The Sun.
London, England, 1833-08-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Among the Bills postponed in the House of.
Commons on Thursday last, until the next ses'-'
sion, is one to he brought in by Mr. Vernon,
Member for Derbyshire, for regulating the sale
of corn. This is not a Bill of undue restriction
or coercion, or troublesome intermeddling with
the freedom of commercial dealing ; but simply
for reducing to one principle, and that a sound
principle, the standard by which the quantity of
corn, bought or sold, is to he determined : at
present grain is sold in some places by weight
—in others by measure,—and " different rates
of weight and measure are employed in diffe-
rent place's, whereby much confusion and
uncertainty arise in the quotation of thi,
prices of corn in different ports and markets."
It is the purpose, therefore, of the worthy Mem-
ber for Derbyshire to assign a certain number of
pounds avoirdupois to each nominal Wincheeter
bushel, and to reckon the quantity of corn, &e.,
bought or sold, by the number of bushels thus
constituted. Every person conversant with the
nature of grain is aware that the quantity of fa-
rina, or sustenance, contained in it can be by no
means calculated from the number of bushels
which it measures. The weight is the only
basis whence the value can be safely concluded.
A bushel of wheat weighing 601 b. yields more
than 41h. of. flour above the quantity afforded be
wheat of 561 b., because the husk is propor-
tionably lighter in the grain of superior quality.
But in the old way of framing the returns, the
number of stricken bushels, without reference to
weight—that is, to substance—is the datum on
which commercial reasonings proceed, and
the consequence is an extreme looseness in
all calculations respecting the amount of real
produce sold, and of real value received for it.
Mr. Vernon, therefore, appears to us to have
juatice and common sense on his side, when he
proposes that the nominal bushel, or quarter,
shall not be determined by a given hulk, but
" shall he construed in all cases to mean so
many pounds avoirdupois, as are indicated in a
schedule" (annexed to the Act defining the
bushel of wheat to he 601 b., barley, 501 h., &c.).
We trust the Hon. Member will not delay the
introduction of his Bill, which affects in a
manner FO important so great a variety of
commercial transactions throughout the king-
dom, to a late period of the next session, and
thereby a second time endanger its Parliamentary
success.— Times.
The apathy shown by the citizens of London
on occasion of the present vacancy in the repre-
sentation is by no means creditable to them as
the first constituency in the kingdom. It is true
that they have been, as our sailors term it,
" taken a back" upon the occasion, and were,
of course, not prepared to find the patriot of
Yesterday become the renegade contractor of to-
day ; but still, after the zeal which they have
shown upon the subject of the Reform Act, it
was naturally to be expected that they would
not, like children, cast it aside like a toy as soon
as obtained, but would evince their sense of its
value, by the eagerness, sobered by discretion,
with which they seized upon and exercised it.
There never was an instance within our recollec-
tion of the representation of the city of London
being a matter of indifference—still less of its
going a begging ; and it cannot, we fear, be
denied that it augurs ill for the cause of consti-
tutional freedom, when the most valuable privi-
lege of freedom is allowed to devolve upon any
casual hand that may be held out to claim it.
We are not desirous of seeing the riots or tumults,
still less the corruption and excess which too fre-
quently form what may be styled the orgies of
a contested election ; but we do wish to see
the constituency of the first city in the world
alive to its own importance, and setting an ex-
ample word-y of their station at the head of a
nation of freemen. Besides, there has seldom,
if ever, been an occasion on which the local
interests of London called for more wary and
enlightened guardians. To say nothing of the
interests which it has in common with the rest
of the kingdom, measures of the liveliest moment,
as regards its commercial prosperity are, and are
coming before Parliament, and evidently call for
a more than ordinary degree of knowledge,
activity, and perseverance on the part of those
whose duty it is to watch over its rights and
interests at so momentous a juncture. The
Corporation, which used to be the source from
which the City Members were taken, is evi-
dently now at a lower ebb, both in point of
talent and respectability, than it has ever before
fallen into. From that source, therefore, no-
thing can now be expected ; hut fortunately the
Reform Act has opened a new and wide field
to supply this aldermanic dearth, and it is to its
mercantile wealth and talent that the City of
London must now look for representatives, and
we trust on this occasion will not look in vain.
—Morning Herald.
The Sherborne Journal of Thursday last,
contains an account of a meeting at Chard, in
Somersetshire, and its neighbourhood, on
Thursday week, at which resolutions were passed
expressive of regret at the rejection, by the
flonse of Lords, of the Local Courts Bill, and
a petition to the House of Commons, founded
on the resolutions, was agreed to. At this meet-
ing the speakers, one and all, spoke in strong
terms of the oppressiveness of the present state
of the law, and one of them, Mr. S. Edwards,
solicitor, said " he hoped to see such a system
hrougnt into operation, that no one would be
obliged to go out of his own town to obtain
<effectual redress in seeking the recovery of his
claims ; and if the publicity given to the pro-
ceedic gs of this meeting should have the effect
of calling the attention of larger towns to the
subject, and an expression of the necessity of
suoh a measure should go through the kingdom
up to the House of Lords, it would be impos-
sible for them 'to resist the prayer and demand
of the nation." The same number of the
Sherborne Journal contains a report of the
charge of Mr. Justice Alderson to the Somer-
setshire Grand Jury, the great object of which
seemed to be to attack the Local Courts Bill.
It was a desirable thing (said the Learned
Judge) that the custom, which had continued for
so long a time in this realm, of administering
justice in frequent assemblages of the people, in
a regular progress through the different counties,
should be retained, and that it should combine,
as it had hitherto combined, the great advantage
Of bringingF justice home to every man in his
county. But let us, before we proceed further,
ask Mr. Justice Alderson if justice is, at present,
brought home to every man? Were even justice
brought home, it does not follow that it ought
only to be brought home twice a year ; but is it
justice to say that a man shall not be able to en-
force his claim, except at an expense greatly
exceeding its amount ? Mr. S. Edwards, the
solicitor, of Chard, says that " to sue under the
present law was frequently a costly risk to the
plaintiff, even with a successful result ; and, after
a I retracted process, he might return victorious j