The Sun.
London, England, 1828-09-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

(PROM TU TIMES.)
It is well for' the honour at least of this country,
that all her citizens employed in the public service
have not the same instincts with the Nobleman at
present Secretary for Foreign Affairs. No sootier
had the blockade of Madeira been notified to tho
King's Ministers (through what channel we know
not, seeing that all diplomatic intercourse with the
Lisbon usurper had then ostensibly ceased), than
they hastened to register this impudent edict, and
to inform our merchants that Madeira was subjected
to an effective blockade, before so much as an epos-

ttaoilcanis.l coTckhe•bopart ba
precipitation
descried f
nn
ofourForroem its m
ignpepourut-
ti-
ment, however, bears no very honourable contrast to
the spirit with which the British Consul protested
against the first announcement of a rebel blockade,
and with which a British naval officer prepared to
resist. it by clearing ship for action. When the Com-
mander of two Portuguese brigs of war told Captain
gutkiing, of the Medina frigate, that they had left
Portugal an an errand so grating to the political
sentiments of this eountry, as well as so inju-
rious to her commerce, he answered briefly,
that if they ventured to molest any merchant-
man tinder the British flag, they must make.
up their minds. to stand # brush with the Medina.
This resolution of Captain oi:ckling was to hold
good until he received official inte:2isence from his
Government that it acknowledged the validity of the
blockade. Here we cannot help repeating' the sur-
prise that every Englishman has a right to feet, Dot
at the deference which his Majesty's Ministers have:
manifested, since the peace of 1815, for every sort
of blockade, no matter from what quarter, but at
the eagerness with which they seemed to catch at
this attempt of Miguel to put his despotic seal upon
a depot of British property, as if it had been some
precious boon to the trade, or glory to the crown
f england, that our industry and seamen should
be at tie mercy of the Camarilla. It is to be hoped,
that before C„-..‘ntain Suckling would feel his hands
tied up by instru,7!iT
this
have reached country,. such
supplies or reinforc:in f :tj.` osn
might s
Madeira as would enable the' gallant officer who
commands there for Don Pedro to place it beyond
he power of the rebels.

(FROM THE MORNING CHRONICLE.)
In the evidence given by Mr. Bodkin, Honorary'
Secretary to the Nendicity Society, to the Com-
mittee on the Police of the Metropolis, suggestions
are thrown out for improving the ndministration of
justice, which are well deacrring of consideration.
" Have you any observations to make with regard to
the Prisons of the Metropolis?--I should say that one of
the greatest improvements that could be effected in the
Police of the Metropolis would be a more speedy delivery
of the Metropolitan gaols ; and I have here an analysis of
the comtuittments to the New Prison, at Clerkenwell, for

the last year, 1827, which may enable the Committee to
form some judgment on this point ; I find that the total
number of Commitments has been 0,862 to that gaol ; and
dividing those into classes, the Committee will see how
very few are of a comparatively serious character. The
first class, including murder, forgery, arson, sodomy, rape,
cutting and maiming, coining, burglary, highway rob-
ter, and returning from transportation, amounts to 170 ;
bery, horse-stealing, sheep and cattle-stealing, manslaugb-
the second class, including bigamy, perjury, conspiracy,
uttering base coin, fraud, various misdemeanours, and lar-
cenies (some capital, but I have not been able to ascer-
tain how many) ; the third 'class, including assaults, riots,
military desertion and bastardy, amounts to 2,530 ; the
fourth class, including disorderly, using menacing language,
and summary convictions of various kinds, amounts to
Sal. Now it appears to me, that if it were thought wise
to have more frequent gaol deliveries, there should be some
jurisdiction appointed, separate from the Quarter Sessions,
fur the purpose of trying all offenders, except those its-
eluded in the first class, and part of the larcenies ; that is,
all offences not capital.
" What sort of jurisdiction do you contemplate?-1
should contemplate the appointment of persons of high
legal attainments, and great experience, assisted by the
Magistrates of the district in which they sit.
" To try by a summary process by Jnry.
" Would you recommend eiat the Court should be con-
stantly sitting?-_-I think a Court that shifted its sittings
from one part of the metropolis to another, would be the
most convenient; it might sit at Clerkenvrell one week,
at Westminster another, and at Horsemonger gaol the
third, supposing the plan were adopted of coneidering
Greenwich and Deptford, and the places adjacent, part of
the metropolis:
" But you would have the Court permanent, though
ambulatory ?—Yes; and according to that plan, supposing
the Court were to sit every week, every third week it
would sit in each place.
" Would you propose that those who are sentenced to
the punishment of imprisonment for a length of tinw,
should be sent to the prisons in Kent and Surrey, or that
there should be prisons appropriated for that purpose near
London ?—That has not entered into my consideration ;
but if the idea which has been thrown out were adopted,
of making the Penitentiary a House of Cottectitih; that
would be sufficiently large to take in all those pensonsafte,
sentence. With regard to the gaol at Clerkenvitlli there
have been 497 persons in it at once, but it is calculated,
believe, to contain 340; the average number committee!
has been, during the last year, 130 a week ; so that sup-
posing the number of commitments still to continue the
same, the delivery of the gaol in.the way I have described
would be sufficiently rapid to render it unnecessary to
build any other receiving gaol; and I apprehend that, in-
dependently of expcnce, it is a much better mode of get-
ting rid of a pressure in a gaol to have a quick delivery of
it, than to build larger gaols, for the further congregation
of prisoners. I never knew any one the better for being in
gaol. The Committee will be struck with the number of
persons which has been committed to this gaol : for
assaults (that is, for want of security) 2031, and for riots
419. I think it would be very desirable if Magistrates
were to dispense with other than personal security in cases
of common assault. There are also, besides this number,
379 other persons for want of sureties, but committed for
a definite period; that is, they are committed for six
mouths or twelve months, if, in the meantime, they do not
find sureties fur their good behaviour.
I would take leave to observe also (although it is a point
upon which one would wish to speak with some hesita-
tion), that in many cases the intervention of the Grand
Jury might be altogether dispensed with."
We have here a striking exemplification of the
defectiveness of our present administration of jus-
tice. The county rates have swelled to an amount
equal to the revenue of a great kingdom, amounting i
single counties to 100,0001. a year, and prison has
beets added to prison till the lace of the country is
studded with them, chiely because the prisons are
crowded with persons who ought not to be within
them, and because there is a want of machinery for
d s osisrignioefrethoosheyiato, athreanj
thing i
soon discharged; and if guilty, he cannot be - too
soon subjected to punishment. There is no evil
without its accompanying good. If crime had
been stationary, and the existing prisons could have
justly imprisoned.
the shorter the
imprisoned. No_
interval between commitment and trial the better ;
for if the prisoner be innocent, he cannot be too
mined our criminla
con population, the
Legislature
would have continued to disregard the
of the victims of delay
andabsurd laws. But
prison room being wanting, and the 'inordinate
calls for money for
additional places of confinement,
having exhausted the prtience and the means of the
contributors to taxation, our masters are fairly at a
stand, and something a ion'
will at last be yielded to
the necessity
of the case. Only think of nearly
3,000 • lndirlduals s ff •
u ering Imprisonment in one gaol
in one
year, without the least necessity for it I Anti
only think, too, of the constant complaints with
which we have been stunned for these dozen of
years past, of the demoralizing effects of imprison-
ment ! What Mr. Bodkin suggests for the Metro-
polis ought to be adopted every where. There
ought to be Judges constantly sitting for the disposal
of cases, that the prisons may not be crowded with
r untried prisoners. The expense of an establishment
of this kind would be trifling in comparison with the
amount of saving effected by gaol deliveries. There
can thus fortunately be no objection to die improve-
ment that it is expensive ; because, putting out of
consideration the expense of moral contaminatiou
caused by familiarising men to a prison life, there
would be an immense saving in money by the
change. But the most important part is that vta,
shall obtain a regular provision for the administra-
tion of justice. It may be hard to compel Justicts