The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
( From the 11Iorning Chronicle.)
Marshal Saxe gave good advice to a young ensign
who consulted him when he was first challenged,
with a view to obtain the sanction of so high an autho-
rity for declining the contest on account of his tender
years. " Young man," said the Marshal, " fight your
first challenger, or every coward will set on you, and
you will come to an untimely end." It would have been
well for the public interests if the House of Commons
bad acted on this principle in the case of Stockdale v.
Hansard. Every man of common sense and sagacity
predicted the consequences of the indefinite and tempo-
rising course pursued, not by the House of Commons
only, but by both branches of the Legislature. The
House of Lords is equally interested in the vindication
and establishment of its separate right of publication of
Parliamentary documents and proceedings : and its turn
of prosecution for libel is sure to come soon, as the Lords
reprint every important publication of the Commons, and,
besides, give publicity to many original inquiries and re-
ports. The House of Commons unquestionably extends
the publication of its proceedings by the valuable regula-
tion of Lord Dunfermline, which directed the cheap
sale of its papers, by which they are rendered more ac-
cessible to the public, and therefore of greater utility.
The Lords must not allow themselves to believe that the
not selling of Parliamentary publications is any peculiar
protection against the persecution of which the Commons
have been the object in the Courts of Westminster-hall,
because Lord Denman, in his excessive jealousy for the
rights of persons, distinctly ruled, in the first ac-
tion of Stockdale against Messrs. Hansard, " that
the act of selling does not give the plaintiff any addi-
tional ground of action or right to redress at law, beyond
the act of publishing. The injury is precisely the same
in its nature, whether the publication be for money or
not, though it may be much more extensively injurious
when scattered over the land for profit." Sale, there-
fore, of Parliamentary libels is only an item in
the quantum of damages, a circumstance which the
Peers will do well to consider before they meet next
Session ; for as they have re-published the sane
1 Prison Report which has been the ground of prose-
cution against the House of Commons by Mr. Stock-
dale, they will in all probability be placed in the
same predicament with the other branch of the
Legislature. We do not doubt, therefore, that the
Peers, sooner or later, will have to meet the same diffi-
culties in which the Commons are now involved. Our
law report of the proceedings in the Court of the Sheriff
of Middlesex yesterday records a second verdict for
six hundred pounds damages against Messrs. Hansard,
at the suit of Stockdale, for the continued publica-
tion of the libel which formed the subject of the former
action. Parliament and the Courts of Westminster-hall
are, therefore, now irrecoverably at issue, The Sheriff, it
would be observed, by the motion in the Bail Court
determined on Monday, had apprised that Court of
the writ of inquiry on the undefended action ; and
Mr. Justice Littledale refused to stay the pro-
ceeding ; and the undefended action has terminated
Pin a verdict of 6001., the enormous sum of 30,0001.
having been claimed by Stockdale. A premium is,
therefore, now advertised on actions against the printers
of the House of Commons. This result was predicted
by the men of more resolute minds who contended last
Session for the instant vindication of Parliamentary
authority. We need hardly repeat the unanswerable
arguments by which the authority of the House of
Commons was then established. Sir John Campbell,
in the original cause, " Stockdale v. Hansard," before
the Court of Queen's Bench, in April last, exhausted
the legal points, and proved unanswerably that both law
and reason were in favour of the power claimed by the
House of Coinmons. That it is the interest of the
public to uphold the authority of Parliament, and that
it is better that individuals should be subjected occa-
sionally to injury than that the proceedings of the
House of Commons should be secret and unknown,
are points respecting which no two men possessed of
common sense can differ in opinion. In fact, the doc-
trines of the Court of Queen's Bench would deprive the
inquisitorial powers of the House of Commons of all
their efficacy ; for if impunity be not allowed to the
publication of its inquiries and reports, it may as well
abandon at once all pretension to grapple with great
abuses. In his masterly speech Mr. Sergeant Wilde
demonstrated that the privilege of publishing reports
and other papers of the House of Commons on the
matters before them, or the inquiries directed by them,
was essentially necessary for the public good ; that
Parliament was the great inquest of the nation; that it
was its duty to inquire into all gigantic griei.ances and
abuses, and to inform the public of the facts ; that the
conduct of public officers, of Judges, and others,
was constantly brought under the notice of Parlia-
ment, and that it was necessary to investigate into
the truth of public charges, and oftentimes to
inform the publigeof the result, otherwise legislation
might proceed in ale dark, and punishment be awarded
on insufficient grounds ; that when a person was unjustly
aggrieved by any such publication, a remedy was open
to him by petition ; that if the privilege of the Flouso of
Commons was to be decided on by the Courts of Law, the
judgments of which were subject to the appellate juris-
diction of the House of Lords, the independent privi-
leges of the House of Commons might thus be lost.
Procrastination and a temporising policy never were
more absurdly exercised than by the House of Com-
mons on this question. In the first discussion Sir
Robert Peel boldly advised the right solution, but sub-
sequently and in his speeches, the Right Honourable
Baronet, as is usual with him, "gave way ;" this truck-
hug with the balanced state of parties in Parlia-
ment had its influence on Lord John Russell, who was
led to follow Sir Robert Peel ; and Mr. Sergeant
Wilde, in his admirable speech, fairly admitted that
without a large majority of the House, representing
the two great parties in the State, the course of re-
sistance could not be advisedly adopted. We are not
advocating an unnecessary collision between the Courts
of Law and Parliament. 'We admit that, as the law
has been laid down, and in the temper of the Court
of Queen's Bench, there are difficulties to be overcome.
Lord Denman, by indulging in the ffrst instance in a
sally of factitious patriotism, forced on an issue which
a more prudent judge, by confining himself to the
case before him, would not have provoked. The time
for meeting the difficulty with effect has, by the
pusillanimity of the House of Commons, been suf-
fered to pass by. From believing the House of Com-
mons omnipotent, the people have been taught by
its Ancient Pistol-like behaviour to look on it with
derision ; and a mischievous spirit seems abroad,
indicative of a desire to witness a regular set-to between
the Judges and Parliament. It. is in human nature to
witness with delight the success of the weaker party in
what appears at first an unequal combat ; and hence, in
an inconsistent and thoughtless age, the consequences
of the humiliation of Parliament are of less force than
the immediate gratification which a struggle promises
to give. The people would have stood by Parliament
in the outset, for men do not at once make up their
minds to set at defiance an authority so firmly rooted as
that of Parliament ; but when it was seen that the
House of Commons dealt only in big words, step
by step people became familiarised with the idea of
its humiliation. We have no wish to force on a
collision between Parliament and the Courts of Law,
or to urge any recourse to physical force, if it
can be avoided. There is one way by which
it may be avoided. Immediately after Parliament as-
sembles, the two Houses, being in the same predica-
ment, may agree to pass a declaration act enabling them
to publish such papers as each may think necessary.
The past is a subject on which it is impossible to dwell
with any satisfaction ; but there is yet time to rescue
the Parliament from future mortification, and the
Judges from a collision which must go far to destroy in
the country all respeet for constituted authorities.
But though we do not wish to dwell on past errors, we
cannot fail to be sensible that the scandal of yesterday
would have been avoided, if the Select Committee of the
Commons appointed to inquire into the proceedings of
the first action in May last had performed their
.duties
with moral courage. The amendment to their Report,
proposed by Mr. Sergeant Wilde and rejected, which is
recorded in their printed minutes, predicted distinctly
the evil consequence of " shoving off the evil day." We
extract two paragraphs from that amendment :
" That the present action was brought, and hss been
prosecuted throughout, in contempt and defiance of an
express resolution of the House, made in consequence of
the former action brought against the same defendant by
the same plaintiff, in respect of a publication ordered by
this House, and is therefore a case of very decided and
determined contempt, and should the House permit the
plaintiff to enforce the said judgment, and to recover the
reward of his contemptuous conduct, it would be difficult
to reconcile with justice and impartiality the punishment
of any future offender in the like respect.
" That an acquiescence in the judgment which has been
pronounced, and the permitting the plaintiff to recover
the fruits thereof, must have a direct tendency to encourage
the commencement of numerous actions and prosecutions of
the like nature."

This last sagacious prediction has now been realised,
and Parliament must meet the difficulty. The She-
riff of Middlesex may make a special return of the
verdict to the Court of Queen's Bench, and will, pro-
bably, in every stage of the matter, be advised so to
cover his own official responsibility. This may delay
the execution of the judgment till the meeting of par_
liament, and we could wish that the Courts of Law
would not unnecessarily precipitate a collision with
Parliament. It is most desirable that the privilege
should be, once for all, legislatively determined, and no
longer left to rest on grounds which Courts of Law
dare question. The past is of less moment than the
future, though there is not a man in the country pos-
sessed of a grain of sense but must be now aware that,
had not the House of Commons shrunk from the battle
last session, the fresh prosecution of its publishers would
not have taken place. We trust, however, Parliament
will see, at last, the necessity of atoning for the suicidal
weakness by which its authority, which is essential to
the welfare of the State, has been so unnecessarily ha-
zarded.

(From the 212orninq Past.)
It would be doing a great discredit to the common
sense of the English public were we to suppose that

they are at all satisfied with what they know, and
what they do not know, respecting the state of affairs
in South Wi;les. Is it reasonable to put any trust in
suede a Government as the present, with respect to these
matters ? We fear that it is not—the public cannot
reasonably trust either to Ministers'information of what
is really going on, or to their judgment of what
if best to be done, supposing their information were
accurate and complete, or to their energy and promp-
titude in acting upon their judgment, supposing it
to be sound and skilful. These Ministers are not
of a stamp to have good intelligence, or to think
about it with sagacity, or to carry their thoughts
into action with combined energy and caution.
We do not make these assertions unadvisedly, or
in any spirit of mere party irritation, though for even
that we might stand excused, under the present
circumstances of the country, if it ever were ex-
cusable. We say these Ministers are neither of trust-
worthiness, nor of capacity, sufficient to deal with such
serious circumstances as appear to exist in South \Vales
and other parts of the country. Their utmost merit is
that of being able to afford agreeable conversation at
Court ; and if there were no other reason for not trust-
ing them with the management of difficult and danger-
ous circumstances upon a large scale, this one would be
sufficient, that all of them, save the Lord Chancellor
and Lord John Russell, are so inconsiderable in them-
selves, or so engrossed in the business of mere courtier-
ship, that it is not possible the serious affairs of the
country should receive the consideration which is their
due. Now, the Lord Chancellor, it is well known,
occupies himself almost exclusively with the business
of his Court, and, by the union of great diligence
to thorough knowledge of his business, affords that
satisfaction, and wins that approbation, which the Eng-
lish public always feel and award in such cases. Tories
are we are, we ask only that public men should do
honestly and well that which is the duty of their office
and position. The Lord Chancellor does his duty
honestly and well by suitors in the Court of Chancery,
and, because he does so, he has no time, as he has evi-
dently little taste, for the affairs of political government.
Lord John Russell is generally admitted by the public
to be a clever man (though we own we never could find
out the ground upon which this opinion has been come
to), and it is tolerably certain that he minds his busi-
ness, and leaves courtiership to those of more oily
and pliant disposition. But Lord John has now quite
enough to do in studying the affairs of the colonies, and
moreover he is peevish and a partisan, and totally
without that elevation and comprehensiveness of
mind needful for great stokes of Government, when
the growing tempest of disorder makes the vast
populace heave from beneath, and break out at distant
points into tumultuous waves. The Premier and the
Foreign Secretary appear to be all but wholly occupied
in Court frivolities or Court squabbles ; and as for the
Home Secretary, he seems to be considered hardly
good enough even for that, yet in that sort of trash, if
in anything, his abilities lie. At such a time as this the
duties of Secretary for the Home Department demand
the best exertions of the ablest man in the nation, end
he should be as honest and resolute as able. And
whom have we in that station ? A mere coxcomb ;
fit only to walk in a procession—a man of no more
knowledge or judgment in the high affairs of Go-
vernment than is possessed by any common gentle-
man in waiting, or groom of the chambers. But
to look more closely at the Chartist affairs, by
the light of known circumstances. For the pre-
sent it seems that the insurrection in South Wales
is abandoned rather than suppressed. The insur-
gents seem to have been so little prepared for what
was likely to happen, that some ten or twenty thousand
of them gave way and dispersed, because they were
fired on by thirty soldiers from the windows of an
inn. Well, they have had their experience, and it
is not very likely that the same ssrt of thing will
happen again. The public anxiety, therefore, is di-
rected to the nature of that exciting cause which led
so great a number of people to rise in insurrection,
and to the probability of that cause ceasing to produce
the effect which has been lately produced. It has
been remarked before by ourselves, and dwelt
upon by several of our Contemporaries, that the
Welsh insurgents have enough of work and good
wages, and, therefore, their discontent must be held
to be political discontent. Is there any good reason to
believe that the circumstances from which this political
discontent arose are understood, or admitsed, or counte-
racted, by the policy of the present Government ? That
policy has made the people political insurgents; will
that policy cure the people of their insurrectionary ma-
lady ? Common sense, we think, must answer that it
will not. But the Ministers perhaps think that all
is now safe. Doubtless ; but so they did when the
Attorney-General was boasting at Edinburgh that
through his advice to the Government, and by his
exertions, Chartism had been put down. He, poor
gentleman, who represented himself as the Govern-
ment man of all work, in respect of Chartism—the
man who thought and did all that was thought and
done in the matter—at leait by the Government—
he was under the delusion that Chartism wee rue
down without any violence or bloodshed—he was
under that delusion when the country was just upon
the eve of beholding the horrible outbreak in South
Wales, and the shooting to death of a considerable
number of her Majesty's subjects in open conflict in the
streets of Newport ! What reliance can be placed upon
the information or the preparation of Government after
such an exposure of self-satisfied ignorance as this ?
None—positively none. It is not until the country has
obtained a better Government—a Government more
capable and more devoted to its proper business—thet
any sensible person will be satisfied concerning the publ:c
safety. These are no times for such a carpet Govern-
ment as the present. The. Ladies of the Bedehambi r
ought not to appoint the administration of the affairs of
the country at such a time as this. The sooner, there-
fore, that a change is made the better ; perhaps even
Ministers themselves may soon find that it has been
postponed too long.

FROM TIIE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
(From the Globe.)
The Tories-militant (we distinguish them from the
quiet Conservative body) have latterly been tampering
with the tools of democracy. They have been seeking
to undermine and blow up a Liberal Government
with aid from the populace. We include under
the name of the populace unreasoning masses of all
descriptions. They have been trying to rummage
out that Conservative democracy, which their Irish
organs have told them was at all times disposable. We
will not say they have deserved the doom of treason,
and are worse than the Chartists ; for we bate ex-
aggeration, and leave it to parties who want it But
we say that they have coquetted- with the Chartists,
and desperadoes of all kinds, and have affected (for it
has but been a pitiful affectation) to fraternise with
them just so far as might damage the Government. They
have also done what, not long back, we predicted
they would do, so soon as the prospect of Court favour
appeared lost in a hopeless distance. They have as-
sumed a republican insolence of language towards their
Sovereign and her Court. It may be true that this
has been equalled in former times by the fiercer adhe-
rents of Liberalism. As we have said, we will exag-
gerate nothing—and therefore we will grant our oppo-
nents whatever they like to ask, in the shape of Radi-
cal precedent for their p►oceedings. We will grant
that Radical oracles insulted the Prince Regent as much
as Tory scribblers and praters have insulted the Queen.
The difference is, that the Tories clapped Messrs.
Hunt into Horsemonger jail, instead of calculating on
libels as a passport to office. It is not that there is any-
thing unprecedented in the tactics of Toryism (for no
device of public delusion can possibly be so), but that
these tactics are utterly inconsistent with their own pro-
fessed principles. Now we believe that many mem-
bers of the party are sincere in those principles, and
have no concern whatever in the struggle for office per
fas et nefas. We even believe there is not a single
lay leader of the Tory party (there is no answering
for clergymen when they meddle in politics) who
would endure for a moment the imputation of prompt-
ing the late conduct of their followers. They do not
disclaim them ; for politicians seldom disclaim those who
espouse their cause. But we acquit the chiefs of the
party of the slightest direct share in their sayings or
doings. We ask, however, whether these exhibitions of
Conservative violence—praised, with the faintest ad-
mixture of caution, by the prints of the party—ought
not to lead all sober and temperate politicians, who may
have become enamoured of the above greatly misused
name, to doubt if they have not got in the wrong box
after all.

(From the cow ier.)
W e have received various communications lately from
influential parties on the subject of the present imper-
fect state of communication with the East Indies. It
must be considered beyond question, that rapid and
cheap communication with our East Indian colonies
must conduce to the civilization of the vast population
of that portion of the British possessions, to the increase
of our trade, to the benefit of social intercourse and the
advancement and the preservation of European feelings
among all classes, and to the general prosperity of this
country. This being taken for granted, and we cannot
imagine that any one, at this time, would venture to deny
the expediency, politically and socially, of taking ad-
vantage of all the means and resources of this country
in
science, in experience, and in power, of promoting this im-
portant object, it cannot but be considered as most ex-
traordinary that our communications with India have not
already been placed on the best and most permanent
footing. Some time since an Association of British mer-
chants, backed most cordially by the mercantile and other
interests at Calcutta,entered into an Association for the
furtherance of this object, and negotiations were car-
ried on between them and the East India Company,
for the purpose of coming to some understanding on the
mode and extent to which they would lend their aid to-
wards the accomplishment of rapid and cheap steam com-
munication with the East Indies. It seems that these
negotiations have not led, hitherto, to a successful
result. If we are correctly informed, the East India
Company has
it
s not shown that alacrity which was ex-
pected from in aiding the desire of the merchants of
London to produce that desirable result ; on the con-
trary, that the " Company" has not only been slow in