The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

pecuniary advantages of their enterprise or
their licentiousness—the publishers of sound
and wholesome works, designed for the pe-
rusal of the masses, and in consequence produced at
an extraordinarily moderate price, have bad to jeo-
pardize their fortunes in the almost desperate venture
of forwarding in this practical manner the cause of
popular education. In his " History of a Book," one
of the most formidable blows ever aimed at the sys-
tem of taxation on knowledge, and a blow not very
easily parried by its apologists, Mr. KNIGHT has
given some remarkable illustrations of the perils sur-
rounding any one who would dare to adventure upon this
perilous,and one might even call it Quixotic enterprise.
Foremost among all these illustrations is that afforded
by the most splendid attempt ever made, by a friend
of national education, to administer to the intellec-
tual wants of the masses—we mean the 'periodical
issue of the Penny Cyclopedia. The originator of
that magnificent undertaking has himself told us the
enormous losses to which he rendered himself liable
by the fact of its publication—and the event unhap-
pily proved the irresistible nature of the forces
brought to bear against his benevolent proceedings.
The cause of all this is sufficiently obvious. Whereas
the publisher of costly works gets repaid for his
various expenditures, by the high prices given by
each of his numerous purchasers—and whereas the
publisher of low and prurient publications obtains
ample remuneration for his wretched paper and
stamped-up typography (paying himself little or no-
thing to his soscalled literary contributors), the pub•
lisher of cheap works, or periodicals of a wholesome
and instructive character, having to pay for good
type, and good compositors, and good paper, and good
authors, and good readers (readers, we mean, in the
printing establishments), and these productions naving
necessarily, from their very novelty, a restricted circula-
tion, the publisher, we say, of such works or periodicals
must look almost with confidence to the one result—
bankruptcy. While the taxes inveighed against not
only by the Birmingham Association, but also by our-
selves and the majority of our contemporaries, the
taxes upon knowledge continue—no reasonable hope can
exist for the spontaneous dissemination of intelligence
among the community. The duty on paper and the
duty on advertisements are imposts pressing with
equal force on the penny journal and the hot-pressed
folio, on the servant of all-work inquiring for
a situation and the auctioneer holding out for
sale an estate of a thousand acres—taxes of this de-
scription must be utterly and permanently abolished, or
we must still continue to look with a feeling of despair
for the annual increase of the immorality and ignorance
of the population. Remove those most irksome burdens
upon knowledge, and the beneficial consequences
must be very speedily perceptible. Allow publishers
like CHARLES KNIGHT to bring out periodicals such as
the Penny Cyclopadia, and the cheap Biographical
Dictionary, and the Penny Magazine, and other equally
meritorious and remarkable publications, to carry his
noble enterprises into effect without being crushed down
by the incubus of an inexorable taxation cn paper
and on advertisements, and knowledge would almost
imperceptibly begin to circulate among por-
tions of the multitude at present shrouded
in impenetrable ignorance, a knowledge exercising
a potent and purifying influence on their morality and
their patriotism. For the realization of this benefi-
cent day-dream of reform we shall still ourselves
continue to labour, sanguine that good may be
derived from the present agitation, now that the force
of facts is beginning to affect even the Members of the
Legislature.

We have repeatedly directed the public attention
to the grave defect and almost intoler able omission in
the administration of the criminal law of England,
by which the duty of prosecuting for the most serious
outrages against society, and bringing the worst
offenders to justice, is imposed on private individuals.
Scarcely a week elapses without affording some
strong illustration of these enormous evils. Few per-
sons are Quixotic enough to undertake the expense,
responsibility, and inconvenience of vindicating
the majesty of the law, unless they have
suffered severely in purse or person, or that they are
influenced by some strong motives either of vengeance
or cupidity, and are anxious to use the weapon en-
trusted to their hands as a means of gratifying their
malignity, or as an instrument of extortion. We do
cot mean to say that where the responsibility of pro-
secuting is cast upon a person who has been in any
manner plundered or ill-used, that it will not be faith-
fully performed. There is a certain degree of public
spirit to be found in every English heart that induces
parties to submit to almost any degree of annoyance
when society demands the sacrifice. But is it just or
equitable to take advantage of this honourable feeling,
or reasonable to expect that a person who has been
robbed or swindled of a large amount of money, or
has sustained serious personal injury, should be com-
pelled to defray heavy costs which he may be ill able
to afford, or that the culprit should be allowed to
escape with impunity ? We have always understood the
constitutional theory to be that every member of the
body politic surrenders a certain portion of his natural
liberty, and is bound to contribute according to his
circumstances to the maintenance of the national es-
tablishments and the liquidation of the national lia-
bilities. But he receives, or rather is supposed to re-
ceive, a full and fair equivalent in the protection
afforded to his person and property by the funda-
mental laws of the State, to which he owes allegiance.
Any unwarrantable invasion of his rights subjects
the wrong-doer to stringent punishment; but
practically he must become his own avenger.
He must himself put the machinery of the
Jaw into motion, and if he is not possessed of
the necessary appliances for greasing the wheels of
juice he may remain witheut satisfaction. Without
en official public prosecutor, fully qualified to dis-
charge the arduous duties of his station, the admi-
nistration of the criminal law is a mere lottery—a
loophole is afforded for the escape of the greatest de-
linquents, and that very uncertainty operates es a
great inducement to crime ; for experience has long
since shown that it is " the certainty rather than the
severity of punishment" that terrifies offenders—
" We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their perch, and not their terror."
The great interpreter of the Book of Nature was
indeed right. The impunity accorded to one
:horough-paced ruffian, through the undue lenity,
inefficiency, or poverty of the person to whose hands
the State entrusted the conduct of his prosecution, is
productive of the most mischievous consequences,
leading to the multiplication of crime, and producing
the most reckless audacity among its votaries.
We have recently shown that it was owing to the
absence of any official prosecutor that Mrs. SLOANE
was enabled to avoid arrest, so that a reward of 501.
for her apprehension became necessary. To the same
cause may be ascribed the discharge of AnonPnE
DH WERDINSKI by proclamation at the Middlesex
Sessions, without any indictment being preferred
against him. And now we find great difficulties
made as to who shall be the prosecutors against a
person who is stated to be the proprietor or manager of
A den of thieves, in which the rising generation are
instructed in the most approved method of picking
pockets,
and duly qualified for the nefarious occupa-
tions for which they are trained by their worthy
portion the statement made
of
tutor. If but a small

by the police•constables FISHER and ARCHER be well
founded, it becomes a matter of the greatest import..
ance that the public nuisance should be abated wtithe
all convenient speed, and that the portals
" Kitchen " should be closed against the juvenile stu •
dents. The following is the account of the " Kitchen,"
and its visitors, with which FISHER, one of the G divi
sion, enlightened the parochial authorities :
"Fisher said it was a harbour for the vilest characters,
not only in and about London, but was resorted to by
thieves with stolen property from all parts, who found
and,the rear
eady
wheneverwhaye
was
fade iisepossei
enrgeho fetfhaei
thief,
ii!lehoet ill-gotten
firstof all
went store;l
went there, and would find nearly 200 congregated.
Not long ago he was after a person who had stolen the
then Lord Mayor's (Alderman Magnay's) plate,
and he
found him there, and ultimately he was tried, convicted,
and transported. The prisoner had the management of
the place, and trained lads to thieve. Ho had seen him
instruct them frequently ; and once in particular, while
watching unobserved, he saw a coat banging to a line
in the "Kitchen," when the prisoner placed a handker-
chief in one of the pockets and showed a number of lads
how to go and lift the skirts to take it out. The lads,
at his bidding, followed his example, and, if they did
riot succesd without bungling, he knocked them down,
:Iron] time to time, until they were proficient.

And yet, notwithstanding this account the 'board
of guardians endeavoured to evade the responsibility

of prosecuting the prisoner. The chairman desired
to know " whether the Police Commissioners could
not prosecute." The magistrate thought the duty
belonged to the guardians ; and there is as yet no
certainty that any person whatsoever will come for-
ward, for all that could be elicited from the clerk of
the guardians was, that " the subject should receive
an early consideration." Once more, then, we ask,
how long is this singular anomaly to be continued,
and the criminal law be left to execute itself? When
shall we be placed in as good a position as our Scottish
brethren, who have for ages had a well-organized and
efficient staff of public prosecutors, whose business it
is to investigate every crime and bring the offenders
to justice.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
Several of the leading Members of the Assembly
had had conferences with the PRESIDENT, but no solu-
tion of the Ministerial crisis Lad been arrived at. M.
DE LAMARTINE has refused to enter the Ministry.
The Gazette de France says—
"M. de Lamartine had on Sunday evening a long
conference with the President of the stepublic. Offars
were made to him, but M. de Lamartine thinks that his
presence in the Ministry would he more prejudicial than
useful for the re-establishment of harmony between the
two great powers of the State. This at least is the ground
on which he based his refusal to accept office."
The Moniteur du Soir gives the following list of
new Ministers as the most probable :—Minister of
Justice and President of the Council, M. Odilon
Barrot ; Interior, M. Leon Faucher ; Public Works,
M. Daru; Foreign Affairs, M. de Lahitte; Public
Instruction, M. Dumas ; Finance, M. Fould ; Marine,
M. Dupetit-Thouars ; Commerce, M. Bonjean ; War,
General Magnan or General Oudinot.
On the probable consequences of the appointment
of an ODILON BARROT Ministry, and on the refusal
of M. DE LAMARTINE to take office, we find the fol-
lowing in the Presse :
" What solution would an 0. Barrot Ministry bring?
None. It could not resolve the question of dotation, or
that of revision. It would be suspected by the Right as
by the Left. The Republicans would look on it as Roy-
alist, and the Royalist as Republican. Forthe oneit would
represent the reaction of which it has been the instru-
ment, and for the others the revolution of which it has
been the accomplice. It would only be a delay of some
days, at the end of which time the Government; would be
again stopped short, as at present. M. 0. Barrot, besides,
is not new; he has been tried, and what did he produce ?
Nothing. His Ministry led to the Message of Oct. 31,
hat is, to an energetic disavowal of the old Parlia-
mentary policy, of which he was the expression. To
recal M. 0. Barrot now is to deny the language of 1849,
that is, to humiliate the executive power the day after a
struggle in which it was condemned. Thus, at whatever
side we look, we only see impossible ministries. M.
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte has thought as we do, since
he has looked beyond the majority, dissolved and di-
vided, and applied to M. de Lamartine. M. de Lamar-
tine has refused, for motives which certainly do him
honour, but which the President cannot accept, nor the
country comprehend. We do not doubt that fresh over-
tures will lead to new reflections on the part of M. de
Lamartine. We do not doubt that he will be led to the
only course that can constrain a man of his disinterested-
ness and patriotism, the evidence of necessity."
We entirelP agree with the Presse that the appoint-
ment of an ODILON BARROT Ministry would be a
humiliation of the Executive Power, and it would
appear from the statement in the Pays, " that the
PRESIDENT has nothing more at heart than to labour
without deity in restoring concord between the dif-
ferent fractions of the moderate party,"—as if the
Executive Power was prepared to submit to hum
liation.

It is now admitted on all hands that the victory in
the late contest remained to General CAVAIGNA C
and the Republicans, who compelled both Legitirna-
tists and Orleanists to submit to his terms. " The
amendment of M. ST. RELIVE not a comma snore not a
comma less," said the stern Republican Generai• and
BEERYER, and M. THIERS, and General CHAN..
GARNIEIL obeyed. The following from the National
describes exactly the present situation :
" Tho Empire has now against it, in addition to the
oath of the President, the crushing vote of the Legisla-
tive Assembly, and all the g€nersls who have any in-
fluence in the army. The majority, at the same time
that it freed us from the Empire, committed suicide. It
is no more. Nothing remeins of that great party of
order which was to put an end to the Republic. Of the
four great parties composing the Assembly, the most
numerous at present is the Republican one. Claremont,
Wiesbaden, and the tours of the President had less
divided the majority than these three days of public
confessions in the tribune. They were united above all
by their joint respohsibility in the law of May 31, and
by a common hatred against democracy; they are now
aware that the day on which any one of them, quitting
the policy of inaction, should desire to march atter the
conquest of the chief power, it would find no enemies
more irreconcileable and venomous than its pretended
allies; they were strong only by their union, and they
remained united only on condition of annihVating them-
selves. It was already edifying to see the Legitimatists
grasp the hand of M. Thiers, the gaoler of Blaye, and hear
M. de lontalembert dictate to the Voltairians of the
school of Talleyrand the severeien orders of the con-
gregationists. This alliance of all the hypocrisies gave
a tine spectacle to Europe, and a noble engagement to
the country; but, thanks to God, these enemies of demo-
cracy and liberty have condemned themselves. They
have told each other their truths, so as to prevent all
chances of reconciliation. M. Berryer could vote on Sa-
turday with M. Thiers, but he will not pardon him to
have disclosed in the tribune the political indigence of the
guests of Wiesbaden. The treachery of Deutz will be first
pardoned. Even should a new coalition be formed be-
tween the Legitimatists and the Orleanists, they have
lost for ever the aid of the Elyseans, which they could
not do without. It is a poor party in numbers, and still
more so in intelligence; but such as it is the majority
cannot lose it without ceasing to exist; and in losing it,
loses power by the same blow, since it had given it

and maintained it. The majority which passed the law
of May 31 does not any longer exist. It perishes in its
victory, and its dissolution is so complete that there re-
mains nothing more of it than the remembrance of its
obstinacy in lies, and violence in evil. The Empire was
never anything but a phantom; but the majority lived
and reigned for its misfortune and ours.
We find the following in the Illoniteur:—
" A decree of the President of the Republic, dated the
18th, puts an end to the interim of the department of
Marine and Colonies, confided to M. Drouyn de Lbuys,
Minister of Foreign Affairs. By order of the President
of the Republic, M. Ducos, will transact the affairs of the
department of Marine and Colonies midi the nomination
of his successor."
The Patric says—
" ha Parliamentary club of the Rue des Pyramides
appears decided on pursuing the policy of conciliation
which die:iced the vote of the 286. It met Yesterday
evening in the library of the Council of State, and
named a committee of three, composed of MM. Leon
Faucher, Dare, and Luerost,e, charged to provide for
the necsssides of the position. The club will retain its
name, but is will apply all its energy to constitute it.=;elf
in a manner as strong as its repulsion for every hostile
mareeuvre against the Executive."
Several arrests of persons took place on Sunday
evening at the establishment of the Associated Cooks
—the persons are accused of belonging to a secret
Communist Society called the Union des Communes.
In the Assembly on Monday M. BAC proposed a
resolution absolutely protecting members from arrest
for debt, which was defeated by 469 to 201. In the
Assembly yesterday the debate on the proposition for
regulating the arrest of members was resumed. The
following is the first article by the proposed law :
" Conformably to the 36th and 37th articles of the
Constitution, no representative of the people can be ar-
rested, in civil and commercial matters, without a pre-
vious authorisation of the National Assembly."
M. CRETON moved that the representative of the
people who, within a delay of three months from the
date of the regular notification to him of a sentence
of a court of justice decreeing his arrest for debt,
should not have satisfied his creditors, be considered
a bankrupt, and, as such, to have forfeited his right
to occupy a seat in the Assembly. M. CRETON,
however, wished that until then he should be held
inviolable.

The amendment of M. CRETON was opposed by M.
ODILON BARROT, and rejected.
The Bourse was more animated, and there was
more business transacted. The Five per Cents.
opened at 95f. 25c., rose to 95f. 30c., and closed at
95f. 25c. The Three per Cents. closed at 57f. 10c.
The New Loan 95f. 15c. Orleans Railroad Shares,
845 f. ; Rouen, 670 f. ; Havre, 268 f. 75c.; Great
Northern, 4701. ; Avignon, 1861. 26c.; Vierzon,
385 f.; Basle, 1411. 25c.; Bordeaux, 397 f.; Paris and
Strasburg, 352 f. 50c. ; Tours and Nantes, 2471. 50c.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, JAN. 21.
Boulogne and Amiens, 9—Central of France (Orleans
and Vierzon), 151 A ex int.—Great Indian Peninsula, 2%
ex int.—Northern of France, 143/4 ex int.—Paris and
Strasbourg, 9—Rouen and Havre, Eni.