The Sun.
London, England, 1827-11-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

It may serve as a proof of the diabolical hard-
ness of heart produced by the practice of gam-
bling, whether in the hells as they are called, or
in the funds) to state that a policy has been
handed about 'Change, giving five guineas to
receive .an hundred, if the three Ambassadors'
heads Were off at Constantinople by the 15th of
the present month ! What wretches ! Money!
money ! above all things, money ! This it is to
speculators in the funds—time-bargainers. For
our own parts, we do not think the Ambassa-
dors' lives in any danger ; not only because they
have done no wrong, but because neither their
Governments, nor the naval officers employed
by their Governments, have done none ; the
battle being evidently accidental, and begun by
the Turks themselves. There is also another
topic which deserves consideration. The pre-
sent Sultan is not, like his predecessors, to be
considered as the mere tool or instrument of a
turbulent and ungovernable army. He has had
the power to dissolve that army, and the new
military force by which this has been done should
also be able to controul any other insurrectionary
movement calculated to violate the law of nations
and end in bloodshed.— Times.

We cannot say that any intelligence yt t
eeived from the seat of war, or rather of sh p
less confusion, in Catalonia, prOvides us with
many sound materials for reasoning upon its re-
sults. The impression remains pretty generally
fixed, that it is a rebellion of the priesthood, and
of those among the politicians of the Spanish
or French Court who coincide with the Jesuits
and Popish Bishops in their taste for despotic
power. That Princes nurse: in arbitrary
maxims from their birth, should regard with in-
dulgence at least an ostensible attack on their
authority, proceeding from such quarters, and
directed to such ends, appears no very wild con-
jecture, where, as in the Royal Family of Spain,
and in others which we forbear to specify, there
cannot be alleged much predominating wisdom
to enlighten the princely advocate for despotism,
upon the danger of openly abetting it in such an
age as this, and thus to warn him against the
chance of overrunning his game by too eagerly
and fiercely pursuing it, One thing must be
acknowledged—that Ferdinand has been guided
by a prudent instinct in hurrying from the in-
terior of the kingdom, where a public convulsion
might too readily have involved him, and betaking
himself towards an extremity of Spain. If he has
not succeeded in putting down a rebellion which
had for its object the strengthening of his
own absolute power, he has unquestionably at-
tained the other and far dearer purpose,—that
for which alone, as is said by those who know
him, Ferdinand deliberates and watches without
ceasing,—we mean a more secure depository for
his own person. He is now about entering a
Spanish, fortress,, occupied by a numerous French
garrison. He has the maritime frontier at his
feet, and that of the Pyrenees within twelve hours.
He •may therefore look on at his ease, while civil
war tears his country. A remarkable order has
been issued for disarming allthe Spaniards—
those only excepted who are already organised,
and under command of the Court. If such an
order be more than issued,—if it be carried into
execution,—the whole body of Liberals will be
at the mercy of their persecutors, and every friend
of law and constitution will have .the unsheathed
knife at his throat. Were it not, therefore,
somewhat hazardous to speculate on any Spanish
contingencies, we might be tempted to guess
that the execution of the above order would not
be quietly accomplished. How far the resistance
May succeed, is a different question. But if the
constitutional or even moderate men give up
those arms, which are more general, perhaps, in
Spain than any where else in Europe, the spirit
of their enemies leaves little doubt that they will
be indiscriminately butchered.—lbid.
. We recollect a case in which a great defaulter
to the British Government tried, to improve his
fortunes by engaging in a plan to restore cast
iron to its malleable state. But the scheme failed,
and the man was ruined. We wish the Reports
-on Emigration conld be re-converted to their
primitive rags, and they (the rags) made to emi-
grate (instead of the poor devils who wear them)
to the Morea, to be applied to the wounds of all
who have suffered in the battle of Navarin. We
weighed one of those Reports, as we informed
the public, and found that its weight amounted
to five pounds and a half! There is another of
about three pounds, and a little make-weight of
only a few ounces; and such trash ! Whilst we
were sitting last night in total
,despair of any
news from Vienna or Constantinople, we tossed
over one of these massy volumes. It opened at
the evidence of a worthy Baronet, who said that
he should like to send certain troublesome sub-
jects out of a parish belonging wholly to him-
self. No doubt he would, and so would others
in his station ; but as matters stand at present,
the poor families have just as great a right to
.send the rich away as the rich the poor. How-
ever, the worthy Baronet is skilled in breeding,
and has, we believe, written a book upon that
subject ; he therefore sagaciously adds—" pro-
vided he could prevent the space from being
filled up again." Ay, there's the hitch ! You
may pump, and pump your heart:out, Sir John,
but the water will still make head against you,
unless you can stop the little aperture by which
it flows in. An amiable man, we believe, but
not a good practical philosopher, recommended
that ilrocess ;but, some how or other, his scheme
failed of being adopted, and so will the emigra-
tion scheme. If the superfluous wealth of the
rich were employed in nothing else but removing
the redundant poor, the active exertions of the
residue, taking population at its mean level,
would continually and for ever replenish the va-
cuum, unless some dire' calamity, like an earth-
quake or the plague, came in aid of the emi-
gration scheme. _ --Ibid.
. ,
The first open Meeting of tne Magistrates of
the County of Middlesex took place yesterday.
The subject discussed was one of a very inte-
resting nature—the proposed erection of a
-County Lunatic Asylum. Mr. Serjeant Pell
introduced the subject to the Meeting in a rely
impressive speech, equally creditable to his head
and his heart. He went over the evidence which
had been obtained as to the present state of the
• receptacles for lunatics in the neighbourhood of
the metropoliS, and slibived not only the treat.
mem of the wretched inmates of many of them
was cruel and injudicious, but that there were
no available means for securing a suitable treat-
ment. The receptacles were under no efficient
Supervision ; and, what was still more astonish-
ing, the discovery pf the grossest misconduct was
no bar. to the renewal of the license. One ob-
jection to the existing system of sending pauper
tunatics to private receptacles is, that it is not the
interest of the keeper' that his patients should be
cured. We would not wish to be understood
to say, the great differerice between the number'
cured in County Asylums uring the first three

months and number cured in private madhouses,
is the result of any positive determination in the
keepers of the latter to prevent the cure of
their patients in order to have their houses
well filled ; because, without attributing to them
any such fiendish malevolence, the circum-
stance can be satisfactorily accounted for in the
inadequacy of the medical attendance allowed by
them. For instance, a medical gentleman at-
tended 500 patients in one asylum every second
day ; for which attendance, arid the medicines
furnished by him, he was allowed 5001. a-year.
The same medical gentleman attended other
asylums of the same description. It was truly
observed by Mr. Sergeant Pell, that " the time
he was able to affbrd these their unfortunate fel-
low-creatures, labouring under the most dreadful
of human maladies—the deprivation of reason—
was not more than would be required to pay to
ten persons suffering from any ordinary illness."
Without, therefore, saying that the keepers of
asylums wished to prevent the cures of patients,
that, as their profits depended on numbers, they
may lose as few as possible, we may observe that
the keepers have an interest in laying as little as
possible out on medical attendance and medi-
cines; the paucity of cures is the result of the
inadequate medical care, so that self-interest leads
circuitously to the result just as effectually as if
the.keepers directly aimed at it. It is dangerous ,
to place a man's interest at variance with his
duty ; and advisable, whenever the thing is practi-
cable, to reconcile them. Government allow the
surgeons who take out convicts to New South
Wales half a guinea a-head for each person landed
in that colony. We suspect that that small reward
has no little effect in securing the attention of
the surgeons. At all events, we know the deaths
are wonderfully few ; for we are acquainted with
one surgeon, who has four times taken out
large cargoes of convicts, without losing one. We
have rat the least hesitation in saying, that if a
sum had to be paid by the various keepers for
any difference in the amount of persons remain-
ing insane in their asylums, compared with the
averages in a given number of years in County
Asylums, much beyond any thing that could be
made by bad treatment, self-interest would soon
enlighten them as to the medical attendance and
medical skill necessary for the unfortunate per-
sons consigned to their care. The great argu-
ment against the erection of a County Asylum
is the expence. This has led the parishes of
St. Andrew's, Holborn, St. James's, Westmin-
ster, St. George the Martyr, St. John's, Hack-
ney, St. Clement Danes, St. Luke's, Stanmore,
Whitechapel, Chiswick, &c. to petition against
the measure. One. parish alone has petitioned
in favour of the measure—St: George's, Hano-
ver-square—which, being by far the richest, is
less influenced by the consideration of expellee.
To the necessity for combating the opposition
of the parishes, we are probably indebted for the
tardy justice which has at length been done to
the public, in admitting them to the Meetings
in which their money is voted away by Magis-
trates. Those who favour the erection of if County
Asylum, confident in the justice of their cause,
feel persuaded that it will gain by publicity, and
therefore Court it. " If (said Mr. Sergeant
Pell) the object of the present business was the
manufacture of a job, would he, and those who
supported it, have courted publicity, as he and
they had done ? He was of opinion that their
proceedings should be public, and that every fa-
cility and means should be afforded to the public
of knowing the grounds on which they were
called to pay their money, and the purposes to
which it was applied. If the present design
were an unworthy one, let the public know it ;
and let it be branded with the public contempt.—
But he was satisfied that when the public under-
stood it, as they would through the discussion of
that day, they would heartily approve of it."—
It was well and truly observed by Hobbes, that
no man was against reason, till reason was against
him ; and it is not less true, that no man dreads
publicity who is not conscious that he would lose
from it. The public pay always more cheerfully
that which is recommended to them by conclu-
sive arguments in its favour ; and hence an
honest Government, which hares itself to public
inspection, can always act more vigorously on
great emergencies than one which shrouds it-
self from inspection. We are warranted, from
the bold and manly avowal of the Magistrates, in
asserting, that privacy is wished for only when
deeds which will not bear the light are in agita-
tion—that publicity is dreaded when the argu-
ments for a measure would lose from it ; and
hence we may stoutly maintain, with such au-
thorities to back us, that the Magistrates of the
counties which do not, like York and
Middlesex, admit the public to their pro-
ceedings, are jobbers, or would be jobbers
—that they dread lest light be let in, either on
present jobs, or on jobs which they have
in petto. We confess that it
appears to us, if
ever there was a case made out, it was the one be-
fore the Meeting. Admittingin its fullest extent
the argument that the Magistracy ought to be
cautious how they added to the pressure of taxa-
tion,—keeping steadily in view that the expences
occasioned by the administration of criminal law
have become enormous—that there are twelve
Sessions annually, and eight at the Old Bai-
ley,—that the already over-burdened rate-payers
should have no additional burden thrown on
them which is not essentially necessary—the
conclusion to which this brings us is, that eco-
nomy, wherever practicable, should beintro-
duced into the public expenditure ; but not that
objects of paramount importance should be re-
jected from considerations of expense. Can any
thing be more horrid to think of than that hun-
dreds of our fellow-creatures should, because they
are poor and have none to help them, be con-
signed over to hard-hearted interested men, who
not only subject them to the most cruel and
beastly treatment ; but retain, by their want of
care—in a condition, compared to which death
is a blessing—persons, of whom (as is proved
by experience) the great majority, under proper
care, would be restored to their reason ? If
economy is to prevail against humanity, better
at once cut the throats of the poor wretches ;
for it would be cheaper to pay for their
death, than to pay keepers of private mad-
houses for retaining them in a life worse
than death. We should not lose sight of
economy, but neither should we lose sight of
humanity ; and those of whom God has left
in the possession of our reasoning faculties,
should use those faculties in endeavouring to
correct the evils that lead to an unnecessary ex-
penditure, and not in making an unnecessary ex-
penditure a pretext for refusing that which is
necessary. The whole system of criminal juris-
prudence, and its administration in this country,
is rotten at the core, and our Police is as much
interested in the increase of crime as the keepers
of private madhouses are interested in the increase
Of insane patients. Let the axe be laid to the
root
monopolists,ofthese vicious systems—let the vicious
who fatten on the poverty arid
misery of the people, and cover the country with

crime, have the prey torn from their fangs—
but do not, in the face of heaven, continue evils
of so horrible a nature, that the cold-blooded
determination to maintain is sufficient to call
down divine justice on our heads. We rejoice
to find that humanity triumphed in this case—
that the amendment was negatived, and the
motion of Mr. Sergeant Pell carried, with one
dissentient hand.—Morfing Chronicle.
The general class of consumers of the three
first necessaries of life—bread, meat, and beer,
have great reason, apparently, to complain of the
prices which they are compelled to pay for each.
We hear, on all hands, from the agriculturists, loud,.
and seemingly well-grounded complaints of the
lowness of prices both of corn and cattle, while
the price of bread is far beyond what it ought to
be, that of meat still higher, and that of beer
(thanks to the monopoly by which it is governed
and engrossed), wholly immoveable. Probably
there never was, in a community composed of
rational beings, any thing half so odious, and ex-
tensively oppressive as this same monopoly in
beer. That the common beverage of the whole
community, derived from the natural, if not
the almost spontaneous produce of the soil,
should be confined to the hands of a few wealth)
capitalists, wlio, to foster their own avarice;
deal out poison at their own price, instead of a
wholesome liquid at a just one, is beyond all
calculation absurd and outrageous in the extreme;
while, to crown the folly and injustice of the
system, it carries with it the sanction of a grave
constituent body, yclept throughout the kingdom
" His Majesty's Justices of the Peace." Whe-
ther this same Worshipful Body throughout the
kingdom drink good beer at a cheap rate, we
know not ; most of them probably, are either
wine, and not beer drinkers, or brew their own—
but that under their sanction a deleterious,

instead of a wholesome and nutritious liquid, is
dealt out to nine-tenths of the community, ad-
mits of no doubt. And what is worse still (and the
point to which we would now more immediately re-
fer) let the price of the raw material sink to what it
may, no fall ever takes place in the commodity
which these worthies profess to extract from it. ,
Let any man who has the means but malt his
own barley, and from it brew his own beer, and
then compare its cost (to say nothing of the dif-
ference in the quality) with that which he will
obtain from the brewer or the public-house, and
he will see that little, if any thing, short of fifty
per cent., is added to what actually goes into the
Exchequer. In the article of bread, emphati-
cally and truly called the staff of life, an actual
difference of 20 per cent. exists at this time in
various shops of the metropolis ; so that the
high-priced bakers must be gaining a profit to
that, or nearly that amount, over what others
find to be a just and reasonable profit. From
all the country fairs we hear of the low prices of
cattle. Sheep, in particular, were last week, at
dime of the largest marts in the 'West of England, '
so unsaleable, that tens of thousands were driven
away unsold—yet no reduction takes place in
the price of meat ; but the consumer is actually
paying as if the farmer were wallowing in wealth,
and his prices such as marked the highest
periods of agricultural prosperity. Now,
though we state these things strongly, let
it not be inferred that we would recom-
mend any interference of the law upon
the subject. .On the contrary, it is the law
which, in one case—that of beer—causes the
greater part of the evil. But the public may do
a great deal towards relieving themselves, and
that we would recommend them to do. Why
are the high-priced butcher and baker encou-
raged, while they who would sell at a moderate
price are sneered at and avoided ? There is a
silly idea, that what is dear must be good, and
that what is cheap must be inferior. This vulgar
error is doubly mischievous, as it defeats coin-
petitiou, and prevents those who might be served
cheaply from having that resource to apply to.
if middling and better sort of people, who trust
too much to servants, were to look into such
matters a little themselves, much of the evil
would be lessened. What Sir Robert Walpole
said of the landed interests—viz. : that they
stood quietly like sheep to he shorn—may be
applied to the great body of consumers in the
country at this moment ; who, if they were to
determine to look out for and encourage those
who would furnish them with the necessaries of

life at a moderate price, instead of submitting to
the high prices they pay without dissent or in-
quiry, things in general would soon find a more
natural level, and dearness and cheapness no
longer exist in the same commodities.—Morn-
ing Herald.

We are still withoutany authentic information
relative to the present interesting and important
state of Turkish affairs. But all the accounts
received within the last few day, via Austria,
seem to favour the prevailing opinion, that
through the influence of the Court of Vienna,

the Porte will be induced to yield to the severe
and pressing necessities of the moment. lii this
event (admitting its probability) the fate of the
Ottoman Empire will in a great degree be placed
in our hands ; and in such fearful circumstances
we must be careful how we act, or suffer others
to proceed. Consistently either with true policy
or justice, we can never, under any colour or
pretence, allow. Russia the full possession of
those islands, which would give her the key to
the Dardanelles, much less to accomplish her
other obvious views of aggrandisement in respect
to the Ottoman Empire. In despite of our joi►►t
attack and victory over the Turkish fleets, we
cannot politically allow her dismemberment. It
is one thing to humble her, and impair her
strength—it is another to annihilate her.
We cannot afford it. The present position of
Europe will not allow us to permit it for a mo-
ment. Whatever may be the ultimate conse-
quences of the late unjust and unjustifiable pro-
ceedings on our part, we have already the pain-
ful certainty that for the present at least they
have served to dim our hitherto pleasing prospect
of a durable peace, We have wily rivals to deal
with—we must not rely too much upon " the
word of promise"—our eyes and ears must be
open, else most assuredly we shall be taken by
surprise. We have much to look to at home—
we have many conflicting interests to arrange
and balance—and the sooner our foreign engage-
ments are settled, the better for all parties.—
When once the blow is struck, there is no know-
ingwhere the next may come from. Our victory
at Navarin was splendid in the extreme ; it recall
to us the days of our greatest glory, when our
flag was victoriously flying in every sea in the
known world ; but we must not suffer ourselves
to be so dazzled by its brilliancy, as to forget the
probable results to which it may lead.—Morn-
ino. Post.

HOP INTELLIGENCE.
Woßcz ma, Nov. 14.—.0a Saturday 700 pockets were
weighed ; prices 80S. to 90s.