The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-13 00:00:00

her MAJESTY'S Message into conideration, Lord
3. RUSSELL moved that 2,0001. per annum be
granted to Lord KEANE, and his two next sur-
viving heirs.
Sir R. PEEL gave the resolution his cordial
support, and highly eulogized Lord KEANE.
Viscount Howicx opposed the motion, on the
ground that such rewards should be reserved for
the very highest species:of merit. We had had
an increase of the great Military Order of the
Bath sinee the peace, and he complained that
these honours were too prodigally bestowed. In
particular he objected to continuing the pension
to Lord KEANE s heirs.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL defended the grant, and
said that in olden times the Crown had lands,
sinecures, pen-ions, and high offices of its own to
grant for services. Now it must come to Par-
liament. After a brief discussion the House di-
vided, and the resolution was supported by 195,
and opposed by 43.
In a Committee on the Customs Act, Mr. La-
BOUC lIERE moved that it is expedient to reduce
the duty on rum and rum-shrub, the produce of
any place within the limits of the East India
Company's Charter.
Mr. G MILBURN, and several other persons con-
nected with the West India interest, opposed the
motion. it was supported by Mr. LABOUCHERE,
Mr. HAw,,s, and others, in able speeches, which
we have no space to abridge. The debate occu-
pied the greater part of the evening, and the Re-
solution was carried without a division.

The Railway Bill was read a second time ; to
be committed on Friday week.
The English Registration Bill was postponed
till next Friday.

The County Courts Bill was brought in and
read a firi;t: time.

Lord MORPETH'S Irish Registration Bill is to
be postponed from next Friday till. Monday
The House adjourned till Monday.

The public, we believe, generally approve of
Mr. Fox MAULE'S Bill to establish County or
Local Courts. The only objection we have seen
made to it is, that it will confer a considerable
quantity of patronage, on the Crown. There are
at present, however? lupliyards of twenty such
Courts, all of which W/Filtid'inerged in the twenty-
five Courts established :Sy the Bill, with greater
jurisdiction, uniform power, and uniform in
their practice. The real increase in the
number of Courts will not be more than three,
but the whole will be improved. Then these
twenty-five new Courts are to be ambulatory,
and are really meant to carry a legal means of
redress home to every man's door, which willbe
a great saving of trouble, time; and uneasiness to
all suitors. When these Courts obtain, as by
the second Bill introduced by Mr. Fox MAULE
they will obtain, jurisdicton in matters of bank-
ruptcy, insolvency, and lunacy, they will be a
prodigious improvement on the present system,
and, as far as Courts of Law can, a blessing to
country.

We regret, with Mr. O'CONNELL, that these
Courts are not to have criminal as well as civil
jurisdiction, in order to rescue the unhappy and
degraded peasantry from the cruel gripe of the
country squires and the parson Magistrates. On
all questions of invasion of property, such as oc-
cur in the agricultural districts, stealing horses'
feed, plucking up hedge-stakes, shooting phea-
sants, snaring hares, robbing hen-roosts, the
country gentlemen have a strong personal inte-
rest, and it is not in human nature to avoid feel-
ing a bias against the accused when such charges
are brought before these Justices. They are, in
fact, parties concerned, and for their honour and
peace, and for the happiness and safety of the
peasantry, the dangerous powers of the Magis-
tracy cannot be too soon taken from them, and
vested in the hands of the paid Judges who will
preside over the County Courts. Besides, the
whop brood of the squirearchy and priesthood
are so damaged in reputation by their support
of Corn-laws, and other nefarious enactments,
that they never again will be confided in as ho-
nest and just men.
We further regret that the jurisdiction of
these Courts, which we suppose will be cheap
and expeditious, should be limited to cases
of 201. value. That limitation may be for the
interest of the Bar—it is not for the interest
of the people. At the same time it would not
be proper to allow these Courts to try causes of
any amount, unless both parties consented to sub-
mit tt► their jurisdiction. But whenever that was
the case, as we believe it would be in every
instance where the parties were honest, and
had only some differeiice to settle on which
both thought themselves right, we cannot
see a reason, except to please the lawyers,
why there should be any limitation to
the amount of the sum which might be brought
before these Courts. Suppose that some one of
the Judges of these Courts should justly acquire
the confidence of all the people in the neighbour-
hood, that he should be sagacious, discriminat-
in,j, calm, temperate, au excellent lawyer, a
most im2artial Judge. Suppose that at the same
time the Superior Courts should be presided over
by some man who had been so long distinguished
as a political partizan, that his mind was perpe-
tually warped by one-sided views; or by a man
who was neither a great lawyer nor a calm
Judge, or by a mere chamber pleader, who
was great at technicalities, and ready at
all times to sacrifice the substantial merits
of a case to forms, would it not be a great
cruelty to compel a man who had a great stake
at issue, to carry his cause into one of these su-
perior Courts, and prohibit him from obtaining
speedy justice in a Court in which he has confi-
dence, and which sits at his own door ? If, as we
hope and believe, the County Courts will be ad-
vantageous to the poor, the limitation we have ad-
verted to will operate as a denial of cheap justice to
the rich. In our judgment that is erroneous, and
we hope to see this limitation removed in Com-
mittee, leaving it to the option of suitors to pro-
ceed if they please in such Courts, and allowing
appeals from them.

The contest for East Surrey has terminated in
favour of Mr. ANTROBUS, but we are glad to see
that neither Mr. Atcocx nor his supporters are
discouraged. Mr. ALCOCK came late into the
field; he had much to contend against; parsons,
landlords, and many farmers, too, under a mis-
taken notion, were opposed to him; yet notwith-
standing all these disadvantage s he had a very
respectable minority in his tavour. When a
general election comes, and the Liberal party
have time to prepare for the contest, we confi-
dently look forward to a different result. The
inhabitants of the numerous and populous villages
i,•i the Eastern Division of the County, all inte-
rested in the abolition of laws made for a parti-
cular class, will, when the proper time arrives,
show that they are not to be treated as serfs, and
misrepresented in Parliament by any young,
wealthy aristocrat put forward by the Carlton
Club or a banking-house.

The Times felt itself yesterday under the neces-
sity of apologizing for allowing its correspondent
" Catholicus" to disparage Sir R. PEEL'S philo-
sophy, and insinuate that he had been a hypo-
crite, to propagate an error.
" We find," it said, " an idea gradually creeping forth,
probably only among very hasty reasoners, that our attach-
ment to Sir Robert Peel is sustaining some diminution. .
Was it fit that such letters should be suppressed or rejected ?
Sir R. Peel himself, we are convinced, as a man of learn-
ing and knowledge, would answer that question in the
negative, The attention which the letters have excited
concur also in that decision. ;

The speech at Tamworth we think not a wise one. Its
errors and blemishes are ably exposed in those letters which
we hare published. _

The times is right ; it was not fit such letters
should have been suppressed. The world would
never have known how intense is the hatred
of the priest party to knowledge, had they
not been published. So • great is it, that it
prompts a clever, but thoroughgoing, mem-
ber pf that party to doubt whether Sir
ROBERT PEEL be religious, and brand him with
deceit because he has encouraged the people
to cultivate knowledge. So great is it, that the
Times,—now thinking that we have not Church
enough, and priestcraft enough—says that the
speech at Tamworth was not a wise one, and its
errors (namely, the encouragement it gave to
learning), and its blemishes (namely, its insincere
profession of a love for learning), " are ably ex-
posed in the letters of CATHOLICUS." The Times
can most certainly not serve the cause of truth
and freedom more effectually- than to publish let-
ters vilifying the most eminent and one of the
most liberal men of its party, and demonstrating
that the priests are now fully determined, in the
pursuit of their own objects, to trample every ob-
stacle, even their own friends, if they in the least
stand in their way, under their feet. We beg the
Times not to suppress or reject such letters as
those of CATHOLICUS.

The Paris Opposition Journals of Thursday
persist in asserting that great division prevails in
the Cabinet, and that a dissolution of the
Ministry is becoming inevitable. The following
are the olp:ervatinus of tile Courrier Francais

• The Ministry is in a state of crisis.- Some pretend
that Marshal Soult is tired of the partiality of M. Guizet