The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-29 00:00:00

qiiiiellinia 4int

LONDON, THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1848.

Radical Reformers---ourselves amongst the number
—are heart and soul with the moderate,Republicans of
France, and with the revolutionists of Prussia,
Austria, Italy, and the Germanic States. Yet we
are not less heart and soul with the conservators of
order and tranquillity in England. How is this?
Are we not inconsistent in regarding the perturbators
abroad with enthusiasm, and in viewing the agitators
at home with suspicion and abhorrence ? Was there
not an extravagant contradiction in the exultation
with which we welcomed the great outburst of the
Parisians on the 23d of February, and, subsequently,
on the 10th of April, hailed with the most
cordial devotion the union of all classes of
our fellow.citizens in the maintenance of the peace of
the metropolis? No. There was in all this no in-
consistency whatever, no contradiction, no dereliction
of duty, or abandonment of principle. Our assertion,
perhaps, requires explanation, and that explanation
we will at once give with the simplicity of truth and
the correctness of conviction,

Because we rejoice in the revolutionary movements
of the various people of the European Continent, it
does not, therefore, fullo w, as a necessary
consequence, that we should look with
complacency upon the brawling demagogues
who endeavour to excite the labouring classes
of Great Britain and Ireland to sedition. And for this
reason : the political situation of England is essentially
different from that of the continent. In England,
the ocostitdiJnal liberties of the nation have been
gradually ‘velde'l by reform into a shape consistent
with the necessities of the age. On the continent it
was otherwise : there the social wants of the nineteenth
century were met by arbitrary decrees, which in

their very essence brought to mind the deplorable
days of feudality, the days of the villein,
and the baron, of the serf, of the bond-
man, of the condottieri, and of the lord paramount
—a king whose word was the fiat of the law, whose
whim was death, and whose authority was that of
an irresponsible dictator. Are we exaggerating the
miseries of the European races, such as they were
before the commencement of the great struggle
which is not yet completed? Italy is our answer;
and Austria; and Bavaria ; and the German princi-
palities; and even the Liberal and Protestant Prus-
sia! If these countries were not governed until
lately by the variable will of a despot, they were most
certainly trampled under the heels of an iron oli-
garchy. Government by representation they knew
only by hearsay ; travellers babbled to them of Par-
liaments sitting in Westminster, but as far as expe•
rience was concerned, representative government
was to themselves no better than the religion of a
dancing dervish—bootless, eccentric, and visionary.
Trial by jury was unknown among their judicial
institutions; the right of petitioning was unrecog-
nized ; differences of creed were illegal, inas-
much as particular forms of worship were
prohibited ; freedom of speech was a thing
not only unknown but inconceivable, and
the liberty of the press was effectually prevented by
the establishment of a rigid censorship. All these
boons, denied until very recently to the nations before
enumerated, had been for some centuries numbered
among the social and political institutions of Eng-
gland— they were the planks, the stones, the found a-
dons, the buttresses, the arches, the pillars, the para.
pets, the architraves, and the domes, which, accumu-
lated one by one, from generation to generation, and
from century to century, had been built up into that
substantial !and glorious edifice known throughout
the two hemispheres as the British Constitution.
Diametrically opposite, however, as were the nations
of continental Europe and the people of England
when contrasted with each other, the wants, the
necessities, and the aspirations of the age were the
same with both. In both might be traced the giant
strides of civilization ; in both might be discerned
the progress made in the diffusion and development of
knowledge; both possessed the printing press and
the steam•engme; both were intersected by railways ;
both had readers and thinkers out of number—men
who saw the lights of intelligence and the
glory of freedom, but under very different circum-
stances. England saw all these things, and enjoyed
them without restriction. Europe saw them too, but
was without the capacity of enjoying or using them.
It was quite impossible, therefore, that matters could
remain much longer in this state ; the millions of
the continent must rise by an inevitable necessity. It
was their doom ; and they did rise ! They rose almost
together like one man, and the earth resounded
with the movement. It was the old story of the giant
waking from slumber, and shaking off his shackles, as
GULLIVER shook off the manacles of the Lilliputians.
Eighteen hundred and forty-seven closed, and they
were still in bondage. Eighteen hundred and forty-
eight dawned, and they were free. Prussia obtained
freedom of the press. Austria acquired a national
guard. Bohemia proclaimed its independence.
Hungary yearned for its emancipation. Poland,
in Galicia, in Lithuania, and, above all, !in
the Duchy of Posen, palpitated with the hope
of regaining once more the crown and the
rank of which it had been robbed. Denmark suddenly
found itself invested with rights, of which it had
hitherto had but a feeble conception. Sicily refused
obedience to the tyrant, who so soon afterwards be-
trayed an atrocity of disposition unparalleled even
in the histories of BORGIA and Tißealus. The forty
States of the Germanic Confederation sent their re-
presentatives to the united Parliament, convoked
within the walls of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. And,
conspicuous among all, Italy, so long subjugated by
adventurers, and ravaged by intestine contentions,
stood forth suddenly in all the splendour of its
ancient independence, and drew the sword of libera.
don against the soldiers of the German C.IRSAR. It
was because we hare beheld this wonderful and
almost miraculous resurrection of the liberties of the
continent that we have regarded the late movement
with enthusiasm. We felt that without the aid of
revolution the Europeans could not by possibility have
so soon conquered the difficulties of their situation.
France has the glory of having given the signal
and the impetus to this movement. England
has the glory, through its Constitution, of
having afforded the revolutionists a model
for their political institutions. That is why
e have rejoiced at the struggle abroad ; and the
reason for our equally earnest opposition to agitators
at home is discoverable in our reliance on moral
force, in our love for progressive reform, and in our
devotion to that seine Constitution which is the palla-
, ilium of British Liberty.

Full and adequate protection should at all times be
accorded to the police force in the discharge of their
onerous duties. Every person guilty of a wanton
and unprovoked assault, or even of an undue inter-
ference, by which they may be impeded in enforcing
the preservation of the public peace, should be ri-
gorously punished ; but it is at least as important that
the body should be taught that they cannot be per-
mitted to abuse the extensive powers committed to
their hands, that they must upon every occasion ex-
hibit discretion and forbearance, and that they must
be particularly guarded, in the statements they make
before magistrates, not to give exaggerated or untrue
accounts of what may have taken place,
oy which the Bench may be deceived, and
deep injustice perpetrated under the guise of law.
Magistrates are notoriously too much inclined to
yield implicit credence to such statements, and in
every case of doubt to give the benefit thereof to the
constable. There cannot well be a more thankless
office than that of a person who comes forward as a
complainant against one of the privileged parties.
His acts and his motives are scrutinized with the
utmost severity, and if the slightest loophole can be
discovered he is dismissed, not only without redress,
but the magisterial censure is inflicted without the
slightest compunction, and in a manner that may
prove exceedingly injurious to his future prospects.
Too often some sympathising brother of the force,
hoping for a similar return, will fling the mantle of
his protection over the delinquent, and give such a
garbled and prejudiced version of the transaction as
to exonerate the defendant, and perhaps recriminate
oa his accuser. When such cases, therefore, are
brought
forward and clearly established, it is of the
utmost importance that the guilty party should be
taught that the magnitude of his offence is greatly
enhanced by the responsibility of his position, and
venialP
that what would be comparatively
serious crime in a paid
in ao private'
individual becomes. a
for the preservation of the
Peace, and every partyperson
coming forward to denounce
victimtle offender,brutality,
tianitiet
yr
•
fering between him and the
should receive the thanks of the eonlniunity.
A case was heard at Bow-street on Monday last, in
which, if the published report be correct, the
re-
siding magistrate appears to have strangely reversed
the principle on which he should have decided. Mr.
C. THORPE, a clerk in a Chancery office, was charged
with assaulting a police-constable (E 57) in the exe.
cution of his duty. The complainant stated that he
was clearing a mob caused by a drunken woman in
New Oxford-street, when the defendant came upon
him suddenly and pushed or struck him in the breast,
alleging that he had shamefully ill-used a boy in the
street, which he denied. This was the head and front
of the offence—there was no great violence used.
The constable did not venture to speak positively as
to the character of the assault. He was either pushed
or struck, and he certainly could not have been much
hurt thereby, or he would have more feelingly de-
tailed the particulars. The defendant at the same
time declared the reason why he had acted in this
manner. He alleged that the complainant had shame-
fully ill-used a boy, and had acted with such gross bru-
tality towards an inoffensive child that he was unable to
restrain himself—that the boy was standing quietly by
the side of the pavement, doing nothing, and causing
no obstruction, when the policeman, to his surprise
and disgust, ran up, and kicked the boy in so cowardly
and ferocious a manner that he was thrown upon the
pavement with great violence, and almost covered with
blood from the injuries he sustained. He (the de-
fendant) had no other intention at the time than to
ascertain the name and number of the policeman, for
the information of the boy's parents." The unfortu-
nate child, the subject of this outrage, who appeared

to be about twelve years of age, was produced
in court, and was dreadfully cut about the
face and arms, and Mr. THORPE was also
so fortunate as to procure the attendance of several
respectable bystanders who witnessed the occurrence,
and who fully corroborated his statement as to the ill-
treatment of the child, and who also solved the com-
plainant's doubts as to the nature of the assault, by
proving that the defendant had not struck him, but
merely pushed him. This evidence was so conclusive
that, although as usual, another policeman came
forward for the honour of the force, and de-
clared that the child had fallen by accident, and
that he had not been kicked, his Worship declared
himself "bound to believe from the evidence of the
witnesses, that the policeman's conduct to the child had
been abominable." What, then, was the result when
the tables were so completely turned, when the com-
plainant was proved to the satisfaction of the Bench to
have been the real delinquent, who had grossly abused
his powers, and also to have rendered a most exagger-
ated and unfaithful account of the transaction ? Was.
Mr. THORPE dismissed from the bar with the ap-
probation which his courageous and manly inter-
ference on behalf of the aggrieved child deserved,
and was the assailant sentenced to the highest
punishment within the jurisdiction of the Bench?
Far from it. Mr. THORPE was told, after a hint,
that but for the circumstances which might
have provoked him to resent such conduct on the
part of the officer, he should certainly have been
committed to prison without the option of paying a
fine ; " that his interference in the way admitted by
himself and his witnesses was not justifiable, and
must not pass unnoticed." He was then fined 1/,
The constable who had acted in this atrocious
manner was thus addressed. He was asked
what compensation he was prepared to make
the poor boy "for the injuries /as had evidently
suffered from his violence." The liberal offer of one
shilling was the response, but his Worship, on this oc-
casion, would not arm himself with the magisterial
terrors. He was now the friendly mediator, anxious
to bring about an amicable arrangement, that he
might not be called upon to adjudicate thereon. He
recommended " that seven shillings" should be given,
which was finally acceded to, after several ineffectual
attempts to reduce the amount. The conclusion to
be drawn from this sapient judgment is, that the
police are so sacred that any interference, even for
the purpose of preventing the most illegal and im-
proper conduct, must be most stringently punished ;
while a!policeman, who has grossly maltreated innocent
parties, and subsequently preferred greatly exaggerated
charges, may escape on ;payment of a few shillings,
a most trifling and inadequate compensation for the
injuries he has inflicted to the victim of his brutality.
We trust that Mr. THORPE may not be suffered to
remain a pecuniary sufferer by the transaction ; that
the sum of which he has been mulcted may be re-
stored to him, and that the attention of the Police
Commissioners and of the Home Secretary may be
directed to the case, which clearly proves that Eng-
lishmen should, under any circumstances, be entitled
to appeal from the summary jurisdiction of a single
magistrate to the verdict of a jury of their countrymen.

SPAIN.

Madrid journals of the 23d have been received.

ISTURITZ arrived on the 22d, and had immediately
a conference with the Duke of SOTOMAYOR.
An English courier has arrived with orders for the
immediate return of all the secretaries and attaches of
the Embassy, leaving only a Consul to sign passports.
MADRID BOLSA, JUNE 23.—Three per Cents.,
221; Five per Cents., 14, Exchange on London, 46

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.

RESIGNATION of the MINISTRY

GENERAL CAVAIGNAC ELECTED
PRESIDENT of the COUNCIL.
We have received the I'aris papers of yesterday.
The night of Tuesday had passed off quietly, and
all apprehensions of a renewal of the insurrection
were at an end. Indeed, so completely did General
CAVAIGNAC consider the insurrection suppressed that
he announced his intention to the National Asssembly,
on Tuesday, of resigning into their hands the extra-
ordinary powers with which they had invested him.
This announcement was met with loud cries of "No,"
and it is generally supposed that he will be requested
to retain his powers for some time longer.
We yesterday stated that a body of insurgents,
driven from the Faubourg St. Antoine, had taken up
a position in the Cemetery of Pere la Chaise. Some
regiments of infantry arrived on the spot, and sum-
moned them to surrender. They refused, and during
the parley fired at the soldiers, one of whom was
struck. The troops immediately opened a fire on
them, charged them, drove them from their position,
pursued them as they fled, and it is said that scarcely
one of them escaped.
The last collision between the military and the in-
surgents took place at Belleville, and was thus de-
scribed by General LABRETON, who commanded, to
his colleagues of the National Assembly, where he
arrived just after the termination of the evening's sit-
ting of Tuesday. It is reported in the Coastitutionnel,
and the writer states he heard the General make the
recital :—"A last barricade," said the General, "re-
mained at Belleville. I caused it to be reconnoitred
by the National Guard of the place, and by the Na-
tional Guard of Rouen and that of Amiens. I then
sent for the Mayor. I asked him if he
could not find some one to open a communi-
cation with the insurgents. The Mayor re-
plied in the affirmative, and shortly afterwards
he brought to me a citizen who went to the barricade
and returned with four of the combatants. They
approached and saluted me. Addressing myself to
one of them, I asked what they desired ? Ile replied,
General, we wish that they should guarantee to us
our rights.' Ido not understand such language,'
replied the General, and you deserve that I should
order you to be shot on the spot, but you are here on
my word, and I shall do nothing of the sort. Return,
and if in a quarter of an hour you have not laid down
your arms, I will have you all shot: "
The General immediately gave orders for the
occupation of all the houses, the windows
of which looked into the barricade. The as-
sailants were impatient to finish the matter,
and at the end of fire minutes they com-
menced a murderous fire, which the besieged re-
turned ; but a few moments afterwards they surren-
dered, finding that all resistance was useless, and
that more than a fifth of their number had
been put hors de combat. The others, to the number
of eighty, were taken prisoners under the protection
of the General, who had the greatest difficulty in
saving them from the vengeance they had incurred.
The number of prisoners now in custody is up-
wards of 0,000. The prisons, the cellars of the
Tuileries, and of the National Assembly are gorged
with prisoners. In the Conciergerie 1,500 are
confined in an open court, which on one side is
separated from the street by a gate, through which
they can be seen. The indignation of the National
Guards and the inhabitants against them is so intense
that it is with the utmost difficulty they can be saved
from summary vengeance.
The decree for their deportation was carried on
Tuesday almost unanimously, the only persons who
spoke against it being PIERRE LEROUX, the Com-
munist, and CAussintEnE, the ex-Prefect of Paris,
who is more than suspected of having connived at the
attempt of the 15th May.
The Archbishop of PARIS, after two days of intense
suffering, died on Tuesday afternoon, at four o'clock
M. CIIARBONNEL, the Deputy, has also died from his
wounds, and General DAZiIESAIE has suffered ampu.
tation of the leg.
General Rat, a Representative, has replaced Gene-
ral NEGRIER in the command of the troops destined
for the defence of the National Assembly, which is
also the general rendezvous of all the National
Guards who arrive from the departments to place
themselves at the disposal of the Assembly. General
RET successively dispatched them to different points
to act with the National Guard of Paris and the
Line, and several detachments were sent to procure
ammunition from the outer forts of Paris. The
battalion of the pupils of the school of St. Cyr
who had on Sunday done duty at the Nations