The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-04 00:00:00

RAILROADS IN FRANCE.

Prance is at length beginning to show great ac-
tivity, and is n"w competing with her Belgian
neighbours, in facilitating provincial intercommuni-
cation by means of railways. In the month of
April, 1842, it was stated by M. Messeger, in his
" Commercial Tariff and Regulations of France,"
that, with the exception of a few miles of branch
rails, the whole railroad communication of that ex-
tensive kingdom was comprised in a very bad line
from St. Etienne to Lyons, one from Paris to St.
Germains, and two from Paris to Versailles. In
June, 1842, however, the French Government, seeing
the immense increase of traffic secured to Belgium by
means of its extensive railroad communication, set a
very noble national example, and offered public en-
terprise a great inducement to enter upon the neces-
sary competition. The Government agi eed to de-
liver to such companies as should undertake the con-
struction of certain lines, free of all charge, the land
required for the whole line, and to complete the
earthworks, termini, and stations ; leaving the
companies to lay down the rails or per-
manent way, to supply the engines and carriages for
Working the lines, and to maintain the works when
completed. Under these regulations lines have been
already undertaken from Paris to Havre, and from
Paris to Rouen; and from Paris to Orleans lines have
been completed. Another most important one is now
projected from iiiaris to Strasburg, a line which pro-
mises to bring into close commercial intercourse
England, France, and Germany. Both as regards
agricultural and industrial products, the country be-
tween the French metropolis and the banks of the
Rhine is important. In Alsace, the Lancashire of
France, there are at present, even with existing de-
ficiencies of transit, no less than fifty-six factories,
producing cotton twist and calicoes to the yearly
value of 5,000,0001. sterling, and employing 110,000
persons ; and the kerseys and cachmeres of Nancy on
the same line are beginning to rival those of the south
of France. The vine and every description of
agricultural production abound in the whole country
to be traversed. With the French metropolis itself
it is needless to say that a direct line, connecting it
also with the German provinces, would conduce to a
rapidly extending inter-national commerce. Between
and among the towns on the projected route, an
extensive traffic and interchange already prevails, but
the want of a railway communication for the herds
of cattle which pass from one province to another, on
a line extending to 280 miles, must entail severe loss.
It has been calculated that a loss of nearly 15 per
cent. takes place in the value of cattle driven on the
highway from Leicester to London, as compared with
the depreciation, when transported the same distance
by rail. But, without touching further on matters
of detail, we shall only say that we hail the prospect
of a direct and easy intercourse with France and the
Rhine, as a matter of great importance, both as re-
gards this country and our relations with the
Continent.

COUNSEL AT SESSIONS.
(From the Municipal and Poor-law Gazette.)
Our readers will find, under the head a Administration of
Justice," an account of a scene, which the reporter of the
Times rightly describes as extraordinary. The grand jury, at
the Middlesex Sessions at Clerkenwell, had found true bills
against the occupiers of seventeen houses of ill-fame, all within
the Strand Union. Mr. Corder, the clerk of the Strand Union,
had the conduct of the business ; and being a zealous man, a
member of an Inn of Court, and thoroughly conversant with
the law which regards his office, seems to have judged it
proper to pass over the counsel usually practising at Clerken-
well, and to give a brief to Mr. Pashley, a barrister, who is a
stranger there, but in Mr. Corder's judgment, a more com-
petent lawyer. Now, Mr. Prendergast, Mr. Ballantine, and
a few other barristers are in possession of almost the whole
practice at Clerkenwell, and of a good share of that at the
Old Bailey. It is not every barrister who can or would suc-
ceed in these Courts ; and the few who do so are more than
usually jealous of their monopoly, and use it in a fashion of
despotism and caprice towards their clients which it will be
our duty to illustrate on some other occasion. Mr. Prender-
gast has the reputation of being a great proficient in the
language and other accomplishments more peculiar to these
Courts, and his power over a timid prosecutor or witness
may be inferred from that which he brought to bear, on the
present occasion, upon Sir J. Hamilton, one of the Justices of
the Bench, who, with all his spirit, will doubtless hereafter
prefer a contest with the blackguards in the dock, to one
with a gentleman of the Clerkenwell bar. The barristers who
flourish in the hot atmosphere of Clerkenwell do not thrive
in that of Westminster Hall. They seek to establish a prin-
ciple of compensation for this disadvantage. Nature and
education shut them out from Westminster Hall ; it behoves
them, therefore, to barricade themselves the more securely
in Clerkenwell. Recently the monopoly of two or three
barristers at the Old Bailey has been broken up by the ap-
pearance there of a barrister of great natural talents, against
whcAn all the arts which desperation and failing bread sug-
gest had been practised in vain. Such might be, or may be,
the result at Clerkenwell, where, although it has been
wonderfully little in use, a knowledge of law would unques-
tionably give a new rival a dangerous advantage over the
established men. Mr. Pashley is a successful sessions lawyer,
as those who read the reports of sessions cases argued in the
Court of Queen's Bench may well know; and it was, there-
fore, a most flagrant attack by Mr. Corder on the interests
of the established Clerkenwell bar, to bring Mr. Pashley to
their sessions.
It may now be seen why Mr. Prendergast took on him-
self the defence of the keepers of the seventeen brothels,
without being retained by them : why he suddenly finds
that Mr. Corder's briefs, which had-never been objected to
before, cannot now be held : why he rises as amicus
and shows his amiable disposition towards the Court by the
singular earnestness of his compliments to Sir J. Hamilton;
and why all the bar of Clerkenwell, by their other mouth-
piece, Mr. Payne, testify to their conviction that Mr.
Pashley could not be heard upon Mr. Corder's instructions,
and that Mr. Corder was acting illegally in depriving some
regular attorney of his fees.

There is no doubt, that in point of law Mr. Prendergast and
the other counsel were in the right—and that clerks of
boards of guardians, and vestry clerks, are no longer com-
petent to act in matters of litigation for their unions and
parishes as they have done. But the Clerkenwell bar gene-
rally displays great equanimity when mistakes in law are made,
and they were never known before to object to briefs from
whatever source they came • and our readers, therefore, with-
out our explanation, might have been unable to account for
the mystery of their extraordinary excitement in the present
case.
In reference to the subject of the above remarks, we under-
stand that the promoters of the Attorneys' Bill of last session
had no intention to deprive the non-professional clerks of
boards of guardians, of the power to make applications to
justices on behalf of their boards; and that it is intended to
restore to them the power by means of a clause to be inserted
in the Poor-law Amendment Bill, now in its passage through
the House of Commons.

DEAD MEN'S YorEs.--In,the division lists of the
House of Lords, last week, on the Marquis of Normanby's
motion on Ireland, the name of Viscount Sidmouth appears
in the majority in favour of the Government, although he
was dead at the time the vote was given. So much for dead
men's votes and voting by proxy !

HIGH WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE THIS DAY.
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