The Sun.
London, England, 1825-01-24 00:00:00

[MORNING POST.]

The recent verdict in favour of indiscriminate
Police Reporting, and in opposition to the deci-
sion of the Court of King's Bench, is still kept
in recollection by some of our contemporaries.
We are not sorry for this, because we are con-
vinced that the more the question is discussed
the more rational and just, as well as legal, will
appear the
.judgment pronounced by the autho-
rities of the law. A few facts bearing upon our
view of the subject we shall endeavour to apply
in corroboration of that judgment.
In the lirtt place, if Police reporting he both legal and bene-
ficial, we see no reason why it should not be general—or why
the preliminary proceedings before all the Magistrates and
Jpstices of the Peace in the whole kingdom should not be
published and made equally notorious as those before the Ma-
gistrates of the Metropolis. Can it be said that a practice which
is vaunted as most indispensable with respect to one-four-
teenth of the people of Great Britain, has no value as re-
gards the reinaming thirteen-fourteenths of the same people ?
And yet it so happens that if this be not strictly the case, there
is xi clost approximation towards it. When murders and
crimes of enormous magnitude are committed in the country
parts of England, a brief notice of the leading particulars,
elicited by the preliminary investigation, is generally pub-
lished in the Provincial .Journals of. the neighbourhood.
The whole mass, however,
of minor offences brought before
Justices of the Peace, whether tried at the Sessions subse-
&newly,
.or reserved for the Assizes, was unheeded and un-
know,n—and most probably are never heard of beyond the nar-
lroiv circle immediately interested. Now there surely is no pubtie
ground on.which it can be asserted that privacy in such matte's
is FlPOlllent for 13-14ths of his Ma.iesty's subjects, and pub-
11%ti for 1-14th of them—nor have we heard of the discovery
of any statute ortleeision which makes Police reporting legal
ft.des; bitillegal every whereelse. the same time, the
thParittlawbble4A-ein:xpartePractice
.ra:ienders it just; for it is evident
that Ace on which a man is committed
in the" rilet4°P4"i to afterwards acquitted, Is
_cir-
culated through the whole
to his infiaite prejudice, the

er-parte evidence on which a man residing fifty miles from town
is also committed, to be afterwards, perhaps, convicted, is sup-
pressed from the whole community. Is this an equal and
proper administration of justice ? No—but, in truth, it is a
profitable trade with some persons to gratify morbid curio-
sity, by prying into and publishing the scandal of the ca-
pital—but to other persons, not a profitable, often not a
practicable trade, to follow the example in the country.—
In the next place, we believe it is not contended, even by
those Magistrates who favour Police Reporting, that the
proceedings before them are necessarily public. On the con-
trary, it is, of course, at their option to hear charges and
evidence in support of them, privately ; and the discretion is
one salutary in the extreme. But it it be insisted that the
same publicity should be given to exannnatory proceedings in
the rest of the kingdom as in the metropolis, what must be the
consequence ? Merely that every Justice of the Peace in
the nation, whether Nobleman or Gentleman, must forsooth
throw open his study or his parlour to the posse comitatus—to
the mob of the district—on every accusation submitted to his
investigation ! The only mode to escape from this dilemma,
is to introduce a Bill on the opening of Parliament, stating,
" Whereas it is expedient that certain Newspaper Proprietors
in London and Westminster, should be sanctioned by law in
carrying on a lucrative traffic in scandal, be it hereby enacted,"
&c.,—and so provide a licence for the system now exclusively
pursued in the capital. Lastly, there is an argument against
the late verdict, and for the previous decision, which seems in-
surmountable. 'We recently published a list of the several corn-
, mittals by the Magistrates of the metropolis, during a certain pe-
riod, and of {the number of convictions and acquittals on those
committals, when brought to trial. On comparison it appeared,
as always happens, that the acquittals bore a large proportion
to the total committals, though not.quite so great a proportion
certainly as the convictions. Shall it be said that these ac-
quittals were not both legal and just ? or that the persons so ac-
quitted and discharged were not innocent of the offences imputed
to them ? Even laying aside all technical distinctions, and judg-
ing by the intrinsic merit of the cases, apart from quirks or quib-
bles, it must be taken generally, that albeit one or two of those
acquitted may in reality have been guilty, the rest were in reality
innocent. In what situation then have the latter been placed
by the system of Police reporting ? When committed by
the Magistrates, the charges against them—the evidence sup-
porting those charges—and the opinion of the Police Bench
confirming both—together with the fact of committal—were
next morning served up to the public, seasoned and garnished to
provoke the dullest appetite, and tempt the eye of the most sated
curiosity. Nay, is not this habitually the order of each day ? and
is not, in consequence, the uniform impression made by such re-
ports, that all the accused are guilty':l The injury done, there-
fore, to those persons fairly and rightly acquitted, cannot be i
questioned ; and yet what redress is open to them. None
It will, perhaps, be asserted, that the grounds of acquittal
at their trials have been published, and their character thus re-
deemed with the public. But this is fallacious. In the first
place, the Reports of trials at the Old Bailey, and other Ses-
sions near London, are obliged to be given in that dry, legal, and
proper form, which, in 9 instances out of 10, deprive them of
general interest, and most certainly of the charms—the novelty,
sauce piquant, gaudy colouring, &c., which they had in their
, original Police appearance. Hence, the degree of publicity is
not the same on the two occasions—nor if it were, would that
suffice to erase the belief induced, and sought to be induced,
by the prior account of the crime and the criminal. We shoul d
like to know what tangible good results from the present sty le
of Police Reporting to balance these obvious indisputable evils

We have hitherto forehorne from saying any
thing respecting the CaTirotic QUESTION', contenting our-
selves with giving documents and letters which, to a certain ex-
tent, spoke for themselves, and which throwing a strong light
upon the subject, tended to place it in a point of view that was
obvious to every one. The time, however, being now neatly
at hand when this important question must, of necessity, as it
appears, go through another discussion in the Grand Council
of the Nation, and by that body be dkided upon, we think it
our duty to direct the attention of our readers to its different
bearings, in order &bat its real nature may be thoroughly un-
derstood. Those who are the advocates of what is called,
though improperly, Catholic Emancipation, have endeavoured
to persuade the public that the only point at issue relates to
a difference of religious opinions. It is, perhaps, a fortunate
circumstance that the Catholic leaders have, in their own
eagernesss for success, proved to demonstration by their recent
conduct, that they seek a great deal more than their being al-
lowed to sit in Parliament, or hold High Offices of State with-
out compromising their theological tenets. It is sabundantly
evident that nothing less will satisfy them than the utter over-
throw of the Protestant Church, and the substitution, in its
stead, of a Catholic Hierarchy. Those, therefore, who cavil
at a Protestant Ascendancy, would do well to consider whether
they are likely to be better satisfied with a Catholic Ascehd-
ancy, for one or the other, it is quite clear, they must have.
—lt has ever been the policy of the Catholic Clergy to make
religion a ladder, as it were, to ascend to political power, and
circumstances which have recently occurred in Ireland and else-
where, have established the fact beyond all contradiction,
that such is the policy of the Catholic Clergy at the present
day. Theirs is an exclusive and an intolerant Church; they
ask for toleration, but they will not grant it to others; they con-
sider Protestantism as an heresy that ought to be rooted out,
and give them the power, and they will leave no effort untried
to effect that purpose. It is vain to say that the Catholic Laity
mean nothing injurious to the Protestant Establishment : they
wish to exalt their Clergy, to raise them from their fallen state,
and to give them property and power : they are under the in-
fluence of that Clergy—an influence which too frequently out-
weighs every other consideration, and they would be easily,
very easily, induced to assist in carrying into effect all the pro-
jects which they would thus be called upon to support. Equally
futile is it to urge, that were Catholics admitted into Parlia-
ment, very few of them would be returned to the House of
Commons. The same influence that returned Members to
former Parliaments, could, without difficulty, return Roman
Catholics to succeeding Legislatures, and thus a formidable
party might very soon be created. The danger with which the
Protestant Establishment would thus be threatened it would be
a waste of time to point out, it must be evident to every one.
—Fortunately, however, the Catholic leaders in Ireland
have themselves contributed, by their own folly and in-
temperance, to sound the tocsin of alarm, and their
warmest friends in this part of the United Kingdom must, we
think, be not a little startled at the attitude which die Catholic
Board has lately assumed, as well as at the conduct of several
of the Catholic Priests, in not merely objecting to the circula-
tion of the Holy Scriptures, in common with their Holy Father
the Pope, but in actually borrowing the language of Infidels,
in order to decry and vilify the word of God. This is indeed
betraying the cloven foot, but we may be thankful to them for
thus exposing the inmost sentiments of their hearts, in time to
allow those who have been disposed to advocate their claims,
an opportunity of considering what they are about, and thus
giving them warning, at the brink of the abyss down
which they might otherwise have been precipitated.—
It must be quite evident to all who arc not blinded
by party feeling, that the Catholic question is no longer one
of toleration ; the Catholics have already-all the tolera-
tion they can desire; what they want is political power;
what they want is to destroy the Protestant ascendancy, not that
they may be upon equal terms, hut that they may themselves
be Lords of the ascendant ; and, therefore, the duty of the sup-
' porters of the Protestant Establishment is clear and obvious ;
they must use their power, in order to prevent it from falling
into the hands of others, who would use it against them. A
formidable body has now arisen, raising supplies by means of
the influence of Catholic Priests, which they chuse to denomi-
nate Catholic Rent, and by means of which they threaten to
bear down all opposition to their claims, and with it the
whole fabric of the Protestant Establishment; let us hope
that the friends of the Protestant Establishment will be equally
united, and that the Catholic Bent and Catholic menaces will
thus be equally powerless —( Kentish Gazette, Jan. 21.)