The Sun.
London, England, 1827-05-31 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

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It is satisfactory to learn, irom the statements
of our Lisbon correspondent, on whose accu-
racy we place the firmest reliance, that all ap-
prehension of immediate danger to the life of
the Princess Regent of Portugal may be laid
aside ; and thus that reasonable time will, in all
probability, be afforded towards completing such
political arrangements in maintenance of the
spirit of the Charter,—that is to say, for pre-
serving the country itself from destruction,—as
are rendered unavoidable by the machinations of
the old Queen, the Serviles, and the hopeful
Miguel ; and such, moreover, as may be suffi-
cient in spite of them. The various Arguments
on the several rights and pettensions of Don
Pedro to interfere with the actual Government
of Portugal, and of his brother to usurp, at a
period so early as next October, the powers of
the Regency into his own hands, will be seen in
the letters of our correspondent. The subtelties
and involutions of the case we have not considered
worthy of so much grave attention as its broad
and obvious outline. It may be desirable
to satisfy the literal and special pleading
critics of Foreign Courts, that according to form
and punctilio, and so forth, the Princess, as Don
Pedro's Regent, has every title to continue her
administration beyond the day of her younger
brother's minority ; but common sense and the
practical necessity of the occasion must govern
this like every other difficulty which springs out
of human affairs. The clear intent of the Em-
peror in granting, and of the people in accepting
the Constitution, was, that it should be admi-
nistered with a view to its prosperity, not to its
deliberate destruction ; and therefore that its
friends-.—not its proved and acknowledged ene-
mies--should be entrusted with that adtninistra-
ave power. Nations cannot afford to be quibbled
out of their dearest interests : Portugal cannot
suffer the loss of her chartered liberties, nor
England see tamely a faithful friend overcome ;
and though we arc of course well pleased to find
that the letter of the law is with the merits at
issue, we have no hesitation in avowing that new
safeguards, supplementary to the defects of the
Charter, must, of rigid necessity, be provided,
to ';neet those imminent and fatal dangers which
nave sprung up since the Constitutional deed
was prepared, and which were wholly unfore-
seen by its author ; otherwise there exists no re-
ciprocity of obligation between the party grant-
ing and the party claiming the executive power
of the kingdom. There is an authority—an autho-
rity not divine, or of inheritance, but tendered by a
constituted power, to a certain individual, and for a
definite purpose the favoured individual openly
despises and attempts to frustrate the end for which
he was appointed, yet claims the trust with the
avowed intention of abusing it. To avert such an '
evil, there is reason that the Portuguese Chambers
will pass a law for the appointment of a Council of 1
:'regency,with powers to act until the consumma-
tion of Don Miguel's marriage with the young
Queen; and that a guarantee against the premature
intrusion of that Prince into the Government will
be signed by England, France, and Austria, before
a long period has elapsed. It gives us much plea-
sure to hear it reported that Lord William Bentinck
is about to be despatched to Portugal, holding the
joint characters of Ambassador and Commander-in-
Chief, it being acknowledged that no man is more
fitted to inspire the friends of England with confi-
dence by sound discernment and integrity, or her
enemies with those opposite feelings, which are a
tribute never refused to unshaken steadiness and in-
vincible courage.—Times.
The once domineering ex-Ministers pretend,
that they did not mean to lord it over, or pre-
scribe to, the King. Liberal minds may be wil-
ling to draw a distinction between the hacknied
creatures of office,—the old deskmen of Pitt-
origin,—and those whom fortune and talents
first raised to eminence in other careers, and
who afterwards acceded to the Ministry as a new
occupation. That some of these latter have been
temporarily tainted with the hardened presump-
tion of the former, we have no doubt. What
else could have induced the Duke of Wellington
to reject the offers, and even the solicitations, of
a Sovereign whom he must revere ? His Grace
has lived chiefly abroad,—in camps, and among
soldiers ; he must have been a stranger, except in
theory, or from recital, to the malice, and envy,
and cabals of domestic factions; yet, being immer-
sed in one (the late Ministry), he, probably al-
most for fashion's-sake, imbibes its feelings, and
adopts its mode ofaction. He could have governed
the army whoever were Ministers, the office of Com-
mander-in-Chief having nothing to do with the po-
licy prescribed by the Administration. The army
and its head are executors of councils—not council-
lors; and to return to this important station, he has
not only been invited by Mr. Canning, (who, in a
letter to the Duke, said that "no officer of the
army could wish more for his Grace's return than he
did," or words to that effect), but he is also requi-
red by the King himself, in a letter in which his
Grace is affectionately styled "My dear friend."—
Is it loyal to repel approaches of this kind ? Or
how is such a repulse consistent with the respect
professed towards the head of the State ? His
Grace is said to have replied, " that he could not
separate himself from the friends with whom he
acted." Why, has he not acted with Mr. Can-
ning and Lord Harrowby, as well as with the late
Lord Chancellor and Mr. Peel ?—lbid.

Our City article shows how the Bank Direc-
tors are trying to " back out" of their notable
project of making country bankers the hucksters
of their notes ; and the proceedings in the House
of Commons are yet more interesting on this
subject. Mr. Manning, one of the sitting mem-
hers for Penryn, and Mr. Peafse, two Bank Di-
rectors, in reply to a question from Sir John
Wrottesley, the Member for Staffordshire, dis-
claimed strongly the project attributed to the
Bank : yet their assurances seemed to have but
little weight with Sir John Wrottesley. They
have none with us. There may be some subter-
fuge, or " come-off," as the people say,—as,
that it was done by Mr. Such-a-one in his pri-
vate character ; but we have no doubt that the
project was in agitation, and that the first steps
(now taken, and justly reprobated) resemble the
first steps in any other project which has suc-
ceeded and been carried into complete execu-
tion. While referring to the Parliamentary Re-
port, we cannot let pass the opportunity of ex-
pressing our strongest approbation of the good
sense and liberal feeling of the Dissenters, who
have resolved, by a large majority, not to em-
barrass the Government at present with the ques-
tion of the repeal of the Test and Corporation
Acts.—/bid.

Last night the attention of the House of
Commons was drawn to the subject of Emigra-
tion by Mr. Maurice Fitzgerald, who called on
Mr. Wilmot Horton to state what the intentions
of Government really were. Mr. W. Horton
said, till the Committee had concluded their
labours, Government could not state their deter-
mination. This called up Mr. Leslie Foster, a
Member of the Committee, who stated that the
Committee « were unanimously of opinion that
there were many places in Ireland, where the
population was so dense, the land could not

possibly produce enough for the support of its
inhabitants ;" and that the Irish Proprietors had,
in consequence, conic to the determination of
clearing their lands of all the surplus population.
He stated farther, " that it had come to his
knowledge, that one great proprietor had actually
driven upwards of 1,200 persons in this manner
from his estate, and turned them loose upon the
country." This gentleman, it seems, however,
" by a splendid exertion of his resources, gave
them all employment elsewhere." The same
principle, he said, was more or less in operation
throughout the whole of the kingdom. East,
west, north and south, the landed proprietors
were ejecting the surplus population from their
estates. Of these ejected persons, the greater
number came over to this country, thereby
adding greatly to the necessities of the native
population. He concluded with. observing, that
" the Committee were agreed upon one princi-
ple of relief, which he thought could not be too
soon adopted, and that was that the Irish land-
lords should take upoil themselves the expence
of transporting the surplus population of their
respective estates to Canada." There can be no
question that the surplus population of Ireland is
a great curse both to that country and to this.—
It is, however, much easier to tell the evil, than
to point out a practical remedy. Till, however,
the seat of the disease is reached, it is in vain to
think of" remedies for England alone. Ireland'
must either be cleared of her surplus hands, or
all intercourse between the two islands must he
suspended, and that is a remedy which never
would be agreed to. It is clear, that if the na-
tion were to be at the expence of relieving the
Irish landlords of their surplus population, the
void would immediately he filled. To.secure the
country against a recurrence of the evil, the Legis-
lature must, in some measure, reach the landlords.
To make the change of removing a burden on all
'those having an interest in the land, would, of
course, go a good way towards enlightening
the minds of the proprietors on the subject.--
Some bold measure must be adopted. Turkey
has sometimes been compared to Ireland : but
the disease of Turkey is of an opposite charac-
ter. The population does not increase. The
Turks, who love indolence above all things, call
the plague the blessed, as, by constantly thin-
ning the population, it frees them from all anx-
iety for food. Under such a state o f things
there can be no improvement ; for it is the ten-
dency of population to increase which stimulates
individuals to exertion and ingenuity. There
are not wanting eulogists of the state of things
in Turkey. Hacquet, a celebrated naturalist,
who examined a number of the finest provinces
of Turkey in Europe, says that the Turks are
without that distress for food which is the cause
of so much misery in all the Christian countries
of Europe ; that even in the Austrian States,
the inhabitants of Stiria, Carinthia, &c., are per-
petually pouring down on the Low Countries, and
causing the utmost distress. In Turkey, on the
otherhand, the pasturage is rich and abundant, the
cattle feeding up to their bellies in the meadows,
and food is always to be had. Mr. Buckingham,
in his journey through Mesopotamia, states also,
that he was particularly struck with the ease with
which individuals could find subsistence in Turkey.
Ireland again has too much of the principle of im-
provement, and is kept barbarous by an opposite
cause to that which keeps the Turks stationary.—
If it were not for the steam-boats which convey the
Irish to this country, typhus fever and other diseases
caused by want of food, would soon do the business
of the plague among them. Something must be
done; property is allowed for the benefit of the
community; but still the lands of a country belong,
in the abstract, to all its inhabitants. When the
social fabric is diseased, the proprietors of land have
no right to an exemption from the consequences;
and we trust, that public opinion in England will
compel the enforcement of correct principles in Ire-
land.—Morning Chronicle.

There seems a disposition in several indepen-
dent Members of the House to probe the wounds
of the Cape. The system on which Govern-
ment have latterly proceeded with our new Co-
lonies seems to us a very bad one. Our old
Colonies, though often torn by factions and divi-
sions, yet prospered, because the local Legislature
formed every where a check on despotism. Had
Lord Charles Somerset, for instance, been a
Governor of one of our New England Colonies
before the Revolution, it would not have been
in his power to do much mischief. He might
have written home angry despatches, but this
would have been the amount of the injury
done by him. But arbitrary power is a great
corrupter, and never can be entrusted with
safety to any man. But Colonies are the places
Where arbitrary power is sure to be most
noxious. A Monarch in Europe must respect
the feelings of the people, because he is depen-
dent for his power on the good opinion of that
people. But a Colonial Governor is a despot,
who is supported by a people who do not feel
the oppression which he practises. The idea of
the impossibility of ever having his misdeeds
brought home to him, is constantly present to his
mind, and naturally makes him reckless. The
people of Colonies ought to be enabled by Le-
gislatures to controul those placed over them by
this country. Without some such security they
will suffer even from the best-intentioned Go-
vernors. If a man only reflects on the little he
can know himself, and the necessity of acting in
almost all cases on the information of others, he
will see the difficulty there is, with the best in-
tentions, of not being made the dupe of design-
ing persons. A channel through which the lan-
guage of complaint can find its way, operates be-
neficially in the way of repressing the artful and
designing. Our old Colonial System was good,
our present one is detestable.—/bid.

Our attention has been drawn to an advertise-
ment in a Sunday Paper, addressed " to the
Clergy and Patrons of Livings," of a Vicarage
of 1701. a-year in a Cathedral town, to be ex-
changed, " where residence is not required."
This may, for aught we know, he exceedingly
canonical and proper—that is, strictly speaking,
for, rationally speaking, and unexplained, it seems
to us to be directly otherwise. I►► pure simpli-
city, we had been led to imagine that a vicarage
implied what the law calls " a cure of souls,"
and we thought that those who took the charge
of souls were not merely expected to find some
one to read prayers and preach in the Church,
but were liable to be called upon to baptise, to
bury, to marry, and to supply all the other reli-
gious wants of their parishioners. It seems,
however, that we were mistaken in this, and that
even in a Cathedral town, under the very eyes of
the Bishop and his Archdeacon, a benefice of
170/. can exist where " residence is not required."
Now, if a Captain in the Army, whose pay is of
about the same amount, were to advertise his
commission to be sold, and were to add to it, as
an inducement to a purchaser, that he is not re-
quired to join his regiment, to attend parade—
or, in fact, do any thing but receive his pay, such
an advertisement, we apprehend, would attract
some attention at the Horse Guards, and the Cap-
lain, we suspect, would be told that he had

rather mistaken the matter, and misconceived
the ground upon which he was entitled to
1701. a-year from the public. Some of our
clerical readers will, perhaps, flinch at this latter
idea, and will declare that they are not
paid by the public—so let that pass. But is a vi-
carage, as this is called—is a cure of souls—is the
eternal salvation of a number of human beings, whe-
ther in a cathedral town or elsewhere, of less con-
sequence than a clerkship in a public office, or of a
company in a regiment ? And can the person who
has been solemnly called and ordained to the one
really avow that residence is less binding upon him
than attendance is upon the others? Does such a
person really imagine that sacred duties are of less
importance than temporal ones—and that lie can
hold out an absence from them as an "additional va-
lue ? This may be so ; but all that we can say is,
that we do not understand it. We speak generally
—for we do not in the least know to what cathedral
town, or what vicarage the advertisement in question
has reference. But if such an advertisement of a
commission in the Army would, as we have no doubt,
attract the attention of the head of that department,
we trust there are those in the Church Militant who
will not be indifferent to this, but who will thank us
for drawing their attention to it. It may, as we
have said, be right—it may admit of satisfactory ex-
planation, but, unexplained, it appears to us to be one
of those announcements which cannot but do harm
to religion, and it is with that view that we have
thus drawn the public attention to it.—.lll. Herald.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF KING'S BENCII, MAT SO.

DODD V. EDWARDS.

This was an action against the acceptor of a bill of
exchange for 991. 165., drawn on the 13th of September,
1826, payable three months after date, to the order of one'
Hale, and by him indorsed, on the 21st November, 1826,
to the plaintiff.
After the usual proofs of handwriting in such cases,
Mr. BKOUUHA DI, for the defendant, offered to give in
evidence a release, alleged to have been executed by Hale,
the drawer of the bill, on the 4th of October, 1826 ; by
which, in consideration of the sum of 651. paid to him by
the defendant, he released the latter from all claims and
demands whatsoever, from the beginning of the world
until the (lay of the date of the release. This release hav-
ing been executed before the bill was indorsed to the plain-
tiff, it was submitted that the plaintiff stood in Hale's shoes,
and must be bound by it, inasmuch as Hale would be
stopped thereby from maintaining an action on the bill.
The Loan CHIEF JUSTICE said, that in order to bind
the plaintiff, it must be shewn that he was privy to the
release.

MI. BROUGHAM could prove this fact only by the testi-
mony of Mr. Hale, who was not in attendance, pursuant
to his subpoena.
The LORD CHIEF JusTicz said, that as the case stood,
the plaintiff was to be considered as a bona fide holder of
the bill for valuable consideration, and therefore entitled to
a verdict.

Verdict for the plaintiff—Damages One Hundred and
Two Pounds, including interest.

BULTEXL V. KINGSTON AND ANOTHER.

This was an action on the case for negligence, in omitting
to present a bill of exchange for acceptance, under the
following circumstances :
The plaintiff was a gentleman of substance, living in the
West of England. The defendants were bankers, at Ply-
mouth. On the 9th March, 1821, the plaintiff being holder
of an acceptance of Pitcairn and Co. of London, for 5001.
payable at a long date, went to the house of Hine and
Holsworth, bankers, at Dartmouth, who agreed to dis-
count the bill, for which, minus the discount, they gave
him 501. in cash, and their own bill upon their London
bankers, Messrs. Fry and Chapman, for 4501., at thirty-
one days after date. On the 10th of March the plaintiff
transmitted this latter bill to his own bankers, the defend-
ants, with instructions to them to forward it to their Lon-
don bankers, to have it presented to Fry and Chapman for
acceptance. The defendants omitted to present it at Fry and
Chapman's for acceptance, until the 22d of March, when
the latter house refused to accept it, in consequence of hay-
r e ing .. ceived notice of the stoppage of Hine and Holsworth
on the 20th of March. Mr. Chapman proved that his
house had accepted the bills of Hine and Holsworth as late
as the 18th of March, and it was highly probable, that if
the defendants had forwarded the bills in question by the
next post after they had received it of the defendants, it
would have been accepted, inasmuch as it would have
reached London on the 12th of March. It further ap-
peared, that Pitcairn and Co. became bankrupts before
their acceptance for 5001. was at maturity, and was dis •
honoured when due ; notice of which was given to the
plaintiff, who advised Hine and Holsworth that he did not
consider himself liable upon that bill. Under these circum-
stances, the question was, whether the defendants were lia-
ble in this action.

Mr. F. PoLLocx, for the defendants, contended tbat they
were not bound to send the bill in question for acceptance
by the next post after they had received it.
Lord TENTZRDEN was of opinion, that the defendants
were bound to notify to the plaintiff that they meant to send
the bill to London by private hand.

Mr. PoLLocic then contended, that as Pitcairn and Co.,
had become bankrupts before their acceptance was due, the
plaintiff had not sustained any loss, inasmuch as if fine
and Holsworth had not discounted the acceptance, the
plaintiff would only have had Pitcairn and Co. to look to.
The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE was of opinion, that as the
plaintiff had not had due notice of the dishonour of Pit-
cairn and Co.'s acceptance, be must be considered damnified
to the amount of the bill in question,
The Jury, therefore, under his Lordship's directions,
found their verdict for the plaintiff for Four Hundred and
Fifty Pounds without interest.