The Sun. — 1844-02-12 (London, England)

MATHEW." In his second Report, dated the 23d of January, 1844, Mr. HORNER again calls!the attention of the Home Secretary to the extent and variety of the evasions constantly occurring, of the provisions of the Factories Act. In  the case of ECCLES and Co., proprietors of a spinning mill at Blackburn, reported to him by Mr. EWINOS, he shows by the account which his correspondent gives of the result of certain proceedings before the District Board against the house in question, and in allusion to the penalty of 20s. (1) decreed against it, " how utterly useless it is for the inspectors to attempt to carry out the provisions of the Act with such support from the magistrates." And we agree with Mr. HORNER ; for, without entering into the further corroborations to be deduced from the perpetual instances of wilful or designed negligence on the part of surgeons, in certifying to the ages of children found in factories at regular work, of the forgeries of such certificates, in some instances, by their employers, and occasionally by their own parents,--we confess that the evils which the Factories Act was passed to remedy, appear to lie, for the most part, beyond the reach of legislation, under existing circumstances. They are very often the suggestions and the practices of cold, calculating cupidity on the part of parents ; still oftener of stern reckless avarice on the part of employers. The increased activity of trade, it is but too evident, has had little or no effect in raising the rate or accumulating the products of the wages of labour. The unfortunate operatives have had to part With so much larger a term of their chances of physicial existence, by giving more time and labour for wages in no sense proportioned to such additional sacrifice. Female labour has been and daily is, much more largely engaged ; and in 4 dependently of the moral abasement produced in then! —neglected homes and exiled comforts (the inevitable consequences of their removal to the faetory)— have fearfully corrupted the habits of the male adults of their families, whether as husbands and fathers, or as brothers and sons. We rise from the perusal of these Reports more than ever solicitous to see these poor objects of well-intended but inefficient legislative protection more permanently settled in employment, not so continuous and protracted as to be, as at present, absolutely destructive of human life; not underpaid as to be inadequate to human subsistence ; not so desolate and hopeless as to be, as now, incompatible with ordinary enjoyment, health, or recreation. These desirable consummations we are more disposed to hope for from the exretions of such a body as the " Society for the Emancipation of Industry," to which we have in or binding force of any Act of Parliament. former papers earnestly directed attention, than from the philosophy  madeat Alcoz, which Madrid journals. of the 3d and 4th inst., have been °Il the 29th ult., raenceaitvteemd,pftroam t inwshuirrcheewetionleav:that, was suppressed by the troops and. the National Guards. A. collision• ensued, when some persons were killed, and thirty of the insurgents Captured. At Elcho, Cocentanyo, Orihuela, and Muro, similar n movements had been repressed. The Governor of Murcia had blockaded Alicant with the coast-guard boats. The citadel of that place, which is strong, had been delivered into the hands of the insurgents by a lieutenant of the garrison. The Government, however, are determined to make an example, by shooting all those captured, as appears from an order of the Minister of War to General RONCALI, published in the Madrid Gazette, directing him, in the name of the QUEEN, to shoot the 30 insurgents taken prisoners at Alcoz. The Minister requests him to forward to his department an account of their execution for the information of her MAJESTY, and enjoins him not " to allow himself to be stopped by the fear of any acts of retaliation which the insurgents of Alicant might threaten, for although her MAJESTY should view with grief the victims that  The Clerk then read the indictment, which charged the defendant, Captain Duncan Trevor Grant, with aiding and abetting Alexander Thompson Munro in the murder of David Lynar Fawcett, who had been killed in a duel which took place on the Ist of July, 1843, in the parish of St. Mary, Islington. The defendant was charged in a-second count with aiding and abetting a person unknown in the said murder.  The defendant having been called on to plead, pleaded " Not guilty" in a firm and decided voice. To the Coroner's inquisition he also pleaded " Not guilty." Mr. Justice CRESSWIiLL asked the Attorney-General whether he was to prosecute? The