The Sun.
London, England, 1822-01-08 00:00:00

SPAIN.

MADRID, D EC. 20.--(Private Letter.)—Strange
things have been passing here of late. The ene-
mies of the Constitution, hardened and incapable
of being reconciled to any thing reasonable, are
continually plotting against the felicity of this
nation, deserving of a better fate, and at present
our position is very singular. The King, of
course, does not go on sincerely, and this fact
can no longer be disguised. His Ministers also
have placed themselves at the head of the coun-
ter-revolution. The object is to replunge us
into that state of despotism in which we were
in the year 1814, with the Inquisition, &c.
over our Beads. If we have gained nothing
else, at least we have made our enemies
know the absolute impossibility of again bring-
ing us back to this state of degradation. The
most consummate Serviles have the accents of li-
berty on their lips, but not in
their hearts.
Their present plan is infinitely more dangerous

A report prevailed on 'Change this morning,
said to have been received by private letters,
that some fresh disturbances had taken place in
Spain, in consequence of which the Spanish-
Funds had lowered 4 per cent.; but as yet we
could not trace it to any authentic source.

The French Papers of Saturday, and various
German Journals to a.verY recent- date, have ar-
rived since our last, from which we give extracts
in our- preceding columns. The report in the
article from Frankfort, that the Porte had .actep-'
.ted the. Russian ultimatum on: the 19th of •Dec.',.
appears'to have been circulated by the House•of
RotilsCiinn, and is considered to be a stock-
jobbing speculation, as not only the Vienna ..Tour-
mils of the 26th •of December, the day after the
courier dispatched from Constantinople with the
above intelligence is said to have arrived in the
Austrian capital, are silent on the subject, but
the. President of the Germanic Diet, anti the
Russian •Ministeri --Peron D'ANSTETT, are also
without any advicee respecting so important an
event as that circulated by the house: of ROTH.
SCHILD, which we think would not have been the
case if there had been any truth in the report.
An article from Odessa says that the
.Porte
officially announced to the European Ambassa-•
dors at Constantinople on the 30th Nov. that the
SULTAN had rejected the ultimatum of Russia ; and
it would seem as if the Cabinet of Petersburgh
had anticipated:this result, for Count de WITT7'
GENSTEIN, commanding the Russian Army of. the
South, had been ordered to Petersburg!' by the
Emperor A.I.XANDER, to receive his final in;-
structions for the plan of the campaign, and after
staying in that capital only five days, returned to
his Head-quarters. It has long been understood
that the Russian army on the-Pruth was destined
to penetrate into the Ottoman territory as soon

as war was declared, and the joutr.ne.y of this Rus-
sian General. to Petersburgh, and.his speedy. re-
turn, as well as the circumstance or 'the Russian
troops being furnished with provisidus only from
fortnight to fortnight, lead tol the belief that
Rnsiii is._ oh the ;point of advancing her armies
~.N4 • -s
to the enemy's country.

Recent Letters from Constantinople bring ac-
counts that a severe storm had taken place in the
Black Sea, in which twenty vessels have perish-
ed, and that among them were several belonging
to Marseilles.

Extract qr a Letter from NeF York, Dec.lo.
" The Congress of the United States, the Su-
preme Power of the Land, is now in session, and
the Legislature of Twelve States are also now in
session, viz.--7-Vermont, Rhode Island, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Marylaitel, North Caro-
lina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Ten:
nessee, Kentucky, and Missouri. Thus we have
the Supreme Central Government in. motion, and
a great number of others, in many respects
_equally supreme and independent, like so many
planetsrevolving around it, and in motion at the
same time ; and long may these Governments con-
tinue to move in harmony, each, within its own

The increase of. Crime and the state of our
Penal Laws are subjects of such deep and
anxious concern, so full of diiliculty, and so
urgently requiring investigation, that any man
who honestly bestows uppn them his labour and
Ingenuity, with whatever ultimate success, at
least. deserves credit for his industry,..and respect
for his public-spirited intentions. But they are sub-
jects also which, especially in any popular disserta-
tion,should be handled with peculiar care and accu-
racy, for a few rash conclusiotis..and unwarranted
phrases thrown into common circulation, on topics
of this kind, are likely to produce great imme-
diate mischief, and obstruct, rather than advance,
the good ends they were designed to serve.
We are led to. these observations. by the broad
and startling reflection which has been thrown
:upon our Criminal Courts in the recent publica-
tion, by Mr. BurroN, member fox— Weymouth,
of his Speech in Parliament on the 23d. of last May.

_ .
To those who were unacquainted with the con-
tents of this speech, it must be not little asto-
nishing, in the midst of so discreet and temperate
a discourse, to find it boldly anti directly asserted.
that the greater number of our criminal trialu
are scenes of downright perjury ; of perjury in
Jurymen, perjury in Witnesses, and more than
perjury in Judges ; a complication of guilt occa-
sioned by the necessity of evading the too severe
provisions of our Statute Law. •

• For the proof ,of this formidable charge, the
Hon. Member does not vouch his own personal
observation, or that,. of any experienced friend,
.nor does he produce any grave documentary au-
thority. But he has diligently gone over the
sessions Papers for a certain period, .and has cot-
ircoottil;esdricoaeirldi
lected from these dry and meagre records a list
of cases in which prisoners were accused of steal-
et
isivseaftltiulataothi an
paairtrttiaoi
lru.l
amount
but were
iodinieglryeduCuomn theev. olincht these
examples, which he has accumulated to the num-
-Ifer,lie says, of twelve hundred, he triumphantly
.grounds
his alarming imputationS on the criminal
justice of the country. Certainly, if such
.charges were well founled, it would be b :;ter
that oeences should be treated with .any degree
of lenity, it would be better that robbery should
go altogether unpunished, than that.the Ic.iNo's
Courts should become a school in which his sub-
jects should be taught the practice of sophistry
and bad faith, and daily compelled: to trifle with
the most solemn obligations..
But„ without calling in question the correctness
of the Sessions Papers, as far as their-information
goes, we arc much inclined to dispute the accu-
racy of those conclusions which have been rested
on their authority. First, in comparing the
verdict with the charge; Mr. flux•rorr- does not
seem to have recollected that the persona who
*prepare bills of indictment against prisoners, are.
always careful to state at leaSt as much as the
prosecutor can possibly be expected to prove ;
and that an indictment may be decorated with a
whole wardrobe of clothes, or a complete skew-
glass of. trinkets, when the witnesses . shall only
identify a waistcoat, or. a watch-key.. Such, very
probably, •was the case in many of the twelve
hundred instances adduced before-the House of
Commons. Again, the stolen property discovered
in a criminal's possession, may be the accumu-
lated produce of a twelvernot:l_ll7'3 pilfering ;
'and the prisoner cannot, under a' single chatgq
be -convicted of several
.tbefts." The Jury is
therefore obliged W.-select some one of the
combined offences out of which the prosecution
arose, and that one, in all probability, does not
amount, by-itself, to a capital crime. The Mem-
ber. for Weymouth, indeed, asserts that an eva-
-IS.on. is practised, when, for- want of contrary
:proof, it is. supposed that the property was stolen
of various times ; .but this evasion is, ill fact,
only the application of a principle strictly equi-
:table, and,: to' the honour of our Courts, reli-
gionsiy, adhered to in all cases, from the- blackest
mnrderjo.the most trivial Inisderneanotir, that if
there be any uncertainty, any failure of material
proof, the presumption shall be in favour of the
accused. It is reasonable to suppose, that a great
proportion of the twelve hundred 'verdicts in
question were given under circumstances like
these, and without the smallest infringement, by
Jurymen,, of the duty prescribed to them by
their oath ?

Another cause of scandal is the estimating of
property at less than its value by witnesses and
jurors, for the purpose of avoiding capital con-
victions. We believe that it is a common prac-
tice on trials where life may depend upon the
event, to rate the stolen property as low as if
it were to be disposed of at the greatest imagin-
able d'sadvantage. And, considering that the
value of goods (more especially of those which
have been deteriorated by use). can scarcely in
any instance be deposed to like a settled matter
of fact; that in almost every case considerable
scope is left for the exercise of private judgment;

that prosecutors have no rightupotra trial to esti-
"nate articles as highly as if they were enabled at
that moment, or should immediately have it in their
Power, to dispose of them to a fair customer ; that
ntany kinds of property owe the whole or greatest
Part of their extrinsic value to passing fashion,
or fluctuating opinion, or taste in 'which numbers
disagree ; allowing their due weight to these and
similar considerations, and applying to them the_
benevolent principle. already stated, that every
Uncertaintymust be turned to the prisoner's ad-
Vantage, can we find.. any pretence, Upon thiS
'lie* of the subject, .for assenting to the propo-
sitions of the lion. Member, and- branding wit-
nesses, jurymen, and Judges with the reproach
of perjury ?
It ispossible-that from -time to time evidence may
have been given,or verdicts returned ,which we can-
notreconcile to ours-elves by any of these arguments
httt it also happens in trials, arising out of the
most uninipeaChabfe: provisions of our law, -that
WitnesseS and jurieS'will sometimes unexpectedly
and inexplicably depart from what a by-stander
Would pronounce to be the direct line of their
duty ; and a few occurrences of this kind, in
the multitude of criminal proceedings, afford no
reasonable -ground'fOr impeaching the general
administration of justice. . .
We are astonished that in 'the lengthened dis-
tussiOn of important a'subject, and in support
of a grave accusation against some of our highest
tribunals; Mr. BUXTON ShOuld'have concleaCend
ed to introduce so poOr a jest as what he calls-the
talebrated case at. PeVensy, where it seems, at
some period unkoown, or
.at least unnamed,
a man was convicted before the Justices in
Quarter Session, of stealing a pair of leather
breeches; .and these Oentlemen, being then
informed for the first time that the.- offence
was capital, and not whiling to, pass .sentence of
death, consulted a learned Chief Baron, who was
dining in the neighbourhood, and at hisrectim-
raendation inserted in the record, after the :word
" Guilty," the words "of Manslaughter. 'By
the manner in which this story is told, it does
Pot Seem to have struck the narrator that these
:worthy Magistrates might almost as safely. haVe
:committed Manslaughter themielves as intro-
duced any alteration in a recorded verdict. The
Hon. Member shows-_a more than necessary can-
dour in acknowledging that the anecdote does
not rest upon indisputable- evidence, nor, if it
Were. true, -has • it -any regular bearing upon the
subject ; but it will probably. be 'rertienibered
and repeated by those who will pay little. at-
tention to 'the more useful and argumentative
Parts of Mr. BlixtoN's pamphlet. •
It is far froM our desire, in Making these re-
ntarks, to dispute the propriety of revising some
Parts of our criminal or' to oppose all relaxa-
tion of its severity ; 'but we disapprove the course
Of argument to which our strictures have been
confined, because it rests upon assumptions which
we consider violent and injurious, and because,
"en if it were consistent with truth, it does not
reach the point on which it is intended to bear, the
severity of our penal code. If it be true that
(tivasioos are resorted to, that property is unduly,
predated, for the purpose of avoiding
coe
nwietions, still the. same subterfuges would
inevitably be used in spite of any :variation
that might be made in the apportionment of
Penalties to the amount of property 5t01en.....„
-For example, if death (and the'observation
would perhaps apply to any other 'severe pu-
-I'4lll-nen° were- to be inflicted for 'thefts to -the;
value- of forty pbUrds,instead of forty shillings,
Prosecutors and jurymen would'atill be disposed?
if Possible, to fix the price of goods- at thirty-
.4ine pounds rather. than forty, and unquestion-
ably, if it were not sufficiently. proved that the
tiander was all taken •at once, there would be
ile'same reason as. at present for presuming that
it was obtained at different times.
These objections, therefore, as far as they'
have any force, apply, note to the low ..rate - at.
which man's life is estimated ;. 'to -the propriety
of rendering felony capital, or .liable to any in
greased punishment, at forty shillingS:or -four
Ilandred pounds, -but. to the principle itself, of
,measuring such crime by the amount of property
'Men ; and perhaps' Mr. Box.roN's ingenuity
fight have been more usefully 'employed 'in a
careful and rigid -examination of thiS principle,
1411 in collecting such data and throwing out
lath reflections as we have noticed, and which,
:,iisseminated beyond the walls of the House of
;'outtnons, will probably have no very salutary
'''fluence upon the public mind, Or upon the con-
tlact of individuals. •

1, When it. is
,publicly asserted that tribunals?
the deemed irreproachable., 'are polluted by
tflo daily violation of oaths, that perjury is corn.
nfitted by prosecutors .and juryrneit, and en=
'°oraged by judges, almost as a matter of course,
hat effect is likely to.be produced in those who
'end an ear to such representations ? To men
Of Wavering honesty, when summoned' to assist
°n trials, either as witnesses or as jurors, the
belief that such a system exists, must afford a
Planiible excuse forany fraud or breach of their
°bligations, which they, for- their own purposes,
1if,43, feel tempted to commit. .If they believe
s
;flat on some occasion the whole Conit -conspires
14 open perjury, such men may naturally ;Ina-.
.14.41 e that the offence will not .be very -great
r they too, in their own way, shOuld tamper a:
little with the truth. To those, 'on the -other
1
411, who go into Courts with a wish to erve
;heir country conscientiously, it most be ain'ago-•
I,tizing considetation, that in the performance of
~,'"at duty they may-probably he compelled_ to
vl'nfane the attested name of their Maker, or
'fie sacrifice a human life to their own uncon-
ilerable nicety.
In the mean time a fatal advantage is afforded
a° persons who (with motives very different from
ratfY that we impute to the Member for \Vey-
raftnoth) joyfully avail themselves of all opportu-
• •traffics to-lower the authority of our Courts,. and
'depreciate in all its departments the admi-
iffstration of justice in this country : and the
Aired
and malicious of other- nations are sup.
clied with admirable materials for composing, a
eW chapter of calumnies against the Englikih,
l;Pon; the authority, which, for this purpose, they,
•.vill hold unimpeachable, of an English Member
4.1 Parliament.