The Sun.
London, England, 1834-11-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

In the observations which we previously made on
the Central Criminal Court Act, we confined our-
selves to what we considered its main principle and
its chief merit—viz., the salutary limitation of the ca-
pricious, and too often ignorant, jurisdiction of Ma-
gistrates in the metropolis and its vicinity, by con-
ferring upon a Court, where some one or more of the
superior Judges will always preside, the exclusive cog-
nizance of important crimes. Not only do we approve
of the principle of limiting the jurisdiction of Justices,
as embodied in this Act, but we earnestly wish to see
that wholesome reform in the system of administrative
justice extended beyond the environs of the metropolis,
until it becomes commensurate with the whole realm
of England—not by extending the jurisdiction of the
Central Court further than the present Act extends it
—in that respect we think the Bill goes quite far
enough—but by substituting intelligent and compe-
tent tribunals for the trial of the many classes of im-
portant crimes of which the country Sessions at pre-
sent take cognizance, and which, to be well tried,
ought to be tried before Judges somewhat better
acquainted with the laws and the principles of jus-
tice than country gentlemen, who come from their
rural occupations or rural sports to administer a
code of criminal law, as little read or understood by
them in general, as by the Juries whom they are ex-
pected to instruct. In all trades and professions, ex-
cept that of a Sessional Judge in this country, it is
expected that a man should know something of his
business ; but though law is a science, it is thought
no absurdity that persons whose minds are untouched
by a ray of legal science shall superintend the prac-
tical operation of the laws, of whose principles they
know nothing. We do not believe that country gen-
tlemen in the Commission of the Peace are, as a body,
indisposed to do upright and impartial justice between
man and man, as far as they see and comprehend the
laws by which the dispensation of justice is governed.
In the case of the game laws, indeed, strong feelings
are but too apt to warp their judgment, and prejudice
the case of the accused—and local antipathies and
predilections sometimes exercise an influence over their
reason, of which they are unconscious ; but where no
such feelings work upon the infirmities of human na-
ture, ignorance of the law is the only prolific source
of wrong and error, while the want of the judicial appre-
hension to discriminate between argument and sophistry
—between a point of law and a legal quibble—tends to
make the whole system of rural justice a jumble of con-
tradictions, and brings confusion on all legal principles.
But in this matter the metropolis had no reason to ar-
rogate to itself any superiority over the country. The
Middlesex Magistrates sitting at Clerkenwell Sessions
have shown their minds to be as unencumbered with
any exuberance of legal knowledge, as most of their
rural brethren. We question not the purity of their
intentions, but something more than honest intention
is necessary for the due administration of the laws.
To make the crier of the Court the impersonation of
justice, had, however, the merit of originality ;—to
persevere in defending it even against the Judges of
the land, and in the face of Parliament, evinced an
intrepidity of spirit not easily abashed. If the Clerken-
well Sessions, instead of being " curtailed of its fair
proportions," were to be utterly abolished, there is no
danger of its memory perishing from among men. It
has achieved a fame more lasting, perhaps, than that
which wisdom itself could have obtained for it ;—it is
immortalised by its mistakes. An evening contempo-
rary—the Standard—takes a somewhat different view
of this Central Criminal Courts' Act, from what we
do. That journal considers the provision which the
Bill makes for the prompt and speedy administration of
justice its chief merit beyond all comparison. We give
the passage :
" We believe very few who consider the Metropolis
Criminal Jurisdiction Bill allow the proper weight to what
we esteem infinitely its greatest merits. Men see, and
value, as they ought, the convenience which the Bill affords
to Judges, and Magistrates, and Jurors, and Counsel.
Such convenience is undoubtedly a consideration not to be
disregarded ; but how much greater the fund of benefit
that remains behind—the more certain punishment of the
guilty, by bringing them to trial while the evidence of
their offences is still fresh in memory—before witnesses can
be conveniently tampered with, and while there is less like-
lihood of business or casualty removing them from the
jurisdiction of the Court—the abridgment of the unjust
suffering of the innocent—for every innocent man who is
the object of a criminal charge is an unjust sufferer until
acquitted by the voice of his country. Under the most
favourable circumstances, that is, when he can procure bail,
he suffers in mind and in character,—but in the great ma-
jority of cases he cannot procure bail ; and he suffers, not
only in mind and in character, but in person and in purse ;
or, what is worse, if he has no purse, he suffers in the ina-
bility to provide for an innooent and starving family."
Now, supposing the Bill effected all which the
Standard says it will effect, in regard to the prompt
and speedy administration of the law, that in our opi-
nion would be quite a secondary merit, the chief ex-
cellence being the substitution of a competent tribunal
as to a, great proportion of the cases for one notori-
ously incompetent. To make the law prompt in its
operation without making the tribunal competent,
would not be speedy justice, but rapid injustice. The
more cases that are tried by an ignorant and perverse
Judge, the more mistakes are made and the more
wrongs are committed—good machinery is tho first
thing—judicious working of it is the next. But in
reality the Central Criminal Courts Bill is not calcu-
lated, if in consequence of its adoption winter cir-
cuits are dispensed with, to promote that prompt and
speedy administration of justice which, when not con-
founded with hurry and precipitation, is so desirable. It
only requires a glance at the territorial jurisdiction
given by the Act to the Central Court to see that it
extends over but a small portion of the Home Circuit,
through the whole extent of which the administration
of speedy justice has been effected for several years
past, by the King's Judges holding Winter Assizes in
the several counties of which that circuit consists. Now
it is understood that the Winter Assizes are no longer
to be held. It was so stated at the opening of the
Central Court. Let us see what will be the conse-
quence as to the speedy administration of justice. The
jurisdiction of the Court includes London and Mid-
dlesex, as the Old Bailey jurisdiction did ; and, be-
sides these, it extends to the most populous part of the
county of Surrey. As to Kent and Essex, it reaches
to but a small portion of each ; and as to Hertford and
Sussex, it does not touch them at all. This being the
case, the working of the Bill, by leading to the aboli-
tion of the Winter Circuit, will be, that the prisoners
awaiting their trials in the places not reached by the
Bill, and who were formerly tried in the month of
December, or thereabouts, will have to remain—some
two, some three months longer in prison, before they
can be brought to trial. Thus the goals in the far
greater part of Kent and Essex (for, indeed, the Bill
touches upon but a very small portion of both those
counties)—the gaols also in a considerable portion of
Surrey, and in the whole of Sussex and Hertford,
must remain undelivered for two or three months longer
than would have been the case if no such Bill were
in existence. Is this prompt and speedy justice ?
Why should the rapid operation of the Act, in a small
portion of the Home Circuit, prevent the accustomed
early delivery of gaols throughout the whole of it ? If
some Judges dislike this Winter Assize, that is no rea-
son why " the public should wish to see it abolished."
The Standard also, we think, makes another mistake
in describing this Act, as but a partial application of
the principle of the more comprehensive plan of the
Local Courts Bill. The Local Courts Bill, as the name
implied, was to partition and localize the administra-
tion of justice, and was less of a criminal than a civil
jurisdiction, while the Act in question concentrates in
a single metropolitan Court the business that was pre-
viously distributed to several local jurisdictions. But
there is a greater point of distinction in this, that the
superior Judges are to preside at the Central Court ;
but in the Local Courts justice was to be administered
and the law expounded by inferior Judges, and if they
should be ehosen with as little regard to qualification
as is manifested in the exercise of much of the Govern-
ment patronage, and more especially with regard to the
appointment of stipendiary Magistrates in general, what
confidence could the public have that cheap law would
be as good as it was cheap ? We only throw out this
remark by the way, for we wish law to be cheapened
ther.hufitb)it classes of society, and, indeed, to all
cheapness does not produce an in-
bad law and perverted justice are

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dea; at any price. We must defer some more obser-
vations which we have to make on the Central Courts
Act and its authorship to another opportunity.—
Morning Herald.
Among the foremost signs of a great and power-
ful re-action may be classed the feeling of attach-
ment to the Chinch which pervades all ranks of
his Majesty's subjects—a re-action satisfactorily
demonstrated by the issue of the struggles which
sectarians and infidels have made against " church
rates." When Sir John Campbell was summarily
ejected from Dudley, the liberal friends of Ministers
proclaimed that it was owing to the non-concession
of the modest demands of the Dissenters. Yet was
the church-rate triumphantly carried in that popu-
lous and wealthy town, in utter refutation of the
unsuccessful falsehoods of the enemies of our
admirable Establishment ; and the columns of the
daily press bear ample testimony to similar vic-
tories in other important places. Had the contests
been more numerous the triumphs would have
been in proportion ; but in very few places have
the united forces of the levellers in Church and State
dared to come into the field. At Louth (in Lincoln-
shire,) where, after a most arduons struggle the ene-
mies of the Church gained a temporary success, it is
worth while to mention a few of the means resorted
to by the Dissenters, means which have been severely
handled by our respected Contemporary, the Boston
Herald. The aged and infirm were dragged to the
place appointed for voting. The Wesleyans, who
have, much to their credit, in almost every other place,
supported the Church, lent themselves at Louth (with
few exceptions) to their and our enemies ; while one
member of that community went up and gave the
vote to which he was entitled as the represen-
tive of his deceased father, against the rate, al-
though his father, who then lay unburied, had been
one of its most zealous supporters. The members
of the Church Establishment had been, unfortu-
nately, too confident ; while their enemies had been
silently and stealthily at work. To the credit of the
Churchmen of Louth a Committee was immediately
formed to prevent any inconvenience resulting from
the mischievous decision in question ; and the respect-
able inhabitants of the town came forward in a most
spirited and liberal manner. This is, however, a salu-
tary lesson, and will, we trust, teach the friends of our
admirable and venerable Church Establishment that it
is their duty to be early and late at their posts. The
enemies of religion and order are ever active and stir-
ring, and must be met by that steady union and firm
determination which will, by the blessing of God, en-
able us yet to triumph over those who make up for
their want of talent, weight, and numbers by noisy
clamour and unmeaning pretension ; thus deceiving
many who should be above the reach of such imposture
and delusion.—Morning Post.
That the Catholic religion is -the cause of the dis-
orders of Ireland is a proposition which has of late
been confidently maintained—no doubt but the under-
standing must have been grievously disturbed by heavy
arrears of tithes from Catholic occupiers, into which it
could find an entrance. We are ready to admit that the
relations between the Catholic priests and their flocks
may not be well calculated to heal the existing dis-
orders ; but the cause of the disorders lies far deeper
than religion. No common character belongs to the
different nations professing the Catholic religion.
The Neapolitan, the Lombard, and the Piedmontese,
the Andalusian, the Biscayan, and Catalonian,
the Catholic, German, and Swiss, the Belgian,
the Norman, the Breton, the Provencal, the Bur-
gundian, the Pole, the Irishman—all differ mark-
edly from each other. Government, original race,
climate, nature of the country, laws—all produce
their respective influences ; and though religion has
also its influence, it is but one one of many elements
which go to the formation of national character.
Thus, for instance, the same poverty, miserable state
of living, and vivacity of disposition, are common to
the Presbyterian Gael of Scotland and Catholic Gael
of Ireland, with the language and music. The Ca-
tholic Austrian only differs from the Protestant Swiss,
his neighbour, in retaining somewhat more of the
honesty and primitive simplicity which is a leading
feature of all the Teutonic nations, from the Alps to
the extremity of Sweden and Norway. The peasant
of Venetian Lombardy was characterized by the most
peaceful and industrious habits, while the peasant of
Venetian Dalmatia was turbulent, and hostile to all
improvement. But to multiply instances were end-
less. Professor Pillans, in his evidence before the
Committee on Education, when asked—
" Are you sufficiently acquainted with the state of edu-
cation in the German parts of the dominions of Austria, to
say whether the education there given is an efficient and
good education ?" answers, " Yes, I think it is very good.
I have looked into many books that are published by the
authority of the emperor. I have brought some of them
with me, which appear to me remarkably good, and directed
not to • religion only, but of a kind to imbue the children
with a love of knowledge and a habit of observation—such
as stories and anecdotes, striking facts in natural history, in
physics, and the mechanical arts, and descriptions of objects
of every day occurrence. Some of the books I speak of are
intended for the schools of masters • but it proves that these
are subjects that are taught to the children, because they
teach nothing in the Normal schools which is not meant to
be taught, to a certain extent, to the whole population.
" Are the primary schools of Austria as generally
attended as those in Prussia ?—I should say that they are,
as far as my information goes ; and it may be inferred, from
the fact I have stated, that no man can enter into any situa-
tion of life without having gone through a regular course
of instruction, and qualifying himself to be a good citizen ;
and, therefore, it becomes quite compulsory, even without a
law to that effect." _ _

--- -----
The celebrated historian Muller, himself a Calvinist
and a Swiss, writes thus of Austria to his brother, in
a letter dated in 1793, printed in his Life :
" You cannot conceive how instructive travelling is to
me ; it is my true and best study, that which gives life to
my other studies ; and it is at the same time a commentary
on politics and philosophy, which shows me what is true,
false, and exaggerated, and every people as they are, with
what constitutes their actual happiness. For example, I
have abandoned a number of ideas I had taken up respect..
ing the supposed necessary effect of certain forms of Go-
vernment, and the influence of the (formerly so powerful)
Catholic Clergy, in consequence of my travels in Austria.
I could point out no country in which the peasantry are so
generally enlightened, and in which culture, prosperity, and
joviality of character, so thoroughly delighted me as in
Austria, the inhabitants of which appeared to me every-
thing that they ought to be."
But before the reformation we have a character of
the inhabitants of Germany in general, drawn by one
of the clearest-headed men of any country or age—the
acute and experienced Machiavel in his " Discourses
on Livy." Contrasting the Germans with the Ita-
lians, French, and Spaniards, he says—
" Nothing good is to be hoped from the countries which
in our days are corrupt, which Italy is more particularly,
though France and Spain also retain part of the same cor-
ruption. And if in France and Spain we do not witness
so much disorder as we see in Italy every day, the cause is
not so much to be sought for in the goodness of the people,
which is far from being perfect, as in their having a King
who holds them together, and enforces tolerable order in
these countries. But we see in Germany that the good-
ness and religion of its inhabitants are great ; and hence
many republics live there in freedom, and so observe their
laws that no one dares to disturb them from without or
within. And that this is in a great measure the result of
original goodness of character, will appear from an example
like that which I have given of the Roman Senate and.
people. The republics of Germany, when they have occa-
sion for any expenditure of money on the public account,
the magistrates, or councils in authority, impose one or two
per cent. on the property of each individual. And after
this resolution has been entered into, each individual appears
before those who are commissioned to receive the tax, and
throws into a chest destined for that purpose so much as
according to his conscience he ought to pay ; of which pay-
ment the person who pays is the only evidence. Hence
we may conjecture how great is the goodness and religion
among this people. And there can be little doubt that the
payment is fairly made ; because if it were otherwise, the
amount of the tax would fall short of the estimate framed
according to the previous collections, and thus the fraud
would be discovered, and recourse would be had to another
mode of supplying the wants of the public."
When Benvenuto Cellini crossed the Alps, he was
struck with the orderly and correct behaviour of the
inhabita.nts of Zurich, and the other places of Switzer-
.land and Germany which he entered. We thus ob-
serve, everywhere, before the Reformation, while the
Catholic religion was in full vigour, the same diversity
of national character which now prevails. The causes
of the disorderly condition of Ireland are many. In
the first place, the native population were in the lowest

41-in ti -4-I CI

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1834.

state, in point of civilization, when the English ob-
tained possession of the country. In the next place,
the English conquerors and their descendants were in-
dulged in all manner of frauds and oppressions perpe-
trated against the natives, so that the very name of
Saxon is associated with everything wicked and detest-
able ; and now that the Government is desirous of re-
pairing the injuries of former times, it sees itself in a
great measure impotent. If the north of Ireland is
in a different situation in this respect from the rest of
the country, this is owing to the low lands of that pro-
vince being almost exclusively planted by the Scotch,
a people of nearly the same race with the English,
and differing little in civilization from them ; and, from
their more determined character, better adapted to
manage the Irish than their southern brethren. The
greater harshness of the Scotch in tolerating no Irish-
men beside them, is the cause of their descendants re-
taming the language and usages of their original coun-
try.—/Iforning Chronicle.

We have been accused, but unjustly, of a disposi-
tion to shirk the notice due to the " great" meeting of
Protestants in the county of Down. The accusation
is unfair, because we did enter pretty largely upon the
subject of that (not unimportant) meeting, and made
it the text of some remarks upon that very state of
public feeling in Ireland which our contemporary
charges us with so much anxiety to conceal. Our
censure of the Down meeting was, we hope and trust,
not unreasonable, having for its foundation the obvi-
ous tendency of that concourse of pugnacious Protes-
tants to inflame still more the conflict of adverse
passions amongst the Irish, which has already
frightened away all peace and confidence from the
most deserving portion of that ill-fated people. This
journal did not deny that the bulk of the Down
meeting felt the occasion to be one which justified
all Protestants alive to the security of their lives
and fortunes, and to the undisturbed enjoyment of
their religious rights, in openly demonstrating their
resolution to co-operate with each other in maintaining
their common interests, and in exhibiting, as well as
enforcing, obedience to the authority of the laws. But
at the same time we did not disguise our suspicion,
that the manly sentiments of the great Protestant body
were laid hold of by the chiefs who convened the meet-
ing as instruments for the promotion of their own
factious and selfish views. The speech of Lord Lon-
donderry was not a defence of the Protestant cause
against the threats of Papists, or of loyal Irishmen
against incendiaries and rebels—it was a tirade of
Toryism against Whig Ministers—a mere signal and
rallying point for the meditated expedition against
Whitehall. If no notice was taken in our columns of
Dr. Cook's speech in favour of the church establish-
ment, it was because that Rev. and worthy Presbyte-
rian suggested no fact or topic in his discourse which
could be considered otherwise than familiar to those
who know the state of Ireland. For a whole
generation the Dissenting clergy of that island
have acknowledged the Church for their ally, and
alternately leaned upon it and supported it as a friend.
Whatever in Ireland is not decidedly Popish must be
politically attached to the Protestant establishment.
It is our firm persuasion moreover, and we have before
expressed it, that if in England any danger menaced
the existence of the Church, she would find advocates
among the Dissenters here as well as in the sister
island. However, the Standard will have it, that the
liberal journals " carefully eschew the slightest exhibi-
tion of " Conservative proceedings." If by this it
means that we seldom " report" their proceedings, the
assertion is true enough, because we do not conceive
that the proceedings of those who call themselves Con-
servatives—being, in fact, Conservatives of nothing but
abuses—ought to be regarded as possessing the slightest
degree of sympathy with what is properly the public
opinion. For instance—there was a dinner given a few
days ago at Aberdeen to Captain Gordon, the represen-
tative of that county. The company was composed of
the old Dundas oligarchy and their dependents, and the
sentiments uttered were those of unrepressed animo-
sity against reform and all who had supported it. Is it
from any desire to blink an exhibition of the " na-
tional feelings" that we have not reported the proceed-
ings at this Tory dinner ? What national feeling was
there displayed ? Lord Aberdeen, a member of the
last Tory Cabinet, and certainly for character and
talent one of the most respectable among them, after
declaring a sort of political idolatry of the Duke of
Wellington, announced his deep regret at the Noble
Duke's exclusion from office, and his hope that the
time would soon come when the Noble Duke " would
be again enabled to render those splendid services to
his country—services which had never been equalled."
Now we are quite sure that Lord Aberdeen is in-
capable of giving utterance to any sentiment which
he does not entertain with the most sincere con-
viction, and we quite agree with his Lordship in
acknowledging the splendid services of the Duke
of Wellington, both in the conduct of the British
armies, and in the not less important management
of the internal policy of the empire ; but will
Lord Aberdeen, or the Standard, allege that a
wish to see the Duke of Wellington at the head (not
of the army, but) of the government, is in accordance
with the national feeling ? Lord Aberdeen states, we
may say officially, the eagerness of the Duke of 'Wel-
lington and the Tories to return to office. Now, let
us see what benefits they promise us—what price they
bid for this avowed object of their ambition. There
was another dinner given lately in Glocestershire—
that county where Lord Sherborne complained that
the Conservatives had inveighed the credulous heir
of the House of Dutton, tend bribed him by offers of
future protection, to desert the free banners of his
paternal hall. There was a dinner given to Mr. Cod-
rington at Tewkesbury—a Tory party dinner—for it
is the fashion now-a-days to eat one's way to the Trea-
sury Bench, as well as to the Bar ; and at this feast,
or after it, Lord Ellenborough stood forth, to deliver
his paraphrase upon the Ist chapter of Lord Aber-
deen's discourse to the faithful—and his biddings for
place, which come in the shape of puffs on behalf of Tory
principles, contrasted with abuse of the 'Whigs, are
nearly as follows :—The Tories are to "re-establish
themselves in the confidence of the people," by re-
fusing to readjust the frightful inequalities of church
revenue, as they have already shown their anxiety
for a practical commutation of tithe by rejecting the
Irish Bill of last summer, which had passed the House
of Commons by an immense majority, and would have
saved the clergy of the sister church from their present
desperate and cruel condition. The Tories will dish
up to us everlastingly the prodigious excellence of the
old borough Parliament, as compared with that Par-
liament which the Reform Bill has produced, and
which latter, quoth Lord Ellenborough, has proved it-
self "in almost every respect less competent to the
performance of the only obligation imposed upon it—
viz. that of making good laws." In other words,
the Tory party will march into Downing-street to
that very same patriotic and popular tune to which
the Duke of Wellington marched rather hastily out
of it. Next, they do not promise any Corporation
reform.' They do not promise any perseverance in the
system of Law reform. They will not admit Dis-
senters to the Universities, nor do they promise to
indemnify that body, by chartering an University of
its own. Such are the pledges, affirmative and nega-
tive, whereby the Tories flatter themselves that they
can seduce the people of England to trust once more
to their political guidance. Such are those evidences
of their conformity to " public feeling" which the
zealous but over-sanguine Standard charges the liberal
journals with an inclination to suppress. No ; we in-
vite the Tor:e3—we beseech them—to conform,
if ey
can, to the real sentiments of the nation. We implore
them to bid, in truth and right earnest, for the people
—to abjure their own exploded and irredeemable here-
sies—to go along with the community, whose course
they may for sonic short season embarrass, but which
they cannot effectually, and above all not safely for
themselves, resist. Greatly should we rejoice to find
the able and honourable men of that important party
consent to be in smooth and faithful harmony with the
English nation, and thus to provide their country (as
Lord Castlereagh used to express himself) with " a
second string to her bow." We have now but one,
and that, it must be confessed, has more than once
grated harshly on the public sense of hearing. Times.

The West India Mail has been ordered to be de-
tained till to-morrow evening.