The Sun.
London, England, 1838-07-05 00:00:00

persevering motions on the ten pound rate-paying clause,
has given notice of his intention to undertake the subject
brought forward by Mr. Wilks last session, and lapsed by
his secession from Parliament, namely, a proposition for the
reduction of the 501. Chandos clause. That clause was
one of the most unfortunate of the compliances of the Re-
form Ministry with the crafty spirit of obstructiveness
which characterised then, as it has since done, all the mea-
sures of the Tory party. It has frustrated the healthy
development and progress of the principles established by
the Reform Bill up to the present time. It was, indeed,
intended as a sop to be dropped into the cup of the landed
aristocracy amidst the bitters of the Reform Bill—
as a compensation for the loss which that new charter
entailed on them by the destruction of their rot-
ten boroughs. It has enabled the landed aristo-
cracy to make head against the popular cause up to the
present time—by creating, or admitting the creation of a
race of electors entirely subservient to their selfish interests,
and who would vote black or white, according to tyrannical
decree of their masters. The evil done by the weaving of
this Penelope web of mischief can only be undone by un-
weaving it. The Administration ought to support a motion
for the abatement of the obstruction, not less by the in-
terested feelings of duty to themselves, than by their duty
to that great cause of progressive liberty of which they are
professedly the first ministerial representatives. Equal jus-
tice to all is not less the principle of the Constitution than
it is the dictate of the Reform Bill. But can there be a
greater breach of equal justice than that manifested by the
Chandos clause ? The clause is in every respect a legal
anomaly. A ten-pound renter in a borough is enfran-
chised by the Reform Bill ; but a renter in a county
who does not pay quintuple the amount is disfran- 1
chised. The growing sentiment of the country is in
favour of a large extension of the suffrage in the bo-
roughs even as it at present subsists—some wishing to
extend it to household saffragP, some to universal. It
is not our province, at present, to go into the feasibility of
these proposals. This inference is alone necessary to our
present view—that the more you enlarge the suffrage the
more you aggravate and widen the jarring outrage of the
anomaly to which we have adverted. While the privilege
is extended to the ten-pound renters in boroughs, it is
highly inequitable to duly the franchise to the general body
of intelligent tradesmen in counties whose average rental
cannot be rated under 251. per annum. To say the
least, they possess an equal stake in the country
with the mechanic and manufacturer. They are equal
to both in station and intelligence. They are, in fact, the
provincial middle class of the country—that class which,
whether manufacturing or agricultural, have always been
deemed by political economists to constitute the vital
stamina of the country. No effort should be left unspared to
remove the obstacle cunning)r devised by the Tories for
trammeling and crippling the due provincial influence of the
Reform Ministers, and for impeding or arresting the steady
progress of reform which was justly anticipated from the
subsequent development and permanent working of the
Reform Bill.—Morning Advertiser.
The Bill entitled by its promoters, " A Bill for the bet-
t7r Observance of the Lord's Day," but which might more
properly be called a Bill fur its desecration, and for inter-
fering with the innocent and heartfelt enjoyments of the
lower orders, was thrown out last night ia the House of
Commons. We own we heartily rejoice at this result ; but
as the friends of a measure of the kind have far some years
past shown themselves as obvin ite as people not open to
cumiction usu,l:y arc', we have little (balk that it will be
. _

reproduced in the next session. IF it be, we cm only say
we earnestly wish it wily meet the same fite. We call it a
Bill fer the deseeratioe of the fee this plain reason.
Tile due and decent observance of the Sunlav is m duly
promoted by the ex Imple of the higher orders. This
inee.sure does not touch the higher orders : it allows
them to " eat, drink, and be merry ;" to walk,
to ride, to drive, and, in short, to join in any
species of amusement. It is true it forbids all
Lie to the penr, and as it does not ferbld it
to the rich it pennies it, a-eil the rich will not fail to take
advaaia;c of the licence. Therefore, the effect of the Bill
will be to deprive the lower ostlers of the example of the
higher ; and the quesiiea, then, arises, whether al Act of
Parlen nt requirin; people to be relieious acceriling to
aw will be as effectual as good exa:mple. '1 hat it will not
there can be no doubt ; and next comes into p!ay the or-
dioary principle of our nature, to desire most earnestly to
do that which is fel bldth n : the vrtition nefas is what
grown children, as well as ot hr re, strive after most eagerly.
11 nee we irainta'n that, the Bill, if ra.sed into late, would
defeat its own object—for the sake of the observance of
Sunday with the dscerurn iiiiiie7to so rernaskable in this
cowitry, and fur the sake of the health and innocent enjoy-
ments of the humbler classes, who work Lard fur the six
other days of the week, we rejeice that this Bill for the dese- '
citation of the seventh day l as been rejected by 57 to 45
votes. We do not pretend that we should have liked
the measure, even if it had been directed ageinst the rich
as well against the poor : it could never have been ef-
fectual : Aranearuhr trios eorvi verrumpunt, mime vero
implicantur ; or in the words of a still greater philosopher,
" In tattered clothes small vice; do appear,
Robes and furr'd gowns hide all."
The Act might have been enforced with all its severity
,against the hard-working artisan, who with his wife and
chi:lNa walked out on Sunday afternoon, and partook of
only necessary refreshment ; but, as Mr. Jervis said last
night, the clubs at the west end of the town would be
kept open with impunity, and lords and ladies might roll
about in their carriages, and keep their servants labouring
during the Sabbath without the slightest risk of a pe-
nalty. Let us add, too, that what would be a large
sum fur a poor man would be nothing for a rich
one : as the forty shillings which the Marquis of
Waterford at once paid down at the police-of-
fice the other day would have either nearly ruined
an industrious mechanic, or cost him . a month's
hard labour at the tread-mill by way of commutation. No
such law could be rendered equal and impartial in its ope-
ration. Latimer, himself a Bishop, tells a story of a lordly
Prelate who made a long sermon upon humility, illustrating
it by reference to the entrance of our Saviour into Jerusalem
upon an ass. When the Bishop left the church in full
state, with his servant following, and himself riding a horse
with gold trappings and housing, he met an old woman,
one of his congregation, who, making a low reverence,
begged to ask his lordship if that was the style in which he
had in his sermon described Christ as entering into Jeru-
salem ? The answer of the Bishop is not given, but no
doubt be would have made an excellent and zealous sup-
porter of the piece cf pharisaical legislation, conscientiously
/so doubt, but mistakingly attempted by Mr. Plumptre.
This matter having been disposed of, the Howse proceeded
to the question of the third reading of the Sheriffs'
Courts Bill; and here all the lawyers, excepting the So-
licitor-General, appeared in arms against it. By the
Statute 3 and 4 William IV. any debt under 201. may be
recovered in the Sheriff's Court, and since that law was
passed nearly a thousand cases have been tried there, in
all which only thirty-six new trials have been granted.
Upon this foundation the Bill before the house has been
introduced, raising the amount capable of being recovered
in the Sheriff's Court to 50/. Now, inasmuch as law is
thus made cheap, speedy, and in a great degree certain, it
might be expected that practising barristers, and especially
Queen's Counsel, who will not condescend to go into She-
riffs' Courts, would be opposed to it. Accordingly last night
Mr. Jervis, Mr. Aglionby, Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, and Mr.
Sergeant Jackson made strong though not long speeches
against it, asserting, among other things, that the Lord
Chancellor, who had carried it through the other House
of Parliament, and the Solicitor-General who had taken
charge of it in this, had done so because they were merely
equity lawyers, and could know nothing about the- subject,
having no interests involved in it. Mr. Jervis, who used
this argument, pronounced a warm eulogium upon his
branch of the profession for its peculiar and extreme dis-
interestedness, and maintained that the senior barristers
only resisted this measure because they thought that
cheap, speedy, and certain justice was a great evil to
society. They urged two other objections : first, that
it was impossible for people to go to law satisfactorily
without employing heavily-feed counsel, whereas none
attended Sheriff's Courts, and secondly, that the Sheriff or
his deputy was not a judge competent to preside over such
trials. To this we answer—first, that there is no fear that
,counsel will not ere long find it worth their while to attend
eberiff's Courts, and will be allowed to attend them; and se-
coneily that, if the Judge be found incompetent, nothing will
be more easy than to appoint a person who is competent ; and
that, whether competent or incompetent, he will always be
controlled by the practical good sense of a Jury. The
truth is, that nothing could be more shallow and futile
than the objection.; urged to this measure ; and, as Mr.
Villiers maintained, the true reason for the resistance of
the lawyers was that superior Courts would be relieved by
the Bill from part of the business by which they are at
present overwhelmed, although to the pecuniary loss of
the gentlemen of the long robe practising in them. If
counsel be excluded from Sheriffs' Courts, " the spencrrs
of the profession," as Sheepface calls attorneys, will be the
greater gainers, and the public the greatest of all. We
are glad, therefore, that the measure was carried by a ma-
jority of 54 to 23. A clause proposed by Mr. Jervis, to
provide that a barrister should be paid to sit as Judge in
Sheriffs' Courte was negatived, and the Bill was passed.—
Morning Chronic:.e.
Now that the nature and limits of the Irish Tithe Com-
mutation Bill seem to be deertnined by the votes of the
1-louse of Commons on Monday evening, it may not be
amiss to turn for one moment to the discussion raised by
lqr. Ward, and to the consequences deducible therefrom,
so far as we have materials for speculating upon them.
'I he Hon. Gentleman dealt out large warnings to the
queen's Ministers, and some which were certainly more
p'ausible in thew/elves than flattering to her Maje,tre ads i