The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-12 00:00:00

j.
prise is found in their daily braving destitution in the hope Oi
bettering their hard lot. Their hatred of 4ippression is pro*
by their ill-directed, but constant struggles for -e.qual,rigktS ;
and, if kind-heartedness and charity cover a multittide of sins,
no people on earth can justly claim a larger stock. In iilu -
tration of which I will present one proof out of the rr sly I
possess, because it will at once serve as an illustration of n
assertion, and gratify those who love to contemplate the bright
side of poor humanity.
" The following statement was enclosed to me by an excel-
lent Quaker, one of the partners of the house from whose
books the document is extracted, with a letter which I need
not insert here, but will add, that the statement is incontro-
vertible:
" From the Ist of January 1834, to the Ist of May, 1835,
Abraham Bell and Co. of New York have received from the
working classes of Irish emigrants, that is, from common
labourers, farm servants, chambermaids, waiters, 8.c., to remit
to their friends and kindred in Ireland, the sum of fifty-five
thousand dollars, in amount varying from Svc dollars upwards.
The average number amount of the whole number of drafts
sent is twenty-eight and a half dollars each.

" New York, May 19, 1835.' "
" There is not a part of the country to which I have wan-
dered, where I did not find that a like gentle recollection of
the destitute left at home prevailed. In every large city is
some one or more Irish house, which becomes the popular
medium through which these offerings of the heart are trans-
_mined to the miserables at home. When it is reflected that
the donors are themselves the poorest of the poor, and that
often a. the close of their first summer they are found trans-
mitting 60,7 earning to some mother, or aunt, or sister, with-
out providini"N.o:?inst or thinking of the severity of approach-
ing winter, no euu.'SY can be too strong."

LIVES AND TI?IAZS OF THE REFORMERS.
F4:vL

Muir, Gowans, and Co., Glab;uw ; Tait, Edinburgh;
Groombridgc, London.- 1836.

The Radical Reformers of Great Britain and Ire-
land will hail with delight the publication of a work,
in which justice is likely to be done to the wemory of
those martyrs to liberal princixles, whose bloud has
been the seed of Parliamentary-. Reform. The -first
part, which is published at a price which places the
work within the reach of the humbleSt, classes, con-
tains the trial of Joseph Gerrald, before the High
Court of Justiciary at Edinburgh in March 1794, for
sedition—accompanied with an original memoir of his
ii.fe.l The seditious: language attributed to poor Ger-
rald is half so strong as the language nocY in daily
use among a:1 the public journalists of the kingdom ;
found himguilty, and sentenced
and yet his Judges
him to fourteen years7traizsportation=a sentence from
the rigours of which an eariy death delivered him..
The Scotch Criminal Judges compose the only body of
public functionaries that has uniformly prostituted it-
self to the pleasure of the Crown. In the worst of
times this body has included within it tho cruellest
scourges of its country—the deadliest enemies of that
country's liberty and independence.

The following interesting letter was addressed to
Joseph Gerrald by the venerable William Godwin, the
author of " Political Justice," ‘‘ St. Leon," &c., a
few days before his trial. It is now published by per-
mission of the writer :

" I cannot recollect the situation in which you are in a few
days to be placed, without emotions of respect, and I had
almost said, of envy. For myself, I will never adopt any ,londuct
for the express purpose of being put upon my trial ; buff if I
be ever so put, I will consider that day as a day of triumph.
" Your trial, if you so please, may be a day such as Eng-
land, and I believe the world, never saw. It may be the'
means of converting thousands, and progressively of millions,
to the cause of reason and public justice. You have a great
stake. You place your fortune, your youth, your liberty, and
your talents, on a single throw. If you must suffer, do not,
I conjure you, suffer, without first making use of this oppor-
tunity of telling a tale upon which the happiness of nations
depends. Spare none of the resources of your powerful
mind. Is this a day for reserves, a day to be slurred over in
negligence and neglect, the day that constitutes the very crisis
of your fate?
" Never forget that juries are men, and that men are made
of penetrable stuff. Probe all the recesses of their souls. Do
not spend your strength in vain defiance and empty vaunting.
Let every syllable you utter be fraught with persuasion.
What an event would it be for England and mankind, if you
could gain an acquittal? Is not such an event worth striving
for? It is in man, lam sure it is, to effect that event. Ger-
rald, you are that man. Fertile in genius, strong in moral
feeling, prepared with every accomplishment that literature
and reflection can give. Stand up to the situation. Be whole
yourself.
"' r know,' I would say to this jury, that you are packed,
that you are picked and culled from all the land by the persons
who have at present the direction of public affairs, as men upon
whom they can depend. But Ido not fear the event. Ido
not believe that you will be slaver. Ido not believe that you
will be inaccessible to considerations, irresistible in argument,
and which speak to all the genuine feelings of the human
heart. -I have been told that there arc men upon whom
truth, truth fully and adequately stated, will make no impres-
sion. It is a vile and groundless calumny upon the character
of the human mind. This is my theory, and I now come
before you for the practice.'
" If you should fail of a verdict [but why should I suppose
47] this manner of stating your defence is best calculated• to
persuade the whole audience, and the whole world, for the
same reason that it is best calculates; to persuade a jury.
" It is the nature of the human mind to be great, in pro-
portion as it is acted upon by great excitements. Remember
this. Now is your day. ',Never, perhaps never, in the revolution
of human affairs, will your, mind be the same illustrious and
irresistible mind as it will be on this day.
" You stand on as dear ground as man can stand on. You
are brought there for meeting in convention to deliberate on
grievances. Do not fritter away your defence by anxiety
about little things. Do not perplex the jury by dividing their
attention. Depend upon it, that if you can establish to their
full conviction the one great point, the lawfulness of your
meeting, you will obtain a verdict.
" That point is fully contained in the Bill of Rights—is the
fundamental article of that constitution which Englishmen
have been taught to admire. Appeal (for so, upon your prin-
ciples, you can,') to an authority paramount to the English
constitution, to all written law and parchment constitutions--
the law of universal reason, authorising men to consult. Ire-
land was always the least emancipated part of the British em-
pire. In Ireland they thought proper to pass a tyrannical law
taking away this inalienable privilege. But in Britain they
do worse. Ministers are said to have it in contemplation to
propose such a law in Parliament, and in the meantime, you,
the jury, arc called upon to act as if the law were already in
existence. Was ever so atrocious a breach of equity and
reason ? They pride themselves in having drawn us and a
great part of the Scottish nation into the snare, and over-
whelmed us with a destruction, which no prudence could
foresee and no innocence avert.
" The next point I would earnestly recommend to your
attention, is to show that you and the Reformers are the true
friends of the country, that you are actuated by pure philan-
thropy and benevolence, and have no selfish views—that your
projects lead to general happiness, and are the only means of
averting the scene of confusion which is impending over us.
Our whole effort is directed to the preventing mischief, and
the sparing every drop of blood. The longer the confederates
of foreign despots among us go on in their present impious
career, the more you will want us. We place ourselves in
the breach, to snatch your wives and children from destruc-
tion. Will the present overbearing and exasperating conduct
of government lead to tranquillity and harmony? Will new
wars and new taxes, the incessant persecution, ruin, and
punishment, of every man that dares ,to oppose them, heal
the dissensions of mankind ? No. Nothing can save us but
moderation, prudence, a timely reform, the permitting men to
confer together upon their common interest, in a benevolent
mind, unprovoked by insult, counteraction, treachery, and
arbitrary decrees. It is ra- this antidote to the madness of
men in power that we have made every sacrifice, and are ready
to sacrifice our lives. If you punish us, you punish us be-
cause we have watched for your good.'
" Above all, let me intreat you to abstain from all harsh
epithets and bitter invective. Show that you are not terrible,
but kind, and anxious for the good of all. Truth will lose
nothing by this. Truth can never gain by passion, violence,
and resentment. It is never so strong as in the firm,
fixed mind, that yields to the emotions neither of rage nor
fear. It is by calm and recollected boldness that we can
shake the pillars of the vault of heaven. How great will
you appear if you show that all the injustice with which
you are treated cannot move you; that you are too great
to be wounded by their arrows; that you still hold the stead-
fast course which becomes the friend of man, and that
while
you expose their rottenness you harbour no revenge? c 1
of this unaltered spirit, whom no persecution can
will feel your embitter,value,
if public want. The jury, the world,
i
if you show yourself such a man. Let no human ferment mix
in the sacred work.
" ' We will be sacrificers, but not butchers, Cassius.
We'll carve them as a dish fit for the Gods—
Not hew them as a carcass fit for hounds.'
(" You will not mistake my )
meaning in this quotation. I
adopt thsspirit, not the letter."
" Imitate the courage and self-possession, but not the bar-
barity, of Horne Tooke, in his last trial. You will find some
invaluable hints in Hawles's pamphlet.
Farewell.—My whole soul goes with you.
" Jan. 29, 1794. " W OODWIN."
" You represent us all I"

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RA IN. 'Bic author
of " The American in England," adverting to a wet day in
London, says—." It did not rain with that earnestness and
common energy which in our climate conveys the idea of 11,
thing to be done es a matter of business, and despatched with
busines-like rapidity ; but in a deliberate cold-blooded way,
as if it mightiocontinue on thus for ever, without exhausting its
capacities to annoy." The same writer subsequently adds,
that in America an umbrella is useless and disagreeable; but
that " in England a man without an pmbrella i 5
its a man without a nose,"