The Sun.
London, England, 1828-04-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Whilst the Corn Bill is in suspension, and
nothing is decided, we cannot help pressing the
subject upon the nation., The present, we are
convinced, is the time at which a great measure
might be effected without 'detriment to the corn•
grower, and tolhe infinite inteinalhappiness and
political aggrandizement 'of the • country. The
corn trade might' noes' be thrown open like any
others subject • only to aiieli,iiiiposts as Goaern-
ment should think- adVisable for the exclUsive
purpose of revenue;' which imposts, so far as
they yielded any returns, would operate a relief
to the people in other points where pressure
existed, and leave them more free to exert their
productive energies. The principle and practice
of prohibitory duties, for the sake of 'protection,
might now, we say, for ever be laid aside ; for,
in point of fact, -the farmer neither has, nor can
he made to have, any protection at the present mo-
ment. It would be good, therefore, to start from
this point, where legislation is unavoidably and of
itself in abeyance, where it effects nothing, and
where things are in their natural state, in spite
of the busy and foolish application of artificial
schemes and -measures. We appeal to facts in
confirmation of -our opinion. • It appears from
to the Levant.
official returns transmitted by his Majesty's Cora
, notwithstand-
ing at the several ports of Europe, that wheat
has been much dearer throughout the south of
oovfetraterpolartst
Europe during the last year than in this country.
wheat was at 655. the quarter ; whilst in &sea
land it was only 50s. 10d. In December it had
risen to 725.• at Marseilles, whilst it was still
jAngt MthaersepilrloesxiiiiniitNy
stationary here at 50s. 10d. At Lisbon wheat
has been frequently, during the last year, at
795. and V. , In the south of Spain, at about.
70s, 'Now, we do -earnestly entreat Govern-
ment, and the agricultural interest as it is called,
to consider what would have resulted from the
preceding facts, if other nations had not acted
upon our detestable and jealous principle of pro-
hibitory duties and exclusion ? Why, that we
should have been an exporting country during the
whole of last year to the south of Europe ; and
net only should we have exported, but we should
likewise have become carriers. The advantage
,to that interest which we have abovenamed would
have been considerable (though we know it has
had no reason to complain), and commerce of
every kind would have been enlivened in an in-
credible degree ! But not only, we maintain,
would the farming interest have been much be.
nefitted, but the consumers in England ‘aca'l,
not have suffered. In the preceding statements
we have taken no account of the Pa'lces at Ham-
burgh, nor at Dantzic, and the other ports of the
Baltic ; but most une,':,estionably they were
lower than in this coraitry. Wheat, therefore, as
hada vent from hence to'the south, mighthave come
hither from the north, and our ports on the_east-
ern coast of the island would in that case have
become great entrepots; a considerable revenue
still resulting (and still easing other pressures)
from import and warehouse duties. We assert,
therefore, without the fear of rational contradic-
tion, that the mischief exceeds calculation, which
has been inflicted on the. agricultural interest of
this country, and on all England, during the last.
,year, by the want of a free traffic in grain; to
which free traffic our own narrow, selfish, and
unwise policy had been, and still is, the chief
obstacle. And that the free traffic being once,
as it now might be, beneficially established
in grain, the demand for our manufactures
would increase, and all the outlets of Bri
tish skill and industry be infinitely widened and
multiplied. But there is a farther reason, and
that founded also on the existing state and earn-
dition of the country, why the principle of a free
traffic in grain should now at once be laid down,
and to a certain degree. adopted into practice :
for we observe, and not without satisfaction, that
though the small notes have now in a great
degree retired from circulation, and though the
bill by which they are to be totally extingaished
has not a year to run, yet that " markets," to
use a familiar phrase, " look up." Horse-feed
of every kind, indeed, is remarkably cheap :
oats of good quality at about 255., and hay at-
-41. the load. But by this cheapness, the landed
interest are more gainers than losers, being tit
chief consumers. 'Whilst wheat is up at from
635. to 655.: it has passed the pivot price. A
poor family of agricultural labourers would last
Saturday or Sunday morning, find 3d. added to
the cost of each peck of meal they could buy for
their weekly nutriment, If this increase goes oii
much misery, even on the approach su
mmer,
will summer.
will be indicted on the labouring poor. If it
were to be stopped, which we doubt, by opening
the ports freely, the price could but be where it
has been during the last winter, and that we
know would occasion no great evil to the landed
interest, Put we wily state why the price of
gain could not featlyg decline here, even
a
if the foreign produce (which we do not.
desire) were to be admitted wholly duty free:
for the foreigner can but have his stock on hand
for exportation z he cannot suddenly create
on the instant, or in a week or in a month, an
article to meet the demand, even—which we
much doubt—if any demand were made. Nay,
farther, not only can he have but his stock on
hand at present, he has committed his seed to
the earth for the harvest of next autumn : he
has committed it on the expectation of probilii-.
tive duties on the part of England ! He eann.ota
by any human means, increase the forthetrang
crop ! So that it is impossible that he can be
a
prepared to answer any increasing demand fron
us, even if his artkle were admitted duty .free,
till after the ha/vest of 1829, above a year anti
a half from the present time ! What, aim,
have we to fear from as free a trade in grain or
every kind, as in the productions of human. in-
dustry? Nothina. ss: nothing Whatever ! Igno-
ranceof buba-be'ar • s
is apprehensive , as children
shudder in the dark : and we are sure that a
statesman of a raanlY mind, and of any vigour o;
intellect, would at once establish the principle:of
a free trade in grain, without which a free trade
in other articles, will prove defective and, nuga-
tory. It is proper
e) also to add, that harl• is up
in price, and is rising still. Even after the 'de-
mand for seed-barley has ceased, the price of
fine barleys exceeds 40s. The obvious ineffi-
ciency of the proposed Corn Bill has occasioned
this and the oilier
rase. Stay the evil, we say,
stay it, or it ti` i}l
sinkdeep.—Times.
We have received the letters written to Lord
Tenterden and Mr, Peel by one of the Jurymen
who convicted Catherine Welch, the wretched
woman who was executed yesterday morning.
He says, that he and the other Jurymen would
not have found her guilty except on the per-
suasion that their recommendation to mercy
would have saved the life of the culprit. He
admits, however, that the only ground of recoma
mending her tsarstereyaaas the circumstantial nd-
ture of the evidence..? Ha and..his. colleagues!
seem to have entertained aut
.erronetnis ase.tion of
their flinctiens. The a.,irctinistarstial nature • of

the evidence might—and if there was any rea-
sonable doubt, ought to—have induced the
Jury to acquit the prisoner; but when? on the
whole view of the case, the jury deliver a solemn
verdict of guilty, the Court is bound to take the
guilt as proved. Circumstances of mitigation
may then be urged by the jury as reasons for
mercy ; but no such circumstances were stated.
The only reason stated was one which, if ad-
mitted, would not only have stultified the jury,
but would have implied that their verdict was
false. It may be some consolation to the jury-
men in this case to know that the miserable wo-
man fully confessed her crime. We would add,
as a general suggestion, that itis the sacred duty
of a juryman never to consent to a verdict of
guilty, unless he is thoroughly convinced of the
guilt of the party tried. lie is not to calculate
upon the chances of mercy, nor to compromise
with his conscience from a vague hope that
others may relieve him from the consequences of
his own act. If guilt is proved, the juryman
must unflinchingly convict : if there is a reason-
able doubt, the prisoner should have the benefit
of that doubt. Such is the humane and equita-
ble principle of English law,—a principle which
has been for ages, and is still, constantly laid
down by every Judge conducting a criminal trial.
—lbid.

The interest which the Select Vestry system
eicites just now is greater than any subject of a
domestic nature has called forth for a long time.
,scarcely a parish in the metropolis, which la-
bours under this standing nuisance, but is crying
out against, and pointing out its abuses. The
evil and the remedy present. we admit, to a cer-
tain degree, a choice of evils. On the one hand
we have the self•elective system, which is one of
unquestionable mischief, both in theory and
practice ; and, on the other, a recourse to popu-
lar election, which may lead to muc disturbance
and abuse ; above all, in giving (clamorous
demagogues that distinction wh' 1 real merit j
will, under such circumstanct,N, oftener rather
4niii than aspire to. We canto* help thinking
however, that the Legislature might take some
middle course upon the subject, and get rid of
the present evil without substituting that of the
opposite description. We take it for granted,
that parochial affairs can only be managed by a
limited number of persons, and that, call them
a Vestry, a Committee, or what you will, it is
as vain to expect that the affairs of large pa-
rishes can be carried on by the parishioners
en masse, as that those of the nation could be
conducted without a Government or Parliament.
It has often stri:f!k_us that, to avoid, on the one
hand, the manifest evils of self-election, and, on
the other, the clamorous overwhelming nature
of public voting, a method for the election of
those bodies might he resorted to similar to that
used in ballotting for the militia, viz. that -the
names of all those who are qualified, or willing
to serve, should be put into a bag, and drawn
out indiscriminately, and so replenished, either
annually, or as vacancies may occur. Such a
mode of selection, with proper guards against
interest and jobbing of all kinds, would, we think,
~;iire the evil of the present system more effec-
ually than any which has been yet suggested ;
and as such we press it with confidence upon
the consideration of all those who are engaged
in the wholesome and necessary task of correct-
ing the most corrupt and abominable means by
which power was ever acquired or abused in a
i;ee country.—Morning Herald.

In a work recently published, which forms a
valuable addition to our Constitutional literature,
the " Diary of Thomas Burton, Esq.,
lllrem-
her in the' Parliament of Oliver and Richard
Cronzwell,:trom 16.56 to 1659, now first pub-
lished," we find the Master of the Rolls, on
the 19th December, 1656, urging against a Bill,
brought in by Major-General Whalley, for tke
dividing of commons, that it gave power to Jus-
tices of Peace. " Time was (said this Judge)
when I durst hardly have trusted the Justice of
Peace with determining of a cow's grass:—
We have a counterpart to this character of our
" glorious Great Unpaid," in a Report in the
Dublin Freeman's Journal, of Tuesday, April
gl., The first ease at the Clonmel Assizes, on
the Thursday preceding, was that of Daniel
Cleeson, for stealing a clock. The prisoner
was acquitted by order of the Judge, the :case
appearing solely one of common assault. On
this occasion Judge Moore remarked, " that
ibis was a case which ought not to have been
"cut there at all. The case did not even
amount to petty larceny; and yet, upon this
trivial case, there was a long detention of the
prisoner and a great waste of public money. It
was greatly to be wished that the mag,istrates had
some discrimination. If any sagacity were ex-
ercised, it must be immediately seen, that such
a case as this should never have been sent to the
}!...ssizes. But magistrates tumbled every thing
into the Assizes; they crammed the gaols full,
and then they had the whole Empire talking of
the magnitude of crime in Tipperary, when one-
,/,ird of the prisoners were generally turned
out without there being any causefor their pro-
.secution." Admirable economy, this gratuitous
administration of justice ! One-third only of
the prisoners committed without any reason, be-
,eause the Justices are unable to exercise any dis-
crimination ; so to make sure of the matter, they
throw all into prison ! A great waste of public
money, says the Judge, in the long detention of
the prisoner ! 13..ufry then the Justiceofthe Peace
commits for nothing.
And a man's health, his
honour, the sufferings, perhaps ruin of his family,
t 4
in consequence of his long de ration in prison,
way adminater Justice
are nothing ! Any man
in England and Ireland, just as any 10=1 can
make clothes in the Highlands of Scotland. It is
true, in this part of the empire we do
not employ men to make shoes and breeches
who have not been taught to make them,
:and it might be dangerous t• trust the
decision of a cow's grass to nineteen orut of
twenty of the Justices of Peace of either island ;
Lilt we, can place the liberty and honour of the
people with confidence in their hands. In the
history of British India, we are told that Sir
writing, .as Chairman of
Josiah Child, when
the Court of Directors, to the Governor of
Bombay, who had demurred to act in a certain
manner, as it was contrary to the Laws of "
that he expected Eng-
land, said angrily, hia orders
orders were to be his rules, and not the Laws of
.England, which were
a heap of nonsense, com-
piled by a few ignorant country gentlemen,
who
:hardly knew how to make laws for the good of
their own private families, much less for the regul
ating Of Companies and Foreign Commerce."
Now as, notwithstanding very bad laws, and
a very odd description of Legislators, to say
nothing of our gratuitous administrators of
the laws, the country has, during the last
two centuries, made rapid strides in im preve-
nient ; we have been sometimes tempted to wish
the experiment were made, how far a Society
could thrive without laws at all. As far as we
are able to see, the common interest of a neigh-

bourhood, in the defence of property and repel-
ling violence, would be a more efficacious re-
straint on evil-doers than unintelligible laws, ad-
ministered in one stage by Magistrates appointed
at hap-hazard, without even the condition of
previous study, and in another by men, who
make it their study to afford to guilt all manner
of facilities for escape. In the United States,
where the laws of England are retained, variously
mollified in the different States, we find that the
people in the back settlements allow the Judges
and Lawyers to officiate for form sake, but make
it a point to try prisoners over again in their own
way. In Mr. Faux's " Memorable Days in
America," published in 1823, there are several
curious instances of this confidence of the people
in themselves, and want of confidence in the
law. " Two years ago (1819)," he says, " a
young Yankee, of the name of Williams, be-
came the object of a malicious prosecution here,
on suspicion of robbing a store. Circumstantial
evidence of the worst kind only could be ad-
duced, and he was, as is common in the country,
acquitted. The people of the place, however,
prejudiced against him as a Yankee, deputed
four persons to inform him, that unless he
quitted the town and State immediately, he should
receive Lynch's law—that is, a whipping in the
woods. He departed with his wife and child
next day, on foot ; but in the woods four miles
from Princeton, they were overtaken by two men
armed with guns, dogs, and a whip, who said
they came to whip him, unless he would confess,
and discover to them the stolen money, so that
they might have it. He vainly expostulated
with them ; but in consideration of his wife's
entreaties and cries, they remitted his sentence to
thirteen lashes. One man then bound him to a
tree, and lashed him with a cow-hide whip, while
the other held and gagged him, the alarmed wife
all the time shrieking murder.' He was then
untied, and told to depart from the State imme-
diately, or he should receive another whipping
on the morrow, &c."—" During the last conver•
sation, I passed in the forest the lone grave of
an unfortunate stranger and traveller. A ridge
of logs, or trees, was laid over it, to mark the
spot where he died and was buried. He was
found dead, with a gold watch in his pocket, and
his horse grazing at a short distance from him ;
both horse and rider were of elegant appearance.
He had been robbed of 3,000 dollars, and from
some unknown hand had received a rifle ball,
which entered the back of his head, and came

through and out between his eyes ; he evidently
never saw the hand which fired, nor felt the ball.
A fellow living -near, who was seen to follow
the traveller with a rifle, was suspected, appre-
hended, and tried for the murder ; but as
nothing, save circumstantial evidence, could t,e
produced against him, he was acquitted. Public
opinion, however, condemned him, and unmer-
cifully pulled down his house about his ears,
which we passed in ruins ; and he accordingly
fled, blackened and blasted, to another distant
refuge in the wilderness." Under this law of
vicinage, which is more powerful than the law
of the land, and tinder which, no doubt, suspi-
cion is too often proof, society makes rapid ad-
vances. In all the hooks illustrative of the do-
mestic state of England, from the earliest times
to the present day, there is evidence of the people
being, in a great measure, left to their own re-
sources,
from the utter • worthlessness of the law,
and the total absence of-the police. In a work
on Agriculture, on folio, by Worledge, first pub-
fished in 1681, we have a most instructive-chap-
ter on " Thieves and 11l Neighbours," -which
exhibits in a striking point of view the superio-
rity of a plain uncorrupted mind in point of
ability to form a sound judgment, over that of a
• mind trained in the quibbles of English law.
" The severe penalty of death (he says) being
the punishment for theft, is the principal cause of the
infinite increase of thieves: First, Because many
there are, who (if they know or have taken a thief)
will not indite nor prosecute him, because their con-
science will not admit of inflicting so severe a pu---
nishment for so small an offence; but will rather
hear the loss of their goods than seek another man's
life for it.

" Secondly, Some, if they take a thief, will ra.

tiler accept of their goods again, and satisfaction,
than prosecute him ; because in some cases they
Lose their goods and are also at the charge of pro-

secution.

" Thirdly, some will not prosecute common or-
dinary thieves, that live by stealing sheep, corn,
wood, poultry, swine, &c., and have families to main-
tain by this very trade, lest they (being part of the
parish), be bound afterwards to maintain their fami-
lies. And these are the conditions of many places
in England.
" Fourthly, When thieves are taken and prose-
cuted and come to their trial ; they being for their
lives, no evidence will, nor ought to be taken, but
what is very clear : And where it is so against one,
either through mistakes or wilful omissions, it is de-
ficient against five; by which means most of those
few that came to trial are found not guilty.
" Fifthly, When they are upon trial, and the evir
dence clear against him, either the jury are tender of
their neighbour's life, or else some good friend or
other appears, that it is found but petty larceny, or
else the thief has his clergy, or by some such shift
or means, or evasion he gets off ; so that it may be,
,as it often happens, a thief comes five or six times
to his trial, or at least to gaol, before he is hanged ;
during which time he grows more subtle, and edu-
cates many others in the same profession, and teach-
eth them all manner of ttick3 and devices, not only
to effect their intentions, but to avoid the punish-
ment.

" To remedy which were to make the penalty
more moderate, and without respect or favour to be
assuredly exeryted ; it would much lessen their
number."

The acute writer then enumerates the various
shifts to which persons are reduced for the de-
fence of their properties in the impotency of the
law. And truly we were not aware that so
many ingenious modes of setting guns and snares
for thieves"( were known ,at that period. The
thief had an easy time of it with the law, but not
so easy when he " walks and thinks not of it,
by stumbling at the wire, he falls on the spikes,
which give him such marks," &c. We believe
the murderous engines set in woods for the pre-
servation of game are all the invention of indivi-
duals to protect their property against thieves, in
consequence of the impotency of law, and the
want of police. The 'Squirarchy would not, a
hundred years ago, have dared to set murderous
engines in woods.—Morning Chronicle.

SHOCKING EFFECTS OF DRINKING.-0,
Swwlay night a young child, about fifteen weeks old,
whose parents reside in M'Alpine-street, and have been
long well known as dissipated characters, met with its
death through the shameful and highly culpable conduct of
its own mother, by whom it appeared literally to have bees
smothered while the wretched woman was in a state of in-
toxication. About teu o'clock that evening the neighbours
were greatly alarmed by the screaming of the infant, and,
on entering to ascertain the cause, the mother was found to
be the worse of liquor, and it was with considerable diffi-
culty she was persuaded to give the child some food to
prevent it ,from crying. From the situation in which the
little creature was afterwards found, it would appear that,
after placing it at her breast, upon the floor where she was
lying, that the mother leant upon it for some time with
the whole weight of her body, by which means it may be
:aid to have been cntshed to death...-. Glasgow Paper.

SECOND EDITION.

SUN OFFICE, Seven o' Clock,

THE LONDON GAZETTE

OF THIS EVENING.

Master of the Horse's Office, Pimlico, April 12.
The King has been pleased to constitute and appoint
E. H. Delme Radcliffe, Esq., to be his Majesty's Gentle-
man of the Horse.

War-Office, April 14, 1828.
Ist Regimeut of Dragoon Guards—Lientenant John
Spencer Manning to be Captain, by purchase, vice Quicke,
who retires. Dated April 3, 1828.
Cornet Charles Sergison Smith to be Lieutenant, by
purchase, vice Manning. April S.
Wadham Locke, Gent. to he Cornet, by purchase, vice
Smith, April 3.
19th Regiment of Foot—Ensign William Bernard to be
Lieut., without purchase, vice Atkins, deceased. Jan. 25.
George Landman, Gent. to be Ensign, vice Bernard.
April 3.

31st Ditto—Ensign George Francis White to be Lieu•
tenant, without purchase, vice Douglas deceased. April 3
To be Ensigns, without purchase.
Archibald Dickson, Gent. vice Primrose, promoted.—
April 2.

Thomas Conyngham Kelly, Gent. vice White. April 3.
63d Ditto—Adolphus Frederick Bond, Gent. to be
Ensign, without purchase, vice Prettijohn, deceased.
April 3.

54th Ditto—Ensign John Millis, from the 6Gth Foot,
to be Lieutenant, by purchase, vice Kennedy, prompted.
April 3.

66th Ditto—Captain Clopton Lewis Wingfield, from
the 95th Foot, to be Captain, vice Calcraft, who exchanges.
April 3.

Nicholas Dunscombe Lane, Gent, to be Ensign, by pur.
chase, vice Mellis, promoted in the 54th Regiment. April 3.
731 Ditto—William Henry Kenny, Gent. to be Ensign,
without purchase, vice Bamford, promoted. April 3.
95th Ditto—Captain Granby Hales Calcraft, from the
66th Foot, to be Captain, vice Wingfield, who exchanges.
April 3.

98th Ditto—Lieutenant Henry Eyre to be Captain, by
purchase, vice Baron, who retires. April 3.
Ensigh Thomas Maitland Edwards tw be Lieutenant, by
purchase, vice Eyre. April 3.
George Davies Blakistun, Gent. to be Ensign, by pur-
chase, vice Edwards. April 3.
2d West India Regiment--Ensign John Russell to be
Lieutenant, by purchase, vice Dickenson, appointed • Ad-
jutant. April 3.

James Finlay, Gent. to be Ensign, by purchase, vice
Russell. April 3.

STAFF.--Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Charles Fitzroy, from
the half-pay, to be Inspecting Field •Otscer of Militia in
the lonian Islands, vice Sir Charles Sutton, deceased.
April 3.