The Sun.
London, England, 1828-02-11 00:00:00

THE SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Our city article mentions another snuffle in the
management of the country bank paper, upon which
we trust the House of Commons will keep a watch-
ful eye. The substitution of 2/. and 3/. notes for
those of If., it seems, is to be imposed upon us. If
the Minister agrees to this,—Mr. Peel especially
who stands pledged to a specie circulation,—he
disgraced for ever.—Tinies.
We insert another letter trotn cur correspondent
Lambda," not because we agree with him as to
the course which it becomes us to follow with re-
gard to the ministry of the Duke of Wellington, but
because—although he is angry when we are not,
and premature when we are patient and no less cre-
dulous in anticipating evil from the Duke of Wel-
lington than others are in pledging thernselvee
against the possibility of such evil—we haefe nes re-
luctance to give the country a full knowledge of time
materials for suspicion and vigilance, which, in the
judgment of able men (and such is "Lambder),
the chief of the present Ministry and his ancient
colleagues afford respecting their future policy, by
a reference to their past achievements. Suspicion
eamaot be too strong. The mind of a free people is
never so healthy as when distrust of its rulers prede-
, urinates over every other sentiment ; but distrust is
widely different from headlong condemnation, not
merely without direct evidence, but in the teeth of
all the evidence which bears upon the case, and
without the form of a trial. If we are asked what
around there is for imagining that the Duke of
W eih!igton and Lord Bathurst will act differently
i
Bathurst
nowthe line they
comparatively
juieod
on-
der Lord Liverpool, we answer, that as to
for Ministerial
r:11:s misconduct. The'Duke of Welling-
ton is said to have admitted him from considerations
arising out of his recollection of the war in Spain,
dining which the present Lord President of the
Council was the War Minister of this country; huS
his Lordship is now in an easy chair, where he may
amuse himself with turning over the histories of the
Cape of (ilood Hope, and of the Cenadas ; the Go-
vernment will co on as if he formed no pan of it,
But for the Duke himself, we delay our opposition,
because it is more than possible that we might op-
pose him wronefullys We believe (and if he de-
ceives us, his Grace shall hear of ir) that he will
not break his word to Mr. Ifitskispon,—that be will
support such a corn law as Mr. Huskiseen would
have carried, if he could, last Session,—thet he will
give a fair Finance Committee,—that he will main-
, tain the Greek treaty; and the corresponding policy,
—that he will assert the rights of England and bar
citizens upon Spain,—and that he will raise no tor-
tuous or underhand obstacles to the progress of the
Catholic Question. If we are called " silly and
shallow for such expectations, we are candid at least
in expressing them, and shall be equally so in pro-
claiming our disappointment: But there is a short
and simple ground of belief that the Wellington
Ministry will not adopt the unpopular branches of
that of the Liverpools and Eldons, viz. because re
dares not. The national feeling, matured by the last
twelve months of keen speculation and bold discus-
sion, has become too strung and stern to be played
with. The Ministers may be improved, although as
men they Nvere incorrigible ; but if they disappoint
the country, they " will hear of it ;" and with that
we leave them. Many explanations ere still want-
ing; but they belong more to persons than to prin-
zcoaipovldeensseuffs:ssetrited
loltalpleasyrhdrmo7u:st be wrung front the acmes n o
both sides in the recent changes. Aithotigh we
h
" Lambda" to draw us into these observations,
d and vi
writer who calls himself " Ithuriel' must have the
us: his vapid
p aert}id likecoltwLeaitt
co;
abuse we beg time gentleman to keep for the enter-
tainment of his own faction, whoever they may be.

The framers of the Belgian Code complain of
being unable to derive aid from neighbouring coun-
tries in their task, and observe in particular, with
respect to England, that its Government and Laws
are .in subordination to the interests of Lawyers,
With all submission to the Belgian Deputies, we
think they might have derived great aid from the
Laws of England, on the came principle that a man
eften improves himself more by reading a bad book,
than by reading & good one. The reader who takes
np a book of high character, and ably written, is ape
to resign himself blindly to the guidance of his in-
,tructor; 'whereas, the detection of absurdity anel,
false reasoning gives the reader confidence in him-
self, and stimulates him to the vigilant exercise of
his reasoning powers. In this way the Laws of
England, and the administration of them, would
'arm an admirable schooling for Legislators, for every
itep they proceeded, they would discover absurdities
abuses, of the existence of which it would be
inpossible for them otherwise to form an idea, but
which might, notwithstanding, be extremely ser-
viceable to them, in the way of putting them on
Their guard. In Sir _Dudley North's Life, see are
told that the Law of Turkey has " a strong
Analogy with our Common Law (of England.)
l'he Alcoran bath few or no express ceeee cre
rules, such as, being plain and direct, deserve
to be termed Laws; but a world of jargon
and rhapsody of words which may be wrested
to every one's fancy, and that sense which the
!earned in former times have taken is the sense of
the Alcoran, and consequently the law. To bring
this to a system applicable to the promiscuous deal-
,llgs of men, the Doctors have tormented the pooe
text, and their successors have tormented their
works, by interpretations and comments; and when
new cases happen which neither text nor comment
comes up to, yet the Judge determines according
to the law of Mahomet ; and that is the sense of
the Alceran, as with us it is ancient custom, though
nothing of either is to be found respectively to square
vith it. But the numerous and perpetual contro-
versies and law suits wherein the sentences of the
judges have been commonly observed and known,
have established a body of law . , . and, as
I said, it is become not unlike ours, a sort of Corn-
inon Law." Without, however, wishing to depre-
r-iatc the wisdom of the ancestors of our aovient
ns awake. It will
Allies, or to question their utility for the purpdos
above alluded to, as there may be some difficulty in
obtaining a Turkish Law Library, our
he Belgians, may perhaps find the Laws of England
We do not mean
luite sufficient for the purpose.
to say that they ought uniformly to foilllow
.ourdecsc
een fo owe ntfis
epposite to that which has b
end themselves in
r!ountry : but whenever they fo
the same track with the English lawyers, neighbours,
they ought
at all events to have their
singular if they discover a single fraction which
has directly for its theobjectht good of the public.
If the Spartans were taught to
love sobriety by the
-pectacle of drunker!,_,, 83
.the spectacle of a
ration, like the .1!g.11". submitting to the most
the" in every
.nonstrous abonidepartment of law,
cannot be without its use. In every sense the ex-
• is valuable.
perience One of the most valuable
derived, is lessons to be
e our cue of the. ease with which man accommo-
-lates himself in time to the grossest abuses, habit
suspicto
eecoming, as it were, a second nature. But if the
Belgians would benefit by a study of our laws, we
cannot help thinking that our Legislators might bene,-
it also riot a little by looking elsewhere for examples
their embarrassments. We observed in the Bir-
flingliam papers lately, the Resolutions of a General
Quarter Sessions for the county of Warwick, in
which it was stated, " That one of the chief causes
if the increase of crime h tsougliout the kingdom, is
he treating of the boy of tender age for a first of.
:nice, and that of a trifling nature, in the same man-
ner as the most hardened offender for offences of
treater turpitude; and by thus making no distinc-
ion between the two, all hope of amendment is cut
,ff in the juvenile delinquent, by deadening, at the
artiest age, all those feelings of shame and corn-
„Action which are the best ground-works of reform
.nd amendment. That if some plan could be adopted
y which juvenile offenders could, for their first of-
-
,ince, be proceeded against in u summary manner
vithout undergoing injurious imprisonment and the