The Sun.
London, England, 1831-07-21 00:00:00

thousands of innocent individuals would be reduce('
In, if there were 400 Lords and 658 Commoners—
that' is, almost 1,100 men in the kingdom,—noto-
rionsly exempt from every risk of being coerced
the only means hitherto left at the disposal of the
Chancellor for insuring respect to his judicial power.
The Lord Chancellor, we believe, exercises no posi-
tive power over persons, but through the medium of
" committal for contempt." In the case of minors,
see how monstrous would be any Parliamentary
decision which, without substituting some other
remedy, should render this species of committal ii -
applicable to certain classes of wrong-doers. Mr.
Long Wellesley might have perpetrated against any
other infant, the daughter of Mr. Wynn himself, of
of the Speaker, the same mischief of which, in thi
eye of the law at least he made his owe
child the victim,—that of forcible abduc-
tion from the refuge which had been provided for
her by the parental care and wisdom of the Court of
Chancery. Mr. Wellesley may have meant inno-
cently by his own child, and no doubt he did, and
affectionately too, for we have not the smallest doubt
of his parental fondness. But a less conscientious
and moral man than Mr. Wellesley, if in Parlia-
ment, and meditating against a ward in Chancery,
not his own daughter, the most sordid or depraved
of purposes, might carry it into execution with a
perfect confidence of impunity, so far as the Lord
Chancellor, the recognized guardian of such infant,
was concerned, if the House of Commons should
be inclined and enabled to shield the guilt of such a
culprit under the pretence of privilege. Again, u
contemner of the highest equity jurisdiction of the
realm, if the exemption of Mr. Long Wellesley be
insisted on, might, though not a "Member of Parlia-
ment, commit the most heinous outrage on a ward
in Chancery, and emerge from custody,and so escape
with all but absolute impunity, by getting himself
elected into the House of Commons the day after
the Chancellor had imprisoned him. Privi-
lege in that case, also, would cover every thing.
Now, we are far from laying it down that the Lord
Chancellor ought to possess this specific power of
imprisoning Members of Parliament or env body
else for contempt of Court ; but that the head of
so high and vast a tribunal ought to have authority
for exercising some power over such offenders,—and,
indeed, a summary power, in certain cases, over all
offenders,—is, we apprehend, so unquestionable,
that it would greatly alarm us to see the Courts of
equity stripped of what authority they now enjoy,
without the previous substitution of another, as
efficacious or more se, to every end of protecting
against deliberate wrong the most helpless, pitiable,
and interesting portion of society. In what a light
would it place the Lords and Commons before the
eyes of the people of England, to exhibit them as a
race of " chartered libertines," who might commit
what crimes they pleased, and set all punishment at
defiance! And yet such would be the result of
Parhamentary privilege in such a case. The
Chancery jurisdiction would become, as far as Mem-
bers of Parliament are concerned, a mere nullity—a
brutuni fulmen.—Times.
The minority' in the Commons are learning their
letters with a little more facility than during the last
few days. They have got through their ABC in
the Reform alphabet of schedule A, having cleared
the way to Corfe Castle, and no division occurring
last night. The country, however, must not be
deluded by any false anticipations of rapid progress
with the Bill, or believe in the probability of its
early passage through the Commons. The fact is
indisputable, and must be plainly stated, that a very
formidable phalanx defends every pass in possession
of the boroughmongers ; and, unfortunately, the
nature of their strong holds of corruption affords
them strong positions against the invasion of their
enemies. The forms of the House, and the neces-
cessary modes of a representative and deliberative
assembly, must be decently conformed to, and are
aggravated by the excessive and inconvenient num-
ber of Members. This perilous situation of mat-
ters must be met by Ministers with decision
and determination, or the prediction of an Ho-1
nourable Member, who last night said, that
he doubted whether the English Bill could
be extricated from the Committee in the year 1831,
will be verified. We are always enemies to delu-
sion, whether unintentional or sincere; and it is fitting,
therefore, to look broadly in the face the slow march
of the great measure of Reform. A voyage round
the world may be accomplished in less time, unless
the Cabinet boldly determines to devote all its ener-
gies to quicken the pace. Delay is the palpable ob-
ject and policy of the minority. The possible death
of the Monarch or of his leadieg Ministers, events
foreign or domestic, internal dissensions in a Cabi- '
net, and all the risks of time are the " chapters of
accidents," the benefits of which are well known to
those inaticeuvrers «ho are now arrayed in blind
opposition to the will of the people. We need only
allude to the details of the Bill and its necessary
stages, to illustrate to the public that our fears
and our counsel are not without a just founda-
tion. The English Bill contains thirty-seven folio
pages ; and the Committee is now setting (after
the lapse of ten days) on the twelfth line of the
first page ! The schedule A, referred to in the
first clause of the Bill, is the present subject of
discussion; and of 57 boroughs in that schedule
only fourteen are yet disposed of. When the sfthedulis
is concluded it has then to be moved as a clause, the
joyous occasion of course of a specific and protracted
debate. Schedule B, referred to in the second
clause of the first page, will then have to undergo
a similar process of protracted discussion. Schedule
C, E, and F, all involving questions of a separate
character arid import, must then pass through the
straining-bag of the Opposition. The destructive
part of the Bill has hitherto been barely debated ;
the creative portion will eventually become the sub-
ject of a fresh and most discursive consideration.
The feanchise—that all-important subject (the soul
of the proposed substitute for the borough system)
—will, after the disposal of the questions of county
representation, contained in schedules G and IT, be-
come the vital, and, we fear, the cost involving part
of the whole measure. When ail these innumerable
departments of the Billare debated, they will be again,
and separately, discussed as the clauses of the Bill.
the interstices of the debate;, and last, though not
least, will arrive the important consideration of the
various instructions, of which notices now till the Par-
liamentaryPapers,and each of which will beget its pro-
geny. Finally, the debates on the committal of the Bill
and its third reading will complete the yawning
chasm of delay ! So much for the painful labs u
of the House of Commons, and which travail, pa-
tient reader, is to be again endured in the Howse of
Lords! We have been thus far only alluding to
the passage of the English Bill to the Royal Assent.
The Scotch and Irish Bills will follow it procession.
We repeat, that the country and the Ministry must
look this eventful situation full in the face; and we
foresee that some alteration of the mode of pro-
cedure, or of the hours of the House, must take
pie*. if the Bills are to pass this year. It is alleged
that the Committees on pri:vale Bills (twelve of
which have been sitting in the mornings and after-
noons of the present week, occupying the attention
and time of at least a hundred Members) are an im-
pediment to the meeting of the Commons at ten in
the morning, or earlier than four in the evening.
We can only say that all private business in
this really awful oasis of the one great national
Bill should give way to the public weal. The
rising of the sun and its seeting hour should be
at once elected 5.,2 the substituted eicree, and one es-
sential benefit would result, as the lawyer; occupied
with their briefs in Court would be brief in their
prolix and long-winded discoursea against the rights
of the people. We verily believe that they are
speaking for time." One learned and verbose
gentleman is said, once on an occasion when time
was necessary to au etection petition, to ha e spoken
while the professional
three days (if not nights),
agent of the boroughnionger went, down to
Launceston by the Falmouth mail for new evidence,
and up again. Tse tactic must be defeated.
reachhe " candours " never practise it.
These who p
Sir Robert Peel is an old sportsman. The hunt;-