The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-13 00:00:00

THE SUPPLEMENT to BURKE'S LANDED. vensLohnisipeerrpeßetvutaelajlymiany obneemporreaslclyribreedvnlolribnigt.inTonhee
GENTRY being now in a State of great forwardness, it is
earnestly requested that
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scot, will reply prescribed orbit, but the world is certainly not.
desirous of contributing information, to ensure the correctness of this
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important national undertaking, will address the Authors (care of
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Colburn, 13, Great Marlborough-street), without loss of time. ,
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N.B.—No communications will be available aftsr the 15th of May.
Gardens illuminated by the human flambeaux of
NERO ; until the ingenious exhibition of Madame
TI:ISAUD is transformed into a theatre fur the per-
formance of the Eleusynian Mysteries, or for the
libidinous orgies of the Bacchantes, we shall
believe that spiritually the earth does not re-
volve, but that, in moral as well as in physical
sciences, it rushes onwards and onwards. To
the imagination of the Westminster Re-
view, however, society presents a spectacle as dis-
couraging, if not as ludicrous, as that of the Green-
wich pensioner who, in a moment of intoxication, got
the stump of his wooden kg into a water-plug, and
walked round it as a kind of pivot until morning
under the deplorable delusion that he was going
homewards. As we have already observed, that may
be the moral progression of the Westminster Review,
but it is decidedly not the moral progression of the
civilised million. Why the very annihilation of a
sanguinary idolatry, the very extinction of the creed
in obedience to which, in the noble language of Lord
BROUGHAM—

NEW WORK BY MISS COSTELLO.
Now ready, in Svo., with Portrait, &c., 4i.
WAIO IR S of JAQUES C(EUR,
THE FRENCH ARGONAUT,
By LOUISA STUART COSTELLO,
Author of the " Lives of Eminent Englishwomen," " A Summer

amongst the Bocages and Vines," &c.

Nut only a moat interesting addition to our literature, tut a
work which cannot but enhance the author's well-merited repute-
tien."—Morning Chronicle.
Richard Bentley, New Burlington-streot.
Publisher in Ordinary to her Majesty.

" Benighted nations, blood and wino
In vain libations poured !"
the very obliteration of the doctrines of Paganism,
the very establishment of Christianity, the destruc-
tion of the feudal system, the emancipation of the
negroes, the abolition of the penal statutes, the reduc-
tion of capital punishments—nay, the very establish-
ment of the principles of free trade, prove that the
world advances as perpetually in its moral
as in its physical course. As we quoted very re-
cently from a living poet, " the great world spins for
ever down the ringing grooves of change." The
Westminster Review is, nevertheless, obstinate in its
hypothesis of the wooden leg and the water-plug, and
it illustrates its hypothesis by the NEW FACTORY
BILL ! We cannot but express our unfeigned asto-
nishment that our Contemporary should advance such
very venerable and threadbare propositions. It is
absolutely averse to any legislative interference with
adult labour, because, for one reason, it is an indescrib •
able sort of infringement of the liberties of the sub-
ject, but principally because it is fairly
impossible. An infringement of the liberties of
the subject ! Was ever argument so enormously
and irredeemably absurd ? As wall might we cha-
racterise the imprisonment of any ruffian who throws
vitriol into the eyes of the passers-by in a public
thoroughfare, an infringement of the liberties of the
subject. As well might we call the imposition of a
fine upon the owner of any deleterious manufactory
within the precincts of a populous city, an infringe-
ment of the liberties of the subject. As well might
we term the prevention of unnecessary death, whe-
ther individual or multiple, whether sudden or pro-
tracted, an infringement of the liberties of the subject.
Rut this is not the only objection; the Westminster
Review has a formidable reserve—the proposed inter-
ference with adult labour is impossible ! llere's a
discovery i' faith. Our vaunted Legislature proves
them to be after all impotent, and impotent, be it ob.
served, not in a remote colony, not among our anti-
podes the Australians, but within the narrow
boundaries of thsse chalky cliffs. If the power of
the Legislature cannot indeed extend to the factories,
then it most certainly can never reach the lair of
coiners, or the cellars of illicit distillers. And yet
the power of the Executive does reach; the coiner and
the illicit distiller. Why, what trash this continual
s rangling is, about the possibility or the impossi-
bility of legislative interference (indirectly) with the
adult operatives in the factories ! The Legislature
has capacity enough to accomplish things of
immeasurably greater difficulty than this. The flash
of the shuttle or the twirl of the hand-loom are not
such appalling movements as to deprive a Govern.
ment like ours of all energy ; nor are the jaded deni-
zens of the cotton mills precisely the class capable of
baffling the sagacity, or of eluding the penetration of
an experienced and gigantic State. The Westminster
Review is employing the stratagem of the ancient
warrior, but the Parliament of England is not to be
frightened by lighted straws !

IThe seat of justice ought to be preserved as imma-
culate as possib!e. Considering the infirmities of
human nature and our complicated system of laws,
owing, in a great measure, to the highly artificial
state of society in which we live, the mode in which
justice is ordinarily administered in this country has
equally obtained the confidence and respect of the
native and the admiration of the foreigner. For the
excellence with which the laws are executed among
us we are indebted less to the abilities (though
these are, for the most part, consummate) of those
who are raised to the bench than to the jealous vigi-
lance preserved by the public over the proceedings of
the legal functionaries. If a judge goes beyond his
province, or conducts himself in a way calculated to
bring into disrepute the sacred trust reposed in him,
he finds himself checked in his unseemly career either
by the independent members of the bar, or by the full
and unreserved remonstrance of public opinion, em-
bodied in its acknowledged channels ; and so
effectually is this done, that the Secretary of State
for the Borne Department, or Parliament itself, is
oftentimes saved the necessity of interfering to rectify
for the future the particular abuse that may have ens
gendered public discontent. Of this we had an in-
stance, not a great while back, when the Chief Baron
of the Exchequer was made sensible of an impropriety
into which he had suffered himself to lapse.
The Learned Judge on the bench cried peccavi to
Mr. Gocanuax, who had so spiritedly taken him to
task for having, by a strong extra-judicial remark,
inadvertently warped the minds of the jury in the
outset: of the cause. The talents of a judge should
be beyond question equal to the solemn duties he has
to disvharge ; but he should be also qualified for his
office ;by a suitable temper and an appropriate de-
mean otur. Where these latter are wanting the
effect 35 very prejudicial both within and without our
courts of justice. Above all, the judge should be
scrupuli nis in the extreme that he does not himself
set am example subversive of the principles of law
and equity, which he would be bound to check in
others..

It so metimes happens that in a prosecution
counseil are not engaged for either the prosecutor or
the pi s:soner. Under these circumstances, the duties
of cou osel devolve upon the judge. With the depo•
sitions :before him, he has to examine witnesses on '
both si kies. If he puts what are termed "leading
questio tra" he is guilty of a practice which it
would ' be his duty to condemn, were counsel
so to ,deviate from the established rules of
evidencat. Again, if he should conduct the ex-
aminaa yr > in so rapid and gabbling a manner as
to precl ade the jury, or the public at large, from
masterir kg the real circumstances of the case, he
wantonl or trifles with the ends of justice. By such a
course the judge may save himself some time and
trouble ,; but, at the same time, he relinquishes that
decoru o which it is so important to observe upon the
bench and, by flying in the face of the acknow-
ledged. rules of justice, in the manner already inti-
mated „ills judicial character becomes seriously affected.
On. ' Saturday last, in the Central Criminal Court,
Emir 4 • ELWOOD was indicted for stealing a watch,
oke. :It appears that the COMMON SERGEANT exa-
miried the prosecutor and another witness in the
folk ing manner :
" R 'ell, you live in Clerkenwell ? Prosecutor—
Yes.

" the morning of the 12th February, you found
the pt isoner in your kitchen ? Prosecutor— Yes.
" $ 0 low she came there, whether she was his servant,
or a tY utter stranger did not appear.)
" l 3e mmon Sergeant—Yon left her there for a mo-
ment 7 while you went into your shop? Prosecutor—
Yes.

• 3001 mon Sergeant—And when you went back she
was zone ? Prosecutor—Yes.
"t ~oints, or. Sergeant—You gave information of the
robb a^y to the police? Prosecutor—Yes.
4 ,3, mimai i Sergeant—And they found the next day
that y, ,ur we, tch had been pledged? Prosecutor—Yes.
"• mtnora Oergeant—Let the pawnbroker stand up.
"" Ii ichard, Nsgin then got into the box.
• ommon Sergeant—lt was pledged with you by a
vi"uses 1? Witness—Yes.
"Co .mmim Sergeant—But you can't swear theprisoner
'glair.* at p erson? Witness—No.
" et ,mu on Sergeant—Gentlemen of the jury, the case
quib clear' and the jury, according to his Lordship's
direettil 3n, found the prisoner Guilty."
G iment on the foregoing would be superfluous.
Suff jet it that such proceedings are manifestly unjust
and• ghly indecent. The public will not brook a
rej
.04 on of them. It is to be feared, moreover, that