The Sun.
London, England, 1829-05-11 00:00:00

THE MINOR DRAMA.

Copy of a Letter addressed to the Right Hon.
ROEF.RT PEEL, M.P., Secretary of State for the
Horne Department, respecting the proposed intro-
duet ion of a Bill, to repeal so much of the Act of
I (it I; Geo. 11. c. 28, as requires Not ire to be sent to
the Lord Chamberlain, previously to the Represen-
tation of any New Play or Entertainment of the
Stage, or any addition to an Old Play; and showing
that the consequence of such an Act would be, to
Confirm the Monopoly claimed by the Proprietors
of Drury-lane and Covent-garden, and to enable
them to annihilate the Minor Theatres.

Sir,—Mr. Leonard having given notice of a motion re-
specting the Act of the 10th Geo. 11., cap. 28, allow ma
to call your attention to that circumstance.
By the 3d and 4th section it is provided, in substance,
" That no person shall act, or cause to be acted, any new
play, or any part therein, or any new part added to an
(.1d play, or any prologue or epilogue, unless a true copy
thereof be sent to the Lord Chamberlain fourteen days
before the acting, &c., and that the Lord Chamberlain
may prohibit the same as he thinks fit : and if any person
shall act without such copy being sent, or against such
prohibition, he shall forfeit 50/., and the license of the
play-house shall cease, determine, and become absolutely
void."

Great as is the reputation which you have derived from
your revision of the Criminal Law, I am satisfied that a
revision of the numerous acts relating to dramatic per-
formances would produce a result to the lettered and the
unlettered public not unworthy of a patriotic statesman.
A short review of them will show this to be a desidera•
turn, and that the measure proposed will be in fact an act
of oblivion and indemnity to the two Patent Theatres,
against their own violations of the laws, whereby they will
be enabled to annihilate the Minor, Theatres ; Theatres
which during the last half century have delighted and im-
proved an immense population, precluded by distance from
enjoying those of Covent-garden and Drury-lane.
The statutes relating to this subject extend from Eliza-
beth to the 28th Geo. 111. ; but those calling for present
observation are, the 10th Geo. 11., cap. 2S, the 25th
Geo. 11., cap. 36, and the 28th Geo. 111., cap. 30.
The former of these Acts, and the same may be said of
every Act upon the subject, does not seek to prevent dra-
matic entertainments, but to regulate and keep within
wholesome limits a passion which, from the days of Thes-
pis to our own, has mixed itself with the destinies of great
states. It assigns opprobrium and punishment to unsettled
and dissolute strollers ; but it recognizes the legal institu-
tions of the day, requiring only that their productions shall
be subject to the authority of the Lord Chamberlain, in the
manner above stated.

The Act of the 25th George IL a!so aims at regula-
tion, not prohibition. It enacts (Sec. 2 and 3) " that
Magistrates shall be authorized to grant, at any Michaelmas
quarter sessions after 1752, their license to any house,
room, or garden, to be kept for public dancing, music, or
other public entertainments of the like kind, within the
cities of London and Westminster, or twenty miles of the
same." Under the sanction of this Act, low and coarse
entertainments have given way to more refined representa-
tions, and the environs of London have produced such
performers and performances as would not have disgraced
the larger theatres. Government became sensible of this
fact, and continued to encourage well-regulated exhibi-
tions of the drama until the 28th George 111., when, as
if determined to convey to the whole nation a taste for
legitimate productions, and that improvement which can-
not but attend an acquaintance with those poets, of whom
every Briton is justly proud„the Legislature authorized
Magistrates at their quarter sessions, to grant " to any
city, town, or place, a license to play for sixty days, such
plays or entertainments of the stage as are represented at
the licensed theatres in Westminster, or have been sub-
mitted to the Lord Chamberlain, provided they are not
within twenty miles of Westminster, or eight miles of any
licensed theatre." The consequence which soon followed
this Act was, a theatre of some sort or other, in almost
every market-town in England ; and I can most safely
appeal to you, Sir, as an experienced and contemplative
statesman, whether any statute in our books has contri-
buted more to intellectual improvement? How many
thousands, and tens of thousands, has the theatre allured to
its seats from the ale-house and its perversions, there to
admire virtue, to sympathize with woe, to do homage to
patriotism, and to acquire a far more exalted love of
country, than is likely to be inspired in the gin-shop
or tap-room.*
. .

Ot' these advantages, that prodigious portion of our
fellow subjects who inhabit the outskirts of the metropolis
is about to be deprived, unless you shall be pleased to
interfere, and take the whole subject under your con-
sideration. I ►nay mistake the object of Mr. Lennard's
motion its consequences, should it succeed, I cannot
mistake.

The said Act of 25th George 11. has been the great in-
strument of producing the advantages to which I have had
the honour of alluding. Under it, several Minor Theatres
have been established, at which plays have been acted for
many years ; great sums of money have been invested,
hundreds of persons have found constant employment, and
considerably more than half a milliont of persons have the
means of being thus gratified, who can neither afford the
time or the money to visit the large theatres ; too large,
indeed, for this humble description of play-goers to see or
hear, when they have gained admittance.
It is true that this statute does not express more than
" public dancing, music, and such like public entertain-
ments." During, however, the seventy-seven years of its
existence, its terms have been rarely cavilled at. When
the East London Theatre (then called the Royalty) was
built, about fifty years back, its performances were op-
posed by the Patent Theatres. The late John Palmer was
ruined by the attempt; but so strong was public sentiment
on the occasion, that after a short time persecution ceased,
and plays continued to be performed there, till the recent
destruction of the house by fire. I believe that the ques-
tion as to the right of the Minor Theatres to act plays was
again raised about ten or twelve years since, when the pro-
prietors of Drury-lane indicted Mr. Glossop for allowing a
Mr. Booth to perform the character of Virginius, or
Richard the Third. Conviction followed ; but such
were the remarks made by the Bend', and such the com-
ments of the Press, that no further prosecution followed till
lately : when it is understood that the Lessee of Drury-
lane insisted upon his exclusive riglit to perform plays, in
conjunction with Covent-garden, under what is called
Killigrew's Patent, and required a deduction from the
rent, or that his lessors should prosecute the Minor Thea-
tres. The latter was preferred. The Coburg was first
selected ; but with a frank intimation, that each of the
others should be taken in their turn, unless they would
wholly abstain from theatrical representations. This pro-
ceeding led to such inquiries, as chewed that Drury-lane
itself lived in a house of glass ! Killigrew's famous patent
was submitted to the opinion of Counsel, as well as the no-
torious fact of that House having played many altered, and
new pieces of diff rent kinds, without having sent copies
to the Lord Chamberlain, or obtaining authority from that
functionary. Counsel is said to have held that the validity
of the patent was extremely doubtful, it having been
granted by Charles the Second, in contravention of the
21st James I. cap. 3, which takes from the crown the
privilege of granting monopolies, or any charter, grant,
or concession tending thereto : and that, as respected
the non-notice to the Lord Chamberlain, and the con-
sequent playing, without his authority, if such be the fact,
the license to Drury-lane had "ceased and determined,
and was becorr.-: void in law." These conclusions, how-
ever sound, could not be pleaded in bar to the action
brought against the Coburg. The Judge significantly
remarked, that the Court were not answerable for the
framing of the law, but only for its administration; and
that, rigorous as it might appear, the Jury had no alter,
native.

Had Drury-lane Theatre persevered is its threatened
course of severity, the Minor Theatres must, In their own
defence, have called upon its proprietors to show whether
their own license was not forfeited. From this conclu-
sion of law nothing can relieve them hut an Act of Parlia-
ment ; and, unusual and unconstitutional as it is, to legis-
late between the King's Courts cod its suitors, the party
to be served by this Act are too powerfully connected and
too influential net to succeed, unless you, Sir, as the head
of the Home Depat tment, shall step forth and protect the
public, it being but too obvious, that the lessee of Drury-
lane Theatre waits only for this Act of oblivion and in-
demoity, to comtnence a coi.rae of litigation that cannot but
crush the Minor Theatres, who even collectively will be
found too weak to contend with so gigantic an adversary
With regard to the conduct of the Alinor Theatres in
" Play-houses were originally il.itituted with a design of re-
commending virtue atgl (Aposing vice and folly, and therefore
are not in th6r own nature nuisances.t'-5 Mod. 14?,

•
t '1 he present scale of population, compared with the popula-
tion of London and its environs at the tinie of granting Killi-
grew's patent in the fourteenth of Charles the Second, is a turu .
tient preOf of the absurdity of considering it to convey a perpe-
tual and exclusive right to act plays and entertainments of thc
stage. The population of Middlesex, in which several of 00,
Minor Theatres are situated, in the year 1700 was 0,2480(1; in
1821 it was 1,167,500. In Surrey, in which are three of the more
considerable of such theatres, the population in 1700 was 154,900;
hi 1821, 406,700. The whole os this immense increase of popu.
lation, exclusive of that of the City of London, has taken place
since the granting of that patent : the play-houses built under it,
were of a very small description.

PautrerneYt'Tithewatoresuldeokuldapppryovleuras6
of their authority as belongs to Astley's, the Surrey, and the
Coburg. It is well known that police officers attend at those
theatres during the whole of the performance; that under
the generation,
aderamt
a late Act (I believe introduced by yourself) they are paid
by the proprietors; that they report every morning to the
Rlgistrates at Union-hall the elosing time of the precedig
evening, and whether or no there has been any disorder er
breach of the peace. These reports are entered in a book
kept for that purpose, which may always be referred to.
The other Minor Theatres may, for aught that I know to
the contrary, be equally well managed.
Neither would their moral character suffer by a similar
comparison. It happened but Lately, that while one of the
great Theatres wan edifying its audience by the representa-
tion of the Beggars' Opera, the rabble, as they have been
termed, were giving a tear to the fate of George Barnwell
at one of the small ones ! A recent instance may be
enough to refer to on this head. On Easter Monday last,
it is said there were three thousand persons assembled at
one of those proscribed theatres. During the first piece
they were, as usual on that night,_ too uproarious and
jovial for a single word to be heard ; but soon after
the second piece had begun, which was one of an ex-
tremely affecting nature, the almost unexampled fart
occurred, of such a holiday multitude being melted
;nto silence, and in very many instances into tears,
giving, as observed by the " Times," the plaudits of
the heart rather than the tongue, net by shouts, but by
sympathy and mute attention ! Ask, Sir, of any Magis-
trate or Police officer, which he thinks would have most
conduced to the increase of crime ; these multitudinous
admirers of the drama being thus occupied from six until
eleven o'clock of the evening of Easter Monday, or con-
gregating for the same space of time in the line of public-
houses from Greenwich to Blackfriars?
Under these circumstances, I trust that it is not too
much, to press upon your attention a revision of our thea-
trical code ; or should that not be immediately practicable,
that you will forthwith so far take the humbler classes
under your indulgent protection, as to insure to them a
continuance of those enjoyments of the stage, in which the
highest and the best among us, are known to take so much
delight. A few words added to the 10th or 25th of Geo.
11. or the 28th Geo. 111., by way of explanation or amend-
ment of either of those acts, would effect that purpose, by
securing the managers of the Minor Theatres against
the ruin threatened by the holders of a doubtful and ohm,
lete patent.

I have the honour to remain, Sir,
Your faithful and obedient servant,
A FRIEND " TO FAIR PLAY
AND A FREE STAGE."

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH, MAY 9.—The Helicon sloop of
war, Commander Stanhope, which arrived on Wed-
nesday from the Cape station, was detained a short
time at St. Helena, ut the request of the Governor
of that Island, and cruised to windard of it, to inter-
cept a schooner suspected to be a pirate, which ves-
sel had chased the Medina, of London. She was
not, however, fallen in with. The Helicon touched
also at Ascension, and left Captain Bate and his
garrison in good health on the 22d of March. She
obtained there a considerable supply,of vegetables,
&c. The Lord William Bentinck transport was de-
livering her cargo of provisions and stores. The
North Star, 26, Captain Arabin, was at Ascension,
on her way from the African station to Pernambuco
and England. Captain Suckling, late of the Me-
dina, was a passenger in the North Star. The Heli-
con hoarded, on the 14th ult., the Hazard, from
Liverpool to Providence, in lat. 27. The Heli-
con sailed on the same. day of her arrival here to
Woolwich, to be paid off.
Letters from Sierra Leone, dated March 2, state
that his Majesty's ship Primrose- was then lying
there, waiting the event of the trial of a galliot
(formerly the yacht of Sir William Curtis), which
pinnace in' the command of Lieut. Parrey, the first
Lieut. of the Primrose, had captured in the river
Cachao, with thirty-eight slayes on board. This
active officer had, on the previous day to the cap-
ture of the galliot, taken a Portuguese vessel of
four guns and forty men, with 225 slaves, by board-
ing. This vessel was formerly the Saucy Jack,
American privateer, during the late war. Lieut,
Parrey proceeded up the river Noonas, where he
found two slavers (schooners), one French, and one
Spanish, quite ready for slaves. He also found
there an English brig, the Lochiel, of Liverpool,
and, what is remarkable, without a living soul on
board, the Captain, Mate, and all her crew having
been discovered below dead. He consequently,
with much praiseworthy exertions, brought her
down the river, which is a dangerous one, and
without a pilot, to the Primrose, which ship carried
her to Sierra Leone, where her agent had allotted
to the Primrose salvage of 1901.
His Majesty's brig Onyx, Lieut. Boteler, sailed
yesterday for St. Andero, in Spain, with nine Spa-
niards, who were lately tried at the Admiralty Ses.
sions on a charge of piracy, but who, for want of
proof, were acquitted. The Government has since
liberally clothed and given each a donatiot of money,
and has sent them to a port of their own country,
at their choice.

On Thursday the Warspite,'of 76 guns, Cap-
tain Shirreff, with the flag of Rear-Admiral Baker,
C. 8., sailed from Plymouth for Rio-de Janeiro, to
relieve the Ganges, of 84 guns, Captain Inglefield,
which ship will bring to England the flag of Rear-
Admiral Sir R. Waller Otway, K.C.8., whose pe-
riod of service, as Commander-in-Chief on tt.k.
South American station, has expired.
The Tweed, 28, Captain Lord U, John
Churchill, left the Cape of Good Hope on the Bth
of February,. for the Mauritius, and was afterwards
to take the commission of inquiry to Ceylon.
The Favourite, 18, launched from the Dock-yard
on Easter Tuesday, was yesterday commissioned by
Commander Joseph Harrison. Mr, Peter Fisher,
Surgeon, and Mr. A. C. Maclervy, Assistant-Sur-
geOn, are appointed to her, She is ordered to fit
for foreign service,

The Admiralty have promoted Lieut. Downes, of
the Sybillc, to the rank of Commander, for his gal-
lant conduct in capturing the Amarante pirate on
the coast of Africa. The two senior 111idshiln"en
of the Black Joke tender are also made Linitenant%
for the same aguir.

PROMOTIONS.--Lieutenant John Chimley, of the
Basilisk cutter, is promoted to the rank of Com-
mander; Mr. EdWisrd Banks, of the Echo, to the
rank of Littitenant ; Mr. Joseph Martin Mottley, of
the Sybille, to be Lieutenant of the North Star, vice
Blyth, away it a prize, and supposed to be lost ;
Mr, Mends, of the Falcon, to be Lieutenant of thiz
Maidstone.

A PPOINTMENTS..-.- Commander Pole, to the Maid-
stone; Commander Colpoys, to the Falcon; Lieut.
John Adams (b). and Mr. W. Brodie, Master, to
the Athol; Lieutenant W. B. Watts and Mr. E.
Sawkins, Master, to the Basilisk cutter; the Rev.
E. Kitson, to be Captain of the Warspite, vice Ed-
wards, resigned.
Messrs. Hopkins and Lewin are appointed second
Lieutenants of this division of Royal Marines; the
former to be attached to the Artillery Brigade,
His Majesty's schooner Pike, 12, Lieutenant
J. G. Wigley, captured a large smuggler on the
Irish coast, en the 15th ult., and carried her into
Cork. She was commanded by a man named Patter-
son Gibson ; had a cargo of 400 bales of tobacco,
and a considerable quantity of spirits on board; and
some bales of tobacco which had been previously
landed were afterwards discovered in a cove outside
Cork harbour. It is expected the fortunate officer
will share 1,200/. from, his prise, which had once
before been seized, condemned, and sold, when un,
der the same person's command, as an illicit try„ler,
The Marquis of Anglesea, Steward, Co:innander,
sailed this morning, with a hundred and ten passer'.
gers, a large quantity of horses, sheep, cattle, and
merehatalise, for t_lLe new settlement at Swan River.
The free trader Hew, of Malown, for Bombay,
having taken on board'her passengers, will sail flora
Spithead to-morrow morning.
PI:MOUTH, MAY 9.—His Majesty's sloop.of-
war Hyacinth, 18 gun; was launched from this
Dock-yard on Tuesday evening.
In Hamoaze—Britannia, Kent, Zebra, Emulous,
Britomart, Hope, Bramble, and Meteor steamer,
Island and Main—Vigilant.
Souse:l—Pallas arid Ariadne.

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

(FROM THE TIMES.)

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in opening his
budget on Friday last, made one or two statements
which are worthy of attention. From the manner in
which the accounts are presented, one might at first
be led to suppose that the whole surplus revenue
calculated on by the Right Holt. Gentleman for the
current year, was the exact sum of 3,013,0001. Un-
les., however, we hare mistaken some passages of
his speech which were meant to be explanatory of
the nature and operation of the surplus, a• large
amount of terminable annuities has been provided
for, without touching on any portion of the above
3,000,0001. For instance,—
Lonz Annuities
Bank Annuities for loans advanced upon the

£1,300,000

dead weight 585,000
Military Life Annuities created by 48th Geo.

111.
Waterloo Annuities

130,000
700,000

In all of terminable Annuities ... X 2,715,000

If, again, we understood rightly the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, the above annuities, which resolved
into an equivalent annuity, not terminable, would
amount to 645,0001. for ever, which, considered
as so much interest on the National Debt,
would add considerably to that portion of it
which is to be covered by the estimated sur-
plus, and the Sinking Fund is to be credited
with the excess. Upon the subject of the dead
weight, Mr. Goulburn's statement is to us alto-
gether inexplicable. When the inimitable humbug,
miscalled a provision for the " dead weight"—a
provision for relieving the country from the annual
payment of half-pay and military and naval pensions,
amounting at that time to about, as they told us,
5,000,0001. per annum—when that scheme was
first invented by Mr. Vansittart, the public were
irieht that instead of their paying the said
6,000,000/. per annum, subject to diminution as
the several lives should drop, somebody or other
would be got to accept a fixed annual sum of about
.2,800,0001. for forty or forty-five years, we believe;
and would, in consideration of that yearly payment,
undertake to pay the terminable annuities, consti-
tuting the above 5,000,000/. of dead weight, until
the whole should expire. After the bargain had
gone a-begging for some time, the south Sea Com-
pany and others being loth to burn their fingers with
it, the Bank of England, the last resource of every
floundering Minister, was prevailed upon to go a
certain length towards lifting this ponderous dead
weight, and has actually advanced a number of mil-
!lnns for the purpose, equivalent to an annuity of
.58.5,0001., during the forty or forty-five years above.
mentioned. These advances from the Bank having
ceased since 1828, and the 585,000/. annuity being
in full vigour, we desire to know what situation the
conntry at this moment stands in with regard to
the dead weight itself? If the whole dead weight
of 5,000,0001. was to have been taken off our
shoulders fo?a forty years' annuity of 2,800,0001.,
and if we are actually saddled with an annuity for
the same term, and on the same account, but to the
smaller extent of 585,0001., are we to understand
that the dead weight itself, for which the country
still remains responsible, has been reduced in the
same proportion—that is to say, is the nation re-
lieved from military and naval pensions bearing the
same ratio to 5,000,000/. that a fixed annuity of
585,0001. bears to One of 2,800,000/. ? In that
case the dead weight now pressing on us ought not
to exceed 3,950,0001. or 3,960,0001. per annum.
Now is that the fact? Has the dead weight been
actually reduced or not, to 3,A60,000/. per annum,
besides the commuted sum of 585,0001. per annum.
for forty years, which we are bound to pay to the
Bank of England ? We have never been able to learn
that the dead weight has been reduced by a single
farthing. It is, on the contrary, represented to us
as exceeding the original amount j So that
instead of paying 2,800,0001. per annum for
forty years, to get rid of 5,000,0001. for an un-
certain period, we have more than 5,000,0001. dead-
weight to army and navy still to pay, with a fixed
annuity besides of 585,0001. to the pank of Eng-
land ! We do entreat some clear-headed and active
member of Parliament to try to procure us the 4e-
cessdry information, of which we profess ourselves
to be wholly destitute. If for mere curiosity, there
isan odd kind of satisfaction in ascertaining through
what sleight of hand, and to what extent, one has
been cheated. With regard to those more general
views upon the state of the country, in which so
wide a difference was observable between Messrs.
Goulburn and Hume, we are of opinion that the
former of these gentlemen will find himself to have
been more sanguine than the data on which he pro-
ceeds would justify. To us it seems that Mr.
Goulburn has not taken into account the degree in
which the powers of manufacturing production, from
endless inventions in machinery, have outstripped
the wants of all those consumers to whom our own
bad laws, aided by foreign rivalry, give us access.—
The oppressive corn laws of England have so re-
duced the profits of our manufacturers, and, com-
paratively with the price of bread, have so cut
down the wages of our workmen, that it is pro-
bable the game proportion of the people as before,
will nor, for the future, find employment in those
branches of industry. That we should become
less a manufacturing nation, would in nowise appal
:grieve us, but for the dreadful crisis through
which such a change in the condition pf the coun-
try must be brought about. The hands are there,
the mouths are there, and must be filled, while
Providence raises bread and meat from the soil of
England. If capital cease to find beneficial employ-
ment here, a part of it at least will emigrate, what-
ever may become of the poor. But the debt will
not emigrate, and the landed interest had better be-
think itself in time about the approaching reaction
of its beloved corn laws, in forcing a large body of
monied men, whose riches are transportable by a
biJl of exchange, and whose country is their counting-
house, 1`,2 leave the army—the navy—the ei-dil list—
the dead wel;glit—the Exchequer Bills—the Thee
per Cents.—the poor ;:ates—the assessed taxes—the
Ministerial majorities—tlid
Home, and Foreign Secretary's pattoriage,—with
all other blessings entailed upon us by country gene
tlemen, to take care of themselves and of each ottr.7-
The scheme of funding this last 3,000,000/. of Ex-
chequer Bills, we did not like from the outset. If
a shilling of expense, which could be avoided in
such a transaction, had been incurred and fixed upon
the public, as would appear from the debates of
Friday last, the thing is even more reprehensible
than we had imagined ; but the total amount of
Exchequer Bills outstanding still exceeds by
400,000/. the Bills of 1828, being so far, we admit,
an argument for reducing the quantity, though none
for an extravagant or wasteful boon to the parties
who surrender them.
(FROM THE MORNING CHRONICLE.)

The accounts from the Manufacturing Districts
are, upon the whole, favourable, as far as the conti-
nuance of tranquillity is concerned. The 3fanches-
ter Advertiser of yesterday says, " Up to the time of
our Paper going to pre-s' all remained peace and
quietness, nor was there the least symptom of this
desirable state being interrupted." The number of
killed and wounded at Rochdale, says the same
Journal, is not less than twenty-two, exclusive of
several slight cases. Several are desperately wounded.
One man has had a hand amputated; a female, a leg
amputated; a man, a leg amputated. A ball passed
into the abdominal viscera of one man. At Stock-
port, riotous proceedings on Wednesday evening
last led to the employment of soldiers, and of the
civil authority. 'The soldiers .red with a view to
intimidate rather than injure, and elevated the
mouths of their pieces so that the balls might pass
over the heads of the rioters; but several persons,
notwithstanding, have been hurt by the firing. The
town remained tranquil during the whole of Thurs-
day and Friday. Several of the mills in and round
Stockport have detachments of military in them.
34any persons must have been unable to reconcile
the account of the extremity of wretchedness in
Manchester, described by our Correspondent from

that place, with the fact that there are Poor Laws
in England, which say that no human being shall be
suffered to starve. The Manchester Advertiser,
however, throws light on this subject. "To enable
the public (says that Journal) to form a just notion
of the present riots, it should be known that they
have not embraced the whole of the working classes
in the town ; but, on the contrary, have been limited
to those engaged in a single branch of the cotton
manufacture—the weavers of calicoes, cambrics, &c.
They have also been locally circumscribed to that
portion of the town considered the St. Giles's of
Manchester, and densely peopled with weavers.
Wiih every desire not to exaggerate, we are com-
pelled to say that the appearance of squalid misery
which prevails in this district baffles description.
During the conflagration of Messrs. Parkers' factory,
we possessed an opportunity of estimating the
wretched state of the population in the wide
neighbourhood surrounding the fire—the houses
having emptied their inmates into the streets—
and such a mass of hideous poverty was
enough to sicken the heart. Most of the men,
women, and children looking as livid and
ghastly as if they had issued out of a fever
ward, and seemed, in other respects, as if
habitual want and passion had cankered their
very souls with vice.' It appears that the Messrs.
Parkers, whose mill was burnt down, actually paid
higher prices than other masters, and were driven
in self-defence to make a reduction ; but, says the
Journal in question, " We have it on unquestionable
authority, that James Allen, the manager of Messrs.
Parkers' mill, has of late received but nine shillings
per week for overlooking three hundred and ninety-
six looms in that factory—a little more than one
farthing per loom per week. . . . . The
very best, and only the very best workmen, by
sixteen or seventeen hours' constant labour, day
and night, could make in this mill so much as
nine shillings a week ; and the earnings of the
rest, including women, have varied between that
sum and three shillings and sixpence or four
shillings per week, as the produce of incessant
toil and half sustenance." To what follows we
wish particularly to direct attention. " The real
evil, though embraced in a narrow compass, is not of
to-day, nor, we fear, easily remedied ; it is—that
' there are now in this country a far greater number
of weavers of all sorts of fabrics than could by
possibility be adequately employed, if the time
were one of the greatest prosperity. Unfortunately
a person taught to weave one species of manufac-
ture can turn himself to any other, and the whole
mass are consequently reduced to a level with the
lowest. But it is the peculiar misfortune of that trade
in Greatßritain, that not only has manual labourbeen
to a great extent supplanted by mechanical, but that
the redundancy of hands thus produced in England and
Scotland is augmented tenfold by the swarms of
Irish linen and stuff weavers who crowd all our
manufacturing towns, and by working for any wages
drag others into the same abject poverty with them-
selves. Five-sixths of the hands employed in the
mills attacked on Monday are Irishmen. Such, in
a few words, is the true nature of the social disease
that is now corroding the very vitals of the
nation—that in Spitalfields, Coventry, Norwich,
Macclesfield, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumber-
land, Lanarkshire, &c., renders hundreds of thou.
sands of human beings a pest to their country."
Hear this, ye Spring Rises, Dawsons, Limericks,
Clanricardes—that you may be able to profit by the
competition for land, by millions of naked, half.
starved savages, to whom a bit of land and the stye
on it are the condition of existence, our cities are
exposed to destruction, and our industrious classes
sunk to the lowest state of wretchedness! Mr.
spring Rice had even the assurance, not long ago,
to mention in the face of all the misery inflicted on
our working classes? that England benefitted by the
influx of Irish labourers, as it was enabled to have
work cheaper performed ! What will opt imagined
self-interest make a man utter without a blush
This evil must be stopped at the fountain head. As
wua well observed by Mr. Huskisson, on Friday
night, fi the I-touse must take into its consideration
the state of pauperism in Ireland ; for if something
were not done, England would ;pettily be reduced
to the same state ; and when it was so reduced,
property would be exposed here to the same dam
got', an 4 the public tranquillity to the same danger
as in Ireland,'' We must prevent the manufacture
of paupers in Ireland, to enable Irish Landlords to
have large rent-rolls, at the expence of the English
working classes. "If it be," (the fact is now as,
certa;up.(l) said our contemporary the Globe, " to the
population of Wapchester, who have no claim on the
poor's rate, that the present riots are attributable,
the fact may strengthen the arguments of those who
contend for an application of some system for the
relief of the poor to Ireland. Our Poor Laws,
wha•ever evil they may be attended with, have been
signally effectual, in all places where they have
existed, and are excellent in preserving the peace;
but it will be of little avail that the people of pro-
perty in Engluu.d submit to this burden, if the places
most subject to want 5.:14 most exposed to turbu-
lence are inhabited by a mixed population, a great
proportion of whom have no legal claim for relief,
We shall have the burthen on property of the Poor
Laws, and the destruction of property which attends
the want of them."
(FR.031 THE 31pRtipip HERALD)
" Dupin has calculated that the productive powers of
France in 1780, wei.a gqual to the employment of
38,792 665 hands, and in 1816, to 48,814,869, showing
an increase of productive power equivalent tc the employ-
ment of 10,022,223 hands in 46 years. Fcr England he
eriimates the same power, in 1780, to 31,281,052, and,
in 1826, At *9,206,311, showing an increase in the same
period of time equal yo 28,925.259 of new handl ! Such
have been the rapid strides mule in the productive powers
of both countries, mainly by the extended use and grow-
ing perfection of machinery and the arts of indaso7."
.4thenceum. _

Now, if markets for the produce of these produc-
tive powers be not found, in what situations are not
both countries placed in the cnorse of time ! Again,
if markets be found abroad for the cocsomption of
Elie goods produced by these productive power.,
and good.; in proportion be sent abroad, the next
thing to be considered is what is to be done with
the extra quantity of goods ;p be returned in pay-
ment. In questions of production, 44 of expo' ta-
,;:su and importation, we should look not only at
people abroad that we produce fur
the nui:.'her of
and export td, but also at the number and
con-
suming power of tild Producers, who are to be
repaid by the produce ofthese to whom they
export. For instance—the present export of
this country, containing a population of only 20 mil-
lions of people, is, we will say, 60 millions, but even
with that export we have so deluged ail parts of the
world with our goods, that, in numerous instances,
they have been sold at prime cost, while the ex.
poises and duties in foreign countries have, perhaps,
been 5U per cent. But the mischief to the ex-
porters has not ended here, it has been extanie4 to
' the importation of the 50 millions in payment.,-.
Now it is well knoWn that of late years almost all
imported articles have been at extremely low prices,
which alone shows that the import of foreign com-
modities has been overdone. Pepper is, we believe,
at 4d. a pound, which at one time was perhaps 2s.
a pound. Cotton from the East Indies 4d., which
was once 2s. Cotton from the United States 6d.,
which once rose to 3s. Gd, A variety of other ar-
ticles could be mentioned, which are at very low
prices,—the effect of excessive importation ; and
this excessive importation has been brought about
by excessive exportation. We, a population of
only twenty millions, trade at present with at
least 500 millions of people, and every now cnd
then a mania seizes us for exporting as much as
possible. A manufacturer has his eyes fixed on the
powers of consumption of people abroad. He for-
gets that, in all parts of the world, there are manu-
facturers, as well as himself. The Marichgster, arid
other manufacturers, have been making goods by
machinery to a vast extent. Their warehouses have
become loaded—they are sick of looking at their
goods—the next thing they do is to get them out
of their sight—they export them. The reujit we

have mentioned follows—that is, loss the sale
of the exported, as well as loss in the sale of
the imported articles. The United Kingdom, as
we have said, has a population of only 20 millions
of people—but, in consequence of our machinery,
this country, containing only 20 millions, could
make goods sufficient for 500 millions of foreigners.
Suppose that we were to produce goods suffi-
cient for the 500 millions of foreigners, and that
the Governments of the 500 millions would meet
Mr. Huskisson's views, and would do away with
all duties so as to give the 20 millions and the
500 millions complete free trade, and that the 500
millions, on the principle of reciprocity, were to be
so courteous towards us as to cease from manufac-
turing, and agree to take our manufactured goods
for their sugar, rice, cotton, silk, tea, &c., and that
we were to supply the 500 millions with one, two,
or three hundred millions' worth of our goods in the
course of the year; and that the 500 millions paid
in kind, yet there would have to be remitted to
this country one, two, or three hundred million
pounds worth in the course of the year, of tea,
nankeens, Chinese crapes, lac dye, indigo, hides,
tallow, cotton, silk, wool, and a very great variety
of et cetera:. But the next question would be, how
would the 20 millions be able to consume
this extra quantity of goods returned by the
.500 millions of people ? It is very easy to
talk of making goods for all the world, or of
opening markets to all the world; and in
the present state of the manufacturing by
machinery, it would be easy to export a suffi-
ciency of goods to supply the markets of all
the world, hut it is not quite so easy for 20 millions
only of people to consume the goods imported in
payment. The thing has been overdone in respect
even of 50 millions export and import; but what
would be the result of a one, two, or three hundred
millions experiment ? It may be said that we have
stated an extreme case, and we admit that we have;
but when our manufacturers talk of manufacturing
for all the world, yet, as there are 2,000 millions of
people in the world, we, the 20 millions only, would
be so deluged with the returns that the importers
would be almost obliged to give their goods im-
ported away, or make manure of them. In treating
of these subjects, the manufacturers—Messrs. Hus-
kisson, Waithman, Fyler, and others ought, when
they talk so much of giving encouragement to ma-
nufacturers, in order to the exportation of their
goods, to consider that there is such a thing as im-
portation consequent on exportation ; and that it is
as easy for foreign nations to deluge us with their ar-
ticles, as it is for us to gorge them with ours.

LEEDS BOROUGH SESSIONS, MAY 5.

EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF CHILD STEALING.

Hannah Atherton, the wife of Mr. William Ather-
ton, hardwareman, of Otley, was charged with steal-
ing a male inlaid child, of the age of five weeks, the
son of Samuel Lee, a cloth-weaver, at Woodhouse,
near Leeds. The prisoner was a well-dressed, re-
spectable, matronly woman. She appeared greatly
agitated during the reading of the indictment, arid,
at the request of her Counsel, was allowed a chair.
Elizabeth Lee stated that she was the wife of
Charles Lee, a cloth-weaver, at Woodhouse. She
had been confined early in December last of a male
child. Witness knows the lady at the bar. She
saw her, for the first time, on Sunday, the II th of
January. She said that the prisoner (whose name
she did not then know) told her that she had been
desired by two ladies to call and inquire into her
circumstances. Witness told her that she had been
much distressed, and if it had not been for the good-
ness of the ladies, she would have been much worse
off. On the following day this lady came to her
house again, and told her that she came with Mrs.
Smith's compliments, and with a message, which
she said would be hest explained by reading a letter,
which stated that Mrs. Smith sent her compliments,
and requested that she would let Mrs. Carroll have
her child for a month or two, as she had lost her
child, and was in danger of suffering from a milk-
fever, and unless she could have another infant to
supply its place for a month or two, she would die.
The lady added that the child would be well taken
care of, and said that if she lost her milk, a nurse
would be procured for the child. The witness asked
the prisoner if the Mrs. Smith mentioned in the let-
ter was Mrs. George Smith, of Little Woodhouse ?
The lady said she was the person ; and witness said
she durst trust her life in her hands. Mrs, Atherton
then produced a dress, which the witness put upon
her child, instead of the clothes it had on. The lady
gave her a sovereign, and witness accompanied her
to the top of Woodhouse-moor, when she gave her
the child. Witness said, from inquiries which she
made at Mr. tieorge Smith's, she was induced im-
mediately to set out in search of her child, which
she found at the prisoner's lodgings in Woodhouse.
lane, about half-past one o'clock. The prisoner had
the child in her lap, and was apparently in the act
of suckling it. Witness exclaimed " That is my
child ;" the prisoner said " iNo, it is mine." Wit-
r.es; however, took the child from her, and put it
to her breast, on which Mrs. Atherton said " If the
child is yours, the clothes are mine."

Mrs. Alice Ibbetson stated, that Mrs. Atherton
lodged at her house. She went out on Monday,
about eleven o'clock, and returned about one o'clock
on the same day with a baby, Witness soon after
heard that Mrs. Lee had lost her child, which she
mentioned to the prisoner, who seemed much struck
with it, Witness said, she looked at the child, but
from the difference of its dress, she did not think
that it was Mrs. Lee's child. The mother of the
child soon came and claimed it ; the prisoner at first
said it was her own child, but soon after delivered
it up to Mrs. Lee. Mrs. Atherton treated the in-
fant with the greatest tenderness.

On the part of the prisoner, Mr. John
Deighton,
spirit-merchant, of Orley, was called, who sta:ed
that he had known Mrs. Atherton six or eight
years; she was a woman of the most benevolent dis-
pozition, and was particularly attached to children,
and her condua to the two orphans then in court
(looking at two fine ruddy chilt.ltrep standing Con-
spicuously in the front of the bench) had been
beyond all praise : she had taken them and edu-
;ate(' them with the utmost care and tenderness at
her own expanse.

Three oilier witnesses, equally respectable, resi-
dent in Otley, concurred in the character given of
t.he prisoner by Mr. Deighton,
The RACP4pfft charged the Jwy at some length,
who retired for about ten minutes, and on their re-
turn into Court found a verdict of !' gplty," but
strongly recommended the prisoner to the mercy of
the Court, on account of her previous good and
humane character.
The REcORpET!. sentenced the prisoner to be im-
prisoned one month in the Castle of York.