The Sun.
London, England, 1836-06-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We observe that all the Tory journals—daily and
weekly—the Times in particular, seized with avidity
on the accusation (in the action, Norton against Lord
Melbourne) as a political measure. But in no
instance was the guilt or innocence of the parties
fairly balanced. The accusation was made, the guilt
pre-determined, and savagely and ferociously prejudged.
Fabricated lies about the contents of letters, reflecting
upon illustrious personages, were freely dispersed in their
columns. Let us calmly state the facts and the re-
sults. After a public examination of the evidence,
fished and raked up from the filth of an old •clothes-
cellar in Monmouth-street, St. Giles's—maintained,
fed, and lodged at the expense of one whose connec-
tion with the unhappy lady ought to have induced that
Noble Person to repel with scorn such dirty contami-
nation—it is manifest that perjury of the foulest and
grossest kind has been bought and paid for. If the
smallest spark of the feelings of honour dwell in
the breast of Lord Grantley, it is his bounden
duty instantly to make all the reparation he can for the
deep, and probably incurable, wound which he has in-
flicted on the fair fame and happiness of his own sis-
ter-in law. Let him reflect that the public now know
these filthy gleanings stop at 1833. He is now pub-
licly told that he knew that Mr. and Mrs. Norton
lived on terms of intimate affection till within these
very few months past. We leave him, and pass on
to others. That the cause was rotten at the core was-
,
made pretty evident before the trial, by the gratuitous
anxiety of certain Noble and virtuous Orange legisla-
tors, by themselves and their emissaries, making un-
called for protestations that the proceedings had not
only not been promoted by them, but that they had
taken no part whatever—not they, upon their honour.
We ask Mr. Bailey, one of the counsel for this abo-
minable political prosecution, whether he did not,
about some three weeks or a month since, state
that he was going to a consultation on this cause,
at which Lord Wynford was to he present. As coun-
sel, Mr. Bailey did his duty ; and our question is only
to the fact, whether he did or not make - such a state-
ment ? ~ It is so creditably reported, that for certain
reasons, well known to us, we are desirous of an an-
swer. These Tories have succeeded, in their unmanly
eagerness to embarrass a Government identified with
the liberties of the people of Great Britain and Ire-
land, in dragging a beautiful, accomplished, and ta-
lented woman (now a helpless woman, made so by
their foul slanders), but most innocent lady, before
the public, but they have failed, signally failed, in
attaching to her one stain of guilt. We blush for the
English Press. Decency and forbearance to that sex
before which it is the glory of man to bow with reve-
rence and affection, which it is our duty to protect at
every hazard, have been most ruthlessly thrown aside.
What shall we have next ?—Morning Chronicle.
Jt was rumoured for some days, and we have reason
to bolieve was well ascertained, that after waiting for
the fitaal decision of the House of Lords against that
unprincipled measure, the Irish Bill for transforming
Protestant Corporations into Popish ones, the Radical
Ministers had made up their minds to revenge them-
selves arid their patrons, the priests, by abruptly pro-
roguir g the Parliament. This was to be the grand
mastei-stroke of the Session 1836, and it would be
surrounded by a double glory, inasmuch as, except the
Constabulary Bill and the voting of the Supplies, the
only measure of the Session would be the proroga-
tion ! The English Tithe Bill was in that case to
have been flung overboard. The Irish Tithe Bill,
with our well-beloved appropriation clause, was to have
been flung overboard. The Dissenters, as against
Conservative Statesmen, so unruly and so rabid, so
thankless, moreover, to Sir R. Peel for his liberal and
excellent measure, completely relieving that body from
their stock grievance, the old law for the registry of
births and marriages, which the intrusion of the Whigs
into office alone prevented him from carrying through
Parliament— those same Dissenters, such patterns of
meekness and long suffering iNowards the Whig-Papist
-Ministers, who have treated them throughout with
disdainful contumely—they, too, with the rest of flit
superfluous live stock, were to have gone overboard
for the present year—ay, and for a whole century,
should these inefficient and hollow-hearted Whigs
remain in place so long—nay, Daniel and his motion
for annihilating the House of Lords was to have been
sacrificed with the rest, to lighten the sinking vessel.
And why were such disgraceful doings meditated ?
"Me did the Melbourne Ministry design to make
iheniselves a subject of aggravated scorn to Englishmen
present and to come, and to statesmen throughout the
'civilized world, by this new proof of utter incapacity
for government? Because they feel that incapacity
every time they respire—because they have no chance
of existing, even from hand to mouth, but by the
administration of some fresh stimulus to the par-
tisans of eternal change, and finding in the House of
Lords an insurmountable bar to the quiet accomplish-
ment of those innovations to which they-have pledged
themselves, but which bond, the power that rules them
\will not suffer them to " shake off," they have enter-
tained hopes of laying their own offences upon the
shtiuZders of the Upper House of Parliament—and by
crying " mad dog" at an assembly of Legislators whom
they can neither cajole nor intimidate, they have all
along flattered themselves that what the House of
Peers 'might, through their misrepresentations, lose
with Ithe revolutionary rabble, they themselves would
gain. The anticipated rejection, therefore, of the
Popish Municipal Bill seemed to furnish a promising
opportu city for holding up the Peers once more
to the resentment of the Radicals ; and to prorogue
Parliament on the top of such an act of disobe-
dience in their Lordships, would usher in a recess of
-seven or eight months, with brilliant prospects of a
campaign of successful agitation, both here 5;1 in
Ireland, against the House of Lords as the prime
state culprits,. chargeable with whatever the Whig
Ministers had done that was wrong, or had not done
that weas desirable. During the said seven months,
besides, Mr. Daniel O'Connell's tenants-at-will in
Downinil-street might enjoy their salaries free of mo-
lestation, .and neglect their business with no fear of any
punishment but disgrace, which, in the arithmetie of
certain persons, amounts to something like impunity.
however, a new light has broken in upon them ; the
stroke befitted desperate men, but was too bold .for
weak cues. The Ministers began to dread the explo-
sion of their own shell, and, if we are not very wrong
in our guess, the scheme of a prorogation has been for
the present relinquished. In the mean time, the world
will enjoy a rich treat in the blunderings and writhings
of these would-be statesmen, during their attempts
to bring before Parliament what remains of the unful-
filled prospectus wherewith they opened the session.—
Times.
The success of the Bill to enable prisoners charged
with felony to make their full defence by Counsel now
seems to be placed beyond a doubt—such a cause,
taken under the protection of the splendid talents of
Lord Lyndhurst, cannot fail to be triumphant. On
the anticipated result of the Noble and Learned Lord's
advocacy iv may congratulate the *iends to the itn-
provement of the administration of justice. An ano-
nsaly, cruel in principle and barbarous in origin, will
be removed from the practice of our criminal sys-
tem,
and life and liberty, in questions chiefly affect-
ing the poor, will no longer be delved of the pro-
tection which is thrown round property by the
precautionary wisdom of British law. The admis
rabic exposition which Lord Lyndhurst gave, in
his speech in the House of Lords, of the past and
present state of the law as to prisoners chttuged with
felony, makes it needless for us to enter at any great
length into the question, more ,especially as we have
on former occasions, during the successive years in
which e have advocated this measure, taken no small
pains to set the public mind right upon this subject.
Nor have we spoken as theorists on this w any other
branch of our system of criminal jurisprudence, the
reiorra of which we have presstd on the attention of
the Legislature and the country—we have closely oh
served the practical working of the system. We have,
we true`, temperately, but at the same time, fearlessly,
exposed its defects, whether of principle or practice,
•
and oow we have the satisfaction to say,' that of the
many important improvements which we have re-
- comnicnded, a considerable number have become law,
and the rest are in assured advancement towards final
• - e success. The speech of Lord Lyndhurst made a power-
imin.ession on the House, where so forcible and lucid

an exposition of the absurd and cruel anomaly which
the Prisoners' Counsel Bill is intended to remove was
never before given. Well did he show how the prac-
tice in regard to prisoners triable for felony, had been
softened down from its first unmitigated injustice, when
neither witnesses could be examined or Counsel em-
ployed, even to take points of law for the prisoner, to
its present qualified injustice, when an enactment that
would allow the prisoner to address the Jury on the
evidence by his Counsel, would sweep away " the last
relic of a barbarous system." If it were wrong to
allow the prisoner to make his full defence by Counsel
in cases of felony, the law ought to be repealed which
allows him that right of defence in cases of treason, as
well as in cases of misdemeanor. But who would dare
to propose the repeal of the salutary and humane pro-
visions with which the law protects human life against
the chances of unjust judgment in cases of treason ?
If the practice of the law is to be made uniform, as it
ought to be, the thing cannot be done by repealing the
precautionary provisions of the law in cases of treason
and misdemeanor, but by adopting similar provisions
in cases of felony, in which latter cases riot only is it
necessary for the ends of equal justice that the pri-
soner should be allowed to make his full defence by
Counsel, but he ought also to have a legal right to a
copy of the indictment, and a compulsory process for
the attendance of his witnesses.—Morning Herald.
The decrepitude into which the Conservative fac-
tion has fallen is followed by its natural results—dis-
sension between the leaders, and disaffection among
the troops. The Peel and Lyndhurst fracas has opened
the flood-gates of innumerable minor channels, and
mutual recriminations are the order of the day among
that " band of brothers" who would gladly do us the
honour of once more taking into their hands the affairs
of this great nation, if John Bull would only forego
his incurable and absurd antipathy to their manage-
ment. It has been long understood by those who
were admitted behind the curtain, that in addition to
the trifling obstacle which an abhorrence which may
jusk.ly be called national, throws in the way of a Tory
rei&l to power, there were internal impediments,
which, however skilfully varnished over, were not
the less real and embarrassing. The heterogeneous
and irreconcilable materials which go to the composi-
tion of the motley squad who were supposed to re-
cognise Sir Robert Peel and Lord Lyndhurst as
their leaders, contained within themselves the ele-
ments of dissolution, and it only required some un-
expected triumph, or some signal defeat, to separate
the ill-assorted and ominous confederacy. Fortunately
for the present and future prospects of England, the
glorious majority of 86 has blasted (we trust for ever)
the prospect of a Tory ascendancy, and it has had the
farther good effect of exposing, in all their naked defor-
mity, the hollow professions of political devotion con-
stantly on the lips of those in whose hearts are envy,
hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. We say it
at once, plainly and distinctly—and we know that we
are borne out by the facts—that Sir Robert Peel and
Lord Lyndhurst have never had the cordial support
of the majority of those who ostensibly enrolled
themselves under their banners. The son of the
Manchester cotton-spinner, and the son of the Ameri-
can artist, have been, at all times, the object of the
malignant, but concealed, hatred of those insolent
oligarchs, who were content, for their own purposes,
to follow in their train—but the haughty Aristocrats
indemnified themselves for their external subser-
viency, by the most scurrilous . invectives, when-
ever they thought they could be safely hazarded. The
recent quarrel of the "brace of parvenus" (for thus
are designated the political chiefs of the Conservatives
by their own soi-disant adherents), has removed all
delicacy upon the subjegii; and the very saloons of the
Carlton Club, and the other Tory preserves, ring with
unmeasured, abuse now of the poltroonery of Peel, now
of the rashness of Lyndhurst. And what—we ask the
question in sober sadness—must be the destiny of Eng-
land, should any inconceivable caprice once more at-
tempt the experiment of a Tory resuscitation ? Confu-
sion at home, and contempt abroad. Corruption, which,
under better auspices, has hidden her ill-omened head,
would once more- stalk abroad unchecked and una-
bashed. Industry, and Prosperity her natural attendant,
would fly from the unhallowed usurpation. The
burnings, the tumultuous assemblages, the stagnation
of trade, and the universal misery, which marked the
period of Conservative domination, would again return
with accumulated horrors—and, possibly, some terrible
national convulsion would be necessary to restore the
vessel of the State to her proper equilibrium. But do
we, indeed, entertain any apprehensions that our coun-
trymen will again bow the neck to Tory domination ?
—that having shaken off the monstrous incubus, they
will once more voluntarily submit to its pestiferous in-
fluence ? We know the native spirit of Britons too
well, to insult them by the degrading supposition.
The voice of the people, emphatically pronounced by
their representatives, and seconded by a patriot Mo-
narch, will drown the whisper of any faction which
may dare to oppose it ; and the ill•advised obsti-
nacy which seems to shut its eyes to the warn-
ings of experience, will be taught the salutary, but
painful lesson, that no reverence for antiquity,
arid no prestige of a name will protect an institution
which has become incurable in error, and anti-national
in feeling.—Morning Advertiser.
The House of Commons decided last night, by a
majority of 24, the whole number of Members present
being 370, for the rejection of a Bill which would
have given to the mercantile and shipping interests of
Liverpool the management of those extensive and va-
luable docks which the mercantile and shipping interest
has created, of which that interest must always be the
exclusive support, and for the faithful and judicious
management of which that interest is naturally more
vigilant and zealous than any other. That this was a
just and salutary Bill may fairly be inferred from the
fact .that, opposed, by the whole power and influence
of Government, it was, nevertheless, rejected by a
majority of only 24 in a House of 370 Members. So
strenuous was the opposition of -the Ministerial party
to the measure, that we find Lords of the Treasury
were dragged from their Board to vote against it
in Committee, and to be defeated. The impar-
tiality and wisdom of the House itself were
to be brought into operation before it could
be determined, that the merchants and ship-
owners of Liverpool ought to have less to do with
the management of the docks than the small shop-
keepers, the dealers in spirituous liquors and tobacco
by retail, and the lodginghouse-keepers of that town.
That this must be the practical effect of committing
the management of these great commercial establish-
ments to the' town council, nobody can affect to doubt;
and the good sense and equity of the proceeding can
scarcely be placed in a stronger light than by the proof
which the division affords that even the House of
Commons was almost ashamed of it. It is of little
importance, however, to his Majesty's Ministers how
severely they tax the consciences of their supporters,
and of still less importance whether the docks of Liver-
pool are henceforth to be managed so as to promote to
the utmost the convenience of commerce and the se-
curity of the incalculable amount of mercantile property
they always contain. What is really important in their
estimation is that the town council, consisting chiefly
of supporters of the Ministerial Member, should be
enabled to draw to itself an absolute monopoly of local
patronage and power. We suspect that the propor-
tion of shipowners and merchants in the town council
of Liverpool is not very considerable. But what sig-
nifies the composition of that assembly ? Suppose it
to consist for the greater part of shoemakers and
tailors, may not tailors and shoemakers be as good
voters as other men, and as good canvassers, too,
among their own numerous class for the Whig Mem-
ber for the borough ; and what more is required to
make them excellent judges and faithful administrators
in all that relates to the construction, repair, and inter-
nal economy of docks ?—Morning Post.

A whale, when struck with the harpoon, will
(live sometimes to a depth of 800 fathoms ; and as the surface
of a large animal may be estimated at 1,500 square feet, at
this great depth it will have to sustain a pressure equal. to
211,000 tons. The transition from that which it is exposed
to at the surface, and which may be taken at about 1,300 tons,
to so enormous an increa3e, must be productive of the utmost
exhaustion.
LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKET, JUNE 23.—We
have no alteration to notice in our cotton-market to-day. The
sales are 2,500 bales—viz., 100 Egyptians, 14d. to 17d. ; 40
Babies, 12d. ; 50 Maranhams, 12d. ; 50 Surats, 61d. to 81d.;
Iremainder American, from 9d. to 11d.