The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-28 00:00:00

LONDON, THUR-1')A;-(, JUNE 29, 1849.

Journalism, it appears, is to be gagged in this
country by a means almost as effectual as that of the
severest censorship. Instead of being liable to the
arlit ary measures recently adopted towards the
organ of the Mountain, we are to be rendered sub-
serv'ent to the ends of every great public offender
through the medium of damages for articles that may
be pronounced libellous. The remarkable case which
was &died on Tuesday in the Court of Queen's
Bench, and by which Alderman HARMER as pro-
prietor of the Weekly Dispatch, was declared to be
mulcted of a Mtn of SCO/. for remarks printed in that
journal nineteen yews ago, commenting upon the
character of his highness the ex-Duke of BRUNS
VICK, trust not be erroneously confused in the
same category with the somewhat similar ac-
tions previously brought by the same plaintiff
against certain newspapers called the Era and the
Satirist. F, r, kart tram the circumstance of the
striking diffetence of tone assumed by those publi-
cations, it must be borne in mind that the principal
charge made by the ex-Duke of BRUNSWICK in the
pre-ent instance had reference to an article contained
in the Weekly Dispatch so far back as the September
of 1830. After a lapse of no less than nineteen years
that article is produced in a court of justice, as suffi-
ciently libellous to enable the plaintiff to obtain
compensition. As to the obstacle presented against
such a decision by the Statute of Limitations, it will
be observed tha that was peremptorily overcome by
the evidenc. given by a witness named CASIMIR
REINHOLD, who swore distinctly to having purcha-ed,
in the March of 1848, a copy of the paper printed in
the September of 1830—thereby asserting the fact of
a recent republic ltion. It will scarcely cause any
astonishment to 1, am that measures will be adoptea
by the defendant for the. purpose of setting aside the
verdict, when it is known that not only can the cir-
cumsta, ce of a republication in 1848 be disproved,
but conclusive testimony can be afforded that one of
the most important witnesses on behalf of the pl
sin-
titf on a former occasion tendered his services to the
defendant as one ready to appear in court
against the ex-Duke of Bauxewlcic fur a
consideration. W'nen these things have been
exposed there cannot remain a moment's doubt as to
tbe ulterior decision of the judicial authorities.
Long and deservedly has this country boasted of
its capacity fur affording shelter to the " refugees "
from all the other dominions of the habitable globe.
Long has the nation prided itself upon that social se-
curity and that constitutional freedom which have
rendered England the haven of those unfortunate
persons who are expatriated either through the un-
grateful fickleness of some continental race, or through
the vengeance of a whole people, rising to vindicate
their outraged nationality by punishing with
one sudden and avr:ul blow a protracted reign
of enormities. Between those very opposite
c ass S of feeitivee England draws no distinction
whatever, in so f r as the circumstance of affording
theta alike a place of repose is concerned. The ob-
jects of execration find themselves as freely admitted
to participate in the advantages afforded by cur insti-
tutions as the men entitled to general sympathy and
reverence. Whether it be with a view to assuage the
griefs of the latter by commiseration, or to facilitate
the expiation of the guilt of the former by affording
them an opportunity of repentance, certain it is
that Great Britain is accessible at all times
to the political victim and the political criminal,
irrespective of ell creeds, of all countries, of all
colours, of all policies, of all antipathies, and of all
predilections. Red Republicans ilnd Conservative .

Ari,tnerata, each find in England refuge from the
pursuit of difficulties. Prince METTERNICH and M.
Louts iBLANc, the Cuunt DE NEUILLY, and M.
MARc CAUssIDIERE, Signor MAZZINI and the
Prince of PRUSSIA, Dom MIGUEL and General PEPE,
the Conde DE AIONTEMOLIN and General EsPAR-

TERO, Prince Louis NAPOLEON and M. GuizoT, among
a multitude of others, have from time to time hurried
over from the Continent during those moments of peril
when the shelter of the United Kingdom presented to the
wearied and the panic-stricken an irresistible fascina-
tion. And one and all hive been admitted, with
the same cordial and indiscriminate frankness, within
the guardian bulwarks of our renowned and match-
less Constitution. It was lift for the ex-Duke of
BRUNSWICK to attach an additional notoriety to a name
already sufficiently notorious, by being the first to
repay this national generosity by a petty action
against a journalist—an example, which, among
kindred refugees, may prove so far contagious as to
be inaugurative of a system of continual annoyance and
extortion. A result, by the way, not at all improbable,
seeing that the verdict given o❑ Tuesday will act as
a lure to those who, besides finding in such actions
a means of gratifying their own evil and more
ignoble passions, may perceive in them a method of
replenishing their attenuated purses, and of generally
improving their dilapidated fortunes. By such a
proceeding battening upon the very race to whom
they should have regarded themselves as bound by
the bonds of eternal gratitude ! In such a case
as that of the ex-Duke of Bauesencx, the
veracity of the oil axiom—the greater the
truth the greater libel—becomes more than
ever, and most painfully perceptible. S nce the first
instant of his expulsion from the dominions of his
ancestors, the public mind of England has not hesi-
tated as to the calendar upon which should be
inscribed the name of this personage whether
among the political victims, or among the political
criminals. in uttering the opinions, therefore, which
our contemporary the Weekly Dispatch did, in re-
ference to the ex-Duke of BRUNSWICK, that journal
was only affording a new and striking testimony of
its being an organ of the English people. For
the circumstances contained in those articles were
thought and believed long before they were printed
by a large portion of the community. Besides, in
speaking of the Duke of BRUNSWICK as the Duke of
BRUNSWICK, the journalist is as much entitled
to deal honestly and candidly with his cha-
racter (as affecting the accuracy of his de-
ductions) as he has to deal with the cha-
racter of any other man similarly situated.
We would undertake to aver with confidence that
accusations as bitter and damning to his personal
character have been written, and printed, and pub-
lished regarding Porn MIGUEL, and yet, be it said to
the honour of that Royal personage, he has never
degraded himself so far as to come into a
court of justice with actions for libel, seeking money
as a salve to a damaged and decomposing reputation.
Since the Revolution of February the press of
England, as a whole, has in no degree at-
tempted to slur over the heinous guilt of
the exile of Claremont ; we, ourselves, have again
and again criticised his conduct and his character in
the strongest language in our vocabulary, and yet
the Count DE NEUILLY has spared himself the crown-
ing odium which has been flagrantly monopolized
by the ex Duke of BRUNSWICK. Let this per-
son rest assured of one thing namely, that
the judgment of History will in no respect
be favourably affected either by the verdict of the
jury in the Court of Queen's Bench or by the 500 i
damages. In his instance the decision of History
has been perceptibly anticipated by the loud and
unanimous opinion of his contemporaries. That opi-
nion is dark and damnatory—so dark and damnatory
as to defy the purifying influence of a favourable
verdict, accompanied by heavy damages—by damages
so large as to have created quite a sensation in
the court by their enormity. His Highness has
consequently but little reason to congratulate him-
self upon his more than questionable success on
fuesday—especially seeing that the verdict is one
obtained through evidence so rotten and fraudulent as
to promise its ultimate revErsal."—lanleam he mny Nye
solicitous to proceed as upon a rather profitable spe-
culation in his attacks upon the liberty of journalism,
we would suggest to the ex Duke of BRUNSWICK the
propriety of withdrawing into his own natural and
sinister obscurity. For two reasons this would be
advisable. Firs, because he will find it little short
of an impossibility to vilify still more his already
sufficiently vilified reputation ; and, secondly, be-
cause the effort would be as futile as ablutions to an
Ethio

ian.

Although we can only find an opportunity of doing
so with the utmost brevity, we cannot allow thii
ever.ing to pass over without one word of allusion to
the magnificent banquet given yesterday to Sir
ROBERT PEEL by the Chief Magistrate of
London. It came appropriately on the very
day following the exhibition of the Protectionists in
Drury-lane Tneatre ; and is interesting not only as
affording the antidote after the bane, but, in a par-
ticular measure, as revealing the liberality as well as
the hoßpitality which form the characteristics of
the present Mayoralty—a liberality of feeling
4nd a hospitality of deportment such as call to our
iecollection the time when the civic chair was filled
by the representative of Southwark. Throughout
the whole of the period daring which Sir JAMES
DUKE has discharged the duties of First Magistrate
over this vast capital he has showed a noble
disregard to all the allurements of partiality and to
ail the repulsions of prejudice; and a final token of
his indifference to anything like mere parry feeling
was displayed in the fact of the splendid banquet of
last evening—a banquet in which he endeavoured,
as the LORD MAYOR of London, to express
the national gratitude to the great man whose
oratorical powers and statesmanlike genius directed
the councils of the last Administration. The speech
by which the Right Hon. the LORD MAYOR, in-ro-
duced the toast of the entertainment was admir-
ably expressive of these sentiments of pro•
found admiration with which Sir ROBERT
PEEL is regarded by the vast bulk of the
people of England. And the masterly oration in
which the Right Hon. Baronet responded to that
toast, was not only an additional evidence of the
patriotic disinterestedness of his motives, but pre-
sented a supplementary proof of his largeness of view,
and of his dignified and glorious superiority to the
dictates of a merely personal ambition. Every detail
of our report of the proceedings will be read, we are
satisfied, with the deepest interest by all classes of the
community.

The Attachments (Leland) Bill, introduced by
ie,ilteErr
tforhe the
considerationcityof. D
of the
ewHiloluasgeaiont
the Hon.
brought's
Commons during the present week lVe
most unequivocally declared our opinions
on avetlthis already
im-
portant subject ; and the general feeling
or
the commu-
nity has been as decidedly expressed. principle
of the measure has been sanctioned and approved
by all parties competent to form a sound judgment on
the matter, not only within the walls of Parliament,
but throughout the length and breadth of the land.
It is a question in which every merchant and manu-
facturer, having business transactions with any inha-
bitant of Dublin, is materially interested. Through
the operation of the obnoxious proctss the goods
supplied may be swept away on the very day
of their delivery, and the total ruin of the
defendant effected. Nothing would remain
for the defrauded creditor. The parties who
put the law in motion, receive payment to the utter-
most farthing of what in too many instances are
fictitious and unfounded claims, while the fair and
bona fide creditor, residing at a distance from the
spot, too late learns that the entire assets of the
debtor are absorbed by the demands for tshich at-
tachments had Leen issued, and the enormous costs
incidental to the proceedings for their recovery. The
ordinary attachment secures the stock in trade, goods,
and chattels of the defendant, while the foreign at-
tachment, as it is termed, seizes on the book debts
and credits, if owing by parties resident within the
jurisdiction of the court. Under such circumstances
it would be strange indeed if great reserve and sus-
picion were not exhibited by English mer-
chants and manufacturers in all tneir
dealings with the citizens of the Irish
metropolis. The state of the law, the extraordinary
powers of the Lord Mayor's Ccurt, open a door for
fraud tind collusion against which it is utterly

sibl- for the fair trader to protect himself. Any
business transactions are, therefore, probably de-
clined, unless the most unexceptionable security be
offered at the same time. Credit, the life-blood of
commerce, is thus most unduly circumscribed, dis-
trust and suspicion usurp the place of open and unre-
stricted confidence, and the trade of the Irish metro-
polis, and consquently of the entire kingdom, is
severely damaged by the unwise and impoiitic law
administered in the Lord Mayor's Court of the city of
Dublin.

But, although this flagrant nuisance had long at-
tracted the public attention—although numerous
complaints were put forward day after day, and cases
of the utmost hardship and injustice were detailed,
no decided step was taken for its abatement
until the Honourable Gentleman, the representative
for the city of Dublin, took upon himself the duty of
bringing in a measure for the total abolition of the
process. No one could be more fully qualified for the
duty. Although not a professional man, or deeply
versed in legal subtleties, he possessed a clear head
and sound judgment, and unflinching energy. His
mercantile experience convinced him of the deeply
injurious results of the system. With his own eyes
he witnessed cases of fraud and collusion, or of deep
and vindictive oppression, any one of which afforded
the strongest and most satisfactory evidence against
the continuance of a practice under which such gross
abuses could be perpetrated. He did not long hesitate ;
he did not make any vain efforts to effect any trivial
alteration or petty charges, with the view of amending
a system thoroughly and radically vicious ; he struck
at the very root of the evil, and boldly and manfully
brought forward a Bill fur the total and immediate
abolition of the process of attachment. All parties
hailed the introduction of a measure so beneficial in
every respt ct, and so urgently required. The law
officers of the Crown (who should themselves have
long since introduced some similar enactment) ad-
mitted the magnitude of the evil and the propriety of
the change. The Corporation of Dublin, of which
Mr. REYNOLDS is a respected and influential member,
declared their readiness to surrender any rights and
privileges that might be interfered with by the pro-
posed law; the Dublin constituency.. expressed their
unequivocal satisfaction at the conduct of
their representative, who had given so striking
a proof of the propriety of their choice;
and the English merchants rejoiced that they would
at length be able to open commercial relations in a
quarter heretofore comparatively closed against them.
One obstacle alone intervened which has heretofore
retarded the progress of the Bill, but which we trust
will be forthwith removed. There are, as we have
already stated, persons who have held the situations
of Marshal and Sergeants. at-Mace for many years,
and who have ever discharged their painful duties in
an unexceptionable manner. They held their offices
by the same tenure as the judges of the land, during
good behaviour, and nothing was ever alleged against
any of them to justify their removal. Numerous
were the complaints against the system ; none against
the individuals by whom it was carried into exe-
cution. They had a vested interest in certain fees,
and, according to the rule invariably adopted, were
entitled to fair compensation if these fees were abo-
lished, or in any degree lessened by legislative inter-
ference; many instances could be cited where ample
compensation was given, not only for the lifetime of the
parties, but in some cases to their families after their
deaths. The public taith was never violated towards
the public servants. An almost chivalrous honour was
exhibited, and fair and just claims were never disre-
garded or set aside on any pretext, however specious, or
for any purpose, however desirable. This has, perhaps,
been carried to almost too great an extent, in cases of
sinecures, where no duty of any kind was performs d.
But wherever arduous duties were discharged, where
the parties acted in obedience to, and execution of the
law, and had, probably,relinquished or refrained from
entering on other employments for that purpose,
every consideration of justice and of mercy sustained
the propriety of the rule. It would, indeed, be a
grievous, and, we are happy to say, au unprecedented
outrage, if a man, grown grey in the service of his
country, and who, when entering on his situation, had
every reason to suppose that he had obtained a pro-
vision for his lifetime, or at least so long as he merited
protection and support, should be turned adrift in his
old age, and when no longer capable of directing his
attention to other pursuits, from which, if entered
upon when in full vigour of mind and body, he might
realise a handsome independence.

Air. JOHN JUDKIN BUTLER has fulfilled the duties
of his station fur no less than 17 years. In the year
1832 he was appointed by the then Corporutiun to the

office of Marshal of the city of Dublin. At that
period the office was of a twofold character, with two
di,tinct classes of duties, of fees and of emoluments—
the one class relating to the registrarship of pawn-

brokers, and the latter to the Borough Court, whose
process it wits the duty of the Marshal to execute.
On the passing of the Municipal Corporations
Act for Ireland, Mr. BUTLER was removed from
his situation, which was subsequently divided
into two distinct offices, viz., Marshal of the city of
Dublin, and Marshal of the Borough Court. Another
gentleman was appointed to the former situation, but
Mr. BUTLER was reinstated in the latter office, and
was, in consequence, debarred from obtaining the
compensation to which he would have been, unques-
tionably, entitled under the Act, if then discharged

from the office. He has since discharged the duties
of the situation faithfully and energetically, and it
would indeed be an act of the utmost cruelty and in-

justice to turn him on the world, without even the
compensation to which he would have been entitled
nine years ago, if then deprived of his office.
Such an act would deprive a very meritorious public
officer of almost the only source of income for the
support of himself and a numerous and amiabl.
_

The cases of Sergeants•at-Mace are almost of equal
hardship. They have held their respective situations
for very considerable periods, that is to say, MICHAEL
NVALsti 32 years, WILLIAM SMITH 19 years, and
Thomas S. RIYETT 14 years, and yet they are now to
be turned out without the slightest provision being
made for their future wants.
As we have already stated, Mr. REYNOLDS has
suggested a mode by which this impediment may be
removed. He proposes that certain fees should be

levied in the proceedings to be substituted for the old

attachments, out of which the compensation should be
payable. Government guaran'eeing the amount
agreed upon to these parties, and taking the

balance into the National Exchequer. Under any
circumstances it is the duty of Government
not to impede a measure of such vast utility not only
to the inhabitants of Dublin, but to the entire nation.
A few hundreds per annum for the lives of four per-
sona considerably advanced in years is not a matter
of such importance that an act of gross injustice
should be committed, or a most injurious process con-
tinued, to avoid the payment. Such rigorous parsi-
mony would strangely contrast with the profusion
and extravagance manifested in other matters.

vlug been made to the FOEforward a
ora LONDON.
ivay o—r t A op o
ppurtohimself
NEW ELECTION T
candidate for the representation
hasof tahte
oncecity
in of
the
London, Sir James Duke
handsomest
the progress of
b manner declined
to dor al so.ty H
is is solicitude
acknowledgedto
o reason for his
refusal ; and that refusal is the
liberality the
more generous,
considering that the popular Lord Mayor would
as a matter of course be elected without
opposition. As matters stand, therefore, the Baron
Lionel de Rothschild is the only candidate for
the suffrages of the citizens of London.
His return may be regarded as certain ; and with the
experience of the famous Clare election before us,
there cannot be a moment's doubt as to the
ultimate triumph of the cause at stake in
the person of the great millionnaire. On
Monday next, the 2d of July, at twelve o'clock
at noon precisely, the nomination ill take place in
Guildhall, and if necessary the pH will on the follow-
ing day be commenced. Let the electors of the
city of London be true to their principles in
spite of Lords ,and Commons—let them adhere
with consistency to the holy principles of civil and
religious Liberty !

CONDUITS, SANS I'AItALIALE.-It seems that the
attack upon Rome has been carricd on by, means of
" parallels.' We do not know much of the military me-
rit. 01 t' je question, but we can sately assert that, in an
honourable point of view, the attack upon Rome has
been paQat upparall#lfocl.—Punch.