The Sun.
London, England, 1827-04-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The. anxiety respecting the formation of the
Ministry has increased up to the present moment.
There is an expectation which is said to make
the heart sick ;" but that is the expectation of
an erent, the positive occurrence of which is not
certain. As a Ministry, however, must even-
tually be formed, and any great delay in the for-
mation of it cannot but be attended with public
inconvenience, the expectation in this case,
having a term in view which cannot be passed,
becomes continually more ardent. We yester-
day stated, niost accurately and truly, that a re-
quisition had been made to Mr. Canning to form
a Ministry, but with a condition which seemed
to render the execution of the task impracticable.
To-day, we believe, we may state with equal cer-
tainty and truth, that the same Right Hon.
Gentleman has full and unfettered permission to
form a Ministry. Let not the public, however,
exult too hastily, on the knowledge of this fact,
which yet is grateful and promising. To the
completion of the very arduous duty required of
Mr. Canning two things are necessary—the will
of the Sovereign, already graciously signified ;
and a certain disposition in the elements out of
which the Ministry is to be formed, to move in
unison to that will, expressed through the official
organ. A factious and selfish repugnance to fulfil
the latter condition may, for a while, retard the
execution of the King's intention ; or the Royal
wish may be eluded by the intrigues of a party
long familiarised to success in intrigue, and his
Majesty himself be thus driven to look for sup-'port from the very men by whom his first de-
signs and hopes will have been frustrated : but at
present Mr. Canning stands charged with the duty
of forming a new Ministry. Of the arrangements
which he may have it in contemplation to make, we
cannot at present speak with any precision. The
Lord Chancellor is understood to have tendered his

resignation. Of the joy—the public and national
joy—as well as professional satisfaction, which will
*aced the removal of that " respectable person,"
as he once called Mr. Canning, from office, we can
at present give no adequate account ; but we should
be very far from being surprised at a general illumi-
nation. His Lordship, we know, endeavoured to
elude the present situation of affairs, by asking the
Duke of Wellington to be Prime Minister, from
whom he received a flat refusal. The Seals, we have
heard, may possibly be offered to Mr. Scarlett.
Upon every principle of general policy (save the
emancipation), upon the open system of commerce,
wherever it can be carried into effect with reci-
procity—upon the internal administration of Ire-
land—and upon 0,3 reform of our own legal code,
Mr. Peel is agreed with Mr. Canning; so that in his
department perhaps no change may be proposed.
Mr. Robinson is yet more in unison with the intelli-
gent part of the late Administration. We should
ourselves think it useful to abridge the number of
Cabinet Ministers, which has latterly been greatly
and needlessly increased. But we will not specu-
late farther upon a subject which must now soon be
known with certainty : we only urge a speedy deci-
sion. To say that the affairs of the nation need a
Ministry, is as superfluous as to say that a waggon
needs a driver, or a vessel a helmsman.—Times.
We are happy to understand that the interests
of the Cape of Good Hope, and of its hitherto
unfortunate colonists, have been at length con-
signed to safe and zealous keeping. Mr. Lombe,
the Member for Arundel, has undertaken to bring
forward the case of the inhabitants, soon after the
Easter recess—to 'present their petition against
Lord Charles Somerset, bearing the signature of
1,400 most respectable persons—to state as well
their wrongs as their apprehensions, and to prove
to the House of Commons, that a Governor did
long rulc the' colunT, and but lately -relieved-It of
his presence, whose conduct has been so grievous
towards the King's subjects, and whose return to
the seat of his alleged delinquency is now so
dreaded by them, that some strong effort must be
made by Parliament to afford the people redress
for the past, and a reasonable protection for the
future. The individual who has pledged himself
to the performance of this ungracious, but
honourable and essential duty, is a gentleman, we
believe, in whom every confidence may be discreetly
placed. Mr. Lombe is represented to us to be
a man of industry, steadiness, and talent ; of
perfect independence, both as to property and
principle, and one, therefore, who is little likely
to be corrupted by the Crown, or deterred by the
Tory Aristocracy. It may be worth while to
remark in passing., how the resolution of the colo-
nists has gained strength, as their grievances became
more intolerable and the sympathy of their friends
in the mother country more decided and pronounced.
Though, in 1824, when Mr. Grcig was expelled
the Cape by an edict of the reigning Bashaw, not
more than about 200 of the inhabitants dared to
sign a memorial to their Sovereign and his Council,
that the British inheritance of a free press might be
secured to them and to their children, now, no less,
as we have said, than 1,400 of the same people have
petitioned against the Governor by whore that blessing
was wrung from them, and by whom its ministers
and conductors were outraged. It is right and ne-
cessary to assure our colonial fellow-subjects, that
their cause;will not henceforth be lost sight of, nor
its prosecution delayed or neglected; but that, if
they have themselves becoming sense and spirit to
follow up the example of their advocates, and to
furnish them with fresh supplies of matter, on which
they can confidently proceed before Parliament,
every wrong which the colonists have suffered will

_
be fully sifted, and every public and private interest
guaranteed hereafter, by the warning now about to
be imprinted on the minds of all that class of lordly
place-holders whose principles are less active than
their fears.—lbiti.

We are glad to have the high authority of the
Lord Chancellor in accordance with the view we

have uniformly taken of the Game Question.—
In the debate on Friday evening, his Lordship
is represented as having stated " the great source
of the evil to be, the introduction of battus

that to these may be traced the great increase of
crime which has taken place in the country ; and
that, if these were not put an end to, the Legis-
lature might as well pass an Act of Parliament
to prevent the moon from shining, as to put
down poaching." That British Sportsmen of
the present day should be so utterly destitute of
the spirit and good feeling which used to influ-
ence their ancestors, as to exchange the real
pleasures of the field for the senseless slaughters
which are resorted to by their inactive and phleg-
matic neighbours of the Continent, is both mor-
tifying and surprising ; and furnishes an instance
of plagiarism without cause or apology, and in
its effects most mischievous. That its conse-
quences are so, cannot be better exemplified than
we find it set out in a petition of the Magistrates
of the Devizes division in Wiltshire, lately pre-
sented to the House of Commons. This county,
as our readers know, has become, above all
others, remarkable for its numerous convictions
and cemmitments under the Game Laws ; and the
Magistrates themselves, at length saturated and
exhausted by their own fruitless warfare against
poachers, at last plainly tell the House of Com-
mons, with reference to these laws, that " under
their operation the number of offenders is conti-
nual), increasing; and tliat now, as has been fre-
Hently the case, the number. of prisoners in the
"(4Correctioll fOrWiltMl for offences against
the Game Lags, exceeds Ontiotliiia of the Whole

number under punishment for all other offences com-
mitted in the county, there being now 100 poachers
out of a total of 232 males; because the petitioners
consider that the present system tends to demoralise
the people, since they have found that the poachers
in general are the most refractory class of prisoners,
and notwithstanding great care taken to reform
them, by strict discipline, and to improve them by
moral and religions instruction, the major part leave
the prison vrorse than they entered it, and by asso-
ciation increase the evil which their punishment was
intended to check." This, we imagine, is as striking
a proof of the inefficacy, the impolicy, and, we might
almost say, the iniquity of these laws, as can be fur-
nished; wherein we find a body of gentlemen, taken
not only from that class for whose profit and recrea-
tion the laws themselves are maintained, but who
have been themselves the judges and executioners
of their own sentences, plainly telling the Legisla-
ture that the laws themselves, are not only wholly unavail-
ing either as to prevention and punishment, but that they.
in fact, only mature men in their original had habits, and
initiate them into worse. Whether the measure now
before Parliament will pass into a law, or whether, if it
does, it will have any effect in reducing the number of
offences, and thereby ameliorating the state of society
of which car horrid Game Code is at present the
fruitful parent, we cannot s.-enture to predict. We have
heard it said that

" Wretches hang that jurymen may Mina ;"
and when we hear of a somewhat similar reason being 3S-
signed for cutting short the discussion upon this subject
elsewhere, we hesitate to augur any very beneficial results
from deliberations which can be influenced by motives m
little characteristic of right feeling or true patriotism.__
Morning Herald.

The Lord Chancellor's manoeuvres with re-
spect to the reports of -the proceedings of his
Court, would be highly amusing to any one who
could divest himself of all feeling for the public
welfare. Ever since the time that his extraor-
dinary aversion to decide causes came to be the
subject of remark, he has entertained that sort
of feeling towards those who report his proceed-
ings, which servants in a kitchen entertain to-
wards the tale-bearer who watches them. But
it is not his Lordship's policy to proceed straight
forward to any object. A hint first escaped
him, as if by mere accident, that some change
had surely taken place in the law of the country,
for he rembered the time when no one durst
have reported proceedings in a Court till sen-
tence was pronounced. This hint he took care
to repeat whenever the opportunity was at all
favourable, in the confident expectation, no
doubt, that it would not be suffered to fall
to the ground. He was correct in his antici-
pations, for it was caught up in due time by
parties, and then his Lordship began to feel em-
boldened to speak in a more decided tone, care-
fully concealing, however, that his object was to
put an end to reporting altogether. No, he only
wishes to put a stop to the publication of part of
a pending cause. Can any thing be more rea-
sonable ? It would seem that his Lordship con-
ceives the time is at length come, when he may
speak in a more confident tone than he has
hitherto used. "He had only to repeat (he
said) what he had already frequently said, that
he verily believed that he had had the honour of
being placed in that Chair, before he had ever
heard of such a thing. Before he entered into
the Profession, it was as well understood in West-
minster Hall, that no one could publish part of a
pending case, as any known fact could be under-
stood. This, therefore, at the present day, either
was, or was not law. If it was law, then he
knew not how it had been changed ; if it
was not law, then the parties published accord-
ing to law, and he could have nothing to do
with it. If, however, the parties acted contrary to
.•

giirSitii ToVerliiiiiterrere, but a regular complaint
ought to he made. Ho mentioned this, because a
great deal of time was lost by such useless discus-
sions; and the complaints were made in such a
shape, as that no remedy could be afforded. He did
not mean to assert that any such remedy was pos-
sible ; but it was probable that the whole question
might soon come before the House of Lords, upon
which the opinion of the twelve Judges would be
obtained." So, then, it is probable that the ques-
tion will soon come before the House of Lords !
We think we shall hardly be accused of drawing a
rash inference, when we conclude, from his Lord-
ship's observation—" with respect to the publica-
tion of these reports, he would say, that although
some benefit might sometimes be derived from them
yet there was no question but that they frequently
• were highly mischievous ;"—that there is one learn-
•ed personage who will come to the decision with a
mind purified from doubt. Reports are sometimes
productive of some benefit, but frequently highly in-
jurious. There is no mistaking the import of these
words. But his Lordship only wishes to prevent
the publishing of part of a pending case. 0, if his
Lordship could have enjoyed the advantages which
he wishes to provide for his successors—part of a pending
case ! But when are any cases decided ? As far a:.; we
lean understand, the business of the Court of Chancery is
jhearing and re-nearing, taking home affidavits to read, and
calling for further affidavits, fixing days for judgment, and
jpostponing them, fixing and again postponing other days
lad infinitum. The sentences are, indeed, like " Angels'
visits, few, and far between." In the important cases, no
?knowledge could ever be obtained of the proceedings by the
!public. A newspaper cannot travel hack ten or twenty
'years to the commencement of Loper and de Tastet, or
,Brown and de Tastct, and recapitulate all the proceedings
had in the interim. The proposition means substantially
this—that the door of the Chancery Court should be closed
to the public. The question amounts then to this:—
"
Shall the Lord Chancellor be liberated from the controul
of the public ?" Shall we renounce the only efficient means
for securing impartiality and purity in a Judge, in the case
of the most important of all the Judges, and who, besides,
sits as a Judge of appeal on himself in the House of Lords.
—Morning Chronicle.

A discussion of a somewhat curious nature
took place yesterday in the Vice-Chancellor's
Court. Mr. Heald and Mr. Montagu had
been retained in a cause for the petitioner.—
When it was called on, Mr. Heald was speak-
ing in the Court of Chancery, and Mr. Mon-
tagu walked out of Court ; and no . one appear-
ing for the petitioner, the petition was dismissed
with costs. Mr. Heald afterwards entered the
Court, when he stated that Mr. Montagu had
laid it down as a rule, that when he was on the
same side with a King's Counsel, he would
leave the Court, unless his leading Counsel was
present to open the petition and argue the law
of the case. Mr. Montagu then observed, that
he had stated solemnly on his oath, before the
Chancery Commissioners, that nothing could
be more injurious to the suitors in these Courts,
than that leading Counsel should take fees and
not give their attendance, and thus leave their
clients' cases to be but feebly got up by junior
Counsel. By way of remedy, Mr. Montagu
afterwards suggested that extra Counsel should
always be retained on the supposition that, per-
haps, the leading Counsel might be absent when
the case was called on. Mr. Sugden contended,
that he could not be charged with taking fees and
not attending to the duty for which they were paid,
because he never took fees without stating distinctly
that it might so happen that he should be elsewhere
when their case was called on. The Counsel are
all, no doubt, in the right; and, any how, we see
it is proper that the client should suffer. There
should of course be no limit to the receipt of fees;
and nothing received should ever be returned. The
only question is, whether it is better that the client
should pay for a leading and junior Counsel, and be
fobbed off—to use a familiar term with the latter—
Qr pay for t:- , or three leading Counsel to make sure
of one. The client has some such choice as the

• - •
drummer offered to the person, on whom he was
about to officiate with the cat-o'nine-tails—whether
he would be hit high or low.—lbid.

Yesterday was not without its rumours re-
specting the new Ministerial arrangements ; and
these rumours, like all their predecessors, were
circulated upon the very best authority, as a
matter of course. The principal one was, that
Mr. Canning had received his Majesty's com-
mands to form a new Ministry, and that the
Right Hon. Gentleman had, himself, been ap-
pointed First Lord of the Treasury, and Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer. Some persons were so
confident that every thing was settled, that they
did not hesitate to declare new writs were to be
moved for last night, for the re-election of such
Members of the Cabinet as were affected by the
proposed changes. Among these changes, it
was announced that Mr. Robinson was to be
called up to the House of Peers, by the style
and title of Lord Strathern, (a Scotch Duke-
dom borne by the late Duke of Kent), while
another account transferred that Right Hon.
Gentleman to the Foreign Office, to the exclu-
sion of Viscount Granville, whom a third report
had installed as the successor of Mr. Canning.
In addition to all this, we are told that two or
three members of the present Cabinet intended
to resign, or had actually resigned, in consequence
of Mr. Canning's ascendancy. Our readers will
know how to appreciate this gossip, even though
some random guesses, which may be safely ha-
zarded, should eventually be confirmed. That
there are difficulties, and great ones, in the way
of reconciling conflicting pretensions, are sufficiently
obvious, from the mere fact of the delay which has
intervened since the decision was finally adopted of
filling up the vacancy occasioned by the illness of
the Earl of Liverpool. But when was a Ministry
ever formed, without encountering, in its progress,
similar difficulties ? In the present instance, we
believe, the point which has occasioned the greatest
embarrassment has been the position to be assigned
to Mr. Canning. His talents are of too comman-
ding a character, and his consequent influence too
powerful, to permit that his personal views should be
disregarded. We will not imitate the example of some
of our contemporaries, by exasperating party feelings
on this question. We believe the country has but one
wish upon the subject ; and in that wish we most
cordially unite. It is, that, whatever course the
arrangements may ultimately take, the nation will
have the full benefit of his " master mind." As he
is second to none, not merely among his own Col-
leagues, but among the living Statesmen of Europe,
so he owes it to himself to be second to none.—
But we do hope, that the tyranny of precedent
vll not force him, from a just regard to
his own dignity, if precedent must prevail, into
official functions, which demand for their adequate
discharge energies vastly in;,:rior to those which he can
wield ; functions, we will arid, to which, from the whole
habits of his political life, he is less adapted than many who
are in all other respects greatly below him. It has been
said that great opportunities make great men, and, for
aught we know, there may be undiscovered, because hitherto
untried, talents, capable of conducting, with a vigour
equal to his own, the foreign policy of this country. There
have been times, too, in which we should he less reluctant
to see the experiment tried. But when we look at the pre-
sent crisis—when we contemplate the many momentous
measures which have sprung from him, and which seem
to require his presiding genius to bring them to an aus-
picious maturity, we caneot persuade ourselves that any
arrangement which shall leave to another, the completion
of what he began, will be one entirely satisfactory to the
country.—New Times.