The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TfIURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1834

liberal opinions, but latterly we find that we greatly
over-rated the good qualities of both. As an instance
of the sincerity of the opposition, we may cite the
recent declaration of M. LOPEZ on the subject of the
article which appeared in the Abeja, a Ministerial
Paper, in which those Deputies who voted for the
annulment of the Guebhard loan were called
anarchists. This appellation so galled the members
who so voted, that the subject was introduced in the
Chamber, and a secret committee appointed to take
the article into consideration, with a view to the
punishment of the Editor. On this occasion M.

with the benefits they may be capable of conferring.
Casual or reluctant visiters are not judges of the nature
and amount of a police-magistrate's business, of the many
cases of deep interest which crowd upon his attention,
the constant demands upon his experience, the frequent
trials of his patience, and the repeated calls upon
his knowledge of human nature. The value of his
office does not consist more in the strict legal performance
of his judicial and administrative duties than in the exercise
of a sound discretion, and in the considerate application of
the principles and feelings of humanity, as an adviser, an ar-
bitrator, and a mediator. The hearing at a police office
may in. some instances, especially to- the young and mis-
guided, be the opening of new views of life and new rules of
conduct. There is scarcely a conceivable case, arising
particularly among the lower orders, which may not imme-
diately or indirectly come under the notice of the police-
offices. It is most important therefore, that every means
should be adopted for upholding their reputation, and so ex-
tending and increasing their moral influence.'
" One important recommendation to which the attention
of your committee has been drawn for increasing the use-
fulness of the police offices, is by an extension of juris-

r -
LOPEZ declared that if he were ever again the subject

of attack in that journal, he should instantly quit the
Chamber altogether ; a declaration which harmonizes
most strangely with his memorable speeches in favour

Of the freedom of the press, without previous censor-
ship. This explains what Spaniards understand by
principle, even when they appear best acquainted
with its inevitable consequences if acted upon. Senor
Don LOPEZ thought the freedom of the press a mighty
fine thing—quite liberal because English—when he
thought others would be attacked by it, but the first
lash that is inflicted on himself, determines him to quit
for ever the service of his country. This is a curious
specimen of attachment to principle.
We give the following articles of the new finance
project, now under discussion. The two first have
already appeared in The Sun, and are therefore
omitted. The third article (the first here given) was
rejected during the sitting of the 30th ult., as we
Stated yesterday, and the article drawn up by M.
FLORES ESTRADA and the Marquis DE MoNTE-
VIRGEN, which will be found below, adopted in its
stead :

" Art. 3. All the bonds and vouchers that now represent
the foreign debt shall be exchanged, within the space of one
year from the date of the promulgation of the present law,
for other vouchers of an equal nominal value, at the interest
of 3 and 5 per cent., according as they have been con-
tracted. If this term of a year should pass without their
having been presented for this conversion, the bonds shall
lose the interest to which they are entitled. The certifi-
cates, named deferred debt, shall continue to circulate as
they are at present, and shall continue to be drawn for by
lot, as heretofore.
" 4. The interest due, but not paid on the debt con-
tracted between 1820 and 1823, and the bonds with pre-
mium, shall be capitalized by fortieths during the 40 years
comprised between January 1, 1835, and December 31,
1874, forming 40 series, which, by an annual drawing, shall
pass to the debt with interest, and enjoy the annual pre-
mium of 5 per cent.
"5. All the foreign debt converted into new bonds shall
enjoy per cent. per annum for sinking it.
" 6. The part of the foreign debt created to satisfy the
Treasury of France and the English Government, in virtue
of the treaties concluded on October 28 and December 30,
1828, shall not undergo any modification, and shall not be
included in the present provisions.
" 7. The Minister of the Finances shall appoint the
commission or commissions, who shall have an understanding
with the lenders for the settlement of the accounts. He
shall also take the measures necessary to effect the con-
version mentioned in Article 3, at the Exchanges of Lon-
don and Paris, Amsterdam and Antwerp.
" Finally, he shall indicate the arrangements the most
proper and the most uniform for the payment of the divi-
dends, beginning by the Cortes' Bonds, to date from Ja-
nuary 1, 1835." The report of the minority of the com-
mittee, which is reduced to only two members, M. Flores
Estrada and M. Montevirgen, is as follows :—" Art. 3.
The whole of the foreign debt shall be divided into active
and passive. The division of the debt shall be in the pro-
portion of two-thirds for the active part, and one-third for
the passive part. On the other articles up to article 11,
we are in accordance with the committee."

The French papers of Tuesday have all been re-
ceived, in which there are several accounts of the war
in Spain, with some domestic intelligence, which only
goes to confirm our statements respecting the unpopu-
larity of the King, and the growing discontent among all
classes of the people. We fear that unless Louis PHI-
LIPPE change the system which he appears bent upon
pursuing, his position in France will soon cease to be
very enviable. He has at present an opportunity of
-dolifg"
much To- raise his own cbaracter, by the libera-
tion of those confined for political offences; and if he
neglect it, we would not answer for either the peace of
his kingdom, or the security of his throne.
The extracts from the Paris papers will be found in-
teresting. The war in Spain is carried on with the
most savage cruelty. Every law, divine and human,
civil and military, is set at defiance ; and the slaughter
more resembles the carnage of wild beasts than the
strife of men. No quarter is given, no mercy is shown
to age or infancy. Both parties vie with each other in the
atrocity of their crimes, and recriminations of outrage.

We regret to learn that Rear-Admiral DUNDAS
died last Monday. The Gallant Officer was one of
the Lords of the Admiralty, and his decease conse-
quently creates a vacancy in that department.

In concluding our article yesterday on the Report
of the Select Committee on the Metropolitan Police,
we mentioned that the report contained some sugges-
tions respecting the augmentation of the powers
vested in the sitting Magistrates of the Metropolis,
to which we would take an early opportunity of
calling attention. The subject is one of great diffi-
culty, owing to the impossibility of determining the
precise point where the power of a Magistrate
offers more temptations to abuse than inducements to
its employment for the public good. So much depends
upon the character, perceptions, comprehension, and
conduct of the individual ; so much must be trusted to
his sagacity and knowledge of the human heart ; so
much to the degree of attention which he pays to the
discharge of his duties—over and above his acquain-
tance with the :laws—that in guarding against the
abuse of power we can only look to the extent to
which we will permit the possibility of an evil, which
must co-exist with the means of doing good. There
is no separating them. Render a Magistrate power-
less for evil, and he must be equally impotent for
good. Leave him without the means of doing in-
jury, and you disable him from all useful purposes
connected with the administration of justice. There
must therefore be a considerable latitude allowed the
magistracy, if we would render them efficient ; sub-
ject always to the controul of the laws, and leaving
their conduct perfectly open to the investigation of the
public. At present we do not consider that the power
of the magistrates of the metropolis is sufficiently ex-
tensive to permit them to discharge their duties effi-
ciently. We would have no irresponsible power in
the state, save that which is exercised by the people ;
but, at the same time, we think there is more danger
in shortening than in lengthening the sword of justice,
especially as its point cannot reach the life. There
never was a free or an enlightened people among
whom
the magistrates were not vested with extensive powers;
and it is with this conviction that we invite attention
to the following extract from the Report :

" It is remarked by Mr. Murray, one of the magistrates
of Union-hall, the whole of whose evidence deserves parti-
cular notice, that it is obvious that these district courts,
sitting daily, open to all classes of a thickly-peopled metro-
polis, and entertaining every possible case incident to vice,
misery, and passion, are calculated to exert a considerable
influence on public conduct, differing in its extent and
effects in a great degree according to the estimation in
which these tribunals are held. It is equally clear, that
they are not at present as highly estimated as is consistent

diction.
" The same magistrate says, We are continually calk(
upon to assist poor persons in the recovery of property of
trifling amount, alleged to be unlawfully withheld from
them. In these cases, unless any offence is incidentally in-
volved, we have no legal right to interfere ; but we find it
extremely useful to affect a jurisdiction which we do not
really possess. We grant a summons to show cause why
the goods arc detained. If the party summoned refuses
to attend, we can go no further ; but in many cases
the party attends, and then, by the exercise of a little
management, we are generally able to obtain restitution
or to effect an adjustment. These applications are made
by servants whose boxes are withheld, by persons who, on
going into the country for work, have deposited their little
furniture with supposed friends, who set them at defiance
when they come back and reclaim their goods ; and they
are also frequently made by young girls against the keepers
of brothels, who detain their clothes for some extortionate
charge. All these cases are fruitful sources of angry quarrel,
and we find in practice that many of the assaults and other
breaches of the peace brought before us arise out of them.
" If the principle were a dopted of giving us a legal
jurisdiction in these matters, it might also be very usefully
extended to disputes about rent, claims for wages by house-
hold servants, and other pecuniary demands below a certain
value.
" In confirmation of this evidence, and in proof that
some legislation to this effect has been long wanted, your
committee find that in the examination of Mr. Fielding, in
1816, the same useful suggestions occur, connected with
others which have very recently received the sanction of the
Legislature.
" Your committee are of opinion, that the evident ten-
dency of the present state of the law with reference to these
and other small matters of dispute between persons in hum-
ble life, is to produce breaches of the peace and should the
Legislature at any future time deem it right to entertain this
matter with a view to the imposition of any new jurisdiction
upon the police magistrates, it will appear from the account
which follows, of the time at present occupied in the dis-
charge of their official duties, that no unreasonable addi-
tional duties will be thrown upon them, especially if the
House should at the same time adopt the suggestion, sup-
ported by the opinions of most of the police magistrates
examined before your committee, of enabling a single police
magistrate to dispose of all business now requiring the con-
current decision of two."
The suggestions of the Committee on this point are
particularly worthy of the early attention of the Le-
gislature. We can hardly imagine any thing more
likely to lead to breaches of the peace than a know-
ledge on the part of unprincipled or dishonest persons,
than any injury can be done to others for which the
laws provide no punishment. If a Magistrate, in the
instance of a poor person whose property is detained
by a swindling lodging-house keeper, can only act as a
mediator, we cannot conceive any use of his inter-
ference in such occurrences ; and if a case of this kind
be thought out of the proper sphere of his jurisdic-
tion, then the best way would be to abolish the magis-
tracy altogether, and not have the judgment seat scorned,
insulted, and trampled upon in their persons. As
to the placing of such descriptions of fraud tinder
the cognizance of a Jury, we may observe that it would
be tantamount to the denial of justice altogether.
Servants cannot spare time, nor have they the means
of bearing the expense attendant on sessional litiga-
tion. They want justice, and justice is no longer jus-
tice, if it be delayed, so as not to benefit the injured.
We observe, with much pleasure, that the Com-
mittee has -expressed itself not indifferent to the cha-
racter of the Metropolitan IVlagistrates, and that it
recommends that in future only those should receive
appointments whose legal knowledge and high personal
reputation would ensure ,the adequate discharge of
their important duties. We would be sorry to
be thought reflecting on the character of any
member of the metropolitan bench of Magistrates,
when we observe that they do not at present stand high
in public confidence for attainments of the most ne-
cessary kind, and that we hail every step which is
about to be taken for the improvement of so important
a body of public functionaries.

It has been the fashion in Parliament, and out of
doors, for the opponents of the present Government to
taunt its Members with truckling unworthily to Mr.
O'CoNNELL, and courting his favour and approbation
of their proceedings. The imputation has been an-
swered so triumphantly by Lord BROUGHAM, that
we should not now allude to it, except for the purpose
of introducing a circumstance which seems to prove,
that if the Whigs have ever stooped to curry favour at
Darrynane, they are not the only persons who do so.
One of our Irish correspondents says :
" The Lord Adare, a young nobleman, lately of age, and
who is supposed to have an ambition to represent his native
county (Limerick) in Parliament, has just returned from
the Mountain Court of King Dan. He is the heir of the
Earl of Dunraven, a personage better known in England by
his citizen additions of Wyndham Quin, who had that famous
row with Spring Rice about the year 1819. It is stated
in the Limerick papers, that Colonel O'Grady, one of the
Members for Limerick County, has been considered dan-
gerously ill ; and in the succeeding paragraph comes the
announcement of Lord Adare's return from Darrynane.
Put that and that together. There may be nothing in the
matter ; but the juxta-position has an ominous appearance,
whatever may betide on't.
" The Clergy of Limerick have published their petitions
to the King and the two Houses of Parliament. They in-
treat his Majesty to protect the Church from those mea-
sures which are calculated to neutralize its usefulness by
reducing its ministers to beggary.' Such an appeal comes
with admirable grace from Archdeacon Warburton, Mr.
Dickson, and a few others who might be mentioned. Had
they and their forbears been less afraid of beggary,' the
usefulness of the Church had not been so completely neu-
tralized as it is. The petition to the Lords conveys the
assurance of their sincere and heartfelt gratitude for the
anxious solicitude for its welfare, which the Established
Church of Ireland has long experienced from their Lord-
ships, and especially for that barrier which their recent de-
cision upon the Irish Tithe Bill placed between it and im-
pending ruin !' This beats cock-fighting. They go on to
state, that although bitter suffering has been their lot—
(what ! the lot of the Warburtons, the Dicksons, et hoc
genus mane ?), yet in humble reliance upon the support of
the Almighty, they are prepared to endure unto the end.'
Really, as Richard the Third says,—
" If this have no effect, she is immortal."
" Think of men possessing five or six thousand a year
being prepared to endure unto the end, rather than consent
to a modification, whose object is peace and a competent
provision for the labourer, who, very unlike many of them-
selves, is worthy of his hire.' These petitions of the Li-
merick Clergy are the very concrete essence of impudence
and hypocrisy."

Of all the man
disgusting a ias which have ever taken
possession of the public mind, the most horrid and dis-
graceful is that which the English exhibit in running
in such crowds to gloat their vulgar eyes upon the
scene where any barbarous and inhuman tragedy has
been committed. We are led to make this observa-
tion by having witnessed a number of persons, of
every age and sex, pressing in eager throngs to South-
ampton-street, Pentonville, the scene of a late dreadful
occurrence. Some heartless and greedy individuals