The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-20 00:00:00

LIGHT GOLD.

We are surprised to learn that a large quantity of
light sovereigns were issued from the Pay-office in
Portsmouth Dockyard (and we presume the same has ,
been done at other places) since the proclamation was
published respecting this portion of our currency. As
almost all, if not all, the payments made at this place are
for wage:, we think that something should be done to
prevent the further issue of any except such as are of
the legal weight. We have heard of one tradesman in
the neighbourhood of the Dockyard, who has been
much in the habit of giving change, wbo will lose con-
siderably by the number now in his hands, nearly all of
which were paid as wages from the Navy Pay-office.
Surely this must be the result of oversight. The Go-
vernment are bound to prevent the issue of any money
by their servants but such as is of full value. We hope
this notice will have the effect of stopping the evil com •
plained of. The parties receiving money at the Pay-
office have no means of proving its weight at the time of
receiving it, neither can they change any part of it after
having left the office.—llampshire Independent.
Some tradesmen are still deducting 3d. for evey grain
deficient. This is evidently unjust. There are 245 h-lf
grains in a sovereign of the current weight, and as a so-
vereign is equal in va ue to 240 pence, the tradesmen who
buys gold at a penny the half-grain must gain five pence
if he can buy as many grains as amount in value to a
sovereign.—Lanc.ister Guardian.
The proclamation respecting 04 has, duvin3 the last
week, preduced a most unsatisfactory relation between
the payer and receiver The injustice of making the
present holders of gold the losers of sixpence per pound,
as the consequence of years of depreciation, is keenly
felt, and prove.; great mismanagement at head-quarters.
—KendciiMercurg, • •

FRANCIS AFTER CONVICTIpN. Never has there
appeared within the prison of Newgate a convict more corn-
pletely
prostrated by the circumstances and result of a trial for
a capital offence, than the wretched creature who was con-
victed of having attempted to assassinate the Queen. Upon
being conducted, or rather carried, to the room in which he is
.now confined, Francis sank down upon a seat, and moaned and
wept bitterly. Mr. Carver, the Ordinary, who from the mo-
ment of the prisoner's committal to prison, earnestly requested
him to expect the worst, and assured him that the whee of the
public were exasperated against him, and that the press faith-
fully recorded the opinions of the people towards him,
visited and endeavoured to raise hun from the stupor
into which his fears seemed to be hurrying him ; and
it was evident, from the manner in which he received
the exhortations of the Reverend Gentleman, that he
bad entertained sanguine hopes of being settled for life in
Bedlam, or some other asylum, in which he might be main-
tained without any exertion of his own. He declared, amidst
ti ars and sobs, that he never meant to kill or even injure her
Majesty, and that all he sought by letting off the pistol was the
notoriety to which other persons had attained by appearing to
raise their hands against the life of the Sovereign. His father
visited him on Saturday in the presence of the Sheriffs and the
Ordinary, and a conversation of some length took place between
them. The prisoner seemed to be for some time overwhelmed
with grief and terror. lie covered his face with his bands when
his father entered, and repeated most earnestly .and solemnly
the assurances that he never contemplated any mischief towards
her Majesty, and that he was perfectly aware there could be no
pretence for ententaining a tingle thought to her prejudice or
against her sacred person. His father and the Ordinary urged
hun to communicate to them whether he had been conversing
with anybody upon the subject of attacking her Majesty
befote he made the diabolical attempt, to which he re-
, plied, in a manner calculated to impress those who heard him
that he spoke the truth, that he never opened his lips to a
human being upon the subject. It was quite manifest to those
who have had opportunities of observing the conduct of the
prisoner since he- has become an inmate of Newgate, that the
noise which was made about Oxford's attempt to assasainati
the Queen, and the reports in circulation relative to the corn.,
fortable quarters in which that individual was deposited imme-
; diatelj, after trial, and the ridiculous sympathy excited in favour
of the criminal, presented a combination which Francis's mind
was not able to resist. Indeed, we are given to understand,
' that Oxford, upon bearing of the attempt made by Francis to
assassinate her Majcs'y, made an observation which proved that
insanity had as little to, do with the attempt made by the one, as
•with. the attempt made by the other. ‘! If," Said Oxford''-
, " they had hanged me, there would have been nothing of the
kind again."-- Sunday Times.