.t whichi(ftiss,
wages
tbg theteii
sst
must dec”, 1?
thehis" pTarsoh,osepwleaerdni t(yltl
eodnrediesenn
must be lower; tlitia our foreign compe-
titors had demonstrated above.) If corn be dearer In Eng-
land
igthhaenr,elpsreowfihtsere
obtain the greatest possible advinitage; and if the sys-
ftoermthb
ee
homeome
market,
surely it is not the inters • decease this country ; and
me of any class so to enhance the
successfulprice of
labour a provisions as ft) secure to the foreigner
the -r- • •
~,mpeution, and to choke with obstructions
•
erincipal channels of native industry. The
:eeling of the public must be hostile to the present
corn-law ; the receivers of rent are a very small body ; backed
by public opinion they are almost omnipotent; in violation
of public opinion they cannot long retain an exclusive advan-
tage. The contest is fearful ; for on what ground will it be
decided? On the very topic which inflames to madness;
that hunger which breaks through walls will be arrayed
against them, reason will be heard no longer, the barriers of
society will be broken down, and estates, distinctions,
honours, swept away in one resistless torrent."
It is impossible to suppose that arguments so cogent in
themselves, so emphatically and so eloquently expressed,
can be either forgotten or unfelt. We are sure, how-
ever, that we do the writer a service in recalling them
as well to his attention as to that of his many admiring
readers. Even from the grave and obsolete antiquity
would we search for reasons and motives on such a
theme; much more then from the early writings of one
who happily still lives to give them their full, mature,
and practical force. In a day or two we will present
our readers with a little more virgin ore from the same
mine.
POST.—No language we could use would be too strong
to express the indignation which every just man—which
every man who loves truth—ought to feel, at the present
moment, against those who are labouring in the public
press to excite an alarm of famine. That this iniquitous
project is undertaken solely for a party purpose is evi-
dent. The enemies of the law which gives protection to
the British agriculterist, hope, by exciting a public cla-
mour, and producing a pressure from without, to cause
the Government to ,open the ports fur the reception of
foreign corn free of duty. They further hope that this
grand object having been accomplished, they will have
influence enough to obstruct for ever the revival of the
law which restricts and regulates the import of foreign
grain. It is the grossest hypocrisy to pretend that the
exaggeration and violent declamation about impending
famine, to which we allude, arise out of a real concern
for the British consumers. They who are acquainted
with the subject know very well, that the real opera-
tion of the opening of the ports would be an imme-
diate rise of the price abroad, and, in fact, a putting
into the pockets of the foreign holders the diffe-
rence which now exists between the price of free corn
and foreign corn in bond, and liable to duty. The
foreign holders are closely watching our proceedings,
and the moment they have reason to believe that we
must buy from them at any price, they will make us
pay accordingly. During the short time that an in-
fluential journal led the world to believe that the ports were
about to be opened, wheat in foreign ports rose some
seven shillings a quarter, and it has fallen again since
events have proved that the journal in question had been
misled, and had consequently misled the public. It is
difficult to say whether the falsehood or the nonsense
promulgated on the foreign-corn question by the
alarmists is the more conspicuous. We look on, say
they, and we see other nations supplying themselves in
the foreign ports which we refuse to enter. Refuse to
enter ! What outrageous absurdity is this ! Does any
one suppose that the duty imposed upon foreign corn,
when brought to market for consumption in England,
prevents our merchants from purchasing foreign corn ?
The very reverse is the truth. Our merchants are
now steadily and leisurely supplying themselves with
foreign corn at every port in the world where it can be
bought. They are carrying on their operations subject
to the gradual effects of the sliding-scale, upon which
they can calculate, and beyond all question our
chance of foreign supply is infinitely better
under this system than if all were thrown
into a state of confusion and chaos by the
opening of the ports. Then, indeed, a helter-skelter
scramble would take :place, and all the well-planned
operations of trade would be rendered of no avail. There
is no nation in the world supplying itself in foreign
ports as England is at this moment. At this moment
offers of cargoes of wheat from the Mediterranean are
daily arriving to our merchants. It would not be so, if,
in a paroxysm of madness or of fear, the Ministers were
to open the ports. This would be hoisting a signal of
distress which, far from bringing succour, would make
the foreigner hold off till we paid double for assistance.
It is said we are looking on while our neighbours lay
in stores which they will be prevented by restrictive, j
laws from sharing with us. Another most absurd]
untruth. It is we who are laying in the stores. Our
merchants, and not foreign merchants, are buying up

the surplus corn of foreign countries, for our mer-
chants can afford to pay, while others cannot. Why
then should we derange that which is going on
steadily, as business ought to go on ? If there be an
insufficient supply, the price thereby produced will
open the ports. The sliding-scale will open the ports,
and by that time (though not before) something will
have been provided by our merchants worth opening
the ports for. To open them now, would serve no pur-
pose but that of gratifying the factious views of the Anti-
Corn-law League. It is said that we knowingly post-
pone our demand for foreign wheat till the time when
the supply will be most costly. Another absurdity—
another falsehood. We do not postpone our demand.
Our demand is now steadily proceeding, and we are ac-
quiring foreign corn at less cost, because we are acquir-
ing it while a considerable barrier exists between the
foreign produce and the British consumer. The propa-
gators of lies on the subject of the supply of foreign
corn leave entirely out of account the operations of our
merchants in anticipation of the future demand. They
assume what they must be ignorant, indeed, if they do
not know to be false, that until our ports are open, no
purchase, or no important purchase, of foreign grain
takes place. It is strange that any portion of the
public should be gulled by nonsense such as this.
We believe the sliding-scale to be right in principle,
but whether it be right or wrong, the operation of
those whose business it .is to watch and calculate upan
the facts which they are at the utmost pains to ascer-
tain—the operations of the great dealers in corn, have
been adapted to the machinery of the sliding-scale.
In conformity with what may be expected from it, they
are making their preparations, and to open the ports
suddenly, while their measures are in progress, would
be to ruin them, and to destroy our own means of safety,
if, indeed, it be true that we shall require considerable
aid from foreign supply. If, again, it be true that our
own produce is considerably short of our ordinary con-
sumption, what palpable madness it is to be clamouring
for cheapness of price ! Does not every one know that
a rise in price is the natural remedy which the habits
and the reason of mankind supply to induce economy in
the use of the commodity of which a scarcity is appre-
hended ? Shall we by any desperate measure seek a
momentary depression of the price of home-grown corn,
and thus induce a greater consumption at the very mo-
ment that we say we have not enough to sustain the pre-
sent rate of consumption till next harvest ? Really, such
representations are too preposterous to be borne with
common patience. We have the satisfaction, however,
of believing that the Government is not misled by the
lies which are pelted about town and country with such
vehemence ; and we hope Government will have manli-
ness enough not to give way before clamour,, which it
well knows to be dishonest.
CHRONICLE.—The Nation recommends to the con-
sideration of repeal wardens, to be read in their parishes,
a " few short and easy rules " as to the uses to which
railways may be put. We had the gratification of
printing them in the Chronicle yesterday :
" A hint on this subject," the Nation says, " may be
thought enough; but we see noobjection to speaking plainly;
and, therefore, we give a few practical views, which may be
improved as engineers turn their attention to the subject.
" First, then, every railway within five miles of Dublin
could in one night be totally cut off from the interior coun-
try. To lift a mile of rail, to fill a perch or two of any
cutting or tunnel, to break down a piece of an embankment,
seem obvious and easy enough.
" Second—The materials of railways, good hammered iron
and wooden sleepers, need we point out that such things may
be of use in other lines than assisting locomotion.
"Third—Troops upon their march by rail might be con-
veniently met with in divers places. Hofer, with his Tyro-
liens, could hardly desire a deadlier ambush than the brinks
of a deep cutting upon a railway. Imagine a few hundred
men lying in wait upon such a spot, with masses of rock and
trunks of trees ready to roll down—and a train or two ad-
vancing with a regiment of infantry, and the engine pant-
ing near and nearer, till the polished studs of brass on its
front are distinguishable, and its name may nearly be read ;
Now, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost !—now .'
" But 'tis a dream. No enemy will dare put us to realise
these scenes. Yet, let all understand what a railway may,
and what it may not do."
It requires a fine philanthropist and legislator to dis-
cover such advantages in the railway system—one of
those obstinate martyrs who would cut off his nose in
order to spite his face. Suppose the rails are down and
the tunnels complete, the Irish philosopher instantly
begins to think how it would be easy to lift the former
and fill up the latter again. This also would give fresh
work to the neglected poor ; and, causing a wholesome
and perpetaal demand upon capitalists, would enforce a
circulation of money through the country. " Second—
good hammered iron and wooden sleepers" would be
capitally handy to make pikes with. The " second" is
admirable : the logical precision and neatness of the
rules to be read in parishes. Get your subscriptions
and your Parliamentary Acts ; pay your engineers,
landowners, and workmen ; and you have at once good
hammered iron and wooden sleepers ready for demo-
lishing Saxons. The cheapness of the weapon is unde-
niable. The boys could have the pikes for nothing.
There are historical examples for the practice. The
refined and intrepid Vandals, when they invaded
Rome, pulled out the iron clamps of the Colosseum
for the same purpose : the Turks (an exceedingly
civilised and maligned race) fired off the heads and
limbs of Phidias' statues from the Parthenon, when be-
sieged there. There is also the case of the enlightened
Chinese, mentioned by Charles Lamb, who having eaten
a pig which was roasted in the burning of a house, burned
down a house every day with a pig in it, in order to get
his favourite crackling. Young Ireland is for legislating
in this way. Travellers, who have visited the country,
have seen the system many times put in practice; and in
the Irish domestic, economy have admired a piano figur-
ing very handsomely as an apple-cupboard, or a window
replaced advantageously by a pair of pantaloons or a wig.
Here it is proposed to employ the plan on a grand and
noble scale, and to put arms in the hands of ingenious
patriots who are about to levy war. Then we wind up
with the night attack—the Irish in ambush, with the
rocks and trees handy; the smashing of the engine, and
the roasting, crushing, and slaughter of the Saxon
regiment in the train, And the whole of tke wretched,
tawdry romance finishes with that accustomed invoca-
tion so commonly used among certain patriots in Ire-
land now—not the Nation writers merely. The Captain
Rocks and Molly Maguire's men used a similar one
before they went out to murder. Has Swift left no suc-
cessor? Are these people, who could listen to sense and
wit once, to be led by such harangues as those of Mr.
Sinnott the other day, and as this of the Nation ? Fancy
a country in which popular journals are found which
call these plans of incendiarism "practical views"--a
country where starvation is imminent, and employment
is the only chance of averting it. The native legislators
do their best at this moment to frighten out of Ireland
its sole means of livelihood, as if in such a time, and to
starving men, bread were not more necessary than the
best Parliament that ever was devised, or all the spouters
that ever roared through lungs ! You want your land-
lords to come and live among you ; shoot at those who
are there, and so encourage the rest back again. You
want money and work ; curse and threaten the only
people in the world that can give it you. You want
railroads to develope your own internal resources ; pro-
mise to destroy them, so that you may get pikes to kill
the Saxon with. This argument goes on day by day,
and is talked to the best, wisest, bravest, cleverest people
in the world. If Swift were but by to listen to it ! But
they seem to prefer an orator out of Swift's Hospital
now—a bedlamite with a murderous monomania.
SENTINEL—The total abolition of the corn-laws seems
now at hand. The friends of the farmers who rejected
the fixed duty of the Whigs, will ere long be driven by
the man of their choice to surrender the whole of their
monopoly. There is no longer any opportunity for parly
or compromise. Impending famine, the precur or of
riot, it may be of revolution, threatens to extort the
opening of the ports. We may have soon to select
between the downfal of the landowners or the sub-
version of the monarchy. The gigantic fraud of pro-
tection against foreign growers of corn has been laid
bare in all its details. It is now known that protection
means robbery, since it throws taxation on the indus-
trious classes and exempts the property classes from
its pressure. But more than this is known. It is
well understood that the imposition of the taxes on
food was originally consented to, on condition that the
landlords would support the Bullion Committee in the
Bill which compelled the Bank of England to resume
cash payments. Sir James Graham is our authority,
and he has called that bargain an imprudent bargain; we
denounce it as a base one ; and punishment is now,
though tardily, about to overtake the criminals. But
let us attempt to exhibit the bearings of this question
without heat or rancour, neither as exclusive partisans of
manufactures or agriculture, for there has been too
much of vituperations too little of argument on both
sides. We will endeavour to write in the spirit of a
bltfo4
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national
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labour
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mediator between extreme parties.
d
landlords would not have sought or required any legis-
lative protection ; therefore, in reality, it was not the
dread of the foreign producer, but the dread of the
domestic tax• gatherer that guided their polity. Or, if
this mode of stating the fact be deemed ambiguous, we
would say that the domestic tax-gatherer immediately
and the foreign producer mediately created the corn-
laws. In simple truth, high taxes render high prices
necessary ; monopoly is favourable to high prices ;
therefore the landlords claimed a monopoly for the
commodities which they sold. So far, they only acted
as all other traders would act, had they the power ;
they threw off taxation from themselves and placed
it on the consumers of grain and other farm produce.
Now, had the Legislature granted to all other classes
of producers the same amount of protection as they
conceded to the agriculturists, there would have been

no cause of complaint. But the very reverse was the
case. The next measure was Peel's Bill of 1819.
That Bill, overlooking the fact, that taxes ought to
enhance prices in exact proportion to such taxes,
enacted that gold, at its natural cr untaxed value,
should be the standard measure of all taxed commodi-
ties. The consequence was, that, while all agricultu-
ral produce remained high, all other industrial produce
became low ; so that the landlord was enabled to sell
his produce dear, and buy all other produce cheap.
This is the real iniquity of the system. The nobility,
by a fraud, became as fiscally privileged, as were the
French nobility before the Revolution they suc-
ceeded by the joint action of the money laws and the
corn-laws wholly to escape taxation ; for, whatever
they paid to tho tax gatherer ',they always got back
again, and generally with a high bonus from the con.
sumers of the food in which they traded. Repeal the
corn-laws and retain Peel's Bill. and then the landlords
would have to sell as cheap as other traders. It is the
knowledge of this fact that makes them so tenacious of
their priviloge. Is there any mode by which, on sur-
endering their monopoly, they could still obtain high
prices to cover their just share of taxation as pro-,
ducers ? Undoubtedly there is. it is by reverting ,

to that currency under which prices rose during the
war, and there is no other mode. To this the
manufacturer would not object, as such high prices,
being paper prices, and not gold prices, his trade
with foreigners would not be effected. The manu-
facturer would still be able to sell cheap to the
foreigner, while he would sell dear at home ; and,
thiv, he also would throw his share of taxation on the
consumer. If agriculturists and manufacturers could
only sre these points, they would form ono common
league against the usurers and moneymongers to whom
both are the unconscious victims. As to the working
classes, they also would receive high wages; and, by
high wages, we specially mean, such wages as would
cover all the indirect taxes they now pay on all they
consume. Thus, all the industrious, of every grade,
would be liberated from fiscal burthens, which would
fall, where they ought to fall, on property. Such is the
equitable and honourable adjustment we propose between
the lords of the plough and the loom..

EXTRAORDINARY MORTALITY.
Yesterday morning, at ten o'clock, Mr. Wakley, M.P.,
resumed an adjourned inquiry, in the board• room of Mid-
dlesex Hospital, relative to the respective deaths of
William Lambert, aged 17, and Henry Lambert, aged
12, brothers, forming two of a numerous family, who had
died in that institution under the following extraordinary
and mysterious circumstances. Many medical gentle-
men attended the investigation.
It will be recollected that on the former occasion it
appeared in evidence that the father of the deceased, who
carried on business as a painter and glazier, at No. 33,
Cumberland-market, died about twelve weeks since, sub-
sequent to which his widow, three sons, daughter, and
grand-daughter, had been seized with a malady which they
considered was the scarlet fever. The grand-daughter
however dying, and the sons becoming daily worse, they
were on the 4th inst. removed to the hospital, where on
the 13th, William died, and on the 15th, Henry. As the
cause of their deaths could in no way be accounted for
by any of the medical gentlemen who saw them, Mr.
Corfe, the house apothecary, communicated with Mr.
Wakley, and the result was the present investigation.
On the re-assembling of the jury yesterday, the de-
puty coroner having read over the evidence before ad-
duced, the following witnesses were examined:—
Mr. Corfe stated that the deceased were admitted
into that hospital on Tuesday, the 4th instant, together
with another brother who still remained there, and was
gradually progressing towards recovery. They all ex-
hibited precisely the same symptoms, and had been at-
tacked in the same manner. The indistinctness of their
articulation rendered it very difficult for them to explain
the nature of their complaint. Witness considered them
to be labouring under a poisonous effluvium arising from
the sewer in the neighbourhood in which they had re-
sided. The eldest brother, John Lambert, still survived.
There was a great swelling about the jaws and throat,
with an excessive foetid discharge from the mouth and
nostrils, and from the cause before mentioned they could
not be questioned as to their condition. Anothersymptom
was a most voracious appetite. Leeches were applied to
the jaws, and the knees and elbows became very much
swollen and painful. On examination of the body of the
de;reased, Wm. Lambert, after death, he found both the
knee joints to contain a thick fluid. The membrane of
the larynx was reduced. Nothing unusual was found in
the stomach. The lower part of the mesphagus was
healthy, but there was a laceration about the gums. In
a case of poisoning recorded in a German periodical, and
translated by Dr. Harrison (an extract of which was
read by the witness), the symptoms very much corre-
sponded with those of the deceased. On a post mortem
examination of the deceased Henry, ulceration of the
larynx was discovered. The veins did not exhibit any
inflammation, and the stomach as well as the other
organs were quite healthy, but the breast and ankle
joints were found to contain putrid matter. He (wit-
ness) had never during his fourteen years' practice at
that hospital met with so peculiar a case. The disease
was quite new to him, and as he had stated to the Co-
roner when he forwarded his communication, it was his
opinion that death was the result of some poisonous
animal matter, but what that animal matter was he was
unprepared to say. The case had struck all the medical
gentlemen who had heard of it as one of the most in-
comprehensible in the annals of medicine.
Francis Amelia Lambert, sister to the deceased, was
next called, and said that on the 4th of October last she
went to nurse, during her illness, her sister, Mrs. Win-
grove, wife of a brewer's vat maker, living in Whet-
stone-park, Lincoln's Inn-fields. Two or three days
afterwards witness was seized with sickness and pains in
her loins, with sore throat and a rash all over her. She
remained there till the 10th, when becoming worse, she
returned home to her mother's, where her voice failed
her, and on the 14th her skin peeled off. She was better
the following day and very hungry, but was unable to
open her mouth, arid her sister (Mrs. Wingrove) was the
same. Witness, however, eventually rallied and re-
covered. On the 19th her (witness's) child aged ten
months, became ill under similar symptoms, which were
stated by an apothecary in the neighbourhood to be
scarlet fever, and it died on the 2d inst., before which
time witness's mother had been also attacked, but re-
stored to health. Between the 28th and 30th ult., the
deceased and her (witness's) brother John, whose age
was 20, had been seized in the like way as herself, and
were removed on the day before mentioned to that hos-
dital in a cab.
The CORONER—Mr. Corfe, have you no means of con-
veying persons here ? Mr. Corfe—No, sir.
CORONER —That is a very wrong thing. Here are
three persons brought to this place in a vehicle, all of
whom are labouring under a most frightful and infecti-
ons disease. The consequence is, that after they had
alighted, others might have got into the same convey-
ance, and thus the disease might spread. Was there no
application made to the hospital relative to the deceased
prior to their admission ? Mr. Corfe—No, sir.
Charlotte Lambert, mother of the deceased, corrobo-
rated her daughter's evidence.
Mr. Headland, surgeon, of Guildford-street, Russell-
square, deposed that he was called about a month since
to attend Mrs. Wingrove, who was suffering from swell-
ings in the throat, which rapidly ran into suppurations.
They occurred so quickly below both jaws on either side
as to keep her mouth closed for fourteen or fifteen days,
during which time she could scarcely swallow nourish-
ment. Before twenty-four hours had elapsed his atten-
tion was attracted to her child, an infant at the breast,
which had swellings of a similar character, and which,
in two days after ran into large cavities, one in the face
and the other in the neck. Witness believed that
to the velocity of the suppuration was to be attributed
the saving of life, otherwise the constitutional disturb-
ance would have been so great from the frightfully in-
fectious and contagious nature of the disease as to have
caused their deaths. On his second visit he gave orders
that all persons should be kept away from his patient
except a nurse, but no one seemed inclined to attend her,
where Mrs. Wingrove sent for her sister (the witness
Frances Lambert), who immediately came. On a sub-
sequent visit he saw the witness at Mrs. Wingrove's, and
thought she was ailing, and on his next calling she had
returned home. It occurred to him as to whether these
cases might not be some of the forms of scarlet fever,
but he could find no rash in either case, and it was now
his decided opinion that such was not the fact.
CORONER—Did you at that time, or have you subse-
quently, endeavoured to trace the source of the matter?
Witness—Yes, I am induced to ascribe this malady to
some special peculiarity of the atmosphere, and I must
say, that the house and premises, in the yard of which
there are pigs, fowls, Ste., is altogether an unwholesome
place.
By a juror—He certainly considered the disease was
attributable to some atmospheric circumstance of a spe-
cific character.
By the CORONER—He had never met with any other
such cases, although he had had for years a most ex-
tensive practice. It was one of the most extraordi-
dinary eases perhaps on record. Witness had done all
he could to prevent the spreading of this very peculiar
and unprecedented disease. He would further remark,
that there was a drain in Lincoln's Inn-fields, near to
the house occupied by Mr. Wingrove, which was, with-
out exception, the worst drain in all London.
The CORONER (emphatically)—Ah! you had better
mention that fact distinctly, because there are some very
rich and influential people in Lincoln's Inn-fields, and
that drain it would seem is in the very midst of 4, . part
they inhabit.
Witness (in continuation)--There are three or four
houses in that neighbourhood positively unfit for habi-

tation.
The CORONER—Can you name the disease of which
the deceased died? Witness—No, sir.
CORONER (to Mr. Corfe)—Can you? Mr. Corfe—l
cannot, sir.
The same question was put to several gentlemen in
the room who had assisted in the case, and whose replies
were also in the negative.
There being no further evidence,
The CORONER proceeded to sum up. lle remarked
that the disease which occasioned the deaths of the de-
ceased was quite as unaccountable to him as it was to
the gentlemen who had spoken, and it would be remem-
bered on the first assemblage of the jury there was rea-
son to suspect that it had originated in the vicinity of
Cumberland-market, but it was now quite evident that it
was not so. He (the Coroner) felt quite satisfied that it
did not originate there at all, and he could conceive
nothing could be plainer than that it had been car-
ried there from Whetstone-park. The observations
of Mr. Curie precisely corresponded with those
of Mr. Headland, and it seemed true that it was
a specific disease, which was communicable appa-
rently by contagion, as also by infection. Mr. Code,
a gentleman of many years' practice at that
establishment, had stated that ho considered it to be
caused by 9. poisonous effluvium from animal matter, and
that the case was of an entirely new character. He (the
Coroner, however, did not believe, although it was evi-
dent that the deaths of the deceased had been caused by
poison, that anything of a deleterious nature had been
administered. After some further observations, the
Coroner) concluded by complimenting the jury on the
great attention they had paid to that which he con-
sneered an important public inquiry, and which he
trusted would gain a publicity whereby the attention of
her Majesty's Commissioners of Sewers would be called
to the immediate locality of Lincoln's Inn-fields ; and at
the same time he hoped the distressing condition of Mrs.
Lambert, who had so suddenly suffered a domestic
affliction, would attract the notice of the benevolent.
The jury then, after some consultation, returned the
following verdict :—" That the deaths of the deceased
William and Henry Lambert were caused by some poi-
sonous effluvium, to the jury unknown."

James Steel, Esq., editor and proprietor of the Carlisle
Jourrail, and a Liberal in politics, was, on Monday week, re
elected Mavor of Carlisle by the unanimous votes of a full
meeting of Town Council.
M;ss Stuart, the young tragic actress, who has
made so great a sensation at Liverpool, is daughter of Mr.
Stuart, of the Haymarket Theatre, and was born in Ply-
mouth in the latter part of 1.527, consequently is scarcely
eighttsu years of age,