The Sun.
London, England, 1834-02-12 00:00:00

can justly he made to answer for any portion or
such productions ? Why the oilman or chandler
who furnishes light to read them by, might as rea-
sonably be punished for his part in promoting the
knowledge of their contents ;—nay, one friend who
accommodates another by the loan of a newspaper
for an hour or two, might, under no sharp stretch of
the law as just expounded, be prosecuted for the
crime of publishing. There is nothing, let it be
observed, in the act of taking 7d. in exchange for a
paper sold to a single customer which can aggravate
the offence against a prosecutor for libel, beyond the
act which we have above referred to, of lending tire
paper to a single acquaintance, and not asking any-
thing in return. We hold, therefore, that under this
nefarious law the most ordinary proceedings of domes-
tic or neighbourly intercourse must be put an end
to, and that every man who parts with his newspa-
per out of his pocket may look for a notice from some
attorney that he is to stand an ac.ion for libel.
But where, even in the case of tradesmen, is this
terrible nuisance to end ? Many keepers of cir-
culating libraries carry on likewise the more active
business of newsmen ; and Baron Bolland has pro-
nounced that every vender of a printed publication
is answerable for its contents : so these unfortunate
circulating librarians, eking out their precarious in-
comes by the supply of newspapers, are not merely
responsible for all newspaper libels, whether they
may have seen them or not, but for all the scandal
which may by possibility be contained in the five
thousand or six thousand volumes of modern ephe-
meral rubbish under the name of novels, which they
may as well shut up shop as refuse to circulate
among their subscribers. There must be a finish
nut at once to such stupid and barbarous iniquity.
We call upon the Law Officers of the Crown to
bring in a Bill without delay for the correction of
this amongst other enormities of the law of libel.
It cannot be done too soon. Until the power of
persecuting innocent persons, now in frequent exer-
c-se, be abolished, there will be a universal warfare
against the peace and comfort of society ; and
though, as in the case above alluded to, the damages
may amount to no more than a single farthing, still
costs and vexation form severe eucroachmen•s on
the tranquillity of life.—Tinges.
Our readers will have the satisfaction of learning
from our Parliamentary report, that Lord Alihorp
stated last night that it is the intention of Govern-
ment to introduce a measure for the establishmen,
of Local Courts. The Bill is this year to originate
in the House of Commons. We know of no mea-
sure more calculated to benefit the country than the
establishment of Local Courts. That much incon-
venience has been suffered from the want of them,
is a matter of notoriety, and the only wonder is
that the nation has been so long patient under the
evil. The institution of Justices of Peace has, in
some measure, supplied the place of regular tri-
bunals; but though Justices of Peace may be found
of considerable benefit as aids to tribunals, we are
quite satisfied that they ought not to possess the
extensive administrative and judicial powers com-
mitted to them in England. The union of terri-
torial influence with judicial power is always, per-
haps, an evil, though in the early periods of society
it is, perhaps, indispensable. The first step in
civilization, however, is the annihilation of this
union by the general Government arrogating to
itself the judicial power. At an early period of
our history the King's Courts were invested with
jurisdiction over the whole land, and the
Courts of the Barons were superseded. But
the Aristocracy has been enabled to recover
much of their lost power in the institution of jus-
tices of the peace, which for the want of local tri-
bunals, has gradually become invested with the
jurisdiction possessed in other countries by such I
courts. Against the union of territorial influence
and judicial power it is hopeless to contend, and
hence the mischief which the justices of the peace
have been enabled to do in the execution of the
poor laws. In Scotland, where local tribunals are
established, justices of peace remain what they ori-
ginally were in England, a sort of aids in emergency
to the administration of justice. They are useful
to the local judges by serving as a stimulus to them,
as the dissenting clergy are to the clergy of the
Establishment. We have no doubt, as the laws in
England and Scotland respecting the poor are essen-
tially the same—that the reason why the Scorch
are strangers to all these abuses connected with the
administration of the poor laws, which are now
producing such bitter fruits in England, is to be
attributed to the exclusion of justices of peace from
all interference with the poor. We are far from
denying that, in the absence of more regular tribu-
nals, justices of peace often do much good in the
country. We merely wish to say that the institu-
tion has been productive of much evil as well as
good, and that much of the evil would not
have occurred had regular tribunals been esta-
blished. It is quite clear that no merely
local judges could have possessed sufficient
power to convert the whole labourers of the coun-
try into paupers, and that nothing short of the
union of the power and influence, which the own-
ership of the soil gives, with the judicial power,
could have produced such a result. We refer to
the Rev. Mr. Brereton's pamphlets, and to the re-
cent proceedings in Buckinghamshire, for a proof
of the utter impossibility of contending with the
Justices of Peace, when they set themselves to
protect abuses in the administration of the poor
laws. We instance particularly the abuses of the
poor laws, as a result of the absence of tribunals
deciding on fixed principles. But every man who
has lived in countries with Local Courts, knows
that redress is obtained in them for many wrongs
which must be borne with in England, because the
redress is either too expensive, or cannot be ob-
tained in time. How many disputes, for instance,
arise out of the mode of exercising the right to
water! A man may see his neighbour employed
in an operation by which he may sustain the most
serious injury. In Scotland he may obtain an in-
junction at an hour's notice, and the whole matter
may be inquired into on the spot in a day or two.
The native of Yorkshire or Westmoreland, with all
the improvement of modern communications, cannot
hope for an injunction in less than a week, by
which time irreparable danger may have been sus-
tained by him. But this is only a sample of the
numberless wrongs which mu•t be borne in England
for want of Local Coin ts.—illorning Chronicle.
A Committee has been appointed, on the motion
of Mr. Ward, to inquire into the practicablity of a
plan for recording the votes of Members. This is a
great step gained. The inscription un the collar of
Bealonstichais's Newfoundland dog," Beaumatchais
in'apppartient" (Beaumarchais belongs to me), may
be said to express pretty correctly the feeling of the
old representatives with respect to the relations be-
tween them and their constituents. Instead of
considering themselves as representing the people,
and accountable to them, they considered that
they had bought the people for a period, and were
their masters. Hence, during the unreformed Par-
liament, the idea of Members being bound to attend
more than they liked, would have been scouted
an infringement on their dignity and independence;
and the publication of divisions, so tar from being
'avowed, was looked on with an evil eye. We
need hardly observe, that there is a good deal of
he old feeling in the reformed Parliament—that
many Members do not like the idea of being bound
to attendance in their places in the House, from its
meeting to its rise,as a positive duty,but conceive that
they ought to be masters of their time, to attend the
House when anything interesting invites them,
and to absent themselves from it when plea-
sure invites them elsewlisre. 'l his sort of feeling,
however, is quite incompatible with responsibility
to constituents, and it must be mastered. When a
man entered the House of Commons because, from
his property, no competitor could stand a contest
with him, or because he was the proprietor of the
place from which he was returned, it was nature
that he should consult only his own inclinations as
to the extent of his attendance in Parliament. BuL
this state of things is, or ought to be, at an end ;