The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-10 00:00:00

sooner he hides his=head -and- retires into private life
the better. His sun -is- just -MR' -under a clatid, Tor
even the Tories; however they may hug the treason,
must detest the traitor ; while Whig and Radical
cannot fail to hold him in the same execration.

Tt would require something more than usual gravity,
and the iron muscle of the Duke of WELLINGTON to
assert that more blood had been shed during the last
three years than during all the administrations since
Lord GEORGE GORDON'S riots, and attribute this to
Earl GREY'S Government. In the year 1831, riots
took place at Derby, Nottingham, and Bristol ; and
what gave rise to them ? Not the character or
the conduct of Earl GREY'S Administration, but
the madness of a party who were driven from
their places in 1830, by the dread of universal
riot, who roused the people to resistance by with-
holding reform, and goaded them to madness by snatch-
ing from them, when just within their reach, the great
object of their wishes. It cannot be denied that the
fool-hardy conduct of one of the party kindled the
flames of Bristol, and the treatment of his tenantry
by another led to the rising at Nottingham.
To charge the late Government with the crime of
shedding unnecessary blood, is of all charges the
most unmerited and most unjust ; for of all the vast
improvements which they have introduced—of all the
benefits which they have conferred on the country—
there is not one for which the people of England are
more grateful, and on which they are more united in
their applause, than the mercy which they have shown
towards the people, and their reluctance to inflict on
criminals the last penalty of the law. Why,
since Lord GEORGE GORDON'S riots, more
judicial murders have been committed, and more blood
shed on the scaffold during the reign of the Tories
than in all the riots not only that took place in 1831,
but we might almost say during the 50 years that
have intervened between that period and the present
year. In 1821 not less than 114 persons were exe-
cuted in England and Wales, and 29 of these in London
alone. The number executed in 1832, the last year in
which we have complete returns, was 54, and 16 of these
were for a crime but little known till the Wellington reign
in 1829-30, setting fire to stacks and farm-houses. In
London the number executed in the same year was 6,
and during the last year only 2. The average executed
in England and Wales during the seven years ending
with 1827 was 170. In 1832, the year too in
which these rioters were executed, it amounted only
to 54, making a difference of 16 in one year,
and in seven years a difference of 112 persons.
and if ;Ave carry back the calculation to the period of
Lord GEORGE G ORDON'S riots, the difference would
amount to 864, all of whom would have been rescued
from death by those very men who are charged with
the crime of shedding blood. We appeal to these
facts, and leave the country to judge whether the
Tories or the Whigs deserve the praise for clemency
and humanity.

In the House of Commons, last night, the Central
Criminal Courts Bill was read a third time, and passed.
No alteration was proposed, except a clause by Mr.
ROTCH, to the effect that any additional expenses
incurred under the Act, should not so fall on the
county of Middlesex, as to create a liability to an in-
crease of rate, and that the Bill should not come
into operation before the 31st of October,—which
was at once agreed to. Looking around on the
wretched state of our criminal law, and on
the still more wretched manner in which it
is administered—marking the discrepancies which
prevail between our recklessness of life and care
of property —we are struck with astonishment
that such a measure is only being carried into opera-
tion, in London, in the nineteenth century. 'Who
that has attended for a single day in the Courts of
Justice in 'Westminster Hall—who has seen the
Judges robed and ermined, attended by a troop of
Counsel, sitting with all the solemnity of gods, to
decide upon the right to the possession of a piece
of parchment, or an old ruin—could conceive that
in the same country, at the 'very same hour, men
were being tried for their lives in some solitary lane,
or alley, by persons neither vested with the insignia
nor acquainted with the rudiments of legal know-
ledge. And yet this was a spectacle of such daily
occurrence that the heart was seared against the
horrid impression which it conveyed of our national
character.

The immediate effect of this Bill will be the
sweeping away of all the Criminal Courts in the
vicinity of London, where crimes were formerly
tried at the quarter or half-yearly sessions before the
Magistrates, and concentrating all criminal adjudica-
tion, in and about London, in one great Court at the
Old Bailey, where the .Judges of the land will pre-
side. The jurisdiction of this central Court will ex-
tend to the greater part of the counties of Middlesex,
Surrey, and Kent ; so that a criminal will be no
longer able to evade detection or delay punishment
by crossing the River, or running from one jurisdic-
tion to another, after the old fashion. Neither will
the disgraceful spectacle be presented of men sitting
in judgment on the lives of their fellow-creatures, who
might be supposed to be influenced by personal feel-
ings ; or, what is still worse, the disgraceful exhibi-
tion of scenes calculated to show that property alone
is protected by the laws of England. In the new
Central Criminal Court, the Judges, and not the
Magistracy, will preside ; and whatever may
be the sentence, the criminal will at least know
that he has had a fair trial according to
the laws of his country, and that his sentence
was not pronounced by an individual under the influ-
ence of feelings of personal enmity. The delay which
hitherto attended sessional trials will be put all end to,
by which the country will be saved the expense of
supporting whole jails-full of legal offenders for pe-
riods of from two to six months previous to the
holding of the half-yearly Sessions. This is one
of the greatest boons that could be conferred
on the inhabitants of London, not so much
from the saving of expense, as from a convic-
tion of the fact that a man six months impri-
soned for any offence before trial, has only his fate
anticipated by being sentenced to the gallows. Under
this Bill there will be no more of this ; the people will
have cheap, impartial, and speedy justice. We
are grateful to the LORD CHANCELLOR for having
introduced so wise a measure, and to the Legislature
for having passed it.

We foretold what would be the result of the mad
attempts of the Tories to get up meetings in Scot-
land against the appropriation of the surplus Irish
tithes. Any person indeed who knew the people
must have known that no task ever could be more
hopeless. We gave yesterday an account of a

meeting in Berwickshire, at which ttie- Tories,
like Baal, icing of - Moab, tailed- on the
people to curse the Government, and, like
BALAAM, the people blessed them altogether. An-
other meeting has been held at Banff, at which the
electors and householders came to the unanimous re-
solution—that they approved of the Irish Commission,
and that, if the revenues of the Irish Church were
more than adequate for the supply of the spiritual
wants of the people, the Legislature should judge of
the appropriation of the surplus. So much for the
assistance Mr. STANLEY may expect from Scotland.

The French Papers of Monday are nearly, if not
quite, destitute of interest. Accounts from Madrid
mention that the cholera has not yet made its appear-
ance there, though
great alarm still continued to be
felt ; and that, it was feared that RODIL would not
be able to subdue the rebels in the North of Spain
with his present force.

FRENCH FUNDS.-PARIS, JULY 7.
Five per Cents., 108 f. 55c. 107 f. 106 f. 80c.
Four per Cents., 94f. -c.
Three per Cents., 77f. 7Cc. 75c 80c.
Bank Actions, 1,780 f. -c.
Rente de Naples, 941. 85c. 95c 90c.
Roman Five per Cents., 96% % .
Rente d'Espagne, Five per Cents., 39 38%.
Rente d'Espagne, Three per Cents., 48 47%.
Royal Spanish Loan, 81.
Rente Perpet.d'Espagne, Five per Cents., 73 72K,.
Belgian Loan, MI, Five per Cents , 99 99%.
Haytian Loan, 290 f. -c.
EXCHANGE ON LONDON.
One,rnonth, paper, -f. -c.; money, 25f. 30c.
Three months, paper, -1. -c. ; money, 25f. 20c.
--Coors Authentique.
FRENCH FUNDS..-Paras, JULY 8,
.Five per Cents., 106 f. 90c. 60c.
Three per Cents. 77f. 60c. 40c,
Bank Actions 1,7701. -c.
Rente de Naples. 94f. 40c.
Roman Five per Cents., 964.
Rente d'Espagne. Five per Cents., 38.
Rente d'Espagne, Three per Cents., 47%.
Royal Spanish Loan, 81.
Rente l'erpet. d'Espagne, Five per Cents., 72%.
Belgian Loan, 1831, Five per Cent., 99% 99%.
Haytian Loan, 290 f.
EXCHANGE ON LONDON.
One month, paper, -f. -c. ; money, 25f. 30c.
Three months, paper, -1. -c.; money, 251.20 e.
-boars Authentique.

The readers of The Sun will remember our having
called attention to a speech delivered by the LORD
CHANCELLOR on Thursday last, on the presentation
of a petition by his Lordship from the most respect-
able of the inhabitants of Kingston-on-Hull, praying
for the repeal of the stamp duty on newspapers. The
petitioners, who evidently had made themselves familiar
with the subject, stated, that the effect of the stamp
duty was to give to the contraband trader in penny
trash a per tentage of from three to four hundred over
the legitimate publisher of a responsible journal. They
further observed, that the consequences of this ano-
maly, were as ruinous to the moral feelings of the
community at large, as they were oppressive towards
that class of persons who had embarked the whole -of
their property in newspaper speculations ; and they
went on to declare, that in their opinion there was no
other means by which a stop could be put to the flood
of ribaldry and obscenity with which the country was
inundated than by legalizing the field of fair competi-
tion. The LORD CHANCELLOR assured the house
that he was well acquainted with the state of the
public press, and that his experience went the full
length of enabling him to corroborate the truth, and
recommend the adoption of the remedy contained in
the petition ; and after remarking that as a bill for
repealing the stamp duty would touch the revenue, it
would with more propriety originate in the Commons ;
his Lordship concluded by informing the House that
it was his intention to move for a copy of his evidence
delivered before a committee on the Law of Libel, as
a great part of it would be found to bear on the ques-
tion to which the petitioners had prayed their Lord-
ships attention.

If an opinion carry any weight with it—and we
too have had some experience—we honestly declare
that it is in favour of the prayer of the petitioners,
whose advocacy of our rights, and regard for the
moral character of their poorer countrymen, do them
great honour. Nothing can be truer, than that the
public mind of the lower classes is poisoned by the
wretched, filthy garbage, on which it is compelled to
feed, from inability to purchase food of a better quality,
which the law prevents being sold at as cheap a rate.
The labouring man of the present day is not like the
hind of former times. His mind is expanded, his
faculties have undergone some degree of culture, his
moral feelings are sufficiently strong to detect fraud
under any shape, and his reasoning powers are so well
developed, that food for the mind has become as ne-
cessary in some sort, as food for the body. In this
state of things it behoves the government to consider
the danger of leaving him to the mercy of every pen-
nyless adventurer, graduated perhaps in the Old
Bailey for an act of high treason, or petty larceny,
who having no other means of support, starts a penny
publication for the instruction of the industrious
classes I The poor man would buy the stamped papers
if he could, but finding that he is prevented by a tax
which renders them so dear as to be out of his reach,
he, in a fit of rage against a government whom he
thinks has intended to prevent him from acquiring in-
formation, flies to the stall, and purchases his penny-
worth of sedition, or obscenity, or treason, or perhaps
altogether, and walks home to pour into the ears of his
yet innocent offspring some stupid tirade against the
character of his King, and the Majesty of his God !
Heaven and earth ! what evils may not yet overwhelm
the land, if we go on blindly leaving our youth to ac-
quire their knowledge of the excellence of our Consti-
tution from every run-a-way from a convict gang in
Australia, who is able to embody in a penny paper the
putrid exhalations of his own profligate, abandoned,
and rotten heart.

The present Government is truly, and in every sense
of the word, a liberal one, most desirous of improving
the moral condition of the people ; and therefore we
are the more anxious to press this question on their
consideration. Lord BROUGHAM, with a zeal worthy
his exalted character, has again and again declared
himself favourable to the repeal of the stamp duty on
newspapers, and, seeing the effects which must flow from
their continuance, has done -all in his power, by means
of cheap pnblications, to counteract it. Lord AL-
THORP too, we know, has frequently declared himself
averse to this monopoly of knowledge, and is only in-
duced to keep it up on account of the revenue. Now
we have paid some attention to this matter, and we
can assure the Noble CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE-
QUER that no deficiency, or at.most one so very trifling
as to be of no importance, will be created by the
repeal of these duties. But even if a deficiency were
the inevitable result, what would it signify compared
with the moral strength which it would give to an
honest Government ? The people would then have
the best information at a cheaper rate, in proportion
to the quantity, than they are now supplied with—the
vilest and most abominable ribaldry. Men of genius
and of right principles would then come forward, and
form a tower of talent round the best institutions of
the country ; and the people, able to possess themselves
of the clear waters of the rock with more facility than
the scum of the putrid pools with which they now seek

to slake their thirst for information, would soon acquire
a 'relish for publications which cultivated the under-.
standing and improved the heart—which instructed
them in a knowledge of GOD and a love for their
country. Besides, with such a facility as would then
be afforded to men of large capital, who could employ
machinery to any extent, the present race of penny
publishers would be completely driven out of the field.
Knowledge would then, like every other commodity
brought into market, bring a sale in proportion to its
cost and real value. And, under such circumstances,
how would it be possible for the publisher of the
Destructive to compete with a paper with such means
of early information as The Sun, or any other daily
journal ? But independently of this, the Ministry are
called upon to support a free trade on the broadest
basis, if they support it at all. Partiality here is always
injustice to some party ; for a free trade must be uni-
versal to be beneficial to the whole community, or even
conunonly honest towards them. The hosier has no
right to a free trade in stockings, if the tailor be re-
stricted in the importation or exportation of coats, for
otherwise the one would possess an unfair advantage
over the other. Why, then, should the printer and
the publisher be prevented from doing that which is
permitted to other artisans in different vocations ? Or
rather, to put the question in its right shape, why is
the proper food for the mind subjected to a tax more
than the aliment for the body ?

But there is another consideration which we think
worthy the attention of the present Government, and
with which we shall conclude these remarks. We
beseech them to bear in mind that, by continuing the
tax on newspapers, they habituate the people to violate
the law by the purchase of unstamped publications.
This is in itself a very serious evil. The habit of
breaking the law with impunity, when once acquired,
seldom stops at the infringment of one statute; and if
a whole people find that they can individually violate
one Act of Parliament, it will -be a wonder, indeed, if
they do not set all law at defiance. We trust the Go-
vernment will think of this, and if they do, the con-
sequence must be a speedy repeal of the stamp duty
on newspapers.

We are glad to find that it is the Duke of WELLING-
TON' s intention—as explicitly mentioned last night in the
House of Lords—to support the Poor Laws' Amend-
ment Bill. Next to the Reform Bill, this measure
will confer more benefit on the people, than all the
Acts of Parliament for the last fifty years.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT,

THIS DAY, THURSDAY, JULY 10.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The SPEAKER took the chair at twenty minutes past 12
o'clock.

Major BE AUCLERK brought up the report of the Com-
mittee on the Russell's Estate Bill, which was read a third
time and passed.
Upon the motion of Lord ACHESON, the Newry and
Chkrlemont Roads Bill was read a third time.

WILFUL BURNING BILL.

Mr. LLOYD moved the sscond reading of this Bill.
Mr. E WART seconded the motion.

Mr. A. SANDFORD expressed a hope that the measure
would not be pressed in the then state of the House, and, as a
friend to the measure, entreated the Hon. Member to with-
draw it for the present.
Mr. ROEBUCK deprecated the absence of the law officers
of the Crown, when measures so nearly affecting the criminal
laws of the country were under consideration. He would re-
sist the postponement of this Bill, as, if the law officers of the
Crown neglected their duty, the House ought not.
Mr. ROTC!! supported the second reading of the Bill.
They might infer, from the absence of the Law Officers of
the Crown that they had no objections to make to the Bill.
Mr. BERNAL said that they ought to recollect that the
Law Officers of the Crown had other business to attend to in
other places. He would vote for the second reading if the
Bill were pressed to a division.
Mr.
_PE A SE supported the Bill.

An HON. MEMBER; whose name we could not learn, said
he had strong objections to the Bill, and hoped it would be
postponed.
After a few words from Mr. BROTIIERTON and Major BEAU-
CLERK, the Bill was read a second time, and ordered to be
committed on Wednesday next.