The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-01 00:00:00

peached—our information questioned—our motives
slandered and
,paligned. There is no man who
has not some friends who will valiantly struggle in his
behalf, who will strain every nerve, exert every energy,
in his defence, and when be is at length brought to
condign punishment, will lament and deplore his
misfortunes. The most blood-thirsty tyrant that
ever existed had persons to bewail his fall. So it has
ever been, and so in all human probability it ever will
be. What has thus been said of a single person
may, a fortiori, be predicated of a body of men, each
of whom will have his own friends and supporters,
all of them ready to applaud a system by
much power is given to their friends,
whoat wlhelacsht
will support them ; and perhaps
some slight hope of one da
attainingthey m
to similar
have
power themselves, and becoming the, centres
fawntreso on,f
ad-
miring circles, who will look up to,
and flatter them in their turns. No important
changes in the laws of a country can ever be brought
round without much exasperation and acerbity being
felt by persons interested in the maintenance of
things as they are; and the more crying are the
g-rievances, the more glaring the enormities perpe-
trated thereunder, with so much the more virulence
will they be defended, and their opponents
libelled and calumniated. It has not therefore
surprised us to ' find that what we had ex-
pected has come to pass, and that the
defence of the Royal Court of Guernsey has been
taken up by some of the island newspapers, whose
editors are sufficiently alive to the value of the pro-
tection that may be afforded to them by that Court,
the necessity for which may be judged from the fact
that one of those very editors was tried so lately as
the month of April last for attempting to excite
sedition among the militia, on which occasion, we be-
lieve, he received the full benefit of that friendliness
on the part of his judges. It is but a slight
return for that protecticn, imperatively demanded by
gratitude, for him to praise in the strongest terms the
wholesomeness of the laws, and the admirable manner
of their administration, to cry out against our En-
glish Courts, and to speak of " the injustice of those
who would thrust upon them British laws, British
usages, and British customs." We confess that we
do think that the writer in that journal would have
much cause to regret such a change. It is very pos-
sible that if British laws were extended to Guernsey,
and administered by a British judge, be might not find
for the future that protection he has hitherto enjoyed,
and which, to judge from the style and tenor of his
article—where coarse and vulgar personality takes the
place of reasoning, and where the strength of his
argument consists in the virulence of his abuse—is
so essentially necessary to his future impunity. It
is not to be supposed that we should condescend to
answer the foul-mouthed invectives contained in this
scurrilous publication, or that we should suffer it to
attain the degree of notoriety which it would
receive if we were to follow its various
statements, and to expose the fallacies con-
tained therein. It sometimes commences by giving
a paragraph containing one of the cases we have
mentioned, which, in its own peculiarly gentlemanly
style, it designates as being "quite in the style and
taste of the writer—a tissue of falsehood from first to
last." It then professes to give the true facts of the
case, from which, although coloured and distorted, it
becomes perfectly manifest that our statement was
substantially accurate and correct in every par-
ticular. 'We have made no charge save on the
strongest and most satisfactory evidence. We cannot
doubt but that the cases to which we have alluded
will be brought forward before the Commissioners
appointed to investigate into the mode of the adminis-
tration of the law in the Channel Islands, and that it
will then be found that we have, if anything,
rather understated the facts. We have not
set down aught in malice, but with the-strongest
conviction of the necessity that exists for the expo-
sure of a system so defective and unjust in all its
particulars, so incompatible with public liberty, and
partial in its operation towards such of our fellow-
countrymen as happen to reside within its sphere of
action. Until the time comes we can easily rest
satisfied on the established character of our journal
against any charge of want of veracity which may be
brought against us by such an opponent. The most
pitiable exhibition, however, ismade where the writer
attempts to justify the conduct of the Court in the
case of the advocate who was found guilty, without
extenuating circumstances, of, having stabbed an Eng-
lishman. Will it be believed that the defence brought
forward is, that the affair was purely accidental and
unintentional, and that it was so sworn by the pro-
secutor, and yet that the punishment was of the
weightiest description ? If this be the fact, have we
brought forward anything which tells with such fearful
force against the Court as that asserted by its friend,
viz., that they convicted a gentleman of so serious an
offence, adding thereto that it was committed without
extenuating circumstances, in fact without provoca-
tion of any kind, and that they sentenced bim there-
fore to two months' imprisonment, when it was clearly
established that the act was purely accidental and
unintentional ? We really feel that this is one of the
most serious charges yet brought against the Court,
if well founded. We shall not, however, make
any charge which is based on no better
authority than that of the writer in question; we
shall, therefore, refrain from any further comment
thereon. We feel that some apology is due to the
other parties for at all joining their names with the
person to whom we have alluded ; for, whatever are
the errors in their statements and contradictions, they
are, at least, put forward in a more gentlemanly
manner, and with some degree of acquaintance with
the courtesies of civilised society. Mr. LE MAactlANT's
letter was written in the language of a gentleman,
and we hesitated not to give it insertion the day we
received it, but at the same time we felt it necessary
to expose its fallacies in such a manner that we do
not think that gentleman will speedily rush to arms
in defence of his friends.

1 Another writer questions the truth of a small part
of our statements, leaving the greater portion wholly
untouched, and thereby, as we stated in Mr.
LE MARCHANT'S case, admitting the general
accuracy of that which he has not ventured
to contradict, and charitably supposes that we
have been duped by false statements. To
him we shall only say, that contradiction is no
argument, and that time will establish the perfect and
entire accuracy of our information. We shall only
add that we shall not be deterred from fearlessly per-
forming our duty as public journalists by any de-
gree of vituperation or calumny directed towards
ourselves.

We cannot but regard the recurrence of Parlia-
mentary holidays as a most refreshing and invigo-
s entforour e
and
Peers
Council. It
ra afft
oi nr
dg a
both
ro at
hn gem
the
RepresentativesLnen°PPs3r
tunity for forethought; it gives a wboleeesrsom
breath-
ing•tirne to the Ministry ; and, by so doing,
•
the advantage of mature deliberation—a characteristic
ensures
most necessary for the healthy continuance of Go-
vernment. What is the more especially required in
a national conclave of lawmakers is that mens sana
which can alone enable them to discriminate between
what is judicious and what fallacious: and the
Roman has already insinuated that the mens sane is
scarcely attainable without the corpore sano.
The casual holidays of the session pos-
sess, consequently, an inferential as
l balsood, which
w ellas
an immediate merit;they purify
may, perchance, have been muddied with an infusion
of a bilious character during the storms of discussion ;
they tend to render the lymphatic mare animated and
resolute in their adherence to principle ; and they en-
able the Members of the Lower House to interchange
explanations with their constituencies wherever those
explanations may on either side appear desirable.
During the present session—the great session of the
Peel Administration—we have, however, looked upon
the interposition of these holidays as peculiarly bene-
ficial for the cause of justice and the appreciation of
truth. The accidental position of debate has,
moreover, so happily accorded with their arrival,
as to present to us two remarkable instances
of fortuitous good fortune. Precisely when the
Commons had proceeded to such an, advanced stage
of discussion upon the commercial measures which
h.-ive engaged their attention during the greater por-

tion of tie pant four rooTAI.s. that a mumetita:y pause
was requisite to many minds before committing
themselves to the responsibilities attached to a final
vote--the Easter holidays transpired. Here was the