The Sun.
London, England, 1824-08-16 00:00:00

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]

It is a very ancient and valuable truth, that it
is extremely imprudent In persons in authority to
give reasons for what they do, because their melt-
sures may be wise, while their reasons for them
may be particularly absurd. There are in many
cases only a right and a wrong way before a
Magistrate ; and it is an even chance that he
%%ill take the right, but the chances are many
against his assigning a good reason for doing
so, and sometimes we have the pain of ob-
serving a worthy and worshipful functionary
pursuing one course, while his reasons are
going in preciselt the opposite direction ; and
thus we see realised what our brethren of the
Emerald Isle have laid down to be an impos-
sibility—a man in two places at once like a
bird. Another inconvenience attending the
ostentation of reason in the Commission of the
Peace is, .that it renders the Magistrate amen-
able to a very audacious Tribunal, and one with
which the laws of our country are at perpetual
discord. If we ere asked, however, whether
Mngistrates are to he denied the exercise of rea-
son, we reply, certainly not. We only inculcate
the prudence of not making a public parade of it,
and if used prudently, the probability is that in
ninety-)sine cases out of a hundred it will never
he discovered to have been used at all. If in the
appointment of Magistrates the possession of the
reasoning faculty sere considered a necessary
qualification, we should esteem it becoming in
these functionaries to make a display of that
which recommended them to their offices ; but as
we know that such is not the case, for the causes
already assigned, we hold ratiocination in
the administration of summary justice to
he a very gratuitous indiscretion. We were
led into these reflections by the arguments
held by Mr. Ballantyne, in support of his com-
mittal of Mr. Foreman, Captain of the ship
Adonis, for the alleged murder of one of his
sailors in the Bay of Biscay. Mr. Foreman, it up-
peared, had ordered a drunken lad aloft in a gale
of wind, by way of punishing him for his offence
against discipline; the lad fell overboard and was
drowned ; Mr. Ballantyne committed the Captain
for murder, and he doubtless did right ; but
the reasons he assigned for his determination
are about as whimsically inapplicable to the cit.-,
cumstances of the case as can well he imagined.
Did we not observe, indeed, that all the reports
concur in attributing to the Magistrate the same
language, we should infer that there must be
some inaccuracy in the statements-s-" Mr. Ballan-
tyne said, he certainly should commit the prisoner
for the murder. Ile considered the case exactly
analagous to that of a person who fired amongst
a crowd of people, and killed one without taking
a'parti'cularaim at any. The malice was obvious—
it was general malice; just such was it in this
case. The deceased had, in fact, beet! ordered
to destroy himself; far he could not disobey the
orders he bad received, and the attempt at
performance Was certain death." This is an
extraordinary specimen of reasoning.. The
case, it is clear, is not in the slightest de.
greed ,analagoos to ~that of firing amongst • a
tt-IMMO- • flikirte "a 'particular'
ac
irnolwadt ofany, pefoope
rltli:e drunken' la& was grilled out

MARRIED.,
On the lath inst., at 51arylebone church, by the Rev. Joshua
Rowley, Captain. Howley, .11.4 N., second son of. Sir William
Howley, Bart., M.P., to Charlotte, daughter of John Mose.
ley, Esq.
On Saturday, the 14th inst., N..Pilkington, Esq., of Lin-
coln's-inn, to Miklred, only daughter of G. Robinson, Esq., of
Great Queen-street, 14incoltils.inn.fields.
On Tuesday, the ad inst., at Cheshatn,.Bucks, Mr. Thomas
Shrimptun, of Haddenhant, in the latile county,. to Sophia,
daughter of George Hepburn, Esq., of the former. place. •
On Thursday, the Itlth inst. William Forbes Stuart, Ls+,
to Helen, daughter of the late Sohn Elmelie, EH.