The Sun.
London, England, 1831-04-08 00:00:00

;PIRI r OF 'HIE -PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It tva.c some days ago stated, that Mr. O'Connell
bad an intention of setting up one of his sons as an
.opponent to Sir Henry Parnell, now that the Right
lion. Baronet (on accepting- the office of Secretary
at War) has vacated his seat for the Queen's
County. As nothing could have been more inju-
dicious, more mischievous to the public cause, or
more offensive to all who feel honestly for the suc-
cess of the Reform Bill, than such an ill-tithed and
perverse display of personal ambition on the part of
the Learned Gentleman, we art happy to find, by the
.3forning Register of Tuesday lest, that he has ad.
d'essed a long and able letter to the electors of the
Queen's County, pressing uyon them, by a variety
of conclusive arguments, th-eitobligation of again re-
turning Sir Henry Parnell as their Nlember, with-
out a contest, and free of all 'expense. Undoubtedly,
if ever there was :a moment at which it became the
bounden duty of all independent men of every shade
and aspect of liberal politics, to rorget their differ-
epees both as to the past anti future, and to co-ope-
rate with entire confidence in each other, for the at-
tainment of the one solid and surpassing good) which
has never before been placed within the reach of
English patriots, and ~hick, IF now lost sight of,
may not be recovered far ages to come, on terms of
equal safety and advantage to Kings, Lords, and people,
shat moment has arrived. The resistance to Reform—
factious if you choose to call it so, but more pro-
perly the rapacious and desperate fight of a banditti
at their cavern's mouth, when piles of plunder are
within—that resistance has been already fermidable.
As the danger thickens, it will become hourly more
reckless and more dreadful. No violence—no trick
—no treachery will be left untried to strangle this
tirst birth of constitutional wisdom and integrity :
all the devices of practised and inventive cunning,
—all the pliant and solemn smoothness of the
Court,—the loud, insulting, and thick-skulled fury
of the camp—every engine of outrage and of sub-
tlety—will be moved against us ; and must not the
occasion be deemed well worth whatever energy
they can muster to those with whom the question
is one of enduring power, or of poi:tie:al annihilation
at once immediate and !irrecoverable ? In exact pro-
portion ns the people have reason to desire an
amendment of their Parliamentary system, the
enemies of the people imagine that they have mo-
tives for frustrating a change to them so ruinous.
We admit that the veriest boroughmonger of them
all will gain much by Reform, in common with the
country ; but it is not a share, it is monopoly which
delights them : they are as exclusive as a Tory
patroness of Almack's, anti, like her when she denies
the existence of a world beyond the names in her
(mu porter's book, the Rntlands and Beauforts, the
Lowt hers and Newcastles, know nothing of a
constitution without the pale of the pension-list,
and its gilt though net well-lettered index, the cata-
logue of their twenty boroughs. We say, there-
"ore, that Mr. O'Connell has done right in exhort-
ing the Irish freeholders to think of nothing but
Reform. It is true that Mr. O'Connell has used
langusge to excite the suspicion that he meditates
Reform as a step towards repeal of the Union :
what then ? The Union can incur no intelligible
risk but 'tom tl e dissatisfaction of the Irish people,
rod that dissatisfaction can nevi r be dangerous but
when it breaks out into acts of violence. Unless,
however, the quantum of Irish discontent is likely
to be increased by this Reform of Parliament, it
seems altogether inconceivable to us, that Mr.
O'Connell's pertinacity in the anti-Union cause
should furnish the shadow of an argument in oppo-
sition to Reform. It is trot through votes in ,the
House of Commons that the British empire has to
fear dismemberment; and if it were, we are tho-
roughly satisfied that a Parliament representing
fairly the reasonable portion of the people of
Ireland, with the whole mass of English reso-
lotion and of Scotch sagacity, would be with-
out comparison less liable to yield before the
menaces of a Munst, r mob, or the trained
bands of O'Connell and his Dublin agitator.,
than would a selfish and panic-stricken coterie of
borough Lords, without confidence in the powers of
a great people, or manly feeling fur the national he-
resin and security. Be the effect of Parliamentary
Refotrn on the mob-spirit of Ireland what it nosy
(and with regard to its influence on the real body of
Irishmen weare trot uneasy), the measure must be
(carried, or the empire will sink and r the weight of
its own distractions—the result of grievance univer-
sally acknowledged, but obdurately and wickedly
sinredressed. Of all the champions of anti-refor-
mation, the Duke of Wellington stands alone in his
.3aring, we doubt not honest, but almost ludicrous,
stenial of the to cessity for any species of Reform.
In is nor, therefore, the Duke of 'Wellington we
fear. H doctrine will not make dupes or prose-
lyte.. The shufflers—the sleight-of-hand men—
are the real parties of whom the people should be
apprehensive. Although Sir R. Peel arid his party
one and all rectised—refused as doggedly as the
Duke of Wellington him:elf—to admit the least ac-
cession of popularity into the representation, when the
proposal was made to them for transferring the fran-
chise of worthless and despicable boroughs to towns of
vast wealth, population, and intelligence; and al-
though the present universal hunger for a sweeping
demolition of the close boroughs may be traced to
the just indignation of the country at those shameful
-.fetes, the very same men have now the impudence
to assure us that they, forsooth, arc friends to Par-
liamentary Reform,„blit not to this Reform. In
other words, they would take credit for the truth of
declarations which every act of their previous lives
has contradicted. They mean, in reality, to oppose
all Reform whatever but such as the people of Eng-
land would reject as being no Reform at all. Still,
we enjoin the people of England, as Mr. O'Connell
does the Irish, set your shoulders to this one
work—attempt nothing—think of nothing—until
you have accomplished that. Reform will do every
thing for all of us: without Morin, there is neither
peace within nor power without, nor security for
what we have, nor hope for that which is wanting.
We beg the attention of those who are interested
in the state of Ireland—and what Englishman is
not ?—to a letter, signed " A. B. C.," and descrip•
tive of those causes to which, in a large degree, but
riot, perhaps, quite so extensively as the write,
supposes, may be ascribed the deplorable outrages
which have lately been committed in the south-west
of Ireland.—:times.

It appears that at the York Assizes a man named
Thomas Gregg, convicted cf sheep-stealing, has
been doomed to suffer the extreme penalty which
our improved criminal code annexes to this crime,
which is death. We had hoped the time was come
when an offence of this nature would be thought
sufficiently atoned for by some punishment short of
taking human life, and that the expression of public
opinion against sanguinary enactments would have
due
weight in preventing the recurrence of those
bibltions of vindictive justice, in which the qi
rend
tr becomes an object of public sympathy, and
the law alone ‘•
the Judge who regarded with abhorrence. But
tried the case (Mr. Justice Jame,
Itl'inertki
g), iisartheype:rted to have given a reason for in-
flicting, instance, upon a sheep-stealer,
the punishmnenl:
stated
he would have awarded to a
murderer. is
otatced to have told the prisoner
that " the offence
had become so
common of late in thienchaoitu:nleotpitet.halaitnga
severe
example
must be made, and,
therel was no case
so glaringly fit to afford that
the case we e:titlsoiptbleeer,ta..swi•liitsb" This
all
way of putting
sub-
mission to the Learned Judge
doctrine of expediency—pot on the principles
on the
lice. It is but a new application of the dogma of
that a man is hanged not Lceause atZlisge
sheep, but that sheep may not be stolen. Carry
doctrine to its full extent, and to what will it lead?
To the enactment of the penalty of death for every
offence whatever. For if Legislators and Judges
have a right to take life in any instance, on the
ground of expediency, without arty consideration of
the proportion of the punishment to the offence,
they have a right to do it in every instance. The
whole moral foundation of justice la subve, ted; and

if n sheep-stealer 13 to be put to death, not becau
his crime deserves that terrible chastisement, but
because it is thought more effective in preventing
ethers from commit tin similar crimes, and as it is
desirable that small offences should be effectually pre-
vented, as well as great ons, there is no offence,
however trivial., which ought not to incur the dreadful
consequence of the forfeiture of life ? We are quite
certain that Mr. Justice James Parke's disposition is
naturally kind,and whose exercise of the judicial office
is generally as much distinguished for moderation a.
intelligence, dial nor, at the moment when he sen-
tenced the sheep-steakt meiely for example sake, re,-
fleet upon the train of sanguinary consequences that
would follow from his doctrine. An enlightened public
calls for a repeal of the forgery laws, and demand
that the crime shall be treated, even in its worst
shape, as an t,.ggravated species of fraud, as it really
is, and not as an offence of violence or blood ; but

the doctrine in question, if of any weight at all,
must prevent the amelioration of the criminal code,
not on!), with regard to that crime, but with regard
to every other which has been made the subject of
vindictive statutes, utterly at variance with the
spirit of dispassionate justice. The eminent indi-
vidual who holds the highest judicial situation in
this countr,: closed his splendid and useful career
in the House of Commons by presenting a petition
frocin a great number of the inhabitant householders
of London liable to serve on juries, and among them
several who had been foremen of juries at the Old
Bailey, which petition stated that those who signed
it " viewed with deep regret the excessive and in-
discriminate severity of the criminal laws, which an-
nex to offences of different degrees of moral guilt
the punishment of death, and confound the mere in-
vasion of the rights of property with the most ma-
lignant and atrocious crimes against the person
and the life of man ;" also " that the recent
Acts passed, with the professed intention to
amend and improve the criminal laws, have
not remedied the evil of which an enlightened
community have the greatest reason to com-
plain, but have still left those laws a disgrace
to our civilization, by retaining the opprobrious
distinction of being the most sanguinary of any in
Europe." As to sheep-stealing, tinder the pretence
of amendment, Sir Robert Peel has made the law
more sanguinary than it was before, as he has made
it a capital offence to kill a sheep, or, indeed, any
cattle, with intent to steal the skin—which was not
capital by any previous law ! The petition to which
we have alluded, after properly describing the spu-
rious amendment of the lam, went on to state that
" witnesses were frequently reluctant to give evi-
dence, and Juries extremely reluctant to convict
where the penal consequences of the offence excited
a conscientious horror on their minds,lest the rigorous
performances of their duties as Jurors should make
them accessory to judicial murder; and thus cri-
minals, who, under a more rational and considerate
code of laws, would meet the punishment due to
their crimes, escape with complete impunity. So
much for the superior efficacy of intemperate and
inhuman laws ! Shall the barbarous experiments
which Lord Brougham so eloquently condemned be
repeated ? We trust not.—Morning Herald.
The question of dissolution is attended with con-
siderable difficulty. UraqueAionably an election
would add greatly to the strength of Ministers.
But, on the other hand, the delay which it would
occasion, could not fail to have the effect of occa-
sioning much inconvenience, from the continuance
of the agitation and exc'tement. Such a benefit as
a Reform in the Parliament cannot be purchased at
too high a price. We quarrel not with the excite-
ment ; but if the measure can be carried without a

issolution, it is obvious that we should thus obtain
ton easier terms. Our contemporary (the Globe)

observes :

" It is quite clear, too, that a dissolution at this mo-
ment would cause a House of Commons to be returned
mere free from the influence of sordid motives in its elec-

tion than any which has been known fur a century—that
there should be less money spent in bribery, and that what
should be Fo spent would be less effectual than at any for-
mer period ; that numbers of people, commonly indiffe-
rent about elections, would earnest!), and disinterestedly
enage in them; and that, in a word, the House returned
would be, as neatly as its present constitution admits, and
more nearly than in any Itss extraordinary crisis would he
possible, a representation of the people.

" A House of Commons so chosen would make the
course of Reform plain and easy, and in such a House any
real amendment in the details of the Bill would be sure of
an honest and friendly consideration. This is of great
importance, because the amendments now proposed will
naturally be viewed with su'picion. as in,end,l either to
nullify the measure, or to sow tie seeds of division among
its friends ; and thus, by a nicely-balanced House of Com-
mon., the Bills may be sent out in a less perfect state than
their principles and outline merit.
" Looking at the bare majority on the second reading,
we believe that if any hitrieue were to throw the present
Ministry out before a dissolution took place, there would

. ,
he found a party numerous enough to form a majority in
the present House of Commons, who would rally round
an anti-Reform or a smallest possible Reform Ministry,
unless, indeed, they were actually under the terror of po-
pular convulsion ; the question of Reform might thus, to
the great danger of the peace of the country, be deferred
for some years. In the present state of Europe, it is to
lie recollected there is a great temptation to a desperate
faction to speculate on the chances of events, and especially
on a war, which might turn off the attention of the people
from domsaic reforms. These considerations cannot escape
the Ministers, and if they should incline to a dissolution,
they will reconcile such of their friends—for such there
must be—as will he inconvenienced by it, to their decision
in its favour."

There is much force in these observations of our
contemporary. We are quite aware of the lengths
to which the borouglimongcrs would go to avert
Reform. 14m we trust to the strong determination
of the people, which, rising with the discovery of
any intrigue to defraud the nation of Reform, would
render every attempt of the kind impossible. There
would n)t be a convulsion, for the unanimity of the
people would prevent it. It is so much the interest
of all who live by tiade and industry to prevent any
disturbances, anything which might have the effect
of shaking confidence, that we are convinced they
would exhibit themselves in such an attitude as
would at once strike dismay into their factious ene-
mies. This is not a party question—it is not a
sectarian question; it is a question between the
people and a few of their spoilers. A majority
-night be obtained in the House of Commons; but
would the King consent to a measure which would
deprive him of the love of his people, cause him to
be regarded as their enemy, or despised as a weak
man who could not adhere to any purpose ? Could
he, after receiving such hearty demonstrations of
love and gratitude from his people, brook the idea
of closing his eyes amidst their execrations ? Could
he think of leaving behind him the name of a man,
who, when a Ministry were supported by a united
people, interposed between the people and their
happiness ? We cannot—we will not believe it.
The time is past for wavering ; his Majesty as well
as his Ministers must go on. They who speculate
on the chances of events, may see in the delay
caused by a dissolution a source of hope. This
argument cuts two ways. However, without a
clear understanding obtained in the way resorted to
on such occasions, that Ministers will have a decided
majority without a dissolution, the sooner they have
recourse to such a measure the better.—Mornin
Chronicle.

We are anxious to call the public attention to a
debate which took place in the House of Commons
on the navy estimates, the great importance of
which was not perceived by us until our attention
was called to it in a letter from one of our corres-
pondents last week. That letter refers to a case of
absolute injustice, which was made out by Sir
' George Clerk against S;r James Graham, in the
case of some of the gentlemen educated at the
chool of naval architecture at Portsmouth. We
wehave_ taken the pains to inquire into the matter, and
feel that the charge of i 1. be add
ed
to tcy is to
to that of injustice • for
school is
one
of a
mostimwpertfind that the.abov e
ant ch ardactetl, asit
concerns the naval ascendancy of En
instiinted by the Government of 1811l0ante. promotetwa s
the alvancement of the scienee of naval a
reiaitec-

tine—a science which, from the limited nature of it,
application, and its great difficulty, never can be
cultivated successfully unless sufficient inducements
be held out to tempt persons of superior mathema-
tical acquirements to devote themselves entirely to
it. There are at this moment in our dock-yards a
few persons, educated at the above school (Sir
James Graham stated the number to be twelve),
who are not yet appointed to any situations, and
who are included in the First Lord's favourite mea-
sure of day pay--a measure which Sir James has
applied to certain persons in the dock-yarda, hitherto
enjoying annual salaries, and who are thus placed in
an inferior grade, and deprived of advantages coil-
nected with their former position in his Majesty's
service. This step has been taken by S'r James
Graham with a view to economy, by reducing the
amount of superannuations; but all expenses should
be viewed in relation) to the objects to be obtained,
and it is indeed a short-sighted and pitiful economy to
effect retrenchment at the expense of efficiency-. Burke
says,'' In saving money, I soon count up all the good
I do; but when, by a cold penury, I blast the
abilities of a nation, and stunt the growth of its active
energies, the ill I do is beyond all calculation."
Even supposing the establishment to he an expen-
sive one, yet we contend that if it should produce
only one man of talent, who by great application
could with certainty avoid the many errors into
which English constructors have fallen, and could
construct ships which would at least rival the best
foreign, the gain to this country would be incalcu-
lable; and it is in vain to look for such a man except
among those who have received a highly scientific
education. Now, what chance, we. ask, is there
that such a man would remain in the public service
under the degrading regulations of day pay, and
with no prospect of superannuation ? If before these
regulations were enforced, and when confidence
would naturally be placed in the promises of the
Admiralty, some of these naval architects left his Ma-
jesty's service, even before so many situations in the
dock-yards were abolished, what possibly can now in-
duce such a man to remain ? So that all the great
national - advantages contemplated by the founders
of this institution are to be destroyed, because the
Fir,t Lord wishes to effect an ultimate saving of a
few pounds. And will it be believed, too, that this
saving is to be effected by an absolute breach of
faith, for it is to be done in the very fact of a posi-
tive agreement, which was entered into by the Na-
val Administration with the students when they
were admitted into the establishment. Acts of gross
injustice are sometimes committed by men in office
with impunity, because the objects of their oppres-
sion are too humble and powerless to call the public
attention to their wrong. We feel it to be our duty
to exercise the power which we possess, in expos-
ing folly and bad faith, by thus holding up to public
censure individuals, who, under the fancied shelter
of office, have committed acts which, in other
circumstance, would involve them in merited dis-
grace.—!horning Post.
The Paris Papeis announce what is by no means
improbable, that Turkey arid Persia have availed
themselves of her embarrassments to declare war
against Russia. It is to be presumed that the Poles
would take care that the Turks should be put in
possession of the state of things between them and
Russia, and that the news of the failure at Praga
would reach Constantinople in- due time. The
belief is that the Russian disasters have been greater
than it was anticipated they would be. The over-
weening confidence of Bonaparte, the result of long-
continued success, which led him to neglect the
precautions of ordinary prudence in his Russian
campaign, is far from a solitary instance in the his-
toi yof the world. Who knows but that great as the
power of Russia is, the confidence of supe-
riority which led the Emperor to attempt Warsaw
by a coup-de-main, and to throw out of calcu-
lation the possible consequences of a failure,
may be the cause of her deep humiliation. Notwith-
standing the critical position of Austria with regard
to Italy, we cannot help thinking that both that
Power and Prussia would nut be very sorry to find
a gnat State interpose between them and Russia.
Prussia is a country increasing fast in industry and
commerce; and she has long abandoned the plan of
keeping up a large standing army. Her standing
army is merely the taucleus of the military force to
which she trusts in case of war. Austria is not an
aggressive Power; her object is to keep Europe
stationary, and to prevent the spread of revolutionary
doctrines, and not conquest. But Russia is entirely
a military Government, and the Autocrat knows
that his existence depends on his conciliating the
soldiery. Every civilized State, therefore, must wish
to keep such a Power at a distance. Colonel
Matthew Stewart, in his pamphlet on the State and
Policy of the Nation, published in 1828, observes,
speaking of Russia :
" 'The advantages, as well as the self-satisfaction, which
a conquering people never fail to derive from conquest
(mote especially when effected by the poor upon the rich)
are likely to whet their appetite for further encroachments.
An army is always eager for employment ; and a great
military State, when once it proceeds upon the principle
of territorial aggrandizement, can scarcely desist—Conti-
nued action becoming necessity to its existence—and
whatever might he the more wholesome views of some
men, the general tendency of public opinion could not fail
to inthence, in the Ling run, the conduct of the nation.
The arbitrary nature of her Government
places completely at the disposal of her ruler the whole re-
sources of the empire. The personal character of the
Sovereign in a despotic State must always dutermiae the
character of his policy ; and, sooner or later, this despotic
Power will come to be united with personal ambition, and
a love of exploit; and the whole of this enormous force
will be precipitated on the rest of Europe."
It is fortunate, perhaps, for the west of Europe,
that Poland has not yet become thoroughly Russian.
The difficulties of Russia, in the present camiatige,
arise out of the nature of the country in which the
war is carried on. What was applied to Spain more
than two centuries ago, will apply to all thinly
peopled countries—Qua/7d on y vajiirt on meurt de
faint, ct quand on yye foible on est battu. Had
Russia been bounded by a populous country like
Germany, she might have assembled her hordes on
her frontiers without apprehension, and poured them
forth on the slene of military operations, knowllT
well, that where there is a deese population there is
abundant food, and that where there is food armed
men gill contrive to find it. But in Poland,as well
as in Turkey, magazines must be formed at a great
expence, and food must be obtained from a distance,
which circumstances are almost insurmountable ob-
stacles to the keeping a large army together. Of
this truth the Prussians must be well aware; and
the family connections of the King, and event the
apprehension of losing Poser), will hardly outweigh
the natural dislike of the King's German subjects to
see the Russians too close to them.—Morn. Citron

LICENSED VIGTUALLERS' ASYLUM.—On
Wednesday the subscribers to, and the friends of, the Li-
censed Victuallers' Asylum, dined together at the London
Tavern, Bishopsgate•street ; and on this occasion the Duke
of Sussix (who laid the foundation stone of the Asylum,
and who presided two years ago) again took the chair.
The Duke, in giving the first toast, spoke to the following
effect:—" Gentlemen, you will easily anticipate the toast
lam going to propose. Thank God ! in this country we
can do nothing without a KING; and thank God'. (added
the Duke most earnestly) with such a KING as we have,
we can do every thing..—(The tremendous and hearty ap-
plause that burst forth on the delivery of this sentence de-
fies adequate description.) Silence being restored, the
Duke proceeded—" 1 will not dilate upon the subject of
the toast--it is unnecessary ; because I see how anxious
you are to honour it.—(Loud cries of ' Bravo;' and ex-
clamations of ' We have come to plain good English at
last.') I will give you, gentlemen, King WILLIAM the
Foosill; and God bless him !' "—a toast pronounced
with impressive feeling by his Royal Highness. It was
honoured with loud bursts of applause, In speaking of
Reform, in the course of the evening, his Royal Highness
took occasion to declare, that " the Crown was for Re-
form; that the Government was unanimous for Reform ;
and that the two being supported by all England, Reform
must be carried. Time, he said, would undeceive the
public respecting various misstatements, and reason would
in time come to the aid of those who were prejud!ced. At
all events, there could be no queition that those who de-
pended on misleading the public 'would ultimately find out
heir error.