The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC 'JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAVERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—Public attention has recently, by certain
flagrant cases, been directed to the state of the Bank-
rupt Laws ; but the real causes of the evils complained
of arc but little understood. The two recent cases
which have attracted public notice possess this feature
in common--that the facts complained of are made
known by the statements of the bankrupts Men:-
selves. It will be asked how is this ? How is it
that parties in the situation of bankrupts, before a
public Court, should be induced to expose their own
dishonesty, or irregular proceedings ? An answer
to these questions will show the faulty state of the law.
By the law, or practice in bankruptcy, the Court takes
cognizance of the conduct of the bankrupt only after the
issuing of the commission, or fiat. No matter how
irregular or even fraudulent may have been the past
conduct of the bankrupt---if he do but conform to the
bankrupt law, and give up his effects, or appear to do
so, the law in this Court cannot touch him. A
man in insolvent circumstances, therefore, consulting
a solicitor in what is called sharp practice, may be
supposed to say to him,—" I have been a great rogue.
I have incurred debts which I could not pay, and had
no prospect of paying. I have given preference to my
friends and relations, and I have wasted my creditors'
property in extravagance and riotous living. What
shall I do ?" The answer of a lawyer of the de-
scription in question would be, " Nothing more easy :
say you have been a rogue ; state, or admit, that you
have done all these things, but that you are now ready
to give up all that is left to your creditors ; do this,
and nobody can touch you ; your creditors may com-
plain—your assignees may make a show of opposition
—the Commissioner, perhaps, will look grave, and
throw out a hope that such conduct will not prevent
you getting your certificate ; but there the matter
will end—nobody will, or can, prevent your passing
your last examination, and all aill be well in the end."
The refusal of a certificate is, in such a ease, the
only remedy left to the creditors ; but a certifi-
cate is generally granted to interest or importunity.
The remedy to: this evil will be found in giving
the Court of Bankruptcy power to inquire into and take
cognisance of the previous conduct of the bankrupt,
and the means by which, before the issuing of the fiat,
he obtained credit. Whatever defects may appertain
to the " Insolvent Court," that Court exercises with
great advantage to the community a power like this re-
ferred to, being enabled to remand and punish parties
who have obtained credit fraudulently and knowingly
without the means of payment—a power not possessed
by the Court of Bankruptcy.
STANDARD.—The affair of the Creo!e, the au-
thenticated United -States report of which we gave
yesterday, is likely to open a new question with the
Republican Government, and one which from its
not elty, as well as from the different views of the con-
dition of slaves entertained by England and the
States, may lead to perplexed negotiations ; other-
wise the matter seems to be plain enough. If we
assume, as in England we are bound to as-
sume, that a Slave'. his a right to vindicate
his liberty by all rneens—by force if necessary—it is
quite clear that the 'British authorities have acted as it
was their duty tp act ; or that, if they have erred, it is
in favouring too much the claims of the slave-owners.
It is, however, perhaps too much to expect that
Americans, accustomed to treat slates as mere pro-
perty, will acquiesce in the free man's view of the
affair. Still, on the lowest ground, it is difficult to see
how the British authorities could take a different
course from that which they took, without assuming
the character of keepers of slaves for our American
kinsmen. A vessel arrives at a British port, under
the command of a body of negroes, exercising
complete control over the ship and crew. The
majority in command, in com:non with the origi-
nal commander and crew, claim the intervention
of the British Governor at a time when there
can be no question that the latter were perfectly
powerless, and at the mercy of the negroes.
The British Governor grants this intervention to the
extent of placing on board a guard for the protection
of the crew, the vessel, and her cargo ; and all these
are so effectually protected that they ultimately
arrive in safety at their port of destination. About
seventy of the slaves, however, against whom no
charge of any kind is made, use the opportunity to
employ their liberty. Neither the law of England,
nor of any free country, nor the law of nations,
would permit the British Government to obstruct
them. These men and women came to the British
port voluntarily, and they came as perfectly free as any
persons whom they found there ; for they bad been
previously emancipated by the gallantry of their more
active friends. To coerce them would have been in
fact to reduce them a second time to a state of slat ery.
This the British Government could not do directly by
its own instruments ; and what it could not do directly
by its own instruments, it could not do indirectly, by
connivance at a war td be made in a British port, by
American citizens, upon 'strangers seeking hospitality.
bo remembered that, according
to accounts from Ilavitnneh received some time ago, via
the United States, Mr. Turnbull, the British Consul,
had been arrested by the Spanish authorities of Matanzas,
an important town and port lying east of Havannab.
The charge agaiast him, rather vaguely stated, was that he
was found tampering with the negroes of a plantation
in the vicinity of that place, and exciting them to insur-
rection or insubordination, with a view, so far as could
be understood, of procuring their release and transfe-
rence to Jamaica. The correspondence of the Post and
Herald of this morning from Madrid confirms the extra-
ordinary fact of this arrest, without however throwing any
additional light on the subject. The Herald thus refers
to the affair;—" The,Havannah Correspondence states
that Mr. Turnbull, our consul, had been arrested at Ma-
tanzas, where he had gone on business, and brought in
custody to the former city on a charge of having at-
tempted to prevail on some slaves to mutiny against
their owners. If true; this is a serious business, one
which may bring about serious differences between the
two Governments.. Another disagreeable occurrence
is likewise stated, namely, that an English boat laden
with contraband goods, being closely pursued by the
revenue cruisers, attempted to take shelter under the
protection of our receiving ship there, but that
she was nevertheless captured." The Post pithily
remarks, that "Our correspondent fears that a mis-
understanding will be occasioned between this coun-
try and Spain on the subject of the arrest of Mr. Turn-
bull, our Consul at Cabs; charged with an attempt to
provoke some slaves to mutiny. Mr. Turnbull was
appointed by the Whip. He is a most indiscreet
emancipationist ; and it was like sending a firebrand to
the Havannah." We are entirely of accord with our
Contemporary. It would have been difficult to select a
mote imprudent and hot-headed functionary than Mr.
Turnbull, for a post eminently requiring the union of
a cool and conciliatory deportment with strength of
mind and firmness of principle. Numerous have been
the complaints and the remonstrances lodged at
the Foreign-office, during the time of Lord Palmerston
at least; against the conduct and proceedings of this
person since his appointment, not only by the authori-
ties of Cuba and the Spanish Government, but, as we
have reason to believe, by British residents in Havannah
also. We were given to understand some time since
that so impressed was his Lordship with the force of
these combined representations, as tev have intimated
his willingness to satisfy the Spanish Government by
his recall.

THE POETRY PROFESSORSHIP
AT OXFORD.
At a meeting held this morning, before the Vice-
Chancellor, for the purpose of ascertaining the number
of votes respectively promised to the candidates, it ap-
peared that there were for Mr. Garbett, 921; for Mr.
Williams, 623: upon which the friends of the latter gen-.
tleman immediately withdrew him from the contest.
Oxford, Thursday, Jan. 20, 1842.

THE LONDON GAZETTE

(THIS EVENING.)

The Gazelle of this evening contains a list of 67 Ad-
dressed of Congratulation, transmitted for presentation
-to his Royal Highness Prince Albert, on the occasion of
the Birth of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,
and presented to his Royal Highness by the Right Ho-
nourable the Marquess of Exeter. •
ST. JAMES'S-PALACE, JAN. 21, 1842.
The Queen has been pleased to appoint Susan, Countess
of Dalhousie, to be one of the Ladies of' the Bedcham-
ber in Ordinary to her Majesty, in the room of Mary,
Countess of Sandwich, resigned.
DOWNING-STREET, JAN. 17.
The Queen has been pleased to appoint Captain
Augustus Leopold Kuper, of the Royal Navy, to be a
Companion of the Most.Honourable Military Order of
the Bath.

WiiITEHALL, JAN. 20.
The Queen has been pleased to present the Rev. David
Sutherland, Preacher of the Gospel, to the'Church at
Strathy; in the parish of Farr, in the Presbytery of
Tongue and shire Of Sutherland, vacant by the transpor-
tation of the Rev. Angus APGillivray to the Church and
Punish 'of Dairde, in the Presbytery of Cupar and shire
i)f Fife._ _

WHITEHALL, JAN. 150842.

.. _ .
The Lord Chancellor has appointed Richard Hudson
Hall, of Birmingham, in the' county of Warwick, Gent.
to be a Master Extraordinary in the High Court of
Chancery. _

WHITEHALL, JAN. 1.
The Lord Chief Justice of her Majesty's Court of
Common Pleas has appointed William Henry Honny-
will, of Puriton, near Bridgwater, in the county of
Somerset, Gent., to be one of the Perpetual Commis-
sioners for taking the acknowledgments of deeds to be
executed by married women, under the Act passed for
the abolition of fines and reco►eries, and for the substi-
tution of more simple modes of assurance, in and for the
said county of Somerset.

WAR-OFFICE, JAN. 21.
Ist or Grenadier Regiment of Foot Guards—Ensign W. D.
L. Kimbo!ton, from the 11th Foot, to be Ensign and Lieu-
tenant, by purchase, vice Sir T. Moncrieffe, Bart. who retires,
Jan. 21.

Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards—Lieutenant C. S.
Burdett, from the 60th Foot, to be Ensign and Lieutenant,
vice Fraser, who exchanges, Jan. 21,