The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-27 00:00:00

NATIONAL REPEAL ASSOCIATION.

This day the usual weekly meeting was held at the
Corn Exchange, Mr. Hamilton in the chair.

The LORD -STATOR moved the suspension of the
standing orders, to enable him to make a motion, of
which due notice had not been given.—Passed. his
motion was, "That a petition be presented to Par-
liament, praying for the removal of the present Poor-
law Commissioners, and for the appointment of men
in their place free from the taint of bigotry." He
mentioned the case of a woman named Martha
M‘lieon, who went into the poor-house a Pro-
testant, and soon after became a Catholic. She
was appointed by the ',schoolmistress to as-
sist in keeping the children m order. When this
was found out by the Protestant clergyman, he
ordered the woman to be dismissed from her little em- '
ployment. The Catholic clergyman said she should
not, without the authority of the Board of Guardians.
The Board decided that M‘lieon should not be dis-
missed, whereupon the Poor-lazy Commissioners wrote
an "impudent" letter to the Board, ordering them to
remove the woman, and which contained a censure on
the Catholic clergyman for his interference. The
fact is, that it was the Protestant clergyman who ex-
ercised undue interference, and it was a strong proof
of the bigotry of the Poor-law Commissioners, for which
they should be removed.—(Hear, hear.) The Lord
Mayor mentioned several other causes of complaint
against the Poor-law Commissioners.
Dr. GREY also spoke in condemnation of the Poor-
law Commissioners, and seconded the adoption of the
petition for their removal, which passed with accla-
mation.
After the admission of several members,

The LORD MAYOR rose to address the meeting on
the present position of public affairs. He said that,
whenever England was strong, and in a state of pros-
perity, she invariably oppressed Ireland. If, on the
occasion of the late outbreak in the manufacturing dis-
tricts there were 4,000,000 of Repealers enrolled in
Ireland, would the demand for a repeal of a grievous
Act of Parliament be refused ? If 4,000,000 Re-
pealers were to demand this act of justice, would they
not stand a chance of being treated like the Canadas ?
There the people turned out in open rebellion, and prices
were set upon the heads of their leaders—while here
no breach of the laws took place. One of the Cana-
dian rebels, for whose head .500/. were offered, had
just been appointed to the office of Attorney-General.
He was glad of this, because it was the proper reward
of the Canadians for their fidelity towards each
other, and their genuine patriotism. He wanted
no violence—no breach of the laws—but he
wanted a powerful combination of the
.people
to be ready, with a loud voice, to demand justice
as• the price of their assistance to relieve Eng-
land from her troubles. It was a remarkable fact,
that when nations were on the point of Jl:fling to
decay, their leading men did desperate and mad acts,
which facilitated the catastrophe they would avert. It
so happened previous to the downfal of Rome and of
six hostile
ark e
t tariffs r
ai ffns d
lasd t e
abeen
adfop e d
by
a gfewas
ods from d
of
Greece. When the Turks were battering down the
walls of Constantinople, the Greeks were cutting
their own throats about some points on theology. Was
not the English Ministry mad?—(Hear, hear.)
Within
manymonths,
their m
great kingdoms for the exclusion
o
giving blow for blow, what did Peel do ? Why,
' in-
stead of retaliating by excluding their produce,
he
Britishgoods
threw open the English market
le only one left
to the English manufacturers. The result of his
measures was, that insolvency was spread over the
land. Lord Ashburton had truckled to America, and
Lord Aberdeen had truckled to France. From this
aspect of affairs there was no doubt that England would
want the cordial support of the Irish, and she should
have it, but she should give the bribe of repeal. Peel,
however, apprehended the late outbreak in England,
and he thought he was very clever by the issue of his
proclamation calling in the light gold. Much of it
I did find its way to the coffers of the Bank, but the
effect of withdrawing it from circulation added to the
poverty which previously existed. Peel was called
the " farmers' friend." Why, there was no interest
in the United Kingdom suffering more than the agri-
cultural, as was proved by the depression of all kinds
of stock, still further to be depreciated by the impor-
tation of stock from the very countries that lately de-
cided upon excluding the produce of the British ma-
nufacturer. He concluded his speech by declaring
that he saw no prospect of England being relieved
from her embarrassments unless a gold or diamond
mine be discovered and left at her mercy.
The week's rent was announced to be 741. 3s. 3d.,
and the meeting adjourned.

Kiree
western coast of
Bell's Life in London of Sunday, October 30, will
accurately describe the Newmarket Houghton Meet-
ing, Finchley and other Steeple Chases, with a va-
riety of Pedestrian, Aquatic, Coursing, and Hunting
Intelligence; Puglistic contest between Bungaree and
Sambo Sutton. Price of Bell's Life in London, Five-
pence.
,Aotnl atlitiltei c to
pence. Office, 170, Strand. Published in time
send by the Saturday afternoon railways.
Clare, on Saturday. It was with great
enormous shark,
peril and,
amid terrible difficulties that be and b.
Satnudednuorrmt,
sue-
ceeped in bringing the animal safe to slls men
lore. He at
once procured a car, and forwarded it t.
captured jon aJonas
to Kilrush, for
Limerick, to be prepared, and i
de') o
sted in the mu-
seum of the Philosophical and Literary Society.
DRUNKARDS AND DRUNKENNES
clauses in the new Improvement s.—By one of the'
Act, an information
may be laid against any person who is seen in the
streets in a drunken state. Even though the party be
escorted home, instead of being taken
police may still lay an information to Bridewell, the
against him. On
Tuesday last, at the police-office, informations were
heard :against seven individuals
fined ss. ' with 4s. 6d. rviduals, all of whom were
enforced, the sight of costs.
If this clause be rigidly
a drunken person in the streets
of Liverpool will be as rare as it used to be common.
~Livirpooi 2''
tnta.

-
MR. O'CONNELL'S ANSWER TO
LORD SHREWSBURY.
(From the Freeman's Journal.)
The coarseness of those who make a trade of as-
sailing the Liberator of his eountrymen having :been
adopted by an English Nobleman—a Catholic, too,
Lord Shrewsbury—Mr. O'Connell, •in his admirable
and unanswerable reply to the abuse of that Noble
Lord, has the following beautiful, just, and appro-
priate passage in reference to the compensation which
Ireland annually pays her champion for his unex-
ampled services :
I will not consent that my claim to the rent'
should be misunderstood.. That claim may be re-
jected; but it is understood in Ireland; and it shall
not be misstated anywhere without refutation.
"My claim is this. For more than twenty years
before Emancipation, the burden of the cause was
thrown upon me. I had to arrange the meetings—
prepare the resolutions—to furnish replies to the cor-
respondence--to examine the case of each person
complaining of practical grievances—to rouse the
torpid—to animate the lukewarm—to control the
violent and inflammatory—to avoid the shoals and
breakers of the law—to guard against multiplied
treachery— and at all times to oppose, at every peril,
the powerful and multitudinous enemies to the cause.
"To descend to particulars. At a period when my
minutes counted by the guinea; when my emolu-
ments were limited only by the extent of my physical
and,waking powers ; when my meals were shortened
to the narrowest space, and my sleep restricted to the
earliest hours before dawn ; at that period, and for
more than twenty years, there was no day that I did
not devote from one to two hours, often much more,
to the working out of the Catholic cause. And that
without receiving or allowing the offer of any remu-
neration, even for the perrsonal expenditure incurred
in the agitation of the cause itself. For four years I
bore the entire expenses of the Catholic agitation
without receiving the contributions of others to a
greater amount than 741. in the whole. Who shall
repay me for the years of my buoyant youth and
cheerful manhood? V Who shall repay me for the lost
opportunities of acquiring professional celebrity, or
the wealth which such distinctions 'would ensure?
" Other honours I could..net then enjoy.
"Emancipation came., You. admit that it was I
who brought it about. The vear before. emancipa-
tion,• though wearing a 'stuff gown, and belonging
to the outer bar, my professional emoluments ex-
ceeded B,oool.—an amount never before realised in
Ireland, in the same space oftime,hyan outerbarrister.
" Had I adhered to my profession, I must soon have
.been called Within the bar, and obtained the prece-
dency of a silk gown. • The severity of my labour
would have been at once much mitigated, whilst the
emoluments would have been considerably increased.
I could have-done a much greater variety of business
with less toil, and my professional income must have
been necessarily augmented by probably one half.
" if I had abandoned politics, even the honours of
my profession and its highest stations lay fairly be-
fore me.
" But I dreamed a day-dream—was it a dream
that Ireland still wanted me; that although the Ca-
tholic aristocracy and gentry of Ireland had obtained
most valuable advantages from emancipation, yet the
benefits of good government had not reached the great
mass of the Irish people, and could not reach them,
unless the :Union should be either made a reality, or
unless that hideous measure should be abrogated.
" I did not hesitate as to my course. My former
success gave me personal advantages which no other
man could easily procure. I flung away the profes-
sion—l gave its emoluments to the winds—l closed
the vista of its honours and dignities—l embraced the
cause of my country; and—come weal or come woe
—I have made a choice at which I have never repined
—nor ever shall repent.
" An event occurred which I could not have fore-
seen. Once more high professional promotion was
placed within my reach. The office of Lord Chief
Baron of the Exchequer became vacant. I was
offered it. Or, had I preferred the office of the Mas-
ter of the Rolls, the alternative was proposed to me.
It was a tempting offer. Its value was enhanced by
the manner in which it was made, and pre-eminently
so by the person through whom it was made--the
best Englishman that Ireland ever saw—the Marquis
of Norma nby.
" But I dreamed again a day dream—was it a
dream ?—and I refused offer. And here am Inow
taunted, even by you, with mean and sordid motives.
" I do not think I am guilty of the least vanity,
when I assert that no man ever made greater sacrifices
to what he deemed the cause of his country than I
have done. I care not how I may be ridiculed or
maligned. I feel the proud consciousness that no
public man has made more, greater, or more ready
sacrifices.
" Still there lingers behind one source of vexation
and sorrow ; one evil, perhaps, greater than all the
rest; one claim, I believe, higher than any other,
upon the gratitude of my countrymen. It consists in
the bitter, the virulent, the mercenary, and therefore
the more envenomed' hostility towards me, which my
.love for Ireland and for liberty has provoked. What
taunts, what reproaches, what calumnies have I not
sustained ?—what modes of abuse ?—what vitupera-
tion, what slander have been exhausted against me ?
what vials of bitterness have been poured upon my
head,?—what coarseness of language bus not been
used, abused, and worn out in -assailing me ?—what
derogatory appellation hai been spared ?—what trea-
sures of malevolence have been expended ?—what
follies have not been imputed ?—in fact, what crimes
have I not been charged with?
"I dO not believe that I ever had in private life an
enemy. I know that I had and have many, very
many, warm, cordial, affectionate, attached-friererbi.
Yet here I stand, beyond controversy the most and
the best abused man in the universal world! And,
to cap the climax of calumny, • you come with a lath
at your side instead of the sword of a Talbot, and you
throw Peel's scurrility along with your own into my
cup of bitterness.
"All this have I done and suffered for Ireland.
And let her be grateful or ungrateful—solvent or
insolvent—he who insults me for taking her pay
wants the vulgar elements of morality which teach
that the labourer is worthy of his hire; he wants the
higher sensations of the soul, which enable one to per-
ceive that there are services which bear no comparison
with money, And can never be recompensed by pecu-
niary rewards,
" Yes : I am—l say it proudly—l am the hired
servant of Ireland and I glory in my servitude."

The Chancellor of the Exchequer had a long inter-
view this morning with Sir James Graham at the
Home-office.

SELE-DEvoTitax.—This new novel, edited by the
popular author of " The Subaltern," ors before the
world under circumstances of suchpecu arand touch-
iitnsgelifnwteirllesptrothbaatbleyvebne
atisieeesotuedrlinegon merit.d of. the work
attention and curiosity it will excite.si eriattsionwrirtert, the
young and beautiful -Scotch lady, whose first literary
production, "-The Only Daughter," gave rise to the
very highest expectations as to her future literary ca-
reer, recently died suddenly abroad, just as her lite-
rary hopes were on the point of being realised in the
reception which will certainly be given to this her se-
cond, and, unhappily, her last work. entitled " Self-
Devotion ; or, The History of Katharine Randolph."
Mr. Commissioner Bowen, of the Insolvent Debtors'
Court, is dangerously indisposed at his residence in
Portman-street, Portman-square, where he has been
confined some days with a pulmonary complaint. The
Learned Commissioner, who is much esteemed for his
last, much against the recommendation of his medical
amiable qualities, presided in Court on Wednesday
last,
31c i.roricvsutereTirt:se,:ndte
r it..
adviser, and was to have proceeded into Kent, on the
Home Circuit, but the serious nature of his illness pre-
authority was
cveonmfemdisstiluieneprsosasirleiiloi
on their
of the
respectivej
became necessary to make an application to the Home
obtainbaSuecrcsrore,utraatrn3:f(two3ftallied s t 0 hearingne permission..i olfl eca requireds
ei bsr aat baDr
twenty vyenatypyears'er,
. upwards
Inner Temple. In
obtained, on vilicli Mr. Cooke, the barrister, left town
for the purpose of holding a Courtplx,l,aer.)d'ess
ot yesterday
ledrbtiiiirey situationto-da y
60 and Learned kAnninis-
iasal ii;°sd(lll;iearsrt has
aCtso held
besides'tetlie inquiries be n ciler
murade yesterday morning, it
was entertained of his
was stated that very little hope
70 years old.
ADJOURNED INQUEST ON
con-
tains-k tsheeCOfnu(ritheedriteioxiaimofin
recovery. He is between
eTTIE NORTHLEACH CASE.
jhoouursnee, do
n inquest
Charles
spoke in heltenham Journal
Churm,Monday at the Union work-
house, One witness, named James
condemnation of the prison, and
Curtis, the
in no turnkey, asserted that the day-cells wero
ease damp, and showed that Churm, the above
witness, had been twice punished for breach of the
prison rules. There being no further evidence to
offer, ani it being past five o'clock, the Coroner ad-
journed the inquest until twelve o'clock on Tuesday-.
All that now remains (adds the Cheltenham
Journal) to be done is to consider the verdict;
and if the testimony of Curtis is to be believed, the
Jury will find little difficulty as to that. This in-
quiry has noW extended to -three days; it has been
-most patiently gone into, and, in our opinion, the
ga'ol authorities are completely exonerated—there
is not the shadow of a case against them. It
is nowwell ascertained that Beale died from an attack
of yellow jaundice; he had been ill with the same
complaint the year before; how then could his disease
possibly arise from the discipline at Northleach ? He
was but a very short time exposed to Lie privations of
the gaol dietary, for during a considerable period he
had meat, gruel, medicine, and extra attention. That
this inquiry was called for, no one will doubt; and,
more especially, ought the authorities of the county
tihnadt,
to be thankful that it has taken place : it will disabuse
the public mind, and
sortie v
deosveto t‘lireitr
c:uontplathat n
N o
l'a'
leach is not
us believe, .

~ ?.

..t4t IL7F u
'

,2

it( f'allll,.

LONDON
THURSDAY MORNING. OCTOBER 27, 1842.

We adverted on the 15th instant to the great
familiarity with legal punishments, depriving
them of all terror, and to the vast extent of des-
titution which prevails in conjunction with it, as
calculated to alarm those who reflect on the
means which the State employs to protect the
rights of individuals. The whole of our political
fabric rests on punishment. Terror secures
power, and terror protects property. The dis-
franchised and, as it were, outlawed multitudes,
destitute, as the rule, of any property, can only
be preserved in obedience and taught to respect
the possessions of others by coercion and penal-
ties. All persons, therefore, who rely on the
terror inspired by punishments to keep society
together, must learn, we think, with some addi-
tional alarm, that such is the present destitution
of the people, and such their lessened horror of
imprisonment, that they voluntarily become in-
mates of gaols. We are indebted to Mr. F. n-
oon, a Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle,
for directing public attention to this startling fact.
On looking inttethe Seventh Report of the Inspec-
tors of
Prisons,, to which he refers, we find the
following .staiemut
" I am sorry to say that there has been a consider-
able increase in the
at
tuEmdber of prisoners- during the
last year, especial'
and Lumfrielsnburgh, Glasgow, Dundee,
Perth, Ayr, 11
no small portion (of this in.cre;e) " I fear that
prosvetort is•attributable to
itnh es
ogmr eea
pt
laiLo amountp of e
af
poverty which exists, and which
destitu-
tion." • • . "lint the most strikingrde ring on
has. come to my knowledge of theexi.s proof that
poverty and destitution among some of
the people of
Scotland is the fact that there are at the p
ment nearly forty persons in the prison, orpeur't
l' mo-
who have voluntarily subjected themselves to allas to' iwe
rigour of imprisonment (and of imprisonment on the
separate system), in order to obtain food and shelter.
Some have been in this kind of civil death for more
than a year, giving up every particle of personal
liberty, performing a task of ten hours labour every
day before they can earn a penny for themselves,
living on very, plain tbod, rising early in the morn-
ing, both in winter and summer, and many of them
e anti aed day after day, and month after month, in a
small. cell apart from all human beings except the
oil-leers of the prison ; • nd 'hi • with the knowledge
that at any monlent they
have but to utter a word and
theyplaced can be be
at perfect liberty.'-P. -F. 14.
That is decisive and fearful evidence that the
punishments inflicted by the law have lost their
terror. The Metropolitan o
P In.
ce-courts supply
evidence almost er:ny da
persons com-
mitting petty °- IT
-enees to beY of
sent to prison, or
utter taking. refuge in gaol from destitution. In
fie, than the slow and lingering
starvation to
which a great number of persons have been
exposed within the last eighteen months, no
agony can be greater, only it is borne with
a conscibusneSs that it is not deserved, and
a hope that it cannot last. The destitution,-
theretbre, to which so large a portion of our
population is reduced, is paralysing the criminal

law, and endangering, to au alarming degree,
the general security.
Some of our Contemporaries have lately held
up to merited reprobation the cruelties in-
flicted on the prisoners in Northl each
House of Correction, but if they cannot
remove the terrible destitution, they should
rather advocate still lower diet, still harder
labour, still damper cells, and still more
speedy and numerous deaths. The advocates of
restrictions on the people's industry and of the
ban upon their food, who also advocate more ca-
pital punishments, are consistent men ; and it is
puling and inconsistent humanity to limit the sup-
ply of food, and demand that prisons be made
other than destructive of life. The slow process
of starvation subdues the body to the uttermost
depths of physical misery compatible with pre-
serving existence. and subdues the mind to the
commission of crime. It demoralizes and it
stints the human race. It dwarfs the body and
it perverts the soul. It dooms the rising genera-
tion to the complicated evils of physical and
moral degradation. Better were it, far better,
to revive the system advocated by the Post, and
rather feed the gallows annually with a few
thousand victims, than continue to deteriorate
the race by stopping their food. Better were it
to adopt the hints of the Rev. Mr. MELVILLE and
others, and at once blow up and level the half of
our towns, than consign this and the next and
every succeeding generation to the vast and ter-
rible evils of continual hunger.
The mode in which destitution leads to crime,
is most affectingly described in this Prison Re-
port. We copy the fair abridgment of it given
by the Chronicle's Correspondent :

"My parents were decent, honest people. I was
married very young to a sailor. When he went to
sea, he assigned me part of his wages every month.
I had sore trouble after he left, for work began to
get scarce, and my little child fell ill. I went to the
agents to ask for my husband's pay, for I was
sore distressed from grief and fatigue. The ship
was lost off China; all hands were saved ; but, as
was the custom in such cases, the wages were stop-
ped. This was heavy news for me, for I had neither
work, nor money. I bore on for some time, trying
to get work, however trifling; but there was no work
to be had for me and hundreds more. I had heard of
a female house of refuge in Glasgow, and I deter-
mined to seek food and shelter there. I took my
little boy in my hand, who is about nine years of age,
and walked the twenty miles to Glasgow. When I
got to the house of refuge, I showed them my mar-
riage lines, that they might see I was a douce, decent
body. Tht matron was very kind tome, and said she
grieved for me, but that the house was not for such as
me, but for poor, misguided women—prostitutes and
the like. My heart was fit to break, and I said to
myself, that I maun be wicked before I could get
a morsel of bread. The matron took pity
on me, and she let me stay one night, and
gave me a supper and a breakfast the next morning.
We walked back again the next morning to Greenock.
I had nothing to buy food or shelter with. My boy
was weakly, though nine years old, and I had carried
him many times on my back, when he complained of
his feet. I sat down on a bank and cried bitterly ;
but my child, who was aye a douce clever lad, and
had been well instructed in the Sunday-school, little
as he was, was my comfort. When he heard me say,
' We shall die of want," Well, mother,' said he,
then we shall go to granny, in heaven ; and we'll
want no food there.' He took off his jacket, and
pulled off his little shirt, and said I should pawn his
shirt, for that would bring something ; and so it did,
and we got a night's shelter for that time. I suffered
much before I stole."

Destitution, therefore, caused by a law which
makes it hard for the great multitude to live,
and renders charity for them almost impracti.
cable, is the parent of crime; and corrupts
minds which, like that of this woman, seem
capable of reflecting honour on our common
nature.

" Can anything (says Mr. Pigou) be more pathetic
than this—any words better chosen than those of the
poor Scotch woman ? Do they not go to every pa-
rent's heart—doth not the similitude of her case to
Hagar's, strike every one; but with this difference,
that no angel came to her in her distress, showed her
no well, and she at length—who can wonder, and
who can blame—fell into crime, that her Ishmael
might not perish in the Christian desert ?
" Is it possible that, in the face of narratives such as
these, any other object can be thought worthy of
our consideration ? What avails the decoratiOn of
our towns, the grandeur of our palaces, the strength
of our bridges, roads, arsenals ' • the wide arch of our
empire ; our colonies, that stud and circle the world,
when our people seek shelter in our prisons and force
an entrance to them ; when they rather break into
them than out of them ; when their hardest labour,
their hardest fare, are sought as boons by the sons and
daughters of destitution ? What is it that our mer-
chant navy is counted by a tonnage of millions—that
the navy of the State has borne 150,000 seamen, car-
rying conquest to the limits of the earth—that the
army has taken the capitals of our enemies—that our
exports are fifty millions—when wailing is in our
streets, famine in our cottage households, and our re-
fuge in prison ? _

I' Is it possible that any other object than a remedy
for such desolation, which the annals of each day con-
firm and augment, can fill the thoughts of our states-
men, who, retiring to their stately halls, can sleep
without dread visions of squalid and pining multi-
tudes, sometimes expiring in silence, at other times
breaking out into feeble insurrection—their strength,
for good or evil, unavailing through long emaciation ?"

Is there not in such scenes, coming now so
frequently before us, enough to make every man
solemn and earnest, to banish smiles from every
face, and lightness from every heart ? The
subject is so important, that statesmen must
consider it. Our hope of improvement rests on
the circumstance that these terrible evils begin
seriously to affect the upper classes. Their pro-
perty is invaded to maintain paupers and support
policemen and gaols, and they now see that gaols
and policemen cannot give them security. We
notice a list of subscriptions to pay the Yeomanry
of Stafford their expenses, which is headed by
Sir ROBERT PEEL with the sum of 1001. If the
Nobles of England, therefore, reckon the matter
only like pedlars, by paltry pence, they will
find that the expense they are put to far
exceeds any amount of rent they gain by
a law which inflicts destitution on the people,
and will earn for them the execration of
an enlightened posterity. They have, we
know, the political power of the State in
their hands ; but they cannot use it to limit
the people's food, and bind their industry, with-
out sacrificing their own security, their own for-
tunes, and their own fame. It is for their
respectability, happiness, and honour, that we
call on them speedily, aye instantly, to take their
fetters off industry, and no longer make them-
selves responsible for the terrible calamities
which hunger and want of employment are
bringing on all classes of the people.

We insert the Address which the Anti-Corn-
law League has published, with a view to prepare
for a final assault on the Corn-law. We hope that
none will be necessary, but that the landlords will
see the folly of continuing to coop themselves
up in a fortress in order to levy a black mail on
their countrymen. That kind of extortion wastes
a great deal more than it wins, and puts both
parties to great inconvenience. However, the
League is preparing to make another attack,
and as money is the sinews of war, the
League asks for money. Political power is
bought and sold in England, and the League
seeks the means of buying political power. It
does not intend, however, to corrupt electors,
but to enlighten them. It is about to distribute
Anti-Corn-law tracts amongst the farmers, and
send lecturers to explain them. By such a pro-
cess the League will effect a great deal more
than the repeal of one bad law—it will sow the
knowledge
seeds of instruction, which will flower into
and ripen into action. It willhelp a
to pull down sy sf that t e not. Other per-
sons seem acutely
sensible tat possible
consequence, and they call on the Govern-
ment to stop with a strong hand the instruction
which the League is about to distribute. Sir R.
PEEL is too much of a. free trader according to
the Post, to quarrel with
the League for spread-
ing through the comm
unity a knowledge of prin-
ciples on which he is disposed,
it is said, when-
ever he can, to rest his power.
As a specimen of the success
of the League,
we will refer to Mr. PRENTices address to far-,
mers, at 'Over, in Cheshire, which
appeared in
The Sun on Monday. . It is only necessary to
teach the farmers their true interests—anti the will show that facts:&,,thine,
with the League to instruct them—in order to
Secure the destruction of the Corn-law:—

Your markets are such towns as Manchester,
Stockport, and Warrington, and when trade is
bad and wages are low, and when many are out
of employment, you cannot expect to have the
same price for your produce that you had in
prosperous times. Have you had no reduction
in the price of cheese ?—(A Farmer—Yes ; the
best quality is down 10s., and the second 20s. a cwt.)
What is the cause of this reduction ? Not Sir
Robert Peel's tariff, which has left the duty on foreign
cheese untouched. Had he taken off even a shilling
a cwt. we should have had an outcry that this had
caused the fall of 10s. and 205., which you are now
suffering. We must look, then, for some other cause;
and you will find it in the deep distress of your cus-
tomers.—(Hear, hear.) You will observe that the
fall is greatest on the inferior quality, which has hi-
thereto formed a considerable part of the meal of the
working man, but now he cannot purchase whole-
some wheaten bread and good cheese, but is reduced
to the necessity of living on potatoes; and you will
have a still less demand from him during the winter,
which threatens to be one of greater privation and suf-
fering than has ever yet been endured by a much suf-
fering people.
And this distress in the manufacturing towns reaches
you in another way. Part of your population, tempted
by better wages than you could afford to give them
here, have settled in the towns, where they have sup-
ported themselves without being chargeable to you ;
but now, being unable to find employment, they are
passed home: to add to the burden of your poor's
rate--to be paupers, perhaps, for life.—(Hear, hear.)
Let me ask you, how your poor's rate is now, com-
pared with what it was this time last year ?—[The
Chairman—lt is advanced forty per cent.]—Forty
per cent ! Forty per cent. reduction in the price of
your cheese—forty per cent. increase in your poor's
rate—and both these effects from the distress of the
manufacturing districts!
With such teachers as falling markets, empty
pockets, high rates, and the lecturers of the
League, the farmers must become converts to
free trade principles.

The proceedings of the secret tribunal, said to
be engaged in examining the Custom-house plun-
derers, remain as mysterious as ever. One Cor-
respondent says the Lords of the Treasury have
not confidence in the Board, and are resolved to
appoint a Commission to make an impartial in-
vestigation into all the details of this disgraceful
conspiracy. Another says there is no truth in
these statements, as the inquiry is still carried
on; not, however, by the Board of Customs,
with the Chairman at their head, but by only
one member, not the most fit either to do justice
to the case. Then there are long paragraphs in
the papers, asserting that Mr. A. and Mr. F.,
with some twenty others, have been suspended or
discharged, which are followed by others, contra-
dicting these reports, and casting great blame on
the public journals for blasting the fair fame of so
many upright men. Insinuations are also made
against several silk-houses implying that they
have participated in the plunder, and in a few
days come forth assertions equally strong from
them or their friends, declaring all these a mere
tissue of falsehood, and denouncing the conduc-
tors of journals for publishing such libellous as-
persions. But neither the public press nor the
public are to blame. The loss to the revenue
may be one hundred thousand pounds or one
million sterling; and from the darkness which
covers the proceedings, and the natural disposi-
tion of man to magnify what is unknown,
a general feeling prevails that the loss may
amount to the latter sum, and something more;
those, therefore, who are saddled with new and
oppressive taxes to make up deficiencies in the
revenue, are anxious toknow how they have been
robbed, and eagerly catch at reports in news-
papers, said, of course, by the Correspondents,
to be founded on the best authority. While these
rumours prevail, and they will continue to prevail
until the mystery is cleared up, how comes it
that the silk traders themselves do not hold
public meetings, and demand a public investiga-
tion, in order to remove suspicions from the in-
, nocent, and convict those that are really
guilty. While the Spitalfields weavers, who
suffer so much by smuggling, have held
meetings and called for an open in-
quiry, we are not aware that any step has been
taken in the same course by the very parties
who thus complain of calumny and falsehood.
They are not all implicated. Ten or twenty
righteous men certainly can be found among the
trade, who fear no disclosures either from Mr.
BURNDY, Mr. HomEasnA 31, or Mr. DOWDING;
and as they regard their character, as well as the
public good, they are bound to denounce the
secret system, and call for a real, and not a
mock, investigation. The Lords of the Trea-
sury after all, however, are the parties
most deserving of blame. Though it is
known to every one that no confidence is
placed in men who are themselves implicated by
gross neglect of duty, and great doubts exist
as to the credibility of the witnesses examined
in this secret inquisition, the sham trial has
been protracted for weeks; the Commissioners
according to report, have all left it but one; and
would probably be much delighted to see the
affair hushed up, by the discharge of some
twenty or thirty inferior officers; while the
really guilty parties, the men paid thousands a
year for doing nothing but mischief, are allowed
to escape. Why is the prosecution not carried
on in the usual mode adopted in such ne-
farious transactions? A simple discharge or
suspension for a few years—perhaps, a few
months—is not an adequate punishment for such
wholesale robbery. While half-starved men are
sent to the treadmill for petty thefts, and poor
Chartists are banished for foolish and misguided
attempts to obtain what they consider their
rights, public officers, guilty of infinitely greater
crimes, escape with impunity. They are merely-
told their services are no longer wanted, a sort
of intimation not very rare in private establish-
ments, and addressed to men of irreproachable
character. It is the duty of the Government,
therefore, to take the affair out of the hands of
the Commissioners, and institute an inquiry be-
fore a Judge or Police Magistrate, in open Court,
with solicitors paid to carry on the prosecution,
and unravel all the windings of the plot. Since
writing the above, we see from our City news that
the affair, as regards the Commissioners, is
brought to a conclusion ; but no confidence can
be placed in reports from any quarter.

Mr. O'CONNELL, after submitting in silence
for years to the abuse heaped on him in Parlia-
ment and out of Parliament, for accepting an
annualngt
countrymen,into a
n himinute
as
nadt
h
condescended his
enterrian lengthened justification of his conduct. We say
condescended, for he stood
on such high vantage
ground, and his motives were so well under-
stood by those whose good opinion he was
naturally most solicitous to retain, that
he had no need to justify himself, but
might
might with perfect propriety have main-
tained unbroken silence. We are no enthu-
siastic admirers of Mr. O'CONNELL. We have
not the slightest inclination to go the whole hog
in his favour. We think him mistaken in many
of his strong opinions; and on the question of
Repeal, in particular, are persuaded that he is
labouring under the grossest possible delusion;
but as regards his acceptance of the " rent," we
hold, with the majority °fills grateful countrymen,
that not the slightest shadow of blame can be
attached to him. The man who has made • the
vast personal sacrifices that he has made in the
cause of Ireland—who, at a period when his
" minutes counted by the guinea," never allowed
a day to pass without devoting some hours to
the great question ofEniancipation—whobore " for
four years" the entire expenses of its agitation--
and who afterwards, when, thanks to his hercu-
lean energies, the shackles were struck from the

limbs of the Catholics, gave up " professional
emoluments exceeding 8,0001. per annum." in
order to have an opportunity ofstill further bene-
fiting his country—who at a later period refused
the offices of Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer,
and Master of the Rolls, either of which ap-
pointments would have given him that rank,
fortune, and consequence in the world's eye, so
tempting to an ambitious and aspiring spirit—
the man, we say, who made all these personal
sacrifices in the cause of his oppressed country,
and *hi? made them ungrudgingly, un-
besitatititlyx. has-taken it out_ of the power.
of even; his—liittel'at'-tnetnies' to charge
him justly with avarice or selfishness. The rent