The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-02 00:00:00

Ottenina ;7 int

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1850.

In endeavouring to carry out the great work of
retrenchment in the offices of the national Exchequer,
the attention of the financial reformer has latterly
been directed rather closely to the merits or neces-
sities of diplomacy, and to the extravagant sums
which its numerous agents are severally re-
munerated. An appendix to the " Report on Official
Salaries," recently published and laid before Parlia-
ment, contains, in addition to the classification under
the Act 2 and 3 William IV., cap. 116, the salaries
attached to the offices immediately subordinate to the
respective Ambassadors or Ministers Plenipoten-
tiary. From this catalogue of the incomes derived
from the public Treasury of England by the cultiva-
tors of the diplomatic science, it will be observed
what unnecessary thousands are squandered upon a
system carried out on a scale altogether too prodigal
and complicated. Where one judiciously selected
representative of the English SOVEREIGN would, to
say the least of it, be amply sufficient to perform
all the duties required in this particular
department of the public service, no less
than four different classes of diplomatic ministers, and,
in one astonishing instance, no less than nine various
grades of diplomatic appointment, are deemed, most
erroneously deemed, by the Government to be abso-
lutely essential. Among the numerous distinctions,
for example, there are the ambassadors and plenipo-
tentiaries, there are the envoys and ministers pleni-
potentiary, there are the secretaries of embassy and
the secretaries of legation, and, besides
all these, there are the charges daffaires
and a swarm of paid attaches. At the
Courts of the three principal nations of Europe,
namely, at those of Austria, France, and Russia, there
are four diplomatic representatives of her Britannic
MAJESTY. At St. Petersburgh, for example, we have
au envoy and minister plenipotentiary at 6,0001. per
annum; at Vienna, an ambassador and plenipoten-
tiary at 9,0001. per annum ; at Paris, an ambassador
and plenipotentiary at 10,0001. per annum. Besides
these, we have in the French capital a secretary of
embassy at 1,0001., a first paid attaché at 4001.,
and a second paid attache at 3001. per annum. In the
Austrian capital, again, we have, besides our ambas-
sador, a secretary of embassy at 9001., a first paid
attaché at 3501., and a second paid attache at 2501
per annum. In the Russian metropolis, in like-
manner, besides the envoy and minister plenipoten-
tiary, there are a secretary of legation at 7001., a first
paid attaché at 4001., and a second paid attaché
at 3001. per annum. The extraordinary instance
to which we have alluded, where at one single Euro-
pean court England supports no less than eight re-
presentatives or employees subordinate to her ambas-
sador, is no other than that of the embassy to Con-
stantinople. There it is that, with an ambassador at
7,0001., are coupled together a secretary at 8001., an
Oriental secretary at 5001. a first paid attaché at
3001., and a second, third, fourth, fifth, and
sixth paid attaché, each at a salary of
2501. per annum. Thus dividing and subdividing
among nine persons labour that might be readily
performed by one individual, aided, mayhap, in case
of necessity, by an Oriental secretary !
Somewhat more moderate in character than the ,
foregoing, there are the embassies from England, con-
sisting each of an envoy and minister plenipoten-
tiary, a secretary of legation, and a paid attaché at the
Courts of Spain, Prussia, the United States, the Two
Sicilies, Portugal, the Brazils, the Netherlands,
Belgium, Sardinia, Frankfort, Greece, Saxony,
Mexico, Tuscany, and Wurtemburg. In the instance
cf Tuscany it is true that the paid attaché is resident
at Rome, not at Florence ; but in all the ether cases
the three officials particularised are established toge-
ther in the metropolis of the kingdom, republic, or
principality to which they are accredited. As to
the various payments of these very numerous diplo-
matic agents, it may be observed that in Madrid the
ambassador has his 6,000/. per annum, in Berlin
5,0001., in Washington 4,5001., in Naples 4,0001., in
Lisbon 4,0001., at the Brazils 4,0001., at the Nether-
lands 3,6001., in Brussels 3,6001., in Turin 3,6001.,
in Frankfort-on-the-Maine 2,6001., in Athena
2,5001., in Florence 2,000/., at Mexico 3,6001., at
Saxony 2,0001., and 2,000/. also at the Court of
Wurtemburg. In addition, moreover, to all these pay-
ments there are others of salaries appertaining to the
paid attach es and secretaries of legation, ranging
up from 2001. to 6001. per annum. At Bavaria,
England is satisfied with having simply an envoy and
minister plenipotentiary, accompanied by a secretary
of legation ; so also, be it observed, at Denmark,
Sweden, Hanover, Switzerland, and Buenos Ayres ;
the salaries of the envoys ranging from 2,000/. up to
3,6001., and those of the secretaries of legation
being, on the average, 5001. per annum. In six other
quar ers of the globe, namely, in Central America,
at Monte Video, and at New Granada, in Peru,
Chili, and Bolivia, our Government maintains, upon
a rather more rational arrangement, charges d af-
biros, with a diplomatic allowance of 11. per diem, in
addition to consular salary as consuls-general.
Surveying the whole of the elaborate scheme
here referred to—surveying it, that is to say
with the scrutinizing gsz 3 of a Financial
Reformer, it is scarcely possible to refrain from ex-
pressing a most earnest solicitude that its strange and
useless extravagance may be very speedily diminished,
and in lieu of the present costly system, a new one,
more reasonable in the proportion of its salaries, and,
at the same time, more efficient in its working capa-
city, established. Until some change of this descrip-
tion be accomplished it will be idle to congratulate

ourselves and the country upon the progress or the
prospects of national retrenchment.

The tendency of recent legislation has been to ex-
tend materially the summary jurisdiction of magis-
trates, and to do away i❑ many cases with trial by
jury, an institution once valued by the British na-
tion. It is asserted that there is a saving of time and
expense under the new sy stem, that criminals are
brought to justice more promptly, while the pockets
of the ratepayers are spared the heavy demands that
would otherwise be made for the investigation of trifling
cases. It is of course desirable that punishment should
follow crime with as little delay as practicable, and that
offenders should expiate their misdemeanours while
the act is recent and fresh in the public recollection.
But we desire to have good law as well as expeditious
law, and we strongly object to the removal of the
chief safeguard and protection for really innocent
persons—the trial by jury—which is founded on the
constitutional principle that no man shall be deemed
guilty of any offence unless found to be so by the
unanimous verdict of twelve of his peers.

It is unfortunately but too notorious that magis-
trates frequently resort to their summary jurisdiction
beceause they entertain serious doubts whether, under
the circumstances, a jury could be found to convict
the accused party. Many active justices are disposed
to credit almost any charge that map be preferred,
and to consider the appearance of the accused in cus-
tody as tantamount to complete proof of guilt. There
are in every rural district certain persons suspected
of an undue propensity for game, a love of poaching,
against whom the justices and constabulary are
deeply prejudiced, and of whom any charge, how-
ever trumpery, will be readily credited, and acted
on to the full extent of the powers vested in the person
who is constituted the sole judge of the law and of the
fact, without any appeal being permitted from bis in-
fallible judgment. Three months' imprisonment, with
hard labour, may be regarded as a very trivial
matter by some of the economists, who profess
such intense anxiety to diminish the expenses of
criminal prosecutions ; but it may, and in the
majority of cases will, prove the ruin, the absolute,
irretrievable ruin, of the victim, whose cha-
racter will be for ever blasted and prospects destroyed
by such an event. During the period of his confine-
ment he will be associated with degraded being., who
will find him the fitter for their purpose if he be
smarting under a sense of injustice. His demoralizi-
tion will speedily be effected, and he will be discharged
from gaol a very different person from what he was
when entering its gloomy gates. His chance of
obtaining employment is wholly removed. Who will
take into his service the man who had been convicted
in due form of law, and who had served his time in
the society of even greater criminals than himself ? He
will necessarily be driven to crimes of greater magni-
tude, until eventually, exiled from his native land, while
his miserable family, who had been obliged to seek re-
fuge in the union workhouse during his first and un-
merited imprisonment, will continue within its walls,
and become permanent burdens to the ratepayers.
The expenses of criminal prosecutions may be reduced,
but the poor-rates will be considerably increased by
the change ; the charge will, in fact, only be trans-
ferred from one head to another, and there will be no
real saving, perhaps the effect may be of a very dif-
ferent character.

But it is not merely that innocent persons are oc-
casionally, we might say frequently, unjustly
convicted, but guilty men are often permitted to
escape, either scot free, or with a penalty so utterly
disproportioned to the offence as to amount to prac-
tical impunity. One man may resist a most gross
and unjustifiable aggression by a policeman, and be
committed to hard labour for two months, while an-
other, in " a playful mood," may attempt to bore a
hole in the head of an unoffending person with a
chisel, and, after seriously wounding the injured
party, add to his offence by bringing perjured
witnesses to give a false colour to the transac•
Hon, will be fined 305., or in default fourteen
days' imprisonment; and in a neighbouring
court, a miserable hurdy- gurdy player may be " sent
for a month" for the atrocious offence of receiving a few
coppers from the passers .by. The decisions are, in
fact, so various, that it is impossible to suppose that
the same code of laws could be administered in such
opposite manners.
Lest it might be thought that we have exag-
gerated the comparative enormity of a person who
had committed a serious offence, we would refer to
the case of a Dutch Jew, named METER LEVI, who
was brought before Mr. Alderman GIBBS on Mon-
day, charged with having stabbed an Irishman in
the head with a chisel. An old Irish dealer had,
it appeared, got tipsy on Sunday, and some Jews of
the neighbourhood were anxious to have a lark with
the drunken man, and dealt rather roughly with the
complainant, who was anxious to take care of his
countryman. The prisoner, however, carried his
" fun " rather further than the others, for he struck
the unfortunate man on the head with a chisel, which,
" after penetrating the skull, took an oblique direction
and peeled the skin off part of the nose."

The policeman who came up found the complainant
in a dreadful condition, his wounds bleeding fresh
and manifestly just inflicted. "The lamb," as he
was termed by some of his friends, produced several
witnesses to prove that he was an injured man, the
complainant having assaulted him without an effort
at retaliation, and that the injuries complained of had
been occasioned by a fall down stairs a fortnight
before. The worthy Alderman, however, expressed
his unqualified disbelief of the entire statement. He
declared " that the prisoner bad, upon the clearest
evidence, been guilty of a most dangerous assault.
He lamented that he should have occasion to say that
foreigners were very much in the habit of
resorting to deadly weapons in cases of dispute,
and he feared the example had its imitators
among the people in this country. As a magistrate
he should do all in his power to check so atrocious a
practice, and to discountenance the perjury by which
it was attempted to be justified." This was perfectly
right, and would have been exceedingly valuable if
followed by a severe sentence, or by sending the case
to trial at the Central Criminal Court, where an
adequate punishment might be inflicted for the out-
rage. But the prisoner was allowed to escape for a
fine of 305., or, in default of payment, fourteen
days' imprisonment in Bridewell, with hard
labour. This was not an example to deter others
from resorting to deadly weapons, or from
bringing forward perjured witnesses for the defence.
We know not what could have induced Mr. Alder-
man Gms, who is generally a most efficient magis-
trate, to permit the ruffian to escape so easily from
his hands. We can only ascribe it to the soothing
influences of the civic festivities. THEODORE Hoot
has described the magical effects of surrounding cir-
cumstances on'a judicial functionary, who, after tast-
ing " a corked bottle," pronounced the heaviest sen-
tences, but was exceedingly lenient on quaffing claret
of the right bouquet, and an approved vintage. Al-
derman Gums must have been in a happy
mind, indeed, when delivering judgment ~ the
lamb," for his playful attempt on the head of state of
the poor
Irishman.

STEAM TO SMTRNA.-Yesterday morning, at ten
o'clock the General Screw Steam Shipping Company's ves-
eel Hellespont, Capt. W. Watts, arrived off the Custom-
house. in 16 days 5 hours, from Smyrna, including stoppages
at Malta and Gibraltar. She was laden with 140 tons fresh
figs, 11,200 t. specie, a general cargo, and eight passengers.
This is the second cargo of fruit which has arrived in the
Thames direct from Smyrna this season. The first cargo
was by the Propontis, on Tuesday last.

WRECK or A SCHOONER.—On Saturday week,
during the heavy storm which took place in the Channel,
the schooner Charles sunk off Cardinal's Point, Holyhead.
She left this port on Friday, and was laden with coal, for
Dublin. All on board, consisting of the captain (Thomas
Heath ), his wife, two children, and three men, perished
The vessel was part owned by the captain, and the other
half by Mr. Samuel Fryer of this town. She was not in-
sured.— Liverpool Mercury.
THE BRITANNIA.—The tubes of this great struc-
ture are to be entirely roofed in to protect them from atmos-
pheric influences with galvanized tinned-iron, for which pur-
pose 66,000 square feet will be required.

MURDER OF A TOLLBAR-KEEPER...-011 Saturday
morning last it was discovered that the tollbar between
Todmorden and Hebden Bridge had been broken into, and
James Smith, from forty to fifty years of age, who was the
toll-collector, was found in his bed with his throat cut, and
quite dead. The drawers had been ransacked, and blood
was found in several parts of the house. On Sunday morn-
ing a man was taken into custody on suspicion of having
committed the murder. On Monday he was taken before
th• magistrates at Todmorden and remanded. Smith was a
single man, and resided by himself at the bar-house. He
had lately been the means of getting the prisoner fined 51.
The prisoner had stated he would be the end of Smith.
The convict IlAnnah Curtis, who was left for exe-
cution at the last assizes for Gloucester on a charge of poison-
ing her husband at Frampton Cottrell, has had the sentence
commuted into transportation for life.

THE SUN,