The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-18 00:00:00

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L.)

LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1846.

CABINET COUNCIL.

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Summonses were issued yesterday to all the Cabinet
Ministers, to attend a Cabinet Council this after-
noon at the Foreign-office, Downing-street. All
the Ministers were expected to be present with
the exception of Lord CLANUICARDE and Mr. LA-
BOUCEIERE, who are both out of town.

SIIAKSPERE was right in saying that troubles
come not singly, but in battalions. The private ex-
perience of each individual is illustrating this truth
incessantly. The national experience of all times and
of all countries has placed the accuracy of that aphorism
beyond a doubt. In the recent accession of miser)
to Poland we have foreseen a speedy extension of it:.
sufferings. So much temerity in the associated
despots of northern Europe was, we felt satis-
fied, only the prelude to the exhibition
of still great temerity from one or other of them in-
elividually. These anticipations have not been
illusory—those fears for the shadow of nationality
which has hitherto been preserved to the Poles have
not proved chimerical. A still more heinous viola-
tion of international honour, of the code of humanity,
of the divinest principles enforced by the spirit
4af the Christian religion, is meditated. It
is not only meditated, it is inevitable . The seizure of
Cracow is to be followed by a deed more guilty and
more damning than any yet perpetrated against that
People, which under the banners of SOBIESKI saved
I..urope from the doom of infidelity, from the decrees
of the Koran, from the sword ofeYlr
n P • The
annexation of the Cracovian territory is only a n ap r• elimi - nary to the incorporation of thek Polish dominions to the
empire of Russia t By
a in
of the former, the CZAR g the paltry concession
from the Kaiser s h m
endeavoured to purchase
the opportunity to
_extend his sway
by a lawless occupation.
What will be the consequence of this odious com-
pact on the part of the Austrian EMPEROR ?
:--R Why,
the consequence will be this Russia will, by this
incorporation of her Polish dependencies, stretch
forth her inexorable yoke into the very core of
continental Europe. That monster system will

I thereby be placed in a dangerous proximity with
the Germanic confederacy. There will be no further
barriers between Russian ambition and the less
powerful states of Austria, of Prussia, of Italy, and
of Turkey. The vast plains of what was once Poland
will no longer girdle in the territorial avarice of its
spoiler. There will be no further check to that ag-
grandisement for which the Government of St. Peters-
burgh has so long yearned.
After these miserable disclosures, it cannot be
matter of astonishment that sentiments of wrath and
indignation are roused against the policy of the Em-
peror noloLas in the civilised West. Those who
are rejoicing under the blessings insured to them by
constitutional monarchy must inevitably experience
feelings of justifiable rage at this stupendous deed of
spoliation. Apart from all considerations as to the
balance of power on the Continent, what can be more
at variance with the principles of justice, or with those
of civil and
.religious liberty ? Here_is a country
which, from a thousand causes, is incapable of being
combined with such a dominion as that of Russia.
With a different language, with different customs,
with a different character, and with a different
religion, it is hopeless for the Cabinet of St.
Peterabugh to expect that there can be any
cordial co-operation between them. And, be-
yond this, it is cruel to attempt any junction of a
people so diametrically opposed to each other. What,
however, are the qualms of a Russian conscience in
such an emergency ? They are as incapable of con-
ception as the gentleness of the Farm. The con-
science, indeed, is as disproportionately small in com-
parison with the selfishness, as was the bread con-
sumed by FALSTAFF with his allowance of sack.
The intense perfidy and lawlessness of the whole
transaction is as discreditable to the CZAR as it is
threatening to the rest of Europe. There are such
peculiar dangers to Germany in the approaching in-
corporation of the Polish dependencies with the Rus-
sian empire, that it is but natural some change
should be already apparent among its different prin-
cipalities. The hostilities of the continent towards
the Government of St. Petersburgh must necessarily
extend along the banks of the Rhine ; for, unless
some decisive measures be taken by Central and
Western Europe, the avarice of the Autocrat
will be diverted from Byzantium to Berlin, from the
sea of Azof to the Lake of Geneva. The spoil already
accumulated in his possession will only tend to
enlarge his appetite, first, for further dependencies, and,
ultimately,for their complete incorporation. Cracow fell,
and England and France protested against its seizure.
Poland is about to be proclaimed an integral portion
of Russia in Europe—what will be the nature of the
supplementary prothsts forwarded to St. Petersburgh
from London and Paris ? Will Prince METTERNICH
allow his SOVEREIGN to be cajoled by the diplomatic
tools of NICHOLAS ? Will not Germany and the
Papal States combine with the more western nations
in branding the CZAR as an enemy to the human race,
to the preservation of peace, to the advancement of
civilisation, to the decrees of man, of religion, and of
GOD? Russia has sown the storm—she shall reap
the whirlwind.

Having in our article of yesterday, shown from
Dr. MILLINGEN'S own letter that those assertions in
which he declared that there was not one syllable of
truth, were confirmed in every particular by himself,
we feel that we are entitled to pass over without
notice, not only his personal vituperation, but also all
his uncorroborated assertions, except so far as that
vituperation and those assertions involve admissions
against the law, of which Dr. MILLINGEN has put
himself forward as the champion. We, therefore, pass
over without notice his imputation of ignorance, but
we cannot pass over his assertion that Lord DEN-
MAN uttered nothing of the kind imputed to him.
llad this affair been a matter of " physic or
farces," in the compounding; of both of which Dr.
MILLINGEN is, we admit, equally skilful, we might,
perhaps, have been content to defer to his authority;
but it is an affair lof short-hand writing, and Dr.
MILLINGEN must excuse us if we prefer accepting
the report of Lord DENMAN'S judgment, furnished to
us by " skilful persons" in the art of stenography,
which report was transcribed by those " skilful per-
sons" from their notes, written a few hours after that
judgment was delivered, to Dr. MILLINGEN'S month-
old reminiscences. It is true that the Act of the Bth
and 9th VICTORIA enacts, as stated by Dr. MILLIN-
GEN, " that no physician, surgeon, or apothecary,
who, or whose father, brother, son, or partner, is
wholly or partly proprietor of, or a regular profes-
sional attendant in, a licensed house, &c., shall sign
any certificate for the reception of a patient, &c.; that
any medical man infringing this clause will be guilty
of misdemeanour ;" but it is equally true that the
same Act requires, in as express and explicit terms,
that the person certifying should state, upon the face
of his certificate, the facts that led him to the con-
clusion that the person was insane.
Now, Lord DENMAN has decided that a certificate
which does not set forth the facts which led the cer-
tifier to the conclusion that the person was insane,
is sufficient to justify the detention of any alleged
lunatic. Nay, more—that it is monstrous to suppose
that a " skilful person" should set forth those facts,
although expressly directed to do so by the Act of Par-
liament; and, as Lord DENMAN declares that the pro-
visions of the Act need not be strictly abided by in
one instance, why need they be abided by in any ?
The principle of Lord DENMAN'S " luminous
judgment " goes fully to this extent—Do we
deny the validity of the law as thus laid
down by the Court of Queen's Bench ? On the con-
trary, we admit that it is the law, we accept it as
such; but, so accepting it, we say that the law is a bad
law, and requires alteration. Proceed we now to the
next section of Dr. MILLINGEN'S letter, in which he
speaks of medical certificates, and of the impossibility
under which a " skilful person" labours of specifying
minutely the nature of the delusions under which a
supposed lunatic suffers. lle says—
" Such a statement is not required, for, in most in-
stances, when a medical man is called upon to visit a
supposed lunatic, he is an utter stranger to the party,
and can only form his opinion from the incoherence of
his conversation, when his actions are not violent; or
from the account of the patient he receives from the
parties who have called him in."
We admit fully the exposition of the law
of certificates as laid down by Dr. MIL

LINGEN, and we are obliged to him for
' the important admissions, which he has made.
Dr. MILLINGEN is one of our most useful allies in
the war which we have been long wageing against
this iniquitous law of lunacy, for he here admits that
the law authorises the detention of any person as a
supposed lunatic upon the certificate of a medical

man, " is all Utter stranger to the party, and
can only form his opinion from the incoherence of his
conversation, when his actions are not violent, or
from the account he receives from the parties who hate
called him in." Who is safe as long as such a state of
the law continues ? Who shall say that the medical
man himself is not the person incoherent
in conversation, and the patient the coherent
person? But even incoherency in conversation is not
requisite ; for, if the medical man receives a certain
account from the parties who have called him in, he is
authorised in granting his certificate. Such is the
law. How does it work ? There is a certain person
possessed of large property about to make a will dis-
inheriting his heirs. Those heirs call in a medical
man, bribe a medical man or men (for be it remembered
Mr. FLETcHER, the will forger, was a medical man,
and these certificates can be purchased in the market;

,herefore it will not do to set up the immaculateness

of the medical profession) ; these heirs bribe two
medical men to certify that this person is a lunatic

and upon that certificate he is transferred to a lunatic

asylum. He applies for a writ of habeas. It is use-

less ; the certificate is sufficient; it need not set

forth, according to the decision of Lord DENMtN,
the grounds upon which the " skilful persons" formed
their opinion. Nay, it is not even necessary, ac-
cording to Dr. MILEINGEN'S gloss upon Lord DEN-
MAN'S law, that the patient should have exhibited even

any incoherence in conversation—" a certain account
from the parties who have called him in (the bribers)
to the medical man (the bribed) is sufficient

to authorise him in granting his certificate.'
Be it remembered this is not the assertion of "one

utterly ignorant of the subject." It is the exposition
of a "skilful person," of Dr. MILLINGEN, of the state
of the law, as laid down by Lord DENMAN, of the
state of the law as it exists at present. It is the ex-
positi9n, not of the opponent, but of the champion and
defender of the law. We are content to rest our case