The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-24 00:00:00

THE S" "N, LONPON, THURSDAY., JUNE 24. 'Rm.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM TILE DAILY :'APERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—The appointment of Sir John Campbell to
the Irish Chancellorship, is seized upon by the Tory
Journals with an avidity which shows their anxiety to
find a pretext for attack upon the Government. The
utter failure of the attempt to make out even a colour-
able case in furtherance of their object, is shown by their
direct contradictions of each other, and by the in-
consistencies into which they are led with them-
selves. If there has been one subject more than
another on Which the Tory press has been found una-
nimous, that unanimity has been shown in an endeavour
to induce Lord Plunkett to retire from the Bench, on -
the ground of his advanced age and increasing in-
firmities. Expostulation, ridicule, and invective, have
alternately been employed to effect an object which these
careful guardians of the public-service affected to consi-
der as no less essential to the interests of the suitors,
than to the dignity of the Court. The Government was
conjured, by a• regard for its own reputation, to inter-
pose ; and, by calling upon the tenacious Chancellor to
relax his hold of the seals of office, exhibit a fit con-
cern for the dignity of the Court and the interests of the
suitors. This was represented as necessary to save
Lord Plunkett himself from the reproach of being
indifferent to both, by obstinately retaining his
hold upon office when no longer able to per-
form its functions with regularity and efficiency.
The Tories were not alone in their opinion, that the
period had arrived when Lord Plunkett—from the fre-
quent attacks of severe illness to which he was subject,
and the manifest decay of his mental as well as physical
powers—ought, to retire from the bench, the duties of
which he was no longer able to discharge with honour
to himself and satisfaction to the country. On several
occasions, especially at the close of his recent long and
serious illness, which greatly prostrated his remaining
powers, a respectful but sufficiently significant intimation
from the Government was understood to have been con-
veyed to his Lordship from the proper quarter, that his re-
tirement was now not only generally expected by the bar
and the public, but was even (hie to his own character,
personal and official. The venerable Judge—retaining a
vivid recollection of his pristine vigour, but unconscious
of the failure of powers which were once acknowledged
by all, although their decay had become too plain to
evmoerrey
significant one e l se—
rs teipl trerseetin
nata
ted
io
o hisl seat.
vas ma d
eA length
—t
a eorr a yet
es
po
od
ence with Lord Melbourne, as Prime Minister, ensued.
The Premier fully confirmed the views taken by the
Lord Lieutenant as to the propriety of his Lordship's re-
signation—and, as the Chancellor's farewell address to
the bar too plainly proves, a reluctant relinquishment of
office was fl:9 consequence.
COURIER—The speech delivered by her Majesty
from the throne is, as a collection of common places,
commendable At least for its brevity, and would hardly
be good for more than the passing notice of the day on
--hick delivered, but for the extraordinary uses and
‘• • to which it is sought to be prostituted by those
abuses it,_ and the slavish press by which they
who framet: -4-"eording to that unprincipled press
are supported. • the least scrupulous mem-
indeed, and notably by . • '',orship of the Speech
ter of it, the Chronicle, the am-- - •
•nstead of the
is fastened upon the Queen herself, --
Ministers, who, according to ancient conss.t'
usage, were invested with the responsibility, leitrng
the Sovereign totally free from reflection for whatever
might chance to be repugnant to national sympathies
either in the acts of the Government or the language of
the address. In pursuance of the Whig-Radical tactics
of the present day, however, the Sovereign is saddled
with the responsibilities, whilst the Ministry monopolise
only the honours and profits of place, and it is accord-
ingly announced that " the Queen, as if inspired by the
tutelary genius of Britain, tells her subjects
importance the para-
mount of the trade and industry of the
country, and my anxiety that the exigencies of the
public service should be provided for in the manner
least burdensome to the community, have induced me
to resort to the means which the Constitution has en-
trusted to me of ascertaining the sense of my people
upon matters which so' deeply concern their welfare."'
The " tutelary genius of Britain," by whom her Majesty
is thus somewhat sacrilegiously made to be inspired, is
embodied, as we all know, in the personnel of the gay
and gouty Lord Melbourne, and the turning and trim-
ming Lord John. Russell, so lately described by Mr.
Samuel Jones Loyd, in a figure Of!apeech much. more
resplendent than that more humble sitetch of imaginative-
creatiov applied to Majesty, as " riding into the City
with virtue and prudence seated by his side.". It is
somewhat singular that no more important information-
of public interest could be found for the groundwork of
a Royal Speech, embracing at once the announcement of
a prorogation and dissolution, than the tardy diScovery
of the " paramount importance of the trade and industry
of the country,". a truism so trite as generally to •be
familiar from the earliest years with the most unfledged
of those public men in embryo who, like the Russells, are
to be " swathed, rocked, and dandled into legislators." -
STANDARD.—The Royal Speech, pronouncing the
doom of the late Parliament, is in the hands of the public,
who have learned nothing from it that they did not know
before. It is a short and meagre composition, more pe-
tulant in tone than any loyal Minister would place in the
hands of a Sovereign, whose interest it must always be to
act and speak graciously to her subjects. The second
paragraph is the reproof to the Parliament about to be
dismissed, and it-is a most unjust one with reference to
the occasion of the dismisal :
" The paramount importance of the trade and industry of
the country, and my anxiety that the exigencies of the public
service should be provided for in the manner least burdensome
to the community, have induced me to resort to the means
which the Constitutions has entrusted to me, of ascertaining
the sense of my people upon matters which so deeply concern
their welfare."
The importance of the trade and industry is indeed
paramount; but why should the Speech assume that the
Parliament of 1837 did not duly appreciate this para-
mount importance ? 'Because that Parliament refused
to sacrifice ultimately the whole trade and industry of the
country—instantly, the trade and industry of thirty-nine
fortieths of the people to the Chance of a temporary
advancement of the trade and' industry of one-
fortieth.. This is the ' real state of - the question.
The Corn-laws and other protective laws • have long
been treated on a much too narrow basis. We take
pride to ourselves that we never so treated 'them,
and our pride is not the less that we were, the first
—and were for a long time alone—in treating these
laws as not landlord's, or farmer's, or colonist's, or
shipowner's questions, but as the high insular policy
of a great empire, which had grown great by these pro-
tective laws, and by a perseverance in the same insular
policy must remain great, and become greater. The
necessity of such comprehensive treatment of the ques-
tion is proved by the opportunity for the cry of monopoly,
which has been afforded by dealing separately with the
several interests attacked by selfish parties. Landlords,
farmers, colonists, shipowners, as each interest was at-
tacked, have been called monopolists-for defending them-
selves ; but the absurdity of such an imputation becomes
manifest, when we come to-the truth, that the only sense in
which they can be called monopolists is as partners in the
great monopoly of the British empire—a monopoly in
arts, in arms, in commerce, wealth,. and character, which
causes this empire to be the object of envy through-
out the world. In this sense we are • monopolists,
and we trust to remain such ; in any other
to speak of any monopoly in the empire, except
the monopoly which money must give everywhere, is
the grossest and most ridiculous falsehood. We read in
placards on the walls that the agriculturists are paid out
of the taxes, we know not how many millions a year •
and the reason given is, that their industry is- protected
by the Corn-laws. Why, if this be true, every man
is • paid out of the taxes to the extent of his in-
come, for every man's industry is protected, di-
rectly or indirectly, and all tradesmen and labourers
are protected in the protection enjoyed by customers
and employers. This is the insular policy which has
Made the British empire what it is. Abandon this insu-
lar policy,. and you abandon all the advantages that you
have acquired. Political economists will tell you, no
doubt, that free trade is the best for all. Be it so ; then,
if it is best for all, it must be worst. for those who have
secured the advantage-Tfor the monopolist, that is, for
the British empire.

SINGULAR MATRIMONIAL
CEREMONY.

On Monday last, at the Police Court, Liverpool, two
men, Isaac 11'1Veille•and John Henderson, were placed at
the bar ; the litter; a young man, on a charge of falsely
personating himself as a clergyman, and marrying a
couple in a private house ; and the other, his senior, with
aiding and abetting in the deception. The newly but
falsely wedded couple appeared together in the witness
box; The bridegroom, a decent looking and rather well
dressed country-looking man, of apparently about forty-
five years of age, said he had come from Ireland the day
before, in• company with his female partner, who ap-
peared to be somewhat under thirty., lie was on his way
to Manchester in search of work, and being desirous of
getting married to the young woman, who would proceed
no farther with him unless the nuptial knot were tied,
he (simple man) accosted the elder prisoner in the street,
and asked him the way to a church, stating that he did
not like to disclose his own affairs to a stranger, but
that a friend of his wished to be married without loss of
time. The prisoner pointed to the church ; but imme-
diately afterwards told complainant that he could not be
married there without the banns being put up for three
successive Sundays ; but he knew a man who was quali-
fied to do so for a very moderate sum without that pre-
liminary, and who had solemnized the marriage of his
own sister, who had since lived in great comfort and hap-
piness with her husband in Cheshire. Thus persuaded
the loving pair accompanied him to a house, he knew not
in what street, where it appeared preparations were soon
made to inveigle' them, They found some men and twb
women there, and were ushered into a room up-stairs,
which the female (an equally simple country woman)de-
scribed as being very finely furnished. Books were
placed on the table, and the younger prisoner proceeded
to perform the ceremony. Books were placed on the
table 'to_give. the matter a show of publicity. The
assumed divine joined the hands of the couple, placed
the ring on her finger, and went through the ceremony
with a gravity that lulled their suspicions at the time,
cencluding by making them both kneel. The charge for
the service performed was stated at first to be 10s. ; but
as the bridegroom had not so much, it was agreed to take
65., which was handed to " the clergyman,"
and by him
to his accomplices. Marriage lines (produced) were af-
terwards given to the parties. The Magistrtte read ab-
stracts from two distinct Marriage Acts, showing that to
personate a clergyman and marry a couple, not in a
church, or licensed place, without a special license so to
do, was to all intents and purposes a libel, and even sub-
, jected the party or parties to fourteen years' transporta-
re joke,
tion. He strongly reprehended the conduct of the
offenders, the youngest of whom said he was drawn into
the act in me
and committed them both for trial,
expressing a wish, that in so heartless a case the penalty,
severe as it was, would be carried into effect.

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