The Sun.
London, England, 1827-06-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

• 4
It is a weil-knownsemark tipon •English party
polities, that the Government is always more
secure for having a Parliamentary opposition to
contend with. The notion is reasonable and
experimentally just ; for an opposition so com-
posed and guided as naturally will be the case
when men of property are its members, and
when its directors are men brought up in the
principles and maxims of British policy, although
it may succeed in attaching a considerable por-
tion of the national esteem to itself, affords,
nevertheless, a recognized and harmless channel
through which the censure which it excites against
Ministers may discharge itself—leaving behind
it a purer atmosphere, and a sky more cloudless
and serene. There is another species of oppos
sition, likewise, which serves the Government by
a different and somewhat shorter method. The
Wellington and Eldon opposition, for instance,
—half from blind rage against Mr. Canning and
his Cabinet, half from habitual contempt for the
people,—instead of striving. to impel the anger
of the country at large against the Ministers by
the accustomed means of Parliamentary argu-
ment or declamation, have contrived to appro-
priate to themselves, as to a common focus, the
whole floating mass of contempt and hatred
which is on the average dispersed throughout
society, and to exhibit the rare (though not
singular) example of an oligarchy out of office
making war at once upon Ministers, Crown and
people. It is obvious that, happily, such a war
must end in the defeat and ruin of the aggressors
themselves ; and if taunt or solicitation could be
made available to their rescue, we—who have no
feeling of personal enmity towards them, but
should, on the other hand, rejoice to see their
Lordships still capable of serving the country, in
so far as any man with a character not totally
ruined may be converted, as opportunities offer, to
_some sort of public use—would even take pains
to save them. In fact; however, the business
of Mr. Canning's Ministry has been done by
the Tory opposition more effectually than the
Right Honourable Gentleman could, in his
most sanguine moments, have anticipated. Their
conduct, with regard to the Corn Bill; has
affixed to their persons a sentiment of national
disgust, beyond what we have ever known to
exist in this community against any portion of
its members. After the Duke of Wellington
had declared in Parliament his full approbation
of the principle of the Corn Bill, and after he
had effected, in its details, the precise meta-
morphosis which he wisely recommended, thus
conferring on the measure a twofold title to his
own protection,=--nay, after asking a question
which led all the world to believe that, since the
Ministers could not conscientiously support a
law thus disfigured, in their estimation, by what
improved it in that of the Duke of Wellington,
his Grace would himself step forward as the
guardian of this his own doubly-begotten child,
and move the third reading, which of course he
could have carried in the teeth of Lord Gode-
rich ;—after all these successful manoeuvres, the
illustrious Tory, with the concurrence of his apostate
"Whig-friends, lets the bill- perish, unborn. The
scheme, then, is manifest. It is to defeat the Corn
Bill, not to improve it, that this mongrel opposition
has been raised. It was itot enough to embarrass
the plebeian minister—the plebeian body which he
represented was also to be pinched and weakened
by low diet—that so much of the feudal princi-
ple enforcing the prostration of the lower orders,
as is recoverable and maintainable in modern times,
might be secured for the benefit 'of a race of beings
not unworthy to succeed the4itled barbarians of the
12th and 14th centuries. Poor Mr. Western has,
we hear, consented to assume the vacant office of
Sir Thomas Lethbridge, and to draw upon himself
the mixed odium and ridicule enjoyed of late by that
worthy -gentleman, their share of which the Tory
Lords begin to find more troublesome than they
had expected. Mr. -Western is to propose a Bill
founded on the oppressive one of 1822, which the
new proposer himself resisted at every stage with
&at:ewe pertinacity : but this foolish attempt will
fail—such a bill is an insult to the nation.—Tinzes.

The very cavalier manner in which the House
of Lords disposed of the Corporation Funds'
Bill can only surprise those who are unacquaint-
ed with the composition . of that branch of the
Legislature. In such cases as the Corn Bill, or
the Game Laws' Amendment Bill, involving a
possible diminution of rent or of feudal privi-
leges, or a Catholic question, or a motion for
enquiry into the State of the Nation, the ex-
citement will assemble a number of Peers, and
engage their attention. But all appeals, and
business which demands a little attention and ap-
plication, are, in fact, decided by the Lord Chan-
cellor for the time, and two or three Peers, who,
from particular circumstances, have been led to
acquire habits of business. With regard to Ap-
peals, it has been long understood that they are
decided by the Chancellor, and fortunate it is
for the character of the jurisprudence of this
country that they are so decided ; for, were so
multitudinous a tribunal as the House of Lords
to persuaded of its ability, to decide causes,
and (what would be really miraculous) were to
become po;sessed of the necessary habits of ap-
plication, every principle would be unsettled.—
A Minister, by trig application of certain well-
known means, can in general insure something
like consistency in the creciaions of a numerous
body ; but what a state would the Law of the
country be, were the Ministers to carry the sen-
tences in Appeals by their influence ? In practice,
therefore, it is wisely-ordered that the body of
Lords in Appeal cases should be merely present
for show, like the .Senators of Venice in the
Play. In Legislative matters the machine does
not, however, work so well as those which are
judicial. This very case of the Corporation
bands' Bill affords a pregnant instance of it.—
The business of a Judge is to declare what is
law ; the business of Legislator is to inquire
whether the Law is adequate to its object, or re-
quires improvement. But we observe almost
,always, in the individuals who think for the
House of Lords, a disposition to deem
the circumstance of a practice being in
accordance with the existing law a suffi-
cient reason for 'sanctioning it. In the dis,.
cussion on the Spring Gun Bill, Lord Eldon ex-
pressly said " it was extremely dangerous to take
upon themselves to say what was the law upon
such a subject (as the setting of springguns) ;"
and because, in the existing state of the law, it
was extremely dangerous to say what was law,
this was a conclusive reason for not interfering
to alter the law; In the same manner, because
Corporations cannot, under the law as it exists,
be prevented from misapplying the Corporation
funds for the purpose of influencing electors, that
seems to be deemed a perfectly valid reason by
Lords Lyndhurst and Eldon for throwing out a
Bill for the purpose of preventing such misappli-
cation. We are alluding now merely to the prin-
ciples laid down by the present and the Ex-
Chancellor, leaving out of consideration the
statement made by Lord Lyndhurst, which was
positively untrue, that the case against the Cor-
poration of Northampton was not proved, for

paythentl. were proved and admitted before tho
Committee, If, by the Constitution of thN
country, the elective franchise is given in a num-!
her of instances to the inhabitants of Boroughs
and not to the Corporation, while the latter
names the Returning Officer, the application of
the Corporation funds, for the purpose of secur-
ing Members agreeable to the Corporation, is in
reality transferring the Election from the Inhabitants
to the Corporation, and making the Returning Offi-
cer a partizan. To sanction such an application of
money by a Corporation, is to sanction corruption ;
because, if the Corporation advance money to in-
fluence the Election, the inhabitants must either
subject themselves to outlay, to secure their right to
elect Representatives in whom they can confide, or
the Candidates must consent to advance the money.
The Corporation funds, though at the disposal of
the Corporation, are held in trust by them for the
benefit of .their community ; but an expenditure
which imposes on the community a heavy expence
to secure their constitutional right of suffrage is any
thing but beneficial for such community ; the alter-
native is corruption. We are glad to find that Mr.
Spring Rice is determined to bring the matter be-
fore the House of Commons as a matter of privilege
on Tuesday week.—Morning Chronicle.

We have long been opposed to the principle
of arrest for debt. We have shown that it is a
cruel and absurd practice, equally at variance
with good policy and the civilizing spirit of the
Christian doctrines. The vicious system of cre-
dit which induces people to live beyond their
means, and leads to so much extravagance, mi-
sery, and pauperism, in society, more especially
among the working classes and persons of mode-
rate fortunes, has grown out of this practice, and
would perish with its abolition. It is therefore
.we support any legislative measure which has for
its object to limit the power of arrest, for we do
not admire that class of politicians, who will
have every thing or nothing, and would allow a
bad system to remain unaltered because they
could not succeed in obtaining its complete re-
formation. On this ground we advocated the
Bill brought into the House of Commons by
the Solicitor-General, to prohibit arrests for
debts under 20/. We regret, however, that it
was not the Attorney-General who undertook
the task of bringing in a Bill of this nature, as
we are to infer, from the remarks which he made
on this subject upon a former occasion, that he
would have fixed the amount below which arrest
could not take place at 1001. Still, however,
some advance towards improvement in this part
of our legislation being made by the present Bill,
we are favourable to it. The first Bill upon this
subject did not go further than 10/., the second
one (which was temporary and expired in the
former Session) raised the sum to 15/., with
the exception of debts on bills and promis-
sory notes. The present Bill, as we have
stated, fixes rlise sum at 201. without excepting
debts on bills or promissory notes. So far there
is an evident improvement, and the spirit of
legislation on this subject, though not advancing
by either. large or rapid strides, has got upon the
right road, and that is something. Yet even
this little improvement, we find, was opposed
when the House went into Committee on the
Bill on Friday night. And by whom was the
opposition given ? By one who got into Parlia
ment upon the extreme doctrines of " Radical
Reform"—by one who has been among the most
violent declaimers of his day in favour of the li-
berty of the subject—we mean Mr. Hobhouse.
It is this champion of freedom who contended
that a Law Officer of the Crown was doing too
much for the liberty of the subject ; and, alarm-
ed at the liberality of the Solicitor-General, wish-
ed him to retrograde rather than advance
gislation, and to fix the sum at 151.—or, in other
words, to renew the old Bill, instead of intro-
, ducing a new and improved one. Really these
Westminster " champions of freedom" are very
strange sort of people. One of them—Sir
Francis Burdett—sits behind Mr. Canning, like
his shadow, and applauds him " to the echo,"
though he told Mr. Canning, some time ago, that it
was no wonder he advocated an extravagant and
corrupt system, under which he and his family got
so much of the public money by hocus focus tricks.
Yet, at the present moment, Mr. Canning receives
more of the public money than he did then, as he
holds now two offices, one having a salary of 6,000/.
a-year attached to it, and other 4,000/. ; whereas, at
that time, he had but one office. Seeing that Sir
Francis Burdett acts in this way, who can wonder
that Mr. Hobhouse distinguishes himielf by express-
ing alarm lest the Solicitor-General should be too
tender of the freedom of British subjects ? We were
glad to observe the decided manner in which Lord
Althorp and Mr. Hume met this pseudo-statesman,
by declaring that they should have been better
pleased if the power of arresting for debt on mesne
process had been abolished altogether.—Morning
Herald.

It is worth while. to show the low trickery of
that portion of the press which has arrayed itself
against the Government. Deprived, as they
are, of all materials for honest and manly com-
plaint—of all grounds of fair and constitutional
remonstrance—they can only ply their trade by
means of falsehood and calumny. In the New
Times of Saturday there was a paragraph ex-
posing the gross misrepresentations put forth by
a Morning Paper of the preceding day, re-
specting the appointment of Lord Mountcharles,
and the bestowing of the Garter on the Marquis
of Hertford.. If the writer of those misrepresen-
tations had chosen to say, that two sons of the
Marquis of Conyngham keep an oyster shop in
Drury-lane, and that the Marquis of Hertford
drives the cabriolet, No. 37, he would not have
stated any thing more foolishly untrue than that
which he did state, in his eager desire to asperse
Mr. Canning. Now, what is the course pur-
sued by one of those journals, which
.has just
started into existence, under the auspices, as it is
loudly proclaimed, of those who are styled he New
Opposition ? It copies, word for word, from the
'New Times, the tissue of falsehood, but leaves out
the refutation ! thus wilfully propagating that which
it knew to be false. And this disreputable course
is pursued for the chance of imposing upon a few
persons the notion that Mr. Canning has dispensed
his patronage, as Prime Minister, from motives that
would be open to imputation. With what thorough
contempt such artifices must be viewed, even by
the political opponents of Mr. Canning ; and what a
tacit admission it is of the Minister's integrity,
when he is assailable only through the medium of the
grossest falsehoods !--New Times.

We are happy to learn that the hints which
we threw out a few days ago, with respect to
the amelioration of Ireland, have attracted gene-
ral attention. It has, indeed, been stated to us
that the Irish poor are not by any means so un-
educated as is generally imagined, and so far as
education is comprehended, in being able to read
a little English, we are not very much disposed
to question the statement. But this is not what
we mean by education, although it makes a part
of it. It is very evident that the mere mechani-
cal acquirement of joining syllable to syllable is
quite compatible with very gross ignorance. Of
those who merely learn to read at school, not
one in a hundred has the inclination, and not
one in a thousand the opportunity of prosecut-
ing their studies in after life, nor of turning their
acquirements in that way to use. To make

education, even of the lowest description, of per-
manent advantage. to the individual,, or the corn-,
munity, it must be accompanied ley moral re-
straint and moral discipline. The habits which
these are calculated to generate are not, like the
beggarly elements of education, forgotten when
the scholar goes out upon the theatre of life, or
of small use when remembered ; they mingle with
every step of his progress, and offer their present
aid, in every conjuncture in which accident or
fortune may place him. It is this moral restraint
and discipline, impressed upon them in their na-
tional schools, and in their early years, from
which all the better parts of the Scotch character
are derived ; and it is, therefore, not unim-
portant, when considering a question of this
kind, to attend a little to the nature of those
schools. It cannot be denied that the institu-
tion for parochial education, considered as a
whole, has greatly fallen from the condition in
which it seems to have been the object .of its
projectors to place it. The mistaken parsimony
of the landed interest, and some injurious regula-
tions introduced into the last Act, have very
much tended to narrow the means and lower the
respectability of the teachers. Neither is it pos-
sible that the effects of their labours should be so
obvious or so highly appreciated when applied
to a soil which has long been subject to cultiva-
tion, as when they were applied in the first in-
stance to that which had not previously felt the
hand of culture. But although tine and neglect
have, to a certain degree, impaired the utility,
and, in a great degree, the beauty of the machine,
its working is still highly worthy of investigation.
The Act of 1696, to which we formerly alluded,
is, with some late modifications which affect the
details rather than the principle, that by which
the parochial system of education of Scotland is
regulated. The school-master must be a
Member of the Established Church—this is a
sine qua non, as, otherwise, he could not be
made amenable to its jurisdiction—and he
must take the oaths to Government before
lie can claim his salary. His attainments,
under the old regulations, used to be a tole-
rable acquaintance with Latin, and a perfect
knowledge of the more ordinary branches of
education. In point of fact, such are the attain-
ments of about nine out of ten of the present in-
cumbents, as may be seen from the official re-
turns published by order of Parliament last Ses-
sion. From the same document it will be seen,
that to these a very great number add Greek, and
one or more of the modern languages.. The
person who possesses all this learning is a man
of no mean consequence in his little circle, and,
with all the drawbacks that poverty necessarily
entails, he is looked up to by the common
people as, next to the Clergyman, the wisest, if
not the greatest, man in the parish. It may be '
easily imagined that a child which is placed for
some five or six years under the rule of a man,
on whom a superior education has exerted its or-
dinary influence, and whose station and charac-
ter give weight to his precepts, will gradually be-
come, to a certain degree, assimilated to his mo-
del, and go forth to the business of life with
much more correct notions, not speculative but
practical, of moral propriety, than if lie had
aleaned the elements of learning from a master of
irregular habits, limited knowledge, or vulgar
manners. The first great requisite, therefore, in
any system of education, which aims at achiev-
ing what education has actually achieved in Scot-
land, is a set of respectable masters—a requisite
which can be obtained only in one way—namely,
by making the office of schoolmaster an object to
men of fair talent, and by surrounding it with all
that is necessary to procure it respect. The
election of schoolmasters in Scotland is vested
in those who pay their salaries—the proprietors
of land—the possession of a certain rental being
required as a qualification, The clergyman has
also a vote, but no veto, nor has the slightest
practical evil resulted from denying to him a
power which few wise men would wish to pos-
sess, and fewer to exercise. The master is re-
movable for any such moral or criminal offence
as is incompatible with the purity of character
that ought to belong to a public teacher, as well
as for offences more strictly official. Such is a
brief outline of the Scotch Education Act, and
of the instruments with which it works. The
common school books used in Scotland are
so numerous, that their number has be-
come a nuisance, and it- were to be wished
that some general regulation were adopt-
ed and enforced for the attainment of
greater uniformity in that respect. There is one
book, however, which is taught in all schools—
which is, and we hope will ever remain, a sine
qua non, as well as the religious profession of
the master—we mean the Bible. We leave, of
course, to men whose peculiar functions better
fit them for the task, to descant on the infinite
value of that Sacred Book, as a record of the
will 6f Heaven ; but, as laymen, we may be per-
mitted to say, that, as looking to it only in rela-
tion to its less important features, we know no
composition that contains so many solid rules, ,
for the guidance of every day conduct—so many
literary gems in narrative, in poetry, and in ora-
tory—and so much pure and undefiled English.
To the circumstance of their being early taught
to read the Bible, and to their being intimately
conversant with its style and its contents, much
of that elevation of thought and solidity of judg-
ment which the Scottish peasantry possess is to be
traced. It is, indeed, their text-book, from
which they draw on all occasions of life and bu-
siness. Some preciseness and some appearance
of cant may, in consequence, be occasionally per-
ceived in their conversation, and their knowledge
will, doubtless, like knowledge of other kinds, be
sometimes misapplied, but, upon the whole; it will
hardly be denied, that, compared with the mere
peasantry of most other countries, the balance of
intelligence will be found greatly on their side.
If ever a system of national education be introduced
into Ireland, we hope the advantages, and we wish
it to be understood that we here speak of the in-
tellectual advantages only, which have in Scotland
flowed from the teaching of the Bible, will be at-
tempted to be secured. We are by no means dis-
posed to treat with levity or harshness the con-
cientious scruples of our Roman Catholic brethren ;
but it is well known that the refusal of the Bible
as a book of instruction is not a measure, of the
propriety of which the more enlightened among
them approve. The cost of education in Scotland
is very small. From a casual inspection of the Par-
liamentary return to which we have already referred,
it appears to average about eight or ten shillings a
year. The regulation of the fees is left by law to
the judgment of the parties who elect the mas-
ter. We have two objections to schools entirely
gratuitous; they make the master indolent, and
the parents careless; the former cannot, accord-
ing tothe principles of human nature, he expected to
labour hard for what may be equally attained by la-
bouring lightly; and the latter cannot be supposed
very highly to value what costs them nothing to
procure. We should, therefore, say, that in all cases
of schools for the poor, the payments ought to be
small, but there ought to be payments of some kind.
We have formerly stated that the Scotch Act would,
mutatis ,nutandis, serve for Ireland, and we shall
now in a few words sum up what appears to be the

peculiar advantages of that Act:-Ist. The mode
of election is admirably calculated to put down all
jarring or dispute in-respect to the fitness of condi.:
dates, for the obvious reason that they are chosen
by those who have a direct and natural interest
in selecting a proper person. 2d. The superior
attainments requisite, the permanency of his
office, its emoluments—not sufficient to enable him
that holds it to dispense with labour, yet still raising
him above that poverty " which bringeth contempt"—
give the master a powerful hold over the parent, as
well as over the children, and add to his instruc-
tions the moral influence, without which education
is in a great measure useless, and often worse. 3d. The
nature of his election, and the mode of his remunera-
tion, are effectually calculated to remove all those
fears, religious or political, that connect themselves
with the agents of a powerful society, whose ultimate
views are looked to with a suspicious eye. 4th.
The system comes recommended by its extreme
cheapness-20,0001. a year is about the annual rent
charge on all Scotland for the purposes of education,
and it has been calculated, that about double that
sum, or a little more, would put the Scotch schools
on a footing of the highest efficiency. sth. No pos-
sible harm can arise from the masters being members
of the Established Church, nor from the use of the
Bible as a book of instruction (botli of which we look
on as absolutely essential, for the reasons we have
already stated), because it is impossible to suppose
that the electors would select a proselytizing bigot,
or a fanatic, any more than they would a person
destitute of the more obvious qualifications of a
public teacher.—lbid.

INDIAN ARMY.

Head-Quarters, Calcutta, Dec. 80, 18516.

At a General Court-martial, held at Trichinnpoly, on
the 7th of November, 1826, Lieut. W. Fothergill, of his
Majesty's 48th Regiment of Foot, was arraigned upon the
under-mentioned charges, viz. :
let. " For carrying a message from Ensign E. G. H.
H. Gibbs, of the 48th Regiment, to Ensign Leech, of
the same regiment, at the house of the latter, in Tri-
chinopoly, on the evening of the 14th October, tending to
provoke a duel, when it was known to the regiment that
these two officers had been prohibited, in their original
quarrel, by express order delivered to Ensign Gibbs, is
presence of the Major of the Regiment, on the 20th day of
August : such conduct being subversive of military dis-
cipline, and tending to disturb tlas harmony of the re-
giment." _ _

ed. "For conduct unbecoming the character of an of-
ficer and a gentleman, while eMployed in delivering the
message above alluded to, in making use of the following
expressions to Ensign Leech---' You are a d—d coward ;
the meanest rascal that ever joined the 48th ; I'll be d—d
if I do not shoot you to-morrow morning, if you do not
take it up :' such language being in direct disobedience of
the articles of war, and the established usages and customs
of the service."

Upon which charges tile Court came to the following
decision :

Finding and Sentence.—" The Court having maturely
weighed and considered all that has been adduced in sup-
port of the prosecution, as well as what has been brought
forward on the defence, is of opinion, that the prisoner,
Lieutenant W. Fothergill, of his Majesty's 48th Regiment,
is guilty of the first part of the first charge, viz. ' For car-
rying a message from Ensign E. G. H. H. Gibbs, of the
48th Regiment, to Ensign H. Leech, of the same regi-
ment, at the house of the latter, in Trichinopoly, on the
14th October, tending to provoke a duel.' fhe Court ac-
quits the prisoner, Lieutenant W. Fothergill, of the re-
maining part of the first charge.
" The Court is further of opinion, that the prisoner,
Lieut. W. Fothergill, is guilty of the second charge.
" The Court having found the prisoner, Lieutenant W.
Fothergill, guilty of the first part of the first charge, and
also guilty of the second charge, which are in breach of the
Articles of War, in such cases made and provided, does
sentence him, the prisoner, Lieutenant W. Fothergill, of
his Majesty's 48th Regiment, to be cashiered."
Approved and confirmed,
(Signed) COMBERMERE, Gen., Commander-in-Chief.
Remarks by the Right Hon. the Commander•in-Chief:
—Difficult as it is to the Commander-in-Chief to recon-
cile it to his sense of duty to remit the penalty, consequent
on a conviction of conduct unbecoming the character of an
officer and gentleman, lie trusts, that there are circura-
atattcea in, the ease now before. hint, Wish& will authorise
his doing so without compromising the.honour of the army.
His Lordship has come to the opinion, on a perusal of
the evidence of Lieutenant Fothergill's commanding and
brother officers, bearing the highest testimony to his cor-
rect and gentlemanlike conduct previous to the occasion
under investigation ; and his Lordship, from this very
strong circumstance, hopes that lie may consider the con-
duct of Lieut. Fothergill as an intemperate ebullition of
youthful temper, or the consequences of unguarded passion,
as designated by the Court, in their solicitation for mercy,
rather than as a proof of vicious habit or want of principle;
this impression on the minds of the members of the Court,
justified their strong recommendation, and is the ground
on which his Excellency hopes he may be justified in ex-
tending to the prisoner the remission of sentence which has
been requested.

The acquittal of the prisoner on the second part of the
first charge exhibited against him in some measure palliates
that offence, and his Lordship trusts that he may rely on
the prisoner's strong and apparently sincere expressions of
contrition, and this severe warning for a security against
future misconduct.

His Excellency now desires, that the officer commanding
the 48th Regiment will assemble the officers of the corps,
and after reading to them the precedings of this Court
Martial and his Lordship's observations thereon, will, in
their presence, severely admonish Lieutenant Fotbergill :
be will likewise take that occasion to point out to the offi-
cers generally, the consequences of discord amongst them-
selves, assuring them that such spirit must be extinguished,
and that any further instance of its existence which may
come to his Lordship's notice must be followed by the most
serious consequences.

Lieutenant Fothergill will then be released from arrest,
and return to his duty.
- The foregoing order is to be entered in the General Or-
der Book, and read at the head of every regiment in his
Majesty's service in India.
Head Quarters, Calcutta, Dec. 80, 1826.

At a General Court Martial, held at Triehinopoly, on
the 15th and 16th of November, 1826, Ensign E. G. H.
H. Gibbs, of his Majesty's 48th Regiment of Foot, was
arraigned on the folloiving charge, via.
Charge.--" Ensign 1. G. H. H. Gibbs, his Majesty's
48th Regiment, placed in arrest by me, for sending a
challenge on the evening of the 14th October to Ensign
Leech, 48th Regiment, to fight a duel, being in positive
and direct disobedience of my orders as commanding of-
ficer, delivered to Ensign Gibbs, in presence of the major
of the regiment, on the 20th day of August in conse-
quence of the original quarrel having been made a subject
of complaint to me by Ensign Leech, such conduct being
subversive of military discipline, and in breach of the Ar-
ticles of War."

(Signed) JAMES TAYLOR,
Lieut.-Col. Coming. H.M.'s 48th Regt.
Upon which charge the Court came to the folios' ing
decision :

Finding.—" The Court, having maturely weighed and
considered all that has been adduced in support of the pro-
secution, as well as what has been brought forward on
the defence, is of opinion, that the charge has not been
proved, and does therefore acquit the prisoner, Ensign
E. G. H. H. Gibbs, thereof."
Approved anti confirmed.
(Signed) G. T. WALKER, Lieut.-General.
Ensign Gibbs is released from arrest, and will return
to his duty.
The foregoing Order is to be entered in the General
Order Book, and read at the head of every regiment in
his Majesty's service in India.
By order of the Commander-in-Chief,
A. MACDONALD,
Adjt.-Gent. of H.M.'s Army in India.

ANECDOTE OF THE DUKE or CLARENCE.
—When his Royal Highness visited this port about three
years ago, he dined-with the officers of the Royal Marines,
who in justice to the occasion spared no expense, but pro-
vided a sumptuous, elegant, and costly banquet. His Royal
Highness received in the most flattering manner the com-
pliment intended to be thus conveyed to him, and during
the 'evening, contributed much to the general hilarity, by
giving full scope to the urbane, generous, and convivial qua-
lities, by which' his character is so strongly marked : but
on rising to take leave, he said " Gentlemen, I hope to
have the pleasure of again partaking of your hospitality,
though I would beg as a favour, that on any future occa-
sion, you will not make any extraordinary preparation,
but receive me as you-would a friend visiting your mess, on
one of your public days." This' was an instance of con-
descending consideration, which reflects th‘r highest credit
upon the character of his Royal Highness.--Plymouth
Journal.

SECOND EDITION.

SUN OFFICE, Five o'clock;

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF LORDS.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the
Woolsack at five o'clock.

The Bishop of BRISTOL presented a petition from
Huntingdon, against any further concessions to the Ca-
tholics.

Lord Althorpe and others from the Commons brought
up the Bill for preventing corrupt practices at elections for
Members to serve in Parliament, and to regulate the