The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-04 00:00:00

RIGHT OF SEARCH QUESTION.

The Debats, which had been taunted by the Op-
position journals for not inserting the Report, of the
'Captain of the Deux Sceurs, relative to the outrage
which he says he received from the Madagascar fri-
gate, explains
.as follows the motives which.indliced it
to abstain from taking the same course as
.the Journals
of the Opposition.
• "We have been asked, in that- tone of insult Which
has become habitual to the Opposition organs; why
we have not spoken of the new outrage which
the English navy has offered to our . flag: We
shall give our reasons categorically, premising. that
there are two things which we do not in ' the
slightest degree question, viz.: the good faith of Capt.
Seignac, whose report will undoubtedly be taken into
consideration by the Government, and the exces-
sively bad faith of the Opposition journals in every-
thing relating to the right of search. This is our
starting point, and we pray the Opposition journals to
mark it down. Capt. Seignac, of the Deux Scam,
complained of having been searched on the 21st
January, on the coast of Africa by English naval
officers, who had not even taken the trouble
of slipping on their uniforms and providing them-
selves with their authority.' He adds, that the sailoi's
who accompanied the officers, took away tobacco,
some bottles of liquOr, and twenty cases of preserved
meats. On the other hand, however, it appears from
the same report of Captain Seignac, that the
officers who visited his vessel, having remarked
that one of his men was ill, sent of their own ac-
cord on board the surgeon of the English vessel. M.
Seignac having complained of the pilfering which had
been committed to his prejudice by the English sailors,
one of the officers is said to have replied, What would
you have us do ? our best sailors are the greatest
thieves." We repeat that, however strange may ap-
pear all this narration, and more particularly this last
circumstance, attributed to an officer of the English
navy—so proud, more so, perhaps, of its rigorous dis-
cipline that of its force—we do not question the truth
of Captain Seignac. What ought, then, the Go-
vernment to do ? Why, to pay the greatest attention to
the report, to acquire information on the subject from
Captain Bouet, chief of the French station, to ask for
explanations, and, if necessary, reparation from the
English Government ; in a word, the matter ought to
be inquired into. There are rules of justice in inter-
national relations, as there are in the difficulties
which may arise. between the citizens of the- same
State. What information have we up to the pre-
sent time ? ha report only of the, party who con-
siders himself inj.isred. This person is a French-
man, and his testimony has great importance in
our eyes, but justice has much more. The cus-
tom of the English journals is mentioned to us,
which at the first grievance, whether well or ill-
founded, against our navy, raise an outcry and insult
us grossly. Supposing this to be true, a nice example
it would be for us to follow! No, we shall never
imitate this brawling patriotism. For the honour of
France we shall not imitate it ; and we may
add, that such matters are badly discussed in
journals, for party spirit disfigures them. It
is between Government and Government, be-
tween Admiralty and Admiralty, that these questions
should be .treated. The niore important facts are in-
trinsically, and from the consequences to which they
may lead, the more justice demands that, before ac-
cepting them as certain; they-should be verified by a
scrupulous inquiry. What, then, should we do ?
Complain, or at once draw the sword against England ?
In the first case let us follow the custom established
• amongst civilised nations, and not take for proved what
is only established by the testimony of the complaining
party, no matter what weight that testimony may have.
We will not discuss the second hypothesis, for it is
too absurd ; but even with this hypothesis should we
not be a hundred times right, and have justice as
'clear as the sun on our side, before shedding the'
blood of nations ? So much for Captain Seignac's
report, and the affair itself. As for the Op-
position journals, we .have nothing to say to
them ; they execute their orders, and cry out
against the Minister- of Foreign Affairs. The
affair of the Deux Saurs is nothing more than
an electoral affair for them. They laugh at the
public, and hope with grand words to make it
serve as the instrument of their passions, not against
England, but against the Ministry. They object to
delay, for they do not want to clear up facts, and to be
guided by. the rules of justice. Captain Seignac's
report came just a propos ; they seized on it as a
piece of good luck, and of course try to make the
most of it."

SALT-WATER FISIIING.---(From a Hampshire Con-
respondent.) During.' the past month the whole
of the lakes communicating with the river Solent,
or Southampton-water, have literally swarmed with
such varieties of salt-water fish as are peculiar to the
ivestern coasts of England at this season of the
[ year. The crews of the whiting-boats have been
most successful, whilst amateur anglers have, in the
course of one flood tide, realized more sport than has
been the case for many years previous. Smelts
have been so abundant this season in the Lymington
iver, that a gentleman on Monday last, whilst
fishing off the . bridge, took no less than eight
dozen and three of the above delicate littlo fish with a
ingle rod and line in two, hours, besides a respectable
show of whiting-coal, floujiders, and base. The salmon
pink, or peel, have bee* netted in larger quantities in
the fresh-water streams in the above neighbourhood this
'L•year than bas been the case for some years past.

* The Sanctio Pragmatica obtains its meaning and applica-
tion from its signifying the, settlement of the succession to a
throne by the absolute will of the existing King; pragmatic
in this case having the sense of " assuming an authority of
power by right, and without permission or leave asked of any
one"—sanction, on the other hand, having its original sense of
" an act of confirmation, which gives anything its obligatory
power or ratification." The two chief " Pragmatic sanctions"
which history has recorded, preceding the one under present
consideration, are—l. The instrument by which the German
Emperor, Charles VI., being without male issue, endeavoured
to secure the succession to his female descendants, and which,
owing to the refusal of the Elector of Bavaria to guarantee it,
caused the Austrian war of succession, and subsequently that of
2. Charles 111. of Spain, when he ceded the throne of Naples
to his third son, and his posterity,. in 1759, settling under the
above title the law for the succession of his family.

THE LATE EARL OF LEICESTER.

GENEALOGICAL AND POLITICAL
NOTICE.

Thomas William Coke, first Earl of Leicester, in
whatever light his character may be viewed, must at
least be reckoned amongst the most remarkable
members of the Upper House. He was the eldest
Whig in either House of Parliament, not even 'except-
ing the Member for. Middlesex ; he' was one of the
most consistent Whigs ; he accepted a peerage in the
86th year of his age ;"1 and after he had numbered
three score years and ten, he espoused a lady young
enough to be his grand-daughter, by whom he had five
children. For nearly half a century he was the first
commoner in England, and when he chose to become
the junior Earl, he took a title which of right belongs
to another family, for the Marquis of Townshend is
also Earl of Leicester, and the Member for Bodmin,
who claims to be the eldest son of the Noble Marquis,
assumes that title, which confessedly belongs to the
Townshend family ; but setting aside circumstances
of this nature, the deceased Peer possessed large
claims upon the respect of the public, and though
• his life was prolonged far beyond the average
duration of human existence, yet his death will
be deeply regretted by a numerous tenantry, an
attached family, and a 'large circle of friends. The
late Earl of Leicester was born on the 4th of May,
1752, and was married in the '23d year of his age, on
the sth of October, 1775, to his cousin Jane, youngest
daughter of Jame Dutton, Esq.. His first wife
was, therefore, aunt to the second Lord Sherborne and
sister to the first. By that marriage he leaves no
male, issue. Mrs. Coke, who, had she lived, would
have been Countess of Leicester, died on the 2d of
June, 1800 ; and after remaining twenty-two years a
widower, the subject of this notice was married on
the 26th of February, 1822, to the Lady Anne
Amelia Keppel, who is third daughter of the fourth,
and present Earl of Albemarle, her Ladyship being
then but 19, and his Lordship 70. The surviving
issue of his first marriage are daughters, viz., Lady
Andover, who was afterwards married to Sir Henry
Digby, by whom, with other issue, she had a daugh-
ter, who married the present Lord Ellenborough,
from whom she was divorced in 1830 ; Lady Eliza-
beth Stanhope, and Lady Anson (mother of the pre-
sent Earl of Lichfield), was also the daughter of the
deceased Peer.
The issue of the Noble Earl by his second mar-
riage, are Thomas William, now second Earl of
Leicester (of that line), who was born in the year
1822 ; the Hon. Henry Keppel, born in 1824 ; the
Hon. Henry Coke, born in 1827 ; the Hon. Wenman
Clarence Walpole, who was born in 1828, and the
Lady Margaret Sophia, who is only ten years of age.
At the early age of 22 the late Earl of Leicester,
then Mr. Coke, was returned for the county of Nor-
folk, which he represented in fourteen Parliaments ;
and occupying a place in the representative branch of
the Legislature for more than half a century, he was
for many years "Father of the House of Commons."
He opposed the American war, the war against revo-
lutionary France, the policy of Fitt, and everything
Conservative. He supported the Catholic Relief Bill,
and the Reform Bill, and every measure of the Whigs ;
but in other respects he was a staunch adherent of the
landed interest.

The deceased Peer's father was Wenman Roberts,
Esq., who assumed the name of Coke on inheriting

the estates of that family ; he was only son of Anne,
the sister of till Earl of Leicester, whoa erected Holk-
ham. The earldom of that Peer became extinct at
his own death, and the nobleman just deceased was
his grand-nephew. Though the grand-uncle's peerage
became extinct in 1759, yet, as is well known, the
title was not revived till 1837, although in 1784 an
earldom of lkicester, as already stated, was con-
ferred upon George Townshend, who afterwards be-
came the Marquis Townshend, and this title is still
vested in the present Marquis, and constitutes the
courtesy title 'of the eldest sons of the. Marquises
Townshend. Neither the Coke nor the Townshend
family, however, can claim any direct descent from
the well knowtt Earl of Leicester of Queen Elizabeth's
time ; but the deceased Peer derived his birth from an
ancestor of whom he might well be proud—the cele-
brated Chief Justice Coke.

Amongst the families connected with the Noble
Earl,. are those of the Earl of Suffolk and Berks, the
Earl of Albemarle, the Earl of tichfiehl, Sir Henry
Rigby, Lord Sherborne, the Stanhope family, the
Earl of Rosebery, the Earl of Mansfield, Lord Wa-
terpart, the unison family, &c.

THE LATE LORD LEICESTER AS AN
AGRICULTURIST.
THE HOLICTIAM LANDS AND SHEEP-SHEARINGS.—•
Lord Leicester, excellent as were his political qua-
lities and moral virtues, will, perhaps, be chiefly
known to posterity as the successful agriculturist and.
the enlightened possessor of a princely estate, whose
example was beneficially felt in every corner of the
island, and whose patronage could always be commanded
by those who deserved it. Mr. Coke was, we be-
lieve (with the exception of the Marquis of Towns-
hend, in the beginning of the last century), the first
instance of a gentleman of large estate devoting him-
self heart and soul to agriculture, and commanding
by his success the suffrages of the most experienced
farmers. Before his time, the men who improved
agriculture were generally gentlemen of compara-
tively small estates. In Scotland agricultural im-
provement originated on Tweedside and East Lothian
with the second class of gentry, whose success led by
degrees to the improvement of the large estates. It
was reserved for Mr. Coke to show what could be
done by the owner of a princely estate, who, with
more ample means could emulate the prudence and
care imposed by necessity on men of more limited
fortune.
We owe it to Mr. Coke that agriculture became a
favourite pursuit with men of rank and fortune. His
success preceded the agricultural pursuits of George
the Third, and the liberal patronage of Francis Duke
of Bedford. The circumstances which led Mr. Coke
to devote himself to agriculture are both curious and
instructive. They have, fortunately for the world,
been imparted by the late Earl of Leicester himself to
one of the most enlightened agriculturists of our
times—Earl Spencer, who, in the " Journal of the
Royal Agricultural Society of England," volume the
third, for 1842, Part I. (published by Mr. Murray, of
Albem arle-street), has devoted an article to this most
interesting subject. To this article, pregnant with
instruction, we refer every reader who wishes to know
all that the noblest of arts owed to Lord Leicester.
When Lord Leicester came into possession of his
estates the whole district round Holkham was unen-
closed,l and the cultivation was of the most miserable
character. A large part of the land, which now
forms Holkham Park, was leased to a Mr. Butt, and
the lease was within two years of its expiration. The
farm had been let at Is. 6d. an acre ; in the current
lease it had been raised to 35., and Lord Leicester
offered to renew the lease for as., but Mr. Butt 1.2-
fused the terms, upon which his Lordship was deter-
mined to take the farm into his own hands. " Thus,"
says Lord Spencer, " the real origin' of the great im-
provement of the district was, that Mr. Butt refused
to give five shillings an acre for land which now,
under an improved system of cultivation, usually
produces nearly four quarters of wheat per acre.'
Lord Leicester was then an extremely' young man,
fond of and excelling in field sports, with a princely
fortaEe, and would not have applied himself
to the details of a farm, had he not, by Mr: Butt's
refusal, been compelled to take the tract into
his own hands. " But," says Lord Spencer,
" having taken it, he found, as every man who will
apply himself to agriculture will, the high interest of
the pursuit Histaste was formed, the habits of his
life accommodated themselves to it, and, applying the
whole energy of his mind to the collection and disse-
mination of all the knowledge which he could derive
from practical and scientific farmers, he has effected
the great improvements which, while they have been
a source of continued happiness to himself, have pro-
duced the most incalculable benefits to the country.
If, on the other hand, Mr. Butt kid accepted the
terms offered to him, Lord Leicester . would have
granted him a lease for twenty-one years, and for that
long period of time, and probably much longer, no
improvement would have taken place ; West Norfolk:
would have been considered a district in which wheat
could not be grown, and, which would have been a
still greater misfortune, Lord Leicester might never
have turned his attention to agricultural pursuits."
Lord Leicester, being ignorant of farming, 'began
by collecting around him practical men, and •invited
to his house annually a party of farmers, at first froth
the neighbouring districts. At these meetings Lord
Leicester's farm was examined, and, through the dis-
cussions, both his Lordship and the practical men
were improved. In the course of time, friends from
a distance attended these meetings, and from this
small beginning we have the Holkham sheep-
shearing.
West Norfolk was then a rye-growing district; his
Lordship made it a wheat-growing district. The
system of cropping was detestable. Three white-crops
were grown in succession, and when the land would
produce no more, broad cast turnips followed. No
manure was purchased, and very little was produced on
the farm. Mr. Coke began with two white crops in
succession, and kept the land in pasture for two years
in every course. But still he could not grow wheat.
The land. was naturally weak, and could be made to
produce little food for cattle, so as to increase the
live stook. The first thing to he done was the pur-
chase of manure, and he was induced to try rape-cake
as a top dressing. But the most effective source of
improvement was a stratum of rich marl, at various
depths, underneath the surface soil of the district,
which is a very light sand. Pits were opened, the
marl dug out, and laid upon the surface. This gave
to the soil the solidity essential to wheat, which was
first raised in 1787. Clover and other artificial
grasses were raised, and the power of keeping more
live stock thus obtained.
IVith respect to stock, the only sheep in the district
were the old Norfolk breed, a very unprofitable one.
He first bred the Leicester breed. In 1812 there
were still at Holkham both Norfolk and Leicester
sheep ; but since that time the only sort kept were
South Downs.
We cannot here follow Earl Spencer throughout
his most interesting account of Lord Leicester's expe •
riments with live stock. His cattle were of the Devon
breed, and he crossed the Neapolitan pigs with the
Suffolk 'breed, by which he obtained the aptitude to
feed of the Neapolitan, without the weakness of their
constitution.
In a district like West Norfolk it is important that
more cattle should be fed on it for the sake of the
manure, than bred on it,. and Norfolk, through Lord
Leicester, has become the centre of attraction for
drovers from all parts of the United Kingdom.
One great change was introduced by Lord Leices-
ter. 'Without leases farmers will not improve, but
an ignorant or a knavish farmer may have a lease,
and yet pursue an injurious system of agriculture.
Lord Leicester introduced 'covenants into the leases.
" Although," says Earl Spencer, "in the first in
stance the covenant only prevented the tenant from
growing more than two crops of White grain in suc-
cession, yet so great was the ignorance of the farmers,
that he met with great difficulty in enforcing
even this very modified improvement of the old
system." In Mr. Overman's lease, in which the
modern improved land course of cropping, adapted
to light turnip lands is introduced, is the model in
which Lord Leicester's leases have been long drawn.
Earl Spencer attaches much importance to the well
considered covenants introduced by Lord Leicester
into his leases. It was by the combination of judicious
covenants with the long leases that he was enabled to
effect such great improvements, not only on his own
estate but, by his example, in the whole district.
Politics were excluded from the Holkham sheep
shearings; and though Lord Leicester's opinions were
most decided, yet men of every shade of politics were
heartily welcome to those festivities. The year 1822
was an exception—politics were then introduced--
and it was the last of the sheep shearings.
But we must close our brief account of Lord
Leicester. His decided politics might, at one time,
make him enemies ; but the country has long done
justice to him, and viewed him as a firm and uncom-
promisin? patriot, and a liberal and enlightened im-
prover of the agriculture of England.
Lord Leicester moved the famous address to George
111. to put an end to•the American war, and he was
himself the bearer of it to that Monarch.

RENTS.—We are informed that several of the land-
lords of shops and inns in this town are about to lower
their rents.—a measure which is felt to he necessary, in
order to prevent the ruin of the shopkeepers and inn-
keepers. The landowners would do well to follow the
example.—Leeds Mercury.
A young gentleman, of good standing in this
neighbourhood, betted very heavily on the late Derby
race, for which Coldrenick, Mr. Trelawney's horse, was
the favourite. He lost several thousand pounds, and to
the last shilling of his fortune satisfied his engagements,
but his mind became so much affected that he is now
insane, and in a mad-house, near Plymouth.—Plymouth
Journal.

Measures are now in progress for the holding of
an Eisteddfod in Carmarthen next summer. The Lord
Bishop of St. David's has consented to become the patron.
—Shrewsbury Chronicle.

DUTCH AND BELGIAN PAPERS.
BRUSSELS, JUNE 30.—There seems to be WI
reason to believe . that within a year from this time
the Belgian iron railway will be joined to that of
Rhenish Prussia.
The railway from Antwerp to Germany was cow
menced in 1833; and as it is to be completed 1l
year, ten years will have been spent in laying Own
this line of thirty-one leagues.
The: Moniteur Beige promulgates to-day the .10
for the construction of a canal from Zelzaete to the
North Sea.
DUTCH FUNDS 14.4,
.1,06 1.
Money. Mils.
Actual Debt. 2% per Cent 51% 2%
Jitto, ditto 5 per cent.
Amin t Syndic,4l.l per cent...... ........... 93 '4:""
Ditto, ditto, 316 per cent 7ll
Commercial Company, 4 per cent 150'4 Fit,
Ditto (16 par and 1837) ar cent. ..... 11)0%
Loan 1837, 5 per ccrit.. ........ .
Exchange on Londoi, line month -12 13)4
Twomonths ..... 12 03
Haraburgh, One month 35 1.1%
Two months 35 37%
Dutch Papers, July 2.
BELGIAN k UNDS—Bauaseta, Junxi3o.
Actual Debi, z)4, per Cent.
notlischiliiN Loan 5 per Cent •
102
5' )4
Loan of Thirty Alillions, 4 per 93
Sper Cent..........
2%
-- (1640) ....... 1(5
Loan of City, 1c32, 4 per Cent... .....»....».. 13ii •
Society et rce, 4 6 per Cent .....
flank of Belgium, 5 per Cent.....................
Naingal Society
Exchange on London (short) •••
—Brussels Papers, July 1.
AUSTRIAN FUNDS.—VIENNA, Jugs 22. •
flee pe r COR2S.Metalliques
FOX r per Cents. •••••••••••«•••«••••••••••••••••••••••
Three pa' Cents.
Bank Shares *elm ..... •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• .... '• .. •

Thirty.seven.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS:
SUN.—A further advance in the price of Consols tore
place on Saturday, and they left off at 914 914 01%7
opening, ex dividend ; Reduced, 914 ; Bank 1654 1601;
Exchequer Bills, Old, 42 44 ; New, 45 47, pronfilli-L,
In the Foreign Market, Belgian Bonds were 102 110;
Dutch Two and a Half per Cents.. 514 51-4, ex div. t
Five per Cents., 1001 101+ ; Danish, 81 82 ; and /311.
zilian, 64 66.
Mex!can was quoted 36 364.
Shares also rather improved ; London and Birinior
ham were 176 178 ; Birmingham and Gloucester, 4 501
Great Western 864 871 ; the Half Shares, 613 611;
South Western, 60 62 ; North Midland, 60 62 ; th
New Shares, 30 31 ; South Eastern and Dover, 2340 i
Eastern Counties, 84-9 ; Northern and Eastern, 39
Blackwall, 9 91 ; and Brighton, 344 354.
The Bonds were thus quoted " lomian 13. °9-I 29
Peruvian 16 17 ; Portuguese Five per Cents, 34 37;1
and the Three per Cents. 20 201, ex div. ; Spanish
per Cents., 204 21 ; the Three per Cents., 21 21:1-, (47,10
From the letters from Rio it may be gathered
political matters there are very unsettled. The Porn
Lions made by the British Government for the aboliticir
of the slave trade had been received anything but'
vourably by the lower orders, who apparently h titi
greatly misunderstood the nature of them. Althottgre
'the late accounts of the attacks upon the British 0-t'iy,
much exaggerated, yet ill feeling towards us was gr" gs
manifested. If the Brazilians would see their interei,
in its true position, they .would eagerly seize the oPP°O
tunity now offered them of disposing of their pro
upon more favourable terms.

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