The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-18 00:00:00

-SPIRT ' PUBLIC JOURNALS.
The bloodless triumph of justice, of which France
has given a great example, our rulers—even otn•
Whig rulers—have not thought it expedient to imi.
tate. Our Statesmen and our Legislators applauded
the clemency abroad which they disclaimed at home
—they admired the forbearance in others which they
have themselves abjured—they gave to the noblest
act of magnanimity which has distinguished a na-
tion in modern times the hollow and barren praise
which has not ripened, on their part, into any gene-
rous rivalry in virtue Yet how much more cul-
pable were the criminals whose lives were spared in
France than those who have just perished, and are
about to perish, on the scaffold in England'. The
former, rich, powerful, and educated, had no temp-
tation to crime but that depravity of heart which
sacrifices every moral consideration to a guilty am-
bition—the latter poor, ignorant, deluded, were im-
pelled by misery, and repeated denials of peaceable
redress, into acts of violence and disorder, which,
with all their legal guilt, had not the moral aggra-
vation of being stained by the effusion of blood.
How the crimes of these men sink in importance,
both in a moral and social point of view, when con-
nested with those of the Ex-Ministers of France;
—the one set of culprits attacking certain novel
inventions in machinery as the means of depriving
them of their daily bread ; the other subvert-
ing, in the mere wantonness of power, the very
foundations of civil society ; the one respecting
life in the very frenzy of their excitement ;
the other cutting down or sweeping away musses
of their fellow-citizens with the sabre and cannon-
bulls, and making thousands of wives, widows, rind
children fatherless ! It may, indeed, be said that the
Ex-Ministers were saved in spite of the French po-
pulace. We believe, to a certain extent, that is
true, and that there were thousands in Paris who
thought it only an act of justice that the life of
Polignac, the chief of this more than Catiline con-
spiracy, should atone for his offence ; but who,
we ask, were they that preserved the lives of
the criminals from the summary vengeance with
which they were threatened ? Were they not the
people themselves ? Were they not the National
Guards—the people of Paris, with amts in their
hands, which they used to protect the lives of men
against whose ferocious legions they fought in the
sanguinary and glorious conflicts of July ? Here
are the French people, in their power, setting an
example of generous forbearance which the States-
men and Legislators of England, in their pretensions
to superior wisdom and morality, decline to imitate.
The French have punished crime, and secured public
order, wi:hout shedding blood, and have thereby
achieved a moral victory which consecrates with the
purest radiance of humanity the glory of their poli-
tical triumph. The English Government have in-
deed lost a noble opportunity of preventing this
example of civilized justice front being as solitary as
it is splendid—an opportunity of which, we may
say, the national voice called upon them to take ad-
vantage; but they have denied mercy to the inter-
cession of a whole people—they have resorted to the
sanguinary enforcement of laws, which, as late as
last Session, when the Members of the present
Government were in opposition, they loudly and
indignantly condemned. Do they mean, now that
they possess power, to alter the laws which they
then described as cruel and vindictive ? If they do,
was it consistent to carry them into sanguinary exe-
cution on the eve of their abolition ? If they do
not, what are we to say of the reality of their
avowed principles, and the sincerity of their profes-
sions ? Since we called the public attention to the
subject before, two more wretched men, whose
erime was the breaking of machinery in paper-mills,
have been left for execution at Aylesbury. The
heart sickens at these sacrifices, and particularly
under a Libera/Administration. Can no secondary
punishment suffice in these cases as a substitute for
blood ? or must the noble functions of Justice be
still Regraded to the offices of a base expediency ?
Morning Paper that, in its " desperate fidelity"
to the lute Administration, strenuously advocated
the sanguinary Forgery Bill of Sir Robert Peel, last
Session, now takes credit to itself, a bile approving
of what has been done under the Special Commis-
sions, of having been " the first to plead for lenity
and humanity to the misled and almost frantic oh-
fenders.' The modesty of this assertion is only to
be equalled by its truth. We have been new for
some years engaged in advocating, " through evil
report and through good report," a substantial and
4Teetive amelioration of the Criminal Laws. Those
wino have lately joined the same cause, after lighting
:against it, are entitled to whatever praise a late ac-
knowledgment and .retraction of error deserve,
but it is (04 much for them to expect
oat In consequence of their recent defee-
tiDß, end that, too, a partial one, from the colours
f baxiiivjsm, they should receive the same des
gree of credit for their exertions as those who, un-
der the most atiVai:e circumstances, led the march
.of enlightened jurisprndefice until it gathered power
and grew into popularity. We ore not satisted
that some of the criminals devoted to death should
have been rescued from destruction ;—we would
have saved the blood of all, and thereby have gained
the Government triumph in consonance with their
former principles, and which might be to them here-
after a source of pure and c'dosPigPtious pleasure.
The crime was common, and a commori mercy
usonld have been hailed by the country with satis-
lac4on. It would have rendered the laws more re,
zp.eet,ed, the Monarch more popular, and would have
mereassd are moral Influence, and consequently
strengthened the power of the responsible advisers
Pf the Crown. An evening cotemporary (die Star)
an article on this subjeci: last night, says—
." Unoler worse Administrations, and eircumsta:ices
;ess venial, we had seen some five or six leaders
brought to trial as a warning, and, vengeance being
arrested by compassion; time rest, after due admoni-
tion, were, without prejudice, ;et at large on bail
on their reeognizances. In the present ,ease, we
must confess, we have been disappointed, and in
making this declaration we are satisfied we echo the
feelings of nearly the whole community." This is
quite true. We never recollect so strong and gene-
ral an expression of sympathy in favour of the de-
luded victims of the law as in the present case;
and we deeply regret that statesmen who had often
denounced the sanguinary principles of the law
ohould have discarded their own doctrines in pray-
eke, and rejected that national appeal for mercy.—
forni4g Herald.
Another Proclamation has been issued by die
Marquis of Anglesea, and a meeting called by Mr.
O'Connell has been dispersed. What the course
of the latter will be remains to be seen. That he
will cease to agitate, we do not, of course, believe.
Our contemporary (tine Standard) observes :—" As
to potting down disaffection in Ireland, while that
island contains 3,000 Popish priests, and four or
five millions of idle paupers, to be preached at by
those priests, is a hard task—too hard, we suspect,
for the Marquis of Anglesea." True wisdom con-
sists in making the most of things as they are, and
not in running counter to them. These millions of
paupers are the great body of the Irish people ; and
these 3,000 priests possess their confidence, and are
their leaders. Mr. O'Connell must not be looked

to as an individual; he is idewilied with the priests.
We saw this, and said so from the beginning of the
agitation. If uny proof of this were required, it
will be found in the alacrity with which the priests
have lent themselves to the collection of the O'Con-
nell tribute in their chapels. We have, from time
to time, for some years, looked with some attention
at the exertions of the Irish priesthood, and, what-
soever others may think of them, we consider many
of them to possess talents of the first order, both
for speculation and action. Who is there of the
established clergy, either of England, Ireland, or

Scotland, for -instance, to compare with Dr.
Doyle ? Compare his evidence on the poor laws
Committee with that of Dr. Chalmers, for instance,
and his superiority appears immense. The power,
therefore, by which Mr. O'Connell is supported is un-
questionably of a most formidable character, from the