The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

mem THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—Civil disabilities—as penalties for hold-
ing doctrines and observing ceremonies which differ
from those of' the Established Church—are not yet
extinct. Roman Catholics have obtained emancipa-
tion, and Dissenters relief, from the invidious and im-
Londe restrictions which the legislation of the darker
ages had imposed, and the intolerance of more enlight-
ened times hal long refused to remove. The Jews,
however, still remain under the curse. The Corporation
ofLondon, in its highest Court, clings to the prejudices
against Jews for which the Corporation was pre-eminent
in those days gone by when such prejudices prevailed
ee generally than, happily, they now do. The
t of Aldermen torture their little wits to twi▪
st
and distort a statute couched in plainest phraseology,
into a meaning foreign to its spirit and design, to
afford a pretext for their pre-determined decision.
The Ward of Portsoken had elected for its Alderman
Mr. David Salomons—a gentleman whose intellectual
superiority, great wealth, high position in com-
mercial society, unimpeachable honour, and ex-
tensive benevolence, unrestrained by sectarian dis-
tinctions, all men agree to admit and commend.
Mr. Salomonhas served the office of Sherif▪ f
of London and Middlesex with a fidelity, zeal, and
hospitality seldom equalled, never excelled. He
has also served the same high office in Kent, a county
in which one of his estates is situate ; and is a magis-
trate for at least two counties. Yet, on presenting
himself for the purpose of being admitted to the
office to which he had been elected, a form of de-
claration was placed before him, which he was re-
quired to subscribe ; but to which, as a Jew, he had
conscientious and insuperable objections. Mr. Sa-
lomons applied for a short adjournment, in order
that the question might be argued by counsel,
whether the required form of declaraticin is
applicable to his case ; and if so, whether the
obnoxious form is imperative on the Court, and com-
pulsory on the individual, or whether the former has
not a discretion vested in it by law, and the party
held responsible for exercising the functions of Al.
dermanic office, not having qualified in the terms of
the statute. This reasonable application was refused.
The election was declared void ; and a precept for a
new election at once ordered to issue from the Court.
Mr. Salomons has declared his intention of bringing
the question, as to the validity of the proceedings of
the Court, before a higher tribunal. When Mr. Salo-
mons was elected Alderman of another ward (that of
Aldgate), and was ousted by the Court of Aldermen
on similar grounds to those now taken, he was barred
from obtaing redress from the superior courts by one
of those technical objections by means of which legal
ingenuity frequently defeats the claims of justice.
He will, of course, take care, in the present case, to
avoid such an oocasion of defeat. The whole ques-
tion will, we hope, be placed fairly before the Judges,
to be decided on the fair construction of the terms of
the statute, and in conformity with the principles of
law. The objection urged by the Aldermen who con:
tended against Mr. Salomons' admission as a member
of their Court, would equally apply to the admission
of a Jew to the Court of Common Council—it would,
doubtless, be taken if a Jew were to be returned as
one of that body by any one of the City wards. The
corporations of Birmingham, Southampton, Ports-
mouth, and other towns—to whom the Act pressed by
the Aldermen of London against Mr. Salomons is
equally binding as on the Corporation of London—
admit gentlemen of the Jewish persuasion to office.
The declaration required to be made is in lieu of the
sacramental test; which was enforced or not, at the
pleasure of the corporations : some requiring a rigid
observance of the statute by which the tokens of
atoning grace were prostituted to the purposes of
pasty, and the most solemn rite of the Christian faith
was received as the passport to secular place. The
annual Act of Indemnity, passed every session
of Parliament, relieved persons who had omitted
to observe this required religious proof of peculiar
fitness; and thus Dissenters, by a side-wind, were
admitted to corporate offices. The Corporation
of London was, however, among the most
earnest sticklers for the law of exclus;on—ex-
cept, indeed, when the coffers of its Chamberlain
were exhausted, and the fines imposed by their
charter upon persons who refused to take upon them-
selves offices to which they had been elected,
afforded the Corporation an opportunity of re-
plenishing their empty exchequer from the pockets
of wealthy Dissenters. Then, indeed, they were
liberal with a vengeance. Under such circum-
stances, the Corporation was in the habit of select-
ing the richest and most consistent Dissenters for
Sheriffs. These, of course, objected to take the sacra-
ii.ental test ; and, to avoid the annoyances and more
substantial evils of resistance, generally paid the fines.
The records of the Corporation, still in existence, show
the use to which this monstrous perversion of a perse-
cuting statute was put he those days by the Corpora-
ti m hf London. An observation, which had passed into
a proverb from a conviction of its truth, is not yet for-
gotten, that the building of the Mansion-house was
I aid for by fines imposed upon Dissenters. At length
t .e question as to the legality of these fines was
I rought to an issue by a Dissenter named Evans,
who had the courage to contest the power of the Cor
p ration to fine him for not taking upon himself an
&lice for wiiieh he was disqualified by law. The case
was carried by appeal to the House of Lords ; and
Lord Mansfield's judgment, in pronouncing the deci-
: ion of the House, is among the moat luminous of that
Noble and Learned Judge's very able judgments.
STAND AlID.—We have sincere pleasure in di-
recting attention to the proceedings of the meeting
held yesterday in the Egyptian Hall, Mansion-
house,. for the purpose of adopting measures for
toe establishment of baths and washhouses
for the accommodation of the working classes
of the metropolis. The proposed plan has been
rlready tried in Liverpool, where public baths
and washhouses for the poor have been es-
tablished upwards of two years, and we cannot
doubt therefore that such an arrangement would
tend most materially to the improvement of
the health and comfort of the working classes of
this great metropolis. We could have wished that
this excellent design could have been associated with
serne comprehensive plan for improving the dwellings
of the poor, and providing them with accommodation
not only of a superior order, but at a much cheaper
rate than is accessible to them at the present moment ;
hut we must not reject an acknowledged good
because benefits of even greater importance re-
main yet to be supplied. The distinguished aus-
pices under which the meeting of yesterday took
place encourage the hope that the two objects may
eventually be combined. Meanwhile, the associa-
tion which is about to be formed cannot fail of
d ring unmixed good. It is the melancholy con-
dition of the poor, that there is scarcely a necessary
of life for which they do not pay considerably
snore, by comparison, than the rich. But there is,
perhaps, nothing for which the operative in a large
town is more extravagantly taxed than for rent. Pub-
lic attention leas been prominently directed to this fact
1.3- the-report ce" the Sanatory Committee of the House
of Commons. Miserable dwellings, in confined and
unwholesome situations, underlet in single rooms
to the poorest class of tenants, have been known
to yield three and even four times the expenses of
the entire tenement. Thus the metropolitan artisan
will often be called upon to pay a fourth of his
weekly wages for the mere shelter afforded to him-
self and his family by a single room. In this con-
-I;,:ed domicile must they all sleep (the sexes indis-
criminately mingled), and the whole of the do-
mestic affairs, including washing and cooking, be
performed. Yet, for a less rent, two comfortable
s id well-ventilated rooms, with access to a wash-
house, might be afforded by the construction of
b.rracks, capable of accommodating a con-
s derable number of families under the same
roof; each edifice, if desirable, being provided with
the baths and other conveniences contemplated at
tt a meeting of yesterday. In order, however, to
erect this object, the matter should not be left to
sneer trading speculators. A guarantee fund should
be provided, and a system organised, by
hich numbers might be lodged in the
sane building; and the experiment might be
tried for a sum comparatively unimportant
when the vast benefits it would confer
are taken into
.consideration. Associations for the
porpose of retailing to the poor cheap provisions, and
even cheap coals, are far from uncommon ; but we
L.ve never yet heard of any attempt to carry out the
principle to cheap lodgings. In the present condition
of the poor the parlour of the labouring man, the place
in which most of his leisure hours are passed, is the
ten-room of a public-house----for want of that decent
accommodation which his home cannot afford him ;
erd which is eventually, by his desertion of it for
such a substitute, rendered infinitely more miserable
than it need to be. Any scheme which would avert
such consequences would effect a purification at once
moral and physical; and would do more to benefit
the working claws than anything that has hitherto
been devised for their benefit.

LYNN D ISCOVEBY OF ANCIENT COFEINS.—As
some labourers, lately, were employed in digging on the
site of Blackborough Priory, near Middleton, they dis-
covered three stone coffins in a good state of preserva-
tion, ono of Which contained a complete skeleton. We
understand that the proprietor of the land has presented
them to the Lynn Museum.-- Elury Farmers' Journal.
The weather at Killarney during the last week has
been very bad. On Wednesday a dreadful storm sprung
up on .the lakes, and a large party had to take shelter
for the night, at Glens Cottage, as the
the lower lake was extremely perilous. The mail-car passage
aero
tos
lis
emnare was thrown over the cliffs on the same even-
ing--the driver sustained serious injuries, and the horse
was killed on the spot.—Cork Examiner.
Such has been the effect of the mildness of the pre-
neLt season, that in the orchard of Lieutenant John M.
I.li!es, near Castleisland, an apple tree is to be seen, part
in blossom, part knitting into fruit, and part bearing the
WI grown ripe apple.—Tralee Chronicle.

-- -
COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL.
Yesterday a Court was held, in consequence of a
requisition to the Lord Mayor, "to consider of an
address to be presented to her most gracious Majesty
the Queen, on her auspicious visit to the City, to be
present at the opening of the New Royal Exchange."
The Court was filled with members.
THE KING OF THE FRENCH.
The LORD MAYOR informed the Court that the de-
putation appointed by the Corporation had had the
honour of waiting upon the King of the French with
the City address, upon his Majesty's arrival upon a
visit to the Queen, and that his Majesty had been
graciously pleased to give an answer, which the Re-
corder would matt to the Court.
The RECORDER read the answer of the King of the
French in an extremely impressive manner. The
Court applauded to the echo every paragraph of his
Majesty's answer, and manifested their admiration
when the Recorder concluded by the loudest cheers.
Sir PETER LAURIE rose to move that the answer of
the King of the French should be placed upon the
records of the Court.
The motion having been seconded,
Mr. ANDERTON said he hoped that this Court
would go further.—(Cheers.) He thought that
such an answer as the King of the French had re-
turned to the address of the Corporation—an answer
so highly honourable to the feelings of his Ma-
jesty, and so highly complimentary to the body to
whom it was addressed, should meet with no ordi-
nary reception by that Court.—(Cheers.) He was
convinced that every member of the Court would
feel the utmost gratification and pride in having the
opportunity of keeping and exhibiting in his own
house an engraved copy of his Majesty's words.—
(Cheers.) Mr. Anderton then suggested to the
mover to improve his motion, by adopting the addi-
tion to which the Court had so unequivocally assented.
Sir P. LAURIE acknowledged that the suggestion
was unexceptionable. He begged to state, too, that
the Court had now the opportunity of supplying an
omission which had been made at the last Court. In
consequence of the hurry in which the subject had
been got up, and the short stay which his Majesty
intended to make, the form of having the address to
his Majesty ornamentally written and emblazoned
had been omitted in the consideration of the merits of
the question. They had, since the meeting of the last
Court, had time to consider more particularly the
subject, and they had what enabled them to form a
more accurate opinion of the nature of their duty
upon such an occasion—the answer of the King of the
French.—(Cheers.) That was no common answer.—
(Loud cheers.) It was no ordinary answer to a
Corporation from a great Monarch to say, as he (Sir
Peter Laurie) had heard with his own ears the King
of the French say, that he was desirous to have the
portrait of the Lord Mayor, that he might place it in
his palace at Versailles.—(lmmense applause.) Sir
Peter Laurie then moved that the address be orna-
mentally written, properly emblazoned, framed and
glazed, and transmitted to his Majesty the King of
the French.

Mr. Jurr seconded the proposition, which was
unanimously agreed to amidst great cheering ; and
it was also unanimously agreed that the answer of
the King of the French should be inserted upon
the records of the Court, and that steps should
be taken by the Committee to emblazon and other-
wise record the answer of Louis Philippe, the King of
the French, and that a copy, executed in such manner
as to the Committee appeared to be most eligible,
should be transmitted to every member of the Court.

THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY.
Mr. R. TAYLOR said he wished to call the attention
of the Court for one moment to a subject of very
serious importance—the decision of one of the Revis-
ing Barristers, lately delivered, to the effect that
none of the freedoms conferred by the Court of Com-
mon Council are recognised in the matters concerning
the election of Members to serve in Parliament.
Now, he could not see why the privileges of the Cor-
poration were to be done away with by a revising
barrister.—(bear, hear.)
Mr. HEPPEL said it seemed to escape Mr. Taylor's
memory that no man had a right to vote for a Member
of Parliament merely as a freeman.
Mr. R. TAYLOR stated that, in the case he alluded
to, a Liveryman had been divested of his right to vote
because he had been made a freeman according to the
recent regulations of the Court.
Sir P. LAURIE said the subject was certainly one
of much importance, and that Mr. Taylor ought to
give notice of it for future discussion.
Mr. R. TAYLOR accordingly gave notice of motion.