The Sun.
London, England, 1822-09-12 00:00:00

[MORNING HERALD.]

We have before noticed some of the evils
arising from, as well as some of the causes lead-
ing to, imperfect legislation. The subject opens
a wide field for observation. While the ambiguity
and unnecessary length of our Statutes merit the
severest censure, a reasonable allowance must be
made for their ❑umber and frequent alteration.
Laws are multiplied in the same proportion as the
wealth, commerce,- and vices of the people.
When the progress of factitious refinement and
corruption has insinuated its poison through
all the veins of the social body, laws become ne-
cessary, but, like titles of honour, when unne-
cessarily multiplied, they become ridiculous and
contemptible. It has been already observed,
that the Constitution framed for Sparta by Ly-
curgus, was guarded by a few rules only, and
those very simple. The laws of Moses, like
those of the Spartan legislator, were invariable
and admitted of few or no additions.—
Although foreign commerce was not prohibited
among the Jews, yet their situation and cir-
cumstances secured them from the dangers at-
tending on an accumulation of wealth. Their
domestic regulations, by which usury was pro-
hibited, the lands alienable only to the year of
jubilee, and then rcvertible to the original pro-
prietors, were well calculated to prevent any
great inequality in point of wealth. By the con-
tinued division of estates also among the males
of equal degree, every man was proprietor of
some small patrimony, and lived a frugal and
laborious life. Such a state required but a
few simple laws. Athens,- on the contrary, en-
joying a most extensive commerce, abounded in
the evils resulting from it—a multiplicity of laws
perpetually varying, n-ever constant. Rome, even
in the altitude of her military glory, was con-
tented with a few precise rules ;—so precise,
that they resembled, as every law should, defi-
nitions or maxims; and so- few, that the very
boys used to commit theme to memory, as indis-
pensible lessons, to imprint on their tender minds
an early knowledge of the constitution and laws,
in the observance of which they were all so
interested. But when conquest and commerce
imported into Italy the wealth of Carthage,Greece,
and Asia, then laws were continually necessary,
which, being as continually eluded, gave birth to
others, until, by their successive multiplication
and endless variations, they at length became
" more intolerable than the vices of the city ;" as
is alleged by a celebrated historian, who devotes
two of his pregnant pages (they were the pages of
Tacitus) to a pathetic disquisition on the evils,
which preceded and followed this " infinite mul-
titude and variety of laws." With equal sense,
but less energy, Livy complained of " the
immense pile of laws, one heaped over the other,"
&c. These complaints are not matters of sur-
prise, when it appears, by the concurring, tes-
timony of contemporary historians, that some
hundreds of camels might have been laden
'with law books—the laws of the people, the
Decrees of the Senate, the Edicts of the Prwtors,
-the Perpetual Edicts, the Constitutions, Re-
scripts and Pragmatic Sanctions of the Empe-
,rors; and, though last, not the least-voluminous,

commentaries of dm faWyers,*Lo were thus fur-
nished with an inexhaustible supply for their
mystifying amplifications.

DESPERATE OUTRAGE AT NEWINGTON.

The folloWing case carries with it so romantic,
not to say' improbable air, that we confess'iVe
have our suspicions there has been somewhere
invention at work. We however lay it before
our readers as we reteived it :----44 an Monday
night last a most desperate attack was made on
the house of Mr. S. PASSEY, Printer and Stationer,
opposite-Newington Church, by a handitti of 20
or 30 ruffians, most of them armed with bludgeons,
and their leader with a tremendous butcher's
cleaver. From inquiry we learn that near 10 o'clock
on the above night, Mr. Passey and family were
retiring to bed, when a knock came to the street
door. Mr. P. imagined it was a customer, for
whom he had printed some cards, and that he

had called for them. He therefore desired his
apprentice to go down into the shop and deliver
them. On the boy getting to the street door, he
called out Who's there ?' He was answered
by a man outside, let me in, I want your
master.' The boy replied, 'he is gone to bed,
tell me what you want.' At the same time
opening the door a little, upon which a des-
perate rush was made, the door bnrst open,
and the boy was knocked down. Mr. Passey,
hearing a noise below, ran down stairs, followed by
Mrs. Passey and the rest of the family, when
they found the passage filled with ruffians, and
others standing on the steps of the door to pre-
vent any person from going out. Mr. Passey ad-
dressed them, and inquired of their leader (who
stood first, with a.large clever over his' shoulder)
whit they wanted in such numbers, and at that
hour of the night. The leader answered, 'We
want money, and money we will have—won't we ?'
at the same time turning round to his gang. Mr.
P. desired them to depart, as he would not com-
ply with their demand, and-desired his apprentice
to go for assistance. One of the gang, who had
possession of the entrance, exclaimed—' Any
person who dare attempt to pass will die.' Mr.
P. finding he could not get any assistance froth
outside, mustered all his family, amounting to
six persons, four of whom were females, and
desired the yard dog to be let loose upon
the intruders ; upon which the leader ex-
claimed—' Aye, let him come near us, and we
will butcher him and you afterwards,' at the same

time raising his cleaver above his head. The re.
mainder of the gang were now forcing themselves
into the passage, and Mrs. P. was so dreadfully
alarmed that she went into hysterics. In vain
Mr. P. desired them to leave the house, but
they with horrid imprecations declared they
would not depart till their demand was complied
with. Mr. P. desired his apprentice to go out
over the back of the premises to call the assist-
ance of some private watchmen "that were at
some distance, there being none near the spot,
upon which the whole of the banditti made a
precipitate retreat. Mr. Passey lin posted large
bills, offering a reward for the apprehension of

any of this daring gang, and describing the per-
son of their leader. Yesterday information of
the affair was given at Union-hall office, and
Hall, the chief officer, is in active pursuit of the
ruffians."—(Morning Paper.)

ORNITHOLOGY.—A Gentleman who is in the
habit of angling upon the river Avon, communi-
cates, as the result of several years' observation,
the arrival of the swallow upon the surface of
that water from eight to fifteen days before it is
seen at Salisbury, at only two miles distant.
The first of this season were seen by him at Be-
merton, en Monday the first of April, whereas,
on Friday the 19th, not a swallow was to be
seen at Salisbury. Among the various sugges-
tions which have been offered respecting the uis-
tory and the emigration of this fugitive bird, per-
haps these observations may be reduced as call-
ing for explanation from the naturalist.—The
swallow, the nightingale, and the cuckoo, it has
been remarked, visited England earlier last
spring than usual.

On Saturday afternoon, about five o'clock, three
beautiful swans were seen passing over the eastern
parts• of this county. Their flight was very low,
and when passing over Sandhurst, Evvhurst, and
Brede, they were within pistol-shot. Their
course was towards Pett Level.—Brighton He-
rald.)

To the particulars which have appeared re-
specting the conduct of Jieartlj, who attempted
to assassinate Captain 0 wEN, the Maidstone Jour.-
nal adds :—" This wretch, while confined in our
County Prison, confessed to• the Chaplain, the
Rev. J. WINTER, that he had been concerned in
upwards of one hundred burglaries !"
Monday evening as some boys were playing
in the Kensington-road, a person came down on
horseback, and not observing them, one was
knocked dowtrhy the horse. The animal's foot
struck him on the side of the head, so that he
died in less than an hour after.

Monday morning the body of a respectable
looking man, apparently between 40 and. 50, was 'discovered
hanging by a cord from the bough of a tree, in a shrubbery
near the Rising Sun, at Eastham. He was instantly cut down,
but the vital spark' appeared to have been extinct for some
days:
Yesterday, at noon day, a thief had the au-
daucity to' enter the house of Matthew Gossett, Esq. in Chan-
dos-street, Cavendish-square, and proceeded to his dressing-
room, where he took several articles of wearing apparel and his
watch, and got clear off with them.
DARING • ROBBERY ON •A
LADY.—Yesterday
afternoon, at about three o'clock, a young Lady
named Harris, of 33, Manchester-street, Man-
chester-squarevon, passing by New Rourid-court,
Oxford-street, was met by a gang of ruffians,
who were tempted by a valuable gold watch sus-
pended on her side ; on arriving opposite the court,
the fellows pushed her violently some distance in
the avenue, and robbed her,of the watch, with
which they made off. The Lady was consider-
ably alarmed, and made the best of her way to
Marlborough-street Police O'ffice,,where she laid
information of the robbery, and gave a descrip-
lion of the property, but in her alarm could not
speak to the persons of the thieves. A patrol
daily parades this spot, but yesterday at. the
above hour they were called to other business.

OLD BAILEY SESSIONS.