The Sun.
London, England, 1824-10-28 00:00:00

EN LW TIMES.]

It is stated in a Boston Paper of the Vith nit.
that a squadron of observation is to be fitted
out under Commodore Rogers, the precise object
of which does not appear to be very well known.
The American Journalist speculates upon it in a
very loose and rambling manner. Ile thinks It
is to act, if required, in support of the prin-
ciples laid down in the Message of the President
of the United States. It would hardly be worth
while to fit out a squadron upon a contingency
so distant and so extremely improbable. If there
were any prospect of an armed interference by
the Great Powers of Europe between Spain and
her Colonies, it would undoubtedly be known
to the British Government at least as soon
as to the American, and it would be acted
upon at least as promptly. But we know in this
part of the world that no such cause of disturb-
ance to the general peace is in the least likely to
artse. It is therefore probable that the specula-
tions in the American Paper as to the destruction
of this squadron are unfounded : and indeed the
force mentioned, one seventy-four, a frigate, and
some smaller vessels, is altogether incompetent to
perform the important task assigned to it by this
hypothesis. It is natural that the American Go-
vernment should wish to exercise its ships and
seamen ; and we are therefore disposed to be-
lieve that such a squadron may begetting ready ;
but, its immediate object we apprehend is merely
to protect American Commerce, and to assist in
clearing the sea of pirates.

[MORNING. POST.)
We noticed last week the arrival of the Speedy
from Santa Martha laden with hides and tobacco,
being the first vessel that has arrived from Colom-
bia since the British Consul reached Bogota. A
difficulty not foreseen by the shippers, though
arising from a revenue regulation well known in
this country, has prevented the discharge of the
vessel,which is in fact at present in a state of deten-
tion. By one of the acts for preventing smuggling,
tobacco cannot be imported in packages of less
weight than 450 lbs. The tobacco on board the
Speedy,consiiting of bales weighing only 1251b5.
each, has therefore been detained until the Lords
of the Treasury shall give directions as to the
enforcing, or suspending, the operations of the
Act. 'iro convey tobacco from the interior of
Spanish America to the coast, in packages of the
weight required by the Act, is wholly imprac-
ticable. The merchandize transported from Bo-
gota to Santa Martha is carried partly on mules
and partly by porters—and by law the weight of,

every package is limited to 15Olbs. This re-
striction originates in the narrowness and general
imperfection of the roads, which are described
by Humboldt as being so narrow in many of
the passages across the mountains, that horned
cattle can scarcely pass without
The Porters, a numerous and class,
are represented to have invariably opposed
the formation of good roads in South America,
ns leading to the destruction of their monopoly,
which is so productive, that, as a body, they are
wealthy. The contradictory regulations of the
two countries might tend greatly to embarrass
commercial intercourse in respect of tobacco—a
commodity of no mean importance ; but it can
scarcely admit of doubt, that the British Go-
vernment will suspend the operation of this
Act as to the productions of Colombia, and
other South American States. With us, the
importation of tobacco, in small packages,
is prohibited, with the express view of dimi-
nishing the facility of transport to the interior ;
while in Colombia the package is by law re-
stricted to a certain weight, for the purpose of
giving that facility of transport, which, for the
protection of our revenue, is rendered penal. To
insist on the strict enforcement of this Act would
operate as a prohibition against the importation
of tobacco from new States of South America.

[TUB PUBLIC Leunett.]
Yesterday afternoon, between three and four
o'clock, an express was received in the City
from Falmouth, announcing the arrival of a Ja-
maica packet. Colonel Campbell, one of the
British Commissioners to the Colombian Govern-
ment, has returned by this conveyance, and ar-
rived, we are assured, last night in town. Shortly
after the arrival of the express, all the South
American Securities improved ; after which it
would be superfluous to say, that the accounts
brought by the Packet are of a favourable cha-
racter. This last remark applies, we understand,
to all the Neiv States ; and the intelligence from
Peru, though not of a decisive character, serves
at least to overthrow entirely the sinister rumours,
which had been set afloat respecting Bolivar's po-
sition, and the means of this excellent Patriot
to bring the war to a successful termination.
From Mexico the intelligence is said to be most
satisfactory ; and, when we contrast her present
situation with the state of things such as it exist-
ed at the beginning of this year, we cannot but
admire the facilities, which appertain to this, in
common with every free people, to relieve them-
selves from difficulties, under which enslaved na-
tions would probably sink. Toward the close of the
last and the commencement of the present year,that
country was one scene of anarchy; the Civil Autho-
rity was too feeble to put the laws in execution,
even in the immediate vicinity of the seat of Go-
vernment; the military force was disorganised and
mutinous ; whilst a gloom, bordering on despair,
universally prevailed. A few mouths were suf-
ficient to transform the scene completely ; and,
at the date of the last accounts, confidence bad
succeeded to despondency ; whilst the effects of
a Arm Government had begun to be visible
every where. Such is the elasticity of a state of
freedom; and here may be also seen, in a sur.
prising manner, the healing effects of tutelary
rule.

NUE TIMES.)
The Judges, it will be seen, have delayed judg-
ment on the demurrers which have been argued
the two last days in the Court of King's Bench,
iu the case of" Duncan v. Thwaites and others."
This case, it is well known, involves the legality
of reporting police proceedings, and indeed all
other initiatory proceedings in civil or criminal
cases. It is erroneous to call the publication of
these proceedings the publication of exparle
evidence ; for so far as the case is gone into,
the evidence ; on both sides is published.—
We have, however, argued the points so
often before, that we have little new to say on
the subject; yet is that little strong. It is
impossible to prevent the publication of the pro-
ceedings in question. They must continue, or a
revolution will be effected in the administration
of justice, of which, we believe, the Judges can
have but a very imperfect idea. Let them reflect
for a moment what our police-offices would be-
come, it' no notice were taken of the proceedings
there. In how helpless and solitary a state
would every injured person find himself, if he
had all the burden thrown upon himself indi-
vidually of making his case known to the
public, so as to get together evidence, to
state the course of proceedings which he
meant to adopt to occasion the production
of articles lost and of implements used in
the perpetration of the wrong. All this, and
much more than we can sum up, is crow per-
formed gratuitously by the Journals, for the in-
jured man, through the publication of the Police
reports. If we were to say that there is no evil
mixed up with the good in these cases, we should
say that which is not true of any human institu-
tion whatever ; but we do assert, that the good
is in so much greater a proportions that the prac-
tice must continue, whatever may be the decision
of the Judges. No Jury would or could find
the conductor of a Journal guilty of publishing
a true report of the proceedings iu any Cuurt.—
The above-named eminent‘persons would, there-
fore, do well to accommodate their abstract rea.
zonings to the expediency and substantial justice
of the case.

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]
The address of the Assistant Barrister to Lord
Clermont, in the account of the trial at the Dun-
dalk Quarter Sessions, October 14, given by The
Freeman's Journal, is altogether a curiosity in its
way. The particulars of the two assaults with
which his Lordship was charged on two boys, the
one twelve years of age, the other fourteen, ap-
peared in The Chronicle some time ago. It was
altogether a strange proceeding—such indeed as
could occur only in a country in which one
clash was long habituated to impunity, and the
rest of the people to be wantonly oppressed and
outraged. The assaults wero so completely
proved, too, that the Assistant Barrister " could
not perceive a point to hang a doubt upon."—
The Jury having found a verdict of Guilty, the
Assistant Barrister stated it as the unanimous

opinion of the Bench, " that the assaults for
which the Noble Lord then stood convicted were
of the slightest description—he might add, of
the most frivolous nature " (we must bear in
mind that slight and frivolous are very different
in different countries—the poor man, whose
cheek Mr. Wakefield saw cut open with a
horsewhip, in presence of several Magistrates,
at a fair in Ireland, was very slightly as-
saulted ; in short, to kill in some parts
of Ireland is thought a very frivolous affair).
But pass we on to the point in the Address
which induces us to notice the production at all ;
for oppression being the order of the day in Ire-
land, it is only when any thing occurs out of
the way that we can allude to it. "It had been
more than insinuated," said this Judge, " by his
Lordship's talented advocate, that this prosecu-
tion did not emanate from the injured feelings
of the party, neither was it carried on their
expellee, but that it was promoted by a
body of intriguing individuals, associated to-
gether for reducing to their own base level,
every person in society conspicuous for rank,
talent, or eminent virtue. Placed where he was,
it was not for him to say whether such was the
fact or not ; but assuming it to he so, it was truly
melancholy that his Lordship should be the vic-
tim of any such vile conspiracy." Here is lan-
guage for a Judge ! Vile conspiracy ! It is a
vile conspiracy when two or three individuals en-
able, by their assistance, a poor man to obtain
that justice for a wrong done to him by a man of
rank and wealth, from which his own po-
verty would exclude him. This is vile in the
extreme. What is the use of making law ex-
pensive if the rich are not to have the advantage
of this against the poor ? 0 vile conspiracy. But
when a number of Peers and wealthy men club
their purses to bring an humble individual to jus-
tice for a political libel, there is no oppression
here—no vile conspiracy—it is patriotism. Surely
this Assistant-Barrister will not have the assurance
to pretend, that when the Duke of Wellington,
the majority of the Bench of Bishops, and other
patriotic individuals formed themselves into an as-
sociation for crushing all who expressed senti-
ments different from their own, by means of that
admirable instrument, the Law of Libel, that his
Grace and the Bench were guilty of a vile con-
spiracy! 0, no! such a thought never could
have entered his head. Vile means merely inter-
fering in behalf of the meek and lowly.