The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-01 00:00:00

LONDON, NraNbAY

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
BRADFORD REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—On Wednesday the 26th, little of interest was
brought forward, except the second reading of the
Accidents on Railways Bill. Tne intention of the
Bill appeared to be to provide for speedy medical as-
sistance in cases of accident on railways, wi ;bout
being impeded by the question of who was to pay.
Though brought forward by two Members for an
important county, the Bill never got fairly before
the House. It was in fact what huntsmen call
" mobbed ;" and there was no admission for an im-
partial actor to join in the discussion. The railway
men were as lively as hawks, conceiving appareeitly
that the bones of the public were not what they -Were
bound to set. It is not, however, to be taken for
granted that the Bill was exactly what it ought t o be ;
and as it was thrown out on the second reading
by 108 against 53, there is opportunity for mending it
against another time.
What is clear is, that such a Bill ought not to pre-
judice the question of who is to pay the final expenses
of cure. These must fall upon the railway peopeie-
tors if culpable neglect in them or their servants can
be legally proved ; on the sufferer if it cannot; or in
case of his inability, on the parish. But the demand
that in cases ef accident the railway agents should be
bound to send for the nearest medical assistance, and
be responsible for the expenses of what the French
call " the first apperei," is as plain as that an emi •
grant ship should carry a surgeon. The only objec-
tion to making every railway train carry a surgeon, is
that the provision would be excessive. But
if this is forborne as excessive, the proprietors
are bound to have recourse'to the succedaneum which
is not excessive, which is to send for the nearest
medical help, under responsibility if neglect be
proved. Nobody can do this so well as the railway
servants. They know the country, and the traveller
does not. Suppose a Londoner's leg torn off between
Carlisle end Edinburgh, and though his whole breed,
seed, and generation were there to help him, there
would be no chance of the arteries being tied through
the exertions of any messenger but a railway ser-
vant. Nobody else would be let in or out the rails.
The truth is that railway proprietors have got a mo•
nopoly, and, like other monopolists, they do not like
its being interfered with.
On Thursday the debate on Foreign Policy was
resumed. Nothing very remarkable was elicited,
except the incapacity of the Austrian party to con-
ceive of the existence of any but their own friends.
" We shall incur the of all Europe " mean-
ing the despots of Europe, and overlooking the fact
that if an English Minister thought fit to lift up his
y p.olevu-e
ilaitttiloenfi
inngeEr
uwriotphesuwcohualdn obbej efcoti,infodu rin f
histh
St
roafiann.
have seen the territories of our allies invaded "—mean-
ing that after the owners of the house had recovered
possession, honest people saw with pleasure somebody
help to hold. If these men had been asked which of
the characters in the drama of the Good Samaritan
were their neighbours, they would infallibly have
said the thieves. This is the consequence of
looking at mankind as existing only in their rulers;
and small diplomatists are unable to escape from the
trammels of the habit.
On Friday the debate was resumed. The Member for
Southampton (Cockburn, Q.C.) opened with a speech
scarcely equalled in the contemporary annals of Par-
liament. It is credit enough for an ordinary writer,
to have been early in predicting his eminence. One
testimony to his success was too curious not to be
matter of history. For the first time in the records
of Parliament, the staid British senators rushed to
"felicitate" the speaker when be sat down' after the
manner of the more mercurial debaters of Paris and
of Brussels. Such an innovation tells its own story.
The Protectionist party produced a regular plan
for a coalition between Russia, France, and the United
States, to send a joint messenger to England to dic-
tate the law, according to the precedent enforced on
Venice by the treaty of Cambray. As if the Bour-
bons had not put a French army in pledge in Algeria,
Russia was not to be assailed in Poland, and America
would not be convulsed in all her southern limbs by
the appearance of a couple of black regiments from
Jamaica. When men take the lead in forming
coalitions against their country, they ought to pos-
sess the qualities of foresight and discretion, required
to make a corporal for patrole.
It would have been but reasonable that some state-
ment should have been permitted, why an old and as
everybody believes an earnest Free Trader, was
obliged to vote for the Government in opposition to
his most distinguished fellow-labourers. To every-
body else, explanations of this kind are secured with
punctilious minuteness. The explanation must only
be made in the Free Trade, or your Temperance
Hall, instead. The truth is, that the honest reputa•
tion of every man in the . House of Commons,
—his escape from —letters such as I am fa-
miliar with, intimating in no measured terms that
his constituency think they.have elected a traitor that
will not, a coward who dares not, or a fool who
cannot, put forward their just claims to attention in
the House—are at the mercy of a power unnoticed by
writers on the Constitution, and against which there
is no remedy but in the appeal to popular hearing
instead. There are things in heaven and earth un-
known to your philosophy. You mustsend two staunch
opponents of the Government at the next election,
and then you will be heard like other people.
The Resolution was finally carried in favour of
the Government by 310 to 264. If the Free
Traders had voted with the Government, the majo-
rity would have been 60. Every now and then
there happen things so unaccountable, that men
look at them with a suspicion that they are the com-
mencement of an unknown chain of causes and
effects.. That class of politicians was looked to
once, as likely to rule the world. Holland, Genoa,
Venice, Carthage, floated before the eyes of the pub•
lic, in evidence of the competence of commercial mag-
nates to guide a state. The terrors of their enemies
must by this time be anything but unmanageable.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN OLD REFORMER.
Loi,don, July 1, 1850.

TO WILLIAM HAWES, ESQ., CHAIRMAN
OF THE LONDON COMMITTEE ON THE
LAW OF DEI3TOR AND CREDITOR.
Sir,—ln my late letters I have (I trust with
good feeling) expressed my dissent from the
general tenor of your objections to an extension of
the jurisdiction of the County Courts from 201.
to 50/.

My present communication will, nevertheless, prove
to you that I am no blind partisan of their defects.
It will also satisfy you that you cannot feel more
strongly than I do the commanding claims which the
creditor has to every security the law can be:made to
afford him.
You have earned large claims on the commercial
community by your exertions in procuring an amend-
ment of the bankruptcy law. Let me call your atten •
tion to a case which hitherto has probably escaped
your notice, for as yet it does not appear to have ex-
cited that attention which its importance—especially
to the mercantile world—demands.
In " Regina v. 0 wen," decided within the last few
weeks (viz., on the Ist of the present month), the
judges of the Court of Queen's Bench laid down the
two following propositions :-
Ist. That insolvency is not a valid legal ground for
the dismissal of a county clerk—the official recipient of
all the money that passes through the court, and the
official assignee of all the property of insolvents who
apply to the court-for relief.
2d. That a dismissal for whatever cause (though
pronounced by the judge, and approved by
the Chancellor as required by the County Courts
Act) is not final until the grounds of dismissal
shall have been established by a trial before
a jury. Tnis decision was pronounced under remark-
able circumstances, namely, by two only of the
judges, the majority being absent, and in direct oppo-
sition to the opinion of Lord Cottenham, who as
Chancellor had confirmed a dismissal for insolvency.
Yet, notwithstanding the high position and high
judicial talents of that distinguished authority, com-
bined Its they habitually were in the exercise of his
administrative functions with untiring industry and
masculine common sense, there can be no doubt that
this decision of the Queen's Bench forrns the existing
law on the subject to which it relates.
The grounds on which the judges proceeded appear
in their judgment. Lord Campbell, C.J , said:—
" Though the judge dismissed him (the dismissed
clerk) for inability, his only inability was great pe
cuniary embarrassment and want of money to pay his
debts, which did not affect his mind, or hinder 'him
from the discharge of his official duties. If hereafter
this state of pecuniary embarrassment should affect
his mind, or hinder him from performing his duties,
there may be either on the score of inability or mis-
behaviour, aground f dismii.sing him. Great pecuniary
diffeulty may exist with great official ability, for we
know that when William Pitt the younger wee
making his country the admiration of the whole world,
he was under the pressure of those great pecuniary ob-
ligations which wore afterwards discharged by the
grateful country which paid his debts."
The errors of the most distinguished persons, when
founded on a mistaken view of facts, may without
presumption be pointed out by those to whom these
facts are daily familiar. The observations just quoted
assumed that the office of county clerk is one for
which skill, talents, and assiduity are requisites.
Now to all who are practically conversant with its
duties, it is well known that that office is essentially
one of trust and pecuniary responsibility. The county
clerk is not merely a keeper of the records, he, has
to receive and pay all debts recovered in the court,
with the costs. He is, in lac', the banker of the
court.
Neither the genius of Mr. Pitt nor the eloquence
of Mr. Sheridan can fit an insolvent for such an ern-
,
ploy ment.
These considerations, though They seem 'to have
escaped the Court, were not without their influence