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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Mr. Ewart's bill for permitting counsel to plead for
prisoners on their trials on charges of felony has not
attracted that attention which its importance deserves,
though we are glad to see that it has surmounted the
feeble opposition with which it was on Wednesday assailed,
and has been read a second time. It has always appeared
to us inconceivable on what ground counsel should be
allowed to display their eloquence and ingenuity in defence
of their clients, when accused of misdemeanors or high
treason, and yet should be debarred from opening their
lips for them when the indictment charges them with
robbery or murder. The extreme cases of offences
known to the law—namely, misdemeanors and high
treason—have thus a particular privilege, of which pri-
soners tried for the intermediate species of crimes are
deprived, and we think that it would puzzle even Mr. Ser-
geant Spankie to tell us why this should be the case. It can-
not be traced to the practice of other civilised nations, because
if we go to France, to Germany, to Scotland, or to the
United States of America, we find all prisoners entitled
to employ the eloquence of their advocates in exciting the
commiseration or enlightening the conscience of their
judges—in pointing out the bear:ng of the evidence, or
showing its insufficiency to warrant a conviction. Neither
will the oft-repeated and stale argument, that the judge is
advocate for the prisoner, explain the anomaly, because the
judge is the advocate for the prisoner equally in misde-
meanors and high treason as in felony ; and yet counsel
are permitted to plead in the two former cases, and not in
the latter. Mr. Sergeant Spankie's equally recondite rea-
soning against the bill, that if counselwere allowed to plead
for felonies, a trial for felony would become an arena
of contest between opposite advocates, who in their
struggle for victory would lose sight of the interest
of their clients and of justice, is equally inadmissible ;
because, if this were the case in charges of felony,
why should it not be so in misdemeanors and in
high treason? Besides, the learned sergeant must
have forgotten, that though the bill relieves the Judge
from the office (which, by the way, he never undertook)
of being counsel for the prisoner, it does not. depose him
from the bench, but enables him to prevent those amphi-
theatric ccntests, alike hurtful to the interests of justice
and to the due examination of evidence, which seem to
haunt his learned fancy. As to the supposition that a
learned Judge may be provoked by the eloquence of the
prisoner's counsel into a hostile feeling against the prisoner,
and therefore labour to procure the conviction of an inno-
cent man, it is too monstrous to require refutation. The
question, in fact, appears to us to be decided almost by a
statement of the arguments against the bill, and we enter-
tain little doubt of its ultimate success, after the plain
sense spoken by Lord Althorp in its support.— Times.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE (THIS DAY)

(Frwm r imvirs
DEAL, JUNE 5. —Wind N. N. E., light and variable.—
Arrived and sailed for the river the Lady Flora, from
Madras ; Catharine, Fenn, Duke of Northumberland,
and Warrior, Stone, from Madras and Calcutta ;
Eleanor, Harclock, from Ceylon ; and Buckinghamshire,
Shea, from China. Arrived from the river and sailed the
Boyne, Brown, for Bombay. Arrived the Clarendon and
Cambrian, from Jamaica.
PORTSMOUTH, JUNE 5. —Wind W. S.W. to N. W.
Passed by the Bengal Merchant, Campbell, from Calcutta ;
Madras, Black, from Madras—sailed Feb. 11, and Cape
of Good Hope April 3 ; Wilheim, Schoef, from New Or-
leans ; and Fortitude, —, from Galipoli. Arrived his
Majesty's ship Pylades, from South America---sailed from
Rio Janeiro March 22, and Bahia April 8.
MARGATE, JUNE s.—Arrived off port the Eleanor,
from Ceylon.
PLYMOUTH, JUNE 4.—Wind S.W., fresh—Arrived the
Arno, Scaglane, from Trieste.
FALMOUTH, JUNE 4. —Wind W. S.W. strong breezes.
—Arrived the Lyra packet, from Rio Janeiro, and SWallow
packet, from Halifax—sailed the 4th ult. Off port the
Frederick, Freeman, from Jamaica ; Ceres, Meyer, from
St. Thomas ; .—, Gibson, from Cadiz ; and Pearl,
Cove, from Lisbon.
STANGATE CREEK, JUNE s.—Arrived the Portland,
White, from Vostizza.
GREENOCK JUNE 3.—Arrived the Funchal, Picken,
and Diana, Ferguson, from Barbadoes ; and Nester, At-
kins, from Jamaica.
BEREHAVEN, MAY 30.—Arrived off port the Victory,
Biden, from Bombay.
COWES, JUNE s.—Arrived the Leader, Swift, from
Bahia; Warsaw, Thatcher, from Mobile; and Carthage,
Tapper, from Virginia.
TORBAY, JUNE 4.—Arrived off port the Olive Branch,
Leader, from Lisbon.
DARTMOUTH, JUNE 4. Arrived off port the Welhelm
Charlotte, Kollman, from the Cape, and Hayteen,
Cupid, from Trieste.
PENZANCE, JUNE 4.—Arrived off port, the Michael,
Nooks, from Tobago.
klikiwro., JUNE s.—Arrived the Adelaide, Brooks,
fro Tobago.-
LIVERPOOL, JUNE 4.—Arrived the True Britain,
Balderson, from Grenada; Tweed, Smith, from Porto
Cabello ; Home, Hill, from New Orleans; Theresa,
Price, from Odessa; Perchia, from Trieste; Britannia,
Davidson, from Alicata ; Tagues, Wade, from Lisbon;
Adelina, Duverd, from Bordeaux ; Edward, Metz, from
Stettin ; and the Hercules, \% arner, from Stockholm.
Off port the Albion and Royal Saxon, from Calcutta;
Margaret, from the Mauritius ; Andromeda, Martinham,
and the Harriet, from the River Plate; General Wolfe,
from Rio Grande ; Archer, from Barbadoes ; Mary, R. J.
Haynes, Napier, and Hannibal, from New Orleans.
HARWICH, JUNE 5.—A boat about 14 feet, marked
inside J. Brunton, and outside Johnstone, of Aberdeen,
has been brought in here.

The Astrea, from Limerick to Quebec, was lost on the
sth ult. at Leranhead, about five miles to the eastward of
Lonisberg, Cape Breton, and out of 240 passengers, only
the doctor, carpenter, and one of the crew saved.
The Idis, Barnaby, from Liverpool, N. S., to Barba-
does, was capsized during a sudden squall, 19th April.
The Rebecca, Faulkner, from London to Quebec, was
lost on the 7th ult., on the ice, near the Green Bank
crew saved.