The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-06 00:00:00

COWES ROYAL YACHT CLUB REGATTA.

COWES, Auc. s.—The second Gold Cup given by the
Club, value 100/., was sailed for to-day. The following
were the vessels entered:—
Vessels. Owners. Tons.
1. Peri Dighy Murray, Esq.
V. Hebe Andrew Corbet, F.,q . OS
3. Harriet
4. Emerald John L. Symonds, Esq 53
5. Elizabeth John Moore, Esq. 65
6. Dolphin John L. Gower, Esq 53
.

The yachts started at 10 o'clock. The lugger Peri
held by her moorings, and lost two minutes. The Hebe
returned round the starting vessel at a quarter before two,
winning the Cup; Elizabeth, second; Harriet, third ;
Emerald, fourth ; and Peri fifth. The Dolphin did not
start. The company at Cowes are exceedingly thin ;
lodging-keepers and boatmen exceedingly civil. The Re-
gatta gave but little amusement, the Hebe outsailing the
other vessels, so as to completely distance them.

SEDUCTION AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.-
A young female, respectably attired, attracted the notice of
some bricklayers, at work at Paddington, about eight
o'clock this morning. She was crying most piteously as
she walked to and fro, and ultimately she threw herself
into the Regent's Canal, at the second bridge from Cam-
den Town. A man of the name of BANNISTER, one of the
bricklayers, instantly plunged into the water after her, and
in less than two minutes brought her to the bank. She
was taken to the house of her preserver, a short distance
from the spot she had intended to make her grave. lqh
recovering herself she burst into tears, and returned
thanks in the most humble manner for the interference
that had been made to save her life, but said that she was
ruined, and could never return to her father's home, at
Hornsey. She had been seduced about three weeks ago
at Peckham, where she was on a visit, by a gentleman,
whose proposals were honourable, even after the first rash
step had been taken. She accompanied him from Peck-
, ham to London last week, and they resided in lodgings in
Wilderness-row, Goswell-street, till Saturday, when he
deserted her, and left her in penury. The father of the
unfortunate girl will be written to on the subject, and
every means will be used to restore the penitent to her
paternal roof.

CORONER'S INQUEST.—Am inquest was held
on Tuesday evening last at five o'clock, at Mr. Mama's,
the London Ale House, in St. Mary Arches-street, before
S. WALICET, Esq. and a respectable Jury, on the body of
WILLIAM LANGMAN, of Bow, aged 57 years, who was
found dead early the same morning, in Northam's-passage,
St. Mary Arches-street. Two females, named GRACE
BRIANTj and ELIZABETH COUSINS, with whom he was
seen in company the preceding night, were apprehended
on suspicion of being the cause of his death, either by ad-
ministering some deleterious drug, or by some personal
violence, while he was in a state of intoxication. The body
having been viewed by the Coroner and Jury, and found
free from any marks of ill usage, after about ten minutes'
deliberation, they returned a verdict that " The deceased
was found dead in a passage, called Northam's-passage,
from some cause unknown to the Jurors. ".--.Exeter Alfred.

A paper of considerable importance, in a po-
.tico-economical point of view, was ordered by
Ile House of Commons before tlie recess; 2iiidn4.&
as just made its appearance. The following

its title :
" An Account of the quantities of the folloysft—:
Articles which have paid the duties of Customs
Excise for home consumption; stating the rate of
duty paid to the Customs and Excise, and the tota.,:".;;/
of both ; also the total net amount of revenue
ccived on each article in each year since the yeas

1789 :
" Tobacco in Great Britain and in Ireland;
" Foreign Wines in Great Britain and Ireland ;
" Foreign Spirits in Great Britain;
a sugar in Great Britain;
" Tea in Oreat Britain;
" Coffee in Great Britain ; and
" Glass in Great Britain.
" Also similar accounts of Spirits made in Ireland
and Scotland since the yein. 1820."
Now it does appear from this document, not-
withstanding all the croakings which we have
heard of the miseries of the people, that the con-
sumptiom of these articles last year, particularly
of the more necessary ones, and those consumed
by the poor, has in general exceeded that of all
preceding years: The articles themselves have,
in general, paid more Excise duties. Not that
we make light of the sufferings of the poor : but
be they more or less, we are sure they have been,
in a great degree, brought upon them by that
class of people who now raise the chief clamour,
simply because they are involved in the necessary
consequencesdo
af od
se
supported,measures
then said they would spend their last guinea, and
shed the last drop of their blood. However,
cash payments have been resumed, and small
notes have been called in ; and yet corn is above
Ss. a bushel, and the people consume more
tobacco, spirits, tea, sugar, and coffee, than
they ever did ! We are said to be favourable
to the present Ministry ; and were thought
hostile to that which existed when we
said that these things would be,—that whatever
difficulties might occur in the progress, yet that
cash payments could be resumed, and small
notes could be called in : and we may surely now
boast of the verity of our derided predictions.
The truth is, that we were neither hostile to
preceding Ministries, nor are we attached to
this, but at all times we seek and pursue the
truth. If manufacturing and commerce had not
been checked after the war by raising bread to a
high price, through the exclusion of foreign
grain,—if the artisan had been then suffe:ed to
eat a cheap loaf, and of course support himself
on moderate wages, we should now have had ex-
clusive possession of the foreign market for the
productions of our looms and forges, and the
price of corn would have been comparatively a
matter of small consideration. 'We could have
afforded high prices for all the agricultural pro-
ductions. However, it is clear from the tables
referred to, that we are not yet plunged into the
abyss of misery.—Tinws.
The last Gazette announces the appointment
of Mr. William Gregson to the Patent Office of
Writer of the London Gazette, formerly held by
the late Mr. Rolleston. The office is almost a
sinecure, but yields the possessor several hundreds
per annum. The gentleman now nominated to
it is the Barrister whose assistance Mr. Peel has
had in the preparation of his several Bills for
the Amendment and Consolidation of the Cri-
minal Law. We believe that in the quarters
most competent to form a judgment of the
manner in which the task has been performed,
the new Acts are not considered to have been
framed with any extraordinary ability ; but
the merit of the design may well avert
any great severity of criticism. What we
now notice Mr. Gregson's appointment for
is to reprobate the shape in which it has
been thought fit thus to remunerate him.—
We had imagined that the system of re-
warding public services by grants of sinecures
was exploded, and are sorry to see it revived in
this instance. Mr. Gregson may well deserve
the emolument of the office, but sinecures, if
kept up, will inevitably be often bastowed on
undeserving persons. The only safe and just
course is to state openly and fairly the services
rendered by any individual, and to demand of
Parliament specifically the remuneration due.
If the Commissioners for revising the law of
Real Property, and those for the amendment of
the Common Law, are to be paid in the same
way as Mr. Gregson, we may make up our minds
to expect hereafter all manner of jobbing and
foul play. Mr. Peel ought not to have suffered
his honest and praiseworthy labours to incur the
scandal such a mode of payment attaches to
them.—Morning Chronicle.

It was, we believe, Louis the Fourteenth, who
said to one of his courtiers that he hated reason-
ers. We wish we saw more reasoning in this
country, and less sneering. The assumption o.
superiority which is implied in sneering, renders
it peculiarly offensive to all who are the objects
of it ; and the superiority is often any thing but
real. There is no country in the world in which
opponents are so much in the habit of employ-
ing against each other this contemptible practice
as England. If a man entertains some obnoxi-
ous or unpopular opinions, that is quite enough
to procure for him contemptuous treatment. We
have beep led to these remarks by the perusal of
the papers relative to the slave population, or
tiered by the House of Commons to be printed
12th June last, which have just been distributed.
There is in the letters addressed by Sir G. Mur-
ray to the Authorities in the West Indies, a
fairness and openness, an earnestness of en-
deavour to exhibit the real workings of his own
mind, which are by no means usual in official
communications, but which are admirably calcu-
lated to disarm the prejudices of those to whom
they are addressed. Sir George is a reasoner,
and an able reasoner. We were particularly
pleased with the mode in which, in his letter to
Sir John Keane, dated 15th September, 1828,
he endeavours to persuade the Legislature of
Jamaica to receive slave evidence :
" The other main topic (he says) to which I
shall here advert, the admission of slave evidence,
is one to which his Majesty's Government attack
the utmost consequence; it is, in fact, one of the
most important and influential steps which can be
taken towards a system of improvement ; it removes
a general stigma from the whole body of the slaves,
and must tend to raise them, not only in their own
estimation, but even in that of the masters them-

selv es.
" While the Courts of Law exclude the slave
from all participation in the means resorted to for
the ends of justice, not scrutinizing his evidence to
make sure of its truth, but rejecting it at once, on
the presumption that it must be false, the local pre-
judices that exist against this class of men arc for-
tified by a political sanction, aid the law is made
not merely to authorise their condition of slavery,
but to acknowledge, and even to certify their moral
degradation.
This is the first consideration. The next is
that of the safety with which this privilege, if it cal

be so called, may be. conferred. It is a privilege
which, though it raises the character of the whole
class, will be actually exercised by comparatively
very few ; that exercise, too, will be occasional, and
dependent on accident. It is a boon that bestows
no power • it merely removes an ttiverml. brand of
falsehood. .

I am not insensible to the objection arising
from the chances of perjury ; but those are chances
which accompany all trial by the testimony of wit-
nesses, and interests as near, and prejudices as
strong, as any which can be supposed to influence
the slave, either on behalf of his master or against
him, have always existed in every soviet,,, without
being found to endanger the general probabilities of
truth. The evidence of the add is admitted in the
cause of the parent, anti the prosecutor is often the
only wittics in the trial of a quarrelsome neighbour
by whom he has been assaulted. Not are the pecu-
liarities of West Indian society to be urged as a
ground of exception from this general argument ; on
the contrary, they add reasons why the principle
may be applied with especial safety. The Courts,
the Judges, and the Juries, are of a different class
and colour from the proposed witnesses; acquainted
for the most part with the habit and tendencies of
the slave ; accustomed to measure his understand-
ing, his moral sense, and the accuracy of his per-
ceptions; and protected by all these advantages
against the danger of any undue influence or im;•
pression from his testimony. The proposed Altera,
lion gots only to make that testimony admissible,
not to make it conclusive. The law, when this
change shall have been introduced, will only have
rendered the witness competent ; it will still have
left to the particular tribunal to determine whether
he be credible. Pedury, to be mischievous, rust be
consistent in all the circumstances of its fiction ; and
the lower the rate of the intellect employed in the
contrivance, the less is that consistency to be appre-
hended, It will hardly be maintained, that the ne-
groes, such as are found in the West Indian com-
munities, are of so ingenious a turn of mind, so
adroit in the fabrication of falsehood, and so fertile
in resources for repairing it under the pressure of a
public examination, as to baffle the search of truth
more effectually than the practitioners of fraud in the
great societies of Europe."
Sir George has here shown himself well ac-
quainted with the subject of evidence ; and it is
gratifying to perceive how steadily he has kept
the true principles in his eye, without allowing
himself to deviate from them in the manner
usual with Judges and Barristers. He objects
to the exclusion of evidence on any account ;
and contends, that the credibility of the evidence
is what alone ought to be determined. He
places the security where it can alone be placed--
in the consistency of truth, and not in any arbi-
trary test, How often have we seen Judges in
this country excluding altogether testimony, in
cases it could not be dispensed with, because,
forsooth, the young person had not been taught
to say prayers at night, or could not stand an
examination in the Catechism. Mr. .Justice
Park, one of our best Criminal .Judges, has often
taken it upon him to reject evidence upon the
ground of the presumed moral imperfection of
the witness from lack of instruction. Sir
George Murray's good sense has been of more
service to him than the legal law has been
to the Judge ; and as truth must be consis-
tent, he very properly infers that the lower
the intellect the less consistency is to be appre-
hended. Whenever we depart from the plain
principle laid down by Sir George, we involve
ourselves in contradictions. He who will perjure
himself will of course also take all tests ; and the
refusal to declare a belief in what may be deemed
necessary to give admission to the evidence,
thereby evinces a love of truth, while the decla-
ration of belief evinces nothing. When it was
proposed in the House of Commons that a cer-
tificate of previous attendance at church shall
be deemed necessary to qualify a slave to give
evidence, Sir George opposed this restriction in
a manly manner, as calculated to encourage
hypocrisy. We will undetqake to say, that so •
much good sense on the subject of evidence, as
is conveyed in the above quotation, is not to be
found in the whole of the works of our profes-
sional lawyers. We cannot resist another quo-
tation from the same letter, indicative of the
good sense and liberality of the writer

That any change in the habits and constitution
of any part of the community, may in some in-
stances be resisted, or very reluctantly admitted,
his Majesty's Government are, of course, prepared
to expect; but they trust that as these discussion=
become more familiar, the Colonists will perceive,
what indeed it is very material that you should take
every convenient opportunity of impressing upon
them in your private communications, that their
own interests are very deeply involved in the pro-
posed improvements. Upon a considerate view of
the (general progress which free institutions are nzak-
ing throughout the world, it must be clearly per-
ceived that the present condition of society in the
West Indies is one which can scarcely be expected
to endure much longer without material modifica-
tions. It seemed, therefore, to be the dictate of pru-
dence, as it is also thedesire and the expectation of the
British people very generally and very strongly ex-
pressed, that such relaxations as can be granted con-
sistently with the acknowledged rights of property,
should not be withheld. In portions of the Empire
isolated as our West Indian Colonies are, where the
few inhabitants' form but a small proportion of the
population, the minority may find themselves, at no
distant period, in a very precarious position, unless
their voluntary endeavours to comply with the just
expectations of the mother country, with regard to
the improvement of the condition of the slaves,
shall have founded for them such a claim to her ap-
probation and support, as would incline her in any
season of difficulty to furnish a prompt and effectual
assistance." _ _

While an English Minister is thus holding
out the progress of free institutions and free
opinions throughout the world as an argument
for improvement, the Liberals of Paris deem it
enough that the English Government propose
any measure, to oppose it as necessarily of evil
tendency.—/bid\
It will be seen from our paper of this day, that
the informers sustained a signal defeat yesterdayo
at Hatton-garden. The informations were all
very properly dismissed ; and it will be seen that
one of the Magistrates declared that there was
no law which bound Licensed Victuallers to shut
their houses at particular hours, and that infor-
mations ought to be laid, not on the ground of
keeping houses open beyond a particular hour,
but on that of keeping disorderly houses. Such
assuredly was the intention of the author of the
new Licensing Act ; but such assuredly has not
been the spirit in ,Ahich it has been interpreted.
On the contrary, there have been many con-
victions, not for keeping disorderly houses,
but for keeping houses open after a cer-
tain hour of the night, although the Licens-
ing Act lays down no particular rule on
the subject, but leaves every one to consult his
own interest whether he shall, or shall not, keep
his house open beyond a particular hour ; and
the Licensed Victualler would indeed be guilty
of egregious folly who should square his con-
duct by the law, and trust to it for his defence
against any informations which might be brought
against him. One Magistrate interprets the law
after one fashion, and another after another
fashion ; and his chance between the two is but
small indeed. We trust, However, that the• re-
peated contradictory decisions on this subject

will speedily lead to some general understanding
of what the law really is with respect to late
hours, and that Licensed Victuallers will know,
beyond doubt, when they are, or are not,
amenable to it—when they have, or have not,
transgressed it.—Morning Advertiser.