The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-06 00:00:00

EVENING-,

making malicious commentaries upon everything he did,
and with misrepresenting his motives on every occasion.
Such remarks (the Learned Counsel observed) showed
that the temper of Mr. Ramshay quite unfitted him for
the office of judge, and that he was incapable of dis-
charging his duties in an impartial and satisfactory man-
ner. The Learned Gentleman was proceeding to detail
the course taken by Mr. Ramshay in the case of Mr.
Whitty, when
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins interposed, and suggested the
propriety of all witnesses being ordered out of court.
The Earl of Carlisle directed the witnesses on both
sides to withdraw, and after their examination to remain
in court.

Mr. Monk then narrated the events attending the
committal of Mr. Whitty, the proprietor of the Liverpool
Journal, for the publication of a placard stating that,
amongst other articles, the Journal contained one headed
" Mr. Ramshay's opinion of the people of Liverpool."
The Learned Gentleman entered very minutely into the
details of that transaction, and read the whole of the
shorthand writer's notes of the proceedings which took
place on that occasion. In the course of the discussion
which then arose Mr. Ramshay said he had decided ten
or twelve thousand cases, and had no doubt he had made
ten or twelve thousand enemies. That certainly was an
extraordinary statement for a judge to make, and he
must possess a singular mind, indeed, who could ima-
gine that every decision which he gave raised him an
enemy. He (Mr. Monk) could readily imagine how a
judge might make an enemy. For instance, he might
make himself an enemy by giving a decision after hear-
ing:one side of the question only, and refusing to hear
the other. He also might make an enemy by laying
down a rule in a particular case, not to allow costs when
the claim was under 10s. Cases of that description he
understood he should be able to prove before the close of
the inquiry.
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins inquired on what part of the
memorial his Learned Friend rested that part of his
charge?

Mr. Monk replied on that portion of the memorial
which charged Mr. Ramshay with unfitness for his
office, and prayed for a general inquiry into his conduct
since his former acquittal.
The Earl of Carlisle did not think it desirable to open
any case involving wrong decisions on points of law.
Mr. Ellis understood the Learned Gentleman to say
that Mr. Ramshay might have given such and such de-
cisions as would have made him enemies.

Mr. Monk replied in the affirmative, and intimated
that he would act on the suggestion of the Court.
Mr. Sergeant Wilkins said that Mr. Ramshay had
desired him to ask the names of the cases referred to.
Mr. Ramshay observed, that he was anxious that an
inquiry should be instituted into every part of his conduct.
Mr. Monk resumed—The only offence with which Mr.
Whitty was charged was the publication of the line in
the placard to which he had already referred. That was
the offence for which the fine had been imposed, and for
the non-payment of which he was afterwards committed
to Lancaster Castle. Now, if Mr. Ramshay possessed
the power which he had exercised, it must be under the
statute, and it would rest with his Learned Friend to
show how far his client was justified in the course he
had pursued.

Mr. Ellis—You say the common law recognises no
such , powers. You mean, I suppose, as to inferior
courts?

Mr. Monk apprehended that such power was not pos-
sessed by either inferior or superior courts. If a man
committed a disrespectful act while the court was sitting
he was amenable to its powers. If, however, he should
do something out of court at which the court might
feel aggrieved, but which had no reference to the matter
subjudice, the tribunals of the country were open. The
Learned Gentleman then adverted to the committal of
other parties for the display of feeling which they mani-
fested during the hearing of the case of Mr. Whitty,
particularly referring to the cases of Brown and Cald-
well, the former of whom was committed seven days for
contempt, and the latter fined 5/., Mr. Ramshay re-
marking that as he seemed a more respectable person
than the other he would give him the option of paying
the fine instead of committing him at once. Such a
course of proceeding was not at all likely to maintain
the dignity or honour of the court over which Mr. Ram-
shay presided. The next cased adduced by the Learned
Counsel was that of a person who was fined 10s. for
putting his hat on in an outer room adjoining the county
court, where Mr. Ramshay was sitting. The fine was
afterwards reduced to 55., but the poor man being un-
able to pay it was committed for two days to Lancaster
Castle. In pronouncing his decision in the case of Mr.
Whitty, the language of Mr. Ramshay was most ex-
traordinary, for in imposing the fine upon that gentle-
man, he observed that he looked like a man in whose
eyes and face the worst passions and the worst feelings
of human nature were depicted. Another instance of
the unfortunate temper of Mr. Ramshay was displayed
in the case of young Whitty two days afterwards, who
was charged with having committed an assault on a per-
son named Joyce, who accompanied the bailiff to the
house of Mr. Whitty. In pronouncing judgment in
that case, Mr. Ramshay said he was not certain what
was to be done about Joyce, who bad been attacked in
such a manner, but if he should bring an action, and
lay his damages at 501., he (Mr. Ramshay) did not think
he should be able to cut those damages down. Such a
remark as that was actually prejudging the case. The
Learned Gentleman here observed that he was desirous
of consulting the convenience of the Court, as far as
possible, and suggested the propriety of calling wit-
nesses to complete that part of the case which he had
already opened, severing it altogether from the case of
young Whitty.
The Earl of Carlisle thought the better course to be
to go regularly through the whole case.
After a short adjournment of the Court, the inquiry
was resumed, and Mr. T. Atkinson proceeded to read
the short-hand writer's notes of what transpired on the
occasion when Mr. Whitty, jun., was brought before
Mr. Ramshay. The Learned Gentleman had not con-
cluded when our report left.

KOSSUT H.
(From the Daily News.)

Louis Kossuth has opened a batter); against Russia
and absolutism, which the champions or that power
and this principle know not how to meet, or what
kind of entrenchments to raise against it. Our abso-
lutistsprepared for an outburst of
onslaught of republicanism. They
expected appeals to popular passions or demands of
armed intervention, to be attended by the dangers and
democracy,
aen v i d ently
expenses of war. The Hungarian orator has em-
ployed none of these missiles, and had recourse to
none of these hackneyed and alarming menus of agi-
tation. He comes forward as a philosopher, to utter
the simple complaints of humanity, and plead as a
supplicant, not as a tribune, for its rights.
What Kossuth comes to ask is not armies, is not
subsidies, is not the demonstrations which provoke,
or the vapourings which either end iu smoke or in
the kindling of war—all he asks for, is a just, an
awakened, an enlightened, and informed state
of public opinion. The great Hungarian
orator declared his determination not to
touch upon the internal politics of this
country. And yet, unwittingly, he laid his finger
upon one of our most marked peculiarities and de-
fects. No minister or party could raise or spend one
penny without the light and force of public opinion
being directed towards it to prohibit or approve. Yet
by which the influence
bear upon the principles
ino f Itheir
l awn
de igyvhtaiserbrdoeucgishiotntso,
and parties which agitated and divided the continent,
for these publie opinion in England was blind, was
ignorant, was apathetic. Diplomatic agency with us
is a mystery, and the speech of a Minister of Foreign
Affairs, even in full Parliament, a mere flinging of
dust in people's eyes. Let the public into the secret,
saith Kossuth, let public information and public
sympathy be thereby excited, and a Minister will be
as powerful for good as he is now almost powerless.
Never were words spoken more full of truth and
meaning, or more conducive to the grand purpose of
a great and popular league of constitutionalism and ci-
tizenship, against the absolutism and soldierdom of the
west.

When Kossuth had thus disposed of the bugbear
of war, he turned to unmask another of those empty
spectres, with which the reactionists frighten timid
citizens to the slumbers of Toryism. This was social
order.

"Many people," said Kossuth, " wben they hear
these words social order, get nervous and excited.
There are many that misuse these sacred words as
a blasphemy. They call social order absolutism ;
they say that it is social order when humanity is put
in prison ; they call social order the silence of the
grave."
And Kossuth then went on to show that the main-
tenance of social order could only be based on the
cannot
arguments
goes-
recognition of popular rights and the establishment of
sense
enaaml freedom.idstalltheirSoenntohbulseiaasnmd,
are these convincing, so logi-
cal amidst all their sentiment, and so full of common
and this language, that anything like reply is im-
possible. The most inveterate of the foes of Kossuth
and of the supporters of Russia can find nothing to
gainsay in them. The nobleness they
tion, the truth they cannot deny. They, therefore,
accuse the man of hypocrisy, and assert, that because
he is rational and right be cannot be sincere, and
that this mild philosopher, who preaches no principle
more warlike than non-intervention, or more extreme
than constitutional liberty, must be a Jacobin in dis-
guise, whilst the citizens who welcome him are set
down as a band of sans culottes, anxious to disturb
the public tranquillity and feast with the communists
on private property.. Mr. Wire is a Denton with
this veracious historian, and Charles Gilpin is nothing
other than a Robespierre in a straight collar and broad
brimmed hat.
Absurdities such as these, which excite a smile, do
not need refutation. It is admitted that Kossuth's
present conduct and attitude belie them. But in order
to stigmatise him, and make a contrast between his
present mildness and his past energy, the history of
his life is raked up, every event of it misrepresented,
and every act of his distorted. Thus because in his
country, walled up by Austrian custom-houses, he
proposed a league for the non-consumption of the
dear and beggarly manufactures of Austria, while
opening its ports to the cheap produce of England, as
soon as he had pow er to do so—for this Kossuth is
stigmatised as a Protectionist.
Another crime is, that to support a war in defence
of his country's independence he employed paper
money. And, pray, what did Pitt, the pilot wbo
weathered the storm ? Paper money includes English