The Sun.
London, England, 1835-06-15 00:00:00

'of investment ; giving to its possessor a moral
claim upon the Lcgislature for the permanency or
tirdy abolition of the law, which he has gamed
by employing his capital or labour in adven-
tures only compatible with the existence of the
law." Do not the rights here thus summa-
rily threatened with destruction come within the
above most correct definition ? If it should be said

that these are privileges which could not he reasonas
bly be expected to be allowed long to exist, we can
only say that, without entering into the question of
their expediency or inexpediency, we find no word in
the Commissioners' Report condemnatory of such
rights, and no evidence, as far as we have been
able to discover in the separate statements and col-
lections of facts of the Commissioners, showing that
such rights were prejudicial to the public. AVe may,
however, be prepared to admit that such exclusive pri-
vileges may he en evil, but their abolition in such a
way we consider an injury of a tenfold more serious
description. By another clause of tl is s line Bill all
persons are prevented becoming fret me 1, &c., after
the passing of the Act, excepting under the pro-
visions therein stated. Now in many cities and
towns the freedom of the city, to which attaches
very valuable rights, is obtained by servitude or a
seven year's apprenticeship to a freemen of the place.
Now it happens that many persons who have paid large
premiums with their indentures, or may have em-
barked their all in this way, will by the end of
tho year, have completed their seven years' servitude.
It is right, it is expedient, if that be a more forcible
term in these days, that such persons should thus be
wholly deprived of all the benefits and advantages ex-
pected to have been derived from this outlay of their
time and money ? We are by no means anxious to
press to tts extreme limits the doctrine of vested rights,
as there is scarcely a right on which sonic expectations
are not founded ; but we think the two eases here
alluded to are such as at any rate call for some consi-
deration. The right of property is one of those vested
rigats, which a wise and prudent Legislature will
always. be most cautious in interfering with ; that it
has the power so to do no one can for an instant deny ;
but we need !lordly attempt to describe the lamentable
state to which every country must be reduced, when
every thing is in such a state of uncertainty, when the
possessors of property cannot feel secure of their pos-
sessions for a day, and when the sound and wise po-
licy of not disappointing tue legitimate expectations
and calculations of such proprietor shall have yielded
to the dangerous principle of public expediency.—
Morning Herald.
We are pleased to hear that the electors of Hull
have invited Colonel Thomson, the editor of the
Westminster Review, to represent them in Parliament,
and that Mr. Tates has withdrawn in his favour. The
electors of Hull have long been known to the country
as the unflinching friend to that cause which lies deep
at the heart of every Englishman who wishes well to
his country, who would support the institutions of his
country by reforming their abuses. We would not,
however, in speaking thus of a particular constitu-
ency, throw the slightest shade over either the purity or
the intelligence of others ; for we are well assured that
in those places where the people are now represented
by those who oppose the welfare of the state, in the
garb of patriotism, men of honest motives and liberal
sentiment will soon be hailed by a people liberated
from the chains of an overbearing municipal authority.
May all constituencies be represented by 'such men
as Colonel Thomson ! This gentleman has long been
known to the world as one of the best writers on
political economy, and on all the stirring questions of
politics which have agitated the country for the last
few years. Colonel Thomson is an advocate for uni-
versal suffrage, annual Parliaments, the ballot, the
opening of the Universities, and the utter destruction
of all sinecure places. Such a man is well suited to
represent the opinions of the electors of Hull ; and
has a further claim, founded on the circumstance that
he is a man of intellect and of religious consistency.—
Morning Advertiser.

A correspondent, under his proper signature if " a
General Officer," has made some sensible and humane
observations on the imperfect manner in which the
duties of the civil and military power in cases of riot
are at present regulated. Nothing can be more true
or reasonable than that a soldier, like every other sub-
ject, should have a right to defend himself when wan-
tonly attacked, and to repel violence by force. The
practical exercise of such a right ought nevertheless to
be strictly attended to. A soldier is assaulted by sticks
or stones, and if he repels the aggression, it must be by
the use of weapons, the employment of which, when
resorted to at all, it is extremely difficult for the highest
degree of skill or temper to reconcile with the pre,serva-
tion of human life. On one side, therefore, the troops,
if forbidden to defend themselves, may be murdered—
on the other, if that prohibition be removed, the
power of life and death over their fellow-subjects
is placed in the hands of ignorant and excitable
men, unused on other, or almost any, occasions, to act
for themselves, or to exert the slightest atom of free
agency in the most trifling instance. While the army
• remains the only power in this country which can be
relied upon for the suppression of tumult, there is but
one approximation towards a cure for the above em-
barrassing dilemma—that is, a return to the whole-
some practice of the old English magistrates, who were
used invariably to put themselves at the head of the
troops, to share whatever risks and injuries the latter
were exposed to—to issue their orders to the officers
commanding—at what moment to employ actual force
against a mob—how far to continue it, and when to
desist ; thus limiting the exercise of discretionary
power to those in whom the law reposed its con-
fidence—to wit, the civil magistracy of the reahn.
The magistrate, as is justly observed by our gal-
lant old correspondent, ought not to content him-
self with ordering military execution from the balcony
or the hall door of an inn ; he ought to be upon the
spot where the military were assembled, to pre-
vent, at the peril of all transgressors, any recourse -to
fire-arms or sabre but on his own express and, ftill
authority—to treat the soldiers as his instruments, and
to take upon himself the whole responsibility of the
acts which lie enjoined, and of their consequences.
It is barbarous, as well towards the troops as towards
the community,. to invest them with a discretionary
power for which they are unfit, and then, as mostly
happens, to raisc, a clamour against them for using
it to the best of their judgment. In the recent case
of Wolverhampton, it appears from all the evidence
which has yet transpired, that the Dragoon Guards
were more sinned against then sinning ; and what-
ever may be thought of the previous want of prepa-
ration on the part of the Magistrates, or the not more
blameable than contemptible want of an efficient con-
stabulary force within the town, before the riots had
advanced to the point at which a recourse to the troops
became indispensable, the conduct of both officers
and men, when they did act, was marked by a temper
and forbearance the most honourable, under the most
savage provocation. Upon a matter in some respects,
though not very closely, connected with this of the
employment of the troops against the multitude, we
have, with ail deference to the higher military authori-
ties, and with a fall persuasion of their habitual soli-
citude for the public satisfaction and comfort—we
have to suggest that such of the Guards, Cavalry
and Infantry, as are accustomed to walk about the
streets of the metropolis with side-arms, should, when
off duty, be ordered to leave them in their barracks.
The Coldstream Guards, we are told (but without
vouching for the fact), have already, by command of
their Colonel, adopted the better practice of moving
about town unarmed, and we arc convinced. that an
extension of that rule to the entire army, while it ren-
dered the troops less objects of invidious remark, would
neither tend to relax their discipline, nor (still less) to
endanger their safety. If it did either, we should be
the last to recommend it. But to return to the subject
with which we started—namely, the suppression of
riotous mobs—it appears to us, that in order to im-
prove the respect of the populace for the civil power,
an efficient police ought everywhere throughout the
United Kingdom to be established, on principles as
nearly as might be similar to those on which the or-
ganization and direction of the Metropolitan Police
west of Temple Bar have been framed. The outcry
raised against Sir R. Pool's Police Bill by the patrons
of our " ancient and reverend watchmen," afforded
strong circumstantial tlidencer in favour of the Right