Star.
London, England, 1831-08-01 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 1, 1831.

N°. 13,850.

LITERATURE.

Re/Ise/ions on some Pointe of the Law, lances Debtor and
Creditor, and en the constituent character of the insol-
vent Court, artreetad Jr.. a Pamphlet under that
title, to site the power to an Theelveni Debtor, 'Atheist
any imprisonment, on an early and whoa/try sur-
render, as is the ogee of Anokrtipts, to come in and
take the benefit qf the Ate.
Should that proposition ever be thought worthy
of consideration, the first objection taken to it will
be its novelty.
Advocates of imprisonment for debt do, indeed,
arise, who keenly oppose every reform ; a perpetual
war is waged between the abuse and the remedy.
They fiy to the forlorn hope of every prejudies;
setting op the cry of novelty and innovation. But
the more ancient the abuse, the sooner it should
cease. I shall here observe, that if its novelty be
a sufficient objection to every reform of the law,
we must also reject as law, every rule and every
maxim, from which have resulted the progress and
melioration of English jurisprudence. The abro-
gation of all the amendments must follow, for
which we are indebted to the Lytteltons, the
Cookes, the Hardwicks, the Peels, who, with cir-
cumstances, have interpreted the law and the con-
stitution, in opposition to false, though victorious
opinions of the times in which they lived. Con-
suetudinis ususque longevi non vilisauctoritas est:
vcrum non usque adeo sui valetura moment°, at
ant rationem vincat ant legem, 1. 2. But the law
of sudden imprisonment for debt is, by the super-
stitious reverence of lawyers, considered of the
irrevocable class. " If the same principles were
inexorably pursued, what would be the conse-
quence ? that, in the process of time, the business
of legislation would be at end : the conduct and
fate of men would be determined by those, who
neither knew nor cared any thing about the
matter ; and the aggregate body of the living
would remain ever in subjection to an inexorable
tyranny, exercised, as it were, by an aggregate
body of the dead."
It is not however a little remarkable, that Lord
Vyndford, then Mr. St. Best, in the debate on
Lord Redesdale's amended Insolvent Act, in
which the principle of the cessio bonorum was first
introduced, made the following liberal observa-
tions ; from which, in his Fraudulent Debtors'
Bill, he seems to have retrograded.

" To the principle of this measure, and to the policy of
rendering Imprisonment unnecessary, on the honest surren-
der of the debtor's property, he was not hostile; but as it
stood at present, it made no difference between the honest
and the fraudulent debtor. It was said to be founded on
the principle of the ceasio bononses, but not suiliciently so.
He wished it to be carried farther on that plan. He wished
to make this eeuio &moron. in some cases, preventive of
the imprisonment, which insolvency was likely to occasion.
There were many individuals, for whom passing the
threshold of a prison was as severe a punishment as pro-
tracted confinement. The idea of it was revolting to their
minds. The present bill did not offer these any relief ; it
did not go far enough. He wished to present a temptation
I to a timely settlement; and to induce debtors, as soon as
' they found themselves likely to become insolvent, not to
hold their creditors at arm's length, but to immediately call
them, and adopt the only means which could procure a sa-
tisfactory arrangement to all parties, securing the one
against further losses, and the other against ctmlinement.—
He would, therefore, propene a clause enacting, that
debtors rendered insolvent by proved misfortunes, and
coming forward in time to satisfy their creditors as to their
real condition. should have the benefit of the act without
being sent to prison. If they were to be confined even three I
months only, then the greater part of the money they might',
still possess would, in that period, have passed into the
hands of jailers and other persons, to the real detriment of
the creditors."

A member in reply to these observations said,
that " imprisonment is not recognised by the law
as a punishment, but to enforce the discovery of
property and the payment of demands." Then if
it be nut considered a punishment, its infliction
which constitutes its disgrace, is with the warm
approbation of the gentleman, to be permitted, as a
torture. A creditor, a private, an angry and dis-
appointed individual, may therefore employ the
interdictio tyre et ignis; ho may use it at his
pleasure, to enforce and constrain, by its sudden
anti harsh violence, a man to do that, which, nine

times in ten, he may have no means of perform-
ing.

In the early and barbarous ages of the Romani
republic, the same cruel and absurd practice was
the law mtainst debtors. But when that republic
advanced in civilization and refinement, the cessio
bonorum was introduced, and the hideous bru-
tality abolished. Omni quoque corporuli cruciatu
senwto.—Cod. 7. 71. But, before its abrogation,
the creditor might confine his debtor in privato
careers; whip and torture him at his discretion, to
coerce or to enforce the discovery of property and
the payment of demands, or, in default of which,
take a legal satisfaction in the indulgence of savage
resentment
Imprisonment, however cruel and unrelenting,
being recognised by the law a satisfaction, not a
punishment, may, it seems, b advantageously and
justifiably employed, without limit and without
mercy.
But where is the proportion between the damage
done to the creditor, and the cruel satisfliction so
profusely assigned to him ? The sum for which
he proceeds can never be put into competition with
the personal liberty of his debtor. When the debt
is contracted, to consummate the injustice-of taking
the body in execution, it is never in the contem-
plation of either of the parties, that the liberty of
the debtor's person should be hypothecated for the
payment of it. It is said, that if he did not coerce,
yr. in other words, torture his body, he would run
the risk of losing his demand. Is there a cotnpa.
rison between the loss of a sum of money, and the
privation of a man's liberty ? The money could be
spared, or there would not have been a creditor.
But when a debtor loses his personal freedom, he
loses his all. The imprisonment of his person is,
ezeept death, the severest infliction of the law- The
coastrainiug a man, the father of a family,Au our_
render his person, to enforce on • surmise of his
, being solvent, the discovery of property, of which

he may have none, or the payment of a debt that
he has not the means of discharging, is a mistake
the most absurd and barbarous ever committed io
legislation. This strange tyranny, the peculiar
opprobrium and scandal of our law, is exposed and
reprobated by the most enlightened philosophers,
statesmen, and lawyers.
The act of Lord Redesdalo, sa a permanent
measure, on the principle of the cessio boxerunt
and the term of imprisonment, to he fixed by law,
if properly understood, and equality administered,
is a great acquisition for the public; inasmuch as
it has set up a leading proposition on which
every necessary and meliorating reform might be
apdy smi —itresdently engrafted. By dm curio
boosernm;Tuider certain restrictions, on tut honest
and fair surrender of property, the body oll.the
debtor is to be discharged from confinement. ,A
law borrowed from the code of Justinian, immemo-
rially established in Scotland, and every where
practised on the continent of Europe. In every
civilized and commercial city, it has been long and
uniformly acted upon and approved. This princi-
ple, so obvious to common sense, so congenial to
enlightened policy and humanity, was most perti-
naciously resisted, from the blindest prejudice, and
the most deplorable repugnance, at every improve-
ment in our civil code.

The true cause, however, of the great evil of
innumerable insolvent debtors now annually to be
relieved, had escaped his lordship's consideration.
The original evil continues with all its inevitable
and fatal consequences. I fear, as long as the
sudden arrest on mean process, with its destruc-
tive practice, the perennial sources of wretchedness,
the great fountains of sorrow remain undrained,
the jails must fill. It is the sieve of the Danaids ;
as fast as arbitrary authority empties the prisons of
its victims, sordid ferocity, in still greater num-
bers, gluts them again, " dirnit sedificat." There
is the secret, there is the whole policy of the law
of imprisonment for debt; as much the scourge
as the dishonour of England. The spring must be
dried up, or the waters of bitterness will continue
to flow. If the efforts of reason and humanity
have been feeble and unavailing against the ty-
ranny of prejudice and custom, much may be pre-
sumed from zeal and information.

Deeply imbued with these sentiments, it will be
readily conceived, that I would carry my re-
form to the radical cure of the evil ; and that,
under certain restrictions, I would entirely abolish
the law of imprisonment for debt. " Bona debi-
toris non corpus obnoxium ease :" the debtor's
goods should be taken, but his person should be
free. I must ever remain attached to that opi-
nion, as long as nothing else is opposed to it than
a chimerical inconvenience; an usurped and arbi-

trary practice, in which the first process is in ex-
ecution of the highest nature. Imprisonment, the
only notice given to the victim of his prosecution,
who, without the opportunity to object to the alle-
gations on which it is founded, becomes instantly
surrounded by the furies of the law.—The
hideous prison opens to receive him, and be
suffers before he is judged. I can feel no parti-
ality for a law, discordant in its principles and re-
voking in its punishments, striking carelessly and
indiscriminately the innocent and the guilty. It
does not even inquire after crime. It seems to seek
only the unfortunate ; it is on the poor and mid-
dling orders that it inflicts all its ruin. Can I

entertain any other opinion, when the law against
debto-s is more severe than that against atrocious
felons, .and by condemning the debtor to a per-
perpetual and starving imprisonment, indicts a pu-
nishment more cruel than death. The felon has
his aliment, his maintenance ; the imprisoned
debtor is without support, and often perishes of
want.

Can I conceive any thing more atrocious than
that, under the pretext of a possible inconvenience
the whole order of justice should be reversed, and
that the infliction of punishment in a savage im-
prisonment should be the commencement of a pe-
nal process. It partakes of the same barbarism as
when, before the immortal Beccaria, by his divine
book on crimes and pnnishments, accomplished the
abolition of torture, the limbs were dislocated, the
flesh by burning pincers torn from the bones, and
the punishment given in advance, as the bert cri-
terion of discrimination between the innocent and
the guilty. In the eyes of humanity, an accused
is ouly an unfortunate ; in the eyes of justice be
is still innocent. It is the humane maxim of our
law. But in the case of the debtor it authorises
every injustice ; with respect to him, the practice
is a manifest violation of that sacred rule, it pro-
ceeds on the presumption against innocence. Be-
fore any conviction, it exacts, except death, the
severest penalty known to the law. On the first
surmise, on a perjured affidavit, without warning,
without notice, before trial and before judgment;
the debtor is hurried to a loathsome confinement,
subjected to every privation and disease, and disre-
garded as much by the law, as by his destroyer.
His family, whom he once supported, left pining
in indigence and in the extreme of wretchedness.
It is not in the power of man to make reparation
for evils so great and overwhelming. But surely,
by the ruin being irreparable the necessity of the
remedy not being delayed, to so monstrous an op-
pression, is not rendered less imperious and less
urgent.
It is no fanciful case Let the prisons be exa-
mined, and it will be found that the majority con-
sists of prisoners confined on what is called mesne
process ; that is, on arrests before judgment. Now
before a judgment has been obtained, ought any-
thing to be taken from the most obscure citisen,
even the meanest utensil in his apartment ! Can
his person be less sacred than the conch on which
he reposes ? On a warrant issued with poacher
formelity than on the affidavit of a creditor, or pre-
sumptive creditor, and with no other notice, his
supposed debtor is committed to prison. It ahhe

be said, be may give bail. But where are the'
poor to find bail ? The poor have only the
poor for relations and friends. Where Gan
he find it, when that scandalous arrest bas ruined
his reputation and credit ? where can he find it.
at the moment when he sees the frail edifice of his
industry crumbling under him ? at a moment,
when he himself, who the night before indulged
the Battering perspective of the future, has lost all
hopes of prosperity ? Is it possible not to sae, in
this penal process between debtor and creditor, the
most atrocious defects.

It always exceeds the measure in its punish-
ments, it multiplies and aggravates the misfortunes
which it ought to mitigate ; it is not the criminal,
but the unwary and the unfortunate, that it pur-
sues with all its vengeance.
I dare not flatter myself, from the powerful in-
terests which oppose it, with the hope of accom-
plishing, by these observations, reforms so necess-
ary, or, that this atrocity of our law will be soon
sr entirely abrogated. But I cannot pass to other
ensiderations, without anxiously urging its re-
peal, as it relates to women. It is impossible to
resist a lively sentiment of compassion for so large
sad interesting a portion of society. Imprisonment
often destroys not only one unfortunate, but per-
haps a whole family, not for what she has dons,
but for what sho had no power of doing. It is not
her conduct, but her poverty which constitutes her
swims, and overwhelms her in misfortune. This
most barbarous and terrible scourge, under the
name of law, does not seize its victims from the
most abject. On the lowest wretchedness it avoids
to prey ; but carries its devastations into that class,
who, living respectably, are anxious to preserve a
decent appearance, and to acquire some distinc-
tions, as modest as their manners. Confined strictly
to necessaries, never above want, when a disap-

pointment supervenes, nothing is left to give as a
redemption from the inhuman law. What then
becomes of the asylum of pure morals and indus-
trious poverty ? Every thing is lost, because they
did not do what they had no means to perk's.
Innocent and virtuous ; confined among the vicious
and the profligate, they are overcome by the misery
which leads to crime. Abandoned to !be severities
of extreme justice, the hand of Despair eradicates
the seed of every virtue. She becomes lost in the
paths of shame, who, bad fortune placed her in less
dreadful circumstances, would never have wandered
from the career of honour. It is misfortune and
calamity that offer to the angry law the victims
immolated on its altars. The imprisonment of
women for debt, I am convinced, answers not one
geeffor useful purpose of society, and is often the
primary cause of depravity and prostitution. It is
obvious, that the visitation of that cruel law must
fall with peculiar malignity on women, so often
unprotected and destitute.

" Far more she seems, and in, than man forlorn,
More rudely from her proper station torn."

The necessity of an efficient remedy to this great
abuse becomes everyday more evident. The reform
is loudly and universally called for. The voice of
the public is joined to that of reason and humanity
in attesting, that the laws, by which the abuse is
principally upheld, for the most part grown up in
barbarous times and odious in their origin, ale un-
just and savage in their execution.
The subject is most interesting ; and taking
confidence from my zeal, I shall proceed in the
attempt to support my proposition, that of " ex-
tending the benefit of the act to all prisoners with-
out reference to the length of imprisonment ;"
and, upon an honest surrender of the property of
an insolvent, for the benefit of his creditors, of
rendering imprisonment unnecessary.
It will be generally conceded, without going
into nicer distinctions, that insolvents might be
divided into three classes ; the unfortunate, the
extravagant, and the fraudulent. It is to be la-
mented, that none of our laws have hitherto ad-
mitted that distinction. But bow important and
how necessary, that it should be accurately as-
certained ? Yet the laws continue silent :
and the irreparable evils, which that error never
fails to bring after it, have not discountenanced its
precipitate approbation and repetition. The honest
and the fraudulent are confounded ; and every
idea ofiroportion in the punishment disregarded.
I am aware of the delicate shades which separate
guilt from innocence; but if there be a difficulty in
drawing the line, it is not creditable to the legisla-
ture always to postpone the difficulty without any
attempt to overcome it. The most essential laws
are those which prevent crimes ; and the man who
commits an injustice, and he who does not obstruct
it when in his power, are equally guilty. Est sa-
pientia judicis en hoc, of non solum quid possit,
sed aims quid debeca, ponderet I Justice de-
mands that the honest insolvent, willing to make a
surrender of his effects, should not be confounded
with the impostor, who, to enrich himself, becomes
bankrupt to rob his creditors of their property,
The present system is pregnant with two dangers.
that of giving impunity to fraud, and of punising
the honest but unfortunate. The same principle
which determines the magistrate in his severity
towards the guilty, ought to awaken his caution
lest he should destroy those who are net so. If
justice be the first duty of a magistrate, humanity
ought to be his first virtue. But the greatest out-
rage is committed on justice and common sense,
in considering every insolvent, without distinction,
a criminal ; the law admitting no degree in the
punishment of the most hardened offender or the
most innocent prisoner. it is time that a wiser and
more equitable legislation should be introduced,
one which wilt distinguish indiscretion and the
casual absence of prudence, from premeditated
und• inveterate profligacy ; which will not
plunge indilibrently, into the same gulf of,
rein and ignominy, the baroviefie insolvent,•poe-
mean •every claim tor minshieratioa and indul-'
genes, and the deliberate and practised offender,

who inspires only sentiments of indignation. Thl/4
abuse is acknowledgml, yet it is permitted to pre-
vail. The unfortunate, the dupe, and the knave,
are, in the eye of the law, alike criminal, and put,
sued with the same severity.
The argument supporting this mistake- is, that
credit must not be destroyed ; that it is essential
to the prosperity of society that credit should be
freely given and taken. Those who hold that ar,
crument, and are for inflicting impriaonment upon
all insolvents without distinction, become involved
in this contradiction and 'humility. They intiA
that credit is generally and mutually advantageous;
that it is as lawful to tike as to give it : yct they
immediately affix guilt on ltim who obtains it ; hi
crime begins when he continent the debt, and ac
cepts the,credit. Thus;, crime is annexed to
that which they declare to be indispensable
and the moat cruel, homicidal punit.lcumt kneel
to the law, is in waiting to overtake it. It is tin

more repugnant to common sense, am it mikes n,

distinction between him, spew whom it may hays
been forced, at a time when there was cNery more
probability of securing not only reimbursement,
but considerable profit, and between the adven-
turer, guilty of the fraud of contracting a debt
without any view to the means of payment. It
the more absurd, as it frequently happens, that hi
who gave credit is more criminal than he who ac

oepta it. If the giving credit we a compulsory
there would be a greater show of re :son in taking
the body of a debtor, as a estisfactios in default of
punctuality. But credit is entirely optional, and
the risk is considered iu the price. As the perso-
nal liberty of the debtor is never hypothecated
upon his acceptance of credit, it can in no case be

equitable or reasonable that he should be coerced of
it. Yet the law confiscates, in case of failure, the
body of the debtor who accepts credit, and with
the aid of the Insolvent Court, annexes dis-
grace to the punishment of a felon.
It is alleged that credit is for the purposes of
commerce; yet imprisonment, to support it, wa:
found so destrucrive of that end, so ineriiiveniao
impolitic, and oppressive, that it was tlibeotari..:,,,
and taken away by the bankrupt laws. But if im
prisonment to support it be intended as a
emit, it should be preceded by a convie..i..n. of
the verdict of a jury ; if as a sacsfaction to ,Tratif,
siiva,se resentment, it would be ateocio3s. Buz

it be maxim of the law, that iutprkonrnent for
debt is considered nut a punishment, but to an'o:or
the discovery of property, an early cession woul,
render it unnecessary. If, upon a voluntary and
full di4covery, the law should continue neverthe-
less to confine, impris.mment would become not
only unreasonable end prejudicial, but would '
corrupted into useless vexation, and oppresk,
injustice. It should be grounded on a sensibh- a

jest cause; a reason and motive should be Assigned
Oa direct it. To decree an imprisonment for ar
months, or three days, as a punishment, in t
commencement of a civil process, and without i
quiry, and in every cue of insolvency, is to connect
the idea of punishment with the presumption of
innocence: it is to adjudge a certain punishment
to an uncertain offenc.t. Propositions repugnant
and incompatible with every idt a of criminal jus-
tice. An honest and early surrender of property.
giving a protection against the ignominy tf
prison, would, it appears to me, inspire and
eu-
courage sentiments of honesty and good faim
Such is the human heart, tl:at it is irritated at dis-
trust and prohibition, but sodued by contid-tc.e.
When the cession of property is a willing sac thee,
it becomes a point of honour; but coerced and ett-
forced by the squalor of a jail, it a.isstmes the elc.-
racier of a compulsory proceeding, and is degradt..l
into humiliating punishint nt. It would indeed oe
the perfection and triuntili of legislation to rem!..r
prisons unnecessary ; but we cann...t, eveu hove .or
so much virtue. Let us aspire only to tinder the
occasion of them less frequent and less necessary.
By permitting the surrender of property to ex-
clude imprisonment, it would bring, under its et-u-
-siderate and protecting wing, all those penguins a ho
are no less an object of couspassion, and ought to
be considered in the provisions of ten act, intended
as a general and permanent relief of insolvents—l
mesa those wretched fugitives, who, flying front
the horror and the disgrace of a jail, exhaust ail
that remains of fortune in ruin to themse:ves,
without benefit to their creditors ; who at hide-
and-seek, lead a miserable, wandering and en-
pbond life. " Exilioque demos et dulcis lamina
mutant." To what dangers, to what privations,
to what torturing anxieties, are they not con-
stantly exposed ? expecting every hour the
htal term to arrive, in which all their apple-
lbensions will be turned into realities; when,
with blighted prospects and ruined fortunes, the -
hags of a preposterous and inconsiderate law will
hstsa upon them ; when a disordered imagination
extinguishes every hope, and magnifies every fear ;
when—

" Still as they run they look behind,
They hear a voice in every wind,
And snatch a fearful joy
when every abode appears a prison, and every
hiend a traitor. The cruelty of such a situation is,
that the lees it is deserved, the more it afflicts.
The guilty, in expecting, are prepared to support
it ; the innocent sink under it. That relief shook'
be administered, and the remedy extended to a
class, as numerous as it is distressed, suffering all
the tortures of a real evil in the expectation of a
great approaching calamity, is as much called for
by humanity as it is by prudence and necessity.
It will scarcely therefore be doubted that, with-
out any imprisonment, or the shorter the term of
imprisonment, on the surrender of effects, it would
be the more beneficial to the creditor ; for it is ob-
vious, the more protracted the confinement of aim
insolvent, the greater will be the waste of property.
To take a man from that labour, by which he sup-
ports himself and family, to keep him in confine-
ment, has been found by experience to be as una•
Imitable to secure the payment of debts, as ►t is
injurious to society.

It would be equally just as it respecti the cre-
ditor, that a compulsory, as well as voluntary sur-
render should be enacted, in all mow in which the
debt was acknowledg4d by tognevit; by a judg-
ment, or when the debtor was charged in tit-
ration.
An early surrender would then swim the means •
Hof eatiafying.tbe demands of creditors, now ex-
hantted injqd, or tram a honor at imprMonment,
in the ninon expense of /yang from it. •
la reference to bankrupts. Sir Wink= Stich •
elearlas laid it Sows, 4•Tht-tite hiw k extteatery •
to detect the man whoa* ciretuaelesese
ire declining in the first instance, or, at last, as
early as possible, that the cream seay receive as

U ~.

41111 e
Oi (I IC
.41
0/I;Fi
oVIS101.41W21) 111.1"22
1788.

„,,tut, as exercised, are palpably inconsistent with
_ilayna Charla, the laws and securities of
2bora I. and the petition of right; and there
lever was a time more favourable to an accurate
.nd just determination of its powers. We cannot
;ad in the laws of any age or country a crime
wide!) can ho committed ” under amiable feelings,"
uld a jurisdiction which recognises such crimes,
~eems to us to require to be corrected and curtailed.
Without meaning to insinuate any blame to the
~:resent CHANCELLOR, we consider this Court
.
its powers as a general question, worthy of
Tecial notice, in a public sense, and with refs-
-era to the constitutional liberties of the country,
lad the statutes and usages which protect person
and property.

L‘.A night, the Marquis of LONDONDERRY,
aloe diplomatic knowledge is most respectable,
4sted that he inferred, from the terms of the
communication made to France in July, relative
to the protocol in April, that a previous com-
munication had been made, and an answer
received, which sought permission to publish
the fact , and he begged to be informed who-
!i:e: it was not so. Lord GREY replied,
that verbal communications had passed. It
ould hence appear that the French Government
nsd sought permission to make the use of the fact,
rhich it so exaggerated in the KING'S Speech.
The Archbishop of CANTERBURY then moved
the second reading of his bill, for the augmentation
of the incomes of small church livings. Its object
is to extend the provisions of the Act of Chas. 11.
The CHANCELLOR commended. it, and stated that
there were from 800 to 1000 small livings, worth
not more than f6O per annum. The Bishop of
LONDON, in support, stated that church property
would be found not to exceed a third of what it
had been represented.
In the Com mo s, after a long conversation, it
-.as agreed to sit till six to-day on the Reform
There will be no sitting on Monday, owing
to the Lstival on opening London Bridge.
In the Committee, on the question being put on
ILDFOR D, Mr. DENISON moved for two mem-
; and after fifteen speeches, a division took
*lace, l S 6 for his amendment, and 253 for only one
mcmber.

IlusreNz was then added to the list.
HON 1 lON produced a long speech from Sir G.
4 RUN DER, but was added.
!It-NI-ix° DON, after a short debate, was reduced
3' placed in B.
TTITE found no supporters.

L iCNCESTON was decided upon after speeches
frnt Sir JOHN MALCOLM and Sir H. H•RDI 011.
I.ISKEARD followed, and LTME REGIS.
LYMINOTON after a short opposition from
Messrs. CHOKER and BURSIARD.

MALDOW produced a sharp debate, in which
Mr. DICK, Mr. LENNARD, and Mr. WESTERN
vete followed by eight other speakers.
A long discussion then took place, relative to
;aecting to-morrow (this day), when 216 voted for
,t, and 143 against it.

We are indebted to the activity of the Dublin
Morning Post this day, for a supplementary edi-
tion, giving the conclusion of the Mullingar
Anises, and the acquittal of all the prisoners on-
volved in the Castlepollard affair ! Our readers
ili find an account of this extraordinary trial in
ua last page. It would appear that nine of the Jury
were for the acquittal, and three on the other side.
Thus it was (observes the Morning Register) at the
inquest at Newtownbarry—one portion of the jury
entertained opinions exactly the opposite of the
remainder ; and if they had been allowed to de-
liberate up to the present moment, there would be
as little chance of an unanimous decision, as when
the coroner thought proper to dispense with their
s:•rvicee."

This afternoon, the Marquis of LOW DOW DER n
:.reve a grand dejeune ala fourchette, at his seat
near Fulham, to the KING and Qv ERN, and a vast
Luber of the Nobility, and other persons of die-
tt:lction.

Sir W. F. Elliot, Bart. has intimated to the
L'reeholders of Roxburghshire, and those who
acquire the elective franchise under the pro-
lisions of the Reform Bill, that it is his intention
v. take the earliest opportunity, after the Bill
have passed into a law, again to stand for
the County, and to solicit the honour of their
suffrages.
One of the most piquant and applicable speeches
which have been delivered in the Committee on the
:eforra bill, was spoken on Thursday ninht by Sir
Doyle, in answsr to Mr. Cresset Pelham, who
said that the disfranchisement of the nomination
loroughe would be the ruin of the Constitution.-
" If," observed the gallant and Honourable
part,—.." We go on this way, from night
to night, during this hot weather, some of us
nuking, and others of us listening to, speeohes
sbich have been repeated over and over again, and
ihnost without variation, during the course of the
;resent Sessions, I am sure that it will terminate in
:be ruin of the constitution of us all."
F01;II PERSONS KILLED IN BALLIN
.
e have seen a private letter, received by a respect-
able merchant in this city, from a correspondent in
fialinrobe, in the county of Mayo, announcing the
melancholy intelligence of three men and a woman
!.‘aving being shot near that town on Saturday last.
ILe %Titer states that the starving peasantry tried to
(Ake by force 24 carts of meal from a party who were
v:nducting it from Westport for the relief of the
.::stressed. An altercation ensued, in which three
toult ry men and a woman were shot, and a con-
siderable number wounded. Several were taken
I 13oners and lodged in the gaol of Ballinrobe.—
coroner was proceeding to hold an inquest on'
t.:e bodies of the deceased, when the writer was
t•i•siiig his letter. Freeman's Journal.

ROYAL EXCHANGE, ONE O'CLOCK.

Our funds are looking up this morning, in the
face of the reported Prussian declaration against
the Poles, of which nothing official has as yet come
to light.

Consols which left off yesterday at 82i 1 for the
account, opened at the same price ; and at present
they are 83, with a firm market.

Nothing doing as yet in the Foreign Market.