The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-12 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1849.

The political ingratitude which, so long contagious
in France, has proved the destruction of so matiy
popularities, has at last extended from individual
members of the Assembly to the whole mass of the
national representation. Prepared as we were for
almost any fluctuation of sentiment in the m nds of
those classes who have shown so much fickleness in
their attachment, we may avow at once that this
sudden revulsion of feeling throughout several of the
departments has caused us no slight, and certainly no
very pleasurable, emotions of astonishment. We re-
gard with a sense amounting to loathing the
suicidal, or we might call it, the parricidal, fero-
city of this reaction against the framers of
the Republican Constitution. In attacking the Na-
tional Assembly, the miserable dissentients to whom
we are referring are actually aiming the bludgeon of
murder against the incarnate genius of the People.
In endeavouring to destroy the great Republican
Parliament which has laboured during eight awful
months so nobly, so earnestly, so bravely, so glori-
ously in the cause of France, of Europe, of demo-
cracy, of civilization, of religion, of humanity—they
are striving to stifle the popular voice, to smother the
aspirations of a great race, to strangle the legislative
Redeemer of the country. In the diminution of the in.
fluence of LAMARTINE there was something touching.
In the downfal of the power of CAVAIGNAC, there was
something sombre and despondent. But in the as-
saults which are nuw being made upon the fame and
upon the authority of the National Assembly—that
Assembly which the one created with his eloquence,
and which the other defended with. his courage—
there is an evidence of criminality so heinous, and of
turpitude so base, that the heart revolts •from the
spectacle with feelings of unmitigated execration. In
the National Assembly the world has recognised the
embodiment of that beautiful and sublime idea which
was first articulated on the 26th of FebruarY
1848, by the lips of the poet-statesman—thati dea
which streamed like a gleam of light through the
chaos of an abrupt revolution, telling the people that
they might secure not only their salvation, but their
glory and their happiness, by descending into the
very depths ;of the country and sounding the great
mystery of the rights of nations! The world has

acknowledged in the National Aqsemblv the re-,li-
tir,anl; ,viii' it
nessed, in the history of that, Assembly examples of
valour, of self-sacrifice,•of calmness in danger, of dig-
nity under insult, of loyalty to the population, and
of devotion to the Republicrsuch as have had
few precedents and fewer parallels in the annals of
mankind. On the 15th of May, when scarcely
compacted together, the democratic Parliament pissed
through its first probation ; and it passed through that
probation scathless and unsullied. During the four
appalling days of June it had to battle for its exis-
tence, and not only for its own existence, but for the
preservation of society, of liberty, and of civilization.
Some of its distinguished members—men who shone
either as orators in the tribune or as heroes in the
fields of war—gloriously died at the foot of the
barricades, fighting in the holy cause with
which the National Assembly was identified. Hear
the eulogiums which these memorable deeds have
extorted from the reluctant heart of an enemy. Hear
the language employed upon this subject by Monsieur
GUIZOT—" Justice compels us to acknowledge," he
says (Dem. in France, chap. iii, p. 23) " that the
leaders of the Republic have endeavoured to belie the
predictions of its adversaries, and the fears of the
public. They hare respected the faith of mer.
They have fought—very late, it is true, but
at last they have fought—for the existence of
society. They have not broken the peace
of Europe, and they have striven to main-
tain the public credit. These meritorious efforts
do honour to the men invested with power, and show
moreover, what the general instincts of the country
are." Such are the panegyrics coming from the
austere and unenthusiastic intellect of a man who
once gained for himself the reputation of a statesman.
And the encomiums pronounced by him upon the
Executive Commission and the other members of the
Republican Government extend as a necessary con-
s equence to the aggregate of the national repre-
sentation.

It is against this national representation that
the murderous hand of a faction is now
raised in defiance. Petitions are said to be
pouring into the Assembly demanding in the name
of the people its instant dissolution. Those petitions
we have already denounced and again denounce as
forgeries. They bear upon their very front the
stamp of being the fabrications of a contemptible
clique, a clique as contemptible as that which de-
ceived the Honourable Member for Nottingham by
its assurances, and induced him in an evil moment
to lay the notorious Chartist Petition before the
British House of Commons. It is the latest of
the dastardly plots of the reactionaires but it is
one which if carried a hair's-breadth too far beyond
the limits of endurance, will recoil with a dismal
vengeance upon themselves. As an expression of the
sentiments with which this endeavour is regarded in
the French capital, we are satisfied that the remarks
of our Paris correspondent (published in this even-
ing's impression) will not be perused with indiffe-
rence. A threat is there held out against the
counter-revolutionists that in the event of any over-
provocation the people will rise up again in their ma-
jesty, but no longer merciful as in February. There will
be no escape for those who are tampering with
liberty. They will find no hiding place for their
cowardice. They will perish infamously, expiating
in a bloody catastrophe the crimes of the Cutinter-
Revolution. Let them beware—they are tempting
the thunderbolt !

By far the greater portion of the criminal law
throughout the country is at present administered
by benches of magistrates, assembled at what are
termed sessions, in the various counties or divisions,
General Quarter Sessions are held four times a-year
in each county for the trial of larcenies, assaults, and
misdemeanors, punishable with transportation, fine,
imprisonment, or whipping—the more atrocious
offences being left to, be tried at the county assizes.
The jurisdiction is thus of a very extensive cha-
racter, and parties convicted may be sentenced
to the highest secondary punishment known
to the law. The rural population regard
their Worships with the most profound awe.
They are looked upon as the administrators of justice
in their respective districts. They hear and adjudi-
cate upon the ordinary cases of every-day occurrence.
For one charge remitted for trial to the assizes, fifty
are decided by magistrates. It is, therefore, a matter
of the utmost importance that parties to whom such
extensive powers are confided should be duly quali-
fied for the situation—that they should bring learning
and experience, calmness, temper, and dignity to the
discharge of their important duties. The vindication
of the law is entrusted to their charge. For the
time being they are the representatives of the
SOTERZIGN, who is the chief magistrate of the country.
Any error, whether of omission or commission, arising
either from ignorance or prejudice, is calculated to
bring the majesty of the law into contempt and dis-
repute, and thus to inflict the most serious, nay, ir-
reparable injury upon the community in general. It
has been well said by one of the most eminent legal
reformers of modern times, that " it would be better
for a people to live under an ill system well executed,
than under a good system administered by incapable,
corrupt, or dependent judges." This is indeed the
truth, and no stronger proof can be afforded of the
extreme care that should be exercised in the selection
of persons to be entrusted with the commission of
the peace.
There is one member of the Bench, however,
whose duties are even of a more important character
than those of his brother justices. The situation of
Chairman of the session is not: only honourable and
influential, but it is also arduous and responsible. He
is expected to be the adviser of his younger and more
inexperienced coadjutors, the spokesman and mouth-
piece of the Bench. By him the juries are charged,
the law interpreted, the punishments apportioned, and
the sentences pronounced. Any deficiency on his
part must become immediately apparent, and is,
therefore, more inexcusable than if it existed in
one contented with an humbler position on the
bench. If a wise and sagacious chairman can be
obtained, the other justices will seldom, if ever, dis-
pute his behests, or quarrel with his judgment. He
fills, in fact, the same character of the judge as as-
size, and the whole burden and responsibility of the
proceedings rest upon his shoulders.
Before the enactment of the Legislative Union
between England and Ireland, the Irish Parliament
recognised the absolute necessity of obtaining a per-
son duly qualified for the discharge of such vitally
important duties. They perceived that they could
no longer be intrusted to the " Great Unpaid"
—that legal knowledge was essential, and that the
party called upon to preside as a judge, should be
amenable to public opinion for the proper exercise of
its functions. He should not be permitted to set up
ignorance as a defence. Accordingly (by the 36th
of Geo. 111. c. 25, s. 2.) " the Lord-Lieutenant, or
other Chief Governor of Ireland,
was empowered to
appoint a practising barrister, of at least six years'
standing, or who shall have actually practised six
years, and who shall not at the time of his appoint-
ment
,to such office have retired from practice for
more than two years, to act as a constant assistant to
the justices at every sessions of the peace, or ad-
journment thereof, held for the administration of jus-
tice in criminal cases, and to preside and to be sole
judge on the hearing of causes by civil bill." Such
assistant-barrister when appointed becomes, virtute
officii, a justice of the peace for the county in which
he shall be so appointed. He is, in fact, the judge
of minor criminal offences, and of a certain class of
civil cases. His office combines that of judge of the
county court, and chairman of quarter sessions.
The system has worked admirably well since that
time—a competent person presides at all times, and
those ridiculous and painful scenes that too often
occur in this country are never witnessed on the
other side of St. George's Channel. It may be a
question whether it would not be well to import the
Irish system if many such cases are reported as those
which are stated to have taken place at Preston and
Taunton within the last week.
In the former case, Mr. THOMAS BATTY ADDISON
presided. A woman named IticnAunson was tried
for stealing a half-crown from a man named Non-
MS, who admitted that he had been treating the
prisoner and two other women, and that he was
rather "fresh" at the time. The jury acquitted
the prisoner, and it is said that the members of the
bar and the assembled audience generally approved
of the verdict. The "dignified and learned"

Chg;rman, however, than ht proper to aftqek the
language which certainly was not suited to a court
of justice. He said--" Why, this woman has been
convicted before, and imprisoned at Lancaster for two
years. A set of stupid fellows like you cannot see
the evidence. You (speaking to the prisoner) have
had a wise jury; when you are tried again you may
hope to have such another—you set of stupid ---,
how can you think of giving such a verdict when
you are upon your oaths ? Is there one
amongst you that is not as sure that she
stole that half - crown, as that you are sit-
ting in that box ?" Well might there have been
great sensation in court, and expressions of dis-
approbation on the part of the bar when language of
such an extraordinary character, better suited for the
purlieus of Billingsgate than the judicial bench, fell
from the lips of a chairman. But this was not all :
when a juryman attempted to explain the grounds on
which he had returned his verdict, he was un-
courteously stopped by the Chairman, who said—
" Well, don't argue ; you are not fit; you cannot
pretend to have any doubt about the matter. It was
your duty to have given a verdict according to your
oath." Such was the conduct of a person represent-
ing her Most Gracious MAJESTY, and dispensing jus-
tice to her subjects.

In Somersetshire the exhibition was equally
pitiable, although there the error apparently arose
from ignorance of law, and not from any want of
temper or gentlemanly demean our. A prisoner to an
indictment for a larceny pleaded autre fois acquit,
alleging that he had been tried and acquitted of the
same offence at the Quarter Sessions at Dorsetshire.
This plea was demurred to ; the counsel for
the prosecution admitting that he could not
deny the truth of the statement, and had
therefore no course but to demur. The de-
murrer, however, was overruled, and the validity-
of the; plea established. On the counsel for the pri-
soner then applying for his discharge, the Gallant
Chairman answered, " Oh, no. How can we decide
on the merits of the case without hearing the evi•
dente ?" The Bench then decided against the plea
which they had formerly considered good, but de-
clined to assign any reasons, the Chairman sagaciously
remarking that " a decision may be right, whilst the
reason is wrong." The prisoner was then put on
trial, convicted, and sentenced to a week's imprison-
ment, from the beginning of the sessions, although it
was admitted that he had been previously tried and
acquitted of the same offence. Although he was
forthwith discharged—the week being actually ex-
pired—his counsel intimated his intention.to bring a
writ of error to reverse the judgment.

When two such cases can be cited within a single
week no further argument is necessary to impress
upon the public the importance of an immediate
change in the system, and the procuring of compe
tent persons to fill the situations of chairmen to the
benches of magistrates. No reasonable amount of
salary would be denied for this purpose. The ser-
vices of the judges of the county courts could eaily
be made available, and they would then hold the
same positions as those filled by the assistant •bar-
risters of Ireland.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

The National has the following admirable article
on the present situation of France :
a__
" It would be useless any longer to dissemble the truth.
Our enemies themselves have torn away the veil with
which only a few months since they considered it prudent
to surround their secret thoughts. At the hour when the
revolution of February, bursting forth like a clap of
thunder, effaced in a few minutes the shame of eighteen
years, the monarchy fell without one of those who owed
their fortunes to it endeavouring even to defend it. When
the aged King left, alone and abandoned, where was M.
Thiers? He did not again appear until all danger was
already far from us. The revolution had given proofs of
moderation and of pity. The Government, in the midst
of immense difficulties, had no other strength than that
which it derived from the general assent of the people.
It was attacked in its acts and in its tendencies. When
the Executive Commission replaced the Provisional
Government, the struggle which up to that time had
been concluded, became more audacious. As it be-
came more removed from the 24th of February, the plan
already formed more clearly developed itself. Ob-
stacles appeared to grow up every moment before the
feet of the then Government, and at length it met with
the same fate as its predecessor. The fatal days of June
brought Geceral Cavaignac into power; but re-action
pursued its system. It may be summed up in a few
words:—To give occasion for faults which were impos-
sible to be avoided under exceptional circumstances, and
to afterwards exaggerate those faults with increased
malevolence; in a word, to bring persons into disrepute
in order to compromise the principles they served. Such
is the secret of the odious tactics employed, and to which
all the men who have taken part in the Government for
the last ten months have successively become victims.
Success has crowned this plan. To what will it lead?
To again place the destinies of France in the hands
of a coalition whose faults have produced the fall of
two monarchies. The Legitimists and the Orleanists,
united by a secret compact of which the future will
reveal to us the conditions, have marched with
a common accord towards the conquest of power. They
possess it now, but they will not feel satisfied until they
have removed every obstacle which
majority r
chstands inepthu the
republican;
they hNaavteiounnailteAdsaslebly is in i
their efforts to overthrow it. Next
to it comes the President. They now flatter him as at
the commencement they did the Provisional Govern
ment, and afterwards the Executive Committee, and as
they flattered the Government of the 26th June at its
first accession to power. Let the President resist them;
may he, better enlightened as to men and things,
struggle against their insatiable demand?. His isolation
is the condition of triumph. It is useless to seek else-
where for the cause of the rage which took possession of
M. Thiers and his allies on the first appearance of the
Republicans being able to give their disinterested advice
to M. Louis Bonaparte. What would become of the
Royalist intrigue if the President were to open his eyes,
and, assuming seriously the part assigned to him by the
Constitution establish himself firmly on the ground of
the Republic? No; he must not be permitted to see and
listen to those who dig an abyss before him. It is of
little consequence to these great citizens that he fall into
it, and again plunge the country .into all the horrors of
civil war. They will not consider their work as defi-
nitively accomplished until they see Henry V., bearing
the Count de Paris in his arms, come and seat himself
on the restored throne.

Let, then, M. Thiers become Minister; it is to him
that 6,000,000 of votes have been given; it is he alone
who has the right to govern France until our masters
return from London. We have passed through three
stages. M. Bonaparte is the last. After him comes the
monarchy.
" Of all these dreams, which would make us smile if
they did not reveal such detestable sentiments, one alone
appears of possible realisation. M. Thiers will have a
portfolio. Let him hasten to take it in spite of our
poniards,' which the Constitutionnel has no great merit
in braving. That melo-dramatic weapon is not ours.
There is one more dangerous, and which will be better
suited to men of M. Thiers's scantling—it is contempt.
The Republicans will not employ any other to get rid of
him."

The National is right—it is in England that these
reactionary intrigues are concocted, and the English
Tory aristocracy, the representatives of the would-be
Absolutist Monarchs, and the political exiles of
February and March, are all parties to them. That
these intrigues will succeed we cannot for a moment
imagine ; they may, however, in France give rise to
fearful commotions, in which event, we fear, that no
cellar will be deep enough to hide the reactionaries
from the search of the deceived and irritated people,
nor any
.eloquence powerful enough (no! not even
that of LAMARTINE himself) to shield them from
their vengeance. In February the people were con-
querors, and they were merciful ; since then the fate
of BLUM, of MESSENHAUSEN, and of the Vienna
students,
reactionaries show when they for a time gain
has proved to them what mercy the
the superiority. Should the people be again forced
to have recourse to arms to reconquer the Re-
public, " they will profit by the lesson that has been
taught them, and it will go hard but they will better
the example." Let the reactionaries in Paris beware ;
they have not, like LOUIS PHILIPPE, and M.
GUIZOT, and
Prince METTERNICH, and the Princess
LIEYEN, the Straits of Dover between them and the
people against whose liberties they are plotting.

The Corsaire says that five of the Ministers of
Louis PHILIPPE have returned to Paris and have
left their cards at the Elys6e National.
The Corsaire also states that the letter from the
PRESIDENT of the Republic to M. LEON DE MALTZ-
VILLE, which appeared in the llerminie of Nantes, was
sent to that journal by one of the aides-de-camp of
M. Louis BONAPARTE.

The Committee of Finance of the National As-
sembly has recommended that a credit of 2,720,0001.
should be voted to wind up the affairs of the Ateliers
Nationaux, and that the accounts shall then be pub-
lished.

On Tuesday the Committee of Justice examined
the proposition of M. JouiN, relative to the abroga-
tion of the law of banishment now in force against
the families of Bourbon and Orleans. The Minister
of the Interior, invited to express his opinion before
the Committee, merely said that the proposition did
not appear to him at present opportune, and expressed
a wish that a more favourable opportunity would
allow that exceptional measure to be before long
revoked. The Committee then decided that it should

rernm•nerd the reiection of the measure, and named
~k '

it is coithidered probable Jiat the proposition of ,
M. Bixio, fixing the 15th of April as the day of the
dissolution of the Assembly, will be adopted. The
reactionaries are actually using violence, in many
instances, to force people to sign petitions praying
for a dissolution of the Assembly ; but notwithstand-
ing their force and their fraud, their violence and
their forgeries, the number of signatures attached
to such petitions is ridiculously small. It is said the
reactionaries contemplate having recourse to an ,Ineute
to dissolve the Assembly. Should the Assembl),
however, be dissolved by such means, it will be
succeeded not by Monarchical restoration, but by the
Red Republic.
There was some agitation at Batignolles on Wed-
nesday, produced by the resistance of the wine
shopkeepers to the officers appointed to examine their
stocks, to prevent adulteration. The presence of a
military force, however, soon restored tranquillity.
The Bureaux of the Assembly met on Tuesday
to nominate a committee to prepare the Bill on the
state of siege. The principal point under discussion
was to decide where the initiative of the measure was
to originate—whether with the legislative and execu-
tive powers conjointly, or with the former only. M.
DE KERDREL thought that the Assembly ought to
confine itself to voting a Bill d'urgence on the mat-
ter, without seeking to make what is called an organic
law. General DE LAMORICIERE, on the contrary, de-
manded that the greatest possible extension should be
given to the Bill, both in the point of view
of civil and of foreign war. M. CHARRAS was of
opinion that the new Bill should reproduce in
a great measure the ideas and the principles of the
Bill of 1791. Several Members expressed a wish
that a clause should be inserted declaring that under
a state of siege it should never be permitted to sup-
press or to suspend the liberty of the press. M.
POUJOULAT, whilst declaring that he had the utmost
respect for the liberty of the press, said that he con-
sidered leaving full liberty to journals to publish w hat
they pleased during the state of siege was exceedingly
dangerous. M. ALEM ROUSSEAU proposed to have
a distinction made between the state of siege in Paris
and in other towns. M. BAZE thought that the
place where the Legislative Assembly was sitting
should never be placed in a state of siege. In
general, the members appointed to constitute the
committee were recommended to be most careful in
defining its real character and duration. It was also
generally thought that during its continuance the
civil courts ought not to be suspended, and that the
military tribunals ought not to ;be called on to be
judge in any cases but such as related to the situation.
General PELET has been appointed Ambassador
Extraordinary to Turin. He is to give King
CHARLES ALBERT the benefit of his military know-
ledge by advising the KING on military matters
whenever such advice may be required.
The Prince DE LA MOSHOWA (NEY) is appointed
Ambassador to Stockholm.

The 2lfoniteur contains another long list of Or-
leanist Prefects who have been re-appointed. _ .

CO ITIIS AIITHENTIQUE.-PARIS, 312,1. 10.-French
Five per Cents., 75f., 74f. 90c. 85c. 80c. 75c., 75f., 75r.
5c., 75'. 10c. 15c. 20c. 25c. 30c. 35c. 45c. 40c. 30c. 45e.
50c. 40c. 50c. 60c. 40c. 50c., 45c. 35c. 45c.; Three per
Cents., 45f. 55c. 50c. 55c. 60c. 70c. 65c. 80c. 75c., 90c.
75c. 80c. 90c. 80c.; New Loan, 74f. 75c. 80c., 75f., 751.
20c.; Certificates, 74f. 25c. 60c., 80c., 75f.; Obligations
of the City, 1,060 f.. 1,075 f.; Bank of France, 1,6601.,
1,665 f., 1,670 f., 1,680 f., 1.685 f., 1,690 f., 1,685 f., 1,6801.,
1,685 f.; Neapolitans. 79f.; Romans, 66f., 66411.;
Bel-
gian Five per Cents., 1840, 861.; Ditto, 1842, 86f.;
Spanish, 151.; Ditto, Passive, 2. Exchange on London,
one month, paper, 251. 30c.; money, 25f. 27ic.; three
months, paper, 25f. 224 c.; money, 25f. 20c.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE