The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Mr. O'Connell has, we eee, given notice, that he will
call the attention of the House this day to a breach of
their privileges committed by four of the morning papers,
by the publication of their proceedings. The notice was
received with laughter, as was to have been expected.
We leave it to the House and Mr. O'Connell to settle, as

they best can, the arrangement by which the proceedings
of Parliament shall be made known to the country, he
ing quite satisfied that an assembly of men representin
the people, must feel it due to their respective consti-
tuencies, that a knowledge of their proceedings shall not
be withheld from them. Whether the House shall repeal
their standing order, or suspend it, as has long been their
practice, is a matter of comparative indifference to all
but themselves. It is, no doubt, in the power of any
Member to enforce the standing crder, if it rtmains IMO
repealed, but this, we presume, will only have the of f,ct
of hastening the rep:,al; fur we take it for granted, that
a reformed Parliament would never dream of perpetrating
what would amount to little e.,,r5 than a
,felo de se,

namely, interrupting the chancel of communication
between itself and the people. Mr. O'Connell is
so much the creature of impulse, and passion in
him so often gains a victory over judgment, that it
would be difficult to assign with certainty the motives for
the strange course he is about to adopt. We have always
held his powers in high estimation, and while we have
readily admitted the great service be rendered to his
countrymen, we have at the same time regretted that his
powers should be so little under the control of reason,
that, without any apparent cause, he wi'l turn with fury
b day on the objet of his idolatry of yesterday. We
noticed, a few days ago, a most absurd attack made by
hint on the Parliamentary reporters, which we s,2t down

to some mortification experienced by the Honourable and
Learned Gentleman, in seeing himself or some of his
followers reported, on some occasion, in what was deemed
an inadequate manner. On subsequent inquiry, we found
that a speech on the India Bill of the Honourable and
Learned Gentleman, on which he had bestowed great pains,
was not reported so fully i❑ any of the papers as it
might have been ; but as no newspaper can report lite-
rally all that takes 'dice in even one House of Parliament,
if the sitting ba prolonged from mid-day to late in the
morning, and the readers of newspapers expect something
more than mere reports of parliamentary debates, it is quite
clear that the proceedings must go forth to the public in
an abridged form—it is quite clear, that in selecting what
goes forth to the public, cause of dissatisfaction will often
he given. Mr. O'Connell has, perhaps, as little reason
as most Members to be dissati•tb d ; for an examination
of the files of the newspapers for the session will show
that he engrosses alone more than a tithe of the pub.
limbed debates. We may observe, that every year, the
portion of a Morning paper devoted to debates is greater
and greater. The number of Parliamentary reporters
for each paper is more than twice (indeed nearly thrice)
greater than what it was twenty years ago, and their
labour is incessant. Though, therefore, newspapers are
not responsible, and cannot be responsible to Parliament
for the mode in which they report the debates, the fact
is, that a regard to their own interest forms a sufficient in-
ducement to them to give day after day to the public a
very ample account of what passts. If Members wish a
more ample account, they are not preclu led by the news-
p ipers from supplying it themselves in a vehicle of their
own ; but the newspapers must themselves be the exclu-
sive judges of what they shall and what they shall not
publish. They are exclusively rtsponsible for what is
published ; for though Mr. O'Connell ray speak with
impunity, a newspaper has not the same privilege. That
inaccuracies are occasionally found in reports can surprise
no one who reflects on the circumstances under which they
are taken. Whin Hon. Members themselves have iit,empied

to report the proceedings of the House, they found the task
attended with more difficulty than they anticipated, though
they were placed close to the Speaker, and had the advan-
tage of seeing as well as hearing hint. In fact, many of
the most distinguished names in the House have, at various
tm es, admitted
aregiv,n tth u
oe
tsherprisin
put,lige.fideTlihtye winiotltrivwhicb thee'inflii
de-
bates
influencing
Mr. O'Connell last night, was, we believe, the assigning
to him, in the debate on Mr. Tennyson'; motion, only a
few lines. This he, no doubt, attributes to a conspiracy
among the reporters, as in all the Morning Papers the
report appears of the same brevity. We are far from
approving of any attempt to retaliate on Mr. O'Con-
nell's vulgar calumny against them, by the ex-
clusion of any one sentence of his, which, under other
circumstances, they would have given. They would have
better consulted true dignity by allowing Mr. O'Connell's
splenetic effusions to recoil on himself. It is, however,
but justice to the gentlemen who repot t for this Journal
to say, that they assure us the brevity of the report of Mr.
O'Connell's speech was purely accidental—that from the
length of the proceedings in the two Houses, the Reporter
whose turn it would have been to take notes of Mr.
O'Connell's speech, had not concluded his former report
in time for that purpose, so that a hiatus took place which
we were unable to fill up. Our readers will pardon tile
length to which our observations on this subject have ex-
tended. We take no credit for extraordinary virtue, but
we wish to stand fair with the house of Commons and
the public, for we should be ashamed of ourselves if we
allowed pique or caprice to influence us in the discharge of
a public duty. As a specimen of the falsehoods which are
circulated on this subject, we extract the following passaie
from a Country Paper, received only yesterday—the
Sheffield Iris. After lamenting the brevity with which
the eloquence of Mr. Buckingham is reported in the Lon-
don Journals, this Newspaper proceeds to observe:—
" That the gentlemen reporters have their motives for the
line of conduct they pursue, we do not mean for a moment to
doubt, and as these motives are very likely private considera-
tions of their own, we shall not inquire too minutely into their
character. The following circumstance, however, which we
copy from the Perthshire Advertiser, will enable our readers to
draw their own conclusions :--` A friend of our own, who
happened to be in London watching the progress of a Scotch
Local Bill, felt anxious, as the day of hearing approached, to
secure a notice of it in some of the London prints, and for this
purpose waited upon the conductors of a respectable journal,
who, in answer to his request, recommended him to apply to
the reporter ; our friend did so, and, after negotiating with
this important personage, he, for the consideration of twelve
guineas, procured a notice of his Bill, amounting to as
many lines.' We will add another instance, which speaks
volumes. In one of the debates on the slavery question, Mr.
Hill, the patriotic Member for Hull, delivered an eloquent
and elaborate speech, every sentence making an impression on
all who heard it, except the reporters, who exhibited him in
the morning papers, to the extent of a quarter of a column,
although his speech occupied an hour and a quarter in delivery.
The same evening, at a later hour, Mr. A. Baring came in,
flushed, and in high spirits; he soon caught the Speaker's eye,
and addressed the House amidst tremendous uproar. 'rho
Great Baring, however, persevered, and from the determina-
tion he evinced, succeeded in commanding the attention of the
House for nearly the same time as Mr. Hill, but without ad-
vancing a single original idea, the whole falling still-born on
the floor of the House. Next morning the Hon. Gentleman
figured in the morning papers to the extent of two columns !
'thus, in many instances, have speeches been extinguished
that would have done credit to the British senate, while the
utmost care has been taken to preserve some dull prosy ha-
rangue, which told upon the senses of the reader more like an
long-protracted yawn, than any thing in the form of an ar-
gument."
We have no hesitation in saying that the Perthshire
Advertiser has either invented the story of the twelve
Guineas paid to a reporter for twelve lines, or that its
informant invented it. There is not a reporter on any
paper who dares (if he even felt inclined to do so) to take
it single farthing for any Parliamentary report he writes.
The most probable solution we can give is, that the legal
gentleman who was watching the progress of a Scotch Bill
in London did not confine his attention to that object, and
found it convenient to place to the account of a Parlia-
mentary reporter what would not have looked so well
under another name. We call upon the Perthshire Ad-
vertiser to name its informant, that his calumny may
, receive its reward in the disgrace which ought to attach
to him. We shall see how Mr. O'Connell extricates
himself from this foolish business, in which we are sure he
, will not be abetted by the House.—Morning Chronicle.
The Middlesex Magistrates, nothing daunted by the
exposure 01 their late egregious blunder, arid its solemn
unrtsoi
.s.P.trt.h
e seat
persons,o f
denouncement as such by the Judges of the laud, are
determined, it would seem, to persist in their error,
• regardless of the cons quences, and intend this very day to
hold an adjournment of the late Sessions, at which pri-
soners are to be tried, and the whole of the fiscal concerns
of the county transacted. If the late Sessions lapsed by
anbnodivertti
jaseP°,,, alts mate'
reason of the non-attendance of a sufficient number of
se,
Magistrates to constitute a Court—of which there seems
not to be a shadow of doubt—any adjournment or revival
of a nonentity seems an absurdity too palpable to be talked
about; and it behoves the Magistrates, therefore, to con-
sider whether every act they venture to do to-day
will not be invalidated, and its illegality, with as
, its consequences, resting upon the shoulders of
hose who venture upon, and take part in, so Jr
I ilous a proceeding. But as good not unfrequently
arises out of evil, it is to be hoped
itpiiiietsieemneetbture,n; fortunate dilemma will lead to the Ptedirrn:lmiueleictiLCv
onprovement of the state of crirnina.ol,,,jkno.ws
ho_77
rigolifitilinedcboyunet,yun—peatnedn,t
instead of being, as is now frequently
the ur
Peace
y
ho
why, t° Gave been
P"' -S:nat„rtd Lard Lieutenant, accupied by persona w
by some heedless or goo
tohjtEll.Pv7:nionis,on of
Ti.

improvement which is called for in this respect is a
very simple one—viz., that the judicial business of this
and of every county should he solely confided to judicial
hands, leaving the fiscal concerns of the counties in those
of the persons who now exercise them. In the metropo-
litan county an improvement of another description is also
wanting, which is the getting rid of the anomaly of the
divided jurisdiction in criminal cases which at present
exists between the two Courts at the Old Bailey and
Clerkenwell. The county of Middlesex is the only one
in the kingdom in which the Judges of the land never see
or come in contact with the Grand Jury of the gaol deli-
very ; but who, on the contrary, are sworn in, and charged
by the Chairman of the Bench of Magistrates, who, on his
part, never sees the depositions upon which his charge, if
of any value, (me tto be founded. When we add to this
the extreme absurdity, to call it nothing more, of what
has just occurred—viz., that the existence and proceedings
of both these Courts are made to depend upon the fact of
one or rr ore persons attending a Court, at which they are
previously aware there will he no business to transact,
surely more than enough will have been stated to draw the
attention of the Government and the Legislature to a state
of things utterly incompatible with law or order.—
Morning Herald.
We have repeatedly called the attention of the citizens
of London to the superior claims of Mr. Hill to the
appointment of their Common-Sergeant, and pointed
out their duty and interest in electing a gentleman of
his admitted knowledge, capacity, and independence, to
that high office. We have contended that a judicial
office should be the reward or the prize of political parti-
sanship; but we must maintain that where professional
qualifications and legal accomplishments are combined
with liberal political principles, the latter afford an addi-
tional recommendation to any honour which the citizens of
London can bestow. We can easily conceive that cases may
arise in which it will not be more necessary to have in their
Common Sergeant a man of legal knowledge and ju-
dicial integrity, than of liberal views, moral courage, and
political independence. Mr. Hill has, during his whole
career at the bar, displayed his fitness in all these respects
for the appointment, and we cannot, therefore, anticipate
his failure in the election, which comes on to-day. Of
bis antagonist, Mr. Blirehouse, we never heard a word be-
fore the present contest, and it would appear that his
own profession had heard nearly as little. He has been
called upon to verify his declaration as to the seven briefs
which he held at the last Lent assizes for Chelmsford ; and
even this trifling certificate to legal practice cannot be ob-
tained. The seven briefs turn out to be one,—a proper
measure of his relative claim to the votes of the citizens of
the Common Council at their this day's meeting.—Times.
The Inquest on the Waterman John Wood having at
last terminated, we give in our Paper of to-day an abstract
of the lengthened proceedings, retaining every material
point of evidence ; the greater portion of the six days
baying been consumed in the most idle inquiries and dis-
creditable brawling. We present our readers with this
report, not because any intrinsic interest attaches to the
investigation, but as displaying the animus with which
the jury set themselves to inquire into the subject, sworn
as they were to judge calmly and impartially. From the
very commencement of the proceedings a most decided
bias was manifested against the police, and a predetermina-
tion shown to look only to one side of the question. In-
stead of twelve dispassionate and impartial judges there
were collected as many vulgar partisans; and, for the
calmness which ought to have characterized such an in-
quiry, was substituted a scene of noise, confusion, and
violence, tending to bring the very name of jury into
contempt, and tender it a byword of reproach and
mockery. The Coroner, who conducted himself through-
out with the utmost good sense and forbearance, was
actually at one period in personal danger, for venturing
to tell the Jury that they were prejudiced. A Jury ap-
pro cling the Coroner with clenched fists ! Oh ! digni
fled and upright judges ! But the proceedings on this
inquest are not without a parallel ; they have a fitting
companion in the Calthorpe•street affair. In both cases
evidence in favour of the police was stigmatised as un-
worthy of credit; while any assertions to their disad-
vantage were received with " Hears" End clapping of
hands. In the one case, the most malicious and savage
murder of a policeman is decided to be " justifiable
homicide ;" in the other, where a man in the worst state
of drunkenness falls and fractures his skull, a verdict is re-
turned of " wilful murder" against a policeman. The
two verdicts are on a par in their disgraceful
character, or rather the last has, if possible, been
pronounced still more directly in the teeth of fact and of
law, than the former. The evidence of various police-
men and others, given in the c'earest manner, conclusively
proves that, after the deceased fell outside the public-
house, every care and attention was paid to him, till he
was lodged in the station-house. One witness only de-
poses to seeing a blow with a truncheon, which, how-
ever, must have been inflicted on some other person; for
whereat the deceased was so thoroughly intoxietted as to
he unable to keep his feet for a moment, the other per-
son is stated to have been struck after a chase of thirty
or forty yards. The eagerness of the Jury to turn eve!),
scrap of evidence to the disadvantage of the police, dis-
plays a feeling that is largely participated in by the
class to which the said Jury belong. But to what to
attribute this feeling, unless to a sympathy with drunk-
ards, rioters, pickpockets, and bad characters of all
descriptions; we scarcely know. That some instances
of irregular conduct have occurred among the police
force, extended as it is all over the metropolis, we do
not attempt to deny. But, so far from casting discredit
on the whole body, the paucity of these instances, when
put in comparison with their general excellent conduct,
constitute one of their highest claims to praise. Not
withstanding the difficulty of the situations in which they
are perpetually placed, it is but very rarely they can be
charged with tin undue or harsh exercise of their autho-
rity; they act, almost universally, with great discretion
and forbearance, and appear actuated by a sincere and
single desire to preserve peace in the streets and give pro-
tection to the inhabitants of the metropolis. Perhaps,
indeed, these very qualities, which entitle them to the
gratitude of all respectable and well disposed persons, have
brought down upon them the ill will and hatred of those
who desire above all things to see disorder predominant
and to accomplish the overthrow of all constituted autho-
rity.—Morning Post.

MR. BANKES, M.P.—At a general meeting
of the Vestry of St. Margaret's parish, Westminster, held
yesterday in the Vestry-room of St. Margaret's Church,
it was unanimously resolved that the prosecution of Mr.
Biomes, M.P. for Dorsetahire, on the charge brought
against him a short time since, at Queen square Police-
office, should be carried on at the parish expense.
At the Nottingham Assizes on Tuesday,
Richard Lowater, aged 21 years, was charged with the
wilful murder of Richard Elliott. Ater evidence had been
beard, the Jury returned a verdict of Manslaughter.
EXTRAORDINARY CASE.—At the Lincoln
Assizes an action was brought by Mr. SMITH, a farmer
to recover 11 guineas, the price of 1I sheep sold to a
butcher, named WOOLRIDGE. The sale and delivery of
the sheep were proved. For the defence no witnesses were
calhd, but his counsel a,'ured the jury that the defendant
had paid fur the sheep, though he had no evidence of the
fact. Mr. Justice PARK charged the jury to find ac-
cording to the evil, nee, not on the assertion of the defen-
e'.ant's counsel. The jury, to the amazement of the Court,
found a verdict for the eefendant. Mr. Justice PARK—
Gentlemen, you have found a verdict against evidence and
your own consciences. Let another jury be sworn. The
jury was accordingly dismissed, and another immediately
e ailed.
For some weeks past public curiosity has been
excited by the erection of a remarkably high chimney at
the soda manufactory of Mr. Clapham, at Friar's Goo.e,
near this town. This chimney has been completed during
the present wei-k, and is, we believe, the highest in Great
Britain, and probably in the world. Its top is exactly
254 feet 9 inches above the foundation upon which it rests,
and 246 feet above the surface of the ground at its base.
Ita dimensions are beautifully proportioned, and the work-
manship is 80 excellent, that, notwithstanding its extra-
ordinary height, it deviates but one inch and three-eighths
from the perpen lieular. Great credit is due to Mr.
CLAPHAMS manager, Sir. JOHN LEE, by whom the work
was designed, and und, r whose assiduous superintendence
it has been 80 ably accomplished. Mr. LIVINGSTONE, the
bricklayer who conducted the work, is also entitled to
very great praise. On Tuesday a party of gentlemen
ascended to the top of the chimney, and afterwards par.
took of an entertainment within at the bottom, where the
evening was spent with great conviviality.—Newcastle
Chronicle.

Captain OWEN'S " Narrative of his Recent
Voyages to explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Ma.
6gascar," by command of the Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty, in 2 vols. Sea., with numerous plates, maps,
&c., was published this day by Mr. BENTLEY.
HINTS TO MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.--
At table we heard a good deal of general conversation,
Allusion was made to a recent instance of those violent
and confused debates so frequent in the French Chambers.
The Emperor (Don PEDRO) remarked that when he
should have established a Chamber at Li,bon, be would
require each Member to wash his head in cold water
previously to entering on business.—liodye's Farrative
of the Expedition to Portuial.

LITERATURE.

_EDINBURGH REVIEW. No. CX VI.
EDINBURGH, 1833.

In the article entitled " State and Prospects
of the Drama," which heads the present num-
ber, and in which a deserved complimentary
notice is made of Mr. Sheridan Knowles's plays,
the Reviewer takes a very lugubrious view of his
subject. He assigns a variety of reasons for
the present degraded state of the national drama,
but comes to no conclusion, proposes no plans
for its regeneration. Its decay, we think, may
very easily be accounted for, without running
into abstruse theories ; first, by the intolerably
late hours which the higher and middling
classes (who are the chief patrons of the stage)
keep ; secondly, by the general prevalence of
clubs, which form the evening's lounge of those
" men about town," who formerly killed time
at Drury-lane or Covent-garden ; and thirdly,
by the utter absence of superior attractions on
the boards either of Drury-lane or Covent-
garden. We have many excellent actors and
actresses ; but not one of paramount ability :
not one who would repay a family for putting
itself to the slightest inconvenience. Till we
have a better stock of performers, who are
worthy to represent the tragic and comic cha-
racters of Shakspeare, and give point to the
attic wit of Sheridan, we must be hopeless of
the stage's regeneration. The patronage of
Royalty, as the Reviewer seems to insinuate,
has little or nothing to do with the question.
" Captain Head's Steam Navigation to India,"
is an interesting subject, very ably and impar-
tially canvassed. The writer laughs at the idea
of the Russians being ever able to attack our
Indian possessions with any prospect of success.
" French Literature : Recent Novelists," is an
eloquent, animated essay on the present state of
the more imaginative class of writings in France.
Judging from internal evidence,—from the care-
lessness but vigour of the style—the rich fertility
of illustration—and the profusion of metaphor—
we should be inclined to attribute this article to the
pen of Mr. Macauley. At any rate, it is not
unworthy of him. We subjoin an extract as
being very characteristic :

" At this moment the literature of France has neither
the calm self-balanced and tranquil dignity of a literature
of belief, nor the resistless and overbearing strength which
characterised the destructive literature of the eighteenth
century. In truth, that literature might be called in one
sense a literature of conviction. The destruction of what
was then branded by the name of superstition, the belief
in the boundless energies and inherent excellence of human
nature,--philosophy, in short, falsely so called, was to
that period the substitute for the religious convictions and
deference to authority which had formed the constructive,
or rather cementing principles, of the ages which had
preceded it ; the bond which fur the time united men in
the ranks of one crusade. The evils which were to be the
result of this new illumination, the void which would be
left in society when that terrible array should have struck
its camp, and left desolate the country through which
their march had lain, had not then been impressed upon
the mind by that most unanswerable of teachers, Experi-
ence. No doubts then occurred to damp expectation ; all
were confident in the regeneration of mankind through
this modern Apocalypse ; actions and opinions tended to
one clear and definite end—the overthrow and removal of
all that was, to make way for that which was to come.
So long as the walls of the old edifice were crashing around
them, and temple and tower, crucifix and throne, one by
one, went to the ground, all was harmony and gayety
among the workmen ; they saw and were delighted with
their visible progress; the carpenter encouraged the gold-
smith, and he that smoothed with the hammer him that
smote on the anvil,—not now to build up, as of old, but
to pull down ; while Europe stood aghast at the tremendous
power thus brought into play; and, as the echo of each
successive downfall burst upon its ear, trembled within its
courts and palaces, for the stability of its institutions."

" Recent Travels in Upper India," is a slight,
superficial review, calling for no particular com-
ment. " Mrs. Austin's Characteristics of
Goethe" is evidently a critique that has been
drawn up with infinite care and diligence. Am-
ple justice is done to the merits of this very
candid and eloquent translator—by far the best
of the day. Speaking of Goethe, the Reviewer
underates him as a philosopher, but gives him
abundant praise as a poet. He says that his
mind was a power which refused all direction ;
which wandered about without any direct aim
or object ; which produced no school, formed
no system, but was sadly addicted to quarrel
with all those who possessed a firmer faith, or
more practical disposition. " The admiration,"
adds the Reviewer, " which Goethe has achieved,
is but a barren wreath, whose flowers can never
ripen into fruit." " Recollections of a Cha-
peron," is a favourable (but not more so than it
deserves) notice of a clever series of tales pub-
lished some time since under this name.
" Wright's Translation of the Inferno of Dante,"
is an elaborate critique, but scarcely equal to the
notice of the same book in the last number of
the Quarterly. The Reviewer does not enter
so heartily into his subject; he does not discuss
it with such relish ; hence, though equally fami-
liar with his subject ; he does not impart to it
so fine a flavour. " Beranger's Last Songs,"
contains some spirited translations from the
" chansons " of France's most popular poet.
The genius, however, of the French minstrel is,
we cannot help suspecting, overrated. " Com-
plaints and Proposals regarding Taxation," is
the production of a genuine, thick-and-thin
supporter of Whigism and the Whigs, who
begins by congratulating the House of Com-
mons on the spirited determination they have
shown to resist all attempts for the further re-
duction or commutatio❑ of taxes ! This is a
fair sample of the sort of spirit that pervades
the article. Of the few remaining articles, we
have merely left ourselves space to say that they
arc well worth perusal.

ROYAL CORK YACHT CLUB.—Thursday
was a splendid day with the Clubs. The Marquis of
THOILOND joined the fleet at Cove about one, when the
yachts got under weigh, and manoeuvred by signal from
his Lordship. As the wind was pretty strong from the
south-west, they did not go out to sea, but in order to
gratify the residents in Cove, they continued their wanceu-
vres inside the harbour. They first proceeded in line to
Monkstown, and while sailing in this order the fleet pre-
sented a most beautiful and interes ing sight. On the
Admiral's return to the Spit Buoy, signal was made for
hailing close on the starboard tack with a view to stand-
ing out betwe,n the forts, but lying up rather too close to
the bank, in order to keep a good wind, his Lordship's
yacht grounded. The rising tide, however, soon set her
at liberty. Signal was then made for forming into double
line. This manceuvri was performed in tine style, and
the ti et again stood up to Moukstown. On their arrival
there, a heavy squall, with rain, coming on, signal was
once more made, and the yachts proceeded to their mcor-
ing.— Cork Constitution.
_ _

A new• and " splendid" portrait of Mr.O'CoN-
NELL, "as large as life," has just been affixed over tte
door of a gin-shop in Cosv•crosa.