The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-05 00:00:00

~~.~~ ~~x

THE-VirEATHEIL—SuN OrincE, Juzut 5.
Lummox=Eit, Lowest, 50 ; Highest. 73 ; Noon, 63.
BAROMETER, 30.28.—WEND N.N.E.; fine.

HI +EI WATIM AT LONDON-141411.0Y THlti DAY.
Morning .. 2 minutes after 6. Evening .. 29 .ninntes tte, 6,

numbers. They have not to inquire how or by what
means, and at what expenditure, this their darling
object can be obtained. They ask not with what I
justice we can divest ourselves of the duty of pro-
viding for our own impotent poor, and send them to
starve and die in other climes, quod volumus facile
credimus. They desire to get rid of their destitute
brethren, and they are prepared to believe it can
easily be accomplished.
The first question that will have to be submitted
to the Committee will be, whether Ireland is really
over- peopled—whether useful and beneficial em-
ployment may not be found for every able-bodied
labourer throughout the land. We are fully con-
vinced that it will be manifested that there is an
ample field for the occupation of all, and that their
labours, when directed into the proper
channels, will be in the highest degree
valuable to the kingdom in general. We
do not want a tide of emigration flowing from the
Irish shores, but an influx of capital to carry out the
desired ameliorations. Already within the last
twenty years nearly 1,500,000 persons have volun-
tarily t=ailed from Ireland, and there has recently been
a large increase, so that from 200,000 to 300,000 may
fairly be estimated as the number of departures for the
present year, and what advantage has been derived
therefrom? Even Lord MONTEAGLE has been forced to
admit " that he feared it was of a kind that, so far
from relieving, would greatly increase the evils of which
just complaints were now universally made ; that he
found that the greater part of the emigration that
had taken place was from the employers rather than
from the employed, and that it had produced no effect
either in a greater demand for labour or in an
increased desire to possess land." It is, then, because
we are convinced that this inquiry will remove the
false and erroneous impressions that have gone
abroad that we hsil with joy the appointment of the
Committee.

We drew attention yesterday to the case o
Tuomis KINKING, imprisoned under the Smal
Debts Act, by virtue of an order made by
Mr. Commissioner BULLOCK, upon an ex-parte ap-
plication of the plaintiff, basedbased upon the alle-
gation, that the defendant had failed to pay the
first of a series of instalments, as previously directed
by the Court. We alluded to the application which
the prisoner had subsequently made, without success,
to the Court of Queen's Bench to be discharged
from custody, under the above circumstances, and by
virtue of which, it was contended, that the imprison-
ment was illegal ; we observed upon the fact, that
the judges hereupon were equally divided in their
opinion, and urged that the practice was reprehensible
which caused the prisoner to be remanded back to
prison under this state of things ; and, finally, we
alleged that, in point of law, Lord DENMAN and Mr.
Justice ERLE were in error in differing from
the view taken of this matter by their Learned Col-
leagues, Mr. Justice PATTESON and Mr. Justice
COLERIDGE. We also rejoiced that the ques-
tion was' to be mooted anew in the Court of
Common Pleas. The Judges of the latter court have
since unanimously decided that the commitment was
illegal, and the prisoner was accordingly forthwith
discharged. Lord DENMAN'S great error lay here—
he considered the proceeding of the Commissioner to
have been ministerial instead of judicial, whereas it
was clearly the latter. The object of the Act is to
punish a party, by a term of imprisonment not
exceeding forty days, who was or is able to pay in a
manner specified and arranged by the court having
jurisdiction in debts under 201. The imprisonment
does not liquidate the debt, and is therefore a pro-
ceeding in peenarn. As observed by Chief Justice
kVILDE, " the Act was passed in accordance with the
general principles of humanity, that you should not
press a man when he is not of ability to pay." A
man may have paid nineteen out of twenty instal-
ments, and it would be hard if, because he had
not satisfied the last, he was to be de-
prived of his liberty without being heard in
his defence. A thousand adverse circumstances
might have intervened to thwart his intention of
paying the entire debt, and yet, if the judge of the
Sheriffs Court had been supported in his order, it is
manifest that the object of the Legislature would
have been defeated. The fact is, the Act is very
laSkSo►E4~'llrli`i}l`issuec~ when an Insta
has not been paid up. Being defective in this re-
spect, every one would have supposed that the general
principles of law should prevail, and that a person
should not be condemned unheard. But Lord DEN..
M tN'S wisdom flew off at a tangent, and, setting this
reasonable inference aside, held a new summons un-
necessary, fearful that, if it were, debtors
might abscond. Whether this be likely to
be the effect of the decision of the
Common Pleas or not is beside the point; but it is
curious reasoning for the Chief Justice of the Queen's
Bench, in order to supply an omission in a statute,
to supply it by confirming a power assumed in an
inferior court, adverse to the liberty of the subject.
If we are to have stringent powers, let them be un-
equivocally conferred by law ; we seek not to be
indebted for them to the constrained fancies of any
judge. We agree, however, with Mr. Justice COLT-
MAN, that defendants, on receiving notice, would not
get out of the way, as the sums sued fur are
generally of so small an amount; it was not like the
Act for abolishing arrest on mesne process, under
which the debts might constitute an inducement to
parties to abscond.

Letters from Rome, dated the 27th ult., state that
the Rev. Dr. MILEY and Mr. DANIEL O'CONNELL
had arrived there, bearing with them the heart of the
late Mr. O'CoNNELL, enclosed in a silver urn.
"No words can describe," say those letters, " the
grief and disappointment that was experienced at the
announcement of O'Connell's death. A triumphal entry
was prepared fur him. The compartments of the arch
under which he was to pass were ready, and every other
arrangement made to receive him, rather as a prince
than as a pilgrim. The stroke which crushed all our
hearts has deranged all this, and the glowing enthu-
siasm which busied itself about his triumphal entry
is sorrowfully but earnestly engaged in preparing for
the grand requiem which is to be celebrated for his
eternal repose on the 15th June in one ,)f the chief Bs-
silicas of Home. Padre Ventura, the brightest ornament
of the pulpit in Italy, is preparing the funeral oration.
An audience is to be granted to the Rev. Dr. Miles
and Mr. Daniel O'Connell imtn, diately on the return if
Pius IX. froAl Suliaco, for which place his Holiness
started this morning at three o'clock. Half Rome has
followed him. The Pope's own suite and guard were
small, but their deficiency was more than compensated
for by the sixty or eighty young Roman nobles and
gentlemen, who turned out splendidly mounted and
appointed as a volunteer body-guard for their Sove-
reign, who reigns supreme in every heart. His Holi-
ness is not expected to return before Tuesday next. In
the interim the heart of O'Connell is deposited in the
ancient church of St. Agatha, which is served by the
Irish college, where, on Monday next, a solemn re-
quiem is to be celebrated for the departed, those death
has plunged the venerable prelate, the Very Rev. Dr.
Cullen, who presides over the college, and his commu-
nity into the bitterest grief."
The POPE has appointed five new Cardinals, two
French (the Archbishops of Cambrai and Besancon),
and three Italian—M. ANTONELLI, Treasurer; M.
BUFONDI, Prolegate at Ravenna; and M. Foartaxt,
the Pontifical N uncio in Paris."

A Berlin letter states that on the 28th ult. the
whole of the Court, the Foreign Ministers, and seve-
ral members of the two Orders of the States of
Prussia, had the honour of dining with the KING at
Potsdam, in honour of the birthday of the Queen of
ENGLAND. This is the first time that this mark of
respect towards her Britannic MAJESTY has been
shown in Prussia.
A letter from Munich, of May 27, says—" The
news lately given by the journals, that the KING in-
tended to separate the administrative power from the
judicial, turns out to be exact. Yesterday, the anni-
versary- of the granting of the Bavarian con-titation,
his MAJESTY, after a Cabinet Council of three hours'
duratimn, gave orders to have this great and salutary
measure carried into effect. At the same time the
KING issued an ordonnance, enacting that the pro-.
ceedings in all the courts of law, civil and criminal,
should be public."
We quote the following from the Specter Gazette:—
"It is said that the Emperor Nicholas is about to do
an act of generosity towards such Poles as have been
condemned for political offences. Those who have been
exiled to Siberia, and whose estates have been confis-
cated, are to be allowed to return into the kingdom, and
re-enter into possession of their property."

The intelligence from Lisbon, brought by the
Tiger, the arrival of which at Southampton we an-
flounced yesterday, is to the 29th ult. The Bulldog
arrived from England on the 27th, and was
supposed

.•
•,-•
DIEII b,
~;41' • mOS 2.:

SECOND EDITION.