The Sun.
London, England, 1827-04-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PY'
CBLIC JOURNALS.

We yei;tenlay remarked, in reference to the
Quarter.w Official Statement of the Revenue,
whiffn although not made up till a late hour of
tl-,e preceding night, we had then the satisfaction
of laying before the Public, that the defalcation
in the amount of the Quarter's receipt, as com-
pared with that of the corresponding Quarter of
last year, was much less considerable than might
naturally have been expected from the circum-
stances in which the country has been placed;
and we now repeat our confident anticipation,
that the effect of that statement upon the public
mind will be to counteract the efforts of those,
who'se constant object it is to propagate dismay
anal discontent throughout the land. If we loot
back to the condition of the Revenue two years
ago, that is to say, at a period when every inte-
rest of the community was flourishing, or seemed
to flourish—when the greatsst possible Activity
pervaded every department of national commerce
and industry—when a high rate of wages dif-
fused general comfort among the labouring po-
pulation, and the prospect of ample profits to
the employers, 'however delusive it may after-
wards have proved, exercised for the moment at
least its natural influence to enlarge the means of
gratification and swell the tide of luxury ;--if
we look back to the state of the Revenue dur-
ing this season of extravagant hope, of bound-
less confidence, and of unrestrained enjoy-
ment, and compare the Revenue of the
Quarter just ended with that of the eorres-
ponding Quarter of 1825, we shall find
abundant reason to congratulate the com-
munity on the firriness and solidity of the national
resources, and ample matter of joy and of astonish-
ment in the very small degree of injury which the
public re';•enue will appear to have sustained, during
the most extensive shock to commercial credit, and
the "most sweeping overthrow of private fortunes,
have perhaps ever been witnessed. In the
Quarter ending on the sth of April, 1825, the net
produce of the Revenue was 10,6.59,028/. In a
subsequent part of that year taxes were taken off
to the amount of 3,146,0001.; and in the year 1826
a further repeal of taxes, (the tobacco duties) took
place to the amount of at least 600,0001., making a
total repeal of taxes in the interval, to the annual
amount of 3,746,0001. The proportion of this for a
Quarter, or in other words the sum of 936,500/.,
is therefore to be deducted from the receipts of the
first quarter of 1825, to enable us to institute any
fair comparison between them, and the receipts of
the corresponding Quarter of the current year.—
This reduces the abo:ee amount to 9,722,5281. which
exceeds the amol7.nt of the Quarter just ended, only
by the eommeatively small stun of 262,000/. This
sum, there,core, expresses the whole decline of the
Reveirde, for the Quarter as compared with the cor-
rest:onding Quarter of 1825, consideringßevenue as a
criterion of the means of enjoyment and consumption pos-
sessed by the great mass of the people ; a decline which,
considering the violent convulsions of the latter part of
1825, and the beginning of 1826, and the censequeut
lassitude which has ever since been visible in the internal
as well as the external commerce of all nations, is almost
inconceivably small, being in the proportion of about one-
fortieth of the aggregate amount. This faithful statement
of the case supplies us et least with two moat consolatory
and gratifying inferences. In the first place it shows that,
however severely the pressure of calamity may have beeu
felt in particular districts of the country, and in particu-
lar departments of industry, the aggregate of national pri-
vation and suffering has been much less than had generally
been supposed ; and it proves, in the next place, that the
wreck of individual fortunes, the frustration of individual
enterprize, and the-chastisement of individual imprudence,
have not tipatt the whole materially injured the general
capital, or enfeebled the mercantile energy of the corn-
munity.-211orning"Post.

The public anxiety since the King's arrival in
town, respecting the formation of a Ministry, has
exceeded all credibility ; and Sir Thomas Leth-
bridge's motion last nightobject of which
was to direct his Majesty in the choice of his
official and responsible advisers, was hardly :•ok-
ed to with less interest. Our Parliamentary re-
port will explain all that has taken place on the
latter subject ; and on the former, we have some
not unimportant facts to communicate. Sir
Thomas Lethbridge was applied to in vain, both
by Sir Edward Knatchbull and Sir Thomas
Gooch, to Nvithdraw his motion, though this was
the course which he afterwards adopted on the
suggestion of his own mind ; but in the mean
time Mr. Canning had entered the House and
spoken ; he had declared that nothing had oc-
curred which should supersede the necessity of
making the motion ; that it would not be, as the
French proverb has it, " the mustard after the
beef ;" and that, therefore, if there was any rea-
son for giving notice of the motion, there was
none for withdrawing it. We seize, with plea-
sure, the occasion which this position of the Mi-
nisterial arrangement affords us of inferring, that
Mr. Canning was not afraid of the import of the
motion anaotinced to the House ; but that if he
thought, with the Baronet, that it was desirable
that the King's Ministers should be all of one
mind on essential State measures, he being (if
we may use the term) in treaty for the Premier-
ship, knew also what that mind ought to be. It was
a very odd thing in Sir Thomas Lethbridge, and
only to be accounted for by the character of the
man's mind, or the influx of fresh information
from without, that he should make a motion, the
object of which was to direct an arrangement,
and withdraw the motion at the only time when
it, could be of use—namely, before the arrange-
ment was concluded. The real intention, how-
ever, of the motion might be to exclude Mr.
Canning ; and as it became known that that Right
Hon. Gentleman was already receiving his Ma-
jesty's communications, it was ticklish to press
it. To what must the sovereignty of Eng-
land be reduced, if a borough-owner can enter
the King's closet, and, in the name of himself
and two or three of his brethren, proscribe one
of his Ministers, whom the country (whether erro-
neouAy or not) thinks at this time the most compe-
tent; and a dull squire can direct the principles of
the future Administration. Now, with respect to
what has actually taken place in the formation of the
Ministry, soon after the King's arrival in London
on Thursday night, a report was spread, originating
also at head-quarters—(what creatures they are that
surround the throne ! They, of course, think that
whatever descends from thence must be accepted as
the grateful rain that refreshes the earth, though
hailstones may be mingled with the rain)—a report
was spread that the whole matter was settled, and
that Mr. Canning was Prime Minister. On further
inquiry, indeed, it did appear, that an offer of the
premiership would be made to Mr. Canning, but on
condition that he should have nothing to do with
the Church patronage ! ! Ye priests and prelates
of Oxford, presidents, tutors, and fellows, down to
Bible clerks and hell-ringers, what a reproach is this
to you! The Chancellor, who knows you well,
dares not trust you : " Give but the patronage of
the Church to an emancipationist," says the sly old
fox, " and I know they will quit me and join him."
However—to look at the question more politically,
—the constituting a statesman to be a Prime Minis-
ter, and at the same time depriving him of an im-
portant part of his power and influence—of the
power and influence which others have enjoyed, we
say not how properly,—is like commissioning a dove
to fly, over sea and over land with the behests of his
ulas,„ ter, and at the same instant tearing from him one of
'l4 wings : the maimed sufferer falls at once impo-
tent to the earth, and with whatever vigour and
energy honey flutter and shake his other pinion,be ean-
not advanclutinch. " Oh,"if he could speak,would he

etc)sum 2" 61 ve me back eiy other wing—rob the not
of a &Aber—and Iwill carry your orders, and procure the
execution of yeur wishes, over all the world." In this im-
pel:feet Ail*, 'then, "does the arrangement of Ministry
rest at present: Mr. 'COhning ivaafor some t:me with his
Majesty yester4ey, but nothing was settled. And now,
with retpa to the Lord Che'Lcellor, 'whom we have men-
tioned above. It is gear that nothing can reinain of life
to this old man, by which he can retaA, in a sensible de-
gree, any public treasure wlnteVer. It can only, there-
fore, be for his own sake, that he still lingers in place, and
thereby makes every thing else linger, His retirement
from office has been like the cetchision of one of his own
' suits, for ever promised; gat never arriving, till death takes
away the litigating parties, their cause undteided ; and
death will take him away in like rear.ner, his retirement
unaccomplished. Sometime ago he talked of giving up
the seals, and his resignation was alindst expected ; but
then he discovered that " Copley, who los C-6 'succeed
him, was not sufficiently practised In 'Chancery business :"
he must wait 'awhile eft the Master of the Rolls had greater
experience, i equity law. Now another pretext is sup-
plied: that fellow Canning may be Prime Minister, and
he will want a counterpoise." We verily believe, if the
grim tyrant stared him in the Ace this night, lie would
have some papers to take home with him, and would prof-
fer to come again with them into Court next morning.—
Times.

No wonder that the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer betrayed such repugnance to open his
mind to Parliament on the Ways and Means of
the year. The murder is out, and the state of
the revenue proves to be such as might well
appal a Minister of more effrontery than can be
laid to the charge of Mr. 'Robinson. The de-
falcation in the receipts of the Treasury for the
last quarter, as compared with the correspond-
ing one of 1826, is 469,0001. ; but this is a
trifle. The quarter ending April 5, 1826, was
itself a disastrous one, falling short by 682,000/.
of the April quarter of 1825 ; thus the actual
deficit in two years amounts to 1,150,000/. ster-
ling. The Excise—dwelt upon, when pros-
perous, by his Majesty's Ministers, as the in-
fallible touchstone of our public prosperity--has
fallen off, as compared with the April quarter
of 1826, by upwards of 400,0001. ; and a
touchstone it is, which renders the fact unques-
tionable, that in the few enjoyments of humble
life, there has been a decline of about 12 per
cent. within a twelvemonth. The Post-office
has fallen off—another touchstone. The stamps,
notwithstanding the Rundell and some other
god-sends, have failed by upwards of 38,0001.
The deficiency (we have done with talking about
surplusses) in the Consolidated Fund is above seven
millions sterling, and exceeds the deficiency of April
1826, by 1,368,0001.: here again, as in the quar-
ter generally, there is tumble upon tumble—like
those of Milton's devils. The whole of the divi-
dends—the whole of the sinking fund—and a million
' more—are actually borrowed from the Bank !—a
nice bone to pick for a petit maitre Tory Ministry !
In truth, we are too desponding on this subject to
muster up courage enough for a serious view of it.
Could we, by mor; clamourously " opposing, end"
the terrible system of imprudence which indulges
this course of national waste and ruin, or of narrow,
coercive, and exasperating policy, which seeks pre-
tences in the natural feelings of mankind, for the
suppression of discontent by armies, with debts and
taxes in their retinue, we might appeal to the
energy of the people of England : but we shall
wait.—lbid.
The lion of the forest, when lying under the
semblance of disease or feebleness, has met with
indignities from the meanest of the animal etea-
tion. We take no pains to bring home a paral-
lel case to the imagination of our political readers;
but if they will be themselves at the trouble of
looking over last night's debate, on the present-
ing of a petition against the, Catholics, and then
examine in what manner Mr. Plunkett, the At-
torney-General for Ireland, was abused on ac-
' count of his Ministerial forbearance, and by
whom —they. VS ill>. nia. • tliaubt. - begin Le. 'suspect
illat there are circumstances now on foot which
may lead to the official paralysis of this great
and powerful Irishman. But the animals above-
mentioned had better be satisfied with the sta-
tion which they already occupy. The Duke of
Rutland may, for a single moment, succeed in a
backstairs intrigue, but before an assembled Par-
liament, we should trust, no creature in his'service
will be able to stand one touch from the spear of
Mr. Plunkett. Those qualities which constitute
the real force of the Irish Attorney-General, are not
such as Kings or Cabinets can give or take away.
Elornce, and genius, and intrinsic l-onesty, he
brou t with him, when he took his oatti.?f office;
and when, on a former occasion, he sacrificed that
officestto a sense of consistency, and of what he
owed' his country, the man lost nothing by se-
paration froM the Attorney-General—and he would
lose nothing now. However, let the riffraff Tories
beware,—the victory is not yet assured to them.-
Ibid.

The motion of Sir Thomas Lethbridge, to
which the country have been taught to look for-
ward as one pregnant with important conse-
quences, miserably disappointed the expectation,
which even the fame of the Honourable Baronet
led men to entertain. He seemed, on reflection,
to have felt somewhat like Acres in the Play,
and to have been glad of a pretext for escaping
from the contest which he had provoked. The
truth is, we suspect, that Sir Thomas was insti-
gated to give his notice by those who wished to
make, what is vulgarly called, a cat's paw of him.
The motion, it was probably supposed, would
aid the views of those who wish to form an old
Tory Administration. But Sir Thomas's heart
must have died within him, when he found that
the old Tories were more dependent on Mr.
Canning, than Mr. Canning on them ; and that
the only consequence likely to follow his motion
for unanimity would be to strengthen the hands
of Mr. Canning. Mr. Canning has no doubt
his faults, as we all have, but the mltion looks
up to him, at the present moment, as the only
individual in the present Ministry entitled to preside
over the Councils of the nation. The intellectual
and industrious part of the nation are all with him.
The Aristocracy might dispense with his services ;
and we are by no means disposed to say, that the
power of that body might not carry on the machine
of Government for a time. But what we contend
for is, that it would be wretched policy in them to
attempt to govern the country without the aid of
talents calculated to reconcile the nation to the ex-
isting system. Mr. Canning is at present the con-
necting link with the nation. We understand that
he has resisted all the attempts to withdraw from
the situation of Premier the accustomed patronage.
We trust he will be successful ; we are sure it will
be for the interest of the Aristocracy to fall in with
his terms.—Morning Chronicle.

The House of Commons is a legislative body,
and we are not among those who delight to see
it exercising functions of a different kind.
Among its Members, no doubt, there are many
in whose conduct there would be found much to
blame ; and, though we do not affect to deny
that it is most becoming that a senator should be
free from reproach, and even from suspicion, we
are not partial to the existence of a censorial
power any where, and least of all do we like to
see such a power exercised by a Committee of
the Legislature. A body of men who, in their
public capacity, are accustomed to look chiefly at
what is expedient—who are strongly under the
influence of party feelings--who have not the
habits of judicial caution and impartiality—who
do not act under the sanction of an oath, and
cannot administer au oath to the individuals who

come before them to make 'statements—cannot
form a very safe tribunal for inquiry into any
species of alleged misconduct. When Mr.
Alderman Waithman proposed to make the
Arigna Company a subject of Parliamentary in-
vestigation, it struck us that the zeal of the
Alderman was more remarkable than his pru-
dence. Did it not occur to him that it would
have been quite as reasonable for any other
Member to have moved for a Committee to in-
quire into the honesty of the means, and the
fairness of the representations, by which the
Alderman acqUires and disposes of shawls, and
the many multifarious artitica in which he deals ;
•
or into the equity and propriety of the contracts
into which he enters with poor, inexperienced, and
dependent tradesmen ? It was suspected, he said,
that some Members of Parliament, connected with
the Arigna Company, had put motley into their
pockets by proceedings, which a nice delicacy
would not approve of, and, therefore, the nicety
of the Alderman's moral sense required that
an investigation should he instituted into
the ways and means of the suspected indi-
viduals. We fear that there are to be found in
our Legislature many who have both lost and won
large sums at play. We can conceive nothing which
can less stand the scrutiny of a severe moralist than
gambling; and we therefore expect that the Alder-
man, bold in the virgin innocence of his mind, will
soon move for a general inquiry into all the play-
transactions of the Members of the Commons House
of Parliament. If we entertained, previously, a
constitutional aversion to such investigations as those
of the Arigna Company Committee, our dislike has
not been lessened by the Report which that Com-
mittee has produced. We find in it few bare, dis-
tinct, clear, allegations of matter of fact : instead of
simple statements, it presents a mingled tissue of
allegation, observation and argument, which might
have been expected from an adverse advocate, but
which sounds strongly, when coining from the
mouths of persons who profess to have acted in a
judicial character. 'Under no circumstances should
we have placed much reliance on the result of the
inquiries of the Committee, because it possessed no
means of thoroughly investigating the truth, and
was at the mercy of such persons as might volun-
teer, not evidence, but statements. Independently,
however, of this defect in the nature of the jurisdic-
tion, the Report shows that there existed in the
Committee an influence which thought that it was
easier to suspect and to accuse than to investigate.
We do not suppose that the Arigna Company dis-
played
,any examples of patriarchal purity and of
saintly indifference to the can sacra fames. It resembled,
we imagine, the other Joint Stock Companies, which
sprung up in the end of 1824, and the beginning 0f1825.
But, we know that London has, within the last three
years, seen schemes played off, ten thousand times more
unprincipled and more injurious to the world, than all the
Joint Stock Companies that were ever suggested, and, in
these schemes, more than one of our patriots participated.
There may be a difference of opinion with respect to the
Arigna Company, and the pariicipatien of this or that in-
dividual in its transactions; but there has bean, there can
he, no difference of opinion with respect to the Greek
Loans, and the conduct which some individuals and their
confederates have pursued in relation to them. The Arigna
Company, or any other Joint Stock Association, was a
mere private association, which could affect only the inte-
rests of individuals. The management of the Greek Loans
was not only ruinous to families, but most injurious to a
whole people, and to the cause of freedom throughout the
world, and disgraceful to the reputation of England. He
who proposed, and those who thought it right, that there
should be a Parliamentary investigation into the proceed- '
ings of a private Joint Stock Company, cannot, with any
consistency, permit such transactions as those that are con-
nected with the Greek Loans, to sink into oblivion, with-
out undergoing a similar scrutiny.—New Times.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE, Apßn, 6.

FROM LLOYD'S.

DEAL, Aram s.—Wind S.E. to E.S.E. This morn-
ing the wind shifted to S.E., with light bretzes..—Tho out-
tueletnteriStist; and ate reed?!
the Foreland. Sailed the following, from London
Acasta, Chadwick, for New York ; Aurora, for Gibraltar;
Anastasia, for Halifax ; William Al'Gillivray, for Quebec ;
Isabella, for Cadiz ; Nelly, for Quebec ; Amity, for Hon-
duras; and William, for Quebec.

PORTSMOUTH, APRIL s.—Wind E. S.E.—Arrived, the
Spartan, Snowden, from Jamaica, sailed the 20th February.
Sailed, the Mary, Beachcroft, for Bombay ; Resource, Fenn,
for New South 'Wales ; Lang, Leech, for ditto ; Louise,
Dewberry, for Grenada ; and Monarch, Ford, for Hon-
duras ; also his Majesty's ships Acorn, Satellite, Colum-
bine, Sapphire, Tyne, Wolf, and Challenger, on an extraor-
dinary cruise, under orders of Commodore Sir T. Hardy,
in his Majesty's ship Pyramus.
FALMOUTH, Arita 4.—Wind W. S.W.—Arrived the
Montecello, Harvey, from Aux Cayes, the 20th February.

GR_ATESEND, APRIL s.—Arrived the Foxhound, Em-
mett, from the South Seas ; the Hcogly, Reeves, from Cey-
lon; the Susannah, Roberts, from St. Domingo; the
Salamanca, Meeke, from Seville ; the Carolina, Augusta,
from Virginia. Sailea the Amethyst, Thompson, from
Quebec ; the Aurora, Holies, from St. John's, N. B.
LIMERICK, APRIL 3.—The Duke of Richmond
for Greenock, sailed hence the 17th February, has not since
been heard of.

OLD BAILEY SESSIONS, Amur, 6.

OLD COURT.

Margaret Jones, Jeremiah Robinson, and Timothy
Connell, were indicted for assaulting James Swan, and tak-
ing from him a watch and other articles.

The prosecutor deposed that he is a carrier, residing in
Clerkenwell; on Monday night last, the 2d April, he was
walking through Red Lion-street, Clerkenwell, about 11
o'clock at night, when he was accosted by the female pri-
soner, who asked where he was going? Witness made no
reply, but walked on ; the prisoner still followed witness,
and he desired her to go about her business, upon which
she placed herself exactly before witness, and made a snatch
at his watch, which she succeeded in taking from his
pocket. Witness then caught her round the waist, and
endeavoured to force the watch out of her hand, upon
which the woman called out "Jerry," and the two prisoners
came towards her from the opposite aide of the street; she
then put the watch in the hands of the prisoner Robinson, and
witness called out " watch," upon which two persons
named Brown and Hawkias came to his assistance, and
with their assistance witness contrived to secure the pri-
soners until the watchmen came up, when they were all
taken to the watchhouse.

Hawkins and Brown corroborated this statement. The
latter proved that the watch passed from Robinson to COli-
nell, and that he afterwards picked it tip from the ground,
on which it was dropped.

The female prisoner stated in her defence that the pro-
secutor first accosted her, and said that if he had time, he
should like to go home with her. She said he then took
out his watch and looked at it, and dropped it by accident,
and declared she had no connection with the other prisoners.
The male prisoners said they heard a woman cry for help,
and went to her assistance, when they unexpectedly found
themselves in custody, and charged with the robbery.
Some witnesses were produced who gave a good charac-
ter of the prisoner Connell.

The Cum, JUSTICE gave it as his opinion that the case
did not amount to a highway robbery, to constitute which
it was necessary that some violence should have been com-
mitted on his person, or that he waa put in bodily fear.—
If the evidence was worthy of credit, however. the
prisoners were guilty of another offence namely, of
stealing from the person of the prosecutor. The
case of the two men differed somewhat from that of
the female prisoner. If the Jury believed that these men
were watching and waiting to assist the woman in any
robbery which she might commit, then they were princi-
pals, and must be found guilty. If the men had come up
without any previous concert, even though they should
must be acquitted.
afterwards have assisted in the robbery, they were only ac-
ceesaries after the fact ; and as the present mdict.aent did
not charge them with that offence, they
The consideration of this question was entirely for the Jury.
After a short consultation, the Jury returned a verdict
of Guilty against Margaret Jones, and acquitted the other
two prisoners.

viEw COURT.
Stephen Hoperoft Was convicted of stealing a quantity
of lead from the house of Henry Pige, and sentenced to
seven years' transportation.
James Hanson was convicted of stealing a cliair.,-,Six
weeks in the House of Correction.