The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-07 00:00:00

THE POISONING CASE AT MAN
CHESTER.

THE SCOTCH CONVOCATION.
We cannot tell whether any of our readers feel a
strong desire to know the secrets of the bugbear Con-
vocation ; but if they do, we can assure them they
have little chance of being gratified. No detailed
report has yet appeared, nor is it reasonable now to
expect any. Hostile listeners seem to have been care-
fully enough excluded; and the friendly have their
reasons for keeping quiet.
Apart from their loose character, the resolutions
contain only one feature worthy of peculiar
notice. We ourselves have been abused, again
and again, for asserting that the clergy wanted
power for themselves, and, that they only talked of
conceding privileges to the people with a view of
more effectually securing that power. Well, what
do we find as the result of this Edinburgh Convoca-
tion ? Why, that the Non-Intrusion clergy threaten
to leave the Church, not because the Government
refuses to give the people a voice in the choice of
their pastors, but, because the Government refuses to
relieve the clergy from the salutary control of the
Civil Courts !

Will this fact, we wonder, help to open the eyes of
the simple dupes of the clergy? Let the most cha-
ritable and generous of our readers examine the Edin-
burgh resolutions from beginning to end, and he will
find that the only condition required to induce the
subscribers to remain in the Church is, that they shall
be left at liberty to do what they please, without the
intervention of the Civil Magistrate. They ask no
Parliamentary recognition of the Veto, the Call, or
any other embodiment of the principle of Non-In-
trusion; all they seek is, that they may be allowed
to hold their endowments without subjection to civil
control.

" Oh, but," it will be argued by some of the
weak and confiding lay adherents of the wild party,
" the clergy would be sure to use this independence
of the civil power for the purpose of carrying out
Non-Intrusion ! They would give the congregations
the choice of their pastors at once." Would they ?
Have they shown any great desire to carry out
honestly the wishes of the laity ?—or, rather, have
they not, from first to last—from the original ex-
ception to the Veto Act, in the case of presentation by
Presbyteries, to their latest alteration, which gives
them the power, in certain cases, of disregarding the
opinion of the majority of the parishioners—exhibited
a firm determination to turn and twist their pretended
concessions to popular influence into a means of cle-
rical aggrandisement ? Dr. Chalmers, in advocating
the liberum arbitrium, did nothing more than honestly
avow the real intentions of the whole party.
But even if we were assured that, for a time and
to some extent the clergy would use their independ-
ence to promote Non-Intrusion, what security have
we that they would not make it available for other
and worse purposes ? Their intermeddling, for the
last few years back, with coaches, railways, steamers,
news-rooms, and other temporal matters—and all
on spiritual grounds too,—gives too much reason
to believe that, if they were " relieved of their sub-
jection to civil control," they would find means to
create more ill-feeling and promote more mischief,
than would be counterbalanced by the full realisation
of the brightest picture they ever drew of a land
abounding in Non-Intrusion piety.
No; the clergy want power for themselves—they
have often avowed it—but certainly never more
plainly than in their Edinburgh resolutions.—Aber-
deen Herald.

INTRODUCTION OF CHRIS-
TIANIT Y INTO OTAHEITE.
Seldom had any enterprise commenced under au-
spices more favourable, or that could promise more
certain or speedy success to its authors, than the in-
troduction of Christianity into Otaheite ; and yet,
after the labours, sacrifice, and anxiety of twelve years,
it arrived at a termination alike disastrous and fruit-
less. The missionaries had left their native land
to save the remnant of an interesting people
from destruction, and to promote their tem-
poral as well as spiritual welfare. But not-
withstanding their utmost endeavours, they had
seen the process of depopulation urged on with a
fearful rapidity, by causes which, though they re-
gretted them, they could neither diminish nor con-
trol ; and amidst anarchy, bloodshed, and all the other
horrors of barbarian warfare, they were ultimately
driven from the field where they had trusted to gain
a triumph for :the Gospel and the benign spirit of
civilisation. There were many grounds to conclude
that, during the time the mission had existed in
Otaheite, the experiment of raising a savage people
to the rank of a Christian community had been tried
and completely failed ; and the result, according to
the ordinary grounds of calculation, might be sup-
posed to demonstrate the impropriety of expending
more labour or money upon an object for the accom-
plishment of which it might be asserted that
the time had not yet come. But as the darkest
hour of night is that which precedes the dawn of
a new day, so the gloom now cast over the mis-
sionary cause was about to be followed by a brighter
light than had yet shone upon their exertions in the
South Sea. Pomare, who felt that when the Eu-
ropean settlers left his shores, one of the principal
means of improvement had been withdrawn from his
people, no sooner saw affairs in a somewhat more
settled state, then, in the most earnest manner,
he invited them to return. He was still, indeed,
an exile in Eimeo, excluded from his paternal
dominions, and, consequently, had less power
than formerly either to protect them from danger,
or to aid their endeavours for spreading civilisa•
tion among his subjects. It is doubtful, too, whether
his favourable thoughts towards the Christian
brethren ought to be ascribed to his late re-
verses, and to an impression thereby Produced
in
regard to the inefficacy of idol-worship f
ing "supernatural aid ; or -whether adversity adln'd-
not lead him to reflect on the declarations he
had
so often heard respecting the trueGondt,ed. andnutot
connect his present condition with a sinful life,
of which he had not yet seriously repe
whatever may have been the motive, there is no doubt
that his fallen estate had subdued his spirit, and at the
same time weakened the influence which his native su-
perstitionhad till then exercised over his heart. In the
autumn of 1811, the missionaries left their retreat in
New Holland, and set sail for the Georgian Isles, the
original scene of their labours. They joined the King
in Eimeo, where they now established a school, and so
far m circumstances would permit, resumed their wonted
course of instruction in public and in private. It was
not long before their pious efforts were rewarded by
a signal triumph of the Christian faith over the ab-
surdities of idolatry. In July, 1812, the King pub-
licly professed his belief in Jehovah, and his desire to
be baptized into the sublime doctrines and hopes re-
vealed by the Gospel.—Edinburgh Cabinet Library,
No. XXXIII. Polynesia.

PRIVY Couricu..—Her Majesty will bold a Privy
Council at Windsor Castle on Saturday, when a pro-
clamation will be agreed upon for proroguing Parlia-
ment from Tuesday next to some future day, then to
meet for the dispatch of business.
IMPORTANT CASE.—At the Old Sessions room, on
Monday last, James Scholfield, gamekeeper to Wm.
Halton Esq., was summoned for trespassing upon
the Hulton,
and Leigh Railway. Mr. J. K.
Watkins appeared on behalf of the Company,
and Mr. Woodhouse for the defence. It ap-
peared that Scholfield had passed along the rail.
way in pursuance of ilia duty as gamekeeper,
on the 23d ult., and on being ordered away by
one of the Company's servants, , refused to obey the
command. The defence set up was, that Mr. Hulton
being Lord of the Manor, and the defendant having a
deputation, had a right to pass upon the railway in
pursuance of his duties ;
for that although the surface
belonged to the Company, the manorial rights were
still retained. The case stands over for decision until
Monday next.—illanehester Guardian.
GUNPOWDER TEA.---On the occasion of the 30th
depot feu de joie in commemoration of the
our
arms in China
success firing
ofcommemoration, a gentleman accosted
another in the street to inquire the object of the firing.
41 Dont you know," he replied, " that our old friend,
Sir Hugh Gough, has compelled the Chinese to give
us their Congou and Bohea teas in exchange for our
gunpowder ? and the 30th depot is just discharging
--Galway their samples." Vindicator.

STATE OF TRADE.
(From the Manchester Guardian of this day.)
MANCHESTER.—The market yesterday was per-
fectly firm, with some advance in the prices of shirt-
ings, and of such descriptions of yarn as are suitable
for the East India and China markets ; but there was
not quite so much demand for printing cloths, the
prices of which remain stationary. The stocks of
nearly all descriptions of goods and yarn continue
extremely low, and most of the spinners and manu-
facturers, especially the latter, are still working to order.
ROCHDALE FLANNEL MARKET, DEC. s.—We have
had to-day something like an average flannel market.
Coarse wools are rather stiffer, and worse to buy ;
but there is little change in other kinds of wool.

(From the Manchester Guardian of this day.)
An inquest has been held on the man named
Hunter, who died last week, as supposed, from eating
porridge, in which arsenic had been. mixed by his
wife. After the evidence had been fully gone into,
Dunn, one of the prisoners, was discharged, after
which the Jury came to the following verdict :
" That Mary Hunter was guilty of murder,
and that the deceased came to hi 3 death by
poison, which was administered by his wife
(the prisoner)." The verdict was received by a
vast multitude outside the house with some consider-
able cheering ; and when the prisoner was departing
she was assailed by hootings.
The prisoner heard the verdict with the greatest
coolness, not at all affected by the decision.
The inquest lasted two days.