The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-07 00:00:00

that its educated gentry, its barristers, physicians,
and clergymen, have sunk quite so low as to sub-
mit to a yoke so intolerable, or that the thunders
of our contemporary should have any effect other
than exciting a smile of derision.

Mr. PERCEVAL is, as we have stated, no mean
or ignoble opponent. He was distinguished
as a student, and took high honours at his de-
parture from the University. He is the son
of one whose premature and violent death
excited a strong feeling throughout Eng-
land, and more particularly amongst those
who form the constituency of the University. And,
if "his family" "be remarkable for crotchets,"
we have never heard of any crotchet more wild or
untenable than that which asserts the equality
of, and impossibility of, discrimination for fiscal
purposes between all incomes, whether precarious
or permanent, fixed or fluctuating, without
reference to the sources from whence they may be
derived.

It is the extraordinary views which the Right
Hon. Gentleman has put forward so recently on
this point which has placed the University elec-
tion in jeopardy. Why should those who are
striving with difficulty to maintain the positions
in which they are placed—with but " scant
balances at their bankers," vote for one
who places them in the same category,
as the owner of accumulated and real-
alised property of well-circumstanced ground-
rents, or dividends from the public funds ?, The
effort is preposterous. But it must be resisted. If
Mr. GLADSTONE will plainly and explicitly declare
that he has at length, even at the eleventh hour,
resolved upon recognising the distinction between
permanent and precarious income, and that he
will honestly apply his faculties to bringing that
principle into fair and judicious operation, we
have no doubt that he will secure many wavering
voters, and render his election certain. If he ne-
glect or refuse to 4 so, it will be worse than doubt-
ful, notwithstanding the thunderings and bluster-
ings of the most imperious of public journals. The
matter is plain and simple—a " deus ex machine
may easily be found in the shape of a " dear Mr.
GRESWELL," or a "My dear PHILLIMORE," who
may by a single interrogatory elicit the neces-
sary explanation. This hint should not be despised.
It is only because, notwithstanding his manifold
backslidings, we desire the return of Mr. GLAD-
STONE, that we offer it; and we trust that it may
produce the result we have in view—the satisfac-
tion of the electors, and the election of the Right
Hon. Wm. EWART GLADSTONE for the University
of Oxford.

It was, we believe, on the occasion of releasing
JOHN WILKS from the illegal imprisonment to
which he had been subjected by the Government
of the clay, that the justly celebrated Lord
CA MDEN, then Chief Justice PRATT—enunciated
the proposition, which has since passed into a
legal maxim, that " the discretion of a Judge is
the law of Tyrants." " It," added that eminent
and patriotic Judge—" it is always unknown, it
is different in different men ; it is casual, and de-
pends upon constitution, temper, passion. In
the best, it is oftentimes caprice ; in the worst,
it is every vice, folly, and passion to which human
nature is liable." These enlightened views were
immediately circulated throughout the country,
and. earnestly responded to by the people. The
Corporation of London paid the highest
compliment to the illustrious Judge, by
voting him the freedom of the City.
An example which was followed by the
municipal authorities of the capital of the
Sister Kingdom, and, indeed, by the great ma-
jority of corporate bodies throughout the entire
country. These high distinctions were not un-
merited
or uncalled for. The principle thus
strongly put forward might be regarded as an es-
sential adjunct to the great palladium of our na-
tional liberties—the Trial by Jury. If too great
latitude were allowed to the presiding functionary,
it would practically be neither more nor less than
giving him a dispensing power over the law of the
land, by which he might subject the innocent, or at
least those whose innocence must be recognised
until their guilt is established beyond the pos-
sibility of reasonable doubt—to serious annoyance,
and permit the guilty to escape with virtual im-
punity. The evil in either case is to be avoided.
The unjust punishment of the innocent strikes a
formidable blow at the very basis of society, while
the immunity of the guilty is, although in a less
degree, deeply injurious to the community.

This " discretion" must, however, to a certain
degree, be allowed the presiding Magistrate, in
determining the amount of punishment that shall
be awarded when the party has been duly con-
victed on clear and decisive testimony. So many
circumstances must be taken into account, in as-
certaining the actual magnitude of the offence,
that it has, generally speaking, been found im-
practicable to assign a fixed and certain expiation
for each distinct offence. There must be a certain
discretion permitted to the Judge; and when the
confidence thus reposed in his hands is violated—
either by a clear and palpable excess, or teficiency
of punishment, it is only by the clear and intelli-
gible expression of " public opinion" that the
evil can be remedied.

Now, a case has just occurred, in which we
conceive that expression is urgently required.
A person in a responsible position, carrying with
it a certain degree of authority, has been guilty
of a deliberate act of cruelty, of almost unparal-
leled barbarity to a helpless infant placed under
her care, and when called on to answer to the
charge before a Criminal Court—a charge which
she had not the hardihood to deny—has been per-
mitted to escape with an almost nominal punish-
ment. We had scarcely supposed that, in what
is termed " a Court of Justice," the BUMBLES or
CORLEYS would be encouraged in their pleasing
ebullitions of temper or playful torture of
the helpless paupers placed under their care.
The ridiculously inadequate sentence passed on
the prisoner by the Common Serjeant must, how-
ever, act as an incentive to similar abuses of au-
thority by other Poor-law officials throughout the
entire country.
From the depositions, it appeared that the
prisoner, who was head nurse at the Greenwich
Union Workhouse, had, on a Saturday evening,
three or four weeks ago, found an unfortunate
boy, named Jourr GA.-nvoon, six years of age (!)
playing with the fire-guard—a high crime and
misdemeanour in the eyes of the head nurse, who
was herself poking the fire at the same time. A
RED HOT CINDER unfortunately fell out of the fire
at the moment. It suggested a fitting penalty to
the amiable lady, who accordingly seized it—first
carefully guarding her own hand with a piece
of rag—and put it into the hand of the poor
infant, which she doubled over the glowing coal.
The miserable child had manifestly been sch6oled,
from previous discipline, into the deepest obedi-
ence. He did not venture even to cry out while
undergoing the fearful torture. His faculties
were errtranced for the time being. It was not
until after five minutes that the wretched victim
was released. During the fiery torture, another
person, bearing the appearance of a woman, ven-
tured, not to remonstrate—that was more than she
could dare to do—but to give expression to the
exclamation, " Oh, dear!" to which the mild Mrs.
OLDHAM replied, " You can say Oh, dear' if you
like." When the ignited coal was permitted to
drop from the scorched hand, the poor in-
fant at length was enabled to scream, but no-
thing was done ; the atrocity was concealed from
the Guardians, and even from the medical men, who
might have done something to relieve its sufferings.
Their opinion is, that the poor child will never
again have the proper use of its hand. It is thus
robbed of its only capital—its labour—and the
Union possibly saddled with its permanent main-
tenance ; and for all this, the miscreant who com-
mitted. this unfeminine outrage has been sentenced
to FOURTEEN DAYS' IMPRISONMENT. There is no
hard 11-4.bour, and her rations in Newgate will be
rather better than in the workhouse. The im-
prisomment, too, dates from the first day of the
session,, so that she will be discharged to-morrow
week, : aften ten days' confinement.
What act of greater or more horrible atrocity
was ever perpetrated against the slave population
of Am erica ? Even the gifted authoress of
"Uncle ; Tom's Cabin" states nothing at all ap-