The Sun.
London, England, 1829-07-18 00:00:00

MARYLEBONE.

This being a criterion by which the venders of
Intermediate Beer are to act, the Office was crowded
at an early hour, to hear the decision of the Magis-
trates. Several Licensed Victuallers attended, as
by the proceedings of those shops their trade was
much injured, they (the Victuallers) were obliged
to take billets, whereas the venders of the Inter-
mediate were free from all Excise but that for the
vending of cider.
Mr. Church, of No. 1, Shouldham-street, was
the first case brought forward. The information
was for drinking, and allowing other personE to
drink on the premises; and in support of it the in-
former produced Ins witness Brooks, who deposed
that on Tuesday, the 7th of July, he drank cider
over the area; there were no steps, and he was cer-
tain that he drank on the premises. The words of
the Act ran, " to be consumed on the premises, and
no beer to be drunk in, on, at, or upon the premises."
Mr. Hostims--I think that I must be obliged to
convict, from the evidence adduced, the main ques-
tion being positively sworn to that the liquor (cider)
was drunk on the premises, inasmuch that the area
constituted part of the premises.
Mr. Church was convicted in the penalty of Si.,
and several others, by the same course, were con-
victed. Gullick, of Shouldham-street, 51.
The information against Mr. Mann was dismissed,
from a fatal objection taken in the information.
Yesterday Thomas and John TValker, the young
men who are charged with stealing 150/. from a
chest in the bed-room of Mr. Budslen, landlord of
the Lord High Admiral public-house, Church-street,
Lisson-grove, were finally examined by Mr. Ilos-
KISS, and committed to Newgate for trial.
Mr. James Boyd, a respectable-looking old gen-
tleman, who lives at No. 17, Welbeck-street, en-
tered the office with a robust young man at his heels,
and asked permission of Mr. GRIFFITH to make a

request.
" Olt, do so, if you please," said Mr. GRIFFITH.
Mr. Boyd—This young man, Sir, is a very de-
serving young man, I believe. He has followed me
for years wherever I go, and wants me to do some-
thing for him, and I do not think I can serve him so
well in any way, as to bring him under your notice.
Mr. GRIFFITH—What do you think I can do for
him ?—Mr. Boyd—Your resources are great, Sir,
and I have no doubt you can do for him.
Mr. GRIFFITH (smiling.)—Do for him I why he
is old enough and strong enough to do for himself.
Mr. Boyd was very unwilling to believe that the
worthy magistrate could not immediately place the
young man in a good situation ; but finding it to be
so, he ordered the gaoler to bring in another man,
and he would kill two birds with one stone.
Why, said Mr. GRIFFITH, you have not killed one
bird yet.
Mr. Boyd—Very true, Sir, very true; but you
see the young man at the bar (a beggar of 70)—
Mr. GRIFFITH—This old man you mean.
Mr. Boyd—Very true, Sir, I'm always mistaken.
Well, Sir, this old man follows me into Kensington
Gardens, Sir, into Hyde Park, Sir, and wherever
I go.
Mr. GRIFFITH—And what does he say ? Mr.
Boyd—Oh, he has nothing to do, and nothing to eat.
Mr. GRIFFITH—He begs of you ? Mr. Boyd—
Oh, constantly.
Mr. GRIFFITH—Do you give him any thing ?

111 r. Boyd—Oh, yes, 6d.; I can't get rid of him
without 6d.
William John Chadwick was the beggar's name,
and the Magistrate adied him what he had to say
for him-elf.

Your Worship, he replied, that there good gen-
tlemAn appointed me to he at his house at eleven
o'clock this morning. I went there because he
told me.
Mr. GRIFFITH —Did you make that appointment ?
Mr. Boyd—To be sure I did, on purpose to bring
him here.

Beggar—Then I'm sold deceived
Stowell, the officer, knew Chadwick to be a beg-
gar of long standing, and
Mr. GRIFFITH sent him to the tread-mill for four-
teen days.

UN lON-lIA LL.
ELOPEMENT AND ROBBER v.—Yesterday Thomas

Talfrce and Frances Stocker were brought before
Mr. SWABEY, charged with having robbed Mr. Peter
Stocker,a baker, residing in Wootton-street,Lambet
and husband to the latter prisoner, of 1501. in gold
and silver, besides two large trunks, containing vari-

()us articles of plate and clothing.
The complainant, who appeared to be labouring
under considerable agitation of mind, in consequence
of the conduct of his wife towards him, stated that
on Saturday evening last he left home on business;
on his return he found his wife had gone away dur-
ing his absence, taking one of the children with her.
On going up stairs to his bed-room, he found the
drawers all emptied of their contents, consisting of
his own and his wife's clothes--the bed and bedding
all gone, and a box with money and plate, and which
contained besides 150/. in sovereigns and silver, and
a quantity of plate, lying open, and emptied of every
thing. When he had recovered in some measure
from the fright, he set about making immediate in-
quiries, and learned of his neighbour that a hackney-
coach had been seen at his shop-door between ten and
eleven o'clock the same night. While standing there
two large trunks were placed in it, together with
some other articles, and afterwards Talfree and the

complainant's wife were observed to enter the
vehicle, anti were driven off at a gallop. Complainant
found that Talfree, who lodged in his house, had ab-
sented himself from home the whole of Saturday night.
The following day the complainant ascertained, at
the nearest coach stand, that a coach was hired on
the Saturday night preceding, by a man answering
Talfree's description, and from the information de-
rived from the driver, Talfree and Mrs. Stocker
were discovered at a house in Camberwell, on
Thursday, where it appeared they had taken lod-
gings as man and wife. Upon the discovery of their
retreat, Talfree endeavoured to get away, but was
prevented, and his pockets having been examined on
the spot, a purse, containing 89} sovereigns, toge-
ther with I/. 9s. in silver, was found. The purse
was immediately recognised by Mr. Stocker as the
one belonging to him, and which, when taken from
his house, contained 1501. in sovereigns and silver.
In their new abode was also found the trunks con-
taining the plate and other property of the com-
plainant, who instantly gave Talfree and Mrs.
Stocker into custody, and they were forthwith
brought to this office.
The MAGISTRATE, on hearing an outline of the
case, observed that however culpable the conduct of
Mrs. Stocker might have been in the affair, yet she
had committed no offence in law that would justify
her committal.

The complainant having expressed some surprise
on hearing this, the Magistrate told him it was dif-
ferent, however, with regard to Talfree, the para-
mour; and if evidence is adduced before me that he
was in the act of taking the property out of the
house, I shall not scruple in sending the case before
a Jury.
During the above proceedings, Alrs. Stocker stood
by the side of her paramour, and behaved with the
greatest effrontery and impudence towards her hus-
band. When the poor man rebuked her for her
infidelity, and for robbing him, she cast a scowling
look at him, and exclaimed in a tone of voice that
could be heard by every one in the office, " I don't
regret what I have done.'
The husband said that he should be enabled to
bring forward a witness to prove that Talfree was
seen in t! e act of conveying the trunks containing
his property from the house into the coach, while
Mrs. Stocker affected to be engaged in the shop.
It was here stated that Talfree was a married
man, and that he had abandoned his wife—a young
creature, who was in a state of distraction, owing to
his misconduct towards her.
The prisoner was asked by the Magistrate what
he had to say in answer to the charge ?
Talfree, who is a tall ill-looking fellow, deeply
pitted with the small-pox, said, there is no use in
denying that the baker's wife and I went off toge-
ther; I grant we did, but the money and purse
found in my pocket I can safely swear was given to
me by her. In fact, she was at the bottom of the
whole affair.
Even after this declaration the complainant's wife
seeing her paramour alarmed at his situation, com-
forted him in his despair, saying, " never mind,
my dear, don't alarm yourself, they won't hurt you."
These words having been pronounced in the hear-
ing of the Magistrate, he could not help observing,
that during his experience he seldom ever met with
an instance of greater profligacy than that exhibited
by the complainant's wife, whose immorality of con-
duct was heightened by the expressions she made
use of to her paramour in the very presence of the
man whom she had so deeply injured.
The wife stood unabashed even at this severe re-
mark upon her conduct, and when her husband, ad-
dressing himself to her, said, "you can never expect
to live with me again," she replied, with a toss of
the head, " I neither want nor expect to go back
again; I shall stick to the man I loop."
Her father, who was present, was much to be
pitied; with tears in her eyes, he said that he should
take her home with him, which offer she scornfully
rejected. The old man spoke in high terms of the
good conduct pursued by Mr. Stocker ever since his
daughter had been married to him, and added that
he (the father) had recently absented himself from
his son-in-law's house, owing to the levity of conduct
that passed between his wife and Talfree.
The Magistrate having made some further severe
remarks on the conduct of Mrs. Stocker in the affair,
discharged her, and remanded her paramour for fur-
ther examination, in order to give the complainant an
opportunity of producing additional evidence against

So, it seems, as faction becomes more despe-
rate, and intrigue more fruitless, the secret fromptings of
a certain individual begin to develop themselves with a more
callous contempt both of danger and of decency. When a
military leader exposes his person much, the conclusion of
most observers is, that he sees the battle going against him.
We have heard something of libels lately, and reports about
the instigators of those libels, which at other times, and
where different characters were concerned, would have been
scouted by us as utterly incredible. But one of the most
incredible of rumours reached us in the-course of yesterday,
namely, that some Morning Paper had finished a string of
absurd insinuations against the honour and loyalty of the
Duke of WELLINGTON, by a proposition to select for
Regent of this realm,—in the possible case of a minor
corning to the crown—guess whom, ye people of England !
—TIIE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND
Some followers of mine own,
" At lower end of th' hall, hurled up their caps,
" And some ten voices cried— God save King Richard !"
More of this anon.— Times.

At the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh,
on Tuesday last, JOHN STEU ART and MARGARET WRIGHT
were convicted of poisoning ROBERT LAMONT With
laudanum, for the purpose of robbing him. The crime
was committed on board the Toward Castle steam-boat.
It was proved in evidence that it was STEUART'S common
practice to carry laudanum wits► him, for which he bad a
cant name, in allusion to the use he bad made of it, to
destroy or stupify persons. This was the only point of
novelty that transpired during the trial. Both the panels
displayed the most hardened indifference during the whole
trial, and even when the last sentence of the :aw was pro-
flounced. They are to be executed ou the 19th of August.

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

• We have been pertly criticised by a blockhead
in a inorning Paper, with whom on any other
occasion we should not think of troubling our-
selves, for the language held at different times in
this Journal respecting the campaign between
Russia and Turkey, and the political objects of
the former Power. The whole of the abuse cast
upon us amounts to this,—that we had first re-
presented the late Russian victory as exaggerated
in the official accounts, and next announced that,
notwithstanding the comparative incompleteness
of the victory, the Emperor Nicholas was dis-
posed to make peace with the Sultan on reason-
able terms. What is there to be fairly objected
to in this, on the ground, at least, of consist-
ency ? If the Emperor Nicholas discovered,
that however brilliantly his troops may have
fought, their successes were not such as to au-
thorize an expectation of extorting better terms
from Turkey by a continuance of the war, than
by offering at once to negociate, it must be al-
lowed that he acted wisely in sending a diploma-
tic agent to the Turkish camp. M for the
" moderation" ascribed to Russia, it applies
more to her immediate propositions than to her
general and final views ; and if she professes her-
self satisfied to lay down her arms at this mo-
ment, on conditions not injurious to Turkey or
to neighbouring and neutral states, there seems
no sufficient motive for saying that she shall not
have an equitable treaty now, because we may
suspect her of entertaining ambitious designs
hereafter. We are charged with having recently
admitted that this contest " turned ori points of
honour more than views of profit." The glosspl:!'
upon this expression is a shallow and unfair one.
Our meaning was obviously, that as the Emperor
of Russia had declared the contest to be one in
which the honour of his crown was more con-
cerned than any interest of political aggrandize-
ment or acquisition, he might make overtures
satisfactory to his own avowed sense of dignity
and honour, without stipulating for objects
which, however he might secretly desire them,
he had not professed to aim at, or to set forth as
motives of the war. It has been asserted that
we at first denied the alleged mission of a flag
of truce from Count Diebitsch to the Grand
Vizier, and have since acknowledged and reasoned
on it as a fact. Now, the first allusion to such
a circumstance in the Times was on last Mon-
day, when, in our leading article, we assigned
reasons for believing it to be true; although io
our city article it was discredited. But we need
not again, for the hundredth time, repeat that
the city facts, opinions, and politics, quoted every
morning in our columns, are merely given as
current reports in the city, and are in no man-
ner binding upon us ;—a proof of which, indeed,
was afforded by the opposition between our own
estimate of the credit clue to the above state-
ment and that which, according to our city cor-
respondence, was formed of it in the city, even
on the same day. It would be needless to pur-
sue this topic further.— Times.
The decision in the Vice-Chancellor's Court,
in the case of " Brookman v. Rothschild," de-
serves attention, and will give satisfaction. We
know nothing of either of the parties, except as
the latter is known as the eminent stock-jobber.
The facts of the case arc these :—Brookman
deals with Rothschild, or rather employs Roths-
child as his agent or factor. By such dealing
or employment Brookman comes to great pecu-
niary distress. Now an agent may certainly
carry on business for a principal till the latter is
ruined, while the former remains unhurt, or
rather improved by the commission-money. But
it somehow or other happens in all the pecu-
niary transactions on this occasion, that no bond
fide purchases or sales are executed by Roths-
child—he merely passes nominal transfers of
money in his books : the transactions there-
fore become positive transactions between
the principal and his agent, (contrary to every
maxim of law and equity.) The principal is
ruined by them, but this does not appear to be
the case with the agent, who, in his character
of agent if he had been an open man, ought to
have dissuaded his principal from engaging in
those transactions which subsequently brought
him to poverty. The result is, that the plaintiff'
is very properly relieved from the effect of the
transactions of which he complains. " Con-
sidering," said the Vice-Chancellor, " the nature
of the circumstances, the judgment of the Court
is, that the plaintiff should have the relief men-
tioned in the course of this statement, and also
that his costs should be paid him by the
defendant, Rothschild." We cannot help also
extracting the following passage from the judg-
ment of the Vice Chancellor :—" It was evident
from the correspondence, which reached down
to a very recent date, that the plaintiff' was igno-
rant of his legitimate demand against the de-
fendant ; that having been reduced to a state of
the greatest pecuniary distress, he found, as he
supposed, in searching over his papers, that he
had not received a miserable pittance of interest
upon a small item ; that this induced him, as the
most humble suppliant, to apply to the house at
Paris for a small supply of relief ; that on mak-
ing a claim for this little sum of interest, Roths-
child, Brothers and Co. did furnish him with a
trifle ; that he subsequently renewed his applica-
tion to the defendant here, who took no notice
of the call, and hence folio Ned the filing of the
bill." And the filing of the bill has led to the
issue described.
" Raro antecendentem scelestum
" Deseruit pede pcena claudo."--/bid.
Some frauds of a very peculiar and extensive
nature have been discovered, we understand, in
the department of the Excise, by which the Go-
vernment must, in the progress of them, have
been robbed of immense sums. The circum-
stances, if they are correctly described, are abun-
dantly instructive as well as curious. It seems
that a practice has existed, how long back can-
not yet be ascertained, but for a very long period,
of sending forged certificates from different parts
of the country, of the despatch of various goods,
such as printed cottons, glass, and other articles
on which drawback on exportation is allowed by
law, for shipment from the port of London.
These certificates have been followed, it is said,
by vouchers of shipment and debentures, (also
forgeries,) on which the allowance due on ex-
portation has been obtained at the proper office
for that purpose. The practice might have re-
mained, as we are assured, still undiscovered, had
it not been betrayed by the apprehensions of the
persons through whom it was carried on. A
portion of the goods on which the drawback .vas
thus fraudulently obtained had been shipped, or
rather professed to be so, on board of the Cann
Brea Castle East Indiaman, lately wrecked at
the back of the Isle of Wight. The guilty
parties or some of them, fearing that the un-
loading and separation of the cargo from the
wreck would disclose the fraud that had been
practised on the revenue, made an application to
very unusual amyl% exporters,---aatulg
the Excise-office,—a proceeding %%hid) is not
that they

had been prevented from shipping different de-
scriptions of goods, on which the drawback had
been obtained, on 'board of the Carn Brea
Costle, and requested permission to export the
same goods by another vessel. So much time,
however, has elapsed since the departure of the
Cam Brea Castle, during which no notice was
taken of the affair, that the application excited
suspicion, and on proper inquiries being made,
the nature of the fraud was discovered ; and on
following up the investigation, evidence pre-
sented itself also of its extent and long duration.
This is. the outline of the facts, so far as they
have come out in the course of the day; but
they are necessarily very imperfect, and as the
Inquiry is still going on, not fully known to any
one. Neither is it yet ascertained by what de-
scription of persons this fraud has been ma-
naged, though it is clear from its very nature
that it must have been the result of collusion
among various individuals, and that a connivance
or a participation in the fraud must have existed
in the office through which business of this kind
is t onducted. It is not wonderful that a defi-
ciency should exist in the public revenue, when
frauds of this kind can be perpetrated in one of
the'most important branches of its administra-
tion. The affair altogether is calculated to excite
deep reflection, not only on that point, but on
the system of drawbacks itself, which offers so
strong a temptation to commit fraud.—lbid..
We are very much amused' by an article in
Cobbetes -Register of this day, in which that
sage, so eminently gifted with foresight, so re-
markable for consistency, a soundness of judg-
'nein, which almost entitles him to lay claim to
and the utmost disinterestedness, in-
veighs loudly against our want of consistency,
our want of honesty, our ignorance, and so
forth. In some recent observations on Parlia-
mentary Reform, we had expressed ourselves
with respect to its rapid approach in less san-
guine terms than those used by Mr. Cobbett, and
we had moreover stated that we were not parti-
cularly anxious for its acceleration. We bad
stated, at the same time, that we wished such a
substantial reform as would really afford protec-
tion to the pec-ple ; but being impressed with the
idea that these who arc in possession of political
power would not part with it without a struggle,
the tate beastly exhibitions, indicative of the
uorance of a very great proportion of the
'people, were by no means calculated to dispel
the alarm we felt on account of.the consequences
which might follow from letting the population
loose. We were far from justifying the with-
holding of Parliamentary Reform, in thus ex-
pressing our belief that it would never be volun-
tarily conceded, and that the growing improve-
ment of the people would every year add to
their fitness for properly exercising power when
the opportunity presented itself. Mr. Cobbett
is greatly shocked that we should have charac-
terized the opposition made to the Catholic Bill
as beastly ~- and he endeavours, according to a
logic peculiarly his own, to deny the existence
of the alleged ignorance and prejudices, by ac-
counting for them thuS :—‘, What (says he)
when they (the people) had been told ; when
they and their forefathers had been taught for
ages ; jidse/y taught I allow ; basely deluded, I
show ; but when they had sucked in with their
mothers' milk, that it was their duty to hold the
Catholic religion in abhorrence ; when they had
been taught to believe that that religion was
idolatrous and damnable ; when they had been
taught to believe that Popery and slavery were
always inseparable companions; when they had
from every pulpit and from every press been
taught for ages and ages, that the Catholic
re-
ligion rendered men unfit to be believed on their
oaths; that it provided impunity for the com-
mission of crimes of the deepest dye ; and that a
Catholic was, from the very nature of his faith, an
enemy of all Protestants, and of all Protestant
Government ; when they had been crammed
with these infamous falsehoods, from their very
infancy, and taken them in from the lips of
their progenitors for many generations ; when
this was notoriously the case, and when they saw
a Bill intended to put into the hands of Catho-
lics the power of making and administering the
laws affecting their property and their lives, were
they to be called ignorant and beastly ?" - This
is a very good apology for the ignorance of the
people ; and it would have been in place, if we
had inferred from this ignorance an ability to
attain to more correct views, when fairly presented
to them. We are quite aware that there is no
effect without a cause, and the people could not
have been so obstinate in their opposition-to the
Catholic Claims, if they had not been assiduously
led astray, and deprived of all means of obtaining
more enlightened notions. If they had been
better taught, and had access to more correct
information, and if their minds had been trained
to use the information properly—why they would
not then have been ignorant. The people in
Mexico have been taught to believe that all Eng-
lishmen have tails like apes; but they are not
less ignorant because they have been taught to
believe this. Mr. Cobbett gives another amus-
ing proof of peculiar logic, in his attempt to
prove our inconsistency :
" But suppose the people of England were as en-
lightened as the Doctor himself; suppose each man
of them were just as much enlightened as he is; the
Doctor is now, and lately has been, an advocate for
Catholic Emancipation: in 1824 he was its bitterest

enemy; and, I know not how it happened, he was
all at once converted to the Catholic faith by Mr.
O'Connell, and the deputation that came over to
England in the prosperous year of 1823. Before
their arrival, he had been incessant in his attack

upon the Catholic religion in every part of the
world ; he had charged its clergy with being impos-
tors ; he had charged them with perpetuating igno-
rance and slavery; and the thirty-fifth paragraph of
the first number of the History of the Protestant
Reformation,' published in November, 1824, is an
answer to his assertion that, ' throughout Europe,
Protestants rank higher in the scale of intellect than
Catholics, and Catholics in the neighbourhood of
Protestants are more intellectual than those at a dis-
tance from them: When the Hi,story of the Pro-
testant Reformation began to spread throughout the
country those facts and those argumenrs, without
which the Catholic Bill never could have been in-

trodueed ; when this work began to spread ;iie.;
facts and arguments about, thi3 very man, who now
charges the people of England with beastliness, en-
deavoured to answer my work ; feeble at-
tempts to refute it ; and applied to it the memorable
appellation of ' Pig's Meat ;' and at the same time

poured forth the nest abominable calumnies on the
Catholic elerffy, and the loftiest praises on Lnther
and Cranmer ; but, in the January succeeding, came
Mr. O'Connell, the Treasurer of the Catholic Rent,
accompanied with his deputation. The Doctor
toothed, Ft% it were, with the finger of grace, or
melted by eloquence from the lips which had been
touched with a live coal from the altar,' changed
his tone all at once, and became the advocate of
that very measure which he had before reprobated;
and, like convert; in general, or to speak plainly,
like apostates, be now accuses the people of Eng-
land of ignorance and beastliness, only because they
honest!! acted upon the principles which he had so
sedulously inculcated about four years before."
Svw obvious from the above quotation,

that Mr. Cobbett himself reasons somewhat like
those for whom he has been apologising—they
dislike the Catholic religion, and that with them
is one reason for oppressing Catholics. We are
not very warm admirers of the Catholic religion,
and we believe that the Protestant Reformation
has been productive of great good to mankind :
though the Reformers themselves were into-
lerant, and far from perfection, Europe owes
much to the stand which they made against au-
thority ; and while we are not to take the Re-
formers as models for the present day, without
their exertions the people might still imve been
plunged every where in ignorance and supersti-
tion. We still think the Protestants more in-
tellectual than 'Catholics, but we think they
make a bad use of their intellect. when they deem
their superiority a justification of persecution.
But Mr. Cobbett conceives that all who do not
admire the Catholic religion are bound to per-
secute Catholics ; and because we did not ad-
mire the Catholic religion in 1824, any more
than in 1825, and thought then as well as now,
that his History of the Protestant Reformation
was grossly unjust to the memory of a great
and good man (who had no doubt his imper-
fections—who is without them ?), Martin Lu-
ther, he thinks we were necessarily opponents
of Emancipation, for which we have always
stoutly contended. We remember a statement
made some time ago, in the Dublin Morning
Register, by Mr. Staunton, the proprietor,
that in order to secure the 'Advocacy of Mr.
Cobbett, it was proposed by Mr. O'Connell that
Mr. C. should be allowed to touch the Catholic
Rent ; and accordingly an arrangement was en-
tered into with him, which put a round sum
weekly into his pocket. It was also stated by
Mr. Staunton, that the advocacy and the receipt
of money were co-existent; and that the moment
the supply was discontinued, Mr. O'Connell
ceased to be with Mr. Cobbett one of the best
of men and the greatest of orators. This may
have been calumny, for anything we know.
However, if he did receive money, and if the
supply was discontinued, and if he supposes
that the money withdrawn from him found its
way to us, and if he Teel any soreness towards
us on account of our being the cause of this in-
jury to himself, we can assure him that his jea-
lousy is groundless. We are not in the habit of
boasting of our purity, and we believe the only
individuals who ever accused us of the want of
it, are Mr. Cobbett and Mr. O'Connell. We
have never been insulted with the offer of mo-
ney from the Catholic Treasury, or from Mr.
O'Connell, and therefore we cannot lay claim
to the merit of having resisted temptation.
However, it is no great merit to possessso much
common sense, as not to put it in the power of
any man to hold one up to the world as a cor-
rupt knave. Besides, were we even to be ever
beset with the sin of hankering after the wages
of iniquity, we should not select either -Mr.
O'Connell or Mr. Cobbett as the depositaries of
our secret. Mr. O'Connell has many qualities
which -have been of inestimable benefit to his
country, but closeness is not one of the quali-
ties usually found in men of his warm and ex-
citable temperament. He is, too, somewhat
like Mr. Cobbett himself—not disposed to be
reserved on the subject of the failings of others,
real or imagined. But to return to Reform :we
may be wrong. in our supposition that it could
not take place without a struggle, and we may
also be wrong in believing that a real represen-
tation of the people would give the House of
Lords the go-by (to use a familiar expression) ;
but the belief of Reformers themselves, or the
belief of certain Peers, that the House of
Lords would be strengthened by Reform, in-
stead of weakened, is not exactly a satisfactory
refutation of our allegation. Let us hear what
Mr. Cobbett says on this point :
" After this, it is hardly worth while to notice
what he says respecting' a Parliamentary reform
superseding the House of Lords. I have _never

. _
known a `Parliamentary reformer who expressed a
wish to do this; Major Cartwright always contended
that the House of Lords would gain instead of lose
by reform ; and I have never known a Reformer

I(for I do not reckon Burdett one) who ever said, or
ins►nuated, in my hearing, that reform, upon the
widest basis, would be in any way injurious to the
Peers. I could prove, that the effect would be the
contrary of this—l could convince any Peer, who is
open to conviction, that the nobility would greatly
gain by. a Radical Reform ; but did not the old
Duke of Richmond understand well the interest of
this order ? He had boroughs under his controul :
he was not of the nobility of yesterday—he had not
sprung from the makers of loans, the grinders of
paper-money, and the watchers of the turn of the
market;' he was of the high nobility—he had
ample domains; and what is more, lie was a Noble-
man in talents and in deeds as well as title. Yet he
actually brought in a Bill to give to the people
Annual Parliaments and Universal Suffrage. And
did he not know the interest of the House of Lords,
as well as this Scotchman, who abused the Catholic
Religion, the Catholic Priesthood, and the Catholic
people in 1824, and who in 1829 abused the peo-
ple of England. because some of them prayed (and
it was only tome of them) that Catholics might not
be law-makers and administrators of the laws ? I
shall be told that Duke of Richmond did
the
actually accomplish his object ; nor did the Catholic
Emancipators accomplish their object, though they
had tried it for a great many years ; the accomplish-
ment of that object, as far as it was accomplished,
was reserved for Y 015; arid why arc we not to hope
that Parliamentary Reform is reserved for you also
to accomplish ?
" There is another authority upon the subject of
Parliamentary Reform; namely, the Earl of Rad-
nor. Does not he understand the interest of his

order ? Has he ►+othing to lose ? Would he be
pleased to sec the House of Lords superseded ?
Can he be regardless of his title and that of his
descendants? Yet this Noble Lord called, himself,

a meeting at Abingdon in Berkshire, in the year
1823 (I think it was), and there agreed to a peti-
tion for a Parliamentary Reform on the widest
bads; and presented himself the petition to the
Parliament."

It strikes us that the very first moment a
House of Lorda remained obstinately opposed
to a House of Commons representing the whole
people, it would be treated pretty much as the
Upper House was treated in the time of the
civil wars. All would go on smoothly, so long
as their Lordships chose to think on every sub
ject exactly like the Commons, but no longer.
There cannot be two independent powers in a
country. A balance of. power in a constitution
is uniutclligible.—Morning Chronicle.

The case reported in our paper of yesterday,
Prom the Mansion House, affords a tolerable

confirmation, if any were wanting, of the inu-
tility of our Coal Laws, and of the quibbling
way in which, if they were of any use, their
effects can be defeated. It has been proved over
and over again that the whole metering system is
a complete farce to all except those—and they,
to be sure, arc not a few—into whose pockets it
puts money. It affords no protection to the
buyer, or even, in ordinary cases, to the seller ;
for in so different a manner may the same article
be put into the same measure by skilful or un-
hand,,:, that even the same quantity of
coals may be made to measure less or more than