The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-01 00:00:00

Attnin 1141

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1845

The opening of a new year—a solemn event to all
endowed with faculties of reflection and who exercise
those faculties in a right spirit—gives us the oppor-
tunity of saying a few words respecting the year which
has just passed away, and that w hich but a few
hours since broke upon us in the silence and solitude
of midnight. In casting a retrospective glance over
the political proceedings that took place in 1844, if
there be no very great reason for congratulation,
neither is there for discouragement nor despondency.
The important public questions of education,
of the condition of the labouring poor in the
manufacturing as well as in the agricultural
districts, of free trade, of legal and ecclesiastical
reforms, of the adoption of amore liberal and conci-
liatory system of policy towards Ireland—if these
important questions have made no very marked pro
gress during the somewhat drowsy twelve months
that have just expired, yet it is consoling to reflect
that they have in no respect retrograded, but, on the
contrary, may be said to have advanced slowly but
surely towards the successful issue that ere long
awaits them. In fact, though the year 1844 has on
the whole done its work but languidly, yet it has
done a certain amount of work whose bene-
ficial character has yet to be fully appreciated.
It has been a year of preparation for future good
rather than of actual performance of good. It has
been breaking the ground for its successor—fitting
the soil and sowing the seeds which are destined to
bear fruit in due season. The destitute and demo-
ralized condition of the labouring classes of the popu-
lation have been brought before the attention of the
community in an infinite variety of ways ; public
sympathy has been actively awakened in their behalf;
an opinion has been generally expressed in no une-
quivocal terms that their case can na longer
be neglected with impunity; and we confi-
dently trust that in the session which is now fast
approaching some decided measures will be adopted
for their relief, and 1845 complete the good work
which 1844 has commenced. Again, as regards the
question of free trade. Here, too, progress has been
made, though not perhaps to such an extent as could
have been desired. The great Anti-Corn-law
League—the embodied expression of a people's
wants and wishes on one of the most momentous
subjects that can interest them—has kept alive the
desire—we might add, the determination--for an
unshackled commercial system ; and despite the
innumerable obstacles that have been thrown in its
way by the selfishness, the cupidity, and the un-
deniable influence of the 'monopolists, this popular
Confederacy has never once lost ground, but
throughout the past year maintained its proud
position unshaken. It has still many difficulties to
surmount. The prejudices of some, and the keen
sense of self-interest in others, are not to be beaten
down in a day ; but events are working in favour of
the League—which the Herald of this morning, by
the bye, after having' pronounced it to be in articulo
mortis, has just discovered to be as much alive as
ever it was—and nothing but strenuous perseverance
is wanting to enable it to achieve a full and perfect
triumph. Slow, indeed, but sure, has been the pro-
gress which the question of free trade has
made in the year 1844, but henceforth
its advance will be considerably accelerated,
and in the coming session we doubt much
whether our expediency Minister will use the same
decided language respecting it that circumstances
gave him a pretext for using in the past session. As
regards the system of policy to be pursued towards
Ireland, we cannot longer permit ourselves to doubt
that this, too, from necessity, will be wholly different
to what it has hitherto been. The declarations of
Sir R. PEEL in Parliament, made towards the close
of the last session, are, so far as they go, exceedingly
encouraging on this point, and the evident dis-
r may and perplexity of the Irish Orange party are
an omen of still more cheering import. On the
whole, therefore, when we look back on the past
year and forward to the present, we feel that we
have much more cause for hype than for despondency.
Events are fast hurrying to a crisis. The compara-
tive languor and apathy that have prevailed in the
public mind for the last twelve months cannot be of
much longer duration, but must inevitably be suc-
ceeded by a vigilance—an activity—and a determina-
tion that will compel the Premier to put an end to
that miserable vacillating system of policy that has
so long characterised his Administration.

We cannot refer to the police and assize intelli-
gence in the last week's file of our journal, without
mingled feelings of gratification and of shame. Gra-.
tified in the highest degree we have indeed been at
the concurrent testimony of all the Metropolitan
Police jurisdictions to the important moral improve-
ment in the habits of the poorer classes, which must
be inferred from the almost total absence of night-
charges arising out of that inebriety and riotous
bearing that have long been considered the certain
accompaniments of the Christmas festival. Nor has
our satisfaction been less in its intensity or its purity
at the noble responses which in so many parts of the
kingdom have been made by the wealthy and en-
nobled to those urgent appeals to their Christian
charity and benevolence which the Press has, at this
period of privation, suffering, and distress, been
strenuously preferring on behalf of the scores of
thousands among our more destitute and friendless
fellow-creatures, whose title to the consideration and
pity of their more fortunate brethren is founded on
the triple ground of community of country, religion,
and institutions. In the midst of their domestic
misery, in their social degradation, under the grind-
ing pressure of their wants, they have respected
these sacred tics with a patience, a constancy, a good
faith, a forbearance such as we solemnly believe have
never been rivalled in the case of the poorer and
humbler communities of any other European King-
dom. The possessors of that property which, gene-
rally speaking, has been so sacredly respected under
grievous temptations and desperate distress, demon-
strate by such timely donations and such extensive
hospitalities as we have had to record within the last
three or four days, at once their good feeling and
their good sense. There is a kindliness, a charity to
be exercised, beyond the compulsory demands of the
law for the sustentation of the parochial poor. On
all hands we hope to see the dictates of these genial
influences, during this inclement season, as exten-
sively acted upon by our competent gentry and more
opulent aristocracy, as the benevolent beginnings we
recur to would seem to warrant us in anticipating.
So much for the causes of our recent gratification.
With pain we now address ourselves to one of the
multitudes of instances in which what is called
"Assize justice," but which would be more fairly
and truly termed " Squire-made statute-law," seems
to go out of its way to invent cases of a sufficiently
puerile and trumpery character to invest its decisions
with the strongest title to the contempt and derision
of the public. At a Petty Sessions in the country
last week, a wretched woman, in a condition of mise-
rable poverty, was charged by a small farmer with
the offence of having picked up, in a neighbouring
wood, one whole faggot of loppings, such as at this
season of the year are commonly cut and collected
into bundles for consumption or sale. The husband
of the woman, and another party, confirmed the ac.
count she gave, in the teeth of the assertion of the
farmer, namely, that at the hour in which the offence'
alleged against her was laid as having been corn-

witted in the wood, she was not out of their little hut
at all. That she had been in the wood that day and
collected a few little broken twigs, wherewith " to
make a little fire" (in the bitter weather of the Christ-
mas week) "to warm her little child," she
freely admitted, protesting, however, that the
twigs so picked up by her were mere windfalls or
waste litter in her . path. The magistrates, at once ,
perceiving the vexatious nature of the charge, but
bound by the enactments of the statute to proceed
with the case, submitted to the prosecutor whether he
would proceed with the business. He surlily replied
in the affirmative—he had already lost two or three
faggots. The Bench, still unwilling to be pushed to
a sentence, asked him what value he set on th;
faggots ? His answer was, that he could sell them at
the rate of 1,000 for six shillings; that is to say,
three farthings, and slmething short of the fraction
of a half. The Bench, not concealing their regret at
the positive language of the statute, sentenced the
poor woman to some days' imprisonment. It is high
time that the more modern of these laws touching
petty offences against property should be carefully
revised and amended. They have nothing, in the
shape of legislation, to keep them in countenance, ex-
cept our Game-laws. They are as disproportionate in
their penalties, as arbitrary in their construction of
the acts of individuals, as capricious in their tyranny, is
regardless of the feelings, as hostile to the personal
rights and liberties of the poor. But disgraceful as
it is to the two Houses of Parliament even to have
sanctioned such laws, it is still more disgraceful that
any branches of the landowning aristocracy can -be
found to administer them, biassed partisans in such
administration as they obviously are. But the most
disgraceful part of all, if possible, which is taken
under them, is that of tenant-farmers who invoke
them. Does the tenant-farmer, who detains, arrests,
and prosecutes the wretched cottier for unknowingly
Icommitting a trespass to the value of three-farthings
on unhoused property of his, lying on, or next to, a
public pathway through an open wood—does he ima-
gine that he is more likely to secure, or to put in jeo-
pardy, the inviolability of that which he is so anxious
to protect, and all aggressions upon which (however
trivial or involuntary they may be) he is ready so
vindictively to punish? If men cannot be trusted to
the dictates of their good feeling, their good sense,
or their good policy, it will be well that the Legis-
lature step in, without less of time, to think and make
laws for them. It is a scandal in a Christian country
to see the petty vengeance lurking in a little Midas-
like-law Act of Parliament, debated by a dozing
Committee of our House of Parliament, at • two
o'clock in the morning, and passed in bulk with an
arrear accumulation of fifty more by the other
House on the last day of the session—dart out of its
dirty concealment, and, spider-like, fasten on the first
most helpless and friendless, most desolate and feeble
victim, that unconsciously strays within its treache-
rous meshes !

Accounts from Constantinople, dated 7th ult., state
that the Governor of Trobizond had forwarded to the
Divan a justification of his conduct, in which he
alleged that the injured Greek was an Ottoman sub-
ject, and was not, consequently, entitled to the protec-
tion of the British Consul. An indemnity had been
awarded to Admiral Sir BALDWIN WALKER for his
services in the Turkish navy. The Dardanelles-were
being fortified, and had been placed within the-go;
vernment of MEHEMET ALI, Pacha of Topkbane.

Accounts have been received from Madrid to the.
24th ult.

The Senate on that day was engaged in the discus-
sion of an amendment moved by the Duke DE GOB,
on the Reform Bill, the object of which was to esta-
blish a hereditary peerage. The discussion was ad-
journed until after the holidays, but during the course
of it the Minister of the Interior said, that the
,Go-
vernment had not considered it fit to demand the
creation of hereditary legislators.
The Cortes have adjourned their sittings to the
28th January, in order, it is said, to give the Govern-
ment time to negotiate with the Marquis DE VILLUMA
and seventeen Deputies who have resigned, for the-
purpose of inducing them to withdraw their resigna-
tions.

We have received the Paris papers of Monday,
from which it would appear that the Ministry of M.
GuizoT was in a very tottering condition. It is said
that M. GuizoT was driving about Paris all day on
Sunday, to recruit votes for the election of Monday ;_
but, notwithstanding all his efforts, the Ministerial
candidate only obtained a majority of four over his
opponent, the numbers being—for M. DE BELLEYME,
172, and for M. BILLAULT, 168. The Court, according
to some of the journals, affected the greatest indif-
ference as to the result of the ballot. The KING had
a long interview with Count MOLE on the evening of
Saturday, and on the following morning the Count DE
MONTALIVET was closeted with his MAJESTY for some
time. A courier had been dispatched to Marshal
BUGEAUD, to hasten his return to Paris, and the Mar-
shal has of late frequently transacted business with
the Duke DE NEsiouns. In relation to the Minis-
terial crisis, the Presses which is generally considered
to be the organ of Count MOLE, has the following:—

" The fact of M. Dufaure having been elected one,of
the Vice-Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies; and
M. Billault having on the second ballot received an in-
creased number of votes, while those of his competitor,
M. de Belleyme, declined in number, are matters whose
political signification is not disputed by any journal, not
even by those most strictly attached to the existence of
the Ministry. Already the formation of a Ministry is
loudly announced which would represent the coalition of
the two Centres, and which would embrace, under the
Presidency of Count MO* Messrs. de Salvandy
B!gnon, Dufaure, and Billault. But will M. Billault, to
whose rare talent we have-ever rendered j,ustice, be
elected on Monday ? We do not believe it. We shall
explain the foundation of our conviction. The Ministry
has existed four years. It is composed of men valuable
on more than one account ; one of whom need only
ascend the tribune to prove that he has no equal. If the Mi-
nistry ought to fall, the Chamber ought not to overthrow
it in silence on a question of persons. It ought to wait
the debate on the address ; it ought to wait until_ the
Ministerial question is freely discussed and fairly put to
the vote. The present Ministry must not have the same
conclusion as that of the 12th of May. To conquer it
will be glorious, to smother it would be disgraceful."

It is stated that M. GulzoT has made overtures to
MM. PASSY and DUFAURE to join the Ministry, but
they have declined. Neither, would it appear, are the
Ministry united among themselves. M. GUIZOT'S col-
leagues consider themselves compromised by his unpopu-
larity,whichM.CuNlN GRIDAINE calls unefataliM. LOUIS
too, is much annoyed at the coldness of
his reception at the opening of the Chambers, and
complains that the unpopularity of the Minister
should have been visited upon the KING. According
to the Courier Francais, the KING is quite prepared
to sacrifice M. GUIZOT. His MAJESTY, says the
Courier Francais, is reported to have said, " Not-
withstanding the services rendered me by poor
GuizoT, I must have a Ministry under whom Vies
le Roi ! shall be cried, and I may review the National
Guard."

The majority of four, by which M. DE BELLETME
succeeded, was composed of four of the Ministers,
who have seats in the Chamber, and who usually ab-
stain from voting. The friends of M. GUIZOT
complain that all those who are dependent on
the Court not only voted, but canvassed
for the Opposition candidate. Baron ATIIELIN
who is everything at the Tuileries, has, since the
commencement of the crisis, voted in the Chamber
of Peers for everything proposed by Count MOLE,
and against the Ministry.
A most melancholy event has likewise occurred,
which will add considerably to the Ministerial ern-,
barrassments. M. VILLEMAIN, the accomplished
Minister of Public Instruction, has been seized with
an alarming illness, and is at the present moment
completely deprived of reason. It is said that the
Ministry have endeavoured to fill up the office here-
tofore held by:111. VILLEMAIN, but without success.
It has been offered successively to M. DE SALVANDY,
to M. ST. MARC GIRARDIN, and to M. ROSSI, and
been declined by each.
' The Monileur publishes a very long royal ordon-
nance, dated the 28th, founded upon a report of the
Minister of Marine, recommending an intermediate
state of things in the navy, between what is called
disponibilit( de rade and the commission de port.
The new position is to be called commission de rade ;
and, according to it, vessels for sea are to be placed
in the roadstead, or in front of the ports, according
to the localities. They are to be completely ready
for sea, and to have on board everything requisite.
The object of this new arrangement is to facilitate
the fitting out of ships, and to expedite naval mat-
ters generally. The ordonnance fixes the nature of