The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-05 00:00:00

PAR,LLELWINT.A.ILY.

The Lords did not meet yesterday.-- -
In the Commons, the Nottingham Election Committee re-
ported that the sitting Members' were duly elected, while the
Thetford Committee unseated Lord Euston, and seated Sir
James Flower.

The Petty Sessions Bill was opposed by Sir J. Graham, on
the part of the Government, and withdrawn by Mr. Banks.
On the order of the day being called for the second reading
of the Church Patronage (Scotland) Bill, Sir James Graham
asked Mr. Campbell to postpone it, on the ground that the
Government had at present hopes of settling the disputes in
the Scotch Church, on the thiee principles of preserving the
civil rights of the patrons, the right of the people to object to
presentation, and the right of the Spiritual Courts to decide on
those objections. Mr. Campbell consented to postpone the Bill
for six weeks.

Mr. Fox Maule objected to this course, and urged with some
vehemence the propriety of the House of Commons corning to
a decision before the General Assembly met. He said the pro-
positions of the Government were merely the revival of Lord
Aberdeen's Bill, and would not satisfy the people. He alluded
to some negotiations which had improperly influenced the Mem-
ber for Argyleshire to postpone his Bill at the eleventh hour,
and, he moved that it be read then a second time. After a
short debate the House divided on the motion, and the second
reading of the Bill was postponed by 131 to 48.
The adjourned debate on appointing Mr. Ferrand's Com-
vaittee was again resumed and again adjourned.
After transacting some routine business, the House adjourned
at Eight o'Clock.

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Herald expresses its doubts as to the genuineness of
the three million signatures to the Chartist petition, and
adds :—" We must repeat the expression of our fears that
among the 3,315,752 signatures, a whole legion, at least, are
factitious or fictitious. We are informed, for example, on the
authority of a personal friend who was residing in the north
when this petition lay there for signature in his ' ancient city,'
that one individual alone—(more alive to the pleasure, what-
ever it be, of doing ridiculous things, than to the possible con-
sequences of doing them—or to the serious interpretation pos-
sibly to he put upon his unreasoning follies)—was known to
have signed this Chartist petition about a dozen times over,
under the most absurd designations ; for example, the ieitial
verse of a slang song. Is this so, or is it not? If we are re-
minded that it can be worth no man's while to look for such
nonsense amidst the swarming population of three millions and
a half of the names of the children of men, we must reply that
that very consideration suggests the most insurmountable reason
for withdrawing our faith from the genuineness of the identity
or appellatives of such an unaccountable petitioning nation 1"
We take the following from the Chronicle :—" A Govern-
ment may be defectively constituted according to a given theory,
and yet acceptable to the people under it, from it general con-
viction that it is honestly and justly administered, while
another Government, more perfectly constituted according to
the theory in question, may possess little of that confidence of
the people, from a general conviction that the interests of
classes are consulted at the expense of the community. The
Reform Bill, with all its defects, allows greater influence to the
people than they before had, but it has become unpopular be-
cause class interests are still found to be more powerful under it
than the interests of the community. The Legislature has
openly and unblushingly acted in opposition to the principles
which the wisest and most enlightened men have sanctioned by
their authority, as the best calculated to promote the welfare
of the community. The existing Constitution, under the
Reform Bill, has placed power in the bands of men who have
abused it for the furtherance of their own class interests."
In an article, suggested by the Chartist petition, the Times
makes the following comments :—" The existence of the
Chartists is not indeed a formidable, but it is a serious, fact.
It is serious to find a confederation in an address intended for a
large, and necessarily inflammable, body of their fellow-coun-
trymen, telling them, as quoted by Mr. Duncombe, that they
' have been driven into poverty and starvation by political
causes which they have no power to destroy, and scarcely any
liberty to describe in Parliamentary petition ;' that they (the
Convention) are sensible that it is almost a mockery of jus-
tice to ask the starving to be submissive and to bow their
famished bodies to the footstool of oppression ;' that they
have expressed their hostility to the system which has strip-
e ddyou, misled you, repressed your murmurs by force, situ-
d your complaints by a demonstration of steel and threatened
butchery ;' and finally, begging them to wait, like themselves,
' with patience and subduedfeeling,' the answer of Government,
on which they are now preparing to advise on the future
course to be pursued,' All this is not formidable, but it may
soon become so."

The Post says We do not argue that the Income-tax is
without grave objections and great faults. We cannot argue
for that, because we do not believe it. We account the In-
come-tax to be a very great hardship upon the greater number
of those who will have to pay it. In some respects it is a very
objectionable tax. But its redeeming quality is that it spares
the poor. It does not, to the same degree, or nearly to the
same degree, as any other tax would, abridge the poor man of
his comforts, or render him unable to obtain a fair supply of
the necessaries of life for his family. But the Whig-Radicals
exclaim that the poor, though not directly charged with the
Income-tax, are not independent of its operation—that it is to
them a real injury. This we de not deny, but we complain
that nothing but the bad side is held up by the Whigs to public
observation.
The following is from the Advertiser :—" In rejecting the
motion of Mr. T. Duncombe last night, the House et Commons
most flagrantly violated the Constitution, and committed a
breach of trust which in the ordinary relations of civilised life
would subject the perpetrators to the penalties of the criminal
law. Mr. Duncombe moved that the National Petition,
signed by upwards of three millions of people, presented on
the previous day, be taken into consideration, and that the
petitioners be heard at the bar of the House, by themselves,
their counsel, or their agents, in support of the allegations of
that petition.' Leaving out of the question, for the moment,
the policy or impolicy, justice or injustice of the claims put
forth in the petition, we contend that the House of Commons
cannot adduce the shadow of justification in refusing to hear
expressed at its bar the opinions of three millions of the people
—from whose supposed representation it derives its power."
ItIONSY—TICILDE—COMMERCz.
The Southwark-bridge Company held their annual meeting
on Tuesday, when the Report stated the total amount of the
bridge-traffic to have been nearly 4,0001. for the year, and the
net profit of the pier to have exceeded 3001.
The- annual meeting of the Church Missionary Society was
held on Tuesday at'Exeter Hall. Missionary labours in India,
Africa, New Zealand, and other British Colonies were reported
to have been successful. The total amount of the year's re-
ceipts was 90,8211., and of the expenditure 110,8081., leaving
a deficiency of 19,957/.
The 10th anniversary of the Literary Association of the
Friends of Poland was held on Tuesday, in the Sussex Chamber,
St. James's, when the Report stated there were now 40 Poles
dependent on the Institution, being two more than last year.
The fete at Stafford House, assisted by Mademoiselle Rachel,
produced 8761. The Guildhall entertainment, aided by Miss
A. Kemble and Miss Rainforth, 7361. Subscriptions of 6601.
were announced, and a separate donation of 1601. for educa-
tional purposes.
Above 400 sail of vessels have been detained in the Channel
by the late east winds • the arrivals, in consequence, have been
so few in the Pool, above Greenwich, that it appears almost
deserted. Wharf and dock business, and the trade of the ma-
ritime districts being impeded by this cause, thousands of
coal-whippers and shoremen have been out of employment for
weeks put. In the course of to-day upwards of two
hundred sail may be expected in the river, several of them
from the East Indies, with very valuable cargoes of silks, in-
digo, teas, tic.