The Sun.
London, England, 1821-12-15 00:00:00

Norbury, who retires, in order to make way for
Mr. Plunkett as Attorney-General ; and this
latter gentleman's succession to the Attorney-
Generalship in Ireland is surmised (we know
not how correctly) to be preparatory to his trans-
fer to the eminent station of Lord Chancellor of
England, whenever Lord Eldon retires.

[NEW TIMES.]
We yesterday expressed our satisfaction on ob-
serving that the depredations in Ireland were car-
ried on with less barbarity than had previously been
the case ; but we by no means wish to withdraw
the attention of the public from those features of
peculiar atrocity by which the recent disturbances
have been marked. Let it not be forgotten, that
crimes have been perpetrated in that unhappy
country, compared to which the warfare of sa-
vages in New Zealand is mildness itself. The
savage seldom ernbrues his hands in the blood of
his fellow-creatures except from provocation ;
but in Ireland assassination has been resorted to
with every accompaniment which can render it
super-eminently detestable; strangers, women and
infants, liave been sacrificed with the obnoxious
individual ; and blood has been shed, not to gra-
tify interest or to satiate revenge, but in the
mere wantonness of feline ferocity. No one, we
apprehend, except those politicians who insist
that the Executive Government is the parent
of bad harvests and severe winters, will ascribe
this to religious or political feelings. ' Ilis
Majesty's visit made a peace, which has not yet
been broken, between the contending parties ;
and in consequence it has had this happy effect
among many others, that it has prevented faction
from casting a cloud over the source of atrocities of
which Ireland is at present the theatre, and from
thus bewildering the understandings of those men
in the state "who possess both the means and the
wish to serve her. No political or religious ob-
ject has been avowed by the deluded assassins ;
their Victims have not been men invested with
political or religious power, and all the evidence
which can be collected proves that their motives
—base and criminal as they are—are purely per-
sonal, and not connected with any topic on which
ie opinions of our Statesmen are divided.

DIDRNING HERALD.]
" The Constitutional Association" has met with
a discomfiture more fatal than even verdicts for
the defendants. The proceedings in the cases
which stood for prosecution at its instance, have
been vitiated ab initio—and the vice which has
been discovered in them is a convincing and
practical proof that voluntary, numerous, rich,
and irresponsible combinations of this kind are
not proper or, congenial organs for promoting the
ends of justice under the British Constitution.—
The proceeding was this :--The Counsel for the
defendant challenged the array, on the ground
that the'Sheriff who impannelled the Jury was
not indifferent—being, in fact, himself a prose-
cutoi! The issue was referred, as a preliminary
question, to two chosen tryers, whether Mr. Sheriff
Garratt, who, in that capacity, returned the Jury
which should try the case, was not at the time a
member of the Association ? The tryers returned
their verdict in the affirmative,- upon evidence of
the facts submitted to them. An attempt was
made to chew that Mr. Sheriff Garratt had taken
no share in its proceedings. This was rather a
flimsy mode of sustaining an opinion of his impar-
tiality. He had paid his subscription of five
guineas ; and it is not, at this day, that people
open their purses for any purpose in which they
do not feel a pretty strong interest of one
kind or another. Another statement was put
forth' of his having formally withdrawn him-
self. But did he withdraw his subscription from
the funds ? And is it not to be presumed that
his heart still went with his money ? When a
man has laid out his money for any purpose, he
must have a hankering interest in its efficient ap-
plication. The retirement of the worthy Sheriff
too appeared of rather an ambiguous and waver-
ing kind, if the witnesses were not mistaken in
their statements. We are sure, however, that
the Sheriff is incapable of abusing his autho-
rity in this exercise of it, and that the Jury was
as fairly constituted as Special Juries generally
are ; but still the idea of the prosecutor having a
"controul over the nomination of the panuel
is abhorrent to the British Constitution.

[BRITISH PRESS.]
The proceedings which took place yesterday
in the Court of King's Bench were highly inte-
resting. The Bridge-street Association has re-
ceived another blow, which throws a great dis-
credit upon its character. It will be seen by
our report of those proceedings that the trial of
the indictments for libels, which had been found
at the instance of this Society against certain
printers and publishers, was interrupted by a
decision of the Chief Justice, who admitted
the validity of a challenge to the array of the
Jury 'in one of the cases, upon the ground
that Mr., Alderman Garratt, one of the She-
riff a She-
riffs, was member of the Bridge-street Society,
, and consequently one of the prosecutors at the
time of empannelling the Jury. This objection
was made in Mr.llolby's case, and being equally
pertinent to all the others that stood for trial, it
had the effect of preventing further proceedings.
Never, certainly was there af) attempt so mi-
serably unfortunate as that which has been made
by the framers of the Bridge-street Society to
protect the power and character of his Majesty's
present Ministers. On every occasion their pro-
ceedings are checked either by the jealous
spirit of the Constitution, or by some unlucky
accident, arising out of the very nature of
the Association. Their prosecutions are dis-
countenanced by Juries, and the Court of
King's Bench has thrown discredit upon the
character of the Institution by the avowed pre-
sumption that the subscribers to its funds are
incapable of acting in any capacity with im-
partiality upon any case .selected by the agents
of the Society for prosecution. To this may be
added the overwhelming force of public opinion,
which has loudly condemned the presumption of
any number of private individuals sitting in judg-
ment upon the acts of their fellow-subjects, and
arrogating to themselves theexercise of a discre-
tionary authority which the spirit of the Con-