The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-01 00:00:00

SUN, LONDON,

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, OCTOBER 1.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
59—highest since noon yesterday.
47—lowest this morning and during the night.
53—this day, at noon.
BAROMETER, 29.18.
WurD S.S.W.—heavy gales, with rain occasionally.

TO CORRESPONDENTS
No communication can be attended to unless authen.
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Rejected communications cannot bo returned.

~enintt gnu
LONDON, WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 1, 1851.

Some years since the commander of one of her MA-
JESTY'S ships of war, when stationed in Cork harbour,
ordered his men to load their guns and prepare for
action. The men were astonished at the extraordi-
nary direction. The instinct of obedience was, how-
ever, too strong, and the consequences of a refusal too
formidable to demur. The cannon were duly charged
and pointed against the principal buildings of
Queen's-town, then known by the name of Cove,
and the trembling seamen were standing in
momentary expectation of being obliged to fire
on their countrymen, and to lay what had been
a flourishing town in a heap of ruins. Fortunately,
the first lieutenant was a man of energy and decision.
He saw the melancholy condition of his superior
officer, and braving all charges of mutiny or insubor-
dination, be had his commander placed in durance
until the state of his mind could be investigated.
The result may be easily anticipated. The captain
was placed under medical care, and the promptitude
and resolution of the lieutenant saved the loss of many
valuable lives and of an enormous amount of property
by the hands of those who were entrusted
with the protection of both. Had it been
otherwise, the consequences might indeed have been
of the most heartrending description. A large dis-
cretion was entrusted to the hands of a servant of the
SOVEREIGN, who, while in full possession of his
faculties, was perfectly competent to the faithful and
efficient discharge of the duties confided to his hands.
An aberration of intellect, however, rendered him in-
capable for a time, and the extensive powers which,
under ordinery circumstances, might have been ex-
ercised with credit to himself and advantage to the
public, would have been perverted to a fearful extent.
We may in charity hope that the Learned Judge of
the Liverpool County Court, to whose extraordinary
conduct towards Mr. WilerTy, the respected proprietor
of the Liverpool Journal, we yesterday directed the
public attention, has been suffering under some tem-
porary hallucination, or he never could have allowed
himself to pursue a course so strange, so utterly un-
precedented ; to distort the words of a very beneficial
Ant of Parliament to such an extent as to render
himself a despot, having full control over the liberties
of his fellow-citizens, to disregard the safeguards
which the law flings over the humblest subject of this
realm, and to conduct himself in a manner more
befitting an Eastern cedi than an English judge. The
facts of the case bear an almost ludicrous aspect, but,
unfortunately, a closer consideration will present them
in a very different point of view.
In the first place, we find an educated gentleman, the
member of a learned and honourable profession—a
man who must have attained some degree of respec-
tability in that profession, or he never would have
been selected to fill such an office as Judge of the
Liverpool County Court—rendering himself ridi-
culous, a laughing-stock to all who do not feel too
deeply at the painful and melancholy exhibition to
indulge in any unseemly mirth. He has but too
clearly forgotten himself, to give vent to that which,
for all parties, unhappily is not an impotent resent-
ment. Disregarding the future consequences of his
acts, he hes converted the Bench of Justice into a
very Billingsgate—has exhibited passions which
should at all times be kept under control—but which
should especially be kept down while acting in a judi-
cial capacity. He has railed from the judgment-seat,
ground his teeth with passion, and indulged in coarse
invective against the party then before him, whose
situation, however, was far more enviable than that
of his " Learned Judge."
Unfortunately, however, there was no subordinate
officer ready or willing to take upon himself the respon-
sibility of neutralising the evils arising from the strange
and (hut on one ground) incomprehensible proceed-
ings of his superior. Mr. `WITTY, a highly respect-
able gentleman has been torn from his family and
friends, from his ardnous and important avocations as
editor of a provincial journal of high rank (we speak
without any private feeling, but merely from the re-
cognised position cf the paper), and he has been
sent to suffer imprisonment with felons and misde-
meanants without the slightest pretext of legality,
or what could for a moment induce any person
having legal experience, and who was not labouring
under some visitation of PROVIDENCE, to suppose that
he had a jurisdiction so extraordinary. Of course
Mr. WITTY cannot long be continued in this unto-
ward and unjustifiable position. 'We know little of
Sir GEORGE GREY if such a transaction could be
sanctioned for a single hour after the facts had come
to his knowledge, without every effort being made to
repair the mischief that had been occasioned. Of
course the many influential men who sympathise
with Mr. \%HITTY in his unmerited sufferings—and
their name is legion—will hasten to prefer their
complaints at the Home-office, and to demand
immediate redress and the instant discharge of the
victim. It is fitting that they should do so, and we
know none who would not co-operate in such a
cause. But we hope and believe that it will be un-
necessary, and that the simple narration of the facts
will be amply sufficient to insure the immediate re-
mission of the fines and the discharge of Mr. Wham
from incarceration.

Although the legal point lies in a nutshell,
it may be interesting to our readers to see the
provisions of the statute on which Mr. RAM-
SHAY professed to found his judgment. It will
be recollected that he inflicted three different sets of
penalties-Ist, for insulting the Judge while going
to the Court, by causing a placard containing the
announcement of the publication of the Liverpool
Journal, in which was a line to this effect, "Mr.
RAMSITAY'S opinion of the people of Liverpool," to be
posted in the vicinity of the court ; 2dly, two
separate penalties—each imprisonment for seven
days in Lancaster Castle, the one to commence
at the expiration of the other—for insulting two
bailiffs of the court ; and 3rdly, two separate penal-
ties of 51. for assaulting the same two bailiffs while in
execution of their duty. Now, the enactments ap-
plicable to these alleged offences are contained in the
9th and 10th Vic., c. 95, secs. 113 and 114, which we
transcribe verbatim, in order that there may not be
the possibility of mistake :--
" And be it enacted, that if
any person shall wilfully
insult the judge or any juror,
officer of the said court, for the rtimaneybbriff,
the pro-
court,
sitting or attendance in court, or in his
clerk, or
goiengng, dtourrreturn-
ing from the court, or shall wilfully interrupt
ceedings of the court, or otherwise misbehaveP
it shall be lawful for any bailiff or officer of tlan
with or without the assistance of any other person, by
the order of the judge, to take such offender ir,to Cub-
tody, and detain him until the rising of the court; and
the judge shall be empowered, if he shall think fit, Issr a
warrant under his hand, and sealed with the seal of the
court, to commit any such offender to any prison to which
he has power to commit offenders under this Act, for
any time not exceeding seven days, or to impose upon
any such offender a fine not exceeding five pounds for
every such offence, and in default of payment thereof to
commit the offender to any such prison as aforesaid for
any time not exceeding seven days, unless the said fine
be sooner paid.
" And be it enacted, that if any officer or bailiff of
any court holden under this Act shall be assaulted while
in the execution of his duty, or if any rescue shall be
made or attempted to be made of any goods levied un-
der Process of the court, the person so ()ff.:riding shall be
of the court or
liablipl to a tine not exceeding five pounds, to be recovered
groe!tr of the Court, or before a justice of the peac., as
I utter provid d • d it shall be lawful for the bailiff
the offender into
bring hiraany ° peacear' officer in any such case to take
ocustody (with or without warrant), and
moment be assertednt
-Now, inbeforereiastt.ich court or justice accordingly_"
the publication of the to the first fine, can it for a
13t the mere announcement of
ex-
pression being containeduinrntah/ ne
p placard,
c offensiveard,
could
o u
lvid obred
looked o r e x .
upon as " an insult to the •
Judge during his sitting or

attendance in the court, or in going to or returning
from the court," within the spirit or meaning of '
the Act ? It is manifest that the intention of the Le-
gislature was to afford a direct and summary method
of vindicating the authority of the newly-created
tribunals from any gross physical violence. For
any criticism or notice on the proceedings, for
any written attack on the judge or other officer, not
personally addressed to him, while "in," "going
to," or "returning from court," there is an-
other remedy. Hence the first alleged of-
fence—the foundation of all the subsequent pro-
ceedings—did not come within the purview of the
statute, and the conviction and fine was wholly un-
warrantable. 2dly. For the insult to the bailiffs,
for which the two terms of seven days' imprisonment
each were adjudged, it will be seen that
these could, in like manner, only be in-
flicted for wilful insult " during their sitting or
attendance in the court, or in going to or returning
from the court." But the alleged insult took place
in the office of Mr. WHITTY, where the bailiffs, being
without warrants, were mere trespassers. These
penalties were, therefore, clearly illegal, and we take
it for granted would appear so on the face of the
warrant. 3dly. The bailiffs, when the supposed assault
was said to have taken place, were not in the execu-
tion of their duty. As we have already said, they
were trespassers, having no means of showing their
authority. It is manifest that the " order" should
have been in writing, for the only section that gives
a right of apprehension " with or without warrant"
is the 114th, and that relates to a previous assault
committed while the parties are in execution of their
duty. It is therefore evident that every one of the
convictions are illegal.
The first step to be taken, then, is to obtain the
immediate liberation of Mr. WurrTy, and then it
may be ascertained what course may be essential to
prevent any further abuse of authority, and to vindi-
cate the majesty of the law from the contempt into
which it has been brought by the strange conduct of
one of its chosen administrators.

Journalism in France looks with envy on that
picture of the social prosperity and political tranquil-
lity of England recently painted in such alluring
colours by Viscount PALMERSTON. Beautiful, heroic,
ambitious, the land of the Franks is still felt by its
children to be the abode of uncertainties fraught with
many grievous misfortunes. Citizens of a republic
yet in its infancy, they know themselves to be liable
even now, among other calamities, to the perils of a
perennial, or et any rate of a perpetually recurring
revolution. Hence it is that, with all their sense of
their own magnificent capacities as a nation, they
continue to regard with eyes of envy the permanent
quiescence and increasing happiness secured to the
British Islands by their Constitution. From the
memorable days which preceded their first and greatest
effort at self-emancipation this generous and appre-
ciative view of our insular system of government has
been conspicuously demonstrated. Under the Direc-
tory this preference evinced by our neighbours mani-
fested itself in mode so peculiarly remarkable as to
obtain for itself the designation of Anglomaaia. It
survived all the embittering remembrances of that
violent and most momentous struggle which closed
only with the restoration of the ancient dynasty,
when Europe in arms and at the gates of Paris ex-
torted from NAPOLEON two successive abdications.
Jealousies of a thousand different kinds have failed
to estrange the two most powerful races in Christen-
dom from entertaining sentiments with regard to
each other of mutual admiration. They have sedu-
lously preserved those sentiments in spite of every
opposing circumstance. They have watched with
equal earnestness the progress of their common de-
velopment, and this we maintain—though satirists
might aver to the contrary—with emotions of
a nobler description than those of a merely
petulant rivalry. Hence those testimonies of
confidence which have of late years gladdened the
hearts of our statesmen, and elevated the anticipations
of our philanthropists. When England resigned to
the compunctious entreaties, and we might almost
call it the posthumous loyalty of France, the ashes of
the wonderful hero whose downfall we had completed
by captivity, the existence of this fraternal sympathy
between the nations was rendered, we conceive, suffi-
ciently apparent. It was rendered apparent, more-
over, by those friendly interchanges of civilities which
took Queen VICTORIA to the Chateau d'Eu and
brought King Louts Pniurre to the responsive
hospitalities of Windsor. Not lass visibly was it
displayed, likewise, in the subsequent visits paid by
the French National Guards to our capital and by
the English excursionists to the sister metropolis,
visits, which, as it were, connected together a republic
and a monarchy, while it added the strength arising
from a popular alliance to the vigour previously im-
parted by the influences of diplomatic cordiality.
Within the limits of the past summer we have wit-
nessed the results of these propitious incidents in the
reception respectively accorded at the Hotel de Ville
to the London Corporation, and at the Mansion House
to the Parisian Commissioners. Our enumeration of
these very gratifying occurrences must be attributed
to the emotions of mingled pain and satisfaction with
which we have perused the commentaries of our con-
temporaries across the Channel upon the speech re-
cently delivered el his constituents at Tiverton by
her MAJESTY'S Foreign Secretary—pain at their re-
gretful comparison of the two countries in reference
to their political situation—satisfaction at the new
and honourable evidence afforded of their laten t
homage for our institutions.
Alluding in dignified terms to the oration of Lord
PALMEESTON, the Journal des D aces endeavours,
and not unsuccessfully, to explain in regard to France
the reason why, with all her sublime struggles to ar-
rive at the prosperous tranquillity enjoyed in England
the former has still proved, in defiance of every effort'
so very lamentably unsuccessful. Unnecessary as
explanations of the nature implied may be to the re-
reflective student in modern and unichwval history,
they are, nevertheless, judicious as reminders ad-
dressed to the general population, demonstrating, as
they do, with peculiar vividness, the causes of the un-
settled condition of the French as a community. Re-
volution, with the unthinking, has been long regarded
as the essential element of the multitude in France,
simply in consequence of their supposed fickleness as
a population. Different, however, marvellously diffe-
rent, is the estimate formed of our neighbours by
those who are in any way familiar with the facts nar-
rated during the last ten centuries by the more truth-
ful among her annalists. According to their evidence
it has been recognised that the present situation of
their fellow-countrymen is traceable to no eccentricity
or volatility of temperament, but rather to the inevit-
able influences of a thousand years of arbitrary go-
vernment. Whereas, with ourselves, a free Consti
tution has gradually risen out of the requirements of
successive generations of reformers, growing up almost
imperceptibly under the most natural and invigo-
rating auspices, with our neighbours it was altogether
otherwise, the effete but stubborn tyranny engendered
by the principles of feudalism having been at one
memorable epoch abruptly destroyed by an outburst
of popular indignation, the machinery of the state
broken to pieces, the incubus of the throne having
been replaced by the yet more terrible incubus of
the guillotine. Since that first and tremendous ex-
plosion of national fury—that explosion which
subverted not only the pomps of royalty,
but the altars of religion—France has been striving
endeavours to
foundations of a
reconstruct the
bfcayi
fabric
serieseod
f o
thea
age,fsublime and e,
to t e
u p
from
the fane of a new constitu-
tion. her efforts in this direction, and those imita-
st
build
imita-
tive efforts which have also agitated the rest of the
nations of the Continent, provoking the celebrated
sarcasm of a wit notiong deceased—" Make a consti-
tution, forsooth! You might as well attempt to ma-
nufacture a tree I"—have unhappily proved throughout
the source merely of very destructive commotions.
Impatient at the want of some stable and energetic,
yet liberal and generous, system of administration,
the people of France have alternated from one project
to another, testing in turns the advantages derivable
from one or other of the various and contrasting
forms of government. A Triumvirate
of the axe
under COUTHON, ST. JUST, and ROBESPIERRE ; a
Triumvirate of the sword and the pen united under
BONAPARTE, Ducos, and SIETEB ; a Directory under
BARRAS, REWBELL, CARNOT, LARREVELLIERE LE-
FAUX, and LETOURNEUR ; a Consulate ; an Empire ; a
Monarchy under the elder branch of the ancient dy-
nasty; a Monarchy under the younger branch or

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