The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-06 00:00:00

LINES TO SIR, ROBERT PEEL.
(From the Sunday Times.)
_ _

[Occasioned by reading his exculpatory speech in defence
of Attorney-General Smith, and his announcement that, to
deter duellists, he had depriVed Lieutenant-Colonel Fawcett's
widow of her pension.]
What ! defend like a lawyer, a lawyer's transgressions—
What ! palliate all 'twas your place to condemn ;
With the orphan's appeal mix a counsel's confessions,
And, pardoning the latter, hurl vengeance on them !
Think the dead was the challeng'd one, forced by the fashion
Your own acts have.sanction'd* to answer the call;
That SMITH was the creature of petulant passion—
'Twas his chance to triumph, 'twas FAwcErr's to fall.
Go hence with ye—rest on the beautiful bosom
That pillows your head, and be calm if you can ;
Be one vision the last on your eyes as yOu close them—
That you've beggared a widow, whilst shielding a man.
Oh ! cast off the mire of political bias,
Your heart was ne'er doubted—go do thyself right ;
Remember the deed of the prophet Elias,t
Give the orphans their pittance, the widow her mite.
Oh ! bring your heart home to its holy affections,
Warm and fresh let the current of charity flow ;
Is it nobler to add to the widow's afflictions,
Or feel the full force of her husband-less woe ?
By your love for the beautiful woman you cherish,
By the life-blood that once in your mother's veins ran;
Oh drive not the widow, the orphan, to perish,
Though you act like a Minister, feel as a MAN !—L. R.
* Vide Peel's intended duel with O'Connell twenty-seven
years since.
"And the widow said, as the Lord thy God liveth I have
not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in
a cruise ; and behold I am gathering two sticks that I may
go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and
die.

" And Elijah said unto her, fear not. The barrel of meal
shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail."—lst Kings,
chap. 27.—Elijah and Elias are the same.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.

GLOBE.—Lord Worsley last night renewed his no-
tice of motion " for the appointment of a Select Commit-
tee to inquire into the mode of appointment, the duties,
and the present system of remunerating the clerks to jus-
tices at petty sessions in England and Wales, and to report •
the evidence and their opinion thereon to the House."
The lateness of the period at which his Lordship brought
this subject before the House of Commons last year,
induced him to postpone it to a future session. The
motion now stands for Tuesday, the 12th of March.
The present system which, we have reason to believe,
Lord Worsley will attempt to reform, is fraught with
evils which, but to state, is to ensure their condemna-
tion from all who are not personally interested in
their preservation from exposure to the public eye,
and eradication from the forms of justice. The first of
these evils belongs to the mode of remunerating the
clerks in petty sessions. This is at present by
fees upon summary convictions. A petty assault, or an
offence under the Wilful Damage Act, for which on con-
viction the magistrates deem a fine of sixpence, or a
shilling, sufficient punishment, is increased, in the ratio
of shillings to pence, by the " costs of conviction." With
a special reference to the subject of Lord Worsley's motion,
we have, from week to week, looked through the reports of
the proceedings in petty sessions, as given by the provincial
journals of several counties; and we state, as the result
of our investigation, that the general amount of costs, on
a summary conviction for a trifling offence, averages
twelve shillings ; while the average amount of fine
inflicted for such offences does not exceed a shilling—
in many instances the penalty was considera-
bly less. But, whether the fine were one shillingj
or twenty, the " costs" were the same ! This
system—now sought to be amended, if not al-'
together changed for one more just and equitable—isj
not less impolitic to the county rate-payers than it is)
manifestly oppressive to the poorer classes. The poor
labourer who, by ignorance or accident, becomes subject
to the fine of a shilling, would find the payment of
that sum sufficiently onerous—especially when the loss:
of his day's wages, occasioned by his attendance before
the justices for the hearing of his case, is added toj
the fine. But this he might pay. The privations of e
month might permit him to scrape together the amount(
of the penalty. We scarcely need remark, that he
must subject himself and family to severe privations td
enable him to do so out of his wages of 7s. or 8s
per week. But when the justice's clerk announce
the amount of costs; his poverty frequently preveat
him from attempting the arduous undertaking of pay
ment. The alternative is " a month," or " six weeks
imprisonment," in the county prison, in default of pay
ment—according as' the magistrates compute the pay,
ment of the penalty by a period of incarceration of the
person, where the emptiness of the purse precludes the
possibility of atoning for the shilling delinquency in any
other way. Then come the charges of the constable for
conveying the defaulter to gaol—his food and other
expenses therein—loss of his place of work, caused by
compulsory absence from his labour—the paruchi
assistance which his wife and family will probabl
require during his imprisonment ! Add to these t
contamination to which the man has been exposed 13.)r
associating with poachers and thieves in the prison-1-
the stigma which rests upon him, and the suspi-
cion with which he is regarded, and the consequent dis-
inclination to engage him as a workman by the farmers,
if he be an agricultural labourer, or by the tradesmep,
if he be a mechanic—for he has been the tenant of a
gaol !—and some of the effects of sending a poor man
to prison, to associate with those who are and ought to
be subjected to. suck restraint and punishment, in de-
fault of, payment of costs, will be seen. That the con-
sequences -of , doing so are here rather under than over
stated, is well knoihi by those who have had an oppor-
tunity of watching .the operations of the system in
the country generally, and especially in the agricultural
districts. What objection, then, can be brought against
paying the clerks to justices in petty sessions out of the
county rate?. Paying them by costs on summary coo-
victions subjects the ratepayers to a large increase by
the items we have enumerated, and by the consequencps
we have described in the above*summary.
STANDARD.—In the House of Lords,-.•last niglit,
Lord Brougham called the attention of the House and
of the public to a late trial and conviction of an indivi-
dual in the state of Louisiana (United States), fpr
aiding in the escape of a slave. For this offence the law of
Louisiana imposes the penalty of death, and the unhappy
convict has been ordered for execution on the 26th of neptt
month. The Noble and Learned Lord disclaimed any
purpose of interfering with the independent autho-
rity of the country in which this frightful and moist
disgusting tragedy is impending, or even of censuring
the laWs which lead to consequences so hideous ;
.his only object, he said, was to save the threatened
victim, if possible, by presenting to the people 'of
Louisiana the view which would be taken in Europe
of his destruction. Lord Brougham, in the part
he has taken, has acted with judgment and good taste,
worthy of his humanity. True, we as Englishmen have
no right to question the authority of an American qo-
vernment, or to censure its laws4whatever may be the pri-
vate opinion of each of us upon -those laws. But, as men,
we have a right to protest against an act of barbarous
inhumanity, wherever threatened, or wherever perpe-
trated. " Homo sum, et humani nihil a me alienum
puts," said the Heathen poet ; and as Christians 'we
owe a peremptory duty to exercise all the means that
lawfully we can to prevent the commission of an
atrocious crime. Now a strong and indignant
expression of opinion presents means within
our reach, and means which we are bonnd
to use ; and .to such an expression Lord
Brougham's notice summons the country, at least
summons the press, which reflects the public feeling.
Public opinion, according to Mr. Locke, possesses
an influence upon the actions of men more power-
ful than the sanctions of religion and of law,
and it is certainly more prompt than either in
the exercise of . its influence ; but there is, if ;we
may so speak, a public opinion of the conduct
of nations, as there is a public opinion of the acts of
individuals among nations ; and if the United States
will maintain a respectable character in the family
of civilised nations, they must respect , the
opinions which foreigners form of their pro-
ceedings. We readily imitate Lord Brougham's
wise example, in abstaining from all offensive
topics, while considering this particular mat-
ter; but we cannot help congratulating the nations
which have expelled the use of slavery upon their escape
from temptation to cruelty of the most terrible kind,
*which they owe to that expulsion—a temptation which
has unfortunately most force wherever the freemen
are most free. An indifference to the lives and hap-
piness of fellow creatures, is the blackest
stain upon the Roman character—a stain from which
the brightest names in Roman history are not free ; but
this had its origin in the use of slavery—for when men
are once made familiar with bloodshed in the murder of
slaves, they will soon redden their hands in the blood of
fellow-citizens. We will not ask whether this progress to
creel barbarism has taken place to any extent in the south-
ern and western States of . the American common-
wealth, because we would avoid every offensive-
allusion; but we point with pride to the freest
people in the world, and the' people who for
the longest period have been free in themselves,
and free from the contact of slavery—we point with
pride to the people of England, distinguished above
all other people on the face of the earth, by a horror
of bloodshed,- that we would think instinctive to the
Anglo-Saxon race did we not unhappily see that
some of that race, when thrown into the society
of slavery, have lost the glorious distinction.
Let us hope that Lord Brougham's notice will
have its desired effect, and that we shall not have to add
to the proofs of the degrading influence of slavery one
more odious, because proving a cruelty more deliberate
and more diffused than any we have yet witnessedifoo.

Great and romantic events never operate so fully
or at least so inspiringly, upon the generation which wit-
nesses them, as upon those which succeed, when fancy adds
her colouring to truth.—Foreign Review.

~~i
♦ J..E