The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY MORNING NOVEMBER 26 184;.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM TUE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
TIMES —Our readers scarcely need to be reminded
of the ingenious mode of operation adopted by the
authors of the Constitution of the United States fur the
purpose of conducting the election of the President with
the requisite order and dispatch. In the month of No-
vember preceding the actual election, the whole consti-
tuency of each state names as many electors or delegates
as it sends members to Congre,s, who are invested with
the function of electing the President, and are of course
pledged to what is termed " the ticket" of one or other
of the leading candidates. The votes of these electors
are subsequently transmitted by sealed lists to the Pre-
sident of the Senate, by whom they are opened and
counted in the presence of Congress ; so that, in reality,
except in those cases in which neither candidate has a
majority of the whole number of electors appointed,
when the House of Representatives proceeds to
ballot fur the President, the preliminary nomi-
nation of electors is the most important and
tumultuous part of the proceeding, and when there
are but two candidates in the field, the final result of the
contest may thus at once be ascertained. This nomina-
tion of the presidential electors has just been completed,
and it appears to leave no doubt as to the triumph of the
Democratic party, and of their candidate, Mr. Polk.
The surprise, and, we must add, the apprehensions and
regret, which this event will produce in Europe, are in-
creased by the fact that it is the great States of New
York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, which have turned
the scale. Far from exercising that moderating power,
and, if we may so speak of anything in America, that
Conservative influence which might seem to belong to
their position, their wealth, their mercantile interests,
and their exemption from slavery, Pennsylvania has
in this instance obeyed the same influences which
have already connected her name with bankruptcy
and anarchy, and New York has followed her example.
Of Mr. Polk we know nothing, except that he has
achieved a triumph over the most able and respected
man in the Union, although he was scarcely more
known in that union a few months ago, than he now is
in Europe. He has not been chosen for his past ser-
vices, or his political experience, or for civil eloquence,
or for military fame; for these qualities would doubtless
long ago have brought him within our notice, if he had
possessed them or any of them. But the less of personal
greatness or influence he could boast of, the better was
he fitted to answer the expectations of his adherents.
Whatever he may turn out to be hereafter, we can only
judge of him at present as the delegate or instrument
of the passions by which he has been thus strangely
raised into this conspicuous position. As such, then,
we must remark with no ordinary concern, that with
the single exception of the tariff question, on which
he is pledged to a more liberal commercial
policy than his opponent, his election to this im-
portant office is the triumph of everything that
is worst over every thing that is best in the
United States of America. It is a victory gained by
the south over the north—by the slave states over
the free—by the repudiating states over the honest
ones—by the partisans of the annexation of Texas
over its opponents—by the adventurous and unscru-
pulous democracy of the new states, and the foreign
population in those states, over the more austere and
dignified 11 Tublioanisrn of New England, No one in
Europe has tailed to observe the rapid decline of the
United States in public morality and in public estima-
tion, in their policy and their principles as a nation, and
in all that renders a people permanently strong and
prosperous, during the last few years, and more especially
du. ing the accidental administration of Mr. Tyler. The
death of General Harrison was indeed in more ways than
one a national, and more than a national, calamity ; but
we lead nut ceased to entertain the hope that the party
which .brought him into office four years ago would now
be strong enough to carry Mr. Clay's election. It ap-
pears that the evil has already gone too far. By pander-
ing to the passions of the populace, Mr. Tyler has not
only let loose, but instigated the worst tendencies of de-
mocracy. To his treaty with Texas, which drove Mr. Van
Boren from the field, Mr. Polk may be said to owe his
election. Until that question had been brought forward,
the name of I'olk was unknown except at Almack's. The
Whig candidate has perished in the attempt to stem
this tierce current of misdirected popular excitement.
The Whig party have been beaten, when everything
depended on the possibility of restoring moderation and
probity to the Government of the country by their in-
fluence ; and it is scarcely too much to say, that Texas
has already gives a, President to the Union. If Mr.
Polk a Ihrri; to the pledges under which his electors
ere likely to raise bias to the chair, he is pledged to a
foreign war. The grounds on which General Jackson
and his friends have given their support to Mr. Polk
are before the world ; and we have already combated
their arguments and their assumptions. They amount
to the strongest expressions of hostility against the sup-
posed influence and designs of Great Britain on the
North American continent ; and either the means they
have used to gain the popular suffrages are as insincere
as they are false, or they hold that the acquisition of
Texas, by arms, if necessary, is the first duty of a Pre•
sident of the United States. They can hardly escape
from the dilemma in which they stand between excessive
rashness and excessive deceit ; but we cannot expect
that they will have the energy or the power, any more
than Mr. Tyler has had them, to resist or control the
popular excitement which has brought them into office.
It has been observed by the most judicious ob-
server of the institutions of the United States, M.
do Tocqueville, that political parties in America
rally round an individual as the symbol of their own
theories ; and that parties are strongly interested in tho
election, not so much with a view to the triumph of
their principles under the auspices of the President elect
as to show by the majority which returned him, the
strength of the supporters of those principles. It must
not be presumed that the success of the democratic
party on this occasion is so complete as at once to have
decided in their favour all the great questions of domes-
tic and foreign policy. If the election of a President
irrevocably decided the policy of a United States Go-
vernment for the next four years, the country would be
not only agitated but convulsed by such a contest.
But the strict limitations imposed by the Constitu-
tion on the power of the chief magistrate. and more
especially the control exercised by the Senate of the
United States over his relations with foreign Powers,
render the triumph less signal and the danger less im-
minent, Be the indiscretion of a President what it
may, he can scarcely plunge the country into war or
confusion as long as the Senate remains faithful to
its trust. What, therefore, we chiefly deplore on the
present oocasion is, the defeat of those men who were
most able and most willing to have laboured to restore
the financial and political credit of their country ; who,
if they were unable to shako off the curse of savery,
would at least have striven to prevent the consequences
of slavery from becoming the guiding and general law of
the public policy of the union ; who would have ab-
stained from rapine, maintained peace, and adhered to
the doctrines which once shed honour on the characters
of American statesmen. Clay and Webster are still en-
titled to that name ; but the time is past when they could
guide the destinies of their country, and by casting them
off in the hOur of trial, the people of the United States
have only rendered the vices of their present condition
more conspicuous, and prepared the way for the increas-
ing evils and excesses of their future career.
CHRONICLE —The Government journals continue
to devote a good deal of their efforts to the circulation of
the fact that the Anti-Corn-law League is dead. There
is quite an extraordinary degree of anxiety manifest in
the repetition of the statement. Now and then, indeed,
we find that " dead" is to be taken as a rhetorical ex-
pression for " dying," fur it cannot be concealed that the
monster still moves, although, by all the rules of art, it
ought to have been stiff and cold lone.' ago. Thus we
wore informed a couple of days ago, that the League was
at the last gasp of its wicked existence, and might
therefore be permitted to escape the legal punishment
due to so foul a conspiracy. It so happens that this
decaying association was then, and is at the present
moment, carrying on a new and vigorous agitation in
Lancashire, the spirit of which sufficiently appears in the
proceedings at the Rochdale meeting, reported in the
Chronicle of Saturday. Mr. Cobden and his friends are
in the right track when they endeavour to make an im-
pression on the county constituencies. So far as opinion
goes, an immense progress has been already made.
The confidence of the farmers in the continuance
of the corn-law, which was a main source of its
strength, has been everywhere shaken, and in a large
proportion of' cases wholly destroyed. Whether
protection be good or had, men have ceased to rely on
it. Nearly everybody thinks that sooner or later it must
go. This uncertainty has provoked numbers to examine
into the merits of the principle, who took them for
granted before, and such examination rarely ends in
confirming the errors which preceded it. The more
clear-headed amorgst the farmers are persuaded in their
heart of hearts that a clean sweep of the corn-law, and
a corresponding adjustment of rents, would leave them
infinitely better off than they are at present. But many
things conspire to prevent such men from speaking out,
and still more from acting upon their real opinions. The
power of their landlords, the terms of existing contracts,
Ira red with reference to supposed protection prices, and
the disagreeable consequences of opposing prejudices in
their own class, concur to prevent a direct movement
amongst the more enlightened farmers in favour of free
trade. Thus the faith in protection and the desire for
its continuance may be, to a great extent, undermined
without altering many votes at county elections, and, of
course, without changing the character of the county
representation. Under such circumstances, the question
presents itself whether there is any necessity for leaving
the county representation everywhere, as lit] is practi-
cally, in the hands of a class so dependent on the land-
lords ; and it is obvious that no such necessity exists in
counties containing a large manufacturing population.
The forty-shilling county qualification is within the
reach of many who could hardly obtain any other Fran-
chise. Mr. Cobden has shown how this qualification
may be obtained, and how, by means of it, a new and
valuable class may be added to the constituences of such
a county as Lancashire. It is not uncommon for indus-
trious operatives to accumulate enough for the purchase
of a forty-shilling freehold, and if tney prize a county
vote, there is no reason why their savings should not be
so invested. There would be nothing illegal or improper
in this, no creation of fictitious qualifications. The vote
thus acquired would be acquired on the grounds origi-
nally contemplated by law. It would be acquired by
those only who had that degree of industry, frugality,
and interest in public affairs which the possession of a
property qualification is presumed to indicate. A
class of such freeholders, too, would have that deep
interest in the preservation of peace and order and
the stability ee sound institutions which is sup-
posed to arise from having large stake in the
country," but which, in faetis"qauritt as sure to be found
Vi\rl, important
in the possessors of small pro
indirect advantages would thus
tween different classes would be created, newwmlinkse
industry and accumulation would be presented°atirvdsth°
whole structure of society in the manufacturing districts
would be improved by the influence of a body of humble

but independent proprietors. That this scheme will be
curried into effect with the usual energy of the League
there can be no doubt. The Rochdale meeting shows
how they are at work. They very properly begin at
home. In South Lancashire the example must be sot.
Success there is indispensable. The example of South
Lancashire, however, will soon be followed. When that
great constituency has been reformed Mr. Cobden and his
coadjutors will have little difficulty in any other inane-
fa,cturing county.

GLOBE.—The surplus revenue which is now at
the disposal of the Minister, is regarded by the landed
interest as a circumstance which may be rendered
subservient to their own special advantage. The re-
peal of the malt-tax is now agitated by the land-
owners, and the aid of the farmers is invoked to
press this relief to the agricultural interests upon
the Government and the Legislature. Thus the
surplus revenue which the income-tax has wrung
from the community, and of which the agricul-
turists have paid a lesser proportion than the other
classes, is to be at once swallowed up. The removal
of a tax in which the agriculturists have an imme-
diate and special interest, and from the abolition of
which the other classes of the community would derive
only a remote and doubtful benefit, is sought to be
procured by this enormous sacrifice of the general in-
terests. We must, however, guard against miscon-
struction and misrepresentation. We should be glad to
see the malt-tax repealed, if the price to be paid for the
repeal were not exorbitant in amount and unequal in
its distribution. The income .tax—that iniquitous
and unnecessary imposition, still oppresses the nation
by its unequally-distributed weight, and insults it by
the inquisitorial investigations into their affairs, to
which it especially subjects the merchant and the
trader. The coming session will compel Sir R. Peel
to develope his views and intentions respecting the
modifications or removal of this odious tax—a burden
for which, it is now made evident, there was no real
necessity ; as the deficiency for which it was to provide
would have been made up from other sources. That
Sir Robert Peel would be quite willing to purchase
an extension of the term for which the income-tax
was originally imposed by a repeal of a considerable
amount of taxation, there is little doubt. The income-
tax is prolific—is collected with considerable ease—
and places at the disposal of the Minister so con-
siderable an amount of surplus revenue, on which he
can rely, that there is good reason to believe that Sir
Robert Peel would not be indisposed to relinquish the
mal.eiax, or any other tax of equal amount, if he
could obtain, as an equivalent, the extension or
perpetuation of the income-tax. It is even probable
tnat he would propitiate the agriculturists, and re-
enlist them in his support, by yielding to their
wishes in this matter. For these reasons we deem
it necessary to draw the attention of the public
generally to this subject, and to state our objections
to the movement among the agriculturists to obtain
the repeal of the malt-tax at the present time, and at so
great a sacrifice of the general interests of the cowl.
try. If the surplus revenue—as it appears in the official
returns of the quarter and year ending October 10,
1844—be referred to, it will be seen that the malt
duty is nearly equivalent to that sum. Repeal the
malt-tax, and the case of the Minister in his attempts
to continue the odious income-tax is established. The
surplus revenue is swallowed up ; and, as the re-
venue for the coming year would be minus the
amount of the malt duty, the income-tax must be re-
tained to supply the deficiency thus created. The
advocates of malt-tax repeal will remind us that the
abolition of a tax is not necessarily a sacrifice of
revenue. The sum remitted on one article of con-
sumption will, we shall be told, by reducing the
price of the article to the consumers, find its way
back to the Exchequer from other sources. The
consumers of beer and British spirits, having less to
pay for those articles, will be able to expend more
on other exciseable commodities ; and thus the con-
sumer will be benefited, and yet the revenue
will not sustain loss. That this argument
is valid, and would, to a certain extent, be
borne out by the result, we believe, and are
willing to admit. But we must, in such a case, look
not merely to sound financial principles, but to the
general policy of the party in power. These princi-
ples were propounded by the late Ministry ; and, by
successfully opposing their practical application, Sir
Robert Peel managed to obtain the Government.
Sir Robert Peel provides for present arid prospective
deficiencies in another way. His plan is to meet
financial exigences by increased taxation. The know-
ledge of this fact is sufficient to caution the public
against indulging any expectation that Sir Robert
Peel will relinquish the income-tax, and repeal the
malt-tax. At all events, let the former be removed
before any appeal be made to Parliament for the
abolition of the latter.

STANDARD.—WhiIe we have to lament the
apostacy of a few fops and fribbles in our own
Church, we are happy to know that we are receiving
in profitable exchange some of the elite of the Church
of Rome—men who abandon their profession not in
a thirsty pursuit of suplice services, and an admira-
tion of absurd antics; but from an inward conviction
that the faith and practices of the fallen Church are
not the faith and practices inculcated in the Gospel.
We lately mentioned the case of Mr. Macnaniara—a
man to whom his neighbours, of all ranks and re-
ligious persuasions, give the highest character for
probity and purity of life, and who declares that he
has been led to the studies and convictions that caused
him to abandon the Church of Rome by the beastly
immoralities of the Irish Romanist clergy, and the
protection extended to those beastly immoralities
by the Irish Romanist bishops, one of whom sought to
bribe him, Macnamara, to silence upon the point, by an
offer of high promotion. This is not a proposition on a
point of do :trine, upon which a man may be mistaken.
It is evidence in the matter of fact, by a compe-
tent and an unexceptionable witnes3. We have
seen no attempt to answer Mr. Macnamara's heavy
charge. In Germany, too, "the straw begins to
move," 9.4 will be seen by the following extract from
the Journal des Debats of Saturday :—" A
Catholic priest, rector of a village of the upper
Province of Silesia, has published a letter on the
subject of the tunic of Treves—this letter has ap-
peared in many of the journals of Germany, and
an impression of no less than fifty thousand copies
of it has been taken from one publisher of Leipsic
in eight days. The Chapter of Breslau has cen-
sured the priest, who will be probably dismissed.
It has been proposed to open a subscription for
the compensation of Mr. Ronne, the gentleman in
question, his parish is called Laura Mate."
The Journal des Debats gives a translation
of the letter which has caused this great sen-
sation in Germany. It is an earnest and eloquent
protest against the exhibition by Arnoldi, Bishop of
I'reves, of some rag which he offers for public worship,
as part of our blessed Lord's raiment. The letter has
a good deal of the plainness and vigour of Luther's
earlier style, but with much more of classical polish.

MISS MARTINEAU.—MESMERISM.
The Athenaum of Saturday contains a long communi-
cation from Miss Martineau detailing the particulars of
a wonderful cure which, she says, has been effected by
mesmerism, after a serious illness of five years and a
half. Of the character of the disease under which she
suffered she thee speaks This is not the place in
which to give any details of disease. It will be sufficient
to explain briefly, in order to render my story intelli-
gible, that the internal disease under which I suffered
appears to have been coming on for many years ; that,
after warnings of failing health, which I carelessly over-
looked, I broke down, while travelling abroad, in June,
1839 ; that I sank lower and lower for three years after
my return, and remained nearly stationary for two more
preceding last June. During these five years I never
:elt wholly at ease for one single hour. I seldom had
severe pain, but never entire comfort. A besetting
a'cliness, almost disabling me from taking food for two
years, brought me very low, and, together with other
evils, it confined me to a condition of almost entire
stillness—to a life passed between my bed and my sofa.
It was not till after many attempts at gentle ex-
ercise that my friends agreed with me that the cost was
too great fur any advantage gained ; and at length it
was clear that even going down one Hight of stairs was
imprudent. From that time I lay still, and by means of
this undisturbed quiet, and such an increase of opiates as
kept down my most urgent discomforts, I passed the last
two years with lees suffering than the three preceding.
There was, howeveaa no favourable change in the disease.
Everything was dune for me that the best medical skill
and science could suggest, and the most indefatigable
humanity and family affection devise, but nothing could
avail beyond mere alleviation. My dependence on opiates
was desperate. My kind and vigilant medical friend—
the most sanguine man I know, and the most bent upon
keeping his patient hopeful—avowed to me last
Christmas, and twice afterwards, that he found himself
compelled to give up all hope of affecting the disease—
of doing more than keeping me up, in collateral respects,
to the highest practicable point. This was no surprise
to me, for when any specific medicine is taken for above
two years without affecting the disease, there is no more
ground for hope in reason than in feeling. In June last I
suffered more than usual, and now measures of alleviation
were resorted to. As to all the essential points
of the disease I was never lower than immediately before
I made trial of mesmerism." Miss Martineau then gives
the following narrative On Saturday, June 22, Mr.
Spencer Hall and my medical friend came, as arranged,
at my worst hour of the day, between the expiration of
one opiate and the taking of another. By an accident,
the gentlemen were rather in a hurry—a circumstance
unfavourable to a first experiment. But result enough
was obtained to encourage a further trial, though it was
of a nature entirely unanticipated by me. I had no
other idea than that I should either drop asleep or feel
nothing. I did not drop asleep, and I did feel something
very strange. Various passes were tried by Mr. Hall ;
the first that appeared effectual, and the most so for
some time after were passes over the head made from
behind, passes from the forehead to the back of the head,
and a litle way down the spine. A very short time after
these were tried, and twenty minutes from the begin-
ning of the seance, I became sensible of an extra-
ordinary appearance, most unexpected, and wholly
unlike anything I had ever conceived of. Some-
thing seemed to diffuse itself through the atmosphere,
not like smoke, nor- steam, norhaze--but most like aclear
t
ght, dosing in from the windows and down from the

ceiling, and in which one object after another meltid ,
away till scarcely anything was left visible before my
wide-open eyes. First, the outline of all objects was
blurred; then a bust, standing on a pedestal in a strong
light, melted quite away; then the opposite bust; then
the table with its gay cover; then the floor, and the
ceiling, till one small picture, high up on the opposite
wall, only remained visible, like a patch of phosphoric
light. I feared to move my eyes, lest the singular ap-
pearance should vanish; and I cried out, ' 0 1 deepen
it I deepen it!' supposing this the precursor of the
sleep. It could not be deepened, however; and when I
glanced aside from the luminous point I found that I
need not fear the return of objects to their ordinary ap-
pearance while the passes were continued. The busts
re-appeared, ghost-like, in the dim atmosphere, like
faint shadows, except that their outlines, and the parts
in the highest relief, burned with the same phosphoric
light. The features of one, an Isis with bent head,
seemed to be illumed by a fire on the floor, though this
bust has its back to the windows. Wherever I glanced
all outlines were dressed in this beautiful light; and so
they have been, at every seance, without exception, to
this day; though the appearance has rather given way
to drowsiness since I left off opiates entirely. This ap-
pearance continued during the remaining twenty mi-
nutes before the gentlemen were obliged to leave me.
The other effects produced were, first, heat, oppression,
and sickness, and, for a few hours after, disordered
stomach, followed, in the course of the evening, by a
feeling of lightness and relief, in which I thought I could
hardly be mistaken."
The second application of mesmerism was made by
Miss Martineau's maid. " Mr. Hall," says Miss Mar-
tineau, " was prevented by illness from coming over, too
late to let me know. Unwilling to take my opiate while
in expectation of his arrival, and too wretched to do
without some resource, I rang for my maid, and asked
whether she had any objection to attempt what she saw
Mr. Hall do the day before. With the greatest alacrity
she complied. Within one minute the twilight and
phosphoric lights appeared ; and in two or three more
a delicious sensation of ease spread through me—a cool
comfort, before which all pain and distress gave way,
oozing out, as it were, at the soles of my feet. During
that hour, and almost the whole evening, I could no more
help explaining with pleasure, than a person in torture
crying out with pain. I became hungry, and ate with
relish, for the first time for five years. There was no
heat, oppression, or sickness during the seance, nor any
disorder afterwards. During the whole evening, in-
stead of the lazy, hot ease of opiates, under which pain
is felt to lie in wait, I experienced something of the in-
describable sensation of health, which I had quite lost
and forgotten. I walked about my rooms, and was gay
and talkative. Something of this relief remained till the
next morning, and then there was no reaction. I was no
worse than usual, and perhaps rather better.
" Nothing is to me more unquestionable aid more
striking about this influence, than the absenoe of all re-
action. Its highest exhilaration is followed, not by
depression or exhaustion, but by a further renovation.
From the first hour to the present, I have never fallen
back a single step. Every point gained has been steadily
held. Improved composure of nerve and spirits has
followed upon every mesmeric exhiliration. I have been
spared all the weaknesses of convalescence, and carried
through all the usually formidable enterprises of return
from deep disease to health, with a steadiness and tran-
quillity astonishing to all witnesses. At this time, before
venturing to speak of my health as established, I believe
myself more firm in nerve, more calm and steady iu
mind and spirits, than at any time of my life before.
So much in consideration of the natural and common fear
of the mesmeric influence as pernicious excitement—as a
kind of intoxication."
Miss Martineau mentions several incidents.—" An•
other striking incident occurred in one of the earliest of
my walks. My mesmerist and I had reached a headland
nearly half a mile from home, and were resting there,
when she proposed to mesmerise me a little—partly to
refresh me for our return, and partly to see whether any
effect would be produced in a new place and while a
fresh breeze was blowing. She merely laid her hand on
my forehead, and in a minute or two the usual appear-
ances came, assuming a strange air of novelty from the
scene in which I was. After the blurring of the out-
lines, which made all objects more dim than the dull
gray day had already made them, the phosphoric lights
appeared; glorifying every rock and headland, the
horizon, and all the vessels in sight. One of the dirtiest
and meanest of the steam tugs in the port was passing
at the time, and it was all dressed in heavenly radiance—
the last object that any imagination would select as an
element of a vision. Then, and often before and since,
did it occur to me that if I had been a pious and very.
ignorant Catholic, I could not have escaped the persua-
sion that I had seen heavenly visions. Every glorified
object before my open eyes would have been a revelation,
and my mesmerist, with the white halo round her head,
and the illuminated profile, would have been a saint or
an angel."

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT OF CHANCERY.—Nov. 25.

THE DUKE OF LEEDS V. EARL AMHERST.-JUDGMENT.

The LORD CHANCELLOR gave judgment to-day in this
case, which was argued about a week since. Our readers
will recollect that the case came before the Court upon
appeal from the judgment of the Vice-Chancellor of
England, deciding that a full length equestrian picture of
the great Duke of Sohomberg, who was killed at the
battle of the Boyne, and who was the maternal ancestor
of the Duke of Leeds, was a portrait, and that it
passed as such under the will to the respondent. On
the part of the Duke it was contended that it was
a picture and not a portrait, and as such belonged to the
person who was the owner of Ilornby-hall in the Great
Hall of which it was placed. His Lordship this morning
gave judgment, affirming the judgment of the Court
below.

corpus in the custody of Mr. Cope, the Governor of
Newgate, in which prison he was sentenced to be im-
prisoned for twelve months, for the publication of libels
on the Duke of Brunswick and Mr. EL W. Valiance, the
term of which iiiiprisoninent will expire to-thofrow.
The defendant's health seemed to have suft-red severely
from his-imprisonment, he looked exceedingly pale and
emaciated, and walked with the feeble tottering gait of
an old man.

W. WORDSWORTH prayed the judgment of the Court
upon the defendant on en indictment for libel, which
had been found by the grand jury at the Central Cri-
minal Court, had been removed by certiorari into this
°suet, and to which the defendant pleaded guilty.
Mr. PUTT, on the part of the defendant, moved for a
rule calling upon the prosecutor to chow cause why the
indictment should not be quashed, or why the judgment
should not be arrested. This indictment had been pre-
ferred at the Central Criminal Court, a Court which had
been created by the 4th and sth William IV., cap 36.
By the 13th section of that Act it was enacted that no
bill of indictment for any misdemeanour(other than per-
jury or subornation of jury), which can or may be
presented to the Grand Jury at any sessions of the peace
for the city of Westminster, the borough of Southwark,
and counties of Middlesex, Essex, Kent, and Surrey,
respectively-, in which such misdemeanour was com-
mitted or alleged to have been committed, shall be pre-
sented to the grand jury to be summoned under
the authority of this Act, unless the prosecutor
or other person presenting such indictment shall
have been bound by recognizance, to prosecute
or give evidence at the Sessions to be held under
the authority of this Act, against the person or
persons accused of such misdemeanor, or unless such
person or persons accused shall have been committed to
or detained in custody, or shall be bound by recognisance
to appear at the said sessions to be held under the
authority of this Act. Now, from the record before
the Court, it would appear, , that the prosecutors had
not entered into recogniaances to prosecute, until after
they had been before the grand jury. They had been
before the grand jury on the 14th of November, and
had not entered into the recognizances until the 2d of
December, eighteen days afterwards. lie therefore
submitted that the Central Criminal Court bad no ju-
risdiction in this case whatever.

Lord DENMAN having read the section referred to,
Mr. PLATT, in continuation, urged that looking at the
matter in a strictly legal point of view, the
Duke of Brunswick, the prosecutor of this
indictment, had never entered into any recognizances
at all, for the recognizances bore upon the face of them
that they were recognizances to prosecute for a libel—
not for libels, whereas the indictment was for eleven
libels. The proper course for the prosecutor to have
pursued would have been to have gone before the grand
jury at the Middlesex Sessions, or at the 'Westminster
Sessions, so as to have had the matter investigated by a
jury, of the inhabitants of the county in which the al-
leged libels had been published. He therefore moved
for a rule nisi to quash the indictment, or to respite the
judgment.
Lord Dle:NMA.N—,Brother Talfourd, do you propose to
show cause now?

Mr. Sergeant TALVOURD—I cannot complain of the
courig which has been adopted ; but I certainly am not
now prepared to show cause against an application of
which I ha►e had no notice.

Lord DENMAN—(to Mr. Platt)—Then I think you are
entitled to a rule.—Rule granted.
The defendant was then removed in the custody of
Mr. Cope, to Newgate, from which prison he will be
discharged to-morrow.
Counsel for the prosecution Mr. Sergeant Telfourd
and Mr. Wordsworth ; for the defendant, Mr. Platt.
The Duke of Brunswick was in Court and sat among
the Queen's Counsel within the bar.

PARTRIDGE V. Till DANK OF ENGLAND.
In this case, in which an application had been made
to the Court by Mr. Justice Erle,
Lord DEN MAN said there would be no rule.
THE QUEEN V. MOON.—QUO WARRANTO.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL said, that in this case he
had obtained a rule in the Bail Court, calling upon the
defeadant to show cause by what authority he claimed
the right to exercise the office of Alderman for the ward
of Portsoken, in the City of London. It was necessary
that great care should be taken in drawing up the rule,
and it was only to-day that he had fixed the terms of
it. lie therefore prayed that he might now be per-
mitted to hand in his papers, and that the rule might be
drawn up as for to-day, so that it might come on for ar-
gument next term.—Application granted.

LAKE V. THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.
This was an action brought against the defendant for
goods supplied and work done for an association for the
promotion of emigration to the British North American
colonies, of which the Noble Duke was President, and
the proceedings in connexion with which created great
public sensation about twelve months since. The action
was tried at Guildhall, and the jury found for the plain-
tiff. During the present term an application had been
made for a rule nisi to set aside the verdict and for a
new trial, on several grounds, and the Court took time
to consider the matter.

Lord DENstAN this morning announced that the Court
was of opinion that the application must be refused, and
that the verdict must stand.

THE QUEEN V. ALDERMAN THOMAS WOOD.

In this case Mr. Gray had obtained a rule calling
upon the defendant to show cause why an attachment
should not issue against him, on account of his neglect-
ing to comply with a rule of Court, ordering bim to de-
liver up certain papers and documents belonging to the
parish of St. Mary, Newington.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL showed cause against the
rule. It appeared that Alderman Wood had for eighteen
or twenty years held the office of solicitor to the parish,
and the last: year a Mr. (ledge had been appointed to
the office—that the Alderman had, on payment of his bill
of costs, handed over to Mr. Gedge all the documents
belonging to the parish necessary for the transaction of
business, and that Mr. Gedge had all the papers re-
lating to parish business for the last six years. There
were various useless, dusty old papers, belonging to the
parish, which Mr. Wood had promised to look out and
deliver to Mr. Geddye, who was not content to wait
until Mr. Wood's clerk had had time to look them out,
but had applied to the Court for this attachment.
The papers were, however, ready to be deli-
vered over. It was evident that a great deal
of temper had been exhibited in this matter, and it was
sworn to that the papers had been demanded in a very
insulting manner. They were perfectly useless. and he
trusted, under these circumstances, that the rule would
be discharged with costs.
Mr. Justice WILLIAms—Do you want their dirty old
papers, Mr. Gray ?
Mr. GRAY—Every one of them, my Lord.—(A laugh.)
The Learned Gentleman then proceeded to argue in sup-
port of the rule, the obtaining of which bad marvel-
lously quickened the operations of Mr. Wood's clerks in
making the search, and without which he believed th
papers would not have been produced.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS gave the judgment of the Court,
which was, that the rule should be discharged without
costs.

The Sommon GENICRAL—I hope the other party are
they are in Court.
‘pvrehpaatreadreto
wtaeketoawd,aoy
withthe papers ;
They are perfectly
useless ; some of them are old backs of briefs.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS—Hand them to Mr. Gray.
Lo rd DENatAN—In my time the custom used to be to
change old briefs for new, not new for old.—(A. laugh.)
The box containing " the musty records" was then
solemnly handed over to the attorney for the parish, and
taken out of Court.

BAIL COURT, Nov 25.
• (Sittings in Banco.)
THE QUEEN V. THE JUSTICES CE YORKSHIRE.
Mr.. PASULETOII moved for a rule fora mandamus in
this case directed to the three Justices of Yorkshire,
commanding them to issue a distress warrant to enforce
the payment of a poor-rate for the township of Hud-
dersfield. The rate had been made and duly
published, and a demand had been made on
the lluddersfield Philosophical Society. They
did not pay and did not appeal to the Quarter Sessions,
but wont before the Judges in Petty Sessions, and sub-
mitted that they were not liable to be rated under the
statute of the 6th and 7th of Victoria, c. 36, which
exempted all societies for the purposes of science, litera-
ture, and the fine arts ; but the object of the society in
question was to instruct all classes of the community in
every branch of science, literature, and the fine arts,
which the Learned Counsel contended did not come
within the exception of the statute.—Rule granted.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER, Nov. 25.
(Sittings in Banco.)
THZ MARQUIS OF BUTZ V. THOMPSON.
The Courtp gave judgment in this case. The question
related to the working of certain coal-mines ; and the
Court were of opinion that the plaintiff was entitled to
their judgment.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, Nov. 25.
(Sittings in Banco.)
At the sitting of the Court this day, being the last of
the term, their Lordships proceeded to give judgment in
several cases which stood over. The following were the
only ones of any interest.

into your case, and we are unwilling to say anything
more at present than that the rule nisi will be granted.
Mr. WALCOMME, who now appeared for the plaintiff,
attic] that his client wished to put in two affidavits re-
SOcting bids lie Had st,,tcd at the time of his ap-
plication, but which had not been supported.
The Court granted leave to put in those affidavits.