The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-13 00:00:00

TOE SUN, LONDON, TnrirgroAv EVEN).

PRESEN T TO HER MAJEST Y
AND PRINOE ALBERT.-BEAUTIFUL SPE-
CIMEN OF BIRMINGHAM MANUFACTURE.

We were this morning politely invites by Mr. Thomas
Lane, of Great Hampton-street, Birmingham, to call at
Radley's Hotel, for the purpose of examining some speci-
mens of his new manufacture of pearl enamelled on glass,
which he is about to present, by permission, to her Majesty
and his Royal Highness Prince Albert.
The present to her Majesty consists of a pair of elegant
screens, on which are beautifully painted, on a ground of
pre white, the rose, the shamrock, and the thistle.
A' pearl dove is descending with the olive-branch,
over which is the imperial crown. Beneath the emblems
of the United Kingdom appear St. George and the Dragon,
surrounded by illuminated foliage. The present to Prince
Albert consists of a magnificent chess-board of glass, ena-
melled with pearl. The squares of this chess- board are
formed of quatrefoilsj blazoned in the centre, and on
the principal lines with the lien and unicorn heads,
in pearl and gold alternately, the remaining squares
having the lion and unicorn rampant alternately in pearl
and gold. In the spaces formed by the quatrefoils appear
the rose, the shamrock, and the thistle, enamelled in mother-
of-pearl upon an azure ground. On the extreme boundaries
of the square appears the Queen, enamelled in pearl, on a
scarlet ground; and the border consists of a series of dol-
phins, in Mother-of-pearl, enamelled on a sea-green ground.
The table is set in a most elaborately decorated frame of
papier mache; and here the immense superiority of the new
invention is at once apparent. The papier macl.e
frame is perhaps one of the most superbly decorated speci-
.mens of the species of manufacture ever exhibited, but it
looks positively dull in comparison with the brilliant effect
produced by the patent enamelled pearl on glass. We con-
sider this invention of Mr. Lane's as one of the most import-
ant improvements in decorative art that has ever been pre-
sented to the public. It is superior in many respects to en-
caustic painting and fresco, inasmuch as it is more brilliant
and more durable, for the colours are absolutely unfading,
and the glass basis is so strengthened by the process of
inlaying with pearl, which acts as a cement to the glass, that
should the glass by some accident get cracked the inlaying
holds it together. We understand that a beautiful moon-
light scene by Muller has bean copied in the pearl and glass
enamel, the effect of which is most brilliant. Windows of
painted glass might be copied in the pearl and glass enamel
with the most magnificent effect; and as a decoration for
interiors we think that it only requires to be known to be
most extensively employed.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM TILE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

TIMES.—The recent decision, or, rather, indecision of the
Cabinet, is as inexplicable as it is unfortunate. No one pre-
, tends to say that things can remain as they are. Sooner or
later a suspension of the duties on imported grain must take
place. For this every man who has attended to the state of
Ireland and Scotland is prepared; and so evident is this, that
most people are astonished at the procrastination which
Ministers have interposed between popular expectation and
an inevitable necessity. - The reasons advanced to defend
their inactivity neither explain nor justify it. It remains in-
explicable and inexcusable. Surely within the last fortnight
no means of inquiry into the state of the harvest have been
witheld from them. They know by this time that there is a
deficiency of good corn in England, a dearth of potatoes in
Ireland, a scarcity impending over Scotland. No further in-
quiry can add to their present information. No further delay
can change the aspect of affairs, or diminish the final necessity
for exertion. And yet they stand with their hands folded,
inert and expectant, bidding men take heart, because as yet
there is no famine in the land! The consequences of such a
policy, are as dangerous as its selection is unaccountably
foolhardy. Whatever is likely to be the extent of the priva-
tion which a scarcity of food may impose upon indivi-
duals during the ensuing year, whatever its duration may be,
.whether for one month or two months, or more, it is the
duty of a Minister to seek every method for abbreviating its
length and mitigating its rigours. The Minister who, fore
knowing the approach of such a calamity, forbears to pro-
vide against it, or masks his indecision under the guise of
deliberation, is virtually adding to the intensity of the evil
which is about to burst upon the country. If there were a
probability of our being always able to purchase food from
abroad at the same rate as we have lately procured it, adelay
of a few weeks would be of little consequence; it would not
signify whether we laid in our stock in November or in
January, provided the quantity imported kept pace with our
own deficiency at home. But there exists no such probabi-
lity in the present case. Already some of the continental
Governments are taking precautions which evince a dread of
the same scarcity that threatens ourselves; and it was only
the other day that we quoted the sentiments of no inconsi-
derable portion among our French neighbours—sentiments
which, if followed up in practice, would effectually preclude
any relief being extended to us, by the only country in
Europe now capable of affording it with ease. If such be
the case now, what will it be in a few weeks, not to say
months, hence? What may be our facilities for buying
after the next Cabinet Council? The paternal Governments
of the Northern States are no less anxious than the constitu-
tional
Ministries of France and Belgium to secure to their
subjects a cheap supply of food. Nor is it unlikely that all
the European Governments, absolute and constitutional, will
unite to prevent what they will call the ill-timed and unna-
tural rapacity of British gold and British hunger from raising
their markets and starving their people. It is all very well
to say that where there is a demand there will - also be a
supply; that if money is offered in exchange for corn, corn
will be given for money; that the same laws govern the
market of food and every other market ; and that it is only
fair that he who bids the most should buy the most. But
foreign Governments are on great emergencies very well
disposed to contravene the ordinary laws of commercial in-
tercourse, and by no means indisposed to check the influence
of British gold. The foreign dealer may be anxious to sup-
ply our demands ; but if his negotiations are thwarted
by his Government, he will find it no easy matter to
profit by our offers, and he will also find the arm of the Ex-
ecutive supported by the popular voice. It is easy, at all
times and in all countries, to raise a clamour against the
dealers in the staple article of food. It is only within a few
years that our statute-look has been purged of certain pro-
visions conceived in a spirit of the most narrow-minded, but
once the most widely-extended, jealousy against this class of
men ; but this feeling still exists, and is capable of being
fanned into a flame amongst an ignorant populace, and in
seasons of unusual dearth. How great a facility would be
given to such attempts when directed against the relief of
English wants, or the operations of English money, will
easily suggest itself to all who are aware of the envy with '
which the greatness of this country is regarded abroad, and
of the cordial wishes often expressed for its humiliation. Nor
could a more desirable opportunity ever present itself to the
malignity of professed foes or jealous friends than that of
England seeking for her people in the granaries of Europe the
food which she had for so many years obstinately rejected,
and being herself in turn sent away empty. But to such a
strait we may be driven by the tardiness of a Minister who
is too wary not to know that something must be done, but
too timid to set about doing it at once.
CHRONICLE.—We have not entered into the personal
controversies which have been raging for some weeks between
the Times and what it calls the Stag Journals. But we must
say of both it and its competitors, that we have perused what
has been written without observing the slightest suggestion
of any practical amendment in the law, or in the Parlia-
mentary method of dealing with the railway question. From
the Government it is vain to look for anything.appropriate
or seasonable. The Peel system here, as elsewhere, is to be
" too late." The Board of Trade was a failure, not so much
from its own blunders, as from the coldness of its supporters.
Lord Dalhousie bad the misfortune of being connected with
colleagues who, on a brisk attack, threw each other overboard.
But what does the Times suggest for the future ? It mag-
nifies existing evils no doubt ; but we look in vain
for a single idea which will illuminate Sir George
Clerk. or alleviate the labours of Mr. Esteourt. There is
much good denunciation of stags and staggers-, but not a
particle of suggested amendment—nothing that can elucidate
or dispense with standing orders—nothing that can shorten
or simplify the labours of committees—not an idea on which
Lord Granville Somerset can found a crotchet, or on which
Mr. Green can introduce a ray of light into the commission
chaos of the railway system. Nor are the Stag Journals,
as they are called, a whit more communicative. They burn,
no doubt, with a strong desire to allay what they call panic,
and to disprove the depreciatory sentiments which are run-
ning about the town on our modern railway legislation ; but
from neither one nor the other is there the smallest twinkling
of light amid darkness visible, or the least approximation to a
conjecture how the Parliamentary system can be made to
work under existing circumstances. The truth is, the sub-
ject is one on which declamation is most easy, but improve-
ments quite the contrary. It is easy to declaim against
standing orders—against counsel, attorneys, engineers, and
committees. It is still easier to take the tone of the Minis-
terial press, and to imitate the carelessness of Olympian
Jove on so immaterial a point of policy. What,
call a Cabinet to arbitrate on railways! Is the Duke of
Wellington amenable to gradients? or the Lord Marquis of
Tamboff to Mr. Huftscn ? What signifies the labour of pri-
vate Members, if her Majesty's Ministers can have their ease
in Downing-strevt ? But this language is not that of com-
mon sense, and so everybody feels. By right or wrong, the
railway system is now a fait accompli, and of the most sur-
passing magnitude. All of a sudden every city, every mzrket
town, and almost every village is for the means of simulta-
neous locomotion. It is not a light matter, for it involves
some hundreds of millions. We are not philosophers enough
to make distinctions; but in our simple apprehension, if we
spend all our surplus money one way, there must arise a
scarcity in others. We cannot eat our cake and have our
cake. We cannot spend a hundred millions on any single
object one year, without a sort of scarcity the next. Nor will
it be so easy to prevent a deluge of new Bills, notwithstand-
ing the existing discount, as many persons suppose.
There is much, no doubt, derivable from the close
of the Stag season. It recreates the rural
eye to see a newspaper at last without long lists of names
and nothing else. We congratulate ourselves on having ar-
rived at a close of the system of Parliamentary pluralities ;
but, in spite of this, the deposits have been paid in many
cases where there was no reason either for the scheme or for
the premium ; and we may depend upon it the attorney and
engineer, and perhaps a quorum of the executive, will take
good care that the unfortunate shareholders see no return of
their lost moneys without a further diminution. They must
prepare themselves for the usual consumption of lively turtle
and sparkling champagne; for vigorous exertions, till the
season of white bait and green peas—for tribute to divers
agents, divers witnesses, divers engineers—for still large:
and more useless contributions on account of the attendance
or non-attendance of learned lawyers—and last, not least, for
an enormous and unnecessary and profligate expenditure in
contesting to the utmost in both Houses of Parliament for
points that a little common sense might settle. The deposits,
we affirm, in a great many cases, are already-paid ; and whereso-
ever deposits are forthcoming, who ever heard of any uncon-
sumed ? The sacred duty of expenditure must be fulfilled.
The solicitor owes it to his family to save the point of ho-
nour, and to have the preamble proved. The engineer cannot
meet his rival in the provinces without carrying the new Rail-
way "Act" in his writing-case. The committee are nervous
about returning without a Bill ; accordingly they take their
chance of getting one in Westminster, in the certain confi-
dence, at any, rate, of having a sufficient one in Covent- garden.
The panic, therefore, comes too late for bubbles without end.
There is the Peel family of " direct lines." There are junc-
tions without number, and without necessity. For our own
parts, we are getting so immersed in prejudice, that we almost
call upon the House of Commons to throw out every
Bill which contains the names of Members of their
honourable House without adequate local justifica-
tion, or where any of the illustrious band of
pluralists and - absentees, who shall be nameless, figure in
their firmament.. The truth is, money enough for this single
head of expenditure was .voted or authorised last year. If
Sir R. Peel would have the courage to take the remanets, and
nothing else, in 1846, with a few Bills for Ireland, the over--
gambling would soon be discontinued, and the railway system
would resume good order. But if Parliament, in the anarchy
of accident, proceed next spring, as it did last year, in pass-
ing railroads without reference to the amount of expenditure
required, do not let us wonder Wale gale becomes a hurricane,
and the effects become as disastrous as those of 1825. The
country will be involved in another voluntary evil, not from
providences or misfortune, or foreign war, but, as in the case
of tb sliding-scale, from the financial insagacity of the
Govern ent.
HER - D.—lt is an old observation, and an observation
elis
too faithfu ly verified by experience, that mankind are by
far more sensible to even trifling injuries than to the
greatest benefits.: War is, however, no trifling injury to a
nation ; on the other hand, even where its results are fortu-
nate, it is a greater calamity than any other with which a
people can be visited—except a war which proves unsuc-
cessful ; either way war generally is the most terrible of
national afflictions. In proportion as war is an evil, peace
must be a blessing ; but loud as would be the voice of just
comphiint against an unnecessary war, how little do we hear
of the gratitude due for the enjoyment of uninterrupted and
solid peace. Four years of such peace Europe has enjoyed,
contrary to expectation, and almost beyond hope ; and we
proceed to show, by the testimony of a witness above excep-
tion, that at present the prospect-of long-continued peace is
daily growing more and more certain. . Five years
ago M. Thiers, in France, and Lord Palmerston, in
England, appeared to have taxed their ingenuity to
provide a cause of quarrel between the two great
nations upon whose good understanding the peace of the
world absolutely depends. The firebrand Ministers were
dismissed by the wisdom of the King hi one country, and by
the wisdom of the Parliament in the other; lilt neither did
the ill effects of their incendiary practices in office, nor their
own efforts to augment the flame that they had kindled,
terminate with their official existence. M. Thiess laboured
apidously, and, for a time, too successfully, to keep alive
the anti-English feeling by his labour, in the Chamber and in
the tress; and Lord Palmerston, no less industriously, toiled
in his own sizhere as Member of Parliament and newspaper
writer, to excite among his countrymen a jealousy of France.
If, though aided by the volunteer insolence of the Times,
his Lordship failed, it was because he had to deal with
a people more thoughtful and more experienced in the
exorcise of political judgment than our too mercurial,
though high-spirited, neighbours at the other side of the
Manche. Even the sterlinggood sense of Englishmen, never-
theless, would scarcely have proved sufficient for the
preservation of peace (for England was but one of two
parties), were it not that, happily for mankind, the Govern-
ment of each country was placed in the hands of men as
desirous of peace, because they knew the real interests of
their respective nations, as their incompetent predecessors
had evidently been desirous of war. M. Guizot in the one

country, and Sir Robert Peel in the other, present a concur-
rence of wise and able and resolute statesmen, determined to
cultivate peace between two great and proud neighbouring
nations, such as is rare in history ; if, indeed, there is any
example, in the case of two such nations, of a struggle to
avoid war, without a compromise of national honour, like
that through which the illustrious statesmen named have at
length (we think we may now say it) triumphantly passed.
Our witness is the Morning Chronicle, so long the vehicle of,

as it is believed, Lord Palmerston's incendiary
articles. All honour, and, from mankind universally,
all gratitude, are due to M. Guizot, his colleagues, and
their great and good master. We would not rob their glo-
rious wreath of a single flower to decorate the brows of our
native benefactors. The French King, M. Guizot, and his
colleagues, have had tremendous difficulties against which to
contend, and th 4 have nobly conquered; but it cannot de-
tract from their merit to say that our own Ministers have
bad their difficulties too in supporting the French guardians
of peace; and that, as regards this objeci, Sir Robert Peel
and Lord Aberdeen have not been reposing upon roses.
We should till our paper were we to attempt recapitulating
all the influences employed at this side of the water to ren-
der the continuance of peace with France impossible. Our
readers cannot have forgotten Lord Palmerston's inflammatory
speeches in Parliament, or the daily invectives poured
upon Lord Aberdeen, for not counteracting France, in Ota
heite, in Morocco, in Spain, in Italy, in the Levant,—still less
can they forget the vile libels upon the courage of Frenchmen
and the modesty of Frenchwomen conveyed in the odious
Tangiers and Otaheite letters in the Times.l-lad our Govern-
ment yielded in even the slightest degree to any one of the
suggestions of Lord Palmerston or the Iforning Chronicle,
or had it adopted, however distantly, the tone of the Times,
a war had been inevitable. By seconding the French King
and the French Ministry, Sit Robert Peel and Lord Aber-
deen have obtained four years' peace, and destioyed the anti-
English feeling in France; and if this were their only minis-
terial achievement, it is an achievement sufficient to reflect
honour upon a long public life.
POST.—A Ministerial Contemporary " believes' he " may
state with certainty that Sir Robert Peel has bestowed the
deanery of Westminster upon Dr. Buckland, the well-known
Professor of Geology." Nothing more likely. It is just such
an appointment as we should have anticipated at the hands
of Sir Robert Peel. His conduct in such matters revives in
our mind the recollection of a vaudeville, that ran its race
on the stage of the Theatre de Varietes at Paris, a few years
back, in which one character was, by the author, called on
to exclaim, "he will die," another, "he will not die," but
the third, preserving the peace between them, whilst sati-
rising the then existing Administration, asserted "he will do
neither one nor the other, but keep the juste milieu." We
fancy Sir Robert Peel finds the Church as much a difficulty
as he does even Ireland itself. There is the High Church
party, and there is the Low Church party, and unwilling to
compromise himself with either, .9 it R. Peel resorts—as is proper
to an expediency Minister—to an expedient. He pursues
the juste milieu, and bestows his patronage upon one, inno •
cent, as far as the world knows, of adhesion to any distinct
Church principles at, all. In his gift is the Deanery of
Westminster. It has to be filled up; and, terrified at the
prospect of offending anybody, he leaves alone theologians,
and smiles approval upon a well-known professor of geo-
logy." It is recorded in Elizabethan history, that a graceful
dancer once danced himself up to the Woolsack. Sir Chris-
topher Hatton, in short, reached the Seals, per saltum. We
take it that, in our times, so long as the Cabinet holds to-
gether, the, beet speculation will be the speculation geolo •
gical. One successful in this line will find in a canon's stall
his Primary; in a deanery—say Westminster—his Secon-
dary; whilst his Tertiary can be no other than a bishop's
mitre, peerage, palace, and patronage. Piron in such a race
would clearly have no chance— . . . .

" Pauvre Piron, qui ne fut rien
Pas mems:Aeademielen."
The dignity of an F.R.S. will be as available for the Episco-
pal bench as it seems to be for the direction of a railway.
Some three hundred years ago greedy courtiers were hired
by a profligate King, and their wages paid out of the plunder
of the Church. But staid Ministers are wiser than wicked
kings; they manage things better by far. They want to
reward good men of science, and they reward them in a de
cent fashion, although still at the expense of the Church.
There is a difference, and even a distinction, but sufficient of
an analogy, to suggest grave reflections ; for example, such a
one as this—What has the Church to do with geology, or
any other science, that she should pay fur it? Assume the
principle to be a good one, and then let it be fairly worked
out. Here we are suffering from the apprehension of a
famine, and all through a disease that bas taken hold of
our potatoes. Now, why should not Sir Robert Peel
at once advertise in the public prints that he is willing
to confer the mitre that shall next become vacant upon
the cunning man who shall detect the cause, the preventa'ive,
and- the remedy of this awful evil? The Fine Arts Com-
missioners advertise for genius—why, at the same rate,
should not usefulness be advertised for by the Minister? An
Emperor once offered a reward for the discovery of a new
pleasure. Let Sir Robert say at once that a Deanery awaits
the acceptance of the inventor of a new manure. Often has
it been asserted, that be who makes two blades of grass grow
where only one grew before is a true benefactor to his spe-
cles. Cesar, we have been told, did to Italy more good,
when he introduced to her soil the chestnut-tree from Sardis,
than ever he did by his victories; and shall Canterbury or
York be denied to the wisdom that may enable us to treble
our harvests, and make our barren hill-tops blossom like the
rose ? Some years ago the Whigs proposed to educate the Irish
people, and, to do so at the least possible cost, they were anxi-
ous to take for the purpose the property of the Irish Church.
Now, it was a merry notion this--aye, and a clever notion—
taking money out of Paul's pocket to buy a primer for Peter.
The Whigs called it " appropriation,' but Sir Robert—
harsh Sir Robert—called it " robbery," and protested he
would not do the same thing. Nor has he—consistent Sir
Robert. He has only paid for geological investigations out
of the revenues of Westminster Abbey. If" Dr. Buckland,
the well-known professor of geology," is to be the new Dean
of Westminster, he being unknown to theological students,
except as the author of a work to which theologians have
raised certain objections, and with more or :less reason, we
are puzzled somewhat in respect to another appointment that
has been made in our sister island—made, we add, by the
same sagacious Minister. Dr. Kirwan has been apointed
head of the new Galway College, " in consideration," so runs
the official letter to him, "of your connexion with the
county of Galway as a minister of the Roman Catholic reli-
gion in one of its most important parishui." The Roman
Catholicism of Dr. Kirwan elevates him to the presidency of
an institution pro!essedly scientific—for' religion is divorced
from its consideration. Dr. Buckland owes his eminence, if
to anything except the Premier's personal regard, simply to
his distinction as a man of science.

FURTHER. EX'T'ENSIVE SEIZURE
OF ILLICIT SPIRITS OF NITRE.
No circumstance has for some time past created greater
interest in the trading and mercantile circles than the recent
seizures by a most indefatigable officer of the Customs of an
immense stock of contraband spirits of nitre,. the pro-
duce of the illicit distillery in the Globe-road, Stepney, sonic
particulars of which appeared in the Morning Herald of Mon-
day last.
Since that time the same officer has been actively engaged
in pursuing his search, with a view still further to carry out
the important information be received at the time of his
capture of the distillery, and, if possible, to recover the
whole of the immense stock of spirits that had been removed.
As was alluded to in a former notice of these organised and
illegal transactions, the goods were deposited at a carrier's
wharf in the City-road, and from thence delivered to their
destination. From orders given at this place, it was ascer-
tained- that a large stock of the same description of spirits
had lately been sent by the canal boats to Birmingham, the
order for their dispatah being given by Bailey himself.
The officers lost no time in communicating this fact
to the officers of Excise in Birmingham, with the
most ample information as to the peculiar marks by
which the illegal article might be immediately identi-
fied. The Birmingham officers, acting on the information
they had received, proceeded to the premises of Phillip
Harris, a chemist, and it appeared so accurate was the in-
struction of their informant that they found no difficulty
whatever in at once discovering the object of their search,
and pronounced the stock of spirits as being part and parcel
of the goods manufactured at the illicit distillery in the
Globe-road, and, as above stated, sent down by the carriers
to Birtningham. The quantity seized on this occasion
amounts to between 1,500 and 1.600 lbs., the duty upon
which, if legally charged, would be 2s. 2d. per lb. It was
understood that the purchase had been made at a much lower
sum than it could possibly have been manufactured for had
the transactions keen legal and regular.
The Birmingham officers of Excise took possession of the
spirits, and transmitted information to the chief officers of the
Board of Excise in London, of the seizure. It will be for her
Majesty's Commissioners to determine whetha it shall be
brought to London ' • but it is generally believed that it will
be coaemned, and disposed of in Birmingham.
Several of the respectable chemists in town and country
have lately refused to purchase the article, as from the price
it was offered at, they were perfectly satisfied that it could
not have been legally manufactured at any such sum, or ob-
tained by fair and honourable means.
In consequence of the refusal of several owners of wharfs on
the banks of the river, to give information to the officers as
to the reception of the illegal articles, and almost a resistance
to allow a search of their premises, proceedings have already
been taken against them for penalties to the amount of the
bonds given by them.
To show the extent of the traffic that has been carried on,
it will only be necessary to state that the illicit trade has
been carried on for a period of ten months, and the average
produce of spirits from the distillery amounted to 400 gallons
per week, and each gallon was liable to a duty of 7s. Iod.
No less than 300 tons of coals, it has been ascertained, were
consumed in their trade in the space of three months. It
appears that considerable expense has been incurred by the
officer' and no pains spared in bracing this article during a
period of four months, which great public ser% ice, there is
little doubt, wilt be amply rewarded.--Herald.