The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-19 00:00:00

LONDON :
FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1830.

Earl STANHOPE last night presented a petition from
some English Monks who had been established et
Meilleraie, in France, and had been expelled. The No-
ble Earl wished for the production of the documents
connected with their case, and Lord MELBOURNE con-
sented to give extracts from them. Some attempts,
it appears, have been made to induce the English Go-
, vernment to demand compensation for the injuries
these persons suffered, which the Government de-
clined, there being no ground for making the demand.
Lord BROUGHAM presented two petitions, one from
Mr. LOVETT, and the other from Mr. COLLINS, com-
plaining of the hard and even cruel manner in which they
had been treated in Warwick gaol. Their clothes were
stripped off, their hair was cut off, and they were subjected
to all the indignities of felons, and to which even felons
ought not to be subjected before trial. We will not
abridge the narrative which these men give of their
treatment, and which will be found at length in our
Report both of the Commons and Lords, for similar
petitions were presented in both Houses, but we will
beg our readers to refer to that part of our Journal.
In genera!, we are bound to say, that personal injury,
or anything like spiteful malevolence, is seldom exer-
cised by the laws or by the authorities on individuals.
In fact, the general reverence of the people for the law
enables the law•makers to have completely their own
way ; and to shut men up in dungeons, or torture.
them in any other manner, would he gratuitous and wen-
ton cruelty. Tne authorities are not personally cruel in
general, because they have not the least eccesion to em-
ploy cruelty to obtain their objects; but here certainly two
respectable men—for that Mr. LoVZ.TT is a respectable
man, and a man of great :eh nts, Mr. LEADER vouched,
and we can back his certificate—cu;, here are two respec-
table men cruelly and babarously treated, who are not yet
proved to have been guilty of any offence whatever.
They were merely confined for safe custody to ens ver a
charge, and were released on bail, when bail to satisfy
the Magistrates was procured. We believe this will
turn out to be another error of the Birmingham Ma-
' gistrates. TLe petitioners make no complaint of
.
the gaoler ; is imperative on him to make every
person placed in his custody conform to certain rules.
He only made those geatlennen conform to them, he
having no discretion. Whether the rules he judicious
or not is at present beside the question ; but the Ma.
gistrates who sent these men to Warwick gaol, ought
to have known what indignities awaited them, and
ought not to have committed them to that place.
Well, the case of these two men was brought before
the House of Lords, the tribunes of the poor, as calved
by Lord ErzeasoitouGH—the defenders of the Con-
stitution and liberties of the people, as vaunted by the
Times, and of course the reader expects this case ex-
cited the indignation of their Lordships ; that they
rose as one man to denounce such vile treat-
ment of their humbler brethren. Does the reader
expect this ?—then grievously will he be
pointed. Lord BROUGHAM set forth the case elo,
quently and feelingly; when he bad dose, the Earl of
WARwreic referred to his oxn treatment by the Minis-
ters, and to it, ding-long, went their partizan Lord-
shins—not one of them, except Lord MELBOURNE, con-
descending to refer to the petitioners—into a great
party quarrel. Viscount MELBOURNE gave another
version of the riots. The Duke of WELLINGTON re-
newed and reiterated his complaints of the Ministers
and the Birmingham Magistrates, falling foul of the
Ministers for having given a Corporation'
to Birmingham
and for having appointed the Magistrates. Lord
LYNDHU RST quoted a speech of Lord JOHISI RUSSELL,
and accused him of exciting disturbancesphyf.soi.cr! tt'ng, we
think, that the people did not talk ot-oi
aler Lord JOHN had spoken—andt. itel forcei till
they
a mat-
ter of blame to the people thatto
whaykewere formerly
obliged to threaten the Tories,
their p:ey, the libetties of the
ergdettin, g
nation themf let
.go
these things, Lord LYND:HURST reproached
Ministers as the cause of the disturbances. Other
Noble Lords mingled in the fray, their minds belie:.
filled with alarm about Birmingham ; arid being more
eager to expose a rival thin defend the poor. From
them the hard case of Messrs. LOVETT and COLLINS
received no consideration whatever, and to wage their !
party warfare they wholly neglected their clients the
poor.
The Earl of WARWICK, who took part in it, was at
length told by Lord MELBOURNE that he ought to have
gone to Warwick, but whether he be in Warwick or
in London be will not much contribute, we appre-
hend, to preserve the peace. We thought wo heard
the Noble Lord say, that till Lord DexmAre explained
his powers, he knew not that he possessed them. Such
circumstances make us doubt the proprietyof having
Noblemen for Lords Lieutenant in these perilous times.
They must, in the majority of cases, be inefficient; and
if we are
to have a great system of coercion established,
part of it should consist in dividing the country into
military districts, placing each under a Lieutenant or