The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-16 00:00:00

THIla SUN, LONDON,

This Day, in foolscap Bvo, price 6s,
THE BATTLE OF NIBLEY GREEN: from
the MSS. of A TEMPLAR ; with a PREFACE, NOTES,
and OTHER POEMS; by J. B. K[NGTON.
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

RAILWAY SHAIZES BY PUBLIC SALE.
YiESStiS. LAMOND and Co., RAILWA.T
SHARE AUCTIONEERS, beg to thank their Friends
and the Public for their continued support and patronage, and
to announce that their Public Sales of Railway Shares, &c.,
take place every TUESDAY and FRIDAY. at One o'clock, at the
Hall of Commerce, Threadneedle-street, London, to which place,
favours, containing instructions (with a reference), are respectfully
requested to be addressed.
All Scrip and Share Certificates must be deposited, the day
previous to their being offered; and advices of results will be
forwarded by the first post after the sale, and the proceeds imme-
eiately disposed of according to instructions.
Offices, Hall of Commerce, Threadneedle-street. London.

THIRD EDITION OF
"THE SUN."

PARLIAMENT MEETS on TUESDAY NEXT,

THE 19TH,

AND, AS USUAL, THE
VERY LATEST NEWS

WILL BE FOUND IN THE
THIRD EDITION OF 0 THE SUN.,'

WHICH WILL CONTAIN THE
DEBATES IN BO TH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT

UP TO THE HOUR OF POST,
THEREBY ANTICIPATING OTHER PAPERS BY

TWELVE HOURS.

THE WEATIIER.—SIIN OFFICE, JANUARY 16.
THERMOMETER, Lowest, 29; Highest. 37 ; Noon, 32,
BAROMETER, 30 08.—WIND E., fine.

11kin WATEIi. AT LONDON-KLUDGE THIs DAY.
liorning I minutes after I. Evening .. 26 minutes after 1.

With a few amongst the representatives of the
1 people in the House of Commons it is the habit to
correspond periodically with their individual consti-
tuencies—the correspondence not being, however,
through the formality of epistle, but verbal, and even
conversational. By these annual understandings be-
tween the Members and their electors the agitation
for triennial Parliaments is so far rendered super-
fluous : the law with those constituencies does not ne-
cessitate the septennial nomination of a representative,
the duration of Parliament with them is virtually
restricted to twelvemonths. We honour this volun-
tary compact ; it breathes the very spirit of independ-
ence, it is tantamount to rendering boroughmongering
an impossibility. Whenever any political change,
whether trivial or extraordinary, takes place in the
opinion of a Member accustomed to these timely tri-
bunals, he can make a clean breast of it to the men
who nominated him to his seat in the Legislative
Chamber at Westminster. A common understand-
ing is preserved between the electors and their repre-
sentatives at St. Stephen's ; amidst all the vicissi-
tudes and fluctuations of political belief their views
are perpetually balanced; between them there can be
no appreciable discrepancy.
One of these Members is the Hon. Representative
of Sheffield, the Secretary of the Admiralty. Vacation
after vacation finds Mr. WARD in the Cutlers' Hall
at Sheffield, " balancing accounts" with its citizens.
Hitherto the Hon. Gentleman has been enabled to
enter fully and minutely into a consideration of
every topic to which the popular attention was in
any manner directed. Hitherto he has found himself
at liberty to discuss the merits of the various
questions submitted to the consideration of the
Legislature, and even solicitous to explain
his views upon those questions in the plainest
language possible. On Thursday evening Mr.
WARD again appeared before his constituency, but
for the first time, since his election by that borough,
the lion. Member touched, with a delicacy that
savoured almost of timidity, upon the different points
of social reform requiring the aid and supervision
of the Ministry. The reason for that deli.
cacy was obvious—it was more than obvious, it was
natural and honourable. Since the period of his last
public interview with his constituency, Mr. WARD
had accepted office, and hence, from his position, was
incapacitated from entering, as heretofore, into the
very pith and core of those matters, the examination
of which, in a positive light, by one so situated,
would render him liable to compromise the
character and disposition of the Cabinet.
Nevertheless, while morally shackled by his
official engagements, Mr. WARD was enabled with
some adroitness to satisfy the curiosity of his au-
ditors upon many themes of the highest importance
and of the most immediate interest. His adroitness
in this respect almost amounts to diplomatic subtlety.
Without in any degree anticipating the disclosures of
the approaching session, the Hon. Member still sur-
veyed what is expressively termed the political horizon;
he indicated the broad course of liberalism, which the
present Administration was prepared to follow, and
enforced by his individual assurances the engage-
ments already made by the Prime Minister in the
Guildhall of London. On this account, therefore,
the observations delivered by Mr. WARD, on
Thursday evening, are peculiarly entitled to
attention and consideration. His address, which
is printed in another column, while it is the least
explicit ever addressed by himself to the electors of
Sheffield, is unquestionably the most satisfactory,
While it evinces a disinclination on the part of Mr.
WARD to avow his anxiety for particular measures
upon particular subjects, it is at the same moment most
propitious, from its being composed of generous and
propitious generalities. It is unnecessary to remark
that the Hon. Member for Sheffield was welcomed
by his constituency with that cordiality which his
independent and inflexible conduct as a reformer has
so fully merited for him since his entrance into the
Imperial Parliament.

Seeing that a merely garbled statement of the
correspondence (touching the Montpensier marriage)
between the several Ministers, Ambassadors, and
Charges d'Affaires of England and France, has yet
been officially published, we protest emphatically
against the premature deduction of inferences there-
from prejudicial to the character of the Noble Lord
at the head of the Foreign-office. It is neither con-
sistent with the generosity of honest journalism nor
with the love of candour inherent in the popular
mind, that the special pleading of a Cabinet so
notorious for its duplicity as is the Cabinet of the
Tuileries should be received as conclusive, and satis-
factory evidence against the rectitude of an ex-
perienced and honourable statesman like Lord PAL-
MERSTON. What, indeed, can be more derogatory to
the judgment of any individual or of any newspaper
than that pliability of opinion which can adapt itself
with readiness to the assertions uttered by any conti-
nental Government, however notorious its dissimula-
tion, or however flagrant its chicaneries ? Since the
nuptials of her Catholic MAJESTY and the INFANTA
were celebrated by the Archiepiscopal dignitary o
Madrid, the documents preliminary to that ceremony
have remained under cover of the Ministerial
portfolios, and the decision of the public, as
to the precaution or want of precaution
evinced by Lord PALMERSTON in this complicated
transaction, has been hitherto necessarily suspended.
Upon the assembling of the Peers and Deputies in
Paris, M. GUIZOT, without any unnecessary procras-
tination, submitted that correspondence, or as much
of it as suited his purpose, to the inspection and deci-
sion of the latter. From the circumstance, of the
Parliamentary session in France preceding the Par-
liamentary session in England by several days, a very
appreciable advantage has been afforded to the Cabinet
of the Tuileries over the Cabinet of St. James's. M.
GuizoT and his colleagues have thereby obtained a
priority of explanation. Without the risk of any im-
mediate contradiction, they have been enabled to pre-
judice the more credulous members of the communi-
ties in both countries by wilful mis-statements and
plausible prevarications. If it were merely for this
particular reason, it behoves every lover of justice and
plain dealing to delay the utterance of his opinion
until the opposite sides had delivered in its counter-
statements. There is an old English proverb—a
golden proverb—familiar in the nurseries of Young
England—but which appears to be altogether for-
gotten at this moment—" Fair play's a jewel." Let
us, in the name of Common Decency, modulate our
judgment in accordance with the principle contained
in that fragment of the wisdom and probity of our
ancestors; let us still further suspend our decision in
regard to the conduct of Lord PALMERSTON during
the negotiation of the royal marriages of the Penin-

lengths, and to meddle with that which does not con- sula until the Noble Lord has submitted his version of
cern it. Mr. Osnonisu's suegestion, if adopted, those transactions to the deliberation of the Imperial
would at once have taken away the efficiency of such Parliament, and to the scrutiny of the sovereign
a body, have marred their exertions, and have given people. Otherwise we should be abusing our power
origin to counter-associations. They should elevate as organs of that popular mind which should be as
Ireland to a full and perfect equality with England in impartial as the Goddess with the sword, the bandage,
every respect ; but they should seek no further, nor and the scales.
should they attempt to carry by their union any It would be no difficult undertaking to demonstrate
questions not relating to their country exclusively. i the duplicity of the Guizot Administration from the
The resolutions relating to temporary measures for I very defence laid by them upon the tables of the
the immediate wants and exigencies of the country legislative Chambers. There is such a multiplicity
were then proposed and carried unanimously in four of malicious misconstructions interpolated in that
separate resolutions. A suggestion was made by Mr. defence !—here a voluntary misapprehension of the
OSBORNE, in which we heartily concur, that it would meaning of Lord PALMERSTON, here a positive hiatus
not be right to ask the Government for seed, but in his dispatches, here, again, a discourteous distortion
that every landed proprietor should provide seeds for of the sentences contained therein. By taking the
papers grouped together by M. GUIZOT, piecemeal,
his own tenantry. This is certainly the most manly
aragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, and
and straightforward way of meeting the difficulty. The P
permanent measures were then put and also carried,
syllable by syllable, it were easy, in the fullest signi-
and we think the committee appear to have exercised fication of that adjective, to show the utter absence
of all honourable speaking on the part of the French
good discretion, as well in the points selected as in
Government. Begun with a shameless trick at the
those left untouched. We think they are better
Chateau d'Eu, pursued with official falsities in the
chosen than the temporary measures, and less objet-
subsequent communications across the Channel, or
tionable. Some of the questions are certainly of a
beyond the Pyrenees, and consummated with a per-
doubtful character, but to the majority we give our
adhesion. fidious surprise in the Palace Chambers of Madrid,
the Montpensier marriage is now defended upon
We are unable to advert to them more fully this
a
day, but shall probably examine ere long the principle in accordance with the duplicity
several propositions in detail, and see how far they in which it was conceived. It is superfluous,
hOwever, to enter wearily into an exposition
are calculated to attain the desired objects—to pro-
of the fraudulent behaviour of the Parisian Ministers
mote the prosperity of their country, to direct its
throughout the whole affair, and more especially of
surplus labour into beneicial channels, to develop its
the meanness of the pleas upon which they are now
capabilities, and lay open its hidden stores. We trust
endeavouring to palliate their conduct. to the Govern-
they may do so. We can, however, have no fear fora
country whose inhabitants appear to be animated ment of Albion. Within a few days, we might
with such a spirit as that which was universal on almost say within a few hours, the documents pro-
Thursday ; and we must again congratulate our duced in Parliament by her MAJESTY'S Minister for
sister kingdom on the result of that day's pro- Foreign Affairs will accomplish that task, and any
ceedings. detailed anticipation of those documents is conse-
quently altogether needless and superfluous.
We cannot, however, pass over one of the many
preposterous insinuations made as to Lord PALMERS-
TON'S inefficiency in not preventing the Mont-
pensier alliance, without one sentence of com-
mentary. We cannot allow an insinuation so mon-
strously opposed to truth to go forth without uttering
one word of indignant contradiction. Much stress
has been laid upon the sentiments expressed by the late
Minister for Foreign Affairs, under the Administration
of Sir ROBERT PEEL, in his communications to the
Dec DE SOTOMAYOR, concerning the marriage of the
Princesses of the Peninsula. An invidious distinction
has been attempted to be drawn between the course
pursued by Lord ABERDEEN and Lord PALMERSTON
in this matter, when, in reality, there has been no re-
cognisable difference whatever between the course
pursued by either, when, indeed, their policy, in re-
gard to Spain, has been almost identical !
What Lord ABERDEEN wrote to the Due
DE SOTOMAYOR, Lord PALMERSTON subsequently
wrote to the representative of his SOVEREIGN in
Iberia. There was not a tardiness in regard to
Spanish affairs on the part of Lord PALMERSTON, as
has been disingenuously insinuated; nor was there
any reluctance in Lord PALMERSTON to cope with
the subtle and wily diplomatists of the Continent.
Both these facts are notorious to every one acquainted
with the circumstances antecedent to the Peninsular
nuptials. Scarcely had the Noble Lord taken office,
in the middle of 1846, when he cordially upheld the
policy hitherto pursued by his predecessors, and in
black and white committed himself to the prosecution
of the plans already mapped out by Lord ABERDEEN.
Remembering these things, bearing in recollection
the prejudiced aspect afforded to the transaction by
the papers submitted to the French Chambers, know-
ing that within scarcely half a dozen days the coun-
ter-statement of Lord PALMERSTON will be laid
before Parliament, and impressed with the considera-
tion that judgment should never be pronounced until
both parties have been heard, we again protest dis-
tinctly and emphatically against the prejudging of
Lord PALMERSTON upon this delicate and important
matter.

On the 22d of last month it became our painful duty
to offer some very severe strictures upon the unfor-
tunate loss of judgment and temper evinced by the
Lord Chief Baron, in the Court of Exchequer, in the
case of GOLDICUTT V BEAGIN. Mr. COCKBURN—
in consequence of his having been told by the
Judge, Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK, in the presence
of the jury who were to try the cause, that
the mode in which he meant to conduct his client's
defence " was little short of insanity," and in conse-
quence of his having failed the next morning to in-
duce the Judge to postpone the trial, on the
ground that such an impression militated
against the ends of justice, that the minds of
the jury could not but be thereby prejudiced—im-
mediately retired from the Court, the cause was
tried as an undefended one, and the jury gave
heavier damages, by 1001., than had been ob-
tained upon the first trial. Under these circum-
stances, we thought it our duty to eulogize the course
adopted by the counsel, and to censure that taken by
the Chilbf Baron. We felt that justice had miscarried
through a grievous error into which one of the
highest functionaries had unguardedly fallen; that,
for the mutual honour of the Bench and the Bar (which
have deservedly merited such high repute in this
country), as well for the sake of the people
to whom the impartial administration of justice is of
vital importance, this matter could not be suffered to
drop; and we added, that " it was almost impossible
to surmise whether a greater legal indiscretion had
ever been manifested on the bench?,
On Thursday Mr. COCKBURN moved for a new trial
on the strength of the circumstances above narrated,
All the Barons concurred in the propriety of granting
the application,and Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK, at the
close deliberation, observed:—" I may say
of
the
un-
feignedly that I willingly assent to any course which
will best tend to justice in this case, and I am far
from thinking that where the judge has committed an
indiscretion the defendant is to be debarred of his
rights." This is a candid admission, and highly
honourable to the Chief Baron. We only wish he
had begun and ended with what we have just quoted.
He would then have saved himself from palpable con-
tradictions, and from a sharp stroke of wit adminis-
tered by Mr. COCKBURN. Slr FREDERICK POLLOCK,
it seems, could not rest satisfied with his own con-
fession of error, but intimated that the judicial " in-
discretion had been followed by another on the part
rejoined—" If, my Lord, I
for the defendant." Mr.
of the Learned Counsel
I can only plead that I
committedCOCKBUBN
indiscretion,aptlY
was accessory to a principal." This smart sally con-
siderably excited the risible faculties of the audience.
We were fully prepared for a slight exhibition
on the bench of an esprit du corps, to soften the
features of the mishap of their venerable compeer.
There is an old saying, " the least said the soonest
mended," which the judges would have done well to
have borne in mind. The Barons PARKE and AL-
DERSON were not very felicitous in their remarks.
Baron PLATT alone best represented the character of
an English judge on this occasion, who said, with
great nobility of mind, when the counsel admitted
the application he urged was without precedent—" If
it be necessary to make a precedent in order to ad-
minister justice, a precedent ought to be made." Mr.
Baron PARKE, it would appear, thought it highly
nconvenient to take away from the judge the dis-
cretion of expressing his feelings during the progress
of a cause. Mr. COCKBURN well reminded him that
it was of graver importance, that a judge should
not be allowed to prejudice any case. It surprises
us, that a judge of the extraordinary abilities which
Mr. Baron PARKE possesses (and who, if judicial
talents alone—which unfortunately they do not—de-
termined the appointments to the chief seats of jus-
tice, should long ago have been Chief Baron) should
imagine, that the precedent which, in this case, has
been most properly established, can have the effect
of depriving the judges of offering discreet remarks
during a trial. We admit it to be desirable that the
judge should be suffered to exercise a discretion, but
then it must be couched in measured terms. The
value of the precedent now set on foot will
consist in this, that hereafter no judge will presume
to insinuate to a counsel, and particularly in the
presence of the jury, that he has advised, and is
acting, like a madman, or little short of one. But
we protest, broadly and generally, against any judge
making any remarks (especially in the outset of a
trial), however measured may be his language, upon
the line of defence proposed to be followed by counsel.
Such a course cannot be taken without a ten- ,

~..
. •i -,."C1 , •tv.,t -..i
4Z,''' 'f 1' 'dotlZl • abi,
~ ..,.._-, j.
,allsok, ~.,
,;,!::;„............., ~... ,
4 ~44.fit,,,,---ii.;...
~ ..." . t:4..'"...,
.....,
.47
•,...t..: -
,4-A.., ' - ... , 1., I& -.•-,00-....e...t,
41•+ ";::•1,71--„,, ~‘,7,--,,:,,.1,::-,..7 ";,r::,7m,,°'.,'''t,,,:-s.,'.,,'','l'',Z(,,:::";—korr''..'''.' 'l.----''',ltoc,l' 1-,
- - -

SECOND EDITION.