The Sun.
London, England, 1826-09-13 00:00:00

FASHIONABLE INTELLIGENCE.

The Lord Chancellor and Lord Howard of Eflhrg
ham paid visits, yesterday, to the Duke of York. His
Royal Highness transacted business yesterday morn-
ing with his Military Secretary, &c. &c. The usual
medical attendants visited the Royal Duke.
The Earl of Liverpool, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, and Mr. Huskisson, transacted business yes-
terday, with Mr. Secretary Canning, at his office in
Downing-street.

Yesterday morning the Earl of Liverpool arrived in
town from his seat at Coombe-wood. His Lordship
was engaged, between two and three o'clock, at his re-
sidence at Whitehall, with different Official Gentlemen.
The Noble Earl left town in the afternoon, on his re-
turn to Coombe-wood.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer came to town yes-
terday morning, from his residence at Charlton.
A Board of the Lords of the Treasury was held
yesterday at the Treasury Chambers.
Mr. Huskisson transacted business yesterday, at the
Office of the Secretary of State for Foreign. Affairs.
Despatches were sent off yesterday from the Foreign
Office to the Right Hon. Sir Wm. A'Court, our
Minister at Lisbon, and also to Lord Granville, our
Ambassador at Paris.

M. Contine, the lonia► Messenger, arrived on Mon-
day night, at the Colonial Department, with despatches
from Major-General the Hon. F. C. Porisonby, acting
Lord High Commissioner at Ancona.
The Wirtemburg Minister transacted business on
Monday at the. Foreign Office.

MARRIAGE IN HIGH LI F E.—Yesterday morning
were married, at St. George's, Hanover-square, Lord
Suffield to Miss Shirley. After the ceremony the
happy pair set off, in an elegant chariot anti four horses,
for his Lordship's seat, Gunton Hall, Norfolk.
There is posted in one of the windows of a shop in
Westminster, " Music taught here ;" and iii the other,
Ears bored here without pain."

ON THE DERIVATION OF THE WORD

CULPRIT.

Sir Edward Coke says, our books of Reports and
Statutes in ancient times were written in French, and
observes the difference betwixt the writing and pro-
uouncing that language ; also that the legal sense ought
not to be changed.

Perhaps there is not any word in any language more
corrupted or applied with greater impropriety than the
word culprit.

After an indictment is read against the prisoner at the
bar, he is asked whether he be guilty or not guilty of
the indictment ; if he answer not guilty, the clerk of
the arraignments replies culprit, which it is said is from
cal grist, and culprtst from culpabilis and presto, and
signifies guilty already. What ! are our laws so
severe as to declare a person guilty because he hath
pleaded not guilty, and before the prosecutors are
called on their recognizances to give evidence, and
afterwards to ask him how he will be tried ?

Etymologies are a necessary part of graminar ; by
them we arrive at the primary signification of terms,
but if far fetched they become ridiculous. How many,
Dalton and Burn not excepted, have tortured them-
selves'with the word culprit, a plain corruption from
the French qu'il paroit. The officer of the Court
says to the prisoner, guilty or not guilty ? If the pri-
soner- say guilty, his confession is recorded ; if he an.
swer not guilty, the officer -says culprit,. whereas he
ought to say qu'il parait ; i, e. make it appear, or let
it appear if thou art not guilty. Culprit is evidently
a corruption of qu'il paroa, which is pure Freuch,
and bids the prisoner plead for liimaelf, and make his
innocence appear. Culprit bath manifestly ellan4eti
the legal sense or true reading; and a false one, which
ought to he exploded, bath. been admitted. Common
reason, common humanity, and similarity of sound
evince this.