The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-21 00:00:00

Mr. O'Connell may think or say, the British people
have reason to feel, that this is not " equal justice.'
Mol•ning Herald.
On Thursday the 3d instant, in reply to some ob-
servations of Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Wakley,
Lord John Russell was able to say that since the dis-
cussion that had taken place in that House, he had thought
it his duty to recommend to his Majesty that two of the
Dorsetshire labourers should have a portion of their sen-
tence commuted. He had already stated that four out of
the six had been permitted to return at the end of two
years, which would terminate in October of the present
year, and he had felt it his duty to recommend to his Ma-
jesty, that the remaining two should return at the end of
three years, which his Majesty had been pleased to direct.
He did not think that any thing had since occurred which
would induce him to recommend a further remission of the
until:nee which bad been passed upon these persons."
On Monday the 14th instant, in answer to a ques-
tion from Mr. Wakley,
Lord John Russell said " That his Majesty had been
graciously pleased to remit all the remaining punishment
of the Dorsetshire labourers."
It will be seen from the above extracts that a some-
what sudden change took place between the 3d and
the 14th of the present month in the opinion of his
Majesty's advisers as to the manner in which the Royal
prerogative of mercy should be exercised in the case
of the criminals above mentioned. It will be seen also

that this sudden change of opinion is left wholly un-
explained. We will now mention some facts which
have come to our knowledge, and which may serve,
perhaps, to shed a little light upon a subject which
Lord John Russell has left enveloped in the thickest

darkness. Many of our readers probably are ignorant
that there is a person of the name of Savage, who
who keeps a public-house or beer-shop somewhere in
the New-road, St. Marylebone—that there is a Club
of Radicals, which holds its weekly meetings at
this public-house or beer-shop on Sunday evenings
—that Mr. Savage, the host, is the Chairman of
this Radical Club—and that the said Mr. Savage is
a very frequent, very familiar, and, if not a very ac-
ceptable, is always, at least, a very well received
visitor at the Home Office. We are informed that

Mr. Savage's Marylebone Radical Sunday night Club
is in correspondence with similar Societies in all or
most of the considerable towns of Great Britain—a
circumstance which adds much to his political import-
ance, and contributes, we are told, in no inconsider-
_

able degree, to the facile access and cordial reception
he never fails to find on his visits at Whitehall. We
are further informed that Mr. Savage did Lord John
Russell the honour of calling in at the Home Office
in the course of the week before last, just to ask his
Lordship, in an easy and friendly way, what his final
determination was with respect to the expatriated
patriots of Dorsetshire ; that he hinted to his Lord-
ship the probability that on the following Monday a
question would be put to him on the subject in the
House of Commons, and intimated the fearful
certainty, in the event of such a question being
put,- and an answer in the slightest degree un-
satisfactory being given to it, that on a certain
future day, which he also named, petitions would
be presented from all the considerable towns
of Great Britain. After the pleasant tete-a-tete
in which these disclosures were made, the
two great men, the Russell and the Savage, shook
hands, and parted. What took place on the following
Monday in the House of Commons our readers have
seen in the latter of the two quotations frotwthe Par-
liamentary reports with which we commenced. What
our readers will infer from the above sequence and
concatenation of circumstances is more than we can
gues. We caution them against any rash induction.
It does not necessarily follow, from the facts we have
stated, that in this particular instance the Royal pre-
o!ative has been exercised in reluctant obedience to
the pressure from without, or that Lord J. Russell,
when he announces the remission or mitigation of a
13,;a1.40tePee, is henceforth to be regarded as a mes-
se,i..!er a mercy, not from the King of Great Britain
and Ireland, but from Mr. Savage, of the Circus Ta-
v2rn. At last night's meeting of Mr. Savage's Ra-

weal t. lub all was joy and exultation of course. The
Chairman, all reports. agree, was more than usually
eloquent rmtl grand. He treated his admiring auditors
to the following well-known quotation, which we are
rlssured he pronounced with " good emphasis and good
discretion :"

" The quality of mercy is rot strained ;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed—
It him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest : it becomes
The throned Monarch better than his crown.
Ilis sceptre shows the force of temporal power—
The attribute to awe and majesty,
• Wherein (loth sit the dread and 'fear of Kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered, sway_
It is enthroned in the hearts of Kings—
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.
We are not sufficiently familiar with the dramatic
poetty of the Nohle Secretary of the Home Depart-
ment to know whether it contains any description of
Kingly mercy superior or equal to the above, or, in
short, whether it contains any such description at
all. But if it do, then we dare venture to say that
Lord John Russell did not repeat Shakspeare's lines,
on the subject, at the last Cabinet dinner.—Morning
Post.

The debate on Friday night in the House of Com-
mons leaves Great Britain no alternative but to insist
upon, and, if necessary, enforce reparation for the insult
offered to her honour, and for the outrage perpetrated
against the law of nations by the three aggressive
powers in the occupation of Cracow. The representa-
tives of the people have unanimously proclaimed, and
the Government has admitted, that the safety of Eu-
rope and the honour of England arc involved in this
atrocious violation. Shall it then be said that the Go-
vernment and Commons of England were the heralds of
the general disaster and national dishonour, without
taking decisive measures to avert the one or to redeem
the other ? For the last ten years the incompetency and
timidity of our foreign policy has been annually bung-
ing the country into circumstances of greater difficulty
and disgrace. Our forbearance has served only to invite
aggression, till at length England, whose very nod at
one time moved nations to her will, is now passed by
as unworthy of notice by the Sovereign States. It is
time to arise from a position so dishonourable. We
have a long account to settle with Russia. It is not
by one act, but by a succession of acts, that she has
encroached upon our interests and insulted our
honour. With such provocation our tranquillity is
infamous. Let peace be preserved with honour, or
not at all. It has been said by Ministers, that we
should not give expression to sentiments of abhorrence
and indignation, without being determined to act with
sufficient force. We consider the advice to be salu-
•tarv, but do not see anything to justify a doubt of the
strength and determination of the British people.
They have ever been as ready to strike as to speak,
when national feeling has been appealed to—nay, they
have often appeared to fight solely for fighting sake,
and the good old Tories have sometimes taken advan-
tage of this propensity, and plunged the country into
wars to support despotism by popular delusion. Why
then question the ability and inclination of England
to maintain her rights, or imply that she would not be
willing to put forth the same energy in a good cause
as she has, by Tory artifice, been occasionally in-
duced to exercise in a bad one ?—Government
should know the national character better, and in-
stead of waiting to be urged by force of public opinion
as it were unwillingly into a vindication of our in-
terests and honour—the Minister should at once
have stated the nature of the outrage, expressed his
determination to have redress, asked for the necessary
support, and if it were refused—but such a supposi-
tion is impossible—the Commons of England could not
so grossly betray their duty,—therefore having obtained
the sanction of the people through their Representa-
tives, a spirited remonstrance should be made ; and if
redress were denied, the Minister of England would in
his own conscience, in the face of -England and
Europe, before God and man, stand justified in en-
forcing by hostile means the rights which the interests
of his country, of humanity and civilization, call upon
him to protect and maintain. Had this course been
pursued, would Russia dare to encounter the hostility
• land by refusing reparation? She dare not.
relent that the first shot fired in hostility by
!,: a•-• , b • the signal of a general combination
tates that have suffered from her
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