The Sun.
London, England, 1831-07-18 00:00:00

that the act of seeking reparation in a Court of
Jastice was to be imputPd to Mr. Deacle as a great
crime. He commenced by stating that " lie was
sorry the plaintiff had placed himself in the situa-
tion in which he now was, to complain of circum-
stances which his own conduct bad brought on him.
Be was sorry this county, which was settling down
into a state of peace and quiet, should again have
its attention roused by those circumstances which
had so lately disturbed its peace and alarmed its
inhabitants.
for the purpose of holding up to contempt the Ma-
gistrates of this county, and to bring up again that
spirit of disturbance which they saw was quieted."
Now this sort of high and lordly language was held
after all the evidence of the plaistiff had been given,
and with no evidence to meet it. One would sup-
pose from it that Mr. Deacle was onSir, his trial. It is
as much as saying—how dare you, to complain
of any severities used towards you in arresting and
conveying you to gaol ? Are not these Magistrates—
and may they not do with you seed all others as they
please ? Whet) one bears a case of this kind,
met in so lordly a mariner, one is strongly
tempted to draw the inference, that Magistrates are
only astonished that people should presume to ques-
tion them for anything they may do. Mr. Bingham
Baring ought not to have needed the monition of
the Journals of the Metropolis to see the danger to
which he was exposed from this prosecution. The
making light of what, if proved, amounted to so se-
rious an impeachment of his character as unneces-
sary severity towards unresisting prisoners, one of
them a lady, by not taking those steps to set him-
self right with the public, which he now sees he
must take, is the worst part of the business, as it
appears less indicative of consciousness of innocence,
than of an imperfect sense of the estimation in
which the acts charged, if proved, ought to be held.
When a gentleman is accused of what he considers
reproachful, however innocent he may feel himself,
he is not the less impressed with the necessity of
establishing his innocence. So much we have
deemed it proper to say with regard to this case.
It is certainly not one which can be trifled with.—
Morning Chronicle.
Having predicted all the mischievous consequences
of that measure of mock-relief to the poor, the Beer
Bill, before it passed into a law, we arc not sur-
prised to find that it is already very generally dis-
covered to be a nuisance that, for the sake of the
morals of the country, ought to be abated. If our
statesmen had more foresight, they would have need
of less repentance; and if they could take good ad-
vice, independently given, instead of estimating the
value of their proposed measure by the servile opi-
nion of interested flatterers, they would not waste
the time of one Session in passing Acts which must
be altered or repealed in the next. The present
Government are not responsible for tile Beer Bill,
except so far as that several individuals constituting
the present Ministry supported the Bill, and antici-
pated wonderful advantages from it to the public
in general. They had pretty strong proof of what
sort of advantages they were, soon after their ac-
cession to power, when they found that the rioters
of last winter, against whom they sent forth the
Judges armed with the terrors of special commis-
aions, generally made those beer-shops, which had
been called into existence by their favourite Bill,
their places of rendezvous; while, in some in-1
stances, the beer-shop keepers returned the com-
pliment by leading on the rioters. Soon after-
wards we recollect that the Lord Chancellor him-
self, in his place in the House of Lords, ex-
pressed his doubts of the advantages of the
Beer Bill, and his suspicion of its having been
productive of no inconsiderable mischief. The
fact is, the public had been misled regarding the
nature of the Beer Bill by a delusive cry regarding
" free trade," as if it were desirable that intoxicat-
ing drinks should ever be freely retailed, like bread,
or the other necessaries of life. We recollect that,
a few years ago, Sir Robert Peel himself forcibly
pointed out the pernicious consequences of opening
the trade in beer, in the way since effected by this
Bill, and yet he was one of the Government that
passed this very Bill ; and when it was under dis-
cussion this weathercock Statesman, with his usual
Aptitude for veering to whatever point of the com-
pass seems to suit his present purpose or advance
his immediate interests, argued against all his
former arguments, and, with oracular gravity, con-
tended that his own previous opinions were those of
a false oracle ?. The object which Sir Robert Peel
arid the Duke of Wellington proposed to effect by
this Bill was not an experiment upon the principlecrf
" free trade." They disclaimed the theory, and
professed to introduce the measure as one of prac-
tical anti substantial relief to the poor. It was " a
tub to the whale"—a delusive boon to stay the
outcry for the repeal of the Malt Tax—a mea-
sure that would, indeed, afford the poor relief;
a relief connected with their domestic comforts,
by enabling them to brew a wholesome, cheap,
and nutritious beverage for themselves, instead
of being tempted to waste their health and
wages in drinking stuff which is too often both a
physical and moral poison, in sottish enjoyment,
away from their families, in the midst of bad com-
pany, in the dens of vulgar dissipation. We arc
glad that Mr. Sadler intends to move a repeal of
the malt tax. We repeatedly told the Government,
at the time when the Beer Bill was under discus-
sion, that into whatever hands they chose to trans-
fer the power of licensing ale-houses from the Jus-
tices, where, undoubtedly, it had been greatly
abused, they should, as a matter of police, preserve
those principles of the old laws which made it im-
perative upon the person applying for a licence to
vroduce testimonials of character, and also to show
that the house was necessary for the public accom-
rriodatinn ; or, in case of abandoning these wise and
salutary provisions, we called upon them to intro-
duce a clause to prevent the beer from being con-
sumed upon the premises, which would have pre-
vented the mischiefs and disorders that are now so
justly complained of by the public, and by various
Grand Juries, who have witnessed the unhappy
working of this Bill. We are astonished to hear
the Chancellor of the Exchequer talk of remedying
the evils of this statute by conferring new powers
on the police; that would be indeed to attempt
curing one evil by another—a law so fertile in
mischief as to baffle the present powers of the police
sLould not continue on the statute book.—ilforning

In reviewing the proceedings of the House of
Commons during the past week, the public cannot
fail to be surprised at the little that was done for
the public service, and above all, the little progress
that was made in the Reform Bill. With respect
to the former, nothing, literally nothing, was done ;
while, with regard to the latter, the only progress
tfox was made was that of crossing the threshold of
the Committee, and actually effecting the disfran-
ehisement of one rotten borough. At this rate of
progress it would take somewhere between five and
six month to get the Bill through even the House
of Commons ; and as heavy bodies move at a
comparatively slower rate, a full twelvemonth
would not be too great an exten,ion of grace to
the more solemn deliberations of the Lords 7. Now
as we are fully convinced that the spirit of the
present times is by no means suited to bear with
such unreasonable delay, and that it behoves both
Houses of Parliament to be more expeditious in their
proceedings than suited the convenience of one of
during the past week, we would fain hazard
a ft;; observations for their benefit, and that of the
public, ip this respect; and in the first place, we
would remark that, if ever impudence was personi-
fied, or delay and chicanery, without any justifiable
object in view, adopted, to frustrate a wise and
necessary measure, it has been in the debates which
have hitherto taken place on the Reform Bill. That
measure has been discussed and re-discussed by men
of all parties, and all opinions, and all principles,
until there is not a point about it on which a new
idea can be started, or a new view unfolded. The
rotten boroughs have not only been an eye-
Fore, but a %lOet of loathing and disgust for