The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE LONDON JOURNALS.

(FROM THE TIMES.)

• That a partial statement of fact has sometimes
• the effect of a positive misrepresentation of truth, is
a trite saying, which could not be better illustrated
than by a reference to Mr. Peel's letter, addressed
to the Mayor of Plymouth, respecting the Portu-
gueie refugees. The Right Hon. Gentleman states,
and states with perfect correctliessohat the British
Government is desirous.to fulfil the rights of
that
of
hospi-
tality to these meritorious strangers, n
departure from the shores of England to Brazil was
their own choice, on the alternative offered them of
dispersion among the towns. of the interior or of
forfeiture of our protection; but he avoids, or omits
to state, that condition which (as we have heard
from Plymouth) was felt by the young Queen's
Ministers to be the real grievance--namely, the
forced separation of the Portuguese officers from
the soldiers, by the mode in which the dispersion
was to have been effected, and the consequent ex-
posure of the private men to the bribes or
threats of the wretch Miguel's agents, who,
it is Understood, have been waiting for this happy
opportunity of gaining over the Queen's subjects
tso the usurper's cause. We know not upon what
plea of right or principle such a measure as this of
separating the officer from the soldier could be jus-
tified, except on the admission that these faithful
followers of a Sovereign acknowledged by Europe,
and especially by England, to be the lauyal Queen
of Portugal, are no better than prisoners of %var in
the hands of Miguel's allies and advisers.
The financial accounts, given in another column,
have, this year, for the first time been printed by
order of the House of Commons, and it must be re-
marked that we are in entire ignorance as to the ap-
plication of all the sums paid from the same sources
LI any year previous to the lust. Nothing, certainly,
has so direct a tendency to encourage waste and
profusion as this disposal of the public money, With
or without authority—with or without the vote or
approbation of Parliament. Every possible and al-
most every impossible head of expense is enumerated
and provided for in the regular civil list revenue,
voted at the commencement of each reign, in lieu of
the hereditary revenue of the Crown.
" Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
" Daily devours af.ace, and nothing said."
The acknewledgei amount of theprivy purse is by
Act of Parliament no less a sum than 60,0004 a
year. The Duchy of Cornwall affords a revenue of
at least 30,000/., the Duchy of Lancaster 30,000/.
more at t!:' very lowest calculation, making a sum
total of 120,000/., applicsble to the menus plaisirs of
the King. We have now to add what may be
ceded :! surreptitious revenue of the privy purse,
not voted by Parliament, scarcely ever known to
Parliament, and taken from various sources of re-
venue, which, not being classed or accounted for
under any ordinary and regular head of revenue,
might have been expected to pass unnoticed, as well
now us in former yews. The sums so drawn into
the vortex of the privy purse amount to 16,0011.
I is. in the single year ending January, 1828, and a
further sum of 93,339/. ss. may be added to the
palace building account.
(FROM THE MORNING CHRONICLE.)
We alluded the other day to the complaints of
Oliver Cromwell against the severity of our Law.
In his Speech to Parliament, on the 17th Septem-
ber, 1656, printed for the first time in the Introduc-
tion to .Buran's ". Diary," he feelingly observes,
"But the truth'of it is, there are wicked and abo-
minable laws, that will be in your power to alter.—
To hang a man for 6d., 3d.; and I know not what ;
to hang for a trifle, and pardon murder, is, in the
ministration ef the law, throngh.the W framing of it.
I have known in my experience abominable murders
quitted. And to see men lose their lives for petty
'natters; this is a thing that God will reckon for,
and I wish it may not lie upon this nation a day
longer than you have an opportunity to give a re-
medy, and I hope I shall cheerfully joie with you
in it. This bath been a great grief to many ho-
nest hearts, and conscientious people, and I hope
it is in all your hearts to rectify it." It was
not, however, in their hearts to rectify it; for
Cromwell's ideas respecting law reform were too libe-
ral for his age. The cruelty of the law not only re-
mained unmodified to our times, but was the sub-
ject of eulogy. When Lord Holland introduced
the meawres of Sir Samuel Rornilly into the House
of Lords, he had but a small minority of eleven with
him, and not merely Lord Eldon (for he was al-
ways the apologist of every barbarism and abuse)
and Lord Ellenborough, but even Lord Liverpool
scouted the idea of any improvement in our Criminal
Law. Hanging for every thing was the most beau-
tiful part of the wisdom for which we were indebted
to our ancestors. To those who arc sceptical as to
the benefits of discussion, we would say—Compare
the present day with the time when men of the
first consideration could unblushingly advocate our
Criminal Code in its most revolting features. There
are many abuses in the judicial system of the country
calling loudly for Reform, and the progress made
in rtesedying the evil is exceedingly slow; but
no one now stands up as the unqualified apologist
of them. This is, unquestionably, a great victory.
What is wanted now is not so much to demonstrate
the necessity of Reform, as to enlightedthe public
mind as to the nature of the Reforms which ought
to be effected. Here we believe much remains
to be done ; for it is unquestionably true
that the people of this country are very imperfectly
acquainted with the theory of legislation, and may be
easily deceived into an aegeieseence with pretended
ameliorations which would leave the most of the
evils very little abated. One of the evils of the
present system of allowing the law to be at variance
with public opinioe, in its punishing with death a
number of crimes on which people in general look
with an eye of indulgence, and throwing- upon the
Government to redress the severity of the law, by
subsequent pardon and commutation—is the eon_
parative carelessness in conducting trials in capital

Cases. The idea that punishments of severity, which
are not executed in nineteen cases out of twenty,
are effieacious in the way of deterring from the corn-
mission. of crime, is now seldom maintained, ben
notorious that criminals, where the chances arc so
siight against them, calculate confidently on an
escape. Such is the disposition of mankind to rely
on their good luck, that we constantly see in the
world the remotest chances looked for‘eard to
by individuals ; and it is not, therefore, to be
supposed that the most reckless of men, what-
ever they may be deficient in, will be deficient
in their disposition to trust to their good luck.
Having therefore cleared this prejudice out of the
way, there can be no conceivable motive for retain-
ing laws which cannot be executed, but the love of
patronage, that is, the love of dispensing favours to
the friends of the convicted, or the love of retaining
the power to commit occasional injustice. If, in
nineteen cases out of twenty, a certain crime ig par-
doned, and in the twentieth case, not differing from
die others, the law ;s executed, this is injustice—it
rs legal murder. To wish to retain the law which
in nineteen cases out of twenty is not executed, is
to wish to retain the power of committing legal
murder. But if the law were to be changed, anti a
different puitishment than death to be allmteol to the
whole twenty cases, and the capital convictions to
be uniformly carried into effect, then the trial of a
man clunged with a capital crime Would be a most
solemn affair. Front the first steps before the com-
mitting Magistrate to the sentence, the greateA care
would be taken, the utmost pains would be taken, to
discover the truth. We need not say that this care
would in the people increase very much their re-
gard for life. In like manner, that class of crimes
against which death was pronounced ‘t,ould cease to
be held in peculiar abhorrence by the people. It is
possible by a care of this kind almost to extinguish
crimes of violence, the class of crimes which society
has the greatest interest in diminishing. The loss,
of property may lead to the loss of what makes life.
chiefly valuable to a man. But still, in most-cases,
the loss of property is not an irremediable evil; but
life, when taken, cannot be restored. It is, there-