The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

PROM THE EVENING PAPERS OP YESTERDAY.
(From the Globe.)
The Post, in an article intended as a defence of
the Corn-law monopoly, exceeds the usual quantum
of ignorance generally evinced by that Journal on
this important question ; and, what was yet more
difficult, the limits, if such there be, to the dis-
position it indulges to misrepresent those who ad-
vocate a repeal or mitigation of the existing mono-
poly :—" It is manifest from the language of the Go-
vernment prints that they exult in the circumstances
of (listless produced by the bad harvests of the last two
years. They evidently rejoice that in some degree the
plague of hunger will come in aid of the usual impatience
of order and love of disturbance which characterise large
multitudes under mild systems of government. The Whi-
g hate certain of the laws, especially the laws
estaolished for the protection of British agriculture,
and they exult even in a national calamity which affords
a better chance of creating multitudinous clamour and
violence against those laws." The entire article
is worthy of such an exordium. Ignorance and
falsehood strive for the pre-eminence from its commence-
ment to its close ; and leave the reader undecided
whether the former or the latter prevails. It is ut-
terly false—a malignant libel on that portion of the
public press, to which we belong, which advocates
the modification or total repeal of the Corn-laws,
to assert of it that, either by direct or indirect
at empts, it has excited the people to " violence of
action against the existing law," in order to compel
its repeal." We demand the name of the Journal
,n which any such attempts have been made, and the
language which by the most tortuous ingenuity can be
construed into any such meaning—in order that we
may join the Post in its reprobation. Where has the
languageof " exultation" been employed, because it has
pleased the Almighty Controller of the seasons to visit
this country the last two years with deficient harvests ; in
consequence of which extensive privations and sefferings
Are endured by the labouring part of our countrymen ?
We have indulged in no such exultations—have not
heard of or read any such expressions of delight, at
what must excite sympathy and grief in every bosom
not absolutely devoid of those feelings which belong
to our common nature, and without which man
is a rebel against his kind. The fact of such deficiency
in the harvests has, it is true, been adverted to ; it was
necessary to advert to it, for the purpose ofillustrating
And establishing the position which it went so far to
prove ; viz., the folly of excluding from our markets the
corn produce of other countries, when it may be ob-
tained at a moderate price in exchange for our manufac-
tures, which would thus be extensively consumed by the
corn-growing continental States, from which they are
;low shut out ; thus compelling its purchase in
specie at an exorbitant rate, when the the home sup-
ply is by any of the accidents which attend its cultiva-
tion rendered insufficient for the demands of our inha-
bitants.

(From the Standard.)
A very great portion of our paper is this day occu-
pied by the proceedings at the Monmouth Special Com-
mission. After the Jury had been sworn, the Attor-
ney-General having previously set aside some nine or
ten of the panel (a fact which we notice for Lord
Normanby's observation), and after the Attorney-
General had opened the case against Mr. Frost in a
speech, calling for no particular remark, except, per-
haps, that it was prudently free from any allusion to the
preparatives of the rebellion—after these preliminaries,
Sir F. Pollock objected to the examination of the first
witness called, on the ground that the delivery of a list
of witnesses to the prisoner had not been made in
the form prescribed by the statute. The list had,
indeed, been delivered more than the required ten days
before trial ; but it had not been made in company, and
at the same time, with the delivery of the indictment, as
the law expressly and distinctly commands. The objec-
tion was argued with extraordinary learning and
talent by Sir Frederick Pollock and Mr. Fitzroy
Kelly for the prisoner ; and it was resisted at some
length by the Attorney-General, who, however, could
not deny the fact alleged, and was compelled to admit
that the terms of the law had not been literally
complied with. The decision of the Court was as
follows :—" Chief Justice Tindal said,—There ap-
pears to us to be sufficient doubt to reserve the point
for further consideration. I am not prepared to say

the objection made on the part of. the prisoner is
valid, but it is a question upon which no direct decision
has taken place, and which calls for very serious consi-
deration. It is the more important, that the same ob-
jection may apply to the several other cases in
which the indictments have been found, and the
prisoners arraigned. We purpose to take a course
on the present occasion which will prevent
the possibility of an over hasty decision operating
to the prejudice or disadvantage of the prisoner, and
from causing a failure of public justice. We shall
allow the trial to proceed, and take the opinion
of her Majesty's Judges on the validity of the
point, provided such proceedings shall become
necessary. To-morrow morning we shall proceed with
the evidence." It would be presumptuous and
indecent in us to anticipate the decision of the
Judges to the extent of saying that the slip of
the Crown lawyers is Jatal to the "prosecu-
tion ; but a very strange slip it is, and, if not
an intentional one, it proves extraordinary slo-
venliness somewhere. That nothing harsh as against the
prisoners was designed, we freely admit. They have
ilad all the benefit intended for them by the law, and

-----
the question must be admitted to rest upon a mere
technicality. The objection, however, must not be
regarded the less upon that account. The forms of the
law are the subject's defence against oppression ; and
if these forms come to be violated in cases where their
effect is indifferent, they will in time come to be violated
in all cases.

We commend the following to the attention of
every Catholic who read the articles in the two
last numbers of this paper. It is copied from the
Morning Post of Friday last, and may be taken
as an official delaration from Sir Robert Peel :

" The Ministerialists are evidently in an agony of
terror, from having heard that Sir Robert Peel means to
spare them no longer, but to be down upon them with
the honest indignation of all England at his back, as
soon as Parliament meets. Most fervently do we hope
and trust that Sir Robert Peel will in no degree disap-
point either the fears or the hopes of his loyal Protestant
fellow-countrymen. The time has come to crush these
minions rf Romanism—these paltry dependants upon an
Irish conspiracy against the British Protestant Consti-
tution. We hope, and we belive, that a blow will be
struck, and that immediately upon the meeting of Par-
liament "

The war then, is to be a religious war. It is to
be a war of clerical persecution against religious
toleration ; of Church of England bigotry against
Catholicism and Dissent. So let it be—but Catho-
lics must no longer be supine. It is they who are
especially assailed, and it is therefore their bounden
duty to exert themselves. As we said last
week, the repeal of the Emancipation Act is the
first object of the ultra-Tories, of whom Peel and
his clique are the mere puppets.—Provincial Paper.
The Rev. H. Pepys, brother of the Lord Chan-
cellor, has received the appointment to the see of Sodor
and Man, vacant by the translation of Dr. Bowstead.
HAYMARKET THEATRE.—The performances
at the Haymarket Theatre have attracted the following
distinguished fashionables during the week • The
Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Augusta of Cam-
bridge, Prince George, Prince Louis Napoleon, Earl of
Chesterfield, Earl of Pembroke, Earl of Charleville,
Earl of Lichfield, Count d'Orsay, Countess and Ladies
Sefton, Lord St. Maur, Lord W. Lennox. Lord Craven,
Lord Alfred Paget, Sir George and Lady Wombwell,
Hon. Col. Molyneux, Hon. C. Greville, Orby Hunter,
Esq., Massey Stanley, Esq., Captain Hicks, and Lord
Castlereagh.
STEEPLE CHASE AT CHELTENHAM.—The
Steeple Chase for the Berkeley Hunt Handicap sweep-
stakes came off last Tuesday, on the Race-course. The
(lay was fine, the spectators numerous, and. !
the assent-
al
blage of nearly all the sporting gentlemen in the neigh-
bourhood, gave the scene the greatest animation ; al-
though ten horses were entered only four started,
namely,
Mr. Stoughton's Pic Nic, rode by Mr. Healey ; and
Mr. Wood's Gilbert, rode by Mr. Craven. The start
Win ton's Nimrod, od,
by rodem r
Lhimselfoves ;
y
Mr.
Cridland's Mr. De
D The
;
he V
Doctor,'s rode
was from the Grand Stand, and the horses, after a cir-
cuit of two miles, and having to make three gates
and several stone alls, returned in the following or-
der :—Mr. Cridland's The Doctor, Mr. Wood's Gilbert,
Mr. De Winton's Nimrod, and Mr. Stoughton's Pic
Nic—unfortunately, in coming in, the Doctor went the
wrong side of the post, and the stakes were awarded to
Mr. Wood's Gilbert.
QUARRELS AMONG THE TORIES.—The Dub-
lin Statesman has bestowed two angry columns upon
our suggestion as to the probable policy of Sir Robert
Peel. Much as we regret to have provoked the anger
of our able and faithful Irish Contemporary, we do not
complain of it : we have too much sympathy with
the feelings of Irish Protestants not to understand
perfectly well why some of the less considerate among
them may regard the cooler sentiments of men living
out of the sphere of Romanist insolence and Romanist
Whig oppression, as evidence of defection from Protes-
tant principles.—London Standard.
SUICIDE IN THE GREEN PARK.—On Wed-
nGersedeanyla morning,r
Green-park,
h en
seven and eight o'clock, two
men were passing the side of the reservoir in the
perceived part of a woman's
dress floating in the water. Drags were procured, and
the body of a woman was brought to shore, and imme-
diately taken to St. George's hospital. She was quite
dead, and appeared to be about 45 years of age, and was
dressed in a black straw bonnet, merino check gown,
and low shoes. upon her person were found three
duplicates in the name of Anne Smith. Inquiries were
made by the police respecting her, but nothing further
could be ascertained.