The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-24 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING, DEcnrvinnit 24, 1849,

lens, were at 13arbadoes, preparing to sail for Gray
Town, Mosquito Shor, to protect British interests re-
lative to t'-::e Nicaragua dispute.
The Great Western sailed from Bermuda on the
Gth inst. for New York; the Thames and Medway
were at Ihvannah ; the Avon in the Spanish Main ;
the Conway on the Demerara route ; and the Eagle at
St. Thomas.

MR. COBDEN AT BRADFORD.
(From the Times)
Mr. Cobden's speech at Bradford on our coloni'd
system is a masterpiece of agitation. It is a suffi-
cient answer to those simple souls who think that
agitation ever dies, or is ever likely to die, in this
world. We have no wish to disparage a trade
which, besides its uses, appears to be a necessity of
our existence. If the man is to be honoured who
brought philosophy from Heaven down to men, we
presume that some prai.e is due to the man who
brings politics from Downing•street to Bradford.
The schoolmaster is abrcal ; if any one doubts it,
let him read Mr. Cobden's " Colonial Policy made
easy to the Meanest Capacities," and he will see
that whatever difficulties and scruples may perplex
Parliament or the Colonial-office, it' is all as plain
as A, B, C, in the Temperance•hall at Brad-
ford. The artizans there have learnt one simple
rule for dealing with all dependencies, from Van-
couver's Island to Ceylon, and from Canada
to Corfu. The rule is not exactly the
rule of thumb, but, certainly, is not more artificial.
It consists in cutting the connexion altogether, or at
least as expeditiously as is agreeable to both parties.
Should the colonies still cling to us like " mammy- I
sick" children, Mr. Cobden suggests that we should
wean them at once from the sweets of the British
Exchequer. Should England, on the contrary, still push
her parental authority, the colony would do well,or ra
ther are already doing well, in showing that they are
no longer children. The same rule holds for the whole
family. England is to send to all our fifty colonies a
circular certificate that they have come to man's
estate, and are free. They have only to send back a
message equally obliging, and the famous mother
country, of whom we have heard so much in grave
school- books and conversational pamphlets, may forth-
with throw up her cap, and sing, in the lines of the
old stave :

COURT CIRCULAR.
OSBORNE, SATURDAY.
Th. Queen and Prince Albert, with the Prince of
%tales, Prince Alfred, ti:e Princess Royal, the Prin-
cess Alice, the Princess litlene, and the Princess
Louisn, left Osborne at seven minutes before ten,
A M , on Saturday, for Windsor Castle.

WINDWR, SATURDAY.
IL-r Majesty and his Royal Highness the Prince
Albert, with the Royal Family, and attended by the
Marchioness of Douro, the Hen. Miss Lennox, Lord
A. Paget, Colonel Bouverie, and General Bowles,
arrived at Windsor Castle from Osborne at twenty-
' five minutes past one o'clock. The royal party tra-
velled by a special train on the South Western Rail-
way to Basingstoke, and from thence by the Great
Western Railway to Windsor. A Guard of Honour
of the Grenadier Guards received the royal party at
the railway terminus at Windsor. The guard was
commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Hamilton.
Her Serene Highness the Duchess of Saxe-
Weimar, with their Serene Highnesses the Princesses
Anne and Amelie of Saxe-Weimar, and their
Serene Highnesses the Prince Edward and Prince
Gustavus of Saxe-Weimar, arrived at the Castle this
day on a visit to the Queen and Prince.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent joined
the royal party at dinner this evening.

"I care for nobody, no not I,
And nobody cares for me."
But let us look a little into this new agitation. We
will neither be fascinated by its simplicity, nor
abashed by its grandeur. In the first place, the sub-
ject matter is a good one. It is as good as Catholic
Emanipation, the Reform Bill, or the repeal of the
Corn-laws ;—nay, granting these three premises—
granting that England has now foresworn religious,
civil, and commercial monopoly, colonial independence
is a necessary sequel to those great national acts.
The doctrine has now gone through all its ordeals.
It has been talked about and written about. It is
the conclusion of a long controversy, and among
many proposals is that which survives. In several
leading instances it is the actual state of the colonial
game. By a natural process the leading colonies
have worked up to it, and their independence
is a great fact, whether we like it or not.
The doctrinaires, Wakefield, Roebuck, Buller,
Molesworth, have culled all the statistics and argu-
ments of the question, and nothing remains to be
written or calculated upon it. Blue books have been
accumulated ad nauseam, till the labour of their peru-
sal is so great as to be an excuse for utter ignorance
of the subject. When the question is in this state,
the old theory of a great colonial Zollverein is sud-
denly abandoned. Only the other day men still
dreamt that it was possible to stretch England like
a belt round the globe, and buy and sell chiefly with
our own fellow-subjects. That is past away. Meanwhile
the estimates show the enormous expenditure of solid
coin which we suffer for a merely sentimental return.
One thing only was wanting, and that is now supplied.
The colonies, after going through nearly the same
process of argument, have arrived at precisely the
same conclusion. They announce to us and to the
whole world, in the most energetic and striking
manner, that they will be independent. Thus the facts
of the case almost anticipate our own hesitating judg-
ments and tedious calculations. All this time our
first-born colony shows the way, and stamps on the
most loyal and most imperial mind the sure convic-
tion that, sooner or later, every other colony will set
up for itself, and that this is the order of nature and
of Providence. Such is Cobden's case; and, if Cobden
had not been born, the case would be the same. Find-
ing it, however, he picks it up, and, by his singular
gifts of agitation, will probably make it his own.
We have described a -great controversy, a great
conclusion, and a great fact, which severally force
the idea of colonial independence on the public
mind. How, then, does Mr. Cobden appropriate
the idea ? First he reduces it to its simplest and
most popular form, by treating it merely as a ques-
tion of economy and independence. "Save your own
pockets, and give the colonists their liberty. Let the
tie grow less and less at the pleasure of both parties,
till it is attenuated or sublimed into the growing sym-
pathy that binds the British empire to the United
States." If the matter does, indeed, depend on a vote ;
if the separation could be effected by merely tearing
a bond, or dissolving a legal partnership; if it could
be done once for all with each and every one of our
colonies, and the matter were sure to end there, then,
certainly we might save our ten millions, more or
less, and make the colonists happy. But in most, if
not all, of the fifty instances to be dealt with, there
are difficulties which could not be thus quickly dis-
posed of. It is questionable whether a siagle colony
can be independent with safety to population or com-
merce. Mr. Cobden takes the strongest case,
that of the Cape; and he quotes for
his purpose a distinguished military autho-
rity, the Rev. Dr. Adamson. This divine points
out pretty clearly to the lambs of his flock that
their geographical and social position offers peculiar
facilities for shutting out British interference, and
taking to the trade of piracy. Granted. But un•
fortunately they have frontier as well as coast to
defend, and Kafirs as well as British to keep out.
There may be another Kafir war, and that war a war
of extermination. Should the Kafirs be worsted Ni e
can easily imagine that the British and Dutch boars
would soon balance in South Africa the Cave of
Dahra in the north ; not much to the credit of the
British name. Should the colonists be worsted, it is
not likely that England would sit still at home or sail
quietly past the Cape, while merciless savages were
carrying death and destruction to the very walls of
Cape-town. Mere instinct would compel us tointer-
fere. With such a danger and such an interference
in prospect, a statesman will consider some time be-
fore he resigns a colony to its own discretion and
its defences. With all the smaller settlements in
Australasia and elsewhere the case is still stronger.
The colonial politicians themselves think to meet the
difficulty by proposing a defensive and offensive
league; or, in
_other words, that England shall re-
tain the power of settling the foreign relations of
fifty Lilliputian states scattered over the globe. Mr.
Cobden is judiciously silent on this point. He abstains
from filling up the blank with any positive sugges-
tion. He knows full well that a league, offensive
and defensive, with fifty helpless and quarrelsome
little communities, most of them at the antipodes,
and the rest in the jaws of our greatest rival, is
simply a chimera. Such leagues can only be
made with powerful and well-established states, or
with near neighbours. They suppose common inte-
rests and facilities for mutual counsel and co-opera-
tion. They suppose a mutual and equivalent service.
There could be nothing of the kind with our fifty
colonies. Yet—and here is the great natural diffi-
culty of the question—should we allow our own
offspring to be devastated and reduced without
rushing to their aid ? Would not nature restore
the colonial system when political economy had de-
stroyed it ? Mr. Cobden says nothing on this
point. Such misgivings interfere, with the force of
popular appeals, and find little favour with profes•
sional agitators. After supplying the people of
Bradford with two simple reasons for sending the
colonies adrift, the agitator's next object is to give
an equally compendious and intelligent account of
the opposition he is likely to meet with. Mr. Cob-
den gives his hearers to understand in very plain
terms, that the colonial system is kept up in this coun-
try for the sake of the patronage it involves; in other
words, that we go to an expense of perhaps 10,000,0001.
a year for the sake of the governorships, deputy-
governorships, and other appointments at the dis-
posal of the Colonial Minister, and the indefinite
multiplication of generals, colonels, admirals, and
captains. Now, it may suit Mr. Cobden's purpose to
say that our colonies are simply a Ministerial job;
but a person of common sense and common candour
will assign to a very different cause the favour with
which they are regarded. The bulk of the educated
classes have been taught to regard the colonies as
almost indispensable to the commerce, the power, and
especially the glory of this empire. They know not
otherwise how it can be called an empire. The colo-
nies they treat as an exiting fact ; and, though they
may not be prepared to dispute the economical reasons
now urged for abolishing that fact, they think it the
safer course to maintain and preserve an existing
dominion. They can hardly take up any classical
writer of the last generation, or any historian, how-
ever enlightened, without finding our colonies spoken
of as appendages of the most unquestionable advan-
tage and hononr. Thus, the regard felt by a large
class at home for the colonies may be a prejudice,
and may be a mistake, but it is rather patriotic than
selfish. We will venture to say that of those who would
now hold up their hands in favour of retaining colo-
nial supremacy at almost any cost, not one man in
twenty has the least prospect of patronage, or prefer-
ment, or any other boon a Government can confer.
But would it answer Mr. Cobden's purpose to make
this admission ? No. His object is to divide party
against party and class against class ; to fill the many
with suspicion of the few; and to represent the whole

SUNDAY.
The Queen and Prince Albert walked this morning
in the Slopes and Windsor Park.
The Royal Family took walking exercise.
The Queen and Prince Albert, with her Royal
Highness the Princess Royal, her Serene Highness
the Duchess of Saxe-Weimar, their Serene High-
nesses the Princesses Anne and Amelie of Saxe-
Weimar, and Prince Edward and Prince Gustavus
of Saxe-Weimar, the ladies and gentlemen of the
Court, and the domestic household, attended Divine
service in the private chapel this morning. The Hon.
and Rev. G. Wellesley officiated.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent left
Clarence House, St. James's, at half-past ten o'clock
on Saturday morning, for Frogmore House.
Their Serene Highnesses the Duchess of Saxe-
Weimar, the Princesses Anne and Amelie of Saxe-
Weimar, and the Princes Edward and Gustavus of
Saxe Weimar, left Marlborough House on Saturday
afternoon, for Windsor Castle.

Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cambridge
and Princess Mary honoured the establishment of
Mr. C. F. Hancock with a visit on Saturday.
Dispatches for the Governor of the Mauritius were
sent off on Saturday evening from the Colonial-office.

THE CHRISTMAS ANGELS.
'Twas joyous Christmas, merry Christmas eve,
And on that blessed night each child, 'tie said,
Forms golden dreams, builds castles in the air,
And goes to bed smiling with happiness.
They say the Christmas Angels (no child doubts it)
Gently fly from the celestial vault,
And descend that night upon the happy roofs
Where sleep those children most beloved by them.
On that night they enter not the usual way,
To weave their charms, to bring their gifts,
But 'tis said, wider all those chosen roofs,
Wh« re balmy sleep smiles o'er each little cradle,
The Christmas Angels enter softly,
Not by door, or window, but the chimney.
Oh, good Angel I breathed softly in his curtain'd cot
A rich and lovely child during his happy dream,
I beg of thee to fill the mantel-shelf
With dainties rare, and pretty playthings;
Those of last year I've 1,-.;st, others I want,
And many such, to make me happy.
Oh, good Angel! sobb'd a starving child,
With tearful tones, in tatter'd threadbare clothes,
I'm hungry—'tis freezing, and I'm very cold;
Then shed thy bounties on our wretched home,
And bring us bread in pity, Angel blest.
In our chimney dark, the wind now loudly howls,
Bring us some coals, and wood, to make a fire—
I neither ask for dainties rare, or playthings choice,
But bring us bread. Oh, hear my humble pray'r.
On Christmas•day more bright than ever
Glisten'd each expecting little eye,
Some found new frocks, and hats with feathers,
Others trinkets, playthings, cakes and comets.
The dainty had their cakes, the merry their play-
things—
Each had his gift according to his wish.
But in the attic's gloom, where pined the starving child,
How did that wretched creature pass his Christmas day?
Who filled the mantel shelf with much long'd-for bread?
Christian Charity!!!
The Christmas Angels heard his lowly pray'r,
And pitying his helpless misery,
Each bounteous Angel wing'd a different flight—
One gave pleasure to the happy rich,
The other bread unto the starving poor.
H. J. ST. LEGER.
Christmas, 1849.

LEGAL EDUCATION.—We understand that the
ancient usage of readings is about to be resumed at the
Middle Temple. Readings will be delivered by Mr.
'Bowyer, D.C.L., and barrister-at-law (who has been
appointed to perform the duties of reader), on the
evenings of the three Wednesdays in Hilary Term next,
the I6th, 23d, and 30th of January, in the hall of the
Middle Temple; and all the students and other members
of the inns of court will be admitted, without payment of
any fee, to these and the subsequent readings. A
favourable result may be hoped from the opening of
these meetings to the profession, and their transfer
from New Inn to the fine old hall of the Middle Temple.
DEATH raom NOT GIVING A COUNTERSIGN.—A
most melancholy circumstance occurred here recently,
which- deprived an octogenarian suddenly of life. A
deaf Jew, above eighty years of age, one evening passed
a sentinel of the castle, near the Bernadiner church,
without replying to the call. The sentinel passed again,
but the poor afflicted man went quietly and steadily on.
He might, perhaps, as the sentinel maintains, have un-
consciously trebpasscel on the ground prohibited to the
public. The sentinel, however, did not wait long, and
fired; the ball took cffect, and the old man fell. He died
a few hour after.—Jewish Chronicle.

The Observer, on Sunday morning, Dec. 23, gave
six of their folio columns of the proceedings at the meet
ing of the shareholders in the London and South-
Western Railway on Saturday ; also the letter of the
chairman, W. Chaplin, Esq., M.P. The extensive pub-
lication of the Observer commences at four o'clock on
Sunday mornings, in time for the early Sunday morning
railways. Monday's edition of the Observer, best for
the country and abroad, at four on Monday afternoons.
MARYLEDONR VeSTRY, DEC. 22.—PAYING OF
OXFORD STREET.—Mr. J. Bird moved the appointment
of a committee to consider the propriety of paving with
granite 14,000 yards of Oxford-street. Mr. Bridgeman
seconded the motion, a hich was warmly supported by
Mr. Garnett. Messrs. Joseph, Wilson, Potter, and
Halkes, opposed the motion, as it contemplated an un-
necessary expenditure when the parish could least afford
it. On a division, there appeared 17 for and 16 against
the motion. A committee was then moved, after which
the vestry broke up.
FIRE AT ROLLS' CHAMBERS.-011 Saturday, about
half-past eight o'clock, a fire, which caused considerable
damage, although of short duration, broke out in the
premises termed Rolls Chambers, situate at 80, Chan-
cery-lane. The premises, which bad a frontage in
Chancery-late, extended backwards upwards of 150 feet
into Chancery-court, and from the fact of the houses in
Carey-street and numerous other buildings abutting
upon the one on fire, a fearful conflagration was ex-
pected. With the exception of the front shop before
alluded to, the whole of the upper floors were occupied
by gentlemen connected with the law, as chambers, and
although most of the apartments have escaped the action
of the fire, the water thrown by the engines into the
flames has penetrated every room, and done much mis-
chief. The damage done by fire is confined to the de-
struction of several chambers on the upper part of the
building, and the lower floors are severely damaged by
water. In about an hour the fire was extinguished.
THR GOVERNMENT AND CHRISTMAS GRATUITIES.

—The Lords of the Treasury, as will be perceived from
the subjoined circular, have determined to abolish all
gratuities generally termed " Christmas-boxes," after
the present year, as the sum annually given by the dif-
ferent public offices form in the gross a very large
amount. The following circular has been delivered at
the several public offices and commissions:—
"Audit-office, Somerset House, Dec. 1849.
" Sir,—A practice has hitherto prevailed of charging
in some of the public accounts at Christmas, to postmen
and other parties, and the attention of the Lords Com-
:a:salon( rs ef her Majesty's Treasury having been
called thereto, they have been pleased to direct
that the Commissioners for Auditing the Public
Accounts should make known to those public
accountants in whose accounts such charges have
hitherto appeared, that no allowances of this descriptie n
are to be paid by them on behalf of the public after the
expiration of the present year, and that notice should
be accordingly given to the persons who have been in
the habit of receiving them. I am, therefore, directed
to communicate to you this decision of their Lordships
for your future guidance.—l am, &c ,
" BROMLEY, Secretary."
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.—At a meeting of
the council on Friday evening the following gentlemen
were admitted members of the college:—H. T. Spratt,
Bridge street, Southwark; J. S. Stocker, Baker-street;
H. S. Locock, Lee-park, Blackheath; and Henry Col-
lins, Birmingham.
MANCHESTER TRADE REPORT, DEC. 22.—The
market to-day was very firm, with a continued and de-
cided tendency upwards, both in yarns and oloth.

,-ewasswat .
system of Government as a conspiracy against the THE CHANNEL ISLAND§..
freedom and the pockets of the people. As if to show TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
how utterly groundless is Mr. Cobden's account of STll,—Aq the peat Council of the Nation will be
the feelings shown in favour of the colonial system, shortly convened for the dispatch of business, I beg
he is obliged to exclude expressly the two persons leave to suggest to you, as one ever ready :to advocate
just now most involved in the matter—Lord Grey and reasonable reforms, the' propriety of your rousing
Mr. Hawes, though he might have reflected that the public attention to the horrid state of affairs in the
case on which he dwells the most, viz , that of Labuan, Channel Islands, especially as regards their laws and
has originated under the present Ministry. But the the manner in ve:hich they are administered.
charge has no basis whatever except on the exigencies I will give you a case by way of example. Some
of agitation. For that purpose it is necessary to in- months ago, Mrs. Belson sued her husband, Captain
vent an enemy. A candid and faithful account of Belson, late of the Rifler, before the Royal Court of
our colonies, and the present state of our intercolouial Jersey for separation quant aux Liens, not for cruelty,
relations, might answer every legitimate purpose ; but immoral conduct, or wastefulness of property, but on
something else is to be done. The aristocracy is to account of his unsoundness of mind, and claimed a
be blackened, and Mr. Cobden is to be glorified by I maintenance and the care of their children. After
representing the former as the selfish maintainers, the hearing evidence on the allegation, the learned Jurats
latter as the heroic demolisher of the present costly shirked the question as to whether the Captain was
and discreditable colonial system. insane or not ; and without granting act of separa-
tion cr a maintenance, decided to deprive him of the
custody of his two youngest children ; but mark—not
on the ground upon which it was claimed, but in
consideration of their tender age ! Now, this is not a
valid reason in lase; for a father is entitled to the cus-
tody and control of his children, regardless of their
tender age or rex, because it makes him responsible
for their civil acts and their maintenance; and he
cannot be lawfully deprived of that custody and control
until his disability to exercise it has been established.
In the case of " Rex v..De Manneville," before the
Queen's Bench, it was held that the father of a child
was entitled to the custody of it, though an infant at
the mother's breast, if the Court saw no ground to
impute any motive to the father injurious to the health
or liberty of the child. In the present case, the Jersey
Court deprived the father of his common law right
1 without imputing to him anything that disqualified
him from enjoying it; but, in lieu of it, they imputed
tenderness of age to the children, which does not affect
I that right. This is the baneful consequence of our
Jurats exercising the functions of judges instead of
those of jurors, by which they decide points of law
I that they have never studied, instead of questions of
Ifact, which their humble education fits them for.
The bailiff, who is Chairman of the Bench, and was
bred to the law, never enlightens them, and never
decides any question whatever, excepting when the
Jurats are equally divided in opinion ; and even then
he is bound by his oath of eyfice to adopt one or the
other view, though both should be contrary to law and
repugnant to common sense I! I If this is not infa-
mous, I declare that I know not what is !
Well, Sir, the usual course for a party who is dis-
satisfied with this sort ofjustice (!) is to appeal to the
Privy Council ; but as it was probable that the chil-
dren would become man and woman before judgment
should be rendered, Captain Belson resolved to adopt
a more summary course. Doubtless, he bad heard of
the case of Peter Brouard, which has been pending
before their Lordships nearly 15 years, to compel a
Jerseyman to restore ayessel he had plundered him of,
worth about 1,5001., and that was enough. Poor
Brouard has been reduced from comparative affluence
to complete beggary, and is now in London, seeking
means to carry on his case. Charitable persons may
find him at Hercules-buildings, Lambeth. Captain
Belson had lived long enough in Jersey to understand
that an appeal to Council was a dilatory proceeding,
and his children being wards in Chancery, he very
properly moved the Court for a habeas, and the result
was, that about two months ago, a tipstaff came down
to'Jersey with two writs, one for Mrs. Belson, and the
other for a Captain Hartman, requiring them, as
having custody of the children, to bring up their
bodies, with the cause of their detention, before the
Vice-Chancellor. The writs were returnable forth-
with. After they had been served, the parties went
before his Lordship and showed cause, by means of a
Jersey advocate, why the said writs should be
quashed, as having been issued inadvertently, or
without due consideration ; but did not succeed The
time for making the returns was enlarged; and it is
said that the parties formally engaged to obey the
mandates. Having, however, failed to do so, warrants
of attachment for contempt were issued against them,
and brought hither by the tipstaff, who had instruc-
tions to seize the parties, take them across the Chan-
nel, and commit them to the Queen's Bench prison
The officer arrived here about three weeks ago, and
applied to the bailiff to back his warrants, or grant
assistance to capture the 'parties; but, in the mean
time, the latter moved the Court for protection against
the invasion of their liberty, pretending that, by a
certain charter of Charles the Second, they could not,
as " inhabitants," be forcibly taken out of the island
to answer for any matter or thing before an English
tribunal. The Court granted their request, and in-
terdicted the tipstaff from serving his warrants. He,
however, still remains here, waiting further orders.
Captain Belson next complained to the Privy
Council of the conduct of the Jersey Court in having
obstructed execution of process ; upon which an order
was sent down, commanding them forthwith to show
cause to their Lordships. The bailiff and Jurats
have held secret councils, day after day, to concoct
their justification, which, it is said, has been dressed
up by a Chancery barrister in England. The contents
of it have not transpired, but it is understood that
they have alleged that not only the warrants of at-
tachment, but also the writs of habeas that preceded
them, have no force in this island, not having been
registered to give them vitality (1), pursuant to an
Order in Council, dated the 21st May, 1679 ; that the
Acts of Parliament, also, on which they were issned,
viz„ 31 Chas. 11. and 56 Geo. 111., have no force for
the like reason (although the island is expressly men-
tioned in them, and the bailiff and Jurats were com-
manded by Order in Council, in 1832, to register
them) ; that by the said
,Acts, ,the Lord Chancellor
had not the power given to him, like the ether Judges,
to issue a writ of habeas; and, lastly, that the charter
of Charles 11. provides that no inhabitant shall be
forcibly taken from the island to answer for any mat-
ter before an English Court.
Now, it may be easily shown, that neither of these
reasons are tenable. In the first place, the Order in
Council of the 21st May, 1679, was repealed by one
of the 17th of December of the same year : but, inas-
much as the former was surreptitiously introduced
into the Code of Laws of 1771, the Court pretends it
was revived ; whereas, there is a rider placed at the
end, which declares that if any Order in Council had
been omitted that was not repealed, it should still have
force ; and if any was inserted that had been re-
pealed, it should have no effect ! The parties who su-
perintended the printing of the Code were roguish
enough to get this rider intermixed with the law re-
lative to the cutting of sea-weed, that it might escape
observation ! There has, however, been a judicial
decision upon it, which puts the matter at rest. When
the father of the present bailiff was appointed Attor-
ney-General, the Court refused to register his patent,
because he had obtained the office without their re-
commendation; and they held that until it was regis-
tered it had no force, and prevented him from exer-
cising his functions ! Mr. Le Breton complained to
the Privy Council ; and when the Court was called
upon to justify their conduct, they adduced this order
of the 21st May, 1679, which runs as follows :
" The laws and privileges of the Island of Jersey are
confirmed as of ancient times, and no orders, war-
rants, or letters missive of any sort, shall be put into
execution within the island till after having been
presented to the Royal Court, in order that they may
be registered and made public ; and in case any such
orders, warrants, or letters missive shalt be found
contrary to the charters and privileges, or burthen-
some to the said island, the registry, publication, and
execution may be suspended by the Royal Court until
the case has been represented to his Majesty, and his
will and pleasure on the same be signified." The
matter was referred to the Committee of Council,
when their Lordships decided, that " having maturely
considered the order of the 21st May, 1679, and also
another of the 17th December, 1679, by which it was
repealed, are of opinion, that the refuse' of the Jurats
to enregister his Majesty's letters patent was a grave
contempt of his Majesty's Royal authority ;" and in
a subsequent order to this the King confirmed the
report of the Lords of the Council, by which it was
recommended to his Majesty not to act with rigour
towards this Court, considering that the Jurats sinned
through error and not through obstinacy, in conse-
quence of which they were peremptorily ordered to
enregister the said patent, and to carry the same into
execution on pain of his Majesty's great displeasure.
The Court complied, and there the matter dropped.
Thus, it will be seen that the Jurats escaped punish-
ment for their contempt. This is vastly different to
the fate which their countryman, John De Carteret,
experienced, who, on the 25th March, 1588, was com-
mitted by the Lords of the Council to the prison of
the Marshalsea, there to remain until he did humbly
confess and acknowledge his offence, and promise to
behave himself as a good and loyal subject in future !
As to the Habeas Corpus Acts not having force in
Jersey, because the authorities refused to register
them in spite of the Order in Council, it is perfectly
ridiculous. They cannot take advantage of their own
misdeeds ; besides, the orders expressly say that the
registration is not essential to the Acts, but only that
his Majesty's subjects may have notice of the said
Acts having passed, and "that they are bound thereby."
In this matter, I happen to know that the authorities
committed a breach of faith. They memorialized the
Government ; and finding that they could obtain no
relief, they promised the Under- Secretary of State,
Mr. Lamb, " though reluctantly (I quote his own
words) that they would register them forthwith." They
have, however, never fulfilled their engagement. A
few days since, it was found necessary to make formal
proof that the Acts had not been enrolled. A member
of the Court was called upon to search the records,
with the view to pass an affidavit of the fact, but he
declined ! It has, nevertheless, been accomplished.
As to the power of the Chancellor, it is true that none
is given to him under the statutes, because he already
possessed it at common law, which the other Judges
did not. I should think that little strength can be
placed on the charter of Charles (if ever he granted
any) in face of the 4th William IV., c. 83, which
provides for the service of writs of subpoena from the