The Sun.
London, England, 1826-11-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP Tilt PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Amidst- tfae overhtiling of abuses which, by their gross
and intolerable oppression, recommend thernielVea: most
strongly to a severe visitation from Parliament; iv'e de*eutly
hope that the necessity of qualifying', or rather snper4ding,
the present system of licensing public-honith Will net be
altogether fingetten. The prettlee, as it exists, has been
long and loudlywn nre forced to add, likewise, fruitlessly
—exclainmd against; but the evidences of its vicious cha-
racter have become of late sknetOriMis,,that it is diflietilt
to look at them and refrain eximstulating in thdmost
earnest manner with the legislative body on its tolerance
of such a grievous wrong. Our present purpose is not
imtnediately with the monopoly of the breivers, exercised
over the country through the mediuth of.their vassal pub-
lic.ans—that is to se.y) ft h hot' against a monopoly of the
sale of porter, Constituting a question between the brewer
and the consumer, that we should wish, tO direct the fiel7
ings of ParliatnentsO againSt that horrible pe-
culiarity, in the system of granting licences to publicans,
which Wilds the monopoly on the discretion of indivi-
duals rather than on the law of the , land. It is net that a
licensed houSe should be the only hou*c that a weary
traveller 'elin buy e' glass of beer, that beer coming from
the only strop at which the publican dares to purchase it—
but it is that in the licensing or not licensing a house
the plainest suggestions of justice and fair-dealing'may be
violated, and the meanest and most malignant feelings in-
dulged with absolute impimity. The talk of a motion for a
criminal information agaltist the Rev. Mr. Lacy, of Tring, in
Hertfordshire, Was reported in this journal of Saturday
, lust, but has just been pointed out to our more particular
attention. the grounds of the motion were, in brief—
that the Rer. Gentleman (a Magistrate of the county)
had, from corrupt motives, influenced other Magistrates
to refuse a license to a public-house in Tring—the oldest
licensed house in. the place--which had bean Snell for 40
years, and always kept by members of the same family
with the person petitioning Edit a renewal of the license last
September, go tine Complaint for misconduct of any de-
scription having. ever been made against him or his prede-
cesters in the business. The Court refused the rule, ad-
mitting the case stated to be one of suspicions" bUt as
it was not a prima facie ease of positive guilt, the Learned
Judges Would not take it from the natural jurisdiction of
the Grand Jury. Now we have seen affidavits of the
aggrieved parties, and we do affirm, that a case more pre--
mutt, we will not say with proof (since the case is still
undecided)' but with irresistible suspicion, against the
Rev. defendant, never yet. mine under our cognizance.
The Rev. gentleman 'had himself, in September,
.1825,
been one of the Magistrates, it is sworn, who licensed 'this
very house. He saw it under a thorough repair last win-
ter, and expressed his satisfaction at the prospect of a pub-
lic-house so creditable to the, town of Tring being com-
pleted. A few months after he quiwrelled with Mr. Kay,
a man of fortune in the neighbourhood, who was pro-
prietor of the same old licensed house—because he,
Mr. Kay, would not consent that the costs of a litiga-
tion in which the reverend defendant had been con-
cerned, should be defreyed out of the purse of the
parishioners. And in the event, it appears, that on
the meeting of the Magistrates lait September., at Berk-
hamstead, to license the publicans of Tring for the presient
year, a majority of the Magistrates (being three to two), of
which Mr. Lacy was one, usd which every circumstance
goes to prove that the others acted upon his representa-
tions, refused to license this old and reputable house, kept
by an individual whom all the most respectable inhabitants
of the town joined in repeatedly recommending by their
siguatures, as a correct and irreproachable character; one
of the magistrates who hod voted With Mr. Lacy declaring
afterwerds that he, in his first vote, had been misled by
false representations. Such is the case its; it appeared in
the affidavits. But it is the power of oppression, which
the' law tints vests in hands not incapable of employing it,
that alone deserVes any serious Haiku from the people.
We aver that no,suelt power ought to he deposited with
any individual by the Legislature of a free country—.-thatit t.
is an arbitrary power over the rights of property intrusted
to caprice, partiality, or. private vengenneethat mono-
poly, a grave abuse in itself, is a feather compared with
the above ignoble despotisnt—and that if the Parliament
shall turn away from such instances of magisterial miscon-
duct, it May at one proclaim to the country that there is
no civil grievance worthy of redreiS.---Tinws.

A Paris letter, it will be seen, speaks of an arrangement
according to which the independence of Greece is to be
secured, by the mediation and nnder the guarantee °tithe
great European Sovereigns. At any other time we shotilit
have looked. with suspicion to the interference of such per-
sonages in-the cause ot liberty : but after the Bealldltkillb
manner in which the Greeks have been plundered by a
gang of humble knaves hi this country, we do not know
why that injured and unhappy people should not seek re-
fuge in Royal Protectors. May the monerof which they
have been robbed bring a curse upon those who possess it !
May no Englishman ever repeat their names but with a shud-
der ! May the plunder, if it shall descend by testament or
bequest to the disgraced offspring or relatives of those who
now hold it from warriors fighting for freedom, corrupt all
the other property which they shall bequeath or devise !
It Was the comfort of the poor Vicar of Wakefield,
when 'surrounded by the horrors of u gaol, to reflect on
that text of Scripture-.-cc I have been young, and now run
old ; and yet saw I never the righteous forsaken, nor his
seed begging their bread." May the seed of those who
have plundered the Greeks, and retain the unholy prey),
" beg their bread ;" and may each of them find in every
bosom at which he would knock, a heart as callous as that
of the supplicent's own father ! We publish a letter
transmitted to 'tts froM Signor Orlando, at Marseilles. It
makes nothing, as he of course Willa 1111thIrili$11d, for Ida
case. The British public will not be guided in their de.
eision by that of Signor I —1`.1111(.0'S superiors 41 Greece.
We are nearer the seene'of action, and know the circum-
stances more perfectly than 'ever they can be known by
those to Whom Signor Orlando appeals.--Ibid.
The retirement bf Mr.' Brogden froM the Chair of the
Committees of the While of Commons whether it, in the
result, becomes temporary or perpetual, is, we think, as
far as it goes, an event creditable to all parties. On the
part of, the Honourable Gentleman himself, it shows i
disposition to concede, to public opinion, while it relieves
both Ministers and the House itself from a dilemma which
might, have been either of very painful or very questionable
solution. What astonishes tia,' however, and detracts from
the merit we are speaking of, is that Mr. Brogden should
attribute his misfortune to the Press. He has been the
victim, forsooth, of clamour; and the vile, the abomina-
ble Press is the scapeagoat, which on this, as on a thou-
sand occasions equally groundless, is to bear the whole
weight of robbing Mr. Brogtleta
.of his peace of mind', and
the House of Commons, for a time at least, of his valuable
services ! The Press,we suspect, however, may reply
to Mr. Brogden ie memorable words of Junius to
Sir William ,Draper ; and tell him " if ' his bed be a bed
,of torture, he has made it for himself." Mr.' lirogden
Was once a Whig. lie may be so still for ought we
know.. His antipathy to the Preis* would lead us to sup-
pose he still is. But we would ask Mr. Binder' whether
it was the Press that made him the Director of so meny
Companies'? Was it the- Press that induced him to Join
so many Bubbles-" light as air ?" Was it the Press that
swiped to Mr. Brogden a share in one of the grossest
frailds ever committed; but of which we readily admit be
mut have been unconscious, and was no otherwise a party
otner ?
to, thin by accepting a sum of money in one shape, and
ali4 Warning the übr •
,zinposing, without inquiry, that it came to him in et 34
We hoe' bad probably as much to do in exposing
of the bubble roanle againfit
the
doing
so, as any part of the. Press ; but in oing
so, we have never cared one fartlfingc,ll.o7rtnetreYdadnledddoenlueiji:
fur-
Cher than their nanies 3.3431 Y
with Air. Itrogiten, r dual as Ruch fur-
odtheri int sVI
_e.;
prv,oleiceabdiny Calliatn7in
iont rinutt'ai in
sdes,
tailing the history good
cc the last 'dying speeches and counions" of the egregious
e.h.ous
instances fraud .and molly with which the last twelve-
month bas wormed. So far froin,kciing oy thing even

like prejudice towards Mr. Brogden or Ray one else, we
should be most happy to see him and every other man so
situated come out of the inquiries connected with these,
bubbles pure and unsullied. The first step towards doing
so je for each man; be' be Director,. Chainititf, Auditor,
Solkitur, Bttiveyor, Secretary, or ;hat hot, to disgorge
his own gains. Let them then refund to each man the'
loss he has stiStailled Ityleing-.seduced, by enticing pro-
spectuses,
,and still more enticing , names, to embark ins
property in projectsi Which the very,projectors themselves
now acknowledge to have been Mere indonshine: Quac-
kery, it is quite clear, is not confined to medical empirics;
and we think that the principle of "No cure, no pay,"
is as applicable to , these Joint ,Stock Quacks, as to the
iithM, and eiii;itld bC more rigidly aeted upon. But will
the House of Commons stop here? Is Mr. Bregden to
be the Only person Whom its justice will reach ? We are
bound to say; that should that be so, then that gentlemen,
and the biiih have reason to complain. We
trust that Mr. Waitlunan will not be deterred from bring-
ing the, whole matter, and all its honourable supporters be-
fore the House. Let it be seen who it is that has been
concocting and profiting by these vile trends. And we
are widely mistaken if the result does hot phii.e, that the
late Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means is
fur, very far indeed, from deserving the greatest share of
reprobation, or being visited with the severest conse-
quences; but that there are those who used their names
and influence as Mettibers of the last Parliatnent,lor no
other purpose but to enrich themselves at the expence of
the confiding credulity of those whose property it was their
duty to have protected, Instead of plundered. For our-
selves, as part of the Press, we can only say, that we shall
notbe deterred from continuing fearlessly to lend our aid
in deVeloeing and unmasking the greatest scene of
ini-
quity Which has ever stained the annals of any country, and
tainted With unextinisheble disgrace names with, which
neither honour nor honesty can ever again be coupled.-4
Morning Herald.
Mr. Hume, nothing daunted, began last night to erect
the, scaffolding for his Parliamentary edifice during the
present. Session. lie gave several notices of future mo-
tions; anti among them, one which must surely have pro-
duced a singular effect upon the House when he read it,
although we do not observe any mention of it in the re-
port of : what took place. The purport of it was us fol-
lows :—" A Return of all Officers, who had sold out on
the Half Pay ; and of all those who had been appointed
in their stead since the last Returns; also, al account of
the sums of money received for those Commissions,
and how thotie mums were appropriated !" There is
an old proverb, which says, we should not mention a
rope in the family of a man who has been hanged.—
What could induce Mr. Hume to draw the atten-
tion of the House to " selling out," and 'to the mode
of " appropriating" certain " sums of money ?" We
should as soon' have expected to hear him call
upon the Christian States of Europe to break " the
Bonds of Greece," and invoke their aid to " pay back,
with interest," upon the Turks, the grievous wrongs she
has suffered at their hands. By an easy transition from
those topics the Hon. Member passed to a discourse about
himself, and alluded to the undignified subject of the malice

and rancour, Which some members of the press exhibited,.
in feeding the public with calumnies respecting Mtn, Which,
however," he Added, "in a short time would be cleared
up." We rejoice to. hear this ; but, at the same time, we
laMent to think he should have so long neglected to clear
up those said calumnies. However, better late than never.
The Hon. Member also adverted to a statement, made by
ourselves; that when he rose to, address the house on
Tuesday, certain symptoms of impatience were manifested.
Mr. lime did not exactly deny that such was the feet, but
he contended, that he said all he intended to say, on the occa-
sion. This we do not dispute; for a serene----orator, like Mr.
Hume, self-satisfied, and self-supported, has only to com-
mand his own attention when he cannot- fix that of others
—convert what should be a speech into a soliloquy—and
aw get rid of all he wishes.. The appeal, however, which
the Honourable Member subsequently made to the pre.
tection of the Chair, and to the edortesy of the House, as
well as the repetition of his concluding sentence on
Tuesday night (which had it been heard then, need not
have been repeated now), incline us to think that our
information upon the subject was tolerably correct.7-New
Times.

Mr. flume alluded last night in the 'Tense,- to !he malice
and inveterate rancour with which he had been pursued by
a portion of the Press; Our contemporary, The Globe, re-
marked at the commencement of this' persecution, that
though Mr. Hum was clearly entitled to recover from the
t heel; Deputiei the loss:which their misconduct had caused
him, yet it would have been better, perhaps, to put up
with the loss, as the greater the services of any man to the
• public, the greater were its expectations from him • and
the more it was disposed to resent nay part of his conduct,'
which might fall short el these expectations. These obser-
vations (goer contemporary display no slight knowledge of
the springs of human action. A man must have been a
very negligent observer, who has not frequently seen, in
ordinary, life, that a series of services' and kind actions
performed by one man• to another, leads the party, bene-
fited only to rise in his expectations. from the same quarter;
and the refusal to indulge these expectations is not only sup-
posed tojustify the ceasing, to entertain grateful feelings,but
tojustify feelings of resentment. We must take human nature
as it is, and as the tiger has, for the wisest purposes, received
its untameable ferocity from the same source which has
given to the dog the fidelity that leads him to lick the bend
that beats him to the earth, in must suppose that the dis-:
position to ingratitude, which seems so general in man-
kind, is equally in the scheme of Providence. Men' may
deceive themselves with the idea, that in dedicating their
days and their nights to the good of their fellow creatures
they will live for ever in their grateful recollections. On
the contrary, the vision of those, so benefitted, • will be
only the more sharpened to discover imperfections, and
were it only for the love of variety, they will pass over
the misdeeds of real enemies to fasten 'on the foibles of
friends. Whoever calculates on any other reward for his
services to his fellow-creatures, than the approbation of a
good conseience, and the inward satisfaction which the
conecientious discharge of dutY''always gives, will assn...
redly'experience disappointment. So much in part .ex-
planation of the eagerness in several quarters to fasten on
Mr..fiume, when It was .discovered that the man, who
hes leboured us no man ever before laboured for the public,
denying himself all the ordinary Onjoymentit and recreations
oflife—who, in the Greek Committee, according to what we
have heard from its members, did himself with very_ little
assistance from others, conduct the whole business of it,
received payment of what he considered it just demand
(if he had not considered the demand' just, would lie have
openly spoken to all his friends, respecting it ?), and tlid not
in addition to the .labouring more than others indulge
also in greater lihentlify.
Hume hits, in some eases, been
But the rancour with which Mr.
pursued, exceeds the ()Mir
nary measure of ingrittitude, and has produced a reaction
in favour of that ge,nticion. The provincial papers more
icu part I I b;
Ys which are out of the reach of the petty jea,
lousiest and
hostile feelings which sprung' up from various
causes among neighbours? 'begin to express themselves in
very indignant terms at the treatment which lie has ulti-
mately received. We yesterday quoted a well-written
pas sake from
jour
(ha . al
pt ti
newspaper of great influence in Yorkshire.
'
The following quotation from the Manchester Guardian, •
ant ndosesiiing also 'great influence in another import-
bowsa that. the same feeling exists there
- "
I,Mr. Bin" (says the Journal in question) alluding to his
Peec h nn the Address, who, as usual; was at his post, in spite of
the' discredstable
efforts which knavery and faction have been
to dthe hint from, it adverted strongly to a fact which can-
n®t be t4)° intl4. Impressed on the public mind, vii. that nOt-
withd tianding tint .Address,fromthe. Douse of Commons in June,.
1821, for retrenchMent and economy, the estimetta ,110 sun y,
navy, and ordnance,
have, ever silicas )B*2 been gradually ) buoy inereasiago
We have elsewhere given it correspondence- between
Mr.
''land the Editor of the Times, which tnay ac
count-
tPeculiar acrimony with which that Jointed
haw thought Proper t Jim With strange . blow
puma !
i ifila rrn e
the