The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP TI-IE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Chief Justice Best appeared on Friday lait at
Dorchester,' in the case of an action for libel h 2,
'one Lansing egainst the Sherbi;rne, Dorches-
ter and Tartntro Journal, in the amiable dm-
.racter of a Julge not encouraging a gratuitota.
persecution of the press. It is not so much by
any novelty of circumstance in which the learned
.Judge may have .placed himself on this occasion
that our notice has been invited, as by the real
dignity which belongs to the Bench, when we
see it recommending. a suspension of that war-
fare, or a , mixture,- however alight; of discern-
ment with that vengeance whiCh an erroneous
'construction-by the public, of some previous ex-
pressions of certain Judges, had no doubt con--
'tiilnited to excite and embitter against the whole
system of newspapers. This action has. been
brought against the above-named paper for hav-
ing (as we ourselves had clonea--innocentle
enough, God knows—in a former instance)
copied from another-paper, a statenient tat "'hick
the plaintiff took exception. In the'l.3kehestel
Case, the Bath and Cheltenham paper was the-
guilty party, (if miFiaike can be said to consti-
tute guilt.) Yet the innocent. copyist was, by
the plaintiff, venally marked out for punishment,
notwithstanding the mostprompt aria ample offers
of reparation had been conveyed to him the
moment the error was pointed out. The Jur', a
of course gave only a farthing daMages ; and .
Ct.-thing too much it was, inasmuch as the Judge
took time to consider whether he would or would
not certify, so as to save the defendant's costs.
In his charge, however, Lord Chief Justice Best
is
,reported--and, after a full inquiry, .we. believe
the report--to have said, " that he would be-al-
ways ready to piotect the press against actions,
not for fair redress, but for a compilation and
multiplication of costs." A promise like this
from Chief Juitice Best will be tt's hi,t,reeable and
cheering to the public, for whose sake alone the
press ought to be protected, as. it must be for-
midable to a certain class of attornies, who bring
actions in their. clients' names., with no other ob-
ject but " the compilation and multiplication of
costs." Since the Aare was written, we have
received our report of Saturday from the Dor-
chester Assizes, from which'it appears that the
Leatned Judge has certified for the Sherborne
Jour4vii.-1 imes.
The illness of Mr. Canning, however qualified
by the reports of his family and mediCal attend-
ants, has for the last tiro days been' sufficiently
serious to excite more extensive alarm among
generousand reflecting Men, than could have
been caused by mere per.sonal.regard for any indi-
vidual, however sincerely beloved,.or by.a sensi-
bility to the political importance of any other
Statesmati holding only the rank of a subject, who
is now engaged in conducting the affairs of the
civilized world. We can scarcely contemplate with
unshaken minds,, the fearful. cpnsequences that
might follow from any fatal result to the indis-
position of the Right Hon. Gentleman. When
it is considered under what arduous, andwe.may
add perilous circumstances, Mr. Canning dared
to answer the call of his Sovereign, when that
Sovereign was deserted, threatened,- and, instilted,
by the creatures of his former condescending
bounty and beneficence, no Englishman , can
deny that both King and Miniiter so identified.
in the maintenance of the Royal dignity, have
had a claim indefeasible to the support of
the British - Nation. The alternative; from
the outset, has been an enlightened Ad-
ministration—the King's choice, and the

people's confidence ; or the very scum and re-
fuse of the political community, despised and
rejected by both—ambitious to usurp for ever
the regal authority, because they had /already
abused the royal ear, and the popular endurance
—and avowedly . and audeciously 'abandoning all
pretence of princiPle or policy, all consciousness
that there was, a, commonwealth to be preserved,
or a duty- to the State to be performed., had
boasted that their sole- object was to main-
tain the privileged-orders, and to keep down the.
people. Mr. Canning's crime was twofold—
first, that he was elected by the Sovereign ;. se-
cinidly, that he was chosen from the people.=
The malignity with which. his name and history,
his .actionkatal intentions, were hourly caluntniat-
ed, has no parallel. in the records of English:party.
There was nothing too false or too shameless to
be invented—nothing too base or preposterous
to be imputed to Mr. Canning=no outrage to
the understanding or free agency ofthe King too
monstrous to impede the systematic attempts.
upon the fame and existence of his Minister,—,
Notwithstanding all this desperation, Mr. Can-
ning was, at no long interval after his !accession
to the Government, joined by the most honour,
able men in the nation, who were satified to share
with him the dangerS of a crisis the most
trying 'of any that has occurred in Eu-
rope since the . campaign of Waterloo and
the vexatious . malice of the most profli-
gate baud of Englishmen, who, for more
than 40 years, have merited, the name of faction.
The course of policy, pursued by. Mr. Canning
and his Whig friends, with, we say boldly, the
willing and decided approbation of the Mo-
narch, was, justice and liberty, abroad and at
home. This Government has gone far towards
curing the evils, and towards extricating Great
Britain from the trammels, created as well for
heriasfor the • world, by the vile administration
of Lord . Castlereagh, execrated . now by the
Common feeling of mankind, and represented
only by the Eldons, Westmorlands, and Peels.
The mere establishment of the new 'Ministry
gained for our Sovereign the praise among his
subjects of firm and magnanimous resolution ;
while his . enconragement of its enlarged and
sagacious, policy ,has ',spread throughout both
hemispheres his renown., as a Prince of provi-
dent. and enlightened views,. for the welfare of
civilized society. A fatal issue, which God
avert, to 'Mr.' Canning's illness, would plunge
not only England but 'mankind into consterna-
tion, for the possible event of a'renewed struggle
between the great principles which, he has sup-
Ported, and the,obnoxious and pernicious party
Which lie has so recently overthrown. Every
part- of the earth would change its aspect,
should' the English Tories return - to power.
Schemes of iniquitous aggrandisement and
oppression would be prosecuted throughout
every region of the East and West, with-
out remorse or alarm. Greece would be ex-
tinguished ; Turkey and Persia the common
prey of Nicholas. Spain and Portugal would be-
come a French province ; Ireland, a • field.. of
battle between the Apostolicala of the House, of
Bourbon, and thebigOtted followers of London-
derry and of Peel, The standing army, instead
of being reduced. would. of necessity be doubled;
retrenchment would- be. declared -impracticable;
commerce and manufacturee'would be crippled
again by the re-establishment of the prohibitor).-
system. Public credit would .sink under accu-
mulating distress, 'and our colonies, maritime
Power, and rank among nations, would succes-
sively vanish with it. Such is the picture which

even now presents itself to the mind's eye Of
sober and diainterested !men, as a definite andi
'visible portion of that calatnity, of which the full.
measure extends beyond ithe limits of ordinary'
calculation. The King of England, George IV.,
becomes, then, the sole refuge and resting-plat,
of that people for whoM he has 'already done and
suffered a much. His Majesty Would have to
.decide between the natural successors of, Mr.
Canning, his own enlightened:and respectful
servants, many of whom are even now in office,
and thosm presumptuous, ungrateful, and selfish
men, who, even when they declared their own
incapacity to form an Administration,' threw
down the gauntlet to their Sovereign, and told
him, in effect, that he was More imbecile than
they were. Between a Lansdown and an Eldon
Ministry, his Majesty, were Providence to afflict
him by the death of Mr. canning, WoUld have
. .
to pronounce an nninedtate choice ; and we
would hntribity convey to his Royal attention the
prayers and
.aspirations of his faithful people,
that in deliberating for their best interests, and
for those of their children, he would consult the

natural dictates of that same discriminating, in-
dependent, and manly spirit, whicli, under, the
blessing of the Providence to whom he owes it,
has already enabled him to choose so wisely and
so well.—lbid.

If a stl'anger were to form a judgment of Eng-
land merely from the proceedings of Courts of
Law, he would be tempted to conclude, that
were it not for newspapers, the people would live
together like innocent lambs, and that the con-
ductors of newspapers are almost the only ene-
mies of society. Happy) would he say, are the
English, whose laws are so perfeCt, and whose
!administration of them is so unexceptionable,
that there are so few evils to be redressed, that
the Courts would be without business, if .those
mischief-makers, the newspaper people, did not
by their aggressions on the rest of the commu-
nity, furnish employment to the lawyers. How
'astonished would he be to learn, that there is
hardly a country.in Europe, in which the people
were so destitute of the means of obtaining re-
:dress for wrongs, that justice. might he said to
!be literally denied to the great mass of the popu-
lation, and that the engrossing of time of the
Courts, by actions against newspapers, resulted
from the defectiveness of the law, which, while
iit excluded real sufferers from redress for their
!wrongs, favoured the infliction of injury on the
Press, by the indemnification it afforded to all
!their assailants. We rejoice to see that the
very extent of the injustice to which newspapers
have been exposed, is at length working a re-
medy. A trial at Dorchester for libel, reported
in another colUmn, will serve to illustrate
the observations we have been making. An
fiction was brought against a Sherborne Paper for
having inserted from another Paper, in the list
bf persons convicted at the last Assizes for So-'
inerset, an individual who had been actually Re-
mitted, and the Jury returned a verdict for one
arthing. The Lord Chief Justice, after an ap-
olication had been made to him to certify, in
rder to deprive the plaintiff of costs, asked if
here was an action against the Bath and Chel-
edam' Gazette—the Paper from which the al,
eged libel was copied—was answered in the. af-
amative, and refused to certify. In the• conclu-
ion of his charge he observed, " He should be
he last to encourage men in attempts to bring
ctions against newspapers, when they seemed to
prise only from a del-;ire of multiplying costs, with
the view of putting them in the attorney's'
pocket." The plaintiff has, by the refusal of the
Nudge to certify, been in this case deprived of his
Josts. So •far so good. But we confess we
;vould have been better pleased had the Jury
found altogether ' for the defendant, and disre-
arded the technical distinction. It is clear, by
(he Jury giving only
,one farthing damages, that
ihey considered the ' defendant blameless ; and
!hat the idea Of holding a newspaper responsible
for every statement it copies from all other newspa,
ers throughout the Kingdom, would amount to a
roes injustice. Why, then, as the Jury have the
ower of declaring the law as well as the fact,
id they not listen to the dictates of common
ease, and; by their verdict, keep the defendant
rom suffering ? The Paper which publishes a
tatement should alone be made reSponSible for
,t ; and, except it .can be proved that there is an
unfair connivance, between two newspapers, and
that were the copying newspaper to be exempt-
ed, the plaintiff would'he without a remedy, the
Jury should not merely deprive the latter. of his
expenees, but compel him, 'by their verdict, to
pay the expences of the party he has unneces,
sarily brought into Court. In many cases, no
doubt, the defendant,Would gain little by. a ver-
dict in his favour, because. the parties who allow

themselves to be made cat's-paws to the Attor-
neys, have seldom any property. The Jury are
no doubt always told, even by the Counsel for a
defendant, that a verdict must go against him ;
but they should consider, that a Counsel is bound
to contend for the technical rules, but that they
are the declarers of the law—Morning citron.

The present state of the once-powerful and
flourishing kingdom of Spain forms not only a
subject of lively interest • to the world at large,
but of serious contemplation to the statesman,
the historian, and philosopher. Though the
records of past times furnish us with almost un-
erring guides as to the state of things which have
hitherto led to the rise and fall of nations, we do
not exactly see that they can be held to establish
an actual syStem of fatalism, thereby discourag-
ing any attempts either on the part of the rulers
or of the governed to avert what would thus be
deemed their inevitable destiny. On the con-
trary, history, rightly used, presents a series of
guides and landmarks, which, by showing the
rocks, the quicksands, and the precipices . on
which other states have been lost, or their pros-
perity impeded, may teach succeeding ages wis-
dom,in shoWing. them the perils_ and the conse7
quences of . the past. The present state of
Spain is clearly attributable to misgovernment ;
and deplorable as that state is, it
.is still ca-
pable of being redeemed by an altered system of
rule, and • by the display of greater energy and
virtue among the people. The situation of
France before and since the Revolution is a
striking illustration of the truth of this. Accord-
ing to the political fatalists, France had gone
through. the whole career which. their doctrines
assign to any state, and was doomed to " lie
fallow," as they call it, for ages ; but the people
of France falsified all these' forebodings ; and
though the methods which they took were such,
unfortunately, as have„ left too many stains. upon
their annals,. the results, at any irate, have been
to place that country in a state of renewed pros-
perity and vigour. So it might still be with
Spain ; and that without the frightful horrors of
revolution. The master-evil in Spain has been
and is, the state of vassalage in which the priest-
hood of an odious superstition have held both
the people and the Government. While this
lasts, either in that country or in any Other, so
long must liberty be lost to the people, and,

prOperly,to the state. The military possession,
Of the country by France is the great hindrance'
to this desirable change ; and till the French
forces are withdrawn, we , see no prospect for the
Spanish people of recovering their rank among.
nations.—Morning Herald.

Our readers will perceive by an extract from

the
.Huntingdon Gazette, in another page, that
Slade, the murderer, as ho may now he truly
called, of Mr. Waterhouse, has confessed his
guilt. It is not a little singular, if the particu-
lars of his confession be true, and there seems
no reason why we• should doubt them, that not
one of the circumstances on which the Jury
founded their verdict was true. The bill was
not usedthe foot-marks were not impressed ;
the trousers were not soiled, as was supposed,
in consequence of the murder—and Heddings's
testimony was a falsehood from•beginning to end.
Such cases as-that of Slade's, show how very dif-
ficult it is to form a correct judgment-- in eases
supported solely by circumstantial evidence ;‘ and
how very cautious Juries ought to he, where
di-
rect and• tangible proof is wanting.—Nert? Times.