The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-15 00:00:00

IRELAND.

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D THE IRISH LAND COMMISSION.
be,o LIN, APRIL 13.—1 t is said that the Bill announced by Lord
l
40t tae far securing compensation to tenants for improvements. .s
ries oi °MY Measure in contemplation, as the result of their
is in
Landlord and Tenant Commission, and that alßiis
for chit en. to be submitted to Parliament (this session, possible)lo4 that leases of lives renewable for ever into fee-farm rents,
14.0".1t
will contain a clause to enable the present tenants to
DE
0 t the owners in fee.
Ace OF THE MARQUIS OF DOWNSHIRE.
Int 0:144 were received at Dublin Castle this morning, announc -
bittt
47rivudden death of the Marquis of Downshire. His Lordship
latehtin„ed Ottown from Hillsborough Castle on Friday, with the
,
00e4t;" of ending the spring cattle show of the Royal Dub to
4at 4Ys, leftnezt week ; and availing himself of the inter! of a few
the Gresham Hotel yesterday niorning to visit t
his. estate
At that Ington, county of Wicklow, fifteen miles from this city.
int XPlace he was met by his agent, who had a horse in wa.
oante is Lord h;
it
P mounted the horse, but had not proceeded
fita„n a 'ells Paces, when he was seized with a fit of apoplexy,
1,4,‘,,P0n the road-side. Assistance was at once obtained, but
I,ll;etite Marquis was found to be quite dead.
the iieh,eath of the Marquis of Downshire causes a vacancy In
af t-serlantcY of the county of Down, and in the representation
sV
I,,,e"ntY• One of the Members for that county, the
abough. eldest SOH of the late Marquis, succeeds toEarl the
' Roes to the House of Lords.

settlgtesio, at his Grand and Royal Hotel at Slough, is
make the world, in spite of frost and cold, to go . _
ttiltb It day to try his Chef de Cuisine with trhoenalninttclee
the :,,,::1 naiiaors under him. The epicures p
best "'enttie as perfect as his announcement, and ,etiterion is, that his house has been
la:d'.44t week's cold, and he contemplatesq erectaitnungldl ditumllll--
khrtatelY twenty summer rooms (on the plan.
the-dtti.nd Garter, Richmond-I ill) to enable him t.ooafvotilde_ stlktrie'ttrt'Pointrnent of his friends during the spring and
TH p, A
APEL.• —YES-
-4114 ALLEGED MURDER IN W
u,tile 1„4 lengthened inquiry took plaicleiT jefCorile
Rosemary-lane,i‘fr. Baker, at
talent chapel,
ef Prussia, Blue Anchor-yard, Llveilt-`'aPel, on view of the body of Jane Thrusshealdl,
..-Atia Y'a'lel, years, whose death, it was. alleged, !,4,4:41 or a blow inflicted upon her with a chair, by a man
agedbeen
lett 1,87301:1 Hill, by trade a glass-blower, who was taken
d
"1.4 --°dY on a charge of murder, and
.has been examined
reNaNialr. Ballantine, the nth Tames police. magistrate, an
Several
,Ivitab.ed to await the result 01 e present inquiry.
.4Llort —ea Were examined, whose testimony was a recapitula-
.lthat adduced before Mr. Ballantine on Saturday last.
%I:till:queue;
however, after a severe cross-examination, all
kcreti in expressing their belief that the blow was entirely
ess.efi,al, and proved that the man Hill had uniformly be-
'th-l'iodly to deceased, and would often share his food
ssa „_ hen distress.
11° Qr
win A woman named Box, also de-
4eletil'uat Immediately subsequent to the occurence, deceas:ed
thatil ho,a Hill had not hurt her. Mr. Leddle, surgeon, stated_
d„„` °ad made a post mortem examination of the body. of
,b1,5,--e4sed Death had been caused by an extravasation
ette --'l,Pon the brain. produced by a blow such as might
wi.: be
, t e,„. aeon inflicted in the manner deposed to by the several
J_llty ;el'. The Coroner summed up at great length, and the
"'Ns' -"er a ort deliberation, returned a verdict of " Ac-
al death "
The
eri, great success of foreign railways in finding.
to 14, uers for shares in England seems to increase the desire
able4educe others to public notice; and hence it is high
nag
the unwary should be put upon their guard against
all warag too freely into such investments, or paying deposits
The scheme which may happen to appear with high-
ts•the 'lll._titles and longlists of foreign noblemen and bankers.
aielTts that have occurred in one or two of these com-
tett ,! and the questionable manner in which . they are
N, ittlat forward, without the least security of getting a pro-
Itioi4e4igation into the disposal or disbursement of funds
Isho the undertakings fail, make it imperative on those
Itlgli4iintdee. themselves with them, either in the capacity of
Est ../tat ~ 'rectors or English shareholders, to acquire a
qcsbV touch information as they possibly can of their prac-
to tha't.Y before they lend their names or give their support
ti. tlyern* We hear on all hands very grave doubts expressed
sell,ll real intentions of many of the projectors of these.
,lettli,tss aod without at present adverting to any indive-
,l4l,l(' we may give a general caution, so as to prepare the
4es, Vor the exercise of their own discretion. There are
11s Id, cee'llsular, German, and Sardinian railways in the
V4„4.'es, 11? several foreign projects of less note and preten-
iiceinpurloeilmisasek cofnsiderable subscriptions,. A; ifil 111.0 sit !nag-
s o 811C.CC8S, and largely estimated dividends.
theseenZlhePeosits are paid, no return can be enforced ; and as
' manna '"es have their origin abroad, and are concocted
°4l4r
„., resident there, none of the security afforded in
t42letils i "'entry by the knowledge of locality or of the indivi-
Oft',scrilvll4,B.lly bring a line forward can be secured to the
„it.,t, 0.4
~._e Some of them are, doubtless, respectable enough,
}: have already said, caution and discrimination i
" exereised.Times.

r SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE. EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—It was already known that John Tawell, the
murderer of Sarah Hart, lute, a few hours betore his execu-
tion, placed in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Cox, the chaplain
to the county gaol, a written confession of his guilt. The
contents of that document the iev.gentleman declined to make
known. It was, in his opinion, a confidential communication ;
entrusted to him in his official character as a clergyman; and
therefore sealed from the knowledge of any other individual.
But for the criminal's verbal admission to the governor, after
he had delivered the written statement to the chaplain, the
public would have been ignorant of any confession of his
guilt. The extravagant hypotheses of his counsel on his
trial, and the equally preposterous assumptions put forth
by certain catch-penny pretenders to science after
his conviction, Rho endeavoured to impugn the
medical testimony by which his guilt was esta-
blished, would have been gathered up and expatiated
upon by the ignorant and credulous. The danger of con-
victing on circumstantial evidence would have been dwelt
upon ; and John Tawell would have been chronicled as
another martyr to its defectiveness of proof. The county
magistrates of Backs, at their Quarter Sessions held on
Thursday, very properly took up the subject of the chaplain's
retention ofJotn Tawell's written confession. It was proposed
by Mr. T. R. Barker, and, after some discussion, almost unani-
mously agreed to, that the chaplain be sent for, and asked,
" whether any, and it' any, what confession was made by John
Tawel!, and under what circumstances it was made ?" Lord
Nugent was among the few dissentients. His Lordship al-
leged that "the confession made to Mr. Cox might have
been under a solemn promise, or dying wish, that it might not
be made public." His Lordship's ottjection was supported
by the Rev. J. Harrison, who contended that " Mr. Cox
stood before them as a clergyman of the Church of Eng-
land, and the fact of being their chaplain would
snot alter his position. He thought no questions
should he put to Mr. Cox relating to a matter
of so strictly a confidential nature." We have stated the
grounds on which those magistrates who objected to the
question being put to the chaplain rested their objections,
because they were actually those on which Mr. Cox, when
called in, rested his respectful refusal to answer the inquiry.
We are not about to argue this important question on gene-
ral grounds; nor to enter into the obviously difficult inquiry,
whether a confession of guilt made by an accused
party, before trial, to a clergyman of the Church of England,
ought to be used as evidence against him. The case of a
convicted party about to pay the penalty of his life for a
crime which he had pertinaciously and circumstantially
denied, rests upon other grounds. The question is brought
within very narrow limits. It is simply, whether the con-
solations of religion and the hopes of forgiveness from the
Divine Being can be consistently held forth by a
Protestant clergyman to a man on the threshold of
the scaffold who declines to make an unreserved and
unconditional confession of his crime as the only repara-
tion he can make to society, while he is willing to make
a confidential arid conditional confession to the chaplain, if
that officer will promise to keep it to himself? That is the
question in issue : and to that question we give a decided
negative. The affirmative would be to cherish de-
lusive hopes in a wretched man about to pass into eternity;
and would be of dangerous influence on the public interests.
By concealing the confessions of guilt made to a clergyman,
at the last moment, by criminals who have strenuously denied
their guilt of the offence of which they were convicted, the
juries who convicted them are left under apprehension that they
might be mistaken in their verdict. The impression produced
by the facts, or the circumstances on which they arrived
at the conclusion, though strong as proofs from holy writ
when in the jury-box, becomes weakened by the opera-
tion of time; and the fear of having doomed a fellow-
crelture to the scaffbld on inconclusive evidence, haunts
the imagination, and destroys the peace of conscientious
but highly sensitive minds through future life. All this
agony of doubt in such minds would be spared, were
the confessions of guilt made by crimimils to chaplains
only to be made public by them immediately after the
law has received its penalty. We contend that a clergy-
man ought not to become the depository of a conditional con-
fession. His intercourse with the prisoner is in the character
of a religious instructor. His office is to make known
to the wretched criminal the Gospel terms on which he
may obtain forgiveness and reconciliation with the Most
High. If in the recesses of his guilty soul the convict
cherish hopes of escape from the death to which he is
doomed by " cloaking" his offence especially if he
secretly admit his guilt to the minister of religion, while
he adheres to the denial he has put forth to the
world—then, in such a case, it becomes the imperative
duty of the clergymen to show him the fallacy of resting in
such a confession, destitute as it is of the elements of contri-
tion, and to publish his confession so soon as the wretched and
deluded man has passed into the unseen state. For a Protestant
clergyman to lock up in his escrutoire such a document as
that which it is admitted Tawell placed in the Rev. Mr.
,Cox's hands, is, in our view, alike inconsistent with his
duty to the Church and to society. It assumes some
mysterious efficacy in auricular confession, which the Pro-
testant Church repudiates. " If," said the memorable
John Hales, " a man be stung by an adder, will he
obtain healing by whispering his misfortune into the ear of
an ass ? Equally absurd is it to suppose that secret con-
fession of sin to a priest, who is but a man can avail to ob-
tain deliverance from the punishment which God has de-

nounced against it."
STANDARD.—Sir Robert Peel has not said that he will
retire from office, if defeated upon the question now before
the House of Commons. Probably the Right Hon. Baronet
feels that such a declaration on his part might be construed
as disrespectful to his usual supporters, if not to the House:
but though the Premier may observe a respectful silence
upon the point, there than be no doubt that if defeated he

must resign. His own resolution of 1841—that a Ministry
unable to carry through Parliament measures which it con-
siders important to the public interest is unworthy
of the confidence of the Crown and the country—
would stare him in the face after such a defeat
as we suppose. And nobody acquainted with the character

of the Premier, can doubt that lie has made up his mind iC)
act in the spirit of his own resolution. Upon the result of
the debate now in progress will, therefore, we may be very
sure, depend the fate of the Ministry; and every man who
shall vote against the Ministerial Bill will, in effect,
vote for the dismissal of the Cabinet of September,
1841. We are very far from saying that,
in a very clear case of moral or religious duty, a man ought
to allow the fate of a Ministry to influence his vote. But
we hold, and we think no reasonable man will dispute the
proposition, that every one who meditates a step tending
to produce a violent, and what may be a mischievous,
change is bound to satisfy his conscience that the moral
or religious duty which be thinks himself bound
to discharge, is clear and certain. Let us add, that con-
science in this respect is not to be properly satisfied by the
echoes of public meetings, or the mechanical mul-
tiplication of petitions, but by the appeal to each
man's own reason and judgment. The award upon
such an appeal, fairly and calmly made, cannot,
in our judgment, be doubtful. The Bill be-
fore Parliament does not introduce any new principle, this is
certain. It does not go to increase the number of the Ro
man Catholic clergy. On the other hand, it for the first
time limits the number of these clervymen to be educated at
the public expense. It does not go to augment the
influence of the Roman Catholic clergy—that is impassible,
except by, if possible, making both clergy and laity more
ignorant than they are. We do not hesitate to say, that the
present influence of the Roman Catholic clergy is at the
maximum, and that a more learned and polite clergy would
possess much less influence—that Angelo Mai or
Doctor Wiseman, for example, would have no chance
whatever in competition for influence with Father Tierney
or Father Tom Maguire. The State finds the Roman
Catholic clergy, such as they are, in possession of
unbounded and unincreasable (if we may use the word)
influence, and the Government purposes to soften the exercise
of that influence, by means which we think (whether we
are right or wrong is no matter) must weaken its founda-
tions—which certainly cannot strengthen them. Is the
obligation of moral or religious duty to resist this measure so
very clear, that men are bound to incur a very serious risk
in its discharge ?

ROI:MERTES AT BRIGHTON.—On Saturday morning
a lady, named Turner, who resides in Brighten, having drawn 2001.
at the Union Bank, put it into her pocket ; but, shortly after she
left the Bank, she missed her money. Another lady, on leaving
the Bank, also missed her purse, containing 301. The Bank was
very full at the time, and the impression is, that the robberies were
effected by the London swell mob. The police have not obtained
any clue to them.
The nuptials of the Marquis of Bute with Lady
Sophia Frederica Christina Hastings, eldest surviving d tughter of
Francis, first Marquis of Hastings, were celebrated on Thursday,
at the Londoun Castle, Ayrshire. Mr. Hamilton Fitzgerald gave
away the bride. The bridesmaids were Lady Adelaide Hastings,
Miss Crichton Stuart, Miss Boyle, Miss Gregory, Miss Campbell of
Stonefield, and Miss Macnab. The festivities of the day were par-
ticipated in by the humbler classes of society in the district, a very
liberal sum having been devoted to their exclusive enjoyment.
Some of the Canadian journals furnish statistics
relative to the trade of that country, which show the progress
it is making both in imports and exports. With respect to
the first branch of commerce it may be stated that whereas
the entries of British plantation rum in 1842 were only
26,076 gallons, they had increased in 1844 to 120,680 gallons
The quantity of molasses received in 1842 was 117,966 gal-
lons ; but in 1844 it had reached 222,836 gallons. The
quantity of sugar, including refined, muscovadoes, and bas-
tards, imported in 1842 was 7,760,0001 b. ; and in 1844 was
13,060,0001 b. The increase in the imports of coffee had risen
from 60,8061 b. in 1842, to 432,1051 b. in 1844. With respect
to the second branch of commerce there was the same feature
of improvement in the leading articles. Flour, which in
1842 had only figured fbr 294,799 barrels, had increased in
1844 to 415,467 barrels. Wheat in 1842 was shipped to the
extent of 204,107 minots, then declined to 144,233 minots in
1843, and rose again to 212,183 minots in 1844. Peas from
78,985 minots in 1842 had increased to 130,355 minots in
1844. Ashes from 27,641 barrels in 1842 had increased to
35,753 barrels in 1844. Butter is the sole article that pre-
sents any alarming fluctuation. The exports in 1842 were
542,511 barrels ; in 1843 they receded to 374,207 barrels ;
and rallied in 1844 to 460,800 barrels. On the whole these
returns afford incontestable proof of the prosperity of trade in
British North America. The only fear is, that the increase
of exports scarcely keeps pace with that of imports.
THE SUGAR DUTIES.—The Board of Customs
having had under consideration the regulations which it may
be expedient to adopt for giving effect to the directions con-
tained in the Treasury order of the 20th alt., recorded on the
Board minute of the 24th following—under which all parties
who have sugar in the bonding warehouses, on which the
duty of 245. per hundred weight, and 5 per cent. thereon,
have been paid, are directed to be repaid the sum of Bs. per
hundred weight on such sugar, on the delivery of the same
from the warehouses within a limited time, have issued
orders that the amount of duty in question be returned to the
several parties by special certificate, upon the following con
ditions being previously complied with, viz. :—That the ap-
plications he made to the Board by the owners of the sugar
which was in the bonded warehouses on the 14th of March,
1845, when the former duties ended. It is to be observed
that the application is to be made by the parties themselves
in writing, and not by an agent or otherwise ; that the ap-
plication be accompanied by a certificate from the Dock
Company, or the owner of the warehouse, that the applicant
was the owner of the sugar, and that it was in warehouse on
the 14th of March, 1845; and also by a declaration of the
applicant that he was the actual and bond fide owner of the
sugar mentioned i❑ his application ; that the duty had been
paid thereon, and that it was in the warehouse on the date
mentioned, and also that he is the party who is entitled to
the return of the duty on the sugar under the Treasury order
of the 20th ult., and no other person whatever. And the
Commissioners have further directed that no such return of
duty be made upon any sugar not actually delivered from
the bonding warehouse on or before the 20th of May next
ensuing; and copies of this minute have been delivered to
the revenue officers at this port, and transmitted to the col-
lectors and controllers of the Customs at the several outports
of the kingdom, fur their guidance and that of all parties
concerned.

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LIGHTHOUSE AT GALVESTON.—We learn that ar-
rangements will be made immediately for the erection of a light-
house at Galveston, in accordance with the Act lately passed by
Congress. This Act appropriates 7,000 dollars to be paid out of
the tonnage money for this purpose. The lamp of this lighthouse
is to be at least 75 feet above the level of the sea, and
will be discernible at the distance of between 10 and J 2 miles.
—New York Paper.