The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-06 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

THE QUEEN DOWAGER.—The bulletins of the
state of her Majesty have been discontinued, owing
to the improvement that has taken place in her Ma-
jesty's health. Their Royal Highnesses the„ Duke of
Cambridge and the Duchess of Gloucester sent yes-
terday and on Saturday to Marlborough House, to
inquire after the progress of their august relative.
The following bulletin was issued on Saturday :
" The Queen Dowager has again passed a good
night, and as her Majesty's hand and arm appear to
be improving steadily, although slowly, the daily
bulletin of her Majesty's progress will be discon-
tinued. "DAVID DAVIES, M.D.,
" R. KEATE.

" Marlborough House, May 4, 1844."
THE DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER.—The greater part
of the Nobility and Gentry in town called yesterday,and
on Saturday, at Gloucester House, to inquire after the
health of the Royal Duchess. The answer given was—
" Her Royal Highness is going on favourably."
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge paid a
visit to his Royal sister yesterday afternoon, at Glou-
cester House.
The Queen and Prince Albert walked in the Royal
Gardens of Buckingham. Palace on Saturday forenoon.
The Royal Family were taken their customary
airings in the Royal Gardens on Saturday morning.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the
Princess Alice left town at four o'clock on Saturday af-
ternoon for Claremont.

The Queen, accompanied by the Princess Royal, and
attended by the Marchioness of Douro, Lady in Waiting,
left Buckingham Palace at a quarter before six o'clock
on Saturday afternoon in a carriage and four, escorted
by a party of the Royal Horse Guards, for Claremont.
Her Majesty was conducted to her carriage by the Lord
Steward, the Vice-Chamberlain, and the Lord and Groom
in Waiting.
Colonel Buckley, Equerry in Waiting to her Majesty,
followed in a chariot and four.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert, attended by the
Marquis of Exeter, Groom of the Stole, the Marquis of
Granby, Lord in Waiting, and Colonel Wyldo, Equerry
in Waiting, went from Buckingham Palace shortly be-
fore six o'clock on Saturday afternoon, to attend the
annual dinner of the Royal Academy in Trafalgar-
square.

The Hon. and Rev. C. Leslie Courtenay arrived at
Claremont on Saturday evening from town. The Hon.
C. A. Murray also arrived at Claremont on Saturday.
Sir Robert and Lady Gardiner had the honour of
dining with her Majesty, at Claremont, on Saturday
evening.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert arrived at Clare-
mont on Saturday night from town, after attending the
dinner of the Royal Academy. His Royal Highness
was attended by Colonel Wylde, Equerry in Waiting.
Yesterday morning her Majesty and Princo Albert,
the ladies and gentlemen of the Royal suite, and the
household, attended Divine service at Claremont. The
Hon. and Rev. C. Leslie Courtenay officiated.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert has honoured Mr.
Thorburn with sittings during the week for a large
miniature portrait.
Divine Service this morning in the chapel of
tt.he Female
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge attended
Orphan Asylum. Colonel Jones wasn inßßolu,
South
all"tullie his
Royal Highness. In the afternoon the ) at-
tendedAudreDtrieevinte service in Grosvenor Chapel,
The Duke of Cambridge honoured the Null Se.
cundus Club with his company at dinner, at the Claren-
don Hotel, on Saturday evening.
The Duke of Wellington 'and Sir Frederick Trench
attended the early service in the Chapel Royal, St.
James's, yesterday morning. The Rev, Dr. Wesley
the sermon yester-
nitythpereseCnhtaljel Royal,
St.
offieThiaeteidteavn. dEp. rce.ached the se
Dering rrnn.
preachedo
James's..day at theA indoanilgy
tsheervincoebiil
were the Due'
and Duchess of Beaufort, the Marquis of Winchester,
Lords Wilton, Hawarden, Hill, Vivian, Ernest Bruce,
and Polworth; Ladies Wilton and C. Sanford.
A deputation on the subject of coffee, consisting of
the agent for Jamaica, Mr. Henry H. Cohen, Mr. Tindal,
Mr. M. J. Wolff,
an interview Grove,with the Chancellor
hAanbceel,lloarndof Athlre.EA.x.
Cohen, had • Mr.
chequer on Saturday, at his official 'd resi ence in DZYWIIe
ing-street,

A deputation on the subject of sugar, including Lord
Sandon, M.P., Sir Howard Douglas, M.P., and Mr,
William R. Sandbach, had an interview with the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer on Saturday:
Sir Henry Hardinge bad an interview with Sir Robert
Peel on Saturday.
Dispatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-
office from the Governor of Hong•liong, Dispatches
were also received yesterday from the Governors of the
Falkland Island, the Mauritius, New South Wales, and
Van Dieman's Land. . -

- -
The members of the Nulli
i'jiub, consist-
ing of officers who have scryfo uithe brigade of Foot Guards,
gave their attniv7Lry
dinner on Saturday evening at the
Hotel, when his Royal Highness the Duke of
Cambridge, Colonel .in-Chief of the Coldstream Guards,
honoured the company with his presence.

IMPRI-51ON11

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:.

The Bill for finally Abolishing Imprisonment- Sitp
Debt, which was read a second time in AN ouseL 4k-.r►"'-`'
Lords on the motion of Lord Cottenhahl is a valu-
able fruit of civilisation. Growing intelligence has
by very slow and almost imperceptible steps infused
into the English people an apprehension of this
great maxim of legislation---that the recovery of
debts should be the object of laws affectieg debtor
and creditor. The idea seems obvious -when stated,
and yet the world has been a long time arriving at it.
Legislators appear to have been long in doubt whether
creditors would prefer the property or the carcase of
insolvent, and to have indulged them with a
somewhat capricious dominion—sometimes over the
one, sometimes over the other object of deire. The
stern edict of the ten tables—de debitore in partes
secando, has, in spirit, never wholly expired among
us. A mercy has been shown to house and -land,
which has been denied to flesh and blood. If the Eng-
lish creditor has sot taken his knife, with Shylock or the
old Roman usurer, he has wielded a scarcely less formi-
dable machinery of bolts and bars. Engines of
infliction he had in plenty, degradationand
confinement for all, and starvation besides for
the truly insolvent debtor. But the misfortune always
was, he was
of
without that for which all these
instruments o evil were given him—a remedy.
The landed estate of the debtor was beyond his reach.
It is but lately that realty has been made liable for
the debts of its deceased owner. The greater part of
the property of this kingdom used to be sur-
rounded by a kind of magic circle, within which the
laws of honesty could not penetrate ; and the Legis-
lature, instead of boldly breaking the charm; and
paying every man's debts ont of his property, at-
tempted to turn the flank of the evil,—to extort justice
by persecution,--to arm the creditor with powers of
vexation instead of powers of sale,—to satisfy his vin-
dictiveness instead of his bill delivered.
Most of our readers have probably heard of the
peine forte et dure of Ancient times. The English
law, as every one knows, is exceedingly just and mer-
ciful, and especially is wholly, unwilling toccaidemn
any man without hearing what he has to say. But
this used to beget a difficulty. What was to be done
when a prisoner persisted in saying nothing? 'Most
persons would say at once, " speak for him." Enter
a plea " not guilty" if you please, and proceed with
the trial. Not so the scrupulous lawyers of ancient
days. They preferred to squeeze a plea out of him.
They laid him naked on his back on the floor of a
low dark chamber. They placed on his body "as
great a weight of iron as he could bear, and more."
They gave him on alternate days three morsels of the
worst bread and three draughts of standing water, and
so they fed him " till he answered;" or, as it was more
accurately expressed in later times, " till he died." The
treatment of our debtors was conceived in the same spirit,
though carried out with less completeness. The obvious
remedy was not boldly seized by the law, but was left to
be extorted by a process of gradual torture. The land was
not taken, but the debtor squeezed till he gave it. This, at
least, Lord Cottenham states to have been the principle of
the old law. But justice requires us to add the ingenious
arrangement by which its inefficiency was provided for.
The rich man who had property to pay his creditors
was allowed to spend it comfortably in the Fleet or
Marshalsea. On him the squeezing was neutralized.
On the pennyless alone fell the horrors of real impri-
sonment. The screw was only allowed to be effective
where nothing could possibly be effected:l)y its appli-
cation. But now, at last, people are beginning -
to find out what they want, and 'show to get
it. Facilities are given them for getting-their money,
and the debtor's carcase is redeemed froin thir fangs.
The late Bankrupt and Insolvent Acts made consi-
derable inroads on the whimsical principles
~of other
days, though not without some a peculiar whim-
sicalities of their own. Every one is familiar with
the pious fraud by which a ruined nobleman, for
the benefit of himself and his creditors, ap-
pears before the Commissioners in the guise of
a bankrupt dealer in horseflesh ; and Lord Cottenham
amusingly commemorates the learned horror which was
felt on the bench some thirty years ago at the supposi-
tion that an insolvent debtor could be guilty of conniv-
ance, at an arrangement for dividing his property among
his creditors. Lord Cottenham's Bill is to put an end to
all this.
"It proposed to arrange a system under which the
debtor would be enabled, without going to prison, to
deliver up his property for the benefit of those to whom
he was indebted, and it gave to the creditor, on his part,
the power of compelling the debtor to make the conces-
sion. Having done this, the Bill proposed to abolish the
right of imprisonment for debt altogether."
Proceedings in rem are to be facilitated, in personae&
abolished—and further, the useless-distinctions between
bankruptcy and insolvency are to ,be swept away. This
is what it should be—efficient, simple, and unoppressive.
The law at present is none of these. It is ,in some re-
spects even worse than it was ten years ago. It was
then severe, but it was available. You could catch your
knave speedily, and keep hold of him when you had
got him. You had him in prison before he knew
where he was, and then you soul{', perhaps, make
your terms. Now the paraphernalia of notice, ap-
pearance, and other legal delays, which intervene
between your claim and his imprisonment, give
him ample time to take himself and all he has far be-
yond your reach, if only he plays his cards with tole-
rable dexterity, long before you have arrived at that de-
sirable consummation. And thus, without adopting to
its full extent Lord Cottenham's startling deduction that
nineteen out of twenty insolvents are injured men, be-
cause their creditors do not find it worth4while to incur
the expense and trouble of inflicting on them the full
amount of possible punishment, we can fairly say that
the present law is at once unjust and- unavailable—in-
efficient against those who wish to escape it, oppressive
upon those who stay to suffer by it; and we are heartily
glad that we are to have no more of its useless vexations.
There remains little now to observe upon, and that
little our readers ought to divine before we record it.
Of course the Bill did net pass without some little no-
tice of impediment. Of course, Lord BrOUghani came
forward to have a finger in the pie. Of course, he was
cognisant of a " document on the same subject," pre-
pared by a Noble and Learned Friend, which, of course,
" he had himself to a certain extent revised." The docu-
ment, of course, embraced a most extraordinary degree
of informatiOn on the subject, and an infinity of
the most valuable suggestions for the reform of the law
of debtor and creditor that by any possibility could ever
be brought together." Of course "15 different systems
of foreign mercantile law had been examined," of which
Lord Brougham glibly threw in some half. dozen speci-
mens. Of course; Lord Brougham proposed that fur..
ther proceedings should be stayed till his foster child
had been duly appreciated. Of course, Lord Cottenham
consented with a grumble, and postponed the Committee
on tho Bill till that day fortnight, when (we hope we may
add, in conclusion) it will, of course, be carried without
farther delay.— Times.

FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT TO A FATHER AND HIS SON.
—On Saturday evening, between five and. six o'clock, the
following appalling accident took place on board the Ann
barge, of Faversham, lying off Belvedere timber-wharf, Lam-
beth. The master of the vessel, William Terry, and his son,
Robert Terry, were assisting in unloading her of a cargo of
timber, when, just as an immense block had' been raised
about nine feet from the deck, the iron claws by which it
was sustained suddenly gave way, and the timber fell upon
the unfortunate persons beneath it. They were extricated
as speedily as possible, and conveyed to Westminster Hos-
pital in a state of insensibility. The sufferers were alive last.
evening, but were not expected to survive many hours.
We regret to hear that Sir James Duke, M.P.,
continues seriously indisposed, and is quite unable to use his
limbs, from a severe attack of rheumatic fever.
GENERAL COURT MARTIAL.--STRIEING A NON..
CO/DIISSIONED OFFICER.—On Saturday last an inquiry took
place at Portman-street barrack, of which Colonel Liscelles,
of the Grenadier Guards, was president, touching the con-
duct of Thomas Hopkins, aged 21, who, without the_ leastao
provocation, deliberately struck Sergeant and Drum-Major
j r
hmoapretiiia
ltwh
an:
thatsom ohenrtigtra:sryopo expired
Caldwell, of the Coldstream Guards, whilst on duty.__ It ap-
pearednesses,3o t h thatoth e r
sH Hopkins,
itre
from the statement of witnesses,
on Friday evening parade, assembled
he was instantly placed '
under the left jaw. Of course
... m
drums and fifes, and after the usual customary inspection,l he
suddenly left the ranks,andsteruoncksisCtinalgdwi)eflimaivinfaonetnryt bolisow
.
custody, when a court-martial,
~
prisoner,its
appeared,
The sentence of the
isnktoeieniffeercsat.
cers, assembledin baaddjubtaeonotriererdoonufk;i4stango:fva:tcehadseywbmeaaharre:rsa;clctsl37.tediTtohiie:
for his defence pleaded guilty. _ _ court-
save him
atca rriLoeld.d yesterday afternoon at
or THE HON. R. B. WILBRAHAM' M.P.
GRteo'netoltnumieidacenirstand that the deceased had been
—lt is with regret we have to announce the death of the
ale's, in Port-
fropm
sthAeTsnentence beingc,loficiklly,
wlflaanb°veledly-niefpoillirnacusooetn.em.se days :previous; but his illness was consideurned
merely an attack of influenza, and, conSequently, not
the least danger was apprehended
Tebit_ber -by his me-
dical attendant or relatives,
1,
the eldest son of Lord
.t mersdale
of Lady Stanley. H ..e deceased was
October, 1801, and married the 22d of Maya,nldB32b
Jessey Brooke, third daughter of Sir Richard Brooke,l:3tli en
Bart., by whom e was born the 27th of
Lord ho leaves several children. Lord Skelmers-
dale,and Lady Stanley, Lord Alvanley, Mr. T. and
Lady Charlotte Egerton, and other families of rank are
placed in mourning by the demise of the Hon. Gentleman.
In 1835 he was returned to the House of Commons for South
Lancashire, which county he has successivelrrepresented in
Parliament in conjunction with Lord Francis Egerton. By
his death a vacancy occurs in the House of Commons for that
county district.
FATAL ACClDENT.—YesterdaT,_aVout noon, an ac-
cident of a most heart .rending description occurred to a Ana
child, named John Winter, son of the Bishop of Norwich's
coachman. It appears that the unfortunate child, who was
only one year and a quarter old, had, unobserved, crept to a
trap-door in a room immediately over his Lordship's stables,
and fell through, into one of the stalls, - under'one of the
horse's feet. The father, hearing the horse plunge in an tin-
usualmanner, went to him. when he perceived his child en-
tangled in the animal's feet. He instantly rushed to his
rescue, bat, before that was accomplished, he himself reeeived
several severe kicks. The poor infant was et nice conveyed
to St. George's Hospital, where it breatlred its last about
three o'clock.

Tun CznorrAL LOWTIIER.—We are glad to be
enabled to state, that a final order has, at length, been re-
ceived from the Secretary of State's office, to the effect that
the man Lowther, who was convicted at the last assizes of
sentenced Abee Marquis of Normanby's giunekeepbtosnet
to executed, is to be transported for Dfe.--
Tl4lzheiremaßign.ht Hon. W. E. Gladstone is to presicla at
the
cated annivers
E toary festival of- the Nobleman and Qettlemen
Thatched 11-Uuse Tavern
edu at n Qcllcge, on Saturday, the 18jh. last at the
I;ARRYING COALS TO NEWCASTLE.--On Saturday
morning the Frith of Forth presented a very animated scene
—upwards of thirty light colliers were seen beating up to
the various coal ports on the coast, to load coal for the
London market, in consequence of the "strike" among the
English pitmen and, what is not a little curious, a large
vessel is at present loading Scotch coat for Neiteastlee-•,
puriKint Advertiser.