The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-31 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE LONDON JOURNALS.

Our City article of this day deals iu matter of
partly a higher moral interest, and partly a more cu-
rious commercial or financial interest, than it often
falls within the range of our correspondent's duty
and induetry to furnish. The statement relative to
those audacious and systematic forgeries which have
pressed so hard upon a respectable house, and have
drawn fern ts partners so striking an illustration of
their sentiments on the law of forgery in this civi-
lized and enlightened country, deserves serious at-
tention from every thinking mate It proves the
existence of a strange error in the adaptation of pu-
nishments to offences, when the punishment affixed
o them is such as substantially to encourage the
crime against which they were directed. A law
which the bulk of society feel an insuperable re-
pugnance to enforce, is tantamount to no law
whatever, but rather a bounty on transgression.—
We believe it is of late years that the impolicy
of punishing forery by the gallows has bean
much felt among the uil.er classes of Englishmen;
and it seems to have been only since the acces-
sion of his present Majesty that a conviction for
that crime has failed to be followed up by execu-
tion. In the tune of George we do not recol-
lect an instance when the legal advisers of the Royal
conecience ever recommended to the Sovereign an
.
interpoe:r.:on of the prerogative on the side of
mercy, in favour of the criminal who forged a name
to may negociable instrument. The difficulty of
adequate precautions against forgery has in general
been alleged as one ground on which might be jus-
tified the frightful punishment of death against these
who were guilty of it : the immense extent and
ealue of our commercial system, and the necessity
of a rigorous protection to its interests, is a se-
cond. But this we take to be another of the
innumerable cases where the greater obligation
has been postponed to the less, or where, in
fact, sound discretion has been trampled on for
the sake of rank absurdity and cruelty, in the
management of our " commercial sytem." It sel-
dom appears to have struck the legislature how in-
finitely mote desirable for England would be a solid
than a swollen and unhealthy commerce. " Credit,"
the pageant credi, must be maintained at all risks,
end by the most frightful sacrifices. To uphold
"credit," the country must be elloked with paper.
To buoy up the credit of those who have no pro-
perty, but unprincipled impudence and hardness of
heart, sveare to be loaded with a " banking system,"
of which the effects have been to make every man's
life a pure lottery, and every man's business a
gaming speculation ; hut what signifies that ? It is
to uphold " credit," the glory of England and the
envy of the world. So, to consecrate and cement this
blessed system, we are told that facility must be more
favoured than humanity, and that poor wretches who
are betrayed by starvation into guilt, must be hanged
without remorse, to save others the time and trou-
ble requisite for making proper inquiries about the
character of the bills which are tendered to them,
and exercising a degree of prudence which all mer-
chants ought habitually to exhibit. Never were the
fruits of the " paper system," and of one of its base
progeny the hanging system, Letter shown off than
in the long success of the Fetichurcli-street mer-
ehent in swindling the Quaker capitalists out of
=heir money, and in the subsequent refusal of the
conscientious Quakers to prosecute him, because
they would rather lose their property than takeaway
human life. The second branch of our city article
contains an. exceedingly curious discussion upon the
state and prospects of the Bank of England, which
evinces in the writer much sagacity, ingenuity, and
reeearch.—Times,

The Number of the Quarterly Review just pub-
lished, contains a lohg article on the State of. Ire-
kind, evidently from the pen of Dr.. Southey. We
are always well pleased to fall in with articles from
Dr. Southey, because they generally contain evi-
denim of research and industry ; and though we earl-
net .11.%ays arrive at all the eettelasions at which he
arrives, and still less aperove of the traneeant manner
in which he pastes seii!enee or: individuals, we often
find opinions to wnieh we cannot refuse our assent.
'Jur rearlers may recollect, that we esve uniformly
rt,,,ieteinee that if Ernunevoutitin weir granted, the
gest, struggle woul.:sill rentein ; that the great evilu,
*,he ',or al cendition r f Ireland is it. Aristocracy, and
diet t`a Government is inoperative w protect th-
People. !II this seunt,y a teeny of circumstances
resoled the ieople to make a decisive step in irn-
ncoverneet H 'weal the Ariateertre., whose power,
treregh reeschie, out: as far as it gees, is still unable
to p event much good; but Ireland has never had
Edwa ds erd liesiry, in protect the penple, end
humble their oppressors ; and in that unfortunate
country law has always been an additional arm in
the hands of the powerful to wound the feeble.
Dr. Southey seems to entertain nearly the same
opinion with regard to the Aristocracy which we
entertain. " Most truly (he says) has that very able
writer (Jr. l'oelen) observed, and most clearly has
he shown, that ' ;he great source of Irish misery
has been, not the power of England, but its want of
Power.' There are cases in which, as the great
oet tell us, to be weak is to be miserable ;' this is
one of those in which to be weak is to be mischievous;
and not to have done good has been to permit,
and give opportunity for evil. The evil has re-
coiled upon England; and Spencer's apprehensive
foresight has already been so far fulfilled, that in
every reason of embarrassment, Ireland has proved
to the Sister Country worse than a broken reed."
After succinctly attending to the events iu Irish His-
tory, down to the ft evolution, he proceeds : " Then
ensued a hundred year. of elisgoeetnment, and of
what in Ireland is year;
tranquillity ; and thin, at
a time when England was engaged in a disastrous
contest with her American Colonies, and France,
and Spain, and Holland, had declared against her;
then, a hen her d.ffieulties were at the greatest,
Irish claims were brought forward by Mat Aristo-
cracy to which Me whole misettie of Ireland is
imput-
" The whole misrule of Ireland is imputable to
the Aristocracy," but then that Aristocracy is English,
or Auglo-Irish, as the term now is ; and the establish-
ment of an English Aristocracy without controul
Ireland, has re-aeted on England, by strengthening
the hands of our own Aristocracy. Hence Eng.
land, which has been unable to govern Ireland, but
has merely furnished it with a vile Oligarchy for
its oppression, is punished in return by the prepon-
derance thereby given to her own Aristocracy, and
the state of anarchy into which we have in conse-
queece been plunged. Dr. Southey concludes his
article with a recommendation of a measure which
we have often advocated, as an indispensable preli-
minary to the solid improvement of the country.--
" Extend the Poor Laws (he says) to Ireland; ex-
perience may teach us how to guard against their
abuse--they are benevolent, they are necessary, they
are just. Lay that impost in such a proportion!
upon the absentees as may in some degree com-
pensate for their non-residence. Do they deserve
to be spared? During the last great dearth that
afflicted Ireland in 1822, the absentees front a cer-
tait! Western County were solicited to assist the sub-
scription raised by the resident Gentry, Landholders,
and Clergy. They drew annually from that county
83,0'ice, and the whole sum received from them in
answer to the application was eighty-three pounds
—not a farthing in the pound! Introduce the Poor
Laws, crud the landholders, whether resident or ab-
.yeritcc, 14,411 hear*
co-operate in bettering the con-
dition of the poor, and in removing any surplus po-
pilation." The voice of humanity
is here, as in-
deed it always is, the voice of wisdom and true
policy. The land of a country, it should never be !
forgotten, belongs to the nation, and if indiVidtials
is
the Only
mostil
are allowed to occupy it as a properte
it
cause such individual occupation issupposed
beneficial to the nation, and the possession
is subject to the responsibility of such a distrihu-
lion of the produce as is most conducive to the!
general good. To allow landholders to create and
spot t with the necessities of art excessive population,
and mercilessly to avail themselves of their compe-
!
tition for land, to the extent of exacting what does'
not leave a decent, support for the cultivator, is a!

mockery of law And justice, de.erving of universal
reprobation. The phenomena observable in Ireland
will .be tqually seta in couatrics wlicie there is
an uncontiouleJ Aristocracy. A very curious col-
lection of letters written at the time to his relations,
by a French Officer, who served in Calabria in
1807, 8,9, and 10, in the moveable columns which
the French were obliged to employ continually against
the banditti with which that part of Italy is infested,
was published in 1820. One would almost imagine,
when describing the misgovernment of that country,
he was describing Ireland :
. . .

" Before the, entrance of the French," says this intelli-
gent Officer, " Calabria was subject to the immediate in-
fluence of rich and powerful Barons, who exercised over
their vassals a despot.',: authority usurped over the rights
of the Sovereigns. Whatever feudalism presents that is
odious, anti contrary to the sacred rights of humanity,
weighed more particularly in those provinces which ob-
tained little of the attention of the Government, and prevented
their inhabitants from making any progress in arts and civi-
lisation. The Barons kept up an armed militia, known under
the name of sbiri, who were the executors of the will, and
very often of the sanguinary caprices of their masters. If
it happened that a vassal displeased or resisted his Lord, he
fell immediately under the poignard of the sbiri ; and these
criminal attempts were never repressed ; justice was never
rendered ; all crimes were atoned for by money ; every-
thing was venal, or could be acquired by vile compliances.
" The class of the people, more especially the victims of
these arbitrary acts, endeavour to escape from the vexa-
tious arbitrary acts of authority and acts of vengeance, by
taking refuge in the woods and the mountains. Hence
proceeded originally bawls of Brigands, wha have had
much influence in depraving the people, by inspiring them
with a for savage independence, and increasing their
natural aversion for labour.

" Calabria could only therefore gain by a change of
system. ;fence, in spite of the violent ineane employed to
subject it to a new form of government, and all the ex-
cesses—all the devastations which took place in conse-
quence, the invasion of the French prepared the way for
great benefit to that country, by destroying the despotism of
the Barons, weakening a great number of atrocious pre-
judices, giving useful notions of all kinds, and facilitating
communications ; and, in short, the greatest service the
French could render it, was the endeavouring to extirpate
brigandage," &c. &c.

-Here we have the Rapparees,Whiteboys,Rockites,
&c. &c. and the long list of lawless depredators, the
offspring of Aristocratical oppression. In Black-
wood's Magazine for November, just arrived, we
have one chapter of the voluminous history of Irish
oppression, in an article entitled " Ireland as it is in
IB2S, chapter 3," which might serve for a chapter
in the history of Calabria. " An English Agent
was sent over to Lord Courtney's estate, who re-
fused to be bound by the promises of abatement of
rent made to the poor tenants by the former agent,
but without mercy resented to the last extremities
of the law to enforce the uttermost farthing that
was due, both of the current rent, and the arrears
which the tenants supposed would never have
been demanded of them. We have been assured
that the scenes of misery occasioned by this conduct
were beyond all description shocking. Every day
miserable creatures were left with their families of
little children, without a stick or a rag, or a potatoe
in their wretched dwelling, and forth they were
obliged to go as wandering beggars along the road,
praying with all the vehemence which despair lends
to the most emphatic of languages (in this part of
the country the common people all speak the native
Irish) that the heaviest of curses may fall on their
oppressor. The people decreed a terrible vengeance.
It was resolved among them, that the Agent should
be put to death ; and nothing but the extremest
caution on his part prevented them from accom-
plishing their purpose. There were many men sworn
solemnly to kill him whenever he came within their
reach, no matter what might be the occasion, or
where the place ; but his extreme vigilance eluded
them, and he continued to live, and to be execrated.
Baffled in the main objec.: of their pursuit, and
choking with unquenched revenge, they came to the
dreadful determination" that the punishment of the
father should be accomplished by the murder of his
son. He was a very young lad, of gentle, unoffeed-
iag manners; but this had no effect upon these
men, whose terrible excitement thirsted for blood.
If they thought of it at HD it was but to recollect
Chat he wa- probably on that account dearer to his
father, and Chat consequently the vengeance de-
rived from his murder would be the greater.
They met the lad in the broad day-light; and
thon4h he a ~,!‘y himself from his horse, and
on his knees implored their mercy, he found
none from these relentless savages. A shower of
balls struck him in every part cf the body, and
he %%as left upon the road dead, and all disfigured,
with numberless wounds. This was the comnience•
ment—the firing of the train, which rapidly spread
along extensivedis'riets r,fLimer.k.'f,Tipperary, Cork,
and Kerry. The houseless people we have de-
scribed, forming themselves into powerful bands
skulked in hiding places among the hills by day, and
stealing out by night to some appointed rendezvous,
they swept the open country in bodies, carrying off
such booty as was portable, and burning or destroy-
ing what they could nut take away ; often, too, in-
flicting savage vengeance on their successors in the
tenancy of the farms, of which they deemed them-
selves unjustly deprived." It is high time that an
end was put to the tyranny of the landlords in Ire-
land. But dogs do not eat dogs; and an English
Aristocracy will act touch an Irish Aristocracy.—
Morning Chronicle.
Our readers will recollect that we found it
necessary, two days ago, to notice the attacks which
were made upon us by certain Morning and Evening
cotemporaries respecting Mr. Sheil's speech.
With a folly, of which no parallel instance, we believe,
can be produced, one of these Papers has continued
the dispute, and lest it should fail in producing a due
impression, another, which is never heard of beyand
the boundaries of Wapping, has come to its aid in
full cry. We shall not notice, further than we have
already done, the charges of the former, which, so
far as we are concerned, are perfectly innoxious ;
nor shall we dwell upon those of the latter
further than to state, that the attempt which it
makes to fix upon us the accusation of having
termed the Courier and the Standard " dirty prints,"
is nothing short of an egregious falsehood. We never
employed such terms, with reference to either of
these jot:mare, directly or indirectly ; and it must
have required no ordinary perversion of intellect to
dream, for a moment, that we should have been
guilty of doing so. The Courier is too well known
for the talent and gentlemanly feeling which have
invariably characterized its columns, to permit of
such epithets being applied to it; and though we
have occasionally
.differed from the Standard, and
had some controversy with it, we are not aware that
it has ever been necessary to designate it by terms
which apply almost exclusively to the " sooty Ga-
zette" to which we have alluded. Eighty years
standing ought to have taught the print in question
" depend upon an open, straight-forward, and
manly line of conduct. Accounts which afterwards
turn out to be false, and consequently are nothing
less than instil:, to the understanding," will never
" While they impeach
entitle
tcl he ai rtrai:ltftone
Carne time,
public
hees:Epdidemist:otrr.osfolrh respectability,they,nd
y
foolishly hope to obtain." But
at the
rtoespliacvt-ewthloicuhe' they foolishly
this pitiful controversy—for
pitiful it is in every respect, and nothing which may
be said of our report shall induce us to notice
again the attacks of the contemptible,
alluded—the
er.d,risa7owtihineganidn
m-
Correspondentogtu:B-
- print to which we have
tion, as is justly retnarked by a
another part of our Paper, and, as was, veryc pro-
perly observed two days ago by
porar • (the Britian 'Traveller),
which have
from taking part in the despicable attacks
aollh oh vheililsinL'alistained
.beeti made upon us, is not whether Mr. Sheildid
or
did not speak the speech attributed to him—thous
we have the best testimotythaheirs
that hedLd did-but th Act; h
he
et he
that speech is, or is not, Mr.l s
in-
tended, or did not intend, to speak it—whether he
allows it to be his speech, and subscribes to all the
matters which it contains, or disavows it and declares
it to be a forgery ? and in answer to such questions, •
we state, in the most distinct manner, that it is Mr.
Sheil's speech, that he recognises every part of it,

even to the very language employed, and that if the
occasion for speaking it were again to offer itself, as
it is now past, he woulLl speak it and no other !
We trust this is a sufficient answer to every attack
which has been made both on us and on Mr. Shen;
and in conclusion, we would just hint to those who
have been so busy in fixing charges of fraud upon
1:5, that we know of attempted frauds which, if ex-
posed in the same spirit that they have vainly at-
tempted to expose us, might not do them much ser-
vice in the commonwealth.--iktormng Advertiser.

It will be seen, from another part of our Paper,
that a Meeting was held yesterday of a considerable
number of Licensed 'Victuallers, to take into censi-
deretion the provisions of the Act of the 23th of
Geo. 11., under which many of them have lately
been refused Licences to have music in their houses.
We have read over the Act in question with con-
siderable care; but have not only not found any
clause in it which applies particularly to Licensed
Victuallers, but from its termination have strong
reason to believe that the Act itself has been
dead for nearly seventy years ! The last clause
of it provides in the most express terms
for its expiration at the end of four years;
and no mention is made in the Act pase,,d during
the last Session, either of its existence or of its
repeal. It may, however, have been renewed
under a different title, and until those whom it
concerns have better information upon the point,
it would of course be unsafe to act upon it. We
cannot, however, omit this opportunity of pointing
out to our readers the avidity with which the gang
of informers seize on every opportunity of harass-
ing those on whom they can fasten their talons.
No sooner are they routed at Hatton-garden or
elsewhere, in their attacks on the Licensed Vic-
tuallers, than they commence them anew on the
coach proprietors--and when shewn up by the latter,
return again upon the former, and attempt to con-
vict them of making merry with music, against the
Act in that case made and provided, instead of keep-
ing late hours. Such miscreants ought to be crush-
ed ; and we are truly glad to perceive that they are
at length likely to meet their deserts. The sums of
money which they have extorted, under various pre-
tences, from the Licensed Victuallers and others
whom the law has most injudiciously left a prey to
them, are immense.--/tid.