The Sun.
London, England, 1826-05-06 00:00:00

[MORNING HERALD.]

Jaeobitism is in great favour at the present day.
The secret was first discovered and the fashion set by
Sir W. Scott. It is .but three quarters of a century
since the last rebellion in favour of the Pretender, and
so completely have names changed, that the same
thing is now called loyal fidelity which was then called
treason. This is the direct contrary of what it should be.
The men who established the Revolution of 1688 corn-
batted the principles of Jacobitism, not the persons'of
the Stuarts. At present the fashion is to proscribe
the family, but to adopt and cherish the principles.
But is the .reversal of the attainders of the adherents
of the House of Stuart a measure to be condemned ?
By no means. The laws of attainder are themselves
unjust,: unnatural, and cruel—and the only objec-
tion is, that there is not a sweeping, or an extended
reversal, on a general , principle, and at least some
mitigation of what is called corruption of blood.
What can be more flagrant than to punish innocence,
and infinicy in the cradle, for guilt of which it was
even unconscious ? The law of the Eastern nations,
in the earliest ages of the world, carried attainder to
the extinction of the traitor's whole family. Our law
is only less unjust and cruel in degree. There is no
period more opportune than the present for this reform.
nem is no party at home or abroad that presumes to
think of a change of the succession or subversion of
the Constitution. Even in the reigns of Queen Anne
-and George 'II., when ,the Crown was held by a dis-
ptited and 'precarious tenure, the Legislature was so.
nauseated and shamed by the barbarous severity of
attainders, as to modify the law prospectively, upon
the death' of the Pretender and his issue. Mr. Peel
adverted to the reversal of the attainder of Lord Ed-
ward Fitzgerald.. But he surely cannot have con-
founded that attainder with those of the Jacobites.
The latter were convicted by legal trial, or proved to
have fallen with arms in their hande---;or to have fled
from justice. The attainder of Lord Edward Fitz-
gerald was in law exactly likethat of Algernon Syd-
ney—a mere mockery, supported by only one
.witness,
and. some papers traced to him—the single witness
being a, discredited and perjured informer, to whom
"the law," as the lawyers themselves say, " resorts
with .abliorrence,"—with this aggravation, that the
Irish Parliament tried a dead man, who had died of
wounds received in the act of apprehending him—and
that Judge Jefferies tried a man who was liVing to
make his defence. If, however, the case be men-
tioned in proof of the Kipg's personal disposition to
do acts of royal grace and mercy,
~nothing is more just.
The words of his contemporaries are not the best evi-
dence of the virtues of a Sovereign.' But if posterity
be not Unjust, it will be said a his present .Majesty
that there was no English, King.to whose disposition
it was more alien to he !severe, and to lohoin acts of
lenity and humanity, were mote COngenial. •

,E 41,11:
Our account from Manchester deserves minute at-
tention, and we are. sure it will be gratifying. We
have only this caution to instil—Let not the public,
let not statesmen, let not Alinisters, noW that the dan-
ger is subsiding, learn to despise and think lightly of
popular commotions 'excited by distress. Let them
not find a precedent in' the facility with which those
tumults have been appeased; but rather let them
quote to themselves and to each other, the terrors
which 'sere first kindled, in their minds by,the first
breaking out of disturbances in the manufacturing
districts; and let them avoid Whatever 'could by any
possibility'lead to a similar crisis.- Besides, easily as
the turmoil seems to be subsiding, blOod has been
Shed in it. Life has been taken by military weapons;
but life ought' not% so' taken away in any free
country except by 'the award of the law.—'We fear,
in many cases of combination, the mischief is el-
lowed to proceed through the 'want of firmness
through the pusillanimity of the masters. We speak I
with proud recollections on this subject. A master
should ba master ! or he should quit his situation
The contrast. between master and journeyman is as
simple, as intelligible, and as brief as need be. The
journeyman says,—and has a right to say,—" Give
me these wages, .I will not work for you." The
master, on the contrary, says—" Take what- I offer, or
I will not accept of your labour." There needs not
one word more to be said on the subject. But a master
who suffers one portion of his establishment to inti-
midate, or drive, or entice another -from their work—
who permits the turbulent to force the peaceful from
their labour—should be thrown down and :spit upon by
the lowest apprentice in his manufactory: and we
should not be sorry if a law were passed, that all mas-
ters against whom such treachery could be proved
were rendered infamous—were held incapable of giving
evidence in a court of justice, or of serving on. juries.
We drop these as hints to Messrs. Clog, Norris, and
Co., and we would particularly recommend as a prin-
ciple of action in the distribution of the public cha-
rity, that paragraph of our correspondent's letter which
we have printed in Italics :
" The separation of the really sziAring• poor,
" from- the tvanto4 vicious and rifractory, is essen-
ce tial in considering the application of the public
cc reliff."
Combinations, which are but unions in distress,
deserve a ditrerent treatment. Such combinations
should be prevented- if possible;. but having uiifoxtu
nattily occurred, they should be dissolved, as fires are
' extinguished, by every one lending the best assistance
he is able to the sufferers; and the Legislature should
sdopt a system of. policy, which should remove the
apprehension of 'similar disasiers.