The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-13 00:00:00

PIRIT OF THE PUB:r.aC JOURN

We forbear alludie‘g to the rumelin in general cir- 1
dilation at the -Using of the Courts Yesterday, in I.
Westminster-ILall, because we have reason to believe
there was r
.o real foundation for them. Ministers have
no doubt a difficult part to perform in making a satis-
factory selection ; but we have great confidence in the
beimarable feeling and tact of Lord Melbourne, and the
g,'Jcvd disposition of the rest of the Cabinet. We will
Dot, by any.inopportune discussion, throw impediments
in the way of an arrangement which may secuee clis_
tinguished men for our Equity tribunals: Without de-
priving the country of the services of others eminent
in their profession and high in the public esteem. The
observations already hazarded by us on this subject
were extorted by our anxiety for such a selection as
night ensure to the public an efficient Chancery Re-
form, and preserve for Ministers the confidence of the
country. It had been known for some time that a
successor to L-Jrd Brougham would at length be ap-
pointed, and a liberal contemporary announced, with
:something like authority, that the other arrangements
consequent on such an appointment were also fixed.
We will not now repeat our reasons for advertise
to this subject. We knew that Sir John C,arai
bell had rendered the greatest service; to the
country by his labours on the Real Prol:,eity Commis-
sion, and that, in his capacity of lea,),ing Law Officer
of the Crown, lie had introduced. several measures of
law reform, of incalculable value to the country. We
knew also.that the great majority of both branches of
the profession were hostile to the changes which he
advocated—that the important reforms Which remain to
be intro,liced are equally unpopular with the profes-
siell---and that it would be of the greatest consequence,
with a view to the ultimate success of these reforms, to
retain the services of the able and determined head of
the King's Bench bar—a man whose Parliamentary ca-
reer; has from the first been consistent and decidedly
Liberal, and who has in consequence been twice cho-
sen by one of the largest and most enlightened consti-
tuencies of the empire. We had no wish to under-
rate the merits of Sir William Pepys ; and with res-
pect to Mr. Bickersteth, he is universally allowed to
be an able and eniightened lawyer, and to possess in an
eminent de4ree those qualities of mind which pecu-
liarly fit a man for the judgment-seat. But we will
not trespass further at this time on the patience of our
readr.rs. We trust that the arrangements, when com-
pleted, will not disappoint the nation, and that there
will be no alloy to the general satisfaction.—Morning
Chronicle.

Matters have now arrived at such a pitch in Ireland,
that there must be some forrn7l and immediate decision
promulgated by the suprenee authority of the State on
this brief and pithy quee;tion—viz., whether it is the
bounden duty of the -magistrate to protest the King's
subjects who abide 'ay the law, or the King's enemies,
who deliberately-, systematically, and 'met armis, resist
it. The state of Ireland, we say, has long been ripe
for such a proclamation of the principle on which the
magistrate, by which we mean the executive power
generally, is to act on behalf of the subject, that the
latter may know at once whether his obedience is tbe
net by the protection of the Sovereign, or
';vlether right
and obligation are henceforth to be 'set free from the
limits assigned to both by politiceel society, and each
man is to 'take care of himsetif. The loss of, life
which unfortunately took place at Rathcormac has
been sedulously, and with their accustomed regard
to truth and -public morals, turned to the use of
those incendiaries wlio caused it. We forget the
expressions adopted by our contemporary the Stan-
dard in speaking of that whole transaction and its
consequences ; but although our attention was fixed
upon a branch of the general topic of Irish Popery and
its adjuncts on Monday last, which had no direct te-
ference to the lawless opposition exhibited to the cler-
gymen's demand of tithe, and we therefore then omitted
to remark upon the terms in which " a high church
clergyman" couched his reference to the opinions of
our friend, - the evening Conservative, touching the
Rathcormac outrage—it is, nevertheless, a duty to
declare our perfect concurrence with the manly view
taken by the, Standard of that deplorable event, in
so
far as he reprobates the gross perversion both of lan-
guage aid feeling employed by the revolutionists in
describ; no. it, and our disgust at the wickedness which
inalierns the injured, and reserves for ~the wrongdoer
its whole stock of sympathy and compassion. If mur-
der bad been committed at Rathcormac upon those
who fell in resisting by violence a legal process, the
peaceful execution of whiCh was prevented no otherwise
than by that criminal resistaeice, why were not the
guilty brought to trial ? Why was there no prosecu-
tion of the magistrates who directed the military ?—or
of the officer who commanded them ?—or of the sol-
diers who fired the fatal shots ? All the world is aware
that there was no trial—that, notwithstanding the foul
and villainous endeavour, by numberless paragraphs,
.epeeches, resolutions, execrations, and menaces, poured
out in newspapers, or at public meetings, against the
Clergyman, the Magistrate, and military on that occa-
sion, all assuming that the violators of the law, who
fell victims to their own transgreesion, weere innocent
men, and the party who defeated them and vindicated
the law were guilty—there was, we repeat, no punish,
ment inflicted upon IVlagistrate or soldier—no sentence
upon them—no con‘'..ittion for murder or for man-
slaughter—no prosecution—no bill found against
them. Why ? Because it was manifest to the whole
community—s Ave only the wretched creatures who had
seen cleludeo., by the unprincipled advice of public dis-
turbers, tr.ider which they had acted, andein acting on
which some of their unhappy associates had persisted,
that the case was one, not of murder, as against the
Magistrates or the soldiers, but, of justifiable homi-
cide—that the troops while peaceably discharging the
lawful duty required of tlunn, were savagely assaulted ;
that if they had not taken life they would have lost it;
that if they had not, Used their arms they would them-
selves, one and all, have been mercilessly butchered—
and, further, encouragement would have been afforded
to the insuegent spirit by another example of tri-
umphant outrage and of authority subdued. If,
again, Mr. Daniel O'Connell had not been con-
scious of his own falsehood and malignity in calling the
military execution at Rathcormac murder, or inveigh-
ing against it as an abuse of power, why did not lie
move a Parliamcntar'y inquiry into thefacts? He
saw his own public charges negatively refuted by the
failure of all attempt tre prosecute. He saw the no-
minal Government, flis own creatures, unwilling or
unable to maintain the law by any legal process. Why then did he flinch from the vindication of his own
:repeated, 'Sotenin, deep-toned curses upon the shed-
ders of " innocent blood by the rapacious and san.rui-
nary parsons ?" Was he afraid ? Was lyz., not
afraid that the publication of the truth wouhl, expose
the baseness of his own rancorous caluirne;es ? Was
he, or was he not, afraid that writter, exhortations,
addressed irr the way of " opinion'' to the miserable
multitude as to the legality and solety of certain modes
and contrivances of opposition to tithe collectors,
might be produced in Parliament, or elsewhere ? If
such " opinions" did exist of such a nature as to excite
the people to set then,,selves in array against the law of
the land, because the: successful enforcement of that law
might not suit the. csigns of the covert instigators of
the people—why then, indeed, it would not be difficult
to make out :4 tase of murder against somebody—in
-whose arra:ignment and its fruits Mr. Daniel O'Con-
nell woutd take a very serious interest. However,
Rathco,rmac, unfortunately,; does not now stand alone.
In the: neighbourhood of Cork, on the Bth inst., only
last, Saturday, there was another effort on the part of
a Clergyman to recover his take by legal process, and
the consequences are detailed in the letter from the
Rev. W. Beresford, as well as in the letter of our Irish
correspondent. It will be seen that the Rev. Gentle.
man had made several abortive endeavours to serve
siumnonses from the Court of Exchequer on his
parishioners, who were in default for tithes, in which
duty the persons serving them had experienced both
danger and difficulty.
" bailiffs were assaulted
and beaten off." The necessary aid
refused him, Mr. Beresfordbeing afterwards
sent an' increased number
of bailiff's, on the Bth inst..to serve his subpoenas. They
were attacked, pursued, and closely pressed
.upon by the
rabble. One of the bailiffs was knocked down, and while
on the ground, in defence of his life, he drew out a pistol
and fired among his pursuers, of whom one, a leading
disturber of the peace, was shot. The assailants imp-
tliately ran in upon the bailiff and killed him !

such

is the history -of another tithe tampaign." There
will no doubt be, as there. ha always been; a yell
"
against
`the cruelty of collecting tithe for these " rapa- •
emus and sanguinary parsons i" but what Oriol to '.6t.
the outcry, every lameSt man mbstitikte... tyre ne.vcr
have been edvocates for the preaMigation of the tithe
system. It is, at the ptes,,rit time Of cla4a i... ';erotelied
instrument for the support of the tlei`gy. The Duke
of Weqiipton, Sir Robert Peel, and all enlightened
Mtn in the kingdom, give it up, and agree that some
substitute for tithe, transferring the liability from the
peasant to the landlord, ought-to be established : the
bill of last session, which the factious Whig Minis-
ters
rejected, would have furnished a wise and efficient
substitute. But once more, is that a reason why the
clergy should starve,—why rebellion should wave its
bloody and Victorious flag over the laws of the realm,—
why all authority should be put down by barbarous
force, and the declamations of O'Connell and the " pas-
toral" indecencies of 11'Hale and his followers, be the
only recognized rule of action for the King's stibi!:::te in
Ireland ? Ills true that " passive" resistar:ee, the watch-
word and incantation of O'CouttPl,'„ has ripened, under
tkie auspices of the Whig Y,:inisters, into something like
attic e murder. 'rinse counsellors of the Crown have
Caught from their preceptor a corresponding watch.
• word—namely; " passive protection,"—which, on its
,part, has improved into active connivance At any ex-
cess of outrage and atrocity against the ministers of
religion. Why, let us ask, the help of miliask,tary or police be withheld from the clergy, when they
require either ? The orders of Government go to
this—that the public force shall not be applied to the
prevention of bloodshed, but that human life must
have been attacked, and probably sacrificed, before
au preventive means shall be resorted to ! Had Mr.
Beresford not been refused the protection which he re-
,quired for his people, two human creatures would in
all probability have been still alive. The prima facie
stupidity of such an arrangement is indeed so mani-
fest, that no one can fail to see the fraudulent spirit
of O'Connell at the bottom of it, and that he de-
signed it for a plausible method of deterring the elprgy
from any attempt to serve processes—that is to say, of
debarring them from any chance of recryyering a penny-
worth of their incomes. However, as we began by
saying—things are now browfat to acrisis,and some ex-
pedient must be had recourse to for showing England
that the repeal of. the Union has not yet been carried.
—Times.
The Ve:ris Journals have been lately entertaining
such of their readers as have a morbid appetite for the
horrible with the description of an execution, in which
the disgusting details are set forth with much scenic
effect. The two criminals, Lacenaireand Avril, who
were the sufferers, and whose crimes were of an atro-
cious nature, are exalted into a sort of melo-dramatic
heroes, who, upon the stage of the scaffold, attracted
the gay Parisians in thousands to "enjoy" the specta-
cle of their performances beneath the axe of the guillo-
tine. Why does the French Press, which a few years
ago joined a large portion of the French nation in
calling for the, total abolition of the punishment of
death, now cater for a depraved feeling of curiosity in
that part of the public who delight in scenes of blood?
Why does that Press now provide for the appetite of
those who find akeen relish of enjoyment in gazing upon
the mangled bodies and quivering limbs of their but-
chered fellow-creatures, and who, if they cannot have
such scenes in reality, love to gloat over them in ima-
gination ? Perhaps we can solve this problem.
It may be recollected that soon after his election to
the throne, which the revolution of the barricades had
prepired for him, Louis 'Philippe expressed a strong
opinion in favour of the abolition of the punishment of
death. It was
.about the time that the ill-requited
Lafayette, M. de Tracy, and pther friends of humanity
declared in the Chamber their intention of signalizing
the reign, of the " Citizen-King," by removing the ma-
chinery of the guillotine from the Temple of Justice.
The terrible recollection's of the first revolution—the
crimes of Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and their as-
sociates, against whose guilty abuse of democratic
power the blood of thousands of victims then cried to
Heaven, made the idea of abolishing the guillotine
popular with all the more enlightened and reflecting
portion of the French public. The King, whose
father had perished on the scaffold, to which he
had. previously doomed' his cousin Louis XVI., was
supposed to speak only his honest and sincere opinion,
when he declared -that he wished to see the punish-
ment of death utterly abolished. It was even
thought that a- retrospective glance of filial piety at
a father's fate accompanied the utterance of the
sentiment. If so, the feeling which inspired it has
since died away, and the lesson is forgotten. But
there was another motive for declaring then against
the use of the guillotine. The fate of the Minis-
ters of Charles X. was trembling in the balance.
Louis Philippe wished to conciliate the great Powers
by saving them from the punishment of treason. It
was thought expedient to prepare the public mind for
an act of clemency to those distinguished criminals, by
deprecating even from the throne the employment of
the guillotine as an instrument of justice, under all.
circumstances. Lafayette and his friends no doubt
acted with perfect sincerity in exclaiming against the
punishment of death on account of its inefficacy in
repressing crime, and also on account of the fallible
judgment of human tribunals. On the question of
the fate of the ex-Ministers we gave our assistance
to the advocates of mercy in France. The result of
all these exertions was that the lives of the guilty ex-
Ministers were saved, and from that moment the
Citizen-King's abhorrence of the guillotine as part of
the machinery of justice became as pure a fiction as
his gratitude to Lafayette, or his promises of " a Mo-
narchy surrounded with public institutions." The
Monarchy of " July," the Monarchy of " young
France," is now surrounded with Fieschi laws--the
best apology that has yet been made for the crimes of ..
the Ministers of Charles X. Indeed the laws of the
Doctrinaires ought to be more than an apology for the
crimes of those .Ministers still immured in the Castle of
Ham--they ought to constitute their complete justifica-
tion. Tb-e Government that passed theFiesehl laws ought
to have instantly opened their prison-doors—ought to
have asked their pardon for the ignominious punish-
ment so long inflicted upon them, unless they think
that their clime was not in the attempt to subvert the
liberties of France, but in failing to do that which the
Doctrinaires have since accomplished. After the
lives of the ex-Ministers were saved, the guillotine
had rest in Paris for a considerable time. At length
an attempt was made to revive its use, but popular
demonstrations were made which caused the design to
be abandoned. The same thing occurred with . the
same success, if we recollect right, more than once.
In the meantitne it was worked in the provinces ; but
even the late successful attempt to re-establish it in
the capital was carried into effect with great fear and
caution ; so much so, that up to the morning of the
execution the place where the machine of death was
to be erected was kept a profound secret from all but a
few persons, who were not suspected of being likely
The
military join in any plot to interrupt the spectacle.
military preparations also showed the dread which the
Government 'entertained of some formidable ebullition
of public displeasure. The experiment having so far
succeeded, the Ministerial Press blazons it abroad as
a sort of triumph. Even among a people so fastidious
in their theatrical taste that the dagger Of the bus-
kinned murderer is struck behind the curtain, the cir-
cumstances of an execution are detailed with disgusting
particularity. To spew how little effect such a spec-
tacle is likely to have in the repression*of the crimes
for which the two culprits suffered, we will quote the
words of the Correspondent of a Morning Journal,
who appears to have been an eye witness, and . who
says, in speaking of the chief criminal, Lacenazre—
" From the extreme coolness and self-possession with
which he has conducted himself throughout his trial,
upi s to' tx-tahmepvizeo n
Nt
se.
illi? t
ohfav?adenortohs,titeirsnitcolobues feared
at
11:d at his . . .
ence on that numerous class to which he formerly be-
longed, and that we may shortly hear of the commis-
sion of such crimes in this country as are not to be
prevented by the • fear, or
even the certainty, .of
what is -vulgarly considero
punish-
ments. '' The law ii: the severest of all punish-
', France as well as this country
discla:iens all pie-:isinnents by way of retaliation or yen-
gea',3", 1-„Li declares that the punishment of death is
,
passage which we have quoted above
.im for. revenge or expiation, but only for example.
(The writer of the
fears that the example afforded by the death of