The Sun.
London, England, 1830-04-09 00:00:00

ANSWERS TO THE FOREGOING QUERIES.

I. Provided there be sufficient silver currency in
the country for the small payments, there does not
appear to the Bank to be any advantage in the pro-
posed addition of silver, as a general legal tender,
from the great difficulty of retaining gold as the
bulk of the currency under such an arrangement.
If such an arrangement were adopted, it appears
to the Bank that it would be preferable to confine
all the silver coin to one denomination, and not to
issue silver coin of the same denomination at the
present, of a different standard.

Whenever the state of the foreign exchanges might
give gold a higher value, or when it might bear
higher agio, in foreign countries than in this, so far
out of its relative value to silver as 151 to 1, thereby
affording a profit to the exporter, the gold would
leave this country for those parts of Europe where it
might be more valuable.

For the reason given in answer to the first query,
the Bank arc of opinion, that the proposed general
legal tender of silver would not materially operate
upon their transactions.
It does not appear that it would afford to the
Bank any security against combinations made to
their prejudice, nor would enable the Bank more
readily to rectify the foreign exchanges, nor to pro-
vide with less difficulty for periods of panic; neither
does it appear to the Bank that it would facilitate
their procuring, when necessary, supplies of gold
from abroad.

2. There does not appear to be any material objec-
tion to the Bank making advances on deposits of
silver for limited periods, at a low rate of interest,
which might afford convenience to the public, when
the state of foreign exchanges materially. operated
upon the demand and price 'of silver in the market.
The Bank are of opinion, that notes or receipts pay-
able in silver only would not be negotiable, as the
same could not be received for deposits made with
the Bank.

3. The Bank can see no advantage in reverting
to the former system of making silver by weight a
legal tender to any amount; and they are further of
opinion, that a varying scale of value in any metal
intended to be used ass legal tender cannotbe other-
wise than prejudicial in its effect upon all contracts.
The payment by weight was formerly almost, if not
entirely, nugatory.
In replying to the three first questions, the Bank
have borne in niind,that the object is to retain gold
as the bulk of the currency.
4. In answer to the fourth query, the Bank can
only advert to the quantity of coin in their posses-
sion, and that issued by them dace the Ist of Jan.
1821, which, together with the silver issued from
the Mint since 1816, induces the Bank to believe
that there is a sufficiency of coin for the ordinary
transactions of the country, and also to provide for
the withdrawal from circulation of the small notes
of the country bankers.

DESPERATE ASSAULT.—At the Warwick
Assizes, HANNAH Aluextuw, aged 40, and Jean/a4
Alummow, aged 14, were indicted for assaulting Trioaaas
illuciceow on the 9th of February lut, in the parish of
Reilfo SOT, ee.
morning Tlie
o
facts of
f the this case
9th of wereFeht•ua raryti, lr
aboutsin-
gular
six o'clock, the elder defendant, who is the proseentor'a
' rather
wife, in consequence of some quarrel, the particulars of
which were not stated, left the house and went to that of
a neighbour, named SreveNs. The husband, perceiving
that she did not return, went after her at half-past eight,
and found her and her daughter (the younger defendant(
at STEVENS'S. He requested Lie wife to go home ; to
which she replied, that she would choose her own time
for so doing. He then took her by the arm to lead her
atriy, but she broke from him, and seizing the poker,
struck at him with it over the head. At the same mo-
ment his daughter ran behind him, and throwing her arms
round his neck, stuck her fingers into his eyes. With
one hand he displaced the daughter's fingers, and with the
other he guarded his head from his wife's blows, until at
last he was enabled to wrench the poker from her grasp;
up
I:eibr, tug: talhaoguatina
seizingon which
a particular she ran
partbetw
ofee Lish is
pelogr.os , threwpi
pinched hits
andse .
nii-
gut
upon his feet. The wife then again seized the poker, and
nveurteelys,nads oharelfu.derilleii
attacked him with it. He put up his hand to protect his
suit r almostug gl e 1 ,
head, but she sir uck him on either si le of his head, and
caused the blood to flow doom copiously from his temples,
She continued to strike him on the head and arms until
he became senseless, and then both defendants left him.
STEVENS witnessed all this, but was unable to interfere, in
senses,
scoonnnsegausetnhee porfolsieeci7igtocrolifif'confined
recoveredto s his
bed by a sore leg. As
he crawled out
of the house, but was obliged, through weakness, to sit in
the road for some time. When he recovered euilicient
strength to do so, he got up and went for a warrant. On
the part of the defendants the assault was not denied, but
it appeared that the prosecutor had been guilty of most
scandalous conduct towards the ftermle members of his own
family ; he had five daughters, one of whom (the defendant
JEIIIMA) he bad assaulted with a eclairs. intent when she
was only twelve years of age, for which he had been in-
dicted, convicted, and sentenced to two years' imprison-
ment. An inquiry into his conduct towards two other of
his daughters was stopped by the LORD CHIRP 13.1n0m.
These circumstances were offered in pollitition of the de-
fendant's treatment of :he preseentor. The Jury returned
a verdict of Guilty, and the Lotto CHIRP Bailor; SQU-
tepee(' them to six mouths' itoprluornoent each.

• SPIRIT OF THR PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Among the numerous official returns printed by
order of the House of Commons, is one of " The
rates of pay and allowances to the Officers and men
of the navy, in the priecipal naval and civil branches,
In the years 1792 and 1829, in classes, stating the
dates of any increase or decrease." A comparative
'etiolate of this nature may be fitly judged on three
several grounds—lst, the difference between the
cost of articles of the first necessity at the respective
periods; 2d, the difference between the rates of
wages throughout England among the working
classes generally; 3d, the increase or decrease in
the wages of seafaring men in other countries. The
subsistence of seamen is not included in the charge
for "pay," but forms the subject of occasional con-
tracts, the terms of which have not, of late years,
we believe, been considered unfair as against the
public. It is obvious, however, that they must dr-
pend on the price of provisions, and conform to the
occasional fluctuations of the market. Articles
of cloth have not, we are told, much risen
in price, if at all, since 1792 ; and, as they
may be supposed to constitute the great
bulk of a seaman's necessary expenditure, there
seems no reason why, on that account at least, an
augmentation should be made to the pay. With re-
gard to the general rate of wages throughout the
country, it is clear that if they have been increased
materially since 1792, those of merchant-seamen will
also have risen, so as to create a successful compe-
tition against the navy, unless that competition be
met by a rise of wages in the King's service also.
-Whether the wages of labour collectively have re-
ceived any real addition whatsoever since the year
above alluded to, is another question—perhaps a
doubtful one; but there is probably no reason to dise
pute that the seamen employed on board our mer-
chant vessels are better paid than before the war of
the French 'Revolution : and if so, the crews of
British men-of-war must be treated with propor-
tionate liberality, or the nary will be at a loss for
hands. So, also, if the wages of foreign seamen
have risen sensibly during the same period, the
King's service becomes exposed to another,
and not less serious, competition. In the
former of these cases the best sailors flock
to English merchantmen, and leave his Majesty
the refuse. In the latter they go abroad, to navi-
gate the ships and instruct the seamen of our neigh-
bours. In both cases the British navy is left un-
manned.—We cannot conscientiously say that the
ratings, and so forth, contained in the above return,
have been established without a view to economy
—that is, so far as oflicers, sailors, mid marines, the
fighting force of the navy of England, are concerned.
But we are not so certain about the civil augmen-
tations, not merely as to the pay of each indivi-
dual, but as to the additional number of persons
(non-fighters) employed ; and if we extend our sur-
vey to the dock-yards, &c., we shall find the mul-
tiplication of brown-coated functionaries not only
unquestionable but immense. These things we need
no further press upon the attention of his Majesty's
Government, than just to remind Ministers how
deeply they are pledged to hunt out the means and
facilities of economical reform.—Times.
It is likely to fare but ill with the " landed-inte-
rest" speech-makers, when farmers take to telling
truth, and arguing rationally upon the corn-law sys-
tem and its effects on the occupiers of the soil. We
have some pride, as well as much satisfaction,, in
publishing the letter of a Surrey agriculturist, in
condemnation of the monopoly of corn. To us the
idea is not new, that the farming interest would gain
by a general reduction of prices consequent upon the
diminished price of corn ; but our Croydon corres-
pondent makes it clear from figures, that the fall of
wages and other sources of expence would fully
indemnify him for the change; nor does he put
the case as favourably as it appears to us it would
turn out to be in practice. He evidently under-
rates the reduction of poor-rates which must
follow from a more general employment of hands
in manufacture as well as husbandry ; and
in his calculation, he says nothing, though he refers
to it in the letter, of the profit to be derived from
converting second and third-rate soils to pasture,
and thus increasing the quantity of butcher's meat
at home, in the same degree with that of foreign
corn imported ; meat, if we are to judge from
butchers' prices, not having even a tendency to fall
to the level of the reduction in grain A few more
such specimens of agricultural honesty and intelli-
gence would produce no mean impression in favour
of Sir Francis Burdett's proposal to relieve the
country from that monopoly which, of all others, is
the most barbarous and overwhelming.
" Siz,—Although t am a farmer on an extended scale,
and with the rest of the cultivators of the soil am suffer-
ing
from the times, still I take a very different view of the
relief required. I believe that the free importation of
wheat wcnld benefit the farmer as much as any class; his
expenses are principally in wages, and the fall that would
take place from the low price of wheat, would return to
him as direct as to Any manufacturer: be would receive
the benefit in the growth of his green crops for pasture,
where he can meet with no foreign competitor, and if the
growth of wheat were rather discouraged (which I doubt),
his attention would be directed to keeping more stock, and
thereby cause a snore plentiful supply of meat; I have
found very frequently a larger produce of corn in conse-
quence, although from a less number of acres.
" The return enclosed you may depend is made from ac-
tual experience. I have merely rounded the amounts for
the facility of calculation. You will find the proportions
coincide with the experience of Arthur Young, Lawrence,
So. and I shall be happy to explain in detail any particular
required. Yours's obediently, a Farmer,
" Croydon, April I. H. D."

" I hold a farm of 1,000 acres, of which 500 are arable,
aad 500 grass.
" 150 acres come yearly into wheat, and which pro-
duce 450 quarters of wheat, and my selling price averages
about 60s.
" I should lose by foreign wheat being admitted free of
duty, about 12s. per quarter £270 0 0
" But I should gain by the fall of 20 per cent. in bread,
and consequent fall in the price of labour ;
" 7 per cent. on 3,000/. (the amount I yearly
expend in wages) £2lo 0 0
7 per cent. on 3201. (being the amount of my
poor rates, highway-rateQ, and church- rates) 22 8 0
" '7 per cent. on 140/. (being my family's ex-
pane for brew' and flour). 9 16 0

.£212 4 0
" And surely the prices of clothing and every
other necessary would fall sufficient, in conse-
quence of the low price of bread, to enable me
to save out of my and my labourers' expences 27 l 6 0

£270 0 0

" And I give my landlord the benefit of the fall in prices,
or I might calculate a reduction of rent in proportion."—
Times.
Mr. Peel is going on in a career of usefulness in
rofoiroing the criminal law which entitles him to
the praise of the public, and s‘ ill hand down his name
to posterity among the benefactors of mankind.
The friends of humanity would rejoice to see the
punishment of death abolished in all cases, eleept-
ing murder, burglaries accompanied with terror, and
robberies attended with personal violence. They
hail, therefore, with satisfaction, the mitigation pro-
posed in many instances of forgery; while they re-
gret that the time is not yet arrived when it may be
extended to all. It has long been the disgrace of
ttis country that its laws are more sanguinary and
the executions more frequent than in any other part
of the world. This has arisen from two causes,,-
the remains of the old feudal severity, when every
Baron was authorised to erect a gallows upon his
manor and hang up almost whom he pleated ; and
the idolatry with which property is viewed here, in
comparison with which the life of a human being is
held in low estimation. That our laws should
be so savage is the more extraordinary, as the
people of this country abhor the shedding or
blood. Popular commotions in England are rurely
attended with loss of life ; while in other coun-
tries, where the laws are infinitely milder, they
seldom happen without it. This kind feeling in
Englishmen, it is strange to say, in one respect, has
cootaibuted to prevent any very material relaxation

in our Criminal Code; because it has diminished the
number of prosecutions, which, in spite of the gib-
bet, have borne no proportion to the offences commit-
ted: had it been otherwise, the frequency of the inflic-
tion of death would have been too horrible tohave been
endured, and would, long ago, have put an end to the
punishment in a great majority of cases which are now•
capital. Of late years Judges have sympathised with
the popular sentiment, and there are very few now on

the Bench who are not even astute in discovering,
plausible pretences for yielding to it. The execu-
zions in the times of Lords Thurlow and Lough-
borough, and those ordered by Justice Buller and
Justice Heath, and one or two others which swell
the black catalogue, as stated by Mr. Peel, in part
of the late reign, would in the present day, in most
instances, be considered in no other light than as
,to many legal murders ! Still, as the law stands, if
prosecutors and Judges think fit to put it in motion,
and carry itk,sentences into effect, there is nothing
to prevent them, in hundreds of cases in which the
voice of humanity and reason would condemn the
punishment as more wicked than the crime intended
to be prevented.—Morning Chronicle.
In the debate on Thursday last, on the subject of

the Scotch Law Reforms, the Solicitor-General ob-
served, that " though he was not able to discover
it, there must, nevertheless, be some reason for that
astonishing disproportion between the Scotch ap-
peals and those from other parts of the United
Kingdom." The Lord Advocate, in his reply,
significantly observed, that " some of them might
arise from the circumstance of an appellant, con-
scious of a bad case, desiring to have it tried by
Judges not acquainted with Scotch Law." A
case, decided in the House of Lords on Tuesday last
brought this observation of the Lord Advocate for-
cibly to our recollection. On this occasion, in the
House of Lords, was Lord Wynford, who, if he
knew anything of Scotch Law, must know it by
inspiration. He is a mere Nisi Prius lawyer, who
never was employed in Scotch Appeals, and who
has little experience in those branches of English law
somewhat analogous to the law of Scotland. If it had
been proposed to appoint Mr. Justice Best to the Bench
in Scotland, what an outcry would have been raised.
It would have been at once admitted that he was a
skilful advocate with a Common Pleas Jury, but it
would have been urged, that independently of his
want of Scotch legal learning, he did not rank high
as an English lawyer, and in every point of view the
appointment was unjustifiable. But Lord Wyn-
ford, representing in his own person the House of
Lords, has a hundred times more power over Scotch
litigants than he could have as a single Scotch
Judge, where he might have been over-ruled by his
brethren. ww o Scotch Magistrates Allardice and
Boswell, appealed from a decision of the Court
of Session. Robertson, the respondent, having
been convicted of poaching in a Court of Jos-.
tice, urged that he was the only support of two
aged parents. Upon this, one of the Justices said
he was a notorious poacher. Mr. Allardice said, " I
do not think the defender deserves any mercy, as I
am informed that besides being a poacher, he is a
thief; that he has been known to steal bee-hives and
leather, and that Mr Boswell (the other appellant)
knows this to be true ;" upon which Mr. Boswell
said, " I cannot say as to the bee-hives; but I was
informed by a respectable farmer, now :dead, that
he stole a quantity of leather." Robertson brought
an action against the appellants in the Jury Court,
and obtained 2001. damages against the two Jus-
tices. On a new trial he obtained 1504 against
each. The Justices appealed to the Court of Ses-
sion, where the judgment was against them. And
when the people of Scotland see that two verdicts,
and a subsequent solemn decision of the Judges of
the Supreme Court of that country, can be set
aside by the House of Lords, represented by Lord
Wynford, are we to wonder that appeals should be
frequent ? The Judges of the Supreme Court of
Scotland considered the allegations of the two Jus-
tices altogether foreign to the question before them,
and that to charge a man, who was merely before
the Court for an offence not considered criminal,
and subjecting him only to a pecuniary penalty,
with a heinous crime, was a calumny for which

their judicial situation ought not to protect them.
It was maintained by the Scotch Judges, that
the latitude to Judges could never be, with any
propriety, so far extended as to allow the in-
troduction of a graver matter into a case than
that for which an individual was upon his trial, be-
cause this would be allowing a Magistrate to ruin
without remedy an individual who might he before
the Court for the most trivial offence. Let us sup-
pose, for instance, that a man, not aware that sitting
on a cart passing along the street was penal on one
side of London•bridge (as it is not on the other),
and that on being summoned before a Magistrate,
and urging a mitigation, he should be told. " 0 you
are deserving of no compassion, you are one of the
fellows who are in the habit of going every night to
Hyde-park for a certain purpose, on which some
recent proceedings at Queen-square throw a light."
The consequence of this declaration would be the
utter ruin of the man. Mr. Mill observes that, "If
an Indian Brahmin,were known to have eaten, even
when starving, a morsel of food which had been
prepared by a Christian, the consequences would be
dreadful." If a Judge of one of our Zillah Courts
in India were to state, when a Brahmin was before
him for some trifling peccadillo, that he was a fellow
undeserving of any regard, aslhe had committed the
enormous crime of eating a morsel of food prepared
by a Christian, he would utterly destroy him. If
we were to allow a Magistrate to use this language
to a Brahmin, we might as well allow him to put
him to death at once. The range of judicial
observation should never exceed judicial propriety;
and all propriety is violated, when a Judge urges a
crime in the consideration of a venial offence. The
Judges of the Court of Session held, very properly,
we think, that a Magistrate so exceeding the limits
of propriety, ceased to be entitled to protection ; and
that, where there is an injurious tendency, malice is
to be inferred, Lord Wynford, however, declared,
that " unless malice was alleged and proved, the
action in this case was not maintainable." This
amounts to declaring that Justices of Peace may
slander in the most atrocious manner all who are be-
fore them. How is malice to be proved ? Can we
look into the hearts of Justices of Peace ? In any
other case in which a man should be called a thief
malice would be inferred, and why should it not be
inferred here ? Malice is always inferred in a libel
from the tendency. "No man admired the institu-
tion of Juries more than he (Lord Wynford) did, but
he thought that it would be dangerous to permit
them to raise themselves up into arbitrators of causes
without evidence. We lived under laws, arid our
property was protected by laws; but we should have
but a bad security for both our lives and property
if they were to be left to the arbitrary dis-
cretion of tweiwe men, uncontrolled by any rule.
Juries would become an intolerable nuisance if not
regulated by some law. Who would act as a Ma-
gistrate, if he were not protected by the Judges i❑
the honest discharge of his duties ? If Juries re-
turned one thousand verdicts against Magistrates, he
(Lord Wynford) would set them aside, if given con-
trary to evidence." But his Lordship not only sets
aside verdicts of Jtu les, but reads a lesson on Scotch
Law to the Supreme Judges of Scotland, who are
taught by him that their construction of judicial
latitude, founded on the maxims of their own and
the Roman Law, is altogether erroneous. Let us
no more wonder that the people of Scotland should
he fond of appeals. We often hear in debates the
Treaty of Union introduced without much occasion.
Could the framers of the Treaty of Union have ever
anticipated such a state of things as we have alluded
to ? Lord Kames, however, in stating the good for-
tune of the Scotch in his day, in having Lord Mans•
field to decide their appeals, lamented that his nation
should be beholden to mere accident for the circum-

xtance of having a Judge acquainted with their laws.
The frequency of appeals proves the frequency of
reversals, and the frequency of reversals proves either

that the Bench of Scotland is wretchedly filled, or
that the law i 9 uncertain, and that the Judges in the
last resort know little of the law.—Morn. Chronicle.

In our report of the proceedings at the 'Monmouth
Assizes we observe the case of a girl, about ten
years of age, tried for stealing coals, said to he of the
value of one farthing ! The poor little culprit was
of such diminutive stature that the Governor of the
gaol had to hold her up in his arms that the Court,
and Jury might have a view of her while she pleaded
to the indictment. During the trial she was placed
standing on the seat appropriated to the solicitors,
13 her person was lost sight of in the dock. Her
Counsel took an objection to the prosecution, on
the ground that she was of that tender age from
which a want of guilty knowledge was to be infer-
red, where there were not strong circumstances to
prove it. The Judge was of opinion that the pre-
sence or absence of guilty knowledge was a question
for the consideration of the Jury. Die Jury ac-
cordingly exercised their judgment upon the case,
and not being satisfied, we presume, that the child,
when taking the coals, had a criminal consciousness
of the act, returned a verdict of Not Guilty. The
expence of the prosecution falls, of course, on the
county; and thus, where the zeal of committing
Magistrates overruns their judgments, the public
burdens are increased, without any advantage accru-
ing to the cause of public morality or the inte-
rests of justice. No doubt the Magistrates sent
this case before a Jury from the best motives; but
we say it is not judicious to encourage pro-
secutions of this nature, as they create as
much expence ns more serious matters, while they
throw an air of melancholy mockery over the
pomp and ceremony of a Court of Criminal Law. It
is not long ago since two infants, under seven years
of age, were put on their trials, at the Middlesex
or Westminster Sessions, for- stealing a pair of
stockings hung out for sale before the door of a
hosier. One of the ministers of preventive justice—
a new police-man—was the principal witness against
one of the children, the other having pleaded guilty.
He stated that he saw the little culprits preparing
to steal the stockings, and, no doubt, in the execu-
tion of his office for preventing crime, watched, and
interposed not until the theft was complete. Then
came the prosecution; and next came the expenses
incurred for proving, before a Bench of grave and
worshipful Magistrates, and twelve considerate men,
that these almost sucking babes, who yet, in point
of age, were to be numbered among the " inno-
cents," were felons by the English law ;—yet this
trial took place, although Sir Matthew Hale and
Justice Blackstone, as well as other writers of au-
thority, have laid it down, as established law, that
no infant under seven years of age is criminally re-
sponsible for his or her actions ; consequently can-
not be legally made the object of committal by a
Magistrate, or of prosecution before a Jury. This
is the Common Law of England, which remains in
full force until expressly abolished by statute ; and
Magistrates, as well as those whom they commit,
ought to keep in mind the maxim " Ignorantia
legis neminem excusat."—Morning Herald.
We cannot help thinking that it would be a great
improvement in the present law and practice, in cases
of lunacy, if no man, whether rich or poor, were al-
lowed to be placed under duress, as an alleged idiot
or lunatic, for a longer period than six months, with-
out his state of mind being brought to the test of a
Jury. We mention six months as a period till the
expiration of which such an inquiry might be de-
layed—not that we like the principle of a human
being having his liberty and comfort broken in upon
for any period without better authority than the
mere will sometimes of interested relatives, but be-
cause it seems to be a period just sufficient to try
the effects of what, unfortunately, we fear, is gene-
rally- so little tried,—a curative system; the favour-
able result of which will spare both the individual
and his family the painful circumstances attached to
a public investigation 9f the case. But if it be fit
that no more than six months should elapse, in any
case, without a solemn inquiry of this kind, what
must be thought of the present state of the law of
lunacy, which makes an inquiry of this sort one of
mere property; and that, unless what is called a
Committee is wanted, to take charge of what the
Commission calls the alleged lunatic's " manors,
messuages, lands, and tenements," he may be con-
fined all his life upon mere medical will and opinion,
controuled alone by that happy change in the law
which has appointed independent and competent
persons as visit ers of lunatic asylums ? Indeed it
may happen that, where the rents and profits of the
alleged lunatic can be got at without a formal au-
thority from the Great Seal, the alleged lunacy of
the party may never be judicially heard of, as ap-
pears to have nearly been the case in the instance
of an individual whose insanity was tried before a
Jury only a few days ago, who, it appeared, had
been '23 years an inmate of a lunatic asylum before
the alleged state of his mind, which brought him
there, was submitted to the test in question;
eainadt
probably would not have been so brought, e
this late period, had there not been a demur as to
the payment of his rents by those from whom they
were due. We allude to the subject in general, and
upon principle, not with reference to the merits of
any particular case; and cannot but consider it a
strange anomaly that the law should throw a pro-
tection round property in this respect which it does
net afford to personal liberty. At a period when
the public attention has been called, and, indeed,
excited in a more than ordinary degree, to-
wards the subject of imputed insanity, we do
not know that a better use can be made of the
interest which has been excited upon the occasion,
than to this radical improvement in the system—
that in.all cases of alleged lunacy, in which personal
liberty is to be circumscribed, an inquiry before
a Jury should invariably take place.—Morning
Herald.