The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT of thePlttitlC . JOURNALS.
PHODI THE EVENING letrins OP VtellilitraVa
GLOBE.—WeII : Easter Term has cornmenedd/kind I
closed. The Court of Queen's Benchhas beenOccupled
dining the whole sittings with the arguments pro and
con. on the new-trial motion in the case, " the Queen v.
O'Connell and others." The Tory journals depre-
cated the "indulgence," and affected to admire the
patience of the Judges, who ought to have 'stopped the
" gabble" of counsel, and proceeded at once .to give
judgment against the motion. Nothing was more plain
to Tory optics than that there was nothing in the ob-
'..jections and arguments of the traversers' counsel ;
'the only wonder was that the Attorney-General and
the Solicitor-General should deem it necessary to reply.
• .•HoWever, th 3 arguments were brought to a close. There
was yet time for the Court to do" its duty : i. e. to, sea=
tence the defendants to a good long term of imprison-
ment (two years was the period generally agreed upon,
with good thumping fines) in Kiltnainharn, or Carrick-
fergus—the latter the favourite. Monday caMe. The
Court sat. Tory hopes were on tip-toe. Public
' expectation was on the qui vice. Steamers were wait-
ing to bear the tidings to England ; and expresses
were in readiness to post them to every town and
village in Ireland. The counsel in the case were in at-
tendance; and the accused, in pursuance of their recog-
nisances, waited their doom. The hall of the Four
Courts was thronged; and all the avenues of the Court
were crowded with anxious multitudes, eagerly in-
quiring of every one who came fcrth from the Queen's
Bench Chamber, whether there was any probability of
the Court pronouncing judgment. The proceedings of
Monday terminated. No sign had been given from the
Bench, by which any idea of what was to be the issue
could be inferred. Increased impatience, accompanied
by manifest uneasiness, was perceptible among the
Tories. Still, they put on an appearance of confidence.
There was yet another day. The decision would, doubt-
. less, be delivered at the sitting of the Court on the
following morning ; which would proceed at ence
to sentence the "convicted conspirators." As the
punishment was to be very severe, the delay
which had taken place was intended to give addi-
tional solemnity to the proceeding. Instant judg-
ment would have worn the appearance of precipita-
tion. Time for cool, dispassionate censideration would
divest the-proceeding of every suspicion of undue haste.
But the minds of the Judges were made up. The
" monster proceeding" would close, as it ought, with
consigning O'Connell and his co-adjutors to gaol. All
that was yet unase,rtained was the period of their in-
carceration. Tuesday morning came. Public excite-
ment became intense; increasing multitudes congregated
in the Four Courts' Hall and its neighbourhood, while
members of the bar, and parties who had been fortunate
enough to get within the Court, waited with highly-
, wrought expectation for the entrance of the Judges.
Their Lordships had come dOwn to the Court so. unusu-
- ally early as ten o'clock: They remained in delibera-
tion an hour and a half. Doubtless they were giving
the finishing touches to the protracted case • consulting
upon the topics of the speech with which the sentence
was to be prefaced. We cannot better describe the scene
which was presented to the eye at this moment, than in
the words of the Times
" The public was on the tiptoe of expectation—well-dressed
ladies in a state of moderate excitement were visible in large
numbers.; the doors were crowded with ill-dressed gentlemen ;
all came to hear what was to be stated by the Judges with
„reference to the new trials in the great case of The Queen v.
Daniel O'Connell and others.' The gentry of the bar
indeed shook their heads, and maintained a state of im-
passibility, but, in vain. Public interest continued to in-
crease, and would not bepooh-poolted. The public would
not believe that the judgment of the Court could be any
longer delayed. Their Lordships had come down to the
Court at an -unusually early hour; and for what but
to conc,)ct their judgment ? At ten O'clock. they
. plunged- into their. chambers.- At half-past eleven
o'clock Mr. Justice Burton emerged, and took his
, seat on the bench ; Judges Crampton and Perrin,
shortly followed, wearing the appearance (it was re-.
marked) of men who had been recently engaged in
_warm discussion ; or, as we may more colloquially express it
in England, hot and fussy.' The Court was very full ; all the
Crown lawyers, some of the counsel for the traversers, Messrs.
`Remmis, Steele, and Tierney, were in their places. The
• Lord Chief Justice entered, fraught with the great secret.
An ordinary motion had possession of the Court, which did
not stop, but ran on to its conclusion with impor-
tunate pertinacity. History records it all with: that
deliberate minuteness with which she is wont to dwell
on the preliminaries to a great crisis. At last an opportunity
'offered, and the Lord Chief Justice spoke. ' Mr. Attorney,
I am sorry to tell you that the Court find they cannot, give
judgment in the case until next term.' Ibi omnis effueue la-
_ bor. The interest vanished—the Court was cleared—and the
- only remaining excitement was transferred to the Iron Duke
. steamer, and the extraordinary express which conveyed to
. our own office this important intelligence in nineteen hours,
from the moment when the Lord Chief Justice was delivered
of his announcement."
The'effect of this announcement is to "hang up the
• proceedings," in the technical language of the Courts,
" until next term." ' The great probability is, that
j nothing more will be heard in the Court of this mon-
strous proceeding :" a monster indictment—a mon-
strous defence—a monster appeal ;" and we will add;
monstrous violations of the principles, and infractions
_ of the rules, which the Constitution,provides for the pro-
tection of the subject against that most insufferable of
.- all oppressions—the oppression which is . inflicted in
the name of justice, by means of the perversion of the
:forms of law. We . are disposed to think- that het
Majesty's Ministers—and especially Sir Robert
• are not sorry that the State prosecution is brought to a
dead lock. From its commencement, 'at every step, till
it arrived' at its preset position, ill luck attended
It was prolific in disgrace to those who counselled and
those who conducted it. Ridicule, indignation, and
contempt, were created by the blunderings, . un-
fairness toward- the accused, and disregard even
• of respect for the majesty of the Court, which
were exhibited -by the Attorney-General and his
agents. The impression which the prosecution
wa.s `designed to make on the public mind, and the
. influence which the pre-deterthitied verdict was ta
exercise upon the Repeal Association, have evaporated.
Mon are moved to laughter, rather than fear.- Let tke
Government be thankful. ' Things. might have. been
- much worse. The State Prosecution bemb-shellswhicb
wag to have struck terror into the public. mind in Irel•
land, has fallen powerless. Instead of -producing cons
sternatioe and mischief by an explosion, its fusee ha
gone out with a harmless stench. .We greatly-doubt
whether :Sir Robert Peel will consent. to a new attempt
being made to revive the now fast-subsiding ekcitemenir
- STANDARD.—A statement has been published by
the Associated Master Manufacturers of the county of
Lancaster, setting-forth the proportions, in respect tottgb
• and sex„ of the labourers employed in factories. Froth
the statement it appears that-of the labourers, fifty-three
per Ont. are under' the age of twenty-one' years; thait
is, accdrding to the raw of England, infants, part*
. disqualified „by- law . from entering into. any limper,-
. tent engagement. AS far, therefore, as concern con-
, siderably More' than one-half the factory las
bourers, it is quite idle to talk of the right of the
labour and the poor man's liberty of making contract .
More than one-half of the factory labourer9 are of a
age-nit which, were they children of. Dukes and Ma
guises,.. the law would not allow ' them to mak
• contracts ; and it is to be remembered' that
this majority of the labourers are .included all
whom Lord Ashley's proposed limitetion legall'
affects—we say legally affects, because it is coal-
, plained by those who think that for the sake of more
effectually using up the old, you must-abandee your duty
af protecting the young—that-to,lipAt the hours of labour
'to infants will cause a -correspoU4gilliiikitatien of the
hours of labour to adults. T.WV,TfieiireveriThis nothing
to do with principles; and we eapte,4l,-for,a, priaciple
principle that, under favour,' is- neitlier new, nor u
sound—the principle, narnelysthat ,tite Siete Is behind
protect the interests of minors or infants.---4f .the. min
• happens to be rich; the Chancellor .wilt 'tell us tie t
the Constitution and common law give him a right
and impose upon him the ;ditty to take to himself the
guardianship of affluent minors ; the common laW
irseT Will tell 'us 'also that minors, whether rich
or poor, cannot bind. themselye.s by any contract, save
in one reserved case. Now, these examples prove that
the principle., of
,prOtecting , minors generally is not
new, amid the . reserved , case to which we have
referred will , prove, we think very . satisfactorily,
- that the principle of protecting minors is not
unsound any more than it is new. The one case
in which an infant, or minor, can bind him-
self by a contract; -is thecase of apprenticeship. This'
is an institution as, old es the common law ; but it is
recognizsd by many statutes, particularly the remarkable.
statute 5 Elizabeth. In this, the, one exceptional case io
which the law delegates, as it were, its protectien of the
•...infant or minor, mark the care which it takes, that the
delegated trust shall notbe abused. The contract tate made
by the minor must he by indenture, not a nuclum pueblo:,
but ..an 'engagement reciprocally binding upon and reci-
- Procallsr benefieial to -both parties.' And, in order that
there' may:be no fraud or irregularity, the contract
1,.13311.5t be exectited• in the presence of d magistrate
or •!litlier • responsible authority'. Is there any un-
t-, 6,..,(4'1'4‘,13,rineC01e in -this provision of the law, ? And
If mere is not, why may not ,the Legislature pro-.'
I vide .agaitist minors engaging themselves, or rather
,Iseing forced to engage themselves, to torus which no
, magistrate assuredly date sanction' in a particular, case;
as for example, that the apprentice must, whatever his
.. strength, work as many hours as the. master's pleasure
s or convenience shall dictate, and that the master
need not pay or feed or teach him except when he
:shall'-fincl 'it profitable to do stoLtNy
We
weareelmpundfer-
• etood it' is supposed
`infarit raetgy,labootors all the benefit of apprenticeship
"—Moderate labour, fair sustenance, and constant ern-
ployment„, We could: heartily wish to see them all in
the enjoyment of 'those benefits, but we are not wild
enough as 'to propose anything so just and humane,
and really politic •in the end, in an age when the
philosophy is that which
- only popular political
promisee saving or gain to ' the -wealthy, which
• be ' Cis in the breeches pockets of the rich. We
- ends
anibitious hope—our sole. purpose is
Intro 'no such
to -ad.' a
.principle which bas been misrepre-
sented as new and unsound, the principle that
the. . law of this intelligent Christian coun-
try.
protects, and always. has protected infants
• --rich ;infants from the --effects of youthful_ folly,
• poor infants from the twofold- danger of their
• weak judgment and weak condition. This principle
is, we imagine, clearly established by the . proofs
that we have offered ; and, this principle once esta-
blished, we should be glad to, know what becomes
of all the mass of rubbish about the "freedom
of labour" and the " liberts of forming contracts,"
• spoken and written against Lord Ashley's. proposition
for the application to infants in factories, in the only
vraysin which it can be applied, of that protection which
the law owes to all infants.

late battne among the.: ga;ninkliQuse37 se-
veial sprio of nobility were captured, and are, now! in
durance vile ; two or three sporting characters were also
secured.