The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-06 00:00:00

one," he unquestionably comprises in his own proper
person all the invidious characteristics of the three
Parcae. As far as the Peninsula is concerned, the
French KING holds at once the spindle, the wheel, and
the shears. He retains more than a life-interest in the
sway exercised over the Spanish dominions : he re-
gulates, in short, the destinies of Spain, by having
secured the reversion of its dynastic privileges to the
offspring of his youngest son.
Congratulate ourselves and Spain therefore as
we may upon the instalment of Senor PA-
CHECO in the presidential chair of ISABELLA'S per-
sonally selected Cabinet; rejoice as we may over
the probability of a comprehensive and benignant
amnesty ; exult as we may over the auspicious birth
of the Pacheco Administration, over the indisputable
discomfiture of the pimping polity of the Afrance-
sados, and over the rumoured restoration of ESPAE-
TERO to those dignities and immunities which his
prowess, his genius, and his patriotism had nobly
earned—it would be folly to conceal from ourselves
the conviction that these boons can merely be of
temporary duration unless the laws of nature and
the dispositions of a whole people be miraculously
transformed. Happily, however, there is invariably
a residuum of Hope after the most Pandorean torrent
of affliction, and this Hope beams brightly enough
from the embers of the traitorous Afrancesados.
Courage, then, to those lovers of fatherland who may
evince in cherishing the financial prosperity of their
country, in maintaining an honourable friendship
with disinterested states, and in conducting the in-
ternal administration with sobriety, probity, and
regularity, as heroic, though scarcely so chivalrous
and picturesque a patriotism, as that evinced by
Spanish Hidalgos of the olden time. Men now-
a-days cannot assert their loyalty to the con-
stitution, or their devotion to the land of
their birth by donning hauberks of " twisted mail,"
or couching lances of tough ash, but they may much
more effectually, if not so picturesquely, become
the preux-chevaliers of a nation by adroitly fingering
the red tape, and judiciously arranging the portfolio.
We are not indisposed to be sanguine therefore as to
the benefits which may be derivable from PACIECO
and his colleagues.

It is a lamentable fact that, for the most part, the
occupants of the magisterial bench seem to be
rsh9lly insensible to the serious responsibility attached

to the functions which they hare to discharge. The

responsibility can scarcely be said to be of a personal

character, for, except in cases where wilful malice

can be substantiated, the law effectually screens the

magistrate from suffering, either in his person or

pocket, for any consequences, however injurious, that

may have resulted to an accused party, from the
inadequate performance of his judicial functions.
But, notwithstanding that their personal responsibility,

for the reason stated, is practically next to nothing,

they still lie under a very heavy moral responsibility

to the public, proportionate to the extensive powers
with which the law has clothed their office. It

grieves us to repeat that there is a wide-spread in-
difference to the strength of this public obligation, as
evidenced by the repeated blunders and serious errors
into which the magisterial body are constantly fall-
ing ; and even where this feeling of indifference
does not exist, on account of the lax

manner in which the corps of justices is organized,
the public suffer just as much in another
way, as though it did, owing to the gross ignorance

and incompetency of a large proportion of those who
are placed in the commission of the peace. Neither
can we expect to rid ourselves of these objectionable
blots, which affect the administration of j ustice in the
hands of the minor functionaries of the law, until the

system by which they obtain their authority be en-
tirely revised. It is notorious that the magisterial
bench is filled by men whose qualifications for the dig-
nity have been inconsiderately measured, not by their

intellectual capacity, but by their personal influence, as
connected with property. If a person resident in a
county is desirous of elevating his social position
among his neighbours, he frequently induces bis
tenantry to vote for the political party, from whom
the aim of his ambition is not kept a secret, and
through whom, by a seasonable hint to the Lord-

Lieutenant, he is in due. time raised to the bench.
In this way individual vanity is gratified, the re-
quirements of the public, that the magistrates should

'verses in tne laws or mar country, beibg almoit
altogether unheeded. Considering, however, the
hap-hazard mode, and the heterogeneous materials
out of which the justices of peace are constituted, it
is matter of wonder that the administration of the
law is so well conducted as it is ; and, at all
times, it is far more gratifying to admire than to
criticise and reprehend the manner in which the
servants of the Crown, in their several departments,
perform their duties to the State. The admirable
efficiency that ordinarily stamp the judicial conduct of
the successive Chief Magistrates of the city of London is
deserving of the highest eulogy ; and we always feel
chagrined when anything occurs calculated to de-
tract from the efficacy of their example.
A man, who called himself JOHN BAKER, was
charged before the LORD MAYOR on Saturday with
having shouted out, " There goes a - Bobby !"
whilst two of the City police were following two
thieves. The latter took the hint and made off. The
police, considering this exclamation an interference
with their duty, inquired of BAKER what he meant
by it, and ultimately took him into custody. This
was an unjustifiable act. A man is not to be de-

prived of his liberty because he happens to exercise
his lungs and voice in the manner above-mentioned,
and because others choose to presume it was done
for a sinister object. Such a proceeding constitutes
a dangerous precedent where the liberty of the sub-
ject is concerned, and alarms people as to the extent
to which the police may, even for the most trivial
circumstance, be inclined to stretch their authority ;
and it is no justification of such a step to allege, or
prove, that the prisoner has not borne a reputable
character. It may be that the prisoner was both abu-
,ive in his language and violent in his demeanour when
addressed by the police; but had they any right, in the
first instance, to interrogate him as they did ? We
think not. They clearly exceeded the limits of their
duty. It was proved that, two years since, the pri-
soner had been tried for stealing a watch. The pri-
soner declared that he was honourably acquitted, and
had since been honestly employed, whereupon the
LORD MAYOR remarked, " the magistrates well know
how frequently juries acquit in cases of guilt, in con-
sequence of the ingenuity of counsel, the tampering
with witnesses, and other circumstances." These
were exceedingly ill-timed observations, which,
however true, ought never to be made from
the seat of justice. In the eye of the law
a man is considered innocent until found guilty, and
it is highly unbecoming in a judge to weaken the
value of this presumption to a man who has been
tried and acquitted—to surmise, off-hand, and parti-
cularly after a lapse of two years, that a man owed
his release from the grasp of the law, not to his in-
nocence of the crime charged, but to the dexterity of
his counsel. Such extra-judicial remarks may be
quoted and successfully handled by a malignant
person, inflicting great pain upon another, who has
been under the misfortune of having stood a
trial for an offence of which, in the opinion of
•very candid mind, he was then considered to be
wholly innocent. The theory of the law, to which
we are alluding, is equally wholesome and bene-
volent, presenting a fine moral bulwark against the
shafts of malice and the assaults of tyranny. It is
based upon a sound principle, and ought not to be
tampered with. It is a principle that ought to be
rigidly maintained, however dubious its application
may appear to be in any given instance ; and, least of
all, should its sanctity be invaded by those who, by
their position, are expected to be its most faithful
guardians.

All danger of a deficiency of food in Ireland is now
happily dispersed; the enormous quantity of bread-
stuffs that have been imported into that country have
had the effect, not only of bringing down the markets
to more reasonable rates, but of inducing persons
who had hoarded large quantities of corn, and other
cereal produce, to bring forth their secret stores to
the world. Few persons will be found to regret the
disappointment that awaited those heartless men,
who, with ample supplies in their possession, saw des-
tltutihoods, and theon prevailing in their respective neighbour-
'People suffering under all the
pangs and horrors of Starvation, and still, not satisfied