The Sun.
London, England, 1821-08-30 00:00:00

defended, but that portion of the inhabitants who
are best qualified for desultory warfare, will, in
the event of an invasion, be nutnheted among
their enemies.

[THE TIM ES .1
The presence of -Mr. Adolphus, the barrister,
at the Coroner's Inquest on Monday last, gave
rise of necessity to many serious reflections ar,ong
those who compared the avowed purpose of the
Learned Gentleman in appearing there, with the
well understood uSeand object of that ancient
and constitutional Court, When an Advocate
presents- himself before- one of the Courts of
Westminster, he introduces himself to the Judge
and Jury in the form of. a delegate or represen-
tative of some specific party, being either the
plaintiff or
-defendant in the cause ; and why ?
Because every'subject has a right to speak in his
own behalf, and ,may by custom do so through
the medium of his Counsel : but that party must be
already before the Court; his name must have al-
ready appeared on the face of its proceedings;
and the character which he has to support
be well ascertained and defined. If the Judge
thus interrogates a Counsel who rises to address
him—" For whom do you appear, Mr. A, B, or
" C?" and the Counsel should reply,." I appear,
" my Lord, for any one of 500 individuals, bone
" of whom are yet known to the Court, but
" ' who may by possibility be implicated by its
‘" proceedings ;' " would not the learned Judge's
temper or his gravity Kull the risk of being dis—
turbed by such a preposterbits answer ? -Where
there is no principal there can, be no represen-
tative ; and in what shape do the Life Guards
exist as a party before the Court of the
Coroner, to justify the declaration of Mt.
Adolphus, that he appears for the first
regiment of 46 Life Guards—or such portion of
"it as may be implicated ?" Whither will such
a practice lead ? To the discovery of truth ?
No, unquestionably ; but to render it far more,
difficult of access. If a Barrister come with an
admitted purpose, to throw every obstacle which
his experience can supply in the way of such a
course of investigation as he foresees from the
outset must tend to fix the charge of murder on
any one of several hundred individuals, how per-
plexed and thorny will be the path by which
the Jury .have to travel ! The very-approach of
an advocate is hostile to the success of a prelimi-
nary inquisition. There are no parties but the
King, who has lost a subject, and who requires no
advocate to plead his cause. The Coroner and
the Jury are presumed by the law to. be compe-
tent -both.by 41-teir intelligence and their honesty
to: the whole community, repre.
'Sks'i4d...i;yilthe Sovereign, . and to prosecute their
examination: into the facts .of . the case, without
.wishing to find one man more
,guilty than ano-
ther. Then,see-how inconsistent, Day, how im-
politic it must be, for any one person, or any
bOdy of individuals, to .draw the suspicions of
the' Jury to themselves by this premature em-
ployment of an advocate. If it be done by a
hundred men, why not by one, who fancies that
appearances are ,somewhat strong against him ;
and will not such an
.expedient 'strengthen every
unfavourable conclusion? '" .he.found
"'Self so hard run.- by-. yesterday's evidence,
" that he• has, sent a lawyer' to
.try and save
"...him." AI-titagain, non coastal, at what. stage of
tfieinqiffiy, . some- fact may , be stated by some
wiiness Which will remove every reasonable
'ol6picion-fiom those who were at first suspected,
and iMPliCate a party before unthought of. In
that CAS-‘how ruinous to the principal will have
heen the Introdiretion of his advocate; . for it
must require a :tenfold. weight of testimony to
transfer the charge from his shoulders. We will
assume-for a moment- that the. poor man in Ox-
ford-street was not killed by the Life Guards,
but by a' pistol in the hand of one of the, as-
sembled Populace; This fact. is given in evi-
-deuce on. Saturday ; and on Monday two bar-
risters make their appearance, before the Jury,—
one, Mr: Adolphus, .for. the, Life- Guards, or
'4. those who may be implicated ;" and some
one of his learned brethren, who, when..asked,
informs the Coroner, and may do so on exactly
the same principle—" I, Sir, am Counsel
",for those who may be implicated—of the mob !"
Would this be according to law, or' custom, or
public convenience, or consistent with-the nature
of an abstract inquiry into facts, whose bearing
upon particular persons no man hasa legal right to
anticipate ?. Would it be endured that, a barrister
should offer to debate with a Grand Jury whether
they should find-a bill ? Yet there the proposal
would be even less absurd than in the preSent
in-
stance; for the G rand Jury have cognizance of cer-
tain definite parties, in whom it might not indeed be
legal to depute a laver to battle for them at such
an early stage of the proceedings, but for whom
at least it would not be so monstrous and unin-
telligible that a representative should endeavour
to appear. We are happy to find that this plan
for impeding the course of justice was dropped
in yesterday's investigation, and that as the Co-
roner had hot called for an assessor, so he and the
Jurors were left unimpeded in the discharge of
their anxious office.

ROBBERY.-About twelve o'clock yesterday,
a great quantity of plate was stolen from a house
in George-street, Hanover-square, by some per-
son who contrived• to pass down the area steps,
unobserved (the gate having been left unlocked),
and entering the butler's pantry where the plate
was deposited.

Tuesday evening (in consequence of some cif-,
cumstances having transpired which it would be
improper at present to disclose) Thomas Bar-
rail, the man who gave evidence before the Co-,
roner's Jury which sat on the body of the watch-
man, who was murdered o❑ Friday morning last,.
on the premises of THOMAS HALE, Esq. of High-
gate, was apprehended by one of the Bow-street
Officers, on suspicion of being concerned in the
robbery and murder of the unfortunate deceased.
Some parts of Barratt's statement before the
Jury were considered suspicious. The prisoner
arrived in London yesterday morning, haViqg
been in Highgate watch-house during the night ;
he had left his home at Southend when secured
by the police ; he is very reserved, but strongly
persists in his innocence.