The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-08 00:00:00

THE " LITTLE BOOK."

" Quiequid agunt . . . eat farrago Libelli."—JuvENAL.
" A book where men
May read strange matters."—SHAKSPERE.

" Trusty Thomas," of Erceldoun,
A conjurer great was he ;
But we have another will shame him soon,
In Thomas of Finsbury.
The ancient Thomas a book possessed,
A volume filled with a lore unblessed,
Very doubtful in its morality ;
And the modern Tom has a volume too,
Whose contents, when exposed to the public view,
Will be much of the self-same quality.

For the blackest of art; it treats upon,
By which votes are bought, by which seats are won ;
An art practised with much obliquity,
By the crew who seem with delight to show,
That all they practice and all they know,
Is the mystery of iniquity.

Its " cover of red" denoteth well,
The sort of tale it has got to tell,
Like another " Red Book," whera you see come
A higher slim or a nobler name,
But what in effect is jest the same,
Corruption's vade mecum.
Another Lord of a magic book,
(in Sir Walter's " Lay of the Minstrel" look),
On the Tweed threw a stony bridle ;
And if, Tom, your book should have lent you skill,
To cast fetters on bribery—don't stand still,
In the mart of corruption idle.
'Tis a flood more deep aial dark the Tweed,
And should you to put it in chains succeed,
You will gain a praise that but few, get ;
And we'll say that your heavy task is done,
That bribery's bound with a " curb of stone,"
When you've got the bribers in Newgate !
•

BANK OF BRITISH NORTH
AMERICA.

A meeting of the Shareholders in this Bank was Leld yester-
day, at the Odices of the Company, 7, St. Helen's-place,
Bishops„ ate-street, for the purpose of receiving the Report of
the Directors, and the transaction of other business relating to
the affairs of the Bank. One of our Reporters was in attend-
ance to report the proceedings, but he was refused admission to
the meeting; consequently we are precluded from giving our
readers an account of what took place.

SUMMARY OF NEWS

AND
1344::te Ovinton.

" Who runs may read."

porc.:exGrc.

There is no important news in the French Journals. Dur-
ing a discussion in the Chamber of Deputies on Saturday, on
the linen thread question, the Minister of Commerce declared
that whatever might be the conclusions of the Committee,
whose report had not yet been made, he had not retraced
the engagements be had lately entered into ; that is, to in-
crease the duties on English threads 20 per cent.
Toulon letters of the 2d announce that the Belle Poule,
Didon, and A talante, put to sea on that dty. V ice-Adnaital
Hugon's squadron had left the anchorage off the islands of
liyeres for some days, and had sailed towards the Balearic Is-
lands with a fresh breeze. It was imagined that it would
anchor at Port Mahon, and then cruize off the Corsican coast.
Accounts from Algiers of the 30th ult. reached Marseilles on
the Ist inst. Letters from Philippeville of the 24th, published
in the Semaphore of the 2d, claim a decided advantage on the
21st, over a corps of 4,000 Arabs, who had attacked the camp
at El Elarouche on the Constautina road, defended by Com-
mandant Montaubon, with 500 infantry and 114 cavalry. The
Arabs lost 300 killed, and the French one officer and a ser •
geant slightly wounded.
By advises from Alexandria to the 2bth instant, we have
received the most disastrous intelligence from Syria, brought
by the Emmertee. About 3,000 Albanians had landed at
Beyrout, and committed the most terrible excesses. Among
other things they shot three Etiropeans. Omar Paella had
seized treacherously another Druse chieftain. The Druses mus-
ter 5,000, and the Maronites '2.5,000 fighting men, and it is net
thought that Omar will succeed in disarming them.
PAAXst.A.IVIENT.A.Itir.

In the House of Lords Lord Kinnaird inquired of the Duke
of Wellington to whom was to be entrusted the funds collected
under the Queen's Letter ? The Duke, after making an apo-
logy for not being aware of the fact the day before, replied, the
" Manufacturing Distress Relief Committee," which has been
in existence since 1125.
The Earl of Radnor alluded to the statement that public
money had on several occasions been advanced to relieve
public distress, and moved for a return of all such gifts, and on
what places they had been bestoled.
The Lords did nothing further except routine business, and
at an early hour adjourned till Thursday.
In the Commons Mr. M. Gibson presented a petition
from Irishmen in Alanchester, who complained that when they
applied for relief they were passed on to Dublin, and from Dublin
they were passed back to Manchester; so that they had been
sent backwards arid forwards six times.
Sir R. Inglis read a letter he bad received from Sir William
Gossett, the Sergeant-at-Arms, whose conduct had been com-
plained of the night before by Mr. Mackenzie. The Hon.
Member for Peebleshire said the Sergeant shut him out of the
House when he was in time for the division, and treated him
rudely. Tire Sergeant in the letter defended himself. Mr. M.
Attwood justified the Sergeant's conduct, and proved that. Mr.
Mackenzie bad behaved improperly. For one part of his con-
duct, refusing to go out of the lobby, the Hon. Member apolo-
gised, but insisted that the Sergeant had treated him rudely.
Sir J. Graham spoke a few words in favour of the Sergeant,
supported
regulate
sides of the House.
who baddifficult and delicate duties to perform, and so the
Hon. Member was obliged to putup with what he thought rude
treatment.
all t o
egbuyl
labLoourrdinAmshiliewys,oabntdainweads
wleaarvmelytoanbdrcinogrdiin cordially Bill
The tariff occupied the remainder of the evening. The duty
proposed by the Ministers on boots and shoes, 12s. per dozen
pairs, was objected to by Mr. G. Palmer, who wished to sub-
stitute for it a duty of 203., but "On a division, the Ministerial
proposition was carried by 148 to 36.
Ihe Committee got as far with the tariff as the duty on In•
dian muslins, when Air. Ferrand effectually put a stop to fur-
ther progress, brio:ling a charge against Dr. Bowring,
which gave rise to a very personal discussion that occupied the
House till Half-past One
runzarc OPINION.

The Herald has the following remarks on the subject of the
Income-tax and the tariff:—" The Income-tax is now the
' law of the land; the tax papers will quickly be in the hands 01
every one who4is blessed with 150/. a year and upwards; the
new tribunals for investigating the affairs of all who are re-
, moved from want will shortly be in operation ; a new and un-
avoidable pressure on the means a all, save the poorest, is
created; a fresh subject of thought and unea'iness is esta-
blished; and a most vexatious and oftentimes injurious disclo-
sure of individual property is not to be escaped from. Will the
announcement of compensation be realised? That the new
tariff will do good—great good—we do not doubt ; that it will
Of itself compensate the income tax payers for the expenditure
of four millions sterling, we greatly doubt ; it may be made to
produce compensation, if proper means be taken to increase
the demands for our goods—if new commercial treaties be
reductions of
intercourse negotiated on principles of reciprocity with regions and peoples
from which we are now excluded, or with, which our commer-
cial greatly
tariff
over
a ch an infinity ofarticles
the
of
sumptuary consumption, and those not of the first necessity,
we fear that the diminution of cost• prices, consequent on
diminished customs duties, will find itself more frequently in
the pockets of the wholesale and retail sellers than in those of
the consumers."
The Post says:_" We are aware that this journal has been
of late blamed in mote than one quarter for what is called its
`presumption,' in differing upon the question of free trade
from the opinions of leading statesmen on both sides of the
House of Common.. We have something to say in reply, and
we are anxious that attention should be given to our defence,
because to be presuming, or dogmatics', or in any way unrea..
sonable, is the last thing that we should wish to be, We plead,
ilu,,,t guilty.. We desire to leave these characteristics to the
"'lids. ar-t1 not to make any approach towards that party,
either in this 4r in any other way. It is true that, upon the
principles of free trade lately assented to by the leading states-
men on both sides of the fuss' of Commons, we maintain a
difference of opinion. We do so from 1 thorough conviction
tat such prinutples are not consistent with geuerosity to the
P or, tetra require all the employment that can be given to
them t`YAii.Lesis who can afford to pay for labour, nor with justice
ID the
sines they pay s
Mal in various ways to tee owners co money
M 444 p,,pses of our own country generally, who
-9
capital, have a fair claim to a Limited monopoly of the supply
of such things as they prodraci 134,it 'al y it not be ' pre-
' sumption ' to act upon our own eonvictioP, linvvgver 4acere,
if it be opposed to the views of lending statesmen on both'iii43
of the House of' Commons? Perhaps It would, if we rested
&fon our own conviction merely ; but we do not. We morel.,
bush the same views, and maintain the same views which ourparty appeared to be perfectly unanimous in holding this time
twelve months." •
. The Times professes its inatoit4.g, understand the recent
iajers;i 91 matters,
proceedings of the House of Commons of
obsereing:—" The decisions of the House of eZtiiiinins to 4
issuing writs to boroughs in which the sitting, Members have
been displaced for bribery are somewhat remarkable, nor do we .

profess •to understand the principles upon which those decisions
are regulated. First, Sudbury is to be disfranchised for gross
and extensive bribery—so far so good: then Ipswich, convicted
of the same crime by the same authority, on the same kind of
evidence, is to elect its two Members as if nothing had hap-
pened. Then the Nottingham writ is suspended sine die,
cause Mr. Roebuck ' has heard and believes something about a
corrupt compromise ;' and the Southampton one for a fort-
night, because atter the close of the examination and the un-
seating of the sitting Members, a Mr. John Wrenn promises
turther disclosure:; and now, tinallv, the House falls back into
its furrier iatiulgotit habits, and allows Newcastle-under-Lyme
to proceed to a tresh election, though proved guilty to no ordi-
nary or liniited extent of the same crime as Sudbury, South-
ampton. and Ipswich. Truly, we wish we could understand it all."
The following remarks are from the Chronicle As Sir
Robert Peel is hot and cold by turns in matters of bribery,
his speech arid vote last night in the case of Newcastle-under-
Lyme, might have been anticipated without difficulty. Having
voted fur issuing the writ to Ipswich, he of course opposed
the issuing a writ to Southampton; and Southampton having
been refused a writ was a reason for Newcastle-under-Lvme
experiencing a different treatment. The borough of New-
castle-under-Lyme is a notoriously corrupt place—drunkenne,s,
bribery, and perjury prevail at its elections. It was reported
against in 1838 and in 1842: there are no signs of amendment.
Under such circumstances, to issue a writ to a place noted for
proflizate drunkenness, gross bribery, and the most abandoned
disregard of oaths, weak!, in the language of Mr. Chiles
Buller, be the same thing as sending down an order for so
much drunkenness, and fur the distribution among the electors
of so much head money, and so much market mone)."The
House of Commons lies under the suspicion of not being sin-
cerely desirous of putting a stop to bribery at. elections. As
the higher classes have in all coantries great influence in deter-
mining the public morality, it is hardly assuming too much to
place to the account of the aristocracy of this country the very
lax notions with regard to bribery which are prevalent in most
of the o.d constituencies."

0210Z1*-I.:itlli.Dra—C ivINIMN,
At the meeting of the shareholders of the Llanelly Railway
and Dock Company, held on Alonday at the London Tavern,
the Report stated that twelve miles of the railway towards
Llandito are completed, and in the several branches fourteen
miles and a-half, making altogether twenty-six miles and s-
halt of railway. The total receipts to the Ist of Alay, 1542,
were 222,655/. 3s. 10d., leaving, after all expenditure, a ba-
lance of 261 Os. I ld. in hand.

At a meeting of the holders of Spanish Treasury Bonds
on Monday, a memorial was drawn up fur presentation to Es-
partero, praying an immediate liquidation of these claims.
4-11C.L3
A splendid military ball was given by the officers of the last
division of the 84th hegiment at the Bull Inn, Rochester,
on Monday. The Magistrates and gentry presented a letter of
thanks complimenting the regiment on its excellent behaviour
during their stay in the borough, after which they embarked
for Madras.