The Sun.
London, England, 1824-08-31 00:00:00

from various quarters, which set. forth to reiterate
triumphs obtained by the Greeks, since the dis-
aster of I psara. Au old enemy, and a most for.
uthlable one, is seated to have attacked the Turks
in their very capital—it is the plague.

[THE TIMES.]
It is a sign of something tainted in practical
jurisprudence, when those who wish to measure
the state of party-feeling throughout a given
community are compelled to watch narrowly
the proceedings of courts of justice. This has
of late been the case with Ireland, where, if we
would resort to the best tide-table for the ebb
and flow of faction, we lied it half-yearly in
every Assize town ; and in the conduct of wit-
nesses, magistrates, and juries, not so much an
illustration of the letter or spirit of the laws, as
an exact barometer of the prevailing passions. In
extreme cases—tlutt is, in times where one party,
through the entire prostration of its rivals, can
exercise such despotic power as to stretch, relax,
or pervert the law to the uses of its own vicious
selfishness—we admit that from its mere uni-
formity, Oppression almost ceases to be instruc-
tive. We anticipate every result of crime the
moment in which we hear who was the perpe-
trator and who the victim. All the world knows
beforehand, that guilt, if on the side of power,will
escape ;and that innocence, if on that of weakness,
will be unprotected or punished. It is in a dif-
ferent state of national existence that courts of
justice begin to furnish food for lively curiosity
and profitable meditation. When some fresh
impulse has been given to the torpid machine, or
its parts been thrown into some new relative po-
sition, then it is that we observe its action with
unwearied interest. The chief and most con•
spicuous of many changes which the last year
or two have been working amongst the people
of Ireland, has been the decrease of that tyran-
nical power which a particular faction had long
presumed to exercise over the body of the nation,
through the medium—that is, by the abuse—of
the magistracy and the laws. A marked and
(for Ireland) a peculiar character has been com-
municated to the administration of justice in
its lower departments by the establishment of
petty Sessions ; and in its higher, by the en-
couragement afforded to witnesses ou every side
of a question, to come forward and speak the
whole truth ; and by the pains which the Judges
have bestowed upon the honest formation of
juries. A fair field is therefore opened, wherein
accusers and accused may now array their re-
spective rights, instead of that which left the
poor man no hope of safety if accused, or of re-
dress if he dared to be the prosecutor. Every
trial, thereforeowhich bears upon the interests or
character of Irish party, must be looked upon as
an index to the progress of legal ascendancy,
as contradistinguished from that of religious,
political, or aristocratical injustice. Several
reports of judicial proceedings at the diffe-
rent autumnal Assizes throughout Ireland
might be read with advantage us illustrative of
the condition of the country. IVe shall touch
upon one only, where the ends of justice appear
to have been defeated by a notable and disgrace.
ful abuse. Our readers recollect the Maghera
riot, where, so long back as Juno, 1813, a Css•
tholic, by *mine M‘Master, was 'shot in cold blood
by an Orangeman. In the first place, it is said
that a certain Magistrate, connected with u '
high dignitary of the Church, refused, under
sundry shifts and pretences, to take examine.
tions against the author of the poor man's death.
In the second place, the Chant! Jury of the
County threw out the bill of indictment.
Thirdly, however, the man-slayer has beet► put
upon his trial—the death was proved—the cause
of it, says the Judge, was manifest. But the
most important. witness—mtmely, the Magistrate
who had written the dying depositions of the
murdered men,' and who ahem could bring home
the crime clearly and unquestionably to the
guilty person, absented himself from the trial,
and a verdict of acquittal was brought in. Well
might Judge Pennyfather exclaim against this
snore than suspicious absence. The Magistrate,
Mr. Courtenay, if he was summoned tb attend,
ought to be punished iu a manner the most ex-
emplary for his gross breach of a solemn duty.
The erasure of his name from the Commission
of the Peace would, on that supposition, be lenity
itself compared with his transgression; but if not
summoned, who and what was the solicitor for
the Crown ? Was he an Orangeman ? Whatever
may be his name or the colour of his party, that
man deserves the heaviest visitation of the Go-
vernment for a neglect so glaring of his profes-
sional business, so fatal to public justice, so dan-
gerous to the peace of the country, and so con-
temptuous towards the policy which now admi-
nisters the affairs of Ireland. We have noticed
this trial because consequences of such moment
are connected with it : a party composed of mil-
lions of men have been checked in their newly-
awakened hopes of redress for accumulated inju-
ries, and a fresh provocation has been offered
then► to take law into their own bands. There
are other trials, crimival and civil, to which we
may perhaps allude hereafter.

[stows's° cuttoxrcr.c.]
Some discussion took place at the Mansion•
Ifouse, a few ago, respecting the nature of the
offence of appropriating a cheque found in the
streets. The Lord I%layor was disposed to re-
gard it as a felony, and the Chief Clerk remarked
that the publi: would 1),, greatly benefited by
the decision of the question. From this we should
infer, that the offence is one of frequent occur-
rence, and the question being a nice one whether
it be a felony or not, a fine field is opened for
senatorial sagacity, and it is not impossible
that Parliament may provide, as is its use,
expressly for the particular evil. But when we
reflect how the collective wisdom legislated in
a parallel case, we cannot but tremble for
the commercial interests of this great city. We
allude to the memorable Pewter Pot Act, that
passed a few years ago, the history of which is
strictly in point. Idle post-boys indulged them-
selves in the lazy habit of leaving their pots
strung on a leathern thong in the streets, while
they ran down the areas for further collection—
thieves often. stole the deserted pots, which they