The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-22 00:00:00

E SIG E 1. ( )N.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JoUR:s ALA

FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
(From the Globe.)
In the hope of obtaining a refo: ni, or retire abolition.
of the system of exacting enormous costs from pen
persons convicted of trifling offences l.efore magistrate i
in petty sessions, we have from time to time extracted
some of the cases from the provincial journals, as at,
illustration of the injury which the present system works
both to the individual sufferers and to the law itself, which
is brought into general disrepute by the imprisonment of
the persons, or the distraint of their goods, to satisfy—
not the sentence of the law, which is frequently light in
amount, but the fees of the Court, which are often
ten, twenty, fifty times greater than the penalty inflicted
It is unnecessary for us to continue to furnish indi-
vidual instances. The practice is universal—it per-
vades every county in Enelind. and in Scotland, too.
The remedy required is obvious. The system of
paying the magistrates' clerks by fees must be abo-
lished ; and a salary proportioned to the duty be sub-
stituted. Until this long-called-for change be effected
we shall see petty charges preferred for the purpose of
bringing grist to the mill of the functionary, the emo-
luments of whose office are made to depend oa fostering
a litigious spirit among the poor people of the district,
and whose agents, in the persons of the parish con-
stables, also share in the spoil in the shape of charges
for serving summons, executing warrants, attending
hearing, and—if the poor offender cannot pay the ac-
cumulated expenses—conveying him to the gaol. The
whole of this machinery of mischief, derogatory from
the dignity, and opposed to the purity, which should
characterise the administration of the laws in every
Court of Justice, must be swept away ; and the punish-
ment awarded by the Magistrates, after a due consi-
deration of all circumstances, as a just visitation upon
the offender, be expressed in terms clear and intelligible ;
and not, as now, in the ambiguous, undignified, and ir-
ritating form of a fine of " sixpence," or a " shilling ;"
and costs of twenty shillings, or more, as the clerk has
managed to swell the amount by the mode of prosecut-
ing the information.
(From the Standard.)
As the fortification of Paris is likely to be the only
ostensible result of the late diplomatic broil excited by
M. Thiers (less obvious results are known at the
Bourse), it may be worth the while to consider the
tendency of the conversion of the metropolis of
France into a fortress and a gaol a little at large.
.s we happen, fortunately, to be Englishmen, we can •
look at the matter more calmly than Frenchmen
ought to look at it ; questionless in a more sedate temper
than any man of English feeling would con-
template a project for surrounding London with
forts and garrisons, and likening the Londoners
in condition to the well-ordered inmates of the
great buildings at Milbank and- Coldbath-fields.
„First, when we talk of the fortification of a city,
containing 800,000 inhabitants, and—though Paris is
closely built—extending in a circuit of nine miles, what
do we mean? A simple wall ? Why, Paris has that
already—a belt of ordinary Works, such as that which
circles Amsterdam and most other continental cities ;
mere rampart and ditch, with bastions at short inter-
vals. Why, the fate of Amsterdam, perk ‘ps the
strergest city of the kind, and the fate of nearly every
of e: city thus fortified, proves that such fortifica-
tions are perfectly useless in the modern system ',of
war. Anti then the coast of the ground. A belt of
1;i:e or ten mites comp Ass, and 600 or 700 yards
at present, for the most part, covered with
expensive houses and gardens and manufactories!
:V ny, the inere Cost, 01 the ground and the necessary
n i. lii t e. would cut deep iueo tin, hundred millions of
or, ratio,r, would absorb it altogether b<:-
sore a sit,;le spade shouid be put in motion. No, the
effectu,l, and, in•teed, the only practicanle mode of
0t.4 Paris is to surrouLd it by a
of stroli,4 i, rtre sc s Large enough to contain and
(-‘ntwtii:;;; nunn!rous garri,ons. 'nos WAS Napoleon's
' • ••,- • ,•e f)-tific oien of Pari•, and an ex-ell••nt plan
wai for deie dung Paris from the Fauxbourgs St.
Antoine and Marceau, and for ildentling the Govern-
ueeit and tile departments agnitnit Paris ; and such was
the Emperor's purpose—for at the time when he enter-
tained the prejeet he no-more dreamed that a foreign
army should approach his capital than be did of terrni-
nrieg his days at St. Helena.
(From the Courier.)
The Chronicle returns to-day to the subject of Re-
ieu! agitation, in an article evidencing more sobriety of
tone and manner, though no less obliquity of vision, than
those that have previously appeared in its columns on
the same subject. Not but that the object of the writer
is equally clear, namely, the exculpation of Ministers,
whether he handles the topic of Repeal in the spirit of
fierce partisanship, as he last week did, or treats of it
with an apparent effort at impartiality, as he now does.
'('he task undertaken by our Contemporary is indeed a
difficult one, being nothing less than a justification cf
the apathy, indifference, and connivance exhibited by
the Whig Cabinet towards the " seditious and trea-
son:ble movement" that is daily gaining ground
and gathering fresh strength in Ireland. But
how, can our readers guess, does the writer in the
Chronicle attempt to palliate, if not justify, such an
n'iiandocineot of duty ? Is it by pointing to what
Ministers have clone—to the steps they have taken—or
th:_e swqns they have resorted to. for the purpose of re-
st the formidable movement, or even of meni-
feting their sense of the impropriety (to use no stronger
oe more appropriate term) of the conduct of those en-
ge,c d in a pro;,..et so full of mischief and peril ?
of the kind. 111inisers have abstairied with more i
caxion than prudence from any inter/ere:we' with the
,peal iegitatioLi—tot a murmur of d.sapproha!ion re-
ga,tinig it has escaped them, and even their organs
tone): upon it with that lightness nanl reserve, denoting
to tiwzn its sacred n:t4ure. Oar Contemporary, with
aff:etat;on of si:np:icity asks " what steps have. they
(the Ministers) failed to adopt in order to di;.eounte-
tenanco an agitation, the existence of which (the same
aun'enrity assures us) they sineerely deplore ?" Now
here we have an interrogatory artfully framed and put,
involving a pre-supposition that some steps had already
11-'l.ll taken by M.iiiisters in order to discountenance Re-
p,,al agitation, 'be very reverse _being notoriously the
fact; nay Ministerial Evening organ, a few da)s
NlO. claimed. credit for them on the grounds of having
nwintaiee I " dignified abstinence" from interference
with tau sayings and doings of repeal agitators.

ra ries v.)

ort:f

A pen..sion of 971., granted by the Duke of
during his Gra,y's administration, to Lady Duro-
Cochraue, daughter of the late Etri of Dundonald,
eiot sis er bs halt blood t p the present Pe,:r, has reverted
by the death of that y;Anig lady. Lady
•.1,4.4 in her twentit,th year. The total amount
new pr,,i,,:ona on the Ctvtl List grantcdla,it year (1839),
ii,c!tult-tE; tkrit! to Lt ,utenant,Colonl Gursood, Dlauty-
Ciev:...rrte: of the T,:)vve,, of 1001., in consideration of the
..ierauves r-hdcr,.l to t'oe ittiblie by the pubicati .n of the
'4.:-,r,,tvnt-s of the Duke of curl one of the
antouot to Mrs. Ptunkett, widow of Mr. Plunkett,
Lt deputy chairmin of Excise, was 590/.

TIIE REGISTRATIONS (SCOTLAND).—Some
of ,r•ur Tury Contemporaries are exulting this week at the
rate,of the rrgistrations, which they aay have turned out
g!oriou ly for the Conservatives. The result of the whole
t,—and ae speak within the limits of our own jurisdiction,
that if a dissolution of Parliament should take place to.
morrow, a triumphant majority of Reformers, under the
present system of registration, faulty as it 'is, would cer-
tainly' be rtvurned from this part of the United Kingdom,
to support the Queen and the Queen's Government.—
:Scotch Reformer/I' Gazette.

On Saturday a trial took place, in the London
Docks, to test the respective powers of the large floating
fire-engine belonging to that Company, and the floating
engine thual:y stationed near Southwark-bridge. The
engine belonging to the Company is worked with a fly-
hei.l by forty-eight men, whilst the other is worked in
the usual manner by ninety men. The former engine will
throw about three tuns of water per minute, and was
worked with great effect, carrying a powerful stream of
Water completely over the warehouses, which are nearly
seventy feet in height; whilst that of the Southwark
sta:lon scarcely reached to the top, and threw only two
tuna of water per minute. A great number of the Direc-
tors of the Company and scientific persons, with Mr.
Braidwo,d (the Superintendent of the London Fire Estab-
lishment), were present. The brigade men, of whom
there was a full muster, were dressed in uniform, arid the
trial was completely satisfactory.
NEW,- POLICE FIRE
ous REGULATIONS.—Orders
have been given at the different station-houses of the city
and metropolitan police fori tehs, so that the exercise
ao the men in the
working of the fii*-engncertain number of
them may act as firemen in case of need ; and for this pu
pose they will remain at the station-housethe game ur-
ber of hours as the present London Fire Establishnmrn-
ent
placed
under do. Ladders are to be rendered available, and l
under the direction of the day and night police, who havecd
been practising the use of them in Cripplegate, where the
late conflagration occurred, and in ether parts of the city,
No fewer than thirty lives have been sacrificed in London.
within the last IS months.
On Fridas', the 25th tilt., a letter was forwarded
to a female inmate at the Caistor Union workhouse, of
which the following is a copy verbatim et literatim:—
" Toe marth All
Kastre
Hunion flows
L incolashira

THE DELIGHTS OF LoNDO
perhaps, have gone quite so far ashis
N. 7
oldli efrwi eonudiJdeknyoltl,
who used to say, that, " if compelledto his
to live
coun-
try, he would have the approachhouseinptahve edlikethe streets of London, and hire a hackney coach
ait
achtho
greatdrive
up and down all day long ," but he ,vould relate
glee a story showing the general conviction ofbicsodinr
dislike
to ruralities. He
was sitting in the library, at a county}'-
house, when a gentleman, informing him that the family
Were all out, proposed a quiet str .11 into the pleasure;
gronds. " Stroll 1 why, don't you see my
"Yes, but what then? You don't really mean to say
gouty shoe ?
that you have grit the gout. I thought you had only put ,
on that shoe to avoid biring shown over the improvements."
John Smith's Memoirs, f•c.
A palm tree of enormous dimensions was taken
through this town on Thursday week, on its way to the
Duke of Devonshire's seat at Chatsworth. Its weight
wp, s twelve tons; it was drawn by nine horsfts ; and clue
carr.
ja,e alone was ezlN'eted to amount, before it reached
destination, tc, I,oool....NNOrthaiitpkin MOrCiiry,