The Sun.
London, England, 1827-07-20 00:00:00

error in one of the charges, we insert the follow-

ing passage
There is,one fact with regard to swearing, which is a
curious one. In what way could the case have been treated
by your Lordship's predecessor, Lord Thorlow, who was
not enly more addicted to swearing than any other man
almost that ever existed, but who lived in constant and no •
torious adultery? He might have acted as your Lordship
has ; but, at least; it would have been a curious circum-
stance to have heard him reprobate and punish a suitor,
for the very vices of which he himself was guilty ! How-
ever, against this suspicious testimony of Bulkeley, South-
cote, and O'Meara, I have to produce the evidence of my
own letters to my children and their tutor; not written
with the least idea that such a process as the present would
have been instituted, but written under the anxious feeling
and desire that they should attend to their studies ; and not
only to be good classical scholars, but that they should hold
deceit and falsehood in the greatest abhorrence. "Every
line of that correspondence proves my wish that they should
be men of good-breeding and taste. I entreat my eldest son,
in one of these team, to aim at being ' the card and calen-
dar of gentry.' I desire Mr. Pittman, to prevent them, by
all means, from a fondness for low society. I encourage
them in field sports, which, whilst they contribute to health
and exercise, will give them a disgust to the resources for
amusement to which so many young men have had recourse
—a gaming-house or a brothel."
The conclusion of the work is somewhat
striking in the same way :
" I feel perfectly satisfied that no person in the kingdom,
nay, that no woman with the feelings of a mother, would
ever lend her sanction to the doctrine laid down by your
Lordship, that a father, in the event of his surviving his
wife, is to be held incapable of being intrusted with the
care and management of the offspring of their marriage, if
it shall be discovered after her death, by any of her rela-
tions, who may have an interest in raising the question,
that that father has, during her lifetime, been guilty of in..
fidelity to her.
" Your Lordship knows that such a doctrine, if made a
ground for disqualifying a father from having the custody
of his own children, will, in several well-known cases,
endanger the parental rights and privilegiS of some of the
first men in the kingdom."
The correspondence between Mr. Wellesley
and the Duke of Wellington, respecting the
guardianship of the children, we have given in
nii,,tiier part of the paper.— Times.
Chief Justice Best adds, we see, to his other
accompliJiments, that of a prophet. "He was
(he said yesterday in the case of Robinson v.
Stanbridge) ()lie of those old-fashioned politicians
who were now called illiberal ; but he feared the
day would come when those illiberal opinions
would be proved to be founded in truth, and
when; by the operation of those principles of
trade that were now erroneously called liberal;
we should be found to have descended from that
splendid situation to which, by our old honest
plan of commercial dealing, we had raised our-
selves."—We see the theory of this learned
Theban is, that men can raise the price of com-
modities by gambling. Why did he withhold
this great truth from the nation a year ago, when
our manufacturers and their starving workmen
buffered so severely from low prices ?—Morning
Chronicle.

THE WHlGs.—Whatever our history has
hitherto presented of political meanness, of base
IStifiling, and 'of unprincipled acquiescence, for
the purpose of obtaining power—all is far in-
deed exceeded by the late conduct of the Whigs,
in regard to the unprincipled and unnatural coali-
tion which Mr. Canning, for purposes the most
unworthy, has thought proper to form with
them. It not probable that the public will
ever become fully acquainted with the whole
system of trickery and concealment which led to
the late changes ;—neither, indeed, is it desira-
ble that they should be known ; for men of
another generation might in that case turn the
precedent to account, and, disregarding the gui-
dance of honour and principle, be disposed to
content themselves with the triumphs of knavery.
NOw, however, that the thing is pretended to
have been brought to a close, it is amusing to
look back a little, and to observe the huckster-
irts dexterity with which Mr. Tierney, from
xirpe to time, pressed his questions relative to
Ole formation of a Government on the present
Chaoallor of the Exchequer, and the " re-
luctant 3morous delay"-'with which the Right
Honourable Gentleman avoided any thing
like a satisfactory or positive answer. "We
take cunning (says Lord Bacon) to be a
sinister or crooked wisdom, and certainly
there is a great difference between a cunning
man, and a wise man. And because these
cunning men are like haberdashers of small wares,
it is not amiss to set forth their shop." He ac-
cordingly proceeds to a detail- of some of the
petty wiles in which this class of persons deal.
There is one which strongly called to our recol-
lection the little, facetious dexterity of Mr.
Tierney in the House of Commons, when he
said there was a report abroad, he knew not
whether true or false, that seven of the Minis-
ters had ran away, and no person 'could tell
whether they were to return or not. He well
knew at the time all that could be known about

it ; but he is a cunning man, and, according to
sacon, the following must of course be an article-
his shop of small wares—" In things that a
dd not be seen in himself, it is a point
man wo7
to borrow the name of the world; as
of cunning
or, there is speech
to say, the I,voild says,
abroad.' " When ~01 call to mind the account
given by the Premier of the celebrated interview
in the chamber of his Sovereign, it is impossible
not to be forcibly struck by an article in the
cunning man's assortment o' ticks. " Some
(says the great philosophers) procure themselves
to be surprised at such times as it is likely the
party that they work upon will suddenly come
upon them, and be found with a letter in their
hand, or doing somewhat which they are not ac-
customed, to the end they may be opposed of
these things which, of themselves, they are
desirous to utter." One would suppose our
slithor had foreseen more than two centuries
baek the exact circumstances that were to take
*lace in 1827. " But (he continues) these
,sill wares and petty points of cunning are in-
, nite, and it were a good deed to make a list of
them ; for that nothing doth more hurt in a State
than that cunning men pass for wise." It is
perfectly clear that, five or six years before the
late events, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had
the
commenced making sly
approachesforms
-Whigs. Contrary to the usual oftowards the
House, it became customary with film, ,and some
others who still retain their places, to address
their pOlitical opponents as honourable friends.
We are far from condemning a proper inter-
change of civilities in public or private ; neither
do we think that political difference is a just
ground for personal hostility, unless perhaps such
a degree of difference as existed in the mind pf
Burke between him and his party, when be con-
scientiously thought that the tendency of their
measures was, to let loose upon society all the
horrors of anarchy and murder. But this bandy-
ing of endearments from one side to the other,
had not we believe been usual in the House of
Commons. The first occasion on which it
struck us as somewhat remarkable was not long
after the death of her Majesty Queen Caroline.
The part taken by Sir R. Wilson, in the cala-
mitous scenes which accompanied her funeral,
is sufficiently notorious. He was in 'conse-
quence deprived of military rank, but John Bull,
as usual, was gulled into a subscription, and Sir

111 t.

Robert was indemnified by 10,0001. for his loss
of honours. It was soon after this, we do not

however recollect the precise time, that Mr. Can-
ning, in addressing Sir Robert Wilson, • used
these words, " Whom no forms of this House
shall prevent me from calling my Honourable
and Gallant Friend." We do confess that, at

the time there appeared to us something manly
and generous in pouring this drop of balsam on
the sores of the degraded soldier. That impres-
sion long remained ; but unfortunately late events
have taught us to account for this superabundant
civility upon a different principle, and for that
principle we are indebted to the same great
authority to which we have more than once re-
ferred. " The even carriage (says Lord Bacon,
in his " Essay on Faction"), between two
factions proceedeth not always of moderation,
but of a trueness to man's self, with end to make
use of both. Certainly, in Italy, they hold it a
little suspect in Popes, when they have often in
their mouth, Padre Commune, and take it to
be a sign of one that meaneth to refer all to the
greatness of his own house." We shall he dis-
posed in future to look with as much suspicion
upon the undistinguishing use of the words
" Honourable Friend," as the Italians did upon
Padre Commune. The habit of employing
them, without reference to political difference,
soon became general, until at length the party
who were endeavouring, by fawning and ac-
quiescence, to sneak into power, obtained the
very appropriate title of his Majesty's Opposition.
The Whigs tell us, that in accepting place they
made no compromise, and gave up no opinions ;
that on the subject of Reform, Catholic Eman-
cipation, Retrenchment, and Sinecures, they still
continue unaltered. We entertain serious doubts,

whether upon any one of these questidns, or in-
deed upon almost any question, the great body
of the Whigs was ever sincere. They were very
naturally selected by disappointed men as popu-
lar topics for excitement and declamation, but
were, we feel confident, as often the subject of
merriment in private, as they were of noisy,
factious discussion in public. Mr. Moore, in
his Life of Sheridan, gives a proof of this, so
far as Parliamentary Reform is concerned ; for it
would appear that, with Sheridan, and others of
the leading Whigs, Reform had become mere
matter of ridicule. The man who is sincerely
devoted to some political object, though it may
be wild, or even wicked, and who pursues that
object with the zeal of deep conviction, however
great the evils which may attend his career, ap-
pears to us far a higher character that►
those paltry declaimers among the Whigs,
and they are not few, who, while load in
public in support of some point, can in private
make a jest of their own hypocritical ardour.
Such men are far more fit to do the

business of a puppet show than of a nation. It
is mere trifling to say they have given up no
opinion. The point is this—have they not
placed themselves in a situation in whicli they
cannot, and dare not, boldly and manfully, bring
forward these questions with which their political
existence was supposed to be connected. Is it
not clear that a great part of their time, instead
of being devoted to the duties of the situations
they now fill, must be employed in paltry tricks,
and degrading negotiation for the purpose of
postponing what they must appear anxious to
bring forward, and of defeating what they had
pledged themselves to support. We had a nota-
ble Instance of this towards the close of the Ses-
_

mon, when Mr. Hume brought forward his mo
tion relative to what used to be called the " two

penny trash." Sir H. Wilson, as an adherer
to the new order of things, endeavoured to pre
vail on the hard-headed Scotchman to put off
his motion, but it would not do. The matter
was argued in a thin house ; gut certainly never
did we see human being, Whig or Tory, in a
more pitiable and ludicrous situation, than was
MS Majesty's Attorney-General upon that occa-
sion ; for he was so circumstanced that he,must
support with all the weight of official authority,
one of the very Six Acts which he had previ-
ously reprobated with more than the vehemence
of an Advocate. The First Lord of the Tre-
stay endeavoured to prop up the Attorney-Ge-
neral, and his defence amounted to this—That,
in office, the Hon. and Learned Gentleman
was perfectly justifiable in supporting opinions
diametrically opposite to those for which he
contended while out of office. People may
disavow in theory the doctrine of the Jesuits,
but it would appear that, practically, it is still in
full force. Scenes of this kind must of neces-
sity, frequently occur when two parties form a
coalition whose views of public good have for
many years been as far asunder as the poles.
How is Sir F. Burdett to demean himself in
his new position I' It was but the other day
that nothing short of Annual Parliaments and
Universal Suffrage would answer his purpose ;
now, however, to use his own words, he is mo-
destly content to get all he can, if he cannot get
all he, wishes. " The flaming Patriot who so
lately scorched us in the meridian, shines tempe-
rately to the West, and is hardly felt as he goes
down.—Moning Post.
Whether any Court ought to 'possess the
power of coming between a father and his child-
ren is a question which we think it unnecessary
to discuss. The duty of children to their pa-
rents is the foundation, as it was the model, of
'all social government. But as, in the case of
the State, the conduct of the government may
be such as to justify its subjects not only to aban-
don its protection, but to resist its power, so, in
the case of families, however valuable be the ge-
neral rule, that parents should not be disturbed
in the management of their offspring, the con-
duct of the former may be such as to render it a
duty of the latter to leave them. If children,
when capable of acting for themselves, may, with
propriety, quit their natural protectors, they may
unquestionably be taken from them before that
time arrive, if a case be made out to justify such
a procedure. In a civilised country this interpo-
sition can only take place by the authority of
some Court, and why the Court of Chancery is
not as good for the purpose as any other, it
would be difficult to show. All that can
be asked in g4ch cases is, that the physical or
moral incapacity of the natural guardian should
be fully made out. It is, indeed, a difficult, if'
riot impossible task, to make this appear to the
guardian himself; and, therefore, we are not at
all surprised that Mr. Wellesley, whose two let-
ter-a to Lord Eldon, just published, have led to
these remarks, should be dissatisfied with the late
decision of his Lordship, We should have won-
dered much more had the case been otherwise.
We may succeed in convincing a man of an error
of the head, but there is no human logic yet in-
vented, by which we shall convince him of an
error of the heart. The old adage, " Quern deus
vult perdere Arius dementat," holds peculiarly
true in respect of those who have once entered
on a career of vice. The confusion of all ideas of
right and wrong, which persons in such a situation
very speedily exhibit—the moral madness with
which they are seized—renders them as much

objects of pity as of censure. What can we say
to a man, like Mr. Wellesley, who, having been

lead by headstrong passions to .the commission
of a gross vice, has not only succeeded in persuad-
ing himself, but would endeavoim to persuade
others, that he should be acting " like a scoun-
drel" were he to abandon the practice of it ?
Who can coolly talk of his connec'lion with
another man's wife as an intercourse " of the
most unobtrusive kind ?" We have our doubts

whether such a person can be considered as a
legitimate subject of moral discipline. The dis-
closure on the trial before the Lord Chancellor

excited, we believe, but one feeling thrOughout
the country. For his own sake, and more for
the sake of his Noble Uncles, we most deeply

regret that Mr. Wellesley should not have rested
content with the scandalous notoriety which these
disclosures bestowed on his unobtrusive inter-

course with the lady of Capt. Bligh. Of all
the plans to which a mischievous friend or a
mistaken judgment could have prompted him, an
attempt to wm over the public sympathy by
panegyrics on his living mistress, and libels on
his dead wife, was the most unlikely to succeed.
Of the late Mrs. Wellesley we pretend to
no knowledge ; but the concurring test►mony of
all who knew her represent her as a most amiable
woman, nor, till the publication of the correspon-
dence which we have_ elsewhere inserted, have

we ever heard of her being an uneducated one.
Yet of this lady, on whom he had inflicted such
deep injuries, does Mr. Wellesley not scruple
to say that one of the duties of a waiting-maid
she kept was to correct the errors of her letters.
We wonder, to speak of no higher considera-
tion, that good taste did not induce Mr. Wel-
lesley to suppress such an anecdote. If true, in
what a pitiful light does it exhibit himself? We
are ready to admit, that neither man nor woman,
for one offence, nor, perhaps, even for a series
of offences, unless they are thrust upon the pub-
lic attention, is a fair object of public ridicule or
scorn. We would not justify the dragging
from her obscurity, whether of vicious indul-
gence, or virtuous repentance, even Mrs. Bligh.
But should Mr. Wellesley, of all men, com-
plain of attacks on her conduct and charac-
ter ? Who provoked them ? Who continues to
proioke them ? Mr. Wellesley talks of his mis-

tress as a lady " whose name -lias been indecently
mentioned ;" as one " who has been much ca-
lumniated " who has been assailed with every
species of insult which malice could invent."—
She is, he says, in one place, " a woman of pe-
culiarly distinguished manners, whose accom-
plishments are of the first order ;" and in another
" she is distinguished by the refinement of her
manners, and the superiority of her mental ac-
complishments" ! But, however -unadvised we
may think 'Mr. Wellesley's mention of the late
Mrs. Wellesley, or of the present Mrs. Bligh, we
consider his attack on the venerable Lord Eldon
as far less excusable. No man ever laboured
more intently nor more faithfully to judge just
judgment than that upright and excellent No-
bleman, and to Mr. Wellesley's case especially,
he gave the most earnest and painful attention.—
His anxiety to hear every thing that ingenuity
could bring forward on either side, and which
sometimes verged upon weakness, was, in that
case, peculiarly favourable to Mr. Wellesley.—
, It left him not only. a locus but a tempus
peni-
tentid. if ever a Judge might 'have expected
gratitude from both sides Lord Eldon had a
right to expect it. And how does Mr. Welles-
ley reply to his care ? By telling him that he is
in his dotage, and that his decision on that oc-
casion is a proof of it.
" The moles and bats in full assembly joined,
Unite to find the keen-eyed eagle blind."
There is one point on which we are willing to
give Mr. Wellesley every credit. His pecuniary
embarrassments he shews, and we believe, very

truly, to have had their origin in no criminal
conduct, and his personal honour we have never
heard impeached. What we have said has been
more in sorrow than in anger. Most sincerely
do we wish, for the sake of the honourable name
that he bears, that he had nursed his griefs in
secret, and not given another laugh to his ene-
mies, and another sigh to his friends, by writing
them in a book.—Nezv Times.
The total defeat of justice in the case of Sheen,
will have a very injurious effect on the vicious
and ignorant classes of society. They will be
led to think that criminal justice is only a lottery,
in which the most desperate villain that ever out-
raged the laws of God and man has a chance of
drawing a prize. This is the consequence of that
barbarous attachment to technical points, in con-
tradistinction to the substance of justice, which
is the great disgrace of our English law. It is
right as well as merciful, that where evidence
admits of any reasonable doubt, the advantage of
that doubt should be given to the accused, but in
cases where no no human mind can entertain
even the shadow of a doubt as to the guilt of the
prisoner, it is a grievous thing to see the whole
course of justice turned aside by an objection
that with respect to the merits of the case, is not
'worth a straw. In the case to which we now
allude, the technical objection was first started
by one of the twelve Judges, it being .
Justice Holroyd, who, on the former trial at
the Old Bailey, pointed out the formal defect in the
indictment, of which the prisoner's Counsel, of
course, took advantage. Now a state of the
law
which enables a Judge to save from the grasp, of
justice a criminal like Sheen, cries loudly for re-
formation. The Learned Judge, no doubt, felt
it his duty to act as lie did under the existing
state of the law—and, 'therefore, it is the more
necessary that so painful a duty should not be
placed upon Judges as, in this instance, one of
the ablest and most conscientious lawyers on the
Bench thought it imperative on him to exercise,
lest a culprit,however atrocious his crime, should
suffer by an illegal conviction. It
is worth
observing, that although this man was not tried
under Mr. Peel's Act, yet the very same result
would have happened under his improved criminal
legislation ; this shows how much is yet to be
done before the criminal law of England can be
considered worthy of a people who boast of their
morality and common-sense.—Morning Herald.