The Sun.
London, England, 1833-10-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We can add almost nothing to the informa-
tion which we yesterday communicated respect-
ing the progress of the civil war in Portugal, and
the apprehensions of a similar struggle in Spain•
We say apprehensions, because we can scarcely
reckon the partial disturbances in Biscay as the
commencement of a serious national contest.
They have been excited by a class of persons
who are not likely to resist long the Queen's
troops,—they are limited to a comparatively in-
significant and unconnected district,—and they
have originated in a mistake, which can easily be
rectified, namely, that the Queen's Government
had resolved to abolish the ancient provincial
rights of the Biscayans. As we observed yes-
terday, so little had the insurrection spread, that
the highways had not been obstructed, and it
was supposed that a very small detachment of
troops would be able to restore order. We
never looked for any formidable resistance to
the existing Government at Madrid from the
peasantry in the mountains of the Basque
provinces. The tempest destined to shake
the throne of the young Queen, if it come
at all before its consolidation, must come
from the west, and be " directed" by the mili-
tary rebels who may have engaged their swords
and their troops to Don Carlos. It, on the
Portuguese frontier, the army of General Sears-
field is faithful, and if in the three provinces of
Galicia, Estremadura, and Andalusia the
Captains-General and military force may he re-
lied on, the cause of the Pretender may be re-
garded for the present as desperate. We shall
not, however, he long left to conjecture on this
important point. The experiment of a rival
banner is soon to he tried, and in a few weeks
we shall see what fitvour it will attract, or by
what force it will be upheld. The Globe of last
night stated that M. Cordova, the Spanish Am-
bassador at the Court or rather in the camp of
Don Miguel, had written to Lord William
Russell to apprise him, that on hearing of the
death of his brother, the Pretender had imme-
diately set out for Estremadura. If we can
credit, the terms of the alleged message, it would
seem that our noble Lisbon envoy was expected
to do more on this emergency than probably
lies within the compass of his instructions. The
fact, however, of the communication having
been made seems extremely probable, and the
truth of the announcement is as little to be ques-
tioned. M. Cordova, though opposed to the
Constitutional cause, and though accused by the
Ministers of Don Pedro of having supported
Don Miguel, is known to be firmly (though,
perhaps, not consistently) attached to the suc-
cession of the Infant Queen of Spain, and there-
fore hostile to the pretensions of her uncle. It
was natural, therefore, that he should give the
alarm, when he observed the suspicious move-
ment of the Infante, and he could not do so
more effectually than by communicating the
event to the English Ambassador, who had the
hest means of transmitting the intelligence to the
Spanish frontier, either by sea or laud. In the
course of eight or ten days we shall probably learn
whether his Royal Highness has been hailed as
a King or detained as a prisoner by the troops
of Saarsfield, for his return to Spain at the pre-
sent crisis cannot be such an indifferent proceed-
mg as not to be followed by such an alternative.
A Spanish Royalist in Paris has written a letter
to the Gazette de France, assuring the European
public that Don Carlos, so far from being an
enemy of the liberties of the Spanish people,
had resolved immediately on his accession to re-
store thefiteros, or franchises of the kingdom
of Arragon ! These franchises, as most of our
readers know, were of the most extensive kind,
enabling the States to tell their Sovereign that
if he acted in a certain manner he would be
called to the throne, " if not, not ;" but why
Jinn Carlos should dig out of the forgotten
archives of Arragon rights and liberties buried
for SOO years, and should not speak of reviving
the Cortes of Castile, which had their existence
continued to a later period, we cannot con-
ceive. Though the Spanish people in all the
provinces of the monarchy have, perhaps, al-
lowed centuries to pass over them with fewer
changes in their manners and customs than any
other nation in Europe, still the political insti-
tutions of the Arragonese in the " time of the
Grand Justiciar" would suit as little the politi-
cal wants of the present generation as the ar-
mour of the Cid would fit the body guard of the
existing Queen Regent. Perhaps the cunning
Cellist, thinking that the Government of the
young Queen was about to announce important
popular changes in the Spanish constitution,
thought of making his idol out-bid her Ma-
jesty in the market of popular rights. If
such was his design, he has reckoned without
his host, at least for the present. The mani-
festo of the Queen Regent to her people and to
Europe, published in the Madrid Gazette of
the sth instant, is calculated to show that her
Majesty intends to establish no rivalry in politi
cal innovations. This important announcement
is calculated to destroy the hopes of the Con-
stitutional party, without, perhaps, allaying die
fears or regaining the confidence of the Aposto-
lical. It breathes the policy of Zea Bermudez
in every line, and is nearly a transcript of the
famous declaration published on his accession to
the 'Ministry last year, a declaration made before
he left London, and submitted to the Holy Al-
liance Ambassadors, both in this metropolis and
at Paris, on his way to place himself at the head
of the Cabinet at Madrid. The publication of
such principles shows that M. Zea Bermudez still
rules the Spanish councils, and therefore that his
pest conduct may be taken as a correct commen-
tary on the meaning of his present publication.
The Renal Manifesto professes the resolution of
the Queen to support the Catholic religion and the
absolute monarchy of Spain as they at present
exist, in all their plenitude of power and abuses.
It speaks of " dangerous innovations," by
which, of course, it means all constitutional or
liberal changes ; and when it declares the pur-
pose of the Queen to transmit the sceptre to her
descendants " without any diminution of its
power," it means without the establishment of
any popular control over the exercise of the
Royal prerogatives as they are at present held
and have hitherto been exercised ! Such a de-
claration may satisfy the Apostolicals at borne,
and the Holy Alliance abroad, but we are afraid
that it will alienate from the Queen's Govern_
ment the party of inprovement, who would
have been her most zealous supporters, and that
it will make it a matter of perfect indifference to
the people whether an arbitrary minister reigns
under the auspices of Charles V. or Isabella 11.
—Times.
Time lovers of venerable abuses—the fond
admirers of the beauties of privileged injustice
and immemorial barbarism, must be exceedingly
edified by the description of the machinery and
.
working of the Sheriffs' Court of the city of
London, which Mr. Charles Pearson sketched

the other day in the Common Council. One
of the most singular features of the whole ex.
hibition was, the amusement which a faithful
and graphic detail of certain absurd and ludi-
crous civic privileges seemed to afford to the
worthy citizens themselves, who, though nursed
in the lap of corporation monopoly, were not
aware of the extent of the immunities which
charter conferred or custom sanctioned, as part
and parcel of the dignity of the Corporate Go-
vernment that presides over the " first city in
the world." But there are serious matters con-
nected with this subject, too serious and sad,
indeed, to be a source of pleasant excitement,
whatever may be the absurdities with which they
are connected. The law of imprisonment for
debt—a law which confounds poverty with
crime, and takes away the liberty of the subject
on an ex parte affidavit, is bad enough, Heaven
knows, even when best administered, but let us
hear the description of its operative process in
connection with the machinery of the Sheriffs'
Court, as eiven in Mr. Pearson's speech :
"By the law of England, in the Superior
Courts, no man can be sent to prison but
upon the oath of some one who is ame-
nable to the penalties of the law, as a
perjurer, if he swear falsely to the debt."
We must here observe, that is not always the
case. It is possible, and it has sometimes hap-
pened, that a person owing nothing has been
sent to prison on the affidavit of somebody
swearing to a fictitious debt in a fictitious name,
and who thereby escaped detection and the pe-
nalties of the law. Such instances are, of
course, exceptions to the general practice ; but
Mr. Pearson speaks of tl►e ordinary practice of
the Sheriffs' Court. He says, according to that
practice, the oaths to imprison or hold persons
to bail for debt, " if tendered at all, are but idle
mockeries, administered by a youth invested
with no legal authority, who deals out process
for the incarceration of our fellow-citizens in a
prison, as if they were tickets of admission
to a theatre.—(Cries of Shameful,' and
cheers.) Not satisfied with having sinecure
Judges, who have for years fed at the Corpora-
tion crib, without doing adequate service for
their pay, within the last year or two some fresh
sinecurists have been enlisted into the corps, in
the shape of clerk sitters of the Court. The
business had before been found inadequate to
furnish a respectable provision for the clerk
sitters, and yet their number was increased
to eight ; and, as if to show the perfect
uselessness of the appointment, seven out of
these gentlemen concurred in appointing a de-
puty to do the work for the whole, while they
shared the surplus emoluments among them. He
hated sinecures, and he hated worst of all those
sinecures which fastened themselves upon judi-
cial proceedings. He was therefore not likely
to be an advocate for any such ; but he would
say, that if the corporation of London tolerated
these appointments, they ought for ever to shut
their mouths when similar sinecures in high life
were the theme of observation. The clerk
sitters were the signers of the writs in the She-
riffs' Courts. They did their work by deputy,
and made the office a sinecure ; and although,
because the practice of the Court was happily
small, their remuneration was small in propor-
tion ; yet the amount levied on the public in
such a case was nearly double the sum which was
taken by the Noble Lords who enjoyed those
privileges in the superior Courts, and were fre-
quently held up to public observation as corm°.
rant oppressors of the people." After some al-
lusion to the legal sinecures of the Duke of
Grafton and Lord Ellenborough, he proceeded :
—" The Court would learn with astonishment
and indignation that the person appointed by the
clerk sitters to administer the oath of arrest had
no legal authority to do so, and that 110 punish-
ment for perjury could be inflicted on the guilty
authors of a poor man's imprisonment under the
process of these courts."—(Here the cries of
" Shame" were repeated.) Mr. Pearson then
went on to detail some of the practices of the
notorious Coster and " his myrmidons" in the
Sheriffs' Court, where that accomplished swind-
ler was in the habit of issuing out in his own
name personally a great many writs. Would it
be believed that he actually used the process of
the Court to incarcerate his creditors and persons
whose property he had plundered by his infa-
mous ingenuity ? Here is a picture of civic
justice, in all the virgin glory of antique barba-
rity, safely enshrined in the sanctuary of Corpo-
rate privilege from the violating rudeness of re-
form ! How it continued so long undisturbed,
and without a ray of daylight let in upon its
system of grotesque, yet most grievous oppres-
sion, is a question that may well be asked of the
reformers of the London Corporation. Have
they been so busy in reforming the abuses of the
State that they had no time to wield the besom
in clearing out their own Augean stable ? The
existence of such things in the nineteenth cen-
tury makes us believe, with Sir Edward Coke,
that Corporations have no soul. Nay,
more, that they have no shame. After
the exposure which has now taken place,
however, the Corporation of London can no
longer plead ignorance of the system of oppres-
sion—the mockery of justice of which its own
Courts are the degraded scene. Indeed the
manner in which Mr. Pearson's speech was
received afforded gratifying proof that whatever
iends of corruption, venality, and jobbing were
present, felt it impossible to resist the case which
was made out, and which they must be conscious
the power of public opinion would uphold until
it triumphed. It remains for the corporate body
now to make some atonement for their long tole
ration of the exposed abuses, by earnestly and
actively setting about the reform 0f ;heir own
Courts, that they may become what they were
originally intended to be—a benefit to the inha-
bitants of London, and an assistance to public
justice, instead of being a source of fraud and
oppression, and a disgrace to the civilization oh
the nineteenth century.—Morning Herald.

We refer our readers to an account of a
meeting of the Governors of the AldersgAte
Dispensary, on the subject of the disputes be-
tween the late medical officers and the Commit-
tee of Management. The result has not dis-
appointed us. We are far from wishing to give
any body of men a power which may be abused,
and if medical officers intending to resign, tinder
the existing regulations, could, by giving secret
information of their intentions to their friends,
enable them to get the start in a canvass, this evil
might have been obviated. But the proper re-
medy fcr this evil was not certainly to make
elections merely a matter of weight of purse.
However,
otherwise.the
Governors
An
of this Institution
Institution
determined of
this
kind is chiefly supported by the middle class,
and the decision of a meeting of Governors may
be supposed to reflect
Teitttlyl e
ve accurately
respect thefor
feelings of shopkeepers. pretty
that valuable class, who possessrymany good
qualities, we are at the same time quite aware

of their disposition to turn their knowledge of
business to the best account. We have no
doubt that it is generally thought among them,
that it was all very fair that Mr. Herring should
avail himself of his situation as Committee-man
to supply the Institution with drugs ; and that the
naive proposition of a Mr. Bishop, that the me-
dical offices should be put up for sale, had not a few
admirers among those who have no other estimate
of merit than amount of property. That his Royal
Highness the Duke of Sussex, however, should
continue to connect himself with an institution,
after the principle of jobbing had been sanctioned
in so barefaced a manner, would have slrprised
any one acquainted with the purity of his prin-
ciples. We are not surprised that medical
gentlemen of liberal education shou►d feel un-
easy under the management of such men as the
most of those are who contrive to push them-
selves into Parish Boards. From the speci-
mens of vulgar swaggeri,ig at the Meeting yester-
day, an idea may easily be formed of what they
are when all reserve is thrown off. The me-
dical officers have done well in closing their
connection with the establishment. or course,
no medical men of respectability will take their
places ; but Mr. Herring will take care that the
patients shall be in no want of drugs ; and the
other members of the Committee will no doubt
apply themselves to the supply of the other
wants of the Institution.—Morning Chronicle.

It will be seen that Sir W. Horne, in a
written answer to an invitation to attend a meet.
ing for the repeal of the assessed taxes, states
that no one is more fully sensible than himself
of the oppressive nature of these taxes, and no
one is more anxious for their repeal, but—
(there is much virtue in a " but")— they are
necessary for the purposes of revenue, and cm-
not be repealed with safety. The Globe a few
days ago acknowledged in a similar fashion that
the Ministers and a majority of the House of
Commons had solemnly pledged themselves to
the repeal, but—that the national faith could
not be maintained without them, and that,
therefore, all oromi,es were void. But s'as Sir
W. Horne ignorant that there was a revenue to
he kept up for the public service, and were his
Majesty's Ministers and the House of Commons
ignorant that Etere was such a thing as national
faith to be maintained at the time these promises
were made ? No ; they knew as much then as
they do now; but then there were places to be
kept, and seats to be obtained, by any means,
however dirty or dishonest ; now both places
and seats are thought to be secure, and the
mask is boldly thrown off; too boldly and un-
blushingly in our opinion.— Morning Post.