The Sun.
London, England, 1832-11-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We mentioned oil Saturday, and repeated
yesterday, that the reply of the King of Holland
to the summons of the two Powers (France and
England) to surrender the citadel of Antwerp
could not be much longer delayed, as a delay to
answer would be construed into a refusal to yield.
That answer has now been received, and con-
tains a refusal to surrender the citadel of An
twerp until after the signature of a definitive
treaty of peace, of which treaty the Dutch Go-
vernment requires that their own conditions shall
form the articles. The language, however, o'
this refusal, we are informed, is temperate, alto
its tone far from warlike. Nor is it considered
as at all certain that his Dutch Majesty may not
consider it prudent to surrender Antwerp with-
out a struggle upon the actual approach ol
the French army. Such is the only infor-
mation which we have received on thi,
important subject, and such appears to 1.)1
the most reasonable inference which can be drawn
from the certain single fact above-mentioned
Let us once more, in a very few words, explain
the present position of affairs in the Netherlands.
while a combined fleet is under sail for the
blockade of Holland, and a French army i,
marching for the capture of Antwerp. Holland
for two years, while negotiating with the London
Conference for equitable terms of separation
from Belgium, has kept possession of the few
acres of land comprised in the citadel of An-
twerp, which are avowedly of no value in them•
selves, and the possession of which can therefor(
be employed for no other purpose than that ol
endangering the safety of the chief port of the
Belgic kingdom. Belgium considers this occu-
pation of one of her f6rtresses, and justly consi-
ders it, as a standing act 9f hostility. The two
nations have, therefore, only had an armistice.
and not a peace, since the revolution of 1830.
The existence of a Dutch garrison on the small
plot of low lying ground above Antwerp, is a
continued system of warfare, as palpable as if a
Dutch army were encamped at Liege or Ghent.
So long, however, as matters remained unad-
justed, the Belgic Government yielded to the
advice of the Allies, and allowed the Dutch to
keep possession of this fortress unmolested
under the assurance that it would be evacuated
as soon as the Conference had sanctioned tit(
treaty of separation. That was done on tin
25th of November last year. The treaty, then
reluctantly accepted by the Belgians, gave then,
the sanction of Europe for their independence,
and guaranteed to the new state the whole extent
of its territory, of which Antwerp composes an
important part. From that time, at least, it
not before, Belgium became an acknowledged
independent kingdom, anti Antwerp ceased tc
be Dutch (under any conceivable pretext as
much as Brussels or Liege. Holland has ac-
cepted of this treaty so far as it confers an in-
dependent existence on Belgium, and deter-
mines the settlement of its territorial limits. 13%
this acceptance it has of course abandoned all
claim of ownership over the citadel of Antwerp.
The King of Holland, however, from probably
lurking hope that by delaying a final arrange-
ment he may recover " his" Belgic provinces.
keeps possession of the citadel of Antwerp, not
as a fortress to which he has any just claim,
but as a hostage for obtaining unreasonable term,
from his neighbour and rival. Having taken 111
this ground, his Dutch Majesty declares that ht
will not surrender the citadel of Antwerp till the
Belgians and the maritime Powers of Europt
agree to the conditions of a projected treaty which
must block up the port of Antwerp by prohibiting
the entry of vessels into the Scheldt. It is quit(
evident that in acting thus he does not depend
upon the justice of his claims, because all
Europe,including the three great despotical
Powers of the continent, who are his allies, have
given their award against him. He therefore in-
tends to make use of the brute force of the sword
against what all his friends consider the justicr
of the case. He keeps hostile possession of a
territory not his own, that he may obtain those
terms by lawless violence which he despaired o'
obtaining from unbiassed equity. Belgium, or
the other hand, accepted of the treaty, and call,
(as she has a tight to do) upon the Conference
to secure its execution. The first and mail,
article of that treaty is the integrity of the
Belgic territory, which is violated every bout
that the Dutch garrison remains in the citadel o'
Antwerp. Hence the necessity under which
France and England ate placed, as they restrained
the Belgians float invading Holland in 1830, to
drive out the Dutch from every portion of the
Belgic territory. The settlement between the
two States of the few points of difference which
have been reserved by the absolute Courts of
the Conference for future deliberation, maa
be effected as justly, and certainly more
impartially, when both the parties are hide.
pendent of each other, by enjoying the full
sovereignty over their own territory. Hence
though we say that Holland ought to be
compelled to surrender Antwerp in the first
instance, we would not deprive her, on that ac-
count of any advantage which the treaty secures
to her, or which she may gain by subsequent
negotiation. Such are the circumstances which
create the necessity of British and French inter-
ference in order to prevent a war, which, if be-
gun in a corner of the Netherlands, must extend
over the whole of Europe. It would be a sub
jest of deep regret were it necessary for us t(
come into actual collision with the Dutch on
this occasion,—but if his Dutch Majesty re-
fuses to surrender Antwerp till his oval ridicnlous
fancies are complied with, and if the Belgians
will not treat on any terms till their territory is
freed from an enemy, the two Powers which
have undertaken the execution of the treaty, by
the promptitude and decision of their conduct.
will merely limit the extent and shorten the dura-
tion of a contest in which they must have
sooner or later been involved by the fortunes of
the parties, though they had never undertaken
the office of acting as their umpires or arbiters.
—Times. •

The death of the Lord Chief Justice has
thrown a task of some delicacy and difficulty upon
the shoulders of Lord Grey. Lord Tenterden
was a person who, though not much known as
an advocate, had the highest reputation in tha t
character, which once gave the name, and is still
the most important feature of the profession of
the bar—the character of a " counsellor." His
business, before he was promoted to the bench,
was so extensive, that during the income-tax his
return was for many years the largest made
any lawyer, showing at once his professional in-
fluence and his integrity. He was not merely a
lawyer : he was one of the best classical and
mathematical scholars of the age, and up to the
last days of his existence was constantly oc-
cupied in mastering every kind of knowledge,
both popular and scientific. Still, upon the whole,
his powers of mind, though considerable, were not
of the highest order ; they were more discriminative

than creative. To extensive acquaintance with
the common law of England, in which he was
unequalled since the days of Holt, we may ra-
ther say of Lord Coke, the deceased Judge
united extraordinary (though not invariable)
calmness of temper,—the more remarkable as he
was constitutionally vehement and imperious,—
patience in watching and balancing the argu-
ments of counsel, or the facts disclosed in evi-

rlence,—and skill in laving the merits of the
most complex case before a Jury. Like the
great bulk of trained lawyers, Lord Tenterden
had his predilections in favour of authority.
All official functionaries felt that they might
confide in the amplitude of that judicial
.nantle within whose folds no shelter that de-
cency permitted was refused to them. Under
the " legal" reign of Abbott, the unpaid Ma-
:istrates of this country had no cause to complain
that the Government of the King's Bench was
less " paternal" than at any former period.
Still his Lordship was a distinguished and very
able Judge. Although without much'personal
Agility beyond what was inseparable from
.uavity of manners directed by good sense, Lord
Tenterden contrived to keep his Court in ad-
mirable order. The most arrogant spirits sunk
under his steady and grave rebuke.
All things considered,—the qualifications of
men, and the relations of parties,—we repeat
that the choice of a Lord Chief Justice cannot
now be an easy duty. In that selection the first
quality looked for ought to be integrity. A dis-
honest Judge must bring the law into universal
hatred. The second ought to be profound and
extensive knowledge. An ignorant Judge must
bring the law into contempt. The head of the
King's Bench, as the high administrator of
criminal justice, ought to be a man well
calculated by his reputation for uprightness
and humanity to impress the King's sub-
jects with confidence in the protection of
the laws of England, and with a steady
attachment to them. Political or party
motives ought not to govern the minds
of the King's advisers in the recommendation of
this great Magistrate : nor ought they, by con-
sequence, to prefer for a Chief Justice one who
himself was prone to be influenced by such
motives. Above all things he ought not to be
what is termed a " high prerogative lawyer;"
a sworn ally of the Attorney-General in all
matters between Crown and subject, but a ge-
nerous constitutional lawyer, to whose heart the
rights and liberties of Englishmen are dear. As
the supreme censor morunz, the Chief Justice,
if well selected, will be a personage of good
private character, otherwise every sentence which
falls from his lips, in reproof of transgressions
and immoralities, may lose its effect upon the
public mind, and be turned to his own coati-
,;ion. It is to be hoped that his Majesty's
Ministers, on an occasion of which the impor-
tance is so much enhanced by the nature of the
times we live in, may acquit themselves wisely
of the obligation cast upon them, and that the
nation may not have cause to murmur.—Tinges.
The degree to which the public interest has

begun to be excited by the proceedings of
Magistrates in the local and minor Courts, could
hardly be conceived by our readers without a
oerusal of the volumes of letters which every

day's post brings to this office upon the subject.
One essential to legislators, to administrators of
the law, and to the people, is, that there should
he a fixed and certain rule of action for the
whole community, whereby every man should
know how to avoid transgression or how to ob-
tain redress. This advantage is obviously want-
ing, where different Courts, within four-and-
twenty hours of each other, decide the same
question (the facts being alike) upon directly
opposite principles, and thereby make, in effect,
contrary laws for the perplexity and distraction
of men's minds, instead of the clear and safe di-
rection of their conduct. It is impossible to
look at the newspaper reports of summary pro-
ceedings before police and other Magistrates
without being aware of the glorious uncertainty
in their respective decisions upon apparen‘ly the
most simple questions; and not merely in their
decisions, but in those voluntary and extrajudicial
dicta wherewith the worshipful persons alluded
to so frequently favour the counsellors, attorneys,
suitors, defendants, and prisoners, brought be-
fore them for the ends of justice. Everybody
must recollect his own amazement at what oc-
curred a few days ago in Queen-square, when a
worthy Magistrate thought fit to reprobate a re-
spectable citizen of Westminster for securing the
person of a man against whom the coroner's in-
quest brought in a verdict of manslaughter not
eight-and-forty hours afterwards. This Magis-
trate, in the teeth of a maxink* which every legal
tiro reads in his first lesson, went even so far as
to ask vvhether a man might not do what he pleased
within his own premises, without seeming to
imagine that it was possible for him, as in the case
under consideration, to use his property to the
injury or destruction of his neighbours, and that
such a perversion of the right of ownership was
held by the law of England to be a highly penal
act. Why, according to the report of the pro-
ceedings at the Middlesex Sessions, no longer
back than last Saturday, a previous conviction
before the Magistrates of the same Westminster
police-office, in the case of one of the King's
coachmen, who had been adjudged by those
learned personages to pay toll at the Brompton
turnpike while merely exercising the King's
horses, was quashed at once, upon reference to
the Act of Parliament ; notwithstanding which,
on the very same day the Queen's coachman,
engaged in the identical duty of " exercising her
Majesty's horses, by express order of her las-
ter of the Horse," was fined 3/. and costs for
refusing to pay toll,—that is, for rejecting a de-
mand adjudged to be illegal by the whole bench
of county Magistrates for Middlesex. In both
these cases the alleged offence was the same,
and the toll demanded from the oyal servants
because " they were not going to attend upon,
or returning from attendance on, their Royal
master or mistress." It remains to be shown
that the privileges of the Queen's household in
that respect differ from those of his Majesty's.
But it would be endless to enumerate the dis-
crepancies which manifest themselves amongst
the decisions of these subordinate tribunals, and
needless to dwell upon their mischievous conse-
quences to the country. They ought to be
brought immediately under the notice of the Se-
cretary of State for the Home Department, and
either the selec:ion or the administration of the
functionaries who serve in such Courts be placed
upon some less objectionable footing. We wish
. not to be misunderstood as intending to convey
any sweeping censure upon the stipendiary Ma-
gistrates, many of whom are acute and well-in-
, formed men, of competent legal judgment, but it
is evident that such a frequent conflict in their
decisions cannot help the general enforcement of
the law ; on the contrary, it must often tempt to
offences from the hope of impunity, or to the

4 Sic utere tu) ut alienum non Imdds.