The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-27 00:00:00

PIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Among the remaining defects of our representative
system, such as it has been left by the Reform Bill,
one of the greatest is the mode of deciding controverted
elections by means of Committees appointed under the
provisions of the Grenville Act. That statute (10th
Ge 0.111., c. 16) was passed for the purpose of reme-
dying some of the objections to the old practice, on
the ground that it " obstructed public business, occa-
sioned much expense, trouble, and delay, and was de-
fective for want of those sanctions and solemnities esta-
blished by law in other trials ;" but with the exception
of the introduction of oaths, it left the. old evils much
as it found them, and introduced new ones. It is not
our purpose, however, to point out the particular de-
fects or advantages of the former system, but to make
a few remarks, founded upon the change introduced in
1770, in order to show that, as the matter now stands,
some fresh alterations are absolutely necessary for the
protection of the rights of the subject. When the Re-
form Bill was under discussion, if we recollect rightly,
more than one Member suggested and strongly urged
the fitness of erecting a separate and an impartial
tribunal, independent of Parliament, for the decision of
the merits of petitions complaining of undue returns.
The answer was, that the Grenville Act could be con-
sidered and amended at a future period, and that it was
inexpedient to encumber the great measure before the
House with other provisions, relating not to the mode
of election, but to proceedings to be adopted subse-
quent to the election ; and it seemed to be thought by
a few that the wholesome changes wrought by the Re-
form Bill might render the Grenville Act compara-
tively a dead letter. This anticipation has been any
thing but realized ; and in the approaching session
we are threatened with a larger number of petitions
than were perhaps ever before laid upon the table of
the House of Commons on a similar occssion. Hence
there is greater reason than ever to regret that the
go-by was given to the question a few years ago, when
it might have been permanently settled. The great
and crying evil of the present system relates to the
constitution of the tribunal and the mode in which it
is appointed ; and it is an evil that throws into the
back ground all other complaints against the de-
tails and the practical working of the Grenville
Act. Certain petitioners represent to the House
of Commons that an undue return has been
made of a Member to serve in Parliament
for a particular county, city, or borough. Who
is to try the merits of this petition ? Not a
court of justice, or a body of judges independent of
tire Crown and of the House of Commons ; but the
House of Commons, which is interested in the deci-
sion, is itself to investigate the matter, and to decide
upon the case. Now, this of itself is a striking and
most obvious absurdity,- and contrary to all sound prin-
ciples of jurisprudence : in other words, the members
are to become judges in their own cause, and to deter-
mine it as best suit their own views and objects. Be-
sides, not only are the members judges, but jurymen
also, and the ordinary control over a corrupt judge by
the intervention of twelve impartial and generally in-
telligent men is entirely wanting. Thus the judges on
election petitions may be influenced by the worst mo-
tives, may be mere partisans in the proceeding, may
decide in direct opposition to law and justice, and
vet the injured party has no remedy, no appeal.
It may be said that an Election Committee is
responsible to the whole body of which it forms
a part : that would be at the utmost an appeal
from a smaller portion of the House of Com-
mons to a larger ; and let us ask, how
many are the cases in which such responsibilty has
been made available, and, still more, in how many
instances has the whole House taken upon itself to
revise, much less to reverse, the decision of a Com-
mittee ? This is supposing that such an appeal
would lie, and that the House could be prevailed
upon, by entertaining it, to cast a slur upon the sen-
tence pronounced by the deputed tribunal. What
have been the consequences ?—that Election Commit-
tees, bound by no statutes, and governed by no pre-
cedents, have come to the most discordant and irre-
concileable determinations upon points of the highest
importance ; and these, from time to time, have occa-
sioned the necessity of such works as that of Mr.
Orme, or the still later and more concentrated digest
of Mr. Rogers. All is confusion and disagreement
in the decisions of Committees ; and we will venture
to say that there is hardly a single point of election
law that has not been made the subject of repeated and
contradictory determinations. No parties can, there-
f ;re, be certain (without reference to the consequences
of private wishes and influences) of the ground
upon which they stand ; what was held for law
by one Committee may be overturned by another,
and the safest and surest case ever presented to a court
of justice may be utterly defeated, and the whole ex-
pense of the proceeding disastrously and fruitlessly
incurred. Of that expense we here say nothing, be-
cause, although a remedy in this respect is loudly
called for, if all the witnesses must be brought from a
distance (the necessity for which we cannot discover)
the charge to the parties would be nearly the same,
whether the investigation took place before an election
Committee, or before a distinct and independent judi-
cature. But great as are the disadvantages we have
pointed out in the present system, they are all second-
ary to the main root of evil—the mode in which elec-
tion Committees are selected and nominated. We owe
it to Sir R. Peel (and we are glad to give him the
credit of it) that juries are no longer so easily packed
as formerly ; but we despair of ever seeing him come
forward with a plan to prevent the packing of election
Committees. That they are packed is apatter so noto-
rious that, like other matters of notoriety, it requires no
proof. Into the means by which this effect is pro-
duced it is needless to enter ; the fact is sufficient to
establish at once the indisputable position that
some alteration of the existing system is required
at tire hands of the representatives of the people.
At. present it is in the power of a wily, watchful;
and active party to defeat any good (little as ii
may be) derived from the Reform Bill, and not onlN

to turn out of Parliament a member of the people's
choice, but to seat in his stead an individual who may
have had but a single vote at any hustings in the
kingdom. It was the consciousness of this power that
made the Tories, previous to the late general election,
so anxious that " Conservative" Candidates should

stand forward in every county, city, and borough :
supposing an upright and impartial Committee by some
strange chance appointed, the chapter of accidents in
other respects might be in favour of the petitioner ;
and the consequences of a resolution that the claim was
frivolous and vexatious were to be met by the "sacred
fund" (as the Times calls it) to be raised for the pur-
pose of defeating the unbiassed choice of honest con-

stituencies. What we have said will be enough to
show that something must be done upon this subject
on the meeting of Parliament, and before the shoals
of fabricated petitions are taken into consideration.
The proper course to be pursued is another question ;
but the honest and unbribed electors of the empire
have a right to look to the House of Commons for
such proceedings as will secure to them the privileges
conferred upon them, and set at defiance the artifices
and chicanery of a party, which having succeeded to a
certain extent in defeating the Reform Bill out of
doors, would complete its destruction of it in the House
of Commons.—Morning Chronicle.
Much boast is made in the revolutionary papers of
the " tranquillity of Ireland," as proved by the judges
of assize, and extracts from the charges of those ve-
nerable public functionaries are paraded through the
columns of such prints, in confirmation of the "
tran-
doctrine. It is all a lininbu,, and the
O'Connellite impostors know it. The *jt'ickes can
speak from no evidence or authority but that ''
which is
officially before them. They can know nothing, or
rather they cannot decently seem to know anything, of
special facts which are not conveyed to them on some
public record, nor express any opinion upon that
cumulative body of facts which is signified by the ex.
pression " generd state of the cciwitry," hut accord-
ing to the nature and extent of such information as I

n ay be contained in the paper called " the calendar,"
IN here criminal charges arc iin,ertecl, bills of indictment
corresponding with which are prepared for, and sent
up to, the grand jury. The judge takes his view
of the " state of the country." He shuts his
eyes to everything else ; murders the most bar-
barous, outrages the most notorious, may have

been perpetrated within half a mile of the assize
town ; but what of that ? Notoriety is nothing.
Newspapers, private letters, confidential conversation,
is *nothing to a judge. He looks only to the calendar,
as Garrick's critic did to the " stop-watch," and what
he sees not defined or authenticated there, has for his
Lordship no manner of existence. Well, then, what
is the calendar itself ? It is, in brief, an official re-
gister of the names of parties committed to prison,
and in custody of the gaoler, with a description of
the several crimes which are charged against them.
Should an hundred felonies of the most revolting kind
have been committed—an hundred victims suffered
the most cruel outrages, and a thousand sanguinary
ruffians been engaged in the commission of them, un-
less the names of those ruffians are found upon flee
calendar, as having had examinations sworn against
them, and been lodged in prison under the warrant of
a magistrate—the public, so far as they are concerned,
has received no authentic evidence of crime ; the
King's peace has not been broken ; the judge has, pro
tanto, negative ground for congratulating the grand jury
on the "lightness of the calendar ;" and the demagogue
journals treat with due scorn all complaints of the pre-
valence, or even the existence, of savage, bloody, re-
vengeful violence throughout Ireland in any greater
number than is borne out by the admissions or felici-
tations of the Bench ! How much, then, of all this
show of tranquillity is real ? No part of it, or next
to none. He mast know little of the state of Ireland
who wants to be told, at this time of day, that one
conspicuous and essential feature in the relation be-
tween Irish wrong-doers and wrong-sufferers is the
impunity of crime, through a system of the most ter-
rible intimidation. The robbed—the wounded—the
injured—no matter how—are deterred from prosecuting
to conviction—nay, from swearing examinations—nay,
from letting it be ascertained, or even surmised, that
they could identify the parties who have maltreated
them. They are conscious that to seek redress for one
injury would entail upon them the certainty of some
more aggravated, probably some fatal outrage. If they
be regardless of their own lives, they tremble for those
of their wives, their children, or parents. If one
member of a family be assassinated, the survivors dare
not prosecute or lodge examinations against the guilty,
from the just conviction that they would not long
survive their murdered relative. The same terror that
bows down the natural resentment of a prosecutor, and
forces him to digest his sufferings in silence, acts even
more infallibly on the witnesses of crime, however well
disposed they may be towards the administration of
justice, and locks up their testimony on pain of death.
Where corroborative evidence, therefore, or circumstan-
tial evidence, may be desirable for the full de.velope-
ment of guilt, in a country where jurors themselves
are more or less actuated by fear, and more given to
hesitation than would be due to the interests of un-
biassed and unshrinking justice, it is all but impossible
to obtain the requisite amount of proof—another con-
sidelation which powerfully influences men's minds
against the perilous enterprise of resorting to the iae-
fer protection. Hence it follows that the true state of
Ireland is not represented by the " Calendar," nor
are the formal announcements of Judges derived
from that meagre and unfaithful fountain, to be consi-
d red as right exponents of a political ino:ali:y of which
those learned persons are precluded from taking any
minute or familiar cognizance by " travelling out of
" the record." To estimate the amount of Iris
therefore, by that on which grand juries have bills
prepared for them, or which judges of assize are bound
to notice, is to calculate the contents of a long let-
ter by looking at the cover only. It is quite con-
rect for a judge to say " de non apparenlibus et non
existentibus eadem est ratio ;" but where the " exi s-
tentitz" are notoriously prevented from ever seem
judicial light, it is a little too bad for rebel newspapers
to assume that such facts have no existence in reality,
which is assuming this monstrous untruth—viz., that
there is na intimidation practised in Ireland to obstruct
the course of public justice ! We have been already
told indirectly by those who charge every Conservative
petition to Parliament on behalf of a body of outraged
constituents as a crime, that there is or has been no
such thing as intimidation or villainy of any sort car-
ried on by the priestly and disloyal faction against
Protestant candidates at the late election. We re-
peat that the Papists must mean that, if their words
hare any meaning, when they exclaim against a
vigorous exercise of the privilege of seeking redress
from Parliament for wrongs committed against the
elective body, as if Conservatives had no right to
protection for their property or freedom. If no law
of election has been violated by the Radical crew
in Ireland, and if the tail has not a joint too many,
why then, in that case, we shall not succeed in our
efforts to curtail it, so there is no harm done. If, again,
the Conservative petitioners lay no reasonable or equit-
able grounds for their petitions, such petitions will be
officially described as " frivolous and vexatious," and
the Conservatives must pay the piper. In that case
the mischief recoils upon themselves, and only swells
the Whig-O'Connell triumph. Yet the Conservatives
bid defiance to such chances, however formidable, and
will proceed inexorably (conspirators as they are !)
with their petitions. Once more then, and for this
grand and decisive object, we call upon our constitu-
tional countrymen,
_of all religious sects and colours, to
bestir themselves. We assure them that an empire is
at stake. We pledge ourselves that a moderate sum of
money towards defraying the lawful expenses of a
number of just petitions, undertaken for the downfall
of a system of nefarious roguery and treachery, is all
that will be required of them ; and that this victory
once gained, true Conservatism, civil and religious
liberty, with sound and well-digested reform, have
henceforth nothing to contend against.--Times.
A few weeks since, in adverting to the speech of
Lord Gosford, on opening the Provincial Parliament
of Lower Canada, we reluctantly gave expression to
anticipation, of the accuracy of which the progress of
events is abundantly corroborative. The Address of
the House of Assembly, published in this day's Ad-
vertiser, is in every respect confirmatory of the opi-
nions which we, in common with all conversant with
the general feeling of the Colonists, entertained of their
probable conduct in reference to the recent resolutions
of the Imperial Legislature. The House of Assem-
bly has again suspended its deliberations, and been,
by the authority of the Governor-General, prorogued
to the sth of October. The tone of the Address is
determined and dignified. It firmly remonstrates
against the attempt, on the part of the mother coun-
try, to coerce the compliance of the Canadians with
financial exactions, without granting the demand for
the redress of grievances acknowledged to be such by
the Imperial Legislature itself. After commenting
upon the conduct of the Imperial Parliament, in grant-
ing a loan to be subsequently repaid from the Canadian
coffers, without instituting any substantive measures
for the redress of universally-admitted grievances, the
House of Assembly observes :
" We should think we were deceiving your Excellency
and the Imperial Government, if we did not frankly and
firmly declare, Mat whatever be our anxiety to forward
the work of conciliation, we regard these measures as an
the people and upon Me most
attack upon the property of
sacred rights of the House, and as tending greatly to affect
the security of her Majesty's loyal subjects in this province,
and their confidence in her Government, and therefore as
constituting a serious obstacle to the arrangement of the
existing Viculties, and as tending to weaken the ties which
bind this colony to the mother country."
This remonstrance cannot fail to find an echo in
England, especially when the position of the Canadians
in respect to their Legislative Council is compared
with that of Great Britain, in reference to the House

of Lords. In regard to the motives for suspending its
deliberations, it states that—
" It coulit not with advantage to the country enter into
the labours and incur the expenses of a regular Session in
conjunction with the present Legislative Council, whose

anterior proceedings breathed nothing but factious opposi-
tion to the wishes, wants, and interests of the people."
The Canadian-House of Assembly has suspended its
deliberations, because it found its decisions inoperative
--just as the decisions of the House of Commons
have in this country been rendered inoperative by the
House of I.cris. Here is a link of sympathy aopea'-
ing to the British people by a similarity of suffering,
more strongly than could be done by the utmost efforts
of argument. In allusion to the Central Government's
demand of supplies without granting a-redress of the
chief grievances—the present construction of the Le-
gislative Council—it is observed--

" The people of this province would thus be punished

by tiic vioLtion of i!)e most important of their rights for the
fault of the executive authorities, local or impei-io.l, M:.baii-
doning the spirit of the Constitutional Act by declining so
to constitute the Legislative Council as to secure public
confidence in it, and by persisting in maintaining the pre-
sent vicious composition of that body, notwithstanding the
complaints of this House, and the people it represents, re-
iterated during many years."
Whatever may be the conduct of the Government,
local or central, the people of Great Britain and Ca-
nada will in this appeal perceive an identity of suffer-
ing, and a reciprocity of interests.—Morn. Advertiser.
Believing as we do that a really liberal and consti-
tutional policy is the best for the country, and satisfied
as we are from the past conduct and present dependence
of the existing administration, that no such policy
can be expected from it, we have steadily laboured to
expose to public view the justice and the expediency of
a withdrawal from this Administration of all popular
confidence. It matters not to us whether the Noble
Lords and Honourable Gentlemen intrusted with the
administration of the Government pass through the
political world under the name of Whigs or Tories,
Conservatives or Radicals ; but it does matter very
much whether they are disposed to govern in a liberal
spirit, but with a strict adherence to constitutional
principles, or to govern in a party spirit, without
adherence to any principles whatever. This latter is
apparently the plan of the present Administration ;
and because we regard it to be an extremely selfish,
dishonourable, and dangerous plan of government, we
do not scruple to warn all honest men who respect the
Constitution of the country that the sooner the Admi-
nistration is reformed the better. It would be un-
fair to deny that a great deal of very plausible
language has been uttered by the supporters of the
Administration, which. would be extremely satis-
factory but for this one fault—namely, that it does not
in the least, apply to the past conduct or present
circumstances of the political personages whom it is
meant to serve. 'We freely assent to those arguments
which are daily brought forward by the more inge-
nious of the Government party in favour of a mo-
derate, ameliorative policy, and the propriety of pre-
serving a judicious balance and -avoiding all wild ex-
tremes. We agree that all harsh, and violent, and
exciting language, should be abstained from as much
as possible. These are propositions which, although
brought forward by advocates of the present Ad-
ministration, we have no wish to dispute ; but we
should be glad to know to what end they are
brought forward. If it were to aid us in warning the
nation against the present Ministers, we could, with-
out difficulty, perceive the application of those not
very novel, but very sound, maxims of Government;
hut as this cannot be the wish of the friends of the
Administration, we are at a loss to understand the
in'entiou of reminding us of that which we are never
reminded of either by the actions of the Ministers or
the political friends with whom they choose to asso-
ciate, and upon whom they depend for support. Can
it be possible that the advocates of the present Admi-
nistration are so lost to all sense of truth, and so confi-
dent i:: the forgetfulness of the public, as to suppose
that moderation, or prudence, or a love of considerate
constitutional improvement, or an aversion for vio!ent
conduct, and violent language, will be attributed to the
present Government? It seems scarcely credible that
any supposition so daring as this, or so insulting to
the mind and memory of the public, could be enter-
tained, and yet we are driven to think that it must be.
for if it were not, why should such political virtues be
mentioned at all ? If it be really pretended that the
present Administration chooses the safe medium line
between the dangerous extremes on either side, we
would beg to ask what would become of the Adminis-
tration if all who have supported in Parliament the
most extreme constitutional changes of a radical charac-
ter were to withdraw from it their support ? is the
public to believe that a Ministry is moderate, when the
supporters who are necessary to its continuance in
office hold the most extreme opinions, and give their
support to the Government because they think its con-
tinuance in office favourable to the growth and
strengthening of those opinions ? It may be urged
that we should also look at the extremes on the
other side. To this we might answer that our pur-
pose is not to elevate one party upon the ruin of
another, but to show that the pretensions of the pre-
sent Ministerial party to confidence, on account of
moderation, deserve no manner of acceptance or re-
gard whatever. But we do not, in truth, know of
any extreme on the other side to be subtracted as
an equivalent for those on the Ministerial side,
who have voted for organic changes. We do not
know of any organic changes of the Constitution
in favour of absolute power in politics, or of into-
lerance in religion, which have been proposed even by
the most ardent of the ultra-Tory party. When we
hear of any such extreme party having made its ap-
pearance in Parliament, we shall not be slow to notice
and to rebuke it. As to aversion or abstinence from
harsh and irritating language, can an Administration
dependent upon Mr. O'Connell pretend to any con-
fidence or consideration on such grounds ? Of all
public men in the empire, Mr. O'Connell is most in
the habit of using abusive, irritating, and virulent lan-
guage ; and of all public men in the empire, Mr.
O'Connell is the most important to the official exist-
ence of the present Administration. Of course, then,
such of the public as remember, and reason, can pay
no attention to such pretences as are put forth on be-
half of the Administration. Many very wise and
worthy men may feel some doubt and anxiety as to the
practicability of forming a strong, trustworthy Adminis-
tration, which will preserve the Constitution of the
country, and the confidence of a majority of the House
of Commons ; but one fact seems to be very clear, and
that is, that the present Administration ought not to
have the guidance of affairs. Its absolute dependence
upon Mr. O'Connell is alone sufficient to lead to that
conclusion. The first point to be achieved is the get-
ting rid of this bad Government, and this it is the busi-
ness of the nation to do, even though it may not be
evident, at the present moment, how the better Go-
vernment is to be constituted.—Morning Herald.
To any one who has the good of the Irish people
at heart, the paramount influence of Mr. O'Connell in
the Government of Ireland must appear to be the
greatest of national calamities. In our paper of Mon-
day we showed the steps by which Mr. O'Connell has
attained to his enormous power. We admit the energy
and the cunning by which he has rendered himself the
master of an Administration too feeble to govern of
itself, and too much interested in the personal advan-
tages of office to resign the Government to others.
Mr. O'Connell, with all his energy and cunning—with
an unusual measure of bodily health and strength—
with natural and acquired means of influence far be-
yond that which the Government possessed—with an
incessant devotion of all his faculties to public affairs—
has not advanced the civilization or the happiness of
the mass of his countrymen one jot. He found them,
at his entrance into public life, in a state of social bar-
barism, and were he to (lie to-morrow, he would leave
them barbarians, even as he found them. Let any man look
back along the course of Mr. O'Connell's public life,
and say whether any blessings have sprung up in the
path over which his feet have passed. Is that path
marked by the cheering fruits of peace and civilization
—of humanity and comfort ? Alas f no. On the
contrary, it is scathed by the destructive fire of poli-
tical agitation. It is marked by blood and desolation.
He passed along among a people physically wretched,
and morally dark ; but he thought not of their im-
provement. He saw hunger and disease periodically
making among them the most frightful ravages ; but
he did not stretch out his hand to stay these plagues.
He beheld them ignorant, wild, uncouth--liable
to be kindled into the wildest ferocity of passion,
or softened to the deepest extremes of sympathy
and pity—but he took no pains to regulate this
character, and to give to it the government of vir-
tue and of reason. No—from the beginning to the
end—or rather from the beginning to the present
stage of his career, he has sought his own personal
advantage, and the advantage of the Romish party as
an aspirant for power. The elevation of time people to
comfort, and to the use of their reason, far from being.'
an object desirable in his eyes, was the contrary, be-
cause to make them so wretched as to be ready for
desperate acts, and to cause them to place entire de-
pendence on him and his party, were far more condu-
cive to his own advancement, and to the growth of
political power in the hands of his party. Were Mr.
O'Connell to die to-morrow the just epithet for his