The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS,

A letter from a man of property resident its
Ireland will be found in another column, and is
worth attention. The mode which he proposes
' of dealing with the 40s. freeholders is quite eon.
sistent with a respect for the 40s, freeholder
itself, and with the bonafide rights of
are entitled to vote for such a qualification. thJo
gentleman refers to factitious votes, formed out
of fraudulent splittings of a freehold, the whole
of which is not, strictly speaking, worth more
grol—
than the bare sum which qualifies the possessor
Itsoitrioatec.ottAage labourer,and potato-ground—perhaps ‘a‘t•eo- are tuondd, isp e presentedrhap s ial
f
an acre—in perpetuity, or on a lease for life or
lives. To this it is understood, though
mally provided, that a quantity of fuel, sufficient
for the freeholder's family, may be cut by him
from his landlord's turf-bog, adjacent in most
instances to the cottage. The tenamt, very justly
considering the tacit appendage of turbury to be
part, and though not a legal a most valuable
part, of the solid enjoyment derived by him from
his dwelling, esteems his interest worth 81., 10/.,
or 121. a year, instead of 40s. How, then, does
he manage to " multiply his greatness" under
this sort of complicated possession ? He makes
some member of his family an annuitant for
a freehold of 405., and, mixing up the legal
property in the house, &c., with the con-
ventional goodwill of the turf-bog, he swears
without scruple that he has still 40 shillings
per annum out of the concern ; while his sun
or brother (and why not two or three eons and
brothers ?) need not be very apprehensive of
consequences from making a similar attestation.,
In England there are tricks resorted to, just RS,
impudent and unconstitutional in spirit, but less
tangible by an act of the Legislature. A gen-
tleman, with views to county interest, lets a free-
hold worth 405., but makes the freeholder tenant,
at will to a farm, of which the occupation is
worth a dozen such freeholds. So long, then,
as the freeholder votes with his landlord, matters
go on smoothly, and the tenant at will is midis-
Iturbed. Let him, however, but once run restive,
and vote for any candidate but the landlord or
his friend, and assay goes the only valuable por-
tion of the tenant s interest. He retains
40s. per annum, but loses as many pounds by
having notice to quit the land he holds at-will.
Thus, in Ireland, if the 40s. freeholder votes
against the landlord, be must look elsewhere fur
his fuel ; but the subdivision of the same quali-
fication is a fraud which cannot too speedily be
defeated by the interference of Parliament. The
right itself, we are still of opinion, ought to be
lett untouched, though it should in practice be
greatly modified ; but this may better be done
by the landlords theMselves than by the Legisla-
ture. Indeed, now that it has been discovered,
that this power which the landlords created for
their tenants has been turned against its creatona
the mere instinct of self-interest will work au
alteration with. an alacrity and zeal with which
no mere formal enactment was ever vet executed
in any country.—Times.
The cutting observation of Mr. Justice Bay-
ley, when Lord Strangford's application for a
criminal information against The Sun No Ws-
paper was re;jected, that " Honesty was honesty
everywhere,' has naturally enough produced a
great sensation. It was not so much the remark
itself that caused the surprise—for no One sup-
poses diplomatists have a version of the Bible
expressly for their own use, dispensing them
from the necessity of speaking the truth—but it
was the personage and the place. It was per-
haps the first time, since the foundations of
Westminster Hall were laid, that a Judge ever
broached the proposition, that a truth was to be
told at all times and all places. Truth has ge-
nerally found a cold welcome in our Courts of
Law, where especial regard has always been be-
stowed on fiction. But a little reflection will
teach us to moderate our surprise at this pheno-
menon. Extremes have a tendency to produce
their opposites. No one sets so much value on
riches as he who has long struggled with po-
verty, and the low-born are generally time fondest
of titles. Without knowing from Sir John
Davies and other writers on Ireland, down
to Sir H. Butler (in his Sessions' Charges),
that tke Irish were as much addicted to
commonalty in their sexual relations as in the
cultivation of their land, one might almost guess
as much from the ostentatious manner in which
they now boast of the chastity of their females.
Lying is more particularly the vice of half-civi-
lized men ; and it was, no doubt, the prevalence
of this vice in the middle ages that led gentle-
men to seek distinction by truth, and to make
the giving the lie the unpardonable offence. The
French now pique themselves on being the most
serious people in Europe, and are quite asto-
nished at time levity of the English. WI iy may
not, then, Judges have at length too much fic-
tion, and, under the influence of the nausea
caused by the excess, fly to the extreme ofs de-
manding that truth, and truths alone, should be
heard in all places ? All children lie at first to
escape punishment for their offences ; and it is
not till the disgrace which attends detection
shames them out of the practice, that they de-
termine to adhere to the truth. Nations, in their
infancy, are in like manner much addicted to
lying ; as they become more and more civilized,
they become more and more veracious in their
habitual statements. The English are now the
most civilized nation in Europe ; and they are
decidedly the most frank and open in their ordi-
nary discourse. 'Wherever wariness is the cha-
racteristic of a people, it implies the preva-
lence of habits the opposite of veracity, or
the recent prevalence of them. The pro-
gress of civilization leads to habitual veracity,
from a conviction that tricks, wl • I nc are gene-
rally seems through, can be of no benefit. A sen-
sible old English writer observes--" As receivers
make thieves, so temerarious believers make
liars ; and to redress this mischief, I have some-
times thought it tile best way to believe no man,
whereupon this unavoidable inconvenience fol-
lowed—that many times we should reject the
truth as well as lies and deceit ; for I find that
truth spoken plainly doth echo in the mind of
the hearers, saying the same things over again
but this is the mischief, that so few hearers have
understanding to judge which is true and which
is false ; for where the hearers want ability to
judge, there lies and deceit make the same echo
which truth (loth in the former." This we take
to be a true state of the question with respect
to lying. Lord Strangford, for instance, accord-
ing to the approved practice of diplomatists,
tells one story to his patron, and concocts an-
other for the use of John Bull. When John is
made familiar with the mode in which despatches
are prepared, he will read them as he reads the
routine language of indictments. When lie is
told that the real despatch is not fit for the pub-
lic ; that something must be omitted and some-
thing added, and that the true which remains
and the false which is added must be blended in
a workmanlike manner, he will make up his

hind accordingly. Voltaire tells us, that as all
the military despatches of the French were falsi-
fied on a system to deceive the people, he was
obliged to take the numbers of killed and
wounded from the English accounts, which
were generally to be relied on. But dis-
trust soon follows the discovery of abused con-
fidence, and such a revelation as that published
by Voltaire had a strong tendency ,to gene-
rate such D. distrust, when of course the object
sought. for by the deception is no longer attain-
able,. Ignorance is the mother of credulity, and
the disposition to lie is produced by the belief
that falsehood will be successful. We know of
no security against deception I,ut the ability to
detect it, As long as trick will succeed, it will
always be resorted to. The principle of the
English Constitution is, that every man would
do wrong if he durst, and hence that nothing
should be left to discretion. This principle
should receive universal application. Wherever
there is ignorance and credulity, fraud will not
be far off. The carcase always brings the vul-
ture. One seeming contradiction to the above,
is the singular frankness of the writers of the
age of Machiavel. The latter, in a book de-
dicated to the Pope, and published by permis-
sion of the Pope, speaks with a naked simpli-
city of which we have no examples now. But
the reason of this was, that books were not then
addressed to the great public, 'which could not
read, and Machiavel used the same language
in his book that be would have held in the com-
pany of his equals, including the Pope himself.
When reading becomes universal, while know-
ledge is not universal, mei-, speak only without
restraint in the company of those friends who
can understand them, and suit their public ad-
dresses to the capacity which they suppose the
majority of their readers to possess. There is
an esoteric and an exoteric language. The dif-
ference between the two will vary with the ex-
tent of the difference between the bettor in-
formed and the mass. 'No writer of our days
would, from himself, act with the naivete of
Montaigne, because be would have the persua-
sion constantly present to his mind that the pre-
judices and ignorance of the people would in-
santly be appealed to .against him by the rival or
hostile writers, if they thought 'they could injure
him thereby.• kousseau.oii hiS Confessions, se
believe, touches on this point. in his remark on.
the advantage deLiV&VfrOni an ritimacy with the
literary men ofPaiiS, whose eOnversation was
instructive in a very. different degree from their
writings. A man would be voted a bore, who
should speak in the society Of friends as if five
hundred blue stoeidegi,- or. five hundred senti-
mental old gentlemen, were listening to his dis-
course. A dinner of the Northern Circuit is
very different from an exhibition to which the
public is admitted.-; and a dozen of Divines

over their bottle hold very different language
from what they do in the pulpit. Hence the
jealousy with which society views the betraying
the unreserved language of private society ; and
hence the indignation so naturally felt by Sir
James Scarlett at the making the great public
privy to the celebrated toast at the Northern
Circu Chrollide.
We cannot persuade ourselves that it can be
seriously meant to apply to Parliament to sanc-
tion an increase of the number of Judges, while
one-third of the present twelve have actually
little or nothing to do; and while nearly one-
half of 'the:remaindei, viz: the Puisine Judges
of the Common Pleas,- have not more than one-

third of their time during the whole year em-
ployed. We say this without the slightest dis-
respect to these learned persons, who, we are
convinced, do all that is required of them, and
who, we have as little doubt, are both willing
and able to make themselves more extensively
useful, if the mode of doing so were but pre-
scribed to them by law. There can be no doubt,
we believe, but that the Chief-Justice of the
King's Bench goes through more actual labour
in the course of a year than the eight Judges of
the other two Courts put together ; and that the
other three Judges of the King's Bench together
do the same. It; then, the four Judges of one
Court do twice as much as the eight Judges of
the two others, it follows, not that the country
wants more Judges, but that the services of
those of the Common Pleas and Exchequer may
be rendered more available. There may be,
among these, some one or more, who, from age
or infirmity, are past their work. If so, let the
solve seneseentem be gently sounded in their ear ;
but do not let this country be burdened with
fresh charges on this head, when it is quite. clear
that the only thing wanting is a more equal divi-
sion of labour. If an increase of the Navy or
Army were talked of, it would be a sorry answer
to give, that two or three ships' crews, or as
many regiments, were lying idle on shore, or
upon furlough. What applies to one profession
applies equally to another; and, unless our re-
sources are more inexhaustible than the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, we imagine, would be
inclined to admit, we trust that Mr. Peel will
pause before be submits to Parliament a proposi-
tion which, we should think, will be palateable
only to those who arc likely to be henefitted by
its adoption. Besides, we see, in the case of the
Court of Chancery, that an increase of the
Judges has not expedited the public business in
that Court ; and that, after all the censure which
Was so freely lavished upon Lord Eldon, the
business of Equity is actually as much in arrear
as ever. But the Welsh, it seems, want better
Judges, and a better system of jurisprudence;
points which those who have read Lord Caw-
does unanswerable statements upon the subject
can hardly deny. But, at the same time, it
must be admitted that the natives of the Princi-
pality are not - a litigious or a criminal raie of
people; and we should apprehend that the re-
form which is necessary there may .be easily ac-
complished by increasing two or three of the
present English Circuits, without much, if any,
fresh assistance. But those who contend so
strenuously for the establishment of new Judges,
and new Circuits, seem to forget that within
these few yearS a new Court, with four new
Judges, has been appointed—we mean the In-
solvent Commissioners, who traverse the king-
dom three times a year, for the purpose of let-
ting loose the victims of our miserable system of
imprisonment for debt. That the present la-
bours of these gentlemen arc by no means pro-.
portioned, either in utility or extent,, to their
cost to the country, is no fault of their 's ; but it
might be worth while to consider whether the
one might not be made to approach somewhat
nearer to the other, by an addition to their pre-
sent duties of some of those which devolve upon
the present Judges, such as the trial of minor
causes and minor felonieS. When Lord Al-
thorp's Bill for new modelling the County
Courts was in agitation, we recommended that
they should be the Judges to carry its prolisions
into effect ; and we still think that that would

be a desirable and judicious regulation. The
simple question, however, before us at present,
is, are there not judicial functionaries enough

to do all the business of the country, if their la-
bours were more equally divided ? To which
we unhesitatingly answer, that there are.—
Moriiing Herald.
The temporary scarcity of moneyTwhich is now
felt in the City, has furnished a certain potion
of the Press with an occasion too tempting to
be resisted,. for propagating gloomy anticipa
tions to the progress of commercial affairs, and
for stigmatising the law by which the unques-
tionable advantage of sound metallic currency
is about to be restored to the country, as
rash, pernicious, or impracticable. This at-
tempt to excite alarm will we are persuaded be
unsuccessful. Every man who has paid the
slightest attention to the fluctuations of commerce
must be aware, that at this season of the year
a scarcity of money in the mercantile world
has frequently, or we might rather say, has usu-
ally been experienced. The extraordinary ac-
cumulation of the circulating medium in the
hands of Government for some short time pre-
vious to the payments of the heavy dividends
which are due in January, naturally causes it to
be unusually scarce every where else. The Bank
of England has no doubt the means of coun-
teracting this effect tola considerably extent by
being more than usually liberal in its discounts
during the latter weeks of the year, and it has
we believe invariably availed itself of the
augmented balances of public money at that
time necessarily in its hands for this salutary
purpose. But the effect cannot be averted
altogether, because in the first place it is strictly
necessary that the Bank itself should prepare be-
forehand for the great outlet of money on the
payment of the January dividends; and in the
second place, because that portion of the com-
mercial world which is in the habit of pecuniary
transactions directly with the Bank, does not
constitute an adequate channel for the complete
and constant adjustment of the circulation.—
To these causes of the frequent scarcity of
money towards the close of the year we
ought perhaps to acid an unusual degree
of timidity and reserve on the part of the
Bank, occasioned by the state of the foreign
exchanges, and the natural and laudable anxiety
of its Directors to guard against the unfavour-
able effects which the anticipated importation of
large quantities of foreign corn might otherwise
have produced. In all this there is surely no-
thing to alarm the most timid. • Failures have
taken place, and others may probably follow ;
for it is the first and most necessary effect of a
scarcity of money to try the resources of com-
mercial men, and in this trial latent insolvency
is brought to light and inordinate speculation
crushed ; but we are quite confident, and in this
opinion we believe all commercial men concur,
that there never was a period when there
was less of latent insolvency or of inordinate spe-
culation in existence. This assurance is found-
ed upon the fact that a commercial convulsion
of unprecedented magnitude took place at a very
recent period, which swept away many mercan-
tile men who were reputed, and many even who
up to that time were really strong, but which as-
suredly left in existence very few commercial es-
tablishments whose habits had not been discreet,
and whose resources were not ample ; and upon
another fact equally indisputable, that the cha-
racteristic of commerce has, from the date of
that convulsion to the present moment, been
that of excessive caution rather than of bold
enterprise or inordinate speculation.' These
facts afford the country a guarantee the
most satisfactory, that commercial cala-
mity cannot now, as it did before,
spread from house to house, from market to
market, from county to county ; and that, if any
instances of failure occur, they will he only such
detached instances as must occasionally take
place in any extensive'. mercantile community.—
There is nothing in the aspect of commercial
affairs which is calculated to excite the least un-
easiness in any reasonable mind, and we cannot
imagine any greater calamity to the country than
for Government to listen to the suggestions of
persons who arc perpetually hankering after
change, and who would apparently wish the
commercial laws of the empire to fluctuate with
every fluctuation in the price of stock, or every
accidental increase or diminution of the number
of bankrupts in the London Gazette.--Morn
zno. Post.

A report was again current yesterday after,
___ __. _ .

noon that Don Miguel had died of his late acci-
dent—a report which, it is highly probable from
many circumstances, may prove true, but which
still requires confirmation. Even in the event,
however, of the accident not proving fatal, so
many months must elapse before he can com-
pletely recover from its effects, that we cannot
refrain from indulging a hope that it may prove
the means of delivering Portugal from his ty-
ranny, and restoring to it the Constitutional free-
dom which it was the first act of his Regency to
destroy. Making every allowance, in fact, for the
ignorance of the people of Portugal, the power
possessed by the Priests, and the want of energy
hitherto exhibited by, and, we fear, inherent in,
the Portuguese Nobility, it can scarcely be ima-
gined that all these causes combined will be suf-
ficient to blind them to the degrading situation
of their country, and the impossibility of its ever
escaping
from it while Miguel either nominally
or in reality claims its Sovereignty. Even those
who have placed him on the throne, must, by
this time, be sensible that the injustice which he
has practised towards others, may soon he their
own lot, that there is no safety, either to 1,
person or property, in a country where people
are - arrested on mere suspicion, where pro-
perty is confiscated without proof of guilt,
and where Judges condemn before they have
even heard the alleged crimes of those who are
brought before them. Due exertion on the part
of the Constitutionalists still in Portugal would
we are persuaded, now meet with better suc-
cess than it did some months ago; and, if aided
by those who have taken refuge here, could
scarcely fail to restore freedom to Portugal,But
we regret to learn that all idea of making any
attempt of the kind has been: abandoned for the
present, in consequence of the apathy of the
English Government, and that the Representa-
tives of Don Pedro will do nothing until they
have received further instructions from the Bra-
zils. We regret this decision, because a fairer
opportunity of successful interference could
scarcely present itself, and because every hour
which is lost in inaction by the friends of legiti-
mate authority and constitutional sway, will be
employed by their enemies to support lie cause
of tyranny and usurpation.—Morning Adver.

FtIESII-WATER POLYPUS.—In the shallow
ditches in the vicinity of Blackheath, Kent, a species of
hydra is very abundant, and may be observed, when the
water is clear, spreading its reddish tentaada over the
mud beneath which its body is concealed.. The tentacula
are very.sensitive, for the instant that the water is agitated
or even touched, they. are withdrawn rapidly within the
mud. When taken up, and placed in a glass with water,
those zoophytes afford an interesting subject of obAervation
fur the young naturalist.