The Sun.
London, England, 1832-01-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Our Bristol express has brought the painful
intelligence of the suicide of Lieutenant-Colonel
Brereton. The unfortunate officer was not made
of " stuff stern enough" for the late crisis ; the
professional habits of the officer were over-
powered by the benevolent feelings of the man.
—Times.

1 he Court-martial at Bristol is suspended for
the present by the death of Colonel Brereton.
who put a period to his existence on Friday
morning. Possessing, evidently, a kind and
humane disposition, and much sensibility, the
events at Bristol must have been to him a sub-
ject of infinite distress, and it 'required only the
proceedings at the Court-martial to fill the cup
of suffering till it overflowed. It would be un-
generous now to dwell on the errors of a brave
man, who could not overcome his reluctance to,
shed the blood of his fellow citizens when
sures of vigour were required, not !wady for
the safety of a great city, but in mercy to the
misguided rioters themselves,—Adorn. Citron.

Bristol has been long in a state of painful ex-
citement ; and the accounts from the city, which
we lay before our readers this day, are as melan-
choly, as the rest. The Court-martial upon
Colonel Brereton has been terminated by a fatal
event—the death of the Colonel. It appears
that the unfortunate gentleman shot himself at
his own residence on Friday morning. What-
ever the result of the Court-martial might have
been, it is evident that Colonel Brereton was ac-
tuated by humane motives alone in the course
which he pursued during the late unfortunate
riots. This feeling has added much to the re-
gret that is felt for him. A too sensitive dispo-
sition seems to have been the defect of Colonel
Brereton's character. His friends must lament
that he wanted firmness .of mind to carry him
through a trial which probably would have ended,
if not in a direct acquittal upon al the charges,
in a way that would have left his honour unim-
paired. But the dread of a disgrace—a disgrace
which he felt that he did net deserve, but feared
that he might suffer, especially in a place dis-
turbed by party feeling—deprived him of' the
necessary firmness, and he fell by his own hand,
a lamented victim of sensibility driven to des-
pair.--Morning Herald.
It will be seen by our communication from
Bristol that the Court-martial has come to an
abrupt conclusion in the death of Colonel Brere-
ton, who terminated his existence at three o'clock
on Friday morning by shooting himself through
the heart. This truly melancholy event will of
course preclude all remark or comment from us
with respect to the recent investigation, and the
circumstances that called for it. If our readers
have attended to the evidence, more especially
that which we published yesterday, they will re-
quire no explanation as to the feelings that must
have urged the unfortunate deceased to the fatal
act lie committed. It is impossible to look al
the late proceedings without being strongly im-
pressed with the propriety, the honour, and the
ahility with which General Dalbiac has con-
ducted the prosecution.—Morning Post.
It might be desirable for the interests of Eu-
rope,—if peace between nations or confidence in
personal honour among their representatives be
an European interest,—to administer to certain
signers of protocols the freemasons' or some not
less binding oath of secrecy, before they are ad-
mitted to sit in council with other members of
the diplomatic body, and to decide, or profess'
to decide, questions affecting the destinies of
mankind. To publish what is communicated
under a seal of strict silence at such conferences
is bad enough ; but to slander the result of them
by fraudulent constructions, furnished with all
the pomp and circumstance of office, is, if pos-
sible, more iniquitous. When, however, an ac-
credited Minister to a British Court, happens
to be a person historically void of every moral
principle which could direct or restrain him,—
when such a person, for the more convenient
propagation of falsehood, thinks fit to tamper
with the English Press,—his dishonesty be.
comes tolly, when his organs of deception are
parties whom no Englishman believes. An old
acquaintance of the personage alluded to is re-
ported
to have said, in relation to a well-known
transaction, that a " blunder is worse than a
crime." As he may be waning into forgetful-
ness, we admonish him of this article of a reli-
gion once familiar to him.—Times.

Some of our contemporaries are taking pro-
digious pains to correct what they call our errors
and inconsistencies, and various other impro-
prieties, which their benevolent anxiety for our
reputation induces them to notice. We are very
grateful, but at present must content ourselves
with a short anecdote in illustration of their con-
duct. Some time ago, a celebrated orator and
leader in the House of Commons said toa fr iend,
" I cannot imagine the motives of C.'s dislike
of me ; I treat him always with the utmost
courtesy, and yet I find he is always abusing me :
his hatred is as virulent as it is unintelligible."
The friend answered with a laugh, " C.'s hatred
of you is very intelligible; and as to its viru•
lence, I can tell you a mode of neutralizing it.
Speak as badly as he does : contrive to be
coughed down tOr your ignorance and stupidity,
and C. will love you as much as he now hates
you." " Oh ! then," said the other, " I am con-
tent to be hated." The poor devil, to whom we
allude may make the application."—Times.

'e stated yesterday that the Independent
Association of the town of Rye has, at a nume-
rous meeting, voted addresses of thanks to the
Lords Bishops of Norwich and Chichester for
their manly and upright conduct in the support
of the Reform Bill, when so many others of the
same branch showed a laudable anxiety to " trip
up the heels of Ministers," professing all the
while their patriotic readiness to say " content"
to any or every measure of Reform which should
fulfil the single condition of being proposed by a
Tory Cabinet. For this admirable fact, let it
be remembered, we are in debt to the apostolic
simplicity, if not indeed what our French neigh-
bours might call " niaiserie," of Dr. Law, the
venerable Bishop of Bath and Wells. This
was the case three months ago. The train of
reasoning was orthodox and convincing, after a
certain fashion. But it is the business of logic
to change its conclusions with its premises, and
since it is now manifest that the Reformers
were guilty of the same mistake by which Eng-
lish soldiers have so often provoked their
enemies,—since they did not " know when
they were beaten," and in contempt of all the
rules of party science, did not run away, though
both outmanoeuvred and outnumbered,—
since, in fine, the success of the new Re-
form Bill and the stability of the Cabinet are
now beyond all reasonable doubt, we feel our-
selves justified in anticipating that on the next oc-
casion the reverend lords will steer a somewhat
more prosperous course, and will not again concen-
trate upon their own heads the indignation of

2.2,000,000 of their countrymen, with no re-
compense or comfort, but that of having sacri-
ficed themselves for a hopeless cause and for a
disappointed faction. The reply of the Bishop
of Norwich to the address of the Rye Con-
stitutionalists is brief and unpretending, as
usual with that amiable prelate. That of
the Bishop of Chichester, Dr. Maltby, is
eloquent, emphatic, and uncompromising.
His Lordship anticipates from the success
of the new Bill, " a return of the activity
and enterprise to trade and commerce, more
confidence in our public resources, greater secu-
rity to private peace, and, moreover, additional
stability to our religious as well as civil institu-
tions," There follows soon afterward:, a mark
• and striking passage, whieh points distinctly at
the creation of Peers. After rejecting the stale
delusion attrmpted by the Tories, that any " al-
teraton of public opinion had taken c,n the
subject of Reform," the good Bishop proceeds ;
—" We have the v.tinfaction of knowing°, that
the Constitution places in the hands of theSove-
reigtt a safe and easy remedy for ignorant oC fac-
tious opposition. In that case time should
be lost in augmenting the number of those who
have at once wisdom to see, and courage to pro-
vide, what is absolutely required by the circum-
stances in which the country is placed, in conse-
quence of the ardent and almost universal wish
to correct long-standing abuses ; and to guard
against their future recurrence by a more reason-
able distribution of the elective franchise, and by
a more fair and equal representation of the people
in Parliament." The Church of EnElanZi has
no reward too high for the author of such sen-
timents as these. He is worthy to redeem a
whole convocation of your Phillpottses and
Marshes—he is of the stuff to save at, .establish-
ment, long after it begins tc totter.—Times.
An advertisement appears in our Paper this
day referring to numbers one, two, threes four,
and five, of a publication lately commenced with
a view to direct the attention of the public to the
subject of capital punishments. We strongly;
recommend these little tracts to our rr22.:(i.ors.—
They are the production of enlightened and
benevolent minds, net sinitten with any wild
theor.i, but advocating, upon grounds which
cannot b.,?. shaken, a practical amelioration of our
sanguinary laws. In an age like the present it
would be a reflection upon the spirit of improve-
ment itself if this question of the mitigation of
our Criminal Code should be passed over with
indifference ; and let no man be deceived into
the opinion that the Legislature ha's done
enough, when it has, in (*att., doße nothing
to relieve the country from the odium and
the taint, and demoralizing influence, of such
laws. Sir Robert Peel made an atrampt at
what he sometimes called mitigation, and
sometimes consolidation ; but there was more
of the latter than the former in his work-
manship—for he approached the vstlerable
atrocity of our Penal Code with too much re-
spect, and was evidently too much afraid of
mercy to be a successful champion in her cause.
It is to hoped, however, that even now *society
is sufficiently improved to give a tone to the Le-
gislature on this important subject—a subject
which has hitherto been treated as if there were
a sort of necessity for the continuance of a bad
system, and as if the hand of the executioner
should never stop while there existed in the hu-
man heart a fountain deep enough to supply the
thirst of our tribunals. Having said so much on
the general principle, we are led by a natural
transition to glance at the result of the late Spe-
cial Commission at Bristol. What a scene
was the closing one of that painful inquiry
And does worse remain behind ) Most cor-
dially do we join with an able contemporary,
the Standard, in hoping " that justice may
yet be satisfied with the corrective punishment,
and without the destruction of the unfortunate
convicts now awaiting deaths." We differ from
the view which our oontetnporary takes of the
circumstances by which he supports his appeal
to mercy; but we join in the appeal. \Veil
would it become the Government to weigh those
mitigating circumstances which are not excluded
from the case of those unfortunate men. Well
would it hctome them to look to the origin of
the riots, the indiscretion of other parties, and
the excitement of the times, Surely no man, or
set of men, in this country could be capable of
feeling that act a reflection upon them or their
conduct by which the life of even a single fellow-
creature was spared. But mark the demoralis-
ing influence of our public executions. Read
the description of the heart-rending scene that
took place in the Court-house, and see how
even the heart of woman can be steeled by a
familiarity with trials of life and death. But the
subject is too painful to dwell upon. Let us
hope that the last act of the tragedy may yet
be spared, and the law vindicated without a for-
mal exhibition of cruelty more like vengeance
than j ustice.— Times.

Mr. O'Connell seems to have got himself into
an evil plight. His eternal turbulence, and un-
principled abuse of every honest and respectable
man in the kingdom, have led to a severer vigi-
lance with regard to his words and actions than
at any former period ; and even less than at any
former period is he prepared to stand the ordeal
which he has thus laboured (though unde-
signedly) to provoke. This clever but fast-
fading demagogue will not endure that any man,
distinguished by the integrity and services of his
public life, shall enjoy the smallest particle of
Cavour with his countrymen ; and the more une-
quivocal his titles to the gratitude or kindness of
the liberal party in Ireland, the more eager and
malignant are said to be the agitator's efforts to
depreciate him. The letters from that country
are full of indignation at the mean and sordid
selfishness which—how truly of course we know
not—the writers appear unanimous in imputing
to O'Connell. Nor do these accusations pro-
ceed from Orangemen, but in many instances
from persons who co-operated with him
zealously on the Catholic question, and on
every other which had the solid advan-
tage of Ireland for its object. But they will
not bear to be trampled on as the slaves of a
mischief-maker by the fierce multitude who sur-
ound and fawn upon him. They will not obey
his writs, —they will not _ keep pace with his
numberless and indefatigable inconsistencies.
Lord Cloncurry refuses to " register his de-
crees ;" Bishop Doyle treats with undisguised
contempt O'Connell's abandonment of his own
long-cherished plan of poor laws in Ireiand. Lord
Cloncurry again more than hints that O'Connell's
secret purpose in getting up a Dublin Parliament
was to force himself into office under the Crown,
or to wring a fresh contribution—Oh shame !
from the wretched, half-famished people. We
repeat, that dozens of letters are in town from
Ireland, written by independent persons, with
uo party bias unfavourable to Nir. O'Connell,
but all treating of his late and threatened pro.
ceedings in the same tone of contempt and dis-
gust. It is astonishing that men capable of So

much better things should thus sacrifice fair fame
and praiseworthy ambition, for what cm never
procure them more than the shouts of a mob,
and the wise man's scorn.—Times.

We refer our readers to an account in an-
other column of the success with which the
people'of Camberwell combine to resist the church
job. No Legi,lative measure in our recollec-
tion has been producalfe, of half of the oppression
which the new Church Bill has occasioned.
Every where the measure has been used as a
handle for fleecing the people. We know
no measure which has ecntributed so much to
render th Church of England unpopular, as the
21ct authorising the building of additional
churches. The proverb says—it is the last fea-
ther that breaks the horse's nurthened
as the people We.r'.e with King's taxes and parish
it required only the addition of a heavy
church rate to deprive them of all patience., A
knot of jobbers in every ;-;::',.l,sh has been ever
since busied in tearing large brick structures, and
fitrnShing them, and in devising all manner of
schemes for drawing money out of the pockets of
the people. In fact, the word .okurcti is never
' pronounced withut Up in the minds of
the hearers the idea of a rank job. The cunning
authors of this scheme for adding to tile power
of the church hat evidently over-shot the mark.
They have left on the minds of the people the
impression, that of all the corruptions in the
country, the most foul it that which takes the
name of rel'.gion to plunder them.—Morning

The Irish agitator is " catching it,' right and
left, and 14 ell tparlirs. His summons to the
Pete and Commoners of Ireland to assemble
in Dublin on the 9th instant, has dropped dead-
born from the hands of his.!Secr2tAty-L-a lifeless
and despised thing, the Peers-have refused to
attend tO his summons—the representatives of
the Commons of Ireland have scouted it—the,
Bishops have trod upon it as "an imhoiy thing;
and if Mr, o'Grninall ha'S More feeling than
nerve,'3, .We really do not envy, though we think
he amply deserves, the situation in which he'
has placed himself. When Napoleon was incul-
cating on his brother Lucien, the lief ssit4 of
sacrificing all Oublic tc.!eliiig to private ambition,
the latter is said to have observed to him that
" the bow might be bent beyond its bearing, and
that the arrow which flew from it might recoil
on the strong arm that drew It anti.-.-mama
eamponere fit.4.7i)is—such is the case with
O'Connell. He has been overpraised by
his countrymen, and extravagant praise has
spoiled him. He gainesl the confidence of
his countrymt: once, anti after having lost
it, he again contrived to regain it ; and thus
success in what may he termed the difficult
times of Ireland, has blown him up with some-
thing like s supernatural conceit in his own
powers of fascination—a conceit which has
broken forth in a manner to astonish his more
sober-minded and reflecting countrymen, and to
impress every one with the notion, that, instead
seeking the welfare of his country, he has only
been seeking his own individual aggrandisement.
We do not wish to enlarge upon this topic; be-
cause we do not wish to be thought either
ill-natured or Uncharitable ; but we should be
wanting in our duty to the interests of Ire-
land, were we to omit the answer, and part
of another answer, from Lord Cloncurry, and
Dr. Doyle, to the summons of Mr. O'Connell's
Secretary, The answer of the former breathes
a severe indignation against the ruinous
plans of the Irish agitator ; but it is the in-
dignatitm not of one who is only believed to be
an honest man, but of one who has proved him-
self to be honest—who has been the steady and
openmueh frfioern
it—who f h
has
e Country—whoen
incarcerated
sake by the worst of Tory Governments—who
has devoted his life and fortune to its benefit,
s endured
or its
and on whose character, both private and pub-
lic, there is no stain of vice—no foundation for
aprioyyelehaisrgneoote
inconsistency.flss
s
strong
limits prevent us fromg aiThe
energetic, letter
buto our
doing mere than gtvillg
i
a mere outline of it., To have withheld either,
however, notwithstanding the pressure of matter,
would have been a sin not to be forgiven in these
critical times. Let Ireland act up to the spirit
of her best friends, instead of following the
sinister advice of selfish agitators, and the right
hand of fellowship will be extended to her with
a cordiality which will win her best wishes and
forward her best interests.—Morn. Advertiser.
The trials of the Bristol rioters have served
effectually to dispel the mystification so impudently
attempted by our reforming contemporaries, by
means of Abnich they would have persuaded the
public that the crimes of these unfortunate men
were the offspring of other motives and feelings
than those which the revolutionary Ministers of
the Crown and their partisans of the Press had
laboured strenuously to excite. To counteract
this delusion nothing more was reVired than a
judicial investigation of the proceedings of the
Reform Ricters and incendiaries, in which it has
distinctly appeared that the individuals who have
been stimulated by their zeal for Reform to
violate the laws were, with scarcely a single excep-
tion, persons who had hitherto maintained a
decent character in society, and some of them
even a respectable stationthat they were not the
habitual ruffians and plunderers whom the Jour-
nals devoted to Reform were so anxious to de-
scribe, but that they were in fact what we from
the first stated them to be, person;, hitherto not
only guiltless, but ustful and meritorious mem-
bers of the community, who had degenerated.
into criminals only because they Were ardent and
zealous Reformers, and because they had been
weak enough to imbibe the lesson which the
Ministerial Press had been employed to incuredouthlrtei
Ministerial
brickbat-anti-blvd.
crime
rosi
iuumsdl d
oe.
k
s of
justify acafe
nd
cdtl
szd nperiabotl:sealLwltnandi
ntiheetah.r
goon
effectually promoted the success of Reform can-
didates at the last general election, and the
couragement held out by Government to those
who thus stimulated the people to outrage and
violence, produced their proper and natural effect
in the conflagration of the city of Bristol. For
this deplorable calamity, for the bloodshed which
attended it, for the loss of life which is now
about to follow it—in necessary vindication of
the authority of the law—the present Adminis-
tiation, and those who promoted its policy, by
offering daily excitements to acts of lawless vio-
lence, and instead of being punished were ap-
plauded and rewarded for the deed, arc morally
responsible. Would that the legal responsi-
bility also could fall upon the greatest criminals
rather than upon men who—misguided, ins
fatuated, and guilty as they have been--are cri-
minal in a less degree than those who inflamed
their passions, and pointed out to them the road of
which they have now reached the fatal termination.
The unfortunate men who are about to expiate
with their lives the deep offences in which their
too zealous co-operation in the policy of Go-

vernment has involved them are the proper
ob-
jects not only of censure but of commiseration.
It is impossible not to entertain a feeling of pity
towards men who, intending to shew the.nselves
the allies of Government, find that they are
really in the situation of its victims. One of
the most mortifying views of human life is pre-
nehted to us when we behold the very different
fates of men who, in respect to character and
conduct, bear a close and, in many essential
particulars, a perfect resemblance to each other.
The nristol rioters sought to promote the cause
of Reform by setting fire to public and private
property, and they are to be hanged. Are
there no other adherents of the same caut2
WhO to promote it by means
equally criminal and irregular ? What shall
we say of those public writers who instructed
the mobs in our cities and towUs, during the e,:-
citf:ir.tnt, of a general election, to strike in the
faces of constitutional candidates and their
friends ? What of the Ministers who patronise
and assist such encouragers aod, tekliert of
crime ? k'. ha of that M Mister of the Crown
who warned the Bench of Bishops that unlesS
they Voted with hitt'. they 'Mist prePare fcir death
at the hnds of a brutal and infuriated populace
What, above all, of the new Peers, and of those
who create them, who, for sake of carrying a
particular measure of Reform, unite in the per-
peti-atidn .'cif a qt•tai; Constitutional crime, combine
to destroy the independence of the existing le-
gislature, and club their several contributions to
establish in the executive Government . a
',Jespctic and uncontrolled authority, subversive
of the dearest rights and interests of the people?
That the persons condemned to death at Bristol
have justly deserved their fate, that the infliction
of the ettretife penalty of the lay'.- in their ctt,,e
matter of absolute necessity for the preservation
of society, are propositions which no man in his
senses would think of disputing for a moment.
But there is one aggravation of their misery
Which all good men must surely lament, the re-
flection that their fatal sentence is to be carried
into execution under the authority of an Admi-
nistration whose policy it was their only purpose
to !It-on-late; N hog t±tenr.ce!,' they only attempted
to realise, whose lessons they had laboured with
too much success to imbibe and to pursue.—
Morning Post.

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