The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS tills bAt.

TIMES.-,-The Crown has triumphed gloriously.
Sued by a gentleman in an honourable cause, it set
might against right, and privilege against poverty. It
evaded that discussion which would either have justified
its inflexibility or exposed its unfairness ; and availed
itself of those prescriptive advantages in litigation which
antiquity and tradition have conferred on it to debar an
unequal adversary from a lair hearing and a due deci-
sion. In many cases these privileges are viewed with-
out offence. Against rebels or traitors, against con-
spiracy or sedition, in aid of order and for the sake of
peace, their utility is duly recognised. In a contest with
an unprincipled demagogue who has avowed his inten-
tions, and boasted of his power to evade by subtleties and
nullify by stratagems the clear and undoubted spirit of
the law, we willingly invest the Crown officers with all
the arms which may fairly serve to defeat the perilous
attempt. But no such considerations entered into that
great and famous Cause which has just been terminated,
as far as the plaintiff was cor.cerned, by the hand which
brings an end to all things. The Baron de Bode neither
attacked the prerogatives of the Crown, nor the pri-
vileges of Parliament ; he was pleading neither for
license nor lawlessness. No seditious or turbulent pas-
sions could have been encouraged by his success, or
were subdued by his disappointment. He only asked for
money which he asserted was justly due to him. The
honour and equity of the State was involved in the
transaction. It was, of course, the bounden duty of the
law officers to protect the Exchequer, and to see that a
sum which might sustain a starving kingdom through a
season of famine was hot carelessly paid to an adroit
pretender. But these precautions might have been taken
immediately and infallibly. Dukedoms and domains
are every week claimed by some demented wretches,
but nothing is found more easy than to ascertain the
character of the applicant. If the Baron de Bode's
claim had been an imposition, it could have been un-
masked in a month, and he would have fallen into that
contempt which is always more readily accorded to a
penniless pretender th lesa,,uncharitable'considera,-
tions. But it Was notorious that he was what he rep re-
sented himself to be, and that his claim was imperative
both in equity and honour. There never was a case
calling so stronly for the prompt and open attention of
the State. A large sum had been paid by the French
Government to the English in trust for a cer-
tain class of sufferers, of which the Baron
claimed to be one. His demand was so great as to
be a matter of consideration even to a kingdom—
an additional reason for candour and circumspec-
tion under the suspicions to which we might
be exposed. It was the obvious duty of the Government
to investigate with the utmost promptitude and accuracy
the claims advanced, and to publish to the nation with
the greatest clearness that flaw in the applicant's title
which disabled the necessary rigour of official justice
from acceding to his petition. Their conduct and our
character would thus have been clear; and it would have
remained for the nation, at its will, to decide on the pro-
priety of recompensing an individual who had been ex-
cluded by accident from a position to which ho was justly
entitled by his deeds. Instead of this, the claims of a
helpless remonstrant were evaded by all the legal subtle-
ties which tend to the disrepute of courts and the dis-
grace of the profession; his pleas were met by an endless
cycle of procrastinations and perplexities, and the Eng-
lish nation assumed the character of a dishonest debtor
relying for escape on the cunning of a pettifogging ad-
vocate. The issue has been fatal to our victim and dis•
graceful to ourselves. It is most certain that the unfor-
tunate Baron was within the spirit if he was without the
letter of the law. If it was nothing that his
"prima infantia emlum
" Hausit Aventinum, Nice& nutrita Sabina"--

his English birthplace gave him no English rights,
his services and sufferings in England's cause at least
conferred some considerations. But the evasions and
tricks of his mighty adversaries, coupled with the im-
port of such decisions as he found it possible to obtain,
cannot but impress the minds of Englishmen, always in-
clined to the weaker and overborne party, with the
belief that we have stooped, for the sake of .a heap of
money, to cheat a deserving gentleman out of his
rightful due. " The King's power," says a royal writer,
" loveth judgment;" but the Baron de Bode might have
quoted a plainer text of those who persecuted him with-
out a cause. For thirty years he opposed a resolute
spirit and an intrepid heart to the wearing and wearying
machinations of his powerful foe, but vexation and op-
pression have done their work at last, and he has sunk
into his grave unheard and unlighted, though cheered
with the voice of unwonted friendship and the gleam of
unexpected hope. His claims, of course, descend to his
heirs, who, " thrice armed " in the justice of their quar-
rel, must eventually prove victorious over their gigantic
foe ; unless, indeed, that foe, with a tardy repentance,
voluntarily relinquishes to the children the spoil which
it has so long withheld from the father.
CHRONICLE.—The Alpha and Omega of the schemes
for the relief of Ireland—the quintessence of all the pro-
positions we hear, is, give, give, give. The points on
which there is diversity are only, who is to give, and
whom it is to be given to. While some people are for
giving themselves, some are only for making others give,
and some would have no objection to make the crisis an
opportunity for receiving. The cry of some persons is,
let England give ; and give to the peasantry, to those
who are really in want. There is charity in this pro-
posal, if not wisdom, when it comes from this aide of
the Irish Channel ; when from the other side, it is some-
thing else ; it is the conduct of him who begs for charity,
which, if rarely meritorious or dignified, is excusable
when there is nothing else to be done. But the Irish
landlords next present themselves, and exclaim, give
to us. Lend to us below the market rate of interest,
that we may pay off our mortgages ; we shall
then have a large income for our own use, with part of
which we will employ the poor. Or, lend us a round
sum on the mortgage of our estates, which are already
so deeply mortgaged that we cannot raise an additional
farthing fron any other source ; and instead of paying
off our mortgages we will do better—we will employ the
loan in cultivating our lands and improving our estates
for ourselves. This charming scheme for giving to the
poor by means of giving to the landlords, does not seem
to have made many converts among those to whom
the part assigned in it is that of 'givers. It has rather
provoked them to give the thing a contrary turn
and to demand whether, instead of receiving,
the Irish landlords are not the very persons
who should be required to give. And justly too. If the
working bees are short of winter provision, they have a
claim on their own drones before they can have
any on the bees of another hive. But the ob-
jection common to all these schemes is, that they
consist of giving, and nothing more. That objec-
tion is fatal. Did ever any one hear, was ever any one
so completely out of his senses as to imagine, that the
whole social and economical state of a country could be
made to rest upon giving? Giving, when the whole
labouring population are the parties concerned, is a
thing to be dune once, and then largely and generously,
to the full measure of the need. But it is not a thing to
be done at all, save when the object to be compassed, or
at least greatly promoted, is that of so altering
the condition of the receivers, that they shall
not need to look to giving as a permanent re-
source. If this could be accomplished for Ire-
land—and that it could we are fully prepared to
show—we will not venture to say what sum of money
we would not willingly give, and call on others to give,
for so noble a purpose. Or if the habitual condition of
the Irish people were satisfactory, and the present dis-
tress a sharp but passing calamity, as little connected
with the general course of events as the cholera—a tor-
rent which they only required to be helped through, to
be landed again in prosperity on the other side—then,
too, we could join our voices with those who say, give
freely, and ask no questions about the future. But as
things are, we protest with all our force against giving
one additional farthing on plans which • hold out no
better promise than that, after a larger or smaller sum of
money is spent and gone, the Irish will be exactly as
they were before. Give as much as you will, but let it
be for the permanent improvement of the condition of the
people. We will not hear of any giving merely to feed
the disease, not to cure it.

POST.—It was on the question of undeniable in-
tegrity—of undeniable fitness to do the honours, and
represent, in its best light, the character of the citizens
of London—on a question affecting Alderman Wood's
qualifications in this regard, the contest has arisen upon
his claim to the civic sovereignty. The Alderman's qua-
lification was questioned and disputed, on grounds that
gave reasons to pause, lest the place and reward of
worth should be ;even to unworthiness. The Livery-
men of the city of London have been called on, during
the last week, to record their opinion of the merits on
both sides of the case. Alderman Wood is accused by
the Deputy-Chairman of the Irish Society with having
failed, in his capacity of solicitor to the society, to pay
counsel certain moneys which he had drawn from it for
that express and stated purpose. The Livery have
re-
corded, with the tardiness of lazy strength, their opinion
as to the side on which the truth of the question lies,
and with an indolence too usual where no object of private
profit is to be attained, have at last signified their idea that
a man to whose pecuniary dealings grave charges and sus-
picions attach, is not fit to lead City affairs fora year. Thus
far with respect to the fact accomplished. But will the
honour of the city of London permit, that th;s scandal of
solemn assertion and counter-assertion, having gone thus
far, is to remain in its present unsatisfactory and dis-
graceful position? If there is a word of " the whole
truth" in the committee's address, their rejected friend
is about as ill-used an alderman as London has produced
since the invasion of Jack Cade. If Mr. Anderton's
declaration of the case be a correct one, we cannot trust
ourselves with the expression that would duly brand the
conduct of those on behalf of whom Mr. Yates subscribed
his name. There has, somewhere, been conduct of no
ordinary turpitude. On which quarter does it rest? Pub-
lic morality
and private character require that the truth
should be elicited, and that, if possible, signal punish-
ment beinflicted on those who have grossly outraged
it. The gentleman. who holds the pleasant station of
Lord Mayor elect, La, we have every reason to think, an
individual who will fulfil the necessary conditions of
liberality, undoubted integrity, and the wealth to give
grace and comfort to extended hospitality. It is on all
accounts gratifying, that a character beyond suspicion
should preside over business in the City. But this does
not solve the problem which we think absolutely neces-
sary tQ be made plain. There still remains the fact that