The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-04 00:00:00

competition, the existence of the Corn-laws will be scarcely an
object of care to anyone. Lath Reform.—that reform which
ought to have been the first of all reforms, but which has been
neglect( d by the reforming Governmehts of this last ten years—
can cause no interruption of the national rest, no distraction of
the attention of the Legislature from urgent duties; and it will
therefore be resumed under the happy auspices of a Prime
Minister who has been the first effectual law reformer during
two centuries. The legacy. of financial difficulty which the
present Ministers have inherited may well occupy the attention
of the Parliament ; and doubtless Sir Robert Peel's
Cabinet will make an important step towards providing for
the embarrassment, b limiting, as far as possible, the subjects
to be offered to the legislature. The necessity of rest, the
urgency of the Corn-law question, and even more
pressing urgency of the financial condition of the
country, burthened with its Whip,-Radical legacies of debt and
war, w ill account satisfactorily for omissions, in the
Royal Address, which we should lament as earnestly
as others, did we suppose them to proceed from the fixed
determination of the Ministry. .But two of these omissions—
we speak of a modification of the New Pocr-law Bill, and of a
limitation of the hours of labour in factories—may be other-
wise accounted for, we apprehend, upon the ground that the
public mind is not as firmly and as universally made up upon
them as it ought to be before they can be wisely trade the
subject of legislative interference.

MONEY MARKET (1 CITY NEWS

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
POST.—We regret to learn that the agents of the
North American Trust and Banking Company (New
York) do not pay the coupons due on its stock, the con-
cern being "in the handsofithe Receiver-General at New
York," This announcement is made known to us by
the trustees of a party whose bankers, twy years ago,
emb irked the whole of his property in the Stock as a
safe investment, at the rate of 941. money for every 100/.
of paper. The individual is, with his family, lately gone
to the Continent, and the letter that advises this fresh
American suspension will, at the same time, intimate to
him the awful truth, that lie and they are thereby, in
an instant, reduced to a state of indigence. The suf-
ferer in the present case is an accomplished private gen-
tleman, who, having succeded to a fortune, made, in com-
mon with others, this unfortunate disposition of it.
It is thought that these repeated wounds upon the
property of British subjects, through foreign defalca-
duns, will include within their fatal influence such a vast
number of persons, that the interference -of the Legisla-
ture cannot much longer be delayed, without great de-
triment to the interests of the public at large ; for, in-
dependently of the individual injury inflicted, the
derangement of the monetary affairs of the country,
caused by such a state of things. is obviously a fair
ground of popular discontent and popular resentment.
it is quite evident that the evil is not one of those which
may be safely left to work their own cure.
The system of foreign loans must not be altogether
eoadomned ; but if it is to be continued, it must be under
guarantees and regulations—under such securities as
may serve to protect the credulous and the simple, who
form, we presume, the majority of a community.
TIMES.—The merchants connected with the tobacco
.trade have found the cessation of the exciseman's visits
to the manufacturers of tobacco to be of such injurious
tendency, that the trade in the best kinds of leaf is in
danger of being stopped altogether, while the revenue
suffers' materially, and will suffer still more, by the
diminished importation of tobacco, which is used less
and less as the practice of adulteration increases— a prac-
tice which was much checked by the visits of the excise-,
men. In some-instances, it is said, there has not been above
40 per cent. of tobacco in the- article sold by manufac-
.urers under that name, and those who desire to adulte-.
rate especially choose the inferior kind of tobacco, as it
is better qualified to combine with the spurious mate-
rials than the superior sort. An admission which
,vas made the otl er day at one of the police courts,
where it was :said by a manufacturer that tobacco was
sold at 2s. 9d. per pound, called much attention to this
,übject, as the .price showed the prodigious extent to
which adulteration might be carried. For in the first
,lace the duty on tobacco is about 3s. 2d. per lb. ; the
t)est "strips," as they are called, cost 9d., and the in-
terior leaf 6d., and the expense of manufacturing is
,bout 4d. Therefore, if the proper article is used, the
manufacturer cannot possibly sell under 45., and then he
.vill not gain a farthing of profit. If, then, he can afford
to sell at 2s. 9d., and gain a profit by such sale, it is
easy to perceive that the proportion of spurious material
used must be great indeed, to the •detriment of the re-
venue proceeding from this source of perhaps nearly 50
per cent.

VISIT OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA
TO THE THAMES TUNNEL.

-7--
Wednesday morning, at a quarter to nine
o'clock, the King of Prussia, attended by Baron
Von Humboldt, Baron Muller, Lord Hardwicke,
Captain Meynell, and three of his Majesty's
Aides-de-Camp, arrived at the Thames Tunnel,
tbr the purpose of inspecting the works of th.s
extrautdinary undertaking. his Majesty and
were received by. Mr. Benjamin Hawes,
the Chairman, several of the. Directors and ori-
;'inal proprietors ; by . Sir I . K. -"intact, , .the
.mgineer; by Mr. Page, the acting engineer;
And the secretary, Mr. Charlier. Sir J. Rennie"
vas also present. Although the hour was early
which his Majesty arrived, there were tu
number Of visitors to welcome him to the Tunnel..
diSlLMajesty came to' the Tunnel-Wharf in the
Bachelor steam-boat, Lord liardwieke acting as
cockswain. His Majesty was- conducted through.
rltc TUnnel 'Sir I. Brunel. On arriving at time
ottOni of the staircase, where a full view 'of the
runnel is obtained, the firzt impression excited
on the Tart of the :King was surprise. ‘.‘ Qee
c'ese beau !" the King exclaimed, and in ad-
vancing into the work he clasped the hand of the
• engineer several times, and after a short pause
his Majesty exclaimed, addressing the engineer,
"It -surpasses all I have heard Of it before. I
thought the accounts-had been exaggerated, but,
now that I see it, the statements respecting.it are
short of the reality. How munch water is. there
above us, Sir Isambert ?" The engineer replied
36 feet at highest tides.
His Majesty, on reaching the shield on th e
Middlesex side, did not appear to Understand the
mode in which the work had been carried on.
Sir Isambert explained the modes operandi, and'
the King expressed his astonishment at the de-
tails. The depth of the shaft, 76 feet, was
another circumstance that caused great astonish-
ment. On reaching the top of the shaft, 011 the
Middlesex side, his Majesty, seeing the steamer
in which he had arrived, on the other side of the
river, expressed a desire to have it summoned
over, but Baron Humboldt asked him to return
through the. Tunnel in order to view the
drawings of the Works in the engineer's office.
It may here not be considered irrelevant to re-
mark that in i 827 the Baron descended in tife
diving-bell to inspect the displacement made in
the bed of the river after one of the irruptions.
On arriving at the Wapping shore the miners,
and others employed upon the works, cheered
his Majesty most heartily, and their voices were
raised much higher when Mr. Chillier an-
nounced, by command of the King, that he
placed.sol. at their disposal. His Majesty and
his suite then examined ,the drawings of the
works, with which he expressed himself
highly gratified. His Majesty took his de-
parture amidst the acclamations of - the
workmen, the bells of Rotherhithe church ring- -
Mg a merry peal. The Prussian flag was hoiSted
over the shaft at Rotherhithe. - The shield,
having performed its Work, is noiv'being 'dis-
mantled. His Majesty signed `leis name in the
visitors' book in the tunnel
,tliuoLn."'Fredk.
William the Fourth, King of Tarussta'", Baron
Humboldt also placed his nameas an addition
to many thousand distinguished visitors. Lady
Brunel was introduced to the King of Prussia.
His Majesty graciously • remarked—"Je suis
enehante, Madame, d'aeoir le plai.dr rota.
voir et de vons ft-Welter."

- - - . • Au Lit I
• LORILP.I.ANDIIURST.; .;
• TO THE EIIITOE OF MB SUN,
am much surprised that none of the
Liberal Papers have adverted to the late promo-
•tions,to the rank of Queen's Counsel. Among
the crowd of new silk gowns, almost equalling
in number those who were exalted above their
fellows in Lord .Ly ndhursts's four months' Chan -
ceihirship (with the exception of about three), it
may be safely asserted that the others are distin-
guished by nothing but the Toryism of their
principles, and by the assistance'they have ren-
dered to his, Lordship in his contests at Cam-
bridge. The honours of the profession ought not
to•be lavished from personal or political motives,
bdt ought to be the reward of professional merit
and long- standing at the bar. While silk gowns
have been so profusely and improperly lavished
on the undeserving, they have been refused to
several applicants of very long standing and in-
disputable merits, for no assignable reason ex-
cept that the unsuccessful barristers entertained
Liberal opinions in political matters. Such was
Lot the conduct of Lord Cottenhatu, who in his
last batch of seven, I think, included three con-
spicuous Tories—namely, Mr. Wortley, a son of
Lord Wharncliffe (a member of the present Ca-
binet); Mr. Godson, the Tory M.P. for Kidder-
minster; and Mr. Whateley, brother-in-law to
the Duke of Marlborough.
Acts of the nature I have above described
tend to bring an honourable profession into dis-
repute and discredit, and ought to be made
known to the public.—l am, &c.

AN Oth BARRISTER.
Lincoln's Inn, Jan. 30, 1342.

FUNERAL OF MR. DAVIDGE.—It has been
arranged that the funeral shall take place on Tuesday
next, and it is expected that the body will be followed to
the tomb by a great many members of the theatrical
profession ; for few men were more beloved as a thea-
trical manager than the deceased.
The Queen and Madame Adelaide have each
sent 500 f. to the families of some poor fishermen who were
lost off La Teste, near Bordeaux, a short time since. The
Duke of Orleans has sent 300 f., and the Duchess has given
some beautiful objects of work for prizes in a lottery on their
'behalf.
The Earl and Countess of Munster have left
Paris for London.