The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—It is strongly affirmed in circles likely
to be informed of what is allowed to transpire of
Cabinet deliberations upon and differences respecting
matte's of national policy, that Sir Robert Peel sub-
mitted a more extensive change of the Corn-laws to
the Cabinet than that which he subsequently intro-
duced to the House of Commons. It is further said
that his plan was supported by Lords Ripon and
Wharncliflb, but met with vehement opposition
from Sir James Graham and Lord Stanley ; and
that the latter prevailed on the Premier to pare
down his original design to the meagre dimen-
sions of his " sliding-scale." If this be true—
and it is affirmed to be so in quarters likely to know
something of what is going on behind the curtain,
however carefully its folds may be arranged, to pre-
vent the eye of the curious from penetrating within
the veil—then there is yet hope that the " sliding-
scale " will be compelled to give place to a sounder
policy. A few more debates such as that which took
place last night, and stands adjourned to Monday,
may cause the Premier to introduce, first to the
Cabinet, and then to the House of Commons, the
overture which he knew so well how to play : " The
time is come !" In the meanwhile we commend to
Sir Robert Peel and his Cabinet a careful considera-
tion of the maxim, which the experience of ages has
stamped with the impress of incontrovertible truth—
'. Plus impetus, majorem constautiam pens miscros:"
The practical lesson inculcated by it is, that a wise
Government will be cautious how it provokes to op-
position or resistance bodies of men, reduced to the
verge of desperation by the extremity of misery.
Of the value of this caution no one is better able to
form an estimate than Sir James Graham; although
he appear now utterly oblivious of the truths he
once so eloquently and forcibly urged upon the
Legislature and the country. Speaking of the
contest which the suffering caused to the labouring
classes by the Corn-laws would ultimately 'provoke
between the people and the landowners, the Right
Hon. Secretary, in his " Corn and Currency," thus
utters his warning, the effect of which he endeavours
to stifle at the very moment when its truth is exem-
plified, and the dangers he foresaw and predicted,
are actually impending over the class he then endea-
voured to make sensible of the perils of their position.
' On what ground will it [the 'fearful contest he was
describing] be decided ? On the very topic which in-
flames to madness. Hunger, which breaks through
walls, will be arrayed against them. Reason will be
heard no longer. The barriers of society will be
broken down ; and estates, distinctions, honours, swept
away in one resistless torrent." Sir James Graham
is a. brave man to put in issue the truth of his own
p; eliction !
STANDARD.—The adjournment of the debate
affords a sufficient reason for postponing any length-
ened' remarks upon it, even had we not a more co- I
gent
one in the want of time and room. We can-
not, however, forbear recommending to the most
serious attention of our readers the speeches of Mr.
Aitwood and Sir Robert Peel. There was more
of opposition, not to call it hostility, between the
two speakers, than we could ever wish to see
between two such men, and perhaps more
than the occasion warranted. Indeed, it seems
to us that they are both perfectly agreed in the
causes of the existing distress,: and both equally
at a loss to find a present remedy. Mr. Attwood
condemns free trade ; and does not Sir R. Peel
condemn it also, when he shows that "the com-
mand of capital" may render the utmost exten-
sion of trade wholly unprofitable to the commu-
nity ? And is not such (to the community)
unprofitable extension of trade accompanied
by an aggravation of the tyranny of capi-
tat all that is even promised from free trade ?
The law of 1819 more than doubled the power of
money capital ; the Poor-law of 1834 aggrandised
that power in probably a greater proportion.
Knowing this, and knowing from Sir Robert Peel
that the command of capital may snatch from
the industrious all the fruits of their industry,
can we be at a loss to account for the present
distress, or at a loss for the remedy ?—a recurrence
to a liberal system of Poor-laws, to temper, if
not to check, the advances of the tyrant capital.
The highest compliment ever paid to Sir Robert
Peel is the reproach of Lord John Russell, that he
has only partially applied the principles of free
trade. The praise of the tariff is, that generally
(there are exceptions) it has no respect to free
trade doctrines. It relieves articles of consump-
tion and the raw material of manufactures,
N;l2erever it can do so without injury to
native or colonial producers. This a wise legisla-
tor would do, if happily such an animal as a poli-
tical economist had never been produced in nature.
It is because the tariff has generally followed com-
mon sense and the teaching of experience that the
.country approves of it, and the only points upon which
clbjections have been heard—at least the only points
upon which censure has been just, are those
in which the inadvertence of Ministers, and the
treacherous cupidity of those who ought to have
warned them of their error but did not, have caused
them to be milile metallic a false analogy. We allude
particularly to them.
mines.

THE WIISIE TESTIMONIAL.
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)
The Ballot, which was proceeding when we went to
press, terminated in favour of Mr. Joseph.

CONDUCT OF HER MAJESTY'S
THIRTEENTH FOOT.
(From the Bombay Times of April 6.)
:The conduct of her Majesty's 13th Regiment, in
their progress from Caubul to Jellalabad, was se-
ver* handled two or three months ago by sonle of
the enrrespondents of our Conteniporaries, who went
so far as to advance a charge of cowardice. The re-
putation if that distinguished corps was warmly de-
fended in several of the journals. We embrace the
opportunity t;fforded us to lay. before" our readers a
clear statement of the whole transaction from the pen
of ooe who was on the spot, and which has been for
some time in our possession.
The enemy were in very considerable force in the
front and on both flanks, and the rear of the British.
.The advanced guard and main column won its way,
slowly but resolutely, through a long valley, over-
shadowed by Lifty hills and precipices. These were
:scaled under a very sharp fire by the skirmishers of
the 13th and 35th And to enable them to do this,
si tccessive reinforcements were pushed up to them,
un,til at length only one entire company of the first-
nam ed corps was left around its colours, the guns,
and ,the Commander of the fore !. Historyby cordsr
how IN'apoleon forced the pass of* -
ing .eorward a body of Polish Lancers at the gallop up
• the raad, whilst both flanks were enveloped in the fire
of French and , Spanish Tirailleurs. Al similar ma-
funtwe was here executed with a company of light
infantry. 'Whilst the skirmishers on either hand
were brotgh t to a halt, by either inaccessible heights
{w formidable \ entrenchments, and the guns in
hollow were fol,md to produce but little impression
as they sent forth
.bullets against so lofty an eleva-
tion, this handful c,f foot
without the loss of pushed on and won the pass*‘.
'.a man. The Ghilzies had not
guarded it, and probal ITY
with the view of reinforcing
their flanks, had left w, vi an old fort at its inlet. The
oll°
cavalry and guns f and occupied the table
land. The day was in fa ti -h-on. It was only neces-
sary to have disposed the 1-0,--ce on the top of the
mountain, to have permits ed thk' cumbrous baggage
to pass on through an inter vd o.:ir line, and to have
iixed the ground of encampment, net at the yet dis-
tant point of Soorkhab, but a t the nexest stream of
water, not three miles from the bead of the pass.
There is little doubt that this would have been done,
if our Commander had that day been on his good
grey charger; but he lay in a litter, suffering a de-
gree of bodily pain, the sense of which few could have
concealed like _himself. He had a sly an impeFftet view

of the ground and the operation; and. whatever those
around him might have_ seen, and thereupon thought
and desired, in a conflict the General alone can do
the General's part. The force moved forward after a
considerable delay indeed, during which much of the
baggage also passed on, but time was not allowed for
the rear-guard to fall back on the summit of the
mountain. In the meantime it had been fiercely at-
tacked from the very moment of its essaying to quit
its encampment. An untoward incident occurred in
the recal of an officer who was making excellent dis-
positions at the time, to perform another duty near
the outlet of the pass. Captain Broadfoot, however,
of the Shah's force, a soldier of talent and bravery
equal to every crisis, sustained with a small body of
his mixed corps of Sappers the desperate onset of an
enemy bold and numerically superior. He retired,
yielding hill after hill, and point after point, only
when they were enveloped by the enemy's skir-
mishers, and more than once snatched them from their
hands when they thought them their own. His wing
was never broken : but when nearly all our compa-
nies of the' main body had been too hastily withdrawn
from the crests they had gained, the rest of the rear-
guard, the 13th, and the 35th,4nd the guns, became
necessarily the mark of an increasing force, and when
thrown into very loose order by the nature of the
ground, were unexpectedly assaulted hand to hand.
'Their loss was great, and men of both corps were
for some minutes in panic flight. They were rallied
by the dispositions made at the outlet by Captains
Backhouse and Fenwick, and covered by the bold
front ever maintained by Captain Broadfoot. How
ought this event in fairness to be regarded and de-
scribed ? As a short-timed reverse and rout, such as
the best troops sustain and become involved in during
mixed and critical operations—such as insulated por-
tions of corps participated in, even when the Mari-
time Alps fell before the genius of Napoleon, and
Wellington penetrated the passes of the Pyrenees.

* Illegible.—EDlTOß.

FUNERAL of SAMUEL HOLBERRY,
TH-F, CHARTIST PRISONER.
TO T_TIE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sin—The sad news of Samuel Holberry's death in
York Castle will have reached you through the local
papers.
Holberry is the last victim of the refined tortures of
our prison discipline ; and the secor.d who has died in
prison out of six Chartists who were taken in 1839 from
Sheffield. When taken away he was in the prime of
life, of athletic stature, and full of health. One short
year of close confinement on the tread-mill, under the
silent system of Northallerton prison, sufficed to take
away his strength ; and the second has completed
his death.
His friends repeatedly called the attention of the Se-
cretary of State to his case ; and in March last Mr.
Duncombe brought it before the House of Commons,
but nothing was done beyond removing him from
Northallerton to York Castle, which in the end only
proved worse. The reply from the Home-office, through
some official subaltern, was, " The Secretary of State saw
no reason to interfere."
After an inquest had been held over his body, his
remains were removed by his friends to Attercliffe, a
small village one mile from Sheffield, where his discon-
solate wife resides. The news of his untimely death
caused a deep feeling in Sheffield.
His funeral took place on Monday afternoon, at the
Sheffield Cemetery. The authorities of the town seem
to have been alarmed at the public feeling in his favour.
The military were brought out, and paraded thrpugb
some of the principal streets with their swords drawn,
in the morning, as if it were intended to intimidate, by
this unnecessary display of physical force, the Chartist
bodies. Everything, however, went off in quietness.
At noon, hundreds began to wend their way to the
places where the Chartist Associations were to assemble.
The members of the Political Institute met in front of
the Corn Exchange, and the O'Connor section in Para-
dise-square. The funeral left Attercliffe about half-past
two. A brass band preceded the hearse containing poor
Holberry's remains, playing the "Dead March in Saul ;"
then followed two mourning coaches, containing the de-
ceased's friends ; and after them the councils of the
Chartists and their members in procession, accompanied
by a large number of spectators.
It reached Sheffield .about three o'clock, when thou-
sands poured out of every street and avenue to join the
procession and throng. The crowd was so dense that all
the shops had to be closed in the streets through which
the procession passed, and by the time it reached Sheffield
Moor from twenty to thirty thousand persons were so-
lemnly accompanying the remains of Hulberry to his last
resting place.
After the service for the dead had been read by the
chaplain, addresses were delivered over the grave by
Mr. Thomason, from the Vale of Leven, and" other
Chartists. The vast multitude Afterwards gradually re-
tired.
Next to the indifference of the Home-office in this
case may be placed the local Magistrates. The worthy
vicar of Sheffield had heard of Holberry's sufferings,
and kindly exerted himself on his behalf. Through his
influence the Magistrates had consented to sign a paper
for his release, but foolishly delayed signing it until
after some Chartist meetings about to be held were over,
thus holding the dying prisoner in York Castle account-
able fur the conduct of parties over whom lie had no
control. B. M.
[Another correspondent informs us that collections
are being made for the distressed widow, Mrs. Holberry,
whose unfortunate situation has greatly attracted the
sympathy of those in Sheffield and its vicinity.]