The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-30 00:00:00

nothing could have been more appropriate than the
scene which was yesterday witnessed in the City
of London, namely, her Majesty gracing with
her presence the, opening- of the great Mart of
British cousenerce the new Rcyai Exchange.
Foreigeeers must have been Much struck with the
magnificence of the erectacle, which they yesterday,
witnessed. They must have painfully felt the con-
trust which would be presented by any exhibition of
national grandeur which their countries could make.
There is no other city in the world that could get up
suything at all approaching the splendour of yester-
day's scene. If, then, not only the magnificent dis-
play which dazzled the eyes of her Majesty's metro-
politan people, but, as before remarked, our greatness
as a nation is mainly to be ascribed to the success of
our commercial enterprise, it follows that every ob
struction to our trade and commerce ought to be
removed, and our national commercial resources be
allowed full play. Were this done—were the princi-
ples of free trade to be adopted in their widest extent,
and full scope allowed to the enterprise of our manu-
facturers and merchants, Great Britain would rapidly
rise to an eminence, socially as well as commercially,
which has never been attained by any other country,
in ancient or modern times. There could be no more
suitable, and certainly no more salutary measure,
than would be the following up yesterday's opening
of the new Royal Exchange, under the auspices of
the Sovereign—by the annihilation, in the coming
session of Parliament, of those various monopolies
which restrict our trade and cripple our commerce.
GLOBE.—A system is extensively acted upon
by the New ate authorities, under the sanction of
the Prison Committee, which, if not firmly re-
sisted by the attorneys and barristers of the Cen-
tral Criminal Court, will tend to create a mono-
poly of practice, at once injurious to the profes-
sion and to the administration of public justice.
The poorer class of prisoners are especially sufferers
from the practice alluded to. At the moment
of their trial, these unfortunate creatures find them-
selves destitute of counsel, who, they supposed, had
been entrusted with their defence, but who neither
appear in person or by proxy. Their absence is not even
accounted for or supplied—for this best of all reasons,
there is no responsible person, in the character of at-
torney or agent, to attend to the case, or to see that some
gentleman of the bar holds a brief for the prisoner.
This has long been a crying evil in the Court alluded
to. Judges have frowned, and Aldermen on the
rota, with others of the grave and reverend Seigniors of
the Civic Bench, have promised to interfere, to see
that the case of the unfortunate prisoners, if conducted
by counsel, should be properly prepared, and their
defence arranged with regard to the grounds on which
they proposed to rest their proof of exculpation, or
their appeal for the merciful consideration of the
court. The cause of the inconvenience and injuries
to the prisoners so frequently complained of, on
being inquired into, were found to originate
in the reception of briefs by counsel from hand,
that are not strictly professional. Barristers
had not been sufficiently tenacious of etiquette. They
had not strictly inquired, before accepting it, whes
ther a brief for a prisoner's defence was indorsed by an
attorney of her Majesty's Court of Queen's Bench.
Hence, disreputable persons had found access to
prisoners or their friends ; had taken their money,
scraped together with difficulty, and at the expense of
many sacrifices, and had then, either wholly or par-
tially, neglected the necessary arrangements for the
defence. When their trial came on, the wretched pri-
soners found that their witnesses had not been got to-
gether ; and often that counsel had not been instructed.
The attorney or agent was either not in court, or
some false excuse was trumped up to meet the occa-
sien. Well, how have these wise and virtuous re-
formers of abuses in the Court of which they are
permitted by the Legislature to be the controllers
and directors, proposed to cure these evils ? The
obvious course would have been to take effective mea-
sures for excluding unauthorised practitioners from
the Court ; to have kept a properly authenticated list
of the practitioners ; copies of which list should be
exhibited in some conspicuous place in the pri-
son of the Court, and instructions given that none
but such, or their recognised clerks—except on the
special application of a prisoner—should be allowed
access to him, to receive instructions for preparing
his defence. The same, or somewhat similar,
checks, might be provided in the Court. Let a similar
list be made out, and supplied to each gentleman of
the Bar, among whom an understanding should exist
that no brief, except passing from one of these
accredited practitioners, shall be received by them.
A breach of this understanding should be regarded
as an offence against the rules of the Bar, arid
subjecting the individual to censure, and, on repeti-
tion, to be dis-barred. But how have the City func-
tionaries sought to reform the evils which have
existed ? By a plan at once invidious in design,
and inefficient in operation. A plan injurious and
unjust towards the practitioners of the Court,
the majority of whom it excludes from a fair
competition, by creating a monopoly ; while it
frequently leaves the prisoners, for whose pro-
tection it professes to provide, positively without
the professional aid it promised to secure, and for
which they had paid their money to the prison autho-
rities, for the special purpose of procuring it. We
have received complaints from various quarters of the
strange interposition of the Newgate authorities, in
the way of advice and recommendation to prisoners as
to the attorney and counsel they should employ. We
were also assured that touting for business—of which
so much complaint was made from the civic function-
aries, as derogatory from the dignity of the profession,
and injurious to the interests of the prisoners—was
only transferred from the outside to the inside of the
prison. We were slow of belief that such practices were
permitted, much less sanctioned to any extent, and
refused to commit ourselves to statements that were
obviously incompatible with the perfect freedom of
choice which even a prisoner accused of felony should
be allowed to exercise in his choice of an advocate.
Under duress, the accused may be supposed to be in-
fluenced by hope that, if he comply with the sugges-
tion of his gaoler—in his circumstances possessing the
force of a request, if not of a command—some specific
or undefined advantage will accrue to him by com-
pliance, either before trial, or after conviction, if he be
found guilty.
STANDARD.—We presented, yesterday, to our
readers, a pretty full report of the proceedings at the
opening of the New, and now " Royal" Exchange,
up to the time of our going to press. We add, to-
day, such particulars as we were yesterday compelled
to omit, or as had not reached us in time. Nothing
of the kind could pass over in a manner more gratifying
than did yesterday's ceremonial. The day was auspi-
cious—a splendid day for the season. The arrange-
ments made by the military and police were
perfect, and observed, we would say, rather than en-
forced, with the utmost urbanity and good temper ;
and the people were, as they always are when the
subordinate functionaries of power will let them, in a
high degree of good humour, determined to be
pleased, and to welcome their beloved Queen with that
hearty welcome which Englishmen know how to offer.
The universal enjoyment was heightened by the un•
equivocal proofs afforded by her Majesty's gracious
smiles, that she fully participated in it; and if poli-
tical feeling, which so often " mars the fair face of a
festal day," was not altogether laid aside, we must
count all the hundreds of thousands who witnessed
the ceremony as stanch Conservatives, for nothing
could be more complimentary than the reception
everywhere of the Queen's Ministers, more partial•
larlv the reception of Sir Robert Peel. The cere-
mony of yesterday is, indeed, distinguished in this
respect from every form or ceremony of the
description—that there was no expression of political
sentiment breathed through the day. Much of
this no doubt was due to the calming influence of
the Queen's presence ; but we question whether
that influence, sweet and powerful as it must be,
would have produced the effect, had there been any
bitter political feelings to agitate any portion of
the multitude : for the rest, we are not aware
that a single serious accident or the slightest
scuffle interrupted the general happiness of the day.
Whoever rightly considers the ceremony of yester-
day will see in it abundant reasons to be grate-
ful to the Divine Giver of all good, who has
so signally favoured this country ; and, in
humble submission to that gratitude, ample cause
for pride to the progress and prospects of Eng-
land. The occasion of the fete which has just
passed, has reference to commerce ; but while we
honour commerce as it merits, we must not
deify it, as we see in some a disposition to do.
England owes much of her wealth, and power, and
intelligence to commerce ; but to what does she owe
her commerce ? In the first place, to the favourable
position for defence, and for universal communication,
in which she has been placed by the Divine Ruler ;
next, to the hardy courage and indomitable energy of
her people, their high moral instinct, exalted and
strengthened by the blessed Reformation; lastly to tha,t,
wise system of government called "the constitution ;
which, protecting the liberty of all, maintains im-
partially the balance among all. It is with these ad-
vantages, and under shelter of this system, that corn-
merce has grown out of agriculture ; and if the course
of progress is to be continued, agriculture must in
turn be repaid the debt from the accumulations of com-
merce. The prosperity of a merely commercial country
never has been, and never will be, permanent.
When, 270 years ago, Elizabeth opened the first
Royal Exchange, commerce stood in need of the
royal countenanceprotection. The aristocracy
looked down upon the richest citizen with about the
same sense of superiority that a rich citizen would
now look down upon a farmer, a curate, a young
lawyer, or an humble professor of literature. Y'llhesge
wide and insulting distinctions, however, alwaysw
tend to enmity and opposition ; and byves%
sition the resources of a people are dissipated°a
their opportunities of wealth and happiness lost.
Elizabeth was too wise not to see this, and she, there-
fore, took every opportunity of conferring dignity