The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-25 00:00:00

TILE

SUN,

them with charity-lodgings. Therefore the pauper-
dowagers, the feeble Ladies CONSTANCE and
the feebler Ladies PLANTAGENET, and the
Honourable Misses—amiable Sexagenarians !—ought
to know that if public charity pensions, .eeds, and
lodges them, it is out of the poor man's labour that
their ease comes. To know this, by such a reflective
process as -thought, is far beyond the mental power
and calibre of the faded flutterings of illustrious
mortality whom, in this audacious article (as they
will call it), we have brought into public view.
Small matter as to the rich may appear the dif-
ference between sixpence and a shilling in the price
of food—it is all-in-all to the masses. It is much
that the labouring man may now—thanks to PEEL"
give untaxed food to his family ; but it is more, by
far, that the reduced rate of food necessarily brings
(indeed, must bring,) a reduction in all other prices.
The rich chiefly think of what most interests them-
selves, namely,
the maintenance of Rent. But if 10s.
a week of wages go as far now as 153. would have
gone ten years ago, merely by parity not only of
reasoning but of practice, twenty shillings per acre,
from Rent, should go as far as thirty shillings per
acre used to go ? The landowner must not reap
more than his proper share of benefit from the altered
condition of things. Ile, also, is greatly advantaged,
in his expenditure, by Free Trade ; his household ex-
penses are a third less than they used to be ;—what
claim has he, also, besides this gain, to have the
additional advantage of undiminished rental from his
land? If to him, as to others, twenty shillings be of
as much value, in exchange for articles of consump-
tion, as thirty shillings used to be, why should he be
so unjust as to expect and demand the larger amount
from his tenants ? To sum up the argument in one
land.more
Itnor
interrogation—Why does he not reduce his Rents
Protection, if it mean anything now, im-
plieswloeussld than
be eaksyeeptien
rent nothing
of
thekeeping up
how and why this is—but
we can give the explana-
tion on a future oc •
casion. Meanwhile, we ask any
man of common sense,
whether the DEBBY Ministry,
including as it does a clever leader and many clever
followers, all of whom must know the actual state of

can dream
things,
of maintaining, as a vital principle)
that Protection which has naturally and properly
graduated into something nearly as immaterial as the
famous Cock-lane ghost, which, some eighty years
ago, challenged the evidence and alarmed the imagi-
n4t:on of SAMUEL JOHNSON, the author of that
Dictionary, by which, single-handed, pitted against
the Academie of France, (to quote GOLDSMITH'S
graceful compliment)—
" He beat forty Frenchmen, and would beat forty more 1"
No, Protection is defunct. Not all the force of
fifty PAUL POSKETTS, OT a hundred GEORGE
'REDERICK YOUNGS, can put it on its legs again.
The twenty-seven millions who form the population
of the United Kingdom will not stultify them-
selves by consenting that landlords may keep up their
rents to tidy a shilling for the sixpenny loaf. They
might assent to abstract reasoning, but when it comes
to paying two sixpences for one they naturally decline
all accedence to the experienced theory. Are they not
right ? Ask the mothers and the chubby-cheeked
children !

What is the cui bono of these remarks ? Only
this, that whoever may continue to cherish the ex-
pectation, vague as vain, that the Earl of DERBY and
his Cabinet will bold on by a shred of Protection,
will be awfully disappointed when Parliament meets.
A lively quadruped confidentially confided to Cap-
tain HIRAM SMITH, of the Kentucky sharp-shooting
rifles, that he was " a gone coon," and requested him
to spare his powder and shot as he (the racoon)
meant to come off the tree and be killed and skinned
quietly. Protection may make up its mind to be
decently abandoned and interred, being voted
" dead and incapable," by common assent I Nobody
thinks of cherishing the deserted orphan ! Everybody
votes it defunct—if not dead it ought to be—and of
all people in the world, the DERBY Ministry are most
anxious to assist at its funeral, to prove its " last will
and testament," and to administer to the effects of the
dead and gone deceased. it is defunct, and neither
Lord DERBY in the Lords, nor Mr. DISRAELI in the
Commons, wishes for its resurrection. We can readily
imagine what a nonplus these brilliant gentlemen
would be at, if (by accident), the elections had vita-
lized Protection! They want to have it dead—it is
a terrible barrier against them. At all events, they
will treat it as a defunct " party," and act as its
executors.

An excellent resume of the recent Chancery and
other Law Reforms has just been issued by the Me-
tropolitan and Provincial Law Association, which,
from its clearness and fulness, is entitled to every
commendation. It is a common, and ought to be an
exploded error, that lawyers are opposed to law re-
'form. Of all persons, professional men are the best
fitted, by actual knowledge and experience, to sug-
gest practical improvements in the theory and work-
ing of the Common and Statute Law. Without
going back too far, we may mention that JEREMY
BENTHAM, who sought to introduce common sense
into law making, was himself a lawyer--that SAMUEL
ROMILLY, so long at the head of his profession, la-
boured earnestly and strongly for the reform of the
Criminal Law—that HENRY 13nounnam, whose efforts
as a law reformer have gained him unfading honour,
has effected his chief improvements by reason of
the experience gained at the bar and on the Woolsack
—that Lords DENMAN, LANGDALE, and CAMPBELL
have taken leading parts in the same good cause; and
that the Law Amendment Society, which has sug-
gested and supervised many of the legal changes
within the last eight years, is principally, though not
wholly, composed of gentlemen of every branch of
the profession. The association whose Circular we
have now before us consists exclusively, we believe,
of solicitors and attorneys—men who, in general, are
supposed to have a direct interest in the maintenance
of a cumbrous, and expensive, and dilatory system of
jurisprudence. But, as stated in their Circular,
" every real improvement in a court of law is certain to
be followed by a corresponding increase of business."
Indeed in law, as in trading, the cheaper the article
the greater the demand for it.
In Equity, during the past Session of Parliament,
three important Acts have been carried, by which it
is hoped that some of the principal abuses in the prac-
tice of the Courts will be abolished—abuses, " for the
removal_ of which," says the Circular, "the Committee
have earnestly laboured from the first establishment
of the Metropolitan and Provincial Law Association."
Pint comes
that havey'haitnhd
Chancethe abolition of the office of Master in
officers. TheeCrt
hitherto devolved
upon the Judges the duties
devolved upon those subordinate
some
fear
that
tomtbmittee remark that they have still
Judges provided fore
bringing
insufficient number of
may be the means
received
may
the new practice into ,
operation
the
broe.ans of occasioning some
i a fair trial.
confusion in
and that thus the baseness of the Court,
become
add (and the remarks are well worthy of
discredited before it has
grave err° nh se i 37-
The business already
6;l)l7:quite as much as could be Courts has
a the
beender a
the Masters, and thegot through
by the Judges,Masters' Clerks,
the business already in their yet by this Act, although the Masters are only re-
tained to wind up omega
at the time of the Act
smade coming
in
thein number of
into operation,
judges
never-
theless, no increase is
to enable them to perform the new duties cast upon
' Clerks.®
The Commit-
than the number of Masters
them, and the number of Clerks to the Judges is less
under the new
tee believe that the business might,
force, be
system, and with a sufficient judicial
dis-
posed of much more satisfactorily and expeditiously
than heretofore ; but they cannot see how the Judges,
who have been hard-worked hitherto, and have been
unable to keep down arrears, can,
if they devote
proper time to Chamber business, prevent the arrears
from accumulating. The Committee, therefore, felt
it to be their duty to call the attention of both Houses
of Parliament to this, and prepared a clause for in-
creasing the number of Judges, which was moved
when the Bill was in Committee in the House of
Commons, but rej-cted. A report has reached the
Committee that it is the intention of the Judges to do
but little at chambers; but the Committee cannot
believe that the Judges will pursue a course which
would inevitably defeat the intention of the Legisla-
ture, and the fair expectation of the public."
The Improvement of the Jurisdiction of Equity
Act is one
of the fruits of the past session.
Committee re The
changes in the that in their opinion all these
"4",Prltetke of the Court will be of: great

advantage to the suitor, with the exception of the
provision which substitutes printed for written bills or
claims. This, " instead of an improvement, will
and expense "—probably,
will exercise the discretion-
the Act, and restore the
cab rroeywa tepevo
eiwrn
,ectrobnve veces iiAde
Nn
cone:hi diLmeo
byy,
practice of filing written bills or claims. All the
other provisions of the Act will diminish expense,
prevent delay, and simplify the procedure.
The Suitors in Chancery Relief Act, which substi-
tutes salaries for fees, is another excellent measure.
Our regret is that in all cases this principle has not
been carried out. It extends now to the Common
Law as well as the Chancery Courts, and there is no
reason why in Bankruptcy, also, the of-
ficers should not be salaried. The reduction
of the number of official assignees, leaving one to
each court as treasurer, is desirable, and the retiring
allowances, compensations, and salaries to retiring as
well as remaining officials can be paid, without any
charge on the Public Revenue, out of the immense
' accumulations from Unredeemed Dividends in bank-
rupts' estates. It is only justice to add that some of
the leading clauses in the new Equity Acts were
suggested, years ago, by the Association whose Cir-
cular we have been considering.
The further Law Reforms of 1852 are contained
in the Enfranchisement of Copyholds Act, the %Vills
Act Amendment Act, the new County Courts Act,
and the Common Law Procedure Act. On the two
last, the Committee report rather fully.
On the 10th section of the County Courts Act

(15 and 16 Victoria, c. 54), which allows "a barrister
to appear for a party, although not instructed by an at-
torney," the Committee report that," without benefiting,
but rather prejudicing, the suitor, it inflicts an in-
jury upon the profession;" and they give a detailed
and curious history of that segment of legislation
which, they remark, " will certainly not tend to in-
crease the disposition of attorneys to regard the
question as finally determined." They complain that
with scarcely any notice, and without a due oppor-
tunity of expressing an opinion on it, by the public
or the profession, an organic change in the position of
the two branches of the legal profession was passed
through Parliament. Our own opinion, repeatedly ex-
pressed here, is that it is for the interests of both
branches of the profession that barristers and attor-
neys should cordially co-operate. But the manner
in which some attorneys had united, in local courts,
for the purpose of monopolising the whole
business, to the exclusion of the bar, was
fast tending to create dissension among barristers and
attorneys. Nor can we think that, by the section in
question, the interests of the attorney will be injured.
So long as the attorneys give the barristers their fair
proportion of the business, they will find no intrusion
on their department.
Law Reform must advance, and in the spirit of the
Speech from the Throne, at the close of the session,
which said—" Every measure which simplifies the
forms, and diminishes the delay and expense of legal
proceedings, without introducing uncertainty of deci-
sion, impairing the authority of the Courts, or lower-
ing the high standard of the judicial bench, is a valu-
able boon conferred upon the community at large."
There must be sweeping changes in the Ecclesiastical
Law, involving the total abolition of the tribunals
which have earned such unenviable reputation. The
Bankruptcy system must be made simpler in its pro-
cesses, speedier in its work, and less expensive in its
charges. Courts of Law and Equity must be amal-
gamated. Until these changes take place, the public
will have continued cause for thinking that, as now
administered, law is not jusiice.

Variable as the accounts received from the pro-
vinces have latterly been in reference to the ap-
proaching harvest, it happily appears at the present
moment in the highest degree probable that the crops,
in the majority of instances, will be of rather more
than average excellence. Sunshine has so rapidly
succeeded the excessive moisture of the past week or
fortnight, that hopes are reviving in parts of the
country where the most painful anxiety has
hitherto been experienced. Accounts from Essex
state that the harvest in that direction is
already making fair progress—the corn cut
during last week having now been all housed,
the warm weather having effectually dried the
sheaves on Sunday. A considerable portion of
the crops in Kent have in like manner been got in—
while a better feeling is gradually reviving in Sussex,
as well as in Suffolk, in consequence of the sudden
cessation of rain, and the steady rise in the baro-
meter. Had the wet lasted much longer it is
tolerably certain that much of the produce
of the land would have suffered irrepa-
rable injury. As it is, in the fens of Lincoln-
shire, especially in the more loamy soils, the
mildew has effected much damage—besides which
the rapid and almost simultaneous ripening of the
crops in other directions, has caused a different
kind of solicitude—namely, that as to the possibility
of obtaining labour adequate for the emergency.
An illustration of the necessity was afforded
only the other day by the employment
of a body of soldiers to assist the agri-
cultural labourers in reaping—thereby figuratively
changing the sword into the sickle, if not the spears
into reaping-kooks. From the latest information
received from various parts of the country we are
rejoiced to announce, therefore, that the future proba-
bilities in regard to the harvest of 1852 are of the
most propitious character.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The filoniteur announces that two treaties have
been signed between France and Belgium by M.
DROUYN DE LUUYS on the one hand, and MM. Ro-
GLEE and LIEDTA on the other. One of these treaties
gives a reciprocal guarantee for works of intellect
and art, at the same time lowering the duties imposed
on books, prints, engravings, &c. ; and the other
makes some reductions in the duty now imposed on a
few Belgian articles. These two conventions are to
be ratified on December 10, and, if agreed to, are to
be in force from January 1, 1853. They are con-
sidered as the prelude to immediate negotiations for
the renewal of the treaty which has lately expired.
The same journal states that the French Govern-
ment has received intelligence from Constantinople,
of the 10th, announcing that FUAD-EFFENDI has
been nominated Minister of Foreign Affairs, and that
every satisfaction has been given to France in the
affair of Tripoli. It also denies the truth of the
statement made in the Morning Herald relative to
this affair.

Cardinal WISEMAN is at Cambrai, where on Sun-
day last he led a procession of the miraculous picture
of the VIRGIN, said to be painted by St. LUKE ; also
a miraculous image of the VIRGIN which, according
to tradition, caught in her apron the balls of a be-
sieging general. Both these pieces justicatives have
been solemnly placed—the one in the church, the
other on the ramparts. In the procession a
number of young maidens in opera-girl muslin,
with wings glued to their shoulders, personified
angels. Amongst the relics was a monster crown,
given to the Church by that monster King Louis
XI., whose crime and superstition have been ren-
dered familiar in the " Quentin Durward" of SCOTT.
Military bands accompanied the procession. That
the spectacle did not take is acknowledged by the
writer from whose enthusiastic account, addressed to
the Government journal, the Patrie, we borrow these
details :

" In a word, the procession was admirable, and leaves
far behind it anything that the most brilliant secular
jubilees could have attempted. It would have been sub-
limef
had there been or actor or spectator the pious and
mthusiastic people of three centuries ago, instead of
twhichu'._ there wasthe population of the nineteenth cen-
tury,
s wee"pbtiicts .„ bar en curiosity, sometimes mocking, and
The Archbishop of CAMBRAI and the Bishops of
NEITERS and
menses
body of rrits were also present, with an im-
menseforeigners present was Among the number of
entered the Catholic Church.
SPENCER, who has lately
°C° hurch.
The session of the
mincil3-general commenced on
Monday. The Paine
says it is assured that the Go-
vernment has already received by the telegraph for
the PRINCE PRESIDENT severalir addresses from these
councils similar to thosethe councils of arron-
dissement, all of them calling the perpetuation of
LOUIS NArOLEON's power.
for
According to the Debats the number of warnings
issued against the
newspaper press since the 10th
April amout to 53 to 48 journals, with two suspen-
-sions. The reduction of the Ilioniteur to 40f. a year
by means
of a disguised subvention has told seriously
on the Paris journals, which feel the necessity of re-
ducing their subscription to a point which must make
publication a dead loss. The rays has reduced its
subscription to 401., and the Constitutionne/ to 32F'.
Seeing that the stamp duty is alone 22f., that there
is additional duty of a centime whenever a roman
balance
feuilleton is given, it is quite clear that the