The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-25 00:00:00

tempt; yet we are not thence to infer that all his
predecessors—that such men as Scott, Mitford,
Romilly, Pigott, Wetherell, Tyndal, were insen-
sible to the calls of humanity, or imagined that
improvement for an indefinite period was not an
evil. Neither is it necessary, in order to do full
justice to the humane exertions of the Solicitor-
General, to exaggerate in a general point of view
the magnitude of the evil which in particular
instances he has encountered and subdued.—
Hopeless imprisonment for a contempt which he
may have committed through ignorance or po-
verty, is not the less a hardship to the indivi-
dual sufferer, although his case should be the
only one that ever has occurred of the same
kind ; nor is the charity less deserving of that
name that stretches out its hand for his relief.
We detract nothing, therefore, from the merit
of Sir E. B. Sugden, when we say that the
instances of that particular evil which he is lau-
dably exerting himself to repair and prevent, have
always been, and must always be, very rare in-
indeed. The Court of Chancery must retain
the power of extorting evidence from reluctant
and interested parties, or it might as well be at
once abolished. Hence the refusal or neglect
to give evidence is a contempt which the Conrt
punishes by imprisonment ; and hence the con-
tinued refusal or neglect is a continued contempt,
which renders. the imprisonment indefinite. But
it can very rarely happen that any evidence can
be called for which some party or other has not
a strong interest to place actually upon the files
of the Court ; and an honest man, however poor
or ignorant, will therefore very seldom fail from
want either of funds or of information, to sup-
ply, in the prescribed form, the testimony which
it is in his power to give. The failure to pay
money, and the refusal to make legal convey-
ances, in obedience to the order of the Court,
are visited with imprisonment as contempt,
while at Common Law the same consequence
would await them under the ordinary designa-
tion of insolvency or fraud. But the relief
afforded to insolvency in other cases is not
withheld from that which the Court of Chan-
cery detects ; and fraud is not, we suppose, to
be considered in any case as a title to commise-
ration. Still it cannot be denied that there are
now and then instances—although, as we have
already said, we believe them to be very unfre-
cluent —in which the process of contempt ope-
rates harshly and unjustly. And it is unquestion-
ably desirable that such occurrences, however
few and far between" they really are in
practice, should, if possible be entirely
prevented, if for no other reason at least
for this, that they furnish one of the most strik-
ing anti plausible topics of vulgar declamation
against the equitable jurisdiction of the country.
The appointment for this purpose of an officer,
to be especially entrusted with the revision of
all cases of imprisonment for contempt, which
has been suggested, appears to be a cumbrous,
expensive, inefficient, and unsafe remedy. If
such officer were to act only when called on, the
innocent prisoner, who through poverty or ig-
norance had fallen into contempt, would have
no better, but probably a worse chance of re-
dress, than at present. If, on the contrary, it
were part of his commission to interfere sponta-
neously, there would be much danger that his
intervention might not infrequently militate
against the ends of justice, by perplexing the
cause, and imparting new confidence and ob-
stinacy to the contumacious or dishonest liti-
gants. The most simple, and probably the
most effective preventive of long-continued im-
prisonment upon inadequate grounds, if the evil
should be deemed of such magnitude as to re-
quire any general measure for its abatement,
would perhaps be to make the original order of
commitment, in every instance, for a limited
period, at the end of which it should expire of
course, unless renewed on the special motion of
parties interested in its continuance. This re-
medy is open, no doubt, to the objection that
it would not often effect the rescue of persona
wrongfully or needlessly imprisoned, of whom
the :whole number is necessarily small, while it
must greatly add to the expenses of a Chancery
suit, in all cases in which any party may have
thought fit to resist or disregard the authority of
the Court. But we believe it will be found
difficult to devise any other remedy of a general
nature for the particular evil of which we have
lately heard so much, that is not liable to objec-
tions at least equally important. As a preventive
to any abuse of the vindictive process of
the Court, the rule we have suggested could
scarcely fail, since its effects would be to bring
periodically under review the case of each indi-
vidual imprisoned by its authority.--Morning
Post.

ODD FEMININE RECREATION.—III Moss's
History of Hastings, there is an account given of an un-
finished tapestry, descriptive of the invasion of England
by WILLIAM the Conqueror, in which it states that the
work was interrupted "by the death, or other feminine
recreations, of the Empress MATILDA."

A great degree of excitement has been caused
at Hamburg by the sudden death► of one of their most emi-
nent citizens, JouN Gaoaae ltxrsoLD, to whom their
most valuable municipal regulations are owing. The day
previous to his decease he was at a dinner party, where
sadden death was the subject of conversation. " Let that
be my fate.! whenever it may come, let me die amidst jovial
friends, or at my post !" was his remark. In half au
hour he was summoned to that post in his capacity of
"Men Saver," and, within an hour, was crushed by the
fall of a part of the building, while exerting himself at a fire.

ERRORS OF THE CLERGY.—On Sunday,
the 18th of January, as the Minister of a neighbouring
parish, was performing Divine Service in the morning,
his thoughts were so much abstracted (probably on the
subject of tithes, as he is in the habit of taking a great
part of the parish in kind), as to go through the greater
part of the Evening Service, and of which he was wholly
unconscious of till afterwards informed.—Exeter Flying
Post.

Most of our readers have heard of the Rus-
sian Ice Palace, but few of them, we believe, ever saw a
snow tap-room. Such an erection, however, has been
exhibited : on Wednesday last a " cool grot" of that cheer-
less and evanescent element was set up, opposite the Boar's
Head, in Friar.street, in this borough, and several per-
sons—we suspect of extraordinary warm temperature_
had seats provided within it, and there enjoyed a " cool
tankard" and a pipe.—Berks Chronicle.

MATERNAL AFFECTION.—It happened A
few years ago, that a poor woman in the south of France,
while she was busied in her garden, bad the misfortune to
be attacked by a wolf, who tore a hole in her side. The
animal was accidentally frightened and fled. The poor
woman, feeling the injury was mortal, but even in the
extremity of her sufferings, intent on the wants of her in-
fant wkom she had left in the house, applied her hand to
the wound to close it, and returning to her child, gave
nourishment to the babe and expired.— Crorabie's Natural
Theology.

PAu, JAN. 10.—A frightful event has jttat
spread terror throughout the neighbourhood of Eaux-
Bonnes, in the department of Basses Pyrenees. The
curate of t'ie little village of Alta, situated on the moun-
tain, was returning home On horseback, after administer-
ing the sacrament, when he was surrounded by wolves,
which precipitated themselves upon him and the horse with
all the ferocity occasioned by hunger. A number of bones
and fragments of flesh which were strewed about, as well
as the traces of blood, with which the snow was crimsoned,
leads no doubt of the horrible fate of the unfortunate
Clergyman, who fella victim to his pious zeal.