The Sun.
London, England, 1825-03-29 00:00:00

to the course they mean to adopt with respect to
the Corn Laws. Mr. iluskisson said last night
in the House, that he should not deliver his opi-
nion on the subject till the matter came regular-
ly before Parliament. But Mr. Curwen talked
of exchanging the present law of maximum for
a duty ; but that duty was to be 20s. Now,
when it is considered that the talk of allowing
the importation of grain from abroad will in.
scantly raise the value of the article in the place
of its growth, and that the import duty, be it
what it may, must be added to the increased
price, and to all the expenses of freight, in-
surance, loading and unloading, sea-loss, &c.
too small a duty cannot well be imposed up-
on grain which was to find its way, under so
many difficulties, to British ports.—The conver-
sation on the Catholic question- was, we should
think, rather favourable to the success of the
measure. It was proposed by Mr. Littleton and
others, to connect with the Bill shortly to be dis-
cussed the appendages of a stipend to the Roman
Catholic Clergy, and the suppression of nominal
forty-shilling freeholders. Mr. Peel seemed to
acknowledge that these clauses might render the
measure less objectionable ; and the friends of
emancipation said, that rather than hazard the
success of the general measure, they would con-
sent to the grafting of the proposed clauses on
the Bill. •

:NEW TIMES.]

Of all the extraordinary hypotheses to account
for the mutiny at Barrackpore, the most curious
is that of Mr. Hume, who ascribes it to the want
of a Free Press in India. A Free Press in Eng-
land is an inestimable blessing, because it is fenc-
ed round and protected by our laws, customs,
habits, and opinions—because it is a part of our
free Constitution—and because it rests upon the
good sense and sound judgment of the great
mass of our society. But it is well observ-
ed by Captain Seely, in his " Voice from
India," that the state of things in British
India is very dissimilar. " There," says the
writer, " the People have for centuries lived
under a foreign yoke, either Mohamedan or
British; and be our rule as mild as it may, we
are stil conquerors and intruders, and our sub-
jects are a subjugated people, consisting of an
enormous population, superstitious and restless,
haughty and fierce. Surely these are not the
persons to direct, or fit to judge of the acts of
their masters." It is obvious that the first conse-
quence of a free Press in India would be to spread
discontent among the Natives, and more espe-
cially the Na five Troops. It would be impossible to
prevent inconsiderate, violent, or seditious writers,
from representing to the Natives that they were
harassed by those whose duty it was to protect
them from fraud and violence. Captain Seely
mentions two or three instances of such publi-
cations in India—publications which it cer-
tainly would not have been wise long to tole-
rate. That such a freedom of the Press might
be likely to lead to mutinies we can easily be-
lieve ; that the want of it should produce the same
result is contrary to common sense. Captain
Seely particularly specifies a statement made in
a Newspaper at Calcutta, that the Native troops
at Ilyderabad were paid in a base currency,
which was true ; but. then the Journalist for•
got to add (or perhaps he did not know
the fact) that they were paid the difference
of exchange. Probably the misrepresentation
of the News-writer did not come to the know-
ledge of the soldiery ; but if it had beer: exten-
sively circulated among them, we know nothing
more likely to have excited a mutiny, which
might have spread throughout our whole Indian
Empire. This single instance is a sufficient an-
swer to all the senseless declamation about a
Free Press in India.

[BRITISH PRESS.]

We have judged it advisable to give an abstract
of Mr. Peel's very important and excellent Bill
for the consolidation and amendment of the law
relative to the Juries in England and Wales. The
Bill is substantially the same as it was printed at
the close of last Session. The amendments made in
the Committee consisted principally in expunging
the new qualifications for Jurors, which were
contained in the original draught. This old law
is therefore in fewer respects changed, and this
is certainly the more desirable course. If it
should be (teemed proper to extend the qualifi-
cation of Jurors, the question can be better con-
sidered in a separate form. In the part relating
to the striking of Special Jurors, we observe an
amendment calculated to render that proceeding,
if possible, more perfectly the act of chance.—
By this advice, not the names of the Special Jurors,
but the numbers affixed to them in the Sheriff's
hook, will be put into the box, from which the first
48 drawn out by the proper officer will compose the
Jury for the trial of the cause, unless it can be
shown by the agents on either side, that any of
the names corresponding to these numbers are by
any cause disqualified from serving. We need
not attempt to satisfy our feelings by pronouncing
a panegyric on this great legislative work. 'The
Right Lion. Secretary has heard his praises utter-
ed simultaneously from every quarter of the
House of Commons. His name, already connect-
ed with the re-establishment of our currency,
will descend to our latest posterity as the author
of the measure which restored and embellished
the venerable fabric of Trial by Jury.

LTIIE PUBLIC LEDGER.]
We have received the Paris Papers of Satur-
day, with The Elude of the folldwing day. Et
is stated in the latter, merely as an opinion, that
the Coronation will be put off from the 15th of
May to the same day in June, in consequence of
the probability of the present Legislative Session
lasting longer than was expected. There is no po-
litical cause, therefore, for the postponement; but
it originates solely, it would appear, h a desire to
see the Members of the two Chambers present
at this august ceremony. Prince Metternich had
not left Paris on Saturday, though rumour had
fixed his departure for the preceding day. On
Wednesday there was a conference held at his
house, which was attended by the representa-
tives of several Powers ; hut neither the En-
glish Ambassador, nor any of tie French