The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Duke of 'Wellington is again in hi sus-
tural place—at the head of the British Army.—
On Friday last we announced that Ministers had
determined on offering his Grace the aßpoint-
ment, and that if it had not been &litany ten-
dered to him, the proposal wool& probably, not
be long delayed. Within twelve hours of that
day's publication, Lotd Auglesea was intrusted
with a communication to the Duke from his
Majesty, naming his Grace Commander-hi-Chief
of the Army ; and we have reason to believe that
the letter in which his Grace l'ibtified his willing
acquiescence in his Majesty's pleasure, was
couched in terms peculiarly agreeable to the
King. The Noble Duke's acceptance of the
office of Commander-in-Chief„ and without a
plate in the Cabinet, cannot, we should appre-
hend, fail of being agreeable to all parties; and,
what is of no less consequence, it is agreeable to
the Constitution, which places—and justly places
—a distinction between the deliberative and exe-
cutive powers, upon the principle that the ann
should not usurp the place of the head. Not-
withstanding the announcement in the Court
Circular of Friday night, we learn that Mr. Her-
ries has not yet received the seals of office as
Chancellor of the Exchequer, though he was on
that day sworn in as a member of the Privy
Council. For our own parts, we should wish
that the present delay in his promotion may be
shortly terminated. With respect to the nomi-
nation of Lord Palmerston to that financial office,
surely nothing so ridiculous can have been
thought of.— Times. •
If the vices inherent in the present Administra-
tion of our bankruptcy laws had not been pretty
strongly dwelt upon and exposed in an elaborate
report to Parliament, the proceedings of almost
every day at Guildhall would have stamped the
general complaints of the mercantile world on
the subject with the authority of truth and
justice. It is certainly a severe visitation upon
the country, though not by any means an in-
frequent one, when a system, bad in itself, has
" the luck" to be badly administered ; and of the
two, we are certain that there is a more reason-
able hope of seeing good rules of action substi-
tuted for worse by the Legislature, than a multi-
tude of incompetent or unworthy agents suc-
ceeded by men of integrity and talent, for the
application of such improved principles, let the
choice of the public functionaries rest where it
may. So long as the Lord Chancellor for the
time being has the power of nominating a rabble
of commissioners of bankrupts, for instance,
where each individual is lost in a crowd, and
where that fractional part of the general mass
of negligence, ignorance, rapacity, or insolence,
which can be charged upon any one commis-
sioner, scarcely becomes of sufficient importance
to be brought, or to bring him, distinctly and
personally before the public, there is such a
constant temptation to disregard of duty, and so
little restraining or controlling power, that the
bankrupt law may be improved and polished to
all eternity, Without ensuring a fair or diligent
administration of justice between creditor and
debtor. The class of individuals on whom this
branch of the Lord Chancellor's patronage
usually alights, is, from the nature of things,
one whence little or no benefit can be ex-
pected for the mercantile commuity. A bar 7
rester in practice will not condescend to waste
his valuable time at Guildhall, and so cut
himself off from the hourly chances of pro-
fessional employment which an exclusive at-
tendance on the courts of law or equity would
offer him. The choice, then, of the Lord
Chancellor, even if fairly exercised, falls for the
most part on men who have no business as bar-
risters, or no prospect of it, and therefore, gene-
rally speaking, who are the most idle or incapable
members of the profession. If the bankrupt law
were in other respects ever so unexceptionable,
what sort of industry, or discernment, or satisfac-
tion to the commercial world, could be looked
for froin such an order of judges, and, therefore,
what degree of usefulness from the law itself?
The frame and composition of the bankruptcy tri-
bunals must evidently undergo an important
change ; there must be fewer judges—they must
be kept more constantly at work, and will be more
conspicuously, from the smallness oftheir numbers,
before the public. There may then be some
efficient control over the proceedings of bank-
ruptcy ; and if the judges be regularly paid from
some other fund than the estates of the unfortu-
nate debtors, or snore wretched creditors, between
whom they are sworn to adjudicate, it is possible
that the time of the community, as well as the
assets under litigation, may find their way in
some more decent proportion, and in more rea-
sonable time, to the hands of those who only
have a right to them. A letter from a corre-
spondent, who signs himself " A Creditor," and
who describes one occurrence by which he was
himself a sufferer, illustrative of the conscientious
and disinterested practices which prevail among
commissioners of bankrupts, will come home to a
large body of our city readers as not altogether
without example.—lbid.
- -

Mr. Herries did not receive from his
Majesty " the Seals of the office of Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer," as was stated in
the Court Circular, and we are assured that his
appointment to that office is not in contempla-
tion. It is not yet fixed who shall be Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer ; but we believe it is in-
tended that that office shall be filled by Mr.
Charles Grant. Mr. Huskisson will, we be-
lieve, receive the Colonies. None of the ap-
pointments, however, will be gazetted till the re-
turn of Mr. Huskisson. We before stated that
none of the Outs would come into office ; and
the appointment of the Duke of Wellington to
the office of Commander-in-Chief does not con-
tradict our statement, for the appointment is ex-
clusively military, and neither he himself, nor
any of his friends, enters the Cabinet. Mr. Her-
ries is now at Calais, and it is understood that
the state of his health would not admit of his
acceptance of offica.—Morning Chronicle.
It gives us very great pleasure to announce,
that his Grace the Duke of Wellington has once
more accepted the Commander-in-Chiefship of
the Army. We hope that this is merely a pre-
lude to the coming in again to office of Mr. Peel,
who retired for no good reason that we could
ever find out. He certainly much pleased the
country by the manner in which he performed
the duties of the office that he filled ; and we
think that if the King were again to call him to
his Councils, and appoint him to some office,
that a great portion of the people of England
would be pleased—we know that the Protestants
The case, however, might •be different
with respect to the Catholics, the Irish Catho-
lics especially. In consequence of the death of
Mr. Canning, it would appear that the King, by
the amalgamation
of parties, will have what may
be called a strong Administration, at least so far
as the probable op-position of a strong party is
concerned. We should, however, be very 69rry

if there should be no opposition, for opposition
is good for the United Kingdoni.--=Morning
Herald.
Sir James Graham, in his evidence before the
Committee on Criminal Commitments and Con-
victions, of which he was Chairman, states some
interesting particulars with respect to the condi-,
Lion of the people of Cumberland

" What isiho geheral 'rate of wages given to an agri-
cultural laboUrer in your neighbourhood ?—The custom is
thiVehal in the county of Cumberland, of refusing any
payment of wages out of the poor-rates; the consequence
is, that the rate of wages paid by the employer to the la-
bourer is higher in Cumberland than in almost any other
agricultural county; a ploughman there receives at least
12s. a week, in many cases with a cottage or rooms rent-
free ; and in no cases a field labourer receive less than

Is. 6d. a day, if he be a good workman.
" Is it not the custom for the labourer to receive assist-
ance out of the Poor-rates for the support of his family,
When his family is large?—lt is not. Mr. Sturges
Bourne's Act has been carried almost universally into exe-
cution ; select vestries assemble regularly, according to the
provisions of that Act; neither rent nor wages are paid
out of the Poor-rates. The fund is most economically ad-
ministered. Except in special cases relief is refused; and
the Poor-rates, notwithstanding the increase of manufac-
turing poverty, have diminished even in the manufacturing
districts since 1819."

To shew the connection between poverty and
crime, we have only to contrast Cumberland
with some of the agricultural counties of the
South of England. We noticed the statement
of the Rev. Dr. Hunt, that crime in Bedford-
shire had increased tenfold, or 900 per cent.,
between 1801 and 1827. But commencing
with 1817, the total commitments stand thus—

1817, 175 ; 1818, 251 ; 1819, 253 ; 1820,
241 ; 1821, 289: 1822, 347 ; 1823, 419 ;
1824, 358 ; 1825, 333 ; 1826, 348 ; 1827,
417. Cumberland, on the other hand, had 89
commitments in I'Bl7, and 54 in 1826. The
number for the seven years, from 1817 to 1823,
was 403 ; and if we take seven years, commenc-
ing with 1820 and ending with 1826, the num-
ber is still lower, 384. The abase of the Poor
Laws in the South has led to an excessive
poverty, by producing every where a redundant
population. A false step once made in this re-
spect can hardly ever be retraced. When the
population has been once suffered to become re-
dundant in any district, the first effect of refusing
to pay part of the wages out of the rates would
be to increase the wages of the single men, and
to diminish the wages of men with families, and
the sufferings of the latter for some time would
be very great. On the other hand, in a county
like Cumberland, which has never departed from
the natural mode of paying wages, the population
will not become redundant, and, consequently,
it will be no difficult matter to avoid the evil

Trom which the South has suffered. We have
often remarked that the Poor Laws, though they
have been made the instrument for degrading the
labourers of the South, only did so becaus' they
were abused—and that we were satisfied they
were, upon the whole, the means of raising the
condition of the English labourers higher than it
would otherwise have been, by furnishing men of
property with a powerful inducement to prevent
any undue iperease of the laliouring population.
We have an example of the way they work in
Cumberland, stated by Sir James Graham

"Has the population increased in the agricultural pa-
rishes ?—I have myself taken very strong mears to prevent
it; for it so happens that my whole estate came out of
lease in the year 1822, after the currency of a lease of
fourteen years; and by consolidation of farms, and the
destruction of cottages, I have diminished upon my own
property the population of the extent of from three to four
hundred souls.

" On how many acres ?—On about 30,000.
" What was the whole extent of population ?—lt was
under 4,000 before I reduced it.

What became of those three or four hundred?—The
greater part of thembeing small tenants, were enabled to find
farms on the estates of other proprietors, who pursued the
opposite course of subdividing their estates for the purpose
of obtaining higher nominal rents; others have become
day-labourers; and as day-labourers, I have reason to know
that they are more thriving than they were on my estate,
as small farmers, subject to a high rent, which their want
of capital seldom enabled them to pay; two or three of
these families went to America.

" Have you any out of work ?—None entirely out of
work ; some only partially employed ; but since the dis-
persion of the large mass of population, the supply of
labour has not much exceeded the demand : for whenever
I removed a family I pulled dawn the house, and the pa-
rochial jealousy respecting settlements is an ample check
on the influx of strangers." . . . .

That the population has been kept down by
similar means in many parts of England it would
be no difficult matter to show. Sir James ob-
serves, that the law of settlement is an ample
check on strangers. It is here that the Scotch
Poor Laws are defective, for they form no check
on strangers. The consequence is, that while
Cumberland can exclude the Irish, the Scotch
counties cannot ; and thus, while the rate of
wages does not fall in the former, in the latter
the influx of Irish will infallibly pauperize and
degrade the native population. We have advo-
cated Poor Laws in Ireland because we can con-
ceive no means of controuling the tendency of
the lower orders to multiply beyond the means
of employment, except by taxing property, and
thus giving the rich an interest to keep down
their numbers.—lbid.

It is doubly gratifying for us to announce that
the Duke of Wellington has resumed the im-
portant post of Commander-in-Chief of the
Army, as his acceptance of his Majesty's gra-
cious offer restores to the country the valuable
services of the man best calculated for filling such
a situation, and puts an end to the parties into
which the political world has lately divided. The
Opposition, of which his Grace would have been
the chief pillar and strength if it had held toge-
ther long enough to become a regular body, is
annihilated by his withdrawal. Its Members
cannot consistently act against him whom they
lately followed as their Leader, and the only
course which it now remains for them to pursue,
is to imitate the example which his Grace has
given, should the services of any of them be still
deemed of any utility to the State. It is under-
stood that, in returning to the command of the
army, the Noble Duke does not re-enter the Ca-
binet. In the propriety of this arrangement we
most cordially agree. The command of the
army is enough for any one individual,
however indefatigable and intelligent, and
the Duke, of all men, is least disposed
to make it, or any other duty which he
undertakes, a sinecure. But were it not so, it
would still be of importance to keep it apart from
politics. There is, indeed, little fear, that with
his Grace it would suffer much from such a con-
nection, but the example is not a good one.
One of the principal
late Royal causes which enabled his
Highness the Duke of York to plan
and to proceed with his numerous improve-
ments in the army may unquestionably be found
in his high rank, to which he was indelAed for
permanence in office sufficient to look for-
ward to distant contingencies, and to provide
for them with the prospect that his provi-
sions would prove effectual. But another,
and, perhaps, a still more effectual cause is to
be found, in his absolute independence of all
parties, and the moral weight which that inde-
pendence, and the impartiality that was the result
of it, gave to his recommendations. What the

Duke of York owed to the splendour of his
rank—we mean his continuance in office amidst
all the changes of party—the Duke of Wel-
lington may naturally expect, from the splendour
of his exploits, which, in his, as in the case of
his predecessor, forbids all competition: and his
remaining unconnected with the Cabinet, will
give to his plans all the weight which independ-
ence, not only above imputation, but above sus-
picion, is calculated to impart. Once more,
then, we very sincerely and cordially congratulate
the public on an event, for which we have never
ceased to wish.—Nctu Times.