The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-02 00:00:00

LORD LIMERICK'S FUNERAL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—Although opposed to you on many of the party
questions of the hour, I cannot but admire the truly in-
dependent tone with which you approach those general
questions of polity that can be touched upon regardless
of the spirit of faction.
The extraordinary scene that took place lately at
Limerick may be classed among the latter, and is not to
be passed over by calling the performers in it rabble or
savages. I have reason to know this is not the first
circumstance of the sort that has happened in Ireland.
While travelling in that country during the autumn of
1843, I passed by the wooded and picturesque domain of
Ravendale, the residence of the late Sir Harry Good-
ricke. The untimely fate of this unfortunate gentleman,
the locality naturally turned my inquiries to the late
Baronet ; with tears in his eyes did my narrator describe
his generosity, his high spirit, his noble conduct ; in
fact, to sum up all, he was emphatically a " good land-
lord." The whole country, for miles round, offered to
attend his funeral, and had this been encouraged, it
would have been the largest one ever known, even in
Ireland ; but the story did not finish with the death of
the late proprietor ; the good deeds c•f one landlord re-
called the evil ones of his predecessor, at whose funeral
the mob rushed upon the pall-bearers, dashed clown the
coffin, and trampled upon the inanimate body.
This story made a great impression upon me. It drew
the line of distinction between " a good landlord" and
" a bad landlord ;" for I am satisfied that all the feelings
of the population of Ireland centre in these distinctions.
Free to follow their religion, when left alone by the agi-
tators, all political questions are forgotten by the people.
They have only one question, a d that is emphatically
the landlord question—the division between "the good"
and " the bad."

And now for the late outrage. Lord Limerick for
nearly thirty years never visited the property or the
country from which he gathered as many thou ands per
annum. Ills residence was uninhabited, and falling iato
decay. That late lamented traveller Inglis, in his " Tour
in Ireland in 1828," has, in more than one of his truth-
telling pages, described him as the very worst landlord
in Ireland ; and I can safely affirm that in 1843, from
Orangeman or Repealer, I never heard the contrary.
Not only was he a perpetual absentee, but the charities
of Limerick and its neighbourhood will be vainly sought
for any response of the noble proprietor to the wants or
desires of his tenantry or the inhabitants. Lord Lime-
rick, in fact, was, among absentee landlords, absentissi-
mus. I write this without any personal ; I never
had the slightest knowledge of the late Earl—less even
than his tenants, for I never saw his bailiff.

It is far more easy to commit an outrage on the feel-
ings of the living an on the body of the dead. The
outrage of thirty years was answered by the execration
of an hour ; but even this re-echo of the pent-up feelings
of years would, I have no doubt, never bee❑ heard, had
the ill-advised friends of the late Earl been content with
a private funeral.

The present Earl is said to be in some distant land.,
perhaps unaware of the wealth and honours that have
rather unexpectedly fallen upon him. If the late pro-
ceedings are recalled to his memory, let him and all
other proprietors remember that they are but the com-
ment on the text which should ever be their rule of
conduct—" Property has its duties as well as its rights."
An Englishman, bound to Ireland by no feeling but
that of sympathy, and grateful, too, for some pleasant
hours spent there during the last year—not so much
among the hospitable halls of its gentry, but as a wan-
derer in many parts of the island, in its wildest and least
visited districts, and at a time when the repeal agitation
was most rampant—l am induced to send you these few
observations. I confidently protest against the late out-
rage being mixed up with any political faction. It was
but an outburst of feeling from a warm and excited
people. It could not be restrained. Some may call it
savage ; but who can deny that it was not natural.
Your obedient servant, R. D.
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 1844.

PRIVILEGES OF ROYAL PALACES. WINDSOR,
TUESDAY.--It will be recollected that a gentleman, re-
siding within the precincts of Windsor Castle, was taken
in execution, by an officer of the Sheriff of Bucks, at the
suit of Mr. Lawrence, for a debt of between 2,000/. and
3,0001., and consigned to the county gaol at Reading,
where he now remains. If this were a breach of privi-
lege, it was not as against the party whose body was
taken and consigned to the county gaol, but a breach of
privilege against " the rightful power and dignity of the
Sovereign." But, in order to guard against the commis-
sion of such an offence, and the penalties which would
thereby be incurred, a communication was made on be-
half of the Sheriff to the Lord Steward, asking for per-
mission to execute the writ and take the body within
the royal precincts. A reply was immediately trans-
mitted by Sir Thomas Marrable, the Secretary to the
Board of Green Cloth, giving the required sanction of
the Lord Steward to take the defendant in execution,
provided the capture was made with a due and proper
" regard to decorum." From this it will be seen that,
without the permission of the Lord Steward, on the part
of the Sovereign, to execute a writ within the precincts
of a royal palace, such an act would still be a breach of
privilege. It is not, however, to be supposed, in the
cases of persons in difficulties, who take refuge in " pri-
vileged" places, for the only purpose of using them as
" sanctuaries" to be " out of the way" of civil proces3,
that a similar permission would ever be withheld on the
part of the Crown. The Counsel, on the part of the de-
fendant, in arguing the question before the Learned
Baron of the Exchequer, chiefly relied upon the point
that the Lord Steward had no power to give his permis-
sion for the arrest to take place; this, however, was over-
ruled.

PRIZE FIGIIT ON KENNINGTON-COMMON.—Tues-
day afternoon, at three o'clock, a fight for 31. a side took
place on Kennington-common, between a Jew and a
Frenchman, which lasted for an hour and a half without
any interference from the police.
REVERSE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. A DRUNKARD'S
FATE.—Tuesday afternoon an inquest was held before
Mr. Higgs, at the Red Lion, Hart-street, Covent-gar-
den, on the body of James Copling, aged forty-four.
The deceased was formerly a cab proprietor at the west-
end, but from habits of inebriation he had lost every-
thing he was formerly possessed of, and for some months
past had acted as a doorkeeper at the Red Lion public-
house, in the Strand. For some months he had been
troubled with a severe asthma, and on Saturday night
last he was crossing the yard of the house, No. 4, Leg-
alley, Long-acre, where ho was lodging, when he was
seized with a violent fit of coughing, which ruptured
one of the blood-vessels of the heart. He was conveyed
into the house, and a surgeon was sent for, but prior to
his arrival life had ceased to exist. Verdict—" Natural
death."

THE SIAMESE TWINS MARRIED.—An American
paper asserts that the reported marriage of the Siamese
twins to two sisters, which was supposed to be a hoax,
is a literal fact, and that Mrs. Chang and Mrs. Eng have
presented their lords with heirs to the name and pro-
perty of Chang and Eng. It is further asserted that,
being now married men with families growing up, the
twins intend to resume their exhibition by way of in-
creasing their store and providing for their interesting
progeny,
ANOTHER NEW OPERA BY BALTE.—This popular
composer has returned to Paris, and is now busily en-
gaged in the composition of another new opera, the li-
bretto of which has been written by M. St. Georges, the
author of La Reins de Chypre, and fOrwarded to Mr.
Bunn, for translation into English. The principal part
is intended for Madame Thillon, whose engagement at
Drury-lane commences in May next. It is also said that
an Italian opera by Balfe, entitled Ekrida, will be
brought out at her Majesty's Theatre next season.
DROWNING TO GAIN A LIVELIHOOD,---A young
man, named J. Devroe' agee 18, was taken out of the
canal on Monday last. It is supposed that he threw him-
self in on speculation, for, shortly after ho was taken out,
four individuals presented themselves to receive the
usual recompense in such oases. Similar cases occur an-
nually. Some time back a man was known, who used
to attempt to drown himself every week, but there was
always four men by to save him.—Brussels Gazette.
THE ROYAL STAG HOUNDS.—Notwithstanding the
strong indleations of a fog, which prevailed during the
whole of Monday morning, her Majesty's stag hounds
met at Thorpe Green, agreeably to the announced ap-
poietraent ; but from the circutnatanee of the fixture not
having been notified in the London papers, the field con-
sisted of not more than between eighty and ninety, in-
cluding several military Nimrods trom Windsor. The
deer Wild Boy, upon being turned out, took away for
Colonel Scholetield's where, after circling about for some
time in the plantations, made for Thorpe mill, doubling
44 to Botley's, and thence to Egham waste, on towards
Chobham, where it was lost ; the hounds being called off
in consequence of the fog, which by this time had got so
exceedingly dense that it was impossible to see for a dis-
tance of fifty yards, rendering the following of the pack
a matter of great danger to both man and horse. The
hounds were taken back to tho kennel at Ascot, sad
Wild Boy left to roam at large for the night.
Tiui INCOME-TAl.—Three hundred pounds per
annum, arising from capital invested in the Three_ per
Cents. is at the present moment worth 10,000/. The
incoree of a clerk is unsaleable ; it depends upon per-
sonal services, for which he may be incapacitated at any
moment ; and if he die, his family are beggars. Yet
the clerlk is called upon to contribute the same amount
to the revenue as a rich man with 10,0001. in the
funds ! A system of fiscal policy more cruelly unjust
it would be difficult to conceive, one in which the injus-
tice is more clear and self-apparent ; but the majority
of the House of Commons, when the tax was thus un-
equally imposed, shut their eyes to its iniquity ; and
they will do so again if the public, let them. The prin.
ciple is the sstiVic if we compare the case of a tradesman
annum puromfita derived of his
WW
with an income of 1,0001. derived
business and a nobleman of I
fropr;►
r the profits
from landed estates, The value of the latter at only 25
years' purchase is 25,000/. ; the goodwill of a business,
dependent upon the innumerableit accidents of trade, will
rarely sell for more than Ye years' purchase. The re.
. ,
lathe position, therefore, of tne tradesman. r,-act the
nobleman, in the case supposed; i,S i4t-s one to
five, and
the operation of the prqaut inuomegaz is as five to ane
in favour of 41.0 nobleman. At the end of three years,
eack wilt have paid 90/. to the revenge--the one out of a
property worth 5,0001, at
the time the tax was imposed,
the other out of a property worth 25,0001. at the setae
period,— Afestrainster Review,
Izinovelioxs IN 'T1143 esvaco.—On Saturday, at
eleven o\llo4l a deputation, consisting of more than
forty gentlemen of high respectability, waited upon the
Mayor at the Guildhall with a requisition to him, signed
by nearly 2,000 citizens, all mczahers of the Church of
England, to calla public meeting of the inhabitants of
gxetq, to, address and petition the gneen on the present
state and danger of the rrotttsiant Church. Mr; J.
Bacen addressed the Mayor in most eloquent terms, and
bis worship immediately conceded to the wisketa of his
fellow-citizens, and appointed The sday next for that
purpose. An earlier day would have been fixed, but it
was feared it might interfere with the business of the
Woolmer's SXliff GatTloo‘