The Sun.
London, England, 1827-02-02 00:00:00

THE MARKETS-(THIS DAY).

CORN-EXCHANGE.
The arrivals of Grain this week are inconsiderable. The best
parcels of Wheat are much inquired after, and scarcely any to be
met with, other kinds remain dull at Monday's prices. Barley
Rally supports its late advance. Beans and Oats are rather dearer,
but extensive sales cannot be made. In the' Fleur trade so al-
teration. ARRIVALS.
I Wheat. I Barley.
English 2,250 qrs. 1,800.Irs•
Irish
Foreign TT? 2°°

o.lto. I Flour.
760 qui. 4,3soteks.

7,500

GENERAL A limCFRokOTFATEIoriR.I)T!.:4I
For the Week ended Jan. 26, 1927,1 made up front the Returns of the In.
speotors in the different Cities and Towns in England and Wales.
Wheat...-- 04. I Oats I 275. 6d. Beans*. 455. 74.
•(igcliG.E GOTEJKFR
9d.. Rye 965. 104. 4Bs. 6d.

:ORI4-.

2d. to
SMITHFIELD MARKET.
Notwithstanding that this day's supply was throughout limited,
4d. per
ndAat'y'sinqumetnositioinT,banwee6Cieh friZn, and the market apparently well attended by buyers, Beef ex..
4 tao n
e very
beneathdull ale,
how-
ever, fully supported by Mutton, Teal, and Pork.
PRICES PIA STONE Mr BLES. TO SINK. VIE 017.41,8.
s. ~I. tot d.
a. d. to s. d.
Inferior Beasts. 3 2 3 8 South Down Wethers . 4 g 4 fl
Second quality ditto.... 3 6 410 Large coarse Calves 4 2 6 6
Prime large Oxen ..... .. 4 4 4 6 Prime small ditto , 5 6 6 o
Prime Scots, Sze. ..... „.. 410 5 2 Large Hogs 3lO 4 2
Inferior Sheep...« ....... 3 2 3 6 Small Porkers IIO 5 3
Second quality ditto.... 3 6 810 Suckling Calves...l9A. to 38s. each.
Coarse-woolled ditto... 4 0 4 2 Quarter old Pigs ..10s. to 184. each.
The prices of 5.11.1!th Cows continue to look upwards, but there were
no good ones either in Smithfield to-day or at Islington yesterday.
surnor, All PEA CLIME'S STATEMENT. I tu. I Call27s. .:I plifgos.

/3easte.
322

NEIVGATE AND LEADENHALL AIAIIKETB,
At per stone, by tke Careaas.
s. d, to a. d. c d• WI. 6'
Beef 3 0 4 4 I Veal
button .................... 2 8 3 8 Pork 6 6 6 0
,

FREEMASON2We hear that a Special Meeting
- -
It:7
of the Grand Lodge of England is to take place, on Wednesdayma, at Freemasons' Hall, to vote an Address of Condolence to
the near
Margaret'sc h
nel, they allowed some gentlemen who witnessed their Arrival to
the Kinn-, as Grand Patron.
Friday
wEi lzdh swans
sa
withi tigj etei tri flight
afield in n
cr
approach them. With recruited strength they renewed their
flight; but two of them were speedily shot.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

There are many besides ourselves who will probably be
grieved as well as disgusted by a fact which has been com-
municated to us by the best authority—viz. that among
the most furious people in Portugal, who exclaim against
the Constitution, and, so far as misrepresentation and abuse
can be available, busy themselves in caballing against the
cause which unites Great Britain and her ally, are a set of
Irishmen,--some visitors at Lisbon, others resident there,
—some laymen, more friars; but all, no doubt, right
worthy and pious Catholics, in whom the zeal for Holy
Church far outweighs the mere sublunary sympathy of
British subjects with a nation struggling to be free. The
lay proportion of the Irish community at Lisbon, it must
be observed, fall naturally under the dominion of their
compatriot Priesthood, and re-echo the curses of their spi-
(ritual fathers upon the foul demon of independence which
animates the Charter and undermines the supremacy of the
infallible Church. Yet these men, whom we pity more
than blame, ought to recollect that the whole Apostolic
influence of the priests, as exercised at home in Ireland,
has for some time past been thrown into the scale of con-
stitutional liberty. If they read the Irish newspapers, they
may find out that nothing is talked of by any Catholic as-
sembly in Dublin or elsewhere, but the horrible injustice of
denying men their imprescriptible rights—of ruling large
bodies of men by laws to the enactment of which they are
hot parties—of levying upon the people large sums of
itioney without their own consent,--of affixing upon the
subjects of the. King bf England all the burdens and re-
traints of Civil Government, without an adequate portion
of its hleosings. These, we must remind the Irish Catho-
lics rnw Portugal, are the complaints resorted to by
'.weir brethren at home, when they would describe their
unfortunate political condition, when they would eninne-
2eate their reasons for professing themselves disatisfied and
and disaff:icted towards the Government under which they
live. it is true that
.Messrs. O'Connell and Company
have undertaken two offices not altOgether consistent in
the eyes of reflecting men,—to wit, the most unmeasured
defence of the wildest doctrines of democratic ascendancy
within the pale of the British empire, and beyond its
limits the Most indignant and contemptuous reprobation
of every thing like resistance to the Church of Rome,
which now, in all the Catholic States of Europe, stands
forth as the avowed and inexorable champion of arbitrary
Government, under its most odious aspects; and, enforc-
ing from its vassals a blind obedience to temporal autho-
a. rity, no matter how obtained or exercised, nicknames this
operation of audacity upon weakness " the cause of the
•7 living God I" This double and discordant course of action
• has never been more strikingly exemplified- than in the
COntrast between the Irislitatholics of Dublin, crying
loildly for an extension of their own political privileges,
and the affiliated Irish Catholics at Lisbon moving Hea-
ven and earth to prevent the people of Portugal from en-
`lajoing the gift when in their hands. It would yield us, as
!e(raocates for truth and justice everywhere, far more ge-
nuine delight to see the Irish residents on the Tagus ap-
ply towards the support of liberty in Portugal that same spirit
and manly energy, of which they might borrow so liberal
a share from the discourses of their Dublin friends, than
to Witness the mind of the people of England " either
alarined or exasperated against the great question of eman-
cipation, because he who appealed to them as fellow-
citizens and brother Christians, where his own personal
interest was at stake, displayed the cloven foot of despo-
tism and priestcraft, when it was his duty to promote the
extension of liberty to others. Some persons have dwelt
on it as an unlucky coincidence, that the question of a dis-
puted principle of Government should' be agitated at the
same time with that of a disputed succession. But this
-seems to arise from a confusion of causes and effects. It
is undoubtedly possible that two classes of enemies to the
constitution of Portugal may-have been created; instead of
one, by the invention of this claim to the sovereignty for
Don Miguel. In fact, however, the title of this Prince
Would never have been started, had it not been for the
pre-existing feud between freedom and arbitrary power.
The grant of a Charter, or at least the tendency of Pedro's
friends and Ministers to govern on a principle of greater
liberality than could be expected from. the Queen's fac-
tion, that it was which raised the question of Don Mi-
guel's title, the defence of which was not simultaneous
with the stand of tyranny in the annals of this contest, but
derivative question, suggested by the latter, and built
ntion it, for the sake of putting a more decent cover upon
that hideous conspiracy which had the support of despo-
tism in Church and State for its object. Had Pedro
commissioned the Princess Regent to govern Portugal as
Ferdinand rules the Spaniards, in the spirit of darkness,
and with a scourge for a sceptre, Miguel would have
dropped into easy oblivion, and the frontiers of Portugal
Would have remained unmolested until now.—Tintes.
At length thd Lord Chancellor has pronounced his sen-
tence in the case of Wellesley v. the Duke of Beaufort.
A decision more pregnant with cause of alarm never, per-
haps, was pronounced in any Court of this Country. The
Lord Chancellor stated in the outset, when treating of his
jurisdiction, " that it was impossible that the Court could
interfere with all the children in the kingdom, and the juris-
diction could only be usefully and practically exercised
where this Court possessed the means of applying pro-
perty usefully and practically for the advantage of the in-
fants concerned." But with this limitation, the law, as
laid down, will have a most extensive operation. The
number of individuals possessed of property, and able to
give property, for the sake of laying a foundation for the
exercise of the jurisdiction of the Court, is, in a country
like this, very great indeed. And be it remarked, a very
small sum of money conveyed to the children of the most
wealthy and exalted individuals in the land, lays the foun-
dation for an action. In the case of Shelley, for instance,
who, had he lived, would have been in possession of an estate
of many thousands a year, the bequest by a relative of his
deceased wife, of a few thousands, took his children from
him ; and supposing him to have resisted this, the conse-
quence of the decision might have been to deprive these
children of the property to which their birth entitled them to
look forward. The Lord Chancellor, after going over the evi-
dence, gives the, following as the result of the whole on
his mind :—" I have no doubt of the connection of Mr.
Wellesley with Mrs. Bligh, from the time of the transac-
tions at Florence; I have no doubt .but that the same
conduct was continued on the journey to Paris, at Paris,
and up to the period-when the present application to the
Court was.made ; I have no doubt bnt that Mr. Welles-
ley conducted himself improperly to his wife, and in addi-
tion to that, and his connection with Mrs. Bligh, I have
no doubt but Mr. Wellesley conducted himself with the
most gross impropriety towards his children. Never,
then, shall I consign the care and custody of these chil-
dren, and the charge of their moral
.and religious edu-
cation, to a man connected with a woman so abandoned
as Mrs. Bligh. I cannot bring myself to separate the
boys from the girl; and Mr. Wellesley himself admits,
that this would be a hardship; and by reason of Mr. Wel-
lesley's connection, with Mrs. Bligh, it is impossible to
give up to him the charge of the girl ; and on that ac-
count, also, I cannot order the boys to be delivered up to
him." There is altogether a strange confusion of ideas
in this summary. First, Mr. Wellesley conducted him-
self with gross impropriety towards his children; and what
is the conclusion? that the care and custody of children
ought not to be consigned to him, who has proved him-,
self unfit for it, by the gross im,popl't r'et with which he
had already conducted himself towards his children ?
No. " Never, then, shall I consian the care and cus-
tody of these children, . and the 'charge' of their moral
and religious education, to a man connected with a woman
so abandoned as Mrs. Bligh."
-:The connection with Mrs.
Bligh, then, and not the gross misconduct towards the
children, is the cattse.of the refusal to consign the children
to his care. Again, secondly—" I cannot bring myself
to separate the boys from the girl; and, by reason of Mr.
Wellesley's connection with Mrs. Bligh, it is impossible
to give up to him the charge of the girl; and, on that ac-
count, also, I cannot order the boys to be delivered up to
him." Then, if there were no girl, Mr. Wellesley would

~_.

be allowed to have the boys, and therefore he is a very
proper person to have the care of the boys; but not being
a proper person to have the girl as. well as the boys,
though proper for the boys, he is not to have them be-
cause the boys and the girl cannot be separated. The
whole hinges on 'Mrs. Bligh. Principle in this decision
there is none. If Mrs. Bligh had died two days before
the decision, the whole pretext for the result would have
been cut away from under his Lordship's feet. For it is
the connection with Mrs. B. up to the present period, and
the presumption from that circumstance that the connec-
tion would be continued, that determines his Lordship to
refuse to deliver up the girl, and also the boys, as the boys
and the girl ought not to be separated. There is in this,
as in all the decisions of his Lordship which have come to
our knowledge, a most perplexing absence of logic. He
evades the conclusion from his premises,—and, instead of
saying, I will not entrust these children to a man who has
misconducted himself in the relations of husband and fa-
ther—he says, I cannot give the girl to a man who is now
connected with a certain female, and not being able to give
the girl, I will not give the bo:,-1, because I cannot sepa-
rate the boys from the girl. It is not then the badness of
the past life, but the badness of the current life that he
thrusts forward. If his Lordship had gone on logically,
concluding from hiS premises that he could not be allowed
to have his children, the public would have distinctly un-
derstood that adultery, coupled with swearing before
children,and these acts of gross improprietv,would deprive
a father of his children; but all that the public can know
is, that if a man is a bad husband, and a bad father, and
lives with the lady whom he has seduced,if he have only boys
he may have them, but if he have both boys and girls he can
have neither. Did the Lord Chancellor tremble at the
consequences, and having determined on the course he
should take, purposely rim into this confusion, in order that
the public might be at fault? By hinging the whole on the
existence of a girl as well as boys, and the continuing to
live with a female, and the necessity of not separating the
boys and the girl, did he think that he would defy the pub-
lic to make any thing of the decision ? If lie thought so
he is grievously mistaken. Every man who has an adver-
sary, who thinks it worth his while to expend a little money
on his annoyance, has a ready means of vengeance in the
Court of Chancery. Whether he succeed or fail, he may
inflict the most deadly wounds, by opening up transactions
calculated to give pain both to the party and his connec-
tions. The time consumed in the investigation of one case
is a sufficient argument against entertaining inquiries of the
kind. Twenty Courts of Chancery would be insufficient
for a tithe of the cases which; in a country like this, might
be brought, if a whole life must be gone into. In this case,
the whole inquiry was useless, because his Lordship did
not decide on the facts elicited in the inquiry, blit on the
fact of present cohabitation with Mrs. Bligh. When there
is something determinate to guide the decision—as mad-
ness, or from other incapacity—a Court may be adequate
to an inquiry; but nothing more monstrous can be con-
ceived than inquiries into a man's whole life, for the pur-
pose of the Chancellor's setting his virtues and vices
against each other, and striking a balance.—Morning
Chronicle.

Seeing the new and important state of things which
our unexpected involvement in the affairs of the Peninsula
was likely to produce, we have omitted no means within
our power to give a right direction to the public mind
upon the question. Instead of giving statements from
doubtful, from interested, or suspicious sources,
.we lost
no time, after the delivery of Mr. Canning's celebrated
speech, in despatching a gentleman every way qualified
for the task to Lisbon, who might transmit us from the
spot such an honest, impartial, and correct view of things,
as would enable the public to form a similar judgment, un-
influenced by those persons, whether Jew or Christian,
who govern the columns of some other journals. If, for
instance, either the person whom we sent, or his em-
ployers, were holders of those bits of paper called Spa-
nish, Portuguese, or Brazilian Bonds—or were they
under the controul of persons who enrich themselves
in any other way on the Stock Exchangethe public
would soon see (as they probably have already done else-
where) the bias—not to say utter distortion of facts, which
such all controlling motives must produce. The communi-
cations which we have given, prove, we trust, the purity
and integrity of our resources; and we may confidently
hope are daily and hourly giving a right direction to public
opinion on a question, on which its passions and its judg-
ment were alike assailed and carried away by storm ; and
on which the too ardent mind of a hitherto distinguished
Statesman seems to have thrown away its energies, in a
manner more uncalled for and infatuated than has ever
occurred in the history of Europe. Though we can ad-
mire, as a matter of detail, the promptitude and vigour
with which, to the credit of every branch of the public
service, the Portuguese expedition was despatched, we
think it would have been more to Mr. Canning's credit,
if, instead of deciding first and then coining to the
House of Commons, in the shape _of a fervid ha-
rangue, to obtain its sanction of his measures—he had,
considering that Parliament was sitting, come first to
that bedy; and, in a calm and unimpassioned manner
asked its judgment for his guidance. Had this been done,
which might have been done without delay or inconveni-
ence, the awful responsibility of involving the country in
the chance of a new war, would have devolved upon that
Assembly from which a Constitutional Minister will al-
ways take the tone and direction of all his policy. In-
stead of this safe and prudent course, Parliament is only ap-
pealed to when it is too late to decide, and that too, in a
manner more calculated to mislead than to direct the judg-
ment, could its judgment have averted the crisis in which
the country has been thus involved. For the present, it
seems as if the storm would blow over; and this country
be spared from further sacrifice upon thankless and unpro-
fitable objects; for whether the new or the old Constitu-
tion be established in Portugal, matters, we think, very
little to the British nation, except as far as its good wishes
must ever extend to the amelioration and happiness of
the human race. It is quite clear, however, that the
peace of Europe depends, as it generally heretofore has
done, upon the Governments of France and England,
between which there is now an evidently greater ten-
dency to unanimity than has ever before existed. On
this point we think Mr. Canning's conduct and policy
entitled to the highest praise. It is evident that he has
laboured, and hitherto successfully, to maintain and im-
prove a good understanding between two Courts; the
Statesmen of both of which have heretofore been but too
ready to fall into the ridiculous and absurd notion, worthy
only of the least informed of the subjects of both coun-
tries, that a national rivalry, and indeed hatred, was natu-
ral to them. To the honour of both countries, this sense-
less, vulgar antipathy, which the former Governments of
both have not been ashamed to countenance, is fast dying
away; and though there is evidently a party in France,
and a more insignificant one here, who would be glad to
blow np expiring embers into a flame, by far the great ma-
jority, however, of the right-judging part of both coun-
tries have long since begun to see the folly of a rivalry so
mischievous and absurd as that to which we have alluded;
and it is certainly highly to the credit of Mr. Canning's
foreign administration that he has laboured, and thus far
effectually, to promote and cultivate more liberal and en-
lightened views between the two nations and their Go-
vernments. It is on a continuance of the same wise policy
that the peace of Europe depends ; and the best answer
that Mr. Canning can give to those who blame his interfe-
rence in the affairs of Portugal as unnecessary or premature,
is, that it has been, and continues to be, in complete ac-
cordance with the views and designs of the French Go-
vernment. Let there be but a cordial and honest under-
standing between France and England, and a rampart will
be formed against aggressions elsewhere, which will effec-
tually preclude their producing any material effect upon
the general tranquillity of other countries. This is the
true policy of both countries, and such as wise and honest
statesmen in each are called upon to adopt.—Morning
Herald.

The question which, of late, has occupied KO much of
the attention of the public, concerning the claim of Mr.

Long Wellesley to the care and custody of his children, 1
has been decided. The matter has been again and again
argued : the final argument, after lasting seven days, was
concluded on Monday ; and yesterday the Lord. Chancel-
, lor pronounced his judgment. This decision was, that, in
his present circumstances, Mr. Long Wellesley shall not
have the custody of his children, but that they shall be
entrusted to the care of guardians appointed by the Court.
We say, in his present circumstances ; because we think
it impossible not to see that the Chancellor, in coming
to this conclusion, proceeded infinitely more on the ac-
tual existence, at this moment, of immoral relations be-
tween Mr. Wellesley and another individual, than upon
any general imputations which have been thrown, or at-
tempted to be thrown, upon that gentleman's character.
It is a matter of regret, that a name, which is so inti-
mately connected with the glories of the country, should be
involved in such a proceeding. The example, we hope,
will not be without its benefit. It holds out a warning,
even to the highest, that their domestic immoralities may,
if pushed beyond certain limits, recoil upon themselves in
such a way, as to brand them with ignominy, and to inflict
a severe injury on their dearest interests, and their most
cherished feelings. It is in cases like this, that the in-
estimable benefit of a great Judge, like Lord Eldon, is
most strongly seen. It is in cases like this, that, when he
shall cease to fill the judgment-seat, the want of him will
be most deeply felt. The deliiiery of his judgment oc-
cupied nearly four hours. If such' was the period requi-
site merely for the exposition of the results of his exami-
nation of the evidence, and consideration 'of the views,
which had been pressed upon him, we leave it to any man
to guess what the quantity of labour must have been,
through which lie must have gone, in making himself
master of all the minute details comprehended in the
immense mass of affidavits and documents through which
he had to travel ? It puts ns, in some measure, in better
humour with human nature, to see such a man as Lord
Eldon, at such an age, capable of putting forth so much
intellectual vigour, and of sustaining sOnuch intellecttial
labour. It is an excellence of no ordinary kind, to be able
to keep the mind long intent on one and the same subject,
and to survey it in every possible view. It is much plea-
santer to fly from one matter to another, and to remain
satisfied with the first coherent view of a set of circum-
stances, which may be presented to the imagination. To
examine and re-examine the same facts—to consider and
reconsider the reasonings on the same points—are self-
denying habits, which require a great sacrifice from an
active mind; but they are habits essential to the perfec-
tion of the judicial character. They have sometimes
brought upon Lord Eldon the reproaches of the ignorant
and the superficial ; but they have secured to him the con-
fidence of the suitors in a degree never possessed by any
other Jude. Ask any man throughout the kingdom, who
believes himself to he in the right on a disputed question
of property, where he would wish to have his cause heard?
The universal answer would be—" Before the Lord
Chancellor." Some of our contemporaries have questioned
the right of the Court of Chancery to interfere between
the parent and the child, in such a case as Mr. Welles-
ley's. Upon that point the Lord Chancellor entertained
not a shadow of doubt. " I-find myself," said he, "in this
seat, as representing my Sovereign, bound by the settled
law of the Court to interpose its authority, if I have area- ,
sonable ground to believe that, otherwise, the interest of
these infants will be endangered. lam not at liberty to
retire from the discharge of the duty thus imposed on me.
I dare not violate the principles which grow out of the
settled law of the Court. My duty is to apply those
principles honestly; to look diligently at all the cir-
cumstances of the case; and with judicial integrity, an
integrity which: should' be of the purest nature, man-
fully to do that which the obligations of my great
office require." Upon the law of the case, .the opinion of
the Chancellor will he admitted to be conclusive. But
some of our innovators say, that the law ought to be
altered, and that Parliament ought immediately to be ap-
plied to, in order to prevent so monstrous an evil as the in-
terference of a Judge in Equity to protect infants from the
effects of the misconduct of their father. We are glad to
be able to oppose to such notions the opinion of Lord
Eldon, who has, probably, seen more of human life and
human character than any other man now living. His
Lordship thinks " that it is not merely useful, but abso-
lutely necessary, that such a jurisdiction should exist, sub-
ject to the check of an appeal, and to the most scrupulous
conviction of the judge, that he must look at every case
of this kind with the most extreme anxiety to protect
himself from error." -" If this Court," he adds,
will not interfere, what provision has the law made
for the protection of those who are unable to protect them
selves ? The Courts of Common Law can enforce the
rights of the father; but they are not equal to enforce the
performance of his duties, or to cause that to be done,
which ought to be done, but which he does not do."—
This is, in fact, the basis of the whole question. The
rights of the father are accompanied with co-relative rights
on the part of the children: he has duties to perform to-
wards them, as well as powers over them ; and it is, in-
deed, chiefly to enable him to perform the duties that he
is clothed with the powers. Where the duties are not
performed, it is fitting that his rights and powers should
be restricted, and that system of jurisprudence would
be grossly defective, which, while it furnished ample
means of enforcing the father's rights, made no provision
for the performance of his most sacred duties.--New Times.