The Sun.
London, England, 1826-12-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We would point out to the country a trial in the Court
of Exchequer yesterday, of which ,we were the objects,
though we trust it. is not for private reasons, but on public
principles, that we claim public attention. The subject of
the trial Will soon explain itself to those who read. But
the Judgestharge ! .It were better, perhaps, to leave that
to speak foritself,---to make its own etred'upon the public
mind,--to show to the world the meekness, ,the modern,
tion, the capacity which distinguish the Chief Judge
one of the British Courts of Judicature. As the Jury,
however, that last—we hope we may call it, that immor-
tal bulwark of British liberty, appear to have been, of a
totally different opinion from his Lordship, our respect for
,the judgment and firmness of these virtuous men obliges
tis to show that they took a juster view of the subject in
eing nominal damages, than he who, under the allowed
forms of his office, within the prescribed limits of his duty,
recommended it vindictive verdict. We shill here copy
some' of the expressions of the Learned Judge in his charge
to the Jury
" If ;the Jury should give a verdict for the defendants, the..
would do that which no Jury had ever done previously, and which
no Jury could do, without prejudice to the interests of justice."
" Now, I think it impossible to hear them read, without feel-
ing that they are libels, and libels of such atrocity, that their
equals are not often seen."
" I say that this libel is a libel, and a most atrocious Pei: no
man can read it aver, without feeling that it is so."
" The plaintiff, therefore, deserves from your hands, a severe
vindication of his character ; and I am sure that you will give
that vindication to him, if you tire not improperly influenced by
the topics which have hem this day addressed to you."
" You may as well open your house ut night to house-breakers,
and allow them to enter, and take from you your property 4itii
impunity, as not to punish the proprietorsof newspapers when they
ar::'ttt:rilty of repeating such atrocious libels."

appears- to that the repetition of auch larellous and
*Calumnious mutter is un offence both to God and man ; and is
'an injury to the country, as well as to the person that individually
suffers by it."
Now is it wise, is it prudent, we ask, in a Judge to
speak in so decisive a tone upon a subject on which another
opinion is to be subsequently pronounced ; which subse-
quent opinion may, as in the present instance, be 'directly
the reverse of his own ; and which subsequent opinion is
to be binding and final ? What a verdict ,would the Jury
have given if the expressions above cited had possesSed
the weight with them which the opinion of an honourable
and dignified Judge ought to possess ! The Jury, in the
present instance, hesitated only as to the manner in which
they should inflict nominal damages on an offence de-
scribetrto them from the'Bench us most misch;.evous and
giving a frothing ! Two
malignant. Ten Men were for
pressed tor ten pounds ! But 'whilst vindictive damages
are urged agithiSt us for a suppose!d where are we to
find redress for the real libel.7:rnich was uttered against
us? We,:were charged to. the Jury as having placed at
the head of the btater:aent which was the subject of the
prosecution, of own motion, the words " Barbarous
Atrocity, ” luthis was not the fad. The words " Barba-
rous Atrorsite were copied from, and made a part of, the
oarrat'sve which we cut out of the provincial paper, against
wi'Leh paper the aggrieved parties had had their redress.
Ought not a man who is so ready to impute libels to others
be more guarded in speaking of them ? It was not our
designation of the conduct described in the paragraph that.
it was " barbarous and atrocious;" and we did not,
by such terms, make the libel out own. We did •not
thereby pledge our reputation to the veracity of the
statement. 'With respect to the law of the case: against
the plaintiff, with'whose existence even we were not pre-
vionsly acquainted, we had no malice—we could have none.
The statement prosecuted was clipped out of a' provincial
paper, in the 'vicinity of the supposed occurrence, upon
which, paper rested the duty of examining the truth of its
'own story. Secure in this responsibility of country papers,
sve rut thousands of paragraphs from them every year.
Wawa 30 ;doing we could detail' no provincial occurrent',,
whatever and we can have no troilive against parties
therein described as committing wrong. But say the
Judges—some of them itt !mist, and of some sort—" The
law implies malice from a man's acts.' " Now, we put
it to any man of common candour, and who will not suffer
his understanding to be fettered by unmeaning forms of
vords, whether the, British law does, or can, infer front
toy acct or Any thing else, that which is not true. Who
invests, or has invested the British law with the power of
inferring a falsehood from a fact ? Not British jurymen,
think Their honest minds despise such sophistry.
The first publisher who knows, or may know, the parties
fin whose detritnent he recounts a history, may be prompted
by malice. He is justly prosecuted ; the law takes its
course ; and the journals that copied his statement i'cord
his punishment, and replace the aggrieved parties in their
pristine position in society. The dose of the trial, yester-
day deserves notice. The Jury hesitated, as we before
said, between ft farthing and ten pounds. Our solicitor,
though ten Jurymen were for the farthing, conceiving that
the time of such men was not to be wasted for a trifle, pro-
posed to pay five pounds, mid his offer Was accepted. It
is grateful to us to record another instance of firmness and
good tense ie a British Jury.--Tinter.

The Lord Chief Justice Abbott, in his charge to the
Jury in the mire " The King v. Hunt," communicated a
very valuable piece of advice to those who wish to ruin
their neighbours. at the least possible risk. " It is said
Observed the wary old Judge) that the pnblication was
from no motives of ill-will, but merely to put the Dime-
tors on their guard against the person filling. the situation
of Director of their Institution. If any person really wish-
e,d to give that information; the proper course would have
been, to have made the communication to the Directors
themselves; hut that course was not taken here." We
have no dOubt that the Lord Chief Justice wiwthoroughly
persuaded the advice he here gives watraccordant with the
purest morality. It is the safest course by law, end the
tow iS with many persons the standard of morality. Ii
the " Tale of the Nowlaus," the first of the second series
of the " Tales of the O'Hara Family," the author of
which has drawn so faithful a picture of the character and
Manners of the Irish, we have an instructive illustration of
the moral beauty of the course recommended by the head
of the Court of King's Bench. A young couple contrive
to pin a subsikunce. in Dublin—the husband by teaching
the (*lsaias and the wife by teaching drawing. " At
first, indeed (says the author), all seemed promising.—
Letty not, only succeeded in pleasing her first pupils,
but through them got many others; and further, her
friends interested themselves about John, end procu-
red him also private tuitions, of which the produce,
,added to Letty a earnings, enabled them to live above
fear of want. This lulu of good fortune happened
two months after then. arrival in Dublin, and continued
four months longer. if hen, however, a change, as ter-
rible as it was unaccountable,' oecurred. One
their friends grew cold and distant ;one by oieie byth one
.were withdrawn from them; until at last, while
reither could guess a solution of the mystery that at once
'struck them with wonder and consternation, Letty bad
not a tuition left, and John had but one.
. . Instead of the single tuition leading to others, he
received a cold note from his young pupil's father, (liven*,
ing with his attendance even upon that one. He snatch..
ed-up his hat, and ran to the gentleman's house, at last
deterrnined to demand a solving of this withering mystery,
The person on whom he called was riot at heme, or WILS
denied to him." In another clever riovei, "Truth,"
lately. published, , the scence of which is laid in Scotland,
the heroine, who, , on being overtaken by misfortune, be-
comes aCioverrizos, is in like manner driven from one
place after another by the secret communications of ene-
mies, who did not require the advice. of the Lord Chief
Justice to satisfy them of the safety Of the course which
he recommends. These are fictions; but novelists only
deserve the reputation they may obtain, when their fictions
are 'Composed of such occurrences as occur every day in
real life. in fact, nothing is so rare in the world us for a
man not influenced by motives - of revenge to step for-
ward and charge another man, in a public loutnal, with
having con:mated serious crimes, at the risk of being

obliged to justify what he has said ; and nothing is more;
common than for busy-bodies, paving way to the malicsi
of their disposition, whispering away the reputation
of others, who often feel themselves struck to the ground„
as it were, by an invisible enemy, who eludes all their
attempts to discover him. It was but the other day that
a case occurred of a Gentleman of good estate in the
North 'of England, who found his friends leave him, one
after another, without his being able for a long time to
obtain the least explanation , of the mysterious condnct.'
All the world knows (the Lord Chief Justice cannot have:

lived so long in the world without knowing) the, manner
in which this sort of business is m triaged. Suppose Fo-
reign IViusician, we will not say Mr. Bochsa, for we will

riot shy any thing uncpurteous of the friend of the vene-
rable Archbishop of York, and the favourite of the noble
British fair; but suppose a Foreign Musician succeeds
in obtaining pupil's in the West End of the Town,
and that some wily rival wishes to supplant him by
fair means, or foul—that the latter invents some ea-

lumpy respecting the former, which, that it may be
the less easily disproved, regarding what is alleged
to have taken place in a distant country—that he
lays kold of some of the many buiy-bodieS who
live, as it were, by the -valuable information they are al4
to communicate, and lets him in, confidence into his
secret. The busy gentleman contrives that the intelligence
should not be lot, "My dear Sir," he says to one per-.
son, "you know, my regard for your fanilly will not allow
me, even though I should thereby expose myself to some
danger, to conceal from you what I conceive of importance.
I have discovered that * *is a desperate character—
that he did so and so at Venice, or Naples, or Milan, or
Vienna, as it may happen--but, for God's sake do not
give me up,—you know the law; and that if I were called
on to justify, I should be utterly ruined in obtaining the
necessary evidence. I therefore rely on your honour."
This scene is repeated, and the poor devil finds himself in
a gaol, without having the least suspicion of the cause of
his misfortune, Here there is no responsibility, and the
slanderer is bold, trusting to impunity. But when a piece
of information is communicated in a public Journal, the
person so communicating, without he is utterly bereft of
reason, does riot venture on such a step without seeing
that there is good evidence to support him. He knows
that if an action is brought against him, and he cannot sub-
stantiate what he has advanced, he will suffer not merely in

purse Nit in character. We are far from wishing to manifest
any disrespect for the Bench. The Judges have their biases;
and in cases between the Government and individuals, if it im-
ported the . Government to succeed, we should be sorry to be
opposed to it. But between man and man be believe them
to be spodesi. The practice of a crooked profession
seems to have wrought sad havock in their moral consti-
tution. Now, let us look a little at the morality of the
advice (we have admitted its prudence) given unsuspect-
ingly, and in the fullness of his heart, as it were, by Chief

Justice Abbott. "It is said (quotii his Lordship), that
the publication was from no motives of but merely
to put the Directors on their guard against the person fill-
ing the situation of Director of their Institution. If any
person really wished to give that information, the propel.
course *Mild have been to have made the communication
to the Directors themselves, but that course was not taken

here.!' If it was proper to- put one of the Directors
on his Ord against any person, on accouutof that .per-
son's being a bad man, it was proper, surely, to put every
other person on his guard. If the information was false,
it was improper to communicate it even to one; if true,
the reason which dictated the giving it to one dictated the
giving it to all. It was very justly-observed by the Times
yesterday— ••
" That almost the only way to keep a acoundtel quiet, and to
prevent hiM from doing mischief, is to publish the truth of him,
to make him known.. And if it be said that by so doing you ex-
pose him to danger, why, we ask, in reply, are all the precau-
tions of policy to bedireeted towards keeping him in safety against
other people, anti none towards -keeping others in safety against
hint ? If it he meritorious to save one from suffering, it must he
still more meritorious to save a Whole community. The Lord
Chief Justice's morality, hoWever, is of a very different coin-
pletion. DO not, for God's sake, save too many. ' You may
snatch a person now and then from the destroyer; but.do not
impair his power of doing mischief : let him still have full swing.
If a wolf breaks into a sheepfold, you may take a single sheep
away and put it in a place ofeafety ; hut you must not drive out
the wolf; Let him devour its many victims as he pleases."
Now we say in contradiction to the Lord Chief. Justice,
and.N4 would confidently refer hini to the Archbishop of
York, that the man who, from any other consideration
than regard for personal safety (for under the . detestable
libel law of this country, personal safety, and the safety of
a family, justify a man's . remaining passive), confines- a
communication which is important to the well-being of all
to one individual, clues, by such limitation, fail essentially
in his moral duty. We say, unhesitatingly, that that man
is morally dead who sees a person in situations in which
youth may suffer seriously from him, and . allows all but
some-favoured few to remain ignorant of their danger. We
city that When that men appears before a very different
tribunal from that of the Lord Chief Justice, it will stand
hith in little stead, that having the means to warn his
fel-
low creatures of 'their danger, neglecting the principles of
Christian benevolence, " to do to.others as ye would that
others do unto you," he allowed them to fall into the snare
to perish fur lack of admonition.--Morning Chronicle.

The Times is still warlike and insists upon the impos-
sibility of the affairs of Portugal being adjusted without
hostilities between this country, France, and Spain.. We
predict that our contemporary will soon see cause to change
his opinion, and we all know the change, when the mo-
ment comes for making it, will be accomplished with very
little difficulty. That the state of Portugal has been, and
is, such as to inspire well-grounded alarm, we were the
first to declare, now some weeks since, and we have con-
diled to hold the same sentiments. There is a violent
struggle between two parties; and we are not bold enough,.
with •our preient information upon the subject, to hazard
even a conjecture as to its issue. But the actual interfer-
ence of Spain (we will say nothing about predilections) is
an absurd supposition. The TintesAreferring to the recall
of the Freud) Ambassador, and the assurances given 'by
Ferdinand, under his own hand, of his determination to
remain neutral, reasons thus :
" These several acts of the Kings Ferdinand and Charles are
represented to the world as satisfactory securities for their bona
fide intentions of peace and forbearance towards Portugal. Now
we beg permission to avow that such 4 securities' are, in our judg-
ment, no more :than waste paper, and absolutelumbug. When
the French Cabinet,:in 1823, declared that its asser9blage Of troops
upon the Pyreneex,was actually but a cordon, sanitaire, and when
Louis XVIII. indignantly reprimanded, as saucy libellers of his
Royal honodr and policy all those who accused him of a design to
invade the. Spanish Nation, the Same King openly converting, a
very few months afterwards, the same cordon sanitaire into an
avmy of observation,. and then into an invading army—when we
recollect such recant illustrations of the utter dishonesty and per-

tidy of the language on which such confident and fatal reliance
was placed, as well by Spain as by Great Brititin, it is not too
much for us to confers,
that words from the Court of his Moat
Christian Majesty would o iu any future case for less than no-
thing."
One simple and decisive fact, which distinguishes the
ease of the invasion of Spain by France, and the assumed
intention to invade Portugal by Spain, is lost sight Of.—
The former enterprise was not undertaken with the tier-
Wray' of iti'being followed by a War with" England; the
ititetn obligation of
ttt:ri
o tie puttied would.
eutrtuo
are hound
fdrobiny
all fsoorlecign
tt aggression.--
We ask, then, will Spain dare to invade POrtugal ? Is She
in a conditimi to wage war '+vith EnglaUd ? Supposing
even her fanatic imbecility should impel her to so insane an
enterprise, would Intrice—would the Allied Powers—
permit a step to,he taken, which might end in involving
the whole; of Lur°Pe in hostilities?—Nem Times.

LENDING MoNEY.---A wen-known bankrupt and
gambling Peer asked Raikes the, other day to lend him WI.
" Willingly," replied Mr. R., who iii one of the best-natin-ed men
in the world. "Give me pen and paper, then," replied hie Lord-
11,iPt ." and let me give you my note qf
." Na, I thank
you," rejoined Raikes, "loony the money is enough, without
losing the paper too."

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS, WEDNESDAY, DEc. 6.

A constable, named Palmer, Waft indicted for assaulting Sy&
ney Braithwaite.
FLOM Mr. A.Lr.vo, statement of the facts, which were;
afterwards proved in evidence, it appeared that the prosecutor,
who 'is the. son of an eminent engineer, was passing along the
New-road, on the night of the :30th of October, in company
with his brother, and- upon reaching .the corner of - Tottenham-'
court-road, they were attacked by a number of prostitutes, and.-
fellows who were associating with them. Having succeeded',
in beating off two or three teen, the prosecutor at length
grappled- with a powerful fellow, whom he dragged to the
ground, and When in that situation the defendant came up, but
instead of assisting the prosecutor, he commenced belabouring
him violently with his staff. It was in vain that the pro-
secutor told him he was striking the wrong person ; it was in
vain he told him that at all _events be should not strike him,
since he surrendered himself into 'big - custody ; the defendant
still persevered, until Mr. Braithwaite, a man of considerable
muscular strength, wrested his staff from his hand; but upon his
afterwards• restoring it to him, and telling him to use it like a
constable if he was one, the defendant again struck him with it,
and continued to do so while he dragged him along to the watch-
house. When they got in there, the door was closed against the
prosecutor's brother, and upon the prosecutor iusisting that his
brother, as his witness, bad as good a right to be present as the
constable, the latter almost strangled him, although there were
upwards of 25 watchmen present.
Mr. ALLEY, who held Mr, Phillips's brief for the defen-
dant, took occasion to -observe, that frequently, after cases
were disposed of in Court, exparte statements were gOt up and
transmitted to the Secretary of State, in which it was sometimes
complained that Counsel had not done justice to their clients.
The learned counsel, after animadverting on what he termed these
audacious calumnies upon the bar, called witnesses, who endea•
vented to shew that the defendant had merely done what he con-
ceived to be his duty ,in ,carrying the prosecutor to the watch-
house, his attention having been first called to the affray by a cry
of ‘'lllurder,"

Mr. Avot.ritus having replied,
The Learned CHAIRMAN Rummell up the ease to the Jury,
and censured in strong terms the conduct of the defendant and the
watchnaen.—The Jury returned a verdict of Guiliy.

FIGHT BETWEEN BISHOP, SIIARPF, AND

GAYNOR FOR FIFTY POUNDS ASIDE.

This fight took place on'Tuesday, at Shearmere, on the
borders of Bedfordshire, the same ground on which Samp-
son fought Jem Burns.
It will be recollected that both the combatants have
been in action within the last few months, and both with
the same man,Alie Reed, the Chelsea Snob. Gaynor
had first ,the credit of beating the Snob, and was succee-
ded by Bishop Sharpe, who was equally successful ; but
the latter performed his task much more quickly, and
with much less punishment. It was thought, however,
that Gaynor would be a more equal match for the Bishop
and he soon found friends, who backed him with great
spirit. For some weeks previous to the fight, the odds
were about 5 to 4 on Gaynor, but on Monday evening the
betting was even, and on reaching the scene of action,
Sharpe was the favourite. It was' known, in fact, that
Sharpe was in excellent condition, while Gaynor's up-
pearatce, was not so favourable'.
. The men entered the ring shortly after two o'clock.—
Sharpe accompanied by the veteran Torn Owen and Josh.
Hudson, and Gitynor by Harry Holt and Tom Oliver.
They were soon stripped and brought to the scratch, when
the superiority oreondition on the part of Sharpe was ob-
vious to all. Six to four was now offered on the Bishop,
and taken; and even betting might have been had to any
amount.