The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Lord Chancellor took occasion, last night, on
presenting a petition, to correct some of the current
• . -misrepresentations of the opinions delivered by hiin on
.- -Tuesday, and which, it appears, were partly misre-
ported. He stated that he had never advocated, or
even contemplated as possible, the abolition of the
Poor Laws., He showed, what with any other adver-
saries than his new foes would be unnecessary, that to
rational, useful charity he had airways been an ardent
friend, and not less a friend because opposed to the
counterfeit which, under her name, under the 'pretence
. . of alleviating misery, actually increases the general
mass, by ill-directed attempts to interfere in par-
ticular instances. He showed that his present
views were not adopted for the occasion, but
thoughts and conclusions . which had been passing
. in his mind for almost a quarter of a century. 'At
the 'same time, he repeated his theoretic disapproba-
tion of systematic compulsory relief of the able-bodied.
He maintained, and there we, as an abstract question
in political economy, think him wrong, that such
, • relief, when formed into a system, had a tendency to
destroy diligence and frugality, and consequently to
... , .
• create more distress than it relieves. In this opinion
-he has many supporters. But. as far as this country is
concerned, the queition whether Lord Brougham, Mr.
-IVialthus, and Mr. Ricardo on one side, or a number
' of other distinguished men and the Poor Law Com-
, -missioners on the other, are right, may be a very suit-
able question for the Political Economy Club, but is
of no practical importance whatever. The right
- • of the able-bodied exists, and will exist, as long.
as our present Constitution continues. A revoln-
-- • tion, indeed, might, and - probably would, extin-
guish it, after:, having, perhaps, as was ' the case iii
France, givens to it previously for a year or two;
a prodigious extension. No human being, except
the sagacious Member for Mary-la-bonne, seri-
. • ously contemplates its abolition, and certainly
• least of all a Man with the practical sense •of Lord
: ..
,Brougham. And it is, perhaps, natural that, while
. endeavouring to improve the existing system, he should
• state his regret that such a system exists. It is one of
the faults of this country and of this time, that almost
- all men, except those of the very highest order of
minds, are actually forced into hypocrisy. And when
one of those very rare cases arises, in which a man
stands forth who will not submit to conceal his senti-
.. Ments, or to say on any subject less than what he
thinks the truth, his friends join in the hunt against
. him with his enemies, proclaiming the imprudence of
his avowals, the danger of saying so mach, and their
~ regret that, while advocating right measures, he should
. have thought it expedient to support them by right
reasons. In this case we think that the reasons, or at
• least that some of them, were not right ; but we do
not the less commend the sincerity and manliness with
which they were put forth, and we do not the less
despise the gross falsehood with which they have been
exaggerated, and turned against the Bill. We say
. thus much with the less scruple, because we have
decidedly expressed our own opinions when at variance
with those of Lord. Brougham on this subject.—
Morning Chronicle.
One of the many bad consequences, and that not
,the least, of persisting in the barbarous and revolting
practice of flogging in the army, is the sympathy
which it arouses in favour both of the crime and the
criminal ; so that one of the greatest scoundrels in the
service may, by these very means, be raised almost to
'the honours of martyrdom. Besides, in the particular
case which at present excites the public attention,
what better proof can we have of the inutility of this
'mode of punishment as a means of prevention, than
.this fact, that the individual in question had already
been punished 40 times ? We cannot see how the
. 'proper authorities can justify to themselves the keep-
ing such a man in the regiment at all, unless it be
. pour encourager les autres. One-fourth the number
of punishments here alluded to must, we should think,
point any man out as utterly incorrigible, and as a
moral pestilence with which no regiment ought to be
infected. To drum such a man out of a regiment
. might, perhaps, be playing his game ; yet some scale
'of secondary punishments might, we should think, be
'found for such offenders, though we doubt whether a
profession, priding itself upon its high sense of honour,
• -ought to allow of any one remaining in its ranks in
'whom all sense of honour would seem to be obliterated.
.There were formerly what were termed " condemned
' 'reiments," to which men of desperate and depraved
characters used to be sent. We do not know whe-
.. ther any such modes Of . secondary punishment now
exist. As capable of much abuse, we doubt whether
• we should be advocates for them ; though if transpor-
tation be considered a fit punishment for civil offences,
we do not see why military offences of a corresponding
-mag,nitude should not meet with a corresponding pu-
nishment. . At any rate, how debasing the mind by
• : ' debasing the body can tend to sustain the character of
"the 'British army on the proud pinnacle to which it
,has attained, we are at a loss to conceive. Nor is it
'altogether unworthy of remark, that this inhuman and
anomalous treatment of the human body occurs at a
periOd when a highly-creditable, but still an almost
morbid sympathy exists in the public mind with re-
gard to cruelties, either real or supposed, inflicted upon
the- brute creation. For the protection of the very
.. " lowest of the race of animals there are Societies exist-
ing in this metropolis, with agents constantly at work
to carry their humane views into effect, and is it not a
little too much to know that, while every weal upon the
side of a horse or an Ass is regulated by the standard
Of Martin's Act, the human body can be flayed be-
yond endurance, and that by the standard of surgical
inspection ? And again, we say, that to render the
crime and the criminal objects of sympathy is not the
way 'to repress the one or to reform the other.-
--- -Morning Herald.
The Lord Chancellor. complained last night of his
-opinions and arguments in support of the Poor Law
- Bill having been misrepresented. These opinions
and arguments he attempted to explain, but we
confess our inability
.to understand the explana-
tion of the Noble and Learned Lord when viewed in
connection with his complaint. His Lordship first
:seems to consider himself injured by the imputa-
Stion.that he is the enemy of public hospitals, and
forthwith proceeds 'to proclaim himself the enemy
of all charitable funds or endowments of whatever
description upon the assistance of which the poor
can be expected to place any . dependence. We
can only Ulfer from this strange inconsistency that
the Noble and Learned Lord does not quite un-
. derstand what his own opinions are. His Lord-
ship says distinctly that labourers, while in health,
'should lay by the means of providing, for theniselves
Medical assistance, when sickness shall overtake them,
and that institutions which obviate this necessity, or
which are calculated to make the labouring classes in
any degree less mindful of it, are mischievous. This
opinion may be right or wrong. It is a question which
we do not now discuss. But it is quite clear that the
man who holds it has not much reason to complain
that he is described as the opponent of public hos-
pitals. lhe truth seems to be that the Noble and
Learned Lord cannot bring himself to renounce either
the Malthusian theories, which can never be popular
in any country, or the popularity which he knows to
be inseparable from the support of those chiritable in-
stitutions ' 'which the Malthusian theories decidedly
condemn.---Morning Post.
. We do not again willingly revert to the painful sub-
ject of the cruel torture of the private Hutchinson, who
Nira,. according to the articles of war, so barbarously
tieated ten days ago ; but feeling must be sacrificed to
duty, and our duty tells us that the case must not be
allowed to sleep, lest the result aimed at by its ex-
posure should not be realized. In a word, then, all
:the reports which have reached us set at defiance the
Statements so plausibly made by Sir M. W. Ridley
in favour of his relative, Colonel Bowater. They
cast no reflection upon the latter, but they represent
the; victim of the punishment inflicted under his eye as
an intelligent and an inoffensive man—as well-educated
and unielsally beloved in the regiment—as being
occasiortarrpaddicted to drinking, but being guiltless
of. any abet. vice. Was flogging, we ask, even if
flogging . wet an allowable punishment, the proper
- ,-,punishment Kfsuch a man ? Would not the depri-
'''', 4vation of a p.. •.n of his pay-7-or solitary confinement
~.....%.'—or...,but '..i't ers do not now-a-days condescend to

talk to or to exhort their men—a sound lecture—have
operated a more beneficial result ? The case of Hen-
derson or Hutchinson, however, we fear is not singular.
•We have heard, but we do not vouch for the fact, that
two similar scenes have since occurred in Windsor or its
neighbourhood, and that two privates of the 3rd Cold-
stream Guards have been subjected to the infliction of
no fewer than 200 lashes without intermission I We
pity the poor fellows, whatever may have been their
crime ; but were it possible to mingle gladness with our
pity, we should say that we rejoice at the infliction as
an additional aid in behalf of the just cause—a cause
which is that of humanity as opposed to cruelty—of
civilization as against barbarism—of wisdom as op-
posed to ignorance—and which must triumph, be its
opponents who they may.—Morning Advertiser.

Qne week Mr. O'Connell voluntarily signs a paper,
,pressing Lord Althorp to remain in office, and pro-
mising his support to any Ministry of which he should
be a Member. The next week he writes a furious
epistle to the people of Nottingham, dissuading them
from returning Lord Althorp's chosen colleague to
Parliament, and be makes a motion, denouncing as
corrupt another Member of the Cabinet which Lord
Althorp's continuance in office has enabled the King
to re-construct. • He, at the same time, announces a
pertinacious opposition to the only two important Go-
vernment Bills now before Parliament. Is this sup-
port ? If so, what is opposition ?—Morn. Advertiser.
The proceedings at Nottingham are of so violent a
nature, that we confess ourselves unable to understand
what can be the moving cause of a fury almost unpa-
ralleled in English elections. We can easily imagine
that objections may exist to Sir J. C. Hobhouse, on
the ground of his being a member of the present Ad-
ministration, but that circumstance alone cannot ac-
count for the mad rage exhibited against him, while
his personal character, at once amiable and respectable,
renders these expressions of popular aversion still more
inexplicable. The scene is altogether as disgraceful
as it is unintelligible. It is not rational, nor just, nor
even human, to drown all his attempts to defend himself,
with savage yells and outrageous uproar.—Times.