The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-15 00:00:00

SPIRITof the PUBLIC JcktrENALs.

PROM TUB EVENING PAPERS OP YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—In the House of Commons last night
Lord Worsley moved, pursuant to notice, for "a Se-
lect Committee to inquire into the mode of appoint-
ment, the duties, and the present system of remune-
rating the clerks to justices at petty sessions in
England and Wales, and to report the evidence
and their opinion thereon to the House." Long
before the attention of the Legislature was directed
to the subject, we had employed ourselves in col-
lecting from the provincial journals, and other sources,
proofs of the injustice and oppression of the existing
sustem. It is to us, therefore, especially gratifying
to find the purpose we aimed at likely to be effected.
The Noble Lord who took up the question in Parlia-
ment obtained, in the course of last session, a return
of the fees paid to clerks in petty sessions ; the num-
ber of fines inflicted ; and the persons who had been
sent to prison in default of payment of costs, or fines.
From these returns his Lordship selected a consider-
able number of instances, in which a fearful amount
of suffering had been inflicted on poor persons by in-
ability to pay the fees upon summary convictions,
where the fine amounted only to a few pence :

"Parties were sent to prison, not because a fine was
inflicted of a serious nature, or one that indicated a de.
sire on the part of the magistrates to visit the person
convicted with severe punishment, but they were sent
to prison for the non-payment of fees and costs, super-
added to those small fines. That was a great evil, and
one that might be avoided by adopting a different system
of paying the clerks. If they were paid regular salaries
out of the county rates, the system would work better
than the present one."
Lord Worsley, as will be seen by a reference to
the speech with which his Lordship intodUced his
motion, made out a very strong case for inquiry, with
a view to the abrogation of the existing system. At
its close, Mr. M. Sutton stated, that " the attention of
the Right Hon. Gentleman at the head of his department
had been called to the subject, and that a Bill was in
preparation which would, he believed, be in a short
time introduced." Lord Worsley, on receiving this
assurance, withdrew his motion for a Committee.
We know of few subjects pertaining to the adminis-
tration of justice which has more loudly called for at-
tention from the Executive than this. If, in connec-
tion with the mode of remuneration, the Bill to be
introduced provides for the direct appointment of the
clerks to petty sessions by the Crown, they might be
also employed to conduct prosecutions for offences
committed within their respective districts, in a way
similar to that in which the Sheriffs-depute in Scotland
are employed. Responsible to the Crown for the due
performance of their duties, they would be vigilant
and impartial ; and the ends of public justice would be
frequently promoted and secured by their means. The
clerk to the Petworth Bench has written to us, re-
questing us to state that the amount of damage and
costs in the case we referred to on Monday, was paid
by the defendant; and thus the imprisonment of 21
days assigned as the punishment, in default ofpayment,
was avoided. The poor woman—or rather her hus-
band, or some one for him—having paid the amount,
and thus escaped the imprisonment, does not affect the
argument. The fact remains untouched. The
damage was threepence, and the costs 19s. 6d.—
seventy-eight times the amount of the fine ! Nor is
it disputed that the alternative of non-payment was
twenty -one days' imprisonment. We have, however,
under the hand of Mr. J. L. Ellis, the clerk to the
Petworth justices, a statement of the way in which
the 19s. 6d. costs are made up. As the several items
are fixed by high authority, and may be considered
as the established charges in such cases, we insert
them for the information of the curious :

Fees to the Clerk to the Magistrates, as fixed s. d.
by the Magistrates of the county at their
• Quarter Sessions, in June 1841, and con-
firmedby Sir Nicholas Tindal and Mr. Jus-
tice Bosaneraet
Constable's charges, as settled by the Magis-
trates in Quarter Sessio..s assembled in Ja-
nuary, 1843, under 5 and 6 Vict., cap. 109

14 0

5 6

19 6

STANDARD—That it is for the interest of the
community that all its land should be cultivated, and
cultivated up to the highest degree of productiveness
of which it is capable, will not be disputed ; any
more than the corollary from this proposition, that the
Legislature is bound to promote this universal and
complete cultivation to the utmost of its power. These
abstract truths are, however, subject to great qua-
lification, arising out of the right of property.
When society concedes to a man an absolute pro-
perty in anything, it concedes the right of abuse as
well as of use ; it is his, he may do with it what he
pleases ; and if he chose to employ it unprofitably,
society cannot interpose to correct his folly, unless the
misemployment produce some direct injury to others.
We may regret this, but it is a necessary consequence
of that sacredness of proprietary right without
which society cannot be permanently maintained.
The right of property in land, however, cannot be
distinguished from any other right of property, with-
out destroying it altogether ; and therefore it is
scarcely possible for the Legislature to promote culti-
vation by any direct process. Parliament can-
not compel a nobleman to lay his park and pleasure-
grounds under the plough, notwithstanding that his
doing so might conduce to his own profit, as
well as increasing the stock of food and
the demand for labour in the country. The
park is his; he prefers enjoying it as a luxury
to employing it as a means of profit, and to invade his
freedom in this respect would form a precedent for
violating the citizen's villa garden ; and, indeed, for a
legal superintendence of the domestic economy of
every family, with a view to its sumptuary reform.
There is, however, in the country an amount of
land still wholly uncultivated, though capable of
profitable cultivation, variously estimated at from
two to eight millions of acres ; which land is not
continued in this useless state by reason of the choice
or caprice of proprietors, but by the defect of the
law, which in some measure disables the proprietors
from cultivating it as they could wish. Every one
sees that this is a case urgently demanding the in-
terposition of the Legislature ; an interposition, how-
ever, which shall not infringe upon any rights
of property, but facilitate their enjoyment.. In
the case of waste lands, it is true, there as some diffi-
culty, not merely in ascertaining the personality of
the proprietors, but the kind of property which each
is entitled to claim ; for, as every one acquainted with
English law is aware, there may be many proprietors
of the. same parcel of ground, each having a different
kind of property ; the mines and minerals may
helong to one; the produce of the soil by tillage
or pasturage to another ; the game to a
third ; a right of way to a fourth ; and
so on. A law for the inclosure, or other more
strict appropriation of wastes, which would not re-
spect all these rights, either by securing them, or by
diving an adequate compensation, would be manifestly
unjust to somebody. And here, indeed, is the hitch
which has caused such an amount of land to remain
so long comparatively unprofitable to the com-
munity. Lord Worsley's Bill is a, well-meant
attempt to overcome the serious obstacle in
question. Whether this Bill will pass, or whether,
Laving passed, it would effect its object, are questions
which we are at present unable to answer even
by guess. It has some benevolent provisions for
the poor, and more no doubt will be added in its
progress; but upon these we set less value than per-
haps others would be disposed to do, because with-
out at all depreciating the value of temporary
relief of the distressed, which, without regard to the
future effect, is as much an obligation upon Christian
states as upon Christian men, we cannot but see
that the most benevolent disposition possible of
the waste lands of the country would operate
to the relief of the poor for but a very brief season.
In an enterprising, money-making, and progres-
sive country, such as this, there is no means of
dealing with destitution but kee • down the num-
ber of the destitute, and there isp no keeping
means
of keing
% down the number of the destitute but by making
them a burden, a heavy burden, upon the more affla..
silt. It was in his way that the old poor-lawn worked to
restrain pauperism, which the substituted poor-law
4pep:acir-lavv
has so frightfully increased. Under the oe
ladeed, any more than under the new, the
was not properly applied to the great cent-rib bur-
den
Ufa to the ranks of poverty—" the manufacturers Of
cottons and of paupers," as the Edinburgh Review
truly called them—and so far the system was defec-
tive; but let the burden be justly imposed, and a
poor-law cannot be too burdensome, for the public
good cannot be too liberal. Meanwhile we wish all
success to Lord Worsley's purpose, which is on both
sides useful and benevolent

DISTRAINT AND SALE FOR
INCOME-TAX.
The circumstances attending the distraint on the pro-
perty of Messrs. Fielden, Brothers, of Todmorden and
34anchester, having transpired, and been published in
,ither journals, we may briefly notice and correct some
.f the statements. It seems that Messrs. Fielden had
returned the papers which they were required to fill up
with their trade profits, &e., with the word " nil." The
Commissioners, not being satisfied with the return, as-
sessed tham in about 350/. Mr. John Fielden,. m,p ,
rite senior partner, appealed against the decision of the
Commissioners, when the assessment was confirmed.
: :essrs. Fielden having refused to pay the amount„, the
Commissioners issued a warrant of distress, with which a
sheriff's officer proceeded to Todmorden, to demand the
money. He was, however, met with a peremptory refusal
kof payment, and he was told that he might distrain ;
be partners, who were on the premises, declaring that
they would turn out all their bands, and close their
;works when he did so. However, it having incidentally
~troaapireirthaV there were goods in the warelipuse of
the ;Jinn in Manchester, supposed to be sufficient to
satisfy the Odra,' the sheriff's officer-said that he would
• first see the stmlf there, and if he found it adequate ho
would'ivii44draw ,tbe man he had brought with him,
and mom -left in possession. The Messrs.
Xielddk 7 stopped their works, and turned
A *cai
\ 4",
11-2 S

lout all their hands, thus causing considerable excite-
! ment in Todmorden, and the bailiff in possession was fer
a time in no very enviable position. The sheriff's officer,
finding that there was property enough in the ware-
house at Manchester to satisfy the amount claimed,
sent immediately to Todmorden, and withdrew the
man. On the officers proceeding to the warehous, No.
21, Peel-street, Manchester, Mr. T. Fielden gave orders
that no more business should be transacted until the affair
was settled, and refused to allow any goods to pass
either in or out of the premises. He refused all informa-
tion to the officers, aid when one of them asked for the
key of a locked door in the upper story, it was refused,
and upon this the officer broke it open. In our paper of
Wednesday was advertised, the sale by auction of a
quantity of grey domestics and sheetings on the follow-
ing Monday. The sale, under such circumstances, at-
tracted various parties, and it was well attended. We
should state that though the original amount due from
the firm as income-tax was about 3501., this had been
increased by costs and expenses to nearly 400/., and to
this extent the auctioneer was authorised to sell. The
sale commenced shortly after eleven o'clock on Monday;
and Mr. Joseph Gale, the auctioneer, sold forty-one
lots, consisting of grey domestics and sheetings, of va-
rious lengths, widths, &c., at prices from 2d. a yard for
27-inch grey domestics, to 9 a yard for 82-inch sheet-
ings; being, we believe, a little, but not much, under the
market prices of the goods. The 4l lots realised 407 L,
135. 5d.; and though there were six more lots in the ca-
talogue, the auctioneer having sold sufficient to cover
the required amount, clesed the sale. Manchester
Guardian.