The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-07 00:00:00

portance, and will afford satisfaction to all the friends of
free trade. But it was only what might have been ex-
pected; any other line of policy would be inexpedient and
dangerous. The whole force of the Liberal party must
support Sir ROBERT PEEL in bis present difficulties,
they must keep the main point in view, and not play
into the hands of their enemies by differing about trifles.
The Minister has conceded more than ever was
expected ; he deserves, therefore, the unanimous
support of the whole Liberal party throughout the
country, and the vote of every Member who advocates
the removal of one of the most grievous burdens that
ever afflicted a community. Every Member who would
reject repeal, because it is delayed for three years,
ought to be regarded as an enemy to the cause:

When men engaged in a good cause la►y down propo-

sitions which they consider grounds for their motives of
action, they generally alduco proofs to confirm their
assertions. They do not call upon the pnblie to take all
their principles as axioms, but def_nd their case by
legitimate reasoning, and leave their antagonists the
opportunity of refuting them. The very opposite course
is pursued. by the party who advocate restrictive and
prohibitive laws in reference to the importation of
foreign grain. For instance, they affirm as facts
beyond doubt, that the repeal of the corn-laws will
lower the rank of our peasantry, an I throw thousands

upon thousands of acres out of cultivation. But here
they stop. No problem or proposition follows—conclusion
there is none—the words "which was to be demonstrated'

are not to be found in their vocabulary, and for the best
reason in the world, that evidence would destroy their

theory. The question then naturally arises—what has
protection done for the English or Irish peasantry?
Are they superior in comforts to those of France, or

olland, or Germany, or to the peasantry of an,

civilised country in Europe ? Men, with large families,
are 'doomed to live on Bs. a week, they are denied the
use of butcher's meat, they can erijoy only bread and
water, their children have barely rags to cover their
nakedness, and the mothers are often half famished, by
depriving themselves of food to hush the cries and
allay the hunger of their starving children. The
country is studded over with workhouses, and
some six or seven millions sterling a year are

expended in sheltering and feeding those who cannot
provide for themselves. In Ireland the case is infinitely
worse. Every humane mind shudders at the recital of
Irish mis:ey, and all foreigners unite in describing the
people of that beautiful island as the most wretched on
the Lee of the earth. But if protection were worth any-
thing—above all, if it really was productive of those
blessings which such men as the Duke of ilacuseoND
and Sir JOHN TYRRELL claim for it—lreland should be
the best cultivated country in the would, and the "Green
Isle" a visible and real Utopia—a Paradise in this
sublunary region, and a model for all lands. It enjoys
the Ix nefit of the corn-laws to their full extent ; wheat
cannot be imported at present at a duty less than
15s. the quarter ; oats and b 'Hey in proportion ;
t rejoices in the sliding-scale like England, and is, there-
fore, saved frcm the effects of ruinous competition with
foreigners. But, besides this great boon, it has ex-
emptions of an extraordinary kind.. Neither landlords
nor tenants are subject to the property and income-tax ;
they know nothing of assessed taxes, and till within the
last few years the people never saw a workhouse or paid
a penny of pew-rate. The Government pays one-half
of the police expenses—a largo army is maintained in
the country, supplied with provisions and other neces-
saries from the productions of the land or tho manufac-
tures of the country—church rates, and other rates
are of the most moderate description ; yet with
all these protective laws and exemptions from bur-
dens, Ireland is not half cultivated ; some four millions
of the inhabitants are on the brink of starvation ;
men that cannot obtain employment or gain a liveli-
heocl by honest means traverse the country in, bands,
murdering and plundering the industrious, and nothing,
in short, but a large military and constabulary force
prevents a universal outbreak, and a total dissolution of
the social system. Such are the blessings of protection.
The country where it prevails to the utmost extent has
become the reproach of England and a byword among
nations. But for the extensive manufactures carried on
in Great Britain, and viewed with such jealousy by the
blind protectionists, affairs would be still worse ; fur the
operatives engaged in these great national undertakings,
not only increase the demand for agricultural pro-
ductions td an incalculable extent, and throw new land
into cultivation, but they also dray.- large supplies from the
sister island ; yet, even here the land is badly cultivated,
for no other reason that can be assigned by impartial ob-
servers but this miserable delusion called protection.
The farmers have long reckoned that the corn-laws
would give them something like a fixed price of from 565.
to 664. the quarter for wheat ; they have cultivated the
soil upon this security, and though the delusion has been
fading away year after year, they still live in hope, and
will not exert themselves, like the other industrious classes,
of tho community. The Duke of SUTHERLAND, who
knows the difference between the agricultural systems
pursued in England and Scotland, admits that in Eng-
lend great improvements are required, and affirms that
the Scotch landeweers, from the spirit of activity
and enterprise which they have long displayed,
will not endanger themselves by conceding at
once the repeal of the corn-laws. Scotland is
comparatively a poor and a barren country. And what,
then, has enabled the farmers there to compete with
those of England and Ireland ?—Not protection, but ne-
cessity. And till the English are compelled "to be up
and doing," like their brethren in the north—till they
trust to their own industry and inventions, instead of
leaning on a broken reed—all the protection that can
be devised will neither improve the condition of the
peasantry nor throw one acre of laud into new mid-
ration.

It has long been a doubtful paint among thinking men,
whether the Vol. of insanity in Criminal cases ought to
be left to the decision of an ordinary petit jury, and the
result of the trial of Captain JouNsToNE yesterday will
go far to settle the question in the negative. We w
not g) into the details of the crimes of this man. Our
readers have, no doubt, been horrified by the perusal of
the evidence given at the Thames Police- court,
and at the Central Criminal Court against him—
evidence which proves beyond the shadow of
a doubt that he was guilty •of three delibe-
rate murders under circumstances of the most
atrocious cruelty—that in every instance he tortured his
victim before murdering him—and that there were many
others of his crew whose lives he attempted, all of whom
he wounded, and many of whom he has maimed for life.
The counsel for the defence admits that JOHNSTONE was
guilty of these crimes, and then proceeds to suggest to the
jury that he must have been labouring under temporary
insanity at the time he did so commit them. This is a
suggestion merely, for not a single witness was called
to prove what had been the state of mind of the prisoner
at any former period of his life; and Mr. JERVIS himself
(JoHNsToses counsel) distinctly admits that at the pre-
sent moment his client is perfectly sane, so that the
,moment really amounts to this, that the atrocity of a
crime shall be its excuse : commit murder simply and
you will be hanged ; commit murder, accompanied by every •
possible species of atrocity—torture your victim before you
dispatch him—hack, hew, and stab his murdered corpse,
and your counsel will suggest that it is impossible any but
a mad man could be guilty of such atrocities, and an Old •
Bailey jury, acting on the suggestion, will acquit you on the
ground of insanity. On this principle GIIEENACRE
should have been acquitted, because he mutilated the
belly of his victim after having murdered her. The
L awned Gentleman, in hisalefence of JOHNSTONE, in-
si Inated that the crew were aware that they had been
guilty of the mutiny, or that otherwise they would have
attempted to have put JOHNSTONE under restraint.
Suppose they had restrained him, would not that in
itself have been an act of mutiny? Would not every
rani who had made the attempt have done so with a
r,Te round his neck? Wculd not the fact of their having
a tempted to restrain him have justified, in the eye of
the law, all JOHNSTONE'S previous proceedings, and
would not every individual of that crew have been tried
and convicted of—aye, and perchance executed for—
mutiny, on 'the evidence of JOHNSTONE himself, so soon
as the ship should have arrived in any port? Be it re-
membered, too, that these men in such a case could not
possibly have produced evidence to show the neces•
sity of placing this man under restraint. As soon
as he arrives in England he becomes sane, ac-
cording to Mr. JERVIS'S own showing ; and al-
though a mere suggestion of insanity from a counsel,
without any evidence to support it, is considered
by a jury sufficient to justify them in acquitting a cap-
tain charged with the murder of three of his crew,
we doubt whether the same jury would so readily admit
a similar suggestion as a justification for an acquittal of
a crew charged with mutiny against a captain. • That
the crew took no measures to restrain the captain, that
they submitted patiently to his tyranny, and that,
' notwithstanding all the tortures so wantonly in-
flicted on them, they brought the ship with
her valuable lading to her port in safety,

are facts which to our minds prove to demon-
stration that there never had existed on the
part of the crew the least intention to mutiny, and we
think that the evidencQ goes to show that the whole story
of the mutiny was a story trumped up by the captain as