The Sun.
London, England, 1829-07-20 00:00:00

AT SUICIDE.

James Waling, the watchman, who was acquitted
at the last Old Bailey Sessions of the capital charge
of maliciously stabbing with intent to kill Lydia
Goddaid, but detained for the minor offence, was
placed at the bar on Saturday at the Middlesex
Sessions, upon an indictment charging him with a
common assault upon the said Lydia Goddard.
The facts of this case having been recently de-
tailed at length, it will be sufficient to state, that
the prisoner, without any other cause than the pro-
secutrix's desiring a man, named Perry, with whom
she lived, and who, as well us the prisoner, was a
watchman belonging to St. Pancras, to leave his
company, went over to her, and, in the coolest man-
ner possible, pulled from his pocket a butcher's
knife, about six inches in length, and plunged it iNto
her left breast.

The Jury returned a verdict of Guilty.
The CHAIRMAN said he really did not knowAybat
to do with the prisoner. After consulting tvith
some of the County Magistrates, the Chairman sen-
tenced the prisoner to two years' imprisonment, and
to be kept to hard labour.
The prisoner upon hearing the sentence of the
Court, thrust his hand into the breast of his coat
and pulled out a breakfast knife, with the other
hand he quickly drew down his neck handkerchief,
and was just in the act of cutting the carotid artery,
when his arm was seized by a fellow-prisoner and
Havel], a headborough of Battlebridge; a posse of
constables, together with Mr. Vickery, the Gover-
nor of the House of Correction, and Mr. Harles, the
chief constable of Clerkenwell, quickly surrounded
him, and the knife was forced from his hand. His
arms were then secured behind his back by means
of a pair of handcuffs. The consternation of the
persons in Court was excessive.
The prisoner's sentence was then changed from
hard labour to solitary confinement.

MANCHESTER, SATURDAY.—We have,
within these three last days, had a few failures, but yester-
day one was announced of considerable magnitude. It is
an American house of some standing, and the amount is
said to he from eighty to one hundred thousand pounds.
I regret to add, that almost the whole of it will lie ii-this
town. It is expected this failure will cause several others.
The house in question was a considerable shipping house,
and bore as good a name as most of the United States
mercantile establishments here. We are in a state of some
alarm of course.—Correspondent of Morning sidvertuer.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It does not appeir to us that any thing oc-
curred in consequence of the Orange proces-
sions on the 12th and 13th ult., which might
not well have been anticipated, and which in fact
we did not ourselves think probable, should the
Orangemen be permitted to assemble with their
insignia, and the Catholics, quite enough suscep-
tible of provocation, be in numbers capable of
opposing them. The accounts from the north
are very different from those which describe the
state of Dublin. In many pints of Ulster the
Orange orgies were celebrated, the challenge
thrown in the tealh of the Catholics accepted, ;
battle given, and lives unhappily lost. In
Fermanagh some of the intelligence received
makes the killed and wounded on both sides
upwards of 20 men. At Strabane, in the
county of Tyrone, some men were also sacri-
ficed. At Armagh many windows of obnoxious
Catholics were broken, an Orano,z ie„der of the
name of Tyrrell was put in gaol for wounding a
young man by a pistol-.6not, and a postscript to
the letter adds, ..nat an express coming in at a
late hour rroin the neighbourhood of Cool
Islay,,, a company of soldiers were instantly
marched thither the report was, that in a fray
between the hostile parties 10 men had been
killed outright, and upwards of 30 wounded.
111 Donegal the people are represented to be in
la frightful state of commotion. The fact is,
that these accounts prove the real condition
of political feeling in Ireland to have been
but half understood by the authors of the Re-
lief Bill, or they would have gone a good deal
further in providing against contingencies dan-
gerous to the public peace. The disposition of
the Catholics to harass and disturb the Govern-
ment for the recovery of their constitutional
rights, was attended to ; but no security was
tbonght wanting to them or to the public, against
a spirit of aggression on the part of the more
viole-Nt anti-Catholics, wreaking vengeance for
their recent defeat in Parliament, on the feelings,
the properties, and persons of those whose poli-
lical wrongs had been legally redressed in spite
of them. It was a calamitous oversight to omit
the enactment of a law for putting clown at once
~/.oprocessions : it was another, to leave arms
xvhich had been distributed to the Orangemen
during war-time still in their hands, when there
were none against whom to employ them but
the King's own subjects: it was a third and
fatal oversight, to leave the execution of any or-
ders for preserving the King's peace to the vir-
tue or discretion of a body of justices so deeply
and extensively leavened with Orange predomi-
nancy, who, as is said, refused in several in-
stances to interfere or prevent the party exhibi-
tion. We trust that the Ministry will at length
take warning, and not leave the future peace of
Ireland to the guardianship of either of two im-
petuous factions, or compromise the repute of
their own liberal policy of emancipation, in
not riving fair p'ay to its really pacific grin
ciples, by suffering it to be too roughly
handled before it had acquired a hard sur-
face and become fit for use. Until the Orange
spirit shall have forgotten its resentment, and
the Catholic abhorrence of it have had time to
cool, a vigourous system of coercion must be
Employed to keep those separate who cannot yet
approximate in kindness, and to enforce by law
that mutual forbearance which usage and senti-
ment may hereafter be in Ireland, as they are
elsewhere, sufficiently powerful to ensure. We
publish Mr. Sheil's letter to the Dub/in Evening
Post, in defence and justification of his own
conduct as a barrister, fin. accepting a fee from
Lord George Beresford, as his Lordship's Coun •
sea at the expected election for Waterford.
The letter woud have been superfluous but in a
count!), where party spirit has raged to the ex-
tinction of almost every other, and where the
exactions of party upon individual interests
have been raised into a sort of prescriptive, and,
indeed, unlimited impost. Certainly on a balance
of accounts, Mr. Sheil proves himself by no
means in debt to the body with which he has
been associated, and unless his detractors would
indemnify him for the total sacrifice of his pro-
fession, we see not where their interference
between him and his clients was to stop. These
contested elections are unfortunate for the return
of Irish parties to good humour and tranquillity
just at present, but there is nothing in them, nor
in their operation on society, to raise a doubt in
any reasonable mind that the natural food of
popular disturbance throughout the country, has
been exhausted.-7 tmes.

It would seem that the splendid entertain-
ment lately given by the West India Proprie-
tors to the Members of the Government was, as
a political speculation, a failure—and, in their
own language, the money was quite thrown
away. At a subsequent interview the answer
delivered to this enlightened body was stated to
have been unsatisfactory in matter, and not
abundantly courteous in expression or manner;
it was to the effect, " that they (the West India
Proprietors) had their harvest during the war;
that they must expect to participate in the ge-
neral depression in common with other great
national interests ; that this depression it was be-
yond the power of the Government to controul,
or, for the present, to remedy ; that, in the
mean time, the Proprietors would employ them-
selves advantageously if they exerted the intere:t
they possessed with the various Colonial Legi;.-
latures in inducing them to accede to the wishes
and second the views of the Mother Country,
instead of going to loggerheads with their Go-
vernors, and running restive upon every proposal
of improvement." This little lecture, delivered
in a tone and manner particularly serious, was
signally unpalatable to the votaries of Calipash,
one of whom feelingly exclaimed, " I wish to
God I had the money that their dinner cost me
back in my pocket !"—Morning Chronicle.
We have not, for a long time, read any book
which has more disgusted us than the Travels of
Captain Basil Hall. Of his judgment we never
entertained a high opinion, and we had a still
lower opinion of his accuracy as a traveller.
There are sonic men who are under a constant
illusion, and to whom all objects appear in a
light in which they appear to no one else; and
Captain Basil Hall is one of them. His Loo
Choo and his accounts of Chile and Peru
will, however, always please as Romances, to
which by this time, the title may be said to be
fairly established. Our readers may have per-
ceived, on more than one occasion, that we are
not peculiarly enamoured of every thing Ameri-
can. We should not think of looking to the
United States for examples of excellence in
science and art, or all that sheds the highest
lustre on our nature. High civilization has no
doubt its evils,.and the competition, and necessity
for constant exertion in England, are the cause
of suffering as well as enjoyment; but still we
shouldyn Tefer the varied enjoyments, the excite-
Ment 'orEligelaiid, to the level life of America.
Neither ere we disposed to consider all the po-.

litieal experiments attempted in America as con-
clusive with respect to Europe. But we rejoice
that an opportunity has been afforded of trying cn
a large scale the experiment of founding a Society,
unfettered by the restraints of ancient institutions,
while Ixnefitted by the arts and inventions of the
civilization which has grown up under these in-
stitutions. The experiment yet may not in
every respect be conclusive with respect to Ame-
rica ; for we may attribute some things to the
political institutions which may be the result of
particular circumstances, as the absence of mono-
poly of hind from thinness of population, &c.—
But, however this may be, the field has been
clear in America for many important operations
which could never have been attempted in Eu-
rope, but which will, notwithstanding, have a
powerful re-action on Europe. In one respect,
America and Europe, and more particularly
England, afford a striking contrast to each other,
namely, with respect to religion. The Ame-
ricans have no alliance of Church and State ; no
civil advantages are associated with the profes-
slon of any belief. In some countries of Eu-
rope while establishments are retained, the adhe
tenee to creeds have been waived. In England,
however, a large portion of the produce of this
country is alloyed to a particular religious Cor-
poration on condition of the unqualified adhe-
rence of the members to certain definite doc-
trines. Now there are many persons in Eng-
land who conceive that it strikes at the root of all
morality, and who, therefore, prefer the Ame-
rican system. The distinguished Author of
Essays on the Formation and Publication of
Opinions, in a recent publication, under the
title of " Essays in the Pursuit of Truth, Sec."
observes—

" If a simple wish to arrive at correct conclusions
is the proper state of mind in which to enter upon
any subject, and a strictly impartial attention to the
conflicting evidence the proper conduct to be pur-
sued during the examination, every practice or in-
ititution in society which creates other wishes, and
offers inducement to pursue a different conduct, must
be pronounced inimical to the attainment of truth.
Amongst these we must rank institutions bestowing
emoluments on individuals, with the stipulation that
they teach certain doctrines definitely prescribed.
It must be acknowledged that institutions of this
character are likely to have great influence on the
moral and intellectual conduct and condition of those
who come within their sphere. lie who enters
into them has no choice as to what he shall teach.
lie must either conform to the prescribed doctrines;
or quit his station and give up the emolument. At
the outset he either believes or disbelieves the doc-
, trines. If he believes them, he has cogent motives
fur abstaining from all examination of their validity;
at least from any fair and candid examination of the
objections brought against them. The indolence of
mind engendered by the perfect coincidence of his
p'nions and his interest disposes him to shun an
intellectual effort which could not have a la
result than the conclusion in which he is already
at his ease; and the apprehension of the bare pos-
sibility of a different result operates equally to de-
ter him from the enterprise. Every consideration
presented by circumstances in which he is placed,
suggest that his exertions should be restricted to
an inquiry after more striking and ingenious argu-
ments in support of the opinions which he is at
present fortunate enough to hold. If, on the
other hand, he does not believe the doctrines which he
has undertaken to profess and expound, he will hare
equally strong reasons to keep him from a full and
impartial inquiry into their truth. To escape the
degradation of inculcating on others doctrines which
he disbelieves himself, he will apply all his attention
to the evidence in their favour; ail his diligence, his
talent, his ingenuity will be exerted to magnify the
;Lrguments that he wishes to find conclusive; all his
care will be employed to keep his mind from the
operation of antagonist considerations. A man in
either of the situations described can hardly be ex-
pected to be possessed with a wish to arrive at the
truth, whatever it may be. It is the natural ten-
dency of his disposition to destroy this wish in the
most candid and impartial mind, and to substitute in •
its place the desire to attain or strengthen a convic-
tion of the prescribed doctrines. The consequences
of arriving at results inconsistent with them are too
fearful for him to contemplate, and he will therefore
venture on no course of which he does not see a
probable termination in their favour."

So much with regard to the connecting certain
advantages with the teaching of certain defined
doctrines. But Capt. Basil Hall, in entering on
this ticklish ground, advances at such a rate as
to distance all competitors. The attaching cer-
tain advantages to certain opinions may be advis-
able or not ; but it is to be presumed that those
who connected advantages with the opinions be-
lieved sincerely in their truth, and charity may
lead one to suppose that those who subscribe to
the opinions arc also sincere, whatever may be
thought of the act of so pledging themselves to
teach that which they have a worldly motive for
acquiescing in. But Captain Basil Hall boldly
lays it down, not that opinions believed true
should have an advantage, but that the great ob-
ject should be to prevent all transition to those
opinions which would be adopted but for the
worldly advantages. He assumes that if things
were left to take their natural course in America
certain opinions would be adopted, and he
would prevent the adoption of those opinions by
the very same means which would prevent the
adoption of truth. We have never read a more
heartless manifestation of indifference to truth.
" Unitarianism," says he, " as I heard it laid
down at Boston—and I am acquainted with it in no
other shape—may, I conceive, fairly be called, with-
out any thing disrespectful, the Democracy of Re-
ligion ; for while it affects to teach men to cherish
entire mental independence, it disentangles them to-
tally from that allegiance and that reliance upon the
merits of their Saviour which Revelation inculcates
on the minds cf all those who believe in his divinity,
as the surest, indeed the only solid ground-work of
their hopes; whereas the doctrines referred to above
send us hack in a vicious circle of unsubstantial rea-
sonings, to the shallow fountain of ourown unasaisted
thoughts, for what certainly cannot be found there.
I am firmly persuaded, therefore, such principles,
sooner or later, must lead, in any country thatadopts
them generally, to as portentous changes, in ques-
tions of religion, as those which civil democracy, if
I may so call it, has already brought about in every
country, whose people have tried the very perilous
experiment of direct self government.
" I have the less scruple in staling my opinions
with respect to the probable effects of the diffusion
of these doctrines, from finding the same expecta-
tion, as to the probable extension of Unitarianism,
advanced with complacency in various American
publications. In that country the popular cast of the
religious institutions and discipline is already very
great; while the facilities of further change is so in-
viting, that these liberal doctrines, from harmonising
so well with every thing else, are almost sure of ul-
timate success.
" The difference between America and England in
the important point of Church governmentlk appears;
to be simply this :—With them religion, like every
thing in the country, is left to take its ockovlillecct
toge-
ther we, on the other hand, have chosenoltocd
from
long,,
titer the experience which
.has
andr t
ages of trial and discussion,fix this a
means
tnt-f
densed knowledge in one solid fabric.st
constructed,
disciplinea ny io-
ltehnet poor wr.ea rdfiucla establishmentlaia ts
nso.dcoocntri
they Area the mass of the community
are rendered well nigh impossible, as. farwahtilele,aastttkaes
same time,
ih the
Churchpersons who
left
pneortfeCchtoolisbeet-to y goto
alongate

exercise their birthright, and think and act for them
E dye:.

" In these respects, indeed, the Church of-Eng--
land has the good fortune—in which the rest of the
country far more than equally participate--of being
diametrically opposed in every circumstance to the
religious institutions of America. Changes with
it must be remembered, are proverbially difficult
•in all things—in matters relating to the Church pre-
eminently so ; and I trust before the cloe of this
work, I shall have 113 difficulty showing in what
manner this long-continued stability in the most
important branch of the English Government—this
type of the Rock of Ages—has contributed to fix
the national character ; and also how confidently, as
long as the Established Church retains its ascendancy,
avoiding carefully all internal changes, and setting
popular interference with its constitution at defiance,
we may likewise predict the permanency of every
thing else we hold dear in the country."
Captain Basil Hall is quite prepared for enact-
ing the part of an Inquisitor, if circumstances
should ever render it advisable to avail himself
of the advantages connected with that post. All
the distinguished names of the Church of Eng-
land recommend freedom of investigation, and
admit that when truth and error are fairly pre-
sented to the mind truth prevails. They never
say that if fair enquiry should lead to any other
result than that at which they have arrived, the
result should not be embraced. But Captain
Hall barefacedly assumes that enquiry will lead
to a certain result ; and while he does not pre-
tend that there is any tendency in the human
mind to embrace error rather than truth, he
passes sentence of condemnation on enquiry. He
is a precious philosopher and a precious moralist.

A❑ Evening Paper states that the death of
the acting Clerk of the Peace for the county of
Middlesex affords a good opportunity of new-
regulating the fees of that officer, which are, as
our contemporary truly states, a serious griev-
ance, amounting almost to an extortion upon the
people, and those generally very poor ones, on
whom they fall. A poor wretch, for instance,
who is acquitted at the Middlesex Sessions, is,
in some instances, actually charged more than his
punishment could have amounted to had he been

found guilty. Yet this is part of the law which
is described " as the perfection of human reason."
But our contemporary is mistaken in supposing
that the death of Mr. Allen affords any better
opportunity than the retirement of Mr. Stirling
did ; both those gentlemen having been tl • nng
more than the Deputies of the real Clerk of the
Peace, who is a very aged person, having what is
called a freehold, or vested interest, in his office,
with all its fees and emoluments to boot. The
true and really urgent reason for settling this
matter, and remodelling or abolishing these
abominable fees, arises from the advanced age of
the present possessor ; for if, in the course of
nature, any thing were to happen to him, no
time would be lost in bestowing the office
upon a new occupant, who would, of course,
oppose his vested interest to any reform ; and
thus the evil would be entailed upon another
generation. Really this affair of fees iq Courts
of Justice has become an evil of enormous mag-
nitude. A good caricature might be formed of
a client or a suitor in any of our Courts, who,
instead of clothing, might be represented as
stuck over from top to toe with " the current
coin of the realm,' which the lawyers, in their
different grades, might be represented as strip-
ping him of; till they at last leave him stark
naked. It would be delightful if this " perfec-
tion of human reason" did but "practise what
it teaches ;" but, alas even " reason" ceases to
be such, when self-interest steps in. Thus, for
instance, the law professes to punish extortion
and injustice, yet in its own person inflicts as
much of both as it really deals with under any
other !.read. But we find that we are generalising,
when we meant to be particular. Referring,
then, to the topic which gave rise to these re
marks, we ask Mr. Peel what his legal reforms
are worth if they leave such a striking and noto-
rious evil as that which we have adverted to
much longer unredressed ?-111orning Herald.
We only allude to the rumours so diligently
put forth by certain Morning and Evening co-
temporaries, respecting a change of Ministry, to
give them the fullest contradiction. Attempts,
we are aware, have been made to sow dissension
in the Cabinet, and jealousy in the mind of the
highest Personage in the Realm ;
but they have
been hitherto as fruitless and vain as they have
been base and unprincipled ; and we can state,
on the best authority, that there is no more
ground for believing that any change is about to
take place in the Ministry, than for apprehend-
ing a blockade of the port of London from a
Russian fleet. Both events are undoubtedly
possible, but they are highly improbable, anti for
precisely the same reason in both cases—the want
of power to effect them.—Morning Advertiser.

It was my good fortune, when I first was
called to the bar, to become acquainted with Mr. THOMAS
SHELTON, the Clerk of Arraigns at the Old Bailey, a
situation which would sour the mind almost of any man.
lie is now 70 years of age. He was always very intelli-
gent, very opulent, and is one of the kindest of living
beings. It has been a habit of mine, for some time P'''t
(and I am now writing on the 24th of September, 1824),
to dine upon a Saturday, on my return from the city, at
DOLLY'S Chop-house. Here, about a month ago, I met
my friend SHELTON. We dined together. In the course
of conversation, knowing his laborious occupations, and
the dreary place in which he lives (for his office is in
Newgate, just over the scaffold where the offender., are
executed), and knowing his opulence, and it being a
very heavenly day, I said—" SHELTON, where do you go
this summer ?" "Go !" said he ; " I never go out of
London ; where can Ibe happier? I have not been out
of London for twenty years, unless you call the Park out
of London, for I was in the Park about sixteen years ago ;
and as I am told there is a very nice place called the
Regent's Park, I intend to see it this summer."-4 Cor-
reepondent of the Morning Herald.
• Mr. HENRY ERSKINE JOHNSTON, of thea-
trical celebrity, arrived in town on Sunday last, by a
steam-packet from Ireland, in the principal cities of which
he had been most successfully prosecuting his avocations in
a manner which secured the double advantage of personal
benefit and professional fame. At Cork, after an absence
of 17 years, his reception was kind and flattering. His
spirits were agreeably excited, tinder the hope of meeting
his relations and friends; but, alas! human happiness is
net of long duration ! for on proceeding to the house of his
son-in-law, Dr. PROBYN, of Twickenham, where lie bad
expected to meet his dutiful daughter, NANNETTA HEN-
RIETTA, he learnt, with unutterable surprise, sorrow, and
morning at three o'clock, after offering up
h
anguis I that she was a corpse! Poor NANNETTA had
• to the Almighty that he would send her
f._diedrve
tt apt
raa, reyr,
dear father to close her eyes. PROBYN was but 28
years of age, and had been married between seven and eight
years to the Doctor, to whom she was the most affectionate
and devoted wife, and by whom she had born four
lovely pledges of their affection (all auf whom are living),
beensivdeesr:d femalenn
which she
he had been prematurely
don the Sundaylat of
prec

yy
_ .
An inquest was held on Saturday at St. Bar-
tholomew's Hospital, before WILLIAM LElvis NVA'3IAIs:,
Esq., on the body of JABEZ CriaisTmAs, aged five years
and four months, who was run over by a Waggon in the
Curtain-road, Shoreditch. The Jury returned a verdict
of " Accidental Doti."

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

GUILDHALL.

Jaws Sura was re-examined on Saturday be-
fore Mr. Alderman FAREBROTHER, charged with
❑ttering a forged will, purporting to be that of
'Thomas Brandreth, of Langley, in Kent. After
some further evidence had been adduced, the Alder-
man said that he should commit the prisoner for trial.
On reading over the depositions, Mr. Pizey, the
stock-broker, said he felt himself bound, in fairness
to the prisoner, to add to his evidence that Why-
man said he wrote the will himself, and that the
prisoner had no participation in making the will.
The prisoner was present.
Mr. Alderman FAREBROTHER thought he had
better have left that out, for it was not creditable to
him that it did not suggest suspicions in his mind
when he heard them talking in this way about the
making of the will.
Mr. Harmer—You did not communicate this con-
versation to Mr. Freshfield, the Bank solicitor ?
Mr. Pizey—No.
The passage was added to his testimony, and the
prisoner and his professional adviser declining mak-
ing any defence, the witnesses were bound over to
prosecute.