The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-13 00:00:00

p-
trienin

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1847.

The House of Commons was last night engaged
in making due provision for the service of the
country, whether by land or sea. It is the especial
duty of the representatives of the people, who are to
provide the large expenditure necessary to maintain
the exalted position which Great Britain has attained
in the scale of nations, to examine with the most
searching scrutiny every estimate brought forward,
so that, on the one hand, no useless expense may be
incurred, and, on the other, our naval and military
establishments may be preserved in full efficiency,
and full justice rendered to those who are now
actively engaged in the service of their country, and
to those who have devoted the best years of their lire
to that service, and now look for the means of eejoy-
ng that tranquillity and comfort in their declining
years which their past exertions have entitled them
to receive at the hands of a grateful nation. All ex-
travagance is to be avoided, so that our burdens may
not be increased without good and sufficient cause,
while undue parsimony should equally be eschewed.
The coctrol and direction of those important por-
tions of the state machine, pr•perly belongs to the
Executive Government. Any undue interference
would be productive of the most injurious results.
But there is a constitutional mode by which the
people, through their chosen representatives, are en-
titled to offer their suggestions as to any ameliora-
tions that may be required in either branch, and to
curtail their proportions, if a more extensive amount is
demanded than may appear to be necessary for
the exigencies of the empire, and a just regard for its
honour and dignity. The Executive may move as it
thinks proper the bodies placed at its disposal. It
may direct the place where, and the manner in which,
they shall act, but the sinews of war remain in the
hands of the people, and no course of aggression,
nothing, in fact, of any description can long be
carried on without their approbation being first had
and obtained. The just and proper balance is thus
maintained, and the best guarantee and security given
for the continuance of our rights and liberties. It is now
fully understood that the most certain way of main-
taining peace and avoiding war is, to be in a constant
state of preparation for any contingency—to be
"Ready, aye ready for the field ;"
that] it is not consistent with true economy to spare
any outlay that may be required to keep our naval
or military forces in full efficiency. No desire could,
therefore, be entertained in any quarter, to reduce
our establishments below the proper standard, but
the time of going into supply on the estimates is the
fitting period for directing the attention of the
Government to any abases or defects in the system,
and offering any suggestions for improvements and
ameliorations.

The present Ministry have most honourably dis

tinguished themselves by the alterations they have
already introduced ; they have manifested their
anxious desire to improve the condition, to elevate the
characters, and increase the comforts of our military
brethren. They are devoting the closest attention to
many abuses and grievances, and we doubt not that
many of the most objectionable will by degrees be re-
moved and a better state o'f things substituted. The
required reforms cannot be brought into operation
at a moment's notice. It is a subject that requires to
be treated with a very delicate hand. The most
glaring abuses should first be suppressed—the
grievances mitigated. Those relating to the "of
polloi," " the base of the pyramid," those by which
the great body of the soldiers are affected, demand
the speediest attention. The claims of any rank or
class should not be neglected or slighted. T.he more
helpless the parties affected, the less the power they
may have of bringing forward their complaints,
the more readily should they be attended to,
when an advocate comes forward on their behalf.
Everything that frets and teases the soldier should be
banished, if not essential to the preservation of dis-
cipline. Many things, in themselves of trivial con-
sequence, are suffered to continue, that are calculated
to make the soldiers uncomfortable, and thus eventu-
ally to produce crime.

Sir CHARLES NAPIER has well said, that " small
worries will so irritate an impatient and daring,
but unstable spirit, as to goad the man into deeds
that otherwise would never have been contemplated.
Men give way to drinking as a resource against such
harassing annoyances. To make soldiers comfortable
and happy is among the best means of rendering de-
linquency rare and punishment effectual." These
are truths that cannot be lost sight of. The removal
of all well-grounded causes of complaint on the part
of the private soldier is the first step to be taken.
Sir DE LACY EvaNs last night brought forward
no less than eleven topics, several of which related
to the condition of the private soldier, and demand im- ,

mediate attention ; the improvement of the barrack
accommodation (especially with regard to the sleep-
ing rooms) and the more suitable and decent quar-
tering of the married non-commissioned officers and
privates is peculiarly urgent. It is impossible to sup-
pose that the condition of the soldiers can be ele-

vated until we teach them to respect themselves,
and to observe the decencies of life, which cannot be

regarded so long as men and women are huddled
together in the limited accommodation now afforded

The regulations also respecting ration stoppages
should be strictly investigated. The soldier should

not for a moment be suffered to think that he is

deprived of that which is his right, which is pro•
vided for him by his country in return for his ser-

vices, under any pretexsot whatever.

" The world moves, as was said by GALILEO,
but it moves in a circle." Upon that beautiful and
once hypothetical rotation, the Wethninster Review
professes itself a sceptiz as regards the physical, but
a true believer as regards the moral sciences. Ex-
quisite credulity ! DOGBEEZY sighed for the sexton
to ~v
rite him down anything but a sage. Surely the
author of the
ut"
too Postscript," in the Westminster Re-
h
the heart to be
bev the
ew, must sighfor the sexton ! We could have
his:x.vton to his DOGBEIIIIT, or
the BORRACnto to
scien?es, and
minster Review not riGES.
sciences, decided ad-
But the West-
faith in the alternate only acknowledges its
gression of society in tt:gmreoss7 and retro-
consequently in the impossibility
vancement in that noblest of
it condescends to explain its theo°rrtiPehalles'f but
by an illustration. According t o i t "telly
world careers onwards and onwards towards thee
heaven of knowledge in its pursuit of the truths of
chemistry, and astronomy, and geology, and ine.
chanics, and navigation ; but in its endeavour to
attain something of an affinity to moral perfection,
the world, according to the Westminster Review, is

Yes.

going on perpetually in one prescribed orbit. The
Westminster Review may be morally revolving in one
prescribed orbit, but the world is certainly not.
Until we can revive the auto•da-fes of our medmval
ancestors; until we can see the Surrey Zoological
Gardens illuminated by the human flambeaux of
NERO ; until the ingenious exhibition of Madame
TUSSAUD is transformed into a theatre for the per-
formance of the Eleusynian Mysteries, or for the
libidinous orgies of the Bacchantes, we shall
believe that spiritually the earth does not re-
volve, but that, in moral as well as in physical
sciences, it rushes onwards and onwards. To
the imagination of the Westminster Re-
view, however, society presents a spectacle as dis-
couraging, if not as ludicrous, as that of the Green-
wich pensioner who, in a moment of intoxication, got
the stump of his wooden leg into a water-plug, and
walked round it as a kind of pivot until morning
under the deplorable delusion that he was going
homewards. As we have already observed, that may
be the moral progression of the Westminster Review,
but it is decidedly not the moral progression of the
civilised million. Why the very annihilation of a
sanguinary idolatry, the very extinction of the creed
in obedience to which, in the noble language of Lord
BROUGHAM—
" Benighted nations, blood and wine
In vain libations poured !"
the very obliteration of the doctrines of Paganism,
the very establishment of Christianity, the destruc-
tion of the feudal system, the emancipation of the
negroes, the abolition of the penal statutes; the reduc-
tion of capital punishments—nay, the very establish-
ment of the principles of free trade, prove that the
world advances as perpetually in its moral
as in its physical course. As we quoted very re-
cently from a living poet, " the great world spins for
ever down the ringing grooves of change." The
Westminster Review is, nevertheless, obstinate in its
hypothesis of the wooden leg and the water-plug, and
it illustrates its hypothesis by the NEW FACTORY
BILL ! We cannot but express our unfeigned asto-
nishment that our Contemporary should advance such
very venerable and threadbare propositions. It is
absolutely averse to any legislative interference with
adult labour, because, for one reason, it is an indescrib -
able sort of infringement of the liberties of the sub-
' ject, but principally because it is fairly
impossible. An infringement of the liberties of
the subject ! IVas ever argument so enormously
and irredeemably absurd ? As well might we cha-
racterise the imprisonment of any ruffian who throws
vitriol into the eyes of the passers-by in a public
thoroughfare, an infringement of the liberties of the
subject. As well might we call the imposition of a
fine upon the owner of any deleterious manufactory
within the precincts of a populous city, an infringe-
ment of the liberties of the subject. As well might
we term the prevention of unnecessary death, whe-
ther individual or multiple, whether sudden or pro-
tracted, an infringement of the liberties of the subject.
Rut this is not the only objecticn ; the Westminster
Review has a formidable reserve—the proposed inter-
ference with adult labour is impossible ! Here's a
discovery i' faith. Our vaunted Legislature proves
them to be after all impotent, and impotent, be it ob-
served, not in a remote colony, not among our anti-
podes the Australians, but within the narrow
boundaries of these chalky cliffs. Jf the power of
the Legislature cannot indeed extend to the factories,
then it most certainly can never reach the lair of
coiners, or the cellars of illicit distillers. And yet
the power of the Executive does reach: the coiner and
the illicit distiller. Why, what trash this continual
wrangling is, about the possibility or the impossi-
bility of legislative interference (indirectly) with the
adult operatives in the factories ! The Legislature
has capacity enough to accomplish things of
immeasurably greater difficulty than this. The flash
of the shuttle or the twirl of the hand-loom are not
such appalling movements as to deprive a Govern-
ment like ours of all energy; nor are the jaded deni-
zens of the cotton mills precisely the class capable of
baffling the sagacity, or of eluding the penetration of
an experienced and gigantic State. The Westminster
Review is employing the stratagem of the ancient
warrior, but the Parliament of England is not to be
frightened by lighted straws I

The seat of justice ought to be preserved as imma-
culate as possibl.e. Considering the infirmities of
human nature and our complicated system of laws,
owing, in a great measure, to the highly artificial
state of society in which we live, the mode in which
justice is ordinarily administered in this country has
equally obtained the confidence and respect of the
native and the admiration of the foreigner. For the
excellence with which the laws are executed among
us we are indebted less to the abilities (though
these are, for the most part, consummate) of those
who are raised to the bench than to the jealous vigi-
lance preserved by the public over the proceedings of
the legal functionaries. If a judge goes beyond his
province, or conducts himself in a way calculated to
bring into disrepute the sacred trust reposed in him,
he finds himself checked in his unseemly career either
by the independent members of the bar, or by the full
and unreserved remonstrance of public opinion, em-
bodied in its acknowledged channels ; and so
effectually is this done, that the Secretary of State
for the Home Department, or Parliament itself, is
oftentimes saved the necessity of interfering to rectify
for the future the particular abuse that may have en-
gendered public discontent. Of this we had an in-
stance, not a great while back, when the Chief Baron
of the Exchequer was made sensible of an impropriety
into which he had suffered himself to lapse.
The Learned Judge on the bench cried peccavi to
Mr. CocKnußN, who had so spiritedly taken him to
task for having, by a strong extra-judicial remark,
inadvertently warped the minds of the jury in the
outset of the cause. The talents of a judge should
be beyond question equal to the solemn duties he has
to discharge ; but he should be also qualified for his
office by a suitable temper and an appropriate de-
meanour. Where these latter are wanting the
effect is very prejudicial both within and without our
courts of justice. Above all, the judge should be
scrupulous in the extreme that he does not himself
set an example subversive of the principles of law
and equity, which he would be bound to check in
others.

(It sometimes happens that in a prosecution
counsel are not engaged for either the prosecutor or
the prisoner. Under these circumstances, the duties
of counsel devolve upon the judge. With the depo-
sitions before him, he has to examine witnesses on'
both sides. If he puts what are termed "leading ,
questions" he is guilty of a practice which it
would be his duty to condemn, were counsel
so to deviate from the established rules of
evidence. Again, if he should conduct the ex-
amination in so rapid and gabbling a manlier as
to preclude the jury, or the public at large, from
mastering the real circumstances of the case, be
wantonly trifles with the ends of justice. By such a
course the judge may save himself some time and
trouble ; but, at the same time, he relinquishes that
decorum which it is so important to observe upon the
bench ; and, by flying in the face of the acknow-
ledged rules of justice, in the manner already inti-
mated, his judicial character becomes seriously affected.
On Saturday last, in the Central Criminal Court,
EMILY ELWOOD WI.; indicted for stealing a watch,
ice. It appears that the COMMON SERGEANT exa-
mined the prosecutor and another witness in the
following manner :
" Well, you live in Clerkenvrell?" Prosecutor--

"On the morning of the 12th February, you found
the prisoner in your kitchen ? Prosecutor— Yes.
" (Llow she came there, whether she was his servant,
or an utter stranger did not appear.)
" Common Sergeant—You left her there for a mo-
ment, while you went into your shop? Prosecutor—
Yes.

" Common Sergeant—And when you went back she
was gone? Prosecutor—Yes.
"Common Sergeant—You gave information of the
robbery to the police? Prosecutor—Yes.

" Common Sergeant—And they found the next day
that your watch had been pledged? Prosecutor—Yes.
" Common Sergeant—Let the pawnbroker stand up.
"Richard Nagin then got into ihe box.
Nactiarseethuaotnp:
"Common Sergeant—lt eras pledged with you by a
i citFito.enlcrnlaoanr
woman? Witness—Yes.
"Common Sergeant—But you can't swear theprisoner
torsounnd?the"prirtinsoesnse—r Guilty."No
;Setzt Sergeant—Gentlemen
accordingof tthoehjius jury, the
Lordship'scase
Comment on the foregoing would be superfluous.i Suffice it that such
1 and highly indecent. The
proceedings are manifestly unjust
repetition of them. It public will not brook a
1
is to be feared, moreover, that