The Sun.
London, England, 1824-05-31 00:00:00

[THE TIMES.]_

The late Treaty between Great Britain and
the -Netherlands has given occasion to a note
froM the Dutch negotiators, in. acknowledgment
of that which we noticed three or four daya.ago
from our English diplomatists. The two notes,
taken as official documents, might have been very
well dispensed with—they contain no binding
obligation upon either party—they offer no prac-
tical explanation of difficulties—they mollify no
hardship imposed upon British interests—they
assuage no, mortified feeling—they are just so
much supernumerary compliments, and so many
words thrown away. Our Ministers begin
in 1814-15, by making large grants of Eng-
lish possessions; and in 1824, they conclude
an awkward attempt to patch up some of the evil
effect of this improvidence, by a treaty which
leaves Holland in undisputed exercise of every
power which ought to have been originally with-
held. To render this treaty less obnoxious to
the people. of England, a long string of hopes and
exhortations addressed to the Dutch, is appended
to it by the British negotiators; trusting and
praying that the Government of Holland will-
use the omnipotence which has been conferred
upon it by that of England, so as to soften in
some degree the reproach of such important sa-
crifices. The Dutch Ministers, in their reply,
refrain from offering any positive stipulations
beyond those which the treaty itself provides, of
a nature to be pleaded against themselves here-
after, either as regards their abandonment of
commercial monopoly, or their adoption of those
lenient and liberal principles exemplified in the
conduct of England towards the native Powers.
The Dutch notey indeed, is • composed with ele-
gance, and abounds in terms of courtesy towards
this Government.: but in promises and assur-
ances, nothing can be more unsatisfactory. It
appears that the Second Chamber of the States
General were, on the 25th instant, unanimous in
their approbation of the treaty : had it been
otherwise, we are of opinion that their High
Mightinesses must have been difficult to please.

[BRITISH PRESS.]
We intended to have resumed our observations
on the subject of the law of libel, and on the de-
structive influence of the modern maxim—for it
is but of late introduction—that truth is a libel.
We shall, however, reserve ourselves till we ap-
proach nearer to the period to which the argu-
ment on Sir George Chetwynd's motion is post-
poned, that its interest -may bear more immedi-
ately, in point of time, on the subject of his appli-
cation to the Court, and to the recorded state-
ment of his conduct as a County Magistrate, which
has,so strongly excited the public attention, and
which has appealed with such resistless conviction
to every man of reflection throughout the kingdom.
Mr. Sergeant Wilde's speech, in the meantime,
will stand as a memorial. If any case ever illustra-
ted the mischievous tendency, and utter unsound-
ness of the above maxim, this is that case. If ever
facts were furnished that could display the de-
plorable consequences that come in the train of
it, this case has furnished those facts. This
maxim is to be found in no part of our consti-
tutional history ; judicially it never was, nor ever
will, because it never can be applied to a just
or honest purpose. It was invented to shelter
the devotees of arbitrary power, by suspending-
the vengeance of the law over every one who
should dare to denounce the obliquities of men
in high station, or that should charge auy public
man with an abuse of. office, however well-war-
ranted the charge may be, or however flagrant
the abuses which are the subject of it. If a
Justice of the Peace is to have all the keys of
the Constitution to hang at his girdle, and is to
lock his Majesty's subjects.imor out'at his plea-
sure, it at least behoves us to look well after those
who are invested with this high office. The ,ex-
tensive power with which this class of local Ma-
gistrates throughout •the• kingdom have been si,
lently and by degrees invested, and the system
of summary convictions which goes along with
this power, and has increased with it, make it
incumbent with the Public Press to watch the
exercise of their alarming and dangerous juris-
diction with perpetual vigilance. A power to
convict upon his • :own examination, without
trial, was first given to a single justice in the
reign of Elizabeth (43 Eliz. c. 7.) The former
statutes which authorise the examination and
trial of offences
,by.. Justices of the Peace,
jO refer, according,,, .Burn—whose legal re-
searches on this point put his authoriti be-
yond question—to the common law mode of trial
by Jury, before the Justices in Session. When
the constitutional privilege of trial, by Jury is
thus exteusively withdrawn, the safety • of the
subject, and the English
genuine principles of
liberty, have no guardian but the freedom of the
Press : but, under the modern maxims of the
Courts, that truth is a libel, its freedom is an
empty name, its controul is annihilated, and its
remedial influence is gone. The manly
and libe-
ral tone of politics, which distinguish the present
,
sent government, is no Security against the
evil of this maxim, nor any protection, against
its injustice. Let our Judges be even as up-
right and as free from political taint as they
may, it does not make this rule of law a whit
the less false or the less mischievous. To punish
the truth as a libel, on the ground that it tends,
equally with falsehood, to a breach of .the peace,
is a subtility so contemptible as to be utterly

unworthy the high character of an English Court
of Justice : it is, in plain truth, a maxim framed
for the protection of all those whose conduct, in
the administration of public affairs, will not bear
investigation or exposure : to attempt putting its
defence on any ground of reason or expediency,
is a chicanery that cannot pass. The public mind
is too far and too generally advanced. It has
been said, "non expedit omnem veritatemprodere
vulgo ;" but this was said many centuries ago,
and in times far differing from the present. If
the common people must not hear the truth, they
have at least become the greater part of them
too reflective to permit us to propagate falsehood
in the place of it.

[NEw TIMES.]
The most remarkable circumstance in the re-
cent operations of the Stock Exchange is the evi-
dent scarcity of money, which has occasioned a
depression both in the English and Foreign Se-
curities.—Consols for Accounts were done on Sa-
turday at 94-1, but it being a holiday, there was
little business transacted. It is, however, be-
lieved that after the payment• of the Dividends
the funds will somewhat recover in price, though
they may probably not reach the elevation they
lately attained.—The Foreign Market not only
partook of the same causes of depreciation which
affected the home market, but was also rendered
heavy by the disappointment of some expecta-
tions which we think had been rather unreason-
ably formed. Upon grounds which we can-
not divine a confident expectation prevailed
in the early part of the week that Ministers
would declare a recognition of some of the
South American States ; and the disappointment
of that hope cast an unusual gloom over the se-
curities of that part of the world. For our part,
as we kilow no reason why the immediate recog-
nition should have been reckoned upon, so we
do not understand why its delay should be looked
upon as ominous. The policy of England with
reference to that interesting portion of the world
remains unchanged. It is the decided impression
of our, Government that South America indepen-
dence will sooner or later be secured; but 'until
it is secure any declaration committing ourselves
to its support would be alike premature and im-
politic. Colombian and Mexican Scrip both' re-
main at premiums ; but the latter is only 24 ;
the former only 11.

[MORNING CIIRONICLE.]
The consequences of the interference of the
French in the affairs of the Peninsula are daily
more apparent ; indeed, nothing can be more
melancholy than the state of both Spain and Por-
tugal at the present moment.—King Ferdinand
has at length issued what is called the Amnesty
Decree; but, in reality, it is no other than a
Proscription list of the most atrocious and sweep-
ing kind. There is scarcely a man in Spain
writ:, can read or write, who can be considered
exempt from persecution, if the Amnesty-
Decree is carried into execution, so comprehen-
sive are its exceptions. In them, a designing
friar or a hungry lawyer can find a charge against
every man who has held any rank in society
during the Constitutional regime, of whom they
may wish to rid themselves. The King of Spain's
Amnesty Decree, therefore, instead of reconciling
him with his people, or drawing back a single
exile now in a foreign land, widens the breach
still more, and most assuredly will drive the
most valuable portion of the population out of
the country. We are assured, that from the Ist
of last Jan. to the Ist of May, no less than 7,000
passports were delivered in Madrid—a most
astonishing number if the size of the place is con-
sidered—and it was besides remarked, that those
who applied for them were chiefly persons
removing through the dread of persecution.—
What this will end in, God only knows ; but it
is very evident, that whenever the French troops
are removed, scenes of butchery will commence.
With regard to Portugal, the picture is still more
gloomy. The idea of a King having to fly on
board of a foreign vessel for safety, and in order
to escape from the effects of a conspiracy plotted
by his Queen and her son, has something in it more
horrid and alarming, even to the Holy Alliance,
than the Revolution in Oporto, or the rising in
Las Cabezas. Months ago we denounced the pre-
parations makiug for this base conspiracy, and ex-
plained the precise object for which it wasintended.
Many persons then thought tte were indulging in
id le dreams. The whole, however, was but too true,
although the extent of the project is not yet as-
certained. Portugal is, in fact, divided into
three distinct and active parties, all plotting to
dethrone the King, whose chief support now
rests on the Holy Allies, and a few Officers and
Nobles who still remain faithful to him. One of
these parties has a connection in Spain, and their
object is to dethrone Ferdinand, call his brother
Charles to the throne, and unite the two coun-
tries. Schemes more wild and visionary were
never formed than those which have grown O.A
of that tranquillity and good order the interfe-
rence of the French has procured to the Penin-
sula, and it will be well if they do not end in
massacre and civil war.

[MORNING 'JERALD.]
The resolutions proposed by Lord Lauder-
dale, to be added to the standing orders of the
House of Lords, appear to us to be of consider-
♦ able importance, not only as to their immediate
objects and effect, but in their more remote and
permanent consequences. The object of the
Noble Mover is highly praiseworthy, and cannot
be misunderstood ; and in so far as these resolu
tions may tend to check the present wild spirit
of adventure, and to prevent' the authority of
Parliament being given to any system of fraud
and delusion, they have our unqualified assent;
but we must confess that we do not look to their
permanent result with quite so favourable a
view, Nothing is more delusive than to suppose
that a remedy for a particular evil is a remedy
for every other; or that which is proper for one
occasion is therefore proper for all. We-,are not
prepared to acquiesce, as a general principle, in
one branch of the Legislature shutting its doors
against, by imposing conditions upon, the sub-
jects of the realm, without the full accordance of
assent of the'other. The precedent, too, is a

bad one. For if the house of Lords can, by
passing a standing order, preclude the approach
of Bills, which they may know, from the votes of
the House of Commons, are likely to come before
them, such a step may be used to exclude as
much useful as doubtful legislation. Suppose,
for instance, the majority of the House of Lords,
in their zeal to support the Established Church
in all its privileges and immunities, were
to make a standing order that they would
permit no Bill of Inclosure to pass which
contained a clause (which is generally the case)
allowing a commutation of tithes ; or another
that they would pass no bill of naturalization,
the object of which should not be a protestant,
would not such standing orders be mischievous
and unjust. We wish,
therefore, that each bill
that came before them were allowed to stand or
fall by its own merits or defects rather than that a
bar were thus placed against many salutary pro-
jects. At any rate, we trust that before these re-
solutions are established as standing orders of the'
Lords, they will be communicated in a confer-
ence to the House of Commons, and that a mea-
sure so materially affecting the great mass of the
people and their property will be submitted to
the consideration of the popular branch of the
Legislature, in whose keeping the rights and
liberties of the people are more peculiarly vested.

The Frankfort Journal states, that owing to
the vigilence and activity of the police of that
city, the inhabitants lave to be thankful that
they have escaped exposure to the depredations
of a considerable gang of pickpockets, who had
organized themselves in such a way that there
can be no doubt their harvest would have been a
highly productive one, had the discovery alluded
to not have been made in time. Three of the
individuals arrested are Frenchmen, who had
been seen dining at the first Tables dllotes of
the town !

SPANISH REFUGEES.—Since our last, several
more of these friendless foreigners have passed
through this city, on their way to London. We
are happy to observe, by the London Papers,
that Mr. CANNING, with a liberality that does
him hon Our, has directed these unhappy gentle-
men to be assisted from the public purse, in the
same way as the French emigrants were in the
early part of the first revolutionary war. The
Constitutional Spaniards spoke with a deep feel-
ing of gratitude of the kind treatment they had
experienced ever since they had trode British
ground ; it was so different, they said, from what
the French police had taught them to expect.—
When they applied for passports for England,
they were coolly assured, with that spirit of de-
traction which distinguishes so many of the
French, that they had better go hack to Spain,
and trust to the clemency of " the Lord's
anointed,' their beloved Ferdinand, than venture
among the English, whom these French police
gentlemen asserted were the " most barbarous
people in the universe." Robbery, and a sound
beating, they were assured, were amongst the
least evils to be expected in their journey through
this country of barbarians. What object could
the French have in view in using such endeavours

to prevent these men from coming to England ?
Did the fear they would swell the ranks of the
friends of freedom in South America? We can-
not suppose the mere underlings of office would
have taken any steps to dissuade them from their
• projected journey, if they had not the orders or
sanction of their superiors.—(Kent Herald.)
THE E YES.-- We mentioned in our last a fact
noticed by a celebrated oculist in proof of the
great tenderness necessary in the treatment of
the eyes: a Correspondent has sent us the fol-
lowing fact in corroboration, of the oculist's state-
ment :—" About 30 years ago an acquaintance
of mine, Mr. WM. HESKETH, landlord of the
Packhorse Inn, Plumpton, near Penrith, lost his
eyesight in a manner similar to the person men-
tioned in your Paper on Monday last. A friend
of his came behind him, and placing his hands
before Mr. lIEsKETH's eyes, held him for a short
time to make him guess the name of his tormen-
tor ; the consequence was, that Mr. H. lost the
use of one eye immediately, and the other gra-
dually weakened for six months, when he lost
that also."—We trust this will be a caution to
persons not to trifle with the eyes of others ; for
in a moment of thoughtless gaiety they may in-
flict an injury of the direst kind, which all the
powers on earth cannot repair.—(Wlnitehaven
Gaulle.)

We understand a young lady in this town, on
the eve of marriage, has just made an addition to
her fortune by a 20,00 W. prize in the Lottery.—
(Dorset Chronicle.)
Several sharks have been of late seen in our
water. This early appearance of these animals is said to indi-
cate a hot summer.—(Southampton County Chronicle.)
The mackarel fishery is in great activity in some
parts of Cornwall ; the fishing boats belonging to Looe took
upwards of 11000 of those fish in the first three days of the last
week.—( Plymouth Weekly Journal.)
James Purnell, lately discharged from the 9th
Light Dragoons, of the parish of Lympshatn, Dorsetshire, aged
45, died about a fortnight ago, leavingjinir wives, all of whom
are now living : by the last lie had three children, who are also