The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-19 00:00:00

THE NEW RECORDER OF HUI

On Thursday last, the 14th instant, the corn 'nonce*
merit of the Michaelmas Sessions in the borough
of Hull
was rendered noticeable by the circumstance of 13amnel
Warren, Esq., Q.C. and F.B S., (end long celebrteed in
literature as the author of " Ten Thousand a Year ," and
the "Diary of a Late Physician,") taking the oaths aid
his seat in his capacity as Recorder. After the Grand
Jury had been formally sworn in, the learned Judge
addressed them in an inaugural oration, very el oquent
and impressive. After a few sentiments of a s'iroPli
introductory character, he offered the following grateful
tribute to his deceased predecessor:—" GentlemOu:'
said he, " only the last Sunday I attended divine worib ip
in that Temple Church, and sat in my appointed place;.
Recorder, my predecessor,
within only a foot or two of the
is
lying
gsupot where
ow.Au your
And
Ituhroulgahtet
of my coming hero to-day, and I had a strong feeling of
solemnity, which, I trust, 1 may communicate to you.
Gentlemen,pursue.
It i a
not shadows
otior mwo etoaree, and what
ulogise,shadows
or w
attempt
to
eulogise, the memory of my deceased predecessor ; but
I will say that I believe he was very anxious to dis-
charge his judicial duiies conscientiously, tied he had to
do so, uufortunately, under the constant pressure of an
unsound physical constitution, which sunk su.tdenly, as
you all know, under an apparently slight attack ,of indis-
position. Gentlemen, he has died in the prime ,of life,
and, as a member of the Legislature, and as a bar sister
of considerable standing, has left behind him a character
of unsullied integrity."
Later on in the course of his very beautiful and effete-
tive address, the learned Recorder continued thu5i......•
"Gentlemen, forgive me for reminding you that the laws
with which we have to deal are based upon Christianity,
whose sublime sanctions support every portion of those
laws, and dignife—while at the same time they restrain
—every functionary, every conscientious functionary,
however humble, however limited, may be the sphere of
' his action. Gentlemen, a thousand years ago, oar illus-
' trims King Alfred compiled a little code of laws, which
.are still extant, and which I was looking at yesterday
with a learned person whom I now see near me, in your
ex cellent library here. He commenced that code with
the ten commandments, which be set forth one by one,
and then added the sanction given to them by onr
Saviour in the New Testament—" Think not that I am
come to destroy the law and the prophets; I am not
come tO destroy, but to fulfil." And then King Alfred
grandly added—" These, my subjects, are the laws
which Al mighty God has given to his creatures, and
if we obey these laws, those of ours which follow would
not be nec. sesary." Gentlemen, this is a noble and
affecting incident in our judicial history. It from the
first deeply impressed my mind, and I think gentlemen
in your position cannot hear these words without being
similarly impreeced. Our laws have since then swollen
to an enormous bolls and complexity, but they still bear
the same relation to religion which we have seen in the
rude and simple eh extents of those laws in the days of
the great and good h:ing Alfred. And whoever realises
this fact will see a splendour in those laws which is hid-
den from those who d o not. And, administering them
in this spirit, we shall best secure that mingling of
mercy with justice, each
reflecting the rays of the other,
or neither is really merc,7 or justice, which will make
our laws respected even by those unhappy persona whom
I and my brother magistrat,ss are compelled to make feel
the sharpest edge of those laws. Gentlemen, the ad-
ministration of civil justice in this kingdom—for I, as re-
corder, am also judge in a civi t court)—l mean that re-
lating to common law and equ sty—has recently been
altered and amended to an extent otterly unprecedented;
and the practiccl commencement of e.he new system must
render ever memorable the autumn of 1852. I believe
these changes, sweeping though they may be, which
have just been effected, are equally bol 4, wise, and bene-
ficial; reflecting infinite honour upon all parties con-
cerned in bringing them about, and conferring an
incalculable boon upon the country. Th e main objects
( of these changes are to destroy the springs o.c technicallity
and delay; to bring litigants together preen:lndy; and
e strip the merits of their cases of everything calculated
to disguise truth, to distort fact, and to fosOcr fraud.
An, •ti, to a very considerable extent, the same Llay also
be as id of our criminal law (thanks in no small degree
to one of my learned and excellent predecessors h,c!re--
my free, Id Mr. Baines, for whom, I am sure, you all en-
tertain eNa affectionate respect)—l s y the criminal l etw
has latter. 'y been placed upon the basis of plain, good
sense. Th e facts of a case now can, or ought to be,.
arrived at `asilY and speedily, while the sacred prin-
ciples of libel €
ey and justice are left wholly unimpaired,
and may now be seen more conspicuously than ever
leavening the w,'iole lump of a humane and enlightened
criminal jurispreeienee. Let us be thankful for this,
les to the discharge of our simplified
and address ousel%
duties with increase€l efficiency."
The remainder of 1 he address was distinguished by
similar excellence, an d' at its close the customary pro-
e re duly commenced.
ceedings of the court w

CROSSING THE I,STvow.HMUS OF PANAMA.

By the Orinoco we haN •e received the subjoined ac-
count of the state of I `be works on the Panama
Railway. The communiCation is dated Claagres,
September 21, and contains some interesting par-
ticulars :
" Through the kindness and ilotirteay of Mr. Center
the Vice-President of the Penal NM Railroad Company,
who had placed ono of the carriaCes of the train at our
disposal, we were enabled to take a trip on the rail as
tar as at present complete, which i,i to the village of
Barbacoas, 25 miles of the road—rather more than half
way, and decidedly the worst half of the line. Oat of
the 25 miles, at least 20 are througi`i
swamp, all of which is laid on piles aeone' a continuous
' 6 feet apart,
and driven at least 20 and 25 feet before , a foundation
could be obtained.
" The immense difficulties and apparent iMpossibili.
ties that have by ingenuity and perseverance t een over-
come surpass all that I have ever seen in any Wrt of the
world. Too much praise cannot be accorded to Colonel
Totten, the excellent superintendent of the works,. in at,.
cociplishing so much with so many difficulties to co stand
with—his perseverance, his courage to overcome a very
obsta,lle, and his unremitting exertions in every deport-
ment of the undertaking.
" Du.ring the past wet season the sickness which ha '0
prevailea' on the isthmus has been a great drawback to'
the prosecution of the works, the mortality being greater
than in any previous season—no Leas than two-thirds of
the labourers' employed on the line having fallen victims to
the fatal swat'ap fever. However, the greatest difficulties
are now surmo tinted, and happy will tie the day to Colo-
nel Totten and ,his associates when the \whole line will be
finished. It will IX+ decidedly one of the
tootgreatet achieve.
ments in railroad making, and the benefi to e world
are at present incalculable.
" We arrived at the village of Barbacoas
and a half, stopping at two stations for the r enve.in:en
ve oe
hour
a
of workmen employed on the line. Hence y‘ `O,
as n
yo,
in an
fine and picturesque view of the Chug!" rival 'vat one
stand on the left ban lc, at an elevation of ab
Fro ul this
hundred foot from tho edge of the river.
creme.
iver boats arrive ,
From here you also see the r
spot a bridge is to be th,wown across a space of 24L1 fea-
ts contain from thin, ti
from the Pacific. These boa
Cruces with the Californian adventurers and travel, 'era
group, and as they tart 1
to forty persons, a motley group,
bend on the opposite side the river, a little dic-
eof •
io sight of their friends
brbi the whoops, and
lancewho
haveil, whicharrived
yells,
mingled with the discharje of pistols, carbines,
entgoreththerm,
and revolvers, made a din surpassing description. This
village consists of a few huts in ti:\e rude Indian style,-
formed of bamboo and covered with palm leaves. Here
are refreshment shops, retailing of spirits, with their
accompanying gambling-rooms. Next. to these are the
slop shops for the sale of ready-made clothes, of which
many stand in need on their arrival, not Leaving changed
since their departure from Californa, at loast 10 days;
new clothes are bought, and the old ones are thrown
away iii heaps, as the travellers change them in the open
air. These heaps have accumulated in the I,%st four or
five days males to
to an amount which would take three 0
carry them away. Directly on the opposite bank )
studded'
a splendid prospect of a beautiful level counetqr,e
1 more
with fine lofty trees, which, with the .
Pwaildernes,a in
resembles a park in England 1? ll a
t left of the river the
South America. Farther to the
and is covered with
country rises gradually for miles,
rfuse foliage of th 9
all the gorgeous trees and p
tropics. train of 20 carriages, containing
"We returned with a . Ohio, Falcon,
400 American steamers
400 passengers, for the . .
at Navy Bay (now
named
and United States, wattlng, .
by the United States people Aspinwall,), to carry them
New Orleans.
to New York and
" The number of passengers conveyed by the railway
in the last five day' has been upwards of 1,800, besides
the specie destined for New York, making a total return
of 16,000 dollars.
~j an assured that the whole line will be complete
and opened for all traffic in 18 months from the present
time, the journey across the isthmus maybe sew
con3plished; in fact, has beenperformed,now
express in 18
hours; it formerly was a tedious and •f . over-„atigtung one
of six days; when complete •
it will be done in less than
as many hours."

NE W POTATO MARKET AT THE GREAT NO&'
THEM; EAILW
AT. Yesterday the old station in Maiden-
lane, lately occupied by the directors of the Great Northern
Railway as a temporary passenger and goods station, wan
opened as a potatoe market. There was a great number of
salesmen and dealers present, and a rather brift trade WO
done at good prices.
THE FRENcEi PRESIDEPT's VISIT TO FOCI
E th, at
rolT.
—The Prince President passed in review on the 1 l
nine o'clock in the morning, the marines quartered at Roche..
fort, and the deputations of the communes from the
country around. The Prince passed through the ranks
amidst cries of " Viva l'Empereur," from the men reviewed
and from the spectators, of whom not less than 100,000 were
present. He then paid a visit to the hospital, and next
went to examine the port and arsenal, where he was
received by Admiral Diontagnies de la Ronne, the
Maritime Prefect, and all boardhti employed at the
port. The Prince went on the Constantine corvette,
about to sail for the Chinese Seas. The crew who manned the
yards gave him seven cheers, concluding with cries of
" Viva l'Empereur." The Prince then entered a splendidly-
decorated boat which bad been used by the Emperor
Napoleon in 1808, and proceeded to examine the va-
rbieou s vessels n stocks, some of which will soon
launched,
amongst others the Louis XIV.,
of 130 guns; the Turenne, of 100
on
guns; the Uhn,
of 100 guns ; the Alexandre, of 90 ;guns; the
Semiramis frigate, of 66 guns ; the Flora frigate,
of 66 guns; the Lucifer steamer, of 200 horse-power; and
the Bleduse steamer, of 120 horse-power. The Prince also
visited the other parts of the establishment, ouch as the
foundry, the model-reow, the lyerkshoph sic.