The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-23 00:00:00

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, FEB, 22.

SIIIITTLItWORTH NICHOLSON.
In this case, which was not concluded yesterday when
we went to press, the Jury returned a verdict for de
plaintiff Damages 1601.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER, FEB. 2?.

MR. OSBALDESTON'S GREAT MATCH AT NEWMARKET.--

WILSON V.GII.BEY.

This was an action brought to recover the amount o' a
bill of exchange for 801., given by the defendant as a con.
sideration for money lent him, to satisfy a debt of honour
which he lost on Mr. Osbaldesl
on!s rare at Newmarket.

The hand-writing of the b., the bil) as se.
0
reptor being proved,

. .
Josh Hudson, of pu2il;st;,.. notoriety, stat, d that at the
time of Mr. OshaWeston's great match;he was employed,
as a mutual friend, to regulate the conditions of a bet be-
tween Mr. Harry England and the defendant, which they
were going to stake upon the match ; as also another bet
between the defend-tat and a Mr. Monday. The former
bet was 301. by England to the defendant's 201., and the
tatter, 141. 10s. to. SI. against- the success of Mr. 091)11-
-lE4ton, The defendant lost both bets;, and the money nut
being then convenient, lie requested Josh Hudson
to redeem his honour by paying the bets for him,
which Josh did. 'The defendant being in want 0!
some small change, was accommodated by Hudson
with two sovereigns, and, to close accounts, he gave Josh
his acceptance for 30/,, which was immediately transferred
to Hudson's landlord. On its arriving at maturity the de
fendant refused to honour his acceptance, upon the ground
that the bill was given in liquidation of a gambling debt
In consequence of which the present action was brought.
Josh admitted that in the event of the plaintiff not obtain-
ing a verdict he would be held liable.

Mr. DovvuNo, for the defendant, contended that the
consideration for which the bill was given was illegal, and
therefore the plaintiff ought to be nonsuited.
The Jury found a verdict for the amount claimed, 301.
and interest.

SPIRIT OF TFIE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Globe of list night seems inclined to de-
'end the establishment of military Courts under
:he Irish " Disturbance Suppression Bill," and ar-
gues against our view of the apparent impolicy of that
particular provision. The Globe has fallen into a
manifest error in its construction of some of our re-
marks upon the subject. It represents us to have
suggeted two descriptionsof tribunals in place of the
courtmartial—namely, Ist, a Court composed of
three or five barristers, to act both as Judges and
Jurors ! 2d, to summon special Juries from the
higher class of gentry. Although the difference 'nay
not be in the highest degree important, it is fair to
say that our proposition was, either for a Court
composed of barristers only, or, if the decision upon
both law and fact should be considered a trust too
delicate and complex for lawyers (albeit, subaltern
officers of two-and-twenty years of age are deemed
quite capable of discharging it), they (the lawyers)
should be assisted by a Special Jury. We did not
recommend that the barristers and Special Jurors
should be separately resorted to, but should, if neces-
sary, constitute Judge and Jury of one and the same
Court. We may nowobserve,however, that if a Special
Jury were summoned, the Court might be composed
of a King's sergeant,or King's counsel, and two assis-
tant barristers. If the jury were to be altogether
dispensed with, the number of barristers on the
bench ought to be five, with a sergeant, or silk gown,
for their leader. As for intimidation acting upon
the minds of such men, we look upon the idea to be
chimerical. Would the duty of hearing and deciding
charges under this Act,be likely to 'render the mem-
bers of such a CoUrt more obnoxious than an At-
torney or SolicitOr-General becomes by that of pro-
srcining offences to conviction ? Again, if special
Juries were summoned, it is. said, that if not open
to intimidation from their rank and character, they
are at least habitually so inflamed against the pea-
santry, and so actuated by the Orange spirit, that
. -
no just verdicts could be expected from them. But
if that be the case-s-;•Good Heaven !—why are
gentlemen of that kidney tolerated in the
.Commis-
sion
of the Peace as Mag6trates? Why, as Magis-
trates, are they empowered to carry into execu-
tion the most hazardous clauses of the Act
against the peasantry? Why are the warrants,
or the personal presence of such fierce partisans,
to he the authority on which officers of the
army and the police force have been commaNded
by the Bill to ransack private houses, to their
inmost recesses, for arms (never so concealed), arid
for persons who, if found, must be innocent at least
of the crime of absence, or if not found, must be
maniacs to pretend that they are absent when they
are really at home ? The exercise or authorization
of such really odionS encroachments on domestic
privacy is not, it appears, to he withdrawn from the
List] squires on account of any risk which they may
incur through it ; yet we are told that their honest
discharge of the duties of special jurymen on oath is
not to be expected from them, because of its endan-
gering their lives ! With regard to military men, it
is assuredly from no wish to depreciate the honour,
integrity, or sound (though too often uninstructed)
sense of that respectable and not unpopular class of
our fellow-subjects, that we have laboured to release
them from the irksome responsibility, and Ireland
from the fearful consequences, of their assumption
of the judicial office. Our evening contemporary
states, that under the Bill they would substantially
be judges of the fact only, but that the law of the
case would be dictated to them by the Judge-Advo-
cate. We believe, however, that the business of a
Judge-Advocate is more to advise a courtmartial
when required as to the especial points, such as the
reception of certain evidence, and so forth, than to ven-
ture an intimation of what verdict ought to be passed.
He is more the minister and servant of the court
than its master, the members being themselves an-
swerable for whatever part of their proceedings may
clash with his opinion, when regularly called for ate;
officially given; and with all respect for the army
generally, we must say that our experience of mili-
tary men has not inspired us with any extraordinary
disposition to see, in the half-educated mind of a
soldier, a fit authority to control the judgment of a
well-instructed lawyer. But see, as we have already
represented, what is the condition of these military
officers. They and their men are first engaged in a
series of measures auxiliary to the police, and
executory of the will of the magistrates—namely,
breaking open houses, hunting down disturbers of
the peace, dispersing or crushing assemblies set on
foot for promoting the avowed or secret ends of
agitation ; and after having done all this,—after
having been identified in the minds of the multitude
with theii local enemies,—after having turned the
friendly sentiment with which the King's troops
have heretofore been regarded by the people into those
of bitterness and exasperation, arid received such
proofs of that unfortunate change of the popular feel-
ing as must infallibly re-act upon the temper of the
army itself, officers no less than soldiers,—then, at the
rail of all, these very officers, so hated, and too proba-
bly so hating, are appointed to sit in judgment on the
excited and offending wretches with whom they have
been placed by the Legislature of the country in a
,tate of open war. Is tins fair to the officer himself, to
the parties tried, or to the administration of justice?
It is really monstrous. For the sake of the army
and the p. ople, and of that remnant of public peace
which may yet he saved by the sedulous for bearance
of the former from all needless harshness or inter-
meddling with the niultttutle, we would earnestly
beseech his Majes.y's Ministi.rs to revise that por-
tion of the Act now in qua tion which prescribes
the tx.ili ary constitution of the Courts to be treated
under it. Assuredly this our supplication is offered
in no disrespectful or unfriendly spirit to Minister-.
At the present joncture, and assailed as is the coun-
try by ttie corrupt or disol oozing proj, cts of ex-
treme factions, it would be 111 our eyes a grievous
and cruel calamity if the resolution of Ministers de-
clared last night by Mr. Stanley were to be real zed,
mid if the Reform Cabinet were, by the rejection
either of its cue, cive or remedial measures, com-
pelled to throw up the gaverritnent. We should
deprecate such tt calamity as, eartieatly as the most
ardent friends of the Government, but we will not
compromise a principle. Our fervent hope is, that
the present Ministry will maintain (dice; but our

l'xst wlsh is, that the cause of liberty and justice
may not setter.—Tisane. -
When we "see the Conservatives, in or outside the
House of Commons, extremely industrious and gi e-
garious in opposing any particular proposition of
Reform, we may be confident that the object is to
fortify some point d'oppui of importance to thir
political power. This natural purpose is remarkaltly
illustrated in, the present abortive attempts of the
Conservative journals and the Tory opposition, to
foritty the_ municipal corporations against the siege
now inprogress to reduce those nasty, corrupt, and
self-elected Juntas. No language is sufficiently
strong to stigmatise these abominable local nuisance,.
Tinlidhmeeceoadßrispeform Acts amending the representation, ex-
tracted the tusks of the political beasts, hut the wild
a
uld
boareraet
dene
aofftu
functionaries
oepixunitberiri
iencs! i noatpot
iendipon .o
:Mual iannrdi s tpseriigitprnsneniiloal
ignorant of the enmity of the great majority
of
es,
if they did not take immediate and bold measures to
rout the political adversaries who, occupying these
strong holds of local power, keep up a sort of Vendean
warfare against liberal and enlightened opinions.
Lord Lyndhurst and Sir Robert Peel always
.pro-
,ected these favourite allies of Toryism. When the
conduct of the corporation of Liecester; in the me-
morable instance of the wholesale manufacture
of 800 Honorary Freemen, notoriously merited
and experienced public indignation, Sir Ro-
bert Peel threw his flimsy mantle of pro-
tection over the, dirty gowns of the Aldermen of
that exquisitely foul and self-elected Corporation.
When the right of municipal bodies to appropriate
their funds to electioneering cabals was questioned
and sought to be remedied, Lord Lyndhurst " laid
down the law," that the public funds were private
property. We do not marvel, therefore, that un-
scrupulous and Conservative confederates of such
despicable bodies should exhibit strong hysterical
symptoms at the approaching dissolution of their last
remaining friends. Thus we see Lord Satition and
Mr. Gladstone (excellent judges of the important
co-operation of close corporations in Tory elections)
vindicate the .corporation and freemen of Liverpool,
and dramatically express their astonishment that any
imputation should be cast on the integrity and
purity of their immaculate constituents and coadjue
tots. With the like affected astonishment, Mr.
Matthias Attwood experiences an epileptic seizere
when the Merchant Tailors' Company or the city
municipal. Constitutions are attacked. Sympathy
will account fur these morbid political feel rig..
We trust, however, that the Parliamentary
Committee will courageously discharge their
responsible duty, and anatomise these " bodies."
If their powers should prove insufficient to the la-
bour of cleansing the Augean stable, the Hercules
of an Act of Parliament must be summoned to their
aid. The public require to know the constitution
and property, the receipts and disbursements, of
these public institutions and endowments. Such an
investigation is essential to their purificition, and to
the restoration and extension of their original objects.
Bristol, Coventry, Stamford, Warwick, Liverpool,
not forgetting London, will furnish ample materials
for examination ; and the burgesses of every corpo-
rate city and town in England and Wales ought to
petition tire House of Commons, stating their seve-
ral local corruptions, and get those petitions referred
to the Parliamentary Committee. The doors of the
Town-halls or " CourtAouses" must now be opened,
and the question of Municipal Reform is of the very
first importance to the local and national liberties
of the people. Those snug little jurisdictions, de-
nominated Court Leete, are also municipal jurisdic-
tions, antiqUated: and useless, which require si-
milar. exposure and search-warrants. If the
electors are not fit to be intrusted with the appoint-
ment of thir own municipal officers and magistracy,
they can have no pretence to choose legislators,
But the rout has commenced, and all self-elected
bodies will be put hors de combat. They have; had
their time, and enjoyed their monopoly ; they have
attained an extraordinary longevity, and must now
be gathered to their fattiers---the boronghmongers.
Self-elected bodies were the illegitimate offspring of
a corrupted representation ; with the fall of " No-
mination seats" they fall, and we should be sur-
prised if our contemporaries, the Standard and
Morning Post, did riot attend their obsequies as
chief mourners. Mr. Matthias Attwood's attempt
to extricate the Merchant Tailors' Company from
the anatomy of the Parliamentary Committee
utterly failed. We do not think that he paid any
high compliment to the self-respect of the Company
by seeking to exclude inquiry. If an individual is
accused of malpractices, he courts and (if innocent)
demands inquiry. Affected indignation and contempt
of public charges, will not now hold Corporations
harmless, or remove the stains of accusation. We re-
commend the Corporator„ to meet their fate with a
good grace; their glass has run out. They may console
themselves in the reflection, that however great their
nuisance, the abatement will amply and gratefully
satisfy the public mind, and future reformation will
atone for past offences. We repeat, however, that
the exposition of corporate abuses must not be left.
exclusively to corporate officers; the independent
burgesses and citizens, uncontaminated by union
with corporations, must immediately aid the Parlia-
mentary Committee by petitions representing the
municipal constitutions and abuses of their respec-
tive communities. The Conservatives, by provoking
debate, will greatly assist in the object of exposure,
and we trust that they will give us their obliging
assistance. It is curious to see Sir Robert Peel's
altered position in the new House. He is a fallen
star—a comet which has lost its tail. Even the
Hon. Baronet, with all his " address" and solemn
attitudes, cannot justify Corporations. His jesuit-
ical vindication of abuses, and his affected and mi-
nute Reforms are equally out of date. Sir Charles
Wet herell's " Corporation robbery" no longer
sounds the alarm-bell. Sir E4ward Sugden stands
without the pale of the present Parliament. Sir
Robert has no seconders. How are the mighty
fallen " Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in
illis."—Morning Chronicle.
Sir Francis Burdett was certainly premature when
Ire cougraiulated the House and the country at hav-
ing got rid of the fancies which disturbed the ima-
gination of Mr. O'Connell, end when he hailed the
return of good humour and good feeling between
that gentleman and the Government on the difficult
subject of Irish affairs. It is true there was a calm,
and the calm was accompanied by an interval of
sunshine—the sunshine of Church Reform—imme-
diately upon the statement of the Noble Lord who
propose I it. But the storm lied only intermitted ;
it had not ceased; and now it comes on again,
blowing with more violence than ever, at the very
moment when we ought to be hailing the return of
those " halcyon days," which, it' Sir Fiaticis Bur-
dett had been a prophet, instead of being an orator,
would have dawned before now even upon Ireland.
Truly Ministers are either very unfortunate or very in-
judicious in all their proceedings with respect to that
unfortunate country. They seem to have a taste for
blowing hot and cold with the same breath, and as
nearly as possible at the same moment. Just before
they brought in their Bill for collecting Vie arrears of
tithe at the point of the bayonet, tney announced
the extinction of all tithe, to the great joy, but to
the still greater disappointment, as it was soon to
prove, of those who, if they had the means, ha rn t
the inclination to pay them. In the same manlier,
just before they brought in their Bill for iniroducii.g,
amongst other strong measures, trial by soldiery bat;
Ireland, they announced their project of Church re-
fur m, which, whatever objections it mght be liable
to on the score of spoliation, was certainly calcu alfed
:his instance, as in the former, the Pine I
et ox raiseen sv thee
changee p e expectations tt
the
s Churchof th oEse,tawbhi
joshimooeikfini,itieg.ctioeenc..
bon lowing hot
back
kt
oaftitdhecocldhuwir
Church
elutbbesießerr ni
el
dni oui mute exasperated
aadeniodf-wyaba
sort
of rider to the good news, this
Ire-
land b) the old expedient of turning over the Con-
,titutio„ to the guardhouse
0.
tiMti:leOpaC,:tionte,lllainnosttehres
etrail if tby this sh%Pryite oinafdgt leai •I'l
iig
straight forward to ti.err pur-
pose. And it is no wonder that they should.

j

•

Trick is always unpalatable, especially to thous who
suffer by it. Patting the head of agitation et one
moment, and drawing the sword upon it at the
next, is not- certainly the way to obtain either its
respect or its approbation. We do not say that
strong measures are not necessary in the present
state of Ireland, but we do say that, if we are to
have strong measures to put down a starving popu-
lation, we ought to have strong measures of relief
to accompany those of coercion. Church reform is
a good thing; but, if Lord Althorp 's proposition
were as sweeping again as it is, it would not, it
could not, satisfy a population in the condition to
which that of Ireland is reduced. Let them give
poor laws to Ireland, and there will be less need of
dealing in such commodity as a musket law, which,
though an effectual sedative in individual cases, is
not so in the case of nations, which may be wounded
and tortured, but cannot be killed. Mr. O'Connell,
we find, calculates on "considerable support" in his
opposition to the Ministerial measure ; but he
looks chiefly to the support " out of doors."
The people of England have unquestionably a
great dislike of arbitrary measures, even when they
appear to be called for by existing circumstances.
It is possible, therefore, that a stand may yet be
made against the Bill. At all events it is evident,
that whatever agitation can do, either in England or
in Ireland, to resist and defeat it, will be tried imme-
diately. The breach between the Government and
the Irish people is wider than ever; and if the
statement of our Irish correspondent which we
published yesterday be correct, that the Conserva-
tives and the Volunteers are about to join to oppose
the Bill, the difficulties of Ministers will be much
increased by such a coalition. Upon the whole,
there seems to be a great prospect of agitation be-
fore us, whether the Bill be destined to succeed or
not, for Ministers have contrived, by passing from
one extreme to another, to produce as much indig.
nation in Ireland as possible, at the same time that
they keep as clear of the real grievance, and its
remedies, as if they were determined to rely upon
the efficacy of force alone for the restoration of
peace. Peace and plenty go together by old asso-
ciation ;—outrage and want are as intimately con-
nected in the nature of things.—ilforning Herald.
The Government are now in full possession and
enjoyment of their measure of Reform in the consti-
tution of Parliament, and they have got, according
to their former promises to the country, that instru-
ment which they said was necessary to enable them
to confer extensive benefits on the community, and
to enable every man to live with a degree of com-
fort and convenience he had not before been accus-
tomed to enjoy. We look, however, in vain for
the accomplishment of the large expectations which
have so naturally been formed; for, as Mr. Pease,
the Quaker Member, said on Thursday night, " he
had been much amused, and even informed, by a
great many observations which were made since he
b came a Member of the Reformed Parliament ;
but he was sorry to say that any single measure was
not as yet offered to the House of Commons which
afforded any prospect of a practical result." Lord
Althorp, as the organ of the Government, thinks
he discharges his duty and theirs sufficiently by
submitting every description of alleged grievance
to Committees of Inquiry, thus exposing every
man's transactions to the greatest uncertainty, and
unhinging and breaking down every connection
and relation by which society has hitherto been held
together. We would ask, is this the mode by
which a Government, professing so much as the
present one has done, and exciting expectations so
very largely, is to acquit itself with honour of the
engagements it has undertaken, or give that confi-
dence to society which its different members
have a right to look to from the Govern-
ment ? They have joined Mr. Hume in saying
that the Reform of Parliament was to be con-
sidered as the means of effecting great practical
benefit. Instead, therefore, of going on as Lord
Althorp has done, what, we would ask, is the
manner in which he should have discharged his
duty to the Government of which he is a Member,
and to the country at large ? Ought he not to have
given a general statement to Parliament of the
subjects into which abuses had crept, and to have
pointed out the principles and limits by which
redress would be afforded ? Was it not his special
duty, when he and his col eagues have promised
financial relief in the shape of taxation, to explain
in detail his views of those alterations which he
has in contemplation as being calculated to afford
the promised relief? We would say that if he
does not abandon the duties and responsibilities
which attach to Government he is bound to make
such an exposition. If we look to the Order Book
we find notices for the repeal of assessed taxes,
malt taxes, and various other burdens, all of
which measures of relief are looked to by the
Members who give notice of them as the fruits to
be derived fiom passing the Reform Bill. If Lord
Althorp declines to make his exposition we may
at once have the asse-sed taxes and other burdens
repealed without any substitutes being provided,
and thus, before Easter, we may find the revenue
of the country rendered so deficient that there will
be no longer the means provided for paying the
interest to the national creditor. This surely is not
an event that ought to be risked, by pursuing the
headless and unbusinesslike course to which Lord
Althorp is still permitted to adhere. If he be
permitted to go on in this course we shall very
soon find that the whole affairs of the country are
reduced to a state of the most unmanageable and
inextricable confusion. We throw out these hints,
persuaded of their importance, and we hope they
may prompt some active and intelligent Members
of 13,.rliament to press them on the attention of the
House.—Morning Post.