INJUSTICE BY THE OFFICIALS OF THE POST OFFICE. Lord Chancellor that ever was before him), were express maintainers, and could not justify their maintenance upon any action brought; I mean not where a lord or gentleman employed a servant to solicit his cause-for he may justify his doing thereof; but I mean those which are common solicitors of causes, and set up a new profession, not being allowed in any court, or at least not in the court where they follow causes; and these are the retainers of causes, and devourers of men's estates by contention, and prolonging suits to make them without end.--Timbs's "Things not generally Known.” 315 INJUSTICE PERPETRATED BY THE OFFICIALS OF GUILDHALL.-John Thomas Brown, formerly a letter carrier in the General Post-office, was summoned to answer a charge of sending threatening letters to Mr. Frederick Kelly, the Chief Inspector of Letter Carriers, whereby that gentleman went in fear of his life. cruel treat letter Mr. Lewis attended for the prosecution, and stated that in October, 1854, the defendant, in consequence of a report required of, and made by, Mr. Kelly, was discharged, since Harsh and which he had written several letters to the prosecutor, in which ment of 3 he threatened him in an indirect manner by telling him that post-office life was uncertain, and that Mr. Kelly might be called before carrier. his Judge in another world at any moment, and that he (the defendant) considered himself wronged by Mr. Kelly, and that he would spend the last drop of his blood in obtaining revenge. There were other passages in the letters complained of which induced Mr. Kelly to fear that some attempt upon his life was contemplated by the defendant, and he, therefore, wished that the defendant might be restrained by being required to find heavy sureties to keep the peace. Mr. Kelly corroborated this statement. The defendant said, the fact was he had been injured in the spine, and thereby incapacitated; but that having served fifteen years in the Post-office, he applied there in the usual way, and was, after being bandied about from one department to another, referred to Mr. Kelly for a copy of the report which was the The chief inspector of letter-carjustly with riers un holds a cause of dis missal, The Postmaster cause of his dismissal. This Mr. Kelly refused, and that was the reason he had had occasion to write to him so frequently. Alderman WIRE said, the defendant should apply to the Postmaster-General if he felt himself aggrieved. The defendant said, the fact was, Mr. Rowland Hill and Mr. Kelly managed matters so well between them that it was no use Knowledge applying to any one else. There was no Postmaster-General; Mr. Rowland Hill and Mr. Kelly filled that post, and the Postmaster-General knew no more of what was going on in the Post-office than the natives of Southern Africa. General's compared with the natives of Africa. Excessivo Alderman WIRE said, he considered the threats of a sufficiently alarming character to justify him in calling upon the sureties and defendant in two sureties in £50 each, and to enter into his own recognizances in £100, to keep the peace towards Mr. Kelly and ordered by all her Majesty's subjects, or be committed in default. cruel im prisonment a city alder ban. The prisoner said, he could not procure bail, and he was accordingly removed in custody.- Times, 10th April, 1856. SPEECH OF SIR F. TIESIGER IN THE HOUSE OF SIR F. THESIGER having explained the absence of the Attorney and Solicitor-General, who would have opposed him in this measure, said it would be quite inconsistent if those like himself who were opposed to motions such as the present, did not oppose the second reading of this bill for the abolition of the oath of abjuration. The bill of the honourable member consisted of an assertion and an inference. The assertion was that the descendants of the Pretender were at an end, and, therefore, the oath of abjuration should be abolished. The oath of abjuration was not merely a renunciation of the claims of the descendants A talented of the Pretender, but it asserted that the Sovereign should be a conjuror of Protestant. The honourable member, in moving the second reading of the bill, said he did not appear there as the advocate of Baron Rothschild, and that he had had no communication with that gentleman. But he (Sir F. Thesiger begged to ask the right honourable gentleman whether he had not been on difficulties in the House of Commons. several occasions of late in close conference with a gentleman of the Jewish persuasion holding high power in the city of London? Now, he wished to know what could be the object of that interview, whether it related to the descendants of the Pretender, or to the "fag" end of the oath, "on the true faith of a Christian." senator, legislative The honourable gentleman said he did not propose to do any- Frivolous speechify. thing in an indirect manner-the object of the right honourable ing of a gentleman was perfectly plain and palpable. He did not know learned whether the noble lord the member for the city of London had dropped his mantle on the shoulders of the right honourable member for Manchester, or whether that right honourable gentleman had stolen it while the noble lord was asleep-all he could say was, that it was more becoming in the noble lord, while he wore it, than it was on the right honourable gentleman, although undoubtedly it had become a little threadbare. The noble lord had acted in a more direct manner than the right honourable gentleman had done, as he did not propose to break down the constitutional barriers which had been raised to secure a Protestant successor to the Crown. Some might be of opinion that there was no danger on that point, but he thought he should be able to show the House that any fears on that point were not altogether so unlikely as some might think. A number of papal A learned bulls had lately been published, amongst which there was a letter expounder from Pope Clement XIII. to the Pretender in 1759, which he of English history and addressed to his dearly beloved James, King of Great Britain, again stating that he had made an appointment to an Irish See. Since against then, no less than 66 bulls had been published, in which all the rights of the House of Hanover to the Crown of England were denied. He would ask the House if it was prepared to assent to the principles of a bill which was intended entirely to abolish the oath which provided for the Protestant succession of this country, which he did not think so entirely chimerical? In the reign of William and Mary the Jews had been excluded from Parliament by a direct act, because they were aliens, and no alien had a right to a seat in Parliament. It could not, therefore, be said that the Jews had been indirectly excluded, for he thought that the circumstance he had mentioned proved entirely the contrary. He thought that this house was the great guardian of religion. In the prayer that was weekly offered up by this country, God was beseeched that "truth and justice, and religion and piety, might be established through all generations." Now, if this House had nothing at all to do with religion, that prayer popery! The House of Com ought altogether to be withdrawn. He begged the Ilouse to mons most consider for one moment what would be their position if they irreligious. removed this oath. What a weapon it would afford the Roman Catholics, who would say, "We told you there was no truth in the doctrine of Protestantism, and here is a proof of it." He maintained that the effect of the bill, if passed, would be to unProtestantise the constitution and to un-Christianise the legislature. He begged to move that the bill be read a second time that day six months. Outrages perpetrated upon un MISRULE OF ENGLAND IN AFRICA. A VERY scandalous and discreditable disaster has occurred on by English the west coast of Africa, where such occurrences, however, are and French by no means uncommon to the English, or to the French either; for our allies are rather the worst of the two on that coast, and have just received a rebuff near Gorce. protected Africans. British troops Africans. About thirty years ago a British force, sent to the Gold Coast. to chastise the King of Ashantee, was disastrously defeated, and its general, Sir Charles Macartney, killed by that prince. In our own times we have had a governor of the Gambier severely trounced, and nearly tarred and feathered, by a tribe of disdainful and humoursome negroes up that river. At Lagos, some three years ago, an expedition was repulsed and driven defeated by out of it with considerable loss, by a black monarch whom it went up to depose, at the instance of the Church missionaries settled there and at Abeokuta, who desired to set up in his stead a rum-drinking and otherwise spiritually-disposed friend of their own, given however, as it turned out, to slave-dealing as well as strong waters. And now we have been defeated in an expedition up a river near Sierra Leone. But no doubt we have some military successes to set against these misfortunes, Balance of and to rectify the balance of "glory" in western Africa. Such, "glory" in Western for instance, as the destruction the other day of a native town Africa. the Old Calabar, "at," said Sir Charles Wood, "the request of the missionaries," though why or wherefore those reverend Wood aids gentlemen should have exacted such vengeance the First Lord of the Admiralty could not tell the House of Commons. But whether our assaults be successful or unsuccessful matters little Pious Sir the mis sionaries. up the most to commerce, for with the negroes chastisement has very little Africans effect to alter their conduct, and success on their part never commerprovokes them into retaliation. The truth is, that of all God's cially disposed of creatures (Yankees not excepted) the negro is perhaps the most mankind. commercially disposed of mankind. Whether you blow his brains out, or he knocks you on the head, he is equally ready and willing to trade with you the next day, as this last affair abundantly testifies. But then he is not to be dragooned out of Africans are justified in his opinion, or to be attacked with impunity. He is obstinate in resenting his own view of his "rights," and valiant against all apparent injustice. odds in defence of his home and his property, as we shall see. little wit of Sierra Governor Kennedy, of Sierra Leone, is now in Europe on an unusually prolonged leave of absence, and in his place there reigneth as acting Governor a mulatto gentleman, desirous, it would seem, to distinguish himself, but with small discretion and little wit. Shortly after Governor Kennedy's departure he Small dissent a large expedition, consisting of three ships of war and cretion and nearly 500 troops, up one of the rivers opposite the peninsula an acting of Sierra Leone. This expedition at once came to terms with governor of the refractory Chief of Mallaghea, Bamba Mimah Lahi, who, Leone. desirous to get rid of so overwhelming a force from before his town, agreed to pay in the March following 1,000 dollars, by way of indemnity for his alleged offences; as of course he would have promised, under such pressure, to pay a million, had it been demanded. March came round, but not the money. The negro chief offered 300 dollars, but the acting Governor refused that sum, and in May sent a small expedition, consisting of only one ship of war and 150 rank and file, to enforce payment of the difference in dispute-namely 700 dollars. When this expedition reached Mallaghea some negotiations took place; the chief either not having, or pretending not to have, a thousand dollars in hand. The expedition, directed by an inferior clerk in the Government-office at Freetown, insisted on full payment; and in a letter written by a merchant on the spot, it is stated that at last "the king had sent the whole of the money, say 1,030 dollars, to Binty, requesting Mr. Davidson to receive it in behalf of Government, but that gentleman refused to receive it." However this was, on the 23rd of May the ship opened Brutal confire on the town, and it was quickly in flames, night only duct of the closing on the bombardment. Nevertheless, next day, a portion govern of the town was seen still standing; and the rockets proving worthless, just as in the Ashantee war kegs of macaroni instead ment offi cials at Sierra |