The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-23 00:00:00

though there could be no possible doubt as to their
moral guilt.

In the part!culer cece now under notice the pri-
soner, a cib-driver, was indicted for ba,ing stolen
10/. in gold from the person of a sailor named
JOHN TuOMAS. It appeared that the prosecutor,
a sailor, on being paid off from his ship at Southamp-
ton, had received 27/. in sovereigns and half-sove•
reigns. He forthwith started for London with his
hard-earned wealth. On his arrival he got into the
prisoner's cab and was driven about in various direc-
tions, stopping from time to time at different public-
houses, and treating his guide and companion to
drink. At length the prisoner handed two women
into the cab, but the prosecutor, suspecting that the
intention was to rob him " capsized them out," and
shut the door. After he had got rid of his fair
visitors, he counted his money, and found it all
correct. The prisoner subsequently got into the cab,
having previously given his badge to a third party,
who got on the box to drive in his place. After he
had ridden a little distance he fell forward on the
prosecutor, who distinctly swore that he felt the pri-
soner's hand in his waistcoat pocket, where he had
placed his money. On stopping shortly afterwards
he found that 10/. of his money was gone, while his
faithful guide and friend, who had previously re-
ceived 7s. 6d. and 103. for his fares, vociferously de-
manded a further payment. This was, however,
demurred to, for honest Jack, although he bad
imbibed a considerable quantity of liquids, thought
his trip had been sufficiently expensive. During the
altercation, a policeman came up, and took the
number of the cab. The prisoner was eventually given
into custody, and committed to stand his trial for the
robbery.

On cross-examination, the prosecutor declared that
he could not say whether the money lost was
all in sovereigns, or all in half-sovereigns, or part in
one and part in the other. He was, in fact, utterly
unable to swear to the particular coins he had lost.
The Learned Counsel for the prisoner thereupon sub-
mitted, on the authority of the QUEEN v. BOND (4
DENISON'S " Criminal Cases"), that there must be an
acquittal, as it was there held by the judges, with
one dissentient, that it was necessary that the iden-
tical value of the coin lost should be established in
evidence. After some discussion, the Learned Ser-
geant reluctantly felt compelled to allow the objec-
tion, and an acquittal was accordingly taken under
his direction.

As the Learned Counsel for the prisoner declared
that he had a full answer to the charge independent
of the technical point, it is possible that there may
have been no failure of justice, and that the party
was innocent of the offence imputed to him. But,
whether innocent or guilty, the result would have
been the same ; even if the case had been brought
home to him by the clearest and most irresistible
testimony, he must still have escaped from the penal
consequences of his offence.
It was said that Lord CAMPBELL so clearly per-
ceived the impropriety of the law established by
the decision in the case of the QUEEN V.
BOND, above referred to, that he introduced
a Bill into the House of Lords with a view to its
amendment. We trust that the measure thus brought
forward will be of an enlarged and comprehensive
character, striking at the root of all such evils. It
was, as we have recently seen, by a very narrow ma-
jority of the judges that the ingenious point raised on
behalf of the BIRDS was not ruled in their favour,
and we believe that there is at this moment a strong
opinion in Westminster Hall that the minority
adduced the most powerful reasons on be-
half of the opinions they arrived at. It
is acknowledged on every side that the disputed
point should be set at rest by speedy legislation on
the subject, and the Bill for that purpose has already
passed through several of its stages. Again, the
SLOANES could only be convicted of a common
assault in consequence of the counts containing the
more serious charges being successfully objected to.
A Bill was rendered necessary on that account,
which was passed through the House of Com-
mons ; and now we find another case requir-
ing legislation, which we suppose will be
brought forward as a separate measure. But
why should there be this piecemeal work ? Why
not comprise all the evils so justly complained of in
one general Bill ? We are quite aware of the great
difficulty of the task, but we believe it to be practica-
ble, and we would therefore urge on the Government
the propriety of forthwith entering upon the arduous
and important duty of revising and amending the
criminal law of the land, so that no weight may be
attached to those technical objections which enable
the guilty to escape, without affording any protection
to the innocent.

Recently the public attention has been directed
again to the subject of education by a correspondence
of considerable interest between two of our most dis-

tinguished publishing houses and the head of her
MAJESTY'S Government. Unfortunately, however,
on the present occasion, as in so many previous in-
stances, the inquiry set on foot only discloses the cul-
pability of our administrators in their mode of pro-
moting this great cause of social improvement. Instead
of striving by every legitimate means to forward the
noblest of all reforms—the reform which would tend
to diffuse the principles of morality by disseminating
the wholesome truths of knowledge, the Ministers of
the Crown have, it appears, in the case in question,
been interfering directly and most unnecessarily in
the rights of publishers, thereby subversing the pri-
vileges of property, and marring the interests of pri-
vate individuals, while inflicting injury at once upon
the scholars of England, and upon the mass of the
population. For the exposure of this evil we have
reason to be thankful to the Messrs. LONGMAN and
Company, of Paternoster-row, and to Mr. Joust
MURRAY, of Albemarle-street, who have together
communicated to the First Lord of the Treasury
their ideas upon this subject. From this inter-
esting correspondence the public may obtain a
clear impression of the position in which
the book traders of London, especially, are
placed by the issue of elementary works for the use
of schools from the Government establishment in Ire-
land, where these instruments of instruction are manu-
factured in large numbers, and thence distributed
throughout that island, and introduced in consider-
' able quantities into the sister country. By this
causeless and shameless arrangement the interests of
our metropolitan publishers are manifestly interfered
with, and, as obviously from the circumstance of the
books referred to being produced, by irresponsible per-
sons, the character of the general system of
tuition is materially injured. A merely
cursory glance through the letters which have
passed between Lord JoHN RUSSELL and the eminent
houses already mentioned will be sufficient to satisfy
any one of the force of the arguments advanced by
the Messrs. LONGMAN and Mr. MURRAY. From
this straightforward and conscientious statement, it
will be seen that the regular trade is placed at a ma-
nifest disadvantage, by the circumstance of the
Government being enabled to undersell the book-
sellers. Interfering as this does with the conduct of
private enterprise, it most assuredly justifies the epi-
thets applied to it by the objectors—namely, those
of being not only " unjust" but " impolitic." The
disgrace of the proceedings complained of, moreover,
lies above all most heavily indeed upon a Cabinet
founded upon the principles of free trade and
pledged to maintain those principles in their entirety
and in all available instances to their very uttermost.
Nothing could more clearly or more syllogistically
demonstrate the cruelty and harshness of this pro-
ceeding on the part of the Imperial Government, than
the consideration dwelt upon in the very preamble of
the correspondence, to the effect that while the State
taxes the bookseller very heavily, it simultaneously
contrives to undersell him by employing against him,
in this flagrant manner, those very instruments of
taxation. Inferentially, also, it must be apparent that
i tuhd 0., Another the injury inflicted on the publishers comes
also an injury to the interests and rights of the mul-
our consideration in regard to the official manufac-
in Ireland,Aer reflection forces itself again upon
ture of school books at the educational establishment
namely, the thought that these books ac-
tually cost more in their production than
the books Printed by the regular booksellers,
and that being, nevertheless, issued at a loss, from
being sold at a
most unremunerative price, the
people must necessarily
have to pay " through the
nose" by making up the necessary difference. Toge-
ther with these very emphatic representations comes