The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-22 00:00:00

MORNING- SU N

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.

GLOBE.—Public attention has recently, by certain
flagrant cases, been directed to the state of the Bank-
rupt Laws ; but the real causes of the evils complained
of are but little understood. The two recent cases
which have attracted public notice possess this feature
in
.common—that the farts complained of are made
knOwn by the statements of the bankrupts them-
selves. It will be asked how is this ? How is it
that parties its the situation of bankrupts, before a
public Court, should be induced to expose their own
dishonesty, or irregular proceedings ? An answer
to these questions will show the faulty state of the law.
By the law, or practice in bankruptcy, the Court takes
cognizance of the conduct of the bankrupt only ofter the
issuing of the commission, or fiat. No matter bow
irregular or evon frandul.nt may have been the post
conduct of the h.--al:ruW b* fin but confoon to the
bankrupt ?au), and g:. aup effects, or appear to do
so, the law in this Court cannot touch' hilt: A
man in iosOlveet circumstance!, therefore, consulting
a solicitor in what. is called sharp practice, may be
supposed to say to him,—" I have been a great rogue.
I hale incurred debts which I could not pay, and had
no prospect ;of paying. I have given preference to my
friends and relations, and I have wasted my creditors'
property in estravappce and riotous living. What
shall I do ?" The answer of a lawyer of the de-
scription in question would be, " Nothing more easy :
say you have been a rogue ; state, or admit, that you
have done all these things, but that you are now ready 1
to give up all that is left to your creditors ; do this,
and nobody can touch you ; your creditors may com-
plain—your assignees may make a show of opposition
--the Commissioner, perhaps, will look grave, and
throw out a hope that such conduct will not prevent
you getting your certificate; but there the matter
will end—nobody will, or can, prevent your passing
your last examination, and all will be well in the end."
The refusal of a certificate ie, in such a case, the
only remedy left to the creditors ; but a certifi-
cate is generally granted to interest or importunity.
The remedy to this evil will be found in giving
the- Court of Bankruptcy power to inquire into and take
cognisance of the previous conduct of the bankrupt,
and the means by which, before the issuing of the fist,
he obtained credit. Whatever defects may appertain
to ihe " Insolvent Court," that Court exercises with
greit advantage to the community a power like this re-
ferred to, bring enabled to remand and punish parties
who have obtained credit fraudulently and knowingly
without. the means of payment—a power not possessed
by ,the Court of Bankruptcy-.
STANDARD.—The affair of the Creole, the au-
thenticated United Stales report of which we gave
yesterday, is likely to open a new question witathe
Republican - Government, and one which from its
novelty, as well as from the different views of the -Con-
dition of Slaves- entertained by England and the
States, may lead to perplexed negotiations ; other- ,
wise the matter seems to be plain enough. If we
assume, as in England we are bound to Mi-
st me , that a slave has a right to vindicate
his liberty by all means—by force if necessary—it is
quite clear that the British authorities have acted as it
was their duty to act ; or that, if they have erred, it is
in favouring too much the claims of the slave-owners.
It 'is, however, perhaps too much to expect that
Aniericanr, accustomed to treat slaves as mere pro-
perty, will acquiesce in the free man's view of the
affair. Stilt, on the lowest ground, it is d;fficult to see
bow the British authorities could take a different
course from that which they took, without assuming
the character of keepers of slaves for our American
kintmen. A vessel arrives at a British port, under
the- command of a body of negroes, exercising
complete Control over the ship and crew. The
majority in command, in common with the origi-
nal commander and crew, claim the intervention
of the British Governor at a time when there
can, be no question that the latter were perfectly
powerless,- and at. the mercy of the negroes.
The British Governor grants this intervention to the
extent of placing on board a guard for the protection
of the crew, the. vessel, -and her cargo ; and all thise
are so ,effectually protected 'that they ultimately
arrive in safety at their port of destination. About
seventy - of. the slaves, however, against whom no
charge of:any kind is made, use the oppoitunity to
employ their liberty.- Neither the law of England,
nor, of any flee country, nor the law of nations,
would- permit the Britialf Government to obstruct
thew.. These men and women came to the British
port .sisluntarilY,'and they carne as perfectly free as any
persons whom they, found there ; for they bad been
previously emancipated by the gallantry of their more
active friends. To coerce them would have been in
fact to reduce them a second time to a state of slavery.
This the British Government could not do directly by
its own instruments ; and what it could not do directly
by fits own, instruments, it could not do indirectly, by
comaivanee at a war to be made in a British port, by
American citizens, upon strangers seeking hospitality.

COU R lElt —lt will be remembered that, according
to accounts from Havannab received some time ago, via
the United Suites, Mr. Turnbull, the British Consul,
had been arrested by the Spanish authorities of Matanzas,
an important town aria port lying east of Ilavarmah.
The charge against him, rathir vaguEly stlted, was that he
was found tampering with the negroes of a dantation
in khe vicinity of that place, and exciting them to insur-
rection or insubordination,- With a view, so far as could
be understood, of procuring their release and transfer-
ence to Jamaica. The correspondence of the Post and
Herald of this morning from Madrid confirms the extra-
ordinary fact of this arrest, without however throwingany
additional light on the subject. The Herald thus refers
to the affair .—" The Havannah Correspondence states
that Mr. Turnbull, our Consul, had been arrested at Ma-
tanzas; where he had gone on business, and brought in
custody to the former city on a charge of having at-
tempted to prevail on, some slaves to mutiny against
their owners. If true, this is a serious -business, one
which may bring about serious differences between the
two Governments. Another disagreeable occurrence
is likewise stated, stately, that an English boat laden
with. contraband. goods, being closely pursued by the
revenue cruisers, attempted to take shelter under the
protection of our receiving ship there, but that
she! was nevertheless captured." The Post pithily
remarks, that " Our correspondent fears that a mis.
understanding will be occasioned between this coun-
try end Spain on the subject of the arrest of Mr. Turn-
bull, •our Consul at Cuba, charged with an attempt to
provoke some slaves to mutiny. Mr. Turnbull was
appointed by the Whigs. He is a most indiscreet
emancipationist ; and it was like sending a firebrand to
the Havannah." We are entirely of accord with our
Contemporary. ,Ic would have been difficult to select a
mote imprudent and hot-headed functionary than Mr.
Tuinbull, for a post eminently requiring the union-of
a cool and conciliatory deportment with strength of
mind-and firmness of principle. Numerous have been
the complaints and the remonstrances lodged at
the Foreign-office, during the time of Lord Palmerston
at least, against the conduct and proceedings of this
person since his appointment, not only by the authori.
ties of Cuba and the Spanish Government, but, as we
have reason to believe, by British residents in Havannab
also. We were giv,pn to understand some time since
that 93 impressed was his Lordship with the force of
these combined representations, as to have intimated
his willingness to satisfy the Spanish Government by
his recall.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

•
FROM; THE MORNING -PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
CHRONICLE.---The Commissioners appointed to
examine into the way in which business has been con-
ducted in the Exchequer Bill department, and to pro-
vide a remedy against frauds in future, are busily en-
-gaged, we- hear, in their investigation, and have had
some of the holders of the spurious or impounded paper
under examination.... Their proceedings are conducted
with great secrecy.; They carry 'on their labours with
as much mystery as il.they were engaged in illicit prac-
tices-themselves. We .must admit, however, that their
examinations are properly enough conducted in private;
but we see no reason why the parties examined. should
consider themselves obliged to keep all to themselves.
We can account for. their qnietness only in one way,
which is, that the line of examination pursued by the
Commissidners has been of a searching, comprehensive,
aril satisfactory charaeter,. bringing home to the minds
of those before them a conviction that they intended to
present a complete and, full report of all the facts and,
circumstances of the case, so as to bring out with no
reserve the clear and bona fide character of the transac-
tiops under which the innocent holders advanced their
money on the impounded biW, tlts leaving no particle
of doubt in the Minds of Parliainent and of the public,
of the entire equity and perfect justice of their case. The
present.calm, which, on th,eiaear approach of the meeting
(A—Parliament, has succeeded to the endless articles
which daily graced the columns of our Contemporaries
for a series of weekson this 'subject is certainly remarkable.
ITER, ALID.—A morning paper (the Chronicle) has
thought proper to state, and the statement has been re-
iterated with more confidence still by its Radical evening
double,- that " th6:East India Company, having to make
a large contract of elcith for. its troops (we have heard
to as large an aitiount as 700;000/) has given the order
to Belgian or Prussian manufacturers, because it can get
. cloth from them l 5 per cent, cheaper than from English
.nutnufaeturerk4." This statement is pretty pinch upon .a
:par with thee". rough iec " rubbish of a story which the
6/he invented one day, for the sake of swallowing its
(-.el'n foolish falsehoods the next. The, falsehood,- for
such it doubtless is, in tli!. one case as in the other; will
-hoviever serve the turn for the time calculated, that is
'for' the full twenty-four hours' start which it will have
:UnContradic ted,. in the` country, where at Anti-Corn-law
met, n. ti it cannot fail to, in the more extraordinary
nrY,i•
.request, as all the standing old fallacies are worn down
to the stumps.

.A SIGNIFICANT RETORT.—A young lady,
one night at a party was much annoyed by the imperti-
nent remarks of a coxcomb who sat near her. At length,
becoming tired and vexed, she turned towards him with
an. angry countenance, and said, " pleased, Sir, to
tT,O2e your impudence." The hoggish fellow was asto-
. Mr!.%to so sudden a febuke, and could only reply, "Pray,
." not eat me." "Bein no fear," she replied, " I
am a Jewess."