The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

soundness of their views and the value of the arrange-
ments into which they have entered.
The reasons adduced for their unshaken confidence
in the soundness and stability of the undertaking
entrusted to their management are of the most con-
clusive character. We shall adopt their own lan-
guage, in which they state—" This confidence is
founded upon their experience of the steadily in-
creasing traffic which every year has brought upon
the lines notwithstanding the check occasioned by the
recent extraordinary commercial depression, and
upon their conviction that, as a railway undertaking,
the property is wholly unassailable—that no traffic
can be abstracted from it by competing lines—and
that an: unfailing source of continually improving
revenue is secured to it in the inexhaustible mineral
wealth of the counties of Durham and Northumber-
land."

It should not be forgotten that the quantity of
coal alone exported from the ports of Durham and
Northumberland has increased within the four last
years 45 per cert., and it is impossible to state to
what extent this improvement may be carried when
the additional facilities afforded by the formation of
the Tyne Dock and the completion of the Sunder-
Lind Docks are at the disposal of the company.

We heartily congratulate the shareholders on this
statement, which proves that the undertaking in
which they have embarked is of the soundest de-
scription, and that it affords prospects of success
that can be equalled by few, and probably not sur-
passed by any similar undertaking in the British do-
minions.

The proceedings that have taken place on the
Chartist trials at Edinburgh afford a remarkable con-
firmation of the views which we have repeatedly put
forward as to the superiority of the administration of
the criminal law in Scotland. We would ask our
readers to compare for a moment the manner in
which the prosecution was conducted there with
what has been witnessed in our own metropolis, and
what took place in unhappy Ireland during the re-
cent State trials. Everything there proceeded with
dignity and decorum, and tended to create an addi-
tional respect for the majesty of the law.
There was no unseemly wronging between
counsel for the Crown and the prisoners. The pre-
siding Judge was not compelled to descend from his
more important functions to become moderator be-
tween the combatants in the forensic arena, neither
was he (as too frequently happens to peace-makers)
assailed in turn by those whose violence he attempted
to restrain. No applications were made, either as of
right or of favour, to be permitted the exercise of
privileges, without which it was argued (and with
too much apparent truth) that a fair and impartial
trial could not be obtained, and the prisoners enabled to
prove their innocence of the crimes laid to their
charge. Every reasonable indulgence that could be
desired was afforded. The constitution of the jury
panel could not be impeached. A list of those who
were to decide upon their guilt or innocence had been
served upon the prisoners fifteen days before the trial,
so that they had full time to investigate the characters
of the arbiters of their future fate. They could not
be taken by surprise by the production at the last
moment, of evidence of which they had no
previaus notice, and which therefore it would
be utterly impossible for them to rebut. A list
of the witnesses, and of all the documents that
were to be produced i❑ support of the charge, hal
been delivered along with the jury panel. They were
not called upon to plead at a moment's notice to an
elaborate indictment of enormous length, worded in
the most obscure and doubtful language, which none
but those who had made the science of the law their
especial study could be supposed to understand. A
plain and simple statement, that could readily be
comprehended by uneducated men, was also
handed to them, which set forth the exact nature
of the charge which they were called upon
to repel. There was no cavilling about obtaining a
copy of the indictment upon paying scrivener's fees,
nor as to the number of times in which the officer of
the court was bound to read it over verbatim, slowly
and distinctly, in place of the abstract which is
usually mumbled over. Everything was calculated
to inspire respect for the administration of the law in
place of exciting the very opposite feeling. Again,
in place of the Crown having the first and last
word, the statement of the case and the reply, which
must necessarily be highly prejudicial to the person
placed on his trial, the last appeal to the jury was given
to the advocate for the prisoner. When the evidence
for the defence or in exculpation, as it is termed in the
sister kingdom, was closed, the counsel.for the Crown
commented upon that evidence, and was replied to by
those for the several defendants. It would, indeed,
be impossible to complain of any hardship or oppres-
sion. The charge of the Learned Judge was digni-
fied and impartial, wholly indifferent between the
Crown and the prisoners. The verdict of the jary
was, perhaps, the most remarkable variation from the
course adopted in this country, where a simple
guilty or not guilty will alone be accepted.
It shows the gradations and shades ox
crime, and must greatly assist the Judge in
deciding on the amount of punishment. Our readers
cannot have forgotten the case of Mr. WILLIAMS, who
was tried in Dublin recently, and the difficulty of
inducing the jury to return a decided answer of not
guilty, although their unanimous finding was tanta-
mount thereto. Here the jury declare " that the
charges of conspiracy as libelled were not proven,"
and they find some of the prisoners guilty of using
language "calculated" to excite popular disturbances,
although they deliberately leave out the word "in-
tended," which formed the principal ingredient of the
accusation.

We shall, probably, on a future opportunity,
point out the great advantages attendant on this
practice, which a want of space forbids our entering
upon at greater length this day.

Gladly do we announce the fact of the election of
the Right HOD. THOMAS BABILINGTON MACAULAY to
the dignity of Lord Rector of the University of
Glasgow. It is an honour nobly merited and nobly
given—the historian having gained a majority in all
the four nations, notwithstanding the powerful
influence exercised in behalf of the opposing
candidate, Colonel MITRE. We are the more
sincerely gratified at the triumphant election
of Mr. MACAULAY to a post so accordant
with his own brilliant reputation, from
the circumstance that, although a member
of bar, MAJESTY'S Government, and Paymaster
of the Forces, although a statesman of great rhetori-
cal abilities and of tried consistency, he has long been
and is still excluded from taking his seat in Parlia-
ment. If the labours of attendance in the House of
Commons do not interfere with the progress of his
great historical work, we would willingly regard the
election of Mr. MACAULAY to the Lord Rectorship of
the University of Glasgow as an augury of his
speedy acceptance by some Parliamentary consti-
tuency.

UNIVERSITY ELECTION of LORD