The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-21 00:00:00

failure. Surely the Church must be avaricious
indeed, if the tenth part of the present produce
of England, fairly estimated, do not satisfy it.
When we say tenth part of the produce of Eng-
land, we mean, of course, the parishes of which
the tithes do not belong to impropriators. As
to Ireland, we say nothing ; the attachment of
the people of that country to the Church Leine°
so notorious, and the labours of the Church

being so valuable to the nation.--Morning
Chronicle.
It has been cur pleasing duty to record, from
time to time, the laudable efforts of the Solicitor
General in behalf of poor prisoners confined for
an indefinite period for what are called " con-
tempts of Chancery." We know nothing more
enviable than the possession of power and station
humanely employed in the correction of an op-
pressive system, and the deliverance of its victim.
\Ve announced, a short time ago, that the Soli-
citor-General intends to introduce a Bill into
Parliament to control and reform the practice of

committals for constructive contempts. In the
mean time we are glad to find that the Learned
Gentleman does not relax his labours in search..

ing out and relieving individual instances of
cruel and protracted suffering under the existing
system. -We have laid before the public several
cases where his personal interference has been
instrumental in obtaining the release of poor and
friendless beings from the grasp of Chancery op-
pression, and where he has freely opened his
purse to purchase for such persons the invaluable
blessing of liberty. Delightful must be the
consciousness of such a use of power and
affluence to a sensitive mind—and beneficial

must be the example of such practical humanity 1
A few acts of this nature are worth a long life of

noisy and speculative patriotism ; they shed a
splendour upon the honours which talent and in-
dustry have acquired, and give to professional
eminence the lustre of a pure and virtuous fame.
In another part of our columns to-day will be
found further proof of the persevering exertions
of the Solicitor-General in the cause of benevo-
lence. It will be seen, by our report of the cases
of Wright and Richardson v. Wegener, that
he has obtained the discharge of another person,
one who had been immured for the dreary space
of thirteen years within the walls of a prison—
the victim of a system which is a disgrace to a
Christian people. It appears, from the state-
ment of the Learned Gentleman, that this
unfortunate person had been tonfined under two
suits in Chancery—the first of which was a family
suit, in which Mr. Wegener had entered an ap-
pearance, and the parties were willing to discharge
him without costs. The second suit pre-
sented circumstances of peculiar hardship. There
were two plaintiffs—one of them long since
dead, and nobody had come forward to repre-
sent that person. In the affidavit of Mr. Wege-
ner it was sworn, that in the lifetime of that
plaintiff he saw him in the company of others,
and he (the plaintiff) protested he knew nothing
about the filing of the bill. The other- plaintiff
had been unfortunate in business, and had re-
tired to Mexico, where he is now living, and not
a single step has been taken in the cause by any
person representing him during the long years of
Wegener s confinement. His solicitor is also
residing abroad, and the Clerk in Court died
about twelve years ago, since which event no pro-
ceedings whatever had been taken. The result,
therefore, was, to use the words of the Solicitor-
General, in moving for the discharge of the pri-
soner, that " there is no plaintiff, no attorney,
no clerk in Court, and no demand ;" but we
might add, there was a prison, a gaoler, and a
victim ! Such is the real punishment incurred
by constructive contempt. For grievous crimes,
where the term of imprisonment is at the dis-
cretion of the Judge, two, or at most three
years is the maximum of confinement generally
allotted to the violator of the laws— even al-
though he should have set moral and divine obli-
gations at defiance with a guilty audacity ; but
here is a person who has committed no crime—
whose only offence, perhaps is ignorance, and
whose only guilt is poverty—for thirteen years,
he is left to breathe or perish in the gloom of a
prison, and might have lingered out a miserable
existence as many more years if it had not been
for the kind interference of the Learned Gentle-
man, who brought his case under the notice of
the Court, and succeeded in obtaining his dis-
charge without payment of costs. We are glad
to see the part which the Lord Chancellor took
in this transaction. Having asked why he did
not apply a long time since, and being informed
that it was because he did not know or had not
inquired into the circumstances, his Lordship,
with that feeling of humanity which became his
exalted station, said " There should be some
person appointed to give advice to such unfor-
tunate persons, and that the evil must be reme-
died." The Solicitor-General took occasion to
observe, " I hope we shall remedy that with
your Lordship's assistance. I hope measures
will be adopted to prevent such things occurring
in future," We hope so, too. It is, indeed,
impossible but exposures of this nature must
lead to a reform in the system under which such
appalling scenes of suffering and injustice can
arise. Eventually, by the exertions of the
Solicitor-General, poor Wegener was discharged
from both contempts, without payment of costs ;
but who can compensate him for the cruel de-
privation of his liberty during so large a portion
of his existence ? To the Solicitor-General we
say " I, made virtute"—" persevere in this
course of benevolence ; the prisoner whose dun-
' gem is unbarred, the victim of oppression who
is restored to light and liberty by your humane
exertions, will offer you that homage of the
heart which does not often grace the triumph's
of conquerors ;—the blessing of him that is
re4ily to perish' shall come upon you—and
others, who have the power and the means,
copying your example, will learn the luxury of
.doing good,' "—Morning Ergrad.
When the merchants of England are reduced
to the dire extremity of courting information at
the hands of Mr. Buckingham, and consulting
him, as to those imaginary channels of commerce
which, in their despair, they think may be found
to give a new impetus to their languishing in-
dustry, it is no wonder that another Glass of
politicians .4lionld be eagerly listening to the
" lecture speechas" of Mr, Cobbett. And when
Mr. Buckingham and Mr. Cobbett are lecturing,
it is not wonderful that Mr. Western should be
writing. Out it is even less surprising, when
these three are abroa.d, that Mr. Robert Owen
should also be revived, and taking the field
with his heavy artillery in the cause of tho
'" science of Circumstances" and the new co-
operative system. If we coolf.l be induced to
think that the latter gentleman coni4 benefit
his eo4ntry by the propagation of his opi-
nions, we shonid bid him God speed ! even
though we did not corripr4end the nature of
his moral or parallelogramical e;.pctlients,
But with all our desire to wish him well, and
think. well of him, we are also bound in candour
to state that we have much more faith in the