The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF T.

JOURNALS.

The death-of one of the Justices of the Court of
King's Bench in Ireland opportunely affords to the
Government a desirable occasion of proving to the
people of that country, by the appointment which they
will now make, their desire that the administration of
justice should be not only pure, but above the
suspicion of impurity. The decease of this func-
tionary has been for • some days the subject of
varied commentary in the Irish papers. By one
party. his death in " these perilous times " is de-
scribed as a national calamity ; whilst the popular
journals generally, with a tenderness that is not
customary with the organs of the Orange faction,
speak of him as a man who, in private life, was
possessed of good
.qualities ; but, on the Bench,
was -distinguished • for:- the exhibition of strong
political. feelings. --The editor of the Pilot, with
,the recollection, we suppose, of a sentence some
months since pronounced upon himself by this
same Judge,' utters an emphatic prayer on his behalf,
which is certainly pregnant witTi meaning, ". May
he never be judged as he has judged." Making
all possible allowance for the hypereulogy on the one
band, and the questionable benediction on the other,
we understand
.from impartial quarters that the deceased
Judge, like most Irish judges, owed his elevation more
to his politics than to his merits. 'We can conceive
no greater national evil than that springing out of the
.want of confidence in the. administration of justice.
The fact of this lamentable distrust is clearly beneficial
to the progress of crime, and fatal to the influence of
law. The sentences of Courts of Justice are designed
to be an example to society, to warn evil doers from
their offences : but if society have no confidence -in the
tribunals Of 'public opinion do not ratify the law, the
judgments of the Courts produce no moral effect ; in
too many instances the offender is regarded as a victim,
and the just penalty of his crime is converted into the
first 'fruits of hippaitolom. - We therefore can sym-
pathise with the_peepte,,ofireland in their hope that the
appointment of the new Irish judge will be distinguished
by the selection of some man in whom_ the Govern-
ment and the people can alike place confidence.
If 'there be tendencies in a judge they should be
popular, and:'even if they extended themselves into
errors, the errors _would be on the side of virtue. The
circumstances-of a judge must naturally be at all times
a control on the too free indulgence of a popular dispo-
sition. Selected in the first instance on account of his
learning, his integrity, his calmness--with the impres-
sion on his mind that although irresponsible to the Crown,
he owes his station to the favour of the Crown—with
the feeling inseparable from the possession of his
office, that the honours of himself and his order, and
of all orders, depend upon the maintenance of just law
—we repeat that, with such correctives, it is desirable,
especially in a country like Ireland, that the mind of a
judge should be imbued with kindly sympathies with
the people, and that the public voice should concur in
the nomination of the Government. We understand
that there are many such men at the Irish bar. We
are assured that there are many men at the Irish bar
who have been the victims of their liberal opinions in
times gone by. The Government will, -of course, look
to such men in this contingency ; and, without ven-
turing to dictate, we ask could there be a better appoint-
ment than that of' the present member for Monaghan
county, Mr. Perrin ?—Morning Chronicle.
Of all the barefaced avowals of plunder with which
civilised society has ever been disgraced,. not omitting
even the unbridled acts of avowed banditti, the threat-
ened " extinction of tithes " in Ireland is one of the
most remarkable. We speak of the extinction of tithes
without any,equivalent, for that is the..undisguised
object of the present scheme put forth by Mr.
O'Connell. To their commutation both in Ireland and
England, upon just and reasonable grounds, there
neither is nor ever has been any great objection.
Taking it then in the light in which it is now presented
to us, let us deal with it in the way of comparison.
Let us imagine, for instance, the gentlemen of the Swell
Mob, with some leader at their head, openly announcing,
to the goldsmiths and jewellers of London their deter-
mination to confiscate the plate and jewels which the
latter display for sale in their windows and warerooms,
and to boast; moreover, that they were in close
league with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and Sir
Frederick Roe, who were apprised of, and parties to,
their project. The parallel may sound very offensive
in some ears ; yet the two projects bear a much nearer
analogy than such persons may be inclined to admit ;
the injustice and atrocity being, however, on the side
of the tithe extinctor, who has his eye not only on the
property of the Church, which he purposes to use as
a means to an end, that being the extinction of the
Protestant religion in Ireland. They are both then
specimens of avowed and barefaced robbery—the pro-
jector of the one claiming to be a Ministerialist, and
basting the King's Ministers for his allies and abettors;
while the alliance boasted of by the latter would
scarcely serve to save them from the gallows. But let
us put the subject upon another, and still more appo-
site analogy. Let us imagine—(and many of the most
warm and honest friends of that country do not dis-
claim the sentiment)—let us imagine, we say, that the
idea was entertained and avowed, that the only effectual
panacea for the ills of Ireland was the extinction
of the Roman Catholic religion. That such would have
been, in effect, the case long since, had the means pos-
sessed by its Protestant Government been faithfully
and honestly applied, there are many who entertain no
doubt. But having failed in bringing about that
spread of Protestantism which a series of good, instead
of misgovernment, would have produced, let us sup-
pose the friends of the reformed religion noW proposing
to go a shorter way to work, by confiscating the pro-
perty, imprisoning the persons—in- short, by renewing
all the hateful persecutions which Catholicy heretofore
was exposed to. Is there any reasonable or enlightened
man, be he of what religion he may, who would not look
with horror at such a proposal, and blush with shame for
,its projectors, and with redoubled shame if he heard it
avowed and uncontradicted, that these persons were
acting in concert, or at least with the approbation of
the Government for the time being of the country ?
Engagement makes men bold, and the country has to
thank Mr. O'Connell -for the candour with which he

avows his object, about which there can be now " no

mistake." But what will the King's Ministers say ?
What will they do ? They probably may wish that
their new ally had not been quite so communicative ;
that is, supposing they are in anywise parties to his
projects, which we would fain hope they are not. If
they are not, Mr. O'Connell has left them no choice,
no time for deliberation. They must either disavow
is ,projects and disclaim his alliance, or must submit
to the ignominy. which the consent implied ..by their
silence must inevitably bring upon them. For the
country in general--.-fogy as well as Ireland, it
is fortunate that the irtatttpkis brought to this crisis.
We would rather it, shOuld turn out that Ministers
have been the betrayers and not the betrayed, though
in either case the honour would not be very great.
They have now, however, no alternative but to take their
side. May that side be such as becomes British States-
men, the servants of a Protestant King. We will not
flatter them by telling them that their alternative lies
between glory and disgrace. Glory, we fear, is, in
their case, out of the question; they must be satisfied
if they can avoid disgrace. At present they are within
an ace of being overwhelmed by it. A short time must
rescue or engulf them.—Morning Herald.

As an elucidation of the benefits derived to the
country from Whig Government, the Globe last even-
ing asserts " that Portugal is free„ Spain regenerate,
France liberal and our friend:, We leave it to the

French Journals to answer that part of the above as-
sertion which concerns them, and make bold to ask
our Contemporary what kind of freedom and regene-
ration Portugal and Spain are now enjoying? Is it
freedom to,,adopt a, general system of spoliation, to
•encourage the assassination of political opponents, and
keep the prisons crowded with victims to whom the
forms of a trial are refusal ? or is it regeneration to
murder the inmates of a convent in their beds, and
set fire to places venerated for having been asylums to
the hungry and infirm ? Is it freeing a country
to force upon it a Sovereign opposed to the
choice of the inhabitants—a Sovereign having,
no other right than that derived from foreign aid
and protection ? Or does it savour of v.-gene-
ration to establish martial law, and give every officer

bearing a Christino commission unlimited power over
the lives and property of his countrymen ? The se-
cond period of the Peninsular revolution has com-
menced, and the dominion of the mob is fairly esta-
blished. In Lisbon the first exercise of its power was
marked by the assassination of persons whose names
were furnished by the Clubs ;--in Madrid by the
wholesale butchery of victims to whose memory and
families justice was afterwards done by the government
ordering an- expiatory Mass I If we mistake not Por-
tugal will yet have to wade through torrents of blood
before she can be free ; and, as regards Spain, we see
no reason to boast of the triumph of the new principles
of regeneration over those which it has become fashion-
able to call ridiculous and antiquated. The govern-
ments of both countries are now pre-eminently revo-
lutionary, and want nothing more than a Robes-
pierre for each to make them what France was in
1789.---Morning Post.

A very interesting return, moved for by Mr. Hume,
was recently laid before the House. It is an account
of the amount of capital upon which legacy duty has
been paid in each year from 1797. This return af-
fords us an opportunity of judging of the comparative
wealth of any period since that time ; and also of
watching the gradual increase which has taken place
in the accumulated wealth of the country. Our read-
ers are of course aware, that the amount of capital we
shall presently refer to, does not include real property.
Every one must recollect how confidently a speedy na-
tional bankruptcy was predicted after the war—how
the same result was anticipated after the passing of
Mr. Peel's Bill for restoring to the country a metallic
currency—and how constantly we have heard; both in
and out of the House of Commons, of the increasing
burden of taxation, and of the impossibility, under
such disadvantageous circumstances, of the indus-
try of this country contending against foreign
manufactures. Repeatedly also have we heard
of the insolvency of the shopkeepers of Lon-
don, and that they, as well as the fanners, were
living upon their capital, instead of the profits arising
from the employment of that capital. Our readers
will, however, be surprised to find that the facts,- with
regard to the personal propeity of the country, are
totally at variance with these assertions and predictions.
'We are surprised that a return similar to that now
before us has not been obtained before ; it is impossi-
ble, in any way, to exhibit, so accurately, the varying
degrees of prosperity to which this country is liable as
by showing the fluctuations in the amount of the accu-
mulated wealth of the country. In 1805 the rates of
legacy duties were altered, and made more comprehen-
sive, and therefore we cannot arrive at accurate com-
parative results previous to that time. In the twenty-
eight years from 1805 to 1833, there have been
greater- changes. in the political and commer-
cial relations of this country than in any former
j period of its history. The ten years to 1814 include
a period of uninterrupted war, supported by an expen-
diture unparalleled in the annals of any country in the
world. It was followed to 1819, by a period of great
stagnation and distress in the commercial world. This
was succeeded by the return to a metallic currency,
which accelerated the then falling price of commodities,
and produced a period of extreme commercial as well
as agricultural distress. -The country was, however,
rapidly recovering from the combined effects of the re-
turn to peace and to a metallic currency, when a spirit
of speculation arose, and was carried to such an extent
that in 1825 and 1826 the commercial world was
shaken to its very foundation, and for time all confi-
dence appeared to be lost. But again the industry of
the country triumphed, and is now, apparently,
strengthened by its previous reverses, accumulating
wealth with astonishing rapidity.
We find by the returns before us that the average
annual amount of property subject to legacy duty,
'during the five years from 1805 to 1809, was X 9,527,879
During the five years, 1810 to 1814, was 18,619,976
In the first period the average annual expenditure

was 58,000,000
Second period was 68,000,000
The average price of wheat was in the first period 82s.
Second period 99s.
By this statement it appears that the annual amoun
0. _

property subject to legacy duty, was nearly doubled
the last five years ; but if we estimate the value of

this property by the quantity of wheat it would have
purchased, we shall find, that in consequence of the
advance in the price of corn from 82s. to 995. per quar-
ter,' the corn value of the property annually bequeathed
in the former period as compared with the latter, is as
9 to 15, instead of 9 to 18 as appears by, the account
in money. The next period is the five years after the
termination of the war, and here we may trace the effect
of the diminished expenditure, as well in the rapid in-
crease of property, as in the return of the price of wheat
to a more natural state, thus—
The annual average capital paying legacy duty,
from 1815 to 1819, was £28,996,601
The annual average expenditure 58,000,000
The annual average price of wheat 775. 11d., say 78s.
In this period we have an increase of 10,376,6251.
in the property annually subject to duty, and if we
compare these amounts with the quantity of corn they
would have purchased in, their respective periods, we
shall find that the real wealth of the country increased,
not only in the proportion indicated by the figures,
viz., from 18i millions to nearly 29 millions,, but from
18i. to 36 millions, using round numbers. This it
must also be recollected took place in the five years
after the cessation of the war. The next period is the
five years immediately succeeding the passing of Mr.
Peel s Bill and the return to a metallic currency. The
public has been deluged with pamphlets upon the
efF.....ct produced by this measure. That the fall in
prices which commenced upon the return to peace,
was by it more speedily brought to its lowest limit,
there can be but little doubt ; but what proportion was
directly caused by the Bill, and what by the increased
stimulus given to commerce by the removal of restric-
tions, and by abundant harvests, is yet doubtful. The
fact of a general fall in the money value of commo-
dities, is all we wish to be acknowledged, and that we
shall prove to-morrow to have taken place.—Morning
Advertiser.