The Sun.
London, England, 1825-03-10 00:00:00

FMORNING POST.]

The Unlawful Societies' Bill did not receive
the Royal Assent till yesterday. It is now the
law of the land, and will, we trust, prove suc-
cessful in putting down the great national nuisance
which had started up in Ireltand, to the injury
even of the Catholics themselves. In the Corn-

mons, Mr. Secretary Peel introduced a very use
ful and important Bill, the object of which is to
consolidate and amend the existing laws relative
to the impaneliiiig of Juries, and to collect into
one consistent statute the various regulations on
that important subject, which are now scattered
in no less than eighty-five Acts of Parliament,
from the time of Henry 111. to the present pe-
riod. Of these he proposed to repeal twenty, and
to consolidate sixty-five. He then described the
emendations which he intended to effect. The first
was in the mode of summoning Juries. The list
was made out at present by the Petty Constable,
who was open to seduction ; its formation should
in future he entrusted solely to the Church-
wardens and Overseers of each parish, except in
cases whore there be no Churchwardens
or Overseers. The next should be a more dis-
tinct enumeration and specificatioe of the qua-
lities necessary to serve on Grand Juries. lle
should always extend the number of individuals
qualified to act as Special Jurors, by adding
to the Esquires, below which rank no one
could now serve, all persons under the desig-
nation of Merchants and Bankers. But the
most important improvement of the whole, one
indeed which excited general approbation and
gratitude in the House, and which will place
Mr. Peel's name high amongst those of the most
sincere friends and promoters of the liberties of
this country, is the following regulation for the
formation of Juries. He proposed that the names
of the persons duly qualified should be inserted
alphabetically in a book, stating their profession,
&c., and that to each name should be attached in
the book the number in which it stood in the se-
ries. Ile next proposed that a number of cards
equal to the number of names should be provid-
ed, having imprinted on them a figure or figures,
corresponding with the numbers attached to the
names. These cards he would have placed
in a box, and drawn out by a proper officer,
till 48 were thus impartially obtained by
ballot—which 48 should afterwards be re-
duced in the usual mode to 24, and sub-
sequently to twelve. In making this arrange-
ment, he conceived that nothing was lost to the
Crown,—for, by placing the numbers of Juries
above all suspicion, a weight would be given to
whatever verdict they returned, capable of deep-
ly impressing it on the public mind. This alter-
ation in the law he intended should be always
imperative in criminal cases—in cases between
the Crown and the subject for political offences,
such as libels, &c. But he wished to make a
distinction in its application between criminal
and civil cases. In deciding questions of mer-
cantile interest, it was only perhaps persons ac-
quainted with commercial affairs that could pro-
perly understand the subjects at issue, and he
therefore proposed that if both the plaintiff and
defendant consented in writing to such a step, the
Special Jury should be formed in the old way.
Should these considerations and amendments
prove beneficial, the
.Right Honourable Secre-
tary did not mean to step there. He hoped
that Parliament would follow him through the
whole mass of our ponderous Statutes with the
same object, and ou similar principles. The
various laws on libel—on forgery, and in short
the whole of the Criminal Code, were, he
thought, entitled first to attention, because
when people under severe penalties were re-
quired to obey the law, every facility ought to be
afforded for enabling them to know whether they
were transgressjug
or not, and every means taken
to remove auortiolies.—This statement was re-
ceived throughout with repeated cheers, and all
parties joined in declaring with Mr. Holthoose,
that it was
cc the greatest and most salutary re-
form which had been operated' for ages ; and that
if the. Right Honourable Gentleman went on
with the rest of the Statutes throughout, his
fame would not be confined to, the perishable

records of that House, but he should long live
in history as one of the greatest benefactors
of his country." It is really gratifying to see
that whilst other Governments are engaged in
either preventing the growth of civil and consti-
tutional liberties in the States over which they
preside, or in reducing those which they had
been obliged to concede, the Ministers of Eng-
land are doing every thing in their power to extend
and consolidate the rights of the subject, and in
encreasing the sum of freedom and prosperity
enjoyed in this great and glorious country.