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

fu`' Iteningufl

LONDON, WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 2, 1848.

The Session of Parliament, which will commence
to-morrow (for the November sitting may be con-
sidered rather as the prelude to, than as a portion of,
the regular session), bids fair to be one of the most
important, in a social and a commercial point of viipv,
that has ever been held. One of the first measures
which will occupy the attention of the House of Com-
mons will be the Jewish Disabilities Removal Bill ;
and, supported as it is by the leaders of all parties in
the House, and by public opinion out of it,
there can be no doubt but that it will, ere
a month has elapsed, become the law of the land.
The important subject of the currency is, we
are happy to say, not shelved by the appoint-
ment of the Committee on the subject of the
national distress. Sir CHARLES WOOD and Lord
Joins RUSSELL and Sir ROBERT PEEL will be forced
to speak out on this important subject on Tuesday,
for which day Mr. BERRIES has a notice on the paper
for a Committee of the whole House, in which he
proposes to move the following resolution :—" That
it is expedient that the limitations imposed by the
Act 7th and Bth Victoria, cap. 32, upon the Bank
of England, in relation to the issue of notes payable
on demand, be suspended, subject to such conditions
as may be provided by any Act to be passed
for the purpose." This will open up the whole
subject of the currency, and a matter of
greater importance cannot occupy the attention of
the Legislature. On the decision of this question
depends, not only our greatness, but our very exist-
ence as a commercial nation—not only the comfort,
but the very subsistence of the industrious classes ;
and we therefore hope that nothing will occur to pre•
vent Mr. BERRIES from bringing forward his motion
at'the earliest possible period. We observe that Mr.
CHISHOLM ANSTRY has precedence on Tuesday for
his monster motion for papers relating to the foreign
policy of the country from the earliest period down
to the present time; but surely the delinquencies of
our successive Foreign Ministers can be as effec-
tually exposed a month hence as on Tuesday, whereas
the question of the currency is one which will
brook of no delay. We, therefore, trust that Mr.
CHISHOLM ANSTEY will give way to Mr. BERRIES. If
Mr. ANSTEY'S object is to damage the Ministry in the
opinion of the country, he cannot do so more effectu-
ally than by urging on the consideration of the cur
rency question with the least possible delay. Next
in importance to the question of the currency is the
sanitary question, and although there is as yet no
notice on the paper on the subject, we hope Lord
Moarterst will not suffer a week to elapse without
giving such notice for an early day. Cholera
is approaching with rapid strides, and that
which we intend to do for the improvement
and preservation of the health of the people,
it Behoves us to do quickly. The condition of
Ireland will be brought under the consideration
of the House on the 14th of February, by Mr.
MONSELL, who will call the attention of the House to
the condition of the able-bodied population of Ireland,
and to the best measures for removing the dispropor-
tion between capital and labour in that country. We
trust, however, that before that day we shall be in
possession of the details of those remedial
measures with respect to Ireland which Lord
JoHN RUSSELL pledged himself to introduce
when moving for leave to bring in the Crimes and
Outrages Bill in November last. The subject of
West India distress will be brought under the atten-
tion of the House to-morrow by Lord GEORGE
BENTINCR. On this question, also, we trust the Minis-
ters will lose no time in announcing their intention,
and while on the one hand we protest against any
attempt to revive the absurdity of protective duties,
we on the other hand protest as strenuously against
the equal absurdity of giving the present black popu-
lation :of our West India possessions the monopoly of
the labour market by throwing obstacles in the way of
a free immigration of free African labourers into our
sugar colonies. The question of the repeal of the Navi-
gation-laws will also occupy the attention of the House
during the present session. The Committee on the
Roman Catholic Relief Bill is fixed for Wednesday,
and there can be no doubt that the year 1848 will
see the erasure of the last vestige of the persecuting
penal laws from our statute book. Should this Bill and
the Jewish Disabilities Removal Bill pass during the
present session, the year 1848 will be distinguished
as the year in which perfect religious liberty was for
the first time established in Great Britain. The
affairs of Switzerland, Italy, and Spain, will also, no
doubt, come under discussion early in the session, as'
will the subject of our national defences ; and we see
that Mr. HUME has given notice of a motion on the
subject of the Raja of SATTARA, which will bring
East Indian affairs under the attention of the
House at an early period. Here then we have
work enough carved out for our representa-
tives if they will but do the work—
ther besetting sin, however, is that they
prefer talking to working, and we are reluc-
tantly forced to admit the truth of the charges brought
against the Members of the House of Commons by
Colonel Tnomrsosi in his letter to the secretary of
the Bradford Reform Association, and that the re-
proaches addressed to them are well deserved.
The present, however, is a new House. Let us
hope that, eschewing the evil ways of its predecessors,
Members will do more and talk less, and that at the
end of the session of 1848 we shall not be presented
with that terrific list of murdered innocents which we
have had
,to record at the conclusion of every session
of late years—that we shall have more acts, and fewer
promises.

We yesterday alluded to the propriety of having,
not only public prosecutors, but public defenders
appointed, who should act in every case where the
prisoner did not wish to select his own professional
advisers. A case which has just taken place at Clon-
mel, before the Lord Chief Justice, is worthy of
notice, as affording a strong illustration of the evils
to which we then adverted. Two brothers, named
CODY, were charged with a very serious murder.
had any attorney engaged. When placed upon their trial, they were asked if they
They answered in the
negative. The Crown Solicitftr stated that a Mr.
HuGnEs had obtained copies of the informations, and
had been in communication with the prisoners. Mr.
HUGHES said that he was ready to act if assigned by
the Crown ; but the Court having intimated that it
was not the practice to assign attorneys, he
declined to give his services gratuitously, stating
that he had understood he would have been
assigned. His Lordship then assigned Mr. ItoLLEsToN
to act as counsel on their behalf, but that Learned
Gentlemen very properly intimated a strong objection
to conduct so serious a case without the assistance of
an attorney, without any instructions whatsoever, and
also without having had any opportunity of making
himself acquainted with the facts of the case ; for 41. . ,