The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-05 00:00:00

her the accusations of atrocious cruelty brought by
the partizans of the defeated Sonderbund against the
Federalists. We were told that the organ of the
Friburg Cathedral had been destroyed by the Pro-
testant soldiers of Vaud, who had also desecrated the
church. The organ is still in existence, and still un-
injured, and the Protestant soldiers of Vaud, instead
of taking possession of the Catholic Cathedral, erected
a pulpit in the grand square, and in the open air wor-
shipped GOD after the manner of their fathers. We
were told that priests were massacred by the Federal
troops in Friburg. One priest, and one priest only,
was killed, and he was shot as he was in the act
of discharging a loaded musket at a Federal soldier;
the musket, with the barrel yet warm, was taken
from his grasp when he fell. Then it was
said that the Federal troops had expelled
the monks of St. Bernard faom their convent, which
they had afterwards plundered, and that the
monks had been treated with the greatest contumely
and insult. On this subject the explanation of M.
TIIIERS is complete and distinct. " Some of these
monks," says M. TIIIERS2 " had been accused of
having been accomplices in some of the most
atrocious acts perpetrated by the counter-revolu-
tionary party. They were not, however, subjected
to any violence, nor did the Government of Valais
direct any measures against them. The Go-
vernment were informed that, fearing that
punishment which perhaps they were aware
they deserved, they had taken flight."
"No measures," continues M. ThEses, " were
adopted against the convent of St. Bernard. The
Government having heard that a number of the
monks who had retired to Aosta, had employed cer-
tain of the peat ants of that valley to remove the pro-
perty of the convent into Sardinia, sent a force of
twenty-five men to the convent to prevent this spolia-
tion. They found the doors of the convent closed,
and they broke them open. No other violence was
used. The Government summoned the monks to re-
turn to the convent—they refused. The intervention
of the Sardinian Government was then claimed to
induce them to restore to the convent that property
with which they had absconded. This is all that has
taken place." Ex U7lO disce omnes ;—from these in-
stances, we may judge of the reliance that can be
placed upon the Jesuit version of the affairs of
Switzerland. We know Switzerland well; we are
personally acquainted with many of the men who
have been actors in these scenes, not only on the
federal side, but on the side of the Sonderbund also,
and, from all the information we have been enabled
to collect on the subject, we fully coincide in the con-
clusion of M. THIERS, that at no period has there
ever been a civil war in which the great principles of
humanity have been more respected, and in which
greater moderation has been shown to the vanquished,
than in the war which General DUFOUR so speedily
brought to a happy and a victorious conclusion.

It is with the greatest pleasure that we have no-
ticed the subjects of the four Bills which the Attor-
ney• General obtained leave to introduce on Thurs-
day, consolidating and declaring the laws relating to
the local magistracy. It is not by any means all that
is required on that vitally important subject, but it is
a step in the right direction, and when the disjecla
membra are collected, the several enactments bearing
on the question, which are scattered through so many
different statutes, and the various deci-ions applicable
to the question are all embodied in one code, there will
at the same time be greater facilities afforded to ma-
gistrates for the proper discharge of the duties they
have undertaken, less excuse for those by whom the
extensive powers with which they are entrusted may
be exceeded, and the real defects of the system will
become more apparent, so as to lead to a speedy re-
formation of all existing abuses. We do not object to
the proposition of the Right Honourable and
Learned Gentleman, that the several Bills, which will
form one complete and comprehensive code, should be
referred to a Select Committee, or that a session
should intervene before going into Committee on the
Bills, because, although the existing grievances are
very great, and a reform is most urgently demanded,
any hasty legislation, which might perpetuate and
possibly increase the evil, should be most religiously
eschewed.

The first of these Bills relates to the duties of
magistrates in the commitment of parties chargeable
with indictable offences. Here the justices do not
themselves directly adjudicate upon the subject. mat-
ter that is brought before them. They are merely to
decide whether there are sufficient grounds to subject
the parties to the inconvenience of being deprived of
their liberty until the case shall be investigated before
a competent tribunal. But that is, however, a very
serious matter, as such an imprisonment, which is too
frequently inflicted on slight and insufficient grounds,
is as injurious in its consequences as if the party
had really been guilty of an offence. It is very
desirable, also, that the magisterial duties with
respect to committing should be clearly defined, and
that persons who may be enabled to give sufficient
security for their appearance to meet any charge
that may be brought against them, should not be sub-
jected to needless detention from their families and
business. In Scotland every person not charged
with a capital offence is entitled, "ex debitojustitia:'
as a matter of right to his discharge from custody,
on finding two responsible persons willing to become
his sureties, and we have never heard of any failure
of justice in consequence of the privilege. But here
a person, although presumed to be innocent until
' convicted of the offence, is dealt with as if the mere
accusation was conclusive as to his guilt.
The second Bill relates to a matter of still greater
importance, and that in which the chief abuses exist,
—the summary jurisdiction of the magistrates. In
this case, also, all the statutes and decisions are to be
collected together, and a schedule of forms and
Precedents is to be annexed. At present it
is not intended to make any change in the
existing law by these Bills. They will
be what is termed " declaratory statutes," merely
stating what the law really is in a plain and
simple form, so as to render it intelligible to the
members of the body who have had no legal educa-
tion. The power of the local magistracy in this re-
spect have been enormously and, as we conceive, most
injudiciously extended of late years. Scarcely a session
has passed that their jurisdiction has not been ex-
tended and new authorities conceded. The privilege
of an Englishman, that he can only be found guilty
of a crime on the unanimous verdict of twelve of his ,
peers, is rapidly departing, and on the most trivial
charge he may now be condemned to three months'
imprisonment, with hard labour, at the mere will and
pleasure of a. possibly prejudiced man, who canna
be called to account if his warrant and conviction are
framed in due form of law, and if malice, actual or
implied, cannot be proved against him. These things
should not be. The liberty of the subject is a matter
of more serious importance than recent legislation
would seem to account it. Notwithstanding all
the protection which the law affords, and the diffi-
culties and impediments which it imposes on persons
who may institute actions against magistrates,
scarcely a week passes in which damages are not
given against members of the body for derelictions of
duty, and the illegal confinement of their fellow-
subjects. We would abolish the possibility of such
occurrences in future, and not continue the power of
summary conviction to any of the great unpaid. If
it is desirable that it should be continued in any
quarter, it should only be exercised by paid officers,
who are well acquainted with the law, and competent
to perform so delicate a duty. More especially
should the adjudication in all cases of alleged infrac-
tions of the game-laws, those social monsters, be re-
moved from the hands of game-preserving squires,
who are directly interested in the very questions
on which they are called on to decide. The amount
of punishment, too, which might be decreed on
a summary conviction should be greatly reduced.
Three months imprisonment with hard labour, and
perhaps the addition of corporal punishment, is a
matter of sufficient importance to the sufferer, not to
be inflicted save on the verdict of a jury.
The third Bill comprises the provisions applicable
to the holding of special and petty sessions, and in
this there are some new matters. Magistrates will
be enabled to provide at the expense', of the counties
fit and proper places for holding their sittings. We
shall not be obliged to see justice! administered
iii a tavern. unless the magistrates "should
desire it. Their clerks, too, may be paid by
a fixed salary, chargeable on the county rates, in
place of being remunerated, us at present, by the