The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT oF.THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The opposition to the new Malt Bill conti-
nues ; and, as Ministers seem disposed to yield,
willno doubt increase while they continue to make
any stand. The maltsters, we are sure, will not
have deemed us their enemies in this affair.—
There are, however, points upon which we will
venture to advertise Ministers a little. There
are divers kinds of opposition to Ministerial
measures. Ministers might perform an act, or
pass a law, by which only a small body of men
should be aggrieved, but against which a whole
nation would exclaim, from an ingenious feeling
and a sense of justice. This is not an act of
that kind. None but the parties inte-
rested have remonstrated ; and it being very
clear that whatever is remitted to them and their
craft must be imposed upon others, Ministers
would do well to be thoroughly convinced of the
impolicy, injustice, or impracticability of any of
the provisions of the present law, before they re-
tract or suspend them. There is also a pecu-
liarity in the law now opposed, never, we believe,
incident to any other in the history of legislation,
to which a violent opposition has sprung up ; and
that peculiarity is this,—that it does not impose
one halfpenny of additional duty upon the article
taxed. The present Act merely provides against
frauds (operosely, rigorously, perhaps even se-
verely,) but still it does no more than provide
against frauds 'in the Collection of the old duties.
In fact, therefore, the law or the legislators have
said to the maltsters, You are a set of such
rogues, or at least we so consider you, that we
must, by every possible contrivance, and by the
utmost severity, endeavour to ,check, impede;
and control your practices. We lay no new
duty upon you, we only endeavour to prevent you
from eluding the olchones, as we know or suspect
You have done." What reply should an honest
maltster give to language so insolent ? He
should cast the imputation of dishonesty from
him with indignatiOn ; and he should show the
finance Ministers to their full conviction, that
this or that provision of the law imposed expense
and trouble upon him, without sufficiently an-
swering the professed object of securing the reve-
nue against fraud ; and, if called upon, lie should
show the Ministers how the revenue might be
better collected by less painful operations ; but
the mere security of the 'old revenue being . all
that is aimed at by this Act, it is obvious that its
provisions ought not to be too hastily relaxed
on the exclusive representations of those whom
it contemplates as the objects of its distrust. The
number and the severity of the penalties imposed
by the new law have been made the subjects of
complaint. The impartial and disinterested
statesman or politician may gravely consider what
punishments are proportioned and appropriate
to what offences ; but he who has to
conduct a, trade by certain ruler, and who
passes his. life in strict obedience to those
rules, can have no occasion to care for the seve-
rity of penalties for the infraction of.thein ; they
are bruits fulmina to him : unless, indeed, he
can show that. he is liable to be entrapped by
dubious definitions of 'offences, or convicted on
uncertain proofs. As liable to imputations of
this nature, we think that clauses xvi. and xvii.
of the present law require great modifications.
By the former it is enacted, That if the quan-
tity of barley shall be found to exceed the quan-
tity which the maltster or maker of malt ought
to have had in his or her stock, custody, or pos-
session, according to the barley-book, in the pro-
portion of one bushel in every 20 bushels of bar-
ley, then and in every such case every such
maltster or maker of malt shall be deemed and
adjudged to have taken or received barley into
his or her custody or possession, and to have
neglected and refused to make such entry thereof
as is by this Act in that behalf directed and re-
quired." By the next clause it is enacted,
" That if upon gauging and taking such account
as aforesaid, the quantity of barley shall be found
short of or less than the quantity which the
maltster or maker of malt ought to have had in
his or her stock, custody, or possession, 'accord-
ing to the barley-book, in the proportion of one
bushel in every 20 bushels of barley, then and
in every such case every such maltster or maker
of malt shall be deemed and adjudged to have
wetted and steeped barley to be made into malt,
and to have neglected and refused to make such
entry thereof as is by this Act in that behalf
directed and required ; and every such maltster
or maker of malt shall in every such case, over
and above the penalty by this Act imposed for
such neglect and refusal as aforesaid, be charged
with and be liable to pay the duty chargeable on
malt for every bushel of barley so found deficient
as aforesaid ; and such. duty shall and may be
sued for, levied, and recovered, by such and the
like ways, means, and methods, and under such
and the like penalties, as the duty on malt is or
may be sued for, levied, and recovered, by any
law or laws in force relating to the duties of
excise."—Of the clauses or provisions to which
Ministers, we think, should most pertinaciously
adhere in substance, if not in form, the chief are
those beginning with clause xlvii. " Certificate
bOoks to be delivered to maltsters, and no malt-
ster to send out malt exceeding four bushels
without certificate, &c. &c."" The maltsters as-
sert, that they have abstained from wetting, in
consequence of. the rigours of this Act r Un-
doubtedly they will abstain, or say they abstain,
from wetting, so long as they hope, by that
method, to produce a relaxation of the law ; but,
had all change been considered as impossible,
they would have wetted as usual. There is
another cir
'iltiistance deserving of notice : nearly
one-half of, the Act relates to brewers and dis-
tillers ; and 34t, of, the former, only one has
appeared among the .maltsters as a remonstrant
(B
arclarA ; of th. e latter,.none.— Times.

Our readers will perceive, by a letter which
we publish on the subject of military promotion,
that universal assent has not been given to the truth
of an announcement made some weeks ago, re-
specting the fairness of those principles on which
the Duke of 'Wellington, since his return to the
Horse Guards, has regulated the succession to
vacancies in the army. Of general and vague
accusations upon this point, we are disposed to
take but little notice. The manner in which the
Duke of Wellington administered the Ordnance
Department while he held it, was such as to give
entire satisfaction, we are assured, to the body
of officers, engineers, and artillery, under his or-
ders. But it must be admitted, that by the fixed
rules and constitution of those services where
promotion of necessity goes to the senior officer,
the obstacles to injustice are more serious, and
the temptations to commit it of less frequent oc-
currence, than in the government of the military
service at large, where the field of patronage is
so infinitely extended, the competition so eager,
and the discretion of the Commander-in-Chief
so wide and absolute.
t o Greater attention, how-
ever, is doubtless due a circumstantial state-
ment of a specific instance of abuse, like that (if
the facts be described fairly) which occupies the
latter portion a our correspondent's letter. If

it be true that Lord Mounteharles, the son of
the Marquis Conyngham, has been advanced from
a company in the. Ceylon Regiment, with which
he never did a day's duty, to an attached majo-
,rity in the army, and this in the teeth of regula-
tions to which less powerfully connected officers
are invariably bound 1,9 submit themselves, then
we do not hesitate to acknowledge that a gross
wrong has been inflicted on the service, and one
which ought to raise a Parliamentary inquiry, if
no other means of redressing it can be procured.
At the same time, it is necessary to ascertain,-
Ist, whether Lord Mountcharles had, as is as-
serted by " Verax," hot served during the whole
term of six years, which the King's regulations
prescribe as the indispensable period before any
man can become a field-officer ; 2d, whether he

had or had not actually done duty with his regi-
ment while holding the previous rank of Cap-
taiti, Lieutenant, Ensign, or Cornet ; or, 3d,
whether, in any respect, the general regulations
of the service have been substantially or formally
set aside to favour this fortunate .young nobleman.
We know nothing about the facts of the case
ourselves ; but if an abuse has been committed or
sanctioned by the Duke of Wellington, it is fit
that his Grace should be put upon his defence.
He has, we think, a brother of the celebrated
" Lord Charles" for his Secretary.—Mid.

We lately quoted from the Nottingham Re•
view some remarkable cases under the Game
Laws. The following further particulars respect-
! in,r one of the cases are from the sane Paper
Win. Hickling, the young man who had twelvegun-
shot wounds inflicted upon him, when poaching at Clifton,
we should suppose, had bad punishment enough in all con-
science. Not so, however, say those who have the admi-
nisration of the Game Laws. He was brought up to the
County Hall on Wednesday, and convicted in penalties
amounting to 201. for the offence; which, not being able
to pay, lie will, it is expected, be taken to Southwell House
of Correction on Saturday next, though yet suffering under
the effects of the wounds he received, there to expiate his
enormous offence by a long imprisonment ! ! The public
shall hear more of this case anon."
There are no Judges equal to those who de-
cide in their own causes, and of this we have.
' abundant proofs daily in the conduct of the
Great Unpaid. The laws are sure to be admi,
nistered with mercy when the same individuals
are plaintiffs, judges, and juries ! As Sir Francis
Burdett says, the gentry of England are its
glory.—Morning Chronicle.
The policy of Mr. Canning has placed Eng-
latid in what the French call a " false position,''
both in the East and West of Europe. In the
latter she has been supporting, with her arms
and money, a Government that avails itself of
her protection to oppress her friends and subvert
her -policy—a Government that considers it a
religious duty to annihilate that Constitution
which, in the name of Don Pedro, embodies
the political wisdom of our late Foreign Minis-
ter ! In the East we are doing all in our power
to estrange from our interests, and even afford-
ing our assistance to overwhelm our old ally—
the Turk—the friend of our adversity—who
fought by our side on the sands of Egypt, When
Buonapart6 endeavoured, by the conquest of that
country, to open a highway to our possessions
in the EasL And let not modern " Liberals"
be scandalised at the idea of the Turk being the
ancient ally of England ; for the same Mr. Can-
ning, whose memory, if it were not for mere
shame, they would probably get a Bull from the
Pope to canonise—that Mr. Canning formed one
of an Administration who thought 'it no stain
upon our national pride that the Cross of St.
George should float in friendly union with the
CreScent on the walls of Acre, or to boast of the
triumph which the Mahomedan scimitar enabled
us to obtain. But France in possession of
Egypt could never be so formidable a neighbour
to our Asiatic territories as Russia, extending
her already colossal power over the ruins of the
Turkish Empire. We are assisting her to do
that which has, for a series of years, been the
paramount object of her ambition ; and we allow,
as preparatory to it,
,that a Russian Nobleman
should assume the Government of Greece. If
we had thought proper to assist Greece, it should
have been on the principle only of making her
an independent State, totally exempt from the
dictation of Russia—but our Statesmen are con-

cut to be the jackalls to the lion of Muscovy !
—Morning Herald.
An article which we yesterday inserted, from

the Oriental Spectator, dated Smyrna, August
25, in a vein of grave and effective irony, com-
mends the Treaty by which England, Russia,
and France have undertaken, in humble imita-
tion of Napoleon, to settle by force of arms the
contest which has long existed between the
Grand Seignior and his rebel subjects. The
irony of this article is bitter, but it is just. The
writer, in affected forgetfulness of the terms of
the Treaty, and in simulated, ignorance of the

steps which have been taken by the three Powers
in furtherance of its object, speaks of it as a
convention worthy of three legitimate Govern-
ments, having for its laudable design to protect
commerce by the suppression. of piracy in the
Levant ; and he then praceeds carefully and ela-
borately to fortify this sneering and malicious
conjecture, by describing the fearful extent to
which piracy is carried on—not by the Turks,
be it noted, or by the connivance of the Turkish
Government, against which the Treaty is level-
led—but by the rebel subjects of Turkey, who
acknowledge nd Government, or rather have
none to acknowledge ; but who have system-
atised piracy, nevertheless, as one of the most
fruitful branches of their national industry, and

one of the most important elements of their so-
cial strength. But irony, it appears, is not un-
derstood by the defenders of the Treaty ; and
they accordingly fall seriously to work, to prove
the sarcastic writer of this article guilty of misre-
presentation. One of tthem, indeed, in his
eagerness to prove the Treaty unworthy of the
praise bestowed upon it only in mockery, really
does what the Smyrna writer only pretended :
he forgets the expressed objects of the compact,
and charges the parties to it with intentions
more flagitious even than any they have express-
ed. This advocate of the Treaty, unwilling that
its turpitude should be underrated, whether in
jest or in earnest, and zealous to assert in its
behalf a bolder character of iniquity than what
justly appertatus to it, assures his readers that the
Allied Powers have determined to secure the
independence of Greece ; whereas if the Treaty
itself is to be taken as a faithful expositor of
their views, they go no further than to dictate
the terms of tribute and of fealty; under which
the dependence of Greece upon Turkey is
to be perpetuated. It requires a superabun-
dance of charity—an excess of it, which
is not enjoined, or indeed permitted, either
by reason or by scripture, by common pru-
dence, or by a due regard to the real 'wel-
fare of mankind—to conclude in any possible
ease that the intentions of men are good when
the means by which they pursue them are mani-
festly evil. The professed objects of the Triple
Treaty are to restore peace to a suffering, and
I 'distracted, and oppressed people—to stop the

effusion of human blood, and to reinstate com-
merce in tranquil and secure possession of the
sea ; but we are Hot bound to believe, or rather
perhaps, we are bound not to believe, that these
are the sincere and exclusive objects of the par-
ties to this treaty, when we find that the only
mode of attaining their which can be devised by
three of the most powerful Governments on
earth, is one which comprehends a direct attack
upon the independence of another State some-
what weaker than themselves, and a flagrant vio-
lation of the recognized law of nations ; to up-
hold and maintain the authority of which has
heretofore been deemed the common interest of
all Governments, and the most effectual guaran-
tee of general and permanent tranquillity. Nor
are we in any degree re-assured in this case when
we contemplate more in detail the ostensible ob-
jects and the proposed means. The want of
coherency between them is most remarkable and
most suspicious. Peace is to be promoted for
the present and the future, by interfering in a
conflict just on the point of expiring, and on
behalf of those who began it by their revolt, and
who but for this seasonable though tardy inter-
ference, are on the eve of 'being totally subdued.
Piracy again is to be discountenanced and abo-•
fished for.the present and the future, by the sa-
lutary example of the nation which has chiefly
practised its atrocities being admitted to the
alliance and favoured by the protection of great
commercial States. And finally, thy effusion of
human blood is to be stopped by means of a
treaty which may, for any thing we yet know,
plunge the whole of Europe into war, and which
has at any rate left the question, whether this
shall be its final result, to the peremptory deci-
sion of the Turkish Divan. It is good to stop

the effusion of human blood, but bad to attempt
this by Means which may probably cause a thou-
sand times as much human blood to flow ; and

in the present case we must take leave to say,
blood of a thousand times greater value.-.--
Morning Post.
The following letter from our correspondent at
Liverpool communicates very gratifying intelli-
gence. It will no longer be contended that the
system adopted by our Government has been un-
favourable to the trade of the country, and that
by doing justice to others we sacrifice our own.
Liverpool, it is Well known, is one of the chief
marts and channels of British commerce. It
engrosses within itself a very large proportion of
our general trade. When we find, therefore,
that the receipt of Custom-house duties at that
port, instead of having fallen off, as all the pro-
phets of national ruin gladly anticipated, has
risen to an unexampled height, we must conclude
that the measures which were represented as
shackles on coinmercial prosperity have served,
on the contrary, to expand its growth, and that
we are attaining, with a degree of rapidity which
was not conceived by the most sanguine advo-
cates of the present system, the realization of
what has been described by its opponents as ex-
travagant and unfounded hopes. It will be seen
that whereas in the great trading year of 1825,
the Customs' quarter's receipts at Liverpool
reached one million gross, they have exceeded
that sum net during the last quarter. In 1825
. .

it was the result ova wild spirit of speculation,
which ultimately broke down under the weight of
its own enterprises.. In the present year it arises
from regular transactions, soberly undertaken, and
wisely conducted—carried on, it isArue, on an
enlarged scale, because the principle of trade is
now become really cosmopylitan, but carried on
with a steadiness and equability which secure to
the country not °a 9 superior, but certain and
permanent advantages.
LIVERPOOL, OCT. 17.—The receipt of duties at the
Custom-house of this port has, during the last quarter,
been the largest ever 'known ; the net money remitted to
the Treasury after deducting the payment of bounties,
drawbacks, a expenses, exceeding one million sterling.
These deductions amount to 57,000/. ; which, if. taken

into the account, make the total amount of money re-
ceived, 1,057,000/. Several of the quarters' receipts
during the great trading year of 1825, reached one million
gross; but the receipts never before amounted to one mil-
lion net. If the surplus in the receipts of the Customs,
during the last Quarter, be examined, it will be seen that
the surplus from the Liverpool Custom-house alone, is
nearly two-thirds of that of the whole Kingdom, for it is
200,0001. more than the corresponding period of last year.
—New Times.

IMPORTANT CASE RESPECTING BIL

LETING SOLDIERS.

POLICE-OFFICE, lIEWILY-STREET, OCT. 15.

Mr. Robert Ruskell, of No. 52, Capel-street,
a respectable grdeer, tea, wine, and spirit-mer-
chant, this day attended at the above-office, to
lodge a complaint against Mr. Dooley, High
Constable, for billeting soldiers on him contrary
to law. Mr. Cantwell, who attended as his
attorney, stated, that on Sunday last six soldiers,
accompanied by the wife of one of them; were
billeted on Mr., Ruskell, he not being at all
liable, under the Act of Parliament, to have sol-
diers billeted on him ; that by the Mutiny Act,
7 and 8 Geo. IV., c. 4, 5..49, officers and
soldiers are to be billeted in inns, livery stables,
ale-houses, and the houses of sellers of wine by
retail, to be drank there, and all houses of per-
sons selling brandy, strong waters, cider or me-
theglin by retail.
Mr. Blacker read over the Act of Parliament,
took great pains to inquire. into this matter, and
appointed two o'clock same day, and directed a
messenger to ,be sent to Mr. Dooley, desiring
him to attend at the office at that hour, so as to
have the matter fully investigated.
At two o'clock Mr. Ruskell attended, but
Mr. Dooley did not appear, when Sir William
Starner sent a messenger to kr. Dooley's house,
in Jervis-street, requiring his attendance, but it
was said that he was not at home. •
Mr. Cantwell then stated, that he had another
complaint on the part of Mr. Thomas Lucie,
proprietor of the Enniskillen Hotel, and Mail
Coach office? in Capel-street, for billeting, on
Sunday last, six soldiers on him, although he,
Mr. Lucie, was not liable under the Act of Par-
liament to have any soldiers billeted in his house.
~ Sir William Stamer, on hearing Mr. Cant-
well's statement of the facts respecting Mr. Rus-
kell and Mr. Lucie, and looking into the Act of
Parliament, observed, that it appeared grossly
illegal, and that, at all events, the billeting so
many soldiers on one person was very oppres-
sive and highly improper, and ordered a sum-
mons to be issued in both cases, and to be served
on Mr. Dooley, requiring his attendance at
twelve o'clock next day (Tuesday), which was
accordingly done.

The last Ball for the season took place at
111 r. Nash's Rooms, on Tuesday se'nnight ; hut, from the
unpleasant state of the weather (the wind blowing very
strong from the S. or S.W. accompanied with rain), most
of the neighbouring families who had signified their inten-
tion of being present, were prevented. Our home com-
pany, however, formed a very respectable party as to num-
ber, and kept up the lively dance with great spirit till a
late hour. The rooms on this occasion were very taste-
fully decorated with a profusion of autumn's choicest
flowers, which had a gay and pleasing effect.—Brighton
Paper.