The Sun.
London, England, 1823-12-06 00:00:00

[moitetiNa tisttet!,,n.]

Thereints leert a good deal'inserted of late in
sonic of the XeVispapers relating 'to the present
high price of coals. 'it is' stated that this high
price arises from monopoly; that two or three of
the rich coal merchants have laid their heads
together, have pined purses, and have bought
up the coals, Cu the moment of their arriving in
theßiver. Trle Lord'Mayor has been applied
to, and it has beep Stated that the coal
brokers do not do their duty in returning the
actual price of teals for the day ; and it is more
than Insinuated,: that there i$ a contrivance
bet Ween them and the .rtionopOlists, in 'order
that the letter shall. more effectrially carry
on their schemes of monopoly. This Is seine
at the old "doc;trine. ne%vly revived. the Lord
Mayor and the Parl4nrient are:called' upon
to .4o every thing ;- nothing. is to be left to
itself to Work its own cure, Civic or legislative
remedies are to be had recourse, to:. -A 'OW in
"PirOjanient frir` ritgilikill64-en)Anatiiig front 'the
citric itody of London ate: to stop these monopo.

lizers in their nefarious proceedings. Cbals are
to be kept down in price ; the public are to have
the benefit; the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Com-
mon Councilmen, and the Parliament are to effect
this—it is all for the public good. We should
not be surprised if a Committee were to arise out
of this wish to confer such benefits on the public.
Committees are the nicest things imaginable ;
for in general there are nice little secretaryships,
clerkships; porter, and masterships attached to
them ; many little liftys, hundreds, and two or
three hundreds a year ; the longer such Commit-
tees last the better for the secretaries and others;
and in generatsome lawyer contrives to be secre-
tary, or treasurer, or manager—no malter which,
it makes him known, and out of the bub-bub he
generally contrives to procure some business, or
is lucky in adding to the number of his clients
or if any part of the Civic Body stir themselves
in the matter it makes them popular, and such
popularity may possibly he the cause of their
getting into Parliament, should a vacancy occur.

LNEW TIMES.]
It is a proud boast of the administration of
justice of England that a person accused of the
most heinous crimes, nay, one against whom an
indictment for such crimes has been found by a
Grand Jury, remains as much under the protec-
tion of the law us if his character were wholly
unimpeached. What has just occurred at Hert-
ford exemplifies in a striking manner the truth of
this statement. Two prisoners have been charged
with an atrocious murder, a true Bill has been
found against them, a number of witnesses
are assembled, the prosecutors are ready,
hut upon application on the part of the pri-
soners their trial is postponed for a consi-
derable time. Every reasonable person will re-
joke at this indulgence to the accused. If pre-
judices have been excited against them, those
prejudices will have time to subside : if they
have been restricted in employing necessary
means of defence, those means will now be
brought within their power. It is indisputably
true that some parts of the Press have 'indulged
in a latitude of remark on the case of the indivi-
duals in question, wholly, inconsistent either
with justice or humanity ; but what consideration
is there that such writers will not sacrifice to the
sordid love of pelf ? At the same time candour
must allow that the question relative to the pub-
lication of notices of crime is a very difficult one.
—lt is physically impossible to stifle every
rumour, it.is morally impossible to prevent all
exaggeration in the report of facts. As to News-
papers their readers will not allow them to be
silent on any remarkable occurrence. They must
speak of it, or their very silence would be im-
puted to some corrupt and dishonest motive ;
and all that they can do is to speak with reserve,
and moderation, and fairness. In the case be-
fore us, it appears that there has been some
misconduct in the persons entrusted with the
collecting or recording of the evidence. They
have, some how or other, suffered a great part
of that evidence to transpire, and especially the
confession of one of the prisoners. It is said
that they could not help it, because the confes-
sion was repeated in the presence of a Reporter
to a Newspaper. This brings us back again to
the main question, how far the publicity of all
investigation into crime is necessary or ad-
visable. Either the Reporter bad a right
to be present, to take notes, and to publish
those notes, or he had not. If he had, that
right can only rest on the general utility
of such publications : and for the sake of general
utility the particular inconvenience must be tole-
rated ; but if there be no such utility mid no
such, right, then certainly the presence of the
Reporter might have been prohibited, his notes
seized and erased before his face, or their pub-
lication punished. For our own part, we do not
pretend to decide either what the law is in this
respect, or what it ought to be : only we think it
extremely desirable that some plain and intelli-
gible rule should be adopted, and that the gene-
ral practice should be made to conform to it.

[MORNING CHRONICLE. 4
We should like to hear what a oble Duke,
who deemed County Meetings farces, would
think of; tie proceedings which have just taken
place at Hertford. The English Lawyers who
delight in paradoxes, have laid it down, that
Juries are capable of forming a most correct
judgment in cases in which a great body of intri-
cate and conflicting evidence is adduced, and yet
that a Jury have neither sufficient memory,,
nor sufficient understanding to distinguish be-
tween any statements they may have read out
of Court, and what they hear in Court,—that
when horrible crimes, committed under the
most extraordinary circumstances, excite no at-
tention in the neighbourhood, and form the
subject of no "statement--tilat no opinion is pro-
flounced on thi,in till the public Press* interferes,
when all become instantly attentive—all read
and circulate the statements conveyed through the
Press, all begin' to decide as the press prompts
them ;—that statements unfavourable .to indivi-
duals about to belried may be in universal cir-
culation in a neighbourhood, without in the
least injuring them i while the same statements
in a Newspaper are injurious to them in the
higheit degree ; that he that tells his story
first thereby obtains a pre-judgment, which
will prevent the 'story of the other from
having the least effect. 4 These legal pare•
doxes never had more justice done them than on
this occasion at Hertford. Mr. juctice Park
with a grave earnestness that left no do doubt
of his own sincere belief in these old=established
and orthodox maxims of the law, in the very
commencement of his charge, on Thursday, to the
Grand Jury, lamented the disqualification from
judging in which the sinful Press had placed
nearly all the Court but himself. lie had,
indeed, been obliged to mid the dePosi-
dons before he came into Court (which con-
tallied, we should suppose, some pretty
strong statements against the prisoners), but
there he stopt—g4 r can assure you, with truth,
that I have seen nothing connected with thiq
Case, except the depositions, which were Sent to
me when I wfis'aPpointed Judge of this Circuit
(cannot, by-the-bye, the depositions be Sent to

some other person than the Judge, that he may
be rescued from all tendency to,prejudge ?), and
that I have most cautiously abstained from
reading one single word which has appeared
in any of the public prints. I for one there-
fore may say, that as far as any previous
opinion of the case is concerned (he formed, of
course, no opinion on the written depositions,—
it is only when depositions appear in News-
papers that opinions can be formed on them),
a more impartial person than myself never en-
tered a Court of Justice." Mr. Justice Park has
of course (as all Judges have always had) the
greatest love for the press, the free press of this
country ; but while he loves the press, he hates
the pruriency and appetite for news among the
people of this country (who, like the Athenians,
are always desirous of reading something new),
that is, he loves the Press, but wishes it had
fewer readers, and he held up to it u mirror, in
which it might view its dire offences on this oc-
casion.