The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-10 00:00:00

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT

PRIVY COUNCIL.-At the Privy Council held by
her Majesty at Windsor Castle to-day, a proclamation
was agreed upon for further proroguing Parliament,
from Tuesday next to Thursday the 2d of February,
then to meet for the dispatch of business.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENLNG PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—The verdict given on Thursday against
the Brighton Railway Company, in an action brought
by one of the sufferers through the accident which oc-
curred some time ago on the line, has established the
fact that the calamity in question was not the result
of inevitable accident. The course taken by the Com-
pany in endeavouring to nonsuit the plaintiff by a
technical objection, without going into the merits
of the case, was, we think, very far from judicious.
Had the Directors succeeded at once on their first
plea, though they might have gained a legal
verdict, they would have lost more in public con-
fidence than the whole amount at which the
damages were laid could have made up. If there
had been really no want of care on the part of the
Company's servants, a full inquiry would have been
courted rather than shrunk from. We are there-
fore not surprised that some degree of negligence
was established against the defendants when the
merits of the case were gone into. It is, perhaps,
better after all for the Company that their defence
could not be established, and that neither of their
pleas availed them. If they had nonsuited the plaintiff
on the technical ground that no notice had been given
in accordance with the statute they sought to take ad-
vantage of, the public would have imagined they were
afraid openly to meet the charge of negligence; and,
on the other hand, had they established the second
plea, amounting to an allegation that the calamity was
the result of inevitable accident, a pretext would have
been afibrded for increasing the prejudice against
railway travelling. If such calamities as that which
occurred, on the Brighton line, when four lives were
lost, and many persons injured,' were to be ascribed
to the ordinary risk incurred by going on a rail-
road, it would operate strongly against that
mode of conveyance in general. When, how-
ever, it is seen that accidents arise only from a
neglect of the proper precautions, the public will be
snore likely to feel confidence in trusting themselves
on railways, if caution is rendered obligatory on the
parties entrusted with their superintendence and
management. The verdict against the Brighton Com-
pany establishes the fact, that if proper care had been
shown, no accident need have occurred ; and the chief
thing to be provided against, therefore, is negligence
or want of skill—both of which may. be avoided on
every railway. The result of yesterday's trial is,
consequently, favourable on the whole to the interests
of railway companies; inasmuch as it shows that it
depends chiefly on themselves to secure the confidence
of the public.
STANDARD.—An Opposition journal of last
night announced, with an ostentation of wide linee
and whatever 'else could attract attention, the purpose
of her Majesty's advisers to repeal the present Corn-
laws, substituting two 'several scales of fixed duty, to
be applied according to the terms upon which different
countries would admit British manufactures-12s.
per quarter or 65., as he case might be. We believe
that we can safely affirm that in this announce-
ment there is not one word of truth. They who
are not disposed to rely upon our simple con-
tradiction will do well to remember that the thing
announced is impossible, inasmuch as Great Britain
is already bound by various treaties, as to the propor-
tions in which she will burthea the admission of the
produce of those countries with which we trade
treaties for the violation of which no modification of
our Corn-laws can afford any pretext. It is not for
us to assign with certainty the origin of the fable
promulgated by our Whig Contemporary. It
may have had its birth in Mark-lane, and to
say truth, the story has some lineaments of
the meek and cunning family who occupy
that dove-cote ;or it may be the ingenious
suggestion of some Whig clerk in the Trea-
sury, or at the Board :of Trade, who having been
called to furnish a particular return, has built this
project upon the demand ; or it may be what in
schools and colleges is called " a shot "—a bold
assertion hazarded upon the calculation that it may
possibly be right, and that, even if wrong, it is no
worse than silence. The story may have originated
in one of these ways. All we are concerned to say
of it is, that it is not true. If our memory does not
deceive us, something of the same kind, as extrava-
gant and as false, was promulgated from the same
quarter about this time last year.

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JRIST OL SUGAR MA.RICET, DEC. 9.-Without much
apparent briskness to attract attention, the sales of
II; w;411,3, vek, liave amounted to about COO hhds., princi-
m• .•tas and St. Vincent's, to the refiners, at
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INCENDIARY FIRES.
INCENDIARY FIRE NEAR NOTTINGHAM.

(Further particulars from the Notts Review.)
A fire, under very painful circumstances, occurred
on Sunday morning last, which is undoubtedly the act
of an incendiary, and therefore must strike feelings of
terror and alarm into the hitherto singularly peaceable
and quiet neighbourhood where it has occurred. On
the above morning, Mr. Savage, a very respectable
farmer, a tenant of Lord Rancliffe's, and who resides
in the centre of the village of Bunny, was awakened
by the barking of the dog in the farm-yard, and
the noise of the cattle, and on looking out. of the
window, discovered that a very large stack was in
flames about the centre. By great exertions the fire
was subdued by nine o'clock, it having got so much
into the stack that it had to be taken to pieces and
put out as it was thrown down. The singular and
fatal hold which the fire had, may be attributed, at
once and with truth, to' its having been set on
fire in the centre, from which the flames rapidly
spread on the other side, and soon completed their
work of demolition. nder the stack was used
for, and formed, a very good hovel for cattle and carts,
and at the north end of the stack was the barn, with a
very large quantity of grain in sacks. It consisted of
from twenty-five to thirty quarters of wheat ; next the
barn was the produce of five acres of oats, and at the
other end were five acres of beans. The whole of the
wheat, and about two-thirds of the oats fell a prey to
the unsparing element. The remainder of the oats
and beans was saved, which could not have been done
had there been the slightest wind; indeed a much
greater amount of damage would, no doubt, have been
caused in that case, as on the opposite side of the
yard are the stables, a wheat stack, a barley stack, and
a pea stack, two hay stacks, and in the middle a straw
stack. The stack burnt was forty yards long, so that
the extent of the conflagration may well be conceived.
Mr. Savage declares that no one had been on that
'side of the yard that night with fire or candle. He
and the family went to bed about nine o'clock and he
was -awoke as above stated. It must have been the
act of an incendiary, or the firing in the middle could
not have taken place.
A reward of 501. has been offered by the Bunny and
Bradmore Association for the Prosecution of Felons,
of which Lord Rancliffe is President, for the discovery
of the villainous midnight depredator. We heartily
and sincerely trust he may be traced out.