The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-14 00:00:00

Mbitton

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'clock.

TATTERSALL'S.-THIS EVENING.
QUARTER TO SIX O'CLOCK.
CHESTER CUP.
_ _

8 to 1 agst Pagan
15 to 1 agst Sir Robert
16 to 1 agst Cattonite
22 to 1 agst Freedom
25 to 1 agst Red Deer
28 to 1 agst Tacita
30 to 1 agst The Prior
30 to 1 agst Everton

DERBY.

13 to 2 agst Rattan
13 to 2 agst Ugly Buck
17 to 1 agst Orlando
25 to 1 agst Cockamaroo
30 to 1 agst Running Rein
40 to 1 agst Apprentice
40 to 1 agst King of the Gipsies
50 to 1 agst Campunero
50 to 1 agst Grey Momus colt
50 to 1 agst Mount Charles
100 to 1 agst Boots
100 to 1 agst Akbar
200 to 1 agst Sir Isaac

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—In the House of Commons last night
Lord Worsley moved, pursuant to notice, for "a Se-
lect Committee to inquire into the mode of appoint-
ment, the duties, and the present system of remune-
ratinG, the clerks to justices at petty sessions in
England and Wales, and to report the evidence
and their opinion thereon to the House." Long
before the attention of the Legislature was directed
to the subject, we had employed ourselves in col-
lecting from the provincial journals, and other sources,
proofs of the injustice and oppression of the existing
sustem. It is to us, therefore, especially gratifying
to find the purpose we aimed at likely to be effected.
The Noble Lord who took up the question in Parlia-
ment obtained, in the course of last session, a return
of the fees paid to clerks in petty sessions ; the num-
ber of fines inflicted ; and the persons who had been
sent to prison in default of paymentof costs, or fines.
From these returns his Lordship selected a consider-
able number of instances in which a fearful amount
of suffering had been inflicted on poor persons by in-
ability to pay the fees upon summary convictions,
where the fine amounted only to a few pence :
" Parties were sent to prison, not because a fine was
inflicted of a serious nature, or one that indicated a de-
sire on the part of the magistrates to visit the person
convicted with severe punishment, but they were sent
to prison for the non-payment of fees and costs, super-
added to those small fines. That was a great evil, and
one that might be avoided by adopting a different system
of paying the clerks. If they were paid regular salaries
out of the county rates, the system would work better
than the present one."
Lord Worsley, as will be seen by a reference to
the speech with which his Lordship intoduced his
notion, made out a very strong case fbr inquiry, with
a view to the abrogation of the existing system. At
its close, Mr. M. Sutton stated, that " the attention of
the Right Hon. Gentleman at the head of his department
had been called to the subject, and that a Bill was in
preparation which would, he believed, be in a short
time introduced." Lord Worsley, on receiving this
assurance, withdrew his motion for a Committee.
We know of few subjects pertaining to the adminis-
tration of justice which has more loudly called for at-
tention from the Executive than this. If, in connec-
tion with the mode of remuneration, the Bill to be
introduced provides for the direct appointment of the
clerks to petty sessions by the Crown, they might be
iso employed to conduct prosecutions for offences
committed within their respective districts, in a way
similar to that in which the Sheriffs-depute in Scotland
are employed. Responsible to the Crown for the due
performance of their duties, they would be vigilant
and impartial ; and the ends of public justice would be
frequently promoted and secured by their means. The
clerk to the Petworth Bench has written to us, re-
questing us to state that the amount of damage and
.costs in the case we referred to on Monday, was paid
by the defendant; and thus the imprisonment of 21
(rays assigned as the punishment, in default ofpayment,
was avoided. The poor woman—or rather her hus-
band, or some one for him—having paid the amount,
and thus escaped the imprisonment, does not affect the
argument. The fact remains untouched. The
damage was threepence, and the costs 19s. 6d.—
seventy-eight times the amount of the fine I Nor is
it disputed that the alternative of non-payment was
twenty-one days' imprisonment. We have, however,
under the hand of Mr. J. L. Ellis, the clerk to the
Petworth justices, a statement of the way in which
the 19s. 6d. costs are made up. As the several items
are fixed by high authority, and may be considered
as the established charges in such cases, we insert
them for the information of the curious :
Fees to the Clerk to the Magistrates, as fixed s. d
by the Magistrates of the county at their
Quarter Sessions, in June, 1841, and con-
firmed by Sir Nicholas Tindal and Mr. Jus-
tice Bosanquet
Constable's charges, as settled by the Magis-
trates in Quarter Sessions assembled in Ja-
nuary, 1843, under 5 and 6 Vict., cap. 109

14 0

19 6
STANDARD—That it is for the interest of the
community that all its land should be cultivated, and
cultivated up to the highest degree of productiveness
of which it is capable, will not be disputed ; any
-more than the corollary from this proposition, that the
Legislature is bound to promote this universal and
complete cultivation to the utmost of its power. These
abstract truths are, however, subject to great qua-
lification, arising out of the right of property.
When society concedes to a man an absolute pro-
perty in anything, it concedes the right of abuse as
well as of use ; it is his, he may do with it what he
pleases ; and if he chose to employ it unprofitably,
ecciety cannot interpose to correct his folly, unless the
misemployment produce some direct injury to others.
We may regret this, but it is a necessary consequence
of that sacredness of proprietary right without
which society cannot be permanently maintained.
The right of property in land, however, cannot be
distinguished from any other right of property, with-
out destroying it altogether; and therefore it is
scarcely possible for the Legislature to promote culti-
vation by any direct process. Parliament can-
not compel a nobleman to lay his park and pleasure-
grounds under the plough, notwithstanding that his
aloingl so might conduce to his own profit, as
well as increasing the stock of food and
Ole demand for labour in the country. The
paCk is his ; he prefers enjo.ying it as a luxury-
to emi,,%loying it as a means of profit, and to invade his
freedom in this respect would form a precedent for
violating l'he citizen's villa garden ; and, indeed, for a
endence of the domestic economy of
legal superi.la
every family, With a view to its sumptuary reform.
There is, however, in the country an amount of
land still wholly' uncultivated, though capable of
profitable cultivation, variously estimated at from
two to eight' millions of acres; which land is not
continued hi this useless state by reason of the choice
'or caprice of proprietors, but by the defect of the
law, which in some measu'r'e disables the proprietors
from cultivating it as they could wish. Every one
sees that this is a case urgently demanding the in-
terposition of the Legislature ; an interposition, how-
ever, which shall not infringe upon any rights
of property, but facilitate their enjoyment. In
the case of waste lands, it is true, tin re is some diffi-
culty, not merely in ascertaining the personality of
the proprietors, but the kind of property which each
is entitled to claim ; for, as every one acquainted with
English law is aware' there may be man v proprietors
of the same parcel of ground, each havmiirieraa
is may
different
„kind of property ; the mines and
bblong to one ; the produce of the soil by
.
tillage
or pasturage to another ; the gaMe to a
thi.lll ; a right of way to a fourth ; and
56 •A law for the inclosure, or other more
strict .Npropiation of wastes, which would not re-
spect al, these rights, either by securing the in, or by
giving an edequate compensation, would be manifestly
unjust to somebody. And here, indeed, is the hitch
-which has caused such an amount of land to remain
so long cainparatively unprofitable to the com-
munity. Lord Worsley's Bill is a well-meant
attempt to overcome the serious obstacle in
question. Whether this Bill will pass, or whether,
having passed, it would effect its object, are questions
which we are at present unable to aaiswer even
by guess. It has some benevolent pro visions for
the poor, and more no doubt will be aided in its
progress ; but upon these we set less value, than per-
haps others would be disposed to do, beta use with-
out at all depreciating the value of t* e.mporary
teller of' the distressed, which, without' regaled to the
future effect, is as much an obligation upon Christian
states as upon Christian men, we cannot but see
that the most benevolent disposition posoible of
the waste lands of the country would. operate
to the relief of the poor for but a very brie'! .season.
In an enterprising, money-making, and progres-
sive country, such as this, there is not neans of
„dealing with destitution but keeping down ' the num-
Water of the destitute, and there is no means o.r keeping
down the number of the destitute but by snaking
thew a burden, a heavy burden, upon the m' ire afflu-
ent. It was in this way that the old poor-law v forked to
restrain pauperism, which the substituted new pi )or-law
has so rightfully increased. Under the old !pa or-lavv
indeed, ally more than under the new, the pent 11 bur-
den was not properly applied to the great contribu-
tors to the ranks of poverty—" the manufacb ewers of
cottons and of paupers," as the Edinburgli Review
truly called them—and so far the system was defec-
tive ; but let the burden be justly imposed, and a
poor-law cannot be too burdensome, for file public
good cannot be too liberal. Meanwhile w. s -wish all
B,nccess to Lord Worsley's purpose, which is pn both
sidt...lp,seful and benevolent.