The Sun.
London, England, 1829-09-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Under the head of German papers will be
found an account of the state of hostilities in the
East, and a proclamation for a new levy of troops
'lto reinforce the army of one of the contending
parties. The dispersion, without a show of re-
sistance, or without the demonstration of any
ulterior object of attack or defence, of the body
of 10,000 men who are said to have garrisoned
Adrianople, evinces at once the influence of the
Russian successes, and the total disorganization
of the Turkish power. Had fanaticism inspired
the Turkish troops, or exercised any sway over
the mass of the population, a body of 10,000
men, provided with artillery and every sort of
military resources, would not have abondoned
the second city of the empire without a struggle,
or have deserted their standards and the horse-
tails of their Paellas without some sacrifice of
blood in their behalf. If we can believe the
Russian commander, the forces of the Sultan are
not only defeated, but have entirely disappeared,
so that the way to Constantinople will not be ob-
structed even by the scattered remains of its for-
mer defenders. But in the apparently secure
position of the Russian General, it would be
preposterous to risk any thing when all can be
secured without danger. He has, therefore,
been reported, with great appearance of truth, to
have sent forward a body of troops to take pos-
session of the Dardanelles, before he himself ad-
vances upon the Turkish capital. In case of
resistance before the walls of Constantinople, he
will thus be enabled to cut off all the means of
succour, and all the communications of supplies
from the north and the south, having possession
at once of the Straits of the Bosphorus and of
the key of the iEgeaii. It was expected that if
admissible overtures for peace were not made be-
fore the 4th instant, on that day the Russian
troops would have arrived before the Turkish
capital. That approach was not likely to be
prevented by any change of conduct or any new
profession on the part of the Sultan. A great
deal has been said about his willingness to ac-
cede to the Greek treaty, but the conditions on
which he offered to accept it are such as no
Russian plenipotentiary would for a moment
admit. The new levy of troops ordered through-
out the Russian dominions shows one of two
things,—either that the Emperor anticipates
the necessity of further exertions in the struggle
'which he has hitherto so successfully conducted,
,r that in the future negotiations to which a pro,

,osal for peace must lead, he thinks it prude

As maintain before his Allies the same invincible
attitude which he has displayed towards the
enemy.— Times.
The Bank Meeting yesterday was of rather
more than usual interest, less from the introduc-
tion of topics or motions more important than
,on previous occasions, where'the Court of Pro-
prietors had, as in this case, been pro forma
cared together,—than because of the greater
clearness and cogency with which the arguments
for a reform of certain usages of the Bank Direc
tors were pressed upon the Court of Proprietor
by two members of the latter body. It is not
the first time that some respectable Proprietors
of Bank stock have urged the expediency—in-
deed, upon every ground of common sense, the
necessity—of producing to the Proprietors a full
statement of the debts and credits of the Bank,
for the sake of enabling them to determine what
ought to be the dividend of profits. This pro-
position had been always hitherto—as, indeed,
it was yesterday—refused. The Governor was
yesterday, and his predecessors have been, most
strenuous in opposing every demand or solicits-
tion for the documents alluded to ; and as we
have heard it now and then whispered that the
Bank Directors can, by virtue of some powerful
influence, secure very generally a majority of
friendly Proprietors, it is no wonder if such mo-
tions as that of Mr. Young in the present in•
stance, and at former meetings that of Mr.
Grundy, met with a successful opposition.
But what is the true character of this
question ? Who are the persons called
" Proprietors " of Bank Stock ? Why, nei-
ther more nor less than partners, or reputed
partners, in the banking concern, called the
Bank of England : and the Directors are officers
chosen by the Proprietors, or professing to be
chosen by them, from year to year, for conduct-
ing with the greater convenience and regularity,
but on behalf and subject to the controul of the
Proprietors, the extensive business of their joint
concern. The Court of Proprietors, then, or
partners, is summoned, periodically, to agree
upon a dividend for the next year, corresponding
to the amount of their ascertained profits for the
last. A motion is, on these occasions, made, as a
matter of course, by the Governor, representing.the
body of subordinate officers or directors, that the
partners at large do agree with their own ser-
vants, and confirm the amount of dividend
which these servants have already proposed.
The first reflection that any sensible Proprietor
will make is naturally—that when the Directors
a;k their principals to concur with an important
act of theirs, and thereby acknowledging the in-
completeness of the act, admit also the power of
superintendance and revision in the Proprietors,
it must be the anxious desire of these Directors
to lay before their constituents the grounds on
which the measure so proposed has been by
themselves adopted, in order that the Proprietors
may have the means of judging what opinion
they ought to form. But no ; the Directors
argue in no such vulgar way. So far from
striving to obtain for themselves the benefit of a
bona fide sanction to their own vote by the Pro-
prietors, and standing forth to the world as men
who bear windows in their breasts, and court
examination, the utmost repugnance is shown by
them to grant the smallest means of insight into
their proceedings. A lofty demand is invariably
made, that the Proprietors shall place the same
confidence in their own subaltern agents, as had
been manifested by the three or four credulous
generations which preceded. them ; and a ludi-
crous assertion is coupled with that modest de-
mand—namely, that this abdication of their
tights and duties by the Proprietors, had
been the undoubted and effective cause o'

the prosperity of the Bank itself, and of
all the vast servicss it had rendered to the
British Empire ! ! There is no beating this
Whatever the Proprietors of Bank stock may
imagine, on the high authority of their Chair-
man, the Parliament of England has not so
deemed, that public prosperity had been much
advanced by the confidence of honourable gentle-
men in Ministers, as to matters of revenue, or
that the best interests of the country would be
consulted by a prolongation of such confidence.
The Court of Directors in Downing-street arc
kept in better order than those of Threadneedle-
street—they are brought to account every ses-
sion : no such impudent proposal is hazarded,
even on the Treasury bench, as that the House
ofCorn
and calculations
sallel
schemes confirm, blindfolded, all the

affairs of finance. Debits and credits are copi-
ously detailed, and unresistirTly submitted to
Parliament by the public servants, and on what-
ever other erroneous grounds the votes of that
body may at times be defended, they are not
given in utter and compulsory ignorance of the
nature and amount of the revenues with regard to
which their decision is sought. The Bank of
France, and that of the United States of America,
afford striking examples of the fallacy so much
clung to by the Court of Directors 'here, Viz.—
that the prosperity of such establishments may
be best promoted by a system of disguise and
mystery. There is, to be sure, no want of con-
fidence exhibited by the proprietors of French
or American Bank stock, in their 'directors ; but
it is for the plain reason that their confidence has
been founded on a perfect knowledge of their
own affairs—not an utter ignorance of them. It'
this question be fairly and calmly turned in the
minds of the Bank Proprietors for a year or two,
we feel certain that the " wisdom of their ances-
tors" will appear much akin to folly. On the
other point which was canvassed yesterday, we
agree, as on the former, with the gentleman
whose motions failed. The bank-notes forming
part of deposits do actually constitute a branch
of the paper circulation, because they may be
called into circulation at any moment by the acts
of the depositors, which the Bank Directors can
neither controul nor anticipate.—Eid.
The general aspect of Irish affairs is repre-
sented to us by an excellent authority on the
spot, as having a tendency to improvement. One
correspondent, whose station in society, and un-
questionable access to official information, render
him a conclusive authority on this subject, ex-
presses a confident belief, that the unhappy C -
a speration, which was so prevalent previous to
the circuit, has to a certain extent subsided ;
and that little more is wanted to produce a gene-
ral pacification, than a conviction that the Go-
vernment is determined to persevere in its sys-
tem of perfect impartiality, and vigorously and
promptly to coerce in every quarter any approach
to insubordination to the existing laws. In a
short summary we recently gave of some mea-
sures in contemplation for the advantage of the
sister kingdom, we noticed the fact, that the sys-
tem of the Irish National Bank was undergoing
revision, under the immediate inspectiozi of a
Cabinet Minister ; and we learn from our cor-
respondent that the first fruit of that revision is
exhibited, in a change of the manner hitherto
uniformly practised of receiving remittances front
the branch banks of that great establishment ;
and we further learn, that changes in the internal
economy, of a nature still more important, have
been adopted, but their operation will, from their
confidential nature, be less a matter of public
notoriety. Upon the whole, the general com-
plexion of this communication, which we are
disposed to receive as a perfectly competent
authority, is, as far as it goes, of a satisfactory
description.—Morning Chronicle.
In the evidence of Mr. Humphreys, in the
Appendix to the First Report of Commissioners
on the Law of Real Property, a suggestion is
thrown out, which is well deserving of attention.
" I am a great advocate (he says) for an Insti-
tution in the nature of a Committee of Justice,
or some such body, to report upon defective
justice, and to make periodical revisions of the
law, by which means you would correct any
omissions or errors that occurred in the first
instance." The present practice of the Legis.
lature may be considered as an usurpation of
functions that did not originally belong to it.
Parliament was merely an assemblage of indi-
viduals from all parts of the country, who con.
sented that the people should be taxed for the
exigencies of Government, and who, previous
to the vote of supply, laid the grievances of
the country before the King, with a view to
relief by repeal of old laws, and enactment of
new laws. The laws were drawn up by men
skilled in the subject of law, and submitted to
Parliament, which either consented to them, or
refused to consent. But it never entered into
the heads of our forefathers till a compargively
recent age, that country gentlemen should them-
selves draw up laws, and discuss them in all
their details. The idea of a mob of five hun-
dred men, mostly ignorant of law, and indeed,
of almost every thing else worth knowing,
occupying themselves with the task which, of
' all others, requires the greatest nicety—the
making and altering laws, and discussing them
clause by clause—is as monstrous asaeneyvitlhooft.
ever entered the head of a visionary. The
French have endeavoured to mitigate t,d
giving to Ministers alone the initsotive of Laws.
However, the confining the origination of Laws
to Ministers in a country where there aro par-
ties, is giving too partisan a character to legisla-
tion. The suggestion of Mr. Humphreys
would obviate the inconvenience of the French
system. The Commissioners would, of course,
devote themselves to the laws ; and no new
law, or repeal or amendment of the old
should be proposed by any other bode.—
When the law proposed by them, should be
submitted to Parliament, it ought to be for
adoption or rejection merely. Parliament
ought to deprive itself of the power of alter-
ing in any way the proposed law ; and, when
parts seem objectionable, to submit the objec-
tions to the Commissioner; who, in such case,
would deliberate on the expediency of giving
effect to them in an amendment. A voice liko
ha,l of
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person seised to the use or trust of another,' it
was determined that a corporatiosa could not take
an estate to an use ; that tise Statute did not
apply to copy holds or leaseholds, because persons
are not said to hcs seised of them ; and that aim
use upon use, as a gift to one to the use of
another, in trust for or to the we of a third, was
not within the Statute. Because the Statute of
Wills' contains the word having,' it is re-
stricted to the property whiiccutlias:,paesserls,ro, n has `then executes his will, and prevents hAinictf,
dis-
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sat
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aikeswpr the Courts and Par-
liamesif,A,ll4 Yoystatshitd,. the advantage, because
the intelpricangsti lerszis every thing. In vain
the Legislator orders ad prescribes, if the Judge
determines to give to his language not the ob-
vious meaning, but one agreeable to himself. On
the whole, perhaps, we have gained by the vic-
tory of the Courts, though we owe to the ne-
cessity for evasion the quibbling which is part
and parcel of an English Lawyer, the constant
use of which incapacitates him from taking a
straight forward view of any object. Mr. Tyrrell
founds on the license taken by the Courts an
argument against all written law. " It is," he
says, " the great advantage of those parts of our
laws which are to be found only in adjudged
cases and text books, that they are not encum-
bered with nice distinctions respecting the
meaning of words ; and the only questions
which can arise upon them are those which
involve the principles of the rules. . .
• . • • There is no instance of any new law
which has not occasioned litigation. The im-
perfections of language make it impossible to
express rules in such clear and precise terms as
to prevent any doubt respecting the construction
of them, and no mind is capable of foreseeing
all the consequences of any new rule, in every
case which it ought to provide for: I therefore
conceive that though a Digest were framed with
the greatest care by those who are best qualified
for such an undertaking, it would be followed
by considerable litigation, until the sense of its
expressions were established, and it would un-
settle many of our most clear and beneficial
laws." But because the English Judges follow
a vicious mode of interpretation, evading the
spirit of the law where they can, and availing
themselves of some point of secondary import-
ance to defeat a clearly expressed intention, it
does not follow that, with a fair mode of inter-
pretation, the same litigation would arise. The
litigation is caused by the knowledge that Judges
are fond of loop-holes and quibbles. Let us
suppose that the Ten Commandments were as a
Statute, to be interpreted by English Judges—
they would immediately set them aside by a con-
struction foreign from the real meaning. We
would undertake to give a meaning to them
quite different from the real, not more forced
than the constructions put upon laws in
our Courts. As it is, however, understood that
t forced construction, however ingenious, will not
avail us in the quarter in which the decision is to
be given, all temptation to quibble is taken away.
There is no doubt that language is imperfect,
and that no man can express himself in such a
manner that his meaning shall not occasionally
be ambiguous ; but then let us not charge also to
defects of language a vicious principle of inter-
pretation. We may remark, by the bye, that
both Mr. Tyrrell and Mr. Humphreys speak of
the practice of conveying real property by will as
much more common than it used to be, which
confirms an observation we made, some time
ago, respecting the triumph of national feeling
over fantastic notions:—
" Do you approve of the Law of Primogeniture,
or of equal partibility among all the children ?—As
an abstract proposition, answered Mr. Humphreys,
equal partihility; but with a great deal of doubt.
The society, however, in this country is so peen-
riiarly cast, that I think it impracticable here.
" Would you have the law of equal partibility
with a power of making a will to provide for
younger children 2-1 would say, upon the whole,
e,vith our present mixed constitution (where the
Aristocracy is sustained by large landed estates)
primogenitui e with a power of making a will in fa•
your of younger children; but I still speak with very
great doubt.
" Is not there this difference, that in the one
ease the testamentary power Can only be exercised
or the purpose of exclusion; whereas, in the other
case, it can be exercised for the purpose of provi-
sion? My own experience leads me to think that
t he vanity of making an heir is greatly diminishing,
very much ; and that the pracice is very much con-
fined ,to the large landed proprietors. I see many
;more wills which provide for distribution among the
Aiildren by selling the property than I did formerly.
think there bas always been a struggle on the part
of proprietors to possess the testamentary power as
a natural attribute of ownership, and I do not think
you would prevent the exercise of that power by
making equal succession the law."
It is the remark of a great philosopher, that
the attachment to the soil is always a mark of
low civilization. As men advance, they consi-
der nand, like every other property, only with
reference las the benefit it yields. Primogeni-
ture originates; in tenures ; and as we recede
from feudal barbanasn, it will become more and
more repugnant to out' ft bits. A father can-
not support the idea of his younger children
living destitute, that all may be taken by the
eldest ; but, on the other hand, the constant di-
vision of estates of a moderate size, while the
Aristocracy, who can quarter their children on
the public, leave theirs to one son, opens up
other important considerations.—/bid.
Most persons, we believe, are beginning to be
convinced of that which many never doubted—
viz. that what has been styled the ReCiprocity
System has not only totally failed, but is, in fact,
bringing great distress, if not ruin, upon the
country. For its failure one very plain reason
may be assigned,—that there has been, in fact,
no reciprocity in it ; for, while we have been libe-
rally reducing our duties, and opening our ports
to the produce and the commerce of other coun-
tries, they (especially America), so far from
bolding out to us reciprocal advantages, have
been narrowing their accommodation, and, in
fact, shutting us out, as far as possible, from
every fair means of mutual intercourse. But even
had this been otherwise, and had foreign coun-
tries done as much to meet our liberal views as
they have done to thwart them, yet we are pre-
pared to contend that, as long as Great Britain
has to raise her present enormous revenue, it is
utterly impossible that she can relinquish any 01
the means of doing so, or compete on any appa-
rent system of reciprocity with comparatively un-
tased communities. Equally impossible is it
that size can pay the interest of her enormous
debt 'in a currency different from that in which
nine-tenths of it was incurred. On these two
points then hinge, we apprehend,nearly the whole
of the difficulties under which our present agri-
cultural and commercial elasaes are now labour-
ing. At the end of 15 years pf peace, the
country is actually involved in more disaster that;
befell her during the most trying periods of the
war, And why ? Because an age of theory
has succeeded to one of practical knowledge,
anti the nonsense of what is called politi-
cal economy has been allowed to subvert
the plain dictates of common sense. And how
are the evils which have thus overtaken us to be
remedied, and their approaching consequences
averted, but by retracing the steps of error, and
returning to the path of truth ? Mr. Huskisson,
the author of the Reciprocity System, is eve.
dently preparing to give way ; and we shall not
lie at all surprised in the next Session of Par-
liament :0 see the Right Hon, Cientleman him-

self fairly abandoning his past theories, as those
which, in practice have been found unavailable.
But this is not all ; an enlarged and secure paper
currency must be added, to give free and unin-
terrupted range to the resources of the country,
and, above all, to enable her to meet the existing
weight of taxation. We say a secure paper
currency, because it cannot be denied that great
part of that with which the country has been
inundated has presented any thing but security.
By a secure currency we do not mean one con-
vertible at any moment into the precious metals—
which, from the vast extent of the concerns of
the country, we hold to be impossible—but a
paper currency representing actual property, as
opposed to the mere moonshine alone which so
much of it has heretofore represented. Some-
thing of this kind must be resorted to, or the
" Delenda est Carthago" may be realized sooner
than we are any of us prepared to imagine.—
Morning Herald.

Hardly did the shooting season commence when
we had the melancholy task of announcing, from
various parts of tl►e country, the most serious
accidents arising from the incautious or inexpert
handling of fire-arms. It was only the other
day we gave an account of the fate of a game-
keeper of Mr. Metchen, who caused his own
death by taking hold of the muzzle of a gun to
help one of the party over a hedge, when, by
some accident, it went -off, and lodged the whole
of the contents in his body. Since then we have
reported two other cases of untimely death hap-
pening in a way precisely similar. Many persons
are so devoid of care or reflection in the use of
fire-arms that they seem to carry them for no
other purpose than to inflict injury on themselves
or their friends. What numbers of families does
this culpable, we had almost said criminal, negli-
gence plunge in all the bitterness of bereave-
ment and affliction every year ! So many sports-
men fall by their own weapons, that the suicides
of carelessness are almost as numerous as the
suicides of crime. Many and dreadful accidents
occur from sportsmen (if such they can be
called) neglecting to draw the charges of their
guns on returning home from shooting. Thought-
less persons are very apt to take them in their
hands, and point them at others in the_way of
frolic, without having previously ascertained
whether they are loaded or not, a silly, and too
often a fatal sort of sport. Many a friend and
relation has, by this idle trick, been sent to an
untimely grave ; many a joyous household has it,
in the moment of festivity, consigned to anguish
and mourning. If our earnest recommendation
of extreme caution to those who handle fire-
arms, and particularly to those who are not very
expert in the use of them, can be the means of
saving a single life, we shall not have written in
vain.—lbid.

The news which was brought yesterday by the
Brussels papers, though they neither inform us
of the capture of Constantinople, or the conclu-
sion of peace between the belligerents, are never-
theless truly important, as unmasking the in-
tentions of Russia, and rendering it clear to all
that she has no intention of giving up what she
has acquired, but is, on the contrary, determined
to maintain possession of her conquests against
all corners. Another new levy has been ordered
by the Emperor of three men out of every five
hundred of nearly the whole population of the
Russian empire, which, at the lowest calculation
must acid to his military force at least 250,000
men. And what is the pretence for raising this
additional force, now that his troops have pos-
session of the second city of the Turkish empire,
and are ere now, in all probability, at the gates
of Constantinople ? Why that it is "in con-
sequence of the obstinacy of the Sultan, in re-
jecting all t4e proposals for peace made to
him at the commencement of hostilities, and
several times since ! and that he (the
Emperor Nicholas) is not able to see
when the war will end !" Another reason
is indeed added, by way of a make-weight that
it is " necessary to make good the losses sus-
tained by the Russian army in the field ;" but
according to all the bulletins which have been
hitherto issued, the Russian army never lost,
except on one or two occasions, above a few
hundred men, and it is, in consequence, nothing
short of a mockery to affirm that such a number
as 240,000 should be required to make good
the losses which it has sustained. The late Em-

peror of France had not a much more numerous
army when he invaded the Russian empire ; and
unless the Emperor Nicholas be determined to
maintain his ground in Turkey, no satisfactory
reason can be assigned why he should resolve at
once on converting his dominions into one
great camp, and the flower of his subjects into
soldiers. But this is the object at which the
Court of St. Petersburgh has been aiming dur-
ing the last seventy years, and though there are
some people who still believe, or affect to believe,
in the moderation of the Emperor, we think it

is really too much to expect that he will
give up what his predecessors had so long—so
artfully, and so perseveringly struggled to attain,
and which he has now had the good fortune to
accomplish ! And to this complexion has the
moderation of the Emperor Nicholas come at
last ! So we always said—so did Colonel Evans
in his admirable treatise "On the Designs of

Russia," and so did our evening cotemporary,
The Sun tin which Paper, by the bye, there
was an able aitirJe on the subject yesterday
evening), and some others; but the Govern-
ment, and no inconsiderable portion of the pub-
lic, seem to have thought differently, and our
reeble voice was drowned in the cry of modera-
tion and magnanimity ! The Emperor Nicholas
talked very largely, indeed, before his armies had
oassed the Balkan, of his possession of these
virtuea ; but his last ordinance says nothing
on the subject, and merely states that he wants
240,000 men, from 18 to 35 years of age, for
purposes Of which every one knows that they are
not required ! And thus, we fear, will have
been frtistratt3d the great object for which the
Duke of Wellington has been struggling since
the commencement of the war,,rwe mean the
preservation of peace—for this country has been
distinctly pledged to maintain the integrity of the
Ottoman Empire, and though we have seen with
regret th Emperor Nicholas permitted by a
policy which we ceunot yet well comprehend, to
resume his rights as a bellig,!2rant in the Mediter-
ranean, after he had given a solemn assurance
not to exercise any act of hostility in that quarter,
it would be too much, we think, even for the most
ardent admirers of Russia, and the greatest
sticklers for peace, to dream that, under all the
circumstances of the case, he would be allowed
to settle himself quietly in Constantinople, with-
out even a broadside from a British man-of-war.
Such a result cannot—must not ensue. The
good faith of the country is pledged to a totally
different course ; and if the policy of Mr. Pitt,
that " they who maintained that the Tulip might
be driven out of Europe without any danger to
its relations or future peace, were not fit to be
argued w►th," had been pursued frprrt the begin-

ning, the course alluded to, had not been neces-
sary. Moderation and credulity, however, have
hitherto had the best of it, and we shall now see
whether their anticipations will be realised.—
Morning Advertiser.
We this day announce the result of the long
pending proceedings against Captain Dickenson,
which, involving not only the professional repu-
tation of two distinguished officers of the British
Navy, but the conduct of the Admiralty also in
circumstances of considerable delicacy, have been
watched with intense interest during their pro-
gress, by a people to whom nothing connected
with this most important branch of the public
service can ever be indifferent. We will not
presume to rejudge the justice of the Court Mar-
tial. It has decided upon the conduct of the
Officer, the charges against whom were directly
submitted to its investigation, in a manner
which will, we have no doubt, be highly
satisfactory to the country. But the merit
or demerit of Captain Dickenson—although
this was the ostensible question before the
Court, and the only one upon which it
was called upon to pronounce an opinion—
was not the only or even the most im-
portant question at issue in the proceedings.
The collateral topics which relate to the conduct
of Vice-Admiral Codrington, and to that of the
Admiralty in compelling him to assume the
character of a prosecutor, are of a still deeper
interest ; and not having been placed within the
scope of judicial animadversion, are still open to
discussion without any infringement of thLit re-
spect to which the award of any competent tri-
bunal is always entitled. The duty of the Ad-
miralty, in the case of any accusation of im-
portance, whatever may be the circumstances
that give rise to it, brought by a superior officer
against his inferior, seems at the first viewsoplain
and simple, that it could scarcely have been neces-
sary to offer an observation upon this part
of the subject, had not the language of one who
has attained to the high rank in the service held
by Sir Edward Codrington tended to obscure
and perplex it. He had charged an officer for-
merly under his command with negligence and
inefficiency, in several instances, in the discharge
of his duty. What were the courses which re-
mained open to the Admiralty after such charges
had been made ? Would it have been con-
sistent with justice to the officer whom they
affected, to have laid him silently on the shelf,
to have placed between him and every field of
gallant enterprise and honourable ambition, an
invisible barrier, without hearing him in his
own defence, or even apprising him of the
accusations by the force of which he was
to be condemned to languish through an
inglorious and useless life of inactivity ?
Would it, on the other hand, have been
consistent with justice to the country, to have
entrusted any important enterprise, involving its
interests and its glory, to a man against whom
such charges had been alleged by his former
Commander, and never refuted ? To answer
either of these questions in the affirmative is im-
possible. The only remaining course—that by
which alone gross injustice to an individual, or
a deep injury to the country, could be avoided
—was to insist, as the Admiralty has very
properly done, on a public investigation of the-
charges. Nor can there be any greater difficulty
in forming a just estimate of the conduct of Sir
Edward Codrington. He was in truth self-con-
demned from the beginning, independently alto-
gether of the truth or falsehood of his
charges. if he believed the charges to
be well founded, why were they so
long suppressed ? Or what are we to think
of the zeal of a British Admiral for the good of
the service to which he belongs, or of Ins sense
of what is due to the welfare and safety of the
State, who, by his own acknowledgment, sup-
pressed a charge of negligence and incapacity,
when he knew of no other consequence as the
probable result of the concealment, than that the
negligent and incapable Officer might one day at-
tain to the highest rank in the British Navy, and
have the dearest interests of the nation committed
to his prudence and skill—but who found con-
cealment to be no longer possible, when an inte-
rest so important was at stake as the due distri-
bution of Russian Orders ? We incline to
think the commission of the King of England
a higher honour than any decoration the Em-
peror of Russia can confer. But there is no
accounting for tastes, that of Sir E. Codrington
appears to differ from ours. There can scarcely,
however, be two opinions as to the relative im-
portance of the due distribution of rank in the
British Navy, and the due distribution of Mus-
covite ribbons, when both are considered with a
view to their probable effects on the affairs of
nations. And it is at least clear, therefore, that
Sir E. Codrington must have been needlessly
zealous in the one case, or inexcusably indiffe-
rent in the other. We are not anxious to re-
vive at the present moment the discussion of the
merits of the battle of Nayarit). But it cannot
have escaped observation, that the evidence given
during this enquiry tends to confirm the sus-
picion which we always entertained, that this en-
gagement was not altogether unpremeditated and
accidental.--Morning Post.

A LAKE SERPENT.—The Welland Canal
Intelligencer, published at St. Katharine's, Upper Canada,
gives an account of some children, 12 and 14 years old,
having seen an enormous water snake, of prodigious di-
mensions, near the mouth of the Ten Mile Creek. " Ac-
cording to their account, it must have been 20 or 30 feet
in length, with a head 10 or 15 inches in diameter, and
warts or bunches on it. On giving the alarm it immedi-
ately turned and disappeared. This, we believe, is not
the first one of the kind that has been seeu in Lake On-
tario ; and from what we can learn, there can be no doubt
of the existence of such monsters in our inland seas."
Twenty or twenty-five years ago, quite a sensation was
produced along the lake coast, between Ontario and the
St. Lawrence, by an account of a wonderful lake serpent,
which chased a boat on shore. The crew made regular
certificates upon the subject; but the serpent has kept out
of the way ever since

ORIGIN OF THE WoRD "ROUND ROBIN."
—As en much has been said, on Captain DicKENsoN's
trial, relative to a " Round Robin," the following account
of the origin of that term may not be uninteresting :
" The round robin, without which the British sailors
would be deprived of their right of petition, was first in-
vented in Athens, on the occasion of the conspiracy of
ARISTOGITON and HERMODIUS against the tyranny of the
PISI4TRATID/E. The Romans, in imitation of the Greeks,
not to indicate tbpir preference to any either among their
guests or friends, wrote their names in a circle in such a
manner that it was impossible to say which was the first,
second, or last, in their estimation. Thus, they evinced
an equality of regard to all, without mortifying any one
by an invidious distinction of honour in favour. They
generally wrote the names of their slaves in the compass of a
round robin, that it might not appear to which they
meant to give liberty, or who were their favourites. On
the celebration of the Saturnalia, it was customary for the
servants and slaves to ridicule the vices and imperfections
of their masters through the medium of the round robin;
and wp read CrcEap was once so offended and irritated
at the cutting sarcasm and piquant satire with which his
slaves in this manner lashed his faults, that he was hur-
ried into an ungovernable rage of choleric passion,"

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.

SPLENDID PREPARATIONS FOR A WEDDING.—A
jeweller, named Hill, who resides in Petticoat-lane,
wat summoned before the LORD MAYOR, by an old
lady named Sarah Flint, for having sold her a copper
finger ring and a pair of copper ear-rings with drops,
for gold.
The old lady, who appeared to be on the more
venerable side of seventy, and had a gay white satin
bonnet over her silver hairs, and a pair of kid gloves
half-way up her poor-puckered arms, stated that she
had employed the jeweller to make her a gold ring
with a diamond in the middle of it, and a pair of
gold ear-rings, with beautiful diamonds to them. In
a couple of days the jeweller brought them home,
and they looked quite charming. In a few days,
however, she found, upon looking at the ring, that it
had lost all its beauty, and that the diamond looked
like a dead haddock's eye.—(Laughter.)--She
rubbed it and rubbed it, but it was all " her eye
and Betty Martin ;" it grew more and more muddy,
and the gold began to get green, so she took it
to a pawnbroker, and asked what he would lend
upon it ? " Lord !" said the pawnbroker, " why
there's more copper in a fardin."—" Oh, dear !"
said she, " and what will you lend on these here
ear-rings ?""•-•" God bless your heart I" answered
the pawnbroker, " why the whole on em a'nt worth
sixpence ;" and so he wouldn't lend nothing by no
means. Under these circumstances Mrs. Flint ap-
pealed to the Lord Mayor.
His LORDSHIP looked at the bargain, and asked
the old lady how much she gave for the lot ?—Mrs.
Flint—" The moment he brought them home to
me—and oh, my Lord, you can't think how beau-
tiful they shined—l handed him a golden sove-
reign."—(Laughter.)

The LORD MAYOR—What I for diamonds and
all ? Mrs. Flint—l am sure they're not diamonds;
they're not worth the toss up of a mag."
The LORD MAYOR—There seems to be a great
deal of workmanship about them, whatever may be
the value of the metal and the stones.

Mrs. Flint—l han't nothing to do with that, my
Lord. This here jeweller engaged to make them
gold, and he has given me copper. I must have
my money back.
The jeweller said that the stones, which were not
half so hard as Mrs. Flint's heart, cost more than
the money he had received for the lot. He denied
that the ring was copper, although he admitted that
it was not the best gold.—(Laughter.) It was
what was called forty-shilling gold; and he had had
two hard days' work at the setting, &c. He asked
whether any woman in her senses could have ex-
pected such articles as the old woman wanted for
twenty shillings ?
Mrs. Flint seemed not at all to relish the fright-
ful accusation of age, and said that the jeweller was
an old something else, besides an old fool.-( Laughter.)
The LORD MAYOR asked Mrs. Flint, who he
found was unmarried, whether she had not some idea
of changing her condition ?—She smiled, and played
with a piece of paper before her. At length she
said that the ring was for another person.
Mr. Cope (the Marshal)----But the ear-rings are
for herself, my Lord, for her ears have been newly
bored.—(Loud laughter, in which Mrs. Flint joined.)
The LORD MAYOR—I'd be glad to serve you,
Mrs. Flint, I assure you, especially as you are about
to begin life; but I don't think you have been
wronged. The workmanship of these articles really
appears to be worth nearly all the money you have
given, and the best thing you can do is to rub them
every day with a piece of flannel and whiting.—
(Laughter.)
Mrs. Flint (rubbing the ring with her flannel pet-
ticoat)—l'm blessed if I think it'll ever look a bit
better.—(Loud laughter.)