The Sun.
London, England, 1826-06-29 00:00:00

[TII4 MOTININ,Ci CIIRONICLE.]

err eurpaper of the 13th inst. we predicted that the
Burmese march would not •ratify the Preliminary
Treaty negoeiated between his Chief: and the British
Authotitito. it appears to us that, the Burmese Chiefs
were never authorised to negociate, and that they were
not sincere in anything but a desire to gain time and
security: from our victorious pursuing army ;' and in this
they lieVe completely succeeded, for we have lost a very
considerable portion of the short favourable season of
the year for carrying on military operations; and the
latgie reinforcements prepared at Bengal and Madras
havebttee countermanded No new operation cart be
ailetnnted, by Sir Arch. Campbell until the middle of
November ; ul Arrieme, there are, we fear, too few re-
maining alive of that tints army, even to protect them-
SelVes in that pestilential position ;- and we grieve
to say, we expect, erillntig, to bear or its total extir—
pation, unless it receives considerable reinforcements.
Our troops appear on the late occasion to have behay.
0 with their usual gallantry, but forward to Atteera-
pocks, the capital, they cannot,move; as soon as the
tides fail, they must come to a stand ; any man
Negro bee ever ascended great, rivers: like the Ir-
rawaddy, must know, that flat boats only are echo-
ed to the mtvigation, that. none other can be
used, and that these must be trucked by force,
of men whom our army have net the means of
procuring. The exertioes of the natty have hitherto
been most UReful and' exemplary ; but when assistance
from the tide fails, European boats or boatmen can
no leinger, be employed, and as to rowing 500 miles,
of even 20 miles, in flat boats against a rapid stream,
the thing can .never be .attempted. Sir A. 'Campbell,
bythe late accounts, appears now to have adopted the
Only plan likely to 'succeed, and which ought to have
been pursued :before we sent a man into the country ;
for it is by the_ assistance of the dependent Chic
iS
alone we can ever hope to be successful in the:Bur-
mese empire. But will these Chiefs, after what they
have seer), be disposed to join us in effecting the

downfall - off: the ~,Golaen-footed Monarch id" We
trust, hoWeVer, that our Authorities, in case of en-
tering into another treaty, will take care to have
hostages of high rank for its due performance.

['lll
.MORNpiG HERALD.,].
We have no doubt that if it were proposed in Par-
liament to establish a Censorship of the Press, 'it
would put the kingdom in a flame. from one end to
the other—yet under the esent Law of Libel. there
are as oppressive things done, nut only to, suppress
the freedom of opinion, but to destroy the fidelity of
historical . statement, as ; the tyranny of a censorship
could sanction. It may be asked how does this hap-
pen, seeing that there is a stature which protects the
Press against the direct influence of arbitrary doc-
trines, and which has transferred from Judges to Jury,
men the sole right of, pronouncing what is a libel,
and what is not ? We answer, , that Jurymen do so
rarely avail themselves of the powers with which they
are invested by. that 'statute, that.it has almost become
a dead letter. The consequence is, that encourage-
ment is given to the lowest class of the legal profes-
sion, the needssand, speculating attorney—to contrive
and instigate actions of libel, that they may fill their
pockets with exactions under the name of costs, They
get hold of persons as needy as themselves, who may
'have got their names into the newspapers, by, the re-
ports of: proceedings at the Sessions, police offieem,
&c., and they induce them to bring actions, with the
hope of extorting money in the way of compromise,
or at least of obtaining the amount of a large bill of
costs 'under a verdict for the smallest damages. They
know that if the, character of their client should be
estimated by the Jury but at a shilling or a, farthing,
they will, nevertheless, ,have all the costs; and this
regulation of the law seems admirably, contrived for
the benefit of litigious attorneys. it is nothing lees
than saying, " Let attorneys who cannot get legitimate
business waste the public time and harass the Courts
of Justice with actions of libel that may not be of
more-than one farthing's value ; yet on.. account of
every such action, the law will allow them a premium
of 1001. or 150/. !" Such is the provision made for
those who bring the:administration of justice into pub-
lic disrepute, and convert the laws into an engine of
extortion. It sometimes occurs, however, that a
jury is found who estimate rightly the motives of the
low practitioners of the law, who attack the Press with
vexatious actions of libel ; and by an independent
verdict, turn the tables on the cunning manufacturer
of :costs. If this were more frequently done, the time
of both Judges and Juries would not be so much con-
sumed as it has been of late years by trumpery cases
or this sort, which throw an air of ridicule round the
solemn proceedings of justice. Our readers have.seen
the report of a trial in our Paper of SatutdaY, Which
was brought by an attorney named Robinson, against
Mr. Clement, the proprietor of the MorningChro-
nide. Our readers are aware it was in evilence on
that trial that this person had . brought-no Jess' than
nine or ten actions of libel against difarent News.
papers for the, same cause of action, which arose ori-
ginally outof a report 'of atrial of a pig-keeper
,and
his wife, at a country Quarter-Sessions, for an assault
—five of the ten actions of libel were brought in the
name of the poor cottitc,,er above-mentioned, who
probably did not know how to read,, and the
others in the name of the attorney himself. If
we add to those two actions arifaing out of., the
same affair, which this attorney brought against
Mr. Knight, proprietor of the .Trucks Gazette, we
have hite twelve cases of libel, manufactured out
of one' Of the most; paltry occurrences that ever
' ) was reported in a newspaper. Yet, paltry
,as the oe-
' currerice was, if the attorney succeeded in all these in
getting in each but a farthing damages, twelve far-
things damages in all, whiCh amounts, according to
Cocker, to the sum of three-pence, he would-have had
from one hundred, to one hundred and . fifty pounds
damages on each,'or from twelve hundred to eighteen
hundred pounds in all! Let us take it at the loweit
calculation, and here will be a libel.producingthree-
pence in damages to the client,, and twelve hundred
pounds in costs to the attorney. is it to be wondered
at, now that solieitorships. of joint-stock schenies are
no longer profitable, that many of the keen sports-
men in the lower grades of the law should turn their
attention to such a promising field of speculation?
Had the number of attorneys that fled from justice,on
the sudden breaking up of the joint-stock schemes,
confined the exercise of their ingenious talents to .the
manufacturing of eases, of libel, they might have plun-
dered the public very. extensively without incurring
legal punishment. But we trust the example of the
Jury, in the !,a,se of Robinson v. Clement, will effec-
wally check a practice that thrcatencd.to destro every
vestige of liberty in the press more, completely than
ever was done hy. the
.strong aria of absolute power.
It is true that in,
the case of one or two newspapers
Robinson discontinued the proceedings, oil obtaining
an abject apology, and a sum of money besides. . If
indeed it were only for vindicatien of chargter,.lie

looked, one action would have answered the purpose,
as the report in question first appeared in a Sunday
Paper, and was ci)pied, along with other law pro-
ceedings of the Saturday, into some of the Morning
Papers of the following Monday—not one of, the
editors of which knew or cared one farthing about the
parties, who were utterly obseure. There could con-
sequently he no intention to miSrepresent them, and
if the original report was false or coloured, one action
would have proved that as well as twelve, and that ac-
tion would have been reported as extensively as the
original one. ' What objeet then could the attorney
have,in bringing so many actions, hut' the . matiplica-
tion of costs? and why did he :never apply for an ex-
planation or apology, without also demanding a sum
of money. 'We hive already-',shown that 1,2p01.
might have been reaped by thOse paltry proceedings,
although the damages should only amount to 4t.t. of
the copper coin of this realm. But let us suppose a
case that sometimes happens—namely, that all the
London Papers had either reported or
,copied the re-
port of the original trial. What, thepwould have been
the attorney's harvest, on this principle of multiplying
costs. Now there are about 16 Morning and -tyening
Papers, and about 20 weekly ones.. : The former
[ would have given the comprehensive Mr. Robinson
the opportunity of bringing 92 actions, and the latter
would have furnished him with the occasion of 40
inure, making for titiridon alone 7 actions of libel,
from the one reportritif an insignificant trial, supposing
that he got only a. farthing damages for his client in
each, or eighteen-pence in all. Let the costs be esti-
mated au low as 1001,, and here would be is. M. in
damages to he put in the client's liocket,
to be fingered by tha attorney, which- is more than the
o the M salary f and 7,200/.
Master of the Rolls ; and considerably
more than the salary of any of the three Pulsing Judges
of the King's Bench.

Those who prprest. to underatand the matter repre-
sent that the Government, the Catholics, and the
landed interests will all turn out to be losers by the re-

suit of the General_ Election. If such bar the case, it
is difficult to know who are to be the gainers, unless it
be the mercantile and manufacturing interesth, which
certainly do appear to have acquired strength ,at some
places, at the expence of the land owners. It is for-
tunate, however, for these latter, that there is a feeling
both of pride and of security, coupled with the posses-
sion of the soil ; and a than, therefore, no sooner ac-
quires wealth by trade, than one or both of these no-
tions,prompt ban to invest part of his capital in land,
by which means his :commercial attachments and his
landed antipathies become blended with and merge
into each other. This is, in fact., but a picture of
what every society out to be, and for the most part
is. Every branch of the community is, and ought to
be, more or less dependent upon the rest ; and any
attempt to 'uphold or depress any peculiar interest at
the expence, of, or for the supposed benefit of the rest,
and to:foment a spirit of jealousy and discord, where
union is so natural and desirable; is unworthy of any
man who rightly views the true interests and bearings
of the social compact. When, therefore, the Corn
Laws come, as they doubtless will, to be discussed in
the new Parliament, we trust that the diseussion will
not be entered upon as' a, struggle of party,. or that the
advocates on either. side' will have to boast of or rely
upon the Book of Numbers. On the contrary, we
trust that Government swill so have employed the in-
terval which will -have preceded the discussion, in con-
densing their views upon the subject into such a li-
beral, an enlightened, an intelligible, and statesman-
like form, as :may have the effect of convincing and
uniting all parties, both in and out of Parliament,
upon a topic which, if rightly considered, is one of
equal importance to all ranks of the community.--/bid.

[THE REPRESENTATIVE.]
A Correspondent has addressed us, to express his
satisfaction at our " change of tone in favour of the
Greeks." He must have been mistaken : our senti-
ments in regard to the cause remain the same. We
hare always wished well to men who are fighting in
defence of their hearths, and we have raised our
voices against such only as are the indiscreet or
knavish partisans of the Hellenists. We are con-
vinced that the 'interests of this unhappy people have
suffered in consequence of the injudicious measures that
have been adopted under col Our of serving them. We
are also persuaded, that if a few persons of known
prudence and character would come forward, and de-
Clare themselves
,ready to discuss the real merits of
the case, and to deliberate upon the best means of
contributing to the relief of the suffering Patriots of
Greece, thousands of hearts and hands would open
to them. • It is impossible that any person, to whom .
the history of ancient and modern Greece is fami-
liar, can feel indifferent to the fate of the 'descend-
ants of the heroes of Marathon and Thennopyhe.
Those glorious battles have been fought over and
over again in the age we live in ; and the Russels
and the Howards of 1826 cannot show better proof,
by record and register, that they are of the true line
and lineage of the noble old houses of Bedford and
Norfolk, than the nations of the Noma, by' feats of
arms, that. they derive their blood from the ancient
tribes of the Peloponnesus. The people of Greece are
not materially altered, any more than their language ;
and if our hearts throbbed. when we,were school-boys,
while we were in suspense to know 'who were victori.
WIN al t.h..lamis, they. may heat now with an agitation
squally generous, till it in decided whether the Croms
or the Crescent shall prevail. The affinity holds in
every point of view, when We contemplate the ancient
and the present conflict, Europeans are fighting
against Asiatics for more than their liberty, and for
more than the existence of themselves and families.—
If defeat would bring: extermination to the men capa-
ble of bearing arins, and to the aged, whit would it
bring to the young of both sexes ? But, to admit all
that can be required of us,* if the Greeks of the pre-
Sent age are degenerated from those 'who abandoned
their homes rather. than, submit to the enemy, how
much worse are, Ibrahitri "Pasha and his Arabs, than
Darius or Xerxes and his Persians 1. The destruction
of tens oftrillions : Would bring no tears from 'lbrahim,