The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-04-11 00:00:00

tablished for holding inquisitions on the ilipth of in-
divitlnals, and preventing those who wantonly sacri-
ficed the lives of their fellow citizens from being screen-
ed by arbitrary authority. From the corrupting influ-
enceofcanses unnecessary to be specified that wholesome i
jealousy has been lulled asleep ; and from one sordid ;
motive or another the best safeguards of the public i
have been allowed to be taken away. The sacrifices that
have been made to promote our taxing and oar funding
systems are sufficient to excite the disgust and indig-
nation of every one possessed either ofpublic spirit or of
common humanity. Without expatiatin e ends,
ight,
which the present state of the comninnite to be
inconsistent with thigeneral good, let only their means
be regarded. On opening the Statute Book, what a
vast proportion is occupied with the Revenue Laws ;
and on examining the Code, what vexation and op-
pression are prescibed ! To sanction them the most
awful penalties are lavishly enacted ; and to enforce
them the severest instruments are employed.
In the better days of England those grievances
could not have obtained admission, and such a case
as we referred to 'yesterday would have united the
peopk in a general feeling of resentment. The mo-
tive is now perceived for which the right of appeal in
the case of murder has been abrogated ; and Revenue
officers ran vigourously art with impunity and pro-
tection, in what their employers or themselves may
call their fluty. We happened to have witnessed
a similar instance In the same county of Sussex
sante years ago ; but then the ancient law existed,
and the exercise of the right of appeal did operate
as some restraint. At that period, as a prelude
to the present Preventive System, an officer of
the Revenue at Horsham employed against the
seougglers a formidable band of assistants, well
mounted and well armed with bludgeons, who were
well known then throughout the county, on account
of the weekly pay they were supposed to receive, by
the name of ten 'killing wen. One evening the boats
of a smuggling cutter were running goods on
shore near Identity head when this formidable
band dashed down among the crew, and att un.
fottnnate man employed in removing the :roods
was knocked down and killed by one of the
rfIZ. The perpetrator of the deed was l.ttown
and apprehended, and brought to trial for the crime ;
but though a story was advanced, which the Jury per-
ceived was f.tbricated, that the smugglers had Meet:kneel
a violent resistance, tl e prisoner was fotind gitil!v of
tine wilful murder of the deceased. The prisoner,
Eluting the whole trial, was manifestly tinder the pro-
tection of the Crown. The Solicitor of the Excise
attended on the occasion, and Mr. Misusr was em-
ployed as Counsel on the defence. On some point
a hich had occurred in his argument with the Bench,
Mr. IllfcattifiWat nod divieihtett, sod did set temple

to asset t, in conversation with the other Connsel.
ater srntet►ce was pronounced, " I should not CO
quietly have submitted to the Judge, if I had nut had
titeprisuaer'spordou in my pocket." The expression
probably dropt from Mr. Mixo.sv inadvertently, hut
not, as the sequel proved, without sufficient warrant. Ills
MAJKSTY's pardon was shortly afterwards announced
in the prisoner's behalf; and as :woo as the rumourconld
h,• ►erified, proceedings were commenced on the part of
the widow of the deceased. In those proceedings, we
remember well, every judicious mind acquainted with
tl.r case concurred ; for the pardon of the prisoner was
held to operate on the Horsham band (who h•ol been
selected from the gangs of smugglers most distinguished
for their daring spirit) as en encouragement to proceed
without restraint in the exercise of their rigour beyond
the la►c. The widow personally appeared indite form in
the Court of King's Bench, Westminster, in bar of
the lime's pardon. '[line far proceedings took
place ; and the only note of them that is recorded in
professional Reports (after mentioning the case of the
Appeal) is briefly this—that no further proceedings
ensued. The fact, as generally understood in Sussex,
o as, that the prusecue of the appeal was prevented
hr a pecnniary compromise on the part of the law
officers of the Crown. The woman being pour, was
bribed to silence; but had her eiactnnstantes cot,
responded with the feeling she had evinced, the ex-
ample of the murderer would not have been allowed to
encourage the repetition of his crime.

Letters are in town from Bahia to the 14th Feb.
which may be considered more recent from the Brazils
than cats be brought by the daily expected packet.
which was to leave Rio Janeiro at the end of January.
At the abort. date, Bahia was perfectly tranquil, and
the inhdhitants waiting with the utmost anxiety the
hist': determination on the subject of Portuguese
affairs. Five vessels were loading with Brasil wool
6,r Ragland, nn account of Ooversment, and, as it was
thought, for ft• use of the diplomatic agents in Europe.
The exportation of the PaAu dm Rajahs, as this dye
wood is called, is among the Crown privileges, but the
shipments Were usually made direct to Lisboa, with the
exception of the period the French were in Portugal.
u lien they were wade direct to this country. The
present 411,1164 m of the destiaatiun is net, however,
attributed to the changes in the swelter
"Mr!. but to the purposes to which the proceeds ate
to he applied.
We mentioned on Monday the arrest of the Omni*
coarier at Lyons, and the leisure of his deapatehes by
I,lle Preach police. The courier alluded A watt Carlo
The depatches, of which be was the Imam,
are said to bate been the papers areessary to cleft
the sale of her Majesty's Italian property on a* Like
of Cam.

The hill for his Majesty's Coresitiss Robes e:-
aids, we are informed, MOON., of 14" li'"ef falls to the furrier's share. For the blink spots on
tii•laride of the Mbes, no loss Aso SP. Altrat.an
taohs' Int inn bets mitilnd

TH

FOR TEE' stArEsmit.v.

LETTER TO THE EARL OF FIFE.

Mr LARD—The events of the days in which we
exist, are very peculiar for the great importance alth
which they are procreant ; event Sin which we as men,
and particularly as Aritons, are all deeply inteteSted.
By attention, even the most superficial to that line of
policy and conduct, in which Ministers and their de-
luded dupes are strenuously persevering; we can-
not but draw the unavoidable conclusion; that
the sole objects they have in view are, their
own emoluments, though to the destruction of the
liberty of the country. In such circumstances it does
not become us to witness their proceedings, with the
eye of an unconcerned spectator ; but we ought; by
every legal means to resist, and, if possible, counter-
act their intentions. We have extended cur fame to
the remotest regions of the universe, as people of no-
ble and courageous minds—who love liberty and hate
bondage ; we have, at the expense of the blood and
lives of many of our countrymen, saved ourselves
from the slavery of a foreign despotic tyrant ; and
shall we stiffer ourselves to be disgraced in the eyes
of the world, by sacrificing our rights and liberties
by willingly submitting to have ourselves bound
in the fetters of bondage to those at home ?
The general tenons of your lordship's life has been
such, as to meet with the approbation of the majority
of those who were acquainted with it; and on a recent
occasion in the House of Commons, you have attached
vonrself infinitely nearer to the affections of the
greater part of the population of this emp:re.
'Tis trite, my lord, by your vote of that evening to
which I allotte,—a vote, dictated, no doubt, Ity con-
science as well as vsatr constituents, you lost the f.t-
your of a set of men, who, not content with sacrificing
their own consciences and the good of their country, at
the shrine of seif•interevt, would need have °then
do so to ; but the approbation of your conscience,
and the g m4l wishes of the people (which you have
gained by it) are abundant compensations for the loss.
It is far better, my lord, to be deprived of a
salary, however large, and be removed from the
sunshine of ministerial favour, than to give your',
support, when conscience does nut warrant it, to
the contemptible measures of those narrow-mindedmen.
By listening, anti acting according to the suggestion
of that internal monitor and your constituents, ra-
ther than those of ill-designing men ; you will enjoy
through every period of your life, an inward self-
satisfaction, infinitively preferable to the smiles of
Ministers.
(lo on, my lord, regardless alike of the smiles and
frowns of a court, in assisting the friend+ of the peo-
ple to save the country from the imminent danger in
uhich it is now placed. Let that independence and in-
trepidity be con• picuuusly seen in the cause of your
own country, which were so eminently displayed
through the whole of your lordship's conduct, when
contending for the liberty of an enslaved nation abroad.
I am, my lord, your's, &c.
A Scorcustot.

Letters were received yesterday from Code) of the
recent date of the 12th tilt.; but they make MO men-
tion whatever of any insurrection having taken place
it the lonian Wawa. In Albania, pa to, tsal even-
quillity are far from being restored; yet the move-
ments time relate solely to the contest between the
Ottoman Porte and Ali Paths, which has been too
hastily supposed to have terminated. That enter-
prising chieftain, in whom age seems to have abated
nothing of his pri,tine vigour, has had the address to
turn the Greeks, who joined the Turks on their first
arrival, into open hostility against them. The apathy
shown by the Slnsulmans, combined with the disre.'
lard of their promises to the Greeks, had afforded Ali
an opi.ortunity to turn the scale in his own favour, by
leading the inhabitants to believe that they had more
to expect under the rule of an enterprising chief, than
nniler the weak and tottering government of the
Turks. The fortresses which Ali caused to be built
in the mountains of Soli hare been yielded to such of
the inhabitants as survived their dispersion and subse-
quent vicissitudes. From these fortres'es having been
joined by other Greeks, they were making frequent in-
cursions against the Turks in the low country, with-
out huwever committing any depredations on the
people. They paid for all articles which they con-
sumed, and were acting under a system of order and
discipline hitherto little known among these tribes.
The Parguinotes, not conceiving it prudent in these
II circumstances to trust to the promises either of Ali or
of the Porte. remained, fur the greater part, in the
lonian Islands.
Yesterday a Court of Directors was held at the East
India House. when the undermentioned Commanders
took leave of the Court previous to departing for their
respective destinations, vis :
Captain C. Graham, Bombay; Captain J. Mills, Ml
nerva ; Captain T. Haviside, Windsor ; Captain W.
Hope, Herefordshire ; Captain J. P. Wilson, Hythe;
Captain W. Mitchell, Bridgewater ; all for China direct.
The Company's ship Earl of Balcarras arrived off
Wry-mouth yesterday. The undermentioned ships
were at Canton when the Baleares* sailed from thence
on the 24th November, vis :
Se:Liebe Castle, Orwell, Marchioness of Ely, Deeeral
Hewitt, Warren Hastings, Princess Amelia, Lady Camp-
bell, Thomas Coatis, Castle Huntley, Prince Regent,
Duke of York, Buckinghanishire, London, Amen.
Asia. Canning, Wincheisea, and Dorsetsbire.—The
Lady Melville, Ounira, and Marquis of Handley, bad not
arrived.
The East India Company's ship Thames arrived off
the Isle of Wight yesterday. She left China on the
24tb of November in company with the Earl of Hal-
sierras. Both ships arrived off St. Helena on the
9th of February, and sailed together for England on
the 18th of the same month. They lost sight of each
other on the 3d of March, in lat. 4. N. and ion. 20.
30. W.
The Lowther Castle was all well on the 23th of Fe-
bruary. in lat. U. 50. N. and long 20. 30. W.
We understand that great preparations are making
at the Cobourg Theatre for its re-opening on Easter
Monday.—The interior of that beautiful resort of
Public Amusement is now undergoing a thorough
repair,
air and the alterations will be on a must eztensive
scale. Several of the first Artists in the metropolis
are now employed in its decorations; and amongst
the various interesting novelties which will be pro-
duced is a enechanieal ealeibition procored g a
espouse from Paris, *ldch will be rtbigepel at the
esechtsfea of every AM