The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

I'Whilst the libel prosecutions against the Morning
-,Luc cal were actually in course of trial, the voice
of this Paper was raised on behalf of the public
Press as earnestly as . that of any other of its mem-
bers. Triere seems, among iiepartial and reflect-
ing persons, to be less difference of opinion every
day as to the impolicy of prosecuting for libel him
who does no more than employ strong expressions
in characterizing public men, on arguments tlm awn
from his own view (however false that view mar
be) of the merit of their political actions. If free-
dom of opinion be worth any thing to a free people,
its value is highest when the conflict of opinion
runs most violent. Opinion on public affairs is com-
paratively of little importance, when there is no
treat practical object at stake, and when there is no
effect likely to be produced on the measures of a
Government by an avowal of the subject's feelings
but where important measures are impending, or, if
executed, where their principles and consequences
are topics full of interest for the minds of men, we
can conceive nothing more abhorrent to the genius
of our free institutions, or to that national spirit
which has hitherto preserved them, than an attempt
to stifle, by mere power, the mere exclamations
which burst ft om impetuous and reckless pas-
sion, and which afford at once the least dangerous
vent for its violence, and the fairest guarantee that
nothing " more is meant than meets the ear." We
do not believe that a prosecution for political libel
was ever advantageous to the party which had re-
course to it, or ever failed to strengthen the party
prosecuted, except only in cases of palpable and ex-
treme sedition, where the brute force of the multi-
tude was directlycalled upon to act against the state,
and the libellous address was avowedly a prelude to
unlawful action. Sure we are, that had the expe-
dient of contemptuous tolerance been fortunately
adopted towards the Morning .Journal, the career
of that fooli,h and worthless print would long since
have ruts itself out. The nuisance would have been
abated by dint of its own palpable grossness, nor
would the amateurs of malice and licentiousness have
been daily feasted, during the last four months, with
diatribes against the Duke of Wellington and the
Attorney-General in one column, and, in the next,
with impudent demands upon the latter officer,
urging him to institute against other prints, the very
same power of ex-qtricio information which, when
brought into play against the most libellous paper in
the Empire, he had been reproached with as an un-
pardonable crime. We pass over the modesty
of Sir Charles Wetherell, in charging upon
Sir James Scatlett, as a " Whig" Attorney-
General, practices more oppressive and tyrannical
than any of which his predecessors had been
guilty. sit' Francis Burdett gave a specimen,
from the year 1704, of the virtuous efforts of a cer-

taiu Tory Attorney-General, to bring about what
would have been no less than the murder of whole
dozens of his countrymen, on the (now abandoned
and universally execrated) pretence of " cumulative
treasons." But, in truth, the first and most im-
portant of the late prosecutions was one which it
was scarcely possible to avoid bringing forward
against the offending party,—we mean the case in
which Lord Lyndhurst's integrity had been attacked
with such iniquitous but plausible falsehood. The
Attorney-General here pursued, in the first instance,
that course which was most trying for the persons
aggrieved, because it required a positive denial by
them on oath of the corruption which they had been
reproached with. This, however, would not satisfy
the defendant, who defied the Attorney-General to
file an ex-officio information, as a measure which he
durst not attempt. The challenge was accepted,
the ex-officio was tiled ; and now comes the chums
pion of the libelling paper, and rails against the At-
torney-General for that very conduct which he was
invited, and perseveringly provoked by the Tory
libeller, to adopt, its one for which he had not cou-
rage. We repeat our regret, that the Attorney-
General seems to have embraced views of political
libel considerably different from our own. We feel
that if one part of the Press makes political misre-
presentations, there is always an oppos:te portion of
it ready and able to correct them ; but that libellous
language, if laid hold of by the Attorney-General, is
apt to obtain a popularity and currency which were
never attached to it before.—Times.
We are well pleased to see Members of Parlia-
ment ready to press reductions of all the official
estimates upon his Majesty's Government, even
where, as iu respect of the Navy Estimates, we
might have doubts respecting some of the particular
cases to which the proposition of a diminished ex-
penditure had been aplied. The lesson of economy,
if not on every distinct occasion attended with im-
mediate s•tccess, cannot fail to operate indirectly, by
keeping the public spirit up to the mark, and show-
ing Ministers that the " school-master is abroad,"
to instruct the ignorant, and possibly to chastise the
disobedient. It is our belief that the chiefs of the
present Ministry mean fairly and honestly towards
the nation ; and if they have not (as we are well
aware that they have not) yet gone to that extent
of economy which the people have a right to insist
upon, the defect must be attributed to the harpies
who live by preying on the resources of the State,
and whose support, in the actual constitution of one
branch 'of the Legislature, is necessary to every
Minister, lest the national business should be left
undone, and the public service, in all its branches,
become a heap of irregularity and confusion. The
marine of England is undoubtedly that department
of which the people are least jealous, and have least
cause to be so. if the aspect of the world be such
that its tranquillity would run the risk of being
disturbed by an enfeeblement of the coercive power
of Great Britain, let Ministers be responsible for
the midi of the representation, but let the fighting
part of the navy be kept up. It is said, by official
persons, in defence of the magnitude of our
corps of minims, that although the numbers
now on foot may not be immediately want-
ing, they could not be created in a moment, and
that soldiers could not supply their place, being for
a long time sea-sick when on boats!, as to be quite
incapable of doing any warlike duty. Well, then,
if soldiers should be sea-sick, it does not follow that
marines are disposed to be land-sick. Why not,
therefore, reduce a certain prtion of the army, and
supply their places, in insular garrisons, from the
(confessedly superabundant) ranks of the Royal Ma-
rines ? It was truly said that the most objection-
able portion of the Navy Estima,'es was the civil
branch of them. The superannuations may well
rouse the vigilance of Parliament, when gentlemen
of the families of Dundas and Bathurst, sons (prop
pudor) of Ministers, were pointed out as in the re-
ceipt of pensions of 5004 a-year, after being three or
four years in office ! Now it is not enough to say
that an Act of Parliament permits such abuses. No
Act of Parliament enjoins the King's Ministers to
make such improvident grants of the public money.
It is true that the Act may not refuse the power, for
in that case no Minister would dare to advise the
Sovereign to affix his signature to the Treasury war-
rant; but if the power of granting such costly fa-
vours be discretionary--as all the world knows it is
—are not the Ministers bound to justify such a use
of their discretion on better arguments than its "not
being contrary to law ?" 'lt is in vain to look for
adequate retrenchment from Ministers, until they
shall be permitted by the House of Commons to.cf-
feet it ; nor from the House of Commons, unless it
be goaded and compelled from without; and the
Press must be indefatigable as well as temperate on
this vital question, if it would successfully stimulate
the public to a strong and unanimous effort.— Timm

The Duke of Newcastle, when he defended the
tlua
1.1 iaattieo
n tinhabitantsinlat ‘li he
otyfrNa te‘ilyalekxebryci;ehtel overcelebrated the
u "had a right to do what he pleased with his own,"
will not aware that the time might come when people
would say that his Grace had " caught a Tartar."
title
Mr. Poulett Thomson introduced on Monday to the
House of Commons a petition from a body of the
inhabitants of that town, the prayer of which went
to take away front the enlighteneil ai;d liberal Duke
the power of CQliiilliling to torment them. It enume-

rating their grievances, to a pratisainarr to the
prayer of the petition, the applicants for Justice, or
rather for mercy, state that the very origin of the
Newcastle interest in the borough was branded with
a gross and sordid maladministration of a public
trust. It appears that the buffoon Minister of
George 11. and George 111., the Duke of Newcastle
of the year 1760, bad the effrontery to advise his
Sovereign to grunt a lease of the Crown rights and
property, in and about Newark, to the Earl of Lin-
coln, who had married his Grace's sister; that the
property comprised within the said grants consists,
besides houses, of 960 acres of land, encircling
almost the whole area of the town; that the comEe.
(pence of such a property being let, from mere
favouritism, to one political individual, instead of
being put up like other estates held in trust
for the nation to public competition, and let or sold
to the highest bidder, has been the conversion of
the lease to political uses on behalf of the favoured
tenant, the extreme inconvenience and oppres-
sion of the people of Newark, and the absolute
frustration of every improvement which might, under
a proper system, have been bestowed by inert of ca-
pital and independence upon the landed property o
the Crown. We leave the details of pubiie griev-
ance alleged against the Newcastle-maring•tromt: of
this borough, to be collected by oar readers from f
the
.
words of the petition we now present to thew, h-
is utterly impossible that any Ministers, under the

present state of public opinion in England, should
be corrupt enough to renew a lease of national pro-
perty on terms so utterly unjustifiable, or on any
terms but that of accepting the highest offer which
open competition can obtain fora trust estate. Lord
Lowther's declaration on this head is sufficiently dis-
tinct : but we regret to see that Ministers opnosed
the appointment of a committee for reporting on the
case of the petitioners. Mr. Peel's reaious do not
touch the real merits of the case: the object of the
petition being, as was well observed by Mr. Thom-
'on in reply, an inquiry not iutn motives but into
facts. We have not room to dissect or comment
upon the debate which followed on the Nat y Esti-
mates on Monday : m the course of the db‘cossion,
however, one agreeable fact was atinounced,—viz.,
that the Duke of Northumberland had voluntarily
proposed the reduction of the salary of Lof d Lieu-
tenant of Ireland from 27,0001. to 20,000/. The
principle on which this reduction is recommended
would apply to many other offices with large sitiaries
in all branches of Gomm:neut.-71'7nm

, It looks very ill for the linearity of the promises
of retrenchment and economy which bliiiitters have
made that they object to the reappointment of the
Finance Committee. The answer which the Duke
of Wellirgton gave to Lord Winchilsea on this sub-
ject, in the House of Loods, on Monday night, was
as abrupt and decisive as the most devoted admirer
of military dominion and lavish expenditure could
wish. It is not long since the " Finance Corn•
mittee" was pointed out as the hope and In ure sal-
vation of the country. Who were izs warmest
admirers, and the most eloquent prophets of the
beneficial results which the nation was to deri% e
from the application of its political arithmetic to
the profuse prodigality of our system of govern-
ment 1' Those very Whig politicians who now ad-
mire, applaud, and uphold the Statesmen who re-
joice over its untimely en►l, and pledge themselves
that the phoenix shall never again arise from its
ashes ! If ever there was base inconsistenev—if
ever there was sordid adoration of power, at the
expense of every claim to public virtue—it is this !
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has given us his
plan of reduction. As a relief to the suffering in•
terests of the country, it is ludicrous and con-

temptible. Is he afraid that the pruning-knife, in
the hands of the Finance Conimittee, would lop off
more of the luxuriant brandies of costly and corrupt
patronage than his circumspect sad delicate patriot-
ism can afford to lose? Is he apprehert.ive that
more than the salaries of petty clerks an,i nfliciut
subalterns might be reduced ? and doss he dread

that bloated sinecures might be cut away a 4 foul and
unwholesome excresences ? Whatever may be the
reason, it is quite clear that a Finance Committee
is looked upon as an inconvenient, if net a dangerous
thing, by those immaculate Ministers, who have
ever economy on their lips, and a love for eternal
profusion in their hearts. We have no doubt that
the renegade Liberals will find that this interdiction
of their applauded project of a Finance Committee
is founded in the strictest virtue and the soundest
wisdom. They can no longer see the people suffer-
ing, that their rulers may revel in the luxury of pro-
fligate enjoyment. They look through a reversed
political telescope, and see the snarly made for the:
few, and not the few for the many. They are
already qualified fur power, by worshipping its
vices.—Morning Herald.

Among the interesting topics which were dis-
cussed on Tuesday night in Parliament, was the
motion of Sir Charles Wetherell, on the lste prose-
cutions of the Press. The Learned Gee?!emelt
made no allusions to the partiality which gave so
peculiar a character to the proceedings of the Attor-
ney-General. We did hope that when these pro-
ceedings came to be discussed in Parliament, that
Sir James Scarlett would be: required to " show
cause" why he did not deal out even-handed justice
by putting Ministerial newspapers on their trial for
the atrocious libels which have been—to use the
phrase of one of the libellers—" thundered forth"
against the brother of the Sovereign, with the ob-
vious intention of exciting against him such a storm
of public indignation as would drive him from this
country for ever I Let it not be. forgotten that our
pure and consistent Whig Attorney-General gave
as a reason for the exercise of the "tender mercies"
of hip office to the Press, that he wishc-d to cheek

it licentiousness, in order to preserve its respectabi-
lity. Was it then in his eyes licenticusness to im-
pugn in strong and vehement language the policy of
a Minister, to deny his capacity, or to arraign him .
of the " glorious crime" of ambition ? and was it
no licentiousness to set up the brother of the King,
day after day, in the pillory of public scorn—to
load him with the infamy of charges, which, when
only whispered against a private individual by the
lips of malice, are deadly and exterm;nittinci" to
deavour to call forth against him, by (huh inFintrit.
tions, the disgust of society and the execration of an
universal people; and ell for the base purposes of
party, and the gratification of prAitical vengeance?
Was it decent and proper and moral to do this,
and shrink from the test of such dreadful accusa-
tions in a manner as dastardly as the charges them-
selves were malignant and ferociort. ? Did the
Whig Attorney-General see nothing in thosq
things which compromised the respectability and
degraded the character of the Press ? Thia'alode
of destroying the reputation and peace of salmi of a
political opponent of the Duke of Wellington was,
no doubt, within the limits of fair and legitimate
discussion, or the liberal dispEu.er of ex-djicio pro-
tection to the Press, would certjnly have thought
it necessary to interfere, and, in this east:, as well as

in others, bare prevented tine Press front becoming
ure of
is to he Raid to the recent at,
licentious, o
,arbi ittal
ee
sor
af
ziiitnsg ow
emanating from the Fame quarter ? fear Sir
'pet
e:oio'ciik:.iseeerrn:'oepneat.ni whatcharacteridtdhejle3huebtyex;l of the Sovereign 444 self,
James's law of political libel, like 141 w. fluskisso:4lll
free trade system, liss a " one-sided reciprocity I'l'-
4 only affords the blessings of penal pro:cello's to
that portion of the Press which is or,osed to the
policy of the Duke of Wellington, \\ldle, it allows
the newspapers which, in their fulsome sycophancy
to him, savagely assail the characters of others, to
Gill ;Is low as they plcasw in public opinion, without
a single ez-cylicia rope or drag being- thrown out to
the sinking culprits, to raise them out of the mire of
their own drip adation St, much for the Attorney-
General Searlett's mode of curbing the licentious-
ness and preserving the respectability of the Press.—
..Horning Herald.

. .
Ewl Stanhope's motiou on the internal condition
of the country, though negatived by a majority not
more decisive of the lute of the que.tiwi than of the
character of the jiouic, woe of 4dvautuge in one

point, of. view. It ascertained, beyond all doubt,
how Tar the present Ministry had the inclination and
capacity to grapple fairly with the difficulties of the
country, and afford the suffering population any
thing like a prospect of relief. It is now clear, from
what was put upon public record by the debate and
division of Thursday night, that Government have
riot the courage to look the evils of the country in
the face, nor wisdom to repair them if they did. If
there were any value in the arguments used against
Lord Stanhope's motion, they went to prove the
necessity for that very investigation which he de-
manded. The facts which the Noble mover ad-
duced in support of his proposition for inquiry were
not even attempted to be denied ; and u hat a case
of national embarrassment and popular misery did
they not establish I. It is true that, while the Duke
of Wellington admitted the distress, he still clung
to his favourite paradox, that all this public suffering
was co-existent with decided indications of increas-
ing prosperity. Let us, on this point, to prevent
the imputation of being supposed to misrepresent
the Noble Duke, quote his own words. He said
" lie was justified, on the first day of the Session,
also in mentioning the increase of buildings not
merely in London alone, but farm-buildings, and
buildings in every village—for these things
could proceed from nothing but the progress of the
people towards something like prosperity." Now,
from this statement about the increase of farm-
buildings and buildings in every village, it is clear
the Premier meant to show that the agricultural
interests participated in that " progress of the
people towards prosperity." But what had the
Noble Duke said in the commencement of his speech
touching this very subject ? Here are his words—
mark them reader, and ask yourself whether, if his
Grace had taken up his positions so badly and de-
fended them so weakly in the field of battle, the
laurels of Waterloo would ever have ornamented
his brows ? He said, " the Noble Earl who had
commenced the debate had !list alluded to the agri,
cultural distress. No man could be more conscious
of its existence than he was; and he stated so on
the first day of the Session; he would now repeat
that he had not the smallest doubt of its existence."
Thus he has proved to the satisfaction of all, whose
faith in the infallibility of Ministerial logic is not to
be shaken by any suggestions of rea;on, that two
contradictory statements ought to be received
as identical propositions, for lie avers that
the agricultural interests are under the pressure
of undeniable distress, and are at the same time
advancing in prosperity. The traveller who
blew hot and cold in the one breath, excited the
astonishment and anger of the hospitable satyr, who
drove him, as one in whom no confidence could be
placed, from the shelter of his sylvan dwelling; but
the House of Lords expressed no surprise or displea-
sure at the Diike.of Wellington representing in the
one breath the agricultural interests to be the object
of condolence and congratulation. We can, indeed,
easily conceive the possibility of the depression of a
particular interest being consistent with the general
prosperity of a nation, but how the depression of a
particular interest can be consistent with its own
prosperity is a proposition which we confess our in-
capacity to understand. To say that the distress of
the agricultural class is temporary is one thing, and,
however false in fact, is not contrary to reason ; but
to say that the distress and prosperity of the same
class is co-existent is quite another thing, and con-
trary both to fact and-reason. if the Duke of Wel-
lington has found out that there are new farm-houses
and new buildings in every village, and can point to
those aribstantial proofs of prosperity, and say " there
is an answer to your tales of agricultural distress,"
why does he at the same time admit the distress?
Again, if the farmers are so rich as to be enabled to
build new houses in every village, why do he and
his myrmidons in the Press call upon the landlords
to lower their rents, in consequence of the inability
of the farmers to pay them? The parasite Press of
Government, with the view of drawing away the at-
tention of the public from the profusion and extrava-
gance of Ministers, has been for a long time telling us
that the only panacea fOr theevils of the country, was,
that the landlords should lower their rents. We

the rents are lowered, in point of fact. The abate.
moits which have taken place universally through•
out the country are only reductions of rent conse•
Aquent own the insolvent condition of the farmers,
Has the reduction of the rents abated the distre,s ?
Far from it. Every account from the agricultural
as well as the manufacturing districts shows that it

still increases. What then 'can relieve the farmers ?
fia order to be able to answer this question let us
see what it is that oppresses them. The taxes and
the poon-rates—these they cannot pay without great
difficulty, even where their rent has been abated 30,
40, and SO per cent. Nay, in some places, where
the actual abatement has been to the amount of 100
per cent.—that is, where the landlord, being unable
to obtain uny rent, has made a " virtue of neces-
sity," sod the tenant has continued to hold
the iAtul At present merely on the payment

of the taxes, tithes, and poor-rates--ilitiiculty
is still felt in endeavouring to pay those incum-

!trances along with the expenses of cultivation.—
Why ? The reason is, that taxation is really as
high as during the most extravagant period of the
war, white the prices of produce have undergone a
great depression, The causes of high taxation are
tfaNational Debt and the prodigal expenditure of
the Government—the cause of the low prices is
the contraction of the currency by Mr. Peel's
Bill. To make this plain to every understanding,
we will ask what was it that enabled the farmer
and manufacturer to bear the heavy pressure of
taxation during the war ?—A paper currency,
and nothing else; that kept up the prices in
something like a proportion to the increase of
taxation ; but, that being withdrawn, the prices
fell in pretty near the same ratio that the value
of the currency was enhaneed----so that the bur-
thefts of the country remained as great as ever, while
the means of discharging them were considerably
diminished. It is true some millions of taxes have
been taken off since the war; but the change in
the ettrt.ency makes the amount of taxation, though
nominally Jess than it was at that time, yet in
reality greater, If the currency were enhanced in
value only one-third, that enhanced the taxation
also one-third, so that 40 millions of taxes now
have the same pressure On all the interests of the
community that 604miltions would have had in the
war. The same would have happened if we had a gold
currency during the war,
_which was reztrigted in
quantity, and enhanced in value, at the time that Peel',?,
Bill,which has worked such an extraordinaryrevolution
in the affairs of the nation, pazted, Thus the expellee
of the war, or the National Debt, ;41 the remote, and

Peel's Bill the proximate cause of the greater part
of the present public distress. The consequencaa of
that measure have, indeed, been aggravated by the
experiments in free trade, the repeal of the Naviga-
tion Laws, &e, What then remains to be done ?
—Nothing but to enlarge our currency to the extent
of our burdens, or bring down our taxation to th.e
level of our currency. in spite of their details and
their documents, Ministers most come to this and
Damon sense at last.—Morning Herald.

It wive us great satisfaction to ;letup from the
spetcb ' Mr. Peel, on Tuesday nigh 4 ,the
reeettt prosecutions for libel were not the result of

•• %.• r
any eltauge of opinion in the Cabinet with respect
to the policy of interfering with the Press, but
originated in the desire of Sir James Scarlett to
show the Administration how much they had gained
by obtaining an Attorney-General who knaw so
much better how to keep newspapers in order than
his predecessors since 1820. From the sort of
slavish awe in which nsarly all the barri,ters of the
Court of King's Bench evidently stand of Sir
James, he is naturally led to over-estimate his own

importance: and hence we can account for the tune

of reproof to the mild and amiable CordLyhdhurst,
conveyed in his declaration on the first

" However anxious I am that the right of printing
and publishing should be preserved, I here freely
declare that for the last ten years the license of the
Press has, in my judgment, been too much unre-

Cruined; mud that its wholesome use would be

better 'Reserved if more restraints had been placed
on it." There was in the prosecutions something
of the feeling which is frequently observed in net,
men, and which has led to the adage of " new
Brooms," &c. Sir James informed the House tl at
he had no leisure for reading, like most men, whose
exertions are exclusively professional; he is, no
doubt, disposed to consider the functions of
the Attorney-General more essential to the
nation than those of any other servant of the
Crown, and, therefore, we can understand the
uneasiness lie may have felt at the sort of abdication
of the most odious of these functions for ten long
years, as tending to produce an impression, that en
Administration cot.hl possibly be conducted with-
out the aid of ex-officio informations. " The
Learned Gentleman ( Sir Charles Wetherell), ob-
served Mr. Peel, had supposed that there was a
conspiracy among the Government to overwhelm
an individual, who was stated to be the representa-
tive of the party with which he acted. So far as
he (Mr. Peel) was concerned, he knew nothing of
the conspiracy; for he never heard of the libels
until his Learned Friend had thought fit to appeal
to the law, and vindicate its authority by these
prosecutions.—f Hear, hear.)"—This declaration of
the second Cabinet Minister, the Leader of the
House of Commons, settles the question as to the
share of the Ministry in the prosecutions. We now
know that they originated in the desire of Sir James
to surprise Ministers agreeably with the performance
of a piece of service for which they were not pre-
pared. A contemporary (the Globe) takes another
view of the circumstances in which the prosecutions
originated, somewhat more favourable to Sir James.
He supposes him, as he has no leisure for reading
himself, to take his opinions from those whose read-
ing is not very select, and whose discretion is on a
par with their sources of information. If we thought
the prosecution originated in that sort of experience
which causes a man to discover a mare's nest occa-
sionally, sse should have some hopes of him ; but
we have our doubts. However, we shall allow him
the benefit of our able contemporary's suggestions :
" The Attorney-General." he observes, " stated, in
proof of the necessity of his prosecution:, that when he
was in the country, in March last, he found people alarmed
at the paragraphs concerning the agitation in London,
which were copied into the Provincial Papers from the
Morning Journal. The persons with whom the Attor-
ney-General associates are posssibly not remarkable for
their discretion ; hut even if their alarms in March were
of more serious import, they would hare afforded a sorry
reason for endeavouring to repress, in June, a system of
misrepresentation which had ceased to be mischievous.
Indeed, on the trials, the Attorney-General took credit to
himself for having abstained from prosecuting while the
agitation of the Catholic Question continued. It was just
at the time when those friends whose fears he exposes had
recovered the small portion of sense that belongs to them,
that he cattle forward (if we may use the language of Sir
C. Wetherell) to pour the oil of his ex-officios over the
waves which were no longer troubled. He is now driven
to confound the two periods, and to: justify his super-
fluous activity in raking up forgotten paragraphs, by
showing the temporary effect which had been produced
by some nonsense of still older date. The case seems to
be, that Sir James Scarlett is some months behind even
his country acquaintances ; and not being, as he states, a
regular reader of Newspapers, he began to be frightened
ate the assertions of Lord Eldon's plots against the Duke
of Wellington, and the Duke of Wellington's plots against
the Crown, just when the old ladies he had conversed with
four months before had begun to disregard them."
Be this as it may, there can be no question that
Mr. Hume was right, when he said "he would put
it to the House whether the Attorney-General had
not done more to bring his Majesty's Government
into contempt and disrepute with the best of so-
ciety, in his prosecution of Mr. Alexander, than that
individual had ever done by his publication of the
paragraphs in question." Indeed, this seems to be
the feeling of Ministers themselves, from their
anxiety (to use a somewhat familiar expression), to
have the saddle put upon the right horse ; though
of course, while they take this credit to themselves,
they do not wish to take also the discredit of
appearing to disapprove of the service of their over-
zealous servant. They approve of the conduct of
Sir James, and the public, by coupling the approval
with the declaration above alluded to, will know
how very cordial the approbation is. But this is
the return that excessive zeal often meets with
this wicked world., in which, to " damn with Li

praise, assent with civil leer," is but too usual among
good-natured friends. We have more than once

alluded to the strange sort of reasoning by which
Sir James justifies his interference with the Press ;
and we wish he could spare a little leisure for reading
a newspaper occasionally ; for, with all deference to
him, we think he might find in some of these vehicles
of information the means of improving in logic, if
in nothing else. "He thought (said Sir James) ho-
nestly and conscientiously, that if the Press was to
be the polluted vehicle of public and private slander;
if every gentleman who happened to be a Minister
of the Crown, was to be held up to scorn as a knave,
a liar, and a scoundrel ; if it was to be considered as
a part of the liberties of Englishmen, that the Duke
of Wellington, or his Right Hon. Friend, or any other
Minister, might, because he was a member of the

Cabinet, be, with impunity, represented as a fool, a
traitor, or a coward, one of two things must happen.
The Press must fall into such disrepute, that no man
would allow it the slightest influence, or some mea-
sures must be taken to correct its excesses. And ac-

cordingly lie thought that when there was a case of
a factious man, without principle, or truth, or de-
cency, or the least regard to private feeling or the
public good—who, in the most false and atrocious
mariner, published libels against all that was good arid
just, and distinguished in the country—the besvhing
which could be done for the interests of the Press
would be to punish such a person; since, by so doing,
they would increase that moral influence which the
Press ought to have. Honourable Members might
hold out for the abuses of the Liberty of the Press;
but, he contended, the Press would lose all its in,
flue,

llce if that liberty were suffered to degenerate
:a licentiousness, since it must thus infallibly fall
nto contempt, Where, then, would be its moral
ntluence ? Gone for ever. It would become lile
Thersites, as described by Homer, who might say
that Achilles was a coward and Agamemnon not a
great King, while the Greeks would only laugh at
his mendacity and despise his slander.—(Hear,
hear.) When; therefore, a Paper was conducted on
such principles as the Morning Journal—on the
principle of perpetual slander, falsehood, and mis.
representation, he thought it was conferring a be.
netit on the Press to punish it " It is singular that
the eery illustration of the Learned Gentleman did
not open his eyes to the error of his argument.
Thersites called Achilles a coward, and the Greeks

laughed at and despised him, but wk d►d not despise
all the Greek, because Theriites, a Greek, was
sjespicable. We never understood before that ge.
ner44,, were included in particulars. Sodom and
Gomorrah even wpuld have been spared, had ten

righteous men been found in the place. It is quite
enough that people should answer for themselves,
without being burdened with the responsibility of
othei-s, There are about two hundred Newspapers
published in !(great Britain; and there are Reviews,
Magazines, Registers, and other periodical publica-
tions in abundance, published p•marterly, monthly,
and weekly. Because one Newspaper forEets what
;.$ dge to propriety and decorum—because one
NewsFager le loose in its intelligence, and draws
erroneous CciPc.l4:49N from true premises, or correct
conclusions from false Ferp;;;el, pr sins both in pre-
tnises and conclusions, therefore, acgor.dikg to this
man—who modestly makes himself the criteripp Af

4.;;;;at is proper and improper—all newspapers, all
periodical pwblications—in a word, all the Press=--
lose their intluet.e and fall into contempt. Why
there is not a green-grocee 4; Saffron-hill or Saint
Giles's who would not laugh at the absgrdity of
this reasoping. What is it that all the world arc
constantly aiming
,k 4 it distinction ? Why is it a
merit to be good but because it is a demerit to be
bad? If there were no Sinners there woßid be no
Saints. If all men were as good at managing causesas Sir James Rearlett, he would have more leisure
to improve his mind by reading newspapers. There
like very few newspapers in London that 14'01(1 iiCst